- By show of hands how many of you want
more income in your life
put that way up and say yes!
- [Audience members] Yes!
- How many of you don't just want more income,
you want more passive income,
put that way up and say oh yes!
- [Audience members] Oh yes!
- Now first of all I want to thank Jennifer,
give her a round of applause for putting this together.
A lot of friends and Jennifer's been inviting me
to come to the Fraser Valley and her friends on Facebook
George, and say "Hey you know when are you coming
"to Fraser Valley?", because usually I do most of my work
most of my teaching at,
through my Vancouver Entrepreneurs Group
where we meet every second Wednesday at Vancouver Club.
And so, and I believe that's a way for me
to give back to the entrepreneur community for Vancouver
because Canada has been so good to me
and I do my teaching there every second Wednesday,
I don't sell anything there.
Whatever I collect in admission
barely covers the venue cost,
but I do it every two weeks, every two weeks.
So today would be quite interesting because I did this talk
this workshop in a couple of months ago
and it was a three hour workshop.
So I'm trying to give you three hours of content
in about an hour okay, about an hour,
so I'll do my best, I'll do my best.
Now also at the end of my presentation,
I'm gonna give you a copy of my book, FU Money for free,
(clapping) who wants it by the way
- [Audience members] Yes!
- Put it nice and high, nice and high so I can see,
if your hand is not up now, I ain't giving you shit.
(Audience members laughing)
- Okay, good, good, okay.
And some people say they see the book,
"Oh Dan is it like Fu money, what is F-U Money,
It's fuck you money okay, it's what it is*,
it's exactly what it means, it's exactly what it means
and so, by show of hands, how many of you
want to have some fun tonight, yes?
- [Audience members] Yes!
- Very good, very good, now for what I want you do,
I want you to get the most out of our time together,
So first I want you to do two things, how many things?
- [Audience members] Two!
- Now the first thing I want you do is
I want you to take notes, I want you to take notes okay.
And the second thing I want you to do,
which you're already doing great,
is I want you to participate
because participations equals value,
participation equals what?
- [Audience members] Value!
- So the more you participated, the more you participate,
the more forward you play, the more value you,
- Get. - Get exactly.
So just so you know, this is like 10% participation,
this is 50% participation,
this is 100% participation,
so let's try this out,
let's try this out. (Audience members laugh)
So how many of you are willing
to participate a hundred percent, yes?
- I am. - Yes.
- Awesome, you get the book first, okay.
So I want to start off with a story,
there's this Native American tribe,
and the government was thinking well you know what,
we've got this group of people this community here
how can we make them more productive,
how can we collect more taxes because
that's what the government thinks about.
So one day they thought you know what,
we're gonna send one of our top agents to this tribe
and see if we can help them out
maybe put them through school, help them get jobs
and things like that.
So the government sends these top agent to this tribe,
now this top agent is very very smart,
he's thinking, "well you know what this is a tough job,
"so what can I do?"
He thought himself, Well instead of trying to persuade
each member in the community one on one,
why don't I just go to the top from top to bottom.
Let me talk to the chief, let me talk to the Indian chief,
if I can get him onboard,
everybody else will be on board make sense?
So he went to the chief, and said,
"Hey chief you know here's,
"we're here to help you, the government sent me here."
Great here to help me?
"And what I want to do is, I want to help you,
"I want to help you, I want to put you to school,
"I want to put you through school,
"and don't worry we're gonna take care of everything,
"we're gonna pick you up from where you live,
"we're gonna drive you to school,
"and we're gonna get tutor for you,
"make sure you get good grades,
"and you can get a job and you can graduate.
And the Indian Chief said, "Well why would I want that?"
Well 'cause after you graduate, then you can work,
you can get a job and make a living.
Well the Indian Chief said that why would I want that.
Well when you make a living then
you buy your own home, you own your own home,
and then you have your own place, you can have some kids,
and you work, and you can save up some money
and the Indian chief said "Well why would I want that?"
Well you know when you've saved enough money,
you work hard and this and that
and when you're 65 you can retire,
"Well why would I want that?"
Well when you retire you can do whatever you want,
you can go hunting, you can go fishing,
you can sing all day long, you can do whatever you want,
the Indian Chief said "Well I'm doing that right now."
(Audience members laugh)
So the question and write this down,
here's the first lesson of the night,
it's not how much money you make,
is how you make the money,
it's not how much money you make,
it's how you make the money,
think about it.
Because sometimes entrepreneurs, what I notice is
we get into business and then after a couple years
two, three, five years, ten years after a number of years
and we got so busy and we're doing things,
we're trying to make it happen,
we're trying to make the business work,
we're trying to make a profit
trying to survive or prosper whatever it is,
sometimes we forgot
why are we in business in the first place,
why do we get into this in the first place?
So let me ask you a question,
why are you in business in the first place?
Just yell the answer.
- Make money. - Make money good,
but why do you want to make money for what?
- For happiness. - For happiness, good.
- [Woman] Hang out with my friends.
- Hang out with you friends, a little bit more freetime yes,
- [Woman] Help people. - Help people good,
make a difference.
- Travel the world. - Travel the world very nice
- Security. - Security, good.
- [Woman] For my kids, for my kids.
- For your kids, to provide for your family, great.
- [Woman] So I can say F-U government.
- To say F-U to the government, good, good.
(Audience members laughing)
How many of you got into business
in the first place because you saw there's maybe a problem,
and you would like to solve their problem?
Can I see a show of hands, okay.
How many of you got into a business
because maybe you saw a product or service
whatever it might be and you thought
you know what I can do better than that,
and you started your business just because of that?
Interesting interesting interesting.
So the first, by the way
this is going to be a more interactive experience,
I don't believe me just lecturing and stuff like that.
So I just I don't just want to be talking and lecturing
we're gonna be doing shit here okay, is that okay?
(All agreeing)
- So the first things I want you to do,
I want you to find a partner, find a what?
- [Audience members] Partner.
- And preferably someone you don't know,
so go ahead and find a partner first.
Find a partner you don't know.
(Audience members chattering)
- Yep, yep two, you got it, you got it.
- [Woman] Can we have threesomes (women laughing)
- It's up to you, somehow I kinda get a different picture
in my mind now.
Yes you could yes that's fine.
Everybody has a partner,
everybody's got a partner, yes okay, good.
- So what I want you to do, I want you to discuss
for two minutes, what does passive income mean to you,
and what does financial freedom mean to you,
I'll give you two minutes, just among your partner go.
Give your partner at high five
and say thank you for sharing.
- [Audience members] (high-fiving) Thank you for sharing.
So you know what does it mean to you
and it's very personal, everybody means,
it means different things of course,
and tonight (Audience members laughing)
I'm gonna share some things with you,
well first of all the truth will set you, what.
- [Audience members] Free.
But first it will,
- Piss you off. - piss you off.
And I'm gonna say some things tonight
that I think will shock you
and I know that
why you came here
and I also now know what you came here to learn,
but I think what you walk away with from tonight,
might be quite different than what you expect.
You might think you're coming for one thing,
but I think you'll walk away with something
way more valuable.
You might think tonight is a money conversation,
but then at the end, you might realize,
it might be a life conversation.
So it would be quite interesting,
and I think last time I did this, it was extremely powerful,
and people were blown away by what I shared,
and some people we're pissed off, and it's normal,
because sometimes it piss you off first
and then you're like damn, that is the truth
and it might take a while for you to digest
but if you actually you are
if you're open what's the word?
- Open. - Opened.
I think you'll find it incredibly liberating
but let's see what happens okay.
Let me tell you a little bit about my journey
and how I started on this path of passive income,
how I generate passive income,
I first came to Canada years ago with no money,
no connections, and not a word of the English language
on my lips you can tell from my accent.
I was born in Hong Kong I came here
when I was 14 years old,
and my mom and dad got divorced
when I was 16 years old.
So I was the only child my family,
so at an early age, at first my dad was you know,
sending us some little bit of money
but later on because his company went bankrupt,
in Hong Kong so he stopped sending us money
and all we had is whatever we brought to Canada.
So as a young boy then I had to mature very quickly
because then I had to provide for my mom,
I had to take care of my mom.
At an early age, to me, I was never interested in money,
it wasn't, it was never my thing.
I was, I thought you know at the time
I was very much into martial art,
I thought my biggest dream in the world
would be just be a martial art instructor, that was it.
But then I realize at the time
my martial instructor, was broke.
He had five students, and only two were paying him,
and I was one of them.
So I thought maybe that's not a good way
to make a living and I couldn't provide for my mom
but what's interesting is looking back,
what I realize is that I have
I've always had a teacher's heart, I like to teach,
so now difference is I'm not teaching martial art,
but I'm teaching entrepreneurship and business,
that's my passion,
and you see I'm very passionate about what I do.
So through that experience, I started my first business
when I was in in high school with couple of my buddies
a lawn mowing business.
Now let me tell you about lawn mowing business,
we start off with you know, we had a lawn mowing machine,
and a couple of buddies and the business was okay,
it was doing quite good,
except we just didn't have any customers,
(Audience members laughing)
everything else was good.
So now in business,
when you don't have customers what happens?
- You go broke. - Go broke.
- You go broke.
And then when you go broke do you still have a business, no.
So I learned my lesson there, so it you know
we failed very quickly and then I started another business,
and I thought to myself, you know what,
learned my lesson and dust myself off,
learn from my mistakes, started the second business.
And I said to myself, "This is it, I can feel it.
"This is the one that I'm gonna make it big,
"then I can provide for my family,
"and pay off some the debt, this is it",
and guess what happens?
- [Man] You went broke.
- Now I failed again, and then I dust myself off,
learn from mistakes, say to myself, motivate myself
and said, "You know what, start the next one,
"this one, this is the one, I can just feel it.
"I know it's gonna work", and guess what happens?
- [Man] Same.
- Yeah I failed again, okay.
And at the time, I was trying, jumping
from one thing to another,
and always looking for the perfect vehicle,
the perfect business whatever might be,
and I would try all kinds, try vending machines,
I tried that with marketing,
I try you know software all kinds of things right,
none of them worked, none of them worked.
And then I went into a different path where okay
how come I see other people are successful,
how come I like I don't think they
are they 10 times smarter than me?
I don't think so.
Are they, do they work 10 times harder than me?
I don't think so, then what's missing,
must be something wrong with me.
So I went in, went heavily into personal development.
So read all the books and attend the seminars, workshops
motivation, motivate myself.
And in fact how many of you have read
Think and Grow Rich?
Yeah, wonderful.
So I read Think and Grow Rich ten times,
from front page to back page, back and forth.
Now the problem was, there was a lot of thinking,
not a whole lot of riching.
(Audience members laughing)
Okay, and then how many have read
How to Win Friends and Influence People.
Yeah, yeah I also read that book multiple times,
problem was, I couldn't influence my friends
to loan me more money.
(Audience members laughing)
- So that didn't work, that did not work,
and at that point I was about $150,000 in debt
from friends and family and credit cards and everything,
in debt and I joined the NFL club, no friends left.
(Audience members laughing)
Because every time I would call them,
"Oh it's you the." That's it, that's it.
They wouldn't take* my call anymore
it wasn't, it's now looking back it's kind of funny
but it was embarrassing, it was very embarrassing.
And I was what I would call, now looking back,
I will call myself at the time, a kind of like a
business opportunity junkie,
because I would buy all kinds of stuff,
buy all kinds of programs and try to make money
and I would buy those, how many have seen those
home business or business opportunity magazine,
have you seen those?
How many bought those magazines?
Be honest, okay thank you for you honesty.
So I bought those magazines,
and I was the guy that would respond to every ad.
I would look at the
oh this guy's making money from mail order, let's do that,
now this guy's making money from classify ads,
let's do that, oh and this guy's making money
from his kitchen table in his underwear,
let's do that, that's even better.
So I bought all kinds of shit right, everything.
Now what happens when you respond to all these ads,
do you know what happens?
- [Woman] Spam.
- Yes, I'm talking like (woman laughing)
direct mail days right.
Now guess how many junk mails I'll get, a lot, a ton.
So it's funny, 'cause my mom would open the mailbox,
and she has like three letters,
and I have this pile of stuff
like 30, 40 letters everyday,
like what the hell are you doing Dan right.
And I would look at these things,
and I tried different things
and none of them work of course,
none of them work.
And I thought to myself, there's something missing here,
I bought these, I tried kind of,
to implement what they what they taught,
but how come it doesn't work for me
and I don't quite get it.
So obviously I'm not making money buying this crap,
but then I thought maybe people are making money,
selling this crap it's just a different mind shift.
Then I thought to myself, huh isn't that interesting,
because whoever is selling whatever they're selling,
I'm sending money to this guy
who I've never met, I've never talked to,
and I'm sending him some money, this is interesting,
wouldn't be good if I'm on the other side.
So then I started looking at these things
from a different perspective, from a different what?
- [Audience members] Perspective.
- Different perspective, I looked at it, I'm like okay.
Now I've started studying marketing,
and then later on I found a mentor his name is Alan,
and he took me under his wing, and he said,
he's you know a marketing guy,
and he taught me copywriting and marketing
and how to write ads,
and I basically worked for him for one year,
for next to nothing basically nothing volunteer.
And I always refer to that year,
as the million dollar year of my life,
because I got a million dollar
worth of education in that year.
So that might not be the answer for everybody,
but that was the answer for me,
finding a mentor who has been there and done that.
So after Alan mentor me
and then I opened up my little own
one-man advertising agency
and just writing ads for entrepreneurs,
for speakers for authors,
and in my early 20s I was making $10,000 a month,
now how many you recognize
like for twenty something years old,
10 grand is a lot of money,
it feels like like a million bucks.
I can provide for my mom, pay off some debt,
and still you know live pretty good life,
and after a while of that, then one day,
I met a webmaster at a time, and he said to me, he said
"Dan you need a website."
Okay why do I need a website,
"No, no, you need a website."
What I'm gonna put on my website I don't get it
because I'm busy enough, I don't need more clients,
"So well you know we could sell something on the website."
What am I'm gonna sell,
"I don't know, put some stuff together,
"sell a book or something.
I said, "Okay fine", then I sort of put together a book.
So I wrote my first ever book,
it's called psychological tactics.
Now it's interesting,
because when I first wrote the book,
my intention was to use the book
to help protect consumers
of like what are these marketers doing
to make you buy stuff
but then guess who is buying all the book,
- [Man] Marketers.
- Yeah all the marketers and business people right,
wasn't my intention, it was not my intention.
So I wrote a book and I printed like a hundred copies of it,
and it cost me five bucks each, and physical copy.
And I remember at the time, I post
on a on a business forum or something
and I post it and you know after a couple days,
nobody buys, and this is I'm talking before PayPal,
before merchant account.
So one day, my phone rings, I picked up the phone
and this this gentleman from the States,
he said "I saw your posts on this forum,
"do you still have any of those books available?"
About 100 of them.
(Audience members laughing)
- Yes I still have a couple copies,
yeah I've got a couple copies,
they're selling well but I've got a couple of copies.
Well can you send me one of those,
sure like how would I pay you,
I don't know well can I send you a money order,
okay sure so he sent me a money order,
and I ship him the book,
and when I first got the check,
that money order in the mail,
it was the most incredible experience I've ever had,
because it was a validation,
that hey you know what I've got something here
that might work, if it's 20 bucks doesn't matter
because at the time I was trading hours for dollars
I was making high dollars, but still, it's time for money,
So I thought to myself, this is interesting,
I sold out a hundred copies in about 30 days,
so I made about 1,500 bucks.
Now if you were me, what's going through your mind now?
- [Woman] I would do that again.
- Do that again, yes.
What's going through my mind.
- More books. - More books,
I could do more like it what if I put this,
because it's just part-time, what if I do more,
I do more marketing can I sell you know 200 copies,
500 copies, what if I had more books, I don't know,
that was it because I want at a time, my intention
was just to make enough money so that I could just
spend less time working with clients one-on-one
because I want to spend more time
with my mom, because I was working all the time
although she's home,
but I'm just in my room working all the time,
I didn't like that.
So that was my intention and from there,
make very good money, launch the next book,
the next product, and I love that,
I talked about that in my book, FU Money.
And maybe timing, you can say luck, internet took off
and I was getting now a little bit of money,
I went into different niches,
different industries, more products,
and affiliate marketing,
and at one point was making ridiculous amount of money,
I'm talking ridiculous amount of money.
And I was,
I would let's say go out for dinner with my friends
and we would blow three grand on a night,
just like that, and I don't even fucking drink.
(woman laughing)
I don't drink, and we blow like three grand,
like I was stupid, I was getting a new car every year,
it was stupid stuff, I did stupid stuff,
and I'm not proud of it, but you know as a young guy,
you went through that, you got that right.
You went through that,
and but looking back what's interesting is,
why was I doing that, buying my friends,
taking them on vacation,
buying them drinks, buying them dinners and this and that,
why was I doing that?
- [Woman] It's fun.
- It's fun, no, but why was I doing that?
- [Woman] Because it's good.
- Yes but it's but deep down, what was I craving,
what was I looking for.
- Recognition. - Validation.
- Recognition, validation, I was trying to buy approval,
I was trying to buy love, attention,
because my mom and dad got divorced,
so that what's lacking in my life.
Now but let me ask you a question,
if my friends were coming me for, coming to me for that,
are they true friends, no,
so when I stopped buying them dinners and stuff like that,
are they gonna showed up,
no they're not true friends, then I learned later on,
it's they're not true friends.
But I was, it had the illusion of, well it's great,
I got a bunch people and it feels good, and this and that,
but it was stupid, very stupid,
so you know with internet marketing,
that's how I made most of my money,
so what I want to do tonight, is share,
maybe two key lessons,
that I've learned throughout the way,
during that process and before and after,
and hopefully you don't have to make the same mistake
that I made and you don't, and you can take from it,
and you can apply anywhere you want,
whatever state you're in right now.
How many of you would be interested, yes?
- [Audience members] Yes.
- So here's another exercise,
so what I want you to do, just to yourself,
I want you to write down your total annual income,
just from last year 2014.
And this is personal, whatever the number is
write down your total annual income.
- [Woman] According to me or according to income tax.
(Audience members laughing)
- No sometimes, last time when I did this,
there was an accountant, well is it pre-tax, after tax,
just how much you made last year,
keep it simple.
Put up your hand if you have that number, okay.
Give you a couple more minutes,
how many have no idea what that number is?
OkaY good, good,
guess that would not be a good sign,
well actually it might be a good sign,
because either you don't make enough money
you don't want to look at it,
or you make so much money you don't even care,
so who knows. (women laughing)
So write down your totally annual income.
Now step two I'm gonna get into in just a sec,
I want you to categorize your source of income,
but before getting into that, let me talk about
the different types of income.
So there are basically four types of income, how many types?
- [Audience members] Four. - Four types.
The first type is what I call linear income,
now what is linear income, linear income means
you do a little bit of work, you get paid,
you do a buck worth of work, you get a buck,
you're trading hours for dollars, linear income.
So you could be, you make a sale, you get a buck,
you do a deal, you make a buck,
linear income, or a job, a the end of the of month paycheck,
linear income.
So with linear income, it's what I consider most of the time
it's bad income, but that's what most people know how to.
And so these are just some examples
of different types of income,
I mean I could give you way more example
but it would be very very long,
but you'll get an idea.
So example is salary, over time,
commission, consulting fees, professional services,
those is what I consider linear income.
What kind of income?
- Linear. - Linear income,
okay linear income.
And theN you have what I call leveraged income.
What kind of income?
- [Audience members] Leveraged.
- Leveraged income means you are now leveraging, O.P.
other people, other people's time, other people's talents,
other people's resources, other people.
So with leveraged income we're talking strategic alliances,
subcontractors, good will and client contracts,
or maybe salary staff or sell space network marketing,
different types of leveraged income,
but you're leveraging other people.
So now you've got a little team,
maybe you have a little system in place,
you're no longer just relying on yourself, okay,
leveraged income.
And then you have passive income,
an example would be let's say commission staff
or buying base network marketing,
or renewals, or interest income, or dividend income
etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, so passive income.
And then you have what I call windfall income,
what is it?
- Windfall. - Windfall income.
so windfall it's appreciation of stocks,
appreciation of real estate, appreciation of RSP,
you know the inheritance, lottery, large bonus,
selling a business, that type of, so windfall,
a windfall income.
So the four types of income.
So you have your numbers example would be,
so let's say last year you made let's say a 100 grand okay.
And let's say you would categorize it, let's say you had
it's eighty percent of that,
so 80 grand is let's say it's linear right,
and then let's say you have ten percent leverage,
and let's say yes zero percent passive,
and you have ten percent windfall.
How many following this so far yes?
- [Audience members] Yes.
- So I want you to categorize your income,
I'm gonna and give you let's say a minute to do that
just take a minute categorize your income for now.
Okay now next what I want you to do is this,
I want you to draw a chart kind of like this,
Linear, leverage, passive and windfall.
So I want you to draw a chart, so example,
use the example again, let's say we use the 80%,
so we would look something like this,
and then you have 10% here right,
no passive and that's what it's look,
now I want you to draw a graph like that,
and you can see the pattern, so take a moment and do that.
So linear, leverage, passive and windfall.
So according to your percentage.
What have you learned so far, tell me.
Looking in your photo, looking at your chart,
what have you learned so far, yell the answer.
- [Woman] I'm working way too hard.
(Audience members laugh) - Working way too hard, good.
- [Man] Linear. - It's all.
- Too much linear. - Too much linear, okay yes.
- [Man] It's a dead end.
- It's a dead end good, it's a good thing,
it's not bad thing, yes.
- [Woman] To shift, I need to shift.
- You need to shift, good okay, anything else, good.
So with myself I have very little linear,
very like maybe a few percent there,
I have a lot of leverage,
a lot of passive income from time to time,
little bit of windfall.
So that's the cash flow pattern that I have right now,
took me a number of years to get there,
but that's what I have now.
Now by the way, how many recognize
that looks awfully similar
(Audience members laughing) to my book.
Now, - Hmmm.
- Hmmm, hmmm, now what does that mean,
It means when you get to this cash flow pattern,
then you can say FU to people,
(Audience members laughing)
to people you don't like, or things you don't want to do.
That's called subliminal message okay, okay,
a subliminal message,
so let me share with you, the three myths
that I believe are blocking you from
earning the massive passive income
that you want there are three myths,
now what are myths by the way, tell me,
what are myths, things that people believe in,
that may not be true yes, okay.
So the first myth is this,
the first myth is financial freedom.
The first myth is financial freedom.
What Dan, what, what, what do you mean?
Yes the first myth is financial freedom.
Let me go back to my story.
So I was making a lot of money, and I set a goal to myself
that at the time I was gonna retire at by the age of 30,
I actually accomplished that by the age of 27,
so I retired, became a millionaire,
not only millionaire status,
but also had massive passive income coming in,
don't have to work I said that's it,
I'm done not gonna work another day in my life,
so I'm gonna do what most people do right.
And by the way the financial freedom,
how many of you have read Rich Dad, Poor Dad?
Yeah okay, and what's the definition, the book talks about
financial freedom occurs when your passive income
exceeds your expense,
how many of you have heard that before?
Yeah okay,
and nothing wrong with that, I mean I like Robert
and everything he talks about,
here's the problem, here's the problem,
when I got to the point where I don't have to work
at a time, and it's kind of like this right,
when your passive income, exceeds your expense
that's the graph and that's the picture, I have in my mind,
and I did it, and I did it, so I went to English Bay,
and I said to myself, this is cool, this is nice,
looking at the beach, and looking at the wave,
and holding my fruit punch and just drinking it,
I was like this is nice, this is nice,
second day I go back there,
this is nice, third day you go back there,
and after four or five fruit punch,
like okay after 30 days of that,
I was bored out of my mind.
And I thought wow this is crazy
and that's taught me a lesson,
that most people they say they want to get to a point
where they are financially free so they don't have to work,
they want to retire.
What I've learned is this,
most people actually don't want to retire,
they just want to be able to do what retired people do,
they still want to get, they want to go on vacations,
they want to buy the things they want to buy,
they want to provide them for their family.
But most people they don't actually want to do nothing,
and staying at home not feeling alive,
and I did that so I was gonna after 30s,
this is this is nuts I can't do this,
this is, this is, this is,
I worked so hard to get to this point when I got here,
Looking, was looking at the beach, I'm like,
this is not what I signed up for, this is not what I wanted,
this is this is not how life is supposed to be.
So I went into a different path,
I said well you know what, I love movies.
How many of you love movies?
I love movies, so let's instead of doing that,
let's watch some movies at home,
(Audience members laughing)
why don't we do that, okay.
So I was renting all these movies, DVDs at a time
and I was watching, five, six movies a day.
Let me tell you something,
when you watch, five six movies a day,
you don't like movies so much,
unless you're a movie reviewer or critic or something
but that's not good either.
After 30 days of that, I called up my mentor,
and he was just laughing on the other end.
I said "I don't get it, like what should I do, I feel,
how come this is my goal, and I got here,
and how come I'm so depressed,
how come I'm so empty I don't understand,
he was just laughing on the other end.
He said, "well you know what,
"I was expecting three months,
"you couldn't even last two months."
I said "what do you mean?"
Well 'cause you're an entrepreneur,
you are a creator, that's what entrepreneurs are,
you create stuff, you use your creativity
to create value in the marketplace,
and now you're sitting at home
you're going to the beach, you're watching movies,
it's not creating anything, you feel, you're so dead,
you feel so dead, it's just not the way to go.
I said "You don't understand, I'm done.
"Like I'm not gonna do anything,
"I'm not gonna start another thing, nothing.
He said, "You have to."
He said you have to because now,
right now you're not happy.
He said, "Are you happy now?"
I said, "No I feel miserable."
He said, "That's not good."
"So go back to business",
but he said this time, "You start a business
"from a different place."
Because I've made my money,
now I can start from a place of well you know what,
I can do stuff that I want to do,
I think getting involved with projects
I want to get involved with,
I can work with the people I want to work with.
Because before it was just, money, money, money
and I want to make the money I want to be done,
I want to retire, got there now, okay.
Now I can just do it for the sake of doing it,
I could do stuff, I could show up and speak if I want to,
I can not show up and speak if I don't want to.
Nobody can point a gun to my head
and ask me do anything if I don't want to do it.
I'm here because I want to be here,
if I don't want to be here, I'm not here.
So I can do whatever I want, so you know I said,
and I you know spend a couple days with myself
and just writing down in my private journal,
you know Dan if you could do anything,
what would you want to do,
so I write down all this stuff that, what would it look like
and what my business would look like,
what my life would look like
and I mapped out everything, mapped out everything,
so then before going into that,
let me tell you another story,
I have trained a number of young guys,
number of young guys.
And I helped them, you know young guys
and you know set up the ebooks,
and sell stuff online digital products,
and their goal was to make three, four grand a month
and then just go to Thailand and live their life,
and I've helped a number of young guys to do that.
And once I help them accomplish that,
and I called them up
and sometimes see how they're doing,
guess what, none of them are happy,
none of them, in fact they're all totally lost.
They're in the early 20s, they don't have to work,
they're in Thailand, I mean they're drinking,
they're partying, they all thing doing all this shit,
and partially I feel I'm responsible for that as well,
because I taught them the profit path,
but I never gave them the purpose path,
I just said hey you know, they just,
hey you want to make enough money to be free,
I'll teach you to do that and that's it,
and you do your thing,
and now they all lost, and so I feel like
I gotta bring them back.
And that's a lesson that I've learned
that with passive income, listen to this,
just because it's passive, write this down,
doesn't mean it's permanent,
just because it's passive doesn't mean it's permanent,
it does not mean it's permanent,
because I've had this experience
when I had these multiple 20, 30 sites
selling these ebooks through Clickbank,
I was using pay-per-click and I was, could be one ebook
making 500 bucks a month in passive income,
the other book could be making 3,000 a month
in passive income, then I hold 20, 30 of these sites,
and I was making good money,
and suddenly in Google, the AdWords, the cost,
everything changed, so my profit went from this,
to this, it was very passive for a period of time,
but then my just my expenses kept getting more and more
and my profit keeps getting like this.
So then I learned well just because it's passive,
doesn't mean it lasts forever,
it does not mean it's permanent.
So people might think have this picture,
well if I make enough passive income,
then I don't have to work, I can retire,
and I can just, don't have to spend any time
to maintain it and leave it as it is,
it does not work that way,
that's not how it works.
You do need to spend the time to maintain it.
Let me tell a story, a friend of mine,
he was in my mastermind group, and his name is Ryan.
Ryan when I met him through mastermind,
number of years ago, he was making a million dollars a year,
through Google AdSense**,
he calls himself the Search Engine Spammer,
he would set up these sites,
he would spam the search engine, spam google basically,
and he would set up this pages and get money from AdSense**,
and show me the check, he's doing 100 grand,
90 grand a month from Adsense**, multiple checks,
he though he was the smartest guy in the world,
and he was pretty smart.
And then of course Google you know slap
and changed the algorithm and all that stuff,
so he when I met him was making a million bucks a year,
next year I met him again, half a million, year after,
a hundred grand and then zero, and then zero.
And he was like I don't get this, I said dude
"Who do you think is smarter, you or Google?"
You have five guys on your team,
Google has how many engineers,
how the hell can you possibly outsmart them,
you're lucky you made that money for a period of time,
so again I can see well just because, it's passive,
doesn't mean it's what?
- Permanent. - Permanent.
It does not mean it's permanent.
So here's the truth, don't aim for financial freedom,
aim for financial confidence,
because financial freedom is an illusion,
it does not exist, I can tell you right now,
it's a fantasy, it's what those gurus or experts,
and they want you to believe,
that they have this, oh yeah you want to be free
it does not exist, I can tell you right now,
because just because you're free right now,
doesn't mean you're free two months from now,
or two years from now.
How do many follow what I'm saying?
It doesn't mean, but financial confidence
oh totally different,
because I believe financial freedom, financial independence,
all those concepts they're outdated,
I believe they're outdated.
Financial confidence is in our animal,
I'm talking about knowing you have the skills
and the ability,
to make money anywhere and anytime you want.
That's true security.
You're not depending on Google,
you're not depending on whatever vehicle,
you're not depending on stock market,
you're not depending on anything,
you're not depending on a thing to make you money,
because who makes you money?
- [Audience members] You. - You make you money.
It's the same thing with me I tell people,
take away everything I have, leave me with my brain,
with my context, I can make it back,
that's true security, you can,
because nobody can take that away from you,
my skills how I do business, my business acumen,
I can make money doesn't matter.
And that's why people say that,
oh you know Dan you have the Midas touch,
you know whatever you industry you get into,
and I make money in multiple industries,
totally unrelated industries,
and oh this is so great, and I always say to them,
you know you should have seen me ten years ago,
when everything I touch turns to shit.
(Audience Members laughing)
Now I say oh everything you touch turns to gold
because now I have to skills, it's who I am today,
then I get into business, then I can make money,
does that make sense?
(All agreeing)
so it's a myth.
Financial confidence.
So aim for financial confidence,
don't aim for financial freedom.
That's number one.
Myth number two is passive income.
Now I can see you're really shocked.
So passive income and I checked this out on Wikipedia.
What does it mean?
So passive income is an income
received on a regular basis
with little effort required to maintain it.
That's from internet, from Wikipedia.
Passive income.
I don't understand Dan what do you mean?
I'm here for passive income
And you tell me it's a myth.
Now you really fucked up my mind.
(laughing)
What is going on? What is going on?
Let me tell you what passive income is not.
Passive income, generating passive income is not easy
and it takes a lot of hard work
because when people associate,
oh passive income it means effortless,
it means it's easy, it means it's quick.
You know what I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad three months ago
and now how come three months later
I'm not financially free?
It's the wrong expectation.
Just because it's passive doesn't mean it's permanent,
just because it's passive doesn't mean it's easy.
Now why is it not easy?
Why do most people only know how to create linear income
and not passive income?
Tell me, tell me why?
- [Woman] Because it's easier. - [Man] Change.
- Because it's easier yes
and you get it in 30 days or a short period of time.
Yes?
- [Man] Takes a lot of pressure.
- Change don't want to change.
Yes?
- [Man] Long time to build.
- It takes a long time to build yes
but why, so people know that
but why are people struggling to create
they know I kind of want passive
but you look at their chart
almost all the income comes from linear
but why is that? What's causing that?
- [Man] For security.
- Security.
- [Woman] It takes a lot of time for a person to build.
- Takes a lot yes but,
- [Woman] No confidence.
- No content but think about this,
- [George] Taught over time.
- Yes! George, great answer.
Because in school,
which income we are taught to generate?
- [Audience] Linear.
- Linear, from a very young age yes?
What about parents?
- [Woman] Same yup.
- Same thing.
When you go to school
is there a class called passive income 101?
(laughing)
if there's one I mean I would have taken it.
- [Man] Or get a good job.
- Yes so it is what we're taught
so we are not equipped with the skills
to generate other forms of income,
we just don't know how
and people kind of get into it,
they kind of make mistakes,
they kind of learn it through school how not
but it's not in school system.
Now why is it not in the school system by the way?
- [Man] Linear thinking.
- Why is it on the school system?
- [Woman] Because the teachers are linear?
- Yeah the teachers are linear
so they cannot teach you how to generate passive
but think about it for school,
school is designed to create what?
- [Man] Jobs. - [Man] Slaves.
- Jobs, employees.
So who controls the school anyway?
- [Woman] Socialists. - [People] Government.
(laughing) - Yeah, socialists,
government, corporations right?
If you study history, it's actually
a whole bunch of big corporations
one day they get together and say
"you know what we need some more workers
"we don't have enough workers
"let's create a system so we'll never want our workers"
and that's how the school system was born
if you study history.
So if you think about it
in the school system,
we were not taught how to do that
and that's why people have challenges doing that
and for them to think well you know what
I got to get pay, I got to do the thing
and in 30 day and I get my paycheck
and that's it.
So it doesn't mean it's easy
and also generating passive
does not happen overnight.
So I want to adjust your expectation,
adjust your what?
- [Audience] Expectation.
- Knowing that's what you're getting into.
So then you won't be, how come I tried this,
in 30 day I'm not making the passive income,
I fail!
You haven't fail!
It's the way it's supposed to be!
It takes fucking time!
(laughing)
It does.
It takes, now how long does it take?
(laughing)
- [Woman] A fucking long time.
A long fucking time!
(laughing) Seriously.
So also passive doesn't mean it's effortless.
If anything it's the opposite.
Passive it does not mean it's effortless
and also you think in terms of this.
All the people, let's say them Forbes 400,
some of the wealthiest people on the planet.
The Richard Branson, Donald Trump,
Bill Gates, Warren Buffett.
Now when you go online can you go to YouTube
And then search some of the interviews yes?
- [Audience] Yes.
- A lot of great information.
In fact I would challenge you
to go and search and watch the interviews on YouTube,
any one of them
and I challenge you to see
if they even used the word passive income.
They don't even use the word,
it's not even in their vocabulary
and I challenge you,
the most successful people on the planet,
to see if they even use the word financial freedom.
None of them got into business
because they want to be financially free,
none of them, not one of them.
They got into business because
there's something they love to do
or they see this product or whatever it might be,
whatever drives them but none of them
because if their goal was financial freedom,
none of them have to work.
They accomplished that many years ago
They have way more than they could spend,
they don't need to keep working.
How many have read the book 4-Hour Workweek?
Yeah 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
and I know Tim, he's a great guy, great book.
I think people misunderstood
what Tim was actually saying
but look at any one of these guys, any one of them.
Are any one of them working four-hour week?
- [Man] No.
- None.
Are they even working four hour a day?
No, they're working long hours.
Who's the richest man in British Columbia?
- [Man] Patterson.
- Patterson okay.
If you call the Patterson office on Saturday morning,
chances are Jimmy's gonna pick it up.
Jimmy, at his age is still today
the first one to go to the office
and the last one to leave.
Let me give you a clue, he doesn't need the money.
(laughing)
but why is he keep working?
Oh that's you know all these people
they're just greedy they want more.
Well let me ask you a different question.
If you are already a pretty healthy person
and you want to,
you're pretty healthy, you eat well
but you could eat even healthier
and exercise more and get into better shape.
If you could do that, should you?
Yes or no.
- [Audience] Yes.
- So let's say you already have a pretty good relationship
with your spouse.
You're a pretty loving person and you give love
and you help other people
so if you're pretty loving right now
but you could give more love, should you?
Yes or no? - [Audience] Yes.
- So if you are already a pretty successful entrepreneur
you're making good money
and you could make more money
now here's a question should you?
Yes or no?
- [Audience] Yes.
- So it's not about money, it's about growth.
It's about growth.
They are doing it because it's what life is about
it's growth, it's more.
Not because they're greedy,
that's the poor people mentality,
all these people are greedy
because they are not creating shit,
they're not creating value in the society
but these people are doing stuff, are innovating.
You can't tell me,
Warren Buffett gives away 97 percent of his wealth.
How can you even criticize a guy like that?
(laughing)
- [Woman] Yeah I wanna be in line for that.
Where do I sign up?
- You know what I mean?
So if you think about it,
so none of them think even that way,
so if you want to study the best,
think of they don't even use the language
they don't think financial,
it's not that what they think about.
Now if you think okay if I want to be more successful
shouldn't you study the best yes?
- [Audience] Yes.
- Listen to what so what do they focus on?
What they focus on is this,
you see retirement is simply doing what you want
where you want to do it, yes or no?
- [Audience] Yes. - For most people right?
So each of the Forbes 400 is doing that,
they have all retired into their jobs and companies.
They've all retired, I have retired into my companies.
I'm doing it because it's just what I want to do.
It's not because I have to do it, I don't have to do shit.
I want to do it, I love doing it.
What else am I gonna do?
You can only go on so many vacations.
I take four vacations a year, that's plenty.
More than that, I'm like (groans) it's too much.
I'm happy four vacations, I'm very happy.
I don't need more than that
and as a guy, I mean how many cars do you need?
You can only drive one.
How many houses you need?
- [Man] One.
- Seriously I mean I live a pretty much
I live a pretty modest life.
I've got one car, I've got two car actually.
One house and nice carpet, that's it.
I mean I don't have ten cars, I could buy 10 cars,
I don't have ten cars.
So think about that.
So why do you think passive income is a dangerous fantasy?
So because you can't stay ahead
of the competition passively.
Let me ask you this question.
In the business world now, business environment.
Is the business environment right now
more competitive today or ten years ago?
- [Audience] Today.
- Today and is it getting more competitive as time goes on?
Yes? - [Audience] Yes.
- Okay so if you think about it,
if you're actually running your business passively,
your competition every day you're thinking of
how can I take you out of business?
So if you run,
think of this general.
If this is general and say
"You guys go fight the war and kill the enemy
"and conquer and I'm just gonna sit back
(laughing)
"and relax and just passively and drink my beer."
(slurps)
Now are you gonna follow that guy?
- [Man] No. - Yes or no?.
- [Audience] No.
No if anything I'll shoot this son of a bitch right?
(laughing)
You're not gonna follow a leader like that
same thing with you, your company,
if you're passive, nobody wants to follow a passive leader.
Think, what if I say to you that
what I want is I want,
how healthy would you be if your focus is passive health?
- [Woman] Not very healthy.
- Not very healthy.
It's because anything in life that's worthwhile,
we have to what?
- [Woman] Work at it.
- You got to work at it.
You got to work at it,
so passive health if you want to be healthy
you gotta exercise regularly, eat well yes,
have a little bit discipline yes right?
What if I say to you, well you know what
honey from now on, I just want some passive sex.
(laughing)
I'm not gonna do anything, you're gonna do all the work
I'm just gonna lie down there like a dead fish.
(laughing)
Now let me ask you a question
how passionate would your relationship be?
- [Woman] I won't go to my bedroom.
(laughing)
- So passive health doesn't work,
passive sex definitely doesn't work
how would passive income work?
It doesn't make sense, it does not make sense.
How many of you are getting this?
How many find it liberating actually?
Good, good
and you can't maintain a loyal tribe of customers passively,
you just can't because everyday,
someone is trying to steal your customers.
Just take market share. We have to be aggressive.
And you can't lead great teams passively period,
there's no way
and here's the biggest point of all
you cannot create meaning, passion or purpose
in your life passively, you just can't.
Think of the moment in your life, any moment
where you were the most passionate,
you were the most excited, you were the most alive
were you like passively sitting there doing nothing
or were you doing stuff or were you challenging yourself
or were you stepping out of your comfort zone?
- [Woman] Stepping out of my comfort zone.
- You were doing new stuff, like this is cool
I've never done this before
this is now you're active right?
You're not passive, it's the same in business.
It's the same in business, you cannot create meaning,
passion or purpose in your life passively.
So every time I've seen someone create a business
whatever business he's in,
with the ultimate intention of
getting away from that business
and its customers as quickly as possible
instead of moving towards
that business and its customers, it fails.
Because when you say the word passive income to your brain,
what signal does it send to your brain?
It sends the signal to your brain this,
how can I get the most with the least amount of work?
Because you want passive.
How can I do the least amount of effort,
put the least amount of effort
and get the most out of this deal?
Think about it.
In other words you're saying what can I get away with?
What can I get away with?
You know it, what can I get away with?
So instead of going with that intention
and you don't give a damn about the customers,
I just want to make some money, make enough so I can
go on vacation and stuff like that.
Now if you're with that intention going to business,
are you gonna do well?
- [Audience] No.
- Just no way
but what if we change that up?
What if you go into with an intention, purpose
and meaning and say you know what,
I'm here to impact people's lives,
I'm here to help somebody,
I'm here to make a difference.
I want to make money I want to make profit
but I could do that in a way that's gonna be
nobody's ever done this before.
What if you go with that intention?
Now is your business more
likely to be successful? - [Woman] Yes.
- And are your customers gonna feel the difference?
You bet. They are not just some digits.
They're not just a credit card number
They know that they're people yes?
- [Audience] Yes.
- So at the end of the day, think about that.
So if your intention is to make enough
so I can get away from it,
no move towards it.
Embrace your customers
and engage, interact with the customers.
Go and meet, if (yells) just want to make
especially internet guys right.
Oh just this and do this and automate this and.
I always say to them you know you cannot automate
and systemize something
that's not worth anything.
If you have not created value in the first place
then what the hell are you automating?
What are you automating?
Once you create a value on a big scale
and now you need people, you build a team.
Now you can automate, now you can systemize
so we can serve more people.
Does that make sense?
There's a big difference in mindset.
So the business you're investing or creating
doesn't tend to be creating value
for its customers or for anyone.
So it doesn't tend to spit off the cash
that you're hoping it will, of course.
So many times I've seen people
pursue passive income
and end up having active losses instead.
How many of you have been there?
End up having active losses instead.
So here's the truth, don't aim for a passive income,
aim for leverage income.
What kind of income?
- [Audience] Leverage. - Leverage income,
aim for that,
don't aim for passive, aim for leverage, aim for leverage
and as you build it, now you're having a team,
now you have some systems in place
and the income keeps going up and up
and you notice my pattern, I have a lot of leverage.
I don't have all passive, I'm mostly leveraged
through my business, through my people, leveraged.
Now with this mindset,
(laughing)
with this new understanding,
are you still gonna be buying
all those get-rich-quick crap out there?
- [Woman] No
- Better not.
(laughing)
But it's your choice.
So if not, now but then
are you saying that I shouldn't invest in myself?
Are you saying that I shouldn't invest in my own education?
Is that what I'm saying?
- [Audience] No
- That's not what I'm saying but how do you differentiate?
So these programs and this and things
and compared to maybe a workshop or a book,
how would I know when should I invest or not invest?
Let me give you a very simple, simple solution.
Anything you want to invest in could be any education.
Ask yourself this question, if I learn this skill,
if I go to this thing, if I buy this program,
is this gonna help me to generate more leverage income
within what I do?
Not let me buy this magic pill or bullet
so it solves all my fucking problem
so then I don't have to deal with this anymore.
You're not looking for an escape,
you're looking for can I add this to what I'm doing
that would enhance what I'm doing right now?
You have this skill set or maybe cells,
may be smoking
what other skill that you might need
but is this gonna help me generate more leverage income?
Do you see the distinction yes or no?
Yeah so that's how you make the decision.
Is this gonna help me generate more average income?
By all means go for it.
This is a distraction, it's a magic pill,
it's poisoned, snake oil, stay away from it.
In fact how many of you are, in your email box
you get a lot of different offers
and subscribe to different gurus and stuff like
how many of you how many have that?
Okay first recommendation, go home,
unsubscribe yourself from all that crap.
So you can focus.
So it's not today buy this,
tomorrow it's buy something else,
the next day it's buy something else and buy something else
never ends, it never ends
unsubscribe yourself from all those
just think of the peace you'll have
when you open your email box.
Oh actually now I can read an email from my friend
instead of all those offers.
Yeah unsubscribe, you don't need it.
You do not need it.
How many are gonna do that?
Yeah just unsubscribe, liberating, freedom!
That's freedom.
Then no more of the shiny object syndrome
no it's not one thing and buy the next thing
and the next thing and the next thing.
Now he said what's interesting
Why do people do that though?
- [Woman] Squander.
- Squander yes! This, shiny object, that!
Why? Why that?
Why do people do that?
Why do they buy this and it doesn't work
and they buy the next thing it doesn't work
and they buy the next thing it doesn't work,
and they still keep buying.
- [Man] Hope.
- More than that.
- [Man] Instant gratification.
- Instant gratification yes.
- [Todd] Feeling safe.
- Yes, Todd, great answer because it feels like
and here's the truth
and it hurts.
It feels like they're doing something,
it feels like I don't really want to change my life
but then in buying
this program it feels like for that instant
I'm trying to change my life and then afterwards
I'll go back to the same old, same old,
and then after a couple weeks,
I'll see another thing well now really I'm serious
and you buy that thing,
it gives you that feeling of like you trying to do something
but actually you're not doing anything.
You're deceiving yourself but if you're truthful,
you're honest and say you know what?
I don't need it, I don't need it, I actually don't need it.
I can build my business, I can do my thing,
I can create more leverage income,
I can hone my skill sets and do what works
we're just looking for that quick fix
because it's never a quick fix
it's a quick fix for the other guy who is selling you shit,
good for them, not so good for you.
They are making a lot of money but you're not.
Although I'm on camera
and people are gonna hate me for saying this
but I'm saying it because I don't give a fuck by the way,
fuck you guys
(laughing)
I hate these guys, I mean all the gurus they hate me,
they do, they do.
I'm telling you, do you think they want
to hear this message?
No.
You're the one who's gonna buy the shit.
But fuck you guys seriously.
Anyway, so create value first, profit will follow.
Create value first and profit will follow.
Create value first.
It's simple isn't it?
Even Jennifer was talking, connect now, networking works.
In networking, what you want to do
and the same thing is the culture I have
with my entrepreneurs group.
Actually we do a networking game
every time we would do a meeting and there are two rules.
You cannot talk about your company,
You cannot talk about what you sell.
You can only ask questions about the other person.
How you can add value.
So we go around with the networking game
and we go around, how can I help you?
How can I help you? What are you looking for?
What problem do you want to solve?
Everybody.
So I create a culture of that, you create value first,
you add value first
because nowadays everybody wants to do what
instant gratification.
They meet with you in three minutes
and they're pitching you their stuff,
here's the business card.
How many of you have been through that?
It's no different I use this analogy all the time.
It's like you go to a bar
and you walk up to a nice lady and say
"Your place or mine?"
(laughing)
It's no different.
In networking, I just met you,
I don't even know who the hell you are.
The other day I met a realtor,
he's like "You look like a very
successful guy, are you
looking to buy a home and sell a home?"
I said "no",
"Well, that's okay let me give you three business card
"so you can give to your friends
"since you're not looking for".
Like what the hell is this?
(laughing)
You don't even know who I am,
you don't even know what I do like how about
pretend to be interested at least
but it's no different people go around and say
"your place or mine?"
It's no different but instead of doing that
how about add some value, have a conversation
and just get their phone number
(laughing)
and then ask her out on a date later and that's
it's so simple when you play the value game,
when you contribute value first
before asking anything return,
you have no competition because nobody does it.
Even I keep teaching my people
stay up only percentage you're put to do them
because they just they want the money now,
I get it, I get it
but because you want the money now
you can't sell that way because write this down,
needy is creepy. (laughing)
Nobody, do you do you want to deal with needy people?
- [Audience] No.
- Do you want to deal with desperate people?
- [Audience] No.
- If you can please buy
I want to please do business with me,
give me some, like fuck off right,
it's unbelievable, don't do that.
So here's what I want you to do.
Aim for leverage in a business you care about
not passive income in a business you don't care about.
Aim for leverage income in the business you care about,
you like, you like the people you're serving,
you like the people you're helping
not in a passive income thing
in a business you don't care about
I like that a lot.
The hardest part about achieving abundance
in any aspect of life
including money, relationships or health,
spirituality is getting your mind right into it
and doing it right for the right reasons.
Create value, money will come
you create value, money will come.
In fact if you create so much value,
you cannot stop the money from coming in.
You cannot, you cannot.
People say "oh you know I make a lot"
You know why I made a lot of money?
Because I serve a lot of people.
I help a lot of people, it's very simple.
It's on a scale, it's either how much impact you have
or how many people you serve.
So with my customer base and any one of my company's
tens of thousands of customers
sometimes hundreds of thousands of customers,
you serve a lot of people
then of course you make a lot of money.
You serve a few people,
of course you don't make enough money,
it's simple as that so to make more money
just serve more people.
Write this down,
money earned is a byproduct of value creation.
Money earned is a byproduct of value creation,
it's so simple.
You chased the money, you don't get the money,
you create value money comes, money comes.
Jennifer how are we doing with time?
Five, ten.
You want me to stop or you want me to continue?
(audience members talking)
okay good, good.
- [Man] This doesn't close till about four.
(laughing)
- I'll be around, I'll stick around, answer questions.
So this is what it should look like income, passion alike.
Now does that mean, how many have heard of the saying
"do what you love and the money will follow"
how many have heard that before?
It's bullshit okay? (laughing)
It does not work, it does not work, I'll tell you why.
One day I was having lunch with a friend of mine
who is a professional speaker
and we were talking about and we're talking about
do what you love and money will follow,
we're talking about passion and he said
"Well you know Dan, here's the problem,
"you know what I love to do?
"I love to just sit at home in my underwear
"eating a pizza and watching hockey game."
(laughing)
"I love that, the problem is I cannot get
"anyone to pay me to watch me do that.
"So I have to be a professional speaker."
To add value first.
So it's not do what you love and money will
because what if whatever you love to do
doesn't create value in the market place?
Then you're not gonna get the money.
What I'm saying is love what you do.
Find a business that you like, that you're passionate
and love it, every minute of it, then it's not work.
What you love it does it fit work?
Yes or no. - [Audience] No.
- No then you do feel like you work because you love it
so people always talk about work-life balance
and you gotta have balance,
you got to take time off and this
I don't believe that because that doesn't work.
I believe in work-life integration.
So people ask me the question
"Well what does that mean?"
because when I work and when I play it's very blurry
if you ask me.
It's not like okay this time it's working time
and now we can (groans)
now I'm not working, I'm at home and finally I can relax.
For me personally, it's very blurry.
I can't even tell, okay if I'm having
this meeting is this working?
It makes me money but I like it, I like having that meeting,
I like having that lunch, I like interacting with people
and doing a deal.
So is that working?
So it's like this is, is this working?
I don't know what is, this is hobby for me.
I prefer this than golf, I can do this for hours.
I don't have a script, I don't have anything, I just do it
whatever it comes from my heart I just share.
This is way more fun than me just playing golf seriously.
I suck at golf,
(laughing)
it's not my thing, it's not my thing (buzzing)
it's not my thing
(laughing)
it's not my thing.
I like this.
Fishing, not my thing but this is good,
this is what I do for my hobby, seriously.
Number three, it's not what you do, it is not what you do.
(coughing) Excuse me.
Not the vehicle
Jennifer, later on, is there a way I can
dim the light?
You can't dim the light?
Okay, that's okay, that's okay.
So that's what you do
because people talk about
sometimes focus on you know,
different vehicle, is it real estate,
is it direct marketing, is it investing,
is it stock market, is it affiliate marketing,
is it, whatever the vehicle it is,
well it's not what you do because are there
people making a lot of money in real estate?
Yes or no? - [Audience] Yes.
- Are there people making no money in real estate?
Yes or no? - [Audience] Yes.
- Are there people making a lot of money on YouTube,
yes or no? - [Audience] Yes.
- Are there people making no money on YouTube,
yes or no? - [Audience] Yes.
- Are there people making a lot of money in
network marketing, yes or no? - [Audience] Yes.
- Are there people making no money in network marketing?
- [Audience] Yes. - So, it's not what you do,
it's got nothing to do with what you do,
so it's not what you do,
it's how you do it,
it's how you do it.
Do you do it with excellence?
(chuckles)
Are you professional?
(clears throat)
Are you doing what is necessary
to make the business successful?
So not what you do, how you do it.
Let me give you an example,
just a quick example.
This is one of my companies in New Zealand
with my partner
and my partner is a very successful
financial planner, insurance agent advisor
and has been doing it for a number of years
so because he's built up a successful base
so right now every year he gets about
$100,000 in U.S. dollars in renewal
because in insurance you get renewals
but because he's built a customer base
so he's getting a hundred thousand dollars a year
in passive income, in renewals every year
but because he's work that in the beginning
and built that up.
So it's not what you do, you get insurance,
that's a lot of the insurance people,
renewals, passive income.
Now what you do, how you do it,
it's boring, it's mundane and it is,
it's not very unique,
how many have seen this little cartoon character.
(audience murmurs)
Okay.
Do you know how much they made last year?
- [Woman] Billions. - Close!
800 million dollars. - [Man] Wow.
- This fat little cat.
(audience laughs)
This stupid cat.
(audience laughs)
Now how did they make money? - [Man] Licensing.
- Yes, licensing, merchandising right,
yeah so that's another form of,
it's a little cartoon, a little cartoon character.
Now did they get here there overnight?
No, of course not, it took them many, many years,
but what I want you thinking it's like okay,
how can you do things maybe from a different perspective
and think outside the box
and maybe it's what you're doing now
but a different way,
maybe a different, a better strategy,
that could maybe right now is linear,
let's get your leverage first,
how can you create more leverage from that
and then from there, then your think in terms of passive,
the phase, the oxymoron.
When you don't focus on passive income,
when you just focus on leverage income
and you focus on value,
you will get passive income
but when you chase passive income,
you don't get it,
when you just, this is my aim,
I want to make that five grand a month,
passive income, ten grand a month,
whatever it might be
you don't get it,
but when you're creative
like my partner and life plans,
he never focused on the passive income,
he was just helping clients
and helping them and develop relationships
and over the years, over a period of time and
he has people we knew
and people like him
now he's a hundred grand in passive income every year
but that wasn't his focus,
how many follow what I'm saying,
that wasn't, he wasn't going into his
I just want to make enough,
a hundred grand a year passive,
it wasn't even his intention at all,
he was just, I'm here to build a successful business,
that's it, that's it.
(coughs)
So people interpret the message as a passive income,
is easy and effortless and all you have to do
is set it and forget it,
kind of like an infomercial,
not like that, if you truly understand the message,
passive income, is a great
revenue source that is earned from
persistent and ongoing cultivation.
From what?
Persistent; and what?
- [All] Ongoing cultivation.
- If you truly understand it,
that's what creates passive income,
so don't aim for that, aim for leverage
and make that more efficient, be more productive
and you will get passive income,
without even thinking about it,
without even thinking about it.
Isn't that interesting?
So be-
(coughs) Excuse me.
Before I go, I want to give you,
I know we're running a little bit behind
but it's, I did this last time,
it was so powerful and I want to give you this,
so could you give me another ten minutes please?
- [Man] Please! - Yes.
What does it take,
what does it take for you to feel wealthy?
What does it take for you to feel wealthy?
Just yell out the answer.
- [Woman] Be able to go to the ocean whenever I want.
- Go to the ocean whenever you want, okay.
- [Woman] Success. - Success?
Okay.
- [Man] Cash. - Cash.
- [Man] Reserve, financial reserve.
- Financial reserve, okay.
- [Woman] Giving back. - Giving back, interesting.
- [Man] No stress. - No stress, good!
I'm gonna help you with that in a second.
- [Woman] Helping family.
- Helping family, okay, providing for family, nice.
- [Scott] Gratitude.
- What's your name?
Scott. - [Scott] Scott.
- Round of applause for that by the way.
Round of applause.
Because that's the point,
because lemme ask you a question.
With wealth and then many years ago,
I read a book by Sir John Templeton,
who owned Templeton fund,
billionaire trader and in the book it talks about,
you know, what exactly is gratitude, what is wealth,
wealth, he said, wealth equals gratitude
because, could this happen,
someone let's say, have a pretty simple life,
don't make a whole lot of money
but they are happy,
they've got a great family
and they feel they're the wealthiest person on the planet,
how many of you have met people like that?
Yes.
On the other hand, have you met people like,
they're making a ton of money,
have a nice home and nice, many nice cars
and successful businesses this and that,
yet you know, wife is divorced,
kids hate the guy and things like that
and he even he has money but he's like the
poorest person you ever know,
how many have seen that?
So here's the key, here's the key,
no amount of money will make you wealthy,
because wealth is a feeling,
wealth is a state of mind, it has nothing to do
with how much you have in your bank,
nothing to do with how much you have in the bank,
you can have a few hundred bucks,
you can feel this is great,
well you can have a million bucks, two million bucks,
and you still feel poor.
Are there people with a lot of money in the bank,
yet they live in scarcity
and you ask them what do you want, I want more,
why I just feel scared, I'm afraid, what if
this happens to the market and this and that,
I can't retire.
So are they wealthy?
- [Audience] No.
- So if wealth equals gratitude,
if you think about it,
if you are in North,
if we are in North America, you're wealthy,
because two-thirds the world, live on $2 a day,
could it be your worst nightmare in North America,
someone's ultimate fantasy in a third world country,
yes or no? - [Man] Yes.
- [Woman] Oh, yeah. - [Man] Totally.
- So whatever problem we have, it's not problem at all,
think about it, so if you think and
put yourself in that perspective,
you are already wealthy, come on now,
this is not woo fufu, I'm saying coming from
that place of abundance, now you can
create something, now you can build something,
you can do more,
but instead of coming from place,
oh you know I'll never cause,
what the ever the answers you gave me
like say what it takes for you to feel wealthy,
it's so far away
and we set these goals and do this by the way,
do this way, yes,
this is how we fuck ourselves up
(audience laughing)
because we set this impossible goal or very difficult goal
and we say you know what, when I get to that,
I'll feel wealthy, when I get to that, I'll be happy,
if I achieve that, I'll be happy
and then you keep working and working
and even though what you do get it, guess what?
- [Scott] You want more.
- You want more!
Are you happy? Maybe for
short period of time
and then you want more
and we chase this rabbit
and we don't understand at the end of it,
what are we what do we chasing?
When all we are chasing, it's already here,
we already have it, if you think of it
so instead of thinking okay,
I need to get there, then I'll be happy,
I need to achieve that to be happy,
here's a concept, why not happily achieve?
Why not enjoy the journey?
And knowing that you're wealthy
compared to anybody else
and also here's another concept,
people talk about financial freedom, guess what?
You're already free.
We have freedom of speech,
we have freedom of mobility,
we can do basically whatever we want,
we can enjoy a lot of things for free,
you are already free,
it's not something you gotta oh, yeah I gotta get there,
trust me, visit a third-world country, go to India,
go to China, you know how free you are,
you will know how free you are,
I just it's, it's wonderful,
we've got nothing to complain about yes?
Truly.
I'm saying come from that place,
now create from that place,
now although I do understand
you get it intellectually,
I talk about yeah gravity this and that,
let me take you through an exercise,
takes a few minutes to do
and I do this every cause people ask me the question,
well then what's your routine,
how do you stay productive,
how do you, how do you, how do you start your day,
this is how I start my day, this is and I just,
you guys are lucky cause I just finished this last week,
I finished this recording, I'm gonna play it,
we're gonna go through an exercise
and I want you to experience, I don't want you to
think round it, I want your experience,
gratitude, how many wanna give that a try?
Yeah, yeah, so I want you to stand up for a second,
slowly open your eyes,
and that's how you start your day.
Round of applause.
(audience clapping)
For those of you, this is what I do
when I get up in the morning,
I shower, I brush my teeth before I drink my cup,
lots of water and I'd listen to this
and I do this exercise every morning
so just imagine you do this every morning,
does it cost you anything?
No, in fact if you want this recording,
I can have Jennifer send it to you afterwards,
you can do this every morning if you want
so I'll stick around if you have any questions
and thank you very much.
(audience clapping)