Power of Persistence: Stories from Myron 'The Jackhammer' Welik

Mastering the Realm of Networking

Tune into this inspiring episode of The Small Business Show as Myron Welik, a renowned dealmaker and expert networker, explores the essence of networking in business. Drawing upon his immense experience, Myron demystifies the intimidating aspect of networking, proving that it is a skill attainable by all, irrespective of personality type.

Power of Persistence: Conquering the Business World

Myron's tenacity shines brightly throughout this episode, flagging persistence as a key quality for success in business. His compelling narrative, from handling rejection to striking the next multimillion-dollar deal, serves as an essential guide for aspiring entrepreneurs. With insights from Myron, this episode reinforces the spirit of entrepreneurship: adapt, overcome, and prosper.

Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwelik/
Instagram Profile: http://instagram.com/myronwelik
Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008755627905
The Jackhammer Effect Book: https://www.amazon.com/Jackhammer-Effect-business-happen-believe/dp/1777725402
The Jackhammer Effect Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXcKECuAAeKuwOBIQq9jdwQ

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Transcript

0:02

Welcome to the small business show. We have created a podcast to have candid and in depth conversations with entrepreneur and professionals we find fascinating. Learn the tips and tricks for marketing, running and growing a small business. The Small Business Show is the official podcast of garuda, promo and branding solutions. You everyone. You're listening to the Small Business show. My name is Swire Ho. You can also call me the promo guy. My guest today is myron willick from MSW Business Development Consulting. In 2002, Myron faced a devastating blow, losing his multimillion dollar business, which left him grappling with self doubt and depression. But Myron refused to stay down. Instead, he reinvents himself. Also known as a Jackhammer, he has been making deals happen for over 40 years, hosting The Jackhammer podcast and author of The Jackhammer Effect. Myron's relentless drive and resilience has been the key to his long and successful career. He's not only brokered the game changing deal between Heidi Klum and New Balance, leading the creation of Khnb Brand, but he also pitched his own product to millions on the Home Shopping Network. Moreover, Myron has negotiated strategic partnership with major Brands, new England Patriots, lacrosse Viva, madison Square Garden, radio City Music Hall and Mall. In 2018, Myron saw a potential in a young real estate entrepreneur. Even though he knew nothing about real estate, he pursued the opportunity and by 2020, the partnership blossomed, reselling over $35 million in real estate investment deal at 69 going on 39. Myron is a living proof that age is no longer a barrier to reinvention. His motto is never give up, stay passionate and work hard because it's never too late. Get ready to be inspired. Welcome to the show, Myron. Well, welcome. Listen, you're fantastic. Are you portable? Can I take you everywhere? Can you come with me everywhere? I don't got to say a word, I'm gone. Thank you very much. Great podcast. I hope everybody enjoyed it. Just leave my contact. Wow. What do you got to say? Done. First question is, and I'm not putting myself down, but when I see your nickname The Jackhammer versus I call myself the Promo guy. The jackhammer is much cooler. Love to learn more about how you get that nickname. And how do you apply The Jackhammer into things that you do well? The specific reasons, like all great things, when you demystify them and you wonder how things started. Things generally, companies, creations, they started in a very, how should I say unceremonial way. Generally very unmagical way. The specific name Jackhammer. I have a very good friend, Jonathan Ginter, who looked at me as I was writing a book called The Jackhammer Effect. And he looks at me and he know, you know what the hell you are, Myron. This was just about three, four years ago. You're a goddamn jackhammer. Been a friend for a while, not in real estate. So you know what? I loved it. It stuck. It stuck and I kept it because it exactly I think it exemplifies the tenacity. And you know what people everybody knows the jackhammer machine is brought in to keep going where most other things fail, or to do jobs where a lot of machinery, particularly in construction and asphalt, can't do it or don't do it or don't do it sufficiently. So I think it's a very apt name for everything I'm trying to do. So you're the type of person, then, if I'm getting it right, with the jackhammer nickname. So things that people want to turn away, people saying, no, I can't do that, then you will go in and break it open and fix things. Well, if anybody had a reason why they can't do it, I certainly do. After losing my business and hitting rock bottom in 22, 23 odd years ago, and I really floated, was kind of like a nomad in the desert for 16 years, I repeat, 16 years working odd jobs, shoe shining, cleaning floors, not fun. And not something you or anybody else would have interviewed before. Trust me, not too many people would have been interested. But at 68, like you correctly put it, and it was 68, not 38. I wish it was or 28. It was 68. Somehow I never gave up. I met this young man in real estate, and that set me on the road that you elaborated over the next from 20 till now and continues. And now it's over 40 million. And now, unfortunately, I'm 70 going on 50, no longer 69 going on 35 or 39. But the main reason for me, God knows I had is by not giving up. And I kind of got up every day, even though it was almost impossible to get out of bed, and even though many days it felt like it would never get better, I somehow was hoping if I stick around long enough, maybe it will. A couple of good things that happened, if I could say good things with a quotation mark swire, is that I never really had too many physical ailments besides being neurotic and needing antidepressant. That's true anxiety. And believe me, that's not fun. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. Well, I don't know, maybe, but it's not fun. But I didn't really have any physical ailments, so that didn't hold me back. Because, of course, as we all know, that's beyond your control, no matter how much ambition or drive or jackhammer I had. And the other thing is, I was fortunate. I had a secret weapon, I keep saying, I think, called love. It doesn't solve everything, but it helps that somebody, my wife, who still believed in me, who still was there, I had to do it. She can't do it for me. And many times she reminded me of that correctly. So get off my ass and do something with myself or just give up. So at the end of the day, you have to take care of you no matter what kind of where you are or not. So fortunately I didn't surrender. And the main reason I look back is I didn't surrender. One of the things I stayed young, and I want to clarify that staying young wasn't mean working out or diet even though those are all important things to do. I constantly networked, meaning I went to, I live in Montreal so there was tons prior to COVID and even during COVID online there was tons of networking events and meetups all focused on entrepreneurial endeavors. And at least here in most of the world, 99% of these networks are visited by people in their twenty s and thirty s. Not people in their sixty s and seventy s, thank God. And I was exposed to it. I heard them, I listened to them and these people are just beginning their life. The best thing about being 30 is being 30 and it's also the worst thing. It's kind of both but when you're just beginning their journey so it was tremendously, empowering, exciting, inspiring and it kept me, whatever age I was, it kept me their age and it pushed my curiosity and obviously something in me resonated with it because I kept going and I pushed myself to go. They were in the evenings I made myself go and in hindsight I don't go to those meetups, I go to more industry focused now that are specific to what I do swire. But that saves me. There's no question that was much more than I ever understood because had I not, I don't know what would have happened. I just would have been like the Wicked Witch and wizard of Oz faded away without the water being thrown on me. That would have been not too much fun. So that was kind of again something I just did instinctively. I did not do it knowingly. I wasn't that smart, I wasn't aware but it's something like something inside did not want to give up yet and I said kept going even though I didn't know why or how or I didn't know if it would ever change and many times I never thought it would. Yeah, I have so many follow up questions for you and you have touched on so many great points. I specifically like the quote that you have and I'm going to repeat that one more time for the listener never give up, stay passionate and work hard because it's never too late. Get ready to be inspired. It's part of my motto too, because a lot of times as you get older, which I am, so as everyone, then people tell you you're too old for that, you're too late for that. There's been things that done many times in the business community, right? It's been done many, many times you're too late. But if you're really passionate, sometimes you have to be a knucklehead to be an entrepreneur. Then you say, well, it's never too late. I'm never too old. I'm just going to try it. Maybe I try my approach differently to do something that might have failed for people who started before me before. But if I'm willing to change just one thing that could be different. For example, no one thought that by punching an address on the phone a stranger driving a car pick you up could make billions of dollars. Now it is. And parents actually trust the kids to go. A stranger in a car like 1020 years ago, that would never have happened. But someone saw something and they may change it and it's never too late. No. And also the unknown is tremendously terrifying but tremendously exciting at the same time. I mean, the great things happen when everybody is paralyzed with fear even the great so called successful people. The only difference is they keep going versus many people who don't in spite of their fear. So they go into the abyss. Whatever happens, happens. Any great things that I've done or accomplished I had no real much of a plan before I knew what would happen. When I put together Heidi Klum and New Balance and I felt New Balance I had no contact with New Balance. I reached out there and most of the time when you do that nothing ever happens. But for some reason I adopted the attitude. Fortunately, I don't take it personally because if you do, you're finished. You're dead. You might as well be an accountant. Nothing wrong with accountants. I don't want to have a problem. Nothing personal, but if you know what I mean, you're dead. You're finished. And if you're going to get kind of emotionally finished mortified by a failure or something not working out then you also have to stop because it's constantly going to happen. And percentage wise, like Babe Ruth said one of the greatest hitters of all time he only hit so many home runs because he struck out. So, I mean, I know it may sound obvious and cliche. The problem is it's not obvious and cliche. It really does happen that way. So I kept pursuing it. That clicked. Many didn't. Others, all my partnerships. There were hundreds and hundreds of and anybody who achieved anything will tell you how many times they tried until they got it. I was watching something on American Got Talent last night and they did. This great gymnastic feat was brilliant and it took these people four and a half years to perfect it. I repeat, four and a half years. Not days, not weeks, not months. And it was brilliant. But it takes forever. So part of the challenge, of course, is staying power. How do you survive mentally, emotionally, and financially? It's a tremendous challenge. So at the end, everybody's got to decide how badly they want it. They got one life whether they believe it or not. And the problem is you don't want to wait till you're 50, 60 or 70 to realize, to act with a sense of urgency. I urge everybody listening 15 and 50. Don't wait until you're 70 or 80 to realize you wanted to do what you should have done. Because one day you're going to run out of time. Believe it or not, it's going to happen. And you are going to get to 50 as much as you regret. Do it. Find it hard to believe. Believe me, I did too. And I just turned 70. And we had a big party, by the way, Swire, when I turned 70. A party where I made everybody not made, but everybody dressed like it was 1969. Yeah, it was great because I love the Beatles. So we celebrated. It was June 3, 1969. Everybody dressed like it was in the 60s. So we had a great time, we had fun. But my point is, if you challenge yourself, if you really want it bad enough, you got to want it bad enough. If you don't want it bad enough, it's going to show you're not fooling anybody, even yourself. So talk to us more about deal making. I think this is a very important point because for the younger generation, right, first you have to believe that that deal can happen in your mind, right? But then it's certainly when you said maybe two party who have nothing common, right, in the beginning, there are no interest of each other. Sometimes they might hate each other. So as a deal maker, what kind of mindset do you go through or what kind of thinking do you go through to try to broker the deal or to try to bring the pieces together? Can you walk us through that? Yeah, for sure. One of the things I start off with always very critical that I may be calling XYZ Company, but I know there's hundreds of other potential clients to call. So if I strike out with them, I say, okay, I move on to another company and I keep going. There are generally speaking, there are many people that you could potentially hopefully, because if there's not, I think that's a problem in itself. But many people you could create that kind of affiliation with or partnership with or relationship. You just got to spend the effort and time to find it and look for it. Number two, you should think about what you want. What are you asking for? What are you looking for? So you're very concrete, don't get emotional. Show enthusiasm, show passion. But what kind? I know it's in a very overused word, but that's the bottom line. What are you going to bring them that's going to help them and make their lives better business wise, personally? What value? In other words, okay, if you really can't figure it out, why are you calling them? Why are you reaching out to know you've got to offer something that they know. Brilliant marketing is figuring out, like Seth Golden, the brilliant person he is. It's figuring out what people want, not what you want for them or what they need. As you can see, it's what they want. If you can't figure out what they want, well, keep working on it. I think also the more people you talk to and network and mentor and ask opinions and ask them to review and get that feedback from people that you respect, it could be family. As long as it's an unbiased, non judgmental, candid opinion from somebody that you respect, obviously, I think that's also very critical. I learned this the hard way because it took me years, so hopefully it doesn't take everybody else listening in the audience. Years is not to get overly emotional about it. The emotions will kill you. You know what I mean? They'll kill you. You'll get the better of yourself. They'll become your worst enemy. You don't want that to happen. That's clear. And then there's always the struggle. Always the struggle is between what I want to do in my dream versus how do I survive? How do I pay the rent, how do I buy food, how do I do that? Which is very valid. They're right. I mean, all I can say is that what I've been through, it can't get much worse, okay? Much worse. I wouldn't be talking to you. I'd be dead. I'd be telling you so I know it's impossible to communicate. We always got to live our own hell, and we each got to live our own heaven. But vicarious to explain something is extremely difficult to articulate, almost impossible. You got to go through something like hell to get to know what it's like, unfortunately. But like I said, if I could do it, what I did, and come back at 68, everybody listening, not 38, you could do it. Anything. If you really set your mind to it, you could do it too. I think one of the key important point that you mentioned and I think everyone should pay attention to whenever you find yourself in a negotiating table or try to convince someone to, let's say, invest in you, with you, or try to offer you capital is figure out what the other person wants. It's not what you want. Like, you obviously want something from them. That's why you're going to talk to them. But have you ever stopped and think about what the other person want? What you're proposing to them might help them. So maybe actually flip the table and say, if you work with us, then this is what you can get. These will be the benefits that you have. It's the same thing. You're still trying to make that deal. But if you change that mindset, it's not, I want this, I want that. You have to give it to me. Then the answer will be no every single time. Interested? If you're looking for someone, you're a startup or a young business and you're looking for some investment or something, they're going to want to know what's the traction? Okay, do you have any results yet? Concrete financial results? They're going to know what the brand looks like, what the product or services are looking. These are their main questions. What's the people working there, working with you, your colleagues, like, and then secondary, but just as important is how badly do you want it? How confident are you? Are you making eye contact with them? These are all things I think a lot of people look at people investors look at, and other people. How credible do you come across on the phone? Because how do you articulate your want? Okay. Because everybody judging everything, especially if they don't know you. You can't today, probably in 2023, almost 2024, more than ever. It's not 1960, so there's too many ways that people could be fooled today. Now more than ever with IA, there's too many ways that people could be misled. So everybody is kind of on their guard more than ever. Correct. That's why face to face is always. I love that point, really. Myron especially with the day and age that we are in with AI, with so many things that we could pretend as a person that we not really are in reality. And especially school, they don't teach you how to dress and present yourself appropriately. They teach you all the skills that you need. You're very technically book smart, but how do you talk to someone they don't never taught you that? You learn it maybe on the playground or maybe you learn it from your friends, which sometimes is not good experience. So I do wanted to carry that conversation because you mentioned that you're an avid networker, so what will be the mindset? You mentioned that initially you just went to general business networking and then you found that real estate is interesting, and then you go into industry specific, then you find out more. So walk us through the process. How do you learn there are opportunities there? And then when you go in there, what kind of question do you ask the industry veteran to get you more knowledge in the field that you choose to be in? You're kind of in the middle of nowhere land like me and no man in the desert. Generic networking, which tend to be very technology focused, understandably? Okay. Yeah, which is fine, or it's what I chose anyways. You can go to meetups on anything you want really, today, on any subject, really. But I guess it's what I chose purposely because they were startups, and that's why I wanted to meet people involved in startups, and startups were principally technology focused. Okay. So that's the kind of people I wanted to meet, which was good for me then, now, because I dive so much in real estate and love it and build success and anybody I think no matter what you're doing, for me to grow and thank God it's post COVID for me to grow, learn and I constantly wanting to do it. Going to as many real estate focused network events makes most sense. Number one, it speaks to what I do. It makes business sense. It's practical because people have X amount of time and X amount of hours. And how you budget your time is just as critical and probably more than how you budget your money. Obviously today very critical because we can lose time in a heartbeat. You know that and I know that. Over nonsense, over garbage, and you can't get it back. Money you can always make and lose, make and lose. Time as we know. It's a cliche, but it's not unfortunately, it's gone. It's gone. You don't manage your time. You invest in your remember. So I think now there are several in the greater Montreal area and national area, there are several real estate events that focus on investors, which is what I like to go, because it depends what your business is and who your customers are and what you're looking for. That's what I'm looking for. Investors and people related agents related to the real estate industry. So it's everybody that's doing what I'm doing, not directly but indirectly, but certainly in the real estate world. I'm not going to go to no disrespect electronic show, even though I'd be fascinated because it doesn't really relate to me. Okay? I mean, there's endless shows to go in. I'm not going to a bathroom show. I'm not going to a house of hardware or clothing show. I'm not going there. It's just not because it doesn't relate to what I do, and I'm not interested right now. But it's the same vitalness of people to go who are in that business. My business is real estate, so I go to local and I go to Nationals, and the people you go are going for the same reason me. It's fabulous. It's also a chance to meet people. You would never get to meet the most senior executives in the world. You stop them in the hall. Everybody has their badge on it. You look at the badge, they look at me. Maybe they don't want to talk to you, but what are they going to do? You kind of cut them. Now, if you ever tried to call that person, email, you know and I know it's like trying to call the CEO of General Motors or Apple. There's no way in hell you'll ever get anywhere near that. But that guy may be at that convention. He is going to stop even the CEO of Apple. What are you going to do? He's going to say, no, Fu, I don't want to talk to you. I don't think so. Okay? He may say he's busy and everything. So you have a chance to meet people and experience people at all different levels, entry level, up to the most senior level. If the show attracts those people, that's a great advantage too of the show because you can't be shy. I have another expression I love, which everybody has to remember. Shyness costs you money, okay? Otherwise if you're shy, you can't go to the show. I don't understand that. So I find those shows rewarding. I make contacts that result in business. Some of them don't immediately, some of them down the road. I learn, I attend the talks and you keep abreast on what's going on. And then things happen that you never know is going to happen, but for sure would never happen if you don't go. So for people who have been doing virtual networking, I know there's a lot of them out there. I belong to two chamber of commerce, so I know people are more shy before COVID if you notice it, when they see human interaction, they somehow they pause for a little bit. I went to a 30 people networking in person yesterday. So haven't done that for quite a while. It took me a little bit to warm up. So for those of us who are not yet be comfortable with networking, what are some of the questions that you say, let's say we run into someone we die wanted to meet. What should we say? How do we even make an impression so the other person will open up and talk to us? That's a great question. Great question. And I've been reading I read something that someone wrote. I loved it, I think. So instead of you want to make yourself interesting. My suggestion, and I'm learning from this, I learn every hour, every day. Swire. People say right away who you are, what you do. I mean, they can see it on your back. Sometimes they say it too long and then I walk away. I think what's good is maybe go into the reason why people should need or want or use you. For example, let's say you're a doctor that specializes in certain back issues, okay? Let's say so you talk about you say to the person, you know, sometimes when you wrench your back or you go you give them examples of the problem. Well, I treat people like that. Or you know, people who buy apartment buildings are always looking for a great opportunity to buy apartment buildings and they really can't find it. It's hard to find it. I help them find it and I help them get ten X their money. They say, really? Who are you? What do you do? That or you're starting a personnel. Especially people who, let's say somebody want to change their job or change their work. And you offer a kind of coaching. You know, people who are burnt out give examples of your content. You know people who are burnt out, you know, people are fed up. You know, people who don't know what to do, where to go, who to talk to. And the person will say, yeah, that's me. Why? And you say, Well, I help people like that. Yeah, tell me more. So talk about what you do. Talk about who you are a little bit quickly. So you pique their curiosity as to why people may have why you bring value your need or use you or benefit from what you do. Instead of just say, I'm a doctor who treats back injuries. Okay, that's not very exciting, even though that's very important. Real examples, everybody can relate to them. You don't have to be a doctor. Things that people can relate to, it's going to pique their curiosity. They're going to want to know more about you, and you make it entertaining. Yeah. So one suggestion that I have for people who say they're scared of networking, I noticed that whenever that I walk into a networking event so assuming that they will have a food area, they have drinks, and then they have tables, regular networking event, right. So you will pay attention. They're always going to be one or two people. I call them the magnet. Right. Everyone is surrounding them. Everyone wants to talk to that person. That's one type of people. And on another side, on the extreme, you see people who are pretending they're getting drinks, pretending they're eating, but then they're actually more shy than you are. So I've been on both situations. So let's say you go into the middle. I would suggest, if you're not sure who to talk to, this is your first event of this organization, right? Go talk to the people who everyone talk to them and go to talk to the people that are really shy, that are afraid to talk to someone. You'd be surprised when those people open up. Then you actually get maybe the shy people is actually someone really smart, but then they're just not good at communicating. Or when you walk into the person who knows everyone. So the smart question when you finish the conversation with that person is, do you know who else in this room I should be talking to? Would you mind to introduce me to them? You'll be surprised how many new connections you can make just because the magnet are walking you through the room. Absolutely. So well put. I mean, the guy eating or woman eating the sandwich, you say, you know what? The sandwiches are lousy here. What do you think? That's a good icebreaker. That's a nice icebreaker. They're going to react to you. They're going to smile a lot to you. Why? No, I like it. Okay, but that's your opening. You know what I mean? You don't say they're great, or I've starved, but you say they're lousy, something that would get their attention. You throw a little verbal grenade, and then the other one, that's the magnet, as you call him, or her, if I really want to talk to the person because people don't care if they. Want to talk. Everybody wants to talk to him or her ten or 20. And you're never going to get your chance unless you make your chance, if you know what I'm saying. So if you get it, you say, look, you just turned to someone. What are you going to do? I get a little aggressive. I say, Look, I just want to ask you one question, or here's my car, like that. I got to go. I got to ask you one question. I got to meet it because you got 50 other people here, and I'm never going to get to you. And I go through a whole thing, and they all sit there, and while they're all sitting there staring and looking, I throw the question there. What's the person going to say? He's going to react. He's going to answer. If you really want to talk to that person, it's important. You got to do whatever you got to do to get their or his or her attention. Yeah, great. Well put. So thank you for giving us so many advice on networking. So I am truly believe in personal networking, especially following what Myron is doing. Go to more general networking event that you have interest in. Don't go to something that you have no interest in. Go to something that you have interest in. And then slowly, when you develop a niche that you want to really get into, go to specific industry meeting networking event. You can find them online. Just do a search. And then you can learn and meet so many people that you believe. Remember always, I think, because we forget that I forget all the time. You're not alone even. There's 1000 a million people there. You're not the only one scared shitless. You're not the only one nervous. You're not the only one that's eating that sandwich alone, right? Okay. You're not the only one. It may or may not help you, but you're not the only one. You're the vast majority who doesn't know what to do, where to go, who's just kind of crawling his or her way through the dark, which is what it is. Intimidated, scared. Don't let anybody do that to you. You have every right to be there as anybody else, if not more so. And let them know that. Don't be shy. Cost you money. You can warm up a little bit. So what I normally do is I will warm up to someone who can talk to a wall so that I warm up five to ten minutes, and then I could go to talk to people that I really want to talk to. You can always prep yourself for it if you put your mind into it. Know why you are there at the meeting. Not to talk about football, not to talk about the weather. Be nice, be sociable. But then you have to remind yourself why you're there. That's right. And you're very right. And practice before is good because what are some topics? They're not there to talk about the weather. They're not there to talk about whether you're right, unless it's a clothing place, a green shirt or red. They're there to talk about what they're there to talk about. You got to contribute. Absolutely. And the more you contribute, the more value, even in a 1 minute conversation, the more they're going to want to hear from you. And it's got to be reciprocal. They got to feel that you're not just giving them a speech or selling them yourself. Okay. You got to be curious in them. Because if you're not going to show you're curious, it's not both ways. Why are they going to waste their time? I don't think so. You know what I mean? Because they're going to get a bad vibe about you, I think. Talk to us about making the comeback. Walk us through the process. Where did you meet that young entrepreneur? And then what are some of the things that the entrepreneur said or present to you that makes you believe in him and ultimately create the deal that you did? That's a great point. So I think the answer to that is it depends on the individual. I can only give you it's very hard to generalize making a comeback. It's specific to one's own journey. But what happened to me is that after going for years, I repeat years after going to hundreds and hundreds of networking events, I repeat hundreds of them just to show that after 25 years you get to be very rich or very famous. That cliche. 25 years overnight to keep going. He was in real estate, like I said, in his mid 30s. This was 2019, late 2019, very the end of it. So not long ago, just before COVID and he was there, and it was a meeting of startups, 30 people around a table talking about technology. So he really had no reason to be there. And one of my best friends said somebody sent him there for you. It's like a movie, meeting someone you never thought you're going to meet, bumping into someone who had no reason to bump into. It's one of these magical coincidences of life that pushes you in a different direction. Whatever. It doesn't matter why or what. It matters that it happened. I don't know. But he had no reason to be there because he wasn't talking about what they were talking about, which was technology. He was talking about real estate. They weren't talking about real estate. And why he came, I had no idea. He just was curious.

It was 08: 32:08

00 at night. A father, he had kids. It didn't make any sense on the face of it that he would come, but he did. He talked about it. It was over. I went to befriend him and then even got worse. We met about a week or two weeks later. He needed money to help continue his growth, private funding. But what happened is this was like December. Holidays come, Christmas disappears. When I tried to reach out to him in January, he was Mia, missing in action. I never heard from him. Listen to this. For six freaking months, talk about going neurotic, ready to jump off the cliff. Never heard from him. Didn't answer a text, didn't answer an email, drove by his house. If I would have played that for you, it would have great movie scene. But finally, after six months of seeing it like that, he finally answered my text. I'm not exaggerating. I wish I was, but I'm not. I know the hell I went through, but I didn't give up for some reason, and I was shocked. We were so close. What the hell happened? He finally sends me a text six months, literally five, six months later. It was spring, April, May. He says, Myron, you want to get together? You want to have lunch next? Mean, I was pleasantly shocked. Turns out his mother's, wife. Mean, whatever the reason, he was devastated. I think he had a bit of, obviously, situation issues, whatever. It doesn't really matter what started. He's ready to start again. I found him $10 million in private financing over the ensuing six, seven, eight months. I don't belabor what didn't happen. It doesn't matter. So what mattered is the end of 2018, the balance of 2019. And then after that, I remember him telling me I asking him for a job, because then I was really struggling, and he said, Myron, you don't want me to hire. And I'm 68 years old. Remember, 68, nine years old, not 38 or 28. And he says, you don't want me to hire you because you're better off to go as far as you can go as your talented skills takes you, and we renumerate it. Trust me, even though I know you need the money. He was right. So what happened then is I got him the money. He continued to grow. He was finding off market properties. He ran out of time to do it. I said, Can I help you? I did. I found him three, about eight or 910 million dollars worth. I got renumerated. And then I realized I was very good at it, extremely good at it. I expanded the one or two guys. I had no exclusive deal with him or anybody. And to now 80. This is like, three or four years later or whatever, to almost 40 million finding off market properties for my investors in the greater metro area. So that's how I came back. You make it sound easy, but I'm sure that there's a lot of going through hell. It wasn't easy. It was a ride to hell. Satan and I were good friends, so it was not anything but easy. But it's exactly what happened. That's my journey, and the only reason I put myself I guess the other important point is I showed up at this networking event smart. I put myself in the position to maybe find him. I kept going. Remember, while you're doing all these things, you're not that smart, you're not that conscious. My choices were very simple. Keep going and get up every morning or surrender and die. Surrender, die. Metaphorically, give up. And I wasn't ready to give up. Yeah, I think by showing up, you actually are better than most of the people out there already. And if you be consistent, maybe really they want to see who you are, how you behave in the group before they open up the door to talk to you. There are people like that. I know there are companies like that. They want to see kind of how you interact, how you perform a little bit. Sometimes they watch you in the distance, so when they think that the time is right, when they appear saying that you could really perform what you said you can do, then they open up and say, can we talk or have lunch to discuss potential strategies? What I get most excited about to show you how crazy I am, when I ask for people and they don't respond for help, or they tell me I can't do it, I get more determined, more excited. Go f yourself. I'll find a way or make a way. Trust me, that's what I do. It almost does me a favor. When they are not able to help, not able to supply anything, there's nothing they could do. They don't respond, and I find a way. I said, you know what? I don't need you. It's okay. Fine. I'll find a way. There's many ways to skin that cat, to use a cliche. You're not the only one the cat work with. You no problem. You're not obligated. I understand. But I want it, so I'm not stopping. I'm going to find another way. And most of the time I do. That's why they call you the jackhammer. I now see the reason why. Yeah, because you really have to have that attitude, because the only one that can help you is you very often. And if you're not going to do that very often, no one else is going to do it for you. I don't care how successful you are. You can hire and fire and delegate all you want, but ultimately it's you. That's a scary proposition, but that's the bottom line. I've been waiting for this, and I really want to ask you this big question, and let me set the stage for you. So let's say a younger entrepreneur. Younger can mean a lot of things. Could mean they're 18 or maybe they're 30. So for the past two years, for some of the entrepreneur, they've been used to their online presence. Right. They do everything online by the computer. When they order groceries has come through the door. But now we're back to an in person view. I see that you have no problem getting into in person networking. But for a lot of us out there, we're still not ready to move out from our virtual office space to meet people face to face. But you know that the big deals always happen in person, right? You have to sign even the president, when they sign everything in the law, it has to be in person. When you do a major deal, it needs to be in person. So what advice would you recommend? Maybe the 20 year old self of myron or someone who is starting out maybe right off in college, coming through all that COVID stuff and they wanted to make something big happen. What would be your advice to them? A couple of things to live by. That's great. That's the bottom line. Don't be afraid to dream. Number one, take what people say, but don't take it too seriously, okay? Depending if you really want to bat it, remember that action and words both have value. But if they don't align, there is no value, okay? There is no value at all. The other thing is, don't wait till you're 70 to do this. Start like you said I would tell a 20 year old migrant, a 30 year old Myrant, which is very difficult to do when you're 20 years old. If something doesn't bring you and I love this, peace, profits or purpose, you don't give it your time, energy or attention. Family, peace, profits or purpose. Don't give it your time, energy or attention. Focus on whatever it is your goal or your dream is. And do and act and execute that dream because only you are going to make it happen. And act with a sense of urgency. Love your life, enjoy your life, but it's finite. Don't wait till you're 70 to act like a sense of urgency because it's get a cliche and it's impossible to understand. I understand that when you're 20 or 25, believe me, I know that, that you're going to be 70, that there is a finite it's impossible, okay? No, I'm going to live forever and 70 is like 4000 years from now. Who the hell cares? Okay? When it happens, I'll worry about it then. This is a very difficult discipline, but this is the kind of discipline that breathes, helps people get to wherever it is they want to get to wherever they want. And you have a luxury being 20 because especially if you just got to you yourself worry about. If you don't have a family yet, you're not tied down, then that's a big help. You don't have kids, you don't have other financial responsibilities. You have you to worry about. Very lean, very mean. You take advantage of that. You leverage that opportunity and go for it wherever it takes you, as long as you really want to do it. It's your passion. If at the end it doesn't work out, learn to pivot. Learn that you're going to have to pivot or you're going to have to adapt. And it's constantly form adapting, whether it's personal or professional. Again, the most important advice is believe in you, okay? What I hate, I really hate with a passion, is that people that take advantage of other people or people tell other people they can or cannot do it, nobody can. Trust me. You cannot let anybody tell you you're less or more. Go out and do your thing, whatever that thing is, and do it with passion. Find a practical execution because that's all part of it. There's no question. Gripping and grinding and practical execution is critical. Talk to people. Find mentors, friends, family, older people. People older love to talk to younger people. You'd be surprised how many people love to share. Okay? They adopt it. They love to share. You can only learn and grow. That's a really great thing. I think, Byron, you lay out the blueprint for success right there. So when you're young let me rephrase that a little bit when you're young, try new things. There are opportunities, way more opportunities out there. I couldn't believe that you could play a video game and make millions. Now you can nowadays, if that's what you want to do, focus, right? It's not easy, but if you focus, there are someone who have made it, and you're going to try it. When you're young and especially talk to people, let other people out. Maybe you want to, I don't know, start business in real estate, for example. Go out to meetings, ask people. Ask people in your network know who do you know that are really successful in investing real estate? And then invite that people for a talk. You'll be surprised that a lot of people actually are dying to pass on their wisdom. Like you are married. But if you don't ask, then you don't know. Yeah. And remember that for the most part, everybody started out in the garage. Steve Jobs started out in the garage. Bill Gates started out with that. They all started out with nothing. Okay? Just like you are. They didn't start out with Microsoft doing $400 billion a year. And he didn't start off with Apple. Yeah, you could say things happen, but he put himself and I go on and on and on. You don't have to be Steve Jobs, who's a genius, who I admire tremendously. But these people started where you are, for the most part. Not the people that were gifted by their family X amount of dollars who usually screw it up. These people started wherever you are. They started with an ambition, a dream, a passion, whatever the hell it is, and they pursued it. It works. Sometimes it doesn't work. You keep going. I think the most important point, if you think about someone famous, someone that in your mind are very successful, the more successful that person are, the more advisor, the more people that they consult with are more because they know that there are always people who are better doing what they do. So they hire them as advisor, they hire consultant, they hire coaches versus people say, I have nothing to lose. They have nobody to consult with them. So surround yourself with people that you trust, talk to coaches, find a mentor, or even put the word out there, I'm trying to learn X or I'm trying to grow in X. Who do you know that I should talk to and be willing to learn and have a conversation? Yeah, it may sound like a cliche and stupid, but if you don't ask, you won't get said a million times. But it's very true. If you don't try, you won't know. But it's a cliche for a reason, because it's so powerfully true. People say, oh, it's obvious. Well, then just do it. It's not obvious if you don't do it, okay? If you don't ask. You'd be shocked what you get when you ask for, okay? And if you don't, you keep asking, but if you don't try, you won't know and you're going to learn. So you need action, action, action. You need to find, surround yourself like, say, with people who you can respect, who can help you grow. You'd be shocked how many people want to share. And the more entrepreneurial they are, the more they started from nothing. They know exactly where you're coming from. So they want to share with you because they were you at one point. They want to share, most of them do. The challenge is to get their attention, of course, but they want to share. They'd love to share their story because that's your story in the making. I always remember what my sales coach taught me. Obviously I'm a salesperson. The first answer that I like is yes. But then my second most favorite word itself is a no. I want people to tell me no. I would let them know, if they're not interested to tell me no instead of dragging me around for nine months and then tell me no. And you know what you do when people tell you no? Ask this follow up question is this something that I could change or improve that will make you say and yes? And then don't get defensive and take your notebooks out, write down what they have said. Maybe they are really seeing something that you don't really have right now that is needed. So maybe you can work on that or maybe you could change your presentation a little bit and then you get the yes. That's how you're able to tick the. No well and get right so right on there and you learn for the next opportunity. See already that will make you smarter, better. Because as Branson said at Virgin Airways, opportunities are like buses. There's always one coming around the corner. And he's absolutely right. It's hard to believe when you put all your heart, soul, and energy to something and it doesn't work, it's over. It's not over. It's over for that one. Next yourself. Next. Yeah. I love that. So, Myron, for listeners who have individual questions who want to reach out to you or maybe they are interested in finding more about real know strategies and development, what would be a good way to reach out to you? Yeah, you have my LinkedIn contact information. Yeah, please reach out to me there. Or they want to talk about strategic partnerships or they're looking for that probably the best way. Say you came from Swire show, that you were listening and you have a question or anything else you'd like to share or do. I'm also on Facebook, Instagram, and it's pretty easy like everybody else, but LinkedIn is probably most people, I guess probably the best way to start the conversation. I'd love it. Thank you so much for coming on to the show today, Myron. I learned a honor. Thank you. And hopefully I'll get to La. Sooner than later and be able to have a chance to meet with you, be My. Okay. All right. I'd love it. Take care. Thank you for having me. Thank you for listening to the show. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast and share with your friends or colleagues who might benefit from the conversation. Any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn. I'd love to connect with you.

Our show is live stream both on YouTube and LinkedIn every Tuesday at 10: 47:38

00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. I'll see you next time.