 So the 21 convention, Tampa, Florida, and we are bringing on a speaker, the man, this is something that is really going to work and what the 21 convention is all about. Changing your life as a man, making the right decisions, be able to build your own foundation and one of those is business and entrepreneurship. This is a gentleman who has worked for over five years with Matthew Hussey, I'm sure you've heard of him, best-selling author, actually former 21 convention speaker, and we're gonna be talking about how setting up a business can be like a dance. Let's bring on the stage, Edward Druse. Thank you, Pa, thank you. Good stuff, good stuff. 21 convention, hello. Hello, it's amazing to be here. I'm gonna begin this talk with a quick story. When I was 15 years old, I ran a gambling ring in school. In the UK where I grew up, the most hotly anticipated sporting events every week are the Premier League football matches. Knowing this to try and capitalize on the buzz, every Monday morning I would sneak into my dad's office and I'd print out betting slips for each of the 10 games that weekend. I would hand these out at school, lunch, during breaks, behind teachers' backs, wherever I could, marketing myself under radar, and I would tell kids that for a one-pound bet, if they could guess all 10 games correctly, I would give them 100 pounds back. Now, to a 15-year-old, these seemed like pretty incredible odds. Everyone thinks their team is gonna win, so that one's a shoe-in and it's just nine more games. And so this was hotly taken up every single week. Little did anyone know that I would gather these in and as something of a Friday afternoon ritual, I would go to an actual bookies with my brother's borrowed driving license and I'd put them on where I'd get odds of anywhere from one to 800 to one to 3,000 depending on the games. I didn't know if this would go anywhere, it was just a little scheme that I'd come up with, but I decided to run with it. I did it for a few months and I was very persistent and then one week, someone won. Someone guessed all 10 games correctly and I had a winning ticket for about 1700 pounds, so the equivalent of about two and a half thousand dollars. Now, I had to pay this guy his 100, there was no getting around that, I had to be a man of my word, but I went into the bookies, I slammed down this ticket on the counter and I was paid 1700 pounds in cash. And to this day, comparatively, I don't think I've ever felt richer. This unbelievable experience walking out with an envelope, cash in hand, I don't think I've ever felt richer. And this experience led me to think that I wanted to do something entrepreneurial. I wanted to do something different. I'd always had the mindset that I wanted to do something academic, that I could go to college, I could go to university, and I'd follow the very well-worn traditional route, but this experience led me to think I wanted to do something different. Now, it's a rather humble story when you compare it to teenagers today with the internet making tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it's really that sense of wanting to do something different that I want to tap into today. And that's what really this talk is going to be about. In the years since, or I should say, in the following months, I was really keeping my eyes peeled for how I could break away what opportunities I could get involved with and I was just keeping my eyes peeled at all times. After a few months, I came across a guy called Matthew Hussie. And at the time, Matthew was just starting out in London as a coach and a speaker, doing events for maybe 80 or 90 people. And I was so utterly captivated with this guy, both with his message and his content, as well as his ability to command and just all a crowd. I'd seen a few of his YouTube videos and I was so compelled and so enthusiastic about what this guy was doing that I decided I would go along to one of his events. Now, being 15 at the time, this wasn't the easiest thing in the world. I had to get the 200-mile train ride from Swansea, a little town I grew up in, Wales, and I had to go to London. There, I had to navigate the London Underground, which is a treacherous thing for anyone, let alone a 15-year-old, and I ended up walking around with printouts of Google Maps. This is long before the days of everyone walking around with iPhones. But I went and I was just as awed, if not more in person, by how this guy was able to speak, how he was able to deliver, and I kept going back. Any chance I would get, I would skip the football match I would have on Saturday, playing for a football team, and I would go and see this guy speak. And I became something of a familiar face at his events. I kept going. And I was eventually able to befriend a key member of his team. With his friend, I was able to get 10 minutes on Matt's calendar to book in a phone call. The call was at five o'clock in the morning, because I knew Matt was a morning person. I wanted to say, here, I'm on the same level, I'm a similar kind of guy, and this was show I'm serious. So when the day rolled around, I woke up, I had set my alarm for 4.54, going down with six minutes to go, and I was nervous as hell to make this phone call. I didn't quite know what I was gonna say. I was gonna try and say, I would like to get involved somehow, I don't really know what I can add, but I just love what you're doing. And I would love to be a part of it. And so I'm in the garage in this freezing cold garage, so I was to not wake my parents and have them wonder what the hell is this guy doing up at five o'clock in the morning. And so I dialed the number for Matt, and I met with a kind of energy and enthusiasm which suggests that this man has just been up since three. He picks up the phone, he says, hey, Edward, how you doing? I've been really looking forward to speaking with you. We chat for a little while, I tell him how many of his events I've been along to, and I say, is there any way that I can get involved? Now, to any entrepreneurs we have here in the room, you will let you will agree with me in how unattractive a prospect, a 15 year old who lives 200 miles away might be, but I really showed some energy and enthusiasm on that call. And so I was invited to come along to one of his more intensive programs, a three day event at the time that was called Make the Leap. Now I knew at the time because in my delusional young state, I'd been looking at apartment prices in London as well as hotel prices. And for you guys who might not have been to London all of you, it's a very expensive city. I knew that going along for just three days would eat into pretty much all of the winnings I had from the bookies. But my gut told me that this is something I've got to do. This is something I've got to be a part of. And so without a moment's hesitation, I said, yes, I'm in. It's now five years later and I've been working with Matthew ever since. I was able to further befriend that key member of his team. I was invited into his offices to do two or three days worth of data entry that was just so mind-numbingly boring that no one else on the team would ever otherwise have been ever to get around to do it. I really excelled. I showed that I was serious and I was invited to stay on for a few more weeks. The weeks turned into months and when my summer holiday was coming to a close, I had to sit down with Matthew and said, I love to stay on. I love to do this full time. I was 17 years old and I dropped out of high school and I've never been back. So in the last, well, in working with Matthew for the last five years, he has become a New York Times bestselling author. He has his own radio show with I Heart Radio and he's worked with celebrities the likes of Eva Longoria, Ryan Seacrest and Christina Aguilera. He's on The Today Show every other week on shows like Rachel Ray and he's most well known for a dating advice company called Get The Guy. So this is dating advice for women, the opposite of what the guys we have here speaking about today are talking about. Now I'd be lying if I said that it was strategic at this time that I thought this is the missing link. But in hindsight, this experience has led me to think that if you're in that place where you want to do something different, you want to do something entrepreneurial, you don't really know how to do so in the real world. You don't know how to do so outside of school walls and actually put something to practice. The missing piece of the jigsaw.