When Losing Everything Changes Everything

The Playbook With David Meltzer

David Meltzer, Entrepreneur.com

Entrepreneurship, Business, Careers

4.9 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 March 2026

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In today’s episode, I join the Behavior Bitches podcast to share the moment my greatest fear came true and how it ultimately reshaped my life. After losing more than $100 million and going bankrupt, I had to confront the ego, habits, and beliefs that led me there. I talk about the lesson my mom taught me in that painful moment, why receiving is just as important as giving, and how community and shared values create real opportunity. We also discuss why surrounding yourself with the right people matters, the danger of doing business with “dicks,” and how responding to fear with humility, gratitude, and accountability can completely change your trajectory.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome. Thank you so much. You guys are awesome and I can't wait to talk about how to empower
0:07.8	a billion people, talk about values and maybe even talk about some other things you may be
0:12.5	interested in. Yes, for sure. And I do know we do have this typically, this or that that we ask. Do we
0:19.7	want to ask him a few things? I'm going to ask him a few things because I like to build that rapport first. And so I want to know, are you a coffee or tea person? Tea. Ooh. Tea. Okay. Morning person or night owl. I know you're not a night owl. You said you go to bed early? Yeah, I'm morning all the way. Yeah, because you did talk about your sleep schedule and that you would win that in an Olympic sport. Hall of Fame. That's incredible. Are you a text or call guy? Call for sure. Oh, wow. Wow, okay. Okay. So I've been trying to text you because you gave me your number. That's why I better just call you.
0:58.1	Okay.
1:00.4	Beach vacation or Mountain Getaway?
1:03.4	Beach vacation.
1:04.6	That's why he lives in L.A.
1:06.5	I like that.
1:07.2	Okay.
1:07.8	Nice.
1:08.6	All right.
1:09.0	We won't go on too long from here now. Let's get into your mission
1:14.3	and what you do. What do you do? On a day to day, how do you operationalize making one billion
1:20.6	people happy? Yeah. So I am a community builder and everything I do, investments that I make, coaching, speaking,
1:30.7	meetups, holding court, all the different TV shows, podcasts, business development deals that I do.
1:39.1	Everything is aimed towards building this community of people that want to help each other and know people
1:45.9	to help each other. And it's never been easier to build community than it is today. And understanding
1:54.0	value and being able to articulate value to exceed what I ask for is the key skill set that I've learned over the years to help build this community of people that not only help each other and know people that help each other.
2:08.4	They buy from each other and sell for each other for life, but they also are kind.
2:15.2	They share values. And having this community enables us to truly create a collective
2:21.7	consciousness that can change the world. And so when you say, and that's what seems so,
	...

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