108: The Biggest Enemy of Success and How to Avoid It with Secret Entourage Founder, PJ Ghadimi

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Pejmon Ghadimi or PJ for note. PJ is a self-made entrepreneur and bestselling author, with over 10 books to his name. He was born in 1982 in the middle of a revolution in Iran and was raised by a single mom in France for the majority of his childhood, and eventually migrated to the United States in 1997.

PJ has a number of businesses, most notably Secret Entourage and it's affiliate businesses which have grossed over $40 million in revenue annually. He’s been featured everywhere from Forbes to Fox Business and also has interests in real estate and exotic cars – all of which we will touch on today.

But, the big reason I wanted to have PJ on the show is for him to teach you the systems and processes that he has learned and used to grow multi-million dollar businesses from scratch.

www.learnfromPJ.com

PJ says he’s been able to do what he has done with a LOT of hard work. He spent his childhood fleeing from country to country until they could make it to the US. But when they made it, they didn’t have a green card which made the only way to make money being an entrepreneur. But, PJ did find a loophole that allowed him to get a job at the age of 14 as a telemarketer.

He worked his way up from there to become the director of a remodeling company until he was 18. He then became one of the youngest bank managers in the US and had a successful career in banking until age 25 where he “fired himself” and found himself without purpose. He was 25 and had money. He took time to figure out what he really wanted to do.

He started the world’s first alternative asset investment fund called VIP Motoring and that became his largest business. Through that business, he made a number of great connections and was able to retire as CEO in 2011 and put in place a management team to keep running the business.

He then transitioned his focus to legacy and training and educating people to help them succeed including Secret Entourage and other ventures.

You’ve been through an incredible life journey – what is the most important thing you’ve learned at this point?

The biggest enemy to success is entitlement. You should never feel entitled to anything. Earn it.

You wrote “The 3rd Circle Theory,” take us through the 3 circles and what they mean…

• PJ goes through this in detail at the 9 min mark with advice, so make sure to listen
• Every human being goes through 3 different stages or circles as they progress through life
• The first is “Acceptance and Mastery of Circumstance”
• The second is “Acceptance and Mastery of Society”
• The third is “Mastery of Life”
• A high state of self-awareness leads you to true self-actualization

Examples and the lesson of each circle?

• Circle 1 is anyone who finds themselves where they are unhappy with life and don’t have an answer on how to turn it around or are not taking steps to do so. People in this circle do not understand how to take ownership of their circumstances
• Circle 2 are individuals in their careers who understand what they need to do but are still striving to prove their worth in society. They understand that money does play a big factor. People have to learn in this stage how not only to live in society but learn how to impact it.
• Circle 3 are individuals that have found massive success and now understand how the world does not revolve around them, but instead how they can make a true impact on the world.

Don’t look outward for blame, instead look inward for change…Take responsibility and take back control. You are the cause of your own happiness or misery.

The difference between a business owner and an entrepreneur?

• A business owner’s job is to create profit. The goal of an entrepreneur is to create social change.
• A business is a vehicle that an entrepreneur uses to create the chance
• A business’s job is to facilitate transactions. An entrepreneur’s job is to create non-existent transactions.

You should first master the art of business before becoming an entrepreneur

At the 19 min mark, we get into a really fascinating discussion on these topics using the example of Tesla.

What are the steps you teach on how to create your 1st million-dollar business?

• A million dollars in revenue for a business enables processes that allow it to survive and scale and grow from there.
• Reaching a million changes the paradigm from creating a “job” that is a business to really becoming a business that can continue to grow and work for you.
• You must first understand the difference between awareness and self-awareness
• Then you can understand the 5 pillars of entrepreneurship
  • It begins with the idea
  • Ideas transition to products
  • Products transition to businesses
  • Businesses transition to brands
  • Brands transition to empire
• In the early stages, you must be keenly focused on creating transactions. Nothing happens until something gets sold.

Good business is simple, but it is not easy…Good things happen, bad things happen, but you must be consistent in your efforts and adaptive to the market

Talk about the systems that are critical to free an owner from a business so that it can keep running and paying them, but without them.

• You will get to a point where the best use of your time is not in “managing” a business
• Hire those to management it for you
• Create a business that recycles resources and companies – as a result, you never do more work than you have done in the business
• An example is creating new business that current customers in one venture would buy in the another
• Leveraging resources is important across businesses which reduces costs and benefits your profitability.

Are there any critical habits that you think entrepreneurs should practice?

• Waking up early – the more of the day you have, the more damage you can do
• Plan and put your agendas down on paper

How can own exotic and luxury cars for amazing deals or even for free?

• It’s more math than a car thing
• It’s not how much car can you afford, but the formula that allows you to get the car at fraction of the cost, save on tax, insurance, etc.
• It’s cheaper to fix a Lamborghini than a base model c-class
• www.Exoticcarhacks.com gives the different formulas on how to do this

 

Best Quote: “The biggest enemy to success is entitlement. Don’t look outward for blame, instead look inward for change…Take responsibility and take back control. You are the cause of your own happiness or misery. ”

 

Misfit 3:

1. Do the work, don’t question the work. Focus on getting it done however you need to.

2. Become a master at everything you do. The better you get at something, the less you chase the money, but the more the money chases you.

3. No one can take away your character. Every victory or failure you have builds this in you. All the choices you make define you and your character.