Skot Waldron:
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Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Unlocked. I am Skot and here we talk about unlocking the potential of people in order to unlock the potential of our organizations, of humanity, of everything. So today I have someone really interesting on. His name is Rizwan Shuja and he is the brother of Imran, someone that I interviewed earlier on this year about their book Cycle of Fulfillment. So if you haven't watched that video, go back and check that out. It's super awesome. Some great insights there from his brother. But Rizwan, he owned his first convenience store. So he has a MBA and a BS in engineering, electrical engineering. So you think, "Hmm, this guy's going to talk to me about technical stuff."
Then he goes into small business and he opens his first convenience store, gas station in 2005. Now he owns 17 of them. He has restaurants, he has commercial real estate, all this stuff. So you're like, "Okay, we're going to talk about business." Well, we kind of are. We're going to talk about the impact of our minds and our inner self on our businesses, because that's what Rizwan is going to address on this episode. It's so good. I love the insight stuff. We can talk about the outside stuff all day. That's totally fine. But most of us all hear about the outside stuff. Let's talk about the inside stuff because the inside stuff is what's going to drive the outside stuff. All right, let's go.
Hello. Rizwan, welcome to the show.
Rizwan Shuja:
Hello, Skot, how you doing?
SKOT WALDRON:
I am great. I am great. I'm really excited to talk to you today, mostly because we're going to talk about psychological stuff, which I love. We feel things, so we do things. Right|? We don't do anything unless we feel like it, but I interviewed someone really close to you a few months ago, Imran, and talked about your book Cycle of Fulfillment. That was a fantastic interview. If anybody hasn't seen that interview yet, go back and watch that interview with Rizwan's brother Imran. But today I want to talk to you and I was like, "I usually don't have two people of the same on," right? I don't want to play favorites, but your topic was really interesting and you have some interesting insights to bring. So let's talk about your next book. Let's talk about the thinking behind your next book and how that translates from Cycle of Fulfillment to what you're going to be talking about here in the future.
RIZWAN SHUJA:
So, first I want to thank you very much for having me on your show and as some of you know, that our last book was called Cycle of Fulfillment: 5 Simple Goals to Achieving Real Success. It talks about what success really is. To us success is achieving five goals. Number one is mental/emotional fulfillment. Number two is your physical health and fitness. Number three is your relationship with people and God. Number four is your career, job or business. Number fifth is financial wealth and material things. So the summary of book in one minute would be that mental/emotional fulfillment is to not experience negative emotions like hate, jealousy, anger, resentment, worry, fear, greed, ego, and also be able to cultivate positive emotions like love, compassion, gratitude, the need of giving, kindness, empathy, all those things.
So if we are able to achieve the first goal, or if you are able to improve that first goal, it will help us with our second goal. We know that a hate and worry, fears hurt your health, and it affects your health directly. So if we have achieved or improve the first two goals and we have this need of giving, then the relationship with people is an automatic fix, if you're not experienced the negative emotions. If you have good models and values, then your relationship with God is an automatic fix, which is the third goal. So if you have achieved the first three goals and you have good relationships, good context, good morals, good values, good mental state, then you are definitely going to thrive and prosper in your business, job or career. If you're thriving in your job or business, then money comes with it, which is the fifth goal. So basically the concept is that if you can free yourself from ego, unnecessary ego and negative emotion, then all the goals will start falling in its right place.
So let's say there are two women, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, who don't like each other, fight with each other all the time, going back for each other. They can read this book and come back to us and tell us that, "Okay, we agree with you. If we fix our negative emotions, then everything will start falling in its right place. Our focus, productivity, health relationships, religion, career, business, finances. But just by you telling us, "Get your negative emotions fixed," it's not going to fix it. How do we fix it? Just by you telling us it's not going to fix them." So that's why we are writing this next book. It's called Mental/ Emotional Fulfillment, A Spiritual Solution. The subtitle is How To Tame Your Negative Emotions. How To Tame Your Negative Emotions. So it has tools, techniques, methods, exercises, how to tame them.
SKOT WALDRON:
Let me ask you really quick about that subtitle, how to tame your negative emotions. It's not how to get rid of your negative emotions, how to eliminate your negative emotions? Why didn't you give it that subtitle?
RIZWAN SHUJA:
Because it is almost impossible to get rid of the negative emotions. You can tame them. Like if you have a lion in the circus, he can still attack somebody and kill somebody, but he's tame, right? He still has that ability. So you have to pacify them, tame them. Not everybody will be able to ... Let's say there is 0.1% people in the world who can get rid of the negative emotions, but most of the people won't be able to get rid of them. They can just lower them. If their negative energy is 10, if they bring it down to four, I think it's a big success. So how to lower them? If there's a bunch of kids who wanted to become a good body builder, let's say, their goal was to become like Arnold. Of course, not all of them can become model, but at least they will get somewhere keeping him as a goal or as ideal. Right? So that's why it's tame, not to free completely ... It wouldn't have been practical if I had said completely free yourself from negative emotions.
SKOT WALDRON:
So let's transition a little bit and talk about your story. So a lot of people are going to be listening to this going, "Huh? Rizwan sounds like he is deep into the psychological space. He went to school for years to become a doctor of psychology and all these things." Now-
RIZWAN SHUJA:
By the way, I'm not a doctor. My brother is a doctor.
SKOT WALDRON:
Correct, correct, and that's why I'm bringing this up because that's what people may be thinking by listening this interview. But that's not true. You are a businessman. You own 15 service stations-
RIZWAN SHUJA:
I own 17 gas stations, convenience stores and-
SKOT WALDRON:
Commercial real estate.
RIZWAN SHUJA:
Yeah. I'm a part owner in a few restaurants also and I own several residential rental properties, commercial rental properties. I'm starting a project, like a construction project, also.
SKOT WALDRON:
Okay. I'm sitting here going, "Oh my goodness, this guy's involved with all of these different businesses." So what is all of this mindset stuff and all of the emotions and all of the way we think and positive thinking and mental awareness. What does that have to do with all of these other things you're involved with?
RIZWAN SHUJA:
Actually, like we talked about, Cycle of Fulfillment, if you are in a good mental/emotional state, all the things will start falling in its right place. Because 80% of everything is psychology and 20% is mechanics. If you are in a good mental/emotional states, your decisions, your judgment and your selections will be right. For example, if we just ... Let's say finances. You do not become financially rich by working hard and by getting knowledge, unless you apply the knowledge. So knowledge is a potential power. So by having a good psychology, you are able to make good decisions, good judgment, good investments. You are able to take calculated risks. So that makes you financially rich. By working hard, if you are going to become rich by just working hard, then the construction workers, the roofers who work for a contractor will be the richest people, right?
They work in 110 degrees, but they'll never be able to become very rich. The guys who can make the right decision, good decisions, take calculated risks, invest money at the right place, he can become rich, and who can work with people, who can partner up with people, who can get along with people, who can see other people succeed and want them to succeed, even if he keeps his interest on the top. But being able to grow together with other people will help you. So this is all psychology, but when you give, it comes back and giving it is not always about money. Giving is giving your time, energy, effort. Even wanting good for other people is giving
SKOT WALDRON:
Good. We were talking previously, before I hit record, we were kind of shooting the breeze a little bit, and I talked about how my dad owns all these service ... not owns them, but is an accountant for all these service stations across Atlanta, and for years he's been working with them and he gives directions based on the service stations. Then that triggered a thought in you and you said, "Oh, that's because he sees them." But most of the time we don't see them, those signs. Right? We're like, "Oh, which Chevron?" He's like, "Yeah, there's a Chevron right there." But I'm like, "I'd never seen a Chevron right there." I didn't know what gas station it was, but he knows what they are because he's highly aware of those service stations because a lot of them are his clients.
Now, how does that apply ... So transition that for us. Takeover from that thought process and how that applies to your new book and the cycle of fulfillment, what we're talking about.
RIZWAN SHUJA:
Basically, there are stages of ego development or higher self development. Our ego wants us to be in turmoil and our higher self wants us to be in peace. Higher self is the opposite of ego. The more negative emotions you have, the more hate you have, the more anger you have, the more resentment you have, the more complaining and blaming you have, or the more need of approval, a lot of people don't notice this, but need of approval, like recognition, like, "Look at me, notice me, I'm more successful, I have a more expensive car than you, I have a bigger house than you, I'm better looking than you," that kind of a ... Or even, "I'm a religious person. I'm more closer to God than you," even that is also a need of approval.
So all those are ego-driven desires. When we can tame our negative emotions, our ego also get tamed. Your inner world creates your outer world. Whatever you have inside, you'll get it outside. If you have hate, you'll find hate. If you have love, you will find love. So if you can conquer your inner self, then what it does ... the law of attraction. I mean, I don't think we have time to go over that, but the law of attraction starts working. You must have noticed all these people with very negative energies who have anger, who start fighting or cussing or complain and blame, if you notice them, they're in a vicious cycle. Sometimes their knee will get hurt. Sometimes their car will break down. Sometimes their best friend will steal their rent money. It's a vicious cycle. They just get stuck into that.
If you are able to evolve your higher self, which takes you closer to the God, then what it does, it activates your reticular activating system, which means that your consciousness evolves and then your awareness, your morals and values are evolved. So if you can get there, then you are able to start seeing the signs. Like you said, your dad can notice all the gas stations, which you couldn't notice. So the example of that would be if you buy a car, which you didn't think that very many people drove, after you buy it, you start seeing it everywhere and you start noticing it. Also another example I give, one of my friends in 2006 called me from New York, asking for what kind of business he should start. I told him about check-cashing business because I had just started it.
So I took like 10, 15 minutes to explain him how he has to apply it with a U.S. Treasury and then anti money laundering policies, procedures, and things like that, what software to use. 15 minutes later, he tells me that he has never seen it in New York so there must not be a big market. Two days later, he calls me and tells me that he sees the 1% check cashing sign everywhere in New York. Wherever he goes, the sign is already there. So the signs were already there. Just he couldn't see them. Now, even though he's not looking, but he can still see them. So the same way, the signs, chances and opportunities are there to be happy, to be fulfilled, to be healthy and fit and enjoy, love, connection, bonding with people and God, thrive and prosper in your business and have abundance of money.
So some can see and some cannot see or some can partially see. So when you release yourself from that kind of negative energy and ego, then you start seeing signs and you want to open 40 restaurants, then you will find a contractor. You will find cooks. You will find the realtor. You will find locations. Things become a lot easier and it just start happening for you.
SKOT WALDRON:
So that's amazing. Being able to recognize the signs and being able to understand them is really crucial. With you, you have to work with a lot of different partners. You can't run that many service stations, restaurants, buildings, real estate yourself. You have a lot of partners that are helping you and you claim to get along with all of them in some way, shape or form.
RIZWAN SHUJA:
Yes, most of the time.
SKOT WALDRON:
So I sit there and say, "That's a lot of people to get along with. That's a lot of personalities." How do we navigate that? What are some of the signs that we can look for? How do we look inside ourselves in order to be able to unlock the ability to get along with a lot of different people?
RIZWAN SHUJA:
Like we said, you have to conquer your inner world first to be able to conquer the outer world. 80% of everything is psychology and 20% is mechanics. If you have conquered your inner negative energies, your ego, you want good for others, even though you want better for yourself, but at least you want good for others, other people's success doesn't hurt you, then even a lot of negative people will act positive towards you if you are positive, and things will start getting better. But of course there has to be a lot of people who can hurt you. It's not that everybody, if you're positive ... but you will have that awareness, how to recognize that, how to pick and choose and select people. Then you partner up with them and most of the time, what we do is pick up one of our employees and give them 25% partnership in one of the new stores, because we have already worked with him, we already recognize his value, his morals and ethics, and that's how we grow.
Because it's good for us and it's good for him too. His knowledge, his ability. He was just a cashier, then he becomes a manager, then he becomes an owner operator. So that's how we grow together.
SKOT WALDRON:
That's amazing. So that's opportunity, and that maybe goes into your principle of giving first. You say giving is beginning of receiving.
RIZWAN SHUJA:
Yeah. Another example I give is Japanese people. I've worked for a Japanese company called Hitachi. I have a degree in electrical engineering. So before gas stations, I've worked in Hitachi for two years. Over there, an engineer doesn't see what he's getting. He just sees what he's giving, because his level of honesty, loyalty, sincerity towards his country, towards this company, towards his customers, toward his team is so high that he doesn't see what he's getting. An average person like us sees that, "Why didn't I get a promotion? Why did he get a raised?" Right? So who do you think is going to receive more? The one who's giving. Right? In general, people just say, "How much money did you give?"
Giving is like a big, vast majority of things that you give, and it starts from the loyalty, sincerity, and honesty. If you have that, then you can give your 100% to your company. Otherwise, you will be always thinking, "What am I getting?" But when you get on the receiving end, and the other person gets on the receiving end, then there's a conflict and the selfishness starts and then people fight. Right?
SKOT WALDRON:
That makes sense. It's, "What am I getting out of this?" Right? And then-
RIZWAN SHUJA:
What am I giving? When you start giving, and of course, it's not going to work on 100% of the people, and if somebody's that negative and that difficult that nothing is going to work, then you have to change your proximity. You have to be around positive people. So if you're around successful people, positive people, that becomes your normal, that becomes your standard. If your standards change, then things automatically come to you. Let's say, if you have a car, right? Somebody snatches your car and tells you to take a bus from tomorrow. Your mind will find a way to get a car, because that is your standard. That is your normal to have a car. But somebody who's being taken a bus for the last seven years, his mind is not doing anything to get the car, because that is his normal.
So if you change your standards, being around positive people, trying to learn positive things, or watching videos like this, reading books like this will definitely help you. It will help you in every sphere of life. Even fitness. Body building or losing fat or staying in shape. 80% of it is psychology, 20% is mechanics. Everybody knows. Even if nobody knows about the exercise, they know that if they start running, they will lose fat, right? And they eat healthy. But we have to create that psychology to be able to do it. Let's say if somebody is sitting in front of a TV, watching a movie, drinking whiskey, eating pizza. If you tell them, "Let's go to the gym and lift heavy weights," he's not going to go because it sounds so painful to him. But somebody who's been going to the gym every day, he enjoys it, right?
So it's the psychology you have to create to be able to perform persistently. So if we create a psychology of becoming a bigger and better person, not the money ... if you're focusing on the money, then the process will become harder for you. But if you become ... Let's say if there are two doctors, one of them want to become a doctor to be able to make a lot of money and be able to prove to everybody that he's successful and show off his success and his material things, and versus there's another doctor who wants to become a doctor because he has this desire or will of learning and getting educated about the human body and be able to help and heal people. all right? Who's going to be more successful. Even financially the later one would be more successful, even though his goal was not money and his journey of going through the medical school, studying and all that, would be pleasurable also.
The journey of working and studying will be pleasurable. Versus for the other person, because his goal was money, he'll be struggling and it will be difficult for him to go through that journey.
SKOT WALDRON:
Fantastic insight. I love that. It does. A lot of it takes place in our heads, and this is something that isn't taught earlier on in people's careers until they get there later on in life. So your book is going to be fantastic. I'm looking forward to seeing that and what happens with that. So it is called Mental/ Emotional Fulfillment. Do you have an expectation of when that is going to be released?
RIZWAN SHUJA:
We've almost finished writing it and it's going to go through editing and formatting and then hopefully it will be published. So I would say maybe two months,
SKOT WALDRON:
Two months. Oh gosh. I was just going to say, "What? So next year sometime?" You're like, "Nope. Two months." So that's-
RIZWAN SHUJA:
No, the book is almost finished. It just has to go through proofreading, editing and formatting.
SKOT WALDRON:
That's amazing. Okay. Well, we're looking forward to that. Is there any way people can get in touch with you if they want to talk to you more about this and find out more information?
RIZWAN SHUJA:
Definitely. Yeah. We have a YouTube channel called Cycle of Fulfillment. We have around 30, 35 videos in it. You can email me through there or I can give out my email address. It's rizwan_shuja@hotmail.com.
SKOT WALDRON:
Fantastic. Yeah. I've looked at your YouTube channel. There's some really cool stuff on that. I looked at it after I spoke with Imran and there's some really, really good stuff in there. I love all that. So thanks a lot for your insights. Good luck on the new book. Good luck on the previous book and helping people. Good luck with all your businesses. You sound like you are a busy man. Keep rolling, and I appreciate your insights. Thanks.
RIZWAN SHUJA:
Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.
SKOT WALDRON:
Everything we do, according to Rizwan, is 80% psychology and 20% mechanics. Think about that. It really is. When we're doing a podcast, when we're doing our jobs every day, those types of things take a lot of mental awareness, mental energy, just understanding ourselves, our potential, our capabilities in order to execute what we need to execute. The execution, usually it's ingrained in us. We learn the skill, whatever it is, but it takes all the mental stuff to get us to that point, to truly be healthy on the inside so that we can execute on the outside. I love this discussion about ego versus higher self and the conflict that happens and exists between those two things and how much ego controls a lot of who we are and what we do and how we can learn to tame that. So his next book, him and Imran have a book coming out and they're going to talk about that how to part of taming those negative emotions.
So super grateful for you, Rizwan. Thank you for being on the show today. If any of you want to find out more about me, you can go to Skotwaldron.com. You can also like, subscribe, share my stuff on YouTube. I would love that. I got a bunch of free resources there for you, as well as these interviews. I would love to connect with you on LinkedIn. So look me up there. Let's connect and let's start some conversations together. All right, everybody. Have a great day and I'll see you next time on another episode of Unlocked.
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