David Nassief

David W Ebel: you Welcome to the God Says Yes podcast. You are welcome here. Welcome to another edition of God Says Yes. I'm your host David Ebel and this is the podcast that takes people from where they are in a non-judgmental, non-confrontational way. and meets them where they are in struggle and frustration and wounding and disappointment. Whether you've been hurt or you've been church heard or whether somebody's betrayed you or whatever, you are where you are and we want to help you get from where you are to a better place through Jesus. So I want you to know that God created you to love. He's loved you from the time you were from the spark of inception. He'll always love you, that there's not a thing you can do to destroy that love. ⁓ He made you from the inside out to be like Him. We don't look alike, but that's okay. He went from the inside out, so the inside of us looks like Him. And that's what we are grateful for, because that means we were given hope when we were created, and His truth is written on the tablets of our heart. So when we start talking about this, the truth of it can be very real. I apologize on behalf of the body of Christ, the church was designed to be the emergency room of the body of Christ. And sometimes people, when they come into the emergency room, they're a little combative, they're a little not social because of their own pain. And unfortunately, sometimes the others that are okay end up wounded out of it. And on behalf of the church, I apologize. It is not who we want to be. But the church is, the building is not Jesus. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. The building is just us attempting to reach him. Well, His love through Jesus reaches us. So we're really glad you're here. We want you to have a blessed and wonderful time. We want to encourage you. I want to introduce you to my brother, David Nassif. And David, not only am I glad you share my first name, which means loved by God, but I'm grateful that you have a story to tell. to our listeners and viewers. so would you introduce yourself so we can get to know you? Sure. As you mentioned, my name is David Nassim and I am originally from Ohio, it's a very small town. I now live in beautiful Phoenix, Arizona with my wife Mary, we've been married 38 years now and my son Adam and ⁓ I have my own business and that's kind of me. Great. That's good to know you. I'm glad. I'm glad there's no strangers now. We're all family. So, David, you have a story to tell, and ⁓ why don't you tell us who you were and how your life has changed. Sure. Well, when I was 63, I just got fired after 18 years with the same company. I tell you, I would not wish that day on anybody. I did the math, and if we drained all of our savings and all of our retirement money, we would be broke by the age of 65. At this point, I'm thinking, who's going to hire me at my age? But David, the hardest part wasn't that. That was very hard. the hardest part was driving home, thinking, how am going to tell my wife Mary? At that point, we had been married about 30 years. and she did not deserve the mess I just threw our life into. So anyways, I start to ⁓ look for jobs, okay, over the next couple months, and my heart wasn't in it. I did not want to go back to the corporate world, but I felt like I had to. I mean, had to put food on the table, keep a roof over her head. I I felt responsible for our family. And so I was interviewing, and the companies I interviewed with basically were telling me in a more professional way, the company that fires you did the right thing. You're of no value anymore, David. We don't watch you either. ⁓ It's like okay, what am I gonna do here now? So I decided to start because I had no but no one would hire me So I had to hire myself and I started my own company. Basically I went to work as an independent sales agent on straight commission No salary, no safety net. No nothing. Okay, no benefits the first months were brutal Cold calls constant rejection rookie mistakes I heard more noses two-month period than I think ever heard any two-month period my life But you know David as I look back I can reflect back now and I really believe all those nose all that resistance I was getting was necessary to build the mental muscles I needed to push through that dark period of my life. Ten months later after ten months of grinding I hit an incredible milestone. I was suddenly making more money than my good paying corporate job and for a very brief moment I felt like we made it but then I felt wait but we didn't make nothing because I was making good money for 40 years and look where it got me I was on a verge of financial collapse so I says I have to start figuring this out. And I didn't want to have a bunch of investment theories or listen to lot of people with conflicts of interest to make their commissions. So I dove in. I read 21 books on personal finance, listened to 13 podcasts consistently, read blogs, newsletters, kept putting these ideas on one piece of paper. When the paper filled up, I said, okay, I'm not going to make it anymore, the one piece of paper, because I've got to keep it simple. Then I would take off the worst idea and put a better one on. I kept refining it, refining it to a set it, forget it, approach. Six years later, ⁓ At age 69, I did what I thought was impossible, from terrified of being broke to a seven-figure portfolio and real financial freedom. I now know it is never too late to rewrite your story. Because if I can pull that off starting as late as 63, anybody can wither right direction. But I also have to say, if it wasn't for my faith, if it wasn't for the gospel, I could never have done it. This wasn't like, I'm not patting myself on the back saying, what I did. I'm saying I was blessed to be able to give it a path. to be able to protect my family and I'm grateful to the Lord every day for that God gift. how old were you when you met Jesus? Well I went to a private Procure school growing up as a kid and I really felt like I knew him then. Now as I got older my understanding of Jesus, my connection to him, my... I don't know, my relationship with Him grew as I grew. But I mean, maybe I'm not trying to say I'm anything special, but I always felt that He was there. And I always felt, but again, my understanding as a child is much different than my understanding as an adult. But I would say in my early twenties is when I really came to understand who Jesus really was, what He did for us, and how He was my personal Savior. so I suppose that was when really more significant understanding came about. because ⁓ we have to choose Jesus. for people to say, well I've always known him. I've always seen pictures of the Grand Canyon, but until I got to the Grand Canyon and looked at it, that's a whole different thing. ⁓ The picture of God is good, but the experience of God through Jesus Christ is life changing. And I'm grateful that in your early 20s you had that experience because that's what gave you the courage and the strength. to make it through even the difficult times when you were 63. But you had all those years of love in him and him love in you, which gave you the courage and the strength to keep plugging. And I would tell you, during that six year period from, you know, almost broke to seven figures, I don't know if you've ever heard the phrase, pray like everything depends on God, and then get up and work like everything depends on you. But that's all I was doing for six years is pray to work and pray to work. said, if it wasn't for the praying part, though, I don't think I could have made it to the working part. So they both were critical ingredients. I had to do my part, which is the work. But I also, without that faith, I don't know if I, I know I wouldn't have made it. I just would have been another statistic of whatever. Yeah, and I can see that. I can appreciate how God makes that difference. So now that you've met Him and He changed your life, and He's now opened this door for victory for you, now you're not just quitting there, now you're creating something so other people can move beyond where they're stuck. and financially move forward, not abandoning God, but have anything clinging closer to God and allowing Him to open the doors for financial victory. Can you tell us more about that? Yeah. This whole experience of 63, I believe, I know, I don't believe, I know that it was the Lord's hand. in the whole thing. I needed that experience. Let me tell you, when I was in my late 50s, I knew I should quit that company. But who quits a company when you have an excellent six-figure income, you have a company car, you get to fly in the company jet every now and then? I mean, who gives that up when there's nothing out there for somebody that age? I didn't have the guts. I didn't have the, maybe faith is another thing, or the courage to do that. And so I truly believe that them firing me at 63 was not a tragedy, although it seemed like at the time, it was a gift, a gift from God. I know it was a gift because I'm a stronger person now, I am a more focused person now, and I'm a more giving. I can give more now than I ever could before that. And I didn't have the guts to do it, so I needed to be nudged out of the corporate nest, I honestly believe that was the Lord's hand. And, you know, I remember reading something once that someone said, you know, they were going through a very difficult period of time, and they were religious, and they were praying about it. And they said, please Lord, relieve me of this burden. It's just too great for me. And the answer they received back in their mind when they had that prayer was, I love you too much to deny you of this experience. And I truly believe the Lord loved me too much to deny me that experience in 63. Because it has changed my life and it has been such a blessing to our family and to me. And I am so grateful for that challenge. I guess I look at challenges different than maybe I used to after that. Well, and God answers three different ways. Sometimes it's yes. Sometimes it's no. The third way is wait. And sometimes that wait is six years long and it starts out hard but you hold on and at the end of that wait you get your yes. Because he knew what it would take to move everything, all the dominoes to fall just the right way so that you would be where you needed to be. And as a result, you were able to not only thrive, but now you're helping other people thrive. I think that's amazing. And I'm so grateful for his timeline and that his timeline is my timeline. Because I'll be honest with you, David, if this had happened to me and I had gained the kind of financial success I have now in my 40s or 50s, I'm afraid what that would have done to me. really am. I I was really into the status of nice cars, nice clothes, the image. of a corporate guy and all that kind of thing. And I think my ego, I don't know if my ego could have handled, I think it would have went to my head, but I needed to be humbled. I needed to understand who I really was before this came about. And so I'm grateful for the Lord's timeline and that my impatience didn't affect His timeline at all. I'm so grateful for that. So that's the weight. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's great. And I'm sorry you went through it, but I'm glad that God brought you through it. And on the other side, you can now still give him glory because you can see his hand in your life in every chapter. Oh my gosh, And can I tell you too, this might be helpful to some people who are struggling. That wasn't even my lowest period of that whole experience. Let me just briefly tell you what my lowest experience was. A couple weeks or maybe a month after I got fired, I was sending out resumes. Nothing was happening, you know. And my wife says, she's such a good person, she goes, honey, I want to save some money because we were scheduled to be broke like by 65 or we're 63. She goes, there's a good sale at the store. Would you mind coming with me and help me with the groceries?" I said, okay, sure. have nothing else to do. So, David, I walk into that store. It's one of these discount stores. And I look around, and I'm sure this isn't true, but I felt I was the only man in the store. All I see is women and babies and baby's cards crying. I felt like, what am I doing here? I should be out there working, providing for my family, not in the middle of the week, in the middle of the day, in a grocery store. I really felt like I had a sign on my chest, the biggest loser. And I remember when my wife was checking out at the counter, I was standing at the end waiting for her. That moment was my lowest point. I felt so helpless. I wanted to scream. I felt like I had this mental corporate straitjacket me that I had this image of who I was and I couldn't break loose of it. But even if I could, where was I going to go? What was I going to do? I just remember, my wife never knew about this, I never told her when I was going through it, but I couldn't have felt more hopeless and more wanting to just scream. That night I went home and I realized that the corporate world told me clearly that I was of no value to them anymore. End of story. So I had to that night I had to face facts. I told the person that was hiding in my self afraid to come out basically. We need to do this. We need to make this work. Okay? I can't do this. I can't do this to my family. I have got to make this work. There is no plan B. I'm going to start my own company. And here's the thing David, it's worse than it sounds because When I was in my 40s, I tried to start my own company twice and failed miserably once, plunged me into a deep six-figure debt that took me years to pay off. So this wasn't like a casual thing, ⁓ I'll just start my own company. No, I already proved to myself twice that I wasn't an entrepreneur. So the corporate world didn't want me. The entrepreneur world said, you can't do this. And so it was a real challenge, but I just had faith that if I just persevere and just... don't accept no for an answer in terms of making this thing work. It was going to work in. mean, the first few months I said were brutal, very difficult, but I started to see light in the tunnel and I was so grateful for that blessing that, that, it was tough. tell you that experience. can see that. can, I can appreciate the struggle. ⁓ during, we were on the road as evangelists for years and there was many times where we'd have to pray in the meal. Literally there was no food, there was no money and there was no answer. And we would pray and then all of a sudden being knocked at the door, we'd open it and there was groceries sitting there with no one by it. and how it happens. To this day, all these years later, my kids are all grown and have kids. But it doesn't change a thing. God answers prayer. And even in tough times, He's still there with us. And you know, I made it, my wife made it, and our kids made it, and now we got nine grandkids. But when I was going through it, like you, there is a bottom. When you run out of yourself, you run into the beginning of God. That was tough, okay? But once I got humbled and realized, you know, forget this stupid identity, I just need to survive and I need to provide for my family. But then I've come to realize, through getting through this, I now have three identities that no one can ever take away from me. One, I'm a child of God and that's no one's gonna ever take away from me. Two, I'm a husband to my wife who I love dearly. And three, I'm a father to my son. And no matter what happens to me financially or any other way, okay, those three no one can take away from me and that's my new identity. of identity all along, not the corporate identity. But now I have a much clearer vision of who I really am and I'm so grateful every day for that blessing. Absolutely. And I'm so grateful you came on and to share this with us, because there are, I've got to believe there's some viewers and listeners who could resonate with this, that their life hasn't turned the way they expected and things are harder at even now than they expected them to be. And there comes a point where you like, where's the door? All I see is wall. And how do I get out of this? And it doesn't seem to be a way. But I can assure you, having ministered for over 50 years and helped people in all kinds of walks of life, there is a way. And that way is by putting your trust in Jesus in spite of your situation. Not because of it, in spite of it. Because if you let your situation run you, I'm going to give you a slogan you can take to the bank. What runs your life becomes your God. So if fear runs your life, that's your God. that's what all your decisions are based on. Television, sports, ⁓ money, ⁓ the business corporate model, all those things. Whatever is running your life, that's what you serve. And when you can finally realize that those things really have no permanent value, that's when you can cry out and say, God, help me. And Jesus, you said you are the way to God, so show me, lead me, guide me, direct me, reveal yourself to me, help me understand. And when that happens, life changes profoundly. You know, something else I think that's important to bring out here that I think I discovered. is principles of truth. There are certain principles of truth in life that we have to understand. I believe God works under correct principles. He just doesn't go against certain principles that are... For example, if you were to go out and get drunk at a bar and then before you got in your car you prayed to God saying, please carry me safely home so I don't kill anybody. You may kill somebody on the way home because you are not following a principle of truth here. of doing this. And I believe that when it comes to money, I've seen a lot of this, and this is why I'm doing this. This is why I feel it's my mission to share principles of truth when it comes to finance. I've known people, good people, I mean really good people, who are very strong in their faith, very strong, active in their churches. But when they got into their senior years, they hadn't planned properly, and they were in a lot of pain. I know particularly some people had to decide between food and medicine, food and rent. And it was like painful and they carried that pain to their grave. And I said to myself, this is wrong. These are good people and they need to understand, yes, you're going to be blessed spiritually. I'm not saying they weren't blessed spiritually in the gospel. I know they were, but that financial burden was so heavy on them that it influences so many areas of their life. And if they had just followed simple correct principles earlier in life, they could have been blessed in that way. I'm not talking about, be a millionaire, get rich, but at least have a dignified financial retirement where they could give back and survive and thrive well. And that's one of the things I think is so important is one of the things with my OnePage wealth compass is I got principles of truth in finance and I put them on one small page so I could keep that 30,000 foot view clear because I'm the kind of person, I get sidetracked real easy. A shiny object, a hot tip, and I'm off to the races in the wrong direction. couldn't do that anymore at 63. I had a very short runway. It was more like a helicopter pad than a runway. I couldn't make the mistakes I made for 40 years before that when it came to building my wealth and that kind of thing. And so I really believe that the Lord works within principles of truth. And when we understand, when we have the faith and understand and learn the correct principles, we'll be blessed in many ways. I think the church needs to maybe re-educate us, remind us, help us understand those principles. of truth more than once in our life. Because the chapters change, situations change, and sometimes when we hear it as uh-huh, uh-huh, and other times when we really need it, we're like, I remember hearing that but I don't even remember where. We need to be re-educated, reminded, refreshed so that we have that relationship where we can depend on God and His truth so we make those right decisions. Yeah, I agree. I'm coming to your remark. So, well, this has been very, very helpful to me, and I'm sure there's others who feel the same. ⁓ Usually when we do a podcast like this, at the end we invite our guests to ⁓ give us a golden nugget, something they'd like our listeners to mull over the next week or two weeks, think about it, know, when they pray they can pray about it, something that they can take home to apply to their life. What do you think would be a good thing to share with their listeners? This is something that is really important to me. I discovered this in my journey through this period. that is this, clear direction beats misdirected speed every time. For 40 years I had misdirected speed when it came to... wealth building, whatever you want to call it, okay? And I was spinning my wheels. Once I got clear on focus on the correct principles and put it on a simple one-page compass, all of a sudden, things changed significantly. I accomplished more in six years financially than I did in the previous 40 years. And I know this is not a podcast about money. I'm not trying to make it like that, but I'm just trying to say money does impact a lot of our lives, and it's not about getting richer and like that, but it's just about having sufficient for your needs, okay? So you don't have to be dependent on, for me anyways, I just, I couldn't even go thinking about being dependent on charity or the government or family. I'm not saying that's wrong. Sometimes people need that and I'm there to help in any way I can. But I just feel like if we can be more self-sufficient ⁓ and have the clear direction that we need, ⁓ I think we'll be more blessed, I think, in my opinion anyways. Well, I think this has been amazing and I'm grateful that you came on. And you know, I believe we need to, as Christians, learn about money and we need to be taught how to use it as good stewards because realistically the money in our pockets from God. And if we belong to him, the money in our pocket really belongs to him too. As a result, that's what stewardship is, is managing God's money. And you know, I'm excited about learning. I would have loved to have been taught this when I was a young minister just starting out. I had to wait till I was much older before I even heard this stuff. And by that point I had made several unwise decisions, not bad things, but there was a better way and I just didn't know it. But I'm grateful that it's being taught now and shared now so that we can circumvent some pain and draw some people closer to God and let His Holy Spirit work in us so that we can have the best lives we can, not only to survive, but we can we can then bless others out of the abundance that God gives us. And that's what ministry is supposed to do is to affect the world. And we can't do that if we can't even pay groceries. As God works in our lives. ahead, brother. I'd like to share something with your listeners. Just as a gift to all your listeners, there's no, the first sale here, you can't buy another from me, okay? I'd like to share, this is my one page compass that got me from where I was at six the book. And I just like to share that with you listeners. If they just go to onepagewealthcompass.com slash free they can download it for themselves. There's nothing to buy. I'm not saying the only thing there's a link on the the thing to for the book if you want which is the companion of this but you don't have to buy it but it's inexpensive but nothing on the else in the site. There's free information on the site. There's a blog on the site that's free. Everything's free. I can say this is not a money thing. I have a very successful company. This is just a way to to give back and I just feel like I was in a very dark period of my life and I was handed a lifeline and I just feel it would be the ultimate selfishness not to share that with other people. So if you just go to OnePageWealthCompass.com slash free, they can download their own OnePage World Compass and take a look at it and see if it could help you. And this book, can you give us a short intro as to what the book is? Yeah, basically when people hear a financial book they think, ⁓ boy, give it to me before I go to bed and they'll put me to sleep. But that's not the case with this book. I wrote it for the non-financial purpose. It's written in story form, real life stories of real people, myself included, who have failed miserably and succeeded successfully, and how they do it. When people read the book, they say, finally, David, I read the story about what not to do and what tragedy that occurred and what to do. And now when you share the principle with me, it makes so much more sense. I've heard that before, but I never really understood it. I was embarrassed to ask, but you make it so like anybody can read it. And that's really what it's about. It's not a book about, you know, it's not for the Wall Street people at all. Well, it's for the average everyday person like me, okay, who just didn't have a clue for 40 years and finally found out it wasn't as complicated as I thought it was. and it worked out quite well. I'd like if I could, just to give you an example of what I'm talking about here. I read all my reviews personally. I just want to share one because I think it relates to what we're talking about. This is from a clinical psychologist with 25 years experience. He's not a financial person at all, no financial background. He said he was facing his own career crisis when the one page wealth complex gave him the exact hope and practical steps he needed. But this is the part of the quote I like the best. says, I couldn't put the book down. That's what I wrote it for. For people who don't like financial books, who get bored real easy with spreadsheets, and who just want to be told straight and easy and in story form. And so that's what I, you know, if you like The Compass, feel free to get the book, because it goes hand in glove with The Compass, and it makes life lot easier financially, I think. That'll be wonderful and I'm grateful for it. ⁓ Now, in just a moment, we're going to pray and then David's going to hang around a few minutes after work for me so I can chat with him. But we want to pray and we want to that I have a challenge after that for everyone and then we will be looking forward to the next opportunity to make that difference in someone's life. let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are grateful for the privilege to gather together. And Lord, the truth that's been revealed through our brother's life, that he now can share with other people and help them to not have to make it to 63 and crash and burn, but that they can meet you where they are and you can reveal yourself to them where they are and you can begin anew the work in their lives and teach them what they need to know to be better stewards. Bless each of the listeners and the viewers and bless those that are involved in David's life and make a difference in the lives of those around us. so that we can make a difference for the kingdom. Bless this effort to the glory of God in Jesus' name, amen. And amen. Now, the challenge is, as always, seek after God, he will be found. You want to know God better? Seek Jesus. Jesus is the way to God. And if we seek Jesus, he will introduce us to God and we will know him for ourselves. This has been the God Says Yes Podcast with David Ebel. Connect with David, email him at godsaysyespodcast.gmail.com. You can get his latest book, When the Doctors Say No, God Says Yes at Amazon.com.