Episode 29: Relationships, Vitality, Profound Spirituality, and The True Keys To Success W/Mark Yegge
February 13, 2023
Welcome to the 29th episode of the Self-Employment Success Podcast. My guest on today’s podcast is Mark Yegge. Mark is the founder of Light Circle, an exclusive mastermind community dedicated to illuminating lives and fostering deep connections among growth-minded individuals.
Welcome to the 29th episode of the Self-Employment Success Podcast. My guest on today’s podcast is Mark Yegge. Mark is the founder of Light Circle, an exclusive mastermind community dedicated to illuminating lives and fostering deep connections among growth-minded individuals. Light Circle is a space where people come together to cultivate personal growth, abundant living, and a sense of profound spirituality, through its foundational principles of Pure Relationships, Youthful Health, Magical Self-Connection, Balanced Abundance, Fulfilling Travel, and Profound Spirituality. In this episode Mark explains how he began his journey of understanding the intricacies of both wealth and personal development at a young age. As a testament to his growth mindset, he founded a Wall Street software company that later became instrumental in introducing after-hours trading. Mark's entrepreneurial spirit saw him gracefully retire at 39, turning his company into a $30-million enterprise. This venture was recognized with multiple accolades such as the Small Business of the Year, Florida 100, and the Inc Magazine Fast 500. His personal achievements didn't go unnoticed, being recognized twice by Deloitte as an Entrepreneur of the Year finalist. Yet, you won’t hear about all that in this episode necessarily. Because beyond the business realm, Mark delves deep into the art of living a balanced life. Today, as he manages several investment funds and educates 7- and 8-figure investors, he also emphasizes the significance of balanced abundance in all spheres of life through his community success and learning platform, Light Circle. Throughout this episode we talk in depth about the heart work it took for him to come to the realization that money alone would not buy his happiness. Mark explains how he got to a place where he sold all that he had in order to radically build the life he actually found fulfilling. How he had to navigate relationships in that season that thought he was crazy. And how he believes that if you want to go fast in life, you should go alone, but if you want to go far, go together- because quality relationships are the keys to a successful life. So with that introduction, I hope you enjoy this episode of the Self-Employment Success Podcast with Mark Yegge.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Leland Gross (00:01.43)
All right, welcome, Mark, to the Self-Employment Success Podcast. Thanks for being here.
Mark Yegge (00:05.789)
Great to be here, Leland.
Leland Gross (00:08.406)
For those of you who might be listening and not watching this episode Mark is actually in Greece He just told me a minute ago that he was biking dirt roads trying to find Wi-Fi for this episode and I feel like that is just a picture of alright, this guy has achieved some level of success in life that he is he is adventuring and Calling into the podcast from the other side of the world It's a first for the podcast
Mark Yegge (00:31.613)
Look, I love it. You know, you've set aside some time for us to have this conversation for your audience. And by the way, everybody, thanks for tuning in. But I figured I've got to do whatever it takes to get on this thing and not have to reschedule. So that's probably one of the themes that we should talk about is you got to do whatever it takes to make it happen in life, you know?
Leland Gross (00:50.662)
Yeah, that's a great honestly, that's a great principle. So Mark, start off, tell us a little bit about what you're up to today, the current project you're working on and kind of where it stands. It's really interesting. So I'm excited for people to hear about it. But I'll let you kind of take from there. Tell us about Light Circle.
Mark Yegge (01:08.401)
Yeah, thank you. Yeah. So, um, I'm part of a movement called light circle. It's a, it's a, it's basically a mastermind community. If y'all know what that is, it's a group of like-minded people, all moving in the same direction. And, and, and this is my seventh mastermind that I've created. I've created mastermind for millionaire men. I've created masterminds for soulful, successful people. I've created masterminds for people that want more success out of life. This is the culmination.
of a lot of my life's work. So I'm really excited about it. You know, it's just kicking off right about now. And it's, to me, it's a life changer. Because have you ever had something really happen to you, Leland, and you've been really successful, and you turn to somebody and you tell them, and you wanna tell them about it? Or maybe even tell them about it, and they go, yeah, easy for you, Mr. Rich Guy. Or, you know, easy for you, you've got it coming, you had it coming so easy.
Leland Gross (02:01.002)
Mmm
Mark Yegge (02:02.025)
Or, you know, you just don't want to make them feel worse, right? So you don't even tell them. So you mute yourself. And I think so often what we need to do is we have, need to have people around us that are going to celebrate with us, right? They're going to cheer us on. They're going to encourage us. They're going to maybe give us some tough love sometimes to make sure that we, you know, set out to achieve the things that we want to achieve. So it's a community. It's an educational spot where we take 2,500 years of knowledge every single year and distill it down into a...
Leland Gross (02:12.706)
Hmm
Leland Gross (02:21.783)
Mm.
Mark Yegge (02:32.017)
digestible chunks where you can learn things about money. You can learn things about relationships, health and vitality, travel, spirituality, soul, time, these kinds of things so that you're not.
you're not at the mercy of this programming that we have in this Western society, right? You know, we're programmed by the TV and our social media and our friends. And, you know, we think we have to keep chasing the dollar, right? And at the end of the day, and I felt the same thing, like I, when I started out, I was like, I want to learn how to, you know, be really, really rich. That's, that's the most important thing. Why? Because that's the models that I had around me, like be really, really rich, right? Lifestyles of Rich and Famous was this old show that I used to watch. And I was, I used to
Leland Gross (02:48.628)
Mmm.
Leland Gross (02:55.702)
Mmm.
Leland Gross (03:09.069)
Yeah.
Mark Yegge (03:13.309)
program my unconscious mind to be really, really rich. And I realized, once you get rich, there's a lot more to life than having a bunch of money. Who needs a bunch of paper stacked on the table with a bunch of dead presidents on it? At the end of the day, you need people around you that could celebrate with you, that could be on a journey with you that are gonna be there every step of the way. So that's kind of the long answer to your very short question about what light circle is. And we can go from there and talk about anything you want.
Leland Gross (03:25.024)
Mmm.
Leland Gross (03:41.342)
Yeah, I love that. And I love, I think you're right. There is this programming, the quote unquote American dream so much. I mean, even just all the, and we're not going to get political in this conversation, but all the like 1% versus haves and have nots, just that whole like theme that's progressed through society is so rooted in if I just have more money, we'll be okay. And obviously if you don't have money, that's challenging. Like money is a powerful tool, but
That is not the key to life. And I tell my clients that if you come and you work with me and more money is your goal, that's your sole goal, I just want more money, you're gonna fire me, you're gonna fire any financial professional because you're never gonna have enough. But if you have a dream of, hey, I wanna start a business, I wanna have more time with my kids, I wanna have more freedom, I wanna have, you know, fill in the blank, I wanna work, I wanna take off half the year and be able to afford that, great, now we can use it as a tool. And that's where that...
Mark Yegge (04:25.489)
That's right.
Leland Gross (04:41.438)
It should be one of your tools, but I like that Light Circle is also touching on not just money, but health, wellness, vitality, spirituality, relationships, all these resources we have in our life to really foster a life of abundance, which is really amazing. So I'm intrigued because I know you mentioned when you were younger, you were training, the way you said it was you were programming your unconscious mind to...
focus on money. And I know you've had a really successful, well, it was just successful, but also successful from the world's eyes, career. So tell us about your journey to get to where you are with Light Circle, kind of what life has looked like that's led you up to this point.
Mark Yegge (05:29.029)
Well, there's a lot of years I've got behind me. Hopefully, fewer years behind me than I have ahead of me. But life has been great. And so I learned a long time ago from my dad, who was my role model. And he taught me a couple of things when I was young. First of all, he had a bookshelf full of personal development books, things like The Magic of Thinking Big, How to Win Friends and Influence People, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie, and tons and tons of books. And I just...
Leland Gross (05:35.584)
Mm.
Mark Yegge (05:59.729)
I had a little bit of a self-esteem issue when I was a kid. I got bullied quite a bit. And so I was looking for answers and I found the answer in a Dale Carnegie book when I was like 12 or 13 years old called How to Win Friends and Influence People. And that Dale Carnegie book, in fact I'm a Dale Carnegie instructor today because that thread has kind of woven through my life. It's all about human relations. It's not about money, right? Money's a magnifier. I'll get back to that in a second, but.
Leland Gross (06:16.704)
Mmm.
Mark Yegge (06:27.813)
you know, it makes you more of who you already are. If you're a jerk, you're just going to be a rich jerk, right? If you're a generous person, you're going to be a rich, generous person. That's more benevolent because it's a magnifier of who you already are. But I started to learn at that time, my dad also showed me about the stock market and I started to learn and grow into the stock market. And I even taught my stock broker back, you know, in the seventies and eighties. What I was doing. It's this, it's this thing that I do today called the cashflow machine.
Leland Gross (06:32.348)
Mmm.
Mark Yegge (06:56.389)
It's how to make income from us from stocks. And we use options to create income. And so throughout my college career, my high school career past that, I've always been involved in the stock market and I've always really loved personal development at the same time. So there's kind of those two things. So I've, I've probably, I figured I've read about 8,000 books and you know, a lot of them are on money. Like I think I've probably read all of the money books that are out there. Of course, everybody's writing a book these days, but
Leland Gross (07:24.654)
Hehehe
Mark Yegge (07:24.849)
You know, I've read all the big ones, right? And I've also been involved in personal development, right? I've been to all the Tony Robbins events. I've been to his private island in Fiji. I've spent time learning about Jim Rohn and Brian Tracy and all these distant mentors, I call them. And to me, it's kind of brought me to where we are today. I run hedge funds. I have a mastermind group where I teach people how to invest using my system. But at the end of the day, that's just one dimension of what we do.
And that's that theme that we're running here. It's not just about the money. And it's really, I remember hearing that from people. It's not about the money. You've got to be happy. You've got to have a great relationship. You have to have a full-routed life. And it didn't land with me because I didn't have the money. So when you don't have it, it's a lot of leverage, right? And so I just did whatever it took to get it. And then I got there. I had the planes and the houses on the water and the M3 convertible. And I had the stuff.
Leland Gross (07:57.067)
Mmm
Leland Gross (08:08.278)
Mmm.
Mark Yegge (08:20.497)
And I was like, okay, I got the stuff. And I look around me and I'm like, that's not all there is, right? I don't have the freedom. I now have my slave to the stuff. I have payments, right? I've got to maintain all these things. And so then I started to realize it really is more about freedom for me. I can have the stuff. Okay, great, check, I've gotten it. But now what else is there to life? If you're not healthy, it doesn't matter how much money you have.
Leland Gross (08:21.3)
Hmm.
Leland Gross (08:27.379)
Mmm.
Leland Gross (08:31.053)
Mmm.
Mark Yegge (08:48.261)
If you don't have a great relationship with your friends, your family, your, your spouse, your significant other, you know, there's not a lot of people that you can share your life with. If you don't have youthful health and vitality, if you don't have profound spirituality in your life and maybe travel is not your thing, but it's my thing. So I kind of think you really grow at your edges when you can travel. And then finally, magical self connection. If you love yourself, if you know who you are inside, then you can show that to the outside world and other people can.
Leland Gross (09:08.832)
Mmm.
Mark Yegge (09:17.693)
can be allowed to love you and then you can be allowed to love other people because there's a confidence and there's a connection there. So those are the principles of Light Circle and that's the journey to what's gotten me here. It's kind of a parallel track between personal development and learning about how to achieve more in the money department.
Leland Gross (09:37.022)
Yeah, okay, so there's a lot there. But I think you might be, one of my takeaways is you might be the youngest Dale Carnegie reader of all time. I don't know anybody who reads Dale Carnegie at 12. But I think that's really profound. I mean, his principles work, like we know that. He's talking about life in the heart. So you kind of take two trains who are going in parallel directions in some ways. Like the...
Mark Yegge (09:39.869)
Okay.
Mark Yegge (09:49.182)
Yeah.
Leland Gross (10:07.338)
radical work on yourself, personal development, while also, I mean, running hedge funds, running, like, people, regular listeners won't know what ECN is. But I mean, that was really impressive back in 2005. You have this very impressive, quote unquote, world resume of, you know, owning a broker dealer, running that, being a financial planner, just you, you achieved the, the
success in quotes that so many people seek after and that you were seeking after. If I just have the money, if I just have this stuff, then I'm okay, then I'm happy, and then I can, you know, live my life. But then once you had that, it was, well, wait a minute, why am I still not satisfied? Why am I still not quote unquote okay?
And it was because we were missing these other elements. And I think that theme, I mean, that is something I could talk on for days and days and days because I see it all the time. I mean, my whole job is helping people with their finances and everyone is running after that. And you see people run after the house, the country club, the boat, all these things that feel like new toys, new accolades, new shiny objects.
And I think there's this innate piece of us that says, you know, if I can have those things, then I'll be okay. And then I can have, then my life will be fun. Then I'll, you know, fill in the blank. And I've just never seen that actually work in real life. I feel like everyone gets there and that alone doesn't fulfill them. There's this need, like you're talking about, of youthful vitality, of deep spirituality, of relationships. My wife and I...
really prioritize our faith and our relationships with our family and friends and really trying to foster deep-rooted connection because that helps us out in our marriage, that helps us out in our life. Like you said, we can share our life not only with each other, but with others around us, both the beautiful things and the really painful parts of life. Like, I just think there's some magical piece to that of like, no matter what you believe about
Leland Gross (12:29.394)
life and faith were all put here and we weren't put here alone. You know, like we were put here to be in rich community with each other. So I guess speak to that. When we were emailing before this, something that was brought up was this idea of if you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to I'm going to butcher the quote. If you want to go well or if you want to finish well, what? If you want to go far, that's it.
Mark Yegge (12:34.057)
Thank you.
Mark Yegge (12:56.073)
if you want to go far.
Leland Gross (13:00.037)
go with someone. So if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with someone. So can you speak to that?
Mark Yegge (13:06.705)
Well, I've changed it. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with light circle. So it's now my quote. I've just, I've stolen it. Um, I'm good to trademark on. I don't think anybody's trademarked in anyway. Um, but yeah, that's, that's really the key. And it goes back to that concept. Like, have you ever gone someplace and I go, I travel all the time. I've been to 62 countries and my goal is like, I got 38 more to go to be able to do the check. It's just a silly goal, but I want to do a hundred countries.
Leland Gross (13:14.774)
Put that, put that trademark on there.
Leland Gross (13:20.374)
Ha ha ha!
Leland Gross (13:34.222)
Hehehe
Mark Yegge (13:35.777)
But you know, you can go to a country like last year, I went to six Baltic countries, Albania and Macedonia and, you know, north of Greece. I just took my motorcycle and drove all around him. And, you know, you get back and you want to share what you experienced. Like I experienced some really cool stuff, but everybody's got their life too. And, and, and you don't want to make them feel less than. And so.
Leland Gross (13:55.191)
Mmm.
Leland Gross (13:59.586)
Mmm.
Mark Yegge (14:00.005)
I don't know about you, but like I have these great pictures on my phone, but I'm the one that is the one that gets to see them. And you don't, okay, sit down and let's go through my vacation, my last, you know, 12 days. And I, you know, I know you got stuff going on, but you're going to look at my pictures, right? So we don't get to, to share very often. Now, when you're in a group that is like celebrating that, right? Cause I'm going to go off on this little tangent.
Here's what happens in our Western society. So you're right. I had all the trappings of the Western society. I had the boat, the house on the water with, you know, the airplane, all the stuff and a beautiful woman that didn't want to travel with me. So what did I really have? So I actually sat down and I got really clear. Leland, I got really clear about what I wanted in my life. And before that, I wasn't really clear. I thought I wanted all those things. But when you actually sit down and you, and you go inside and you get clear on your vision.
Leland Gross (14:40.608)
Mmm.
Mark Yegge (14:57.149)
then you realize what is your vision. Like is your vision your choice or is it the programming that we've gotten all of our lives? And that's the first step is that you've got to really get clear and make a decision and then have commitment to follow through. So my commitment after the decision was sell everything. So I sold everything. I sold my car, I sold my houses, I had this incredible piano, I sold that. I sold everything so that I could start living this life around the world.
Leland Gross (15:03.895)
Mmm.
Leland Gross (15:14.677)
Mm.
Mark Yegge (15:25.149)
And, um, and, and that was really the impetus is that I wanted to make that change that the downside of that change is that now I had to find people to go with me and everybody's got their lives, right? They've got their anchors, they've got their kids, they've got their jobs. They've got their houses, their mortgage payments. And so now it gets a little lonely on the other side of it because you want to be able to share your life with somebody. So that goes back to that concept of magical self connection.
Leland Gross (15:36.938)
Mm.
Mark Yegge (15:53.681)
You've got to get really good with yourself, being with yourself. I love being with myself. I love to create. I love to spend time by myself. And I also love to be with others and laugh with them and share with them and things like that. So long answer to this, to this concept, but it's, it's a balance, right? It's a balance between being, being good with yourself and then being able to share your life with other people that means something to you.
Leland Gross (16:01.589)
Mmm.
Mark Yegge (16:19.685)
and that you mean something to them and then everybody wins and everybody kind of goes forward together.
Leland Gross (16:24.87)
Mm. So that is a radical change of life for you to like go in, get crystal clear. And I think that is something that's easier said than done. Right? Like that is really hard. Hard work is like the hardest work you can do to really like get honest with yourself to get. And sometimes it takes like third party circumstances for you to hit a place where you have to.
Mark Yegge (16:31.081)
Sure.
Mark Yegge (16:38.11)
Sure.
Mark Yegge (16:43.186)
Yeah.
Leland Gross (16:53.854)
You know, I think that's why some people, when it comes to negative things like addiction, it's like you have to hit rock bottom before you can get clear with yourself and make a change. So what was that process for you? How did you just decide, I'm going to sit down and get crystal clear about these things? I just think that that's a profound thing to do that people talk about, but rarely actually ever are able to engage in well. Because you're also blinded. It's like how do you unprogram?
Mark Yegge (17:18.621)
Yeah, yeah.
Leland Gross (17:23.578)
unconscious programming if you're the one that's programmed, right? It takes an innate...
Mark Yegge (17:28.637)
That's right.
Leland Gross (17:33.386)
honesty with yourself, critical thinking, vulnerability to be wrong. Like you have to be willing to unlearn things, which I think is one of the key principles of being able to learn things is to be able to actually unlearn other things. And so how did you get there? What was that process like for you?
Mark Yegge (17:53.821)
So it was a combination of a few things. Number one, it was a feeling, right? Sometimes it's not on paper, you know, the Ben Franklin thing, you know, what's good and what's bad lying down the middle and you, you know, whichever one weighs more is the one you decide. Sometimes it's just a feeling. And you don't get that feeling if you're always watching Netflix and football and on social media and things like that, because you're always preoccupied. And so pretty soon you realize, you know, hey, it's Christmas time again. How could it be Christmas time again? Like...
Leland Gross (18:04.269)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Yegge (18:22.493)
How did this year go by? I better make some New Year's resolutions. And then you do, and then January 15, you drop those. And so you have to really have that feeling inside. That's what I did anyway. I had a feeling inside that I was like, gosh, I got all this stuff around me. I don't have anybody to share it with. Or the people that I have to share it with are all busy doing their thing. I need a new tribe of people to go with me. I've created those in the past.
Leland Gross (18:38.534)
Mmm.
Mark Yegge (18:48.761)
And then, so that was the feeling, but I'm also, I'm also a student of meditation. And some of the most successful mentors that I have are total believers in it. And I'm like, all right, you sit around and you say, Ohm or whatever. Come on, come on. Really? Is it really that good? And then I started a study. I studied with Deepak Chopra and I started, started to, you know, really get into the practice of just getting clear and quiet. And when you get clear and quiet, it.
Leland Gross (18:53.941)
Mmm.
Mark Yegge (19:16.721)
That's the, that's the exercise, right? It's, it's very difficult for our Western minds to get here and quiet. It's called the monkey mind. You got stuff going on all the time. Little monkeys jumping around in there. As soon as you clear your mind, something else comes in there and you're like, get out of there. But that, that's the, that's the, that's the exercise of getting clear. And then when you get clear, things start to get clear.
Leland Gross (19:38.795)
Mmm.
Mark Yegge (19:39.133)
when you create the vacuum, right? Nature abhors a vacuum. So all of a sudden you create the vacuum, your brain actually has a chance to relax. And now the real stuff starts to come through. And if you can be disciplined enough to kind of just sit with yourself and listen and not judge, you start to get some really serious answers. So I know it sounds funny, and I'm a Western guy, right? Like I'm in the programming, but.
Leland Gross (19:57.754)
Mmm.
Mark Yegge (20:06.533)
At the same time, I, you know, I'll throw on a candle and I'll put on some decent, you know, classical music and I'll just sit quietly for 20 minutes and just think about whatever comes in or all clear and it'll come in. And if you just get into the practice of doing that, it doesn't, it's not, it's not like every time you get these epiphanies, like, Oh my God, I'm going to change your world or I'm going to write this classical music or something. Um, but you, you get to do, um,
Leland Gross (20:14.083)
Mmm
Leland Gross (20:30.606)
Ahem.
Mark Yegge (20:33.937)
you get to experience some really profound changes in your heart, in your mind, in your soul. And that's kind of where it works for me.
Leland Gross (20:39.65)
Yeah.
I think that's powerful. And I think while some people would hear meditation and hear like Eastern, which I mean, obviously that that's because that's where it comes from. It's in like, if you look at every major world faith, it's there somewhere. Like, even in, you know, Christianity, it's contemplative prayer, like we all call it something different. But there's something to, like you said, just slowing down. And it's hard. I, I'm like terrible at it. I totally have the monkeys.
Mark Yegge (20:56.253)
Yes.
Leland Gross (21:12.066)
All right, now get that out of here. Then like 10 minutes later, I'm like, oh my gosh, I've already gone down this other rabbit hole I didn't even realize. I'm like unaware of what my thoughts are doing. But I do think that there's something to that. I think when you look at all these different ways of full life, there's themes, right? There's the theme of love. Every world.
Mark Yegge (21:22.025)
It's okay.
Leland Gross (21:37.658)
major world faith talks about the power and importance of love, of living in community, of being unified with people and in right relationship, of slowing down, listening to something greater than yourself. And I think that that, at least in my own life, is also really powerful. But I just really commend you because I do think there's a lot of talk these days about doing, going inside, doing the work.
listening to quote unquote your truth, but it's really hard to actually do it. And if you don't do it well, then you're just running around rampant like my way or the highway.
Mark Yegge (22:18.605)
Yeah. And you know, it's really hard is if you don't have the right people around you. And at the time that I made some of those decisions, which was going on like eight years ago now, something like that, you know, everybody wanted to judge and give me their opinion because they don't want to lose you. Like everybody saw me selling everything that I had and deciding to go around the world and, you know, start traveling, experiencing new cultures. And they were like, oh, what a dumb idea. Like you're going to want to come home.
Leland Gross (22:42.349)
Mmm.
Mark Yegge (22:42.477)
You're going to want to be back. What about you? What about your house? Like, how are you going to leave your house? How are you going to do this? How are you going to do that? And they would put their judgment and that's okay. Everybody, we all have our judgment. We have our filters and they would judge based on that. And then they wouldn't want to lose you. And so you wouldn't want to let them down either. So you have to make a tough decision against what these people are saying to you to realize, well, they're coming from love, but they don't have all the facts. And so you have to make that decision to go through that. That's also the tough part about being in the wrong environment.
Leland Gross (23:06.551)
Mm-hmm
Leland Gross (23:12.594)
Yeah. When at the end of the day, humans are insecure fickle creatures where, you know, they so often a lot of times those thoughts come from their unconscious programming that's flaring and saying, well, if he's doing this, does that mean my way of life is not right? Or like, which I know is silly, or you're like, this is a total singular decision, but like
Mark Yegge (23:18.697)
Sure are.
Leland Gross (23:39.574)
So often you hear people and it's really like, they're just uncomfortable with the idea that you're doing something different than they're doing. And it's hard, even in love sometimes, that's how it goes. And so you're right, there's a place where you need to have people in your life who you trust, who know you, who love you, who can encourage you, like you said, celebrate you, and who can challenge you.
Mark Yegge (23:46.097)
Yeah.
Leland Gross (24:06.258)
I feel like that's true for everybody, whether you're an entrepreneur or not. But I do think in entrepreneurship, it's critical because you can just live your life on an island. But like, you also at the end of the day, have to be accountable for your own decisions and your own life and say, all right, like, I am going to make a choice. I am going to choose these things for myself and stand by my decision, you know?
Mark Yegge (24:23.986)
Yeah.
Mark Yegge (24:30.917)
Yeah. And, and one of the thing on the meditation is, uh, I, I didn't, I didn't really, you know, you're, I'm always being convinced and I'm always skeptical. And when I read that Ray Dalio considers meditation, his number one secret to success and Ray Dalio, for those that don't know, uh, runs probably the most successful hedge fund or did run the most successful hedge fund called Bridgewater, um, in history. And, um, and he, he attributes all of his success to meditation.
Leland Gross (25:00.611)
Mmm.
Mark Yegge (25:00.621)
And here's a Western guy that's like, Hey, look, I did it. It took me a while. I still practice it and it's worked for him. So I just wanted to, wanted to throw that in there for those people that are still skeptical because it does, it does make a difference. Yeah.
Leland Gross (25:15.15)
Totally. So you're on this journey, you're starting businesses, you're now selling everything to travel. Like you've had just such a rich life and journey. Like there's, I feel like we could take any season of your life and have an hour long conversation on it because you're someone who's so in touch and there's just so much richness to that. But what was the low point for you or like what was the hard hardest part of your journey through
success, like in finding what success means to you.
Mark Yegge (25:51.721)
It's an interesting question, right? And I've been fortunate that I've had a pretty good life. And I guess it's because I reframe everything to make it good, even when it's bad. But sometimes things get bad and they're bad. And at the end of the day, they're really probably not as bad as you think they are. But I went through an episode several years ago and I run a couple of hedge funds. And I've been killing it in hedge funds, right? Like, you know, I was coming off a streak where I made 40%, 77%, like 120%.
Leland Gross (26:21.922)
Mmm.
Mark Yegge (26:22.097)
negative 6% and like up, let's call it 50%. I can't remember that I was like on a five year win. So what happens to a lot of people certainly happened to me is that you start to wrap up your identity in your work. I'm a nurse, I'm a doctor, I'm a lawyer, right? And, and then, you know, I'm a hedge fund manager, and I'm a good one. And then all of a sudden, life, you know,
Leland Gross (26:38.126)
Mmm
Mark Yegge (26:50.481)
gives you some challenges. And I had a really rough year, made some bad decisions and had a rough year. And I take it very personally because the people that are invested in my funds are mostly friends and family. And you manage people's money and give them advice and you know that it's a serious thing, right? When the markets are down, there's a lot of doubt, there's a lot of questioning.
Leland Gross (26:52.515)
Mmm.
Leland Gross (27:10.303)
Oh yeah.
Mark Yegge (27:14.573)
And for me, I had real, that's when I realized it was kind of the rock bottom thing. I'd never been through this before. I realized that I was wrapping up my performance into my identity. And I felt like I was letting people down. Turns out that I wasn't letting them down as much as I thought I was. Um, and that I was magnifying it in my mind, but that was a big epiphany for me to go and I was losing sleep. Uh, my blood pressure went up. I was having these health issues because I had a bad year.
Leland Gross (27:25.879)
Mmm.
Mark Yegge (27:45.245)
And I realized after meditating, after contemplating, after listening, some very supportive people in my tribe, like, look, there's more to life than, than money. And people are going to understand and you're going to learn a lot from this. And I just trust it. There's a period of time where you go under the water to get to the other side, where the cave is, and you just trust that the cave is there. And I was like, okay, I'm going to go underwater into a little bit of darkness, experience something that I've never experienced, which is
Leland Gross (28:08.873)
Hmm.
Mark Yegge (28:14.469)
you know, borderline, you know, depression. I don't know what, you know, what you call it, but, uh, but it was tough. And when I came out the other side, I looked, I realized that the thinking that I had going under the water, like, think about it, it's going to be better. And you're going to look back on this one day and be glad it happened. It's exactly the way it happened. It's exactly what happened to me. I got to the other side and I'm like, you know what? It wasn't that bad. And I need to learn how to decouple myself.
Leland Gross (28:32.409)
Mmm.
Leland Gross (28:35.79)
PEE!
Leland Gross (28:39.551)
Mmm.
Mark Yegge (28:43.389)
for my professional identity. And this, you know, Tony Robbins says, the strongest force in the human personality is the desire to remain consistent with how you describe yourself. And so we have to watch our words. We have to watch how we describe ourselves because if we don't watch out for that, if we don't guard our soul, if we don't guard that definition and the merging of the soul and the definition, we start to merge them as one. And then we believe that we've become a failure if things don't work out exactly as we planned.
Leland Gross (28:45.867)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Yegge (29:13.541)
And most of the time they don't, right? Like if you want to make God laugh, tell her your plans, right? So, um, things don't always turn out the way they are, but we have to decouple our, our identity from our professional, um, our professional identity from our ego.
Leland Gross (29:13.602)
Hmm. Yeah.
Leland Gross (29:29.074)
Yeah, I think, I mean, that is a profound nugget that if you are listening to this podcast, you should hold on to of you are not your business. Your business success is not your worth or your identity. But it is. It's so easy because so oftentimes, as opposed to an everyday W2 employee, which there's nothing wrong with. We need W2 employees. But they can go to their...
Mark Yegge (29:53.47)
Great.
Leland Gross (29:55.994)
office, they can work, do their job, and go home, and there's a clear separation because it's just one part of what they do. Whereas when you're self-employed, so much of it is coming from your own dreams. It's your baby. It's your responsibility. There's so much more weight and responsibility and desire and vision that you've come up with to create this thing that it can really easily then become everything you talk about.
anytime someone asks you how you're doing, it's about the business. It becomes this slow seeping thing that becomes your identity. And it is a wrestling. I've struggled with it of, you know, why am I thinking more about my business than my family or life or the people around me? Like, why am I, it's what I'm daydreaming about now versus what I used to daydream about. And having to be like, wait a minute, that's not who I...
I love Peacelink, I love my job, I love the people I get to serve, but I don't want to be the business guy. I want to be wholehearted, whole person Leland who's a great husband and father and friend and who loves people well and is about, who's working on the invisible things of life, the eternal things of life, not just the temporal things that will fade away. So yeah, I think...
Mark Yegge (30:56.573)
Right.
Leland Gross (31:17.622)
That nugget of your identity is not, your work is not your identity is a huge piece, but it's hard again. This conversation is all about hard work and those keys to success. So what has surprised you the most about this journey for you? If that low point, that rock bottom was the hard place, like what has surprised you the most?
Mark Yegge (31:32.509)
sir.
Mark Yegge (31:47.365)
I think what surprised me is, is some of the nuggets that I learned when I was younger. And from people that are, you know, probably long gone now, you know, that came before me. Those things are true. Like one of the things that I've developed a belief a lot a lot a while ago was that creativity is the juice of life. Right.
And I find myself here at, you know, pushing 60 years old that I'm in total creativity. I'm creating, I'm building things and I'm passionate about it. And, you know, Colonel Sanders started Kentucky Fried Chicken. I think he was in his late 50s, early 60s and it became the most successful chicken franchise in the world, right? So we don't have to, you know, look at our lives when we're 40 and go, oh, it's too late now, or 50, it's too late now.
Leland Gross (32:17.216)
Mmm.
Mark Yegge (32:35.833)
Like I'm in a prime of my life. I'm enjoying my life probably more than I've ever enjoyed it. I'm experiencing freedom around the world. And the epiphanies that I've had just recently are that, you know, you can have passion, you can have creativity, you can still have the energy and vitality to be able to push forward and do things when a lot of other people might've quit. And so it's, it's in it's within us as humans, right? We have, we have our downsides as humans, right? We have our fickleness and our.
Leland Gross (32:57.293)
Mmm.
Mark Yegge (33:04.921)
insecurities, but on the other side, we have the ability to do magical things. If we really decide to put our mind to it, we really just, I, what, what we want is important and important enough to change the world. So if you've got a big enough, why you can figure out any how. And my why is light circle right now. It's, it's because I believe that that's going to help so many people. And at the end, it's going to help children because our, our real cause is, is sex trafficking and also children's education. Cause
Leland Gross (33:11.662)
Mmm
Leland Gross (33:20.921)
Mmm
Mark Yegge (33:33.413)
We're not taught the right things in school anymore. I think we could probably agree on that. I know more about the Pythagorean theorem and Romeo and Juliet than I know about how to have a communication or disagree agreeably with somebody or have human relations with people. I know a lot more about Copernicus than I know about taxes, right? And we certainly aren't taught about money, and I think that's on purpose. So.
Leland Gross (33:37.258)
Mm-hmm.
Leland Gross (33:48.034)
Mmm
Leland Gross (33:55.086)
Yeah.
Mark Yegge (33:59.333)
You know, we've got to have the ability to educate kids into the things that are important. The things that are mandatory should be electives. Shakespeare, I'm sorry, it's great. And 500 years ago, he was a great author, but that should be an elective. Like you could learn about Shakespeare. Why is money the elective? Why do we have to learn money from people like you and me when it should be taught? And we, I use it every day. It should be taught every day. Yeah.
Leland Gross (34:13.166)
Mm-hmm.
Leland Gross (34:22.53)
Totally. Yeah, that is a rampage I could go on. I mean, money is such a clear example that I think everyone right now is like, why are we not learning this in school? But you're right, there's so many things that I'm like, I never used that. Or like maybe someone's using it out there, but you're right, they could have elected into that. Rather than like, how are we really supposed to become well-rounded people when we leave school?
Mark Yegge (34:28.441)
I'm sure.
Mark Yegge (34:47.095)
Yeah, right.
Leland Gross (34:52.566)
when we're not taught like basic life skills. At 18, you're expected to take out tens of thousands of dollars in debt to go to get more school without understanding how debt or interest work is just beyond me in all regards.
Mark Yegge (35:07.93)
Or even a simple concept as ROI. Like if you spend $100,000 on an education, or I have people that I know that spend $280,000 on a four-year degree, if you spend $280,000, how many years is it going to take for you to pay that off? What kind of a job do you have to get to be able to pay that off? And looking at that as a business decision, you might go, you know what? I'm not going to spend the $280,000 to get a political science degree.
Leland Gross (35:28.712)
Mm-hmm
Leland Gross (35:35.218)
Totally. I know. Yeah, it again, I could rampage that but I love I we've not talked about the human trafficking piece of this. But I do love that light circle and the work you're doing has such a bigger impact than just the people in the mastermind. It does impact them but it is also impacting like you said, children, there's other missions going on there. And that's really powerful. We just live in a world that's
Mark Yegge (35:36.55)
I'm out.
Leland Gross (36:04.59)
chaotic. And it there's no other way around just saying that. But like, to, to really say, Hey, we've unlocked some keys to like a healthy life to being able to disagree and fight and fight well, or like, argue well, and like, in a way that's respectful and cares for other people we want. We see these evils in the world that we want to, you know, care for like children are the greatest. They're like the most
Mark Yegge (36:26.217)
Sure.
Leland Gross (36:33.646)
They're the innocent. I think that's why we as a, I think everybody on earth knows like protect the children. Yeah. So, yeah, I think that's really, really powerful. So you've alluded to this. And I mean, honestly, not even just alluded. You pretty much said it. But I would love to hear a clear, concise answer on this. Like this is a podcast about success. And if you
Mark Yegge (36:40.957)
They can't protect themselves. We have to.
Leland Gross (37:01.598)
If I ask anybody on the street, you know, how do you define success? You're going to get different answers from different people. And it looks different for different people. I think there's a lot of key themes. We've touched on a lot of those. But for you, for Mark, how do you define success? And how will you know if you've achieved it? Have you achieved it? And yeah, I guess define Mark's version of success.
Mark Yegge (37:31.165)
So I always thought it was the success for me meant to be able to do what I want, when I want, wherever I want and with whom I want. Um, so to me, that was always the programming that I had, but I've added in there and to be able to help other people too. And so that's the element that for me, when you wrap it all up, you've got relationships in there to be able to go together on a journey rather than going by yourself, going by yourself is fine, but
Leland Gross (37:40.543)
Mmm.
Leland Gross (37:48.593)
Mmm.
Mark Yegge (38:00.065)
know, if you can have other people, it just magnifies it so much more. So it's a bit about freedom and it's a bit about relationships, which I too end of the spectrum sometimes, but the interesting thing is so are relationships, right? There's male energy and female energy or masculine and feminine energy. There's polar
energy that you know pushes you apart and that you know makes you argue but then brings you together and you have those You know makeup times or whatever you call them, right? and that's the beautiful thing about the flow of a relationship kind of the same thing is that freedom versus relationship and a really great relationship allows two people to explore each other's lives together and Allow each other's lives to explore individually and bring them together at the right times
Leland Gross (38:25.002)
Mm-hmm.
Leland Gross (38:45.024)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Yegge (38:47.373)
So I think that's a long answer, but to me, that's kind of where it goes.
Leland Gross (38:52.302)
I love it. And I agree with that. I would say so much of my own definition of success is revolved around relationships and freedom in so many ways, like the ability to care for people, how I want, when I want, you know, with whom I want. I think the with is such a left out piece, and especially in Western society, because everything's about you, I. We're very
Mark Yegge (39:17.157)
Maybe we need to.
Leland Gross (39:21.738)
You can live your whole life. You could have all the accolades on an island and you're gonna be unsatisfied. And yeah, going with people creates tension, it creates conflict. You know, that's why they say marriage isn't easy. It's like, I'm tying myself to another broken person. But in so many ways, it can also produce more freedom than you've ever experienced, which is kind of this like mystery of how does that work? You know? So I love that. Well, Mark, thank you so much.
Mark Yegge (39:46.126)
Right.
Leland Gross (39:51.042)
for your time, your wisdom. Thank you for being on the Self-Employment Success Podcast today.
Mark Yegge (39:55.753)
It's been an absolute pleasure, Leland. Thanks again for having me.