Blog | Personal development

Dare to Be Bold

Entrepreneurship is a roller coaster. One day, you're a hero and you feel awesome. Then, even the next day or the next moment, you're an idiot. To be a successful entrepreneur, you really need to develop your emotional intelligence.

On a simple level, think of how you have a gym membership and go to gym to get healthy. At the next level, you have a personal trainer to hold you accountable and to put more pressure on you. That increases your emotional intelligence because you know it's not going to be easy, but the results will be so much better.

The difference between an amateur and a professional is simple: professionals have coaches. Whatever it is that you want to get into, hire a coach to help push you through those emotional barriers. Then you can take on additional stress and keep pushing through to persevere. When you get those wins, celebrate them and build on that momentum.

The other key is being able to read the numbers and make tough decisions because without money, this whole thing doesn't work. When I got sober, I made a vow that nothing would ever control me ever again. When I found out money was controlling me, it was a gut punch. I said, “Never again.”

I mastered money through financial education. One of my mentors is Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Whenever I'm struggling or I want to have a breakthrough, I'd hire a coach or a mentor and learn from that person.The difference between where I am today and where I want to go in the future is between myears. Am I scared to death? Hell, yeah. Am I uncomfortable? Yeah. I'm going to do it anyways.

It’s like working out; you have to add more weights to get stronger. Then you look back fiveyears and say, “I couldn't have handled anything that I'm doing today.” Now it is easy. I'm using the physical training as an example, but it's all mental, spiritual and emotional.

Our facility, Warriors Heart, is the first private treatment center in the United States. No one else has done this licensed, accredited version the right way. There's a lot of good organizations out there helping our veterans, but no one took thebehavioral health, licensed treatment care approach that my wife, our partner Tom Spooner and I have done, based on our experiences.

When our warriors walk through the doors, they know that this place was built by a warrior for a warrior. It's not a sterile hospital. Culturally, they fit in here. We've had about 360 warriors now through our program; it's working and our reputation is gaining momentum.

This particular U.S. administration is behind supporting veterans, so we have a lot of good support there. One contract with the Department of Defense can change everything for us where we could have multiple facilities all across the United States. That's our goal. Until then, we just keep moving forward, making mistakes, learning from them and growing from them.

If you're afraid of something, you may want to take a look at it and ask why by looking at the core issue underneath it. There's some huge learning potential there. I'm scared to death of public speaking and doing podcast interviews. I do it because I'm uncomfortable and it helps me grow. You never know who's listening and how it's going to impact their lives.

I'm not special. I just didn't give up. I've surrounded myself around some great people.

In the long run, I look at what I'm doing today, traveling internationally and knowing people from the Pentagon. I mean I dropped out of high school and was told by my teachers that I would be nothing. They told me I was lazy and incompetent.

In school, I wanted to learn how to ride bikes and get a girlfriend, but they didn't have any classes in that. As a kid, I wanted to fit in and I didn't know what to do. I had a chance to figure out my own path here because the path that they were telling me to follow isn't really working for a lot of people. So, it had to be bold and go for it.

I failed English since I'm dyslexic. I thought “I'll show you.” I wrote a book entitled The Social Capitalist.

I've spent more money outside of school and studying outside of school than I ever did in school. I am a lifelong student. Now I read books. I go to seminars. I do events. I want to learn. I want to grow.

When you look at those that have succeeded, there's nothing really special about them or about me. Tap into your inner energy, that spiritual strength, and trust it. A lot of people believe in God, but very few people trust in God. Whatever that means to you, go for it.