Something came over Gary that day in that yard and he saidon this house is going to go down in value, not up. Let me take you to another property. there's an area to where Walmart just bought some land I think if you buy over there the upside potential of that house, it it'll it'll be there I think it's a better decision and besides Levi the house you like it has wheels, it has an axle. It probably not going to go in V and right there in the front yard of that trailer that you see right there I Made the decision to follow this complete strangers advice.

30 seconds of honesty from Gary Langon in 1998 changed my entire life and so while I'm reflecting on this and while I'm sitting there in the darkness just staring at my computer remembering this I Go to my friend Google and your friend Google everybody Bud's friend Google How to become a real estate agent Eight weeks later I had my real estate license and um, what's what's crazy about it all is I got into real estate thinking hey, you know what I'm just GNA do what Gary did to me I'm going to help people and families specifically the military veteran Community make smart real estate decisions so that they can have an outcome that this man in his short interaction with me has had on my life. and so there I began, jumped in my little white truck and started selling houses one person at a time and today I am proud to say that I lead a company of approaching 300 people in San Antonio and all of them. All of these people hear this story and every single one of them have a commitment to never compromising their representation because of just that one short interaction that 30 seconds of honesty from that real estate agent in 1998 had on my life. 30 seconds, 30 seconds in my life has presented tremendous opportunity, tremendous pain for all of us.

We can all realize and remember periods of time that presented us the option to go One Direction or another and for me to share with you my journey in understanding the value of time I have to take you all back in time to the 15th of September 2009. It was this day where I was serving as a commander of the United States Army Special Forces a team. The Green Beret I was I was right where I wanted to be, was deployed to Afghanistan defending ideals, defending this country that we all love and I was there with my teammates, every one of us knowing full well well the hazards of our chosen profession. While returning from this mission in Southwest Afghanistan near the border of Iran the vehicle we were traveling in struck an improvised explosive device in IED 400lb bomb.

The vehicle immediately flipped through the sky, engulfed in flames. the ammunition inside of the vehicle began to go off. Chaos ensued, gunfire erupted. My team is defending our position and while this is going on, one man in our unit in the rear vehicle was presented with an opportunity to make a decision.

In a short period of time, this man opened the door of the vehicle that he was in, got out of it. There's a gunfight going around, complete darkness and he decides to run through the gunfire ignoring the chaos to approach that vehicle that you see on the screen gets to the vehicle that my friends and I were in Brad Sha Josh and Rasul and he sees me ejected from the vehicle. I'm bleeding to death, severe burns all over my body, screaming in pain and he pulls me away from the vehicle, gets me to safety, gets me to the medic I Can't imagine where my life would have gone had this man not taken action in the time time that he was faced with. You see, fear is something we face in all the decisions that we must make.

and this man made the decision to run through the chaos, to ignore the gunfire, to run towards a burning vehicle, put himself in danger to help his teammates. I Want to introduce you all to this man. He's here with us today. his name is Pedro CIS Pedro If you can stand you see Pedro was there for me that night but as you can see Pedro still with me today.

he works at our company has not left my side since that fateful night in 2009. So we're in the darkness. Three of my team members have already died Brad Sha and Rasul have died from the their injuries instantly. myself and Josh are remaining the He helicopters come.

They medically evacuate us. they take us to a field hospital I've shattered almost every bone in my body, severe burns, tremendous internal injuries. The doctors opened me up like a frog. They start working on me and in the process Josh succumbs for to his injuries and passes away now I'm the only Survivor and I have no idea that any of of this is happened or going on.

The medical team decides to send me to San Antonio Texas to the burn center where I was sent in less than 72 hours from the point of injury to go have an opportunity at Living this great life that I live today. they put me into an induced coma I spent about six weeks in this coma I had a respirator I tubes coming out of everywhere in my body and still I had no idea what had happened Six weeks later I wake up not knowing where I'm at and I remember the nurse walking in she said Chief Rogers Chief Rogers do you know where you're at and I responded no she said you were injured in Afghanistan you're in San Antonio Texas at the Center and immediately fear overcame my body. I had no idea what happened. still 6 weeks after injury, my men had already been buried, their families were mourning and I was asleep in a hospital waking up to not know what had happened.

For four days. nobody told me, nobody told me what had happened and I opened this by talking about time time in small segments of time happening a having a huge impact and a man was about to walk in the room. His name was Command Sergeant Major Pete Haboc Pete Walked in the room four days after I woke up and I immediately recognized him. He was a leader in my unit and I knew something was wrong.

His certain major Havoc wasn't going to show up because everything was good. He had a phone in his hand and unbeknownst to me the darkest 30 seconds of my entire life was about to happen. He opens the phone, he hands it to me and on the phone it's my team in. Afghanistan Hey Chief Chief, what's going on guys What happened They didn't make it Brad Sean Josh Rasul.

They all died. Anger, sadness, frustration, the desire to go back to Afghanistan and get revenge all overcame my body. at this moment. it got so bad to where the doctors and the medical people had to strap me to my bed.

I was very angry and rightfully so. Four men lost their lives under my direction and I lived guilt. pain overcame my body. The darkest 30 seconds of my entire life has arrived.

Every time that I have an opportunity to talk with people about this story I share with them the memories of Brad Sean Josh and Rasul. These guys gave their lives for something that they believed in and I have committed my life to honoring their legacy. So as I got out of the hospital, it wasn't over yet I had a physical journey I wasn't able to walk I was in a wheelchair I was mentally pretty pretty messed up, was in a lot of physical pain nothing compared to the emotional pain I was dealing with but I had a journey of recovery that I needed to attend to. So for the next year and a half, in and out of the hospital, multiple surgeries I spent my time at Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio Texas just getting better, getting healthier, you know, regaining that ability to to walk.

and the time came for me to transition out. and the time came for me to get out of the army and to go find a new life. And this was the time to where I started struggling I started struggling so much started taking pain pills to help me with my physical pain and emotional pain I started heading in that direction. we read about where veteran deploys from to Afghanistan veteran returns and he or she comes back.

Not the same it was happening to me a Green Beret and it was happening to me I was heading in a downward spile that I couldn't believe was actually happening and then I did what a lot of us do called a friend picked up the phone and I called A buddy of mine and I'll never forget this conversation as long as I live was talking with my buddy George and I was sharing with him my my troubles that I was having financially I couldn't find work I was getting rejected for jobs I was applying to and he said Levi why don't you sell that house you have out in North Carolina and I was like okay, do you think it's worth something he was like my buddy sold his house down the street from yours like he made a lot of money. maybe you should do that I was like all right So I got my phone right after I got off the phone with George and I called the old real estate agent that sold me that house when I was a young soldier in 1998. I was 21 years old and I picked up the phone and I called him and I said hey Gary it's Levi I don't know if you remember me and he cut me off and he said hey Levi did you do everything that I told you to do to that house and I was shocked at this guy. This real estate agent had a very short interaction with remembered me I got all excited and I was like yeah Gary I did I even added vinyl, sighing you know and etc etc.

and um he said the house is worth about $150,000 more than what you paid for it and I got excited I was really excited because I was about to come into more money than I ever thought I would ever have in my life and people like me then didn't come in to 100. Grand So we rapidly sold the house and I was able to pay off my debt I had a little bit of money left over and I was about to go ahead and take action on this new opportunity that a smart real estate decision have given to me. So I kept trying to apply for work, kept getting told no and Depression started to wear up again and started to take toll of me. kept taking the pain pills like it was.

It was not fixing my problems and one night I started to think about that moment that I made the decision to buy that house that you see on top of the screen there and I was standing in front of that house that you see at the bottom of the screen there with Gary you see I called him on a trailer I called him on that house right there and he showed me that house and I absolutely loved it here! I was 21 years old looking at this single wide trailer I loved it because it had a jacuzzi tub, had a burn in the backyard and it was close to the base and I just thought it was the world's best thing and I was going to use my $58,000 vone to buy that house. Something came over Gary that day in that yard and he said son, this house is going to go down in value, not up. Let me take you to another property. there's an area to where Walmart just bought some land I think if you buy over there the upside potential of that house it it'll it'll be there I think it's a better decision and besides Levi the house you like it has wheels, it has an axle.

It probably not going to go up in value and right there in the front yard of that trailer that you see right there I Made the decision to follow this complete stranger's advice. 30 seconds of honesty from Gary Langon in 1998 changed my entire life and so while I'm reflecting on this and while I'm sitting there in the darkness just staring at my computer remembering this I Go to my friend Google and your friend Google Everybody's friend Google How to become a real estate agent Eight weeks later I had my real estate license and um, what's what's crazy about it all is I got into real estate thinking hey, you know what I'm just going to do what Gary did to me I'm going to help people and fam specifically the military veteran Community make smart real estate decisions so that they can have an outcome that this man in his short interaction with me has had on my life. and so there I began. jumped in my little white truck and started selling houses one person at a time and today I am proud to say that I lead a company of approaching 300 people in San Antonio and all of them All of these people hear this story and every single one of them have a commitment to never compromising their representation because of just that one short interaction that 30 seconds of honesty from that real estate agent in 1998 had on my life.

The impact, the the, the, the, the, the compounding interest. interest per se has been huge and it didn't come easy and I was um faced at this point right now and growing my company with another tough decision and I was sitting there. at this point we were sitting about a hundred people, 100 agents and uh I had a very important business decision to make and um I was struggling with it and I was running out of time and I quite honestly I had a lot of time I was taking too much time uh to make this decision and I was going back and forth and uh I was very indecisive and then so I reached out to a good friend of mine Greg Schwarz you may know and so I texted Greg and I said hey Greg hey here's the situation I'm in I need your help what do you think I should do he said I I don't know I can't help you geez Levi why are you coming to me about this and so he said let me introduce you to a friend of mine named Tom I was like all right So next thing you know Greg did a group text with me and Tom I didn't realize it was Tom freaking fairy you know I was kind of like Star Struck when the when the text happened and um immediately within seconds Tom responded and he was like yeah hey man I'll meet with you how's tomorrow sound and I'm sitting there and I'll never forget this moment I messaged my assistant and I said hey, I need you to clear my schedule I have an opportunity to meet with the number one real estate coach in the world and I just need you to clear my schedule. we're meeting tomorrow at whatever time it was in the morning and I'll just never forget at this Zoom call and I would like to go ahead right now and bring Tom out here for a second.

Tom if you can come out here I don't know if you're back there but Tom if you can come out here, that'd be great. What's up Levi This is not where I say that you won the Mega Million Lottery that's not what but you know Tom Like you know we're all presented with with opportunities of time in our life and uh for me I know you know my story and uh, you know you have been so kind to share me your journey and so much of it has been just small segments of time. and I I can't imagine where I would have been if I would have navigated in the wrong direction at that time. and you know what I'm talking about when I when Greg messaged us immediately you you responded I'm sure you adjusted your schedule and you met with me because a friend of yours asked for help and the much like when Pedro decided to run to the vehicle and help me and what I wanted to do.

Everybody here has seen me uh, stare at my wrist and stare at this Memorial bracelet that I wear and it Bears it Bears the four men that lost their lives under my direction I wear this every day as a reminder of what my mission is and what my commitment to them is and knowing that living the best life is humanly possible is what I owe to them before. I The Lone Survivor of this attack and what I wanted to give to you is something that I've never given to anybody ever And there's only one other person in this room that wears this. There's 12 other people that wear this in the world and this is a memorial bracelet that shows the names of Brad Sea, Josh and Rasul and it's something that I wear every day of my life and I wanted to give it to you as a token of appreciation because you came into my life in an extremely extreme difficult time that I was having. Then you helped navigate me where I needed to be.

So thank you.