About the Episode
It is often easy to lose sight of a dream, especially if following the dream can become extremely foggy and hard to predict. Rick gives advice on how he has pushed through the uncertainty, because he knows the end goal is always there.
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I am happy you’re here with me today, I am happy to be here with you, and I’m going to give you today, a pivot in my life because even with everything going great, I’m going to get vulnerable with you today and tell you about a time period where things are going kind of bad just recently for me. It was a mindset thing for me, because I just kept seemingly getting hit with so many things left and right, and how I ended up pivoting and getting myself out of that. Did I really just say pivoting? I hate that word, but it will stay shifting right, I made a hard turn and got myself out of that. It made me realize something about even with my past and how decisions matter, and the manner of which you make those decisions actually determines if you’re going to stick with that decision or not.
Now, here we go over about a month’s period of time, you know, this year, it was like between mid February, to mid March, getting ready for the public offering of reach out that this is like sleepless nights. I mean, I know that’s the cliche, right? I mean, but I’m talking stress beyond stress. When everything just seems to be not going your way, and you just continue forward regardless. But you know, even in a couple of meetings with my team, I would just be vulnerable and say, “Guys, I’m under a lot of pressure right now, and I’m grateful for you to be continuing to do everything that you do, so that I can keep dreaming.” Because the dream doesn’t exist. If the dreamer is not there. The dream doesn’t exist, if the dreamer can’t keep dreaming. I continue to push forward into that dream, and even though there are many, many, many, many things right now, that are like, you know that this is a lot of work. Why are you doing this, and I started asking myself that question, you know, and they say that every entrepreneur always wants to throw in the towel all the time. That’s true.
Now, because there’s always a thought that comes up the man obz. Or if I just did x, you know, but definitely wouldn’t be happier. For sure. Especially when you have this dream that you believe in, you have to keep pushing forward. Because the only way that dream is going to actually take place and become reality is if you keep dreaming, and that’s so important is to keep pushing past that, you know, and for this month, that dream of mine end up becoming very clouded, almost like it was fading away in the distance or like, if you close your eyes, you could just see like fog surrounding you and you can’t see the next way to go, and here’s the thing with fog, right, because you may not see where to go, even that thing still exists. But you saw it at one point if you’re on a road that you’ve traveled down so many times, and you know that there’s always a stoplight that you turn right at right the same way you go to work or or the same way that you go wherever to the restaurant you go to. You know that that establishment is still there, but you can’t see it, you know that it’s still there, and you know that all you have to do is just keep driving, and you’re going to get there.
Did you catch that? All you have to do is just keep driving. This is the same with this kind of stuff, too. And that’s, that’s literally like the only thing that kept me going as just saying, Okay, I may not see the next 10 steps, and that dream that was so clear to me for years seems so unattainable at this moment. That all I can focus on is what I can do right now, what that one single next step is because there’s never been fog in my life, or really, I doubt in yours to where you actually couldn’t even see just one single step. It may take you time to actually see that because you just need to center yourself and gain clarity in that moment. But to just take that one single step.
So as things just kept getting shut down, and getting known on all these things, even for the ability to use ACH to take investor transactions. Yeah, it’s like, “Okay, I’m just gonna try another route. Just going to try another route. How about we try something we haven’t thought of yet.” I started asking people around me on my consulting teams and vendors, like, you know, give me some advice here. Can you mentor me, and I’m grateful I have so many amazing people around and then with my team. I’m telling guys, this is really crappy right now. I appreciate you carrying most of the load of the day to day operations so that I can continue to forge the way forward, because that’s my job, and I will keep dreaming. I haven’t lost it. It’s just harder to see right now.
So then, after a month, right, I started seeing because of taking these individual steps, just the next step that I could see, I had no idea what the step was going to be afterwards, but I could tell what at least the step that I could do today, and that’s an important question to ask yourself, whenever you feel like there’s no way out whenever you feel like there’s no path forward whenever you feel like everything is closing in on you whenever If you feel constrained by stuff that’s happening to you, the question to ask yourself is, what is one thing that I can do today to create movements to take action to keep momentum going, what is one thing that I can do today?
That’s it. That’s all that matters. Is that one thing that you could do today? As soon as you start seeing movement quicker, say, “Okay, awesome.” Well, that worked. “Okay, well, what’s one more thing that I can do this hour? What’s one more thing that I can do this minute?” It starts to accelerate when you just start with that one question when you feel stuck? What’s one thing that I can do today? That one question is what got me through this month of turmoil to continue pushing forward? When I felt stuck, when I kept getting doors slammed in my face when I kept hearing? No, that’s the one thing, and then suddenly, it was like, I started seeing some stuff towards the end of the month, like little wins, little tiny things that would pop up, and you know what, even if they’re little ones, frickin celebrate them. I mean, this is not the time to just keep trudging forward, when you’re in this rough spot, you have to recognize the little wins and celebrate those things. Because those little wins are what’s going to keep you going.
Then the fog starts to clear, and you can actually see that, oh, I just can’t see only see my next step right now, or what I can do today, I can actually see what I have to do this week, I can see the next five steps now. Because some of these things are falling into place, celebrate those little wins, especially in these times of turmoil, because those will be the energy in the fuel that keeps driving you forward. I don’t care how small it is, I don’t care how small it is. celebrate those little things, even if it’s with just a glass of scotch, even if it’s with just a high five with one of your teammates, even if it’s just a hug with your partner. celebrate those little wins, especially when you’re in the times of struggle and turmoil. That’s what will keep you moving forward. Then after these little wins that I saw, I started seeing some bigger ones possible, and I started seeing some bigger ones actually happen. Then one day I was just sitting down right after I ate my breakfast, and this phrase came to my mind. It was like a moment of clarity, and just spreading that fog and being able to see things clearly. I never would have been in this moment if I didn’t do everything that I just told you that works to keep you moving when you could feel stuck. It was this one phrase “Yesterday that was the end of everything. Today is the beginning of what’s happening now. “
As I sat there, and let that soak in “yesterday was the end of everything, today is the beginning of what’s happening now.” I feel like this amazing energy rises up inside me because of all of that stuff. It was a choice at this point, all of that stuff that had been overcome. It’s like it’s done now. It’s completely done. Because I started celebrating it and that celebration allows you to recognize it, it’s been completed, even if it’s just one small little part. It’s been completed. So yesterday, quite literally. And whatever you’re having troubles with right now, you may not have even had any of those little wins yet. But this is still true. This is a factual statement that yesterday was the end of everything, and today is the beginning of what’s happening now. Live in what’s happening now. Not in what has been done, or what has ended. Because it doesn’t define you anymore. It doesn’t exist anymore. Today is what’s happening now. That’s where you truly live rather than on the should have could have what is as I’ve talked about before, today is what’s happening now.
As I got up from this chair, I go shower. This wasn’t a workout day. I remember that it was just almost like a meditation day for me in the morning. It wasn’t a workout day. It was a day in between my workout days, I shower, going into my closet to grab a shirt and I saw this one shirt. I saw this one shirt a couple months ago when I received this shirt as a gift from one of my board members, a director on my board who actually helped build a multi billion dollar company over the past seven years and now he’s helping me do the same thing. Just absolutely incredible because I walked by this, I started tearing up, and it was a couple months ago with all of my board members in front of a group of high level high net worth entrepreneurs that are doing big things. At a group that I’m a part of where we announced that Porter is now a public company, just a badass moment for us, and his name’s Darren, Darren, Jaclyn, you can Google him, just an incredible dude.
In the middle of me acknowledging and expressing how grateful I am for everybody that’s around me that supports me that believes in me that’s on my board, on my team. With my board standing at my side. Darrin steps out, he says, “Rick, I want to acknowledge you. Because you’re the one that put the stream together. You’re the one that we’re following, and you’re the one that we’re enjoying, to mentor through this process, and I want to give you this dream,” and he hands me this shirt that I put on right then in there, which was a billionaire in the making. He got this for me, he labeled me this, this wasn’t something I ever looked at myself, he labeled me this billionaire in the making, and as I was walking through my closet, I had not worn the shirt since the day that he gave it to me, and it just so happened that that day, I had a scheduled meeting with him with another board member with six other team members that are involved in my capital raise for my public offering.
I picked up the shirt, and I put it on. And I felt what it meant, because it meant something to Darren to give it to me. You know, every single time that we’re on a call, or just a random audio message or something like that. Bill even saw me. He’s like, “I believe in your man, I believe in you.” So this wasn’t just a thing that he did, and he presented it to me in this public forum. So that I could take ownership of it and believe this myself, because it was almost like, I’m not doing this for the money. I’m not doing what I’m doing. I’m actually doing this to help people and build something meaningful and bring value to the world quite literally, with this company that I’m building. But a byproduct of that, because money is a tool, is that I will be a billionaire.
What’s even more awesome than that, because I told parts of the story on that call that day with my team, who’s running the capital raise with a couple of my officers from my public company and a couple of my board members and I’m telling them the story. I’m saying you know what the shirt really means. It means that because this happens because I’m the dreamer and I keep dreaming that that means everybody else on this call right now. We’ll be millionaires, and then Vlad, whose amazing pipes he goes, I think I want a shirt Rick that says millionaire in the making, like “Dude, I’m gonna make those for you,” because just as much as I own this today, and this was an important moment for me to get out of my mental rut that I had already chosen to work on myself and then I just happen to walk by in my closet and see this shirt that somebody believes in me and believes this is true. I believe in myself. I just couldn’t see it for a month, and there it is right in front of me again, and I’m gonna own it, and I’m going to keep dreaming.
Episode References:
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Episode Topics:
- What is the Importance of a Dreamer?
- The Reality Of Dreaming
- Creating Continuous Movement for Constant Momentum