E65 – Reinventing Yourself After Falling Down with Damion Lupo
MEET DAMION LUPO:
Best Selling Author in personal finance and retirement planning, host of the Transformation Nation podcast, owner of 30+ companies and founder of his own martial art – Yokido ®.
The only thing Damion really fears is REGRET. His formula for success AND a fulfilled life by making tons of mistakes as quickly as possible. This guy literally plays by a different set of rules, even buying his first rental house on his VISA, a move that snowballed into 150 rental houses in less than 5 years. In 2008 he lost the entire 20 million dollar business but 4 years totally recreated his wealth and reinvented his life.
Today he leads 3 global companies with one unified mission:
To free people from money bondage.
Perhaps his fierce independence and self-reliance had something to do with growing up in Alaska dodging polar bears working at 80 below zero in the arctic circle. Perhaps he simply rejected norms and truths from the past.
Regardless, his path was set early, tattooed into his soul- that of a free thinker, an entrepreneur, a disruptor and a change agent.
Following high school, Damion was invited to work at a classified department of energy particle accelerator lab in New York and then in DC for the US Senate after which time he was awarded a full Air Force ROTC scholarship, sights set on becoming a fighter pilot.
But that Mach 3 path got shot down quickly by concerns of being trapped in a regimented system wrapped in red tape and spiritual containment; systems that would no doubt limit his ability to pursue his dreams, and a path to them developed on his terms. This angst led to his dropping out of college… not once but 4 times.
One of those times in the late 90’s was the result of being angry that students were forced to use the official campus bookstore to buy and sell used books. Monopolies made him crazy because they take advantage of a captive population and in this case, every student was required to buy and sell used books through the official store and get gouged all the way. This seemed more like Communist Russia than the United States.
Annoyance and an ongoing fixation on fixing market problems led him to start an alternative bookstore inside his dorm room to compete with, rather…to DOMINATE and DESTROY the corrupt campus bookstore.
With the established monopolistic player on the verge of bankruptcy, Damion was kindly invited to shut down or be thrown out of school by the dean. Not being dissuaded from his disruptive pursuits to put more money in the hands of his fellow students, he declined shutting down, executed his high speed used book exchange and in 1 week of balls to the wall campus book exchanging he earned enough to pay his full tuition.
Since then Damion has started 37 businesses, including an insurance agency – the youngest agent in history for the fortune 500 company, a global precious metals firm, a dozen real estate development and investment companies, a private equity firm, several consulting firms and a network marketing company that he grew to 4000 people in 6 months.
While many people struggle with building a network marketing business, Damion did his “all in” maneuver and tapped into one of his secrets of success, modeling. He found the million dollar earners and did exactly what they did and like magic the firm grew vertically.
Blind faith is either rewarded or punished by the universe with gentle taps or stinging slaps and Damion got both in half a year.
He’s learned, without exception, in venture after venture, one thing is always true, that without total devotion and a to the death loyalty to the cause there is a zero percent chance of epic results or real fulfillment.
Damion is the published author of 7 books on topics ranging from real estate to precious metals, although his favorite one by far is his true story of transformation and personal development, Reinvented Life.
One reader called Reinvented Life the real-life equivalent of an episode of Breaking Bad. The story he penned was a story of youthful vision, energized action, an out of control ego, seismic meltdown and then the rising Phoenix.
Reinvented Life is candid, raw and laden with lessons and clues to success for the amateur and novice dreamer alike. Damion leaves nothing out and goes behind the scenes and below the surface into his mind and journey into fortune and wealth, sharing the reality of a shaky foundation laid down on his first pass into big business and big dreams and how he recovered after it crumbled beneath him.
The martial art Damion created, Yokido, is an eastern martial art that blends Aikido, Yoga and Reiki together into one. Lovingly coined “The Art of Peaceful Union,” or “The Power of Lethal Kindness,” Yokido is part of Damion’s personal mission to reduce conflict, bridge differences and heal wounds between humans as they walk through life and engage one another. After almost 20 years training in a variety of styles, Damion holds 4 black belts the highest belt rank being 5th degree black belt.
In his early years of bold, sometimes crazy action, he was so focused and all in on his vision that he didn’t hesitate to buy his first rental house using a credit card. The investment happened to be on Dec 31, 1999. While many were
scared of Y2K, Damion was signing docs to create wealth and prosperity. The fear mongers be damned, Damion was unstoppable.
The decision to buy a beat-up rental house on New Year’s Eve grew into a 150+ house, 7 state empire over the following 5 years. While seemingly impressive, this empire was much like Rome in that it was tall and mighty and most definitely built on immature arrogance and invincibility that could only lead to a total meltdown, which it did in 2008. That meltdown and the personal development work he did over the following 3 years forced the birthing of his 3rd book, Reinvented Life.
Damion’s personal philosophy centers on Self Responsibility, Candor and transparency. He holds a firm belief that the only path to freedom is through personal ownership of all choices, effects, and outcomes. He also demands 10X thinking of himself and his team, always challenging status quo and limited growth. Knowing these will eventually be disrupted by bold thinking, if there is to be disruption, Damion is obsessed with disrupting himself first.
While much of the media focuses on negativity and how bad things are to scare people into turning over their money and power to the “smarter” people, Damion believes in people, to create and control their future with a mindset of abundance, prosperity and a future far brighter than the past. This belief is based on reality, math and technological advancements stemming from microprocessor technology that continues to abolish the barriers of communication, which inevitably brings people together. This is the path to peace.
Damion is a popular guest on Financial and personal development Podcasts and radio shows around the country and hosts a radio show on World Class thinking where he explores ideas and philosophies of the World Class as well as going deep with the very people who are themselves, World Class.
BOOKS:
Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment by George Leonard
CONTACT:
FB https://www.facebook.com/damionlupoofficial/
TW https://twitter.com/damionlupo
LI https://www.linkedin.com/in/damionlupo
Website: http://www.damionlupo.com
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