The Person Who Can Suffer the Longest Wins | Masterminds Open Floor | Masterminds Podcast EP89

Download Achieve By Petra – https://app.theachieveproject.com/PSL0001000

Success is not about removing suffering from your life. Suffering never leaves. The only question that matters is what you are willing to suffer for.

This is Part 2 of the first ever Masterminds Open Floor, recorded live with an audience of about 50 people. In this episode of the Masterminds Podcast, Richie Mensah delivers a mindset masterclass built on three shifts that change everything: you become the story you tell yourself, the person who can endure pain the longest is the one who wins, and the small habits you repeat every day decide who you become. He then opens the floor for a raw and wide-ranging conversation where the audience asks about his retirement from music, how to read for real understanding, moving from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset, discipline over motivation, and how to weaponize your unique strengths to succeed from exactly where you are.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why you become the exact story you tell yourself about who you are
• How Richie scripted his life at 17 and lived it out almost word for word
• Why excellence is a daily habit and not a destination you eventually arrive at
• Why the person who can endure pain the longest is the one who wins
• How to choose your suffering instead of letting life choose it for you
• Why motivation is useless and discipline is the only thing worth building
• How to move from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset using the 10,000 hour principle
• Why small daily habits, not big goals, determine who you become
• How to weaponize your unique strengths and combine them with your interests to succeed

Chapters

00:00 – Intro
 01:26 – Welcome to the Masterminds Open Floor
 02:26 – Mindset Is Everything: You Are the Author of Your Story
 04:43 – How Richie Scripted His Life at 17
 07:09 – Excellence Is a Daily Habit, Not a Destination
 10:26 – The Person Who Can Suffer the Longest Wins
 13:21 – Choose What You Are Willing to Suffer For
 20:12 – Small Daily Habits Over Big Goals
 26:17 – Open Floor: Why Richie Transitioned Out of Music
 28:05 – How to Read a Book Excellently
 30:09 – Moving From a Fixed Mindset to a Growth Mindset
 44:45 – Is the Education System Really Built to Help Us?
 50:30 – Discipline Over Motivation
 53:12 – Obsession: The Trait Behind Every Success
 54:32 – Morality Is Subjective: Find Your People
 01:03:49 – When Your Community Is Your Family
 01:09:19 – How to Weaponize Your Unique Strengths
 01:13:01 – Why He Walked Away at the Peak

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

How do you stay disciplined when motivation is low and resort is low?

SPEAKER_01 0:06

The person who wins in life is the person who can take pain longer than anyone else.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Do you genuinely think that our educational system is preparing to help us shift our minds?

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Your educational system is made to make you feel small.

SPEAKER_09 0:24

If morality is satisfaction to someone else and disatisfaction to yourself, then that will be a problem.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Most of us think excellence is a destination. Like I will be excellent when I achieve this, I'll be excellent when I do this. But in actual fact, excellence is in what you do every single day. You have to have that mindset. You can never remove suffering. Life is suffering. The question is, what are you suffering for? Before we jump into the conversation, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for supporting and deciding to watch this episode. But now I have a favor subscribe to the channel. Subscribing to the channel helps me and the entire mastermind team to continue bringing you wonderful conversations and episodes that bring you closer to being the mastermind you deserve to be. So join the community. How are you guys doing today? I'm awesome like that. The concept behind this is the mastermind community is about helping people to grow. And I know that over the past 10 months we've been able to have some impact by bringing guests who've had very insightful conversations, sharing my journey and the knowledge that I've also learned to help impact people. But I thought maybe let's take it a step further, where a few selected people can now be with me in the room, get the chance to ask questions, maybe share their journeys as well, give their insights because they say, you know, not all knowledge cannot be in one person's head. So there may be something that you know that will affect somebody who's watching this on YouTube right now or watching this on TikTok right now. So welcome and thank you for being the first guest for the Masterminds Open Floor. Clap for yourselves. I like it, I like it. Let's start with the thing that's most important to me. The reason the show is called Masterminds. The most important thing to me in life, which I've learned the hard way, is mindsets. So um, I know a lot of people watch the billionaires and the successful people, and they come and sit down and they are talking. And the first thing they're always talking about is mindset, mindset, mindset. While everybody is waiting for show me the way, they're waiting for what did you do to make your money? No, how did you build your successful business? How did you do this? And everybody's coming to say, Oh, it's in their mind, and it's this. And sometimes it feels like it's not true, right? You've all thought it before. But the truth is, everything starts in the mind. You see, this world that we live in, we are all just actors in a wonderful movie that we are writing on our own. The most beautiful thing about the movie called Life is you get to choose your role. Nobody chooses your role for you. You get to choose your own role. And the role you choose for yourself is the story you tell about yourself in your mind. So if you tell yourself, I am poor, I am lazy, I am weak, I'm just an average person, guess what you'll become? Average. But if you tell yourself, I am great, I am rich, I am wealthy, I am likable, I'm charismatic. In fact, I'm a talkative, so people want to listen to me talk. When you tell yourself these things, you will become exactly that. Because whether you believe it from the spirituality angle, from the scientific angle, or just from observing life, the fact is what you say happens, what you believe comes to pass. When I was young, when I was about 17, and I learned about the power of um, let me say, the power of visualizing. I wrote down exactly who I wanted to be. I wrote down, and for those of you who know me from my previous career, if I can call it that, I wrote down that I am, and I didn't write it in the future, I wrote it in the present. I wrote that I am a successful sound engineer, sound producer, musician. I own one of the biggest record labels in Africa. I am happy and I am rich. This is what I wrote. I actually forgot I wrote it. So it was years later, when I had become all those things, that I read this and I was like, oh wait, did I actually predict everything I was going to do? Because when you assert to the world what you want to become, you will become it. It is a fact. Everybody who is suffering in some type of way, who is going through a life that you don't like, you don't appreciate, it means at some point in time in your life, you have told the world that you are okay with this. I am okay to be poor. I am okay to be trying my best, but never really getting there. I'm okay to just be average. When you start changing that story, and I always say that one advantage I've had, my greatest advantage in life has always been my mom. Now, from when I was so young that I can remember, my mom kept telling me about the fact that she knew when she was pregnant with me that I was going to become a great man. So from the time I was a child, I knew I was going to become a great man. So when I was growing up, I behaved like someone who will become a great man. Do you understand? I don't know if my mom was playing mind tricks on me, oh but it worked because when I'm in school, I learn harder than everybody. Because I keep thinking if I want to be that great man, I need to have good grades. I learned skills that I don't have. I was always a very shy person. You know, when I was young, I was a geek. So I was very shy. I didn't know how to socialize with people. I learned it because I thought, ah, but I can't be a great man and I don't know how to converse with people. So I learned how to crack jokes so that when the conversation is boring, I'll fall small and people will laugh. Right now, I won't come, but I learned everything feeling in my mind that greatness is ahead of me. So that thought from childhood is what made me move the way that I did. Because there's this expression I say all the time excellence is a habit. Most of us think excellence is a destination. Like I will be excellent when I achieve this, I'll be excellent when I do this. But in actual fact, excellence is in what you do every single day. Let me give you an example. Today we're supposed to start at 9. So I told myself I will get here by 8. I was so upset with myself because I was late. I got here at 8:15. Nobody is giving me pressure. I am giving myself pressure because I am excellent. When I say I'm doing something, I will do it perfectly. I remember when I moved out and like I moved to my own place for the first time. And I thought, hey, I'm not going to be staying at home with my mom again. Now, all the nice food that I'm eating. Am I going to be buying, going to expensive restaurants? I said, no, I have to learn how to cook. So I learned how to cook. When I say I learned how to cook, I don't mean I learned how to make rice and stew. No, I learned how to cook. Like from lasagna to the killer jolov to like, do you get me? Because if I don't know how to cook, then I don't know how to cook. But if I'm cooking, I'll be an excellent cook. Because to me, everything I do will be excellent. You have to have that mindset. Whatever it is that you want to do in this life, the moment you start accepting that you are great, you will always move with excellence. It doesn't matter what it is. If you are reading a book, read it excellently. If you are watching a movie, be the best movie watcher there is. If you are supporting Manchester United, be the biggest Manchester United fan. Don't do anything and it's like, oh, I'm there some. Because the funny thing is, it takes the same amount of effort to be mediocre as it does to be excellent. Same amount of time, same amount of effort. If you want to be a good cook, it will still take you the same hours to cook as a bad cook. Whether your joloph is nice or not, it will take the same hours. So why not make it nice? Do you understand that? You are going for a meeting. Your meeting is going to last two hours. Whether you get there on time or not, your meeting will last two hours. So why not get there on time? I learned this thing when I started doing construction work. And I started understanding very small principles that concrete will take three days to dry. Whether you do it on Monday or Thursday, it will take three days to dry. So what are you waiting for? Do you understand? Hold yourself to a higher expectation. Why? Because you are great. That's the first shift. That's the first mindset shift that begins to change everything in your life. Now the second thing is this. The second thing is that the person who wins in life is the person who can take pain longer than anyone else. You see, one of Buddha's teachings is that life is suffering. And it is the biggest truth in the world. Please, anyone here who has no problems or no suffering in their life, please raise your hand. Nobody's life is perfect. Everybody is suffering. That's why, you know, when we're in school, they taught us that song, you know, rich man is suffering, poor man is suffering. Everybody is suffering. So the question is, what are you suffering for? Most people think being successful is about removing suffering from your life. No, it's not true. You can never remove suffering. Life is suffering. The question is, what are you suffering for? Let me give you an example. Isn't it difficult to go to the gym? Very difficult. You will suffer in the gym. You will feel like the first day you go to the gym, eh? The next day, hmm, voila. Your whole body will regret the decision of going to the gym. But which do you prefer? Do you prefer to suffer at the gym or to suffer when your back is hurting because you didn't work out? It's difficult to work hard and make money. Do you prefer to suffer working hard to make money or to suffer when you don't have money? Every path you take is going to be difficult. One of the big mistakes that most of us make is that we think this person's job is easier than our job. Oh, he dear, he's a musician, he just goes to sing. Oh, he dear, he's a banker, he goes to sit in AC all day. But every single job is difficult. Everybody is suffering. That person that you are admiring on social media, liking them, calling them life goals and couple goals and goals, goals, goals, they are suffering too. They are just showing you the highlights. So the question is what are you willing to suffer for? What are you willing to go through pain to achieve? And that is why I know most of you have heard the advice that do a job that you love. Well, what did the lady say? Don't love your job, job your love. You've heard them say all the time that follow your passion, do a job that you love, follow something, follow your dream. Do you know why that advice is given? I think sometimes when advice is given, the reason for the advice should also be explained. That advice is not to say that success is in the thing that you love, because you can succeed doing anything. The advice is because to succeed, you will suffer for a very, very long time. So when you love what you are doing, then it makes the suffering worth it. Do you understand? So, for instance, if I'm a football fan and then I have to go and be a ballboy, and I'm suffering in the heat, suffering, running up and down the pitch. But Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi, um the people I see at work every day, then it's worth it. But can you imagine I hate football and then I'm over there? After two days, I'll quit. So choosing to do something that you love, and it's the same everywhere in life. I know we talk a lot about success, but success is in all areas of our lives. From our relationships to our friendships, every relationship is pain. You know, when you go and meet people who've been married for 50 years, 60 years, and you talk to them, I know you are expecting that. They had a smooth ride and they fell in love when they were kids and everything was perfect. No, they suffered just like you are suffering in a relationship right now. But because they love each other, they were willing to suffer through the pain. So your goal in life should not be to remove suffering. Your goal in life should be to suffer for what you want. I spent a very long time in my life sitting behind a PC working, never exercising, you know, and right now I'm suffering for that decision. So every morning I have to wake up and walk like one hour, I have to work out, I have to do so many things that if I had started 15 years ago, 20 years ago, I wouldn't have to do so much right now. But now, when I'm suffering through that, I think, do I want to suffer with severe back pain when I'm 50? Or do I want to suffer every morning now? Do you understand? So suffer for what you want. Your salary hits your account. You can either suffer and put some aside into an investment. Or chop all now and suffer in six months when you are broke. Either way, you will suffer. In some day in your life, you will be broke. So do you choose that day or will you let life choose for you? Sugar is sweet, oh I love sugar. I've been off sugar for the past like one year. Of course, there are my cheese days and all. Because I want to choose the day that I say, Oh, it's his birthday today, I'll drink coke. Instead of saying I'll drink sugar every single day, and then at the age of 50, right now, if I even drink pineapple juice, I have to go to my doctor. You choose your suffering. That's why I said the person who succeeds is the one who can go through pain the longest. Because guess what? You see all this advice that we give. Oh, start your own business. No, no, no, no, start your own business. Climb the corporate ladder. No, do this, do all of them, eh? You will suffer. If you are working for somebody right now and you think the solution is starting your own business, I want you to talk to an entrepreneur and ask them. You go from working from 8 to 5 to working from 4 a.m. to 12 midnight. Choose your suffering. Somebody is cut out to be an entrepreneur because they like taking risks, because they have ideas, because they are bold. Choose that path, suffer, succeed. Somebody is also someone who's good at executing, but they are not particularly looking to lead. So you put yourself behind somebody that you can believe in and you execute. You will suffer. It will take you years to climb the corporate ladder, but eventually you will get there. Whatever you do, you will suffer. The moment you stop trying to not suffer, it's when the suffering actually reduces. It's it's a backwards law. When you when you forget suffering, because suffering only exists in my favorite place in the world, your mind. Suffering is only the story you tell yourself about what's going on. Because if right now I tell you that wake up at 5 a.m. to go to the gym, when you're waking up, what do you think? Oh, Charlie, Richie Kra, this advice you give me, distress me, and that's how you feel, right? You are suffering. If I tell you to wake up at 5 a.m. and meet me for one million dollars, will you suffer waking up? Ah, and I saw some guy who who said that he doesn't understand people who say I missed my flight. Because the day he gets the chance to fly, he was the one who will call the pilot. Do you understand? So, suffering is only the story you tell yourself. If you tell yourself you love something, if you tell yourself I'm doing this for my own good, I'm benefiting in this way. When I was younger, I didn't understand the concept of investing. When I thought investing, I just kept thinking it's putting all your money into your business. And that's what I was always doing. And then I came to understand that no, personally, too, I need to invest. And it was difficult at first to put money aside when I can live life with it. But when I change my mindset, now I get pleasure. When I open my Achieve app and I look at my investment balance, I'm like, yeah, me that. I get pleasure from what used to be suffering. So it all comes back to the mindset. Now, the third thing about mindset that I want you guys to understand that will really transform your lives is most of the time, when we think about the big goal, we think that's where we are supposed to end up in life. But in actual fact, it's the tiny little steps that you take every single day. It's the small habits that you form that is going to determine who you are going to become. The man who has a pot's belly, which is bigger than all our heads put together, did not get there by eating one pizza. He got there by eating badly every single day for 30, 40 years. Do you understand? The power of compound interest just explains that the things you do all the time determines who you are going to end up becoming. If every single day in your life you sleep at 2 a.m. and wake up at 10 p.m. I mean 10 a.m., then you are becoming somebody who always sleeps late, always wakes up late. So when it starts to affect your cortisol, starts to affect how your body reacts and you start becoming an insomnia, who do you have to blame? You cannot say that I don't know how this happened, which is something we say all the time. I don't know how this happened. I'm broke. I don't know how this happened. What do you mean you don't know how this happened? You didn't save, you didn't invest every single day. If I told anybody here. That I want you to give me 100,000 CDs right now, it'll be difficult, right? Some difficult, some impossible. But this man, you look like you that you just sign a check for me right now. But if I tell you to give me 100,000 in five years, isn't that possible? So when you think like that, then you realize that 100,000 is only a big goal if you look at it as one big number. But if you break it down into tiny, tiny, tiny steps, you can get there easily. So as you are trying to become great, let's go back to the beginning. You said that you are great. In fact, everybody say I am great. I am great. I love it. Now that you've accepted that you are great, you have to have the habits of a great person. Everyone's biggest aim is to build wealth. Now, anyone who knows what they are about will tell you the one true way to build wealth is to have a system that gains that wealth over time. Now, most people are suffering to what system or what tool can they use? How did they get to invest easily? How do they get to invest over time? Small amounts, compound interest, and build their wealth. Well, that tool is Achieve by Petra. Download Achieve by Petra now and let's build wealth together. I remember I used to read a lot when I was young. And then when I started working, I put aside my reading. Because right now, I'm the guy, uh youngest CEO, that's what it used to call me. I'm running my company, I'm doing things. So I stopped reading. Then one day I was watching something, and then they mentioned the fact that the average CEO, average, not because that time, I wasn't even average, I was below average. The average CEO reads 52 books in a year. So I asked myself, how am I going to be counted in the top CEOs? When I I I read one book that year, and the average CEO has read 52. So I realized if I want to become a better CEO, I need to read more. If I want to be somebody who is efficient in the morning, I need to wake up earlier. If I want to be rich and wealthy, I need to invest. Small, small. I used to be one of those people who say, Oh, when I get enough money, then I'll buy this investment. No, I need to invest every single day of my life. The small habits that you choose today are what is going to determine who you are. Are you the person who shows up to work on time? Are you the person who prepares for everything that they are going to do? Let's say, oh, we're coming to mastermind's open floor. Have I prepared questions I'm going to ask? Have I written it down? Who exactly do you want to be? Once you decide who you want to be, start practicing the habits that those people are practicing at their successful level. Do you understand what I mean by that? Let's say you want to be a footballer. Go and check the habits of the greatest footballers and start exhibiting those habits now. Most people get it backwards. They think when I succeed, I will do great things. No, it's the other way around. When you do great things, you will succeed. Do you understand? David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, all these greats, they started training when they were young. They trained every single day to become great. They didn't become great and then start training every day. Do you understand that? So wherever it is in your lives, wherever it is, the greatness that you want that you know you are going to achieve, start those habits now. Do you guys understand me? Okay. Okay, so I think now I'll give the chance for you guys to start having a conversation with me. Anyone who has questions, any insights, any clarifications, you can raise your hand and then they'll bring a mic to you so you start. Who's ready?

SPEAKER_00 26:22

Okay, right here. Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. What's your name? My name is Derek. Derek. I want to say thank you for the opportunity. So my question is um, your transition. We thought or I thought you're doing well, you're very successful and all of that with what you did in the past. And all of a sudden, here you are. What kind of success are you looking for? Or what inspired this decision? That's a great question.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

Okay, so to answer a question on why I transitioned, like I said in the beginning about greatness, the first step to greatness is deciding who you want to be. I need to let you guys know something. My store, my life, I wrote everything out. I am just playing out the story that I wrote. And when I was young, when I was 17 and I started my journey into music, I gave myself that deadline that I have to achieve greatness before getting to 40 so that I can retire and do other things. Even at that time, I didn't know what other things I was going to do. But as I grew and time was going, then I started to understand who I wanted Richie Mensa to become. So, like I said, all of you have the chance to script out your life, exactly what you want from your life. And I'm living testimony that it will happen. So make sure you like what you scripted. Because if I didn't like the retiring at 40, by now, my hot is rough.

SPEAKER_02 27:57

All right, thank you. Um my name is Seg Bji, actually. I have a lot of questions, but I'll take it bit by bit.

SPEAKER_01 28:07

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 28:09

Um, I can see that you are a ferocious reader. And uh you made mention about reading a book or reading books excellently. What does it mean to read a book excellently? And uh, when reading a book, what is the most important thing? Is it to read a book to be able to memorize or recall everything in the book or to read to understand? And how do you go about it?

SPEAKER_01 28:37

So for me, the most important thing in reading is reading to understand. There's something funny I've noticed about reading, right? You will read a book, I'll read the same book, and we'll each get different lessons from the book. Even sometimes you can read a book twice, and the second time you read the book, you get completely different lessons from it. Because sometimes your understanding depends on where you are in life at the moment. So, in reading, it's not a flex to have read many books. The flex is not that I read 200 books and no. The flex is understanding what you read in the book so that you can apply it to your life. So you should search the knowledge itself, not the flex of having the knowledge. You understand me? So when I say be an excellent reader, I mean take your time and really understand what you are reading. When you close that book and walk away with it, let the knowledge in the book have actually imparted your life. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 29:43

Hello everyone. Good morning. Morning. My name is Hassan Salisu. So all that you are saying about mindset is I believe you have a growth mindset, but most of us have fixed mindset. So, how do we transition from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset? Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

I love that question. And he mentioned the two concepts which are holding some people back and letting some people blossom. Some have a fixed mindset and some have a growth mindset. Now, let me explain for those who don't understand the difference. A fixed mindset is anybody who believes that things are the way they are and they can never change. Someone who has a growth mindset believes that things can change dependent on my actions. For instance, you will be there and you will say, Oh, Kofi Mesa is a good footballer, but me they are not good with sports. Oh, Ama Yebois is an A student, but me, my maths is not good. The first thing to do to change a fixed mindset is to understand the fact that the only constant thing in life is change. Please remember this. The only constant thing in life is change. And that means you are either progressing or retrogressing. You are either moving forward or moving back. Anyone who thinks they are standing still, you aren't. Because the life around you is moving forward. So if you think you are standing still, guess what you are doing? You are moving back. The only constant thing in life is change. But the beautiful part is you determine the change. There's an expert's rule, and the rule is that anyone can become an expert at anything by doing it for 10,000 hours. That's all. That's all. To be an expert at anything, do it for 10,000 hours. And you will, not you may, not hopefully, not sometimes. No, if you do anything for 10,000 hours, you will become an expert. Now that 10,000 hours can either be done over 20 years or over three years. It's all dependent on you. Sometimes you go to a factory, somebody's only job is to cut the rubber. They cut that rubber every day, nine hours, five days a week, 20 uh what do you call it, 20 days in a month, and they've been doing this for 15 years. Pine. If that person's eyes are closed, cramp when the rabbis come do cut it. They're an expert at it. Have you seen those things where you go to the village and somebody is a craftsman? And hey, the way he can do it, look, when I watch my carpenter hammering a nail, I'm like, what? I mean that if the nail is here, if you give me binoculars scramble, I'll miss it. But he can be having a conversation with me, and then he'll hit it one with one hit. It's because he's become an expert, because he's done it for so long. So anything in your lives that you cannot do, the only way to do it is to do it for long. Dedicate yourself to it. When I decided to start speaking, it's not something I used to do. Yes, I'm a talkative in at home. As for arguments and those things, yeah, number one, me. From childhood. But to talk to people like this, give talks and speak, is not something that I had done. But guess what? Sitting in front of the camera all the time, okay, let's shoot masterminds, and I sit there and I'm talking, I'm talking, and I'm talking, it has prepared me. Why is it that you can ask me a question that I haven't prepared for and I'm still ranting for five minutes? Because I've done it, sir. So to understand that you shouldn't have a fixed mindset is understanding that anything that you are lacking in this life, any area which you feel you cannot grow in, it is not true. You just need to keep applying yourself there. There's this guy who used to work for me. Faculty, shout out to you, faculty. Faculty was one of the skinniest people I've seen in my life. He always looked like Charlie, give him some you know, biscuit to eat because the boy is malnourished. Faculty stopped working for us. I saw him doing some modeling, saw him doing some other work. I met faculty six years later, and the guy was macho. And I was like, Faculty, what happened? Because he went to the gym diligently. That's all. It's as simple as that. There's no how did you do it? There's no hacks, you know, 10 ways to become successful. It's not there. You just need to apply yourself. So having a fixed mindset and thinking, I'm not good with finance, I'm not good with maths, I'm not good with people, I'm not good, it's not true. You haven't applied yourself. Whatever it is that you want to achieve, apply yourself and see. And the second thing to overcome that, because I know what's going to happen when you try and apply yourself. When you apply yourself, you will fail. I need you to understand that. And I need you to understand that failure is a part of the journey because you go from amateur to pro to expert. You don't go from I don't know how to do it to expert. You understand that? Lionel Messi did not wake up knowing how to dribble 10 players. The first time he kicked the ball, he probably slipped and fell. So whatever it says you are going to try and do, you will fail. You know, when they tell people create content, their biggest fear is hey, what if people laugh at me? What if my content is cringe? What if yes, it will be cringe? Yes, we will laugh at you. It's not nice. We shouldn't laugh. But keep doing it right now. I go back and watch my early videos that I started. I'm like, ah, Richie, do you do some thin zoom? Hey, let me tell you guys a secret. Do you know the hardest thing in life to watch for me? The hardest thing to watch in my life is that I'm revealing secret, pal. Framer, my first music video. Screen Joe. First things first, you see my hair. I've always had my hair like this. Right before shooting Framer, my people convinced me as you are coming to shoot your first music video, change the style, do some punk and do some fate. So I'm into obedient artists. I went to do it. Hey, every time I look at it, I want to cry. And it's been immortalized, it is always there. Whenever everybody's talking about reaches beginning, then they'll play the video. I'm like, oh guys, I do some dance moves for inside pie. Look like I'd eating some oil pie and I was slipping everywhere. It was cringe. At least to me, it was cringe, but I kept doing it. I it reached a point. People used to say when you put a camera on Richie and say, say something or do something, instantly I get it right because I kept doing it. I kept doing it even if it was cringe. So the only difference between me and that person who didn't make it was when DS was cringe, they stopped. I want you all to go and look for an Ed Sharing video where Ed Sharon talks about the fact that he used to be a crap artist. There are Ed Sharing videos on YouTube where his singing is horrible. He said he didn't upload it, so he can't even take it down. His singing is horrible. And he was sharing that to let people know it's not true that you wake up and become the best songwriter and the best singer. His singing was horrible, but he kept powering through it. When people were telling him that his voice sucks and he's a horrible artist, he just kept going until he succeeded. So when you're trying to overcome your face mindset and you say that, oh me, I'm not good with finance. And right now, because Richie has given you this pep talk, you go and take your book and you're balancing it. Then the first day you do, and your numbers don't add up. Then you say, Ah, I said it, I failed. No, you've not failed. Keep going. One day, one day, you will be given lectures on how to do finance. Okay? One of the biggest lessons I've learned in life and in business is that not everything deserves access to you. Your attention is valuable, your focus is valuable. And in this world full of noise and distraction, the ability to control your world is your true power. Lynx Reverb was designed for premium sound, complete silence, and amazing clarity. So head to any Compute Ghana shop or to our website, linkselectronics.com, down in the description, and grab yourself a headset now. Lynx Reverb, now that's clarity.

SPEAKER_09 39:38

Thank you. Um you said your life is playing out the way you wrote it. Yes. And at age 17. So I'm guessing at that time you had an idea of what you'd want to be. Most people go through life without even realizing what they want to be. I say at age 17, you had a fair idea of your human ideation. With martial laws law, right? The very top is self-actualization. And I'm guessing at that time, you knew who you are, you knew who you could become. So you work towards it. That's why you're saying you wrote everything down and explained the way you thought it would do, like it will be right.

SPEAKER_03 40:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 40:20

So what do you have to tell someone who is going through phases figuring out what to do? You know, sometimes it happens, like even at old age, people still don't know what they want to do.

SPEAKER_03 40:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 40:33

So you being able to master that at age 17, what do you tell someone who's like 30? That they should stop overthinking everything, right?

SPEAKER_01 40:44

And just answered the question. Let me explain why they should stop overthinking. So at age 17, I said I was going to be a musician, right? On my way to be a musician, I wasn't getting people to produce for me. So I said I was going to be a producer. I wasn't getting people to manage me. So I said I was going to open my own record label. Do you get what I'm saying? So even in the music, I have done so many things. At age 40, I produce audio electronics. At age 40, I am a podcaster and a speaker, and I'm encouraging people. At age 50, I'll be doing something else. At age 60, I'll be doing something else. So the beautiful part is we spend too much time trying to figure out what we want to be. Like that is the only thing you are going to be in this life. Why do we think that? And I'll tell you why we think that. One of the most foolish advices that they give us, life is short. Life is not short. Life is so long. One thing I've said for decades is life is long, and you will regret the decisions you made saying life is short. Life is so long. You can have five different careers, you can have ten different careers, or you can have two careers. It's all up to you. But the beautiful part is stop overthinking it and do whatever it is that you want to do. Because here's the funny thing. We have successful tech people, we have successful um contractors, we have successful somebody's a dog influenza manager. Can you imagine? He's a dog influenza manager. One of my favorite jobs. In fact, that's maybe my retirement job. Somebody is a caretaker for private islands. Can you imagine? So you don't have private island though. But I've bought my private island and I don't have the time to go and live there. So I will pay you $300,000 every six months for you to live on my island for me. Ah, what? How beautiful is that? Somebody, like, look, if you're an alcoholic, why aren't you making money? Because somebody is a wine taster, he drinks more than anybody. So he knows quality wine. He's a wine taster. Somebody is a food critic. The person that you've been laughing at, hey, you there you like food, though. Now somebody's a food critic. So you can succeed at anything. So the truth is, don't overthink it. Choose, like what I was saying earlier about choosing what you love. Choose something that you enjoy doing because whatever it is, you will suffer. So when you choose something you love doing, then you can suffer through it. It wasn't easy, you know. When I say like I wrote my script and I've lived it, it's a very nice headline. So beautiful, it wasn't easy, though. The suffering I've suffered to get to where I got to for me to even say I'm retiring. Can you imagine? But it was worth it because guess what? I chose it. A lot of unhappiness for so many people in lives is because they are doing things they didn't choose. Their parents chose it for them, their society chose it for them, their friends, their teachers chose it for them. So now when you are waking up every day going to work to do that thing, you are insulting your family tree for putting you there. But when you know it was your choice, if you chose to work in the bank and you are going every day to work in the bank, then you are happy because you like counting money. But if you didn't, and then you come and see that you're counting other people's money, the stress you could feel. So my answer to that is the same answer you gave, just with more words. Stop overthinking.

SPEAKER_00 45:02

Okay. Thank you very much. So my question is about our educational system. Do you genuinely think that our educational system is preparing, help us shift our minds? And if you have the opportunity to make an influence, what would that be?

SPEAKER_01 45:17

Should I give the politically correct answer or to be honest? Practical, practical, please. But yeah, there are no political correctness too. Thank you. Our educational system. Hey Richie, no filter, no filter. Our educational system was not made for us to be great. That's the first thing you have to understand. You see, we have two different educational systems. We have the real educational system for those that are meant to be great, and then we have what we have, which is actually an indoctrination, not education. The educational system was made to create followers. Do you understand that? Now, when I say these things, people think I'm fighting the system. I'm not fighting the system, I'm applauding the system. They've done well, they've done well for brainwashing all of us. If I was powerful like they were, I would have done the same thing. And it's working because the educational system teaches you that oh, you will never achieve much. We'll talk more about this when we even come to the African greatness. But your educational system is made to make you feel small, it's made to make you think failure is a bad thing. Like, where do you think we all get that concept from that failure is bad? It's from school. You don't pass an exam and your teacher is beating you. You answer the question wrong, your teacher is beating you. It's training you that failing is bad. It's not training you that failing is an opportunity to learn. So let me um I was telling Baba something when we're sitting here. So later this year, I'll be doing my first mastermind summit. And one thing I said was that I feel these live recording sessions will help me prepare for the mastermind summits because the things that we do wrong, we won't repeat it when we do the summit. Do you understand? But school doesn't teach you this. School makes you think you have to get it right on the first try. And then let's look at the things that school are teaching you. Right now, everything that the educational system is teaching has been replaced with AI. How sad is that? Everything, and then also the educational system always has an agenda because it's giving you a certain type of information that few people have chosen that you need to know to survive. When we get to the personal finance, and I will be teaching certain things in personal finance, you will ask yourself, why isn't this taught in school? Do they teach money in school?

unknown 48:03

No.

SPEAKER_01 48:03

Ah, why? If the one thing you all need to survive is money, and you went to school to learn how to survive for like 12-15 years, did you learn money? I think that answers the educational system question. If I had the opportunity, I would change the educational system to teach more practical things, to teach people the things that they actually need to know. First of all, wherever you are from, you need to learn the greatness of those before you. So in Africa, we need to learn about African greatness. Critical thinking should be an elective course. Because how is it that you are telling people they should go and vote for a president, but they don't know critical thinking? Voting for a president is more like popularity contest. Hey, this one is fine, no, I don't like the way he wears his tie. You expect people to solve problems and you are not giving them the tools. So, education should be practical. How to actually solve problems because tell me why I can explain to you the egg dices of a cockroach, the seven stages in which a cockroach sheds its exoskeleton. You should teach the person who wants to become a researcher on animals about egg dices of a cockroach. But me who planned on being, you know, whatever it is I planned on being, why are you teaching me that? Because you are filling my mind with things that I may never need in my life. We need practical things, how to handle money, how to like government. Why is government a uh what do you call it? A course that is taught to a few people, yet all of us vote. We should be taught the things that are important. Everybody, like the things, if you look at life, all the things you need to survive, no, that's what should be taught. Then you have life skills, then life skills instead they are teaching only the let me know. I think good, but yes, those are some of the things I would do for education. I saw your hand up.

SPEAKER_05 50:20

Thank you for the opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 50:21

Thank you for the words.

SPEAKER_05 50:23

Please, how do you stay disciplined when motivation is low and resort is low?

SPEAKER_01 50:30

Beautiful question. What's your name? Christabel.

unknown 50:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:35

So the first thing is I do not rely on motivation at all. Me and motivation, we are not friends. Because motivation is fleeting. Wake up with me. I'm going to start my business, I'm going to do two days later. You've even forgotten what you were thinking about. Motivation is useless. The only thing I care about is discipline. So the discipline itself is my discipline. I actually get excited when I follow my discipline. I I've started okay, I've been doing intermittent fasting for a while, but I've taken it a notch higher where I've learned about the fact that fasting over a longer period is very good for your body. So if you can fast over 24 hours, 30 hours, it's good for your body. So my first time I did the over 24 hour fast was just the Saturday. And I'm so excited. So I'm excited that I was able to be disciplined. The discipline is my motivation. So in that way, it's not about what I'm saying I will do, it's about the fact that once I say I will do something, I will do it. And let me take it to science to help you. Um, who here knows about dopamine? Beautiful. So dopamine is a hormone that is released every time you succeed in doing something, and dopamine is released a lot when you succeed in doing something you said you will do. That is the power of self-discipline. So if you want to actually feel excited and feel invigorated, give yourself a task and do it. But the trick is don't make the task too big, grow into it. As I mentioned with my intermittent fasting, my plan is to be able to do 72 hours. But I know that after 36 hours, when the jolov scent passes through my nose, I cannot make it. So for now, I'll do 36. In two months, maybe when you're hearing me talk, I'll say I've done 48. In a year's time, I'll have done 72, and that's fine. So do it in small bits, just stay disciplined. Motivation, then delete that word from your vocabulary. That's why I always say I'm not a motivational speaker, I'm not motivating anybody.

SPEAKER_05 53:03

Please, what's the one thing or one daily habit that's kept you consistent when Lynx Entertainment was just starting and nobody believed in it?

SPEAKER_01 53:13

My one-daily habits I've always had. It's not even a habit, it's more of a principle, is obsession. One of the key traits that most successful people have is they are obsessed. So when I said I was going to succeed with Lynx, I was obsessed. Every single day I will be playing multiple beats. Every day I'll be learning about the industry, learning what Motown Records did to succeed, learning what Jay-Z did to succeed, what P Diddy when he wasn't, you know, where he did to succeed. Every day I'll be looking for new artists, writing songs. So I was obsessed. My mom always says that one of the toughest things in life is to get my attention when I'm working on something. Because you can come and sit next to me and talk for 20 minutes and I won't hear you because I'm obsessed. So if you can build an obsession habit towards anything that you are doing, it increases the likelihood of you succeeding.

SPEAKER_09 54:12

We said you don't do motivations, you are big on discipline, and you are so obsessed with things that you'd want to do. Now, in the work in the work of life, African parents have made us understand that morality is um the satisfaction of another and the dissatisfaction of us. Because if someone does something to me and I don't like, I'm supposed to be polite to the person. Because probably say maybe I'm a kid or something like that. Yeah. So you in your journey to achieve whatever greatness that you planned for yourself, how did you do it? Because if morality is satisfaction to someone else and dissatisfaction to yourself, then that would be a problem. Because definitely there will be hurdles in life that wouldn't go your way. Now, you being someone who is disciplined and obsessed with life and the goals that you set for yourself, how did you manage morality? Because coming up as a young CEO, definitely there are others who probably would try to sabotage you, step on your toes and all that. How did morality play in your story? I want to understand that thing. How did morality?

SPEAKER_01 55:28

Okay, he asks deep questions. Okay, so to your first submission on the fact that African parents teach that morality is putting other people's interests ahead of yours. First of all, African parents didn't get that from Africa. Because Africa believes in Ubuntu, which is I am because we are. So the truth of the matter is that you always need to put yourself first. Please understand this very clearly. You always need to put yourself first. But when you understand that yourself is part of a community, then you understand that putting the community first is also putting yourself first. Does that make sense? So let's say you and I are living in a house right now, and I don't want the house to be dirty. If every day I'm throwing rubbish on the floor, am I only affecting him? No, I'm affecting me too. Today here is flooding again. Why is it flooding? Because we keep throwing rubbish into the gutters, keep throwing rubbish into the waters. Because we don't understand the fact that our personal actions affect the community, and that comes back to affect us. So that sachet water that you threw away when you were walking on the road, that you thought, oh, nobody's going to catch me. It's part of the problem on why three years later you have water out of your room. So if everybody would understand, first of all, put yourself first by putting the community first, then we wouldn't have that morality problem. So let's say how to treat someone, treat somebody how you want to be treated. If I don't want you to come late for my meetings, I won't come late for your meetings. So that I am training you on how I expect to be treated. But the most beautiful part about that is what happens to most people is when you try doing things the right way and others are not reciprocating, then it makes you feel like you are being cheated in life. No, you have the option to walk away. It's very simple. If you live in a particular community and your ethics don't match that community, you have the option to walk away into a new community. How many of you have read the Bible? From cover to cover. Yes. Mary was between 12 and 14. But you know why it's fine? Because in that time, at the age of 11, you get married. In their community, as soon as a woman starts to menstruate, she's eligible to get married. And these days, women can even start menstruating at nine. Which means that if we're living with those laws right now, we'll have nine-year-olds getting married. So that's what I mean by if a community does not match your ethics, you really have the option to leave that community. It's perfectly fine that you and I don't agree on something. It's perfectly fine that we move different. Maybe I'm living in a neighborhood that is very loud. Every day we are playing loud music, making noise, and I'm a peaceful, quiet guy. I want to wake up and do my morning devotion and all. What should I do? Move. Don't come and impose on me that hey, stop playing music by 3 a.m. What do you mean? Me too. I'm doing my own. If if everybody so my my version of morality is that everybody should find their people and be happy together. If you want to be a cheat, find a group of cheats and cheat each other. That's fine. If you want to be respectful to people, find people who like being respectful and be respectful to each other. If you want to blow money fast, be or is it BMF or BFM or whichever? Blow money fast, BMF. Find other people who want to blow money fast and do that. Each his own. But don't come to somebody who is saving money for his future. And come and say, bro, make a go to the club and go buy a zoo. Do you understand? So my version of morality is the moment you are stepping on someone else's toes, then you are being immoral. That is why I believe in regulation of yourself. And then you choose those you want to be around you. Like I see the arguments online, and um why is this girl exposing her body online? And why is this person as she's exposing her body online? Don't watch the one who wants to watch should go and watch. Somebody is also doing Bible reading online. Go and watch that one. Sometimes I can't understand people. I'm sure there's somebody in the comments right now as I'm saying this. I can't understand people who come in the comments and come and insult. What are you doing here? If you don't like it, scroll. Somebody is giving you advice. Then you say, mean it doesn't work for me. Scroll, bro. It's as simple as that. So what I believe is immoral is imposing your morality on someone else. Because this is a deeper topic, eh? But the truth is morality is subjective. She's dressed decently, right? In other countries, the fact that even her ankle is showing is immoral. Morality is subjective. In another country, you see people doing things that don't make any sense to us. In Ghana, when you get food, you ask people, oh, oh, Mensacko. You offer food to people. In other countries, that's rude. I've I've had a lot of visitors who've come to Ghana, they get to the airport and they are so upset. Because people are talking, talking to them. Oh, Bozumeka help you. Oh, Bozumeka carries like oh why why are these people so rude? Because in most countries, people are very individualistic. Don't come close to me. Don't invade my private space. In Ghana, a lady is is walking, carrying bags. A man will come and tap your shoulder, Madame, madam, memboa wana. And it's it's fine, right? You can't do that in the states. You are just touching a random lady on the shoulder. You are invading her private space. So morality is subjective. So being immoral is rather imposing your morality on other people. Did I explain it well? Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:35

And please, on this question, you spoke about if you don't like the space, your community. What if your community is your family? You know, what if you know your parents or your orientation has a certain direction with all this knowledge? You're realizing that I don't want to go this direction. I want to I want to go a different direction. What if that community is your immediate family? Is that immorality or is that disrespectful? Or do you still pursue and then just go ahead? I want that clarity on that.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:04

Should I give the politically correct answer or the real one? Even if it's your family, it is perfectly okay to find a new community. This does not mean being disrespectful to your family. Right? You always need to be grateful to those who brought you here. Not just your like blood family, but those you grew up with, those who have brought you this far. You always need to pay them that respect. But when it is no longer a good fit for you, then now the truth is you are doing them a disservice by staying there. You are actually making yourself unhappy and making them unhappy by making yourself unhappy. So it is perfectly fine to move to something else. Like, let me give this advice for people who do careers that their parents are telling them to do, right? Please don't go and do your way and then your parents will come and look for me that is ritual. But what you are doing is you are reducing the likelihood of succeeding because you are going to do something that makes you unhappy, which means you won't take the pain for long enough to succeed, which means what your parents really want for you, you know, which is success. Because the reason your parents are telling you to do this is because, as far as they are concerned, that is the best part. You cannot fault them. You cannot fault them. Can you imagine going to tell somebody who is 65, mommy, mommy, I want to be a content creator? What does that even mean? To a 65 year old, I want to be a content creator. How do you make money? How do you earn respect? How it doesn't make sense to them because in their world, content creation is not a thing. Go and be a doctor, lawyer, you know, engineer. But in your world, it makes sense. But guess what? All your mom wants is for you to succeed. So if you become Mr. Beast, your mom will praise you. But if now you go and become a doctor and you are that lousy doctor that they laugh at in the hospital, she will still be unhappy. So the best thing you can do for the people you love is to do what is best for you.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:27

You are a public figure, and you said that every relationship is pain. My question is, how do you keep up and maintain all the relationships and connections you have accumulated over the years? How do you keep up with all these relationships?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:46

I am so anti, so you guys have no idea. I am horrible with faces, I'm horrible with names, I'm horrible with checking up on people. Look, I am horrible with maintaining relationships. You see how I mentioned earlier that I am obsessed. That is a problem of mine. Whenever I am doing a project, I am always obsessed on the project, and I am always doing a project. So I'm horrible with relationships. But because I know that I am honest with people to let them know that I am horrible with relationships. And I just keep trying to work on it to be as nice as possible. I'm sure most of you guys noticed that when you came in, I waved you. I said hi, even though I don't know you, I tried to say hi because I learned this the hard way. Um, when I started, when I was an artist, there was a rumor about me. They say I had a rush rough, but that's because I mean Pam, I sit down quietly. So I go to an event and I'll sit down, and those days I'll be playing snake on my phone. That was even before social media. So people couldn't talk to me. So I didn't I didn't hear the rumor. So we went to some event, and then a lady came to sit next to me. So she came and me, I was there playing my snake on my phone. The girl sat there for like 40 minutes. She couldn't say anything. Then eventually she said hi. Then I said hi. Then she spoke to me, then I responded. So we chatted for like 10 minutes. Then she was like, Wow. I'm like, why? She shows she's so shocked because she had heard that I am rude, I am arrogant. So she came to sit there to talk to me. But for 40 minutes, she was gathering Vim because she had heard that I'll be rude to her. And I was like, Oh, I'm not rude, I'm just in my space. So I came to learn that okay, because I have this problem, I need to make a conscious effort to get out of my skin sometimes. So, oh, these people have gotten up from their homes to come and sit here and have a conversation with Richie. Maybe somebody will never ask a question, maybe somebody won't see me after the event. So, at least when they enter, let me exchange eye contact with them and say hi so that they experienced me. So I had to make the conscious effort to do that. Do you understand? So, relationships there. I'm not the one to give you advice because my sample.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:09

Good morning. I go by the name Dovlokush.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:15

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:17

And then um, my question is that um I want to ask something relating to you leveraging what was known, I mean, in the space at that time when you came up, knowing where we are, where we come from, Ghana was Africa, Africa. Not enough resources are um available for us, right? So I wanted to ask, um, how did you weaponize the disadvantage to your advantage? That's all I want to ask you.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:44

That's great. That's a great question. So it it comes from it comes from learning and understanding what I can do, and then I figure out how to be able to give that to people. You know, my my path before music was science. I was going to be a doctor. Now it wasn't even my parents or me. Nah, I said I was going to be a doctor. And that is because I love a scientific approach. Everything I do, I like systems and writing things down and planning things. And do you get me? I take a scientific approach to life. So when I came into music and I realized that music was being done very much like a hobby. Like, oh, I can sing with a play. Oh, let's go and sing here and stuff. I realized, okay, so my uniqueness is maybe I'm not the best singer, maybe I'm not the best producer, but I can put systems to things. So let me create a record label, let me create a strategy for hits and let me build templates so that I can keep like regurgitating the same success. So I use my unique talents to fit into the space to succeed. So that is my method. Everybody has something that's unique about them. So let's say you are a lawyer right now and you want to become the best lawyer in Ghana, but other people are better at reading than you are. Maybe they have more connections. Maybe what you are good at is talking in front of camera. Pick up a camera and start uh doing law content. Next thing you see in five years' time, you are the biggest lawyer in Ghana because of your law content. You are into law. Ah wow. So, whatever it is that you have a strength, use your strength in your interest. Combine those two. It's called icky guy. When you can combine that, you see that the success will start coming naturally.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:40

So I'm Rita. Hi, Rita. I think you almost answered my question. So the question is which is more important, school or skills, and which one takes you further, like which one takes you far?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:51

So let me combine those two. The most important thing in this world is to learn. So you see, when I keep saying that education is not doing what it's supposed to do, I'm talking about formal education. But you, the individual, you need to keep learning. So as I sit here with everything that I've done, I am consistently taking courses online, consistently on random things that you people will be shocked that I'll take a course on. So keep learning. And formal education is important only because it's all we have. Unfortunately, you know, you can cry about the system, you can complain that money is a faulty, is a faulty system. So what you won't make money. So unfortunately, formal education is the only thing you have, but when you understand that it's flawed, then you combine it with you learning skills.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:48

Okay, it's a short question, but then if you answer it, I'll have um an add-on question. Are you still doing music?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:54

Oh no, fully retired.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:57

After everything, like so many years. When you've done this, you've done that for music, and suddenly you say at this age, I say I want to stop. What made you have that thing? Like it's mind wagging.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:09

It's it's mind busting. I know. First thing I have to understand it's it's sudden for you, it's not sudden for me. It was in my plan. In fact, anybody I work with knows that for the past 10 years, I've been telling them, guys, when I'm 40, I'll retire. When I'm 40, I say it every year. I remind them. I'll say, You have five more years, you have form. I keep saying it. So everybody around me knew that when I was 40, I was going to retire. I just didn't know what I was going to do next. So they're lucky the retirement scramble is not me sleeping at home. And don't think it's mind busting. Rather take encouragement from that, that whatever it is that you want to do, wake up and do it. Nobody is stopping you in this life. People, look, I saw some some pundits, they did some uh sit-down, and one guy he insulted me, sir, for stopping music. It touched me. Nobody can do anything to you in this life. Do what you want to do and do it to the best of your capacity. If it works, it works for you. If it doesn't work, it's a stepping stone for you to keep going until the world. Thank you for watching this episode. Now, the Masterminds Dream is about building a community of people who have the right mindset and are ready to take their success into their own hands. So do me this wonderful favor, subscribe and share with anybody out there who you believe you want to see have the right mindset to succeed so that together we can all become the masterminds we deserve to be.