Secrets Of The Ultra Rich | Founders Club ft. Greg Reid

Secrets Of The Ultra Rich – Lessons From One Million Dollar Club – Interview with Greg Reid

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Secrets Of The Ultra Rich – Lessons From One Million Dollar Club

What if I told you that just about everything you think you know about wealth and prosperity is WRONG? That the platitudes you hear about ‘following your passion’ and ‘turning thoughts into things’ are, at best, misleading and may be sending you down the wrong path? So, what is it that the super-wealthy and successful understand that you and I do not? What separates a millionaire from a billionaire? And what lessons can we learn from the stories of today’s most iconic figures?

Serial entrepreneur Greg Reid is a bestselling author, keynote speaker and filmmaker. Tapped by the Napoleon Hill Foundation to continue the Think and Grow Rich legacy, Greg has had the good fortune to sit down with the most successful contemporary leaders and learn how they persevered through challenging times and capitalized on unexpected opportunities. He has been named one of Entrepreneur magazine’s Top 5 Keynote Speakers and Entrepreneur of the Year by the United Nations’ Novus Summit, among many other awards and honors.

Today on the podcast, Greg joins Oliver to turn conventional wisdom on its head and share the secrets he learned from interviewing the most successful people in today’s world, including Steve Wozniak, Evander Holyfield and Ferruccio Lamborghini. He explains why people in the 100 Million Dollar Club tend to be unhappy (while billionaires are content) and discusses what’s wrong with ideas like ‘thoughts are things’ and ‘pursue your passion and the money will follow.’ Listen in for Greg’s insight on turning obstacles into opportunity and learn how to apply the lessons of the wealthy to find success in YOUR life!

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Here is how the interview breaks down

[0:06] The greatest lessons Greg learned interviewing today’s iconic figures

[4:23] Why ‘follow your passion and the money will follow’ is a lie

[9:10] Why people with hundreds of millions are unhappy

[12:47] What Greg learned from the Lamborghini

[14:55] The value in partnering for joint ventures

[17:49] The concept of CPC

[19:29] Greg’s secret to writing a bestseller

[22:14] The lessons Greg learned from Re/Max founder Dave Liniger

[28:04] Greg’s top takeaways from interviewing Evander Holyfield

[32:43] Greg’s take on the idea that ‘thoughts are things’

[34:46] What Greg is investing in at present

[38:59] Greg’s approach to adventure trips

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Secrets Of The Ultra Rich – Listen here:

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Secrets Of The Ultra – Rich Key Takeaway:

What if I told you that just about everything you think you know about wealth and prosperity is WRONG? Today, bestselling author Greg Reid joins Oliver to turn conventional wisdom on its head and share the secrets he learned from interviewing the most successful people in today’s world, from Steve Wozniak to Ferruccio Lamborghini!

Secrets Of The Ultra Rich – Full Transcript:

Oliver Graf: Welcome to another episode of Founders Club. Today I’m going to be interviewing Greg Reid. He’s the author of 78 books printed in 45 languages.

Greg Reid: These are all the people saying all the reasons why I’ll never be an author and I’ll never make it in today’s society.

Oliver Graf: He is also the author of the epic book, Three Feet from Gold, which is the sequel to Napoleon Hill’s Personal Development Bible Think and Grow rich.

Greg Reid: Rich is the enemy of

Oliver Graf: Including the 50 people that are worth over a hundred million dollars each that he got to interview recently and all of the takeaways that he’s learned.

Greg Reid: Every single thing I’ve ever written about wealth and prosperity, I was wrong.

Oliver Graf: Looking forward to getting started. If you like it, make sure you subscribe to the show. Give us a like, give us a comment and we’ll see you in a second. Let’s jump right in. You’re ready for action?

Greg Reid: Let’s do this.

Oliver Graf: Let’s do this. You just gave us a really cool tour around the place here and it kind of ended with you showing us your wall of fame. And one of the things that caught my eye over there was your letter from Napoleon Hill Foundation from when you were basically appointed as the person had to carry the torch for Think and Grow Rich into the new chapter. And I just want to start by kind of how did that happen?

Greg Reid: Well, I’ll give it a little big backstory I guess so to speak. So in 1908 Napoleon Hill had access to the richest man in the world, Andrew Carnegie, and he set him on a journey to meet all of his friends, to write the Bible of Personal Development Think and Grow Rich. Napoleon Hill is just a young guy says, “Why are they going to meet with me I’m nobody?” And basically Carnegie wrote him a letter of introduction and that set him on his entire journey. A hundred years later in 2008 the surviving family of Napoleon Hill and the foundation wrote a very similar letter and they gifted it to myself, and gave me an opportunity to go around the world and meet today’s iconic figures and tell their stories.

And we did it about perseverance is not quitting. Everyone only sees the great success stories, and the house and the cars and the boats, but no one ever talks about the journey to get there. And that’s what our projects were based on.

Oliver Graf: So how did you feel when you got that letter?

Greg Reid: Did not suck. It was really neat about it, is also honoring the legacy of Napoleon Hill. And I think that it came to be because a lot of, other people might say, look at me how great we are and we’re doing this stuff with Think and Grow Rich. Well Sharon Lechter and I did the opposite, we said is all about Napoleon Hill. It’s all about the foundation. It’s all about the legacy and the teachings let’s put a spotlight on today’s top thought leaders and we just happened to be blessed to be along the journey. And we did it in that order. And I think that’s why it had such great success.

Oliver Graf: It was very impressive. Very cool that you were chosen for something like that. It can’t even imagine how that felt. From that came your book Three Feet from Gold.

Greg Reid: That’s right. First one.

Oliver Graf: And the tagline or sub line or whatever you want to call it, was Turning Your Obstacles into Opportunities. So what does that mean?

Greg Reid: Well, so many people look at the challenge and they don’t see the blessing in disguise. So one of the people I interview for another book, Stickability was a guy named Steve Wasniak. Now everyone knows him and jobs from Apple Computer, but you might not know the story. And I asked him, and I says, “What made you so successful?” And he says, “All we did was we ran toward our challenge rather than from.” And I go, “What do you mean?” He says, “Well, when microchip processors came out there are so expensive, we could only afford one of these little chips.” He goes, “Job sold his Volkswagen. I sold my calculator. We pulled that money to buy one of these chips.” He goes, “Hewlett Packard would make these machines, computing devices. They go from point A to B with 20 chips.” They had all the money of I’ve got. So I had to pull away five and I get it to go from A to B using like 15, and then pull away another five and get it to work with 10. Finally, we devise a system to go to A to B using our one chip. He goes, “We were not trying to be innovative or cool. We can afford one chip.”

Oliver Graf: They’re doing what they had to do.

Greg Reid: That’s right. But by embracing that as an opportunity, we found the shortest, cleanest path and changed the way people do personal computing for the rest of the world for the rest of their life. He says, “Where could you be in your own business if you stopped looking at something as your greatest challenge, but it could just be the grace blessing and opportunity in disguise.” And that’s what the entire process is about.

Oliver Graf: Big Shift in thinking.

Greg Reid: That’s right. It’s the same exact situation but seeing things from a different point of view. I’m doing this new book, it’s called Wealth Made Easy, interviewed people worth a hundred million to a billion and I realize all they do is the same exact actions as you and I, but they just have a different mindset toward it. So if they have a guy who wants to buy a plane and a guy wants to sell a plane, you and I are nice people. We put those two together and he goes, “You’re an idiot.” And I go, “What you’re talking about?” “This you’re an idiot.” And he goes, “Do the same thing but think like a wealthy person.” I go, “What does that mean? He says, “Well I go to the person who wants to sell a plane and say, “Hey, if I find someone to buy it, will you give me 20% commission?” And then I go to the other guy and say, “Hey, if I find a plane for you to buy will you give me free airline tickets to Hawaii?” They’re both going to say yes. Then you put them together. Same exact action. But two completely different results.

Oliver Graf: So was that one of the big takeaways from interviewing all those people? Because I’m sure that’s fascinating.

Greg Reid: It was changing my mindset because every single thing I’ve ever written about wealth and prosperity, I was wrong. Now how’s that for an eye wakener. And I realize because all we know is all we know. And I also realized that a lot of these books and products and programs out there to teach people to get rich, they never teach people to get wealthy. And rich is the enemy of wealthy. I know. And so it completely transformed the way I looked at everything. And we can get a little bit that as we get into the conversation.

Oliver Graf: I’d love to dig into that a little bit. Are most of those people, how did they find their success or how did they get their large fortunes most of them?

Greg Reid: Well, I’ll say they did the antithesis of what we were taught. Say this great billionaire guy sat me down. And again, this might hurt your head a little bit, but I sat him down and I says, “Why are you a multi-billionaire and I’m not?” And I go, “I’m just as smart as you.” And he says, “It’s easy.” He goes, “You believe all the bullshit lies that you spread to the world.” He goes, “It’s you and all your cohorts are the people that actually suppress mankind. By the way, we appreciate it and hope you continue that journey.”

Oliver Graf: Wow. Ouch.

Greg Reid: But I asked him and I said, “What do you mean?” He says, “Well” he goes, “You’re the purveyor of the greatest lie that’s ever been told.” I go, “What’s that?” He said, “To go find your passion and the money will follow.” He goes, “Please keep telling people that make your bumper stickers.” He goes, “Think about them, they’re all saying, hey, follow your passion and not a paycheck and then you wonder why you’re broke.” He goes, you’ll find someone who’s a welder their whole life they finally retire with a little nest egg. They go do one year events, they get excited and they open a yoga shop because that’s their passion. 90% of businesses fail the first year not because they’re not hard workers because you’re a welder, not a yoga person.” And he goes, “Here’s the best part. When they go down, they like sink with with a anchor, they pulled their car and their house and their boat and they go, oh, that’s what we swoop in and buy it for pennies on the dollar.” He goes, “Keep telling everyone that.”

Oliver Graf: Damn.

Greg Reid: I go, “What are you talking about?” He goes, “The secret is to look for and capitalize an unexpected opportunity.” And I go, “What do you mean?” He says, “We’re like a game of Frogger. We ride a log and as soon as it dips, we jumped to the next log. We can never go down with the ship. We don’t care. It’s just business.” He goes, “But we capitalize and make so much opportunity that we use that money to finance our passion.” He goes, “You guys just do it in reverse and wonder why you’re never successful.” He goes, “Do you think the Gedi or the sheikhs are passionate about crude oil?” He goes, “Do you think waste management is passionate about dirty diapers and rotten cheese, or they aggregate dealers that build all the freeways and stadiums are passionate about sand and gravel?” He goes, “They’re the people that control the entire civilization, but what they do is they use that to open the arts and finance every university. Everything that’s good.” He goes,” We own the stadiums and the football teams that everyone else is following their passion for a couple million dollars a year of killing themselves on the field they’re doing.” He goes, “People just don’t understand that change of mindset.”

Oliver Graf: Wow.

Greg Reid: So that’s what the was like.

Oliver Graf: So is the lesson there make the money first?

Greg Reid: Yes.

Oliver Graf: And then the passion will follow.

Greg Reid: The ideas is everyone that I met that’s wealthy never went broke, but everyone that’s been rich, millions of dollars and lost all their money, you know why? Because they followed their passion. They lost all their money following their passion.

Oliver Graf: The yoga shop example.

Greg Reid: All I’m saying, if you think and look back in life, isn’t it crazy? So I just started watching what these people did and I started implementing it for myself. And I can honestly say this last year, I’ve had more financial gain I’ve had in my entire life, just by doing simple actions and it’s nothing complicated, just like that plane situation. And I start doing it. So many received great advice, but few profit from it. So I wrote this book called Wealth Made Easy where every single page is basically a hack of how someone created their wealth and prosperity.

Oliver Graf: Definitely need to check that out. Wow.

Greg Reid: Okay, well I’m going to give you I can see her brain going right now. The first guy I called up, he made it in real estate. And I said, “How’d you make a billion in dirt, in land? He goes, “Oh, that’s easy.” He goes, “Time plus land is wealth.” I go, “What does that mean?” He goes, “All I do is I look for a town anywhere in the world that’s growing at 25% a year. Go on Google maps it’s free.” He goes, “Here’s where it gets complicated. I look for a broadway, main street and I draw a line out eight miles and I buy the dirt. That’s it. Then I rent that dirt to farmers who pay the lease, so it’s free and I get vegetables for years. As a town continues to grow at 25% it ends up on my plot. Since I’m on main street and I own the biggest land, that’s what I sell to the big box stores for 800 times what I paid.”

Oliver Graf: Wow.

Greg Reid: Billion Dollars.

Oliver Graf: That’s an amazing strategy. And it’s so simple really, because that dirt is cheap at that time, especially eight miles down main street.

Greg Reid: That’s right.

Oliver Graf: But eventually, if you sit on it for long enough, the town’s going to catch up, and that’s when you make the big exits.

Greg Reid: Well, and I realized that it’s these people that have these exits. It’s kind of interesting to watch in the common denominator, people worth four zero, 40 million dollars and below are the new Beverly Hills Billies. These are the people that are cool. They got enough dough, they fly first class take their family anywhere they want to go. People worth a billion dollars, pretty stoked people. They got a good life. But it’s these people worth a hundred million or 300 million are kind of miserable. And I don’t know if I’d wish that upon too many people.

Oliver Graf: Wow. That’s an interesting. And why is that?

Greg Reid: Well, you think about to you and me a 100 million dollars is a lot of money, but you’re not even one 10th of a billionaire. You’re so far away. And so when you’re trying to keep up with the Joneses you’re-

Oliver Graf: The Joneses are playing at a way higher level.

Greg Reid: That’s right. And you’re carrying three cell phones and your health. And usually if things [inaudible 00:11:04] because you’re trying to work towards this goal and it’s just interesting watching these people. But again, 40 million and below, pretty happy, billionaires super happy, these hundred millionaires it’s just kind of interesting to watch.

Oliver Graf: Who would think with $100 million that you’d be unhappy?

Greg Reid: Well, think about it. If you’re keeping up with the Joneses, it’s not enough money to buy a sports team. It’s not enough money to do a major thing, but you’re successful is all get out more than most people, but you’re so far away from the big leagues.

Oliver Graf: It’s funny. I interviewed Mike Ferry and he told a story about how he bought his first yacht and it was like I think it like a 70 or 80 foot yacht and he pulled it into the marina and he was like, everyone I was parked next to had 100, 152, 100 foot yacht and I felt like a turd because I rolled in on my 80 foot yacht and I was the small guy in the big pond.

Greg Reid: It’s all perception. At the end of the day, the people that feel the wealthiest, now this is going to be really weird for you, are the people with a very solid modicum of debt and a job. And I’ll give an example. If you had a 200,000 dollar a year job and you’re just promoted and they gave you a company Mercedes and you’re wearing your Rolex watch and you’re driving to work and you’re living in a 1 million dollar house that you’re leveraged to the hilt, you feel pretty successful. You’re wearing your suit, you’re in your brand new car, the idea of success is pretty strong. So it’s all an illusion.

Oliver Graf: Right. You’re living it.

Greg Reid: Interesting. Right?

Oliver Graf: Right. Very cool.

Greg Reid: But that’s just that

Oliver Graf: How many of those super wealthy people, and this is just something that I’m curious about, have like work life balance?

Greg Reid: None. So the billionaires 100%, and the people again and had to quick exit things of this nature. But the people that I found, I’m not saying everybody, by the way, again, I’m only an interviewed like 50 of them. But the people worth the hundreds of millions look again, they’re grinding, they’re still working because they want to hit this other number. So they’re controlling things as much as possible to make it happen. Like I said, they got three, four cell phones and 18 assistants and they’re working there. They’re grinding to hit that magic number, which is awesome. By the way it also gives them a feeling of fulfillment. So I think it’s amazing because they’re working towards what gives them pleasure.

Oliver Graf: They’re building it.

Greg Reid: They’re working towards their pleasure. I’m just saying for myself, I like to take a nap once in a while. Have to work as hard.

Oliver Graf: Very cool man. That’s an interesting mental shift that I’m sure you went through and you just made me go through, which is why I’m kind of a feeling off my game at the moment.

Greg Reid: Well, it was so interesting. All these people, I sat down with the founder of RE/MAX all the way down to these billionaire guys and it was really interesting. Lamborghini gave me a good one. I go, “Why did you and your dad create so much wealth?” And he says, “It’s a really simple process. All you gotta do is create a product, good or service that people will save their money to happily hand it to you.” I go, “What do you mean?” He goes, “No one is going to save their money to buy your book or go to your seminar, but people are catching their 401k to drive our car.” He goes, “No one’s going to spend 2,000 dollars a night to live in their own apartment, but you’re going to happily cash in all the vacation time so you can take your family to give it to a mouse with big years.” He goes, “If you can create a product, good or service that people save them money, you’ll not only have never have a charge back or a problem or complaint, but you’ll be able to print unlimited wealth and prosperity for the rest of your life.”

Oliver Graf: Man. What a great thought.

Greg Reid: Just a different mindset. Right?

Oliver Graf: Yeah. What a great thought. So I want to shift gears a little bit because I want to talk a little bit about real estate and I know that you were the first guy in San Diego to short sale your home.

Greg Reid: Woo to fame.

Oliver Graf: Before I get into that, I actually totally forgot to talk about this Kombucha that we’re drinking. Normally we have a cocktail or a beer on the show, but Greg is 31 years sober.

Greg Reid: That’s right.

Oliver Graf: So very excited for you on that and I wanted to be respectful.

Greg Reid: Salute.

Oliver Graf: And then your favorite drink-

Greg Reid: Kombucha.

Oliver Graf: Well, one of them, which is Kombucha.

Greg Reid: It’s kind of interesting. It’s just probiotic that you put it into your stomach so it mixes in with the bad stuff and that’s good. I know it tastes like dirty feet. I know the first time you ever try it.

Oliver Graf: Tastes a little bit like vinegar juice.

Greg Reid: Then a good juice, dirty feet.

Oliver Graf: With watermelon flavor-

Greg Reid: It’s good for you though.

Oliver Graf: So what’s the story behind this stuff?

Greg Reid: Well the whole idea, like I just said, it’s a probiotic. A lot of people take antibiotics and things of this nature. So this is putting the good stuff in your circulatory system so it can help digest and get stuff out. So that’s the whole idea.

Oliver Graf: Cool. Well here’s two more good stuff in your body. Back to the short sell thing. Tell me about when was that and tell me about how that went down, because I’m sure that’s must’ve been really hard for you at the time.

Greg Reid: It was interesting, but I don’t know how difficult it was because I wanted to see the opportunity. Again, many will receive good advice, many people get golden opportunities, but not everyone takes advantage of it. So in 1908 when Napoleon Hill was given that letter by Carnegie to travel the world to meet all these amazing people, he was never paid a penny. He had to work for free for 20 years to write the first ever formula for success. And when the Napoleon Hill Foundation tapped me they thought it’d be appropriate to pay me that same wage. So I got nothing. So I literally short sold my house because it was in 2007 of the economic collapse.I voluntary repoed my two Mercedes, I sold my Rolex watch. I went all in. And for years I traveled around the world to meet iconic figures to tell their stories about not quitting before their miracle came to life. And from there created Three Feet from Gold and became a phenomenon. Sharon Lechter who wrote Rich Dad, Poor Dad and I came together and it was absolutely unbelievable. And that book became the only book in history that I know of that Barnes & Noble published themselves and became just kind of a juggernaut in 45 different languages.

Oliver Graf: Still to this day, they-

Greg Reid: I believe so. I don’t know if they ever have.

Oliver Graf: Very cool.

Greg Reid: That interesting. And that way that came to be is one of the people we interviewed was Jack Mates. Do you know him by the way?

Oliver Graf: Uh-uh.

Greg Reid: You don’t know Jack. So Jack Mates he started a company called Velcro USA.

Oliver Graf: Got him.

Greg Reid: Everyone knows Velcro, right?

Oliver Graf: Yep.

Greg Reid: And I said, “How did you sell 5 billion people Velcro?” He goes, “I never did. I just sold five people. The head of automotive, head of aerospace, the head of fashion. They found the application.” He said, “Stop trying to hawk all your stuff in the back of your trunk.” And we realize who’s got a bigger email list me or Barnes & Noble? So by collaboration and coming together, we didn’t take an advance, we just split the profits and we did a joint venture deal first one ever. Every time you go to the store, you’ll always find my book there.

Oliver Graf: Such a good lesson on partnering because it’s so true. And we talked about this a lot for people in real estate is don’t spend your time going after the single deal, find the CPAs, the builders, the investors, the people that will keep coming back over and over again and let them find the applications for it kind of like the Velcro thing.

Greg Reid: 100% one of the things we wrote in Wealth Made Easy is this concept. If something feeds you, you feed it some more and if something eats you kill it. It’s a simple mentality that if you look in your life and go, look, is this feeding me some way financially, spiritually, relationships, something. Then feed it some more because it’s feeding you, but if something’s eating and it’s not [inaudible 00:18:32] you got to kill it and get rid of it. And the moment we have that aha, we start eliminating this thing, you’ll notice that all the drama disappears, it goes away.

Oliver Graf: And take the emotion out of it, right?

Greg Reid: That’s right.

Oliver Graf: I think that’s a hard thing for people to kill it, but I think if you take the emotions out of it and look at it like a billionaire, there’s no emotion. It’s just feeding me, not feeding me. It’s in or it’s out.

Greg Reid: Okay. A person who just Mark Anthony Bates, uh, he was interviewed even though he’s not a billionaire, it’s taught me something that completely transformed my life that we put in that book. It’s called CPC and I’m sure he’s mentioned to you, has he?

Oliver Graf: No.

Greg Reid: Oh my gosh, isn’t this interesting? So he’s taught me something that it absolutely mesmerized and changed everything and we had to put in this book, CPC stands for is clues, patterns, choices. It takes emotion away. What it is, is taking accountability and responsibility for every single thing that happens. Let’s say for example, I go out on a first date and they show up 20 minutes late. That’s a clue. If I go on my second and third date and they show up 20 minutes late, that is a?

Oliver Graf: Pattern.

Greg Reid: Now I can sit there and complain about or try to change them or argue, but they’re just late. That’s them. I have to take account of their responsibility and say, am I going to address this? Am I going to deal with it or am I going to accept it? But the bottom line, it’s not their fault. They’re just late, but it’s up to me. And how many times have we done business relationships where we watched someone cheat somebody and they go, oh, that was just then? Then we see a pattern going and then we do it ourselves and get cheated and we blame them. No, we saw the clue, we saw the pattern, well we chose to go there. And when you’re a big person, you take that accountability and responsibility. Everything around you and your sphere of influence will start changing. Powerful, right?

Oliver Graf: It’s so simple.

Greg Reid: I can’t believe he’s never told you that.

Oliver Graf: CPC.

Greg Reid: CPC.

Oliver Graf: I’m going to call Mark Anthony about that too.

Greg Reid: Pretty good.

Oliver Graf: So you’ve written a lot of really successful books.

Greg Reid: And some not successful ones too.

Oliver Graf: And some not successful books, which I think is an important part of the next question. A lot of people come to us and they want to write a book or they’re thinking about writing a book or they have a book inside. And I’m sure you hear that all the time as well. What would you say is like the secret to writing a good book?

Greg Reid: Don’t ride. Pretty easy. I have ghost writers and editors. Look, there’s like there’s no Santa Claus. Okay? But author is the person who names goes on the book and a writer’s the person who wrote the book. So all my biggest bestselling books, I never touched them. So what I did is I have the greatest ghost writers and editors to breathe them to life. This Wealth Made Easy book, there’s a publishing company called McGraw-Hill one of the biggest ones. Well, the former publisher is the guy who actually wrote the book for me. So he went with me as I interviewed these people and then took the digestible little nuggets and wrote them into book form. When we did Stickability, I got the guy who wrote all the curriculum for Princeton University and he wrote that book. When we wrote Three Feet from Gold, Sharon Lechter and another person, Greg Tobin, came together and they help write that better. So if you’re a great writer, you’d already be writing your book. So work your strengths, hire your weaknesses.

Oliver Graf: That’s great advice too. And it was very Santa Claus myth that just got busted because-

Greg Reid: Okay, wait-

Oliver Graf: It totally makes sense.

Greg Reid: Katy Perry. You hear her song Firework, she didn’t write the song.

Oliver Graf: Exactly.

Greg Reid: She is the author. And guess what Tom Cruise didn’t write Mission Impossible, but he’s the star of it.

Oliver Graf: And I think that’s a key thing to just being a good entrepreneur is you don’t need to do everything. If you want to write a book, you can pull the strings and you can help and do the interviews, but then have someone actually do the writing that is like the high level-

Greg Reid: Work your strengths, hire your weaknesses. People come all the time they ask me the same thing, I want to write a book, I want to think what’s the first thing I do? Don’t write it. Hire a great ghostwriter because they’re playing at what you’re working at. So I call my ghost writer and go, hey, I’m writing a book, here’s the idea of it, here’s a concept. She writes the format of it, and then I sit there and go, put this message, this message and this message and she ties it in, sends it to me. I’d make little tweaks. It’s perfect.

Oliver Graf: Grammar is correct.

Greg Reid: Okay. I’ll give you an example. This one The Millionaire that first page it says, “A boy walked outside, sees a businessman, pull up in a shiny car, says, you must be rich.” That’s it. Now, my ghost writer took that and said, “It was a glorious Sunday afternoon when a young Brad took his dog outside to meet the new day as his mentor pulled up in a brand new Mercedes, glistening in the sun light the window rolls down, said, you must be that young boy … they work their-

Oliver Graf: They paint the better picture because they’re the artists.

Greg Reid: Exactly.

Oliver Graf: If you’re thinking about writing a book, don’t write it, hire a ghostwriter and work with some good people. I know you also had a chance to sit down with the founder of REMAX and I think his story’s actually really amazing. So can you share that with me? How that transpired.

Greg Reid: Dave Leonard was amazing story. I asked him, was it easy getting a real estate in ’70 he goes, “No. The other economic collapse, everything went to hell in a handbag.” He goes, “For two years, every phone call that came in was from the bill collector because all the money ran out as he’s chasing his dream.” He said the third year they throw them in jail, calling him a fraud and a liar. And I said, “What’d you do?” He says, “Well, I took my attitude from trying to prove everyone else around me wrong to just prove right, because I knew I wasn’t what they were making me out to be.” He said, “I had the courage to pick up the phone and call those bill collectors before they could call me. And said, look, I’ll be honest. All the money’s gone. I don’t got 50 grand, but I got 50 bucks. I’ll send it to you with a promise. I’m not going to quit. Don’t give up on me.” Says, “I called every bill collector every month until the fourth year, someone bought the first business which went on to become REMAX real estate.” And he says, “Look, I’m nothing but how many people’s lives were changed because we wouldn’t quit? And how do we know someone watching this right now isn’t about to give up on their own dream because Visa was calling them this morning? They key is to not let other people tell you what you can and cannot do.”

Oliver Graf: How did he handle that weight? Because that’s got to be a lot of weight on your shoulders with the bill collectors calling and the-

Greg Reid: There’s a thing, the difference between the belief and the knowing. And he knew he was onto something. People were always asking me all the time and says, how do I know when to quit and when not to quit? When you know.

Oliver Graf: You just know.

Greg Reid: Jahja Ling the music composer, conductor here in San Diego. He said when he was a kid, my parents would give them a basketball and he’d set it down and go to the piano. And same thing a football and the next thing I go, why? He goes, “I knew.” What’s that mean? He goes, “I knew I was supposed to be playing even though this other thing was more entertaining for me.” And he says, “Sometimes you just have to follow the knowing more than your hope, wish or belief. And that’s where things start melting and falling into place.”

Oliver Graf: Very cool thought.

Greg Reid: This interview is going in different way than you thought it would be.

Oliver Graf: Totally. It’s interesting. I got the yellow pad here with all these questions and I’m-

Greg Reid: We haven’t talked about one of those things.

Oliver Graf: I haven’t talked about most of them, but I know, I love it. It’s just great advice and I appreciate the the candidness of all the answers that you’re giving. I think there’s a lot of lessons that we’re taking.

Greg Reid: Well, I’m learning them too. And I think that’s what is missing in today’s world. All these gurus are out there saying, look at me, look at me, look at me. I’m the opposite I’m going, I’m learning, I’m learning. I’m learning. Come with me on this journey so they can learn it as I’m learning too. I will tell you what’s sad is I brought probably 15 people with me along the journey when I was writing Wealth Made Easy and very few people have capitalized on the lessons that we’ve learned. And I realize again, and I said it five times before, many received great advice, but few profit from it. And I think the only thing that’s different between yourself and Sam and thing that’s different between a lot of organizations is that you guys knew in your heart of hearts you are doing something, you didn’t let someone else talk you out of it, but more importantly, you didn’t give up, three feet from your own gold.

Oliver Graf: No, it’s true. And especially when I think back to like the beginning when we first started the company and it was a different model at the time and people-

Greg Reid: Unheard of.

Oliver Graf: Everyone was like, you guys are crazy, it’s not sustainable, you’re not going to able to do it, and dah, la, la, la. And we just kept going, kept going, one agent at a time, one agent at a time, and just kept growing it and kept believing in it. And took the action to your point to keep going.

Greg Reid: And what’s really interesting is you also focused on the power of residual. And that’s one of the things that these wealthy people do, it’s the power of doing the job once and getting paid over and over. Everyone’s looking for this one hit and they’re doing transactional sales and they’re wondering why they never get anywhere. And every single person I ever met that was wealthy didn’t focus on transactional sales, they focus on creating a movement or something completely out of the box.

Oliver Graf: Got to get those residual streams going.

Greg Reid: 100%. This is another one that’s going to be a little bit weird. This is strange. What if God and the universe gave us 100% of every single thing we ever hoped or prayed for but we didn’t like the packaging so we sent it away. So if we sat there and said, God, I need 100 bucks, please Lord, I need 100 bucks, a hundred bucks, hundred bucks. And the guy pulls up in front of the house with a pickup truck and it’s full of aluminum cans. And he goes, here, take these off of my hands. It’s worth 100 bucks but you go get those stinky things out. All I hoped and prayed for it, it was delivered, I didn’t like the packaging so I sent it away. What does that tell the universe next time I ask you pray for something? So the whole idea is I started being very careful of what I asked for. There’s a great quote, “Be careful what you ask for you might just get it.” Well what if everything we asked for we get, we just have to be aware of it. How many times we have for that perfect spouse or relationship and someone comes up because I don’t like their toenail so we send them away, and at the end of the day that is exactly the person that was destined to be with. So now my mind is opened up that everything I ask for is actually given to me. I just have to be aware and tuned it might not be the way I expect it to be.

Oliver Graf: So true. Sometimes it’s just hidden. You just got to dust it off a little bit.

Greg Reid: And sometimes it’s right in your face. I’ll give an example. I’m not a network marketing guy my whole life. And do you know how many people have tried to get me to network marketing, and I always said, no, no packaging. I hate the packaging. Packaging, packaging, packaging. A year ago one came along, I like this little gel, I did it and now they give me a wheelbarrow full of residual and I do quite well and I love it and it’s fantastic and it makes an impact on people. But I look back and go, how many things have I said no to? How many millions of dollars have I literally said no to only because I didn’t like the packaging?

Oliver Graf: You want to be”salesy”or you didn’t talk to your friends.

Greg Reid: A packaging, I didn’t like it.

Oliver Graf: Exactly. Very cool. One of the interviews that you did that I thought was always really cool was your Evander Holyfield interview. And-

Greg Reid: You’re going old school, you’re going 10, 11 years ago stuff man.

Oliver Graf: Yeah, I’m taking it back. Only because I think that the lessons that you picked up from him are really powerful and I think about them all the time. And I just want you to share kind of some of those takeaways.

Greg Reid: And then after that when you leave I’m going to give you some of my newer books that aren’t a decade old.

Oliver Graf: All right. Perfect.

Greg Reid: Get you up to date.

Oliver Graf: Get me up to date.

Greg Reid: Evander Holyfield I asked him, and says, “Why is it that you want more heavyweight championships than anyone?” And he says, “It’s easy. I just have a higher standard.” And I say, “What do you mean?” He goes, “Well, I showed up early, I left late, I invented exercises at a higher standard and I won more championships.” I said, “But didn’t it hurt being in a fight?” says, “Yeah.” He goes, “But when you’re in fight, you don’t focus on the pain. You don’t focus on the blows, if you focus on the painting and up on your back, knocked out.”But that’s what people do outside the ring. They focus on gas prices, war, economy, and then they wonder why they never become a champion. And he pulled me in tight and I always say this is an doneness of a man missing half an ear bitten off by Tyson. He says, “The funniest thing.” He goes, “When you do win the championship,” he says, “Everyone comes on their feet and they chant your name. They raise your hand in victory and the guy puts a big shiny belt around your waist and at that moment, and at that second you don’t feel even one of the punches you took along the journey.”But the guy in the losing locker room, will have every bruise, every excuse for the rest of their life, wishing they had a higher standard.

Oliver Graf: Wishing they went to the gym one more time one more-

Greg Reid: Everyone has what I call bad case of the one size. And that means I’m going to take action once I get the big break, once I have the opportunity. But the biggest best time to take action is the moment, it strikes.

Oliver Graf: That’s good.

Greg Reid: That single thing that holds people back is they literally sit on their big butt. And I don’t mean physically, I mean they sit there and say, I’d go do that and it’s that but that holds us back. It’s always that, but, and it’s the people that are the millionaires and the billionaires, it’s the people that have left the biggest legacy by creating iconic things. They’re the ones that didn’t let that but keep them from what they will truly wanted to be.

Oliver Graf: From getting off their butt.

Greg Reid: That’s right. Powerful. Right?

Oliver Graf: Very powerful indeed. And just the mindset that those people have. And I know Napoleon Hill in his book also talked a lot about like auto suggestion and visualizing and the mindset and the brain and all that stuff. Can you touch on like how these big performers and high profile people are using that type of stuff? Call it NLP, call it visualizing, call it meditating, praying, whatever you want to call it.

Greg Reid: Well it is visualization. It’s just you see it to believe it and all that other cliche stuff. Again though, I think that mindset is to become rich or to become a success in certain things. To be wealthy is a different mindset. It’s looking for opportunity. It’s called reticular activator system. Look, my son is seven years old. Wherever we go, no matter where we go, he always finds money. So we go to the grocery store, amusement park, he always finds cash and I asked him, I says, “Why is it no matter where we go, you find money?” And he said, “I look for it.” That’s it. That’s what he’s looking for. So the whole idea is what is it that we are seeking? Like Rumi said, “Whatever you seek is seeking you just make sure that you open up your minds to see exactly what you’re ready for.” By the way, that was a good one.

Oliver Graf: Yeah, that was a good one. No, it’s so true because it’s the same thing with the car. When you get the new car, all of a sudden you see that car everywhere and when you’re looking for money all the time, all of a sudden you see the money all the time. Same thing with the opportunities or finding real estate deals if you’re turning it on and just looking for those all the time and then thinking about it and then taking the action to get off your butt and capitalize on it, that’s where the win start happening.

Greg Reid: Correct. And always looking for opportunity. Like you and I are talking before this and I’m saying, hey, if you see any multifamily home deals come up, let me know. I’m always throwing it out there. And then all of a sudden shocked and amazed that opportunity’s coming. No, I’m asking, I’m throwing it out there. I’m putting it out there. Look, I’m a single guy, So I’m looking for this perfect companion. By the way my name’s Greg Reid, I’m a single guy if-

Oliver Graf: If you can find him online at-

Greg Reid: So the whole idea though is whenever you seek is seeking you. So I am very careful of what it is that I’m looking for and then also have a list of what it is that I seek. And it’s amazing the more specific that we are, the more exact that things start magically appearing.

Oliver Graf: And like practically, how are some ways to practice that? Is that like writing your goals down every day? Is it waking up and meditating for five minutes? How does that physically manifest?

Greg Reid: Okay. So Bob Proctor and I wrote a book together called Think and Grow Rich Thoughts are Things. And we went around and we interviewed everyone from the Holocaust survivors to the founder of Pictionary and JetBlue. And we realized that thoughts are not things, it’s thoughts only backed by action become things. If thoughts were things, I’d be a slice of pizza right now because I’m hungry. But the fact of the matter is when we’re done with this and I order some pizza, my thoughts become realities by the actions we take. And that’s what’s missing. I met with these Harvard scientists and they said, look, we have 64,000 thoughts a day. And most of them are called the ANTs. Automatic negative thoughts that the reptilian part of your brain protecting you. So if we have 64,000 thoughts a day, and majority of them are negative then everything should be chaos and horrible in our life, but it’s not. It’s only the thoughts that we took action on create our reality. So it’s the thoughts backed by action become [inaudible 00:34:40].

Oliver Graf: Very interesting shift too.

Greg Reid: If thoughts are things, we’d be smacking a car and everyone that cuts us off on the freeway. We think it, but we don’t do it. So the whole-

Oliver Graf: And to your point with all those negative thoughts in there, in terms of practical application, the more good thoughts you can put into your brain and take action on, the better you’re going to be.

Greg Reid: Correct. Well, it’s a hundred percent what you just said.

Oliver Graf: So what that could look like is, is listening to more interviews, reading more books, talking to mentors, visualizing, meditating, doing yoga, anything that gets you in a space of not your ANT thoughts, whatever you sent automated negative thoughts.

Greg Reid: The concept of meditation is to get rid of the ANTs. That’s all I did. They call it the monkey brain and in that whole society. So the whole idea is to have that calming nature where you can just be still so you can let all the good stuff in.

Oliver Graf: I like that a lot. I do that in the sauna. I sit in the sauna and it just so hot that I almost can’t think of anything except the stuff that I want to think about.

Greg Reid: Nice.

Oliver Graf: So it’s different for everyone, I’m sure. What are you investing in these days?

Greg Reid: Everything. So right now, everything from cryptocurrency, real estate you name it.

Oliver Graf: You still hot on cryptocurrency?

Greg Reid: I still am. It’s interesting. I opened up a little account for my son and I looked at it today he has 8,500 bucks in it. No big deal. But I figure by the time he’s old enough to cash that in either he’ll be a millionaire or be broke. But either way, he’s got some dough in there.

Oliver Graf: It’s a nice little pad for-

Greg Reid: Yeah. He’s got something going on there. So it’s kind of fun to watch. And then I do some of my own investing on the side as well.

Oliver Graf: Cool. And then real estate, businesses.

Greg Reid: Everything. So the whole idea is I believe in investing in myself is my number one answer to that. So people don’t understand this. They see me as an author, but that’s only one thing. I run seven corporations. And so authorship is only one umbrella of one of the corporations. And Secret Knock is under that umbrella. But that’s not even what I do. I also own a film company and we’ve got our first major feature film coming out in June, nationwide in all the theaters. Then another one I own a pharmaceutical company and then another one I own another company. So it’s juggling all those different things.

Oliver Graf: And I think you just said something really powerful there is I invest in myself. Because a lot of people think they’re investing because they put money in IRA or in a mutual fund. But really you have no control over that. You really are just kind of like giving it to someone and hoping that they can make it grow whereas investing in your own businesses or investing in real estate assets that you have control over, I think that’s where the biggest gains are going to happen.

Greg Reid: I agree. And part of that. Now this kind of gets a little woey or whatever because again, I mean on the discovery channel, so I’m working through it myself. I’m also realizing investing in myself is by the experiences and things of living. So many people are saving, these millionaires and billionaire guys are saving those money to just leave it behind. And I’m like, oh wow, that’s not much fun. Whatever that might float the boat. I’m going, well it’d be Kinda cool to enjoy some of that. So even people that I’m very close to, my family members, they’re millionaires, but they’re not making any more money.

Oliver Graf: And put it in things that you have the control over to make the moves.

Greg Reid: A hundred percent. So I do something for our residual opportunity, so the whole idea is that it constantly feeds you so then you can live the life that you want to live. That’s it.

Oliver Graf: And a really key thought from that is no one ever got rich saving money. And to your point, everyone’s trying to save money, save money, save money. And the real way to advance is to focus on making more money. It’s not about saving money, it’s about making more money.

Greg Reid: Circulating.

Oliver Graf: Circulating. You’re an income producing machine.

Greg Reid: That’s it. I am a shark. Every single day I’m not a big Grant Cardone guy, but I love that whole concept of who’s got my money. Because someone out there if you have that idea of how can I do some income producing activity and knowing the difference between it. So many people sit there and spend their time on Facebook and Instagram and things of this nature and then they wonder whether I’m making money. Well, I’m doing the same thing, but I’m constantly dropping my events and books and things of this nature. So I’m combining those two activities. So it’s still income producing activity where it might not look like it on the surface.

Oliver Graf: All the time.

Greg Reid: All the time. Have you ever opened up where I’m not there. So the whole idea is how do you stay in the forefront.

Oliver Graf: Yeah, exactly. That’s good. And I also wanted to ask you about something you just mentioned, which was all the adventure trips that you do. I think it’s been cool watching all the things that you’ve done. And one of the things that’s always been on my bucket list was running with the bulls.

Greg Reid: You run from the bulls.

Oliver Graf: And I know you did that. So I want to know just what that was like.

Greg Reid: So the idea is that you seek counsel, not just opinion. So my idea is I find the people that getting the results I want and I ask them. So Ruben Gonzales, the four time Olympian and myself, we found the person who wrote the definitive book on Running with the Bulls and called them up and said, hey look, we’re going to come and do there. We went to enjoy the activity. We’ve preferred not dying. Where should we stand statistically over a hundred, 200 year period that you could have the greatest time. He said, “Oh, that’s easy. On this little strip of area, right around this last curve stand right in between on one side, people will be on the wall and they’re drunk and they’re going to stand each other like screaming fire in a building, over here is the bulls stand right between them. You can have a great little open path.”That’s where we did and we got enjoy it. And the whole idea is that, that’s what I do differently.

Oliver Graf: You found the one, that safe spot.

Greg Reid: When I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, I didn’t have some dope smoke and surfer to take me up the mountain. I found this Sherpa that had climbed that 900 times, where they put their boot print, I put my blueprint. I follow the successful actions of others.

Oliver Graf: Such a powerful lesson.

Greg Reid: Easy.

Oliver Graf: And on a topic. I wasn’t even expecting to get a powerful lesson, you know what I mean? And just seeking council of people that have done what you want to do is probably one of the best pieces of advice we’ve ever gotten as well.

Greg Reid: Well 100% and it’s really interesting. The Guy who taught me that was John Schwartz, the gentleman who had created String Theory. And I remember when I wanted to be a best author, I didn’t go to people who wrote great books. I didn’t want to be a great writing author, I wanted to be a bestselling author. So I went to Barnes & Noble and I bought every bestselling book and I called those people up and I followed their actions and here we are today.

Oliver Graf: Very cool. Love that. And then I want to wrap up with-

Greg Reid: One of the questions that you-

Oliver Graf: One of the questions that I actually wrote down here. No, I know that you travel with your son Colt a lot and you bring him up on stage and I think that’s really cool. I got two young boys as well and that’s something that I’m looking forward to doing as they get older. And I know that he likes to share his success mantra on stage, so I just wanted to have you talk about that and what that’s like as a dad too for you?

Greg Reid: Well, first of all, one of these topics where I talked to his mom, my former wife. And by the way, I’ve got the greatest ex-wife in the world. I know it sounds weird, but I love my ex wife. She’s amazing, great mom, great friend, business partner and we sat cold and said, do you want to do this? We ask him, we’re not going to just make him start being a dancing monkey if he doesn’t want to be. And he’s the person who requested to follow these things. I want to be very clear that that’s the way we went to it. And his mantra is before he goes to bed, he screams down the hall and he says, mantra if I forget, and he has to say it before he goes to sleep. Because I realize that most kids when they’re falling asleep, they’re scared of the dark or the thing or the thoughts or dreams or things of this nature. So I figure if we could leave him with something positive, he’d go sleeping in a good fashion. And now it’s become his catchphrase. January he had the number one spoken word audio track on Amazon on his audio-

Oliver Graf: At seven years old.

Greg Reid: He did when he was six. And then at Secret Knock, he did a CD signing thing for his latest one. And the whole idea is that they took his mantra and added hip hop music to make it kind of cool. So he just says, my name is Colt, I’m happy. I’m powerful, I’m successful, I’m brave, I’m wise, I’m worthy. I help people. My name is Colt. And that’s what he says before he goes to bed.

Oliver Graf: I love that. That’s awesome. And to your point about the thoughts before you go to bed, I do something similar with my son when I rock him to sleep, I’m just like, I had the same idea. I’m like, man, I want to just put him to sleep thinking about good thoughts and so I just like sit in the rocking chair and I’m just like, you’re happy, you’re strong, you run fast, you’re brave, you’re good at school, you’re good at math, you’re good at drawing, you’re good at art. And I’ll just do that for like 10 straight minutes.

Greg Reid: That’s awesome.

Oliver Graf: Until he just goes to sleep. And then I put him in his bed.

Greg Reid: Imagine that. That’s just putting all the … like a doctor at was talking about the whole thing with water crystals and stuff like that. If we’re 75% water and we’re putting positive messages, then that’s how they go throughout the day. Now, how much of that, quite frankly, there are a little petri dish. We have no idea for messing them up or not. I don’t know. But I do know that I’m getting the best opportunity for success. And I think as a parent that’s the best we can do.

Oliver Graf: Exactly. And hopefully giving them a good, strong mindset and a good, strong foundation to go win at life.

Greg Reid: Amen.

Oliver Graf: Amen. Well, Greg, I got to tell you, man, I really appreciate it. I enjoyed the Kombucha-

Greg Reid: You drank half of it, that’s pretty good.

Oliver Graf: water and I’ll give you a cheers. Thank you again for your time and really appreciate it.

Greg Reid:Salute.

Oliver Graf: We’ll see on the next one, and if you like the video, subscribe, leave us a comment. If you have any questions we’ll be sure to get back to you. See on the next on

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Pullout Quotes

“Everyone always sees the great success stories and the house and the cars and the boats, but no one ever talks about the journey to get there.”

“Rich is the enemy of wealthy.”

“The secret is to look for and capitalize on unexpected opportunity.”

“Many receive great advice, but few profit from it.”

“If something feeds you, you feed it some more. And if something eats you, kill it.”

“Work your strengths; hire your weaknesses.”

“Follow the knowing.”

“That’s one of the things that these wealthy people do: It’s the power of doing the job once and getting paid over and over.”

“What if God and the universe gave us 100% of every single thing we ever hoped or prayed for, but we didn’t like the packaging, so we sent it away?”

“Whatever you seek is seeking you.”