Let Them Underestimate You

📸: Wendy Yalom

After our book hit #1 in two categories on Amazon in June, one of the co-authors said, “I didn’t really think much of it at the time… It’s bigger and broader and touching to so many people, more than I even dreamed of.”

But that was my vision from the second I came up with the idea.

My mentor in business and trading told me I wouldn’t sell any of my trading psychology courses because “people don’t buy that kind of thing.” I had a full class and he couldn’t believe it.

Years ago, Sean was being filmed for a movie at our house in Phoenix. When they started talking about the heart, he asked for me to join him on screen.

The director probably thought he was just being nice by including his wife.

I talked about the power of the heart from a scientific and spiritual level.

When we were done, the director looked at us and said, “Sean, I knew you’d be great, but Mindie… that was incredible.”

Sean just smiled and said, “I told you so.”

There are many successful men who want an arm candy wife.

The joke in our marriage was that Sean was the arm candy.

Years later, Sean and I were on stage at Agape International Spiritual Center in Beverly Hills.

Afterward, author Cynthia Kersey came up to us and said, “Sean, I loved what you had to say, but you! I had no idea of your power.”

Before Sean and I met, I’d already had a very full life. I’d gone to grad school to pursue my dream. I was on the leadership track at a Fortune 100 company. I’d lived in East Africa and traveled all over the world. I’d left the safety net of Corporate America and started my own company.

But I’ve been underestimated my whole life.

I’ve always been a shorty and when I played softball in 3rd grade, I was this tiny, little kid going up to bat. When I’d step up to the plate, the other team would let down their guard a bit or even move in closer because they didn’t expect much to happen.

Then frequently, I’d crank that ball so far out, they had to scamper to retrieve it while my team and I ran around the bases.

This happened so many times that my team started calling me their “secret weapon.”

No one expected a little tiny kid to be able to hit a ball like that.

People will often underestimate you.

🗝️ The key is: Don’t underestimate yourself.

At a personal development conference I attended in 2009, there was a board break exercise. The goal is to use breaking the board with our hand as a metaphor for breaking through our limiting beliefs.

We spent a long time that weekend learning the proper technique so we could break the board, but not break our hand.

And then it was go time.

The hundreds of attendees lined up around the room, holding our limiting belief boards. When we got to the front of the line, we’d hand our board to the “board holder” (someone who’d been instructed on how to hold it properly and steady).

In front of me in line, there were a bunch of big guys and I watched as one by one, they were not able to break their board. It took them multiple tries (and seemingly some pain) to eventually break through the wooden plank.

I thought, if these big guys can’t break their boards, there’s no way that I’m going to be able to do this.

But then I caught myself. F*ck that. I can do this.

And I did.

I handed my board to the holder, centered myself in my own power, and broke the board on the first try.

No one else has to understand your power, but you do.

Let them underestimate you.

Then they won’t see you coming. ✨

On the latest Lucra Podcast, I chatted with my friend Garrett Gunderson. Garrett’s an entrepreneur, comedian, and financial expert. If you listen to the show, you know I ask all of my guests, “What is your definition of wealth?”

Garrett had one of the best answers I’ve heard.

🎧 Tune in to our conversation on The Lucra Podcast on your favorite podcast platform or the Lucra YouTube channel.

Garrett’s new book, Money Unmasked, just came out. Grab a copy today!