Until you’ve cycled at least once, I can’t be your business partner. On today’s episode Russell talks about why successful people aren’t as cool as they think they are. He admits to falling into this same pattern and how he has been able to be a lot more humble. Here are some fun things you’ll hear on this episode: Why Russell thought he was cool when he had some success and how he was humbled. Why Russell’s failed ventures have made him realize he isn’t as cool as he thought. And why a fellow marketer got angry with Russell on a marketing cruise and ended up blowing a big opportunity. Listen below to hear why you aren’t as cool as you might think you are. ---Transcript--- Hey everyone, this is Russell Brunson and I want to welcome you to another exciting, emotional, awesome Marketing in Your Car. Hey everyone, I just got out of the gym today. I was thinking a lot. I actually did a podcast last night but we’re going to do another one because I just want to talk about something that I think is very important for everyone to hear, especially me, especially pretty much everyone. The moral of this podcast, I’ll tell you the moral first and then we’ll dig into the actual nuts and bolts behind it. The moral of the story is you are not as cool as you think. It’s funny, in the world that we live in, the world that I’m in, it’s amazing to me how impressed people are with themselves. It drives me insane. I don’t know what it is but when people have a little bit of success, they just become super impressed with themselves, and rightfully so but there comes a time I think in most entrepreneurs’ lives where you realize that you’re not as cool as you think you are. The sooner that happens for you, the better. If it hasn’t happened for you yet, I want to give you the blessing of letting you know that you’re not as cool as you think. I remember when I first got started in this business, and things started happening and started making money, man, I thought I was the coolest thing in the world. I was unstoppable. I started making stupid decisions because I thought I was invincible, and grew my company really, really quick, and then lost it all because of stupid decisions. You think after almost losing it all once, I would have been a little bit smarter, but no, instead, I got a little more success again, things came back, and the second time I built it twice as big. We had 100 employees and I was so impressed with myself. I was so awesome. I loved telling people how many employees I had. Then guess what happened? I made some more stupid decisions, and I lost it all again. I remember for a long time being really depressed about that. Then one time, I was in Mexico hanging out with some really cool marketers. There was this guy named Robert Hirsch. We were talking about our businesses, our careers, and our paths. I was telling him about my two ups and downs in my business so far. He goes, “Oh good, you’ve cycled twice.” I go, “What do you mean?” He’s like, “Yeah, you’ve cycled twice. I refuse to work with entrepreneurs who haven’t cycled at least once.” I’m like, “What do you mean?” He’s like, “Every business has these ups and downs. When you have your first up, you think you’re invincible and you drink your own Kool-Aid and you believe it.” He said, “I refuse to work with entrepreneurs that way because they still believe they’re cooler than they are. They don’t understand that there are so many things external from them that make them successful, and it’s not themselves. They’re not as cool as they think they are.” He said, “The fact that you’ve cycled twice means that you hopefully have learned from the second time and the first time, and hopefully you don’t think you’re as cool as you think you are.” I remember when he said that, I was like, “You know what? That’s pretty powerful.” I think it’s important to understand that. I’ve tried. Again, I’m not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but I’ve tried since my last cycle to be a lot mor