From Startups to Sacrifices: Allan Draper on Entrepreneurship, Mortality & Legacy

What does it take to build not one, not two, but 29 successful businesses?

I just had one of the most mind-blowing conversations ever with Allan Draper, a serial entrepreneur from Phoenix, Arizona. His journey from a litigation attorney to owning 29 businesses ranging from home services and digital marketing to real estate investments, is nothing short of epic.

He's living proof (not to be confused with his pest control business) that the entrepreneurial spirit is a force to be reckoned with.

Allan is a storyteller who brings the world of entrepreneurship to life in his successful podcast, “The Business Growth Pod.” He’s got this uncanny ability to analyze and scale small businesses, transforming them into multimillion-dollar ventures.

"If you don't believe in your heart of hearts that you're worthy of it, you're not going to do what it takes to go get it."

In today's episode, Allan gets real with us. We dive deep into what it truly takes to build wealth and the kind of sacrifices that come with it. He's not just talking theory; he's lived every bit of this  expansive journey.
 
"Failure is such a strong word...we need to change our mentality about failure."

He sheds light on the often-misunderstood societal realm of entrepreneurship – it's not a one-size-fits-all journey, and certainly not the cakewalk social media often paints it to be. From the significance of a wealth-building mindset to embracing failures as critical learning curves, Allan's insights are both grounding and invigorating.

And then we get into the real juicy stuff – legacy and making a difference. Spoiler alert: We're all going to die.

Allan's not just about making money; he's passionate about helping others achieve financial freedom. It's about the long game, choosing the right sacrifices, understanding what's an asset and what's a liability.

So, if you're sitting there, dreaming of starting your own thing or scaling up what you've got, you need to hear this. It's a conversation that could change the way you think about business, wealth, and success.

Key Takeaways:
Entrepreneurship isn't just about chasing success; it's about recognizing your unique journey and battling societal norms.
Allan debunks the 'easy path' myth of entrepreneurship, stressing its challenges and the need for a solid mindset.
The real wealth-building journey intertwines personal growth with financial development.
Embracing failure is essential; it's a teacher more potent than any immediate win.
The episode also dives deep into legacy, mortality, and the pressing need to create something lasting.

Watch this episode instead w/ full timestamp💚

Connect with Allan Draper on Instagram, check out his website, & listen to his podcast

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Transcript

[TRANSCRIPT]
0:00:00 - (Allan Draper): Entrepreneurship is so personal. I went through this kick where I, you know, for a year I downloaded this app that every. What was it? It was like three times a day. It would just send me a text and it would say, don't forget that you're gonna die someday.
0:00:14 - (Tawni Nguyen): Hey, what do you want on your tombstone? Hey, guys. Welcome back to another episode of Fit and Frugal podcast. I am your host, Tawni Nguyen. So I'm super excited. I have a friend here with me, Allan, a serial entrepreneur. He's going to introduce himself a little bit.
0:00:32 - (Allan Draper): Oh, thanks so much for having me. I love just having one on one conversations with people, especially when I get to talk about building wealth and building businesses. So, yeah, thanks for having me. People ask me, when did you realize you were an entrepreneur? How did you become one? And it's like, I swear that it was always in my blood. It's part of my dna. So over the last decade or so, I've built a number of businesses. I currently own 29 businesses. I'm an angel investor.
0:01:08 - (Allan Draper): I invest really heavily into real estate, but I'm involved in businesses. So I've personally started businesses from the home service industry to I own a digital marketing agency. I started a software company. And so just to kind of give you an idea, but I have my hands in quite a few different industries and I'm just really passionate about, specifically about the startup process and the sacrifices that need to be made to build your business and build wealth.
0:01:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. And I love the part that I want to acknowledge you for that because it's something that you feel in your blood and you can't really describe it to other people. And that's why I feel like a lot of social media these days make it really, I mean, it is really possible to be an entrepreneur, but that's where the line gets separated from being an entrepreneur and an actual entrepreneur. What do you think? The biggest misconception about success and entrepreneurship that most people have?
0:02:04 - (Allan Draper): Oh, wow. So right now, I'm kind of going through this phase with my social media where I don't always do it, but I try to do every day. I post a fallacy from social media about building businesses and wealth. And so I'm going to create 100 of them. I'm like 30 or 40 deep, and I've been posting a lot about them, but the biggest ones, two came to mind, and I have such a hard time limiting it because there's so many out there.
0:02:30 - (Allan Draper): But number one has to be how easy it appears to be. I was having a conversation with my Uber driver on the way over here, and he was asking me about investing a franchise. We had really cool conversation, and I told him that there's this difficulty in starting a business, and had I known what it was like, I'm thankful that I didn't, because I don't know that I would have done my first startup. So that's number one.
0:03:00 - (Allan Draper): And then I think the second thing is that not everybody's an entrepreneur, and that's okay. I feel like social media, everywhere you look, it's like, follow your passion, build your business. It's like, you know what? I can't imagine having a job, but I employ hundreds and hundreds of people that can't imagine starting and building a business, and that's perfectly fine. And so that bothers me about social media, Instagram right now, where it's like, not everyone has to be an entrepreneur. And although it's a great way to build wealth, it's not the only way to do it.
0:03:34 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, I completely agree. Because if everyone was an entrepreneur, the system would fall apart.
0:03:39 - (Allan Draper): Exactly.
0:03:39 - (Tawni Nguyen): Like you said, you've employed hundreds of people, especially in a span of 29 plus businesses, and you're still growing. And if everyone has the same unemployable mentality, then there will be no system, there will be no operators. Everyone would just be a visionary, and everyone would, I think, would just pursue that thing. I think in the dreams of making money, because I think that's what most people go into entrepreneurship thinking. They're going to make tons of money. And that's the biggest mistake that I've learned over the last.
0:04:08 - (Allan Draper): That's a big 110, 15 years.
0:04:10 - (Tawni Nguyen): There are plenty of ways to make money, but you don't have to be an entrepreneur. And what do you feel, speaking on social media? Right. So when it comes to money, I know that you have the ten laws governing money, and I love the first one because I think I caught one of your episode with Chris Crone, and you guys were talking about practical advice versus the thing that matters most versus mindset and the first law. It's like to build wealth, you have to become a person that thinks you're worthy of that. But what do you think that limiting belief is like for most people that's never built wealth or has a scarcity mindset?
0:04:50 - (Allan Draper): I'm glad that you brought that up, and it's something that I've kind of struggled with over the years for a number of reasons. But one of the reasons why I think we need to be talking about the mindset portion is because a lot of folks just think it's like voodoo, like wishy washy. It doesn't matter. Either you make money or it doesn't matter what's in your mind. I grew up in a small farming community, like 2000 people. There was one stoplight in my town and a couple of years ago I ended up buying a summer house.
0:05:23 - (Allan Draper): I spend most of my year in Phoenix, but I bought a house there for us to go in the summer. It's a lot cooler weather. And I noticed going back that people just kind of think differently. And it's not necessarily wrong or right, but if there's an individual that comes to me and they're like, hey, Alan, I want to build wealth. That's where I'm going to start. I'm going to start with their mindset. There's a lot of communities, families, religions where wealth is actually looked down upon, where it's know even within my own family, I have family members. I'm not going to call them out specifically, but I get kind of jabbed and it comes in weird forms. It's not always like, oh, you're wealthy, therefore you're evil. It's like, oh, you work hard and you grind, so you're not spending enough time with your family or you're not doing this or that.
0:06:13 - (Allan Draper): So in order to build large amounts of wealth, you have to first realize and come to the conclusion that you're worthy of it. And the reason why that's the case is because if you don't believe in your heart of hearts that you're worthy of it, you're not going to do what it takes to go get it. And it is not easy. It takes years. It takes consistency. It's not like you just become this overnight success. Social media makes it seem sometimes.
0:06:40 - (Allan Draper): But if you believe like, hey, I'm worthy of this, not only am I worthy of this, but I am going to demand this of myself. You're going to find a way to make it happen.
0:06:49 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. So when I hear consistencies also, I feel a lot of people don't enjoy the process. They're just doing it because they're chasing the thing. They're chasing the next thing and the next thing. I do believe there's a thing with shiny objects. Right. But until you find your lane, I don't think it's wrong to chase shiny objects because until you know and you can take those risks, you won't know. Right. So coming from starting businesses, it's very high risk.
0:07:16 - (Allan Draper): No, you said a lot of stuff that's like the shiny object syndrome. That is an element of the entrepreneur's personality. Almost all of us have it where it's like, and the reason why is because we like to build. Entrepreneurs are builders. We take resources that are scattered, we put them together, and we build something that's of value to society. And then the consistency part, it's like I was thinking, it reminded me of my first few months in the pest control industry. So I'm actually a lawyer. I was practicing law in Phoenix.
0:07:54 - (Allan Draper): I was being paid well, and I had a four year old, sorry, a two year old and a four month old. And we packed our stuff, threw it in a car, and moved to Detroit, Michigan to start a pest control company. A couple of months into the process, I was like, man, I just want to get out of this feeling of like, I don't know if we're going to make it. I don't know if we have enough money. We were really scrimping and saving, and then we got to the point where it's like, okay, we're starting to put a few bucks together.
0:08:26 - (Allan Draper): And then all I wanted was to go back to that phase. And that's why I'm so passionate about startups, is because I love the unknown. I love building something and it requiring your heart and soul. And if you talk to an entrepreneur that's built something, they like talking about the early days, they like talking about when they were struggling. It's rare that they'll just sit there and tell you about the good times. We like talking about the bad times because that's when we were growing. And so that's my thing. That's why I start so many companies, especially in different industries. I own a software company.
0:09:01 - (Allan Draper): I am not a tech person, and I have struggled, especially right now. I'm going through it right now with my software company. And I know eventually I'm going to come out on the other side because I just won't quit. But you're exactly right. When you first start, you got to put in your time.
0:09:19 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. With the software company, what's your biggest challenge that you're facing?
0:09:27 - (Allan Draper): Yeah, and this is Raw. This is like, I was dealing with stuff yesterday, Raw. So I currently have 21 business partners currently, but I have people that were our former business partners. And so that's been, one of them is working through kind of the responsibilities and the weight that some of the partners that have now left were carrying. And a lot of that's on me, me being a better partner and me seeing to make sure that their needs are met.
0:10:02 - (Allan Draper): But, yeah, so that's, number one is kind of figuring out the partnership dynamic of the software company, and then number two is understanding the. Because we're pre revenue still, and so we have to finish our product. We're like 90% done, but that last 10% to where we can take it to market is. So we're working with different developers and trying to figure all that stuff out.
0:10:28 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. I do want to acknowledge you for just saying that grit and adversity is where entrepreneurs thrive. I was still processing it, but you're completely right is because during that time, I think you develop the most character, and that's where you learn how to soften, but not in a way to where it makes you low bitch, but it makes you really, truly see who you are. And there's a mentality, I feel like, behind that grit that makes you want to quit, because there's days that I'm pretty sure you just said it's a raw exposure right now. I don't want to pull at your open wound. Yeah, but there are days to where you really want to quit. Right.
0:11:04 - (Tawni Nguyen): What do you think the biggest lie that people tell you on social media, going back to the whole social media and this ideology that success has to be a certain way.
0:11:17 - (Allan Draper): Yeah. Entrepreneurship is so personal, and one of my fallacies is that in order to be successful, you have to do it like some guru that's on Instagram. You don't. And actually, if you try to do it like that person, you're probably going to fail, because that person has skills, resources, and network that you don't have. So, entrepreneurship is super personal, and the real way to succeed is to do it within the scope of your personality and your skill set.
0:11:52 - (Allan Draper): Now, a big part of that is figuring out, what does that mean? I mean, I'm a lawyer that started a pest control company. So I was wearing a suit and tie. I was a litigation attorney. So I was in court. And I go from that to literally, I was the dude spraying the house. I was out there with the sprayer and talking to customers. It was a very unconventional path, but that's how I found my skill set in building startups. So, that being said, another one of my fallacies that you see tossed around social media is that you should follow your passion.
0:12:29 - (Allan Draper): And I'm really into sports. I'm really into golf. I'm really into cars. And my cars thing, I've found a way to kind of make a few bucks. But it's my other businesses that aren't as sexy that make me my money. And so I have this hard thing with people saying, hey, follow your passion. Build a business about your passion for two reasons. One, a lot of those passion projects, they're not going to make that much money, right? It's like, oh, dude, you have a collection of ferraris, right?
0:13:00 - (Allan Draper): And it looks like you make more money. Dude, I'm going to make way more than you with my pest control company. I'm not kidding. I'll show you the numbers. Yeah. The other thing is, when you try to make a job out of your passion, your passion becomes your job. So it's like, okay, I have a gym or something. And it's like, well, I'm going to work. And it used to be me going to my hobby or whatever.
0:13:27 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, I call gym time. I think mental stability time, because if I'm not at the gym, I'm pretty unstable that day. Yes, it's more now a crutch than it is. It's just something that you have to wake up and do to stay in alignment to who you are. And I feel like health is one of those pillars that you can't really fluctuate because it is or it isn't, right. And what was the mindset for you? I find that really intriguing, that you went from being a lawyer to a pest control and moved all the way to Michigan.
0:13:58 - (Tawni Nguyen): So that means that your wife has to be a really loving and supportive partner, because that's another thing that people don't really talk about, is the partnership behind entrepreneurs and how they can maintain in a healthy and stable relationship. Like, can they have another partnership that's also an entrepreneur, or is there some sort of balance and harmony in that relationship to where one person has to be more grounded so that the other person can go out and pursue their visionary dreams?
0:14:25 - (Allan Draper): Yeah, I think there's a few different dynamics that can work, but what it comes down to is risk tolerance. So I like to think of it like driving down the road. It's a one lane road. The person that's going the slowest is going to determine everybody else's speed, and that's how I look at risk. So your spouse, you have to understand their risk tolerance because entrepreneurs and I have a very high risk. Like abnormally high, where I'll write fairly large checks without doing sufficient due diligence, and I'm trying to get better at it.
0:15:07 - (Allan Draper): So you have to take that into consideration. My wife, all she ever wanted to be was a stay at home mom. That was her thing. She's like, if you provide enough so that I can do that, you can do whatever you want. So that day that I came home from my legal job, I'm like, yeah, I'm going to quit the law. And she's like, okay, going to. I'm going to start a pest control company. And she's like, okay. And then I'm like, oh, yeah, and we're going to move to Detroit, Michigan to do it.
0:15:35 - (Allan Draper): And she's like, all right. And she looks at me and she's like, you know what? Let's freaking do it. So having that support, and I talk to a lot of people that are like, hey, Alan, my wife or my husband, they're not necessarily on board with this. And it's like, I wish I knew your struggle. I don't really. But you got to think about it in terms of that analogy of the slower person is going to be determining that, and you need to put your marriage above the business and above your personal aspirations as hard as that.
0:16:07 - (Allan Draper): And look, I'm kind of coming from my ivory tower right now saying this because I haven't had to deal with that and I can't imagine the pressure, but I've seen relationships, kind of getting back to your question, I've seen relationships work where one's an entrepreneur, one's a stay at home parent or whatever, they both work. One has a nine to five. So it really comes down to the dynamics and the long term goals of the couple.
0:16:34 - (Allan Draper): But I don't think there's a clear cut recipe. Now, that being said, and I've done this with myself where I've had two startups at the same time, I would recommend against that within the marriage. Right. So if one of you is starting a company, I would recommend that the other one hold off because there's so much stress pressure that comes with that. So that would be my only caveat. But I think there's a lot of ways to make it work.
0:17:05 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. Especially startups is very capital intensive, too.
0:17:08 - (Allan Draper): Exactly.
0:17:08 - (Tawni Nguyen): So if there's not sufficient income coming in, then that's really going to stretch your relationship and put that on hold as well.
0:17:15 - (Allan Draper): Exactly.
0:17:16 - (Tawni Nguyen): So with you having a really high risk tolerance, have you ever faced some sort of failure that's so big to where it changed your perspective as a whole?
0:17:26 - (Allan Draper): Yeah, and I'm starting to. Earlier, you kind of alluded to the fact of how entrepreneurship, you learn a lot about yourself, you self identify. And I think that being in a long term relationship and starting a business, there's no better way to figure out who you truly are. It's a magnifying glass on who you are. And the best entrepreneurs are the ones that can say, all right, this is who I am. I need to do something about it. I used to think I was super approachable, and then I learned people were intimidated or scared to bring something up within my company, and so I had to do something to change.
0:18:05 - (Allan Draper): And I'm trying to get back to the original question, but there's this process of just, you have to figure out who you are. And I actually forgot what the question was because I was going off on my tangent there.
0:18:22 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, no, we can go to. I love self discovery, and I feel like that's the root of every entrepreneur. I kind of love that you brought that up, too, because a lot of people I feel like to be an entrepreneur, they're afraid to be seen. There's a lot of judgment that comes with that. And there's all these fears, like success, failures, you name it. There's like a whole laundry list of all these fears, self doubt, limiting beliefs, your families.
0:18:48 - (Tawni Nguyen): So thank you for sharing that, because I feel a scarcity mindset encompasses that. So you grew up poor, or what we now call poor, like, in a small town. That's what society programs us to feel. And I love that you brought up that it's not about greed, because I feel like we were socially conditioned to think money is evil.
0:19:08 - (Allan Draper): Yeah.
0:19:09 - (Tawni Nguyen): And I'm like, I don't think money is evil, depending on whose hands it is and what the intention about it is, because I think as long as you're designing an intentional life and doing things to fulfillment is different. But unless that person knows who they are, what was some of that thing that you had to overcome when you said you're not approachable? And what are some of those self awareness that you had to learn along the ways to be who you are today?
0:19:32 - (Allan Draper): Yeah. I just remember finding out about stuff within my business when it was too late, and I would talk to people and I'd find out, why didn't you tell me? And I could tell, and they wouldn't just say it like, hey, dude, you're not as approachable. Like, when we come to you, you kind of, like, rip our heads off. And they didn't say that, but it just became clear. And so it's like, okay, dang, this is what I thought originally, that I was okay.
0:20:02 - (Allan Draper): That was an incorrect perception of myself. These are the things that I need to do better. And the reason I now remember the reason why I started talking about that is because through this process of entrepreneurship, I've learned about my risk tolerance. And I had this thing where I have a really hard time with sunk costs, where it's like, okay, I spent money doing something, and you were talking about risk tolerance and my personality with it. So I'm trying to get better, because what I do is I kind of double down.
0:20:31 - (Allan Draper): And I've done this. I have three or four businesses that have lost considerable money. And a lot of it's because even though I got to the point where it was like, hey, I know that I'm headed down the wrong path, I would just keep going because I didn't want. So I have some demons inside. I have all these things in my head. And I think when I started building some wealth and some success, I thought they were going to go away.
0:21:00 - (Allan Draper): They like, ten x'd. So now it's like, okay, I was afraid of failure. I was afraid of. Now I hear, in my head, I hear, Alan, you got lucky. Alan, you don't belong here. Like, I rub shoulders with some really talented, successful people, and so those fears kind of change. But I just suffer from severe cases of imposter syndrome. I'm on this mission to overcome the fear, so it doesn't get to the point where it's really limiting my success.
0:21:38 - (Tawni Nguyen): Wow, that was actually really powerful. It gave me some kind of chills, because I resonate with that, because I think even when you approach a certain amount of money or wealth and coming back to, there's always a question that people ask is like, hey, if you were to lose it all, what would you do? Yada, yada, yada. But I feel like somewhere in this journey, do you think it's the mindset thing that ten x is your demons, do you feel that you don't deserve it? Going back to the first law, let's just say zero to the first million. Once you hit that million, you feel like an imposter. You're like, I don't deserve this. But how do you go from that first million to, like, 10 million to 100 million?
0:22:18 - (Tawni Nguyen): Somewhere along that line, there has to be luck. And do you think there. Okay, let's ask this question. How big of a chance of luck do you think plays a role in success?
0:22:31 - (Allan Draper): Oh, that's a good question. That's a good question. And it's something that I've been thinking a lot about, because I used to think that business was all effort. I used to think that there's luck. Like, if you read about the greats like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, their timing, they had no control. Bill Gates, when he came up, he went to a high school that was the only high school in the United States that had a certain computer.
0:23:13 - (Allan Draper): There's definitely an element of luck. Now, that being said, the reason why I struggle with luck is because I like to be in control of my life. I'm the type of person that if somebody does something to me, I blame myself, because it's like I didn't need that person in my life, and I allowed them to do that. So it's still my fault, even though they did it, because I like having control over my life. But luck is.
0:23:37 - (Allan Draper): It's like a double edged sword, right? But there is definitely luck involved. But I always say that the harder I work, the luckier I get. And I stole that from somebody. I didn't invent that, but there's some luck, there's some serendipity involved with running into the right person markets, stuff like that. That being said, my whole thing is that I encourage people to make short term sacrifices, to build businesses and wealth. That's everything that I do.
0:24:08 - (Allan Draper): And it's really hard to do that if you're like, hey, it's 100% luck. So, no, it is not 100% luck, but there is luck, and there's timing involved. That being said, if something doesn't go the way that you want it to, you keep going until that luck, that fortune finds you. And a big part of that is you have to be able to financially stay alive. You have to be able to figure out a way to scrap and claw to stay in the game. You stay in the game long enough, you're eventually going to succeed.
0:24:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. Do you feel like that's unconventional thinking, going against kind of like, all the grains of social media? That's like, buy this course, buy my blueprint. And with you, it's sunk costs. Right? Because for us, I feel like we have a higher risk tolerance. But a lot of people, they just bank on that thing to make them the money, because money, for me, is emotional. And when people are sold entrepreneurship, they're sold. Like, it's going to fix all of your problems. Money will fix.
0:25:03 - (Tawni Nguyen): I think money would fix 90% of the problems, but the 10% makes up for more problems that they know existed. It comes down to self worth, self validation, and a lot more internal than it is just survival. Money is going to fix your mortgage problem, your rents, your food, your survival needs, but it's not really going to fix the way you feel about yourself. And I love the thing that you said about sunk cost, so we can revisit that a little bit because I feel like there's people that invest for their first time into themselves.
0:25:31 - (Tawni Nguyen): They get so freaked out. Let's just say they spend like $10,000 on a course thinking that $10,000 is going to 1000 x and make them their first million dollars. And you said don't buy the gurus and the click funnels. Because I feel like there's a lot of 20 year olds now that are selling their life coaching program, that are selling all of these things, but they know if they're really good at sales and marketing, they sell that emotional moment to where someone that doesn't have that wants that.
0:26:00 - (Allan Draper): Yeah. And there's some really great tools out there. There's some really great courses. I have a business that we sell a course. But I think you're exactly right that it's not the end all, be all. That's not your silver bullet. The silver bullet is consistency and not giving up. If there's anything, it's that. And most people just can't hack it. 90 plus percent of people. Money solves a lot of problems, but it also creates some.
0:26:31 - (Allan Draper): It creates problems. I look at money as kind of inert, right? It's like gasoline, right? If I pour gasoline on a fire that I want to have, right? Farmers, they have to burn fields every once in a while to cycle through crops and things like that. That's good. But if it's a house, you don't want to pour gas on it. So with money, and we're in Las Vegas and so here, it's anywhere. But if you're using money for good to build, then it's a good thing.
0:27:09 - (Allan Draper): And I have a friend that made a lot of money in crypto and just one day decided to dump it all. And he lives a purposeful life. He's very, very wealthy. Like private jet, north of $100 million wealthy, but he uses his time. Folks that think that money is going to solve all their problems, they're going to realize that if and when they accumulate it, that it doesn't.
0:27:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): What do you think some of those problems are? I mean, we can't list other people's.
0:27:40 - (Allan Draper): Problems, but I think bad habits, drinking dependencies, family issues, your life changes when you make a lot of money. And the faster you make it, the more drastic the change is. So think of people that win the lottery. And I didn't win the lottery. I'm wealthy, but I didn't win the lottery. So mine came kind of slower. And I'm actually super frugal. I live well below my means because I want to invest and build more.
0:28:22 - (Allan Draper): But I drive a Ferrari, right?
0:28:24 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.
0:28:25 - (Allan Draper): And so people look at it and it's like it changes things. So the faster you get your money, it just changes relationships. People either become your friend because you have it, or some people stay away from you because they have it. Because you have it. Because of how it makes them feel, right?
0:28:43 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.
0:28:43 - (Allan Draper): Because when they're around you, they feel less than or whatever. And a lot of that I've learned and I've beat myself up over the years because I'm like, it's me making them feel like that. And I realize it's like, no, it's not. Maybe I can be a little more careful with some things that I say, but it's really them. So anyway, so relationships get stressed, and I'm talking about younger folks, right? People in their, get older and you have a bunch of wealth, and I don't think you're going to be as prone to a lot of those issues and problems that might come if you develop that earlier in life.
0:29:25 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. I do think that money is a tool and it amplifies the way people feel. And I think feelings of inadequacy depending on the perspective they have on it. If they're rooted to program themselves to think that money is evil, then one, they're not deserving of it, and two, they can't look at it in the eye and respect it. I think respecting money is something I'm learning from this conversation, is that to make a lot of money, you have to also respect the money too, not just look down on people who have it. Just because for me, if I'm envious of something, it's because it's me. My innate abilities to intuitively be guided towards a desire for it. And I have to ask myself that reason why I'm like, why am I envious of this person? What is the root feeling that that person is perceived to have that I don't have? What do I want?
0:30:17 - (Tawni Nguyen): And even with the Ferrari thing, that's your passion. You love cars. And I think the more I take a look at wealthy people on their habits is if you really want something, you should be deserving of it. And if you want the nice car, like, have the damn nice car. I feel like some people still feel bad, right? Because now they feel like they have to take care of their families and that they owe people something on the come up for lack of better terms.
0:30:47 - (Tawni Nguyen): But where were those people that are criticizing you now that you have less and less friends?
0:30:56 - (Allan Draper): It's funny when people say money is evil. I've heard the saying, anybody that thinks that money is evil hasn't given enough of it away. And I believe that I've been blessed with a lot, and because of that, I need to be a good steward over what I've been given. And part of that is me continuing to build things. And being an entrepreneur, you have to have a certain level of confidence. You do, because if you don't have enough confidence, you're not going to take the steps necessary to be an entrepreneur for very long.
0:31:38 - (Allan Draper): And so I believe that in a lot of cases, and I try to be generous in tipping and I give away 10% of everything I make every single year. But I believe that I'm one of the best stewards of money on this planet. And because of that, money is better in my hands than it is in not everybody's, but in a lot of people's hands because I'm not going to go blow it on whatever. Right?
0:32:07 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.
0:32:09 - (Allan Draper): But I also have this thing, it's weird, I have this feeling that's over the last probably six months, that every time I feel like a moment of clarity and I'm sitting by myself and thinking about my future and what I want to build and the success that I've had in the past, I have this thought come to my head that, hey, Alan, the money's not yours. So your mission in life is to give it so. But the way that I'm going to do it is by sharing information and helping other people build wealth. That's how I'm going to do it. I'm not just going to walk down on the strip and start handing out hundreds.
0:32:49 - (Allan Draper): And the reason why is because I don't believe a lot of those folks, some of them maybe are good stewards. But what I mean by that is, are they going to take that hundred and are they going to make more or are they going to take that hundred? Are they going to lose? It's a big mission of mine because I have this very emotional connection with this thought that's in my head, hey, Alan, it's not yours.
0:33:11 - (Allan Draper): You have to give it away.
0:33:13 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. I love that perspective because lately, the way I've been living my life and the way I've been connecting with people, we talk a lot about legacy, right? And it gets to a really dark place to where I straight up ask them, I'm like, hey, what do you want on your tombstone? What do you want your legacy to be like? What do you want written as your obituary? Are you actually truly living as that person that you think it's going to deserve? Whatever that saying is on your tombstone?
0:33:42 - (Tawni Nguyen): So can we pull at that string a little bit? Because I feel like it's a very. Oh, I love that emotionally driven statement to ask somebody.
0:33:49 - (Allan Draper): Yeah, but no, I love talking about legacy. Every December, I read a book written by Mitch album called Tuesdays with Maury. It's a really quick read. I read it in, like, less than a me. I don't even know if it takes me an hour. And it's the story of this student that got reconnected with a professor mentor of his that was dying. And so the book is basically about learning all these things about life and death, but learning how to die and learning about legacy.
0:34:22 - (Allan Draper): And one of my favorite quotes is that our goal in life shouldn't be to live forever. Our goal in life should be to create something that does. And I get emotional about it because that's something that I'm after what lives on when I'm no longer around. Because we're survivalists, we're always thinking about ourselves, and there's nothing wrong with that. Now, we shouldn't treat people poorly because of that, but because we're survivalists, we're very self interested.
0:35:00 - (Allan Draper): So when I create something on social media, when I have this conversation with you before rewind five years, my goal would have been for me to get something out of it. But I know that the way that others are going to be interested in it is if they get something out of it. So I love talking about legacy. I love thinking about. I went through this kick where for a year, I downloaded this app that every.
0:35:25 - (Allan Draper): What was it? It was like three times a day. It would just send me a text and it would say, don't forget that you're going to die someday. And I read that monks have these reminders about it, about their mortality. And at first I thought it was kind of dark and ominous. And then I realized, no, it's cool, because then it stops me in my tracks. And I'm thinking, like, hey, am I going to be doing stuff that when I'm on my deathbed, I'm going to be glad that I did? So I love talking about legacy.
0:35:59 - (Allan Draper): I love that concept of, hey, are you going to live worthy of what's going to be written on your tombstone? Because it reminds us of this mortality, and I think it puts things in perspective for us.
0:36:08 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, I think a lot of that comes down to the biggest regret that I've heard. When I was 16, I worked at the hospice, and most of the people that are dying, their families don't come see them. And that taught me at a really young age, like, the relationship I have with my parents growing up, it's not the best, but I'm still working on it throughout my days, because I don't want that fear of dying alone to ever cross my mind. Or to cross their mind. Right. Because it doesn't really matter how you choose to live, as long as you're living a fulfilling life.
0:36:41 - (Tawni Nguyen): And when it comes down to just living, I don't know, to your fullest authenticity, or whatever you want to call it, I feel like a lot of people lack that understanding of mortality, because that's the only predictable thing I feel it's very certain of, is everyone's chapters are going to end the exact same way. And when I talk to people, I'm like, we're all going to die. That's the only predictable thing you're going to have. So whatever outcome you think you're controlling, you're not really controlling it, because it's very certain, like, we're all going to die. It's just up to you how you want to write your next chapters.
0:37:13 - (Tawni Nguyen): Right. So I love that you're saying, I love the sun costing, because you can rip the page and just throw it away and, yeah, it's as much of an investment that is capital relationship emotional. Sometimes it feels good to just start over and just kind of let go of whatever identity you think you have to hold on to and just start over. And even for you, like, living frugally. I think in my people I hung out with in Orange county, all they cared about was status and looking like they have a lot of money. So when frugal comes up, it's not sexy, right. But you got to do the unsexy thing for it to be one day just magically sexy, and then everyone's going to be asking you how you do it.
0:37:55 - (Allan Draper): Exactly.
0:37:57 - (Tawni Nguyen): And I love that we can talk about it, too. Why do you think mortality is so hard of a concept to grasp, especially when it comes to building generational wealth? What's that unconventional thinking or piece of advice? Knowing that we're all going to die anyways, that you can give to an aspiring entrepreneur or someone looking to grow their business?
0:38:17 - (Allan Draper): I think that's funny because we all know that we're going to die. We just don't believe it, right? It's like, that's not going to happen to me or whatever. And we need that mentality of having this survival mindset. But in terms of building wealth, and especially, like, generational wealth, it just creates freedom. So somebody that's aspiring to do that, I remember when I started my first business, and I, so I was practicing law and I was working a lot of hours, and I thought, oh, I'm going to start my first business, and as soon as I do, I'm going to make more money, I'm going to have more time, I'm going to have more control over my life. And all of those things were not true, right?
0:39:10 - (Allan Draper): It was the exact opposite. I'm like, wait, I'm working more, I'm making less money. I have less control over my life than I did when I was practicing law. Now, the good thing is that when you add a little leverage to business, you can turn that around and then it, like hockey stick growth. But the generational wealth thing, it's so important because it gives you options. The greatest form of leverage in life, in any type of negotiation, any type of circumstance, the greatest form of leverage is options.
0:39:49 - (Allan Draper): It's like, hey, I'm buying a commercial building right now in Michigan, and I got a really good deal on it because I had other options the seller didn't, the seller needed. So when you create generational wealth, especially as an entrepreneur, you're creating options for your family tree. Now, there's going to be a point at which if you create generational wealth, someone in your family is going to lose it.
0:40:19 - (Allan Draper): It's just the way it goes. So in addition to passing on wealth, you need to pass on a wealthy mindset. I like how you mentioned, like, yeah, people say, what would you do if you lost it all? I get that question, like, at least once a week. And the longer I'm in this, the more I realize that I would just build it again, and it would take me less and less time the older I get. But that's not because of my wealth, that's because of my mindset. It's because of the things that I've learned.
0:40:53 - (Allan Draper): So it's funny because I grew up, like, high school jock, football player in a small town, but because I was in a small town, I was, like the best in the town, right? Which doesn't mean much when you go outside of the town, but I was like this tough guy. And the older I get, the more I want to talk about mentality and feelings and things like that, because those are the things that you create a pattern with that can apply to any situation.
0:41:23 - (Allan Draper): In addition to the generational wealth, I'd encourage the entrepreneurs to pass on generational knowledge or mentality or mindset or whatever.
0:41:32 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. What does that wealthy mindset look like from your perspective, since you've had so much more wisdom in all these years? And I feel like when you say you lose it all and it just takes you a shorter amount of times, I think it's just compressed. Right. Because it takes a lot more failures as well to get those knowledge. Experience is failures. Failures is feedback. Feedback is how you move on and rip the band aid and actually grow into the next thing. Right.
0:41:56 - (Tawni Nguyen): So how does that set of failures that you face? I'm sure now, if you were to build another $10 million or 100 million dollar business, it'll take you not ten years, but a few years.
0:42:06 - (Allan Draper): Yeah. I'm actually writing a book about failure because at least in our society, in american society, it gets such a bad rap and failure is such a strong word. And I don't consider myself a failure. Although I have failed businesses, I've made huge mistakes, but there's no greater teacher. And I get paid quite a bit of money to consult businesses that are so terrified of failure. And I tell them, like, look it, I'm not going to give you every single answer that you're looking for. And the reason why is because I don't want to rob you of that experience.
0:42:53 - (Allan Draper): Now, I'm not going to let you make huge mistakes so that you have to fire people. That's no fun. But failure is. We need to change our mentality. And this book that I'm writing is about exactly that. We have to change our mentality about failure. We can change the word or whatever, but it gets such a bad rap. We are so afraid of failure. And you know why? It's not because of what it's going to do to us.
0:43:21 - (Allan Draper): There is a little bit of us, our survival. If we failed when we were hunting back when we lived in caves, then we die. That doesn't happen anymore. There's no more saber tooth tigers out to get us. But the reason why fear of failure is so damaging to us now is because we're so connected. We've never been this connected. And so we think, like, hey, if I fail, then what is everybody going to think about me?
0:43:47 - (Allan Draper): And if we can detach from that, and this is going to help with risk tolerance, too. A lot of times people aren't taking risks and putting themselves out there because they give a damn what other people are going to think if they fail, if they come up short. But if you look at some of the greatest entrepreneurs and business folks in the world, most of them have built their careers on stories and lessons from failure. Think of a guy like Dave Ramsey.
0:44:15 - (Allan Draper): Now, I don't adhere to a lot of his business and investing philosophies, although I'm frugal. I share that with him. His entire platform. He's borderline celebrities, a household name. Now he just talks about how he was dumb in his, went bankrupt. That's it. And because of that and the lessons that he's learned, he parlayed his failure into the greatest thing that could have ever happened to him. The greatest thing professionally, not talking about his family or whatever spiritual life, but in terms of professionally speaking, the greatest thing that ever happened to Dave Ramsey, who's probably worth maybe a quarter of a billion dollars now, was a huge failure.
0:44:59 - (Allan Draper): And if you ask him that, he's probably in his 60s, but you ask him that when it happened in his 20s, he would have been like, yeah, right. I don't believe that. But what's happening is that exact same thing is happening on a micro level to all of us right now. So we need the mentality and the perspective to see that. Like, hey, what's going to be of this specific failure when I'm 65? What am I going to do with it?
0:45:23 - (Allan Draper): Is it going to be my crutch, or am I going to use it to build, like, this incredible platform?
0:45:29 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.
0:45:31 - (Allan Draper): Wow.
0:45:32 - (Tawni Nguyen): No, I was thinking about Dave Ramsey. Yeah, you're right. It's either you love him or you hate.
0:45:37 - (Allan Draper): He's a, he's a polarizing guy. There's some things that I like about him. He's really mean to people, though. They call in, and he's like, what are you thinking? Like, yells at him and stuff. And I don't like that part. And I also leverage debt. And by the way, I'm on a path to be worth much more than Dave Ramsay doing it a different way. And I'm 20 plus years younger than him. But that's his path. That's his soapbox. He won't have a credit card.
0:46:07 - (Allan Draper): So some things, I agree with him, but I feel like he puts a ceiling on people, an artificial ceiling on people. And so I encourage people that I am around to not listen to a lot of what he says because he's a grinded out, don't buy the cup of coffee and retire with a million dollars. And I'm like, dude, in 20 years, if you have a million dollars, that's going to be nothing.
0:46:37 - (Tawni Nguyen): That's like half a million.
0:46:39 - (Allan Draper): Exactly.
0:46:40 - (Tawni Nguyen): 300,000.
0:46:41 - (Allan Draper): Yeah, you're not going to. And I'm a big thinker. I like thinking really big. And he kind of thinks small, so at least on his radio show and stuff. But I think he's developed a great market. And the lesson from his life of what's a little bit ironic is that he tells everybody to play it safe, to have the safety net. And his entire life was built after him going for it. Yes, it was built on him going after it and not succeeding, but it was still built on him going after it.
0:47:19 - (Allan Draper): And he encourages other people to not do that. I'm the opposite. I say go for it. You fail. If your family is safe, your kids are happy, who gives a damn? I'll start over. I'll sell all my real estate. I'm not afraid. I don't want that to happen. But if that's my worst case scenario, to me it would be much worse. Like, you were talking about hospice. I know they did this long research study. There was a hospice nurse that wrote a book about regret, and she said that when people are dying, they regret much more the things they didn't do than they regret the things they did do. So they regret not trying, not putting themselves out there much more than they regretted doing things and failing.
0:48:03 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, no, I love that. I just want to acknowledge you for your balls to the walls kind of attitude, because I think that's how we got connected. And, man, I kind of lost my train of thought that ADHD just kicked in because I was in so many fucking tangents. But with the balls to the walls kind of mentality, what does that look like for you? I'm just so excited and curious to learn more about you in terms of where you actually want to go.
0:48:29 - (Tawni Nguyen): Because first off, to touches, I think our worst nightmare as an entrepreneur is losing it all and then not the part of creation, because that's where we thrive, but, like, going back and getting a job. But again, that's what most people's normal is, right? But I think that's one of my worst nightmares. Like, so what if I fail, right?
0:48:48 - (Allan Draper): Yeah.
0:48:49 - (Tawni Nguyen): So going back to that, what do you want for your legacy then, for you, till this day, with all of your failures and successes and your family, and as long as you're not hurting nobody, just go big, go for it all, what is it that you actually really want to achieve? Like, ten years from now?
0:49:06 - (Allan Draper): Yeah. So my thing is, I'm going to strip away from all the flash and all of that stuff. And my top level goal, professionally speaking, is to help 10,000 people become financially free by making short term sacrifices. By not one of my ten laws is that not to buy any toys, any luxuries until you have at least a million dollars of net worth. People see that I have Ferraris and they're like, okay, I'm going to go get a Ferrari.
0:49:46 - (Allan Draper): I was worth north of $10 million before I bought my first Ferrari. And I've developed a system where I make money off my ferraris, which is way too complicated for the average person. So it's that my goal is to help people make those sacrifices that social media and YouTube won't show you. You have to make those short term sacrifices. And by short term, I mean a couple of years. I don't mean a decade.
0:50:14 - (Allan Draper): If you're making sacrifices like that for a decade, you're just doing it wrong. Right. I own three pieces of real estate, decent, like single family homes. And I moved into a two bedroom apartment with my two kids to start a business. So I was renting a place when I personally owned three properties that were much nicer. That's what I mean by making a sacrifice. And it was short lived. I did it for two years and then I moved on.
0:50:42 - (Allan Draper): So that's what I'm after. And I get passionate about it because it's something that I care about. And I actually really like doing this. I like talking about it. And I have an executive assistant, I have a social media team, I have a videographer that follows me around most places. And I have to balance with them because they understand social media and branding more than me. And they're like, hey, Alan, we want to see you driving around in your cars. We want to see all of this. And I'm like, we can do it as long as there's a caveat down.
0:51:18 - (Allan Draper): Like, I want to make sure people know that I didn't one night invest in crypto and the next day buy six ferraris. I want to make sure people know that. And there is a balance because of this mission I'm on. I want eyeballs. And I know that in order to get eyeballs, I can't talk about boring financial statements all day long. I have to make it so that's digestible, especially in our society today when attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. So if you look at my social media, you'll see some of my cars, but that's the mission that I'm on. And I'm super passionate about it.
0:51:53 - (Allan Draper): And I give 15 minutes free calls. Like, for somebody wants to pitch me a business, I'm angel investor. So I've invested in some of these businesses, but if someone wants to call me for 15 minutes, I'll talk to them about anything, about building wealth in business. If they're talking about creating a budget, if they're talking about a partnership, whatever. And I have a legal background, so I can talk about contracts and I can talk about different legal implications and things, but that's ultimately, it's my legacy, is what it is. My legacy is to help others build their wealth. I've built businesses. I've built wealth, and I'm going to continue to do it. This isn't me, like, quitting what I'm doing and just starting a consulting business.
0:52:30 - (Allan Draper): I only coach two people at a time at any given time, and it takes hour or two a week of my time. I'm going to continue to build my business, but my legacy, what's going to live on long after I'm gone is going to be how I affected other people's lives.
0:52:48 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. And I just heard that that's the true definition of frugal right there. It's not giving a shit about what anyone thinks. But you know that you have to use your resources to get attention and that you just perfectly put it, too. Is there anything we haven't touched on today that you really want to get out there to make sure that your message is clear and resonates to who you are and on your path?
0:53:10 - (Allan Draper): Yeah. I want people to understand the difference between liabilities and assets. So if you don't have a net worth of a million dollars, don't buy liabilities. If you buy something, you need to make sure it becomes an asset. Now you need to get to work, and you need the necessities of life. I get that. But I'm not a flashy guy. Right? I'm wearing, like, A-6-T shirt. I do like shoes, so I have a pair of Jordans on. I have a decent sized Jordans collection.
0:53:43 - (Allan Draper): But it actually came from growing up very poor. I was a huge Michael Jordan fan, and I could never get Jordans when I was a kid. And so now I have hundreds of pairs of Jordans because I can do whatever I want. And so it's more of a reflection of where I came from than where I am. But it's that. It's the generation that's coming up. And I work with a lot of 20 year olds. I employ north of 120 year olds, and I want them to know that there is a difference between a liability and asset. And an asset makes you money, and a liability costs you money.
0:54:15 - (Allan Draper): And in order to be truly wealthy, where you don't have to work, where you don't have to worry about how much you spend, you stop looking at how much stuff costs. You have to create assets. And one of the greatest assets is a business, but you create assets that make you money while you sleep.
0:54:33 - (Tawni Nguyen): Wow. Well, thank you for your time. I just want to acknowledge you for showing up just so authentically and just sharing these messages that I love unconventional wisdom and I just love really raw, authentic people that's just not afraid to show up.
0:54:49 - (Allan Draper): Yeah.
0:54:49 - (Tawni Nguyen): Appreciate that. I think the world just needs more of it. So I'm excited to see where you're going in the next few years. Hopefully, our path is still aligned.
0:54:56 - (Allan Draper): Oh, absolutely.
0:54:57 - (Tawni Nguyen): And that's it for us today. Which camera is it? This one, right? I was like, I'm looking everywhere, man. That's it for us today. You can connect with me at tawnisaurus on IG or at fit and frugal pod, and you can find Alan all over social media. LinkedIn at Allan Draper.
0:55:14 - (Allan Draper): Yep. And Instagram. Real Allan Draper.
0:55:17 - (Tawni Nguyen): Real Allan Draper. Don't get catfished by one of his impersonators.
0:55:20 - (Allan Draper): Happens a lot.
0:55:21 - (Tawni Nguyen): That's when you know you've made it. I guess some guy for tends to be selling forex to some of your friends, right?
0:55:28 - (Allan Draper): Yeah, exactly.
0:55:30 - (Tawni Nguyen): Hopefully you find this message inspiring today and take those actions and stay fit and stay frugal.