From Homeless and on Drugs to Raising Over a Billion Dollars | John Fernando

The MORE Show

John Fernando shares his remarkable journey from homelessness, drug addiction, and couch surfing to raising over a billion dollars in capital through oil and

Key takeaways

• The phrase 'delayed obedience is disobedience' became John Fernando's guiding principle, transforming his work ethic and decision-making.
• Mineral rights investing remains an overlooked asset class with significant potential for passive income and long-term returns.

Main topics

• From homelessness and addiction to billion-dollar success
• The power of delayed obedience as a life philosophy

Notable quotes

'Delayed obedience is disobedience.' That one phrase changed everything for me.

I worked seven days a week. Everybody else was working five, if they worked that. I just decided to try to get as many as I could.

Conclusion

John Fernando's story illustrates that extreme personal transformation is possible through mindset

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) One of the stories that made me a millionaire, there was a guy out scrubbing a rock with a toothbrush when I first walked up. And he'd been out there for like two days. I didn't know what he was doing, but it sounded like he was talking to himself. So about 18 days goes by. He's out there from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Speaker 1 (0:14) every day. So he sits by me at lunch and I said, what are you doing out there? And he goes, well, I got in trouble for lusting. I said, how long do you have to be out there? He goes, I don't know. I go, they haven't told you? He was like, no. And so days go by. I'm playing devil's advocate. I was like, dude, you need to get out of here. This is nuts. I mean, you're 45 days in and you don't know when this is going to end. So on day 52, the guy that let him off, which later both of them became two of my best friends, he walks over with like his toothbrush, his rock and hands it to him. And I was like, I need you to run. Speaker 1 (0:43) down to the women's home and get some sugar. And he didn't speed walk, he didn't jog, it was dead sprint. When he came back, I said, why'd you do that? That was like a figure of speech. He goes, delayed obedience is disobedience. And when he taught me that right there, that teaching, when I went into business after I'd left, I just was about delayed obedience is disobedience. So anything my boss told me, short of sin, I just did it. Speaker 1 (1:16) What's up, The Moore Show family? We are back with another incredible guest. This guest went from surfing couches, meaning broke, bust, and disgusted, all the way to raising billions of dollars in just a short... Two years. Now, always, these episodes are brought to you by The Moore Club. So if you want access to individuals like I have here, then you want to be a part of The Moore Club. Go to timeformoore.com. Make sure you're in the club so you can have access to guests like this. All right, I have John Fernando here with me. I'm super excited about this as you went from an extreme state of broke, busted, and disgusted to, in a short couple years, raising billions of dollars. Speaker 1 (1:57) Well, it took time to raise billions of dollars. But first of all, thanks for having me on the show. It took two years after I was on drugs and couch surfing homeless. Two years after that is when I became a millionaire. But it took probably another 10, 11 years to raise my first billion. Yeah, I was going to say, two years to raise a billion is just... I'm not even sniffing a billion. I've done this for 20 years. Now, I want to get into this. Yeah, I mean, I've been in this game for about 20 years now, and I don't think I'm sniffing a billion dollars raised. So for you to be one extreme and kind of lost, financially broken, and even doing drugs to 10 years later having a billion under your belt, let's start with this. I think there's a lot of listeners and a lot of viewers that maybe aren't as extreme as your story. Yeah. Speaker 1 (2:49) But they're lost. They're trying to figure it out. They're trying to grow a business. They're trying to raise some capital. They're just trying. I want them to hear a little bit more of your story because I think they can grasp like anyone can do this, right? That's the idea. So talk to us a little bit about that background and what was the transition over into. Transition, okay. Yeah, I was on all sorts of drugs. And on 9-9 of 09, I went to a really like a. Christian boot camp. And so they were extremely hard on me. And I started to learn little tidbits that they would teach me along the way. And so, and pretty much one of the stories that made me a millionaire, there was a, and this will sound crazy to a lot of your viewers, but it was, there was a guy out scrubbing a rock with a toothbrush when I first walked up and he'd been out there for like two days. And so Speaker 1 (3:43) I didn't know what he was doing, but it sounded like he was talking to himself. So about 18 days goes by. He's out there from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day. And so he sits by me at lunch, and I said, what are you doing out there? And he goes, well, I got in trouble for lusting. And I said, well, how long do you have to be out there? He goes, I don't know. I go, they haven't told you? He was like, no. Days go by, and I mean, I'm playing devil's advocate. I was like, dude, you need to get out of here. This is nuts. I mean, you're 45 days in, and you don't know when this is going to end. So on day 52, the guy that let him off, which later both of them became two of my best friends, he said, I need you to run. He walks over with his toothbrush, his rock, and hands it to him. Speaker 1 (4:29) The guy was like, you need to run down to the women's home and get some sugar. And he didn't speed walk. He didn't jog. It was dead sprint. When he came back, I said, why did you do that? That was like a figure of speech. He goes, delayed obedience is disobedience. And when he taught me that right there, that teaching, when I went into business after I'd left, I just was about delayed obedience is disobedience. So anything my boss told me, short of sin, I just did it. So when he learned that I worked that way, he ended up, I became one of the top leasing agents for Chesapeake Energy in the Barnett Shale. And so I was averaging 46 leases a month, and the average person was doing eight. And so when there was a big project come on, he asked me, even though I wasn't, you know, I hadn't been with the company as long as other people, and I got upset about it. Speaker 1 (5:22) And I said, why did you pick me? And he goes, because I know whatever I tell you to do, it would get done. And so it was about a $2 billion project. And it's kind of hard to explain to anybody who's not been in the oil business, but it's called a trespass track. And so they don't have to drill two wells and they can just drill one. But you have to get every house that goes through the trespass track. So it's called a rule seven. It's called a rule 20, rule 31. So I did that. And that project, And when that all happened, when I went, I was sitting at the, when this all went down, one day, and a little bit of backstory after this, I was sitting there one day, and it was a... Speaker 1 (6:03) Just normal day. And all of a sudden, all the managers started getting their suits and things on. Before we dive in, I want to talk to you about LFS Capital. If you're looking to build passive income through multifamily real estate, LFS gives you access to exclusive apartment investments that aren't available to the public. If you want to diversify beyond stocks and create real cash flow, visit LFSCapital.com to learn more and to get on the investor list. I personally invest with LFS Capital and they have been incredible to work with. Their team is top notch. I get passive cash. Speaker 1 (6:32) cashflow distributions to my bank account every month. And I'm always in the loop with what's happening with the apartments I'm invested in. The best thing is I don't have to worry about managing tenants or dealing with repairs. The team at Ellevest handles absolutely everything and my income is 100% passive. And that's just the way I like it. So if you want to build wealth and passive income without all the work and additional risk, visit Ellevest.com. Now let's get to the show. Speaker 1 (7:03) They brought the Chesapeake team was coming in. And so they never wore suits. So they come in. They're like, well, we're not here to see you. We're here to see Bobby Fernando. And I said, I thought I was going to get fired for something. I didn't know what it was. So they brought me back there. And they're like, how do you do it? I go, how do I do what? I said, how do you get 46 leases and everybody else? I said, well, I cheat. I said, how do you cheat? I said, I work on seven days a week. Speaker 1 (7:31) Everybody else up here works five, if they work that. Because all they had to do was get eight leases, not to get fired for the month. Well, I just decided to just try to get as many as I could. Because I'd been in that ministry, and I was selling bread on the corner for them. I mean, so when somebody's going to pay you to do it, as opposed to doing it for free, it's quite that you feel real grateful. So it gave me great perspective where everybody else was entitled. And so I said, that's when they told me I was going to run the SWAT. And they said, once they told me, you know, I told them, they're like, well, why do you work seven days a week and only get paid for five? I go, well, there's no one else in this building talking to you right now, is there? And they're like, wow. How old were you when you were in this meeting? I was probably 30. Speaker 1 (8:19) I was probably 30. 30. And so I got through the whole SWAT unit. And we are down to, I was only supposed to deliver 60%. We'd actually are going to deliver 100. And what is SWAT? So SWAT's where you have to go by each individual house that the drill bit goes through. And you have to get every house in that drill bit track. Because if you don't and somebody holds up and doesn't do it, they have to drill two wells. You know, wells are about $10 million. So they got to drill both ways. So it was real important. Speaker 1 (8:47) They needed a 60%. I wanted to deliver 100. They thought I was nuts. And so I ended up getting down to the very last house. There was 167 of them. We had 166. And this guy goes, I want you to go to that house and just stay there until you can get it. Well, that was a direct order. So I just packed up my stuff with the toilet paper, this and that. He calls me about it. He goes, you know, like three days later, or it was 42 hours later. Speaker 1 (9:14) He calls me up and said, hey, have you seen him? I was like, no, he hadn't come yet. He goes, he's coming at night. I go, he's not coming at night. He was like, how do you know? I go, I've been here for 42 hours. And he was like, what? And he's like, you've been there for 42 hours? I was like, yeah, that's what you told me to do. So anyways, I stayed there for 73 or 74 hours at 3 o'clock in the morning. The guy finally shows up. I was so relieved that he showed up. So I went to his... His driveway and got him signed up called the guy at 3 o'clock in the morning because he told me to call him if I ever got it I did he was like dude if you'll do that for 275 dollars a day Please go start your own company and I will get make sure you have work. So I later got that he gave me ten guys Speaker 1 (10:01) Then I morphed and got another like 40 from another company called Gulfport. We went to 80 and then it ended up we were doing, we had about 162 guys within my first four months of starting that company. So I went from making 300, 275 to $325 a day to about $27,000 a day within 120 days. That's how it began. There's so much to unpack. Yeah. So you go into this rehab center, which is heavily Christian weighted. Oh, yeah. Is that fair? Very, very. It's all free. Imagine 92 people in a 5,000 square foot house. That's what it's like. Speaker 1 (10:43) Yeah, I slept on the floor on an egg crate for my final 90 days being inside that house So I'm gonna remove the business for a second. I think one of the things I've seen sitting in my seat and I've interviewed some really impressive people You yourself are one of them. Everyone has some level of dark days weeks months even years Mm-hmm, but you can't see the light Without the darkness. Yeah Speaker 1 (11:09) You can't create what you became without going through the depths of hell. I actually believe that. Now, not just because of my own stories. I've now had 13 years of interviewing individuals who have done some really impressive things, some more than others. But if you don't go through what you went through in your mid to late 20s, maybe even early 30s, I don't think you become the version of you you are today. Never would have. Never. You talked about entitlement, right? You talked about everyone else felt. Speaker 1 (11:37) you know, entitled. Everyone worked five days a week. You took it upon yourself to work seven. Yeah. Because you knew the other side of that. You knew it wasn't always guaranteed. You knew that. I would say that one of the things that all drug addicts are, they have a, there's some problem with the father. I've never met a drug addict that's not a, have a father problem. So, but I had a performance father. And when you're a performance person, you're highly competitive. And so. It's not even fair for somebody who's normal to go up against a performance ADHD person. Because that person thinks when he fails that no one loves him. And other people are just normal with like, okay, I just didn't do well. I'll just write that off. The two mindsets can't be compared because one guy will kill to win. It's kind of like a normal person. Even kill themselves. The Will Smith quote. Speaker 1 (12:33) If you get on side of the treadmill next to me, two things are going to happen. You're going to get off first or I'm going to die. That's it. And that's what you think about. Like, if I don't succeed, you think you're worthless. You don't think you're going to make it. And you just, that mindset, which is not the healthiest in some situations. For sure. If I was a psychoanalyst, then I'd probably be. Yeah. Oh, it's terrible in marriage. So I've had to really learn how to dial that down because I'm all about, I'm going to try to win at all costs. Speaker 1 (13:07) even if I'm wrong. So I've had to have a lot of therapy for that. There you go. But no, that was, but that's, that's the, when you have that and you're engaged that way your whole life, that's how you think about, that's how you attack sports. So you're really good at sports and then you're really good at business once you learn, learn how to make, you know, be healthy about it. So you said something I think is super imperative. The performance aspect and you're not good enough unless you win and you're not good enough and everyone hates you and that That whole thing. I think that's more common Speaker 1 (13:40) Then people realize I think a lot of it is people don't go out and go attempt to do what you did for kind of that fear of if I fail I'm not good enough and everyone's gonna ridicule me and everyone's gonna make fun of me Did you for a second were you able to mute that in your head? Or did you just literally have a shoulder shrug? I don't give a fuck and I'm just gonna go no I changed the fear and the way I altered it was Speaker 1 (14:05) You know, when you first are about to make the jump to be an entrepreneur, that's like the scariest job. But once I had a mentor teach me that he goes, which is scarier, making the jump to entrepreneurs or being 80 years old, looking back saying, I wish I could have done that. I wish I could have taken the swing. And once I changed my mindset to that, it was easy because I was like, I have nothing to lose. I mean, I don't have any possessions. And so it's like, let's just go take the jump. Speaker 1 (14:33) Let's go do it. And I had a thousand. We both started with a thousand bucks, me and a partner. And he luckily he knew about business and I didn't know it. But I knew how to I knew how to make money, but he knew how to keep it. And so so he was really valuable in my life, teaching me how to do business because I didn't didn't know anything about business up to that point. Dude, this is so there's another thing you just talked about. You had. Speaker 1 (15:00) Your boss, effectively, it sounds like, said if you're willing to do this for $275 a day, you need to go