Dan Peña - The $50 Billion Man - Full Movie

Full transcript: The $50 Billion Man

0:11 We all have a shadow, a figure within us we try to cover up, that dark side of our personality. Selfish, ruthless, cruel, egocentric. We all have it. Yes, even you. You know you’re not that nice.

0:58 Tell me, what are you hiding? Which mask are you wearing today? That nice version of you, the person who wants to be liked, the one who goes along. Well, what if I told you you can use your shadow to transform? Go into the fear, embrace it, channel it, dance with it, maybe even become it. How limitless would your life be?

1:40 You’re a ***, Brian, not me. Explain. You’re weak and you’re showing, and you want these people to like you. And you’re telling me I’m weak on that email? Yes, because you love me. Because you care. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you very much. You have no idea how limitless it is when you’re not afraid of what other people think or say, and you can be more than you are. If these little *** think that you’re something now, I see you a thousand times more. See, they have low standards, these *** weenies who watch this *** thing. I know what you can be. They think you’re a big *** deal. I know you’re not. And down deep inside, Brian, you know that I’m closer to being right than they are.

2:50 Today I’m travelling back to the place where my life changed, to see the man I hate. My mentor.

3:12 A figure born out of the wildest American dreams, or nightmares. His grandparents crossed the border illegally from Mexico. His father was a cop, and some say an assassin for the CIA. Dan grew up in the barrio of East Los Angeles, where he learned the concept that will mark the rest of his life: I’d rather be dead than poor. Dan was always where the action was. First the military, next Wall Street, then the oil business. You name it, Dan would seek it out and conquer.

3:54 He is rich, arrogant, controversial, rude, violent, politically incorrect, a climate change denier and an early Trump supporter. If you hate something in this world, it’s very possible that Dan embodies it. His life is a constant adrenaline rush. In 72 years he has amassed more money than he can spend in ten lifetimes. These days he teaches people how to be just like him at his castle in Scotland. He calls it QLA, the Quantum Leap Advantage, his seven-day seminar where he’s known to make grown men cry. And yes, he seriously has his own castle. The truth is, Dan changed my life.

5:00 But that was never supposed to happen. Merry Christmas to YouTube, and all you poor *** out there. You know, and we’re gonna show… pan down, move a little. That’s what Christmas is supposed to look like, you poor ***. And if it doesn’t look like… there’s about 300 presents here. If something ain’t right, if your Christmas doesn’t look like this.

5:21 My name is Brian Rose and I’m the founder and host of London Real. Every week I broadcast important stories curated from the greatest minds on the planet. I’m trying to make the world a better place. Today I’m taking the same train I took two years ago, when I decided to undertake an experiment: to be mentored by Dan Peña. I recorded everything. I thought it would be amusing. It wasn’t. Dan stands for everything I hate. That’s why I haven’t spoken to him in a year.

6:25 He only cares about one thing: money. In the last 20 years his mentees have created over 50 billion dollars of wealth. The top performers get immortalised with their picture in his coveted Hall of Fame. It’s the wet dream of every one of his minions. That wall represents everything that’s wrong with this world, and now he wants to put me on it. But I’m not a trophy.

6:48 We have a number of announcements we’ll be making this week, but one of the most important is the inductee of a new, a brand new Hall of Famer. Our very own, and I might add the quickest to make it to the Hall of Fame since he attended the seminar, and he’s very truly yours, Brian QLA Rose.

7:08 What’s happening here is that I’m paying for my sins, because I introduced Dan Peña to the world and made him a YouTube sensation. I opened Pandora’s box, and I’ll probably go to hell for it.

8:03 Not long ago, the act of putting on a suit made me feel sick. It was a reminder of my past, a memory of all the things I did wrong. Back at the castle, it’s just as I remembered. Everyone is walking on eggshells, putting on big smiles for the old man.

8:24 23 years ago I thought they’d be copying me in months, and they’re still not copying me. Nobody teaches it because none of the *** suckers know how to do it. Am I the greatest that ever lived? You’re *** right I am. I proved it to myself. Not that I needed any *** validation. Now I expect you to go out and put it into use. I demand. And one of the reasons, and I pointed at the Hall of Fame, the reason those guys are up there, and the gals, is because they stayed focused longer. Now, tonight’s a very special night because we’re going to have an inductee to the Hall of Fame, but I’m saving him for last. He was here two years ago, almost to the day. Two years ago to the day.

9:30 The wealth, the materialism, the fake faces. I know this world very well. I know where money and egotism will lead. You know, I have a bit of an interesting story. I usually don’t share a lot on the show, but I think I’m going to share it with you a little bit, OK? You know, I didn’t always spend my time speaking with interesting people like yourself. I used to work on Wall Street in Manhattan, and I was actually an engineer by trade, and you could argue that I could have gone on and built, you know, domes at the Venus Project. But I went straight to Manhattan. I was sold kind of this Wall Street dream, and if you see these ultra rich pieces you’re constantly kind of advertised to.

10:11 And you just, I don’t know, I think it all came down to me when I got caught up in a further wave of greed in the dot-com boom. I saw the Trade Center come down in front of me. I was living in the East Village, and I must say that my kind of capitalistic dreams definitely went to a place where I think that we should be doing something different.

10:32 I was ashamed. I couldn’t explain to myself how I ended up the typical greedy banker. How could I spend ten years thinking only about me, doing work I hated, only to have more money? I’m supposed to be a good guy. How did this happen? I just wanted more. More. Did that ever happen to you? I had everything. I had nothing. I was disconnected from what made me human.

11:15 Who could I blame? Was it advertising? My upbringing? The American dream? I couldn’t process it all, so I began drinking myself to death. Finally, I had to admit it. The selfishness, the arrogance, the egotism were a part of me. It was my fault. That was a bad day, but also the day my freedom began. So I walked away from it all.

11:35 I started London Real in a desperate effort to purge myself of my sins. And guess what? It worked. I felt like I woke up from the nightmare. I was doing something I loved just for the sake of it. There are no good or bad people. People are shaped by culture. I started making real human connections, and for the first time in my life, people liked me. Questioning the nature of reality and what life’s all about, and everything, that’s a big question for sure. We’ll be asking. Instead of extracting value from the world, I was adding value to it.

12:41 This world is a theatre of experience. We are here to learn how to grow. I realised how toxic money had made me, and how pure I felt without it. Because it’s extremely easy, I think, to be achievement focused, so forward driving, goal oriented. What is challenging is having the proper balance of achievement and appreciation. Go figure. The banker is another hippie. I was thinking about what I want for London Real. I don’t want to sell London Real and make us build a bridge someday. I want to be 70 and having cool guests on it, you know. For me, this is the fun of doing this. It’s like meeting cool people and doing what we’re doing.

13:23 Everything was awesome. I was the king of free content. And then came the email from Dan Peña. At first I ignored him. 50 billion? What? This guy was the total opposite of London Real. I’m not going back to the money. That’s everything I walked away from. But persistence can be effective, especially when you need a guest every week. To this day I don’t know exactly why, but I finally accepted and invited Dan on the show.

14:04 Shall we do this? Absolutely. OK, here we go. This is London Real. My guest today is Mr Dan Peña, who is an American-born businessman, entrepreneur and mentor who lives in a castle in Scotland. Dan, you’re like a James Bond villain in that way, and you know, you’re dressed for success. I don’t know many people that can pull off a three-piece suit and a gold chain. That’s fantastic. You are the author of the book Your First 100 Million, which you just gave me a copy of, thank you very much. I guess that’s 100 million dollars? Correct. OK. What do you tell people that you do when they ask you, what do you say?

14:48 Well, the last 20 years I’ve been a coach, mentor, high-performance coach to the select few that really want to be all they can be. Let me ask you a question. You know, we’re very Zen here on this show, and we talk a lot… I’m here anyway. Yeah, you’re here anyways, exactly. You know, we like to shake it up here and try some different things. What if I said to you, you know, OK, this guy is going to be ultra successful, he’s going to make a billion dollars. What if I said, Dan, why does it matter what he makes? You know, it doesn’t. Or my question is, you know, to you, that is the ultimate metric of success? No, no. The money’s not the only thing in life, but it’s the only thing anybody keeps track of, as measurable, accountable, since the pharaohs. OK, right. Size of the pyramids, et cetera. It’s a metric you can keep track of. Correct.

15:28 But what I give you, Brian, is the ability to have more choices. I’m just assuming I have more money than you, so I’m going to say that I have a lot more choices than you do. Because you have more money than me. If you want to send your kids to a better school, if you want to be able to take your… your mother when she gets dementia, if you want to… this all takes money, not Zen. I never paid a bill with Zen.

15:49 Then the unexpected happens. People love Dan. Most of us go through life with our emergency brakes on. Then you release the brake. What happens? I get people to do that. They think they’re impossible. You come to me with your goals. By the time you leave, at the seventh day, your goals are a factor between five and a hundred times bigger. You give me your business model in 120 seconds and I’ll tell you in 60 seconds whether it will work, if it can’t work, how to fix it, or whether the *** can’t. OK, that’s your specialty. Correct. But you probably charge a lot of money for that.

16:32 Do you ever think to yourself, and look in the mirror, and you’re in your castle, and you’re like, you know what, I need to get rid of all this stuff. I need people to meet me and not know that I’m, you know, Dan Peña of the castle, and my CV, and I need people to tell me straight and be like, who the hell is this guy? And I have to, you know, start over again. Do you ever think that that would be one of the ultimate challenges? No, but I got a better challenge. Bringing 25,000 people across the goal line that should be living in a homeless shelter is much more satisfying than that.

17:15 And it made me think you could whip me into shape. Yeah. What do you think? You’d be a tough sled, but like Atlas Shrugged, you know, pushing the… Why would I be tough, Dan? Because you’re you. Am I set in my ways? No, no, no, no. At your age you can’t be set in your ways. OK. Am I in my comfort zone too much? That’s probably… I don’t know you well enough, but that could be it. OK. You seem to enjoy what you do, or you’ve got a pretty good act about it. So, like, OK. But there will be a life beyond London Real. Yes, there probably… yeah, I’m sure, you’re too young. Yeah, I don’t think you can do London Real until you’re 55 or 60. It’s not likely. Because it’s good. Come on. Yeah, yeah. Give me a few minutes. Pretty confident? No, no, once I get you to release your emergency brake, Brian, then you’ll be careful. Now, now we’re standing dear Zen. Yeah, you think the Zen is hurting me? No, no, no. It’s where you’ve got, is where you’re supposed to be today.

18:00 Dan, you are an original. You are a unique gentleman. Thanks for coming here and telling us about yourself. I asked you some hard questions and I appreciate you answering them. My pleasure. And I wish everybody in the audience all the luck and good fortune they earn, and to your quantum leaps in life and business. Fantastic. As we say on London Real, it’s about the journey. You’ve had a fantastic one, and I wish you well on your future one. Thank you very much, I appreciate it very much. Thank you. Thanks, Dan. Take care. OK.

18:43 My hour and a half here with Dan at the end left me feeling very strange. I felt like I had actually been on a psychedelic adventure into the depths and horrors of capitalism and egoism, and I didn’t know quite what to think. And I went home that night and I really felt like, you know, I just had some psilocybin or ayahuasca. I didn’t know what to think, you know. And I think part of the reason it struck me so much is because what I see in Dan is a lot of what I used to be, and what I still am. And, you know, the more I think about it, maybe there’s a way we can all coexist.

19:27 Here I am, back in the same place I was two years ago. It’s strange how everything has changed, and yet this place remains exactly the same. How does someone go from East LA to this? They say that you can learn a lot about a man by looking at his home, at what he chooses to show you and what he keeps locked away. Who wants to live in a castle anyway? Is this what happens when you dream from the barrio? I can’t deny that it’s an effective symbol to prove to Dan’s followers his now infamous slogan: yesterday’s dreams are today’s reality.

20:08 Great to have you back. Good to see you. Good to see you. Nice to be back in Guthrie Castle. Yeah, well, I mean, it’s a very special place. I’m gonna show you around. That is me, and that’s how I used to strut around the estate in the boots. Yep, I’ve still got those boots. Life’s a *** and sensitivity equals poverty. Sensitivity equals poverty. And I got a little dance I do.

20:54 Is this you with the bowler hat? Yep, I used to wear a bowler and carry a brolly. That’s a big smile there. I was happy. £10 million, that was about 20 million bucks. And what is this phase in your life? So you had… you’ve grown tired of golf? I had made a lot of money and I was bored.

21:14 He was still alive, but then I jumped on him with a big knife and he killed it. You want to jump on them from the back, not the front, because in the front, I mean, they can do a lot of *** damage with those claws. I’m not afraid. When you lose your fear, you lose your adrenaline. I could kill people. I’m… no, I could. You know, I have no hesitation whatsoever about that. My goal is I want to go on the highest bungee in the world, but I got to get my other knee fixed. And the reason I’m getting my knees replaced is I want to climb Kilimanjaro, and I’d like to climb Everest before I die. And what are you waiting for? Maybe you can ask your mama.

21:57 Tell the kids, mostly, they should go to a gun store and eat it. This used to be a live grenade, but we made it unlive when we came here, because you can’t bring *** like that into Britain. I drive none of them. I haven’t driven in over 20 years, but I’ve had a Rolls since I’m 26 years old. And so didn’t you tell me that you want to be up here at the apocalypse? That’s right. We’re going to stack up the have-nots. When it comes to the haves against the have-nots, which it’s going to, we’re going to stack up dead bodies to right here. Right here. We’re going to shoot them down like the *** dogs that they are.

23:23 Dan made me do a lot of thinking after that first show. I saw a lot of darkness in him, but also some light. He gave me a piece of his mind about me, and he was like, you know, yeah, yeah, I think you’re Zen, Brian, and you know, sooner or later you’re gonna have to pay the bills. And I don’t know what you’re doing here with this podcast, but you’re gonna have to straighten up, fly right and take care of business.

23:44 Then came his dinner invitation to the Ritz. So I put on a suit and tie for the first time in years and brought Mariana to eat at the swankiest hotel in London. After dinner, Dan said, Brian, I’m going to change your life, but you must come to my seven-day seminar. Everything inside me told me to say no. So I looked Dan straight in the eye and said yes.

24:26 The week before the castle seminar, everything in my life went wrong. It was as if the universe was conspiring against me. I had every excuse to cancel my trip to go see Dan in Scotland. This is called resistance, a universal force that will stop an individual from changing by any means necessary, and it’s proportional to the magnitude of the change one wants to make. The truth is, I was scared. Scared of losing all the beauty I had found in myself. Scared of going back to the money and the man I was before. But all growth begins with fear, and I knew that Dan was the only option I had. So I boarded that train and made the journey, ready to leave on a moment’s notice if the old man tried to push me too far.

25:29 This is London Real. I am Brian Rose. We have a special edition. I am attending this very same QLA mentoring program starting in two days. It’s been six months, Dan, since we sat down and talked to each other. So much has changed. I’ve changed. Look, I’m wearing a suit now. I’m in a castle interviewing you. I’ve noticed. And you said you used to do webinars and this kind of thing, but now you want people that are committed. They’re going to pay the price, literally and figuratively. They’re going to come up to here for a week. This is no joke, to get up here to Scotland, and they’re going to get away from their comfort zone, get away from their family. I mean, this is a bit like SEAL training, right? You’re stripping them down, cutting off communication, and now you want to put them through the wringer. You want to break them down. Is that what’s going on? Exactly.

26:14 A lot of you are here as: how do I get the *** money? That’s the only thing they care about. Dan Peña, QLA, anybody? OK. How do I get the *** money? OK, we get to… I hear that all the time. OK, we get to how to get the *** money about the end of the third day, the beginning of the fourth day. OK, so I should stay for that. Yeah, yeah, you should stay for that. But it’s the reason why you haven’t gotten the *** money, that’s what the first three days are all about.

26:35 So just so people know the detailed information: I broke down everything going on in my business, with my personal life. I took the success test. I took a psychology test that basically, I think, it’s trying to break down my own barriers, how I limit myself. Correct. My own self-esteem issues, other people in my life bringing me down, including my wife or girlfriend or my parents or my kids. Or… absolutely. And it was interesting because I wasn’t expecting some of these questions. Correct. OK. And because, as I said the first time you interviewed me, we have two bank accounts in life. We have an emotional bank account and the financial bank account. And the reason our financial bank account isn’t where we necessarily want it to be is because of our emotional bank account.

27:17 Those first few days, what would have been the reactions from people? Do you get people that want to leave? Do you get people that want to cry? We’ve had people pass out. A partner in a Big Four accounting firm *** his pants. The person that passed out was a psychiatrist. Why would they… I mean, they just did. Oh, OK. Just the stress. OK. The stress, because I push a lot of buttons. Jesus. Has anyone ever said, *** you, Dan Peña, I’m walking out the door? No. I’ve thrown a couple out, but nobody’s ever said that. I’ll be the first if I walk. Yeah, yeah. If you walk, you’ll be… well, you’ll be there. There’ll be plenty of *** here, but you may be the first *** to walk out.

28:00 Why is this important to you, Dan? Why mentor? Why not be out there and be Alan Sugaring? Why not be Trumping? Why not be doing these things where these guys want to get more wealth, they want to do more accomplishments, they want to show them? Because when I took 820 bucks and turned it into 450 million in eight years in a declining market, I realised, and kids, you’re not going to believe this or understand it, it ain’t that hard. It just ain’t that hard. I know that if I impact your thoughts… I’ve already impacted you. When I impact you more, you will be a great collaborator for QLA, because you have a big following. So I will be a shining example of the wonders of QLA. Correct. You’re going to do… and if I can do it with you, I can do it with anybody.

28:42 Now let me ask this question. Now, last time I had the interview with you, we turned the cameras off, we went outside. You were saying, I’m going to change your life, Brian Rose. You also told me that you have a glow about you, and I was like, I do? Yeah, I know you do, and we’ll get to that later. And I got home and I was like, I felt like I had drunk ayahuasca. I called it the Peñasca, because, like, my brain hurt. And part of me says *** Dan, and part of me says, all right, we gotta keep talking to Dan. And it’s very hard to process you.

29:22 And some part of me, the rational engineer side, says this, and I’ll be straight with you. It says, look, this is Dan’s game. He says, you know, something’s wrong with you because you could be more successful. OK, that applies to 98% of the world who’s realistic with themselves. I know what’s wrong with you. If you listen to me, you’ll be more successful, and if you don’t, you’re an idiot, like I thought you were. So by definition you’re right and everyone’s wrong? Yeah. Is that right, what I said? Yes, absolutely. So then isn’t this just a… doesn’t this just a con? No, it’s not a con, it’s the truth. You call it what you want. But that means you always win. There’s no argument against you. Well, now, I only don’t win if you quit. OK. Again, and I take that personally when somebody quits. I’ve never given up on a mentee in 21 years. I look forward to this week. All right. OK.

30:24 I don’t say good morning. When you say good morning in the military, and say, good morning, Tony, and he said, what the *** good about it? Have you been sleeping with my wife? Have you *** my daughter in the mouth? And you like me? And no matter how you answered, you’re ***. So whenever somebody says good morning to me, I have these flashbacks.

30:45 This is you, the room, and this is you, YouTubers. Pay attention, YouTubers, you *** ***. You stand around and watch all the opportunities go by. They sit there and they sit there. Oh, I’m getting ready. Bert’s getting ready. Bert’s getting ready. Rick’s getting ready. Oh, maybe, maybe the next one. Maybe the next one. Maybe the next one. Oh, *** known, I’m tired now. Maybe the next one. Maybe the next one. And there comes somebody like me, just jumps on the *** and eats it. Maybe the next one, Ray.

31:26 Once you become fearless, life becomes limitless. The difference between me and everybody in this room is I have no fear of anything. Now, just imagine if you *** miserable *** die tonight. The regrets you’re carrying to the grave. I wish I could have. I *** should have.

31:47 I kind of feel like Charlie Sheen in the movie Apocalypse Now, as if I’ve been going up the river. And I’ve been taking the train up through England for six hours to get to the castle, and I’ve been reading the QLA emails and newsletters and listening to the podcasts of Colonel Kurtz, also known as Dan Peña. And my mission has been to come up here to kill him, just like in the movie. And now that I’m here, I want to join him.

32:07 I’m high on life. I don’t need DMT or ayahuasca. That’s all horseshit. Those are for losers. This is all about your legacy. It’s all about what Dan’s left on the world. Correct. That’s important to you. Yeah. You’re honest about that. Yeah, I am, and I’m selfish about it. OK. And I tell people, one of the things that you need to do, and I’m stealing my thunder, is you need to be more selfish. Me? You, as an individual. Because you can’t love somebody or love what you’re doing unless you love yourself.

32:52 The biggest difference between me and the people in this room is I take responsibility for my actions, and I don’t blame them on other people. And that’s tough. Even when I make a mistake, which is rare, but early in my career I made a lot of them. Yes, I am wearing a suit and tie. I’m sure you’ve never seen me shoot one of these videos dressed like this. It kind of makes you confront things about yourself that you might really not want to talk about, or even think about. And it’s something that we all try to ignore, and sometimes we distract ourselves with media and the internet, and we don’t ever really look deep, look at ourselves.

33:34 When I say I’m gonna *** you up, I mean I’m gonna *** you up. I’m gonna kill your children, your grandchildren, your goldfish and everybody in your extended family. People believe me. Of course, that’s all myth. That’s all myth. I wanna hit a few people with some lines that I just wrote down while I was listening. Dreams into reality through discipline. When value is clear, decisions are easy. Every day is a test. Did you pass? If your friends and family don’t think you’re nuts, you’re not doing the right thing. Amen. Procrastination is an excuse not to take action, because if you’re waiting for the perfect scenario, it will never come.

34:17 I commit and sacrifice one year. I mentor you for free. For *** free. The 12 months are beaten by me, for free. Everyone that’s jealous of me here for this week at the castle seminar, I’m going to have Dan Peña on my ass for the next year, wondering why I took an hour off to take my daughter for ice cream. Oh no, no.

34:37 I’m going to give it, Mickey. Give me two lists. One list, your goals: intermediate, short-term, long-term goals, OK, both in personal and business. Then you put another list together, and this is a good exercise for you guys to do. You put another list together and you say who you met with from Sunday midnight till Saturday midnight for one week. Now you put a number by every *** person that you emailed, Skyped, ***, tweeted, ***, LinkedIn, ***, and which one of your goals on this other side of the paper they have anything to do with. You will be staggered, stunned, gobsmacked, awestruck how much time you’re wasting with people that have no business being in your life to attain your goals. Correct. OK. Hanging out with losers. Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.

35:40 There was so much new information in my brain. I was learning at a rate I wasn’t accustomed to. American symbols of manhood. We’ve gone from, on the left, the GI, to now you snowflakes. We’ve gone from the generation that saved the world, which my father was part of, to now. Do you have any idea how embarrassing that is to someone like myself? When I hear boot camp, I get sick, because you *** suckers, and the *** suckers on the *** YouTube, wouldn’t know a boot camp from a *** in the dick or the vagina.

36:24 And if I thought you were asleep… and then you never close your eyes again the rest of the *** week. You want to take the easy way out because you think life is a journey. That is horseshit. Life’s a journey if you’re a *** and you’re ***. That’s why, you know, that’s what you’ve done with the life up here to four. It’s been a journey, and how good is the *** journey? You tell me. Once you’ve lied to have a template.

36:44 After the fifth day, I hit the hard wall of reality. I went back to my room and laid down on the floor in the dark. I thought, what have I been doing with my life? Why was I living in fear? Scared of my own self. And then something clicked. How happy will my friends and family be if they can see me truly living my passion? How limitless could London Real be if we have income, a team and the resources to take our message to the world?

37:49 Political correctness is nothing more than a manifestation of a lack of *** self-esteem, because you *** all want everybody to love you. I don’t want anybody to love me. I don’t want anybody to even *** like me. Made us all take a long, deep, hard look at ourselves, and ask us if we’ve just been making excuses because we’re not prepared to compete. Have we been making excuses about our lives because we fear what we might not accomplish? And, you know, it’s made me ask a lot of questions about myself, and it’s gonna be interesting to see the changes I make when I get back home.

38:31 We are in the trophy room at Guthrie Castle. I’m here with Mr Dan Peña, surrounded by some of the animals that were unfortunate enough to meet him. You know, when I met you seven, eight months ago, I was telling some of the guys here the story. I had mixed feelings about Dan, and I think part of that came down to me, in a way, I could be wrong, but hiding. Hiding from my own potential. Yes. And he’s got a big potential, you know. I’m not blowing smoke, I don’t have to blow smoke, but he’s a smart young guy. Now, you don’t probably think he’s young. To me, you’re a kid. You know, I got these shoes I’m wearing, these wingtips are older than you, you know. And he’s a smart kid. He’s accomplished a lot. He’s got a great *** platform, a great *** platform, and he can do a lot more with it.

39:13 And I think it’s easy for me to create lots of subconscious dialogues and narratives in my head. Oh, Dan, it’s all about the bucks. Dan’s not happy, blah, blah, blah. And so, am I happy? Yeah. Your Dan is what you are. OK. So I do think you are happy. I don’t know what that means. I think you are in the moment, and you love what you do, pretty much 24/7. That’s what I think you do. And I do it 24/7. And yeah, the money comes, and the money is a way of rewarding yourself, a way of keeping track, but it seems like there’s more going on here than just getting the cash. It’s being all you can be, right?

39:56 I believe, you know, whether you believe or don’t believe in the higher power, Buddha, Allah, God, whatever you want to call it, I believe we were put on this planet, however we got here, either through evolution or somebody went like this, because we were supposed to be all we can be, and we are undeveloped. Man’s greatest burden is unfulfilled potential. OK. And if anybody watching this thing can tell me that he’s anywhere near his potential, I will jump off the *** tower. I mean, with his hand on his heart, and really believe it. I mean, because you’re not. I mean, we have so much more within us.

40:38 And if we’re doing something we love… and I recommend, when Dan recommends or suggests, it means, it really means: listen, *** ***, get off your dead ass, take, you know, and change your attitude. If you’re not doing something you love and you don’t have passion, that’s why you’re tired. That’s why you need breaks on the weekend. That’s why you need holiday time. Because you’re not doing what you love. And I love this, and for the last 21 years this has been my passion. And most people are living quiet lives of desperation. I hate to tell you, or as the Brits say, I don’t like to tell you, but that’s the truth. And if you think any different, you’re fooling yourself.

41:22 As soon as I got back to London, I pulled the trigger. London Real is going big, and things need to change. I created our first product, the London Real Academy, a community and learning platform for our supporters. It wasn’t perfect, but perfection is paralysis. People loved it. After years of free content, London Realers wanted to give us something back. It was such a strange feeling, receiving money from doing something you loved. Getting paid to provide value to others.

42:07 What I feared so much turned out not to be true. I finally understood that making money is not bad. People pay you when your ideas are worth something. It’s a vote with their credit cards. So we invested the cash. Behind me, it’s where I’ve shot almost 300 interviews. I remember very distinctly building this desk, but it’s time to move on. It’s time to kill your darlings. We’re gonna be having the new set, which is gonna be behind me here, and we’re gonna go to a new chapter. And it might be the wrong move, but at least I’m making a move. Change is good. Change is good. Breathe deeply and everything’s gonna be OK. Peace.

42:49 First step: dress for success. Build a studio of the same calibre as my guests. Second step: hire your dream team. I’m not solo anymore. Then I had another idea. Why don’t we teach all the things I learned in the process, the knowledge we got from our failures and successes? Our accelerators were born. We even did our first event with, guess who?

43:30 Most people loved the new London Real, but we also received some hate and lost a few. Some people just don’t like to see you change. But if you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen. Then I said, in 12 months I don’t want to recognise London Real or Brian Rose anymore. And one year later, it happened. I couldn’t.

44:18 And this is where I do my work from. This is where I stood, I believe, when I had my come-to-Jesus moment. Correct. And you didn’t want to sit down. I didn’t. You, sit down. I said no, I’d rather stand. You had notes. Did you know that was gonna happen? Yeah, yeah, yeah, because I could tell from in the seminar, the one slide, that it was like a light bulb went off in your head. There was one slide, and there was two parts of it. One had a bunch of dots, and one had a bunch of dots that were connected. And most of the kids that are watching this and will listen to this have read books, podcasts. They’ve got tons and tons and tons of information, you call it content, but the only way you can connect the dots is by taking action and pulling the trigger.

45:00 Once an engineer gets it, because of the way their brain’s been trained, then you set up, I don’t know, you set up a system, a process and a procedure to follow. But to your credit or discredit, depending on how you want to look at it, you knew what you were doing right and what you were doing wrong before you *** ever got here. I’m the guy that points it out in a fairly irreverent manner, because unfortunately you will hurt people’s feelings, and mostly the people that you are closest to. If love got the job done… and I mean, now listen up, YouTubers and London Realers, etc. If *** love got the job done, why is the world so *** up?

46:05 Can you tell me about the frogs behind you, and why you have frog cufflinks, and is your tie frogs? And frogs tie, OK. Because I learned… and I’ve got frogs everywhere. And I mean, even my thank-you notes, napkins, have frogs, coasters, the carpet underneath that table. Because I learned that life is a numbers game. You gotta turn over a lot of rocks to find something worth a damn, and you’ve got to kiss a lot of frogs, hoping that one’s going to become a prince. My frog, huh? Oh, you were a frog. Yeah, you were.

46:48 Here I am in Australia. That’s about 30 metres. My guide, who had the camera… I’ve got a 306 up to my shoulder, and I said, I don’t want to shoot him. Well, Dan, we better do something, because he’s going to charge. Why didn’t you want to shoot him? Because I just looked in his eyes and I felt sorry for him. But I couldn’t shoot him. I just couldn’t. You had enough? You’d shot… Yeah, no, I had a few more after that, but that was the beginning of the end of me killing animals.

47:08 This is the seminar room that has become famous now. Everybody on this wall either directly or indirectly influenced me. And the kids often ask, why is Adolf Hitler there? Why is Stalin there? Hitler, post being in the trenches of World War One, where he was a corporal, his goal was to be Chancellor of Germany. Now, from a 20-year-old corporal in the trenches of World War One to be the Chancellor of Germany is pretty *** bodacious. But is it more or less bodacious than a Barack Obama saying he’s going to be the first black President of the United States when he was smoking weed in college?

48:12 Not everybody on that wall was an angel. And we have Dr Oppenheimer, the father… that’s right there, by your fingers, the father of the atomic bomb. You know, a lot of people say the atomic bomb shouldn’t have happened, yadda yadda. If Oppenheimer had done such a good job, and would have killed all those poor people in Japan. And he’s only three down from Walt Disney, you know, who hardly anybody says anything bad about. Roy Disney, Walt’s brother, arguably the brains behind Disney, is the one that taught me: when value is clear, decisions are easy. Being a high-performance person doesn’t mean you’re a good guy or a nice guy. And if you go back to the derivative of the word nice, it means jerk, ***, idiot. Go back and Google it.

48:57 This is you in East LA in 1993, standing in front of the lot that used to be my house, but they tore it down because it became a crack house. And you can tell just by the size, from the wall to the fence, how little the house was. And you’re buttoning your top button like a proper cholo. Exactly, that’s exactly right.

49:18 This is the Hall of Fame. There’s two ways to get on. One, influence a whole bunch of people in a positive manner, i.e. you. The other way is to create billions or hundreds of millions, but there’s people up here that have created 50, 50 million. By the way, your picture is going right here. Is this me? No, it’s going to be right here. The big one? Well, well, maybe we’ll put the big one. A lot of kids look up to you, so I mean, you have an important place, because the kids listen, you know, whether they take action or not, that’s a whole other… Yeah, and it’s hard to get people to take action, and it can be frustrating, and you know that more than anyone. So yeah, so that’s the wall of fame. And if I stay in good stead, I stay off the wall of shame. But those are for the people that have messed things up. They went a bridge too far, right? So that’s always a good reminder as well.

50:22 Yeah, because again, you always say ethical, moral, legal. Yeah. And you always have been about that. Yep, absolutely right. And part of it is, you know, why am I so honest? You know, if you went to the seminar… my dad… I stole a golf club, a $2.50 golf club, at a Big 5 department store, and unfortunately my dad was with me and they caught me. And he gave me a *** beating. I mean, like, you like in a goddamn horror movie. And now, if I see Brian… I don’t know Brian, and a £20 note falls out of his pocket, I’ll chase him down for ten miles. Oh, sure, sure. So you, you dropped this. And that’s, you know, he taught me a lesson I’ll never forget.

51:04 Well, can we finish on that? Because Manny, 90-year-old, picture of him, he’s down there, and let’s be honest, he was probably your biggest influencer. And in a strange way, you know, in a weird way, he is responsible for creating these 50 billions, you know, because of those hard lessons. And I know you had a bunch of those lessons, and again, with honesty, that could have derailed so many different things, and yet, thanks to your father, that kept you on. Correct. Yeah, well, thank you, and that’s true, and that’s true. But at the time, I mean, it just… I close my eyes and I can still remember some of those episodes.

51:45 I never did drugs, and people say, well, how could you not do drugs in the 60s? I didn’t. And the reason I didn’t do drugs is that my father sat me down when I was about your age, 15. He took a loaded revolver, a .38, and he put it to my head with the hammer back, and put it to my temple, and he said that there’s only one cure for *** drugs, and that’s a *** bullet in your *** head, and I’m the *** that’ll put it there. And my mother’s screaming and crying, Manny, Manny, Manny, you might pull the trigger by accident. And he says, it won’t be by accident.

52:05 Luckily, Dan had another important figure in his life: Amy Peña, his mother. She wanted him to be the best, to have a better life than she had. So she followed the experts and made it her only mission.

52:28 This is the book my mother read in 1946, and it says all the things to do and not do for a kid. And almost everybody, when I go around the seminar room, their parents did almost none of them. In fact, they did the antithesis of them. But my mother, this was her bible. This was her bible. She never told me no. She figured out a way to encourage me not to do it without telling me no, because this book says there’s no such thing as constructive criticism. All criticism will resonate with you as destructive.

53:12 She wanted me to have the accoutrements of an upper-level family, as opposed to the barrio where I was raised. And then the last thing is, she pressured my father to move away from East LA to a house we could not afford, because the trouble that I got in was pretty *** horrific, you know. When you drop and you try to kill your *** fifth grade teacher… you know, I didn’t think I was going to kill him, but dropping an aquarium that weighed about 40 pounds from two storeys up and hitting him, and if he hadn’t moved about four or five inches and it had hit him in the head, he’d be dead. I wouldn’t be here.

54:25 As I continued building London Real, I soon realised I had a problem. Turning your passion into a business is much harder than it looks. When I was a banker, all I had to do was get the deals done. That was easy. Broadcasting was much more complicated. It forced me to ask hard questions. How am I going to keep my message true and still earn money? Why am I doing this? To help billions of people change their lives, or to make billions of dollars? I struggled to see how I could do both at the same time. I found myself in a dangerous game of dancing with my shadow. One false move and my entire ethos goes out the window, and along with it, London Real.

55:07 And there was another big problem: Dan, and his one year of free mentorship. Constant supervised stress. If somebody had a gun to your daughter’s head and said, Brian, we need results out of the Realers, we’d think a lot differently about it. So I put a lot of pressure on the kids to perform, because I know they can perform. I want results. I want results for you more than you want, because I know what you’re capable of. If you want a friend, buy a *** dog.

55:56 I had enough. No more mentoring. No more QLA. No more Dan Peña. I quit. He’s driving me insane. He wanted more, more, more. It’s never enough for the old man. He’s going to destroy everything I created. I am not Dan Peña. He just wants London Real to be another one of his businesses. Another trophy. Another billion.

57:03 But Dan Peña never quits. When I tell you I’m gonna do something, I *** mean it. Also, when I tell you I’m gonna *** you up, I mean it. I’m not just having words flap through my lips, because that’s the background I come from. That’s just it. When I was at your birthday, we exchanged words after Gabby gave a speech, and I said, Dan, you’re out of line. And you said, Brian, you’re too sensitive. And sometimes we exchange emails, and I’m like, why does Dan have to be such a ***? Why does he have to push it? Why does he have to always want to… No, I’m not. No, I’m being just the opposite of a ***. You’re not the be-all and end-all ***, though. Who gives a ***? But won’t you and the cosmos… the time, you are not a fart in the wind. No one is. Exactly. What, won’t you always want me to be a thousand times better? Absolutely.

58:08 And instead of saying I learned a lot… who gives a *** you learned a lot in the last year? Doesn’t mean a *** thing. It’s, have you done a lot? Not learned a lot. Because I want you to be all you can be, not some *** reasonable facsimile. And that needs money associated with it as well. But you say, almost always, not always, but almost always… well, you say follow my passion, but my passion plus nine figures is more impressive. Well, you’re copping out that this is your passion, but it’s not. Don’t I seem passionate about this? To the kids, maybe. Not to me.

58:48 I tell great stories. I bring great people to light. But so what? Come on, I mean… But so what? I mean, how materially have these kids’ lives, on a measurable playing field, been bettered? They may… well, they met me, but have they done anything with that knowledge? No. Somehow some have, you know, a few have been, you know, maybe 20 other people in a big way, as in hundreds and hundreds of thousands of views. Now, you’re right, a lot of people didn’t do anything. Maybe 90%. But, you know, maybe 95%. Maybe 95. But you have affected people. Oh yeah, I know that. And, but guys like me want a measuring stick.

59:09 50 billion is… you know, I didn’t talk about money for 20, or for 18 and a half years. I created billions 15 years ago. I’ve got 50 billion in two people. Two ***. I’ve got tens of thousands, so you can just imagine how big the number is. Two *** weenies, 29 and 24 billions. And I push these, I continue to whip them like dogs. Do you think 29 billion is so *** ***? *** you and the horse you rode in on. Would you know, is anybody made anymore? I’d like to lie and say yeah, but I won’t lie to you. I’m not going to lie to you.

1:00:20 You know what? It’s easy, very easy, to point the finger and say, look at the bad guy. We like to externalise our dark qualities, but the reality is simple: you cannot see in others what you don’t have in yourself. I hate Dan because I hate all those parts of my personality. And I guess that’s why I’m at this stupid castle again, here to accept this award even after I quit. Because I need to make this relationship work. The only way to love myself completely is to love Dan.

1:01:50 Brian has continued to tell people that we have this love-hate relationship. There’s really no love on my part. When I forced my way, or bullied my way, or weaselled my way onto a show some two and a half years ago, we did well. There was a chemistry, a rapprochement, that existed between the two of us. Now, I’m going to say again, for the public record, all the great things that he’s done, he’s only scratched the surface, and he knows that. For the 5% of what he listens to me, there’s 95 left. So I’d like to induct him into the Hall of Fame, the QLA Hall of Fame, and he’s very deserving of it. Thank you very much.

1:03:02 Can you say something? Yeah. That’s all right. Thank you. You know, two and a half years ago, Dan pretty much did barge into my studio, and I remember that day pretty well, because he was dressed in his three-piece suit, red tie, had just come from a meeting in the City, and he looked like a million bucks. I, on the other hand, was wearing combat trousers, boots, a skateboarding shirt, and I had something growing from here, right? What was that called? I don’t know what it’s called. I didn’t like it. Whatever it was called, didn’t like it.

1:03:25 And from there, our relationship has gone on, and it goes up and it goes down, and sometimes I don’t want to hear what Dan has to tell me. But as I wrote in one of my blogs, the old man, he’s always right, because he’s telling you what you don’t want to hear about yourself, but what you know is true. And that is, you’re not stepping your game up, and you get caught up in fear. As Dan says, false expectations appearing real. Just when you make a big win, you start to sit back and get comfortable, and that’s when Dan and Sally come to town and we have dinner. And I cherish those dinners, and at the end of it Dan reminds me that I’m about 5% of where I should be. And I don’t want to hear it, and I’m like… I go home and I wake up the next day and I think, well, maybe he’s probably right. And then it’s time to go in and try to step it up.

1:04:28 And Dan’s right, I listen to probably 5% of what he says, and still, I guess, I’ve managed to do some things. A lot of things. A lot of things. And so when Dan and Sally told me in August, when they came to London, that I was going to be honoured to be on that wall, I didn’t know what to say. I had a WTF moment, says Dan. Dan texts, you know, what the ***? I was shocked. I was honoured. It’s been an amazing journey, or a process, knowing Dan for the past two and a half years. Again, I have to force myself sometimes to go back in, but I know it’s the right thing to do.

1:05:10 And as Dan said once about his children, he said, I don’t want them to love me. He said, 20 years after I’m dead, I want them to respect me. And I think that’s what he’s doing with all of us here. And so if I liked hearing from Dan all the time, if I wanted to give him a big kiss all the time, well, he’s probably not doing his work. And I know that, and he knows that, and he knows that I know that, and I know that he knows that I know that. And so we continue. And I got a funny feeling I’m going to know Dan for quite a long time. I don’t know who’s going to kick the bucket first. I know. I know.

1:05:51 And I’m sure we’re going to have some ups and some downs, and I don’t think I’d really have it any other way. So I want to say, Dan Peña, I love you very much. I also hate you very much. You are a ***, and you’re also a huge hero to me, and you changed my life. And to be on your wall is a tremendous honour. I’ll show this proudly in my home. And from all of us here, I think I’ve spoken for many people here, we honour you, and to your future.

1:06:47 I want you to go out and rip their heads off and shoot down their neck and *** crush them. And which is going viral right now: I want you to kill, kill, guild gale. Run towards the gunfire and kill them all.

1:07:32 Having a bit of a surreal moment here, because London Real studios now looks like this. There’s nothing left. There’s nothing left. It’s all gone. And this is it. These two tiny rooms are how we created, I guess, a movement, or hopefully a change in consciousness somehow. Took six years, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in this world, and I wouldn’t change a goddamn thing.

1:08:16 The good thing about facing your fears is that it gets easier every time. You know, I’m a little obsessive and a little relentless, and I just knew this was the right path. I had a gut feeling, even though it made no sense financially. This is the biggest challenge of my life: taking London Real to the next level. And I’m afraid again.

1:08:37 You gotta have a dream, man. Gotta have a *** dream, man. But if you have that dream, there’s nothing that can stop you. And now we’re on a mission. To quote the Blues Brothers, we’re on a mission from God, and there’s nobody that can stop that.

1:08:58 Afraid of losing everything we’ve built. Afraid of forgetting my true message. Afraid of all the sacrifices I’ll have to make. But I learned something on this journey. Your fears are only phantoms, or, as Dan says, false expectations appearing real. Fear is a good thing. It’s a requirement if you want to change and grow. Where will we be in one year? I don’t want to recognise us.

1:09:42 We all have a shadow. That selfish, arrogant, ruthless part of ourselves that we try to keep hidden away. I got lucky. I met my shadow. He walked into my studio wearing a three-piece suit. And now I know he’s not trying to destroy me. Instead, he’s trying to complete me. Because there’s no light without the darkness.

1:10:24 What about you? Have you found your shadow? It starts with an admission. Yes, the shadow is me. All those things I don’t like about myself. And I choose to love and forgive them. I choose to become the real me. I choose to live life to my full potential.