There's a lot of smart people that come up
to me and they say, "Pat, this business thing is a piece of cake. I have a job. I'm an executive. I have a degree from xyz and I'm thinking
about being a business owner. And it's going to be so easy for me." And they go in, extremely arrogant and cocky. And then boom! They fail. And they wonder why. So in this video today I'm going to cover
with you why smart people so often fail in business. And I'll unpack it for you on 12 different
points or so I think I have here to cover with you. But I want to tell you a story that really
impressed me so much. Arnold Schwarzenegger is done being a governor. Okay? He's done as Mr. Olympia seven times. He's gone out there and become an actor in
all these different movies and he's married a Kennedy and he becomes a governor two terms
California, a liberal state, he's a republican. He's done the impossible in multiple different
areas of his life. Watch what happens. After he's done being a governor, after the
scandal with his wife, which if you haven't read the book, Total Recall, I highly recommend
it. Let's put a picture here of total recall. They asked him, what do you want to do? He said, "I want to go back into Hollywood. Oh, wow, are you excited about playing A-type
roles and all this other stuff. He said, "No. I have to make sure that I earn everyone's
respect, that I still know how to act. I have to start off as a beginner again. And I have to take any job they give me. Now think about this. Here's a man with a resume bigger than the
Bible as far as a resume goes. He can put so many different things in there. And he says, "I have to earn everyone's respect." I think that's one of the reasons why he's
constantly won in his life, and I think that's one of the reasons why smart people have a
very hard time with business. So step #1, the first thing we're going to
talk about - I chose 12 different points and I put one of them at number one because I
don't believe anything is above this. I don't think anything is above this for smart
people. So if you're watching this, and you know who
you are, and you're smart, you think you're smart, you consider yourself smart, or maybe
very smart, and you think you're smarter than everybody else you meet out there in the room,
rule #1 will bite you in the butt. Let me tell you. Shoshin disappears. What's Shoshin? Shoshin is a mentality that's call the beginner's
mindset. Once the beginner's mindset goes, I don't
care how big you are, I don't care how wealthy you are, I don't care how powerful you are. I don't care how much influence you have. I don't care how many Instagram, YouTube,
Facebook, Twitter, how many followers you have. When the beginner's mind goes away, and you're
no longer learning and improving, and figuring out ways to make yourself better, you are
toast. Let me tell you why. Here's why. Just 10 years ago, the Internet's only been
around for 20 years or so. It's been around longer, but 20 years that
it became publicized and we're all using it. Then came AOL chat, and then all of a sudden
came Netzero, some of you guys will remember Netzero. Then came MySpace, which was very big. You put your song. Then Friendster, then Facebook, then Instagram,
then Twitter - Twitter came before then. Now Snapchat. There's all this stuff going on. Business is changing. And it's changing so rapidly. So rapidly, that it requires you and I to
learn rapidly. So if you're not a new CEO or new entrepreneur,
new business owner, new executive, every single day with that mentality, of "man, I know nothing,
and I'm going to keep learning," you're going to be in trouble. If Socrates on his death bed said, the only
thing I know is nothing, and he is one of the most famous philosophers of all time,
what makes you and I think we know all this stuff? We don't. So the mentality of why smart people fail
is because they already know enough. #2, second thing, too conservative. Sometimes a smart person comes in and they've
already been taught certain ways, or their mind's already been built up in a certain
way, they are way, way too conservative. Way, way too safe. And in the world of business, sometimes it
gets ugly. You know, sometimes it gets dirty. Sometimes there's some risks you've got to
take. You've just got to take. And it's not conventional risks. It's not conventional thing that I'm supposed
to be doing this. No, you can't. There's sometimes you've got to do some stuff
that you can't read in any book. Or any videos on Valuetainment. Literally, there are certain things in business
that's like, what do I do in a situation like this? I'm working on a book right now. I'm flying over to New York to talk to a handful
of major publishers because they want me to publish this book that has to do with specifically
on how to process issues. Once we learn how to process issues, but still,
if you're too conservative, you're going to be toast in a world of business. There's going to be times in business that
you have to do certain things that no one's going to think about. But smart people typically just go too by
the rules that they follow. Not laws, not regulations, rules. It's a different story. They're afraid of breaking rules sometimes,
conservative people. Next, over promise, under deliver is, they're
so smart, they know so much, that they come across as, we're going to be able to do so
this, and I'm going to be able to do this. And they give so many different promises to
everybody and they don't deliver. So many different promises and they don't
deliver. And then eventually, people say, "I don't
want to do business with this person." If you are going to make promises, you better
deliver. I will never forget that we were about to
start a company called PHP. This is October of '09. I'm having lunch with a man named Bill in
San Bernardino Valley. And I am obsessed with capitalism. I went to a meeting in Miramar Hotel, Santa
Monica. I am obsessed with capitalism. I am so obsessed with capitalism and entrepreneurship,
like to the point where I bleed capitalism. Everything in my blood is about entrepreneurship. Immigrant from Iran, 1.8 G.P.A. Divorced family. Not the smartest cat on the block. No one in school thought I was going to go
anywhere. I didn't play sports. I was just a guy that worked at Haagan Daz
and I worked at Burger King and Bob's Big Boy. There's nothing on my resume that said, "This
guy's going to go places." So all of a sudden I fell in love with capitalism
because it gave me an opportunity, as long as I can work hard and improve, I can compete
with anybody. I'm in a diner in San Bernardino, Valley,
right off the 210 freeway to the north side of it. And I'm having this meeting. We were all the way in the back. I said, "Listen, this is what I want to propose. I think, I think, an immigrant and a group
of immigrants like myself, we can come together and we can bring the spirit of free enterprise
and capitalism and entrepreneurship to America and the world." And this man, Bill, turns around and said
the following thing to my face." He said, "Patrick, don't you say it, unless
you deliver. If you're going to say it, you better deliver,
because no one's going to believe you." So he said, "Think twice, before making this
massive of a crusade of a launch to the public, because if you don't deliver, you become a
hypocrite. You'll become somebody who constantly over
promises and under delivers. And you become another person that uses just
their intelligence, not someone who comes through. I thought about it. I came back and said, We're doing this. And he said, "Okay. So the pressure's now on you." And then we had to deliver. Right? So you've got to make sure, if you do this,
you best deliver. Smart people sometimes, they're so logical
that they have a hard time delivering with this because everything's so logical for them. Next, Fact driven. This is a perfect transition with this. So, look, there is a part with raising kids. I've got three kids, and my two boys, they're
in the MMA phase right now. They're a five and three year old. These kids want to fight all the time. Like, I don't need to go to pay per view and
ask if they know why what next fight's going to be between Conor McGregor and Nick Diaz. I just need to sit there and watch these two
boys go at it. And literally the other day Paul and I were
in L.A. I'm in L.A., Paul's the babysitter. For half a second, I made the mistake of making
Paul the babysitter for a split second. Paul's in the back. And Paul is doing something with the camera. Tico and Dylan, they're sitting in their seat. I'm driving. All of a sudden, you hear my son screaming. Ahhhhh! The older son's screaming because the younger
son's is now bullying the older son and I've got to talk to the younger son. And my older son is bleeding everywhere here
[side of head]. Right? And so kid hits him, scratches him, all this
stuff. And now I have to sit there and when you have
kids, you know, it's like, I'm going to raise kids and factually you're supposed to love
them and you don't do this and just so many facts, you know, logically we're supposed
to, marriage, raising kids, it's so amazingly emotional, that if you get away from the emotional
heartbeat side of both of their feelings and the way you communicate with them, you're
going to lose them. Right? Now, I have a daughter. And my daughter's going to be completely different
than my two sons that I have. What's the point I'm making to you? Business has a heartbeat. And in business, if you only treat it logically,
it's going to die. It needs emotions. It needs to be fired up. It needs to be driven. You can't just take everything logically and
go out there and drive everything logically. There's certain times that you can't just
go out there and use facts. There's certain times that you've got to use
examples of something that happened that's story-based. There's certain times that you may be sitting
in a room, and you're looking at the numbers, and all the numbers suck. You are getting killed! I've been in meetings where our company, we
were getting hammered. I lost the number one producer. I had to fire him. I flew to Utah. All this stuff that we had to do. I'm in front of the guy's wife. Our numbers are like this [going down] for
six months straight. And in a factual meeting, I'm supposed to
sit there and say what? Well, guys, we suck. We suck. We are going out of business. No, no, no. In that moment, in that moment, you need to
know, emotion. Heart. Why did we start this? Why are we doing this? What's the purpose of this? How did all this get started? Why were we doing this business here? Tell me! Show me some emotion. Where's your heart at? What are you thinking about? This is why we did this. Are we going to get tough, or how are we going
to respond here? And at that moment, I learned a lot about
the heartbeat of our leaders. Let me tell you what happened. The smartest person in the room quit. The smartest person in the room quit! The person with the fanciest degrees in the
room quit. The person with the fanciest resume in the
room quit. Logical. Complete logical. And the other people were sitting there saying,
you know what? You're right. And all the other guys that were in the room,
now own the company. Why? Logic vs. emotion. It's just how things work out sometimes. Next, me mentality. This is a tough one because the challenging
part about smart people is it's so much about me. I've got to build my resume. We get people that come and go. A lot of people that want to work with me,
just to say, "Hey, I work with Patrick Bet-David on Valuetainment." They want to add it to their resume. They come and go. They come and go. They come and go. Me, me, me. I've got to build my resume. I've got to build my resume. I've got to build my resume. I've got to build my resume. Everything's about building my resume. Build my resume, build my resume. There comes a time where this entire thing
called life, you realize it's really not about you and I. And let me explain what I mean by that. Like if you want to build an empire that's
very, very big, if it's only about you, eventually people will realize it, and you don't inspire
anybody. Because it's all about a me mentality. It's got to be around the people around you. What are their dreams? One of my favorite conversations to have with
anyone of our employees, any one of our salespeople, anybody I do business with, it will be a regular
conversation at a lunch or coffee or something. This is what I'll ask. What's your vision of life? What do you want to do? How do you see yourself? What type of a role do you want to see yourself
being here on the team? Where are you at? Oh, oh, and people don't know. What do you want to do? And I'll sit down and ask this question, so
many times I ask this question, people start shaking around me. I'm like, why are you nervous? Because I don't know. Well, let's find out. This thing called life goes [snap] like this. My dad's 74 years old. He was hospitalized for two-and-a-half weeks. Like this [snap], the thing called life goes. Like this [snap], it goes. I just had my friend. I was in L.A. visiting. Her uncle died, another uncle died. All of a sudden these are people I had had
dinner with. Like this [snap]. So what's your purpose? They'll tell me, I want to have a role here,
I want to do this, and I want to be part of this, I want to, one day. . . I have two employees. Both girls. Both girls. Look at this. Both of them tell me, "One day, I want to
be the CEO of the company." And there's some other people that say, one
day I want to be the president. One day I want to do this. Girls are telling me they want to be the CEO
of the company. And I'm like, awesome! Guess what I want? I want people that say things like that. And I want to make sure that they mean it
because there's a difference between, you know, saying it and not meaning it. They say it and they mean it. Well, if you want to be the CEO one day, you've
got to do dot, dot, dot. You've got to read these books. You've got to work this this, you've got to. . . I want to do that one day! Great! King vs. King Maker. It can't be all about you. And Smart people, it's about them, because
when you go to school, what does school teach you? You've got to build your resume sometimes,
and sometimes it's a beneficial thing to work for a big four because you build your resume. It's just so much about this crap that these
"educated" university professors are teaching people and they're developing people like
this that become "me" mentality. Maybe the system's designed to create people
like that, right? It's about being a kingmaker. Business is all about being a king maker. How can you take somebody who's a nobody in
the company yet, and develop them to be somebody, that they have a responsibility among other
people. That's the king maker. You're developing people, after finding out
exactly what they want. Next, entitlement. Entitlement is, I worked with a lady in the
past and I told myself, I will never do this. Intentionally I said, I will never do this. Never do this. And this lady, extremely talented. She thought she was smarter than everybody
else. She thought she was smarter than everybody
else. And so what happened one time is I saw a trend,
and this is what the trend was. We all would come out with great ideas. And she would always take the credit for the
ideas. And one time it became public, and other people
came up and said, "Well, Pat, we came up with this idea. Why is she always taking credit for this idea?" And I would 100% of the time, I always protected
this lady. It's just my nature. 100% of the time, I always protected this
lady, since we're doing business together. But then she started taking it to a whole
different level, whole different level, whole different level. You know what's the first thing I said to
myself? By the way, she did a lot of things right. She did a lot of things right. But this one thing, here's what it did. All it made me think about is man, the idea,
she took so much credit because it's all about her. I don't ever want to do this. Ever. So here at the office, we have a very simple
point system. We kid about it. We joke about it a lot. Whoever come out with the idea, we're supposed
to say, who came up with the idea. And we give credit to the person that gave
birth to the idea. Why? Well, because it is what it is. The other day Luis, he's a newer guy to our
team, a Colombian guy. I played basketball. He's behind the camera. You'll see his face one of these days. He came in and said, "Hey, Patrick, you know,
I think we need to get this camera. Look at this." He's showing me - what did you call the camera
thing? - It's Osmo, and it balances right. Then I said, Luis, what can we do? he said, How about we get a virtual reality. And he starts doing research and sending us
all this stuff. Man, that's not my idea. He's coming out with this idea how to make
a stabilizer because we're doing a vlog, and Paul and I go around. Cool, awesome. We want to create the environment because
it can't be about you getting the credit. Now here's a challenge with smart people. They love taking the credit. Man, but they hate taking the blame. Whooo. It's a tough one, ain't it? It's like, man, yes, because I'm such a great
leader. But hey, you guys suck in this area. That's not my fault. That's not the right. I would never . . . listen. If you want to make it in business, credit
goes here [outward], blame goes here [to self]. It's the only way you build kings. If credit goes here [outward] and blame goes
here [inward], you build kings. If credit goes here [inward], blame goes outward,
you're the king. It's king maker. There's a lot of guys online that are YouTube
sensations and experts and all this other stuff. You know what I always want to ask? Here's what I always want to ask. Show me one or two people around you that
have been successful. That work closely with you. And you don't hear any names. It's just their name. This is why our YouTube channel's not called
Patrick Bet-David. It's called Valuetainment because we're going
to bring a lot of talent on Valuetainment. We're going to recruit a lot of talent on
Valuetainment. Lots of them! You'll see. This is just the beginning. Wait till we get to a million subs. There's a vision for what we're going to do
with Valuetainment. Lots of vision for what we're going to do
with Valuetainment. But it ain't about the brand. It's about the people that represent the brand. So smart people have a hard time with credit. They're title driven. I'm this position. I'm that position. I'm this position. You're too smart for business. Business is about what place can I elevate
here, not what position can I build here for my resume. What position can I elevate here? What can I do here to get them going. Next, won't admit mistakes. Won't admit mistakes. I'm sorry, I did this. I'll fix it. Here's one thing I learned a long time ago. You know what's the fastest way to finish
an argument if you're at fault? You know what's the fastest way? [snap] I'm sorry. I'm at fault. Let me tell you what I learned. My wife and I would get into heated arguments. Like, I'm talking heated arguments that belong
in movies, right? Heated arguments that end up turning into
three babies afterwards. But really, really heated arguments that we
have, right? And so eventually, I'm like, you know what? I'm tired. There's just no purpose with this. What the hell am I arguing for this here? If I'm at fault. So here's what I would say. "Babe. . . " Babe, do you realize what happened? "You're right. This was my fault. This was my fault." And so I started 100% right off the bat saying
it's my fault. Now remember, my ego. I've got an ego. Everyone's got an ego they've got to deal
with. Babe, it's my fault. Whoa. Then she would say, "Babe, it's my fault." Then it became a culture in our relationship. Babe, this one's my fault. Babe, c'mon, babe. I know, I just told you it's my fault. I'm sorry. I know. I'm just upset." Okay, cool. Like, cool. It's my fault. That's it. No one's killed. No one's getting arrested. It's alright. We make mistakes. I don't walk on water. I don't want to walk on water. I don't want to be known for being perfect
and walking on water. And neither do you. It's a lonely place to be. You're always walking on eggshells, man, when
you have to act like you're so perfect. Next, lack of selling vision. Sometimes they're so logical that they don't
sell vision. You've got to sell vision. Where we're going. These two [fact driven and lack of selling
vision] are kind of similar. But you've always got to know where we're
going. Where's this thing going next. Where's the company going to next. Next, they try to outsmart hard work. Now. There's a whole debate going on right now,
where everyone's posting questions, sending me snaps, hey, Pat, this guy on YouTube said,
"everything's about hard work." But this guy on YouTube said, you know, it's
about working smart. What do you think is the smarter thing? I'm like, okay, what are you trying to say? Do I have to work hard or do I have to work
smart? I can't say that I've met a single person
that became successful that didn't have to work hard for a period of their lives. I don't know anybody. I don't know anybody that didn't work hard. I honestly, I don't know one person that became
successful and not working hard. I don't know a single person that became successful
and not working hard. Now, let me explain this. If this guy works hard, and this [other] guy
works hard, they both work very, very hard. But this guy learns how to work smart, it's
a compounding effect. However, this guy works hard, but this [other]
guy works very smart, but he's extremely lazy, he can't compete with this [hardworking] guy. Because he can't even get to the level of
this guy to be picked up. The minimum requirement is the entry hard
work. It's just what it is. It's just not going to happen for you to get
there. You know, right now the debate's going on
in the NBA about who's supposed to be the what do you call it, the MVP, right? Who are the names? Harden, Westbrook, Kawhi Leonard, LeBron James,
and I that's really the four. I don't think there's anybody else in the
four names. Curry's number five, six, he's not, because
he's been back to back, so they're not going to give it to him. You know Curry's not going to be MVP. That's a given. Right? Okay. You know what's the one percentage no one
knows? Here's what's the craziest percentage. Kawhi Leonard shoots 89% free throw. Did you know that? Do you know how many people know that stat? Very few. You know what LeBron James is shooting this
year? 68%. 68% is the lowest free throw he's shot in
his career. Now look, the stats he's putting up is beast
mode. He could win MVP and it's arguably solid. But, you know, there's certain things that
behind closed doors, free throws is hard work. You can't outsmart free throws. It's hard work, and practice. Free throws, LeBron's body requires a lot
of diligence and diet and the way they eat. These guys all have a physical - that's a
lot of hard work. So you can't outsmart hard work. Period. You've got to learn hard work. Smart people have a hard time with that because
they think they have secrets that they can do voodoo stuff and get everybody else to
do stuff and they get credit until eventually, their numbers show up and people realize you
don't really work that hard. And you've kept it a secret for 10 years. Now everybody knows. Your talents kind of where you're at, but
you're, if you would have added hard work, man, you'd be killing everybody, right. No High Road. Let me explain what high road is. Man, so I learned this, you know, sometime
when you build a business, your people will teach you a lot. The people around you will teach you a lot
because you're not the smartest person in the room. Collectively, we can all learn a ton. And one of the things I learned, I've made
the dumbest mistakes in business. I have a video called, what's the video - the
12 dumbest mistakes I made as an entrepreneur. No wonder it's one of the top five most popular
videos I have on YouTube, because people love finding out about the dumbest mistakes I've
made. I can do 20 of those videos. But there was a part about this where I started
attracting people who were extremely successful in the past, and these guys would bring their
ego sometimes and all this other stuff. And I brought a couple of guys that were hard
working and they were difficult to work with at times, right? And if there was 10 arguments to argue with
them, seven of them produced nothing. So I gave them the victory. But these three that mattered that could hurt
them in the business and kill them, I'm not compromising here. But I had to learn where to take the high
road. And smart people have a hard time taking the
high road. You've got to pick and choose. Out of the 10 you don't have to win every
argument. But there are two or three that you cannot
compromise. The other seven, it's their ego, let them
win the ego part. Just give it to them, the ego part. Some of the comments, you know, let them get
it. But you've got to know, sometimes, there's
things you cannot compromise. I've been in meetings, I've been in negotiations
where the other person says some stuff. I had one very big negotiation about a year
ago. A person said something that really, really
annoyed me. I took the high road. We came out. We negotiated. We're going to end up doing $10 million with
that person this year. $10 million we're going to do this year. It's not bad in a year to do $10 million in
one year with this one company. That just kind of happened accidentally. But I had to figure out a way take the high
road, because I don't need to win every single argument, just the ones that really matter. That part you don't need to compromise, because
this could put your out of business. Next, fear of adapting. Smart people are afraid of adapting. Let me explain to you why. Fear of change and fear of adapting - do you
know why so many of us are frightened of adapting and changing? Let me explain to you why. Because when we have to change, what that
means is the existing us is not good enough. And smart people don't like to be known they're
not good enough. Let me say it one more time. Smart people have been told they're smart
all their lives. So you're telling me all of a sudden I have
to change and I'm not good enough? Yes, you're not good enough. You're not. You and I are not good enough to get to the
next level we want to get to in life, whatever that level may be for you. This has to change and adapt, for you to be
able to go there. Because if you don't, the lower level you
is pulling you down to this level. This is why you cannot go to this (highest)
level. This needs to shift. Smart people have a hard time with it because
they live off their resume. Here's who I am, here's what I've done. It's their resume. Smart people. Okay? Fear of adapting. If you are willing to adapt, and you're willing
to change, then you give yourself a fighting chance to make it in business. So, anyways, these are just 12 of the points
that we have here. Were you trying to say something? Did I miss one? Okay, I missed this one, right in the middle. So, not getting your hands dirty. Smart people, one of the things they'll do
is, what's the word to use - righteous. Too good. Okay. Like I remember we did some interviews for
some guys that came through and they would say, I would never start at the bottom. I went to college and I have a degree from
such and such place. I need an executive position in here because
I got a degree from such and such place. I said, Oh my gosh, I am the wrong employer
for you. You've got to go somewhere else, because we
won't do that here. We're good. Awesome, thank you so much for coming out. Boom. Out the door. I have no time for that. I have zero time for that. I had a girl I hired one time. Oh my gosh. This person was a diva. Okay? She was not willing to do the dirty work,
but she wanted to make the millions. Okay? Oh, but you don't understand who I am and
what pedigree I come from and what university I went to. No problem. Great. Now watch this. I have another girl, Maral, who went to UCLA,
who worked for me at 22, 23 years old, she had bags, I wish I would have taken pictures
of you Maral. She had bags here because at 6:00 when she
was done with her job, she would stay till 10:00 doing her homework for school because
she went to Woodbury University to get her MBA. The other day someone snapped me back because
I was wish Maral a Happy Birthday. And they said, "Is that Maral?" And I said yes. They said, "I want to Woodbury University
with her. I remember her till today." I said, "Maral, do you remember?" Yeah, I remember this guy. That's kind of cool. Maral comes in, humble, she's got the degree
from UCLA Woodbury, MBA, 23, 24 years old. She's willing to work and get her hands dirty,
no problem. Guess what? She owns a piece of the company. And I have zero problem with that. Because she had no problem getting her hands
dirty. Sometimes smart people, they don't want to
get their hands dirty because they're too righteous, too good to get their hands dirty. Anyways, so today's episode, to all the smart
people that are watching this, listen. Adjust. Adjust. You're not as good as you think you are. Believe me. Kind of relax a little bit. You can do a lot more. This will make you a lot more money. You'll become more famous, if you actually
realize you're not as smart as you think you are. So if you've got any questions, any comments,
any thoughts, comment on the bottom. And if you haven't subscribed to this channel
yet, one handed catch, hey, we're going to do a contest at a quarter million subs, right. I think we're at 230,000 subs as of today. At 250,000 subs, I will be announcing another
contest to invite people from all over the world to spend one day, one day with me to
go through your business, your strategy session together. We'll make that into a video and put that
on YouTube, where some of you guys will be getting a chance to come and fly here one
on one, but we've got to get to a quarter million subs, and obviously we've got to get
to a million subs by the end of the year. Paul, good catch. And by the way, if you haven't subscribed
to the channel, please do so. And just make sure you join the notification
squad . Notification squad you guys are crazy. You're on fire. I love how quickly you guys watch the videos
and comment on the bottom. So thanks for watching everybody. Take care. Bye bye.
