157: 5 Traits of Highly Successful People

Now, before we dive into today's episode, I want to let you know about something we got going on here at BPN. Now we ask you guys to commit to your goals and go all in on that commitment. And we want to help you get there. So what we're doing this year is 25% off all supplement subscriptions. If you sign up for a BPN supplement subscription on our website at bpnsubs.com, It is 25% off. We have never offered a subscription discount of this greatness before. So I would highly encourage you guys to take advantage of this. You can save money and ensure that you are consistent with your commitments throughout 2026. Now into the episode. Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Today's topic is five traits of highly successful people. Now there are nuances to each one of these five traits. If you take them for face value alone and don't take the time to truly assess and understand And each one, they can actually drive you towards failure as opposed to success. And I want to make this caveat. I'm going to list out and I'll give an overview before I dive into each one of these five traits that I believe are common denominators of highly successful people. There might be a response. you might be thinking, yeah, but I know someone who wasn't one of these five traits, who didn't embody one of these five traits. I know someone who is X, Y, and Z, and they were still successful. Yes, there are always going to be exceptions to the role, always, in every case, in every situation of life. But I believe that these are widely acceptable traits of majority the majority of successful people. And we aren't talking about exceptions to the rule in this episode, this discussion. And really why I want to discuss this topic is I was sitting back and just thinking about what has led myself and the BPN team to where we are today. At this point in time, 2026, BPN was started 14 years ago. It's a long time to be in business. And I look at people in my life, I look at people in the world who aren't achieving what they say they want to achieve, aren't successful by the terms in ways they define success themselves. And there's a reason why they aren't doing these five simple, not easy. These five simple things correctly on a regular basis. And I was thinking about this during my workout this morning. I had a shoulders and arms workout in my garage or a home gym. And as I was training, I was thinking about these five traits and some of the research that I've done in preparation for this discussion. Some of the other entrepreneurs, athletes, world leaders that I've researched and learned more about in preparation. And I'm going to say this, it's probably a bold statement, but I truly believe it is much easier and simpler to be successful than many people actually believe. And what holds so many people back is just not doing the simple things right on a regular and consistent basis. Many of us know what we have to do to get from point A to point B. If you want to achieve something, if you want to surpass a certain milestone, if you want to make a certain amount of money, if you want a certain type of career, if you want to build a business, you want to achieve a goal, we know what it takes to go from point A to point B to achieve. Now along that path, you might fail multiple times before you actually succeed. But eventually if you keep applying effort, chances are you're going to be successful, you're going to achieve. But what holds so many people back is self-sabotage. It is not an external factor in most cases. It is an internal factor. We hold ourselves back from achieving because we don't do what we know we're supposed to do to get from point A to point B. If I think of the things that I haven't achieved in my life, that I've said I've wanted to achieve, it is my fault. I am responsible. I am accountable. And in most cases, it's because I didn't do what I knew I was supposed to and needed to do to get there. In some cases, it's because it just didn't matter to me anymore and I abandoned that goal that I originally sat down to achieve. And in some cases, other cases, I just didn't want it bad enough. So I didn't put in the work that was required, the effort that was required to get there. I've been in these type of situations where I didn't achieve, but it wasn't because of external factors. It wasn't because of anyone else it was because of me in all of the situations that I can think of and remember of why I didn't achieve what I wanted to achieve. So the five, what I believe are common traits of highly successful people, and there's probably a whole lot more, but these are five that I want to dive into on a deeper level. Number one, they think big. There is this book, it's called The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz. In this book, David says, look at things not as they are, but as they can be. Visualization adds value to everything. A big thinker always visualizes what can be done in the future, he isn't stuck with the present. That hit home for me. Look at things not as they are, but as they can be. What is the potential? The magic of thinking big, thinking large. One of my favorite quotes that I've ever heard, and it was from a David Senra podcast. David Senra, who I've mentioned many times on this podcast, he is the host of Founders. And in this podcast, David Senra now has a separate podcast where he interviews founders and entrepreneurs, but in the Founders podcast, he reads biographies and autobiographies of highly successful people. And he breaks down in these episodes, their journey, their story, and what made them different, what made them successful. And I first heard this quote in one of his podcasts. and I want to say it was in reference to Kobe Bryant. But the quote is, belief comes before ability. The truth is you will never have the ability if you don't first have the belief. Straight up, you have to believe that you can achieve something before you can ever go and do it. I've never heard or come across someone who has achieved something great, but didn't think they could get there. You don't just fall into success. It doesn't just happen by chance. Maybe there is an exception to the rule and someone gets so lucky and hits the lottery in the jackpot that they become successful overnight by some slight chance. The stars align and it just happened. But if you're waiting on that moment, there's a very low chance that it's going to come. You have to have the belief before you have the ability. When it comes to BPN, I had to have the belief that we were going to build this company into something great, something much larger than from where it started in my college apartment in Western Pennsylvania. When I first said I was going to run a sub three hour marathon, I believed it. I truly did. And I trained for it and I failed. I ran three hours, 24 minutes. And then I went back to training for another year and I achieved it. Two hours, 56 minutes. And then from there, I said, I want to run a sub 250 and then a sub 245. But before I went into every one of those preps, I believed I could. I believed so much that I could that I wrote my time on my shoe, the shoe that I was going to race in. I called my shot because I believed I could. And then the work that I put in reflected that belief. Highly successful people, they think big. They're visionaries. They look into the future. They don't look at things as they are right now, but as they can be. And they believe they can go chase down that goal, that accomplishment, that milestone. In my book, Go One More, I talk about how doubt is only dangerous when you start doubting yourself. And I believe in this so much. In many circumstances and situations in your life, in many circumstances and situations in the lives of people who have achieved absolute greatness, I can guarantee you along the way, there have been many people who said, you can't, you won't, you shouldn't. You shouldn't even try because there's not a chance you're going to get there. There's not a chance you're going to succeed. if you let the pessimism of others erode your optimism, you've cut your chances in half. Any great entrepreneur, any great founder, any great athlete, any great leader, any person who has achieved greatness in their lifetime, if they would have allowed the doubt from others erode their optimism and their visions for what they were going to achieve, they would have never accomplished it. There's a few founders that I've enjoyed studying over the years. And especially in preparation for this episode, I went back and re-read some of their books and articles and podcasts on them, with them, about them. And I got really into learning about Jeff Bezos and Amazon in this discovery. And I talk about a successful founder, a successful entrepreneur. Jeff Bezos said, it's human nature to overestimate risks and underestimate opportunities. It's human nature to overestimate risks and underestimate opportunities. The risks are probably not as big as you perceive and the opportunities may be bigger than you perceive. And check this out. He said, thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Holy smokes. Talk about if doubt is only dangerous if you start doubting yourself. If you think small, you will be small. If you think small, your accomplishments, your successes will be small. If you think big, just like David Schwartz says in The Magic of Thinking Big, think big. Think really big, really large. Big, hairy, audacious goals. be hags, big, hairy, audacious goals. Successful people don't think small. They think big. And just like Jeff Bezos says, if you think small, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Jeff Bezos, he was working at a very successful hedge fund up until 1994. In 1994, he left his very successful job, a very comfortable job that he could have worked the rest of his life and been very well off. Wealthy. Yeah, I don't think a lot of success in the way that I'm going to be describing it here. I don't want you to think about success in terms of revenue or money or wealth, but more so accomplishment, achievement, potential. Jeff Bezos, he could have worked this hedge fund that he was working at his entire life and been very well off. But I don't believe that's what led him to leaving that job in that position and going to start Amazon. For a lot of successful individuals, achievers, I truly believe it is a small minority group that is actually driven by money, driven by wealth. But it's more so potential. Potential is fulfilling. Having a really big goal and then chasing it down, that is mission, that is vision, that is purpose, that is fulfillment feels really good to set really big goals and then go chase them down and work really hard to chase them down. Jeff Bezos left his hedge fund in 1994 because he saw the internet's potential of where the internet was back in 1994. And he identified first books as the perfect initial product to sell. I don't know if you guys remember, but when Amazon first launched, they sold books. Just books. Even when I was in college, I mean, Amazon wasn't nearly as big as it is today, obviously. But I remember buying books for my classes in college off of Amazon. And he chose the name Amazon. I only recently discovered this. he chose the name Amazon after the world's largest river aiming for the world's largest online store and he called a shot right there well what do you what do you want your company to be called Amazon why because it's the world's largest river and we are going to have we don't have right now don't look at things as they are right now, but as they can be. We are going to have one day, Bezos said, the world's largest online store. He called that shot in the early 90s. They had their first sale selling books in 1995. In the late 90s and early 2000s, They expanded to what is now the everything store. In 2000, Amazon opened its platform to third-party sellers. It's like we, as in BPN, we are a third-party seller on Amazon. We sell our product on Amazon. Our business alone, we do about, in terms of D to C, the way we break down our distribution, we have e-com, we have retail, and then we have international. So we have retail partners, which we sell to at wholesale and they distribute within their retail stores. We have international. Right now our international approach is through iHerb. And then we are expanding into the UK market in 2026, this year. And then we have e-com. E-com for us is a 50-50 split right now between our website, D2C, which we host on Shopify. And we fulfill all of those orders out of our headquarters here in Round Rock, Texas. And then 50% of our e-com sales come from Amazon. Amazon is a meaningful retail, online retail partner for us here at BPN. I mean, Amazon is huge and they continue to reinvest. They continue to innovate. They continue to hold this standard that sets the standard for every other online retailer business in the world. and this all started in the early 90s with Jeff Bezos working out of his garage building Amazon Amazon didn start with this cash injection of hundreds of millions of dollars and the world smartest people working in this headquarters in Silicon Valley No Amazon started in some guy garage with a vision because he thought really big. That's all it took. The power, the magic of thinking really big. If Jeff Bezos would have thought small in 1994, Amazon would not be where it's at today. not a chance and if all the people who doubted him in the early 90s which i'm sure there were countless i can only imagine how many people told him you can't you won't you shouldn't this is a joke this is never going to become a thing well look at him now if that doubt from other people, the pessimism perspective would have eroded his optimism, there's no way he would have accomplished what he's accomplished today. Not just personal wealth, but creating jobs and opportunities for hundreds of thousands of people. He has helped small businesses like BPN with our distribution model, reaching more people, improving sales, growing year over year. He has created opportunity for others because he had a vision and he acted on it early on. Probably when a lot of people didn't believe in him. Albert Einstein said, it's not that I'm so smart. It's just that I stay with problems longer. And the reason I share that is to reinforce that intelligence alone won't get you to success. You need to be smart at some level and capacity. You need some type of intelligence. But it's not the only thing that matters. There is luck. that is part of this process. Like luck is a thing. I do believe that sometimes stars align and it's the right time, the right opportunity. The market is primed. The consumer is ready in demanding the supply that you have. If Jeff Bezos would have tried to launch Amazon 10 years prior, it might not have been successful. but based off his timeline, his work, a lot of other things, it's become what it is today. Luck is a small part of it. It's not everything. Same with intelligence. It's a small part of it. It's not everything. There's grit. There's ambition. There's ruthless determination to achieve. There is vision. there is magic of thinking big. Successful people think big. Think big, start small, build to big. Think big, start small, build to big. Small steps to a big vision. I have this written down here and this will evolve into the next trait that I want to discuss. but the BPN story in roadmap over these last 14 years has followed this blueprint right here. And that blueprint being think big, start small, build to big. In 2012, as I was sitting in my college apartment at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, which we're actually traveling back to Pennsylvania tomorrow. At the time of this recording, we're traveling back to Pennsylvania tomorrow because this year, May of 2026, BPN is the one course nutrition sponsor for the Pittsburgh Marathon. Early May, which we're pumped about. In the last couple of years, we've been the one course nutrition sponsor for the Austin Marathon, which we've loved. Austin is right in our backyard. Our business has been in Texas since 2014. but I'm from Pennsylvania. I grew up in Palmyra, Pennsylvania, small town right next to Hershey, Pennsylvania. I went to school in Indiana, Pennsylvania, which the school there is the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh was 45 minutes away from Indiana, Pennsylvania. So there's a story to tell. There's an association. There's a reason we're the one course nutrition sponsor of the Pittsburgh Marathon this year. And I'm actually going to be visiting my university this weekend, which I haven't been back to since I graduated. I graduated in 2013. So it's been 13 years since I've been back to my college. And we're going to actually try to go to my old apartment where I started BPN. If it's still an apartment, if it's still there, I'm gonna go up to the door. I'm gonna knock on it if someone's living there and ask them if we can go in and tour the apartment and specifically the room that I was staying in when I lived in this apartment for two years. This apartment was right off Philadelphia Street in Indiana, PA. It was a tiny apartment. It had five bedrooms. Me and four other guys shared this place, but that's where I started BPN. So we're traveling back there this weekend, one for the kickoff run of the Pittsburgh Marathon, and then two to visit the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. And I'm gonna show the brand team, the BPN brand team, where it all started. And I'm super excited to see that, to experience that. But the reason I share that is that's where we got started. That's where I got started. I remember sitting at my desk in that apartment, in that bedroom. It was tiny. I had this small little window behind my desk and it had a window AC unit and it got really muggy in there. And I remember the laptop I had. I remember the bed that I had because when we moved into this apartment building, there was no furniture. There was no nothing there. So we had to go source all of our own furniture. And I decided to build my own bed. So I'm at the Lowe's. I got all these two by fours and got like an old hand-me-down mattress. And I built this bed frame in this apartment bedroom that I can visualize exactly what this room looked like. and I remember building BPN there, and I had this vision, this huge vision. I thought big. I was a dreamer, and so many people told me, you can't, you won't, you shouldn't. You shouldn't because this industry is so competitive, and you won't succeed. People told me that, many people. This industry is very competitive. There's no way you're going to break into it. if I would have allowed them to erode that optimism that I had, I wouldn't be sitting here right now. I wouldn't be talking to you guys. We wouldn't be in this HQ. I had a belief and that belief definitely came before my ability. And I thought really, really big, really big, but I had to start small. One, because I didn't have a team. Two, I didn't have the experience. Three, I didn't have it. any money to go any bigger than I was going. Took baby steps along the way, assessed risk, took larger risks, assessed more risk, took larger risks, and we built to big. It's taken us 14 years to get to where we're at right now. I'm really proud of what we've accomplished in these last 14 years, but I'm really excited about what we're going to accomplish in the next 14 years. Because I have bigger visions now than I had in 2012. I've realized what is achievable. I've learned that when you think big, you start small and you build the big, you can keep building bigger and bigger and bigger if you stay focused. and disciplined and committed. Think big, start small, build the big. But you got to think big. Successful individuals, successful organizations, successful teams, think big. Teams that win championships, teams that win Super Bowls, people and teams that get gold medals at the Olympics? Do you think they thought small? Do you think they said, I'm just going to try to win this one game and then before you know it, they just end up at the Olympics? No. They wanted to be participating and competing at the Olympics years and years and years before they ever got there. But it had to start as a vision. And if you're not thinking big and you're not setting these goals way beyond where you are right now, you're never going to get there. I can promise you that because you don't just fall into it. It's not by chance. You call your shot. You call it. Successful people have a high tolerance for risk. Risk is it's necessary. It should also scare you. It should intimidate you. But that needs to reinforce the necessity of calculated risk. Uncalculated risk is irresponsible. and the risks that you take, they have to be weighed. They have to be considered. There's pros and cons to every risk that you pursue. But with risk comes oftentimes great reward, but it can work in the opposite direction of great demise as well, great destruction. the risks that you take don't have to make sense to someone else. So you got to be careful with who you would ask advice from. Just like I shared when I first started BPN, I took out a $20,000 loan to start the business. It was called a career starter loan. It was between my junior and senior year of college. And I shared this story many times before. This is part of the BPN founding story. But for those of you who aren't familiar with the story, between my junior and senior year of college, I had the opportunity to take out a loan with a military-associated bank, USAA. It was called a pre-commissioning loan. And it was offered to Army ROTC cadets who were contracted because the bank, USAA, knew that we were about to graduate from college, commission into the army, have a full-time job that was secure. So they offered up to a $25,000 loan. You didn't have to make any payments for the first 18 months. It was a very low interest rate. I got approved for $20,000. I spent all that $20,000 on inventory for our pre-workout flight. Flight is still our pre-workout today. the formula has evolved over time, but flight was our flagship product. I spent all that money on that inventory with a manufacturer that was based out of California. So many people, friends, family, lots of family, told me this was such a huge risk. You're going to graduate college in debt. Now, I was really fortunate. I didn't have to pay for school because the army paid for my school. I had an army ROTC scholarship, which paid for my tuition, paid for my room and board. I was given a small monthly stipend, but I had a military commitment and contract upon graduation. so I didn't have any student loans I didn't have any college debt upon graduating but I was twenty thousand dollars in debt with a loan that I used to start my business and so many people told me this risk is gonna bury you what are you doing you just graduated from college no debt which is so rare you don't have to take out any student loans and now you're burying yourself in $20,000 of debt to start this supplement company that you actually think is going to be successful. It's just you. What do you know about building a business? What do you know about the supplement industry? What do you know about e-com and building a website and fulfilling orders? I don't know anything about any of that stuff, but I believe I can do it. I'm willing to learn. That was a calculated risk that I took. It wasn't off of a whim. I had a calculated risk that I was willing and able to assume based off of this vision that I had of what I wanted to build. There's this book that I'm reading right now with the BPN leadership team by Jim Collins. It's called How the Mighty Fall. It's incredible. all Jim Collins' work is really good. I think a great book of his to get started is From Good to Great. And if you've ever read From Good to Great, that's a great starting place. But How the Mighty Fall, it's a short read. It's super insightful for entrepreneurs, business owners. But this book and Jim Collins' work, he studies some of the greatest companies in the world, large companies, big companies, and companies who have reached great success and then have crumbled, have lost everything. And he looks for patterns of what happened to these companies and he establishes these stages that I'll get into here a little later in this episode. And the second stage of decline that he's identified with patterns of failing organizations and businesses is called the undisciplined pursuit of more. Risk. Overreaching. He says that when an organization grows beyond its ability to fill its key seats with the right people, it has set itself up for a fall. Although complacency and resistance to change remain dangerous to any successful enterprise or person, overreaching better captures how the mighty fall. Overreaching happens when success leads us to believe that we are invincible. Arrogance and pride set in and individuals self-destruct. It is not external factors. Listen to this again. Arrogance and pride set in and individuals self-destruct. This occurs when being bigger becomes more important than being great. Overreaching, the undisciplined pursuit of more. This is when companies, this is when people start taking large risks. that are not calculated. To be successful, you have to have a high tolerance for risk, but it's taking the right risks at the right time for the right reasons. There's no pride. There's nothing to be proud about just because you're a risk taker. But it's taking calculated risks. And sometimes other people aren't going to understand those risks and that's okay because they didn't do the calculations and they don't have the vision. They don't know what you're trying to build and where you're trying to get to. Here's an example. Another individual that I've loved studying and learning from is Phil Knight. If you haven't read the book Shoe Dog, which is a story of Phil Knight building Nike, highly recommend. And it's incredible. It's a great book. The story of Nike, regardless of how you feel about Nike, the story of Nike is, it's an incredible success story. So Phil Knight, he started Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964. And I share this story because he took huge risks along the way. Calculated risks, huge risks, but those risks that he took paid off. Phil Knight started Nike, or sorry, not Nike. I'll get to that point. Phil Knight started Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964. So Knight secured distribution rights for the Western United States from a Japanese shoe designer for this shoe called the Tiger. And he went into business with his old track coach named Bill Bowerman. well, they started doing pretty well. Blue Ribbon Sports, Bowerman and Knight's Company in the early to mid 60s were selling this shoe called the Tiger. They were distributing it in the Western United States. And all was going well. They were growing. They were selling more shoes. But tension started between Blue Ribbon Sports and this Japanese shoe designer. And it ended up ending in a legal battle So Bowerman and Knight are building this successful shoe business by distributing someone else shoe in the US It all falls apart And seven years later in 1971, they have to get started all over again. So in 1971, blue ribbon sports goes away and they rebrand to Nike. And we know what has become of Nike. And through that journey, Knight had to take out many loans. He had to run on empty for a long period of time. I mean, it was a struggle. and he bet on certain athletes like Prefontaine, like Jordan and he nearly went bankrupt multiple times. I mean, not even able to pay payroll and employees and to see what Nike has become because he was willing to take these huge risks that were calculated, that were intentional. But without taking these massive risks, there would have never been any type of reward. And I love the story of the building of Nike because it reminds me of the building of BPN on a much smaller scale. But those early days, those early stages, very similar. I think we see these giant companies, these super successful people, and we can just assume that they were always successful. These companies were always big. But just like Bezos and Knight, and even Michael Dell with Dell Computers, these businesses start in garages, they start in apartment rooms, they start in basements with just one person and a big dream, a big vision and a high tolerance for taking you on risk. I think back to like the early days of building BPN and I remember this one, this one specific moment, there's many moments like this, but I'll share this one. we were, I say I, I think this was before my brother Preston moved down to Pennsylvania or from Pennsylvania to Texas to help me build BPN. This was probably 2015. I remember where I was when this moment happened. 2014 I end up in Texas I get stationed at Fort Hood with the 1st Cavalry Division I was a platoon leader an infantry platoon leader I was assigned to 212 Cav Bravo Company I was 1st Platoon we were the misfits that was our name and when you walked into Bravo Company, 212 Cav, right when you walked into the headquarters, first platoon was the first office and I remember sitting in this office this one day and realizing that BPN was out of money and we had inventory bills that we had to pay. you know this is well before we had terms with manufacturers so now as we are bigger and more established we have terms with manufacturing partners where we'll place a production order for one of our supplements and because we have established relationships with our manufacturing partners we'll place that production order it'll go into production it will ship to us when it's completed and we have terms, meaning we don't have to pay for that inventory maybe 30 days after we receive it, 60 days after we receive it, in some cases, 90 days after we receive it. This was before we had terms with manufacturers. So back then, the way that we had to pay for inventory is when I placed a production order, I paid for 50% of that production order upon placing the PO and then before the order could ship to us, we had to pay for the remaining 50%. So I had to pay for all the inventory before we received it, which is really challenging for a growing business because you're trying to manage cashflow, the money coming in and the money coming out. So if you're putting up all this money for inventory before you receive it, before you sell it, it puts you in a really strapped position. And I found myself sitting in this office, the first platoon office, Bravo company, 212 Cav, probably 2015, realizing I was out of money. So the first thing I did is I called up USAA again. I said, I need a loan ASAP. And at that point, the career starter loan was no longer an option. I had to take out a personal loan with USAA. And at this point, I think I took out a $35,000 loan and the interest rate was outrageous because I needed it ASAP. I needed it like tomorrow to be able to keep the company afloat. And I received that loan. The interest was insane. It made no sense. didn't make sense to me. Definitely didn't make sense to anyone else, but I had to do it. If I wouldn't have taken out that loan, the company would have died off. I would have run out of money. And I could have stayed in the military and then just forgot all about this vision, this dream that I had. But I was willing to do whatever it took to keep this thing alive. the vision was so clear. The passion was burning deep. And I took many risks in the early days just to bridge the gap. And sometimes that's what you have to do. Now we hear of these success stories, Nike, Amazon, Apple, these great founders, these great companies, these great success stories. But for every success story, there's a thousand who are unsuccessful. They couldn't bridge the gap. They weren't willing to take the risk. They weren't willing to bury themselves deeper to bridge the gap, to give themselves another fighting chance. I can guarantee that for every person who has achieved success, they've had a high tolerance for risk at many different intersections and points of their life. And after enough exposure and repetition of taking you on risk, you get really comfortable with risk, calculated risk, not irresponsible risk, but calculated risk. And that risk is going to scare a lot of people. But I can tell you, after 14 years of building a business and have made many high risk decisions, calculated decisions, some uncalculated, I'll be honest, you become very comfortable and confident with the risks that you have to take to get to the next level. Because you know that was required to get you here and what's required to get you to the next chapter, the next phase is more risk. Because on the other side of risk is reward. The third trait is that successful people are consistent. So consistent and consistency, it is sometimes overused and overhyped and overvalued. And I'll get into that. I believe it can be overrated at times, but it's absolutely critical and it's absolutely essential when applied in the right way. C.S. Lewis said, isn't it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different. I think back to 10 years ago. I think back to five years ago. I think back to last year. And from the day to day, truthfully, maybe you can relate. it feels like nothing changes. There are certain days where there's these moments of progress, these things that occur that are truly needle movers in the business, but generally day to day, it feels like nothing changes. Days feel pretty much the same, same routine, same structure, same meetings, same cadence. But if I look back a year ago, we weren't in this building. We've only been in this building for six-ish months at our new headquarters. A year ago, we weren't in our new headquarters. I didn't know I was going to train and complete an Ironman triathlon. two months ago, a year ago. Life looked a whole lot different a year ago, but from day to day, doesn't really seem like it. Five years ago, a lot has changed. 10 years ago, a whole lot has changed. 10 years ago, I was at this point getting ready to get on a plane for a nine-month rotation in South Korea with the U.S. Army. 10 years ago, BPN was generating about $2,000 a month in revenue. I was the only employee. I was a platoon leader in the same platoon, first platoon, Bravo Company, 212 Cav, and we are packing up our containers and our vehicles to get ready to go to Camp Casey, South Korea for a nine-month rotation. I mean, a lot has changed in the last 10 years. But if you break it down from a day-to-day perspective, it feels like nothing changes. but that's a power in consistency. It's better be consistently good than occasionally great. What consistency is not is intensity. There are times to be intense and to apply intensity. But Simon Sinek says, intensity is like going to the dentist. It is fixed in time. We know exactly which date we are going. We know how long we're going to be there. And we know when we come. And we know when we go, our teeth will feel smooth and look pearly. But if that is all we do, all of our teeth will fall out. In other words, intensity is not enough. You have to brush your teeth every day. You go to the dentist a couple times a year. But if all you did is went to the dentist a couple times a year, your teeth would fall out. You have to maintain day in, day out consistency. The reason that I say consistency is sometimes overvalued and overrated. And that consistency is only powerful when applied correctly is because consistency can become a trap. And here's how. Three reasons, blind repetition, stuck in the wrong path, and it can hinder adaptation. I'll break it down this way and I'll go into a little bit detail of each one of these three things. We can become so dependent on being consistent with our routines that it actually prevents success because we end up in this trap of being consistent, doing the same things day in, day out, routine, structure. But that routine and structure doesn't actually lead us to growth and adaptation or success. It feels really good to be in a routine. I mean, I can tell you from personal experience, when Steph and I travel and we go on vacation, for example, maybe you guys can relate. When we're on vacation, when we travel, we are out of our routine. We might be going to meetings, might be speaking, might be meeting with people, might just be on vacation, going to dinners and sitting by the beach. But towards the end of that vacation, we always say, we're so excited to go home to get back into our routine. because routine is comfortable. Routine is like a warm blanket. It makes us feel really good. And sometimes being in our routine makes us feel like we are actually accomplishing because we're checking the block of what makes us feel comfortable and content. But if that routine, that consistency doesn't lead us to growth, it doesn't lead us to adaptation, it doesn't lead us to this big vision and gold that we've said. Well, then we're just kind of in a hamster wheel going around and around and around. I think we all fall victim to this. I love my routine. I do. And why do I love my routine? Well, for one, it's effective. My routine promotes health through working out and proper nutrition. It promotes rest and sleep and recovery. It promotes me time and silence and solitude. It promotes time with family and work in a pretty good balance. But what else does it promote? Comfort. And while parts of my routine push me towards my goals to where I want to be, some parts of my routine hold me back. When is consistency a trap, blind repetition? It is doing the same thing without results and it's just noise. Consistency without a goal is useless. Stuck in the wrong path, sticking to a plan that isn't working or a mission that no longer serves you prevents growth. and it hinders adaptation or can hinder adaptation. Rigid routines can prevent innovation and adjustment to new challenges. Is your routine or is your consistency, I should say, a rigid routine that feels good because it's comfortable and is it preventing innovation? and adjustment to new challenges. So as powerful as consistency is, it can also be overrated if it's not applied correctly. And I believe that the most successful people, highly successful people, know how to leverage consistency so that it propels them forward towards their goals without holding them back and being stuck so it's a question to ask yourself because I can tell you from personal experience there have been times where I've been extremely consistent and it feels really good my health is in check my fitness is in check my sleep is in check my family is in check but I'm stuck and I'm not working towards this goal because the consistent routine that I am in is holding me back from adaptation and new challenge, but it feels really good. So I've found myself in this situation many times before. I'd love for you guys to challenge yourself and analyze your routines and your consistency to see if it's propelling you forward or if it's holding you back. Trait number four, highly successful people are focused. Coming off of the previous trait, consistency. Consistency and focus when combined are two necessary and powerful ingredients for overwhelming success. The question is, Do you want to be good or do you want to be great? Now, I previously mentioned it's better to be consistently good rather than occasionally great. But the consistently good rather than occasionally great here, that is in reference to the application of work and frequency of application. But in this context of which we're talking about, good versus great. We're talking about good and great as an objective measure of success an executional standard We should all strive to be great as an objective measure of success an executional standard But from the work that we do every day, the application and frequency of work, we got to be good day in and day out, day in and day out. But working towards greatness, A lot of good days stacked consistently lead to exceptional and great outcomes and success. How do successful people determine if they are focused? They get really good at identifying opportunities versus distractions. I had to learn this the hard way. And over the years, in the beginning of building BPN, we didn't have a lot of opportunities. So everything that was presented was an opportunity. But the bigger we became, the more people wanted to work with us, the more brands wanted to be involved, the more agencies that wanted to help and support. a lot of those which were once opportunities then became distractions. And the bigger we became, the more distractions were placed in front of us. So you'd be very careful because if you view every distraction as an opportunity, you're going to run yourself into the ground and you're going to spend all your time working on the wrong things. So here's one of the ways that I have found you can identify the difference between an opportunity and a distraction. And it's by clearly defining your vision. I've shared this many times on the podcast in this past year, but a vision is made up of three components, core values, purpose, and goals. your core values and your purpose. This can be for a business. It can be for a team. This can be for an individual or even a family. Your core values, what do you believe in? What do you value? What are your standards? Your core values and your purpose, why you exist, what you're aiming to achieve, your why. those shouldn't change more than once every 100 years. In your goals, for large businesses, goals are predefined as 10 to 15 year targets, but for an individual or teams or family, your goals could be 12 month goals. Core values, purpose, and goals. If you can clearly define these, and when I say clearly define, you think of it in your head, you write it down and you share it with whoever it is applicable to. Clearly defined means written or typed and printed and pasted somewhere so you see it all the time. Core values, purpose, and goals. Clearly defined, written down, and shared. Those three components make up your vision. So when things are presented to you, you can very easily and clearly identify if it's an opportunity or a distraction. If that thing does not align with your core values, it's a distraction. If that thing does not align with your purpose, it is a distraction. If that thing does not align with your goals, it is a distraction. So now you know what you say yes to and what you say no to. It's It's really easy once you clearly define your vision based off of your core values, your purpose, and your goals. Highly successful people have a clearly defined vision and they know very easily what's an opportunity and what's a distraction. Going back to How the Mighty Fall by Jim Collins, there's five stages, like I said, of decline. Stage one is the hubris born of success. And again, I highly recommend reading or listening to this book. Stage two, undisciplined pursuit of more. Stage three, denial of risk. Stage four, grasping for salvation. In stage five, it leads to irrelevant or death. If you get to stage five, it's really hard to climb back from that. What happens during these stages of decline in failing organizations? How the mighty fall. They start focusing on the what and the how as opposed to the why. this is how you clearly define between an opportunity or distraction and where most people become unfocused as they start focusing or thinking about or leading with the what or the how as opposed to the why why are we saying yes to this thing why are we saying no to this thing not how do we make it work and what do we have to do to make it work Why should we say yes? Why should we say no? And going back to that vision, core value, purpose, and goals. Does it align? If not, it's a distraction. Through some of this research, I came across what's called Packard's Law. Started by or identified by HP co-founder, David Packard. David Packard says, a great company is more likely to die of indigestion from too much opportunity than starvation from too little. A great company is more likely to die of indigestion from too much opportunity than starvation from too little. This reinforces stage two of how the mighty fall, undisciplined pursuit of more. Saying yes to every distraction and every opportunity. Being unfocused. Unfocused, taking on too much will bury you. You can't actually put the right amount of effort and intention to the things that are going to move the needle in your life because you're spending all this time on the things that aren't going to propel you forward. They're going to hold you back. part of Packard's law a company's revenue growth is ultimately limited by its ability to recruit develop entertain the right people to sustain that growth so the key principles of Packard's law which is all about you are leading your company to destruction if you pursue too much too much opportunity, too many key initiatives, too many new projects. That is more likely to bury you than not having enough to work on. Starvation from too little. The key principles from Packard's Law, people are the bottleneck. You can't grow revenue faster than you have trained and empowered capable people to handle it. You need the right people. Invest in capability. Build talent and systems before growth demands them, ensuring people understand the product and core values. Focus on A players. Attack and retain exceptional individuals who align with core values and deliver results. Isn't it amazing how important core values are and alignment between core values? And growth follows people. Sustainable great growth happens when disciplined people and disciplined thinking leads to disciplined action. Focus is disciplined people, disciplined thinking, and disciplined action. Discipline is focus. Again, I love this quote. More likely to die of indigestion from too much opportunity than starvation from too little. Successful people are focused and they spend the right amount of time on the right things. The right amount of time on the right things. Discipline, focus. And trait number five, successful people are adaptable and resilient. I'm sure you've heard this a million times before, but I want you to think of adaptability and resiliency in a different way because adaptability has a proactive and a reactive approach. Most people just think of adaptability in terms of the reactive approach. Something happens to you and the reactive approach or response is some sort of change. But highly successful people as they're looking into the future and they're backwards planning, there's a proactive approach to be adaptable. They see the changes that are happening before they even happened. So there's a preparation for anticipation of change. Yes, highly successful people are going to be faced with obstacles and adversity and change, and they have to make a decision on the fly. How are we going to respond and react in real time in response to this change. But more importantly, highly successful people, they see the change before it even happens. They are looking well into the future. They're following changes and they can anticipate it coming before it even does. It's one thing to be able to react and respond. It's another to be able to anticipate change based off of your just intuition and awareness. And that intuition and awareness just comes with time and repetition and effort. I was listening to another one of David Zandra's podcasts with Michael Dell. Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computers. And he said, I stood up and told the company, being Dell Computers, that five years from now, we will have a new competitor. And that new competitor is going to be in every business that we are in. And they're going to be faster, more efficient, and more capable. And they're going to put us out of business. And the only way that we're going to prevent that is by becoming that company. It's gut-wrenching stuff to reinvent and reimagine your business. but if you don't do it, you go out of business. This is the proactive adaptability and resiliency approach that I'm talking about. Looking five years into the future, where's the industry going? Where's product going? Where's service going? And what changes do we have to make right now for anticipation of that change to be prepared so that we don't go out of business. It's not responding and reacting in real time all the time. It's being proactive. There's a mindset shift that is required to be adaptable and resilient. Adaptability is not just how you respond to setbacks, obstacles, or disasters. It is how you respond and even welcome, welcome change. Highly successful people aren't afraid of change. Change breaks the brittle. Highly successful people welcome change. Because change makes things exciting. It puts you on the offense as opposed to the defense. You get to set the new trajectory to be a leader in the space and have others follow you. you have to set realistic expectations the landscape in which you are operating will probably look different next year it will certainly look different five years from now and in 10 years you might not even recognize where you are compared to where you started and that's okay the key reminder is you cannot become married to what now looks like because now is going to change. Just to be willing and able to be adaptable and resilient to that change and welcome change. Jeff Bezos has this day one mentality that I'm currently obsessed with. And this was part of his 1997 letter to shareholders. And it's a mindset and mentality that I've adopted and shared with the BPN team. And this is driving us into 2026. And I think it is so important, not just for business owners or entrepreneurs or founders. This day one mentality and mindset is important for you as an individual, as a partner, as a husband, as a wife, as a parent, as a friend, as a team member. This day one mentality is, it's grit, it's hunger, it's ambition. Whenever you start a new pursuit of a goal, there's this energy around it, right? You start a marathon prep. You're jacked up, you're excited. It's day one, it's week one. and then week two comes and week three comes and week four comes and that fire that's lit inside you, it dies a little bit. That grit, that ambition, that energy, it dies a little bit. It's a personal responsibility to maintain that fire. Find whatever you got to do to keep those logs in the fire, to keep it burning. you know it's a new year it's january 2026 there's a lot of people who say they want to change their life this next year gonna make massive change january people start working out they start eating healthier start reading self-help books they build in new rhythms and routines to change their life. But there's countless statistics that show that most of these people who start these new routines and habits don't last more than a couple of weeks, if that. It's sad. It's sad because it's self-sabotage. Because people switch from the day one mindset and mentality to a day two mindset and mentality. Day one, as Bezos said, is both a culture and an operating model that puts the customer at the center of everything Amazon does. The day one mentality is a philosophy emphasizing treating every day like the first day of a startup, focusing on obsessive customer attention, long-term vision, bold innovation, high-velocity decision-making, and resisting complacency to avoiding day two, which is decline in death. It means staying curious, nimble, and experimental, prioritizing outcomes over rigid processes, and constantly reinventing to stay relevant and customer-focused. day one versus day two. Day one focuses on customers. Day two focuses on internal challenges. Day two has a high quality, high velocity decision-making model. Day two, bureaucratic consensus-based decision-making model. Day one embraces failures. Day two fears failures. Day one, nimble organizational structures. Day two, deeply layered organizational structures. Day one, small teams who own what they create. Day two, large teams with many dependencies. Day one, prioritizes long-term sustained value. Day two, prioritizes immediate short-term value. This is not just applicable to businesses and founders. It's applicable to everyone. You got to keep that day one mindset and mentality burning. Think of those early days of BPN. Whatever it took. Wake up, fire burning inside. Keep that fire burning at whatever cost. Find a way. Because as soon as that fire starts to go out a little bit, turns into embers and ashes, you're cooked. You're toast. Day two mentality and mindset is complacency, which leads to decline and death. Challenge yourself. Be disciplined, committed, and consistent with your goals. And keep that day one mindset and mentality alive and burning. Keep that fire lit. because as soon as you succumb to a day two mindset mentality, you're off course. I can promise you that highly successful people find a way to maintain day one mindset and mentality. They keep that fire burning. So that's five traits of highly successful people and organizations. Hope you guys enjoyed this one. And as always, go on more.