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The Hardest Working People Make the LEAST · Earn Your Leisure

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You don't become successful by being lucky. Your book title
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: is Life is Luck. What does that mean?
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: All right. What that means is this. Life is a
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: thousand left turns, a thousand right turns, a thousand U-turns.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: And a lot of the turns, you just flip a coin.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: You just do it. Now, everybody who is successful, or
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: not everybody, most people who are successful are don't want
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: to say I was lucky. They want to say hard work.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Hard work. Well, here's what I want to tell you
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: about hard work. The hardest working people in America make
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: the least.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: That's true.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Make the least. That's a fact. I'm with you. So
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: don't ever– have you ever taken a shovel and tried
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: to dig a hole? You ever done that? No, I haven't.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: I have. It's hard. It's like, forget it. It's like,
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: and if you have some frost on the ground, you know,
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: you're like, forget it. The hardest work, you know, in
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: the fields, picking strawberries and throwing watermelons, and that's the
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: hardest work in America. And they make the least. So
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: what I recognize is this. There was a few things
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: that happened in my life that changed everything for me,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: like Jerry Billings. What if I didn't go to Jerry Billings?
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: What would have happened to me? I think I might
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: have still been okay, but would this have happened? I
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: had a big case early in my life. I build
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: these attractions across America called Wonder Works, and they print money.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: The houses are turned upside down. When you walk in,
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: you're standing on the ceiling. And I got six of them,
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: and I got no debt, and I make $ 33 million
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: a year in EBITDA. But guess what? I did the
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: first one in Orlando. I did the second one in
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Pigeon Forge. I did the third one in Myrtle Beach.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: And then I did one in Syracuse in a mall,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: and it's a total disaster. Total disaster. If I'd done
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: that one first, I might not have done none. I
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: might have just been it. But I did it in Orlando.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Sometimes it's just that it's not that your idea was bad,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: it was your location was bad, your city was bad,
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: or you didn't have enough capital. And so there's so
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: many of confluence of events that make it like, and
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: if I had to say to you guys, Tell me
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: the luckiest... I'll ask you, what's the luckiest thing that's
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: ever happened to you in this world that you're in?
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: The luckiest thing that's ever happened?
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: You're supposed to say I met him, but keep going.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: That should be at the top of my list.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Well, let me say this, though.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Let me say this. Because.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: I'm going to answer that question.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you something. I'm glad you don't
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: live in Orlando because you two would be, I mean.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: We're hanging out after this. I'm telling you. I keep
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: watching him laughing at you. I'm like, I got to
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: separate these two guys. But we've been fortunate a lot.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Like, we've been fortunate to run into Steve Harvey, who's
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: become a great mentor to us, business partner. We've been
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: fortunate to start the show in a time where people
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: really was interested. We was fortunate, I hate to say it,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: but even COVID, because that was an acceleration period for us.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: But we also put ourselves in position to be fortunate.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: It's not like we was just random people on a
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: street and then it's like COVID happened and it's like, oh,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: now we're going to become.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Never eat alone. Never eat alone. Listen, the way you
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: find luck is you're looking for opportunities. That's in your control.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: It's not all luck. Right. You know, If you don't
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: play the game.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Got to be in it to win it.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And if you never take a shot on goal,
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: you never make a goal. Wayne Gretzky. So you create
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: the luck. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't want to take
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: too much away from it. Listen, Grant Hill is a
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: partner of mine in some businesses. And one time, I'm
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: from Kentucky. He played at Duke. I'm a Kentucky fan.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: You are? Yeah. Dude. Yeah. How'd that happen? 90s. I
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: grew up just watching Jamal Mashburn and Travis Ford. Oh, yeah.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: And that was it.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. I was like, he's from the Bronx. Point guard.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: This is going to be my team. Yeah. And it's
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: just been my team. Well, me and Dan are real
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: close with Cal. He's out in Arkansas. He's not with
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: us anymore. No, but he should be.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Kentucky's your team?
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's always been my team. Exclusively?
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah. College?
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: That's your college team? 100%. I knew I loved you.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: You know something different?
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: You never rooted for Michigan?
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: I didn't. Greg is a Michigan fan.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: You never rooted for Michigan?
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Fab Five? I wanted them to do well. At any
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: point in time, did you root for Michigan? No. So
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: think about this. Think about this. There's three types of luck.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: There's pure luck. There's planned luck. And there's practice luck.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Pure luck is catching lightning in a bottle or just
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: getting hit by lightning. Bad luck, good luck, catching lightning
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: in a bottle. Then there is planned luck. Benjamin Franklin
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: is seeing this electric stuff. He's like, you know what?
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: I'm going to drag this key out with the, you know,
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: and he catches lightning. That's planned luck. Then there's practiced
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: luck because luck comes in all forms of fact. So
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: one night Grant and I are flying home from somewhere.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: He had this pass. You know the pass. 1991. He
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: throws the ball down. Christian Leitner turns around. Game over.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: I go, I said, Grant, that is just, that broke
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: my heart. I said, that was the luckiest shot in
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: the world. He goes, luck had nothing to do with that, John.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: I said, explain that to me. He goes, we practiced
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: that play every day in practice. And once we had
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: the same play, but we were doing it down the
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: sideline instead of underneath the basket. We did it against
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: Wake Forest, and I threw it. but it was on
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: the sideline and it blew up. And so then we
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: changed it. They were going to inbound it from under
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: the basket to the top of the key. That happened
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: every day in practice. So now we're against Kentucky. Coach
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: K calls timeout. He brings the team over. Grant, can
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: you make the pass? Yes. Christian, can you make the shot? Yes.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Hands in. Let's go win this game. What's planned luck?
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: What's practice luck? You watch football, the two-minute drill. You're like,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: how in the world are they going from the five
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: to the– I mean, that's lucky. They practice that two-minute
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: drill every single practice. It looks like luck. So you've
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: got to sort the wheat from the sheaf. There's pure luck,
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: there's planned luck, and there's practice luck. But the way
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: you find the best luck and the most significant luck
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: is if you're looking for luck. And the way you
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: look for luck is you've got to always be looking
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: for opportunities. And when you fail... That, believe it or not,
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: is your best luck. You're like, why? Because the lessons
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: in failure are the roadmap to success. I had an
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: attraction that I built in D.C. called the National Museum
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: of Crime and Punishment. I had CSI laboratories. I had
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: all this memorabilia. I couldn't build it the way I
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: want it. I mean, you know, everything's free in D.C.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: I should never have gone there. So all of a
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: sudden I failed. But my wife kept saying, she says, John,
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: this is the best thing you've ever done. So, well,
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: you know, I got other attractions over in the Smoky Mountains.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: She goes, you need to build it again. I said,
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: to take this failure? She goes, it's not a failure.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: It was the wrong city. So, you know, I did.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: I took everything. I packed it all up. Then I
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: got a location in Pigeon Forge, which is Gatlinburg. And
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: instead of calling it the National Museum of Crime and Punishment,
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: I call it Alcatraz East. And it looks like an
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: 1880s prison. You drive down the road, you're like, holy,
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: you got to pull in there. And it prints money.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: Prints money. I failed in D.C. I packed it up.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: I changed the name. I built a facade there. And
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: the grand finale, when you come there, I got these
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: four cars. Ted Bundy's VW. Bonnie and Clyde death car
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: from the movie. John Dillinger's sedan. And the final piece,
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: OJ's Bronco. You got it. I got it. And when
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: you go through this, when you go through Google Alcatraz
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: East to see all the stuff I got in there,
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  Speaker 2: And it just prints money. It makes me $ 6 million
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: a year. I've got no debt. Now, how many people
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: would take that face? and say, okay, here's what I learned.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: I should never have gone to D.C. in the first place. Why?
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: I went there because the Spy Museum was supposedly doing good.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: I didn't go there. I was stupid to go there.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: I couldn't make a facade other than just a regular
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: office building. I spent too much money. The first one
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: I had, America's Most Wanted in the Basement. Spent too
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: much money. But I took all my mistakes and everything
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: I learned and went and did that in Florida.