Ari Rastegar | How Flipping Burgers Led to a $3,000 Deal That Built a Billion-Dollar Real Estate Empire

Summary

Podcast Summary: School of Hard Knocks Podcast

Episode: Ari Rastegar | How Flipping Burgers Led to a $3,000 Deal That Built a Billion-Dollar Real Estate Empire
Date: January 10, 2026
Host(s): The School of Hard Knocks (James & Jack)
Guest: Ari Rastegar

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Overview

This episode features Ari Rastegar, self-made real estate mogul, who shares how early struggles, humble beginnings, and a mindset shift towards failure propelled him from flipping burgers at Johnny Rockets to building a multi-billion-dollar real estate empire, including the tallest building in Dallas. Ari reflects on formative experiences from his upbringing, the discipline from law school, the drive to overcome hardship, the significance of intentional habits, and what it really takes—mentally, physically, and relationally—to succeed at the highest levels of business.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Power of Failure and Mindset

• Failure as Fuel:
  • Ari flips the common fear of failure, advocating embracing failure as a learning tool and a badge of honor for success.
    • Quote:
      • “You’re damn right I’m a failure. And that’s why I’m still here.” (B, 00:16 / 64:21)
  • Success, Ari says, is “very much a science,” but living a fulfilling life is “an art.” (B, 05:24)
  • “Bosses take losses... bosses strike out 7 out of 10 times. You’re not just good, you’re in the hall of fame.” (B, 62:50)
• Growth from Adversity:
  • Growing up as “the poorest kid in the richest neighborhood” (Highland Park, TX) instilled hunger and persistent belief in possibilities.
  • Overcoming a speech impediment and years of therapy became “a blessing,” showcasing struggle as a precursor to strength. (B, 05:00 – 07:52)

Formative Influences and the Law

• Influence of Family & Cultural Heritage:
  • Ari recounts a pivotal conversation with his grandfather, who redirected his path from medicine to business:
    • “You see all these buildings? Yeah. One day you’re going to own them all.” (B, 02:12)
  • His father gifting him “Think and Grow Rich” became a lifelong syllabus.
    • “If you don’t know where you’re going first, how are you going to know when you got there?” (B, 03:32)
• Legal Training as Advantage:
  • “All of business is a contract. All relationships are a covenant, which is another word for a contract. Understanding the law helps you understand order.” (B, 00:43 / 26:39)
  • Legal thinking provides edge in zoning, entitlements, and anticipating community needs (B, 26:39 – 31:54).

Journey from Minimum-Wage Jobs to Billion-Dollar Deals

• First Business Steps:
  • From Johnny Rockets and Double Dave’s to law school, where he borrowed $3,000 (sometimes from his scholarship fund) to build and sell a house—his first taste of real estate dealmaking. (B, 08:34 – 14:23; 18:41 – 21:15)
• Compounding Consistency:
  • Quotes Bill Gates: “We dramatically overestimate what we can do in a year, but we dramatically underestimate what we can do in a decade or two or three or four.” (B, 08:34)
  • “It’s amazing what happens with consistency and just compound effects.” (B, 08:34)

Visualization, Goal Setting, and Meditation

• Goal Setting with Intention:
  • Wrote himself a check for $1 billion, carrying it for 15 years before reaching that “level.”
    • “The difference between a goal and a dream is: is it written down?” (B, 08:34 – 14:23)
• Meditation as a High-Performance Tool:
  • Inspired by Ray Dalio and Dr. Joe Dispenza, Ari emphasizes daily meditation for peak mental focus. (B, 14:51 – 18:41)
    • “He blew me the fuck away. He goes, ‘Meditate.’” (B, 14:51)

Health as Work & Wealth Enabler

• Biohacking and Health Optimization:
  • Severe fatigue and poor bloodwork led Ari to dedicated health routines prescribed by Dr. Jacob Rosenstein.
    • “If you don’t have health, you don’t have anything.” (B, 35:21)
    • “As my physical blood work got better, I started to feel better. When I felt better, I got more energy...and made better decisions.” (B, 40:03)
  • Advocates for simple, disciplined eating and supplement regimens; “Boring is beautiful.” (B, 37:49)

Real Estate Strategy & Dallas Upsurge

• Building the Tallest Building in Dallas:
  • The new project is a full-circle story: a nightclub that once denied him entry due to muddy sneakers becomes the site of his skyscraper.
    • “I still have the white Air Force Ones, literally...I will wear [them] to the ceremony...then I’ll put them in a little glass box and frame them in the lobby.” (B, 45:14 – 52:21)
  • Dallas as “Y’all Street”: highlighted as the new Wall Street with macroeconomic shifts, favorable business climate, and infrastructure. (B, 45:16 – 52:21)
• Zoning and Anticipating Growth:
  • “If a city like Kyle...the needs of that society are evolving, you need to anticipate...if you’re getting in the market right where the needs are, at that moment, you’re too late.” (B, 26:39)

Practical Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

• Steps for Starting in Real Estate:
  • Build personal discipline: “Control your health, your mental state...Pick up ‘Think and Grow Rich.’” (B, 53:34)
  • Emphasize emotional fitness, not just technical skills.
  • Network and leverage relationships—with reference to Ari’s days hunting for investors at Il Molino’s bar. (B, 32:29)
• Essential Professional Relationships:
  • “Having a fantastic accountant...because accounting is the language of business.” (B, 57:24)
  • Importance of knowing your numbers, protecting your downside, and having the right people and structures in place before seeking capital.

Ari’s Contrarian Investment Philosophy & The Gift of Failure

• Listen to your inner voice:
  • “One of [my mistakes] was not listening to my own voice and thinking someone else had a better answer.” (B, 61:22)
  • Closing your eyes and listening to yourself breeds contrarian (and successful) thinking.
• On Failure:
  • “Go back to the toddler mentality...if you could channel that [joyful] energy when you fail, you’d live a much happier and fulfilled life.” (B, 64:21 – 66:54)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Manifestation & Scripting Destiny:
  • “I wrote myself a check for a billion dollars. I carried it around for almost 15 years.” (B, 00:16)
• On Success Formula:
  • “Success is a science...living a meaningful life is an art.” (B, 05:24)
• On Dallas’ Economic Transformation:
  • “Dallas is becoming Wall Street—‘Y’all Street.’” (B, 45:14)
• On Resilience and Overcoming Odds:
  • “If you don’t have health, you don’t have anything.” (B, 35:21)
• On Advice for the Next Generation:
  • “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul…Create your life. Realize that life is a mirror.” (B, 67:13)
• On Legacy:
  • “I’d like to be remembered as somebody that saw that failure was success, that this life is about experimenting, experiencing, and then doing it again.” (B, 68:32)
• On Building the Impossible:
  • “Over the last eight years, I’ve gone through the most comprehensive zoning change in the history of Dallas, Texas...our building will look literally downward on Goldman Sachs’s new headquarters.” (B, 45:14–52:21)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:16 – Failure as a badge of honor
• 02:12 – Life-changing conversation with grandfather
• 03:32 – Influence of “Think and Grow Rich”
• 08:34 – Compound effects & first real estate deal
• 14:51 – Visualization, meditation, and the role of Ray Dalio
• 18:41 – The inspiration behind borrowing $3,000
• 26:39 – The advantage of legal know-how in real estate
• 35:21 – Health is wealth: Ari’s biohacking story
• 40:03 – Emotional health through physical health
• 45:14 – Building the tallest building in Dallas: the full-circle moment
• 53:34 – Advice for young people starting in real estate
• 57:24 – The importance of accountants and relationships in business
• 61:22 – Contrarian philosophy and trusting your own voice
• 64:21 – Failure as the tool for learning and success
• 67:13 – Ari’s lasting principle: “I am the master of my fate…”
• 68:32 – How Ari wants to be remembered

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Tone:

The tone is raw, reflective, and passionate—often mixing humor, humility, and directness ("Let’s fucking go. That was awesome." B, 69:42). Ari brings practical, no-excuses wisdom delivered with self-awareness and gratitude.

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For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

If you want a blueprint on transforming struggle into fuel for entrepreneurial achievement, this episode is a must—a playbook on the mindset required to scale any ambition, founded on practical habits, enduring relationships, and the willingness to embrace and learn from failure. Ari Rastegar personifies the “self-made” ideal, showing that even the tallest skyscrapers can have muddy beginnings.

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Transcript

[A]

One of the biggest real estate experts in the entire country right now, Ari Rastagar, he's quickly built a multi billion dollar real estate portfolio. And correct me if I'm wrong, Ari, you are building the tallest building in Dallas right now.

[B]

Pretty close.

[C]

What do you think the average person doesn't understand about failure?

[B]

That failure is a bad thing. That's what I didn't understand. You're a failure, Ari. You're a failure. I look in the mirror, you're damn right I'm a failure. And that's why I'm still here. And I wrote myself a check for a billion dollars. I carried it around for almost 15 years having a billion dollar valuation or a billion dollar platforms on a billion dollars in your checky account. There's levels to how this works.

[C]

What is something from your days as a lawyer that you've taken into your firm now?

[B]

All of business is a contract. All relationships are a covenant, which is another word for a contract. Understanding the law helps you understand order.

[A]

Ari. If me and you were to pass away and die tomorrow, and you could leave one more guiding principle with the younger generation, what would that mean? What's going on, everyone? And welcome back to the School of Hard Knocks podcast. I'm James, I'm here with Jack, and we are out in Austin, Texas with an incredible guest for you all, one of the biggest real estate experts in the entire country right now, Ari Rastagar. He's quickly built a multi billion dollar real estate portfolio buying buildings, and now he's shaping entire skylines. And correct me if I'm wrong, Ari, you are building the tallest building in Dallas right now.

[B]

Pretty close. Pretty close in uptown for sure. Where the new. Where the new stock exchange is going. Absolutely.

[A]

But you didn't start there. We were talking about it before. A couple of years ago you were working at Johnny Rocket.

[B]

Yeah. Was it Bill's? About 15 minutes ago.

[A]

Where I want to get started today is I want you to take us back to a conversation that you had when you were a young kid. And I want. I want to set the scene. You're driving around downtown Dallas with your, I believe your granddad, and you're having a conversation with him and you're telling him, you know what, Grandpa, I'm going to be a doctor one day. And your grandpa looks at you and he goes, son, you're not going to be a doctor. We're in America right now. You're going to be a businessman. What impact did that conversation have on you for the rest of your life? And where you are today building a multi billion dollar company.

[B]

It's a huge one. Because I wanted to. I wanted to be like my grandpa. He was one of the Shah of Iran's medical doctors. And, you know, like the story of a lot of Iranian Americans, you know, we weren't at the. With the current regime, so they had to leave everything behind. And so part of, I think my life story was growing up a few feet from fame. Like hearing these stories of, you know, of the riches and the power and the culture of Iran. But no, not having the money here and growing up with a. With a single dad in Dallas, moving to Highland park in Dallas, which is the richest neighborhood in Texas, but being kind of the poorest kid in the richest neighborhood. So my life had this, like, proximity to, to this wealth and success, but it hadn't translated into. Into my pockets. But you're right, you know, I wanted to be like him. I said, look, I wanted to be a doctor. He said, look, we're in. We're in America. You know, this is. This is basically in Farsi. Something like, this is corporate America. You're going to be a businessman. I'm like, what the hell is a businessman? Like, I don't. And my grandpa says it, and he. And we look out the window and he's trying to, I guess, explain to me. He says, you see all these buildings? Yeah. One day you're going to own them all. Own them all. Like, I don't have 50 cents in my pocket. But, you know, he. It definitely had a. Had a. Had a huge impact. And my father, you know, instilled a lot of these stories in me very, very early on. And one of the most impactful things, you know, from there is when my dad gave me the book Think and Grow Rich. And I remember being, like, so annoyed. I'm like, I don't want. I was like 13, 14 years old. He's like, you need to stick Iranian. You have to read this book. I was like, okay. So I remember going up and reading through it and getting a chapter in and going down and telling my dad, like, thoughts are things like, what does that mean? And going through this book became so much of, like, a syllabus for the rest of my life. We're still, to this day. Um, I revisit that concept because I, I tell people all the time, like, if you don't know where you're going first, like, how are you going to know when you got there? And if you don't know where you're going, it's like telling the GPS system I want to go eat. That's not a destination. Like you need a place, something to write. And having that, having that syllabus and having that guide was a huge guiding part of my life and that heritage and the know Iranian culture growing up here. And I speak a few languages fluently, but you know, I, I always, I still kind of think in Farsi and that part from my grandpa, my granddad was a massive, massive shift.

[A]

You brought up how you grew up and you spent some time in Highland park, but you were kind of one of the poor families that live there.

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

There's a saying that we love at the school of hard knocks, which is that you can only grow to what you're exposed to at an early age, being, being around. You mentioned the proximity. How important was that for you growing up to kind of realize what was possible? Seeing Rolls Royces driving by, the vast amounts of wealth that's actually out there. Did that in the back of your mind always have an effect on you as you got older because you knew it was possible?

[B]

Yes, and I think there's two sides to it because I think so much of any type of success, and I've come to differentiate success and what I think a life of like fulfillment is, because success is very much a science. Like there's a, there's a curriculum that you can be, it's, it's more of a math formula to become successful. But living a meaningful life is an art, you know, so there's a difference to it. And so when you grow up close to something, you feel the void, you can feel the difference. So that creates when you don't have emotional fortitude. And I'm a big believer in emotional fitness, you know, getting to a place where you get this psychological attack. Because before we had this, you know, 2 million year old reptilian brain that was trained to keep us away from, you know, problems and it was like an actual lion was going to jump out and kill you. But now it's a, you know, it's a text message from somebody or it's an email or it's a lawsuit or you know, something that scares the shit out of you. But it's not the same physical survival mechanism. So at that early, at those early ages, I certainly didn't have the emotional resilience to deal with that level of inadequacy. A feeling, you know, that I didn't have something feeling. I had a really bad speech impediment growing up and had to go to seven years of Speech therapy, you know, to learn how to talk. I, I stuttered. I had this lisp at the beginning. It just felt like a problem. It felt like a curse. And, you know, over time, it started to unravel into a blessing. And I think a lot about, you know, the two sides of the coin. You know, knowing, know, sorrow, you know, joy and sorrow are two sides of the same coin. Like you, if there wasn't two, you wouldn't know the other one. And so it took a lot of time, a lot of anger, a lot of sadness, a lot of labels from, you know, pseudo doctors of, you know, ADD or, you know, you're depressed, you're, and all these things to start to unravel the gift. That was what I was in fact very much exposed to. But that took, there was a long journey to, to get to the place, to find that kernel of what it actually was, to find that, that, you know, that problem that I saw was a gift that I could grow from. But at the time, I had no idea. It was just pure pain, it was just pure inadequacy. It was feeling very self conscious that, you know, that took a lot of time to unravel.

[A]

And.

[B]

But in hindsight, yes, it was one of the greatest, smartest things my father ever did because he went to law school a little bit later in life, had a student housing deal with SMU, which is across the street, so we could live in the Highland park school district. And in hindsight, I think it was, you know, one of the greatest gifts he ever gave me.

[C]

And before we sat down to start recording the podcast, you mentioned you're coming up on 20 year anniversary of starting your firm.

[B]

11 years.

[C]

11 years. 11 years. And you know, you were mentioning, man, I feel like I was at Johnny Rockets just 15 minutes ago. And so like, how do you go from working at Johnny Rockets to, I believe you went to law school and lawyer. Right. And then starting a multibillion dollar company. How does that happen?

[B]

I saw Bill Gates early in my career talk. And one thing I love so much about you guys is you've given such a blessing to people to be able to have that exposure to these, you know. Well, I'm a big reader. I was an English literature major. Okay. And so my mentors growing up and you know, I'm kind of, I sit on this, someone told me the other day that I'm not the oldest millennial. I'm like a zillennial or zenial, some other term where I grew up in an analog age. And, but also In a digital age. So my mentors were in books. And I wish at that time, this gift that you all have given to the world of people, being able to see these brilliant minds and hear them and be close to them and, and learn from them, I admire tremendously. And one thing that I heard from one of these, you know, mentors from afar, you know, and Mr. Gates, is we dramatically overestimate what we can do in a year, but we dramatically underestimate what we can do in a decade or two or three or four. And I say that to where it's amazing what happens with consistency and just compound effects. So I was working at Johnny Rockets when I was in high school, and again, it was a great job. I got to keep my tips. Um, but it was again back to a. It created this, this hunger, I think, because it was also in North Park Mall where all the Highland park kids came. And so I kind of had this moment of thinking, oh, I'm here. But it gave me something that I don't think you can buy and which I think is a gift. And that's hunger. You know, hunger, I think is one of the most important attributes to achieve anything, you know, meaningful in life. And being there, making, you know, $2.86 an hour and being able to keep my. Keep my tips. I had this book and I had this vision to be able to think that life could be better. And by setting my first goal that really my dad set for me was law school. It was being able to have some place that I knew I was going the minute I knew I was going to go to law school. I was a terrible student in high school. So I had to go to two community colleges before I even got into Texas A and M. I did graduate top of my class, but then I had. Then I studied in Mexico, did a study abroad and went to law school. But my point is having that first meaningful goal that appeared to be long term of law school and not knowing anything beyond that. Because a lot of times we have. We look to these grandiose goals and that's like a reverse form of procrastination. It's another way to make us feel bad about ourselves. But if we can set goals that are. That are meaningful enough that we can achieve, then we can grow on them. Because a lot of times the next goal hasn't even revealed itself because you have to invent yourself to a certain level. And that new person you invented will invent what the next goal is. So until you've got to that next level you don't even have a concept of the next one is. So by having law school in front of me, that gave me a place to go. And in fact, while in law school, I borrowed $3,000 to buy a little lot in Spring Branch, Texas, just out of San Antonio, and convinced a local developer to help me build this house. And we built it for $80,000, sold it for $115,000, and it gave me my first taste of taking something that was in my mind and then seeing it on paper. And there's, you know, these are. Back to that science of success. Same thing goes with writing your goals. And I tell. I tell people all the time who have goals and have dreams, and that's great, but difference between a goal and a dream is. Is it written down? And the analogy for real estate is very beautiful because then you have a blueprint, and so you have this first blueprint, and you envision it, and you go measure it, and you go see it. You're standing on this land, and you see this dream that you have, Then all of a sudden, it is manifested or created into something. That was the moment that connected Johnny Rockets to Double Dave's Pizza, which was through college. And the reason I worked at Double Dave's is because I got free pizza. And so my college roommate and I, who was. Who is, you know, my wrestling partner in high. In high school, you know, we. You know, that we just basically lived off pizza because I worked there free. I got to collect. I keep my tips. And that first construction piece literally showed me that I could construct myself. It connected the first dot because, you know, it's hard to connect the dots going forward, but you learn to over time. But that created this one pocket. Like that chapter, so to speak, was closed. And then when law school started to accelerate, the bar exam finished, another chapter unraveled. Then I thought, well, I remember sitting to myself, well, if I built one, maybe we could build 10, maybe we could build a thousand. And then I started to think about my grandpa. My. I started thinking about those buildings. I was like, a house is basically. It's like 20 houses on top of each other. But it's just a blueprint, right? It's just an idea. And, you know, and you hear these things a lot, and cliches are cliches for a reason, because there's an element of truth. And so starting to lay that blueprint, starting to write out where I saw myself going, creating a destination. And I wrote myself a check for a billion dollars when I was 23 years old personal check for a billion dollars from me to me. And I carried it around for almost 15 years every single day. And as you talk to the people that you, that you talk with, and as I said, I love watching, you know, watching what you guys do. It's having a billion dollar valuation or a billion dollar platform is not a billion dollars in your checky account. You know, there's levels to, you know how this works.

[C]

I, I, I love that story about the check carrying it around because it, I, I mean you probably learned that in thinking grow rich.

[B]

I did.

[C]

And you know the actor Jim Carrey, he said that he wrote himself like a $10 million and that's how much he made on Dumb and Dumber. And I'll show you this. My goal someday is to, my goal someday is to, I'm, I'm a big Dodgers fan, big baseball guy. And so what I have in here is my first Dodgers ticket to remind me that's like my thing for when I buy the Dodger someday.

[B]

So. And I'll tell you something, a person that does that I would not bet against. Yeah. You know, every day, it's about every day you think about. And again, back to the point. I've done a lot of work, a lot of work with Tony Robbins, who I love. I saw y' all interviewed the other day. Lucky you shout out to Tony Robbins. I think I did my first in person seminar and I've done a dozen probably matter of fact, I did another one virtually between us like a month ago. So the, the journey never stops by the way. You know, the, the, the, the, the scaling is, it needs to be insatiable. But you know, he said it in a certain way of, you know, you know, energy goes where focuses, you know, and, and then Dr. Joe Dispenza, who I've done a lot of his meditation retreats, I'm sure you've seen him before, has really calculated and measured what, what happens when we focus on something, what happens in our heart, what happens in our mind and these concepts of mysticism and woo woo meditation. Incidentally, Jim is a big meditation guy too. I learned about meditation from Ray Dalio. I love Ray. I read his principles before it was even a book. He used to publish it on his website. You could download it. And I saved up my money to go to a, to go to a little conference that he was speaking at and I waited out front and got to the front row and he answered some questions for some people walking up. And um, I got to ask him like in person. Back to that being exposed. You know, was there one thing like, what's one thing that you would have someone learn who wanted to be an entrepreneur? And he blew me the fuck away. He goes, meditate. I was like, huh? Meditate. Okay, okay. Immediately went and signed up for a transcendental meditation course. And now Major and I have been through all the advanced programs and become siddhas and meditation been a huge part. I went to another conference to see him, to thank him, and I did. Waited in line again three years later, stood in line and got to see him and said, I just wanted to say thank you for meditation. He goes, you meditate every day. I go, yeah. He goes, it's good, isn't it? I thought if Ray Dalio, the numbers business guru of the world, meditation is something to, to pay attention to. But Dr. Joe has learned, has taught how to measure what's actually happening. So when we go to create the life that we want to create, can we put ourselves in a physical state that we are full of gratitude, that we're full of hope, we're full of optimism, and then write the goals and then feel the goals, and then be able to go small, to go big? You know, one of the, one of the myriad of mistakes that I've made is, you know, thinking just of the longer term instead of really watching the ball. And I'm not a golfer, but, you know, golfers, like, they look down the fairway, you know, this whatever, and the ball's this big, you know, and they sit and they keep the head down. You keep your head down, you hit the ball. And I think life and business certainly has that same objective, is like, do the thing that's right in front of you. And in a world that's changing this fast, this quickly, I ascribe to the 12 week year concept of, you know, I don't plan our budgets or our things beyond, you know, 12 weeks of what I'm going to do. My scheduling, my time, my core objectives, the maximum is 12 weeks. And the things that we buy and the things we build, we think of them in terms of we'd want to own them forever, you know, clearly, you know, we sell them to monetize for our investors that are public, pension plans, insurance companies, etc. Um, but having, balancing the long term, but keeping action in the most present sense possible.

[A]

I wanted to go back to when you mentioned you borrowed $3,000 when you were in law school. What had inspired you to actually go out and kind of get that loan, to get that first $3,000 to get the lot and put your first property on there.

[B]

It's a great question. I where St. Mary's University is where my law school is. I was living a little bit outside of the city, as I said, in Spring Branch. I actually developed the house next door to where I was living is the other part. So I could be on the site at 5 o' clock in the morning and I could get to school and get back and forth. But this is the year will tell you what was going on. But it was, this was 2007, so I was driving back and forth to school and I'd see like a sign for sale. And by the time I was coming home, Sold. For sale. Sold. Sold. And I just. And I kept seeing the same name, you know, Dugan Construction and Mitch Dugan, who's still a friend of mine today, is the one that helped me with it. But I kept seeing Sold, bought, sold, bought, sold, bought, sold. And back to that point of, you know, I think thinking about what my grandpa said and thinking about me growing up, real estate just meant wealth. Like, I didn't even know. Like, I remember thinking, you know, when one of my mentors that gave me my first big break to start my first big, big company was an entertainment company called Capital Entertainment is one of the most, you know, decorated financiers in, in New York. And he'd come down to, to Dallas to see his cousin, my wrestling coach that made that intro. And I remember he's like, this is a Wall street guy. I didn't even know Wall street was a street. I just thought it meant rich people. Like, I didn't even know what. I didn't even know what I, what I, what I didn't know. But what I did remember was the kind of rich dad, poor dad. I just thought real estate, real estate means wealthy. And if you look at the richest families, you know, certainly for the last, you know, three or 4,000 years, and I think the future, that's going to change a little bit as the values of people change and the values that individuals have around buying homes and, you know, people are investing more in their cameras and their digital social circles more than they are maybe in the bricks and mortar. It's another discussion. But seeing that it was going back and forth, I thought that maybe, maybe I could do it and this would be my entree into what I thought wealth even meant. So just walking into that realm of, of wealth could be, was having the idea. And, and I also used my scholarship money, which I don't think was entirely allowed. But I did as well to buy that first lot.

[A]

Did you ever end up practicing law?

[B]

I did. I absolutely did. I'll. I'll tell you, I'll tell you a funny story. So I passed the bar. Well, actually a little bit before that. It was the first year I was studying for the bar. I was living on major's couch and studying for the bar. He paid for my prep course to do barbary, which is the whatever. So studying at smu. And it was the first year that you could do the bar exam on a computer, like on a laptop. And you put it on a little USB and you had to upload it. So finished the bar, Major picked me up and we went to this little steakhouse in downtown Dallas and which was really close to his little loft where he lived. And you had to upload the test before 5:00. And if you didn't, you automatically failed. So sitting there in the middle of eating, it's like 4:52. Major's like, I'm so glad you uploaded your test before we came to eat. You can just kind of relax. And I guess the look on my face and being just pale and about to die of fear, he realized I hadn't turned it in. So threw money out of his pocket. We go sprinting down downtown, go in the house. And I turned it in at exactly 4,59 and 27 seconds. And 27 is my lucky number. Anybody that knows me know that or otherwise I would have completely failed the bar. So passed the bar, luckily. And I was working as a criminal defense attorney and I clerked during law school and working for my dad and working for another very famous lawyer in Dall. And I had sit in on so many felony jury trials that the Dallas county waived the 10 year experience for me to get on the wheel. Which means that if you don't have enough money, you're indigent to get a court appointed lawyer. They'll get private lawyers and they'll pay you a little something, 500 bucks or something to represent people. So I ended up working on 70 felony cases in my first year. This is an attorney. Wow, think about that. And in fact, you're supposed to go get sworn in for the bar. And it's a ceremony, but it's partly ceremonial. And my boss had a 2 kilo of cocaine drug case defense case. And he asked me, he's like, just, he passed the bar, just come with me to court. And the judge asked me like, have you been sworn? Did you have your bar card? I was like, yeah, but I haven't been sworn in. And he says, I've always wanted to swear somebody in. So literally, a few days after I passed, he swore me in right there in the middle of the court. I sat down, second chair. You know, we got to question the witnesses, and we walked him. But, yes, so I definitely did. And one day when I was sitting in my office, I get a call, say, you know, aria, can you come up to my office? So I come in, there's these two huge guys standing in front of his desk. And he's, you know, John is a. Is a Texas guy, wears a black Stetson, you know, wears a blue Brioni tie and crocodile boots, and, you know, keeps his pistol, like, on his desk. These huge guys are standing in the thing, and he's sitting there looking. And the guy turns around and looks at me. Huge black guys. Because, do you know who LeBron James is? This is 2009. What do I. Yes, I. Because he has no idea, by the way. He's like, well, NBA All Star is here in Dallas. And, you know, we did this thing, and, you know, we were going to do a party after, and we have this rapper coming and this thing, and the guy lost his liquor license, and we want to sue him. I'm thinking, sue him. Like, so you're here. You want to hire us to go sue these people? And it's like, okay, well, don't you want to do the party? It's like, well, yeah, but there's nowhere to go. We can't do it. I was like, well, what if we found a place? And would you have me do it? And so, long story made long. We found them another venue. You know, the party went off without a hitch. And this rapper that I never heard of, he was like this. You know, he's apparently really good friends with LeBron. And the guy told me I'd pay LeBron the cash for it and pay this guy. And, you know, was raised on hip hop. And I'm like, just who's the guy? He's like, he's from Canada. I was like, from Canada? Like, what the fuck? Like, people rap in Canada. Like, what is this? And he's like, yeah, the guy's name is Drake. I was like, okay. And so I gave him the money. And like, three months later, we're hearing these songs on the radio and whatever. And that incident launched our business, our capital A entertainment down the road, which ended up being parties of the super bowl and NBA All Star and everything the next day. But it all came from practicing law.

[C]

And on, on the flip side, what is something from your days as a lawyer that you've taken in to your firm now running real estate, other than.

[A]

Contracts to add on to that too, a lot of people go into business don't realize probably you had a very competitive advantage because you knew the ins and outs of a lot of things about the law that could be applicable to you in your life right now. Granted, I don't think you were necessarily studying to practice real estate law, but you probably still learned a lot of valuable skills from that. Could you touch on that?

[B]

Absolutely. Well, look, all the business is a contract. All relationships are a covenant, which is another word for a contract. You know, you promise to do something, they promise to do something, you act. So understanding the law helps you understand order, okay? And it also helps you understand consideration, which is value in some regard. And that can be a promise, that can be an act, that can be money. And all of real estate is contracts, okay? And so yes, it's a huge, huge, huge advantage. But the way a lawyer's mind is trained is for things to go wrong. So an entrepreneur is trained for things that could go right. So you end up having two little folks that sit up in your head telling you different things. So again, just like anything, there's two sides to it. But what it helped me with more than anything on the real estate side, and the firm is very much evolving, you know, to becoming a full service investment firm. Just like you see KKR Blackstone, this is the path of you start one vertical. And so, you know, we're moving into a realm where we're expanding our investment verticals and all things that we're doing. But real estate is the foundation without being too kitschy. But one of the things that we've done from a strategic standpoint is around zoning and entitlements. And so if you look at a piece of, you know, a large piece of land, like, you know, you know, about the development we're doing in Kyle, it's a, you know, 318 acre site. And when we first bought it, it was just a agriculture, we had agricultural zoning. And so you, you know, you drive through parts of New York, there's height, you get down into, you know, lower downtown, there's, you know, these are all zoning and entitlement, either restrictions or abilities, however you want to look at it. But law at its core is supposed to be to protect the needs of a community or a society for any certain point in time. That's what the law is, okay, take the Bill of Rights, you take the Constitution, and it's supposed to reflect the needs of a society. Okay, so if you zoom, you zoom in a little bit and you say, okay, what does that have to do with zoning? Well, that means that if a city like Kyle that in 2009 had 5,000 people, the needs of that society was a farm. If the needs of that society are evolving, it's the old rain Wayne Gretzky of skate where the puck is going. And so as a real estate developer, from that standpoint, you need to anticipate to some regard, you know, if you're getting in the market right where the needs are, at that moment, you're too late. So there's a certain amount of anticipation based upon population growth or a slew of metrics, because real estate is a people business at the end of the day. So understanding human psychology is a profound amount about understanding what happens with, you know, with real estate. I always. People say, you know, we're building houses. I was like, you see houses, I see homes. And multifamily, we've joked we want to put family back in multifamily and put unity back in community. And so when you look at this land, you say, oh, this is our. This is agriculture. Well, if I have a strong level of conviction that the needs of Kyle were going to shift, I want to change the law. So advocating to city council and saying, well, we think there needs to be houses here. It's been a farm, and we actually think there needs to be a school here. We think there needs to be apartments. That's a legal exercise that's petitioning for your case, that's explaining the merits of how this is a benefit to society, this is benefiting what's going to happen for the city. And then you go to the council, you meet with all the folks, and so you have the ability to argue your case for lack of a better, for the betterment of the enhancement of what that community is in an ideal sense. And I think great investing is about adding value, and I think investing in relationships, investing in your health, adding more value than anybody else. And at the beginning, you know, adding more value than you're paid for. And I think that's one of the, you know, the nuances that I kind of learned the hard way is, you know, you want to get paid, but if you add more value than anybody, it's a. At the beginning, getting paid as a buy, you know, you'll get paid ultimately. And so that part of it, of Being able to read the law and understand it became this cornerstone of what our specialty as a firm. Although we have invested in 38 cities, 13 states, seven different asset classes, the reason is because we've looked through this zoning, entitlement, this use, and what that means. And some of the things that I'm most proud about is being able to look at a city, look at a community, look at a neighborhood, and think like, what could make this better? What could, you know, make this something that can house the future of the city, not the past. And we like to say we honor the past while we build the future.

[A]

I love that the first property was one that you built. Ended up being $80,000. Sold it for 115,000. 115,000 was the sale price for that. Then you make the decision that, hey, I could do one of these, I could do 10. And eventually you kind of come to the realization to go all in on real estate, residential, commercial. Now you're doing everything. I want to talk about how you built a vertically integrated business. At what point did you realize that rather than just kind of focusing on one thing, that you could actually add vertical brands or add vertical parts to the investment firm? And how important has that been to you, scaling out to the multibillion dollar company you are now?

[B]

I think desperation is the word that comes to mind first, because people change. You want to say that people change because they have some great idea and they feel super inspired. But in my. My experience, motivation and inspiration runs out very, very quickly. You know, my first big business that, or my attempt at big business was, you know, a complete disaster for a bunch of different reasons. And I storm hit one of the parties in Dallas, Legionnaires disease broke out of the Playboy Mansion, and all these unforeseen things kind of happened. And real estate, the relationships that I had built, real estate was the closest thing of anything that I knew. So I was, I. I wish I could say that it was some design, you know, you know, my. You know, my. My very close Jewish friends. A saying that I love so much. Man plans. God laughs. And so in this moment, it was. I took inventory after kind of the business didn't work. I didn't know where to go. I was in New York City, and as I said, one of my mentors was big into real estate. And a lot of the guys that invested in that business were real estate guys. And I went into it because I needed a job. And then being close to it, one of the groups that, you know, we were working for was based here. In Austin, when Austin was starting to take the boom. And I'm born and raised in Austin, so I kind of. Of got pulled into it without a dis. Like, without something that I really thought was what I was supposed to do. And I didn't really connect the dots until later. And so I started to raise capital for other people's deals, and I didn't really know enough rich people. So I used to sit at the bar at this Italian restaurant in New York City called Il Molino, and I got to know the bartender, and his name was Elvis. He's gone. I was actually there a couple weeks ago. The maitre d is still my friend, you know, after all these years. And I'd give him a hundred bucks every time some rich person would come to the bar and he would call me, and I'd rush over there and see if I could talk with them. And so I wouldn't. I would raise money through, like, an LLC and invest in these different deals. So the way we hit the scope of 38 cities all this early was finding the best operators in the world or that I could find around different asset classes and putting money with them. And once those started to sell and we made money, and all of a sudden I was like, oh, well, we have money. We have this thing. We're in Austin. Then we started to buy Austin, and I started to do all the work and started to do all these things, and working without a. A strategy of delegation, pushing my health to an edge that was wildly uncomfortable, and I was working crazy. Just. Just not a good. Not a good strategy of wearing every different hat.

[A]

Because you do.

[C]

You do biohacking now is that I. Correct.

[B]

I do. And. And the thing about biohacking, or the, The. The term, it's a cute term, but if you don't have health, you don't have anything, you know, and it's really. And again, back to that cliched point. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, health is wealth. And so this is an investment in. And I learned it the hard way. And my doctor, Dr. Jacob Rosenstein, who's one of my clients for many years, one of the most beautiful, brilliant. I mean, he's a spinal neurosurgeon. He's not some natural pat, you know, he's a. You know, he's a serious dude that figured out health and wellness and vitamins. And early in my career, around that time, you know, we sat down and, you know, he said, you know, I'm. I like what you're doing. I'll invest with you. And not an insignificant amount, he said, but I. You feel okay? What do you mean? What do you mean? It's just. No, you just. You have dark circles under your eyes. You know, you're. You feel okay? I was like, honestly, not really. So he's like, I'll tell you what, on that's with you, but I want to see your blood. See my blood. I ended up writing the prologue to his book called Defy Aging. And I recommend anybody to read this book. It's a. No, nonsense. I mean, this is a, you know, his mother, Dr. Jacob Rosenstein's mother will celebrate her hundredth birthday this year and was a Holocaust survivor. I mean, so the life and journey was. Top of his classes, Johns Hopkins, top of his class, Johns Hopkins Medical School, one of the most. Like I said, I. There's no way for me to speak higher. This man, he's based in, in Dallas and he has his own clinic called Southwest Age Management. That's so reasonably priced too, by the way. Like, I see some of the other pricings of different biohackers or whatever and it's absurd compared to what he does. So he says, you know, check my blood. And he did. And my testosterone level was like 140, which is like, you know, stuff maybe almost didn't work, if you know what I mean. And cholesterol was super high estrogen levels, so I mean it was, it was a nightmare. And I, I was relatively thin, um, you know, and I didn't, you know, didn't think anything was too wrong. And, and he helped me optimize it. And this.

[A]

Did they get to the root of what caused that?

[B]

Yeah, eating like shit, not sleepy enough, and not taking the proper nutraceuticals. Like here's the thing about any type of success. It is so much simpler than anybody cares to admit. And the people that tell you it's not are selling you something plain and simple. The body is a very, you know, look, the complicated parts of it, fine, but there's certain vitamins and minerals that the body needs and all the other add on components, you know, I don't know, Ashwagandha this, that and the other, fine. I take, I take about 200 supplements a day and to me that's the, that's a luxury. Like I'm a pretty simple guy. But that's one of the great luxuries of being able to, you know, have, you know, your finances. Someone in order is to be able to do that. But you know, the, your vitamin D, your testosterone, your estrogen, your. There's basic vitamins and minerals and hormones that the body needs. And, and you know, he, you know, one of the analogies that, you know, he gave is, you know, your body is like an orchestra, the cellos and the violin, you know, and sometimes you say, you know, I need a little more of this, a little bit less of this, and you find this harmony. And he's the greatest conductor in the world. And so. And I found that by doing those things and taking the proper nutraceuticals, doing, you know, testing, doing a food sensitivity test. And again, dude, I go to Costco and I get a big thing of salmon. Like, my, the way that I eat is so. It's so boring. And saying it's expensive is absurd. Like, I can buy a pack of 30 salmon, wild caught salmon at Costco for like 20 bucks, get a bunch of sweet potatoes, you know, and I eat basically sweet potatoes, egg whites, salmon, chicken thigh. Just militant, like, just meal prepping them. Very simple. Yes, there's a, maybe a shake or something like that, but this is not rocket science by any stretch of the imagination. But by cutting out sugar, you know, cutting out, you know, other stuff that I shouldn't be, you know, consuming both physically and emotionally because you know, what you're consuming also to the mind.

[C]

So stress takes toll.

[B]

Stress takes a toll. But stress is also cortisol too. So, you know, you know, my yoga teacher I love so much, you know, in New York used to say, you know, you can use your mind to change your body. And Dr. Joe Dispenza will tell you, think and grow rich will tell you that. But you can always also use your body to change your mind. Meaning that if you have these things where you're not feeling well, let's leave it at that. And I wasn't feeling well. I was working hard, but I didn't feel good inside. And I had a bunch of other things that one would have thought or diagnosed as emotional issues, but in fact they were physiological. So the minute I started taking my vitamins, I stopped eating junk. I started moving my body a little bit more. As my physical blood work got better, I started to feel better. And when I started to feel better, I got more energy. When I got more energy, I worked better, I made better decisions. My, my own emotional temperament started to change. And I think as entrepreneurs, we are an extension of our business. So the better you feel, the better you're going to work, the better you're going to treat people. When you, when your heart is healthy, literally, you're more empathetic and it was such an easy way when there's chaos around you everywhere, to control what you put in your mouth. So some of the toughest times, you know, in business and these last five years in real estate are very difficult years. Global pandemics, your rates hiking 500 basis points, um, sometimes the only thing you can control is what you put in your mouth. And I've used that as a way to keep myself sound. When things are falling apart all around me, it's okay.

[A]

At least control what you can control.

[B]

Yeah, control what you can control. And know that there's a little element of grace in what you can't. And you kind of. Sometimes the move is making, not making a move. But I can control moving my body. I can control closing my eyes for 20 minutes to find a place. I can control putting things in my mouth. And if. If, you know, if you are blessed enough to, you know, have all your limbs, to have your faculties, you know, to be in the great country of Texas or a place where you have liberty, these are things where you can get some salmon from Costco, bro. Like, you can. You can boil some sweet potatoes, you can close your eyes and meditate for a second. You can go for a little brisk walk or a little jog, sit. This is effectively free. Like, there's some fancy membership, some. You don't need to go to the Himalayas to medit. Like, you can, you know, your life is your initiation, you know, and you can do these things, you know, just at your house, and it doesn't take much effort, so to speak. But if you think of, like, asymmetrical investing, like, limit the downside and maximize the upside, I can think of no better investment on the earth than what you eat, the vitamins you take, and closing your eyes and finding a little emotional calmness.

[C]

It's so true. And anybody that wants to be a high performer, when they make that switch to realizing it's. It's like if you're an F1 driver, you want to win the race, but you're fueling the car with. With crap.

[B]

You're.

[C]

You're not using the top premier. Like every, you know, championship F1 driver is not going to put standard regular oil in their car. And, you know, the sleep aspect, it's like your pit crew, if you stop for a rest and to interchange and recover, it's like you have Joe Schmo fixing your tire instead of a professional. So as an entrepreneur, anybody trying to be a high performer, I couldn't agree more. And I want to Talk about the Texas point for a second. You're building the tallest building in Dallas right now. Tell me a little bit about that project. How did it get started and what's going on with, with that there?

[B]

Well, it started about 20 years ago and I didn't know that it started when it started. Okay, so around that Double Dave's Pizza, community college time major, who's my best friend since we were in seventh grade and the chief of staff of our firm had got, went to ut. He was a Fiji ut. I went to Texas A and M. And one of our other, you know, very close friends, T.J. frank, who's a, you know, one of the biggest, you know, residential brokers in Dallas was at SMU in Dallas. And so one weekend, you know, we had decided, you know, to kind of get together in Dallas, you know, whatever, and you know, go out and go cause some trouble, which, you know, you're supposed to do, I think in some regard. And in Dallas there wasn't many nightclubs, you know, at that time. And we didn't really have much money to go anywhere too fancy. This is before bottle service, by the way, and any of that stuff. And this was like $2 kamikaze shot kind of days from aging myself. McKinney Avenue is like the Park Avenue of Dallas. Okay? And if you've heard a lot about the new Texas Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange moving to Dallas, Goldman Sachs building their second largest office in the World, bank of America building their new tower, keeping their headquarters in Dallas is all in this little corporate corridor called uptown.

[A]

So Dallas is becoming Wall Street.

[B]

Y' all Street, Y' all Street, y' all street, baby. Yes, it is. And it's probably one of the most impactful quantum shifts in global economics that we will see in our lifetime. For the New York Stock Exchange to leave Chicago and come to Dallas, Texas, that should tell you something. Why?

[A]

Why do people want to come to Dallas?

[B]

Well, I think there's a lot of reasons. One, it's in Texas. Let's start with that. And Texas has done a fantastic job of creating a business friendly environment. It's central in the United States. You can get to la, Miami, New York and under three hours each way. The climate is in the sun belt. It's a fair weather climate area. The cost of living on an average basis in the United States for major metropolitan cities is one of the most affordable. There's a confluence of things including no state income taxes, which people like. It's business friendly. The liberties that are afforded in Texas as Well, are much higher than a lot of other states if you look at. And people. Everybody has opinions when it comes to politics. I stay out of politics, you know, myself. I think there's other patriots that can handle that, you know, over my dead body for me personally, if you know what I mean. But all of these things together and the climate makes a big deal too, is one. And then the other part. From a city planning standpoint, the players of Dallas created Metropolis, one of the largest airports in the entire world. Dfw, American Airlines headquarters. All of these things together create a highway system, a water system, a power grid that's designed for growth. It's a sprawled metroplex that could actually house comfortably the most populated city in the United States of America. Okay, Austin, as an example, is a town on steroids. Nobody thought Austin, the sleepy little hippie town, would become this booming tech hub. Tesla would move their headquarters. So the. So the highway systems aren't designed for that many people. Dallas is okay, all of that together and a very young, educated workforce. So Goldman Sachs has had an office there since the 60s, believe it or not. JP Morgan's had one of their largest offices there for many years, which is not bank of America's headquarters has been there. So all of these have laid the foundation for what Dallas can actually become as people get priced out of, you know, the New York, get priced out of the Miami get priced out of, you know, parts of, you know, California, et cetera. And that's why you're seeing these things start to start to formulate. So if you go back 20 years, we met this weekend, that weekend, and we wanted to go to this nightclub called Glass, okay, Had a pool on the roof right on McKinney Avenue. And right across the street, literally from where Goldman and the stock exchange are, were going at like, literally right at McKin and Aard. So I remember it like it was yesterday. I was wearing these white Air Force ones, going up jeans, whatever. We're standing in line. There's a huge line out the door, and McKinney kind of slopes downward a little bit. And there's a reason why I know that standing in line and all of a sudden it starts to torrential downpour. I'm talking about rain. Like you can't see in front of you rain. So by the time we get to the front, this grass, little hill, mud is coming down this hill. I step in a big puddle of mud. My white Air Force ones are covered in mud. I'm drenched down, you know, whatever. And I get to the front And I guess Major and TJ Looked, you know, a little bit better than me. So the bouncer's like, yeah, these guys. And he looks at me and looks at my shoes and says, no. What do you mean? I was like, people are sick in those shoes. They're not coming in. So he doesn't let me into the club. So I remember standing on the side of the, you know, by the building, just feeling. Just defeated, like. Cause, like, I saved up all my gas money from Double Daves to get here, like, and now I'm on the side of the road. We can't get in the club. The night's over. You know, whatever. Fast forward many years. I get a call one day that there's this vacant building that used to be a nightclub in Dallas. I know the guy. I know the developer for many years. He's going through some stuff, and some people had owned it before, and they tried to put a restaurant in there, ended up not working. He says, hey, you want to come see this site? I was like, where is it? He's like, oh, it's on McKinney. Okay. I'm like, you know, I'm in Dallas, and let's check it out. Whatever I go by, this is that old nightclub, Hooky Rant's. It's been vacant for years. And he's like, well, look, the zoning, you know, only allows you to build, you know, 20ft, which is like two stories. There's huge buildings all around. No residential permitted. So in a moment of, I think grace is the only word that I can think of, he says, you want to buy it, Buy it. I'm thinking to myself, all this. All these events of Double Dave standing in the rain, doing whatever. By the way, I still have the shoes. By the way, I still have the white Air Force ones. Literally. In fact, I have a pair of white Air Force ones that my friend who's a fashion designer in LA put my logo on the side of it and has the little raster thing that I wear them around just to remember. So in a matter of two weeks, I bought the building. And over the last eight years, I've gone through the most comprehensive zoning change in the history of Dallas, Texas. And we changed the height from 20ft to 400ft to residential, to be right there, directly across the street to look literally downward on Goldman Sachs's new headquarters. And so this year, you guys will be with us. We'll have the groundbreaking ceremony. And I will wear the white Air Force ones to the ceremony. And when it's done, I'll put them in a little glass box and frame them in the lobby. Wow.

[A]

Hey, you can't make that up.

[B]

No. Stephen King used to say, life is stranger than fiction. And, you know, the reporter. And by the way, Stephen King has actually published more pages than anybody in history, FYI, and has a bunch of movies that you don't even know that Stephen King wrote. Wrote the Shining, Shawshank Redemption, Green Mile.

[C]

Did he really?

[B]

The Shining. That's great. The Shining. No, he's a cold gangster. Anyways, this is. Well, how is life strength? That doesn't make life stranger than fiction. He's like, oh, well, fiction has to make sense. Life doesn't have to make sense. And it's certainly not fair. Never was, never will be. But, yes, there is a. There is some golden thread that connects all of it together if you have the. You know, if you have eyes to look for it.

[C]

So if I was a young person getting started in real estate, let's say I graduated college or came out of high school, and I'm like, man, I see this booming opportunity in the real estate industry. What is my first couple moves? What would you recommend me do?

[B]

You know, back to all the things that we've talked about is, if I'm just out of college, I put myself in those actual shoes. Okay? Usually you've been eating ramen noodles. I would work on what I could control. I would start getting my health together. I would control, get my mental state in a place. I'd start finding its place. I'd pick up, think, and grow rich. And I know maybe it sounds corny, you know, but boring is beautiful, bro. Like, you know, I get asked all this all the time, you know, all the time I'm like, dude, I'm the most boring guy, you know? I read all the time. I do the same damn thing over and over again. I do my posture, my egoscue training work for posture management. I eat a certain amount of stuff. I meditate. I do my work. I go home and I rinse and repeat over and over and over and over and over. And I read all day, every day. I read anything. There's a pamphlet in front of memory. I'm reading the ingredients on a thing. Reading is learning and educating. Watching, you know, you. I watch YouTube all the time. I go and find the smartest motherfuckers in the world and watch them. I saw Larry Fink was at some conference. Bill Ackman was here. I'm watching your guys's stuff and hearing these, like, just consuming good Stuff in the brain. But taking physical control of myself is what I would do, is start to gain emotional fitness, start doing the. The priming exercises. Tony Robbins does this priming where you can find on YouTube again, where it's like 10 minutes. It's 10 minutes long. I would do the 20. He has a 20 minute one. It's 20 minutes and 17 seconds. I do it every day, sometimes twice. And I like that one just because it's from, like the 2019 one of 2019 event. And at the end when it's over, he says, now stand up and just make the loudest sound you can of joy that you achieved this thing and do it again. He walks you through. You get the benefit of the great Tony Robbins, you know, for free, coaching you on, you know, think about, you know, getting your, you know, you do this breathing, and then you think of things you're grateful for. And then he calls it three to thrive. Or you think of three goals and then you jump. Jazz.

[C]

Fuck yeah.

[B]

And you feel this thing and you get in your heart and you just feel, you know, you feel better. And I would work on those things, because the vision that you have as a college kid, unless you're, you know, one of these tech geniuses or, you know, something like that, we already know where you're going. But if you're anything like me, that you had no idea what the hell you were going to do, I would look at those things that are free, basically. I would get myself strong. I would make my heart and my mind more coherent. I would pick up that book, I'd learn, make some goals, and I would get myself in a peak state and then go hit the day and let the onion peel and watch the next thing come in front of me. But do it from that state of strength, that state of emotional health, physical health. So when the opportunity did walk in front of me, I can go rip the COVID off the ball. Feeling good and not acting from a place of fear. In a place of.

[A]

Yeah, no, I. I just wanted to piggyback on top of that, because going back to New York, right when you were going to the bar to meet rich people, you learned the valuable skill of raising capital. In particular, you were finding people that had deals and you were connecting them with sources of capital.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

I love the saying that whenever wealth is transferred from one person to the another, somebody is typically in the middle of transferring the wealth. And that person also makes a lot of money as well, which is happening to you. But then you took that skill of raising capital to Building your own firm. I wanted to ask again, along with somebody starting their firm, what are the most valuable relationships that you would look to build when you're starting out? Is it getting close with the bank? Is it getting close with again, meeting more reach people or meeting more rich people as IT attorneys? What are the non negotiable relationships that you need to really be successful in this business?

[B]

It's, it's a, it's a fantastic question. And what you're really looking for is leverage. That's really the word. And leverage whether how to get a bank to loan money to leverage your skill. Getting a person, look, having a fantastic accountant, okay, that can really understand because accounting is the language of business, okay? And there is a language to this thing. So always having a phenomenal accountant that can speak that, that numeric language, find a relationship with them. Because a lot of times accountants, the personality type of a great accountant or great CPA is oftentimes difficult, different than an entrepreneur, you know, thank God, you know, in the way they see the world. More risk averse, sometimes more quiet, brilliantly thoughtful. And entrepreneurs, you know, like us oftentimes are, you know, like fire. You know, it's like this explosion and together you develop a yin and a yang. So oftentimes they can see in you that bravado, that boldness that maybe they want a little bit more of. And you can temper your enthusiasm a little bit with some more calculation, more precision and then together you can find a little bit of a balance. And when you're doing things. So if I'm starting out trying to do that, I want to be able to know, know my numbers cold so I can represent them properly. I can val value the things I'm doing. Really look at the, not get, you know, use Excel to make funky numbers and make them look like you're making 50 times your money. Help to understand your downside more. Because great investing is about managing downside, you know, more. That's the difference in gambling and investing. When you understand downside and in building that relationship and getting those numbers right and understanding the iterations, understanding tax, tax implications, that helps you put together a great prospectus, that helps you really understand the deal that you're doing. All the dynamics, the tax of the city, the LLC account, great CPA has that stuff cold and if they don't, their buddy does because they, they're in that niche and then have that part together. Finding people that have money, that's next. Because if you don't have the container to hold the money, where Is it going to go? And that's why you see people win the lottery, they lose all their money, it's because they don't have the container, they don't have that the way to hold, hold the capital. And having that background helps you do that. And then, you know, having the relationship, you know, might get you in the door, great. But if you don't have the know how, you're not going to stay in there long, you know, you're going to let you in the room, they're not going to let you stay in the room. And so having those first pieces together had helps you really understand the deal that you're doing. All the dynamics, the tax of the city, the LLC account, great. CPA has that stuff cold. And if they don't, their buddy does because they, they're in that niche. And then once you have that part together, finding people that have money, that's next. Because if you don't have the container to hold the money, where is it going to? And that's why you see people win the lottery, they lose all their money, it's because they don't have the container, they don't have that the way to hold, hold the capital. And having that background helps you do that. And then, you know, having the relationship, you know, might get you in the door, great. But if you don't have the know how, you're not going to stay in there long, you know, you're gonna, they'll let you in the room, they're not gonna let you stay in the room. And so having those first pieces together, have the accounting understand your numbers, cold double check them, have a clear, you know, that looks at it, that has that precision, that more risk averse is a good thing for a young entrepreneur. And then go talk to money. And then when you put money together, you can leverage your skillset and build a great product.

[A]

You have a pretty contrarian investment philosophy. What is your investment blueprint or strategy for other people to kind of know them maybe want to follow one day?

[B]

I think that when you have the, the, the itch to become an entrepreneur, okay, I think what that's inherently saying is that you have a voice and out of the, you know, a lifetime of mistakes that I've made, one of them was not listening to my own voice and thinking someone else had a better answer and taking advice and retrusting people that prove not to be trustworthy. And the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over, you know, and so learning to trust that what's inside of you is special if you have the itch and the know how. And I always, you know, I've said to my kids, God doesn't tease if you've been given this inkling of a thought in your mind. Because not everybody has the same thought. You know, some of the people I know that are in, you know, people have different goals. What, what the goal is for one individual is not the same for one. Not everybody wants to be a billionaire. Not everybody thinks, they don't even think to be a billionaire. Not every thinks to be a millionaire. Not even people want to. Whatever. Like people have different goals. Everybody. You have in your mind the seed or the inkling to do something, no matter how grandiose it seems to you. I believe that God doesn't tease. I believe that you can do it. Yes, with work and discipline and all of those, all of those things. So I would, I would really urge people to take a moment. And that's why closing your eyes sometimes and using solitude, okay, and solitude and loneliness are the same thing. Being alone so you can hear your own thoughts, you can hear what you're wanting to do, what you're thinking to do. And trust that what's in you is holy. Trust that what's in you has value. Trust that what's in you. And when you listen to yourself and you listen to your own voice and you cultivate and you mature that idea and don't share it too early because one little snide comment from your so called friends can crush your soul. Once it's cultivated, then go to your a mentor, then go to an advisor, then go. But once you've listened to you and in doing that it appears to be contrarian because anything that's disrupting anything is new. Disruption. And contrarian just means new in some regard. And it took me a long time to start kind of listening to my, to myself. And in baseball, like you said, you know, you strike out 7 out of 10 times. You're not just good, you're in the hall of fame. And I think it's very important to understand, you know, that bosses take losses, you know, and you gotta, you gotta be able to weather what that is and be comfortable, you know, getting flat on your face and get back up and do it again.

[C]

Well, I wanted to ask you about that because you wrote a book called the Gift of Failure. And so I wanted to ask you, you know, what do you think the average person doesn't understand about failure?

[B]

That failure is a bad thing? I think that's what that's what I didn't understand, I think that people take the word failure, and it has this connotation, has this. This energy around the word that it's bad. Failure must mean failure. You're a failure, Ari. You're a failure. I look in the mirror and say, you're damn right I'm a failure, and that's why I'm still here. And so seeing that failure is a gift. If there's introspection, if you fail, you're righteous in your endeavor. You go and try the thing and it fails, okay, then what are you gonna do? And looking at that and saying, all right, I'm gonna stop, I'm gonna analyze it, I'm gonna see where the misstep is. I'm gonna find that one kernel of that lesson that came from it, and then I'm gonna take that again, I'm gonna get up, and I'm gonna go do it again. So failure, to me, is how you learn to win. Everybody that's done anything worth a shit in this world has failed. And if everybody does it, how could it be bad if everybody does? Everybody fails a toddler, when they get up to learn how to walk, they fall down. They stand up again, they fall down. Your parents don't sew, you idiot. He's never gonna walk.

[C]

No, that's it. He's done.

[B]

He's done.

[C]

He's done. Kick him out.

[B]

Yeah, we don't need him anymore. And then at one point, for whatever reason, the paradigm shifted to where failure became, oh, bad boy. And we got trained to think that it was a bad thing. And if I could say something to anybody about failure is go back to the toddler mental. The way your, you know, your parents or someone said, the way they look, said, he did it. He stood up. Yay, Ollie fudge. He's so cute. He fell down. If you could channel that energy to how you fail, you would live a much happier and fulfilled life for the purpose of making your life your work, your worship, so that you can add value to everything doing. Because that's what makes business so great. It's the logistics that allows you to add value to so many different people. And the byproduct of that might be some extra money to you, but the value comes from what you give.

[A]

And, Ari, we like to end these podcasts off with two questions. This has been phenomenal. First of all, I'll get us started, and Jack will close this out. But, Ari, if me and you were to pass away and die tomorrow, and you could leave one More guiding principle with the younger generation. What would that be?

[B]

I believe William Henley wrote a beautiful poem called Invictus. And the last lines are, I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul. And I would want people to understand that they are not here to manage circumstances. They are here to create the life that they want. They are the architects and the great religionists. The spiritualists have said this from every culture since the beginning of time. The Christian culture would say, I made you in my image. You know, roomy and Farsi. It sounds prettier, but something to the effect of stop acting so small when the whole universe is inside of you. I would urge people to say, create your life. Realize that life is a mirror. It's not some external thing, you know that it is. So take those reins. No. Captain your ship, govern yourself. And once you govern yourself, you earn the right to gather, govern others.

[C]

And my last question, to leave us off. When it's all said and done, how do you want to be remembered?

[B]

Well, I guess if it was on, if it was on a tombstone, I'd like to be remembered as somebody that saw that failure was success, that there was success and failure. That this life is about experimenting, experiencing, and then doing it again.

[C]

Yes, sir.

[A]

I love it. Guys, that's a wrap on today's episode. Be sure to like and subscribe for amazing content because we're going all over the country, all over the world to bring you guys this. The biggest business owners just like Ari Rastigar right here. And go down to the link in the description to check out all the links to Ari Socials as well as the link to become a member of the number one most powerful entrepreneur, community and network in the entire world. The school of mentors where you get direct access to our billionaire network and you can hop on live calls every week with the eight, nine and ten figure entrepreneurs we interview at the school of Hard Knocks. So we can't wait to see you on the inside. With that being said, we'll see you in the next episode.

[B]

Let's fucking go. That was awesome.