(inspiring instrumental music)
- My question is, um,
if you were to do it all over again,
in terms of acquiring all these knowledge
and to be, you know, knowledgeable enough
to be successful in businesses,
successful in marketing and internet field,
um, and business general.
I know a platform called Coursera.
- Mhmm.
- Which one would you prioritize your time
in terms of, um--
- Like what courses I would study,
and how I would study it?
- No, I mean, you would pick the
most valuable course that you wanna study,
but we're comparing with, um,
in terms of opportunity cost
with the same time given within a period,
would you pick, would you go buy products,
or, to learn them, or go to Coursera
and acquire the knowledge there?
- Good question.
- Cause knowledge-- (inaudible phrase)
it's a little bit different.
- It's like basically it's like how, if I would start,
let me see if I understand the question.
So if I was to start over again, how would I get smart?
What knowledge I would require, right, in what way.
- In what order?
- In what order, okay.
Is that a good question?
Yes, a pretty good question,
um, first of all,
it's like people ask me,
I'll answer your question in two ways,
people ask me all the time
what books do you recommend Dan?
I say all of them,
seriously, all of them,
because it's like well is it Think and Grow Rich,
is it this book, is it that book,
well it all depends,
but I always say the books you don't read don't help you.
So, it's like if you go to my home
I have over 2000 books in my library,
which one is the best?
They're all pretty good.
They all helped me one way or the other, even the bad ones.
So, it's not so much,
cause sometimes that question is,
it's like, well Danny if you recommend five books out there,
read the five books, I'll be successful.
Like, I don't want to give them that mentality.
It's much better to say, you know what,
why don't you develop a habit of
reading a book every two weeks.
I have a habit of reading a book a week,
52 books a year, sometimes two books a week,
that's my habit, and that's all these years, right?
So, that's just what I do,
so to answer that, books you don't read don't help you.
So it's all good, depends on what you need.
Now, second thing is,
out of the 2000 books I've read,
great, those helped me,
a little bit, quite a bit,
the workshops, events that I go to, those help,
I've said this a million times,
I'll say it again,
I'm where I am today because of my mentors.
Not because of my books, not because of events that I go to,
because of my personal mentors.
People that I learn from
have a personal relationship with been there and done that,
and I study under them.
You look at the Asian philosophy, right,
like the old martial art, you know, instructor,
it's a handful of students, closed door,
and they teach you how to kill people, right?
Self defense, I'm talking thousands of years ago, right,
Shaolin's, stuff like that, right,
and that's how you hone your craft,
and this is, I believe, is the same way,
that I got, I mean, I'm where I am today
because of the mentors that I have,
that they teach me that one on one, that feedback,
that's what works for me,
it may not work for everybody,
but that's what works for me.
So, books, yeah, read those books.
- How many mentors do you have,
in terms of number, you can just say a number.
- I have a lot, but two, two main ones.
The first one, his name is Alan Jecks,
so Alan's the one that taught me
marketing and incorporating,
kind of shift my thinking,
uh, it worked for him for a year, a year or so,
for next to nothing.
I got us an apprentice at the time,
and then my, of course, my big mentor.
- You worked for him?
- I work for him,
uh, and then I, then I have my big mentor,
everybody knows Dan Pena who grew a company
from zero to $450 million, Dan Pena, p-e-n-a,
so that's my main mentor's been his mentee for seven years.
- Would you prefer to acquire
a different source of knowledge first,
or would you prefer the castle experience first?
Not so much, again, not so much,
don't think in terms just because Dan is my mentor
doesn't mean he should be your mentor,
like that's not the right way to think about this,
that's the opportunity seeker, shiny objects,
you know, type thinking,
just because it works for me doesn't works for you,
but what I'm saying is find someone that you resonate with
that is where you want to be.
I'll give you some criteria,
if you wanna find a mentor,
you wanna find someone that you like,
okay, someone that you respect,
someone who you kind of share the same value
that, you know what, would I be comfortable
you know, inviting him to my home,
have dinner with my family,
okay, someone you have good chemistry with,
someone you can get along,
someone who is where you wanna be in your dreams,
that's important.
So say you're doing a million dollars a year,
you don't want to find someone
that's making 2 million a year
because I believe that's not enough of a stretch,
if you're doing a million,
you wanna find someone who's doing 10 million,
or 20 million, or 50 million,
that's good, that is enough of a pull,
because they will have a different perspective,
so that's what I would do.
- Then I'm in trouble.
- Yeah, and show me your friends,
I'll show you your future.
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