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I’m sitting around today thinking about the fact that I’ve now been doing this for 19 years. September of 1990 was the date that I started Lifestyles. It started out as just a few people that wanted me to help them—consult with them on trying to use real estate to provide passive streams of income and retire themselves and so forth.
So I started out of my house doing this. I think we had maybe eight people at the first meeting. We did it in my living room. I did it with one of those types of boards where you flip the papers over and I was drawing on paper.
A long way we’ve come: Now we’re in three cities—we have offices in those three cities. We’re all over the state. We have members all over the world actually. We have 34 states that support our members and over six countries.
What Does it All Mean?
So what does it all mean? It means absolutely nothing if I don’t get you to change your life. If I can’t motivate you—one more person, one more day, one more year, if I can’t help one more person, then it means nothing.
It’s already meant a lot to a lot of people who have changed their lives, but for you, all that means nothing unless the message gets through. That’s what’s important about this, you. You’re the important person in this conversation because you’re the one who has not yet arrived.
I was looking at some of the blogs the other day at an article that Steve Davis wrote. And on one of the articles one of the bloggers wrote just a couple words. He said, “Those who can do, and those who can’t bitch about it.”
Well, my question is where would you come up with a statement like that, because in my mind everybody can. It’s not those who “can”—I think everybody can—I just think some people “won’t.” It’s not a matter of they “can’t,” it’s a matter of they “won’t.”
Who’s Messing You Up?
Now, let’s break this down here for a second. First of all there are people who don’t care, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. If you are financially secure making $10,000 a year and you’re happy and living happy that way, then you are successful in my mind.
I’m only speaking about the people that are out there complaining about not having the financial wherewithal they’d like to have. And if you think about it, a good large source of those people are people that are sitting out there complaining that—first of all Obama’s messing them up, before that it was George Bush who was messing them up, and before that it was Bill Clinton who was messing them up, that it was 9/11 that messed up the economy, and, then it was Enron that messed up the economy, and you know then it was the hurricanes that messed up the economy—we’ve had quite a few of those. What else is there—then it was the war, then there was the Afghan war, then there was—you know, come on.
Take Down the Man
How many hours worth of complaining and finger-pointing can we come up with? I mean I sit and I listen to this stuff on TV and I listen to Fox News. And I listen to Hannity, and you know I just I see a gigantic, fat, full-head, good-looking crybaby—that’s all I see. I mean, I have no respect for the guy whatsoever. He just sits there and bitches and moans and cries and points the finger at other people.
I see the same thing on the other side. I see a collusion of people trying to make you believe that your life is terrible. The democrats are experts at making you feel like your life is terrible, that the rich man has done you—that the man has done you wrong and that you need to take the man down a notch so that you can be higher—all kinds of just massively negative stuff.
So here we’ve got two sides that believe that if they keep you mentally messed up enough that you’ll vote for them, that you will continue to believe that they in some way can change your life for you. The only thing they can do for you is tax you more or give you more stuff.
A Zero-Sum Belief System
So everything they give you, though, means more taxes, which means somebody else lives without and it’s a zero-sum game belief system. It’s a “I’m going to take it away from you and give it to somebody else” mentality. That’s exactly what it is, and none of that benefits you. They take it out of your left pocket and stick it in your right pocket.
And if you happen to be the one that benefits by the greater of that transaction this time then maybe you think you’re getting one over on people, but you’re not getting over on anybody. I never feel like welfare people are getting over on me. Because I’m thinking to myself as I look at their lives that their lives are miserable. They’re just living a life of denial that there is something for nothing.
Not Much of a Trade
When you give away your freedom to get something for free, that’s not much of a trade, my friends. And you realize to be able to get something for free from the government you have to give away your freedom. It’s a ridiculous concept to believe that government can help you.
So why am I bringing all this back up? Because for 19 years now I’ve been trying to get people to see that the government is not the solution to your problem. The solution to your problem is you. You doing the things you need to do to make your life better.
At the beginning of this year I challenged you to do something with your life this year. Did you do it? I would love to hear the stories of the changes people have made in their life.
Changing Your Life
I know myself I’ve lost 15 pounds already since the beginning of the year. I’ve gone into the doctor and got some medication to make me feel better because I started having diabetes and high blood pressure. I kept putting that off, probably ‘cause of fear—and I didn’t want to find out what was really true.
I’ve already gone on a dream vacation that I’ve dreamed of doing for many years. I’ve taken trips to the west coast, along the way, different places, but I wanted to drive the whole thing one time and just feel what it felt like. It was an incredible trip and I got that out of the way.
And while I got all these wonderful things for my life and my family out of the way, while all that came about, I succeeded in purchasing two more apartment complexes that more than doubled the number of units that I own. Wow!
Put it in a Plan
How did I get all of that done at the same time—at the same time go from teaching one class a month to three classes a month, doing radio shows five days a week. How do I get all of that done? I got all that done because I put it into a plan at the beginning of the year to get it all done.
And many other people have done the same thing and have had massive results in the last 8-9 months. We have one lady here that lost almost 50 pounds. We’ve had one lady here that’s bought six houses — Karen Davis, one of the people that work here. What have you done this year? Are you happy with your results?
