Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brandon R. Vargas. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Brandon, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the best or worst investment you’ve made (either in terms of time or money)? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

You know of all the investments I have ever made, whether that be time invested, or monetarily— I cannot personally label any one investment good nor bad. Ironically, I have extracted the most VALUABLE lessons in life from my greatest failures.

Allow me to elaborate. One of my main objectives in life is to achieve financial freedom— to be able to do what I want, whenever I want, wherever I want, with whoever I want.

In order to achieve this of course, that meant that I needed to start producing some serious income that way I could start allocating cash towards the acquisition of assets.

As a result, I have invested an extraordinary amount of time, effort and money over the course of 7 years in an attempt to “get rich quick”. In my early to mid 20s I tried everything— and I mean everything. I started multiple businesses— which included Digital Marketing services, Photography, Detailing, Landscaping, selling cars, flipping electronics, and E-commerce.

I even tried working in different industries— Automotive, Manufacturer housing, Insurance, Tech Sales, Refineries, Marketing and others.. And when nothing worked— when I realized that no matter what career or business I pursued, that I still wasn’t progressing in ‘substantially more’ income earned, it finally clicked…

It didn’t matter what I did, whether that was selling cars, selling houses, the refineries or working at Walmart— I still wouldn’t be any happier (because work is work), and it’s not like the gaps in income at the most basic levels across industries were even ‘that’ much more impactful that I needed to continue to jump around.

There was one thing that I knew deep down though— the people at the top of any Industry were the ones making all the money— the money that I NEEDED to start fueling my future empire. These people all shared something in common— they were all more knowledgeable and experienced than anyone else they worked with therefore enhancing their value.

Real knowledge and experience cannot be obtained if you are always jumping around. Although I was investing monumental amounts of time, money and effort in trying to become financially successful, it was a horrible investment strategy on my part because highly paid earners don’t earn a lot of money because they ‘generally’ have some knowledge— they earn a lot of money because they possess an arsenal of ‘specialized’ knowledge in their field.

Therefore I had had it with myself. As I like to call it, I decided to ‘pick my poison’. It didn’t matter what I chose to do for work, I wasn’t going to like any of the work anyway. Work is work.. All I knew was that I had to pick one industry and proceed to become an authority within it. I was a car salesman at the time, and I had the most experience in automotive sales, so I chose the automotive industry as my poison. The moment I decided to become an authority and dedicate myself to learning anything and everything pertaining to the car business was the pivotal moment my entire life changed.

Within two months I was blessed with an Assistant Sales Manager opportunity. Taking myself from $50,000-$75,000 annually to just over $90,000. After two successful years and continuing my overall development, I was recruited and offered more pay for the same position. Within two months of my new position, I was given more responsibilities with the new title of Internet Director taking me well into six figures territory. 8 months later— I was offered a Finance Manager position. A year later after that— another offer from a different Dealership— Sales Management. As you can probably imagine, with each promotion, more and more money. The type of money where I could finally focus on fueling my endeavors.

Were my initial investments horrible? Well it may seem that way— it may seem that I wasted 7 years of my life instead of just buckling down and climbing the ranks as quickly as I did in the next 3.

But I believe it’s a matter of perspective. It was a 7 year investment that eventually paid off. I gained many different skills and many different lessons— and the ‘pick your poison’ epiphany, I’m not so sure I could have learned that lesson any other way.

So with any investment, I believe if you’re really trying, if you TRULY want to succeed, if you keep your mind open, self-analyze, cross examine and continue to refine your craft, the investment (whether good or bad at the time) will pay off. There is always a lesson to be learned, a new skill to be obtained, and strength and resilience to be acquired through struggle and failure.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Brandon R. Vargas, born and raised in Victoria Tx. A high school dropout, who was hanging around with all the wrong people in all the wrong places and doing all the wrong things. I moved to Corpus Christi when I turned 18 years old and my negative lifestyle continued for another 2 years. I am lucky I didn’t end up dead or in prison.

When I turned 20, I had a soon to be born little girl on the way. I had to straighten up. I secured a job at the refineries, where they paid me $10.00 an hour and gave me maybe 25-30 hours a week. Hard work, and hardly any pay. It was terrible— fortunately for me I created a group on Facebook called 361 Fishing at the time. A gentleman who was a Sales Manager at a Dealership reached out to me since I was the owner of the group for some fishing tips— I exchanged information but had just one question for him at the end. “I noticed you are a sales manager at a dealership— what does that pay?”

Long story short, he hired me. 30 days later, I made my first $10,000+ check. I was hooked. I had no idea the income potential that the sales industry could provide you.

From that point on, paradigms were shattered. All I could think about was how could I continue making that type of money and how could I make more of it. My life became all about progression and self development.

Fast forward to today— I have worked my way up to Finance Manager and currently work at a Dealership in San Antonio Texas. I help clients secure the best financing terms we have to offer as well as help struggling customers who may have challenged credit. In addition to that, I ensure that the customer is aware of all the options we have to offer when it comes to protecting their new investment.

They say do not compare yourself to the heights people have climbed, as the depth from which you may have had to ruthlessly climb out of may be significantly incomparable to the next person. It’s not a fair race— we don’t all start at the starting line. Some of us have a head start— some of us are miles behind it.

This is what I am most proud of— to have been programmed with all the worst information, experiences and habits and yet I was still able to break free and totally recreate myself anew— and I am just getting started.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Law 6– from the book 48 Laws of Power by Robert Green— Court Attention.

Attention is everything. You can have all the aspirations in the world to move up in your industry, but if your superiors don’t notice you and your hard work does it even matter?

Branding myself on social media and in real life has been a huge contributor to my success. In fact— it was social media that secured me two different Management positions.

You must separate yourself from the market and learn how to draw attention to yourself. By the way, once you do secure the attention of others you better know how to successfully convert the attention into something productive. Otherwise what good is the attention? This is where educating yourself and increasing your overall competence is absolutely vital.

I love to use the following analogy to help my staff understand what it means to court attention.

A Toyota Camry drives into the parking lot, no one notices it, it’s just another car.

But a Beautiful exotic Lamborghini rolls onto the lot— and all the sudden everyone is turning heads— “who’s that?”

The Lamborghini catches your attention. Everyone wants to know who is driving that car. That driver has everyone’s attention— attention which can be converted into something fruitful if he wanted to. The Camry owner on the other hand— well no one noticed them.

I tell my people to be walking Lamborghinis. Walk in wearing a 3 piece suit— tailored— rock a nice watch— get a haircut— clean up your facial hair and you’d be surprised by the amount of attention you court. When you go above and beyond, you are differentiating yourself from nearly everyone. Most people are lazy and simply do not care— they are simply Camrys— uninteresting.

To build a reputation, strive to be the best version of yourself in every aspect possible and most importantly, display it, court attention.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Reading is everything to me. At one point, I was reading 1 book a week for a year strait! These days I am incredibly busy, so that pace has slowed down a bit. More like a book a month— but I never stop reading. Reading is like what working out to your muscles is. It makes you sharper. You gain an arsenal of new information to construct new thoughts and ideas from. Every book you can read is like adding a new soldier to your army. The more soldiers you add, the stronger your army— the more competent, confident and knowledgeable you become. That’s real power.

Here’s my top 7 books if you’re just starting out:

1. Think & Grow Rich— Napoleon Hill
2. Rich Dad Poor Dad— Robert Kiyosaki
3. 48 Laws of Power— Robert Green
4. Can’t Hurt Me— David Goggins
5. 12 Rules For Life— Jordan Peterson
6. How to Win and Influence Friends— Dale Carnegie
7. Art of War— Sun Tzu

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/brandonrvargas
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ibrandonrvargas?mibextid=PlNXYD
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonrvargas