- You see the house, you see the car,
you see the success, you see the glory, you see the fame,
and you see this on social media.
Today I want to talk about
what they don't tell you about entrepreneurship.
The dark side of entrepreneurship.
And of course, I have my wife Jenny joining me
because I think through my own path,
she would be the one that could share with you
what I have gone through,
what we've gone through as a couple, about entrepreneurship.
The entrepreneurship path is a very lonely path.
It is a path that is not so easy.
It's like the metaphor I like to use.
People can see that, you know,
that man is riding on a lion, he is so brave.
The man on the on the lion is saying,
"How the hell did I even get on this lion?
"And how do I prevent myself from being eaten alive."
That's entrepreneurship for you.
As an entrepreneur, I think that entrepreneurs,
you see that we are hustling, we are working hard,
we're trying to bring in revenue, and make things happen
and build a team and get our name out there,
doing social media and trying
to manage everything without falling apart
or before we run out of cash and run out of money.
And during that time, the feeling of anxiety,
It could be hopelessness, depression,
worthlessness or even sometimes suicidal thinking.
- Self-doubt.
It's very, very real.
When you see these people accomplish these things.
We idolize Steve Jobs, right?
We idolize Elon Musk,
we idolize all these entrepreneurs
you see on the cover of these business magazines, right?
They are like, look at my success.
What you don't see is what's behind.
I'm not even talking about how hard they work
or how much they put into the business.
I'm just talking about
what they've gone through psychologically
and emotionally as an entrepreneur.
- I guess when everybody sees those images,
they all see the glorious,
we only see is as...
They don't see the darkness behind all the glorious.
I think Dan's mentor, Mr Dan Pena says, "its the best".
Entrepreneurship?
- Is the ability
- To endure the pain - They carry the pain
for long period of time. - Over time.
- Yeah, the ability of entrepreneurs
is the, it's the number one quality.
The number one characteristic of entrepreneurs,
the ability to endure pain for a long period of time.
And I think it's very, very true.
- It doesn't matter how much money you are making
or how much money you are losing.
- You are enjoying the pain. - And by the way,
the more money you make, the bigger problems you have.
- For sure.
- They are just bigger problems, right?
They just have more zeros behind it.
But as an entrepreneur, you're always solving problems.
One thing I've learned about in business is,
one problem solved will be immediately replaced
by another problem.
A bigger, more complex problem, right?
And you don't remember, I remember when I was
having a tough time in my business, right?
and Jenny didn't even know this before I told you after.
But one night, I was in my office by myself.
It was 4 am in the morning and I was crying.
I don't cry often, but I was crying by myself.
And I said, it was having a downturn, my business.
And I said to myself, "what am I supposed to do?"
I've tried everything I possibly could.
I've done as much as I could,
but I've given my hundred percent. I'm working hard,
but I just don't see a way out
and I don't see how I could turn this around
and I was
stuck.
- I think that was the same time
when Dan's dad just passed away.
So every pressure,
everything he's going through in life all combined together.
It's up to this point that he feels so lonely,
so hopeless that he doesn't even want to share it with me.
Because he doesn't want me to endure the same pain he has.
But afterwards, we talked,
we gone through that period of time,
but then, what we're trying to tell you is,
don't focus on the glorious life,
don't focus on the star of the center, the whole thing.
Focus on...
try to pass through this time,
and try to overcome
everything you're going through right now.
Because all the things going through your life
which is giving you disadvantage
is going to be advantage for you,
but you have to overcome them.
- And I think, as an entrepreneur,
when you are having a difficult time.
When you are
working so hard,
want to provide for your spouse, your family
and when they don't even support you,
they don't understand you,
they're telling you,
just go get a job, get a safe secure job,
or you should give up, why are you wasting time on this,
or they are saying that you don't spend time
with us anymore.
What they don't understand is, you're an entrepreneur.
You're building a business,
you're trying to build a better future.
No one will understand you.
So when you're going through a tough time,
nobody understands you.
When you actually, when you're going through a good time,
when business is going well,
it's not like you get a lot of people you could share with,
you're not going to share with your employees
because they probably don't get it, right?
You're not going to share, sometimes maybe with your family
but they may or may not understand
what you're doing, what you're working on.
So you cannot share your struggles,
and you cannot quite share with your success either.
- The funny like, the other day we just had a conversation
with Dan's mom, which is my mother-in-law.
And then, Dan's mom's like,
son, you're doing all these things
and they will make you the money way more than we need.
Then why you're still want to build your business
to the next level.
Can we just be comfortable, can we just be where we are,
can we just enjoy the life, let's don't pursue for more.
- Because my mom knows the stress,
the price that we have to pay.
- Or the sacrifice. - Or the sacrifice.
- She already saw how much sacrifice I have to make
and she knows that to go to the next level,
the sacrifices that I have to make, to go to the next level.
I even, just the amount of,
because my mum follows me on social media
and just the amount of haters and criticism that we get,
because as you get more popular,
as you get more exposure, it's all part of it.
When, let's say, you view my video,
is my work is being watched, let's say,
by a million people a month, right?
- Mm-hmm.
- If one percent of those people hate you,
that's ten thousand people.
That's a lot of people hating you.
But that's all part of it.
So my mom was having that conversation
and if I was just to do it for money,
I could have stopped many years ago.
I don't need to do any of this.
If just for, like a lifestyle.
- Yeah. - Right?
So I'm not doing it for that, I'm doing it
for a bigger purpose, I'm doing it for legacy.
I'm doing it for to impact.
- That's the thing about entrepreneurship
is when you invest more and more of yourself into this.
you realize you are actually holding a big responsibility
to change the society.
You're not doing just for yourself.
In the beginning, maybe you just want to do this for money
but after you got more and more into this,
you're getting more rewards from this.
Not just money. I'm talking about maybe more significance,
or more recognition, maybe respect from other people,
or even you sometimes impact other people's lives.
When you're on this track, you cannot just stop
because the reward is,
way much more than just the money himself.
- It's not just the money, because if it's the money,
a lot of entrepreneurs,
even you see it could be the top Forbes 500,
and most of them could stop. - Yes.
- And some of the poor people might say
that it's because they're greedy.
It's not because they're greedy.
They don't spend that much.
Look at Warren Buffett, right?
I don't spend that much,
even though I live a very good life.
I mean, I have my eight-dollar breakfast,
- Yeah. - Right?
- Actually its not--
- The end of the day, we're still just human beings.
All we need is the basic human needs, it's all the same.
- You drive one car, you sleep on one bed.
- Exactly. - Right?
- Even if you stay in a five-star hotel, it's still one bed.
Like the difference is not a huge amount.
Once you get over that certain amount, that comfort,
anything above that you don't really spend it, right?
So, why do we do it?
It's not because of that.
We do it because, I believe it is a self-discovery process.
It's actually a self-actualization process.
To see what is my limit, what is my potential
How do I realize my full potential?
And how could I impact a lot of people?
It's interesting, I just saw a comment this morning
through YouTube.
That when I'm making videos, and people watching videos,
if you've been watching my video for some time,
comment below and let me know.
That my work is impacting a lot of people, right?
And then I would have, at the same time,
the same amount of people, the haters they criticize, right?
Where...
Oh, Dan you're this, or you're that
or even sometimes attacking Jenny, which I don't appreciate.
Where I'm like, I don't need anything from you, right?
Oh, you're trying to sell your book.
Then don't buy my fucking book, what do I care?
You know what I mean?
But it is like that.
I even saw sometimes, haters where...
oh yeah, this is a funny one.
I rented the Bentley for a day to film video.
Or this penthouse is a Airbnb?
- Yeah
- (laughs) I think the haters,
just overestimate the importance.
(laughs) Trust me, I'm not doing it for the haters.
This is just my life,
I'm just inviting my students, my fans to be part of it.
- And I want you guys to know--
- Am just living a life. - For every positive comments,
we are reading it, every single one of them.
I'm reading it, every single one of them.
I really appreciate.
What we're doing is surely just for you, not for the haters.
So that's why we're doing it all for you.
And I want you to know on this journey,
become an entrepreneur, it's gonna be hard,
it's gonna be tough, it's gonna be full of surprises.
Only a few good surprises, most of the time are bad.
Really bad surprises.
So you have to be prepared for that.
And then be very patient about it
and also notice, when you get any rewards from it,
it just going to be a bonus.
Don't chase the thing, but then chase for the journey.
The whole transformation.
- Because when you...
the problem is, when you see someone on social media,
they have that good life,
and you believe I could have that too.
And you could have that too.
But you might not have that in a year.
You might not have that in three years.
You might not even have that for 10 years.
But when you look at them, it's so easy.
It is not easy, it is tough as hell to be an entrepreneur.
It is tough as hell to make a business successful.
So when you are becoming an entrepreneur,
when you are an entrepreneur, just mentally be prepared.
Have that mental toughness, it's going to be hard as hell.
And you're going to pay some serious price.
You're going to make some serious sacrifices
and it is going to be lonely, and people will judge you.
They will judge you, they will criticize,
before you're successful, they will still judge
and criticize you after you're successful.
And chances are, your family may
or may never understand you even before your success
or even after your success,
That's entrepreneurship. - Some of your good friends,
they will (mumbles) - You might lose some
of your good friends.
- You'll never be friends ever again.
- Ever again.
it's just the way it is, It is just life.
So you have to make that decision.
I cannot make that decision for you,
Jenny cannot make that decision for you.
You have to make that decision
and you have to adjust that expectations.
Have a realistic expectation, knowing how tough this is.
Nobody talks about this.
Everybody, every one wants to talk about
how to make, how I make more money.
Look at my life, look at how fucking awesome it is.
I'm talking about it is so tough.
When you see Michael Jordan winning, you don't see the hours
and years of practice he put in, nobody's watching.
When he was by himself, just shooting the hoops, practicing.
That few minutes of glory you see me on stage.
What you don't see is that sweat and tears
and blood off the stage.
So remember that you cannot have the glory,
if you don't have the guts.