Join host Steven Pesavento as he delves into the journey of discovering one's purpose and achieving financial independence with guest Paul Thompson. Drawing insights from the Japanese concept of Ikigai and the power of equity ownership, they explore the path to clarity amidst life's uncertainties. Discover how identifying your innate strengths, passions, and curiosity can lead to a purpose-driven life. Paul shares his personal experiences and strategies, highlighting the importance of building equity across various asset classes. Tune in to unravel the keys to financial freedom, resilience, and meaningful existence.
Key Takeaways
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About our Guest:
Paul Thompson is a seasoned real estate investor, entrepreneur, and educator. With a background in engineering, he's always been driven by curiosity and a desire to share knowledge. Paul's passion for learning and teaching led him to create his own path to financial freedom through real estate investments. He empowers others to do the same by combining the principles of Ikigai and equity ownership to find their purpose and achieve autonomy in their lives. Paul's expertise lies in guiding individuals towards sustainable financial independence while embracing their innate strengths and passions.
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00;00;57;20 - 00;01;00;14
Steven Pesavento
We have Paul Thompson in the studio. How you doing today, Paul?
00;01;02;02 - 00;01;05;08
Paul Thompson
Doing great. Look, I was looking super forward to having this conversation, Steven.
00;01;06;03 - 00;01;51;13
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, I'm excited to have it as well because I feel like you and I are two people who've kind of had a discovery early on that what we were doing wasn't necessarily fulfilling us and that maybe there was more to life. Right. And, you know, you left the corporate world and, you know, I went did the same and kind of went on this entrepreneurial journey. And although there's many different journeys you can go on, it's the one that we chose. And, you know, as I'm sitting and reflecting and thinking about, you know, what's most important in life, finding that path towards both, making impact while creating a great income, you know, it can be challenging because as you go out and you be an entrepreneur and you run your own business and you hire people and you start doing the work, you know, it can end up being a little tiresome.
00;01;51;16 - 00;02;15;09
Steven Pesavento
You know, we trade one set of problems for a new set of problems. Oftentimes they are better, right? But it's all about that perspective. So kind of starting off, I'd love to know what perspective do you carry in life when it comes to the work that you're doing and how do you keep yourself engaged and excited as you're on that path, getting closer and closer to your dream and your vision?
00;02;16;24 - 00;02;44;19
Paul Thompson
Well, I think that's it. It's having a dream and a vision that gives you purpose. It's having a worthwhile goal to strive for and so much of whatever you're doing in life, it is not so much the achievement that makes it worthwhile, although that's certainly nice. It's the person that you have to become in order to be capable of achievement.
00;02;45;15 - 00;03;06;04
Paul Thompson
And so let's maybe make that a more practical, you know, so if somebody listening to right now, they're in the middle of a valley in life like they're had, they're having struggles. And, you know, I've certainly probably had our own struggles that we could talk about. And we're all going to have that moment where we're just like, I just don't know why why we're doing this.
00;03;06;11 - 00;03;36;05
Paul Thompson
Is this worth it? And in those moments, you need to have something that is your driving purpose and not just a passion, you know, passion and purpose or different things. And I'm talking about something that's that's purpose. I want to make an impact. I want to really connect with people. And I want to see the light bulb go off over their eyes or over their head and see their eyes light up when they find their thing that they're made for.
00;03;36;19 - 00;03;57;17
Paul Thompson
They're just encoded to be an entrepreneur or to be a developer to be you know, some people are like an accountant. Like, that's okay. It doesn't have to be a sexy, socially accepted and sexy thing. If your purpose is your purpose, then you can get through those valleys in life. And I think that's what we need to come back to.
00;03;58;00 - 00;04;20;15
Paul Thompson
And there's a saying, and I'm going to paraphrase, I think it was a tribute to Mark Twain. But, you know, like half quotes on the Internet or tribute to Mark Twain. But there's this notion of, like, there's the day you're born, and then there's the day you realize why you were born. And when you find the reason why you were born in the thing that you want to do, then what needs to be done becomes much more obvious.
00;04;21;09 - 00;04;40;08
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, and it's from that place that all of the great things in our life start happening and all the things that kind of led up to that moment. They give us the skills, the experience, the knowledge, all of the things that allow us to then step into that purpose, step into that next chapter. And yet it can be scary.
00;04;40;13 - 00;04;54;16
Steven Pesavento
It can be a little bit frightening because there's a lot of unknown, there's a lot of uncertainty in that place. So for you personally, Paul, how did you discover and define what your purpose is or the purpose that you understand today?
00;04;56;05 - 00;05;21;05
Paul Thompson
So there's this concept in from Japan called Ikigai. Have you ever heard of this guy? And then there's a series of questions you can ask yourself. It's called You're You, Larry and Destiny, and I'll do my best to get them right. But there's a there's a series of questions in the overlapping Venn diagram of the answer. It helps inform your purpose for doing something in the world.
00;05;21;13 - 00;05;56;17
Paul Thompson
You're like, What were you around most of way when you were a child? What are the things that you're you can talk about endlessly without any preparation? Like, what are the things in life you're most curious about? And when you start investigating some of those questions, then it helps it inform you that, okay, this is my thing. Like this is how I find the the discipline of life that just really fires me up and I don't have to go and revitalize myself.
00;05;56;23 - 00;06;17;10
Paul Thompson
So for me, I have found that when I learn something, I cannot help but to go and teach it to somebody else. And I wouldn't say I ever aspired to be to be a teacher, but I like information and then I like sharing that information because it's one way for me to help re establish and reaffirm what I think I know.
00;06;18;01 - 00;06;33;18
Paul Thompson
It helps me challenge when I say it out loud to somebody else, and it helps me challenge what I've conclusions I've drawn and I just cannot help but do that. I've done that ever since I was in grade school. I would learn something in class and I would be the guy on the side trying to help somebody else learn it, because that's just what I've always done.
00;06;34;02 - 00;07;00;06
Paul Thompson
I mean, it's just some, for whatever reason, an aspect of my personality. And so when I learn about real estate, I learn about entrepreneurship. I just cannot help myself. But to try and share it with somebody, whether it's for profit or just because it's fun, I just find myself in front of an audience. Usually a small, intimate audience is where I thrive, but I am in that environment trying to share information, and so I just collect big ideas and share them.
00;07;00;16 - 00;07;02;00
Paul Thompson
That's kind of my purpose.
00;07;02;28 - 00;07;36;27
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. And so it's so interesting, right, Because it's simpler than it sounds to be able to figure these things out. But oftentimes it can feel overwhelming trying to discover like, what is it that I'm actually here for? And when we put so much pressure on making sure that it's right, making sure that we know every little detail kind of going into that perfectionist mindset, it often can take away from the energy, from the juice, from the benefit of discovering what that thing is that's right for you.
00;07;37;05 - 00;08;02;06
Steven Pesavento
And the reason that I wanted to start here is because when you name your number, when you draw that line in the sand, you decide how much you need to live the life you want to live. It opens up so many more possibilities because the only way that you can actually fully draw that line in the sand is to start discovering more about yourself, discovering more about what you're meant to, to do what your life is going to be about.
00;08;02;14 - 00;08;30;14
Steven Pesavento
And what excites you. Right. And I loved what you talked about there, that curiosity, you know, the curiosity of the thing that you're already excited to talk about, excited to do it right. You might be passionate about it. You might just be interested in kind of on this ever path of learning. But then for you personally, you've found a way to kind of pull that back and be able to share that with others because that's what lights you up when you've talked to other folks and you've worked with other people.
00;08;30;14 - 00;08;45;13
Steven Pesavento
Kind of going through this process of that discovery, what are some of the things that you've noticed that are similar, or what are some of the other examples of things that other people, not yourself, have been drawn towards when it comes to what kind of they're they're here to do.
00;08;46;07 - 00;09;10;19
Paul Thompson
Right? So out of business partner that lives in Dallas, the Dallas area and his zone of genius is his thing is he just really likes having conversations with people. He's just a really sociable guy. He's really good at connecting people and he's like everybody, just like, seems like he just can effortlessly talk to a stranger about and they can even can say pretty nasty things to him.
00;09;10;19 - 00;09;35;23
Paul Thompson
And he just laughs and says, yes, and and just continues talking to that person. I mean, I've, I've been in, in front of town councils for a development project where the the city council was very uncooperative to it to our to our what we wanted to do. And afterwards that the lady came and talked to us and was telling us about all the reasons why what we're doing is bad for the city.
00;09;36;08 - 00;09;57;20
Paul Thompson
And it was kind of a funny moment, but it's also kind of stressful. And my personality is to say, Well, here's why you're wrong. And I wanted to like list off the reasons. And he's so much better at that. He they were laughing and telling jokes and he was able to handle that situation with such grace compared to where I would have been like almost like a lawyer.
00;09;57;20 - 00;10;15;15
Paul Thompson
Like, well, let me tell you how you're which would not have helped at all. And so he's an example of somebody who has a zone of genius, because that's kind of his purpose, to connect and get to know people. That is just something that he is ingrained in him and he doesn't have to work that hard at naturally being good that.
00;10;16;25 - 00;10;39;02
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. And so it's once you can discover what this thing is, what is your gift, your superpower, then you can actually begin to apply that directly into your own life, into the things you're doing and the truth is, most of us are somewhat aware of what we're good at. Maybe we have a phenomenal voice, maybe we carry a great message, maybe we're curious and we're learners.
00;10;39;10 - 00;11;11;20
Steven Pesavento
Maybe we are very analytical and whatever that thing is, that is your thing. And then you can understand, Hey, how can I apply that towards getting to the life that I want to create? The impact, the income, the lifestyle, all of those different pieces. So, Paul, for you in particular, I'm curious, you know, have you named your number and more importantly than the number that you named, what did that process of drawing a line in the sand and then designing your life in order to be able to create that?
00;11;11;24 - 00;11;12;26
Steven Pesavento
What did that do for you?
00;11;14;07 - 00;11;39;09
Paul Thompson
Yeah, so I'll walk through that a little bit because that was a bit of a process for me. You know, I had a current lifestyle in Little Rock, Arkansas. You know, I was a middle income, so I was a middle manager with a probably, you know, a six figure income and I was a single income family. My wife stays at home and we wanted to maintain that lifestyle without me having to constantly go to work.
00;11;39;09 - 00;12;09;06
Paul Thompson
So, so, so much for me about naming your number was also for me, like naming how I spent my time and I wanted to be able to earn a certain number. For me, it was start off at $5,000 a month and then it escalated to $10,000 a month. So now that I can comfortably earn $10,000 a month without spending a lot of time and effort to do so, now I have what I would consider a level one financial independence.
00;12;09;06 - 00;12;31;03
Paul Thompson
You know, I'm not going to be living an exotic life. I'm not driving a private jet. But that's my, like, safety and security. That's my my foundation of my lifestyle. And then I can spend time working on projects that I certainly have a profit motive in, but I don't have to win every single project and just change my life.
00;12;31;03 - 00;13;01;12
Paul Thompson
I like I can I can always fall back on this this portfolio of rentals that I, that I, that I have that pay my, my fundamental living expenses. And that process for me was, you know, going back to like personal finance when I was like, what do we really need to spend? And when I came up with an initial number of $5,000, it was probably enough to survive, but it wasn't enough to thrive for my chosen lifestyle and really a low cost of living area in Little Rock, Arkansas.
00;13;02;19 - 00;13;31;10
Paul Thompson
But, you know, our kids go to private school. We've tried public school at every level. Elementary where middle school and high school for our kids did not work here. So we've elected to go to private school, which is ridiculously expensive. And so that modified our lifestyle, our need to earn a little more to be able to comfortably be able to send their kids to the schools that we feel make the most sense for us in our situation and answer the question.
00;13;31;21 - 00;14;01;25
Steven Pesavento
Being in that position, being in the position to be able to know that you're level one, right? You're you're your basic expenses are covered, and knowing that you're able to then create the life for your family. How did that feel compared to the old way, the traditional way, The I'm you know, I'm grinding for a paycheck, I'm doing this thing and and I don't exactly know what I'm going to get out, what I'm going to get off the the old treadmill, as we call it.
00;14;02;11 - 00;14;24;05
Paul Thompson
Right. The rat race, the the feeling is the feeling of freedom. It's the every once in a while your job will remind you who's really in charge. You know, sometimes you have a cool boss and they're flexible and sometimes, you know, you know, you kind of like your work and your coworkers, and you're lucky that you have a boss that you like.
00;14;24;05 - 00;14;45;22
Paul Thompson
And when that's going on, you know, you're like, this is okay. Like, I, I like most of what I do at work. You know, I don't hate my job. And for anybody in a situation that's awesome. And I was in that way in that position for a while. However, you can't control the environment and bosses change. Companies get purchased, the layoffs happen and just they're outside of your control.
00;14;46;00 - 00;15;07;06
Paul Thompson
And so you don't really have the freedom and autonomy that you that you think you have. And so you're extremely vulnerable to the whims of a of a of a company that's going to create some sort of cold equation spreadsheet, which I have been a part of where I would look at spreadsheets. Employees will say, Well, that one's got to go, that one's going to go.
00;15;07;11 - 00;15;32;20
Paul Thompson
This one makes too much great employee, but they make too much. And I've been in those meetings and of course, those same meetings are happening with the I'm not involved in when my name is on the list. And that's happening in every corporation of any size. And so I think the idea of relying on a corporation or a government to take care of us is is fraught with danger and uncertainty that I think we underestimate.
00;15;33;11 - 00;15;54;22
Paul Thompson
And and so I it's okay to be an employee, but I think it's so much better to be an employee of a small company where you really know each other. And yeah, that's being closer to being a human where we were in I mean, we're a tribal species and a group of about 150 or last is kind of like the ideal tribe size for for humanity, according to scientists.
00;15;55;18 - 00;16;18;14
Paul Thompson
And anecdotally, that feels right to me. And when you get inside of a of a corporation that has more than 150 employees at one side, you don't know them all. There's there's just like there's this weird friction where you break up into like some tribes and you're like, you war against each other. And anybody who's been in corporate world or government jobs has seen that, that them versus us dynamic that happens inside inside of corporations.
00;16;18;14 - 00;16;43;08
Paul Thompson
And it's it's politicking. It's like who has the control and who has the power. And then the thing we miss is that when we're in the middle of those fights for control and power, we have already given up our control and power by working for a corporation. So when you are able to buy back your time by creating income outside of a job, then you can work for a company if you wish to income if you wish, but you don't really need that income anymore.
00;16;43;08 - 00;16;54;01
Paul Thompson
You're you have your own thing that's comfortably covering your living expenses. And I think it actually makes you a better employee because you're you're not just self-serving. You're there to serve the organization you're part of.
00;16;55;04 - 00;17;23;12
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. And it's so interesting because I, I love capitalism. I, I'm a big fan of free markets and be able to have people be able to go out and build businesses and make an impact. But it is interesting that as companies grow, they become more efficient and sometimes effective, but not often, right? But as they grow, you have to start focusing on specialization, meaning one person does one thing and they do that thing over and over and over again.
00;17;23;20 - 00;17;59;05
Steven Pesavento
And that's what ends up leading to the efficiency that leads to higher profits. And as these companies grow, as governments grow, then you start getting further and further away from that community, from that connection, from that tribe. You have it in a microcosm within those little groups, sure, but it's not the same. And that's one reason I believe a lot of people are starting to be much less happy, much more anxious, because they don't necessarily feel like the direct things that they're doing in their life are leading to the changes that they're desiring from their life.
00;17;59;11 - 00;18;24;01
Steven Pesavento
And so when they hear about things like entrepreneurship, when they hear about investing, they get excited because it's an idea that might get them more of that autonomy, that control, that influence, being able to do something that makes more of an impact, but at the same time, there's so much uncertainty, There's so much uncertainty. What you don't know, leaving the security of or the pseudo security of working in that company.
00;18;24;12 - 00;19;10;13
Steven Pesavento
And then as people do go and try to do their own thing, they recognize that they've traded one challenge for another challenge. And many of those people end up leaving. They end up going back to the old way because they didn't learn the new set of skills in order to succeed in that space. So what I'm really driving towards is this idea that sometimes the grass isn't always greener, but from your perspective, how should how should I how should the listener be thinking about getting clear on making those steps towards creating that independence so they can spend more of the time doing the things that they do really care about and what they're really here
00;19;10;13 - 00;19;10;24
Steven Pesavento
to do?
00;19;11;20 - 00;19;34;07
Paul Thompson
I think we're all in a race to get to that number. Whatever your number is, you need to get into a a purpose passionate sprint to get to the place where you comfortably have that net worth or cash flow number so that you then have bought your freedom back. And the way to do that is to own equity.
00;19;34;19 - 00;20;00;09
Paul Thompson
And so you can earn and invest and invest in the stock market and have equity and know fractional shares of of a of a big, you know, Fortune 500 company or a public company. Anyway, you could start your own business. You start with a side hustle and have it grow into a business that you're going to do. You're going to be a you can be a full on entrepreneur, You can burn the boats and build your company and hopefully your your plane flies before crashes.
00;20;00;27 - 00;20;37;27
Paul Thompson
You could. And that's why I like real estate is because it's a happy combination of the two. Is it still a business? But it's also part investment. And I'm not dogmatic or religious about any of those asset classes. I'm dogmatic about. We each need to be owning a piece of the equity of some one or all of those asset classes because that gives you the autonomy and the ability to have something that is yours that can't be easily taken away from you and earned you a residual income and has appreciation, potential and the opportunity to grow real wealth and then control what you want to do.
00;20;37;27 - 00;20;39;17
Paul Thompson
And then you can do what matters most to you.
00;20;40;21 - 00;21;03;18
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. And it's like from that place, when you step into the mindset of an investor, you're not just working for an income, you're working for the growth of that equity, right? You might be working at a small startup or a small company. You might be having the ability to make a direct impact and influence the growth of that, quote, investment, because in this case, you're investing your time and maybe you're taking a lower salaries.
00;21;03;18 - 00;21;36;01
Steven Pesavento
You're also investing that income potential that you're making. But you have to be very intentional about deciding in choosing the right invest or the right company to do that. Or if you're going to go into real estate or buy businesses. It also comes down to making that that kind of decision. So from your perspective and the things that you've learned, Paul, how would you go about thinking and discovering what is the right opportunity to make those investments of both your time, your money and kind of your skillset?
00;21;37;08 - 00;21;56;27
Paul Thompson
Yeah, I think of it as kind of like the five pillars. And so it's time and money are kind of the intuitive ones. And then you also have your knowledge and then you have your network and then you have like your, your, your project, your deal, the business you're going to invest in. Like it's some sort of value creation opportunity.
00;21;57;13 - 00;22;15;22
Paul Thompson
And when you think about those five pillars, you think about what do you have any kind of rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 on each of those five pillars. And so if you are an employee and you're working full time, you know, 40 or 50, maybe 60 hours a week, and all your time and energy is kind of taken up by that job, you earned your income.
00;22;15;22 - 00;22;40;10
Paul Thompson
That's great. So you have some income, you have some money to deploy, but you don't have a lot of time. So you probably don't have a lot of extra margin in your life to deploy that time to start a business or certainly, you know, started a full time gig. Right. So you're taking the resources that you have access to and you're trying to leverage them into an ownership stake in a discipline that you're interested in.
00;22;40;21 - 00;23;03;10
Paul Thompson
And so one of the ways you can think about your investment strategy is do I want to be an active or passive investor? Active takes more time, but you have more potential upside, passive takes less time, but you probably are capped at a certain amount of return in most cases. And then in you need probably less knowledge in network.
00;23;03;10 - 00;23;21;06
Paul Thompson
When you're truly passive investor, you find a couple of right people to invest with or a couple right things to invest in and you don't have to worry about creating deal flow or creating a new business. You can just invest in the stock market. You know, it's easy to find opportunities for something to invest in. You decide if it's good or bad, but you have have options.
00;23;21;06 - 00;23;40;06
Paul Thompson
There's there's a myriad of options to choose from. And if you choose to be active, then you need to choose something to specialize in and grow your knowledge base. So that you can leverage kind of some sort of informational advantage that you've gathered or a skill set that you've gathered to then deploy into a business that you're actively being involved in.
00;23;40;07 - 00;23;49;25
Paul Thompson
That takes a lot more of your time, but potentially it takes quite a bit less capital. You can potentially borrow money or bootstrap a business and not need a lot of capital. Do that.
00;23;51;04 - 00;24;02;27
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. And when you identify these five categories, I love that you've kind of laid that out. Time, money, network, knowledge, project, deal, equity, whatever though is.
00;24;02;27 - 00;24;04;24
Paul Thompson
Your value creation entity.
00;24;04;24 - 00;24;31;09
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so it's it's from that perspective you can determine well what do I have to offer to this opportunity? Because another example is you could come in to an investment and you could put very little time and very little money into it, but you have knowledge or you have a network, and that network could, could be so valuable to the company that you're going to end up receiving, you know, equity or income back for those for those interactions or those connections.
00;24;31;09 - 00;24;31;22
Paul Thompson
Absolutely.
00;24;32;16 - 00;25;05;17
Steven Pesavento
But it's really important that you get clear on this piece because it's when you name your number, you've got to draw that line in the sand, but then you've actually got to create a plan to get to the life you want to you want to live. And investing is a great way to be able to do that. I think, you know, when you own something that goes up in value or pays you, that's where you can start to have that recurring revenue that that recurring passive income, if you will, that will allow you to have the option to choose what you want to do and you want to understand, well, what are the assets that
00;25;05;17 - 00;25;36;03
Steven Pesavento
you're working with today. Right. And one thing that I would just share is a distinction from my perspective. When you're a passive investor, you're actually earning majority of the profit on those deals. You know, so your upside potential actually could be very great in relation to not spending the time. But in exchange what you're doing is you've got the money and you're using that money with somebody else's time, expertise, knowledge, relationships, network, finding the deals, those kind of things.
00;25;36;09 - 00;25;57;05
Steven Pesavento
But you also have to have enough knowledge to know what's the right opportunity for you. So, Paul, when it comes to choosing that right opportunity, when it comes to deciding which of those things or which opportunity is the best, what do you recommend when it comes to actually saying, Hey, I want to go and invest and I want to choose that company?
00;25;57;15 - 00;26;01;00
Steven Pesavento
How do they know if it's the right company or the right fund or the right opportunity?
00;26;02;02 - 00;26;20;06
Paul Thompson
Yeah, and this I mean, we could. Right. I think we could do an entire podcast series for the next 20 years over that conversation because it's such a I mean, that is the fundamental question is how do you determine whether it's a likely return is on a given investment and what's the best risk adjusted return for your personality.
00;26;20;19 - 00;26;48;09
Paul Thompson
So what I'll do my best to summarize this quickly is you want to choose an asset class that you have some understanding of. So whether that be the public stock market, whether that be real estate, whether that be a business like a private business that you and private invest in privately or you start your own business, any of these disciplines that you get into, it's it's you want to understand what's happening and let's just take it to simplify the scenario.
00;26;48;09 - 00;27;10;01
Paul Thompson
Let's say I've decided that that real estate once wants to be one of the things that I want to get into, and now I want to decide what kind of niche or kind of asset class that I want to invest in. And in that case, I think what you're doing is if you're a passive investor, your almost certainly going to be investing with somebody who's going to run this this business.
00;27;10;01 - 00;27;30;24
Paul Thompson
And so what you're really doing as much as investing in the fundamental asset is you're investing in the operator. And even Warren Buffett talks about this when he does investments for Berkshire Hathaway, he's looking at management. And so like you want to marry a good management team to a good opportunity and the management team is usually the one that's bringing out the opportunity.
00;27;31;02 - 00;27;53;22
Paul Thompson
So, hey, I have this real estate project, I have this business endeavor, I have this fund that I'm running. Whatever the fundamental asset is, somebody is raising their hand and saying, this is an opportunity. And so you want to you're betting on the the jockey as much as you are on the horse, because without a good jockey, it doesn't matter how good the horse or the asset in this situation is.
00;27;54;00 - 00;28;10;25
Paul Thompson
If the manager is not doing a good job of the the jockey, this analysis or this analogy is not doing a good job. It doesn't matter what the with the opportunity is you need. You're betting on the management team to do a good job and live up to the the promises of expectations that they've shown that they share with you.
00;28;11;17 - 00;28;31;11
Paul Thompson
So I think really understanding the fundamental asset class, what the what the risk adjusted return possibility are and the the track record and the integrity and the aptitude of the jockey is the are the kind of the three overlapping things that you're looking for.
00;28;32;07 - 00;28;54;04
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, that's such a great way to put it. I always talk about the importance of gaining the skills and knowledge so that you can make those right selections, right? You have to follow the right people. You have to have the right team around you, advisors, mentors, coaches that can help you choose the right operators, the right management team who are going to be able to choose the right opportunities.
00;28;54;04 - 00;29;09;15
Steven Pesavento
So I think that was so well said. As we're getting close to wrapping up, I've got one more question for you. But before we go there, tell the audience how they can get in touch with you and share any asks that you might have for my audience.
00;29;10;00 - 00;29;27;11
Paul Thompson
You're saying, I appreciate you having me on here too. It's been a lot of fun. The best place to find me is on our website. Paul David Thompson, dot com. That's my company. I have the crystal common name. Unlike you, I have a cursive common name. So I had to use all three names to get my own domain.
00;29;27;11 - 00;29;37;26
Paul Thompson
So Paul David Thompson dot com spelled about the way you would expect those names to be spelled and I have the same handle so to speak on most any social media that's out there.
00;29;39;01 - 00;30;01;19
Steven Pesavento
That's awesome. Well, this has been so great and I think this particular topic that we're talking about is so important when it comes to naming your number and creating the life you want is finding that purpose and then figuring out what the plan is that's going to allow you to get there. So as we wrap up, what advice would you give, Paul, to the folks who are listening?
00;30;01;19 - 00;30;19;16
Steven Pesavento
And they're inspired, they want to create a better life. They want to be able to step more into their purpose and they want to be able to earn the kind of income they they want to earn. What would you recommend as regards to what they can do or what they can model in order to kind of create that for themselves?
00;30;20;18 - 00;30;50;28
Paul Thompson
That's a good question. So when you're thinking about like, what am I going to do now? This is, you know, this is a great conversation these guys have had, but you know, what are my what are my actions? So I think it's fundamentally a decision that that you have to make to invest in yourself, that you're worth it, that you need to get a piece of equity into something that's going to pay you an income or has the potential for appreciation and you need to get in the game.
00;30;51;07 - 00;31;21;15
Paul Thompson
I spent 15 years sitting in the corporate world hoping, dreaming, wishing, fantasizing that one day I'd figure out a way to start a business and create wealth and kind of go for it, you know, like, like, like get out on the field. And it's okay that the outcome isn't even certain. The the action that takes the the personal courage it takes to take action is the thing that's holding you back.
00;31;22;03 - 00;31;49;15
Paul Thompson
You are your own worst enemy here. And sometimes you can just kind of step outside of that. That fear, the doubt, the uncertainty that's holding you back and go for it. And just like the greatest regret that most people have in their lives is that I wish I lived my life for myself and not based on the status quo of somebody, of somebody else, like 75% of people who are interviewed and then live life say that regret, which is a absolute terrible shame.
00;31;49;23 - 00;32;12;05
Paul Thompson
You know, as far as I know, we only get one chance at this life and it's here for the taking. And you can make of it what you will and being afraid of what may or may not happen is of far greater regret than going for it. Maybe not even being wonderfully successful, but at least you went for it and you got in the game and you figured out how to do it.
00;32;12;11 - 00;32;30;14
Paul Thompson
And the really only failure that you have in doing that is if you choose to quit, because we're very fortunate. We live in the modern world. We live in the 21st century, most of us. And if you're listening to this, you're probably speaking English. You're in a modern first world country, like there's there's safety nets in place that you're in.
00;32;30;27 - 00;32;40;29
Paul Thompson
You're probably not going to be destitute. Even if you don't succeed. You can restart several times and go for it, because if you don't, you're assured the outcome.
00;32;42;01 - 00;32;57;02
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, that's really, really powerful. And Paul, thanks so much for sharing some wisdom with me and with the audience and for all of you listening, thanks so much for joining us and hope you'll take some action on the things we talked about. And we'll see you on the next episode.