# The Hardest Working People Make the LEAST

An episode of [Earn Your Leisure](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1450211392), 5 Oct 2026, 10 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/8dbc4f54-a337-4481-9ef2-b355012b0a3d/2719e177-c7ef-4ba5-88a2-b4d800e773bb/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=eac4c628-29cb-469a-b5c8-b355012b0a48

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## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: You don't become successful by being lucky. Your book title
[0:05] Speaker 1: is Life is Luck. What does that mean?
[0:08] Speaker 2: All right. What that means is this. Life is a
[0:13] Speaker 2: thousand left turns, a thousand right turns, a thousand U-turns.
[0:17] Speaker 2: And a lot of the turns, you just flip a coin.
[0:20] Speaker 2: You just do it. Now, everybody who is successful, or
[0:25] Speaker 2: not everybody, most people who are successful are don't want
[0:29] Speaker 2: to say I was lucky. They want to say hard work.
[0:32] Speaker 2: Hard work. Well, here's what I want to tell you
[0:34] Speaker 2: about hard work. The hardest working people in America make
[0:41] Speaker 2: the least.
[0:42] Speaker 1: That's true.
[0:43] Speaker 2: Make the least. That's a fact. I'm with you. So
[0:45] Speaker 2: don't ever– have you ever taken a shovel and tried
[0:52] Speaker 2: to dig a hole? You ever done that? No, I haven't.
[0:56] Speaker 2: I have. It's hard. It's like, forget it. It's like,
[1:01] Speaker 2: and if you have some frost on the ground, you know,
[1:04] Speaker 2: you're like, forget it. The hardest work, you know, in
[1:09] Speaker 2: the fields, picking strawberries and throwing watermelons, and that's the
[1:14] Speaker 2: hardest work in America. And they make the least. So
[1:21] Speaker 2: what I recognize is this. There was a few things
[1:25] Speaker 2: that happened in my life that changed everything for me,
[1:31] Speaker 2: like Jerry Billings. What if I didn't go to Jerry Billings?
[1:36] Speaker 2: What would have happened to me? I think I might
[1:39] Speaker 2: have still been okay, but would this have happened? I
[1:43] Speaker 2: had a big case early in my life. I build
[1:46] Speaker 2: these attractions across America called Wonder Works, and they print money.
[1:51] Speaker 2: The houses are turned upside down. When you walk in,
[1:55] Speaker 2: you're standing on the ceiling. And I got six of them,
[1:59] Speaker 2: and I got no debt, and I make $ 33 million
[2:03] Speaker 2: a year in EBITDA. But guess what? I did the
[2:07] Speaker 2: first one in Orlando. I did the second one in
[2:09] Speaker 2: Pigeon Forge. I did the third one in Myrtle Beach.
[2:16] Speaker 2: And then I did one in Syracuse in a mall,
[2:18] Speaker 2: and it's a total disaster. Total disaster. If I'd done
[2:24] Speaker 2: that one first, I might not have done none. I
[2:27] Speaker 2: might have just been it. But I did it in Orlando.
[2:34] Speaker 2: Sometimes it's just that it's not that your idea was bad,
[2:36] Speaker 2: it was your location was bad, your city was bad,
[2:40] Speaker 2: or you didn't have enough capital. And so there's so
[2:45] Speaker 2: many of confluence of events that make it like, and
[2:49] Speaker 2: if I had to say to you guys, Tell me
[2:53] Speaker 2: the luckiest... I'll ask you, what's the luckiest thing that's
[2:55] Speaker 2: ever happened to you in this world that you're in?
[2:59] Speaker 1: The luckiest thing that's ever happened?
[3:00] Speaker 2: You're supposed to say I met him, but keep going.
[3:02] Speaker 2: That should be at the top of my list.
[3:06] Speaker 1: Well, let me say this, though.
[3:07] Speaker 2: Let me say this. Because.
[3:10] Speaker 1: I'm going to answer that question.
[3:11] Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you something. I'm glad you don't
[3:12] Speaker 2: live in Orlando because you two would be, I mean.
[3:15] Speaker 2: We're hanging out after this. I'm telling you. I keep
[3:17] Speaker 2: watching him laughing at you. I'm like, I got to
[3:19] Speaker 2: separate these two guys. But we've been fortunate a lot.
[3:22] Speaker 1: Like, we've been fortunate to run into Steve Harvey, who's
[3:25] Speaker 1: become a great mentor to us, business partner. We've been
[3:29] Speaker 1: fortunate to start the show in a time where people
[3:33] Speaker 1: really was interested. We was fortunate, I hate to say it,
[3:35] Speaker 1: but even COVID, because that was an acceleration period for us.
[3:39] Speaker 1: But we also put ourselves in position to be fortunate.
[3:44] Speaker 1: It's not like we was just random people on a
[3:46] Speaker 1: street and then it's like COVID happened and it's like, oh,
[3:48] Speaker 1: now we're going to become.
[3:49] Speaker 2: Never eat alone. Never eat alone. Listen, the way you
[3:53] Speaker 2: find luck is you're looking for opportunities. That's in your control.
[3:59] Speaker 2: It's not all luck. Right. You know, If you don't
[4:03] Speaker 2: play the game.
[4:04] Speaker 1: Got to be in it to win it.
[4:05] Speaker 2: Yeah. And if you never take a shot on goal,
[4:08] Speaker 2: you never make a goal. Wayne Gretzky. So you create
[4:10] Speaker 2: the luck. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't want to take
[4:15] Speaker 2: too much away from it. Listen, Grant Hill is a
[4:19] Speaker 2: partner of mine in some businesses. And one time, I'm
[4:23] Speaker 2: from Kentucky. He played at Duke. I'm a Kentucky fan.
[4:26] Speaker 2: You are? Yeah. Dude. Yeah. How'd that happen? 90s. I
[4:32] Speaker 2: grew up just watching Jamal Mashburn and Travis Ford. Oh, yeah.
[4:35] Speaker 1: And that was it.
[4:36] Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. I was like, he's from the Bronx. Point guard.
[4:39] Speaker 2: This is going to be my team. Yeah. And it's
[4:41] Speaker 2: just been my team. Well, me and Dan are real
[4:43] Speaker 2: close with Cal. He's out in Arkansas. He's not with
[4:46] Speaker 2: us anymore. No, but he should be.
[4:49] Speaker 1: Kentucky's your team?
[4:50] Speaker 2: Yeah, it's always been my team. Exclusively?
[4:52] Speaker 1: Yeah. College?
[4:54] Speaker 2: That's your college team? 100%. I knew I loved you.
[4:56] Speaker 2: You know something different?
[4:57] Speaker 1: You never rooted for Michigan?
[4:58] Speaker 2: I didn't. Greg is a Michigan fan.
[5:00] Speaker 1: You never rooted for Michigan?
[5:01] Speaker 2: Fab Five? I wanted them to do well. At any
[5:04] Speaker 2: point in time, did you root for Michigan? No. So
[5:07] Speaker 2: think about this. Think about this. There's three types of luck.
[5:11] Speaker 2: There's pure luck. There's planned luck. And there's practice luck.
[5:18] Speaker 2: Pure luck is catching lightning in a bottle or just
[5:20] Speaker 2: getting hit by lightning. Bad luck, good luck, catching lightning
[5:24] Speaker 2: in a bottle. Then there is planned luck. Benjamin Franklin
[5:29] Speaker 2: is seeing this electric stuff. He's like, you know what?
[5:31] Speaker 2: I'm going to drag this key out with the, you know,
[5:34] Speaker 2: and he catches lightning. That's planned luck. Then there's practiced
[5:38] Speaker 2: luck because luck comes in all forms of fact. So
[5:41] Speaker 2: one night Grant and I are flying home from somewhere.
[5:43] Speaker 2: He had this pass. You know the pass. 1991. He
[5:49] Speaker 2: throws the ball down. Christian Leitner turns around. Game over.
[5:55] Speaker 2: I go, I said, Grant, that is just, that broke
[5:59] Speaker 2: my heart. I said, that was the luckiest shot in
[6:02] Speaker 2: the world. He goes, luck had nothing to do with that, John.
[6:06] Speaker 2: I said, explain that to me. He goes, we practiced
[6:12] Speaker 2: that play every day in practice. And once we had
[6:19] Speaker 2: the same play, but we were doing it down the
[6:22] Speaker 2: sideline instead of underneath the basket. We did it against
[6:25] Speaker 2: Wake Forest, and I threw it. but it was on
[6:28] Speaker 2: the sideline and it blew up. And so then we
[6:30] Speaker 2: changed it. They were going to inbound it from under
[6:33] Speaker 2: the basket to the top of the key. That happened
[6:37] Speaker 2: every day in practice. So now we're against Kentucky. Coach
[6:42] Speaker 2: K calls timeout. He brings the team over. Grant, can
[6:48] Speaker 2: you make the pass? Yes. Christian, can you make the shot? Yes.
[6:57] Speaker 2: Hands in. Let's go win this game. What's planned luck?
[7:05] Speaker 2: What's practice luck? You watch football, the two-minute drill. You're like,
[7:11] Speaker 2: how in the world are they going from the five
[7:13] Speaker 2: to the– I mean, that's lucky. They practice that two-minute
[7:18] Speaker 2: drill every single practice. It looks like luck. So you've
[7:25] Speaker 2: got to sort the wheat from the sheaf. There's pure luck,
[7:29] Speaker 2: there's planned luck, and there's practice luck. But the way
[7:36] Speaker 2: you find the best luck and the most significant luck
[7:40] Speaker 2: is if you're looking for luck. And the way you
[7:43] Speaker 2: look for luck is you've got to always be looking
[7:46] Speaker 2: for opportunities. And when you fail... That, believe it or not,
[7:54] Speaker 2: is your best luck. You're like, why? Because the lessons
[7:59] Speaker 2: in failure are the roadmap to success. I had an
[8:04] Speaker 2: attraction that I built in D.C. called the National Museum
[8:08] Speaker 2: of Crime and Punishment. I had CSI laboratories. I had
[8:13] Speaker 2: all this memorabilia. I couldn't build it the way I
[8:19] Speaker 2: want it. I mean, you know, everything's free in D.C.
[8:24] Speaker 2: I should never have gone there. So all of a
[8:26] Speaker 2: sudden I failed. But my wife kept saying, she says, John,
[8:30] Speaker 2: this is the best thing you've ever done. So, well,
[8:33] Speaker 2: you know, I got other attractions over in the Smoky Mountains.
[8:35] Speaker 2: She goes, you need to build it again. I said,
[8:39] Speaker 2: to take this failure? She goes, it's not a failure.
[8:41] Speaker 2: It was the wrong city. So, you know, I did.
[8:43] Speaker 2: I took everything. I packed it all up. Then I
[8:46] Speaker 2: got a location in Pigeon Forge, which is Gatlinburg. And
[8:49] Speaker 2: instead of calling it the National Museum of Crime and Punishment,
[8:53] Speaker 2: I call it Alcatraz East. And it looks like an
[8:58] Speaker 2: 1880s prison. You drive down the road, you're like, holy,
[9:02] Speaker 2: you got to pull in there. And it prints money.
[9:09] Speaker 2: Prints money. I failed in D.C. I packed it up.
[9:14] Speaker 2: I changed the name. I built a facade there. And
[9:18] Speaker 2: the grand finale, when you come there, I got these
[9:23] Speaker 2: four cars. Ted Bundy's VW. Bonnie and Clyde death car
[9:30] Speaker 2: from the movie. John Dillinger's sedan. And the final piece,
[9:37] Speaker 2: OJ's Bronco. You got it. I got it. And when
[9:41] Speaker 2: you go through this, when you go through Google Alcatraz
[9:45] Speaker 2: East to see all the stuff I got in there,
[9:48] Speaker 2: And it just prints money. It makes me $ 6 million
[9:52] Speaker 2: a year. I've got no debt. Now, how many people
[9:58] Speaker 2: would take that face? and say, okay, here's what I learned.
[10:03] Speaker 2: I should never have gone to D.C. in the first place. Why?
[10:05] Speaker 2: I went there because the Spy Museum was supposedly doing good.
[10:08] Speaker 2: I didn't go there. I was stupid to go there.
[10:11] Speaker 2: I couldn't make a facade other than just a regular
[10:14] Speaker 2: office building. I spent too much money. The first one
[10:17] Speaker 2: I had, America's Most Wanted in the Basement. Spent too
[10:20] Speaker 2: much money. But I took all my mistakes and everything
[10:24] Speaker 2: I learned and went and did that in Florida.

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