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Hey guys, Ken Courtright from Today’s Growth Growing Business today. This is part 4 of the 4 part series. It is what I am calling the Oreo sandwich of purpose and dreaming and your Why. Sandwiched around the struggles in business and struggles in life. So I started the first one, talking about purpose, dream and how my wife just blew the audience away last week at Digital Footprint. Then I went into some pretty cool things about struggles and how I personally stacked verticals to stay focused and when I feel like times are getting tough, I recently myself by looking at my vertical stacks I think that the episode 41 or 42. Then I did another one about payroll stories. Some of the greatest business payroll success stories where they couldn’t make payroll. They were literally backed against the wall and what some of these did to break through that was the previous episode and I’m gonna wrap this up with another short podcast. Basically, on the power of your dream of the power of why you do what you do. And why there’s just no point in doing anything if you don’t know why you are doing it.
So anyway, here is where I am going to start, in 1954 Walt Disney received a plaque from the president of the United States. It said the United States largest dreamer. And in 1954 that was one of the greatest compliments you could get. It was one of his prized possessions. Now today, if someone calls you a dreamer that is not a compliment. That is a cut down. What they are really saying is get your head out of clouds, get realistic, get a job, stay focused and it’s all puke. It’s just disgusting but the reality is the people that are knocking your dream, do not understand that the 1905 definition of the word job in the dictionary was a temporary means of income until your business takes off. Look that one up. The point is, Walt Disney got a plaque for being the United States greatest dreamer. Many people don’t know he actually filed bankruptcy 7 times. This was before the 7 year law. And countless people build him out wide because he was resolute to his dream.
There was nobody sniooping him Walt Disney. He was not susceptible to the negative influences of other people. I want to take people back 10 1994 a 24 year old gal named Kerry Lundeen. She was not yet my wife. She tried out with over 2000 women. 2100 women tried to be a Chicago Bulls cheerleader. I remember when Kerry was going to try out, to be a cheerleader, I remember saying something like, “hey good luck” and she said I don’t need luck, I got this. She knew before she went there what her skill level was. She was confident. She was not panicky she was not Oh God there are 2000….no no no. She was absolutely resolute. Was she nervous? She was a little bit nervous. But the point is she was not worried. She was resolute.
In 2015 right at 45 or 46 years old, Kerry said you know what. I have had a dream. I want to go out for Mrs. Illinois Pageant. I’m like, rock on. You can do it. No problem. Who wins the people’s choice award? Of course, Kerry Courtright looking all hot and awesome. The point is, I have got a wife who is just pardon my French and absolute ball buster. I have a wife who has a mighty dream. She wants to own and operate a mega cooperation so that she can hand it and will it down to her children. She is an elected official so she can effect change and protect her kids and protect this beautiful state we live in. Make sure everything is hunky dory. I want to bring to the attention of people the phrase that what the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve. What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve. Not what the mind can conceive. A lot of people think about some really cool things. But they don’t always actually believe it. When you think of something, and you know in your gut and in your heart of hearts, I can do that. I have got this. It’s a done deal. At that point, the physical manifestation, it just has to happen. I know in our business. In our 24 or 25 years, we have definitely conceived and believed things that were eventually achieved.
If You Think You Can or You Think You Can’t, You’re Right
Then there is Henry Ford’s very famous statement. If you think you can, or you think you can’t, you are right. That was the signature line of my emails for 10 years. If you think you can, or think you can’t you’re right.
Now I want to go to a passage that starts off a chapter of the very famous book written in 1926 by a very famous person. It goes like this, isn’t it amazing that a man with definiteness of purpose goes through life and watches how the world steps aside and then even comes beside and helps him with his aims. Isn’t amazing how a man with definiteness of purpose, how about this, a written goal, isn’t it amazing how a man with definiteness of purpose goes through life and watches how the world steps aside and then the world comes beside and even helps him with his aims.
In Steve Jobs autobiography he talks about reality distortion. Steve Jobs had a reality distortion field. He would say that things could be built when physically they couldn’t be built. Then 2 to 3 years later, technology would catch up with him and they could be built. The point is, his mind could conceive it and believe it and so it was achieve. Are you guys following me on this?
Write Down Your Dreams
I want to do a little exercise as we wrap up this 4 point series. When you guys get home and you are driving in your car right now, obviously don’t do this. If you are at home at a desk, get out a piece of paper, I want you to be a big boy and a big girl. I want you to pretend you are a kid again. Before people have stolen your dream, I want you to right now write down 12 to 20 things that you want to do or become or have and don’t feel like you can’t be materialistic. If you want the best Mercedes, write the frickin car down. If you want the biggest baddest house in the world. Write it down. I have a 17 stool bar in my basement. Why? Because I wanted it. There is no other reason. I wanted a 17 stool bar in my basement. And nobody can steel my dream. I am not going to get sniooped susceptible to the negative influences of other people. We have business conferences here. We host huge events in our walk out basement. There is a frickin screen that drops down from the ceiling. I have a 107,000 write off on our taxes because I put a bar in our basement. The point is that is my dream. Leave my dream alone. Everybody needs to have their own dream.
I want you to right now be a big boy and big girl, get out a piece of paper and forget the rest of the world. Write no less than 12 and no more than 20 dreams. Maybe you want to retire your parents. Maybe you want to upgrade your home. Maybe you want to get your kids into a better school system. Maybe you want to eat healthier. You may want a chef to cook for you once a week, I don’t know what your dreams are. But write your dreams frickin dreams down. IF they are not written, you are afraid of them. Now take a separate piece of paper when you are done with those and put it right next to your dreams. Now what I want you to do, is I want you to imagine that if you have 12 to 20 dreams I want you to divide your paper in half into 12 to 20 sections. I want you to watch how this goes. I am going to say it two different ways.
Right now financially, if you could only achieve 1 of those dreams, whatever the proportion is for one of those dreams, so if you divided your paper into 20 iths cuz you have 20 dreams, whatever 1/20th of the piece of paper is, I want you to divide your second piece of paper into 20 sections. Or if you only came up with 12 dreams, divide it into 12 and take that new piece of paper to the right and divide it into twelves. If today, if today you can only afford one of those dreams, I want you to put a dollar sign into one of those sections. Cuz right now what’s happening is your dreams are on the left. Your checkbook is on the right, so right now, proportionally you put a dollar sign into the size of the amount of dreams. So if you current checkbook can allow you to overlap and cross off one of your dreams, that’s the size of your income. Now watch this, if your income today can get all 12 or 20 of your dreams then you put a massive dollar sign across the whole piece of paper, because your income is proportionate to your dreams. If that’s the case, you are too small of a dreamer. You need to get a bigger dream. But for sake of argument, I am gonna pretend cuz I have done this exercise with a lot of people all over the world. That your dollar sign can probably equate to one maybe 2 and in a few rare cases, 3 of your dreams. cuz most people still do understand dreaming means your stretching yourself. So watch this. The exercise for this podcast is this:
You’re Conditioned To Let Income Rule Your Dreams
Right now, I am here to tell you have been conditioned to let your income rule your dreams. I need to do a paradigm shift with you. And explain to you that throughout history most people throughout history up until about 150 years ago, they let their dreams run their income. But the industrial revolution and our 
school system has completely polluted our brains. My wife and I, all of our families ,there has never been a Courtright that had a job, we are all business owners. I literally, just looked at Great Grampa Luigi Castos WW1 entrance record and it said self-employed saloon keeper. I couldn’t stop laughing. He owned a bar on 9267 Loomis in Chicago. Grampa Luigi was fantastic. The point is he was self-employed. He was a dreamer. The Courtrights are dreamers. So here is what I want you to do:
Right now, you have got a source of income I am assuming. And that source of income if your dollar sign is on the right side of the paper. You point to the left side to cross off whatever one dream you can get in the next to 6 months. But here is the assignment and the mandate that Ken Courtright is giving you right now. Moving forward, you are not ever gonna let your income run your dream. You’re gonna let your dream run your income. Which means, you’re gonna right now on your piece of paper, put a massive dollar sign. Massive dollar sign across that whole piece of paper. I don’t know what it would cost for you to get those dreams, but you look at your dreams closely, write down the amount of income it would take annually to get all of those dreams. And do this exercise. If its 48 million dollars year, write it down. If its 1 million dollars a year write it down. I don’t care what it is. It is what it is. Cuz I am gonna take you to the Brian Tracy exercise. I believe 1997 or 2001 somewhere in that period, when I was reading a lot of Brian Tracy books for the second time. I stumbled on his piece on hockey sticking. It literally blew my hair back and it reminded me of the whole concept of letting your dreams run your income. And not your income running your dreams. Ok? So Brian Tracy was very very curious when he found out there is a lot of people who go through life and they make about the same income for about 20 years. Maybe 60 grand for 20 years in a row. Then with inflation, 63 grand 66 grand, and for 20 years in a row they make the exactly the same amount of money and then something happens. Their income explodes 10, 20, 30, 40 50 times what it used to be and it never comes back down to earths gravity. It skyrockets up and it looks like a hockey stick. Meaning their income and a gradual increase over 20 years, but then something happened, and then their income went through the roof and it never came back down for another 20 years.
Brian Tracy Commissions A Study
So Brian Tracy commissioned a study to interview 300 people that had this same income for 20 years but then something happened and their income went through the roof and it never came back down for 20 years. And Brian Tracy was so curious of what could that catalyst be. Here is what he found out.
299 of the 300 people they interviewed and in an exhaustive study had a tragedy in their life. A tragedy caused them to lose their job and it wasn’t just oh, I lost my job. It was a severe loss. Maybe their name was slandered in the industry. Or they physically lost their legs or something. It was tragic. They could never go back to that form of employment. The only option was that they had to start a business. That was it. So, 299 of the 300 people and I’m not telling people on this podcast to go quit your job tomorrow and start a business. That is not what I am saying. What I am saying is 299 of 300 people had a self-diagnostic and in their self-diagnostic session they said you know what, I went 20 years with this company and you know what, where did it get me, I am broke. I can’t put my kid to school. I can’t buy the car I want. I can’t do what I want to do. This is not gonna happen. I am not gonna go 20 more years grinding it out so that I have nothing when I am 65 to 75. I am not gonna do it. And in their inner self diagnostic, watch this guys, they asked themselves, what is it actually their dream? What is their purpose in life? Why did God put them here? What is their reason for being? And they had to really long soul searching and they came out of it and said, I don’t care how much I make, I may be broke for the rest of my life, but I am going into this industry and I am going to enjoy every waking moment of my life in this new industry. I am gonna start a small business. I don’t know if it’s ever gonna make it but I am gonna frickin love what I do. I hope you guys know that my wife and I love what we do. We love our site partners. We love everything about it.
299 of 300 Playing A New Game Of Life
Here is what’s interesting, 299 of the 300 people I don’t know what the one guy did or the one gal did that didn’t qualify. Maybe they won the lotto and just spent their money wisely. But 299 said you know what, I am never again gonna let my income on the right piece of paper that tiny little circle of income,
allow me to get whatever I can get on the left side of my dream. Never gonna let that happen again. I am gonna let my dreams on the left side run my frickin income and if my income stays small, that’s fine. But guess what happened, when you are so frickin passionate and I am cutting this podcast at 11:30 pm on a Friday when most of the world is probably partying. They are partying and drinking and probably watching Netflix. They are having a blast. I am not. I am cutting a podcast why?? Because its the right thing to do. It’s gonna help people. It’s what I love to do. On a Friday at 11:30. I am a freak, but guess what? Something tells me those 299 of the 300 people think like I do. I think they made a resolution to themselves and said. I lost 20 years of my life, chasing the dollar. I am not gonna do that. I am not going home to work, home to work, home to work, home to work…..errrrrrrr…….that’s the definition of insanity. We are not gonna [lay that game. These guys said we are gonna play a new game. What do we want out of life? What do we want to accomplish? What do we want for our kids? What is our dream? And they attacked a business that they loved. They said you know what, screw it, if we are never gonna have the big money, fine. But guess what happened 299 of them , because they loved what they did to such a high level, and they loved to serve and help people, the world resonated with them. They became leaders in their industry. Everybody wanted to come work for them. Everyone wanted to buy their products. They became ultra-wealthy. Because they let the dream run their life not their frickin income.
I am Ken Courtright from Today’s Growth Growing Business Today. And that how you grow business today. You let your dream run your income. You don’t let your income run your dream.
See ya.
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