Escaping the Trap of Shallow Success

The Playbook With David Meltzer

David Meltzer, Entrepreneur.com

Entrepreneurship, Business, Careers

4.6 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 July 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In today’s episode, I sit down with Genea Barnes, host of the Be the Wolf podcast, where she empowers leaders, creatives, and change-makers to align with their true identity. I share how my early hunger for money led to a shallow world of scarcity, trading, and chasing status, until personal and financial collapse forced me to face the real source of my unhappiness. We explore the gap between who we are and who we pretend to be, and why true abundance comes from living in the world of more than enough. I break down how gratitude, accountability, and understanding interference unlock both success and fulfillment.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I, David. I'm super excited that you're here. And let's just jump right in. You have a special story. You don't
0:07.3	have the typical, I just had a super easy path to get to success. So before we dive into all the
0:18.4	details and all the value that you, I know, provide because you always do.
0:23.4	Can you give us a breakdown of your entrepreneurial journey?
0:28.3	Yeah, it's really a world of three.
0:31.0	My entrepreneurial journey started by being poor.
0:33.6	I had a single mom, at five years old, my dad left, six kids in Akron, Ohio.
0:38.6	So my journey was when I caught.
0:41.9	And what I caught was my mom working two jobs, packing my dinner and paper bags so I could
0:47.5	eat, and showing me about consistent, persistent pursuit of your own potential, showing me values, showing me daily
0:59.5	practices of purpose and an execution of that. And so I grew up as an entrepreneur out of
1:08.4	desperation in the respect that the only time I wasn't happy
1:12.7	are these amazing siblings, an amazing mom, great health, but no money. So what else would a young
1:21.6	entrepreneur think? Then, wow, if I make a lot of money, I'm going to live this amazing life. That's all that's
1:28.6	missing. Like my mom cries when the car breaks down or the dishwasher, she can't afford to buy clothes
1:34.4	or food or send me to camp. Imagine I just made a lot of money. And so at a very young age,
1:41.4	I lived in a world of not enough, a competitive world, not enough,
1:45.4	a world where you're a victim because you know you're equal to or better than other people
1:51.0	that seem to be happier than you because they have money.
1:54.5	They can just go to camp.
1:56.0	They can just buy food.
1:57.4	They can go on vacation.
	...

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