Took Me 39 Years to Realize What I'll Tell You in 14 Minutes

Date: November 2, 2025 Source: YouTube Motivational Speech Speaker: Codie Sanchez - Entrepreneur, investor, and business owner

Executive Summary

A raw and powerful motivational speech where entrepreneur Codie Sanchez distills decades of hard-won wisdom into brutal truths about success, failure, and personal growth. Through personal stories of being fired, heartbreak, and business failures, she reveals that the real journey isn't about finding your purpose—it's about embracing the struggle and refusing to let circumstances define you.

Core Framework: The Real Journey of Success

The Myth of Linear Paths

"Oscar Wild actually had an amazing line about the punishment for knowing exactly what you want to be is that you know exactly what you want to be. The real journey is in waking up every day and figuring out more and more who you're supposed to be."

Sanchez destroys the myth of predetermined destiny: "I don't think I found my actual path until 5 years ago and I'm 39. You know, my mom used to say the grass was greener, but that's not true. I just kept learning and growing because the most boring journey of all would be one that's a straight line."

Embracing the Curves

"You were meant to have a bunch of curves, curve balls, a bunch of may and could have done and a bunch of missed shots that later on you find out you were so grateful you never took."

Life-Changing Moments and Lessons

Getting Fired: The Greatest Gift

The Heartbreak of Betrayal: "10 years ago I got pushed out for the first time from a company. I guess some people say fired. I like the sound of pushed out better. And I was heartbroken. Like I had given my all to this company. I had made them millions and millions of dollars and they had told me I wasn't good enough."

The Father's Wisdom: "He said, 'Life is often filled with nails we step on.' And we could spend our lives trying to figure out why it got there, who did it, whose fault it was, or we could just pull out the nail and feel it. It hurts, but we're fixing it."

The Transformation: "So at that point, I finally realized it was the greatest gift I could ever have. And that's when I first started truly betting on myself, investing in things, owning some of these businesses, not listening to people who told me that I wasn't good enough."

Choosing Yourself After Heartbreak

The Devastating Betrayal: "I had my heart broken. Like truly broken. I was deep in a relationship with a person who completely lied to me. Basically told me he loved me. Turns out he had a whole family. He did not love me. I was in fact one of many."

The Realization: "But something flipped for me and I realized, that guy. It's his loss. It inspired me to go become the person I wanted to be. That I didn't feel like another person had to choose me. I could choose myself."

The Brutal Truth About Relationships and Success

Cutting Out Losers Relentlessly

The Harsh Reality: "But a harsh truth is, if you hang out with losers, you will become a loser. If you hang out with people who say that's not possible, you will become a person who thinks it's not possible. If you hang out with people who have never built anything, you will never build anything."

The Command: "Cut them out relentlessly. Apologize zero for it."

The Price of Success

Losing Friends to Success: "You know, on the road to success, I lost so many friends. The worst part of it is I didn't choose to lose them. Most of them I tried to pull along to invite places, but for some reason, my success would trigger them."

The Friend Who Couldn't Handle It: "one of my oldest friends from college I now never speak to because she said I was too focused on my builder friends and didn't want to go out and drink with her anymore."

The Universal Truth: "Here's what I've realized. Losers don't like winners. They will not want you to win. They will smile. They will pretend they're happy for you, but they are not. Only other winners want to see you win."

The Work Ethic Revolution

The Crackhead Comparison

The Ridiculous Truth: "Do crackheads say, 'I can't get high because I'm broke?' Nope. They figure it out. So don't let a crackhead work harder than you."

The Real Question: "The real question is like, how bad do you want it? Are you obsessed? Are you grinding? You're just kind of conveniently interested in something a tiny bit."

Personal Confession

The Humbling Admission: "I know it may seem like I've got it figured out with these big companies, books, helping thousands of people buy businesses, but I just want you to know I went to Arizona State University. I partied more than I'd studied. Thank god social didn't exist because wow, we don't need to see those videos."

The Game Changer: "I got close to a few people who wanted something more in life and everything changed."

Getting Into the Right Rooms

The Hundred Million Dollar Lesson

The Transformative Meeting: "I sat down with this guy named David who was worth a hundred million. And at the time a hundred million to me was like I couldn't even fathom."

The Question That Changed Everything: "But I ended it with, well, how can I help you? you know, I I obviously don't have your expertise, you know, but maybe I have people that I could help you connect with. How could I not be self-serving because you've helped me for an hour?"

The Result: "And as I did that, he kind of looked at me, gave me a few options. I connected him, and I realized that that relationship, just asking what I could do in return, led to us doing deals together, led to millions, and led to me rethinking the way I think about money forever."

The Wisdom: "So, don't be afraid to get into rooms where you're the dumbest. In fact, take every opportunity to have no ego and ask questions."

Setting Boundaries and Dealing with Critics

The Internet Attack

The Betrayal: "last year I had a guy who I thought was a friend just come at me on the internet. He posted I think the exact words were, 'You don't have an original thought in your mind, Cody.'"

The Realization: "And at some point there something flipped and I realized this isn't about me. This is about him. Sometimes your light is going to shine a spot in somebody else's darkness."

The Boundary: "You know what? I'm sorry. I apologize. The only thing I regret in this conversation is apologizing to you because you should be doing it to me."

The Empowerment: "And I was really proud of myself in that moment because at some point you're going to get excited by the idea that you're not there to please people. You meant it. You're keeping the boundary."

Faith and Mental Framework

The Divine Perspective

The Most Common Biblical Message: "And I don't know if you know this, but the most common saying in the Bible is do not be afraid. And I remember that every time I'm stressed or scared or worried to like stop because what you are supposed to have will come to you when you are supposed to have it."

The Trust Factor: "You actually never have to really force anything in life. You just have to pursue the things in front of you and trust the process. the stress, the anxiety, the worry, the concern, none of that is necessary."

Stopping the Care About Others' Opinions

The Ultimate Lesson: "if I could teach you one thing, it would be this. You got to stop giving a about what other people think of you. Don't give a because they don't have to live your life. They're not in your head. They don't see your future. They're not part of the plan."

The Reality Check: "They think about you so little and yet you spend so much time thinking about what they think of you."

The Mosquito Technique: "Now, every time concern from what another thinks crosses my brain, I imagine me grabbing it like a mosquito buzzing around my head and then I smash it. And it's a little graphic. I think about the full squish."

Pressure as a Gift

The Mexico City Street Encounter

The Business Crisis: "They had millions and millions and millions of dollars with me. And what was crazy is one day my contact there goes, 'I have to tell you something and you can't tell anyone.' And then he tells me that Bottomax is getting bought by my competitor Black Rock. I was going to lose all of the business I had built."

The Street Danger: "And I saw these two guys on the side of the road on the other side. And I was like, well, this doesn't seem good. I'm going to like get my wallet stolen. But then I was like, this could actually get worse."

The Realization: "But you know what I realized in that moment? I kind of got like this adrenaline rush. And I realized that winners love pressure."

The Business Perspective: "And I thought, if I can figure out this situation with these two guys alone on a street in a foreign country in my second language, I can figure out business because business is not going to kill me."

The Pressure Philosophy

The Indicator: "So I think you can tell if somebody's going to win or lose by how they react when the vice starts to grip them. Do they crack? Do they push back?"

The Gift: "What a gift pressure is. It means somebody believes that you're capable of stepping up and taking swings. No pressure, no diamond. No pressure, no profit. No pressure, no privilege. Pressure is always required if you want to become a winner."

The Ultimate Truth About Failure vs. Regret

The CEO Collapse

The Identity Crisis: "I don't know if you've ever felt like you were a complete and utter failure, like you had wrapped up your entire identity and whatever you do for work. Uh that happened to me. I was a CEO. And for me, that's who I was."

The Devastating Call: "Then one night, I get a phone call and find out that the business is almost completely out of money. I was like so embarrassed thinking, what am I going to do when these people who depend on me, I can't pay them?"

The Life-Changing Realization

The Midnight Epiphany: "And somehow in the middle of the night, I realized something. Regret is a greater disappointment than failure. If it all failed, at least I tried."

The Final Truth: "If you are struggling right now, know this. You have to pay the fee. Whatever you're thinking about doing, go big and do it. Because the worst thing that can happen isn't failure. It's never trying."

Conclusion: The 39-Year Journey Distilled

Codie Sanchez's speech is a masterclass in brutal honesty about the reality of success. Her journey from fired employee to successful entrepreneur reveals that the path to achievement isn't about avoiding pain—it's about transforming pain into power. Her message is clear: stop waiting for permission, stop caring about others' opinions, and start embracing the pressure that forges winners.

The most powerful insight is her reversal of conventional wisdom about failure. It's not failure that destroys us—it's the regret of never trying. Every setback, every betrayal, every moment of pressure is actually a gift designed to reveal what we're truly made of.

"Regret is a greater disappointment than failure. If it all failed, at least I tried."