Robert Burr, president of Panex, quit drinking at 39 and credits that decision with transforming how he leads. He spent years in trucking and oil before realizing that serving his team mattered more than his own ego.
Questions this video answers
39 years old.
About 18–19 years old.
Bowling Green, Kentucky.
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 with Robert Burr and we're talking about winning and Robert knows winning. If you didn't hear the you have heard the earlier episode. Get ready, Robert. Talk about your transition. Did you, you know, when you went out on your own, exactly what did you do? Did you. Because it seems like you didn't have a lot of irons in the fire yet. Didn't have a lot of options. You just had direction. You know, I got, I want to be in charge. I know what I don't want. But you told your wife to get a sign. We sell the house, we're going to move on. What are things that you did to lay the foundation, get things starting in your new things on the table for your new life?
Well, you know, it's really a blessing to be a young innocent kid, which I was. It's a blessing not to be afraid of life, which I wasn't. It's a blessing to be blessed with that driven. That's that spirit that I inherited. I was here, I came here with that spirit. I didn't ask for it. That's just how the good Lord built me. So it wasn't really, it was scary because I didn't have any money, had a wife and a baby and I'm leaving and how old were you when I left the plants? I was probably 19, 18, just out of high school working with an oil company. My brother in law got me a very good job driving a truck that I hated. I could write a book about my experiences driving a big truck. One of these big natural gas. I really could, I could write a comedy about would be a good comedy. I mean tires coming off of it, you name it. But I was searching for something that I could get excited about. I have to be excited. I love to laugh. One of my big jobs every day when I leave home in the morning is I like to make five people smile that day that I've never met. And I feel like that keeps me spiritually about where I belong. And don't fall in love with yourself. And we all have egomaniacs. We, we think we're special and we all this stuff and that's cool but you got to get Naked with your maker every now and then and get right and honest and know who you are. And I've been able to do that. I drank pretty heavy. I'm an alcoholic. I quit drinking when I was 39 years old. And this is a message. Your people may enjoy facts of life. But I find myself on my last drunk. I'm on my knees and I'm struggling. It was a tough one. And I looked up in the heavens and I said, lord, you know, I'm not stupid. I'm not the smartest, brightest bub in the house, but I'm a long ways from being stupid. But the very best I could do, Robert Dean Burr. The best I could do is got me here on my knees upchucking at 3 o' clock in the morning.
Wow.
And I said, lord, you know, I think I'm ready to give you your, your job back. I'm tired of being God. Because I really did think I was the meanest, toughest whatever in the world.
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 as 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 whiteellawinning.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.
And that day I started a new life. So that was my, that was my day and I was 39 years old and I'd made lots of money and I'd done lots of things. I had airplanes, I had a hundred foot motor sale. I had all that stuff. But still there was a hole in me. So when I came here to Bowling Green, Kentucky 30 years ago, whatever, I said, robert, you know you're going to have to change your makeup some boy, you still an egomaniac. You still think you the best of the best. And that's not bad to have that image. But from this point on, that won't work. If you want to build a company, you got to change your entire makeup. I said, lord, I got to fake it till I make it because you know, this isn't me. I said, from this point forward, nobody will ever work for you again. You'll work for everybody on your team. If it's getting one of them out of jail at 3 o' clock in the morning on Sunday morning. That can't be a chore for you. That's what you do. You minister and you love and you take care of your people and everything else will be okay. And you start that route, which I did with the same enthusiasm as I'm displaying here with you. And slowly the good Lord converts you into that person. It's amazing. I mean, I've got more friends today than I've got a club member. I mean, I'm just, I'm okay. I do good with that because that's how I live. But it started back there when I. When I made a decision of putting the booze down and getting my head right and getting right with my higher power. And it's been a wonderful journey. And he's my best buddy, and that's how I talk to him. He knows me. I mean, I, you know, I don't get carried away with it, but I is what I is and he built me, so I'm not going to sweat it. But it's worked good.
That's so rare to hear somebody be so open about their life in business anyway, you know, and it's refreshing because that's the overlooked side. And it's one of the things that when you're educating your children, we got a lot of people so precise about their educating their children, and now they're very precise about protecting them from germs and this, that and the other, and totally neglecting, you know, the spiritual side of life that's going to allow them to keep, keep on track and be able to live a life where they can compound, have success and enjoy it in the right way, you know, not turn it all and make it all about them. So thank you for sharing that.
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 whiteellawinning.com webinar now in order to move, move up as fast as possible. I'm Larry Weidell, and I run the Million Dollar Mastermind. Go, go.
