Where You Are Now Has Nothing To Do With Where You End Up

When I look back on my life, had I worried about the fact I grew up in a lower middle class family with not one example of financial or business success, I might never have had the motivation to succeed in my business life. I never looked at my situation as being permanent but always looked at it as being temporary.

Reading changed my life. It allowed me to see how people raised themselves from a challenging situation into a fantastic situation. I learned from others’ challenges and successes. I learned that failure isn’t permanent and that on their journey to success, everyone meets multiple challenges. I learned that successful people push on through challenges and figure out a way to overcome them. I learned that they never give up regardless of how bleak it looks. They decide that failure isn’t permanent and that all they need to do is grow their skills and knowledge along with an incredible work ethic, and with perseverance, success is inevitable.

I grew up in a 1,000 square foot home with four sisters, two brothers and mom and dad. Our bathroom was the size of a small closet and we slept 3 and 4 to a small room. I never thought anything about it being anything other than normal. I had loving, hard working honest parents whose main goal was teaching us how to be good people. My mother had a 9th grade education and my father had a 3rd grade education. With that start, they reared seven children to be good citizens and good people. We had love, plenty of food and a safe place to live. My parents expected us to work hard and treat people with respect. The example my parents set with very limited resources as I look back was incredibly impressive.

I grew up in a Mexican Catholic family, with an extended family that was huge: tons of aunts, uncles and cousins. In our family, there was not even one example of a financially successful person and no one had ever gone to college or started their own business. In fact when someone in our family graduated from high school it was as if they graduated from Wharton or Stanford (like my son Dack and daughter Jenée did). 

I lived 2 blocks from the Chino library and it was my home away from home, where I learned to love reading. Reading without question allowed me to become a dreamer. I read primarily biographies of successful sport heroes and later successful people in general. Virtually all off the successful people I read about had tremendous challenges on their way to becoming successful. This made me realize I would have challenges, and that with the right attitude, thinking and work ethic, it was possible to overcome them. So, when some challenge presented itself, I didn’t think “oh man maybe I’m not cut out for success”. Instead, I expected this now and asked, “What do I need to do grow my skills and knowledge to overcome this situation?”

I realized that my thinking created my situation and that if I developed a winner’s method of thinking, that over time I would in fact succeed. Believing that my situation was never permanent allowed me to keep pressing forward and the pressing forward ultimately led to me having a level of success that would have seemed impossible coming from my situation.

I became the first of my entire extend family to go to college and actually graduate with a degree in psychology and a minor in Spanish. There, I played basketball and tennis where I met and became friends with some wealthy people. During breaks they would go to Aspen to ski, Hawaii or some other exotic location and I would go home and paint our home. What I learned from befriending these wealthy people is they weren’t any better or smarter than me and that their parents worked hard and created their success. So I believed if someone else succeeded, so could I, if I simply did what they did. I discovered that about 80% of all successful people started out either middle class or lower, so their was no reason I couldn’t succeed if I prepared and did the work.

I was married after my junior year in college and we had my son Dack 15 months later and my daughter Jenée after that. My wife Jann and I struggled for sometime but I was determined to change the trajectory of our family and began looking for an opportunity do that.

I tried four different part time businesses before finding my current business which has allowed me to become debt free and completely financially independent. From nothing, I now have over ten thousand agents marketing financial service products. I teach the motivated ones how to succeed in our business and every-time anyone of them completes a transaction of any kind I receive an override, and the numbers are substantial. During my 32 years in business I have assisted many motivated individuals to succeed on a significant level. Notice I said “motivated individuals”; I say this because regardless of who you are it is impossible to help Un-Motivated people succeed at anything. This is a lesson I learned the hard way, but thank God I did.

As you look at your current situation, remember it is not permanent, and what will change it is YOU and ONLY YOU! Decide to do the work to grow your skills and knowledge, then be relentless in your actions toward your goals. Nothing and no one can stop you form accomplishing what you desire but YOU! No more excuses. Do it or don’t do it, but don’t make any excuses for your results.

I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you can succeed if you truly desire it with every fiber of your being, and no one can create that desire and action but YOU.

So get busy, so you don’t end up at the end of your life right where you are now.

Love and Gratitude,

Hector LaMarque