Ross Mandell - The Real Wolf of Wall Street | Rock Bottom to Wall Street Royalty

I don't care much for money. I think money is overblown. It doesn't have that much meaning to me. Even though a house goes up, you gotta pay taxes on it. They're of course just associated with it. And these are costly things. Money's actually costly. When you put money in the bank, you don't realize it's not your money. It becomes the bank's money instantly. He was once the Wall Street Maverick, the man who lived fast, played hard, and made millions. Ross Mandel built a reputation as the bad boy of Wall Street. Fearless, bold, and larger than life. I turned $1,500 into $30 million. And I spent five or 10 million along the way. I was nuts, but I was in my 20s. I was young. I just thought this is great. Mentorship for me was huge throughout my time on Wall Street and makes all the difference in the world. But behind the headlines of excess and controversy was a story of ambition, downfall, and redemption. He tasted both the heights of success and the depths of consequence. And now he's here to tell the truth. Unfiltered, broth, and unlike anything you've heard before. The way I was able to climb the lattice so to speak is success. My rap was listened. Can I just come in? I won't say a word. I just want to listen to you. In order to get next to somebody that's meaningful and substantial, he knows what he can do for you. The question is, what can you do for me? Invest in yourself. Believe in yourself. Don't buy what everybody's selling. Don't buy the news. Most people are afraid of money. The people that have it have it because they're not afraid of it. Why are most people afraid of money? The reason they were afraid of it is because they need to make an excuse whether they don't have it or they don't chase it aggressively. So it's become something that's relatively unattainable and it creates fear over those kind of things. Were you ever afraid of money? Never. I never afraid of money but he is the funny thing about me. I don't care much for money. I think money is overblown. It doesn't have that much meaning to me. The only person ever heard speak about this openly is Robert Kiyosaki who I think is rich dad poor dad. I think he's one of the smartest guys in the world. We have a lot of very similar philosophies. Interesting enough our stores on lightspeed and lightspeed platform happen to be right next to each other. Absolutely. Real. And Greg Grancadones on the other side. But this Robert Kiyosaki I think has fundamentally he's managed to put in words what I seem to know. So like most of us will say you know I own my house right that's an asset and I own my car I don't lease it that's an asset and you know nothing can be further from the truth. These are not assets and if they are assets they they're characterized as depreciating assets and even though a house goes up you got to pay taxes on it you know there's there were costs associated with it it actually cost you money and unless you're getting interest because a financial interest meaning you rent it out let's say it's a property that you rent out now that's interesting he focuses on on the income statement of a balance sheet because he feels that certain things that a categorizes assets really aren't and I actually get that so to me money is always been just a tool to acquire things that I find necessary comfort things of that nature security these are things that I use money to acquire and these are costly things money's actually costly what do you mean by that let's just say you're in the podcast business yeah okay so you have to have it happen to be it's just what what quintence and it just we were talking about putting together a studio right you might have spent $50,000 so you're actually it's your business and you spent let's say $50, $125,000 we're at the numbers off for the mixer and the camera and the roadcaster and they will all the the microphones etc the business itself until it generates income it's a bunch of expenses right and but you know we make a we're willing to invest in in a business because in theory the business by definition is an entity that is formed to create a profit and so so when you look at things like so to have money people think the idea is to have money and to put it in the bank and save it I was talking to a guy yesterday he's got a few hundred grand saved and I said what do you do with the money he says I keep it in the bank I said really it's in the bank I said okay I said what do you think you know why in the bank because you know it's safety and you know I get interest I said what interest you're getting and he goes I think I'm getting like 3.8% or something like that I said a week a month no a year okay and who pays you that interest well the bank pays me that interest well do you think the bank is losing money by paying you so you don't know anything about banking so bank when you want what your real bank you know goes to the window and gets 33 times whatever the money is by the way when you put money in the bank you don't realize it's not your money it becomes the bank's money instantly make a money off of it too and you get a chip you get a receipt like a code check and yes if you come back they have they can honor it up until 250,000 because that's what the FDIC says they immediately take your money leverage it up they borrow against your money and get 33 times that money so if it's 10 grand now that's turned it to 3.30 grand and they invest that money and I promise you banks make more that's we're going to have to send a year on your money I said if you consider looking at a very conservative blue chip dividend paying stock this is what do you mean I said well I put money sometimes in the market that shouldn't be a surprise okay I said safe money I said you have to buy warm on you heard a warm on biggest retailer in the world twice okay you think there's any chance they're going to have any problems paying paying you out because every 90 days that you hold their stock they're paying you a dividend do you know that one much dividend is equivalent to 5% a year plus the stock continuously so you get the upside on the appreciation plus the dividend pay up right so like buying a owning a stock and sitting with it that doesn't pay you a dividend is like owning a piece of real estate you have no tenants in it you know it's it's unoccupied that was that the way you know but it's but you know it's funny because you're you're saying yeah owning a stock doesn't pay you dividends is a dumb idea which I agree but at the same time the majority of people have such have such insignificant understanding of money and finance that they're going to leave money in the bank they know what we teach you what we sell you buy and hold buy a stock and hold it for 30 or 40 years so the the when you buy people don't even understand this you know every bank stockbroker and professional trades from the short side what does that mean you're going to call up your broker later Scott and you say I want to buy a thousand shares of Nvidia let's just say for arguments it's 100 it's really about 113 it's a hundred thousand dollars right and you say okay um and you help your broker when I want to buy a thousand shares he calls you back a minute later it says you bought a thousand shares it uh at a hundred that's a hundred thousand right and you feel good you feel like the brokerage firm just went out and bought you that stock but they did not buy you that stock that's what we want you to think they looked at the market and they shorted it to you they borrowed it from stock loan department somewhere and they sold it to you why because they can always buy it back cheaper so I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to sell it to you for a hundred only because I know that I could probably buy buy it back at $99.99 and $97.97 whatever the numbers are but cheaper because they're closer to the market than you so things are a luxury we you think you see something and nobody knows what they do and it's not we're sitting on a chair that I would swear I'm sitting on a solid item but if we look under an electron microscope it's billions of subatomic particles moving it you know uh to 186,000 miles a second and and and speed it's moving it's active so um you know be you know your understanding of the world isn't always as factual as you might believe so with money especially and things like investing you've been programmed to believe what we've been telling you to believe I'm part of that machine that went ahead and pitched and sold a story just like you know hundreds of thousands of other people and and hundreds of thousands of books etc you know we're talking about just briefly touched on investing in stocks and dividends people's financial education is so far from yours it's unbelievable it's almost like it's almost funny if it wasn't sad how far people's financial education is because there's a lot of different reasons it could be our school system doesn't teach a shit it could be that our parents never taught us anything they didn't know any better they didn't know themselves how many people retire and they go trust an investment visor from a bank and that's their one retirement strategy right in the USU Air 401k's in in Canada you got RSPs or you got a whole bunch of different things right right but you've been in this game for a long time not everybody's been in this game since what the early 80s 1983 you were making you were making money you were making good my you so I have here you're making $200,000 a month of the stockbroker in your 20s that correct yeah correct that's not bad that's not bad which very good actually and it was I felt invincible I felt you know how much will Thomas will throw to book yeah called bonfire the vanities best number one best self they made movies out of it one movie a series of shows all the whole thing and they talk about a guys that were a Wall Streeters at that time in the 80s and they called them masters of the universe and I was one of those guys and in the 90s they talked about the bad boys of Wall Street in the 80s prior to the 87 crash because starting in 1982 the market went straight up imagine a gray chart so you get in here by my elbow and it went just like straight up for five years I turned $1500 into 30 million and I spent five at 10 million along the way I was nuts but I was in my 20s I was young and I just thought this is great like I didn't even understand the could ever end or even change because I was you know I was I was hooked in with some of the most famous guys in history of Wall Street that today are on the Forbes billionaire list etc guys that created NASDAQ they created electronic trading they created the ideas of the fundamental way markets are made today the way you understand venture capital private equity all these different things so again mentorship for me was huge throughout my my time on on Wall Street and makes all the difference in the world I had guys that taught me that showed me that allowed me to listen in took the time out to structure deals invited me in deals once they saw I had value when I was talented I could add value you know people I'm going to give this is a little tidbit for your listeners because I know you have a substantial audience I'm getting a lot of people right now because I'm on the come-up in the sort of influence of podcasting space right so with online education the wealth formula podcast I'm mentoring a lot of people and people are coming to me out of the woodwork right now and everybody's like they see now that I I'm out of prison short period of time and I'm on the come-up my charts going like this now and people are saying you know I know you've signed to produce a movie my brother wrote a script a screenplay a book can I please send it to you another guy wrote a book and he see that I'm about to get a big publishing deal and he wants to send me the book so I could maybe get him a publishing deal I have literally two three dozen people and I'm sure you would do too uh uh uh reaching out telling me what I could do for them yeah and the way I was able to uh to climb the lattice so to speak is success my my rap was listen can I just come in I won't say a word I just want to listen to you there's nothing I won't do for you what can I do for you in order to get next to somebody that's meaningful substantial somebody that is on that trajectory he knows what he can do for you I know what I can do for you I know what I can do for him the question is what can you do for me so if you want to get next to a big guy you want to pick his brain you want to see how he moves how we operate so we handle things what can you do for the person that says to me I want to handle all your social media Nelson I got this you don't worry about it I'll take care of this now that's somebody that has value to me and if I look you up and down and I say you offer value to me and I think I'm and if I'm willing to accept that value a real guy a real dude in life won't even accept value unless he knows he's going to pay it back he's going to offer it back I know what I could do for young men I really know I know what I could do for middle age man or you guys my age the question is why would I what I'm I'm not a charity I do do a lot of charitable work I'm a philanthropist I know you're saying no when you started you just gave everything that you had to these guys that were the mentors and the people that were you know tenured in the game how can I serve you yeah what can I do for you when I when I speak to anybody that has in my opinion real value and I want to get with him in some way if I want to get him to do something for me I don't say can you do something for me I say how can I serve you I want you to know there's a willingness to give those are the people that end up getting people that are willing to serve I know a lot of people that made a lot of money and I've been a little bit successful I'm not compared to some people have had you know nine figure exits and whatnot but for me it's like a different kind of success because you have a little bit of fame and you have an audience so people are interested in you for that reason as well but whether or not it's money or fame that you bring to the table obviously very privileged to have that but it's hard to it's hard to figure out whose intentions are true when you're trying to figure who to work with who to spend time with it's very difficult you are on your way I mean a lot of say oh a podcast another podcast it's like such a crowded space we've done we've we've analyzed this space there's maybe a thousand people doing serious people how many doctors how many lawyers how many stock brokers how many engineers how many plumbers how many electricians there's nobody podcasting the Minimists on a pinhead nothing unregulated business you can have your own network virtually no barrier to entry if you have Wi-Fi and you have a phone with a camera you can be a podcaster one of the things that really swayed me a lot of people saying you were meant for this kind of thing your podcast your speakers you can just help so many people etc and I said what do I know from this kind of thing and then my ex-wife sat me down it showed me as woman she was like a sales clerk checkout person at Walmart one of the big big box stores and she has an iPhone and she sits at a kitchen table and she started a podcast and now she's making 70,000 a month and she didn't even believe that it could work like that and she stayed as a like a cashier at one of these big box until she's making 50,000 a month on a continuing basis you make so annual salary monthly that's what she says and you know she just at some point you know we hit a wire you killing yourself you know getting up early in the morning going to work eight 10 hours and then you have kids and a husband and then when you squeeze in your podcast and meanwhile this is what's paying everybody's bills and all that kind of thing because it was almost like she couldn't believe it and I believe this is where we're at in this particular business you have a great name you're smart you're young you're good-looking you married well I mean uh you know you're on charwood footing the world is yours bro you think about you think about opportunity right I mean there was opportunity with leverage and money and finance when you started out there's still that opportunity too but now I think that um the opportunity is with media and reach because then you combine these things right you there's there's this concept uh from a guy Navale Ravicon he's a modern day philosopher very successful entrepreneur he built uh one of the companies built was Angel List which is a big like a startup company you can invest through it but the point is he speaks about four kinds of leverage there's like technology there's finance there's people and then there's media as like the four things that if you figure out how to tap into those things like this guy's a limit right you're golden now well you well you know as you know financial and you know people you know how to use those two types of leverage and technology to a degree because you've like also built a massive audience yourself but media is something that people are there there's a lot of creators out there but I don't think people understand how powerful media is I don't think there's really been a play where somebody has understood the power of media plus public market I see a lot of technology plus public markets for sure right people taking companies public all the time that are software companies they IPO their unicorns are you know trillion dollar companies now I'm forget a billion three trillion yeah but media I don't see that people have figured that alignment out yet you know there was a guy named Sumner Redstone who figured that out and he formed Viacom and he had A&B shares and Sherry Redstone his daughter now runs Viacom B and she's in the midst of they're in the midst of a lot of there's a lot of noise going on regarding that company and Paramount and they're gonna spend it off it's yeah so that's that's incorrect so there are news media I think I meant not traditional media I meant new media well there is really been no play yet with the new media and that's why formal media because my plan is to introduce the world of new media to the world of wall street and stock market virality and I mean there were guys like Patrick Bet David that I think understand it and moving that way my guess is at some point value attainment we'll we'll go public that's my guess I don't know that he would be interested just in selling but you never know because he might command a price of three four five six billion you know who understood this and really there was a guy named Mark Cuban yeah yeah of course in the in the nineties he created a broadcast media it was a company that at its height the 25 million in revenues in the media space he sold that for 5.9 billion dollars 90 percent of all his employees became millionaires but when you are talking about a new innovative technology media which offers its own virality and the virality of the stock market as witnessed by anything with dot com was being valued at you know a billion dollars what I'm trying to give you is a virality the virality aspect of money the stock market you think if Yahoo would have offered Mark Cuban a billion dollars he went to have taken it he would have said no that would have said see you later Mark an hour later he would have been like you know I was just thinking about this can we do a billion too because I really have eyes on on a basketball team in Dallas and they want 200 million imagine that was 200 million for the Dallas Mavericks and he sold them a value of six five to six billion so he's pretty good at understanding virality and value so raw media it is it is our intention as a group to roll up podcastes people in the space mentors etc things that encompass what I call the social media the new media the influence of space and we're going to bring that to the market what's that going to be worth well let me let me ask you a question if we can control 20 million eyeballs what's that worth a lot well let me just tell you something if there's a a game or an event they get 20 million eyeballs on a on television let's just say or a movie do you understand the value it's enormous it's it's it's enormous the super bowl is the single biggest event in the world and they get about a hundred million eyeballs worldwide so what up do you get 20 million think about that 20 million on command and command that's yeah you you listen good see you understand the value nobody knows what just what what the value really is that has them in done after it's been done tried and tested a few times then we'll have a better idea but the ideas to be avant-garde to introduce the whole thing because that I got that idea you know because guys like Mr. Beast were complaining that he's making money a lot of money he's had offers though for over a billion correct now but I'm talking about we believe it or not only about about 10 months ago that he you know he's just not making that Wall Street money it's not making that Wall Street money you've got companies that are sorry as companies the average IPO for a big firm is is valued at a billion dollars I don't think people really can comprehend how much money is in Wall Street I don't think you've ever lived it they understand three trillion dollars a day trades a day a Wall Street on the field I was in prison and one of the big questions when you first get to prison guy see on the yard to see walking around the compound hey a new guy a OG a old man um they used to call me rock solid because that was an aim of a book I wrote and I had like you know don't ask like 150 books sent in and they were gone in 10 minutes I was shocked to find their receives in prison you know what I mean and um so um they would say you so what institutions uh you with what institutions you've been at and I'm like New York Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange and they're talking about like what prisons if you've been at course yeah like you say of course I had no idea you know I think for the second you said that I'm like are they talking about prisons they're laughing at me because I'm like literally saying New York Stock Exchange remember the book we're talking hotel with Beach Club and uh you know I'm trying to think of where I'm a member like you know Friars Club and um then they say you know they talk they brag you know I was the man in the higher Leah I had you know 18th and and fine I was my block bro I mean we were doing we were doing two two two keys a week bro two keys a week then other guy be like yeah well I'm a from DC man right two bucks no White House Avenue G and H3 do you know we would turn it three keys a week and this would go around like a whole thing you know and they'd say I'd be like you guys a punk ass bitches I'm from Wall Street bro we do three trillion dollars a day indeed is a success story partner now say you just realized your business needed to hire someone fast how can you find amazing candidates fast it's easy just use indeed when it comes to hiring indeed is all you need stop struggling to eat your job posting on other job sites indeed sponsor jobs helps you stand out and hire fast and with sponsor jobs your post jumps to the top of the page for your relevant candidates so you can reach the people you want faster and it makes a huge difference according to indeed data sponsor jobs posted directly on 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working on playing hot yeah but just briefly you don't have to go through everything but briefly talk about sort of like what you were able to accomplish before the government came after you for 140 million and also why with the moves that you made over your career did they choose to come after you early in my career largely due to the drugs and alcohol being young stupid and not having a good idea not not understanding how I was supposed to really conduct myself I hear them myself I got advice my father passed away one of 16 and I lacked a North Star a moral compass a figure that would you know say hey tighten up get in here you know my father was one of the most honest decent hardworking men I've ever he was the most that I had ever encountered in my life and I was very angry when he passed I was meditating myself with I'm a garbage head you know drugs alcohol but the cocaine really is what brought me to my knees ultimately and I started out at a what they call a wirehouse a merrill Lynch EF Hutton Smith Barney pain webber did a big recognizable names and we basically like a supermarket or a smorgasbord we could sell your car insurance life insurance health insurance I could build your stock portfolio do your IRA your keel plan if you have a business on an operated business I was a bond salesman I did tea bills and munis and corporates and uh you know everything you could think of if you said to me this is what I wanted to do I say you know what I'm an expert in that field but I was at a firm that trained me and licensed me in all these areas and I was very frustrated after a year because I had opened 300 plus accounts which is like some sort of like that a record when I tell the story people like oh my god like guys in the business 25 years never never never at what's the value when you do something like that like how much money you bring the firm well what happens is the firm just wants customers I brought in 330 customers colds from scratch with no help no leads you know no nothing special no cost to the firm and I generate like 325 330 thousand my first year and the firm gets I can't even tell you how much they make they here's the funny thing so you know I didn't understand that and how much the firm is making on me or anything you just know like for every dollar you in commission the firm is keeping half you're getting half something like that but what happens is every time you buy yourself something at a bank or a firm they're making money in ways you don't have any you don't you don't you haven't even thought about this this is a business this is a business about money they curate every transaction effects maybe or kicks off is a catalyst for another five transactions you don't even know about they short they short you the stock they short you the unit trust then they have to go in trade and get so now they have some power they have now know what paying customers willing to pay for a certain amount of shares of stock or units of a trust or membership interest in LLC etc you get very technical but you know it's broken down 15 ways by Tuesday that very smart guys have been analyzing for a hundred years to see how they can use that to their advantage and they have figured it out so I I was ranked number one out of a class of like out of 150 guys starting out in 1984 at EF Hutton which was the number one and number two a training platform ever and to this day everybody was wow pro you were an EF Hutton guy that was the best training program and that's why I picked it because I it had that reputation um so I became a very hot prospect instantly so I'm like a ball player in my first year I'm making I'm scoring 20 points of game I'm a lockdown defender I'm getting rebounds I'm getting assists I'm a team player I don't cause any trouble for anybody down to me time I'm doing what I'm doing I'm drinking I'm smoking I'm snorting every day but I'm young and I can do it but you know what everybody's doing that's what I'm thinking everybody's doing it and I found my crowd of people that were doing it there are people at every single firm parting like that just a fact and the funny thing is fleshful and when I did get clean nobody wants to hire me when I was clean you're an AA what does that mean AA you don't drink you don't drink during the day you don't drink during the we I don't understand I mean what he what he want me Friday night I'm having people over you know my daughters uh you know she's been botnitzful that she's getting a christening and we're going to be serving wine so you're not going to have a drink I'm like no I'd like you would think that would make me more attractive to serious people they wanted big balls roast mandels buying drinks for everybody at the bar and who's hung over smoke and cigarettes going to a packet to a day at my desk back in those days you could smoke everybody had big ass trays everybody had flasks and bottles you know in their desk and while drinking running out of time saying wild it's amazing how the media was able to influence so many people like smoking is the devil today people that smoke today tell me I'm like the devil I have they have a little box in Manhattan outside they go on the curve you know it's 10 feet from the entrance and it's a little thing like a penalty box exactly and they sit and they smoke suck down their cigarettes they you know they they feel like I'm an idiot people don't drink as much anymore either they don't I found it I just heard an interesting stat one of my friends worked with cruise lines and he says that the drinking is down significantly on the cruise lines but you know what happens when the drinking is good that people are so funny is the total aside but I thought it was an interesting point so they they expect that when people drink less they spend less money at the casino and he says that's not the case because when people now know that if they drink they're expecting to get fucked at the casino so they go to the casino thinking I'm sober I'm gonna win and they get fucked 3x exactly right yes so now drinking is down on cruises and casino revenues like 3 or 4x what it was before covid is that crazy people are so funny and they always try and beat the system but the system always beats them regardless but anyways it's probably I have friends who play poker and they purposely don't drink they drink they like to drink but when they go play poker they won't drink yeah but you know the average gambler thinks if they're sober they're going to beat the house and they never win the odds of the odds are the odds are the odds of your mess anyway exactly back to your so this is this is a different time and what a lot of people live in right now obviously not people aren't smoking out their desk people aren't drinking awesome I'm sure people so I'm sure people in finance still drink and do a whole bunch of blow like I'm pretty sure this is not change that much all happening right now by the way if you're in finance you have a guy that has a problem call me I do I do consulting for some Fortune 500 companies and if you have an executive that you want to protect you don't know how to handle him he's very valuable to the organization but you know he might suffer from the disease of addiction or alcoholism we can help you. Ross Mandel reach out info at rossbandel.com will help you when you are going through the more stressful parts of your story you never went back and and felt that you had to let go rely on substances or anything that to get through it. I actually want to swallow a bullet if that's what you get to that substance you know many times in Asia there's a lot you know I pray to God don't I don't want to wake up tomorrow I don't want to face tomorrow I've found guilty four counts I'm going in with my family to be sentenced by the judge the lawyers tell me 50% 50-50 they're going to take remand you then they take you into custody right then and there so put all your variables in a plastic bag and be prepared to hand it to your wife or your lawyer because they're going to take you right in and whatever you have on you is probably going to end up missing and you know I just want to roll I always have you know expensive things and I just don't want to you know God I just don't want to wake up tomorrow that you know I've had pressure that's been that big where drinking or taking a pill wouldn't do anything you know I'm facing real stress you know a lot of we have a lot of manufactured stress a lot of that's part of the disease of addiction in your mind whatever the stress is in real life whatever is going on in your mind it makes it there's a virality effect it's magnified times a thousand and no if I felt like any of that would have helped me I would have would have picked up tell me the rest of the story about what made them want to come after you I will explain it to you so by the time I got clean 1990 yeah I had racked up about nine arbitration customer arbitrations these are not these are civil all civil yeah um and I'll give you an example we do million dollar deals on the phone you're asking somebody to invest I say Scott look you have it you have an account with me I say Scott look I got a very good feeling about steel US steel symbol X remember the doubt 30 I call icons and buying stock I got a very good feeling of something I want you to own and you see all right well it's a real company I know steel let's let's I want you to 10,000 shares 30 30 bucks a share can you get me 300 grand in the next week but I'm buying them if you say yes I'm buying it right there 10,000 shares you say you know what let's do it I said thank you I'll call you back or have my girl call you back with an execution so I buy you the 10,000 shares it's 300 grand you know I just made like a six nine thousand dollar commission my assistant calls you up it's the trades confirmed okay two three weeks go by stock goes down three points it's now 27 now you have had to confirm by my assistant you told me let's do it you got a confirmation in the mail and very well might have got a monthly statement in between you call me up and it's like bro what's going on I thought you really you know I thought you really knew something I had a good feeling I said I do okay it didn't happen as quickly often times there were delays sometimes my information is so fresh it takes a minute for it to sip through the market but I just want you know you know be patient it's a great company when we're gonna come out of this more than all you're gonna be very happy with me you say you know I don't really remember authorizing this trade like what do you mean you know I I was excited because he was so passionate but I really wanted to think about it I'm like you put 300,000 in the account the trade was confirmed you say yeah well don't don't be like that I wasn't sure and I say listen so now whatever I was doing the night before is wet runoff I'm thinking about meeting my coke guy you know later tonight I'm all edgy and here you are fucking me with me and I'm like skykel fuck yourself you say I don't want to stock I said you want me to sell to stock yeah there's a 30,000 dollar hit if you sell it right now I had strongly advised you not to do that I never authorize that trade so now I'm doing literally sometimes a hundred trades a day dozens of trades with dozens of different guys and there were times these kind of things happen these kind of disagreements but amongst two gentlemen in the heat of battle things can be said things can be discussed things can be worked out the odds of just going to a legal issue down the road is very rare cost more than 30 grand the whole thing the tool and it's going to be a nightmare for you the whole thing and but I'm very abrasive edgy I'm hungover I need some more some more drugs in me or drink you need stock is down three points and I didn't expect that and I own a tool and everybody owns it I'm getting a lot of calls like this and I'm like you know and now we'll have some that went from I'm not sure if I authorize it to it's on what I didn't authorize this trade I want my money back and I'm like you know what's got go fuck yourself this is bullshit you know it and I know you go I'm gonna sue your ass for us I'm gonna complain and I'm like you know what I'll see you in fucking I'll see an arbitration in six years go fuck yourself and I'd hang up instead of trying to be you know you just wanted your handheld you wanted to be cuddled you want you want to understand it's the things happen in business all the time right but I wasn't having it I was very edgy the markets did go up and down like crazy and I just I just was and so one guy actually we went to arbitration we shot my lawyer he's there with his lawyer the panels they had this whole thing he was I told you I see you in six years and he called me and it became a topic in this arbitration and this is when the government no this is this is just this is an example so they say like this they never close the file when you're in it this kind of it's a regulated industry it's heavily regulated for them to say I was doing something always ridiculous because they said before they ever came at me criminally they had nine different examinists and different regulators come including the SEC who cleared me on every audit we never had a problem we never had an issue we were completely mindful and in good order and all that kind of stuff there was a documents were they I spent the most money on legal fees and because by the time I had my own firm and I was in business for myself at the time the government got interested in me I had already had these issues I was dealing with eventually everything was settled I settled every arbitration dealt with everything one most lost a couple everybody was paid everybody was hauled and then the stock exchange came at me and I made a blanket settlement with them for all the activity that happened pre-1990 while I was still using because they knew my story very well and they said Mr. Mandel is the New York Stock Exchange we offered the money this and they said we know you have a lot of money we know you're great aren't we folly quit very closely well remember these change they were I'm regulated they said we don't want your money we want you to take six weeks off and go to the beach and think about how fortunate you are to still be in this business so I would suspend it by the New York Stock Exchange no fine I had the money but they I went to Puerto Rico with my girlfriend from month and just so you guys all know I made more money trading the market during that six weeks and any of the time in my life I was so determined to make money I was so fuck you and you know I'll show you I'm like that kind of guy tell me I'm like Dana White tell me I can't go ahead tell me I can't I love that shit I live for that like that's like giving me extra motivation I know so now by the time the 90s come along I'm sober I'm killing it and life is easy business easy you're back with NYSE I'm fully I'm fully good and I'm out of firm I'm waiting for my firm to be approved but I'm working at a firm I my firm I was at one out of business and they were quiet by a big firm and the big firm fired a lot of people but they paid me not only did they keep me they gave me a hundred fifty thousand dollars to stay I was okay with that you know I'm working on my own firm they don't know this I take the money and I'm doing business they call me in one day is the president of the firm the owner of the firm big shot his partner is a guy named Paul Fitzgerald who is the former president of the New York Stock Exchange to chairman right before this guy Dick Russell who was very well known because of Ninal he was a chairman during 9-11 this guy before that in the 90s and they had a deal and they were off from me tens of millions of dollars to do this deal and that's why they gave me the 150 ran up front because they knew I was the only one capable of doing this deal and it was a very sexy little company out of New Jersey they had some sort of cure a treatment for a disease and it looked really great on paper it was already public it had a following you know stock holds all these different things great IRPR when you look at the company it looks great and they say we want you to take start buying and take a position with your clients that hundreds and hundreds of clients I'm representing you know bright seven hundred million dollars at this time and my my client money plus my own money etc they said we want me to they want me to take over this particular company so typically when you're public company you have investment banks that you pay to keep pumping out research on your company keeping the shareholders up to date etc if you're not a giant like a McDonald's or a Microsoft you know there's a game you play this protocol is a way to do things you don't have to reinvent the wheel companies go public you hire a couple of investment banks you pay if there's a big stock issue you know there's a guy that can step in and maybe clean up the stock meaning some of the guys bought this stock for a dollar and now what's five does I want to sell half a million shares of stock there's really no buyers for that kind of size but they find the guy to position the stock because he believes in the story etc and they want to be that guy for this company and they were willing to give me ten million dollars cash on top of anything I can earn and this is from a guy that was the president of your stock exchange and to see all this big big brokerage company and I'm like what's the catch I'm thinking this is going I'll take you know this is real money I'm on a high money but this is real money to do a deal that I you know they sounded great look great and everything else right yeah of course but it was a scam they had all their partners and friends and their own money and and whatever this technology was it turns out it was a bust and you were going to be this they wanted me to be the guy yeah that took all of their friends out their partners their best customers them my guys would come in and buy millions of shares I would be promoting and by the way when I started buying so I was the kind of guy in Wall Street at some point at this time if I decided to buy something and take a big position it was like 30 40 guys around Wall Street that followed my week thought I have a very good sense of value that and they were jumping so at my trial years later they said that I was a cult leader on Wall Street and then if Ross Mandel decided to raise his staff the stock would go up three dollars that's power and it's that's true but not because I fuck people I bought scams I knew we're bad and got every I begged everybody so I can get a pay down to the table and that's ultimately the crime that my couple of brokers at my firm got involved in and that's what brought the feds into my firm and that's what they try to pin on me later but I turned down this deal and then they threatened me they said if you don't do this deal because now I was they showed me like what's wrong with this copy but they showed you over is wrong they admitted to me there's a listen we want to be upfront it's not going to be a great ending but you'll have 10 million cash plus you're probably making another five or 10 million during a you know buying all the stock and doing all these things and I said no I didn't get sober I live by those principles to this day to cheat people to lie to people to rob people for money I make money I earn money I don't need to beg people in a bad stock deal I buy real stocks and I get paid for it I have good information I get great information for it to this minute and they said well the Wall Street Journal has been calling us and they wanted to do a story a big story on rogue brokers and your name came up you have very famous in the business but we can protect you so they're threatening they're blocking me extorting me sorting you what did I do I said fellas thanks but no thanks go fuck yourself and I left and they made my life miserable but they didn't know I would already apply to have my own firm I had already done all the work I'd already raised millions of dollars all these different things and so we get I get a call by the this guy Jeffrey Taylor Wall Street Journal was the first time I really make this paper he's writing a front page story he wrote the biggest story March 14th 1996 it came out this all started in 1995 I managed to stall the journal and this this writer was a hit piece on just you well I'll explain it to you he used me they wrote my entire life story to indict the regulatory system of Wall Street and they used me my whole life's 5,250 words they literally went to my hometown and knocked on doors they went to my high school interviewed my teachers they interviewed customers that I had issues with you know some of these stores I told you earlier and front page Wall Street Journal and they used my story like how could this guy still be in the business he said nine operations he was admitted drug deal he was doing cocaine he admits that he was abrasive this and that and I submitted myself to three eight hour interviews with this writer sharing my life story because my lawyer said you're you're you're going to be approved for this firm in the next couple of months but if this guy puts this story out they're going to deny you you'll never own a firm so I said what should I do they said the best thing to do is stall I said how do I stall they said nobody can talk like it was he's going to sit down and you start telling him your life story and by the end of the day you'll be up to like high school first year in college and you're so interested they're going to want to come back and get more they think they're getting more information on you what you're doing you're stalling and then when all the lawyers because the Wall Street Journal had three lawyers I had three lawyers with all the scheduling you know they get in their little blackberries at the time what we could kick it will storm a few more months so so in the so he writes three grueling after three grueling eight hour interviews and I even said to the guy said look I don't know why you're using me for this I could be a great source for you as a reporter if you don't skewer me with this story I could be a valuable story if I'm on the inside of so I'm a big I'm a big guy in the scam I'm I'm on the come up that's my graph yeah right I'm like Scott Clarie's frigging podcast career I'm on that somewhere and he wrote that I tried to I offered him that deal in the front page Wall Street Journal I tried to like bribe you know what I mean and so eventually the story comes out March 14th 1996 I'm on the front page of the newspaper I'm the headline on the news I was looking at I under an apartment in Manhattan in a very fancy building and when I walked downstairs we had a big desk you know like it's like I imagined a very fancy kind of hotel but it's a co-op a big apartment and you know the guy had to put everyone at the papers everyone in the building got Wall Street Journal they always made that if I would autograph it the girl that was working for me the stunning young sales assistant that was working for me this gorgeous blue eyed blonde built like nobody's business I was working for me you know she actually slept with me that week because I was now like a big celebrity and of course I married her Stephanie I just want to say them forget you and and and I was like like like what's the name of that man's my G G2 wanted to make me a cover story the bad boy of Wall Street and I should have done it because I would have had a forever but my lawyers talked me out of all that because by now I've been approved already and I have owned my own firm and when that story came out freaking 500 guys came to my so in the movie the Wolf of Wall Street yeah Jordy Belford talks about how he was in Forbes and they called him the Wolf of Wall Street that's an entirely fabricated story he used my story for that scene this he was never called the Wolf of Wall Street he made that name up all by himself it was not enforced into a story on him that's my honest to the true story you don't believe March 14th 1996 and the title of story it was you know they they used my high school yearbook quote lately it occurs to me what a long strange trip has been that was my high school quote I was only 17 and already I felt like what a long strange trip it's been oh 17 years old that's my high school quote yearbook quote and they had my yearbook picture and they wrote this entire five thousand two hundred fifty one story the biggest story in the history of the Dow Jones Corporation that owned the Wall Street Journal at that time was the number one selling paper in the whole world on planet earth and I was the biggest story at that time ever written on somebody but all of a sudden every regulator in this business and in government put my picture up the SEC called later that day and said Mr. Manda we just want to call you and we just opened up an investigation of you like why they said son you're in the front page of the Wall Street Journal and it's not a good look because in that business any any presses considered bad press and I thought like held not to be in this paper that's what began my journey as sort of becoming a household name in that industry and when something like that happens they have to invest again of course they do they have to invest again it's not even a choice at that no they talk the guy was a lovely guy they called me I never spoke to the SEC again until they charged me and they charged me it's the same thing they would have charged me with a 1996 so did the SEC lead to the FBI what well that's the misnomer so you know because the SEC had done investigation and found everything we did every tea was crossed and every because of that story I was the most analyzed registered representative in the history of the industry so when you open a brokerage firm if you and Nelson were broke as he started your own firm you know you they got the Finra would say for every 15 brokers you have to have a compliance officer compliance guy gets like 180 grand a year okay for every 15 brokers you have to have one I had to have one for every four brokers because I'm Ross Mandel yeah and I did and we was squeaky fucking clean because by the time I was already a wealthy guy I'm you know and in you know I was being ordered five times more normally than anybody else but even after that story and then there was several other stories written about me as a result but then what happened was I had my own firm and I started doing really great business and I got it to some great deals and at some point the Wall Street Journal we I was doing a deal we wanted to call one of my partners someone to call the journal he is I wanted to see what they think about Ross Mandel otherwise we don't want to put out a story and he was wow there now the Wall Street Journal is Ross Mandel neutral so the next time I was on the cover of the Wall Street Journal was a good story and I went into the Homeland Security business right after 9-11 and I was I was funding companies that were helping the American public deal with national security Tom Homan who is now the borders are of the United States and Trump's cabinet he's on TV like every two days Thomas Homan he was the number two man at the new organization called the Department of Homeland Security people don't know that's only been around since 2002 it was formed as a result of the failures of 9-11 Aladdin 11 to happen they made the biggest agency in the history of this country called the Department of Homeland Security and Tom Homan was the number two guy and he came to work for me he served on my boards because I was in the Homeland Security business and the government had a very positive view of me at this point so that so everything was good hunky-dory kill everything was good I'm killing it and then I take my brokerage from my go to London and I get public in London big that hadn't been a deal and I just started the Atlantic since 9-11 ship station is a success story partner you know what separates successful online businesses from literally everyone else it's not just having great products it's delivering an amazing shipping experience that keeps customers coming back all of my 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explain to people what you're actually doing at this point like what because yes I understand it but for the average person I don't need to understand the difference between a company going public on the New York stock exchange or the TSX or the London exchange I don't even know what that one's called but explain what you did when you moved to London why you moved to London okay so what happened that was kind of like the first thing that started to get this whole fucking FBI thing but what happened was this I um the company that I formed the 95 during this whole fiasco that story being written yeah that I was stolen I got approved it was called Roan Capital R.O.A.N a guy named Jerry Roth Jerry I hope you're okay Bedford New York he's rich guy he was a traitor it's Billy's Kellogg Goldman Sachs would out's Billy's Kellogg he became a very very wealthy guy I bought this stock brokerage from from him I called it Roan Capital he's a horse breeder Roan colored horses were his favorite color that's where the name comes from there's always a lot of people trying to think what's R.O.A. and R.O. is for Ross what's he who's the A.N. who's the secret partner it was the color of a horse he was a horse collector it was his whole thing great people are so crazy and I would I bought that company in 95 I got approved to own it that's what I was waiting for that approval and run it and within 20 months less than two years I sold it it was the hottest brokerage from in New York City blackstone everybody knows who blackstone is blackstone is sitting in my space in the office that I had decorated by a very famous interior decorator in New York named Ken Walker and probably the third biggest privately from in the world right now they took my space that's the space that I decorated and designed and so I retired I built this firm I made a lot of money and I used it and but I had it when I sold the company my personal clients didn't want to go with these guys that were buying the company and I had a huge business 12 guys working for me my own book so my Nelson came to me at the time I said listen you had done I get it lead not you made a lot of money I make sure everybody get paid but I really and I had met my my future wife at this place so I was involved in a like in a Hollywood type of fantasy romance and courtship and were traveling and just doing all kinds of great things together and settling down planning a family and the guys that worked for me said listen I parked them I made sure they were okay they didn't want to work at the people that put the firm there was a little a couple of guys I knew very well I called them friends we're working at an own to small investment michael thornwater was a limited partnership lLP and it was right across the street it was in a brownstone they owned the brownstone in new york which bright today worth you know 150 million it was right across the street for my apartment where I was living so I parked my 12 guys in that space I let them continue with the business you know the brokerage but yeah our brokerage business just our client business was generating you know probably half a million a month and I was the biggest beneficiary of that and that was just like you know like I let the guys have most of it and at some point they said they came to me it said listen you're so good at this you put together a firm the Wall Street journal everybody's hunting you and you put together the hottest from in new york and then plus the two years you walked away 50 million dollars you understand this whole thing I mean we don't want to work for these people we don't we do all this business these guys go out to lunch they smoke some guys they drink all day and we're giving them a hundred fifty grand a month it said we want to have our own firm I said I didn't want to do that I had just done that I wasn't interested really it's a lot of work you can retire at this point I was retired I was sort of retired I wasn't really working I wasn't so they said look I get engaged I got marries I buy my wife a big house on the land on the beach we have a beautiful apartment in Manhattan we stop making babies and we get dogs and all these good things and then these guys are begging me so I said I'll tell you what I'll do I don't want to own shit I don't want to own shit but if you want it in your name and you want to run it this and that I'll help you so I I did I walked them through the whole thing now later on the government would accuse me of secretly owning the firm why would I have to secretly own this firm I owned a firm five minutes before and ten minutes after in my name why would I secretly own this little shit bucket of a firm do you understand how they try and I do it they try and find the crime when there was none that's their big thing you secretly ran this broken deal I didn't secretly own anything anything I own I own and if I don't want I don't own it not interested I mean it's the stupidest thing in the world if it's worth doing it only I'm going to own it but if I'm helping a guy I'm helping a guy so now these guys that work for me we're not to shop this guys the hardworking good guys the second they had their own firm drinking smoking snorting because now they're making real money making a couple of million a month we're killing it any place I seem to go in the brokerage world everybody wanted to come I'm just like a guy Scott I'm a broker's broker yeah I know the game I'm very verbal I'm a very good at orating and I'm a natural leader and so once I got the hang of it I don't need anybody else I just do and then if guys want to come in the more the marry let's go as long as you're clean and you have a decent guy these guys stop being decent guy stop being clean guys and at some point along the way I said you know what I only want to be associated with these guys anymore this came up my trial I said you guys want to get rid of me because I started I complain but it's not my firm I don't have the power but I'm a bros mandel and I'm like I don't like this I don't approve that they started doing things sneaking around domestic violence beating up their girlfriends because they're stoned and doing all kinds of crazy you guys from crazy they went crazy like when I was in my early 20s when I went crazy they went crazy they were going crazy you see now that would have ever had access to this kind of money or power but I showed them I gave them and I put the key in the engine I showed them how to do all these different things so I said I gotta get out of this I gotta get myself extricated from this so I said I'll tell you what guys we made a deal a legitimate deal they were loyal I was loyal it was you know it was you know adversarial but we came to a deal they're paying me 70 grand a month you know adding finitum for them it's a great deal because the business is making 700 grand a month with my business did I let them run I took 70 grand a month I said I'm out we have a baby we're at the beach 2000 the end of the 90s I'm making money in the market I'm trading this I'm trading that everything.com.com I'm very content I'm set up I'm now married I've got a child I have two dogs of beach house and a beautiful Manhattan apartment four car I'm just I have the perfect life and I'm sitting at my so one day my my my daughter was she was born in February of 2000 she's a few months old and in March of 2000 was the big dot com crash did dot com bubble burst and to give you an example the biggest company in the world was called world com telephone company went to zero for what biggest company in the world the fourth biggest company in America the biggest energy company zero and run zeroed out loosen technologies eight plus rated a bell company from 82 to zero the Amazon the Jeff Bezos Amazon you guys all know 300 three dollars to three it's been revealed now by Jeff Bezos himself was that he was close to going out of business for months after months close to going to bankruptcy almost miss payroll all these different things the end of the world apparently and they're parading people on television I'm sitting there babysitting for my newly born kid and I'm watching CNBC at a beautiful office at a beach house 5,000 square feet I put 800,000 into the backyard with multi level decks and gardens and all kinds of great stuff and I'm watching all these guys they're parading on television trying to promote the market it's just a quick downturn by the dip it's gonna come back if you got quality everything comes back it's a stock market moron after moron after moron they're parading and I'm looking at this going I don't I can't nobody gets it I don't get it I can't imagine how stupid everybody is every once in a while the deck is reshuffled in every industry it's just a law of business if you study business if you study industry you'll see it happens all the time and I'm listening to these people and I take out a pad and I start doing what I do I stuff and you'll always say I always know by how many pads you have out my pads out and I'm sketching some shit and I realize something at that moment I already have the house the wife the kid the cars the dogs I'm happy my drug of choice has always been more pick up the phone I call one of my favorite lawyers and I say Rick let me tell you what I want to do and I walk them through the structure of brand new international investment bank and brokerage business I said nobody gets it we're going to be able to buy assets for five cents on the dollar in the burnt out brokerage brokerage sector and I create a prospectus a document and I give them the structure I'm going to own seven million shares there's going to be another seven million shares in the in the Treasury I'm going to sell six million shares for a dollar fifty we'll bring in nine million dollars we'll pay a million in commissions and then I want to get a million shares I'm going to give out to people I care about that have value and I'm going to take that company public on a foreign stock exchange he's like you drinking again so this is really not a thing when you're doing when you're pitching this idea to him I'm not pitching him I'm telling him what I'm going to do but it's not an idea that anyone's done before no but I just I feel like people just don't get certain things and it was just a wide open opportunity it's like what I see in the media game you see today you see things different of course I do that's why you make money I have a different sense of vision I mean I've been in a different game than most people I actually see the field I see the plays evolve you know it's like listen I never played hockey and I go to watch a hockey game and I love it so quick that I have no idea what the fuck's going on but they're like organized plays and guys have positions and guys position themselves you know I'll be done I'll tell you something when you play hockey there's a sense that you develop when you play hockey and it only comes from doing it for long enough but when you're on the ice because hockey moves like that it's insanely fast and when you're on the ice you know exactly what's going to happen it's like there's nothing else except you've just seen that thing a thousand times and you know exactly what's going to happen every single sequence of events before it happens about five to ten seconds or thirty seconds before and you have this sense so I know when one guy dumps the puck in I know I don't even have it in my vision when I can tell you feel it without without looking where every single person is on the ice behind me and exactly where they're going exactly where they've been an exact play they're going to do next but when you're playing with the pros everyone has that exactly right which is eating with all that everyone has it but it's like you have this six cents this you know you can see into the future in an instant sense a vision so you see you know I have that with the stock market yeah and I have that but even better than that I have it I specifically have it you know so you're talking about like situational hockey yeah right they dumped the you know they dumped the puck they're getting to the crease you know you know the moves it up okay so I see what's coming with media technology and the stock market I see it you see a podcast named Joe Rogan who gets a 200 million dollar contract from Spotify and people say to me how can they pay Joe Rogan 200 million dollars were they crazy and I see what Spotify is going to do but you also see what Spotify made on their market cap I know well that's secondary yeah I know I see where this is going yes I see all the offshoots that are coming I get it I see it like I see the two we sit here it's crystal clear to me and in 2000 in 2000 I saw the same thing and so I created it I created like almost a thesis and I wrote it and that's called sky cap I'm writing one now for raw media the same thing I just want you to understand that I'm saying this live hello how are you to his 700,000 followers and subscribers I see it clear as day and that's why I'm doing raw media because I don't need this you know what I mean I should just go to the some people just go buy a boat and go around the world and this and that because this is a legacy thing for me I don't want the last big chapter in verse written on the story of Ross Mandel to be went to prison made a lot of noise in the stock market and then they got him because he's a crook I ain't gonna that's not my legacy that's not that's not the way I'm going out I want something that my family my kids everybody else can see that my years have been wrongfully prosecuted wrongfully incarcerated they illegally marshaled the evidence against me I want that record to say this is just an asterisk in the story of Ross Mandel just like Donald Trump's story is not going to be that he was a 77 year old ex president billionaire who was convicted of 92 counts family counts and then they took away his business it took away the money from his children all the different things that they were going to do to him if he didn't win this election Donald Trump is in prison right now just so you know and you know each you can change the past by doing things today that's what kabbalah says and I gave someone an example of that recently and to make a long story short so it's 2000 I sketch out a proposition and people left at me they left at me all the guys that were paying the 70 grand a month that were cheating customers and getting jailed for domestic violence and doing drugs during the day at the year all the things that are ridiculous they left at me they all thought you know the market collapsed and watched a 2000 it's coming back soon I ended up buying their firm for paper I signed them all up none I gave none of them an upfront dollar I bought the assets of nine different firms in a year for no money paper turns out the paper had a lot of value because I'm good at this kind of thing I bought a whole bank for 120 million dollars I only paid it was the bank had a hundred thousand customers with accounts and had done 500 million in turnover the year before I always spent two million cash I bought them for 20 million shares a stock at six dollars and they got the money they got the whole 122 million because I'm good at it but so I made this proposition they left I created a document I created a website I lined up people that I respect like and look at their value I saw pitched it and then a couple guys put money in then all of a sudden and I was doing this I took a space I didn't want to be associated with this other firm but when I'm accused of secretly controlling I took a space down the block 110 Wall Street nice building I took a room about this big a thousand a month I hired a little Puerto Rican girl that needed a job she never she was no good but Mary I'm sorry but how are you baby hope you're good she's like a great grandmother and she's like 30 the girls in a family they sexually acted very early apparently or I don't know how they do it but they have kids you know and she's like this good looking 35 year old girl she's already grandmother I don't understand the math right math on the right it's so crazy so from that rule that one thousand that one thousand dollar much sweet next you know the guys across street see I take a whole floor at one 10 Wall Street and I send dealt two million dollars and buy what are all the best equipment they have because my network guy for the plan that I the I was very ambitious plan global trading cross-border etc different currencies all that I needed you know we didn't have the cloud then everything was the land the local you know everything was yeah your own network had to be locked out the room was like you know it was like a holy temple yeah it had to be like 60 63 degrees I had a guy 24 seven alarms this this that back and forth so I get this style equipment delivered a month later 9 11 hits I'm the only one on Wall Street that has equipment when you think about after everything you've gone through how do you wake up and still want to build after all the bullshit that you've been through is it a legacy play is it a peep what drives me I'm going to tell you the truth you know I could give you some canned bullshit ants but like my people are very nice to me generally I'm a nice guy first of all you've gotten to know me a little bit we've spent a lot of hours together I'm respectful I'm kind I can verify you are nice guy I believe in in in elevating people and saying nice things to people I can make jokes all these different things but consider a funny guy but I really can't what my family thinks of me I have children I have two daughters one day they're gonna have children and I worked hard I'm a hard worker like you I'm a hard worker you know when I put my head down I could look up and the whole day's gone I don't even know what happened and like I had a whole day before I even came to see you today a whole day then drove to Miami to make a long story short it's really important to me and if I needed the money right now I'd work I'd like and I know guys it's so called I can tell anything but I'm 68 years old I feel like God gave me the strength the moxie and the fortitude to do something with my life the rest of my life when I was in prison I helped a little help hundreds of people hundreds of inmates including officers I many officers in the BLP will we'll testify to that um some of the many of them follow me on social media and and DM me and stuff and it's not allowed to do that all and all that but they do it and um I feel like God has given me some gifts and my program when I got clean there's like I told you it's called 12 steps right well the 12 step is to give back if you want to keep what you have you have to give it away it was freely given to you you have to give it away and it's the old adage like whatever I give I get back 10 fold I could I could testify to that on my light and the lives of my children this is like a principle in the universe that is hold like gravity for me and um I feel like I can help I feel like I can help almost everybody I hate to say it like that I don't mean to be I am full of myself and I'm probably a narcissist and all these I am and it's probably true but at this point in my life I think I think if I didn't feel that way then what have I real done in my life and you know the greatest feeling I've had in my life is when I help other people and I see the light go on in their eyes I've amassed on my program that we do charge for and it's been the greatest gift to me because I'm not in the in my industry I'm not in the Wall Street I can help anybody when it comes to the markets and I do I do help people but um helping people men navigate life business family stress anxiety legal stuff everything and and women too now and it's just one of the most rewarding things ever my ex-wife was listening in on a couple of these masterminds and she goes this is your calling you could sit in your apartment here in your 80s and just help people as long as you could talk and so I feel like I have a higher calling I do all the things that I've just shared with this very honest from my heart I can't what I can't what my kids think when I get out of prison my kids wanted very little to do with me so you know I wasn't allowed to appear in a picture with them putting them in social media forget it dad I would there was some point when they first started going out meeting me for a family dinner remember they live without me for 10 years there were little girls 11 and 14 when I went in and they were highly embarrassed kids are cruel they had to get off social media for a while American greed came out to this day with you say American read to my wife she gets tear right she's not crying like it's affected her deeply what did she do wrong and people come at heart because people are cruel and I want to change the narrative I want to leave a legacy that's positive that's reflective of to the life I've actually lived not some fucking horse shit I mean if Donald Trump didn't win this election he would go down as like one of the biggest calendars in history of America instead he might very well go down as one of the greatest presidents in history of America wild how think about that that's like my story you know so so but but I'm gonna say like this now because I want to get very honest with you guys I sort of love this shit I don't feel 68 I'm like invested now in this podcast business I'm invested in this sort of mentorship and building a media company fun I could smell you know they sell shock can smell the blood in the water from a mile away if you're flapping your arms he splashes they can sense the sound from my I feel like I can see what's coming with raw media from a mile away I see it anything in my life that I've seen that clearly happens so now I'm sort of like hooked because I will say up into a few months ago I could have walked away I could have just said fuck it it's not worth it just not worth it even if I needed money I know how to make get money I don't need to do all this shit to make when I sit in my from my computer I it's easy for me do this my whole life but I feel like I can do something really great and you know this you just got clary hockey player from from Toronto right an executive from Ottawa right you now command the eyeballs of moving a million you command over a million eyeballs you it's crazy how great is that though yeah that's the miracle of what we're all doing here today how many people gonna see this in the clips and all these different things so if you really intent on changing an narrative or doing good what a platform this is if you really want to help people what a plat god has given us this gift when I was growing up there was like black and white TV and there was three channels three channels now there's a thousand channels and nothing interesting to watch you know you've been through the highest of highs lowest of lows in your life literally literally a lot of guys usually phrases yeah I've known I've been to the top of the mountain and I've been to the depths of fucking hell I have been have you what's what's your definition of success and a life well lived after you've been to both I'm going to tell you so depending who you are and where you are in life your deaf patient success is going to change and this is a big thing in prison guys talk about this a lot a lot of prison philosophers you know but there's a lot of the dummies in prison but there's some really brilliant minds in prison too it's interesting and other points of view but I have a very specific definition of success today and I'm really I'm by my definition I'm I'm becoming very successful and that's really what makes me that's what drives me the most right now but share that with your audience and you after spending you know a lot of time in prison nothing to do but read and pray and do push-ups and try and better myself that's a lot of time wasted my definition of success today for Ross Mandel and this is specifically to me is to have such a life that my adult children want to hang out with me it's the last time you want to hang out with your parents not talking to you specifically but until last time you want to hang out with your parents it's not too often generally speaking we do it as an obligation and it's sad because you can actually count how many times you're going to spend with your parents for the rest of your life and it's not a lot well it depends so my definition my kids today want to hang out with me that's gonna ask my daughter called me up dad Elliott's going to uh you know the soccer game with his friends so I'll be alone you think he could pick me up we can hang out we go out to lunch maybe go shopping went to purivita and Fort Lauderdale Sunday little shopping walking around hung out in a apartment we took a nap we both fell asleep on the couch took little snooze I mean you know I said you know if you're a a young woman who are you going to feel comfortable taking a nap with besides your boyfriend not many people like your dad right both we both we ate so much and we we both took us the best kind of lunch by the way the best well the other daughter is like home I have a daughter is like dad listen I have a date I'm gonna be in Miami for the weekend could you go feed my cat and sit with him for like an hour very spoiled cat very spoiled time so I go over there she calls me up that well I thought you're going to I said he said anywhere between nine and you know nine or ten so I was gonna go with ten oh okay now when you're there dad can you take some video take some pictures she's you know hold me get sure I don't know where and I you know come in and run out but it what a gift that I can do this for my kids and we go out for dinners and you know I told you I made a deal uh to produce a movie called blind greed starring Michael Kapon who's one of the original power ranges he's got the blue power magical time force yeah and he was uh in one tree hill the teen drama the show on TV and he made he's made two movies last year and five movies since 2020 and I've got a hundred TV commercials he's I'm a real guy and uh he was we had signed we had made the deal signed the deal but everything was on zoom and uh you know uh online et cetera on the phone and he was I insisted he come in and meet my family and my close team because we're all now going to produce this film and we're all part of it and there's this moving parts and I said to my kids I'd love for you guys to come and they was sight to come to the dinner we went to president president was shot out north military tree on book return and that we had an amazing dinner like over 14 people came and left and but it's to me that's what success is because in order for your children your adult children to want to spend time with you hey you've got to be pretty cool you got to be doing some pretty cool things because everybody's you know everybody you know wants to have a good time they don't want to just be up you know spend that obligatory couple hours with their parents and so to me that's really great and when my ex-wife wants to do things for me yes she still works with you and hang out with me um I know I'm winning boy I'm winning because she's a true a true he has to true measure of what is successful she has her own definition and it's a much more substantial definition now but I like your definition a lot that's how I feel today when I was your age at a different field you know it was all different but I'm just letting you know I like that I like that one of one of your favorite ideas that you have that I think will really hit with people after they know your story now this is not a dressy rehearsal you don't get them all again there are no doovers this is your life this is it yeah you know I mean people sitting and let me think about it think about what you know you know another one to me is become my favorite you know life is not a spectator sport get off the bench and get in there you're the star of your life you're the star of your life you know if your life was put on the big screen would you be excited is it meaningful was it a dud I mean get in there enjoy mix it up do some things take a chance have some fun I mean we don't get another chance at this you know I play used to play golf with my friends you know we're hackers you know and you know guy we'll tee off we don't like the shot I'm taking a mulligan I'm like what's a mulligan I thought it was like an iris stew I said I'm just waited this what rulebook is this and everybody knows it's a mulligan you know it's like funny and and that's what that's that's that's life yeah get in there baby you lost nearly a decade of your life more than that what's that's that's just tough I mean what do you see now you mentioned your family which you know that's probably going to be part of this answer but what's the most precious thing and the time that you do have left on this earth you know I like to be productive yeah there's a difference between actually being productive and feeling productive if you ever thought about it you'd be able to come up with your own your own concepts of that but I I like to feel productive not just to be productive because sometimes you just go through the motions of life of business and you really not feeling productive once you just go into the motions you're phoning it in it's why like people say like live live truly live life listen you could do anything why are you driving to Miami to do so you just with Scott Clay why are you going to drive you driving these 60 years old you're gonna drive to Miami and do this I'll tell you a good story about this one day I get invited to Matt Cox's podcast I love his podcast me too yeah he's a good guy so he's in Tampa I'm in Boca it's about a four hour ride this is right after the heart most recent hurricane my plan was to get up early in the morning and drive from Boca to Tampa do his podcast maybe an hour maybe 90 minutes whatever everyone's got different and then I'll drive back and when I got out of prison I was I had some health issues I had a couple I'd scare it to I had some things that I'm fine but there was no explanation for what happened but you know they say you Mr. Randall your speed of days are over you know it's uh you know I said I'm 16 I'm at 88 but you know shit happens but you know I'm I'm a believer that you know if you're gonna play in the big leagues if you're a big guy you're gonna play hurt you don't just sit on the bench you don't just phone it in so I I said I want to do this and Nelson will say you know stuff is like call Nelson he'll drive you I said I said of course he would but I want to do this so I don't understand are you crazy you're you're gonna drive across the state do a park and drive home in one day really give a great thought but yeah what the hell what the fuck what are waiting what are my I'm not you know doing construction in the hot sun yeah you're just driving and not laying in the box right so um little did I know so I got up I drove there it was a good four hours and there was shit all over the roads when you got towards the west coast of Florida it's bad there's a couple of detours and I get there and I said right as we're sitting to start I said so like what do you like to keep it to an hour I was knew it this I had no idea 40 minutes I mean what's the time when he was he goes bro you fucking Russ Mandela we're gonna be here until you can't find another word to say we want whatever you gonna talk we're gonna record you're here and oh you guys know I can probably talk they said we've been here for four hours before five hours and 13 minutes later you did a five hour podcast with him five hours and 13 minutes I thought I why it wasn't five hours that he published didn't listen okay 46,000 views five hours and 13 minutes just recently I I just discovered this yesterday but I see he did it in January he cut out a 20 minute clip specifically about the stock market and just posted that but it was five hours and 13 minutes now we spoke for a half hour before and about a half hour after and then I first had a drive home four hours and it was a great day it was a great day and you know stuff he's like pull over get a hotel room you know what I mean like people I bet it's funny so I drove you know of course my counterpart over there he goes to Orlando he takes a hotel you know it's a manicure a pedicure always yeah you know you're doing your doing your life brother Nelson you know I'm just saying so I we were eight hours of driving five hours of podcasting an hour half hour half hours so it's a big day right and I wasn't really feeling great but I did it and you want to know what was a great day it was a great day and he asked why'd you do that said I wanted to see if I could I wanted to test myself I've been locked up for 10 years I didn't drive a car for 10 years you know what I was in a car was when they chain the up and they moved me from place to place you know what I mean back of the van the leg chains waist chain I don't even believe it so I said here I could drive and did I get paid for that no did it cost me money to do this it did two full tanks of gas and I don't know what the hell I but the point I make to you is that it was a great feeling coming to see you like today this is great it's great I mean your great guy the great studio you know it's my story I heard your story I feel like you got to know you and it's it's um but you know we're not doing heavy construction we're not welding you know of 3,000 people of sea level you know we're chatting and it's air condition it's nice bro and so I think it's really and if if if we if we help one person with one person gets any sort of help or comfort from this we entertain them we did a good thing if you given a lot to to the audience and I appreciate you what's one last sort of some words of wisdom that you want to leave them with there's something that we didn't go into that you think would be helpful for the audience when they're trying to navigate life business or just outside of business just life in general you know I'm gonna borrow this from someone that was revealed to be one of the smartest men in the history of the world and on his deathbed he said and I repeat this to the audience's mind you know anything that can be solved or cured by I by either time or money is an issue not a problem it's very important to understand this in the general routine of life people believe they have these problems they don't have problems most people don't have problems but they have issues and if you can cure if you can cure a circumstance with money or with time it's not a problem they have an issue so I did time I literally checked into a prison in 2014 and I essentially didn't get released to 2024 that wasn't a problem it was an issue no issues is serious but it was an issue a problem is different you have a brain tumor you days and numbered that's a problem so these are things that people should really consider because I believe that with the masters of our own fate largely I feel that God our creator our maker gives us an opportunity to conquer lives our own lives we can conquer our own lives I believe everybody has the ability to become very successful whatever their own definition of success is very important they trying to find success I was on the phone with a beautiful woman who you met last week and I said what are the five most important things to you in the world think about it don't answer what are the five most important if I was a genie I'm a laden's genie rubbed the lamp I come out you don't have anything in the world what are the five things you want what are the five most important things to you and that's your starting point in life let's say you triangulate where you are so a lot of people want to be successful they want to be successful in business they want to be successful in life in relation in podcasts on the stock market uh in you know basically in any endeavor and I think that everybody would be successful because I think people just about everybody wants to be successful but nobody understands and there's a million books there's a million shows there's a million podcasts there's a million theories about how to be successful in the stock market in relationships I mean they had stories for everything but people don't know where the starting line is where do I just show me where you know just show me where I show up where the race starts and I can run the race because I'm on with Google and books and wisdom and philosophers and mentors people don't understand where they show up where's the starting line and I think that's one of the most important things and anything that can be solved with time or money it's just it it's just an issue people don't have problems like they think they do can't pay the rent my jar I don't have enough to live how am I going to support my children I mean these are issues don't don't make them more than they are because even when you see a hell no problem when you see a fucking mountain like a god I can't do it and that's very important to put things into perspective that's very wise when people see problems when people see issues as problems that can sabotage their whole life well that's what happened that is sabotage yeah that's what happens and so that's why I tried to put that into perspective it takes a lot of thinking and understanding and I don't want to start defining the different specific problems because then the people that are listening to actually have problems are going to panic did it would tell you look a little bit like Ben Affleck I have heard that before I'm staring at you and I feel like I'm looking at Ben Affleck it's not the worst thing listen yeah yeah that's a good thing the good thing that's definitely not a problem or an issue I'll take that out the more I look at you the more I see Ben Affleck is that crazy where can people connect with you where can people find more about raw media about some of the content you're working on all that thank you Ross Mandel.com is a website Ross's double s Mandel was ma and double l.com just like it sounds Ross Mandel on Instagram on Facebook I have a friend page and a fan page follow me hit me up some of your friend requests I'm on YouTube the real Ross Mandel please subscribe info at Ross Mandel.com my team is 24-7 they'll respond I promise you within a few hours at at worst with a mentorship program where I mentored people I messed up my program I consult if you have the business if you have a company if you have an issue or if you have a problem last thing I always like to ask you even over a lot of wisdom and you mentioned a few times how important your family your kids are if you had to pick out of all the different things that you've learned over your life and you could only pass on you're only allowed in this exercise to pass on one lesson to your kids what would that lesson be in a way? Invest in yourself believe in yourself don't pay what everybody's selling don't pay the illusion