Part 1 - 46-Year Success Story In Financial Services

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.

Hello, Bill Arender.

Hey, hello, Larry. Longtime friend, Larry Wydell. It's great, great to see you again and here talk with you today.

Yes, Bill, and thanks for getting on and making the time to talk today and it's going to be fun to see what's on your mind. And for those of y' all that don't know, Bill and I have been in business since 1975. He's been in the business since 74. But we've been a part of one of the most prolific success stories in American business and financial services. And it's had many names. Many companies merge and sell and grow and go bigger, bigger, bigger. But over the long haul, it's been two primary names. It's Al Williams and Primerica. I don't use the names that much because the lawyers always trying to pick a fight with you using their name and everything. And so I don't let it come out of my mouth that much. But we are, to toot our horn, the largest independent financial services organization in the world. We did start with a handful of us and Bill was around a little year or so longer than me and you know, as a result got up the ladder quicker than I did. But together, I think where when the company actually went independent in 77, we might be the final, in the final nine people still standing that founded the company. I don't know what it is, founded the company, but we were there. So for 46 years we've been talking to people about financial services and we've been involved in doing good things and bad things ourselves and making mistakes and learning, seeing other people make mistakes and some amazing growth stories, just absolutely astronomical. In our company right now, we have more million dollar earners than any other company in direct sales, I think most direct sales companies combined. And so we've seen a lot of success and we've seen the arc of success in a lot people that have been owners of companies that we've done business with and sold for, like Sandy Weil of Citigroup. He was at 2000, I think Citigroup was the number one company in the world. He was running it. And so bigger than Apple and Google and all that came later. But so we've been around. We were the marketing engine for all of that and we went independent in 2010. But from that we've learned some things. And Bill is kind of like a part of, in addition to everything else, he's kind of like a historian, in a sense, archivist of a lot of the principles that the company. Because when you go 46 years, you start from scratch and you start with a bunch of people from all kinds of different industries, and you start with the guy running things in charge who was an ex football coach. It's quite a story. But it's not supposed to last 46 years. You're not supposed to go from a couple of people selling my term and invested difference to where you're on the New York Stock Exchange, like Bill and I were in 2010, ringing the bell up there on the platform. And so it's quite a track record, quite a trajectory. And it's been our privilege. We thank God every day that he got us here rather than somewhere else, because we could have worked just as harder, harder somewhere else. Have I seen any of the success? So we're grateful and we're. This is us giving back. We're passing on the wisdom. The way you get to be a genius in life, if you're successful in life, you become a genius to certain people. And let me give you the short course on how you become a genius. You make millions of mistakes that other people haven't made yet. So you learn lessons that they haven't learned in yet. So you appear to them to be a genius, but unfortunately you have all the scars with you.

Right, right.

Of accumulating that knowledge, you know. And so anyway, Bill, we're going to have some fun today, and hopefully people are going to learn from us. So what is on your mind right now? As we started before, we were thinking about what to cover. You had one thing that's really on your mind right now. So let's get it out there and see where it takes us.

You know, a lot of people, Larry, thank you, by the way, for having me. It's really an honor and a privilege to be here. A lot of people take a look at our company as an example. And by the way, I heard a statistic that's relevant. Only 12% of the companies that existed 50 years ago are still running today, really, because acquisition, mergers, consolidations are out and only 12% of them. So to have a company like ours that are 47 years old, it's a rarity. We don't realize that. And when people take a look at our company, Larry, they always think about, yeah, you had a crusade. You're out there Helping people. And because of your unique concept of buy chairman, invest the difference. That's why you succeeded. Well, I want to disagree with that. We succeeded because we had a great concept and we had a great money motivation incentive to do it.

Yeah.

You know, when people come here, we don't realize that this thing just by itself would not move. So when you get a lot of money motivated people combined with something that we believed in, we soared. We started making money hand over fist because of. We worked hard, but also because we believed in it and it was right. But our company put together a compensation system that is the finest in the United States. We know in the industry, but in the United States, our compensation package. I was talking to somebody the other day and they talked about summarizing our company. It's a money making machine. So my grandson asked me, why did you decide to go into financial services? I says, I didn't. I wanted to make money. I wanted to make lots of money. I wanted to be financially independent. And financial services was the avenue that afforded me that luxury of making that kind of money. And so to me, Larry, if people would understand the money consciousness and money motivation must be a major part of their life and not one of those hidden parts that they're embarrassed by. You and I have talked about this many times, Larry.

Let's talk about. I wanted to kind of get around, to just get people think about maxing out in your life. Because what we. That's a lot of how this thing was set up. We wanted to get in something and then once we were in it, we said, this is a great opportunity. It's kind of like Bill Gates and the idea of the computers. Because right from the beginning he realized, hey, this can be on every desk, every workstation, every person, every office. You know, he had this idea of the scale of it, you know, can be evolved. And so you've got to think like, how big can this thing get that I'm working at? You know? And he was like, one thing you need to think about. Where in the heck are you working? What kind of industry are you working in? What kind of company you're working in? A bill. I did choose financial services because I was in construction And I worked 80 freaking hours a week for 40 years almost. And, you know, my reward was three days before Christmas in 74. I went in at seven freaking o' clock in the morning, out in Alpharetta in the bitter cold. And my boss said, come over here. He said, you know, we're doing the numbers. Last night, the oil Embargo is dried up. All of the financing at the banks and houses, people want to buy our houses, they loved our houses. But he said they want to buy but they can't get financing. And then they're trying to sell their house and the people are trying to buy their house so they can buy our house, they can't get financing. And so Larry, the end of that is. Billy Carter Goldman Sachs Oil embargo, no financing. You working 80 hours a week out here in construction, having houses that people were drooling over, wanting to buy. Not good enough, Larry. You're out three days before Christmas. And I just spent my last savings to buy my wife a mega sewing machine. That was her dream of all time that she want. And there was my Christmas money down the drain. But I figured, you know, I got paychecks coming in, I got bonuses coming in this and the other. And I had a 5 month old son and another 14 month old son, another one on the way or year and a half, Adam and another one on the way in five months, no problem. You know, we're going to sell in these things and people love us. In fact, the guy we had such a reputation and I'm the one who built the friggin houses, he stayed inside down at Sandy Springs, inside of his house. And he supposedly was Mr. Inside Financial Guy. I was Mr. Outside Building the houses. And the year after I got laid off because we couldn't sell houses, he got elected president of the Atlanta Homebuilders association off the houses I built. And I'm out there going to visit the relatives, eating their food because I can't figure out what I'm going to do next. But one thing, Bill, I made up my mind, I was through with that industry. I was not going to make that mistake again, ladies and gentlemen. And so if you, you know, life will teach you, life will send you signals if you'll pay attention. But that was one is like I had no one come up to me and say, you need to choose the right industry. And this, that and the other. Where's that industry going? Where's that company going inside that? Nobody came up told me that, but life told me that reality taught me that it was like. So what I said was, I'm going to learn something different. I got to put 80 hours a week in, I'm going to get something different. And so I said, started looking at industries, I said, which was the most successful industry to come out of the Great Depression? Because we were in kind of a depression, you know, in the country. And someone told me financial services was the only industry that survived during the Great Depression. I said sold, I'm getting a financial services one way or the other. If you're looking out there and you want to maximize your life, I'm not going to go through the whole checklist of things that right now, but maybe they'll come up during the course of this discussion. But one thing you got to look for is a industry that's on the move, that's big, that has opportunity. And Bill, we've had exponential growth for 46 years and we're like doing 1 or 2% of the market because we deal with middle income families and they're constantly be formed and reformed and then new kids growing up making, having families. And so it's like trying to count all the grains of sand on all the oceans of the world in terms of this market is so big. And so I, I would tell those of y' all listening is like get yourself in a great industry that has a big market. You don't want to max out doing like I was 80 hours a week in something that is fragile. And one thing I learned about people and I'm sure you know contractors, Bill, they pretty much go feast or famine on seven year cycles. I noticed people out there, there are builders I built with, we'd see them in the construction shack because there was no such thing as cell phones and, and that was the only phones. But in the construction shack you go in there and on seven year cycles they have success because houses are selling, they join the country club, they send their kids to the private schools, they take the nice vacation, they get the extra two or three vehicles, everything is grossy. And then at the end of the seven year cycle they're divorced, they're out of the country club.

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They're living in a trailer somewhere. They're just trying to hold their Company together until the market turns. And I said, I just cannot put myself through that. I got to get in a different end. And it's not just one or two. Everybody in construction goes through that. That's the industry. And so look around, folks, where you are. Smell the roses and see if you're. Find a place you can bust your rear, but find a place that there's potential for growth. And we benefited from that, haven't we?

No, you're right. No. I be with the steel business, steel industry, the US Steel, Bethlehem Steel, National Steel, all these great steel companies which were the background. Carnegie Steel at one time. And I went to that industry, I thought it's going to be here forever. But we didn't realize there was the foreign imports. And they killed us and the unions and killed us because they could too expensive to make the steel. Now there maybe is one steel mill in the United States. They're all coming from foreign. And the company I worked with, which is the third largest steel company in the United States, formed around the year 1900, is gone. It sold off all the pieces. So you're right. You're only as good as your industry. Tell me the industry you're in and I'll tell you where you're going.

Thank you.

You cannot. You have to figure out the industry. Is this the industry that's going to take me where I want it to go? Most people are just concerned about a job. I need a job and looks good. Now, very few people think beyond the current. Is this going to be here 30, 40 years from now? Like the construction business, the feast or famine. So, Larry, you're right. We lucked into Larry. I did the financial services. I didn't look at it and say this is the industry to be in. But Larry, there's something called a wall of wealth. You know it. Yeah, there's something happening that's never happened in the world. And this is the generation to generation wealth transfer of $85 trillion, Larry, in the next 30 to 40 years is moving. And so we have a philosophy in our company saying friends don't let friends go through life without a mutual fund license. And our people, you know, are making tons of money. When we started the company, you and I, mutual funds, just a little thing we did for 25amonth now, boy, my gosh, your business alone, Larry's got to be doing close to 50 million a month of securities business.

Yeah.

And you've got what, how many billions of dollars in assets under management? 20 billion or something like that?

Yeah, yeah, it's just an astronomical thing. Yeah. And the thing is, when you build organization, it's not that you sell that you build organization and they sell it. Cause right now what I tell people is I never. I actually don't have recall memory of ever making a security sale. I'm sure I did, but I didn't sell a billion. I'll sell. I'll say that. And so the thing is, that's something else you want to get into when you think of an opportunity. But what we're talking about here, there's a lot of growth industries out there, you know, and so think about what you're doing. So what we're trying to do is pass advice on to people from what we've learned. And so get yourself at an industry. And then the other thing is get it in your fat head to do it big. I mean, let's quit screwing around on this thing. When we started, Bill, we were as dumb as anybody else. But we wanted to do something great with our life. We were unapologetic about wanting to do something great. It's going to be hard, it's going to be tough. But we, we did not back down from that. And as a result, all the decisions we made were triggered by that emotion. We wanted to get as far up the ladder as fast as possible. We wanted to stay there as long as possible. Now we're having insane growth 46 years later. But that started back there with that desire to do something big and started in an industry where it could happen. So you got to create the possibilities for good things to happen to you by the decisions you make. And one of those decisions is to say to get mature enough to get past the point where say, I want to make money. I don't want to take advantage anybody. I don't want to lie, cheat and steal to do it. But if I'm going to kill myself, you know, if I'm going to get in it, be successful in anything, folks, it's going to wear your ass out. I mean, it's. I'm sorry. There's a lot of people. If it was easy, you've heard that. If it's easy, everybody's doing it. So you're going to wind up doing things most people wouldn't do for longer than most people would do it and it to the outside. But see, what they don't know is that it's worth probably 100 or a thousand times more than they think it is. Otherwise they wouldn't give up. You keep on going and you get the Big payoff. But you're going to have to go through a lot of those lonely hours working where it overcoming things, you know, Like, I saw a thing on Peacock Network, they've got a thing about Joe Montana, greatest quarterback of all time until Tom Brady came along. The thing is that, I mean, they just. That guy had so much abuse in high school from his coaches in college. He play, he saved the game, and they'd still have him on the bench. They come in and the Notre Dame, two or three or four games, they were hopelessly behind, and coach ran him in there with three or four minutes ago. He does like three touchdowns. Bam, bam, bam. Win the game. You know, he kept the coach employed. Then the coach has him on the bench the next game. But he went through that. And then added Bill Walsh, that hero, the great genius at San Francisco, after the super bowl, he wins the second Super Bowl. This blows my mind. And so you're going to get screwed like this in business. I'm just telling you. I'm trying to tell you you're going to get screwed. You're going to pay a price. You're going to be abused and misused. People don't respect you and people take advantage of you and everything. That's just part of the drill. But you stay in there and hang in there. And you got these incredible achievements and all these other people fall by the wayside. But you know that Bill Walsh went out there and traded behind everybody's back for Steve Young, who's probably the best quarterback in the league, and told him by the end of the following season he would be starting for the San Francisco 49ers. And this after, when Joe Montana at this point has not had a serious injury. He's in the prime of his career, and he's just won two Super Bowls, and everybody loves him. And the coach goes out there and he's got this little snake play to bring in another quarterback. Like, you know, he might not keep it going, but, you know, it's just like, wait a minute, I thought we were buddies, Bill. We're figuring out how to win these games together, you know, all for one, one for all. And this guy's going behind my back. That was why Steve Young was always such a thorn in Montana side. It was unhappy on the bench because he had been told he was going to be the starter. And so this is what happens in life. People do things in charge. People are in charge of you. They do things that are right for them or they think that's right for you. And it's really. They're stabbing you in the back, but you're going to have to overcome things like that. But make sure it's in an industry where you can have growth. Make sure it's in a financial thing where the rewards are worth overcoming, that kind of stuff, where it's going to be worth it. And you can start to make those kind of decisions. You never make all of them right, but you're more likely to make that more right than wrong. If your idea is, I want to get as big as possible as fast as possible. I want to stay there as long as possible. I want the biggest payoff. I'm doing this to make money. And the right way. There is a right way. I'm not going to worship money. I make a lot of it. I'd be happy to give it away, but I'm going to make it, and it's going to go through my hands. So anyway, Bill, that's something you see people are still don't get over. But until you do that, you're not going to bust your ear, are you?

You know, you talk about the word big and Larry, I love the analogies you use. And I remember going through the mental gymnastics about making money. And I know you can make money in our industry, but a lot of people tap out and they don't go to big. They just stop at the thermostat setting of 1000-001500-00200,000, and they get satisfied. And I remember going through the gymnastics on it, that thinking, if I can make $100,000 a year, I'm going to make 100,000 a year. That's when one made 100,000. Then I went to, if I can make $10,000 a week, I'm going to make 10,000 a week. If I can make 10,000 a day, I'm going to make 10 thousand. If I can make 10,001, if I can make 10,000aminute, if I can make 10,001. And that stuck in my subconscious and caused me to create this economic doggernaut that you and I have created in our businesses with our teams and our brokers and our agents and that are into the tens of thousands of people that we have creating lifetime income for us that we never could have made. Being really good at it by ourselves again. Bill, why did you choose financial services? Because that's where the money is. Bill, why did you choose building and creating a brokerage operation? Because I said that's where you make the most money. I think when People start looking at that versus the world, say, just be happy, just find something you enjoy doing. You know, you do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life. The information that they're getting is wrong. Yeah, don't worry about the money. Just help people and the money will be there. That's not true. And again, most people are not listening to the people that I listen to and I know you listen to regarding getting big financially and making money. And to do that you got to help a lot of people.

Yeah, Larry. Yeah. You've got to develop a passion for whatever it is you're doing. I'm still talking about the lesson I learned from Casey Diaz who came out of the gang experience and supermax and you know, gets out there and he starts a build. For 23 years he had a painting business and now he's written best selling books and it's got a movie and in the works about his story. But I was asking about how could you come out of the gangs out of a supermax and how could you get excited about doing the paint business? He said, well, the first time I did it, he said, we went out there and we made this sign. This guy came in, we made this sign. First of all, he made money. He said, I did it myself over a weekend. It was something with metal and this. And there he said, I think the first one he did, he made 18,000. The second one he did, he got a job, he made 63,000. And it wasn't that hard. So he made money. But he said that he's. I said, I got excited about the business when it came time to deliver the signs to the people. And I saw how excited they were about it because this is part of their dream and they had envisioned it and then here it is now reality. And they could put it up on the building or whatever. And he said, being a part of that made me proud. I had a pride about that. And from that he developed a passion about because he could make money at it. It was something he could do, but he found a money making thing he could get passionate about. And so you can't just say I'm passionate about playing the piano. Well, if you're a crap piano player or you're, let's just say you're a college level piano concert player and then it comes time to go pro and you realize, I just don't have it at that level. You, you gotta let reality take over and send you another direction. You don't want to be a fool about it. But you can take what I think even that is good. Bill. If I was that guy and I wanted to be a classical concert pianist, I would have skills, I would have developed disciplined. I would have had approach to life. I would learn how to. And then if I got up to that level and then I found out, nope, I'm just not that good enough. Yeah, but I've got that whole approach to life that I've developed. I've learned how you get at least that good almost one step away. And I can take that energy, that insight, that discipline, that dedication and move it over into something else and then go on and have unlimited success. So I think it's good you follow your passion as far as it'll take you, but then you use what you get from that to propel yourself further into an unlimited opportunity. That's why I'm saying find an industry, find a slot that's got room for you to be unlimited big. But we'll say this. We're talking about legally, legitimately, ethically, morally. You don't cut corners. You don't stab people in the back. You don't get up, make more, quicker, faster, better by taking advantage of other people. Because you know who does that? Fools. You've got to be. The thing about taking advantage of people lying, cheating and stealing your way to money is that's not going to be the last piece of what we talked about. It's not going to last. People will find you out. People will find you out, as our Secret Service director found out, and I would say more about our president found out. But anyway, people will eventually reality catches up with you. And so you got to be honest with yourself that you're doing the right things. Because if you take advantage of people, they will not be with you. And if your people leave you, you're always going to be starting over. You're not going to have that. You need these people. You need them to get 10 years experience, 20 years experience, 30 years. They're irreplaceable. So you don't want them to go away. You want them to be like you say, if you were in their shoes. You want to create a situation where they can be as money motivated as you would be if you were in their shoes. You want to take care of them. But the thing is going for the top and to drive that income up causes you to be more efficient, causes you to be keep from getting arrogant and passive and start taking things for granted, because that's when things start to decay. So that's why you wanting to do it bigger, faster, better is keeping your foot on the accelerator in your car. You always want to keep the foot, the pressure on to keep moving forward. And so anyway, Bill, I think a big part of this is people who are listening to the. The reason I did the podcast is so you could pick up ideas that will allow you to be the greatest you could be in your life. You could make the biggest impact. Whatever talent God gave you, whatever opportunities God gave you, whatever relationships, experience, exposures, insights, the things you see that other people don't see, gifts you have, they can be used to the max, to the fullest impact. Because when that happens, you help the most people possible. You make the biggest impact on the world. But if you're trying to just kind of get to the motions, pick up an idea here or there, that's fine. But that's not what the podcast is all about. That's not what you and I talk about when we speak. It's not one where when we look with people and we're training people, we're going to try and do things that are going to say, things that allow them to reach their maximum potential. Because there's a lot of people out there who could be a whole lot better than us. And what I like to tell them is that I want to get you up to where you pass me up, and then I learned a whole lot of new things from you, and then I can take credit for it.

Thank you for listening to part one of this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind podcast.

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