Full transcript: Dan Peña on London Real
4:18 Brian Rose: Good evening, London Realers! How we doing tonight? Welcome to the world premiere of Dan Peña: The 50 Billion Dollar Man. Let me hear it. Come on, right?
4:35 I am excited to show you this film, and I also want to welcome you to the Curzon Mayfair. How beautiful is this place, right? The honeycomb and the top, the walls and the side. You know, this was built in 1934 by a Formula One racecar driver, and this guy later married the mistress to the Prince of Wales, who would later become King George. So this guy was busy.
5:05 And during World War Two, Winston Churchill actually appointed him the head of the Secret Service, and he made him shut this place down for two years during the war, and they used to watch film, and Winston Churchill used to sit up there in that Royal Box, and General Dwight D. Eisenhower used to sit up in that one, and they’d watch footage from the continent. And I don’t know about you, but I feel the spirit of those two men here tonight, and I think that they would approve of our guest of honor, Mr. Dan Peña.
5:44 Men cut from the same cloth, tough sons of men that can lead us into battle, not always the most popular, but the ones that get the job done. Now three years ago, Dan walked into my studio. Well, let’s be honest, he barged into my studio, and my life would never be the same again. And the truth is, you would be attending the world premiere of a London Real documentary film without that man. So he basically manifested his own film.
6:25 How’s that for high performance? That is being limitless. But the reason I wouldn’t have done this is because all this stuff, no matter how I look right now, is scary as hell. It’s frightening putting on this whole movie, getting all of you here tonight, inviting Dan Peña, who hasn’t seen a frame of this film, and that requires a lot of trust, and both myself and the entire team at London Real take that very seriously. Thank you very much, sir.
7:08 It’s scary to do these things, and before I met Dan, I wouldn’t have done it because it was all about fear for me, or as Dan likes to remind us, false expectations appearing real. There are these phantoms that are in our lives that keep us playing small. You probably know what I’m talking about. They keep us from growing, they keep us from changing, and that’s the place I was in before I met Dan, and some of you, when you looked in the mirror this morning, you probably saw someone that was the same as a year ago, maybe even two years, maybe five years ago, because you’re scared and you need to turn into that fear.
8:03 And I always say they don’t make them like Dan Peña anymore, and when he’s gone there’s not gonna be another one like him. Now we made this film tonight to challenge you, to inspire you, and in true Dan Peña fashion, just to piss you off a little bit. And if it does, good, that means there’s some kind of emotion inside of you, that means you got some fight left in you, and maybe it’s time for a change, maybe it’s time for you to step up and really be somebody.
8:43 And you know, I had a drink in the bar earlier and I saw an old friend of mine, haven’t seen him in years, and he said, “Wow, what a crazy year for you, Brian. Three documentary films, 52 episodes of London Real, two brand new accelerator programs, six graduating classes of your Academy, and a new baby. You’ve been busy.” But the people that make that happen are the team at London Real. Well, except for the baby, that was Mariana.
9:21 But I have an incredible team behind me, and some of them are beside me, and these people have been working 24/7 for the past couple months on this film, and they’re the ones that make everything happen in the background, and you’re gonna see some of them in this film, and I’m gonna bring the rest of them onstage later. And then this guy said to me, “But Brian, tell me honestly, why make a movie about that guy? Surely there’s at least a hundred other guests on London Real that you could have chosen first.”
9:56 But the truth is, this is that Dan Peña changed my life more than any person that’s ever walked into London Real studios, and if you know anything about what we do, that means a whole hell of a lot. So to my mentor, the 50 Billion Dollar Man, Mr. Dan Peña, this is for you, sir.
10:34 Film clip: When I say I’m gonna you up, I mean it. I’m just having words flap through my lips. Today I’m traveling back to the place where my life changed, to see the man I hate, my mentor, Dan Peña.
10:59 A figure born out of the wildest American dreams or nightmares. The truth is, Dan changed my life, but that was never supposed to happen.
11:30 Brian Rose: So what’d you think?
11:35 Dan Peña: I was impressed.
11:39 Brian Rose: What’s it like watching the last four years of us up there?
11:52 What do you see?
11:53 Dan Peña: Well, I was wondering, as people have asked me what is it going to be like, and of course I haven’t seen a frame, as you said, pointed out, and as I’m not sure, but the based on from the time that we met via email through, you know, recent times, it had to be a pot to be a positive story because of the growth you’ve had. I mean, you know, even a wheeler could figure this out. I mean, you have made tremendous progress, not as much as you should have made, but still, based on these melon heads, you’ve made a lot of progress.
12:34 Brian Rose: Did you think I would be making this most progress or more?
12:38 Dan Peña: Well, hope springs eternal, so I hope for more, but you made a lot of progress. But on, you know, the I’ll just leave it at that. You could have done a lot more. You could have done a lot more instead of just helping the hundreds of thousands or the one or two million.
12:57 I mean, see, I don’t see why you can’t do what Zuckerberg does. I mean Zuckerberg, you know, a Facebook. You got a better message, you’re an infinitely better speaker, and I can go on and on. The but we’re just beginning. This is just the beginning, and the for us, correct, and for them, and for them.
13:25 Brian Rose: But there is an appetite for the softer side.
13:29 Dan Peña: It’s not my side, but for the softer side.
13:32 Brian Rose: Is that me?
13:33 Dan Peña: Yeah, well, you’re the softer side. There’s two ends of the leadership continuum.
13:39 There’s the myself, General Patton, it’s that, and then there’s the Dwight Eisenhower, Henry Kissinger, you know. But 98% of all the high-performance people are not alpha crazy males like me. So 98% of the all the growth that’s happened in the world hasn’t been a derivative of people like me. 2%, yeah, but 98%, because just by definition, do you know, there’s not that many. Somebody told me in Poland, a PhD from Cambridge who is very much involved in Holocaust museums, etc., which I was there to see when I was lecturing at the apology universities, he said that there’s been studies done that most hype, most meaning 50.1% of high-performance people tend to be psychopaths, and I said, well, I can relate to that.
14:38 I mean, but see, I don’t consider that as a bad thing. Most of the weenies out there would, but you know, the so but I mean, you you’ve accomplished a lot, you really have, but I look forward to you accomplishing, you know, 100 fold, 100 fold.
15:00 Brian Rose: What are the most important messages of that film for you?
15:05 Dan Peña: For me, that focus on the few, not the many, follow your passion and don’t give up. And don’t give up.
15:14 And you know, we’ve got a lot of kids in the audience that have, you know, flown from, you know, various parts of the world. See, they’ll pull the trigger to buy a ticket to get here, they’ll pull the trigger to, you know, spend whatever it costs to stay in a hotel, but they won’t pull the trigger in other parts of their life, because this isn’t that far out of your comfort zone, but getting on a plane. But, and I’m not saying that I’m not appreciative of you being here, but you could have saved your money and pulled the trigger in your own business, but you’re more comfortable coming here and thinking that I’m gonna give you a tip or a shortcut.
16:01 There are no shortcuts to success but a lot of hard work. And his work ethic has changed, which was lost in this this thing, but his work ethic has changed, his focus has changed, the and for those of you that have followed the London Real life cycle, not just the way he dresses, the way it looks, but the way he engages, the way he talks. And it’s pretty damn obvious, and in the beginning you got, I won’t say hate, but you’ve got bad emails, you’ve sold out, etc., and but I would consider the source from those of those emails.
16:44 Most of the hate mail I get, feeling sorry for themselves, and they fall victim to the, what I call, or victim, the victim syndrome, and you can always make excuses, you know, for I should, I could, I would, or what you touched upon in the film, but you know, leave, but it’s only just begun. And Brian did introduce me to social media. I mean, I didn’t believe that it was worth a because I thought that you were all mental midgets. I still believe you’re mental midgets, so don’t get me wrong.
17:19 People that are active in social media have below average IQs, but there’s a lot of studies about that, just google him. But he didn’t introduce me, and I’ll be forever thankful for that, and of course now I’ve done a lot of podcasts and I’ve been on some relatively big shows in the, but I didn’t think that that was something I ever wanted to do, and I did have to, you know, put my foot in the door to get on his show. But he did have the grit to come up with the seminar, and for those of you, and there’s a number of you in the audience that have been up to the castle, and it’s a heroin experience, a heroin experience, and the things that he mentioned or he showed in our, I think our first interview, we have had people their pants, we have had people pass out, we have had people piss their pants, we have had people that couldn’t show up the next morning on the second or third or fourth day.
18:28 This year we’ve only had two or three nervous breakdowns. Now that’s the world I come from. That’s the world I come from.
18:39 Brian Rose: You said focus on the few, not the many. Can you go deeper into that?
18:45 Dan Peña: Yeah, I mean, most of the kids have got 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 projects and none of them were doing anything well. There’s a reason for that. Clausewitz said it, you know, a couple hundred years ago, the famous Russian, I think, general: focus on the few, not the many. And another thing which is related to that is don’t waste time. Some things you can’t change, and I use the analogy, for those of you that are married or have been in a long-term relationship, you’re not going to change the in-laws.
19:22 That’s not good, you know. I don’t care how smart, slick, whatever, you’re not gonna change your in-laws. That’s it. And for all the time that you waste trying to change your in-laws, it’s wasted time. It’s waste of time.
19:39 But at the end of the day you want to be liked, even by your in-laws, even they, even though they may be dip ships, and who do you blame, or you don’t blame anybody because your dip jets, but who should you blame? Your parents. And I would, I would, I would, I would tell you, take the Success Test on my side, it’s free, and now we have a Snowflake Test, and I know where 99% of this audience would fall.
20:08 Brian Rose: What is the Snowflake Test?
20:10 Dan Peña: It shows you how big a you are.
20:12 Can’t meaning coward. I don’t mean lady’s parts, I mean me need coward. And we have a new thing we’re just putting up in a few weeks, it’s called QLAE for Dummies. Now why would I do that after almost 25 years? Because people like you, Dan, where do I start?
20:37 You have a thousand pages of free, I don’t know where to start. So then we give them a list, this timeline, and then they come back and say, “But Dan, if you could just come to Brighton and hold my hand through two or three deals…” What you need to do is kill yourself, metaphorically speaking, Sally. You heard that, metaphorically speaking. I mean, we have teenage kids, teenage multi-millionaires, morons, teenage, no education, home school, they look 10, 12, 13 years old.
21:20 Why in the are you even here? Teenage, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Teenagers were in Krakow, one of the kids who had been the roommate of the teenage phenom, he stands up, he made a million dollars this year, he’s not even on my list, he’s just a college student from Krakow, and I already know about this big. I said, “Yawn. Stand up, please.”
21:52 He stands up in, yeah, and I said, “This is the kid who did a million dollars this year.” Now one of the audience even went over to talk to him. Now one single person, now you all know why. Don’t you? Now one, so you got no testicles, and you are where you are because that’s where you are.
22:26 We had a kid, not a kid, a man, last month did a 6 million, 50 meeting, and 500 million dollar deal in one month, and what were you doing? The trouble with QLAE, and the thing that he struggled with and got over, is that to adopt the new methodology you have to go through something called cognitive dissonance, when you have two bodies of information so different you have trouble processing the new information. But for the old gifts in the audience, and there’s a few, you basically have to say I away 10, 20, 30 years of my life, and that’s why you don’t do it.
23:21 That’s a hard pill to swallow. He swallowed the pill at a relatively young age. Of course, all you were young to me, but, and he did, and he made the change in any, and you memorialized that, and you know he did it, he did a great job of moralizing it, but he made a big change, not just his little beard, whatever the thing, I don’t know. Okay, the little beard and his little hair that pops up to make him look three inches taller and all that other, you know, remember everything.
23:51 Yeah, but I mean, he made a big change. He had a big changing, you know, to his credit, and that’s why he got in the Hall of Fame, because he’s changed many, many of your lives. He’s changed many, many lives in, you know, and I’m proud of him for that. And he’s already pointed out that we don’t agree on too many other things, but the because I him to take another road quicker to riches than the road he decided to take, but because he’s doing it the hard way, when you try to take a a following from free to monetization, it’s a because basically you’re all poor, cheap and stupid, and though, and the Internet’s about free content, which I learned from him.
24:45 I didn’t know what content meant, really, I really didn’t, and you’re still producing
24:51 Brian Rose: and we don’t charge for anything on our site, we and the and the thing that really, and he told me this would happen but I didn’t believe, he says, and when you put out the free content then there’s going to be guys, they say you can do it better, you should have more of this, more that, there’s always these naysayers that say that they don’t like what you produce, and you’re right, and then I say, well then unclick me, unloved me, unlike me, go yourself. But they still come back and they complain. Why if you don’t like what I do, why do you watch me?
25:29 You know, give us both the break. Anyway, that was a long-winded answer, sorry. Tell me about relationships. Somebody asked earlier, how can you be the partner of a high performance individual?
25:43 Dan Peña: With great difficulty.
25:45 It’s not easy. If you’re Napoleon, and Hitler proved, you can’t fight a war on two fronts, and if your significant other isn’t supportive of what you do, it’s it’s a it’s a and I know, I tell people that come to the seminar, and I believe I told you, that your significant other supportive now, but when you miss your birthday and you’re way on our deal on Christmas or Hanukkah or whatever the day is, that’s we’ll see how much they support. And but I mean, the most of the kids in this room, not just this room but around the world, are in relationships for the wrong reasons.
26:26 They have kids for the wrong reasons. For those of you that are parents, you know it’s not that tough to have kids, right? Okay. Well, you have kids for the wrong reasons, and the and that resonates in how you reach your passion, and you may be a thousand percent passionate about your idea, but your wife you’re sitting in for another, your two or three kids, and I’m not telling you not to have kids or any of that, but just understand where you are, and and they do it for, you know, the wrong reasons.
27:01 And I really don’t understand the snowflake mentality, and by the way, snowflake, and that Snowflake Test, the there’s a question: what would you do if your significant other or somebody else spit in your significant other’s face? Now I’m going to give you the most popular answer or a derivative of their of the: I try to ascertain if he was having a bad day and try to ascertain where he was coming from in life. Yeah, I understand. Ricardo, and I would walk away.
27:37 Ricardo, I asked the same question three or four days ago and Ricardo said, “I’d kill him.” And I asked a couple of kids in, in Poland, they had the snowflake answer because they said, “A snowflake, of all the trillions of snowflakes ever produced on the planet, no one’s alike, Mr. Pinion. We’re all different in God’s eyes, we’re all special.” And then I knocked his teeth out because if you believe that your fucked-up snowflake is, you melt under pressure.
28:13 And if you want to create wealth, and he’s got a lot more pressure on him today than he did before, even though he did keep a schedule, schedule, he did interviewing, but if he didn’t have an interview, who gives a right. Okay, but you did, so you were as professional as virtually 99% of all the other pod that were doing that stuff, but now he’s had to change his model. He says it changes model, and guys, gals, you may not like how I say it, you may not like what I say, but what I say is, if you want to create generational wealth, I mean, there are certain things you have to, you have to realize.
29:03 One, there’s no work-life balance, as Jack Welch said 20, 25 years ago, there are work-life choices and they have consequences. They have consequences. Most people aren’t up to the sacrifices that are required, and by the heck, Steve Jobs, Elon, now Bill when he was working, Steve Ballmer when he was working, and all the other guys. Yeah, but it’s a different world. And show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.
29:37 If I were to judge you and you by the five people you hang with, you chill with, is that how you want to be judged? If there is a big man upstairs, is that how you want to be judged based on the five morons that you spend most of the time with? No? Well, you came to the wrong event, lady, and it will excuse you. Now gee, I don’t give a like he does.
30:10 I got nothing to sell you, so off and that’s why you get to choose from me as opposed to all the other. I said when Donald Trump got up, before he got elected, he was going to transform the work, will transform the world, B2B finance forevermore. I said he was going to be, it would be the greatest transformation of wealth since World War Two. All true. And I said the ripple effect of the US, when the US has a cold, every sneeze, everybody else gets a cold.
30:47 There isn’t anybody keeping track of what’s going on in the financial world or y’all snooze, stupid, because got no money. Do you have any idea where corporate tax rates go by half? You have any idea when they do away with death tax, given any conception of what that means? Well, the people that have money have said the US up six trillion dollars just because absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. You have never met anybody like me, doesn’t mean there’s a lot, not a lot of us around.
31:20 The world has changed, kids. Wake up. What are you going to tell your children and grandchildren when you grow up, when they grow up during the greatest transformation of wealth, when they were given money away free, interest rates are at a 5,000-year low, $5? What were you doing, Daddy, Granddaddy, Grandma? Oh, I sat there with my thumb up my ass listening to some Zen on his podcast.
31:46 Brian Rose: Does that mean not you, though. And so what are you doing these days?
31:52 Dan Peña: I’m traveling around the world teaching at school, or not teaching, giving school lectures. Last night was your University College London, the night before that it was the University of Greenwich, last week it was two prestigious universities in Edinburgh, our opponent, excuse me, tomorrow night is the University of Edinburgh, the week before the Adams University of Toronto. I’m giving free talks.
32:24 I go there on my own nickel, and because I realized if I can touch them before they get to your age, I’ve got a chance. Once I get the old like this, I mean, he’s dead, forget him. You might almost piss on his grave, there’s no chance. I also think the world is irreversible where we are now, forget global warming. The Romans had their day, the Greeks had their day, the Phoenicians had their day, and Homo sapiens had its day.
32:55 We are in the ninth, we’re in the ninth inning, two outs. It’s irreversible, it’s irreversible, there’s no coming back. Doesn’t mean you can’t do a lot of good, doesn’t mean you can’t save the world, etc., etc. If you want to, if you want to save the world, come up with an idea that changes a billion lives, Mr. Zuckerberg opinion lies, then take that money and save the world. And for those of you that think you’ve got an app, which is my favorite topic, there’s 25 million apps out there, 25 million, 25 apps have made any money.
33:34 25, 25 million versus 25. But your app’s going to work? Are you stupid? You look stupid anyway. But anyway, see, do you realize how free it is when you don’t give a how irreverent you can be?
33:55 I’ve got a Harvard double degree Hall of Famer who says, “Dan, we don’t dare to think the things Dan says.” But you’ve all caught them. One comment about the sexual harassment, even though nobody asked: when the four universities I spoke at, not one student asked me about the sexual harassment, and I was willing, I had all my answers ready, not one single student, because they were more interested in finding out why I think the financial system’s bust. My talks now, our will, wealth, risk, reward, not the system is built against students now, not just students, but Holly, you don’t know why because you’re not bright enough to know why, and the people that you listen to aren’t bright enough, because if they told you how up things were, you wouldn’t buy another CD or anything.
34:56 You have no chance, you might as well swallow a revolver. I mean, you got, you kids, don’t you, you don’t get it. And guess who you have to blame? Your parents. Self-esteem is built the first seven years in life, and who are you around?
35:17 Your mother, maybe your dad, right, if he’s not off doing something else, older brother, a grandparent, right? None of your people, find as I just defined him, are capable of coaching a high-performance person, so you’ll turn out like them, and they turn down like their parents, as he so aptly pointed out. My mother did by serendipity, who gives a, she read that book, doesn’t matter why she did, and it saved my life. Most of you are past it. If you are in the SS, they give you a cyanide pill.
36:05 And please, when you see me, unlike my esteemed man T, if you see me on the street, don’t come up and talk to me, I don’t want to do a selfie, don’t touch me, please.
36:28 Brian Rose: Are you, uh, are you, whoa, let’s get another chair.
36:35 Dan Peña: I’m fine, I’m fine. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you.
36:45 Brian Rose: That was right on cue.
36:46 Dan Peña: Hi, I was right on cue. Yeah, and you bounce back, I have read, understand. Anyway, so have you pull down your pant leg? Thank you.
36:54 Brian Rose: Okay, so how have you changed in the last three or four years? Are you gone, are you more on fire now, are you slowing?
37:01 Dan Peña: No, no, I mean, two-thirds of my time is pro bono. I give away up two-thirds of my time. Now I trust this chair.
37:07 Mmm, let’s try it. Okay, two-thirds of my time is pro bono. I and when I met you, only one-third of my time is pro bono, I guess.
37:16 Brian Rose: Was that the new plan for QLAE for the future?
37:19 Dan Peña: Yeah, no, and I, I don’t speak, I haven’t spoke outside in a seminar outside the castle the century, other than your thing at the Ritz a couple years ago, but I’m looking for the audiences that I can touch the most with the least, most with the least, because, you know, even though I’m 72, I don’t feel 72, and I do still do crazy things.
37:43 I mean, the I’m running out of runway, but so I want to touch as many people as I can, but see, I’m selfish, I want to change the meatheads like you, lives, not because I gave a about you, but because when they finally put dirt on me 40, 50 years from now, they’re going to say, right now it’s Allah, Buddha, God, Dan, then they’re going to say Dan, yeah, first and then everybody else, because I’m already the, the, the best high-performance coach that ever lived, based on creating value. And in the last month, one of my mentees, one of my meatheads just like you, just did the largest deal in the history of man, 500 billion dollars, NEOM, the city of the future in Saudi Arabia, Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld. Five, so I’m arguably the 550 billion dollar man now.
38:46 I’m really about 730 billion, but a lot of the kids don’t want me to use their names. So now I’ve got a new hope, I want to be the first trillion dollar man. Now just think, when you get an email that says there’s a Christmas sale, 50% off all my product, you get those, all you did, right? What was it worth the day before you got the email? Zero.
39:14 And the reason why, I’ve had 19-year-old kids come to me that have read 700 books on personal development before the 20th birthday. I didn’t know there was 700 books really on personal development. And when I tell you don’t read, I don’t mean don’t read the Bible or the classics or whatever, because I’ve read all those. I mean don’t read books on there, just procrastination does not pull the trigger. They’re not pull the trigger, Sally.
39:46 And I have three millennial kids. You hear about all the problems with Millennials, right? Yes. Our kids are animals. I wonder why, why do you think that happened?
40:06 You grew up looking at your parents, users. Our kids grew up looking at us. Big difference, big difference. My daughter, 31 years old, multiple degrees, and you don’t have to go to school, but multiple degree from great schools, she get a parent say, “You have no idea what it is to be his daughter, you,” and he alluded to it, nothing’s ever good enough. She’s British, unfortunately, she carries a British passport.
40:41 When she becomes Prime Minister, it won’t be enough for me. If you, if you see you’re fit, your families are living vicariously through you, Jesus Christ, what does that say about them? If you’re, if you are what they look up to, what the does that say about them? These are kids. You’re you know, life isn’t is in a pretend deal.
41:15 You don’t have, you’re not gonna be able to do this over. They say, you know, it’s not a do-over, it’s not like these programs on television, you do over when they make you look better with your hair and your clothes. My life’s not a do-over. You only got one chance of this this this thing, and I want, as Brian is already aptly put out in this to find a film he put before us today, is I want you to be all you can be, well beyond. Usain Bolt, the Sprinter guy, right?
41:48 Yeah, for 10 years he was the top of his game, right? Cold man will have to go mad, will have to go mental. The last World Championships he finished third. He went out a loser. Okay, do you, any of you know what he changed in his training regimen?
42:05 I do. Every workout he had for nine years, 11 months, in one week, he worked out until he threw up, meaning he spent all the energy he had in his body until he threw up. He decided to coast. Why? I ought to be able to win my last hundred meter on reputation, on this, on that, on whatever.
42:32 He finished third. You’ve never worked out until you threw up. All the guys that you read about now, Musk is the flavor of the day, now if you don’t work 100 hours a week you get fired. My teenage phenom Josh Kim works 120 to 140 hours a week. I’m gonna say that again for the dense ones: 120,140 hours a week.
43:07 He’s just turned 20 and he’s a multi-millionaire. I’m gonna say it again because it looks like his glass, lights in the headlights. He just turned 20, he’s a multi-millionaire, and he works 120 to 140 hours a week. It didn’t happen by accident. So you go back and you look at another blog, you go back and you listen to another podcast, and you decide he’s only doing 5% and he’s already made tremendous changes and he’s a bigger success than he ever was.
43:51 Just imagine if he did 15%, but he’s done 5% more than you. And occasionally there’s a tough guy in the audience. I’m 72 years old, I’m glad to step out in the parking lot with any three at a time in this room, we’ll see how tough you are, and then when I bust you up, you where you breathe, and then I’ll say, oh he must not be, he must have been on steroids. Then they,
44:29 Brian Rose: they don’t make them like you anymore.
44:33 Dan Peña: No, they don’t.
44:35 Brian Rose: It’s true. Sally, there’s Sally right there, Dan’s better half, amazing woman. Sally, please stand up. Where did you find her?
44:44 Dan Peña: She puts up with, she’s a chartered accountant, not Ian Wye, that I had the privilege of being across the table from many, many decades ago now, and I said, I got a higher of that girl, and then she didn’t, wouldn’t leave Ian Wye, and it took me a couple years and find Sheila this before there was any romance at all.
45:05 She finally left Ian Wye to be the head of the Guthrie Group, which is a consulting group I have, and the but she’s English, Yorkshire.
45:15 Brian Rose: Isn’t it true that you two argue over who was poor when they were young?
45:21 Dan Peña: Yeah, we argued for many years who was most poor, and we finally decided, last three or four years, she was actually poorer than I was, and she lived in a caravan. Now it is, it’s varied over the years whether there was four or twelve in the caravan, but let’s just say four, and and I’ve been to her hometown and met some of her relatives, and I’m not gonna say anything bad about them, they’re working people, very much like your relatives in America, they call them blue collar.
45:57 Blue collar, yes, ma’am, working-class, nothing where that. My dad was a cop. Now he alluded to it on the screen, but if you google my father, he was a CIA assassin. They killed between nine and twenty-three people, depending on what story you want to believe. When he was in his late eighties, Sally would ask him about stuff like that and he just giggled and went, “More chocolate cake.”
46:24 He had a propensity for chocolate, but he brought him out of retirement when Robert Kennedy got assassinated in 1968. He was already retired, to come back and head up the US government investigation of the Robert Kennedy assassination. So the story was, the rumor, they brought a CIA guy, CIA guy, to cover up the Robert Kennedy, Sirhan Sirhan is the guy that they caught shooting him, in Sirhan Sirhan, to the best of my knowledge, is still in prison. But my dad was tough guy, I mean, that’s an understatement, tough, I mean it was extremely harsh in this world, it’d be shocking actually, so bloody shocking, because he beat me like a rented mule.
47:12 But by the way, on the Snowflake Test, 80% of the people that take the test have never been physically spanked by their parents growing up. 80%! I can’t even believe that. 90% have never been in a fistfight, an altercation with somebody else, 90%, and you wonder why you’re weak. I can’t believe, I can’t believe, I get in a fight every day in grammar school, I mean, sometimes close to a day.
47:59 You better hope that Putin and Trump stay friendly, because Putin will take Europe and Great Britain like he took a.
48:09 Brian Rose: I want to ask, I get a couple questions from the audience, so if you die in to ask something, or you want to go out in the parking lot, raise your hand and we’ll pass those around. Dad, I want to ask you quickly about this brave.
48:28 Dan Peña: Stand up, stand up, pencil neck. Oh, he’s no problem, forget it.
48:33 Dan Peña: Okay, you get two of your friends, we will. I’m gonna be seeing you in the carpark very shortly.
48:39 Audience member: So I know I am laughing out of respect and love, just so you know. All right, so please, I’ve had such an enjoyable evening. I think I’d love you, man, I think you’re awesome.
48:49 Thank you. Absolutely fed says it, I just love that absolute balls on the line, this is how it is, etc. So I don’t want to put a damper on the mood, but the one question I want to ask you is, you don’t know what’s coming, people, is what you said. I’d love to hear, if you want to, what you know that I know occurring.
49:09 Dan Peña: I know the question.
49:10 Whereas I said the Trump, Trump was going to do 20 things, he’s done 17 of my 20, and this three he hasn’t done: bomb Korea, North Korea, bomb Syria, and bomb Iran back into the Stone Age. Those are the only three he hasn’t done. And if the guys, if Rocket Man in North Korea or Ayatollah in Iran or the Syrian dentist that was educated here don’t watch your P’s and Q’s, that’s going to happen. And the reason why, and I said it wasn’t, he decided to run, he’s being friendly with Putin, not because he agrees with everything Putin says, but that would be the most costly war the world could see for the last 50, 60, 70 years, and yeah, and he’s smart enough to know that.
50:07 So all the atrocities Putin does, he’s not agreeing with. I’m not speaking for the president, I happen to know Donald Trump, but anyway, that’s a whole other story, but I’m not speaking for the president in any way, shape, man or form, but he’s not agreeing just because he’s trying to get along, where he’s overlooking some of the, Putin says doesn’t mean that he agrees with all the abuse of stuff that Russia does. He knows that’s a world war everybody’s going to lose, and he knows he can take out those three countries I just talked about like he burped.
50:46 Now I’m not making excuses for all the people that will die, that’s not what I’m talking about, but those are the only three things he hasn’t done. Now how did I know that? Now I haven’t actually, I haven’t, but I haven’t seen Donald in 20 years. The last time I saw Donald that I can really remember was 1993 at the opening of the MGM Hotel, the new MGM Hotel, and we’re going up the lift, two little sons, and he looks across the lift, the elevator, to me, she’s, “Hi, Dan.”
51:19 He says, “I hear you’re trying to teach stupid people how to be rich.” I just started this business and the people didn’t know what he’s talking about, and I said, “Yeah,” and he laughed and he’s, “That’s thankless,” and he’s right, he’s right. I mean, The Art of the Deal, which I never read, is 75% QLAE, the book, the best-selling book.
51:46 Brian Rose: Another question, raise your hand, raise your hand. Let me see, over here too, yes, stand up.
51:53 Can we get him a mic over there? All right. I think you’re standing up. I think he’s a, hey, how you doing, or no, he’s hiding. Savannah, drag out the mic first, like first to the left, to the left, go ahead, and over here, over the side, yes, sir.
52:08 Audience member: I’m one of Brian’s students, Speak to Inspire, an amazing course, Brian, I love you. Um, Greg. Thanks, thank you. You mentioned this is a time of generational wealth, Brett, could you, could you please explain?
52:23 Dan Peña: Yeah, interest rates at 5,000-year lows, people are scared.
52:27 The formulas on my site: look for a motivated seller where the cash flow, free cash flow, covers the debt servers. Don’t bring in private equity, because private equity will take the deal away from you, and it’s it’s fragment healthcare and the UK is all up, it’s, you know, I’ve got kids doing healthcare deals not only here but all over the world, telco which is now morphed into Internet is fragmented. I give an example: a dentist gets out of dental school 35 years ago, he’s now 63 years old, his kids don’t want his dental practice, he’s, you know, what do I do with it?
53:07 He’s got to sell it because that’s normally his retirement plan, the equity that he thinks he’s built up in his dental practice, and you’re gonna do him the favour to come and buy it from him. And the and it’s been working for me for almost 50 years, for the kids like you for almost 25 years, and all I’ve done is copied the Andrew Carnegie financial model that the little wee Scot from not too far away, we live started in the late 1800s and did till the early 1900s when he retired. But the reason why the big investment banks don’t want to use that is because it’s too simple.
53:48 There’s no generation fee, there’s no this fee, there’s no that fee, and there’s no private equity, there’s only debt, or some of you Europeans would say depth. And it’s a simple model and we’ve got the kids, you know, are just knocking it over, I mean, out of the park. You know, for those of you that read the stuff I put on social media, I mean, we’ve had some pretty phenomenal results, and on their own, they’re doing it on their own. And the most reason is the the phenom.
54:22 So when I say that, I mean, I said again when President Trump got elected, this was, you know, it was so obvious, and that’s why the stock market key today, we cross 24,000. Okay, we crossed 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, all the indices around the world, I’m making new highs. I said next year we’re going to hit 25,000, and if Trump doesn’t get impeached and he goes into a second term, we’re gonna see 30 thousand on the Dow, 30 thousand on the Dow. And I don’t see interest rates, unless, unless we go to war with Russia, which Trump’s trying hard not to do, I don’t see anything stopping us.
55:04 I don’t say anything stopping us, guys, gals, boys and girls, you will cut your throat 10, 15 years from now because you didn’t take advantage of the current economic situation, because you’re, you have no balls. Yeah, and he said it nicely, I don’t say it so nicely. And what made you afraid? Who were your role models, kids? You know who your role models were, and they will say, “I did the best I knew how.”
55:44 Well, that dog doesn’t hunt, does it? Or they’ll say, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” What that doesn’t, how neither does it. The fact is, they turned out like you. You know, I be a, you know, would you want your kids to be like you?
56:03 Amen, ma’am. Just think of it, would you want your children, your your progenies to be like you? I hope not, unless you’ve got a death wish. Jesus Christ, can’t you see it? It’s so clear.
56:17 And that, but, and if anybody leaves here liking me, I didn’t do my job. I have the least followers on all those things, social media, because I mean, you know, and I can name them, it’s not important, hundreds of thousands and millions of guys, but they don’t tell you you should blow your brains out, even though they think it. Sally and I had dinner in the last two or three years with names that you’d know. “You’re killing us, Dan. You give all your away free, now you’re running around the planet telling everybody it’s free, you live in a castle, and what do they have?
57:04 You tell me.” But you like them more than me, yet thank God. Thank God where I come from, that email or that question on the Snowflake Test about what would you do if somebody spit on your Emma. I’m 15, 16 years old, my cousin, God, gotta love me, still live a got East LA, Lincoln High School, a guy told his him that his girlfriend had a fat ass, he stabbed him 17 times, by the grace of Allah he didn’t die. Now you just turn the other cheek.
57:47 Yeah, she does have a big ass. Yeah, now that I look at it, yeah. How did you get to be such a weenie? How? Your parents and their parents, and now what we’ve got, you know, most of you should have rolled down the inside of the dear mama and never conceived anything.
58:09 Whatever you accomplished in your miserable lives, nothing.
58:16 Brian Rose: One more question, there was somebody up there. Yes, you, man, stand up. Yes. When we get her a microphone, right, ma’am, stand up just here.
58:31 Yeah, here, yes, ma’am, just to the front. Well, give me a microphone right here.
58:37 Audience member: Dan, I’m really interested in what you’ve got to say about this. My son is 16 years old, he went to university to apply for A levels for two years in time, and they gave him as a goodbye gift a lollipop, which is good, a real lollipop. Yeah, a real lollipop, I’m telling you, and a bag of beans, like her jelly beans, like you give on a school thing, and I didn’t tell my husband because I was too embarrassed.
59:10 I found it yesterday, and my son is, he has completed the War Marines, change the youngest child to have completed, 16 years of age, he is 6 foot 2 years, 6 foot 2, he’s 60, he completed it wrong reasons, and he didn’t show it to me, and I’m not surprised, but this is why we have snowflakes in this country. A top university is given my son a lollipop and a bag of beans and said, “Here, this is what you’re going to get when you come to the University.” And I’m not surprised it didn’t give him a little badge on his wrist to say “This is your way home, and you know, we can go, if you get lost you can get your way home on this.”
59:57 This is what we’ve got in this country. We need more people like you down here telling these children. Maybe that’s what we need of what we haven’t got, you here, we haven’t got you here down, and I’m I’m imploring you, and I’m not being sick authentic here, while I’m imploring you from the bottom of my heart to go around two universities, two schools, and so these sycophantic bloody bomb liqueurs, to go and say to these kids, this is why it is, this is what life is like.
1:00:30 We this is what, you know, come on, this is what life is like, you know, do this, do that, and not be giving them lollipops and bloody jelly beans. Yeah, okay, thank you, thank you, Dan.
1:00:44 Dan Peña: Well, part of my mission, and that’s why I’m running around the world talking to schools. But 200 years ago, Britain ruled two-thirds of the planet, right? They did it with the thing called gunboat diplomacy.
1:01:00 If they want it, they took it. Does anybody know enough history to remember that? Yeah, now look at it from a little island on top of it. Now look at you weenies, okay. Yeah, I mean, c’mon guys, you, you know, I’m, when I was in Poland and I’m telling these guys that were descendants from the great Polish fighters that helped in the the the Blitz, over the airforce over, when Germany was bombing the hell out of London, the closest that I could find was a relative, was a great-great-grandson of somebody that had some balls, but a great friend, and your grandfather, where the bullet in his back, right?
1:01:52 Okay, yeah, 303 Bull in his match, I mean it, I just, when you took one, and there’s still a few people of my dad’s generation, and when you talk to him, they wish they hadn’t lived this long to see the deterioration of the world, because now the whole war wants to be fit, in the whole wrong wants to be liked. I have a lot, I have a lot of faults, but that’s not one of them, that’s not one of them. And guys, the world right now, the one of the reasons, and again, all my shits free, okay, you read the social media posted, I have, we got kids, not every day but almost every day, knocking it for six, not every day, that would be a Trump exaggeration, but not every day, but almost every day.
1:02:45 I think I told somebody here, we had a guy from Canada who came to the seminar two years ago who did a 6 million, a 50 million and a 500 million dollar D alone, two weeks, and the it’s it’s is it’s unbelievable right now. And but the key is you gotta find motivated sellers, and they’re there, and it’s a numbers game.
1:03:15 Dan Peña: And well, you know, I’ve got a number of mentees in the audience. Yes, sir. Yeah, yeah, yeah, thank you.
1:03:25 Audience member: So if we are from federal countries, why I consider Britain a third world country, but go ahead. I’m from Romania.
1:03:33 Dan Peña: Okay, how many Romanian mentees do I have in the audience? Please raise your hand. Okay, raise them up.
1:03:40 Okay, don’t be afraid. Okay, so go ahead.
1:03:42 Audience member: Yeah, shall we start in Romania and buy companies?
1:03:45 Dan Peña: Now it depends, it depends what your passion is, depends what your passion, you know, don’t waste time. Some things you can’t change.
1:03:52 Certain countries in the world you can’t buy general practices unless you’re a dentist, for example, I use that as an example, or you have a dentist that owns at least 50% of the company. So there’s some quirky laws around the planet, some countries you can’t buy chartered accountancy firms unless you’re a chartered accountant. I mean, there are, so you have to do your research, but the bottom line is follow your passion. What do you like to do, you know, and I know I think it’s in Sweden, he can’t buy veterinary practices unless you’re a vet.
1:04:27 Audience member: I just, well, the answer is would you start in Romania, do you follow your passion?
1:04:34 Dan Peña: Okay, is your passion available in Romania? Well, you have to check, you have to check to see what the laws are. Okay, thank you. But if it’s not in Romania, UK is fairly easy to buy anything, okay?
1:04:49 Audience member: Living here, yeah, well that,
1:04:51 Dan Peña: well yes, you know, the banks aren’t going to loan you money in Bucharest when you’re buying stuff in Manchester. Okay, stand up if you want to ask a question. Who wants to? That woman behind you, could you pass with a microphone right behind you? Go ahead, go ahead.
1:05:10 Dan Peña: Can you do it in the mic? Okay, I hear you. I got ya, I got a Hugh Bob. Yeah, okay.
1:05:19 Audience member: You support Trump?
1:05:21 Dan Peña: Yep, I was one of the first endorsers, public endorses, it a presidential. Thank you for asking that question, I have the answer, that I have the answer. Thank you for the question.
1:05:42 Audience member: Yeah, okay, now you’re full of s***, sit down. I’m gonna answer you, I’m gonna shut up and shut up and sit down, sit down.
1:05:56 I finish the question, the answer is changing and it’s changing to CO2. What do you pay with the money? What are you doing? I’m gonna tell you right now, nah, I’ve got children, I’ve got 21, 23-year-old children, and what’s their future with you people with money, you talk about?
1:06:18 Brian Rose: Okay, okay, sit down please, sit down please in the front row.
1:06:23 Excuse me, in the front row, please sit down.
1:06:26 Dan Peña: Okay, you’ve asked you a question, thank you very much. Okay, I’m gonna, I’m gonna answer.
1:06:31 Brian Rose: Excuse me, ma’am, will you please sit down, and please, thank you, that’s okay, please sit down, let him answer.
1:06:37 Dan Peña: Okay, in 2011 my wife and I were in Antarctica renewing our vows.
1:06:41 For most of you, they don’t know Antarctica’s on a mountaintop, okay? And there is a 500 million dollar facility, a scientific facility there, and in the scientists came to give us presentations about global warming, and they had cores of ice that they had drilled. They had drilled four or five thousand cores and they only about 15 or 20. So they’re going through the second or third core and they said, “A 275,000 years ago this was the temperature above, and then 55,000 years ago the world was two degrees warmer Celsius than it is today.”
1:07:23 This is 2011, and I were stopped, tucked up, and he said, and I said, “Would you mean the whole world?” It says yes, “and the poles are only benchmarks.” And I said, “Well, what about the things the young woman alluded to?” Okay, and he said, “It’s all cyclical, and although the gas may have exacerbated it, in the cosmos of time it’s not a fart in the wind. In the cosmos of time, of the 13.8 billion years that we’ve been on this miserable planet, it’s not a fart in the wind.”
1:08:01 And as I told Joe Rogan on his show, and he said in His infinite wisdom, and I, Joe, if you hear this, I thank you for the opportunity being on your show, he said, “Then in 25,000 years it’s most likely not going to be a problem.” Now my direct answer to your question, if that were really true, would you believe, and let’s just for a moment say that it is true, that means that the best scenario vis-à-vis global warming is about ten feet raised in water. That’s the best scenario over the next forty, fifty years, that’s the best scenario.
1:08:35 The worst scenario is about a hundred feet, but let’s just take the ten feet. If the water on the planet is going around be rise up ten feet, that means the southern part of the United States is gone, England is gone, most of Europe is gone, and I can go, most of Central America is gone. Okay, if that’s the case, let’s just take Florida, for example, which is one of the fastest-growing condominium, beachfront condominiums on the planet. In the prospectus, when you invest, the should be in the footnotes, if global warming is for real, they will put it that way: global warming happened and water rises 10 feet, this investment you made is f***-all.
1:09:26 Not one single investment prospectus written since 2000, this century, has alluded to global warming. Now one, if it were really true, the banks wouldn’t invest, the banks wouldn’t finance not one condominium. So the people that have the money, and I’m jealous of the Vice President Gore, but Shall and I wrote on a plane from South America with a few years of, I am jealous, he came up with a scam before I did, because the financial institutions, the banks of this world, know it’s not going to happen, otherwise you couldn’t get a goddamn loan in London.
1:10:21 You know those 30, 40 year mortgages, the war will be over by then. Is Barclays Bank going to give you a loan? For the greatest respect, bam, it’s the greatest fraud that’s been perpetrated on mankind this century, not true like that lady said.
1:10:46 Brian Rose: One question, and I’m wrapping this up. Who?
1:10:51 Last question.
1:10:52 Dan Peña: Crypto, what the okay. I like the Royal Highness that run Saudi Arabia, the guy Jimmy Dimon, most of the guys in the Federal Reserve, Warren Buffett, etc. Something I don’t understand, I don’t invest in, and with there’s no regulations. I don’t believe that some Japanese guy in some cave invented this s***.
1:11:17 Now I said on a podcast yesterday with one of my successful mentees, I’m gonna start a new rumor. So he said, what is it? He says, is it well founded? He turns it mic off. I said, well fine enough means it’s not well fine at all, and I said, well what is it?
1:11:33 I hear it’s a Putin conspiracy, crypto, and the Russian started at 11, 12 years ago to take control of the simple-minded morons, and it’s worked. And it’s worked. Now just what if it was a Russian conspiracy, just like they hacked in and all this stuff that they did? What if it is? What is it, eleven, twelve, fifteen thousand, something like that?
1:12:00 I have people that bought it at $200. What if it is a Russian conspiracy, they’ll overthrow the world from the financial markets? But I don’t invest in it because I don’t understand it, like a lot of smart people, but a lot of smart people, I mean Warren Buffett, Mr. Kham, leave, Miss Calm.
1:12:25 Brian Rose: Final thoughts, Stan, and then we’ll have more pictures if you want them. What do you think about, what do you want to leave people with?
1:12:37 Dan Peña: Oh, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I didn’t come here to insult anybody, but I’m sure I have. I didn’t come here to hurt your sensibilities, but I’m sure I have. I’m just giving you one man’s opinion. 72 years my eyes have seen stuff you haven’t know, but my eyes have seen stuff you haven’t, and I’ve been privileged to be around some of the brightest intellectual financial minds that have ever been created, you know, names that you just read about.
1:13:13 I actually know a lot of them, and the I would just suffice it to say, see, I’m not here trying to build my legacy vis-à-vis like President Obama or Bill Gates or the guys that are trying to build a legacy. They have something to sell in that they want history to write nice stuff about them. I’m gonna stand on my record. I don’t give a what you think of me, you know, by the time I’m through I will have created a trillion dollars with me heads just like you, imbeciles, retards, half-wits, even women, and I’ll let my record stand for myself, and the fact that you don’t like me is a positive, not a negative.
1:14:14 But you can’t find anybody that says my doesn’t work, and the reason why I’m the only one vulgar enough to talk about money and numbers is cuz I’m the only on the planet that’s produced any. You take any one of them, the guys that you follow, or Gallants and my wife lost in fur coats at airports more money than they’ve ever made, and I stand that as a challenge, you find somebody, I’ll retire. I’ve had this open offer for almost 25 years, and guess what, and now with a 500 billion dollar man, Klaus Kleinfeld, there’s no chance.
1:15:04 They may be scratching around putting some numbers together, but I mean, I just, I’m intergalactic now, and money is not everything, and Klaus Kleinfeld is the perfect person to head up the city of the future because he believes in that. He wants to save the world, he wants to make humanity a better place, he wants to, he thinks, Dan, it’s not irreversible, mankind can make it. I don’t, but they picked my guy, and I’m gonna make a prediction here which I’ve already made a few times: the next president of these unit, not these, the United States of America, is Governor Rick Scott of Florida, who I trained.
1:15:52 So we’re going to have the head of the biggest mega city on the planet, Klaus Kleinfeld, and the President of the United States, Rick Scott. I trained them both, I trained them both, I made them just like God. So don’t tell me, don’t tell me you mean, I mean this lady may not like me at all, I don’t give a, she’s just a no middle-aged manopause lady, that nice lady, I’m sure, but I don’t give a, my works and go to my site, is for free. Other than that, go yourself.
1:16:30 Brian Rose: Damn Peña, damn Peña, yo, you are one-of-a-kinds and you really brought it tonight, so thank you very much, sir.
1:16:56 Dan Peña: Yeah, thank you.
