¶ The Origin of Opportunity
Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts , paki and Chris . We are people who are passionate about business , success and culture , and this is our platform to showcase people in our city who make it happen . On today's podcast , we're going to be sitting down with someone I can confidently call one of the most interesting people in the world .
He's an author , a coach , a public speaker , financial expert and content creator . We're going to be covering everything from mastering financial independence to building a personal and business credit , navigating the unique real estate market in Las Vegas and his experience on taking on the world's toughest challenges the Ironman Plus .
We're going to be discussing his inspiration behind his book , the Origin of Opportunity and the Importance of Surrounding Yourself Around People that Elevate you in Business and Life . So we welcome to the circle Mr Andrew Cartwright .
Yeah , welcome . Thanks for having me . I'm wondering is it really Smith ? It is .
Smith ? Yes , it is Smith . Is that your real name ? It is yes , Okay , and .
Phillips yeah , are you ?
guys , real Not at all .
You guys are in witness protection 1,000% .
Yeah , yeah , 1,000% .
You look , Smith or Phillips , you're going to find tons of people .
I have an Arabic background and I'm Chris Smith , so it's kind of a little fishy . I A little fishy . I tell my parents the same thing . I'm like wow , and we and what's funnier .
Although Paki there's . I've never met anybody named Paki . It's Swahili .
Really yeah . Swahili means witness in . English and then when , my wife being from the Philippines , it means in Tagalog means please believe it or not . Really , yeah , so you say on there . Yeah , so how they say it in Tagalog .
I know some Tagalog Like I can count to five Issa , delaware , tatlo , lima , apot .
Darrell , is that good ? Is that right ? Okay , my kids are close .
Issa Delaware Tatlo .
Apot .
Lima .
He'll give you a hard time . We got to get you . Keep you on your toes , man . Keep guessing you , man . You um inspiration . You know I was doing some research on you being an entrepreneur . What caught my attention like right off the bat , is your parents cut you off at 12 years old 12 financially yep done .
Dad was like I was on the streets at 12 years old in greece and guess what you're gonna have to find figure out how to make your own money . It was the first time I even thought about taking my own life .
Um , because at 12 he he grabbed me at the door , brought me inside , threw me on the bed and started yelling at me like don't ever ask me for money , don't ask your mom for money . Literally , don't ask for nothing and I'll give you a roof and I'll give you food , but everything else you have to figure out .
So I actually started working in the cafeteria at school so I can earn food . Jeez , did you say Greece Not to cut earn food , did you say ?
Greece . Not to cut you off . Did you say Greece ? That's my stepfather's from Greece . Okay , I'm sorry . Greece . Okay , got it Okay .
He didn't even speak very good English too . Wow , he'd call lawnmower a lot more . And he was big and he whipped me all the time . I had straight A's . If I got one B , he'd whip me . Oh , wow , yeah . There was no excuses , no justifications , no reasons and no stories for anything in my world .
And looking back at retroactively , that's a it does a lot to a kid right Like I think it does a lot to confidence and you know I like going through life and security , like , I think , just imagining all the different things that come as a result of that .
But do you think , looking back on it , obviously with the business success , was there any benefit or merit to doing some of those behaviors , or was it all very challenging ?
You mean the fact that he cut me off ? Yeah , obviously the beating isn't the good part , but maybe making him physically responsible , I'm so glad that he I mean , you know he whipped all the bad out of me and like , literally , you know , I was an altar boy , went to church , got straight A's , you know , started my first business at 12 years old .
I was like there was no . I was terrified of him and , as a result of that , I was focused on doing the right thing . I remember one time he spanked me and I'm like I didn't do anything . He goes you must've done something at some point .
So if I didn't catch that this , is for that , making up for it , the psychology around it .
And you're thinking , yeah , I did .
How'd he know that ? How'd he know that ?
You know like Apparently my pops used to do it . He's going to deny this because he's probably going to listen to this . We would eat dinner and he would tell us we were getting a spanking after dinner .
Oh , I hate it so , me and my brother would be like , oh my God , three hours trying to eat every pea as we go . Oh , I got a story just on that . So , oh , also I thought later on in this podcast I have a really unique set of skills that are perfect right now . That will blow your mind . Let's get into that , Okay .
Fire restoration I've restored over 200 homes here in Vegas and literally less than 50 feet from here I had a company with over 100 people that restored people's homes Wow From fire . So I know how to work with insurance companies . I know how to rebuild . I know what they're going through . I know the whole process .
Especially what happened in California right now , the whole thing .
I thought we'd get into that towards the end .
Yeah , the whole process , the whole thing . I thought we'd get into that towards the end , yeah 100% jump into that .
But just because it's so , you know people are going to get screwed right now . So bad . And there's free money out there , there's loan money out there , there's like literally , and there's ways to strategically restore your life back to where it was let's definitely end on that for sure .
That's my thing .
I'm a strategy tactic guy , you know . So I've been on the banking side . I own an insurance company , so I've denied tons of claims on purpose , which is the whole goal of insurance . I sold my insurance company . It is a gross ugly business . I had it in Turks and Caicos 30 years . No taxes in Turks and Caicos . Invest in that money .
So yeah , it's , but I figure we get . I definitely want to , because you just mentioned something that sparks something . I want to ask you . But first step back for one second 12 years old , what was your first business ?
Then jewelry , so I grew up in vallejo , right , okay , okay born in san pablo , richmond , oakland , were my stomping grants e40 was like I was just about to say that , okay , I met e40 . Good , all Good dude , really good dude .
Very good , dude , and Rashad , his brother , very cool . So Mac Dre and all the— the whole nine .
Yeah .
So I used to breakdance . Get out of here , yes , okay , in fact , you can still look it up me doing a windmill .
I can still do a no-hand nutcracker , freehand , windmill cracker and free hand this is why I said it's the most interesting man in the world , because stuff like this man that I would not expect .
But what was cool is like when I got really good at break dancing I stopped getting beat up . I get jumped all the time by two and three and six people , you know , just walking around the neighborhood college park , the crest , all that kind of stuff , and it was just what , you , it just what you dealt with .
The layout is a real space . Yeah , it's a . Yeah , it's a real place .
We had a place called the Thousand and every Friday we had race wars . So we had straight-up fights every Friday between Guamanians and Filipinos and Mexicans and different Latinos fighting . Black , latino , it was just constant .
Madhouse .
Dumb people carrying guns to school . I had people that are in jail now for murder . Just crazy neighborhood . That's what I grew up in . We had a drug dealer right in front of my home .
I remember one time , running out of the house at two o'clock in the morning , the drug dealer tackled me and was getting ready to beat me up and he goes oh I forgot , you live here . So that was that's the type of foundation that was my neighborhood . I'm so glad I grew up there . I'm so glad that I was a minority .
I'm so glad that I went through all that because it forged like the unbelievable person that I feel I am . But so in that whole thing , guess what people were , guess what E40 and everybody was wearing was wearing Jewelry , jewelry , 100% Jewelry . So I figured 15 years old . Well , 12 years old , I got going . I went and got my resale permit .
There was no age limit on getting a resale permit . No age limit .
No , did you know that ? I had no clue .
Anybody . You can be 8 years old , never knew that , because what you're getting is a permit to pay taxes like why would they stop you from doing ?
that very true , right like who's gonna block that ? Stop that . Yeah , like I never knew that , okay , yeah they're not gonna cock block that right okay so at any rate we're basically .
I go in . I can't believe I got a license . I walk out like I just stole something . I go to the jewelry mart in san francisco .
I look at the jewelry prices silver , which a lot of guys were wearing , silver because they couldn't afford gold and they would say it was white gold hey , you know you got to do it so so before they could buy the gold , e40 was buying gold . Just so you know . Make that clear , you make it clear . Yeah , yeah , it's all good , you know gold brother .
I know he never sold you no silver , but like a silver rope chain would be a hundred bucks . I still have the photocopy of what I took around to everybody . But I got silver for 65 cents a gram . Wow , right , the stores would charge a thousand percent markup .
That means and you were 12 years old doing this , yeah .
So , at a $100 for something I'd pay $100 for , they were selling for $1,000 at the store and I was selling it for $200 and doubling my money . I got half the money up front , right , and then I would collect the other half , so I already had the money to buy the jewelry .
All I gave them was a photocopy of all the different jewelry I could get and a price , and they knew they just beat me up if I tried to take their money . For sure , right , like , oh , look at this , yeah , square straight , a student , we'll , we'll beat them down , you know . So he ain't taking our money and I was delivered . That's fascinating , have ?
you always been in the entrepreneur space ? Like obviously starting at 12 , becoming entrepreneur and realizing success , I mean at early age . Do you think that's something you ? Have you always been in the entrepreneur space ? Like obviously starting at 12 , becoming an entrepreneur and realizing success at an early age , do you think that's something you've always done ?
Have you ever done like a nine to five ? Or you've always been in this entrepreneur business space ?
To be honest , I think as a kid I probably would have dreamed about being like a police officer or a fireman . A job would be the thing when you get cut off at 12 , nobody's hiring you .
Yeah , they gotta figure it out .
It was out of terror and desperation that I started my entrepreneurial
¶ From College to Entrepreneur at 17
journey . It was definitely not the plan . The plan was to go to college , but my dad said no college money for you , right ? And I did go to college . I spent six months there . I got all the girls phone numbers that I wanted and I had no reason to be there like everybody .
I saw that I was interested in I got all the phone numbers , and that was it in fact , I used to sell numbers , uh like when I was at school . So I saw , I got food . Right , that's how I got paid . So what I would do would sell numbers . I'd give girls free food . You know , like , here's some free food , are you interested in him ?
Are you interested in him ?
And they'd go , yeah , he's kind of cute . I said I'll sell him your number . And they'd go , yeah , sell him a number , shut up . So I had to get it .
And then I hooked up all my teachers that would come in , because I was there at five , six o'clock in the morning getting all the food prepped , getting them their donuts and their coffee , and I'd threaten them I'll spike your coffee if you give me a bad grade . You know I'm teasing them .
Right , I'm teasing them , but not really .
Yeah , you know uh , so I would do that and then at I'd go into the courtyard and I would take all the food because they'd give me like Andrew , take whatever you want . So I bought enough food for about 10 people , so I fed about 10 people that didn't have money . They'd all come around and we'd just shoot it and eat food .
That's amazing , man , just how your your thought process how your mind works to be able to know to sell numbers and you know as funny as guys you want girls numbers . You would do a 100 pay for it . Yeah , and that's so funny .
I'm like I don't know why they don't ask for it . Yeah , like I never had a problem in the relationship department . I'm like you know , if you're batting like 300 is a great school , yeah , that's a thousand , right , if you ask a thousand women that you're interested in yeah .
So like , come on , yeah , as long as you're gonna ask .
One of them might think man .
You know , I was thinking , I really wanted somebody , and god spoke to me , and now you're here .
I'll go with that Slick , slick with it . No-transcript , by the way .
I had 200 employees at 17 years old , so things got pretty real , pretty fast .
And this is all that jewelry business ? Oh , no , so .
I started out in jewelry and got going and then I said , well , I'm limited to how many rope chains is he going to buy , or whatever ? And then I was like , well , what can I do ? And then I thought what's the next level ? That was retail and street retail . I was selling in San Francisco too , on the streets .
You know scarves and G-Shock watches and disposable cameras . So I started selling to stores . I sold the Longs and Payless and Macy's and I started a company called E&A Imports . So I started selling . Then I met this lady at the flea market . It's a Korean lady , she didn't speak any English .
It was really bad and she had amazing products at really inexpensive prices . So I said let me go , take all your products and I'll sell them to all the stores . So I was the bridge and I was . I was selling G-Shock watches for like a dollar , something $1.25 . I was picking them up for 65 cents and if you go to the store , g-shock watches were $30 .
Oh wow , those watches really cost a couple bucks , and the reason why they put them at the cash register it's the biggest moneymaker , it's like just collecting dough when you said the jewelry industry .
What was it like ?
700% , markup 1,000 . It's 1,000 ? Not all items ? Okay .
But the average is around that but yeah , like silver especially . That's amazing . Yeah , I'll make sure that's why they can do all those deals all the time that are , you know , half off . It's always the hustle , it's always the hustle , yeah .
So through life , you've done multiple different things . As far as jewelry business , you know , being a middleman , oh then I wholesaled .
I'll middleman . Oh , then I wholesale , I'll get to the so 17 . I met a mentor , my I met a mentor at 15 years old . That changed my life , okay , forever . I was listening to tony robbins . I was listening to dell carnegie . I was listening to all like everything , like cyber , cybernetics . I had a whole thing nightingale , all this stuff .
I was listening to stuff every single day , every day .
How'd you find out about it , though , because that's at 15 years old ? Did your mentor tell you ? Hey , well the thing is ?
I didn't meet this . When I met this mentor , my whole life changed . I've read think and grow rich . Okay , now what , what ?
am I gonna do with this ? What do you do , yeah ?
what's the next step one ? Yep , right , what's step ? No , step one . What , what do you ? What ? No step one . Tony Robbins , no step one . Nobody's got a step one . Then I run across this guy . I saved up all the money I had , e Joseph Costman .
I gave him everythingI had he'd , but then like 22 , 23 or 25 products that he took to market the spud gun that shoots potatoes . Um , the ant farm . Remember the ant farm . Remember the ant farm .
He came up with that .
It was on TV , right , yeah , he came up with that the original first workout records like a record for a workout . That's crazy right . Yeah , I have nothing like that one . But he taught me how to set up corporations , how to sell overseas , how to get government money , free money . He taught me how to license products .
He taught me how to get exclusive rights , gave me all the contracts , everything I needed to market , sell , put a company together , like all the steps . So when I got that at 15 years old , after I gave him all my money right away , I started asking for exclusive rights . I got exclusive rights to a lingerie line .
I got exclusive rights to Master Art Press and I started a factory framing pictures and selling to stores . So I had prints to go , which was one company . And then I got exclusive rights to Catherine's Finest and that blew up . It was a fundraising line and that blew up . I got exclusive rights all over California .
Interesting thing , all over California Interesting thing . I went to the actual guy that was the manufacturer to sign the agreement for exclusive rights . I flew into Oceanside , california , the manufacturer was in Philadelphia and Oakland and I'm getting ready to sign the paper . He goes , by the way , I didn't check your driver's license . How old are you ?
And I'm like I took a deep breath 17 . Oh , how old are you ? And I'm like I took a deep breath , 17 . Okay .
Okay .
And uh , I'm like , I'm 17 . And he goes uh , I can't sign a contract with you , you're not even old enough for me to enforce the contract . Or vice versa Right , you can enforce it on me , but not not like . I and I told them . I said you know I flew all this way .
You've got nobody selling your product in Northern California and Central California no one . And I know I can sell your product . So here's the deal Give me a number you don't think I can do , just just entertain me as a kid , like a dreamer . That can't do it . Give me a number you think I can't do . He gives me a number like 3,000 boxes , right A week .
I do that in a day , right Already , because I'm selling his competitor's product . Already by then I had like 10 , 15 employees . I get exclusive rights . Now my youngest manager was 37 years old , yelling at a 37-year-old , teaching them about sales , overcoming objections , reasons to buy , how to rehash , how to tell a story .
How to introduce merchandise . Yeah , that's pretty interesting . That's fascinating to be able to grow that young , that intuition .
Absolute fear and terror has been my driving force .
Absolute fear and terror how'd you get them to buy into you , being such a young age and being able ? Was it the swagger that you had or what was the confidence that you had ? Because 17 years old , being able to , that's tough . It's tough to be able to have the buy-in .
It was hard a lot of yelling , yeah , a lot that worked , or did they just be quit andrew , I'm gone , or I paid him too much money . Okay , so they would just take it they just deal with it okay .
and later I remember a guy that came back to me tom tom mccree's like incredible guy worked for me for like got a decade and I remember he moved on , got him After a decade . He started a business , got going and he said , andrew , is that territory over here really as good as the other territories ?
You can tell me now this has been a decade , because I always tell him that you just can't adapt to the people you're in front of . You can sell to anybody if you can adapt to the person , that's in front of you Be a comedian yeah , be a comedian , right .
So you got to speak their language , you got to relate to them and you got to fulfill a need that they have right . And then they've got to want to trust you , to believe , to take it on . And I said , no , that area is not as good , but I couldn't tell you that You're not going to cherry pick my territory that I own .
You're not going to cherry pick my territory that I own . I own this piece of real estate just because you don't like working it . You need to work it and be happy . So I tried to tell you what would make you happy . But it is true , you , you need to adapt . Yeah , like we'd have poor neighborhoods would oftentimes buy more product than rich neighborhoods .
How so they just had the poor neighborhoods had real compassion . Like understood that , being at the ground level , I've been homeless . I mean , you can , I can like walk by a homeless person . I can relate Because you've been there .
Yeah , I know it's
¶ From Consultant to Ironman Finisher
just like not to have a place to go . Business takes a lot of grit , you know mindset being able to push through everything . That's why I wanted to jump to the Ironman so fast , because I was so impressed with a lot . Not a lot of people do iron mans is it . Is it ? Was it that challenging for you and my ?
understanding is have you done more than one ? Or I've been doing iron mans for a decade , okay , that's why okay okay started out doing the 70s and then graduated to doing fools . So there's 70.3 , which is a half half , and then you have 140.6 miles . For the full it's a 2.4 mile swim , 112 mile bike ride , 26.2 mile run , and all consecutively .
This is like a 24 hour period .
right , you only get 17 to finish 17 hours Jeez . Yeah , so it's pretty intense .
Originally , the reason I got into Ironman is so I've been consulting for companies big , huge corporations that I'm under NDAs that I can't talk about helping them restructure , do lean , put in theory of constraints and sig sigma into their companies so that they can be more efficient .
One of the guys that was I'm at the top two tier guys , the top guy in theory of constraints that's trained me in Israel on manufacturing and I got this other miracle guy that's like a superhero , like he's the superhero's mentor . I see the entrepreneur , the CEO is the superhero . He's the superhero's mentor .
I see the entrepreneur , the CEO is the superhero , this guy is the Yoda .
You never meet him Right . So I wanted to spend time with this guy . His name is Dick Norquist , richard Norquist , and I'm like I just want to spend time with this guy and he does Ironmans right , and I'm like there's no other way I'm going to know . The guy's like 65 , 70 years old , still doing iron mans , like I was a beast .
He was training with me for the the world championship . I just did um and he was running in a walker because he had spinal surgery and he's running with like a walker with wheels . I got it on my socials . I'm like it's just , he's a beast , he's insane .
So I got to spend a lot of time listening to him downloading you know company big , huge ideas about companies and how they work . And then I got caught up in the sport because he got me . So he signed me up . He told me to come down because he had an entry into Vineman in California in 2014 . So I get down there .
I don't have a wetsuit , I don't have a bike , I got tennis shoes . That's about it . And I'm thinking , man , I'm not going to have to do this .
I don't .
I'm going to get out of this no problem .
So he's got this guy's entry . That's 70 years old . I said this no problem . So he's got this guy's entry . That's 70 years old . I said I can't get to the starting line . I don't look 70 years old , I'm like in my 40s . Come on . He's like , oh , I'll talk to the race director . I'm thinking the race director is not going to do anything for him .
Meanwhile , uh , dick has won that particular iron man like 20 times . So I know exactly who he is , so he knows . And he does have bull with him . So he gets my name in there . I'm like , oh damn , I don't have a wetsuit . So he starts knocking on doors . We find a wetsuit that's like two sizes too small , bare .
I barely got into it , and you know I'm swimming . And then I go , I don't have a bike , he goes . Well , my wife , we have a mountain bike . So I have pictures of my first Ironman . It's so funny I'm in a mountain bike with tennis shoes , I'm in a swimsuit with no you know .
And I remember getting to the finish line and two miles before he ran back to come get me , and I'm like don't talk to me , dick . And he's like what's wrong ? I said don't talk to me . I think I saw elvis jesus back there yeah like I can't believe you told you got me in this thing . I like I was so mad at him , you know .
And then , about 100 yards from the finish , all of a sudden I get this burst of energy because there's a bunch of people there and I just run across the finish line and he , he goes . Where was this ? Like two miles ago ?
¶ Pushing Limits
So after that I started training and part of the reason I signed up for the full Ironman , the 140 , is because I didn't think I could do it . So it's like I won't quit . Quit , which means if I don't train I'll die . Because I won't quit , because I'm relentless , I just won't force . You literally force yourself , I force myself .
So I just sign up , like I'm signing up for brazil , uh , in june . So I'll do the brazil . But it took me 10 years to qualify and go to the world championship ironman in kona , which is one of the most right , yeah okay , just did it october 26th and it was a 2.4 mile swim .
There's a current , we had jellyfish biting us , sharks came in so there was like that's a hell . No there's no way to get into the water sharks and uh , what was interesting is , dolphins came in and actually circled , went back and forth and actually kept the sharks to shore . Wow , I guess they do this .
Yeah , that's crazy . I've heard about it . It's weird to see it .
I've never heard about it , I just watched this documentary with my kids about all of that stuff . It's amazing .
Here we are . There's , you know whatever . 2,000 of us , 2,400 of us , 2400 of us , crazy a personalities qualified from all over the world , that the best of the best , the . I mean I was the only one that brought fat to hawaii . I got , I introduced fat to the .
They've never seen it before you know , they're like totally like , lean , yeah , and I like my , I like my steak with a little fat on it . I'm with you , brother , I'm with you . So we're doing this swim . We get out there . Jellyfish are biting , we got sharks and of course people are hitting and kicking you not on purpose , but you're just getting scratched .
I had jellyfish that were biting me here and here , and then one guy had it all over his face . He looked horrible .
It was ugly , the determination to power through that is wild .
So we get out there and come back . I get out of the swim , I'm like because I thought I was going to die . And let me backtrack a little bit more on that .
The day I got there , which was a week before the race , I went and did the swim and I swam 2.7 miles and I looked at my time and I was like , ah , this time sucks and I was scared to death . But when I got a mile 1.2 miles out into the middle of the ocean , there was nobody around and I'm like this is insane .
Yeah , like that's dumb , Like I don't even mess with the ocean like that Once you get past a certain setup .
It's a different .
You don't play with the ocean .
That's not a place to play with . Yeah , I got no buoy . Are you with somebody ? No , it's all alone out there . Oh yeah , dumb , that's a little I'm like , but I had to see that I could do this . So I get back because I've done river swims and stuff like that , but not an ocean current jellyfish shark adventure .
So I come back , I walk into the hotel room , my wife looks at me and then I said I'm going to go get us some coffee . So I went and go get us coffee and have some conversations and I come back it's a couple hours later . She's reprinted my trust agreement , she's made revisions to my trust .
Oh , Jesus , she thinks this is a done deal so what are you ?
doing . Is there a way of telling you what you're doing ?
Oh , so you know , because I'm like I could die . Yeah , that's scary , and it was written all over my face that I could die , right , and just on the swim I could die , Somebody hitting me , getting cramps , something could happen . And so she revises this .
We spent three days negotiating my trust we're fighting over the trust by the third day .
I'm like honey , I just I signed it . We went to the notary , we had all the attorneys prepare everything , the whole bit for the amendments . We get it signed . I'm saying , okay , it's been three days , I got four days till the race . Can we stop talking about ?
my death .
Can we stop planning for my death ? Can we just do that now ? And she says yes , I'm like , thank you , I'm like that's the craziest part .
I was terrified .
I was completely terrified all the way up till I finished the swim . And then , once I finished the swim , I was like I got that down . They called my name out there and it was I mean cause it's televised all over the world . So I've come out , they say my name . I'm like ecstatic . I go on the bike ride .
There's trade winds blowing against me in both directions . I know that sounds crazy . I had to ask like five other people that did it happen to them to believe it myself , and all of us had the same experience . Yeah , we go out and the winds were against and then we come back in and the winds were the other way .
They have trade winds , they switch . No way , yeah , there's no way .
And then it rained so then I'm like and you know I'm so close to God when I'm in an Ironman Like God and I are like this , we're like .
I bet you are . We're like boys in an Ironman we talk a lot . I bet you know we have some deep discussions .
I bet and in fact I couldn't figure out why I was doing the Ironman . I've been on other podcasts . They go . Why are you doing the ice hit ?
I have no idea that was my next question I have no idea .
Why put yourself through that torture ? Well , I found out , you know , through prayer , on three miles from the finish line . So I do my 112-mile bike ride in the rain , crosswinds , people flying off their bikes , ambulances taking people away . You're seeing that I got my my oh , oh , crap . Bars I'm holding .
I don't even want to drink or eat because I'm so freaking scared . Right , there's 6,000 feet of grade . You go up , in addition to 112 miles , plus the wind and the rain . So I get back , I get off the bike . I'm like tore up . I'm like God , I got to run a full marathon . Now I get out , I get off the bike . I'm like tore up .
I'm like god , I gotta run a full marathon now . Yeah , I get out , I get off the bike . I'm running the marathon and I I go in about three miles , three or four miles before the finish line . I'm like why , why and what .
What came to me was I don't know if it's god , or just maybe after I saw jesus , or that literally , this is to inspire other people . I'm putting you through this so that you'll inspire other people to take on their dreams and their goals . That's what it is the ones they think that they can't do .
You're proving stuff that you can do , that you don't even think you can do . Subconsciously mind games , everything we play , oh you'd be shocked at how far you can really go , who you really are Like , who you're being today is probably a grain of sand on the beach of who you are .
Do you think it's like one of those things , though , like Iron man ? Obviously you need a lot of determination , grit , discipline to be able to get through this and push yourself to the end as you're facing all those challenges . It's almost like Unless you want to die .
Yeah , as you're almost going to die , it's very cinnamon to be successful in business , right , like a lot of those same things you're going to go against are things you're going to challenge in Ironman , but are those things that you could train people on ?
on like that discipline and that determination , like those almost inherent , yeah I I would say can you train somebody on it ? I think you can maybe scare somebody into being that way . I guess , like I was . Yeah , you said scare somebody in that way you need , like a life-changing event , to like you know ,
¶ Creating Real Estate Masterpieces
you know . So I remember , I looked up , because my wife and I we use the word cognition , realization and epiphany all synonymously and I'm like man , I'm being loose with my language . I like to be impeccable with my language . I look up words , I look at the derivation . Just to give you an idea , how many definitions of the ? Do you think there is Four ?
No clue . Take a guess 20 ? About 27 .
Take a guess 20 ? About 27 .
Oh , okay , so it's close . Are you serious 27 ? Yeah , of has like the same .
Okay Of , yeah , that's wild .
Can you think of over 20 ways to use the word the ? But you do . You just don't know that you're doing it because it's just in our language , it's embedded , yeah , yeah , and you'll see that in law , because they use words like math , right , our whole country is based on impeccable wording . They get that wrong , you know .
That's why I was lobbying with the blockchain and helping with the blockchain task force to help with crypto in Wyoming to get the best laws in the country , because every word mattered , right . Yeah , so that that cognition , epiphany and realization . Like a cognition is where you have your thinking and you cognize , you have thoughts that you have .
A realization is you realize something over time . You just , oh , okay , you know you've observed something enough that you have a realization about it , but epiphany is a realization about it . But epiphany is a transformational moment , yeah , how do you get more of those ones ? Yeah , so , but distinguishing those two .
Now the communication when we're communicating about something that's come to us , we're like did this transform our life ? Because epiphanies are what I'm interested in .
Iron man will give you an epiphany that's life-changing , yeah .
So it's like an epiphany has to happen for somebody if they're able , and then their life is just never the same again . It's never the same again . Yeah , that's interesting .
And I feel like you get so much time in those environments .
And when you put yourself to the boundaries , almost you realize who you are right . I think that's the . The epiphany part comes in . You learn a lot about yourself . You should hear all the excuses I have . Oh yeah , I , you know , it's funny , my thought , my , my mind doesn't own me .
I have thoughts all the time and I look at them , some of them I laugh at them , some of them I use , some I consider , but my mind is literally a workout horse for me . I , I use it , but it don't own me . I own my mind , I own my body .
You can tell it what to think . I tell it what to think .
And during an Ironman I'm listening to my mind say all kinds of crazy stuff .
Oh yeah , you're tired , eat something your leg's hurting .
Is it really ? Yeah , is it really , or are you ?
just trying to get me to stop .
You know your mind is . It's funny when you get detached Navy SEALs get to the point where they detach past their mind and when you free yourself of your mind , it is so incredible . You free yourself of emotions . Even better , you free yourself of your body , where you jump in like an ice bath and you tell your body listen , you're going in here .
Shock your body , yeah , yeah , yeah , listen you're , you're going in . Shock your body , yeah , yeah . Yeah , that's , that's tough . Yeah , I feel like you gotta put those more of those things into action . I think that's the hard part for the average . Well , it seems like you're forcing yourself .
You say you've been doing it for over a decade .
It's you're forcing yourself to continue . Nothing enjoyable about it . Yeah , it's crazy . You keep doing it over and over again too .
It's even more impressive , yeah so for real estate , I know you're a big , big piece estate I mean he owns this building . To give you an idea of how much real estate that you own and been involved with and developing and everything Different states , not just here . Yeah multiple areas , right .
So what do you see happening in Las Vegas as far as the real estate market and some of the creative things that have been happening over the last 20 years and 25 years ? What do you think it takes us over the next ? You know , probably five to seven years . It takes us over the next probably five to seven years .
Provided we still have a good supply of water . This place is blowing up and as long as it doesn't become too blue , I got you . If we get taxes , then people will be in Tennessee All the rich people . There's a reason I moved 25 years ago from California .
To here .
Yeah , it's called the Franchise Tax Board Right , and I own two pieces of property there . I got a place in Napa , in San Francisco , cathedral Hill , right next to by Nancy Pelosi in the billionaire area .
Okay .
It was really cool . Love San Francisco . We spend about three days a week , just for the record .
No more than that . Yeah , I know what you get .
Four days in Dragon Ridge .
But yeah , like I drive if you drive down Pama I built like that whole street of industrial buildings . I tore down that entire neighborhood and rebuilt it . I run by in . I live in a custom community . My house is about 12,000 square feet under roof , 11,000 livable , designed it on a napkin , built it right .
I was in the show Flipping Vegas , the Dream Home episode .
I co-starred in that .
So Scott needed another house . He goes , hey , can we do it for the show ? I said , sure , let's go . I'm finishing it anyway , so might as well , capture it . It was pretty cool .
So I run by about six or seven houses that I built in Dragon Ridge anywhere from 8,000 to 12,000 square feet a piece , all custom homes and then I drive by the neighborhoods that I built and so it just feels good Like God had dirt there , and look what I did with it you know , together as a collaboration you know it's interesting from like that perspective .
Like , are you more interested in the development , retention or acquisition ? Like , what is your passion ? Because obviously I can see you kind of light up when you're talking about building the custom home . That seems like a passion project almost .
I love creating . That's the exciting part is , where are you going to put that window ? For example , my house . It has a level five finish . Every single wall in the entire house is hand sanded and the roof it's in the show they show every square inch of it . There's no molding in my house , all of them are bullnosed into the actual frame of the door .
Yeah , that's . Wow , that's crazy . I have real silver painted on the ceiling .
Oh gee , real silver , that's uh that's awesome , so we can scrape that off if things get really bad .
Yeah yeah , um , my pool is designed for bumper boats . I have a full kitchen inside the pool , 11 waterfalls and a water slide Jesus Christ . Beach entry , and you know .
It's nice to be able to make what you want , right ? Yeah , the whole backyard is travertine .
That's awesome . People have travertine on the countertop . I got it on the countertop . I got out in the whole backyard . I built like these in Greece and 12 years old in the summer house . I'd look outside at 12 years old and in this beautiful near the beach summer house there were these rows of roses .
So in my backyard I built travertine steps for those roses . So every morning I wake up , the sun comes up over the mountain . It goes directly on me , you know , because I built the room where that would happen . I built the room with exactly how I wanted to receive the sun in the morning .
That's crazy .
And then I look out the window and it reminds me of you know , that 12-year-old boy that was at the summer house in Greece , you know , with my two cousins who I adore .
That's powerful .
Yeah , that's one of those cool things like real estate . What we love about it is that once you build it and you put thought into it and design into it , it stays there for a long time .
So a lot of people get to see this real estate over a long period of time and knowing that you had that part in that for the next 30 , 40 , 50 years it seems exciting to be a part of it's fun .
I mean I brought in chisel it's wire brush and chisel carved wood , european oak that I brought in . That's five times more expensive than travertine , just because I like the way it felt on my feet Must be nice .
It must be nice . I can't get shoes the way I like to fit on my feet .
I should have took Logan up on him . We should have did the interview at your house .
Yeah , we can . Yeah , that's awesome . In fact , I want you to be on my podcast .
I would love that We'll make that happen 100% .
It's inspiring to listen to what you're saying because the mindset I mean all these things that we hear from the Kobe Bryants of the world , the Michael Jordans of the world , the David Goggins of the world and you know , I was just talking my oldest son's strength and conditioning coach and he was trying to explain to my 10-year-old the mindset of playing sports
and pushing yourself is going to help you in everything in life .
Oh , it's amazing . And teamwork , and I'm seeing it with you .
I mean , you're successful in business , being an entrepreneur , because you've pushed yourself since you were 12 years old . I don't know how old you are now , but all these years you've been continuing to push yourself and not accept .
¶ Embracing Failure, Financial Strategy, and Dining
failure is extremely powerful , well failure is only if you quit . But you said that . You said it .
I've failed lots of times .
I've eaten more failure than I've eaten success . Success is easy . Failure is where you grow . I love failure . Failure is fun , yeah . It'll mine F you and you'll sit there and go .
I did everything right , I had the perfect plan , I had the perfect people and I had the perfect everything , and my bank failed and now everything's gone to crap and there's nothing I can do about it . Okay , now what you figure it out .
You don't feel like a failure because you didn't quit .
I think I've gotten disconnected from money and things . They don't own me . I don't let things own me . I don't let money own me . So I look at it like even when I lost , I had disintegrated over $100 million and was $12.8 million in debt in 2008 . I had to give this building back . I paid like $5 million and had to give it back .
And you know just ton of stuff . I had 100 jobs going subdivisions , construction company , 14 different companies going dealerships , insurance company , all this stuff right , and I kept all my employees working . I lost $50,000 a month for four years . I had established I'd learned different lessons .
Each time I failed because I've been a multimillionaire , decamillionaire and beyond that , four different times . So each time I learned something . This last time I learned about business credit and I separated all everything . I got like 39 different credit cards . I've got different accounts . We lived on credit for five years .
At one One of my credit lines were $8 million , Jeez . So I was digging a hole , yeah , but business credit , yeah .
Business credit . Yeah , yeah .
So I was able to get all that and by April 12th 2012 , I paid back the $12.8 million , cleared all my debts and I was finally debt-free . That's saying , when Donald Trump says , you know , I'd look at a bum and they were in better condition than I was , this was in like 92 .
He was billions of dollars in debt upside down and bankrupt , but didn't file bankruptcy . He negotiated with his banks . I did the same thing . I called every one of my bankers every single day .
They still talk about it in the banking industry today , which is why I have an unlimited credit line to do as many loans for people across the country as possible , with no tax returns , with no , I don't care about somebody's income , Doesn't matter to me . We'll do fix and flip ground up , construction and rentals for people .
So that's my big thing is helping people get capital . That's the big thing .
What would you say to people that are new in business ?
What would you say ? Because we always talk about business ownership and culture and things like that . That's what our platform is based on . What would you share ? Just one tip for somebody that a nugget of maybe they're thinking about . They want to start their own company right now . They know they're listening to , to this podcast .
What would you say to them is the first thing they do stop thinking start , declare it , tell everybody you're doing it , put yourself at risk .
If you're terrified , good . If you're scared , better , right , terrified , I think is the best .
I love being terrified yeah , yeah , fire in the basement , because it makes you makes you yeah it wakes you up , you're alive , you're 100 present in the moment um , stop thinking , do it , I like that and start , start early , fail fast and fail forward and keep moving . The thing is like even with the wholesale business everything I bought was wholesale .
Worst case scenario I sell it back to the wholesaler . My fail forward is I get my money back . But I can't get back if I don't do it , because I'm going to regret that the rest of my life . I want to be all used up on my tombstone and as little regrets as possible . So if there's something I want to do , I do it .
I do not want to regret . That's a first for me , I think the first time I heard that .
I'm saying I'm always looking strategically at how do I fail forward . I created a bank so that I could finance the dealership , to make sure that if I failed , I still had all the notes .
Yeah , damn , that's deep .
Okay , right , and then I had a financial advisor go . This is insane . You're just as stacked on on assets as you are on debt that people owe you . Like there's no losing with your balance sheet , I said yeah , only the paranoid survive I don't even have the mindset to even think of that .
Yeah , which is cool man . Yeah , that's interesting , that amazing , as I pocket one of the most interesting people in the world .
That's what I start off with .
Right now you are in somebody's balance sheet , are you an asset or a liability to them ? I've heard of it . I've been asked that multiple times . Right , yeah , so I have well over 86 streams of income , right ? All coming from different places . You said 86 ?
86 . I stopped counting at 86 . It's probably in the 90s somewhere we have to have a part two of this ?
Yeah , definitely yeah , this is great .
So transitioning for one second . We always ask guests about food and restaurants in Vegas . Vegas is becoming the mecca for food and amazing restaurants . I'm very curious with you . You probably eat at your home most of the time is what I'm very curious with you . You probably eat at your home most of the time is what I'm assuming .
That's what I probably would do . But what's your favorite restaurant in Vegas ? You've been here for 25 , almost 30 years .
So Mon Ami Agabi at the Paris is one that's a regular , me and the wife love escargot , so it's one of our staples . Anywhere that has escargot , we go . You're all over it . Yeah , we're all over it . The san francisco area we've been to every single place . We go to paris all the time .
We just got back we spent a month in amsterdam , portugal , which I love . Portugal is like california weather . We went to poland and , um uh , spain , okay . So we have a crew of 22 people in spain that help process and underwrite loans that's awesome .
They're incredible . Met with them .
They're like just incredible people .
But that's your go-to Monobie Agave is your go-to restaurant here .
Monobie I Love Sushi is another place that is really one of my favorites . Hank's is another place that I've been . Henderson right Steakhouse , green Valley , green Valley .
Okay , I've been Henderson right Steakhouse Green Valley , green Valley , okay , yeah , yeah , yeah , green Valley Parkway , I've not been to Hank's yet .
There's another one that's inside the Wynn . I forget the name .
SW .
The SW is great . Yeah , delilah , delilah , delilah's excellent , delilah's fun . Yeah , yeah , all the dancing and the Really good food .
Yeah , both of those places .
Yeah , it's a weird experience because four days here , three days in California , just for the record , yeah , legal reasons , tax reasons . So basically the restaurants in San Francisco are unbelievable and we have all the money thrown at these restaurants and the celebrity steps and all that kind of stuff .
When you're in San Francisco , the owner is usually serving you and they've been there for like 30 years .
They don't have any franchises in San Francisco . I love them .
And one of my most favorite places ever as far as food in the country is Rayo's .
Oh , rayo's . Yeah , Rayo's is excellent . You have to buy a table . Wait a minute . I went to Rayo's here in Las Vegas . You have to buy a table . Wait a minute . I went to Rios here in Las Vegas .
We have a Rios in here .
They're gone now . I believe , oh , that I went during the pandemic is when I went .
That's where all the mafia people go .
You're talking about the one in New York , okay , that's the same one they get the sauce from at Walmart . Yes , yes , isn't that funny . The food's excellent .
But yeah , people own the table there .
The who's who is there and I was in the middle of working on buying a castle and building 275 units luxury condos to compete with the Ritz-Carlton over there . We still have the deal in contract , but it's just . It's been a tough go to buy the note from the bank over there because they just don't want to sell it .
Yeah , yeah , that's no
¶ Lessons From Insurance and California Fires
joke I've never realized . It's fantastic , man , I was going to talk to you for hours , man , you're very inspirational and you got an interesting mindset and perspective on life , man , which I take that everybody can do it and don't think that's what I took out of this .
What is something that you maybe we forgot to ask you , that you want to leave us out on , other than talking about the fires with California ? But what's something else you want to leave us out on that we maybe forgot to ask you ?
It's so funny I never think from there , because I'm all about serving . I'm like give me some problems ? Okay , good , come on .
Let's go . You're a firefighter for real yeah , I . You're a firefighter for real yeah , I've been a firefighter since I was 12 .
Like , give me a problem . I mean let's roll . I mean you know ?
No , I'm not narcissistic , even though I have like 20 million people that set their eyeballs on me a month and I'm like , thank God , I can't believe that like some 54 year old old ugly looking dude that people would actually watch on a daily and stop me and give me hugs it on it daily and stop me and give me hugs .
It's crazy , but I try and put out content that is strategic , tactical and , no , it's not going to be the most explosive viral stuff , but the most valuable stuff on the internet is not the stuff that has a million views , it's probably the one that has 500 . It's probably the one that has a thousand and it probably fits you and I think that gets missed .
So I , you know , I have videos that have done millions and then I have some that have done that I feel really proud of , that have done like 30,000 or 20,000 or 10,000 views , and to me it's more about like even the video I have coming out tomorrow about the fire is like 10 steps . You can do how to work through this stuff . You know cause .
I've been there . I've been you own insurance you said your own insurance company and and also in a con construction company that actually fixed the houses and I had all four board up contracts here . I had the Las Vegas board up contract and I'll tell you what a board up contract is the North Las Vegas .
If you don't know , north Las Vegas contract , henderson and Clark County you know what a board up contract is , I'm assuming .
when something messes up , you got to board everything up , so fire happens , you come out there .
So what we did , I got all these contracts . I can't really say how I got all of them , because it was . You know you do what you got to do , right . Yeah , it was . You know you do what you got to do , right , yeah . Yeah , life ain't fair , you know .
So there's a price to pay and it's long , long pass , so nobody could get in trouble , so , at any rate . So I would show up , I'd put a ring around the entire house , right , caution , right so , and then I would board up the houses and then we would talk to people .
I'd have a crew , I'd have Glenn and my guys that would go out there and talk to people who just had their houses that burnt down . All my competitors , other contractors , were behind the caution line .
Because you set everything up , because we set everything up . That was your business plan . That's why we had the contract , ah , okay .
So to me it was like the way to have exclusive rights . So our thing was to be passionate , to be compassionate and to take care of them . Our board ups we lost money on . We didn't make any money on doing board ups for people .
Our thing was let's get out there , let's secure them , let's tell them where they can stay , hotels they can go to , what services are available , available to them what life's going to look like for the next 6 , 12 year and a half , if they want to know to get the insurance done with insurance yeah it's weird .
Some people are totally sad and , uh , disappointed . You'll see other people this crazy thing that are relieved and feel cleansed , it just just went out . Fresh start , yeah Like there's no right way to feel is what I , what I learned .
You know we've done hundreds of homes that we've restored , that have burnt down or part of the house burnt down , and there's no right way to feel . It's like whatever you feel is okay . Yeah , it's really okay . Yeah , each person's situation is different Every . It's really okay .
Yeah , each person's situation is different Every situation is completely different .
So it's a matter of like you know , what do you do now ? That's where I always think okay , what's next ?
What do we do ? That's a weird thing . I had a fire personally in my own home and I had no idea what to do .
You don't ?
think about it until it happens . Now you're like okay , random people just start calling you .
You're like okay , they always random people just start calling you like where do you get my number from ? I completely forgot about that when you had a very surreal experience when it happened .
So this is going to be a long battle because there's negligence , like gross negligence on the side of the fire department and the state and the county and the municipalities that are responsible for providing , like if you're paying taxes and the kind of taxes that they were paying .
A lot of these fire insurance 32,000 people had their fire removed and so the insurance companies are basically they collect everybody's money and then they pay like 80% of it back out to people and then maybe they keep 10 or 20% .
It's not like you're keeping all the money right , but as an insurance carrier we , or like we , would invest that money until we earn it , cause you don't you don't get to spend the money until you've earned it out in the policy , got it ?
So we'll get paid for the whole policy upfront , but then we'll invest it , but we can't actually spend it until it's earned all the way out . We have to wait like a year . So we'll invest it in treasuries and stuff .
That's really kind of bulletproof investments , or at least investment grade stuff With something as I mean , I don't even know what to put the word of the California and the Malibu and everything that we've seen right now , 150 billion , probably be 200 billion by the time we're done . How does insurance companies able to cover ?
That I mean that's the type of money , that , and it's still going .
So I think a lot of insurance companies are going to look to suppurgate , right . They're going to look for who can we blame for this ?
So you're going to see like a class action lawsuit against California . Yes , class action lawsuit against California , which is going to pay a lot . Action lawsuit against .
California , which is is you're going to pay a lot of attorneys , a lot of money , and you know it's because insurance companies oftentimes the first call they make cause . I , I sued . I've been suing farmers for seven years . I'm going on my eighth year suing farmers Uh , we're in appeals right now on on the case , but supposedly it was .
Uh , my eighth year suing farmers , we're in appeals right now on the case , but supposedly it was . I had a $75 million claim that they didn't pay on a claim and they should have , but they didn't investigate the claim . So we get a jury trial and it's just been . So . Insurance companies , the thing is deny the claim for anything . Any way .
They can deny the claim , but the first thing they do before they deny a claim is listen to you , follow the policy guidelines , but then the first thing they're doing is how do I subrogate this ? Who else can I make pay for this ?
And this one is so clear cut if you go to a fire hydrant and there's no water there , yeah , making sense Like you don't have . And the 32,000 policies that got canceled , the insurance companies sent letters saying the brush around the area was like literally not cut down , it was dry . This is not maintained .
Maybe they showed up to the fire hydrant and went this . Maybe they checked the reservoir that was empty Right up to the fire hydrant and went this . You know , maybe they checked the reservoir that was empty Right . And if you're an insurance company , your job is to mitigate risk . You're not in the business , you're not in the lottery business .
You're in the risk business . So you do an actuary , you look at the possibilities and somebody caught it and said you know , we're getting out of this game and 32,000 people canceled . And it's funny . Politicians will blame the insurance company .
But if you created an environment that allowed the insurance company to insure the property at a reasonable risk , why would they cancel the policy ? They're going to make money . They're in the money-making business Good point . But they're not in the stupidity business . That's for government Government's in the stupidity business .
That's for government Government's in the stupidity business Because they got our checkbook Blank checkbook . Gavin makes these mistakes . Who's going to pay for it ? People , everybody in California and I own property in California . I know our insurance on some of our properties has doubled Already .
Mm-hmm , that's wild , that's wild . See , I could talk all day about insurance . Yeah , we're going to continue . We're going to have that all day .
¶ Building Capital Velocity Through Real Estate
This is excellent to be able to sit down with me . What's your social handles for people to reach out to ? I know you have a YouTube channel also , man Andrew Cartwright on YouTube , andrew .
X Cartwright on YouTube Andrew X Cartwright because somebody took my Instagram handle , so Andrew X Cartwright and Cartwright007 on X . What other platforms are there ? And then I'm on LinkedIn .
You'll see me as CEO is Capital Velocity , which is our lending company that we help people get real estate New people too , Okay , so that are first-time investors or fix and flip or want to buy rentals or ground-up construction .
You need some experience with that the other ones , you guys , help get the capital yeah .
I don't care what people make , and the money is infinite . You can buy as many properties as you want . That's what people don't understand . I lend to LLCs . I don't lend to Fred and Martha . I lend to assets that feed you , that don't eat you . I don't do loans at all that eat people .
I only do loans for small businesses and for real estate that are going to feed you and pay you . I don't do things that eat people . No do-dads here .
Well , keep track of this gentleman man . He's a motivated man and then running the next Ironman and motivating me , man . So check us out at thevegashowcom and thanks for your time , Andrew .
That was good stuff , that was motivational . Thank you , brother , that was great stuff , really appreciate you .