Why Being "Too Smart To Fail" Guarantees You Will | Dave Ramsey

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

0:11How often does someone, when they know like, hey, this is a big risk investment, the chances are of you making 10x on your return in one year or six months is so slim, or 100x returns in two years is so slim. But why do people sometimes go all in on the money they have or 90 % of their money on things that have a 1 % chance of actually getting more than a double return within a year? Well, there's two reasons. One is they don't believe there's only a 1 % chance. They believe, again, it's the most efficient way to get there. I didn't think that there was a high probability I was going to fail doing nothing down real estate.

0:51I did not. It never occurred to me, number one. And then number two, pride comes right before the fall. There's an arrogance. I I was smart I understood that some that debt knocked over some people I understood that sometimes people got in trouble but I thought oh I can do this yeah I I'm smart and 26 years of your wisdom you could that's right man after 24 and a half years and a college degree in real estate by God I can do this you know and there was that in there that arrogant little twerp you know he was there And so there's a combination of this pride and that then leads you to, again, these principles that lead you to bad tactics or principles that lead you to good tactics.

1:32And the principle was a bad principle that I was functioning in. And, you know, just put a little icing on the cake of a little pride, a little arrogance that says, oh, yeah, I know. I know that for that guy, but I'm really good at math. And I grew up in the real estate business. And I know. I know things. Just ask me, you know. and that you see this, you can actually see that dripping off of some of the stuff that's posted on the Get Rich Quick stuff. Stuff that criticizes you, stuff that criticizes me, stuff that criticizes our friend Craig Groeschel or whoever. I mean, you can see anybody that's playing a long game or, you know, Simon Sinek's infinite game, right?

2:10Anybody's playing a long game, the short-term thinkers all have to pile on. And there's always that dripping arrogance around it. I couldn't recognize it because I was the same guy. I did the same. I would have been the guy trashing that guy. I would have been the guy trashing me when I was 26 because I would have been going, no, that doesn't apply to me. Yeah, I understand, Ramsey. But that's for regular people. I'm smarter than that. I'm not regular people. Yeah. So there's that in there. So we've got get out of debt. We've got live on less than you make. We've got to have a budget. We've got to save.

2:38And the last one is you need to be outlandishly, outrageously generous and walk around with an open hand. What does generous mean for people that feel like they're struggling to live their own lifestyle of going out with friends once a week or having a dinner every couple of weeks or just doing some basic activities to enjoy life beyond free activities? How does generosity look like for those individuals? See, generous is not an action. Generous is a character quality. And like integrity, it's a character quality that you choose. You're not born with it. It's not installed. You have to say, I am a generous person.

3:20As our friend James Clear says, he says, our habits come from our identity, so change your identity and your habits will follow, right? The whole essence of Atomic Habits, his best-selling book, which is wonderful material. And so the, but I am a generous person. Okay, now what does that mean? Yeah, there's obviously a money thing. That might mean I give 10 % to my church, a tithe. That might mean I pick up the bill at dinner. It might mean I look across the room and someone's wearing military fatigues and I buy their lunch. It might or a policeman or a fireman or a nurse. You know, I'm in scrubs.

3:56I might that it might mean something that simple tactically. But it could mean I just opened the door for. Yeah, a generous heart. It could mean because here's the thing. We all know the difference in a taker and a giver. We know the difference in selfless versus selfish. when you hang out with selfish people you feel like you need to take a shower when you're done you know and when you hang out with selfless people so i can just decide to do that i don't have to have a lot of money because generous people are highly attractive not because they give you stuff but they're highly attractive because they're that they and they're very seldom depressed they almost always have a positive outlook they don't have a scarcity mentality.

4:38They have an abundance mentality. And all of this is just a decision. I just, I'm going to, instead of being, but what happens is we become overwhelmed with the financial stress and we turn it in and we became navel gazers worried about me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, because I got to take care of me, me, me, me, me, me. And if I don't take care of me, me, me, me, the lights get cut off. And it doesn't take much margin to push all of that back as a decision and just say, no, I'm going to leave a tip that's outlandish. I watched a guy the other day park a Mercedes. He pulled up in a car. I know the car because I looked at it one time.

5:18It was a$140 ,000 car, and he hands the valet$5. I'm like, dude, this is Ferris Bueller's Day Out. You just gave a guy$5 to park$140 ,000. You are out of your mind. That's a lack of generosity that could really cost you. I want them taking care of Mr. Ramsey's car like it's their daughter, you know? That's the tip I want to leave for selfish reasons. Hello. Protect your car. Exactly.

5:52I have a brand new book called Make Money Easy. And if you're looking to create more financial freedom in your life, you want abundance in your life and you want to stop making money hard in your life, but you want to make it easier, you want to make it flow, you want to feel abundant, then make sure to go to makemoneyeasybook.com right now and get yourself a copy. I really think this is going to help you transform your relationship with money this moment moving forward. We have some big guests and content coming up. Make sure you're following and thank you for listening to this episode of The Daily Motivation Show.

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7:26Again, have an amazing day and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.