The Three Rules of Greatness

The Cardone Zone

Ed Mylett, Chairman of WFG and peak performance coach, shares his journey from a challenging upbringing to building a billion-dollar company

Key takeaways

• Success is fueled by deep personal motivation, often born from early adversity and hardship.

Main topics

• The power of early adversity in shaping success

Notable quotes

"Losers stay down, but winners get up. You do that, it's your confidence. That'll wake you up."

Conclusion

Ed Mylett's story illustrates that true greatness comes not from privilege

Transcript preview

Speaker 5 (0:01) Welcome to the Cardone Zone. Speaker 3 (0:02) You Speaker 4 (0:02) can refute it, Speaker 3 (0:03) but you can't deny it. Speaker 4 (0:05) Number one thing you got to do, nothing personal. Speaker 3 (0:08) 10X is like believing in yourself. Losers stay down, but winners get up. You do that, it's your confidence. That'll wake you up. Speaker 1 (0:16) I Speaker 4 (0:17) had always been looking for a mentor. Get ready with Uncle G. Welcome to the Cardone Zone. This guy right here, his story today is going to blow you away. From where he came from to where he is today. Ed Milet. I mean, I don't even know where to start. This guy works with an organization. 50,000 people who came basically without having to go to get a doctorate. Speaker 2 (0:38) That's right. Have Speaker 4 (0:39) an opportunity to make a lot of money and help a lot of people. WFG. $1 billion last year. Speaker 2 (0:46) Approaching $1 billion. Speaker 4 (0:47) Was paid out in commissions. Right. We're going to call it $1 billion. Anywhere in that realm. You can call it that. Okay? Speaker 2 (0:52) Right. Speaker 4 (0:53) Company called Transamerica that you may or may not know. Fortune 100 company. It basically adopted this company, right? Ate it up, consumed it because it's so valuable to them. He's a peak performance coach. He's going to leave here and do a retreat. Speaker 2 (1:08) That's right. And Speaker 4 (1:09) he's doing a retreat in his home in Orange County. Speaker 2 (1:11) Yes, sir. Speaker 4 (1:12) And I'm like, what Speaker 2 (1:12) are you retreating? We ain't hiding. We're coming. We're attacking. Ed Speaker 4 (1:15) Milet, I consider you a friend. I've been on stage with this guy, man. The guy can rip. He was at my morning sales meeting today. Like unbelievable. I asked him to say a few things. And the next thing I know, he's spitting gold. Thank you. And spraying titanium. That was an Speaker 2 (1:30) awesome meeting. The energy level, the environment you have here is off the charts. You've got great people, man. Yeah, Speaker 4 (1:35) you've been with a lot of people, a lot of Speaker 2 (1:36) players. Yes. Right? Yes, I've Speaker 4 (1:38) been Speaker 2 (1:38) with a lot of players. And first off, I already told you this before. I've had a whole bunch of guys kind of approach me to do different things. And I approached you as much as you approached me. but there's nobody like you. And then I saw it today. I saw it in the environment. There's infectious energy in this place and they love each other. They believe in each other. There's hardcore accountability led by you. Elena was in there too, gave an unbelievable message. I've not been in a sales environment like that before. Every single sales organization had that kind of energy and camaraderie, competition, energy. leadership, accountability, man, they would blow it up. It was awesome. It was overwhelmingly impressive for me. Yeah, Speaker 4 (2:11) thank you. And thank you for being here. And I appreciate you taking your time to come by and be on Power Players. So look, let me tell you what I know about this guy. And then I'm going to ask him about what I don't know because there's a whole bunch of stuff that I don't know. But I know this guy is a consummate, consummate person trying to. You know, be the best he can be in his own life. He's highly interested in his own potential and the attainment of that. That's fair to say. 100%, Speaker 2 (2:32) yes. Speaker 4 (2:33) Very financially extremely successful. Okay, I don't exactly know his financial. I know he's got a bunch of homes paid for, Speaker 2 (2:39) which Speaker 4 (2:40) I don't know about that. Speaker 2 (2:41) I know you don't like that. Speaker 4 (2:42) But I know that the guys, like, come from very little and done extremely well. Thank you. So, and Speaker 2 (2:50) I just like being in your space. So do I. I love being in your presence. Speaker 4 (2:52) So tell me, who... Before WFG, before the success, before the homes, the jets and all that stuff, fancy jackets, and all the friends that you know. By the way, when you're with this guy, who were you with this morning? Speaker 2 (3:04) You. And? I worked out with Derek Jeter this morning. Yeah, yeah. So Speaker 4 (3:08) he's always hanging around these freaking superstars, right? Speaker 2 (3:12) And so Speaker 4 (3:13) before all that, tell me where you grew up. Nobody Speaker 2 (3:16) measures up to Speaker 4 (3:16) you. Where'd you grow up? Speaker 2 (3:17) I grew up in Southern California. And I had one of those kind of in-between upbringings. You know, Donovan was just on. I was so impressed with the message that he gave you and different people that I hear from. But I had one of those really difficult to be successful upbringings because I didn't come from a super successful family where there's tons of affluence and opportunity and access. Sometimes I think there's actual benefit in coming from a really horrible situation, too. You know what I mean? Because, you know, I don't want to be here. Right. You know, this is what I don't want. I came from kind of a middle class to maybe lower middle class environment where I think that breeds average everywhere. You know, I think if you look at the environment where I grew up in, probably more people in their life turned out with what you'd call kind of average lives of quiet desperation than maybe more people came from from even a poverty stricken environment or an affluent one. So I grew up kind of middle class, lower middle class. Yeah. How many kids? My mom and dad have four kids. I'm the oldest boy. I got three sisters. Okay. And I got a great family. I have a dad who was a, I learned all my work ethic. He didn't beat you? My dad didn't beat me, nah. He whooped me a couple times. Yeah, yeah. But it wasn't like, you don't have that story. Well, I got a little story in that my, and I think everybody has these little seeds that are planted when they're kids of some adversity that makes you maybe stronger or more intense or self-reliant. So my old man is sober now. He's been sober a long time. But my dad was a raging alcoholic when I was young. And so I had all those things that come with having that dysfunction in your family, him not showing up all the time. stress in the house all the time not wondering you know not knowing whether my parents would stay together watching that weigh on my mom and my sisters and I think being the oldest boy you kind of step into that leadership role when you're young so I had one of those families like a lot of people have it looked really good on the outside yeah Speaker 4 (4:58) yeah you know I mean everybody everyone looks at other people's families Speaker 2 (5:00) like man they've really got their act together they seem so loving and happy but almost every family if you peered in there and really looked inside There's some stuff going on that's painful and stressful. And so I did grow up. And I do think part of that probably formed me to some extent. It made me grow up sooner, want things sooner, strive sooner. So, yeah. Speaker 4 (5:15) So when did you, like, everybody that I've had here, literally without fail, have all said something early on, before the age of 10 or 12. Yeah. They were already thinking about money or success or whatever they are coaching or helping or service or whatever. Yeah. When do you first remember getting a peek of Ed Milet? Speaker 2 (5:34) Really, really little. You know, and it's funny how I knew I wanted to be successful. I think like in most things, like they show up eventually, but maybe they don't look like the way you thought they'd look when they show up. Right. So I was gonna be a baseball player from the time I was a little boy. I was gonna be a major league baseball player. How young? Oh, four or five years old. Talking about that, knowing players, studying it, telling people I was going to be one. Look at a certain way. Trying to be athletic. I'm a little dude naturally trying to build my body up and build myself up. Well, I am. Speaker 3 (6:02) I Speaker 2 (6:02) mean, but I got little wrists and I don't do Pilates like you do, but I do work out. But anyway, the Pilates looks good on you. You look younger than I do, brother. But anyway, I did grow up wanting to be somebody. And then I got a mentor when I was really young. Hall of Fame baseball player named Rod Carew, who most of you out there would probably know, grabbed me when I was Speaker 3 (6:21) a Speaker 2 (6:21) young man and started pouring belief into Speaker 4 (6:22) me. Speaker 2 (6:22) How young was that? I was probably nine. Speaker 4 (6:24) He grabbed me and started pouring belief into me. He saw me at a Speaker 2 (6:27) baseball camp, saw that I was a little guy, saw that I had some potential. I kind of swung like him and batted like him. And so I spent the better part of my youth being mentored and coached one-on-one by a Hall of Fame baseball player. And he just poured baseball tools into me. He poured belief. You're going to be somebody someday. You're going to do something great. So I had someone in my ear I respected believing in me from when I was young. I think that helped me. Speaker 4 (6:47) You know, what I'm stuck on right now is you pull in these people. Like, do you know that? Have you always been able to pull people in? Speaker 2 (6:55) No, but I do. But Speaker 4 (6:56) you Speaker 2 (6:56) have, Speaker 4 (6:56) man. Speaker 2 (6:56) Nine Speaker 4 (6:57) years old, Speaker 2 (6:57) you're pulling in Rod Carew. It's true. He's flashing that we need to go, but I do pull people in. I'll tell you how I Speaker 4 (7:03) do Speaker 2 (7:03) when we Speaker 4 (7:03) come back. Hang on one Speaker 2 (7:03) second. I Speaker 4 (7:04) want to know that when we come back. Thank you for helping me with that. You're watching Power Players. Speaker 5 (7:08) Everybody wants the good life, but not everybody gets the good life. Speaker 4 (7:13) The phenomenal. Speaker 5 (7:21) Just bought this new Lamborghini here. But you know what I like a lot more than materialistic things? Knowledge. Speaker 5 (7:32) You don't want to make the mistake most people make with mentors, finding somebody just a little bit better than them. You don't want to be the blind leading the blind. So I call it the 10X rule. Find somebody 10 times further ahead than you. My biggest pain has been sometimes thinking it's too small, man. You must follow those rules. Be humble. Persevere. Read more. Toughen up. If you do these things, you will find a good life. You don't have to be a genius, but you have to be a learning machine. Speaker 5 (8:16) If you are a contractor in any industry, grow your business with access to our national app registry. Find jobs and be found by customers all across the United States. Increase your job intake and grow your business. Pro Service Finder was built with the customer and the contractor in mind. It is a simplified app to get you more business. Find the best clients, find the best contractors, no hassle, just straight business. Take care of your business and your home today. Sign up right now at proservicefinder.com. That's proservicefinder.com. Speaker 4 (8:52) Hey, Grant Cardone, welcome back to Power Players. Today I have somebody I'm very, very excited with, a guy that I'm getting to know, a friend of mine, I consider him a friend, Ed Milet, runs an organization of 50,000 people. I know a lot of you out there got one or two people working for you and you're pulling your hair out. Just do 50,000 that he's inspiring, directing, guiding. So a billion dollars, almost a billion dollars in commissions paid out last year. Fortune 100 company literally grabbed this company that he works with, WFG. He's into peak performance, comes from a middle class environment, hit it out of the park. Baseball player that never made it. That's right. But we just discovered something before the break. What was it? You discovered something. Well, Speaker 2 (9:36) you did, and you said something I didn't really realize, but I have had the blessing of having... pulled people into my life who can influence it that are way down the road in terms of success from where I am. I've had some great mentors in my life. And so, yeah, you asked me how I pulled Speaker 4 (9:51) them in. Speaker 2 (9:51) He pulls people Speaker 4 (9:51) in. You know, and I had another buddy that did that. He could pull almost anybody in. Speaker 2 (9:56) Yeah, I think you said, how does that happen? I'm not exactly sure. One, I know it's the law of attraction. I know that because I'm, by the way, I really believe in this. I think thoughts are prayers and prayers are thoughts. I think it's the power of, I think maybe because my dad was gone a little bit when I was young, even though he set an unbelievable example, I think I just desired so deeply to have somebody mentor and coach and believe in me. But one of the things that is different, I think, because I don't think, I don't really believe in this mentor stuff. I don't know that I buy into that. Like, I don't think I influence you by you necessarily asking me questions and I answer them. Don't you find that too? Like almost sometimes people that want you to mentor them, they're almost interviewing you. And I think that's almost like a school teacher. So if you look at your kids, the people that influence them, their teachers influence them to a degree. That's like a mentor, right? Because they shape them and mold them. There's influence there. But who do you really worry about? You worry about who their friends are. Because their friends, you show me their friends, I'll pretty much tell you who's influencing them. So I think what I do a decent job of is when I do get to know these folks, I don't treat them like they're some God figure. Or they're any different than me or any better than me. I treat them like a friend. Speaker 4 (10:58) And I want to make them my friend. Speaker 2 (10:59) You're Speaker 4 (10:59) talking about people that maybe have achieved something in a space above you. Speaker 2 (11:03) They're constantly, Donovan was on your program earlier. He'll tell you, people constantly, when you're in that environment, treat you as if you're different than them or better than them. There's a million people like that. They're not any better than you. They haven't have a blessing and a skill or a set of facts and knowledge that's ahead of you. So make them your friend. Like you and I, we're becoming friends. The way you're going to influence me, I'm going to influence over you. We're going to have an interview today. We're going to learn some things. But really it's our friendship, just associating, just being around each other. So I think probably the biggest thing is I've made them my real friends. Speaker 4 (11:31) Okay, so let's talk about before you had those kind of friends. Speaker 2 (11:34) Yeah. Speaker 4 (11:35) So you're... Going to play baseball. Speaker 2 (11:38) Yes. Speaker 4 (11:39) Let's go into the teenage years. You're in Orange County or Southern California? Speaker 2 (11:43) Yes, Diamond Bar, Speaker 4 (11:43) Southern California, right Speaker 2 (11:43) on the border of L.A. and Orange County. Speaker 4 (11:45) All right. And mom and Speaker 2 (11:47) dad work? Mom worked in the home, raised four kids. My dad worked in a bank, very successful executive in a bank. Speaker 4 (11:54) Okay. So were you learning something from him about being an executive, dressing, or money? No. Speaker 2 (12:00) I learned about my dad real simple. hustle and busting ass. So my dad was up before I was up in the morning out of the house. My dad would get home when it was dark. I watched my dad bust his tail. I watched my dad work Saturdays. And Speaker 4 (12:12) then he came and had a couple cocktails. He did for a long time. And that was probably, by Speaker 2 (12:15) the way, why I was coming home so late for a while. But in my mind, and even after he became sober, he just, like a lot of men of that generation, my dad just busted his damn tail. I think it's almost a lost art form with younger guys today, right? My dad just flat busted it. Now, he busted it because he was just trying to provide limiting things like food and shelter. He never thought about big things or dreams or... getting wealthy or have an influence. He just wanted to survive. So there really wasn't Speaker 4 (12:40) a Speaker 2 (12:40) way Speaker 4 (12:40) out for him. I think that's what was going on with my dad too. Speaker 2 (12:44) How so? What do you mean? Speaker 4 (12:45) When do I get off the conveyor belt? Speaker 2 (12:48) My dad and I have talked about it since. Probably you didn't have that chance because your dad passed. But had he not, my dad will always be obviously sort of surprised by what's taking place or happy with it, right? And he always says to me, I never even thought. The conscious thought never even occurred to me to take risks, to become successful, to go get wealthy, to go be somebody. I was literally just had my head down trying to feed my kids and make sure they were clothed. I think that's a lot of people too. So my dad had this, and by the way, I Speaker 4 (13:15) think Speaker 2 (13:15) it's even more admirable. You and I are working hard because we've got this big vision. You imagine just working hard for survival. Yeah, I did that Speaker 4 (13:22) a long time, so I can imagine it for sure. Me too. Speaker 2 (13:25) It doesn't Speaker 4 (13:25) even take a lot of energy. Speaker 2 (13:26) So Speaker 4 (13:26) I Speaker 2 (13:26) learned work from my old man. That's what I learned from my dad. So Speaker 4 (13:28) when did you, you went to college? Speaker 2 (13:31) I did. I played baseball in college. Okay. Yeah. You had a scholarship? I did, full ride. Full ride? Well, yeah. Speaker 4 (13:38) Yeah. Yeah. I couldn't make the baseball. Speaker 2 (13:40) I know. I've heard it. It's okay. You know what, man? So you get out. Speaker 4 (13:43) You found out you couldn't go pro, or you did? Speaker 2 (13:45) I did. I have a chance to play afterwards for a year. Okay. Yeah. I was an average player, man. Speaker 4 (13:50) Okay. And then what happened? Speaker 2