Overcoming a Stroke 5 Years into the Start of the Business with Eric Davis

Welcome to this edition of the Million Dollar Mastermind podcast. This is where we pick the brains of high achievers from all walks of life and get their hard earned real world insights on winning. I'm your host, Larry Wydell.

I'm here talking with Eric Davis and we're talking about winning in business at a young age and overcoming a lot of misconceptions, a lot of surprises along the way. Let's call it that way. And Eric, thanks for, for visiting this afternoon.

Thank you.

What kind of you. You had a big health problem you had to deal with when you started your business. Talk about that. That knocked you, knocked you out for quite a while, I think.

It sure did. It knocked me out. Not as long as it should have. And I point that to having my own business, being an entrepreneur. But basically what happened was we got very successful very quickly and after about five years, you're bringing in a half a million a year and you're not really working as hard as you would at a job. And you're like, this is more than I ever made, five times more than I ever made in my life. And I'm not working too hard. You get complacent, you start eating out all the time. You're not taking care of yourself a certain way. I had a blood clot form. It went to my brain. The blood clot formed, went to my brain and caused a massive stroke. So basically I was in ICU intensive care unit for seven days until they could get them to get that calm down, blood pressure down and all that good stuff. And I remember the doctor clearly coming in and said, you're not going to be able to walk without assistance for at least six months. I'm like, six months. There's no way I'm going six months without walking and being an entrepreneur. You know, there's no such thing as sick days and.

Right.

And workman's comp and all those things. You're like, I have something to look for. I got a business. I got people who depend on me. It can't take that long. So we had saved a lot of money in business and I asked them to send me to the best inpatient rehab that they knew of. They told me it was going to cost at least $1,000 a day and I'll have to be there two or three weeks. Okay, go ahead. $1,000 a day. We had plenty of money saved. So they sent us there. They sent me there and I was walking within a week after they told me after six weeks. Now I was On a cane, I was nowhere near 100%. It took me about another four or five months to walk without. Without a limp. I was walking, but I was walking without a limp. Without four or five months. I was actually running about four or five months. And I didn't feel 100% for a whole year. But the reason why I had a different type of determination is because I had something to look forward to. Go back to my team, go back to my entrepreneurship. I loved what I did. I loved the business. I loved everything about the freedom I had and other people that I was trying to show how to do the same thing. If I was working for parole, I probably would have took my sweet time laying in that hospital bed. I probably would still be walking with a limp. I probably would still have a cane because there was nothing to look forward to. Who wants to go back to working out of prison? But having your own entrepreneur's job, it just made me even more determined to become a million dollar earner. I'm like, I had to go through this for a reason if I overcome this. And I remember we had a discussion about this after it happened, Larry, and I told you, I was like, it could be inspiring for some people to go through, you know, let's go through that and come out on top and become a million dollar earner or whatever. So I was determined to make that happen. And literally two years after that, after it occurred, our income jumped to 1.1 after it was at 600 grand. And only because I was entrepreneur and I had this business, like even the love of my family and all that, I knew they were going to take care of me, my daughter or whatever that wouldn't have forced me to work my butt off in order to get healthy, doing extra stuff. Like I had a high school buddy who did football drills and stuff for kids or whatever. And I even hired him to come get my, you know, do footwork drills with me so I could get better and learn how to walk faster than the regular inpatient rehab I had. And the other rehab that I had, the outpatient rehab I had, I was doing all kind of extras just so I can get better. I didn't want to be the one on what happened to him. Why is he walking around limping? Oh, that's our leader right now. Limping and on the cane. I did not want to be that person. And it forced me to get better quickly. And I all come from mental toughness that you have to have in order to be successful in business.

And.

What were you thinking about as you went through that, because six months, you know, all of those things, you know those, those are. You're used to being around a crowd, you're used to being on the go and you're stopped. What kind of other self reflection you think you went through And I don't know if you made any changes in how you went about things or.

I just became a super grateful person. Man, we take a lot of stuff for granted and we don't realize how blessed we are no matter what situation we're in. Just health, having your health alone is a, you know, just super grateful. Like for example, my, my mom turned 87 next, next month. And I remember when I was in the hospital, she's already in her 80s and she was like, I haven't been in the hospital, like had to stay in the hospital since I had you 42 years ago. She had a C section. So she was in the hospital for a few days. She hasn't had to stay at the hospital since then. So we kind of joke. Yeah, so we kind of joked about that. But I. Sorry, what was the initial question? I got to start off.

Well, you like what changes you went through and what kind of self reflection and all.

Just being grateful and focusing on my attitude, making sure I never get complacent. Don't take anything for granted. Realizing how precious life is and how things can change definitely changed my health. I thought I wasn't in bad health at that time, but you just never know. So lost about 20 something pounds. I exercise all the time. Things, the things I couldn't even do. Like if I had a job, I wouldn't be able to take that kind of time to make sure my health is right and my maintenance of my body is right. Things I eat are right. But just self reflection was making sure my attitude is right. Looking at things differently, being grateful, realizing we're blessed people to be here still. And I look at it was like halftime. I think I just turned 40 or something like that. 41 or something. I'm like, I think God gave me a halftime break. Like time out. This is the halftime halfway point of your life. Maybe sit down, reflect and. Okay, here's the second half.

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What are the keys? You know, I know you had strong mentorship growing up and did a lot of study. Your family, you got a lot of good values. What are principles that you find yourself going back to over and over again?

One thing that's kind of a gift and a curse is being insatiable. Like never being really completely satisfied with where I'm at. Like, it's always more to do. And I think that could be sort of a gift and a curse because you're never satisfied. But at the same time, it's what drives you to do more or be better. And it's the competitive nature of the business I'm in where somebody's always doing better than you at some particular thing. There's always another level to strive to achieve. So I try to make sure I don't lose that hunger.

And that's a good thing too, because that's like when you play golf, you know, no matter what your score is, you know, you're always trying to get it down. And people say, can't you be satisfied?

And the point is, know exactly, then.

I'm gonna start getting worse. And so it's like people who don't understand competition or being in charge and running things, they tend to have basically an employee mentality towards everything. It's like, let's get this done with the least.

Exactly.

Why should we sweat it? In other words, why should I come back quick from that rehab? Why should I push? But on the other hand, if it's with your kids and they come in and they get a B in a subject, you want them to get an A. You know, you're pushing them to do better. And it's like, well, you know, I got A's last year, why do I have to get A's this year? You know, it's like that, that excuse is not going to fly with your kids. But it's the same thing in life. You want to continue to move up and continue, continue to improve.

So you.

Can stay excited about it. It's hard to be excited about something, you know, as I, if you, if you go into a dying office, I mean, it's just, you know, you, you feel like dying, you know, sales are down, you know, and this, that and the other. There's no enthusiasm. The in. You know, it's you. You're looking for a reason to get excited. And if you eat, even if you eat steak every single day, you know, filet mignon, Kobe beef every day for lunch, you're going to get tired of it. And so you want to be fresh, you want something new, something exciting, something better. And again, something to look forward to. So as you do that in life, that's not a bad thing. The fact that you've got that and probably that was probably bred into you, you know, as you were growing up. And so what, what are some non negotiables? You like things you just know you're not going to tolerate with your team. Right now I know you got your, your business is coming out of COVID like a lot of businesses right now coming out of COVID They're enjoying life now. They're getting around, circulating. And a lot of times the business where people were in lockdown, it seemed like a lot more business got done a lot of places. And so now it's a matter of, let's get back to the business now while we're back living our lives. What are some non negotiables that you're just not going to have in your life because you talked about growing up, you saw with your brother, you know, there are some non negotiables there. I'm not saying bring those into the business, but what are some things you found out you just cannot have in your business and you'll fight people over if they try and bring that into your business.

Your office is a complacency. You know, complacency sets in. You're just satisfied where you're at, because I'm not a satisfied type of person. So if somebody feels like that, like you say, you need that new excited person in your business to make you feel better. Their goals become your goals and you try to help them achieve them. Another thing is excuse making. Well, I'm not doing those numbers anymore because the world has opened back up or it's prom season or it's graduation or it's just that and other which means you just got to work a little harder, try a little harder, get better at your craft so you can, you can work through those things. Because during COVID in my line of business, it was easy to get people to be involved in finances because they're concerned about finance.

Any last words you have that you want to wrap this thing up with?

This has been a great podcast in my opinion, just the questions you're asking or it led me. My responses came from your, you know, your great question. But it's just all having a business is a mindset type of thing. A lot of times when you're coming from an employee mentality where people get complacent at their jobs, are programmed to be complacent. Why not? You're getting the exact same check for that same amount. I mean, for that same hour or that same month you work. No matter how hard you work, it's already been negotiated on what you're getting paid. There's no incentive to do a little more. This is the salary. That's it. That's all. Whether you work more or not. And changing that mentality and going to entrepreneurship where, wait a minute, there's no cap on how much I can do. If I do more, I get more. And you got to have the type of mindset that can handle different adversities going on in your life. Now when I went through that adversity, some of my mentors would tell me, you know, prior to going to adversity, oh, everything just came easy to you. Everything just came easy. Everything fell in your lap. You made this half a million in five years. That's just unusual. You never had no major adversity. And boom, next thing you know, I'm learning how to walk and talk all over again. So now I'm able to use that mental toughness I went through so no one can really give me an excuse. That's why it's non negotiable when it comes to excuse. Making after you. After a lot of great deal of people on my team, seeing what I've gone through and overcome. But also like what I said earlier, just be grateful for what Whatever your situation is, your health, your family, your business, even your job, hopefully one day you can get out of it and find something more fulfilling. But I would tell you that you got to have the right mindset to be your own business owner. You got to be a self starter, self motivated and ambitious in order to be successful in your own career.

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