If you've ever wondered why I do what I do, I'm here to answer that question.

Imagine that you didn't have to work for money anymore. Would you still work? When I first started learning from other people I remember being curious about this. People always ask me, “Stefan, if you are so successful in your life, then why would you share your knowledge, secrets, and strategies with others?”

People tend to think that, if you selfishly keep knowledge to yourself, then you will be able to prosper even more. It's based on the belief that the more people that know about a great opportunity, the more difficult it will be to achieve success. The skeptics love this way of thinking, but it's never been a part of my reality.

Are you ready to learn why I do what I do? In the words of Pablo Picasso, “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”

Watch the video below:

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I believe that there is more than enough for everybody. However, not everyone shares my belief. People that live in scarcity have a hard time seeing or believing my perspective. They convince themselves that life is limited and that opportunities are few and far between. This is far from true.

Do you adopt an abundance mindset or a scarcity mindset?

In his research, Princeton University psychology and public affairs professor Eldar Shafir explores how people's minds are less efficient when they feel they lack something. When we feel lack, it wreaks havoc on our cognitive and decision-making abilities. Not everyone is selfish and just focused on making money. Some people actually want to make a difference and help people, even at their own expense.

This is my purpose in life.

There is a lot of joy, happiness, and fulfillment that comes when you serve and contribute to something greater than yourself. A mentor of mine once said, “You'll never be great in life when you only focus on yourself. The only way to become great in life is when you serve something greater than yourself.”

Do I want to make money? Of course. I want to be financially abundant so that I can continue to invest in myself, take care of my family and my kids, and contribute to non-profit organizations. I want to continue growing my team so that my business can flourish and I can serve even more people than I already do.

Some people judge me and say that all I want to do is make money. There is no way that I could do what I do if I didn't make money. A business has to make money. It's the #1 goal of any business out there. I couldn't create free YouTube videos, podcasts, and blog posts, nor could I have an amazing team behind me, if I didn't make money.

If you could be more abundant with your health, then should you? Of course! If you could make more money, then should you? Of course! Abundance is abundance. It doesn't matter what label you attach to it. I'm driven by money, but I'm driven more by contribution.

I want to be a person of value. 

I've always believed that, if you want to earn more money in life, think about how you can be more valuable in life. This is the place from which money flows. If you want to build a brand, a solid reputation, and create trust with people you can't solely be focused on making money. Money is only a byproduct of creating value in the marketplace. I wouldn't have been able to build my brand to where it is today if I was just focused on money.

When you are building a business that is focusing on serving, you aren't operating on fear and scarcity. I operate from the belief that Zig Ziglar has, which is that, “If you help enough people get what they want, then you too can have what you want.”

In order to have more, you must give more.

People who have a scarcity mentality have a difficult time grasping the concept of contribution. When you hold onto fear for dear life, you don't have anything to give because you are so scared of losing what you already have. That's what you have to free yourself from.

I do what I do because I love it. I've been through a lot of challenges in my life. It took me so many years to overcome what I've been through in order to get to where I am today. When you finally overcome the problems that you've struggled with in your life and you achieve something great, all that you want to do is share that knowledge with others. You want to prevent people from going through the same suffering that you did.

I want to inspire people to become the masters of their lives. 

I've worked hard to get to where I am today, but in the grand scheme of things, money isn't what fulfills me. I live by Andrew Carnegie's words who said, “I spent the first half of my life making money and the second half of my life giving it away to do the most good and the least harm.” I love this approach to life.

The next time that someone asks me why I do what I do, I can send them this video! This is me, in full transparency, speaking from my heart. You may be skeptical that my bigger mission in life is to contribute instead of just making money, and that is OK. At the end of the day, all that matters is that I can look at the image staring back at me in the mirror and be proud. I'm leaving you with a powerful message from Kamal Ravikant.

In his book, Live Your Truth he said, “Reach out, share your truth, tell someone, ‘This is who I am. This is what I stand for. Hold me to it.' Often, we'll do far more for another than we will do for ourselves.”  This is my truth.

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I would like to share with you 3 things HARDER to achieve than making a million dollars.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to downplay how hard it is to actually make a million dollars.

However, when I look back on my life, and what I’ve had to overcome in order to get to where I am today, there were 3 things harder to achieve than making a million dollars.

Oftentimes, the greatest opportunities present themselves at times when we feel at our lowest. Adversity can destroy your life if you allow it to.

However, if you make the choice to transform adversity into an asset, you become stronger and more successful as a result. In the words of Benjamin Disraeli, “There is no education like adversity.”

Watch the video below:

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In my life, there were 3 things harder to achieve than making a million dollars:

1. Overcoming Shyness and Social Anxiety

Overcoming shyness and social anxiety was the hardest thing that I have ever had to overcome. When I was in high school I was painfully shy. I used to skip school because being around others made me so anxious.

When it came to speaking, I was very quiet, I mumbled, and I had a lisp. As a result, I got bullied a lot. I felt insecure and insignificant.

I barely graduated from high school and ended up spiraling into depression. The only thing that made me feel good about myself was computer games because they provided me with an escape from real life.

I was able to take on an identity, someone that was “important.” This became my drug in order to medicate myself and hide from the pain.

Those of you who have experienced shyness, social anxiety, and depression can relate to how debilitating it can be.

When I was 17, I decided to confront my issues and I had an emotional breakdown. I looked myself in the mirror and said, “No more.” I got rid of everything that was holding me back, and I began to develop my confidence and social skills.

Becoming a confident, social person is a goal that I am most proud of in my life. Way more than being a millionaire ever will be.

2. Meeting Women

When I was in high school I cared most about popularity and having a girlfriend. Unfortunately, I had zero confidence when it came to meeting girls.

Even once I started to become more social, I would always get stuck in the friend zone.

When I finally got comfortable talking to girls, there was a myriad of other challenges that I faced. How do I create an attraction? How do I engage a woman so that she will be interested in me?

It all seemed so overwhelming. Can anyone relate?

I wanted to help other men who struggled with the same challenges that I had with women, so I started an online dating company business in my early 20’s.

Every woman who ever rejected or criticized me all gave me an incredible gift of growth so that when the woman of my dreams showed up in my life I was ready to be the confident man who would attract her.

And then I met my dream girl, Tatiana. We are so aligned, and the connection that we have is way more important than making a million dollars because it gives me so much more fulfillment in life.

3. Changing My Body/Overcoming Binge Eating Disorder

In 2012, I decided to take part in a fitness model competition. I really wanted to change my body. However, in the process of doing so, I ended up developing a binge eating disorder.

Every few days I would binge on 10,000 calories, and then the next day I would train super hard to make up for all the calories that I had consumed. The cycle would continue over and over again. Binge, guilt, anger, binge, repeat. It consumed my life.

I had always taken pride in being an overachiever, but there was no amount of discipline that allowed me to overcome my binge eating disorder.

Once I completed my fitness competition, I struggled to maintain that weight. That has always been a lot harder for me to achieve than making money ever has.

The Beauty Of Adversity

These 3 things were harder to achieve than making a million dollars for me. Here’s the beauty of it all. Once I was able to overcome these three things, everything in my life became easier.

My biggest challenge around money had to do with shifting my mindset from one of scarcity to abundance. In order to make a million dollars, I had to cultivate habits of success in my daily life.

Yes, there are ups and downs with building an online business, but I’ve always enjoyed it because it allows me to do something that I am passionate about.

The initial phase of building an online business is where most people give up. You need to acknowledge and celebrate the small wins that you make along the way, whether it’s your first visitor to your website or publishing your first Kindle eBook.

Building a business is like a science; if you follow the formulas and strategies, you will get results. Once you figure it out, making money becomes effortless.

What challenges have you had to overcome in order to become the person that you are today? Be grateful for them because, in the end, it’s not what you get, but who you become that matters most.

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I would like to share with you how to deal with adversity, problems and difficult times in life.

Whether you like it or not, challenges are a normal part of life. Things will happen that are out of your control. How you choose to respond to those challenges when they arise is reflective of your emotional state.

It is easy to get caught in the trap of “why me” or “life is unfair”, but these limiting beliefs don’t serve your higher self.

In the words of Tony Robbins, “When your life doesn’t match your blueprint of how you expect it to be, you're upset, but when it doesn’t match and you feel that theres nothing you can do, that’s when people suffer.”

Watch the video below:

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The good news is that there is ALWAYS something that you can do.  Take a new approach to life. Focus on creating beliefs that empower you to take action and rise above the obstacles that are standing in your way of success. So many people live in a state of stress because they are unable to control what happens to them. Stress manifests itself when expectations cannot be met.

You have two choices – you can either change your reality or change your expectations. When life doesn’t match our expectations, it’s easy to feel like we have failed, but life itself is uncertain. I guarantee you that there will be times when things don’t work out the way that you planned.

You can do your best to make your ‘perfect plan’ in life unfold, but there are so many events in life that are outside of our control. What would happen if you stepped back, surrendered, and stopped controlling everything in your life?

In the words of Eckhart Tolle, “Sometimes surrender means giving up trying to understand and becoming comfortable with not knowing.”  There is freedom in letting go of expectations and control. We don’t fully understand our strengths until we are tested by adversity, problems, and difficult times in life.

Trust the process of life, relinquish control, and know that everything happens for a reason. I'm not saying that you shouldn’t prepare and work hard in life, but learn to accept whatever happens, and be okay with it. If you took this perspective, what would this do for your life?

In the words of Ann Landers, “Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and repeat to yourself the most comforting words of all – this too shall pass.” Have complete acceptance of what is and faith that all is well in your world.

When you adopt this mindset, you will more easily attract what you want into your life. No matter how tough things appear right now, trust that you will make it through, and that you will come out the other end stronger and more powerful than ever before.

Do you want to discover how to create a morning ritual that will help you deal with adversity, problems and difficult times in life? CLICK HERE to join my Morning Ritual Mastery course!

Video transcript:

Let me ask you a question. What would happen to you in your life if you stop trying to control things as much, that you did everything you could to succeed, to achieve your goals, to take action but you let go of the attachments of things happening the way that you believe are supposed to happen. Now, the reason why I bring that up is I see a lot of people in life that they're always stressed out and stress comes when your expectations aren't being met. When you're always trying to control life and believing that life has to be a certain way and this has to happen or this shouldn't happen.

Then often times, what happens is people, they're always stressed out, they always have anxiety, they're always living in fear, they're always suffering on some level. Because life is totally uncertain. Life is unknown. You could do the best that you can that create the life that you want to achieve your goals and results.I can promise you, there's going to be parts of life, of things that are going to occur that aren't going to work out the way you want them to work out. I find so many people, what happens is, things happen in life and they resist things so much. They resist emotions, they resist outcomes and results that occur.

Whenever you resist, persist in your life. I was actually having a conversation with a coach and he said that, we're talking about this. All emotions only last 90 seconds. That's it. All emotions last 90 seconds unless you resist them. See, a lot of people … If you just let an emotion be, you don't judge it, you don't try to control it, you don't try to resist it and think I shouldn't feel this way or whatever it is, it just passes. Every emotion will pass, everything that you're going to through right now will pass. Every failure, or adversity, or hardship, or challenge that you're going through or problem will pass.

If you just trust the process of life and relinquish that control of things always happen to be a certain way. My belief is, I love working hard and hustling. There's a time in my life where it's just hustle and it's just always trying to control things in my life. As a result, I was always stressed. Don't get me wrong. I like the hustle mentality. I love people like Gary Vaynerchuk and Grant Cardone. The crush it mentality but that is a very stressed way of living life. I believe in the hustle but also trusting that everything happens for a reason.

Trusting that I'm guided, trusting that everything will work out because it always does. It always does. Everything always works out. Did you find that in your life? I remember for me years ago, I was so attached to at one point, just meeting women. I was a single guy and I wanted to get a girlfriend. I was so attached to that outcome become a reality. As a result, I was always frustrated and upset because I didn't have that result. Things didn't work out the way I wanted to. I'd go out and I try to meet someone, it didn't work out. I get a phone number, I called the girl and she wouldn't call me back.

I was always stressed, I was always in pain, I was always suffering. It wasn't until I just let go of the outcome. I said, “You know what? I'm going to go out. I'm going to meet people. I'm going to be myself. I'm going to grow to be the best I can be. I'm going to add value and serve.” Then, whatever happens, happens. Whatever happens, happens. Whatever turns up in my life and I create, I manifest, that's okay. If I'm meant to attract this person and meant to be in my life, they will. If not, that's okay, too. I understand that for some of you, you're so left brain analytical that you close off to something being a little bit more metaphysical.

Something more open and something more having faith, is really what it is. Because faith is a reason to believe when there's no reason to believe. It's having certainty in total uncertainty just because you decide to. Having the belief that things always happen the way they're supposed to. When I relinquish that control, you know what happen? I started to attract people in my life. I start to attract women in my life and have a much better experience of that because … I wasn't always stressed, I wasn't always attached to the outcome and things having to be a certain way.

Things wouldn't work out with this one girl and I say, “Thank you, God. Thank you. What's next? What's next?” You know what? I was grateful for that because that made an opening for the right person to be in my life. I remember years ago, many years actually throughout my early 20s and beyond that before that. I remember this one girl broke my heart. There's been many that broke my heart. I was really attached to them and I thought they're amazing and I was in love with them. At the time when that happened, I was devastated. I was like really hurt and sad and depressed over that.

Today, I'm like, “Thank you. Thank you so much.” Because I'm so grateful that I'm not with that person. I'm so grateful that it wasn't the right fit for me. Nothing wrong with them but just aligned with who I am and everything. I'm grateful for that but at the time, I couldn't see beyond that because I was very attached to things being with that person and having a certain expectation of that. I'm grateful for that because if I was with that person and things worked out the way that I wanted them to, I would be miserable. I'd be unhappy. I will not be who I am today.

Because it didn't work out and I'm so thankful for the universe or God or whatever you want to call it that it didn't work out, it's allowed me to attract the woman that I'm meant to spend my life with today, and for me to be who I am today. Because I was just so short sighted, I wasn't able to see that. I wasn't able to have altitude and perspective. I remember times with my business man, I remember years ago, I was learning internet marketing and I was doing some gray hat search engine optimization at the time which involved getting all these backlinks to your site that were like low-quality backlinks.

I was like ranking and making some money and getting some results from that. I was like getting excited for that. What happened was, Google changed their algorithms and then, boom. My website got wiped out. All my traffic went away and I remember being so stressed about that and so upset and devastated. I tried all these things to control the outcome. Today, I'm so thankful for that. I'm thankful for that because if that didn't happen, I wouldn't have learned the right way of doing things and I wouldn't have gone through what I needed to go through that led me into different direction to having a life and who I am today.

I'm sure I can go on and on but I'm sure you have moments like that, too. Moments of your life that were painful and challenging, devastating for you adversity. That you look back upon today and you're like, “Wow. I'm actually happy that things didn't work out the way that I wanted them to. Because I'm on the other side now and things are much better.” Why go through the suffering? Why go through the pain of that? Why go through the frustration, the stress that a lot of people have to go through, instead of just trusting life.

Trusting that everything happens the way it's supposed to. Trusting that everything happens for a reason and a purpose and that it serves you. Maybe believing that you're guided. Maybe believing that everything is a gift and a blessing in disguise because I believe that it really is. Everything serves a purpose in your life. Again, I know this is spiritual or deeper for some of you. Maybe some of you haven't … Your consciousness is not open to this yet and that's fine.

Some of you are like, “Yeah, this is awesome.” For me, it's not until … Because I was there. I've been in that mentality, don't get me wrong. I've been there and I've now evolved.  I feel in many different ways where I just trust, “Hey, you know what? Things happen.” I remember actually just today, what happened was, I was recording this videos about an hour-long video and it was a really good video. I was like, “Man, I'm crushing this video right now. It's going awesome.” Then, I went to my computer, I took the memory card to look at the video. Half of the audio was missing because the battery on my mic died.

In the past, oh my God. In the past, I would have been like, “Oh, my God. This is horrible.” I just spent an hour and it didn't work out. I would just gotten so stressed and upset. It would ruin my whole day. You know what happened today? I was like, “Yeah, that's all right. That's okay. It just wasn't meant to be that way.” I said, “You know, that's fine. I'm just going to do it again.” It was an hour but that hour maybe it was a blessing. Maybe the new video is going to be better. Or maybe it's going to help me and serve me in some way.

Whereas it meant to happen this way, so I can learn to check my battery and make sure my battery is there, so that this doesn't happen again. I just looked at in a positive way and I didn't fight it, I didn't resist life, I didn't resist what happened. I just said, “Ah, this is meant to happen.” Therefore, I didn't have any stress. I didn't get upset. I didn't freak out. I just trusted that this is just part of life. It's part of my journey, my process. I remember a good friend of mine who's a public speaker. We're in Palm Springs one time and he was going to speak at this event in front of about a thousand people.

I said, “Okay. Do you know what you're going to say? Are you ready? Have you rehearsed and memorized or stuff?” He said, “I got no idea what I'm going to say.” I said, “What? What do you mean? How can you just go out there to a thousand people. You had to speak for an hour or two. You have no idea what you're going to say.” He said, “You know what? I'm going to go up there. I'm just going to trust. I'm going to trust that whatever comes out of me, is guided in me and was meant to come out that way. Then, if it's a great speech, awesome. It was meant to be great. If it's a horrible speech, it was meant to be horrible.”

He released the attachment of it. Therefore, he didn't have any stress or anxiety. He trusted that things happen the way it's supposed to. Now, of course, I'm not saying that you shouldn't prepare. I'm not saying that you shouldn't work hard. I'm not saying that you should just sit there in your couch and just believe that everything is going to work out for you in your life. Of course, you have to take action. You got to take the necessary things in life and do what's required. At the same time, what I'm saying is, accepting the results. Being okay with it. Not fighting as much. Not resisting as much.

Trusting that everything is happening for a higher purpose. What would that do for you in your life? How would that free you? What would that do for your body, your health? I don't know about you but for me, I feel more free in my body. I feel more relaxed, I feel more peaceful, I feel happier for sure. I remember the book, The Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman. There's a, maybe it wasn't in this book. He had a followup one called, I think called The Way of The Peaceful Warrior or something like that. Shared a story about someone that their house got burnt down. They're outside the house, the house is burning down.

It goes, “God, that's fine.” It didn't have any attachment to him. He's like, “You know, this materialistic stuff doesn't define me. I'm not attached to it. It's not who I am. It's not like I got to take this house with me into the afterlife and once I pass on.” He didn't have attachment to that. I said, “You know what? This was meant to happen. Everything will work out. Everything will be fine. It always has, always will.” He just had a free mentality about it. I just offer this as a different perspective for you today. Accept it if you like. Reject it if you resist it. Whatever. If you're open to it, great. If you're not, that's fine, too.

Not everyone is. Not everyone thinks this way. I want to offer this to you for those that are open to it and that are wanting to maybe evolve to a higher level than just things happening by me but things happening through me. There's actually a model for this. I won't have time today to go into it but as things happening to you, things happening by you, things happening through you or things happening as you. By you is a lot of people, they jump in the river of life and they're trying to go upstream and they're trying to swim. What happens is, you get exhausted when you're hustling all the time.

It's like, “Ha, ha, ha. Hustle, hustle, hustle.” You know, hustling. You tire yourself out, you burn out. That's the hustle mentality a lot of people live in. Whereas, things happening through you are more … You're hustling, you're making progress, you're moving your feet but you're not resisting as much in life, is really what it is. I'll maybe go deeper into that in another video. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this. It can help you just understand that life is great, life is beautiful. Everything happens for a reason and a purpose. Open your mind up to that, create new beliefs that empower you and serve you.

Take on a different approach to life, a more fulfillment. Because why are we stressed all the time? Why worry all the time? Why have anxiety all the time? What was the things you worry about, you're stressed about, you have anxiety about don't even come to fruition anyway. If you ever had that, it's like you're worrying about something. The thing you're worrying about, ended up being totally fine. Then, why did you have to spend those days and weeks worrying about something and suffering over when it's not even … It's so silly to actually do that. It doesn't really make any sense. Just trust the process of life more.

Trust that there's a higher purpose. Trust the universe or God, if you may. Whatever your belief is but relinquish some of that control and trust. Stop trying to resist as much. You'll be fine. I don't care how tough things are right now for you. You will make it through it. You will. It's just a temporary road block. It's just a temporary hurdle. When you come out the other side of it, they'll be better off for it. If you look at it that way, if you choose to perceive things that way. Then, it will. All right, my friends.

Thank you so much for joining today. God bless. Leave a comment below. Subscribe for more videos and I'll talk to you guys again soon. Take care.  Please leave a comment below or let me know any questions you have.  I'd love to hear what you think!