Dan Martell: I Found God at 38! Religion Is Not The Answer...

So 16, 17, you're in the car. You're literally disconnected from God. Probably your creator in every way possible.

Yeah.

But the seed of success was planted. The Chinese bamboo tree was planted, and it took how long before it started to sprout?

This is. This is. I just finished talking to my buddy Nicholas about this. I didn't have a relationship with God the way I do today for a long time.

Why was that?

I just didn't. I didn't. I mean, how do I say this? I. The people I knew in the Catholic Church full. Like. I'm like, you don't. What are we doing? You go to church on Thanksgiving, Christmas, like, whatever. It's. You don't believe in it. Like, I talk to you, and I can see it's not there. Like, they're not connected to spirit. Yeah, okay. I didn't know that. I just was like, I met these people in church, and I'm like, you're full of shit. You know, you talk about God, principles, this. And I know that you hit your wife or you talk about this, and I know you cheated on your wife. Right? Like, there was all these. These issues with the people from religious church. And then I go my whole life, but I knew there was more. Like, I'd be that guy. Like, I believe in energy. I believe there's more out there. I can't tell you what it is, but there's something more. There's something more. And.

And.

And that. That helped me, right? That helped me with, like, the coaching, the therapy, the. The breath work, the meditation. Like, I had these moments of, like, connectivity and massive gratitude. And. And then I went to. I think it was a decade ago, I went to an event, and they did this oneness blessing. And then all of a sudden, I felt like I felt it. That was probably the first time I felt what people call God. And. And even then, I didn't kind of allow myself to go on the journey. And it was probably five, five, six years ago, and I woke up one day, and I realized all the best people in my life, all the best humans in my life were all followers of Jesus. And it was the weirdest thing. I'm like, my best friend Brad. Oh, yeah. And then this other guy.

Oh, yeah.

And this guy. And I'm like, okay, this is interesting. Like, these are all people I admire. They all have faith. We don't talk about it because they're also incredible entrepreneurs. And then I just kept asking questions, and then this, like, random introduction to a guy named Irwin McManus, you know, Erwin. No, dude, it's so weird, man. I heard him on a podcast, and he was the first person I ever heard talk about spirit and energy. I mean, he studied. I think he grew up. I don't even know Buddhist or something. Like, his mom went through, like, all these different religions, and then he just. He just kind of explains it. He runs a church in LA called Mosaic, and one of his tenants is 75% of the audience are atheists. On purpose. He goes, that's what. We're not supposed to hold place for people that are believing. Supposed to hold space for people that are on the edge, that are curious. What's going on here. I see this person. You seem a lot more lit up than I am. What do you know? Like, and that's. That's been the coolest thing, is, like, I think God was there the whole time. I definitely did not know how to have a relationship with him.

Yeah, with it.

With the. The Holy Spirit, I mean. And then it was just like, the more I pulled on that string, the more blessings again. My frequency is what I frequently see. So I actually am weird because I believe in faith and I also believe in quantum mechanics because I believe God created quantum mechanics. He created string theory. He created this universe. He created it all. So both of those are opportunities for us to express.

Dude, so good. Kevin Kelly calls it the technium, and he says that it's God experiencing God's self through technology, I think, which is quite interesting of a theory.

Y.

What do you make of that?

I actually think we're all here for God to experience. It's consciousness. Experience consciousness.

So that God's basically Goding everywhere.

Dude, we're all of the universe now.

This is a spiritual, but it's also a practical. This is very practical, because if people actually feel what you're saying, it could change their life. I had so much anger towards God. My mom was manic bipolar. My dad left when I was two.

God exists.

Two months old. Like, if God's here, why would. Would God allow these things to happen? And are we actually ever free? If I believe in a deity, if I believe in an all, because why would the all allow such heinous things to occur? And that was what baked my noodle for so long. I'm like, oh, my gosh. How do I let go of my resentment and anger towards God? And it wasn't until I started this podcast where I actually developed a relationship with God. So it's so fitting that, you know, first thing in the podcast, we're talking about Is your faith, like, you connect with your creator in the. In the morning so that you actually can create?

Yeah.

Then I wonder, like, this book and even this concept of buying back your time, it's about freedom. It's about sovereignty. It's about living your life exactly how you want to. I heard Tony Robbins say, you know, true freedom is when I can say no to anything for any reason.

Yeah.

I'm like, yeah, that's. That sounds pretty fucking free to me.

Yeah.

So when were you running through a field and the book started to come in, or. How long had this been brewing? The actual concept of buying back your time. Cause you were doing it 28. When you were in San Fran the whole time leading up to that, and after that, you were buying back your time. But the concept. How did the concept of buying back your time actually come through?

So I've been teaching the concept of the buyback loop for 15 years. And it just came as, like, I ended up moving to San Francisco. I had built a company. I became a multimillionaire at 28. But I did it the hard way. You know, I showed up, I wore all the hats. I was crazy and disconnected and, you know, reactive. And I was just plate spinning and go and revenue and trying to keep it together and working 100 hours a week. And I was actually in a relationship with a woman. I came home one day and she goes, I can't do this anymore. She's. She just couldn't even breathe. Honestly, she was beside herself.

She took her ring off and threw it down.

Drops it on the. Yeah, just. It was a painful moment in my life, but one of the most beautiful too. Like, we're. I. We're still friendly. I don't talk to her, but, man, I've written her letters over the years to just. Cause like, what she did for me is hold me to a standard. I think that's what a lot of people do in our lives. Even though at the time it's painful. I mean, my whole world shattered. This is seven weeks before the wedding. I had. I had built everything up to that point for us. Like, this is what's crazy. For four years, I killed myself to be successful, to create a future for us. And in the. The chaos of it all, she goes, I never asked you for any of this, huh? And I don't see you ever changing. And I don't want. I can see where this goes. I don't want that. And the blessing that she gave me was a. It's almost like it's kind of Jokey. But when I was a kid, my, my brother stole my bike and he went around like the, the front yard and he was coming across and I grabbed the broomstick and I threw it at him to try to knock him off the bike, but he got the front tire and he just like, I don't know if you've ever done that to us.

Yeah, yeah.

Like, just like it happened so fast. Like he's. The bike just flipped up, smashed himself in the face. That's what she did. For me, it was a immediate shock to the system that said, okay, how I'm doing is clearly not working. It's not gonna work. I can't do this. But here's my challenges. That's how I was wired. That's why I told myself, this is how, Josh. This is all I know. I know how to, I know how to go, I know how to create. I, I, okay, well. And I, I mean, dude, I was, I had anxiety attacks, I was depressed. And six months later, we sell the company. I become a multi millionaire. Now what? All the stuff, all the, the person I thought I would be. Turns out none of that works. But that's when I went. I, eventually I was working with therapists. I mean, it was, it was a journey. It was probably like eight months. And, and for a long time, I just. This is what's crazy. There was a period where I thought, I will have to resolve to being the rich uncle. Cause I should not be in a relationship. I will be. I'll be the creator. I don't know if there was anybody like me, but I'll just be the single bachelor for the rest of my life. I will build companies. It's my happy place. That's what I'm doing. I should not be in a relationship with somebody else because I'm not going to be good for them. And I don't want to hurt somebody the way I hurt her. And then I moved to San Francisco and I get exposed to a completely different way of building companies.

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