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Episode 25 of the Relentless Hope podcast

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Episode 25 of the Relentless Hope podcast

The Relentless Hope Podcast, hosted by Steve Gatena, founder of PRAY.COM shares vulnerable testimonies from the world's most passionate Christian leaders who overcame extreme trials through God's faithfulness.

David Meltzer, award-winning humanitarian and CEO of Sports 1 Marketing,teaches us about becoming vessels for service. We hear about David’s journey from becoming a millionaire in his twenties to holding prominent CEO positions at major business and entertainment companies, to his fall into bankruptcy. David reveals how he came to realize that he had to start living with purpose, passion, and profitability so that he could live a life of service.

Listen to this episode and read the full transcript below. Subscribe to Relentless Hope and you'll receive weekly summaries when new episodes are released.

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Embracing Servitude to Live a Meaningful Life - David Meltzer

[00:00:00] Matt Potter: When we center Jesus in our lives, he teaches us how to be good servants. He shows time and time again that it is far better to give than to receive. He demonstrates how to serve others by genuinely loving and caring for them. Jesus never turned anyone away. Wherever he was called, wherever he could most help, Jesus went and he did so humbly, never seeking rewards or validation.

[00:00:29] He simply sought to help change people's lives for the better, to ease their suffering. Jesus is truly the ultimate example of a servant leader. Through him, he has shown us on how we can serve God and our fellow brothers and sisters on this journey through life. Because no matter where we find ourselves, no matter what position or title rest besides our names, no matter if we are rich or poor, no matter where we live or the mistakes we've made in the past, God is calling us to serve him, to use the gifts that he has given to us, to help those less fortunate to love our neighbors, and to serve him in inspired ways that he comes to show how each of us can serve him in our unique ways.

[00:01:16] This week in Relentless Hope, award-winning humanitarian and c e o of Sports, one Marketing David Meltzer teaches us about becoming vessels for service. We hear about David's journey from becoming a millionaire in his twenties, to holding prominent c e o positions at major business and entertainment companies to his fall into bankruptcy.

[00:01:39] David reveals how he came to realize that he had to start living with purpose, passion, and profitability so that he could live a life of service. We hear how David learned to become an appreciator and to feel grateful for everything that he was given and how he learned to add value and then give it away.

[00:02:01] David teaches us to be leaders of service and he says the two most important questions leaders can ask are, who can I serve and who can help me? We learn that leadership is a side-by-side relationship. As leaders, we must inspire our people, but we also must be inspired. And David shows us that inspiration comes from being in close relationship to God and Jesus, and we learn that for David leaving a legacy happens now.

[00:02:32] It's how we choose to live today. As David reveals, he is trying to live an inspired life being of service. He wants to be a motivator, not a manipulator like he was in the first part of his life. It doesn't matter if we serve in big ways or small ways. Everything is equal in the eyes of God and it doesn't matter what we did or who we were yesterday.

[00:02:55] What matters is that in this moment we choose to serve. That we choose to listen, that we choose to be in relationship with Jesus and God so that we can live inspired lives, allowing them to direct where we can best serve for the highest and greatest good.

[00:03:15] After losing everything, he worked so hard to earn. David, Meltzer had to face one of the toughest challenges of his life.

[00:03:22] David Meltzer: The hardest part for me was two years later, uh, I lost everything. I was already living my life. I was already c e o of Lee Steinberg Sports and Entertainment, the most notable sports agency in the world.

[00:03:34] I had a job. I was making money, but all the things that I had done in the past, overextended myself, bought too many things, didn't ask for help, uh, had gotten and caught up with me, and I had to claim bankruptcy. Hardest day of my life was waking up in the morning and realizing, number one, I had to go into work to Lee Steinberg from the movie Jerry McGuire and Warren Moon, the Hall of Fame quarterback, and tell them that the c e o that they had hired to be the Midas that they hired was a failure.

[00:04:05] He had lost everything, but even more, uh, terrifying to me. Was I had to first stop by my mom's house and knock on her door and let her know that I had lost everything. But even more importantly, if you remember, the only reason I ever wanted to be rich was to buy my mom a house in a car. I actually had to tell my mom, not only had I lost everything, but I lost her house as well.

[00:04:34] Matt Potter: On episode one of this three part series, we hear from the co-founder and c e o of Sports, one Marketing David Meltzer Sports. One is one of the leading sports and entertainment marketing agencies that was co-founded with Warren Moon from being the c e O of Steinberg Sports and Entertainment to going bankrupt.

[00:04:54] This is David Meltzer life story.

[00:05:00] David Meltzer: So I grew up in Akron, Ohio with a single mom and six kids, five boys and a girl. And the interesting thing is my mom was a teacher. So we really didn't have anything. Uh, although I was always happy. The only time I wasn't happy though, was when I saw my mom crying because we didn't have enough. Uh, the car broke down, dishwasher broke.

[00:05:22] She couldn't send us to summer camp. She was worried as an educator how she was going to pay for college for five boys and a girl or graduate school since my mom believed the. Fetus wasn't fully developed until after graduate school. Uh, she had great expectations. And, uh, looking back, the irony of my life is, you know, I, I was always happy, uh, even though growing up in Akron, Ohio with nothing, uh, two bedroom, apartment and six kids, I had every reason to maybe be frustrated.

[00:05:53] To that point though, my dream in life was to be rich and. Uh, the reason I wanted to be rich was because the only time I saw my mom unhappy was because of money. And so in my mind, money would then buy the only thing that I couldn't do, which was make my mom happy. Uh, otherwise, you know, I I'm, cause I'm extremely money motivated and a lot of people ask where that drive comes from and it, it really has never been for me.

[00:06:24] It's, it's always been for others. And at a very young age, I was driven to make money. The interesting thing was, I, I thought I'd make my money by being a professional football player. And I know this is a recording, but I'm five seven and 147 fou. 747 pounds. Getting outta high school. Uh, you know, the chances were slim, but I did, I worked really hard, uh, to be a professional football player and I got a scholarship to college.

[00:06:50] Interesting enough, my other five siblings, Uh, I'm by far the most athletic, but they're even far more academic than than I ever was. I, uh, was motivated by them and all of them went to the Ivy Leagues, full scholarships to college academically. Um, but I was sure that. Going to college that I was gonna be a professional football player.

[00:07:11] Now I had one skill, uh, that was different than most people is I could run scared faster than most people could. Angry. I had a really big mouth and you know, I like to talk trash to my older and younger brothers and, and two bedroom apartment. I learned to juke and jive really quick and when I got out into a football field, it seemed like an endless amount of land for me to, to run around in and going to college.

[00:07:34] My first football game, uh, my freshman year, uh, I got to play and they put me at the bullet, uh, which is the farthest outside person on the kickoff team. And it's usually the fastest person on the king team that runs down in order to tackle the ball carrier. So I was so excited flying down the field, first football game, all 147 pounds of me.

[00:07:56] And sure enough, I get down there right as the ball gets to the ball carrier and I hit him and I thought, wow, this is great. You know, first play ever. And next thing I know, I was flying backwards up in the air onto my back. And the running back, the ball carrier actually stepped on me and ran me over. As I lied there, I realized that I better go to plan B.

[00:08:19] And now my mom always said, you know, it was quite simple in life how to be happy and successful. It was, you're gonna be a doctor, a lawyer, or a failure. So the NFL wasn't included in there. And so as I contemplated on my back, you know what I was going to do, I realized that, uh, I think I better figure out academically how to be a doctor.

[00:08:40] Uh, funny enough though, the guy who ran me over ended up to be Christian Koya, uh, who was the AFC running back of the year the next year, and his nickname was the Nigerian Nightmare. And I still have Nigerian nightmares, uh, to this day. Although it was nice that I got his first signature ever. The size 13 shoe right in my chest.

[00:08:59] Um, so I, I went, um, to be a doctor. I was pre-med at a very good college and, uh, really started to, uh, change my perspective on things, to diversify my interest and use my mind, not just my speed or my fear. And, uh, focusing in on, you know, the academic side of things. I started realizing that, you know, my siblings weren't smarter than me.

[00:09:23] They, they were just better students. And, you know, that focus and attention that they gave to academics once I moved over my focus and attention from athletics, that I could easily compete in the academic realm with them. And I did learn a second lesson though. Uh, it was interesting. My, I have a, a sophomore in college with my oldest daughter, and I realized that.

[00:09:45] I'm the only one ever to get a B in my family. But what I realized when they were getting straight A's is that it takes twice as much work to get straight A's than it does to get all A's and a B, if you have the skillset to do so, that that's how much extra effort it takes to reach perfection. And it was a really interesting thing because my daughter who's driven and you know, just genetically driven, uh, I actually have to tell her, you know, takes half as much work to get all these and a b and you can have a better time in school, then you don't always have to get straight A's.

[00:10:19] Um, I go at the end of the season back to be a doctor. I went to go visit my oldest brother and he was doing his residency at ucla and I went to visit him in the hospital and this was the most valuable lesson of my life because I walked in and looked at him and I said, gosh, I hate hospitals. And he looked at me, he almost gonna fall over.

[00:10:40] He goes, Dave, you're pre-med. He goes, and you hate hospitals. I thought you wanted to be a doctor. I go, yeah, I do wanna be a doctor. I wanna be a sports doctor, you know, on football fields and baseball fields, or maybe be a pediatrician and help kids. He said, you know, you have to be in a hospital to be any kind of doctor, don't you?

[00:10:57] And I looked at him as an 18 year old with no clue. Like, really? And he's like, yeah, really? And he gave me this valuable lesson. He said, David, you need to be more interested than interesting. You need to be more interested than interesting. And that hit me at a core because later on in my life, I ran. The most notable sports agency in the world.

[00:11:20] I build my own TV show, podcast, speak books. I currently have, you know, a globally renowned sports marketing agency and kids come up to me, all these 18 year olds with the best intentions in the world. Mr. Meltzer, I want to be just like you, and I wanna be a sports agent. I wanna be a producer. I want to speak and I think to myself, you know, about as much about.

[00:11:41] What I do as I knew about being a doctor. And so I give them the same piece of advice and I continually give myself the same piece of advice every day to be more interested than interesting, to be an appreciator to, you know, go beyond what I feel is coming to me, uh, to understand more. And I think that one slight difference, it's a difference that I take in my life, uh, of people who think, gosh, I got to do this, or I get to do this.

[00:12:09] Those who are more interested, they get to do everything because we're in search. We're seeking, we're seeking, seeking something valuable, inspirational, so that I can come through us for the benefit of others while immediately. Uh, changed my mind and once again, followed my mother's guidance of being a, a doctor, lawyer or failure.

[00:12:28] So I decided I'd better be a lawyer cause I knew you didn't have to be in hospitals to be a lawyer. Um, and so I went to law school and I studied, uh, in New Orleans. Learned both civil and common law, which civil laws, international laws, the Napoleonic Code is the only school in America that taught both of those.

[00:12:43] And I thought, gonna be rich, I'm gonna buy my mom this house in a car and I'm gonna make a lot of money being a litigator, an oil and gas litigator. I studied maritime law. I was still interested in sports law, but at the time they really didn't have sports law programs. There wasn't that specialty.

[00:12:58] Although Tulane Law School, where I went, was one of the top sports lawyer programs, although they didn't have a whole curriculum. They had a club. And Dean Roberts was world renowned in sports law. Uh, I graduated, did very well in law school, and I had two job offers. One was to be an oil and gas litigator and make a lot of money, and the other was to work in the internet and, uh, you know, uh, selling legal research online for a legal publisher out of Minnesota.

[00:13:29] So I went to my trusted advisor, my mother and I asked her mom, what should I do? And she quickly, without thinking, said, you absolutely have to be a litigator. You need to be a real lawyer, because this internet thing, uh, this internet thing's a fad. Now, I don't know how much prey.com costs, but I imagine that most of us understand that the internet's not a fad.

[00:13:51] Second lesson for life on that day that I thought about was, just because somebody loves you doesn't mean they give you good advice. And so many of us make so many bad decisions seeking counsel from people that care and love, love us, whether it's family members, friends, associates, we take advice off of the mere fact that somebody cares about us.

[00:14:13] But in the end, what we want is situational knowledge of experience and expertise. And I learned that day that to ask a second grade teacher, uh, about the internet in the early nineties was a big mistake. And that I went ahead and sought better counsel of people that understood technology, uh, could allow me to understand the opportunity that was presented to me.

[00:14:36] Uh, and sure enough, in 1995, about three years into my career, we sold, uh, west Law West Publishing for 3.4 billion to Thompson Reuters. Uh, that's when a billion dollars was a lot of money. Not many companies sold for a billion, let alone 3.4 billion. Uh, and, uh, it changed my life. It changed my life because I bought my mom a house.

[00:15:03] I bought my mom a car. I was a millionaire nine months outta law school, by the way. I kind of skipped that. That's when I bought my mom the house in the car, uh, and paid off my law loans. Uh, but the, the sale of the company changed my life. Now, now I had everything I could ever dream of. Um, I still needed to work.

[00:15:21] I was only in my twenties. I branded myself a technology guru with no technology experience, just sales skills. Um, and I went to work in the Silicon Valley. I raised 169 million for a company called Every Path in the Wireless Proxy Server, uh, space, transcoding the internet onto WA phones and Palm Sevens and other weird devices that were too big, too expensive.

[00:15:46] Uh, and then, uh, attracted into my life being CEO of Samsung's first phone division. Uh, the PCE phone, it was a computer and phone. It was a world's first Windows CE device. Throughout my career, uh, even in school, I managed to attract all of these extraordinary people. I was kind of like a Forest Gump. It didn't matter where I was.

[00:16:08] I was able to surround myself with the right people and the right ideas. And, uh, as I led Samsung into, uh, the manufacturing being the second largest manufacturer in the world of phones, uh, I ended up realizing that I had outgrown my welcome. I wasn't capable of building a company to that there was only so far my sales skills could go.

[00:16:31] Uh, I was a great face person, uh, being able to represent a company and talk the talk, but in the end, I, uh, I was asked to leave. And I always tell people, if you're asked to leave the company, you might as well get paid a lot to be asked to leave. And took me years to admit to people. I always told people that, you know, I semi-retired and I left because things were going so well.

[00:16:54] When I left Samsung, the PCE phone company, I had every single thing I ever wanted. If I, if I didn't have it, I could buy it. Uh, my wife, I had three daughters at the time. Uh, my wife I had met in the fourth grade and I loved her. Uh, she hated me. I threw an egg at her cuz my friend asked her to go steady at sixth grade camp and she said no and embarrassed me.

[00:17:16] So I decided to egg in the hair was the best resolution. And later on, uh, we reconnected after I went to law school, got married, had these three beautiful children, my dream girl, and I was building my dream Holman Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego. Uh, being a VC in Angel real estate developer, anything I wanted to do, I could do.

[00:17:39] Um, the interesting thing is when I finished my home the first day laying in bed, I looked up at the ceiling and for the first time in my entire life, I wasn't happy. I had no passion, no purpose. I. I had every single thing that I wanted. And so what I started to do is I started to buy things thinking, oh, that'll make me happy.

[00:17:59] And it didn't. And then I bought different things thinking, oh, that'll make me happy. And it didn't. And then I bought more things thinking that would make me happy and it didn't. And I started a terrible spiral of self-sabotage, surrounding myself with the wrong people and the wrong ideas. Not living an inspired life, not living of service, not living with purpose, passion or profitability anymore.

[00:18:21] And I had three real key warnings about what was about to happen when I was 30 years old, was the first one. Um, don't talk about my father as much cuz he left when I was five years old. Um, I'll try to get through this without choking up, but my dad was my hero, right? A father, super cool, successful. He retired and raced, uh, horses.

[00:18:45] He had a beautiful, uh, new wife. He was my hero. And at 10 years old, My dad forgot my birthday, and at 10 years old, that was crushing to me. You can imagine not just your father, but your hero. And what he did was, instead of being accountable because he had six kids and he wasn't living with us and he had his own life and his own issues going on, living in Houston, Texas, and I'm in California, what he did was, uh, project his insecurity by telling me that he didn't forget my birthday, that he loved me so much.

[00:19:20] But he just didn't believe in birthdays. And so not only did he punish me by forgetting my birthday, but then he then continually punished me by never celebrating my birthday. And my dad went from my hero to someone that I hated. In fact, I spent three years not talking to him. Well, at 30 years old, I get a birthday present.

[00:19:39] For the first time in 20 years, a big box came to my door. I opened it up and it's a beautiful sport coat with a beautiful card from my dad saying, happy birthday. I'd love to talk to you. And I put the jacket on and it fit perfectly, which actually meant more to me than anything because it meant he took the time to call my wife or my mom or someone to get my exact measurements to have this custom made for me.

[00:20:04] And so as I'm calling him and I have him on the old five and one speaker fax phones. And I call him up and he is on speaker phone and I'm trying it on so excited and I'm like, dad, thank you so much. I got the jacket. And as I say that, I opened it up and all the pockets were ripped outta the inside of the jacket, and I literally was crushed again.

[00:20:25] I'm like, he's punishing me. Like what? I go, dad, I can't wear this jacket. And he said, well, it's not meant for wearing. I said, well, why'd you send me? And like, rolled my eyes. Why'd you send me a jacket? That's not meant for wearing. He said, cause I want you to hang it in your closet. I said, all right. Why? He said, I want it to be a reminder.

[00:20:46] A reminder that you can't take anything with you. I don't want you to make the same mistakes that I've made. I don't want you to put your values in the wrong place. He said, I don't want you to be the richest man in the cemetery. I want you to look at that jacket every day. So that was the first morning about what was gonna happen.

[00:21:03] The second one, I was playing golf with my friend. Robbie, who's actually the one that asked my wife to go study at sixth grade camp, my oldest and best friend, I hadn't seen him in almost a year, and we were playing golf, and I asked him, why don't you hang out with me anymore? This is after I had retired out of Samsung.

[00:21:20] And he looked at me in the eye and he said, because I don't like who you hang out with. And I looked back at him and I said, come on man. I don't do what those guys do. And he said, you can lie to me, but don't lie to yourself. That was a big warning about why you surround yourself with the right people and the right ideas.

[00:21:38] Um, and then finally I came home no more than a week later. Uh, and I had been up at the Grammy Awards with Littlejohn the rapper and drinking and other things that I shouldn't be doing. And I came home at five 30 in the morning after lying to my wife where she confronted me at the door and, uh, told me she wasn't happy when I came down the next morning, told me I better take stock in who I was, what I wanted to become, and uh, How I got there, and it scared me, and that's where my life changed.

[00:22:11] I took stock in who I was, four values of what I realized I needed in my life, gratitude, empathy, forgiveness, accountability, and effective communication, the ability to inspire others, but more importantly, allow inspiration to come through me for the benefit of others to be of service. I changed my prayer in the morning to not how much or what I could have for me.

[00:22:34] I was always an optimist, so nothing ever happened to me. I wasn't a victim, and I teach people all the time. You're not a victim, but moreover, things always happen for me. I would be stopped at a red light. I'm like, oh, it's happening for me. Everything. I'm in God's favor. It's all in my benefit. But I realized through the impetus and catalyst of my wife that things happen through me, that I needed to be an appreciator, that I needed to be grateful for everything I had and add value to it.

[00:23:01] That things appreciate, they go up in value. And, uh, through this change, I changed my prayer every morning to God and said, may put 10 people in front of me that I can help. And that's when my life started changing. Uh, the hardest part for me was two years later, uh, I lost everything. I was already living my life.

[00:23:21] I was already CEO of Lee Steinberg Sports and Entertainment, the most notable sports agency in the world. I had a job, I was making money, but all the things that I had done in the past, overextended myself, bought too many things, didn't ask for help, uh, had gotten and caught up with me, and I had to claim bankruptcy.

[00:23:40] Hardest day of my life was waking up in the morning and realizing, number one, I had to go into work to lease Steinberg from the movie Jerry McGuire and Warren Moon, the Hall of Fame quarterback, and tell them that the CEO that they had hired to be the Midas that they hired was a failure. He had lost everything, but even more, uh, terrifying to me was I had to first stop by my mom's house and knock on her door and let her know.

[00:24:09] That I had lost everything. But even more importantly, if you remember, the only reason I ever wanted to be rich was to buy my mom a house in a car. I actually had to tell my mom, not only had I lost everything, but I lost her house as well. That's when I learned unconditional love. Cause my mom looked me right in the face without blinking and said, that's okay.

[00:24:30] Are you okay? Do you need any money? Not blinking, not poor me. It was all about being of service to the person, her son, who she cared the most about, and I knew at that time, although, I lost everything. That living my life of service and being of service and inspiring others to inspiring others to be happy was everything would come back to me rapidly and accurately.

[00:24:55] I went to work, told, uh, Lee, when I got my first paycheck, I remember taking it home. I'd lost everything. My house is my cars, my boats, every single thing you could think of. I'm now living in a rental house with rental furniture, and I took my first paycheck home. I, my wife's pregnant with her fourth child.

[00:25:13] I have three daughters, none of them in in college, none of them married. And I got that first paycheck and I asked my wife I'd like to give, uh, part of the paycheck to, to create a scholarship at my high school for Warren, Warren Moon's Foundation, the Crescent Moon Foundation. Uh, I had gotten a, a scholarship to go to school.

[00:25:31] My siblings have all got scholarships to go to college. And I felt that that was important. And I looked at her and I said, is this okay? And she said to me, will you finally get it? For years, my wife had been telling me as I had everything I didn't understand, I didn't get it. And I go, how, what do you mean you don't get it?

[00:25:50] I got everything. I, I'm the one that look around you. I was so arrogant, you know? And now she says, oh, you finally get it. And I said, I think I do. I trust the universe. And she said, then double that check. This is our first check. My wife's pregnant. So I looked at her and said, I don't trust the universe that much, but we worked our way up.

[00:26:10] And I, I tell that story because people have to realize that giving's not easy. Giving's not trading. I didn't give to get, uh, but eventually what happens is you're a vessel and when things happen through you, if they only happen for you, you're gonna fill up. There's not gonna be enough room. And that's what happened to me.

[00:26:28] Everything was happening for me. And pretty soon I had too much. And I had no purpose, no passion, and I was overflowing and didn't know what to do. I didn't feel worthy of everything. Because you don't know what you have until you've given it away. That's when it is recognized. And so I started living my life with things coming through me for the benefit of others.

[00:26:50] And the more that I did it, the bigger of a vessel I was because I was just an appreciator. I was grateful for every single thing that I have. And moreover, I added value to it by being of service and giving it away. And to this day, I have more than I've ever had. And I live with passion, purpose, and profitability.

[00:27:10] In order to have clarity on what we want, in order to be a LE leader, we need to have balance of our values, and we have to have prioritized balance, not e equilibrium balance. It just changes as the time goes by. That then allows us to have focus, which gives us confidence, and confidence is something that allows us to lead.

[00:27:35] People are attracted to confidence. It's a higher vibrating energy. When we are more confident by having clarity, balance, and focus, then we're able to lead to effectively communicate and take the inspiration that we have and inspire others with that information.

[00:27:56] Matt Potter: On episode two of this three part series, David Meltzer, C E O of Sports, one Marketing tells us what the four important parts of leadership are. He teaches us how we can be of service to others. Putting our faith in the right things and having radical humility. As David always says, don't be afraid to ask others for help.

[00:28:21] David Meltzer: Leadership is one of my favorite topics to talk about, and that's because I think most people think of a leader in front of everyone, uh, and pulling them along somehow inspiring them. And for me, leadership is so much different. Uh, leadership is a side by side, uh, relationship. Uh, how we command each other.

[00:28:43] We work with and leadership. Not only, uh, is it within two people or everyone, it, there's what I call effective communication of a leader. Most people think that a leader is inspiring others. Uh, I see it far beyond that. It's a leader needs to be inspired. And that's the true thing. So they need to have a relationship to that which inspires them.

[00:29:07] And I don't care what you believe in God, Bodo Jesus, Muhammad Joseph, Smith, it doesn't matter to me. But you have to live an inspired life. And we have to understand that we are going to have obstacles, void shortages, challenges in our lives. And the key is how quickly can we come back to that center? How can we come back to that relationship that which inspires us?

[00:29:29] Because we can't give what we don't have, and that inspiration has to come through us as leaders to be of service. There's two simple questions a leader must ask. The first is, how can I be of service? The second is, do you know anyone that can help me? The first one seems obvious. Uh, you know how? How can we be of service?

[00:29:50] Everyone loves to give the energy of giving. If I'm in a big group where I'm speaking, I'll say, who here loves to give? Everyone immediately raises their hand. The more interesting thing is when I ask who here loves to receive, most people are either hesitant in raising their hand or don't raise their hand at all is because we don't feel worthy, because we don't have purpose and passion behind our receivership.

[00:30:13] Being a leader allows others to be in the position of receivership. When I say being a receivership, what I mean is that we have to be open to receive in order to allow it to go through us and appreciate it. Add value so it can benefit other people. Two words that, uh, a leader must live by. And I u I used to tell everyone that.

[00:30:36] Most important two words in life are thank you. You can say thank you before you go to bed. And when you wake up, you can say thank you to anything that happens or occurs in your life, and it will make it better. That's because our lives, what we project, our perspective is based on the past and the judgment that we have to have to the past in order to project the future that we want or the perspective that we want is gratitude.

[00:30:57] And so thank you obviously allows us then to project a future that we want, where most people put faith in the wrong thing. They put faith in the past, and then they get exactly what they don't want, which is the same results of the path without having an inspired gratitude or gratefulness or those two words.

[00:31:12] Thank you. But more powerful, most people can handle. Thank you. It's just creating the habit of it, which is difficult, but where most people have problems being a leader, uh, because in their minds it's conflictual or, uh, anti uh, congruent. And that's radical humility. Leaders need to be radically humble.

[00:31:34] Leaders need to ask, do you know anyone that can help me? Most leaders are of service, but they're afraid to ask for help. Where I live my entire life in receivership where I know that I need help, I need to find the people, the ideas that are ready, have the situational knowledge and experience to accelerate what I'm trying to do.

[00:31:58] I don't need to experience everything myself in, in order to be an effective leader, I need to ask for help. And the other inherent part of radical humility is the ego. Uh, two things that get in the leader's way. One is time. Uh, we all live in a linear timeframe, a manmade construct of 24 hours. Everyone on earth thinks they have 24 hours, and as productivity and accessibility goes, absolutely, you have 24 hours of activity and I suggest you.

[00:32:28] Try to be as productive and accessible as you can, meaning accessible to others to be of service, as well as accessing the information and help that you need. Uh, but each individual has their own multidimensional understanding of time. It's all different, and it's based off of the purpose of time, which is to keep us present, to stay present with that which inspires us so that we can appreciate, be grateful for, and add value to everything that we're receiving.

[00:32:57] It's so difficult as a leader to communicate, uh, because our egos are always in our way, and when we are inspired in spirit of service, we are out of our own way. The ego includes the need to be right. One of the tragic flaws of most leaders is the need to be right. I can't tell you how many leaders fail because they have a need to be right.

[00:33:25] I can't tell you how many marriages feel fail because we have a need to be right. The next one is a need to be offended. Uh, the ego carries a need to be offended and as a leader, so many leaders feel a need to be offended by things that are done to them or for them, not through them. Then you have the separation of the ego.

[00:33:46] The ne the ego has a need to be separate. Most leaders feel as if they have a need to be superior, which is generated by the need to be inferior. And the need to be separate is a tragic flaw of most leaders that they don't see the commandments that are within ourselves as leaders to work with everyone.

[00:34:07] And if you look at the political atmosphere today in America, that's our biggest problem is everyone has different visions and values and, and policies and all the different things that should be discussed. Where they should be focused in and in and working on is working with each other because this is one country, this is one world.

[00:34:28] And instead of putting faith in what we don't want, putting faith into objections and ego-based, uh, issues, we should be putting faith into working together and listening to each other. Now, there's three types of listeners, and this is part of getting out of our own way as well with the ego. There are a lot of listeners that are interrupters, and when I say listeners, I mean learners cuz the only way we can learn is to listen.

[00:34:57] So those are two, uh, very similar words, listener and learner. Well, not just with each other. Remember, we communicate two ways with each other, but also with that which inspires us. If you're an interrupter, what happens is you are not learning or listening to what inspires you, right? The universe, God keeps telling you, do this, do this, and we just ignore it.

[00:35:21] We, nope, this, that's, this is what I want. We, we, we're not watching the signs. Our awareness, it's, it's there every day for us, but nope, we're gonna interrupt her. We're gonna tell, tell you, God. We're gonna tell you universe what we want or other people are telling us, right? Like the signs that I got, Nope.

[00:35:38] Nope, really look around you. I don't get it. Look around you. Look at my big house. Look at my Ferrari, right? I wasn't listening. I wasn't a learner. Then there's another group of people that are delayed learners. I call them waiters. Now, they pretend like they're listening to God or the universe. They pretend like they're listening to others, but what they're doing is in their head, they're just thinking about, what do I have to say?

[00:36:03] Right? You're talking or all of the signs and awareness around me, but I just can't wait to tell you what I think. Once again, are you kidding me? Look around you. All of those different things that that's a waiter or delayed learner. Now, a true learner, a true learner is someone who processes all the in information by being accessible.

[00:36:26] Accessible is a powerful word in appreciation because you have to, number one, be accessible to others to be of service and access help. How can I be of service? Do you know anyone that could help me? Two simple words to guide you through and to be a leader. The next part about leader to be a leader is to understand your own values.

[00:36:49] There's four values that you have to understand because if you don't understand your own values, you can't be a value-based leader, right? You're, you become a manager, not a leader if you're not value-based, right? We're teaching people how to file papers, what to do, what to say, what to think, but we're not teaching 'em what to believe or we're not molding their energy or genetics in an unconscious competency that has a higher vibration and a higher ability to inspire others, to inspire others to be happy.

[00:37:16] So we need to know, number one, what are our personal values as a leader? Our integrity, our character, our love, our family, our health. We need to know for ourselves what those personal values are. Secondly, we need to know our experiential values. Wait, where do we value all of these different things that we're gonna experience?

[00:37:36] Education, you know, business knowledge, online, inform all these different experiences, travel. The third, giving values. Where am I giving values? How? How am I of service? What am I gonna do for others? What does it do for them? And then finally, receivership. Receiving values. Now, where most people get confused when they, especially a leader, when they look at the values, they look at it idealistically, meaning that I should have a completely balanced life.

[00:38:05] 25% of my life should be for my personal values. 25, right? And we equate out six hours a day of the 24 hours in a day, six hours of personal, six hours to experiential, six hours to giving, and six hours to receiving. That's not how it works. In order to live an inspired life and to be a true leader, we need to know the appropriate times and percentages to give to those values.

[00:38:27] Sometimes we need 90% of our time on our personal values. Sometimes 99% on our giving, and sometimes 99% on our receiving. In order to have clarity on what we want in order to be a LE leader, we need to have balance of our values, and we have to have prioritized balance, not equilibrium balance, it just changes as the time goes by.

[00:38:54] That then allows us to have focus, which gives us confidence, and confidence is something that allows us to lead. People are attracted to confidence. It's a higher vibrating energy. When we are more confident by having clarity, balance, and focus, then we're able to lead to effectively communicate and take the inspiration that we have and inspire others with that information, and those values are very important.

[00:39:19] Now, in order to. Help people formulate and prioritize their own values. We need to empower them as well. And what we need to empower them with are your o, what you derive as your own core values from personal, experiential giving and receiving. So for me, there's four things that I teach as a leader.

[00:39:39] Number one is obvious. It's gratitude. I teach people to say thank you before they go to bed. And when they wake up, I tell 'em if they can do it for 30 straight days, that it will change their lives and start becoming part of their subconscious and even their unconscious competency. I tell people all the time, it's one of the most challenging things that you'll ever try to do.

[00:39:56] Most people, when I ask them, who here thinks they can say thank you for 30 straight days? We'll raise their hand immediately. And the saddest thing is by tonight, half of them can't. By the next morning, another half won't, and within three days, almost all of us will stop. In fact, I was teaching this stuff and writing books about it, and it took me nine months in order to literally say thank you before I went to bed.

[00:40:17] And when I woke up for 30 straight days without missing. Very difficult thing because the human mind, that ego is in our O own way. There's always a fear of loss. There's always an ego that need to be right, offended, separate, inferior, superior. There's a need for fear, anxiety, guilt. All of these different needs get in our own way, and it's amazing how we can't do something every single day when that's the nature of values.

[00:40:44] That's how we get from the cellular memory into the neuro pathways over subconscious, the 40,000 of the same thoughts every day, running around inspired thoughts that are connecting us where to our unconscious to spirit, genetic and energetic, the highest vibration, allowing everything to happen. Leaders allow things to happen.

[00:41:03] They don't make them happen. They're in no control. A radically humble leader will allow everything to happen rapidly and accurately inspire others to do the same for the benefit of others. It's a really simple formula. Now, the second thing beyond gratitude. Is empathy. Empathy, uh, is different than what most people think of when I ask them, what do you think empathy is?

[00:41:26] They immediately say, oh, it's, you know, walking the mile in somebody's shoes. No, no. That's sympathy, right? I can't feel bad enough to make anyone feel good. I can't be sad enough to make you happy. I can't be poor enough to make you rich, and I certainly can't be sick enough to make you. Well. Empathy is so much more powerful because it's forgiveness.

[00:41:45] If you can combine gratitude, appreciation with forgiveness, understanding that we're all on a journey trying to do these things and live at a higher self. We're all in a new definition of happiness, not being as rich as you can so you can buy your mom a house in a car. Not attaching my happiness to when I graduate high school.

[00:42:05] I'll be happy college. I'll be happy when I'm a doctor. I'll be happy pro football player. I'll be happy when a millionaire, I'll be happy when I'm married. I'll be happy when I have my kids. I'll be happy when they graduate and leave the house. I'll be happy. That's not happiness. Happiness is the enjoyment of the consistent every day persistent without quit pursuit of my potential.

[00:42:28] What is potential, the truth, the inspiration, the higher self. In some religions, they call it Christ, the higher self, the higher being. And when you're enjoying the inconsistent persistent pursuit of your potential, when you're enjoying the higher self of being a parent, a community member of a leader, that's where true purpose, passion, and profitability all meet.

[00:42:48] That's where you live and inspire life. That's when you can allow things to come through us. But it doesn't happen without forgiveness because we can't give what we don't have. And if we're separate from others, we cannot lead. And when we realize that we're all human, that we mis make mistakes or sinned every day.

[00:43:08] That we have to move forward. We have to make a judgment of gratitude and forgiveness on our past so that we can project an appreciated future, not the same faith of what we had in the past. Because if we're dwelling with guilt and fear of loss and all these different things on my past, I'm just projecting the exact same thing into my future because the universe, our God, it's gonna give us exactly what we want and we put faith in the wrong things.

[00:43:32] It's gonna give us the wrong things. The problem is people think that faith and hope only work one way. It doesn't. It works towards the judgment of the past, projecting into the future. And with forgiveness and gratitude, we are only living better lives, not only for us, but through us for others. The third thing in values of leadership is accountability.

[00:43:55] Accountability is really tricky, especially cause I went to law school. You know, I came home and challenged my mother because she had a great line with six kids. Uh, quick parenting advice though, because I know th this is about leadership, and my mom is one of the best leader I've ever met, raising six kids, all who went through the Ivy Leagues.

[00:44:11] I'm the low end of the gene pool, and I've done fairly well, but she literally used to say, best parenting advice that I have for you. Wake your kids up by 5:00 AM They'll be too tired to do anything bad by the time they get home. But anyway, my mom used to always say, you live in below the line, and I'm, I'm like, what do you mean?

[00:44:30] She said, you're living in blame, shame, and justification. Stop blaming your siblings every time that you're do something wrong. Instead of just forgiving yourself and being accountable, you go below the line, you blame somebody else, you're justifying it or you're shameful of it. No, be accountable. Realize there's only two questions to ask As a leader.

[00:44:55] Number one, what did I do to attract this into my life? And two, what am I supposed to learn from it? Once again, going back to judgments of the past. If you take that perspective that you're in control of your life only in one way by the fact that you've allowed it to happen as a leader, and it's a blessing because you're gonna learn something from it.

[00:45:16] Every single thing that's happened in my past is a blessing. I tell people all the time, the biggest miracle in my life is losing everything, because I wouldn't be where I am today. I wouldn't be in the pursuit of my potential. I probably would be dead or somewhere I don't want to be. But for the fact that I got to restart, that I had an awakening, that I had a quantum shift in my life, that I started putting faith and being of service, not of receiving things, and I'm living an empowered, purposeful pursuit now of my higher self.

[00:45:48] Am I perfect? No. That's where my forgiveness comes in. But I am accountable. And where the law school made me confused is I went to my mom and I said, mom, how is it I could be sitting at a stop sign and somebody texting could run into the back of me? How am I accountable for that? And she said, this is where people fail, is they confuse liability with accountability, right?

[00:46:08] We have normal laws here, California state laws, federal laws make people liable for damages. So don't go in front of a judge when you get hit from behind and say, oh, I'm accountable. Cuz they're not gonna understand the distinction between liability and accountability. They're, they're not gonna give you what you deserve under the laws of this pragmatic world.

[00:46:27] But know in your heart, there's only one question to ask, what did I do to attract this to myself? And then what am I supposed to learn from it? Even something that seems so powerless. So live your life as a leader above the line in accountability. And then finally, effective communication, really understanding how you stay inspired.

[00:46:49] One of the biggest questions that I get from my following is all the time, how do you stay inspired? How do you stay so motivated? How do you have so much energy? Well, I use an analogy of a car sitting on top of a a hill in San Francisco, right when the car sits on top of that High Hill Knob Hill in San Francisco.

[00:47:08] All it takes is one finger to hold it up there. It sits right on top of when that car starts rolling downhill. The more we let it roll, the more energy it it takes. And in fact, in my life, I used to let the car just roll all the way downhill all day long, and sometimes I'd load stuff into the car while it was going down downhill.

[00:47:25] I'd give it more energy. And then when I got home at night, I wonder why that car ran me over every single night. Invariably putting faith into the wrong things, putting my energy, my attention, intention on the wrong things, and then being run over with no inspiration at night, wondering, how am I gonna get up tomorrow?

[00:47:42] I feel like the Nigerian nightmare just ran me over again. Well, what happens if our, uh, perspective shifts? We start understanding inspiration and awareness and understanding the power of faith and hope, and the power that we've been given to help and to be of service. So the car invariably will start moving downhill at one point in our day.

[00:48:06] Well, what if instead of trying to jump in and put faith into what's happening with the car, ignore it or go with it and add energy to the problem? What if instead of reacting, all we do is get the car back up to center at the very, so the min. The quicker we can get it, the easier it is to push back up to center.

[00:48:25] Then we deal. In gratitude, empathy, accountability, and effective communication. Inspiration. So how do you stay inspired is don't allow yourself to become uninspired. The minute that we feel time or ego getting in our way, go back to center. Now, prayer and meditation are the same things to me. Prayer and medi.

[00:48:45] People get confused when you say, I meditate. What is meditation? It's prayer. It's prayer, right? I breathe through my nose, out through my mouth. I put into positive thoughts what I want for the world, for a better place. How can I be a better person? Raise my awareness. Meditation is prayer, and I pray for 20 minutes a day.

[00:49:06] When I wake up, I call it meditation, but I pray, I, I, I think about what I want and how I'm, and why I want it, and how I'm gonna get it. And I do it with radical humility as a leader that I'm not alone. That I, I am going to get out of my own way and allow everything that I want to come to me rapidly and accurately.

[00:49:29] And how do I do that? Very simple. When I pray, I think about what I want immediately giving me a mathematical advantage as a leader over everybody else. Why? Because the minute I feel, realize, and clarity, balance and focus with confidence, with, I want, it's a possibility, a mathematical advantage over most people on earth.

[00:49:47] I have a possibility. And then if I can be inspired, if I can think about my values and I can feel in inspiration, in connection, right, connected to goodness, connected to God, connected to what I believe in that inspiration, I now have even a bigger superior advantage because my possibility when I'm inspired becomes a probability.

[00:50:09] A probability, a mathematical advantage. I haven't left my, my eyes haven't even opened. I've just been praying. Every morning I take by being of service and being inspired. Every possibility of what I can think about what I want, and I make it a probability. The what is the possibility, the why. The inspiration is my probability.

[00:50:28] And then all I gotta do is get out of my own way. Be aware of the ego, the car rolling down the hill, the time, anxiety, guilt, separation, inferiority, superiority, all these things. And use strategy number one, strategy. Very simple. How can I be of service? And can you think of anyone that can help me discipline, do stuff every day.

[00:50:50] I prioritize and I do stuff religiously every day in the pursuit of my potential. And finally, awareness. Awareness is the greatest gift that you can give, only given by possibilities and probabilities of how awareness is elevating yourself, a higher vibration, a higher self, so that you can be aware of making the right choices according to the foundational values that you want for you, and those you lead in commandment with you, working with you.

[00:51:18] That is awareness. Awareness is the greatest gift that you can have. Why? It'll tell you whether to go left or right. Once again, saving your marriage, it'll tell you when to buy or sell. It'll tell you when to buy or sell. I can make all of us in this room a billionaire in two seconds if you know when to buy and sell.

[00:51:34] What most importantly, awareness makes you. An appreciator, makes you grateful for every single thing you have, and allows you to add value for it to others. And if you can take your possibilities every morning, turn them into probabilities and allow things to happen with strategy, discipline, and awareness.

[00:51:56] Not only will you be happy, but you'll empower other people to empower others to be happy. And that's what I wish for everyone. I learned this. I, I was in, um, my 20th anniversary in Dubrovnik and I went across, uh, the bridge pouring down rain, and I didn't have an umbrella. And I'm walking really swiftly and in complete humility.

[00:52:21] There was a beggar about at the first third of the bridge, and the bridge is about a half a mile. And he was just on his knees, folded elbows to the ground and wasn't looking up, just hands out. And because it was raining, one of the things I've learned in my legacy is I don't pass by those who need.

[00:52:40] Right. Cause you then you, you're not living in a world of more than enough. Trust me. You live in a world of just enough or not enough, you're gonna attract just enough and not enough. I live in a world of more than enough. Therefore, if somebody has their hands out, I'm gonna give something. I'm gonna give what I can.

[00:52:55] Well, it was raining and it was cold, and I'm with my wife on my anniversary, dressed up, and I walk by and I see those hands and I don't stop. And every step that I take with her faster and faster, it's drawing me back. Right? My now is, is so much different because my now is being of service and how can I expect others to help me if I'm not willing to help myself?

[00:53:19] And I get almost two thirds across with the pouring down rain. And it did not stop. And I looked at her and I go, I gotta go. She's like, you're gonna run there without me to the, to the other side. I'm like, no, I gotta go back. You forgot your cell phone. No, I gotta help him.

[00:53:39] Matt Potter: On episode three of this three-part series, David Meltzer, award-winning humanitarian International speaker and bestselling author and chairman of the Unstoppable Foundation teaches us that legacy is all about what we do now. We learn it is important to be a motivator and not a manipulator who must always be the leader that helps people in need.

[00:54:06] David Meltzer: The last question that I ask every week on my podcast is, what legacy do you wanna leave? And it's amazing cause I have, uh, Ray Lewis and Daley and Dan Kirkpatrick and, you know, uh, the president of Starbucks. And, and I never, I never can guess what the legacy is gonna be. Sometimes the legacies that we talk about involve our children.

[00:54:33] Uh, what I think is most important about Legacy is to understand the theory of relativity, uh, in oneness. Because what I find the answers that vary from all the people I ask about their legacy is they get caught into some sort of realm of relativity. When we understand that we're all connected, that we're all relative to one.

[00:54:54] Some people are more relative to us than others. You know, I have an intimate relationship with my wife, which makes her one of the most relative people in my life and the legacy that I wanna live and, and provide in that one relative relationship, there is a, a legacy that I wanna provide, and I have to bifurcate all the different legacies that I wanna leave.

[00:55:19] Now, how's the legacy created though? That's where John Daley gave me the most interesting answer because he says, you know, legacies bs it's what I do now. What's the purpose of time now? Now is the purpose of time through the multidimensional, uh, reality that we live in our own time, in our mind compared to the pragmatic, manmade construct of time.

[00:55:47] What we do now is our legacy and how is it relative to all the different people all the way out to, you know, some of the people that I see on TV or the internet that aren't living in the pursuit of their potential that maybe have mental illness or, or some sort of ego-based issues that are uncontrollable.

[00:56:06] I used to watch things that I would see on the internet and say, how am I won with that? How am I won with evil as I read about certain, you know, tragedies and horrific things that happen, you know, even here today, uh, in California as we had a tragedy the other week, um, at a bar and, and then we have the fires and how am I won?

[00:56:27] How, how is that part of me? Because that's not my pursuit. It is my legacy. It's my legacy of how I make it relative to me. How is some innate evil relative to me? Am am I going to be out? There's a story that, that I grew up with in, in my culture about, you know, uh, the, the Holocaust and you know, I grew up with Jewish culture in my life and, uh, my brother, who is a famous rabbi, but they tell this story about, first they came for the Italians.

[00:57:04] I was an Italian, so I didn't care. So how's it relative to me? What's my legacy? You know? Then they came, you know, for the Asians, I wasn't Asian and I, so I didn't care. Then they came for the tall people. I wasn't tall, so I, I didn't care. Then they, they came for the Christians and I wasn't Christians. I didn't care, and then they came for the Mormons.

[00:57:24] I wasn't Mormon, so I didn't care. Now they come for me and there's no one left. That's the legacy. That's the understanding of relativity that you need to be, uh, leave a legacy to, to everyone, to, to a one is I, I will leave a certain legacy to my wife. I will leave a certain legacy to my children. I wanna leave a certain legacy to my community.

[00:57:50] I wanna leave a certain legacy of content for everyone. For those that I don't know, I wanna leave a legacy with my relationship to God, which is solely an individually mine that I don't have to put any judgments on, on anyone. I want people to be inspired by that, which inspires them. I want to leave a legacy of empowerment of life and leadership.

[00:58:15] Legacy is so important because if we are pursuing our potential and we're focused in on the now, the legacy will take care of itself. Once. Then once again, which has to go back to all the core values of what we're, we're, we're pursuing our personal values and how is that going to create a legacy for us, our experiential values, right?

[00:58:40] I leave a legacy of my business. I leave a l a legacy O of anyone and everyone I touch. I tell a story. Talk about legacy. We don't understand the blessings and the value that we have as appreciators. If someone asks you what you wanna live your legacy as an depreciator of all that's relative to me. I wanna be an appreciate of all that's relative to me, which means I wanna be grateful for everything that's happened and everything that's come through me, but add value to it.

[00:59:06] Now I'm in the pursuit of that. I joke around and say legacy. I put it down in my signature. Two things that are interesting about my email signature that I've changed as I've been given accolades and awards and what I call, you know, the non inspirational types of things that we deal with. I used to list them out.

[00:59:26] I know a top author and podcast and TV show, and, but, and you know, I'm looking at it as I'm emailing, going, who cares? Instead, I changed it to one simple line, Russ ips. That which speaks for itself. That which speaks for itself. That's my legacy. Now, is it all gonna be positive? No, because I'm human. I have made mistakes.

[00:59:52] I've made mistakes. I, I lived the first part of my life as a manipulator, a legacy of a manipulator. And there's people that no matter what I do, I'll always have the legacy of being a manipulator. I oversold, I backend sold. I manipulated, even sometimes lied to people. I did it. I did it. And I would venture to say almost everyone that I've met, if they can illuminate and be accountable and honest, have done the same things at times in their life.

[01:00:22] I have forgiven myself for that and I have asked for forgiveness for others through the forgiveness that I have for myself. But that's part of my legacy. Losing everything is part of my legacy. It legacy doesn't have, it's what people do with their legacy that now of that legacy. And not to be ashamed, I, I, I don't want, I, I don't carry negative energy towards any of the things that I did in the past because I can't do anything about it.

[01:00:49] And it's reps equal IP quarter, that which speaks for itself. But I will tell you over now, over a decade, my pursuit of being a motivator, a leader to live in service, to be of service, to, to be an appreciator. Every single thing I do, I try so hard to be grateful for and to add value to it and allow it to come through me for the benefit of others without the fear of loss, without the ego, the need to be right, offended, separate, inferior, superior, guilty, shameful, unworthy, all the different things of the ego that exists every day.

[01:01:25] Know your legacy is just like working out. Someone asked me today in one of my coaching calls, you know how, you know, how long does it take if you do something every day to get it into your unconscious competency? I said, I don't know, but I know the system works. From the cellular memory to the neuro pathways into your energy and genetics, you can actually deactivate and activate the DNA that you want.

[01:01:47] But I will tell you this. It's just like working out. You know, you can be in the best shape of the world, in the world, but if you stop using those muscles sooner or later, it's gonna revert to where you were. Now, you build up a resistance. You, you have a better longevity, you have a better legacy of your own physicality, of your own conscious, subconscious, and unconscious, your own legacy.

[01:02:10] But you need to be consistent. The two key phrases of the definition of happiness, of the enjoyment, of the consistent persistent pursuit of your potential, to me is the pursuit and the consistency. Because to me, if you're consistent and in pursuit, everything else follows, you're good. You're gonna enjoy it, you're gonna be persistent, and you're gonna reach your potential every day.

[01:02:34] So the two keywords are, can you consistently pursue something? Can I consistently be grateful? Can I pursue that every day? But we ha in order to do that, we have to understand our legacy of what we're leaving behind or what we're doing when, when we say leaving behind, there's another element just ca came to me.

[01:02:53] Um, I always say that the past projects our future, well, our legacy is how the past perceives us. Our past perceives us. So most people think of legacy in terms of my legacy when I die. Everyone in the past, how they perceive me is it by, uh, the Dave Meltzer Sports Law Excellence Fund at Tulane University.

[01:03:18] I joke around and say, you know, with the different things that I see in schools, I walk around at every building outta college is named after somebody. And I think to myself, how many people do I know whose name's on the building at the two universities that I went to? All the millions and millions of dollars that were raised through ego.

[01:03:35] I don't remember any of them. I don't know what any of the, the name buildings are. I don't know who those people are, and they must have had significant, but they left the legacy, they, they left the legacy. It was not their name on the wall. Their, their legacy is providing an opportunity for others to learn and all, I don't know the person that gave the money to my scholarship to college, but there's a big legacy because of what I've been able to do with that.

[01:04:02] I never would've been able to go to college, but for the fact that somebody put up money to my university for me to go there. And now I've been able to do the same thing for hundreds of people to go to school. And Warren Moon, my business partner, hundreds of people. You know, the, the legacy of now is whatever you've done up until now and who is relative to you in that matter, because you never know.

[01:04:27] I'm the chairman of the Unstoppable Foundation and one of my favorite stories is, This gentleman who, uh, was sponsored in Africa by a woman. He didn't know who she was, but she gave a couple dollars a day and she paid and continued to pay for him until he graduated from Harvard. Became a very successful, uh, human rights lawyer, changed millions and millions of lives, and at the time, he wanted to find this lady and he always thought she must have been this rich woman, you know, who was his benefactor, who changed his life, but it wasn't.

[01:05:02] It was a teacher like my mom living in a one bedroom apartment who gave enough money every single day for him to affect million. What's her legacy? What, what is her legacy? What's her now? And your legacy is every single day of your life, you carry your legacy with you. And I work on my legacy only to be of service and to ask for help, because I don't know, I, and I can't.

[01:05:31] I can't, you know, I always say, you know, if you look far enough into somebody, you're gonna find. The same thing as everybody else. Everyone makes these mistakes and that's part of my legacy. I say illuminate the negative part of your legacy so others can do like you and learn from it and find the miracle or blessing in it.

[01:05:53] I look for blessings and purpose into everything. Uh, I tell a story walking, uh, in the UK and there was a homeless woman talking about legacy, homeless woman on the street. All she had was a pen and a paper. And I walked by her and I was drawn to her and I said, excuse me ma'am. How can I be of service?

[01:06:12] What can I do for you? And she looked at me with her pad of paper and pen and she said, I'll sell you this for a million dollars. I chuckled like everyone else, not understanding blessings, purpose or value, true blessings, purpose or values. And I said, well, I really can't do that, but can I buy you something to eat?

[01:06:31] Or Here's 20 euros, you know? Would that help? She said, no. I said, okay, and I kind of looked at my wife and walked away. Now, I made up that story to prove a point because what if that lady was JK Rawlings and what she offered me for a million dollars was a multi-billion dollar property from the richest woman in the UK as she sat there homeless, everyone else with a different legacy and perspective.

[01:07:01] Not a perspective, not a legacy of finding the blessing and value and appreciation in everyone. We're so stuck in a pragmatic world of 24 hours and a monetary gain that we don't understand that the values, the appreciation is far beyond our awareness or belief and legacy. And understanding legacy is not just our own because everyone else is relative to us.

[01:07:25] So what's gonna be your legacy to me, and how can I illuminate the things and forgive the things that you may do that may not be the things you want in your legacy? But I guarantee you this, as my signature above Dave Meltzer rests iplo. What it says is unconditionally unconditional judgment. No condition, no judgments of my past or of yours, full faith that we're all doing our best.

[01:07:56] Now, are there some people out there that are, are, are, uh, mentally ill and do things that don't make sense? Yeah, it, it, it's an issue, but I have full faith that everything has its purpose and its reason. I have full faith in gratitude in every single thing that happens. And I will illuminate not only what I do, but what others do for the benefit of others, not just the unconditionally.

[01:08:20] As my mom, when she was told that I lost her house and unconditionally just said, how can I be of service? Do you need anything instead of worrying about herself? That moment to my life changed my signature forever. No, the real signature should read Hypocritically because I think it would make people feel more comfortable that we're all hypocritically living life, because we all make mistakes every day.

[01:08:48] One of my favorite things when I start a new training or have a bunch of people, I love to start out by saying, who here has made a mistake? And everybody raises their hand, right? When I have new employees and everyone just raise their, their comfort level to understanding their legacy, our legacies are made not just by our achievement and our successes, but by how we have reacted to the legacy of mistakes, the legacy of imperfection, the legacy of hypocrisy.

[01:09:18] Now, to me, it's amazing how some people can devoid themselves of time. I look at, you know, Nelson Mandela and I think of a legacy. What was his legacy, his first year in jail? What was his legacy? His fifth year in jail? What was his legacy? The 10th year in jail? What was the legacy? The 20th year in jail.

[01:09:40] His 25th year in jail, his 27th year in jail. It changed. His legacy changed. And today his legacy is tremendous. The legacy of of Einstein, of Disney. What was the legacy of Disney when he went bankrupt for the sixth time and he had to go home to his wife and say, Hey, sorry I've lost everything and really failed again.

[01:10:03] But don't worry, cause I'm gonna create a kingdom about a mouse. Everything's gonna be okay. Our greatest icons of legacy have all had one thing in common. Tremendous failure as their legacy. Tremendous manipulation, tremendous ignorance. They had to learn. Abraham in the Bible read it right? He was 80 years old.

[01:10:27] There's a long line of mistakes that were made. Einstein, he Einstein is the, you ask anyone in the world, not just United States in the world, who's the kin? What's the kin, uh, the icon for genius? Everyone invariably Einstein really, because part of his legacy, part of his legacy was when he was creating equals mc squared was to be ostracized because nobody else believed it or understood it.

[01:10:55] His relativity to his community was an extraordinary poor one, and he made a ton of mistakes. He got divorced and it caused all kinds of human stress. But when you ask people who and what is genius, they say, Einstein, when you say entertainment, six bankruptcies and all types of manipulation and mistakes, right?

[01:11:15] We all say Disney. We all say Disney. Isn't it incredible when we look in the Bible, who do you say? Abraham? Go ahead and read about what happened to Abraham as he got until he was 80 years old. The amount of mistakes. But what? What's Abraham's legacy? What's Moses's legacy? What is your legacy? I'll tell you what your legacy is.

[01:11:37] Your legacy is your now and the purpose of time is now. And if you can live unconditionally and be an appreciator and living in the fore core values of gratitude, empathy, accountability, and effective communication. If you can live your life and pray, make God put 10 people in front of me that I can help.

[01:11:56] Can I be of service? And more importantly, can I find somebody that can help me? Every time we ask for help, what we're doing is making an, uh, a statement that we are not whole without others. That's why we make mistakes, because as we, if the more people that we all put together, the less mistakes we're gonna make because everybody has their own core competencies.

[01:12:20] Conscious, subconscious, unconscious. As we join everybody together as one, as we command and work with each other for the benefit of all, that's when the whole, the oneness happens. That's when the motivator comes, the legacy that we're looking for. What legacy does really everybody want to be happy, right?

[01:12:39] If I could guarantee you happiness from the time you open your eyes till the time you close it, would it be enough? I ask question, that question around the world, and it invariably everybody says, yeah, of course. If I could just be happy. The funny thing is I never talk about economics. I never talk about health.

[01:12:57] I never talk about relationships. Happiness is enough. Happiness is what creates our legacy. And it's not just enough for us to be happy because we, our vessels aren't big enough. We need to empower others to empower others to be happy. And I don't care if you can change one life as a legacy. A hundred lives, a million lives or a billion lives, which some people are able to do.

[01:13:23] It doesn't matter cuz your legacy's happening every day. I learned this. I, I was in, um, my 20th anniversary in Dubrovnik and I went across, uh, the bridge pouring down rain and I didn't have an umbrella. And I'm walking really swiftly and in complete humility. There was a beggar about, at the first third of the bridge, and the bridge is about a half a mile.

[01:13:49] And he was just, On his knees folded BLEs to the ground and wasn't looking up, just hands out. And because it was raining. One of the things I've learned in my legacy is I don't pass by those who need, right? Cause you then you're, you're not living in a world of more than enough. Trust me, you live in a world of just enough or not enough, you're gonna attract just enough and not enough.

[01:14:11] I live in a world of more than enough. Therefore, if somebody has their hands out, I'm gonna give something. I'm gonna give what I can. Well, it was raining and it was cold, and I'm with my wife on my anniversary, dressed up, and I walk by and I see those hands and I don't stop. And every step that I take with her faster and faster, it's drawing me back.

[01:14:33] Right? My now is, is so much different because my now is being of service. And how can I expect others to help me if I'm not willing to help myself? And I get almost two thirds across with the pouring down rain. And it did not stop. And I looked at her and I, I gotta go. She's like, you're gonna run there without me to the, to the other side.

[01:14:51] I'm like, no, I gotta go back. You forgot your cell phone. No, I gotta help him. I get choked up. Cause I ran back. I got there. I took all the money in my pocket. Still to this day, I don't know how manys it was. And I put it into his hands. I saw him look up, he looked at the money and look up. Besides the rain, I could see tears.

[01:15:16] Tears of happiness of that. Didn't mean anything to me, but it changed my life. Still today, I get choked up thinking about it. That's my legacy for that day. Now is that my legacy for my life? No. Only to that guy, that one person who I don't know his name, that's relative to me and, and the story itself. But that's not my legacy.

[01:15:39] I could tell you 10 stories about shitty things, excuse my language, bad things that I've done. And I learned from them so that that day came where I could help that person. When you want to really worry about legacy, you wanna think about legacy, all you have to think about is now and being rest. Ips Elocuter, being unconditional, enjoying the consistent, everyday persistent without quit pursuit of your potential to create the greatest legacy to for all.

[01:16:09] Because we don't know how far it reaches and understanding that more, some people are more relative than others, but just because we leave a legacy to one, we don't know how many it'll affect. And I want that legacy for others to be that legacy of gratitude, empathy, which is forgiveness, accountability, and effective communication, A legacy of living inspired life.

[01:16:33] Be a motivator, not a manipulator. That's what I wish my legacy to be every day as well as everyone else.

[01:16:44] Matt Potter: Sometimes we can get caught up in how much we're serving. Are we doing enough? Are we helping enough people? Is our service big enough? Are we serving in the right ways? And while these questions show that we care about being of service, none of this really matters. God simply wants us to serve, to be a servant and to live our lives for the benefit of others.

[01:17:08] How we serve will look different from person to person. It may even change in our lives from day to day. One day God may call us to serve him by simply smiling at a stranger in the grocery store another day. God may call us to serve him by buying a meal for a homeless man. Another day, God might call us to start a scholarship program at our school, there are so many ways to serve God.

[01:17:32] In fact, every moment is an opportunity to serve for the glory of God. We simply have to be open and aware of how, where, and whom God calls us to serve. The most important questions we can ask are how can we help? Who can we help? Where can we help? And also who can help us because we can't do everything alone.

[01:17:55] And just as we're called to help some people, some people will be called to help us, and that's okay. This week in Relentless Hope, award-winning humanitarian and CEO of Sports One Marketing, David Meltzer taught us about becoming vessels for service. After building a successful career in business and entertainment, David went bankrupt and faced the painful realization that he wasn't living an inspired life.

[01:18:21] He wasn't living for service or with purpose. Passion or profitability. We learned how David transformed his life so that he could live a life of service, of giving and allowing all that God is granted to flow through David for the benefit of others. David also taught us about how leadership is being of service, and he showed us that leaders need to help others and be open to receiving help, guidance, and inspiration too.

[01:18:48] We learn that leaders inspire others, but also must be inspired themselves. And inspiration comes through having a relationship and connection with God and Jesus. David encouraged us to make time every day to spend in prayer and meditation, which can help us stay inspired and motivated to be of service.

[01:19:07] And when it comes to leaving a legacy, David encouraged us to focus on the now on how we're creating legacies today. He invited us to create legacies by finding the blessings around us, becoming appreciators of everything that comes into our lives. By giving unconditionally and by living in service of others.

[01:19:27] Every moment God gives to us, we have the amazing opportunity to take what he's been given and add even more value and then give it to someone in need. This is how we show the glory of God. This is how we serve God by receiving from him and giving, giving, and giving gladly, and with love and peace in our hearts.