All I Ever Wanted Was To Be A Millionaire… And Then…

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Russell Brunson Show

Episode: All I Ever Wanted Was To Be A Millionaire… And Then…
Date: January 23, 2018
Host: Russell Brunson
Guest (featured message): Ryan Moran

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Overview

This episode of The Russell Brunson Show explores the nature of ambition, fulfillment, and gratitude through personal anecdotes and a profound reflection by entrepreneur Ryan Moran. Russell opens up about the challenges of family life, sharing a relatable story about a chaotic bedtime routine, before segueing into a message from Ryan that powerfully examines the human tendency to long for “what was” or “what’s next,” and the importance of appreciating the present.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Russell’s “Real Life” Family Chaos

• Russell begins by recounting a hectic night at home, highlighting the unpredictability, stress, and humor of family life.
  • Challenges: Sick kids, bedtime struggles, sibling fights over pajamas (“my son was wearing my daughter's jammy pants, and she was mad and he was mad…” [01:25]).
  • The situation escalates into chaos—with misunderstandings, tears, coughing, and even vomiting.
• Context for the Message:
  • Russell admits feeling overwhelmed, but after a moment alone, he watches a video by Ryan Moran that reframes his outlook, transforming frustration into gratitude.
  • He shares this message with listeners, believing it’s something “important and special and cool.” ([02:42])

2. Ryan Moran’s Reflection: The Illusion of If/Then Fulfillment

• Ryan's message centers on how human nature tends to focus on problems in the present and appreciate positives only in hindsight.

  • Ambition’s Flip Side:
    • “When I was a kid, all I wanted to be was a millionaire. Now that I am a millionaire, all I want is to be a carefree kid.” ([03:19])
    • Other examples include body image, fatherhood, running a business, and moving away from home.
  • Irony of Progress:
    • Each accomplishment or life change brings nostalgia for previous stages, no matter how challenging they seemed at the time.

• Key Insight:

  • “There are the problems that we feel in the moment. And there are the positives that we think about in the rear view mirror. We feel the problems and we long for the positives.” ([04:37])
  • We are wired to focus on what’s lacking or difficult, often missing the joy or meaning in our present circumstances.

• The Pain of Real Loss Provides Clarity:

  • Moran shares an example of his friend who lost her brother, and how that grief reveals how much we take for granted:
    • “If anything ever happened to [my brother], all I would think about was having my brother back.” ([06:00])
  • He relates this to missing the grind of starting a business if ever forced to work for someone else, or missing a “screaming baby” if a child were gone.

• Choice and Focus:

  • Ryan emphasizes that recognizing value in the present is a conscious choice:
    • “You get to control what you focus on. You get to control whether you consciously appreciate the things that are in your life or if you focus on the problems.” ([07:30])

• Perspective:

  • Regardless of challenges, others may view your life as something to aspire to—even your current “problems.”
    • “No matter who you are, where you are, what you have or don't have, I can promise you there is someone else looking at your life, longing to be in your situation.” ([07:50])
  • Memorable Quote:
    • “These are the good old days.” ([08:20])

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Memorable Quotes

• Russell Brunson:
  • “This hour long process starts. And it was hard, way harder than most nights…It just adds to that stress.” ([01:01])
  • “After I watched it, I sat there just grateful and thankful. And I looked at this moment that just minutes earlier had been a horrible, miserable moment to something I became super grateful for.” ([02:36])
• Ryan Moran:
  • “All I wanted to be was a millionaire. Now that I am a millionaire, all I want is to be a carefree kid.” ([03:21])
  • “We rarely, if ever, pause to appreciate the positives while we're still in them, and instead we just experience them later…in the sense of missing the times that used to be.” ([04:53])
  • “The beautiful curse about being human is that we are wired to find problems…that makes us grow and create…but it does not make us happy…” ([06:54])
  • “No matter who you are, where you are, what you have or don't have, I can promise you there is someone else looking at your life, longing to be in your situation.” ([07:52])
  • “These are the good old days.” ([08:20])

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Important Timestamps

| Time | Segment Description | |---------|-----------------------------------------------------------| | 00:00 | Russell shares family bedtime chaos as setup | | 02:42 | Russell finds and introduces Ryan Moran’s message | | 03:19 | Ryan Moran’s message begins: reflections on longing | | 04:37 | Insight about current problems vs. rear view appreciation | | 06:00 | Personal story about loss and gratitude | | 07:30 | The conscious choice to focus on gratitude | | 08:20 | “These are the good old days.” |

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Tone and Language

• Authentic, Relatable, Reflective: Russell and Ryan both use conversational, story-driven language. Russell’s tone is candid and light-hearted even when describing chaos, while Ryan’s segment is thoughtful and introspective, designed to prompt self-reflection.
• Direct and Uplifting: The conclusion encourages listeners to appreciate their circumstances now rather than in hindsight.

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Takeaways

• Appreciate your current challenges—they’re often what you’ll miss later.
• Fulfillment is not found in the “next thing,” but in being present.
• You can choose to focus on gratitude now, not just in retrospect.
• “These are the good old days”—don’t let them pass by unnoticed.

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Transcript

[Russell Brunson]

What's up, everybody? This is Russell Brunson, and welcome to the Marketing Secrets podcast. So the big question is this. How are entrepreneurs like us who didn't cheat and take on venture capital, were spending money from our own pockets? How do we market in a way that lets us get our products and our services and the things that we believe in out to the world and yet still remain profitable? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Russell Brunson, and welcome to Marketing Secrets. Hey everyone. Hope you're doing amazing. I sent a really quick message I wanna share with you guys today. In fact, this is not even my message, but I'm gonna give you the backstory so that to kinda set it up. So last night I got home from the office, had a great day, a lot of work. I got home some of my beautiful wife, my five amazing kids, and we had a good time for like an hour. And then the dreaded nighttime routine begins where we gotta get them into bed. And I don't know about you, but for us it's a nightmare. Plus, we got a lot of our kids are sick. They've got co. And like, it's just. It's kind of. Anyway, it just adds to that stress. And so this hour long process starts. And it was hard, way harder than most nights for some reason. Like, we started like, we try to read scriptures every night, so. And this night should have been the easiest because it was like we tried to read one chapter each night and there's only six verses in this chapter, so it's like we each read one.

[Ryan Moran]

That's it.

[Russell Brunson]

It's gonna be so easy. No, it was a nightmare. And then my son was wearing my daughter's jammy pants and she was mad and he was mad. And so then she runs off crying. So I TR to like get her to stop crying by getting the pants back from him. And then he gets all mad and throws them and he starts crying. And then it was just like. And then Nora's coughing hysterically. Oh, and then Aiden's having a coughing attack. So Colette like starts hitting Aiden on the back to like help get the coughs out. And Nora thinks that Colette's beating up Aiden. So she starts screaming bloody murder, thinking that it's like child abuse so much. So she starts like coughing and puking herself because it's like, she's like.

[Ryan Moran]

Finally.

[Russell Brunson]

Like, get the kids in bed, get them, get the prayer said, get everything out. It's just like pure chaos. And then Nora, who's insane right now. She won't sleep. In fact, we just ordered her. We literally ordered her a doggy bed. We're gonna put in our room and see if we can get her to, like, sleep in the doggy bed instead of in our bed. Anyways, she's in the crazy Cliff, goes in to go watch Polar or something. I would rather die than watch. And so she's got her in there, and finally, Nora passes out. I go in to watch something else in different rooms because it's like separation. I'm like, duh. Interrupt someone's time by himself. I pull up my phone, I start flipping through, and there's a video that Ryan Moran posted. And, man, it was awesome. I watched it, and it was, like, exactly what I needed for last night. And after I watched it, I sat there just grateful and thankful. And I looked at this moment that just minutes earlier had been a horrible, miserable moment to something it became super grateful for. So I just messaged him this morning saying, hey, man, can I please, please post that video on my podcast so everyone else can hear it? Because I think it's important and special and cool. And he said yes. So with no further ado, I'm gonna queue up the video. Thanks, everyone. Hope you enjoy this episode, and we'll see you guys tomorrow.

[Ryan Moran]

When I was a kid, all I wanted to be was a millionaire. Now that I am a millionaire, all I want is to be a carefree kid. There was a time in my life where I lost a lot of weight and I had abs for the first time in my life. But I felt too skinny, and all I wanted was to add some muscle. Now that I've added some muscle, all I think about is how much I miss my abs. Before I was a father, all I wanted was kids. I wouldn't trade my daughter for anything. But I sometimes miss the days when I was alone. When she was a baby and she was crying in the middle of the night, all I wanted was for her to be older. Now that she's older, we have such a stronger connection. But sometimes I miss the days when she was a baby. When I was growing a small business, all I thought about was growing a big business. Now that I'm growing a big business, a successful business, I sometimes miss the days when it was small or simpler. Growing up in a small town near Cleveland, Ohio, all I thought about was getting out. Now that I live in a big, booming city, I miss home. I realized the other day that there are two sides to everything. There are the problems that we feel in the moment. And there are the positives that we think about in the rear view mirror. We feel the problems and we long for the positives. We rarely, if ever, pause to appreciate the positives while we're still in them, and instead we just experience them later. And we experience them in the sense of missing the times that Used to be A friend of mine lost her brother recently and my heart just broke for her because I knew that all she thought about, all she wanted was to have her baby brother back. And I knew that she thought that if she had her baby brother back that she would appreciate him so much more and love him so much harder than she ever had. Now I have a brother and I don't spend 24 hours a day thinking about how much I love and appreciate my brother. But if anything ever happened to him, all I would think about was having my brother back. It made me realize that there are things in my life that I overlook, that if they were taken away from me, it would be the thing that I longed for the most. The times when my daughter is screaming. If anything ever happened to her, all I would want would be to comfort a screaming baby. If my business went under and I was working for someone else, I would long for the grind of starting something new, spending long hours building something. If I was going hungry, the extra flab covering up my abs, I would gladly trade my hunger for a little bit of fat if I had food to eat. The beautiful curse about being human is that we are wired to find problems. That does not make us happy, it actually makes us miserable, but it also makes us grow and create. And to solve those problems, we rarely, if ever, pause to appreciate the things that are in our life that we could be grateful for until it is too late. But you get to control what you focus on. You get to control whether you consciously appreciate the things that are in your life or if you focus on the problems. And you wait until later when you feel that sense of longing for how things used to be. No matter who you are, where you are, what you have or don't have, I can promise you there is someone else looking at your life, longing to be in your situation. Even in the situation that right now you see as a problem, there is someone who looks at your life and longs to be in that situation, even though once they got it, they would probably long for something else. No matter who you are or where you are, you have seen so much to be thankful for and to appreciate. These are the good old days.

[Russell Brunson]

Want more marketing secrets? If so then go get your copies of my two best selling books. Book number one is called Expert Secrets and you can get a free [e-mail] and book number two is called Dotcom Secrets and you can get your free [e-mail] Inside these two books you'll find my top 35 secrets that we've used to become the fastest growing non VC backed SaaS startup company in the world.