Stop Chasing Money and Build Wealth That Matters

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

Welcome to the Money Tree Investing Podcast. Stock market, wealth, personal finance, value stocks. Invest in your life.

Kirk Chisholm (0:11)

Hello, Smart Money Tree Podcast listeners. Welcome to this week's show. My name is Kirk Chisholm and I'll be your host. So today, I'm joined with John Demartini. How are you doing, John?

John Demartini (0:19)

Doing great.

Kirk Chisholm (0:19)

We're glad to have you in the show here. For those listeners who aren't familiar with you, maybe you could tell us a bit about your background.

John Demartini (0:25)

Well, I'm in the education business.

I'm involved in researching, writing. I travel extensively. Just found out that I'm reached over a million miles in sailing and 21 million miles in flying. I travel extensively and I write a lot of books, do a lot of education in the field of human behavior, helping people maximize their objectives. I've been in that for over five decades. Can't wait to get up in the morning and do those things. Research, write, travel and teach.

Kirk Chisholm (0:54)

Nice. It sounds like a fun life.

John Demartini (0:56)

I have no complaints. I've got a blessed life.

Kirk Chisholm (0:58)

Nice. Well, I have a lot of friends who sail and would live on a boat if they could. So it's not my cup of tea living on a boat, but I know that people love it, just wouldn't do anything else. So I appreciate that.

Tell us about your backstory. Like, how did you get into education? What kind of drew you into that?

John Demartini (1:15)

I was born in Houston, Texas, 1954 I was about a year and a half. I found out I had to wear braces on my left leg and arm. I had a deformity of my arm and leg. Also had a speech impediment. When I was about six, I was told by my teacher that I'm afraid in front of my parents, I'm afraid he'll never read, write, communicate effectively, probably not go very far, not too much. I made it through elementary school with the help of smart kids by asking questions, which I'm kind of known for today, my questions. And I left school when I turned 13, left home, became a street kid. Picked up surfing, wasn't a surf capital, so I hitchhiked to California when I was 14 and down to Mexico to surf. 15, I moved to Hawaii, became a big wave in Hawaii. Had to be involved in some movies and magazines and stuff. Then nearly died at 17, going on 18

And I met an amazing and inspiring man at that time, at a little class that I went to, which I was told to go to. And then one night, that man inspired me to believe that I could overcome my learning challenges and someday be able to speak properly and learn how to read and write properly. And that was the first night I ever thought I might be intelligent. Had to go back and take a GED, High School Equivalency, and somehow miraculously passed that thing, and went on to try to overcome my learning challenges. And I started reading a dictionary and memorizing 30 words a day with the help of reading it, writing it, speaking it, pronouncing it. Grew my vocabulary about 20,000 words in a couple of years by doing that. Started to get my education back on track. Went on to about 10 years of that. And the whole time I was wanting to speak, so I started speaking and grabbing people who had listened to me. Anybody who had listened to me, I'd appreciate it.

That grew, and by the time I was at the University of Houston, I'd have somewhere between 100 and 400 people a day sitting under some trees listening. My speaking career started to take off. By the time I was in my 20s, I was doing talks every day. Now I've been blessed. That grew, and from the first around the city and in the states, and eventually around the world, I've gotten to now speak in 174 countries.

We've reached billions of people now with speaking and media, and television, and radio, and podcasts, and movies, and all kinds of things. Write a lot of books, written quite a number of books, well over 100 books. Just teach, research, write, and travel. That's been my journey. I can't think of anything else I'd rather do, so I just do it every day. I've delegated everything else. I prioritize my life to do the top three things I do, teach, research, write, and travel, and then I don't do anything else. I haven't driven a car in 36 years.

I haven't cooked since I was 24 I don't waste my time on anything that doesn't inspire me. I delegate that to other people.