“I couldn’t really read when I graduated high school,” admits Crabtree, who helped financially support his family from a young age and struggled with multiple learning disabilities. While he received some post-secondary instruction, he says his mentors and experiences as a firefighter, working for the Youth Authority, among other jobs, were his real teachers.
Mindset Shift: Always Be Learning
Try to learn from every experience and apply that knowledge to work toward your goals. Have the mindset that every experience holds a lesson. Self-identifying as a “not very smart person,” Crabtree advocates for “[taking] the time to make yourself better.” He says, “When I met somebody that was the type of person that I wanted to be … I was like a barnacle. I latched myself onto them so fast.” From taking a pay cut in favor of a position where he could receive mentorship to attending every seminar that came his way, Crabtree prioritized learning. It wasn’t just about receiving instruction but also applying it. Crabtree identifies a lesson he learned at a seminar with Rick DeLuca, where DeLuca asked, “What are your goals?” Crabtree says he didn’t know. That inspired him to try to triple his annual transactions, which he did. However, the effort to meet that goal strained his well-being, so he evolved to focus on higher-ticket transactions. Crabtree’s approach to learning and applying his newly acquired knowledge demonstrates two of the three elements Crabtree says are key to fostering success. 1. Identify what you want to do 2. and how you will do it. Add in the third element—Crabtree’s mindset in applying what he’s learned—and you have a custom blueprint that will inevitably help you succeed. Crabtree sees it almost as a mathematical formula for success. It’s about consistently applying hard work over time.
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