When Your Success Exceeds Your Character – You Implode with Gus Gonzalez

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 back with Gus Gonzalez and we're talking about winning. So thanks, Gus, for coming back.

Thank you for having me. It's been great.

And thanks for the impact you're making in the business world and so many other people's lives in terms of giving back. Appreciate you taking the time to share here some really personal type things, but you made a statement that we all need to think about. You know, it's like character matters and the character of the people that are running things are like you're thinking about going to work with a company, doing business with a company, partnering up with a company. If you smell a rat when you're around, that person probably is a rat because body language is pretty valid most of the time. And the character matters because most times success is over a long period of time. And most of the time you're going to go through rocky roads getting with a new company or getting into a business partnership or whatever. And so a lot of that success is going to be whether or not the other person ducks and runs and leaves you holding the bag. We got our good friend John Lennon. When John got started in his trip up the business ladder, you know, he said he's out of North Carolina and you know, he got North Carolina A&T there and in Greensboro and he said, okay, I'm going to get in real estate. And he got a partner and they went and bought an office building. And you know, they had people in the building and you know, they make maintenance and all that. Had to get a big loan for that. Because he was young in his career, well, he stupidly let the other guy be in charge, be in charge of the money. And when things got tough, it worked great for a while. You know, they were loving it and relaxed. You know, that's what happens when you, when your character is not there. You have an arrogance about yourself. You assume, like you said, you know, it's all me, I'm good, you know, I can handle whatever happens. And you get sloppy at watching the details. I'm not saying John did that, but all of a sudden he noticed that his partner had left town. The building was, you know, the funds weren't there in the account. The bank was calling, they're getting ready to foreclose. And this is 1980. He had 400. He started out his career with $400,000 in the hole. Yeah, and what I've always admired about that guy, how I only heard that story once out of John and somehow in starting his new businesses, you know, being around him quite a bit, I never heard anything else about that. He just handled his business. He didn't want moan and groan, you know, if I didn't have this to deal with, if I didn't have that to deal with, well, he just took the blow and said, okay, you know, I'm going to deal with it. I'm going to learn my lessons, I'm going to make my adjustments and move forward. And I think that's one of the reasons he's a million dollar earner today himself and has influenced people all over the country. And so as you got going, when your success exceeds you, your character, you implode. Where have you seen that happen? When did that occur to you? Oh my God.

I see that happen every day in life. You see it happens in, in businesses, right? You see businesses that start going, heading south or heading, just kind of things just get crazy. You see it in churches with church leaders that you know, all of a sudden they have this image that they cannot uphold because the backbone is not, the character is not there and so on. I think you see it all the time, every day in life. It just, most people don't notice those things. You think again, those mishaps are attributed to something else, never to lack of character.

And it's kind of, it's almost like a fault line in their character, you know. You know, when you go into business, you're gonna have lots of stresses and challenges and if you've got a fatal flaw inside you, and maybe you have lived in denial, you know, that's, you know, the hardest thing I always thought, which turned out to be the biggest benefit from having a growing business, is that your flaws get flushed to the surface, you know, and you know, you're either going to deal with them or you're going to bail. You know, you're going to look for an easy way out and just bail out. And your thing is you're not going to continue to grow if you, those are versions of running from the problem. And if you face up to it and make the adjustments in yourself and then make the adjustments in your business the way so that can't happen to you again. The great thing is you improve. And even if your company goes down, those improvements in you personally can never be taken away. The greatest benefit is how you personally improve from the process of building and developing a new business and facing those challenges, it's just like, you know, diamonds are created from pressure. And once you go through that process, you become somebody who can handle problems, you stay on track and keep winning, which means. And I defy winning. Moving on towards the things that are important to you that you feel you're supposed to be doing and not get crushed, are knocked off track or blown up. You know, you always can minimize that damage and move forward. And that. That confident and also a confidence that comes from that. And so when you went through. So talk with that. So you're. You're saying that a lot of times this is just not. Recognize people, you know, they blame it on the economy, blame it on the product cycle, the. Blame it on the, you know, things like Covid or whatever like that. But in reality, it's the flaw in the leader.

Yeah, 100%. And then, you know, because again, you're going to get tested at every level, right? At every level, you're going to get tested. And it is like your character is what's going to show, you know, it's gonna come out, right? Whatever it's in you is what comes out. Right? So. And then at the highest levels, it might be just a succession thing. Okay, who is gonna replace me? And you have your character need to be. You need to be very advanced, right. To think that there can be somebody that actually could be better than you for your business. And it's actually your business. Right. Like, I was reading about George Washington the other day about, you know, the time of independence and all that. And he was the first president, and the Senate wanted him to run, like, forever. They said, you know, run again, you stay. You know, I said, no, I'm stepping down, because if I stay, it's going to ruin the. The country. You know, it's. It's the. It's the craziest thing.

You know what I mean?

That is the highest level of character. Right. Obviously, most. I'm thinking a word in Spanish, but most war generals that are, you know, take over countries, they just. They don't want to give that up. You know what I mean? So. But. But it's going to require. You're going to be tested all along the way. And man, that makes the difference. That is such a difference. So he's remembered. Washington is remembered for his character, right?

Yeah, right.

And the way he dealt with so many things. I mean, this is a ragtag army, right? Fighting the most powerful army in the world. Army and Navy in the world. Right at the time. And just kind of all based off a vision and a character. And so that shows how powerful that is in terms of influence and results.

And one of the things we can make this point right now. I'll just throw it in. I read an article a long time ago about what makes a great general. And you know, what they found is it comes down to the person and their character and their guts. And, you know, because they say some of the great generals came out of the great war colleges and, you know, military training schools where they spend time studying wars. And like General Patton knew all the great wars of the centuries and the battlefields and the strategies. Some of the great generals come out like that. But some of the great generals are. They just show up.

Yeah.

You know, it's like this guy Zelensky in the Ukraine. I mean, he's a former comedian and actor, and he even played an actor who was acting the role of president, that he's acting right now, leading an anti corruption campaign. And then they wound up, the show was so popular and so right dead on. They wound up electing him. Now he's in a war. Thank you for nothing.

And they're calling him. They're calling him the Winston Churchill of our times.

Go figure. So the thing is that you can't always look back. Well, if I'd had more training or if I had more this, that the other, you know, great successes come from all kinds of backgrounds. And it comes out with what's in you. And it's really not what, you know, it's what you're willing to apply yourself to learn.

That's right.

And, you know, the kind of changes you're able to make in your life to kind of. One thing about the humility thing is are you willing to surround yourself with people and give them the credit? You know, I've never understood. Supposedly this is a male thing. Won't ask for directions. No, my husband won't ask for directions. You know, it's like I've never understood that. You know, if you're lost, I don't care who knows. It could be a little kid. It could be a homeless person. Anyway, I don't care who it is. If they know the answer to where I. How I can get to where I want to go. I'm going to ask them. I don't remember arriving at a new destination, at a party or a business event. And they said, let me ask you this. How did you figure out how to get here? Did you figure out all by yourself or did Someone tell you how to get here? You know, who cares? No one's going to, you know, spending here, being hungry. I've always been asking help from anywhere I could get it. Because you know, people who have the answers, once you get the answers, boom, you're empowered.

And so 100%. And you said something also there, just briefly, but giving credit to other people. But even. And you get, if you can ever get to the point like when you introduced me, you said, I have three other million dollar earners that I have mentored. I haven't mentored them. I mean, everyone, those people decided to get to work. They are through their own process. And for me, the moment that I was able to stop, you know, caring about where the credit goes, my business grew. Because it's one of those things that you are, you are inevitably the lid of your team. And that is either a good thing or a bad thing. But it's always a thing that it calls for reflection, right? Say, oh my God, so how come my team is not way bigger, right? How come I'm not Elon Musk?

Right?

Because you hear his story and he's like, oh my goodness, this guy is freaking from another planet. But so you get this humility from him that is almost from another planet, right? So if you can get to that point where really, hey, you know what? We need to win this war. And let's credit General such and such. General such and such and General such and such. Hey, I'm the president. But this is all. They did it right, man, we won. We won. This is. We got what we wanted. Let's move on.

Absolutely fantastic. Thanks so much, guys.

Thanks for listening to the Million Dollar Mastermind. If you felt there were any valuable takeaways from this episode, please take a minute. Leave us a five star review. Your feedback is important and really helps us get the word out to a wider audience. Remember, we have a valuable webinar that is absolutely free. Register for it right now@whiteallonwinning.com thanks for listening.