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How Billionaires Actually Work | Authorized Account | Insider — Transcript

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  1. 0:00My name is John Morgan. Forbes recently named  me a billionaire after I started the largest
  2. 0:04personal injury law firm in America. This  is everything I'm authorized to tell you.
  3. 0:10I don't like to say I'm a billionaire. When I  started out as a lawyer, I was driving around
  4. 0:15in a Nissan Maxima with a sunroof and the leather  package and I felt like here I am today. You know,
  5. 0:23I have 7,000 people at Morgan and Morgan,  1,400 lawyers. Nobody's gonna outwork me.
  6. 0:35My life is really not a billionaire's life.  The only thing that makes it a billionaire's
  7. 0:43life is the way I travel and I have a G5. That's  the ultimate luxury. Other than that, and I do
  8. 0:51have houses, but they're not the houses you would  think. You know, my house in Hawaii is very nice,
  9. 0:56but it's not I don't think it's a billionaire's  house. The house I live in here, you know,
  10. 1:02it's big. It's nice, but I bought it built it  a long time ago. I built a bunch of houses for
  11. 1:07me and all my children in Ponlet, which is 40  minutes from here on the beach. I have a house
  12. 1:12in New Hampshire. And I started going to Maui  and I'm like, you know, this is unbelievable.
  13. 1:20It's like if there if if heaven was a place,  it'd be Maui. It's like the air was just born.
  14. 1:27Everything's brighter. It's everything's vibrant.  There's whales coming out of the water. It's like
  15. 1:33you're like in Jurassic Park in your backyard.  My wife and I were driving around looking at
  16. 1:38houses and there was a house under construction.  We pulled up and we looked at it and I said,
  17. 1:42"What do you think?" because it wasn't a bit it  wasn't very expens I mean it was expensive but
  18. 1:45it wasn't expensive in it was 6 million bucks you  know beautiful you know 6,000 square foot 5 acres
  19. 1:54listen I get high every single night in Maui  I float to sleep so if you're out there fellas
  20. 2:03guys everybody come see me'll smoke a joint and  drink some rosé you know I grew up in Kentucky
  21. 2:13and I like simpler food. For example, you know,  I'm just I'd be just as happy with, you know,
  22. 2:21to dinner for tonight if you know if I had cube  steak smothered in onions and fried potatoes and
  23. 2:28cabbage. I'm like, I'm you want filet minan? No,  I I'll I'll do this. I I'll choose this. So, I get
  24. 2:38to eat cheap, too, because that stuff doesn't  cost that much. So, that's lucky. My clothes,
  25. 2:44I look I walk out my closet, I'm like, "Will I  ever buy another shirt? Will I ever buy another
  26. 2:50pair of shorts? Maybe just on vacation." Like,  well, that looks but not really. There's nothing
  27. 2:57really that I want. And uh that's a good thing.  Here's my week. This Friday, I'm going to go to
  28. 3:06Keeland to Lexington where I grew up. I I now  own raceh horses, so I'm going to see my raceh
  29. 3:12horses run. The following week, I'm going to go  cut a commercial with John Daly in Arkansas and
  30. 3:17then I'm going to fly to Delmare to see one of my  horses run in the Breeders Cup and then I'm going
  31. 3:23to have some fun in California. Then I'm going  to come back. I don't own the whole horse. I own
  32. 3:28like 25% or 50%. I do a deal with these guys who  own American Pharaoh and Justify. So I bre I breed
  33. 3:36my mayors to Pharaoh. So I get a Pharaoh cult or  Philly every year. I haven't lost that much money,
  34. 3:45but I'm from Lexington, Kentucky. And you know,  can you imagine growing up poor in a city and then
  35. 3:54coming back and owning raceh horses in that city?  So, I got a lot of nice things, but it's not like,
  36. 4:02you know, the houses are already paid off. There's  there's not really money going out now. I spend
  37. 4:09about $2 million a year living and most of it is  insurance and upkeep of my homes. And, you know,
  38. 4:17I these dogs that travel with me, you know, I  never leave without the dogs to live exactly
  39. 4:22what I'm living now. If I had 50 million, 4%,  two million tax-free and not not not the jet,
  40. 4:32then I'm okay. I have always told my children  to say we're comfortable. That they used to ask
  41. 4:39them my my kids would come and say, people are  asking us if we're rich. What what I said, you
  42. 4:43just tell them we're comfortable. And that's all  they need to say because they were comfortable.
  43. 4:50And look, if you have a hundred million or a  billion, you're basically living the same life.
  44. 5:01Before I went to law school, I sold yellow pages  for 18 months and I made a load of money. I was I
  45. 5:08was one of the greatest, if not the greatest,  yellow page seller in the history of AT&T. I
  46. 5:13could just sell it because I believed in it.  you know, the yellow pages with Google back
  47. 5:17then. And so I made money, was able to go back  to law school. When I graduated from law school,
  48. 5:25all I applied was to personal injury firms  because I knew what I wanted to do. You know,
  49. 5:29I'd made like almost $70,000 selling yellow  pages. My first job doing personal injury, I had a
  50. 5:35$10,000 base and a 10% of whatever I would close.  And I think my first year I made like $15,000.
  51. 5:421982. And then the next year I made 32,000 and  the next year I left and started my own firm.
  52. 5:48I started my own firm in ' 85. Advertising was  just starting with lawyers. There was a Supreme
  53. 5:55Court case called Bates versus Arizona 1977 that  allowed lawyers to advertise. Up until that time,
  54. 6:02lawyers could not advertise even though we had a  first amendment. Bates versus Arizona said, "Look,
  55. 6:08the first amendment applies to this commercial  speech." Sometimes you can just see the future
  56. 6:16and I saw it. So it was still very verbaten to  advertise as a lawyer. You're like, "My god,
  57. 6:22you're a lawyer and you're advertising.  That's so beneath you." It kind of was.
  58. 6:27I was embarrassed about it cuz the people who  were advertising were the people who were kind
  59. 6:32of and the people who weren't advertising were  the good lawyers. I went and borrowed $100,000
  60. 6:42remember the flipping the coin. And so is it going  to work or is it I don't know. I've thought many
  61. 6:49times, what happened if that $100,000 had not  turned into some cases? What would have happened
  62. 6:54to me? I don't know. That was just a left turn  that worked out. I was so embarrassed that I had
  63. 7:01a friend of mine who's one of my best friends.  He owns a bunch of Cadillac dealerships now in
  64. 7:07Sarasota, Manatee. and uh he was real good-looking  and I said, "You know, I'm not good-looking." So,
  65. 7:14I said, "You know what? I had Vance do my first  commercials." But then what happened is the
  66. 7:20Florida Bar mandated that if you were advertising,  you couldn't have someone else. You had to do it.
  67. 7:28And then reluctantly I had to take, you know,  my fat face, which I, you know, I've always
  68. 7:34felt like my face is fat and I couldn't use Vance  anymore. So then I had to be the face. And when I
  69. 7:40look at those ads now, I'm like, who the was  calling this kid with advertising, you know,
  70. 7:46it was just a total paradigm shift. I mean,  now I'm talking to everybody. They weren't
  71. 7:51great cases, but they the phone was ringing.  If I started today, I wouldn't be John Morgan.
  72. 7:57I had it all to myself. I didn't have competition.  Today, you know, I have 7,000 people at Morgan
  73. 8:03and Morgan, 1,400 lawyers. I'm in all 50 states.  We have 100 to 200 trials on the docket a week.
  74. 8:17What I kept doing because I was young, and  this is what a lot of people make a mistake,
  75. 8:21is I kept feeding expansion out of my profits.  I didn't want a boat. I didn't want a plane. I
  76. 8:29didn't I just wanted to grow. I was in Orlando and  I was doing well and but then I started thinking,
  77. 8:35well, am I hitting diminishing returns? In other  words, could I get more money if I took this money
  78. 8:43and went to Tampa? And so I went to Tampa. I  used to call it the teacups. When the teacups
  79. 8:50seem to be pouring over, when I when I seem  to be thinking I was at diminishing returns,
  80. 8:55I go to another city, another city, another  city. That's why I bought my partners out.
  81. 8:59They wanted to keep the money. And I said,  "Why don't I just buy you all out?" They go,
  82. 9:03"Okay." I got a call one day and my receptionist  says, "Johnny Cochran's on the phone." So,
  83. 9:10I pick up the phone. Hey, John. What is Johnny  Cochran? This is Johnny Cochran calling you from
  84. 9:15Los Angeles, California. Hey, man. How you doing?  I'm like, who the is punking me right now? I mean,
  85. 9:22it this can't be Johnny Cochran. And he was  telling me that he was going to start his own
  86. 9:27firm and that he had heard that I was a marketing  genius and would I be interested in helping him
  87. 9:34with the Cochran firm. And I I was so convinced  it wasn't really Johnny Cochran. I said, "Well,"
  88. 9:40I said, "Give me a number. I'll call you back."  Okay, man. Listen, I'm getting ready to go to I'm
  89. 9:45getting ready to go to New York. I have a I have  a a condo at the right above the Russian TA room
  90. 9:51and I'm like, "Oh, this he just call me." So, he  gives me the number. So, when I hung up from him,
  91. 9:58uh when I hung up from Johnny, I called the number  in New York City and I the answering machine. I'll
  92. 10:04never forget it. It's his voice and it's the  greatest answering machine of all time. Voice
  93. 10:10message. Hi, you have the right to remain silent.  Anything you say can and will be used against you
  94. 10:16in a court of law. If you decide to give up that  right, leave your name and number at the sound of
  95. 10:21the tone. I'm like, it's Johnny Cochran. I I threw  in with him, which kind of exposed me to doing
  96. 10:29things nationally. We were in Memphis and DC and  LA and New York. And so when I got with Cochran,
  97. 10:38I I was outside of my comfort zone. And uh we  had a lot of fun. We grew the business. I have
  98. 10:47two things will go on my tombstone. One of one  or the other. Grow or die or nothing is about
  99. 10:55today. Everything's about tomorrow. Those are  the two guiding principles of my business life.
  100. 11:02Grow or die is very important to me. Uh and  uh so I just kept growing so I wouldn't die.
  101. 11:17There are certain people that are born with an  entrepreneurial seed. I'm an entrepreneur. It's
  102. 11:23not I don't just do law. I have attractions and  hotels and shopping centers and uh those types of
  103. 11:29things. But I'm always looking for opportunity.  A lot of people see these things go, you know,
  104. 11:35why bother? Well, if you say why bother and don't  bother, you end up sitting at your desk eating a
  105. 11:45peanut butter and jelly sandwich by yourself.  Being a paper boy, being a paper girl is the
  106. 11:51ultimate enterprise cuz you're little, you're  small, but you got to be up every day, 7 days
  107. 11:57a week, 365 days a year, you got to go deliver  those papers in the snow and the sle and the rain
  108. 12:02and the heat, whatever. When my kids were little,  I used to go to the science center. I was like,
  109. 12:07"This is These science centers are the kids didn't  like them. Nobody liked them. I go, you know,
  110. 12:13here's what's missing in science centers. They  should be interactive. Touch and feel and doing
  111. 12:20it. That's what I'll do. I'm going to build a an  attraction. I'm going to build a science center,
  112. 12:26but I'm going to turn it upside down called  Wonderworks. That was 1997. And today I have six
  113. 12:34of them and an EBID of 33 million with no debt.  I built a a small little theme park on ID Drive
  114. 12:41out here called Magical Midway and it was had  multi-level go-kart tracks and rides and stuff.
  115. 12:47But my mistake was I didn't have enough parking.  I thought because I was so close to all the hotels
  116. 12:54that I didn't need parking. Thank God that I had  one ride that basically carried the whole thing.
  117. 13:00thrill ride and I was able to sell the park and  lose a million bucks. That didn't work. At one
  118. 13:07time, I owned a lot of Marriott hotels. Why did  I keep building Marriott hotels? Money. To make
  119. 13:13money. And uh I have these attractions. Why do  I have them all over the country? To make money.
  120. 13:22And I enjoy business. I don't hunt. So, I never  understood hunting. I really don't understand
  121. 13:31fishing. That's where most people off and  they call it recreation. To me, it's total
  122. 13:37boredom. I hunt money. Nobody's ever built an  attraction for crime of punishment really. So,
  123. 13:45I built an attraction that I call Alcatraz East  in Pigeon Forge. It's looks like a 1980s prison
  124. 13:53and I have all this memorabilia. It's a history  of crime and punishment. When you get to the end,
  125. 13:58the grand finale is the, you know, Ted Bundy's  VW, John Dillinger's sedan, Bonnie and Clyde death
  126. 14:08car from the movie, OJ's Bronco, John Bernay's  bicycle, and I just recently got the Murdoch golf
  127. 14:17cart from the murders. It takes people three and a  half, four hours to go through this thing, and it
  128. 14:25prints money. I'm giving America what they want.  And by the way, if you're offended, stay the out.
  129. 14:39Before I was out hustling business, I would  look when I worked for the phone company,
  130. 14:45I was a member of the union. I was so I joined I  thought I might go into politics, so I joined CWA,
  131. 14:52AFL, CIO. When I got out, I spent a lot of time  at in union halls at meetings and then we go out
  132. 14:59drinking, throwing darts, shooting pool, and these  union people were sending me their business. So,
  133. 15:06I was getting tons of business because I'm a  union guy. I'm I'm AFL CIO. And so, plumbers,
  134. 15:12pipe fitters, brick layers, uh hotel motel, and  these are the people I'd rather be with. I I I to
  135. 15:20this day I don't like walking in a country club.  I feel like I don't belong. But I do belong in
  136. 15:28a pool room with a cocktail. Are you any good in  pool? No. But I'm good at the cocktails. If I went
  137. 15:38out back in the day, if I went out and got drunk  and went to bed at 4:00, but had a six o'clock
  138. 15:44breakfast, I was at the six o'clock breakfast.  I might have been wreaking of uh ketosis, but
  139. 15:50uh I was at the breakfast. I show up. And so, you  know, it keeps you hungry. I consider myself a a
  140. 15:59catastrophic thinker. I feel like I this could all  disappear in a minute and and it's it's still with
  141. 16:06me. It's these I've had dreams where I've lost  everything and it's a recurring dream. I'm I'm
  142. 16:14out in an old car and I'm out of money and I'm  almost out of money but I'm not out of money and
  143. 16:21I don't know how I'm gonna make it and I'm just,  you know, just out there and then I wake up and
  144. 16:31it was a dream and uh you're happy to wake up  because you're back here instead of back there.
  145. 16:40Every morning I wake up and get numbers. I get  numbers from my attendance and at my attractions.
  146. 16:49I get numbers from new cases signed up the day  before. I get all sorts of leaderboard reports.
  147. 16:58There's two emotions. The emotion of winning  and the emotion of losing. The emotion of
  148. 17:03winning is powerful, but the motion the emotion  of losing is like this. To give you an example,
  149. 17:14if you walk out of this room and you find $1,000  in an envelope, you're going to be like, "Wow,
  150. 17:20that's an emotion. Nobody's okay. It's mine."  But if you go to your hotel room when you get
  151. 17:25back and the safe is open and the thousand's  missing, you're going to turn this city upside
  152. 17:32down. You're going to be the cops are coming.  I mean, your day is the emotion of losing,
  153. 17:40the emotion of winning. The the power of of both  is totally different. So when I lost, I you know,
  154. 17:47I I was very upset. Some people are born lazy.  And we we get mad at him. But it's not their
  155. 17:55fault. You I say it all the time. You know,  a lion is born, he's king. A sloth is born,
  156. 18:00he's all he was all he did was be born. Just  can't get out of bed. Can't get out of the
  157. 18:05tree. Comes down the tree once a day just to  go back up. Collapse. I'm a lion. And listen,
  158. 18:13everybody wants to be a lion until it's time to  do lion. and lying is taking down the gazelle,
  159. 18:24ripping the carcass open, taking the meat  out, face bloody, take the food back to
  160. 18:29the pride. I'm also uh someone who has what  they call impostor syndrome. In other words,
  161. 18:39I don't know how this happened, and I'm going  to be found out one day. They're going to find
  162. 18:44out that I really didn't know what the f I  was doing, but I'm still pretending like I'm
  163. 18:51doing it. It's weird. Uh, but it's also good  because when I found catastrophic thinking and
  164. 19:00uh imposttor syndrome, it made sense that I was  an only the paranoid survive guy. I believe luck
  165. 19:08has had an incredible amount to do with what  happened to me. Life is a thousand left turns,
  166. 19:18a thousand right turns, a thousand U-turns. And a  lot of times those turns come when you're just at
  167. 19:24the stoplight and you flip a coin. It's  not like you knew where you were going.
  168. 19:29You just went right instead of left. But one  different turn could have changed everything.
  169. 19:40And I'm not arrogant enough to not understand  how many times I flipped a coin to go left or go
  170. 19:48right and ended up here. So I think it's helpful  because I think when people start making money,
  171. 19:57they think they're not a lot smarter than they  actually are. And that arrogance is how they
  172. 20:04lose. But I also understand this that you don't  find luck unless you're looking for luck. My
  173. 20:14leadership style is this. I understand that you  can't buy time. But you need time. So how do you
  174. 20:24get time? If you can't buy it, how do you get it?  You get it by finding people in your organization
  175. 20:30that e that emerge that just emerge and you  go there's something about that guy. There's
  176. 20:40something about that guy. There's something  they are send people. There are people that
  177. 20:46I send something to and I delete it and I don't  think about it again because I know it's going
  178. 20:52to be done. And then I test it by delegating  a little bit more and a little bit more and a
  179. 20:59little bit more. I then ruthlessly ruthlessly  delegate. This is your job. This is your job.
  180. 21:07This is your job. This is your job. And I know  it's done because they're send elite people.
  181. 21:14And you know what? That has given me time. time to  do the strategic things that I want to do for the
  182. 21:25law firm. Once you learn to scale and delegate,  then you get what you can't buy, which is time.
  183. 21:38My childhood was it was good until it wasn't  good. Both of my parents ended up having bad
  184. 21:46drinking problems and I was the oldest of five  and my dad lost, you know, every job possible.
  185. 21:55Was one of these, you know, you come home, his  cars in the park in the driveway, you're like,
  186. 22:00here we go again. I didn't have a bad childhood,  had a great childhood. I had a huge paper out so
  187. 22:06I always had my own money. And then ultimately my  dad uh ran out of opportunities and had to take a
  188. 22:14job. We moved when I was 14. And then when we  moved that's when I understood that we were
  189. 22:23financially insecure and because the house we'd  been in was a house that my grandmother had died
  190. 22:29and left us money to move in. So was nice and now  you're in Florida. But it was it's it was real.
  191. 22:35It's like, okay, we're not we're not financially  secure. And then it went downhill from there. The
  192. 22:43our mother finally left. My dad kept drinking, but  we just kept we kept moving on. But the great gift
  193. 22:51that my dad gave us was every time he would get  fired, I'd walk in, he'd be sitting at the table,
  194. 22:59stocking feet, one ads. This is when there  were one ads. And uh he would say these words,
  195. 23:09"Whatever you do, be a professional. Nobody can  fire you." And it was seared in my mind that I was
  196. 23:18going to be I was going to do something where  nobody could fire me. I wasn't going to be in
  197. 23:23his position. The big part of my life was when  my brother Tim was 18. and he was paralyzed in
  198. 23:29a diving accident as a lifeguard at Walt Disney  World. And that injury is what changed all of our
  199. 23:37lives and what made me go into personal injury.  I didn't know what a personal injury lawyer was
  200. 23:43until Tim got hurt. But I was a sophomore at  the University of Florida. My dad called me
  201. 23:49up. He said, "U Tim's been in a diving accident,  lifeguard. He's paralyzed. He can't move anything
  202. 23:57from the from his head down. We were poor. So when  you're poor in the medical when you're poor, it's
  203. 24:05a bad place to be. Whether you're trying to get  medical help or legal help. So you're vulnerable
  204. 24:11to be powerless, hopeless, helpless. It's the  worst feelings in the world. Then you walk
  205. 24:16into the hospital and your brother's on a gurnie  spinning 360 and you look at him and you're like,
  206. 24:24"How the are we going to get out of this?" He  was injured on the job. It was a contentious deal
  207. 24:30with Disney. Disney was the the became the enemy  because they were the ones trying to to to fight
  208. 24:37Tim for his benefits or claim or whatever. and  he hurt himself trying to rescue they thought a
  209. 24:45little girl had drowned in the Polynesian lagoon  and they treated him like the Taliban and they
  210. 24:51just litigated and I became enraged enraged and  I said to myself I said everybody then I'm going
  211. 25:02to come back one day and I know what I'm going to  do now and it was just very crystal clear Disney
  212. 25:11was a big enemy. Disney was a big enemy just  because the way they treated him, you know, and
  213. 25:18uh and then I saw, you know, there's so many  Tims out there cuz most of us are helpless,
  214. 25:25hopeless, and powerless. You know, when I met  with the doctor when Tim was being discharged,
  215. 25:29I said, "Uh, what's the prognosis?"  And he said, "If he lives to 30,
  216. 25:36I'll be surprised." And I said, "Wrong."  From that day forward to this day today,
  217. 25:44my life has been inextricably linked to  Tim's injury. He passed away last summer,
  218. 25:5865, and he worked with me every day.
  219. 26:12The good thing about all the bad that  happened to me is it made me more empathetic,
  220. 26:20more compassionate, and I think more caring.  And I think that that has been a benefit to
  221. 26:29me and my business. There's so many Tims  out there because most of us are helpless,
  222. 26:34hopeless, and powerless. You know, 40% of us  don't have $400 in a bank. 60% of us do live
  223. 26:40paycheck to paycheck. You know, when when I  made all this money, that's why years ago I
  224. 26:45spent my money to raise the minimum wage  in Florida to $15 an hour. Then I passed
  225. 26:51the minimum wage. They all told me that wouldn't  happen. I passed that with 60some% of the vote.
  226. 26:56Income inequality is what will take this  country down. At the end of the day,
  227. 27:04I don't care what civilization you're talking  about. At the end of the day, people finally have
  228. 27:10enough and they just come and take it. The minimum  wage, the federal minimum wage is $8 an hour.
  229. 27:20It's in our best interest to pay people more so  they don't come and take it. So even the $15 an
  230. 27:29hour that I've done in Florida, still not enough,  spent the same amount of money twice to legalize
  231. 27:37medical marijuana in Florida because that's what  gave Tim relief. It was just so crazy that here's
  232. 27:46this plant that's put into earth by God for us and  it works and we're going to say you can't have it.
  233. 27:53I took some of my money and tried to do good with  it based on, you know, my life experiences and
  234. 28:01temps and me and Tim barnstorn the state and u  passed. They told me that would never pass and I
  235. 28:11passed medical marijuana the second time with with  73% of the vote. I' I've got some free clinics
  236. 28:19that I support around the state of Florida. I'm  building right now uh a women and children's
  237. 28:27pavilion for the homeless in Orlando. They need  health care, too. Uh healthc care should be a
  238. 28:36civil right. Just because you're rich doesn't mean  you should be the one that lives and the ones that
  239. 28:42are poor have to die. Every day I'm David versus  a Goliath. I'm Goliath in my space, but I'm not
  240. 28:49Goliath compared to who I fight against. Remember,  I I'm in the opioid litigation for 10 years now.
  241. 28:54I've represented states and cities. I'm on the big  team in Cleveland. I was on the BP oil team when
  242. 29:00the spill happened in the Gulf. I represented  the fires in Hawaii. I settled that case for $4
  243. 29:06billion. I where I live is Lahina. That's where  the fire burned every those are my neighbors. I
  244. 29:12represented black farmers and I recovered $1.2 $2  billion for black farmers who were discriminated
  245. 29:18against in the 50s and 60s. You know, last week my  son got a, you know, $11 million verdict against
  246. 29:24Target. They'd offered us $200,000. Target's a  Goliath. I see myself as a David because I do have
  247. 29:32finite funds. I can only, you know, I can only  spend so I can only spend so much on these cases.
  248. 29:37Like, you know, a big case can cost, you know,  millions of dollars just in cost. And I don't get
  249. 29:44paid till the end. I have never I still haven't  got paid on opioids in a lot of these cases. I'
  250. 29:49I've sued tobaca so many times for what they've  done to us that you know this tobacco industry
  251. 29:56is in the business of premeditated murder.  Premeditated murder. They call new smokers
  252. 30:03replacement smokers. They know what they were  doing. They laced their cigarettes with additives
  253. 30:09to hook us as kids. They gave cigarettes away to  children. They gave cigarettes away to servicemen
  254. 30:16because they knew they would hook us. They come up  with a filter. Oh, we got a filter that's going to
  255. 30:21that's going to solve all your problems. Look at  this brown stuff. See, it's the tar and nicotine.
  256. 30:26You're like, "Oh, good." No, that's not stopping  anything. It's what they do. They spray a chemical
  257. 30:32on the cotton that when it gets hot, it turns  brown. And you think it's it's But they're in the
  258. 30:37business of killing people. That's their business.  They know everybody's that all these people are
  259. 30:43going to die from lung cancer. And so, but they  have so much money. And when I try the case
  260. 30:50against tobacco industry, they take me all the way  to the United States Supreme Court. When they come
  261. 30:58to try a case against us, they come, they take  a whole down. When they bring their witnesses,
  262. 31:04they have people who go pick up the witness and  bring them to the trial and take them back. It's
  263. 31:07like a it's like a novel. and they have unlimited  money because of public company and and that's why
  264. 31:14I'm David and that's why they're Goliath. A lot  of these cases take years and years and years. So,
  265. 31:19in a sense, I am David because they have unlimited  money and the insurance companies can get more.
  266. 31:25They just and just raise your rates and fill  their coffers back. I can't do that. I have to
  267. 31:31win every single day. I got to keep winning every  single day. It seems like that's the new thing.
  268. 31:39It seems like everybody's a billionaire. If you  know what you're worth, you're not worth. And it's
  269. 31:47true. Eat the rich. Eat the rich. I would say I  understand where you're coming from. I understand
  270. 31:54it because I've been it. I've been you. I've been  in places where I didn't know how I was going to
  271. 32:04get out of it. I didn't know how I was going to  make it. I've been up against the wall and it's
  272. 32:12it's a terrible feeling. You know what I talked  about earlier, the hopeless, helpless, powerless.
  273. 32:18It's like, you know, where do I go? I would tell  them to keep peacefully demonstrating. You know,
  274. 32:28the no kings thing they had. I didn't see that  coming that there's all that many people that are
  275. 32:35upset. I didn't think anybody was that upset. But  I also understand that there's a limit. You know,
  276. 32:41I'm not a I'm not a democratic socialist because  I don't believe socialism works. I believe what
  277. 32:49works would be compassionate capitalism where we  try to do the most for the most with the least. We
  278. 32:58kind of just take care of them. The arguments that  pissed me off were the people say, "I don't want
  279. 33:03to pay a dollar more for a hamburger." I'm like,  "You selfish. Why? Why?" And then they would say,
  280. 33:15"Well, if you raise the prices, then the wages  are going you're going to need more because the
  281. 33:20prices if you raise if you raise wages, you're and  you then prices are going to have to be raised and
  282. 33:24you're it's going to be an endless battle, an  endless circle of people suffering and which
  283. 33:32I don't buy. I think at a certain point people  make enough money that they can have happiness.
  284. 33:45My three children are lawyers work for me. My son  Matt is unbelievable. My daughter has a structured
  285. 33:51settlement company called Monarch that structures  settlements. And uh my son-in-law works there.
  286. 33:58And why is because I love them and I want to be  with them. And that's why I built all the houses
  287. 34:06together at the beach. That's what moves me is  my family and being with them. I don't I would
  288. 34:15not understand life without them. And now I got  all these grandchildren. We always used to go to
  289. 34:22see movies on Christmas Day. And we went to see  this movie called My Big Fat Greek Wedding. And
  290. 34:28at the end of the movie, they were all living on  the same street, the families were. And then the
  291. 34:34lights go up and my my daughter go, "Oh my god,  look, daddy's crying. Look at look at everybody.
  292. 34:39Daddy's crying in the movie." I'm like, "Shut the  but I was like, you know, that'd be a great thing
  293. 34:46for all of us to live on the same street." What  I never did is like these rich people buy their
  294. 34:53kids great cars. I never did. You know, I gave  them like a eight-year-old navigator and they had
  295. 35:03to work and they had to pay for their insurance.  Now, look, they live my lifestyle. So, you know,
  296. 35:10if I'm at the Four Seasons, they're at the Four  Seasons. So, there's a, you know, how do you
  297. 35:14do it? But first of all, you got to spend a lot  of time talking to them about what's important.
  298. 35:21One time it was Christmas time and I said to the  the boys, I said, one was 17, one was 15. I said,
  299. 35:29"Have you all got your schedule for Wonderworks  for this Christmas break?" And Mike goes, "Nobody
  300. 35:37from Bishop Moore is working over Christmas." I  go, "That's" And Matt goes, "No, nobody's working.
  301. 35:45Nobody's working." I said, "I know that's not  true." "No, it's true, Daddy." I go, "Here's why
  302. 35:50it's not true. You two are working. You two mfers  are working and you're going to work 40 hours."
  303. 35:58But here's the good news. Because I own it, you  can work from 8 to 5, 12 to 9, 5 to 2, but you're
  304. 36:06working. You don't have to work on Christmas  Day cuz I own it. If I didn't own it, you might
  305. 36:11have to work on Christmas Day. But there will be  people from Bishop Moore working this Christmas.
  306. 36:17Mike Morgan and Matt Morgan. And you know, I  had to fire Dan once. He was just a screw off at
  307. 36:25Wonderworks and they thought he was the father's  son. And I said, "Hey, man, you're fired." And I
  308. 36:29said, "You're not going out until you get a new  job now. You got to go get a new job." Well, I I
  309. 36:36said, "Dan." So, he gets a job at Boston Market,  you know, cooking chickens or something. He comes
  310. 36:44in like a week later, he quit Boston Market.  I said, "Why'd you quit?" "They had me washing
  311. 36:48dishes. It made me vomit." I said, "Really?" I  said, "I thought you were supposed to be cooking
  312. 36:53chicken." "No, they had me in the They had me  dishwashing." I said, "Think about that, Dan. They
  313. 36:58got you doing the worst job in the place. That's  what they think of you. And now you've quit." But
  314. 37:04here's another thing, Dan. You're never going out  of this house except to school and to look for a
  315. 37:08job. And then he got a job at Firehouse Sub and  he excelled at Firehouse Sub. It's interesting
  316. 37:16because I I was always very envious and and kind  of like pissed off that people had money just
  317. 37:24born. You're like that doesn't seem fair. And  nepotism I've never liked. And now my children
  318. 37:33are the people that used to bother me. They're  the spoiled people with the silver spoon stuck
  319. 37:40up their ass. And you know, you just keep hoping.  And you know, you know, I I had a thing with Matt
  320. 37:50the other day. He's like, I said, "Are you coming  to Hawaii?" "No, we're going to the Breakers after
  321. 37:55Christmas." I'm like, "What are you doing at the  Breakers?" Just walking around being rich. That
  322. 38:02kind of turned me off that he's just going to  go down to the Breakers in Palm Beach. I said,
  323. 38:06"But my children have become the very people that  I used to look at and go, that's not fair." So,
  324. 38:16what I've done with that is I just hope and pray  that they and I think they have. I think they have
  325. 38:24heard me loud and clear. And what I have told  them is this thing, the money belongs to God.
  326. 38:36Don't think this is your money. This luck that's  come our way. I don't know why. And I I think
  327. 38:43they've heard it. I hope they've heard it. They  certainly they certainly talk like they have.
  328. 38:48So I you know I won't know until I'm dead and  looking down to see if they're really doing it.
  329. 38:59If you have a hundred million or a billion,  you're basically living the same life. I don't
  330. 39:04like change. I got the same wife. I got the same  kids. I got the same friends. All of my money is
  331. 39:14going to go into a trust, Morgan family trust. My  daughter is going to run it. And then what I hope
  332. 39:21to do is to say say this is a trust. What I hope  to do is to have other silos where my children
  333. 39:27can put their money inside silos. So I'll have my  silo and then their four silos and that we could
  334. 39:34have money going out for the things that that  that we think are important. I'm not I'm not up
  335. 39:41for I'm not up for trying to start something from  scratch. I'm up for, hey, there's a food bank to
  336. 39:49be built in Appalachia and then I build it and  then I'm done. Other than, you know, donations
  337. 39:55I give. I mean, I still give money to the Morgan  Morgan Hunger Relief Center, especially now. Look,
  338. 40:00this new administration, we we're we're losing  funding for food at the at Morgan Morgan Hunger
  339. 40:07Relief Center. So, I've stepped up my giving  there. I'm 69 years old. I have had more fun
  340. 40:15and seen more people and I've met popes. I met  all the presidents. They've all been in my house.
  341. 40:22I've raised hell. My best time has been in union  halls and drinking beer and drinking whiskey and
  342. 40:28throwing darts. And my children's childhood was  unbelievable. And my high school was unbelievable
  343. 40:33and my college was unbelievable. Sadly to say,  my best days are probably behind me if I'm being
  344. 40:40honest. But I I I got good days ahead of me now  because I got these six grandchildren which has
  345. 40:47which has transformed my life because I'm getting  to do it again and I'm getting to enjoy this
  346. 40:53innocence and this love when your grandchildren  are running to you. There's no love like that. So
  347. 41:02I got that to look forward to. Hi, I'm a producer  on Authorized Count. If you like this video,
  348. 41:08please subscribe and comment below with  more topics that you would like us to cover.

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