There is a pathway to WEALTH that I haven’t talked about before… COVID-19 has sucked the life, liberty, and happiness from so many of us around the world. Daily living has become difficult. Our routines have become stale, and the connections with our communities have been drastically reduced as we social distance. As a result, we are experiencing less and less diversity in our day to day lives than ever before. And this is a MAJOR problem because, believe it or not, humans NEED diversity to grow! Guys, there is a direct correlation between the amount of diversity in our lives and how happy we are, how much we're growing, and how much wealth we have.  That means we MUST surround ourselves with diverse people AND diverse experiences if we ever want to reach our full potential! DIVERSITY is the pathway to richness… spiritual, emotional, and financial wealth. Lately, I’ve been concerned about the pattern I have seen in our culture today. We are becoming more tribal and less diverse, both in our friendships and our relationships. We don’t talk to each other as much as we talk at each other. We hang around people just like us, and they reinforce our beliefs and our way of living.  Why? Because it feels comfortable! It’s easy to surround ourselves with people who are the same as us. But we are NOT all the same, and that’s a good thing. All of our differences combined create the DIVERSITY that we need in order to grow.  And I’m not only talking about skin color and race. I’m talking about embracing diversity in every area of life, including experiences, family life, spirituality, education, and business! In this episode, I’m breaking down why it’s so DANGEROUS to keep hanging out with the same types of people and having the same types of experiences and reveal how you can bring some spice back to your life, with no budget!  I’m sharing how you can use the POWER of diversity to make your business better, your family better, your faith better, your relationships better, and make YOU better! 2020 has been difficult for everyone. We all have a comeback we need to make. You can CHANGE your life by EMBRACING DIVERSITY, and this episode will teach you how. 

Embracing Diversity Can Change Your Life 

Yesterday, I dropped my son off at college. If you’re a parent, you know how tough that is, and it hit me harder than I thought it would. It’s hitting me ever harder again today.  I think one of the reasons that it’s been so emotional for me is that I enjoyed our lack of variety. I had my son under my roof every single day, and it was a constant source of stability. But I keep having to remind myself that this change is going to be amazing and good for both of us.  The next four years are going to be life-changing for my son, and that’s because he is about to have the most DIVERSE experience of his lifetime. He’s going to meet people that he didn’t grow up with — people from different backgrounds, different countries, and different religions. He’s going to be introduced to different ways of thinking and have important choices to make that he has never faced before.  A lot of people say that college is the best four years of their lives. Why? Because it’s the most DIVERSE years of their lives! It is the time where many people are chasing experiences, making memories, trying new things, and surrounding themselves with people who are different from them.  As we get older, we tend to AVOID diversity. We find a group of several people who think like us and have similar experiences to us, and we are comfortable with that.  Think about the last 90 days. How many diverse conversations have you had with people that grew up completely differently than you? How many people have you been around that look different from you, talk differently from you, or come from a different country? For most people, the number is small.  But diversity can bring so many unique experiences, perspectives, and opinions to the table that are so beautiful and can help you grow! As a country, people are so divided. And it’s often because they refuse to embrace diverse thoughts and opinions.  They refuse to put themselves in situations where they actually LISTEN to what someone who believes differently has to say! I want to challenge you to be aware of this. Is this something that you do? Before you discount someone else’s opinions, ask yourself if you’ve walked in their shoes or had their experiences. And if you haven’t, get to know them. Let their diverse perspectives challenge your own opinions! Who knows — maybe your perspective can EVOLVE or change. Even if it doesn’t, at least you had a unique experience instead of just talking to the four or five people that agree with you.  I’m not saying to hang around people who don’t support you. I don’t want anybody in my life who doesn’t support who I am and what I stand for, and I’m sure you don’t either! But what I do want is people who CHALLENGE me and have different ideas than me.  I don’t want everybody to have the same political ideology or personality that I do. So I chase diverse experiences with diverse people, and my life has improved so much because of it!  Diversity has brought wealth to my life, and it has also drastically improved my business! It can do the same for yours. 

How Diversity Can Bring Wealth to Your Business 

How would you react if I told you that you could do something to #MAXOUT your business and increase your wealth that was completely FREE? You’re probably thinking, “Sign me up, brother!” Well, that’s exactly what diversity can do. I think one of the mistakes that entrepreneurs make in our businesses is one that I made when I first started out. I remember looking around at my business when I was in my mid-twenties. Everyone around me was just like me, from my clients to the people I worked with.  They were all guys who were former athletes or part of the military or police crowd. They loved how I talked, they got all fired up, and gave me reinforcement, so I thought I was doing it right!  It’s easy to surround yourself with people who reinforce your way of thinking. Everyone has an unconscious bias — we are drawn to people who are exactly like us, whether it is in our friendships, politics, or work.  It’s not a bad thing to want to be around people like us. But it's dangerous not to be aware of it. Because if you don’t have diversity in your business, you are giving yourself a LIMITED slice of the world. You will continue to be reinforced in your way of thinking, which will decrease how much you can grow.  When I became aware of the lack of diversity in my business, I realized that I needed to bring people to the table who could express what I stood for in their own UNIQUE way. I needed a diverse group of people with different backgrounds, memories, personalities, and ways of thinking that I didn’t have.  Diversifying my business improved it drastically. In just three years, millions of people around the world listen to my content, and my audience is unbelievably diverse, with 52% women and 48% men. Not only that, but 48% of my audience is under 35 years old, and 52% of my audience is global. I have listeners who are Muslims, Jews, Christians, and agnostics. I have listeners who are trying to win financially, and those who are trying to win spiritually.  It’s incredibly diverse. Why? I wish I could say it was because I’m so incredible, but that’s just not the case. The real reason that my business has grown so much is because I surrounded myself with various different people who bring their unique ideas and experiences to the table. So my challenge to you is to take a look at your hiring. If you’re running a company, maybe you need to hire unique and different people! You can also encourage people in your business that don’t know each other to collaborate and connect.  Adding diversity to my business has made it so much richer, and I know it will do the same for you. But it’s not just your business that can thrive from variety — it can also completely change your day to day life and how you view the world. 

How to Add Diversity to Your Daily Life 

It’s incredible how one experience with someone different from you can change your entire perspective. During my first job out of college, I worked at McKinley home for boys, which was basically an orphanage. My boys were all eight to ten years old and grew up in very tough situations.  Most of them were inner-city boys who had been molested by their family. Their parents were often either incarcerated or dead. They were also mostly minorities. Although they were very different from me in a lot of ways, these boys changed my life. They taught me so much.  If I could learn from eight and nine-year-old boys, don’t you think you could learn from someone who thinks completely differently than you? Guys, we can learn from everybody. Even if you might not agree with them, you can still learn.  Your ability to create diverse and variety-based experiences throughout your day-to-day life will be the juice of your life. But you can’t go through the motions. You have to force that diversity — force yourself into variety, new conversations, new experiences, and new places.  What does this look like? It might be picking up a new hobby. Or maybe it’s listening to a different type of music than you usually do. It could be taking a hike somewhere new or talking to your Uber driver to learn about their perspective of the world. Maybe you could have a conversation with a coworker that you don’t usually hang out with.  Diversity can also improve your romantic relationships. It is good to have habits, rituals, and routines in your relationship. But people often take that to extremes, and it can cause connections to die because it gets boring! So if you are in a relationship, I challenge you to mix things up and get creative. Go to different restaurants than you usually do, or maybe even grab a couple of sleeping bags and have a camp-out in the living room. Adding that diversity will enhance your relationship and allow you to learn new things about yourself, your partner, and the world.  Guys, you will have a richer experience in your relationships, businesses, and general daily lives if you push yourself to seek diversity. And it’s not just me saying that — science has shown that learning something new at any age changes your brain permanently. New neuronal pathways and connections are formed, improving your ability to function and process information. So what is there to lose? Pushing yourself out of your regular routine and comfort zone can be challenging. But when you have diverse experiences, your mental health and quality of life increases. And let me tell you — it is 100% worth the effort. 

#MAXOUT Your Life By Chasing Diversity

Our growth is only limited by our lack of experience and diversity. I want to help you guys #MAXOUT your life, and I hope that this episode can help you discover the new experiences that can help you do that!  You were born to do something great with your life. You were meant to make a difference in this world. But that’s not going to happen if you keep doing the same things. Even if you are achieving at a pretty high level right now, your limitations will be the amount of diversity you can incorporate into your life.  I’m not suggesting that you have to change your mind about things, only that you EXPAND your mind about them. You DESERVE to have different experiences and enjoy the spice that life has to offer. Go listen to the rest of the episode to hear more about how you can do that and how adding diversity has drastically changed my life!  If this episode impacted you in any way, tag me, @edmylett, and share it with people who need to hear it! And don’t forget to follow me so you can participate in my two-minute drills! When I make a post on my main feed, everybody who comments for the first two minutes with the hashtag #MAXOUT is automatically entered into a daily drawing. You could win gear, coaching calls, or even a 15-minute call with one of my guests. Don’t miss out! Thank you so much for joining me today, guys! I hope this episode inspired you to chase diversity and #MAXOUT your life. I’ll talk to you later!