Garrett B Gunderson is a natural-born entrepreneur who began his first officially licensed business by the age of 15 and immediately began to win business competitions across the state of Utah. Garrett took state for entrepreneurship in high school, and by the age of 18 was named the SBA Young Entrepreneur of the Year in a statewide competition for business owners under the age of 30.

Garrett first began focusing his abundant energy and talent on the fi nancial services industry while attending Southern Utah University. He entered the industry by 19 and became an advisor to several of his professors. Garrett is the youngest member to ever be on the Alumni Board for the University. Garrett was active in Sigma Chi where he earned the Constantine and Balfour distinctions—the two highest honors given by the fraternity. Garrett served as a senator for the school of business and was President of the United Greek Council. He was also honored multiple years as one of the top fi ve male contributors and was the youngest person ever to be inducted into The Old Main Society for his philanthropy and service to the University.

Garrett began making a six-figure income his first year out of college, and was a millionaire by age 26. He is now the founder, partner or executive of 5 successful companies. Garrett’s passion for helping others break down barriers to become successful is most evident in The Freedom FastTrack—a unique process he authored and designed to help others recognize potential, which can then be transformed into production through value creation. Garrett is also the author of the highly acclaimed book Killing Sacred Cows.

Garrett is married to his best friend, Carrie. They have two wonderful sons, Breck and Roman, who are the light of Garrett’s life and the permission to be silly and fun. He attributes his success to a hunger for learning and finding the greatest teachers, learning from them, teaching others in turn, and thereby developing amazing relationships. He also acknowledges that as his spirituality has strengthened so have his relationships and ideas.

A MILK CARTON HOUSE

When I was in kindergarten my class built some little houses out of milk cartons. I put a lot of effort into mine and I thought it was the most amazing, incredible, creative thing that anyone had ever come up with. I was so proud of that milk carton house, and I couldn’t wait to take it home and show my mom how great it was. However, my teacher had a different idea. At the end of the day she collected all of them. She put them all up on this high shelf where we couldn’t reach them. Then she said to us, “If you want your house back then you have to memorize the street number that is on your real house.” So even though it was freezing cold in the winter I would go outside of my house every morning before school and stare at those three numbers 3-6-7, over and over. Then later at school I would stand in line for my turn to say the numbers that would get me my milk carton house back. But when it was my turn I kept messing up. This went on for days. I’d say 6-3-7 or 7-6-3, et cetera, but I just couldn’t ever quite remember the right order when it was my turn. Eventually my milk carton house was the very last one left. Everyone else had already memorized their correct house numbers and had gotten to take their milk carton house home. I wanted to have my milk carton house back so much. My teacher told me I had one last chance to get it right. I was so nervous. I tried so hard to remember those numbers in order, but I got it wrong…again. Then she threw away my milk carton house that I was so proud of. It was gone. All my efforts didn’t amount to anything. I was humiliated. I had lost. There I was, five years old, and in that moment I decided that I must be stupid. I didn’t want anyone else to know how stupid I was. In fact, I spent nearly the next two decades of my life attempting to prove to myself, and to everyone else, that I wasn’t stupid, and it was all because of three numbers and a milk carton. We’ll come back to this story later.

If you’re Mozart and composing beautiful classical music at the age of fi ve then you’re probably not going to have a difficult time discovering your Soul Purpose. But for most of us Soul Purpose is not always so apparent. Discovering our talents and passions is often a journey, and that is certainly my story. I started my fi rst business in the small mining town I grew up in. I was fifteen years old. It was a physical business of washing and cleaning cars involving a lot of hard, tedious labor. There was this particularly warm day where I had my shirt off, sweating up a storm. I had been working for several long, hot hours. The vehicle I was cleaning had gotten repossessed in Mexico and it was filthy. Imagine the dirtiest car you’ve ever seen and multiply that vision by ten! After working on it for over eight hours, it still wasn’t even close to being done. Three of those hours were spent just getting all the garbage out of the vehicle. I had to takeout out the seats just to get at some of the trash, which had gotten into places you wouldn’t think possible. It was sticky, gross and in every way disgusting. But I have always been someone who wants to do a good job or not at all, so I kept going. The sun had already gone down when the realization struck that “this isn’t what I want to do for the rest of my life.”

However, I did discover that I was exceptionally good at certain things. I found that even though I didn’t want to wash all those dirty cars all by myself, I enjoyed many aspects of my first business. I started hiring employees. What I learned throughout the next few years, was that I really loved owning and running my own business. I enjoyed selling the services, coming up with creative ideas to attract more clients. I loved coming up with personal touches, such as having garbage bags, air fresheners, and customer coupons customized with my company’s log and offering premier detailing services. I got satisfaction out of making sure a great job was done, and that the clients were happy. In fact, I loved almost everything about it—except for the actual washing the vehicle part. On the other hand, there are plenty of people who prefer manual labor to running a business. They wouldn’t enjoy marketing services, or having the ultimate responsibility for seeing that a job got done the right way, whereas that’s the part that I got the most energy from.

While running my business, I ended up winning a competition called the Rural Young Entrepreneur and was awarded five hundred dollars for planning a presentation and speaking about my business. I found the experience to be exhilarating, and I thought about how many cars I would have had to wash to make that same amount of money. I also realized that working is not about activity it’s about productivity. It was an early glimpse of the concept of Soul Purpose when I started to realize that people could do what they enjoyed, provide a valuable service and make money while doing it. But back when I was still washing vehicles well into the dark, I only had one small piece of the puzzle.

AN INJURY & AN OPPORTUNITY

Also back in high school while I was still running my business, I was a decent baseball player. I was a pitcher with a great record, on a great team. I was having a great time. Then something seemingly horrible happened. I blew out my knee, and I didn’t get to be on the team my senior year. But here’s how things turned out; even though I didn’t get to play sports to the level that I wanted to, I was the only state champion from my school that year. I ended up taking the state championship title in business. I won The Governor’s Entrepreneur of the Year, got a $5,000 prize and I discovered some interesting things about myself. For example, I came to further realize that I had an innate talent for public speaking. I overcame the fear of speaking in public when I was given the opportunity to speak to very high-level, infl uential business people all over the state. The governor personally awarded me that prize, and some truly amazing opportunities came out of it.

So how does this all tie together? When I blew out my knee, I was really disappointed. But, I also knew that everything happens for a reason. I realized that I didn’t get to choose to go back in time and not blow out my knee and play ball my senior year, but I did get to choose where I went from that moment forward. I could either dwell on my perceived defeat, or I could rise up to a new challenge. Rather than whining, sulking and feeling sorry for myself, I chose to take my business to an extraordinary new level, because I had that extra time to devote to it that would have been taken up by baseball. All the while, my business kept on running while my knee was injured because I had a good team of employees. I ended up getting a university scholarship out of the experience, while making great connections and wonderful friends.

I’m still doing business with people I met during that time in my life. I was able to impact a lot of lives and was impacted by others as well. Was I sad that I blew my knee out? Of course I was. But I made the best of it and things turned out for the best. Figuratively speaking, I still have my knee blown out on a regular basis, in situations where things don’t turn out the way I would hope. But I remember that with every “injury” comes an opportunity.

CHOOSING THE PATH

When I graduated from college I had a very difficult decision. For everyone else, these particular decisions seemed incredibly wonderful, but for me it seemed overwhelming at times. I had 11 top-notch companies trying to recruit me to work for their firm. They were all offering me what most would consider amazing jobs that college grads don’t usually get to walk into. I would talk to my professors and they would say to go with a particularly prestigious firm, because not only would it be good for me, but it would bring prestige to the university to have a new grad recruited into such a respected company. In fact, for several positions it would be a first for the university to have a student recruited to work for such a high-level fi rm. My family was saying what jobs they thought sounded best, and my friends had their opinions too. Based on the decision I made, I would be moving to New York, Milwaukee or a number of other far off places. The opportunities were amazing. I knew it would seem really stupid if I turned them all down, and as you know from the milk carton disaster at the beginning of this chapter—having people think I was stupid was my worst fear. But in my gut, none of it felt right.

I wanted to live in Utah and stay close to the people I knew and loved. I wanted to work according to principles that I knew to be true, rather than according to popular opinion, or someone else’s mandates. But it was a really hard decision. I could have a great, seemingly guaranteed income with an established company, or I could do what my heart was telling me to do. I was paralyzed with fear for some time, which started to get me down. At times, I would stay in my bed in the morning for hours thinking about what I was going to do.

It was my last semester of college, what should have been one of the most exciting times of my life, and yet I was feeling worried and anxious about my impending decision. I knew that ultimately I had two choices, I could do what I really wanted to do, or do the so-called “smart” thing. I knew if I forged the path I felt was right for me, then it would all rely on me. I wasn’t sure if I was strong enough, if I had enough clients, if I could ultimately be successful doing what I loved to do. If I went to work for a large, prestigious firm, I would be okay, but I would be missing out on part of my own personal Soul Purpose, which happens to be connecting people, creating a vision, articulating complex situations easily, and forming models for production, which were all things I could better do in the context of running my own business. I didn’t consciously understand the concept of Soul Purpose at the time, but I had a pretty strong feeling that I could either do what I wanted to do, or I could do what others wanted me to do. I chose to follow my own path.

When I talked to the Dean of my school he gave me just that little nudge of encouragement that I needed. Unlike everyone else who was thinking only of the traditional definition of security and prestige, he pointed out my personal productivity. He pointed out the fact that I was already making more than he was. I was only working as a financial advisor part-time since I was still in school. In light of that fact, and considering my attributes as an individual, he assured me that I was going to do just fine on my own, and that I didn’t need to take a job that wasn’t right for me. I already knew it, but sometimes that little voice of confi rmation can make a world of difference when you’re hearing so many conflicting arguments. I took that encouragement and ran with it.

I went on to create my own successful financial advising firm, which has evolved to include mentoring and advising in not just the financial realm of life, but in every other important aspect of life as well. It was only then that I fully realized my own personal Soul Purpose, which was to help others live their own Soul Purpose. I knew that I wanted to do more than help people become rich. I also wanted to help them become more productive, more spiritual, happier, and to live their ideal lives as the very best version of who they were meant to be. Money alone doesn’t bring joy and success into one’s life. However, having financial freedom is usually a prerequisite to finding freedom in other areas of life, so that’s what I started with.

People who are bogged down with worries about their fi nancial situation, are usually not in the right state of mind to create breakthroughs in other areas of their life—whether they are the poorest of the poor, or the richest of the rich. We are now advising the very best and brightest individuals and corporations all across the nation. We’re successful because the principle based strategies and systems that we offer deal with the Human Life Value of each individual, therefore they work so much more effectively than “conventional” financial strategies. Financial success isn’t about strategies, it’s a byproduct of who you are. We began helping individuals realize that they were their own best products and were there own “guaranteed” financial success. We show people how to invest in accordance with their Soul Purpose, so that they are no longer gambling but actually investing in something that they believe in and have control over. We instruct business owners, CEOs and upper-management on how to more effectively synergize their Soul Purpose with the Soul Purpose of their team members, and many other incredible training programs through the Curriculum for Wealth and the Freedom FastTrack programs, which are now licensed to other advisors throughout the nation. None of this would have been possible if I would have gone with the safe bet, instead of with what I knew I was brought into this world to do. I further came to know that the only risky thing in finances is to not live your Soul Purpose. It can be a paradox at times, because in the short-run, such as in the situation where I considered taking a job with an established firm, it can seem like a choice where you can have security or Soul Purpose. But what I discovered was that living Soul Purpose is the ultimate security and the best measure of genuine success, rather than the false sense and definition of security taught by society.

AN AHA MOMENT

But before all these incredible things happened, I still had some important lessons to learn. When I first got married I was still stuck in the Consumer Condition, which is a state were an individual, or society as a whole, is not living in Soul Purpose, but rather buying in to falsehoods that keep us from contributing more than we consume. I grew up in an area full of wonderful people, but who unfortunately were living in the Consumer Condition and I thought that was just the way things were. I was making plenty of money but I had this idea that I should save every penny, accumulate net worth and that would be the ticket to success. I bought into the concept of wanting really padded investments and savings accounts. I owned over a dozen real estate properties pretty much right out of college, but I told my wife we couldn’t have our own house until we had even more money. I bought into a common fallacy.

I thought you had to sacrifice in order to have your dreams. So, I was fully prepared to keep sacrifi cing indefinitely, and furthermore; I was going to have my wife sacrifice what she wanted as well. When we went on a vacation, for example, instead of allowing my wife and I to truly enjoy ourselves, I made a point to scrimp and save in every way I could think of, which didn’t turn out to make the vacation all that fun. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my distorted concept of success was affecting my relationship with my wife and everyone else. I had created a prison, but I didn’t even see it. I thought, “I’m happy, she’s happy. She’s got a good life.” But I couldn’t see how I was actually damaging our relationship and causing unnecessary conflicts over money.

I was deferring my life into the future because I thought that my personal value was tied to the amount of money I had at that given moment, even though in reality it never was and never will be. However, at the time, I thought savings were going to be better than investing in my ability to produce. What I found out later was the exact opposite. You pursue your dreams precisely so that you can live in the moment, rather than to live in the scarcity paradigm, constantly worried about savings and going without.

Things started to change after I went to a seminar led by Ron Zeller, who now happens to be a business partner of mine. During this seminar I recognized that I had this huge blind spot that I couldn’t see in regards to money, and in regards to many other areas of my life as well. Where did this blind spot come from? I realized that it stemmed partially from that milk carton house experience I had as a child that convinced me that I must be stupid. I was trying to prove to the world that I wasn’t stupid by having lots of money. It didn’t really make much sense though, because my wife and I had money, but we were living like paupers in an apartment complex and driving around this car we didn’t like. My wife was wearing clothes that she didn’t want to wear, because I didn’t want her to buy new clothes, even though we could afford it. In fact, her mother was buying clothes for her on her teacher’s salary, because I was too worried about saving money to buy her new clothes.

In short, I made sure we sacrificed in every area for no good reason. I was simply trying to prove to everyone that I was really smart, and that’s how society traditionally teaches people to be “smart”, by “wisely” hoarding their money. I was making a 6-figure income, which was a lot more than the other couples in our apartment complex, but it wouldn’t have mattered how much money we did, or didn’t, have because I was still living in the poverty paradigm at that point. I was in scarcity. It was impacting nearly every area of my life but I didn’t even recognize it, because I was too busy comparing myself to everyone else.

Compared to other people our age, we were living a pretty good life, so it never dawned on me how far into the Consumer Condition I was living. I was judging myself by how much money I was saving, and I was also judging others for spending their money rather than saving it. It was a form of pride and arrogance, but I thought I was being humble by living below my means rather than focusing on my means, and expanding them. I got caught up in being right and in showing everyone how great I was. I wasn’t loving my life, in fact I wasn’t really even living my life. I was trying to live up to an idea that didn’t even exist. I was letting an impression made on me when I was 5 years old determine how I lived my life.

I was 24 years old when I realized this at that seminar, and from that moment on I started living my life. That paradigm shift took one second, but once I realize it—everything changed. I called my wife and told her my realization; that I was delaying our lives for no good reason. We talked, and in 45 minutes our relationship was completely transformed. She completely forgave me for my selfi shness. We started experiencing the life that we actually wanted. She got into her dream home, got to wear the clothes she wanted, we started going places and doing things without constantly scrimping. Here’s the best part, I started having more success, and making more money living this way than I ever had before while living in a scarcity mindset and saving every penny.

It’s not like we started living outside of our means. We just started “living” and the means kept increasing. I would never advocate that someone start being irresponsible with their money, and just hope that things work out. Personally, I’m a great steward with my money, and the few times I haven’t been, I’ve learned immensely from the experience. However, I was able to realize that money has no intrinsic value. If you’re not using money to live a wonderful life and to help others live a wonderful life, then what use is it sitting in a bank account or investment portfolio? I view the whole world differently because I invest in my Soul Purpose, which allows me to be the best producer possible, and to live in abundance rather than scarcity. Most importantly, I am able to see though a whole new paradigm that allows me to enjoy the moments. Now I focus on making course corrections to help me stay as balanced as possible. Whereas when I was completely out of balance, I had to deal with “forced corrections’, which is inevitably painful. My life is now in a state of growth and progression, whereas it used to be in a state of scarcity and frustration. It all started with that simple realization.

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES

My biggest challenge to overcome was to stop looking around at everyone else, but rather to create my own standard for what I wanted out of life. For example, I might look at someone in misery and compare myself to them. Comparatively, I have a great life, but is it really the life I want? Is it ideal? I was complacent based on limiting social beliefs that weren’t even true, but at the time I bought into it. These limiting factors exist all over the world. In fact, many of us at some point believe things to be true that actually turn out to be very false, but we’re not willing to confront it. There are many different reasons for this.

Some of us enjoy having a false security, or are too comfortable with a lie to give it up for the truth. For me it was a fear of how other’s would judge me if I starting conforming to my own standard rather than theirs. Because I was worried that someone might think I was stupid. But as soon as I was willing to give up how I “looked” and actually started looking instead, a whole new world opened up to me. I started being honest with myself, and what I came to realize was that most people in the world don’t want to know the truth—they’re frightened by it actually —just like I was. This is because when we look at truth we’re forced to confront our own “Sacred Cows”, which are ideas or beliefs that are, for one reason or another, unreasonably immune to criticism.

A lot of these false, limiting beliefs as they pertain to the fi nancial realm are covered in my book Killing Sacred Cows. By the term killing sacred cows, I’m referring to exposing the limiting myths, fallacies, and misguided traditions about the world of personal fi nance, but this also applies to every realm of our life. This kind of revolutionary understanding naturally creates greater opportunity, happiness and wealth for mission-driven individuals. By the term mission-driven I am, of course, referring to people who live their Soul Purpose. I’m referring to those individuals who choose to stop deferring their lives into an unknown future, and are ready to start living their ideal life in the now. When I finally got to the point that I could confront my own “Sacred Cows”, things really started to change.

Through living my Soul Purpose and giving up the Consumer Condition, I began living a much fuller, richer and more satisfying life. I have seen this same transformation take place with so many of our clients. So, if Soul Purpose is as wonderful as those who are living it claim, then why aren’t more people living their Soul Purpose? There are three main reasons why people don’t live their Soul Purpose. The biggest reason is because many people aren’t even aware that the concept exists. The majority of the planet is entrenched in the Consumer Condition, and most people don’t ever truly realize that they could do what they love to do and be successful. Secondly, once people understand the concept, they don’t always understand how to go about actualizing it. Lastly, even if they know their Soul Purpose and the right path, if they don’t have the right support structure then fear can override their intentions.

Another aspect of why some people don’t know how to live their Soul Purpose, is that many individuals don’t have a developed sense of who they are in the fi rst place. Even though they were born with a valuable and unique set of traits and talents, they may not have chosen, or have been able to, cultivate their individual gifts. Being born into a situation where you were not loved or valued, for example, can make this journey much more difficult for some. But I believe it is ultimately each person’s individual responsibility to discover and live their own Soul Purpose. For most of us, it isn’t something that just falls into our lap and manifests itself without any previous thought or effort. Breakthroughs can happen in a moment, but only if the individual is prepared and willing to see it for what it is. When our minds are weighed down with limiting beliefs, truth can hit us in the face and we won’t recognize it. Some people may even believe that they are living their Soul Purpose because they are very good at what they do. But the truth is, you can be very good at something and not enjoy it. That is because it may be a type of work that utilizes some of your talents, but not your passion. For example, you could be an excellent attorney and win every case, but if it doesn’t cultivate and provide you with “renewable” energy that leads to an inspired passion, then chances are—it’s not your Soul Purpose…it’s just something you happen to be good at. There is a difference.

It can be a lifelong journey for some. I helped develop The Freedom FastTrack programs to save people years of wasted time and energy. The Freedom FastTrack specializes in helping individuals realize their Soul Purpose and then quickly transform one’s Soul Purpose into actual value in the marketplace. But there are some things you can do to get the process started. I suggest asking your friends and family what they believe is great about you, and what characteristics and attributes they have noticed to be consistent in your life. I developed the Producer Power Hour^™ system (producerpowerhour.com) specifically to help individuals identify, develop and live their Soul Purpose on a daily basis. I’ve spent a lot of money in my life on programs, seminars, and other educational programs, but it wouldn’t get me anywhere if I didn’t understand how to integrate that information into my daily life. The thing is, most of us don’t usually have an ideal support structure, along with incredible mentors encouraging us to live to our fullest potential on a daily basis. So I developed the Producer Power system to do just that. It brings the best minds on the planet together to instruct, uplift and edify Producer Power Hour members on a daily basis through a variety of systems. Basically, it allows people to go within, so they never have to go without. For myself, the Producer Power Hour has proven to be the most powerful system that anyone can tap into on a daily basis to experience extraordinary transformation. Without the Producer Power Hour, it becomes tempting to wait for opportunity to “happen” or “come along”, but Producer Power Hour participants develop the ability to consistently create their own opportunities.

I have found that anyone who takes this transformative opportunity seriously will inevitably begin to see powerful transformations in their lives. The Producer Power Hour is a wonderful way for individuals to rid themselves of a scarcity mindset on a consistent basis, so they can always live in abundance and more fully understand and live their Soul Purpose.

Overall, it’s a system to create the most favorable conditions for individuals to live a life that they love. It is also a support structure, a mindset, a philosophy and more. But on a the most basic level, the Producer Power Hour is an individualized daily routine consisting of “ten minutes of transformation” in every major track of life including the financial realm, the spiritual realm, the mental realm, the physical realm, and the social realm. For anyone wanting to identify, enhance or further develop his or her individual Soul Purpose, I would recommend the Producer Power Hour as a wonderful place to start. Ultimately, you’ll be responsible for discovering, developing and implementing your own individual Soul Purpose in life, but a little guidance can certainly go a long ways. (If you’d like to try out this system for a month at no charge, sign up at producerpowerhour.com, and use the code EconSP)

As it turns out, the Dean at my university was someone who gave me some pretty good guidance, and it ended up benefiting the university as well. I’ve donated more to Southern Utah University than anyone else under 30, and became the youngest member of the Old Main Society. I’ve sponsored huge bands like the Goo-Goo Dolls to go and play at the university, I’ve been a guest speaker, I’ve hired students to work at my firm, and I’ve basically found a lot of ways to give back. None of that would have been possible if I hadn’t believed my college Dean’s good advice to follow my dreams and be true to who I am. Now I own firms centered around doing the same things for others, but in a much more powerful way. The Producer Power Hour is the daily support structure, while The Freedom FastTrack consists of highly specialized, intensive programs to allow individuals to reach the really big goals in life. Not only do all of these programs encourage individuals to live their dreams, but even more importantly, they provide tangible, comprehensive systems for doing so that are easy to understand and implement. The Freedom FastTrack provides a path to success that is repeatable, efficient, highly productive and virtually fail-proof. Helping others find their Soul Purpose is what I always wanted to do, and to be a part of. Now I am actually doing it. It’s incredible where following your own Soul Purpose can lead you.

SOUL PURPOSE SECURITY

However, there was a time in my life, as I mentioned earlier, that I was terrifi ed of living my Soul Purpose. I thought it was going to be risky, and that I might not succeed. What I have found out since then is that there is, in actuality, nothing in the world more secure than living your Soul Purpose. How could being the very best version of who you really are, be risky? Who in the world can be better at your God-given talents in just the right combination that you have? No one! Your Soul Purpose is unique, and that is what makes you infinitely valuable to the world. You have something to offer than no one else has. It’s become a cliché to say that everyone has a special gift, but everyone does have a unique combination of special gifts and talents. Each individual truly does have his or her own unique purpose for being on the Earth, along with a set of complimentary talents that can facilitate that purpose. Once that truth is realized, people have the innate power to transform their lives. They come to realize that the riskiest thing you could ever do is to not follow your Soul Purpose.

Unfortunately, most people don’t understand the concept. Many people are so caught up in the Consumer Condition that they will never break free to become whom they truly want to be—whom they were truly meant to be. That ignorance is the true source of every pain, trial and hardship on this planet. For some of us, it’s hard then easy versus easy then hard. If you always stick to the perceived “safe route” through life, chances are you’ll end up with less security, less joy and less abundance. Using myself as an example, I could have easily taken the “safe job”. Initially, at least, it would have been easier to work for an established fi rm and get my check every month, rather than to start up my own business, which required me to have faith in myself, my talents and abilities. The reality is that honoring your Soul Purpose does sometimes require tough choices and hard work up front, but the end result is always worth it. My life is now “easier” than it would have been relying on a paycheck, especially because I’m doing what I’m passionate about. I’m doing what I would want to do, even if I wasn’t getting paid for it. What could be “easier” than that?

Even so, just like I was once afraid to live my Soul Purpose, many other people have shared with me that they have also lived consciously, or perhaps subconsciously, thinking that they weren’t good enough, weren’t smart enough, weren’t valuable enough. This may seem strange, but when I had that breakthrough moment at that seminar and realized that I wasn’t stupid, I stopped worrying about net worth, and about saving every last dollar. Within a few weeks my wife was in her dream home. We actually started doing more business because of it. I suddenly had a different confidence. I felt comfortable having people come to my house for meetings. We entertain more, which I love to do. I love throwing get-togethers and parties. I am a “connector” in business and in my personal life. That’s who I am, but we couldn’t do that in our small apartment. Basically, I started having material things be an expression of who I am, rather than an expression of what I was afraid of.

Once that happens for you, you will find no greater security in life than in living your Soul Purpose. This growth became exponential for me when I started purposefully meditating, cultivating my energy, protecting my health and studying to become more knowledgeable in my field each morning. I wanted to share that expansive experience with others to help them enhance and maximize their ability to live their Soul Purpose, which is why I created the Producer Power Hour. As with the Freedom FastTrack programs, the purpose is to take an individual or corporation to a new level in a just a few months that many strive for their whole lives without ever attaining. It’s like taking a jet plane from New York to LA instead of walking it. You may get to the same point eventually, but think of the wasted time, pain and energy. It’s an incredible thing for my clients when they realize that their investment in their own education and progression has given them the best return on investment of their lives. You have to Be, before you Do, before you Have. This Be > Do > Have phenomenon is easily understood, but hard to put into practice. Without a practical, efficient outline and reproducible system to utilize, most people fail to realize their full potential. Each of us already has this transformational power within, but both the Producer Power Hour and The Freedom FastTrack programs simply facilitate developing and utilizing that power in an efficient, powerful way to accomplish the things that you were always meant to do.

INVESTING IN SOUL PURPOSE

Since experiencing these major paradigm shifts, I now invest in things that help me increase my Soul Purpose. I don’t look at investments in terms of products. I also don’t look at money’s value in terms of net worth and savings accounts. I look at what allows me to enjoy life to the fullest, and to be the most productive person possible. I now understand that my education and my mindset is the absolute most important thing I could ever invest in. It has offered me the very best return on investment that I could ever possibly make, because it’s what allows me to be more productive and continue to live life to the fullest in every sense. I’m constantly reading and going to events, and engaging in things that bring my mind to a higher level of awareness. I chose to live NOW how people say they want to live when they retire. I do what I want to do, and I have the things that I want to have.

However, I do not believe that having “things” is what creates value in life. I drive luxury cars, but they’re just nice cars that I enjoy driving—it doesn’t defi ne me as a person. I have a beautiful home. I own expensive, beautiful art. I have an incredible new building specified to create an ultimate experience for my clients. These things don’t define me, they are simply some of the fruits of my labor. I’m no longer trapped in a mindset where I feel compelled to hoard my money to enjoy in 30 years. I’m living my life now, and by doing so I am creating more wealth and happiness in my life and in the lives of others than ever before. I’m not waiting to do the things that I want to do now. In fact, I’m so passionate about what I do that sometimes it’s hard for me to go to sleep! I love engaging in my Soul Purpose and producing value for myself and for others. It gives me energy and brings me joy.

Why did I ever “wait” to start experiencing that? Because, I listened to this good intentioned but false advice: “If you’ll sacrifi ce now, you’ll have it really good in the future.” That sounded so reasonable and rung true to me at first. I bought into it. I couldn’t see how poisonous that philosophy can become. I was looking forward to “someday” rather than actually enjoying my life and living in the present. Now I understand that someday is today. I ask myself, “What today would give me the most fulfilling life, the most joy and the most happiness?” If I were to always wait for someday, where would I be today? Not where I want to be, that much is certain. As soon as we say “someday” we start getting into trouble.

THE DANGER OF A DEFERRED LIFE

You might be thinking, “But patience is a virtue. You can’t just do exactly what you want today and not plan for tomorrow.” In some contexts that is perfectly true. But if you’re deferring your life using “someday” as an excuse, you’ll never get where you want to be TODAY. Let me give you an example from my own life. I used to do it with eating. I keep pretty fit these days, but I used to play the “someday” game with food. I would think, “I really ought to start eating better.” Then I would think to myself, “I’ll start on Monday.” Since I was going to start eating healthy on Monday, I felt that in the meantime I may as well eat whatever I wanted, which meant I was basically going to pig out on junk food. Guess what happened? I started gaining a lot of weight. This is a specific example, but I can truly say that anytime I see people trying to defer anything in life, regardless of the situation, it does not work out for them the way they want it to.

Don’t buy into the idea of deferring your ideal life, of deferring happiness, of deferring doing what you love. The mindset of deferred happiness is part of the Consumer Condition of scarcity, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you’re always waiting for something to be “enough”—there will never be enough. It’s that simple. What I learned from the unfortunate experience of choosing to live unnecessarily in the Consumer Condition back when my wife and I fi rst got married is this: you can never get back the memories that you chose to not have! I could have given my wife her dream home sooner. I could have made our vacations and activities so much more enjoyable, but I chose to live in a scarcity mindset and deny both of us that experience even though we could have easily afforded it. Once I understood that someday is today, we started having so much more abundance, happiness and harmony than we had ever previously experienced.

LEVERAGING SOUL PURPOSE

My biggest desire has always been to create something that would allow people who would traditionally be considered “ordinary” to perform extraordinary. My whole life I had this innate desire to elevate everyone I come in contact with. I wanted people to be able to see their potential. Even though it wasn’t my original intent, I found that by elevating others and leveraging their Soul Purpose, I was also able to accomplish so much more myself. I was able to do more of what I loved because I was helping others to do more of what they loved. Soul Purpose has an incredible, synergistic effect on others. When you start truly being YOU and honoring your own Soul Purpose, you are also giving others permission to more fully be themselves and to live their own Soul Purposes.

It’s incredible how it works in such a complementary fashion, and yet so many of us don’t take full advantage of it. Through living my Soul Purpose I became more prosperous and was able to give my friends and family greater opportunities, as well. Some of them even work for me now in areas where they naturally excel and are drawn to. People have told me, “Don’t do business with family and friends.” But what I have found to be true is that if you’re doing the right thing, then you can do business with whoever else is also doing the right thing, regardless of who that person is.

I don’t live in fear, or with secrets. My life is an open book. I don’t hide anything, because I’m not ashamed of who I am, and I have nothing to hide. At my fi rm, for example, anyone can see the books that want to see the books. There are no secrets about who’s doing what and who’s making what amount of money from what they’re doing. That’s one of the many benefits of living Soul Purpose, and having a team that also lives Soul Purpose. I’m not saying every firm has to be just like mine, but the point is that people who are living their Soul Purpose move beyond competition, it’s about being who you are, doing what you’re good at doing and allowing everyone to mutually benefi t.

I practice this same openness in my blog , in books I write, my radio broadcasts and in the events that I host. I’m not afraid anymore to let others know who I really am. If I’m struggling with something, I’ll let you know that too. But now instead of dwelling on a problem or setback for weeks at a time, I quickly find a solution—sometimes in only a few seconds—and get on with living the life that I love. Most importantly, I try to share my breakthroughs with others. I’m completely committed to helping people discover and live their potential, which makes them happier, more productive and wealthier.

Back when I was still in a scarcity mindset, I would think about how much I was paying my assistant, for example, and think, “I could go buy a Rolex with that money”. Living in that kind of a scarcity mindset causes all kinds of unnecessary pain and irritations on a daily basis. What I didn’t understand then, but what I clearly understand now, is that people—not things—are the true assets.

Now that I more fully understand and live my Soul Purpose I love giving, and the more I give the more I receive. I love to give and receive knowledge. I love to educate and be educated. Sharing concepts with others that I know will enrich and improve their lives, is an energizing and rewarding experience for me. The Accredited Network is the perfect expression of this. By bringing together a network of talented experts in their own fields, we are able to leverage and support each other’s Soul Purposes. As I live my Soul Purpose, I am able to energize and enrich others, as well. That is the true beauty of living Soul Purpose. You will have and give more abundantly than you ever could in doing something that is not in line with your Soul Purpose.

The Accredited Network is a wonderful example of Soul Purpose in action. They’re able to serve others far beyond offering general financial advice, because everyone is specializing in exactly what they’re good at, but all are working together for the same objective of increasing the client’s prosperity. Often your average financial advice is laced with well-intentioned but misleading or contradictory information, because most financial advisors do not understand the subtle lies and money myths that pervade society. They are trapped in the Consumer Condition themselves, so they can hardly empower their clients to break free.

Some people may misunderstand Soul Purpose to be a selfish thing. When it is really the opposite. Living your Soul Purpose is the greatest gift you could ever give the world. Some people may think from a false sense of duty that there is virtue in doing something that makes one miserable, or in being poor, but the truth is that they are not only doing themselves a disservice, but also everyone they come in contact with. They are depriving the world of their unique talents and attributes because they are not utilizing them for everyone’s greatest benefit. Unfortunately, they are also depriving themselves and their loved ones of living the fullest, most joyful and rewarding lives that they could ever imagine.

THE PRODUCER PARADIGM

When I was 10 years old in school, I remember thinking that it was ironic that the kids who were always getting sent to “de”tention were actually the ones getting all of the “at”tention. I thought about how unfortunate it was that these kids who weren’t at all interested in learning, and weren’t letting other students learn either, were the one’s taking up all of the teacher’s energy. Later I was going camping with my father when he pulled off to the side of the road and started picking up garbage. I said, “Hey, what are we doing, why are we picking up other people’s garbage for them?” He said, “Look, I don’t care who made the mess, I’m concerned about making any community I’m around better because I live there, not making it worse.” I thought back to the detention phenomena and about what my dad was saying, and I knew what he was saying was right. I committed to myself at that moment that I was going to be someone that always created more value than I consumed. I decided that I was going to take personal responsibility for making my community great, rather than to just leaving it up to others.

Each of us has that same opportunity to create more than we take, and fi nd greater joy in being a Producer (one who produces more than they consume) than we ever could as a Consumer (one who consumes more than they produce). Whether you’re running your own business or working for someone else, it doesn’t matter so long as you’re living your Soul Purpose. When we live our Soul Purpose, we’re creating value. Enjoying the experience of creating value is the most natural thing on Earth. It’s what we want to do, what we love to do and what we would ultimately do even if money were of no concern. Retirement becomes irrelevant when you’re already doing what you love. You could technically retire, but if you were truly living your Soul Purpose, you’d just want to keep doing what you were already doing, because that is what brings you the most joy, the most energy, and the very most rewarding life possible.

You’ll understand your Soul Purpose when you can answer this question: what would you do all day long whether or not you got paid to do it? When you actually find a way to answer that in a way that is deliverable as value to others, then you will be living Soul Purpose. Not only will you get to do what you love, but you’ll get paid for it, and you’ll be very successful. You’ll be doing something that only you can do to that level, which makes your services and products valuable indeed.

SOUL PURPOSE BREAKTHROUGHS

The following chapters are full of the experiences and wisdom of individuals who have been mentors to me and to other successful Producers all over the nation. I have asked each of these contributing mentors of mine to share what they have learned through their individual Soul Purpose journeys, and what living their Soul Purpose has led them to. They were gracious enough to agree to share their personal stories and discoveries with the readers of this book.

Every contributor has inspired me, and has directly contributed to my personal success, and they can do the same for you. I have met with hundreds of high-level players across the spectrum of the financial services industry, and I can truly say that these individuals are the people who are the very best at what they do. In a sense, this book is an assembly of your own personal “board of directors”. You have a truly marvelous opportunity to glean personal insights from their experiences and breakthroughs. This book reveals an the incredible philosophy of Soul Purpose from many angles, and walks of life, which can help you to become clearer about your own Soul Purpose, and the paths that you will take.

I want you to understand how valuable this opportunity to read their stories is, so that you can get the most out if. These amazing, successful people are sharing highly personal experiences, and great wisdom accrued through their lives and Soul Purpose journeys. This book is a highly concentrated dosage of specialized wisdom and inspiration that no one person could ever discover entirely on their own in one lifetime. Allow yourself to absorb this knowledge, and leverage the expertise of these remarkable Producers. If you do so, I can promise; you will experience some incredible breakthroughs of your own.

You can contact me at: garrett@freedomfasttrack.com.