People throughout my career have asked me,
"Pat, what can I do for you to mentor me directly?" Many times people ask, "Pat, I want you to
mentor me directly." I have a very simple criteria. If a person, I don't care if you're extremely
talented, you have a degree, you don't have a degree, nationality, I don't care. If you don't have a strong work ethic, I can't
work with you. Here's why. Because whatever I transfer to you, you are
not going to give the highest return possible for whatever knowledge and skill set that's
being passed over to you. Why am I going to put the time into you if
the duplication part is not going to return? Why am I saying this to you? You're not working with me. You're from 192 different countries. If you want to get somebody to work with you
directly, that they know what they're doing, or if you want to get right partners, you've
got to have a strong work ethic. So what prompted this episode here is we got
at least 200 messages, emails, Snapchats, Facebook, people saying, "Pat, you keep talking
about work ethic. Can you please explain how one can improve
their work ethic?" And I said, I'm going to take it a step even
past that. So today's video is not for the people that
subscribe to the "Four Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferriss. This is not the video for you. This is not the video for people that want
to be online consultants who want to not have any real place of business and have people
that are virtual assistants that do their own part and you are not working that much
and you're at home and you work three hours a day. This is not the video for you. Because those names, although you can do that,
there's a big movement of Four Hour Workweek today, no four-hour workweek develops an Apple. No four-hour workweek develops a business
that ends up becoming a substantial business doing 100, 200, 300 million dollars per year. They don't. Now if one of two do it, that's an anomaly. I'm not talking about the one or two. I'm talking majority. I'm talking to the people who have plans of
running a big business touching people, touching clients, growing their businesses. That's who I'm talking to in this video. So that's the message here. How to improve your work ethic as an entrepreneur. Now let's dissect the word, work ethic. I'm going to do this in a way where you'll
see what the meaning behind work ethic is, then you need to make the decision of what
that means to you. So it's simple. The definition of work . What is the definition
of work? Here's the definition of work. Activity involving mental or physical effort
done in order to achieve a purpose or result. Again, activity involving mental or physical
effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result. That's the definition of work. Now what's the definition of ethic? In Greek, the definition of ethic is the science
of morals. The science of morals. Ethic. Work ethic. The science of morals. What does it mean the science of morals? I don't even understand the definition somebody
may say. Well then why don't we break down what morals
means. So here's morals. The definition of morals is, if we really
dissect the word work ethic, morals means a person's standards of behavior or beliefs
concerning what is and is not acceptable to you. Simple. Let me say it one more time. a person's standards of behavior - your standard
of behavior, or your beliefs - what you believe is right or wrong, a person's standards of
behavior or beliefs concerning what is right and what is not acceptable to you. What is, and what is not acceptable to you. So let's go through it one more time. Work: activity that requires effort to achieve
a purpose. Ethics - science of morals. Morals - standard of behavior, that is or
is not acceptable to you. So work ethic, when people say, "How do I
improve my work ethic?" I don't know your standard. I don't know your belief system. I don't know what you stand for. I don't know your vision. I don't know your mission. I don't know what you want to be. I don't know who you want to be. I don't know how big you want to build. I don't know how big of a legacy you want
to leave. I don't know who you want to be. Do you want to be a four-hour workweek? And you make money saying I don't work and
I don't have an office and I don't have this and I don't have that and you want to be a
minimalist? That's great. That's your prerogative. But I don't know your vision. I don't know your standards. There are a lot of people today in America
that want to make money without doing a lot of work. And that is respected today. That is respected today. People respect people who make money not working. People respect that. That's okay. That is morally okay to you. I have a different level of morally okay to
me when it comes down to work ethic. For me, it's completely different. I grew up watching my father work from 5:00
in the morning till 9:00 at night, two hours away, we lived in Tehran, Iran, and the city
he worked at was the city called Karaj and it was two-and-a-half hours away. And he drove a car that was called Jian. Jian is like the Pinto of Iran and France. Jian. My dad would go back and forth. He would work six days a week, because in
Iran you get one day off and it was Friday. America's Sunday in Iran is Friday. He would come on Friday and he was with us
all day Friday. We'd wake up in the morning and go to [ ], then
we'd come back, go to church, then we'd go to my grandma's house. Then we'd come home. He would take a two-hour nap on his famous
couch. Then couch is done with, he wakes up, we play
and wrestle, we have dinner, we watch a movie. At 8:30, we go to bed. That's my father's standards that he set for
me. When I watch stories of Sam Walton, which
is a CEO and entrepreneur that I want to mimic, or a person whose standard is a Jobs or somebody
here that worked very hard , who's constantly creating is my standard. I don't know your standard. For you it may be Tim Ferriss. For you it may be somebody else. For you it may be somebody that makes money
while they're not creating, only maybe they're creating content and telling people how to
find and make a lot of money traveling the world making money. I'm not dissing it. It's not mine. So I'm not here how to live your life. I'm not here to tell you how to live your
life. I'm not here for you to change your work ethic
and all that stuff. But you need to take inventory of yourself
today, finding out what your purpose of your life is. What do you want to achieve. What type of effort you want to put in. What activity do you need to create. What are your science of morals. And what standards of behavior do you want
to have that is and is not acceptable to you. That's what you need to figure out. Anything else I say to you in this video is
irrelevant. Anything else. Anything else I tell you in this video is
purely irrelevant. Anything else I tell you is irrelevant. It doesn't matter. Because someone's going to say, Oh, you know
what? I don't agree with this old type of working
and overworking yourself and etc. etc. That's your science of morals. That's yours. Okay? Oh I think this is just ridiculous. This is why people in America and capitalism
makes you overwork and . . . I'm sorry. You're watching the video on YouTube, which
is created by a capitalist. So what do you want to say? Don't watch the video. It's created by a capitalist. Turn that phone off and throw it in the trash. It's invented by a capitalist. Turn your computer off. It's invented by a capitalist. Take your clothes off and trash them. It's invented by a capitalist. Stop watching T.V. It's invented by a capitalist. Burn the books and throw them away. It's produced by a capitalist. Take that Kindle off and stop reading the
books. That Kindle is produced by a capitalist, okay? So you, decide this. Now, since I have made this clear, now let
me explain to you how you can improve your work ethic and how I improved my work ethic
over the years, as a brand-spanking new sales person, then as a brand-spanking new supervisor,
manager, then entrepreneur, then CEO, then founder, then board member, then all this
other stuff. I'm going to just tell you some tips that
worked for me over the years and hopefully it will do the same for you. Here's first things first. To me, somebody with a strong work ethic is
predictable every day. Every day. What is predictable? You show up at 8:00, you leave at midnight. You show up at 8:00, you leave at 8:00. You show up at 7:00, you leave at 9:00. You show up at 7:00, you leave at 10:00 - I
don't know, but it's predictable. And you do it every day. It doesn't matter what it is. There's a predictable work effort being put
by you. Let me explain something to you. A lot of people will come and say, "Pat, man,
you know, one day I want to be a millionaire, but you know what, for me it didn't work out." I did a conference call yesterday, and this
conference call was with a group of 40 entrepreneurs, builders that are doing a very, very good
job in our firm. And I put them on the call. And one of the guys on the conference call
asked somebody a question about momentum, and what I can do to do this and this and
this. And I said, "Listen. Those who steadily grow their business show
up every single day without any disruptions, because every time you disrupt and you have
a crisis, to you it's a crisis. To somebody else it may be a crisis but they
don't handle it as big of a way that you do. Your momentum, goes all the way back down
to level number one again. And you have to recreate momentum. It's a pain in the butt. Okay? If you truly want to have steady growth in
your business, you've got to be predictable, because the moment you stop, you lose all
your momentum. So if you really, really want to expand your
business, the purpose of you growing is a big purpose you have, whatever that purpose
is, you've got to be predictable. And throughout the time you're predictable,
you've got to accept and anticipate crisis is going to happen. What's crisis? A breakup with a girlfriend. It cannot throw you off for two months. Because then you're not predictable. Kid gets in trouble in school. It cannot throw you off for three weeks. Because then you're not predictable. You and your wife get into a terrible fight. It cannot throw you off because then you're
not predictable. You have a certain financial challenge. It cannot throw you off because you're not
predictable. You have somebody in your family that talks
smack about you. You cannot stop, because you're no longer
predictable. By the way, the person that makes it also
had all those crises happen, but they stayed predictable. Part of big work ethic is predictability. #2: Consistency. Same thing. You show up, but consistency. And you keep showing up and you keep doing
your work. Predictability is the same time I keep coming. Consistency is I keep showing up. There's a big difference. It sounds the same, but slightly different. 8:00 a.m. I come in, but I'm consistent with what I'm
doing with my efforts because I'm consistently compounding my efforts because eventually
after enough consistent effort, all of a sudden I'm going to have an inevitable explosion
in my business that takes place. #3: Prepare the night before. Proper preparation prevents poor performance. An old mentor of mine told me this. Proper preparation prevents poor performance. And this was a man, that he would always brag
about the fact that he's not talented. He was never the best speaker. I liked him, because every time I spoke to
him, it was discipline, strong, he lived in a beautiful 18,000 square-foot house, with
planes and married, I think he had six, seven, eight kids. Always stable. Always solid. But every time I talked to him, he had read
Think and Grow Rich two, three hundred times. Think about this guy. And everything to him was about preparation. He said, "Pat, the guy that's the most prepared
wins." Everything was about preparation. Every time he talked he had a 3x5 card with
him. Every time, 3 x 5 card with him. 3 x 5 card with him. 3 x 5 card with him. Preparation. Prepare the night before. Prepare Sunday before. Prepare the week before. Prepare before the meeting. Prepare before the conference. Prepare before you're preparing. Everything is about preparation. If I'm supposed to give a speech nine months
from now, I already have a folder made on my phone, and I just keep adding stuff that
I'm going to talk about in that meeting that's nine months from now. Nine months of preparation of adding notes
in the phone to prepare for something like that. That's part of work ethic. That is work ethic. #4: Do More. Let me explain what I mean by do more. I remember I was in an office. I was brand-spanking new. It's 2002, 2003, and I'm in an office of Victory
in Balboa in the city of Encino, California, and Saturdays, we were all young, and there
were a bunch of pretty girls in the office and everybody's Saturday night wanted to go
to Dublins. Dublins was the place to be. Everybody wanted to go to Dublins. You wanted to go to Saddle Ranch and Miyagi's. It was all in the same corner. Like literally 300 yards away. You go to Dublins, across the street, Miyagi's
and you go to Saddle Ranch. Boom, boom, boom boom. If you wanted to go to after hours, you could. Everybody wanted to go clubbing on Saturday
night. And I was in the office, 5:00 everyone's leaving. 6:00 two people left. 7:00, I'm staying. No one's there. 8:00, I'm staying. 9:00, I'm staying. 10, I'm staying. Everyone's gone. 11 I'm staying. By that time, I'm so wiped out I'm not going
to the club. I'm going home, reading a book, going to sleep. Boring to you, right? That's boring to you, right? Now fast forward and ask me what places I've
partied and had fun with. You won't even believe half the stories if
I told you. You would think I'm telling you a story out
of a movie. There's no way in the world you partied with
prime ministers and princes and governors and senators and billionaires and all this
other stuff, because I didn't want to get too excited about Dublins. There was a time when that was exciting to
me. There was a time Miyagi's was exciting to
me. There was a time when all that stuff was exciting
to me. Again, how big is your purpose, how long will
you put your activity with the efforts, and then does it match the standard of behavior
that you want to put out. So do more. If a person leaves at 6:00, you leave at 8:00. If a person makes 100 calls a day, you make
200 calls a day. If a person makes 50 contacts a day, you make
75. If a person sells 20 of your product, you
sell 40. If somebody practices three hours, you practice
five hours. If somebody practices six hours, you practice
eight hours. If someone reads two books, you read four
books. Just do a little bit more. Do a little bit more. #5: Subscribe to the "Now" mentality. We'll call them tomorrow. No. We're calling them now. So the other day, one of my guys, his name
is Fred, he calls me. He said, "Hey man, I'm kind of disappointed,
you know, because the office lease that I wanted didn't go through" And this is commercial
real estate agent that he's flopped with me three times. And I've made this guy $200,000. Three times he's let down referrals that I
gave this guy. I don't do well with people who I give referrals
to. I expect perfection from somebody I give a
referral to, right? I'm going to make you money. That's a market I'm introducing you to. My credibility is on the line. This guy did it three times. I said, what did he do? He said, "Well, you know, we're just not getting
the deal." I texted him. Right there, while I'm on the phone with the
speaker, I texted the commercial real estate agent. He doesn't respond. I call his office. He doesn't respond. I call his phone. He doesn't respond. I ask to talk to his supervisor. I talked to his supervisor. I said, who's the owner of the company? They put me on the phone with the owner of
the company. I talked to the president of the company. The president of the company got a call from
me. Within one hour, I got a call back from everybody. I got a text back from everybody. The guy, Fred, ended up getting exactly what
he wanted, from the office, all the expectations, they lowered it from a five-year lease to
a three-year lease. Why? Because it's do it now. Do you know what was the craziest thing Fred
told me? Oh my gosh, I'm a little bit nervous. Why are you nervous? Because I can't believe you did all that stuff
in 10 minutes. I said, "It's called the do-it-now mentality." Why would we wait until tomorrow? Hey, Pat, there's someone that may be interested. Let's call them right now. Do you have their phone number? Let's call him. Yes, let's call him right now. What are you talking about? Let's call him right now. Do it now mentality. Work ethic is a part of it. Do it now. Not tomorrow. Do it now. Now. Let's do it right now. Procrastinate tomorrow, next day, three hours,
five hours, let's do it right now. #6: Find Running Mates. I love people that work as hard as me and
they push me. There's nothing like it. I love running mates. I love people that say, "Pat, five more reps." Dude, I'm tired. Pat! Five more reps! Because some days you don't feel like it. Pat, c'mon, Pat. Five more reps. C'mon. My shoulders are giving out. Four more, three more. C'mon, Pat. C'mon, 10 more calls. Running mates. Running mates will push each other. Running mates will push each other. There's nothing like finding a good running
mate that pushes you. Working hard buddies, if you want to call
it that. And then eventually, unfortunately, sometimes
you end up not finding anybody else that wants to work at your pace, and then you're working
buddies may not be in the same place you're at. They may be a complete different place. And you play games with each other. Hey, what time are you waking up? What time are you doing this? That's your working buddies. #7: Don't fall for the work smart only concept. Four hour work week is work smart. I get it. I respect it. Some people like that. Standard of behavior. Your morals, your standards. It's fine. Nothing big has ever been built without working
very hard. And I'm talking very hard. Very hard. It's Friday night right now when we're shooting
this. Everybody's gone from the office. Dennis is here, former 8-year DPT, Dallas
Police Department. I'm here. We're shooting this. I am willing to bet everyone's out of the
office, except for Mario and probably Paul is sitting somewhere as well. It's Friday night. It's already 7:00. Everyone's going out to dinner. I just got back from Burbank, California. I was in Bakersfield, California. I was in Houston, Texas. I got a bunch of other travel that's coming
up. We're here right now in the office. Why are we doing this? Well, Pat! How do you find the time to shoot these episodes? You never miss a Tuesday and Thursday episode
of Valuetainment. Because some nights on Friday night I want
to go home and kick it and relax and I don't and we shoot these episodes because we're
supposed to come to you Tuesdays and Thursdays. And do you realize from the moment we said
Tuesdays and Thursdays, we've never, ever done an episode that we missed on Tuesday
or Thursday. Why? It's part of commitment. It's part of being predictable. It's part of showing up. And there are days, right now, my back, I'm
not gonna lie to you. We did legs with my personal trainer, Josh. My hamstrings are so tight right now, Mario
was stretching me right now. I can't even go like that right now. I come up and I can't breathe. It's that bad. Not because of my lower back pain. My hamstrings. It doesn't matter. So when people tell me, but I'm sick, I have
this, I have that. Then this [work ethic] is not your game yet. Then this is not your game yet. #8: Cut distractions. Very simple. You've got to cut distractions. You're still going to have some distractions
in your life. But you've got to cut the distractions that
you can cut. Get rid of the distractions. Get rid of the, in the office, you know there's
a lot of different stuff that can take time away from me. I don't want it. I want to cut distractions. I want to cut any kind of distractions I can
cut in my life. I don't want to deal with office politics. I want to perform. So there's office politics. You go perform. You don't need to deal with it. You go grow your business. #9: Absolute focus. Absolute focus. This is tiring, but believe me, I'm the ADHD
guy and you know how ADHDs don't know how to focus. I'm the guy that would see something, and
I'm gone. Boom, I'm looking at all this other stuff. You've got to train your mind to be focused. It's a muscle. You've got to train your mind to be focused. You can do it. So when people tell me all these rhetoric,
I need to take this medicine, I need to take that medicine, stop. You're looking for an out. You may need to take that medicine. I'm not questioning your doctor. All I'm telling you is, stop making excuses
that you can't stay focused. Practice it. It's a muscle. Stay focused. Next, have a to-do list. Work ethic has to do with to-do lists. What needs to get done next. What needs to get done next right now? Mario and I, about four hours ago I told him,
I said, "Mario," Mario wanted to add another project to our list of projects. I said, let me show you what we got. That's all I did to him. I said, let me show it to you. I went through every single thing and he said,
"Pat, I've got the point." I said, You want to add another thing? Here's what we got. What else do you want to do? What else do you want to do? Can you handle this? No, we're not ready yet. Let's wait 90 more days. Let's wait 90 more days. Next, eat right. Work ethic requires energy for you to be able
to last a long time. Stamina, efficiency, for you to be able to
go and you have the, you know, you're not getting tired by 4:00. If you eat right, you're going to be able
to stick around even longer. #12: Plug the leaks. I don't like leaks. When I worked at Bally's, I told a story about
Bally's earlier, but when I worked at Bally's, I wanted to find out where the leaks were. It doesn't matter what the leaks were. The leaks were some of the tours were taking
way too long. So the person coming back, he was giving a
forty minute tour of the gym. You could do that in 13 minutes. Why are you doing a forty-minute tour? Just because she's pretty? We just lost 37 minutes, 27 minutes of your
time. I need you to be back here making calls. This is why we're not hitting our goal. So plug the leaks. What's the leak? The leak is, you know, when I make the call,
I'm doing this and I'm doing this and I'm doing this. That took seven seconds. Plug the leaks. It's a waste of my time. What's the leak? Another leak is I'm going from here to here. I'm going to find the fastest way to get home,
or I'm. . . plug whatever leaks you got with your business. There's a lot of leaks. Work ethic requires you to plug the leaks
and figure out exactly what those leaks are. They waste way too much time. Next, cut the fat. Similar to cut the distractions, but cut the
fat. There's a lot of fat. It's work you don't need to do. It's work that somebody else can do. It's work that makes you feel excited that
you got stuff done, not necessary. It didn't grow your business. You just want to go home, saying you worked
hard. But you didn't get nothing done. There are days that you work and you go home
and say, "What happened today to my business?" How did the value of my business increase
today? It didn't! But I feel like I worked 10 hours. This one guy told me, I'm at the office every
damn day, Patrick. He's screaming in my face. You're telling me I don't work that hard. How the hell can you be at the office sixty
hours a week and in a month you only sell four? You tell me how. Tell me! I said, your wife is sitting right here. You're telling me you're working hard. What do you mean you're working hard? You ain't working hard. Just because you're at the office doesn't
mean you're working hard. Man, cut the fat. Turn off the Facebook. Turn off Snapchat. Make some calls. Contact. Reach out to somebody. You're not focused. You need to cut the fat. And then he did, and his business blew up. Next, drop perfection. Let me tell you what I mean by drop perfection. Sometimes a person doesn't work as hard because
they're trying to it so perfectly that they don't even take the shot. If you don't take the shot, we run out of
time, and you lose the game anyways. Guess what? if there's six seconds left on
the shot clock, and you look for the perfect shot, what's the chances of you winning if
you don't get the perfect shot? You're not going to win, because you've got
to take the shot. So guess what? No matter what, you've got to take the shot. What is take the shot? Go to that appointment. It's contradiction of preparation, I get it. But I would much rather have you take the
shot, than not take the shot. Work a lot on being prepared. But don't expect to have a perfect environment
all the time. Seek magic than you're seeking perfection
in your business. Perfection prevents explosion many, many times. Perfection prevents explosion many, many times. Because it's never going to be perfect. So people wait for a perfect time to hit it. You've got just to hit it. Then how to avoid burnout, which is something
people ask me about burnout. Pat, how do I avoid burnout? Have your own escape. Here's what I mean by escape. I went to the movies every single month, middle
of the day at 10:00 and I went and watched a movie by myself, with 80-year-old folks. Because I watched it at 10:00. It was my escape. It was my therapy. It was my escape. I would work so hard every other week, I was
at the spa getting a massage. Every other week, I get a massage at the spa. Every other week I get a massage at the spa. Sundays, when I was single, every Sunday,
I went to the beach. Every single Sunday, I'd go to the beach. Wake up in the morning. Go do the stairs in Santa Monica. I would go do the dunes, the sand dunes. And then I would go to the beach. I'd go sit there and read. I'd come back and see the PF Changs, my favorite
waiter, or I'd go to Earth Cafe and I'd sit and order the same exact food at Earth Cafe,
which we no longer have in Dallas, Texas. Dallas has got to get some Earth Cafe, because
it's insane. I'm missing my Earth Cafe. And then I'd come home. But I had my rituals. You've got to find ways to have your own release. You've got to find ways to have your own escape. You've got to find ways to have that as well. And then I always selfishly rewarded myself. It didn't matter what it was. If you do this, Pat, we're getting this. If we do this, we're buying a Harley. If we do this, we're buying an S600. If we do this, we're going to go shopping
$5,000. If we do this, we're going to this place. If we do this, you're going to this. If you do this, you're going to New York New
Year's Eve. If you do this, you're going to qualify for
this trip. If you do this. . . there's always got to be that part because
if there isn't, then you've got to have the carrot. There's no motivation. You need a carrot, but you got to create the
carrot yourself, to have a stronger work ethic. Because if you don't, you'll hit 100 grand
you'll stop. You'll hit a quarter million, you stop. You hit a milestone you stop, because you
don't have the next carrot. You need the next carrot. So just keep those things in mind about work
ethic. But I will tell you out of everything I told
you today in this video, out of everything I told you today in this video, the most important
thing I told you in this video is go back and study these three words, work, ethic,
morals. And then dictate what your standard of behavior
is going to be that is and is not acceptable to you. Let's get my favorite pillow. If you haven't subscribed to the greatest
channel on YouTube for entrepreneurs, please, subscribe down here and share this content
with other entrepreneurs that you do business with. If you run an organization, you have employees,
and you want them to improve their work ethic, share this video with them as well. You've got any questions or thoughts, comment
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to the comments myself, our team, some of the questions I get back to, 99% of them,
I get back to, some of the details about hey, can I get this, can I get that, my staff gets
back, but if I answer a question for you, because it matters to me, for all the entrepreneurs
that follow this channel. So comment on the bottom if you have any questions
and thoughts. Subscribe, and if you're watching this video
on a completely different website, you can always come back to PatrickBetDavid.com. Boom. And if you want this shirt, of autodidact,
which is a self-taught person, go to Valuetainmentstore.com and get a shirt for yourself. I will tell you. More people ask me about what autodidact means
than I can tell you. And this is coming from an autodidact who
is a self-taught person. Take care everybody. Bye bye.
