Episode Transcript
[00:00:14] Speaker A: Welcome to Battle Ready, where we dig into real challenges leaders face every single day. I'm your host, Ricky Chavez. And today we are joined by Rick Figueroa, a highly respected leader in business strategy and organizational health. He's worked closely with executive navigating high pressure environments and has a track record of helping everybody. He's also very well known in Houston. Hey, welcome, Ricky. Thanks, Ricky, it's such a pleasure having you here today. I know you had to go through a little that traffic from Brennan, right?
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Yeah, it is.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: Okay. So you know, Rick, you know, we talked a little bit early on and tell me a little bit about yourself, your family growing up. You said you were from Baytown, right?
[00:00:53] Speaker B: Bay City.
[00:00:53] Speaker A: Bay City. Okay, tell me a little more.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: So I grew up in Bay City. I'm youngest of eight. I always tell them that my mom took eight times to get it right, but she got it right.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: Okay, nice.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: You know, the baby's always spoiled. That's what.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: Right. 100%.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: And so I went to Bay City High School. Warden County Junior College. Wasn't an exceptional student. It wasn't an A student or BC guy just getting by. You know, the three and Bean story. Grew up in government housing, right? Right. No dad. So my life was pretty in a scope. It was stereotypical of a lot of Latinos back in the 70s and early 80s, right. I was always. I was Latino before Latino was cool.
[00:01:29] Speaker A: Okay, gotcha.
[00:01:30] Speaker B: Right. And so we just struggled 36 years. My mom worked in the kitchen, I was a laborer on a ranch, pumped gas at a service station. You just get by. And so went to college on a bet. My mother realized that I needed to go to college. You know, Latino mothers, they have like a nag.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: Oh my gosh.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: She said, mijo, gotta go, you gotta go. I said, ah, you know, we'll see.
So finally I just said, you know, I went down to Wharton County Junior College and I enrolled. And it was one of those moments where you kind of laugh because it was a lady with a bifocals with a little chain link. She goes, can I help you? I said, I didn't know.
Yeah, I'm enrolled school. And I was like, okay, well, what do you want to do? I don't know. What do you want to major in? I don't know. And I said, she goes, why don't you go orientation? I went to orientation. I found out two things, right? Okay, one is there were a lot of good looking girls in college.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: Oh my gosh, yes.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: And number two, they didn't have A chance and didn't date me yet.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:19] Speaker B: So I went to college just, you know, on a plan. And it's a. My life, Ricky is a force, Gump. And I say that, not with any other, that up until a certain point, it was unintentional. Just these steps, it seems. So. Went to Wharton, did great. Realized I wasn't an idiot, that I could actually study and I could do things. And ended up going A and M, becoming an accounting major. And why? Because a lot of good looking girls were in the accounting.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: So that's why became an accountant.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: So you had to focus.
[00:02:47] Speaker B: Focus, man. It was driven. So I was blessed as my mother was. You know, she was starting to understand that I needed to get away from Bay City.
I was in a lot of gang areas and the kids were just not the good kids. So she needed to take me out. She was a smart lady and she's one of those women that.
She's a grinder.
I always tell people my mother had seven rules. Very simple, seven rules. She didn't have time for any bs. Number one, you get up your butt out of bed, go to work.
Number two, don't expect anybody to help you. Number three, you help anybody and everybody you can. Number four, you pray every day. Number five, you marry a godly woman. You don't just live with her, you marry a godly woman. Number six, you raise godly kids. Number seven, you honor God in everything you do, Man. That's it.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: You got those memorized too?
[00:03:35] Speaker B: That's the case, right? Oh, yeah.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:03:37] Speaker B: Oh, I got beating into me. It was not right. Sure. And so those rules have been kind of guiding principles as to where I went through life.
Went to A and M, got a degree in accounting, got a master's in economics. And so again, just Forrest Gump type tripping scenarios. Right. And then I worked here in Houston at Arthur Anderson. Worked at Halliburton in South America. Again, the only reason I got the job at Halliburton, South America is I was bilingual.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: Because you speak Spanish. Yes.
[00:04:08] Speaker B: Now, I was. I was in charge as an auditor, in charge of 30 year old men, 35 year old men. I was like 26 years old because I was bilingual. Right. Again, the thing I ran away from being. I remember when I was growing up in school, my mother, I would ask her to drop my me off like two blocks from school because we had a beaten up old car. I didn't want anybody to see me.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: Sure, Right.
[00:04:27] Speaker B: I was embarrassed. Okay, Right. And she would talk to me in Spanish I would answer in English because I didn't want to speak Spanish Right. Back then, everybody wanted to, you know, to be, you know, white guys.
And so the thing I ran away from as a kid elevated me in the business world.
Speaking Spanish in my Hispanic culture. It created a platform for me. And I'll get that. So I'll give you the bridge version. So went to. There.
Went to go work at Merrill lynch, and so built a career. Again, the thing I ran away from when I went to work For Merrill Lynch, 1998, BFI and Waste Management were buying a lot of trash companies, right? Okay. Well, these trash companies were owned by Hispanic men.
And they didn't trust the white gringo wealth manager or stockbroker. They trusted somebody who knew their body.
[00:05:15] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:05:15] Speaker B: Where they came from, who could speak their language. So my career just skyrocketed. I was able to acquire assets and help them manage their assets. It was a blessing, huge blessing that I didn't see coming. And we ended up building the book. Started my own firm in 2000. October 2nd. $375 million under management now.
[00:05:33] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: And if those rich people realized the barrio kid that's actually in charge of their money, they would be like. They'd be shocked because the neighborhood I grew up in, we were not anywhere near understanding what wealth was. We were trying to survive.
And so focused on redeveloping wealth management.
In the interim, got involved in politics. Worked at Texas Department. Now I'm chairman of Texas Department License Regulation, which is the third largest commission, over 900 employees. And now we have the lottery. And it now came over to our division this last legislative session. So I'm in charge of working with the lottery in the bingo area. So, among other things, your, you know, fuel, motoring. When you go get your gas pump, you'll see my name on the gas pump. And when you get your hair cut, you'll see if you look at the license, you'll see.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: Really?
[00:06:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:20] Speaker A: So you're involved in a whole bunch.
[00:06:22] Speaker B: And that's probably the challenges. But the greatest success is my wife, my marriage. 30 years. Wow. She is the queen of my world.
And she is just amazing. And I have four beautiful kids. Amazing kids. I'm a grandfather for the first time.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:06:39] Speaker B: And so I'm soon to be another grandfather, another grandkid. In October, both my daughters are married. And then my youngest, oldest son is A and M. Played football for A and M. Okay. Tight end. And then my youngest son's a freshman.
[00:06:50] Speaker A: A and M. Wow. So let me tell you, a Couple takeaways from this conversation. I think the one biggest thing is the shout out to everybody is another language helps.
You know, Spanish is amazing. You know, we both speak Spanish and it's helped us a lot. It's definitely helped you get those jobs. But nowadays, you know, especially Houston, what a diverse Houston, right?
There's so many languages in Houston.
So I know I have some grandkids and I try to tell them all the time, learn, learn, learn.
I'll tell you something amazing. I have an 18 year old granddaughter who just recorded her eighth song in Japanese.
[00:07:32] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:07:32] Speaker A: So she cannot speak Japanese. She's studying Japanese, but she sings in Japanese, which totally is amazing to me. So the fact that you were bilingual and you got yourself educated, that helped you. So what were some of the challenges?
[00:07:51] Speaker B: One of the things that people don't understand. And I want to be clear with you.
[00:07:55] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:57] Speaker B: Victories. I've had many.
[00:07:59] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: As a day laborer, I own a ranch now.
[00:08:01] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: Right. From the barrio to the boardroom.
[00:08:04] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: Right.
[00:08:04] Speaker A: That's, that's, that's amazing.
[00:08:07] Speaker B: I can't remember all the victories, but I've had many defeats.
And I can tell you what the guy looked like. I can tell you what the weather was like. Those are seared in my head. I can tell you what I felt like.
People try to run from challenges or defeats.
I believe they are character definers. There are opportunities to define victories typically don't define characters. They absorb characters and dilute it. Defeats where you find yourself in the hardest position. And I think those that what has happened is I have taken the arrows that God has given me. I'm a strong believer as a Christian and I believe that those arrows, everybody has arrows and their quiver. And my arrows was my mom's seven rules. I worked at a gas station. I was a day laborer and I knew how to work on a ranch. I spoke Spanish and those are my arrows. So those arrows are, you know, unintentionally, until I really knew the Lord and I came to understand strategically where I needed to. But I was able to fire those arrows, right. And build myself up into a position of influence. Right. And it wasn't to glorify me, it was to make impact.
And I think that people don't understand that. And, and, and I'll tell you, this is one of the most incredible secrets that I manage well, okay. To walk in my door, it's a million dollars. Million dollars. So, you know, to have an open account with me, we have a minimum of a million.
So it's a little high bar.
I deal with high net worth people. And so this is what happens. You have this bell curve, all right? I want you to think of this bell curve that goes right?
And here your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. Here, you know, in 20s, you're just an idiot trying to find out what life's about, right? 30s, you're like, I got this. The 40s, you're like the boss. 50s, you're the boss. The boss. 60s, you're looking at the exit door because the 40 year old's out working here. 70s, you're looking for a nice place to land, you know, summer home or whatever. 80s, you're looking for a bullet.
What happens is they come to me, the ability to bisect that curve, to change the curves, to figure out what are the arrows that have been in my life, the first half of my life, that I can redirect and change the path and create something bigger than what the grind of my circle. And you've kind of done this with this. You went from military to the show, right? You've done something, a genre that's totally different.
So the success in my life, even at the 20s, was I was constantly trying to penetrate unintentionally, sometimes this curve that I was predetermined. And the sooner you bisect the curve, the greater the delta. Okay, you with me? The sooner you can do that. Some people take 60 before they do it, right? And so we work with people who are very successful. And one of the worst things that can happen to you sometimes is successful because it makes you fat and lazy. You know that, Right, right, right. And you lose that hunger, you lose that decide. And so we try to challenge people who are very successful to redefine who they are. And it's a big. It's a big opportunity.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: Well, I think your story is just so amazing to me. I think the. The fact that you told me that one of your big things now, helping people, helping others, and, and just the fact that, that you've taken yourself from the barrio to the boardroom, that was. I mean, I love that. And I think the other thing I heard was you don't know what you don't know, right? So you got to get out there and educate yourself. You got to get out there and shoot your arrows.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: And the big thing is it's not what happens to you, it's how you react to that, what happens to you, how you overcome it, the defeats, as you said earlier. Guys, we'll be right back with Rick Figueroa, and we'll talk some more on Battle Ready. See you at the welcome back to Battle Ready. If you love what you're watching, don't miss a moment of Battle Ready on any of your favorite NOW Media TV shows, live or on demand, anytime or anywhere. You can download the Free Now Media TV app on Roku or iOS, and even instant access to full lineup of bilingual programming, both English and Spanish, if you prefer. See, I got that word stuck to listen to on the go. You can do it on NOW Media tv and you can do it on I lost the word on any of the podcasts. You know, we're back. I'm tongue tied today, but that's okay because we're back with Rick Figueroa, the CEO of Patron Partners.
Rick, welcome back.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:12:39] Speaker A: All right, so we had a really intense conversation in the first half.
[00:12:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:42] Speaker A: You know, you shared all your life and where you, where you came from. And I remember to the boardroom. All right, so we talked about the area, the arrows. But let's talk about the, you know, some of the defeats, some that put a blast in your mind that really made you, you know, sit up and go after it. Can you share one of those? Are you okay with that?
[00:13:07] Speaker B: I can tell you there's a, you know, I talked about the defeats defined you. Right?
One of the challenges, my first job, right. I learned that I didn't want to work for Darth Anderson.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:13:18] Speaker B: I learned that I was challenged by the job. And I wasn't gonna be fired. It was gonna be made available to the market. Okay. So that I like that you're gonna be available.
[00:13:27] Speaker A: Right.
[00:13:28] Speaker B: So I'm on. You got to think about this. I'm on. I'm a kid from Bay City who didn't know exactly how he's going to feed himself living in an apartment I couldn't pay for. Now I got a job. I'm going to get laid off. But what it did is it redirected me. It redirected me to something bigger and something I was intended to do. And it's almost like God kind of giving me guardrails to move me over to a different slot. And it created a vacuum and an opportunity to go into wealth management. But the wealth management story is quite remarkable. And I don't think you're going to. Going to appreciate this story. I've always wanted to be a federal agent in Washington, D.C. i applied for the FBI academy, got ejected by the FBI Academy. And so I was like, okay, so I'm going to go Work for Halliburton in South America. I got a phone call from the DEA and said, hey, we're interested in interviewing you. And I thought, even better. The bad boys are falling, right? I want a bad. Give me a bad guy and a gun. That's all I need. Because I grew up in the streets, I knew what these guys thought. So I was like, this is going to be great. I went through all the bad. This is back in 96.
So no Internet.
You know, computers, or it was. You had to write everything out, dial up. This thing was probably this thick, Ricky. It was about this thick of an application. They talked to my high school teacher, finally approved, Started getting closer to the Lord. And I started praying, and I heard the lord tell me, don't do it, because I was going to go. Basically, they were going to assign me to Laredo as undercover. And I'm like, this is going to be great. And I felt, God say, this will destroy your family, your marriage that I have intended for you. So after all that, my wife agreeing to go to Laredo, everything set up, I had to call this agent after about six months of background check and tell him, I'm not going to do the job. And he looked and he cussed me out. And he said, you'll never work. I mean, he was so upset. He was a lot of work, a lot of money involved in this.
And so. And I'm like, I just. I can't take it.
And it was a defeat, right?
That led me to being desperate for a job because they had to talk to my employer at Halliburton and talk to them. And so my Halliburton employee knew I didn't want to be there, So I was kind of a lame duck. And so I'm a lame duck in this job, and I'm trying to figure out how to get another job. And so this guy, Merrill lynch, calls me up and says, hey, you know, you should come work for us. I'm like, I'm not going to go work for Merrill Lynch. You're a bunch of toupee wearing, money stealing, you know, stockbrokers who wants to go work for you guys?
But the opportunity became that a guy like me, right, could do something and change it. So I went to go work there. I was successful. And I'll never forget, my wife asked me, she goes, after about six weeks, eight weeks of working there, she goes, what do you think?
I said, I've never been in a more narcissistic, greed centric, commission driven business in my life, right? And I've seen it all. I grew up in the body, right? These guys. And so. But what's happening is industry was changing.
E trade was coming on. And so you were paying for the trade, now you're paying for the advice. And the integrity of the advice giver became important.
And all of a sudden my career launched and the waste management companies were buying and God was just blessing me and I made more money in the wealth management I ever could as an agent or. And I was able to buy a ranch and basically witness to inner city kids we have. Every year we have 100 inner city felons. Come out to the ranch.
[00:16:36] Speaker A: Really?
[00:16:36] Speaker B: Yes. Come out to the ranch to witness to them. Because I know the only difference between those guys and me is I was faster.
Right. The cop can only arrest one at a time. Right.
And so you have this direction in my life that this defeat of leaving my first job under the known. I'm going to get fired. To this victory of being able to do the freedom to build a career and a life and a ranch, to be able to serve and impact people, man.
Amazing.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: And so how was the conversation? You were married at the time, right?
[00:17:12] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:17:12] Speaker A: So how was the conversation with your wife? And I know you told me how blessed you are with your wife and how supportive she is, but at that time, I know it's always scary, right? How do I feed them? How do I do this? How do that? How did that, how did that happen?
[00:17:25] Speaker B: She was pregnant with our first kid. Eight months pregnant. We just bought a house in Sugar Land.
[00:17:29] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:29] Speaker B: Cows payment. And my comment was to her was, well, our tithing check is going to be lower. That was. That was the upside to me losing my job. But it was. We knew we were. As we drew closer to God, we let. We left the reliance on money and people in this world and him. And he blessed us in an amazing way. I mean, look, I mean, Ricky, I'm not. I mean, I'm not a stellar academic guy or a charisma. I'm a guy that just came out of the body who followed certain rules. And when those rules were followed, life paid off. And it paid off in amazing ways. Not just money. It did. But even if it wasn't money, it paid off with significance. Right? Success is one thing. I meet with a lot of people who are successful, who are very depressed, sad and lonely. But significance is the ability to feel like your life is worth something bigger than you've ever created. And that, to me, that changes everything. And so the opportunity to be blessed to make impact is huge.
[00:18:32] Speaker A: So the impact, for me, the definition is helping others.
Okay. And I want to make sure everybody gets that right, because I know impact, impact, impact. But the reality is, I know you're very, very quiet about it, but you help a lot of people all the time.
[00:18:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Sometimes too many. Well, no, it's not well. And I say that because my staff said that. We did an evaluation on my company after about two, three years, and they said that the greatest threat to our company was my schedule.
And busyness can be your biggest enemy. Surgical. You know, I said one time to a guy, I said, I just wish there were more hours in the day, right? And the guy, he's just one of my mentors. He looked at me, he said, that's heresy.
I was like, what are you talking about? He goes, God created the exact number of hours in the day for you to do exactly what he wants you to do. You chose to inject your agenda in. Well. And it crowded it out.
[00:19:32] Speaker A: Wow. That's pretty deep. I know. In the seven habits, they say very few people on their dying bed wish they had spent more time at work.
[00:19:42] Speaker B: It's funny, because impact, to me, is not necessarily giving people the ability to make more money, getting them to recognize their value, because people feel so valueless. They feel like they have no value. And to bring value to, say, somebody, you were created uniquely for this time, for this purpose. You had to find out what that means. And people, they don't want to sometimes discover that because the consequences. But sometimes people don't even realize that's the case.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: So before we get too much further, tell us how somebody can reach out to you, and. And, you know, maybe you can give them some direction.
[00:20:18] Speaker B: Oh, my staff's gonna kill you for this.
[00:20:20] Speaker A: That's all right. They're gonna love you.
[00:20:22] Speaker B: Patron Partners is our website, and you're welcome to come through there. You're welcome to reach out the firm. You know, there's three rules in this firm, okay? When we start this firm, we have three rules. Number one, everybody's blessed. So I told you, it's a million dollars having an account list, but we'll help anybody and everybody we can.
[00:20:39] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:20:41] Speaker B: And I've helped. One of the things I love doing is we do retirement plans.
So I get to go talk to masses of people and companies. And so people who could never enter my office, I get to help them, right? So everybody's blessed. The security guy competition.
I'm good with my competitors blessing them. So everybody's blessed. And we grade Our performance of our, of our employees on impact. Number two, right. Is you have to be able to say to yourself, okay, I was to turn the wealth management on its edge. I want to change the way I say ask basically my partner, but I want to change. Wealth management has always been focused on production and assets. I want to make it great on impact. Our firm is about how we impact your lives. And I want to make sure you understand that we're there not because you're making paying us money. We're there because it's our purpose. And the third one is I want everybody to be missional. When you come work for me, I want you to be missional, not vocational. Don't come for me because you want a job. Come to work for me because you want a calling. You have a calling to be there because the intimacy is so great. So the firm is the best way to reach out to me and happy to talk.
[00:21:49] Speaker A: And you're on LinkedIn also, right?
[00:21:50] Speaker B: I am on LinkedIn and so be happy to do that. And so any way possible, let me know.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: Well, and I think that's. That's amazing. I know, I know we talked earlier. I'm a real estate team and when I interview people, I tell them, don't chase money, take care of people, and the money will come. I feel like you said it in a much grander way, but the big thing is just help everybody and everything's going to happen good, right?
[00:22:14] Speaker B: Yeah. I think people, the currency of heaven is relationships.
Gold are going to be streets.
And the only reason I'll tell you that is because the one thing I know that's going to be in heaven is other people.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:22:30] Speaker B: So by definition, those relationship, I think things that you never realized you made impact on a little small thing, those things will be tallied up and you'll be able to see the fruit of that. And I think this is a beautiful thing. So if people understand that they're building those treasures in heaven, which is impacting people, loving people, creating opportunities for them to be better because they know you. Right? That to me, is the service that we're here for.
[00:22:53] Speaker A: No, I totally agree. I think that's when, when the. That, Alex, I think, is what showed me your information and I watched some of your videos. I think that's why it was very important to me and to my audience to have you on the show so that you can impart your wisdom in a very, a very strong way that they can understand that people can grow.
We'll be right back with Rick Figueroa. And we'll talk more about his journey.
See you in a minute.
Welcome back to Battle Ready. I'm here with Rick Figuerogo, who works with leaders to navigate growth while keeping their businesses stable. Hey, Rick, welcome back.
So we, we have had some pretty intense conversations about impact, right? And I think we're going to push a little bit on leadership and mentorship. Right? They sound the same. But what are your feeling about leadership and mentorship?
[00:24:04] Speaker B: Two totally different things.
[00:24:05] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:24:05] Speaker B: Leadership is true leadership is servant leadership. Servant leadership is sacrificial leadership.
It makes the idea of being able to lead by example, but also by serving. Right? And the impact that associated with leadership on a greater scale is by being able to sacrifice your will for the greater good and by showing the group that if we do that, everybody gets the greater good. Right. Mentorship is more of an intimacy thing. It's more of a one on one. It's more of an authenticity of back and forth where you could have that really true, deep, you know, conversation. One of the biggest impacts I had in my life was Franklin Graham spoke at a Promise Keepers event and he asked the audience, it was at the Astrodome. I don't know if you guys are old enough to remember the Astrodome. And it basically said, who are your pallbearers? And I thought it was a crazy question, like, my pallbearers, who are your pallbearers? Who are the guys going to carry you not when you're dead, but when you're alive?
Who are the six guys that you are going to allow to have access to your life, to be able to speak truth to you about your marriage, your finance, everything to hold you accountable. Right? That's the mentorship. Right? And they can. And you do the same for them. And the ability to that, and we are starved for that in a day and age of social media where we promote these, you know, these perfect lives or these, oh, I did this. It becomes these false, vague screen and people are dying inside, right? And the ability to be able to be transparent and vulnerable and to be able to speak authenticity into somebody's life and to hold a mirror. Right? Mentorship isn't about fixing somebody. It's about reflecting what they need to see. It's truly looking up and saying, this is Ricky, this is what you look like. Now you're telling me this, but this is what you look like. You're saying this, but this is what you look. And, and people need that. They need to have truth spoken to them. I'll give you an example A guy wanted to.
I was speaking about this with his wealth and about significance, impact. And he said, alright, Rick, I'm going to give $2.5 million to my church.
And I looked down and said.
He goes, you don't think that's a lot of money? I said, no, it's not a lot of money at all. He goes, you don't think $2.5 million is a lot of money?
I go, it's nothing.
He goes, what are you talking about? I said, bill, you're dead.
What is $2.5 million worth to you when you're dead? It's like me giving you my underwear when I'm done with it. I said, $2.5 million to a dead man is nothing. The whole point of a gift is a sacrifice associated. I could probably speak to your wife or your kids about it, but they didn't have a choice in it. So don't try to pat yourself on the back about donating money. Now, don't get me wrong, estate planning is great and it's important, but don't give yourself credit about giving something away has no value to you.
Does that make sense?
[00:26:57] Speaker A: And so that mirror, that's what your.
[00:26:59] Speaker B: Tithing came about, right? That mirror, Right.
It's not always pretty. I mean, I'm looking, you're not. You're Ricky Handsome. Sometimes you got some warts, right? And if, you know, it's like anything, if you got spinach in your teeth, don't you want your buddy to tell.
[00:27:10] Speaker A: You, hey, 100% right.
[00:27:11] Speaker B: But the problem is we look and we don't have a relationship with authenticity enough to have people say that to you.
And so mentorship's about that.
[00:27:22] Speaker A: And I totally agree with that. It's.
People don't want to hear the Rocky truth, right? And on the leadership side, you know, I know I had a boss in the military, a leader in the military. It's like, you know, leading other people is not hard. You can tell them what to do, follow up with them, make sure they're doing it, check up on them, coach them, whatever. But the biggest leadership challenge that a person has is leading themselves. What are your thoughts on that?
[00:27:46] Speaker B: Because we can't see what we can't see.
Scripture talks about, you know, that when you hear the truth and you don't follow it, it's like a man looking in the mirror and forgetting his face.
Right?
[00:27:58] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:27:58] Speaker B: The purpose of you looking in the mirror is to see what's truly there. You look at and you looked in the mirror this morning. I looked in the mirror this morning because you didn't want to come here looking like a mess. Right? Right.
So the mirror, to buy a mirror that lies to you, it's nonsensical, right? And so. But you needed to see. Your hair's a mess and your face is all, you know, you got to fix something, right? I'm not saying you should fix that, but we all should fix something, right?
[00:28:22] Speaker A: My wife thinks that.
I get it, man.
[00:28:24] Speaker B: I think it's a lot of work you and I both could do, right? But the truth, the be able to do that is invaluable. And I think that every day we need that mirror to see how we are and check ourselves. And that's hard. It's very hard because people feel for that an age where people are talking to each other like, oh, you're so great. You're so wonderful.
Affirmation is great. Don't get me wrong. And tearing somebody down for the sake of tearing somebody down is not what we were here for, but to speak truth and affirm people who love is everything.
[00:28:56] Speaker A: The other thing that you just said about. We talked about social media. Everybody has that perfect life on social media. Then all of a sudden, you find out the wife moved to this city, the husband's still there. Did they get divorced? How did they get divorced? Nothing was going wrong according to social media. So, yeah, social media is kind of a. Kind of a false reality, right?
[00:29:18] Speaker B: You know, I'm in politics a little bit, okay? People say, I hate politics. I hate politics. Social media is politics. You're just. Politically, you're building your own political campaign. That's all you're doing, okay? Oh, my wife's so perfect and my kids are so perfect. And look at my little grandbaby and look at the ranch and look at the. You know, you're promoting all this stuff, right? And then it maybe if something happens, you might need something, you can mourn publicly, but it's all politics, right? Truly. You know, I tell people Jesus was on this planet, right? He loved everybody, fed thousands, mentored 12, but he poured himself into three.
I hasten to tell you, a man or woman who has three authentic relationships that are truly authentic, that's the value. It's not the thousands that you're trying to promote some brand to trying to build some Persona, right? Which I think the world now rewards.
Idiots.
Those are the influencers. Yeah, they're idiots. I mean, I just think to myself, how in the world we got to a position where the fact that somebody is doing something Stupid. Has now gets paid millions of dollars, Right. When police officers who sacrifice themselves, military sacrifice, are getting pennies. Right. And these people who are walking around with a camera and the narcissism of an elephant, you know, the size of an elephant, are now being rewarded, Right. Because they can sell a commercial. Right? And I think that we gave that power, we, the people gave that power to the people of influencers and we need to take that back.
[00:30:47] Speaker A: No, that's true. I mean, it just pops up. Pops up. Pops up. You say something, it pops up. But I think the fact that you said the three that you need those three, you do.
So how do you pick those three?
[00:31:02] Speaker B: That's a great question.
I don't.
[00:31:05] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:31:05] Speaker B: God does. I think that opportunities. And they season. They season and out.
There's no.
Really. It's hard to say that, you know, with life. That's transparent. The six people that I picked to be my pallbearers back in 98, when I went through this with Franklin Graham, I've had about 10 years with him. And that season turned and now I have others that are now replacing them. So.
But these are the characteristics you're looking for, right? Okay, Number one, right? It's mutual. It's not therapy. So, Ricky, if I was looking to you, I'm not coming to you every day just to tell you my problems and then you just listen and try to fix me. It's reciprocity.
Those bear pallbearers, those three, they go back and forth. Number two is you make sure that they're truly vested in the relationship. Right? They're vested in the opportunity. In other words, they're not going to treat it as just another one. They're willing to acknowledge the importance of it and they're willing to sacrifice the time and the energy and the effort to be vested in it. Right. And three, you're missionally aligned.
Right? My pallbearers know that I'm here to glorify God, not here to make a lot of money, not here to build social media, not here to build fame. Glorify God. That's my goal. So I need people, the three that are with me, to have that same missional alignment that's so important. And if the three of you don't have missional alignments, then you go out and discover it together. To walk with each other through it. Right? The walk with is so important, right. When it comes to these three, Right. To journey with the people, journey with them and grow them is a big deal.
[00:32:35] Speaker A: So is there.
Has there been A situation where there was somebody that was really close in your life.
You thought you guys were on the same path, but at one point you came to the fork and you realized you still wanted to be friends or whatever, but you. You had to unalign yourself with them. And how tough was that to get to you, to where you're at?
[00:32:58] Speaker B: I'm going to try to concise this. I grew up without a father.
[00:33:00] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:33:02] Speaker B: I'm always looking for men to their approval. Older men, especially older men or men for that approval, because it's just something I lacked in my life, and it hurts.
I have had people who have been in my life who I've seen as mentors or men who I look up to, who betrayed me, who have hurt me. Right. And it's because I was trying to get them to fill a gap that they weren't responsible for, but also they weren't the character that I needed. Right. And you don't indict the whole world. You don't. You don't. What you do is you grow from it.
It's a failure, it's a defeat. You grow from the defeat. You learn and you become better at judging people and at finding out who you're going to draw closer. I became very good at, you know, when you become, you know, a little more wealthy, you also find these friends that come around you, so you become stronger. So the idea is to learn from those moments that are painful and to grow and to live them in a transparent way so people can see how you grew and they can learn as well. Not to hide it, but to really say, this is what happened and I'm going to be a better person from it and I'm going to learn.
[00:34:14] Speaker A: So I'm going to kind of pop back for. And thinking back to when you were at Wharton Junior College.
[00:34:21] Speaker B: Junior college, Yeah.
[00:34:24] Speaker A: I want to put that in because you. You showed it to me earlier. So.
Did you ever envision where you would be today?
[00:34:32] Speaker B: No. No, I never had a clue.
Never had a clue. And if you would have told me, I wouldn't have believed you. I was a laborer on a ranch, and now I own a ranch. But the wife, the kids that I have, I had no vision of what it looked like, which means it was of God. And I don't know what my next. I'm 55 years old. I know 20, 30 years that God blesses me or whatever. 30 days or 30 seconds.
[00:34:51] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:34:52] Speaker B: I released that.
To prescribe your life in my limited amount of knowledge would be disastrous. I've learned that in my. I let God manage it, and I try to glorify him through that process. But I make sure that the intentionality of maximizing my time is everything. Right. Whatever the outcome is, is the outcome. Right. The success of the firm. God willing. God blesses his firm. And.
But if it doesn't, I'm going to learn and grow from it.
That's important. So I could have never envisioned or seen what is in front of me, but I can tell you that I'm okay with it.
[00:35:31] Speaker A: Was there ever a chance where you wanted to give up and hold on that. Guys, we'll be right back. Right. Almost out of time for this. We're gonna go to commercial. We'll be right back with Rick Figueroa.
Welcome back to Battle Ready. If you love what you're watching, don't miss a moment of Battle Ready or any of our favorite now Media TV shows, live or in demand. You know, we're also bilingual, so Spanish, English, you can get it on Roku or any of the podcast services. I want to take this time right now and thank Rick Figaro for being on our show today.
[00:36:13] Speaker B: My pleasure.
[00:36:14] Speaker A: And, Rick, we have some pretty intense conversations in the last three segments, and I end the last one talking about, you know, was there ever a time where you struggled?
[00:36:28] Speaker B: Oh, I'm gonna tell you a story.
[00:36:31] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:36:32] Speaker B: True story.
2008, I was changing firms from Maryland's UBS.
We were moving from Sugar Land to Katy. My wife and I never fought more than 15 years of our marriage. We never fought more than that. And we were coming out of it. 2009, things were starting to hit. I was going to Austin. The governor appointed me.
I was working. And here, business started going up. Things were going well, right? So we have a ranch in Brenham, and we were living in Katy. So we're going there on weekends. And so I had to go to Austin. So I told my wife, I said, let's go to the ranch. You know, you come back with the kids. Katie and I'll go to Austin's is halfway there.
So that morning I'm sitting there, my pastor goes, let's go to. Let's go to breakfast. So I'm like, okay. So I went to breakfast, and we're talking at Denny's. And he goes, what's going on? I said, well, man, life was tough, but we're coming out, blah, blah, blah, Texas department license ready. I'm chairing that. I'm doing this, I'm doing that. I'm, you know, governor, you know, and he looked at me, he goes, do you think your daddy God is impressed with what you're doing?
[00:37:35] Speaker A: Say that again.
[00:37:36] Speaker B: Do you think your daddy God is impressed with what you're doing?
[00:37:39] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:37:41] Speaker B: And I looked at him and I was like. And I lit into him. I said, tim, no offense, but in 38 years or 40 years of my life, I never had that word uttered out of my mouth. I never called anybody daddy. I grew up on my own. My mother would say, you know, if seques a serago tenes, papa, you want to do something, you got to do it by yourself. You don't have a dad. So I learned how to fix my car. I learned how to throw a baseball, Learn how to good and bad, all the bad habits. So I looked up and said, so don't come to me with this daddy God concept of what this daddy means. And he got. He goes, okay, whoa, whoa, Rick, calm down. And I lit into him pretty hard. I mean, I lit into him in a big way. And I said, look, I said, I don't know what you're talking about. He goes, okay, close your eyes for a second. Pretend like you're at the ranch and you're walking around the ranch and the grass is about knee high. And he says, all of a sudden, this truck drives up next to you, and it's a bench seat, old pickup truck. And the passenger door opens and God is driving.
And he pats the seat next to him and says, hey, come here, son. Come get in the truck. Let's go for a ride.
And I broke down.
I never had a man influence say that to me.
And I just. And I. And he goes, you've never felt that? I said, no. I said, I've seen it. Now, my girls, when we're driving, we only had the girls. The girls at the ranch, when we're driving, they're in the back of the truck, we're working the fence lines. They don't care how much pressure the tires have or how much gas is in the truck. You know why? Because daddy's driving, Daddy's got him. And so whatever, you know, they need, I got. I've never had that relationship. Relationship. And it just broke me down. And I'm like. And he goes, man, you need to think about that. Fast forward six months later, go back to the ranch. So I kind of have my butt handed to me a little bit, and we're at church. And he goes, hey, Rick, why don't we go to dinner? I'm like, oh, I don't want to go to dinner with you, right?
He goes, rick, My wife goes, go to dinner with us. So my wife came back. The Dallas Cowboys were playing the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday Night Football. I was going to drink a Corona. Mind my business. So I said, tim, we'll go to dinner. Five o'. Clock. I want to be home from my. So we go to Chili's. And he looks at me and he goes, so, Rick, how's it going? I said, I'm fine, Tim. I'm fine. He goes, no, how's it going? I said, what? What do you want me to tell you? He goes, no, I want to know. I said, what do you mean? You tell you that I'm sitting around my ranch waiting for God to show up in a pickup truck. I said, bill's got to get paid. Things got to get done. I don't know what you want from me. I said, but I'm not going to sit around the ranch waiting for God to show up in some truck. I said, I don't understand what this is. And he goes, and then he poked me on my chest. He says, you're just a big Martha.
And I don't know if you ever read Scripture. Martha and Mary is a story about two women.
Martha is doing all the work. She's washing dishes. Jesus is sitting down. Mary's at his feet. And so Martha goes to Jesus and says, jesus, tell Mary to come help me. And Jesus looks at her and goes, martha, Martha. Mary has chosen the prime spot.
And that bothered me because Martha is just doing a lot of her job.
And I was like, why are you chastising Martha? Mary should be. And what he's saying is sitting at the feet. And so he looks at me and goes, you'll never understand the will of God until you sit at sea and you're too busy doing what you want to do, not what he wants you to do. Until you understand that, you're never going to figure out what life's about.
I mean, he's just poking me in my chest. I'm like, dude, why are you jumping on me like this? I'm a good man, right? I don't want to. And he goes, you need to figure that out. So I leave Chili's, drive back to the ranch. I am yelling at God. I'm like, look, I don't get it. Spite me. I'm not that smart, whatever it is. I get to the ranch, I'm still yelling at God, and I'm going to the house, and I go to the back door instead of going to the Back door of the ranch, I start walking around circles and I God, what is it? Smoke me. If you smoke me, whatever it is, right? And all of a sudden, right? I'm just like, what do you want? What do you want from me? I do Bible study, you know, I tithe. I don't beat my wife. What is it that you want from me? I'm a Hispanic Republican. That should count twice, right? O.
I'm thinking, what is it? All of a sudden, I hear God's voice and it says everything.
And all of a sudden I just like, okay, you want my wife, my kids, my mortgage, my ranch, my house, my job? And as I was labeling these things, I could feel these rocks falling off my shoulders.
You're lying to yourself if you think you can control any of that stuff. Can you control your wife? Heck, no. Can you control your kids? Can you control the stock market? Can you control anything? We are. It's a facade.
It's a facade.
We only can control what we can. And so it just. And I said, and this is the most important. I said, God, if you took those things away from me, this is as honest as I could get. I'm going to be very sad, but I'm still going to love you.
And man, it just.
Third. So who's your daddy? What does he want? These are my defeats. These are not prime. These aren't snot going down. My third was. I had a dream. I was asleep in.
I woke up about another six months later, and the dream was this. I'm in an office building, right? And this is the most important one, I think, for you. And it's all glass. And I'm sitting there for an interview, and the lady comes out and says, Mr. Figueroa, your interview will begin in a minute. I'm like, what interview? I just. I landed a big job. I'm like, I'm not looking for a job. He goes, anything you need. Shoes, shower, everything you need, suit, everything's in that shower. Go ahead. And so I'm sitting back in line. That's my job.
I got my job. I'm gonna let them. I'm interviewing them, right? It's all about me, right? And so I look in the office building, I see these people and they're all sad.
And all of a sudden, I meet this one guy's eyes, and he has this inconsolable sadness in him. Like funeral sad. And I'm like, I need this job. So I get up, the lady comes back, says, hey, this is all a dream. Mr. Figaro, your interview will begin in a few seconds. The lady's walking to me, so I'll go in the bathroom. I'm trying to clean myself, I'm trying to put my suit on. I'm trying to do whatever I need to do, clean it all up, right? The lady walks in and goes, Mr. Figaro, why aren't you ready for this interview? And I go, look, look, I'm sorry. I didn't know I wanted the job. Let me reset this thing. I said, look, can I come back tomorrow? I said, let's go with plan B. Can I go with plan B? And she looks at me, she goes, there is no plan B.
And all of a sudden, I Woke up at 4 in the morning, right?
Right. And I'm like.
And I'm like, God said, people are confused. They're building the wrong resume. They're building a resume that honors them instead of impacts others, right? It honors me. And people are misaligned. And so I'm looking at my wife, and this is the funny part, I'm looking at her, I'm trying to get her to wake up, right? And she wakes up about. And she says, what is it? What is it? I tell her my dream. And she goes, what does that mean?
What are we going to do?
And I go, honey, I don't know. I said, but ask me, ask me why I don't know.
And she goes, why don't you know? I go, because my daddy, God's driving.
He's driving.
And it has been such an influential way of how I see things.
And you've gotten hints of this whole interviews, right? But who's your daddy is so important. What does he want is everything and who's in control with him? And so that precepts, those defeats, those moments where I'm crying, snot, walking around my house, asking God why did I miss the point where my pastor's poking me in my chest, telling me I'm too focused on myself and not other things, right? Acknowledging that I didn't grow up with a father. And the vulnerability of that and the defeat of that, right? And the bad influences of men that I had in my life that that affected me and the way I behaved, all that. And then my narcissism to build only a resume about myself and about my wealth, about me.
There is nothing honorable in those three processes. But those three defeats culminated into a vision that I see now for my life.
[00:45:21] Speaker A: That'S pretty, pretty amazing. Just basically gave yourself up and just followed it, right?
[00:45:29] Speaker B: My greatest defeat ended up being one of My biggest victories.
[00:45:34] Speaker A: So that's one of them. Tell me one other victory. Just one. That's. And I know your family. I know you're such a good family man and your wife, your kids. But what out here do you claim as one of your biggest victories?
[00:45:53] Speaker B: That's a great question.
I think the idea of me awakening to the fact that life isn't about me and if it was, it would be very sad.
I said, the currency of heaven is relationships.
When I establish the understanding of that and the impact that I have, the investment I have in the relationships, because not they're going to do something for me, but because the ability for them to be blessed by it is. Gives me currency that they could never give me. Right. I would do. Don't tell my clients, but I would do what I do for free because I love the impact to speak truth to people, to hold them accountable, to know that they're resource. These are wealthy people, right? And I tell them, the first thing I tell them is you're going to die.
And when you die, I'm going to get a phone call and I'm going to scratch your name off this file and somebody else's name.
So the question is this, what do you want to happen between now that day and let's go do that? And the next thing I tell them is that there's an hourglass on every one of our office building offices, right. And there's a poem by. It's a Norwegian poem and I'll paraphrase it real quick. I know we'll go on time, but what a tragedy that man had to admit. The watch. But the watch had to be invented to drown out the macabre noise of grass growing over our graves. But the watch had to replace the hourglass. For the watch gives us the illusion of perpetuities that goes round and round.
But it had to replace the hourglass. For the hourglass is a picture perfect of a finite amount of time that we have on this planet.
[00:47:20] Speaker A: That's amazing, Rick. This has been a really intense show with you today. I mean, I definitely got some amazing insights on your successes, but I think your successes were just the journey by giving yourself the opportunity to excel.
[00:47:44] Speaker B: Sure. Yeah.
[00:47:45] Speaker A: Well, that's good. Well, listen, Rick, anything else last minute to share with them? No, we're close. But what last. What last point would you tell somebody out there that's.
[00:47:56] Speaker B: Every bit of our lives have intentionality. We're not a mistake.
When I was a little kid, my mother bought me a shirt as I grew up because I felt like I was a mistake without a dad or anything. There's a little kid looking like this and he goes, I know I'm somebody. Because God doesn't make junk.
You're somebody.
[00:48:13] Speaker A: That's a perfect ending. Guys, thanks a lot for joining us at Battle Ready with Rick Figueroa. I hope you guys have a great day. We'll see you guys soon.
