#216: You Think You Have a Money Problem?

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Previously titled “You Think You Have a Money Problem?” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 3, 2026

Business Growth Architect Show: Founders of the Future 36 min 1 speaker 8 chapters transcribed 10 days ago
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Why does Eric ask “Why do you want all this money?” and what does it reveal?

Eric Mitchell 0:01
My judging criteria is at my funeral, how many millionaires, self-made millionaires will show up? Anybody says you can get someone to change their behavior based on logic, you are delusional. I have gone to work in my car, not had enough gas to get home, no money for lunch, no money for gas to get home, and no idea how I was gonna get home or eat that day. My brain snapped. And for the first time I saw him disappointed in me because I couldn't answer the question. It was it was incredibly traumatic. You might as well put a a knife through my hand. And the answer was never, never one time was it because it's money. You won't do it properly if you don't know why you want the
Beate Chelette 0:46
Today with me, Eric Mitchell from Nexa Lending, and my opening question to you is You said that Every high earner you have ever met has one thing in common. And it has nothing to do with money. What is it?
Eric Mitchell 1:03
So Great question. My journey in that discovery started back in two thousand four. when I had a very traumatic moment in my life. It was the first time I had disappointed my mentor, somebody that I really like up to. I wanted to emulate him in every capacity. And he asked me, I you know, it was two thousand and four. I'm in the mortgage industry, I'm making more money than I ever made in my life. More money than I ever dreamed of. And after doing a site visit with me and my team, he looked at me and said, Uh, we're having dinner. He said, I'm just curious, Eric. Why do you want all this money? Like what's driving you? Like, what's the purpose of it? And I I'll never forget looking at him and not understanding the question.
Eric Mitchell 1:48
It was confusing to me. I was in my brain, it was like Because it's money. What like what are you talking about?
Beate Chelette 1:53
Uh huh.
Eric Mitchell 1:54
And I looked at him confused by the question. I said, I I don't understand the question and he looked at me, his head tilted a little bit, and for the first time I saw him disappointed in me because I couldn't answer the question. It was it was incredibly traumatic. You might as well put a a knife through my hand. And so I it was the catalyst to this journey, right? If I can't answer that question Who can? Somebody's gotta have a good answer to that question. It's a belief system I've had, right? If I can't do it, somebody can do it. I'll just go find that person, ask them how they did it. And Do what they tell me. And so I started interviewing people, uh mortgage industry, real estate, uh, financial, insurance.
Eric Mitchell 2:32
My criteria was you have to be self made, you have to be making more than a million dollars a year. And why? Like why? Like what's driving you? In in asking hundreds, and I'm in the thousands now, but at the time it was in the hundreds. Uh I n m because I'm a very linear thinker, I noticed that all of the answers came back in only five different buckets. There were only five different there was variations, but but really it was five different answers. And the answer was never, never one time was it. Because it's money.
Beate Chelette 2:59
Were you surprised that it wasn't money?
Eric Mitchell 3:03
Oh, I was shocked. Yeah, I was very I was very surprised.
Beate Chelette 3:05
Well now I have to ask you, what are these five buck buckets?
Eric Mitchell 3:09
So one answer that came back uh pretty consistently and and so I've I've I I've had to create sound bites about them and then I can elaborate on each one, but the first category was some sort of uh lifestyle enhancement. Now some people might think that's oh s they wanted a bigger house or nicer car or something. No. No, they were getting away from something, right? They came from a third world country, they came from a bad childhood they came from, they were trying to escape something and so they just they just outworked you. Because they're never gonna go back to that bad place.
Beate Chelette 3:40
Mm-hmm.
Eric Mitchell 3:41
Right. So if you think of an immigrant family who opens a restaurant and then they just rotate shifts. They go to sleep for eight hours and then they work for sixteen hours, seven days a week. Because they're never gonna go back to where they came from. They'll just outwork you. And so that was one possibility. By the way, if you're watching this.

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