Focused on Relationships Not Partnerships with Dick Walker

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Weddell. And before we get started, if you want to know exactly how to win again and again, go to Wydell on winning.com webinar now to watch something I've put together for you. Now let's get going into this episode.

Of Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm here talking with Dick Walker from Tampa. Dick has an organization all over the United States. He's been impacting people in all areas of life for a long time. And he's a close personal advisor to senior business leaders all over America. And a lot of people are constantly referring to Dick's impact in their lives. I don't know if you know that, Dick, but talk about building teams. And you, the last time that, you know, when we were talking earlier, you brought up the thing of when you went to build your organization, you know, you made your last move to Tampa, finally got position and started to build. You focused on building relationships and not partnerships. And you still have those relationships all these years later. And people are flourishing, they're continuing to flourish. You're still in business, you're still motivated. Talk about why that, what that principle meant to you and how it's played out.

Well, Larry, again, your ability to phrase questions is amazing and I really appreciate it because you've brought out some things that I haven't thought about for years and years. But some of this stuff I have put down. I have put down and I have some notes. I'm going to go over some things that I've been discussing with some people for a while. You know, people have asked me how, how did you do so quickly what you did in Tampa? Well, it wasn't simple to do, but it was easy. It was easy to explain. It's not easy to do, but it's easy to explain, Larry. And I think people have to have some kind of a plan. And I don't know if you remember, Larry, because, you know, we knew each other, you know, 40 some odd years ago and we had, we had an opportunity to learn, learn a business, but a lot of us didn't have copious amounts of background or benefits to dream, you know, to fall back on. So what happened in my case was I learned how to do it and I did it pretty well and I did it on my own and I did it, I did it as a full time person. I wasn't doing it while I'm trying to do three or four other things. And these are the order of importance. And I jotted these down people are what makes the difference. You have to have a purpose. You have to have a plan. You have to have a passion. And even the Declaration of Independence, it says, you are endowed with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It doesn't say the guarantee of happiness. It says you can pursue it. So what happened, Larry? When I started my business, I didn't know how to. To go out and ask people to join me to go do something. I was good at doing a number of things myself, and in. Particularly in the business that I was in, I knew how to do it. I was pretty good at it, and I was making pretty good money. I was making 75, $80,000 a month in 1978. That was a lot of money in 1978. So when I started doing that in Tampa, I had an attitude about things, and my attitude was one of excitement. I was an excited guy. I was excited about what I was doing and what I. What I was doing mattered to people, and I was excited. So when I started realizing, instead of me doing this and being a salesperson for the next 30 or 40 years, which was not exciting, I had an opportunity to attract other people, and I started doing the best I could to transfer that excitement. And. And what happened, Larry? They weren't buying a company or somebody that given him a speech. They were buying me because I had a vision and I was excited, and I had a very, very positive attitude. And, Larry, you and I both know attitudes are very contagious, right? You can have an okay one. You can have a one that stinks a little bit, you know, and it repels people, or you can have a positive get after it, you know, attitude. And that's the way I wasn't. I wasn't off the wall crazy about it, but I. I was excited. I was motivated. I knew what to do, I knew how to do it. I knew how to teach people to do something different than what they had been doing. And so I attracted people. And why did they follow me? Because I had a vision. But it wasn't an abstract vision. It was a real vision. And I spelled it out. And I even created something there years ago. Doesn't matter the business, but you know what I'm talking about. I created something with a couple people helping me, but it was my idea. They just kind of helped put it together. Something called a success cycle. And it was a. It was a path to run on. So we had a purpose, we had a plan, they had an excited leader and why did they follow me? Because we had a vision. They figured out that I knew where I was going. Sometimes I wasn't 100% sure, but I had conviction about what I was doing and I sold the dream. And nobody, nobody you knew way back then, nobody could convince me that what we were doing wasn't the right thing because we had an enemy. And you know who I'm talking about. And, and as you well know, they were the guys that are, they were guys on the wrong side of, the wrong side of the fence. And I had zero doubt in the principals and the guys. And there weren't very many women back, back then in the business, but the people that joined the team, not all of them, but a whole bunch of them, Larry bought the dream and they didn't buy it on a part time basis, they brought it on a full time basis because they knew that I was there and going to be there for them come hell or high water, no matter what happened, without cell phones or anything else.

So I don't know if you know this, have thought about this about yourself, but you're a very relentless guy. And I guess it's because, you know, like me, it took you so long to build up momentum. The last thing you were going to do was let it fall apart and have to build it all over again. You know, it's hard enough to get it going the first time and rather than being stupid and letting yourself get sidetracked and then now you have to go and do it all over again. And this time, except the second time, you know how much work it's going to be, you know, if you, you put yourself through it the first time, you got all these questions. But if you stay on the attack, go with what you know and you'll, you'll get better and you'll get better answers and it will fall into a pattern if you're paying attention and you can make it a cycle. And if you're in business, folks, you got to have a cycle. You got to know what you're going to do on a day, daily basis, a weekly basis, a monthly basis. You've got to know where you're supposed to be first week of December of every year, how you want to close out, you know, when you're doing, you know, the end of, to me, the end of October, 1st of November was when I was evaluating the year and getting ready for the next year. Dick. You know, I just had my, you know, I internalized a lot of these cycles. But you know, you've got to have that for yourself if you're going to run things, turn it into a cycle. But you, I don't know if you know this about yourself, but you're like amazingly relentless guy. You like never stop. And that's what I'm saying. Like, you're always asking questions, you're always trying to figure out what the next answer is that will allow you to move up a notch. Because it's fun to move up. You know, people say, why do you guys stay on the. Maybe you can answer this for. You know, I was like you in high school, pretty good athlete in some sports, not. Not elite. But I was like the guys who went on to become pros. I did learn one thing, Dick, and that was winning was better than losing. You never got tired of it. You know, I did enough sports, I was in athletics enough to get that firmly in my mind. Winning was better than losing. And there was never a time where after so many wins, it was all right to get your brains beat. You know, it is like the quicker you can move yourself into a situation where winning is an all the time thing, the quicker the better. And that's one of the reasons of going into business for yourself.

And.

Have you ever considered yourself, are you aware how relentless you are?

Hey, listen, there's a lot of information online, but there aren't a lot of people who have actually done something. In my case, I've actually built a successful business, has accrued over $5 billion.

In assets under management, and has done.

Well even during trying times. Now, if you want to know exactly how I've done this, go to Whiteellumwinning.com webinar Now, I've compressed a decade of learning into five short weeks. Just for those of you who want to give yourself an incredible advantage and are tired of waiting and watching others move up.

Well, I've been told that over and over. I never thought about it quite like that. But I guess the way you're defining it, that's 100% accurate. I just. Larry, it was never okay for me to. Even when I was a kid playing ball, before they even started Little League in our little town, if we went to the ball field and we played and I was pretty good at it and I wasn't a bad loser, but if I lost, I wasn't happy. It was. I can't explain it. I think it came from my grandmother. I think I said that earlier. I felt, if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it. And Try to win. Winning is better than not winning. And it was something that I got good at and I could control it quite a bit. And like you said, Larry, winning is. Winning is better than not winning. It doesn't matter the game you're playing. But, you know, life is not a game. If we treat it like a competition, I think we'll be disappointed a lot that if we treat it as a great adventure and realize there are so many doors that we never open because we're worried, Larry. Most people are worried about rejection. Doesn't matter the business they're in. It doesn't make any difference at all. They don't talk to. They don't talk. If it's a guy, they don't talk to a girl because, well, she probably has a boyfriend. She won't like this. She won't like that. And they never asked the question, Larry. I'm telling you, I never suffered from that plague. I didn't. My mother explained it very well. She says, well, when I asked her, I said, mom, if I don't ask the question, how am I going to know the answer? So I changed a little bit in business, and I've been saying this when I'm talking to groups for many, many, many, many, many years. The answer to every question is no until you ask the question. It doesn't matter what the question is, Larry. The answer to every question that Larry Quidell has never asked is an automatic no, because you never asked.

Absolutely. Well, great. Great having a chance to talk. Dick, is there something as we wrap this thing up, something as a parting final word that you'd like to leave with the listeners?

Yeah. Yeah, there is. I. I jotted a couple things down about 10 or 15 minutes before we. Before we got together. I didn't realize at first it was just going to be you and I, which I love. The opportunity. You and I have been. We've been business partners, kind of like separated at birth. Birth was the beginning, you know, pretty much the beginning of our company. When you. When you and I were both. You were going one direction, Carolina, and I was. I was already located in Tampa. And. And part of the rest of that is history. But, you know, Larry, what. What I have. What I have found is this. And I. I think this could be a parting shot. People don't follow bosses, they follow leaders. And you and I had a great leader to follow. Not a good one, a great one. And bosses or people that direct people how to do something. Leaders teach people how to do something. And there's a lot of leaders in life, Larry, that their whole goal in life is to create followers, people that adore them and people look up to them and so forth. True leaders don't operate that way. True leaders understand there is no success of any kind without a successor. So their goal, true leaders create leaders. And Larry, in our business, as you well know, the only way you win in our business is to create leadership. It's not about what happens on a monthly basis. It's about leadership. People doing things that can be repeated over and over and over again because that's all that's going to survive. Larry, One of these days you and I are going to be gone and our businesses will function entirely based upon the kind of job we have done of creating real, honest to God leaders. In my case, I did it with a culture I knew and realized what I had to create was some guys like Dick Walker, maybe not, maybe they didn't do the same amount of premium or the same amount of business, but they had a dream and they wanted to do something big. They wanted to do something special. And you're right, just like you do, Larry, I still have relationships. Some of those people have sold their businesses and they've earned millions and millions and then millions of dollars by selling. And I'm happy about that because we developed a culture and it starts with the people and it's about building real, true leaders so we can go out and create a lot of people that make a lot of difference. Larry and the last thing that I, that I want to say, if I can find my, my little, my little note here, you know, there are, there are different ways that we can win at life, Larry, But I think building relationships is one of them. We can do it financially, although that is not necessarily, it should not be the number one answer. Or we can do it as parents. We can do it in different ways. We can do it by expanding our scope spiritually. There's a lot of different ways to win, Larry, and success is defined by the personal definition that we apply to it. But if we don't do it, Larry, and if we don't go build and win at whatever we're doing, we are not going to be able to teach other people how to do it. Larry, if you didn't win the way you did, there's a lot of people that would have suffered. And I'm sure you agree with that. Yeah, and I'd like to think, I'd like to think in my case, it's the same thing. We often, we lack urgency, Larry. We can Say no now to something, but not forever. It doesn't matter what the competition is or what race we're running. There's a price to pay, Larry, for everything. And it might be training, it may be time, it may be, you know, sacrifices, but nobody has ever won a prize worth winning without competing and sacrificing. We just have to decide, are we willing to pay that price? And you don't have to do it for 30 years. You can do it for 10 years and create something that will be meaningful and your life will be a success because you made a difference in other people's lives.

Yeah. And the thing, Dick, I hope people are hearing from this, is what you build will be an extension of yourself. And you don't have to measure yourself by comparing how other people have done it and other people's skill sets and track record and this, that and the other. You've just got to go with what you know and let nature play out. And you probably will be very happy with what you build because it will be yours. It'll be an extension of you, and it'll have, you know, you do it the right way, it's going to have a solid foundation and last a long, long time. And the satisfaction and the joy from that, you know, the payoff is beyond just the today's income, today's success, breakthroughs and excitements. It's the legacy that you build and allowing. Opening the door, like Dick said, because you fought your way through it, you're opening the door for other people to come behind you and do even bigger and better things. And it's really fun to be able to. You're not responsible for their success, but you're related to it, let's say it that way. And you can have a. A lot of enjoyment in seeing that success continue. And you know, it's worth it because you know how much you enjoy winning. So thanks so much, Dick. We've had a great afternoon, and thanks for your time and those final words.

Well, I appreciate you, Larry, and thank you very much for the opportunity to do so. And I consider it a blessing for us to have been in business together for such a long time, even though we haven't spent a lot of time together recently. I would like at some point in time to change that. Perhaps because we're not that far apart now. We're only three or four hours apart.

That's right. Thank you, Dick.

If you enjoyed what you've heard and are dead serious about finding out for yourself exactly how this works in the real world, I've taken the most valuable business lessons I've learned over 40 years and put them into something for you to watch. Go to forward slash webinar. Now, in order to move up as fast as possible. I'm Larry Widell, and I run the Million Dollar Mastermind.

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