- What is your disadvantage?
In other words, the question I'm asking you is
what are you telling yourself your disadvantage is?
Are you telling yourself that you can't be successful
because you were born into a poor family
or that your skin color is the wrong color
or that you were born in the wrong country,
or you're not tall enough,
you're not good looking enough,
or you're not smart enough,
or you don't have the right connections
you don't know the right people?
What is the story?
What is the story that you are telling yourself,
why you are disadvantaged?
Whatever the story is you're telling yourself.
I wanna spend a few minutes here with you
and try to convince you that your advantage
is your disadvantage.
Whatever you think, your disadvantage is
that is your advantage.
Let me tell you a story.
30 years ago, at the age of 18,
I started for a company that sold memory seminars.
And I went into my sales manager one day and I said,
"Frank." Frank Masini was his name.
I'm like "Frank, I'm at such a disadvantage.
Here I am 18 years old.
I'm having to work a full-time job,
trying to sell memory training seminars.
And at the same time that I am being a salesman
for memory training seminars,
my friends are going to college."
Not only are they going to college,
I grew up with about six or seven group of guys.
And I went to work right after high school.
They all went off to college.
And when they all went to college,
either their college was paid for
through some form of scholarships
or in most cases their parents paid for their college.
And here I was, I didn't have any of that.
I did not have...
in one case one, the guys,
my grades were actually better
than his grades were in high school,
but he got a scholarship
because he was one tenth native American.
And I'm like, oh my gosh, this is crazy.
My grades were better,
but my skin color was just the wrong color.
So he got the scholarship.
Oh my gosh, this is crazy.
I worked so hard in high school.
And now these people
who didn't have to work half as hard as I do,
they get to go to college
and their parents are paying for it.
And I have to go to school while working a full-time job.
And I told my sales manager,
I'm at such a disadvantage here.
And I was feeling bad for myself.
I was throwing a pity party that,
oh my gosh, I can't believe how unfortunate I am.
And my sales manager, Frank Masini
gave me words of wisdom 30 years ago
that I will never forget to this day.
He said, "Ron, what you are seeing as your disadvantage
is your advantage."
You don't see it right now,
but one day you're gonna look back on this moment.
And this is gonna be one of your proudest moments.
This disadvantage is your advantage.
And I'm like, what are you talking about?
And what he was saying is that my friends
were going off to school
and their parents were paying for their school.
And all they had to do is focus on their studies,
which hey, that's nice.
What was I having to do?
I was having to get a job
and learn how to work in the business world.
Guess what, I got a four or five-year headstart
on that over them.
I was learning how to contact businesses
and close sales and ask for the money,
thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars
at age 18 I was learning how to do that.
My friends didn't have to do that.
Learning how to work with businesses,
learning how to stand up in front of groups
and give speeches or presentations,
just to make a living.
Wondering about where,
if I was gonna be able to buy food for the weekend,
or if my electricity was going to get turned off.
If I was gonna be able to pay my rent, got me out of bed.
Lit that fire in me and forced me to learn sales.
If forced me to learn business,
it forced me to be creative.
My friends weren't being forced to be creative.
And so, you know what they did,
and there's nothing wrong with this,
but they weren't that creative
when they got out of college,
they didn't really build or grow anything unique.
They just went and followed the normal path you do
when you get out of school.
I was forced into creativity.
I was forced into cold calling.
I was forced into sales.
I was forced to asking people,
hey, this is how much we need.
And this is how we close the deal.
I was forced into that.
And that disadvantage of being forced into that
was my advantage.
Over the last 30 years,
the economy of the world has gone ch ch ch ch ch.
During good times, it's been easy for me to succeed.
During bad times it's been easier for me to succeed
because of the skills I learned 30 years ago.
I know how to pick up that phone
and call businesses and say,
hey, can I come out there
and give a speech or a presentation?
Talk about memory and close the sale,
close the deal and make money, generate money.
I don't have to wait for it to come to me.
My friends didn't necessarily learn that.
My disadvantage was my advantage
because I had a fire in my gut
that forced me to get better.
That fire in your gut.
If you are born in a country
that you don't have the same advantage as
maybe United States,
that fire in your gut can force you to get better.
You are gonna have to work two or three times as hard
as somebody else just to get to the same level.
But you know what? It's worth it.
Because this isn't about comparison.
You're not about comparing where your life ends up
and compared to somebody else.
Where did you start from?
Did you start from a place of great success?
And then you are here and you just maintain that
throughout your entire life.
Big deal okay, cool.
You were born into incredible wealth
and you maintain that wealth, your entire life.
Great, congratulations.
But were you born down here and you fought and you struggled
and you went a little higher and you went a little higher
and you went a little higher.
That struggle makes you stronger.
And life isn't about comparing yourself to other people.
Comparison is the thief of joy.
Life is about excelling at what has been put on your plate.
Right now in your hands,
you have the entirety of all the knowledge known to man.
If you're looking at this on a cell phone,
guess what else is on that cell phone,
philosophy, history, science, math, culture, languages.
It's all right there.
You are living at the greatest time
in the history of the world.
Anything you wanna learn is on your computer
and it's on the cell phone.
Take advantage of that.
You have access to it.
If you're born in another country
and maybe you wanna do YouTube videos like me,
I'm gonna be honest with you.
I might have access to a better camera.
I might have access to higher speed internet.
It might be easier for me to record something,
put it on the internet and boom it's on YouTube quicker.
But because that I have easier access,
and it's gonna be more difficult for you,
it's gonna force you to work even harder.
And when you work harder,
your disadvantage becomes your advantage.
We have seen stories all the time
of people who are immigrants and come to the United States
with not very much money in their pocket
and they very, very, very often
outpace people who are naturally born in the United States.
The land of great opportunity.
Why do they achieve so much wealth?
So much quicker than people who were born into
a lot better situation?
It's that drive.
It is that fire and their gut,
that fire in their gut to achieve,
that fire in their gut to make something of their lives.
Because they know, they know where they have come from
and they know how hard poverty is,
and they know how difficult it is.
That disadvantage has become a fire inside of them
to achieve.
30 years ago, I thought my disadvantage
was having to work and learn business skills
and learn sales
while I was trying to go to school at the same time.
My disadvantage was my advantage.
If you think your disadvantage is the color of your skin,
if you think it is you're not tall enough,
you're not good looking enough,
or you're born in the wrong country,
or your parents don't have enough money,
or you don't have access to the best schools
or whatever it is,
let that be your motivation.
Let that be the fire in your gut to push you.
And every time you begin to think, oh, I'm so disadvantaged.
Tell yourself, look everybody's got something.
Everybody's got something.
And you know what the disadvantage of the advantaged is?
Do you know what the disadvantage of the rich is?
They do have a disadvantage as well.
Kids born into very wealthy families,
they're at a disadvantage too, maybe even worse than yours,
but they don't know it.
Their disadvantages comfort.
Their disadvantage is
they're gonna be regardless of what happens.
And so they're gonna have to fight even harder
to overcome comfort.
Now they still may maintain a good life.
Just stay even right where they were born.
But is that really what life is about for you?
It's not for me.
It's about growth.
So I hope you grow.
I hope you look at your disadvantages as advantages.
If you wanna grow and learn something new,
maybe having a memory course will help you.
I teach a memory course called Black Belt Memory.
I'll put the link down in the comments below.
It'll teach you how to remember names and faces,
learn anything faster.
And if you're wanting to learn and achieve,
maybe it'll help you do that faster.
So check out the Black Belt Memory course,
it's in the description below.
I'd love to get a thumbs up from you
if you liked this,
I'm always trying to give you valuable videos.
And comment below and tell me,
what is your disadvantage
and how are you gonna spin it around
and use it to your advantage?
How are we gonna use it as that fire in your gut
to motivate you?
But stop talking about your disadvantage
and see it as an advantage.