Robert Herjavec: “This Mindset Took Me From Poverty To Multimillionaire”

0:00There are two big things happening at one time that I've never done before. I'm going on a book tour for my new book, Make Money Easy, and I'm doing a podcast tour at the same time. It is going to be big, and I'm going to seven cities in 10 days. Get your friends, get your family, bring everyone you know to these cities. I'm coming to Austin, Texas, New York, Boston. We're going to Nashville. Then we're going to Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco. Make sure to get your tickets right now. Go to lewishouse.com slash tour. Again, bring everyone you know if you're looking to create more financial freedom and abundance in your life and you wanna see a massive guest live on the School of Greatness show.

0:45Get your tickets. I can't wait to see you there. Welcome back, my friend, to the School of Greatness. If you are like me and you love business and entrepreneurship, if you love how to turn creative ideas in your mind into a reality, into the physical world, to be of service to other people, then this is going to be the episode for you. And for years, years, I have been watching a show called Shark Tank. And we've interviewed many of the sharks on this podcast over the years, some of my friends who we've had on here, who have helped invest in small entrepreneurs and business owners for years on Shark Tank, and also just inspired people through educating and informing them how to really grow a business.

1:29And today I get to interview Robert Herjavec, who I've always been inspired by. He's kind of like one of the nicest sharks, it seems like, on Shark Tank. And I've always been inspired by his insight and his generosity. And he is a powerful business leader, entrepreneur. And today we're talking about how to explore the deeper dimensions of building wealth and living a life of purpose. He's going to share intimate details about his journey, including a powerful story on how hitting rock bottom led him to rediscover his faith and joy. There are so many moments where Robert had to pause and think and really reflect about the questions and the conversation we were talking about because he hadn't been asked some of these questions ever.

2:16So it was fun to have this conversation with him where a lot of these individuals who are on TV or doing a lot of interviews Usually get asked the same questions but as you guys know, I like to Go off script a lot and ask things that i'm feeling based on how someone's energy is how their heart is And how our connection is before the interview actually starts And he reveals game-changing insights about the difference between hard work and smart work why real wealth requires more than just passion and how to maintain joy while pursuing ambitious goals. He's shared so many cool stories right off the bat that I think you're really gonna love.

2:56So make sure to take notes, share this with one friend, just copy and paste the link on Apple or Spotify and share it with a friend. And if you're looking to really create a path to peace, freedom, and financial abundance, I am going on tour very soon. That's right, I'm doing a book tour and podcast tour merged into one to one epic seven-city, 10-day tour around America. And if you haven't got your tickets yet, go to lewishouse.com slash tour right now while you're listening to this episode. You can just click the link in the description of this podcast episode while you're listening, open it up, and see what city I am coming to.

3:40because we are going to have massive names that I'm going to do a live interview on stage at each city. And you do not want to miss who I'm going to have. Some of them I might announce. Some of them are going to be big surprises. So go to lewishouse.com slash tour. If you want to have an evening of greatness with a community of like-minded individuals who want to continually elevate their mind and their power in their purpose every single day. If you want to be around that type of a community, go to lewishouse.com slash tour and get your tickets. Bring your friends. Bring the whole family. It's going to be a party, a celebration.

4:18We've got a book tour. We've got a podcast tour all in one. Get ready for an evening of greatness at lewishouse.com slash tour. And again, I am very excited, and I appreciate all of you who are supporting on this journey of greatness. and again, big thank you to everyone who is just showing up for yourselves as well. During these episodes, taking this information in, diving in deep, sharing with your friends, I appreciate you, I am grateful for you and you deserve great things in your life. Without further ado, let's dive into this episode with Robert Herjavec. Welcome back everyone in the School of Greatness.

4:57I'm very excited about our guest. We have the inspiring Robert Herjavec in the house. So good to see you, sir. Thank you for having me. Welcome. I've watched you for, I guess, 15 years now on Shark Tank or 15 plus years. 17. 17 years on Shark Tank. We have many mutual friends that you're buddies with that I've had on the show as well. And you just have an inspiring story and inspiring life. And I'm glad we got to connect a little bit before this because you've been inspiring young and old entrepreneurs for many years to learn about how to grow their business, how to launch a product, how to package and position their product.

5:37And I mean, your story is pretty fascinating because you're an immigrant, you're an immigrant family. I think you came to Canada when you were eight, but you didn't have anything. Your dad didn't have any money. You guys were living in extreme poverty. So how do you learn to go from, I guess, a poverty situation and turn it into an abundance mindset like when does that learn switch for you of like we're in poverty whether you knew it or not but you had a poverty mindset or maybe you didn't but you're in experiencing poverty when does that switch on to abundance of wealth mindset it's a great question and that's a great question somebody asked me yesterday because they knew my story i went for a medical and the nurse was like oh my god i read about your story and you came to canada with nothing blah blah must been so hard and the truth is it wasn't i mean it was my mom and dad escaping from a country coming to Canada on a boat with one suitcase and i'm the only child wow so for them absolutely horrifically hard didn't speak the language had no money my dad was in jail could never go back the whole nine yards wow comes to a country doesn't know anybody doesn't speak the language Now, I'm eight years old.

6:58First time on a boat. It's an adventure. It's an adventure. It had just been. Poverty wasn't my mindset. And I think that's a big difference. I think people that are born into poverty or encompassed in poverty, it's harder to get out of. My mindset was joy. Really? So I grew up on a small village with my grandma. like the traditional vision of poverty with dirt floors we didn't have a phone like it was one of those like it was a village there was one phone but if you want to get a hold of my grandmother you called the guy with the phone and he came on like but I didn't know we were poor because everybody around me lived like we lived so enjoy oh I mean everyone allowed you to live the same the same so it wasn't you were rich i was poor we all lived in a little dirt floor outhouse it was fine but as a child we had animals and it was joy i didn't realize that we were poor until we came to canada and when i went to school i remember this so clearly i don't remember the journey.

8:16I don't remember any of it. My mom thinks I blocked it all out. But I remember the first day of school and kids picking on me and making fun of me and telling me I'm a poor immigrant. Wow. First day of school. First day of school. Because you don't speak English either at this point, right? And there was no English classes. So they just threw you in. And that must have been kind of terrifying also. Terrifying. I don't know. What's his teacher saying? I don't know anything. And I came from an environment where I was really a lot of fun. My dad was the youngest of 15, tons of cousins. And I go into an environment where I literally don't speak the language and kids are making fun of me.

8:57I really don't know why they're making fun. So I learned poverty and I learned poor as a situation. So I never thought I was poor. I just thought the situation we were in is poor and I know it's a very subtle difference but I think you learn your mindset and I think poverty is a learned mindset and I think abundance is a learned mindset I didn't learn a wealth mindset until later on and I always think if I would have learned an abundance mindset sooner i would be much wealthier today wow so what is a poverty or poor mindset versus a wealth or abundance mindset what do they both encompass the beginning for me is a poverty mindset is when you believe you're poor or you believe that you are the cause of the situation you're in or you believe that external circumstances have made you what you are.

10:10I never believed I was poor. I just believed our current situation was poor. Really? So I just, I got to a point where I didn't want to be in that situation anymore. But there was nothing wrong with me. My mom loved me. I was a good human being. I just had to get out of the situation. So how do you learn then to get out of a situation of, I guess, poverty or not having a lot? How do you learn? Is it a skill? Is it a shift of energy? Is it a shift in thinking that allows you to get out of that situation? Is it a shift of I need to act in a different way? I need to become something different in order to create abundance?

10:56What does that shift look like? Yeah, that's a great question too. I think and how old were you when you were like okay I'm not poor personally but I'm in an environment that isn't thriving probably around 12 okay because it was just such a crappy environment and we we had no money and at that point I'd been poor in my mind for four years and we constantly moved schools so you know when you're an immigrant you make a little bit of money you live in a crappy apartment you make a little bit of money you live in a better apartment and so on so by 12 i'd gone to like three different high schools and my dad worked unbelievable amount of hours like two shifts and manual labor i'm assuming yeah color factory swept floors i mean eventually he became a millwright taught it himself somebody gave him an opportunity and you know they paid off their house which was you know the immigrant dream right but I think at 12 I'd been living like that for four years and we went to a better high school and every time we went to a better school the kids around me had more the richer yeah yeah you're like so I've got a little more but they've got a lot more so I'd be like I'd be in this high school and we'd make a little bit of money and I was poor but you know the other kids weren't that much better off.

12:32And then we moved to a better house and now the kids were way better off. And I was just like wow, I'm never going to get out of this cycle. How do you get out of this cycle? Do you feel like you've gotten out of that cycle this season of your life? Because now as you start to generate wealth you're around people that have a million dollars then 100 million dollars then billion then billions and you're like is it do you find yourselves kind of still in that at some time very very true you know there's an what's the saying you are the net result of five people you hang out with and i think it's really true i think that you are it's very very very rare and hard to raise yourself up on your own i think if your environment your parents your friends are constantly pulling you back it's it's hard to keep going like you think I think back and I think none of my friends I grew up with ever made it and it would have been so easy to stay there but I think as you as you do more and you get more your circle influence and your friends becomes wider.

13:48Right. So when was that switch then for you? You're 12, you start to become aware that, okay, we're moving around, but I'm still in this poor environment compared to everyone else around me. Was it an energy shift, a thinking shift, or an action shift that allowed you to say, I'm now creating abundance in my life? Yeah, that's a great question. For me, it was an energy shift. Now, I've always been pretty high energy, right? So I've always been like, go, go, go, go. What I didn't realize at the time was I was looking for external things to make me better. It took me a long time to realize I can't take external things to make me better until I become better.

14:41You know, I always say, show me a small business in trouble, and I'll show you an entrepreneur in trouble. Wow. It's very, very difficult to disassociate a lazy, unmotivated entrepreneur with a highly successful business and vice versa. And that was me at 12. I was just pure energy, bouncing off the walls, you know, like we talked about. I wanted to be a detective. I wanted to join the FBI. I wanted to be an actor because immigrants think if you're on TV you're rich. You're making money, yeah. Like I just wanted not to be poor. But I didn't know how to be rich. Interesting. And I understand that mindset.

15:24And as corny as it sounds, it always starts with you. It always starts with discipline. It starts with habit. It starts with learning. So what did you start learning to support you from going to poor to abundance mindset? Sales. Really? Yeah. Sales. People always think I'm wealthy because I'm really good at computers. And I am. I'm probably one of the handful of the top cyber people in the world. but I'm not wealthy because of my knowledge of a task I'm wealthy because of my knowledge of sales and how to get how to sell what I'm doing to other people what was the first lesson you learned in sales or the first sale you ever made in life um you can't force somebody to buy something they fundamentally don't need.

16:23I was very lucky that way because if I would have been taught the used car salesman's schlocky way, I mean I was just hungry for knowledge. Like I would have gone any way. Like I always think if somebody would have taken me under their wing and they were like a con man, I would have been a con man, right? I was just very lucky. Like you and I talked about, I got to learn from a guy named Harry Rosen, who was a legend in Canada, owned the biggest men's. And he was just a nice human being. So I went there to buy a suit. And it was like, this is a long time ago, it was like$1 ,200. And you're like, this is crazy.

17:03And I'm like, oh my God, I can't afford$1 ,200. We have more money than I'll make this month, kind of. Wow. and the salesman said to me you know if you work here you get to buy one suit every six months at 50 off so I was like great so I got a part-time job there and I get a job there and the guy who owns the place called Harry Rosen now it's a multi-billion dollar company but Harry used to teach on Saturdays if he showed up an hour before the store opened he would teach you how to dress that's cool you'll love this so like the guy's a legend it was like even then it was like the biggest shop in Canada and he says show up at 7 30 because the store opened at 9 and I'll teach you everything you need to know about dressing and how to sell to men and I'm like like I'm so excited.

18:05I leave. It was like a Wednesday. I show up on Saturday. Nobody there. Nobody there. So it's just him and I. Wow. No one else shows up. No one else shows up. So later in the day, I say to my buddy, hey, how come nobody showed up? You know what he says? No one's paying me to show

18:34interesting isn't that interesting your friend my friend yeah unless i'm getting paid unless i'm gonna show up at nine because i get paid at nine yeah i don't i don't get paid interesting i don't get paid what i heard is i don't get paid he said i don't get paid to learn uh-huh and i always thought man i don't need to get paid to learn i'll learn for free i'll pay to learn yeah i'm the best Like I thought I would have paid him to teach me. It was great. He taught me everything. He taught me everything. How to dress, how to spot someone with money. So I've always been lucky to kind of found that I worked for Warren Avis, who started Avis Rent-A-Car.

19:13Wow. And like I've just been really fortunate to have great role models who are good human beings. I mean, those two, I guess, mentors and people you worked for, they both have billion-dollar brands now, right? Multiple billion-dollar brands? Yes. That's kind of rare that when you're in your teens, early 20s, you randomly, how do you, is it a random thing? Or do you just know, oh, this guy could be something one day? That's pretty impressive. I just, I could have worked anywhere. I could have worked anywhere. You could have worked at a local restaurant or a barbershop that wouldn't have been this mega-billion dollar business but you worked for these two jobs.

19:54That's a great question. I think, how did I end up there? Because I think back and I think none of my buddies got a job at a men's club. And so if I think about it, what I've always been good at is not lying to myself. I think I've always been brutally honest with myself like I told you I went on my first sales call I went to see a customer and the customer said to me you dress like crap I've never had an ego for success so if somebody said something to me and there's even an ounce of truth to it I would take it in I would leave my ego at the door so when somebody said to me you dress like crap it wasn't like oh I'm so offended what are they talking about it was like oh do I dress like crap and then you go home and you look in the mirror and you're like yeah I dress like crap how do I get better and then it just looked up the best men's store wow so I've always had an ability I think to be honest with myself there's a saying that the biggest lies in life we tell are the ones we tell ourselves.

21:07What's been the biggest lie you've been telling yourself lately?

21:13That I'm... The biggest lie I've been telling myself lately is that I've made it. I got to a point where I felt like I've kind of made it. And just in the last few months, I've been thinking, hang on a sec. Because you tend to, you know like I'm older now I'm 62 and you think oh I'm kind of at the end of the road because I know a lot of older people who are super successful and they're like kind of in coasting and it begins to affect me and I kind of went a few months where I'm like yeah and then one day I'm like hang on a sec like age is a number and there's lots of people that can start something at this age and have more capital than I've ever had so yeah I think I can still do it again interesting so you've the lie been telling yourself yourself as you've made it um but what is making it you know when have you made it if you if someone looks at you or watches this and they're like if Robert doesn't think he's made it with all the money he has all the success from multiple industries from TV to personal brand to social media everything you touch has blown up if he doesn't think he's made it I have no chance of making it that's such a great question because you think about that when you're starting out you always think oh if I had yeah a bigger house yeah like you know you live here and you drive by Bel Air sure and you think oh I've had a house over there I made it or you have a I don't know a Corvette you think oh if I had a Ferrari and they think oh if I had a jet and then you have a jet and then you think what if I had a bigger jet like when I sold my last company in my mind I had what I have I had a G4 right right and I used to think I mean this is how shallow it was.

23:15I used to think oh if I had a G6 come on then I've made it because my G4 or my G5 and so I sold the business and literally within two weeks I bought a G6 and this is a long time ago. Now I think I don't think in terms of things of making it I think in terms of potential so when When I think I haven't made it, I don't think I've reached my potential. There is no car I want to buy or no jet I need to buy or no home I need to buy to fulfill me. What I need is I need to feel like I've drained every part of my potential. I want to feel like when I'm on my deathbed that I say I couldn't have done more.

24:14Wow. And whatever that is, because I think it's different for everybody. Yeah. So for me right now, it's really about getting super fit. It's about starting another business. It's just about taking everything I've learned and applying it. You have a series on social media that's about the lessons you've learned from billionaires. And you've been around a lot of billionaires. And people can go on your Instagram and TikTok and YouTube and watch all these videos. I think they're really interesting lessons. But if you could share the top three lessons you've learned from billionaires, what would those three lessons be?

24:49Well, number one knee jerk is absolute obstinate obsession about their skill set. Not about the world in general, but about that one thing. Do you know what I mean? Like it's not all the billionaires I know wouldn't would struggle on Jeopardy. Right. General knowledge doesn't get rewarded. Interesting. Specific knowledge. And so that's the first thing that comes to mind. Like I don't know a single billionaire that isn't a world class expert at a very narrow singular task. I think the second one would be curiosity. it's hard to be abundant if you're not curious. Like I love to learn. I love to, you know, how did you start the podcast?

25:48How did you like, I'm fascinated. And I think that comes into because people of great wealth tend to be problem solvers. You know, we tend to like problems. And I think the third one would be discipline. Now, discipline is different, right? Like discipline to me is fit body, fit mind, fit business. But I have billionaire friends who are slops. Sloppy, right? Yeah. You know, they eat like crap. They're overweight. They don't care. but they're extremely disciplined about their business like i think the discipline applies to who you are and everybody can be different i think those are the three here's a here's a question for you that i think a lot of people because i have a lot of fit people in my audience a lot of fitness professionals and people in the health and wellness industry who struggle at making money they're really good at taking care of their health and they're jacked or they're fit or they eat all the right foods, but they haven't unlocked how to create financial abundance.

27:04So if someone is healthy physically, emotionally, spiritually, but financially hasn't cracked that code yet, what is missing from them to create that financial abundance? It's a great question. I think it's the same reason why people who are wealthy aren't fit. What is that reason? they look at the superficial easy ways to do it so people that have a lot of wealth think that they can get fit by taking a drug or surgery or surgery or they look for placebo type band-aids i think anything hard is discipline and habit so people that are super fit have discipline and habit but they're like me when I was a teen.

27:56They don't know where to apply it. You know, interesting story for you. Years ago, because I've always been a pretty fit guy, so years ago the Army Rangers reached out to me and asked if I'd like to go to the training camp. And, you know, I think I'm pretty fit. So I was like, yeah, rah. Anyway, long story, I went, completely kicked my ass, huge amount of respect for people in the military but discipline when it was done i sat down with the guy who ran the training program and they kind of did analysis of over the last couple weeks which you did well which you didn't and i said to him people in the military must be great at business because think about it discipline habit like no one has that more than army rangers yes or most people in the military he said something very interesting which was it's very rare that people in the military do well in business why is that why do you think i think because they're used to be following the rules and taking orders probably and saying what i need to do to make sure that my boss is happy and staying in line with the team that's that's part of it and that was my answer because you can't break the military mold of how things are done.

29:21This is the way it's done. We're not going to change because you have a different opinion about how to run our unit. So I said the same thing. Okay. And that's part of it. But he said there's a bigger reason. Tell me, yeah. And the bigger reason is purpose. People join the military because they have a need to do something greater than themselves. Think about that. You're joining the military you're willing to lay your life down wow for our country like think about that commitment like that's not uh gee do i you know am i kind of into it or not like that is an all-in passionate commitment i am willing to die wow for my cause so then they leave the military They get a job in sales and their boss says, if you don't make your number, we're not going to make it for the quarter.

30:17And they struggle with that. They're void of purpose. When you have that great a purpose and that leaves you, it's very hard to replace it with a different purpose. You would think they could, but he said that was the reason. Wow. And so I think it's both. I think people with great wealth don't have a purpose to get fit and people that are super fit really at the core, show me somebody who's done great things and I'll show you somebody with unbelievable purpose. Interesting. Have you ever had a point in your life where you tied your self-worth with your net worth? Wow. Yeah, probably my 20s. Really?

31:05to admit it yeah i was very um i was very superficial because my understanding of wealth was very external it was everything that i saw other people so my definition of wealth was how other people spent it what kind of car they had what kind of a house i had because I never really met anybody who had great wealth. I always say there's superficial wealth, which is you live for the way you think you should. You buy a nicer car, you get a bigger lease, you get a bigger mortgage because you think those are the things that you need in order to be successful. And I think once you really achieve great success, you begin to realize I don't actually need another car.

32:03I don't need these things to fulfill me. But yeah, I think in my twenties, I was very, how does someone today not tie their self-worth with their net worth? Maybe they're not making a lot of money right now. How do they not let it affect their identity or their core of who they are and the way they feel about themselves because they're not making$100 ,000 or millions or these things? I think your net worth is not a reflection of your value. Poverty and wealth are situational. So somebody listening to this could be making$50 ,000 a year, but they're a high-power, high-value individual. individual.

32:52Everybody's at a different stage of their journey. You just got to believe that you're learning the skill set in order to get there one day. And you've got to have a greater purpose in order to get there. So I never thought I was going to end up where I was. You never thought you'd end up where you are now? Well, I never thought I'd end up like I am now, but even when I was poor, I never thought I'd stay there. Got you. It's just that the scope of my dreams wasn't big enough. My dream in my 20s was to make$1 ,000 for my age. So when I'm 50, to make 50 grand, to buy a house and pay it off in my lifetime.

33:39Wow. And to buy a Corvette. That was your dream? That was my dream. That was my, like, that was the, that was my vision board dream. Like, that was my, like, knock it out of the ballpark dream. Because we didn't know anybody who had done those things. Wow. How did you begin to expand your mind to shatter that limit? Again, super curious, super honest with myself. so you know when I um when I bought a used Ferrari and I moved into my house I was so proud of those a 1986 Ferrari Testarossa and it was used and there weren't that much money at the time and I brought it over to my garage and I put it in and this was my superficial state so I moved into this neighborhood and I see my neighbor across the street and his name is Richard still friend of mine so I go over and I'm like hey um blah blah blah oh by the way look at my car so he comes over up in the garage and I'm so proud of it I've never been arrogant like like let me show you why I'm better I was just so happy so I show my Ferrari and he's like oh my gosh this that's amazing I love that year he says come to my garage so we go across the street to his garage He opens up the garage and he has two Porsches.

35:07And you know it's those moments in life that something happens, you're ready to learn it but you don't know what you need to learn and then something comes in and those two things fit and it's an aha moment. And I remember it so clearly. He opens the garage, there's two Porsches and I worked my ass off to buy a used Ferrari. it took everything I knew to get that car and and it wasn't like it was one of many I was it was that and I walked across the street and that guy has two and I couldn't fathom how that could happen like I was like how could he do that interesting and so I walk back and I was thinking there's something I need to be better at because the road I'm going I'm never gonna get there really cuz you're like I've worked as hard as I can work and this is what I got every piece of knowledge every bit of hard work every bit of discipline I had got me one Ferrari now here's an interesting thing I think everyone needs to pay attention to and and be mindful of what you're about to say because I think what you're about to say from this question I ask you is going to break everyone's minds open because a lot of people are thinking I work 15, 18, 20 hour days already and for years I've been working hard at a job and I'm not getting the exponential growth I like barely making incremental growth and I don't see a way I can't work any harder to create more wealth for myself what is the thing that you learned then in that moment about hard work versus creating wealth because yes you need to work hard but what is the thing that broke you open from saying i'm going to work a different way that's going to unlock wealth that's such a great question my dad worked in a factory his whole life two shifts paid off his house in his lifetime super successful guy in his world I will never work a day in my life harder than my dad worked mmm ever that man was the hardest working human being I'd ever come across just because you'll work hard though doesn't mean you'll be rich oh Oh, man.

37:40What it means is you won't be poor. And there's a fundamental difference between the blue-collar poverty mindset and the wealth abundance mindset. And what I learned in that moment is I literally frigging couldn't give more. I was sleeping four hours a day. I was great at my task. I was driving my company as hard as I possibly could and it gave me one Ferrari. It's still cool, but yeah. Super cool. Nothing wrong with that. You didn't see how you could get more. Yeah. And the first part was, did I want more? Ah. Did I, was that important to me? And people misunderstand that. They're like, oh yeah, I'd like more Ferraris.