Executive TLDR
Success is built on consistency, discipline, and repetition, not motivation.
Everything you want is on the other side of fear and discomfort.
Stop comparing yourself and define your own version of success.
Your future self will not save you, action today is what changes your life.
Growth requires stepping out of your comfort zone and replacing excuses with ownership.
Video Summary
In this intense and transparent message, Mike Pressler breaks down the truth about success and explains that growth, not balance, is what transforms your life. He reinforces that the habits repeated by successful people are consistency, discipline, self improvement, and becoming rejection proof, doing the work even when it feels mundane and uncomfortable. Using the metaphor of breaking big rocks into little rocks every day, he emphasizes that repetition builds calluses, mental toughness, and eventually freedom. He encourages personal development through resources like The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, highlighting how daily rituals prepare you for inevitable disappointments, rejections, and obstacles that come with growth. Sharing vulnerable stories about overcoming a crippling fear of public speaking, he demonstrates that everything you want is on the other side of something you are afraid to do. He challenges listeners to stop comparing themselves to other leaders and instead define their own version of success, whether that means earning more income, gaining freedom of time, or simply improving their life incrementally. He explains that money provides freedom to be present for family and friends during critical life moments, reinforcing that financial independence is about control over your time, not just possessions. He addresses why people join and quit, pointing to self doubt, fear of failure, cynicism, victim mentality, comfort zone attachment, and lack of confidence rather than flaws in the opportunity itself. He urges individuals to change their identity, stop blaming culture or personality, and take ownership of their growth. One of his strongest lessons is that your future self will not rescue you, waiting for motivation or a miracle creates complacency, and only immediate action with current resources creates change. He emphasizes baby steps, replacing bad habits with good ones, aggressively patient consistency, and honest evaluation of daily activities to determine whether they move you closer to your goals. Ultimately, his message is clear: let go of the past, drop the weight you are carrying, stop rationalizing failure, step out of your comfort zone daily, take responsibility, and get into action because growth is earned through repetition, discipline, and commitment, not wishful thinking.
FAQs
1. What does Mike Pressler mean by “no balance, just growth”?
He explains that success requires focused effort, discipline, and personal growth rather than trying to evenly distribute energy across everything. Growth demands periods of discomfort and intentional development.
2. Why is consistency more important than motivation?
Motivation fluctuates, but consistent habits build long-term results. Success comes from repeating productive actions daily, even when you do not feel like it.
3. How do you become rejection proof in business?
Becoming rejection proof means separating your identity from outcomes, understanding rejection is part of progress, and continuing to act without emotional paralysis.
4. Why does comparison hurt success?
Comparison distracts from personal growth and creates insecurity. Defining your own goals allows you to focus on progress rather than measuring yourself against others.
5. What role does fear play in growth?
Fear signals opportunity. According to the message, everything you want is on the other side of something that scares you, and action eliminates fear over time.
6. Why does he emphasize defining your own success?
Without defining your own goals, you risk chasing someone else’s version of achievement. Clarity creates direction and purpose.
7. How does financial independence create freedom?
Financial independence allows you to control your time, support loved ones, and be present in important life moments without financial pressure.
8. Why do people quit even after paying to join?
Many quit due to self doubt, fear, cynicism, lack of commitment, or comfort zone attachment rather than problems with the opportunity itself.
9. What is meant by changing your identity?
It means refusing to label yourself as negative, late, unmotivated, or incapable, and instead choosing behaviors that align with growth.
10. How do baby steps create long-term success?
Small consistent actions compound over time, creating sustainable habits and steady improvement that eventually produce major results.
11. Why is waiting for your “future self” dangerous?
Relying on a future version of yourself delays action and creates complacency. Only decisions made today can change outcomes.
12. What is aggressively patient consistency?
It means taking daily action while understanding that meaningful results take time, staying persistent without expecting instant transformation.
Glossary
Self Improvement – The process of daily personal development through reading, learning, and disciplined action.
Rejection Proof – The ability to continue pursuing goals without being emotionally stopped by rejection.
Comfort Zone – A state of familiarity that limits growth by avoiding discomfort.
Financial Independence Mindset – Prioritizing income and discipline to gain control over time and life decisions.
Identity Shift – Changing the story you tell yourself about who you are and what you are capable of.
Aggressively Patient – Taking consistent daily action while understanding results require time.
Action Rids Fear – The principle that immediate movement reduces anxiety and builds confidence.
Personal Responsibility – Owning outcomes instead of blaming circumstances or other people.
Transcript:
Speaker 1
Here’s the thing, what Kirsten told me. If you get a $550,000 bonus, you don’t have to work out a $25,000 bonus. If you want to get any, you need abs. Okay? So I’m working on it. You know, there’s been a lot covered today, and I hope you keep seeing over and over again the things that are said are things that successful people do. And it’s consistency, it’s discipline, it’s self improvement. It’s becoming rejection proof. It’s doing it when you don’t feel like doing it. It’s over and over again. Repetition.
Speaker 1
It’s enduring the mundane tasks of breaking big rocks into little rocks all day long while other people watch you do the same thing all day long with blisters on your hands until they be turned into calluses while other people do the exact same thing so that someday you no longer have to do it so that you could travel the world while other people pursue the same interests that you have and the same interests that they want and the freedom to enjoy those things. Do you understand that I sent five or six presentations because to them, and I was like, don’t do that one, don’t do this one, don’t do that one. It’s already been covered. Joe did a magnificent job on self improvement, which is my.
Speaker 1
One thing that I will tell you is the thing that you need to focus on, which is self improvement, right? Get yourself the book, the Morning Miracle. And in that. How many people have heard the Morning Miracle? Hal Elrod, get the book Morning Miracle. Do the Savers ritual. It will get you in the habitual habit of doing something positive in your day to set you off to deal with the things that life is going to give you. That, that visual that, that Willie showed of what you think your path is going to be like and what your path is actually like is the exact thing that life is all about. Your expectations are always met with disappointments, rejections, roadblocks and obstacles. And happiness occurs in spite of those things, not in the absence of those things.
Speaker 1
All of you out there who are sitting here going, how the hell am I going to do this? I want to let you know something. There were mornings that I woke up crying by myself. There were mornings that I woke up insecure, upset, apprehensive, anxious. Those are emotions that I feel all the time. I had a terrible, petrified phobia of public speaking the first time I spoke in public. I Froze. I think Mike Galena might have been there. I opened my mouth in a meeting with about 25 people in a small office. Carrie Ginsberg surprised me and asked me to get up and speak. I turned around, I opened my mouth and this came out. Michael Gallina was there. Mark Marcheseni was in the front row. I got my eyes closed off. My heart went crazy. I couldn’t breathe. Marchesini goes, he’s gonna blow.
Speaker 1
Ginsburg got up, right? Michael put me back in my seat and went, oh, okay. And the whole crowd went, yeah. And at that point I realized you could literally freaking drop dead in front of a Primerica group and they will clap for you. They build your ass up. And I’m not going to tell the story about how we overcame it, but we overcame it. This is the scariest frickin thing that I ever thought I’d ever do. I couldn’t even make a toast in front of three people before I joined Primerica. And here we are talking to a bunch of folks, right? Everything you want is on the other side of something you’re afraid of doing. Everything you want. And comparison is the death. Joy.
Speaker 1
Stop thinking you have to be Willie Narano, Keith Otto and start trying to become the best version of you that you could possibly be. You understand that? Nobody’s asking you. And by the way, you might not want to make $785,000 in a month. I certainly do. How about starting with 5,000amonth? How about deciding what it is that you need to change your freaking life from where it is right now to where you’d like to get to and then start taking the baby steps in order to do that. Don’t let anybody else define for your definition of success. But you better well damn define what it is your definition of success is. Right. You know why most of us don’t do anything?
Speaker 1
Because we let somebody else tell us what our goals should be, rather than spending a few minutes figuring out what your own goals really are. You know what? I like nice things. Don’t get me wrong, we have nice things. You very rarely see me put pictures up of nice things that we have. You know why? You know what’s important to me? I was there when my father took his last breath. I was there when my mother took her last breath. I was there when Kirsten’s father took his last breath. I’m the go to son of a bitch for everybody in their life. You know why? I made enough money to be able to have to not have anybody put their freaking thumb on Me. And when somebody needs me, I have the freedom of time to be there for them.
Speaker 1
That’s what fires my ass up now. Being able to drive there in a nice freaking car doesn’t suck. Being able to write a check for a house in Florida doesn’t suck. But being able to be a go to person for my friend. This past year has been unbelievable for us. Unbelievable. We had a person, Miguel Field, lost his son. You know where I was when his son passed away? In the room with his son and Miguel. When he passed, I drove down to Philadelphia. I didn’t even know what hospital they were in, but I just drove until I found the hospital. My other friend got diagnosed with ALS and died in seven months. Guess who was in the hospital room when he died of als? Me. Me. You know why? Because Primerica taught me how to be mentally tough.
Speaker 1
How to not think about myself, think about others. How to have enough money not to worry about what’s going on in my business when I need to be somewhere else and the freedom to enjoy it. What do you want to be? Where do you want to be? What fires you up? Stop comparing yourself. Stop saying, I can’t, I won’t, I don’t. It’s not me. It’s not who I am. Take away your own excuses. You don’t understand.
Speaker 2
I’m a cynical person by nature. My people are Senegal.
Speaker 1
You’re not your people. You are yourself. People have told me, oh, my culture is always late. What do you have, a team meeting? You have a team meeting? Like Jewish people don’t get all. Jewish people don’t get together on Sunday nights to talk about how to make money. We just do it right. That’s a stereotype. That’s not true. Oh, it’s true. Hey, change your identity. Own yourself. Read your owner’s manual. You know what makes you tick. You don’t. If you got. Here’s a question you gotta ask. If you need Keith Otto to motivate you, what happens if something happens to Keith Otto? If you need me to motivate you, what happens if something happens to me? These guys that tell me, oh, I call my guys every morning at 7:00, then I call them again at 9:00 at night.
Speaker 1
That’s not a life that I want. I don’t want that life and I don’t want that life for you. Because you got to wake up. Who and why? Who said that? Who and why, right? Who and why? What’s your why? Does it make you cry? Your why is going to change who you doing it for? You better off. You better damn well start by doing it for you and then it better expand to the people you most love in this world, right? And if you could do that, you’re going to win. So I’m going to do something that nobody. I’m going to go the other way. And I’m colorblind. So what? The freaking color is green? The middle one. Here’s something you need to know. Why people don’t join or stay in our business. Willie said he stopped caring about that, right?
Speaker 1
Just go on to the next one. Go on to the next one. Is that thing up there? Because it’s on my screen right now. If not, don’t worry about it. Here it’s up. Don’t you ever wonder why you got to let go of it? But don’t you ever wonder why? Why does somebody give you 99 bucks that they say they don’t have and then don’t show up again ever again? Is 99 bucks that insignificant that you’re okay with pissing it away? I don’t care how much money I make, I ain’t wasting money. I don’t mind spending money, but I don’t like wasting money. How about you? You know, broke people who don’t have a smart financial conscience, piss money away on stupid stuff. That is why I don’t have any.
Speaker 1
So I started thinking about why could somebody give me 99 bucks and then disappear? Because they do it all the time. They buy stuff they don’t need. Need versus wants. I want it. I want it. Then they complain about why they don’t have anything or they can’t do anything. Stay and live below your needs. But that’s why people give 99 bucks away and never come back. Because they do it all the time. Self esteem issues creating lack of confidence, cynicism creating trust issues. They’re cynical. I’m just saying. Oh, you know, I heard about that. Right? Self doubt, feelings of inadequacy, preventing commitment. Does this make sense to you guys? Here’s what I’d like you to do. Gut check yourself and make sure it ain’t you. Make sure it ain’t you. Don’t be cynical.
Speaker 1
I had a guy come in my office one time and said to me, I’m just not a positive guy. I’m just really cynical and negative. I’ve always been negative. I said, how’s that working for you? His kids didn’t talk to him, his wife had divorced him, is with another person, he’s losing his house. And he stuck to the thing that his definition of himself was. He’s negative and cynical by nature. All right, well, get the hell out of my office because I don’t need to catch that crap. Right? Fear of failure. Fear of success causing fear of trying, also known as paralysis. Professional victim mentality. Looking to blame outside forces for their reluctance to try something new.
Speaker 1
Has anybody ever met anybody who everything else is the reason they’re not where they want to be rather than themselves just doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result? Change avoidance. I like staying in my lane. I like my comfort zone. I like being over here. You got to get out of your comfort zone. You got to be uncomfortable all the freaking time. You don’t think I’m uncomfortable sitting there having really talk about. I drive a yellow car. I drive an Azul car. My car is Negron. I drive. Yes, we will make eight. Eight. We’ll make eight million in the next two weeks. Eight million. Eight million. You’re che. We’re talking. He’s changing millions in months. Give him a hand.
Speaker 1
And then when you’re done giving him a hand, beat the shit out of him on the way out of this place. For me, it’s unbelievable. You don’t think all of us have things we want to accomplish and haven’t yet. You don’t think Ottos want more? You don’t think. I guarantee Keith’s sitting over there going, I heard Keith say it. He realized he makes 300,000 more a month than we do.
Speaker 2
And Danielle is like, I absolutely did. Keith realized that we could have had 175 acres. If you made the extra 300,000.
Speaker 1
It don’t matter where you are. You want something else. And if you’re a freaking competitor, it’s never really enough. They said something about, what’s his name, J. Paul Getty. Said he was the wealthiest guy in the world at one point. They said, how much is enough? He goes, just a little bit more. Don’t get pissed off at of us for being competitive. Get pissed off at yourself until you get competitive. And I’m not telling you to have. Look, I’m not them like, Jim Meyer flies all over the place. It’s exhausting to hang out with Jim Meyer. But I don’t use it as an excuse.
Speaker 2
Like, I don’t like to travel like him. He’s always tired.
Speaker 1
I’m like, holy cow, that’s cool. I’ll do one of those 97 things he’s doing next week. But I can’t do the other 96. He would fly two jets at the same time if he could figure out how to split himself in half. But that’s not me. You be fricking you. I’m running out of time here. Look, why people don’t join or stay, all leading to one thing. It isn’t you. It isn’t the opportunity. It isn’t the model. It isn’t the business. It isn’t the products. It isn’t the competition. It isn’t the compensation. It’s them. It’s them. Listen, I gotta read something. Can I get one more minute to read something to you guys? Because this is me being humble and being honest and being vulnerable. I need to change. I needed to change. How many people need to change? Raise your hand.
Speaker 1
I wrote this to myself. After reading about 50 things about change, I realized my future self isn’t a reliable guy. Your future self isn’t going to earn a ton of money and fix everything for you. Your future self isn’t going to be healthier, stronger or faster. Your future self isn’t going to spend time with your family or take care of the other challenges in your life. I spent years waiting around on my future self hoping that he’d come through for me. Eventually. I realized that future self was just an ordinary guy making a lot of mistakes. He wasn’t going to pay my bills. My future self was just little old me. If you expect that your future self is going to fix your problems, think again. He or she is not reliable.
Speaker 1
The only person you can rely on is you right now with the resources that you have. Right? We got all these resources. I also realized that a miracle wasn’t coming and change the situation. Wishful thinking just makes you complacent. If you keep telling yourself that some miracle will swoop in and solve the problem, you are just giving yourself an excuse not to do anything. Truth is, a miracle isn’t coming. Even though I am a spiritual guy and I pray my ass off, all that is coming on your current path is more of the same. As the problem you are facing gets worse and worse, I started thinking and searching for what I could do myself to make the most impact.
Speaker 1
Once I realized that I was the only person who could actually change my situation, I started looking at what I could actually do immediately. This involved observation, listening to Primerica tapes and Primericans that were doing what I wanted to do, reading. But once I decided, it was less about thinking, more about doing arf. Action rids fear. Action rids anxiety. I focus Mostly on individual steps. What can I do today to improve things? I took an honest look at the bad habits and worked hard to stop them and replacing them with good ones. Baby steps and practice action every single day took action. The final thing holding me back was the false thought that the current path I was on was still an okay path. I had to address that. I started tearing it apart bit by bit and stopped rationalizing failure.
Speaker 1
I looked at everything I was doing and asked if I kept doing it, would it provide any positive results? Did the nonsense essential non essential activities that I was doing get me anywhere closer to the dreams and aspirations that I had? And I had to change it. Once I started seeing the dark side of the moves I was making and how relatively easy the better steps were, I began to believe that I could change things. I recognized that if I stuck with making good choices every single day, the ship would turn around. And if I was patient enough, good things were going to happen as long I was as I was aggressively patient. I used to perceive good that wasn’t really good. It was actually really bad. After that it was simply a matter of time, consistency and repetition.
Speaker 1
It was day by day process a long time until changes began truly natural. But the motivation for making those changes came from inside of me, not what other people asked me to do. So as I wrap up I want to show you a quick video and tell you this. Let go of your past. It’s only dragging your ass down. It isn’t going to change unless you invented an Elon Musk time machine. Know your owner’s manual Let go of the baggage that is holding you back and get your ass in action and we’ll see at the top. If you could show that 2 minute video.
Speaker 3
Whole all day long life the weight of the glass as machines no longer with the heavier the stresses and the waters of life are Let this last long Think about it a little bit longer his heart Think about all parent.
Speaker 1
Put the glass down.
