Ever Forward: Michael Rebelo on Escaping the Traditional Employee Playbook

At 17 years old, Michael Rebelo’s mom sat him down for a talk he thought was "the end of the line"—but instead of a reprimand, she handed him a lesson in financial illiteracy that would spark a 216-unit real estate empire by age 20.

In this episode, Michael shares how he stopped trying to master every skill and started mastering the "fellowship" of his network to accelerate his growth. This is a masterclass in the "Ever Forward" mindset—a commitment to never looking back and always building yourself better and bigger than you were yesterday.

Key Takeaways:

• The Power of a "Why": How the mission to retire his mother turned Michael’s "darkest hour" into a massive comeback.

• The Starfish Strategy: Why making a difference for a single investor is the ultimate win-win-win.

• Leveraging the Griffin: Why protective, disciplined leadership is the secret to guarding your values and your legacy.

• Escaping the Playbook: How to stop being a "highly paid cog" and start building an economic engine that works for you. 

Tools & Weapons Mentioned

• The Fellowship Army: Leveraging a high-level network to find the right answers instantly.

• The Internet Database: Using modern tools (ChatGPT, Google, etc.) to self-teach like a modern-day Lincoln.

• The Starfish Mindset: A guiding story for choosing impact over ego in business.

• Sem-paf-franc (Ever Forward): The Portuguese philosophy of relentless forward momentum. 

About Gold Dragon Investments:

At Gold Dragon Investments, our mission is to bring joy to others by helping them win the game of investing. Helping every client become the hero of their financial journey. We believe that wealth is a tool, but joy is the ultimate outcome. 

Through meaningful partnerships, we strive to empower our investors to create freedom, and build lasting legacies of purpose, fulfillment, and wealth. 

Join Us on the Adventure:

• Website: https://golddragoninvestments.com
  
  
• Schedule a Call

Transcript

0:44

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome once again to another episode of Dragon's Gold, the magic of mindset. Today we have the honor of having Michael Rebelo president of Ever Forward Capital Partners. Currently owns two apartment buildings for a total of 216 units. Michael, welcome to the show. Justin, it is an honor to be on here, man. I'm just so excited, so stoked. Thank you so much for having me on here. It's an absolute pleasure. Absolutely, my friend. The pleasure is truly mine. It's really exciting to have you. And I can't help but make note of this. think it's so incredible that at the age of 20, you already own apartments. And I just think that's such a powerful inspiration to so many. It's the entire idea of this podcast is to let people know that you can achieve anything if you want to work for it. And so incredibly excited to have you as a guest today, my friend. Well, as I like to do, let's dive in with the origin story. Where did it all begin for Michael Rebelo? That is a great question. And yeah, the origin story was rewind three years ago, I was 17 and I was taking business and finance entrepreneurship in high school. And I've always loved it. I mean, it was just so interesting for me to learn like ownership. Like I actually don't have to be an employee. I can do day trading, you know, learn the stock market, invest, you know, start my own company. That stuff was cool to me. And I just dove headfirst into it. We were learning about the S &P 500, like, you know, different ticker symbols, bullish, bearish, you know, how to predict where the market's going to go. It was incredible. I was able to geek out and all this stuff. And yeah, I was going to be a stock nerd, but I would try for a little bit. Like we had like this simulation model we had in our business oh class and I was just like trading Tesla and I was doing a couple of things with the video and whatever. But anyway, so I'm learning that and my mom decides to... pull this line and says, hey, we need to talk. Now I'm thinking either I'm dead or something really bad or like, like what? Cause that's like the one line you never want to hear from a parent. So I'm like, okay, what? And I'm thinking, this is it. This is, this is the end of the line for me. And she's like, I'm going to teach you about compound interest 401ks, IRAs and how that all works and what I learned today. I'm like, okay. I was very confused at the time. didn't know what this was exactly. And as she proceeded to teach me, she told me, she was like, I went to the bank today because I saw on the sign that they were offering 5 % CDs. And I'm like, okay, from what you told me, that's exceptional. And she's like, absolutely. But unfortunately they never upped our rate and we were floating at around one and quarter, one and half percent. She was telling me that she put money away when I was born so that I could have something when I would graduate or just to have like, you know, something to start with. And she was like, I cannot believe how financially illiterate I am and what I've left you. I'm like, listen, we still got each other. Why don't we just start grinding and figure out what we can do to have our money make money for us? Cause we're working like dogs over here for the dollar. So why can't it work just like we do for it? So I told her like, mom, listen, I'm in business and finance. Entrepreneurship and marketing we're learning about investing the SP 500 in different stocks and how they trade I mean if we could pull some resources together it can start day trading if you want open up fidelity account Let's just go all in and she's like well if you could pull this off, let's do it. I'm like, let's do it so we called this play money, I just started with 500 bucks and Just and I kid you not I I probably lost three years of vision over this just staring at Bloomberg Yahoo uh the Schwab network just look at the ticker symbols like you know the mark from market open and market close like you know going back and forth like okay what's the next one to buy it wasn't scalable it wasn't profitable i mean i made a very little and i'm like this can't be scaled like my mother can't just get an income off of this and i'm like i just can't i couldn't do it it wasn't my niche it wasn't my field so we had this notebook and we decided to write down everything we possibly could put our money into oil gas gold silver, uh private equity, multifamily, real estate, uh passive investing in anything pretty much. And then we were just keep, we always kept going back to real estate, whether it was single family, whether it was uh renting out a house, know, fix and flip the BRRR method, everything you do with single family, wholesaling sub two and My mother once said to me, she's like, you know what? We're not going to do that. I'm like, why? Cause she's like, I'm not living in a duplex where I live on one side and I have a 10 lives on the other. have a perfectly good house. I'm going to stay in it. I'm like, all right, made your point. And I agree with her. mean, it just didn't seem logical for us. It wasn't in our, in our vision. And then we stumbled across multifamily. What is this? And we saw an ad on Facebook because you know, cookies, they always listen. And it was with the multifamily mindset and there was a free class that was in our neck of the woods at the time. So we both looked at each other and went, let's just go take a look. We already knew that there was a coaching program behind this, but we at least wanted to have some ideas so we know where to go. Could this work for us? Halfway through, we signed up for the three day and just started to grind right through. And then there we realized that we could do this. Like if we could pull our resources together as like a bunch of investors and look for these properties and capitalize on them and help other investors. learn about this and grow with us so they can learn mentally but also economically and financially then yes let's do it and I think we've had some good success over that there's a lot of trials and tribulations that came through it but it was definitely the best route. Michael, without question, I anticipate trials and tribulations that you will experience in that. Share with myself and our listeners, what are some of those things that you had to overcome? Great question, I love that. ah When we started out with the coaching program entirely and just trying to learn from different things like, you know, YouTube University, listening from other people that are in the multifamily real estate industry, I did the mistake of being chief cook and bottle washer, where I wanted to do asset management, underwriting, capital raising, acquisitions, everything. I wanted to wear all the hats, but I realized I wasn't getting anywhere fast. I wasn't learning one specific thing. I was the jack of all trades, master of none. And what also hindered me a little bit was my age. When I fully started getting to real estate, like at least learning it, I was 18. I mean, there's not a lot of 18 year olds in the industry that just decided, yeah, let's just do multifamily and buy apartment complexes across the country. Yeah. Nobody does that. And there's a lot of people in the industry that have been here for 34 years that just know this by heart. And you got me, high school graduate that's talking to a broker, that's discouraging. And then to see other people my age doing other things, not multifamily, but stock trading, but are being very successful. It's like, what am I doing? I had to hold down very quickly and I had to talk to my mom a little bit to say, like, you know, where do I see myself going? Like, hello, like, what should we do? When we moved to Tucson, that was a whole fiasco, but a good fiasco. But that kind of ties into the trials and tribulations later. A business partner said, you know what you should do? I'm like, what's that? They're like, you should do capital raising because you love to talk to people. I'm like, okay, but like you want me to, me at my age, ask someone, hey, do have 50 grand to invest in the deal? I'm like, he's like, no, you just get, just talk to them, build that relationship, network with them and just start posting. And then once they're ready to invest, have your mom talk to them. I'm like, oh, that makes sense. So the hardest part really was the fact of my age and how it subconsciously hindered me because I felt like I was inexperienced. Like I'm still wet behind the ears of high school. What do I know? And I've never experienced a market downturn. But through my network with that business partner, knowing that the communities that I'm in, I realized that I didn't have to know everything. I had to know the people that knew everything. That was it. Like the story of Henry Ford. He didn't know everything about his company, but he could press a button and know the exact person with the right answer. And that's really why I tried to model. Build your network because your, how's the phrase go? Your network is your net worth. And it's not what you know, it's who you know. And that really helped to accelerate my growth and to overcome that because I'm like, it doesn't matter my age. It's just, I can call up somebody and say, Hey, I'm in this rut. Whether I'm looking at this costar report or look at this multifamily property, I need some help and I learn and grow from them because they've done the mistakes already. They have years of experience ahead of me. I can learn from that. So that was the beginning and the struggles and knowing that the lessons behind it. Michael, amazing and so good. A lot of what you dropped there, I feel has incredible value. One of the things I want to touch on is the idea about it wasn't my niche. Regardless of the intention you have, regardless of the skill that you want to learn, if you've invested time and genuinely tried and found that you don't resonate with it, maybe you're not as good at it as you want it to be, which could be learned over time. But if it doesn't fill the bucket, if it doesn't feel sustainable and you don't want genuinely to do it, you pivot. And recognizing that investing the time, like you talked about three years of vision being lost because staring at ticker symbols and watching the data and, just consuming it. think there's massive value in the fact that you really tried. You gave it the effort, you gave it the intention, you really tried and, you realize that it wasn't aligning for you. So you pivoted and found recognize that you didn't stop. say, well, that's not going to work. You said, I'm just going to find another way. Right. And the fact that you. teamwork, you work together like with your mom and talked about like what, what can we do together? And, and I love that, that she came to you and the lesson that she brought to you and the ideas as a parent, right. And as a father of three myself, I completely understand the idea where you want to set your children up for success in every way possible. And the one thing you can't change the idea is time. And time progresses. And if you set things up properly, early, they pay massive dividends, right? It's a wonder of the world compound interest. And so if you can find a way to leverage things in the appropriate fashion, you can truly scale things in an amazing way. And the same idea applies to that knowledge and network. And so the last point I want to cite that you touched on that I loved was the idea of you don't have to know everything. You just need to know the people who do. And in fact, it's actually oftentimes better to leverage the knowledge and experience of people who have been there, learn from them, grow. And if you can do so at a young age, you're getting a massive head start so that when you've been in the game for 30 years, Right? Like your leaps and bounds above many. And, and one point I would cite on that is, that it's not about being better than anyone else. It's about being better than yourself and continuously being a better version of yourself. Right? Yeah. So the idea of it's not, and you saw, I'm a big fan of quotes, Michael, you touched on a couple. It's not who you know, uh, strike that you touched on a couple, Michael, it's, it's not, what you know, it's who you know. Right. Um, and your network is your net worth. The idea of those pieces, the connections that we make, the friendships that we make, the partnerships. Cool thing about that is with those friendships that you make, those relationships as connections, those are potentially lifetime relationships where not only will you learn and grow and potentially profit, so too will people you work with and so too will the people that you help to invest and ultimately the benefit not just to you and to the people that you're partnered with, but to the people that you helped to invest with the course that you've chosen to pursue in your business. And I just think a win, win, win situation is so beautiful and you can really focus on that. Yeah, because you know what, if I can walk away with not just the income, and I'll dive into my why a little bit later, if I can walk away with, you know, a sense of accomplishment financially, but also where I can walk away to go, hey, you know what, I was able to help somebody. I don't know if you've heard the starfish story, but I don't know if your audience has, but I'm going to share it. There's a man walking on the shoreline, beautiful day, waves are crashing along the shoreline and he sees thousands of starfish along the shoreline and he sees this man in the distance so he walks over to the man he's like what are you doing and the man is just throwing starfish back in the ocean he's like you do realize this beach is littered with thousands of these right you what what difference could you possibly make man simply bends down picks up another starfish throws it back in the ocean looks back at him and says made a difference to that one if i can make a difference to that starfish aka that person that wants to put their money to work to either put their kids through college, get a better life for themselves, or have something for their kids, their grandkids, or just to buy their time back. If I can make a difference to that one person or starfish, I can lay my head at night. And I think that's what's the most important thing about this business is we're in the business of helping others. We're in the people business, not just multifamily. We're in the business of adding value, not just to properties, but to tenants, to families, to investors. So it's a people helping business. It is a win-win-win situation. absolutely. I love it, brother. Well, along the way, the journey is not alone. We call this the fellowship. People that have come along the journey with, is there anyone that you might cite on your fellowship? question. I would say my mother but she's been with me for 20 years so it's kind of a cheat code but she has helped me quite a bit to guide me through not just life but also business because she has a lot more business experience than I do so she's like a built-in mentor but someone that I don't know if I could truly pinpoint someone except for the good Lord himself but I just think with the people that I've met in these networks that have just stuck with me since the beginning and have been able to help me like there's a Quite there's like a handful like for example you Justin there's also Tyler Devereux the coaches that have helped me through this You know some of the people that have also joined that a lot more experienced than me I have learned years worth of multifamily real estate knowledge Just from those people so it's almost like this band of mentors and mentees that were not just mentors or teachers We're also students as well And I feel like that It helps me to grow because it's like, wow. I'm not alone I have people that I can rely on and they can also rely on me. And it was powerful. It very much a mindset click. It was like this gear on my head that clicked to go, huh, this is all relationship. This is all people business where we're here for each other. We're here to support each other. It's just incredible, this ecosystem that we can formulate and we can learn and grow with each other. I don't know why, but it's just incredible to me. It's like... Wow, we're all here for the betterment of not just ourselves, but also others as well, if not more for other people. And I just think that's great. So to name one specific person, that's challenging. But I will have to say that the people that helped me learn and grow through this business, like you, Justin and everyone else I've met that's helped me along the way. I mean, I'm grateful for them. Always grateful for them because they've done wonders for me and they've got me to where I am today. And I thank them for that. It's amazing brother, thank you very much. The darkest hour, perhaps a moment in your life where it felt like too much. You were gonna quit or it was something that you didn't want to continue. Is there a moment in your life like that? And how did you overcome it? This is a very apropos question because I actually just posted about it today and this is the first podcast I'll actually be talking about it. But to back this story up a little bit and this moment when we're moving from Massachusetts to Tucson, this was in June of last year when we started from just from graduating high school and coming back from a celebratory graduation vacation from June all the way to November of last year. I was completely out of the company because I was just focused on getting helping mom find a house, packing a house, moving across country to we would know where yet this was all on faith. And then just trying to make ends meet. I mean, this was difficult. We've never done anything like this. This was excruciating both physically and mentally. And we were starting to settle in. My company was collecting dust and we both knew it. So we decided to go down this route, like, know, Hey, we need to do this, this, this to get our company running. yeah, we'll do it. And you know, we'll do this later. You know, we'll pick a date for this. We would say that, but there was no follow through. And then it was the hard conversation. I remember this vividly mom and I go on hikes early in the morning, uh, Tuesdays and Thursdays. And I believe this was a Thursday and we were walking and we had this one conversation where we're funding the company. We're getting nothing out of it. It may be time to shut down the company and it still rattles me to this day. Cause it's like, wow, we built this. for almost two years. I just can't let it just go away like that. The connections I've made, the opportunities that are like right there that I don't see yet. I didn't even realize this. It was like, should I just go leave this as a dream or just as this crazy thought and say like, you know, I tried this and it didn't work. And I just go down the traditional playbook, find a college, get a job, the same miserable playbook that everyone's been doing. And then I was like, you know, I just can't let it go. know we've been funding this and she's like, you know what? We can keep funding this business, but if you want to retire me, right? And to help other middle Americans like me to learn about this business and to invest in multifamily for the betterment of themselves and their, and their others, you have to put in the work and the effort consistently and like true, like true hard work and effort. And she's like, if you don't, then this company is just a distant thought. And so are the goals and dreams that go with it. It was one of the hardest things I had to hear in a very long time. And I was shaken by it. But the day after Justin, it was like something like a switch flicked and I just went fully in. was like just this drill drilled headfirst into the multifamily industry, started to connect, send out emails, under ideals, like do podcasting more videos. And then from November to March, there was a point where my mother took away the computer for me because she's like, You're done for the day. You've worked way too much. I'm like, just let me send this one email. She's like, no, you're done. You're just done. So it was the darkest hour for us and our company and only that our dreams and aspirations because we were going to shut this down. And if I didn't put the hard work and effort that I'm that if I didn't, this wouldn't exist at all. And it was like that fine line of it being a dream and then it being a reality. I chose a Of course, I chose it to be a reality, but it was one of those things that was the hardest thing that I had to endure with the company so far, but it was one of the most powerful things. And sometimes when I feel lazy or groggy or let me just take a day off or let me just slack off work a little bit, I keep remembering that story and it's like, dude, man, if you give up, you're disrespecting the people that believe in you. And I'm like, fine. I'll plug in a couple more hours. So it was the darkest hour, but also the greatest comeback. I guess I could say. I love that. love that. it's absolutely, m I love that. And I think it's such a powerful statement to say, to recognize that in those darkest of moments is really an opportunity for us to see that light and to truly come out of that, right? When you're at the bottom, there's nowhere else to go but up. And in a situation like that, when you find the fire, like I love what mom said, like that was, oof. Talk about it hit, right? And like, oh man, but it's so true, right? So true. And at least she said it bluntly, but it was real. And when so often, when you remove the sugar coat and you just get down to brass tacks, you get to the real facts, the real pieces of it. And this is where the idea about being honest with others, also being honest with yourself. being able to look in the mirror and say, am I really giving this my best? Am I really doing this? Whatever this is for you, are you really giving it your all? And you know, right? You know, inside and you felt it, you turned it on, you grind and, it works and it, and you, and you're beginning to build that empire. And ultimately you're fulfilling your why, right? So share your why with the listeners, if you would. question happy to share. In fact I love sharing this why. So when we're getting into the company of course there's always a reason why we want to get into something, an opportunity. Now of course I want to make a boatload of money so I can get a huge car collection, obviously, but I mean who doesn't? But anyway my mother and I we had to have a conversation figure out okay why are we actually in this business? Not for the actual physical things but what is the mission that's greater than us? And she's like, now you have to figure it out. I'm like, okay, that's easier said than done. So I paused for a minute and I was thinking like, why am I in this business? And then I kind of re replayed the moments of what got us to that point. It was the fact that mom was financially literate. Her accounts were doing poor and she's working like a dog for the American dollar when it's not even working for her. So I just look her and said, like, you know what, mom, I'm going to retire you completely. And she's like, like, what do mean? I'm like, whether you join me as an entrepreneur or not, but if you do, I'm going to make sure that we get enough income coming in through cashflow or equity that you don't have to worry about a W-2 and you don't have to worry about being an entrepreneur. Doesn't matter what route we take. I'm going to make sure that you retired like sooner, like sooner than later, like far earlier than your company would have provided. And she's like, Is that your why? I'm like, yes, that's my why. Like non-negotiable, like that's it at all costs. I'm retiring you, making sure you have a martini in the pool and everything. You get to drive the C3 Corvette. I don't care. Like, I'm just going to retire you. And she's like, already, that's your why. Let's do it. I'm like, yeah, because you know, she's provided so much for me, like the roof over my head. She had to deal with me feeding me for 20 years. And it's like, that's a huge bill to pay, but I can try to at least pay it back. And it was like, I, that's my duty is to give back. And that's what I like to do is I like to give. And then this why would evolve to the point where I just don't want to retire mom, but I also want to teach people like her that are in that same position. Like what if I could be there, right? For someone that's like my mom in that same position to go, Hey, You don't have to do the traditional playbook. There's actually a way you can build generational wealth without spending even more time. And we could teach you how to do it. I want to be the resource where people can come to me and say, hey, I'm in the same boat that your mom was. How did you guys do it? And I want to be there to help people, to give back to Main Street, take away from Wall Street and give back to Main Street America. And that's it. That's my why in a nutshell. I love it brother. I love it and I'm sure mom appreciates it too. Yeah, right. I the martini. Yeah, yeah, it's martini in the pool. It sounds awesome, right? Especially appreciate and then driving the vet. So. Dragon's Gold, the accolades, the awards, the things that you may have achieved. And sometimes that's just the mindset that came through. What would you consider Dragon's Gold on your journey? this. So usually when I make a video or if I make a podcast episode, usually my end tagline is build yourself better and bigger every day, live better, live bigger and always move ever forward. Or just story with my company ever forward. We're Portuguese and we have this phrase that we use called sem-paf-franc. Now that's very hard to put on an LLC because of the my attorney will be like, how do you read that? I'm like, okay, nevermind. So we try to translate it. And it meant in English, always moving forward, keeping your head up, back up straight and just your forward looking. You don't look back, you just keep going. And we both decided that our company should be ever forward. And then we decided that our tagline should be build better, build bigger, where this journey cultivates your finances are growing better and bigger than they were. You are too, along with your network to build better, build bigger. And only that you're living better and bigger than you were. So the dragon's gold for me. is you need to be in a position and you need to be living better and living bigger than you were yesterday. And that's what I would share with the audience. What are you doing today to make yourself better and bigger for tomorrow? Like you are your most important asset. What are you doing to improve yourself? What are you reading? What are you listening? What are you doing? Who are you helping? Right? If you're helping yourself, that's great. But also help others along the way while you help yourself. mean, Zig Ziglar said it perfectly. You can Get anything you want in life as long as you help others get what they want. And if you can help your inner circle and more circles build themselves better and bigger, everyone does, including you. So that's my Dragon's Gold for at least a mindset shift, but also a message to say like, know, just keep going, go bigger. You see a mountain, go climb it. And if you can't climb it, remove it. Just keep going. that's right. We'll win. Yeah, just keep going. I love that. I love that. Michael, the Hall of Heroes, if there was a massive statue of Michael Rovello and it could say anything you want, what would you want it to say? You're asking too many good questions. love it. ah What would I have it say? ah That's a very good question. I'd have to say ever forward, just those two words ever forward. Because it doesn't matter whether it's business, entrepreneurship, life, it doesn't matter. I'll give you an example. When I was in that darkest hour, ever forward, keep pushing forward. Put all your effort in to get to where you need to be to fulfill your goals and to fill people's goals. And those two words, it's like, are you having a down day? Don't worry ever forward because there's light at the end of the tunnel. Are you struggling with work ever forward? Keep pushing forward because you know when you keep pushing forward and you start to unlock that mindset and it starts to become a part of your DNA then nothing's going to stop you because you're just going to keep going until the job's done. Jobs not finished. No worries. Keep going. it's raining outside. Don't worry. Just keep going. You like for example. Justin, I'm going to say this out loud. You're not feeling well today, but guess what? You're ever forward. You kept pushing forward. You did a podcast interview this morning and you're doing this interview. That's ever forward where you know full and well that it has to get done. Doesn't matter how I feel. Emotions are going to change, but the mission doesn't ever forward. So that's what I would have on that plaque on that statue is ever forward. It's a mindset and it's a lifestyle. I love it, bro. Awesome. Fantastic and very appropriate. Yes indeed. So the next quest, Michael, what's the next quest for Michael Rebelo and EverForward Capital Partners? love this Justin, great question. So the next thing for me is when we have enough cash flow coming in and when our business is a well-oiled machine and mom is starting to get fully retired like out of entrepreneurship and her W-2 completely, I think I'll start to be a teacher of multifamily to middle America and Main Street. That would be my personal goal is to start teaching people traveling across the country, know, maybe speaking at peak again. Speaking at different networking events just to teach people like hey, this is what we do and how you can do it too Writing more books making more articles making more social media posts just to be a conduit of information So I can send it out to other people that need it But for my goals, know, I want to diversify into oil gold and silver and then again I want to learn that specific part of the business and then again teach people how to do it Why gold why silver why oil why? family why real estate I just I love to teach I love to talk as you know but I also love to give back I'm a giver so I want to give as much of my knowledge back to Main Street America not just Main Street America but the world on how they can do it because there's more than meets the eye there's so many opportunities out there there are left so that are one underrated and number two there aren't talked about enough because Wall Street thinks it's unsafe but actually it is That's what they invest in. They just don't tell you. And that's what I'm here to teach you about. So I guess I'll embody a teacher for my next part of my journey. Like what's my next quest is the quest of a teacher. That will be my next chapter. Very cool, Michael. Thank you for sharing that. My friend, I have two more points I wanna touch on, one of which is gonna be tools and weapons, uh resources, things that you have used that have helped you along your way in your journey. What would you cite as tools and weapons? As tools and weapons I would say one of them is gonna be a given is my network Because I can leverage my network entirely my network is my army where I could just lean back and just like hey I need some help Let me reach out to my network and people comment people reach out to me I'll get calls and texts and I'll learn so much from them other tools. I would say is um Just the internet. I know it sounds crazy, but it's How to use it is question. When you're in a mentorship program and you don't understand something, you're not quite getting to where you need to be, look it up on Google. Look it up on chat.gbt or Gemini or GROK, whatever they have nowadays. And just research, do your own research. I'll give you an example. Abraham Lincoln taught himself law and he didn't have the internet. He just had books from a library. We have the entire world's database at our fingertips. So I feel like self research and also self teaching. And not only that, my network are probably the best tools and weapons and the most, um what's the word, reliable tools and weapons that I've used to grow and also help other people grow in this industry and just this business entirely. Hmm. Very cool, brother. I love it. All right, Michael, I have one more question for you, and it is the most important question, in my opinion. If you could be any mythical creature, what would you be and why? That's great question. So I had to wrestle with this a little bit I was choosing either between a Phoenix or a Griffin and I have to choose a Griffin and what's funny is that we actually have a little statue of a Griffin that's currently in the box. We're still yet to unpack but With it being as it is. It's very grounded, but it's also ambitious. It's got the energy in that drive, but it's also very protective. It's like uh Sentinel of its values its tradition and only that the dreams I feel like I'm the same way where I'm the sentinel, the guard, the conduit of the values, the dreams, the goals, helping people and just staying disciplined, leading with discipline, being a leader as much as I can. I'm not a perfect leader by any stretch of the imagination, but if I can at least lead one, like that starfish, that'll be good. I'll rest my head at night and I'll sleep like a baby. So I think I'm the Griffin and hopefully I don't have too many feathers because I already got enough hair as is. But yeah, I think that's the one mythical creature that would be, because it just aligns with who I am spiritually. It's disciplined leadership, value driven, but also protective. And just ready and just a call away. That's it. Awesome brother. Well said and I love thank you for sharing that super cool almost so biased because I like your friends a lot so But I just I think the reason like and again, it's the why it comes back down to the why behind it so often that I love to hear and so the way you shared it was was Great. So thank you My friends, thank you for joining us once again on our quest to inspire, educate, and empower you to turn your dreams into reality, one mindset shift at a time. We'll see you next time.