Entrepreneur or not, when it comes to seeking a path in life, ignoring the power of your own potential is downright criminal.
“Entrepreneurs and founders are like chaotic Ferraris; we just know how to build and create at speeds that…do not make sense to big companies.” -Dan Martell
The Cheat Sheet:
- What does “hustle to help” mean?
- Failure is part of the road to success.
- Why shouldn’t you seek business advice from your parents?
- Motivation trumps knowledge.
- The company you keep really does have an impact on your success — for better or worse.
- And so much more…
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The world’s just not fair, and people have no shortage of excuses for why they can’t get where they want to be in life. Some go as far as to point toward others who had a leg up with opportunities they, themselves, didn’t get when the cards were dealt. If only they’d had a good education, supportive parents, a trust fund, or whatever — they reason — they’d have started their own world-changing companies and be living it up, too.
And then there are those who take life’s often harsh lessons and learn how to turn their weaknesses into strengths. In episode 433 of The Art of Charm, we talk to entrepreneur and Clarity founder Dan Martell about how he not only overcame the baggage of what he calls a “colorful” childhood, but used the unlikely advantages it gave him to reshuffle that deck and come up with his own winning hand.
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It’s not something he brings up in everyday conversation, but Dan Martell had a rougher time than most from childhood through adolescence. “At 11 years old, I was taken out of my home because I had behavior issues,” says Dan. “I was an angry child and I bounced between group homes and foster homes and eventually found myself in jail for drug-related charges when I was 15. It was really just because at such a young age (12-13) I was surrounded by guys 16-17 years old who didn’t have the best habits…”
“And then at 17…I got in a high-speed chase,” he says. “I told myself I wasn’t going back. I had a gun in [a] bag, crashed into a house, pulled the gun, it got stuck (luckily); the cops pulled me out of the car [and] I woke up the next day, sober. That was the beginning of the new life.”
You wouldn’t suspect such a history from the man you’ll meet today, though. When Dan’s not selling a company or building one from the ground up, he’s investing in others, and giving solid advice to people who are trying to make their own strides toward success. A few times a year, he even revisits the rehab center that he credits with getting him to clean up his act all those years ago so he can talk to kids who are where he once was.
“When I was 17 I went to this place called Portage, and what was unique about this rehab center was that all of the staff there were ex-drug addicts. So they were really great people giving you advice when you felt like you were in that whole where to put your hands and feet to climb out [state of mind] versus someone who just read the book or is saying they are an expert trying to tell you how it’s supposed to work. That lesson just continued with me my whole life and was just really the genesis for Clarity.”
Clarity is, as its website tells us, “on demand business advice for entrepreneurs.” It allows entrepreneurs to connect with advisors and industry experts at a per-minute rate to discuss business strategy, learn specialized skills, get feedback — whatever “clarity” someone might need to keep their business thriving. As Michael Cohen of Wrightwood Furniture says, “a $100 Clarity call stopped me from buying $30,000 in software that I didn’t need.”
As Dan tells it, “Clarity was just this really neat idea that, if you had a way to connect to people who have been through or have had expertise that you need over the phone in real time, how would that change your outcome for your business, your day, or whatever? It’s like Google did…with webpages; we wanted to do it for people’s knowledge.”
Dan has dispensed advice as an expert at Clarity for at least 1,300 calls, but he even uses the service himself to consult with other entrepreneurs to map out areas of the business at which he doesn’t consider himself adept.
“If you’re struggling with trying to understand Google Analytics,” Dan says, “we’ve got [the] people who wrote the books. You can read the book or just get a 30-minute phone call and have the [authors] tell you exactly what you need to do for your business!”
Listen to this episode of The Art of Charm to get the skinny on turning foggy pasts into bright futures, why entrepreneurs find it difficult to take time off, why listening to your parents will only get you so far, and how hustling to help can get you invited to hang out with Richard Branson in Switzerland!
THANKS, DAN MARTELL!
Resources from this episode:
Dan Martell’s newsletter
Clarity
Dan Martell on Twitter
The Art of Charm bootcamps
You’ll also like:
-The Art of Charm Toolbox
-Best of The Art of Charm Podcast
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