I Lost Everything… Then Made $180m in 6 Months

Here is a summary of the key points from the transcript: - Rafa Martinez immigrated from El Salvador to the US as a child to escape violence and poverty. His family struggled financially when they first arrived, living in a small apartment and making minimum wage. - Rafa became a successful natural gas trader, making his first million dollars at age 29. As a trader, he has made and lost tens of millions of dollars on trades. He attributes his success to trusting his instincts, not stressing about wins/losses, and having a high risk tolerance. - Rafa has invested his trading profits into various businesses including fitness, whiskey, golf, racing, and real estate. He enjoys spending money on experiences, cars, and helping friends/family. - On parenting, Rafa tries to teach his kids not to take things for granted and that you have to earn things in life. He wants them to understand the value of hard work. - Rafa credits coming to America with providing the opportunity for financial freedom and the ability to live without worrying about money. The "American dream" to him is having the freedom to do what you want without financial stress. - His advice for making a million dollars is to find what you're passionate about and good at, then work hard and focus on that. He believes anyone can make a million by providing value to enough people.

Speaker A: Ballpark, how much you lose and ballpark, how much you gain.

Speaker B: I lost something like $60 million in a matter of like three weeks, but I ended up probably making back like 180 million.

Speaker A: Recently I met Rafa Martinez. He has made hundreds of millions of dollars trading natural commodities and is well on his way to becoming a billionaire. But life wasn't always this rosy. He immigrated from one of the most dangerous countries at the time, El Salvador. And his story was so profound that we decided to sit down with him and share his journey with you.

Speaker B: I remember as a kid when I lived in El Salvador, hearing the bombs, people running on the roof and us hiding underneath our beds. Sorry, I always start getting emotional about some of this stuff.

Speaker A: Even though he and his family managed to escape to America, they still lived poorly. When you got to America, we were living in like one bedroom. And then do you remember how much they actually made a year?

Speaker B: I remember the apartment rent was like $450.01 and a half bedroom apartment. They would have been making minimum wage at the time, six, $7 an hour or whatever that, you know, as a kid, didn't really appreciate what my parents in their early twenties were going through.

Speaker A: But since having established himself in the USA as a serial entrepreneur and trader, do you recommend energy trading as a way of getting rich?

Speaker B: It is a great way to generate wealth, but it is also a great way to be stressed out.

Speaker A: He nearly lost the majority of his.

Speaker B: Wealth during COVID I lost something like $60 million. Yeah, in a matter of like three weeks, but I ended up probably making back like 180 million.

Speaker A: Let's find out how he managed to pull all of this off. Can you share in 30 seconds? Can you share your business story?

Speaker B: Sure. I'm Rafael Martinez. I was born in El Salvador, been in the States, in Houston specifically for 26 years. I trade natural gas for a living. That's primarily what I do. And with that, I've been able to invest in numerous companies and do some startups of my own, all the way from fitness to racing to construction and tech. And so, yeah, I'm primarily in the more, I guess, in the investment field at this point. But I still trade natural gas and I still have a big group and a book of business that I run.

Speaker A: And you're into super into car racing.

Speaker B: And I'm super into car racing.

Speaker A: Yeah, super into car. That's how we connected on the previous one of the YouTube videos, which is amazing. Why did your parents decide to move here from El Salvador when you were twelve?

Speaker B: Yeah, so that was like in 97, we had a civil war, late eighties, early nineties. There was a lot of crime and violence that kind of erupted from that, you know, from that, I guess, instability in the economy and just. I think that they were just looking for. To provide us a better. A better future. And we had fortune to have had family that had been here in the states of seventies and eighties that were able to support us, to come here and claim us as dependents through my dad. And ultimately, he was able to bring the family.

Speaker A: What were some of the struggles early on when you got here with you and with your family?

Speaker B: You know, I remember as a kid, when I lived in El Salvador, hearing the bombs and the gunshots and people running on the roof and us hiding underneath our beds, like, as a kid, didn't click in, like, us saying, like, we're hungry, and they're like, hey, you know, like, we need to wait. Cause we come outside, like, there's stuff happening outside, and our uncle, like, hiding and running to just go get bread. Sorry, I always start getting emotional about some of this stuff, but as a kid, didn't really appreciate what my parents, in their early twenties were going through, which I look back and it's like, when all this thing was happening, my mom was, like, 22, 23, which is pretty insane that they were going through at such a young age. After that, you know, after they kind of overcame the war and we started having, you know, some form of means, like, we never had gifts, like, for Christmas. I don't remember parents ever being able to wrap a gift. It was always like, you know, go buy your new. Sorry, it happens every time. Go buy, like, your new outfit for the year. And so we would get a new shirt, pair of pants, and shoes, and, like, that was our Christmas present. It was like, a new outfit. And then, you know, over the years, they started doing better themselves and, you know, and started being able to provide a little bit more. But, you know, those were some of the earliest kind of memories that I have as a kid, and just the struggles and, you know, fortunately, we always had a house, we always had food, but there was actually obviously no, like, no luxury items and things like that, you know, that we really enjoyed. So, yeah, we'd run around the streets with, you know, shoes and, you know, holes in our shoes and socks that were torn from, like, running on them, you know, but, yeah, damn, it's crazy.

Speaker A: What was your dream as a kid? Because I'm imagining one of the things I was imagining, if you see your parents struggling, and I think as a kid, you may not realize the sacrifice they made to give up, like, their heritage and their family and their culture to be like, I'm gonna, I want a better life for you. Like, did you have a dream, like, all right, I'm gonna make it and take care of them, or. What were you thinking as a kid?

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think as a kid growing up, you know, I always, in my head, wanted to be like an engineer. And I loved cars and planes, and so I thought I would be designing or flying planes at some point. And my desire was always to be able to support my parents as they age and as I grew bigger or older. So I never really had really a dream of anything in particular other than I knew that I was going to do something great one day or that I was going to be able to support my parents one day because, like, I wasn't going to stop until I did. And I was doing all the homework at the time. You know, as a kid, your only job is to do good in school. And so I was doing that. I was a straight a student kind of stuff, and I just knew that I was going to stick with whatever it was and hopefully it all paid out. And, you know, it's, it's, you know, it's over the years, you just continue to do it, too.

Speaker A: When you got to America, we were living like one bedroom. And then do you remember, like, how much they actually made a year when.

Speaker B: We came to the States? We had a family here that we stayed with for a short while and then we got an apartment. I remember the apartment rent was like $450 a month. And it was my sister, my brother, now my sister, I have an older sister and my parents. And it was like a one and a half bedroom apartment. And, yeah, I mean, they will have been making minimum wage at the time. Oh, they're about so six, $7 an hour, whatever that, you know, so like.

Speaker A: A thousand a year combined or something like that?

Speaker B: Yeah, something like that. Yeah, 25,000 combined. And then they slowly progressed from there. And I remember at some point when they both were making $10 an hour, it was like a big deal because it was like we kind of made it in a sense. We have some money now and, I mean, it was nothing, but we were able to buy a car and do some things with the family and small trips and stuff.

Speaker A: That's awesome. Yeah, just a quick contrast. So you lived in, like you said, 400 sqft or it was like a one and a half bedroom.

Speaker B: Yeah. Small apartment complex. Yeah.

Speaker A: And roughly how big is your house now?

Speaker B: Well, my current house is about 5000. I'm the only one that's a bit bigger than that.

Speaker A: So you're the only one. Sorry.

Speaker B: I'm building another house that has under construction that's a bit bigger than that.

Speaker A: How does that make you feel? Reflecting on that?

Speaker B: It's kind of crazy just looking back and obviously I know the work that I've put in to sort of achieve what I have, but it's just happened so quickly over the last, in a sense, but it is pretty crazy just to think the fact that I've achieved what I have and we have the financial freedom to never have to worry about anything. I've kind of set my family for life in a sense. And it's pretty crazy just to think about where we've come from and the dreams that I had as a kid of I want to be a millionaire one day and now you do that and I was like, okay, I wanna be a billionaire one day, and then you're well on your way to do that and it's just like hard work just continues to pay off and treating people right and you're just kinda being selective about the people that you surround with. You surround yourself with, it's pretty important.

Speaker A: So they must be really proud of you, they must be really proud and like that for them to see we took this chance, we took this risk, we suffered, we struggled and sacrificed them. To see you be able to succeed, it seems like for yourself and then for your family.

Speaker B: I don't think that I ever really sit back and truly kind of appreciate everything that I've done or what I do for people. But yeah, I mean, when I sit down and look at it and think about just like, just how crazy life is now, how do you think being.

Speaker A: An immigrant helped you? And then how do you think if you're not an immigrant, you can have the immigrant advantage?

Speaker B: I think being an immigrant helped me in a sense that I've seen what it's like to live in another country, I've seen what it's like to live in a poor country and grow up, for all intents and purposes, poor, if you will. And so having the comparison of what it's like to just even come here and be poor here or live modest here is compared to other countries. That alone, I think, taught me anyways that I needed to take advantage of the opportunity that I was given to be here. And so that advantage that I think a lot of people grow up here in a suburb and they have no idea what, like kids their age are suffering or going through in a country like El Salvador or, you know, in ghettos or, you know, you know, I think about it just, like, when I watch, like, you know, Ukraine, and I watch, you know, what some of the african countries have gone through in the Middle east and all these wars are happening that were way worse than what I went through in El Salvador. I'll think about, like, man, I can't imagine being a parent in Ukraine, figuring out what to do with your five year olds and what the five year olds are going through and, like, what life experiences they're gonna get that if they actually made it to the US, they're gonna be like, I'm not gonna give this opportunity up. And so I think that that value that I learned as a kid and experiencing those things, it's one of the things that still drives me today is I just know the value of the opportunity. And I think people take that for granted.

Speaker A: How do you think someone who's not an immigrant could learn the immigrant advantage?

Speaker B: You travel the world and go see how people live, you're going to appreciate what we have and what you're given here. And so I think that you can have that mentality of an immigrant and consider your surrounding a different country. You know, like, I live in this, you know, torn down neighborhood. I gotta find my way out of it. And so, like, I need to immigrate to a nicer neighborhood. And it's like, how do you. You know, what steps do you have to take to achieve the ability to live in a nicer neighborhood? And I think that's. That's a way to, you know, be able to relate and kind of achieve what some of the immigrants that come here with such hunger and drive do is because, like, they know what it's like to be back home.

Speaker A: Yeah. Before we dive into how Rafa made his first million dollars, I want to help you make your 1st month business. I started the monthly one k course and community a couple of years back to help you go from no business idea to making a month in 60 days. This course used to be over $600 to join, but I want to make it accessible. So at the time of this video, it is $10 with no crazy upsells or anything like that. For a very limited time, head over to monthly one K.com to sign up. It will help you overcome your fear. Have fun, and get your own business going. Now let's find out how Rafa made his first meal. So how did you make your first.

Speaker B: Million trading natural gas when it worked for a firm that we did natural gas trading, we did logistics where we were buying and selling the actual molecule, serving end users, producers, and kind of connecting the dots in the physical grid as well as trading the futures and the forward markets. And I started there as an intern and at the age of 25, I guess I'd been there for four and a half years, I became the head of the region of the book that I was working for. And from there I just continued to dive into the market and had a good, I'd say, pulse on the market and we were able to be pretty successful. So I think I made my first million when I was 29 as a trader trading natural gas.

Speaker A: How much do top energy traders make?

Speaker B: Honestly, it just depends. I would say the average trader probably makes like a million bucks a year. You have guys that guys and girls that make. I would say on the low end, if you're an energy trader, a gas trader, you probably have a salary on average of like $200,000 a year, and then you get bonus differently. Some companies do it as a pool based on how the company does. Other people do it as a percentage of book. I work as a percentage of book. So whatever you make, whatever you kill, you take home a percentage of net of cost and stuff like that. So. But yeah, I mean, you can make 200k plus and you can make, you know, there's people that made a billion before working for themselves as a fun whatever. But I would say on average a million or two is going to be sort of like what your average trader probably makes, a successful trader makes working for it for a firm.

Speaker A: You're the second person we've met on this channel who got wealthy from natural gas. What does that actually mean?

Speaker B: You can trade crude oil. You hear people that trade crude oil to trade natural gas, and they largely are trading just a financial product where you're just directionally putting bets on that the price is going to go up or the price is going to go down. But behind that there's the actual logistics that gets the crude converted into a gasoline that you pump in your car, that gets the crude into the plastic that that water bottle is made out of. Right? Like that's made from crude more than likely, or could potentially be a recycled product or something. But all the plastics, all the latex, the tires, it's funny that you hear about Tesla, for example, and wanted to be green. It's like, okay, well, where are you going to get the tires from? Because that's crude oil. So if you shut down crude operations, you don't have tires. So I don't know where your Tesla is going to go, but you need the tire on it. And so there's all these obviously this political things that happen with energy that's interesting in its own. But as far as trading is concerned, we buy and sell the physical molecule from a production point, and production hubs that we then find markets, people that consume it. So power plants burn natural gas to generate electricity. You have manufacturing that burns natural gas, to run processes, to run to boilers, to do process, to boil water and stuff. You have obviously home heating. So most people, when they turn their heater on, is natural gas that's actually lighting up the furnace and things like that. So natural gas is a commodity energy product that's a byproduct of mostly crude production, but it does exist in its own, and, you know, and it's a commodity that we use for energy. And so, as a trader in the physical space, I am finding opportunities where I can buy gas. And we say, you know, you buy the low, sell high, where I can buy gas in a location and transport it to another location and collect a premium and cover my cost of doing so. So there's a big network across the US of pipelines that no one knows exist until something blows up, until someone drills into it and it blows up. No one knows that those pipelines exist, but there is a major network of thousands and thousands of miles of pipeline that is dug underneath the ground. That is how it gets to our houses, that is how it gets distributed and consumed. So those pipelines lease capacity for you to actually transport the molecule. So I can contract with the pipeline to have the right to move molecule through it for a period of time at a set cost. And so then I can put trading positions on that, allow me to capture a spread, a location spread. And so if you start capturing the spreads, if you're anticipating the market, and you're saying this point is going to devalue over time, that point is going to appreciate over time, you can lock in a transportation rate, and over time see that profit increase because the price differential gets bigger. So you can pay twenty five cents to move something that eventually becomes a dollar's worth, and then you just buy here, sell here, and collect a dollar, pay the pipeline twenty five cents. And so you can make a lot of money in the logistics of moving natural gas around the country, as well as saying, I think the price is too low, I'm going to buy it, put it in the ground, store it, wait till it gets higher, and then sell it. And you can also have time spreads as well as locational spreads in the physical market. And then you can also trade financially, where you just guessing directionally which way the price is going, just like a stock. And you can short it, you can buy puts, you can do all kinds of different products. So it's a pretty complex system, it's pretty regulated, but it's fairly efficient and transparent in a lot of ways. So there's a lot of people doing it. And if I make money, more than likely someone else lost money. That's the general. It's a zero sum game, right? So generally, someone either lost opportunity to sell it for a higher price, or they sold it thinking it was going to go down and the price goes up, and now they have a true loss because it's always flux ready. All right.

Speaker A: That was phenomenal. That was like the most, like, actual, real, no bull explanation. I feel like sometimes you're like, yeah, I do this thing. I'm like, okay, how do you do it? And that was awesome. That was a cool way. That's really interesting to learn a few things on that. I was curious about. What are some of the best and worst stories of some trades that you've done? Like, what are some of the biggest successes? Or maybe.

Speaker B: Yeah, so I start with the worst story. I went to Spain to watch Real Madrid play Barcelona at the Bernabeu, and we get this news that Covid outbreak's happening. It's been sort of in the news, not really, but then the world's gonna start shutting down. And I am in Spain and I'm watching crude collapse, and it's collapsing by like $1020. And the natural gas that I'm short is going to appreciate because now there is no byproduct because production has stopped. And so we saw my book just lose millions of dollars overnight because people started panicking that the crude production that these gases associated with was going to get shut in. And in fact, did get shut into a large degree. So something that I thought was going to go to zero, then went to like $4 when he was sitting at $2. And so I lost a ton of money. And we had to make a decision, like, what do we do? We need to get out of position. And so I would say one of the best stories is, as a trader, is that I saw that fact that if crude is actually shut in, there's no reason why gas needs to be steel this cheap. So I then bought myself out of the position and doubled down the opposite way and went long the molecule, and then made all that money times like five. So everything that I lost, I multiplied it by completely reversing my view all in the matter of like a month. And so we ended up making a ton of money out of it because I completely reversed my view and that my position and all happened very quickly.

Speaker A: Ballpark, how much you lose and ballpark, how much you gain in that.

Speaker B: In that particular time period, I lost something like $60 million. Yeah, in a matter of like three weeks.

Speaker A: That's insane.

Speaker B: The volatility, I mean, the amount of, you know, obviously the volume that I, that I was exposed to and things like that, and obviously then we reverted that and ended up, you know, up on a year quite a bit.

Speaker A: So you said, like, a few times that. So a few hundreds of millions.

Speaker B: I ended up probably making back like 180 million of after being down a ton of money. Yeah. Just completely reverting the position and saying, like, you know, okay, if in fact production is not going to be there, then why is it still at this level? And you just have to trust your gut and your view and not be shy just because I'm losing money. That's the one thing that as a trader, I think people get shy and nervous about is, you know, if you're losing, you lose confidence. And the one thing I've always had is, like, I'm a believer in my view, and I understand markets are going to fluctuate, and so if I can withstand the fluctuations and still stick to my guns, then I can see positions play out while other people sometimes have to get out, whether it's a risk policy, a company policy, or their own personal tolerance that they can't withstand losing money. So they end up getting out too soon before they really see their trade play out. But you never see a chart of a stock go like this over a course of a year. There's ups and downs, and if you get nervous in some of those ups and downs, then you get out of your trade, and then you just see it three months later, and you're like, oh, if I held, that would've made money. Well, there's people like myself that can't withstand the volatility and make money through the turbulence of markets.

Speaker A: What do you think is you're doing something differently, right? Cause if everyone goes, if you watch these videos and becomes an energy trader, what's your mindset? What are you telling yourself.

Speaker B: As I'm trading? Honestly, people trade off of charts. They trade off of spreadsheets that do all kinds of data analysis and studies and have all these analysts that give them all these, like, reports on what to do. I majorly trade on gut feeling, and I trust myself, and I feel the pulse of the market. And if I think it's trending one direction, I go along with it. And when I start feeling that it's trending a different direction, I start reducing my risk and kind of even reversing. So as I'm trading, I am constantly trying to figure out, like, which direction is the market going? And kind of thinking to myself, like, how confident am I in the position that I have? And so every single day, that confidence calibrates because the market changes and goes for you, and you're like, okay, it got to a point where I thought it could reach, can it keep going? Or is this the point where it starts reversing? And every day you have to recalibrate that, you know, that viewpoint of what changed overnight, what changed today, what changed five minutes ago. The market is constantly moving based on information. And so, like, you're constantly thinking to yourself, do you believe in the position today? Something happened over. I go to a lunch, I come back, the market's down, and I got to figure out, why is the market so down? And then once I process the information, what potentially could have the market down? Cause you never really know for sure what's, there's some big information or big news that come out that, yeah, I, you know exactly where the market moved because the timing was perfect. That news is actually bullish or bearish. But you're constantly reviewing and say, okay, the market's here now. Can it go farther down or will it bounce back?

Speaker A: Would you, if someone was young in their career, even old in their career, and they're like, yo, I want to be a millionaire. Would you recommend energy trading as a way of getting rich?

Speaker B: It's obviously a way. It pays really well. It's challenging. It's not for everyone. You know, just there's a lot of professions, like, say, being a doctor. Like, it's not for everyone. Like, I couldn't imagine myself cutting someone open and doing anything. Like, I'd freak out and, like, leave the person there. So, like, it's just not for everyone. It's very challenging. It's very competitive. So when you enter a trading company, for example, you don't start in trading generally. You start as an analyst in something, and you quickly realize that every person in that company wants to be a trader. And so you may have a hundred person shop that has five traders, eight traders, and every single person wants that job and those traders aren't necessarily going anywhere. So, you know, it's like it's something to aspire to and it is a great way to generate wealth, but it's also a great way to be stressed out and like, you know, lose your mind over just the stresses of the market. Some people freak out when they're up and then freak out even more when they're down. And so it is a high stress, high pace environment. Expectations are high because if you work for a trading company, like you're the one person that's making money for the company, everybody else is there to support you. So it's like if you're the, say, if you're, I don't know, the Kevin Durant, like they expect you to drop 40 every night because the entire franchise is there to support you. Or f one driver. Talking about racing, when you're the f one driver, they have 1000 people who are doing their job every day to put you in that seat on Sunday and it's your job to perform. So the amount of pressure that those drivers have is huge. And so that's the way trading is. It's you're the only person for the company in the trading organization that can actually make money. And you're 1%, 2% of probably the entire company. And so some companies are more heavy trading and more true trading houses wherever. Maybe it's 10% of the people, 20% of the people. But generally you have a lot of support staff, legal staff, accounting risk, mid office marketing, obviously administrative to allow a handful of the traders to actually try to make money. So it's a really high stress job. I fortunately no stress about anything. And I'm like the coolest dude in the room. Doesn't matter if I'm way up or way down. You couldn't tell the difference. But there's people that freak out at losing $10,000.

Speaker A: How do you do that?

Speaker B: Honestly, I don't know. That's the way I live life.

Speaker A: Yeah, I'm like, I lose a dollar, I'm like, oh, it's over. I'm on the street.

Speaker B: Exactly. That's how people, some people are like that way. And as smart as you may be, as much as you may know about trading, if you can't stand losing money or making money and you stress about both, it's just not going to be something that you're going to be probably extremely successful at or happy doing. And so for me, fortunately, I just don't stress about anything and I don't know, if it's like the things that I've been through, if it's personality, if it's just outright confidence and knowing that I'm going to be right one way or another. But I just don't stress out over anything. Things happen, things break. People hit your car, you lose stuff, things break, you lose money, you lose valuables, people pass away. And I just don't stress about anything. I think that helps me a lot in my profession. That's why I've been so successful at it, is that I think I can withstand a much more higher tolerance of stress and risk than most people can. And so someone can put the exact same chat as I did, but the volume that they did it for is a fraction of what I did, or they got out way sooner before they truly saw the trade play outdoor. So something that they made 10,000 on, maybe I made a million on, and it was the exact same view, the exact same timing. And it's just matter of, like, size and the position and the fact that I was able to hold it for a few more days because you, once you made 10,000, you were happy. And you're like, I can't, I can't lose this 10,000. And you get out of the trade. Well, I'm like, well, I want to make a million, so I'm not going to get out at 10,000. I'm not going to get out at 100 because my view is that it's going to make a million. And so then, you know, if I start losing some, I have to recalibrate. Is something changing in the market? But people do trade at different scales and different tolerances. And so for me, fortunately, just I'm able to manage quite a bit of risk without any stress. How much? You can't teach that?

Speaker A: You know, I was hoping you could.

Speaker B: I can teach strategy, but, you know, I can't teach, you know, like, how to be relaxed in a high. Like, you can tell people, like, breathe, do this, do that. But, like, until you're put in a position where, you know, where you have to make a decision, you're losing money. I can't teach you how to feel when you're losing money. I can't teach you how to feel when you're making money. You have to be in that situation. And all you can teach people is, like, how to manage stress. You can't teach them, like, not to feel stress. And I literally feel no stress, so, which probably why I picked up racing and driving pretty quickly, because I didn't think about it, I just went and did it.

Speaker A: So the training, that was super fascinating to hear. So you've done trading and then you kind of like, invest that money in all these other business. Can you just walk through all the different business? Because I think that's also a good lesson for a lot of people out there about so many different things. Whiskey, golf clubs, construction, racing.

Speaker B: Yeah, so I've been.

Speaker A: Can you list them all?

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I invest in a company called Sphere. Concept is a sucker and spark fitness business. So my buddy, who I became good friends with, was the founder of Michael Chavala. He's a two time MLS champion, ten year career in MLS. He missed the locker room feel and the brotherhood that he felt with the players and decided to start a concept that kind of replicates that locker room feel. So everything about the class and the locker room is sort of replicating what you would feel in a club. It's soccer inspired. You don't have to play soccer or anything like that, which is welcoming to a lot of people. Another company that I've invested is nine bandit. Whiskey here in town. Yeah, so I love nine Bandit. You got presented as an opportunity, like, four or five years ago, and I've invested now in a few rounds with them. I'm not heavily involved with them, but, you know, from time to time we do touch base, get updates, and it's a brand that I actually love the whiskey for. So I decided to invest in it. I invested in a company called Random Golf Club. Eric Lang, the founder. I invested in that company recently, and that's all about creating communities in the golf community space and kind of connecting people and going to different experiences all over the world, really, to get around a golf in. I have rough racing, so raffle racing. We came up with the acronym race as family always. And so what I wanted to get out of that was when I first went to the track a couple years ago and fell in love with the actual driving, not the sport, but the actual driving of it. I'd never done that. I'd never been on a track, never grew up with a racing background. I craved the community aspect of it when I wasn't at the track. So, like, on a Tuesday at 04:00 in the afternoon, I was like, I feel like doing something car related or automotive or like, racing, and there was nothing in town. So I decided to start up a country club equivalent of golf or racquet club with racing. So we have a facility in Houston, 40,000 sqft, that's going to have professional simulators in town with coaching, training. We're going to run leagues with iracing or some other gaming. We're going to do training and actual travel to the different tracks and coaching to get people developed into semi pro amateurs. So I'm racing now myself as an am. I have a program. I'll be racing in Europe this year. And it's really just showing people that they can enjoy the sport. A lot of people don't know that they can. I didn't know I could. I never knew I could get on Kota here, circular makers in town until two years ago when I stepped foot on it and realized it. And I was like, you know, there's got to be so many people and we've come across a ton of people who didn't know they could do it and now are part of the club and helping us, you know, kind of move forward. And, you know, we're in Houston now, expanding to Austin probably in 2024. And it's really just about community, family enjoying the sport, doing a lot of. A lot of stuff like going to f one events, going to races, traveling as a group. People identify us very quickly at the track because when we come, we have 1215 drivers and like 30 people there just to support us. It's just a big family when we're there, obviously. I think that's when we met you saw us. Just a big community. And you go through every other garage and it's like four dudes, two girls, a dude here and there. But, like, when you go out to ours, it's like 40 people. And so I think that that community aspect of it, people have really fallen in love with and is really getting a lot of traction. And it's something that doesn't exist. We haven't found anywhere that's being able to kind of take proof of concepts and put them all under one roof. So people have racing as a concept. You have cars and coffee as a concept. You have sim racing, like simulator racing. And you have all these different rallies and all these different things that you can do in a car community, but no one has it under one roof. And we've been able to find a way to bond it all together. And people are really from all kinds of angles, want to be part of it.

Speaker A: Racing is expensive. It is. How do you like to enjoy your money? So you made all this money, like, how do you like to enjoy it?

Speaker B: I spend money on clothes, travel, and mainly cars at this point. So I enjoy giving my money away, actually. I love helping people and taking care of people, and I don't expect anything back, but I enjoy the ability to help someone have a life changing experience. So, like, last year, I took all my best friends and my sister and my brother and their significant others to Monaco and we were on a yacht. And I just told all, like, hey, we're going to Monaco in May. Make sure you book it. And it was, like, all expenses paid. I took everybody with me because, like, I was. I always wanted to go to Monaco, watch it on tv, and I was like, well, I'm not going to go and experience that with my wife by ourselves. Like, how boring is that? Like, I want all my loved ones to have, like, a once in a lifetime type of experience. So, like, I enjoyed and loved the fact that I was able to do that for them, right. And it didn't change my life. Unfortunately, I am at the position now that I can have those experiences and I have to think about it. I have to worry about, you know, how I'm going to pay the bills if I make this expense. And it's really just investing in life experiences and unforgettable things, you know? And that's the one thing that money has allowed me to do, is really have unforgettable life experiences and the freedom to never worry about paying my bills kind of thing. And think that that freedom and that stress is what probably is the most challenging thing that people deal with is it's money. And people say money doesn't bring happiness, but not having it, it's really challenging.

Speaker A: A few questions on that. How much is it? Is this a hublot?

Speaker B: It's a hublot, yeah.

Speaker A: How much is this watch?

Speaker B: This was like, I don't know, 40,000. $40,000.

Speaker A: I think it's also, like, scratched up. So you wear it like a regular, normal person watch?

Speaker B: No, I bang it up. I wear it every day to work out, to do anything. I drive with it. People have told me they shouldn't drive with it. Cause it messes up the timing. I haven't seen it happen yet, but, yeah, I mean, I wear it everywhere.

Speaker A: And then how much would you value your car collection right now? And some of these cars that are in it and maybe the most expensive one.

Speaker B: The most expensive one, actually, I just took delivery of. It's a Hennessey Venom f five. That's probably a $2.7 million car. I have a p one that's delivered miles and it's probably in that range, 2.52.7 million. My car collection is probably 18, 2015, 18 million probably. Maybe more there about good sized coat, a lot of toys, and I drive them all. I love driving my car, so I drive them all the time.

Speaker A: I'm glad it gives you joy.

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think sometimes we.

Speaker A: Think, like, I buy some of the nicer watches to commemorate and almost never really gives me actual joy. Yeah, I think it's just like having a nice meal or some of these things we talk about. Like, we went to Monaco, I was like, this is pretty cool. It was definitely just. It's like, some of these things. What actually gives you joy? It could be cars. It's not like there's a wrong one. It's just fun.

Speaker B: Oh, no. Yeah. I mean, some people love boating and they have, like, to me, having a boat, I know wouldn't bring me joy. So, like, I don't have a boat, you know, but I have 25 cars and I enjoy driving all of them and I rotate every day. Some days. Dude, that's crazy. Every other day I'm in a different car and I go through the hassle, like, oh, I gotta go to the garage and shop cars and I gotta move them around, but I actually drive them and enjoy them and I bring them to the track.

Speaker A: I like that your problem is like your million dollar car. Like, I have to go get it.

Speaker B: Out of the garage.

Speaker A: This is the worst.

Speaker B: Yeah. And to me, like, it's materialistic things. So if something happens to them, like, I don't get so worried. So people are like, you know, how can you, like, give all that to your kids? I'm like, cause I don't care if they bang it, I just get it fixed and it is what it is, but I don't wanna have to go park my cardinal pull up in a valet in a sense, right? Like they're there for a reason, to provide a service, you know, we go to the track and I'll take five, six of my cars and I just hand friends and family keys and they go drive them and they're like, are you sure? I'm like, yeah, dude, don't worry about it. Like, drive it like you normally would. Don't worry about, like, it's value because I don't care if something happens to the car. Like, I'm not gonna be sitting here crying and stressing over, like, we'll fix it and we'll move on. Like, you know, like, I want to make sure that the things that I've been able to achieve and get to enjoy, like, people close to me get to enjoy them as well because, like, there's no sense in me just being the one that enjoys it and everybody's just sitting there watching me do it. So, like, I bring everybody in and get them to enjoy it as well.

Speaker A: And I can vouch for that. When I got to meet you at the track, you have, like, a million dollar car. Like, yeah, sit. Yeah. I was like, you don't mind anything? He's like. And you were. You were really generous, and I really appreciate.

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, that's why I give people rides. I let people drive them. I mean, I don't have a. You know, again, like, because it's not my only car. Because it's not, you know, like, the materialistic aspect of it isn't. What gives me joy is the actual driving over. That gives me joy. And so, to me, if something happens to it, that's a dollar amount to fix. Like, you know, it is what it is. It's not about the materialistic part of it. It's actually, like, the experience of driving that car.

Speaker A: So you're here in Austin for this weekend doing racing. Like, how much do you think it costs you just to race? And there's no prizes or anything?

Speaker B: Yeah, there's no prizes, really. Just an enthusiast. It's like, almost bragging rights. But, you know, it's probably a 2020, $5,000 weekend to come and drive the car for a few minutes.

Speaker A: It's literally a few minutes.

Speaker B: Yeah, literally a few minutes. Like, I think we were not gonna drive the car in more than 30 minutes this weekend.

Speaker A: Where do you think you would be today if you didn't move to the US?

Speaker B: Oh, man, that's a hard question. Cause I have no idea how we will have ended up in El Salvador. I mean, it could have easily ended up dead. You know, they were kidnapping people for $100. It's just crazy. I think we will have found a way to become a professional of some form. So if I didn't come to the US, I'd probably be a professional. El Salvador, living a modest life. You know, I don't. There isn't really a way to get rich in El Salvador unless you come from money, which we didn't. So I probably just had a professional job as an engineer or something. Probably making decent money for the status quo, you know, kind of your typical for the standard of living that most people have. I imagine that's probably what I will have been. But, yeah, coming here, obviously, has been completely life changing.

Speaker A: And then what does the american dream to.

Speaker B: What does it mean, honestly? The american dream is to have the freedom to do whatever you want without really stressing and being in a position that you feel that you can't afford to do something that you can't afford to, like, give back to support your family, to worry about retirement. You know, the fact that I know for a fact I will never be poor. Like, it's a big stress reliever. The fact that I know I can be 75 years old and not be figuring out, like, what home and what bed am I staying in? Who's gonna help me? Who's gonna feed me like, that, I think is part of the reason that, you know, in my head, I always knew I'm going to be rich enough to, like, never have to worry about money. Like, I'm always gonna work until the, you know, till I die, in a sense, to make sure that I never had the stress of money, because I know that that has been such a big stress in my family. It's a big stress in friends and family that I still have. And so, you know, people always see what I do, and they almost want to compare themselves. In that sense, it's like, well, you can't do it. So I always have to, like, you know, keep a lot of people just, you know, aware, like, hey, like, you know, what I have is. Doesn't mean anything. Like, you're, you know, you don't have to tell me you can't afford to go on vacation with us. Like, I'll buy your flight. Like, no, no, don't buy my flight. No, dude. Like, you're coming with us, and I don't want the stress of you coming to celebrate my birthday in Vegas to put a stress in your life, but, like, you being there is not going to be the same. Like, you not being. It's not going to be the same for me. So, like, you're coming with us, and I don't want you to stress about it. Don't say you owe me anything, because, like, I want to live that experience with you there. I don't want to, like, you know, put the stress in your life because I happen to have a different, you know, wealth level that doesn't stress me. Right. So instead of going down to a bar and having two beers, I want you to fly to Vegas and, like, have a bottle with me at the club and don't want you to feel that you have to, like, contribute. And so, you know, things like that are things that I think, to me, having achieved, I feel, obviously, the american dream of knowing that I can support and not be stressed out and that I can lose money, make money, and my life doesn't really change. That, I think, is what this world of opportunity provides is the ability to create that freedom of financial freedom. And obviously, the fact that, you know, here you can be who you want to be. The fact that, you know, you don't have to, you know, align with a certain political or religious view that you're not prosecuted for thinking and looking a certain way, like the way that you are in other countries or in other cultures. Obviously, it's still really politically polarized here. And, you know, racism and prejudice and all that stuff still exists, but it's, you know, much better place to live than anywhere in the world because all these things still exist everywhere else. And, like, if you're going to exist in something like this, you want to do it here, because the whole world is jacked up.

Speaker A: If someone here wanted to make a million dollars, that that was their dream in life, what would you recommend to them?

Speaker B: What most people fail to do in life is find what they're good at, what they're passionate about, whatever that is. And so if you are so fortunate to explore different things and find what you're good at, what you're fortunate to be like, some people are terrible at math, and they insist to try to pursue some form of math career or something with numbers. Well, if you're a creative, then go find what in that creative world you're good at. Are you good at music? Are you good at writing? Are you good at designing clothes? Are you designing, painting? Different things? I think that people sometimes grow up with the mindset of, like, this is what my parents did or this is what society wants me to do. And don't ever truly explore what they're good at. And if you just found what you're, every human can be, can make incredible things if you just focus on what you're good at. Like, I can tell you that no matter how much I paint, it's always going to look bad. Like, no matter how much I draw, it's going to be terrible. I can't make myself be a Grammy singer or actor, whatever. I can't sing. So no matter how many lessons I take singing, I'm never going to be a professional singer. But if I would desire to be a singer and I waste my time forever doing it, I'm always going to be living out of my car. If I have a car, I'll be living on someone's couch. And there's so many people that continue to do it, and it's like, dude, you can sing, but not professionally. You're probably better at writing lyrics. So if you just focus on simply writing lyrics and you were a great lyrical person and then you sold those, you could be one of the greatest lyrical artists or, you know, lyrical, you know, writers in the world, but you're so focused about wanting to be the singer, not being the writer. And so, like, I think that there's so many things like that in life that if people just found what they're good at and focused on it and just worked hard at it, you know, anyone can really become a millionaire because, like, the world is so big and the markets are so massive that, you know, all you gotta do is get a dollar from a million people out of like 8 billion. I mean, like, if you start narrowing it down to that, like, if you just walk around every single day asking for a dollar and you saved it and not wasted it, like, you can get to a million dollars pretty easily and it's hard to believe that, but, like, you can actually do it in a matter of couple of years. So, like, imagine if you actually worked and actually worked hard and actually, you know, put it and invested it and use the resources. Like, it's actually, you know, not that difficult. I think the hardest part is figuring out, like, what is it that you have about you, your personality, your skillset that can actually get you there? Because you can waste your time in a lot of ways that, you know, that don't get you anywhere with all.

Speaker A: The time you're racing and working and all these things. Do you have any regrets or what regrets have you had?

Speaker B: I think that some of the things that I wish I had more time to do would say, like, you know, spend more time with family and family is everything, but at the same time, I have these desires and these things I want to achieve in life. And I've always been super busy, I've always been super driven, and I've always been excited to wake up and go to work every day just as I am excited to come home. And sometimes the work day extends more than it should. Trying to find a balance or a better balance is probably one of the things that I'd say, like, you know, I kind of wish it was easier on me. And what I struggle with is that I know that if I give up my drive to work and achieve things and all that, I'd probably be equally or, you know, more unhappy about, like, not having been productive and that could bring stress. And so, like, you know, that's being able to find a balance when you're as busy for everything, I think it's a challenge, but I think I try to do as good of a job, and I'm conscious about it. So I try to be as present as I can. But sometimes I can be at a birthday party for my daughter, and I'm on the phone texting for work stuff, and I'm present there, and I am. And in my head, I am. But people also see me on the phone. And so I think that being able to be more present is one of the things that I think I'm trying to be more conscious about. And maybe having that been present in certain special moments or instances in the past might be one of the things that I would say, like, I probably regret I could have been more present. It's a challenge, and I think it's something that I've always struggled with, is I literally would work 24/7 if I could.

Speaker A: Your children were born here. It sounds like with a lot of hard work and privilege that you've been able to create yourself. What's the message you wanna leave for them?

Speaker B: Just don't take things for granted. And it's really just learn the value of. Of things in life. Just because, you know, you've been provided something doesn't mean that it's not worth something that, you know, that you have to work for. So in the way that, you know, we're doing our best to raise them is, you know, finding ways that they feel they have to earn things, earn their iPad time, earn their ice cream. Like, hey, you don't get ice cream unless you eat dessert. And they'll go to bed crying because they didn't eat their food. I'm sorry. Dinner. Yeah, like, you don't get dessert if you don't eat your dinner. And, like, there's many days where they go to bed crying because they didn't get the dessert. Well, you didn't eat your dinner. And so, like, I think that there's a lot of things that, you know, that I'm trying to do to ensure that they don't grow up privileged or over privileged. And it's kind of hard to, like, prevent it from being privileged. Like, every day I show up with a different car, my son's like, hey, like, you know, like, the other day, he told me, like, hey, dad, you know, when you die, I'm gonna keep your car. So I'm like, all right, so I appreciate that. Thank you. You probably will, because, like, that's what the wheel is gonna say. But I'm just saying, finding ways to help them not take life for granted and things for granted is a challenge. And I think that we at least do our best to try to ensure that they understand that you have to earn things in life and that things are just not given to you.

Speaker A: If you like this conversation and you want to watch another interview I did with the billionaire founder of Kinkos, check out this video right up here. And if you haven't already, make sure to like and subscribe. Uncle Noah loves you, and I'll see you out there.