Josh Flagg on the Secret to Living the Good Life

Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles’s Josh Flagg works multimillion-dollar deals involving fabulous properties all day every day. But it’s not just his exorbitantly wealthy clients who live the good life: Josh is all about an indulgent lifestyle filled with the finer things, too.

“You don't need to have money to enjoy life, but I won't lie — it’s a very convenient thing to have, and it makes things much easier,” Josh told The Daily Dish. “I know a lot of people with money who are not happy — but it can make your life easier and open a lot of doors.”

Flagg, who lives in a five-star hotel in Beverly Hills, surrounds himself with luxury items, including his seriously spendy car and art collections. “Everyone in life has to have a passion,” he said. “These are mine.”

In fact, among his material things, Josh said his automobiles are some of his most prized. He has about 10 in all, and his favorite is a 1960 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud II convertible. “There are only 75 left in the world,” he explained.

Beyond the cars, Josh spends a portion of his considerable wealth on traveling, visiting New York approximately twice monthly, and Europe three times yearly “on long, extended vacations.”

“I didn’t go to college but I have been to over 60 countries now — it’s probably the best education you can have,” he said. By now, he’s been to every country in Asia, nearly all of them in Europe — and there’s not a single continent he hasn’t stepped foot on yet.

But even when he’s abroad, Josh is not exactly unplugged — in fact, it’s his ability to seamlessly connect his work life and his leisure time that he cites as one of the keys to his sense of balance and happiness. And it’s that ability to comfortably blend work and play that he says is one of the major secrets anyone seeking to live a truly rich life needs to embrace.

“I’m always working — I can’t just shut my phone off. I stay up really late and do my work at night,” and then explore his surroundings during the day, he said. And that makes a perfect complement: “I really do love what I do. Working for me is a vacation.”

Before his grandmother’s death, Josh traveled frequently with her. Although Edith Flagg was a Holocaust survivor, she instilled in her grandson the love of travel — and also gave him some perspective on what it means to live a good life, especially after adversity.

“She would actually say to me money is not really important, but it certainly makes life a lot easier,” he said. “She would say that when we were traveling on the world staying at ridiculously nice hotels taking trips that most people couldn’t fathom. She was a very humble woman but she would look at me and say, ‘Wow, this is really nice.’”

Take a look at Josh at the MDLLA guys before they were making million dollar deals.