WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.480 I've had a lot of mentors in my career. Many of them were paid, a few of them were free. 2 00:00:04.480 --> 00:00:08.080 The point of a good teacher is that the student does pass the teacher. 3 00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:11.680 I see this thing that happens all the time. When you are a kid and you learn arithmetic, 4 00:00:11.680 --> 00:00:14.640 first you learn your numbers, and then you learn how to add, you level up and you learn how to 5 00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:18.640 multiply, and then you level up from there and you learn algebra. When you get to algebra, 6 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:21.920 you don't think, man, my arithmetic teacher is a f***ing idiot. I can't believe they didn't 7 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:25.360 teach me this stuff. It's like, dude, you weren't ready. And you had to have the arithmetic in order 8 00:00:25.360 --> 00:00:29.360 to get to the multiplication. It's not that that teacher was an idiot. It's that, that was the 9 00:00:29.360 --> 00:00:33.120 sequence. And so when you have a first teacher that teaches you the basics and you have a more 10 00:00:33.120 --> 00:00:36.320 advanced teacher later, it doesn't mean you should shit on your first teacher. It's like that 11 00:00:36.320 --> 00:00:42.080 person got you ready to receive the next thing. Earlier on, my career, I definitely did the other 12 00:00:42.080 --> 00:00:45.280 way. This guy didn't know anything. This guy is the guy. Rather than seeing it like you would see 13 00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:49.760 any other thing that you'd have in school. I've had the opportunity and the, you know, the gift of 14 00:00:49.760 --> 00:00:54.000 being able to mentor what everyone has said, you know, provide advice, counsel, share my experiences. 15 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:58.480 A lot of people hold me in a regard and most people who are winners are competitive. It's just like 16 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:02.240 who you are, right? You want to win. You want to beat everybody because that's part of the competitive 17 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:06.480 drive. But I think there's like a, there's a comma there that needs to get put in, which is that 18 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:11.360 you have to accept two things. One is that you were going to die and no one is going to remember. 19 00:01:11.360 --> 00:01:17.040 Like real real. 10,000 years from now, no one's going to remember. At all. Number two, is that when 20 00:01:17.040 --> 00:01:19.600 you're at the end of your life, the people who are going to be your buyer bets, I don't know 21 00:01:19.600 --> 00:01:23.040 the people you've been, which are the people that you helped. I know that I have passed a lot of the 22 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:27.920 mentors that I've had in my career in terms of financials, et cetera. Early raw news to think that 23 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:32.800 made me better than them. As I've had a couple more years and some more, more scars, I've realized 24 00:01:32.800 --> 00:01:37.680 something different, which is that I was only able to get better than them because they gave me 25 00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:41.760 the head start step on my shoulder. You can reach that next branch. I think I experienced a lot of 26 00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:46.640 joy knowing that other people don't have to suffer as much. Yeah, we're walking around outside 27 00:01:46.640 --> 00:01:49.360 yesterday and someone's like, dude, I did everything you have and we're doing four million dollars 28 00:01:49.360 --> 00:01:53.200 a year now. Like he was like emotional just knowing that it's happening. It makes stomaching 29 00:01:53.200 --> 00:01:57.360 the hard times easier. It feels like it's not just me trying to do this for myself. It's me trying 30 00:01:57.360 --> 00:02:00.960 to do this for a lot of people. If I'm failing over and over again at this thing, I know that once I 31 00:02:00.960 --> 00:02:04.400 figured out, I'll be able to help a hundred people cheat code their way through it and not spend five 32 00:02:04.400 --> 00:02:08.400 months figuring something out or two years figuring something out. Like I was stuck at mid 30 million 33 00:02:08.400 --> 00:02:12.320 for three years. To everyone watching, they're like, boohoo, that's not the point is that there's 34 00:02:12.320 --> 00:02:16.160 another guy who's going to get to that point and he's going to move right past it, like in a blink of 35 00:02:16.160 --> 00:02:20.320 an eye because I've had the right device that I didn't have. And I think that if the mentees and 36 00:02:20.320 --> 00:02:25.600 the mentors both see it that way, then the mentees will stop shitting on the mentors that help them 37 00:02:25.600 --> 00:02:31.120 and the mentors will stop trying to hold back secrets that have propelled them further because 38 00:02:31.120 --> 00:02:35.520 the point is not that you're going to beat everyone. You're going to get really old and then you're 39 00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:39.520 going to die. As you're getting older, there are going to be people who are younger who had a head 40 00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:44.080 start. And as long as the next guy honors the fact that that guy died on the battlefield to give him 41 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:47.760 these lessons and come back. And they have to recognize that they're going to die on the battlefield 42 00:02:47.760 --> 00:02:53.520 too for the next generation to pass them. They have it easier than us. That's the point of progress. 43 00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:58.320 And so rather than lamenting that the next generation has it easier, I thought that what we all say, 44 00:02:58.320 --> 00:03:02.160 I want to make the world a better place. Well, that's what making the world a better place looks like. 45 00:03:02.160 --> 00:03:05.360 We say that this is our mission with our business. We want to make the world a better place. We 46 00:03:05.360 --> 00:03:09.680 want to make an impact. And then when it actually happens, we resent the kids for the fact that they 47 00:03:09.680 --> 00:03:15.040 didn't have it as hard as us. That was the point. My point is not to beat the progeny. A point is to 48 00:03:15.040 --> 00:03:19.280 forge as far as I can. Look back and be like, hey, watch out for that hole. Watch out for that rock. 49 00:03:19.360 --> 00:03:23.600 Keep going, keep going. They move through the path that we tread three times faster than we did 50 00:03:23.600 --> 00:03:27.840 because we already cleared all the trees. They get to the next non-clearing and they have to start 51 00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:31.840 hacking away and hacking away and hacking away to forge the next path. And then they become the 52 00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:36.880 mentors turn around. And the next generation moves six times as fast to cover my distance and 53 00:03:36.880 --> 00:03:39.680 their distance. If you look at some of the greatest success stories a lot of them talk about their 54 00:03:39.680 --> 00:03:43.600 mentors. Warren Buffett had his mentor early on. The quick story on that was that he said, 55 00:03:43.600 --> 00:03:47.040 I'll work for you for free. And Paul Graham told him, you're overpriced. He was the one 56 00:03:47.040 --> 00:03:50.400 who's going to be giving far more to this relationship. Even if Warren gave him his time, 57 00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:53.760 he still was going to be on the losing side. But he still did it anyways because he recognized 58 00:03:53.760 --> 00:03:58.000 that Warren had a gift. Warren passed him in his career. You'll notice that Warren isn't like, man, 59 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:02.960 I'm so much better than Paul Graham. I passed that dude in my like 40s. He doesn't talk like that. 60 00:04:02.960 --> 00:04:06.640 We really do stand on the shoulders of the giants. When I think about like the gratitude that I have 61 00:04:06.640 --> 00:04:11.120 for the Gary Vee's who 12 years older than I am, he's forged so much of this path that like, 62 00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:14.800 I didn't have to think about how am I going to create this whole thing. It's like he already had 63 00:04:14.800 --> 00:04:18.560 a blueprint and I can just start laying that out immediately execute. There are guys who we have 64 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:23.920 in our portfolio right now who are in their 20s who are making twice what I was making at 30. But 65 00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:30.320 if they came to me below and then now they're above, that was the point. Gary Vee didn't have Gary Vee 66 00:04:30.320 --> 00:04:35.200 to mentor him on his career. I do right now. We all do. Many of us will pass Gary and I don't think 67 00:04:35.200 --> 00:04:39.360 Gary months. There's a 20 year old and might be you who's watching this and you've got me. That's 68 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:42.160 the point. I'm still going to be hustling and trying to beat you. Don't get me wrong. When I see 69 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:46.000 guys who are in their 60s, I'm like, man, by the time I'm 60, I'm going to be 10 times as wealthy as 70 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:51.040 now. 10 times the real estate. I'm 10 times, yeah. But if they had had themselves as mentors, 71 00:04:51.040 --> 00:04:55.360 they would too. If your mentees and the students that you have and the people that you help and the 72 00:04:55.360 --> 00:04:59.520 people that you teach don't move above you, it means that you're a bad teacher, not a good one. 73 00:04:59.520 --> 00:05:03.280 The new definition of success of a teacher is that the students surpass the teacher and then 74 00:05:03.280 --> 00:05:07.600 get to the point where they're both looking together with his experience and his raw talent 75 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:10.960 looking at the new landscape saying, all right, what do you think we should do? If this video 76 00:05:10.960 --> 00:05:13.920 changed your mind about some of this shit talking that you've done to a teacher or to a mentor 77 00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:17.760 who was earlier on in your career, shoot that guy text and be like, hey, like, respect, I appreciate 78 00:05:17.760 --> 00:05:23.360 you. I can't tell you one how much it means to the mentor when they get that text.