Maintaining Momentum Through Lulls and Stagnation with Glen Li

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Weddell, and let's get started. All right, today we've got Glenn Lee back with me. Appreciate him taking the time because I had a particular question. There's a follow up to what he was talking about on our first episode and interview with him. And that was, you know, maintaining momentum, grinding things out through the dull times, the times you're disillusioned, where all of this, the, the signs appear that you're wasting your time. It's never going to happen. The world's against me. I need to find something else. It's not as fun as it once was. So I'm curious about his added, you know, his thoughts on grinding it out and maintaining momentum so you can give time for your efforts to compound and multiply. And so welcome back, Glenn Lee.

Thank you so much, Larry. Glenn.

You got so much experience, and I think you could really speak to people like myself when I got started was I wasn't the magically successful person. I was grinding away where the naturally charismatic people were having somehow they could just make stuff up and wind up being successful. Whereas with me, I had to analyze everything, memorize everything, practice everything, and, you know, one frustration after another. But, you know, you dig deeper during those times and you wind up learning things that you can, if you stay with it, you can use the rest of your life. And so I think you can really speak. Two, there's really an advantage of not being the naturally gifted because, like, the naturally gifted people kind of take it for granted. And there's some of the first ones to quit when it gets tough, you know. But guys like us, you know, it's hard to. You're gonna have to beat us with a club to get us to go away because we've worked so hard for our success. So talk about how you talk to yourself. Concepts that you heard, because we're not born knowing all this stuff, but concepts you heard that you latched onto, that you continue to use today. Because, like in the book serial winner that I wrote, Glenn, you know, all of that stuff I still use on a daily basis. I mean, it's just how I analyze things, how I talk to myself, how I motivate myself, how I stay on track. And I know that you've got those, that kind of programming running in your head. And you talked about the first two years. It took you two years to get yourself more or less programmed. From the back of the room guy, show up late, slacker to the eager beaver. First, first One in, last one out type person. You know, those were decisions you made and changing your behavior. But to stay with that, it's one time. To do it once, but to stay with it consistently, that's another deal. So how'd you do that?

Hey, first of all, you know, you talked about before, you know, that, about how things didn't come easy. And it's true. I mean, nothing in the business came easy to us because there were so many different things we had to learn, you know, like how to speak in front of a room, how to interact with the person individually. And these were. These were not things. I wasn't. I was introverted, except when I was around my friends, you know, I was. I was. That's the way I grew up. And before Primerica, before the business. Sorry. I was. I was. I was. I was always broke. I was always living paycheck to paycheck, or sometimes I didn't even have a paycheck. Right. And when we first started getting success in the company and I first started making money, one of the things I realized was I never wanted to be broke again. I never wanted to move backwards. And everything in our business, it's basically, if you think the right way, you're going to put in the right activity, and. And if you put in the right activity, you're going to get the right results. So if I wanted to maintain the right results, I had to think the right way, you know, and I had to put in the right activity. So I was always afraid to move backwards. I was always afraid, especially in the beginning, where, what if this is not real? What if it was temporary? So I always felt like, man, I had to fight. I have to fight. I had to fight because, I mean, I've done things prior. Prior to the business in my past where I would think, you know, I would. I would celebrate prematurely on anything I. I did, especially, you know, playing sports, my friends, or anything I did prior to that. And then all of a sudden, the moment that. The moment that you stop, right? It's like. It's like somebody described our business as going up a down escalator, you know, running up a down escalator. The moment you stop running, that's when you go backwards. See, See, there's. There's. In my mind, I've always wanted. And not only that, but I always, you know, the recognition, you know, recognition. You know, I. When I talk about recognition, I'm not talking about, man, you know, I want to be the man I'm talking about, you know, if you get recognized for what you do. That means you're doing the right things. You might not even like the recognition, but you want to know you're doing the right things. Right. Right. To get the results. So one thing I realized, man, just because you win doesn't mean you're going to continue winning. It's like going to the gym. You know, how many people go to the gym, get in shape, and then you see them a year later, they're not in shape anymore because they stop going to the gym. It's not like you get into shape one time and you stayed in shape for the rest of your life. Like in business, you, you, it's the same thing. You got to continue working out, working out your mind, working out your skills. You know, you don't want to get cold. You, you gotta, you gotta continue, continue improving, self improving, getting better. There's always new technologies that come out. There's always a new way to do something. Right? So there, So I think as, as a, as a leader, as a winner, you gotta keep up to date with all those things. You know, there's like. I'm 44 right now. When I first joined, joined, joined the business, I was 23 years old. It was a different world when I was 23, when it came, when it came to, like, what the music was, you know, and how the times were, what was popular at that time, you know, and so, and so 20 years later, the same things that were popular, that worked at. I mean, the fundamentals, always going to stay the fundamentals. But there are certain things, like the surface things that sometimes we might need to change, we might have to get acclimated with. But if we don't keep up to date, if we're not continuously working towards something, if we're not continuously competing and keeping ourselves out there, you know, then we might lose the edge. And I just never wanted to lose the edge. Even now, I mean, we're fighting like crazy because if the sky's the limit and we haven't reached the sky yet, right, then we got to continue moving. And I think that if we. The moment you lose momentum, you got to work five to 10 times as hard as you need to. You talk about overdue, right? But you got to overdo it like crazy. But the moment you let that momentum slip, right, it's not just about you. It's about momentum slipping for your whole entire team. And that could be a domino effect. So as a leader, you got to always keep on your toes. You got to always keep moving, always keep fighting and always looking for the edge.

And so you would say that overdoing concept has become a part of your core being. You know that and, you know, that's something I write a lot about, the overdoing. And what have you found about overdoing?

One thing that I think we need to accept in business in general is that it's a numbers game. And a lot, a lot, a lot of times, you know, we understand the numbers, right? It's different numbers in any business, but we understand the numbers. But do we accept the numbers? You know, the numbers. The numbers. You can't beat the numbers like so many leaders talk about. But the moment you accept the numbers, then you're willing to do what it takes, you know, And. And sometimes you gotta. Well, you always have to overdo. You gotta consistently do the things even more than you think you have to do, and you gotta keep on going. Don't always look exactly at the results. Keep putting the activity in. Keep putting that activity in. The results are gonna come, the results will follow. You know, it's like anything else. If you want to. If you're in a business where you're, where you're looking, where you got to attract clients in, you can't just talk to one or two clients, because what if they tell you no, right? What if you tell and then you stopped, Then all of a sudden you got to start again. But if you keep doing overdoing, if you keep. If you keep pushing through the finish line, running through the finish line, then ultimately you will. You understand the numbers, you accept the numbers, and you will, and you will talk to enough people where you're going to get results. So anything you do, you know, not everything's going to work out. You know, it applies to everything. Just when you think you're saving enough money, you haven't saved enough money. Just when you think that your business is somewhere, you know, you got to continue moving, right, for the fear that it's going to go backwards. Anything else you got to. You got to keep pushing it until. Until the job really does get done. And when you think the job is done, it's not done yet. You got to keep pushing.

And the thing is, it's really related to going from a slacker to a person who's pushing the accelerator all the time. The thing is, when you overdo, you're accepting the fact that you're no more special than anybody else. And you're probably going to have reversals in life that you. You may have more bad things happen to you than the average person, however, you can still control what happens to you because you can overdo your work. You know, like, work is the great leveler in life. And when you overdo, you're stacking the odds. I love to talk about stacking the odds. I do that in my online course. You can't guarantee success, but you can restack the odds continually in your favor. And if you keep doing that pretty soon, where you never reach the point where success is guaranteed, you can pretty much make it inevitable regardless of what happens. And that's you controlling your destiny rather than being a victim. And you talked early on, and one of the first decisions you made on your earlier episode was where you talked about, I realized I had to get on a different track if I was going, otherwise my friends were going to leave me in the dirt. They were going to go out and get great jobs and have great lives, and, and there I'm, you know, I'm left behind, you know, they won't even know my name, you know, and, you know, I don't want to be the joke of the team, you know, the lowest paid guy in the group. And so that idea of taking responsibility for yourself really relates to how you respond when things, you know, there's the despair or there's the boredom about whatever project you're in, right? Because, you know, we all go through it every day, Glenn.

Well, anything in life that I, that, that you want extraordinary results from, you got it. You got to put in the right time and you gotta, you gotta do different things. You, you can't do the same things that, that, that, that people do, that get normal results, you know, you gotta, you gotta put in experience, extraordinary activity. You got to do the things that other people are not willing to do. And so, and so the concept of overdoing, you know, keep moving, you know, and not thinking that you're better than the numbers, right? That you're, that you're better than everybody else, that you don't have to go through the numbers. I'm more talented, I'm this, I'm that. And so I don't have to do, necessarily do the same things that other people have to do. It's like the, the story of the tortoise and the hare, you know, and so just because somebody is more talented doesn't mean you can't beat them long term. As long as you're willing to put in more work. Like you talked about, it's the great leveler, the great equalizer, right? If you're willing to do the things other people are not willing to do, you will get the results that other people are not going to get. And so we, you know, we're in a business where, where, where it's always a win, win situation. So when we, when we, when we do certain things as a leader, when we do certain things, people, other people follow and, and if we don't do certain things, other people will follow that as well. So I really believe, like you talked about taking responsibility. You know, I think a lot of times most people, you know, when, when they're not where they want to be, you know, they blame shift. They talk about, you know, it's the government, it's, it's my neighborhood, it's my parents, it's my schooling. But ultimately, you know, who can change that but us? You know, I heard someone say, if you don't, if you didn't come from a great foundation, then go build a new foundation, you know, and so you got to build your own foundation. And I also heard another great leader talk about, you know, if something happened to you before you're 18, if, if, if, if you, if, if you were poor or broke before you were 18, it might not have been your fault. But the moment you turn 18 and you, the, the responsibility turns over to you where there's enough resources out there, if you want to win, you can go win. And if you, and, and if you got the desire, willing to do the work, man, it, it's like success does not have to be, it does not have to be unique for some people. You know, it's, it could be for everyone, but it's just, but if you're not willing to do the work, it ain't going to happen. So you have to put in the work, have to put in and be responsible for where you're at. And once you realize that, then make the changes necessary and then keep consistent and then it's game over and realize.

That it's never going to change. The moment you decide you're not willing to pay the price, then you don't get, you know, you don't get the payoff. You know, it's only the people who keep paying the price, keep doing the things that make them successful. In other words, keep going to the gym and working out with purpose and eating right and everything. Those are the ones who stay in shape. Otherwise you're going to be like Russell Crowe in Gladiator and you know, the buff body, you know, the commander this, that, the other. And then, you know, now if you take pictures of the last time I saw a picture of him. He looks like he's gained 700 pounds. And people were, you know, the interview was saying, well, what happened to the gladiator guy? And he said, well, I just don't have that body anymore, you know, and you know, God bless him, you know, it's a lot, you know, he's enjoying life. You know, he worked hard and now enjoying life and having fun is more important to him than the body. I mean, I'm not condemning him. I'm just saying, you know, he can get that. The thing is, he's older, but he could get that body back if he really wanted to. And that's why you see some of these actors and actresses in Hollywood that, I mean, you know, they look forever. They just look. They're the glamour pusses. And then the, you know, you just can't believe how great they look. It must come natural. And then you see him a few years later and it's like, what happened to them? You know, and you know, like, even Lady Gaga, you know, she turned into a whale, you know, and. But now she's back skinny as a rail again, you know what I'm saying? It's just like she was going through some things and she just didn't worry about it that much. But, you know, when she got, then she got her game back and now she's skinny as a rail again, you know, and it's like Adele, you know, she had all her hits and she kind of ballooned up, had some personal situations, but now the woman's lost over 100 pounds and so looks like a million bucks. And so not only can she sing like an angel, she looks like an angel. And so, you know, different things. You can change your life if when you get yourself in the frame of mind, you're willing to pay the price. And so thanks for going through that, Glenn. That was really impactful and really on the money. Thanks so much.

Appreciate that, Larry.

And thanks for listening to this episode of Million Dollar Mastermind with me, Larry Wydell. If I've helped you in any way, leave us a five star rating you and review on Apple podcasts. For more information like this, listen to our other Million Dollar Mastermind episodes and check out my Wydell Academy YouTube channel and visit us on widelawnwinning.com I'm the million Dollar Mastermind. And until next time, go go.