Momentum Podcast: 28

Every Billionaire's Secret

by Alex Charfen

Episode Description

Every Billionaire I have ever worked with has used the same simple strategy to create success. This path isn't secret because they don't talk about it, it is secret because we don't see it in plain site. 

Billionaire's don't approach the world like the average person does, they require the world to support them, to create their outcomes and to achieve their goals. Not one of them is capable of creating the success they want to on their own. So they must have the world support them. 

But that isn't the only secret, they also insist on having one condition in their lives…

Full Audio Transcript

I'm Alex Charfen, and this is the Momentum Podcast for Entrepreneurial Personality Types. This was created exclusively for empire builders, game changers, world makers, shot takers, 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 obsess about creating momentum so we can roll over bureaucracy and make our greatest contribution. 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, and 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 consistent source of positive human evolution, and we always will be.

This is the Entrepreneurial Personality Type episode number 27, "Every billionaire's secret."

I've had the privilege of working with multiple billionaires in my lifetime, and that's not all. People who create hundreds of millions of dollars in wealth in a company, people who create massive organizations, who have innovative companies that put products into a market that create categories, change industries, change the way we look at things and may not be billionaires are just as intense. Every one of these people that I've been around has one thing in common. They are comfortable.

I don't mean like fuzzy slippers and comfortable clothes, although they do have those things. What I mean is Learjet, people doing things for them, barely lifting a finger, except for when they're doing only what they do best comfortable. When I share this with people, they usually say something dismissive, like, "Well, of course. They're billionaires. They can do whatever they want." But let me fill you in on something. I've had relationships with some of them for over 20 years, and they didn't start out that way. They weren't always billionaires. They didn't always have this level of protection and support in their life. They didn't have this level of comfort in their life, but they started creating the comfort, the focus, the ability to do what they wanted far earlier than most entrepreneurs ever think about lowering personal pressure and noise in their own life, and long, long before they were billionaires or worth $100 million or more. In fact, most of them, from my observation, started to require that they were comfortable, started to focus on less with a higher intensity, started to eliminate the pressure and noise far before they were successful.

I want to share a story with you about a friend of mine who left a indelible impression on me. We were both in the consumer and computer electronics industry, and I met him early in my career. As I was building my consultancy, I lived in Florida. I lived alone. I didn't have a direct assistant. In fact, I had a remote assistant, remote offices. I was building a huge organization, but I didn't get a lot of help myself. I would go visit my friend. I remember one of the first visits that I went to, he had a personal assistant. While I was at his home, he had food delivered that had been cooked for him during the week, and he even had his laundry delivered, and it was delivered in plastic bags, and his shirts were in boxes. I asked him, "Did you have new clothes delivered?" He said, "No. This is how my laundry gets here." I remember thinking that between the assistant and the food and the clothes how crazy it was to spend that much money. I went back to Florida, did my own laundry, cooked my own food, and continued to struggle to grow my business.

I remember going to see him just a couple years later. This time, it was totally different. He had two assistants. There was a whole group of people that kind of hovered around him. As we were talking, two or three times, someone came in and got him to sign something or approve something. There was this energy around him of people who were clearly contributing to helping him grow his business, grow his life, and grow his contribution. In my way of thinking, even then I was still looking at it and thinking how excessive, how much money can you possibly spend? Why would you possibly need all of that?

After we were done, I politely went back to my home in Florida, continued to struggle to grow my business, did everything for myself, and didn't really understand what I was seeing. It wasn't until the next time that I went and saw him, things had changed dramatically. I remember going to see him, and the offices he was in now were beautiful. There was people all around him. His company had grown to well into eight figures. He was doing incredibly well and things were exploding for him. There was advisors. There was people around him and I remember he barely did anything the entire time I was there, but through my observation, it finally dawned on me how much was getting done the entire time I was there, only he didn't have to do it.

It was a lesson to me. I went back to Florida, back to my office. I started getting all the help I could. I got a maid. I got somebody to help me with my clothes. I looked at anything that was causing pressure and noise in my life and started figuring out, how could I get help? How could I get support so that I wasn't dealing with everything? Within a short period of time, my business started growing. In fact, that may have been the lever that changed things for me, where I went from having a multi-million dollar business to growing well past 10 million, well past 100 million and getting up to $250 million at one point because I finally understood how to get some of the protection and support I needed.

I remember the trip where everything changed for me. I flew from Florida up to New York to see my friend, and I was going from the airport in New York to his office in a car that he had sent for me. I remember going to his office, going up the elevators, getting to his office and here was the entire reason for my visit. I was going to fly back to Florida with him on his plane so that we could spend time together and catch up. I remember getting to his office and from his office to the roof where we got on a helicopter, from the helicopter to the airport, where we got on his plane, from the plane to the airport in Florida where we got off, at least 30 or 40 people were involved, pilots and drivers and assistants and people helping him do just about everything. He didn't do so much as open a door.

Like I said before, I'm a bit of a slow learner, and I remember when we were on his plane, I turned to him, and I said, "Hey, does it ever feel like there's just too much? Does it ever feel like you have too much help, too many people around you, too much going on, that you should be doing more yourself?" I remember him looking me directly in the face and in the most serious tone I had ever heard from him, he said, "Alex, don't be ridiculous. You've been visiting me for years. You've watched my career change. You've watched what I've been doing. Every person today that did anything served a purpose. They knew why they were there, and they were all there to help me be able to do more, be able to run this company, to run this business, to drive our growth. If I had so much as opened a door or done something for myself, any of the people around me who are on my team would have been nervous because they know that it slows all of us down."

I remember sitting there and thinking just how profound that was, that each time I had seen him, I saw this increased level of protection and support, but it finally dawned on me that that was the very reason he was able to create the outcomes he did in the world, because he demanded, he insisted that he create the infrastructure around him to support his goals, to support his mission, to support his company and to create the outcomes he wanted in the world.

Everything changed for me that day. I knew that I had to get help. I knew that I couldn't do it all myself. I knew that what I was trying to do by keeping it all to myself, by not getting enough help, by not admitting the help I needed was holding me back, and that's how I grew my company, and that's how I continue to grow my companies and grow my influence and be able to do what I do, by admitting where I need help, getting the help I need, and then moving forward. I want to confess to you that I feel the same way you do. Every time I have to expose myself by asking for help, by asking for protection and support, there's a feeling of vulnerability. There's a feeling of risk. There's a feeling of literally jumping off a cliff and not knowing where you're going to land, but here's what I've realized over time. As entrepreneurs, we learn hardly anything standing still and we accomplish very little alone.

If you're ready to create momentum in your life, and create the outcomes you know you have always been meant for, use every billionaire's secret. Make certain you are comfortable. Start admitting where you're uncomfortable. Remove those things from your life. Put process or people or systems in place or all three so that you can make your life easier because we only do this once. We only have one shot at making our greatest contribution, and the secret that every successful entrepreneur in history has used, and every billionaire I've ever been in person with has used, is to make certain that they are comfortable, they are not tolerating too much, and that they have the protection and support they need to create their greatest contribution, and you can too.

Those feelings that we have of asking for too much or wanting too much or of thinking we're not worthy are feelings to be explored, analyzed, and abolished because if your mind is pregnant with the question "Can I do this? Can I create something bigger, something better, make a greater contribution," history proves that the answer is yes. You just have to put the right elements in place and you will.

I appreciate you being here with me and listening to the Entrepreneurial Personality Type. Don't miss episode 28, "Does your child's school have a teaching disorder?"

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.

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With gratitude,

Alex

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