From Failed Actor to $1B Real Estate Empire - Never Give Up | Ryan Serhant EP 814

0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation show.

0:11I'm assuming you have, or you've reflected back, or you and your wife have maybe been like, okay, what makes you so driven? Why are you so driven to like excel and achieve constantly and needing more and more and more? Was there a feeling or an energy when you were younger where you just didn't feel important? That you didn't feel seen or you didn't feel accepted? Because that's something I felt most of my childhood. but was there like a defining moments for you where you felt like I'm not important? I want to be important. So I come from a big family, right? So there's three sisters, um, two brothers.

0:45And I think you're the youngest, second youngest. I think I spent a long time trying to figure out what my thing was. And I think most people do. I don't know. What should I do? You know, There's optionality now. It's not the way it used to be. We're so thankful that it's not 1950 anymore. But at the same time, 1950 was simpler. Like you had your options. You know what you're going to do. You know what you're going to do, you know, for the most part. Today, there's just mass optionality and it's scary. You know, it's like going to a restaurant with a 50 page menu. Like I came for steak, but now I don't know.

1:19I don't know. What should I do? Should I do that? Oh, you have a Mediterranean menu. What do I do? Should I travel? I don't know. and so i i tried every single sport you know i took every class i was as well rounded as you could imagine because i just didn't know and i wasn't quite at anything like there wasn't one thing i was like great at even acting i think i was good and i i think that i like subconsciously told myself one day i'm gonna figure out what my thing is and once i do everybody better watch the out because I am going to go so hard. I don't know what it's going to be. I might be a garbage man.

1:57I might, I might be an artist. I might be a poet. I don't know. I don't know. But once I figure it out, I spent my whole life trying to figure out what I want. Once I figure out what I want and what I'm great at, I will never, ever, ever let it go. So to the consistency and to the capacity, the minute I, as an accident, got my real estate license because I needed to pay my rent, I didn't want to bartend or wait tables or do any of that. I got my license. Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy. The whole real estate world files out. 2008, right? 2008. I didn't have a job. I mean, I didn't have any money.

2:32So I was like, I guess this is just hard. And so once it clicked and I just started doing it, it's like, I'm going to do this every day. It's just volume for me. I'm not going to take this personally. I tried acting. Acting is personal. You get rejected to your face because of your face. Wow. So I am going to just go hard all day, every day. I'm not going to be the most connected. I'm not going to be the best looking, but something no one can take away from me is how hard I'm going to work. I'm going to wake up earlier and go to bed later. And I don't care what anyone else says. Modern day gurus about how the grind is dead doesn't matter.

3:08That's great when you have money. When you're rich, you can talk all day long about work-life balance. When you are trying to figure out how you're going to pay rent and pay your groceries, your work-life balance, you have to just grind. And you got to take it one day at a time and know you're working harder today than you did yesterday. And that hard work, what ends up happening is you work so hard, you make luck easy to find. And so then lucky things start to happen. You get that first big deal that pays your rent for a year. And I remember depositing that check for like 24 grand. Crazy feeling, right?

3:42Yeah. At the Chase Bank in Tribeca. And then I was like, great what's the next one you know and then you do that next big one and i'll get two years ahead four years ahead yeah and then you go to the open casting call for million dollar listing new york and and uh and then that happens i'm like all right i'm gonna keep working even harder because the harder i work i make luck even easier to find me and then you just start building and building and building and it's that that never letting go thing like you know i said sell it like sirhan And as a TV show we did for Bravo in 2016, 17, the, that was my, I want to say 30th.

4:18It might've been more pitch the Bravo. Wow. And I think they agreed to it because they were sick of me. I think they were like, guys, if we don't at least give Ryan one thing, he's going to pitch us on the next real estate doctor, the next apprentice, but for real estate show. And I had all of them. I pitched all of them. they didn't accept any of them, rightly so, I will just never give up. And I will come to you until you buy or you die. Across the board. Buy or die. Yeah, that's it. I like that. No choice.

5:03Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Motivation, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description. That will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on The School of Greatness. And if you are loving the daily motivation, please follow us over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want more exclusive content and ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want to get even more inspiration from our world-class guests and learn how to improve your life and take it to the next level, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.

5:53Again, have an amazing day, and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.