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Incarcerated Or Dead With Ernie Vargas
Episode 131st October 2022 • The One Man Empire Show With Charlie Hutton • Charlie Hutton
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In this episode, Charlie talks to Californian native Ernie Vargas. They talk about everything from homelessness, growing up on the streets of LA, and gang culture…to becoming a property mogul and charity founder.

Ernie's life has more drama than an episode of Line Of Duty, and he is a one-man powerhouse of resilience and self-belief.

Discover More About One Man Empire Here:

http://theonemanempire.com/

Transcripts

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Okay gentlemen.

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In today's episode, I've got for you Ernie Vargas.

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Who's an absolute living legend.

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It's based out of California, Los Angeles is a property mogul.

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And for me, someone that's actually had a fairly reasonable and easy upbringing.

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I mean, Ernie has given me some absolutely fantastic insight in terms of what it's

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like growing up on the streets of LA and his wall ride from being homeless

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to a Mexican immigrant mother, to gangs, to friends being shot dead to

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the property business that he set up.

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It's fucking awesome.

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His knowledge is spectacular.

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His insight actually on mindset.

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And what it takes to be a man today might surprise you.

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So let's get

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You grew up in LA

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yeah.

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So, I mean, born and raised in LA, right.

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Los Angeles, California, um, to a single mother.

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Um, my mother actually came to America, uh, at a, you know, she came to

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America as, as, just as with no family.

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Right.

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She was sent to America, came to America and basically, you know,

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long story short, she found the supposed man of her dreams, right.

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When that man of her dreams got her pregnant and pretty much

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threw her out on the streets.

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And so she was pregnant and, um, you know, with me.

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So I was born in a nuns convent.

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, and then, you know, um, I, I was raised in, in a basement, um, in my

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younger age, We had a struggle of homelessness, to be honest with you.

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Um, we, we were, um, we were homeless.

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So that's kind of like how my story, my journey begins.

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Right.

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Um, and I really, um, I really applauded my mom because, , she

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was a strong person, right.

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Because, um, in, in those instances, you, you make a choice, you

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either persevere or you give up.

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Right.

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And so giving up is not an option.

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And so she persevered, she fought hard, she worked hard, she

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worked, I mean, really, really hard to put food on the table.

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Um, but that, that's how she raised me.

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She, she raised me with, with that can do attitude and just

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being tough and being out there.

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She never married.

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And so she, um, you know, she, she gave me everything that she had.

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It was rough, you know, where I grew up at because a lot of my friends

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probably had similar scenarios, not exactly the same thing, but, uh,

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the, the, the, the common denominator being that they were, um, oftentimes,

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uh, um, parented by single parent.

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Right.

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So,

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. You know, there are a lot of

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responsibilities that they should take on.

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Right.

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And so, um, as a result, we do have a lot of mothers out there that, that are,

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you know, raising children on their own.

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so true.

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It's it's, it's, it's crazy that isn't it.

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And I mean, where, from your standpoint, Ernie growing up, is there a moment in

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your mind where you're like, holy shit, that, that was the turning point for me.

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Um, I, I always called my mom, my mother and my father.

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Right.

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cause she, she basically was both.

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With both roles.

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Um, I saw a lot of the, you know, the other kids in, in, in my, in my life that,

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that did have a parent on, on both sides of mother and a father, um, how, how, how

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enriching that was to their life, right.

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So I, at a young age made a decision that when I grow up, the choices

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that I make will determine how, you know, I can provide for my family.

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, oftentimes I think struggle, um, is, is the fuel that turns people, right?

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Like either one way, the, the, either giving up or to say, In your

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mind decide I'm gonna go for it.

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I'm gonna get it right.

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So,

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So, so talk, talk me through.

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Cause I think that drives really, really, interestingly, I, I love when, whenever

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I'm, I'm speaking to, other men that have that drive or that entrepreneurial

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spirit and, and, and I'm always curious where that fuel sort of came from.

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In my upbringing, a lot of my friends, um, you know, as, as I got to high school,

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uh, were, were, um, I was burying them.

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Right.

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Um, because you can imagine that, that an environment like that would probably

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produce, you know, not the best thinking.

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Right.

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So a lot of these guys were, uh, getting killed,

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fuck.

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So when you say bearing you, you you're literally talking holy fuck.

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Ernie.

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yeah.

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I mean, so I I'd say that yeah.

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Nine, nine outta 10 of my friends, you know, either incarcerated

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for life, um, or, or, or dead.

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Holy shit.

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And, and so they're, they're a big repercussions, if you don't

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man, up to the responsibilities that you had in front of you.

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Um, oftentimes people don't tell you what's possible.

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And I, and I saw that at a very young age that a lot of my peers had never

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been told what's possible in their life.

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Right.

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There were so many limitations in, in their environment.

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Um, and seeing a lot of these guys, um, go in that direction, uh, you

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know, that led to death or life

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that's fucked up.

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So, I mean, I, I could only imagine how that impacts you growing up as

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a, as a man, when you we've got that happening over and over again, with

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multiple people in your environment.

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Holy fuck.

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That, that must make you one of the most resilient people on this planet.

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Mm.

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Yeah, it, it did.

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I mean, these guys were all, you know, joining the a gang, right.

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They were all gang banging.

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Um, and so, you know, BA basically that, that, that put them in that place.

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Um, that was one thing , the other one was my mom.

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Right.

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I, I, I saw her cry every Christmas, you know, it would

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break my heart to see her cry.

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How, how hard the struggles were in our life.

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Right.

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And how she was just in so much pain.

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Right.

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So it, it, it does something to you internally.

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Right?

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I'll tell you Charlie though, , you know, sometimes we do the stupidest things, man.

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I'll tell you that.

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Um, I remember that my mom always told.

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You know, uh, the one thing that I ask of you son, is that you graduate from

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high school and that you walk on stage.

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I am.

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So looking forward to seeing you walk on that stage and that was like her

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whole vision of, of, of, you know, I I've made it as a mother, right?

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Like, oh, success.

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Um, and that's all she ever talked about.

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Well, Charlie, you know, when you get to high school, sometimes

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you do the stupidest things.

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Right.

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And I told you, a lot of my friends were weren't weren't

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necessarily bookworm . Right.

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So I, I, you know, I'm out there, um, Doing a bunch of stupid things,

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you know, not going to class.

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And so as a result, you know, I, I didn't get to graduate on stage.

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So, so here we are, my mom has purchased herself a brand new dress that she's

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going to wear on graduation day to see me walk, you know, on that stage.

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Um, and then, and then I come home and I say, mom, I've got something to tell you.

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Um, uh, I'm not gonna graduate on stage.

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Um, you know, I basically messed up.

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. And, um, and yeah, dude, that, that, that really broke her heart.

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And she's like, well, I'm still gonna go to your graduation.

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I'm still gonna wear my dress.

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And I'm gonna sit there and imagine what it would've been like to have

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my son walk through that stage.

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And Charlie that killed me, man.

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That, that killed me.

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I, I can actually tell you this story today without crying, but man, when I

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would talk about this, it would really tear me down because I, I let my mom down.

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You know, she didn't know this, but I actually went to that same graduation

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and I sat like two rows behind her.

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And I saw her just cry and cry and cry throughout the guitar ceremony.

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And that, that killed me, man.

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That, that really killed me.

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We have all these visions and all of these.

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Potentials, right.

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Like anything's possible, right?

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Like if you ask, if you ask your, your, your son, you know, what do

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you wanna grow up be when you grow up, he might say something like, I

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wanna be an astronaut or whatever.

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Right.

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And, and in his mind, 100% possible, no doubt about it whatsoever.

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Anything's possible, but that, that, that that's the beauty

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about children's minds, right?

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Like anything's possible.

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But then as we grow up, um, you know, we sort of get hit with the

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right and the left with, with life.

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Right.

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And then we start to forget about these dreams.

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Um, and so by the time that I got to high school, all these things that I used to

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tell my mom, mom, I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take care of you.

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I'm gonna, you know, get us this, I'm gonna do that.

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Um, by the time that I got to high school, dude, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm failing classes.

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Um, you know, it didn't feel very real anymore.

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Right.

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And so, um, but it was in that moment that I saw her tear up out there that,

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that I said, I have to do something.

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I've gotta find something.

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I just didn't know what it was.

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So, um, you know, I, I, I got, I, I, I got one J O B, which, you know, it's

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an acronym for just over broke, right?

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I, I got one job after another.

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And, um, charlie, you know, I, I, I had the worst jobs in the world, man.

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what, what talk me through that worst, worst job, Eddie.

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What, what was the worst job that you ever.

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oh dude, the worst job in the world was when I worked at a, at a Sears warehouse.

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Do you know what Sears

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Yeah.

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They're like big department stores, aren't

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Right, right, right.

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So this back then Sears.

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So I worked at a Sears warehouse, um, with, uh, a bunch of inmates.

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So they were guys that, that had come outta prison, doing life sentences

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in prison, just about coming out and, and an opportunity for work.

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And I say it was a worst job because dude that's so far off

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from where I wanted to be in life.

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Right.

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So I had a few jobs after that.

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I mean, dude, I, I, I, um, you know, I had, I had a couple of jobs and I

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landed in one really good job, um, for what we call Costco warehouse.

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I dunno if you know what that is.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So I was at a Costco back then they were called price clubs.

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Right.

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So I was the forklift driver there and I used to stock frozen chicken

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and drive the forklift there.

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Right.

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I bet you're like a fucking surgeon on a forklift truck, Ernie.

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I

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Oh, dude, you, you know what we used to do when the, the funnest thing

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about that job, I'll tell you, is that when the store closed down,

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we used to race in the forklifts

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that's amazing.

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and, and you know how you drive a forklift, right.

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You drive it backwards.

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Right.

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So we used to go from the front of the store to the back of

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the store driving backwards to,

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amazing.

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oh yeah.

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Oh man.

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But anyway, um, yeah, so that was a really good job it was had benefits.

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It had, you know, anything that, that, that, that basically, uh, an average

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person would, would aspire to be.

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So

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this was my very big, first turning point.

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Right.

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I was stocking chicken day.

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And then my manager pulled over on the forklift and said, Ernie, what's going on?

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Like, man, I see that.

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That they, you know, like you're miserable here.

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Like, like you've got a frown, like you don't wanna do like, is, am I right?

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I said, yeah, you're right.

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Well, Ernie, I'm gonna tell you something.

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I'm gonna give you some really good advice.

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And that advice is that you better learn to love this job.

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Love it with all your heart, because life is never gonna get

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any better for you than this job.

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And Ernie, if you play your card, right, Ernie, Ernie, if you play your cards,

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right, you can stay at this job for the rest of your life and retire from this

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one day, Ernie, that's what I'm gonna do.

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That's what my manager said.

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My manager said for us, and this was my manager's version of a pep

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Wow.

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My manager said, for us, us, it never gets any better than this.

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It'll never get better.

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This is it.

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Holy shit, Ernie.

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and, and so, you know, that that does something to you, right?

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You say, yeah, damn.

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You're right.

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I, I either I either do something today.

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Or I stay here for the rest of my life.

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It's my choice.

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And so that's when I kind of like, you heard that expression, you

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burned the ships behind you, right?

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So I burned my ships, dude.

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I, I left a full time job with all the benefits, . Right.

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Um, my mom thought I was an idiot.

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She's like, what are you doing?

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Even the people that love you and, and mean the best for you,

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they'll, they'll, they'll, they'll say don't do it, you know, in part

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when you gotta do it and you do it.

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Right.

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And so I did it.

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I, I, I quit that job.

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I went into this car sales job in Charlie, guess what, man?

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First day on the job, Charlie, first day on the job, , I'm driving to my first

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day of the job and it's a rainy day in March and I get into a car accident

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Oh, no.

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So I didn't even make it to work.

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And that car accident was so bad, Charlie, that, . My body flew out of the Jeep

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oh, fuck.

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So, wow.

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into the freeway.

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So I was on the highway.

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Um, and, um, and I was in a coma as a result of that, um, first day on the job

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and,

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So, so let, let me just, let me just rewind there already.

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So you've, you've, you've jacked in stable job.

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You've jacked in the, the health insurance, all the benefits on, on,

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on, on the thought process that, right.

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Fuck this.

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I, I, I can do better than this.

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And your first step in doing better.

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This, I've got this job as a car salesman on the day there you're in an

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accident and, and, and, and fuck man.

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That's.

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And I'm in a coma.

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Yeah.

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And, and, and then the, the, the hospital calls Kathy and says, um,

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leaves her a voicemail, . Right.

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And, um, you know, your husband's been in a small car accident.

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They didn't wanna scare her.

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So come on over that day, she found out that she was

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pregnant with her first child.

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Oh, my word,

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Yeah.

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So she gets over there.

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She sees me all in blood.

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I'm cut up everywhere and, you know, um, that, and that, you

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know, that, that was crazy.

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But, you know, I came out of that coma.

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She told me that we were gonna have a baby, you know?

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And, the doctor's like, well, this is a miracle.

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I mean, like, you came out of a coma with

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long were you in the, how long were you in the coma for Ernie?

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It was like about a, uh, like about a week,

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Wow.

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Wow.

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So what's, what's, what's that experience like as someone that's

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never been in a coma before, do you, do you remember anything

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you don't remember anything?

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I, I don't remember waking up.

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I don't remember getting dressed.

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I don't remember the accident.

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I don't remember anything that full day was vanished outta my

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That is fucked up.

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Yeah.

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So I came, I came to work after all that.

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Right.

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I had to stay at home and rest for a while.

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I went to work.

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I had no medical insurance.

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Um, you know, I had no, no paid, no nothing, no training.

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Cuz I skipped the, the training that was so I'm at work and um,

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you know, I'm selling cars or I'm, or at least trying to sell cars.

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Um, eventually I get this guy coming in to the, to the dealer and,

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he's a, he's a car sales trainer.

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Everybody's ignoring the dude.

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Everybody's like this dude's smoking stuff.

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He doesn't know what he's talking about, but I paid attention to this dude.

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This dude trained me on how to sell cars.

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He was pretty good.

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Fast forward to today.

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The dude is pretty well known.

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His name is grand Cardone

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No.

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So, so, so one on one training at the, from grant card.

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from grand Cardone.

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Yeah.

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This, this was when

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shit, Ernie.

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yeah.

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So, so nobody knows that grand Cardone's early start was, he

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was a car salesman trainer.

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He used to train sales people.

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Yeah,

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So, so that, that was like a, uh, fir first step into whether

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you call it personal development, but going fucking hell, man.

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Like if, if I listen to someone and, and, and I can get some results here.

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Yeah.

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So, so, so talk, talk me through that, that, that light.

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What, what was that Ernie was, was that just basics of selling

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or was that, was there mindset stuff involved in that as well?

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Or what, what did that look and what did

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You know what a lot of it was being, it was awareness of, uh, being aware

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of what's going on in the marketplace.

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Right.

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He's like, no, man, well, you guys gotta focus on is you guys gotta

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focus on, on the, on, on the long game, focus on being able to generate

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a lifetime of customers from one.

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And so he would talk about, um, you know, giving that person the, the

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best deal that you possibly could, but then you you'd treat them so well that

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then they in turn refer you people.

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Right.

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Essentially people will come back to you.

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Um, and so that worked for me.

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I, I did really, really well.

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I did a bunch of other things.

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Um, um, I made all the other car salespeople pissed off cuz I was

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bringing in a lot of business.

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So see you come in, you come in off the back of being in a coma.

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Listen, listen to what you're being told is the right thing to do.

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And, um, fucking good shit happens.

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And you're be in all the other, all the other, all the other car sales

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people that have been there before.

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oh yeah.

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Yeah.

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So the thing was about getting your name on the board, right?

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All of a sudden you see Ernie's name on the board and they're

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like, What is Ernie Ernie doing?

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running out here, you know,

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but, you know, that, that still didn't fulfill the dream man

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because, um, you know, I knew there was something bigger, right?

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. And so, um, I, I, I pretty much, um, I got this, this invite

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to go to a real estate seminar

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. I had never seen anything like that in the world.

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My, my background, there, there was no entrepreneurship right.

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To, to this point in my life, none.

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Um, I was very much an introvert.

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I was very quiet and shy, timid, scared, even, right.

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And, and you see something like this and.

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I'm thinking this must be a scam, you know,

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so I told Kathy, I told her, um, you know, uh, we need to go to this thing.

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Um, and um, we went and uh, you know, uh, very skeptical.

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Um, I told you I wasn't making any money.

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And so Charlie, it was a struggle for me to go to the event because it cost $99.

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Wow.

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I, I literally had to round up quarters signs and nickels to put in a Ziploc

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bag and, and have $99 worth of, coins to be able to pay for this event.

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Right.

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That, that that's how.

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amazing.

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That's how poor I was, man.

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You know,

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And Kathy's still pregnant at this stage as well.

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Right?

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So you you've got

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no, um, so time had passed, uh, baby was born, um, you know,

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and so she was a school teacher.

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So I, I asked her for a big thing.

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I, I asked her to take a day off of work.

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Right.

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I asked her to take a day off work and, um, and, and, and, and to come

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with me to this, to this event,

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so, you know, she was nursing our baby, right.

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So, you know, um, she had to exit the, the workshop every certain

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amount of hours to be able to nurse.

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Yeah.

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You know, the baby and my mother was outside in the lobby waiting

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with, with our, with our child,

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So your mom's literally babysitting live while the event's going on.

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Yeah.

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In, in, in the lobby.

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Um, and then Kathy would take the baby and run to the car and, you know,

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nurse her, um, yeah, it was hard, man.

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Holy shit.

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So it was, it, I, it was a big ask, you know, You know but, um, so we're there,

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you know, Robert, Allen's talking about all these things that are possible in

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your life and you know what, man, this is the gift that Robert Allen gave me.

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He, the gift that he gave me is that he real woke, you know,

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what was possible for me again,

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. Right.

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And so that was beautiful, man.

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That was awesome.

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At the end of the seminar, Robert Allen says, okay, for anybody

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that's ready to come with me.

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Um, I'm gonna have an, have a room right down there.

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If you're ready to move forward and do something with all of this,

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you know, and ready to take action.

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Now come with me.

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Right?

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Like, raise your hand if that's you dude, I'm on top of the chair standing up and,

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and, and, and, and then the punchline to that, Charlie, is that he's like, okay,

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you know, it's only gonna cost you $5,000.

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I was like, oh, oh, right.

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Cause remember I struggled to put $99 together in a Ziploc bag.

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. Um, so

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just, just so we are clear really that that $5,000 is,

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is, is for the training, right?

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So that you can get into the, the real estate business and, and,

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and you can, you can get this thing going and, and possibly,

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correct.

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Correct.

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Yeah.

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So, you know, I didn't have it, but as a, as a, as a, as a gift for coming to

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the workshop, you got like a book and, and a little cassette tape, um, series.

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Right.

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So I took that with me, Charlie, cuz that's all I could take with me and guess

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what, man, I listened to those cassette tapes every single day, every day.

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And now to the point that I was contaminated, I was

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contaminated with, with, with.

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With like what, you know, the, this what's possible thought, right?

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So once you've been contaminated with what's possible, like there

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is no way you're going back, right.

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So fast forward, I'm at the car dealership and I'm in the cars,

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you know, that I'm supposed to be selling, listen to these tapes.

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Instead of selling cars.

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He selling cars, where's Ernie where Ernie's out there in those

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cars, listening to those tapes.

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That's all he does every day.

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. And, um, you know, I, I eventually joined Robert Allen's program.

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so, so how, so you say eventually joined, , how did you get that money together only?

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And, talk me through that story.

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Okay.

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man.

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Charlie.

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So my mom, you know, I told mom, mom, you know what, mom, I, I, um, you know,

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I know I didn't graduate on stage.

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Right.

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I failed you there.

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I'm sorry.

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And, um, you know, I, I, I, I went to like maybe one year of community college

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and I dropped out of that mom, I'm sorry, I didn't go to college either.

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Um, and I never landed a good paying job.

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sorry about that mom.

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But mom, I found like I found it right.

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Um, and so, um, I told her, all I need is $5,000, you know?

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So my, you know, my mom, like, dude, she cussed me out in Spanish,

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really, I could

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oh yeah.

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So you know, me, a Mexican mother, you know, my so Mexican mother, um, will

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give you all the support that you want, but she'll give you a piece of her mind.

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She'll tell it to you straight as it is.

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And she called me every name in the book.

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And at the end of the day, she's like, okay.

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Yeah, son, if you're ready, then here here's the card.

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fuck.

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I did it.

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That's amazing Ernie.

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So, so, so your mum, despite what had happened at graduation, that's, that's

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an amazing, um, amazing place to be.

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Isn't it to have, have that have someone there that's got that much

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faith and belief and willingness to back you there already.

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I mean that that's, that's, that's powerful shit.

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Isn't it?

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It is man.

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It is, it really, really is.

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And, um, you know, and that, that's why wherever there's a will, there's a way,

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and everybody has a different story.

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Right

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. Um, man, . And so I did, um, I was a sponge.

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I listened to everything that, that was taught to me.

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And, uh, and you know, like this, this, this is where belief comes in.

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Charlie.

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Like , you gotta take action.

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So for me, I, I, I set a plan for myself, uh, that was an activity of

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knocking at least 10 doors per day of, of homeowners that were in foreclosure.

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Right.

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And, and, and, and putting a solution in front of them.

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So for me, um, I was young and naive and I was aggressive.

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And so I said, um, I'm gonna set a goal for myself that in two weeks time, Well,

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cuz that that's the next step is that you gotta give your goal a deadline.

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So my goal is that I will find a house and my deadline is in two weeks.

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And that's exactly what I did, Charlie.

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I knocked on 10 houses a day and on the last, very last day, that Friday I

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landed on a house that belonged to miss Sally, miss Sally, her house was in

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foreclosure and she told me that she had everything resolved and taken care of.

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Um, you know, I used the, uh, um, a phrase that, that helped me get in

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the door and, and that was miss Sally.

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Um, if anything were to change, let me give you my business card because

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everybody needs a backup plan.

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And let me be that backup plan for you.

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Let me be your plan B and miss Sally says, sure, sure.

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I'll take it.

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So time passed after that, like a whole week after that, and then I

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get a phone call from miss Sally saying, Hey Ernie, remember you

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had come to my house last week.

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And we said that if things change at back yeah, yeah.

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That, so she's like, well, I need your help.

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And so long story short, Charlie, and, I got that property and

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that was my first property.

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And it just goes to show, man, it goes to show how belief a plan, a

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goal, and a deadline, and you acting on that plan is everything right?

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And you gotta be tenacious about it, you know, no matter what, yeah.

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People insulted me sometimes with, I would knock on their door

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and, and, you know, told me off.

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And, and, and could I have said, oh, this isn't working out.

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Yeah, I could have said that, but I didn't.

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Right.

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I kept on going.

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And so I got that house and that was my first house in Charlie.

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Do you know how much money I made off of that first property?

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don't tell me.

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$158,000.

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fuck.

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So we we've gone from, we've got . We go, I need $99 in a fucking Ziploc

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bag that we're piecing together with nickels dimes causes to mom.

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Can, can you please put this, this 5k on, on a credit card to 158 K

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Yeah.

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Ernie that's , tell me that feeling like what, what did, what did that feel like?

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And,

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Oh yeah, man, dude, it was, it was the, the, you know, it, it was,

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it was, um, oh, it wasn't easy.

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It was a good at the end of it all.

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When you get that check in hand and you're going like this.

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Yeah.

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You feel amazing.

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You feel wonderful, right.

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Everything's possible getting to that was a scary moment

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. But doing that deal the first time was

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getting that house, you know, refurbished to be able to put back on the market.

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I made every mistake in the book that you can possibly think of.

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talk me through what, what was the biggest mistake you did when you were doing that?

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Ernie?

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Dude, I, I hired, um, I, I hired some guy who, who said that

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he could fix his house for me.

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Um, I get to the house and, and I see all the local homeless

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people inside of that property.

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And I'm like, Hey dude, aren't those the homeless guys out on the streets.

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He's like, oh yeah, don't worry about it.

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I got them.

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Like, what are you talking about, man?

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So, uh, you know, this guy, this guy, uh, that I hired apparently, um, my

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life surrounded by that he was an Excon

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oh, no,

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yeah, he was an Excon and, um, you know, um, I don't know.

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Have you ever heard of a, a gang called 18th street?

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no, no.

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Uh, a big gang in Los Angeles.

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One of the most notorious gangs.

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I don't know.

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It's like a, so I, I get, I get, I get there and, um, he's standing there with

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no shirt and he is right there painting a wall and I see a big, a big one and

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a big eight on his back, a big, a big, which, you know, so his whole back was

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a one, one of the biggest gangs there.

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He's like, oh yeah.

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So he's from 18th street.

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Uh, I let him go.

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I lost my money on, on him, right.

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I hired another guy and I come to check up on that other guy that I hire, and

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this guy's all tipsy, totally like this.

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And I'm like, dude, are you drunk?

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He's like, no, no, man, I ain't drunk.

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Boom.

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He falls over and he passes out on, oh my goodness.

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All right, dude.

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I don't know how to hire anybody.

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So, um, you know, I did every mistake in the book that you can think of, but

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after all those mistakes, in spite of all those mistakes and everything, I

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still was able to take home 150, $8,000.

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that's that's phenomenally

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so, but, but that feeling, that feeling that once I got that, that check

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once everything was done was amazing.

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And um, as a, as a celebration, I took my mom, my wife, my, my child,

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um, friends, extended family members.

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Um, I took them all, all paid for right plane ticket walls

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and their time to Hawaii.

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Oh fuck.

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That's awesome.

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Yeah.

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So that, that, that was my, that was like my celebration.

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And it it's a memory that, that I will never forget.

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Um, it was a beautiful way to celebrate, you know,

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So, so even though you took your mom to Hawaii at that point, did

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she forgiven you for not graduating?

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Did, did that did that let you off the hook?

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Or she was like, Ernie, Hawaii's kind of cool, but, but sudden

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you're still fucked up and you should have graduated high school.

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yeah, she, she, uh, she eventually forgave me.

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what, what's, what I think's amazed about that earning is I I'm a big believer

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in, and let's call it like, like daily standards in terms of the, the stuff

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that it's, it's a small stuff that you do consistently each and every single

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day, that, that, that has the big impact.

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And the fact that you said there is as part of the goal thing,

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it's like, right, I'm gonna knock.

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10 doors every day.

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I'm gonna have 10 conversations every day.

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I think that's so fucking powerful.

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Isn't it?

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Yeah.

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Consistent action, you know, consistent action.

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Uh, you still have to work on your mind.

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Right?

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We all get hit, right.

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Life is always throwing things at us, but, You know, it, it's

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easier to stay motivated when you know, things get hard, right?

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Eventually you, you, you work past, you know, at least for me, you work

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past your, your own personal wants towards even in bigger and greater.

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Right?

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So, um, a, a big, a big part of my drive is my family, right?

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My wife, my kids, um, you know, freedom, but beyond that, um, is the next chapter

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of my life, which is working with men, uh, what, what we call reentry, uh,

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that, that are incarcerated and that are released from the prison system.

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So , I go into prison and I, I get to, you know, work with men and, and

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have conversations with them, right.

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It all starts with having conversations with them and, and really helping

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men to understand that they can break this chain of incarceration because.

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Statistically a man who is incarcerated will have children who they

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themselves are incarcerated and it's a chain that continues to happen.

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And, um, so, you know, I'm passionate about entrepreneurship.

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So I get to teach these men about entrepreneurship and about

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thinking differently, right.

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And behaving differently, being different kind of men being men who

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are good fathers and who are, you know, really good husbands, right.

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, I had a really good friend that I still think of.

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, his name was Vince and so Vince was, uh, he was a brilliant guy, man.

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This guy was, I don't know if you ever watched MacGyver when you were growing up.

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Yeah.

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I fucking love MacGyver.

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Yeah.

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MacGyver in the 18th.

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That's that was like my childhood.

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that's right,

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awesome.

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So, so my, yeah, so my friend Vince, he would, he would, he was my, my

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real life MacGyver, just guy like man.

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Um, he would create things out of anything in real time in that moment.

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Um, it was insane.

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He was brilliant.

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The guy was a genius, so much potential.

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. He was brilliant.

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He was smart.

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He joined the gang.

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His life went downhill and he was killed all that brilliance that he had,

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that MacGyvers, that he had inside of him all went away, wasted potential.

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So that, that, that, that's my drive today.

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That's huge Ernie and I, I, I think you, you hit the nail on

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the head there isn't it earlier.

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I, I, I imagine even more so, um, with the work that you are doing, is it, it's

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incredible how, like you said, we, we are born with like this unlimited potential

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and then all the fucking restrictions.

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And imagine once you've been through the system, like the people have been

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that, that you are helping right now.

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I'm like, fuck man.

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Um, that, that must be like rewarding.

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Like nothing else.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, it is.

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I mean, um, it really, really is, uh, I dunno if I ever told you about

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my story, but I, I spent, uh, I, I was in on what we call death row.

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I don't know if you guys got death row

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No, we don't.

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We don't have, we don't have that here, but I know, I know what it is.

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Yeah, so I was, um, I was in Louisiana . Uh, one of the

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most violent prisons in America.

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Well, I, I got to, I got to live in it, you know, sleep in there.

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It was, it was an experience, you know, to, to, to walk inside of the prison,

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amongst the men, to eat with them, to be on the yard with them, to, to, to

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do everything that they do and to sleep on the same cells that they do, um,

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How, how do, how do they, how do they treat you Ernie as, as someone that,

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that isn't necessarily facing the same situation that they're facing yet is,

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is, is there with them, like how, how does that get, uh, received at their end?

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It was good.

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, I think they appreciated that somebody was willing to kind of

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spend time with them in there.

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And, um, you know, they share their stories, . And, and this is for us,

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it gives us a lot of perspective, man.

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The, the fact that we're free, we've got the freedom of choice to do

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whatever we want, whatever we want.

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It's unfortunate because we waste it so much.

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Right.

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When you're incarcerated, when, when you've been sentenced to life in

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prison, you don't have that anymore.

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Right?

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It's still a choice.

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They chose to thrive while they were in the system.

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Some of the guys became attorneys.

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Right.

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They, they graduated from law in inside of prison cuz you can, you

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can still study and, and, and do so many different things in there.

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Some of these guys became master carpenters where they were building

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amazing, um, amazing things out of wood.

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Um, you know, other guys, I mean, I became musicians, uh, I, you

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name it like so much talent.

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You can still but do so much, but you just have to do it within the,

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with, with, within, within the walls of, of the, of the facility.

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You can't be out there doing the things that,

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yeah.

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Yeah.

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you know, but it was amazing for me to see like, wow man, like, so, uh, some

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of these guys were like a combination of lawyers, musicians, artists, um,

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carpenters, all in one, like, right.

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Like, and here we are out in the world, we're trying to get it

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together with just one thing.

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And people come up with 1,001 excuses, why they can't be carpenters, why they can't

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be lawyers, why they can't be musicians.

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. And we, we talk ourselves out of doing the shit that really deep down

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is, is possible and, and doable.

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Um, and I, I, we, we didn't touch on this when we were talking because I

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know from conversation that we've had in the past that you sold that house for

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150, $8,000, and you went back and told that story and thi this made you like a

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fucking national celebrity, didn't it?

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, I was grateful and I was excited.

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I'm like, Hey guys, I, I got, I got my first deal.

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Right.

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And they're like, oh, okay, great, great.

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So how much you make 150, $8,000?

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They're like what I said, would you be willing to give us, uh, you know, just

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kind of like, let us film you and do like a little interview and stuff like that.

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I said, sure, no problem.

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They took that story and they ran that on, on, uh, back back then all the

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advertising, this was pre-internet right.

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Was on a full page, newspaper ad, you know?

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So I was on the front page of these newspapers across the country.

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Right.

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America and Canada.

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Right.

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And so they were running all these things about Ernie Vargas.

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They were running workshops, live workshops about this

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guy named Ernie Vargas.

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I had

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no

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idea just blew me away and it was insane.

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So, I mean, dude, I, I get, um, I got a fireman that came over to my house and he

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said, he's like, you know, he knocks on my door and he says, I'm so sorry to intrude.

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But as a fireman, I've got special privileges that the

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rest of the world doesn't have.

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So I can you up and find out where you live.

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And I, I took the Liberty of coming because all I wanted to

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do was just shake your hand.

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And for me, I'm looking at that like what, like, dude, I, I was at, I

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was at a store once and this woman taps me on the back and she says,

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excuse me, are you Ernie Vargas?

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And I says, yes.

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She said, oh my goodness.

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I've been praying.

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Literally I kid you not.

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I've been praying to meet you.

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You know, and, and that, that, that was happening like crazy.

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That's amazing.

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I, I love, I, I love how, how, how you were made the celebrity there

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it's fucking, super cool.

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. And, . We've been talking today.

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It's, it's, it's amazing.

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How many times you've, you've mentioned two people, first thing

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is your mom and, and the second person is, is your other half Kathy.

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And I love Cathy.

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She's fucking amazing.

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And how, how much, how much impact in, in terms of Cathy?

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And you you've got four, four kids now, right?

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And they, they travel with you and Cathy everywhere.

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You, you homeschool them.

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And I, I I'm interested.

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That, that relationship that you have with Kathy and, and how that works.

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Yeah.

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I mean, yeah, Kathy's always, um, you know, we, we actually met each

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other at a, at a, yeah, probably a pretty young age in high school.

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You were all, we were together through high school.

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Um, so we've, we've had our, she she's been there all, you know,

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good, good and bad in my life.

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And can't say it's always been easy.

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Right.

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Um, but, um, yeah, the relationship has been good.

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. Four kids is, is definitely a, a bigger number in today's day and age.

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Uh, that was important for us.

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Um, you know, we, we decided to homeschool, actually.

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It was kind of interesting how that kind of came about because

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it wasn't really, um, something that I was familiar with at all.

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But , she had mentioned it and remember she was a school teacher.

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She was an elementary school teacher, um, and loved being a

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teacher and working with children.

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Uh, but she, uh, saw how the school system was, was flawed in, in, in, it

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would, I would say limit kids' growth and everybody has different ways of learning

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. Um, she had mentioned it to me and I

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that how I thought, I thought that it would not be a good idea because I, I

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thought that in my opinion, you know, look, I, I went through the public

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school system that, that, that made me in my mind, um, a better person, because

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it allowed me to deal with the world.

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Um, and you know, um, you can't shelter a child, you can't kind of keep that

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child in above and protect them.

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Don't really hurt a child by doing that.

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Right.

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A child's gotta be able to fall down and know how to get themselves back up.

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Right.

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That, that, that was my, all of my thinking.

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Um, and what about the socialization aspect?

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Right.

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We only have so many years of influence over our children.

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I forgot what that exact number is, but it's like, I think it's, so we, we think

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that we have a kid up until the age of 18.

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We don't, we only have them for like, what is it like seven

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years or something like that.

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It's a very, you know, after a certain age, they are looking outside of us.

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Right.

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And they're influenced by other people by the world, by their

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peers, more than they are by us.

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Um, well at, at the time my, my daughter, my oldest daughter was in,

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um, like she was in, in school, like, like at like the very first year.

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And um, you know, a already I started to see things that I didn't agree with.

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. She, she already knew how to read a lot more than the average child.

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She, her, she had been given a lot.

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We had poured a lot more into her.

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Right.

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She got, she got punished at school because she was told to write her name.

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Okay.

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But she wrote her name in colors

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right.

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and she did not write at all in one color, but in different colors.

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So she was being creative.

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Right?

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And in school, in a traditional setting, you are not taught to be creative, right?

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You are taught to be conventional.

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You are taught to stay within the lines.

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She went outside of lines.

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So you have to stay within the lines in, in a conventional world.

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You've gotta stay within the lines.

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You gotta think within the lines.

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So, so, so you, you, you see your, uh, your daughter there already, she,

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she, she's got this creative writing.

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And, and was that the moment where you're like, right.

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This Kathy's right.

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She she's right.

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We're doing this homeschooling shit.

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We, we, we we're, we're allowing you to have bigger pictures.

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And, um, was, was that the catalyst decision

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Pretty much.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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We, we pulled her out and, um,

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I'm not saying that it's easy, right.

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Because as a parent, I mean that, that, there's a lot of

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responsibility on you, right.

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As well.

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Um, but, and, and I'm not saying school is bad altogether either, but.

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You gotta be very mindful of, of what your kids are doing in school and who they're

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around, what they're listening to, what what's coming into them and spend time

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with them to make sure that they can grow in the areas that they, that they develop

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need more development in and growth.

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That's amazing Ernie.

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And it's, it's amazing that you and Kathy managed to do that together on

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top of running the business together.

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You've got so many shared experiences, like good times, bad times.

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How do you balance that?

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So the, right decisions are made from a business standpoint, from a family

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standpoint, with all, all that fucking history and all that sort of stuff.

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Yeah.

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I don't know.

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I, I guess, um, um, I think we've both grown and matured as we've gotten older.

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Yeah.

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sure.

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Yeah.

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When we were younger arguments, right.

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More pride, I think pride is a big one.

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Man.

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Pride is pride is really get in the way of, of, of, of living, you know,

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um, sometimes we wanna be right or we're defending our position

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right.

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In, in that relationship with your spouse, um, you know, do you,

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what's that saying, do you rather be right or do you rather be happy?

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Yeah.

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Right.

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And, and, um, I think too many people are focused on trying to always be right.

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Nah, man, let go of that.

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Let go of that.

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What really matters?

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And you know what?

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Life is very, very short man.

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Holy fuck they haven't gentlemen.

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An absolute lesson.

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And how to overcome adversity.

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I mean, fuck anyone that can go ahead and scrape $99 together, nickels and dimes.

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And then go turn that into 158 GS.

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In my mind and with everything that's going on right now.

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Couldn't be a bigger mantra for money.

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Anyway that's it from me i've been charlie hot and you've been

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listening to Ernie vargas and we'll catch you guys on the next episode

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