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Lewis HowesThe BIGGEST LIES You've Been Told About Money That KEEP YOU POOR! | Jaspreet Singh
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EVERY SPOKEN WORD
95 min read · 18,756 words- 0:00 – 3:47
Never Taught About Money: The Doctor-or-Failure Upbringing
- SPSpeaker
And the more I, I learned, the more I realized I was lied to. We're taught to go to school, to get a degree, to get a job, so we can then get a job and climb the corporate ladder. But wealthy people don't do that. Wealthy people are not working to climb the corporate ladder, they're working to-
- LHLewis Howes
I think you gotta have a dream.
- SPSpeaker
The School of Greatness.
- LHLewis Howes
Really? [laughs] Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Please welcome Lewis Howes.
- LHLewis Howes
What is the, the big thing that you wish everyone knew about money before they started making it?
- SPSpeaker
Oh, man. Well, it, it, it goes back to, I guess, just the basics, because most of us, myself included, are never taught a thing, a thing about money. We're told, "Go to school-
- LHLewis Howes
Uh-huh
- SPSpeaker
... get a degree, get a job, and I'll let you figure it out."
- LHLewis Howes
Right.
- SPSpeaker
And then what happens for the majority of people is you end up broke, you end up struggling financially, and you, you can never figure out why. So the first thing is, what is it that you want to achieve in your life financially? And then you have to go out and figure it out yourself, because unfortunately, school will never teach you this stuff.
- LHLewis Howes
So you didn't learn this in high school or University of Michigan, or-
- SPSpeaker
No, never
- LHLewis Howes
... law, law school they didn't teach you any of this stuff?
- SPSpeaker
I, I went through, uh, high school, I went through college, I went through one year of grad school, and then I went through law school, and I never once learned a thing about money.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
Never once learned a thing about budgeting, never once learned a thing about building wealth, never once learned a thing about investing my money, and never once learned a thing about passive income. Yet here I am today with a law degree, and I haven't worked a single day as an attorney.
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs] Why not?
- SPSpeaker
Well, it, it, it doesn't make sense for me financially, and, a- a- and it's not my, my purpose.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
So, you know, I grew up in a traditional Indian house.
- LHLewis Howes
Right. Doctor, lawyer?
- SPSpeaker
Well, for me, I had two options. Doctor or failure.
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
Those are the two options that I had.
- LHLewis Howes
Right, right.
- SPSpeaker
My parents are immigrants from a state, uh, in India called Punjab, and my par- just came to the country with very little. And so, you know, I saw my parents work their butt off every single day. If my dad got a Saturday and a Sunday off, it was considered a long weekend. And so I didn't get to spend a lot of time with my parents growing up, and they would always tell me that, you know, y- you have to go out and become successful. And I completely agreed, because I wanted to give back to my parents, I wanted to help support them, and I figured, okay, if I want to become successful, I should follow the steps that we're told to become successful. What are those steps? Go to school, get a good degree, get a good job. For me, in my case, it was to become a doctor. And along that way, it was in college, I realized that something's wrong. Something's not adding up. And it actually happened, I was studying to get into medical school.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
And as I was studying, I, I started reading other business books and financial books, and I remember this, I was in the library studying, and I went onto Google, and I searched the richest people in America. And you see people like Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg. And I was like, "Huh, none of these people are doctors."
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- 3:47 – 8:34
Teen Parties, a $8,000 Condo, and Quitting Medicine
- SPSpeaker
And the first real experience of that for me was I, I had this event planning company that I started in college, and the reason why I started it was because when I was in high school, I worked at Indian weddings.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
So I got to know a lot of the DJs.
- LHLewis Howes
Right.
- SPSpeaker
And when I was in high school, these DJs were like, "Hey, man, you know a lot of people in high school. How about we host a teen party for your friends in high school?" I was like, "All right, that's fine. You know, why not?" Started this little teen party, party business in high school, and I go to college. Don't know what to expect, 'cause my parents didn't go to university here. I think everybody goes to college to study hard and, and become this big thing in college. I get to college, and everybody is partying.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
They're blowing their money that they don't have-
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
... on alcohol. They're drinking. I don't drink. I don't smoke. I'm not, I'm not into that party scene, but I need something to do on Friday nights. So I was like, wait, why don't I just take this teen party business that I had in high school, bring it to college? And that's what I did. My freshman year, I was 17 years old, I started knocking on the door of every club, venue, bar, restaurant, asking if I could host a party here. Some would say, "Yeah, it's gonna cost you $10,000."
- LHLewis Howes
Jeez.
- SPSpeaker
Some would say, "Yeah, it's gonna cost you 20 grand." I don't have that money.
- LHLewis Howes
Right.
- SPSpeaker
But then one or two said, "You can do it here. We're not gonna charge you a penny. Just give us half of the cover charge, half of the money that you bring in."
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
I said, "Okay, now I'm in business." So I started making a little bit of money doing this, and I had some cash saved up, and I was starting to read these business books, and every business book said, "Wealthy people invest in real estate."
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
I don't know what that means. I don't know any real estate investors. My parents aren't investors. And so I was like, okay, if wealthy people invest in real estate, maybe I should invest in real estate.
- LHLewis Howes
Uh-huh.
- SPSpeaker
And this was right after the 2008 crash, and I'm in Michigan-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm
- SPSpeaker
... where real estate was hit extremely hard. So I was like, all right, you know, uh, oh, I would like to invest in real estate. I'm studying for my medical college admission test. I start going to Google, because I'm bored while I'm studying for this exam. I'm reading about the, the Forbes richest people. None of them are doctors. None of them are people that worked the traditional path. And, you know, I have this idea to start investing in real estate, so I started looking at real estate in between my study sessions. And on August 22nd, I took the medical college admission test, the MCAT. On August 23rd, I closed on my f- closed on my first real estate investment property.
- LHLewis Howes
Wow. How old were you?
- SPSpeaker
I was 19.
- LHLewis Howes
Holy cow.
- SPSpeaker
It was $8,000.
- LHLewis Howes
Was the investment
- SPSpeaker
... was the price of the condo. It was-
- LHLewis Howes
The condo was eight grand?
- SPSpeaker
Eight grand.
- LHLewis Howes
How'd you get a condo for eight grand?
- 8:34 – 12:15
Owning the Corporate Ladder and How the System Profits From Financial Ignorance
- LHLewis Howes
Oh, man.
- SPSpeaker
I hear that again and again and again. But I was like, ah, this is not for me, and I started to realize that there's more to this thing. So now I started to go down this financial education journey, and the more I r- I learned, the more I realized I was lied to. Like, we're taught to go to school, to get a degree, to get a job so we can then get a job and climb the corporate ladder. Well, wealthy people don't do that.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
Wealthy people are not working to climb the corporate ladder. They're working to own the corporate ladder. I didn't even realize that you could do that. Now, you can climb the corporate ladder and work to own the corporate ladder at the same time, but it's a different mindset, right?
- LHLewis Howes
Right, right.
- SPSpeaker
Most of us are taught to get that degree so we can do one thing, climb the corporate ladder, get, earn a bigger salary. But if you only rely on your salary, you're just one step away from being broke.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
Because if you lose your job, something happens to you, you can't work, or your company goes down, you lost your salary, and now you have no income coming in, and now what?
- LHLewis Howes
Right.
- SPSpeaker
You're scrambling for a job. Maybe you have some savings to help take care of you.
- LHLewis Howes
Right. Or if you haven't been saving and you just spend on, on, on things all the time and you have no savings, then you're really screwed.
- SPSpeaker
Now, yeah, you're going into credit card debt.
- LHLewis Howes
Right.
- SPSpeaker
And now you're trying to figure out how do you make things work? And by then it's too late. This is where you gotta be proactive.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
And now I'm just like, this is crazy. Why was I never taught this?
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
I was never taught about wealth. I was never taught about investing. I was never taught about this sort of financial education. But why aren't we taught this? And that's when I realized it's very profitable to keep people financially uneducated.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
And it's profitable to keep people poor.
- LHLewis Howes
Interesting. What is the, what would you say is the main system that keeps people poor then?
- SPSpeaker
It goes down to so many different things. The banks profit when you're financially uneducated because they'll keep you saving money in the bank. They'll keep you in consumer debt.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
If the banks lived by their own advice, which is save money, the banks would be losing money. When you go and deposit $1,000 in the bank, that cash that you deposited is a liability for the bank. An asset is something that puts money in your pocket. A liability is something that takes money away from your pocket. So when the bank has your cash, it's a liability for them. They wanna get rid of it as fast as possible, and the way they do that is by lending it out because it's an investment for the bank. They don't wanna hold onto cash, but they want you to save your money.
- LHLewis Howes
They want you to give them cash.
- SPSpeaker
Right.
- LHLewis Howes
And just leave it there.
- SPSpeaker
Leave it there. And what's happening to your cash while it's there? It's losing value to inflation each and every day. Every day that you keep your cash in the bank, you're becoming poorer, each and every day. Now, it's funny, I made a video on this in 2016. It was my first video to go w- viral. It was called You're Guaranteed To Go Broke If You Do This, and I was talking about inflation at 2 to 3%. If you keep your cash in the bank, you're going broke every single day. Now, here we are.
- LHLewis Howes
8.5%.
- SPSpeaker
8.5%.
- 12:15 – 20:19
Tax Avoidance vs. Evasion: How Wealthy People Use the Tax Code
- LHLewis Howes
But the more you make as a business owner, until you're like uber rich, I feel like, you're spending a lot on taxes.
- SPSpeaker
You are. And, and you know what? And, and there's a lot of things that you can do-
- LHLewis Howes
Right
- SPSpeaker
... legally to pay less money in taxes, and there's different ways that you can invest your money that pay less money in taxes. So I'll give you a couple examples.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Let's, let's start with this. Tax avoidance and tax evading are two similar words with two very different outcomes. This is one of the first things that you learn in law school. Tax evading is illegal.
- LHLewis Howes
Yes.
- SPSpeaker
You go to jail.
- LHLewis Howes
Yes.
- SPSpeaker
Tax avoiding is legal, and then you get hated for doing that.
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs] Right.
- SPSpeaker
But, but, but this is the way it works.
- LHLewis Howes
But you're playing within the sys- the rules of the system.
- SPSpeaker
And if you learn, the IRS code, it's a rule book.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
And the people who understand the rule book are the people who have the money to hire the good accountants and the good attorneys.
- LHLewis Howes
But you're not an accountant, but have you studied the l- the-
- SPSpeaker
I have studied a lot of law, tax law.
- LHLewis Howes
Really?
- SPSpeaker
Yeah. And so what happens is wealthy people will understand how this works, play within that system, and pay little to no money in taxes.
- LHLewis Howes
What are three things that people who are making half a million and above should be doing to avoid taxes better?
- SPSpeaker
So let's start with, uh, let... I'm gonna assume that you have either some sort of your own income, you're a side hustler, or you are a business owner.
- LHLewis Howes
Yes.
- SPSpeaker
So if you make half a million dollars, let's assume that's profit. You are taxed on income. So if you take out a salary, that's gonna be taxed.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
Now, the question is what is a tax deduction? Or the better question is how can you make something a tax deduction? Because anything can be a tax deduction if you know how to make it a deduction.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
So that's the question that you have to ask yourself, because if you don't have an income, you don't have any tax.
- LHLewis Howes
Right.
- SPSpeaker
So this is what wealthy people are doing. So I'll give you an example of it being done, then I'll show you, uh, how people can do it on a potentially smaller scale. Elon Musk, he is probably the biggest example of this.
- 20:19 – 26:14
Real Estate, Market Briefs, and the Student Loan Trap
- LHLewis Howes
Absolutely, yeah. So you started doing the real estate thing early. Are you still a m- massive investor in real estate?
- SPSpeaker
I am.
- LHLewis Howes
What's your approach on it now?
- SPSpeaker
Yeah, yeah. So th- this, this is an interesting question that you asked, especially right after the tax question. So real estate is one of the, the best tax games for investors. That's one of the reasons why wealthy people love investing in real estate, because not only can you get cashflow, but you also get tax benefits. I started investing in real estate when I was 19 on accident.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
I went through a lot of pain. I remember when I told my dad first, "Hey, Dad, I wanna go invest in real estate," he was like, "You're stupid. Go study."
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
"Go become a doctor." So, uh, I started investing in real estate then, and I continued to buy homes. And I remember, 'cause remember, this is right after the 2008 crash. I was buying homes for, like, 30 grand in good areas. I remember home prices went up to $50,000, and I was like, "That's a lot of money for a home."
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
I didn't know anything else, right?
- LHLewis Howes
Right.
- SPSpeaker
That's all I saw. And so to me, I was like, "That's expensive," but I continued buying. Um, and I, I still am buying, but not as much as, as I was before because now I've been working on a couple other businesses. And so what I'm realizing is, okay, when I invest my money in real estate, my goal is to get a 7% cash on cash return on my money, meaning for every dollar I invest-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm
- SPSpeaker
... I wanna get 7 cents back in cashflow, positive cashflow every year. If I invest 100 grand, I want $7,000 of profit every single year. Well, I, I'm an entrepreneur, right? So I'm working on a couple different companies, one of which is Market Briefs. And so now I'm in this position where, what do I do with this cash? I can take this money, put it in real estate, get a seven, 8% return on my money, or I could put it in Market Briefs, which would be a, a bigger tax deduction because now, you know, if I spend money in advertising, I spend money in marketing, I hire more employees, we have a smaller profit, but then I can grow the company significantly faster than 7% a year.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
So what I've been doing now is investing more of my money into Market Briefs because it's something that I'm super passionate about. Like, I love real estate. I love revitalizing homes and buildings, and h- really helping to build the neighborhoods through that. But Market Briefs has such a, a different value in the sense that we're making financial news accessible because, you know, I didn't grow up learning about money.
- LHLewis Howes
Right.
- SPSpeaker
And CNBC looked cool, but I never understood anything that was happening there. They have all these confusing terms that are going on. So it's a way to make financial education and what's going on with money more accessible to people because I'm realizing how important that is to me. Because the more and more I talk to people, the more the people listen to what I say, the more I hear, "Oh my God, I wish I would've learned this when I was younger." Like, yeah, I know. Me too. And, and so it's like, it's important for me to help get that message out there because-
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah
- SPSpeaker
... it, it's so needed. You know, we, we talk about, especially in Detroit, food deserts, where there's areas people can't get access to healthy food, but this money desert, this financial education desert is, it's so widespread-
- LHLewis Howes
It's global
- SPSpeaker
... where none of us are taught a thing about money, and it makes me angry because if I didn't accidentally start reading these business books, if I didn't accidentally start investing in real estate, I would be somewhere completely different. You know, I have a lot of friends who are doctors now. They're working their butt off. They're also paying the highest taxes. They're also trying to figure out how to afford my lifestyle because when you go and become a doctor, you make a good salary, but guess what? Now you have big student loans you gotta pay back.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
And now a lot of times you wanna live that doctor lifestyle. You wanna have the G-Wagon, you wanna have the Range Rover, you wanna have the nice car, you wanna have the nice home. So now you graduate, you're 28, 29 years old, you have half a million dollars of student loans you gotta pay back. You're making a few hundred grand a year, but you're working your butt off. It's very stressful. And now you have all these new expenses, your homes, your cars.
- LHLewis Howes
And how much does that 500,000 in student loan actually become after 30 years of paying it off?
- SPSpeaker
Oh, man. Yeah. [laughs] Over a million.
- LHLewis Howes
Really?
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- LHLewis Howes
So it's really-
- SPSpeaker
And, and, and it depends-
- 26:14 – 31:57
Five Lessons: What Money Is, Equity, and Thinking Bigger
- LHLewis Howes
Now, Jaspreet, you've been... Your channel's really inspiring, and you've interviewed and also just done your own research individually on a lot of these different topics about money. You've, you've interviewed the top people on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, uh, investing in gold and-
- SPSpeaker
Mm-hmm
- LHLewis Howes
... um, stock trading and real estate and starting your own business and all these different things. With all the information that you've brought into your life-
- SPSpeaker
Mm
- LHLewis Howes
... all the mistakes around money, the successes around money, the wisdom you've learned, the things you've tried, maybe things you haven't tried-
- SPSpeaker
Yeah
- LHLewis Howes
... if you could share five things you wish we all taught when we were younger about money-
- SPSpeaker
Yeah
- LHLewis Howes
... with all this information, that seems-
- SPSpeaker
Yeah
- LHLewis Howes
... a little overwhelming and confusing, especially today with the NFT world and the crypto-
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- LHLewis Howes
... and all these different things and-
- SPSpeaker
Yeah
- LHLewis Howes
... what do you wish we taught everyone from the ages of 10 to 20?
- SPSpeaker
Sure.
- LHLewis Howes
Five different things around money.
- SPSpeaker
First thing would be, what is money?
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
Because money as we know it is fake. Our dollars are just pieces of paper. I grew up thinking that our paper dollars are like the Holy Grail. You wanna save this money because it is the most valuable thing there is. As I became older, I started to realize that that's not the case. Our paper dollars are just pieces of paper. It's fiat con- currency, which means it's issued by the government, and the value is backed through the strength of the government. Now, we're lucky here that the United States is the world's superpower. We have the world's strongest military. We have the world's strongest economy, but we can't stay on top forever. And, you know, inflation is when the value of a dollar goes down. So these dollars, which many of us think that if we hoard this, we'll become wealthy, saving money to wealth, is actually keeping you poor-
- LHLewis Howes
Wow
- SPSpeaker
... and it's making you poorer each and every day. So the first thing you have to understand is, what is money? Second thing you gotta understand is, what do wealthy people work for? And most of us, the majority of us, are taught to work to get a job and climb that corporate ladder, but wealthy people are doing something completely different. They're working to own the corporate ladder. They're working for something called equity, and this thing really blew my mind because wealthy people are not working for that paycheck. They're working to own a piece of the company. That way, they can get a piece of the profits. So the best way to understand this is, you know, a lot of times people complain about how much money I'm making. I wish my boss paid me more. And this is where if you start to understand the system, you'll start to ask the right questions. See, a big company, y- you have to ask the question, who are they working for? Are they working to take care of their employees? Are they working to take care of their customers? Neither. They're working to take care of one person, their shareholders. It's this concept called fiduciary duty.
- LHLewis Howes
Right.
- SPSpeaker
I learned this in law school. The executives of a company have a fiduciary duty, not towards the employees, not towards the customers, but towards the shareholders, the owners of the company. Now, what that means, an easy example of this is you're going out to dinner with your girlfriend or your wife, and, uh, you're on a date, and you get a text from one of your good friends saying, "Hey, let's go play Fortnite right now." Your fiduciary duty at the moment is to be with your girlfriend, to be with your wife-
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
... to be with your partner, to spend time with him or her. If you go out and leave, you're gonna get in trouble, right?
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah, yeah.
- SPSpeaker
So it's who is your alliance to?
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
And the shareholders, uh, the, the executives, the CEO and the executives' company, their fiduciary duty is to the shareholders, the owners of the company. So what are they trying to do? They're working to drive up the valuation of the company. So once you start to understand that, you'll realize why this, this big discrepancy between what people are paid and what people want to be paid. And when you start to understand that, you're gonna change what you do with your money. That's why I said a minute ago, or a little bit ago, wealthy people are working to climb, not climb the corporate ladder, but own the corporate ladder. So how do you get the equity, the ownership? You have to own a piece of the corporate ladder.
- 31:57 – 40:12
Understanding Debt: Consumer Culture, Buy Now Pay Later, and Paying It Down
- LHLewis Howes
Number four
- SPSpeaker
... number four, is you have to understand the concept of debt.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
Because we live in this consumer culture, and it, it's interesting where, you know, we want to live this flex lifestyle, right? I wanna show off on Instagram. I wanna show off my new car, my new Chanel, Gucci purse. And we, we kind of get caught up where I need to live a certain lifestyle that where people can think that I'm rich, but what you're doing now is you're living broke-
- LHLewis Howes
Right
- SPSpeaker
... making everybody else rich so people think you're rich.
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs] Right.
- SPSpeaker
You're, you're product rich. You have a lot of nice stuff, but you're, you're broke. And so when you live that type of lifestyle, you are the reason why Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Chanel are making so much money, but it's keeping you broke. The s- richest person in the world, sometimes he's the second, sometimes he's the third, is the CEO of Louis Vuitton.
- LHLewis Howes
No way. Really?
- SPSpeaker
Yeah, Bernard Arnault. And why? How did he get there? Because everybody wants to look rich. Everybody wants the Louis Vuitton. Uh, you know, you, I saw this in the s- the pandemic especially. We were in a recession in 2021, but luxury sale of products were breaking new records.
- LHLewis Howes
Come on. Really?
- SPSpeaker
They were breaking records in 2021.
- LHLewis Howes
Why is that?
- SPSpeaker
Stimulus checks went out. People had cash.
- LHLewis Howes
Hmm.
- SPSpeaker
And some people used that money to save. Some people used that money to pay down debt. Some people invested that money. But a big chunk of people took that money to places like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and now you go and spend it.
- LHLewis Howes
You would think when the economy is... Well, I guess when people are losing their jobs, and there's financial uncertainty of the future, you'd think people would be saving or investing, not spending on luxury goods, especially if you can't even go outside to flex it.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- LHLewis Howes
You can only do it on social media in your own home.
- SPSpeaker
You, you don't need to, you don't need to go outside anymore. You can just do it on social media.
- LHLewis Howes
I know.
- SPSpeaker
And so if you don't have the cash to do it, people are going into debt to buy it, and it's becoming easier and easier because of now things like buy now, pay later.
- LHLewis Howes
Right.
- SPSpeaker
It is one of the fastest-
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
... growing industries in fintech. I love financial technology, but it, it breaks my heart. I mean, it just, it, it, it rips my heartstrings when I see the growth of this buy now, pay later because what does that mean? I can go out and buy anything I want, not pay for it today, pay it off over three months, and then if I don't, I get slapped with 25% interest.
- LHLewis Howes
Hmm.
- SPSpeaker
And if you are 18, or let's just say 21, I give you $6,500. You never invested another penny, but you invested those $6,500, and you could get an 18% return on that money, and you retire at 65, and you look at this investment portfolio, you would have over $11 million.
- LHLewis Howes
Wow.
- SPSpeaker
Now, everyone watching this is saying, "Where the heck am I gonna get 18% on my money?"
- 40:12 – 43:59
When Debt Makes Sense and His Paid-Off Real Estate Portfolio
- LHLewis Howes
Is there ever a time where people should go into debt, the right type of debt?
- SPSpeaker
I-
- LHLewis Howes
Where we get the credit card debt-
- SPSpeaker
Yeah. [laughs]
- LHLewis Howes
... student loan debt, you know, buying a car and going in debt on that.
- SPSpeaker
Sure.
- LHLewis Howes
Those things I'm understanding is not helping your financial future.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- LHLewis Howes
When is it the right time, or is there a right time, in your mind, to take money out and spend interest on that money?
- SPSpeaker
Depends, right? I- if it's something that's gonna make you income and you can manage the debt, then yes. But it's not for everybody.
- LHLewis Howes
Right.
- SPSpeaker
Some people don't have it in them to manage the debt. Some people don't have it in them to manage investments. Some people don't have it in them to run a business. If you're not the entrepreneurial investor type and you don't like looking at numbers, you don't like managing money, you don't like trying to grow this, stay away from it. Now, you go up, maybe you can get debt to buy a home, but that's it. But if you are more the entrepreneurial type, you, you have it in you that you wanna grow, now if you're using debt you should only be using debt to buy something that's paying you with income, something that's going to make you more money.
- LHLewis Howes
And what do you, do you have any debt out right now?
- SPSpeaker
Right now I do not. I have people paying me loans, but I personally don't have any debt right now. And, and, uh, I, I kind of went through this phase where I have all this real estate, but I have no debt on it. And the reason is, is because I'm waiting for the right opportunity. I will, I will have more debt.
- LHLewis Howes
Really?
- SPSpeaker
Yeah. I- I'm just waiting for the right opportunity because right now all my real estate is paid off.
- LHLewis Howes
You've paid off all the real estate?
- SPSpeaker
All the real estate is paid off.
- LHLewis Howes
How many properties do you have?
- SPSpeaker
Uh, units in the dozens, the number of units, but now I'm just waiting for the right opportunity. And-
- LHLewis Howes
And it's all paid off?
- SPSpeaker
All paid off.
- LHLewis Howes
So now it's just cash coming in?
- SPSpeaker
It's cash coming in. And, you know, for d-
- LHLewis Howes
Do you still have that s-
- SPSpeaker
I've still got that one.
- LHLewis Howes
$6,000, 8-
- SPSpeaker
That's rented for $850 a month now.
- LHLewis Howes
That $8,000 place?
- SPSpeaker
$8,000 place.
- 43:59 – 52:30
Be Willing to Make Mistakes: His Worst Real Estate Deal
- SPSpeaker
You have to be willing to make mistakes, take risks, and start. And thi- this one is hard, and it sounds simple, but a lot of people that I know, a lot of people, they are so hesitant to making their first investment because what if I do something wrong? What if I make a mistake? What if my investment goes down? And so the simple thing that I learned-
- LHLewis Howes
That's happened to me multiple times
- SPSpeaker
... yeah, but you learn every time, right?
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
It's, it's your, your tuition.
- LHLewis Howes
Yes.
- SPSpeaker
It's your real tuition. Uh, and you have to be willing-
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs] Yeah
- SPSpeaker
... to try things because if you don't, you're gonna get stuck in the game of what if.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
What if I lose money?
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
What if it doesn't work out? Well, what if it goes up? What if you learn? I have made a lot of mistakes. I made a video on my YouTube channel go- where I went through my worst real estate deal ever. It was my third property that I ever bought. It was a home in the city of Detroit, and I made every mistake possible. Now, I, I'm still in college, right? I don't know what's going on exactly with real estate investing. And I mean, I bought the property, and I bought it because my contractor at the time told me that we can make a lot of money on this deal. We'll be able to f- uh, rent it out. We could flip it if I wanted to. And he was like, "Don't even worry about getting a home inspection." Now, when, when I buy a property now, the first thing I do is I get a property inspection where somebody walks through the deal, makes sure, a third party, an independent person, and they tell me anything wrong with the property, in the foundation, in the plumbing, in really anything with the property so I know what I'm getting myself into. And so he told me, "Don't do that." He said, "Don't worry, I already walked through." He's a contractor, so I figured he knows what he's talking about. Uh, "All you have to do is spend $5,500, and I will make sure this property's ready to go."
- LHLewis Howes
Wow.
- SPSpeaker
So I said, "Okay. Let's do it." So I bought the home. I gave him a check for half, or maybe 2,500 or three, something around there, 3,000. And a week goes by, nothing starts. Two weeks go by, nothing starts. And I, I call him, I said, "Hey, man, what's going on? Like, I thought we were gonna have this done in two weeks. Here we are two weeks later, and you haven't even brought your materials here." "So I got caught up with something. Something's went wrong." And so now two more weeks go by. He brought some materials there. He started painting one wall, and that was it. And so, you know, I'm getting upset because now it's like, you know, every day that this property's not leased out is, it's costing money.
- LHLewis Howes
You're losing money, yeah.
- SPSpeaker
And still nothing's getting done. Another two weeks go by, and now I'm like, "Okay, look, what, what's g- what, what's going on? We gotta get this taken care of 'cause now we're six weeks into this deal. You haven't done a single thing. You keep putting me off. You, you took my money, and, and nothing's happened." And so long story short on that, he ran away. He was having financial difficulties. That's why he wanted me to close on this deal because he needed some cash, and now he's gone. So now I have another property that, um, uh, somebody was working on, a manager, and he was having some issues at, at my property. He was causing some problems. So I figured, he's causing problems there. How about you come work at this property, and you need a home, you can live in this home for free.
- LHLewis Howes
Fix it up.
- SPSpeaker
Just fix it up.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
And so he, he said-
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah
- SPSpeaker
... "Okay." So now I thought, all right, you know, I, I, I found a, a good deal here. I've got somebody who'll fix it up. He'll live there, take care of it, and it's gonna cost me less money. And so now he's living in this property, and he's like, "How about this? How about you just open up a charge account at Home Depot, and I'll just go buy stuff-
- LHLewis Howes
Ooh
- SPSpeaker
... and take care of it at the home."
- LHLewis Howes
Ooh.
- SPSpeaker
I said, "Okay." So I go open up the charge account. He starts buying materials, not to work on my home-
- LHLewis Howes
Oh my gosh
- SPSpeaker
... but to work on other people's properties.
- LHLewis Howes
Oh my gosh.
- 52:30 – 58:43
Investing Psychology and His Passive and Active Strategies
- SPSpeaker
I'm glad you brought that up because one of the things that I say is that the psychology of investing is just as, if not more important than the actual how-tos of investing.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm. Yes.
- SPSpeaker
And that's especially true when it comes to something like the stock market. In real estate, it's tough, but the difference between real estate and the stock market is if you buy a, say, $200,000 home, it's not gonna go to zero next week, next month, or really ever because you have some land. You have a physical property. In the stock market, it can happen. And so there's a couple things that you can do.
- LHLewis Howes
You invest in stocks too?
- SPSpeaker
I invest... So I invest my money in five places: real estate, stocks, startups, cryptocurrency, and physical gold. So-
- LHLewis Howes
In that descending order of, like, value from the most to the least?
- SPSpeaker
Yeah, I would say so. Uh, and then, you know, if you wanna put my business in there, then that would be number one.
- LHLewis Howes
Startups number one.
- SPSpeaker
Startups.
- LHLewis Howes
Your business and startups-
- SPSpeaker
Yeah, yeah
- LHLewis Howes
... number one, yeah.
- SPSpeaker
But I also invest in other startups as well. But it kind of, it, I would say in that order, yes.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
But in the stock market particularly, it is a liquid investment, meaning you can easily buy, you can easily sell, and that's what becomes a big psychological game because every day people are watching that ticker.
- LHLewis Howes
Ah, I just made money. I just lost money. Ah.
- SPSpeaker
What's Tesla doing today?
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Tesla's up $2. Tesla's down $4. And it, it can really drain you, and I think most people who start off investing their money, they get sucked into that rat race. I did too because when I first started investing my money in the stock market, I was like, "Wow, this is fun. This is exciting. Oh my God." It, it becomes like a drug. You become addicted to it because I, I was waking up every morning, I was like, "I'm gonna become a day trader." I, I got it, and so, you know, I took a summer of when I was in college, and that's all I did.
- LHLewis Howes
Really?
- SPSpeaker
I would wake up before the market, and I would read these stock charts, and I would trade these penny stocks. And some days I would, I would make $1,000. Other days, I would lose $1,000. And by the end of the summer, I don't think I made any money.
- LHLewis Howes
You just spent all this time [laughs] .
- SPSpeaker
I spent all my time, and I realized this is not for me.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Like, I became so addicted to it. All you're doing is watching the numbers go up and down, and ticker symbols, and you're reading these forums. So the first thing is you have to understand that your psychology's important. What I do is I understand I'm not a trader. I don't trade. I don't flip, even when it comes to real estate, really any of my investments.
- LHLewis Howes
You invest.
- SPSpeaker
I invest-
- LHLewis Howes
Long term
- SPSpeaker
... only for the long term. So what does that mean? So I have two strategies when it comes to investing my money. I have an active strategy, and I have a passive strategy. I'll start with the passive strategy 'cause that's easy to understand Every month, I passively invest my money into stocks, physical gold, and cryptocurrency.
- LHLewis Howes
Really?
- 58:43 – 1:11:37
From Water-Resistant Socks to Minority Mindset and Market Briefs
- LHLewis Howes
where, where are the, uh, three biggest revenue streams coming from for you?
- SPSpeaker
Well, obviously business.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Um, you know, and that's across the different businesses. And then the second one I would say is real estate. That gives me that passive cashflow. And that, those are my two real... When I talk about income, cash in my pocket, it comes from my business, and it comes from real estate. That's where my cash comes from.
- LHLewis Howes
Nice. Nice.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah. It's pretty simple.
- LHLewis Howes
And what's the number one revenue generator in your business? Is it from YouTube? Is it from the newsletter? Is it from some other course or coaching or-
- SPSpeaker
Yeah. So, so the business is divided up. I have my personal brand, which is Minority Mindset, right?
- LHLewis Howes
Yes.
- SPSpeaker
That's me on YouTube. That's my blog. And then I have, uh, Market Briefs and Market Insiders. So number one would probably be my personal brand.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
And, and now I don't think that's gonna last very long, though. Uh, my personal brand is, is doing well because I've built up this, this big following on YouTube, which was completely... It's funny. It's accidental. I never wanted to be a celebrity. I never wanted to be famous. I never wanted to be known. I started YouTube on accident.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
Uh, I was... You know, we talk about risks, making mistakes. I've always been an entrepreneur, and, um, you know, I went through a lot of different business ideas, and one idea that I had, it was in the year of my grad school. I was taking a class on public speaking, and my friend, my roommate at the time, he was like, "You gotta watch this show called Shark Tank." I was like, "Okay, you know, whatever. I, I don't watch TV."
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
He said, "But watch this show called Shark Tank." And, you know, it's all about people pitching business ideas, and this class that I was taking, we had a project where I was supposed to pitch a product to the class, kind of like Shark Tank. I was like, "Pssh, that's easy. I do this, like, with my friends all day and night long. That, that can't be hard." So I kept putting it off, putting it off, putting it off. You know, I'm, I'm a procrastinator, especially when it came to school, because [laughs] my mind was always somewhere else. And so now one day I was late to class, like normal. I pick up my backpack, and I started running because I was like, "Oh, I'm, I'm, I'm a couple minutes late." And it's raining this day. And as I'm running to my class, I stepped in a pothole filled with water. Now my foot is soaked. I sit down. I'm like, "Oh, I'm wet. My socks are wet, and uncomfortable." And the teacher just goes, "Jaspreet, it's your day." Your day for what? [laughs] She's like, "It's your day to present." And I was like, "Oh my God, I forgot." And so, you know, obviously I don't tell her this, but I go stand in front of the class, and I'm like, "Jaspreet, think of something, anything, anything. Just think of something." And so the first thing that comes to my mind were my wet socks. So I go up in front of the class, no practice, no preparation, and I pitch this idea of water-resistant socks. That way now you can be an athlete, you can walk around and not have to worry about stepping in puddles. I sat down and I was like, "Nice job, Jaspreet, but that's actually kind of a cool idea." So I go home, [laughs] and I start googling, you know, water-resistant socks, and they had these, like, really thick, uncomfortable-looking things that people wore when they go fishing and stuff. But nothing made for, like, athletes, people to wear in their regular life. So I was like, "Oh, maybe I'm onto something." So then I spent a lot of time trying to develop this technology, working with textile engineers, working with, uh, sock manufacturers, and I, and I created a water-resistant sock. Uh-huh. And now I go to launch this company, and I got approached by a marketing company, quote, unquote, "marketing company," and they said they're gonna help me blow up my sales. They're gonna help me do all this stuff. They're gonna help me make all this money, and I was really skeptical. And then they said, "Don't worry. We have a 100% money back guarantee. If you're not completely satisfied, if we don't make our money back, you can get all of your money back." I said, "Okay, that sounds pretty good." So I gave them money. It was a few grand. I think like $3,500, which is a lot of money, and the next day after I gave them the money, I had a bad feeling in my stomach. Mm. I was like, you know, I'm a marketer. I, I like, I like the way I can promote products. I, I just... Just something didn't seem right. So I call up the guy, and I say, "Hey, man, I know that we haven't started yet. Look, I just wanna have my money back. You know, I wanna end this on amicable terms before you guys spend any money. Let's just, let's just, um, you know, end it now." And he said, "Okay, no problem." Puts me on hold, and I, I was in the gym at the time, and I was really frustrated because I was between sets, and he puts me on hold for a long time, and then all of a sudden the phone line goes beep. Ooh. And I was like, "Oh, something's not right." So then I call up the other number I have. They don't pick up. I start emailing them, and I never hear from them again. Found out I got scammed. They were a fake company. Ooh. So now I was irritated. I launched the company. We had an amazing launch. I think, I don't remember exactly, but in the first 30 days, we did over ef- either $17,000 or $20,000 in sales right off of the gate. Mm-hmm. And I was still... I had this, like, kinda chip on my shoulder. I was like, "That's not cool." Like, nobody supported me as an entrepreneur. Nobody wanted me to do this, especially when it came to the sock business. I mean, I... There were so many jokes thrown at me, because they're like, "Oh, you left medicine to go sell socks?" Right, right. You know, it's like, you know, I was just so m- I was just so frustrated by it. And I was like, you know, people don't see what I see. They don't have my vision. I want, I wanna do something to help other people like me. So I put out this course on Udemy, seven bucks, uh, on how to launch a business without getting screwed over. Uh-huh. I didn't really care about making money. I just wanted to help people because I was so angry. And people loved it, and they were like, "Dude, can you please start a social media page? Start an Instagram page." And I did it under the alias Minority Mindset, the whole idea being just thinking differently than the majority of people, because that's what I thought I always did. Mm. From the point where I started hosting parties instead of going to the parties, to then buying real estate when everybody was out s- blowing their money they didn't have in college, to now starting this company. I was like, "I have this thing, Minority Mindset," so I called it that. And then I said, "Okay, I'll start an Instagram page." Just posting the same stuff, like, just here and there, like, things that I wish I would've learned, known about starting a business, and about investing, and money that somebody, I wish someone would've taught me. And then everyone says, "Jaspreet, I like this. Can you make long-form content? Can you create a blog?" I was like, "Well, English is my second language. You're not gonna like my writing." [laughs] "So, no, I can't start a blog, but I, I don't mind talking, so I'll start a YouTube channel." So then I started this YouTube channel called Minority Mindset, and that slowly organically started to grow, and I never started it with the intention of making money. And, you know, and it's funny, I, I, I tell that to people now, and they're like, "There's no way that's true. Like, you have to have some idea of trying to make money," and I really didn't. I was recording the videos off my phone, so I had really no expenses. I think I spent, like, 30 bucks on, uh, a tripod. Uh, [laughs] you know, and that was it. Like, I had no lights. I had no fancy equipment. Um, and then I think we were close to 10,000 subscribers, and my buddy comes up to me. He says, "Hey, how much money are you making from, uh, Minority Mindset?" I'm like, "I'm not making any money." He said, "From your YouTube advertisements." I'm like, "What are you talking about?" He said, "You know you can have advertisements-" [laughs] "... on your YouTube channel?" I said, "I have no idea what you're talking about." So he, he goes onto my YouTube channel with me, goes into the back, in the settings, and he's like, "Dude." Just click one button. Click, turn the monetization- Yeah ... on. I said, "I didn't even know that you could do that." This is before that there was even monetization requirements. Anybody could monetize any videos, no matter how many subscribers, how many videos you had. So [laughs] I was like, "Oh, I didn't know that I could do this." So, you know, I really started it just kind of with that goal of I, I wanna put out that information that I wish somebody would've told me, kinda just like that, that helping hand that, "Hey, it's okay." Yeah, yeah. "You're not the only one that thinks like this. It's okay to think a little bit differently. It's okay to try something different." So that was my whole goal, and then it started to grow, and then it became this kind of this bigger thing, and around a half a million or 600,000 subscribers, I was like, "Wait, I can actually, like, turn this into a business." Right. And so I, I went through with this, like, you know, I'm an entrepreneur. I, I was like, "Okay, Minority Mindset, I'm gonna turn it into a business." So I started these other products under Minority Mindset. I started this newsletter under Minority Mindset. I started, you know, these other educational things, and it started to get really confusing to me because I was like, "What is Minority Mindset?" I'd be walking down the street, and people would come up to me and say, "Dude, you're Minority Mindset, man. You, you really helped me out. You saved my life. You helped me get out of debt," and it made me feel really good. Like, I could not believe people knew who I was. Uh, I remember one time I was with my dad. We were in Arizona, and we were getting acai bowls, which are absolutely delicious, by the way. [laughs] And we're in line, and this guy sees me walk into the store. He was riding his bicycle, and he races across the street to come inside at me, and he goes, "Jaspreet, Minority Mindset, is that you?" And I was like, "Yeah." And my dad's right there. And he just puts his arms around me, hugs me, and he's like, "Dude, you changed my life. You helped me out so much. You got me out of this position." And I was like Oh my God, no way.
- LHLewis Howes
Right.
- SPSpeaker
Like, and, and my dad looks at me. He's like, "People watch you?" [laughs]
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs] Right.
- SPSpeaker
You know?
- LHLewis Howes
You're, you're not a doctor, and that's okay?
- SPSpeaker
Yeah. A- and so it was like, that was like that realization that, oh my God-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm
- SPSpeaker
... like people are actually paying attention. You don't... Obviously, you know. You see the comments, you see the subscribers-
- LHLewis Howes
But until you meet people in person-
- SPSpeaker
... but until you-
- LHLewis Howes
... you really don't know
- SPSpeaker
... Exactly. And that, like-
- LHLewis Howes
It's a crazy feeling
- SPSpeaker
... and you know, that time especially just 'cause, you know, I saw my dad light up, and he was like, "I can't..." Like, he was shocked. And that's when I was, you know, I can actually do something with this. So I was creating these products under it, but I was getting confused because what is Minority Mindset? Is it a company, or is it me? And, you know, as the entrepreneur, I was like, I'm gonna build a company. I'm gonna, I'm gonna turn this into something. But i- everybody assumed I'm Minority Mindset, which made it very hard to build a company out of it. And so this was 2021 in December. I decided to go on a thinking trip, and I'd never done this before, and I really recommend this to anybody who can do this.
- 1:11:37 – 1:16:48
Abundance vs. Poor Mindset: Thinking from 40K to 400K
- LHLewis Howes
In terms of the financial education side, what do you think is the difference between an abundance mindset and a poor mindset?
- SPSpeaker
[laughs] I'll give, I'll give you an example, okay? I used- when I was... I bought my first real estate property when I was 19. Right after that, I was like, I wanna be able to look at my own deals. You have to use a real estate agent to go look at properties.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
So when I was... Right after that, I was 20 years old. I went out, I got my real estate salesperson's license-
- LHLewis Howes
Nice
- SPSpeaker
... in college. So now I start helping people buy and sell homes. And I had this one couple that I worked with. They were looking for between a 400,000, $500,000 home, and so I helped them for months go from property to property to property. They were very picky. So I spent months just going through this. We finally found them a property. It was somewhere between 400 and $500,000. Within their budget, it had everything they wanted. It was facing the right direction. It had the right color door. The rooms were the right sizes. Like, it was perfect. So now they're like, "Oh, Jaspreet, you did it. You found a property. Let's, let's, let's enter into a contract." And I said, "Okay." And I remember this because they sat me down in one of the bedrooms and said, "We wanna talk. So we wanna put an offer on this property. We're ready to go forward, but there's only one condition. We want you to put half of your commission in the deal."
- LHLewis Howes
Ooh.
- SPSpeaker
I said, "Why?" They said, "Well, you're 20 years old, and you know, if I get three..." Typically, you get 3% on the buyer side. So if, uh, it's a 15,000... uh, probably $500,000 property, that's 15 grand in commission, between 12 and 15 grand. And so they were like, "Uh, we don't think that you sh- you know, 12 to 15 grand is worth it for just signing the papers to help us buy this home. Plus, you're only in college." And I was like, "Okay." And I, I'm a hardhead, right? Especially 20 years old. I was like, "Uh-huh, okay." So they're like, "Yeah, w- we think if you just put six grand into the deal, we- we'll, uh, we'll forward the property and ready to buy it." And I was like, "Nope, I'm not doing it."
- LHLewis Howes
Wow.
- SPSpeaker
"You can do it with somebody else." And I walked away. And a month later, they weren't, they didn't, were not able to get the home because they weren't able to do the paperwork fast enough.
- LHLewis Howes
Wow.
- SPSpeaker
They called me back up. The wife calls me and she says, "Jaspreet, uh, we weren't able to make it work, but we found another property. Would you be willing to show it to us?" I was like, "No." [laughs] So that was, you know, the, what a limiting mindset is. The first thing is you're looking at what somebody else is making.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
Instead of looking at what you could get, you're counting someone else's money instead of seeing what you can get, do yourself. So you're, you're jumping over dollars to pick up pennies.
- LHLewis Howes
Right.
- SPSpeaker
And that's the first idea of is you're so worried about what's going on around you, but instead you should be focusing on you. What value do you get? The second part of that is a growth mindset. So, you know, I talk about living below your means, which is important, especially when you're in the early phases of trying to build your wealth, right? You need to be saving your money, investing your money. I, you too, you know, we were kind of extreme, right? Where it's like every penny-
- LHLewis Howes
Yes
- SPSpeaker
... we have is gonna be invested, it's gonna be put back into us 'cause this is our time to grind.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
But, you know, you don't have to be super extreme, but, you know, let's just say you're putting aside 25% of your income. So if you're making 40 grand a year, that's $10,000 put forward to savings and your investments. Now, what happens to most people is you say, "Okay, I realize this whole financial education thing. I'm learning about this investing thing. I wanna get more aggressive. I wanna do more of this. How can I do more?" Well, that's when you're trying to now squeeze more pennies out of your pie. You try to go from saving and investing 25% to 30% and 35%, but there's a limited pie, right? So what you should be doing is thinking, "Okay, I'm making 40 grand, saving and putting aside 25%. Fine. Maybe I can do more." If, if, you know, you're into that, like, I'm gonna do whatever it takes-
- LHLewis Howes
Extreme, yeah, yeah
- SPSpeaker
... extreme, right? Which is fine. But the bigger thing is, how do I go from 40 grand to 400 grand-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm
- SPSpeaker
... and keep doing what I'm doing now? 'Cause now if you're, if you get to from 40 to 400 and you save and invest 25%, that's $100,000.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
A lot more than the 10 grand you had before. You're still only living off of 75%. You have the same, you know, that same percentage, but it's so much bigger. It's that growth mindset. It's thinking bigger. And now everyone's gonna say, hear this saying, "How am I supposed to go from 40 to 400?" Well, the first step is understanding it's possible. Then you start learning, then you start doing, you start making mistakes.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
And then you learn from your mistakes and you fix them. But until you break through that mindset and you realize that it is possible, I can do this no matter where I come from, what I look like, what my background is, it's possible, but I need the right education. YouTube has made it so much more [laughs] accessible. Read books, you know, start learning and then you start taking steps. It's not gonna happen overnight, but you'll start taking steps towards that.
- LHLewis Howes
Right.
- SPSpeaker
And so it's, it's about building that growth mindset-
- 1:16:48 – 1:22:59
Three Truths, the Quadruple Triangle, and Greatness
- LHLewis Howes
This one is something I ask everyone at the end, it's called the three truths.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- LHLewis Howes
So imagine a hypothetical scenario, it's your last day on Earth. You've actually made your parents proud, even though you weren't a doctor, but you've been-
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- LHLewis Howes
... you've been doing the thing that you love doing for the rest of your life.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- LHLewis Howes
But eventually, it's the last day for you.
- SPSpeaker
Mm-hmm.
- LHLewis Howes
Many years away, and you've gotta take all of your information with you. All of your content, your newsletter, your YouTube, anything you create, it's gotta go with you. So no one has access to your information anymore, your, uh, written words, your video, your audio message. But you have three lessons you could share with the world, and this is all we would have to remember you by. Three truths. What would you say would be those for you?
- SPSpeaker
Yeah. But first I wanna get to that, uh, my, my parents are very happy now.
- LHLewis Howes
I'm sure they are. [laughs]
- SPSpeaker
My mom actually works with me now, too.
- LHLewis Howes
That's great. Yeah. [laughs]
- SPSpeaker
But, uh, getting on to that-
- LHLewis Howes
Now they can brag about you, right? [laughs]
- SPSpeaker
Yeah, exactly. [laughs] Um, the first thing is think bigger.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
And the reason why I say that is because a lot of times we hear that, "Think big." But when you're thinking big, you're, you're probably 99% of the time not thinking big enough. You can think bigger. Cross it off, think even bigger. When I started YouTube, uh, I never thought that we would hit 10,000 subscribers, let alone 100,000 subscribers, let alone a million subscribers. I used to joke around with my friends that if I make, if we hit 100,000 subscribers, I made it. If I hit a million subscribers, I'm gonna shut the channel down 'cause it's not possible that a million people are gonna watch this weirdo on YouTube talking about guacamole, talking about financial education. There's not a million people that wanna do that. I'm a big thinker. I'm an entrepreneur. I've always thought big, yet here I am with these limiting beliefs of myself, and I think I'm this person who thinks crazy, who thinks big. So if you're thinking big, you're not thinking big enough.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm. Okay.
- SPSpeaker
Because that, that's gonna be your own limiting beliefs. Second, learn the rules to the game. The reason why so many people suck with money is because they don't understand the rules to the game, and this is why a lot of people get so angry. They get so angry about what other people achieve. They get so angry about-
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah
- SPSpeaker
... everything else going on. But what you need to do, the best thing to do is learn the system. You know, I talk about how rich people don't pay taxes and how you can work to own the corporate ladder and it makes people angry. But the reality is, this is the opportunity for you to figure out how can you do it yourself. This is what the system is. You can hate it, you can cry, you can scream, you can complain. That's what I used to do. I thought it was horrible. Money was a taboo topic when I was growing up, and I was like, "It's unfair that people are doing this." But then I realized, what if I learned the rules? And you can apply it to yourself.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
And third, be willing to make mistakes.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Try. Anything is possible, but you have to be willing to try and make mistakes and keep getting better each and every day.
- LHLewis Howes
I love that, man
- SPSpeaker
It, it's, it's a grind, but, you know, anything is possible, man
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs] Jaspreet, I wanna acknowledge you for a moment, man, for, uh, taking this mission on. I think a lot of people are scared to think about money, to talk about money, and to save and invest. I think people are just scared of money in general. And the fact that you're diving into this and making this a part of your mission to educate, to entertain-
- SPSpeaker
Yeah
Episode duration: 1:23:00
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