A Personal Note From Orion

What does success mean to you? Does it mean money, vacations, new cars, and big houses? Or is success more of a feeling, not really something you can see accumulate. Perhaps success could mean happiness, health, and creating happiness in other people.

The material things will fade away, their wow factor only lasts for a second before it fades away. But happiness and health are the foundations for which to build a fulfilling, worthwhile life. So when you think about the goals you want to accomplish, try to have your success markers not be how much money you’ve made, or things you’ve been able to buy, but how happy you are, if you’re at peace with yourself, and how you’ve been able to help others reach that same level.

Today’s interview was a gift for me, and hopefully, you’ll receive it as a gift too. Robert Allen would be considered successful simply for the fact that he’s made millions of dollars, but he doesn’t define his success that way. His definition of success involves health, happiness, and how he brings happiness to others. I think we can all learn from this – and yes, it does add to your happiness to become a millionaire, so he touches upon that too. Tune in!

 

 

About Today’s Show

Hello, and welcome to Stellar Life Podcast. This is your host, Orion. I am so happy that you’re here. If it’s your first time, welcome. If you’ve been listening to the show, welcome back. And if you’re really enjoying the content, I have to ask. Will you please take 30 seconds of your busy day and give me a nice review, if it helped you, on iTunes because I haven’t been getting reviews lately. It worries me a bit. Are you guys out there? Are you having a good time listening to this? Because that will help the podcast rank better and get more buzz. Also, if you have a friend that will enjoy the content, somebody that you think this can really help them improve their life, please share them with your friends. Don’t keep us the best-kept secret. Sharing is caring! If you can do this, I will be grateful for you forever. And also you can always contact me on stellarlifepodcast.com or go to orionsmethod.com. Just contact me. Say hi. I would love to connect with you and hear from you. If you got any inspiration, if you have any suggestions, let me know. I want to connect with you.

My guest today is very, very special. As a public speaker, he shared stages with people like Sir Richard Branson, Tony Robbins, Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump, etc. The National Speakers Association gave him an award as America’s Top Millionaire Maker. He’s also a very kind and spiritual man, and I know him personally from a few years in the past where I took his workshops, and I spent some time at his home, and he’s just a very kind and sweet human being and man, in this interview, I don’t know, I got him on the verge of crying. We talked about productivity and money-making and all that, but he also revealed a really beautiful, spiritual, and incredible side of him in this interview. And it was just a great gift for me, and it was really inspiring. I’m sure it’s going to inspire you even more. 

Robert Allen is the author or co-author of some of the most influential financial books of all time, including the New York Times mega bestsellers, Creating Wealth, Nothing Down, Multiple Streams of Income, and the One Minute Millionaire. Combined, his 11 books have sold over 4 million copies and have spent almost 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller’s list. His latest book is co-authored with his son, Aaron. It’s titled The Four Maps of Happy, Successful People. And now without further ado, on to the show.

Hey, Bob, and welcome to Stellar Life Podcast. It’s so wonderful having you here.

I’m thrilled to be here with you, Orion. I’ve always loved your name. Your name is so exciting. I like stars and you’re a star.

You’re a star, Bob. For the few people that don’t know who you are, why don’t you share a little bit about yourself?

I had a dream of being a millionaire when I graduated from college. So, I started buying real estate in Provo, Utah because I couldn’t find a job. Basically, I filled my way into real estate and filled my way into wealth. Within three years, I was a millionaire.

Then I wrote a crazy book called Nothing Down: A Proven Program That Shows How to Buy Real Estate with Little or No Money Down. That became a huge New York Times bestseller. I’ve written 12 books over the last 40 years. I’ve taught people all around the world how to become financially free.

Creating Wealth is one of my books. Nothing Down for Women, Cracking the Millionaire Code, Cash in a Flash, The One Minute Millionaire, Multiple Streams of Income, and Multiple Streams of Internet Income. It’s all money-based. That’s who I am. I’ve been doing it for many years and this is the song I sing. This is my song and I’m going to sing it until my last breath.

Nice. Your books are phenomenal and you have so much knowledge about accumulating wealth. I want to talk to you about the precursor to accumulating wealth, which is the mindset. When you started, how did you motivate yourself? How did you create that mindset of success?

I think some people just have it and some people have to learn it. For me, I saw a copy of Think and Grow Rich in a bookstore when I was just coming back from a two-year mission for my church. I came back from Tahiti and was trying to figure out what I want to do for the rest of my life.

I walked into a bookstore and saw this little book called Think and Grow Rich. I think everybody should get a copy of that and read it. It talks about 13 principles but there are stories throughout it. The title was probably the thing that hooked me most. I just want to think and be rich, and you can do that.

I read another book on real estate investing. So, it was just always part of my DNA. I always wanted to be that way and some people are like that. They’re entrepreneurs. That’s just the way they think. I never was an employee and I never wanted to think like an employee. I never wanted to work for somebody else and entrepreneurs are like that. They just want to create something. They want to start from scratch somewhere.

Money is the scorecard. I don’t really care that much about it. It just is a scorecard. I kept a scorecard on my first million. I tracked my net worth over many months and watched it grow. But after the first million, it just doesn’t make that much sense.

What really hooked me was I got all the toys that rich people get at first – cars, watches and all that stuff – but they got old quickly. There were new models that came up the next year and I  said to myself, “You know what? Really, it’s not all that exciting.

Then somebody came up to me and said, “Your book changed my life.” Now, that changed my life because I said to myself, “That never wears out and it never gets old.” It gives me goosebumps when somebody would say that to me. I’ve got stories of people all around the world that come up to me and say, “Are you Robert Allen?” I’ll go, “Yeah.” “I’m here with my family. We’re going around the world. Thank you. It’s your book that changed my life.”

When you hear that once, you go, “A book is really like a seed. It plants in the heart of somebody that’s ready for it. It grows into reality, into prosperity for that person if they could follow it, pursue it, and then the life around those people becomes different.” When you change one person, you change the generations around that person. 

I’ve been really blessed that thousands, maybe millions, of people had a better future because of these crazy books that I write and it changes the future. I get to change the future through these people who are ready for it. You do that, your man does that. He writes this book on SEO stuff, he changes the future.

It’s not just the present you change. You change decades into the future. I have been at this for four or five decades. I’ve seen it come full circle. I’ve seen hundreds. Everywhere I go, somebody’s coming up to me with a story to tell me. That’s why I do it, Orion. That’s what turns me on.

When you change one person, you change the generations around that person. Share on X

You’re very hard-driven. You’re very warm. You’re such a kind person. I had the blessing and opportunity to study with you in person and have you mentor me. You also helped me with my stage presence and with my speaking. It was just a world of wonderful experiences. I’ll be forever grateful for that.

That’s why when you asked me to be on this show, I said, “I know that gal. Let’s do it.”

You wrote many books. I’m now writing my first book. It started in one book and then I started writing another book, two unfinished books. There’s always the, “Is this good enough? Is this perfect enough?” and I get in the trap of perfection of how can I refine the message more and more so it can create the impact that I’m envisioning. How can I get out of it and just do it? Just finish it?

When do you need to finish it?

I don’t have a deadline. Someday in the future when it’s ready.

This is what I call a success cycle. The reason I get a lot done is because I have this cycle that makes me get things done. I look back over my life to try and figure out when did I have these bursts of activity, and it usually revolves around a deadline. You start with a dream. You start with something you want and desire.

You want to write a book and that would be nice. The very next step is you have to declare it. That’s the next D word, declare. Now, you declared that you are writing a book, but I want you to declare that you will write and finish this book. Is that a declaration that you want to do?

Absolutely.

Good. You now have declared that you will finish this book. Now, we have to have a deadline and the deadline has to have a consequence. If it doesn’t have a consequence, then it’s just a wish. You say to yourself, “I want to write a book,” and then you don’t tell it to anybody, you don’t have a deadline, then it will never get done.

I wanted to do a challenge where I could prove that Nothing Down would work in real estate, so I said, “Send me to any city, take away my wallet, and give me a $100 bill. In 72 hours, I’ll buy an excellent piece of real estate using none of my own money.”

I declared it not only to people, but I’ve actually declared it in the Los Angeles Times with a full-page ad. I’m not fooling around. Of course, the ad helped attract people to my seminars and the ad worked like crazy until the Los Angeles Times called me and said, “We call you on it. We’re going to pick you up at the airport in Los Angeles and we’re going to fly you to San Francisco.” They didn’t tell me where we’re going to go because I said send me to any city. “January the 12th is the day and meet the LA Times reporter at the Marriott Hotel at six o’clock in the morning. We’ll tell you where we’re going.”

The deadline was set and there was a consequence. We met and he flew me to San Francisco, we flew together. He gave me $100 at the airport, and he says, “Now, your 72 hours have started. If you haven’t bothered to pop up in 72 hours, you’re not going to like what I’m going to write about you.”

High stakes. I don’t have any reporter that will do that for me. There is no high stakes situation. There is no accountability. There is just me against me and sometimes I don’t keep my word to myself.

That’s when you declare it. You have to declare it to other people and they get to win if you lose. You’re declaring it now to me. What do you lose? Let’s talk about the deadline first. When will this book be finished?

I would give it the end of 2020.

By the end of December the 31st, 2020 a book will be finished and printed, published, or what?

Finished? I don’t know. How long does it take to write a book? The book is almost 2/3 done but what’s going on with me is I’m going back and I’m rewriting it.

That’s good. Good for you.

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Because I want my message to be so clear that people will really get it. Sometimes, what happens with me is I’m really smart, I’m really wise, I go at the speed of light, I have people drink from the firehose, and it’s not as crystal clear as it can be.

Well, it will never be perfect. You know that. You have to make a decision on what’s good enough. You can always have version 1.2, version 1.3. Even the iPhone isn’t perfect the very first time. It always got a few bugs in it. The iPhone 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, they always get better. You can do that, can’t you?

Yes, I can.

Okay. When will version 1.1 be available?

I think I’ll give myself a year from now.

Okay, that’s realistic.

I mean published and all.

Okay, good. What if you don’t?

What if I don’t give myself a year?

No. What if you don’t get it done?

It’s just that self-defeating feeling.

No. There’s going to be a consequence. You’re going to pay me some money. How much do I get?

$2000.

$2000, very good. So, if I don’t receive a physical copy of your book on my doorstep before the 31st of December, I will call you on the phone and I’ll say, “Where the heck is this book? Send me my $2000 check.” Okay? It changes things, doesn’t it?

Yes, it does.

This is what I call a success cycle. When I did my challenge, I desired it. Then I declared it. Then I deadlined it. Because a deadline is very important – it has the deadline, it has to have a consequence, and you have to set up an infrastructure when you do.

The next D is do. You got to go do it and the doing is setting up an infrastructure so that you are on task. Your infrastructure has to be somebody you email or text at least once a week to tell about your progress. You have my email address. You need to send me an email every week for the next 75 weeks.

What have I gotten myself into here? What I love about you is that you make things real, that you are willing to play with me, and that you have this beautiful desire to help. I totally feel it. I really appreciate it, too.

I want to read the book. I’m excited about it. Send me an email. It doesn’t have to be long. You just have to tell me how many hours did you spend on your book. You can send me a number, you can text me if you want. In the subject line of the email, it just could say six, like six hours. I will respond back every time. I’ll say, “Got it.” It will be short, so we’ll know. That’s the infrastructure. You need someone to report to. If you don’t, then months and months will go by until the deadline starts getting close. Therefore, it’s too late for you to be perfect.

I feel this is quite an honor to be able to report to you. So thank you. That’s a blessing.

You better report to me now. At the end of this process, by the 31st of December next year, you’re going to debrief with me. You’re going to debrief—that’s the D word—you’re going to call me and you’re going to say, “Here’s the book, Bob. I got it done. This is what I learned in this process.” You’re going to debrief. If you miss the deadline, then you’ll send me the check. Thank you very much. I’ll donate it to your favorite charity.

Then you’ll get a chance to re-cycle again. You’re going to go do the same cycle again. You’re going to do it all smaller, you’re going to desire, declare, deadline, do, debrief, then another cycle until you get this book done.

When you’re finally done, you’re going to go to the next bigger cycle, which is the double down cycle, where let’s go do another book. Let’s take this book, I don’t know what it’s going to be, but you have to keep doing it. You’ve got to do bigger and bigger. It’s always the cycle, it always gets bigger.

Most people get stuck in these little loops of small activities and procrastination loops and things like that. If you’re in a success cycle, you’re growing, getting bigger and better every single year until you get massive stuff done.

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Every time I have a goal that I want to accomplish, I have to success cycle it or it will just be a wish. The wish will fade and I’ll forget I even said it. But here, it’s recorded…

To the public and to my listeners. I have my witness.

That’s right and all of you listening, you can call her up and say, “Hey include me in the $2000 goal here.”

Virtually spank me. Just kidding. I want to speak about procrastination, which is something you probably never do. How do you get over that?

I procrastinate the things that I don’t put into the success cycle. We all do, but I’ll tell you about procrastination. The most successful person you know is the best procrastinator. Procrastination is actually a principle of massive success because you cannot succeed unless you procrastinate.

Procrastinate means put things off. Therefore, if you look at your to do-list—today you got 20 things on your to-do list—there are things on that list that will give you massive results and there are things on that list will get you almost no results. And yet, we like to cross them off in our to-do list so that it cleans the slate, so we’re ready to tackle the big things.

What happens if we end up stuck in the thick of little things? Think of thin things, little stuff, crossing things off and getting excited when we cross something off the to-do list. The to-do list is the worst time management tool ever devised because it causes your brain to find all the little things you could do to write down, so you can put off the big things while you’re crossing off the little things.

Really successful people do big things first and procrastinate the little things. Little people procrastinate big things and do the little things first. They both procrastinate. They just procrastinate differently.

When you decide what’s going to give you the results-generating activity today, something is going to give you a result. That’s what you do. You might not be able to cross it off your to-do list. It may take a year to get that done, like your book. You can break it down into little goals, little chunks, little bite-sized pieces.

What I’m trying to say is, you have to look at your to-do list and divide it into the top 20% of the things that give you 80% of the results, and the bottom 80% of the things that give you 20% of your results, and when you decide where to write down the to-do list item, you decide which is this. Is this 80% or is this 20%? The 20% you write at the top of your list and you never go to 80% until you did your 20%.

Sometimes, you don’t get to your 80% or you delegate the doing of the little things to a time when your energy is low like I’ll do my emails this afternoon when I’m tired, when my brain is fried, or I’ll read a book then, or whatever you do. Whatever’s on your to-do list that’s easy to do, easy to cross off, do that at a time when your energy is low. When your energy is high, that’s when you do the hard stuff. You only have so much energy. You only have so much will power. During your high will power time, you do the stuff that’s the hardest thing to do. You do that one simple thing, your life will transform overnight.

Bob, do you have a daily ritual that helps you stay focused?

The last book I wrote is called The Four Maps of Happy Successful People. It talks about the four skills that, as I look back over my life and notice the people I taught and what success it had, interview them—interview the winners and interview the losers—I find out there are four skills that are essential, and the third skill is ritual.

The first is to get really clear about what you want, clarity, and to draw a map every day. The map touches into your right brain. I won’t go into a lot of detail on that today, but you asked me about ritual. Ritual is something that really successful people do every day. They’re all different. They all have different rituals, different times, different activities. Some of it is exercise, some of it is meditation, some of it is creating a special drink that they drink, some of it is calling their mom or their dad. We all have rituals.

For me, my ritual started the day I woke up in the hospital with my wife at my bedside and my children at the foot of the bed. I did not know where I was. I’ve been in a coma. I came out of the coma, I learned that my car had gone off the road in a rainstorm and hit a tree. They cut me out of the car with the jaws of life and took me to the hospital.

I do not remember to this day. I don’t remember the accident or anything about it. Zero. All I know is that I woke up in the hospital and I had crazy thoughts like is my family okay? Will they be okay if I die? Is my money okay? Have I created multiple streams of residual streams of income so that if I die, the money goes on? Was I making money in my coma? In other words, can you make money while you sleep or even in a coma? The answer is a yes, I had done that. Thankfully, I was okay.

The second question was, do I really believe in God? I was pretty close to the other side and my thought was, had I lived like I believed in God and had I put God first? The answer is no. I had done a lot of spiritual stuff, but I never put Him first. If I had died that night, March the 15th 2003, I could not have looked Him in the face and said, “I didn’t put you first today. In fact, I didn’t put you anywhere today.” I said to myself, “I’m not going to have another day like that.”

When I wake up in the morning, my spiritual stuff is first and it comes from a story that Steve Covey told. You’ve heard the story, it’s an old story. Professor asks his students to look at this jar and he says, “Is this jar full?” and they say, “No, it’s empty.” He brings out another jar that’s got some pebbles and some big rocks in it. They say, “Yeah, it’s got some big rocks.” “Is it full?” “Yeah, it’s full.” He takes out another jar with some pebbles in it and he pours the pebbles in. “Is this jar full?” They said, “Yeah, it’s full of rocks and pebbles.” He takes out another jar filled with sand, pours the sand over it. Now it’s filled with all of these. “Is this jar full?”

They’re on to him now, so he took out a jar of water, he pours it in until it overflows and he says, “What’s the lesson?” and they said, “You can always put more stuff in.” He said, “No. The lesson is, if you don’t put the big rocks in first, you can never get them in.” I ask myself the question, what is the big rock in my life? My most important rock is The Rock and I want to put The Rock in first into my life, the Word. I want to put the Savior in my life first.

When my eyes opened like they did this morning, and like they’ve done for almost the last 12 years, 15 years, how many years has been. Every day, I start my day with spiritual and scriptural words, whether it’s the Bible, or the Book of Mormon, or some other great spiritual work—there are so many great ones in the world—and that’s where I start. I read and today, this morning at [5:00] I read for about 45 minutes. Then, I prayed on my knees. That was how I started my day.

Now, everyone starts their day differently. I asked Deepak Chopra one day on a plane. We’re on a plane together and I said, “Deepak, what’s your ritual?” And he goes, “Well, I get up at three o’clock in the morning and I meditate for two hours.” I don’t meditate in that same way, I have a different exercise, but I say to myself, “How can you possibly invest two hours in meditation?” Of course, you just have to look at his results. He is unbelievable. He figures out a way to put that rock in every single day.

I don’t know what your ritual is, Orion, or anybody who is listening. You have to decide what’s important to you and how do you know what’s important to you. Is it something you do? Is that something you think about? About something you talk about? It’s something you actually do. It’s done. It’s finished. Then, the rest of my day is more productive, I’m more peaceful, I’m more organized, it just makes the rest of my day so much better.

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That’s beautiful. Who is God to you?

Well, obviously I’m a Christian, so my belief if my Heavenly Father who is a father to me, is a father to all of us and He has a son that he sent here to do things for us that we could not do for ourselves. This is my belief system.

Do you talk to God every day?

I try to. Yeah, I do.

Do you get messages?

Sure, I do. I’ve got some good messages this morning about some things I needed to do that I’ve been procrastinating. So, I immediately did those things today. I just finished before we got on this call. I did one thing I’ve been procrastinating for about two months and I delegated some other things that were downloaded to me today. Somebody calls it a download—I like that word—so this was a download to me. It was a little impression that popped into my head and I knew it was the right thing to do, so I said, “Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll get it done.”

It doesn’t happen like that every day. No, it doesn’t. I tell you what. Most people think of prayer like Santa Claus, like, “Okay, Santa Claus. I want this and I want that. Can you give me some of those?” and that’s the way most people pray. For me, I already got it. I already got all the blessings. I’m already so overwhelmingly blessed, I can’t even contain it. Once you almost died in a car accident, wake up in a hospital, underneath your breath you say the words, “Thank you,” a hundred times a day. And I do that every day. It’s just thank you, thank you, thank you.

For me, I already got it. I already won the lottery and so did all of us. We already won the lottery by showing up on this planet, this unbelievable planet. It’s so beautiful. And the creator of this planet is so unbelievable. Such awesomeness that when I pray, I basically think about that. I think, “Wow,” and, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” How can I help you? What do you need? Who do you need help with today? How can I be a hand to somebody today?

I’m not trying to act like I’m all that special, really.

You are very special, Bob.

Before my accident, Orion, I didn’t think like that.

It was almost like you experienced an awakening through the coma.

Yeah, I woke up.

That’s beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing. How beautiful that you see life as so precious and you’re in such a beautiful state of gratitude that is so clear and clean. It feels like it comes from the bottom of your heart. Sometimes, we treat ourselves into gratitude, to get into that spiritual place, and what I love with that is it just comes naturally to you where you just feel it. The more you say thank you, the more you get the things you thank God, the universe for.

Yeah, but I learned that the hard way and I destroyed my beautiful Lexus 430 SC convertible. Destroyed.

Sorry. So, you were at the place where you use your prayer as your meditation and connection with God. Do you still have moments where that little voice creeps in and you are dealing with your critical mind?

Yeah. The critical voice, where does it come from? They say the parents’ voice is in there carping at you or whatever. I don’t believe that. Everyone has a critical voice. If you don’t have one, then when you feel depressed or discouraged, notice the source of that feeling. It’s often this little nagging voice that says you’re not good enough, or you’re not smart enough. You’re not enough for a lot of things, and your critical voice beats you up coming and going.

For some of us, it’s very loud. Some of us – very soft, but it’s usually when you feel depressed or discouraged that you can usually source it back. The question you ask is where did that voice come from? Who is that voice? Is that you? Would you really say that stuff to yourself? Why would you say that stuff to yourself? You say to yourself, this nagging voice, “You idiot. What’s the matter with you? You stupid fool.” Why would you say that?

Most of us have this critical voice that’s usually in our head, but I like to listen to my true voice. Your true voice is very different. It’s very soft, loving, supportive, and helpful. It’s usually in the heart area and the voice you feel. Your critical voice is a voice you can hear and it usually makes you feel bad. It makes you feel depressed. When both of them are having an argument in there, just thank the critical voice for making its contribution, but just turn the volume down because your true voice is your cheerleader.

It’s a hard lesson that people learn and they don’t learn it anywhere. They don’t learn it in school. Your parents don’t teach it to you. There are a few books about it, but nobody talks or nobody really teaches you about it. Right now, if you ever notice yourself feeling bad, just trace it back.

That critical voice is not your friend. This is my own opinion and that people may be laughing at me or disagree with what I’m saying here. Your critical voice is not you. It is not your friend. It doesn’t want you to win. It’s not your conscience. It’s not trying to make you better. It’s actually happy when you lose. Therefore, you cannot listen to it.

You have to question it. You have to say, “Wait a second. Am I really a fool? Really, tell me. Am I really a fool? Okay, I made some foolish mistakes, yes. Who doesn’t? That’s human. But am I really that bad?” When you question it, it backs off a little bit. You go, “Wait a second. I’m not going to believe that. There are some things I’m going to believe but that one is not one of them.”

When I start my ritual right, when I start my day right, my critical voice is almost like it cannot survive in the light. When I flood the beginning of my day with light, it can’t survive. It survives in darkness. That’s why it wants to create darkness in your life so it can survive. When you flood your life with light, it shrivels up and just goes away.

But even for me, I’ll find myself being discouraged from time to time, and I go, “Wait a second. Have I won the lottery? Holy smokes, I won the lottery. Look at me. I’m breathing. Anybody who’s breathing on this planet has won the lottery.” To be born on this planet and our country, wow. One day, we’ll recognize it. Most of the time, we get overwhelmed with little stuff that doesn’t make a hill, whatever that quote is. It doesn’t make any difference in your life. Don’t get stuck on it.

You have an amazing peer group. What are some ways that you attract the right people into your life, whether it’s on a friendship level, or business level, or employee level?

Because of my previous success with my books, I really have access to anybody I want to have access to, but I don’t access them very often. I’m pretty much a loner, my wife when we got married at first, she said, “I married Bob that was on the stage. I married Bob that would teach the Sunday school classes and have so much fun. I didn’t marry this quiet guy.” So, she had to learn how to get used to me.

I don’t go out with my friends a lot. My best friend is my wife. I’d rather be with her than any other guy on the planet. She makes me laugh, she’s tough, she’s a challenge, and I love a challenge. That’s why I’m addicted to her. We have fun and we love each other, so I don’t have a lot of friends besides her, to tell you the truth. But the ones I want to get, first as I was speaking in Tokyo, my publisher said, “Can you get Robert Kiyosaki to come to speak?” So, I texted him and I said, “Robert, come speak in Tokyo with me.” He and I spoke to 8000 people last October the 6th.

It was great. It was absolutely great and he was so gracious. He’s usually got a hard edge when you hear him talk. He’s usually pretty grumpy, but he was so gracious to those people, and he was a giver the whole day. It was wonderful. He told the story of how some of my books have been very influential in his own investment career. He and his wife read Creating Wealth. The plan he says was to go buy two houses a year for 10 years and then retire. He says, “I’m going to do it,” and he says, “in eighteen months.” He told the audience this and he says now he owns 7000 properties today.

Your critical voice creates darkness in your life so it can survive. Flood your life with light so that it shrivels up and goes away. Share on X

I have a little tiny piece of the success story of the world’s number one financial author. Anyway, if I want a friend I can go get it, but I don’t usually go very often.

I love Tokyo. I lived in Tokyo for 3½ years and I love anything Japan and Japanese culture. I adore the culture, people, and food. The real food, actually, not the sushi restaurant you find here in the US. You have to go to a really specialty restaurant to get the real deal.

When I was there, I was embedded in their culture. I learned tea ceremony, I learned not to wear a Kimono. I had a Japanese boyfriend at the time, I spoke Japanese, I really immersed myself in the culture, and I really appreciate it. Then I went on your website and I heard that you had some lessons from your Fuji-san, Fuji mountain climb.

Yeah. I always see Fuji and loved that mountain. It’s an iconic mountain. It just represents Japan. Do you know what Fuji means?

What?

Fu means wealth, ji means samurai.

I didn’t know that.

It means wealth samurai.

It means you. How appropriate.

Yeah. I climbed it last August for the first time. We had a group of people and we climbed the top—it was hard. Up and down in one day.

What was the season? What was the view like?

It’s a beautiful view. We’re right at the top. Gorgeous view all over Tokyo, all over Japan.

It’s so beautiful there.

The sun was rising over the ocean.

I went to a rave in Fuji mountain. It was fun. It was three days in the rave in Fuji mountain. That was quite magical. Anyway, back to your climb.

I climbed Kilimanjaro, too, and I think I’m probably done with mountain climbing. I mean that’s probably it.

What did you learn from Fuji?

One foot in front of the other. That’s what I learned from Fuji. I wouldn’t have made it if it hadn’t been for the team. I probably would have quit. I couldn’t quit. It’s almost like the success cycle. Once you declared it to people and now they’re on a journey with you, you can’t quit. The reason loners don’t achieve a lot is because they make goals but there’s no accountability. When I have a team, I’m accountable. If they made it to that stage, I have to make it to that stage myself.

There was a gal. We climbed the last couple of hours together. It was dark, we had our little lamps on, about 2000 other people are climbing the mountain at night, totally in the middle of the night. She was so sweet and she just, “Robert, let’s go. We can do it.” She would poop out and I would say, “Come on, you can do it. Let’s go. Let’s go.” We made it to the top.

I love it. The most challenging thing I’ve done was the Tough Mudder which is a 30-mile obstacle course designed by the British Special Forces. It’s like the Spartan Race, but the difference is that, in the Spartan Races, you’re on your own, it’s very individual, and the Tough Mudder you do within a team.

It was really beautiful because our team leader was this giant black guy and when we had to cross the Berlin Walls, he would help us go over. Then we had a Mud Mile and I was the one who was reaching out and pulling him out of the mud. We were there for each other through the obstacles. There was the Chernobyl Jacuzzi where you go into a bath full of ice water and you have to swim in and out. It was 30 degrees outside. It was freezing.

Then they had those crazy obstacles, but I did learn a lot about the power of support and team, and how we don’t have to do it all on our own. We need the support, we need the coaches, we need the mentors, we need the people in our lives that will say, “Come on. Come on, Bob, you can do it. One more step.” It’s really important.

Bob, where can people find you, read your books, and get your courses? I know you have the Four Maps of Happy Successful People and other amazing things on your website. Where can they go to get it?

You just go to Amazon. You can get a physical copy or a digital copy of that. The One Minute Millionaire, I think that’s one of my funniest book because it’s two books in one. Right inside is a story of a woman who needs to make a million dollars in 90 days. And then the other side is the left brain, like how would you do that if you needed to? So, it’s two books, fiction, and nonfiction. People like that a lot. Or go to robertallen.com and you’ll find some courses that I teach there. So, either one of those two places.

Perfect. What are your three top tips for living a stellar life?

Be a first giver. When you make some money, give the first 10% away to whatever you believe in. Put the big rocks in first. Whatever they are to you, make sure that they get them first in your day, in your time management. And find what you love, what do you love to do. Once you find what you love to do, as they say, if you discover what you love to do, you’ll never work another day in your life. I think Warren Buffett said that. He said, “I tap dance on my way to work every day,” because that’s just who he is.

Find what you love to do. Find what your purpose is. That’s a very long discussion. It’s a hard one because some people haven’t found it yet and they get all frustrated. Some people have and I have. This is what I was born to do. I was born to say what I said to you today. So, I said it, therefore, I feel fulfilled. Find what you were born to do and then you’re set. Good luck finding it. It’s hard.

Mr. Robert Allen, thank you so much for being on the show. I appreciate you so much and it was such a blessing to have this conversation with you. Thank you.

Thank you, Orion, with the greatest name on the planet, the universe.

Thank you, listeners. Be a giver, put the big rocks first, do what you love, and lead a stellar life. This is Orion. Until next time.

Your Checklist of Actions to Take

{✓} Grab a copy of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. Many successful entrepreneurs today swear by this book and the insights it has given them on business and finance.
{✓} Visualize your goals. Be as detailed as possible on what you want to achieve. You’ll be surprised when you look back and realize how far you’ve come.
{✓} Declare your aspirations. Be your own evangelist and share your plans with the world, and the universe will conspire in your favor.
{✓} Create a pattern or routine to help you achieve your goals faster. Work hard but work smart.
{✓} Don’t just set deadlines: Set deadlines with consequences. This will motivate you to get the job done.
{✓} Do the big things first before sweating the small stuff. According to Robert, you have to look at your to-do list and divide it into 80-20. Write the 20% of your work that is most important at the top of the list. Never even look at the remaining 80% until you have checked off that top 20%.
{✓} Deliberate your relationships carefully. The right peer group can be a great support system in helping you become a better person. 
{✓} Listen less to your critical voice and increase the volume on your voice of encouragement, especially during challenging times.
{✓} Aim to give back. Support charities or movements you believe in whenever you earn money.
{✓} Grab a copy of Robert Allen’s latest book, The Four Maps of Happy Successful People, and start improving your financial and entrepreneurial insights.

Links and Resources

About Robert G. Allen

Robert Allen is the author or co-author of some of the most influential financial books of all time including the New York Times mega-bestsellers Creating Wealth, Nothing Down, Multiple Streams of Income and The One Minute Millionaire. Combined, his 11 books have sold over 4,000,000 million copies and have spent almost 100 weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list. His latest book is co-authored with his son Aaron. It’s entitled The Four Maps of Happy, Successful People.

As a public speaker, he shared stages with the likes of Sir Richard Branson, Tony Robbins, Oprah Winfrey, and Donald Trump. The National Speaker Association gave him an award as America’s Top Millionaire Maker.

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