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- [00:10]
Dave Ramsey
From the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, you're listening to the Entree Leadership Podcast, the show where I take calls from business owners and leaders just like you about what it takes to win at any stage of business. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host with over 30 years of experience and in the trenches, founding, leading and growing successful businesses. This week our team is in Denver for entree Leadership Summit 2025. Summit is our annual world class event where we bring together the best minds in leadership along with about 3,000 of you guys for an unbelievable week of learning, growing and leveling up. We'd love to have you in the room with us next year. And take today, you're gonna get a sneak peek at what it's all about. On this episode. You're gonna hear a talk I gave at a previous summit event all about the nobility of business. Because running a business and making a profit is not evil or greedy. When you do it the right way, it's all about integrity, humility and service. Let me show you exactly what I mean. Enjoy.
- [01:23]
Rabbi Daniel Lapin
So Little Tommy was 14 and a half years old, a boy man. The year is the beginning years of the Civil War. He has four little brothers and sisters, and he and his mom get word in Chattanooga, Tennessee that his father had been killed in the Civil War. They were river trash, we call them in Tennessee. They lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee, down at Moccasin Bend. If you've ever driven around i24, which obviously wasn't there, then you go around Moccasin Bend, this beautiful bend in the Tennessee river, and they lived there on the river and fished for a living. So now little Tommy's hungry because the Civil War left lots of families, lots of children and lots of widows without their husbands to earn a living. So it's 14 and a half. He gets the job, starts fishing, which is what river folk do and river folk did then to feed his brothers and sisters. And later on, he developed it all the way into a business and would sell fish to the local markets and to the local boarding houses to make a living, make a few pennies here and there for his mama. But a hunger, a literal hunger and a metaphorical hunger was birthed in little Tommy's belly. Fast forward to the year 1885. Post Civil War now many years. Little Tommy's fishing business, he's now in his 40s, has grown to a huge booming enterprise. He's now known as Captain Thomas Ryman. He has 35 steamboats and ships going up and down the Tennessee and the Cumberland river, serving. And he's Developed a whole chain of saloons and gambling houses and brothels that he owns all along the whole stretch of the thing and the gambling boats. He's making a really good living. That hunger that was birthed in his belly became just unbridled ambition. And he was doing very well. He was a prosperous businessman by any measure. Around that same time here in middle Tennessee, a preacher came to town, and a series of meetings happened all around this area, and revival broke out. Tent meetings were everywhere. The Reverend Sam Jones was the starter of it. E.M. bounds was involved. If you're familiar with theology and have read some really unbelievable books, E.M. bounds was incredible writer. They were some of the preachers and the evangelists and the people standing on the stump, so to speak, inside these huge tents. And they were speaking and running revivals. And of course, they're speaking against the very thing that Captain Thomas Ryman did for a living. Gambling and riverboats and all kinds of other unsavory activities. Well, word got out that Reverend Sam was actually calling out Tommy's businesses. Tom. Captain Tom Ryman's businesses. And so he decided to go and see what this whole thing was all about. And he and a couple of his friends, in an effort to have a fun night out on the town, went to make fun of the Sam, Reverend Sam Jones as he preached. And when they got to the tent, they found thousands of people. They were kind of blown away. They thought this was just a fringe bunch of lunatics. And as he stepped in the back of the tent, Sam Jones preaching landed on Tommy's heart. And Captain Thomas Ryman, that night in 1885, bent his knee before the Lord Jesus and was completely transformed. He and Reverend Sam became close friends in the coming months and years, and they decided to, in Tom Ryman's transformation, that he was going to be a positive impact on the community with the wealth he had built and with the business acumen that his ambition had grown. And they pooled together resources. They did a couple of things to try to help the community. And finally, Captain Reiman decided that it was ridiculous that these revivals were happening in a tent. And so he put $100,000 in seven years into building the Union Gospel Tabernacle in downtown Nashville. $100,000 in today's dollars would be around 3.2 to $4 million invested to build this permanent house for this revival that had broken out. This transformed man that the gospel had gotten a hold of. This businessman was now a huge positive influence on everything he touched. This tabernacle is the best investment the city of Nashville has ever made. The Reverend Sam told the local newspaper. When Ryman died in 1904, he was regarded as an exceptional businessman, a pillar of faith, of generosity, of kindness, of compassion in the Nashville community. And on the day of his funeral, Sam Jones preached his funeral, and he proposed that the Union Gospel Tabernacle name be changed to the Ryman Auditorium. Ryman Auditorium is where the Grand Old Opry stayed for many, many years in downtown Nashville. We talked about it. For those of you that were at the Grand Ole Opry the other night, they call it the Mother Church because it was first a church. If you visit there, it is kind of the Carnegie hall of the South. If you visit there today, you'll realize that it was a church because you get to sit in these unbelievably uncomfortable wooden pews. I tell you that story because I think it's important that you and I in the marketplace grasp how important values are and that we have the ability to have unbelievable positive impact on the marketplace around us. Because you've been told over and over and over in this toxic culture that somehow being successful, somehow building wealth, that somehow capitalism itself is evil, and that the only holy thing happens over at the church, that the only holy thing happens in the synagogue, that the only holy thing happens if you're a rabbi or a preacher or a pastor. And that's just not theologically doctrinally true. It's just not true. Pastors are some of my favorite people on the planet, but the pastor is not better than the businessman or the businesswoman. Both have the ability to serve God in their unique lanes that God called them to. But business and success and wealth building in America today has gotten a bad rap. There's a tendency for the voices out there that come against you as soon as you start winning. We call it Tall Poppy Syndrome. It comes from Aristotle, the idea that if any single poppy gets taller than the other poppies in the field, it must be cut down. And so we must cut down anyone that has succeeded anyone that is winning and somehow declare them not only unholy, but everything associated with them. The wealth, the success, the fact that capitalism allowed it. All of those things must be evil then. And you hear these messages, don't you? Say, yes. Let me just tell you it's a lie. And it's a lie from the pit of hell. Because I know men and women like you all over this country from. For 30 years I have done this, and I know what is happening. Wealthy people are bad people. Capitalism is evil. Where do we learn this? Well, one place we learn it is in dysfunctional churches. Not all churches are dysfunctional. Well, all churches are dysfunctional, but some more than others. The reason they're dysfunctional is they have people in them and elders. So sorry if you're an elder, but there you go. Now, I mean, these churches that get off base, they lose their minds, and they go either one way or the other. In some cases, one of them says, you know, if you have enough faith, you're going to be rich. I remember when I was going broke and I had no money. I lost everything. And I had that little church lady come up to me in the church, and she said, so the reason you're broke is you don't tithe? And I said, yes, ma' am, I do tithe. And she said, well, the Lord promises that if you tithe, you're going to prosper. And I said, well, let me know when that's going to work. And she said, well, you just don't have enough faith. I said, ma' am, all I got left is faith. They took everything else over at the bank. Her theology, her doctrine was broken, wasn't it? And then you got the other side, that in the south, we call them poor mouth, right? You must be poor to be holy. Like somehow that by definition, if you're successful, that you cannot be holy. And they go around. Well, you know, everybody knows that a camel can't get through the eye of a needle. And Jesus said then that, how can a rich man get into heaven? And of course, these are people that don't read the Bible. I mean, please don't learn theology from Twitter. It's not a good place. They don't know how to finish reading the story. And Jesus said, no man gets into heaven except through the Son. He was not teaching that rich people get to heaven. He was teaching that nobody goes. That's what he was teaching. And so whether you believe that or not doesn't matter. But that's the teaching. Well, it does matter, but it doesn't matter for purposes of this talk. That's the teaching, right? And so everybody knows on Twitter that money, the Bible says, is the root of all evil. No, it doesn't. The Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil. Unbridled greed is worshiping at the altar of money. And if you didn't learn in church that you weren't supposed to be successful, all you got to do is go to college, where Karl Marx is in charge of the econ class. And so it is ridiculous that some people have more money than other people. Well, no, it's not. Well, Dave, it's just not fair. Honey, fair is where the tilt a whirl is in cotton candy. Let me tell you about fair. Fair is If I work 60 hours a week and you don't work and you sit in your mother's basement, it's fair that I make more money. That's fair. It's fair. If you cheat people and nobody goes to your business. As a result, you, you close the business. As Pat said yesterday, we're happy that that business gets closed. That's fair. If you suck at cooking, your restaurant sucks. Nobody should eat there. That's fair. That's fair. And if you're monit, it's fair that you win. That woman is a force of freaking nature. And so's her food, by the way. So Marxism in the education system has now informed three generations that business is evil, capitalism is evil, and wealth creation is evil. And we've decided now that we need anarchy to unseat that by angry young people who are stupid. So God help us if we went to college and at the wrong place and we went to church at the wrong place. We now come in here and we start winning and building wealth and then we feel like a dog. We feel like we did something wrong. Well, that's not how it works. We're ashamed of success, we're ashamed of wealth, we're ashamed of profit. And shame will erode everything. So what is the truth? Is capitalism really wrong? Is it unbiblical? Is it unspiritual? Is it morally reprehensible? Is it really wrong? Well, there are legitimately at least two kinds of people we could bucket in business. There's the self centered people who are the greedy jerks, right? They're people who are all about money. They're all about a shortcut, they're all about taking advantage. And that was Captain Thomas Ryman in his early days. He didn't care about people. All he cared about was satisfying that hunger in his belly and making money. And he built a large business doing that. That is possible to do. It doesn't last usually, but it is possible to do. Or you can be other centered, selfless, where people whose work is that of a servant, a contributor to the team, a contributor to to the economy, a contributor to people who have jobs because of you. You're a contributor to the community because your goods and services make people's lives better. That is other centered and that's everyone in this room because the greedy jerks that are just ambitious and blind, they don't come to this thing, they don't like me, they don't want to be a part of Entre leadership. So you're just not in here if that's you. But I'm just trying to tell the rest of you that are other centered that this is right.
- [17:00]
Ken Coleman
You've tried to block out time for strategy, but you're still spending the best hours of your day shuffling invoices, answering emails and scheduling meetings. The truth is you're not short on vision, you're short on support. Face it, your ideal work week isn't about doing more. It's about. It's about doing what only you can do. It's time to delegate the rest. And that's where Belay comes in. If you're not ready for a full time hire, Belay can provide world class executive assistance. Bookkeepers and marketing assistants who become an extension of your team. That way you can stay focused on your non negotiables. Strategy, team leadership, and hey, don't forget about having a family life. Belay takes care of the rest of the because great leaders don't do everything. They build systems and do the right things. With Belay, your ideal work week isn't just a dream, it's doable. So start owning your calendar again. To delegate what's holding you back and reclaim your role as the leader you're called to be, contact Belay. And right now you can get Belay's free template for an ideal work week by Texting Entre to 55123. That's Entre to 55123.
- [18:12]
Rabbi Daniel Lapin
My friend, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Orthodox Jewish rabbi, we became really good friends when I read his wonderful book Thou shall Prosper. And it's the 10 reasons that Jewish people have had an inordinate statistical probability of prospering in any culture, in any situation over time. And it's a wonderful lesson. 1010 reasons that Jewish people tend to prosper more than other populations in any setting in history so far. Now once I read that and I thought, oh, and he pointed out that 3% of Americans are Jewish and 67% of the Forbes 400 are Jewish. So immediately I want to read this book. So we read it, went through it, it's fabulous.
- [18:55]
Dave Ramsey
It's a chewy read.
- [18:56]
Rabbi Daniel Lapin
He's a deep guy. And I started talking about it several years ago on the radio. I said, this book is incredible. Y' all need to read this book. And he and I had never Met and he called me up. He was living in Seattle at the time. He's South African, so he's got this fabulous accent. I wish I could do it with my hillbilly accent. But he calls me up and he says, I don't know who you are. You're amazing. My book is selling I love you. It has that effect when we talk about things on the radio, right? And so, yeah, I said, I love your book. I'm a fanboy. That's why I'm telling people they need to read your book. It's incredible. It's a great message. Everyone, regardless of their faith background, should read this book. It's incredible. And he said, thank you. And he ended up coming on the show. He spoke at events for us. We've become really good friends over the years and had some fabulous discussions about what I call the Old Testament, what he calls the Bible. And yeah, it's just incredible. I mean, I mean we just, we've become close friends and I love the man dearly. He's something else. And he taught me this. He said, if one of your children helps another of your children, it pleases you as a parent. If you have more than one kid and one of them reaches over and helps the other one instead of smacks them all the time, it's a pleasant experience. Instead of constantly going at each other. When your children actually cooperate and love each other and serve each other, it makes your chest stick out as a mom or a dad, doesn't it? It makes you very proud of them. And guess what? God's the same way. He said you please God when you help one of his children by serv. Serving them with your business. So business should be viewed with a higher calling as a noble endeavor. God is smiling when you help one of his children, your brothers and sisters in the world have a better life. Just like you as a mom or dad. Smile when two of your children cooperate to have a better life. See, I see honest and brave and noble leaders all over the place. I know who you are and you don't deserve, and I don't deserve the rap that some of these leftist nut burgers are giving us. It's crazy, y' all. Fundamentally, capitalism works. It is our intent in utilizing that method of economics that makes money and business a blessing or a curse. So again, are we greedy? Are we just extracting or are we adding value and serving and that changes the whole process. We call that sanctified capitalism. Philosopher and theologian Michael Novak said that true capitalism is possible via a three legged Stool, economic freedom, political freedom, and moral restraint. Those are the three legs on the stool. Economic freedom means fewer regulatory restraints, open trade, marketplace competition. You charge the appropriate amount that you choose to charge, not what a governmental agency says you charge. You keep the profit instead of having your butt taxed off. And then you can do good stuff with the profit because that is your intent all along. You get to serve with your business. Political freedom is you can operate without fear of the government coming in and you get fouch. No matter who's in the White House, you have political freedom, business will operate and the marketplace will function properly. According to Novak, and he's exactly right. Nowadays we have other types of political freedom to worry about. We get canceled, which is really difficult. If I own the whole thing, why would I cancel myself? That's just dumb. So, oh, well, you know, moral restraint, moral moral strength is what we've been talking about. Are you going to do the right thing as a matter of principle, inside your business, with your business? And if you have political freedom, economic freedom, and moral restraint, according to Novak, that is the three legs on which the stool of properly done capitalism operates. If you pull out moral restraint, then you have what the complainers on the Marxist side are, are bitching about, they're griping about where there is no moral restraint, and so we should wipe the whole thing out. So moral restraint is a part of the equation, my friend, Rabbi, that I was telling you about, he says making money is much harder if deep down inside you suspect it to be a morally reprehensible activity. My friend Dr. John DeLoney and Jordan Peterson, that will be with us later, will tell you that to do things that are inconsistent with what you believe to be morally correct is called cognitive dissonance. You have these two things fighting inside of your spirit. You are doing something that you actually believe to be wrong. You will never be good at it. It's very difficult to operate in cognitive dissonance. It causes extreme levels of anxiety. And, and the only way you're excellent at doing something you believe to be wrong over a long period of time is if you're psychotic. It's the only possibility you have to be a psychopath, meaning you're devoid of realizing that you're doing something wrong. And you don't care at any level that you're doing something wrong. And so you're really good at being a mass murderer. You know, that's the whole process of being a psychopath. And so that's what Rabbi's talking about. So if you believe that's why I'm doing this talk. If you believe business to be evil, if you believe wealth building and success to be evil, it is very difficult to go about doing it and becoming successful because you've got this thing pushing back against you all the time. Around Ramsey, we say there's a three legged stool in business, not in economics. We covered economics, we covered capitalism. With Novak, we say we've got our own three legged stool just in business and that is that the legs of the stool number one are serve your team in business. If you want to win long term, serve your team. This is servant leadership model. John Maxwell taught me this many, many years ago back on a cassette tape, long before John and I became friends, that servant leadership. Now the first time I heard John say servant leadership, and John is a, a person of faith, a Christian, like I am and I was in a Christian leadership thing, he said, you need to serve your people, you need to be a servant leader. I thought, I don't think so. I signed their check. I don't think I'm serving anybody, buddy. That's Christian hogwash. I'm buying that because I didn't hear servant, I heard subservient. And I'm not asking you to be subservient to your folks. You serve your people. Sometimes I serve someone by setting them free in Jesus name. Have you ever set someone free and later they go on to prosper? Cause the thing they were doing at your place, they sucked at. I have. It's happened to me a lot in 30 years. You really suck at this. So you're gonna have to do something else. I love you too much to let you just spend your life at something you suck at. So we're gonna set you free in Jesus name. We've tried and tried and tried and tried. We've given you every chance, we've trained you and you just can't get there. You need to go do something else. And then they go over here and they're a big, huge success somewhere else. And I went, dad, come. He doesn't suck at that. That's good. Is that serving him? That's serving him. Serving her. Sometimes you set someone free, we release them. We use these words like they were trapped, right? And that's okay. Sometimes I serve them by having honest, kind, clear conversations with them like, you know, that behavior is not going to operate here. We don't do that here. If you want to be a we, we don't do that here. If you want to do that, you got to do that. Somewhere else, because this is who we are. We don't act that way. We don't talk that way. That's not who we are. We don't treat the customer that way. So you don't get to stay if you want to be a we. I'm having a clear conversation with you. I'm not as Pat talked about that yesterday. Great organizations have the ability to do conflict. Well, it took me a little while because I'm Southern. And so by definition, that means I'm passive aggressive. And so because we believe in being nice, we're nice. Bless your heart, nice. Which means we're going to slit your throat. But we're nice about it. You know, And I was trying to be nice all the time, and I really was. I was the kindest guy in the world. And I was so pissed off because they weren't doing the stuff I told them to do. But I never was anything but nice. And I finally figured out to be unclear is to be unkind. You gotta be clear. That's serving someone. Serving someone is gonna. I'm gonna organize this business in such a way that you can prosper and live your dreams while you're on our team, that you get to be all you're supposed to be. As Ken Coleman would say, we're going to get you in the right slot. We're going to get you with the right motivator and plug you into the right situation. I'm serving you by leading you. Well, that's servant leadership. And our HR manual is pretty simple. It's treat other people like you want to be treated. Live by the golden rule. Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. So we look at a situation with someone, I say, well, you know, if I was in that situation and I was working for a guy that looked like Ramsay, and that was going on, what would I want someone to do? And so we've got one lady that's been with us for 15 years, and she's back at work after two years off fighting cancer. Her hair is starting to grow back. She's got this weird, cute little hairdo right now. And we love Melissa. And she'd been on the payroll for two years and hadn't been at work. You know why? And her husband Ronnie, is the sweetest guy in the world. Every time I see him, tears coming out of his eyes, he gives me a big old hug. And you know, you know why we treat Melissa like that? Because that's how I'd want someone to treat my daughter, my Wife if they were facing that kind of thing and if their income was dependent, their household existence was dependent upon her working. And so we treat Melissa like we'd want to be treated if we were fighting cancer. And so, you know, treat other people like you want. It's not hard, y' all. It's hard cause I'm writing checks. But that's the only hard part of it. The decision wasn't hard. That's a value. We're going to treat other people like. I don't want to be treated. You gotta. It's really not difficult, you know, Dave, you know, what about sexual harassment? Hey, we're not gonna have sexual harassment at Ramsey. My daughters work there. We might have a murder, but we're not gonna have sexual. You can't be a creeper and work at Ramsey. We don't do creepers. Well, Dave, you're politically correct. There's a lot of stuff. I am, but politically correct is not on the list. We just don't do creepers. That's not the right way to treat people. I don't want a situation where ladies are intimidated to be in a dadgum office because some guy can't keep his freaking hands to himself and his mouth to himself. We don't do creepers. It's not hard. And you know, in 30 years, I've only had two I had to fire. But we just don't do creepers. And it's kind of a known thing. How would I treat some. You know, your daughter's 26 years old. She comes to work for Ramsey. I want you to know she's safe. Treat other people like I want to be treated. That's servant leadership.
- [31:21]
Pat
When it comes to shoes, tires, and of course, business payroll services. One size definitely does not fit all. Your business's payroll is foundational to your success.
- [31:32]
Ken Coleman
You have got to get it right.
- [31:34]
Pat
In every way, from employee retention to compliance with labor laws. That's why Peority partners with you to understand your business goals and align with how you want your payroll managed. Payority's friendly professional staff doesn't take a one size fits all approach. They tailor your plan to your specific needs, which is great for business leaders because you have enough to worry about. And getting your payroll system in order takes one more time consuming burden off your plate. So whether you already know you need payroll services or you just have some questions, Payority wants to help you reach your goals. It's time to stop managing the complex world of payroll on your own and let the experts at Peority guide you through it. Plus, Payority offers a free consultation with absolutely no commitment. So go to learn more and download their free resource, Keep youp Top Talent. Ten simple ideas for employee retention. That's peyote.com entrez.
- [32:35]
Rabbi Daniel Lapin
Second leg on the stool is serve your customer. Serving your customer is the cornerstone of excellence in the marketplace. And I tell our folks all the time, Pat talked about this yesterday. We're constantly having a conversation with the marketplace. And if the marketplace looks at you and says, you suck, your prices are too high, your delivery is awful, the quality of your product's not good, it's not a marketplace fit. We didn't want what you were trying to sell us. If the marketplace says you suck, you're gonna see it. It's called profits going down. Gross revs go down, expenses go up, and profits go down. I mean, everything is going the wrong way. And all this is. And I tell our guys all the time, look, you don't have to be afraid. He talked about the difference in being safe and being afraid. You don't have to be afraid of me. What we all, as a group, have to be afraid of is being stupid and having a conversation with the marketplace. And the marketplace says you suck. You want to have a conversation with the marketplace, and the marketplace says, we love you. We love you. You're amazing. And that's excellence in the marketplace. And there's no exception. You cannot get by with half butt doing stuff in this world today. There's no margin for error. You gotta bring it. You gotta play for the super bowl with every detail, every element. Everybody on the team has to understand that, you know, it's not worried. You're not gonna get fired for not doing your job. We're all gonna get fired by our customers if we don't do our job. That's the thing to be afraid of. You're not safe in a capitalistic marketplace when you suck. And you shouldn't be. And I shouldn't be. So you're a heat and air person. You come to the Ramsey house to fix Sharon Ramsey's heat and air, and you track your muddy boots through the dadgum house. Your tech does, and they leave parts on the floor. And two hours later, the stupid thing's not working again. And we can't get you on the phone to come back and fix what you didn't fix. Let me tell you what happens then. Sharon Ramsey runs every morning or walks every morning with a little herd of women. And all of these women have husbands that are executives. And she's gonna tell the little herd that you suck. And so you didn't just lose one customer, you lost all the herd. Cause they're not gonna do business with you. Conversely, if you come, your tech comes and they put those little booties on like they're doing surgery before they come in my house. Who ever dreamed that crap up? But anyway, you gotta put the little booties on now, right? And you come in and there's no spare parts. And the thing actually works when you leave. Oh, and you call back. The tech calls back two hours later to double check. Ms. Ramsay, I just wanted to make sure everything was working. Cause we don't want you anything but cool on a hot summer day in Nashville, Tennessee. You know what? She's going to tell the herd about you. And you won't be able to beat business off with a stick. You'll have so much business you can't get enough techs. If you train them to do that, you come in with excellence at that level. You serve the customer with a level of excellence. The marketplace will smile at you. The herd will give you its endorsement. And if the herd of running ladies gives you the endorsement, oh, my God, there's so much profit in it. I'm just saying, you're going to make so much money, it's so good, you're going to reap what you sow. You create a feedback loop here, and the feedback loop ends up in profit. The third stool is make noble profits. Again, referring to my friend the rabbi, he says, in Jewish culture, they see work. The word is in Hebrew for work. And the word in Hebrew for worship are virtually the same word. That work is a form of worship. It is an act of worship service in the marketplace. Customer service, worship service. And so if you serve enough people, we say at Ramsey, you don't have to worry about money. It's on our wall all over the building. You go up and down the stairs because you don't want to take the elevator. Because you're doing hard things. You're choosing to do hard things. Right now you're trying to lose a little weight. You're doing the right stuff. You're going to see in the stairwell. If you help enough people, you don't have to worry about money. If you serve people, you don't have to worry about profits. But if you serve profits, you're going to have to worry about profits your whole life. Because people will catch on that you are a marketplace manipulator, not a service oriented organization. Your products and Your goods and your services are there for you, not for the customer. But you will make so much money and then you'll have the opportunity for some idiot to say you've done something wrong. I remember it took me a while after going broke to work my way through this doctrinal and psychological and economic conundrum of Is wealth okay? Is success okay? Because I grew up around people who would tell you that it wasn't, you know, little man can't get ahead. Little man. I still hadn't met the little man. I don't know who this guy is, but the poor guy is awful. Little man can't get ahead. Who's the little man? Where is this guy who. I mean, because you can come to this country with nothing and become highly successful. 89% of America's millionaires are first generation millionaires. They did not inherit their money. That's according to research. Okay, So I don't know where we got this little man can't get ahead thing. This is actually the best opportunity in human history for the little man to get ahead. It's the best system ever devised in human history. You can't find another economic or political experiment that works like America works. Is it perfect? No. But by God, the little man can get ahead, whoever the guy is. So I was starting to make a little money and I was kind of like, oh man, I don't want to. I don't really want to be one of those evil rich people. I was driving this car, it was awful. And I actually had a million dollar net worth again. It had been a few years since going bankrupt and I had built my net worth back up to a million dollars. We weren't making huge money, but I was making a couple hundred grand a year. And I was driving this 160,000 mile beat up old worn out Mercedes and it overheated on a trip. I was driving somewhere and I'm on the side of the road, I'm a millionaire and I'm broke. Sitting on the side of the dadgum road, broke down. And one of my buddies is with me, he goes, you're stupid, you gotta buy a car. You're driving me nuts. I'm like, well, I don't want you, I don't want to be like rich people. And I started dealing with the stuff we've been talking about this morning in my mind and in my spirit and in my prayer time. And I started studying and trying to figure out where these messages had impacted me. And I finally broke through and I went and I bought a four year old Jaguar and got rid of the hooptie because I was driving a Jaguar when I went bankrupt and I had to get rid of it when I lost everything. And I thought, okay, God's going to put back what the locusts have stolen and so I'm going to go get the Jaguar and this is a sign that. And then I got a bunch of crap on Twitter for having a nice car. So I went and bought four new ones. And if you don't like that, you're what's wrong with America. Being generous is the hallmark of people who live successful lives and who operate businesses with a soul. Generosity flows out of this three legged stool of serving your team, serving your customer and making noble profits. And I'll come back to Rabbi one more time as I was reading through his book. This is my favorite thing in this book. Thou shalt prosper. By the way, I ended up writing the foreword on the reissue. And I don't write forwards. I, I don't mind endorsing books occasionally, but I don't write forwards for anybody except Ramsay books. But Rabbi asked and I, I couldn't resist because I just love this material, he says. As the Sabbath ebbs away, each Saturday night, Saturday's Jewish Sabbath. Jewish families prepare for the productive work week ahead by singing the joyful Havdala service. The Havdala service is recited over a cup of wine. It runs over into the saucer beneath. This overflowing cup symbolizes the intention to produce during the week ahead not only sufficient to fill one's own cup, but also an excess that will allow overflow for the benefit of others. In other words, I'm obliged to first fill my own cup. Take care of your business, take care of your family, fill your own cup first, but continue earning, continue pouring, as it were, so that I will have sufficient to give away to others. So what is the financial and economic and business principle here? Well, it's a principle of generosity, obviously, but here's the math for you. I don't care what you earn and I don't care how wonderful your personal consumption is. What you spend money on and what you enjoy out of your earnings is up to you. But the principle here is make sure what you're spending on you and on your business, your cup is smaller than your earnings so that there's overflow to be used for the good of others. I have a friend that made $15 million net profit, taxable income last year. He bought a $400,000 car. I can't get my head around that, but it's pretty cool. And what I've learned in this discussion that you and I have been having this morning is that when you have 15,400,000, it's a little bitty thing. And that's just one year's income, by the way. It's like some of you buying a biscuit. So there's lots of overflow for the good of others. So you don't get to judge someone else's consumption because you have no idea how much overflow they have. That particular guy gave away a half a billion dollars to ministries last year, more than the cost of his car. But it's none of your business. You have a full time job taking care of you. It's nachos. Nachos. Big news.
- [44:02]
Dave Ramsey
We just launched on Trey Leadership Summit 2026. It's happening next May 17 through 20 at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, Florida. And now's the time to get your tickets. When you register this month, you'll be one of the first to lock in the best seats near the stage and you'll get first dibs on the on site Disney hotel rooms. To get your Tickets, go to entreeleadership.com summit or if you're listening on YouTube or podcast, click the the link in the show notes.
- [44:33]
Rabbi Daniel Lapin
So Captain Thomas Ryman, redeemed, converted by a stumping preacher named Sam Jones. The hungry little boy who fished for his family and his siblings, grown into a business empire producing arguably sin, and converted, transformed, changed, ended up funding a mission for the steamboat men that worked for him. And the mission was down on what we call Lower Broad in Nashville, the lower section of Broadway, which if you go down there now, is pretty much a redneck Mardi Gras. Every night it's where those bachelorette parties that Joe was talking about happen. He employed full time ministers. He paid their salary to hold nightly services. He hired teachers for night school for his steamboat men and their families. His generosity to Nashville's poor reached out in all directions. Most people don't know that about him. And again, a revival had broken out all through middle Tennessee. As a matter of fact, not only was the Ryman Auditorium built, but out in Franklin, where our offices are 15 miles to the south of Nashville, another 2,500 seat auditorium was built. It was the Franklin Holiness Tabernacle. All the churches in the area came together, put the money in and built that Sam Jones em bounds. Many others spoke at the Franklin Holiness Tabernacle. Now it was made of wood and clapboard but also held the same number of people, 2,500 seats. Approximately this number of people in there. It was torn down years later, and a pastor friend of mine, Darren Whitehead, where we go to church at Church of the City down in Franklin, was able to get a lot of the parts from the original Franklin Holiness Tabernacle. And this is one of the windows. This window saw that revival that I'm talking about happen. It watched men like Thomas Ryman, Captain Thomas Ryman, become a pillar of society after his life was changed and the intent of his business was shifted from greed to service. This window has seen some very cool things. I've got one of its sisters hanging in the chapel, in our offices, because I like having things around that have seen things like this window has seen. It's looking at you right now. Remember that what you're doing is holy work. Remember, it's an act of service. You will not get to the end of your life and regret approaching your business at that level. It will not change anything except for the good. And then it also allows you to recognize people in our toxic culture who have lost their way. And you can just say, bless their hearts, because I know who I am. I know who Ramsey is. I know what we do. And if you don't like it, I'm not taking a poll. This is what we do, and this is who we are. And we're gonna be about our business of serving our team, of serving our customers and enjoying the profits and being generous with those profits. And that's my job. At Ramsey, your job is at your place. Jesus said in Matthew, whoever wishes to become great among you will be your servant. So serve. Serve. And then be unashamedly, wildly successful. Grow your business. If you're doing the right thing, then it's incumbent upon you to grow and grow and grow and do more of it. If you got an awesome restaurant, you should have three. Do more of what you're doing, because you're awesome. Because people's lives are being changed. If you change 10 lives doing this, how about if you changed 100 doing it? How if you changed a thousand doing it? If you help 10 people, why don't you help 100 people or 1,000 people? Your mission is noble. Growth should be your goal. At Ramsey, we tell our folks all the time. In staff meeting, Pat said, you got to say it over and over and over. You got to say it seven times, right? Let me just tell you. I say it 70 times. Our people almost roll their eyes and make fun of me. But I say it Every staff meeting, I'm like, this place exists for the people that are not in this room. I look at our team and I go, you are blessed so that you can be a blessing. You exist for the people that are not in these walls. Your job is to serve that single mom whose husband walked out on her and she can't pay her bills, and we're supposed to reach over and put her in financial peace University. Your job is to reach in entree leadership and help that business that's growing get better and better and better and better and better. That's your job, is to do things good for people that are not in these walls. And if you're not doing your job, you're not a we. Because this is who we are at Ramsey. And we remind them that every dadgum week, you are blessed for one reason. Not for personal intake, but to be a blessing. And over the years, we've managed to go through all the different stages of business, and we've been identifying those and putting them all together and growing them. And, you know, from treadmill operator to pathfinder to trailblazer to peak performer to legacy builders, the stage we're at now, and we've gone through these and we've got the six different things that we've done that we call them business drivers that spin up and cause us to be able to climb and level up and go through these stages. And we put that together. Of course, we call that the entre leadership system. Right? And over the 30 years, we've gone through all these stages, and over the 30 years, we've worked with a whole bunch of you as you're going through these stages. Some of you are at level five and we met you, you were at level three, you know, and that's the process. We created this system so that you can grow and lead and serve at a greater level with a greater capacity and with greater joy in the process.
- [50:53]
Dave Ramsey
Folks, you can be in the room for next year's entree Leadership Summit. To get the details before anyone else, including the location and our lineup of speakers, go to entreeleadership.com summit and join our 2026 wait list. You can also click the link in the show notes. We hope you enjoyed this special episode. And remember, better a weary warrior than a quivering critic. This world needs more high quality leaders, so take courage and lead. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thanks for listening to the entree leadership Podcast.