Tomato Sandwiches, Getting Rich and Being A Bad-A$$ (with Tony Rush)

Practicality dictates that everyone's results will vary as we are all unique and different. Basically, it takes hard work to make a substantial income in this business, and some people will make no money at all. The earnings of an Empower Network affiliate will be 100% dependent upon their skills, work effort, commitment, leadership capabilities, and market conditions. Common sense would suggest that in most opportunities, one would find exceptional individuals performing well above average, while others perform under the average. Empower Network does not guarantee any level of income or your success.

To see our full income disclosure, please visit our website at www.empowernetwork.com forward slash income dot php. Hey guys, once again, it's Tony Rush here. It's Monday, it's June the 18th, 2012. We're in the right place for our regular Monday night Empower call, and it's my privilege to be hosting the call tonight with you. David Sharp, David Wood, may actually come.

He's going to crash the call in a few minutes. I actually don't know. I know they're scheming. They're working on some pretty amazing things tonight. So, I don't know.

They may stick their head in the door here in just a few minutes, and if they do, they can certainly interrupt me. That'll be fine. But we've got a pretty powerful call lined up tonight. It's a bit of a continuation of some of the things that you guys sort of talked about in Atlanta. And if you were not in Atlanta, then if you're brand new, I guess I'm going to start.

If you're brand new to Empower Network, welcome. We're glad you're here. And let me just let you know, if you're brand new, you are the most important person on the call tonight. And you'll probably pick out why that is. I'll just leave that for you to kind of noodle out and figure out.

But if you're brand new in Empower, you are absolutely the most important person on the line tonight, and we're glad you're here. So, we started off the conversation. I'm just going to jump right in. We started the conversation in that e-mail that you got about this particular call. And the example that we used in that call, in that e-mail, was about the example of seeing somebody who's on the street.

And somebody who's homeless, maybe, can't afford to eat, doesn't have any money, whatever the case may be. And we've all seen them. And the truth is that if we took each and every person on the line and asked them, you know what, if we took all your cash, if we took all your credit cards, and if we put you on the street corner, would you have to stay there? That's the question, right? And we have some guests on the line who are not with Empower Network.

You guys sort of snuck in the door, kind of peeking over the fence. Welcome to you. We're glad you're here. You may not have seen that particular e-mail. But I'll probably jump in a little too quickly.

Let me share this. This call is normally for members only, and we've invited some special guests to attend tonight. So those of you on the line who are not yet with Empower Network, we're glad you're here as well. Feel free to grab your favorite beverage. Take some notes.

What you're going to get on this call tonight will absolutely assist you in any area of your life, in any business that you're working. Certainly we feel that it has special benefit to people who are in Empower Network because we have the ability to earn 100% commissions. And we've got tons of people who are brand new in Empower Network who are making literally thousands and thousands of dollars a month, having never had any success anywhere else doing anything. But what you're going to get tonight we feel like is of certain value to people in Empower Network, but it's certainly applicable no matter what you're doing.

So the e-mail that I was mentioning, we laid out the example of, you see someone on the side of the road and they don't have anything. And the question was, hey, if we took all your cash and we took your credit cards and we stuck you on the street corner, would you have to stay there? And the answer is no, we wouldn't have to stay there, right? Everybody on the line would say, no, I don't need to stay there because I know some things, I know people, I've got some confidence, I've got a few skills. In other words, before the sun goes down, you will be somewhere in a bed, right?

No, you wouldn't stay there. As a matter of fact, if we put you in that situation, we wouldn't stay there five minutes. We wouldn't stand there for hours on end, right? We'd be making some moves. We'd be plotting some schemes, right?

We'd be figuring out how to get off the street and how to get back to the lifestyle that we're accustomed to. And we can all agree on that. Now, here's the funny part of the story, sort of the punchline, if you will. Have you ever considered that wealthy people look at average people the exact same way? Stop and get that for just a second because there's a big clue there for what it takes to actually move from where you are to where you want to be, no matter what that is.

Wealthy people, just the way you would look at a homeless person on the side of the street and say, I could get out of that situation, wealthy people look at average people the same way. So let's say one of my heroes, Sir Richard Branson. If you put Richard in that spot, he'd say, oh, my God, what a bad spot I'm in. No worries, though. I can get out of this in no time.

Now, that's a little mind-boggling. The first time it was pretty mind-boggling that anybody would look at something like, say, $3 million a year as being a spot that they want to get out of. And that's not good, bad, right, or wrong. But what it is an indicator of how we have our financial thermostats set. And that's what we want to talk about tonight.

We want to talk about this process of learning to think like a wealthy person. And I'm going to explain in just a moment why that's important. But this is sort of a thought experiment that I've spent hours thinking about over the years because I learned studying the difference and the similarities between wealthy people and average people. And I like studying the differences and similarities between, say, average people and broke people.

And here's why. And I think this is probably the best way to set the table. So if you've got a pencil and paper, I'm going to have a few things for you to jot down so that you'll have a record of it when we come out here in just a little bit. But here's the first thing, and this is probably the best way to set the table. Everyone is a born badass.

And by the way, if you're new to Empower Network, that's a phrase that a couple of us use from time to time because there are some people who are just so incredible, so awesome, so inspiring. You just can't use the normal complimentary words. They're just badasses. You just have to call them what they are. They're just badasses.

And here's the truth. Everybody on this line, every person on this line tonight is a born badass. We all are. We all are. Absolutely.

We're incredibly, incredibly powerful people. And this is not an opinion, by the way. I don't mean this in some kind of motivational speaker kind of way, you know, like, ooh, you too can climb Mount Everest. No, I don't mean that in like some kind of public speaker kind of way or as an opinion. I mean it's a fact, and I can prove it.

As a matter of fact, I will prove it. How about this? Jot this down. As proof of your badassness. Is that a word?

I just made that word up. All right. So here's proof. You have, everybody on the line, you have got a 100% success rate on some of the most difficult things that you'll ever have to do as a human being. And I'm not being facetious.

I'm being totally serious. I know I'm being a little dramatic, but I'll give you an example. Like, when we were kids, kids have got it figured out, don't they? I'm a father. I had a great day yesterday.

I have three sons, ages 16, 14, and my little guy is turning six years old next week. And, you know, at every stage of their growth, I'm just amazed at how incredible kids are. Kids have it figured out, especially when they're little. Little kids really have it figured out because they don't know any boundaries, do they? They don't have any limitations.

If they see that rock and they want to go climb it, it just doesn't occur to them that they could fall and crack their skull. They're going for it, you know? They want to be a rock star. They want to be an astronaut. They want to be president of the United States or whatever.

But kids have, it's like there's a certain age under which these kids are absolutely unstoppable. And that's where we all started from. So let me give you a couple examples of things that, I mean, you crushed it. So take walking. Walking is a big deal.

And again, I know it may seem like I'm being facetious tonight, but I'm really, really serious about this. You stop and think about walking, what walking actually is. That's not for wimps. That's for courageous people. That's.

And the idea of getting up on two feet, you know, when you've been crawling around on all fours, I mean, that's just pretty cool. And here's how it started, by the way. You saw a bunch of grownups walking around, and what are they doing? How are they, they're walking around different than I am and they get to go faster. And they're taller than me.

So I think I'll get me some of that. And so what do we do? We start pulling up, right? Start pulling up and man, check me out. I'm standing up here.

And then we start creeping around the edge of the couch and reaching for the piano bench. And the whole time, if you're going to look at what walking actually is, it's like controlled fall. The guy who made the Segway, you guys see that, you probably saw him in Atlanta. You know, the two wheeler thing that you stand on and it doesn't have any steering wheel. It just kind of goes the way you lean.

The guy who invented that, I think his name was Dean Kamen or Kagan. But the guy, when he was describing what it is, in order to describe the Segway, he had to actually first describe what walking is. And I remember him saying it's controlled falling because what you're doing is you're shifting your weight forward just enough to start falling. And then you stick your foot out and catch yourself, but you never straighten up.

You keep leaning forward. You keep your motion forward and you're falling again. And then you catch yourself with your other foot. And you did this when you were one. That's badass.

That's awesome. That's. I mean, and it's, yeah, we look around and there's people have all figured out how to do it. I'm going to cover why that is in just a minute. But walking was a big deal.

Okay. Eating with a spoon. My God, figure this one out. You're sitting at the table. You see all these grownups sitting around and they're all just shoveling food in their mouth.

And here you are, you got your Cheerios there and you got your little spoon and you got to figure out how to hold the spoon, you know, because the Cheerio, if you put it on the wrong side of the spoon, it falls off. So you got to remember which way to hold it. And then you got to get that Cheerio up onto it. And then somehow you've got to get that from the bowl to your mouth without turning the spoon. But you got to remember to open your mouth too.

We're talking, there's a lot of physics involved in that. And again, I know it sounds like I'm being facetious, but like if you were to actually break down what's involved in throwing a ball or catching a ball, I mean, there is a lot of amazing stuff that we've already accomplished as children. That's my point. Learning a language, the mere fact that you guys could dial in and you actually can hear me making sounds and you understand the words coming out of my mouth, if you can do that, you already have enough intelligence and enough skill and ability to crush this, to make thousands and thousands of dollars a week and even per day. But the problem is...

Okay, so how does this happen? So we're just born these amazingly powerful people, and then how is it that we find ourselves at 25 or 35 or 45 or 55 or 65 trying to figure out which end is up, trying to figure out how to get from where we are to where we want to go? How does that happen? How do we go from being such amazingly powerful people, being people that are frustrated or struggle, you know.

Now, I'm not talking about everyone on this line, because there's a lot of people on this line that have gotten some things dialed in. You guys are absolutely going at 100 miles an hour after your goals, and that's such a thing to celebrate, to see you guys crushing it. But there are some people on the line, maybe you've just gotten started in Empower, or you've been beat up in this economy or beat up in this industry, and you're sort of standing here thinking, you know, 35 years old, I really thought I'd... I thought I was at a conference.

I thought I'd accomplished more by now, and I think we've all been there. So, what happened? How did we go from being these amazing superheroes at age five to being frustrated adults who are trying to figure out which end's up? And the problem is this. At some point in our life, we simply forgot how powerful we were, and we started buying the thinking and the ideas of not badasses, but the lameasses, the people around us who, for whatever reason...

They got their own emotional payoff by pulling people down. And here's some of the language that we heard growing up that robbed us of our power. Stuff like, you... Really? You?

You think you're going to try out for the lead part in the school play? Who do you think you are? Some of us heard that, right? Or, you're going to go out with who on a date? You're going to ask who out?

There's no way. You will never get a date with her. She is lame. Hey, I hear a leak. Get your head out of the clouds.

Get your feet on the ground. Oh, you'll never be able to afford that. You're wearing the same clothes you wore when you got out of school. Here we are, I always started the new year, and you're wearing the same jeans.

I can tell because they're too short on you. That was one that I heard growing up. You know? And so, you get around. And then, the other thing, too, there's a lot of well-intentioned adults, not just, you know, snotty, bratty kids.

But there's a lot of adults. There's a lot of adults who seem to sort of, as good as their intentions might have been, they sort of push us down. When we say, oh, dad, look over at that car next to, oh, man, look at that car. And you're sitting here driving your broke mobile, right? And you look over there, and here's the Ferrari, or here's the Porsche, or whatever.

And so, you're the kid in the back seat, and your dad looks over and sees this nice car. And he doesn't have a nice car. And he used to want a nice car. But now, he doesn't have one. And so, he'd say, well, you know, son, you know, a lot of times, people drive those nice cars like that.

They're not very happy. And just like that, a little bit of that negative thinking plants a seed in our mind. You know? Or you get around people and hear a healthy dose of things like, oh, I can't afford that. Or $100,000 for a car.

My goodness. Don't they know there's starving children in Ethiopia? Or, well, you know how it is. I'd love to do that, but money doesn't grow on trees. Or, well, I don't want to be greedy.

I hear that one from prospects sometimes when I ask them how much money they want to make in a home business. Well, you know, I don't want to be greedy. I just want enough to pay my bills. Really. Really.

That's lame, by the way. It's a lame answer. You'll figure it out by the end of this call. It's a lame answer. It's a lame answer. Oh, I can't imagine why anybody would want to fly first class.

And the list goes on and on and on. Oh, well, we may not have a lot of money. We may not have a lot of money, but at least we love God. Or, we may not have a lot of money, but at least we're honest people. The unspoken corollary there is that if you have a lot of money, you're probably not honest.

Or if you have a lot of money, then you probably don't love God. So we get around this language. And here's the thing. Why do people talk that way? And the answer is because somewhere down the line, they forgot how powerful they were.

They bought in to the thinking. They bought in to the masters, the small thinking, right? And, guys, this is some of the most insidious language that we encounter. Now, here's why it's important tonight. You're probably thinking, okay, you know, I get it.

I understand what you're saying, but what does this have to do with me making money? Or whatever your goal is, okay? Here's the reason it's important. The degree to which you bought in to this language, this idea that there's not enough to go around, the degree to which we've bought in to the idea that making money is hard is the degree to which that's what we're living.

In other words, the degree to which we bought in, that's why we are where we are in our lives right now. See, when I thought making money was hard, guess what? Making money was hard. But when I realized that we live in an abundant world, literally millions of people every single day who want to buy stuff, and all I had to do was get between them and what it was they wanted to buy, I started making lots of money very easily.

Matter of fact, most of the people in my life right now who know me, this is what they know of me, is that I work from home. They never really, a lot of my friends and family, they never saw me when I actually did have to work hard for a living. So they kind of joke and kid around that I sleep until 10 o'clock and I never do anything and, oh, I just push some buttons on the Internet and I've got all this money flying in the door. And, well, for one thing, it's not entirely untrue.

I don't work hard. I do put some time in, and I'm going to come to the hard work part in just a minute. But my point is when I figured out that I could make a lot more money with an ink pen than I could with a shovel, things changed for me. And then I graduated from ink pen to Internet, right?

But my point here is that when I went through life believing that making money was difficult or that it required a high education, I'll give you an example. And all I knew is that I wasn't a doctor or a lawyer. You know, so I was automatically shutting off all those possibilities for wealth for my life, because I had this belief that, well, you can't make that much money unless you go to have a college degree or you've been to law school or medical school. And I didn't go to college.

And so for a long time, I went through all this language and this weird self-talk and these limiting beliefs really kept me stuck. And it wasn't until I got into some conversations like the one I'm having with you that my eyes were opened that we live in an amazingly abundant world, where there's more than enough, there's more than enough to go around for everybody. On the contrary, the money that you make today means that's more money that you have to spend on something today.

And we got how the cyclical nature of money works, and how if I've got money to spend, you know what, there's more money I'm going to spend. And the more money I spend, the more money I'm putting out in the economy. It's a beautiful thing. It really does come back around for everybody. It really does come back around for everybody who chooses to play the game, who chooses to be part of that cycle, that process.

So the good news is that, okay, well, the bad news for some of us is, okay, you aren't where you are in your life right now because of your best thinking. The good news is now you're affiliated with Empower Network. So in addition to us giving you the tools of how to make money, you get to be part of conversations like this one. And you get to be part of the community that owns you. You get to be part of the community that understands some certain wealth principles that I'm going to cover with you.

I just want to cover a handful of them with you tonight. But part of the value, somebody asked me the other day, they said, you know, well, how do I know that the Empower Network products are good until I buy them? And it was an unfair question, but my point to her was how much is it worth to be able to hang out with people that are making the kind of money you want to make? I'll give you a quick example about that, because this is part of what Empower Network's about.

It's not just what you get. It's about who you're here with. It's not just about getting a blogging system, although the blogging product is fantastic. I mean, that's cheap enough. And you can make 100% commissions when you refer others.

And then we've got these other products that are just huge, high value, nuts and bolts marketing stuff. You can make 100% commissions by referring others. But a lot of times I think when we're talking about the value of Empower, we probably don't call as much attention to the community as we can. Let me give you a shortcut. Okay?

Here's a shortcut to success. As a matter of fact, it's the simplest, most powerful shortcut to success that I know of. If you want to jot it down, it's one word. It's called modeling. Modeling.

Dave Sharp mentioned it. Basically, it just means that you're going to find someone who's living the lifestyle that you want to live, and you do what they do. As a matter of fact, Sharp and I were talking about this again in Atlanta last week. It's how he created success out of thin air.

It's certainly how I created some success out of thin air. And we can go down the list. Every top earner that I've ever talked to always says the same thing. The simplest way for them to get from where they were to where they wanted to go was just to start spending some time around the people who were living the kind of life that they wanted to live. And they started just doing what they were doing.

And then more importantly, they learned why that person was doing what they were doing. But in the beginning, just getting around somebody who's living the life that you want to live is a huge shortcut. In fact, let me give you a quick story. Several years ago. How many years ago was this?

Hang on a second. It's been several years ago. My wife and I were at an event. And we were in Puerto Rico at the El Conquistador Resort. Beautiful resort.

And the resort had this, like, a resort within the resort. There was the area that all of us stayed in. And there was a little part of the resort that was sort of blocked off like a little community. And the top earners in the company that I was in, that's where they were all staying. They had all their rooms in this little section called the casitas.

And anyway, one day after one of the sessions, my enroller in that company, who was making quite a lot of money, he says to me and Jessica, my wife's name is Jessica, many of you met her in Atlanta. He says to us, he says, hey, would you guys like to hang out at the pool with us this afternoon? And I said, yeah. I said, we'll just meet you down there around 2 o'clock.

He said, well, we've got our own pool. So let me give you directions on how to get through the gate and where to find us. And so anyway, we went to this other area and it was amazing. I mean, the rooms were, you know, the hotel rooms were like 1,200, 1,500 square feet and they had, you know, private balconies, private this, private butler.

When we stayed there several years later, we actually had a butler that just came in and unpacked all our suitcases and hung up all our clothes and gave us his cell phone number. And if you need anything at all while you're here, just call me directly. You get on the sports board, you call your butler. It was amazing. But years and years ago, the first time we were there, you know, I was relatively new at making any significant money.

And here we were at this private pool with my enroller. Well, who walks in, but the owners of the company and his wife and the other owner and his wife. And then all of a sudden the whole executive council is in the pool and it's like 20 of us in the pool. And here's Jessica and I. And we're getting, like, all this really high-quality face time with people that we really had a lot of respect for.

Like, picture that you just, you know, went to a restaurant somewhere and then, like, David Wood and his wife and David Sharp and his girl walked in. And you all just had this out of the blue, fall-in-your-lap opportunity to just hang out with people who are making hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. That's what it's like. Okay, that's the scenario I'm describing. Well, a funny thing happened.

We swam and kind of hung out for a little while and really made some great friends with these people. And we're heading back to our room to get changed for dinner. And I said something. I can take you to the exact spot in the hotel where I said this. We were turning the corner on the second floor of our hotel building.

And I said to my wife, isn't that cool that we got to spend some time with those people? And my wife's really smart. And she really got kind of not just what I was saying, but the spirit of, like, my mindset that had produced that comment. And she looked at me and she said, yeah, it was cool.

But here's the thing. Until we start seeing ourselves as one of them, we'll never be one of them. I want you to get that for just a minute. This is not about a certain amount of money, or it's not about somebody being better than somebody. Please don't think that's what I'm talking about.

I'm not. But I am talking about a certain level of success. And how my wife recognized that I evidently saw myself as being different from them. And as long as you see yourself as being different from the elite or the top earners or the leaders or whatever label you want to slap on that group in any company, if you see yourself as being different from that group, you're choosing out.

You're choosing to be a foreigner. Does that make sense? Can I feel one or two of you guys kind of nodding with me? Do you get that? Some of you guys got that this past week in Atlanta, didn't you?

You know, getting to hang out at the party with David Wood or going to spend some time with Aaron Raskin or Jessica and Chris Daugherty or Jonathan Ross. I mean, I can go on and on. I've already made the mistake of starting to name names. But I'm going to go on and on. I'm going to go on and on.

I'm going to have to name names and I'm going to leave a bunch of people out. But, I mean, it's cool. You're at the hotel. You're walking around and all of a sudden it's like, oh my god, there's Tracy Walker.

And you get like this 45-minute conversation just hanging out there, or Debbie Turner, or is there any of those? Brandon Toom comes walking up and it's like, wow, this is amazing. And you got that shift, didn't you? That these are just regular people. They're not superheroes.

They don't walk around in a cape and tights. These are just ordinary people who've chosen to live extraordinary lives, and it's a choice that anybody can make. And so that was the shift that happened for me years ago in Puerto Rico when I got it, that until I start seeing myself as being part of that group, I will forever be standing out on the edge of the circle, looking in, longing to be part of the group.

So the invitation I want to make for you guys tonight, if you haven't made this decision, is choose in. Right now, this is not a process. This is a switch that you flip. This is not something that you have to noodle about and have to think about it and have to process it. No, no, no, no.

Right now, choose in. Right now, choose to be in, be elite. Because when you do that, you've done 90%. Most of what keeps people stuck or on the fringes is 90% of what's in their head. Okay?

And here's the beautiful thing. When you come to calls like this one and you get to hang out with people like David Wood or David Sharp or any of the other leaders who host this call from time to time, you're choosing to be around someone who's living the life you want to live. You know, lots of freedom, lots of money, lots of options, lots of experience, lots of travel. Beautiful clothes, beautiful home, beautiful cars, the ability to give lots of money away. You know?

So just being on this call every Monday night is an opportunity for you to start modeling. You know? That's why I hang around with people like David Wood or David Sharp. That's why I'm at Empower Network. That's why I have dinner with badasses like Lawrence Kim.

Or Chris Campbell or Chris and Jessica or Aki Wood or Raven or Scott Lopez or Jonathan Rogers. Any of all these other people at Empower Network who are living their lives. Now, write this down. They're living their lives on purpose. This is about living your life on purpose instead of just knee-jerking your way through life like a lot of people do.

That's what we're about here at Empower. Okay? So being around people like that, whether it's in Atlanta, whether it's on the phone tonight, or whether it's at our retreat, or whether it's in San Diego. You know?

Get used to being around a feeling, a group of people and situations that just feel abundant. They feel prosperous. You want to stay in that feeling of abundance and prosperity. I love watching David Sharp drop $2,000 on a table because he just decided to pick up the tab for dinner one night. I love the fact that the waiter got $400.

Why? Because there's enough to go around. And the guy was incredible. Great service. Great restaurant.

And, you know, it's a bunch of people in a room. And it's like, what a great place to be celebrating the fact that anybody that chooses in can have this kind of lifestyle. So it's about choosing to live on purpose. Okay? So when you get it, when you really get it, that thinking like a wealthy person is the first step to being a wealthy person, you start looking at your whole world a little differently.

And how many people on the line, and this is a rhetorical question, how many of you have started looking at things a little differently? You know, there's news about the new MacBook Pro where the Retina display came out. You know, there's a big announcement there. And some of you guys, for the first time in your entire life, looked at that and said, huh, all I would need is a couple of all-ins. You know?

Some of you looked at it and said, you know what? If I had a 15K formula and a Costa Rica, I could just create that out of thin air and just go buy a MacBook Pro out of money that I create out of thin air. You know? Or some of you ladies might have been at the mall last week or this week perhaps, went by, saw that nice purse hanging in the window at Louis Vuitton or Coach or Burberry, whatever, and said, you know what? It wouldn't take but about three or four inner circles, and I could pick that.

Bad boy up. Now, some of you were looking at the other purse and it's going to take a 15K formula. And that's okay too, right? But, again, it's about looking at your world differently and starting to think like a wealthy person. Now, let me clarify something, too, because I don't want to lead anybody down the wrong path.

Let me give you an example. I make a lot of money. I'm happy to say that. I'm very proud of what we've accomplished, and I feel very grateful every day that the decisions and the actions I've taken have led me here. But I'm not talking about you becoming somebody different.

You know, I'm not talking about you eating caviar off a golden spoon or, you know, lighting your cigars with a $100 bill. I had lunch today at this shack. Literally, it's called the Barbecue Shack. It's our favorite barbecue place in Dothan. And, you know what I have?

They have tomato sandwiches on the menu. Every summer, they have the best tomato sandwiches. And so Jessica and I, we didn't want anything fancy. It's like, you ever go to the Barbecue Shack and just get some tomato sandwiches? But Jessica and I and Easton and Pate went up to the Barbecue Shack.

I think our whole lunch was probably like $15. I had two tomato sandwiches. Jessica had one. Easton and Pate split a chicken finger basket, and we were out of there. We busted out of there for less than $20.

I'm not talking about you suddenly becoming somebody who has to order Chateaubriand every time you go to a restaurant. I mean, you can still eat a tomato sandwich like me if you want to, but the point is you're doing it because you want to, not because you have to. You get that? You get the distinction there?

So we're not talking about you becoming some hoity-toity person. We're just talking about giving you choices. You know? Now, I do think that there's a minimum at which you should operate. Okay?

And I'm not making fun because God knows I've been there. Okay? But I'm just saying there is a minimum at which people need to be able to operate. And everybody on this line, and you can take any number you want. By the way, call it $1,000.

Call it $5,000. I mean, when you start really living your life according to some of these principles and providing huge value, which is what we're really talking about, providing huge value to people and getting paid what you deserve, then, yeah, you'll be fine. You'll be fine. You'll be fine, a situation where you can walk through the mall and literally you don't see anything in the mall that you can't afford.

That is an amazing feeling to walk through any mall in the United States and say, you know what, there's actually nothing in this store for sale that I can't pay cash for right now. You will not believe the sense of freedom that comes from that. And that's what you deserve. So it's not about money, it's about the freedom and the ability and options that money brings you. The ability to do all kinds of amazing things for yourself, for your family, and for your community.

Now, Maxwell Maltz, the guy who wrote a book with a funny name, it's called Psycho-Cybernetics. His name was Maxwell Maltz, M-A-L-T-Z. He's the first person that I ever heard say a human being cannot consistently outperform his or her own self-image. If you want to jot it down, I'll repeat it quickly. Maxwell Maltz said, a human being cannot consistently outperform his or her own self-image.

Another quick story. This got me. I started to make a little bit of money in this industry. I was climbing the ladder. So one day, Jessica and I went to the movie theater, can't remember what we saw, but we got out, and we just didn't feel like hurrying home, and my mom was keeping the kids at the time, and so we thought, let's go to the bookstore.

That's his whole thing. And the moment that I explained that to Jessica, and it came out of my mouth, it's like a little voice in my ear said, Tony, how much money are you leaving on the table because of your small thinking? Because it's true, I was making three times what the average American earns, and I was very thankful and grateful. And there is a point at which you have to change the game a little bit. Sharp knows about this.

He and I have had conversations about how that works at a corporate level, because sometimes what gets you to say $100,000 members, you have to change the game a little if you want to get from 100,000 members to, say, a quarter million members. And there are some points like that in the money game as well. So what gets you to a quarter million dollars a year, you may have to change the game slightly if you want to get to a million a year. But it's not hard, and it's not something that you can't do. But the point is, the biggest hurdle for 90% of people is their head.

Because in their mind, they've got their thermostat set for $50,000. A human being cannot consistently outperform his or her own self-image. This is why this becoming wealthy thing starts on the inside. A lot of people want to know, well, Tony, what ads are you running? Where are you running your ads, Tony?

Every top earner here gets the same questions. It's kind of funny sometimes, too, because I think it was Jim Tang over in the UK, and I were laughing about this. People will say, like, they'll kind of come up to you in Atlanta or at an event, and they'll say, well, I'm going to do this. They'll sort of say, now, I know, I'm all in. I've got the Costa Rica, and I've got the 15K formula, and I'm making some money.

That's some amazing training. I've never gotten that training anywhere else, but where are you really getting your good leads? It's hard not to laugh at them, but there's always a tendency, isn't there, that humans have that, like, somebody's not going to tell quite the whole story. Like, there's some super-secret gold dust that we don't give out. And here's the honest-to-God truth.

Everything I've done to achieve what I've done here, I've gotten out of the Costa Rica product and the 15K formula, period. Plus nothing, minus nothing. I think most of the top earners here would probably agree with that. You know? But here's the thing.

Everybody wants to know, like, what's your funnel, or do you have a particular email series, or which of the lead capture pages are you using? Do you use this one or that one? Do you use this or that? And they're not bad questions. But here's the thing.

There's a reason why, say, Tom and Bob can get started in the same company on the same day and get different results. And a lot of it comes from this whole thing of how you feel about money. How do you feel? Some people are... I used to be scared of it, because my thing was like, well, if I had a lot of money, I'd freak out about the taxes.

I wouldn't know what to do about the taxes. I would freak out. And I would self-sabotage myself from making a lot of money, just so I didn't have to deal with filing a long-form 1040, or going and getting an LLC or something. And I don't want to confuse this tonight, but my point is, there's different reasons why people kind of don't allow themselves to receive all the money that they are entitled to.

And most of that is just monkey chatter in our heads. So you've got to make friends with money. You've got to make friends with the idea that you can be wealthy, that your family can be wealthy, that they make these luxury cars and homes, and you've got to make friends with them.

Okay? And here's the thing. If you don't want the money, give it away. Fine. Okay?

And here's the thing. If you don't want the money, give it away. Fine. You know, some people are like, I don't like all this talk about money. Everybody's talking about money, money, money, money, money, money.

Well, A, grow up. Okay? Let's go ahead and get this out of the way, because I get a little tired sometimes of some pious, this is me talking, by the way. This is Tony Rush. Let me put a disclaimer on this.

This is Tony Rush's opinion, not necessarily that of Empower Network. Okay? But I get a little tired sometimes of these self-righteous and pious people who act like money is not important. Anybody that tells you money is not important is broke. They don't have any, period.

It doesn't even deserve any more commentary, but I will add a couple more things. The people who act like, well, I don't need a lot of money, I just want enough to pay my bills. Well, how are you ever going to be any good to anybody else if all you have is enough for you and yours?

I mean, really, there's more people on the planet than just you. Like, if all you have is just enough to pay your bills, what good are you? How are you making an impact on the world? How are you making an impact to your community? How are you having an impact on children who don't have clean water?

I participated in a project a few years ago where we dug a well in the Central African Republic. It was amazing. These kids were having to walk into the jungle, like, three miles to get dirty water in an old Valvoline oil jug and then carry it back to the village where they strained it through T-shirts.

And the T-shirt got off the grit, but it didn't get out all the cryptosporidium and all this other nasty business that causes diarrhea, and people die of dehydration and dysentery and all these nasty things just because they didn't have clean water. So, hey, what if we're going to dig a well? Wouldn't that be a fun game to play? So spare us the self-righteousness, right? If talking about money very blatantly offends you, then check up on that.

I'm not going to tell you it's good, bad, right, or wrong, but I will tell you that if talking about getting rich makes you feel a little squirmy, then you probably have got some monkey chatter that you need to take care of. You probably do. And I did this one time as an experiment. I was in a hotel meeting. I said, how many people here want to find out how to get rich?

And like three people raised their hand. And about 17 minutes later, I said, so how many people again are here to find out how to become financially independent? And every hand in the room went up. So I decided, man, I'm going to just start talking about getting rich. I like to use the word rich.

Let's get rich. And why do I like the word rich? Because I don't want to start shocking some people into thinking about money. And I'm tired of goose-stepping around people who are offended by the word rich. If the word rich offends you, then you probably have some head stuff that you need to take care of.

There's probably some monkey chatter. There's probably some limiting beliefs and some weird idea that these people that are wealthy and rich, they're probably not good, spiritual, nice, ethical, moral people. And I've got news for you. There are some of the nicest, super nice, ethical, moral people that you could possibly be around, because they've got money to do things with. They're not trying to figure out how to rob Peter to pay Paul.

They're not trying to figure out how to live indoors. You know? So money makes you more of what you already are. So if you hang out with really good, moral, ethical people who love people and who are generous, and they just happen to have a lot of money, guess what? They're doing amazing things with that money, and you deserve to be one of them.

Okay? So I'm winding down. I'm coming in for a landing. But here's what I want to leave you with. So...

Okay. None of this is about any... By the way, I say this disclaimer quite a lot when I'm talking about personal development, because nothing I'm talking about... This is very practical stuff here, guys. This is nuts and bolts.

This is stuff like your grandpa could have taught you if he had been wealthy. Mine was not. But I'm not talking about anything that's got anything to do with any kind of new age, voodoo, or any kind of out there, you know... No. This is nuts and bolts stuff.

And here's the recipe. Your self-image, what you think you're worth... Write this down.

Your self-image creates your beliefs, your thinking. You want to use the word thinking. Your thinking creates your decisions. Your decisions create your actions, and your actions create your results. One more time.

Your self-image creates your thinking. Your thinking creates your decisions. Your decisions create your actions. And your actions create your results. It all starts with how you look at yourself and whether or not you deserve to be wealthy.

If you don't think you deserve to be wealthy, you'll think thoughts that aren't wealthy. And then you'll make decisions that keep you from being wealthy, and those decisions will be decisions that just get a little bit of money coming in, but not what you deserve, just a little bit. And so small thinking creates small actions, and of course small actions create usually no results, but at best, small results. So here's the good news and the bad news. You are where you are in your life right now because this is what you've chosen, and the better news is that human beings are the only creatures on the planet who get to choose something different.

When I got that, I was so happy to find out that me being broke had nothing to do with the economy or the Democrats or the Republicans or who was president. When I really got it that the reason I was struggling financially was because of my own decisions, and my own thinking, and my own actions, and my own self-image, man, I was thrilled to see I can do something about all that. I can't do anything about what's happening in Washington. I can't do anything about gas prices, but I can do something about my thinking.

I can do something about my decisions. I can get around better people. I can buy the right things. I can learn how to do what the wealthy people are doing. So this thing, poverty, is like a virus.

You've got to get inoculated. That's it. That's what it means to be here in the Empower Network. We've got the vaccine here against poverty. So I want to give you, I don't know how many I've jotted down here.

Just real quickly, I'm not going to give you any comments. I'm just going to rattle these off real quick. No, that's fine. I rarely am able to rattle things off quickly. I'll probably, one or two of these I'll have to say at least a word or two on.

All right, but here they are. Average people and wealthy people. Here's the difference in their thinking. And you want to pick. You want to pick which?

The wealthy. All right. Average people believe their lives are happening to them. Wealthy people believe they are happening to their lives. That was a big one for me.

That was a really big one for me. When I got it that I'm the one that's basically creating my whole life based on how I think, what I've decided, what I've been doing, everything turned around for me. Average people let fear and past experience stop them. Wealthy people move forward in spite of fear. This is a big one, especially if you've been beat up, isn't it, if you've been beat up in the industry.

I had been in a bunch of different companies and never made any money. I nearly quit. I'm one of those who nearly gave up because I thought, I can't afford to fail again. And let me tell you something, that is what it feels like. Normal survival thinking, that is some of the most deadly thinking. It will shoot you down every time. It looks like responsible thinking when you say, well, you know, I've been in this four or five different things, I've never made any money, and yet, you know, this Empower Network thing looks really good, but you know, I don't know, I'm just scared of failing again.

See, that sounds like mature, grown-up, responsible thinking, but in actuality all it is, it's like trying to drive your car while looking in the rearview mirror. It's like you put cardboard over the windshield and you've taped that up, and you're trying to drive a car forward by looking in the rearview mirror. Damn sure you're going to crash every time. There is no way that you can do that consistently without crashing. You cannot move forward in life by looking at your past. You can let the past inform you, you know, we can avoid getting in the same ditch, but the beautiful thing is that Empower Network is so different than anything else that any of us have ever done before. This is absolutely, nothing has ever existed like this. 100% commissions, you don't have to talk on the phone.

I used to be the phone guy, you know. I, David Wood says it as well as anybody, none of us got into the home business industry to be telemarketers. And yet if you're like me, you used to spend four or five hours a day calling people up. Hi, this is Tony Rush, I'm calling to see if you requested some information on my website, do you have about four or five minutes to have a quick chat, over and over and over, and leaving God knows how many voicemails and then callbacks. So I made it work, but I had no fun.

I had no lifestyle. And yet here, wow, simple three-step system. Simple system here, drive traffic. We provide the ads. We provide the lead capture pages.

David Wood and David Sharp take care of all the selling, telling, convincing, and persuading. Anybody can afford it for $25. There's no good excuse not to get in. And then we've got these other products that are all 100% commission. It's not rocket science.

So if you're on the line, by the way, and let me speak to you real quick. If you're on the line and you're not yet in and you're kind of like on the fence and you're wondering, should I? I don't know. Maybe. The answer is yes.

This is not like anything else you've ever done. So don't let something you did in some other business keep you from making the best financial decision of your life when you can just get in here and start making 100% commissions and not the little weenie commissions. Okay? All right, number three. Average people believe there's not enough to go around.

Wealthy people understand we live in a world of abundance. Pretty self-explanatory. Average people think there's not enough to go around. Wealthy people believe we live in a world of abundance. It's true.

And here's how this works, by the way. Because if I make a lot of money this month, which I already have, then let's say I decide I'm going to go run a new ad campaign that I've never run before with a provider or maybe some kind of a vendor or a media specialist. Let's say I decide I'm going to run a $1,000 campaign that I would not have otherwise run. And then those employees, they get their paycheck, and they get to go home and cash the money and give it to their wife or their husband, who's then going to turn around and go buy some groceries. And they go to the grocery store, and they buy a loaf of bread.

And the store manager, he gets to keep a little bit of that money because he's on salary at the grocery store. And so he's got some of his money, and now he's been saving up money to get into a home business. And he goes home and gets on the Internet and sees my ad. See, a lot of people don't get that. Yeah, when I say that money is infinite, there's an infinite supply of money, they think, well, that's not true. Of course there's a finite supply of money.

And I understand what they mean. Like, if you could freeze everything right now, you know, like in one of those movies where everything freezes except one person, I love that. So, like, if you could freeze everybody but you, if you could just go around and count up all the money, yes, you can come to a finite number. There is a finite number of bills and coins and zeros and ones in the world.

So you might want to argue, well, see there, if I can count it and come to a certain number, then it's finite. Well, here's what you're missing. Money is not used up when it's spent. It goes around. It keeps going.

And it never stops. So for all intents and purposes, it is infinite. I mean, it's possible that the money that you've got in your pocket today is actually some of the money that you had in your pocket 20 years ago. Absolutely. So money is constantly swishing around.

There's billions of dollars swishing around every day. Dollars and yen and euros and pesos and everything else imaginable swishing around in the air, in fact. And all you've got to do is get two a day. Two people a day coming into the Empower Network at $25 apiece. If you understand the paper.

And insert appropriate income disclaimer here. Okay? We have an income disclosure on our website. It's at the bottom of all the web pages. You can go see it.

And it's almost scientifically predictable. David Wood had several of us up on stage interviewing us on how much money we'd make. And he had already predicted down to the number exactly how many people they'd put in, how many people have you put in. It was amazing. It's scientific.

As a matter of fact, we have a standing offer that if you come in here and you actually go all in and do what we teach you and you start generating, say, 20 leads a day with our methods and you've got, you know, 20 leads a day, you're going to get a lot of money. We'll find out what's blocking your business and we'll show you how to tweak it. It's absolutely astounding. Okay? So there's enough to go around.

Money is infinite. And here you don't even need to be a superhero. You just need to be someone who can go get two a day, which is easy. It's really easy. Okay?

I've got to hurry. Average people ask, how much does it cost? That was my mantra. That's what I used to do all the time. Average people ask, how much does it cost?

Wealthy people ask, how much can I make? You see this a lot in clothing stores, guys. Do this sometime. Next time you're out with your wife and she's buying something nice and shiny because you just made a bunch of money in Empower Network and you're sitting over there in the corner just kind of letting her, you know, do the thing. Poor ladies, whatever.

Pay attention to what people do when they walk into a store. And if you'll close your eyes for just a second, I'm going to describe it and you can picture it. So I'm going to use a lady as an example. A lady walks into the store. She walks over to a rack of clothing and she looks for her size first, right?

She looks for her size. Okay, there we are, size 8 or whatever. And she pushes. Here's what she does now. Pay attention.

Her left hand is on the left side of the hanger. It's one of those circular racks. And she pushes it so she can get a good look at the front of the garment, right? It's a pretty natural movement. So she's looking at it.

She pushes it to look at the front of the garment. And while she's looking, the left hand lets go of the hanger, drops down about 12 inches, and starts fishing around. Fingers just going 90 miles an hour. The whole time she's looking at the front of this garment and she's fiddling around. What's she looking for?

She's looking for the tag. Okay. She's looking for the tag. And she pulls the tag up off the end of the sleeve and, oh, she walks off from the rack. It's the damnedest thing you've ever seen.

She does not buy what she wants. She buys what she has decided that she can afford. Not understanding that if she understood a tenth of what I've explained on this call tonight, she could buy the whole store. Somebody did. I mean, somebody owns the whole store.

It could just as well be her. But she's moving through thinking, I'm not going to buy what I want, I'm going to buy what I think I can afford. And never understanding how close she's come to a concept that would totally allow her to buy anything that she chooses to buy.

You afford what you choose to afford. Seriously. Okay? Same thing when it comes to looking at businesses. A lot of people look at a business and say, well, how much is it going to cost?

I get that. It's a fair question. It's not a bad question. But you know what? I love it when I'm talking to prospects.

And they want to know how much they can make. Because that's somebody who's wealth conscious. That's somebody who's already decided, how much money can I make in your company? Who's making some serious bank here?

How much can I make? That's always a good question. That's a good sign. You're talking to somebody that's got a few things figured out about wealth. Average people say, how much does it cost?

Wealthy people say, how much can I make? Average people say, I can't do it. Wealthy people say, how can I do it? Big difference. Average people say, I can't do it.

Wealthy people say, how can I get that done? Self-explanatory. Average people work hard for their money. This was me. I used to believe that you had to work hard for your money.

And that largely comes from the fact that I grew up on a farm. And everybody in my family was hard workers. And hard work was always described as a virtue. Have you guys noticed that? It's kind of part of our language here in America.

Hey, do you know Bob? Yeah, I know Bob. What do you think of Bob? Oh, he's great, man. Super guy.

Hard-working fella. Boom. Right there it is. It's like you're listing what's right with Bob, and one of the first things you hear is that he's a hard worker. He's a hard worker.

What is it? You know, a lot of times when people say, well, you know, I heard a guy say one time, he said, well, my dad was a hard worker, which was really another way of saying, and this is his words, not mine, he had explained to me, my dad was a hard worker, but that's really another way of saying that he never really understood how money worked.

Again, his words, not mine. I wouldn't say that about his father. But I do understand. I saw that in my own family, where if you're having to really grind it out, it probably means that there's something you need to understand.

Like somebody's just flailing away, trying to chop down a tree. Like they just keep hammering away at the thing, and they're just flailing away at it, and they're working hard, and then all of a sudden, somebody comes by and says, when's the last time you sharpened that saw? And they're like, sharpened the saw? What are you talking about? You know?

Old story about the commercial fisherman that came off the boat at the end of the pier, and there's a rod and reel fisherman down there at the end of the pier. He's, you know, fishing, and the rod and reel guy and the commercial fisherman guy, they had a little conversation there, and the commercial fisherman says, how's it going today? And he says, well, I'm doing pretty good. He says, how many do you catch in a given day? He said, oh, I don't know, 10 or 12 maybe.

Kind of proud of himself, you know. He looked at the commercial fisherman. He says, how many do you catch in a given day? He says, I don't know, two or 3,000. And the rod and reel guy says, what kind of bait do you use?

And the commercial fisherman says, bait? That was the joke. That was the end of it. Bait. What are you talking about, bait?

It's not a funny joke. It's not intended to be funny. But the illustration demonstrates that the rod and reel guy, he has a very different way of catching fish, doesn't he? Two people that if you asked them, what did you do today, they would both say I went fishing. And yet one of them is working hard, and the other one is working smart.

I talked to a person the other day who said, well, you know, I'm in this other company, and I like the looks of Empower, but, you know, I don't know, because I'm in this other company. I said, well, here's the thing. That's it. And I said, I'll be honest with you, I don't really even know anybody in your company that's using Empower right now.

If you were to come in here and actually do what we teach on the blogging platform, with, like, writing blogs every day on our platform with your company's name in every blog, I said, you'd probably own it. She said, what do you mean? I said, well, I mean, can you imagine what it's like for somebody to go to Google and type in the name of your company, and your website, your blog, ranks higher than the company's own website? We've had that happen. She's like, well, it sounds good.

It sounds good. But I don't know because I'm really tied up with my, and she named her company again. And here's the thing. I have no interest in convincing people. I gave up on convincing and persuading people a long time ago.

It is painful sometimes to watch somebody be in their own way. I just told her, I said, you know, you do whatever you want to do. You know, you contacted me, not the other way around. But I will share this with you. Saying you might not have time to blog on Empower about your company because you're so busy working your company is a little like saying, hey, I'm so busy chopping down this tree, I don't have time to sharpen my saw.

It's a stupid comment. It's silly, you know. But I get that people are where they are. And you know what? It's totally fine if that person gets on board or doesn't get on board.

It makes no difference to me at all. It will make a difference to her because as soon as somebody in her company joins Empower and figures out what they've got their hands on, it will be pretty tricky for anybody else to own the front page of Google. But anyway, the point here is average people like to work hard for their money. Wealthy people use leverage. We use things like the Empower Network blogging platform.

My buddy Jean-Francois up in Quebec, he wrote a blog post back last week of May, put it on Empower Network, put it on his Empower Network blog, all the training that we teach in the 15K formula for how to really make that thing stand out. And sure enough, like a week later, it was the number one spot on the page for his selected keywords. And they were pretty good keywords like home business investing or business investing tips or how to invest in a business. You can look it up. Go to Google and look it up.

You'll probably see Jean-Francois' Empower Network blog at the top of the page. I mean, there's people that are literally paying thousands and thousands of dollars to SEO companies to try to figure out how to grab that spot. And Jean-Francois grabbed it for, you know, a little less than a dollar for that day. So leverage, wealthy people use leverage. Hey, let me at least just mention this about the pay plan real quick too.

We've got, you know, $100 profits. We've got $500 commissions. We've got $1,000 commissions. We've got some amazing stuff happening. And when you really understand the pay plan, the leverage in the pay plan is phenomenal.

When you figure that, like me choosing to be at the Costa Rica level and the 15K formula level, that means that I can make as much money with one customer as someone at the basic level can earn off their next 60 customers. That's pretty staggering. That's a lot of leverage, isn't it? That's a lot of leverage. So like when you get it, when you look at the numbers and you realize that, okay, out of 100 customers, you know, somewhere north of 40% are probably going to get the inner circle.

And then a fairly significant portion of those people are going to get the Costa Rica. And I've got to be honest with you, I'm at the point now where, and this again, I'll put the disclaimer out here, this is just Tony Rush talking, this is not necessarily Empower Network, I'm at the point where I am starting to not even view Costa Rica and 15K as separate products. Because people who come in at the Costa Rica level, why would they not get the 15K?

Most people that do one do the other. So now you're looking at a situation where you've got, you know, $25 commissions, $100 commissions, and then bam, you've got, you know, like the $1,500. Costa Rica and 15K formula sort of combine. Two different transactions, but it's sort of rare to see someone come in at Costa Rica and not pick up that last $1,000 product. So again, this is leverage, right?

So once again, leverage. You know what? I've got two more here. Let me go ahead and just knock these out.

Now, average people think either/or. Average people think, I can do either this or that. Wealthy people say, give me both. And here, let me just kind of shift gears again back to mindset, because here's where you usually spot that kind of language. Average people say, well, I can't believe he bought that new Audi. I can't believe he spent $75,000 on an Audi. He should have given that money to charity. You see the either/or hiding in the comment.

You can either drive an Audi or you can give money to charity. Wealthy people say, screw that. I'll drive what I want to drive and I'll still give a bunch of money to charity. That's how wealthy people think. You know, back during Hurricane Katrina, you heard a lot of this because it was, you know, a big deal.

Hurricane Katrina. It's like, I can't believe so-and-so just went and got a brand new Rolex watch. I mean, don't you know? I bought a Rolex. I bought a Rolex Daytona around about the time Katrina hit.

And I actually had somebody tell me, I can't believe you spent $8,000 on a Rolex watch. You could have given that money to relief for Hurricane Katrina. Well, what they didn't know is that I probably gave 10 times the money to Hurricane Katrina relief than they did. And I still got to wear the badass watch. It's not either/or.

Again, this is about abundance. This is about understanding that you're earning what you choose to earn. And those choices are made by the decisions that you make, the actions you take. But you can absolutely have the lifestyle you want and still be able to do really amazing things for your church or your organization or your favorite charity, whatever it may be. We've got people that send money down to Haiti for church schools.

We've got people that are drilling wells. We've got people in this community who are doing some amazing things. And here's the deal. They don't need to talk about it. They don't need to parade it up and down in front of the community and say, oh, look at me.

Well, you know, as a matter of fact, most of you have never heard that story about the well that Jessica and I took some part in the Central African Republic. It's not something we talk about. I don't even think we ever wrote a blog about it or anything. It was something I wanted to do. It was on my 40th birthday.

And I thought, you know, instead of getting a bunch of presents on my 40th birthday, wouldn't it be cool if everybody that was going to buy me a present just went and gave, say, 20 bucks to this charity? And we wound up partnering up with another organization, and we got this well done. It was successful. It's a beautiful thing. But there's a lot of that goes on.

And just because you don't hear about it doesn't mean it's not happening. For obvious reasons, sometimes those are things that, you know, you don't hear David Sharp mention. You don't hear David Wood talk about it. But it's going on, right? So it's all about understanding how to be of value to the people around you.

But you've got to be strong first yourself, right? You've got to build a home first, okay? And then the last thing, average people think that success is a matter of luck and hard work. I touched on hard work a minute ago. Average people believe that success is a matter of luck.

Wealthy people know that success is a choice. We moved into this house a few years ago, and about, I guess, September, maybe three or four years ago, we moved into this house. And we hired a moving company. We didn't move from very, very far away. We were maybe five miles away.

We'd been in the same house for years, and had long since made enough money to move. But I had this head thing about being in a big house, and it was one of the things that was blocking me. It's like every time I made a move to get into a really nice house, I would just sabotage myself. Still had lots of money. Just couldn't seem to get the house thing figured out, you know?

Hardly surprising, because nobody in my family had ever, I grew up in a house, and then we moved away, and then it was an apartment, and it was a single-wide mobile home for a fair amount of years. And so I've just never been around anybody that had a nice house. I had hang-ups about being someone who lived in a luxury home.

So there's an example, by the way, of letting your head get in the way. Because we had the money, but I just would not allow myself to receive it, if that makes sense. Anyway, the moving company that was helping us move, they came over, and they were unloading everything. And at some point, they were taking a break, and I offered the guy, I said, hey, you want a Coke or anything? And so I'm in the kitchen, you know, pouring Cokes and getting ice for everybody.

And one of them said, man, this is a beautiful house. I said, thank you. I said, thanks, we're really excited about it. And he said, what do you do for a living?

And he asked something. And before I knew it, he got a really quick snapshot of what our life looks like, because he saw our vehicle, and he saw our home. And, you know, there's pictures of us in Australia and Rome and Barcelona. There's all kinds of, you know, just stuff around the house. And he sort of confided in me.

He's a younger guy. And he said, man, that's just amazing how lucky you are. And I said, well, here's the thing, man. I understand what you're saying. It is amazing.

And I walk around every day in a state of gratitude. But here's the thing. If you think luck had anything to do with it, you're mistaken. I chose this. I chose this.

I did this. And somebody on the line might say, well, Tony, now, you shouldn't take credit for that, because, you know, there's all kinds of blessings, and you've got to acknowledge God's role in things. You know, I get all that. I understand all that. But it's a little bit like the story, I think, Tony Robbins tells about the farmer who had this beautiful piece of land.

I don't know if a lot of people have told the story, but I think Tony Robbins was the first person I heard tell it, about the farmer who had this beautiful piece of land. And this preacher stopped by one day and was visiting. And the farmer was taking the preacher on a tour and took him around to the beautiful gardens and over here to the rose bushes. And, you know, I guess the preacher didn't want the farmer to get too big-headed and feel too boastful. And so every time they'd turn the corner, and over here's this beautiful water garden, and here's the beautiful fountain, and then here's the home, and here's the swimming pool.

And about every 10 or 15 minutes, the preacher would say, yeah, I'll tell you what, God sure has blessed you with a beautiful piece of property. And they'd turn the corner, and they'd go over here, and here's the crops and all this. And, oh, Farmer Brown, God sure has blessed you with a beautiful piece of property. And I guess he just liked saying it. But after about the fourth or fifth time, the farmer said, well, I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. And the farmer looks at the preacher and says, hey, preacher, I understand your point. I understand how a farm works, probably better than anybody, that you've got to have the soil and the rain and the sun and the miracle of life. I get all that.

But you ought to have seen this place when God had it all to himself. Now, that's a funny story, but it's a true story. Because, see, I believe, and I'm not here to have a conversation with you at all about spirituality or religion, whatever. Whatever you believe is up to you. But here's my personal view.

I could just as easily be standing at Walden Books right now in the mall, if they're even still in business, selling books at the bookstore. And that would also be my choice. It's not good, bad, right, or wrong. The fact is we all get to choose our own lives. I could just as easily, right now, be trying to figure out how to pay my water bill and my phone bill at the same time so that one of them doesn't get disconnected.

I could. I've done that for years. What changed? I changed. I changed.

I'm the one. There's a great quote, one of my favorite actors, Kelsey Grammer. He played in the long-running TV show, Frasier. Great autobiography, by the way. Fantastic.

I think it's called My Life So Far, is the name of it. Fantastic book. But one of the things, my favorite quote, one of my favorite quotes comes from that book where he said, "My life is a party thrown for me by my own decisions." This didn't happen to Kelsey Grammer.

He chose that. He decided that. That didn't happen to him. And it's the same thing here. It's the same thing for me.

It's the same thing for you. We get to pick. We get to choose. So this last one, average people believe that success is a matter of luck. Wealthy people know that success is a choice that you make at any time.

So I told you the story a little while ago about me feeling like I was standing outside of this little elite group and how they graciously allowed me to just come play in their swimming pool one afternoon. And my wife set me straight. And I've stayed on that. And her advice has stuck. If you want to be in, choose in.

If you want to be a top earner, then go be a top earner. Do it. It's a choice. You can do that here, right now, today. I mean, literally, like, in the next 60 to 90 days, you can be laying the foundation for an annual six- or multi-figure income.

Even if you've never had any success doing anything else. Now, some of you on the line are here at the basic level or the inner circle level. And you know what? Let me speak to you real quickly because some of you guys may be like, you know, well, I don't know, I've been burned in the past.

I've tried that Amway thing. And I did that deal where, you know, I'm doing a little milk and cookie parties in people's living rooms. And I'm handing out samples. And, hey, I get that. I did all that stuff, too.

But that's not this. And you can't drive around looking at the rearview mirror. You can't drive around looking at the rearview mirror. You can't drive around looking at the rearview mirror. Look at what you've got.

Look at your goals. Get that. Do that. Whatever that is, choose in. Choose in.

If you want to be in the group of people that are getting huge results, just choose to be part of that group. And then you'll look at that formula that I gave you a few minutes ago. When you make those choices, you start doing the things that top earners do. And then you start having the things that top earners have. And that's how it works, guys.

It really is that simple. Now, let's be honest. Will it cost you something? Hell yes. Absolutely.

Will it require you to make a decision you've not yet made? Absolutely. Every time. Will you get some butterflies in your stomach, perhaps? No question.

Get a little sweaty palms? Yeah. And here's the thing. Those are the decisions that reward you. Those are the decisions that change your life. If you're making decisions that don't make you a little bit nervous, you're playing small. I chose to have cereal for breakfast this morning instead of scrambled eggs. Guess how much that changed my life?

None. I was hungry earlier. That was all. But, I mean, it wasn't a decision that gave me sweaty palms. Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. Should I have the scrambled eggs? I don't know. What if I'm supposed to get the cereal? So, nobody grapples over what to eat for breakfast.

That's why breakfast choices never change your life very much. Okay? But when you make a decision to say, you know what? I'm going to play all in. When you approach this business of making money from home and Empower Network with the same 100% all-in conviction that you had when you tried to figure out how to balance a Cheerio on a spoon, or how to walk, or learn a language, you've been successful at everything.

You've been successful at everything that you've ever given 100% to. Now, somebody says, well, Tony, I don't know. I just, you know, here's what I can tell you. If you'll do what we teach you to do, you will absolutely get results. No question.

And if somebody says, Tony, I will do 95% of what you teach, I can't guarantee that you'll get any results at all. Because I have no idea what you're going to leave out. Chances are you're going to leave out everything that makes your palms sweat, and those are the biggest things that change your life. Asking that girl to marry you changed your life. And it scared the bejesus out of you.

You know? Choosing to quit that job. Choosing to start that band or go out on stage for the first time. Choosing to become wealthy from home. All of these things.

Doing the things that are required to make huge results in your life, they always cost you something. There's no free ride. Stop looking for a free ride. Stop looking for the easy choice. It's going to cost you something every single time.

Beautiful. The simple thing is, it's always something you can pay. The cost is never more than you can afford. And the rewards are absolutely out of sight. If I could go back, and I'll close with this.

If I could somehow go talk to Tony Rush when he was 21. If I could somehow go back to when he was 18, or 25 even. I would have saved myself so much time of playing small. If I could just hand this recording. Like on Doctor Who or something.

I could go back in time and just give him a copy of this recording. And say, dude, if you listen to this, this is how you're going to turn out. You're going to have the hot girl. You're going to have three amazing sons. You're going to live in a luxury home.

And you're going to drive what you want to drive. And you're going to have amazing friends. And you're going to get to spend, what, 83 minutes having a powerful conversation with some of the most amazing, badass people in the world. And all it's going to take is for you to start living on purpose instead of knee-jerking your way through your decisions. If I could go back and have that conversation with a younger Tony Rush, well, for one thing, I probably wouldn't be on this call right now because I'd be probably sitting somewhere counting my money.

I mean, let's just be honest. If I had known then what I know now, I absolutely wouldn't have to strike a lick at anything if I didn't want to. Now, the beautiful thing is I don't do a whole lot as it is. And most of what I do, I do because I love it. But can you tell I've got some energy on the call here?

Can you tell? I could keep going for two more hours, and it wouldn't faze me a bit at all. My phone battery will give out before I do. But here's my point. You have the opportunity today to start.

Now, push the reset button today. Now, some of you don't need to push the reset button. You did that in Atlanta. You're on track. Some of you guys are pocketing tens of thousands of dollars a month.

That's awesome. Don't change a thing. You're doing what I'm doing. It's working. Okay?

But if you're brand new to Empower or you're not in Empower yet, just get in. This conversation is different from every other conversation you've ever heard on a call like this one. If you're not in, you need to get in because this is the kind of information that's going to put you on the beach. This is what's going to change your life financially. And we are thrilled to have you guys here.

So I can keep going, but I think that's a fine place for me to come in for a landing. I hope that's been of value to you. I have spoken from the heart. And everything that I've told you tonight comes from experience. It's not theory.

It's not something that I made up. It's not something that sounds good. In fact, some of it actually requires you to be a badass. Some of it's going to require you to really get out of first gear. Some of you for the first time in a while.

But here's the thing. This is the kind of information you're going to get in this community. Expect it. Expect it when you get to San Diego. Expect it.

Expect it. This is the kind of stuff. And you stay around it, and you get around people, David Sharp, and you pick up the language, and you pick up their perspectives on how to overcome adversity, how to set goals, how to make powerful decisions, then before you know it, you're going to be the person inviting somebody that comes from in your pool. You're going to be the person on the stage with the big check, and you're going to be hosting this call sometime in the next 90 days. So let's go be that person.

Let's go be that badass. Let's go be the most powerful versions of ourselves that are possible, and let's go fight the forces of evil. Right on? And in the words of David Wood and David Sharp, we'll see you guys on the beaches of the world. Guys, have a fantastic night.

You absolutely deserve it, and we will see you guys on our Facebook group. Talk to you guys soon. Bye-bye, everybody. Although you're listening to a private recording and a non-disclosure Empower Network customer training, the principles and strategies in this audio can be applied in any business. Although these techniques, philosophies, and strategies may have worked for others, no one can guarantee that they will work for you. We report real average earnings, updated daily, at EmpowerNetwork.com forward slash income dot php.

The purchase of this or any other audio is not required to earn money in our affiliate compensation plan, and you can decide to not continue to buy these forever, at any time. We hope, however, these ideas and strategies will assist you in building a profitable, long-term business. Success takes hard work, determination, skill,

and consistent effort. Please refer to our average earnings at EmpowerNetwork.com forward slash income dot php.