Mark Bell's Power Project - MBSS EP. 35 - How To Take Risks & Stop Being A Pansy

Episode Date: January 1, 2022

Happy New Year and welcome back to Mark Bell's Saturday School! Today Mark explains how to take on risks responsibly, how to minimize risk and how he and his wife Andee risked a lot to build Sling Shot to what it is today. Special perks for our listeners below! ➢Vertical Diet Meals: https://verticaldiet.com/ Use code POWERPROJECT for free shipping and two free meals + a Kooler Sport when you order 16 meals or more! ➢Vuori Performance Apparel: Visit https://vuoriclothing.com/powerproject to automatically save 20% off your first order! ➢Magic Spoon Cereal: Visit https://www.magicspoon.com/powerproject to automatically save $5 off a variety pack! ➢8 Sleep: Visit https://www.eightsleep.com/powerproject to automatically save $150 off the Pod Pro! ➢Marek Health: https://marekhealth.com Use code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off ALL LABS! Also check out the Power Project Panel: https://marekhealth.com/powerproject Use code POWERPROJECT for $101 off! ➢LMNT Electrolytes: http://drinklmnt.com/powerproject ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $150 Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Subscribe to the Power Project Newsletter! ➢ https://bit.ly/2JvmXMb Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ https://www.facebook.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell ➢Mark Bell's Daily Workouts, Nutrition and More: https://www.markbell.com/ Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more ➢YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang ➢Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=en ➢TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nsimayinyang?lang=en Follow Andrew Zaragoza on all platforms ➢ https://direct.me/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

Nah. Yeah. All right. I don't remember the last time we did a Saturday school though. I don't know, but welcome class. Every record we hit the button. Yep. Classes in session. Class in session today and we might as well just dive right into it. What do you got for us today, Andrew? Yeah. Well, we were kind of chatting beforehand and, um, you know, well, this is coming out January 1st, 2022. That was hard to even say because I can't even figure out 2021 still. But, um, someone like me, if I see something that might be a risk, you know, low risk, low reward, doesn't matter, high risk, high reward, I'll look at it and I'll kind of tiptoe around it, poke around at it. Like, is that really a good thing? Like, I don't know what's going to happen if it doesn't work out.

You know, basically I'm a pansy when it comes to something that might not work out in my favor. Love that word. Good job. You get two extra points today for that teacher's pet what's up uh however like with the slingshot everything you guys have done here at you know super training and slingshot you know that there was definitely no roadmap for what you guys were doing there was no like oh what's the risk thing? You guys just had pretty much just risk with no idea of anything about reward. So how do you face a risk head on and like really just,

like I said, not be a pansy about it and just go all in and I don't know, I guess believe it's going to work out because so far it kind of has. And I guess maybe if you have any examples of things that didn't work out,

how you guys handled that. How much time you got, bro? We got all the time we need. All right. Well, so, yeah, there's a lot that can go into something like this to try to mitigate the amount of risk you're taking. Because, yeah, you don't want to get hurt. Like, you don't want to try a 500-pound squat when the most you've ever done was 315. It just doesn't make sense.

And you don't want to dive into a business that's going to cost 50K to start when you're just going paycheck to paycheck. You're like, I don't even know. Not only does it sound risky, but I don't even know how to start. I don't know where to even begin. know, not only does it sound risky, but I don't even know how to start. I don't know where to even begin. So let's just kind of back things way up, way, way, way up all the way to the point where we have to talk about a little bit about how you were raised and how you are currently. How you're raised, I think is really, really crucial because for me, I grew up with a mother that was so loving and so kind-hearted, and my grandmother was the same way.

My grandfather was a little harsher, but he was still really loving. I think I've told you before, he'd say, get over here and give me a kiss before I beat you. And he wasn't kidding. I mean, if you didn't go over and give him a kiss, and it was all out of love. He wasn't actually beating the shit out of you. He wasn't child abuse or anything. He'd just give you some slugs on the arm, you know what I mean?

Times were different. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or he'd say, get over here and give me a kiss before I give you like a bloody lip and stuff like that. So I always like to just kind of start out by saying like I had a great family upbringing. I don't think it was perfect. Just like any other family, there was stuff in there, but that wasn't great. But for the most part, it was pretty damn solid. And so I had maybe stronger legs to stand on. So I could look at other people and I could be like, man, that guy's a pussy. Why

didn't he make a decision and take a risk? But that's not really how it is. I was I was like fortified with a lot of confidence. And so I always like to point that out because where you're starting out and where I started out might be slightly different. But here's the thing. When it comes to taking on risks or when it comes to taking things head on, how do you take something head on if you're not something yourself? So I had a belief system in myself already because my mom and my dad were there for me. Like I told the story many times before, I thought I was dumb. I, you know, had just like a learning disability, had a lot of problems in school. And I thought that because I was like slow in school and maybe couldn't learn or, sorry, had trouble learning certain things, that I was like incapable, that I was incompetent like across the board.

Like this means that you're dumb. You can't do well in math in school and you have trouble with English and you write sloppier than everybody that you know. You have a hard time spelling. Okay, the writing's literally on the wall. You're dumb. You're stupid. You can't do A, B, and C like everyone else. So I thought that that was true. But even with that, my mom reassured me. She said to me, I remember a specific day I was doing some math with my dad and it was just taking me forever to get it. And he kept showing me over and over and over again.

It was like the fourth time through and usually like two, three times through something, you know, you get it wrong and then you kind of get it a little bit more right. And then the third time comes and like you get it and then you try something the fourth time on your own and you're like, oh shit, like I was able to do that, right? Not for me. It didn't work that way. I just kept getting it wrong, getting it wrong, getting it wrong all the way to the point where I got so confused by the fourth time. My dad was like, here's this equation or whatever. I was like, I'm not even, I'm not sure what the next step is. And my dad got upset, like not mad, but he kind of like just started to cry. And he's like,

Mark, he's like, he's like, I don't know any other way to explain this to you. And like, when he got sad, I was like, that hurt me. Then I was like, fuck, I don't know. I don't know why I'm not able to get this, you know, maybe it was my dad didn't have a great ability to show it the right way. Or maybe maybe literally I got some circuitry in my brain that's not wired well for that particular style of math. Did you already believe at that point that you weren't smart or was that just like the first time where you're like, fuck, I think they're right. Or maybe you believed in yourself that like, oh, maybe I'm, I am not smart. No, i already thought

i was dumb because i was put in like some special classes and stuff like that started like way early okay i just i wanted to preface it by like because i didn't want it to be like like oh this was that one moment where i noticed but there was multiple things coming in telling you that you were not smart okay yeah this is just like this is verification, you know, that I'm a dummy. And, you know, it's easy to joke about it now and to talk about it in that light because I can look back on it and think about how unreasonable it was. You know, like if we were all in gym class together and one kid struggled to do a high jump, you wouldn't say like this

kid's a loser, like this kid's, when it comes to education and when you're not smart, that's kind of what you think, especially back then because it's like high school and college and like that's the program and then you're a teacher, you're a doctor, you're a lawyer, you're whatever you could make yourself out to be. But it was always through this like vector of via school, you know, school piled on by more school. And then you end up getting a job based off of the type of school that you have. But for me, you know, I thought I was dumb. But for me, you know, I thought I was dumb. So there was in the back of my head as I got older, the recognition of this is connected with the rest of your life.

Remember that this goes on your permanent record, 10th grade, 11th grade, you know, these classes, these courses, this essay. And I still to this day don't know where that permanent record is or anything like that. And so on this particular day, this was, you know, kind of bringing the hammer down on some of the thoughts I had about myself. But Rosemary Bell comes to the rescue. And, you know, it's an amazing thing with my mother. Many know that she passed like about a year and a half ago. She was very overweight, had a hard time trying to figure out how to live a healthier life. She got kind of addicted to food and just couldn't move as much as she probably needed to and couldn't control her diet as much as she could. And so therefore, she died of a heart attack. Anyway, the amazing thing about her is she grew up with some real shitty circumstances, a lot of alcoholism, a lot of drug addiction in her family, and a lot of verbal abuse and even some physical abuse done to her, her brothers, and so on.

her brothers and so on. But somehow she had enough, she had enough of something in her to give belief and to give confidence to her children all the way to the point where me and my two brothers never did anything normal. Mike was trying to be a professional wrestler and he made it, did some WWF stuff, didn't make it to the level that he wanted, but he did very well. He also played division one football uh chris made bigger stronger faster along with other documentaries and i think the best is still yet to come from him and then there's me like who never also never had a regular job who figured some things out via the slingshot and some other uh fitness stuff but that day in particular stands out not because i was sad and not because my dad

got sad. It was my mother's reaction to it. And we'll talk about this in another future Saturday school. We've talked about how to handle, you know, bad news or a rough situation. And my mom was like, now that I look back at it, she was amazing. She was so amazing at these situations. Not for herself though. That's even more interesting for herself. She had a hard time figuring it out, but like for other people, she could be, uh, someone that could really be, uh, someone that's helpful in a really tough predicament. So anyway, my mom comes over and she goes to hell with this homework, you know, and she closed the book and like shoves the, shoves the book into my backpack. And, uh, she's like, you know, she's like these

teachers, they, they got this one way of teaching you and stuff. And she's like, so what you, you're not that good at math. She's like, I'm not that good at, she listed out a bunch of stuff. She's not that good at, she's like, I'm way bigger than I should be. I'm way heavier. Like, you know, I, I, I know I should eat better. I know what to eat. I know I should exercise. I don't do any of those things. She's like, I kind of fail at it all the time. And she's like, and I even have the knowledge to do it and I'm still not doing it. She's like, in this case, she's like, you're really struggling with this. And this is just something that maybe it's just not for you. Maybe you're just not that interested. Maybe you don't love it.

Maybe, you know, or maybe you just truthfully have a hard time learning it. But then she was like, what happens when you're on the playground and you race your friends? She's like, what happens then? And I was like, oh, I usually win. You know, I usually beat almost all of my friends. I was pretty fast. She's like, what about when you do like pull-ups and what about when you do like pushups? I was like, oh yeah, I always kick everyone's ass on that too. I think I was doing like maybe even a little bit of lifting at the time, even though it was only like sixth grade

or something like that. You know, she's like, what if you work out with your friends? I was like, oh yeah, I destroy them in that too. It just didn't matter what she brought up because she was bringing up stuff that was physical, sports type stuff. She's like, you're better than all your friends at football. You're faster than them. You're stronger than them. She's like,

maybe those things will be your thing. Maybe that's your gift. Maybe that's what you'll be good at. That kind of stuff, it grounded me and gave me a lot of confidence. Okay, you're not good over here. That kind of sucks and that hurts, but maybe someday I'll be able to figure out enough to where I'm not so inadequate at it that people don't screw me over on prices't want to be, you don't want to be too deficient in math because you can get, someone could kind of work you over a bit. So I was very fortunate. I had some confidence from mom and that I had some physical capabilities,

but the whole point in bringing this long winded thing is to get to this next point. And that is, if you don't do something, you can't be something. And if you're not something, it's going to be very hard to be confident in yourself. You have to be something and you have to believe in yourself. The belief in yourself is going to be, it's probably the greatest thing that you can ever learn. And it's probably the greatest thing that you can ever pass on. You know, when someone talks about like legacy, like, what would you like to pass on to

your children? You know, it's not money. It's not, it's not cars, not houses. It's not, it's not property. It's not, you know, some nifty quote or something like that. It's literally, I hope that they see that their mother and their father had enough confidence in themselves to virtually do just about anything that we wanted to set our mind to and actually do. And I hope that we pass that along to them to where they feel that strongly and they feel that good about themselves. There's nothing better than being confident about yourself. There's nothing better than like somebody brings something up and that's like your wheelhouse, that's your jam. And then you're just like licking your chops and you can't wait to talk about it or you can't wait. Somebody's talking at a party about DJing and doing something and you know that game real well. And you're like, oh, this is my,

you know, like I'm actually going to show them my turntables. I'm going to show them my shit right here. Or someone's like, yo, you want to play some pool and you can just smoke everybody. And like, it feels so good to be able to crush somebody in something, not so much crush them, but just the fact that you're very competent in it. And maybe even it's something where you're showing other people. Like Andrew, you mentioned this to me before when you've had family members over the house, you're like, hey, let's go work out because you have weights at your house

and you start showing your cousins and other relatives how to work out. You're like, maybe I don't know how to sell insurance like cousin so-and-so, or maybe I don't know as much about muscle cars as my brother-in-law, but maybe I don't know as much about muscle cars as my, you know, brother-in-law, but fuck man, when it comes to weights, this is my, this is my time to shine. So then is, um, I guess minimizing the risks or not minimizing the risk, but I guess minimizing the,

the, the fear of it. Does that just come from the confidence? Absolutely. Okay, so the more confidence, the easier that risk will appear. Yeah, because your perception of it will be different. And I would say the same thing is true with trying to handle a bad situation. The stronger that you have built yourself to be, the more resilient you've built yourself to be, the more resilient you've built yourself to be from a physical and emotional standpoint, you need emotional intelligence. If you have emotional intelligence,

when somebody gives you really bad news, you still might cry. You still might be super upset. Like you might, but what's the next thing going to be? What's the next reaction going to be? And that's where it's like, if I'm thinking about risk, how easy, like anybody that you know, including like a little kid who's like seven years old, anybody that you know can point out five, six, seven problems right off the bat with anything

that you're about to do. You could come in here and you could be like, you know what, guys, I'm super pumped. I've always loved basketball, and I decided I'm going to do a bunch of pickup games of basketball. Well, it would be really easy for us to be like, dude, what about your ankle? Andrew, your back is always bothering. Holy shit, man, you're going to play in a league? Is this other guys that are intermediate and new to it? Or are you like trying to like kill yourself? Like, Oh my God, you sound like my head.

Yeah. Right. You sound like all the thoughts in my head. Yeah. Those are the thoughts that go through your head. But instead of that conversation, maybe it's like, well, it'd be great if I was a little bit more confident in basketball. So step one for me to go randomly start playing basketball out of nowhere, I should at least shoot some hoops here and there. Then maybe you start thinking, oh, my buddy so-and-so, he goes all the time. I'll go with him. And then maybe you play one-on-one with him a bit and maybe that goes pretty good and you find out your ankles are holding up, your back's holding up. And then maybe you go and you start doing it.

But there would be some sort of preparation for it so that your jump off point isn't after you've already fallen into the pit of alligators. We watched the classic movie, We are the millers you remember that one of course i love that movie i actually sat down to watch it all the way through like i've never cocked down black cock down it's a skateboard it was totally a black cock it had balls in the head and like pubes and everything but he he was uh when he had that like heart-to-heart moment with the kid like that's a good right before he started kissing his sister and his mom.

Because he failed. He chickened out on kissing the girl. But he was just like, you got to count to three. And he's like, what do you mean? He's like, because if you do it after counting to three, he's like, you don't overthink it. You know, if you think too long, you're not going to do it. And that sort of thing. Have you ever, I don't know, have you ever suggested something like that? Like not overthinking it? Like, Hey, if you got an idea,

like just go for it. Don't even think about it. So I refer to this as like unflinching discipline and I'll explain that in a moment, but people should just seriously go look some of this stuff up from Mel Robbins, a female on, she's all over YouTube and stuff. And she just has some really wonderful ideas, but she talks about how she was kind of, she was just depressed. She was like, wasn't in a good frame of mind. She wasn't a good wife. She wasn't a good mother, I believe is what is her words. And it wasn't like she was some crappy person. She just was like down the dumps about herself and she couldn't really follow through on anything. And she used to be the person that would hit the snooze button all the time. And then I don't know if this was something that

was recommended to her by someone else or if it was just something that popped in her head, but it was that exact thing that you just said. And maybe this is just an old like adage or something. Maybe this is something that's been around. She would just go three, two, one, and she'd just set herself into action. So once she did that countdown, she was like, it's on. I know I'm getting up, and I know that I'm going to do the shit that I'm supposed to do. Was she the five-second rule? Or maybe it's five seconds. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, sorry. Yeah, no, thank you actually for pointing that out. Yeah, she's got the five- second thing, I believe it is. I actually think that that is amazing, but I know for myself that the moment that conflict arises, the conflict is probably going to win. You know, if I wake up with the idea that I'm going to fast or if I'm going to bed and saying,

okay, we're going to fast, you know, tomorrow until 2 p.m. and, you know, any sort of conflict arises, I smell bacon. My wife's cooking bacon. I'm done. I'm probably done. Unless, you know, right as I smell the bacon, like I go, no, no, no, no. Remember you're fasting, you know? And so distract yourself, maybe take a shower, do a bunch of other stuff before you step foot in the kitchen. Maybe I put my workout clothes on and just say, you know what, just walk right the fuck out of the house. Like, don't even go to the kitchen, text my wife and say, Hey, I'm out. I'll see you later. I didn't want to eat the bacon. Like she'll understand. Yeah. She'll understand, you know? Um, so just unflinching discipline to me is about, um, diving into

something before that negative thought comes in. It's really easy to wake up in the morning and think to yourself, like you were planning on running, you were planning on going for a walk, or you were planning to lift some weights first thing in the a.m. And that little thing of conflict comes in where it's like, well, you have a podcast later today or for somebody else. You got work later today. And, you know, like, I don't know, you're, you're like, uh, shit, I didn't prep my meals the way I was supposed to. Like I should probably take my time to prep my meals. And so instead of doing the shit that you wanted to do, that you were supposed to do,

you prepped your meals, which is good. Then you went to work, you ate some of your prep stuff at work and you got through the day. But then now you're looking at the clock and you were planning on working out after work because you didn't work out before work. It's 4 p.m. You realize that, shit, you're like, I'm going to be here for at least another two hours. You're not going to work out at that point. You're tired. You're fatigued. You're beat up from the day, and the diet that you were supposed to stay on is now gone because you're getting home later. You're hungrier than you're supposed to. So you just get way behind. It's, it's a much better feeling to have unflinching discipline. And to, there are

some people that actually believe that, um, from like a, from a standpoint of like somebody like an Andrew Huberman, if you were to ask him where does like thought begin? I think, and I don't know, but I think that somebody like him, a professor of, I think it's like neurology or whatever the hell he's a professor of, some of these academic type people would say that, well, thinking occurs when conflict arises. And so my thought process on that to combat it is to just not even before the conflict ever even pops up, you're already on your way. And then I mentioned this before too, my cousin, Stacy, she goes to bed

like in her sweatpants and her socks and she's like ready to like run for the next morning. She has most of her stuff on, she has stuff laid out. Again, laying stuff out the day before can be something that's gonna just make a lot less hurdles. The other thing you want to do is you want to, any obstacles that are in your way of you doing what you want to do, you want to try to eliminate as many of those as you can so there's less friction, there's less resistance, there's less conflict, and you're able just to go and do the thing that you wanted to do.

Yeah, that friction, that's that atomic habits. yeah yeah i was just checking out a summary of it i still haven't read it i'm going to uh wanted to go back a little bit um because you know you're saying that you've never had a real job i know you're working at sharkies where you met your wife and um you know chris bell went to usc and i don't think after that he's ever really had a serious like a normal clock in and out job. Same thing with Mad Dog, except for when he was working with your dad. That's quite phenomenal. I never even stopped and thought about that. All three of you did some amazing shit.

I know, like you said, Mad Dog didn't make it to where he wanted to, but you can watch him on WWF. Yeah. I mean, how many people? Hey, Russell, The Undertaker, Bret Hart, and Owen Hart. Yeah. I mean, how many people... Hey, Russell the Undertaker. Dude. Brett Hart and Owen Hart. Yeah. Yeah, you know, like, I mean, that's one in a life,

once in a lifetime opportunity without having any... The thing that people get held up on when it comes to taking a risk, starting a business or doing whatever it is on the side or a new venture is like,

fuck, how am I going to make money doing this? How much, like, belief did you guys have that it was going to work out like how does belief actually play into all of this because i'm thinking like fuck how are you guys living in socal and you know you know you you're uh i guess um uh working at sharkies right you're you're uh what is it called that you're um bouncer you're a bouncer sorry i, I kept thinking bartender. Yeah. I can't really pay that much. So like, how the hell does this all work out? Yeah, Sharky's actually paid pretty well.

I mean, when you live in LA, most of the jobs that you get, they have to pay pretty well because the cost of living is through the roof, you know? So I want to say like, we sometimes would make around 20 bucks an hour. Oh, shit. And you could work a lot because the place was packed every day. Even during the day you could work, which was weird

because you wouldn't think you would need a bouncer there. But they just always wanted the place safe, and they didn't want the place to ever be. And then plus I would also help clean up and do a bunch of other stuff other than just like, sit there and check IDs and stuff. And Sharky's in particular, the type of license that they had, I believe, I think it's different now. But back then you couldn't even have kids there. You couldn't. So like, even though people would come during the day, it was like no one under 21 under any circumstances. So you really had to ID

people kind of, you needed somebody checking that kind of stuff all day. So I could work a lot. I could make a decent amount of money. You're right. It wasn't a lot. Um, but my brother and I lived together. We shared some costs together and, uh, and that was really helpful. And just to be totally transparent, like my parents helped with some stuff as well. There was times where we just were flat broken and we needed a little bit of help here and there. But by that time where your parents, they weren't like that IBM money wasn't coming in anymore. No, yeah, my parents didn't have much either. So there wasn't much more, there wasn't a lot of help in that direction either. But I've always recognized that there was always going to be something to lifting,

and I never did make any money at it. I spent hours and hours and hours and years and years and years of lifting without getting anything from it other than a better physique or getting a little stronger. So I think that sometimes some of the stuff that you do, you might have to kind of recognize that you're not always going to get the exact reward from it, or it might not ever work out that you ever get the thing that you were looking for from it, but you should get something out of it. And you can look back and you can even think of the different jobs that

you had or different things that you had where there was actually money. There's a financial transaction there and that might've been pretty good, but the job sucked. But it's like, you still got a lot out of that. I know with your previous job experience, like you got a lot out of that job, even if it was just knowing, just having more knowledge towards, I don't ever want to do anything like that again. But I'll tell you something that's interesting though, is that from a confidence standpoint, even though you don't want to do that, you know that you could do that if you had to, if things were pressed, if just the economy tanked and things got weird and like the only jobs that were available were state jobs or these kind of

freaking 9 to 5 bullshit things. Data entry. Yeah, you could, you've done it before. You know what it's like to show up to work on time all the time. You know what it's like to only have X amount of sick days. You know what it's like to, it's a Monday through Friday all the time

unless there's like a holiday. Like you know what it's like to it's a monday through friday all the time uh unless there's like a holiday like you you know how to play that game already and a lot of people haven't like i actually don't even i don't think i could even do that like literally it'd be really like i i just fuck man i i would get fired i don't think i could ever do it now though um but but you are right like i can endure it i i know the game. I know exactly how it's played. And there is that. And I'm actually talking to a buddy of mine who wants to dive into photography full time

because he's telling me he hates his job. And I'm just like, bro, like that job's going to always be there. Yeah. I was like, and you can do it better than most. So like you're kind of okay. But I also tell him like, hey, there's no shame in working your passion part-time right now while you're getting paid full-time. And that's the key. And that's a really awesome point.

I'm glad you kind of brought this one up because I've said this many times before. As you're working on your fortune, you need to be making some money to pay for your lifestyle right now, you know, for your current lifestyle. And when I say fortune, I don't really mean like that you're trying to like, you know, make crazy amount of money. I just mean that it's like a fortune that you're fortunate to be doing this photography job that you've always wanted to do. And then like I would say this. you've always wanted to do. And then like, I would say this, I would say that like, and I don't know how many people would trade this out, but like, and obviously the amount of money would, would matter a lot, but say you went from 75 K to like, you went from 75 K down to like, maybe 40, right? 75 K. Like that sounds pretty good. It sounds like a reasonable amount of money to be

making nowadays. And you go down to 40, but the 40,000 that you're making is you pursuing something that you really truly love. Now, there could be people like, man, I can't you know I just I can't make that leap I just man I'd really love to but I just I just can't do it and I would say that like in most cases you can't afford not to do it because you're going to I mean you got to be you got to you want to do photography and you think that you're going to be good at it like like, fuck man, prove that you have this, you know, value. And maybe that's, maybe that's a job with one company, but maybe you can pick up some other side hustle. Or I think the thing that people miss is that when you go from that 75 K, you are spending so much time working for somebody else and putting money in somebody else's pocket all the time. And then

you don't have time for your family. You don't have time for your friends. Going down to that 40, it might hurt a while. You and your family might have to make some adjustments, but do your best to get on some sort of hustle. And also with the employer that you have, be very upfront with them. Say, hey, you did that when you came here. I'm taking a pay cut, but I'm coming here because this looks legit. This looks fucking cool. I am really pumped to be here. And then rather than asking for more money, say, I'm going to provide so much value to you that you're going to want to pay me more.

You're going to say, hey, this is it. You have that kind of attitude with somebody, they're not going to be to pay me more. You're going to say, hey, this is it. You have that kind of attitude with somebody, they're not going to be turned off by it. They're going to be like, this is Tom Brady, when he got selected by the Patriots. He went up to Robert Kraft on the first day that they met, shook his hand, and he said, I'm going to be the best decision that you ever made.

And there you go, confidence, belief system. How does Tom Brady have that belief system in himself? He kept getting like jerked around when he was at Michigan. How does he have that belief in himself? Are you kidding me? The amount of money that he put in the pockets of anyone that had anything to do with the New England Patriots organization from the time he started until still now. Shit, man. He's put a lot of money in a lot of people's pockets and including himself

because he, he bet on himself. Ultimately. It's incredible. That's yeah, dude, that's amazing. I don't have any other follow-up questions. I don't know if you have anything else brewing in your head. Yeah, I do. So when I was at some family stuff this past weekend, you know, during Christmas time, which was amazing.

We had like 30 people in our house and it was amazing. We invited Andre and his girlfriend to our Christmas Eve party. And it was a lot of fun. And there's, you know, Andre in his Iron Maiden shirt just sitting there in front of a giant plate of cheese. Nobody having the ability to be like, excuse me. No.

They just... And you can't reach around him. No, he's fucking massive. But it was amazing having him there. But I got in some conversation with some relatives, and one relative was talking about their son playing baseball, and they were super excited. And the kid's like 15, 16 years old.

And they were really proud of him. He's in this camp, and he's doing well, and he's smashing a ball. And we were talking about how it's kind of hard to read a kid it's hard to tell like what they're like how into this are they you know does he want to take it to the next level like should he go not should he but will he start to like lift weights and and start to employ some nutrition so he can really kick ass in baseball to the greatest degree. And does he kind of know that like baseball is like a thing for him? Or is he just kind of playing it the way Jake currently plays the guitar? Jake just kind of riffs on the guitar here and there.

He's got no aspirations of like this is going to be, you know, I'm going to start the next Metallica. Like he doesn't think that way. He's not actively pursuing that. He just jams on it here and there. So maybe for this kid, maybe baseball is a little bit that way. And maybe he learns a lot from being on a team and from playing a sport and all the cool things that go along with all that. But as we got in conversation, I was just saying, you know what? I just think it's so cool that some of these kids have these things that like I would view as being a little bit like lifting weights

was to me when I was a kid. It like kept me out of trouble. And so we were kind of going back and forth and back and forth. And I said, you know what? I said, I always knew from like literally from as soon as I, as soon as like, as soon as I felt strong, as soon as I gained confidence, felt stronger than some of my friends around me. I said, I always knew that lifting would turn into something. And the person I was talking to just stopped dead in their tracks.

And they were like, what? They're like, you knew? I was like, I have always known. Me and my brothers always knew that something big was going to happen. And you do hear that from a lot of people. Like, this band's going to be sick. Like, one day we're going to have these kids playing in eighth grade or whatever.

And sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. But we had a very strong belief system that we didn't know why, but whatever was going on with lifting weights, it was going to become a thing. Something was going to happen with it. it was going to become a thing. Something was going to happen with it. And so I didn't even realize how, I didn't realize that that was so different until she was like, like, really? Like you knew that was a thing?

And I was like, yeah, we've always known it was going to turn into a thing. So fast forward many, many, many years later, I power lift, you know, I crush a lot of big weights and power lifting, 1080 squat, 854 bench, 766 deadlift, break some all-time world records in a couple different federations and have some really good success in power lifting. I coach other people in power lifting. I bring other people up who are stronger than me in my own gym. I didn't have the strongest squat.

I didn't have the strongest bench. I didn't have the strongest deadlift. So I had some proof that some of the things that I was doing for myself worked really well. And some of the things I shared with other people worked really well. That gave me a ton of confidence. Like I know what the fuck I'm doing. Maybe blind, you know? Maybe blind confidence.

Like, these other people don't know what the fuck they're doing. I know what I'm doing, you know? And especially at that age that I was, I was more cocky and a little bit more of like, I just didn't care. I didn't give a fuck about really much of anything. And so when the idea of the slingshot was dancing around in my head, you would think with that amount of confidence that there would be zero self-doubt, but there

still was a ton of self-doubt. I was told the idea was bad many, many times. So that seed was planted, but go back to my history. That's why I've been telling this long ass story forever. But go back to my history. That's why I've been telling this long ass story forever. I bought the story that I was dumb. This time around, I'm like, I ain't buying that shit. My idea is not dumb. It's not stupid.

There might be some holes in it. I might have to think it through a little bit better. But I know that it's a good idea. Now, the thing is, when you're talking about taking a risk, one of the things to ask yourself is, are you still going to be that pumped about this risk in a couple of years, three years, five years? You have this idea to make this like low carb protein bar, right?

Is your diet, you know, is your, are your ideas of dieting going to change? Cause they do, right? Like a lot of our ideas and a lot of things change over the years. Um, are you going to be as excited to make that bar three years from now? You got to like, you got to like want to die making that fucking protein bar. Like if that's the thing that you're going to, like Ron Penna has done, who's one of the original founders and co-owners, was a co-owner of Quest Nutrition, which ended up selling for like a billion dollars. I mean, you got to roll with all the good that comes with it and you got to roll with all the bad that comes with it. And he's had his fair share of all of that in that process. Am I going to be as excited about this slingshot thing? You know,

this rubber band thingy that goes across your chest that's for bench press and pushups and dips and stuff like that. And the answer for me was fuck yeah, because you're always going to, I love fitness. I always have. I always, there will never be a time where I don't love some aspect of me either lifting myself or sharing information to get other people excited to do literally any kind of exercise, but mainly lifting. Like I love lifting and I, just like anybody else, my fitness wavers here and there. Like there's times where I'm training way more intense than others. There's times where I'm training way heavier than others.

There's times where I take it more serious than others. But I worked out this morning. I will always love it. So when the idea came around of this slingshot stuff, it wasn't a matter of like should I do it, shouldn't I do it. Like my wife and I were like losing our house. Like there was no, it wasn't other good options. As I pointed out earlier, I wasn't going to go on and be a mathematician. You know, as Rocky says, Rocky says in Rocky one, when he's talking to Adrian, he's like,

I never knew how to do anything else. He's like, I don't know how to sing or dance. So I fight, you know, and I feel that way too. I don't know how to sing or dance, so I fight. And I feel that way too. I don't know how to sing or dance or I don't know how to fix a car. I barely know how to change a light bulb. I can cook some scrambled eggs and cook some meat. I know a little bit of stuff, but I don't really know a ton aside from lifting. I'm obsessed with it.

I love it. My nephews and stuff like that, they'll ask me all kinds of questions, just like little kids ask adults questions. And I think this is also like a pretty good trait that I have. I won't really say I know something if I don't actually know it. They'll ask some pretty, they're pretty smart kids. They'll ask some pretty cool questions, but I'll always tell them, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. And they would, they'll make fun of me. They'll be like, do you know anything? I was like, when it comes to nutrition and it comes to training, I know a lot. Comes to anything outside of that. I mean, I can speculate and I'm not a dummy. I've been around some really smart

people. And so I've learned a lot of things over the years, but I'm not a dummy. I've been around some really smart people. And so I've learned a lot of things over the years, but I'm not going to be the guy that is going to tell you I definitively know much of anything, uh, unless it comes to like weight room stuff. And so, or gym stuff. And so when, when the slingshot idea came around, it was just like my mission to push the thing forward. Self-doubt creeped in once, self-doubt creeped in twice, self-doubt creeped in three times, self-doubt creeped in a fourth time. I went to a bunch of different companies. You can think of any of the companies that make powerlifting stuff right now. I asked all of them. stuff right now. I asked all of them. One of them claimed they already made something like that a million years ago. The others were like, we don't even understand why anybody would want to

buy that because we have bench shirts and we don't think there's any, you can't, you know, you can't make money off of powerlifting. And I'm like, why not? Powerlifters are obsessed with powerlifting. And I think they would love to have t-shirts that actually fit them. And I'm like, why not? Power lifters are obsessed with power lifting. And I think they would love to have t-shirts that actually fit them. And I think they fucking, they wear, they have a whole gym bag full of equipment. What are you talking about? They're not going to buy anything. They'll spend $800 on a good, a good power lifting bar. I mean, sounds like they don't mind, don't mind forking over some money for some of these things. And so it was about the fourth time.

You got to keep in mind that the idea, I had the idea for probably about three or four years. And I pitched it, but I was lazy though. I was really lazy with it. I wanted somebody else to come along and like do the work. Hey, I have this idea, but I'm not actually going to make it, so can you make it for me? No one wants to do that. Plus, those people,

they're not going to be as passionate about it as you are. Then I asked another company, another company. It would have been totally different if I would have made the product and then shipped it to any of these companies. They would have said, fuck and then shipped it to any of these companies, they would have said, fuck yeah, this is great. I'm hopping on this train and Mark, you get 40%. They're going to be the major owner of it or whatever. And everything would have been so different for me. I wouldn't have been able to make a living off it probably, truthfully.

made, I wouldn't have been able to make a living off it probably truthfully. Right. And so the last time that I got kind of turned away, I kind of was finally like, all right, I asked a bunch of people, my dad, who's like my number one fan, he doesn't really kind of get it. Um, my parents don't really get it. They're supportive of it, but they don't really get it. And I was just like, you know, if I'm going to make this thing, I got to really, you know, I got to really probably search within myself to figure out how to get this damn thing made. But before I even got to that point, I already halfway gave up on it. And that's when my oldest brother, Mike, died. You keep in mind, Mike, mad dog, he showed me how to lift.

died. And you keep in mind, Mike, mad dog, he showed me how to lift. He was like a childhood hero and, and like, uh, like a legend in our, as funny as it is kind of, it's like an Al Bundy of our area, you know? And, uh, not everybody loved him, but everybody, um, admired him. He was the town badass. He was the town tough guy. And anytime his name was mentioned, people would be like, like people would be kind of like nervous. They'd be like, oh shit, that guy will kick your ass, you know? And so, yeah, when he died, it was a huge blow to me and my family. But I just kind of recognized, you know, life is short. My brother never took any shit from

anybody. He wouldn't let anybody tell him what to do. He wouldn't let anybody tell him what's a good idea or a bad idea. He would just forge forward with it because he was just like a bulldozer, you know? And so I was like, I need to take that characteristic on and stop being such a pussy about everything. And I am going to make that idea because I know that he had a lot of things in his heart and he had a lot of things that he wanted to get out. And because he was bipolar and because he struggled with drugs, he could never really get them out. I'm like, that kind of sucks because he was a unique person. And I'm like, you know what? I have some cool shit

too. And I, I want to, I want to share this with people. And so I just pushed forward and ended up just like making it happen. And it wasn't, it wasn't like, I don't, I didn't know like a manufacturer that could make them. Uh, I looked them up on my phone in a Starbucks, might've been even an iPad. Um, I looked up a manufacturer that made knee wrap style material. I then contacted, uh, my wife's friend who sewed up, uh, stuff for, uh, swimming for the swimsuits that they, they wore during swim practice, because my wife's been a swimmer her whole life. She sewed together this knee wrap material, and we had the kind of the first iteration of a slingshot. I went and used it. I loved it. I was like, this is already it.

I don't even really need other prototypes. I tried another manufacturer or two. It didn't quite work out the way that I thought it would. Those were shitty versions of it. And then it took, from the time that I had it made by my wife's friend until the time I sold it, it was probably only like a year's time. So from the idea, from the original idea,

like being thought of, it was years ago, but from me putting it into action and me actually having slingshots to sell, um, that was about a year and it only cost about, I think it was around 4,000 bucks, which for somebody with no money, fucking $4,000 is a lot. And so that was a lot for me to spend at that time. My first mistake cost me about $600 because I ordered some that just didn't work and the communication was bad.

But I'm sorry. So it wasn't $4,000. It was 4,000 slingshots, and it was more like $20,000. So it was two different payments of like 10K or something like that that we did. And most people, if you're resourceful, and you talk to family members and you got friends and stuff, I mean, I know a lot of people are like, I don't know anybody with any,

you know, but a lot of times people want to help people. And a lot of times people in your family, especially, especially older people, like if someone came to me and they're like, Hey, you know, I need like five grand to like do this thing. I would want them to explain to me and they're like, hey, you know, I need like five grand to like do this thing. I would want them to explain to me what it is they got. I would want, I would want them to kind of show me that they have some resilience and that they're going to like push forward this thing. But I'd be like, yeah, dude, like good luck. I, I wish you the best. You don't even got to pay me back. You know, like most people have somebody in their family that has a little extra or has a friend or whatever way you got to be resourceful. I mean, nowadays people do like GoFundMe and there's all kinds of startup ways of doing

things too. So the excuse of like not having any money and I didn't need to order that many of them. I was just super confident they would sell. So I didn't have to spend 20K. I could have probably gotten away with spending like two, like 2000 bucks. So sometimes some of the ideas people have cost a lot more than that. Uh, and that makes it more difficult. But again, um, you have to be earning some sort of paycheck, making some money to, to, uh, keep your current lifestyle as you're working

towards whatever that future fortune idea concept dream is that you have. Really quick, you had said something, blind confidence. Back when you're kind of coming up, you're able to develop stronger lifters. You able to get strong yourself you're like i'm better than everybody else the answer is we'll delete all the fucking apps but in today's age anybody can see anybody that's bigger stronger faster smarter than they are right now do you think you can develop or have that blind confidence in today's day and age yeah be a little bit harder. But what I would kind of say to that is something that I learned in professional wrestling was there's only so many different ways

to do a professional wrestling match. But it's like, it's not so much about your actual attributes necessarily, but you can still do stuff better or you could still work a little harder than other people. So while somebody might have an advantage because they're like just stronger, they're better built, they can do these things in a different way. When I was wrestling, we would watch on the monitor, we'd watch other people wrestle and like, okay, well that guy, he worked

the arm, you know, like you'll see the guy will like beat up the left arm the whole time. It's always left side. Or you see the next guy does like the left leg. You see the next guy does, cause it's just like these common themes. There's many different ways to do these things, but the next guy is working someone's back or neck. And you had in your head, you were like, Oh, I was going to have, I was going to do a lot of stuff to the guy's back and then have the guy make a comeback or whatever. If you do stuff better than other people or you have it doesn't even have to be necessarily just like better like meaning like it doesn't have to be that you're more skilled than them as a professional wrestler maybe you're just more animated people won't even they won't even remember that other guy's match if you go out there and have a lot of energy.

And it's clear that you've been working a lot on yourself. You're not getting tired and shit like that. And so I would say that still today, regardless of who's doing what, and it is hard, I do think it's more important to be somebody that is a supplier of information rather than just a consumer. And I would be kind of cautious and careful of where you're consuming stuff from and

how you're consuming it. I would view Instagram and TikTok as forms of entertainment and maybe even kind of in the junk food category in some sense, especially, I mean, at least what's in my feed, it's kind of junk. You know, I don't have, when I go on YouTube, it's always like learn something that I feel is going to benefit me and benefit our audience. When I'm on TikTok and Instagram, it's pretty much just pure garbage. It's not necessarily garbage, I'm following some friends and stuff like that too, but I think you guys know what I mean. There's just a lot of stuff in there that's not really productive. I am looking at other people's stuff that have really cool things. And I, because some of my friends have some of those things. And those things can be, those things can be intimidating.

But to kind of answer the question, I think it's one of the greatest quotes that I ever had or ever heard was shared to me by my father. He said, part of knowing who you are is knowing who you're not is very important that when you look at instagram and you look at some of these things that other people are doing and you go wow that's crazy like somebody will have like a couple million views on something uh and you're and and they're in like a private jet or some shit and you're like, holy shit, I don't get any of it. I've never had a couple million likes on something.

I've never had 30,000 comments on something. I've never, I don't know what it's like to own a private jet. This is fucking wild. The key ingredient there is the way to look at that is with a different perception. Okay, that's them. That's their lifestyle. And my lifestyle is quite different. And if it's something that you want to work your way towards, I think there's probably people you can communicate with to sort of figure those things out. There used to be seven degrees of

separation between people. And now there's like maybe one or two. Because you can, Jake Paul or some of these people, you can probably DM them or make a post or there's probably a way. Maybe he's too high up, but I bet you might be able to reach the second best guy or the third best guy, and you can communicate with these people. guy and you can communicate with these people. If you have like anxiety over how people are crushing it so in a, such a crazy way on social media, get off of the social media and investigate how those people are doing it. And you can do that by Google searching, by using YouTube, using other search algorithms or other searching engines. There you go. And you'll be shocked at how much stuff you can find

on how to build an audience, how to build up social media. Russell was just telling me, should I forget the guy's name, but he was just telling me how this guy put out a one-hour video on, Jesus Christ, what's that guy's name? He he was just telling me how this guy put out a one hour video on, um, Jesus Christ, what's that guy's name? He was just saying how this guy put out a one hour YouTube video.

This guy helps run one of the bigger YouTube channels and it just explained everything. So someone has something that you want or you see something that you like. First thing, first order of business is to say, there's a jealousy is not something that's really going to help, not really helpful. But you could say, I wonder why I'm feeling jealous in this situation. Like maybe that is something,

like, do I really want that? Because like, you probably actually don't. You probably actually don't want exactly what they have. You probably want a stable relationship. You probably don't want, you know, some of these things they have, like Dan Bazarian or Bazarian, however you say his name, you know, some of these people, they got these amazing, you know, women around them, they have cool stuff, but go and talk to that guy,

you know, or go and listen to that guy. He's got the same problems as all the rest of us do. Everyone's just trying to figure their shit out. It doesn't matter how much money you have or how many women are around you. You can have unlimited access to anything. And you still are going to struggle with your day-to-day if you're not doing something,

you're not going to be something. And so any of these people at any time can fall into, I mean, just pick up a couple of magazines at the grocery store and you'll see this person got divorced to this person because this person cheated with this person. And it's all just celebrity stuff. And this person has been depressed for the last 13 years, and no one ever even really realized it, and now they're in rehab, and it's like, oh, wow,

these same stories exist on the street that I live on. You might just live on some normal street. So it's easy to kind of look at what other people have and to admire it. But just as I pointed out earlier, one of the easiest things someone can do is point out all the negative things that can come from you having these hopes and dreams of putting something into action. So, you know, don't, you got to just, you got to focus in on the quality things that

you can do to make a difference in your day-to-day. And sometimes it's as simple as getting out for a walk, getting some sunlight, listening to a podcast. You got to try to learn every day and grow. And we can go on and on forever with this kind of topic. But the thing that has helped me the most to be able to take risks of doing things like starting a new supplement company, starting a podcast, starting a magazine company, starting different YouTube channels, any of these things has been just turning myself into something that I was proud of. And then I'm like, I'm proud of what I'm doing, and now I'm going to share it. And that's why sometimes it might come off as being cocky or people might not like it.

I made a video the other day, and I didn't post it, but I just talked about how I have, like, I've got six cars, I got five homes, I got countless amounts of shoes that I don't even know what to do with. Like, I have a lot of cool things, but I'm still outside like running, you know, running like regardless of the weather conditions. And I'm not trying to sell anybody on anything that I'm something special. But my point is on anything that I'm something special. But my point is, is that I recognize the most important thing I can do is to continue to do things that make me feel better about myself so I can provide more value for the people that are around me. That is one heck of a way to start out the year because this is coming out January 1st. Oh, my goodness.

I know. Happy New Year. Happy New Year, everybody. But yeah, that was amazing, man. I know. Happy New Year. Happy New Year everybody. But yeah, that was amazing man. Thank you. Take us on out of here Andrew. Alright, thank you everybody for checking out today's Saturday School. It's been a while. Hopefully we can make a solid comeback now in 2022.

Leave us a comment on anything that really perked your ears and make sure you guys like and subscribe to this YouTube channel. 2022 is going to be an amazing year here on the podcast and we want you guys like and subscribe to this YouTube channel. 2022 is going to be an amazing year here on the podcast. And we want you guys to be a part of it. Follow the podcast at Mark Biles power project on Instagram at MB power project on Tik TOK and Twitter, my Instagram and Twitter is at I am Andrew Z.

And don't forget about our, our boy in SEMA in Yang, who will be, I'm going to, you guys will check out a sponsor video coming up next and he'll be a part of that. So pay attention to whatever he's about to tell you and follow him at

NsemaYinYang on Instagram and at NsemaYinYang on TikTok and Twitter. Mark Bell, where can people find you? God damn, that Nsema guy's jacked. He's so jacked. He's handsome. I love how he's like, I'm off my diet and he's like, I gained a bunch of weight and it's all just like in his

traps. Yeah, he just got bigger. Yeah, it's great. Your it just got bigger. Yeah, it's great. Your traps just got bigger. Like, did your abs get more lean when you ate more food? He's,

he's, I don't know. I don't know. I would try to kick him off the team. It's a whole thing over here. No way. I'm at Mark Smellybell

on TikTok and Instagram and Twitter. Strength is never weakness. Weakness is never strength. Catch you guys later. Power Project Family, how's it going?

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