The Journey to Freedom Podcast
Journey to Freedom serves as an exclusive extension of the Living Boldly with Purpose podcast series—a platform that inspires powerful transformation and growth. Journey freedom is a podcast hosted by Brian E. Arnold. The Journey to Freedom is an our best life blueprint exclusively designed for black men where we create a foundational freedom plan. There are five pillars: Identity, Trust, Finances, Health and Faith.
The Journey to Freedom Podcast
A Master's Degree in Life: Turning Depression into Purpose
What happens when rock bottom becomes the foundation for a remarkable life philosophy? Lenny Richardson's journey from debilitating depression to discovering the ancient Greek concept of eudaimonia reveals how our darkest moments can become our most profound teachers.
The conversation explores the three essential pillars for a fulfilled life: health, wealth, and relationships. As Lenny eloquently explains, these pillars aren't just nice-to-haves—they're the fundamental components of true freedom. When any one pillar crumbles, our freedom diminishes along with it. We become victims to poor health, financial instability, or toxic relationships rather than authors of our own stories.
One of the most thought-provoking moments comes when we discuss the gap between expectations and reality. "Enough is not an amount," I share, "it's a relationship with what you have right now." This perspective shift challenges the endless pursuit of more that keeps so many of us perpetually dissatisfied. Through Lenny's experience, we see how arbitrary goals like "becoming a billionaire" often lack substance—we chase numbers without questioning what actually brings fulfillment.
The discussion takes a practical turn when examining investment strategies. While traditional financial investments have their place, Lenny makes a compelling case for investing in yourself—your skills, knowledge, and capabilities—as the highest-return investment possible. Unlike market investments that can collapse overnight, personal skills remain valuable regardless of external circumstances.
Perhaps most refreshingly, we explore how balance operates seasonally rather than constantly. Just as nature cycles through distinct seasons, our lives require periods of intense focus followed by recalibration. This seasonal approach to balance allows us to address our priorities appropriately without burning out or neglecting other important aspects of our lives.
Ready to reconsider what freedom truly means in your life? This episode might just change how you approach health, wealth, relationships, and ultimately, your definition of enough.
What I say is that their expectations just don't meet reality. So I think that's kind of what happiness is. It makes me think about the idea of being enough. If you feel like you're not enough, your expectations are exceeding reality. But the problem is, sometimes our expectations can be rooted in imagination.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Journey to Freedom podcast. I'm Dr B and I'm your host. Man. What another day, what an exciting time to be around Today. You know, I'm not sure you know when you're listening to this, when you're watching, but as of recording today, this is President's Day in 2025.
Speaker 2:Just thinking about the country that we're in, the world that we're in and the opportunities that are there, I went over to Costco today because they're ones who are sporting DE&I and I'm not sure wherever you stand on that, I, just as a Black man who did his dissertation on opportunity, and you know versus you know what somebody has the potential to do, based on what the opportunities are and realizing as a country, we're not quite there yet where we can just go out at least this is my belief where we can go out and make sure that we have the same opportunities as the rest of our counterparts that are in life. And so, although I think that DE&I needs to, you know, I guess, when you think of the evolution of initiatives, you know I think we're not in the same place we might have been in the 90s and the 2000s, but I still don't think we're there yet. I think that there is time for it. And you know, sometimes I wonder what the fear is. What is the fear If we have programs that allow people to excel? Is the fear that the folks that are currently in power, currently is the fear that the folks that are currently in power, currently in those jobs, currently, you know, running the world, will not have those anymore and we have to be equal. And so, Lenny, I'll be interested after we hear your story and just some of your thought process, you know, on this particular issue. But other than that, man, we have some opportunities.
Speaker 2:I was talking to Lenny right before the show and just realized that he just got married. Oh my gosh, I'm so jealous right now because, just to go back, to be able to, I'll be 60 years old here in March and I have eight children and 16 grandkids and I go back to thinking about I'm not saying this isn't a great time in life, because it is, it is wonderful. But you know, sometimes you, you wish you could go back, but know what you know now, right, like, know everything. I know that I'm 60 years old and go back and start over and do it again and all the different things and all the, all the growth that we would have and all the you know. I think the biggest thing that I would say I would do differently is I'd just do it faster. I would get to where I'm at so much faster and I wouldn't do some of the silly things that I did. I wouldn't spend so much time watching TV and movies and some of the things that I did I would not change. Any time with my kids.
Speaker 2:I had some amazing as my kids were growing up and learning who to be. You know, I think I could try. I could be a better dad. I could be, you know, more present. I started out as a PE teacher, you know, when they were starting to be born and so, you know, I was able to be at. You know every single one of their events and, you know, do all that kind of stuff, and at one point my kids went to school with me, At least my daughters did.
Speaker 2:And so I got to be the favorite dad on campus and all that kind of stuff. But oh my gosh what it would be like to just, you know, love my wife more and do more things that would give us family time and that kind of stuff. So congratulations. I'm so excited for you. This is a great time, don't? Cherish every moment that you can, because it goes so fast. I hope that I'd be like the biblical characters where I can live 700, 800 years. I don't think that's going to happen.
Speaker 1:That would be nice.
Speaker 2:That would be wonderful Cause then it'd be like this is gonna get going again. So you're like what would life be like at 200 years old? Like what would you not know? What else could you go? Try you know? But you're south of the hill, right? You don't wanna be like laid up in bed at 200 years old. You wanna be like Noah getting ready to build an ark. I think he was 428 or something like that when he started building that ark, or 480.
Speaker 2:That's why he's 480, because he was 600 years old when the ark went out. So imagine what that would be like.
Speaker 2:But I don't want to talk about me anymore today, and so, lenny, I've asked you to tell your story. I want you to talk about your life. Whether you start at your mama's womb and jump up to now or somewhere in between, this gets to be your opportunity, your chance. I just appreciate you being on and willing to take the time with me today as we explore who you are, and so thanks again for being on.
Speaker 1:I'm ready to hear it.
Speaker 1:All right. Thank you again for having me on. By the way, I appreciate this a lot. Yeah, so, man, I did not expect to tell the whole story, or I'm trying to think of exactly what's where a good place to begin is, but yeah, so, just as I guess it's a slight introduction to myself, my name's Lenny Richardson.
Speaker 1:One of the main things I kind of talk about the most these days is sort of time management and the idea of being productive. I know you mentioned earlier, Dr Arnold, that you have kind of five pillars. One of my, I guess, core messages that I like to share with people is sort of this idea of building the pillars of eudaimonia, and for anyone listening that's not familiar with that, it sort of comes from Greek philosophy, kind of classic Greek philosophy, and it's sort of basically what the philosophers believed were the essential pillars towards a good life. For some people, freedom might be an idea behind it, but it's essentially health, wealth and relationships. I know one of the pillars you mentioned was finance, but it's essentially health, wealth and relationships. I know one of the pillars you mentioned was finance, but building up your health pillar, building up your financial wealth pillar and building up your relationship pillar is sort of the idea behind eudaimonia. So that's kind of the core message that I like to share with people. The reason why I like that message so much is because years ago, over a decade ago at this point yeah, close to a decade, at this point that was sort of a lesson or an idea that I learned that I would say was pretty pivotal in the grand scheme of things. Like I mentioned, if I talk too much, please cut me off. Oh no, you're good. Yeah, like man. I think so years ago, maybe about a decade or so ago.
Speaker 1:This is something that my parents don't like me talking about too much, but I kind of went through this really bad bout of depression, and this is kind of back when I was in college. I was never clinically diagnosed, so I just want to put that out there. I know some people throw around the word depression and some people have been diagnosed, some people haven't. I don't want to take away from people who were actually diagnosed, but to me it felt like severe depression, laying in bed every day, just no energy. I would skip class every single day. Pretty much Didn't want to associate with friends.
Speaker 1:A lot of it sounds embarrassing to say, but a lot of random bouts of crying and tears for reasons in hindsight made no real sense. I guess At least my current self would say it made no sense Back then. It made plenty of sense to me, but yeah, so really dark times I'll call them, and so I remember kind of me jumping around in the story without I don't want to make it too long of a story, but at some point my thought process was I don't like the way this situation I'm in is. I don't like feeling depressed, I don't like feeling so alone. And so the idea I kind of had was how do I fix the situation that I'm in?
Speaker 1:And I didn't really have people around me. One, I didn't want to tell people about the depression I was in. Two, I think even if I knew of someone who was going through the same thing or could give me solutions, but I just didn't know who to go to. So what I did is I just read books. So I went to Penn State. For anyone who may, be, familiar with Penn State.
Speaker 1:Around the same time, because I wasn't going to classes and because I had switched my major, a lot of things escalated. I got kicked out of college and I could no longer use the campus library because you had to have a valid ID and check out books.
Speaker 2:You could go inside, huh, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I could go inside, but you couldn't check out any books.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So and at the time too, because I wasn't a student, I had to I kind of got thrown into the work world much faster than I anticipated. So what I would do is I would go to this library off campus and I would kind of just make a list of different books I wanted to take out, or at least different topics, kind of jumping around. I eventually started reading philosophy, and that's where I learned about this concept of eudaimonia. I think I was reading maybe the Republic by Aristotle or Plato I think it's by Plato, but the book's irrelevant. But eventually I came across this idea of eudaimonia coined by Socrates, and he said you know, if you want to live a fulfilled life, if you want to kind of have freedom in your life, um, and live the highest quality life possible, you should seek out building these pillars, get in the best shape you possibly can. You don't need to be rich, but you do need to be at least financially living below your means and you need to build high quality relationships. And this isn't, you know, this is a combination of platonic and romantic. Um, he's not suggesting the playboy lifestyle for anyone that's listening, but, you know, just having a good social circle and having good relationships with people. So it's weird because when I heard that like, as I'm reading this, half of it sounded obvious Like sure you know, be healthy, have money, have a good social circle there, and I thought to myself I'm not doing any of these three things.
Speaker 1:I had no money, despite working two jobs. I had really no good social circle because I was so busy working I wasn't taking the time to build relationships with people. I didn't have a girlfriend at the time. If I wanted to have a girlfriend, I certainly don't think I'd be able to pull it off. And then, health wise, I was pretty out of shape at the time. I had a history of growing up with kind of health issues. I had really bad asthma that led to me taking these steroids which made me gain lots of weight, and then I became obese, and it was I didn't really know exactly at that time in the past how to break, I guess, that cycle of obesity.
Speaker 1:So, I struggled with my health a lot when I was younger. But, yeah, I'm kind of sitting there reading this book and I'm thinking to myself, wow, this is obvious and I'm not doing any of it, so let me try to fix that. So I spent maybe about a few years, probably about five-ish years, really trying to dial in how to get in much better shape, how to focus on my, how to understand how to count calories, how to work out efficiently without injuring myself, understanding more about finances. Finances led me into becoming a real estate agent. I'm still licensed as a real estate agent, even though I don't really do it that much. That led to a whole separate career path and, finally, with relationships, I did have my time where I tried to go on dates and try to figure things out with that. Eventually, that led to me getting married, which I just got married July 8th of or, I'm sorry, august 8th of last year.
Speaker 2:Make sure you remember that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I tried to correct myself, but hopefully the wife does not see that part.
Speaker 2:Oh, you got fast. You got out fast.
Speaker 1:It was just a just a slip of the tongue you were thinking about it you're like yeah but but yeah, um, so yeah that's uh, that was kind of the the goal around that time. I did eventually get back into college, but the goal was for me to kind of build those things up, understand those three pillars more. And that's been kind of the thing I've been promoting a lot lately. That's kind of the message I've been sharing, um, and what actually when I saw your, when I kind of the thing I've been promoting a lot lately, that's kind of the message I've been sharing, and actually when I saw your, when I kind of saw your podcast, the idea of finding freedom, to me those things link up so much.
Speaker 2:Like.
Speaker 1:I feel like I don't know. It's weird because I think this is this might be like a hot take, I don't know. I feel like freedom is almost self-defined. I think there's certain things that'll help you find freedom. To me, it's difficult if you're extremely unhealthy to be free, because I think to some degree you're kind of a Victim might not be the best word, but you're almost a victim to your health.
Speaker 1:Same with finances If you're fine, you don't need to be rich. I know people online say you need to be millionaire, super rich. I don't believe in that. I think you just need to be living below your means. I think if you're someone who's living paycheck to paycheck some people do it intentionally If you're doing it unintentionally, then I think you can be sort of a victim to your finances, which to me means you're not free. Same with relationships If you have poor relationships, if you don't have people around you that are supportive, or if you don't have even an internal relationship with yourself that's supportive, some people have bad self-talk. I think that puts you in a position where you also can't be free. You're almost a victim to either your external the people who are around you externally or even yourself, mentally, psychologically. So I think the three of those things kind of create this idea of freedom, even no matter what your true definition of freedom will be subjectively. I think to a degree you have to have all three of those things at least somewhat worked on if that makes sense. But yeah, so I spent a lot of time doing that and kind of over the years I did what I call I call this the master's degree of life pretty much, where you spend a lot of your 20s and 30s just doing stuff and making mistakes so that way you can just learn lessons, learn valuable lessons that hopefully you don't make mistakes multiple times, I guess is kind of where I'm getting at with that. But spent a lot of time getting my master's degree of life. And then eventually I had a few people reach out and they kind of said you managed to get so much done in what seems like a little bit of time Before I was 30, wrote I can't talk today wrote a few books.
Speaker 1:I had a podcast myself in Northern Virginia. It did pretty well. I worked at a law firm one of the best law firms in Northern Virginia did real estate for a little bit. It was a lot kind of packed into relatively a short period of time and I thought to myself you know what? Maybe I can help other people do this exact same thing and kind of pretty much, even though we all have 24 hours in a day. Perhaps I can help other people structure their day appropriately. So that way, if you are the kind of person that wants to get in shape, wants to get better with your finances, wants to have better relationships, or maybe you just have hobbies that you want to pursue but you feel like you can't really dedicate time to pursuing them, maybe I can help other people do those things.
Speaker 1:So that's kind of where all the bad stuff, in a weird way, was sort of one of the best things. I call it a blessing in disguise. At the time it was horrible, it was a terrible situation for me to be in at least disguise. At the time it was horrible, it was a terrible situation for me to be in at least, but it ended up being pretty beneficial, I would say, in the grand scheme of things, so far at least. So that's kind of what I share the idea of eudaimonia and the idea of time management, just because, as I was sort of helping people build up these three pillars.
Speaker 1:I found it difficult to sort of what's a good way to put this. Everyone has different priorities with these pillars, which is completely fine. It's difficult to get everyone to kind of focus on all three, and so what I kind of realized is, instead of trying to get people to focus on health, money and relationships, what if I just help them with the thing that sort of leads to all those things being built, which is time? It's really how you structure your day. So that's kind of where things are now in current life.
Speaker 1:I created this company called Productivity Accelerator, trying to help people with their time and with structuring their day so that way, hopefully, they'll use their newfound time and their new positive, structured day to build their health the way they want to build their finances, the way they want to create the quality relationships platonically or romantically, whatever they want. They'll have the time to do that so that way they can live that fulfilled life or that free life, have freedom. So that's kind of where we're at now. I don't want to. I can continue if you want me to. I didn't want to go too deep on it, no.
Speaker 2:I think I got. I got a few questions that I think will kind of kind of spring for our conversation, and then one's a philosophy question that I'd love to ask you. But when I think about the concept of time and we think about what freedom is and how if we could get the belief system of people to understand that time is infinitely more valuable than money.
Speaker 2:If I were to write you a check for a million dollars and say here's a million dollars, but you's a million dollars, but you can only get one week to live.
Speaker 2:Or, as it rates you a check for a thousand dollars and say I promise you you get to live 200, which is more important, and I would think that 99.9% would think that the hundred dollars and the thousand dollars and get to live to a hundred, instead of taking a million dollars and get to live a week, because you know the proof of what our end, because that goes into our relationships, right, because somebody's on their deathbed. They're not saying I wish I would have spent more time at work, I wish I would have spent more time making money, because you can't take the money with you, but they would say I wish I spent more time with my spouse, or I wish I spent more time with my spouse, or I wish I spent more time with my kids or my parents, or whatever those quality relationships are. No-transcript. That I had for you, um, is a quote that, uh, I've been pondering for a while now and it goes like this enough is not an amount, it's relationship with what you have right now.
Speaker 2:So think about that for a second. Enough is not an amount. I think we spend so much time thinking I'm not enough, not just in amount of money. I'm not enough for my relationships, I'm not enough for the things that I do. I don't feel like I'm enough to be the person I need to be. But it's not an amount and I think we equate it to be an amount and but really it's just relationship with what you have right now and then your belief in isn't enough. And that's where you were talking about. You don't have to be super rich, you don't have to be.
Speaker 2:I think freedom is the time having time to, just because I think people can own your time. You know people can tell you when you're, when you're in a poverty situation and you're just going to work and barely making it, somebody owns your time right. They tell you when you can get up. They tell you when you can take a break. They know you go to the bathroom. Tell you when you can get. You know you can go uh home. They tell you you know which, where you, what movies you get to watch, what do you get to do with your spare time. All that is determined when you're in that stressful situation of not having enough to be able to do some of the things, uh, that you would love to do and have the freedom to do it kind of when you want to do it. So I'll let you, because you're a philosopher and I love it. You got the masters in philosophy of life. So talk to me about enough is not enough.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I've never heard that expression, but I love that and this makes you saying that it reminded me of this is sort of. This is a philosophy I've been kind of thinking about for a little bit, maybe about a year or two, because sometimes I'll kind of go through different websites like Reddit, instagram, facebook and you kind of you get into the uh sort of the I guess the, the black hole of the feed or the black hole of just kind of scrolling sometimes, and I get interested when I read what people write, and sometimes I see people talk about like, being unhappy. Um, we, we talked earlier about relationships, I think, before the the show started. Um, I see that a lot with people with relationships, people say, well, I'm not happy with my partner or I can't find a suitable partner for whatever reason. Um, and it made me think again. This is my theory.
Speaker 1:I feel like the common idea, at least that I'm hearing from a lot of people, when they feel like they're unhappy with something, is what I say is that their expectations just don't meet reality. So I think that's kind of what happiness is, and it makes me think about the idea of being enough. If you feel like you're not enough. It's because you expect something more, like your expectations are exceeding reality. But the problem is sometimes our expectations, in my opinion, can be rooted in imagination and sometimes your imagination can be so outlandish or just completely unrealistic that you're.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like I'll hear people say I want to be a billionaire and I always ask people why do you have that number? Why do you want to be a billionaire? Why a billionaire? Why not like 100,000 air or millionaires extreme too but why a billion? And I think people just hear other people say I want to be a billionaire, and so they repeat it and which is fine to have big goals. But my issue is that the odds of you being a billionaire is probably unlikely. It's good to try if you want to, but the downside is that if after 5, 10, 15, 20 years you aren't a billionaire, I think you'll make yourself at least these people who have that goal.
Speaker 1:They'll make themselves unhappy. And I think the reason is because their expectation is that I should be a billionaire because I want to be a billionaire, when in reality, if they just appreciated the current reality they had and maybe in pursuit of being a billionaire, they have a fantastic life. Maybe they became a millionaire, hypothetically speaking, but because their expectation is billionaire and it wasn't millionaire, or it wasn't just be happy, whatever, something a little bit more realistic, they're always going to be unhappy. They'll never be enough for themselves. That's kind of. When you brought up that statement, it made me think about that idea of happiness and expectations meeting reality. So yeah, I don't't know.
Speaker 2:I like that quote I've never heard that before, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna steal that. I love that because I don't think most people want to be billionaires. I think they want the lifestyle that they think a billion dollars gives you. But if they were to really, if they really map that out and what it takes to be a billionaire, they don't want to be a billionaire, they want to spend like a billionaire would spend, but then they don't even realize that that gets old after. If you have a billion dollars, you can't spend it. You really can't unless you're buying corporations and everything else. But if you were just to spend it on lifestyle, it's impossible to spend a billion dollars on lifestyle because there's only so much you can have and that goes back to that amount.
Speaker 2:And so one of the things that that that triggers to me is identity and who we are Right and who we believe we are, and how do we change that identity. You know, like one of my life goals is to help people become the person that they need to be in order to do what God put them on the circuit to do. How do you become that person? Because if you're not spending time doing that, then that's really difficult to do. Like we get to have this conversation, you and I, where we get to talk about this stuff because we have enough freedom in our lives to be able to map out some time to be able just to have conversations. So we're not in this survival mode. You know, paycheck to paycheck.
Speaker 2:If I don't do this today then I might not have my lights on, I might not be able to live, and we get to kind of talk about some of this stuff when we think about identity, you know who, how, how is our identity shaped that allows you and I to be able to have these conversations, and then our friend down the street to not be able to have those conversations because of where their identity is doesn't allow them to move forward. So what do you think in your life so far? Because obviously everything didn't go right. All the time you don't get kicked out of school or not be able to go to school if everything didn't go right. All the time you don't get kicked out of school or not be able to go to school if everything's going perfectly right, you know, or you're having to work more than you want to. But what are those? Those things? Are those people who came into your lives, relationships that helped shape the man that you are today you're asking.
Speaker 1:You said which relationships help. Yeah, what?
Speaker 2:things, what points of interest, what pivotal things happen that help shape that identity that allows you to be who you are?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a really good question. It's a combination of a lot of things I know. For me, parents were a big thing. My parents, thankfully, were extremely supportive throughout my entire life as I do this from time to time.
Speaker 1:I've thought about this in the past because so I'm from Philadelphia, from West Philadelphia, and I know when I was young my parents made it a big effort to move out of West Philadelphia and I have some family that Not to go there. No, unfortunately. No, that would be nice, but you know it's funny Whenever I tell people I'm from West Philadelphia, you're the only person that's never sang the Fresh.
Speaker 2:Prince song, but yeah no.
Speaker 1:But yeah, thankfully they made it a mission to move out as quickly as they could. And I think about it sometimes because just another one of my personal philosophies I think it's easy for a lot of people to. I've had conversations with people and I say to them sometimes good things kind of just happen to you fortunately, and those good things kind of create sort of almost a catalyst of more good things happening. Okay, I think for me, my parents, moving out of West Philly was probably that catalyst that I can't take any credit for. Moving out of West Philly was probably that catalyst that I can't take any credit for, because I've seen some people who never and some people stay in West Philly and they do perfectly fine and they lead successful lives.
Speaker 1:But I always think about what if I stayed? What would that be like? What if I went to the public schools in Philadelphia? What if it was more dangerous? What if I joined maybe some gang or I don't know? What if it was more dangerous? What if I joined maybe some gang or I don't know? I think about that a lot. So, as far as people influencing me, I think my parents was a huge influence, very supportive, very forward thinking, and they sacrificed, of course, a lot to kind of help me with which I take zero credit for.
Speaker 1:So that's all on them, I do think. As far as other influences, I don't know if I would say that there's a lot of, maybe, personal influences, at least when I was in college, more actively trying to change my identity, if we put it that way. I know sometimes, for me at least, besides reading books and I would say books are what's a good way to put this Sort of a good resource that helped me change my identity. Sometimes some YouTube videos, I'll be honest, and some channels, just different people with good, positive mindsets also to me, were good influences and they helped me change my identity sort of in a positive way. Um, yeah, I would say for the most part my parents were kind of the main ones. They were always just really positive and very they really helped me kind of stay on track.
Speaker 1:Um, a lot of it besides that kind of came from a few people I'd meet who were just good influences, but maybe not in an extreme way. A lot of it was books just for me reading. Maybe a book would lead me to a video or lead me to a concept and I'd go down a rabbit hole. I don't want to take away from people who I've met who certainly were good influences and help shape in a good way that I'm not giving credit to. But yeah, if I had to give an answer, I'll say my parents are probably 95 percent of it.
Speaker 2:it is absolutely a village that raises you and shapes your identity and that's for all of us. And then you wonder sometimes you go, okay, so it goes both ways. Right, there, there's always two sides to every point. There's, you know, there's no such thing as a one-sided piece of bread or one-sided coin or one-sided pancake, and so it can go that way so you can have those influences in your life. Like you thought about, if I would have stayed, what would the other side of that coin look like? And when I start thinking about absolutely a thousand percent, is the books you read. Right, because, because now you're listening to people that have gone before you that you're interested in, absolutely, it could be YouTube and and the people that you listen to and the, you know the way that it forms, how you think, that informs how you think. I mean, and you can go both ways I mean there's people who watch reels all day long, every day, to get entertainment value but no educational value, and I think those two things are so separate.
Speaker 2:You know, education doesn't necessarily have to come from a school, of a teacher in the way our traditional thing, but, um, if we're, if we spend our time trying to be entertained, and then we don't spend our time trying to be educated on how do I move forward, how do I do things, which is kind of cool, because I think the statistic I heard was 80% of all search videos on YouTube are how-to videos instead of just entertainment.
Speaker 2:Now, if you were to go to Instagram or TikTok or any of those, I don't think you're going to see as many searches for educational outings. They're just straight entertainment. But identity is who we are, you know, and without seeking out, at some point, those great relationships, like you know you, you just got married and so that's a relationship that I'm sure that you plan on flourishing in a positive way, you know, and you guys feed off each other and you ask each other questions and and you move forward, um, but without working on identity because I think about living in purpose and I think I see you living in some of your purpose.
Speaker 2:You know, as you know, your, your modium and your three pillars, and you know, but I don't know if you can live totally in purpose without serving others. And I'd love to hear what your? Thoughts are on what it means to serve others, and I know you talked about the company you started, and can one live in purpose and be growing and, you know, thriving, without serving others?
Speaker 1:my. My simple answer is no, I don't think you could. I, I can't imagine a reality where that's possible. Um, funny enough, years ago I I kind of once thought you could kind of just live sort of an ideal lifestyle by yourself, and it didn't take me very long to realize that that's pretty much impossible, I think, I don't know.
Speaker 1:No matter what, I think we all kind of rely on each other. Maybe rely is a strong word, but to a degree we all have to kind of have a certain positive relationship with each other in order to thrive. And there definitely is a sense that you have to serve other people in order to thrive. I mean, in any sense, whether it's business related. If you have a business, you have to serve your clients or employees in order to thrive as a business. From a personal standpoint, if you want to build relationships, you have to in a sense serve your friends or your family. You have to do things for them, and that might sound, I know, doing things for people. Sometimes to some people that might sound like, oh, I have to just always do what they want. That's not what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Oh, no, no, no.
Speaker 1:There's a certain word I'm looking for. There's certain reciprocity that needs to occur between people. In order for you to thrive, you need to do things for them, and there's a certain expectation, a quiet expectation in a sense, it's not a bad one, but there's an expectation that they'll do something for you, and I think this is just how we as humans, we as a society, this is how we thrive. I actually think when people, when you see kind of the breakdown of communities, it's when that relationship kind of gets distorted, where you have one side that might be taking too much and not giving back. At least that's kind of how I currently see it. Maybe that'll change in the future, but I think that's kind of the one of the main reasons that that I don't know different groups kind of break down. Some people in the group are taking too much, others might be giving, but there's not a good reciprocation, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:Well, absolutely. And serving others doesn't mean that and I want to really kind of define this, as we sometimes have this belief that there's lack, that there is an abundance, that there's a finite amount of resources, finite amount of resources and if I give you some of what I have, then there's not going to be enough for me, instead of believing, if I give you some of what I have, there's more than enough for everybody, because we come up with the resources that are needed.
Speaker 2:You know, even if it's not what we've already identified as a resource, we create a new continue to thrive and within that, you know thinking that, like what you're saying is, or that we can get along because there is enough resources that we can be able to give and not worry about. You know, if I give them my, you know I don't'll only have three left, and then they'll have more than me.
Speaker 1:My life is worse.
Speaker 2:With the philosophy that you're talking about money and relationships. Does that work where there's lack or does it work where abundance is abundant? I guess that's the lack of better words.
Speaker 1:Does it work when there's no? I mean, I don't think it works when there's a lack.
Speaker 2:I guess, when you have a lack mentality, because I don't believe there's a finite amount of resources.
Speaker 1:See, that's. That's. That's an interesting question, I feel like. I feel like sometimes finite is more a perception. Okay, I mean, I do think that there's a debate that sure, some things are finite, but I guess my counter that would be even if it if it is finite this is me getting way too philosophical about it. It's almost like money To a degree. I guess one can make an argument that money is somewhat finite. I guess the counter question would be even if it is finite, is it still possible to split it up enough where everyone is able to live a decent, quality life? Now, everyone might not be able to live an extraordinary lifestyle we can't all be Jeff Bezos or a billionaire but could we all live a pretty happy and fulfilled life? I think, if that's the question, the answer is yes. Even if there's finite resources, we could all live a good life, as long as we're all helping each other with that and no one's taking too much or doing it at the detriment of someone else.
Speaker 1:It's almost like if I had a next door neighbor. Me and the neighbor both have a tree. My tree grows apples, his grows oranges. Maybe on any given day there's one or two apples or oranges on this tree we can happily share. Maybe I give him all my oranges and I have none, but I'm happy with it because I don't need any today. I know some is going to grow back. It's technically finite, but some will grow back in the future. He does the same finite, but some will grow back in the future. He does the same. The issue is that the issue comes, I think, when he just wants all of my oranges and he's not willing to give me any of his apples, or if I want all of his apples and I'm unwilling to give any oranges ever. Hopefully. That's a really confusing analogy.
Speaker 2:I think it's a great analogy because that's kind of what happens in our world. But just by you saying that my oranges are going to grow back tells me it's not finite. You know, if an 80-foot can count the amount of seeds in an apple, the only guy can count how many apples in a seed. You know, when you start thinking about that. And even money, money is just representative of something right? Money in itself is worth work. It's just a piece of paper, you know, but it's what it represents, and so it can't be to me. It can't be finite because it just represents, you know, whatever is available for us, and we live in a world now that I'm not going to do everything for myself. I'm not going to grow my own chickens and, you know, get my own eggs and make my own cows and all that. So I have to use this money as a represent, a representation of, uh, you know, of exchange, and what you're saying is as long as we're willing to exchange and trade. You know, I don't know if it's ever going to be equal or or even fair, uh, because there's just, there's just greed and all the other stuff that goes in the world that says that people believe, if I, if I give you something that I don't have, if we could really come to the belief that, no, there's enough for you know, there's enough for all of us. I don't know, I, I don't. I don't know how we get there.
Speaker 2:But let's talk about money for a little bit. I mean because that's one of your three pillars that I would love to kind of explore. What is the relationship we should have with money? You know, because you hear all the different philosophies, like if I save it and it's in a pool, it does nothing for me. If I invest it, then it can bring back returns. If I squander it, then some people believe, well, I don't deserve to have any. What have you found? That is this common ground of the relationship we should be having with money in order to thrive.
Speaker 1:The relationship we should be having with money in order to thrive. In general, I would say most people, for one, should certainly live below their means. I think it's always good to kind of try to increase whatever income you have, and I say this mainly because, as someone who was involved in real estate, I know of inflation. Inflation is a thing. So you don't want to just, for example, if you're someone who makes 50K, if you're content with 50K, I think that's perfectly fine. I think that's perfect. If you're actually content with 50K and you're living below your means, I would say you should still try to increase your income, because the problem with 50K is that in five years and 10 years, 50k will be effectively worth I'm exaggerating a bit, but it'll effectively be worth 30K or 20K I'm exaggerating the numbers but it'll be worth less when it comes to spending power. So I think there's a certain level where you should be content with the money you have. You don't want to go above your means, but you shouldn't be so comfortable that you're not trying to increase your income in some way. I'm weird about this. I'm not a fan of doing too much. Too often when I say that I know of most people, I can think of kind of work, multiple jobs. Without wanting to, I think if you're fine working multiple jobs and job is subjective, I guess but if you're someone who say, for example, works a nine to five, then you work from five to eight and then you have like a 8.30 to 1 am, I think you should probably not. You should try to find a way to not do that if you can. If you can, mainly because I think it'll just burn you out and it'll take away from just a certain positive quality of life. I think if you're working 24-7, it's probably not going to be the ideal lifestyle for you, unless you're someone who some people I think are wired to just work a lot. I think if you're working 24-7, it's probably not going to be the ideal lifestyle for you, unless you're someone who some people I think are wired to just work a lot. I think that's totally fine. I don't think that's most people. So if that's not you, I wouldn't recommend it.
Speaker 1:I definitely think investing is fantastic. So personally I think investing in oneself is better. I know that's not technically financial, but I still kind of consider it financial adjacent. I think investing in oneself is better than just investing in things like S&P and just investing in real estate. Primarily because I think that if you can invest in yourself and learn new skills, if you're someone who invests, say, for example, in the ability to speak, you can start a podcast and the podcast could be an additional means of income. It could be something that's enjoyable. So it's still a job, but it could be a nice job. It's a job you actually don't mind doing, whereas I think if you're someone who just invests in, say, stocks or just in real estate, the problem with those things partially in my experience and partially from studies you, to a degree, can't control those things and if something happens that's outside of your control, it might be difficult to repeat prior success, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:But if you invest in yourself, if you invest in skills, you always have those skills, no matter what happens.
Speaker 1:If the market goes down, this is getting financial.
Speaker 1:But if the market goes down and you're someone who can speak, if you're someone who knows I don't know technical skills like building a website, seo, whatever it really doesn't matter what happens market-wise you can at least, even if you don't know what to do next, you can always pivot your strategy or learn something new.
Speaker 1:Because if you're someone who's building skills. Part of building skills is having the skill of being able to consistently build skills, if that makes sense, whereas if you just are someone who passively invests in real estate or stocks if I don't know, if the president does something in all of our stocks, in all the company's stocks, go to zero tomorrow there's not much you can do about it. There's no real skill that will help you overcome that problem. Or I see some people who just invest in things like Bitcoin and crypto. It's perfectly fine. I think that's great, but I've seen a lot of people who just kind of put all their money in, hoping for the best and then, when that cryptocurrency goes down, they've lost all their money and they can't do anything about it because you know that was, that was their only strategy. So hopefully that that kind of answers the question but yes, it does.
Speaker 2:And uh, mr lady richard said you are, you were hitting it so correctly in my viewpoint. Because, um, when I think of you know, like you, with investment, the number one thing you can do is besting yourself. The number one skill you can have is the ability to communicate, period. You know you can have ideas. Like you know, michael Golden talks about there's four levels of value, one being you know where you just use your own muscles and you work and you trade time for money and that's a level of value. But you're capped out at about 80 to maybe 100 grand. If you're lucky, you're using some of your skills to duplicate yourself so you don't have to do all the work and then the work is done and it makes money. But you're still limited, even if you're a really good manager at Lockheed making $250,000. Lockheed owns you. There's a ceiling on what you can do, but once you jump into the communication side of it and you're an incredible communicator, it's unlimited. You know you're A-list actors, you're best singers, you're people who are communicating. And he says the last level is imagination and that's the people, the Elon Musk of the world who come up with ideas. But even if you come up with ideas, you've got to be able to communicate it. There's so many people who've come up with inventions that are amazing and somebody else communicated. My greatest example is Ray Kroc. Right, the McDonald brothers had this great, you know idea of these hamburgers and flip-flops, or were able to do it really well and communicate, in San Bernardino, california. But it wasn't until Ray Kroc came around, took that idea and communicated it and boom, we have McDonald's, you know, the largest real estate holder on the entire planet. And so when you start thinking, I mean I love what you're saying, because if you're willing to spend that time on you, you know, then you're unlimited, you're becoming the person that you need to be.
Speaker 2:You know, when you just have money, you can say, well, I'm just going to take my money and put it under a mattress, right. You can say, well, I'm just going to take my money and put it under a mattress, right. Well, you already said it's a diminishing return, right, because 10 years from now, it's worth one third, or whatever it is, two thirds of what it was worth when you put it under your mattress. So that's not a good idea. People tell us to save, save, save, save, save. I'm not saying save before emergencies, then you go into investment, right.
Speaker 2:But if you're not, if you're not growing in your knowledge of what that investment can do and you're counting on somebody else, oh my gosh, you haven't grown, you haven't been worked on yourself and you might not be investing in things that you believe in and things that you know will actually go up, I mean, over time. You know, I guess that's why companies do it for employees and they say we'll put money in a 401k and we'll we'll invest it for you. And then you know, we have dips in the market where some people like, oh my gosh, I thought my 401k was going to sustain me and then, but I lived an extra 20 years longer than they thought I was going to live and now I don't have any money left, you know. So there's always, like you said, there's always got to be the willingness, and I don't know if you have a percentage that you thought through or think through of how much should be spent on yourself.
Speaker 2:But people will spend more money on stuff, material things, like a car or a house, or jewelry or shoes, or I mean, how many people you know got a closet full of Jordans, right? And then you ask them well, how much money did you spend? A closet full of Jordans. Then you ask them how much money did you spend on your personal development? Last year? At least enough of two of those pairs of tennis shoes. Oh, no man, what's your percentage? Thought on how much you'd be spending on working on yourself.
Speaker 1:I don't really have a hard number when it comes to percentage. I think it just kind of depends on the individual. I know different books I've read kind of have their own different recommendations. I would say part of it depends on, I think, where you are in life and what your goals are. Me personally, I'll spend most of my money on personal investment, like learning new skills, just because I think that for me is the highest ROI, highest return on investment For some people.
Speaker 1:If you're, say someone, maybe if you're a college student, I would still recommend it, but I can understand that for a college student maybe your goal is just kind of live life, have fun, I think that's perfectly fine too. Life to me is also meant to be lived, I think, to a degree if you spend. I'll share this story. I have a friend of mine who he's a little bit older than myself, kind of mid 40s Hopefully he doesn't get mad at me for sharing this story, 40s Hopefully he doesn't get mad at me for sharing this story. But me and him have this conversation a lot where his philosophy is pretty much every dollar I have gets invested. And, as I tell him, I think that's fine.
Speaker 1:But the problem with that is that you're not living life anymore. You're living life solely to save money and solely to invest. So then when opportunities I shouldn't say opportunities, it's not the best word but when people invite him to say let's just go hang out, let's go watch TV, let's just go relax for once, let's go to the beach or whatever, no, I can't, I got to work. No, I got to save all my money, it's like well, now it's.
Speaker 1:I think at that point, if you think of at least the way I think about it. I always think about health, wealth, relationships, these pillars. He's over emphasizing the wealth pillar but he's doing it at the cost of his relationship pillar, because if you're someone who's like hoarding money and you don't want to spend any of it and you only invest it and that's your whole philosophy, people, I think, aren't going to find you fun. They're not going to want to be around you because they're thinking to themselves. I invited this guy to dinner for $20. He won't come out because he wants to save that $20 and buy stocks or put it somewhere.
Speaker 1:So I don't really have a hard number. I think it kind of depends. I think there's a certain balance. If I had to give general idea of numbers, I would say 35% towards personal investing. I think is pretty solid. For the rest, depending on where you are in life, maybe 30% have fun with it, the remainder, maybe 30% have fun with it. The remainder save it, put in an emergency fund, maybe put that into something more like long-term investments, maybe put that into real estate. So that might be how I budgeted and bucketed out. But I think it really just depends on the person. I think, as long as there's balance, that's kind of the key thing that makes sense.
Speaker 2:That makes sense Well, to me. I think there's a minimum. You know 15 percent should go into at least. Well, because what I see and you tell me wrong is when I look at what I mean, how much people spend on entertainment. And you know, when I was doing financial advising and I was thinking of all the things that people will spend on sporting events or on television or on music or you know, you can look at their bank accounts and say, whoa, you're spending about 48% of all of your incoming money to be entertained by somebody else who is taking that money and becoming a millionaire or a millionaire.
Speaker 2:And you say, I want to be a billionaire, but I'm going to spend all this money on my entertainment. So at least take half of that and start putting it into yourself. Right, and you know whether it's like maybe it's a gym membership, you know, for some people, but one that's actually used. Because the gym membership that you buy, that you go for one month and don't do it anymore, is a waste of money.
Speaker 2:It's not an investment anymore, it's just you know and the gym has all these ways to entertain you, but it's like, okay, so what are you actually going to do? And then, and then map that out. You know, when you talk about college students that don't want to invest in themselves, well, somebody's investing in them, whether it's a student loan or it's a parented thing for that amount of money and so. But you can't make somebody invest in themselves or you can't say I'm going to invest in you and you have to take it seriously. You know it has to almost be. I almost wish college education there was some. Hey, I want this bad enough that I'm going to do whatever I can. That person who wants it bad enough you find a way to to help pay for it, because now they are investing in themselves instead of the person goes, oh, I just get a loan or all my mom and dad will pay for it, you know.
Speaker 2:Well then, I'm not going to go to class, I'm just going to hang out, relax and do whatever I need to be done. Um, what I want to do, say and thank you for saying that because, like so far, you're just. You're just like reinsuring me, you're making me feel like I got my life together. Um, what do you?
Speaker 1:talk about. I apologize, could I add one thing, just please, please, um, because when you mentioned the uh, the sporting events, I'm, I'm with you, I'm 100 with you on that. I think way too many people overspend on maybe getting tickets to a basketball, football game. But I would say, if you're someone listening to this and you really love sporting events, but you also again me trying to balance things out maybe try to find a way to watch sports and also maybe get paid while doing it. Maybe have an event. I heard the story from someone else. This is back in the day. They'd get pay-per-view and they'd invite their friends to come over. They'd buy food, pizza, whatever, but they'd charge the people. They invited pretty much a cover to come over. So they'd profit and they had the finance pillar built up, but they also got the relationship pillar built up. They made a profit off of it. It kind of worked out. They were paid to be entertained, um, so I agree, I agree with you completely.
Speaker 2:I would just want to throw in if you can combine those things, you might not have to get rid of one completely, but yeah, I love that because you are now, you're making, you're finding a way to, to utilize your, your abilities, to be able to to capitalize. You know what I see so hard is I and I want you to go to the sporting events and I want you to enjoy the entertainment you know. But if you're watching, say you, you spend you know 500 on football tickets to go to a professional football game. By the time you you get everything and then you say you got to come home and go buy a jersey too.
Speaker 2:Then he goes find another 175 on a jersey with somebody else's name on the back like the game wasn't enough yeah, yeah you're like well, my lights are getting weird, you know asking, you know, hey, can you help me with the? Oh, you know, can you borrow somebody to be able to, you know, keep my lights on, or something like that. It is just crazy, so cool yeah.
Speaker 1:So what didn't we talk about that?
Speaker 2:you wanted to, that I didn't get to because I was being selfish and asking you all these questions that I read.
Speaker 1:No, this was a fantastic conversation. I think we talked about everything. I mean, I think, the main things from me. As long as people are being balanced, heavily investing in their time, making sure that they're actually spending their time accordingly, not buying jerseys or not overindulging in sporting events if they can't afford it, I think that's pretty much, in my personal opinion, a good formula for a lot of fulfillment and a lot of freedom. That's pretty much it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, and since you said that, I just want maybe we can end with this, when we think about balance and balance being a season, or you know, cause, cause, can you be in focus, have have focus, laser focus on whatever the goal is achieving, whatever it is you're trying to do, and be balanced? Or is there a season of being balanced and you have to realize that it fluctuates up and down because you know, like your friend, I guess that wants to make you know everything's investing. Is that a season or is that like a forever thing? Because if it's a season and he's trying, there's a certain thing he wants to do, because he wants to go buy a company, and you know, then that's going to give him some of the freedom to be able to do some stuff, so he's willing to sacrifice now or if that's just a lifestyle, then he's way out of balance.
Speaker 2:Right, but can it be? Can you be totally focused on whatever it is you're trying to do and still be in balance?
Speaker 1:That is a very good question, you know. I think it really depends on the individual. I think, in the grand scheme of things, I think there's different seasons for everything. If you're someone say, for example, you're someone who, hypothetically speaking, you're in fantastic shape but you have no money at all and you have no relationships, to me I would say my suggestion would be maybe take a quarter, take a few months.
Speaker 1:Work almost solely on the finances. Don't stop working on health, of course, but if you're the kind of person who's a gym rat, you go to the gym six times a week. Maybe cut back to two times a week. You can afford to not go every single day of the week. If you're already perfectly fine with that, focus more on those hours. You would be going to the gym or tracking calories. Whatever you would do, work on your finances. Maybe you could at that point get a second job, if it's not going to burn you out. Or if it's for a season, make sure, get a second job, get your finances back on track. Then after a quarter, see where you're at, review your finances. If you feel like you're on track, then maybe either continue or take your foot off the gas a little bit focus on the relationship stuff.
Speaker 1:So I think it kind of depends and I think going through those seasons and it's to me that's a form of balance. I think if you're overdoing one thing for way too long, it's like my friend who's just investing. To me that's not balance. I don't know. I just can't imagine it's going to lead to the best potential outcome by just focusing on one thing for too long. I do think you have to kind of take time and understand that there's seasons to things. You have to kind of sit there and identify which of these things is the best to work on at any given time and really sit there and review. You know how long should I be working on this? Have a goal? Is the goal panning out the way I want to? If it is maybe continue down that path, down that trajectory, if it's not try something else?
Speaker 2:Maybe get a new goal. Depends on what the goal is. Well, when I think about it, even nature gives us clues, right, and so you know, nature has summer, winter, spring and fall. There are seasons that are are not. They're opposite of each other, but they don't last forever. You don't get summer for 12 months, for four years, five years, and I think some people treat their life as if no, my balance has to be.
Speaker 2:You know, yes, I can go through a 12 week or whatever it is focused, I'm going to be out of balance. I'm not going to have great relationships because I'm working on this, this and this, but that can't go on for five years, that can't go on for 10 years.
Speaker 2:You know, because you do have to have, you have to have relationships, you have to have, you know, your health, your health will decline and then you're not going to be able to enjoy any of it or do any of it if you let your health go, you know, in pursuit of something else, and so I 100 percent agree with you Thank you for thank you for spending the time with us today, and just really I love the fact that I say I'm the luckiest guy because I get to have these conversations almost every day with people where we talk about what could make us better, and I think you did a great job or Lenny, I guess I should say I don't want to call you Larry, but Lenny that great job of helping us think about some of the things we can do better in order to be better, and if we don't think about those things first and we just go out and continue to do, we don't ever get to be, and I think we're human beings, not human doers or human havers. And so I appreciate you taking that time. Again, congratulations on getting married and spending that time, and I hope she'll watch this and realize even how much better you are than she thought you were. We'll go from there, and so, for those of you who are watching, go ahead and hit the subscribe If this hits you in any way that you think somebody should share it with people. It's so funny that we talk about well, this guy should hear this and this guy Well, did you share it with them?
Speaker 2:No, because what would they think about me? Well, think that you shared a video that they didn't watch, if they really didn't watch it, but if there's a chance that they would, and it helps their life. You should share with them. And so, uh, you know, I believe, your god's greatest gift, he loves you. If you allow him to and I hope I can see you on some other ones and so hit subscribe, you will find, uh, several of these that will meet those needs. Uh, if you have any, one closing thought before we go, no, that was it.
Speaker 1:Um, I totally appreciate you having me on the show. It was fantastic, um, if anyone wants to reach out to me, feel free. My website lennyrichardsononline. Feel free to message me.
Speaker 2:That's it for me, though all right, so we'll see you guys on the next one. Have a great, incredible, awesome day today you.