Extreme Sensibility
What does it mean to live with conviction without losing your mind? What does it look like to hold strong beliefs in a world that rewards outrage, chaos, and noise?
I’m Gabe Galster — husband, father, believer, business owner — and like a lot of you, I’m trying to figure out how to navigate faith, family, culture, and country without losing sight of what really matters.
We’re going to ask hard questions. We’re going to challenge assumptions—including our own.And we’re going to pursue truth with sensibility. Extreme Sensibility.
Extreme Sensibility
Build the Life You Actually Want — Wayne Bettoney | ESP.006
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At 77 years old, Wayne Bettoney has something most people spend their entire lives chasing: the freedom to live life on his own terms.
But it didn’t happen by accident.
Wayne grew up poor in South Louisiana, raised by a single mother and shaped by the work ethic of the Greatest Generation. He became the first in his family to graduate from college, built businesses, made money, lost money, raised three children, traveled the world, and eventually built the retirement and family life he had spent decades working toward.
In this episode of Extreme Sensibility, We sit down with Wayne to talk about the lessons that only become clear after you’ve lived enough life to see what actually matters.
We discuss hard work, building wealth without becoming consumed by it, living below your means, learning from failure, faith, raising children, protecting freedom, staying physically active as you age, and why family may ultimately be the greatest legacy a man leaves behind.
Wayne also shares the advice he would give his younger self: make a plan, play the long game, stop worrying about keeping up appearances, enjoy your family while you have them, explore your faith, and never stop moving.
Because the goal isn’t simply to retire from something.
It’s to build a life worth retiring to.
This is a conversation about money, faith, family, freedom, purpose, and what it means to build a life you won’t regret.
There comes a point in every man's life when the questions begin to change. Not how do I make more money, but am I building the right life? Will all this work eventually buy me freedom? Will my wife, my children, and one day my grandchildren actually enjoy spending time with me? How do I retire to something instead of simply retiring from something? Those are the questions this episode is about. My guest today is my friend, Wayne Betney. I've known Wayne for nearly 10 years, and what I've admired most isn't his career, his businesses, or even his adventures. It's his intentionality. Wayne doesn't drift through life. He makes a plan, then he patiently spends years executing it. He grew up poor in South Louisiana, became the first in his family to graduate from college, built successful businesses, raised three outstanding children, remained deeply connected to his family through every season of life, and today, at 77 years old, he's living a retirement that most people only dream about. Not because he got lucky, but because he built it. Today I want to understand the principles behind that life, the value of hard work, the importance of faith, why family is your greatest legacy, why freedom requires responsibility, how to know when to plan and when to pull the trigger. This isn't simply Wayne's story. It's a blueprint that every man, whether he's 25 or 75, can learn from. I'm Gabe Galster. Welcome to Extreme Sensibility, Wayne Betney. Welcome to Extreme Sensibility, Wayne. Happy to be here. Well, I'm glad to finally have you. I know we've talked about this for a while. Just so everybody will know out there, uh, Wayne Betney, uh, good friend of mine, uh, a man that I admire um in what you've done in life, but also how you've lived your life. Uh, you've lived a life with some purpose, um, and you know, what you've achieved and how you've achieved that and the intentionality, you know, at least from a guy standing back and watching, uh, has been something that I've admired. And uh, you know, I'm I cannot wait to let people hear some of your story, uh, you know, some of your battles you've been through, your how you've persevered, because it is uh it is something that needs to be heard in this day, especially, of people that are kind of lost and disgruntled and and trying to find fulfillment. So thank you again for taking the time out and coming aboard. And uh, we're gonna get this thing started. Let's get rolling. Yeah. So let's start in the beginning. Tell a little bit about where you started as a kid, you know, because I know that that influenced you as an adult.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was interesting because you look back now and uh had a single mom. Uh uh, as we talked before, my parents met in uh Normandy on D-Day. That's amazing. Which is amazing. And um, so my father was a pilot in the cactus division, and he was from Des Moines, Iowa. And uh, so after the war, they came back and lived in Iowa, and um she was missing South Louisiana because her first language is French, and she just she, I guess they uh they stayed together five years, had two kids. I have an older sister, and she said, I'm going to South Louisiana, and he said, I'm staying in Iowa. Yeah and so I kind of grew up without a dad. Um and then you don't know it until you get older. Right. And now I have a son, and when he calls and says, Hey dad, let's talk, and I'm like, I didn't have that.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And um so I'm really happy to have that on the other side as I get older. And uh for the people out there that are either divorced or single parent, it's hard, and um you're gonna wonder if you made the right decision every day of your whole life.
SPEAKER_01Right. But you grew up uh when y'all moved back to to Louisiana, Eunice, Louisiana, yeah, rice farming with your grandfather, was that right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and we had black Angus cattles, typical farm life chickens and right, all that stuff. And then my uncle, um, that I mentioned uh in your um questionnaire, right, uh was a Navy CB. And so after the war, he came back and in Eunice, he set up Aguilard's ironworks. Oh he was a welder because that's what CBs do. Yeah, and for the people who don't know, C bees are the construction branch of the Navy. When they're doing an invasion, they got to go in and build airports and bridges and everything, and their crest is a rifle in one hand and a hammer in the other, right? And they're getting shot while they're building stuff. So he was an amazing smart guy, and he had a welding shop, he could make uh he could roll his own pipe. Um, and so that was rice country. So his he was 90% working on farm equipment, right? Big combines and tractors and uh all that stuff, pumps, and uh man, for a 10, 12-year-old kid, you know, before high school, I'm like, this is paradise. I spent every day I could in his shop.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_0012 years old, I'm welding and sweeping the shop at the end of the day. But I watched how he treated his money. Every dollar bill he ever made was flat and straight and square in his wallet. We were going to buy fish or buy my uh shiners to go crappie fishing, so they call it down there. And he opens his wallet, and boy, that money was perfect.
SPEAKER_01Right. It's funny the things you pick up on.
SPEAKER_00I'm like, wow.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's one of the things that I've I've seen, you know, uh in life uh is that people that truly work hard for their money and came from very little appreciated. And even today, you know, I'm not gonna walk past change laying on the street. Oh, I never, it's because I appreciate that. Oh, okay. And I think if you walk past it, that's some bad karma.
SPEAKER_00I can't a penny or 50 cents or a quarter, I can't either. Right, right. Stop in the middle of the street and hit hit by a car.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But I remember him doing that. And uh, but I saw how hard he worked. Right. You're going to South Louisiana, man. It's a hundred degrees. You're in a welding shop. You're putting with sparks all over and and full clothes because it's hot and you're dangerous what you're doing.
SPEAKER_01So you were basically raised by two World War II veterans from the greatest generation that knew hard work and independence, and nobody was gonna be there to save them. They had to make it them themselves. I mean, did y'all have money? Did you not?
SPEAKER_00Where I mean nobody just uh, you know, living on the farm during the depression, my mother would tell me uh stories. You know, they get that uh that cheap lay um lesser level of molasses to give the cows.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And we had a molasses rub, and she said, I can't tell you how many uh days for dinner we had cornbread and milk and molasses, corn hot cow molasses.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00But they had a huge garden. I remember sitting on the porch uh steps, concrete steps with my grandma snapping beans and shucking peas and corn and everything. So they didn't, she said, we didn't know we were poor because we were eating great and having fun.
SPEAKER_01Yep, had family around.
SPEAKER_00We had crawfish 10 months a year because they followed the water and uh uh we had chicken and we had sheep and we had uh Angus cattle, and said and she said, we didn't know we were poor because we were living good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I talked to my great-grandmother, they were farmers in Stuttgart, and I remember as a kid, which is kind of a strange conversation to have as a child with your your great-grandmother, but I'd heard about the Great Depression and how horrible it was. I think we might have been learning in elementary school back when they taught those things. Um but I asked her about it if she was, and she was like, Oh, yeah, I was very much alive. You know, me and your great-grandfather were married, you know, during that period. And I said, Well, what was it like? And she was like, we really didn't know any different. You know, everybody was poor back then, other than not having some of the uh the commodities, especially as they got into World War II, which I understand that was not the Great Depression era. She said that was more of a shake up the the commodity restriction in World War II than actually what they experienced in in the Great Depression. So it was just self-sufficient people. And uh, you know, that has to have impacted your life as you move forward out of childhood and and into adulthood, you know. It uh I know looking back on just my experiences and how that uh positively and negatively well watching him open that wallet to buy just for shiners, right?
SPEAKER_00And but uh it connected to how hard he worked to get there.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And I remember one day, it's funny that I we did a million things, and one day a guy rides up in a big Oldsmobile 98. It was big as an aircraft carrier. You remember that? Big old four-door, brand new Oldsmobile 98, right? Goes up to the front door of the shop, and my uncle was fixing his uh piece of equipment, I don't know what. He gets out of that car, he was in an overall coverall, no shirt, you know, so he's greasy and sweaty and dirty and dirty shoes in this brand new, beautiful Oldsmobile.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And I'm like, holy cow, he's uh wait, and then uh he walks up to my uncle and he was making uh pipe for the take the water, they don't want to have all the synthetic stuff like they do today, to to run water from the from the um from the uh well to the where he needed it. And uh he said, How much to owe you? My uncle's name was Roy, and he said two or three thousand dollars, you know, 50 years ago, 60 years ago, god it was 12, that's 60 years ago. A lot of money. He pulled out his wallet and it was full of hundred dollar bills, and he counted out, I guess, 20 or 30. And I'm watching this guy in coveralls with a brand new car but covered in dirt, right? And that taught me number one, never underestimate what somebody looks like.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00I've gotten to see if you saw this guy on the street, you'd think he's a hobo, right?
SPEAKER_01And he's walking around with a brand new fortune in his brand new big old Oldsmobile 98, which was a big, fine car, yeah, and and a wallet full of hundred dollar bills.
SPEAKER_00So I learned and look at people and you don't know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, don't judge that book by the cover.
SPEAKER_00Be careful. Yeah, this is uh that was a real message.
SPEAKER_01Sometimes when the covers beat up pretty good, you can uh it's a whole story.
SPEAKER_00It's all natural for all of us to make judgments. We should never judge anybody.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00We don't know where they came from.
SPEAKER_01Well, you know, growing up down in Eunice, which I'm a little familiar with that community, being that you know my wife's family is just south of there. Um and uh not a whole lot going other than crawfish, rice, and some cattle and oil. Yeah. So when did you decide that you were going somewhere else? That you were college. I mean, uh, that has to have been a big deal for for y'all.
SPEAKER_00I mean, the family, uh me and my sister were the first generation to go to college.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And um this gets back to the war, but it's Vietnam. So when I was draft age, now I had an uncle in Elton, Louisiana. One of my mother's sisters lived in Elton, Louisiana, big population, 1200.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's the other side of Basiland Kinder. It's a small one. And they had a dry goods store there, but my uncle was the director of the draft board. So he sat me and my cousin, his son down and said, uh, Vietnam. And I watched something probably three days ago about Lyndon Johnson. Lyndon Johnson's philosophy about Vietnam, about war in general, was overwhelm people. Right. Overwhelm with fire, with soldiers, just numbers, throw numbers at them. Well, those numbers were dying. And um so my uncle said, You guys are draft eligible, and it's real likely you're gonna go to Vietnam. At the time, they had a four-year deferment if you went to college.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00So went to college, stay out of Vietnam. And you had to stay uh caught up. If you're a freshman at the end of your freshman year, you have to qualify to be a sophomore. If you didn't, you go in the draft. So two years into my college, the NAACP said that was racial, racist. Because the white college boys, even though I had three jobs some semesters, and one year I took 18 hours and a three-hour uh correspondence course. I needed to get out because college was expensive. But so the NAACP sued, and it turned out I don't remember what the ruling was, but they ruled in their favor. That's when they did the birthday draft. You know what that is?
SPEAKER_01No, I'm not familiar with that.
SPEAKER_00You don't you never heard of that? Okay, so two years in, I'm a fraternity guy, I live in the fraternity house, I was a fraternity house manager, which means I got free room and board.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00So I had another job at a bank. I was a teller at a bank. So I had a lot of jobs. But so they got rid of this is history for you. They got rid of the uh a four-year deferment, and they said you only have a deferment. No, no, you're only gonna um be draft eligible based on your birthday. So we had a party, and what they did on live television nationwide, drawing names.
SPEAKER_01I remember my dad mentioning drawing names on TV.
SPEAKER_00When's your birthday?
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00When's your birthday?
SPEAKER_01January 31st.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so they're going along. January 31st, you're number two. And you're like, okay, I'm gonna join the Air Force. Right. If you were in the top hundred, you were most likely to get drafted. And we had a party, we had a band, they play a song, and they say, Okay, January 31st, here you are. And they would announce everybody's date. I got 226. So my uncle called me and my cousin, and he got 180 something. And he said, You guys are most likely to not be drafted based on your birthday. And so they couldn't say that was racial, it's based on everybody's got a birthday.
SPEAKER_01Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And that's how the change happened, and that's how the birthday thing happened.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I heard bits and pieces of that. I didn't know how the evolution occurred. So you were, yeah, I guess you uh I was celebrated.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, celebrated and uh you were 365, you were never gonna go.
SPEAKER_01And what year was that? Uh right.
SPEAKER_00You know you have to look, but I'm gonna say 1969.
SPEAKER_01Okay. All right.
SPEAKER_00So that's pretty accurate.
SPEAKER_01I think just at the heat of of the conflict.
SPEAKER_00And then so four years later, four years after I started, it Vietnam was winding down. Right. Plus, I had a high number.
SPEAKER_01So you finished up, and uh yeah, what what were you majoring in?
SPEAKER_00I got a BS in marketing.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And then uh got a second degree, they gave me a second degree in psychology. So I have a double major, and then I went to Northwestern State and got an MBA.
SPEAKER_01Okay, all right. And then what happens next?
SPEAKER_00Uh got a job. I actually I was a Capa Sig at fraternity, and um the TV station, CBS station, WFB, was looking to add some salespeople. And so I did a couple interviews and they liked me and they said, we're gonna have one of our sales guys take you to lunch. So guy named David Near, who later uh got in the barge business. David was my one of my mentors. All right. I bought my first apartments from David Near. We wrote a deal on a napkin in 1978. But David took me to lunch and he found out I was a captain sig. He was a capa-sig at USL in Lafayette.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And I was a capa-sig in Baton Roach. So we're having lunch, and then he saw my my uh Cap Sig ring and he said, You're a Cappa Sig. So we we drank a pitcher of beer at lunch.
SPEAKER_01That always helps the business.
SPEAKER_00And he went back and recommended they hired me. So my first job was uh actually for with the Hertz truck division, but that didn't last long. So my first real job was WFB.
SPEAKER_01All right. And uh so along that way, when you I guess you know, when you're young, you know, you get your first job. I mean, you're you're kind of narrow focused, but it's kind of on your, at least for me, it was on myself. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And just surviving, you know, just trying to trying to make it from paycheck to paycheck and rent payment to rent payment. Um how when did you start evolving in a bigger picture? You know, you're working at the at the um broadcast stations and kind of finding your way there. Is that something that you saw yourself sticking with?
SPEAKER_00Well, I knew I kind I knew I wanted to get married and have kids.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Why? I can't tell you. I just knew there was something more to life than being single.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And I had a group of single friends from Pankerville down nearby Homa. Uh and uh one of my roommates was from Pankerville, Bobby Dagle, and he's a doctor in San Francisco now. But his father was the coroner for Assumption Parish. And his family was the owner of Lula Plantation. Lula was uh it still today is, I think it's 26,000 acres of sugarcane. Wow, they own that, so that was the rich people.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00I didn't come from money. Bobby came for money. So I got to see that. But we went to um and they had a camp on Grand Isle and we went diving and fishing, but uh I saw their family life, and there were eight kids, seven boys and a girl. And I remember when their grandfather, Clovis, Clovis Dangle, we went to his 96th birthday party.
SPEAKER_04Wow.
SPEAKER_00And I saw the family atmosphere, all the kids, grandkids, Clovis danced with every woman there. He danced till one or two in the morning. And but I saw the closeness of family, and I said I want to have family and kids.
SPEAKER_01Right. And that's you think uh some of that was also driven for what you what you didn't have as a child?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. It's uh, you know, it's amazing how God kind of guides us through life, you know, with those examples that come in, you know, that uh, you know, one of the things that uh stood out to me, you know, in my direction, we came from a fairly large, diverse family, and that was always fun and exciting and entertaining. But also seeing within my wife's family, we started dating so young, you know, the stability there and the cloth the real closeness of of that, um, and trying to blend those two dynamics is what we shot for. And I I think we did all right. We did good. We did all right. So that was that was cool that you had that close relationship to your uh roommate and your buddy and got to see that big picture. And so that started giving you some direction, at least uh uh a point out there that you were gonna work towards.
SPEAKER_00They they finally kind of adopted me because uh the camp on Grand Isle and you had boats and you've been you know the the lure of the Gulf of Mexico, it's just unreal. My favorite place, yeah, favorite place in the world. And um, so they would have a stroke the boat weekend where all we did is wax and clean, we're not going fishing.
SPEAKER_04Yep, working.
SPEAKER_00And then uh once a year they would have a uh a stroke to camp. And so we got there, and um, you know how you take pictures of your fish at the end of a trip. You posted a lot of those. We took pictures of all of us with 30, 40 cans of paint. Like our trophy was what we did. So I got there, I said, What's the dirtiest job? What's the job that nobody wants to do? They painted their creosote pilings, you know, their big 12, 18-inch piling, bright red, enamel red, oil-based red.
SPEAKER_04Doesn't cover it.
SPEAKER_00And it's 100 degrees. Yeah, nobody wanted to do that job. I said, I'll do that job.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Um when they and so the rest of the next 20 years when they needed to invite somebody.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00I always got invited because they knew I wasn't afraid of work.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Yeah, the four-letter word now.
SPEAKER_00So so I because I didn't grow up with a boat or a camp or anything like that. Right. And I see my house here on Lake Hamilton is kind of the beginning of my family doing that.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00I hope my grandkids' kids come to that house.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Well, you're doing a great job at instilling that and and offering it up. So, you know, you're a young guy, you're you're working in the industry, you're getting to the taste of what is possible and kind of setting those goals for life. What happens next?
SPEAKER_00What's the next big Well, I'm I met my eventual wife. Right. And um literally at the end of the first date, I said, okay, that's the woman I'm gonna marry. Crazy how that happens. I don't know how that happens. I don't know if it happened to you or not.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And um we got married, we stayed married 26 years, just grew apart. Right. But we um uh she and I was working by tail off, so she did a great job raising the kids. Um we uh always went to church, and it and you know you you feel, and I don't know how you did with Gabe Junior and Noah, but you don't want to push anything on them.
SPEAKER_01Right, exactly. Religion in particular, probably too an extreme on my my end of it, but yes, I agree.
SPEAKER_00Religion in particular, you have to set an example and let them make the choice. Right. So we went to First Southern Baptist in Bryant, and the kids love going because every Wednesday night they had a youth group and they had live music, and they're singing and dancing and having good food and hanging out with their friends.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00So they got to see religion without anybody pushing it on them. And it tickles my heart now when I see my son is really involved in his church in Florida. And I'm like, okay, we didn't do that, he did that, right? But he got it from somewhere. And one of the most shocking things about Charlie Kirk dying for me, because uh uh my son in Florida, he um he sent me messages about the time Obama got elected and said, You're being too political. And I hadn't been political my whole life. I'd the United States on the right track. Charlie Kirk dies. And um I was talking to Marshall one day and he said uh he mentioned something that I said, so did you follow Charlie Kirk? He said, I have seen everything he's put on video since the very first day. All right, I didn't know it. That was shocking and um fulfilling at the same time. I'm like, wow, he got it. If he's following Charlie Kirk, he's got the message.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yeah, it's it's so rewarding because in the end, you know, that's what we hope for our our children. You know, we're trying to lead them, instill in them certain values, hoping that they take it and run with it, but you can't force it. You you can just put it out there. I I use the analogy and uh I will continue because it's it's one thing. I grew up in a musical family.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And we were surrounded by musical instruments.
SPEAKER_00Oh, cool.
SPEAKER_01Um, but we were never forced to play them. Uh, you know, in my house, we have guitars on the on the wall and we had pianos and we had everything else, and my kids, they were there if you felt the calling. Yeah. But we weren't gonna make you do it. You know, so you know, religion and life in general is is that's the way that we've tried to uh approach things. And maybe uh I I gave them a little too much, and they you know, well, they're watching, so but they they watch it, but it it's it's so rewarding to see that. But you know, the you know, family I know is a is a huge, huge part to you. It's a huge part to me, and our recognition that we're only here on this earth for a short period of time, and that balance that we have to strike with enjoyment of life and fulfillment of life and what we leave in the end. When did you uh I know in my life it again, early on, you're just focused on the grind. Yeah. Um, you're everything's being thrown at you, you're not wise yet. Oh, yeah. You haven't lived enough life. Um when did you start thinking beyond just the day-to-day year to year? Uh you know, because you you switch your, I mean, you you went into restaurants, which you know, I admire now. I I I have a whole new respect for for people that not only go into restauranting but succeed in it.
SPEAKER_00It's the hardest business in the world.
SPEAKER_01Uh and I am a hundred percent with you on that one now. Um it uh but you know, when did you start saying, okay, I've got to start figuring out where I want to land? Probably not till about your age, 50. Right. When I don't feel as bad now.
SPEAKER_00No, no, no, it's right. That's kind of because you're busy until you're about 50.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And you're about to have your first grandchild.
SPEAKER_04Yes.
SPEAKER_00That's gonna change things. But I think uh if you're lucky enough to make it to 50, a lot of people don't, I think it was about 50. And like, okay, 60 is around the corner.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And I think it was about 50. So if some for the people out there that are worrying, if they're 30, 40, you know, just stop now and make a plan. Say, where do you want to be when you're 65? I didn't want to be an old person and be broke, right? That was scary.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Now, if I knew what I knew now about business, I'd have millions of dollars, but you don't know.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, no, I agree.
SPEAKER_00And and so I've used that, and all three of my kids um uh are set. They're gonna they're all gonna be very successful because um just stupid things like the SP 500.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's a good uh you know, a good thing.
SPEAKER_00If I put extra cash, quit chasing chasing the rabbit, so to speak, chasing a quick buck, doing this, do that. If you take every extra dollar you have and putting it in the SP 500, you're gonna be ahead of 99.9% of the world.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00And put it in there and forget it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Don't, and and one of my uh things, I mean, again, you're just focused on living every paycheck.
SPEAKER_00Oh, up to 50, you're busy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um, but that playing the long game and not being distracted from that point that you set. If that, you know, because the goal with the system is to dissuade you from where you're wanting to go. 100%. So, you know, there's gonna be those times, and I've been guilty of this as well, where I invest, I invest, and then you're scared to death, you know. Y2K, you know, you name it. Everything falls apart. Oh, the banks are gonna fail. Oh, everything's gonna fail. You want to pull all your money out, you want to do something different. Yeah, if you just stick with it and understand that this is a cycle, there's a cycle that will occur. Um, but be diligent about it and have those goals achievable. Yeah. Don't make it so difficult that you are destined to fail. Set it where it's achievable and predictable and something you can work with. One of the other things that I know you've mentioned, and it's something that subconsciously I did for a long time, and then more consciously, is and we're kind of, I'm wanting to give some younger guys or guys even up to my age, yeah, advice on on life and where we're at, and how do you how do you move forward with a plan? One of the things that you know I've seen that is evident in our society now, and I'm talking about from people who make millions of dollars to people who make tens of thousands of dollars. We are being pushed to live beyond our means.
SPEAKER_00Oh, it's keep up with the Joneses.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And it is more prevalent now than I've ever witnessed it. But beyond living beyond your means, what I have always tried to do is live not even to my means, live below my means. Um, always have that little bit of reserve, uh, that second plan. Now, when I was young, I couldn't do that. I didn't have enough to to to to do it. But, you know, that is something that I've always tried to do. And in my, in a way, that was my investment in the future. Uh, was uh, and that's what allowed me to take chances as well in business. Um, where I knew that if I did fail at this, we weren't gonna lose everything. You know, and some of that came from a little bit of insecurity growing up, but you know, it was beneficial in the in the long run. I mean, how did you balance all that out?
SPEAKER_00Well, I you know, I learned the hard way because I lost a lot of money, made a lot of money, and lost a lot of money. The problem with people that make a lot of money, they have a hit. And they think um, I have a guy, his name is Mike Newfield. We graduated together, we were fraternity brothers together. He went, he got a degree in petroleum engineering, went to Houston. One day I see uh uh in a fraternity newsletter or whatever, he's got a 62-foot swan in Galveston. That's a custom-made boat.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so we had a reunion and said, Newfield, what'd you do? And so the word got out. Uh, he made $40 million in an oil deal. Four years later, it was broke. And so we were at a party, and I said, Newfield, you didn't put $10 million aside in case. And what happens is kind of what you're talking about. When you make it easy, you think it's always going to be easy. Right. And like I said, up and down. Well, he was up, spent all his money because he thought this was easy. I could do it again. Do it again. Do you know in his life he never had a hit like that ever again? Now he got back on his feet and he made millions, but not 40. He might have made six in his whole life, but he made 40 as a young 28-year-old petroleum engineer. He got a hit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And he thought it was gonna be there all the time. Right.
SPEAKER_01And it's not. Yeah, that was one of the uh greatest advice that my uncle gave me. Um he said, Gabe, yeah, this was when we were young. Yeah, we had just built our first house. I mean, I was about to stick a for sale sign up on it before we even finished because we were so broke trying to do it. But went over there and he was just talking about life, and he said, You will hit it. Everybody does. And it with you will make some money at some point in your life. He said, It's what you do with it that's gonna be how the rest of your life plays out. And, you know, that stuck with me. You know, we built our business, had a lot of great breaks, and and were blessed in a lot of ways, had the opportunity to sell it. And that was one of the resounding things that stuck in my back of my head is okay, for the first time and maybe the only time in your life you are going to have some money. What are you gonna do with it? Yeah. The tendency is I've worked so hard, I want to go enjoy it.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01I want to go travel, I'm gonna buy a big, bigger boat, get the big truck, whatever. But his words of advice stuck. And so what did we do? We invested in our businesses, we bought another business, we worked harder. I'm still waiting to see how this all plays out. But one thing we didn't do is blow it, you know. And uh, had I not had that advice earlier in life uh that was meaningful because he he lived that, um, you know, I wouldn't have have known. I might have done it.
SPEAKER_00You were lucky because I didn't have that advice. Right.
SPEAKER_01And that's what we're trying to do, you know, through this podcast. Just put that out there and let some people chew on it a little bit.
SPEAKER_00Well, you can have a plan too, and then something external blows your plan. So one of my businesses I had was a tanning salon. And people don't know the story because it was Obama and they buried it. He put a 10% tax on tanning, and the government tried to restrict uh 12-year-old, 13-year-old couldn't come in and tan.
SPEAKER_04Right. So do you remember hearing that? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So when I got into business, there were 19,000 tanning salons in America. We had a lobbying group. When Obama finished, he he did he thought these people you own a business, you're a millionaire. No, that 10% was their profit. Right. You're doing uh and and the people that ran the tanning salon were 93% women. So after Obama's years, probably the sixth year of his eight years, uh, there were only 8,600 tanning salons left.
SPEAKER_04Wow.
SPEAKER_0082,000 women lost their jobs because tanning salons are 93% women. Right. Women-owned business. You didn't see that on the news, did you? So I had this tan salon. It was gonna be part of my retirement. I was gonna sell it for 250,000. I ended up selling it for 60. Right. He killed the government, got in, put a tax on your business, tried to restrict people coming in, and killed the tanning business. That was part of my retirement.
SPEAKER_01Right. And you know, and you have to be resilient when those things happen.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I didn't do anything wrong. Right. The damn politicians kill my business.
SPEAKER_01Right. And those are things that are out of your control. You can't plan that. You can't plan it. Yeah. That's one of the scary things in our our system is the unpredictability of it. And also, you know, when you're dealing with a culture and with uh increasingly politicians who have never lived a real life.
SPEAKER_00Never had a business.
SPEAKER_01They've never worked, they've never employed people, never run a business, and they're making policy that affects us. It's terrifying, you know. Uh I think that that should be a requirement. It's that you you should uh uh have had to manage people, been in a service industry of some type to and end up being a um, you know, a uh political decision maker.
SPEAKER_00Well, didn't you you know in the uh the founding fathers, uh did you ever read about the right to vote for the original people? Okay, uh you had to have a business or be in commerce or be a farmer or something like that.
SPEAKER_01You had to have skin in the game.
SPEAKER_00Exactly what you're talking about to to for the right to vote.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And so they asked the founding father, well, what about the people that are um handicapped or legitimately can't work? And he said, we'll take care of them. Right. But the key was legitimately can't work.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00Because you measure the greatness of a of a nation, not only in uh the things we are obvious, you know, military and economy and everything, but the greatness of a nation is how do they take care of the people that can't take care of themselves?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00But the problem we have now is we have almost 50% of the people don't work, and 30% of those could work. They're just sitting home, getting their check.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00They have the system.
SPEAKER_01Well, and yeah, and back to the and that's a whole nother discussion. Oh, yeah. You know, when you have people that are able to vote in their own benefits, that's a problem. Or like politicians voting in their own raises and voting in their own vacations and voting in their own health care.
SPEAKER_00We've got to stop.
SPEAKER_01You know, we've got we've got a real problem uh because it redirects it for everyone else.
SPEAKER_00I think the the key, the only thing that'll save America is term limits. Right. And maybe you'll get and they the other things that Trump proposed, term limits, but get rid of their health care, they have the same health care the rest of us have. Exactly. But I don't know if he can get that done in the next two and that we have.
SPEAKER_01It seems to be a lot of opposition on both sides, and you know, that's one of the things that's been very, it's always been talked about, but it's been increasingly evident uh with uh what we've seen over the past year, is that uh, you know, both sides are they're they're the same, they're they're drinking the same bath water.
SPEAKER_00You know, and the Supreme Court so I've been single 15 years now. A couple years after I became single, I was visiting my son in Florida and I met a lady from Miami. And so ended up dating her for a while. She was Russian, and so we were uh, you know, I'd go spend a month down there and come back here. And um so one time I had a trip planned, and she said, I can't um uh I'll be gone for a month. I said, What are you doing? And she said something about her, she was a nurse. And so after months and months later, after we got more involved, she turns out she was the um tourism babies. Oh a rich Russian would plan up their eight months pregnant, they would put them up at Dural. They paid her $25,000 a month. Wow, she stayed with the pregnant lady at Dural. So you got to live at a fabulous resort, got paid $25,000 a month, and you're helping people become uh birthright citizen. Birthright citizen.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00This was 15 years ago. So there's a whole industry. And to have Amy Coney Barrett and Roberts?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I was shocked by that in a way because we, you know, growing up in the United States, obviously, and being able to have the opportunity to travel outside of the United States and deal with lots of people from different countries. You know, I'd always heard about birthright citizenship. I I assumed that it was something that most nations offered. It is not. No. We are like one of the very few left that do that. And I think that that's a common misconception among our population on a lot of our immigration policies, is that you know, we offer more latitude in our immigration than just about any other country. My mom is of Irish descent and uh has traveled extensively back and forth to Ireland over over years and finally saved up enough to buy her a little place over there. You know, she's close to your age. And um all she wanted to do was to get a um just her residency so that she could save on car insurance.
SPEAKER_00In Ireland.
SPEAKER_01In Ireland. So she could have her car there.
SPEAKER_00That's funny.
SPEAKER_01She is self-sufficient, she has money enough to take care of herself, she's not looking for health care, nothing else. She has gone through absolute hell. She's not renouncing her citizenship, she's not doing not asking for just a legal residency, just so she could save on car insurance and bought a house and has invested in Ireland. So and still cannot. And this is Ireland. Yeah. You know, if we look also into, for instance, Mexico, Mexico has some of the most restrictive citizenship requirements of just about any place in Central and South America. You or I, for us to be able to become citizens of Mexico, would be almost impossible. And here you just Yeah, we're expected here to just open the borders up and let whoever, whatever, you know, come through. There's no reciprocity, and there's no um, it's only in the Western um societies that we're expected to do this because the other the others aren't. And and there they never have. Um, and even you know, with my mom in Ireland, Western society, um she is being singled out because of who she is. Had she been a refugee, yeah, it'd been a whole different story. Oh my gosh. And that's what we're starting to see, you know, over there especially, yeah, is that you know the it's not a balanced system. It's it's a very, very selective.
SPEAKER_00Well, you know, Reagan is the one that said, you know, freedom is fragile, it can then uh disappear in one generation, and here we're it's coming.
SPEAKER_01Right. And um well, with your experience in life and having you know seen things, we can go ahead and dive off into this a little bit. What do you see as our greatest challenge to our society right now?
SPEAKER_00It's our own politicians. You got 456 people, whatever, if you count Senate and the House, like maybe 546, whatever it is. It's not many. And um, they've lost their way. They don't know. We're electing people like that Crockett lady in Texas, that low IQ. Um how do they how do they put that? What is that purple haired lady that's in the United States Senate?
SPEAKER_04Oh, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00To call someone a United States senator. That's one of the most one of the hundred of the most powerful people in the world. And then some of these people are just morons.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Bernie Sanders has been a communist since day one. When he got married 80 years ago, whatever it is, they they um went to China for their honeymoon. Uh Bernie's never had a job, and he's one of the hundred people. In the United States Senate. So our threat is our own politicians. We gotta we gotta stop them. And like you said, they make the rules.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they make the rules. And we got you know, I I look at that as well. I mean, it it when you look at you see it on TV, on the news, and you're seeing these characters up there, and really on both sides. Now, the Democrats are absolutely loaded up with the crazy left.
SPEAKER_00We're just a little bit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh the Republicans have some ones I I have a rough time accepting as well. But you know, you look at how, uh that's what I find myself at. How do these people get elected? I mean, what is going through our our um you know, our population's mind to say that these are who we want leading? And I can't help but uh go back to the blame game. You know, they're the ones that tell people you are not succeeding because of this. It's not because of you, you did nothing wrong. It's because of this group or this person or this system that's against you. You know, and they because one of the things that I I do see is they constantly want to erode our foundations.
SPEAKER_00100%. Like look at this guy Mandami, 34-year-old that's only been a uh a citizen eight years. Right. And now he's telling us about our history, 250-year history. And he's a full-blown communist, and he got elected in New York City.
SPEAKER_01And and the way that he's phrasing that, the symbolism that he's going for and the way that he works his words, is admirable in a way. I hate using that word. He he's smart about what he's doing because he understands how to manipulate people. And but if you dive into what he said standing in front of uh George Washington's desk, um Yeah, that was scary. You know, it is uh it's this manipul, it's it's in a shrouded way paying homage to the greatness of the United States, but not he that's not really what he's doing. He's saying, yeah, we're great, but we can be greater, and greater in his mind is through communism, yeah. Is through diversity. Diversity is not a strength when you're talking about your nation. It's okay as individuals. We all want to be special, we all want to have our own story, and that's wonderful. But nationalistic pride and the way that we constitutionally operate, we do not need diversity in that. That divides. Diversity divides, and that's what they're feeding on. You know, they're keeping us all divided, they're forcing that down, they're finding ways to erode what has built us and make that appear evil and the blame. And it's just it's sickening and terrifying at the same time to watch it occur.
SPEAKER_00Well, if you study it off Hitler, uh Mandami is coming to power way Hitler. Hitler was considered a wacko by the Nazi party. They said, This guy's crazy.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And he was over there screaming and hollering the alleyway with 200 followers, and then all of a sudden he's got 20,000 followers, and they said, Well, look how what he can draw.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And because he was so crazy and so far left, far.
SPEAKER_01Well, he was he was saying the attention, you know, he was getting the attention like that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And and uh, you know, only 38% of Republicans vote. So it's our own fault.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Um, how he got elected in New York City, I still don't understand that.
SPEAKER_01Right. And you know, the thing that blows me away with communism, because let's just face it, that's the goal with that. They can say democratic socialists whatever.
SPEAKER_00There's no such thing as a democrat socialist.
SPEAKER_01It is it is communism. As a studier of history as well and humanity, as you are and I try to be. How can we keep going back to that well and thinking that the water's gonna taste sweeter? It is failed over and over again. And the thing that is most evident to me is it is this people's movement, it's veiled. It actually concentrates power in a more tyrannical way than any other system, other than, you know, uh, I would say even more than sometimes in monarchies, but it um it is just evident what the process goes through and how eventually the people that started the revolution end up being the ones on the guillotines, you know, the ones in the gulags, the ones that and because it is focused on concentrating that power in a very, very small sphere.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, but yeah, but yeah, so they're they got Muslims in in uh in every state in the country. And it's like the cancer that's gonna grow. But the difference is, and this is where it's gonna happen, another generation I'll probably be gone, is we have 400 million guns. It's gonna come to a head. Right. When they're gonna say one day you got to give up your gun, I'm like, no.
SPEAKER_01All right. Well, I think that the Second Amendment is one of the most attacked uh rights that we have. And there's a reason for it, um, is because it is truly what differentiates the United States and and the citizenry of the United States from the rest of the world.
SPEAKER_00It's the way we can fight back.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it and everybody, uh well, Biden liked to say we've, you know, got tactical nukes, we've got drones, we've got this. And that's true. Yeah. Um, but you look at how, you know, for instance, Afghanistan was able to stand their ground pretty well, you know, with uh with just, you know, um small arms, camels and junk guns.
SPEAKER_00And they so they fought the Russians and won and they got us out of there, too.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. So, you know, that's uh it it it still gives us that that potential.
SPEAKER_00And is one of the the rights that we cannot uh let let's well I've got cousins in Australia, in Adelaide, and um we discovered our our uh there's only four Betonies in the whole country of Australia, but um we did genealogy back to uh like 1760, and my sister that does the genealogies is uh the Matt Bettany in Australia, we started uh visiting each other every year uh for the last 12 years. They come to here, they love Vegas, they love New York. And so I asked him one day, he said, How did the government get your guns? And he said, just one day they said we got to get turn in our guns, and we did. I said, Are you crazy? Yeah, if the government came out next week and said everybody's gonna turn in their guns, we're gonna say no.
SPEAKER_04Right. And it's gonna be a problem.
SPEAKER_00But Australia, as big as a country, they voluntarily turned in 2018, maybe. I'd have to look, maybe my date's wrong, but not long ago. Right. Just turn one day they turned in their guns.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_00I remember when you imagine that happening in a USA.
SPEAKER_01And when you do that, you're turning in your freedom. You know, your ability to fight back and your your liberty. Uh, and that was one of the most amazing things about our forefathers that wrote our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Um, that had never been done in any other country or system preceding that, to my knowledge.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Because the last thing a government wants to do is empower the people.
SPEAKER_03Oh, God, yes.
SPEAKER_01And uh, you know, that was granting that empowerment to the best of their ability at that time. Because at the time, I mean, at the time we had, you know, uh muzzle loading, you know, uh flint locks and cannons were just muzzle loaders too. So, you know, the the uh weaponry that they were empowering the populace with was military grade. In some cases, much better because they ended up with rifled uh, you know, rifles instead of just smooth bore muskets that were much more accurate. But um, you know, that empowerment of liberty that was granted to and the foundation to the United States, you know, has to be protected. And it's what everything else builds on. Just like in our lives, we have certain foundations that we have to live by, faith being a big part of it, and family as well. Yeah. And I believe that that is why those things are being attacked mercilessly.
SPEAKER_00This foundation.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00They're going after the foundation. In 1929 or 30 is when Hitler uh got the guns like they did in Australia. And um, that was his first step to control the populace. And he said, You don't need a gun because we'll protect you. Just call this number. And they turned in their guns.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like Australia. They just turned in their guns.
SPEAKER_01The law-abiding citizens. That's just dumb. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so you get back to the faith part. Uh, I think the faith and freedom go together.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Yeah. It uh it definitely gives you your grounding and your purpose, um, and the bigger picture as well. Yeah. You know, because uh kind of going back to life in general, you know, life is tough.
SPEAKER_00Every day.
SPEAKER_01It is tough. It's a battle. And you have to have things that you're working towards and that are keeping you focused. Family, obviously. That's a that's an easy one. Yeah. I've got to support these people, I've got to be there for them. I want to see them grow up better off than I was.
SPEAKER_00That's that's every parent's goal. Yeah, every parent wants their kids to be have a better life than they do.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And then the faith component that fills that space in you that can't be filled by anything else. Believe me, I've tried to fill it with all kinds of stuff. Yeah. And it wasn't until I found faith that I realized, you know, what I was missing.
SPEAKER_00What made you find that faith?
SPEAKER_01Well, to be honest with you, it uh it was a I'm not using this lightly, it was the the revelation that occurred um after Charlie Kirk's assassination. Um I've mentioned it before on the podcast, and anybody that'll listen because it was so powerful. Um, you know, I hadn't, I'd followed Charlie Kirk to a degree. Yeah. Um, had actually seen him as a teenager on Fox just for that blur when he first started uh coming on the scene and was talking about uh his organization, and then just followed him on social media in my feed. Yeah, you know, just I was admiring his courage to stand up in the in the crucible of hate that he had been.
SPEAKER_00Watch him on campus and stuff.
SPEAKER_01And I love seeing him, you know, fighting for traditional values. While I was not Christian, I did still have the more morality and the value system that was Western, you know, and um I did never recognize his Christianity. I recognized his intellect, his drive, his patriotism, his patriotism and his compassion, but his real firm and unwavering um foundation. What I didn't recognize is what truly was giving him that courage, that drive. And it wasn't until after he died when I was just kind of hit with this overwhelming, powerful response that I could not explain. I went back and I was watching his excerpts, and I realized it was faith that was pushing him. It was faith that was giving him that strength, that courage. And I'd never seen faith as a courageous thing. I'd kind of seen it as a weakness. Uh, not kind of, I absolutely did. I thought that it was kind of a shield that people were weak-minded hit. For convenience, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um you know, if you watch an hour, not to interrupt, but if you watch an hour of some of his uh uh campus visits, if you will, where they were attacking him with every question, you can watch an hour of that sometime, and the subject of faith never comes up.
SPEAKER_04Right, right.
SPEAKER_00His patriotism comes up and he'll quote the Constitution, and uh and then in some instances he would quote something from the Bible, but but he used it not to tell to hammer people with his faith.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00He just used it as a piece of information to support his argument. Right. So he wasn't trying to tell you you need to read the Bible. He would say this is what the Bible says about that.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00I didn't say it. And so you're right, he didn't.
SPEAKER_01So I I wasn't, you know, and that's why he was not offensive to me. Exactly. Had he been, you know, up on the pulpit preaching, I would have turned him off.
SPEAKER_00Like a preacher on Sunday.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that that was like don't uh that was that was my kryptonite. Um, but that's not how he did it. And so through this, you know, just this movement within me, I felt the need to explore more deeply where I was at when life mean and what was going on, you know. Um why what was this this new feeling that I was feeling? Yeah. And it took lots of many, many hours of exploration within myself to find that and actually realize that you know it was God talking to me. I'd pushed it away for a long time, but this was this was a pinnacle.
SPEAKER_00And did did your parents go to church on Sunday?
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. Yeah, we what church? Uh Presbyterian. Presbyterian. Um, and we were very involved in church. Uh, but part of that involvement, um, you know, my parents were involved in the youth group. They were all uh musical, you know, we were in the choirs and we had an amazing uh youth ministry through uh the Presbyterian church that we were part of. A lot of fun to go to as a kid. All my buddies were there. Like I said, that Wednesday my kids. But um as I got in my teenage years, uh the church went through a great upheaval uh in that there were a lot of really bad things happening and bad people involved. So the the hypocrisy that evolved out of that uh blanketed my view of religion in general. And it got me questioning everything about it. Yeah. And uh so I turned my back on it totally, went rogue.
SPEAKER_00How old were you when you turned your back?
SPEAKER_01Uh, probably about 14.
SPEAKER_00Well, that was young.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, Wayne, you know, you mentioned that when you were my age in your 50s, that that was kind of when you started figuring things out a little bit of where you wanted to go in life. I mean, what was your, as they say, your aha moment?
SPEAKER_00My aha moment I actually was younger, and but um I was overwhelmed and I had a uh a lot of responsibility, and almost to the point where you're like, I need to go talk to a psychiatrist. And then I was listening to the radio, and this is back before they had all these talk shows, one guy brought it up, and what he said is when he was struggling one time is the most motivating words I ever heard. And the phrase was, if it is to be, it's up to me.
SPEAKER_04I love that.
SPEAKER_00And I went, what's that, about eight words? It's not much. And I still tell myself that. What do you want to do in life? Where do you want to go? How many kids do you want to have? What do you want to do? One day you're gonna wake up if you're lucky and say, I'm old. But all along that path, you're trying to say, I'm tired, I'm overwhelmed, can I get to the American dream? Who's gonna help me? And you got to stop right there. Nobody's gonna help you.
SPEAKER_04It's up to you.
SPEAKER_00If it is to be, it's up to me.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I was uh in sales and I was training salespeople, probably started training people in 1983. And um, I would tell them all that. Everybody's looking for somebody to give them the golden ticket, right? You're not gonna get a golden ticket unless you win the lottery, you're not gonna get the golden ticket. And most of the lottery winners go broke. So somewhere in your life, if it's today or next week or next month or next year, and if you're 20 or you're 50, whatever you're accomplishing in life is up to you, period. When you get up in the morning, what's he all saying? You can look in the mirror and say, I'm gonna have a good day or a bad day, it's up to you.
SPEAKER_01Right. Yeah, that's one of the things, the psychology of thinking positive. You know, we get uh so wrapped into the you know, negative of life.
SPEAKER_00A hundred percent.
SPEAKER_01And the reality is that every situation has a positive and a negative connotation to it or a way of looking at it. And, you know, even simple things, you know, there was uh there have been a lot of experiments done on the impact to yourself of just forcing yourself to smile. How does that change your brain chemistry? Yeah, you know, and that's fascinating to me because we're talking about a physical thing. You you're not feeling happy, but you force yourself to smile and how that changes your outlook. Um it's real, you know, and then also smiling and doing small positive things for other people that are unexpected, you know, how that impacts them. It's contagious in a way just like negativity can be. But that resiliency, you know, that um accepting that your fate is in your hands.
SPEAKER_00Only your hands. That's it.
SPEAKER_01And it it takes the blame game out of the equation, you know, when you start thinking that way. And that is one of the things that benefited me so much coming from a pretty rough town that had no opportunity in it. I just didn't. It was I hate to say that, but it it it and it but what it did is it it forced you into that mentality. We're not rich. I have no opportunity here. There is nobody that's gonna save me. Put it on your back and carry it. And get up every morning and do it again. And that's not gonna be easy. Yeah, but that old saying of embrace the suck.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's another way of saying it.
SPEAKER_01You kind of have to get that in your head. You know, you can't wallow because if you wallow, it all fails around you. And I know you've you've been through some adversity in life too. Talk about some of I mean, you so you got that, you heard that saying, it resonated with you. You know, where were your biggest failure points? I mean, what what was your biggest adversity? I mean, where you really had to test that?
SPEAKER_00The the hardest thing is I've always had faith. Uh it needed to grow and evolve uh as you have uh come to faith. Um when you have adversity, uh, where do you go with that fault? You gotta look in the mirror and say, Pardon me. Um coming to the faith, like you said earlier, gives you the strength to get through the rough times. And man, when you've got a wife and kids and you gotta pay a mortgage and all of a sudden you don't have a job, nobody's gonna help you. Uh faith helps you, but you gotta um uh it's funny, you know, when people talk about praying for things when things get tough. Uh there's no atheists in a foxhole anymore. Yeah, um you need God all the time. And what that faith of, it just gives you the backbone. You gotta wake up and brush yourself off, get your resume, and start looking for a job the day you get fired.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And prepare for it because they're gonna have up and downs. And um somewhere along the line, your faith takes a job. And that's yours is new, and uh it's gonna be different when you're 60. Right. And it's gonna be different when you're 65, it's gonna be different two weeks from now.
SPEAKER_01So that that's something that's I've seen, obviously, even when I wasn't Christian, you know, looking at people as they get later in life, you know, they tend to be more faithful, you know, they that faith becomes more of a part. What I'm curious of, is it because the noise settles, or is it because you're getting closer to that day? You know, it are you able to focus on it more and listen more and explore it more because you've got that time, or is it that we're good to do that?
SPEAKER_00Well, I think um Maybe your own mortality is closer. That's probably the first thing. But I think it's knowledge. Because I've read the Bible two different ways, cover to cover, which is hard. And then the Bible in a year, which is 365 days, and you have a reading from multiple books.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And then you can still, even though I've read it twice, most people probably 99% of the country has not. I still sometimes wonder what is he trying to say. And um there's these books, we've talked about a few of them. The one I can't remember the name of it right now. Uh but it's uh 365 readings, and it gives you a book like the book of John, and it says, This is what it's trying to say, and it's one page.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And so I think to answer your question, maybe we have the time or the maturity. I think it goes together to say this is what the Bible's trying to say, this is what Christian faith means. And I read something the other day, I wish I could remember it because I can't remember right now. And it said um, if you don't have a religion, and I don't care if you're Buddhist or whatever, but you have you believe in a being greater than you, bigger than you. Yeah, if you don't, you're the center of your own universe.
SPEAKER_04Exactly.
SPEAKER_00You're is your ego so big that you're the center of the universe? That's ridiculous. So, and then how do you account for miracles?
SPEAKER_01Right. You wash them away.
SPEAKER_00Is that just luck?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, it's uh it especially as you know, I made I'm not gonna say I wasn't spiritual because I was spiritual, but I made my own God. You made your own idea of what God was. Yes, and uh also, you know, it was this intellectual component to it where, you know, I saw, for instance, Christianity as humans' uh attempt at answering the questions that they weren't able to answer on their own, either through uh lack of scientific development at the time that it came, or because of needing to answer the unknowns, that we we don't have that capacity. I saw it all as human creation and also to control others. Yeah. Um, and I'm sure there are little components of that, but the reality is uh, you know, that what faith ends up bringing you, having true faith is that resiliency. And it opens up once you accept that, then all of your doubting, all the picking apart, all the critical analysis goes away. Uh for me it did. Yeah. Now, uh, there are flubs and and contradictions in the Bible. It's written by man, it's the word of God, but written by man and translated a hundred different ways. And we just have to accept it. That's why, for me as well, it's difficult to read. A lot of that is really tough. It's hard. Um, and that's intimidating for a lot of people. It's intimidating for me. But we're not meant to fully understand every aspect of everything, you know, it's up to our interpretation, is where I believe. It is the word of God, but through man's written by man. Yeah. Uh abilities.
SPEAKER_00Uh a lawyer would say hearsay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, right. Exactly. Exactly. So in the end, it's a guide to life and to faith and to submission. And that's a big key for me because it's difficult as a self-guided person, a man, you know, that's not used to being directed, that has an ego to truly submit to something like that.
SPEAKER_00Bigger than themselves. Yeah. That's much more than yourself. Unfortunately, I think a lot of uh faith it comes with the individual's IQ. Because if you're smarter, you can understand things deeper. If you're a 60, 70, 80 IQ, it's gonna be tough. That's the people Hitler was uh brainwashing. But if you have a brain, if you're 110 or higher or something, you can I read somewhere where the higher your IQ, the higher and lower you can understand something. You understand things deeper both ways.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And um, you know, it's something as simple when you say that faith. So if the Bible's confusing to you for the people out there that are saying, How do I take a step forward? You know, the Ten Commandments is a pretty good start.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. It is definitely.
SPEAKER_00I have a lady friend that um lives in Conway, and she's talking to a guy, uh, an individual lives on Lake Hamilton, wants to sell his boat. And she said, Um, I said, Look, if if uh if you negotiate and you're interested, I'll go put my eyes on it. I'll just drive around the lake and go there. She said, You do that for me? You ever trying to buy something long distance? Yeah, you need to put eyes on it.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And I said, sure. And what in the Ten Commandments do unto others? If I was trying to buy something long distance and a friend I trusted would say, Hey, I'll go look at it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that golden thing.
SPEAKER_00That's a simple thing, but it's a big thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that golden rule if one I I hate to say if one thing, because all of them are very important. But if that is one of the guiding principles, even before I was Christian, I tried to use in my business because it's about it, it humbles you for that second. When you think about that, um, put yourself in the other person's position.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And that's whether you're in conflict resolution, dealing with a wife, dealing with any customers, employees, whatever. And you uh it it becomes pervasive throughout wherever your environment is. If you live by that, it's tough at times. Um but yeah. We talked about that. Was there anything else in the Bible, any lessons or scripture that have really kind of humbled you, like I mean, like really grabbed on and put you in your place or changed the way you you thought?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, since I've read it a couple of times, yes, there's there's quite a few, but um I had an employee, a 16-year employee, uh one time when I was at the CBS station and I was a manager there, I didn't have any turnover for 18 years. I didn't have a single person leave. And um one day a lady that had a couple of kids and she was divorced, and she asked me uh she asked me where I got my faith. And I said, I'd had to develop it. And I said, the Bible's simple. And she said, What do you mean? And I said, Um I read somewhere that uh if you take people and you ask them, if you were to be face to face with God, what would you ask them? So if I'll ask you, if you were face to face, you have five minutes to see in person God, you can ask one question, what would you ask him? So you gotta have a reaction right now, you've got to have an answer.
SPEAKER_01Well, I mean the first the first thing is that comes to me is why do you love us so much?
SPEAKER_00That's a good question, you know.
SPEAKER_01It uh you know what what made us so different than the rest of the beings and animals on on the earth?
SPEAKER_00Well, the answer is in the Bible, and we're there, we're here for his entertainment. But the real answer is he wants us to be happy, right? And I can't remember, I'd have to look it up, it's in my scripture reading, and there's a scripture that says his goal for us is to enjoy life and give a good day's work for a good day's pay. So go to work, be productive, and enjoy your life. All right, it's that simple.
SPEAKER_01And that that is a perfect segue into where we want to go here is that enjoyment of life. Absolutely because we're talking about sacrifice, you know, we're talking about responsibilities and working through difficult times and resiliency that faith offers and just and just drive and accepting responsibility for your own, you know, uh uh accomplishments and uh, you know, uh deficits. Um but uh you know looking at an enjoyment of life, you know, again, there's a I like to call it a blueprint. There's a blueprint that can be expanded or contracted based on you know what you want, but there's some core core pieces to it absolutely can help us set our path for life. You know, in your experience, um, you know, accepting your responsibilities, knowing it was on your back with God's guidance um is a big part of it. But I've always been one that tries to set those achievements out there. And that's hard to do sometimes. It's it's hard to be realistic about it. Um and it's really hard with setbacks that life throws at you to have a time frame that you're trying to work work around.
SPEAKER_00Time's kicking.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. But how did you kind of, I mean, what what did you find that eventually you're like, this is fulfillment of life, and this is what these are the core things that I want, and this is how I'm gonna get there.
SPEAKER_00Well, part of it was that section of the Bible, and I'm sorry I can't quote it now, but uh we're here for God's entertainment, and he but he wants he loves us and he wants us to be happy. But happy is offshore for you, but people who've never been offshore, they don't know. Happy might be squirrel hunting, happy might be sitting home watching binge and Netflix.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00What makes you happy? There's 350 million people and 350 million ways of being happy. Um but you gotta kinda uh have a blueprint like you were talking about. Okay, for me it was family, right? But I gotta make enough money to take care of my family. We're not being rich, just wanted to keep the air conditioning running and have food on the table. So you that blueprint is gonna be different for every single person, but family and faith. And in America, we have the freedom. And I do the four F firearms as last one because that guarantees the first three. Yeah, and um I think what two things bring people to God. Uh, and the the the number one thing is bad times. People wait until something bad happens, and then they start talking. Yeah, and some stay that way and some don't. Have you ever seen a movie Oh God?
SPEAKER_04I have not.
SPEAKER_00You guys are so young. Okay, John Denver and George Burns.
SPEAKER_01Oh, George Burns plays God. George Burns is God. Yeah, I do remember.
SPEAKER_00They did too. They did a God, too. And John Denver is a uh sack boy at the grocery store.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00But in the movie, uh, and I've used this for people that needed some counseling and were hurting and they want to give up. And uh George Burns and this little kid are walking, and the little kid says, God, why do bad things happen to good people? And he said, Well, you know, um you throw a ball, right? He said, Yeah, well, when you throw it up, what happens? He said, Well, it comes down. He said, Right. And he touches him, I think, on her chest. He says, This is a front, but you got to have a back.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And he said, Well, how do you know what's good if you haven't had bad? So bad things happen to everybody.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00You have to plan for that, accept that, know it's coming, and handle it in your own way, but I'm here, he said, I'm here to not let it dominate. Know in your life, yeah, you're 50 years old. Some bad's coming.
SPEAKER_01And it's it's happened. I've gotten to see some of it.
SPEAKER_00So you have to know, and you have to, you know, say, God, okay, how do I get through this? And even if you don't say it that way, you just, you know, lean on God and pray and and know that uh the good's coming. Remember what George Byrne said is up, there's down.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And there's good and there's bad.
SPEAKER_01Well, and it makes you appreciate, and that's the key, you know, you've got to have that base. Appreciate when it's good. When it's good. And knowing that it's fragile, it might not last forever, but man, take it in when you've got it and appreciate it. And I know that that's kind of, you know, where you because of all your ups and downs in life, and you're at a place right now, you know, how does your retirement look like now? You say you started out when and where we at now, you know.
SPEAKER_00I really started uh thinking about retirement when I hit 50, right? Where you are now. And um, because you start seeing the end, yeah. And where do I want to be when I'm 65 and plan for it? You've got to plan for it, you've got to save, you've got to uh look at what you have now.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And uh I was very lucky, my uh best friend since the seventh grade, uh, not only was a real financial planner, you know, everybody on the planet's financial planner, he's been a financial planner since 1973.
SPEAKER_04Wow.
SPEAKER_00He knows stuff. And he's also, um, when he was dead broke driving a 1967 uh Mustang with no air conditioning, three speed on the floor, uh, he uh signed a note to help build a church, a non-denominational church. And since then, he's done three or four.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And he's got a a son that is uh minister, went to uh uh the uh seminary school in Dallas, and his brother, who was a lieutenant in the Marine Corps in Vietnam, is a minister. So that's a real strong people to lean on.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00So he knew God and knew finance.
SPEAKER_01A good combo.
SPEAKER_00So I didn't make a lot of money, but I made enough to say I'm gonna have this much money per month the rest of my life.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00You got to do that if you haven't done it by now when you're 50, for the people out there listening. If it is to be, it's up to me. Right. You need to go talk to somebody today.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that's one of the things that um, you know, it it was brought up even in my younger years, but it's the numbers are just there now. You know, I have never looked at Social Security as something that I was going to be able to depend on.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_01So all of my equations have been with that off the table. That's a good idea. Um and if it's still around, great. That's gravy. Yeah, but I'm not planning on that.
SPEAKER_00It's government control. And they can change that tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Um, so back to the self-reliance, you know, that is how I've approached things. And luckily, because of the way that I've uh just in general approach finances over my whole life, not you know, always having a little backup, trying to save. There was untouchable money. Uh, you know, I have benefited from that, haven't always made the best decisions at it, but it's been incremental and consistent.
SPEAKER_00You had exceptionally good advice.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, it was, I think God actually pushed me that direction. Did you see that? Did you look back and see that? Um, because that was the only thing that was in my control. I I knew that I wanted to save. I didn't know exactly how, but I at least started with something. And I started with something that was that I was in control of, that was an amount that I could give a little more here, give a little less in, you know, but it always worked. Um, but you know, one of the things that uh, you know, you were a go-getter, you were hustling, um, you were opening up businesses, you were doing restaurants, tanning salons, you know, you were that's kind of where, you know, I've been at, you know, as an entrepreneur, and uh now families in the businesses and all those things. And it's at this phase in life, yeah, you start looking down the road. You've got a first grandkid coming, life's life's passing pretty quickly. Clock's ticking, I'm getting older. And but that it's a it's a transition. It's not like just being able to switch a light switch off. You've lived this entire life striving and pushing and taking on risk and and the energy and and that that takes and that it creates. Um how do you switch it? I mean, how how how did you where where did you put your points out there?
SPEAKER_00And you know, I wish I could answer that question because it's funny. Uh talk about being 50. I'm sitting here saying that was 26 years ago.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00I'm like, whoa, if I knew what I knew today and I could go back to 50, I'd have 10 times the money. But you can't. You've got to go through life and you got to stumble and you got to make your mistakes. But back to your point a while ago. All those are gonna happen. Mistakes are gonna happen, bad things are gonna happen. You need a blueprint.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00This is where I'm going. I'm gonna have these bumps along the way.
SPEAKER_01Let's let's take it back to my age. You know, uh we're kind of in similar situations, uh, you know, where you were at my age. Oh man. Um, what what would be what would you tell me? What would you tell uh Wayne at 51?
SPEAKER_00Uh like I put in there, get the SP 500, put every extra dime in it. That's the best return for the last 150 years. But you got to enjoy your life, enjoy your family, and um, because when you get old, Noah and Gabe Jr. and your grandkids are gonna be where you get your joy in life.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And that's and uh you're gonna be grateful. Your faith is gonna grow because if you're smart, you understand you know, God helped you get to here. God can I believe in destiny, predestiny. He knows when our day we're gonna die.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00That's the only way you can explain you know, three people in a car and a car gets crushed, and one person doesn't have a scratch.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And um so there's no single simple answer just to tell anybody young out there listening, do a plan, uh, explore your faith, let it come to you. You can't force it. Um because faith that is forced, I think, is not strong or fake.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00I want to love God. I want to No, you don't. You gotta because if you did, you would.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00You know, like to say on the farm, you know, pray for rain, but pick up the shovel. And what that means is God's there, but you got to do your part.
SPEAKER_04Right. Right.
SPEAKER_00God will make it rain, but he can't put the seed in the ground.
SPEAKER_04Exactly.
SPEAKER_00You gotta put the seed in the ground, right? So let your faith, let that seed be like a seed of your faith. Start somewhere, start reading if you are inquisitive. Otherwise, go to the Ten Commandments and live your life right and hope that it comes to you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, in in your retirement now, what brings you the most fulfillment? I know family is huge. And uh, I want to let's talk about that. I want to go back to uh to family in a second, but go ahead and let's fill that in.
SPEAKER_00What the well, it I I call it the uh Huckleberry Finn syndrome. A lot of um confusion is because people are individual with individual experience and individual IQ. Back to what we talked about. IQ. I love travel because I like to as Huckleberry Finn, I want to see what's around the next bend. Right, I have that inquisitive mind. So that's like the trip I just did to St. Lucia. It's all new. Yeah, every day we're doing someplace new, some seeing stuff new. And uh if you don't have that, that's fine. Uh because you have a different personality. There's no real answer to that. So for me, you don't have to have that inquisitive nature if you got a lot of grandkids and kids. Yeah, the adventure comes to you. So if that's a hundred percent of your enjoyment in life, absolutely no better time ever spent.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00Because when you're gone, they're gonna think of you as your experience with them was.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00Like I remember my grandfather putting that shiner on my hook. I named my son after my grandfather.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And um I remember my uncle teaching me to weld.
SPEAKER_01It's those little things that like I said earlier, pulling the Dollar bill and other Chris never got over that. I think that's one of the things that we as husbands and fi, especially fathers and friends, um we don't understand the impact of small things that we can have on other people. Uh and especially when you're dealing with younger, younger people, uh, they're watching you. They're watching you for the good and the bad. And that's really what back to legacy, you know, that's what we're leaving. It's not always your kids. I mean, that's your big one. You know, that's your blood. Those are the ones that you are absolutely responsible for that carry on everything, you know, that your family will be in the future. But it's all those other people that you can touch as well, and how they carry it. Because I know you you've mentioned that, you know, you've had some mentors in life. Yeah. When you started, you know, your uncle stepped in as a father figure, then you had the guys in business that kind of mentored you. Great mentors. You know, I've had those as well. And without them, man, that's tough. But we all have that capacity, you know, to be a mentor to someone, uh, to help guide. And that's part of what we're trying to do here today. But, you know, for you, travel experience, um, you know, uh exploring things. One of the things that uh, you know, amazed me with you is kind of coming from not being a rich guy, not coming from a wealthy background, kind of seeing that world from from afar and being able to be, you know, uh at least understand what's out there. You kind of found your own way to experience some of that with the limitations that you had financially, you know, but that's part of setting a plan up.
SPEAKER_00That's the blueprint.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's kind of your blueprint.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh I think that that can be applied, you know, towards anyone, you know. Everything. Yeah. Anything and everything. It may not be this direct line. I've got to make a lot of money in order to do this. There may be a little workaround. I did it, you know, I'd like for you to share kind of you've traveled a lot more than I have, and I've traveled a lot more than most people. Right.
SPEAKER_00Uh, when I graduated from college, it was City National Bank, and they offered free check-in for college graduates. Silly stuff. So I went and I said, Can I get two checking accounts? And they said, What for? So my second checking account was a travel account. And this is a long time ago, but I would put $25 or $50 from every paycheck into my travel account. So when we had a ski trip, and man, you could go to Aspen and ski for a week and come back for $600. All right. That was airfare and everything. But when I got back my trip, I could pay cash for my trip.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00But every month and every check, that was my blueprint. I don't know where I'm going. But I'm going to go.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I do it today because I'm on a fixed income. I'm retired. But I have three accounts to put money in. One is a travel account of X money. So if I go get back, write a check on a credit card, and it's paid for.
SPEAKER_01Well, the uh, you know, one of the experiences, one of the greatest experiences of my life and with my family was and kind of how we we got to know each other was when you had your boat trip to the Bahamas. Yeah, boat down in in Fort Lauderdale, you know, and and just looking again from afar, you know, the way you structured that, you know, it uh kind of a business opportunity, yeah. Got you got your feet wet, let you experience that, you know. And even today, I mean, talk a little bit about what your what's your what's your life like today.
SPEAKER_00Well, the same thing. I I liked sailing. I've always loved sailing. I started sailing in 1981.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Oh, actually, probably earlier than that. Had friends that raced on Lake Ponch Train.
SPEAKER_01Ponchatrain, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And we raced from uh Mandeville to Ponch Train. I mean uh Mandeville to the uh shore, Lake Shore in Lake Shore. New Orleans, yeah. And uh that's how I started sailing, and then uh had a love for it. That led to me getting my own boat and then uh doing trips today with friends, right? And we just pay for the trip. Right. And uh, but that uh so I've had this plan for 40 years. Back to the blueprint. Yeah, all those people up there, you gotta have a plan. Bad things are gonna happen, but you gotta have a goal that you're working toward. And you're gonna get knocked down and keep going towards your goal.
SPEAKER_01Well, you can correct me if I'm wrong on this, but you know, you getting your your boat down in Fort Law, it was you and your son, is that correct? We were partners, yeah. So, you know, it wasn't Wayne going out stroking a big check and just that being Wayne's boat. I couldn't. I mean, y'all did y'all do y'all did the charter?
SPEAKER_00We did the yeah, yeah. We just um it was in a charter program. Charter program where we got on it right for that trip. And so the charter program helped pay, you know, yeah, help pay for the boat.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly. But it was it was allowing y'all to to have that access to pay for our adventure, exactly. And that's something that I, you know, again, you understand. Not coming from a lot of money, you know, but coming from a lot of desire to go and experience life. How am I gonna do that? You have to figure your way around. And it's not always a direct line. You know, it uh you know, the way I started my offshore adventures was I I had a taste from it. My dad gave us that opportunity to taste it. And when that gets in your blood, you can't shake it. And I knew I wanted it, I knew that's what I wanted to do. I couldn't afford to do it. Oh, yeah. So I had to find another way around it.
SPEAKER_00I never made a dime on that boat.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, I if you break even, if you break even, you're ahead of the game. But you know, that's what I started. I started, you know, deckhanding and and you know, getting these groups together and driving them down to South Louisiana, and I was able to learn not only about the fishery, but about the people that were going. And what were they enjoying? I mean, obviously they enjoyed the fish, catching the fish, but what I learned is that it's more about the experience.
SPEAKER_00Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01It's about the cooking, it's about the stories, it's about playing guitar, it's about simple as going to get your groceries.
SPEAKER_00What are we going to eat?
SPEAKER_01And so now in your life, and you know, I keep up with you on uh a little jealous, I'll be honest with you. Um, you know, your trip just like to St. Lucia. Oh, man. You know, if you had to do that on your own, just normal, I mean, that's a massive expense, but you found a way to not only do it, but you know, take other people, you know, show them that enjoyment. And I'm sure you get some enjoyment out of seeing them.
SPEAKER_00You know, it's a blast, and then to see people that have never ever done anything like that. And then all of a sudden they're like, we're 48 hours on a trip, and one of them said, Where are we going next? And uh not to mention, I won't say names, but uh have a friend that did a boat trip similar, and it was $7,000 for a week.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00The way we do it, it's $3,000. I mean, nobody makes any money, but right, we have our own adventure and we're saving 50%.
SPEAKER_01Right. Uh so it's just it, you know, you found that way.
SPEAKER_00So I I help them, they help me. We all have fun and we all have an adventure.
SPEAKER_01And that's kind of how, you know, the my little uh adventures down in South Louisiana are still today, you know. And I think that's one of those responsibility responsibilities to yourself. You know, you you find ways to find if it is to be, it's up to me. Yep.
SPEAKER_00This is what I want to do. How do I get there?
SPEAKER_01And you know, so that that's been something that I've really you know admired. And you know, the other thing is uh like we all know, we're getting older. Yeah, I mean, every day the clock's kicking. Yeah. Um one of the things that I've seen, especially being uh front in the medical field, um, is that as we get older, you know, our body wants to fail on us. You know, we hurt. Um, I'm starting to see that now. Every morning, you know something else hurts. Something else hurts, yeah. Things that I never thought would are. I'm sure you uh obviously have lived through that. I mean, what are your thoughts on that? Uh what keeps you going where you see other people just kind of give up and vegetate and then they're gone? I mean, that's what I've seen. You give up, yeah. You you've no if you number one, it's a real simple answer.
SPEAKER_00Keep moving. You have to get up, you have to move, take a walk, swim, bike, whatever you want to do, keep moving.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I was having this conversation last week with somebody and said, you know, I can see easily if you uh quit being active, you're done. Everything hurts. I've had surgery on both shoulders, both knees, feet, everything. And so every step I take hurts. I play pickleball for two or three hours. I climbed a mountain in St. Lucia with flip-flops on, right? And but we had this conversation with a friend a little older than you, but I said, the key is keep moving. You're gonna hurt.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Don't use it as an excuse.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Yeah, that's one of the things that I see. I know it's existed throughout human history, but especially now with our population not understanding physical labor. With physical labor comes pain, comes pushing yourself, comes understanding that where you start is going to be where you finish, that you can work through things. So many people I see now, the first hurt that they really have, they're wanting a pill, they're wanting to go to the doctor, they're wanting to get off of it, ice it down. I mean, that is a recipe for a quick incapacitation in life, uh, from what I've seen from my patient base. Uh, and actually friends now that are a few years ahead of me. Once you lose it, you can say that you want to gain it back. The chances of you gaining that back are almost zero.
SPEAKER_00And it gets worse as you get older.
SPEAKER_01Right, right.
SPEAKER_00Like this morning, I was playing pickleball with all people, they're all 59. Pickleball competition has age groups, so their age group is 65 to 69. All right. Mine is 75 to 79. But I'm playing with people 15 years younger or 10 years younger. And me and another guy, we beat everybody there this morning. So, but everything hurts.
SPEAKER_04Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I have every gadget known to man that you can buy.
SPEAKER_04All right.
SPEAKER_00I'll lay on the floor with a rod break thing on my L4, L5. Um, but if you stop, you're done.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And I think that fragility needs to be recognized. Oh, it's terrible. The fragility of you don't use it, you lose it. And if people will just keep that. And it gets worse every day. Yeah. You just got to keep pushing because, you know, even with all the obstacles and all the difficult things that life throws at you, life is still worth living.
SPEAKER_00And I think Oh, I enjoy every minute.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I was laying on the couch, I was binging uh because I was gone for three weeks, and they had the first episode of uh Dutton Ranch.
SPEAKER_04Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So when I got back, and then I had my son here for a week. So it was about four weeks for I went four weeks without watching television. Right. Nobody can say that this day almost. So I had five episodes of Dutton Ranch to watch. Right. And one day it was hot outside and air conditioned on. I've been, I sat there and watched TV for five hours, and I said, Boy, am I wasting myself? And the answer was I said that definition of being happy, isn't it doing what you want to do?
SPEAKER_04Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So at that moment, that was what you want. I was happy, yeah, doing what I want to do. Now I'm capable of getting up and doing other things.
SPEAKER_01But so that was it. That was it.
SPEAKER_00But the number one advice to your question about just if you stop moving, you're done.
SPEAKER_01Right. Well, let's cover a couple of uh decades. Okay. So we're gonna do a little quick, okay, quick rundown. I want your advice on the guys out there that are in their 20s.
SPEAKER_03Oh, God.
SPEAKER_01In your 20s, rewind it back. I know we've talked about the investment component. I'm in a total agreement with that. You do that as early as you can.
SPEAKER_00And uh guy in the 20s is not investing anything. He's he's buying the new car and he's you know, new truck.
SPEAKER_01And so, what what is your advice to that guy in his 20s?
SPEAKER_00Well, if your 20s have fun, right? You got time. So 20s have fun. If you're smart, very probably one in a thousand is thinking about investment in 401ks and IRAs. They're chasing women and they want big fancy cars and they want to have fun.
SPEAKER_01What do you think about starting a family in your 20s?
SPEAKER_00Well, funny story, I have a buddy that owns the Colwell banker in Shreveport. And he's uh um his kids, we went to a thing later, his kids are exactly 10 years younger than mine. So when my son was uh uh 36, his was 46, and when my daughter was 30, his was 40.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And he looked at me one day, and um I guess we were in our 40s there, and he said, You know, because see my kids were young. I had a daughter when I was 40 and he said, you know, because we were at an old college meeting.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00He said, I can't believe I'm looking at you or your kids. He said, So when I was 26, I had my kid. No, when I was 30, he said, I had my first kid. I was 40 when I had my last one. He said, I can't remember my kids. Like you're because I was older, you're interacting with your kids. He said, in your 20s, all you're doing is trying to survive.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Make a money, pay your rent, probably don't own the house yet. And so I had he said, I had three kids. I don't even remember what you're doing.
SPEAKER_01I can relate.
SPEAKER_00So 20s, I'm telling people just live life. Live life, have fun.
SPEAKER_01You got time. So, okay, let's bump up to the 30s.
SPEAKER_0030s, you should be thinking about investing. You should be thinking about your future, but you're probably changing diapers and not getting much sleep. You're trying to climb the corporate ladder, or you have to have your own business, you're working seven days a week.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_00So if you're smart, and um, if your dad says, uh, where's your IO IRA and 401k? He says, Man, I bought a new truck. He says, So 30s, you might, if you're smart, start planning.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00The best thing you have, like I have a daughter that's 36, got divorced, single mom, two kids, but um she is one of two in the United States that does what she does. And um never had to look for a job. She quit her last job. She's making a lot of money and quit because she didn't like her boss, and had companies calling her within two weeks and another job, and she said, I want to start that soon. So at 36, but she got some money, and I helped her put it and invest it and said, with what you have now, you don't have to worry. I said, When you're 65, you're gonna have three million dollars, all right, plus whatever you get.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So mid-30s, you have a chance if you're smart and would listen to somebody to set yourself up for when you're 65.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So then you go 40s and your kids are getting older, and you might have college and all that stuff, and that's tough. 40s are tough.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. 40s for me were when I realized how little I really knew.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I was starting to put it all together. Yeah, 30s. I I was pretty, man, I I knew everything. I'm smart. Yeah, because you had kind of gotten out of the stupidity of 20s, and you know, and you know, you were starting to succeed and drive and push, and you had all the energy and 40.
SPEAKER_00You if you have good advice, you're setting yourself up for retirement.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Because you got 25 years of 65. Unfortunately, I was dumb and I didn't start really concentrating on that until I was 50. And then I went to the city.
SPEAKER_01So we got we got 50 where I'm sitting right now. So at 50, everything starts becoming real clear.
SPEAKER_00You blink your eyes. You when you wake up and you're 50, you blink your eyes and you're 65.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00You better have a plan.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And it shouldn't involve Social Security. Uh stock market's volatile. Um you gotta have a plan. Right. So if you're out there listening and you're 50, 55, you don't have a plan, you better have a plan. One of the guys on a recent boat trip is retired in the Air Force. He's got a really good retirement. And he is um got a second job that he really loves. And he asked me on the trip because we started talking about finance and stuff, and he said, and he's mid-40s, so I think he's 42. And he said, How do I, he said, I see your retirement, you're having fun. How do I get there? And I I gave him some advice and um it was it was talked to. Uh he didn't want to tell me, oh, I don't want your particulars, I don't even know how much cash you have and how your retirement's gonna be and all that stuff. But I said I gave him a number of somebody to call, go sit down, right, tell him your plan. And someone like Fisher Investments, I don't want to use the name, but they don't have fees on a lot of their products, most of their products. They fees come up, you grow, they grow. I like Fisher. And you can also do a Vanguard account.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that's one of the things that I I really like. And all the boys, well, both the boys and the girls, that's really what we push that. Uh index fund, low fees, easy, no decision to make, just keep pushing it in there. Well, you can have your own vanguard. Yeah, you can have your own vanguard or for the case. I think it's zero fees.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because they make money off investing your money.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And you can have a self-directed vanguard and do it on the index fund connected to the SP 500. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Put that in a Roth and you're rolling. Forget it. Yeah. Simple, simple stuff. Don't overcomplicate it, just do something.
SPEAKER_00But have a plan. If you're 50, have a plan.
SPEAKER_01And so 60s. 60s.
SPEAKER_00That's scary. Yeah. It's getting scary. Depends on your health.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Are you married or not? When you get a divorce, you lose half. That's that puts a kink in some things.
SPEAKER_04Right, right.
SPEAKER_00Um, but if you're 60, uh, it's still not too late to have a plan.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00You got to find somebody you trust that knows, because boy, there's a lot of bad advice out there. But kind of what we're talking about, if you have a chunk of money, put it in a Vanguard account.
SPEAKER_01Don't get desperate. That's one of the things that I've seen that has uh been horrible to watch is that once people get in their 50s and 60s, they start looking for the desperation move. I've got to make up this amount of money.
SPEAKER_00They chase high rate of returns. I think it's dangerous.
SPEAKER_01It could be have to be safe. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh my buddy, I mentioned that we've been best friends since seventh grade and has been a financial planner his whole life. He told me a shocking statistic. It's changed, but this was years ago. That 95% of people over 40 years old in America that are working don't have $10,000 in cash. 95%. And he's he gave me an example. Somebody I knew, he said, You know my cross street neighbor, and I knew him real well. We played rocket ball together. He's in a, this is 30 years ago, in a half million dollar home, beautiful home, two Mercedes out front that he leased. And one day I asked him, Why you why you and your wife both have Mercedes? And he said, Well, uh, it's our image for our business. That im and my brain is saying, Is that image paying you any money?
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00Why don't you go get a brand new Caprice or something? Yeah. And people like that, my friend lived in this exclusive Jack Nicholas neighborhood, and all the homes are very nice. They're all two million dollar homes now. And he said, I got a neighbor that's like that. Big beautiful home, two brand new Mercedes, and they don't they live check to check. Yeah. If something happened to his job or his company, they'd be broke.
SPEAKER_01Back to the judging the book by the cover there.
SPEAKER_00Image. It was all image, keeping up with the Joneses that you mentioned a long time ago. Crippling. It is crippling. I don't care. Have you ever read the book, The Millionaire Next Door?
SPEAKER_01I have not.
SPEAKER_00Have you ever heard of it?
SPEAKER_01I have heard of it. Yes.
SPEAKER_00And Millionaire Next Door driving an old pickup truck.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00But he's worth millions of dollars.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_01Something be so. Follow that guy.
SPEAKER_00For the people here listen, go get that book.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00The Millionaire Next Door.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, that's okay. What's left for Wayne?
SPEAKER_00Well, my my number one job every day is my health.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00I've lost about 25 pounds the last three years. My son got me on the carnivore diet.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00When you get 60, you better start paying attention to your health. What you eat. Eat what you drink. I drink almost nothing anymore, alcohol-wise.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00Um, funny, my daughter I mentioned works for carbless. And I've had so little alcohol that if I drank two beers, I feel terrible the next day. Her company, carbless, not an advertisement for carbless, right? But it's a vodka drink, and they do have some tequila one, but no carbs, no sugar.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And they flavored.
SPEAKER_01They have um Yeah, we serve them at the restaurant.
SPEAKER_00They have Moscow Mule, they have all, you know, margarita flavor, they have strawberry flavor, watermelon flavor, which is my new favorite. But the no carb, no sugar. The next day I don't feel bad.
SPEAKER_01Sugar is the enemy. It's poison. I mean, I I it's been that's been one of my greatest revelations over the past couple of years is is what when you stop eating sugar or ingesting sugar, stunning. And then you do it again. It is crippling. I mean, it feels like I've got arthritis.
SPEAKER_00And that's what alcohol is sugar.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So carb was her drink, it's funny, she works for a company. Uh it no carbs, no sugar. Right. It's got alcohol.
SPEAKER_01Takes a little of the colour.
SPEAKER_00And I take it, I drink a couple of the boat or whatever, and I don't feel bad the next day, but I don't drink much at all. So back to your question. When you're over 60, you're and you got to wait till you're retired, but I've always run almost my whole life. I started running the month or two after I graduated from college because I was just uh a cream puff. Man, I was I was like the Michelin man, because in college you just drink in the in the cafeteria, it's all junk food, potatoes, and carbs, and alcohol and party. And um, but I've always exercised, and so I just now my job is my helps.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Move and uh, you know, weightlifting, and uh I mean, we played a pickleball tournament, went two and a half hours in the hot sun and maybe two five-minute breaks. All right, and there were people a lot younger than me that falling out, that just not in good couldn't take it.
SPEAKER_01So the the uh you know that's your catalyst to be able to enjoy life.
SPEAKER_00Then you can I still go snow skiing, right? Still scuba dive.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00But you can't do those if you're if you're not in shape, and it doesn't matter what you do. I I know some uh ladies that are in their 70s, have a bike club, they'll ride their bikes 50 miles on a weekend. These people are 70.
SPEAKER_01And that's that's the key. Yeah, and it's not all about yeah, obviously, you need to keep your body moving, but it's what you're putting in your body that is so important as well.
SPEAKER_00Well, and I think dementia is a big deal, yeah. And we always worried about that. Everybody's worried about it. And being active, uh, there's a list of sports that help uh push back dementia or eliminate it completely. Yeah, uh, and I think that's got to do with the blood circulation of your brain. Yeah, but do something.
SPEAKER_01Keep moving.
SPEAKER_00And because I mean, it's really funny. One of the people on the last boat trip, and I didn't know they were videoing me, I'm the only one. We stopped in a beautiful place, uh, and it's on the coast. And Gabe, they had these uh floating platforms, sun platforms, like eight of them. And we took the dinghy over there, and the ladies were sunning all day and stuff. And I said, the best snorkeling's right over there. So I'm the only one on all these young people, and I snorkeled. I bet it was a half-mile swim.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_00And I didn't know it, but one of the guys on the boat filmed me and said, Okay, they could see my snorkel. There's Wayne, he's way over there. And I did that, and I swam back to the boat and I climb up and I'm not even breathing hard.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And all these young people, I call them young, they were all 50 and 60. Not one of them did it. Yeah, and I said, That's how I'm enjoying life.
unknownExactly.
SPEAKER_01Gotta move, do something. Keep moving, keep moving. Well, let's do a couple of little rapid fire quests. Okay, you ready for this? Okay. Uh and some of these we've kind of hit on a little bit. Um, what's one mistake every young man should avoid?
SPEAKER_00Oh. Uh uh, that's easy. It's um um keeping up with the Joneses appearance.
SPEAKER_01There you go.
SPEAKER_00Doesn't matter. Yeah, it's it's superficial.
SPEAKER_01What's one habit that quietly changed your life forever?
SPEAKER_00Um besides food, besides what you put in your body.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00I was lucky because in my 30s, the group I told you about, the family that had seven boys and a girl, real Catholic.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00So we're drinking and partying hard.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00Every year for Lent. They quit alcohol. So every year for 47 days, my body and liver got a flush out.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And I think that was an important habit.
SPEAKER_01That's a that's a great, great point.
SPEAKER_00I think it kept me healthy.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00Because if you drink for 10 years, 30 to 40, your liver and alcohol and kidney never get a break.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_00And I look back on that, and that was a habit they had. And we all did it together.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_00So we still had our dates. We'd go to somebody's house and cook fresh fish and stuff.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_00We went to movies, we did different things, but we broke that string of always drinking.
SPEAKER_01Right. That's a good one. Yeah. Uh what matters far less than you thought it would when you were in your 30s?
SPEAKER_00Appearance, back to that.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00I don't care about anything anymore. Like I said, driving an old car. Stay healthy, and uh don't worry about what other people are doing.
SPEAKER_01There you go. Uh, what matters far more than you realized when you were in your 30s?
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, we love our family, but when you're now you're older and you're seeing grandkids, you're about to experience that. And you're gonna see that grandkid from changing diapers to uh maybe being a high school athlete or college athlete. That's you think you love them now? Yeah, it's gonna change.
SPEAKER_01I can't wait for it. That's gonna change. So finish this sentence. A successful man is someone who uh is happy with himself.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you have to start with yourself.
SPEAKER_01You can't lie to yourself.
SPEAKER_00If you can't lie to yourself, number one. But if you are not happy with yourself, you're not gonna be happy with anybody else.
SPEAKER_01Right. That's a very good point. If you could leave your children with only one lesson, what would it be?
SPEAKER_00Uh, truth and honesty. When my kids were young, and you know, teenagers rebel, and I'm sure your boys got in some trouble, and uh mine got in some trouble. Right. And uh so when they and I and we always had alcohol around them. Not that we drank a lot at home, we were we were you know Baptists for all 10 cents of birth. But uh when they were, you know, 15, 16 and they're hearing their friends talk, uh, I'd say, you want to taste beer? You want to taste a glass of wine? Would you like to taste some whiskey or scotch and introduced them to alcohol at home?
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And so it wouldn't taboo. If it's taboo, what are they gonna do as soon as they leave the house? Right. What was the song that said take a glass of water and make it against the law? The credence clear water, yeah. And um, and I remember my daughter, uh, it's funny, when she was 12, I had a glass of scotch on the table. She thought it was iced tea, and she took a big swig of scotch. That she woke her up a little bit. She still jokes about that. She said, she's asked me, she spit it out, and she said, Is that what alcohol tastes like? I said, Yeah. She didn't drink till she was like 18. Right, right. She said, but she did it to herself. Yeah, so that you know, um, I always taught my kids, I said, I will love you forever, but I'm only gonna trust you once. Don't ever lie to me. Right. You get in trouble, get arrested something, call me first.
SPEAKER_01Yep, and let's work through it.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna and I'm not gonna tell the story, but that actually not got didn't get arrested, but they uh had some trouble and call me first. And we got out of the trouble, right? And because they did that, I never mentioned it ever again.
SPEAKER_04Yep.
SPEAKER_00Don't bring it up in a fight, don't bring it up when you scream it. But I told him that I'll love you forever, but I'm only gonna trust you once. So truth and honesty.
SPEAKER_01That's it. Big, big deal. Uh, if your 25-year-old self could see your life today, what would surprise him the most?
SPEAKER_00Probably I'm still alive. Uh I think the um what I can do and seeing other people my age, even 60, right, uh can't do it.
SPEAKER_01Uh and uh uh fitness is yeah, because when you're 25 and you're looking at someone 75, 77, you're you're you're bulletproof when you're 25.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I ripped this hand open, literally playing pickleball, bent it, and it popped open, and you can see the bones. Right. I had to have an ortho put it back together. So when I'm doing my physical therapy and I'm final checkup, and he gives you that little grippy thingy, right? And he said, squeeze as hard as you can. And he said, You have the grip of a 25-year-old bodybuilder. I said, Well, I have one of those things.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And my hands are my hands are insanely strong.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00But work on it.
SPEAKER_01But what are you still chasing at 75 or 77? I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_0070, almost 77, 76.
SPEAKER_0176, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, you know, you always chase happiness, you want to be happy, and uh, but I think when you get older, if something doesn't make you happy, you can get rid of it real quick. They call it cranky old man, I just say I'm honest. Right. You you you have less um, you don't suffer fools.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You don't have the time for that.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00No BS. Life's no BS right now.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Yep. Just living it to live it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Every day.
SPEAKER_01Oh. If it's to be, it's up to me. There you go.
SPEAKER_00And it's still there.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00If I have a goal, I I had a goal in 2019. I wanted, I'd never been to Europe. I kept waiting to have a girlfriend or new spouse, whatever. I finally said, I'm going. And I spent 46 days backpacking.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that was I enjoyed following you on that one.
SPEAKER_00Every day I wrote two stories and it's still in Facebook. And then for Christmas one year, my daughter Brooke had a book made. And that book is sitting on on my uh nightstand, and sometimes I pick it up and say, damn, I did all that. And so I just went.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so that was a goal.
SPEAKER_01Right, right. Set those goals and find a way to make them happen.
SPEAKER_00Now I want to go to South America.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. That's one of mine. Yeah. I want to go to Argentina. Oh. Yeah. Now that is uh that's always been a bucket list for me. So you got plenty of time. I need to put my pen, pen out there, and we're carrying on make it happen.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna go to Australia and visit my cousins.
SPEAKER_01Right, right.
SPEAKER_00They're mid-40s, no kids, got a big house in Adelaide on the coast. There's a place to go right white shark diving. A 45-minute flight. When I go, I'm gonna stay uh three months.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_00If this foot surgery I'll have to have in November hadn't come up because their seasons are opposite.
SPEAKER_04Right, right.
SPEAKER_00And they said come in October, November. Yeah, it's like their fall.
SPEAKER_01Gotta keep living life. Keep living as long as God allows us to be here.
SPEAKER_00Put one foot in front of the other and keep going.
SPEAKER_01Wayne, you've been an inspiration to me. I appreciate your time. You definitely we've covered a lot of ground and hopefully giving people some lessons in life, some uh blueprint to that, some fundamentals that you've succeeded with, and um you know, in faith and family and purpose and you know, focusing on those things. And fun. And fun. Don't forget fun. Don't forget fun. Well, you definitely have it. You've been an inspiration uh to me on that, and I appreciate you being in my life, and um, and like I said, wish you well and can't wait to keep up with your adventures.
SPEAKER_00Well, we'll do it again sometime.
SPEAKER_01All right, brother. Okay, well, thank you.