Momentum Podcast: 50

Absolute Reliance On People

by Alex Charfen

Episode Description

Billionaires don’t just occasionally lean on other people; they absolutely rely on them to make it through each day. From personal assistants to the members of the board, billionaires cultivate fantastic professional relationships so they can rely on them when they need it most. Here’s why: 

No single individual could create the leverage and momentum necessary to create billions of dollars in value. It’s the billionaire who asks for and offers protection and support because they know that entrepreneurs accomplish almost nothing alone, and we all move forward faster together.

Full Audio Transcript

I'm Alex Charfen and this is the Momentum Podcast, made for empire builders, game changers, trailblazers, shot takers, record breakers, world makers and creators of all kinds, those among us who can't turn it off and don't know why anyone would want to. We challenge complacency, destroy apathy, and we are obsessed with creating momentum so we can roll over bureaucracy and make our greatest contribution. Sure, we'll pay attention to their rules but only so that we can bend them, break them, and then re-write them around our own will.

We don't accept our destiny, we define it. We don't understand defeat because you only lose if you stop and we don't know how. While the rest of the world strives for average and clings desperately to the status quo, we are the minority, the few, who are willing to hallucinate that there could be a better future. Instead of just daydreaming of what could be, we endure the vulnerability and exposure it takes to make it real. We are the evolutionary hunters, clearly the most important people in the world because entrepreneurs are the only source of consistent, positive human evolution and we always will be. This is Episode 50 of the Momentum Podcast for the entrepreneurial personality type, "Absolute Reliance On People".

I'm going to read a short excerpt from an article that I wrote called, "The 10 Attributes of the Self-Made billionaire". Billionaires don't just occasionally lean on other people. They absolutely rely on them to make it through each day. From personal assistants to members of the board, billionaires cultivate fantastic professional relationships so that they can rely on them when they need it most. Here's why.

No single individual could create the leverage and momentum necessary to create billions of dollars in value. It's the billionaire who asks for and offers protection and support because they know that entrepreneurs accomplish almost nothing alone and we all move forward faster together. This is one of those interesting topics, absolute reliance on people, because when we experience billionaires or wildly successful people, what do we see? We see this independence, we see people who can do whatever they want, we see individuals who can go out and have or be or go wherever they want. But it's always lost on people what it takes to become a billionaire. See, billionaires or those who help billions of people are exposed to billions of people or who go out and change the world it's the same in any of those conditions, you have to accept the vulnerability and exposure it takes to have other people help you.

When I was a consultant, I had the privilege of watching Steve Jobs introduce the iPod at one of the shows in Vegas one year. It was one of the coolest things to watch. He came out, he started talking, and he pulled this tiny ... it was the iPod, not the actual iPod or the first one, but I saw him introduce, I believe it was the iPod Touch. He pulled it out of that weird pocket on your jeans that we never what it's for, and he said, "Now, we've discovered what this pocket is for."

I remember sitting here and thinking, "Steve Jobs is like unstoppable. He's so amazing. He was such a hero, still is such a hero of mine." What we don't see behind Steve Jobs when he's on stage doing his keynote and lighting the world on fire with a product introduction, you don't see the thousands of people behind him, the hundreds of thousands of people in the Apple supply chain, the millions of customers that have contributed to that company so that it can grow, so that it could create some of the best products in the world. We don't see any of that. We see Steve Jobs on stage sharing.

What we have to understand is that Jobs, like every other billionaire, had an absolute reliance on people. You'll get Warren Buffet as annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway sitting in front of the room and sharing and talking and leading the entire conversation and it's lost on so many of us that Buffet can't even ... not even Buffet could do it alone. Now, he didn't have a huge team. When Berkshire Hathaway was the largest company in the world, he only had 68 people at his corporate office but still they controlled the largest organization in the world and even Buffet couldn't do it alone.

We're all impressed with these individuals that appear to make things happen that appear magical but what is it that they do that's truly magical? They offer protection and support to teams of people who work with them. They align them. They get them going in the same direction, point to massive outcomes, unbelievable sometimes unreal unimaginable outcomes and then help them get there by giving them the resources, the support, the coaching, the information that they need to be able to move forward

. Here's the challenge for most entrepreneurs today, is that the average entrepreneur appears to be in a competition to see how little they can rely on other people. Most entrepreneurs suffer the curse of competency where they can do a lot of things so they do rather than getting the protection and support they need so they can get the leverage that they truly want to move forward. My question for you is, do you have absolute reliance on people? Because it's one of the 10 attributes of self-made billionaires. They rely on people, they count on people to be there for them. They counteract, they counter that.

One of the other 10 attributes of self-made billionaires is absolute dedication to people. Billionaires are dedicated to human beings. We look at Elon Musk and Tesla and SpaceX and the incredible things that he does. When he's on a YouTube video or putting out a press release or sharing something with the media, he looks incredibly heroic like somebody who is and in fact is changing the world. But it's lost on us that Musk has an absolute dedication to people. His two companies are dedicated to the future of humanity. One, by lowering greenhouse gases on Earth and hopefully eliminating them, and the second, by colonizing other planets in case we need an escape route.

Musk also has absolute reliance on people. When you look at his career history, Paypal, he took underutilized people who were laid off in the banking sector and created Paypal. Then Tesla was taking tons of people who are available on the automotive sector and created a new car company that has reset the bar as to what a car should be. Then you look at SpaceX and another industry where there was people that had been cast off, they no longer had jobs, have been let go by NASA, there wasn't really a place for them to go so he took them and created massive new outcomes in the world.

As entrepreneurs, sometimes it's difficult for us to even consider an absolute reliance on people. I want you to understand something. We all, whether we admit it or not, limit our success to the magnitude we are willing to ask for protection and support and rely on other people. When I hear entrepreneurs say things like, "I'm going to do it all myself", or "I don't need a team", or "I've got this covered", I always feel sorry for them because the question they're not asking is, how much more could I do if I build a team? How much more could I do if I involved other people? How much more could I do if I accepted the contribution, the protection, and support from people around me to help me create momentum and create my greatest contribution?

Because the reality is, as entrepreneurs, as evolutionary hunters, as those who are meant to be in momentum, on the hunt, moving forward, making things happen, we accomplish hardly anything standing still and we learn almost nothing alone. It's when we're on a team working together, mutual contribution, headed towards an outcome and making things happen, that is exactly when we get into momentum and in fact create our lives.

Here's my challenge to you. How transparent are you willing to be about where you are right now so you can get the help of those around you? How real are you willing to be about what's really going on for you so that you can get the contribution of those around you? Are you willing to make the commitment to an absolute reliance on the people around you? Because billionaires can barely move, can barely take a trip, can go anywhere without the help of the people around them. I think that that's a cue for all of us to understand how to create momentum and move forward fast.

I think this topic is appropriate for the 50th episode of the Momentum Podcast because here is my truth. There's no way we could experience the success we are experiencing with this podcast, we're on Day 72, Episode 50 and we've had over 37,000 downloads already and there's no way that happens without the help of everyone including you. There's been no advertising, very little exposure for this. It has been person-to-person sharing this podcast and putting it out there so that the world will know that it's there and I want you to know I rely on you to do that.

I accept your protection and support. I thank you for it. I appreciate you. I want to ask you to do it again, to continue to share this because I am okay with asking for protection and support. I want you to know transparently that I want everyone you know who's like us to listen to this podcast. I want you to share it with them. Here's what I get back. Here's what I think anyone who asks for protection and support gets back. We get the feedback of having helped other people. We understand we've advanced our tribe. We know we've helped the people around us.

Since this is the 50th Episode, I thought I'd share just a few of the messages that I've gotten from listeners of this podcast so you can experience the same thing I do. When I wake up in the morning and I get a message like this one.

This one's from Melanie Kahn. It says, "I wanted to thank you for a great presentation today and answering my question." She watched one of our sales webinars. This is a response from a sales webinar. She said, "I had a feeling this was something I needed to watch and I canceled an appointment to make sure I was there. I'm a single mom with two kids with autism. My daughter, 18 and my son, 10. I've had a life-changing year when in March, my high pressure noise [inaudible 00:12:03] caught up to me and I collapsed and I've been recovering my health and remaking my life. I'm very excited to join your new program. I've been praying for help to find guidance to learn how to live a fulfilled life. When your baseline is super high pressure for so long, it's hard to gauge what's reasonable."

"I spent months in bed and getting up for 5-minute walks was a huge win. I'm now doing so much better and looking to find the in-between balance. Since I've been off, my son has had no violent meltdowns, which tells me my stress stresses my family and I've never wanted to go back to that life. I'm currently doing two functional medicine training courses and a mentorship program for September. I'm going to start my own functional medicine clinic and help people heal while having a career that allows for a family life. I return to my job as a hospital pharmacist next month while I'm transitioning careers. Your program is coming at just the right time for me to figure out how to manage being a new entrepreneur, student, mom, autism case manager for two, and pharmacist while having myself and my self-care be number one priority over it all."

This is a part that really got me. "I also wanted to let you know that my son was in the background as I listen to your presentation. He had a very bad day at soccer camp today. The boys were making fun of the boy with autism. My son who would usually stand up to kids when this happens said he felt too scared as they were a lot older boys. He felt embarrassed to have autism. We talked about how it can be a blessing and how people with autism can do amazing things and make this world better. We talked about you, your success, your being yourself and making a difference."

"I told him I'm learning to be an entrepreneur. He said, "You'll be just like me, Mom. I'm an entrepreneur." He sold painted rocks for a school project. I've asked him if he'd follow your program with me so we can have the best mornings days and evenings possible and he said he'd try it with me. He's refused any checklist as it's embarrassing and now he can see it's a tool lots of people use and he can too. You may not have intended to be a role model for a young boy with autism but today you helped him see possibilities. I thank you for your authenticity and being you." When I get messages like that, it lets me know that I'm reaching the people I want to reach. It lets me know that even accidentally we're having an effect on the people we want to have an effect on and I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

Here's another one I just got in the past day. From Azi Jawa, and I hope I said that even close to right. This one's shorter. "Listening to your podcast today and it brought me to tears. I felt sorry for my teenage years. I was told to come down to Earth and stop daydreaming. I always felt less than others because I love to be in my head. I was so sensitive growing up in a difficult situation. I had a dream even more to survive. Thank you for telling me that it was okay and is okay to dream." When I hear messages like that, I think of getting this out to the younger generation so they never have to feel sorry for their teenage years.

Then, this is a message that I got from Joshua Houston. This is actually on iTunes, it was a review. He titled it, "A near-religious experience". "I'm a huge Mike Dillard fan and I just recently discovered Alex through the Self-Made Man podcast." By the way, I'm a huge Mike Dillard as well and he's not just an incredible marketer and an incredible business person but an incredible human being.

"All I can say is that I'm blown away and that's really saying something. I'm a certified content and podcast junkie. I've heard it all over the past couple of years and most of it is just a slight twist on the last thing you listen to. Face it, as online marketers, most of us are drinking out of the same seven or eight thoughts so it's rare to hear a really original concept. But on a rare occasion, I'm exposed to something that completely changes my entire paradigm. What do I mean by changing my paradigm? It's like before and after reading my first Kiosaki book, it is what life was like before and after I listen to Jim Rohn for the first time." God, it's crazy to be quoted with Robert Kiosaki and Jim Rohn.

"Sometimes, someone like Alex Charfen comes along and changes your entire world view. You can't put the genie back in the bottle. You can't unhear it and I don't know why anyone would want to." I think that's a nod to the manifesto. He says, he goes on to say, "It's a little strange to me that this guy I have never met understands me better than my wife, better than my parents, better than my long term friends ... " I lost my place there. I got a little emotional, sorry. " ... and basically, anybody else in life. He has given me a language for emotions that had been there my whole life but I didn't know how to express or what to do with. I feel a new sense of boldness. I understand why certain things trigger me now. I understand me now. I resonate so strongly with being a momentum-based being but never had been able to qualify or describe or understand the emotions that go along with being one."

Catch this part. "All of this newfound understanding is amazing and it's important but at the end of the day, if you just get excited but there's no change, well then you really didn't accomplish anything did you? Not the case here. Alex won't leave you empty handed. He helps you identify and understand you or your loved one. He clearly defines who we are by calling out those granular thoughts and feelings that you thought only you were having. He understands the traps that we fall into and lays out simple, clear plan to get yourself out. He shares insider lessons that he learn from dealing with real live billionaires as well as some of the most elite evolutionary hunters in the online marketing space."

"If you consider yourself an entrepreneur or you love someone who does, you owe it to yourself and your relationship with your entrepreneur to listen and to begin to understand why you are the way you are and why you do what you do. I can't wait to meet Alex one day in person and tell him how much I value him and what this has meant to me. Thanks, Joshua Houston." Thank you, Josh.

I want you, Josh and Melanie and Azi, to know that your support, your input, and your feedback means the world to me. I've spent time around some of the most successful people in the world. I've worked directly with billionaires. I've watched their reliance on people. I work on getting there every single day, and feedback like this, input like this, helps me get there and I want you to know you're making a difference.

For you, as you're thinking today, as you're walking along, as you're going about your day, consider that the most successful people in the world rely on other human beings for almost everything yet the average person in the world tries to rely on other human beings for near nothing. I think if you shift your paradigm in this regard, if you shift your behavior in this area, if you increase your reliance on the people around you, you will find an entirely new level of success. Thanks for being here with me, and I'll see you tomorrow.

Thank You For Listening!

I am truly grateful that you have chosen to spend your time listening to me and my podcast.

Please feel free to reach out if you have a question or feedback via our Contact Us page.

Please leave me a review on iTunes and share my podcast with your friends and family.

With gratitude,

Alex

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