Live a Planned Life Instead of a Surprised Life with Millionaire Bill Orender

Oh, what a wonderful day and what a wonderful opportunity I've got today to talk with my longtime friend, but also role model, mentor, hero that got me really mentally organized for success in my early career as I transitioned out of a completely different industry. He was one of the bright stars in the organization and had a way with words that was just transformative. And so we've been big friends over the years and had lots of fun together. And he's like my brother from Dallas, Big Bill Arender. So welcome, Bill.

Larry, it's fun to be on a call with you and you're a bright spot in my life because we do have a lot of laughs together and we shed a lot of tears in the early days.

Yes.

And you're a great friend that I treasure. So thank you very much. It truly is an honor. Even beyond this. And this is. Thank you.

You're welcome, Bill. And let people know, where is Bill Arend? What's Bill Arinder's life like today? Because I know it is above and beyond a thousand times above and beyond what you or million times you expected. You know, the Bible says God will bless you abundantly beyond, you know, and his the things plans he has for you are abundantly beyond anything you can even imagine. It's almost like he dares us cause he made us competitive, but it's almost like he dares us to turn our imagination loose and to think of that. Because no matter what you can come up with, what I've got for you is abundantly beyond that. But you're living a really abundantly beyond life. When you talk about quality of life and resources, people, any way you can measure experiences, you're living that life. So describe that four people, because it's just amazing what you've been able to achieve.

Well, thank you, Larry. I want to make sure people understand it's not a surprise life I'm living. It was a planned life. This was planned decades ago in the early formative days of my career in the financial services industry, where I read a book called Think and Grow Rich and just recently found out where Charles Stanley read it. Matthew McConaughey read it. Art Williams, a friend of ours, read it. It's an amazing number of people set on a journey of life. But you first got to decide the kind of life you want and then find a business that will fund f uindy that life.

Yes.

And you know, we've been financially independent for many, many years now. And what that is, as Chris Rock says, financial independence is options and people that are not financially independent, have no options. And options mean two things to me. Plenty of money and plenty of time. And those two things are very rarely put together. Most people make a lot of money, but they have no time. A lot of people that have time have no money. When you can have that rare, rare instance of both having time and money, you're pursuing the life and living the life you want to live. And that's the kind of life Carol and I are living today. You know, we have the house of our dreams, and now it's getting too big as we get into another chapter of our life. We got a lake house that we adore. But the biggest thing, Larry, I enjoy doing is building memories with my family. And I think that if you use your money to create memories, it'll never go to waste and it will never ruin you. You can't have things that will make you feel better or try to give you prestige. Those things don't do it. And so the money we spend really comes in spending money for the family and going on family trips and family reunions that we enjoy. We enjoy traveling before all this hit, of course, we've been to Hawaii, we've been to Europe. Many, many, many, many. I went to the Holy Land, Larry, which was an incredible trip.

You recommend that.

Oh, my gosh, Larry. Transformative. Your Bible is never the same again because you were there. You saw those cities, you saw where Jesus walked, you saw where Jesus was entombed, you saw where he was resurrected, and you saw where he performed the miracles, and you saw where he was crucified and being able to have the time to do that. But also, we do a lot of work with Bible studies. I have several Bible studies a week that I enjoy. Like, one guy said, you're teaching a Bible study. And he questions, you are teaching your Bible study. I said, no, I'm leading. He said, oh, I'm more relaxed now. Yeah. I'm not sure he was confident in my theological ability, you know, but I love that, Larry. I love spending money on my kids grandkids, love spending money on building those memories. And the other thing, too, is we've been able to, I believe in high school education, Christian education. I believe you got to get them young from a Christian moral upbringing, and by time they get to college, it's too late. And so we've been very pleased for 25 or 30 years now to be a big, big donor in tuition for this one specific Christian school that we send kids to over the years. I'm not sure how many probably 30 kids that we've had go through that school system, go on a better lives, better spiritual upbringings too. So, you know, I just enjoy a favorite time of my life is Carol and I going to our lake house just together and being with my best friend. And to me, like the founder of our company said one time, Larry, you can win all areas of your life. And that's the thing most people are afraid if they. When in business, they lose their family, they lose their spiritual life. But as you know, if you're centered on God and you're centered on his being the master of your life, all areas of your life are in sync. And so that's the things we enjoy now. I love our business to people. I love calls like this. I love. We had training this morning, and I love doing that.

And the thing is, though, as you come up, you're just trying to get yourself established. And why it had to be a huge deal for you when you got your. The house that you're in there. I mean, you had a couple of them, but it has to be a big thing for you personally to be able to finally get yourself situated. And, you know, the house is kind of like a platform for. It's a repertoire. You enjoy it, but it can be a platform for helping other people, for helping, you know, allowing your kids to grow in a protected space, bring their kids over. How have you, you know, what was it like for you to get. Finally move into, like the houses of your dreams type thing?

That's a great question. And again, it's progressive and it's the house of my wife's dreams. And I remember the day she found this house. And now I love my house. I love the house we were in. And we came to look at this house. We're gonna look at their garden or something. And finally dawned on me, she wants to buy this place. And it hit me for a second. You know, she's been very gracious to me, giving me the time to put into the business that we're in, allowing me the freedom to travel, to have my dreams come true. From a business standpoint, income standpoint, it took me about five seconds to realize it's her time. It's her time to have something in life that she really wanted for her family and to provide that family atmosphere. We do a lot of things at the house, from a missionary standpoint. In fact, we did a lot of things in our house. And the first thing we did was invite this one church over, and 30 people were saved in our pool when we Opened it up and got baptized. And then they ate. They promised, you're not going to eat until you get baptized. So everyone decided to get baptized, I guess.

Well, if it wasn't for. I think the conventional wisdom on Bill of Render is that if it wasn't for Carol and your other family members, you would have turned into one of the greatest money hoarders of our generation and lived very modestly and just kept piling up the money, you know.

Well, I've been known to squeeze a nickel and I learned that there's two people on this planet that eat breakfast every day at McDonald's. Me and Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, by the way. I'll take that back. And we have a combined net worth of over $100 billion, all three of us.

Well, you know, there's a lot to be said for following success. And so you seem to be on the right track there.

Like Mike Tuttle said, they say there's nothing cheap in America anymore. They've never met Bill Arunder. Bill is so cheap that his son broke his arm and Bill rushed him to the airport to get an X ray.

Well, this is probably not true, but I heard that way back in the beginning you decided you're going to do something generous and take your family to Hawaii. The whole extended family. Was that right? And this is way back and people, you know, they're all looking forward to it. Bill's, you know, taking us, treating us. We're going to go to Maui, I think, and get off. But Bill did all the planning. They went to some hotel and as soon as they got in there, the kids started crying and, you know, it was about their dream hotel. Is there any semblance of truth of that story, Bill?

How did you know about that? It's not a red letter day in my life, but there's a red face day in my life when Carol walked into that hotel and she was on the phone and immediately to the Hyde Hotel downtown. And we moved that day. Yeah, you're right. 100.

I think Tuttle told me that turned.

Out to be a trip of an embarrassing moment. Thank you for reminding me of that, Jesper.

Well, you know, there's always, you know, there's always things to learn. You know, a lot of times we think we're doing something wonderful and, you know, we have to recalibrate the.

It was a learning experience.

Learning experience. Transformative.

Right, right.

So, but, you know, you've used the house, you've been able, you know, it is tough. It's expensive out there. But it is great to be able to add the extra support to your kids. But being able, like when a need shows up, having the options like you were talking like that makes sense to me. They need that. That's legitimate. I'm gonna jump in there and be a difference maker. Because sometimes people need a push in life. You know, sometimes people need to reset their lives financially and to be able to. Or there's some kind of big, you know, we all know what a big piece of. Of equipment. You know, you can get a new printer for your office or this, that the other. And all of a sudden things that took all day are getting done in, you know, a matter of minutes. And so that's true in other people's lives too. You know, they're trying to do great things, but there's not enough income. Or it's a stage where the business is getting started and be able to step in when you see the need. That's the reward. Are one of the biggest rewards. After you get yourself taken care of, you're able to pay for your McDonald's breakfast and things every morning. But it's great to be able to go out there and make a difference and have that kind of not worry about. It's not going to impact you. Whatever. It's just a matter of taking. This is some money, extra money we have. Let's put it to work and let's.

Put it to work over it there. I only want to bring it out that I think unless you're financially independent, you don't even see the need, or you're aware of the need and you just say, I'll pray for you.

Yeah.

Or it's too bad. You know, we had a guy that we used to deliver Christmas presents to and end up. He died without any life insurance. Inner city. And that wife needed money. Well, instead of saying, well, go talk to your pastor or, you know, maybe you can call the government. We did something about it. And one day her son was going to give her some money and her son was complaining of a toothache. So I called my dentist immediately and said, I'm sending these folks over. Bill me. And then I talked to somebody who's going through a marital distress. Well, when you see. When you got money, you see the need. You say, listen, I've got somebody go to counseling and they'll bill me. I can't tell you. Countless numbers of people have been to counseling because you're aware of the needs and you're prepared for needs. And that's one of the reasons God allows you that. The thought to be financially independent. So again, it's a privilege to be financially independent. And like one author said, if you're in America and you're not financially independent, where's your head been?

Yeah, absolutely. Well, Bill, I want to get into. When we talk next, I want to get into the whole idea of getting these thoughts in your mind and getting on a track mentally that allows you to elevate yourself. Like when someone hears a statement like what you just said, where's your mind been? Well, wherever it's been, it's not been in the right place. And so what happens to successful people is they go through some kind of process. Either it comes from inside them, or events happen to them or whatever where light bulbs go on in their mind, and they wind up looking at the world and their situation differently. And they get on a climb and they start climbing towards bigger things and releasing in the process, releasing what they've got inside of them. You know, the talents and things like that. You know, you've got. It's no good to have the talent if it's not exposed, developed, and put in a spot to where it can make an impact. But for that to happen, you've got to get yourself thinking right. And it starts. It doesn't. You know, it's not going to be in one big flash of light. You know, usually there. There might be lots of flashes of light. So what I'd like to do is next time we talk, let's get into that and talk about when you're at that starting point. Maybe you are that person that's like, why am I not financially independent? You know, this is just time for me to get my act together. I don't want to be a victim anymore. And I'll work. You know, that's where people were willing to work around the clock, is so that they don't have to be. You know, I remember the greatest thing for me was I was in high school, you know, during this, you know, during the school year, I'm playing sports all the time, every single sport. But in summer, you know, you were working and, you know, you're at 16, 17 years old. You're, you know, I was up in the Hamptons and graduated from West Hampton Beach High School in the Hamptons. And, you know, you're out there on the beach carrying bricks and roofing up ladders. You know, they didn't have anything mechanized back then. And, you know, you got in the hot sun for minimum wage or you're working it. I remember I had a three day stint at Tasty Freeze when I was. And on the third day, the reason I left was the manager who I think was maybe three years older than me, except he'd already been in prison for four years. And he came in with this paranoid, threatened by everything. Somehow he thought after three days on the job, this 17 year old was trying to take his job. At the same time I was working in restaurants, bussing tables to the early morning hours. And I'm thinking, you know what? I'm going to pay any price. I don't know what education or this or that. I said I don't know what it is. But I made up my mind then that I ain't gonna work for minimum wage because I just learned the people who make the least money get treated the worst. And I am not going to spend my future 24 hours a day in that situation because usually these are not that bright that are over you and they're full of paranoid delusions and psychosis and they're pouring them out on us for minimum wage. No, thank you. I got to do something. It's kind of like flying a plane. I'm not going to fly just above the ground and I'm not going to be. If I'm going to be in a helicopter, I'm going to try and be a 40,000ft. Let's get into that on our next episode. So thanks so much, Bill.

Thank you very much for having me, Larry. It's always fun with you.