what-ive-learnedThe beauty of being able to coach and talk to people is that I can teach you and show how not to fuck up. Now, granted we’re all going to fuck up in our own way, but if you can learn from my lessons in life, then my lessons in life were worth paying the price for.

That’s the way I look at it. I’ve learned so many lessons in my life that I can teach people, and that’s why I think I was chosen to do the work that I did. I think God, the universe, whoever fucking chose me to do this work, definitely had it right, and allowed me to screw up multiple times.

One of my biggest ones — and I have to tell you just from thinking about it — is not buying real estate. I don’t know what it was about me and real estate. I don’t know what reservations I had about real estate or what story I had about not buying real estate, but I have basically lived during the greatest appreciation of real estate in the history of the United States and I have made maybe $50,000 off of it.

I don’t have a residence that I can call home. I’ve been renting non-stop. That’s my New York City mentality there. And I rent gorgeous, beautiful places, but there’s no reason, at this point in my life, I should not have bought many properties. I’ve rationalized myself over and over again. I out-fought the market, I out-fought everything, but I had a reservation, a basic block.

But it doesn’t matter why I didn’t. That doesn’t mean that it’s too late for me too. As a matter of fact, I’m saving right now for a massive down payment for an amazing house that I’m going to pay five times the money that I would have paid 10 years ago, but that’s my lesson. Learn from my lesson. No matter how expensive real estate might be, it’s going to be more expensive in the future because they’ve devalued money so much and interest rates are so low, that real estate is a goofy number now that it’s never been before. But don’t rationalize it. Just do it.

Now let’s talk about not having a complete, abundant mindset when it came down to women. Granted, I’ve been teaching that for years, but it doesn’t mean I have followed my own advice.

Life has many defining moments. There was a defining moment in my life that happened when I tried to break up with somebody and I didn’t. My whole life path changed. I didn’t listen to my intuition. My intuition told me that thid person was not the person for me, but I did not listen to my intuition at all. So, what happened changed my life, changed my situation, changed my life in many different ways.

But how do I learn from that? I learned from it because I’m not going to make the same mistake twice, but I get to teach you all that. You see God, or the universe, or whatever you believe in, made me have this lesson so I can teach it to all of you.

The Stock Market: I’m pretty good at the stock market. As a matter of fact, I get intuition non-stop about stocks to buy. I don’t buy them. When Apple was at $60, I did not buy. There are many stories about that. I bought Google on opening day for $85at  100 shares. Imagine what those 100 shares would have been worth now.

See, my dad was a stock broker. Because of my father’s programming, because of my programming, I felt I couldn’t make money in the stock market. That had to do with my father’s failures in the stock market, not mine. I was just a kid. So buy a stock, buy a stock you believe in, even if its 10 shares, hold onto it, because chances are, with inflation and everything else, its going to go up.

Another thing I need to do is invest early in insurance annuities and other things. You see, when you put money into it, even if it’s $500 a year, it’s going to grow. Even if you’re putting away $3,000 a year starting at 22 and putting money into good insurance and some good mutual funds, and everything else, the shit is going to grow. Especially the insurance stuff because that’s got a minimum it’s going to make. Even if 5% doesn’t sound like a lot to you, it is a lot when it compounds and compounds and compounds and compounds.

Floss at a young age. That’s really important because the plaque goes to your heart, so floss at a young age.

Stretch. Stretch all the time. I was a workout-aholic so I was always big and bulky and strong and mean looking, but I never stretched, and my back started spasming when I was 38 and my back finally blew when I was 48. L4, L5, 13 millimeter fragments shot out like a bullet one day.

I stretch now. I stretch every day and I actually feel pretty damn good. As a matter of fact, when I don’t stretch, I don’t really feel great. Stretch.

Use sunscreen every day. The sun is evil and your enemy. As I hit my 50’s now, I’m getting removed from my back and other places moles that are not good; “pre-cancerous,” as they call it. They haven’t really metastasized into anything, but still, use sunscreen, stay out of the direct sun.

Enjoy every moment in your life. I remember when I was in my 20s and I was broke. All I wanted to do was make more money. And when I was making money all I wanted to do is be more successful.

Enjoy each stage of your life as it comes along because you’re never going to be able to live that stage again. If you have a child, no matter how stressful it might be when that child is one years old, that child is never going to be one years old ever again. So enjoy that moment because life is all just a series of stages and everything.

Eat healthy, because it’s going to catch up to you. You may be able to drink a ton right now, you may be able to eat lots of bread and rice and everything else, but eventually your blood sugar is going to go, “oh no,” and you’ll have to change your diet immensely. Eat healthy and listen to your body. Your body is the best judge, trust me.

Meditate. It’s really, really important. Have a relationship with God or the universe or source, whatever you want to call it.

Something I’m still working on: Never lend money to anybody. You’re never going to get it back. People who borrow money and people who ask you for money tend to need it for a reason. No matter what story they give you on how this is a short-term loan, let me tell you something right now. I want you to remember this number: $350,000. I have never received back in short-term loans from so-called friends, and even family members.

The thing is, if they’re not making enough money to pay you back.  They’re going to pay their own bills first, that’s human instinct. They’re going to take care of themselves. They have to. If their business is failing, they’re not going to make the payments to you, they’re going to cover their mortgage and their health insurance and everything else. So, never lend money unless you’re in a position where you can just give it away because you’re never going to get it back.

Be present for your kids, because they’re not going to be kids forever. Put your cell phone down, put your life down and give your kids quality time.

Speak the truth, own your truth and don’t be afraid of your truth. Because every time you’re afraid of your truth, you’re just going to live somebody else’s life, and it’s not going to be your life at all. And if you’re not living your life, you’re living somebody else’s life, so what’s the point?

Make everyday count because you never know how long you actually have on this planet. You don’t know how long you’re going to be here, you don’t know how long life is going to take.

Spend your money wisely. Enjoy it. Put away a percentage, which is something I’ve always done. But enjoy yourself, because once again, you don’t know how long the journey is for. If you can afford a great car then buy a great car. Manage your money well so it lasts a long time.

And I’ll say it again, your health is everything. Everything. You only have your health. So basically what you need to do is take wonderful care of yourself. Fuck your drugs and alcohol. Eventually your drugs and alcohol are going to catch up to you. And when they do, you’re not going to feel great.

Be the best friend you possibly can be and make sure you eliminate the friends you no longer need. They say friends are wonderful, but only true friends are the best. You don’t need mediocre friends, so do everything you can do to change that.

I strongly suggest you come to terms with whatever terms you need to come to with your family. You can’t change people at all. And that comes to the last sentence: accept people for who they are. You’re never going to be able to change somebody, you can only change yourself.

That was good huh?