Tie A String Around Your Tooth And Slam The Door

Lessons in success from my 8 year old son.

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Hey, everyone. This is Russell Brunson, and I want to welcome you to a late night “Marketing in Your Car.”

I’m actually headed back home. Todd is in town. We launched Click Funnels last week. It’s been a smashing success, and now we’re doing the other side of the software business, which is keeping up with customer support [laughs], and features, and bugs, and all of that fun kind of stuff. It’s been a lot of fun. He flew in today, and we’re going to be hanging out this week, cleaning it up, and making it perfect so that we can do our big, big launch here. Hopefully within the next twenty or thirty days or so – we’ll plan that out tomorrow, but I’m super excited for that.

I wanted to do a podcast today, because I wanted to share a story that happened this afternoon with my son, Dallin. Dallin is the little entrepreneur in our family, for sure, and he’s always trying to figure out how to make more money. He’s doing yard sales and lemonade stands and all sorts of stuff.

Yesterday, he told my wife, Collette, that he wanted to open up a bank account. He has a couple of dollars, and she’s like, “Well you have to have more money to open a bank account.” So he’s like, “Well I need to make more money so I can open a bank account,” so that’s his mindset. We were driving home from church today, and he had this idea. He said, “Hey, mom and dad, if I lose a tooth today, then the tooth fairy can give me some money, and I can use that money to open a bank account.” I said, “Yeah, but how are you going to lose a tooth?” He said, “What I’m going to do is I’m going to get a string, and I’m going to tie it around my tooth, and I’ll tie it to a door handle, and I’ll slam the door, and my tooth will get pulled out.”

We kind of laughed and giggled, and that’s where I thought it was going to end. Fast forward thirty minutes later, we’re in the house, and my wife and I are making lunch for the kids and getting everything ready for that, and I keep hearing the door slam upstairs. I totally forgot about what’s happening, and so I’m yelling upstairs, “Quit slamming the door,” and then Bowen yells down, “It’s Ellie slamming it. She’s trying to pull out Dallin’s tooth.” [laughs] I was like, “Oh man, hold on,” and so like any good dad would do, I went and grabbed my phone, because I wanted to get this on tape [laughs], so I grabbed my phone, and I ran upstairs. He’d gotten the ribbon from wrapping paper on a Christmas box, and he’d tied a little knot around his tooth, and then he’d tied it to the door. All of the kids were up there trying to figure out how to make Dallin some money, and Dallin was literally trying to pull his tooth out so he could make money so that he could open up a savings account.

What was so funny was he was standing on the wrong side of the door, so when he would slam it, the string would actually get shorter instead of pulling it, and two of the times they were doing it, they were perplexed. They were like, “Why is this not working? Why is it not working?” Then they were both like, “Dallin, you’ve got to be on this side of the door.” I’m filming this whole thing on my phone, so Dallin goes on the inside, and they start slamming the door from the inside trying to pull his tooth out [laughs]. They would slam it, and sometimes the ribbon on his tooth would pop off, and other times it would start sliding through his teeth and not pull all of the way out. Anyway, I got, probably five or six times, them slamming the door and trying to lose his tooth. I thought it was really funny. Then I had them stop so that we could come down and have lunch.

I started thinking about it. I started thinking about this little kid, right? My little Dallin – he’s eight years old, and he’s got in his mind, he needs money.—““I need to figure out how to make some money.” There’re a lot of things he can do. He can do chores. He knows he can make some money doing that, but thought, “A quick way I can make money is to rip one of my teeth out.” Instead of thinking about it and how it’s going to hurt and all of these things, he just went and did it – just got out there and tied a string to his tooth, tied it to a doorknob, and started slamming the door trying to rip his tooth out.

I was proud of him, not because I thought it was the smartest idea to do, but I just look at how many entrepreneurs I have a chance to work with and how many people I work with. Most of them want something, and they want money. They want whatever, but then when you lay out, “Here’s the steps you need to do to accomplish that goal and get that thing you want,” they don’t do it. They’ll buy course after course after course, and they’ll learn, and they’ll hear, and they’ll have ideas and all of these things in their head, but they’re not willing to step up and fricking tie a string to their tooth and slam the door.

I think that that’s one of the biggest problems with people today. I’m so proud of Dallin for doing that – for getting off his butt, tying a string to his tooth, and slamming the door trying to make some money. I think that for any of you guys that are listening to this who are on that fence right now, and you’ve been in this learning cycle, and you’re learning, and you’re learning, and you’re enjoying this learning cycle, it’s time to get off your butt, tie a string to your tooth, and slam the door. I really think that mindset, that attitude, that thing that Dallin has, whatever that is, and I’m proud of him as my son for doing that, but it’s what all of us need.

I look at the things in my life that have been successful, and a lot of it is because of that – because I’ve just gone out there and tried to do that thing. If you’re struggling, this is your call to action. This is your time to get off your butt, tie a string to your tooth, and slam the door, and go out there and find these things. Just do it. Do what it takes to make money. It’s going to be painful. It might cost you some money. You have to get out of your comfort zone. You’re going to have to stretch probably further than you’ve ever stretched before in your life. You’re going to have to have some sleepless nights. You’re going to have to risk some of your own hard-earned money, and you’re going to have to be able to do a lot of work to reach your dream and to have what you want, but it’s worth it, I promise you guys. It is so worth it.

Anyway, that’s my message for you guys today. I thought it was kind of a fun story. If my eight-year-old son, to earn fifty cents or a dollar, whatever the tooth fairy would bring him [laughs], he would have done it, is willing to tie a string on his tooth – on a tooth that’s not even loose [laughs], and try to rip it out to make a buck, what are you willing to do? What are you willing to do to change your life? If you’re not willing to do something, then you’re probably going to keep being it at the spot you’re at right now, so figure out what you’re willing to do, get off of your butt, and go do it. That’s my message for tonight.

Thanks, you guys. I’m sure you’re going to be hearing more from me this week. I’m back from vacation now, and we’re having some fun rolling out the new company. I’m excited to be sharing all of the little behind-the-scenes things that are happening with you guys. Thanks, again, and I’ll talk to you soon.