Creating Legacies: Lee Benson on Value Creation, Financial Wisdom, and Raising Innovators

Join the celebration of value creation and financial wisdom as I sit down with the remarkable entrepreneur and author Lee Benson to mark three incredible years of podcasting. Discover the transformative journey from launching Abbey Aerospace to penning the "Value Creation Kid," and why financial education in childhood is the cornerstone for grooming future innovators. We unravel personal parenting tales, acknowledging that shielding our kids from struggle might just shield them from success, highlighting the necessity of challenges in shaping responsible, value-creating adults.

Embark on a deep exploration of the nuanced art of value creation for entrepreneurs, where we dissect the common trap of underselling ourselves and the pursuit of genuine value over mere sales numbers. Lee and I draw lessons from Disneyland's unforgettable experiences, examining value creation across material, emotional, and spiritual dimensions. Furthermore, we discuss the impact of emotional energy in leadership and the arts, and how self-awareness and challenging the status quo can lead to internal fulfillment and positive change.

Wrapping up with broader perspectives on value creation, success, and leadership, we challenge traditional educational paths and emphasize practical application and intrinsic motivation, inspired by wisdom from my late business partner, Jack Welch. We confront the resistance to change in established systems like education, and through stories of entrepreneurship and a Tanzanian student's outlook, we celebrate the power of perseverance and proactive living. This episode not only honors the entrepreneurial spirit but serves as a call to action for carving paths of value that contribute to a legacy of success and fulfillment for future generations.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

I never told no one that my whole life I've been holding back. Every time I load my gun up so I can shoot for the star, I hear a voice like who do you?

Speaker 2: 0:11

think you are all right, everybody. Another day, another dollar, another one of my favorite episodes yes, I'm biased, it's my own podcast hitting three years. Man, what, what it means to just do something on a consistent basis. Well, I am honored to have with me a guest, lee Benson. Lee grew his first company, abbey Aerospace, from three to 500 employees with 15 consecutive years of 20% compounded average annual growth, before his exit of undisclosed nine figures. Next, he founded Executive to Win ETW, advising many high-growth companies and entrepreneurs to uncover their most important number to ensure growth and success. Today, lee's operating system is used by businesses all over the world. He's also a two-time Wall Street Journal bestselling author of your Most Important Number and Value Creation Kid, which Helps Parents Teach their Kids About Money and Value Creation Tactics. I'm honored to have you, brother, welcome.

Speaker 1: 1:17

It's so good to be here.

Speaker 2: 1:18

Thanks for having me, you know, I got to start with the second book because I've always been bad with money, but I never had that foundation because you know, yes, I know our parents are supposed to teach us and I'm nothing like my mom, because my mom, I mean, she's cautious with everything. Yeah, you name it While with me, if I saw a dollar, it was always like, well, you know, I'll make $2 tomorrow. But you know, we were always, I was led to the belief that maybe one day the school system would teach us stuff like this instead of square dancing. But hey, you know what? This instead of square dancing. But hey, you know what you? You found an opportunity to to create something.

Speaker 2: 2:09

Because you know, we're we're a nation of idiots, a nation of people. When it comes to common sense, especially with money, we all act well. We always lack common. Oh, my gosh, I can't eat a whole pizza. That's what makes me fat. My gosh, you actually have to pay those credit cards back. You mean they're not free. So I mean, what made you want to write a book for parents to teach children all about the value of money?

Speaker 1: 2:38

Yeah, I'm on my seventh company. I've started from scratch. I wrote a book, the first one on helping organizations operationalize value creation. You know where CEOs, in my opinion, their primary job should be to increase responsibly the value of the organization. And then I'm thinking about the future and the kids are going to be running the world that we retire in, and selfishly, in a win-win way.

Speaker 1: 3:04

I don't want to live in a dystopian future, even though I love those kinds of movies I'm a sci-fi buff so the more we get our kids to a place where they launch into adulthood is moral value, creating adults the better the world's going to be for you and I to interact with an age out. And so that's why I did it. You know, value creation, kid the healthy struggles your children need to succeed. And I think that's why I did it. You know, value creation, kid the healthy struggles your children need to succeed. And I think that's the biggest part that parents miss with the best of intentions let's take all struggle away and it'll be better. It's like forget it. If that was true, the less I went to the gym, the more flexible and stronger I would become, right Like they completely miss it.

Speaker 1: 3:41

And when I hear parents say I just don't want my kids to go through the struggles that I did. I'm like well, I'm really glad you did, because it made you this amazing human being. That was a training ground. Some of the struggles are healthy and normal and some aren't healthy. All struggles could be leveraged to create more value in the world, and so that's why I wrote the book. You know it's a. It's a selfish, philanthropic effort to do this. I want to get this operating methodology into millions of households and just think about the dent that will make in the world when these kids launch into adulthood out of high school.

Speaker 2: 4:15

You said it best and I get it. As a parent, I've got one going into college in the fall, going to LSU a legacy, just like her dad yeah my ex-wife and I.

Speaker 2: 4:28

We have two teenage daughters and we always act, we always talk to each other when we're not arguing about things and it's like, did we do the best? Because they don't have that hunger, which what you talk about. A lot of us you know, oh well, you know, yeah, they, they saw us. No, they didn't. You have to be outside, you have to be uncomfortable.

Speaker 2: 4:59

I own five, five to seven companies at one time and, yeah, every time success is being uncomfortable and you know we always want to give our children. You know we, we want to protect them from the evils of the world or the unjust, or that life isn't fair. Life isn't fair. You know, when you read these stories that, like, mick jagger is not going to, don't, not, not going to leave his inheritance to his kid, his kids and all that. There's nothing wrong with that. But people have had this knee jerk reaction like, oh my gosh, oh, we don't want our kids, but you have to push them. It's like when we learn how to swim, when you throw them into the ocean or the pool without floaties, and you know, one of us drowned. I think we all learned somewhat how to swim, yeah.

Speaker 1: 5:52

Yeah, you know, I came from a pretty low income family and it was kind of a mess. You know family members in and out of prison for some really bad things and I was kicked out of the house beginning of my senior year in high school and I spent one night in my blazer that I bought with my own money, had an apartment the next night and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Going through that and I guess that's a little like being thrown in the pool and figuring it out. But I started this value creation journey six, seven years old, pulling weeds for neighbors and that went to shoveling snow and paper outs and then dishwasher, busboy, cook.

Speaker 1: 6:30

In the 80s I played in rock and roll bands the first half of that decade. You know hundreds of nights a year. It's how I made most of my money back then. It was a business. I don't really count it as one of my seven and I've loved this journey.

Speaker 1: 6:46

And I think to your point yeah, it's hard and it should be fun going forward and when people have this sort of mindset of, well, I'll have this business, and when I make a bunch of money, it'll be okay, that's probably why 95% of the time or more. It doesn't really work out. It should be. I really want to create value in the world and this is the way I'm going to do it. And the harder it gets, you know you're doing it right when the harder you laugh. I mean that's my experience and it's just fun.

Speaker 1: 7:17

And and be uncomfortable. Be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Raise your tolerance for that, because when you come out the other side, you're going to have so much more capability, so much more self-esteem, so much more intrinsic motivation and confidence, and I think that's all you ever have. I mean, I know a lot. Say it right. You know the presence, all that matters, and you can't. You know it's all about the journey, but it's true Like if you can't enjoy the journey, you're kind of done. You're always waiting for something to happen that's never going to happen.

Speaker 2: 7:49

Well, I'm all about the journey and I tell people it's a process and you have to do it on a consistent basis for a long period of time. There will be struggle, but once, once you get past the struggle, it's amazing. Struggle, but once, once you get past the struggle, it's amazing. But we're so impatient as a society and social media doesn't doesn't help in any way. Everybody wants to buy into the overnight success. Or hey, six months ago I was mowing lawns and now I have a mansion in La Jolla and for a low, low price of $19.99, I can send you my quote-unquote secrets on how to become wealthy and sex.

Speaker 1: 8:33

You know what? You and I should write a book the Way to Optimal Health Through Chocolate Lava Cake. We'll probably sell millions of copies, because it's what people want to hear, right, exactly.

Speaker 2: 8:44

Isn't it common sense? You said it best. My favorite is when everybody's like I'm, like they're. They're sitting on the sidelines, they're waiting for a new diet, they're waiting for a new book. And it's like, yeah, maybe, if you like, staple your mouth or you duct tape it instead of eating constant crap. And maybe if you go to the actual gym and you work out you don't take selfies, you don't go on the elliptical which lies like everybody's ex-girlfriend and says you, you burn like 1200 calories in 20 minutes, which is impossible then you know, do that, do that on a consistent base. And everybody's like, no, no, no. It's like they're waiting for the guru, they're waiting for the moses to part the red sea and and tell, and come out with the commandments and say this is the way to success. It's a journey, it's a struggle, it's a problem If you and I wrote a book together about 50 up and coming wealthiest people in America, or whatever they all had struggle and they all had to pick themselves themselves up.

Speaker 2: 10:06

Everybody loves that story on oh my gosh. You know the rocky balboa story. You know go go down 19 times, come back up 20. But they don't understand that they can be their own hero instead of tuning out and watching fiction. Create your own story.

Speaker 1: 10:27

Yeah Well, on a serious note, it's super unfortunate to me that so many people will fall for gimmicks around a silver bullet or magic pill, thinking that that's the thing that's going to get them there. And so there's people probably taking tens of billions of dollars out of people's pockets collectively around the world that are falling for that crap. And when I work with companies, you know senior leadership teams. It's not uncommon in the small middle market space where you're like, oh, it's hard to log into software and I have to do this and do that, and I just say, look, I'm going to break something to you. You're actually going to have to do something. You can't just show up to a meeting and all this stuff miraculously happens. You actually have to do something, and if you're not willing to do that, then don't bother with any of this. You know going forward.

Speaker 1: 11:15

So you know I love what you're saying. Your message is great. I've listened to other podcasts with you on it and it's like man, you're preaching to the choir. We're so aligned here on on uh, you know common sense and what it means to be successful in life at all levels. Right, it's not about having a million dollars in your pocket or more. It's about being successful, and I look at value creation as holistic value creation. So I'd love to dig in that a little bit and get your take on it, because we haven't talked about that.

Speaker 2: 11:46

Definitely, definitely. Well, you see, with me when it comes to value this is my definition. When entrepreneurs feel like they have to discount themselves, they have to chase sales. They don't understand that not everybody's going to be your client, not everybody's going to be your prospect, but mom and pop believe that they can do it. If Disney World can't, if Starbucks can't, they can. Everybody's their target audience and they chase sales. They'll discount themselves, they'll cannibalize themselves their own sales with these deep discounts, instead of creating value. I know that's something that we're going to discuss. I'm sure it means something completely different, but value is you're a West Coast guy, you're a West Coast guy Disneyland compared to yeah, some people might say it's expensive, but some people will see the value of that instead of going to Six Flags Magic Mountain where there's police officers there with shotguns. To me that's hey, I'm bringing value. They're bringing value because it's safe, it's clean, it's fun and I know we're going to create memories, not that that's infomercial for Disneyland.

Speaker 1: 13:17

But I think the point and I think it's right on perceived value is going to be a little bit significantly different for everybody and what they're doing, and I love when people are intentionally trying to create real win-win value in the world, not rigging the game to take away from people that do create value, and when I think about value creation. So I launched my own podcast. I know you've been at it for three years and thank you for the work that you're doing and the message of getting out there. I started about two months ago and my show is called show your value and it's about exploring the art of value creation and three macro buckets material value creation, where most people play, even when they say it's not important, that's mostly what's important to them.

Speaker 1: 14:00

The second bucket is emotional, energy value creation. And the third is spiritual value creation, and the spiritual side is connectedness for me, and so it's connectedness with yourself. The better we understand ourselves, the easier to interact with the world, the teams, your family, the communities that you engage with. So when I think about creating net positive value, it's for me doing value creation in balance in all three of those buckets and I prefer also this is for me personally to push back on things taking value out of the world in those three buckets at the same time. I'm not one of those and I don't think you are either that just sets back and is silent when craziness is going on in the world. No, I'll speak up, and I get to speak to a lot of groups. You know lots of leaders, lots of people, and if it's a thought pathogen and taking value out of the world, I'm gonna talk against it or at least ask questions. Show me exactly how that's adding value to the world. But that's my version of value creation. It's holistic material, emotional, energy and spiritual.

Speaker 2: 15:04

Well, that's something similar to me mind, body, spirit. We need to have all of them and you can have. Everybody chases, or they think, like the $1 million, that's the magic bullet.

Speaker 2: 15:19

Once I'm an accredited investor, once I have that million dollars, you know, Nirvana, not the band, but you know, whatever the Eastern, you know Nirvana, utopia, and I believe that I kept on chasing happiness. I didn't realize it came from within and my spiritual bucket was completely down and I felt like, well, if I write another book, if I do a podcast, if I create another business, if I open up another franchise, and it was, there was a hole. You know, it's like trying to fill a colander you can never do it, you know it. It created, like you know, I got a divorce, was unhappy till, you know, I woke up one day realizing, you know, yeah, sure, my, my mind was there, or so I thought it wasn't, because my limiting beliefs were telling me I was not enough. When, hey, everybody's enough.

Speaker 2: 16:28

All you have to do is you have to declare it. You want to be an entrepreneur? Just be one. Well, if you're in business for two years and you're an entrepreneur or a podcast, even after a little while, it was like, well, I can't say I'm a podcaster until I hit this metric and then I had to step back and I'm like, no man, I don't have to. There's no cyber hugs, or there's no, I don't need an Academy Award for something. You just be it, and you're right. That's why you know a very similar, very similar approach you have to have. If one isn't, if you're lacking in one, it's going to start tearing the other two down yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1: 17:12

And when it is mostly material value creation, cultivation, which is a skill and it can take a lot of years to be really good at it and generate a lot of it, that can be supercharged and I've proven it. I've had, you know, a number of exits, from all the way up to well into nine figures, so I've done incredibly well. Hasn't changed anything about my lifestyle. I still work every bit as hard, have as much fun I like. Being at a higher and higher level of uncomfortable, because that's where I grow the most Like. This is so great in the emotional energy bucket. It's a superpower for leaders. It's like when you walk into a room or you're engaging with a team, does the energy go up or does it go down, or is there no change? And think about that and be intentional. And as long as it took for me to get really good at the material value creation piece, it takes just as long, if not longer, to be good at the emotional energy piece of it. And I'm actually calling from my music studio, which I have here at my home, and I'm in the studio right now, another friend's studio with a new band I form recording an album. Think of the emotional energy lifting potential of music. You look at bands like the Beatles and how they've lifted emotional energy with billions of people around the world. And then the community piece. You know we need to do more to make sure that we're being, you know, connected and cultivating those relationships in those communities. That takes a lot of intentional time too, and so I have a question for you. The base of it is really this it takes a while to be good at something that you, when you, after you start and it could be six months or a year before okay, I think I'm on the right track, right, and so I feel that way.

Speaker 1: 18:51

About the emotional energy and the spiritual value creation piece. Everybody gets the material piece. So you want to do that in, you know, holistically. And when you say things like and totally agree with the statement, everybody's enough. And when you say things like and totally agree with the statement, everybody's enough, okay, great, and you don't need to have all this stuff so easy to say. But people listening like Omar has no idea what I'm going through, and I'm like so what's the advice to get people on the right track? Because it took me a lot of years to tell those weird voices telling me I can't do it, shut the F up. You guys go over there. I'm doing this and I'm not listening to you anymore and I'm firmly there and it rarely has any impact anymore, but I go back four or five decades and had a lot of impact on me. So what's your advice for those that don't think they're enough, for whatever reason, and they got those weird voices to get on the right track, to start working on telling those little guys to disappear.

Speaker 2: 19:47

Oh, I'm socially inept, lee. Those voices, this is always going outside my comfort zone. Believe it or not, man, I'm a guy that they thought couldn't speak English For the first few years of my education. I was born here in Miami, all right, so, yeah, and I, I kept on.

Speaker 2: 20:16

I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to gurus to try to tell the voice inside to be quiet, that everybody, your limiting beliefs have been placed in you since you were a little child.

Speaker 2: 20:24

They're never going to go away.

Speaker 2: 20:26

What you have to do and this is what I do, lee is I make sure I am aware and I'm way louder than that little voice that's telling me that I'm not enough and I'm fearful talking to new people, to making a presentation, to selling anything those fears, those limiting beliefs, I was the guy that was fear of.

Speaker 2: 20:51

Oh my gosh, if they said no, I couldn't ask out a girl in high school because if she said no, I felt everybody locally would know. And that's a lot of people in my head. And, yeah, you, I mean you just have to confront fear. And when it comes to like speaking or whatnot, what I do is like, with my Ted talk, my TEDx talk, I pictured my, the audience to be the people that have told me I sucked, that I would never do anything like this, that who was I to write a book and, more importantly, a person that's always been with me I even dedicated part of my first book was my junior high assistant principal, when he told me it'd be a cold day in hell the day I graduated college.

Speaker 2: 21:41

Oh no, it's terrible, but it motivated me because, believe or not, I yeah, elementary, junior high. It wasn't like he. Just I'm like, oh my gosh, all of a sudden like I needed to have a degree to. And he was right it it snowed in in louisiana at lsu the day I graduated in the summer, so he was right, it was a cold day.

Speaker 1: 22:08

No, there you go. Well, I I had a teacher in ninth grade tell me I wasn't smart enough to go to college so I should get some vocational education. You know, fix motorcycles or whatever. I can fix motorcycles and I can go to college and I can build businesses. That motivated me too, I thought. When the guy said it, I thought how the hell can anybody tell a kid something like that? Exactly exactly, and maybe with the best of intentions yeah, maybe with the best of intentions he was trying to protect me from failing. I think it was probably more of that than anything. But that is nuts. Anybody can do anything if they want to. Some people can do it half the time it took me to do it, and others might take 300 years, but they all can do it if they apply themselves but but also too.

Speaker 2: 22:55

You and I grew up in a time where, well, I mean, we're still brainwashing kids into believing that if you don't have a degree, you know you're, you're under a bridge somewhere. Yeah, you know it and I would tell anybody there's nothing wrong with vocational school. You can make 70, 80 000 right off the bat. If you have the right certification and you you can. You can sell yourself, unlike you know, having a. Well, one of my degrees is in history. I mean that, and 250 would get you a copy of the USA Today. But if you look at all these universities, there's like hundreds of degrees, specialized programs. How many of those can actually get you anywhere in life?

Speaker 1: 23:46

They should give a money back guarantee. Who doesn't work?

Speaker 2: 23:49

out.

Speaker 1: 23:51

Could you imagine Diploma back and you take it back. But here's the problem, because I'm pretty active in K-12 education and trying to make a difference there and I spent a lot of time with that, with nonprofits and other work that I'm doing, especially through Value Creation. Kid, the purpose of an education should be to create value in the world, not get a good grade, get a diploma, get a degree, get a job. It's not that, it's create value, and I wish we started that way. It's like. The purpose is this. So, as a child, what's your value creation superpower? How would you like to create value in the world? How would the world be different because of where you want to go? And that guides the path. And for some disciplines like engineering or medical professions, I think it's a ticket to play to go through these college programs and there's some really good ones out there.

Speaker 1: 24:37

For a lot of other paths, completely unnecessary for business and entrepreneurship, I don't recommend it at all. You know and I tried it three times listening to people talk about how the world works when it comes to business and I'm running three companies while I'm doing this and they don't know what the hell they're talking about, it's like that. This is crazy for me to waste my money. And then I had that was really interesting Jack Welch, the guy that ran General Electric built at the time the most valuable company in the world. He was my business partner and very good, loving, caring friend, up to the point where he passed a couple of years ago in my current business, etw, and he helped me with a lot of things that I was doing. I wrote some curriculum, shot videos, actually even a course that we call Leadership in Action, and I brought alumni and students out to my business and took them through two and a half days of that. But I had the university that bought the Jack Welch Management Institute.

Speaker 1: 25:34

At one point they called me and said look, we teach all this stuff. We have no idea how to do it. Would you please come out and tell us how to do it? And so for me, the real education is practical application in the world, and it may be the college path to get you a ticket to play. It may not be there's so much information everywhere. But I think, omar, that's really it, like the North Star, is the value you want to create in the world. And then what's the best path to get there, and you're right. Some would say a college degree is the only and best path. No freaking way, is it the only path. But without that North Star you're just floating in the wind. How does that land on you?

Speaker 2: 26:18

You know, to me, we all sell, we're all sellers. Your publicist had to sell me on having you. I still had to sell them on numbers that I was worthy to have you on my show. I had to sell my ex-wife hey, let's get married, let's have a couple of kids. There's always a sale. Whether yay, couple of kids, there's always a sale. Whether yay or no, there's always a transaction.

Speaker 2: 26:48

And to me, yeah, I, I can't say anything good, anything bad about going to college, because I learned how to communicate, how to talk, how to do different things, but in general, it's how you present yourself, how you communicate with your other people, because you can have a degree from an ivy league, but if you have no social skills, you're gonna quickly find yourself being one of these protesters. You're gonna be like would you like a tall or a grande with that? Well, and that's that's why people are shocked when they're like there's. There's people that are successful, that are high school dropouts yeah, because they had drive. So you know, what are you going to do? Are you going to go just graduate college and that's it. You're never going to learn. You're never going to go just graduate college and that's it. You're never going to learn. You're never going to go past your comfort zone, because a lot of people for a few years, I was like that.

Speaker 2: 27:54

I wasn't a student anymore. We should all be students. We should all learn. We should all learn how to play an instrument. We should all learn how to write a book. We should all learn how to play an instrument. We should all learn how to write a book. We should all learn how to do something and keep on learning, because either you're growing or you're dying. Nothing is static. And I was like so many people. Well, I have a degree or I have a master's in communication, so the only thing I need to read about is go to Walden Books or Borders or Barnes and Noble and buy fiction so I can tune out.

Speaker 1: 28:31

Well, the only thing I really care about is can you create value in the world? And it's so telling when I've had people say to me oh, you must be so excited, you're a double bestselling author and everything else. Isn't that the wrong thing to say? Isn't the better question how did the books move the needle to create more value in the world? And people will say, oh, your kid went to this prestigious college, you must be so proud. Same question how are they going to leverage it to create more value in the world? And did they hopefully not come out too woke so they can actually create the value in the world?

Speaker 1: 29:04

And this drive culturally in the United States is all about extrinsic motivation. Get rich quick, all that kind of stuff. Need to shift it to intrinsic value creation motivation, and I think that's gonna be the golden ticket. But what you have on the wall a diploma or a plaque or whatever it's like come on. And for me, I'm just trying to recruit as many people as I possibly can to get on this value creation bus, because that's going to truly make the world a better place. But everybody trying to rig the game in different ways to take value out of the world, from people that are creating value. That's just pulling it in the other direction. So if we can inflate the number of value creators and get rid of all the people rigging the game, or at least shrink the number of them, that's going to make a better world for all of us to interact with. I love that idea.

Speaker 2: 29:57

But, lee, what I love best is you wrote these books because you're in service, you want change the world, you want to create a movement. It wasn't like you're sitting there on an old word processor and you're like man. You know, I hope I sell the hell out of these books because that's no. And wait, and the best part is, and the best part is I'm sure you've had some idiot tell you well, you know, jk Rowling sold this amount, lee, how many? Because there's always a person that wants to bring you down to their level, instead of them saying, lee, how can I raise my standards to be at your level? Let me try to take a couple of shots and bring you down.

Speaker 1: 30:52

Yeah, or how can we all help each other create more value in the world? Whenever people take shots, I mean you know this is good or better than I do. That it's about them makes them feel better when you know everybody's more at a certain level, whatever the hell that is Like. Why do we even stratify Like I'll be at a be in a gathering, you know whatever it happens to be, and there could be some wealthy kind of jerk, because they're mainly focused on what they have and look how cool I am and not holistically creating value and it's great to have money and have stuff and all the stuff you buy. Even when some people say it's ridiculous, hey, it supported a lot of families making that stuff. So I'm glad that you do it, even if it looks like a waste to a lot of other folks. But I'll be in these gatherings and there'll be a family that has so much emotional value and energy that they're creating and perpetuating and their connectedness, their spiritual value, is so unbelievably high. But they're. They don't have, you know, the $10 million or billion dollars or whatever it is, and I'll watch them get a little deflated. Being around people that have a lot of stuff, I'm like, wait a minute, I'd rather hang out with your family all weekend than spend an hour with these people talking about what they have Right and and so when you think about value creation holistically and you work on it, like I said, you have to get on the track and do the work. Like learning to play guitar might take you six months to go. Ok, this is starting to feel pretty good.

Speaker 1: 32:15

But once you get on the right track, you genuinely feel different. Like you feel different, you think differently, you feel differently. Your community grows and you get exposed to more opportunities than you otherwise would have had, like ever. Like I'm developing and helping people create value everywhere I can, all the time appropriately, and exposes me to more opportunities than most of my friends ever get exposed to, and I love it.

Speaker 1: 32:40

And the opportunities they're material, yes, but it's the emotional energy, it's music, it's being part of amazing communities and strengthening that stuff, which I see huge value there, because that impacts so much more about how I feel than just the material piece. And the material piece, by the way, is wildly important, like the more money I make, the more I can scale all these concepts into the world, and I love it. And I think you know money and influence or power applied with virtue, you know for win-win value creation is really really good. But if you apply it without virtue, you know rigging the game, taking value out of the world, it can be really really bad and we all see examples of that out there.

Speaker 2: 33:40

Let's occupy Wall Street, or let's tax everybody 90%, or let's have equality. Everybody makes 50K or whatever goofiness they believe in is. They believe that if one person makes money or they find success, it's taken away from someone else. It's like do you remember when Howard Schultz was thinking of running for president? And there was that severe backlash. How can a guy he's a billionaire, oh my gosh, he must have hurt people. And it's like, growing up we're like self-made guy Became wealthy, super wealthy. That's a great story. But there was that knee-jerk reaction because, you know, we have to view if you find well, lee and Omar found success. So those, those MFers, someone else got hurt, someone else is struggling, someone else is in poverty because of those guys.

Speaker 1: 34:43

Well, I mean, think about where that perspective is coming from. You have elected officials that you know one party, for example saying it's not your fault, it's their fault, the wealthy, whatever it is, and they promote that. So yeah, as human nature says, it's better and easier to be the victim than actually get my act together and create real value in the world. So it's like we live in this system where keeping the divide, keeping this conflict going, is good business, where billions and billions of dollars, tens of billions, are floating around just because of that. But it's all about rigging the game, and the reason politics has never felt good to me in the last few years I've been able to articulate a whole lot better is that primarily and it's not all of them there's some good eggs over there, but the majority of the culture in politics is a culture of rigging the game. All these problems. Well, they don't want to solve the conflict, because that's what's driving all the money going into their campaigns and nonprofits to support it and everything else. So it's such an interesting conflict. When I look at it, it's like here's the most moral, only adult person that's ever been in any room, lecturing to everybody, while off to the side. They're immorally rigging the game, you know, in their favor and their friend's favor. And so, you know, hopefully we start waking up in this country and we start voting for people that will create better conditions to work, live, learn and play through better policies. And you know, a guy like Howard Schultz or anybody else that's good at doing something at scale and getting results to happen Don't we want somebody like that to be in office?

Speaker 1: 36:29

That's virtuous, not the opposite of it. Because, you know, I think the biggest deficit in the world is leaders that are both capable and moral. You know, virtuous if you will, but we want people like that that can do it. Want people like that that can do it. Do you want people that never built anything to take all the elected officials seats that aren't capable of even doing the job and then making it literally 10 times worse, or even worse than that, for everybody out there? So I think we would do ourselves a big favor if a lot more of the folks in this country the adults, would would kind of pay attention and use some common sense around this stuff.

Speaker 2: 37:07

Well, common sense too, when you say it's great, the us versus them.

Speaker 1: 37:11

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 37:13

But that party and those officials, they are part of the them too, they are the 1%. They're just reading a cue card. They're reading to placate the masses, their base, when you know they're up there with the one percenters.

Speaker 1: 37:38

A number of those elites have learned how to manipulate the masses for their benefit, and it's terrible to watch. It's horrible. However, it's been going on for all of recorded history. Of course, I think it's guys like you and I and others out there that will get the right message out there to increase the number of folks creating value in a win-win way in the world, which will just, by the numbers, start to decrease those that are taking value out of the world and we're exposing what's going on, hopefully in a way that's consumable for a lot more people to get their heads around. Because for me, you know, I'm mostly concerned when I look at this country about low and middle income families. It's the vast majority of the country, and when parents are working, you know two or three jobs and they're so busy they don't have time to read a book or listen to podcasts or anything else. How do we communicate in a way where they can get their heads around what they can actually do to make a difference? And so I play a lot there. I think a lot about that, and it's not about people being smarter, less smart. You know haves, have, nots or anything. These are all amazing, wonderful people that that want to do the right thing. They think they're doing the right thing when they go to the ballot box. So how do we help them think a little bit better about it?

Speaker 1: 38:59

And I spoke. I was asked to speak to 800 leaders from one of our states and it was about my first book, your Most Important Number. I said, well, why would they want to hear from a guy like me? Because I'm all about value creation. They said, well, we think times are going to get a little bit more difficult, and this was last summer when I spoke, and we just want to make sure that we make the best of what we have. I said great.

Speaker 1: 39:19

And I said, well, I'm starting out, starting out. Here's how I think about government as a citizen. There's really two things. It's continually improving conditions to work, live, learn and play for the citizenry at a lower and lower relative cost over time, and that's how we know we're doing the right work. And I thought they might turn the Zoom off as I got started on this and I saw these heart emojis and thumbs up and celebration emojis just flying across the screen. It resonated really well. I mean, just like, just like companies where you have a couple of bad leaders in government. There's a few questionable leaders, for sure, but the vast majority of all the middle management and folks that work for these organizations, especially government, are amazing and they're into the mission and all of it. We just need to fix the leadership at the top so they don't go sideways for their own benefit.

Speaker 2: 40:08

Yeah, no Value creation. I get it. I mean I guess my two daughters, lauren and me, have drank the Kool-Aid and I'm assuming kids that homeschooled and whatnot more open-mindedness, and their parents would do that. But it's got to be tough to try to fix a system that has been even way before you and I were even in school. The only thing that's changed really is technology. The school system hasn't changed and it's going to be tough to try to get them to want to change and show people. Let's change the world by putting more value to people, more being value-driven.

Speaker 1: 41:13

Well, if they don't want to change and actually don't change for long enough, they'll be forced to change, and I don't know if it's one generation or five generations down, they'll be forced, and this has happened throughout recorded history. You know, you have really good times, it gets really easy. Uh, they stop, you know, really going for it and creating value, and then it blows up um and so. So it'll actually happen. But I don't think it has to. I think I think we can. It's. It's about adjusting mindset, in my opinion.

Speaker 1: 41:43

And so when I listened to so many adults talk about oh, I came from this hard luck or beginnings and it's so hard and going forward, and I've spoken to thousands of high school kids about the virtues of entrepreneurship and I just get a sense where they're at. Well, I'll never go to college, my family never has, we don't have money, we're stuck here, it's not going to happen. And then occasionally there's, you know, some young kid in the room that's from another country that doesn't have anywhere close to opportunities, and there was one young woman at a high school from Tanzania, and she looks around and she's just shaking her head and I go what's on your mind? And she goes everybody in this classroom has 99 times the opportunity my family has back in Tanzania. I don't know what you're talking about, so it almost was like a human nature thing no matter what you have, you'll eventually take it for granted and act like a victim and it'll never be enough. And oh, woe is me. And take it for granted and act like a victim and it'll never be enough. And oh, woe is me.

Speaker 1: 42:36

And I feel like most of the time when people say, oh, here's my. You know, you know these beginnings and it was so hard and this is what I. It feels like virtue signaling. It's like, eh, like I think about what I went through and it's like I am. I learned so much about who not to be, what not to do and who I wanted to be in the world going through all this stuff. I wouldn't change anything like nothing about what I went through. So it's it's a mindset and I think the work I'm going to listen to your, your podcasts, you're, you're, you're helping change mindsets out there to something that's more. Enjoy the journey.

Speaker 2: 43:10

But the best part, right, there is such a man. The girl from Tanzania was so right. We live in the greatest country. There's no caste system.

Speaker 2: 43:24

I mean, you can be rags to riches, but so many people want to play the victim, so many people want to get on their soapbox and focus on their past, focus on their problem. And don't you want to just tell these people shut up already. Life isn't fair. People have had it way harder than you and have overcome whatever obstacle you think is holding you down. Just shut up, do something, work at it. Yeah, just shut up, do something, work at it. You and I have had horrible.

Speaker 2: 44:02

You know what are we gonna play the theme of the titanic and and we're gonna have a pity party, and you know it's gonna be a sad story. No, I don't know when, when, when somebody hears anything of me talking about my past, I'm not saying it because I want you to feel sorry for me. It's just because it's a footnote. It got me from A to Z. But don't hug me, because when people want to, I don't feel sorry for myself and I'm not asking you to feel sorry for myself. I'm saying, just like what you just said hey, let's, let's get it going how?

Speaker 2: 44:36

how can you be from the? You know we are lucky anybody in this country to be born here or to have a green card to be a resident or a citizen here. And you know you're focusing on why you mom, mom and dad drank. They didn't give me enough hugs, they didn't post about my my, my ninth place at the science fair on social media. So now I'm ruined, but, but it's crazy that that's why I'm sure she was like what are all these people insane?

Speaker 1: 45:18

Yeah, well, it again mindset and perspective. And for those folks that didn't get the attention they wanted and don't feel whatever trade places, with some of these families and countries where you've got warring factions coming through with machetes and you don't know when you're going to get your next meal, I mean where they're worried about real stuff, like real stuff to subsist, right. Um, so it's, it's, it's a perspective thing and okay. So how do we? How do we change that? And I, I'm trying to do it through this, this holistic value creation message, behaviors in the world. You're doing it with what you have going on and we're making a difference. We just need to recruit more of us so we build faster.

Speaker 2: 46:00

Well, that's it. It's all about scale, because, you know, when I tell people I wrote my book, the first book, because I wanted to change someone's life, then it may be two people, three people, four people. And that's what you and I are doing. We're creating a movement, because let's quit saying it is what it is, let's quit being the victim, let's rise to the occasion, let's be the best version. You know, if we were created in God's image, god didn't say hey, everybody, I want you to live paycheck to paycheck and I want you to suffer and struggle and that's it. And you're having. Your treasure awaits you in heaven. No, we're created and we have all the tools within us. You know it's like you.

Speaker 2: 46:53

You know you don't need to buy the, the 50th book on how to become successful, how to lose weight. Maybe. Just practice common sense, take some action and do it on a consistent basis and mind blown, that's. You know, how do you become an entrepreneur, how do you become a successful one? You have to have a whatever it takes attitude. You can't just be like, oh shit, I'm going to be like the 90 percent and just fold up shop. No, you and I, I know those times it was like oh my gosh, you know this is it. But if you keep on stubborn, you have to have that stubborn mindset. You know nobody's going to save you but yourself, but you better keep on moving.

Speaker 1: 47:40

When you cultivate holistic value creation, you're working on strengthening community on that spiritual side, it makes it a lot easier and you've got this foundation to build from. And if you're working on the emotional energy piece of it and every day going forward. And what you said there about keep moving, so my, my hack for working through this stuff and making the negative voices go more and more away over time, um is to keep moving physically, emotionally and mentally. Especially when you don't want to like I'm so tired I just need to sit here and not do anything, well, that's probably the time to pick up something and learn something. So you just get stronger and stronger and stronger in all three ways. So you know, most know you need to keep moving physically so you don't, you know, get out of shape and you can do more activities and enjoy yourself. But most don't really intentionally think about, you know, keeping moving mentally and emotionally. Most don't really intentionally think about keeping moving mentally and emotionally. And I find that when you're having a great day and everything's amazing, it's easy to do that stuff. Where it really matters is to do those three things when you just don't want to.

Speaker 1: 48:45

And as an example, last year I went down really hard with systemic lupus. I had four months where I could barely get out of bed. It hurt the first two months could barely get out of bed. It hurt. The first two months I lost 30 pounds of muscle and just I could hide behind a microphone stand. You wouldn't have seen me. It was crazy how much it hurt. And I just kept moving. You know, three, four hours a day rolling around in the gym. I couldn't even curl my hands. It made my arms hurt so much and did all the research. So I'm learning. I buy a hyperbaric oxygen chamber and I'm probably 80% back now and wow, am I stronger. And my internal fulfillment you know, measure whatever that is for me is higher because I was able to go through that. So just the power of keep moving, especially when you don't want to.

Speaker 2: 49:37

Well, that's what growth I mean. Nobody ever regrets going to the gym after I mean heck, I'm 50. If I only worked out on the days that I felt amazing, I'd work once a quarter on the days that I felt amazing I'd work once a quarter.

Speaker 1: 49:59

I get it. I get it.

Speaker 2: 50:05

Whoever said age is just a number, with some lying kid like some 20 year old, that thought that was a great saying. But you have to. It's like you have to stretch at everything. You have to stretch spiritually, you have to stretch emotionally. You are our bodies. You have to stretch. You have to go to the gym, you have to work out, you have to walk, if not it dies, atrophy, and you know it's. But life isn't fair, but you know we. Maybe I'm biased, but but we're older. But you know, maybe I'm biased, but we're older, but you know we're part of the best generation out there.

Speaker 1: 50:40

Yeah, From this conversation so far, omar. What's your biggest takeaway in what we're talking about?

Speaker 2: 50:49

My biggest takeaway is that you know something very similar with the mind, body, spirit. You know you have to be spirit when you talk about spiritually and emotionally filled. You know you have. Material items are fine, but you know, like I, I did that you know. And value, value to value is what's, and value too, value is what's separating us from being in the lack of value.

Speaker 2: 51:25

Right now, people are concerned about pronouns, people are concerned over insignificant shit, people want respect. Without giving respect, without earning respect. It's like success. We have to earn things, we have to earn success. We have to earn to be respected. Life isn't fair, but you know, and you have to.

Speaker 2: 51:58

You, you wrote your books the same way I I did. It wasn't a money grab. Success isn't always about the money, and that's why I'll keep on preaching that over and over, because so many people believe it is. And you know they wake up one day and they're like, oh, this sucks, because if you bust your ass in this country, anybody can make money, and if you can't, it's because you're closed minded, because people are becoming millionaires every single day. Now are you going to be spiritually bankrupt? Are you going to be physically bankrupt? It's all about being everything and it's all about wanting a better tomorrow, a better yeah.

Speaker 2: 52:49

We, you and I could be like oh, you know we're. We're playing the back nine, screw it. You know. If the U? S, maybe we're the next. Oh, you know, we're playing the back nine, screw it. You know if the us, maybe we're the next. You know, maybe we're like the roman empire all empires suffer, all empires fail. No, we don't want that. We don't want that for generations to come. We, we want everybody to be thriving. We want this country to be thriving.

Speaker 1: 53:12

Yeah odds are. It's this experiment called the United States will, if America will fail, because it always has, but it doesn't have to, and I think the work that we're doing can make it, you know, get through this if enough of us are doing it, because I love the idea of America and what we have here.

Speaker 2: 53:34

It's just incredible. Well, rome survived for a thousand years. So you know that we, you and I would be long gone if we, we match rome and do the thousand years yeah, yeah, for for sure late.

Speaker 2: 53:49

Great minds, like-minded energy, like-minded people. We live in a TikTok society. I could talk to you on and on because we connect, but people want that dopamine fix. So that's why an hour I could talk to you on and on, but I want you to both books. I want you to promote both books. I know you do some consulting, so how do they find you so they can buy your book? How they can find you, how these businesses can find you so they can hire you?

Speaker 1: 54:35

you can pick up both of the books there. One of them is called your most important number and it's about intentionally creating value faster within any organization of any type or size. The other one is value creation kid the healthy struggles your children need to succeed, and it's about doing that within the household and especially being comfortable with designing healthy struggles for your children and having the right mindset around that. And then my team and I we also run a number of CEO mastermind groups and I call the work we do in their full contact value creation. If you're really serious about increasing responsibly the value of your organization, this is the perfect mastermind for you.

Speaker 1: 55:13

And I've been part of other groups. You know vistage, eo, ypo, been associated, part of all those groups with overlap for 40 years and this is just a better, evergreen value creating. You know environment to be in and we work with companies more holistically to deploy what I call the mindIND methodology, which stands for Most Important Number and Drivers, and it's just a way of intentionally creating value faster. And again, all of that go to etwcom and you can find information about it and the books are available in probably 40,000 plus channels. They're virtually everywhere.

Speaker 2: 55:51

And here's a question, just to leave one final question what would you tell the parent that wants to raise a child to live a better life, to live a fulfilling life? Live a better life to live a fulfilling life. What words of wisdom do you have to make sure that they're not checked out, that they're not just on TikTok, that they're just not on Snapchat, that they're just not all empty inside just wanting that dopamine fix and just wanting somebody to hand them their life on a silver platter?

Speaker 1: 56:31

Love the question. Wouldn't it be amazing if all of our children became such strong adults? No matter what happened to the family, they could step in and make it right. They're so strong.

Speaker 1: 56:44

So my advice is you know, whatever age your children are if they're, you know, young or teenagers, think about the qualities, characteristics you'd like them to have as they launch into adulthood. Maybe you want them to think critically but be self-reliant, be financially competent, maybe financially independent, value creation, mindset, virtuous, etc. And then start working backwards. Are you doing all the things to get them ready to do it? In other words, are you doing your job? Are you taking the easy way out, launching them into adulthood at 18? And, rather than being an adult, they're now in the emerging adult phase. It could take them until their mid-30s before they become an adult. So that's my advice Work backwards from the type of amazing adult that you want to launch into adulthood and are you doing the right stuff? And designing healthy struggles and being comfortable with our children bouncing off the walls while they're going through figuring that stuff out, because I know I did as a kid. It's normal. I think that's going to be a real key.

Speaker 2: 57:49

Awesome, great answer. And, like I said, great minds think alike. We're on the same wavelength.

Speaker 1: 57:58

We really are. I can't wait to listen to more of your podcast. Thank you, Omar.

Speaker 2: 58:02

Thank you, and I can't wait to listen to yours. And you forgot to promote it, so tell the audience once again your podcast, and how do we find it?

Speaker 1: 58:11

Yeah, the podcast is titled Show your Value. So if you just search Lee Benson Show your Value the Art of Value Creation, you'll find it. Spotify, apple Podcasts, youtube it's really distributed just about everywhere you can find podcasts and for me the whole effort really is philanthropic. I'm trying to drive these value creation behaviors into the world so selfishly. I've got a better world to age out in, so it's not someday Mad Max and some weird dystopian future, right?

Speaker 2: 58:43

I hope not, man. I love those dystopian movies too All of them. But man, I couldn't survive in any of them. I might go to the gym, but my survival skills at the end of days and the apocalypse, I wouldn't have to worry, I'd be one of the first casualties.

Speaker 1: 59:02

Mine are pretty good, so just come over here, I'll take care of you, man.

Speaker 2: 59:06

Thanks for your time. I loved our conversation. Man, thank you for everything. Love you. Lee, take care. Have a great night, all right, you as well. Lee, take care. Have a great night, all right, you as well. Mark, take care.

Speaker 1: 59:27

Bye, bye. I was trapped inside that prison, oh, for a long time. To make it happen, you gotta take action.

Speaker 2: 59:36

Just imagine what if it did work.