hey Dan Miller here I just did an interview with Jason Duncan the real Jason Duncan on his show the root of all success well we got into some deep weeds that I didn't expect he walked me into reliving a season in my own entrepreneurial life that uh was surprising to him and kind of mind-blowing to me to walk through again hey there's hope if you're struggling as an entrepreneur you've got to check out this episode where we talk about how to really find the root of all success welcome to the root of all success with the real Jason Duncan a podcast that explores how the world's most powerful entrepreneurs unlocked success and how their stories can help you do the same a successful educator turned entrepreneur Jason has built multi-million dollar businesses that have been featured in Inc magazine and Entrepreneur magazine his life's Mission now is helping entrepreneurs live what he calls hash #the exit lifestyle introducing tedex speaker mastermind leader author entrepreneur cigar fishing anado motorcycle Enthusiast and host of the root of all success the real Jason Duncan the real Jason Duncan hey there welcome back to another episode of the show this is the real Jason Duncan you can call me JD boy have I got a great interview for you today this is Dan Miller the famous Dan Miller legendary Dan Miller of 48 days to the work you love at 48 days.com I'm going to share with you and as I talked with him at the very beginning how we originally came to know one another back in the mid90s and he is still going strong and killing it uh in his profession as a coach as a mentor as a mastermind facilitator and leader as an author and as a podcast Host this guy's amazing he's the author of the New York New York Times bestselling book 48 days to the work you love he's also the author of three other books one is wisdom meets passion another is no more dreaded Monday and the third one is an understanding heart which is his most recent release uh his 48 days podcast consistently ranks in the top 1% of all podcasts worldwide his 48 days eagles.com Community is viewed as an example around the world for those who are seeking to find or create the work that they love he has a really amazing story about how he and Dave Ramsey collaborated the very beginning of his legendary career as the 48 days guy you're not going to believe how this came about it's not in any planned or structured way this is really a great story he and his wife Joanne have been married for over 55 years they have three grown children 17 grandchildren they live in the uh beautiful city of ospry Florida and it is my honor to Welcome to the root of all success the one and only Dan Miller Dan welcome to the show hey thanks so much I'm excited to be with you today well you uh you are a legend my man Legend before your own time I I have known about you for so very long when we talked on the phone a couple of weeks ago getting prepped for the show you know you you were a part of Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University early on when that was going live when he was doing those live in person at MTSU and Murphysboro my wife I guess say had to be 1996 my wife and I were part of that first class and you were there and that was the first time I got ever exposed to the 48 days concept and you and I have known about you ever since so and now here we are in the podcast talking 101 it's h this is a a dream come true Dan it really is wow boy I'll tell you what those years go by you're talking 30 years ago so much has happened and yet some things are still the same in terms of things that work well but it's interesting to have a little life perspective to be able to look back that far so thanks for that reminder well it could be 48 years to the work you love at some point for some people it seems to be well I'm 48 years old and I am uh I am absolutely living in the center of my passion my purpose my joy I I'm doing exactly what I believe God's called me to do on this Earth so it took me 48 years to get to this spot so maybe I could write a book called 48 years well there you go goly perfect yeah we're actually uh this will H this will have happened a month prior to this show airing but just so you know we're we're doing an eeka guy workshop at my office which EA guy is the Japanese principal of the reason for being and I'm actually bringing in one of the top eeka guy coaches in the world to come do that here in at my training room in Hendersonville next I think it's next week so it'll be like one month PR of this show being released so if anybody's interested in seeing the replay of that you can just go to my YouTube channel the real Jason dunkin.com youout or I did that backwards youtube.com thejason Duncan and look up the EMS playlist and you'll see my thing with uh with Norm Tam we did on eeka guy but finding your purpose seems to be something that people have always had trouble with so is that uh has that been your your understanding Dan is that why you got into the 48 days to the work you love concept I I did and it you're right it's Longo I I think Adam and Eve probably struggled to figure that out so it's not a New Concept at all but I kind of backed into my focused work in that area years ago I was asked to teach a Sunday school class there at Christ Church in um in brenwood Tennessee you know near you and I expected to have you know the 18-year-old who was trying to figure out what to major in in college or the 24 yearold who was out of college and didn't have the Mercedes and the drive and white pickup fence they were led to believe would automatically happen I had a few of those what surprised me Jason was I had Physicians attorneys dentists pastors engineers accountants who started coming to that class just grew exponentially it was on Career life Transitions and I'm like what are you guys doing here you know and they said well everybody sees us as doing okay and we are but I don't think this is it I think there's something more you know a lot of people end up 10 years into their career simply because they had the academic ability to keep going to school and now they got a JD or a PhD or an MD behind her name but it's not their passion it's not that eag that we talk about it's not that and that's where I leaned into that and boy it has been a delightful ride to help other people as well as determining my own what is your real purpose your passion not just what are you able to do so are you telling me that the whole 48 days the work you love con concept which is your whole brand started because you taught a Sunday school class is that is that where that happened totally 100% so how did you how did you come about the to the idea okay I'm going to teach a Sunday school class and I'm going to do it on Career life Transitions and like did you have something specific in mind that you wanted to get across did you already have curriculum developed and you were trying to test it out or was it just hey I think this is a good topic let's see what happens it you know I I'm very much the entrepreneur where yeah we like to have a plan and I know you talk a lot about having a strategic plan and all that but for that I did not it was totally aside I'm an entrepreneur top of my head to tip of my toes I've never had a real job never got a paycheck never had benefits vacation any I'm an entrepreneur so I was busy making a living doing okay I'm a sales guy Church asked me to do that and I said sure I just stayed one week ahead of people people in listening to their stories listening to their challenges and then creating content and it just snowballed from there then I had people saying wow I've got a son-in-law who's been without work for three months I want him to hear what you just described to us what do you have I can give him and I didn't have anything and finally just because of the repeated request I put together just my rough Sunday school notes in a three- ring binder we'd buy him at Office Depot three-wing binder put him in there put a couple back then it was cassette that I put in there on the inside cover and I started making it available then I went to a a conference with Mark Victor Hansen co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul talking about how to sell your book once you had it done I never talked to a publisher or library or anything I was just giving people what they were asking for I came back from that conference along with my buddy Dave Ramsey he and Sharon went with us out there we had a blast and in the next 24 months I sold over $2 million do worth of that three- ring binder I thought hey there might be an opportunity with this little thing I'm doing as a Sunday school class wow so you went from just teaching Sunday school just ideas Concepts to selling $2 million worth in 24 months when you when you did that was 48 days the the original brand or where did that number come from well again it's I'd like to tell you it was some scientifically designed study that ended up there but it's very much the entrepreneur Style it was just a whim what happened there originally my company was called the business source have you ever heard anything more generic than the business source and I was just helping people go through this and finally I had uh kind of a process that I called find the job you love in 30 days well what I realized 30 days didn't really grab people and and I was motivated to do that because I found I could work with somebody who clearly said their work sucked they're not going to do that anymore we'd map out a plan and a year later I'd run into them and they hadn't done anything I'm like what's up with that well I'm waiting till the kids get out of high school waiting until I pay off the mortgage people are always waiting on something waiting on the lights to be green I said there's got to be a timeline where it presents a sense of urgency to make the decisions and take new action this was back when 48 Hours was becoming popular as a TV show I thought well there's a number it's not 30 60 90 100 20 that we don't pay attention to 48 it sounds like there's a reason behind it I thought I'd do this for a month when I did Jason it was like somebody threw gasoline on everything I was doing people were you mean I really can change my life in 48 days and my response then as it is now is yes you can if you create a plan and execute it 48 days so that's little less than S weeks so there is I I always wondered why the 48 why that number because it doesn't match up with weeks it doesn't doesn't matter we now only know the rest of the story um what would to what would you attribute though this well let me back up before I ask that question that is very obvious that people are eager for this there people are eager for figuring out what the heck I'm here for what do I want to do how do I find that how do I get those that's obvious so so content aside because people wanted it what do you to what do you attribute that rapid acceleration of sales Ian to go from concept and a three- ring binder in cassettes to $2 million in sales in under two years that's that sounds like unrealistic for anybody to expect that that would happen even if the content is golden as it is but to what do you attribute that rapid success well it's an interesting question and and really uh have to be realistic there's two parts to that one part is it does strike a nerve with people to recognize am I really living life fully am I really living in my passion in that sweet spot where my talent passion and money intersect that's that sweet spot so there's that real felt need there but on the other hand I knew Dave Ramsey when he and I both went through a very low point in our businesses we cried together and sat around a little uh card table in his rented house trying to figure out what the heck we were going to do when we grew up to unwrap the Screwed Up lives we had created at that point well David started his radio show he didn't have advertisers back then guess what he'd have callers gee my name's Jason I'm 48 years old I make $35,000 a year my wife wants to stay home with the kids what can I do and he said you need to get my buddy Dan Miller's material 48 days to the work you love to figure out how to make more money before this is ever going to work he did that and at one point I was getting a thousand new subscribers a week based on Dave Ramsey referrals so that was in the ear I caught the early years in his show before people were paying millions of dollars to be promoted on there and rode that wave up and it exploded my business as well wow so how long how long before this exploded because you had the business source as a business but how go backwards in time when you're commiserating with Dave over a card table and you're both I would assume going through I know we know Dave's story because he tells it on the on the show a lot about going through bank ruptcy real estate got overleveraged blah blah blah like how long prior to to your success did those conversations happen are we talking a year prior two years prior when how long how fast did this transition happen it was in when when you talked about like 96 997 Dave was doing Financial Peace as live seminars I was doing chapter eight of that on careers live in Murphy's buau Clarks Clarksville and Nashville and then when he decided he wanted to expand that and he did some really rudimentary videos for that still used my content word for word for years in the early versions of financial peace but it was during those years 96 97 that I was teaching at Sunday school class I had the first version of 48 days that being at three- ring binder in 2000 in 2000 is when I went to in 2002 is when I went to that Mark Victor hansome conference it came back and sold the fire out of those things in 2005 I got the first publishing deal which diminished my profits per unit dramatically but it increased the distribution exponentially it's in like 14 different languages so it it was a net that I could draw people in where they would then spend money on all the other things I had to offer in addition to the book so it's in that timeline uh that book is now in its I actually go back and count the version I had as a three- ring binder in 200000 so I'm working now on the 25th anniversary edition that'll come out late next year so when you go so so that was pretty rapid I mean from 20002 2002 2005 to get published um but when you when you go back to that time of sitting there where you're commiserating over bad businesses how how many many years prior to this did that happen did it happen in the early 90s did it happen in the 80s when when did and the reason I'm asking Dan is because people want to know okay if I'm in the middle of the the you know what show if I'm in the middle of the crap that's happening and it's all bad bankruptcy is looming my wife is mad at me the kids don't like me the dog bites me everything's wrong I don't have any money to I'm super successful and I I you know I couldn't ask for anything different how long is that timeline for you how long did that take you know I don't want this to be discouraging but here's here's the reality in September of 1988 I had a health and fitness center in bing Green Kentucky um I sold that at public auction it was a horrible decision to do so but the bank that I had relationships with I had these open-handed uh lines of credit you know young pup and good guys at the bank the bank changed ownership three times in two years and all of a sudden these new corporate Bankers said geez we got this young guy with these open lines of credit that's not good they put the pressure on me and I decided what the heck I'm an entrepreneur I'll sell the primary business that I had that 4,000 member fitness center I did I woke up the next morning realizing I didn't just walk out with my shirt on my back I had over $430,000 in debt a lot of that to the IRS I was in a mess that was 1988 now being an entrepreneur you know how we think what the heck I'll knock this out a couple years I'll be back in my feet let's go it took a lot longer than that with the IRS Lans penalties extra taxes and all that it was a nightmare to unravel in September of 2000 12 years later I walked into my office in Brentwood one one Thursday morning fax machine started peeling off IRS lean releases 14 pages at that point I had resolved all that and I was back to zero net worth I was thrilled I was absolutely thrilled to be to have a zero net worth at that point you know how old I was Jason I was 53 wow I was 53 now I want I want your listeners to understand you know you don't have to kill it by the time you're 26 or you're never go Omega most of what everybody knows about me has happened since I was 53 years old the success I've had with the things I've done you know has been really wonderful to experience but I was 53 years old and flat broke and also those downturns now I hope nobody I hope it doesn't take somebody 12 years to recover from whatever they went through and knowing what I know now I think I could have accomplished it faster but it was primarily the IRS my encouragement to entrepreneurs don't get in trouble with the IRS hey if you don't have if you can't have lights on your house and nothing to feed the kids figure that out but don't get in trouble with the IRS it was a nightmare wow so what I mean what happened why how did you get in trouble with nightmare with the IRS was it just you had you had income through your business and didn't didn't pay your taxes or like what happened let's take a quick break to thank our amazing sponsors for for making this podcast [Music] possible as an entrepreneur I know that you have to deal with sales on a regular basis I mean every entrepreneur does and if you aren't paying attention to sales as an entrepreneur you're not going to be an entrepreneur for very long but I've got a sponsor of this show called dub that helps you 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duncan.com sdub and there you're going to get two weeks for free to try dub plus you're GNA get 50% off your first two months of dub you can't you can't beat that so go check it out go to the real Jason duncan.com sdub thanks for listening to our sponsors now back to the show yeah you know those taxes you withhold from employees oh oh that's even worse than what I was thinking worse than you were thinking they don't take too kindly to that when you've withheld from people's salaries and don't then turn that over immediately to the IRS hey I was young going by the seat of my pants I said I'll figure this out when some things kind of converge put me in a tough spot but yeah that was it it was those 941 withholdings got me in big trouble I mean people go I don't know personally but I know people go to jail over that too how would you how were you able to just you know navigate it over 12 years to get them paid back and them not put you in jail I mean holding payroll taxes back is a big deal yeah it is well they realized I mean they were able to see I really didn't have anything it wasn't like I was trying to hide something at that point but during that 12 years I couldn't own anything I mean there was no way they they had leans on everything I had so they tracked everything that I did and it was during that period of time I worked through now part of part of it was I went so long in that process of recovery there was a statute of limitations that provided some relief and then I did an offer in compromise work with my attorney finally didn't offer in compromise but when you're in that you know I was close to $200,000 there that 430,000 a lot of it was other people and I I did not this is one of those things too if I had filed bankruptcy I could have shortened that process but I was raised menonite I don't know how much you know about the Amish menites but gez if your word isn't good dig a hole and push me in so I don't care about contracts I've got if I've given my word I'm gonna keep that no matter what and so I told all those other vendors suppliers and people that owed money look I don't have it if you sue me you'll get nothing but if you work with me I'll get you something every month so I extended that per period now I don't regret doing that for a nanc it's still um is the way I wanted to walk through that tough period of time but it probably extended that because I was also paying those old vendors as well as the IRS to get that mess unraveled well that's an interesting thing and and I I it's something you can talk freely about now because it's so many years ago but there's a lot of people that are struggling with those realities today and they're dark realities there are things that they don't want to talk about outside their bedroom with their spouse about hey this is what's going on I I think there's a lot of encouragement Dan in hearing your story because as I said at the beginning you know joking about you're a legend we've I've known about you for so long but here but the reality is what I just discovered is that in 1996 when I saw you speak you were not only dead broke you were in trouble with the IRS and yet there you are standing in front of people like me saying hey here here's how you become successful here's how you get get to the work you love I think there's a level of encouragement that a lot of people who are in that dark space right now need to hear so you chose not to file bankruptcy but in effect I don't know my bankruptcies I don't know seven from 11 to I just know their numbers but isn't there a level of bankruptcy that you could have filed but you still would have paid everybody back the way that you did but it might have given you a little bit of protection on being able to own something I I don't know how that works I don't even know if anybody's ever asked that before but I'm curious nobody's ever asked me that there there is and you're right but I just rejected the whole idea the encouragement I had from you know attorneys was just file and walk away from it I said no I'm not going to do that so I just never even expor the other options there again assuming I could handle it much quicker than the reality allowed me to do it there's a couple other things in there and I think it probably merits Shar when I hit that period of time and I realized I was so deeply in that a lot of entrepreneurs think okay I don't know what I'm doing I'll just go get a job and I already had at that point I had a masters in Clinical Psychology I was teaching as an adjunct Western Kentucky University I could have gotten a job making 70 80,000 a year no question about it I couldn't make the math work there's no way in the world I had three little kids with that amount of debt to just survive as a family and take care of that it' never work guess what my options were jump back in something as an entrepreneur no guarantee but no ceiling and that's what I did and so I started making decent money pretty quickly even though it still took a lot of time to walk out of that but it was an entrepreneurial Choice immediately no second thinking about I'm going to take a safe way because this didn't work that time wow that is that's really an unbelievable able story Dan I I would have never in a million years imagined that that was part of your story and and uh I don't know how how much you tell that story publicly but uh it is now it's out there now but but I I'm very grateful that of your honesty and transparency on that and again I know that time soothes those wounds and it's easy to talk about now because it's so long ago but in the middle of that I can't imagine you were freely talking about yeah I owe the government 400 Grand you know I I oh that was very painful and what happens too I mean you know I have a wonderful wonderful wife who loves to be a Hostess loves to entertain well the IRS forced the sale of our house so we couldn't own any real estate they would seize it immediately so in those 12 years we had to rent we just rented crappy little places and my wife really I think became convinced that we'd never have our own place again there were a lot of people people who told us you'll never unravel this mess with the IRS you'll go to your grave with them hounding you we heard that a lot I kept cutting pictures out of magazines put them on the refrigerator I said honey this is the kind of house we're going to have when I get this thing figured out babe look at this you know what would you want I kept that dream alive from day one never never never allowing me to believe we were not going to get out of that mess that I had created I took responsibility for creating it in the next point I didn't point the finger at the bank or anybody else I looked at the dude in the mirror and said hey you get us into this how you going to get us out and started walking that out but that was that was tough and when I when those IRS lean releases came through On That September morning in 19 or in 2000 rather we bought a house that same month we just recently sold that house we lived in that house for 20 years years I got it back that was when subprime lending was a my credit was trashed I got a non-qualifying loan for the entire for 100% of that house violated every rule that Dave ramsy would talk about incidentally and doing that but I did we lived there for 20 years I made over a million dollars when I just sold it recently over what I paid for it wow so so's advice might not always not always leave might go against it sometimes huh I just did the entrepreneurial thing move forward with confidence say we're going to make this happen so um so from a financial standpoint for you to go for those 12 years you were an entrepreneur very briefly just what were you doing during those entrepreneur years those 12 years that you were trying to dig out of the hole what what was your Venture that you were working on yeah I did commission sales work okay 100% where I didn't have to I didn't have to have any investment because I didn't have any but I didn't want to work for somebody and just be paid a salary so it was 100% straight commission lot of opportunities out there those were the open-ended ones and I got to where I was you know making 105,000 a month pretty quickly because of my sales skills so that's what I did I didn't own anything didn't have my own business commission sales so you're making you're making pretty good money especially for that time you're making was that $150 to $180,000 a year um you know as a commission salesperson but you couldn't buy anything you you had to rent everything so were you just stacking up savings waiting for the day or did 100% of your extra go to the IRS and your vendors yeah 100% of my extra went to them I wasn't saving anything that's why when I got to that faithful day and got all those releases I was literally at zero I had taken every penny I had at that point point and come up with that offer and compromise to the IRS but most of it during that time was just being piled against those debts the other vendors I owed for Billboards and radio advertising and things like that when I had that fitness center that I promised I'd pay back and the IRS yeah there wasn't anything left so what advice would you give to people that are facing or are in the middle of those circumstances you you got to believe that there's light at the end of the tunnel if you lose that you're really screwed because it's the old Henry forward thing whether you think you can or think you can't you're right yeah so our belief precedes our reality so I really worked on mindset a lot I was drawn to that kind of content during that period of time so I went back to the old greats Old Masters of achievement you know Jim ran and Norman Vince Peele and Earl Nightingale Zig Ziggler people like that I I was in the car a lot because of doing commission sales work door too when I was in the car I I borrowed a car Jason I didn't I couldn't own a car I B the IRS took everything I borrowed a car from a car dealer friend of mine and it was a 1978 Mercury Zephyr wagon radio didn't work the windows didn't roll up and down their power windows air conditioning didn't work I didn't care that was my tool to get back on my feet when I was in the car I had a battery operated cassette player and I played those cassettes because I knew my mind is like a garden if I let Weeds start they were going to grow if I could keep the weeds crowded out and Infuse my brain with that positive Pure Clean optimistic thinking I had a chance and that's what I did I listened non-stop when I was in the car to those guys saying you can do it think like this this is the way out and I just did it day after day after day well I see on the shelf behind you Napoleon Hills Think and Grow Rich it's uh one of the best ever uh how big of a part of that book did that play during those years of your life a lot those were the foundational books absolutely that the magic of thinking big see at the top Zig Ziggler that that you're looking at is an original copy the first print run of that that my Mastermind got me a couple years ago it had such a foundational impact on me and I joked with my wife that someday we'd be walking through a little used bookstore you know in Paduka Kentucky somewhere and find an original copy I don't think I ever verbalized that to anybody but her but a couple years ago my Mastermind gifted me that's a very valuable book If I Were a regular guy I'd keep it in a bank safe but I'd like to be able to walk in here and see it and touch it and feel it but things like that were exactly what allowed me to walk back out otherwise man I'd be a dude work working at Kmart you know checking people out the cashier what do you think was your one key to successfully navigating all of that was it was it mindset or was there something different it really was mindset there's no question about it I didn't have anything in reality to support it I didn't have you know a rich dad in the side waiting to rescue me trust me uh but it was it was mindset and and but what I did to reinforce that was find other people people who had the same mindset that's a critical part as well I access books audio programs veraciously but I also sought out people who were going to believe along with me I mean Dave Ramsey my gosh we believed the same things we believed we were going to come out of this alive and found other people who had the same belief Dave and I started a a little Mastermind we had 12 guys we met for 14 years during this period of time every Wednesday morning we met and we shared what we were going to do we shared business practices we helped each other in ways that we could but that that's the key absolutely it wasn't that I invented something or discovered the magic pill no well you you talk about Napoleon Hill and your Mastermind that's one of the principles he teaches is The Mastermind Principle is that getting around people to help you achieve something greater than you could on your own faster than you could on your own I I I I can't speak more highly to that is that you run a mastermind I run a mastermind I'm a part of a mastermind we we must be parts of masterminds I mean all the greats have had these Mastermind people around them to help them navigate life's toughest Journeys what do you so if we talk about this word success because you've been very successful uh you navigated that with uh with Grace and ease looking back I obviously it was it was a you know what show in the middle but what do you what do you how does Dan Miller Define the word success well in The Strangest Secret which impacted me a lot you see that over here as well over my shoulder I had the original Little 33 and A3 vinyl oh wow of that that goes way back but there Earl Nightingale describes success as the progressive realization of a worthy ideal now that sounds a little Lucid but it really is it it's that where with that definition you can be successful as a high school sophomore because you're in that progress of working toward your wory ideal if you decide to you live in Haiti and help people build schools for two years it can be part of your journey so having that IDE definition of success has been really really helpful it's not a destination it's the the way you live life the way you journey through life so by that definition I was successful even in those years years where I was recovering man I had great relationship with my wife my kids my kids it's funny I've got grown kids now they don't remember that as a tough time they didn't realize we were I mean I was very open about Sharon but it wasn't like our home was a somber dreary Dreadful place we still had fun we had game night where other kids in the neighborhood wanted to come to our house yeah we didn't go to Santa Bell Island on vacation we might go to Taco Bell and get some burritos and go to the park to them it didn't matter we still had that same sense of anticipation and fun and that that's got to remain in those periods of ups and downs well I you're the second person in 204 episodes that has given that definition which is Earl Nightingale definition the progressive revelation War the ideal I I am a big fan of the of The Strangest Secret in ear nighty Gil I listen to that a lot I listen to most of anything you've probably talked about and listened to I've done the same thing but I think it's interesting I ask every guest what they're definition of success is and only two have given that I can't remember who the other person was so you're number two now on that using that as the definition of success do you consider yourself to be a successful person yes I do and I I I am rich in so many ways now I know what people entrepreneurs think when they hear that you know let let them see my bank account yeah you know that's okay but that's not what I focus on first I tell people I'm a familiar air meaning I'm so rich in family relationships you mentioned in the intro you know I've got wife of 55 years and 17 grandkids oh my gosh I mean how valuable is that I'm healthy geez I have things that I enjoy I still get the opportunity to to write and to interact with other wonderful people um yeah I can't imagine I mean we my my wife literally Jason gets up in the morning says she has to pinch yourself to make sure this isn't a dream because we live in Paradise we live in a gorgeous gorgeous community in Osprey Florida um in um house that we could only have dreamed of even a few years ago we have no mortgage we have you know a the doors are wide open today because we have a a caged in pool then we have people at our house I drive any kind of car that I want and again I'm not driving a Ferrari I'm not driving a $430,000 Ferrari because I just choose not to invest money in that way but yeah I mean I I can't imagine any way to make my life significantly there's there's nothing missing there's no big bucket item list that I haven't done yet I mean we go on cruises um we can give generously we just gave the largest gift we've ever given in a very unique way to an organization that we're really excited about so it's wonderful well D it didn't happen didn't happen to you when I was 24 years old it took a while what an inspiration Dan I I tell you I I I was really looking forward to having this conversation today but I did I wasn't prepared for that story and and that makes me even more happy to know you and be associated with you to know that you came through such a a terrible time a over a decade of your life trying to run from Bad mist mistakes and money problems to becoming the person as you just described a moment ago the successful person who's living living that life it's it's an inspiration to everyone certainly to me and uh I can't thank you enough for your your influence on so many millions of people through your books and your writings and and your appearances and what you're doing your Mastermind do you want to take a minute to kind of tell people how they can get involved with what you've got going on at 48 days.com sure and I appreciate that if I have I have a very common name you know I wondered about you you say the real Jason dck is that just separate you from other Jason Duncan out there it's actually a pretty funny story that is not why I chose it I actually I'll do the quick version is that I used that because when I got on Instagram I needed something and Jason Duncan was already taken and putting the real in front just seemed to be what people were doing so I did that and then later a personal branding expert did a did a session with me and she said you need to claim that as your personal brand and so there that's how I became the real Jason duck all right well Dan Miller as you can expect is a very common name so if you put in Dan Miller even as a career coach which I'm known as you put that in there's going to be 12 13 million sites that pop up and Dan Miller's probably in there somewhere but I have no idea where however you put in 48 days just that in a Google search I own it I'm going to own the first two three pages not through fancy SEO or paying for position because that's a brand that has worked magic for me so all you do is is put that in that's going to take you to all kinds of resources but at 48 days.com and we've got connections to my podcast information about resources that can help people move forward move past those mental blocks change their mindset I mean we have a lot of resources that I'm just thrilled to to share with people got that brand new version of 48 days to the work and life you love that'll be coming out in August of 2024 so I'm excited about that so I've got you know again I I enjoy hearing from just readers of my book somebody makes a minimal investment 16 bucks or whatever it is but uh I love hearing those stories about how I was able to give them some hope and encouragement moving forward well you've got other books too you've got of course the the the OG the original the 48 days of the work you love and the one that's coming out next year which is the 25th anniversary uh of that book but you also have wisdom meets passion no more dreaded Monday and an understanding heart you want to briefly talk about those sure no more dreaded Mondays came out right after the original version of 48 days to the worky LA because in there I talked about doing resumés interviewing job search negotiating salary and all that but then at the end of the book I said maybe you're tired of being jerked around not knowing when this job is going to end maybe you want to do something where you're more in the driver's seat so I said at the stage for no more Mondays which is much more entrepreneurial how to take ideas and really turn them into income then the other one you mentioned is wisdom E's passion I wrote that with my son who was living in Africa at the time and it's different generational approaches to education money success business and all that delightful interaction with the two of us so there's that wisdom eats passion an understanding heart is my newest release and it's a compilation of what I called Sabbath musings just short kind of thinking things to challenge our static thinking that I wrote and sent only to my Mastermind members that was the only purpose for them did it over fouryear period of time they're the ones that said dude you need to put this into a book and let other people experience this as well so it's 95 short segments about how to think differently how to see opportunities that other people miss and understanding heart of course comes from Solomon where Solomon didn't really ask for wisdom in the Bible he said God you given me all these people to manage give me an understanding heart I thought if that's the basis of wisdom I want that an understanding heart that's the title that's beautiful well go check him out at 48 days.com you can look him up anywhere on Facebook LinkedIn Instagram YouTube if you type in 48 days you're going to find this guy right here and uh you you need to you need to look into Dan Miller this this guy's still got some amazing stuff to share he's got a wonderful story and background that he just shared with us Dan thank you so much for being a guest on my show it's been an honor to hear your story and I'm uh I want to congratulate you on all your success and pushing through those hard times and thank you for being here today ah thank you so much Jason it's been a pleasure for me and I hope we've inspired your listeners as well the progressive realization of a worthy ideal that is the definition that Dan gave as of what success is and that came from Earl nightingale's The Strangest Secret so go check that out on YouTube you'll love it it's only about H it's not it's about half an hour but you can listen to it it's a wonderful definition of success only two people on the show have ever used the progressive realization of a worthy ideal now let me ask you this no matter where you are in your journey as an entrepreneur you could be on top of the mountain making bazillion dollars a year and everybody loves you and you're living the life that you desire or you could be in the pit of mud down at the bottom of the valley in the shadows no matter where you are you can be successful if you are progressively realizing a worthy ideal so don't believe the lies that Instagram gurus and Tik Tock gurus are going to tell you that if you're in the mud pit in the shadows that you're not worth anything that you're not successful and don't believe the ones say just because you're at the top of the mountain driving that $430,000 Ferrari that you are successful the reality is that success is a progressive realization of a worthy ideal and as long as you're moving towards that ideal you're successful now I know some of you listening to this show are in the middle of a crisis you're in the middle of everything is hitting the fan and nothing is going right but I want you to take into consideration Dan's story Dan is a guy who's worth millions of dollars today he's got tens of thousands of people he serves worldwide every single month and this guy for 12 years couldn't own anything because the IRS said he couldn't and during those 12 years he was promoting and producing and Publishing content on 48 days so if we'd go back to that time period look at him we' say oh man he's great right he's killing he's successful when in reality his net worth was negative we look at him today and we say hey this gu is doing awesome well that is in fact true but he was also doing awesome then he just his circumstances didn't tell the whole story he was progressively realizing a worthy ideal are you doing the same thing I want to invite you to take a look at my Mastermind the exiter club because perhaps that's where you need to figure out how to progressively realize you're worthy ideal as we get ready to start the new year this new year that's coming right around the corner maybe this should be your year to gather those people around you just like Dan talked about that helped him through his lean years gather those people around you to get to that place you want to go faster than you could on your own go to the exitor club.com that's the exitor club exitor is spelled exiter the exiter club.com check it out and go ahead and apply let's get together and talk about if this 2024 is the year you need to do that thank you for listening to the show thank you for leaving a review for subscribing and uh make sure you continue to follow this show because I'm having some amazing conversations with people just like d thanks for being here today I am the real Jason Duncan and as always Jesus is King attention business owners attention business owners feeling burn out from running your business uncertain if you're nearing burnout take our free 10 question business burnout test at business burnout test.com to discover where you stand with just 10 quick questions you'll learn how to immediately begin making changes to regain freedom and success cut your daily operations time in half improve your quality of life and prepare your business for your future exit without losing revenue or profit visit at business burnout test.com now and take the test thank you for listening to another edition of the root of all success with the real Jason Duncan if you've enjoyed this week's episode visit the root ofall success.com to access the show notes and other helpful resources follow Jason on social media at the real Jason Duncan see you again next time here on the root of all success [Applause]