Dan, so good to see you
Oh yes!
You gave me that 15 years ago.
Oh wow!
It's been on my desk for 15 years!
Thank you, Thank you!
(bass thumping music)
By the way, do you remember when you were
flying down from Vancouver to have breakfast with me
Oh yeah, I'm gonna tell that story!
Right now, It's gonna start with that!
Right there, Right there!
(laughing)
Oh, it will be a good story!
Time flies, time flies.
Well today, we don't just have one Boss in the Bentley
we have two bosses in the Bentley.
I have my mentor and very owner
Mr Dan Pena, the 50 billion dollar man
with me, in the car,
I've been waiting
for this for a long time Dan.
And I've been waiting as well.
We were just talking about back then,
I think it was over 10 years, 12 years ago.
No, It was 2003.
Oh wow, 2003.
So, for those who don't know
I actually approached and contacted Dan
in the castle back then and I asked him to
even mentor me and big Dan said no by the way
he said no but he was gracious enough to
meet with me at Los Angeles.
I flew in there and actually we had breakfast
Correct
And I remember you coming down the escalator
and I was in my over-sized suit!
(laughing)
and spiky hair, with my glasses!
Ah, the doofus kid!
No red suit then!
No red suit back then!
Just a cheap suit
but Mr Pena spent almost a good few hours with me
doing the breakfast and asked me a lot of questions
and I'm always forever grateful.
And at that breakfast, you gave me this.
That's right, that's the frog.
The frog on a stone and I've kept it ever since
and it's on my desk and has been on my desk
for 15 years now.
I appreciate that, and that's because from QLA
what we learnt it's got to kiss a lot of frogs
to find the prince.
Now back then,
I remember when I went to the castle
after I think, shortly after, maybe less than a year
and the first time I went to the castle
it was actually very uncomfortable for me
because you always talk about comfort about success
and I went there, I was living in one bedroom
apartment with my mom now I flew to Scotland
living in this castle, Right?
And for 7 days, I was actually staying in the cottage.
So with my own bedroom, bathroom and I see the antiques
and everything it's everything,
it's a wealth triggers
right, talk to us a bit about comfort.
Well, one of the primary reasons that most of the kids
and I call you all kids, because I'm either old
enough to be your father or grandfather.
All the kids have trouble succeeding it's because
they can't succeed beyond their highest expectation
and their highest expectation has been formed
by their then role models, which are their parents
and their parents normally, don't have high expectations
or the only expectation they have, which is a good one
is they want their kids to have it better than they do.
But if they're just one level above poverty
and so then their kids are gonna be two levels above poverty
I mean that's not that much of an expectation
so it's about pushing the comfort zone out
and because we never exceed our wildest expectation.
So when kids coming to me saying they wanna be a millionaire
I assure them, unless the wanna be a multi-millionaire,
or a billionaire they're never gonna exceed
a million dollars.
And when I went to the castle, I think the first
couple days I was extremely uncomfortable
and after I think the third and fourth day
I was like this is nice,
(laughs)
Like this is nice!
You know drinking from the crystal glass
and the breakfast and everything,
I'm like, I could get used to this.
I think that expanded my comfort.
A lot of people ask me the question about
what's the biggest thing I got of the castle
I could give them a 10 page keys about the different
things I learnt, but I think the biggest thing
is the comfort where it's possible
that I'm in this environment.
And now, at that time I think we only had one ex-staff
from the Queen of England staff,
now we have a few.
We have two butlers who used to be with the Queen
and they're serving drinks, but the whole idea is that,
it is possible, because I come from the Bodio
Former Bodio bad boy from East LA got in a lot of trouble
and I was poor,
and of course my quantum leap is significant
just as yours is,
but most of the kids can't realize that
and a lot of kids that come think they were poor, think.
But as Sally, my wife, would say, they lived
in the lap of luxury, (laughter)
compared to what we came from.
That's right, that's right,
and over the years, a lot of different students
and mentees have gone through QLA,
they've gone to the castle.
What do you think is the difference between someone
who made it big ,who actually apply what you teach,
versus the ones who go to the castle but then
they don't fucking get to it.
Well, the biggest thing is their desire
a lot of people pretend that they wanna be successful
until they figure out what the pay price to action is
how much am I willing to sacrifice?
How much time am I willing to put in a week?
How much time am I willing to be, unfortunately,
away from my family?
How much time am I willing to, you know,
make those cold calls?
And most people grossly underestimate it.
One of the things I've said since before I met you
you can never underestimate how wrong you can be
and the amount of sacrifice and focus and devotion
to success is a big deal and most people just don't have it.
And I thought before QLA I think I thought,
I was working hard, no, I wasn't working hard,
(laughs loudly)
Like you said, I think at the castle you said
"you fucking kids can't even spell high performance"
right?
"You don't even know what it's like"
and I remember there was one night, I think I walked by,
I think the third or fourth night, and I walked by
and you'd been teaching long days,
long long days from morning till sometimes we don't wrap up
till 6-7 pm right?
I think it's the third or fourth night I walk by your office
and I was like Oh,
"Mr Pena you're still working?"
and I remember you told me,
"You all kids are fucking rich, filthy stinking rich,
I gotta make a living!"
(laughing)
and you went back to work!