ASTON INCORPORATED
The Entrepreneurs Pursuit of Personal Expansion, Tactical Success, Limitless Mindset, Manifesting the Impossible and making Legacy Impact on Humanity.
ASTON INCORPORATED
Episode 2- Discovering Your Why: Unveiling the Deeper Drive Behind Life and Legacy
Why do we climb out of bed every morning and face the day ahead? This burning question is at the heart of our latest heart-to-heart on the podcast, as Dallin and I, Wayne Aston, delve into the motivations that steer our ship through life's tumultuous seas. Embark on a journey of reflection and self-discovery with us, as we recount the pivotal moments and sage advice that shaped our quest for success. We reminisce about early career crossroads, where the wisdom of grandfathers and fathers clashed, guiding us to learn trades or chase academic accolades. Experience our realizations that the pursuit of personal gain rings hollow without the creation of outward value and join us as we dissect the integral role that relationships and integrity played in the development of Sage Creek at Moab Resort.
What lies beneath the surface of our desire for financial comfort and stability? In this conversation, we explore the emotional undercurrents that reveal our true selves when we peel back the layers of our primary motivations. I open up about the profound insights gained from confronting the comfort of financial security against the priceless value of family time. We highlight the importance of understanding these core desires as catalysts for all future ventures, strategies, and the emotional depth they bring to our lives.
Our dialogue culminates in a powerful testament to the transformation that occurs when one aligns with a divine calling. I reflect on the seismic shift from a physically demanding enterprise to the pursuit of the financial markets, a change ignited by the recognition of a higher purpose. A life-changing lunch meeting opened my eyes to the atrocities of child sex trafficking, reshaping my mission in life to serve a cause greater than any individual ambition. This episode isn't just about business acumen; it's a clarion call to find your 'why', to rise above material aspirations, and to strive for a legacy that echoes through humanity.
Welcome back, guys to Aston Incorporated. I'm your host, wayne Aston. This is my co-host, dallin Aston. Hey, everyone, good to be back. Good to be back. Thanks for coming back, guys. It feels good to be on episode two here. Yeah, absolutely. We left off last time with this idea of why right?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's the big question. It's why do we do anything? We're doing as entrepreneurs, as someone who works a fulfilling job as a government official like it applies to everyone. Why do you do what you do? But I think in our experience collectively, the why story is maybe one of the most valuable lessons. It's one of the most valuable things because it's the reason.
Speaker 1:But it's also for the listeners to help boil it down and get clear about that sooner than later, right, the longer you spend trying to figure out why you're doing something, the longer that process to success is going to be. I mean, I go back to 21 years old. I'm still in the military, in the reserves, and I've started a stone and tile company and I'm building my own house. So I'm doing these things and my why was definitely to make money, definitely to learn a trade, mm-hmm, and why. I mean, what drove me to want to learn a trade? Well, your grandpa with fever, rest in peace. He convinced me that.
Speaker 2:hey you need to learn a trade, you need to get a trade, because that's what he did, right.
Speaker 1:But contrast that with my dad. He's saying, hey, go to school, be an attorney get a degree and have a career right.
Speaker 1:And so I attempted, like I mentioned in the last episode, I attempted the whole college thing and I, you know, in architecture and I thought about law school because my dad was saying, go get a law degree. But it was not resonating, man, and I wasn't clear. I didn't know what I wanted to do other than make money and maybe learn a trade and that'd be cool. And that's about as far as it got in those early, early years, right.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, give us some of your early phase struggles with the why.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I mean, it goes back to the origin, right? I mean, if we're talking about just starting out, obviously, you know, I think most people get this I want to start a business. It's the shiny object syndrome. It's such a buzz phrase, especially now. Now more than ever, I want to be on a beach on my laptop, making this money while I manage my properties.
Speaker 2:I want to work four hours a week and like, oh man, the amount of times I've heard either buddies or you know other people like clients. Hey, I just want to automate everything so I can just sit back and collect checks and just retire at 24.
Speaker 1:So what's missing in that response? Well, what's the white elephant in the room missing from that equation?
Speaker 2:There's no value. I mean like, listen, it's totally me, it's me, it's me, it's me, it's a selfish. There's no outward value creation. I mean you can automate a service or a product that's very valuable, but at the end of the day, you're so focused on me yeah, right, right, I'm focused. The inward focus, the inward focus, and that is. I mean I've said it before and I'll say it again that's the kiss of death.
Speaker 1:That is the kiss of death I mean that is how companies fail.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that you know I've and I won't name names and I won't name companies, but I've been a part of quite a few things where someone in the organization or someone on the team is that way and the team has a very difficult time succeeding because of that. It's like a disease and it's infectious, it's contagious, and you're around that and it sucks your soul, it makes it just causes resentment, it causes all these things and there is just, oh, my eye, yeah.
Speaker 1:Eye and I've had those certain experiences I've had. So you know, talking about the power of contrast, so I I've been blessed with being able to experience extreme contrast, the extremities of of the spectrum. On one side, people driven by nothing but money, in the bottom line. On the other side, people driven by the relationships and the value of relationship, capital, and so that's really the focus, and you have a five minute conversation with someone and you can pretty quickly tell where they are on that spectrum and I'm, and I'm definitely on the relationship cultivation side of this.
Speaker 2:So money is like the third or fourth or fifth thing on the list for me.
Speaker 1:And but the power of contrast has been a valuable teacher, because the guys that are driven by the money in the bottom line, they'll, they will cut the corners out of the value proposition all day. You know when we were designing this H Creek and Moab Resort.
Speaker 2:I mean this is my vision, this is this is I created this.
Speaker 1:I designed every stitch, every stitch of this resort, down to the custom made carpet, from Mohawk down to you know the paint color, you name it. But I had partners who wanted to eliminate the chimneys, or they wanted to use fake stone on the building, or they wanted to take the elevator out because they would save $87,000. I'm talking about some cheap bastards who who did not understand the value of the quality and the attention to detail. It's the experience.
Speaker 1:All they wanted to do was put heads in beds sell the room nights, and it didn't matter what the experience was these details don't matter Right? So there was an allergic reaction. We did not get along Right and luckily I was able to prevail and, and you know, I was running into finance, so I had more, you know. You know, persuasion and control of the situation to make sure that the design and the programming was such that it was successful, right, right, but, but it's an outward focus.
Speaker 2:Why would I?
Speaker 1:spend more money. Okay, why would I not just spend a half a million dollars on a postage stamp size pool, versus three and a half million dollars on a world class 7,000 square foot, you know, multiple tiered pool with waterfalls and fire features? Why would I do that? And not only that, but do it before the buildings yeah, yeah, that's it, that's it.
Speaker 1:That's a great whole another story, right, it's. We make. We're making these the kind of it's kind of mavericking. There's a kind of a gut, there's kind of an intuition, but it's really driven to the value I wanted to be. I wanted to make sure that if I built that pool and those cliffs and the fire features and lit the pool up and that was done before any condominiums on the resort were completed it'd do a few things. It'd show my patrons that I mean business. Yeah, I'm serious about delivering world class value. If the pool, complex and amenities look this great, imagine what those condo buildings will be like. They'll be like inside.
Speaker 2:They've already, they're driving by, imagining it already Right Now.
Speaker 1:Contrast that to the Walmart guy, that is, my old partners, who build that crappy old condo with no amenities and the postage stamp pool. Like those folks driving by number one, they build the condo and maybe the pool comes in nine years later.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so how does that serve a patron? How does that?
Speaker 1:serve a patron Right your guests. I had a funny story. Like in Moab, there's a condominium project down the highway from Sage Creek and I met a guy. He was actually a furniture salesman at RC Willy. I was buying appliances one day from him and he told me about his son and daughter in law flying in from North Carolina and they were going to Moab and they had stayed at this one particular place. I'm not going to say yeah, but the website showed this pool and these beautiful condos. Yeah, they fly in in July into Moab to go visit these beautiful condos and there's no pool.
Speaker 1:Oh, so pure false marketing. Wow, these guys advertised a pool Wow. The pool didn't even come in for years after the condos were built Wow. So they had a job to do with not being that developer who doesn't do what they say they're going to do. I wanted to show up delivering and showing my constituents and my patrons this is how we do it Right and you don't have to listen to what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Just see what we're doing. Just see what we're doing. That's right. Yeah, that's huge. So it goes back to the why too. It does. Yeah, well, why are you doing that? So can I say something? Yeah, I mean, I think we've kind of gone through and said, okay, well, there's like relationships first, and you know, you want freedom, you want to provide value. At the end of the day, you know, and for everyone out there, your why is going to drive everything. And I think we've narrowed that in pretty powerfully. Yeah, right.
Speaker 1:Now I think, maybe not deeply, but the conceptually powerfully, yeah, that the why is important.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:It maybe feels like we could get deep on this, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think there's a great way to do it. And so you know, I'm just going to ask you. First and foremost, we can go through an exercise, and I encourage everyone listening to go through this as well. Don't do it yourself. Have someone actually come up to you and do this. You know and essentially what it is. It's going seven layers deep and this is a very powerful exercise that I experienced first from Dean Graziosi. If you're familiar with him, he's awesome, go check him out. He has this book called oh man, what is it? Millionaire Success Habits, and I first read this book and I was exposed to this, this kind of this experience, this exercise, and it's seven layers deep, and so I'm just going to we can do this, like right now, if you're okay with it, just raw live.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sure.
Speaker 2:So I'm just going to ask you why. Seven times? It's kind of silly, it's really simple, but it's really powerful and I think we can get down to something and prove to everyone listening you know how effective this actually is. So let me ask you this, dad why? Right, like I think we've covered. You know you wanted the freedom, you wanted that, but the answer is just why You're right off the top of your head.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this doesn't really apply project level. Yeah, no, this is career global. This is huge, this is big picture conversation. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think this is what we're trying to transmit to everyone. Yeah, having your why is it? Transcends your career, it transcends every. I mean, it bleeds into every aspect of your life. You're living your life in these principles, and the principles are built on a foundation of okay, well, why, yeah, right, so that's what we're talking about here. Yeah, so why?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, yeah, that first. Why going back to you? Know why started business? Because I was married at 21 and you were on the way. Yeah, my first child was on the way on 21. And so why, man, I need to pay the bills, okay, so that was the first why.
Speaker 2:I've got to make money because I have to make money, because I got to pay the bills, yeah, and while that transmits to now, does it not? I mean, you're so saying, hey, you still have bills to pay.
Speaker 1:That's what everyone has bills to pay, so your first, why?
Speaker 2:okay, well, you need to pay the bill, but why, why? So? Why do you need to pay the bills?
Speaker 1:So that's two the deeper. Why became? You know I wanted to be a good provider to you and your mom and as the years went on, you know your brother and sisters, so it was still. It was like there was a duty and obligation as a father.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you want to be a provider? Why yeah?
Speaker 1:Here's the third why? So? Why, right? Yeah, number one, I you know I shouldn't say number one, I got to be careful about how I say it in this third level, like, why be a good provider? Well, because, you know, I wanted my wife to appreciate me, I wanted my family to be safe and I wanted to feel, I wanted to feel acknowledged and respected as a man for being able to be a provider. So there's, there's a need, and I wanted to tap into. We start talking about Maslow's hierarchy of laws. You know and needs and you might be familiar with that pyramid where, on the baseline of that pyramid, you know it, what is it? It's food and shelter. Food, water and shelter. That's the basic need. And my why is at that age, where they were rooted in the basic need of food, water and shelter, and, and. But then it started, as we get into that third why, it started to creep into my needs as a human needing to feel respected, needing to feel some admiration, needing to feel accomplished, Right. So that's that. That was a natural progression.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So you're, you're wanting this acknowledgement, you're wanting this, this. You know this respect, right? This? You know this sense of, I guess, or sorry, a sense of, oh, I'm, I'm, I'm being who I should be, yeah, kind of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I'm, fair.
Speaker 2:And then, if we go another and this is where it starts getting to a very interesting point and where I started to get emotional the first time I did it because you have all that right Now. If we, how can we go deeper? So why, right, yeah, why are you feeling those things Like what is, what is you know? What's that reason we're going to start getting? It's going to be harder and harder to answer this as we go, but it'll get us down to the root and that is what we want to focus on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so in the fourth level of why I think that's funny we're doing this week. You know, I would have maybe prepared my thoughts better if I knew that this was the questions coming out. Well, that's the beauty of this is a hard conversation.
Speaker 2:It's a hard conversation and again forever. You know this is very vulnerable and you're going to experience the very similar thing. This is why I kind of wanted to do it raw yeah yeah, because you experience, you know what we're actually talking about.
Speaker 2:It's not easy to answer these, but if you can really tighten it up and figure out, get to the bottom of this, yeah, and first you'll start to understand your why is not just paying the bill? It's not just this freedom, it's not just, you know, this surface level. Yeah, you know, and by all means this is not surface level, but I want to be a provider. That's still at the. You can see, we just did it. It's still the top, very important, very very important.
Speaker 1:At the time of my consciousness, that was the most important, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Was to be a good provider and then get better acknowledgement. That will drive, but it's. But. We are getting down to really deep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, deep, why I think that? Fourth thing for me, as I kind of think back on those, those are we're still in early years. This isn't the first five years or so I'm still in only this deep. I still don't, I don't even know why, and it's five years in, maybe I'm still I'm starting to perceive, maybe, that freedom is really valuable. Like like if I'm a successful entrepreneur and I can make this stone and tile business fly, then naturally my wife and kids are going to appreciate me.
Speaker 2:We're going to be able to go on vacation. Exactly, we're going to have some freedom.
Speaker 1:We're going to be able to pay the bill. I'm not going to stress about the bills.
Speaker 2:So there's, a freedom You're getting deeper. So that, yeah, that's so. This is interesting and I want to point this out to everyone because you see, the first three levels, you're, you're sitting here going very human. This is like oh man, what am I thinking? My just innate answers are oh, money, they want to be provider. Yeah, you know, and you know these are things that are very important. But then you start getting into well, freedom actually does all those things. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So see what I'm saying, yeah.
Speaker 2:So okay, now we're getting the fifth one, or was that? No, that was four, so now we're getting to five. Why freedom? Right, and it could be circle, it could circle around, but to me.
Speaker 1:To me it started to get into comfort. Okay, so if I have freedom and I have financial freedom, specifically I? So I'm not at that point. I'm not making a direct correlation of freedom of time. It's still a freedom.
Speaker 2:It's a nebulous freedom, freedom For me.
Speaker 1:yeah, at that time it's a nebulous freedom. Later on, you know, I get to understand that there's financial freedom, there's freedom of my time, there's freedom to spend with my kids. Yeah, because 10 years in I spent 10 years in Stone and Tile and I would get up at six and leave while you were all asleep. You'd go to school and then come home at 10, 11 o'clock at night, working the 15, 16-hour day never got to see you guys, so I didn't. But I wasn't correlating that.
Speaker 1:We had the financial freedom in many regards, but I had no time. Freedom, yeah, and I didn't even realize that was, that was like a valuable thing. I was in my mind. I was like I'm sacrificing now so we have a better future. So in this fifth one, freedom starts to kind of turn into comfort, like that motivator. That why is? You know? Well, if we have some nicer cars and a nicer house, we're more comfortable. And you know, maybe if we can go on a nice vacation, that's more comfortable. So it's a smidge more than freedom.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:The varying levels of freedom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. It almost ties to all the other ones too, in the sense that you know if you're comfortable by your definition, you're not having to worry about. You know money, not seeing your family, you know you have these things that are inherently comfortable. Because what does that word mean? Right, and it's like well, you know. And so okay then, if we go deeper. So okay, why?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I can see how you're getting emotional, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:This is where you're supposed to feel. When you actually tap into these levels deep, you start to get emotional and you realize and understand it's so much more than what you think it is and you'll understand why that why is so important and why we talk about it so much and, I think, why we'll drive everything moving forward. We'll get into a lot of really specific stuff, but if there's anything and you know, maybe you're thinking about this your next, why?
Speaker 2:we're not talking about this, but then, as we go through everything, we'll talk about strategies, we'll talk about, you know, really specific, amazing stuff. We'll bring people on the show. We'll be talking about this, but at the core, I think, of all of it is why are you doing this?
Speaker 1:Why are you doing a show?
Speaker 2:So let's go into the sixth. Why?
Speaker 1:Yeah, why the sixth one? You know I can remember when I started to have what I'll call I'll refer to as an awakening to this as deeper why I was done doing stone and tile. I spent a decade breaking my back and you know we did. We did multiple six figures, very successful stone and tile business, but I, the sacrifice of time with my family and the toll it was having on my body was not worth the money and so I started transitioning into the financial markets and doing things with my brain. And this is where this awakening happened of a realization on this sixth level, of why that God has a calling for me to do something bigger than myself. Yeah, and the huge shift at that level is that the first five.
Speaker 1:Ys were all centered on me and my family. Very interesting this sixth Y. It opened my eyes up to that. God has this calling and this plan and I love the parable of talents. You know, if listeners are versed in the Bible they'll recall the parable of talents and they'll remember this lesson about the master who had multiple servants.
Speaker 1:He gave them each these coins called talents and he said he was going away for a while and you take these coins and do what you will, and when I get back we'll have a conversation. The Bible readers don't hold me to the specifics of this, but this is generalizing, right, yeah.
Speaker 1:But the servant comes back and he's questioning the servants what they did with them. Well, one servant buried the talents. He buried those coins underground because he wanted to protect them and not lose them. So when the master came back he could give them back his coins. He thought that's it, man, I'll be safe back, he will promote me because I didn't lose the money right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then you know, as I recall it correct me if I'm wrong you know, the second servant went out and he took three and turned them into like five. So he did some trade in the market. Then the third servant went out and he took three and turned them into like ten.
Speaker 2:Yeah, some.
Speaker 1:He multiplied those coins into like ten in the same time frame. And so, then, the moral of the story here is the master chastises, the one who buried the talents Like I gave you these to do something. So the lesson is God put me here for a purpose, and the purpose is expansion. Yeah, I'm here to expand as a human, for something bigger than myself, and he's got a vision for me that I don't even comprehend, but I've got to have the courage and the salt to rise up to meet that vision of what he's got for me and whatever that calling might be. Now, at this time, I can remember what year this was. This was like you know. This is like 2008. This is like early 2008, before the absolute apocalypse came. But I started this awakening, so I had a real estate brokerage and we were raising money and we had, you know, friends and family investing with us, and we were doing great. Yeah, we were crushing it in my mind, right, but I was just only starting to become aware of this deeper.
Speaker 2:Why yeah? And I think that's super powerful, because this is the point where we start transitioning into really why yeah, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not about it. Yeah, it's actually not about anything. You just said yeah.
Speaker 2:It's now we're getting into the actual why, you know. So I mean answer this why, then, is it important to you? Why that God is? You feel that he's called this higher power, whatever someone wants to call it. Why do you feel that you God has not you God? How do you feel that God has called you? Why is that? Well, why, yeah? Why is that important to?
Speaker 1:you. Well, first of all, I believe God has a calling for all of us, and it's kind of up to us to be open, to have eyes to see and ears to hear and come to realize what that is. What is that calling for me? Because, you know, I believe that in that regard we are equal. We do have an equal kind of and you'll hear me go back and forth Equality is a false God, like this whole we're equal thing. I don't believe in that. But in this context, I do believe that God put us here to find that unique thing that only I have or only see. Each of us has that uniqueness.
Speaker 1:Only I could bring this to the earth Now, when you start to get into that realization now, now I start to understand, believe and have this, knowing that if I'm doing things for the right, why I'm not doing them by myself, I'm doing them in partnership with God, and if God has actually got this plan and he's supporting me in my why, it's very hard for me to fail in that way. That is a why that's strong enough to pull you through an apocalypse event or more.
Speaker 2:Now because it's not inward, it's totally outward focused. Opposite.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is an opposite focus, it's a shift outward and for me we can get into that, specifically that that that turned into. It started with a friend who, who could see what I was trying to do, and he took me to lunch downtown and I can remember the day clear as day. We have lunch down at the Grand America and Salt Lake City, utah, and he sits me down and he starts telling me some things that are shocking me. He starts to he bust out his phone, he starts to show me these black and white body cam videos and he starts to tell me how he's been doing these covert rescues of saving children from sex trafficking. Now you're the oldest of five kids, I have three daughters and when he was sitting here sharing this body cam footage and telling me about this, he's telling me these stories of girls as young as nine and 10 years old being sold or kidnapped into sex trafficking. And I'm bawling my eyes out, I'm in shock, I'm feeling anger. I want to. I'm feeling murderous rage, like I'm imagining my own children, and very hard to describe the, the full ball of emotions that that day produced, because he, he invited me to do something, because I mean, wayne, you've got to get in this fight, man. I mean, you spent time in the military, you've got special training, you could do stuff. And I'm like, but what? But what? I mean, yeah, I want to do something. This is shocking. I didn't even know this was a thing, didn't even know this was a thing. What can I possibly do? Man, I'm like I'm nobody. Like I'm sitting here, like you know, yeah, I'm doing pretty dang good in real estate. I mean, I've got cars and I have employees and I'm doing stuff. But but I'm really nobody. Like I don't have hundreds of millions of dollars to like donate to your cause or what could I do. And he just left me, says you're gonna think on it and you're gonna figure out. You're gonna come back to me and tell me how you're gonna get in the fight. And he left me with that and For six or nine months it was like a thorn in my brain and I couldn't.
Speaker 1:I could not figure out what I was gonna do about it. I knew I was gonna do something about it Because it, because of all this emotion and being a father, it just it struck a court. And so you know. So I start, I like, well, I've got to take action. I've got to do something. Let's just start with where I could start. Let's start on my level, knowing nothing. How do I possibly start this? So, you know, I get introduced some to some folks and and I get introduced to operation underground railroad. You know, got to me Tim Ballard. He got to come down to you know, sage Creek at Moab with us and do a great event. We raised, you know, a bunch of money. We gave away a Jeep and that was incredible. You know, that was an incredible experience.
Speaker 1:We raised it wasn't a lot, you know, it's a little over 50 grand, but the experience of it was incredible, not was like the first big action step for me, like okay, we're raising money, we're raising awareness, we created a whole campaign you know, driving the desert on Facebook and yeah, but we're still making no impact, we're doing nothing. And so this, this has evolved into a very clear, a very clear why, and so fast forward to today. The why is our foundation. We've started our own foundation called the rising tide foundation.
Speaker 1:Yeah and the rising tide foundation has two. It's a two-fold mission. Number one let's eliminate veteran suicide. Okay, I was never combat deployed and I feel blessed that. That's the what, that, that is a fact. But I have friends that were and friends that were lost in Desert Storm. I have a special place in my heart for my veterans. And 22 guys a day, this is the, this is the, the lifeblood, the, the fighting pride of this country, the best men and women of this country Sign up and commit to go, risk their lives for this country, yeah, and. And to have 22 a day taking their own lives to me is unacceptable. So this is the first mission.
Speaker 1:The second mission is that let's let's eradicate eradicate the child sex trafficking industry is a 30 plus billion a year disgusting situation and the way this has evolved with the rising tide. Foundation is that we've got we have multiple businesses. We are committed to hiring veterans to operate our businesses. We are providing some very specific Mental health, mental well-being trainings and programming for these veterans To accomplish mission number one. You we've got to provide elite level compensation and benefits, elite level company culture yeah, elite level managers that they can respect. If you don't have a boss you respect you're you're, you can't, you're not gonna make it right.
Speaker 1:So, on top of all of that With the veterans, we're dealing with not just PTSD. Everyone talks about PTSD. Right, that's the, that's the buzzword. Yeah, it's deeper, man, it's it is alcohol and drug addiction and dependency. Right, it is domestic violence at home. Yeah, particularly in combat deployed vets. Then it comes with all of these other things depression, the guilt and shame of not being able to provide for a family, to not. The acknowledgement in oneself of not being a good father because, because I am, I am being a domestic abuser or I am having these violence issues where I'm. So there's all of it's like a spider web of things that has to be addressed. But then there's this key thing at the end of the day, if we provide them work and we do all of those things, there's still a gap, and the gap is a sense of duty.
Speaker 1:So when I I can remember going down to Phoenix and signing the contract and giving the oath with my hand on the Bible, like I Swear to God in this country, I will die for this mission. Yeah, take that very seriously, and I still do. Any Marine takes that oath. That's a to tell death oath, right. So, even though I'm discharged as of 2005. It's a till I die, I'm committed to this. And yeah, I didn't get that when I made that oath when I was 17 years old. It didn't resonate at that point. But now we're in, we're in the seventh level of why and it makes real sense. And so when we talk about a veteran who struggling to find quality employment, struggling with all these issues and Not having the work space corporate America, let's say Honor and support them in their commitment. Yeah, they lose a sense of duty right.
Speaker 1:You spent it, spent a decade training you. You haven't. You have trained into you a sense of mission and duty. You come home from deployment. How exciting is it to wake up and get out of bed and go to work in a factory that?
Speaker 2:that's not duty, that that's gone like.
Speaker 1:And so now there's this this Negative power of contrast, like everything that is important is not important because over there it's life and death. It's my brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1:Here it's just getting the kids to school and getting groceries, and this is not important. And so how do we reinstall an opportunity or a sense of duty? Well, this is how the foundation blends these two, these two Initiatives together, so to speak. So, with every veteran that comes and works for, you know, one of the American spec companies, we're providing specialized training, it covert training, you know self-defense training and opportunities to go do these child rescue missions. Right Now, a veteran has an opportunity to be outward focused. Yep, because, because the feelings of suffering Originate with inward focus, yeah, if I can help anyone get focused outwardly and Skip through all those why's and get to the core of why, which is an outward, deep commitment, focused for someone else, yeah, that's like that, that's a god-level calling right, and I can wake these, these folks up and give this opportunity.
Speaker 1:And now there's really a reason to get out of bed and look forward to, because now what we're talking about the seventh level is impact on humanity. The highest possible calling on the pyramid of Maslow's hierarchy of laws is is the calling right? It's the, it's the highest possible version of oneself. So it's expansion, but it's impact on humanity. That's that's now we're talking about legacy. What? What do you Want your kids to remember you for? It's, and it's not about having your name on a library, that's cool and all. It's not about the accolades, it's about being able to actually have an impact on someone's life and even save their life. And you have a chance to save a kid's life. What greater impact we possibly have? So that's the I mean.
Speaker 1:Now you've taken me through the whole seven levels deep, and it took me until maybe a few years ago a 27 year I'm 27 years into my entrepreneurial career and it took me maybe 25 years to recognize the true why. And what a gift that is to have clarity about why I do everything, why I build these businesses, why we develop these resorts, why we program it the way it is. It's all to this end goal of this impact for the foundation. It's all connected and it's incredible when I get to that why and I talk to people about that how fast people will want to join the effort. They want to enroll, they want to contribute. It's not asking for money, it's not. It's a such a different energy and it's hey, this is what I'm doing. Cool If you can help, great. If you don't, it's not contingent on anyone doing anything.
Speaker 1:It's just what I'm doing with the foundation for the benefit of the veterans and the kids.
Speaker 2:So you can see why this is probably the single most important piece, because it transmits into everything. It is the single reason why we went from paying bills to now.
Speaker 2:it's a duty to create an impact on humanity because you feel called of God. That is very different than paying bills. You see this, no one is going to build an empire because they have to pay bills. That's not a why. And I know a lot of people sit there and they're struggling and they see bills are the. You know it's straining your relationship, it's straining the bills have a lot of power, pressure, pressure. But you go seven layers deep and you understand actually why it all matters. Yeah, I think that's the point.
Speaker 1:Well, and I think the reason God has designed that process and you have to trust the process, but I think the reason God has specifically designed it for you to not find that conclusion so easily is because there's so much value in the struggle, getting there and the refining process of getting to a why, and you know what does it really take it. You can't land on that why and be super clear if you've never been tested, if you've never been crushed and found cause to question God and say why.
Speaker 2:Ask God, why Is?
Speaker 1:this happening to me? Why is my business totally melted down, man.
Speaker 2:Well, everyone's going to have a different experience like that. If you're going to be some way mine and obviously you know we're at different points it's going to look different for everyone. Everyone listening is going to look different for you, right? But it all stems from that. You're not going to sit there and find your why by just sitting there. Yeah, yeah, right, you have to experience it and it'll come to you as you grow, so that's what makes it so powerful. Yeah, you know you'll find it.
Speaker 1:So that's the question I think for the listeners you know today is you know, if you have a business and you're not clear about a why, then that should be a mission, that should be a do whatever it takes. Mission to figure out the why. Yeah, open priority.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I was sitting on a boat in Laguna Beach months ago and a friend was asking. He asked me the question like when's?
Speaker 2:enough, enough.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm. He's like I mean, when do we have enough private jets and houses and Lamborghini's for it to be enough? And I said dude. I said, bro, how are you even asking?
Speaker 2:me this question man, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean that's an inward focused question, Missing the point, like you're going to, okay, you've got a billion dollars and you've got all this stuff and great, that'll be enough really fast, and you get really bored really fast. When you get to your true why you're doing these businesses, then the answer is it's never enough. If it's $10 billion, $50 billion, if you're Elon Musk but you're making serious impact on humanity, it's never enough. So that plays into the confidence booster. When a human being understands a why and they understand it's connected to God's calling and they understand that God wants them to do that, then they start to understand that hey, I deserve to make a billion dollars, right, it's a race with no freedom.
Speaker 1:I'm worthy that. Yeah, there's no end to what I can do, because God wants me to be wealthy, because God knows I want it in my heart. I'm a steward to go make impact on humanity. He knows it. He knows I can't do the mission Like we can't we're not going to go rescue anybody with no money Right.
Speaker 2:So it's a direct correlation.
Speaker 1:The amount of money these businesses produce is a direct correlation on the impact I can have on humanity. So it's never enough. So that's a race with no finish line.
Speaker 2:tell I die and that applies to everyone, in whatever industry, whatever career, whatever thing you're doing, it applies. That's right, right, yes, absolutely 100%. It's a driver. That again, it surpasses this thing that we call a career or an industry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it does. We could get really deep into the spirituality of things and hopefully y'all are feeling what we're putting down because they're blended. It's not possible for us to separate an unpackage entrepreneurship with real estate, investing, spirituality and what God's planned for us. That's a blended equation, man. It's all one big equation. You don't separate those.
Speaker 2:And now, as we go into you know, in following episodes, we're wrapped this up right now, but as we go into everything coming, this can serve as the foundation Right. Everything we're going to be talking about will be building upon this principle we talked about. I think you know what I mean. Yeah, I don't know why this was such a priority for us to have this be one of the first episodes.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:To just set the tone. I mean, everything is possible because of this understanding.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's right. I mean, I think the next episode we're going to be focused on a more tactical kind of educational conversation around real estate 101 for the beginners trying to get into Airbnb, business or real estate in general. We're going to throw down some real, some education there. But you're going to find that as you underwrite a real estate deal, the why why would I choose a hotel over apartments? Why would I?
Speaker 2:do this over that.
Speaker 1:It's an extended, it's a prevailing conversation. It bleeds A common denominator to everything we're talking about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it bleeds into the tactics of the whole thing. And then we'll start talking about man, when I was raising my money, you know, for the deal, for my first deal, I was sitting there looking at $760,000 I needed to raise. And I'm sitting there going to bed every night not being able to sleep. I mean, the why plays into this factor, and I'll tell the story later, you know. But and we can talk about this but, man, I sit there in bed at night staring at the ceiling and I cannot sleep because I'm so uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so uncomfortable, and I understood for myself why most people shy away from something like that. It's so scary, yeah, it's so uncomfortable, yeah, and no way shape or form was it reckless, and we can talk about that later but but it was so uncomfortable that I was like, oh my gosh, why even am I doing this? And I had to really do some some soul searching as to this, this whole. Why, yeah, and that's the only way, that's the only reason I actually went through with that. Yeah, it's because there's a bigger. Why? So?
Speaker 1:anyway, on that. That's awesome. Thanks guys for tuning in, man, let's. We'll look forward to getting to the next episode here, real estate 101.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Tune in again on next episode. Thanks everyone, and don't forget to subscribe. Press the bell icon and head to the second channel for more.