Neil Dudley: Hey, everybody. Again, Straight from the Horse’s Mouth, and I’m in a hurry because I got to jump on a conference call in just about five or six minutes, but I wanted to get on here. It’s just been nagging at me to tell everybody or to give everybody a little bit more insight on why I ask that question, what is the value of a dollar, to each guest. I mean, there’s a couple of guests that I’ve missed, but generally I get that question in with everybody. And I want to share with you a couple of responses that have been given to me. One is from a mentor of mine, Mr. Billy Albin, where he doesn’t put much value in a dollar. He’s more interested in doing what he loves and what he wants to. Now I’m going to also have Johnny put in a snippet from my Kasey Mock interview. He talks about what the value of a dollar is to him and what his perspective is. And I guess ultimately, he doesn’t put that much value on a dollar either. But it’s two of the guys that I respect a lot, two of the guys that I’ve interviewed and had time to get to know, and just, I feel like I just have to share it because their insights were valuable to me, and I want to highlight them for you, give you a chance to listen to that and think about it. What is the value of a dollar to you? It can’t buy you happiness, can it? Those are the questions you have to ask yourself. So, for you listeners that are paying attention, I am excited for you to have this opportunity just to give yourself another perspective and a little bit of time to think about what is the value of a dollar? Okay, here is that piece of the podcast from Kasey Mock part 2.
So, tell us – everybody, listen, because here’s Kasey Mock’s perspective on the value of a dollar. And I think we all should have one.
Kasey Mock: I love the question. I think most people, Neil, want to spend a million dollars, not have a million dollars, and certainly not earn a million dollars. So, think about that. If you ask most people in town, wherever town is, you just pull up next to somebody, or Brad sitting over on the couch – Brad, what does a million dollars mean to you? Man, if I had a million dollars, I’d go buy this. If I had a million dollars- I’ve already got it spent in my mind. I’d buy the beach house and buy the cigarette boat and buy the Bloomers horse trailer. And I’d load that thing full of a good head horses and I’d be on to the world series of team roping on the weekends.
Neil Dudley: That million would be gone by now. After all that stuff you just said, about four horses and a nice Bloomer trailer, my million dollars is gone.
Kasey Mock: Most people want to spend a million dollars, not have one and not earn it. So, if you think about that, you look- That’s why generationally, what do you see generationally? Generation one? Builds it. Generation two? Enjoys it. Generation three? Loses it.
Neil Dudley: I don’t know if that’s right, if that’s even what you’re looking for.
Kasey Mock: You see it a lot. You said it on script. You said it on script. But that’s why. Because there’s not a lot of people that have wealth. Because there’s only a few people- This is why I get so angry about overreach of government into our income. Because buddy, I work every day. You do too. I show up every day and put every- You’ve seen like the gambling example where all my chips are in. That’s every day about eight o’clock in the morning for me. You too. You get up in the morning. We’re all in today, baby. You get up in the morning, we’re all in today, baby. We’re all in with work. We’re all in with our resources. There’s a lot of risk. We’re all in today. Not everybody’s willing to take that risk. And so, if you’re willing to take that risk and build an empire or build something that’s worth something, just use the million dollars. You want to build something that’s worth a million dollars, understand there’s a reason that that’s – this is Kasey talk here – understand there’s a reason that that’s such a small percentage of the population, because there’s a very small percentage of the population willing to go do what it takes to earn that. A lot of people will earn a lot of money during the course of their life and how they spend it will tell you a lot about the person. See, money doesn’t make a person, it reveals the person. Money doesn’t make a person or change a person or make them better or make them worse. All money does is reveals the person. So, if you give somebody some money, what do they do with it? That’s going to tell you who they are. That’s going to tell you what’s really important to them. So that’s my view on the value of the dollar. We’ve been very, very, very blessed financially. For somebody that has a business the size of ours, I probably look at my money less than anybody I know because it’s not the most important thing to me. Our 2021 business goal, the one goal for 2021 is defined by our giving goal because we have a goal to give a certain percentage of what we make as a company and that’s personally, and I know if I’m able to hit that giving goal, I will have hit my financial goal. See, so the goal is not how much we make, it’s how much we can give, because in order to give that much, we’ve got to go put pressure on the system to make enough to afford to give that much and still keep the system going. Another book that you would really, really like, and you can listen to it, is Profit First. Michael Michalowicz Profit First. It’s a great book. The Profit First book is- there’s a few books that you should read for finances – Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad, a great book. Gary Keller wrote a book called Shift and one called the Millionaire Real Estate Investor. I’d tell you to read the Millionaire Real Estate Investor. It’s another great book. So, Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Millionaire Real Estate Investor, and Profit First. Profit First is by Michael Michalowicz. The Profit First principle is you go to work, you wake up every day, you go to work, and you make a dollar. What do you want to make a dollar for? Well, I want to make a dollar so I can save, so I can support my family, so I can do things with that dollar, so I can give. Nobody went to work to make a dollar to pay their expenses. Nobody said I want to go make a million dollars, net or gross a million dollars in revenue so that I can have a business that takes a million dollars a year to run so that I can net zero. Nobody said that. You’re a successful guy. You can go make whatever you make at Peterson’s doing your own deal, or you can go make that working for somebody else because you’re going to be valuable enough to somebody else that they’re willing to pay you a fee. I mean, somebody in this world would pay you what you’re worth to go do a job. We all employ people. So, if I’m going to take the risk of being self-employed and build businesses and be an entrepreneur, the only reason I would do that is so that I can control the amount of dollars or in some ways control the amount of dollars that our organization is able to bring in so that we can do what we want with it. So, my wife and I, as an example, we follow the profit first model. Every dollar that we bring in, that our company brings in, every single dollar that our company brings in, we have separate accounts, we put money into our giving account first. Because we give off the top of every dollar. So, our money goes in the giving account first. That way, when we see a need or we have a commitment that we’ve made to our church or to an organization or to the livestock show or wherever we’re going to fulfill these giving goals, that money has been spent first and foremost and earmarked for that because that’s our one thing.
Neil Dudley: And now the piece of that conversation I had with Billy Albin.
What’s the value of a dollar to you? What do you, how would you answer that question?
Billy Albin: Well, I don’t really put much value in a dollar. I put more value in if I’m doing what I like and what I want to do. If I’ve got enough money to do that, that’s enough as far as-
Neil Dudley: A paper dollar bill doesn’t make much difference.
Billy Albin: Doesn’t make that much difference to me. I want to be doing what I want to do. And it don’t take much money to stay here at home.
Neil Dudley: Alright. I think that’s a great perspective and people could have a lot happier lives a lot of times if they can hear that and think about it and see how it might play in their lives.
Billy Albin: And I don’t, if anybody wants, if that’s what they want to do, that’s fine.
Neil Dudley: That’s for you. You’re answering the question from your perspective.
I hope you guys found some value in this quick conversation. I’m going to be doing these Straight From the Horse’s Mouth, trying to nail down some specific things on topics for everyone so you get a little quicker listen. And if you want to get deeper, you can listen to these full episodes. Thanks everybody for listening.
Hey, if you like what we’re doing here, go to the website thecowboyperspective.com and check out all the people that sponsor the podcast. They help me make this thing happen. If you have some need that they might be able to fulfill, I’d appreciate you doing some business with them. Thank you.
Now for your listening pleasure, a little Traversing the Trail from Mr. Byron Hill.