The Shift You Need to Become a Profitable Trader

social media has put such an unrealistic expectation and I felt like a total failure you're kind of like in this dark place like oh no one's here in some sense a lot of people would say you've already made it why are you still going don't have any energy to even think about sitting at the markets and doing 8 hours straight reading it and back testing uh Lea get off my loros right now get off get off my shoes please look at the PO print on myos we should just stand in on your Loos like just pour on one one one foot bro what do you think you are that's disrespectful I did teach you to be like that it wasn't always like this was it no you know four years ago you couldn't have really predicted that this is where it would be you know most people don't really get to see this type of stuff is what did it actually take to get here the life that I Live Now is at one point was a dream a dream that part of me believed that was possible but another part of me like everyone that has a dream there's always a part of them that has some level of Doubt some level of disbelief four five years ago now when I kind of first started trading I looked at trading as something that I thought that could make me money the same as I guess why everybody starts trading or starts something is the desire for money the desire for Freedom would you say it's money that's always been driving you or was there a point where you realized you know there's more to this and when you start to get some money you realize that money in of itself was never the actual thing you wanted it was what money can do for you and what you can do with the money the money itself was was pointless so being able to take care of your family take care of your loved ones money helps you do that but money without that was purposeless even when it comes down to bigger picture thinking you think that when you've grow up with no money you think that money will make you happy and the sad truth is like money won't make you happy and at some point in time you have to shift your focus to some degree to something more more Purpose Driven it can be selfish can be selfless can be a combination of both pursuing a better version of yourself trying to be a better version of yourself in as many areas of your life it becomes a lot more fulfilling than just thinking about money with social media nowadays right things look very easy you jump into something with the expectation of okay this is going to be easy and for I'm going to absolutely crush it I'm going to set this goal one two three months and I'm going to be where I want to be was there a certain moment where you got to where you was like okay this is it's more difficult than I thought it would be I think everyone goes through that I've been through that myself and actually it's something that I consider the biggest point of failure for all Traders I always use the analogy when it comes to unrealistic expectations let's say for example example Kean comes in here right now and and we know nothing about running we know nothing about what's a good time for a 5 km Runner and he comes in is like right you guys you're both going to run a 5k and then he pulls you aside and it's like you're going to run a 5k but I'm just going to tell you the average time for you to run a 5k your age and everything like that is 15 minutes to run a 5k and then it pulls me aside and it's like yo just wanted to let you know the average time to run a 5k is 35 minutes we both go we run our 5Ks we come back you get 20 minute 5K great 5K I come back I get 25 minute 5K your 5K is better than mine but because of my expectations of what average was I perceive my 5K to be so much better you've done an amazing job and yet you're left feeling like you're not good enough like this isn't for you you should quit you probably shouldn't run again I'm way below average and this is what I see with Traders and I went through myself like you said when you jump on social media everyone's out here showing these $100 to a million flips and we know their total BS but they don't know how fake that stuff is they they think it's possible they think it's real when you see someone who you think flipped $100 into a million dollars or 10x their account in in 30 days that becomes your expectation you think that you can do that and so you set your goals to do that I was under the impression these guys that I was seeing online they were pulling out these crazy trades one to 20s one to 30s one to 40s and I was thinking like these guys are what turning 40 50 60% a month because that's what they made it to look like I'd failed a couple challenges before and then one ftmo challenge that I had I finished the first month 3% in profit and I felt like a total failure and then I had the next month because back then when I started prop firms unfortunately there was no such thing as unlimited time you had a 30-day period to hit the 10% otherwise they're going to reset your account so you had to make 10% in 30 days because of that as well that added the extra pressure of like it should be like that because why would they set it like that if it's not when in the reality is is they set it like that so that most people fail the point being is that I hit 3% and failed my Challenge and then the next month I hit 4% and failed my challenge that for me was extremely extremely demoralizing because I had set the expectation that I should be doing 20 30% a month that I should be doing 10% a month minimum consistently to get my accounts and so that's extremely demoralizing because when I look back on that now as a Trader that has already done it that is already still consistently doing it I understand the power of even just being able to return 4% in a month so many Traders Overlook that like 4% a month for an entire year is what 48% now it sounds small because social media has put such an unrealistic expectation on what's reality $100 to a million dollars or flipping 10K to 100K when you look at it like that and then someone says 48% in a year you're like what is that and it's so sad because that 48% in a year if you can just get yourself a million dollars in funding and so many people will look at that and they'll think oh a million dollars that's so difficult to attain like it's actually not that difficult she was profitable before you even realized you was profitable what was it that you know made you realize that you actually already was profitable and that what you was already doing was incredible because some people are still stuck there right now thinking because they don't have a 1 to 10 or one to 20 that they haven't made it yet they aren't good enough and if they keep chasing that then you know they're kind of destined to fail I guess it was really diving into taking my focus off of the guys that were telling me like one to 100s are are normal and this sort of stuff and understanding trading and institutional Traders hedge fund Traders and their average returns and I think the Breakthrough was understanding the idea that assets under management will always outdo return on investment okay 3% on 100K account it's like it's three grand it's like it's not life changing money but then when you go well that same 3% on a million dollars is 30 grand it becomes life changing and it's the same percentage it's the same trades nothing changes and so when prop firms did eventually shift their model to unlimited days then I guess you realize that actually 3% 4% 5% 6% a month is very very good and right right now like I'm sitting up last year my systems returned a combined 86% even still like some people would look at that and they're think like 7% a month 8% a month like what about these guys that are flipping 10 grand to to a million dollars and it's just like they're fake they're not doing that if they were doing that they why wouldn't they just flip a million dollars into a hundred million dollars why why would they be making YouTube content like let's be real and that's the only thing that annoys me is like when you set unrealistic expectations especially when you're doing it to other people knowing that unattainable you're setting them up for failure did you actually get to the point where you you kind of wanted to give up and you thought okay maybe I'm not suited for this and maybe I should try something else many of times people don't believe that you can do the conventional path and you want to go down an unconventional path of course they're never going to believe that you can that you can do that honestly like I don't think many people believed in me so many people have the saying man it's like when you're down they kind of root for you they say like yeah man like I hope you make it and stuff like that but I think deep down they don't think that you will but then eventually when you start to see some level of success I think some level of resentment comes in because they didn't expect you to like when you have people that thought they were let's say better than you because they got good grades they were going to college or they they got a job you're kind of like in their eyes lesser than I think there's a saying like nobody doing better than you will ever try to pull you down so when you're in that level they're kind of seen as higher than you they they maybe even perceive themselves to be higher and so they kind of root for you but then I don't think they do it out of any level of belief and you you can kind of feel that it's like oh yeah man like you know I hope that thing works out but deep down they're like that kid got no chance and I think you kind of feel up does that affect you in any way do you feel like at some point you know you started to realize that and wasn't really how you thought it would have been in regards to the friends or the belief I suppose the people around you man cuz it's got to be difficult you know you grow up with all your friends at school you got your family and stuff around you they're rooting for you at one point and then you know at the next it's like they act as if they're rooting for you but you know deep down or not did that affect you in any way or was it like yeah it's cool it's part of the journey I think it's accepting that it's part of a journey was pretty easy for me it just kind of the natural progression you're more unrelatable I was blessed for sure because along the journey you make friends who who do believe in you you meet people who do really care for you you meet part Partners you meet like close friends that become brothers and so it doesn't really matter anymore and that's along the way and and I think that's what happens when you take that non-traditional path you lose out in the beginning because you're you're kind of like in this dark place like oh [ __ ] no one's here but then as you just keep going keep going keep going you just meet people that are on that path and it's even better in some sense a lot of people would say you've already made it why are you still going and what's keeping you going Evolution there was a point in life where money was the biggest goal it's like they give the analogy right of oxygen right now we're here we're not thinking about oxygen right we've got an abundance of oxygen there's grass everywhere there's fresh air but if someone was to come over close your mouth close your nose you can't breathe anymore at some point in time the only thing that you could possibly think about is I need to breathe I need oxygen I need air and so I think that when you're at the beginning you can't really think about anything other than money just like yo I just need to good that's the only thing that you focus on and simultaneously you put that on this pedestal and you think that once you achieve that and an abundance of it to the point where you can do what you want when you want then you will be happy then you've achieved the goal the reality is is when you get to that point you realize that money is useless in of itself it's a tool to to be able to do things with and when you get to that point you realize that actually it's not the end that's the most valuable it's the journey that you go on the memories of who I was and how difficult the journey was will never leave me and what got me out of those hard places were mentors it was people like Tony Robbins or the Gary V's of social media preaching this idea of becoming a better version of yourself and how to do that because the one thing that a lot of people struggle with is great they have this idea they want to do something they want to be better they want to feel better they want a different life but how what do I do where do I start where do I even begin and that's what frow so many people off and so when I found these you know ququ mentors and started reading books and watching YouTube videos it completely changed my life and I swear to God four five year even longer five six seven years ago when I was starting to get out of that low phase and start to have a purpose and and want to be better I knew that when I made it I swear I will show others how to do it because of how much it changed my life and I wanted to be able to do for others what they did for me and so purpose became and is a massive part of why you why you keep going because it's like what else is there to do something that I've realized in my journey and I know that you definitely have cuz we was on it together was to actually become great to actually make it it's more than trading there's whole personal development that has to come with it you know you have to change who you are you can't have this goal of I want to become a Trader and sit at home and in your bedroom and and just try and learn trading right there's more to it let's touch on that Journey you know what did it actually take because it wasn't just trading that got you there trading in of itself is the skill set but there's a whole other side of things which I guess you could consider mentally is like who you need to become for example right now there is someone out there maybe even watching this video or watching a different video they get motivation and then the end of the video an hour later and they're back doing the same old stuff chilling playing video games watching Netflix do going to the club partying wanting to go out with friends like all of these things that take your time energy Focus Etc they go back to those same things now why is that and by the way there's no there's no issue with watching a movie once in a while or playing some video games with your friends once in a while but you have to prioritize and for a period of your life you have to eliminate anything that gets in the way between you and doing what you know needs to be done so people have the motivation they get this motivation they want to take action and then they go back to being their old selves it's a very simple equation Newton's third law is for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction simply put cause and effect right everything you do there's going to be an equal and opposite reaction so you have to reverse engineer it if your goal is to become a consistently profitable Trader you know make 10 grand 20 grand a month and live the life that you want then you have to go cool what is everything that I need to do to get what I need to get and what is everything that I'm currently doing that's not in alignment with that and then remove it that's not as straightforward as just doing it it becomes a case of you need to change who you are on a deep level because who you are right now is that person who watches the movies Bing binge watches series plays video games wants to go to the parties wants to chase the girls or just distraction distraction distraction distraction and it's not as simple as just learn trading or spend an hour a week learning trading and eventually you're going to I get there it's like you have to go all in you have to commit to it and you have to remove everything that gets in your way and the only way that you can do that is by really honing in on changing who you are as a person you have to become the type of person who does the work that needs to be done money and success only amplifies who you are right so if you don't change these things about yourself and all of a sudden you grab extra money that you've never had before you're only going to indulge more and more into those things right you grab a little bit more money you start drinking more you start going out more you start eating more food you start eating more expensive food that within itself is detrimental to the journey that you're trying to be on do you believe in God like what is that for you what are your beliefs not in the traditional sense but for sure I believe that there is a Creator I believe that there's a creator of this world and I believe that that creator has set up this game set up this whatever you want to call it with rules with laws that must be adhered to because you can't not adhere to them because they exist and The Game of Life and if you kind of want to FastTrack success is figure out the laws figure out the rules of the game and then use them gravity gravity is one of the laws right it doesn't matter whether you know gravity exists when I was 3 years old I didn't know that gravity was a principle but when I jumped up off my sofa and landed on my face I experienced gravity I didn't know it was a thing but that doesn't mean that it wasn't going on so how many of those other principles like gravity exist that we don't know and I'm not just talking about the the proven things I'm talking about things that I mean you can't see gravity but it still exists so things like the law of vibration or the law of polarity these are other things laws rules of the game that exist that if you understand understand them if you learn them and if you apply them will give you an edge over other people let's take for example the law of vibration a lot of people call it the law of attraction or like a lot of people call it many different things some people call it karma I don't know many different names for many different things and I think that most people get lost in the in the noise of of what it really is I like to look at things purely from as much proof and Science and logic as possible while still not losing essence of some belief in kind of the the Unseen but it's like everything is energy mhm everything at its Primal source is energy it's vibration it just vibrates at different frequencies that creates different ideologies of matter this thing that looks physical is only a few perent physical the the majority of it is non-physical it's energy it's just waves the same as light the same as sound matter is the exact same and now this goes over most heads but it's scientifically proven and you don't need to go so deep into understand the in of it you can just understand and these are the laws that God creates if you want something you want to become a profitable Trader well there are laws and there are rules around the game that you can play and so if you can align yourself both with action emotion and thought with one goal you've cracked the code and many people don't know about that code and so when you ask me you know about God I believe in God as the creator of the system and he designed rules and then he gave us free will to play the game however you want to play and so he has no favorites it's all equal we all have the same opportunity we all have the same potential but it's like how do you play the game and how you play the game is completely dependent on you let's get a little bit serious for a minute at the end of the day if you're striving to be a profitable Trader and you know you want to be successful and you actually want to take this route then it it is time to be serious what think things did you do that you know before you even started this journey you didn't think you'd ever do like the routines that we've had to go down the diets that we've gone on you know the the different things that we've tried things that we've had to remove like all this stuff because you don't even realize how important it is until you've been through it it's not about what you do as much as it's about what you don't do so when we first started like we started together and we are going 10 12 hours a day purely focus on learning how to read the market meditation going to the gym eating the right food so that we have the mental Clarity to and energy to be able to go for as long as we were going for like you see so many people they eat this kind of traditional American diet donuts for breakfast and stuff and they wonder why at at 1 p.m. they're like like slugged out can't even don't have any energy to even think about going upstairs and sitting at the market and doing 8 hours straight looking at the market and reading it and back testing and Building Systems because they don't have the mental capacity it's just they are ruining themselves biologically we devoted every single hour that we were awake of every single day no exaggeration Monday to Sunday no other responsibilities purely to everything that we could do to get us closer to this go whether it be gym meditation recovery in the spa eating the right foods and the most important obviously is the hours on hours on hours on hours of understanding price of back testing price putting the work in religiously and that's that's really what gets us here let's be real it kind of bothers me because we've been through it we we know the truth we know there's truth to everything that a lot of people say right but it's true you know we went through that we went through the sacrifice we went through the different routines and going to the gym reading the book studying working all day but for periods of time yeah and that doesn't mean that we're perfect and that that's something that we do every single day I think it's only fair to share a little bit of truth about it as well so that people don't get the wrong perception and you know doubt themselves when they can't stick to something all the time and they think yo I'm not I can't do this why why can't I do it yeah it's so easy to get the the wrong impression and then create unrealistic expectations for for yourself so as much as I emphasize the amount of work that we did that doesn't mean that you will be perfect it doesn't mean that you won't have days where you don't do as much or where you do get more distracted or where things come up and you're not able to execute as much or where you do break a day of your diet or you do miss a day of the gym it's not about being perfect it's about having standards and doing whatever you can to abide by those standards it's good that you touched on it because I remember an important part of our journey was when other people were telling us how important these things are and we're doing it to the best of our ability like to to that 99.9% of others couldn't even comprehend but still not to a level of perfection and when that happens and then when you slip up or when something goes wrong or out of context you beat yourself up about it you think it's the end of the world and you don't think that you're good enough and that affects you as well that isn't an excuse to have Sloppy standards you know deep down in your core on whether you're doing enough and as long as you're doing enough you will eventually achieve success you don't have to be perfect but if you know that you aren't doing what's required if you know that you you definitely could do more then you should do more because we obsessed over trying to be perfect to a point of borderline unhealthy yeah unhealthy it is for for sure but it gets you there and this is what again no not everyone tells you like you don't have to then do that forever like you only have to you only have to learn the skill once you only have to master the skill of trading once all of the time it's like a rocket a rocket consumes like 70 to 80% of its fuel to get like 5et off the ground so it has 100% of its Fuel and it uses 80% of it just to get 5T off the ground and then it uses the extra 20% to go the millions and millions and millions of or billions of feet up into the air it's the same with trading it's the same with everything it's the most difficult part and the part that takes the most energy the most momentum the most discipline is getting off the ground because once you get there like I said you only need to get off the ground once you only need to get trading under control and to a consistent level once and then you can trade three hours a day or you can trade both the sessions six hours a day if you even really wanted to you can genuinely trade three hours a day and make the money that you dream off I'm at that point now where I can trade 3 hours a day and still be making tens and tens of thousands of dollars a month consistently and to others it looks like not hard work but all of the hard work comes in preparation the same as it takes a rocket 80% to get off the ground so I guess it's it's the same thing and you know something that I think it's only fair to kind of end on what we did and what we put ourselves through was kind of borderline unhealthy right was it worth it and if you could start again would you do exactly what you've done or would you change I would do it with the same level of intensity man I would rather go to the extreme lengths of even borderline unhealth Obsession to get there faster and then once you're there then you can incorporate some levels of balance if if you want to let's get one thing clear like we say borderline unhealthy and we the reason I say that is because of the level of perfection but brother that was some of the best days and times of our life period they are the memories that you know we hold at the end of the day like this is amazing like what we have now is amazing but you know what we speak about when we're together when we're friends and it's not what we have now it's the journey we went through it's the things we learned it's the struggles that we had to overcome it's the times of like sitting there like man is it even worth it like I'm I'm lost am I doing the right thing those are the times where you look back and go man that was a cool experience and I'm going to tell that people forever I would do everything the same and I'm super grateful that we are where we are man like this is to anyone who's watching like trust me we are just two kids that are nothing different to you we're not special we're not God's gifts we are the pure representation of just doing what's needed to do we never thought that we would actually realize this type of life and yet here we are in the raining Bary in the raining Bley yeah started raining is there anything that you'd like to close off with any closing thought for people to take away and yeah the closing thought that I have for you no matter where you are right now no matter how difficult it may be no matter how many people may not believe in you no matter how lost you may feel or how much you doubt yourself or whether it's possible I am telling you as someone who has been where you are it is worth it it is possible and you genuinely can achieve it there were times where I genuinely doubted is this stuff even legit because I see all these guys online making money and I can't seem to figure out I would be lying to you if I told you there wasn't times I was like is it even legit like can you even do this trading thing or is it just everyone else calls it a scam like is it a scam and that's me even putting all my time and effort into it and I'm telling you from the bottom of my heart genuinely it is possible and you can do it if you just do what's required that