Latest / Scene Projects Sports Network / Jason Prendergast's Journey: Golf, Life Lessons, and Dream Driven Insights

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Jason Prendergast's Journey: Golf, Life Lessons, and Dream Driven Insights · Scene Projects Sports Network

• 0:13
  Welcome into the Scene Project Sports Network.
• 0:16
  I'm your host, Bubba Starts, and with me today, former PGA pro, Jason Prendergast.
• 0:21
  Jason, welcome to the show.
• 0:23
  Thank you.
• 0:23
  Thank you, Bubba.
• 0:24
  It's a pleasure to be here.
• 0:25
  Thank you very much.
• 0:26
  Yeah.
• 0:27
  Do you maintain the PGA Pro, title long after you're you're done working for them, or does it
• 0:33
  become a a bit of just the moniker?
• 0:37
  No.
• 0:37
  Actually, well, there's two kinds of golf pros that people would know.
• 0:40
  The ones they see on TV, they're the professional golfers, and then the ones like me
• 0:45
  and thirty five thousand of us out there who are golf professionals.
• 0:49
  So, no, I'm a golf pro, still a golf pro.
• 0:53
  I'm no I'm no longer working behind the counter at a club, at the moment, but now that that
• 0:59
  label and the PGA of America will be behind me for the rest of my life.
• 1:02
  So, no, we'll stay there.
• 1:04
  That's good.
• 1:04
  Yeah.
• 1:05
  They can't take that away from you, and you had a long illustrious career in working with the
• 1:09
  PGA.
• 1:10
  What a a wonderful organization and everything that they do.
• 1:14
  I know you wrote a book recently.
• 1:16
  Congratulations on that.
• 1:17
  We're gonna talk a little bit about that later as well.
• 1:20
  Recently retired from behind the desk, but still very involved in the golf world.
• 1:25
  Before we get into everything that that you're doing now in this, we'll call it an interesting
• 1:30
  period of your life transitioning now into, you know, away from a a world that you had known
• 1:37
  for several decades, I'd love to know a little bit of that backstory, kinda how you got into
• 1:42
  golf and how you ended up, you know, working as a PGA golf pro for all those years.
• 1:48
  Yeah.
• 1:49
  Thank you.
• 1:50
  The you know, it's interesting story.
• 1:51
  Everyone's got one that begins in golf.
• 1:54
  And mine, I was 19 years old before I ever picked up a club, and my girlfriend's father at
• 2:00
  the time used to tell me about playing.
• 2:03
  And, anyway, he asked me if I wanted a caddy for him one time, which really meant riding in
• 2:09
  the cart beside him.
• 2:10
  And so I did that, and throughout the entire day, he was telling me to be quiet.
• 2:15
  Don't walk through the bunker.
• 2:16
  And I was doing literally everything wrong, and I got in the truck with him on the way home.
• 2:21
  And I was like, man, that was so much fun.
• 2:23
  And so then he asked me if I wanted to play.
• 2:25
  And, the next week, we went and played, and I shot 66 the very first time I ever played for
• 2:33
  nine holes, which, by the way, is, like, 30 over par.
• 2:36
  And I stopped counting at a 10, and we got in the truck afterwards.
• 2:40
  And I was like, man, that was amazing.
• 2:42
  When can we do that again?
• 2:43
  Which, you know, was pretty crazy.
• 2:45
  I mean, I failed, like, 60 times that day and had six good shots maybe.
• 2:50
  So
• 2:52
  It only takes one, though.
• 2:54
  Right?
• 2:54
  Yeah.
• 2:55
  You can hit one good shot around that feeling of elation is enough to bring you back.
• 3:01
  And I think every person who's ever, you know, been on the golf course and has that
• 3:05
  experience, understands exactly what we're talking about.
• 3:08
  There's very few of us on the planet that, achieve even being a good golfer.
• 3:13
  Right?
• 3:13
  And I think now they're you know, it depends who you ask out there, what it means to be
• 3:20
  good.
• 3:20
  But, you know, I feel like if you can kinda hold your own breaking 90, right, is a big mark
• 3:25
  for a lot of early golfers.
• 3:26
  Breaking 80, I would say that you're a fairly consistent golfer.
• 3:31
  There there's guys that do it for a living, that go out and shoot 80 fives on the tour.
• 3:36
  Right?
• 3:36
  So there's, you know, even the best.
• 3:39
  Most notably, I was at a PGA Tour, a champions event in Sioux Falls last year.
• 3:44
  A big shout out to the Sanford International for having us.
• 3:47
  But, John Daly was out there, and John shot, like, 14 over on one hole.
• 3:52
  Just just kept going into the pond.
• 3:54
  Right?
• 3:55
  Yeah.
• 3:55
  Yeah.
• 3:56
  But if you're consistently breaking 80, I would say that you're a good golfer.
• 4:00
  There's a very small percentage of people who do this regularly that ever get to that level.
• 4:07
  Yeah.
• 4:07
  I think there's a big misperception around the game of golf and and your definition of good,
• 4:13
  as you mentioned earlier.
• 4:15
  The right.
• 4:15
  It's all in our mind and our and our perception of good.
• 4:20
  Right?
• 4:21
  I mean, it took me three years to break a 100, and I'm not so sure how many of the rules of
• 4:27
  golf I was actually following at that time.
• 4:29
  But that was the most important round of golf that I had ever played in my life.
• 4:34
  I mean, I literally went out and partied and, you know, consumed a little too much probably
• 4:39
  that night.
• 4:40
  It was such a big thing for me.
• 4:43
  Right?
• 4:44
  Those milestones, whether they're in life or in golf or whatever wherever they happen to fall,
• 4:49
  those big moments kinda help shape who you become and really who you think you are in the
• 4:55
  moment.
• 4:55
  Right?
• 4:56
  I mean, we have this identity perception of who we tell we sell who we tell ourselves we are,
• 5:02
  who we actually are, right, who kinda what people see, and then the person that we're
• 5:07
  trying to become.
• 5:08
  And there's this huge gap between where we are, right, where we tell ourselves we are or who we
• 5:14
  are and where we're trying to go.
• 5:16
  And I think we I think we live in that gap chasing that future self.
• 5:22
  And breaking a 100 that day was unbelievable.
• 5:26
  And then I went on to break the year I broke a 100, I broke ninety and eighty all in the same
• 5:30
  time.
• 5:31
  And all of a sudden, I'm like, wow.
• 5:32
  I'm actually pretty good.
• 5:34
  And I wasn't as good as what I thought, but but I was a lot better than I was wasn't as good as
• 5:42
  I thought, but I was a lot better than I realized, if that makes any sense.
• 5:45
  So, you know, the game of golf will will test you in many, many ways and but you don't have
• 5:52
  to even break a 100 to have one of the best times of your life for four hours.
• 5:58
  That's the beauty of it.
• 6:01
  You know, you're with four people.
• 6:02
  You're playing golf.
• 6:04
  Right?
• 6:04
  You're communicating about life and your family and your challenges and your fears, and,
• 6:11
  there's just nothing there's not a game out there that I know of that allows for that
• 6:15
  environment to happen in in the sense that it does.
• 6:19
  So I'm just truly blessed that I was able to play well enough for the PGA of America to let
• 6:24
  me wear the shield and, and share my love and passion for the game of golf with, you know,
• 6:30
  literally thousands and thousands of people in my life.
• 6:33
  It's it's kinda like what you're doing on the show here.
• 6:35
  You're you're touching thousands and thousands of lives, and and that's really important.
• 6:42
  Do you feel like those early rounds I mean, I I I highly doubt that after day two out on the
• 6:48
  course actually swinging clubs that you were like, I'm gonna be a, you know, a a PGA golf
• 6:53
  pro for three decades and to pursue a career in this.
• 6:57
  But do you feel like that early, you know, elation really informed you and the rest of
• 7:02
  your career, in in bringing that joy to others and having a real passion for that?
• 7:10
  You know, I think, like, again, I came into golf at 19.
• 7:15
  So I'd had I'd had a lot of my entire life I had spent without golf at 19.
• 7:21
  My entire life I had spent without the game.
• 7:23
  But, my girlfriend's father, George Nichols, and he has since passed.
• 7:27
  He owned a he owned a family business in our town, and, it was a gas station.
• 7:32
  And what happens at a gas station back in the eighties is that you wash a windshield, you
• 7:40
  check the oil, and you talk to the person through the windshield.
• 7:44
  It's so sad that that day has gone by today, and it and that no longer happens.
• 7:50
  You know, that he taught me more about business and relationships than any book or any class or
• 7:58
  any other mentor ever has.
• 8:00
  So ironically, pumping gas taught me how to have those relationships.
• 8:06
  And, really, he was preparing me to be a golf professional, and neither one of us knew it at
• 8:11
  the time.
• 8:11
  But if I go back and I try to find the one thing that I learned in my life that I have
• 8:17
  applied literally everywhere.
• 8:21
  You know, he taught me he taught me about how to care about people.
• 8:24
  I got a pretty cool story.
• 8:25
  Maybe we'll share it a little bit later.
• 8:28
  But he taught me about that relationships and how to care about people.
• 8:31
  And, I mean, that's ultimately what it's about.
• 8:33
  But I had no idea I was gonna do this.
• 8:35
  Are you kidding me?
• 8:36
  I had no idea.
• 8:38
  And in my book, I I talk about the moment that I decide this is the journey I'm gonna take.
• 8:45
  And my life had literally I mean, my perfectly blue collar world and grew up on a dairy farm.
• 8:51
  Right?
• 8:51
  So my never clean hands and perfectly blue collar world literally blew up overnight.
• 8:57
  I went to bed, it was perfect.
• 8:59
  And I woke up the next morning, and the company that I had been running a a division for sold.
• 9:06
  And along with it went my division as well.
• 9:10
  So everything I knew in an instant was over.
• 9:15
  And I had wrapped my identity, my internal identity, and my external identity into this
• 9:23
  company and into what people saw, and that got ripped away from me.
• 9:29
  And, man, that's powerful stuff when when that happens to you.
• 9:34
  And the and I have learned since looking back.
• 9:36
  I didn't know it at the time, but looking back, I have learned that it's dangerous to wrap your
• 9:41
  identity into something you don't own.
• 9:46
  Right?
• 9:47
  How someone sees you, a title can be taken away from you tomorrow.
• 9:51
  A job can be ripped away from you tomorrow.
• 9:55
  But what they can't take away from you is how you view yourself in the world as as the person
• 10:02
  that you are.
• 10:03
  Right?
• 10:03
  Are you one that that shies away from a moment, or are you one that recognizes this is a moment
• 10:09
  that's a little beyond where I'm accustomed?
• 10:11
  Okay.
• 10:11
  There's a little fear there, the unknown, and a and a little fear of I don't I don't know if I
• 10:16
  really belong or not.
• 10:18
  But the internal identity that no one can take from you is, okay.
• 10:22
  I realize this fear, and I hear it, but I I'm gonna go stand in that room.
• 10:29
  I'm the person that stands in that room.
• 10:32
  And looking back again, that's that's what I learned from that moment when everything was
• 10:39
  taken from me.
• 10:41
  And you can't take the stuff that's inside.
• 10:43
  Right?
• 10:44
  How you view yourself.
• 10:46
  The world's gonna see you however they want, and they don't see you the way you do because
• 10:50
  they're looking at it through a billion.
• 10:53
  How many people are on the planet?
• 10:54
  Like, billions.
• 10:55
  Right?
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  There's a billions of lenses of people that are looking at you, and they see you however
• 11:00
  they're gonna interpret you.
• 11:01
  And you can't see that version because you don't look through their eyes.
• 11:05
  So the only one you can see is your own.
• 11:07
  And I think if you chase those things, becoming the person that you want to be in life more so
• 11:16
  than the title, no one can take it from you ever.
• 11:21
  And it's a powerful thing, and I know it kinda gets on this.
• 11:25
  I've been told before, Jason, you're a little cerebral for me.
• 11:28
  And I'm like, that's a wonderful place to be.
• 11:30
  I mean, let's dive in and see what these moments are telling us.
• 11:34
  You know, the that moment when my world wrapped was wrapped up tight and then exploded, I mean,
• 11:45
  I I discovered who I was, but I didn't realize that's what I was doing.
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  All I was doing in that moment when I chose to chase this dream of being a golf professional,
• 11:54
  and it was in 1997, the only thing I was worried about in that moment was that moment.
• 12:01
  I I couldn't see beyond that moment.
• 12:04
  I'm trying to figure out what am I gonna do tomorrow.
• 12:08
  Where's my life gonna go?
• 12:11
  And it takes time.
• 12:12
  Reflection requires time to pass.
• 12:14
  Seconds sometimes, minutes, hours, years, decades, whatever.
• 12:19
  But I'm very grateful for the lessons that I learned early in my life, which I talk a lot
• 12:26
  about in my book.
• 12:29
  Those early learning moments really truly allowed me that day to chase this crazy dream
• 12:38
  of going to be a golf pro.
• 12:39
  I mean, seriously, I just milking cows, pumping gas, and fixing heating systems that were
• 12:45
  frozen at 20 below zero in Vermont under a trailer, thawing out pipes.
• 12:54
  And the very next day, I'm on a journey to go become a golf pro.
• 12:58
  Seriously, how does that even happen?
• 13:00
  It was all the things that had happened prior to that moment in my life that prepared me to
• 13:06
  make that decision, and yet I didn't know that that's what happened.
• 13:09
  I just was like, I gotta find something to do.
• 13:12
  This is scaring the daylights out of me this moment.
• 13:15
  So, anyway, sorry for the winded passionate answer there, but I feel like we spend so much
• 13:21
  of our life chasing success and identifying what success looks like through the lens of
• 13:30
  external vision upon ourselves.
• 13:33
  I do it too.
• 13:34
  No.
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  Look.
• 13:34
  I'm not I'm I mean, nobody doesn't do this.
• 13:38
  Right?
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  The awards, the success, the titles, the big time job, the corner office, whatever.
• 13:44
  Those are all signs and signals of success in some through viewed through some lens.
• 13:52
  But if you only chase that, then when you get it, what happens?
• 13:59
  You have maybe you haven't even prepared yourself to be the person that is capable of
• 14:05
  sitting in that corner office because you haven't done enough deep work on yourself to
• 14:11
  realize that that person that's gonna be sitting there is a different version of
• 14:16
  yourself now because if it was the same, your today self would already be in the corner
• 14:21
  office.
• 14:22
  I mean, that's why you're chasing this crazy dream.
• 14:25
  And it's not just the corner office.
• 14:26
  It's the person that you wanna become in order to sit in there.
• 14:30
  And I think that's where we need to spend a lot more of our our time thinking about how what
• 14:36
  does that person look like?
• 14:37
  How do they act?
• 14:38
  How do they perform?
• 14:39
  What's their relationship with fear?
• 14:43
  Because you don't ever get away from fear.
• 14:45
  You got it for the rest of your life.
• 14:46
  It's in the passenger seat forever.
• 14:49
  So who sits in the passenger seat when you go on a when you go on a trip?
• 14:53
  Four guys are going on a trip.
• 14:55
  Here's a joke.
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  Right?
• 14:56
  Four guys are going on a trip.
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  The guy driving the car is the one that has the car.
• 15:02
  Who's the guy in the front seat?
• 15:04
  It's the guy driving his best friend.
• 15:06
  His best friend's not sitting in the back.
• 15:08
  The best friend, his right hand man, they call it, is sitting in the passenger seat, and
• 15:12
  that's where fear sits for your entire life.
• 15:15
  So you've gotta have a relationship with fear.
• 15:20
  And as soon as you start having one, then you can start to understand one and what what it's
• 15:24
  telling you and how it sounds and how it shows up.
• 15:27
  And maybe you can start recognizing these moments when you start to hesitate a little
• 15:32
  bit.
• 15:33
  Well, that's the fear of the unknown ask telling you, woah.
• 15:36
  Don't go through there.
• 15:38
  Something might happen on the other side, and I I don't know.
• 15:41
  So when you can start recognizing what it sounds like, you can like, dude, I'm going,
• 15:45
  man.
• 15:45
  I'm I mean, we're going.
• 15:47
  I mean, we're right?
• 15:48
  So, anyway, I think that we gotta have a relationship with fear.
• 15:52
  I think that's what the most influential people I want I don't even wanna say success because I
• 16:00
  think success and impact are are are really not the same things, but we'll call it successful,
• 16:08
  if you will.
• 16:09
  I think they have a relationship and an understanding of fear that a lot of people
• 16:15
  don't.
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  So
• 16:16
  Well, and something that, you know, it's a relationship with it.
• 16:20
  You're never going to not have fear of anything.
• 16:24
  You know?
• 16:24
  And I can relate to this in my, you know, in my personal life.
• 16:28
  I've overcome a ton of fears in my life.
• 16:29
  I I I will never say that I'm fearless, but I've always been one that doesn't let it
• 16:34
  paralyze me.
• 16:35
  I have a very healthy relationship with it.
• 16:37
  Maybe it's all the roller coasters my mom took me on at Great America when I was, you know,
• 16:42
  10, 11 years old and Yeah.
• 16:43
  Barely tall enough to ride them.
• 16:46
  But it was always the the fear the opposite.
• 16:51
  Right?
• 16:51
  The the fear of what happens if I don't try and I don't do this, right, would always overcome
• 16:57
  the the elation.
• 16:58
  And I think golf's a great game to teach us that because who isn't afraid, especially when
• 17:02
  you're having, one of those rounds of your life that this next shot isn't gonna go into the
• 17:06
  trees and sink your whole day.
• 17:08
  You know?
• 17:09
  And I know the masters just happened a few weeks ago.
• 17:12
  You know?
• 17:13
  Rory McElroy stepping up on the eighteenth tee and and that fear of what if I don't finish
• 17:19
  this out, right, to win that second one or the year before when he's trying to get the monkey
• 17:23
  off his back.
• 17:24
  Right?
• 17:25
  And you're never going to not have that, but it's your relationship with that feeling and
• 17:30
  having to be there and overcome it.
• 17:32
  And I don't know that there's a greater game other than golf, right, that can teach you to
• 17:38
  have that relationship with the fear and how to overcome it because every shot has that fear
• 17:44
  behind it.
• 17:44
  And it doesn't really matter where you're playing or the time of day or the consequences
• 17:50
  of the round, you know, be it zero or a a Masters championship at the end of it.
• 17:57
  There's always that that heightened you know, the the heart rate goes up a little bit.
• 18:03
  The Sure.
• 18:04
  Nerves are a little tense, and I I think that golf can be such a great game.
• 18:09
  And it's probably why extremely, you know, people with stressful jobs and and and, you
• 18:14
  know, high level CEOs besides, you know, I I think the game the price of golf is is coming
• 18:19
  down, and it's much more accessible now than it was traditionally.
• 18:22
  But it's the reason that men and women of that caliber and built of that would love the game
• 18:29
  so much because you already had a relationship with the beast that that can take you down at
• 18:36
  any moment.
• 18:36
  So I love it, and I love that, you know, you've spent a a lifetime introducing people to that
• 18:43
  fear of the golf course.
• 18:44
  And, like, hey.
• 18:45
  That's it.
• 18:45
  It's sitting right beside you.
• 18:47
  Right?
• 18:47
  And it and it's okay.
• 18:48
  It's not being overcome by it.
• 18:51
  And the joy you're going to feel when you do overcome it and you sink that putt to make your
• 18:56
  first birdie.
• 18:57
  And then, you know, maybe in the future, it's an even bigger shot.
• 19:01
  Right?
• 19:02
  Or take that to your life.
• 19:03
  You know, my wife just, made a transition in in her workplace.
• 19:07
  Same you know, working at the same school, but a new position that she was really nervous and
• 19:13
  fearful about what people would think in her current spot and if she would get it and if
• 19:19
  she's gonna, you know, make somebody mad if she then she doesn't get it and she's there.
• 19:23
  And it's like, look.
• 19:24
  You can either live with that fear and be stuck where you're at, where you're maybe not as
• 19:29
  happy, or you can take the chance.
• 19:31
  You can overcome that fear.
• 19:32
  Do what you need to do and not live with the fear of the unknown of what if you had not
• 19:38
  taken that chance.
• 19:39
  And to me, the regret living with regret has always been a much scarier proposition than
• 19:45
  just going and doing the thing.
• 19:48
  Yeah.
• 19:48
  The, you know, I think I think I don't know that well, first off, I've never met Rory
• 19:57
  McIlroy.
• 19:58
  I've I've been blessed to have met a lot of them on the tour, but I promise you he was
• 20:04
  dealing with fear in that moment.
• 20:06
  I promise you.
• 20:07
  He he can't not have it, that moment on the eighteenth tee.
• 20:13
  Right?
• 20:13
  It's the I I think, and I think if he was on the podcast with us right now, he'd say, oh,
• 20:21
  man.
• 20:21
  Yeah.
• 20:21
  I was, I mean, I was, yeah, I was afraid for a moment.
• 20:24
  I've I've flashed moment.
• 20:26
  And then I gathered myself, and I went through my routine, and I got to my right?
• 20:31
  So I think I think that, none of us are immune, and I think that's the thing I wanna let
• 20:37
  everyone out there know.
• 20:40
  None of us are immune to it.
• 20:41
  The greatest in the world talk about battling it and talk about being nervous.
• 20:48
  And I think the misperception for younger people and I know I know it was true for me.
• 20:54
  The perception for younger people is that at some point, I'm not gonna be afraid anymore or
• 21:00
  or at some point, I'm gonna belong in that room or whatever it may be.
• 21:09
  The reality is it's it's with you all the time.
• 21:11
  And the relationship that we've been talking about with it, in my mind, when I say a
• 21:16
  relationship with fear, it's it's again, it's recognizing that it's there.
• 21:20
  It's hearing it in my head, and it's understanding that it's questioning.
• 21:25
  When I hear a fear, it's either questioning who I who I tell myself I am in the moment or who
• 21:32
  or is it tied to who I wanna become?
• 21:35
  And sometimes fear is is telling you it's time to grow.
• 21:40
  You belong in the room.
• 21:41
  You're questioning whether you belong in the room.
• 21:44
  That's a sign that you grow and you actually believe you belong in the room, but you're
• 21:49
  wondering if the other people belong in your in the same room.
• 21:52
  It's less about do you think you do.
• 21:54
  You already do.
• 21:55
  That's why you wanna go in there.
• 21:57
  It's whether those people in that room believe that you're you're there.
• 22:01
  So it's a sign of growth, and the only way you're gonna know is if you go.
• 22:05
  And that's I wish it was as easy as just go.
• 22:09
  But I think learning how this stuff happens to you is is the way to work up the courage or or
• 22:16
  the guts or whatever you wanna call it, you know, to move your feet.
• 22:19
  And so what happen big deal.
• 22:22
  What happens if you go in there and you make a fool of yourself?
• 22:24
  Big deal.
• 22:25
  I mean, it's a big deal in the moment, but it's not the Mount Everest that you think it is.
• 22:31
  And I, you know, and I think, you know, I've in my book, when my very first edition came and
• 22:38
  this was my first the very first ever printed copy of it.
• 22:42
  And I held onto it for several days, and then I signed it.
• 22:48
  And I wrote a message.
• 22:51
  I signed it to three people.
• 22:52
  I signed it to my younger self, and I wrote my younger self a message.
• 22:57
  And I signed it on a separate page to my current self, and I wrote my current self a
• 23:02
  message.
• 23:03
  And then I signed it to my future self, and I wrote my future self a message.
• 23:08
  And ever since the day that I finally decided to do this, I knew I was gonna do it.
• 23:13
  I just wasn't sure what I was gonna say.
• 23:15
  And every day since then, I read all three pages, because, you know, interestingly enough,
• 23:22
  my younger self is alive right now, today.
• 23:27
  It's he's the younger self of tomorrow and of ten years from now and of twenty years from
• 23:31
  now.
• 23:32
  So talking to my younger self of, you know, twenty twenty six years old when my life blew
• 23:38
  apart, that person is a version of that younger self is alive right now.
• 23:44
  It's the it's the same person in a in a way and that it's the youngest version of my future
• 23:51
  self right now.
• 23:52
  So, anyway, I I think we all I think we all should do that.
• 24:00
  Talk to our future talk to our younger selves and forgive them for the mistakes that they
• 24:04
  made.
• 24:05
  Thank them for them because they taught us very valuable lessons.
• 24:09
  Thank them for dealing with the pain of the mistakes that they made and the things that
• 24:14
  they regret because none of us can avoid life without those.
• 24:19
  I've made some terrible decisions in my life, and I look back.
• 24:23
  I'm like, how is that even possible that you do that?
• 24:26
  And I don't even know that we have to define that answer.
• 24:31
  I don't know that it's needs to be defined.
• 24:33
  I think it needs to be understood in the moment and learned by and then forgiven.
• 24:40
  I mean, if you can't forgive, then you can never move forward, truly.
• 24:45
  So, you know, I I forgive him, and and I tell my future self to literally, don't you give up
• 24:52
  on me.
• 24:53
  Do not give up on me.
• 24:55
  I'm coming.
• 24:55
  I've been chasing you my entire life.
• 24:59
  Do not do not give up on me on the top of that mountain.
• 25:02
  I'm coming.
• 25:04
  And then I also say in my note to my future self in my book, I say, and don't you dare
• 25:09
  stand still and wait for me.
• 25:11
  Don't.
• 25:13
  I don't wanna meet that version of you.
• 25:15
  I want you to keep going and keep growing.
• 25:18
  That that's who I want you to do.
• 25:20
  That's your role.
• 25:21
  We are a team.
• 25:22
  We are in this thing together climbing this mountain, and you need to go.
• 25:26
  And I'm coming right behind you.
• 25:29
  I don't know.
• 25:30
  It gives me a lot of belief, and it gives me a lot of hope to have relationship with the
• 25:34
  person that is truly the most important person in my life, really.
• 25:42
  And it's gonna sound arrogant or whatever, but, I mean, the truly most important person in my
• 25:47
  life is me.
• 25:48
  And it and it's not because I matter more than my wife who I love more than anyone on the
• 25:54
  planet, really.
• 25:56
  I mean but if if I can't love me, then I I real I can't love her either.
• 26:00
  And I'm not gonna do a good job with my daughter.
• 26:03
  I'm not gonna do a good job with anyone in front of me.
• 26:05
  So, you know, tell my future self, get going, man.
• 26:10
  Come on.
• 26:11
  Blaze the path.
• 26:11
  I'm coming right behind you and tell my younger self every day, thanks for having a dream, and
• 26:18
  thanks for having the guts to chase it.
• 26:19
  And I hope I'm making you proud, and you'd be proud of who you'd be proud of me today.
• 26:24
  So I don't know.
• 26:25
  Sounds kinda corny, I know, but that's what keeps me driving.
• 26:30
  I I think you touched on something there that a lot of us deal with.
• 26:34
  A lot of self doubt and self hate.
• 26:37
  You know, extrapolate that out and, that how can you love someone else?
• 26:45
  How can you love your wife?
• 26:46
  And how can you love your children?
• 26:47
  And how can you love your neighbor if you are battling with yourself and you're not forgiving
• 26:55
  yourself for mistakes that you made.
• 26:57
  We've all made mistakes.
• 26:58
  I've made some absolutely atrocious mistakes myself.
• 27:01
  If you care to hear about them, I got a thousand podcast episodes, where you can find
• 27:05
  out more.
• 27:07
  And, you know, talking to the younger version of myself and the older version of myself and
• 27:11
  building this archive of content and me, meeting, so many people, you know, live on
• 27:18
  camera.
• 27:19
  Some of them for the first time when the camera rolls, that's the first time I'm meeting them
• 27:23
  or I'm at an award show or I'm at a golf event and Yeah.
• 27:27
  Having all of these conversations.
• 27:29
  In each case, I'm getting to know myself a little bit better.
• 27:33
  I I I'm I'm putting down that impostor syndrome of that I don't belong here.
• 27:38
  And while a corner office in some high rise of, you know, building isn't necessarily my dream
• 27:44
  and my vision of success, I am working towards a future version of myself that I see.
• 27:51
  And a lot like you, I think, as someone who is passionate about helping other people to see
• 27:57
  themselves for the beautiful, amazing human being that they are no matter what they've had
• 28:02
  to overcome and in in many ways, because of what they've had to overcome.
• 28:08
  Yeah.
• 28:08
  It's, you know, the self doubt, you mentioned that.
• 28:13
  If you want if you wanna find out how much self doubt you have, try to do this right here and
• 28:20
  write this thing because, I mean, wow.
• 28:24
  For me, that was the biggest I never had more self doubt.
• 28:29
  And and it's really as I reflect back on my whole writing journey, which was an about a
• 28:35
  seven year, eight year process writing in my free time.
• 28:41
  I mean, I'm about to put my life to the world.
• 28:45
  I don't know if the world will read it, but somebody who doesn't know me is going to.
• 28:50
  And even people that do know me are going to, and you're gonna put your life out there.
• 28:56
  One, you have to be vulnerable enough to do it.
• 29:01
  You can't just put all of your successes and great stories in there because no one cares to
• 29:06
  read about that stuff.
• 29:07
  I mean, they wanna see that you have failed and that you struggled because that's what they're
• 29:13
  doing is failing and struggling and.
• 29:15
  Right, I mean, that's why you read a book to find yourself in it.
• 29:18
  That's why you read a memoir anyway, to find yours your version of your life mirrored in
• 29:24
  someone else's and that they got through it and and and you can too.
• 29:29
  Right?
• 29:29
  So as I write the book, I get done.
• 29:33
  And every day, I'm questioning, is my writing good enough?
• 29:36
  I never made more than a c in English my entire life.
• 29:41
  I'm the last person that should've that should be writing a book, technically writing a book.
• 29:47
  Okay?
• 29:48
  And yet I learned how to do it all thanks to YouTube and, I don't know, over a thousand
• 29:54
  hours of videos on how to write books and all this kind of stuff.
• 29:57
  Right?
• 29:58
  But I I my brother, who's one of my closest people in my life, reads my book.
• 30:04
  And I said he was like, this is unbelievable.
• 30:07
  Of course, he's my brother, so of course, he's gonna say that.
• 30:09
  And I said, okay.
• 30:10
  Here's what I wanna know.
• 30:12
  How much of it did you not know?
• 30:15
  And he was like, I I knew most of the most of the stories, but I think 75% of the book, I had
• 30:24
  no idea.
• 30:25
  He said, I'd heard the story about x or y or z, but I had no idea what you were carrying and
• 30:32
  going through in those moments.
• 30:34
  All we could see was you at Oakmont, one of the top 10 clubs in the world, and you're there for
• 30:41
  two years.
• 30:42
  And, I mean, he said, we saw I lived those experiences, he said, because that's what you
• 30:48
  allowed me to see.
• 30:49
  And he he kept everything else inside, and I thought, wow.
• 30:54
  How dangerous is that?
• 30:55
  And then that conversation made me realize, you know, for two decades, I I really I never told
• 31:02
  anyone what my truly what my dream was.
• 31:06
  Originally, I wanted when when my identity blew up, and I decided I wanted to be a golf pro.
• 31:12
  So I go to my club, my home pro club at Larry Kelly and tell him he's my pro at home.
• 31:20
  And I said, Larry, I wanna be you.
• 31:22
  How do I be you?
• 31:23
  And a few minutes later, he spins a rotary phone, you know, with a long cord on it, spins
• 31:29
  that thing around his desk, shoves it to me, and says, call the PGA of America.
• 31:34
  So, Larry, thank you for forcing me to do that.
• 31:37
  And so, anyway, I got so I wanna become a golf pro.
• 31:40
  And then I get to PGM school at Mississippi State, one of the four schools in the country
• 31:45
  that offers this path educational pathway to become a club pro.
• 31:50
  At the time, there were only four.
• 31:52
  And I sit in a room with, like, a 150 kids that are 18 to 20, and I'm 26.
• 32:00
  And I'm like, I am so far behind all these guys.
• 32:04
  And yet I was they're probably looking at me going, look at grandpa over there.
• 32:08
  We're so far behind him.
• 32:09
  Right?
• 32:09
  So who knows?
• 32:11
  You know?
• 32:11
  And I realized in that moment, okay.
• 32:13
  Being a golf pro is not gonna cut it.
• 32:16
  I I gotta compete against a 150 in this room alone.
• 32:19
  This isn't gonna be enough.
• 32:20
  So I told my director, alright.
• 32:22
  I wanna be one of the best in the country.
• 32:25
  How do I do that?
• 32:26
  And he's so he kinda helps guide me on a path to do that.
• 32:30
  And that I do find my way to Oakmont and working for Bob Ford who is regarded as I mean,
• 32:35
  he's a legend in our game and regarded as as probably the greatest of all time club pros.
• 32:41
  And I get an opportunity to be mentored by him for two years.
• 32:45
  And shortly after I meet him for the first time, I'm like, okay.
• 32:49
  This whole trying to become one of the best in the country, this dream of mine, it's no good
• 32:54
  anymore.
• 32:55
  I mean, because now I'm seeing what greatness is, and that is actually what I want.
• 33:01
  And so the bridge that I had built from where I was to where I wanted to go no longer extended
• 33:06
  to the greatness edge, which was way over on the other side.
• 33:11
  And I'm like, man, I gotta retool this whole thing.
• 33:14
  And greatness can sound a little, you know, arrogant maybe, but greatness in my mind and
• 33:20
  what I saw in Bob Ford and what I'm actually trying to chase is impact on others and impact
• 33:28
  on the game of golf.
• 33:30
  That's what I saw in the greatness in Bob.
• 33:33
  Lots of success I saw too, but the the true greatness of him is the impact he has.
• 33:38
  So that's what I'm trying to chase.
• 33:40
  And, well, I didn't want I didn't dare tell anybody.
• 33:42
  For two decades, I didn't tell anyone.
• 33:44
  I didn't even tell Bob.
• 33:47
  And so because I protected it from those external conversations of, right, who do you
• 33:54
  think you are?
• 33:56
  Chasing greatness.
• 33:56
  Seriously?
• 33:57
  Come on, man.
• 33:58
  You're no you're no seriously, you're no Bob Ford.
• 34:00
  What what are you doing?
• 34:01
  Right?
• 34:02
  So I protected it like you would a newborn baby.
• 34:05
  I mean, I shielded that thing, and I did a great job of protecting it according to my
• 34:10
  brother who didn't know about 75% of the stuff in the book, and he's my brother.
• 34:15
  Right?
• 34:15
  So I did an amazing job of protecting it from harm.
• 34:20
  But in doing so, I protected it from growth because Bob Ford would have absolutely helped
• 34:26
  me.
• 34:27
  And when I finally told him two decades later, I finally mustered up the courage to tell him
• 34:32
  this is what I was chasing.
• 34:34
  You know what he said?
• 34:34
  He got he paused.
• 34:35
  He was on the phone.
• 34:36
  He paused for a moment, and he's and I could hear his smile, and he said, good for you,
• 34:41
  Jace.
• 34:41
  Good for you.
• 34:43
  I'm like, golly.
• 34:44
  I should have told him this two decades ago.
• 34:46
  I mean, where would my life be?
• 34:48
  I mean, I get so worried about all everyone's negativity and telling you that you can't make
• 34:55
  it.
• 34:56
  And I totally didn't even think about the people that would say, oh, that's awesome.
• 35:00
  Here.
• 35:01
  Come over here.
• 35:01
  Let me help you.
• 35:02
  It's amazing.
• 35:03
  You know, you protect the things from harm, and in doing so, we protect them from growth.
• 35:10
  That was a revelation I had through writing the book too.
• 35:13
  I'm like, wow.
• 35:14
  I just can't believe I did that.
• 35:15
  So, anyway, it's all in the book.
• 35:18
  Yeah.
• 35:18
  Well and Dream Driven, available on Amazon.
• 35:22
  You can listen to the audio version on Audible as well.
• 35:25
  I know that wasn't without its challenges.
• 35:28
  Just reading isn't always as easy as it seems, is it?
• 35:31
  No.
• 35:32
  It's not.
• 35:33
  It's one of the hardest things I ever had to do.
• 35:34
  It's seriously.
• 35:35
  Took me twenty hours in the studio.
• 35:37
  Twenty hours.
• 35:38
  And the audiobook's like nine hours.
• 35:40
  Took me twenty hours to read that thing.
• 35:42
  So
• 35:43
  Well, yeah.
• 35:44
  The as someone who spent a lot of time in a studio and performing live, on stage, that it
• 35:51
  is not always easy to take.
• 35:53
  What you may do every single day and you've done a thousand times to take it into a very
• 35:58
  sterile environment where it needs to be just right, it is not not a simple process.
• 36:04
  But I'm glad you did it.
• 36:05
  I'm glad that it's you narrating your book.
• 36:08
  I I know a lot of people will have others do that.
• 36:11
  I don't feel like it ever hits the same.
• 36:14
  So I I love it.
• 36:15
  I can't wait to give it a listen and a read as well.
• 36:18
  I hope everyone else does, as well.
• 36:21
  Jason, anything you wanna add before I let you go?
• 36:24
  Yeah.
• 36:24
  For yeah.
• 36:25
  The most maybe the most important thing for today that I want that I wanna add.
• 36:30
  And I wanna thank you for the work that you're doing with our with our soldiers and our
• 36:34
  veterans.
• 36:35
  And without them without them, I wouldn't be able to do this.
• 36:41
  My uncle served.
• 36:43
  I know I shared a a video with you about that.
• 36:47
  I I did not serve in the military.
• 36:52
  I had someone tell me that it's okay.
• 36:54
  You're serving you're serving in your own way.
• 36:56
  We all serve in different ways.
• 36:58
  But my hat goes off to everyone that has served for our country.
• 37:03
  For those that are dealing with the the challenges out there right now, I'm praying for
• 37:08
  their families to come home safe, and I and I just thank you every day for what you're doing
• 37:13
  and the PGA of America and their reach and hope program and and helping our veterans and
• 37:20
  supporting our families.
• 37:21
  As my aunt said, you know, the family the family goes to war.
• 37:26
  It's it's not just the soldier.
• 37:28
  And so for the families back home, I just thank you very much.
• 37:33
  I'm I'm I'm eternally grateful.
• 37:35
  Thank you.
• 37:36
  Well, we are very honored to serve those who have served.
• 37:40
  And with your, you know, few recommendations, we are able to reach out, and I know that we'll
• 37:46
  be doing a lot more with our veterans and inside of the game of golf as well out on the
• 37:51
  course.
• 37:51
  It's gonna be a wonderful experience for us, so I need to thank you for that as well.
• 37:55
  Jason Prendergast, recommend everybody goes and buys your book, Dream Driven, and, gets to know
• 38:02
  you a little bit better.
• 38:03
  Really excited for you.
• 38:04
  A huge congratulations to really finally bring that, across the finish line.
• 38:09
  I know it's been a labor of love for, what'd you say, seven, eight years now Yeah.
• 38:14
  Getting it to this point.
• 38:15
  So almost a decade of your life to have that chapter closed, and now you can start working
• 38:20
  on the next one.
• 38:21
  So Thank you.
• 38:22
  Yeah.
• 38:22
  My wife said I couldn't start talking about book two until book one was finished.
• 38:26
  And so look out, honey.
• 38:27
  I'm getting ready to start talking about number two.
• 38:30
  Right?
• 38:30
  So all I could say is dream dreams are worth chasing and, dream big and and be dream driven.
• 38:37
  Go get it.
• 38:38
  Indeed.
• 38:39
  Well, thank you, Jason, so much for everything.
• 38:41
  Thank you for your time today, and thank you for being part of the scene.
• 38:44
  Yeah.
• 38:45
  You're welcome.
• 38:45
  Thank you for all you're doing.