Full Transcript for When the Goalpost Stops Moving with Maurice Philogene

design a life we don't need a vacation from. 00:05:05.759 --> 00:05:09.279 I haven't taken a vacation in over 10 years because I don't need to. 00:05:10.800 --> 00:05:11.680 Thank you for that. 00:05:11.839 --> 00:05:23.040 I I've noticed in some of your podcast episodes and in our conversation that you are talking a bit less about building the life and more about how to live inside that life, how to inhabit that life. 00:05:23.199 --> 00:05:24.959 And again, that struck me so much. 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:26.879 I'm curious what you mean by that. 00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:31.759 Um, and what what what what prompted you to turn your attention there? 00:05:33.439 --> 00:05:35.120 Self-introspection. 00:05:35.519 --> 00:05:44.000 My lived experience, I think one of the reasons why I resonate so well with many other people because they can see themselves in me one way or the other. 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:50.959 Black kid from New York and Boston, my family's Haitian, typical American guy, but I speak languages as well. 00:05:51.279 --> 00:05:57.600 I have worked in white-collar, blue-collar, no-collar, military, corporate street level stuff. 00:05:57.759 --> 00:06:02.639 So it's it's it's just it's a it's a beautiful thing. 00:06:02.879 --> 00:06:15.759 Um, but the reason I talk so much now, and people are starting to sense it in me about inhabiting the life that you built is because we have, I was just talking about this in my son's uh classroom. 00:06:15.839 --> 00:06:30.959 They invited me for career day, and I explained to them we have been taught over time, no fault of our own, that everything is about building a life, building a career, building a family, building an entrepreneurial endeavor. 00:06:31.120 --> 00:06:33.199 Um, I built a private equity firm. 00:06:33.519 --> 00:06:39.360 We uh acquired well over 2,000 apartments over a period of time. 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:45.199 That wasn't for money for me, that was a way for me to help other people reach their own version of financial freedom. 00:06:45.519 --> 00:06:48.879 But what happens after you achieve all the building? 00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:50.079 You do it. 00:06:50.480 --> 00:07:00.800 In most cases, what I have observed from peers and from my, and I say peers from corporate government and entrepreneurial, they don't know how to shut it off. 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:07.439 I think people have lost no fault of their own because that is the noise and the static around us. 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:09.920 Hey, you you're worth a million, you should be worth five. 00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:11.439 You're worth five, you should be worth 10. 00:07:11.600 --> 00:07:13.120 You're worth 10, you should be worth 20. 00:07:13.279 --> 00:07:20.480 And maybe you get to the 20 or the 40 or the 80, but then you're 82 and you forgot to live along the way, other aspects of your life. 00:07:20.639 --> 00:07:26.560 So what I've um come to understand, and this is what I was getting at before, my own lived curriculum. 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:29.600 I call it my sacred curriculum, my own lived experience. 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:34.879 I think people can see themselves in me, and what I'm expressing to them is I don't need to do more. 00:07:35.040 --> 00:07:38.480 There's this notion we we have to go do more and more and more. 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:45.759 And I started feeling or listening to my internal compass, my internal voice, my intuition, and it was telling me something was off. 00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:54.160 Every time I went to go do the next real estate deal or just go to the next country just because there was resistance to it internal, and I listened to it. 00:07:54.319 --> 00:08:05.360 And where I got to with a lot of self-work was understanding that I it was time for me to inhabit the life I built, not built more external architecture just for the sake of it. 00:08:05.759 --> 00:08:11.120 Was there a point in that where you started to see the cost of that more, more, more? 00:08:11.600 --> 00:08:15.519 Or did you sort of catch yourself before that point of the cost? 00:08:17.920 --> 00:08:25.680 I don't think you can totally catch yourself before the cost because you have to feel the redlining uh to make a change. 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:29.120 If it still feels good, I have nothing against money. 00:08:29.199 --> 00:08:32.080 I want to make money, but if it feels good, do it. 00:08:32.799 --> 00:08:38.720 Like if you're in a business, like Elon is not making money because he just wants to make money. 00:08:38.799 --> 00:08:39.840 It feels good to him. 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:48.799 He's fundament Elon Musk, he's fundamentally changing how society operates, whether it's Tesla or SpaceX or PayPal, whatever the guy's done. 00:08:49.440 --> 00:08:51.120 That feels good to him. 00:08:51.440 --> 00:08:54.720 Other people, let's say, um, I'll use two examples. 00:08:54.799 --> 00:08:57.759 I'll use corporate example and I'll use my a military example. 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:04.000 In corporate, I turned down the partner track four times because it didn't, it didn't make sense to me. 00:09:04.240 --> 00:09:11.679 In the military, when I got to lieutenant colonel, I had a track to get to full colonel, but it didn't make sense to me. 00:09:11.919 --> 00:09:23.919 Because the things that I was doing at my senior manager level and at my lieutenant colonel level, which was field level work with people that I really liked and my clients and embassies and all that type of stuff, that felt good. 00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:32.240 The moment I went the next or had an inkling to go the next level, I could feel that it didn't make sense for me at all. 00:09:32.399 --> 00:09:44.080 And what I'm good at, even though I built all these businesses and had all these experiences, what people don't um are sensing in me is not that I'm this entrepreneur exec type who does everything. 00:09:44.320 --> 00:09:44.559 No. 00:09:44.799 --> 00:09:52.960 It's that I have the

ability to kind of intrinsically listen to my inner voice, pivot on a dime, and I don't question my thought process. 00:09:53.200 --> 00:09:54.960 It's like, it's time, I'm leaving. 00:09:55.039 --> 00:09:56.480 It's time to shift to something else. 00:09:56.639 --> 00:10:07.919 But um, I don't think a lot of people do that, and I don't blame people because that's not how the static around us tells us that success or tells us what success is. 00:10:08.639 --> 00:10:09.120 That's right. 00:10:09.279 --> 00:10:17.600 You talked about it in our uh in our podcast episode with you that that it was like moving the the goalposts, just constantly moving the goalposts. 00:10:17.759 --> 00:10:31.600 And and that it does seem to be the kind of culture that we find ourselves in, the grind mentality at all costs, uh, not just when you need to or when you want to, but but just no matter what's happening, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind. 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:37.039 And of course, you have been a grinder and and and you know how to grind. 00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:44.000 So you said that there that that you didn't know that you could catch yourself, that people can catch themselves at that red line. 00:10:44.159 --> 00:10:46.399 They kind of have to get to it at some point. 00:10:46.639 --> 00:10:48.080 What was your red line? 00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:57.039 I hear you saying you're listening to the intuition and to the voice, but was there something else happening that got you in every single case. 00:10:57.120 --> 00:10:59.039 Now the way you're saying it, yes. 00:10:59.200 --> 00:11:04.159 There was there was a red line, and I could feel it. 00:11:04.320 --> 00:11:09.039 Let me just because I want people to see themselves in me, so I'll give real world examples. 00:11:09.360 --> 00:11:15.600 For the police department in 21, um George Floyd had just happened a year earlier. 00:11:15.840 --> 00:11:18.879 Policing changed, nobody wanted to see us anymore. 00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:27.440 I joined the police department for a check of a hundred or one thousand four hundred and five hundred dollars a month to risk my life to be part of the community. 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:28.240 I loved it. 00:11:28.399 --> 00:11:31.039 I loved every moment of it. 00:11:31.440 --> 00:11:40.720 In 2021, I found myself uh two, three in the morning, always in the back lot of the station because we weren't out there doing anything anymore. 00:11:40.879 --> 00:11:42.480 Nobody wanted to get in trouble. 00:11:42.720 --> 00:11:44.559 Citizens didn't really want to see you. 00:11:44.720 --> 00:11:45.840 And I understood. 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:47.600 And I felt it. 00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:51.600 And I was like, this is not, this is not why I came. 00:11:51.759 --> 00:11:54.799 And I walked to my to my sergeant and he said, Oh man, you're done. 00:11:54.879 --> 00:11:55.600 And I said, Yes. 00:11:55.759 --> 00:11:56.320 I felt it. 00:11:56.399 --> 00:11:57.440 I listened to my own voice. 00:11:57.519 --> 00:11:58.720 I'll go quicker on the other ones. 00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:04.320 For lieutenant colonel, I was a federal agent, um, acting as special agent in charge of field offices. 00:12:04.559 --> 00:12:13.519 Well, to get the colonel track, I had to leave the field, leave running offices of federal agents, and go to headquarters and write policy. 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:14.559 I could feel it. 00:12:14.639 --> 00:12:16.639 I was like, I don't want to make lieutenant. 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:17.360 You know what? 00:12:17.440 --> 00:12:24.080 If I make full bird colonel because I do policy for three years, then I got to stay another three years to retire at Fullbird Colonel. 00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:26.320 It didn't, I'm not saying it doesn't make sense for everybody. 00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:27.759 It didn't make sense for me. 00:12:27.919 --> 00:12:30.720 And then the last one, I was gonna do four, but I'll just do this last one. 00:12:30.960 --> 00:12:31.919 Real estate. 00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:37.600 I did a lot of real estate on my own and then and I earned my financial freedom that way. 00:12:37.679 --> 00:12:41.679 And then in 2019, I started a private equity firm with four other partners. 00:12:41.919 --> 00:12:46.480 We did really well, especially in 21, 22, up into 23 because the market allowed it. 00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:49.919 24 and 25 were very, very difficult years. 00:12:50.639 --> 00:13:03.120 When people started asking, and now I didn't leave because it was difficult years, I left because there was alternative thoughts within my company, and this is fine, on let's go earn money this way. 00:13:03.279 --> 00:13:04.799 It was a totally different way. 00:13:05.039 --> 00:13:06.639 That didn't resonate with me at all. 00:13:06.799 --> 00:13:16.399 What resonated with me was buying apartment complexes, uh, renovating them, giving tenants a better quality of life, and trying to do our best to give investors a return. 00:13:16.639 --> 00:13:19.360 So now we're, it was kind of it's not a chasing money thing. 00:13:19.440 --> 00:13:24.799 It's just that we we were starting to make money in ways that did not resonate with me at all. 00:13:25.039 --> 00:13:30.799 Now, everybody could say, Mo, go make lieuten or colonel, go be a partner at your firm. 00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:34.639 Why wouldn't you make another$2 million with your private equity firm? 00:13:34.879 --> 00:13:36.960 It made zero sense to me. 00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:37.919 Zero sense. 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:38.879 I could feel it. 00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:44.399 And it was um very difficult to leave all of them, but it was the right thing to do. 00:13:44.480 --> 00:13:47.679 And over time, I've just gotten very good at detaching from things. 00:13:48.320 --> 00:13:52.799 A lot of the clients I have worked with in the past, they want that legacy. 00:13:52.879 --> 00:14:03.759 They want that, you know, the the top, the top, whatever that is, even if it costs them um their

intuition or what they think feels good to them, they want the label. 00:14:03.840 --> 00:14:05.919 They want they want the status. 00:14:06.639 --> 00:14:09.200 It sounds like you haven't done that as much. 00:14:11.279 --> 00:14:14.879 I was able to put words to that thought process because of you. 00:14:15.039 --> 00:14:18.320 They will they are many of them want to do it. 00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:21.759 There's nothing wrong with that if that is their version of success. 00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:26.960 But many people are just pressing go because for 35 years they've been pressing go. 00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:28.159 They don't know what else to do. 00:14:28.320 --> 00:14:30.000 They are running a mud script. 00:14:30.240 --> 00:14:30.960 They are. 00:14:31.279 --> 00:14:37.519 What I got right over my time, for some reason, this happened starting at age 15 for me. 00:14:37.679 --> 00:14:40.639 For some reason, I have always listened to my intuition. 00:14:40.960 --> 00:14:42.720 For some reason, I cannot tell. 00:14:43.039 --> 00:14:59.120 And even when all of society or all of my peers or all the fellas that I grew up with were telling me to go right, if my inner voice, if my superconscious, if my God, my divine, that inner voice, that inner kid in me was telling me to go left, I went left. 00:14:59.279 --> 00:15:01.279 Now that has a cost to it. 00:15:01.840 --> 00:15:04.159 I used to talk about it when I was on social media. 00:15:04.399 --> 00:15:09.759 I coined the phrase entrepreneurial depression because I didn't know what else to call it. 00:15:10.320 --> 00:15:20.480 I would leave the DC area on a Thursday, fly to Turkey, like the country Turkey, read a book for two days, and then fly back and be at work on Monday. 00:15:21.039 --> 00:15:24.240 My intuition was telling me there was just more to life. 00:15:25.120 --> 00:15:27.840 I didn't want to work, I didn't want to stay in the area on the weekend. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:29.679 So there is a cost to that. 00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:36.399 Um, but I don't blame people for not, let's say, stopping something. 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:41.279 Because when you've been doing something for so long, it becomes part of your subconscious routines. 00:15:41.600 --> 00:15:44.159 But what I've learned is that we are neuroplastic. 00:15:44.480 --> 00:15:45.600 We can rewire. 00:15:45.759 --> 00:15:51.200 So the person that's talking to you now, the 2026 Maurice, is very aware of his thoughts. 00:15:51.279 --> 00:15:52.799 I have thoughts about my thoughts. 00:15:52.960 --> 00:16:02.720 I want to know if it's coming from a subconscious routine, from a mud script, or from hearing my neighbor say something, or is it really, really something I want and need to do? 00:16:02.879 --> 00:16:06.000 When you can get to that level of discernment, life changes. 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:14.159 You've mentioned mud script twice, so I want to give our listeners reference for that because in our podcast episode together, it

was great. 00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:15.200 I was telling this. 00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:16.240 It was, it was fun. 00:16:16.320 --> 00:16:16.639 Thank you. 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:17.120 Yeah. 00:16:17.360 --> 00:16:26.320 It it I talked about the Golden Buddha story, which is a true story that back, I don't know, maybe in the 1400s, I d I can't remember exactly. 00:16:26.559 --> 00:16:32.720 There was a village and they were Buddhist, I think, and they had a golden Buddha, a pure gold Buddha. 00:16:33.120 --> 00:16:39.440 And they heard that war had broken out in the country, and they knew it was just a matter of time before the soldiers came through their village. 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:42.960 And so they plastered the Golden Buddha with mud. 00:16:43.279 --> 00:16:54.639 And and then sure enough, the the soldiers came in, wiped out the entire village, didn't touch the Golden Buddha because it looked like a big blob of mud, and it stayed there for centuries. 00:16:54.799 --> 00:17:11.599 And in 17, I think in the in the 1950s, I think it was, it might have been the 1970s, somebody was walking through that field and saw this blob of clay, and there was a crack in it, and the sun hit it just in such a particular way that they saw a gleam. 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:18.640 And then they they took all that mud off of it and they found a golden Buddha that was worth millions of dollars. 00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:34.559 And so in my work with people, my thinking is that we come into the world as a golden Buddha, and then our beliefs, other people's beliefs, the culture's beliefs, and so forth is mud that gets put on us, usually uh with good intention. 00:17:34.640 --> 00:17:41.759 Uh it's usually they think to keep us protected, uh, but we forget that we are the golden Buddha and who we are. 00:17:41.920 --> 00:17:44.240 And so that's what you're talking about, the mud scripts. 00:17:44.319 --> 00:17:46.799 It's like we believe our we believe our mud. 00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:48.319 We believe the mud is us. 00:17:48.480 --> 00:17:58.720 So we spend time on social media media or wherever um decorating our mud, trying to make it look nicer, not realizing that there's the golden Buddha underneath. 00:17:58.799 --> 00:18:00.000 So thank you for bringing that up. 00:18:00.160 --> 00:18:00.319 Yeah. 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:07.759 You said that there was a cost to you, for example, the example was flying to Turkey for two days. 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:16.079 I'm curious what the cost was to you because it was what it sounds like you you learned from an early age to trust your intuition and that it has served you well. 00:18:16.319 --> 00:18:21.599 What was the cost for you to that kind of thing to follow your intuition? 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:22.640 You know. 00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:33.440 So to be clear for your listeners, we gave the turkey example, but I'll give them another example that kind of makes it more real. 00:18:33.839 --> 00:18:38.000 So when I was a corporate

executive, okay, I had a nine to five day. 00:18:38.160 --> 00:18:40.799 Well, a little bit more than that, because I was a consultant. 00:18:41.359 --> 00:18:50.640 But then I would in general come home, be with the kids for one, two hours, homework dinner, go to sleep for an hour or two, wake up, put on a police uniform, and go out on patrol. 00:18:51.119 --> 00:18:52.799 And I would do that four days a week. 00:18:54.319 --> 00:19:09.200 There's a cost I didn't sleep a lot, or if I did, it was in the patrol car, or sometimes I nobody not very few people knew this, but um if I was at the office, I would go out to my friend's car and sleep in the car at lunch to get sleep. 00:19:10.799 --> 00:19:14.319 But I wanted to be a police officer, but I also wanted to keep the corporate paychecks. 00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:26.799 Like I so the so the car and then okay, me flying a turkey, and that was about wanting constant learning, and now what I can better understand is constant expansion of of yourself as a human. 00:19:26.960 --> 00:19:28.559 I wanted to continue to expand. 00:19:28.720 --> 00:19:33.839 I don't like this press repeat thing every day that that we do in our society. 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:44.000 There's nothing wrong with having a rhythm in life, but when you are pressing repeat every day doing the same exact thing, you become a bit of a drone and you stop expanding. 00:19:44.240 --> 00:19:55.599 We were expanding as kids running around, going to school, your first job, your second job, but then somewhere we just start pressing repeat for like years, and then the gift of it is a two-week vacation during the summer. 00:19:55.920 --> 00:19:56.240 No. 00:19:56.480 --> 00:19:58.880 So the cost was I felt different. 00:19:59.680 --> 00:20:07.200 The cost was the voices around me did not have the same vibration as as my own. 00:20:08.400 --> 00:20:11.920 The cost was yo mo, black dudes don't do that. 00:20:13.200 --> 00:20:14.240 You know, what what's up? 00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:15.680 Like what's what's wrong? 00:20:15.839 --> 00:20:17.279 And that's why I stopped talking. 00:20:17.759 --> 00:20:19.759 I stopped telling people what I was doing. 00:20:19.920 --> 00:20:25.680 No one knew that I, I don't know, bought a mobile home park in West Virginia and started running running it. 00:20:25.839 --> 00:20:29.440 Nobody knew for the most part that I was a police officer at my corporate firm. 00:20:29.680 --> 00:20:33.680 Smartest thing that ever happened, by the way, not telling anyone anything. 00:20:33.920 --> 00:20:38.480 Um, but you know, you're you're bearing all of that weight. 00:20:39.359 --> 00:20:41.519 You don't have the ability to speak about it. 00:20:41.839 --> 00:20:42.559 Not easily. 00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:44.240 With my significant other, yes. 00:20:44.400 --> 00:20:54.400 Sometimes with my parents, but my parents are traditional Caribbean Haitian parents whose value system is one job, one one school, you know, one degree kind of

thing. 00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:57.279 I felt awful, to be honest. 00:20:57.359 --> 00:21:27.680 I I was I can feel emotion coming because that kid and then that starting to be um young adult like endured being alone because his inner voice was saying, go this way, but the masses were going that way, and that is a very difficult thing until you find your tribe. 00:21:28.160 --> 00:21:43.519 And what I would have changed years ago is the amount of effort I put into my entrepreneurial endeavors, owning restaurants, owning nightclubs, failing a coffee shop, starting uh a private equity firm, being a street off being a police officer, going to federal agent school. 00:21:43.680 --> 00:21:49.039 If I would have put that amount of effort into trying to find Carla, things would have been different. 00:21:49.200 --> 00:21:54.640 But back then we didn't have LinkedIn and social media and all I had was the library. 00:21:54.720 --> 00:21:57.039 So I was always in the library reading books and everything. 00:21:57.279 --> 00:21:59.839 So it was a heavy cost to pay. 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:00.720 Yes. 00:22:01.039 --> 00:22:08.640 However, 50-year-old me is benefiting from the sacrifice that 23 to 38-year-old me made. 00:22:08.720 --> 00:22:09.920 And I'm grateful. 00:22:10.400 --> 00:22:18.960 Well, and I I absolutely saw the pain when you were talking about that young man, that young boy and that young man, and the loneliness that you felt. 00:22:19.119 --> 00:22:40.880 And I do think that when you're in a culture such as ours, with all of the pressures and all of the mud scripts that um that to go your own way, the road less traveled, you know, beat the the beat the the drum of your own beat, you know, your own beat uh is is incredibly courageous and to your point lonely. 00:22:41.119 --> 00:22:41.599 Yeah. 00:22:41.839 --> 00:22:48.480 And I think that that's often the case also for many entrepreneurs, is it's a lonely journey. 00:22:48.720 --> 00:23:00.799 It's it's lonely because they are in some ways bucking the system and it can feel insec it can feel frightening and it can feel insecure, though they may not admit that or say that out loud to your point. 00:23:00.880 --> 00:23:03.200 You don't want to necessarily say that out loud. 00:23:03.440 --> 00:23:10.960 It sounds like um you you've that you did find your tribe and your significant other. 00:23:11.279 --> 00:23:20.319 And how has that helped you with that maybe the loneliness or the pain or in building what you've been able to build? 00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:22.960 Has that been crucial for you? 00:23:23.519 --> 00:23:35.200 Yeah, I mean uh for a preponderance of that journey, so I'm not with her now, but my youngest son's mom, uh, we were together, I don't know, 14 years or something. 00:23:35.519 --> 00:23:39.440 But I we she and I have had this conversation. 00:23:39.839 --> 00:23:41.759 She never questioned anything that I did. 00:23:42.160 --> 00:23:48.559 So it's not that I the reason I give

her so much credit is because she just accepted everything. 00:23:49.039 --> 00:24:01.119 And even though we're not together to this day, I support her like nobody's business, whether it's spiritually, mentally, financially, even if we're fighting, I will always have her back because of what she did, what who she is as well. 00:24:01.839 --> 00:24:09.039 What's different nowadays is I can honestly say that there are Maurices all over the place. 00:24:10.480 --> 00:24:11.519 They're everywhere. 00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:20.880 But for the same reasons I was quiet back in the day, I think they are quiet too until we find each other. 00:24:21.440 --> 00:24:25.920 So your job is to go find your own reflection in people. 00:24:27.519 --> 00:24:42.720 Conferences, asking around, listening to podcasts where a podcast host, let's say a Maurice or Carla, tends to talk a certain way and they tend to attract a certain kind of guest, then you reach out to that guest via DM, you invest in that potential relationship. 00:24:42.880 --> 00:24:47.839 They live in Indiana, you live in New Jersey, you get on a damn plane and you go see that person. 00:24:48.319 --> 00:24:52.640 We think because of so well, I'm I've been off of social media almost five years now. 00:24:52.720 --> 00:25:01.759 We we think a post is enough that we know someone, or that that will drive a relationship. 00:25:02.079 --> 00:25:02.400 No. 00:25:02.640 --> 00:25:11.200 In fact, some like some of the people I've interviewed on my own podcast, when I could feel resonance with them, one pictic person sticks out. 00:25:11.279 --> 00:25:15.680 I was in Beirut, uh, lady by the name of Lisa Chastain, she and I are very close now. 00:25:15.920 --> 00:25:18.240 I could feel that she was one of us. 00:25:19.039 --> 00:25:23.279 So I got on a plane, she asked me to be on her podcast, and I said, Well, where are you? 00:25:23.440 --> 00:25:26.960 She says, Vegas, because I knew she did them in person, some in person. 00:25:27.200 --> 00:25:30.240 I said, No problem, I'll get on a plane in two days and I'll come see you. 00:25:30.400 --> 00:25:32.000 Like people don't invest in that. 00:25:32.160 --> 00:25:36.400 And that's what I've gotten really good at is when I find people of this cloth. 00:25:36.480 --> 00:25:38.799 And I it has nothing to do with money. 00:25:38.960 --> 00:25:39.599 Nothing. 00:25:39.920 --> 00:25:46.960 It has everything to do with understanding your own human divinity and having dignity in your ability to create your life. 00:25:47.119 --> 00:25:58.480 Those people, when you find them, man, we stick together like nobody's business because you just don't want to go back to folks who are so superficial or maybe just so much mud on them they can't see it. 00:25:58.559 --> 00:25:59.680 It's, you know, it's very difficult. 00:25:59.839 --> 00:26:01.759 But um, there's a cost to all of it. 00:26:01.839 --> 00:26:11.599 But once you can find your tribe, you cannot unsee what you've seen,

you cannot unfeel what you felt, and the status quo loses you forever. 00:26:12.079 --> 00:26:16.880 And when you have that tribe and that community, are you then able to speak? 00:26:17.039 --> 00:26:19.200 Because you said, I I wouldn't speak about it. 00:26:19.279 --> 00:26:23.119 I wouldn't tell people this, that, or the other thing when you were in so much pain as a young man. 00:26:23.279 --> 00:26:30.480 Is that now is is with the right people, are you able to share some of your struggles, some of your insecurities? 00:26:30.640 --> 00:26:35.759 Aaron Powell I'm a private person in general, but I am around my circles. 00:26:37.039 --> 00:26:43.759 And I express to you, you know, the the breadth of my professional and entrepreneurial uh life. 00:26:43.920 --> 00:26:49.519 So I know thousands of people, uh, but I knew them an inch deep. 00:26:50.079 --> 00:26:58.000 My circles nowadays, and this is intentional, let's say it's maybe a hundred people, and I know them a mile deep and very, very intimately. 00:26:58.160 --> 00:27:03.039 So I have no shortage of people that I can lean on when I need to lean on them. 00:27:03.200 --> 00:27:12.640 But I would say right now it's my, you know, it's my best friend, uh, two of my best friends, and my kids, to be honest, um, because I want them to feel what I feel and see what I see. 00:27:13.200 --> 00:27:22.960 What I still do, however, I don't talk much about what is in pro in progress or in process. 00:27:23.440 --> 00:27:26.559 I talk about things that are done already. 00:27:26.880 --> 00:27:30.480 Because I'm a big fan of the mental diet, as I think you know. 00:27:30.559 --> 00:27:33.200 I don't know traditional media, no social media. 00:27:33.359 --> 00:27:39.599 I curate the books I read, I curate movies, I don't watch kill them movies, I don't watch horror movies. 00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:48.160 Um, but I also don't I also make sure that I don't hear any voices louder than my own. 00:27:48.559 --> 00:27:53.039 So let's say I have certain life things that are going on right now, okay? 00:27:53.200 --> 00:27:58.880 Not necessarily business things, because I've kind of gotten away from the business thing, except for one pretty big thing that I'm doing. 00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:00.480 I won't talk about it. 00:28:00.640 --> 00:28:06.799 I won't even mention it outside of one person, one or two people, because I don't want the noise of everybody. 00:28:06.960 --> 00:28:17.440 I have learned that when you act as the guard of your own gates for information coming at you, you can hear yourself better. 00:28:17.599 --> 00:28:21.759 You're better connected to source energy, you make better decisions. 00:28:21.920 --> 00:28:26.880 You wake up in the middle of the night with a hunch and you write something down on a piece of paper next to your bed. 00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:29.200 I I always have them near me, these little pads. 00:28:29.359 --> 00:28:32.240 Because I like something comes to my mind and I write it down. 00:28:32.480 --> 00:28:39.200 Uh, but but I do have certain circles of people in my what I say, my Lebanon node, my Maryland node. 00:28:39.440 --> 00:28:41.119 I have mixed them together. 00:28:41.279 --> 00:28:44.880 They are my family, some by blood, most by spirit. 00:28:45.039 --> 00:28:46.480 And I feel like I'm home. 00:28:46.559 --> 00:28:53.359 And I just didn't have that in my, I'd say my twenties, thirties, and early forties. 00:28:54.000 --> 00:28:55.519 And you've built that now. 00:28:55.599 --> 00:28:56.880 And Intentionally. 00:28:57.920 --> 00:28:58.640 Intentionally. 00:28:58.799 --> 00:28:58.960 Yeah. 00:28:59.279 --> 00:28:59.519 Yeah. 00:28:59.599 --> 00:29:03.599 And and and we we are in a culture of a loneliness epidemic. 00:29:03.759 --> 00:29:06.400 We've seen that and we know how danger it it is. 00:29:06.480 --> 00:29:09.200 And so I love the fact that you've been so intentional about that. 00:29:09.440 --> 00:29:13.759 And I also love how you have reduced the noise or the mud. 00:29:13.920 --> 00:29:16.400 You know, you're taking off so much mud, you've reduced the noise. 00:29:16.480 --> 00:29:17.599 There's so much noise. 00:29:17.759 --> 00:29:21.200 We know this with social media, with the news and everything. 00:29:21.359 --> 00:29:36.160 Um, I love that you trust your voice, that you you learned early to listen to your voice and to trust it and to follow it, even when it was painful, and that you do that now, and that you don't talk about necessarily what's uh what you're planning or what's going on. 00:29:36.240 --> 00:29:37.200 You listen to your voice. 00:29:37.279 --> 00:29:41.119 I think that's all very wise, Maurice. 00:29:41.279 --> 00:29:42.079 I really do. 00:29:42.400 --> 00:29:45.920 When you do hit something you can't handle on your own, what do you do with it? 00:29:46.079 --> 00:29:48.079 Do you go to your tribe with that? 00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:51.920 It just depends on what it is. 00:29:52.160 --> 00:30:00.079 Um there are I go well, I go within. 00:30:01.039 --> 00:30:08.480 I I don't like to sound all like uh woo-woo and stuff like that. 00:30:09.599 --> 00:30:17.839 If I run into an issue with my kids, my like I'm having a tough issue with some business partners right now. 00:30:18.720 --> 00:30:25.680 I tend to, and this has a lot to do with the my own internal work that I've done for the past oh, internal work. 00:30:25.839 --> 00:30:29.279 I've just done a lot of work on myself in the past four or five years. 00:30:30.400 --> 00:30:35.920 I've learned a lot about um when humans are in certain states. 00:30:36.880 --> 00:30:39.279 I have to be in the right state to deal with things. 00:30:39.440 --> 00:30:42.960 Usually when we have a problem, we really actually don't have a problem. 00:30:43.200 --> 00:30:48.799 We're just in a state, like your body and your mind is in a state that is not processing that well. 00:30:49.359 --> 00:30:54.559 And we are all, we tend, school, you

know, get to Harvard, get to Stanford. 00:30:54.799 --> 00:30:59.519 We tend to be these A personalities that think we need to solve everything no matter the situation. 00:30:59.680 --> 00:31:02.960 What's happening, in fact, that is people are being reactive. 00:31:03.359 --> 00:31:04.880 I have a problem, let me solve it right away. 00:31:04.960 --> 00:31:07.599 I gotta get it done, let me call this person right now, I gotta da da da da da da da da da. 00:31:07.920 --> 00:31:08.160 Okay. 00:31:08.480 --> 00:31:09.759 It's nothing wrong with that. 00:31:09.920 --> 00:31:19.599 The problem is you're executing on, you're you're trying to solve the problem from a state that doesn't make sense, meaning you're low energy, you're upset at something, you're aggravated. 00:31:20.079 --> 00:31:23.759 So whenever something comes up for me, I ask myself, why is this bothering me? 00:31:23.839 --> 00:31:25.440 And is this really a problem? 00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:34.559 So the example I'll give is with certain business partners right now, we're not communicating well, but we're not communicating well because they are wrong and I'm right. 00:31:34.799 --> 00:31:40.640 We're not communicating well because they have a certain value system and I have a certain value system and we've grown apart. 00:31:40.880 --> 00:31:41.200 Okay? 00:31:41.519 --> 00:31:42.640 It's not a problem. 00:31:42.799 --> 00:31:44.319 We're just different people. 00:31:44.480 --> 00:31:46.160 So how do you get to the resolution? 00:31:46.319 --> 00:31:49.519 You put distance between the stimulus and the response. 00:31:49.759 --> 00:31:52.720 The stimulus is all of a sudden we're not communicating well. 00:31:52.880 --> 00:31:53.279 Great. 00:31:53.359 --> 00:31:55.599 Let's take it offline for three weeks. 00:31:55.839 --> 00:32:01.599 Get back to a position where we are much more neutral, it's not heightened and all those kinds of things. 00:32:01.759 --> 00:32:09.839 I've learned how to self-regulate in a way where I really don't have a lot of issues that I can't deal with. 00:32:10.079 --> 00:32:15.359 If I do need a sounding board, bar none, meaning a human one, that's not me. 00:32:15.599 --> 00:32:22.559 Bar none is my best friend Melissa, because we've been best friends since we were age 15, so 36 years now. 00:32:22.880 --> 00:32:27.359 Uh, and we're on this kind of spiritual journey together, our own growth with each other. 00:32:27.599 --> 00:32:30.240 But we think we have problems. 00:32:31.119 --> 00:32:32.720 You know what's a real problem? 00:32:33.119 --> 00:32:39.680 A real problem was when I was a police officer and went into someone's house and there was a burglar in a house with a mom with her kid, and she was by herself. 00:32:39.839 --> 00:32:40.559 That's a problem. 00:32:42.240 --> 00:32:44.559 Um I have a disagreement with business partners. 00:32:44.720 --> 00:32:45.839 That's not a problem. 00:32:46.240 --> 00:32:48.319 It's it's just a slight puzzle. 00:32:48.480 --> 00:32:50.799 And if here, and I'll give one more tip for people. 00:32:50.960 --> 00:32:53.359 I gave the thing about this stimulus and response. 00:32:53.519 --> 00:33:05.359 Take a pad of paper, write that problem that you think is a problem on that pad of paper in a one line or two, put it in the middle of your dining room table, walk around that dining room table ten times while looking at that problem. 00:33:05.519 --> 00:33:07.359 It'll shrink it down to what it is. 00:33:07.599 --> 00:33:08.400 Nothing. 00:33:08.880 --> 00:33:09.839 It's not a problem. 00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:12.079 It's just something you have to solve very quickly. 00:33:12.240 --> 00:33:13.279 It's not a problem. 00:33:13.680 --> 00:33:14.000 Nice. 00:33:14.160 --> 00:33:19.599 Two things that you said that struck me was um one was, you know, the is this a real problem? 00:33:19.680 --> 00:33:22.480 And you go in and you see a burger, that's a problem. 00:33:22.720 --> 00:33:30.480 Your life experiences, because you've had so many different kinds of life experiences, has given you um has really widened your perspective. 00:33:30.640 --> 00:33:38.079 You've seen more than than at least most of the people that I work with, and and and probably more than I've seen for sure. 00:33:38.319 --> 00:33:43.039 And I remember standing on my porch um a couple of years ago and getting shot at. 00:33:43.200 --> 00:33:48.559 Well, that's not something that this nice old white woman experienced much in our life. 00:33:48.720 --> 00:33:51.200 You know, but other people experience that often. 00:33:51.359 --> 00:34:01.039 And it and and when you can can be in a situation like that and and understand what a problem really is, well, it does widen your perspective. 00:34:01.200 --> 00:34:07.039 So you have widened your expect your perspective with all of the different the different experiences that you've had. 00:34:07.200 --> 00:34:12.880 The second thing you said that struck me was uh about getting some distance between the stimulus and response. 00:34:13.039 --> 00:34:21.199 And that is a key practice uh in my work with my clients and and personally, and for you too, is that I I call it the pause. 00:34:21.440 --> 00:34:29.119 Pause, pause, pause, whether that's for a few seconds or whether that's for, what did you say, three weeks or whatever. 00:34:29.280 --> 00:34:31.440 Um that can right there. 00:34:31.599 --> 00:34:36.000 I was I was low this weekend, have no idea why, nothing happened. 00:34:36.159 --> 00:34:38.480 It's the nature of being human. 00:34:38.719 --> 00:34:40.400 Yes, yeah. 00:34:40.639 --> 00:34:46.000 And and and the difference in in this weekend and maybe years ago is that I didn't make it a problem. 00:34:46.079 --> 00:34:47.599 I'm like, oh, okay, I'm low. 00:34:47.760 --> 00:34:51.519 And then I woke up uh a couple days later and I felt perfectly fine. 00:34:51.679 --> 00:34:53.679 Nothing had changed, nothing had happened. 00:34:53.840 -->

00:35:00.880 But just allowing for that space without making it a problem, as you say, is hugely powerful. 00:35:01.360 --> 00:35:02.400 Yeah, it is. 00:35:02.559 --> 00:35:04.960 And uh I give credit to Dr. 00:35:05.119 --> 00:35:08.320 Nona Javid, D-J-A-V-I-D. 00:35:08.800 --> 00:35:10.400 I interviewed her one time. 00:35:10.639 --> 00:35:22.800 Um she's an amazing neuroscientist, and she taught me uh by observation the power of energetics and what they what they were. 00:35:23.039 --> 00:35:27.519 And again, I keep telling you, like, my instincts are really good. 00:35:27.840 --> 00:35:38.960 I I know that our human form, I knew this inherently, that our human form cannot possibly respond to our subconscious ability. 00:35:39.679 --> 00:35:44.480 The human body is so limited, we just don't know that, we don't know it. 00:35:44.639 --> 00:36:02.960 So when you start to learn about it and under Dispenza talks about this all the time, when you start to learn about it and understand it, you realize that, oh, okay, but if I'm low today and I make a decision that's gonna affect my family for decades, it's probably not gonna be the best decision. 00:36:03.199 --> 00:36:13.519 You'd be you'd be better off paying a late fee on whatever it is that you're dealing with and getting yourself back to a high vibratory or at least happy earth state. 00:36:14.400 --> 00:36:17.360 And then making a decision on it. 00:36:17.519 --> 00:36:31.440 But we're, you know, in grade school and in formal school, we're not taught these things about physiology and decision-making process as far as it comes with um uh the energy of who we are and all that type of stuff. 00:36:31.760 --> 00:36:45.840 I encourage people to get a better understanding of who they actually are, and then all these problems that exist in your life, they are real, but they are only real to the extent that your mind says they are. 00:36:46.320 --> 00:36:52.800 So if you can control your thoughts or if you can understand it's a practice skill to have thoughts about your thoughts. 00:36:53.039 --> 00:36:55.360 Why do I have an impulse right now that something is off? 00:36:55.519 --> 00:36:56.239 And I know why. 00:36:56.400 --> 00:36:58.079 Because I'm in my farmhouse. 00:36:58.320 --> 00:37:07.440 I just cleaned my house because I'm I'm a bit of an OCD, I like my place clean, and I'm looking outside and I know what's bothering me already energetically. 00:37:07.679 --> 00:37:09.440 The grass isn't cut. 00:37:09.760 --> 00:37:11.440 Flowers look a bit mangy. 00:37:11.840 --> 00:37:13.280 I don't like that feeling. 00:37:13.440 --> 00:37:24.880 So if I'm in a business meeting right now and I'm just like edgy because my lawn guy hasn't come and it's really pissing me off, it's not the time for me to be doing, or at least it isn't if I have to make a decision, that's fine. 00:37:25.039 --> 00:37:28.239 But I know that my anxiousness is not from the people on the call. 00:37:28.400 --> 00:37:31.360 My anxiousness is from what I have had observed outside. 00:37:31.440 --> 00:37:42.719 That's why I'm so good at this stuff now, because I have thoughts about my thoughts before I go about making such decision such decisions that could dramatically impact our lives. 00:37:43.039 --> 00:37:47.679 Yes, you have been practicing this for quite some years and have gotten quite good at it. 00:37:47.920 --> 00:37:56.079 Is there a part of your story story, Maurice, that you used to treat as a sort of detour or you didn't think it counted that you see now really shaped you? 00:38:01.119 --> 00:38:02.400 Part of my story. 00:38:02.559 --> 00:38:09.920 Um I maybe and maybe it's not a physical part of my story, it's a thought process. 00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:13.199 It's the way I process life over time. 00:38:13.840 --> 00:38:16.400 And that is I just gave someone this example. 00:38:18.719 --> 00:38:27.039 I tend to I tended to make decisions about life without care of the outcome. 00:38:27.199 --> 00:38:29.280 I didn't try to dictate the outcome. 00:38:29.440 --> 00:38:31.360 So I'll give you an example. 00:38:31.679 --> 00:38:41.199 In 2000, this goes to a bit to manifestation, but I I watched a movie in 2001, Jason Bourne, and he was kind of this spy guy on the Mediterranean. 00:38:41.280 --> 00:38:44.719 I was like, oh my god, I want to be a spy or a special agent on the Mediterranean. 00:38:44.960 --> 00:38:53.840 In 2015, I got an opportunity to be a special agent working on the Mediterranean because I ran Federal Law Enforcement Field Office in Izmir, Turkey. 00:38:54.000 --> 00:38:58.800 It's on the Aegean, but we did a lot of stuff down in the south of the country on the Med on the Mediterranean. 00:38:59.119 --> 00:39:12.719 My mother, when I talked with her about the opportunity that that my then colonel was giving me, she was like, don't go because A, B, and C, it's dangerous, it's on the Syrian border. 00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:18.239 I said, Mom, I'm going because something's going to change in my life. 00:39:18.320 --> 00:39:19.280 I don't know what it is. 00:39:19.519 --> 00:39:20.800 I'm I'm rolling. 00:39:21.119 --> 00:39:57.840 But I had the most mind-blowing eight months of my life, which then led me to being in the Mediterranean region, which then led me to the country of Cyprus, which then led me to meeting a friend who is a real estate developer on the island of Cyprus, and then I became a real estate developer on the island of Cyprus, which then led me to Lebanon, because Lebanon is a 30 hour one-hour flight away, which then led me to meeting all these other people, which then led me to led me to my now current dual country lifestyle. 00:39:58.960 --> 00:40:07.119 We we're so trained to want to do something and to define the outcome of what success means. 00:40:07.360 --> 00:40:18.400 If people can just do it anyway, without care of the outcome, and have joy in the process of it and the decision making of it. 00:40:18.719 --> 00:40:22.559

Because the end of it, the end state of it, okay, I did turkey. 00:40:22.800 --> 00:40:24.800 But the end is not what I enjoyed. 00:40:24.880 --> 00:40:26.719 It was the process of it. 00:40:26.880 --> 00:40:29.519 So okay, so is there a part of your journey? 00:40:29.760 --> 00:40:30.320 Yes. 00:40:30.639 --> 00:40:34.239 Again, my that 23-year-old kid just started doing stuff. 00:40:34.400 --> 00:40:38.480 He's like, I don't know where this is going, but I'm gonna do it. 00:40:38.880 --> 00:40:40.719 I don't know where this is going. 00:40:40.800 --> 00:40:49.440 Uh, 21-year-old Maurice who tried out for the NFL and didn't make it, who heard in his inner voice when he was 24, 25, I want to play football again. 00:40:49.679 --> 00:40:55.280 So he researched football eligibility and found out he could play in graduate school at age 26. 00:40:55.440 --> 00:41:02.639 So I went to graduate school at age 26, not to get a degree, but to get back on the football field to see if I could have another chance at the NFL. 00:41:02.800 --> 00:41:06.239 I don't know where this is going, but I'm gonna do it. 00:41:06.719 --> 00:41:16.079 I always treated life like that because if somebody would have said the success is getting a second tryout, Maurice, and getting to the NFL, I didn't get to the NFL. 00:41:16.239 --> 00:41:21.039 But I got so much more by just taking the decision and rolling with it. 00:41:21.199 --> 00:41:29.280 So that's the part of my journey that I think has been the linchpin, maybe soft skill of everything that I've experienced and earned. 00:41:29.760 --> 00:41:32.480 You have allowed yourself to enjoy the journey. 00:41:32.639 --> 00:41:49.199 And I I see so many clients uh and entrepreneurs who uh they start it for the enjoyment and then uh they get into the grind of it and they stop enjoying it anymore because they're looking for that goalpost that keeps moving, keeps moving, keeps moving. 00:41:49.599 --> 00:42:06.960 I I the to the executive, woman or man who's listening, to the parent with five kids, woman or man who's listening, I've done three traditional careers police officer, military officer, senior executive at very high levels. 00:42:07.119 --> 00:42:07.280 Okay. 00:42:07.760 --> 00:42:16.400 I've also very high-level entrepreneur who started his own private equity firm, and we acquired 200, in my day I've acquired$250 million worth of real estate. 00:42:16.480 --> 00:42:18.000 So I've been there. 00:42:18.800 --> 00:42:19.920 There is no there. 00:42:20.800 --> 00:42:22.079 It never ends. 00:42:22.239 --> 00:42:27.039 There is no destination, there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, there is no Shangri-La. 00:42:27.679 --> 00:42:33.840 Because no matter what you do, there's always something else you could do. 00:42:34.400 --> 00:42:39.760 And because of the way that we have been trained, formal education, now social and traditional media. 00:42:40.719 --> 00:42:46.719 Judy next door has the four-door Mercedes, so

I want to get the Mercedes truck so I feel better about myself. 00:42:46.880 --> 00:42:49.840 We just we just keep consuming and we keep going. 00:42:49.920 --> 00:42:51.119 There's no there. 00:42:51.519 --> 00:42:55.840 And maybe that's the overall red line that I was trying to get across to you, Carla. 00:42:56.159 --> 00:43:00.559 I really started to feel that in 2021, 22. 00:43:00.639 --> 00:43:04.960 I was like, I'm not getting any happier doing all this stuff. 00:43:05.199 --> 00:43:13.760 So why not pivot and take all the external life architecture that I've built, which was very intentional. 00:43:13.840 --> 00:43:18.480 Where I live in my farmhouse in Maryland, we have a little cottage on the water, not overly expensive. 00:43:18.719 --> 00:43:23.519 Small apartment in Beirut, um, friends around the world. 00:43:23.760 --> 00:43:25.519 I can travel hack anywhere. 00:43:25.679 --> 00:43:28.400 I have a certain amount of passive income coming in monthly. 00:43:28.719 --> 00:43:30.239 My oldest son is out in the world. 00:43:30.400 --> 00:43:33.039 I designed his life between Atlanta and Maryland where I am. 00:43:33.119 --> 00:43:34.480 He floats back and forth. 00:43:35.039 --> 00:43:40.639 This amazing life architecture that I've built, to include business concerns. 00:43:41.599 --> 00:43:44.239 Let me simplify it all. 00:43:45.199 --> 00:43:48.559 Learn to be versus doing. 00:43:48.960 --> 00:43:53.599 So that's been my effort over the last two years is learning how to just be. 00:43:54.079 --> 00:43:59.440 So the person you're looking at on the screen is not the heavy entrepreneur, the hustler. 00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:00.400 No. 00:44:00.639 --> 00:44:15.840 What you're looking at is the fifty year old, ten year old kid who's just being I'm riding my bike again, I'm jumping fences again, I'm at the convenience store at the gas station buying a five cent Jolly Rancher again. 00:44:16.639 --> 00:44:18.079 There's no destination. 00:44:18.239 --> 00:44:23.360 And I I hope people feel that for me. 00:44:23.440 --> 00:44:27.679 Like I've done like I've all the careers, I'm living proof. 00:44:27.760 --> 00:44:31.440 I'm like, every time I got to a title, there was another thing to go do. 00:44:31.599 --> 00:44:33.920 So I don't know, it's a it's a tough thing. 00:44:34.239 --> 00:44:34.880 Yeah, it is. 00:44:35.039 --> 00:44:36.880 And and I think, you know, we know that. 00:44:36.960 --> 00:44:40.079 And and I'm 65, you're 50, we know. 00:44:40.480 --> 00:44:42.719 But but but we had to find out. 00:44:42.800 --> 00:44:52.639 And I think that's the case for so many people is no matter how many times we say there's not that destination, I I think people, for whatever reason, have to find out that out for themselves. 00:44:53.039 --> 00:44:53.760 They have to. 00:44:53.840 --> 00:44:59.519 And they have to have so you cannot take what Carla and I are saying and then make a decision today based off of that. 00:44:59.840 --> 00:45:07.519 What

what we're saying, what I'm suggesting by talking through you or to you and through you, Carla, is for them to build up a level of awareness. 00:45:08.159 --> 00:45:15.679 So when I got the first offer to enter the partner track, my awareness was too high already. 00:45:16.000 --> 00:45:21.280 I knew that would not serve me, nor serve them, because then I wouldn't operate well in it. 00:45:21.599 --> 00:45:22.480 I still worked. 00:45:22.639 --> 00:45:30.400 I worked in corporate for 25 years, but my awareness level not to take uh the next golden handcuff was so high. 00:45:31.199 --> 00:45:33.119 And here's the kicker. 00:45:33.440 --> 00:45:38.800 My peers kept saying, Well, you've been here 20 years, why are you not partner yet? 00:45:38.960 --> 00:45:41.679 Well, you've been here 22 years, why are you not partner yet? 00:45:41.840 --> 00:45:43.119 You've been here 24 years. 00:45:43.280 --> 00:45:44.960 What is wrong with Maurice? 00:45:45.199 --> 00:45:52.719 Oh, and then I retired, and then it came out that I had bought 2,000 pieces of real estate over the years and traveled to 100 countries and all. 00:45:52.880 --> 00:45:54.800 They were like, How did you do that? 00:45:55.039 --> 00:46:00.719 Ah, I was following my version of success, not just a status quo way of doing things. 00:46:00.960 --> 00:46:04.480 Some of them are still stuck and they want to get out, but they are stuck. 00:46:04.639 --> 00:46:08.800 The gift was not my awareness to build financial freedom. 00:46:08.960 --> 00:46:15.360 The gift was my awareness that there was no, that there's no, the the goalpost is gonna keep moving. 00:46:15.679 --> 00:46:19.440 You you want life to be about experiences and relationships. 00:46:19.599 --> 00:46:21.519 That stuff never dies, ever. 00:46:21.920 --> 00:46:32.079 So I was always concerned with experiences, being a police officer, being a federal agent, starting a coffee shop, relationships, visiting my friends and the finish Arctic five times, et cetera. 00:46:32.480 --> 00:46:41.599 When you go, when our time is up in this human form, it's the experiences and relationships that are going to be the gift when you go over the next level. 00:46:41.840 --> 00:46:45.760 It's not necessarily all the money, the titles, and all that type of stuff. 00:46:45.840 --> 00:46:47.840 So, I don't know, just some awareness for folks. 00:46:47.920 --> 00:46:49.280 I want folks to have awareness. 00:46:49.360 --> 00:46:53.360 That's my drive for why I still come on podcasts and do what I do. 00:46:53.440 --> 00:46:54.800 It's just awareness. 00:46:54.960 --> 00:46:59.599 I want folks to be making conscious decisions, not running unconscious scripts. 00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:06.159 One of the things I love about that story about people saying, Why aren't you, you know, partner yet or or whatever it was, why aren't you this? 00:47:06.320 --> 00:47:06.960 Why aren't you that? 00:47:07.119 --> 00:47:11.360 And you were meanwhile behind the scenes doing all kinds of things that they couldn't see. 00:47:11.840 --> 00:47:19.519 And and they were sort of stuck in this in this track of how it's supposed to be, and you were out there actually living and doing life. 00:47:19.760 --> 00:47:30.639 And I think that that that's one of the things that concerns me, and I know concerns you, Maurice, about social media is we only see just whatever anybody wants us to see. 00:47:30.880 --> 00:47:31.119 Right. 00:47:31.280 --> 00:47:36.800 And and we don't know what's happening behind the scenes and whether that's good or bad. 00:47:37.039 --> 00:47:45.760 And so what might look like failure to someone else might be incredible success for the per person who's wherever they are. 00:47:46.000 --> 00:47:48.320 But we don't know what's going on behind the scenes. 00:47:48.400 --> 00:47:50.239 So I love that story that you just gave. 00:47:50.719 --> 00:47:54.480 And I was I was I admittedly, I was on social media for a very long time. 00:47:54.639 --> 00:48:05.599 Um, but over time something happened where I started to understand that social media, especially Instagram and Facebook, a little bit less LinkedIn, but LinkedIn's getting even worse nowadays. 00:48:06.880 --> 00:48:17.599 It was all clips of it's all it's all things that you haven't done where you haven't been, the status you haven't gained, the car you haven't driven. 00:48:18.960 --> 00:48:23.360 And it's pulling people's states down, making them feel less than. 00:48:24.320 --> 00:48:28.719 And then people will make decisions from that pull down. 00:48:28.880 --> 00:48:30.000 Well, I'm not good. 00:48:30.400 --> 00:48:33.840 Maurice has 2,000 units of real estate. 00:48:34.800 --> 00:48:35.519 I only have one. 00:48:35.599 --> 00:48:36.800 I I'm awful. 00:48:36.960 --> 00:48:43.280 And if they would actually get to know me, I would have said, there's no reason to have 2,000 units of real estate. 00:48:43.519 --> 00:48:51.199 If you can have three and pay them off over a 20-year career and now have$7,000 of passive income coming in, you're golden. 00:48:51.840 --> 00:49:00.079 But if they just saw a clip of me talking about that, that's what they would think that I would think is that's what drove me off of social media. 00:49:00.159 --> 00:49:05.280 I was like, it's where you haven't been, what you haven't done, who you are not, who you haven't met. 00:49:06.400 --> 00:49:06.880 Woof. 00:49:07.440 --> 00:49:12.960 And then once you get away from it, you can hear yourself again, you feel comfortable again and stuff. 00:49:13.039 --> 00:49:16.800 And uh, but yes, you know, all these definitions are tough. 00:49:16.880 --> 00:49:24.960 And but I again I give people grace because it's it's man, school taught us this stuff, our families taught us this stuff. 00:49:25.760 --> 00:49:30.719 As I was in my son's class yesterday at Career Day, I said, You guys have peer pressure. 00:49:31.119 --> 00:49:35.119 Adults just call it don't do that or don't be

different. 00:49:35.440 --> 00:49:38.639 Adults have peer pressure too, right? 00:49:39.920 --> 00:49:40.800 It's a tough one. 00:49:40.960 --> 00:49:45.360 But that's why folks like you are very important to help people along and gain awareness. 00:49:45.679 --> 00:49:47.519 It is, it is very tough. 00:49:47.679 --> 00:49:51.519 Uh we're running out of time, Maurice, but I want to get a couple of more uh questions in. 00:49:51.679 --> 00:50:00.480 Uh one is is there anything despite all the internal work that you've done, all the self um reflection that you've done that you still can't quite shake? 00:50:05.039 --> 00:50:10.480 I think we're always gonna have some self-doubt. 00:50:12.719 --> 00:50:17.440 I could have could I have done more for my my oldest is autistic. 00:50:17.760 --> 00:50:19.599 He's he's out in the world, he's doing well. 00:50:19.840 --> 00:50:20.880 Could I have done more? 00:50:21.599 --> 00:50:28.000 Was I selfish with all the things that I did when my cause, you know, sometimes I was gone and my kids were alone. 00:50:28.960 --> 00:50:31.360 Could I have done better for my business partners? 00:50:33.519 --> 00:50:43.280 But then I go back to self, meaning higher consciousness, and I say, Did you do any of those things with the intent to hurt people, be malicious, or be deceitful? 00:50:43.599 --> 00:50:43.920 No. 00:50:44.400 --> 00:50:45.599 Then you let it go. 00:50:46.559 --> 00:50:47.519 You let it go. 00:50:47.679 --> 00:50:54.000 Because if you live with perceived guilt of some sort, you're just creating a prison for yourself. 00:50:54.239 --> 00:51:01.039 So I guess my answer to your question is probably, but I have kind of forgiven any of those deficiencies over time. 00:51:01.679 --> 00:51:08.559 Yeah, I think of guilt as something that's super important for a moment, but not something to inhabit. 00:51:08.960 --> 00:51:18.239 It's momentary to help us shift a behavior or a way of being that's that's damaging or hurtful, but it's not a place to live. 00:51:18.480 --> 00:51:20.320 And I think that's super important. 00:51:20.480 --> 00:51:28.480 And it's kind of what you said is like, yeah, I can reflect and maybe see some things, and now I let it go, and I, you know, I choose to do differently. 00:51:28.639 --> 00:51:29.599 So yeah. 00:51:30.719 --> 00:51:36.239 Some of the people who are listening are running as hard as you used to run. 00:51:36.960 --> 00:51:38.719 What do you want them to know? 00:51:39.039 --> 00:51:42.719 It just to sum it up here, what is it that you want them to know? 00:51:43.039 --> 00:51:43.360 Okay. 00:51:43.519 --> 00:51:51.440 This is coming from 30, 30 years of professional lived experience, but since I was age 15, I was always a dreamer. 00:51:51.519 --> 00:51:56.320 And all this stuff started because I started traveling and I could feel life in a in a different way. 00:51:56.960 --> 00:52:00.880 Yes, we have to hustle, and I respect the hustle. 00:52:01.679 --> 00:52:07.519 I

would tell you that I don't believe that humans were ever intended to struggle. 00:52:08.719 --> 00:52:18.960 I'm doing sometimes I do 80, 90% less than I've ever done in life, and I seem to reap the benefit of abundance coming from different places. 00:52:19.199 --> 00:52:31.199 Because instead of hustling to find the 10 opportunities, my nervous system is so calm nowadays that I can discern the one that was the best in the first place. 00:52:31.440 --> 00:52:45.679 So I would suggest to them, and they have a right to point at me as well and be like, dude, you were a corporate exec and doing police officer at night and being a lieutenant colonel at the same time and doing real estate at the same time. 00:52:45.760 --> 00:52:48.400 That's different because that was my passion. 00:52:48.559 --> 00:52:52.559 I wanted to serve, I wanted to do things for people, I wanted to have life experience. 00:52:52.719 --> 00:52:55.440 I'm talking about the hustle for hustle's sake. 00:52:56.960 --> 00:52:58.320 You don't have to. 00:52:58.800 --> 00:53:04.480 Get good at understanding your physiology, get good at listening to your inner voice. 00:53:04.880 --> 00:53:10.800 We were never sent here, from my perspective, from source, from universe, from God, to struggle. 00:53:11.039 --> 00:53:20.079 If you can pay attention to who you are and recognize your own divinity, you will find the one thing that for some reason is taking you 100 to find at the moment. 00:53:20.400 --> 00:53:25.679 I just know it's coming, and I keep getting all these opportunities, not because I'm the best real estate investor. 00:53:25.760 --> 00:53:26.480 I'm not. 00:53:26.719 --> 00:53:29.599 It's just because I can discern really, really well. 00:53:29.679 --> 00:53:31.599 So struggle is not necessary. 00:53:31.760 --> 00:53:36.159 Now, it takes all that struggle in the beginning to learn these kinds of things. 00:53:36.239 --> 00:53:38.079 So I get where they're coming from. 00:53:38.239 --> 00:53:42.000 But the way I teach my kids now is like, no, just listen. 00:53:42.400 --> 00:53:45.599 Listen, just let things go and you things will come to you naturally. 00:53:45.760 --> 00:53:46.800 So yeah. 00:53:47.360 --> 00:53:51.119 Yeah, there's a time to grind and a time not to grind. 00:53:51.199 --> 00:53:56.639 And you and I both have a love of nature, and we see this all the time happening in nature with the seasons. 00:53:56.880 --> 00:54:02.480 There's a time to grow, there's a time to bloom, there's a time to harvest, and there's a time to go dormant. 00:54:03.199 --> 00:54:03.679 Absolutely. 00:54:03.920 --> 00:54:05.760 Yeah, so I I love that. 00:54:06.079 --> 00:54:08.639 Maurice, how can people find you? 00:54:09.039 --> 00:54:11.039 Or do you want to even be found? 00:54:11.360 --> 00:54:13.599 Oh, yes, yes, for sure, for sure. 00:54:13.840 --> 00:54:19.679 I am no longer on social media at all, although my evergreen material still persists on LinkedIn. 00:54:19.920 --> 00:54:21.679 So they can go to LinkedIn. 00:54:21.920 --> 00:54:25.840 Um, but the best way to find me is trilifefon.com. 00:54:26.079 --> 00:54:29.599 I still publish newsletters, I still do the TriLife On podcast. 00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:36.320 Uh I coach from time to time, but what I care for more now is just building awareness of how to break the status quo. 00:54:36.639 --> 00:54:40.880 Building awareness on how to make your extraordinary ordinary. 00:54:41.119 --> 00:54:43.039 And um, it's a joy to do it. 00:54:43.199 --> 00:54:46.320 I don't know how long I will do it because it's not a financial thing for me anymore. 00:54:46.400 --> 00:54:51.760 It's just helping people, but they can reach me there, and then the email is Maurice at trilifon.com. 00:54:52.079 --> 00:54:52.400 Thank you. 00:54:52.480 --> 00:54:53.920 I'll have all that in the show notes. 00:54:54.159 --> 00:54:57.599 Maurice, it has been just delightful to be with you again. 00:54:57.760 --> 00:55:04.880 I enjoyed the first conversation with you, and I have enjoyed this conversation with you, and I thank you so much for for being here. 00:55:05.280 --> 00:55:06.400 Of course, my pleasure. 00:55:06.719 --> 00:55:10.559 If this conversation brought someone to mind, send it to them. 00:55:10.800 --> 00:55:14.239 That's how a new show like this reaches the people it's for. 00:55:14.639 --> 00:55:16.239 I'm Carla Royal. 00:55:16.400 --> 00:55:21.440 I work privately with founders and leaders on the things underneath what they are carrying. 00:55:21.679 --> 00:55:24.639 You can find me at Carlaroyal.com. 00:55:25.039 --> 00:55:26.480 This is what holds. 00:55:26.639 --> 00:55:28.960 I'll see you back here next time.