Who do you hang out with?

Here’s a BILLIONAIRE’s formula for success…

===> To treat everyone with DIGNITY & RESPECT.

So far, I’ve only been friends with one billionaire, Bill Bartman.

He is one of the coolest guys I’ve ever met.

Heart of gold.
Phenomenal communicator.
His core values are DIGNITY & RESPECT.
He said one of his secrets for success was to simply, do what you say you’re going to do. (aka – keep your word.)

I found this picture of me and him the other day.

When I say we are friends, it’s a pretty loose definition.
He helped me and a friend of mine start a business.
He was always super friendly, and helpful.
I had his personal cell phone number, and he told me to call him any time.

But I never called.

I didn’t want to waste his time with little shit.

I wanted to reserve his time for BIG shit.

(Maybe, I’m not sure what that is.)

Anyways…

I thought I’d just share a few of the cool things I learned from him here.

He’s got a pretty great story.
He started from nothing.
He’s had to overcome MAJOR challenges.

Similar to me, at one time, he had a partner cheat him and lie.

And that caused a cascade effect where he lost everything.

I lost a couple mill.

Bill lost a couple BILLION.

In my situation, a few people knew my challenges, and I had to let 12 employees go.

In Bill’s situation, EVERYBODY knew about his challenges. He was in the news, on the front of newspapers. He was called a crook. He let go THOUSANDS of employees.

At one point, a pissed off judge literally ordered that his house BE CUT IN HALF.

(His house was the one asset that the banks and courts could not take away from him.)

The courts froze ALL of his assets and money.

He went from being rich, and being able to buy and do anything, to having zero.

He didn’t even have cash to pay his utilities on his house.

In the end, however, Bill won.

He won?

I mean that the courts found Bill innocent of all charges.

However, in the YEARS it took for them to find that he was not at fault…

He’d lost everything.

But that wasn’t even the hard-part in Bill’s story.

It was the challenges he had to overcome in his childhood.

At one point the doctors told him he’d never walk again.

He was paralyzed from the mid-back, down.

Long story short, Bill fought his doctors.

He defied their ruling and their rules and their instructions.

He defied his family who wrote him off.

In the middle of the night, which was the only time the nurses would leave him alone, Bill fought to walk again.

Every night he’d sweat and struggle, and try to mentally and physically move his legs.

I wish I could tell more of the story here.

It was memorizing when he shared it with me…

But in essence, Bill Bartman walking again, was considered by everyone to be a miracle.

I love Bill Bartman for 3 reasons:

  1. He is an example of someone who can come from nothing, and overcome extreme obstacles, and still succeed.
  2. He protects and defends the human spirit in everyone – I mean his philosophy of always treating everyone with Dignity and Respect.
  3. He acted like a little kid when he met my 3-year old daughter. He played and made faces and did everything he could think of to entertain her.

Oh, and #4 – Bill is a hugger.

(If you met him, he’d probably hug you too.)

All this makes me realize that I need more billionaires in my life.

It’s time to level-up WHO I hang out with.

Here’s a question for you:

What about you?

Who do you want to, who do you NEED to hang out with?

One of my GOALS is to become friends with my mentors.

Then a couple years ago, I realized that what I really want, is to become a MENTOR to my mentors.

I want to be a friend and pier to the coolest people on the planet.

Well, the most successful people.

The people who are making the biggest difference in the world.

I just want to PLAY BIG.

And I know, in order to play better, and BIGGER, the secret sauce is WHO you hang out with.

Don’t get me wrong…

The people I hang out with now are badass.

But, when we KNOW we need to level-up, I think it’s important to LOOK UP… and find the TEAM that can help you.

This year, I’m looking up.
This year, I have new mentors.
This year, I’m expanding my team, and my mission.
This year, will be my best year ever.

I hope yours is too.