On this day, exactly 17 years ago…

I was 19 years young, in jail, my first son had been born (he was 36 days old at this point…

I had only saw him on pictures and during visitation and I wasn’t 100% clear on when I would actually be released to go home.

Fast forward a few years, and now I can barely recognize my life.

I have amazing family, friends & clients (whom we’ve helped generate over $100M in sales), a network where I can get access to almost anything and make any connections with a few calls (I’m often called “The Plugs Plug) and have a life usually reserved for professional athletes and entertainers.

Often times I’m asked, “Marquel, how did this all happen?”

Well what I want to do in this post is give you 36 (since that’s what I turned today) Life Lessons from the first 35 chapters of my book called, “Marquel’s Extraordinary Life”

(which is not only still being written, but just getting started).

Side Note: I’m not going to expound on each one of them however if you want me to explain any of them, comment below and I got you.

Also, I never proclaim to have everything figured out. I’m always learning daily and that’s one of the most exciting parts about my life.

Here goes…

1. Be intentional with family time and experiences

Often times as ambitious entrepreneurs we can get so caught up on the goal and setting our families up for life, we can miss out on enjoying them now. What we think they want, they often just want our time.

Also experiences are priceless. For our family, going forward, we’re doing less Christmas gifts and instead going to bring in Christmas in a different country each year. Exposure is everything.

2. Your kids aren’t always going to ask you to play with them

They grow up so fast, let’s not take it for granted. They want our presence more than presents 🎁 I think them and I get the most joy simply going for a walk, playing outside, watching cartoons, playing hide n seek or just talking

3. Just because you’re great at something doesn’t mean you have to do it. 
4. Don’t ask how can I figure this out, ask who can I hire to help me with this.

5. There’s a difference between being an entrepreneur and a business owner.

6. Carve out intentional time to do nothing but THINK

7. Books are the cheat code to life

You can get a person’s life lessons in ONE book for less than $30 in most cases.

8. There’s only two types of decisions: Emotional or Data Driven

9. Everything is Figure-outable

10. No one cares about your story of struggle and the challenges you went through until you WIN!

11. Black history didn’t begin with slavery

There’s so many books that give proof on this. Our ancestors were all Kings, Queens and Geniuses that created pretty much everything. My guy Freddie Ra and his company Urban Intellectuals has great resources to help you and your kids learn more on this area.

12. God is in me!

This totally freed me from the bondage of religion where it taught that God was somewhere else outside of me looking down keeping tabs of what I did right and wrong to condemn me to hell.

13. Its profitable being you

Once I stopped thinking I had to be, talk or look a certain way, everything changed.

When you’re authentically you, there is no competition

14. I get what my mom meant when she used to say, “Russell’s Are Leaders”

15. The output of the CEO is the output of the team

16. The Rule Of One

Focus On Serving One Dream Client, Solving One Specific Problem For Them, With One Godfather Offer, Using One Funnel, One Traffic Source, Send Out One Email Per Day, Give Yourself One Year & That Leads To One Million

DISCLAIMER: I’m not saying that you’re going make a million by following that, this is just what I’ve seen work. 🙂

17. People don’t buy based on price

They buy based on how fast what you offer can close the gap between where they are and where they want to go.

18. You have to spend some of the money

As your income grows, don’t be afraid to invest it back in the business. If you don’t, you will just give it to Uncle Sam anyway.

19. Every problem is a systems problem

20. The key is the 2 millimeter shifts not in massive transformations from one book, coach, video or event.

21. It’s easier to make a lot of money in a little bit of time than it is to make a little money in a lot of time

22. “Don’t condemn if you see a person has a dirty glass of water Just show them the clean glass of water you have. When they inspect it you won’t have to say yours is better.”

Literally just heard this earlier as I was listening to Malcom X’s biography (he said this is one one of the greatest lessons he learned from Elijah Muhammad)!

23. Children don’t lack capacity, they lack teachers!

The sooner we start teaching them, the better.

24. Time is NOT money! Time is infinitely more valuable that money

25. Increase your frustration quotient

The higher levels of frustration you’re able to deal with, the higher levels of success you’ll accomplish. Most people quit at the point of frustration.

26. A CEOs role is to “do” as little as possible and main role is to “THINK”

27. Focus on the 95/5 Principle

Only 5% of what you do accounts for 95% of your results.

28. Take personal responsibility for everything that happens in your life, regardless if you perceive it as good or as bad (notice I said “perceive”)

29. Everything in life happens perfectly!

30. You can only connect the dots looking backward not looking forward.

Most people try to make sense of everything going forward and it doesn’t work like that.

31. Events are always transformational

This is why we have so many events. One being The Rapid Business Growth Virtual Experience. You can get an early bird ticket ’til TONIGHT at midnight by going to http://RBGBLive.com

32. A well run business is a boring business

Often times as entrepreneurs we get addicted to the chaos, so when things are working and running smoothly, we look for a problem to solve and often times create one just so we can say we’re “busy”

33. Focus 50% on Where You’re Going (The Mountain) and 50% on where you’ve come from.

Focusing too much on either can lead to depression.

34. Saying negative things about yourself is bullying yourself

I heard my 7 year old, Mj, say this earlier this month and it was a bar!

35. If mindset and biology got into a fight, biology will alway win.

No matter how many affirmations you say, personal development books you read, vision boards you create or “ra-ra events” you attend it will not outweigh you eating right, drinking enough water or getting adequate sleep and exercise.

36. Success isn’t a destination. It’s have a big vision and waking up daily working toward that vision.

I have soooooooo many more, however I’ll stop at 36 as promised.

Which of these were most valuable for you and what questions do you have?