Russ Whitney
If you are reading this right now, you are probably in the middle of a crisis right now. Maybe you are coming out of a crisis, or chances are you are about to go into a crisis. Either way, what precedes below is a divine gift from the universe and one man’s experience that will help you not just survive the crisis, but thrive to reach your highest potential.
As told to Lance Edwards in this exclusive interview, business leader and real estate investor Russ Whitney reveals how after losing nearly all of his multi-million fortune, he discovered both beauty and deliverance in these trials that will make you better in business and life.
Claim Your Free Inner Voice Gifts: Get a free paperback copy of Russ Whitney’s latest book, Inner Voice, plus an invitation to Russ’ two-part teleseminar series, four bonus videos, and a 21-day free trial to his Inner Voice community, where you can take in coaching sessions and a variety of trainings on how to hone the inner voice in your life. Go to http://lance.innervoiceswag.com to claim your free gifts now.
Listen to the complete interview here:
A Life Crushing Moment, A New Beginning
Russ Whitney thought he had it all.
The self-made millionaire who pulled himself up from the bootstraps of a blue collar family, the story of the hometown boy who made good in real estate was suddenly spiraling out of control. His beloved Whitney Education Group, the innovative financial training company he launched in 1996 boasting $25 million in annual sales, was suddenly at the center of a very public SEC and Department of Justice investigation for marketing efficacy.
“I spent $22 million over the next four years in legal fees,” Whitney said. “We were perhaps one of the most ethical and cleanest companies of our kind in the world. I was not going to settle because we did not do anything wrong.”
The FEC and the Department of Justice eventually shut their case with no sanctions. No fine. No finding of any wrongdoing. But, the damage was already done.
In the end, 1,000 employees lost their job. Whitney Education Group’s stock went into a free fall, stumbling from $14 to just 14 cents, and its founder himself watched as more than 70 percent of his net worth vanished virtually overnight.
“I was at 50 years old, and I just looked up to God, and I said, ‘God, what is the point? What am I here for?’ I felt like I was running on a hamster wheel,” Whitney said.
“Go to work, get a job, find your significant other, raise your kids, get them to soccer, build a business, make some mistakes, have financial setbacks along the way, dig out of them, every once in a while, have a nice family vacation, and then Monday morning get back on the hamster wheel. And then 60 years later, we die.”
Indeed, Russ Whitney thought he had it all until the life crushing happened. That is when the internationally-recognized entrepreneur and real estate investor discovered the one thing he didn’t possess, the one thing that could help him in times of both feast and famine, the very guide map that could help him through this worst case scenario: the Inner Voice.
Why Our Lives are Framed by Conflict, Crisis
What do you do when crisis comes? For Whitney, the shakeup at Whitney Education Group left him feeling humiliated and demoralized, sending him to resign as president and CEO, and leaving control of his myriad real estate properties to a management company. And then, he went on a five-year vacation.
Spanning 20 countries and thousands of memories, his journey is documented in the new book, Inner Voice, in which he sought to answer one of life’s most prevalent mysteries.
“What are we really here for? And who is right?,” he asked. “Are the Christians right? Are the Jewish people right? Are the Hindus right? Are the Muslims right? Oprah Winfrey? The fat leaders? The business? Who is right? Or are they all saying the same thing in different times, languages and cultures?”
Traveling from Abu Dhabi, to Dubai, Columbia, Spain and all points in between, Whitney engaged in hundreds of meetings with the world’s top spiritual and religious leaders. What he soon discovered was his life, like many others, was out of balance for failure to adhere to what he refers to as the immutable laws of the universe.
“I used to think God floated around the sky, looked like Moses, and takes score,” Whitney said. “’Russ, you were mean to that lady at 7-11, you drove too fast, and you were impatient with your girlfriend. So, that will be two flat tires, an ingrown toenail, and four bad real estate deals for you.’ I thought we were judged and punished, which I have since learned that is not how it works.”
Every crisis we encounter, Whitney said, is the product of human-taught behavior we learn through life. These behaviors revolve around us all in the absence of wisdom, and generally revolve around selfishness, self-centeredness, arrogance, judgment, blaming or criticizing others, and are steeped in fear and doubt.
Eventually, this imbalance will topple down on us in a situation Whitney calls “life crushing.”
“If people do not get [the immutable laws] on their own, they will go through life crushing of some sort, just like I did,” he said. “Life will crush them, be it a health problem or a tragedy; someone will crush them, in a relationship or otherwise; or we will crush ourselves with self-sabotage.”
Crisis may take many shapes or forms, Whitney said, but they come for all or one of these four reasons:
- You have a behavior you need to change
- You have a character defect you need to fix
- You have a vice you need to give up
- You are not stepping up to the purpose you were put on earth to fulfill
But, before you start feeling sorry for yourself, consider this incredible thought:
“We do not get into self-pity or play victim with crisis, because crisis was designed by God to help us build our spiritual muscle, your spiritual strength, and to help you find your purpose,” Whitney said. “God will allow us to go through an act of providence, something that God provides so we can move on for the greater good.”
Using Conflict to Succeed in Life, Business
The immutable laws Whitney discovered are important, he said, because they can help you move in the direction of success, maturity and humility. Crisis helps teach us how to plug these laws into our business to give us balance, and to really grow, he said.
“Lance [Edwards] and I could teach you all the strategies [of real estate], but if you don’t have the Inner Voice piece of the puzzle, you’re going to be up, down, up, down, sale. Up, down, up, down, sale,” he said.
So, how does one overcome crisis? Whitney said resistance will make or break the struggles in your life.
“The only thing that make crisis smaller or bigger is the resistance you give to it,” he said. “If you do not give it resistance and don’t change the behavior, give up the vice, fix the character defect or step up, that crisis is going to get bigger and bigger and bigger and that life crushing will happen.
“But, yield to the crisis, step up, and the crisis will shrink smaller and smaller and smaller. Sure enough, on the heels of making that change, the next gift will come, and on the heels of that will come the next crisis.”
Repeat the process of resistance, he said, and grow.
Claim Your Free Inner Voice Gifts: Get a free paperback copy of Russ Whitney’s latest book, Inner Voice, plus an invitation to Russ’ two-part teleseminar series, four bonus videos, and a 21-day free trial to his Inner Voice community, where you can take in coaching sessions and a variety of trainings on how to hone the inner voice in your life. Go to http://lance.innervoiceswag.com to claim your free gifts now.
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