If You Were Ever Told That "THAT WON'T WORK"...Watch This!

One of the things I want to maybe encourage you to do is each one of these chapter titles has its own meaning within the meaning. And the next place we're going to is what we like to call that will never work.

That will never work.

I have heard that will never work myself over and over and over again my entire life. And maybe it's stubbornness, maybe it's pride, maybe it's ego, maybe it's, maybe it's a lot of things, maybe it's all of that rolled into one. I've made my entire career on doing what people told me I couldn't do. And again, I'm supposed to be more mature now than I was then, but I still find myself doing things that people say can't be done. And then I get self realized because then I end up doing the thing that they told me that couldn't be done. And I'm like, well see, I was right. And then that gets me in trouble. So I'm trying to find that balance. So I'm kind of be honest with you about that. But that will never work stuck out in my mind. I mentioned in the previous lesson that I had a conversation recently with a guy by the name of Mark Randolph. Mark Randolph was the co founder of Netflix. And for those of you who don't know which I don't know, who doesn't know what Netflix is. But in case you don't know what Netflix is, it became the pioneer of the streaming services. Now that Disney and gosh, Amazon, some of these other names that you probably never heard of, either Discovery, Disney, Well I already said Disney, we can't count them twice. History Channel, they were the pioneers of the streaming business. And as I was talking to Mark Randolph, I was like, I'm just curious, man. That was the name of his book that just released not long ago. I did try to get Mark to send us a bunch of copies. If you guys give us your information, I will send you the copies he's sending me on your behalf. They just didn't get here in time. I'm sorry. But I did try. But one of the things I loved about his conversation was this guy is like super humble. He co founded and helped build a billion dollar business, a multi billion dollar business.

And he did so while being told on a regular basis that that will never work.

That will never work. It will never be the thing you want it to be. It'll never look like it's that you're talking about. It's going to be. It's not the Million dollar idea. It's not this. And in some cases, that's actually true. It may actually be better than what you think it's supposed to be.

But in order to do that, you're gonna have to get past that limiting belief stage.

You're gonna get past that stage because you are gonna hear that will never work on a regular basis. And I'm not asking you to be stupid. I'm not asking you not to get wise counsel. I'm not asking you to learn practical, tactical steps. What I'm saying is don't let someone else's opinion of you become the business venture you build.

I've got several entrepreneurs in this room that are some of the most talented people I have ever seen in my space. When I say my space, I don't mean just the speaking space, I mean in their space. The person that helped me build my brand from a visual aesthetic place is in the room today. I don't know about you guys, I love the whole unstoppable thing in the script. It has a certain er to it. But I also like the clean refineness of the Stop the startup. Did you know that colors and fonts are a choice?

Are you serious?

Discovering that one thing revolution revolutionized. However you say that word, Reva, Somebody help me say that word. Revolutionalized. Yeah, that word.

How we started conducting ourselves in the marketplace.

The moment we learn that one piece of thing, that one piece of advice, that one tactical strategy, our explosive behavior began to happen on social or how we shot videos began to change. We've discovered that a lot of the videos that we want to produce and the content that people appreciate most about me is the type of content that teaches them how to overcome their own fears.

And the only reason I'm even remotely qualified to do that is because I'm constantly having to overcome mine.

So when someone tells you that will never work, I want you to remember the story I'm going to share with you really quickly because I have been told numerous times that that will never work. And Mark Randolph told me very plainly, he's like, you know what? Most business ideas actually do stink, but they lead to the business ideas that end up transforming the marketplace.

If you guys remember, Netflix used to deliver a cd, right? And by the way, his whole story is interesting. It's definitely a book that you guys need to pick up and read.

When the whole process started, they were originally going to mail out VHS.

Because DVDs were a new technology. Guys, we're only talking 10 years ago.

Now. We got MP3s and MP4s and ABCs and like.

But that led them ultimately to creating the streaming version of it. And what they did was they went from the DVD scenario realizing it was very costly, they were damaging discs being shipped in the mail. They were doing all of that, and they were getting to the place of, okay, it was actually more expensive to ship the DVD device to you in hopes that you got it back. Which he actually told me that was actually. The honor system actually worked in this case. But when he got it back, the DVDs themselves would be damaged and they had to replace them. So they said, well, what if we just recorded all the DVDs, paid the licensing fees to the different movie companies, and we just streamed it.

When this decision was made, it was still dial up. You guys remember dial up.

Your idea is going to take time to shape itself.

The reason I'm telling you that is because I don't want you to put yourself in a box. A lot of times as entrepreneurs, we put ourselves in a box. We think it has to be done exactly like this. This entire program is alpha pivot again. I used to be focused hardcore in the life mastery space. And then I realized, you know what? These are the people who actually need what I have to offer. So let's talk to them. Okay, your business is going to be the same way. You might be selling nail polish today and you might be selling computers tomorrow.

The trick is try to have as many synergies along the way as you possibly can. So when someone comes to you and say, that will never work. I want you to remember Mark Randolph's story. I also want you to remember this one.

This picture is currently hanging in the wall in the hallway next door to us. This picture was taken one year after being a business for myself as the brand name Custom Home Exteriors, Inc. Which is the first of the seven companies I currently own equity in, or own entirely.

I briefly touched on the previous.

Lesson, but essentially what happened was.

The man, Steve Myrick, that poured into me the first time around, who gave me all that advice, actually put me in the business for myself in late 1996, after I dropped out of high school in 1993 to help my family pay the bills.

So from 1993 to 1996, I worked at a company called Waste Industries, delivering trash cans. Occasionally, I'd hop on the back of a garbage truck if they needed some help, but for the most part, I delivered trash cans. And then I got fed up with the person. The person at Waste Industries had acquired a Trash company out of Pinehurst, North Carolina, which isn't too terribly far from here. And when they did, they gave the CEO of that company that they acquired the division president role at the business at the building I was in. He was by far, to this day, the worst leader I've ever worked for in my entire life.

And as a result, I got really, super tired. I got really, super fed up. Like, I was, like, constantly being belittled, constantly being talked down to, constantly, like, just under this guy's thumb. He was a bully of sorts. He spent a lot of time bullying people into his. Into submission. And for a while, I wasn't on his radar. He was going to the people above me. Well, the guy that was reporting to him, that was above me, turns out, was partying consistently on a regular basis out in the marketplace. And so he would come in, he would come downstairs, hey, man, how things going? I'm like, they're going, all right. He would go literally up to his van up at the top of the. The thing off of Jones Sausage Road, which isn't too far from here, and he'd go sleep in his van, and I would do his job.

Again this time. I'm 18, 19 years old. I'm fresh out of high school.

Legitimately fresh out of high school, missing my senior year. And as I'm going through all of this, one of the things I'm quickly discovering was I don't like this guy very much.

Because no matter how hard I worked now, how much effort I put forth, all I got was how little I was doing, even though I was doing the work of two people. Meanwhile, I was actually gaining the respect and the interest from people who were twice my age because I was able to strategically think about things in a proactive way that allowed them to make their jobs easier. So while this guy was sleeping in his thing, up top, and the division president sitting over there, just being an angry little guy. Well, he's actually not an angry little guy. I'm a little guy. He's a big guy. But anyway, so he's over there doing his thing. I'm working as hard as I can. I think I have a career. I think I'm doing great. You know, I'm going through all that. But the next thing you know, he comes down one day, the guy in the van, he comes down, he starts like, why isn't this done? Why isn't this done? Like, because you're supposed to do it.

Like, I don't know how to read your spreadsheets. I didn't know what Excel was. Then I did know what solitaire was. Played that a little bit.

So he grills me. Next thing I know, in comes the division president, and they're both chewing on me. I'm like, dude, what in the world? What in the world?

So I threw my notebook down on the counter. I walked out. Just walked out. I was done. And they'd say that, obviously you never quit a job until you have another one lined up. Well, I didn't pay attention.

And I walked out the door, and I can remember the guys just yelling at, don't let the door hit you in the butt. Except he used a different word. I'm trying not to be the cursor to the best of my ability because I've been around construction sites my entire life. But I walk out the door, he's like, don't let the door hit you in the rear on the way out. And no kidding, three days later, I'm getting voicemails on. You know, remember the old. Like, the phone would be here to walk up and push the button. Bloop. Hello? Yes, you're behind on your bloop. Remember those kind of phones? Yeah.

It was this division president. Hey, I think we may have overreacted. We discovered that, really, you weren't the problem. It turns out it was your boss that was the problem. I'm sorry. Would you consider coming back? And by that time, I was already back on a construction site.

And the reason I'm telling you this is because.

Every one of us has something inside of us that is preparing us for the next version of ourselves. In life, in business, whatever. All of us. Okay? And if you get too wrapped up into the person that you are today, it's going to prevent you from ultimately becoming the person you're meant to be. I never thought for a thousand years, under any circumstances, that I would ever be on a stage of any kind.

Because I was a construction guy. And then I had this interesting epiphany one afternoon, had this guy mentioned to me, he goes, it's actually not that surprising. I'm like, what do you mean? He said, well, there's been somebody that's been pretty famous before that actually started in construction and built a major brand, a major movement. In fact, they still talk about him today. I'm like, really? Who's that? He goes, his name is Jesus. I'm like, huh?

Right. Anyway, back to the story. As this is shaping up, I find myself back on Steve Myrick's job site. And it just so happened that he Had a company that was working for him doing his exteriors at the time. This is a subdivision that's off of Highway 401, which isn't too far from here, called Coventry Glen. And inside of that, he put me on this guy's crew, and I began working on this guy's crew. So I learned vinyl siding. So you guys know what vinyl siding is? It's the plastic stuff that breaks when it gets cold. Okay. All right. So I learned the vinyl siding trade. I've been in construction all my life. This guy literally leaves me on the job site by myself. I'm back to doing what I was just doing at the trash company.

And he would come by on Fridays just before Steve would come around with the checks, and then he would get his check. And then the first two or three times, it was fine. He paid me my 12 bucks an hour, which was what I was getting at the time, you know? And here's the thing. My dad had always told me if I could make $12 an hour, I'd be doing something. I'm like. I look at that now, and I'm like. That in and of itself is a little bit of a limiting belief. But that being said, several weeks in, this guy that was doing the siding work unfortunately did something different. He didn't pay me. At the end of the week, he left me by myself installing siding.

For a week and then didn't pay me. And the excuse that he used was that Steve Myra didn't pay him. And I was like, I know that ain't true. Cause I've watched Steve overpay people, including my father, for things that hadn't been done.

So Steve comes back, and he says, boy, I got a question for you. You're already out here doing it by yourself. Why don't you do it by yourself for me? I'll buy your equipment. I'll buy your stuff. I'll buy everything for you. I'll do it for you.

Really? Yeah. You're a hard worker. And the Skagens and the Myricks, we've been tight for decades. I wish I could actually give you his actual accent. But it was half country boy, half old man. It was awesome.

So he gives me this opportunity, and I'm like, okay, I'll even help you hire a couple people. You don't have to do it by yourself anymore. Really? Yeah, really.

Okay, cool. And come Monday morning, this other company. I wish I could tell you their company name. But then I realized that's a bad. That would be bad. So I'm not gonna do that. But the other company disappeared, okay. Steve fired him or whatever. He didn't come back. Well, Monday morning I show up on the job site. Steve had found me a couple of laborers and we and I began putting on siding and I did a really good job. I mean we were. I was doing a house a week, right, which is big for me with a small crew and all that kind of stuff. And I was, all of a sudden I had a consistent salary of income coming in and I got bonus compensation if I got the house done by a specific time with a certain level of quality. And at 19 years old I went from making basically 12 bucks an hour to what equates to nowadays to probably close to $100,000. At that time it was closer to 65, $70,000 in between bonuses and salary. What happens when you give a 19 year old kid that level of income that's never been taught how to handle money? What do you think I did?

I bought the shiniest, prettiest Chevrolet Camaro that you had ever seen.

Two 12 inch subwoofers in the back, 150 watt amp. Listening to California Love all the way down the street. California yay bom bona bonk bon bonk.

Did you know that when you sign papers on a car they expect you to make the payments? Did you know that?

It was a complete surprise to me because my bank told me I got a, I have a had a deferred payment. Well, what's the deferred payment? Well, the deferred payment was only for 15 days. I tell you all that to say because you're going to come in your business career, you're going to come to this position where you have a choice to make. Do you feed your business or do you feed your ego?

Did you hear what I said?

If you're going to have a successful business, it's going to have a certain level of delayed gratification attached to it.

I'm very fortunate and very blessed to have a few nice things in my life that I get to share with my family. I'm very fortunate that I'm in a place in life at least right now. And I say right now because again, I've been caught by a few surprises. To bless my family, my extended family, with certain levels of blessings when they're in a time of need or something like that. I just want to love on them. I just want to tell them how amazing they are.

But I didn't get there overnight. And you're not either.

You have to Have a boundary around your business that's going to protect you. When this story kept going, what happened was, is I kept down that path. I kept making money, I kept spending money, I kept making money, I kept spending money, I kept making money, I kept spending money.

And then as that was happening, as I mentioned in a previous lesson, my arrogance and my ego began to climb and climb and climb and climb and climb, climb and climb and climb and climb. And for the lack of a better word, I thought I was the.

Because I, I literally bought the first 1998 Camaro they had on the lot.

And I literally thought I was the bomb.

And then you ever heard that comment, the pride happens just before the fall. You ever heard that before? Yeah. So God introduced something into my life that was a five foot seven, brown eyed, brown eyed, brown hair, brown eyed girl who was nicknamed in my first book as the barbecue girl. That took me on the ride of my life.

You either prepare for the life that you want or you get lost in the life that you have.

This young lady.

At first was everything that I wanted in a woman, or we'll call it a woman because she was really a girl and not really a woman yet. She pursued me up front. She went after like doting on me with affection. And you're so smart, you're so cute. I love you, you're wonderful. You know all the stuff that we tell people when we're trying to reel them in.

And I got lost in it. And before long it was funny, before long she was coming to me, she said, hey, can I, I gotta replace my mom's tires on her car and I need a couple tires for myself. Can I do, can I, can you help me with that? Yeah, babe, sure, no problem. Yeah, here's my credit card.

$75,000 later.

Because I don't know why they decided to give a 19 year old kid a credit limit that every time he hit it they would just elevate it. Other than to, other than to trap me like they do so many people with debt. I am a debt free kind of mentality person. I'm not. I cannot stand up here and say I've never used a bank line of credit or something with my businesses. I didn't start using that stuff until later. But I do try to have that stuff if I use it at all. I paid off very quickly.

Because I don't want to ever be trapped like that ever again.

Between the emotional insecurity of dating that young lady and losing myself in that. I began to go into a Straight. I began to lose sight of. I was doing all of this energy and effort to try to keep her in my life. Therefore, the debt wasn't a problem. The money wasn't a problem. The cash was a problem. The next thing you know, I'm actually walking off the job. Literally walking from Highway 401 to Knightdale, North Carolina, which was approximately 12 miles by foot off the job site from this amazing opportunity this man gave me.

I walked away from probably what would have been a $10 million business by now. Well, actually been much more than that, given the fact that.

I'm telling you this because I want you to understand that your insecurities and your ego and these emotional needs that you have in your spirit, they can't drive your business behavior. You've got. You've got to use logic with your business. You solve logical problems from a logical place. You solve emotional problems from an emotional place.

Emotion's about connection. Logic is about advancement.

The next several weeks, months, six months, I lose everything.

I take that pretty silver Camaro and I drop it off at Bobby Murray Chevrolet off Capitol Boulevard. I toss them the keys.

About three months later, they send me an invoice for $8,000. They fire sold the car. So I was. Because of the loan, I was held responsible for the principal. And then where they sold it at wholesale, which means I had to cover the difference.

I went from there into having to rent the mobile home that you actually see right here in the back of this. This picture here that I technically owned at the time. I bought it when I was at Waste Industries. I say bought it, I got a mortgage on it, $276 plus lot rent. And my brother had to end up moving in to take over the payments for me because I couldn't afford them. I was lost. I was insecure. I didn't know who I was. I was fighting for any scrap of dignity. All of it was gone.

Because I was paying my brother a few bucks to live in the Momo home while I was there. He had one rule. Do not date said girl at all. She's bad for you. My family told me the same thing. And what do you think I did? Yeah, I kept seeing her brother found out, kicked me out. The next thing you know, I spend the next several months bouncing around couches, bouncing around cars, eventually sleeping outside as well as sleeping in a bar friend's car for a while.

And then a couple different things that Steve Myrick said along the way began to take shape in my life a long time ago in that In. Specifically in that season, because as I was going through that, I was my. I didn't tell my family. I never told my mom. I never told my dad. I never told my aunts, never told my uncles. I even tell my brother who kicked me out. I didn't tell anybody that was homeless, that I had no place to go, but I was scrapping by. I didn't tell anybody because of ego and pride. As a business owner, you're going to have to ask for help, and you have to ask for help from the right people at the right time consistently. You're going to need a coach, you're going to need a mentor. You cannot do it yourself.

If you already knew everything you need to know to build a business, you would already have built the business. Do you hear me?

I finally had this moment where I was able to cover it up for quite a while. And it's because my friend actually lived in Knightdale. And there was a gym off of Main street, specifically. And inside the gym they had showers. So I could go there. I had three changes of clothes that I had had from my duffel bag or whatever, and I would go and take a shower at the gym. I would change my clothes, and then I would find somebody, let me go to a Laundromat. And then I would do all that and then kept on. That was my life for a while. Totally lost, totally alone. Totally, like, completely just obliterated.

And then one afternoon, I'm going to the gym and to basically get cleaned up, had a job interview at a car dealership. Sir Walter? No. What was it? Al Smith Dodge, which is off of Wake Forest Road, which no longer exists, unfortunately. Well, the car dealership exists, just not the brand.

And I had to go get prepared. But when I had this interesting moment.

You ever watch the movies where you're watching the movies and whoever the hero is or the person is and they're in a tough spot and they just got their hands on the sink and they just kind of look up and they lock eyes with themselves.

That's exactly what happened. I looked up and I locked eyes with myself.

And like a flood, I began hearing all these different things that Steve told me. Some of the things that I've already shared with you. There was one very specific one that he shared with me which was very powerful and ended up becoming a battle cry for probably the next 15 years after that moment. Stephen, you have to be willing to do today what others won't, so you can have tomorrow what others don't.

You have to be Willing to do today what others won't, so you can have tomorrow what others don't. Now, when he told me that statement, he wasn't just sitting around money. It wasn't just money.

He saw potential in me.

And for the first time, I actually broke down because I realized the opportunity that I just had walked away from. The man that I had betrayed, who trusted me.

He gave me a business on a silver platter.

It's why you see a lot of startups actually fail even though they go and get venture capital.

Even the guy who created Uber almost bankrupted his own business out of foolish behavior.

It hit me. I started weeping. And about that time, I realized that I had totally screwed up my life. A few nights later, I almost attempted to take my own life.

Thank God, through a certain set of circumstances that.

A high school girlfriend's mother. This is before the barbecue girl answered a phone call and gave me 11 words that changed my life. That set the stage for all of this.

This too shall pass. And what comes next will be greater.

I share that with you. Not from a place of God willing, God forbid that you guys are going through that level of emotional despair.

But I share that with you. Because at certain times in your business, and I've lived out several of them, even recently in the last couple years where you think everything is fine, you think everything's on autopilot and it doesn't need your attention anymore and stuff like that, you're going to be hit upside the head because you're not paying attention and it's gonna suck. And in that moment where your business and you feel like you suck cause it's gonna hit your identity, you're gonna take it on the chin. I don't want you to, but you're going to. Cause that's our nature when that actually happens. What's gonna happen after that is you're gonna get to that place where you have an opportunity to talk to yourself in a different way. And when you talk to yourself in a different way, I want you to say, this too shall pass. And what comes next will be greater. And the reason I want you to do that is because you are going to have to fight. Build a business.

Building a business is not easy. It's not for the faint of heart.

It is worth.

Is worth it.

I say all that to say that at that moment, that's where I found my faith. I found my faith on that bridge at Capitol Boulevard in 4:40.

When that call basically saved my life. A few hours later, I was back with my dad in his couch surfing in his mobile home, which is only a few mobile homes down from this mobile home where my dad actually lives in this mobile home now, which is kind of interesting, this thing still exists. Not the truck, the house, or the mobile home. He picks me up. I'd had a spiritual awakening of some kind. I can't even describe to you what happened to me in that moment.

I earned 50 bucks by cleaning a litter box. We don't have time for that story today. It's for a different day. But when I found my faith, something special happened. I began to see myself with a different set of eyes. I began to see myself from the person I could be rather than the person that I was. And that became one of the most powerful things that I've used my entire life to not give up when I desperately want to.

In order to become unstoppable in your startup, unstoppable in your life, your relationship, you're going to have to keep going when you want to give up. Now, I'm not telling you to not pivot and not look at something different or from a different avenue when that happens. But I am telling you, you have to pay attention to how you feel in those times. And you have to remind yourself of the person you were called to be, not the person that you want to be.

They're very different pieces, Very different pieces.

My father worked really, really hard to get me back on Steve Meyrick's crew as a framer.

And come Monday morning.

No money to my name, I walk into my dad's beat up truck that he was driving, that Steve owned, and we drove over to Lowe's off of Capitol Boulevard and we grabbed his little nail aprons. Those two little pouches said Lowe's across the front. I didn't even have like full fledged pouches.

And we go and I work the entire week. And as you know, what you don't know about Steve is he would drive around the community all day. He would be taking conference calls and stuff and his car phone. Yes, this is like super dated, right? He'd just be driving around. And so every time I'd see him come around the corner, I would literally go hide behind the house. I'm like.

You know what that is? That's guilt. It's shame.

But something interesting happened by Friday in that particular time of day. The way construction payments work is there's something called a progress payment. A progress payment, which we'll talk about later, is a form of paying, getting paid from a vendor or paying a vendor based On a level of completion. Okay. The house that we were framing with my father was directly next door to the house that was being sighted with vinyl siding in a community called north college park, which is across the street from covertry Lynn. And as they were siding that, my dad sent me over to the house to reframe a garage door. Now, if you're not familiar with some of these terms, I basically grabbed the wood and I had to straighten it and put some nails in it.

But while I was doing that, I was hearing these guys talk negatively about Steve.

As they were talking to. They're like, he's. He's not paying us on time. Da da da da. I could look at the house and see that it was 30% done, and they wanted a 70% payment.

Steve was well within his reason not to pay them the full thing. And knowing Steve, he would have given them 50%.

But I overheard them say some magic words. If Steve doesn't pay us all this money on Friday, we're not coming back.

As I heard them say that, I had several emotions hit me. One of the major emotions.

One of the major emotions that hit me in that moment was anger. I was so mad that they were going to try to take advantage of Steve. So mad. And there was a piece of me that was like.

Maybe there's an opportunity.

Steve comes back around the corner.

To basically hand us our paychecks. And what would normally happen is Steve was. Hallelujah. No one approached Steve. Hallelujah, sister Steve. Mark. Only the leader can go and talk to Steve. Hallelujah. Right? So my father had to walk over and get the checks. And he began walking over, and as he was walking this way, I was walking that way so much that my dad was like, boy, where are you going? And I walked over and I knocked on Steve's window. He rolled down the window. I love the guy to death, but his. His. His cheap cran joker. He always smelled a little bit like moth.

He rolls the window down. He says, what can I do you for? Which is southern for how can I help you?

And I said, well, Steve, you know, I overheard these guys over here. He said, boy, how's your head now? Because, you know, you're just getting back out here. What I didn't know is Steve had kept tabs on me the entire time I was going through all my stuff. I had no idea.

And I said, well, it's getting better. Well, that's good to hear, boy. It's good to hear. Well, Steve, I overheard these guys.

They're gonna do this work. They want to do all this kind of stuff, and I want to make sure that they don't take advantage of you.

Because I didn't tell him this, but I was overwhelmed with emotion before talking to him because I realized I had done the same thing.

I was so mad at the other people because I had done the thing that they were mad that they were doing.

We began conversating about this concept of me taking back over. And it was a very quick conversation. First of all, he said, boy, you crazy. You crazy. I ain't. No. No, you crazy. I am not doing that. You see that tool? You see those tools over there? They were your tools. I sold them. I don't even own those anymore. I sold him those tools. And you burned me once, boy. You're not burning me again.

And I told him very frankly, I don't need anything. I just need a chance, and I don't deserve it. I know I don't deserve it. But if you just give me a chance, I'll take care of the rest and I'll never let you down ever again.

You stop acting as chariots, boy. You serious?

Like a heart attack. Hmm. Well, I tell you what, I tell you what. If they don't come back Monday, I'll let you finish that house and we'll go from there. How about that? Done. Big old denture smile that you saw earlier. Shook my hand. What up was. When it drove off, my dad's within earshot of the entire conversation.

And so immediately he's walking back up to me. Immediately he's like, boy, what are you doing? I just got you back on this front. Are you crazy?

And for the first time, I felt like I stood up for myself.

I said, I'm not crazy, but this is something I have to do. And I was yelling at the top of my lungs. I promised my team I wouldn't blow my voice on the first day, which I normally do.

We went back and forth for a couple of moments, and for the first time in my entire life, my father showed up.

He stopped talking. He walked over to the beat up work van. He opened the doors out of the van. He began getting these nail guns that used to weigh like 60 pounds. They were massive. The tools back out of the truck that we had just put in the truck. I'm like, what are you doing?

He said, do you remember working with me and your granddaddy in the summers? Yeah. Do you remember when we were doing siding? Yes, we called it siding. Yeah. All right. What do we make the walk Boards out of wood, pump jacks, wood saw bucks, wood ladders, wood cut tables, wood. All right, boy, start pulling lumber out of the trash piles. We got stuff to build.

Guys. We started building that stuff over the weekend. I spent my entire $172 paycheck at Lowe's and United Rental to rent one piece of equipment that I was going to need for one day because that's all I could afford. And these red bucks that go on those wooden pump jacks.

And I didn't even know if those guys were going to show up Monday. I had no idea. Monday rolls around.

Steve pulls up. He's like 6am I'm sitting on the curb. Can I go yet? It's not nine o'clock yet. Over and over again, I did this 902 rolls around. He rolls down the wood. Big goes, boy, what you waiting on.

Guys? I set up the pump jacks and I did the first five or six houses. I think it was the first five houses by myself. It took me approximately four months to do that. But those became the first nails in the first days of Custom Home Exteriors Incorporated.

And I don't tell you that story because it's anything special that I've done. I tell you that story because I want you to understand what it may take for you to ultimately build the dream that ultimately serves the community.

I want you to understand that you were going to be told on a few times that that will never work. Here's what blows my mind. Steve Myrick passed away in 2003 and never saw any of this. When he passed away in 2003, Che had just broken the million dollar ceiling.

Affectionately known as Che.

Make sure you do one thing, one thing very powerful. You do not despise small beginnings.

You don't build a business until you're ready. All right? I want to help you understand whether or not you are designed to be an entrepreneur. Do me a favor, go to the notes of your. Just pick any note in your workbook.

All right? On a scale of 1 to 10, one meaning I can't stand risk, or I don't like risk. 10 meaning I love risk. Risk is fun. Rank yourself. Scale of 1 to 10.

First thing that comes to your mind, we're going to do this super quick because I told the story a little longer than I should.

Okay, next one. Change. I hate change. Change is no big deal. Scale of 1 to 10.

The next thing I call the decision lens. How you make decisions, which is what? What is the. Are you a process person? Meaning I like Task I like the ordinary, like the thing, the widget, every day. Or do I like major advancements? Do I want something like, am I always dreaming? Am I kind of a dreamer?

Scale of 1 to 10. Super quick.

All right, behavior pattern. Are you stubborn like yours truly, or are you more of a collaborator? Stubborn being one. Collaborator being ten.

Next category is modality of operation. I'm a task person. I'm an idea person. Task meaning 1, idea meaning 10.

Financial security or financial.

I have to have absolute financial security.

I'm okay with ultimate financial reward.

They're different mindsets.

Okay.

Now do me a favor. We're going to scale of 1 to 10 on each of those. Again, risk, change, process or behavior lens. Behavior pattern.

Modality of operation, which is task and ideas or ideas. Financial security versus financial reward. Once you've got that, I want you to add all your scores together.

I want you to divide by six. Yes, you can use a calculator. I have to.

Anybody got their answer already?

Yeah, I moved quick. Sorry. I'll give you a couple more minutes.

I see two pins down.

How many of you got between a 6 and an 8 in total score? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. That's your entrepreneurial ship lens.

So two things have to happen if you didn't raise your hand. What has to happen is you're going to have to change the way you think and approach these other categories or you need to probably become a great number two in somebody else's business.

The reason this is so powerful is this has to do with a process created by the name of Tom Patterson called Thinking Wavelengths. I changed some of the verbiage a little bit just because as an entrepreneur myself, I know a couple of the other categories. But that will help you better understand where you stand at. If you got below a 5, you're probably a great administrator, but you're probably not someone who's going to have the emotional fortitude to really try to grind out the hard stuff. However, if you got towards the closer side of the eight category, you're going to be. You have that grit, you have that tenacity. You like the other things you find inspiring or good or, like, helpful. Okay, if you got past the eight means you're more of an idea person in general, which means you probably need to partner yourself with somebody who's an implementer, which means you might have a fantastic idea, but you are probably someone who struggles to get the things done. Okay, does that make sense? All right, let's move on. The reason I wanted to have you go through the exercise is because.