Earning Freedom & Disrupting Status Quo with Property - Maurice Philogene is RightOffTrack | Anya Smith

Anya Smith (00:01.311)

Hey friends, on this episode of RightOffTrack, we're thrilled to have Maurice Philogene, a man whose life reads like an action-packed novel, but offers invaluable lessons in designing your own version of success. Maurice's journey kicks off with a 25-year consulting career, setting the stage for his multiple avatars as a federal agent, philanthropist, entrepreneur, and real estate investor. Make no mistake, this isn't a straight arrow success story.

Rather, it's a playbook on how to leverage each stage of life, from surface of community to the small growth of investment, to build a multifaceted freedom. Navigating the maze that many call the rat race, Maurice turned it into a well-calculated marathon. With a W2 in one hand, and investment strategies in the other, he utilized every paycheck, relationship, and experience to make his money work for him over the span of 25 years. This was never about escaping the race.

by redefining the rules to reach his end game, freedom. His approach is more than a life strategy. It's a philosophy he impacts in his podcast, Try Life On. So if you've ever been told to stay in your lane, consider this an invitation to hit the off-ramp. Maurice shows us that the best life is the one where you set the terms. So buckle up.

maurice philogene (01:02.601)

Thank you.

maurice philogene (01:20.59)

Thanks for watching!

Anya Smith (01:25.639)

and get ready to disrupt your perception about what success can look like. Welcome to Right Off Track Podcast. So buckle up and get ready to disrupt your perception about success and what it can look like. Welcome to Right Off Track Podcast. Maryse, we're so excited to have you here.

maurice philogene (01:41.186)

Oh my gosh, especially after that, I'm excited to be here. I appreciate that introduction.

Anya Smith (01:46.863)

Oh, my pleasure. And quick shout out to Earl Talbot, who introduced us. So thank you to him for giving this amazing connection. And before I connected, I was looking at your LinkedIn and you share so much wisdom and authenticity. And I know you have a lot of posts about kind of the journey that you took for over decades to get to where today. But could you share for listeners who maybe don't know you a little bit about your journey and how you took the off ramp and even saw it worthwhile to do so?

maurice philogene (01:51.671)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (02:14.558)

Yeah, well, it's a convoluted journey, but I think it is beneficial for people to hear such a thing because we do have the ability to make our own version of Extraordinary Ordinary if we want to. And somewhere in my 20s, I figured something out that I just didn't want to go by status quo, if you will. So I'll start at the end, if you will. So I'm 48 now. I just turned 48 in August. And

I'm out of the regular working world, if you will. Regular W2 working world, yeah, yeah. Although I miss it sometimes, so I don't wanna say, I've never had a problem with working, it's just, it was time for something different. But my career spans from 25 years working for Accenture, which is a global consulting company, right out of college, right out of University of Virginia, I ended up there.

Anya Smith (02:45.002)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (03:04.614)

I was also in the military. I needed some money to go to school, so I got an ROTC scholarship and ended up being commissioned right into the US Air Force as a second lieutenant. I stayed with them for 22 years, mainly on the reserve side, but I did the equivalent of about 10 years of active duty, volunteering a lot. And in there, I was a federal agent and lieutenant colonel. So if you think the TV show NCIS.

If you think the TV show NCIS, the Air Force has its own version of it called OSI. It's like a sister agency to the FBI. So I did that as well. And then when I was 33, especially after coming back off certain deployments, I wanted to do something meaningful in my own home community, not just around the world. So I found a way to add being a midnight patrol officer to the pot. And I did that for quite some time as well, for about 15 years. And I retired from that.

Anya Smith (03:32.972)

Wow.

Anya Smith (03:37.643)

Thank you.

maurice philogene (03:59.914)

And then look the biggest thing that helped me get off the highway as you say is the entire time since I was in my early 20s I figured out that if I could invest in real estate generate some passive income passive income equals time plus mobility equals freedom because if you have time and you can be mobile in this world you can be all over the place hence my 98 countries 300 times and Real estate has been part of my life the entire time

It's not real estate, it's its use as a tool to live life as you would like to, as you intend. So that's kind of my journey with a lot of other stuff thrown in there that maybe will come up as we chat.

Anya Smith (04:39.575)

wow, that is remarkable. And you know what's funny? Just this morning, I had a conversation with my dad. I recently made a post on Instagram, on YouTube about finding your purpose. And he was mentioning, Anya, well, is there really an audience for this? It's like so many people are used to being on this path of like, you know, have a career, go to school, all the things like, many people may be not even interested in finding something beyond that. They're kind of comfortable where they're at.

maurice philogene (04:46.347)

Mm.

maurice philogene (05:02.102)

Mm-hmm.

Anya Smith (05:08.111)

And I don't necessarily believe that. I think people are opening up to this perception of getting more. And I deeply respect and love my dad, but I'm curious, how did you start thinking like there's more for you and go then the next step of not just thinking, but acting towards that.

maurice philogene (05:15.347)

Mhm.

maurice philogene (05:24.786)

I felt it when I was 15. So I'm a Haitian immigrant kid. Both of my parents are born and raised in Haiti. My brother and I were born in New York, so we're the first generation here. My father did something very smart when I was young. When I was 15 years old, this is dating back to 1990, so when I was 15 years old, he sent me to Paris to live with the exchange student who had stayed with me the previous summer.

because my father was very particular about us improving our French because we're French speakers. And as a just a regular old inner city Boston kid, you know, I was driving around the country with his him, him and his dad, and French funerals, French wine, French castles, French culture, French wedding, like it was just mind blowing to the extent that I realized that the world was a lot bigger than Boston, Massachusetts.

Anya Smith (05:56.424)

Right.

maurice philogene (06:15.958)

That struck me and stuck with me because when I got to 21 and I graduated from University of Virginia and I got my job at Accenture and went to um Military police school if you will in texas I just remember talking to myself about like this can't be it like I don't this doesn't feel like the Destination of what we are supposed to do And somewhere along the line I found real estate and personal finance when I was 23 and I tied it all together. I'm like

If I can buy some real estate and if I can create some passive income that passive income will give me time and theoretically I can go back to when I was 15 and start having all these experiences around the world Like that felt like life to me so something opened between age 15 and 21 and I never let it go and it has just evolved into many things including me living in the Mediterranean now and

Anya Smith (06:56.172)

Right.

Anya Smith (07:03.795)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (07:09.11)

building real estate there and, you know, traveling around the world, lots of experiences, et cetera.

Anya Smith (07:14.615)

amazing. And I'm curious, for people who maybe didn't have that 15 year old experience, they didn't get the chance to travel the world. I'm genuinely curious, how do we open up other people to this idea of thinking big, to inspire them to think that there's more, there's more potential to their life? Instead of getting frustrated, they can do something about it. As you can hear, I'm very passionate about this.

maurice philogene (07:20.38)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (07:28.268)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (07:33.031)

Mm-hmm.

maurice philogene (07:36.402)

I think it's... Yeah, but it... Yeah, me too. That's why I started coaching people in it, right? I didn't, I didn't... So I coach people through my platform now, trylifeon.com. I help them build a lifestyle they don't need a vacation from, whatever that might be for them. And it's not necessarily travel for a lot of people, right? It could be staying home with the kids or something like that. There's a problem in our society, from my perspective. This just me, like... We...

We have peers, coworkers, neighbors, and family all telling us what to do. We have 20 years of formal education that tells us to compete with each other, get the AP classes, be the MVP, be the valedictorian, be the MVP, be the prom king, the prom queen. You get into college and you start doing that again. It translates into the work world and people believe that the...

pinnacle of life of some sort exists after you get your fifth promotion. It doesn't. I'm here to tell you if someone who's had many titles, that's not the case. So the way you kind of wake people up or at least try to is you expose people to how other people are living. Now I've done real estate so people say, well Maurice you have money. Well, no, I didn't have money until I was in my late 30s.

Anya Smith (08:40.573)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (08:53.594)

I was finding ways to travel on the cheap. I was using travel hacking. I was staying with friends. I was opting for being a virtual worker at my company so I could support international clients and go visit them instead of working in my federal government practice where I had a proper path to partner. I didn't want it. I wanted the experience. I didn't want the title. So what I say to people is, why are you chasing somebody else's version of success? Why? Because that's what we've been taught for 20 years.

Anya Smith (09:13.973)

Yeah.

Anya Smith (09:18.644)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (09:23.326)

and I didn't want that, and the real estate and other financial things that I did empowered me not to go that route, and then I figured out that life is very much not about money. We just need it as a tool.

Anya Smith (09:35.952)

That's so powerful. You know what I recently just found out? To your point, I made the excuse, like, hey, I'm a mom, I have three boys, and I'm at this point in my life where I can't travel. I miss it dearly. I had the blessing of being able to travel when I was growing up. But I was making the excuse, like, I can't travel, I'm too busy, I have my kids, I'm going to build my business. And then I had this idea that I was putting off way into the future about the show called Globalpreneur. Or my husband doesn't like that name, so he's like, Worldpreneur, whatever that is.

maurice philogene (09:39.806)

Mm-hmm.

maurice philogene (09:59.547)

Mhm.

maurice philogene (10:04.656)

Yeah.

Anya Smith (10:04.787)

but this idea where you travel the world and you interview entrepreneurs. And it's like an Anthony Gordain's like, no reservations, but with an entrepreneurial spin. And then I was thinking, well, why don't I just do that? Like, why don't I just book a trip to a country, probably UK, because I have a lot of friends there, and just start making that happen? And then I was thinking about like, well, I mean, $650 is reasonable for a round trip ticket, you know, off season.

maurice philogene (10:08.9)

Mm-hmm.

maurice philogene (10:13.564)

Mm-hmm.

Why not?

maurice philogene (10:27.854)

Mm-hmm.

Anya Smith (10:29.171)

So to your point, like even I was marveling how for years, even though I was like, oh, I'm open-minded, I'm entrepreneurial, like I didn't get there until I actually was like, well, what if there was a way? And what could that look like now if I just take a small step?

maurice philogene (10:35.394)

Hahaha

maurice philogene (10:42.806)

There is a way and there's this concept that I teach in my coaching called practicing life. I think that people think that life is some destination that you get there.

Anya Smith (10:48.416)

Mm.

maurice philogene (10:53.538)

That's not true. So I was just having this conversation with Sean. I won't say his last name, but Sean one of my coaching students He lives in California him and his girlfriend soon to be fiance want to move back or want to move to Texas And I said, well, when are you gonna go because they're gonna go to Texas and renovate homes and live in one home Live in one home historical home renovated move to the next one, etc. I said, when are you gonna go? And he said December I said why December? He said well because in December

Anya Smith (11:06.133)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (11:22.106)

We'll be done with what we have to do here. We think we'll have enough time. And I said, this is the problem. We will put off our own goals and dreams in favor of the thing that we have to do for our employer. So I said, like if the employer needs something, the employer will tell you get on a plane. So are you telling me that your dream is not worth a $400 round trip ticket to go get it started now?

Anya Smith (11:43.647)

Mmm.

maurice philogene (11:44.962)

Go practice the thing that it is that you want to do. It's not a destination, it's a journey. Now, if you start, if he starts practicing that thing, right, so this is what I told him. Just like you with your example, I said, brother, go to Texas, and before you go, call three real estate agents or brokers. Let them know you're coming. Meet with one on a Friday, one on a Saturday, one on a Sunday. Have them all take you around to historical homes, show you at least three homes per broker, all right?

Then you get a sense of what it is that you are up against. Then the next weekend or the weekend following, maybe two weekends ago, you go back down. You invest $400 in yourself rather than invest $400 in a restaurant where you're just gonna buy drinks at the bar, you go do it again. You start finding places where you wanna live. And the funny thing is by doing that, by practicing that rhythm of what you want your life to be, you start unconsciously and subconsciously, unconsciously and consciously moving that direction.

Anya Smith (12:27.036)

Right?

Anya Smith (12:35.031)

Mm-hmm.

maurice philogene (12:42.39)

But we're just not taught that. You see how the immediate status quo reflex was, well, let me do it in December when I have time. Time is ticking. We only have 28,000 days in the average lifetime. So life is something to be practiced.

Anya Smith (12:49.015)

in the next video.

Right?

Anya Smith (12:58.483)

Yeah. And I'm curious, so now I hear you and you're coaching and you have so much confidence and wisdom. Was that always the case? Or was there something that... You can say yes, it could be done at this interview. Or was there a building foundation? Do you have this mindset, hacks or tools that you personally use to help cultivate this confidence and bring this power into realizing what you want out of life?

maurice philogene (13:11.676)

Hahaha! No, no, no.

maurice philogene (13:24.238)

I, listen, I am an A personality, but I think that has developed over time, meaning, you know, street cop, right? The stuff I dealt with in the middle of the night is not stuff that people typically deal with. I was a special agent in charge of many amazing humans through my military service. I also grew up in the inner city, to an extent, before my parents got smart and moved us out to the suburbs. I've done...

Taking $100 million loans, done $30 million deals, run through someone's house with a burglar in the house and been shot at and things like that. And none of that is glory. That's just doing your job. There's no glory to it whatsoever. So I'm not really nervous about life. The only thing I'm nervous about is regret. It freaks me out.

Anya Smith (14:02.183)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (14:13.534)

So no, I never really had this level of, I'm not saying I have this innate confidence about me relative to lifestyle design or what have you, but what I do have is a conviction that I have a certain amount of time on this planet, as do we all, I want to live it my way. I do not want to 20 years later chase the title of partner.

There's nothing wrong with being a partner at a firm or something if that's your passion or whatever, but it was not my passion It was not my definition. So what everyone would say why are you not being a partner? I don't want to and I don't care about society's Society's wonderful. We need each other I guess what I'm saying is I just don't want to execute things just because that's how the herd is doing it Typically if the herd is going right I tend to go left not to be contrarian

Anya Smith (14:54.056)

Yeah.

Anya Smith (15:00.278)

Right.

maurice philogene (15:05.282)

but to just be independent and do life however it is that you want to do it.

Anya Smith (15:10.367)

There's so much information out there that we need to cultivate a sense of what's right for us

maurice philogene (15:15.298)

100% and there's too much information out there and the one of the best things I ever did on you best things There are five books that I always post on LinkedIn I post it probably once every four or five months the same five books And I give a it's the same breakdown of why I like these books since finding I'm starting in 2010 It's Tim Ferriss's for our work week Ralph no Tim Ferriss's for our work week

Anya Smith (15:18.516)

Yeah.

Anya Smith (15:28.993)

Mm-hmm.

maurice philogene (15:45.338)

A multi-family real estate book, a single-family real estate book, Money Master the Game by Tony Robbins, where he interviews 30 or 40 of the craziest financial minds in history. And then the last one is Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. Like it really helped me understand how to figure out why I'm here. All right, the reason I bring up those five books, I read those and I refuse to go dive deep into other philosophies. I was just like...

Look, if I just read these and get them right and learn them and just execute what they tell me, I think I'll be okay. And I have to the extent that I can quote pages now. But there's so much information. We are so... We're like chickens with our heads cut off when we see some new thing come along. We just chase it. Bitcoin and this thing and that coin and...

Let me be virtual. Let me work in the office. Let me get this car. Let me, like, we're just all over the place that we have no level of consistency for our approach to life. I chose to practice information diets and it was one of the best things that I could have ever done.

Anya Smith (16:50.989)

How do you practice your information diet?

maurice philogene (16:53.162)

Yeah, so on LinkedIn quietly, I only follow two people at a time. I Can't like I just cannot So I follow two people at a time only because I want to hear what they are saying and I don't want it to be clouded

I have gotten off of other social media Although I'm on Instagram sometimes because I want to show people kind of life out there and what have you But I've just gotten off of social media. I don't watch the news much anymore Although I will watch some current events like with what's going on in Israel and things that nature but there's so much negative news It's all negative. It's all what you can't do or who got hurt or this or that

Anya Smith (17:16.883)

Yeah.

Anya Smith (17:24.363)

Mm.

Anya Smith (17:32.715)

Mm.

maurice philogene (17:33.502)

And I choose in particular to not pay attention to the negative stuff in favor of you know, the personal development stuff or What have you and then lastly?

One of the ways that I practice information diets is I surround myself with the right people and I just stay with them. I stay in my bubble because I can get so distracted by this thing, that thing, this thing, that thing. I'm not trying to grow and be the wealthiest human in the world. I am trying to have the most experiences that I can possibly have and I can just get that from being around the right people and that's enough for me.

Anya Smith (17:48.661)

Yeah.

Anya Smith (18:05.951)

So beautiful. One thing that this reminds me of, but when the last time we spoke, you were mentioning that you were just traveling, you just came from Europe. I forget exactly where you're from, I'll remember. But you came back and you just sent this busyness. You were just looking around your neighbors and coming back to DC, you were just like, things felt busy. Like I need to go back, because I was just there and people were, the work was still the same, what I was doing is still the same, but I just felt so much more relaxed. Do you have any insights about this sense of

maurice philogene (18:09.87)

Mm-hmm.

maurice philogene (18:20.494)

Hahaha! Yep.

maurice philogene (18:29.172)

Yeah.

Anya Smith (18:33.375)

busyness and rush? Is it cultural? Is there something we can do without going overseas to get a sense of peace?

maurice philogene (18:43.758)

But that's the badge of honor in our society as being busy not being productive It's being busy and you know I'm the pot calling the kettle black right because I had three careers and I was doing investments and owning restaurants and stuff But the difference is that was my why I was passionate about those things. I wasn't just doing just to do that notion that I told you when I sensed that I

I just wrote a newsletter on it and I said in the newsletter, I don't want to be busy anymore Unless it's something that I'm truly passionate about. I probably say no to 95% of things that are thrown my way What Alan Wilson Watts Alan Wilson Watts who passed away in 1973 was a British Philosopher type who studied Buddhism and Taoism things about nature

His quote ran across my face on September the 24th. Never forget. It was a Monday and I happened to be in Lebanon I was in Beirut Lebanon at the time and I was reading it because I didn't really have a lot going on that particular day from a business perspective Although I can get busy from a real estate perspective sometime and the quote effectively said It's so obvious that the meaning of life is just to be and just to enjoy yourself while you're here and he's and it

It continues by saying, but people are trying so hard to be more than they're actually intended to be that they forget to live in the first place. I got back to DC and I have the benefit of having worked hard for two decades and I don't necessarily go to an office anymore. And I just kind of looked around and I was like, where is everybody running to? Everyone is constantly moving, constantly going, constantly.

Chasing something or whatever. I don't want that anymore. I want to be present I want to play football with my kid before he goes to school So we usually throw the ball for about an hour before he goes to school I want to pick him up like I'm gonna pick him up today and I tell people facetiously, but I'm being honest My foot is kind of off the entrepreneurial and business gas at this point. I feel like I have enough

Anya Smith (20:55.171)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

maurice philogene (20:58.346)

And by enough, I mean I can cover my basic needs, food, water, shelter, a little bit more to have some fun with friends and family. Unless it's your passion, like being a police officer was my passion, so I was willing to do that at night even though I had a full-time job during the day. Unless it's your passion, like you're just following what everyone else is doing and we are, I think people are so busy, they're missing life in a way.

Anya Smith (21:24.615)

I mentioned in your title that you also now, I don't know if it's now or maybe you've done it for much longer than now, but you're doing now, you're also part of philanthropy, like you're doing philanthropic work. Is that part of your passion now?

maurice philogene (21:31.042)

Mm-hmm Yeah, I have this thing Anya I Some people's version of philanthropy is to like start a foundation or give billions of dollars to NAACP or the United Way or whatever like that's not me. That's not me And I think if you want to help people you have to find your own way of giving

Me being a police officer was helping people. I didn't need the money. I just wanted to be part of my community and as a police officer I could give back in a very unique way. I could be that cool police officer who was like, man you just had a day. Like let's just get you home safe. Don't do this again. That kind of thing. Now what my thing is is, how can I change a family's decade in five minutes? That's it.

Anya Smith (22:09.763)

Yeah.

Mm.

maurice philogene (22:24.798)

So because I do large scale real estate now, let's say if we get a payday and I can take 20 grand or 30 grand or something, I can pay for someone's cancer surgery or I can get up, my oldest son is autistic so I'm very sensitive to the autism spectrum. I can get a one-on-one tutor to stay with a six-year-old for two years or something like that. Like.

What are we really gonna do like we're gonna go be hyper entrepreneurial and have a net worth of 50 million and sit at Home and do nothing to help society It just it doesn't make sense because once your basic needs are covered you quickly realize that life was never about money in the first Place it's helping people it's experiences. It's constant learning Philanthropy is just one of those ways that you can plug into your community and I'll give you one quick last example I spent a lot of time in Cyprus

Anya Smith (23:03.775)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (23:16.39)

Cyprus is a divided island. I won't get into all the politics of it, but it's divided between Turkish Cypriots, Greek Cypriots since the war of 1974. There was this initiative called Winds of Change to circumnavigate the island with a group of, like a culturally diverse group, if you will. And I found out about that and I wanted to be a part of it because one, I do business there, two, I lived there from time to time, and three, I just wanted to be a part of the community.

So why not donate a significant amount to do something that's positive? Forget the politics. I don't do politics. I'm not interested in politics from a negative perspective. We need it, but I don't like all those things. What I like is people and humans. So I got involved with that initiative and it's just... If you're not giving back, then all you're doing is taking care of yourself. And I'm kind of over that. Like, I can buy myself things or I can go help people. I prefer to do the latter.

Anya Smith (23:53.385)

Mm-hmm.

Anya Smith (24:00.528)

Yeah.

Anya Smith (24:13.499)

You know what I discovered also recently? Again, on the, I'm catching my own BS and being mindful of what I could do. I was thinking one day, when I have the money, I'm gonna create a scholarship for moms that wanna go back to school, because I went back to school. And I didn't learn that you should go back to school, but I learned that when you embrace learning, you can develop this resilience within you that can give you this confidence to go and pursue much higher aspirations. But anyways, I realized, like I Googled, how much money does it take to create a scholarship?

maurice philogene (24:18.808)

Hmm.

maurice philogene (24:38.549)

Yeah.

Anya Smith (24:42.015)

How much money, do you know this or have you? So I was like, okay, you can get a scholarship with $10,000 and I was like, that's probably about right. But then I saw there's another nonprofit that you can create a scholarship with $500 a year. $500 a year, which is not crazy much, but if you wanna stop, I was catching my own BS, like, hey, I don't have to wait to have an infinite amount of money to do something good in the world. Like I can create a scholarship with something very realistic.

maurice philogene (24:44.254)

No, go ahead, go for it, no no.

maurice philogene (24:57.75)

Mm-hmm.

maurice philogene (25:08.383)

No.

Anya Smith (25:10.963)

And so that's on my to-do list. I'm now supporting one nonprofit right now for this podcast cause, but that's like after December, getting this nonprofit, I mean nonprofit scholarship to just seize the moment. Like you said, there's no reason to put it off for an aviary.

maurice philogene (25:21.929)

Yeah!

And remember what I said about formal education. It treats us to compete with each other. You are not competing with me, I am not competing with you. And then we'll be like, oh no, I gotta come up with a hundred thousand dollars for a scholarship. Do you? Or could you actually just buy someone's books for the year? Like it's all, it's just kind of crazy, this thing that we do to each other, or this thing, this notion that we have in our minds about what is the level of giving that means that I've done good?

Anya Smith (25:31.093)

Yeah.

Anya Smith (25:39.242)

Yeah.

Anya Smith (25:54.751)

that I can tell people about. Like, oh.

maurice philogene (25:54.894)

Nah. Yeah. It's kind of crazy, but you got to give, you got to give as you see fit for yourself. And the other thing I tell people, it's okay to be selfish, selfish. Get yourself together. Like I wasn't giving a lot early in my career. I wasn't. But now that I do very large scale real estate deals, when I do...

Anya Smith (25:59.818)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (26:17.27)

have a transaction, there is money there, and I can do significant stuff, it's okay. It's okay, but it's gotta be on your own timeline, I say.

Anya Smith (26:26.443)

Yeah. One thing that I'm curious about, so now you're doing these large deals, you're living on your terms, you're following a few people, and I'm sure your network has also elevated and you have elevated. But one thing I try to share with people, although I realize I'm still learning, is that people are still people. Like we're having this conversation. I'm definitely early on in my career, but I want people to know like where they aspire to be or when they see people in front of them that they want to learn and emulate, they're still just people.

maurice philogene (26:30.224)

Mm-hmm.

maurice philogene (26:35.694)

Mm-hmm.

maurice philogene (26:42.899)

Yes.

maurice philogene (26:52.194)

Mm-hmm.

Anya Smith (26:54.611)

The sense of like, who am I to aspire to something more? Who am I to achieve something? Who am I to try to make the world better? You have every right. You're a human who's trying to do something good in the world, we need more of that. Who are you not to try to do that? So do you have something to say about that?

maurice philogene (27:01.134)

Mm-hmm.

maurice philogene (27:10.43)

Of course. I do. If you see someone... Look, we-

I don't get him. I think this is the nature of me. Maybe the nature of my a personality Maybe the nature of all the things that I've done whether it's consulting policing federal agent. I've been a part-time actor I've been on HBO. I like I've just done all these things. I am just not

Anya Smith (27:32.567)

Cheers.

maurice philogene (27:36.566)

People don't impress me. There's a saying that I tell my coaching students and just people in general, I say, I seek out ordinary people who do extraordinary things.

I don't really seek out extraordinary people, politicians, famous people, athletes, you know, people with a bit of notoriety. I don't seek out extraordinary people who do extraordinary or ordinary things. The reason I say that is there is an Anya out there. There's a Maurice out there. There's my Quattro business partners out there. There are people who are in this world who are doing such amazing things, but because they are quote unquote ordinary, if you will, they're accessible.

Anya Smith (28:21.703)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (28:21.758)

And they tend to want to give back. They tend to want to come on podcasts like this and just speak what has happened in his or her life to like, man, it was tough when I did it, but I want to tell you what I went through so you can absorb that for your life and use it for how you want. Find ordinary people who are doing extraordinary things. Find a way to give them value. Find, what's in it for them? With it is what I call it. What's the with it? How can you help them? That initiative in Cyprus that I told you about,

Anya Smith (28:45.851)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (28:50.438)

I helped them with money in that case and with my presence and with attention to help them with that what was going on like Find ordinary people who are doing these beautiful things around the world and get involved We people are just chasing like oh I got to be on this popular thing this popular thing. No, you don't Plus you're not gonna learn from that You're not gonna have access to those people in a way that you would with ordinary people if you if you will

Anya Smith (29:15.879)

Yeah. And I'm also curious about, you mentioned that, you know, you build this experience through multiple decades and years. And one thing I keep coming back to, that takes a lot of patience. I'm sure in your head, I'm just curious, like, when you meet people, they're like, you're just not patient enough. Like, get your shit together and be more patient and have a track. But how, how were you able to cultivate the sense of patience in this long-term game?

maurice philogene (29:25.548)

Yeah.

Yeah.

maurice philogene (29:35.711)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Anya Smith (29:44.039)

And then not only to see that vision, but then every day you showed up building your own career in a way that powered that vision.

maurice philogene (29:53.198)

I mean, it's the number one rule. You have a know your why In my financial journey and I post about this quite a bit in my financial journey I say it took me I started my financial journey if you will took towards financial freedom Really around 2001 ish And I say it took me seven years to cover my basic needs like, you know Money coming in monthly to cover my basic needs housing food shelter

It took me 14 years to have more money coming in than work, which was cool. And then it's year 26 now and the assets that I own, they buy assets. The only way I had that level of patience and trust me, I went through the 2008 downturn. I almost lost everything. Half of my tenants stopped paying. I failed opening two coffee shops. I lost that money. The clubs and restaurants that I opened, 90% of them didn't do well.

Like I had a lot of failures. But my why was so strong that there was no question whether or not I was going to continue. None! Because I wanted to be in control of my life. I wanted the ability to do what I want, when I want, how I want. And that's not ego. That is like, nah, God put me on this planet to go do something and to exist and to feel good about life. I'm going to keep going until I have that ability.

The certain occasions Anya where I started to quote-unquote chase money and I post about this too when I start to chase money when I started to chase deals because I thought I could make a Half million or hundred thousand or something. I Failed every time when I got off my premise of financial freedom for the sake of living life as intended. I failed Every single time because the decisions I was making was being driven by money not driven by my desire to live a meaningful life

Anya Smith (31:45.463)

Mm-hmm.

maurice philogene (31:48.906)

When I got back to my why, and this is what you know in answer to your question, is if you know your why, you will make decisions consistent with your why, and you won't get off track. So you gotta know your why.

Anya Smith (32:04.023)

And your why, can you clarify what is your why? I think we talked about it a little bit, but do you have a clear, concise why?

maurice philogene (32:09.706)

I do. So remember that book, Victor Franco's Man's Search for Meaning? Okay, I read that in 2016, post a military deployment to Turkey and Africa. I was gone for almost two years. And when I came back, I was struggling a little bit because I was helping people all over the world and like interacting with heads of state. Like it was just a beautiful time.

Anya Smith (32:14.45)

Mm-hmm.

maurice philogene (32:35.166)

And then when I got back to the US, I was like back in corporate life. And I was like, I don't want to be here. This doesn't make sense to me. So I read that book and it led me to three whys, which is all encompassing. My first why is that I tend, I want to be in love. I tend to be a better human when I'm in a committed relationship with someone or my family, like that's my first why. My second why is, um, I want to be loved by community.

Anya Smith (32:45.236)

Mm-hmm.

maurice philogene (33:02.666)

Because if I'm loved by a community, what that means is I've done a lot of good for them. So the fact that shopkeepers in my county in Maryland call me from time to time because I used to help them as a police officer and they're still like, yo, Officer Villaging, we need your help. And I'm like, dude, I haven't been a police officer in two years, but let me call this, let me call a friend of mine who can come down and help you. I appreciated that. My neighbors to this day will still talk about the fact that

They missed when my police car would be outside of the house because they felt safe, you know So that's my second why is being loved by a community even when I was overseas, especially when I was in Turkey I felt like everybody was like here's this cat from the East Coast of DC a brother and he's being so meaningful in our community We're gonna give him love back. That made me feel like I was doing good things And then the third why is constant learning

Anya Smith (33:32.201)

Ugh.

maurice philogene (33:55.086)

I don't like rat race feelings. I can't stand them. I can't stand when I'm not learning something So one of the reasons I travel so much and do so much entrepreneurial business is not because I'm trying to do everything or be The end-all be-all it's not that it said I want to stay in a state of constant learning When we were in kindergarten first grade fifth grade sixth grade seventh grade, we were never bored with life It's when we got to adulthood and we started pressing repeat We started getting bored so

Anya Smith (34:16.587)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (34:25.042)

Why number one is being in love, why number two is being loved by a community, and why number three is staying in constant learning. Those three things drive me, and as long as I stay with those three things, I'm generally in a good space.

Anya Smith (34:36.111)

Thank you. Thank you for sharing. That's beautiful. What's funny. It reminds me of my four-year-old He's going to preschool right now and he's so excited about going to school that he gets upset with me Because it's 10 o'clock and his school starts at afternoon and he's like, why can't I go to school mom? And I'm like, it's there they don't know they're not ready for you and he gets really upset because he's not excited to go and learn and track

maurice philogene (34:44.365)

Yeah!

maurice philogene (34:50.85)

That's it.

maurice philogene (34:57.442)

What if you feel that excited about life? What if we as adults? Remember that we have the ability to dream and we can tailor our actions to be going after those dreams Just like your son with kindergarten we can which is how I Coach in lifestyle design. It's just that when we're adults we get so

Anya Smith (35:13.258)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (35:21.046)

rigid and we get so responsible and we follow society's path and we don't want to upset the natural cause of things and we don't want to look different and we Want to wear the suit that looks like the guy who we want to be like it just changes Mmm, this is the world according to me if other people like how they're living. That's okay It's just that I don't do well with the same thing over and over and over again. I really enjoy dreaming

Anya Smith (35:41.512)

Right.

maurice philogene (35:47.958)

Going after those dreams, being around other people who are dreamers and can think bigger than themselves and wanna be a part of something bigger than themselves and none of this has to do with money. It has to do with the fact that I truly believe that one of the gifts that we have is to go after experiences and to build meaningful relationships. Life will never be the same. You gotta do that, so know your why.

Anya Smith (36:11.487)

Yeah, I'm going to put you in the hot seat for just a moment. Dun, dun, dun. So on this podcast, I wanted to talk about things that are going well, but also talk about the things that are challenging. So is there maybe like one big, one or two big challenges you have to overcome and what was your mindset overcoming them? Because I can see somebody be like, okay, well, Maurice has all of everything together. He's poised, he's an A-type personality, he's done all those things and he's not phased. He's living his full life, but.

maurice philogene (36:14.364)

Okay.

maurice philogene (36:22.734)

Sure.

Anya Smith (36:39.567)

as you post and you share there are big challenges you have to overcome. So could you share maybe a couple that were instrumental in your own development, personal path and how did you think through them? How did you go over or come with them internally?

maurice philogene (36:52.482)

For one, I definitely don't have all my shit together. That's, that's, let me make that very clear. One of the biggest challenges that I've had for a long time, especially starting in my twenties and on this crazy journey that I've been on, is that it was very difficult to find like-minded people.

So I talk about the concept of entrepreneurial depression because I always felt like the herd was going right and I was going left. In reality, I don't think that's what was happening. I think in reality, there are many people who think like Anya and Maurice, and we were looking for platforms to be able to express with each other that we wanna do life a different way.

Anya Smith (37:18.365)

Yeah.

Yeah.

maurice philogene (37:32.47)

But when I started in 01, 02, 03, I mean, like Google was just coming around. There was no Facebook, there was no Instagram, there was no LinkedIn. You couldn't find people. Like I was always in aisle six of the Fairfax County Virginia Library. Always, every Saturday I was in that damn library reading something and it got lonely. And I didn't know a lot of people, I didn't know anyone who was a full-time executive, a street cop at night and doing real estate on the weekends plus had two kids.

That was a challenge, a big challenge. And the way that I eventually got over it, starting in 2015, was partners. I started finding like-minded people. And here's a great way to articulate the outcome. I did okay for myself in real estate in the single-family space. I got up to about $5 million worth of real estate in 2014, 15 on my own. And most of it paid off. Like I did really well.

Anya Smith (38:02.168)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (38:26.326)

But from 2016 to 2000, really from 2018 to 2023, it's been $200 million worth of real estate. Partners, people, community. So that's been one of the biggest challenges was finding my tribe, if you will. And then I'll give one more challenge, which is, because I never worried about people's opinions of what I was doing. In fact, I was very quiet during my journey. It's only now on LinkedIn I'm very vocal about it.

Anya Smith (38:37.288)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (38:55.414)

But now what I'm finding is more the idleness issue. I'm having some issues with idleness. I am having some issues with the fact that I don't want to build that much anymore. I have been building since I was 22. And now what I want to do is live. Now what I want to do is I just bought a house. I've never bought a new house for myself in all these years, ever. I've still never even owned a new car.

Anya Smith (39:21.161)

Wow.

maurice philogene (39:22.798)

But now what I want to do is have friends like Anya and in my neighborhood and my old police buddies and my old military buddies and have them come around the gourmet kitchen at my house and shoot the shit and have a beer and talk life. You know, just like meaningful relationships and having experiences around the world is what I want to do now. But it's tough because people do go to work every day.

Where am I supposed to be? What am I supposed to do? When my son and his mom, you know, when they're gone, it's like I'm not really trying to build a new business here. So I have maybe an hour of phone calls What am I supposed to be doing? It's really an odd feeling that I'm struggling with but I'm finding ways to get over it

Anya Smith (40:09.143)

I appreciate you showing up so real. And my husband will take you up on the offer. He loves to cook. He's the kitchen connoisseur.

maurice philogene (40:10.962)

Yes. Yeah.

Anya Smith (40:18.181)

You'll be thrilled.

maurice philogene (40:19.42)

Awesome, awesome.

Anya Smith (40:20.959)

But thank you for being so genuine around that. And just to show that your journey can seem on paper really amazing, you have it all, but it changes, right? What motivates you changes, like your perspective and challenges change too. And I just appreciate you being just a genuine reminder of that path.

maurice philogene (40:22.783)

Sure, sure.

maurice philogene (40:33.194)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (40:37.098)

It does change. The world you think you are headed to, if you don't, here, I have been spending a significant amount of time in the Mediterranean, specifically Lebanon and Cyprus, and now there's all this stuff going on between Palestine, Israel, da-da-da. Again, I'm not getting into politics, but I'm getting into safety of people. And it's clear that it might not be the best idea for me to be over there now, so.

Anya Smith (40:55.305)

Mm-hmm.

maurice philogene (41:07.746)

Thought I was headed to that world on a more regular basis and now that's all shifted and It's it's jarring because you are planning for something and all of us now forget it's not money It's you've planned for something for the past four years and then all of a sudden you have to pivot And it's kind of painful to be honest because now you kind of have to look at your existing world and say Okay, do I still want to be here? Do I have to build a new world? Where am I gonna go? What's gonna happen?

It's um, Anya, I have to tell you, like, for the journey that I've been on, from my 20s to my late 40s, yeah, it was tough. But it was manageable through execution. Now what's happening is I'm trying to figure out these next chapters and I'm finding them elusive. Because the nature of things with an entrepreneur is to go build something with people. And I think I'm tired of...

Building I think I'm tired of building at this point. So then what do I do? What if I go back to my purposes being in love being loved by a community constant learning? What are the things that are gonna satisfy that and I have to shift who I am? Fundamentally and that's what's challenging. So when you see an entrepreneur or a business person or an athlete or someone I get it with athletes Now I now I get it. They've had this whole world not from adulthood but from childhood

where they're on courts or fields or whatever, and all of a sudden they get to 38 years old and they have to retire and they look up and they're like.

Anya Smith (42:35.178)

Yeah.

Anya Smith (42:40.224)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (42:44.598)

I don't know. And that it can be challenging. So I'm facing that a little bit.

Anya Smith (42:44.636)

Yeah.

Anya Smith (42:49.175)

I appreciate showing up just so authentically. Can I share something that's on my heart? And I want to sound kind. What it reminds me of is, I think it's John Kabat-Zinn. And he talks about that wherever you go, you are there. So we can't escape our mind. And this makes me think about people who seemingly have it all. And I'm not saying you specifically, but people we see have it all. And then something happens and they're not happy. And I don't think you're in that category, but it just reminds me that at a certain point in life,

maurice philogene (42:53.015)

Yeah, please.

maurice philogene (42:59.354)

Hmm

maurice philogene (43:02.839)

Mm-hmm.

Anya Smith (43:18.663)

it could also be just as scared to have everything you thought you wanted and not to feel fulfilled as it is for somebody who's like, Oh, somebody who at least has a purpose and they're chasing it. But they think, Hey, I have this action plan and that's going to get me somewhere. So that's where my understanding to me, at least as I'm like, how am I also cultivating that mindset to, to your point that you can't just keep chasing at a certain point, you either will get it, you know, and then you realize like, well, what now?

maurice philogene (43:24.169)

Mm-hmm.

Anya Smith (43:44.791)

And so that reminds me, well, where am I in my head right now? Because no matter where I go, I'm still going to be there.

maurice philogene (43:50.63)

I think the... Literally before I got on this interview with you, I was sitting at my best friend Chloe's house Talking about this particular thing and where we are in life. I think everyone at some point is gonna face the question of what now?

I didn't see it coming from my perspective. I did not see it coming. This is kind of like over the last four months, five months, things have been kind of shifting under my feet a little bit. I'm so grateful for my journey. And I know nine out of 10 people will be like, dude, I'll trade places with you. But it is a challenge.

Think about this. I retired from being an executive in 2021, being a police officer in 2021, being in the military in 2019. I built a real estate company that has gotten really big with my partners and we are helping a lot of people, but how much longer do I wanna keep building real estate? So I'm not totally sure. Although I will support my investors until the day that I have my last breath. Then what, right? I'm being a, the one thing I'm doing more of is leaning into being a dad.

Anya Smith (44:46.293)

Yeah.

Anya Smith (44:53.095)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (44:59.51)

which is really good, but my identity in the last four years has been shifting so much, it's a little bit jarring. And it's not easy to just, let's say, fade into the sunset or what have you. You really have to think about what it is that you wanna accomplish during your time on this planet and who you wanna love, who you wanna be around, and be super intentional about that. And that's where I'm starting to spend more thought leadership on is like,

Anya Smith (44:59.669)

Yeah.

Anya Smith (45:10.539)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (45:29.758)

I want to help people, but I don't want to just exist. I don't want to just build just to build. So what am I doing? And that's where, that's the work that I'm doing now. It's not, I don't need more stuff. What I need is more understanding of what I'm supposed to be doing to help people or as a dad or whatever.

Anya Smith (45:48.527)

Yeah. I, hey, just I just I feel that I feel your words of my heart. Just like, oh, and no, I absolutely you know what, I have this bold ambition. And now I'm starting out. But I wonder, like, to me, what drives me right now is this vision that what if we can inspire people to see more of themselves? Like, that's the vision for the podcast. And that's where like, I don't know, I don't know what is purposeful fade. But

maurice philogene (45:56.613)

They're true. They're true.

maurice philogene (46:11.891)

Mm-hmm.

Anya Smith (46:18.451)

I guess that's where I'm leaning into, into this journey, is like finding a purpose that to me feels like there's not really an end goal to it. Like it's always, I don't think we're ever gonna inspire the whole world to seek more of attention of self. But I think you're doing similar stuff to that. You are increasing your purpose and then you're creating like resources for inspiration. And maybe it's like the next big inspirational thing. I see that for you.

maurice philogene (46:25.616)

Mm-hmm.

maurice philogene (46:42.622)

Don't know and I don't think I need to boil the ocean. I don't think I need to change the entire world I do want to be in like hyper impactful to people So for example when I do coach from a lifestyle design or financial or wealth perspective, I coach 10 people one-on-one at a time That's it. I don't want to do group coaching I want to deeply impact someone's life and I and I feel good about that. I have obviously, I started my podcast try life on and then

Anya Smith (46:46.995)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (47:11.386)

I have some media projects that are in the works relative to that concept that might work that might Create a movement if you will rather than a thing Like I could see that being

New purpose for me. But again, you are helping people by exposing My bullshit if you will right because everyone will read what I say on LinkedIn and be like man, like he figured it out No, the hell I know I didn't I just went on this weird journey It worked. I had consistency and was persistent and now I'm at a point in the journey where I'm like Dude what?

Anya Smith (47:33.543)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (47:48.926)

What's now? What's next? I don't know. And whatever it is that's next has nothing to do with money. I'm not chasing that.

Anya Smith (47:50.208)

Yeah.

Anya Smith (47:53.671)

Yeah. Can I just honor the space, the space of reflection? Like in me, I feel like there's this there's like, Oh, I need to how do I give advice to make them like, maybe we don't need to make it better. Like this is a space for reflection. And it's beautiful to where instead of fixing the mindset and like this vulnerable area, like what if we honor that and I think you obviously know that. But that's what I'm like, I'm honoring your space. And I'm really curious to see what happens in there. Okay. Just to mention two things that we mentioned.

maurice philogene (48:08.234)

Mm-hmm.

maurice philogene (48:18.445)

Aww.

maurice philogene (48:23.454)

Yeah.

Anya Smith (48:23.567)

Try life on give us a little more information. What is try life on about and how do you see helping people?

maurice philogene (48:28.314)

Yeah. Well, Try Life On was a concept before. Now I'm thinking it's more of a movement of me explaining and other people demonstrating that we have the ability to try life on whenever we want to. We are succumbing to status quo as a default language. If you, just like we talked about, you can practice life at any time.

Anya Smith (48:41.557)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (48:53.182)

If you want to live a certain way, you can present a solution to your employer to support rather than a problem for them to solve Relative to time freedom. So when I talk try life on it's broken down into Five freedom buckets time freedom financial freedom geographic freedom, which does not mean travel It just means having the ability to be mobile when you need to right so like all my mail is virtualized I don't need to be in DC. I can review my mail from anywhere in the world, right?

Time freedom financial freedom geographic freedom to execute your purpose one of those was being a police officer for me if I had not done that I'd be 85 and regret it

Needed to execute that purpose and then freedom to build meaningful relationships if somebody wants to do real estate Let's say if somebody wants to do real estate, right? But they're at the office doing accounting from 9 a.m. To 9 p.m Every day then they've not connected in a meaningful way with someone like Maurice who's done 220 million of it in the last three years you need space

Anya Smith (49:39.146)

Mm-hmm.

Anya Smith (49:51.605)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (49:52.458)

We have the ability to try life on whenever we want. The problem is we keep succumbing to the opinions and thoughts and fears of our neighbors, coworkers, peers, and family members telling us what we are supposed to be. If you don't wanna be the executive vice president, don't be the executive vice president. Don't. If you don't wanna get promoted, don't be promoted. I turned down the promotion process, the partner, four times and I was looked at a little bit odd. You've been in this company for 20 years. Why are you not a partner?

Anya Smith (50:15.937)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (50:19.446)

Well, because that's not my definition of success. That's yours. You've been in this police department. You are a federal agent. You've done all these things to qualify as a chief of police. Why are you not striving for chief of police? Because I just want to be in the huddle with the guys and the girls. I just want to go out in the street and do what I want to do. You can try life on whenever you want. It starts with defining what your perfect day might be. Dreaming again as an adult.

Anya Smith (50:31.115)

Mm.

Anya Smith (50:36.155)

Yeah, that's beautiful.

maurice philogene (50:45.806)

Creating goals within those five freedom buckets every goal you have has blockers and all you got to do relative to blockers write down the actions to get over the blockers and start working on them and The people that I coach are doing everything from I left my brick-and-mortar job to a virtual to I picked up my family from Austin Texas we are practicing life in Jamaica at the moment. I have someone who wanted to be a voiceover artist. So we

Forget about the what let's find the who let's see if we find someone who's done this before we did and now he's on Like his third or fourth voiceover project You can try life on whatever you want I think what people need is an excuse and I tend to be the excuse for a lot of people That's where the a personality comes in. I don't care what society says. I care what makes people happy

Anya Smith (51:13.947)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Wow.

Anya Smith (51:30.293)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (51:32.546)

That's what try life on is about and on the podcast we go through principles We go through approaches on how to design your life Then I give stories or have people come on and tell stories relative to their own lifestyle design journey There's maybe a book coming there may be some TV projects coming but Whether they materialize or not is not the point I just want people to understand if you don't want to follow the status quo. You don't have to you can try life on

Anya Smith (51:59.787)

Beautiful. And I love your resources. I know that the LinkedIn community that I see is always very inspired by what you bring to the table. And I am so humbled and grateful for you taking the time to share your experience, your hearts of all of us listening. And here at Right Off Track, we wrap up with three rapid fire questions. So let me know when you're ready.

maurice philogene (52:11.212)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (52:16.714)

Sure, sure, of course. I'm ready to shoot.

Anya Smith (52:20.951)

Okay, so at LinkedIn I saw that you speak like four or five languages, is that right? Okay, so the question is like, what is the secret to learning any language?

maurice philogene (52:25.96)

Mhm, mhm. Mhm.

maurice philogene (52:33.182)

In my case, I don't know if it's so much a secret, but my family's Haitian, so my mother and father spoke French and Creole in the house, so I picked that up that way. And then, because it's a Latin-based language or a romantic language...

I spent a lot of time in Brazil, so I picked up Portuguese along the way, and of course I have English. But it goes back to that third why of constant learning. I like being in countries that force me to use my language or use my brain a different way to understand language. I don't speak Lebanese or Arabic, but I understand a lot of it because I spent a lot of time in the Mideast, right? Or in Northern Africa. But yeah, it just goes back to me always wanting to learn something new and keep up the skills.

Anya Smith (53:16.299)

So now, what is your favorite guilty pleasure that's outside of the learning space?

maurice philogene (53:20.887)

Ooh, favorite guilty pleasure.

maurice philogene (53:29.114)

Man, that's a good, travel.

Anya Smith (53:33.822)

Love it.

maurice philogene (53:34.634)

My gosh, I mean, during my 20s and 30s, there was not maybe one or two, but in general, I was on a plane once a month to some other country. And I would find ways to do it instead of going out to the bar, I would save money and all that type stuff. And here was my rhythm. I would present a solution to my boss to support like, hey, can I do this and it'll get you this.

Okay, more recent we don't need you in the office on Thursday and Friday boom because that means on Wednesday night I was on a plane to Europe Thursday. I was working Friday. I was working Hanging out with friends Saturday same thing Sunday. You get a flight from Europe around 12 noon. You're back in DC by 3 p.m I was back at work at the 8 a.m. The next morning now Remember what I said about society friends peers co-workers all that right? people would Hear that and be like that's insane you

Went to Europe for three days and two nights and came right back? Yep. And sometimes three weekends in a row. Because that's my definition of success. To me a plane is just an uber with wings. It's society that's saying a plane is this massive thing. Well, it's expensive. Not if you travel hack. Well, what is that? Go get a book! You- we have to get over this thing where we just allow the pre-definition to define what you're gonna do around a certain thing and

Anya Smith (54:46.597)

Yeah.

Ha!

maurice philogene (54:57.402)

I did that, but travel is definitely a guilty pleasure for me.

Anya Smith (55:00.715)

I'm so jealous. I'm always looking at your pictures like, I want to be in your suitcase. Take me with you. Okay. Last but not least, in the positive context, going off track is...

maurice philogene (55:04.765)

Yeah.

maurice philogene (55:12.706)

Beautiful.

Anya Smith (55:16.639)

beautiful. Well, this conversation... Oh, go ahead.

maurice philogene (55:17.666)

There there there's no You know, I'm looking at myself as I say this Because we can all get hard on ourselves about what the intended path was supposed to be. I Wanted to be a doctor because of Cliff Huxtable on the on the Cosby show, you know I just wasn't gonna cut it in that Realm I tried out for the NFL twice. I couldn't get there

But had I made it to the NFL, I would have never traveled. Had I not traveled, I would have never had all these experiences and memory dividends that stick in my head, and I'm constantly thinking about stuff. Had I made it to the NFL or did something else, then there wouldn't be 30 countries around the world where if I land today, somebody will come pick me up because I'm friends with them. Getting off track is not getting off track. It's just pivoting.

It's your God given whether you believe in God or not or whatever universe whatever luck I don't care what you call it, but it's your right That's what we're here on this earth to do and I this actually I'm gonna say one more thing One of the skills that I've learned over time when I travel is I go on walkabouts constantly Like I'll just plop myself at the end of a city at like 10 a.m Give myself till 7 p.m. And just walk start shooting the shit with people talking. Yo, what are you doing here? I don't know. What are you doing here?

You learn stuff. It's all about pivoting and experiencing and constant learning. So getting off track is beautiful. It's a way to just keep going and keep learning. Einstein said, life is like riding a bike. If you want to stay upright, you just keep moving. Go off track sometimes.

Anya Smith (57:04.779)

This is such a beautiful way to wrap up this episode. I love it. And just to our audience, I hope you found something that inspired you. I sincerely hope that listening to this, you just see that ordinary people can do extraordinary things and they pursue something that inspires them. They keep learning. They challenge the status quo. And I truly believe if you are listening to this, you can do that as well. And just one final plug.

maurice philogene (57:07.104)

Hehehe.

Anya Smith (57:31.163)

We're a podcast with purpose. And right now, I'm so thrilled to support the nonprofit Ready to Empower, which empowers women worldwide. They are, in 10 years, in operation. And this year, they're raising $50,000, all of which goes to supporting their operation costs. So if you have any kind of desire to help a good cause out there, please look at the description and the link of this episode and support it in any way, shape, or form that you can. I would so appreciate it.

And anyways, thank you so much for your time, for living with your true purpose, living and trying life on constantly and sharing this learning with us. I really appreciate it. And everybody take care. Thank you for coming right off track with us and we look forward to having you here again next time. Take care. Okay.

maurice philogene (58:05.346)

My pleasure. My pleasure. I'm glad you had me on.