Is the pursuit of a worldly desire an OK thing to go after?
On today’s episode Russell talks about finally getting his dream house and why it was important for him. He also shares why having a goal of a worldly possession isn’t a bad thing.
Here are some fun things in this episode:
Listen below to hear Russell’s excitement over his new dream house.
---Transcript---
Hey everyone. This is Russell Brunson, and I want to welcome you to a very excited Russell today. And I'll tell you why in a second here on Marketing In Your Car.
All right, so I want to tell you guys really quick and just let you know that I just got the keys to my new house. Woo-hoo! Oh man, I just want to celebrate with you guys, because this has been, you have no idea how long this has been in the making.
So for those of you who don't know me, I am not a car person at all. I got the Ferrari, I was like, "Eh." I got other cars, I was like, "Eh." Cars mean nothing to me.
The only dream I've ever wanted is like my dream house. I just have wanted it forever. And a couple years ago we almost bought one, and then we had some company issues. If you've listened to past podcasts you've heard the stories of the ups and the downs and all that sort of stuff.
We had actually had this amazing house we had basically purchased, put down all this earnest money and we lost it all. It went away and we never got to actually live in it.
And then the company collapsed. Long story short, rebuilt it. For me for the last eight years I've been working towards my dream house, getting my dream house. That's my one tangible worldly thing that really drives me.
I hate that it does, because I'm a big believer in being driven by passion and people and helping and all these other things, and money is like how we keep score. But the one worldly thing that has been a driving force for me for a long, long, long time.
In fact, all my friends and partners and people who work with me are scared that I'll never show up at the office again now that we've got it.
So we found this house two years ago. It's amazing and I have been looking at it every day for two years, trying to get to it and trying to get it.
When you get a big house, the monthly payment is not the big issue. It's like the down payment. To get a super, jumbo loan they want you to have like 20 percent down, plus like 10 percent in your bank account. You have to have a lot of money just in cash to be able to go and get that.
So we were working and saving and doing a whole bunch of stuff. We found the dream house about two years ago, and finally we've been working through how to get it and how to time it with when school gets out and kids and all these things.
And then the people who owned the house have been complete nightmares. The most annoying people I've ever worked with in my life. I hope they listen to this so they can know how annoying they are. They've just been a nightmare.
Even last night, we packed a huge moving truck last night, and we signed yesterday, we put a down payment down. Everything is done. We just have to wait for it to get funded or whatever.
I messaged them like, "Hey, do you mind if we swing over and drop off some stuff in the garage so we can reload this truck again?"
And she wrote back and said no. Who does that? I'm giving you millions and millions of dollars here in less than 12 hours and you won't even be cool for one second. Anyway, super annoying.
But, I just got the message. I was at work trying to get some stuff done and I just got the message that the house is funded. It's officially ours. They'll come and drop the key off.
And so I am blowing the rest of the day, blowing work, blowing everything, heading home, grabbing the kids. We're going to head over to the house and we're going to jump in the pool.
I don't care if it's freezing cold, if it needs to be heated, if it's dirty. I don't even care. We are jumping in the pool and we are having a blast. I'm so excited right now, as you guys can probably tell.
What I wanted to, I'm trying to think of how I can provide value besides just me being excited for you guys. Hopefully my excitement gets you guys excited.
Second thing is, I had a teacher at Boise State, my finance teacher. It's funny because everyone looks at business different ways, right? Some people are like, "The goal of a business is to create jobs."
And some people say, "The goal of a business is to provide value to the customer," or whatever.
His approach was, "The only goal of a business is to provide wealth for the business owner. That's it." Everything else kind of just happens. It happens to create value for other people and all that.
The only goal of a business is to create value for the business owner. I've struggled with that because, again, from a moral standpoint we are creating jobs, we are serving people, we are doing things.
But when it's all said and done, if the business owner is not getting paid, he's not going to put his neck out there and risk the time and energy and effort and everything to do that, which is what creates the value for everybody else.
So the value in all these other things that happen are all the side effects of the company. And I agree with my teacher that the one core goal of a company is to make the owner wealthy. So there's that.
But then again I have the other moral dilemma. So for me I've always kind of struggled with that. But for me, I've always had just one major worldly goal, whatever you want to call it, and I still struggle with that.
Sharing that outwardly is kind of hard for me. I don't know if you can tell, I'm kind of stumbling over my words, just kind of sharing this with you.
But I honestly feel like it's okay to have something like that because it's what drives you forward. And you driving forward is what creates value in all the other aspects.
It causes the ripple effect that helps the customers of yours to get value, which then hopefully gives them value. It's this whole ripple effect.
For me, I've had this one worldly goal for so long that has been a driving force that hopefully the wake of me moving towards that goal has affected tens of thousands, if not more, people. And that's been kind of my goal for it.
I hope it's not too selfish. I hope you guys can celebrate with me. And I hope at the same time for you guys that you won't feel too guilty having a goal like that.
Some of you guys might be in a house like me. Maybe it's a car, maybe it's a vacation, maybe it's something. And don't get carried away. Don't make that the core focus, because people that do turn into bad people.
People in this business, I've been around it long enough to see what money does to people, and it corrupts people and makes people do stupid things and it makes people not be themselves. I hope and I pray that never happens to me.
But again, I guess I'm trying to give you guys permission, if you need that. And some of you guys don't need that. But if you do need permission to find one worldly thing like that that's going to be a driving force that gets you up in the morning and get you moving forward and get you excited.
While in and of itself that thing is dumb and it's stupid and doesn't matter and we know that, the pursuit of that thing can cause a wake and a wave and a ripple or whatever you want to call it, that can affect and change and touch and serve so many other people.
Anyway, that's it for today, guys. I don't have anything else. I'm just two excited. I'm two seconds away from my house. I'm going to jump out, grab my kids, give them a hug and a kiss. We are jumping in the moving van and we will be out of here. I appreciate you guys.
For those of you who are in the Ignite Inner Circle waiting for boxes back from me, I had an hour blocked out today to respond for you guys and I can't do it now. I apologize in advance.
But I will get you guys. I love you, I care about you. And as soon as I jump in the pool I will come back and finish up my work so I can keep you guys moving forwards as well.
I appreciate everybody's listening in. Have an awesome day and we'll talk to you soon.