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Jon Gordon: The Power of Positivity (Your Life Is in Your Hands) | E55 · In Search Of Excellence

• 0:00
  Randall Kaplan: Welcome to In Search of Excellence which is about our quest for greatness and our desire to be the very best we can be to learn, educate and motivate ourselves to live up to our highest potential.
• 0:08
  Randall Kaplan: It's about planning for excellence and how we achieve excellence through incredibly hard work, dedication and perseverance. It's about believing in ourselves and the ability to overcome the many obstacles we all face on our way there. Achieving Excellence is our goal and it's never easy to do. We all have different backgrounds, personalities, and surroundings. We all have different routes on how we hope and want to get there. My guest today is John Gordon. John is a leadership expert, Best Selling Author and motivational speaker whose life's mission is to inspire empower others through positive thinking. He is the author of 27 books, including 14 best sellers and five children's books, including the energy bus which has sold over 3 million copies, and the coffee bean, which he wrote with Damon west by guests on In Search of Excellence last week, which is also sold over 2 million copies.
• 0:55
  Randall Kaplan: He has worked with hundreds of fortune 500 companies, sports teams, universities and nonprofits. And John has been featured on The Today Show CNN CNBC in many other news outlets, as well as the Washington Post US News and World Report in the Wall Street Journal, among many others. John is the host of the awesome podcast positive University and the founder of the online program positive University, which provides access to content focused on overcoming everyday challenges and bringing together a community of like minded people.
• 1:25
  Randall Kaplan: John, it's an incredible pleasure to have you on my show.
• 1:29
  Randall Kaplan: Welcome to In Search of Excellence. I started my podcast with our family because our family helped shape our values of personality and preparation for our future. We were born in Long Island, your dad was in New York City Undercover narcotics officer who was Mr. Negative his whole life and had quite the influence on you growing up.
• 1:54
  Randall Kaplan: What was it like having a dad who had a very negative horrible view on the world who says things are happening to me every day. And life is tough.
• 2:04
  Jon Gordon: Yeah. He taught me that the world was out to get me a lot of times, and you have to be stronger than the world. But he was a very loving dad, loving man raised me since I was five years old. So he wasn't my biological father. And I remember, I was in the garage, and he and my mom were getting married. And he said, We know we're getting married. I want you to call me dad, and I'll treat you as my own. I'll never forget that. And he really did treat me as a zone my brother as well and took us under his wing and loved us like he was our biological dad. Like our real dad. I say real he was my real dad because he raised me so such a loving man, but just one of the most negative guys on the planet. I remember literally, you know, speaking my first time starting to speak and people were paying me because I can't believe people pay you to speak when you were a kid. We paid you to shut up. That was the kind of mindset he had. And then also grown up with a dinner table one time, my brother and I and talking about our future, talking about our hopes and our dreams. And there's our Dad Oh, I could see when you guys are older, the law firm of useless and useless. So that was my dad.
• 3:10
  Jon Gordon: Oh, he's like Archie Bunker like Al Bundy before Al Bundy was Al Bundy. But saw the world in terms of you have to be stronger than the world. And so in many ways, he did make me tough.
• 3:24
  Jon Gordon: Because the negativity that was coming out of me, I had to fight the negativity, I had to take on my opponents, I had to win my positions in sports, every position. Every year, I had to literally fight for that starting position to be the starting running back or the starting midfielder on the lacrosse team or the starting point guard. So in many ways, he instilled in me grit and toughness. But the negativity piece was something I would have to overcome years later, because in many ways, I dealt with a lot of negativity, and a lot of a lot of a lot of pressure that I put on myself. And many ways one of my images that my new book, The one truth that comes out in June, my intro for this book is actually talking about when my dad was on the on the on the side, I'm a pitcher, and I'm pitching I'm like 10 years old, I think. And I hit a batter. And my dad was the manager and I look over and he's staring at me just like this stuff. And I hit another batter and he's looking at me again give me the dirtiest look ever and I'm just getting more and more scared more and more frustrated more and more.
• 4:28
  Jon Gordon: Just just just like just in anguish, and a hint, the next batter. Fourth batter gets up there literally like shaking because he knows he's getting hit. And I hit him to finally my dad came over and put me out of the game to go play shortstop.
• 4:44
  Jon Gordon: And I did and I really believe that was like the moment I wanted to be more mentally tough in that moment because of the pressure he was putting on me and also the negativity he was instilling in that moment. I still remember that. So that was a defining moment. that I still remember to this day. But again, I think it made me who I am. I know what made my brother, who we is because I remember my brother one time was getting beat up outside, and my brother was not defending himself. And this bully in the neighborhood was literally beating him up and making my brother extend, like on his knees and just sit there while he slapped my brother in the face. And my brother was a big kid was allowing it to happen. And he walked in the door, my brother, and my dad was watching the entire time. And I'm this little kid watching this. And my dad said, If you ever let anyone do that ever against you, you're gonna have to fight me, not him. You have to fight me. And trust me, I'm a lot worse than him. Because if he does that tomorrow, you take them on. So there's my dad, like being Mr. Tough guy tell you in New York City police officer, my brother is probably shaking in his boots. But he got the message. The next day, the kid went to pick up my brother. And my brother said, I have to fight you, the kid said, Okay, let's go. And next, you know, my brother just starts wailing away. And my brother just like hits him like four or five times in the face black guy, like, eat this kid up really bad. And again, I think that was probably a good thing, in a way teaching my brother to defend themselves.
• 6:15
  Jon Gordon: But I'm the younger brother watching all this happen. And watching this play out. And I still remember that to this day that like he made my brother tougher by by being that way. He put up a boxing gym in our in our basement, we had the speed bag, we had the heavy bag, we had all of that My neighborhood was like Lord of the Flies, like you had to fight all the time.
• 6:35
  Jon Gordon: My neighbor, there were a lot of tough kids in my neighborhood.
• 6:38
  Jon Gordon: It wasn't like a bad neighbor.
• 6:41
  Jon Gordon: It was a blue collar neighborhood. And I had some neighbors that were just tough kids and in mean kids. And so you had to learn how to defend yourself. And our dad was a big part of pushing us to take on the world that was coming at us.
• 6:53
  Randall Kaplan: But you're five years old when you meet him.
• 6:55
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah. And he's negative. His whole life, pretty much, pretty
• 6:59
  Jon Gordon: much yeah, because he saw that he saw the worst in the world. Like he was battling the drug cartels in the streets of New York City, he saw the worst in humanity every single day. And he was shot a couple of times, he was shot at the times.
• 7:10
  Jon Gordon: And when, when that happened, he eventually retired after you know, after being shot out and getting injured. And, you know, one of the combat cross and, and retired. So after retirement, it took him a few years to assimilate back into regular life and regular society. So he my mom had a lot of challenges.
• 7:28
  Jon Gordon: I remember going through that, but then coming out of that, then he became this more jovial and I would say more positive.
• 7:36
  Jon Gordon: But still the dad that that always said, like the worlds that they get you
• 7:41
  Randall Kaplan: are when you're a kid, you can observe your mom and your dad, you know, there's good things about your parents, you know, there's bad things about your parents. So a lot of kids say, Oh, I love the good things about my parents, but I want to be different than the bad parts about my parents. Was that a big motivating factor for you? Could you recognize it? At what age? Could you recognize?
• 7:59
  Randall Kaplan: Hey, this is not a good way to live. I don't want to be negative. I mean, we are who our parents are, at the end of the day. Yeah. So how did that influence you and say, okay, one day, I want to be different. How old were you? At that point,
• 8:12
  Jon Gordon: I don't remember exactly how old I was. I just remember I thought differently than my parents did. I always felt differently and thought differently. My biological father was a psychotherapist, a social work. So think about it like and I would see him at times, you know, on weekends, we didn't have a great relationship. And he had another family. So I would see him sometimes on weekends, but there are many moments where, you know, I'd be going over his house with my brother. And we'd spend time there and then come home. So it's like, I had one father who was a social worker saying, reason it out, talk it out. And then another dad saying get the first shot and like so I had two different mindsets growing up. But I do believe that, you know, with with the New York City father who was raising me all the time, and being a cop, I remember thinking like, I'm thinking bigger, I want something more, I want to do something amazing, something something great. There's something for me out there. And they were very encouraging. My parents thought I could accomplish anything. They didn't believe in me in many ways.
• 9:16
  Jon Gordon: Like, my dad would say, you know, one day you got to be president, you know, and things like that. So I think he did instill that encouragement. But it was negativity about a lot of different things that about daily life, but there was always this belief and accomplishing something. But it really was when I was 3031 years old that I struggled with negativity, a lot when my life started to crumble, right when I lost my job during the.com crash when I had two little kids, but I'm trying to support my family and everything is falling apart and I'm crumbling from the inside out, and I'm fearful. I'm stressed, I'm anxious. I don't know what the future holds. How am I gonna support my family? How will I take care of them? And it was in that moment that I really want it to be positive. knew I needed to change that was allowing all the negativity to get the best to me. And I need to start feeding myself with positivity.
• 11:00
  Randall Kaplan: So you're 30 years old, you lose your job.
• 11:02
  Randall Kaplan: You're at a.com company. Talk to us about how you hope you're gonna get rich, like a lot of people do. You're going to this tech company, everything was blowing up, it's hard to see that the.com meltdown is coming down. I was part of the.com meltdown. Thankfully, I was no longer there. But our portfolio really hit the shitter. Yeah.
• 11:18
  Randall Kaplan: And we lost a whole bunch of money there. But how did you get out of the negative mindset and talk to us about being a consumer or an investor and your family and your wife threaten to leave a couple of times.
• 11:32
  Jon Gordon: So I was married when I was like, 2627 years old.
• 11:36
  Jon Gordon: We met when I was 24. So I was young. I opened up a bar in Buckhead in Atlanta. So I'm this young entrepreneur, I started a nonprofit called the Phoenix organization, and we would raise money and volunteer for youth focus charities. So we were doing all this great work I was I would have all these fundraisers, rally all these young people together to take part in what we were doing. And that was a mover and shaker in Atlanta. So I meet my wife and, and things are going great. And then I run for city council, right after my marriage. Why I ran for city council to this day, I don't know. It was I was a government economics major, I did always have a dream of being perhaps in politics. And I went door to door to 7000 houses almost won the election. They were scared of me so much so that they started to come after me with lies. I'm like 2627 years old, and they're attacking me with lies that I'd have any baggage, but they created some it was interesting to watch the process. play out, you know, years later, I thank God, I didn't win. But at the time, it was devastating to lose. And then I went to law school. I quit law school after a year and a half, because I had this opportunity to go work at this@this.com. So I had this bar bucket, we actually had several boards at the time, myself and my partners. And I decided to go to law school. But I realized after a year and a half, like it really wasn't for me, it wasn't truly what I wanted to do. And having this opportunity to go work with this.com and make a fortune because I put some investors together. I got involved, I had the option to go work for the company, get a lot of shares, I think it was like 100,000 shares, which if they hit I would have been set for life. And so this was like my ticket. This was my dream. This was everything I wanted. It was exciting. It was.com it was at the forefront of everything wireless technology. We were bringing data to wireless devices before that was ever happening. So it was a really exciting prospect and exciting time. And I thought alright, this is it. This is what I always dreamed of. And it was happening. And then everything crashed. the.com crashed, my job crashed, and we had just moved to Jacksonville called up Erico Palm Beach beach near Jacksonville. from Atlanta, my wife wanted to move to the beach, like company said it was okay to work remotely and work from there. Because I was traveling wherever I was going anyway, anywhere for meetings.
• 13:57
  Jon Gordon: And so I had this job, I'm living remotely, I'm living at the beach, and then the.com crashes, I lose my job. Okay, how can I pay the bills? How will I support my family? How will I take care of us? And that was the defining moment in my life that caused me to ask what am I born to do? Why am I here?
• 14:20
  Jon Gordon: And that's when writing and speaking really came to me at that moment. But first I had to support my family I had to provide for them. I couldn't just go write and speak honey.
• 14:28
  Jon Gordon: I'm just going to be a writer and speaker. And all of a sudden was going to just work. I knew I wanted to do it. But how do I do it? So first and foremost, I got back in the restaurant business and opened up a Moe's Southwest grill. second mortgage my home$20,000 in credit cards and every dime I had from my previous home and previous life, which wasn't a ton, because I got bought out from my partners from the restaurants I was in Atlanta, took that money and put it into that most nothing on the side. Nothing else in the bank.
• 14:58
  Jon Gordon: no backup plan. We didn't have six months of savings or money to fund the business. It was all in that business. I violated all business plans randomize you know you should have a business plan you should have funding I violated all of that. But I had no other choice because I had to provide for my family. He my mortgage, scariest time of my life. But I would say at the time I was very much a consumer.
• 15:25
  Jon Gordon: In my relationship and my marriage I was living in fear and I was full of fear of, of not living up to the expectations that I had for myself or the expectations that others had for me. I wasn't living up to this dream in this life that I imagined where I was gonna be very successful because now I was basically back in the in the toil back in the restaurant business, wiping tables down flyering neighborhoods trying to make the play Successful somehow, someway, make enough money to provide for me and our family.
• 15:58
  Jon Gordon: But honestly, that's where my faith was born. Because at the time I had nothing happened. So you don't realize God is all you need until God has all you got.
• 16:05
  Jon Gordon: I had my Jerry Maguire moment during that time, like, helped me, God, help me help you. Help me help you. And my second moment was God, show me the money that's gonna say, show me the money. Show me the money, please. Show me the money.
• 16:18
  Jon Gordon: moments in my life where I was, I was asking for help asking for guidance. And I remember saying this, please provide for me. And I'll do your work. Provide for me and my family, and I'll do your work. I'll help anyone in my life. And it's amazing. Once I said that, like this feeling of peace came over me. And I told my wife somehow, someway, I think it's gonna work out. I don't know how but it's gonna work out. And that restaurant eventually became successful, took a while. But I was carried every step of the way. Like, I got a consultant job that came in out of the blue, a friend called me up and said, Hey, this company wants to know about wireless technology. Will you meet with them? I met with him.
• 16:58
  Jon Gordon: I said, Listen, I don't know how the technology works. They said, No, you don't know how the technology works. We know that teach us how to sell it. Sure.
• 17:04
  Jon Gordon: They agreed to pay me like$13,000 for six weeks of consultant and this was back in 2000 2001, a lot of money, a lot of money back then. And that carried us for like the next six months. And as that last dime ran out of our account, we made our first profit in the restaurant. And I'll never forget that I wrote about this.
• 17:28
  Jon Gordon: And woven into the story of my book, The carpenter with the main character, struggling trying to build a business, he and his wife, and they're trying to build it with greatness with the love, not fear. And that was sort of based on my own journey with that. But as that last time ran out, we made our first profit. And from that moment on, I said, Okay, I think I can start looking to write and speak now and find ways to do that.
• 17:51
  Jon Gordon: And I'll never forget, I'm wiping tables down. woman comes in, she sits down, she's eating.
• 17:55
  Jon Gordon: She's the managing partner of New York Life. I'm wearing a Moe's t shirt. I look like I'm good. I'm 30 years old. So I look young, really young. And I said, you know, I'm a speaker also. And she said, Oh, you give motivational talks. I said, Oh yeah, I hadn't given motivational talk. But she said you should come speak for my my company, my team. And I did. I tried to get out of it. At first I was I was so nervous and scared. She was No, no, you promise you will do it. I did it. And I remember after doing it thinking, okay, I can do this. Perhaps I can make this my career my life because it went really well. I talked about success. Being about the little things. I know, you know this well. And I also talked about energy vampires, which eventually would make its way into the energy bus. Right, Tom, that was definitely my first talk. And Robin and her husband eventually became investors and the other mosaic opened. And I sold those in 2005. To focus 100% on this writing and speaking.
• 18:51
  Randall Kaplan: Let's go back in time. Yeah. And then I want to move forward again and talk about your writing. Yeah. Talk about the newsletter, as well.
• 18:56
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah, a lot of entrepreneurs watching the show a lot of kids out there who want to start their own business, a lot of men 55% of American adults start a business within their lifetime.
• 19:06
  Randall Kaplan: 31 million entrepreneurs today 16 million in the America is 16% of American workforce today.
• 19:13
  Randall Kaplan: have their own businesses, that's great. You mortgaged everything, he took big risks, you didn't have a job. So you didn't have a lot, a lot of cost to give up. What's your advice?
• 19:23
  Randall Kaplan: Everyone out there? Who's thinking, I'm going to do this myself, I'm going to max out my credit cards, I'm gonna max out the mortgage. You hear this all the time. And we read about the winners, right in Businessweek.
• 19:33
  Randall Kaplan: And fortune, this person was a woman, this man risked everything and that was a billionaire. What's your advice to, to everybody else? Most businesses fail, should they should they pursue their dream?
• 19:47
  Randall Kaplan: Should they really max out if they really believe what they're doing?
• 19:50
  Jon Gordon: Of course, if they really believe it, they should do it. But you got to do your research. You got to make sure that you understand what you're doing and what you're getting into. I think a lot of times people think, Alright, I'm gonna now open up a restaurant, everyone thinks they could open up a restaurant, and then they realized restaurants are really hard. So you have to understand what it is you're getting into.
• 20:10
  Jon Gordon: Are you gonna do a franchise?
• 20:10
  Jon Gordon: Okay, I'm gonna do a franchise.
• 20:13
  Jon Gordon: But franchises often are really where you're buying yourself a job, where you buy the franchise, but now you have to work in it. It only works when you can actually open multiple locations with the franchise. So you have to understand what it is you're truly getting into.
• 20:26
  Jon Gordon: But I truly believe you love it.
• 20:30
  Jon Gordon: And this is something you want to build and you know, you want to be the best in the world at this, and there's nothing else you want to do. That's when you go for it. For me. It was like, okay, the restaurant business I said to myself, when I had three Moe's, do I want to have 10? Do I have 20? Because that's where I'm going right now. And what would my life look like if I have 10 to 20 restaurants with that fulfill me without make me happy. And I knew right away.
• 20:53
  Jon Gordon: No, that's not truly what I want to do writing and speaking was that so that's why I said, Okay, I gotta sell, take the risk now and go all in with the writing and speaking, which was another big risk to do that to sell the restaurants sell what we're making every year, which was very comfortable. My wife was like, No, I don't want to sell, we're finally comfortable. We're finally in a safe place. And we know that we have to, we got to go for this. Because what happens if the writing and speaking doesn't make it? I said, there are no other options. There is no plan B, I've got to do this, because I knew this is what I was meant to do and call to do so in that spirit, I'm going for it. And that mindset, you know what, I'm giving everything I have to make this work. And even if I fail, guess what I'm doing what I love, even if it takes 10 years, because I was about 3233. At the time, I said, if it takes me 10 years, I'll be 43 It'll take me 10 years to make it, I could still I could still live the rest of my life. Now doing what I love, however long I live, I can do what I love. So it's worth the process. See, whatever you do, whatever business you do, will be hard. You have to choose your heart, choose what's going to be hard. And if it's worth it to you, you'll do it.
• 22:11
  Jon Gordon: Everything's gonna be a fight.
• 22:16
  Jon Gordon: But you have to decide what am I willing to fight for and what is worth it. And once you know that, then I say you go for it.
• 22:22
  Jon Gordon: Now you do your research, you build the bridge, build your bridge, and then you take your big leap of faith. Don't just leap right away, because it's too far. And you'll fall, build your bridge, do your research, create a game plan, try to ramp up some money, try to make sure that this is what you truly want to do. Try to give yourself an opportunity to get a head start, like if you want to write and speak, don't just leave your job now. Start getting some gigs and do it before you leave your job.
• 22:52
  Jon Gordon: If you are in a job, start a side hustle, doing what you want to do and see how it goes. And then if you start to see yourself having a little success, you know, okay, I've got a few wins here. I know that I can have more wins. If I really make it a full time thing, then you're ready to take the leap. But don't just jump in right away. It's and we're going for it. I think you got to actually test the waters a little bit. Would you agree with that?
• 23:15
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah, I would definitely agree. I mean, similar view is more planned. My goal is to make a million dollars by the time I was 30.
• 23:19
  Randall Kaplan: And I didn't get there. But I did want to save up enough money to take a risk and bet on myself. I think there's no better investment. I'd rather bet on myself than anyone else in the world. I'm very driven.
• 23:31
  Randall Kaplan: And I'll do whatever it takes to be successful. So I'd say$400,000 Yeah. My annual not was$40,000 a year, I was living in an apartment activity Jack in the Box. That's what I had neighbors banging and keep me up all night. And I was saving money. I started making $72,000 a year I would invest. And that was rich for me, I'd make it there's nothing I couldn't do it$72,000 A year after tax $54,500 A month rent and I figured the same thing. I go 10 years to make something of myself. And that's what I gave myself. I didn't think it would take 10 years. But I was going to keep going until I made it. But I took a risk I gave up a great corporate job working for Forbes 400 members or to Fortune 500 companies, Eli Brode yet and commuted to Boston no salary, no funding, gave up stock options on America that were worth a couple million dollars offer nothing to bet on myself and my team. And he got lucky sometimes at work right out of the gate.
• 24:29
  Randall Kaplan: But similar equation, save saving and bet on yourself.
• 24:35
  Jon Gordon: When I lost my job during the.com crash, I'll never forget being fired. And I'll never forget that moment. And I said to myself, I will never put myself and my life and my family's future in anyone else's hands ever again. I will never rely on anyone else. And that was the moment I became a true entrepreneur. I'm going to work for myself for the rest of my life. Because I had been doing that since I was 24. I never really worked for people and then I go work for the.com was really the first job that I've ever had, and putting everything online and everything on the line for them. And that myself, you're building their dream, not your own dream. And I realized you know what life is so much better. When you're building your dream and you got to go for it. I do believe if it's if you know it's what you want to build and what you want to create, then you gotta go for it. And also at the same time. You got to expect struggle, you got to expect adversity, and you got to expect challenges. And when you do it, you know that no one really does create success alone. It's never you alone that does it. I believe you got to build a team around you that helps you be successful. And it's your team that gives you strength, we're better together.
• 25:43
  Jon Gordon: And then together we accomplish amazing things. When I look back like my wife was so supportive if I don't have her support. I wouldn't be the success that I've that I've become. But it was because I had her support that said, go for it. I meet people all the time, and they want to do it. But they're so scared of leaving the job they have. They're so scared of leaving the security that they have. And that paycheck, those golden handcuffs that imprison them for the rest of their life.
• 26:12
  Jon Gordon: And to me, my mom died at 59 years old. And I was 3435. And seeing that, it just gives you a new perspective on life. And you think you know what life is short? I don't know how long I'm gonna live. So what don't have to lose momentum worry, you will die. One day, you're gonna die, I will die. So how do I want to live and I'm gonna live with no fear, no regrets, I'm gonna go for it. And that was my that was my mindset. When COVID hit. That was my mindset. Even with COVID when it hit, I said, I'm not gonna live in fear, I saw so much fear. I said, I'm going to focus on love. Because love casts out fear. I'm going to love others. And people want me to come speak, I will. They wanted to testing everything.
• 26:55
  Jon Gordon: That's great. But if you want me to come, speak, and impact your people, I'll be happy to do it.
• 26:58
  Jon Gordon: And so I told my wife, I refused to participate in the pandemic.
• 27:01
  Jon Gordon: That's what I said, I live in Florida. So it was easy. But I refused the point. I mean, it made me It's why I got COVID Three times, but I smile.
• 27:12
  Jon Gordon: Because my motive was I can still make a difference. I still impact people. I see people were struggling. I see people were battling with their mental health. And again, they were so full of fear that I knew the answer was to share love. And so I think so often people are living in fear, so they never truly go after what they will love. You gotta love it. And when you love it, and you love the process, you love with the process produces. But you got to remember, love is more powerful than fear. So step into love, instead of allowing fear to keep you from the life that you want to live.
• 27:45
  Randall Kaplan: You have this idea. You want to be a speaker, and a writer started a newsletter, your mom, your brother, your best friend and two other people. Tell us about the newsletter and how you build it step by step and tell us about the softball player that reached out the father of the softball player, the kid who
• 28:05
  Jon Gordon: got like this In Search of Excellence and great preparation. So I think that's awesome. Well, I started this weekly positive, I knew I wanted to write and speak. So what am I going to write and speak about?
• 28:15
  Jon Gordon: I want to be more positive.
• 28:19
  Jon Gordon: Okay, great. So how can I become more positive, I started to research all the ways that I could be more positive. And this was during the emerging field of positive psychology. And so a lot of these ideas weren't even prevalent. They weren't pervasive in the world. And they weren't even know. And so I was doing a lot of these ideas, I was doing the research. And I have a coaching mind, I have been called an apply genius, I'm able to take ideas that are very complex, and then apply them and make them simple. So it's taken all these complex ideas, and then making it simple for myself. And then I started this weekly positive tip, where I'd share what I was doing with others,
• 28:57
  Randall Kaplan: just what was your What was your first step,
• 28:59
  Jon Gordon: the thank you walk, the research shows, you can't be stressed and thankful, at the same time. So if you're feeling grateful, if you're feeling blessed, you won't feel stressed. So what I did for me, and this is my number one tip to being more positive myself this rewire my brain from negative to positive, and it's helped so many people around the world like millions, every day, take a walk, have gratitude. And while I'm walking, I just say what I'm thankful for. And the researchers when you're doing this, you're flooding your brain with these positive emotions in your body to that uplift you rather than the stress hormones that slowly drain you. And over time actually slowly kill you, if you let them. So when you do this, you're creating a fertile mind that is ready for great things to happen. The mind is like a garden, we the negative, we can feed the positive, right, and I tried to do both we did negative feed deposit, you do that on a daily basis we did negative, then feed the positive each day. And over time, the guard of your mind starts to look amazing. We that garden, feed it, nourish it one day, doesn't do a whole lot. But do it for a week. Do it for a month, do it for a year, do it for a lifetime. The Garden of your mind looks amazing. And that's what I did. And that's what I wrote about first thing I started sharing that I started doing it that saved my marriage that changed who I was, it's been my number one tip and I've seen the impact it's had on my life and others and we know the power of gratitude. Like when you appreciate you elevate. You elevate your mood, your mindset, your performance, and the people around you. When you practice gratitude with others and you appreciate them. They perform at a higher level. I work with a lot of companies, a lot of organizations and leaders and being better leaders, building great teams and gratitude is a foundational principle and practice that everyone I share with follow. So when you do that, it makes a huge impact.
• 30:48
  Jon Gordon: But going back to that so now I'm getting these ideas I'm practicing them, I'm writing about them. And people are sharing this newsletter with others. But I did have five subscribers, my mother, my brother, best friend from college. And next, you know, people start sharing it. And that's how I got my book deal.
• 31:03
  Jon Gordon: Someone read my newsletter and said, Hey, you should do a book.
• 31:05
  Jon Gordon: That was my first book deal to do that.
• 31:08
  Randall Kaplan: Let me go back to the book for a second. Yeah.
• 31:10
  Randall Kaplan: So it's Christmas time, things are slow, you're down. And now you have this idea. And you write a book and three and a half weeks, without a publisher, you send it to 30 publishers reject it. Let's not talk about the book right now. We'll get into that in a second. But I want to know, for everyone out there who thinks about writing a book, who has an idea who thinks about it for years and years and years? And doesn't do it? What's your advice to them? And what's your advice to people who get rejected five times? 10 times 1520 2530 times? How do you motivate people and tell yourself I'm going to tell come after this, because number 31, I may hit
• 31:55
  Jon Gordon: your vision. And your purpose has to be greater than all the challenges, your positivity has to be greater than all the negativity and all the doubt. And so as you move forward, you have to be more positive than the negativity that you face. I wrote two books before the energy bus. One of them was one that got published, it was a very small publisher.
• 32:16
  Jon Gordon: So I did get on the Today Show with that book. And then everything crumbled. I don't even talk about those books at this day. Because the book that I in my mind really wrote first and foremost of, of who I am, was energy bus, those other books sort of faded away. But those are great lessons. Because if I would have quit after those two books that failed, I would have given up, I kept going. And then I wrote this book, the energy bus, that would change my life. And a lot of times people fail, and they give up when they don't have a success right away.
• 32:50
  Jon Gordon: Or they don't start if they're not perfect. I was willing to write two books, when I wasn't a great writer, I was willing to write two books that weren't my core brand of what I want to build in the future. I thought at that time was my brand. But I realized very quickly, no, it's not who I am and the essence of who I am. And that caused a radical change and shift, I became a person of faith. And I realized these books really didn't represent who I was and what I want to be. And so now, those books are not going well.
• 33:17
  Jon Gordon: I had sold the restaurant, or the restaurants, and money's running out. And I'm not getting a lot of speaking gigs. And that's not going well. So I'm thinking no one will ever want to take me on as a writer, because these books did not do well for for the money in advance I got. And that's what I'm walking in, as you said. And honestly, I'm praying. And that's when the energy bus came to me. And it was rejected by over 30 publishers, I remember thinking, like my future is done, my career is over. I had these two books, I had a chance I had my shot, she sometimes people want the shot, and they get the shot. And they're fighting for that one shot, I had the shot, and then it failed. So then I'm going, what now like this is done, history, my dream is never going to happen. And I read the energy bus. And I'm getting rejected, rejected, rejected. But I had my vision, and I had my purpose.
• 34:14
  Jon Gordon: And it was this to inspire and encourage millions of people, one person at a time, going back to the softball player. And her data reached out she was struggling, she was going to Villanova to play softball. I coached her up and encouraged her and help her have a great college career. So I knew what I was saying worked and help people. But that was that one person. I just want to help one person at a time. And so that kept me going, knowing I wanted to be a person of value, I have to admit that like there's something inside of you, there's a little bit of an ego that wants to be a success that wants to succeed that doesn't want to fail. Oh, the great ones in every field have that that little bit of an ego. But it was subservient to the greater purpose of wanting to make a difference and make an impact.
• 35:07
  Jon Gordon: Because I had realized I was miserable when I was focused on myself. Like before I started writing. I was trying to be a success, like in the.com world, to be the star to be the success to show others that I was worth it that I was worthy. And so what I realized was, I want to make a difference. It wasn't about me. I wanted to help others. And that really was what was driving me that and desire that I can't quit. I can't give up. I was a gritty athlete. I always had earned my certain positions. I played lacrosse in college at Cornell University.
• 35:38
  Randall Kaplan: I my daughter goes there, by the way, kudos to Bianca
• 35:42
  Jon Gordon: Go Big Red and Bianca. And so I had a great time there. I learned a lot there. I grew a lot there but I was a blue collar kid. There's no way I should have ever went to Cornell and play lacrosse but It was a transformative experience. But that taught me so much. So now I'm gritty, I'm fighting. I'm not giving up. But I'm fearful. And I'm also having thoughts of, it's not going to happen. And it may not happen.
• 36:07
  Jon Gordon: And what now, and I think everyone goes through that, on this journey, you have negative thoughts that come in, you will have fear, you have doubt, you have insecurity, you have moments where you just want to give up. And that's where I truly believe you have to realize those thoughts are not coming from you. Because who would ever choose to have a negative thought that sabotaged themselves that said, The future is hopeless, you'll never make it to health diagnosis is not going to improve the relationship is not going to prove you're a failure. You would never call yourself a failure. Right? So the thoughts come in. No one has ever found a thought inside of a brain, Randall. I've done a lot of research. I've talked to neuroscientists, nobody's ever found a thought inside of the brain, when you're dreaming having a nightmare. Are you choosing those thoughts? No.
• 36:53
  Jon Gordon: They're always coming in. And when they come in, they often come in the form of lies that will tell you things about yourself and your future that just aren't true. So those thoughts were coming in. So my advice to people is don't believe the lies, speak truth to the lies speak words of encouragement when the battle of your mind and you'll win the battle out in the world. See, my dad taught me how to fight the world. But no, I had to fight the negative thoughts in my mind first, to win the battle here to win the battle out there. So every day, I'm speaking words of life, I'm speaking words of encouragement, I have this eternal hope and optimism. Even though I had moments of doubt and fear, and there were days I wanted to give up. Each day, I got up and said, I still believe somehow someway can happen. So I think that's where that eternal hope and optimism comes in. And people say, Well, hope is not a strategy. Yes, it is. Because hope gives you the power in the present to take one more step today. And then one more step the next day. And if you don't have hope, you're not going to take that step. So you take that step day in and day out, and you move forward each day. And then eventually, you get the email from Wiley that says, We want to publish your book, what? You want to publish my book. Oh, yeah. It turns out Shannon, who was with Wiley, who worked for Matt Holt, who is now with BenBella. People know of Matt Holt. Shannon want to do the book, why she had seen me on the show a few years earlier, and remembered me and liked to be on the show, and saw this proposal.
• 38:24
  Jon Gordon: And the main character for the energy bus, it's a fable, was named George should have best son with a husband named George can't make this up. She want to do the book. And I'll never forget, in the call, they said we can't pay a lot of money, we don't have a huge advance, we can get the book in six months, six months, perfect. I didn't want this book to come out. I needed this core book to get out there. So I can now start speaking to businesses, companies and organizations on this message. This is like a defining message for my life. I felt like I had something that would make an impact and make a difference. And sure enough, it came out. And no bookstores would carry it, as you probably know.
• 39:01
  Randall Kaplan: So I have a book, and I love the beach. I'm a drone photographer. I'm the parent who takes 1000 photos and every vacation. And the kids say oh god that I hate this. I hate this stop taking photos. But I traveled with two drones. And I love the beach and people have liked my photos. So I have a big collection of photos. And I love photography books. So there's a photographer I like out there who takes a lot of photos from the sky on the beach. I said, Gosh, there's only one successful photographer out there. I wonder if I could have a book one day. So I call this publisher and Abrams books, I sent it out to the CEO. And just because of some of the corporate things I've done, I had some credibility, right. Most of the time people were trying to call Yeah, so I sent him a note, hey, businessman, but I am a drone photographer. Here's a link to some of my photos. And he wrote back and he said I really liked your photos, but it's too competitive with our photographer. So I said, Okay, most people would have stopped there. But I don't like to stop.
• 40:00
  Randall Kaplan: Right. So I said, are you free for a 15 minute phone call on Monday, I knew it'd be longer than 15 minutes but requested short thing to get advice saying say one hour wasn't going to cut it for one hour. But I said, I love learning from people. I know nothing about the book business. So we talk I learned about how the book business works. And I said can you make recommendations that people who don't have a competitive photographer or client? He said, Yeah, he gave me two names. I said, Do you mind sending a introduction to them? He said no, but feel free to use my name. One person said, yeah, thank you very much. Let me get back to you. The other person said I love your photos. And three weeks later, I had a book contract. And I tell people this and I've told people in the book business who said that's one in a billion to email a publisher.
• 40:48
  Randall Kaplan: You're or photographer, you send photos and they're going to make a major coffee table book. It just doesn't happen. But I didn't stop. I asked them to get on the phone. And my message to people is, don't give up. If you have a dream for a book, write that book. And meanwhile, the book is sold over 10,000 copies in two years. So
• 41:10
  Jon Gordon: I love that. And guess what? Anyone who has a dream like that, who has a book, in their mind, in their heart, should write that book, like, yes, write that book, if you believe that you have something to say, and that you can impact the world with it, you should write it. Now here's the thing, people often don't write the book, because they don't have the publishing deal. I always tell people write the book, regardless, don't wait for the publishing deal. You write that book. And then what you do is say, Look, I have this here. Let me show you. What do you think you did that with your pictures, I have these pictures here, if you would have reached out and said, I want to create pictures and take pictures and make a book that would have worked. Now you had something to show them.
• 41:57
  Jon Gordon: I wrote the energy bus before I had a publisher. I wrote this here, a lot of people try to get a deal. And they never write the book. So I always tell people, you write the book, and then give me a call, after you write the book, then we'll talk. But don't try to get a publishing deal without writing the book first, because there's gonna be no power in that. But saying here. And here's what I know. I truly believe that anyone get a book published, anyone could start a business, anyone can create success, if they're willing to just keep working, and not give up and overcome all the notes. Because eventually someone is going to say, yes, you will outlast them. And I think that's a key mindset to have. When someone reaches out to me just out of the blue, a lot of times wanting help or wanting advice. If they're going through a mental health challenge, I'll talk to them immediately. But if it's just someone reaching out, I don't respond at first, they reach out again, and again and again. And they're showing that they're interested in showing that they have a desire to keep going not giving up, then you're gonna make time for that person because they won't go. And I do think there's something to that, that if you just keep reaching out, eventually, someone's gonna say, wow, this person is persistent, this person really won't give up. People give up before they actually are ready to succeed. But if they would just keep going, they would succeed. So I believe Yes, yours was a very rare thing. Mine, in many ways, was a rare thing to have my first book, a publisher, see me and see my newsletter, want to publish it. But then the process of getting rejected like it has, you know, that was the challenge. And the fact that that book has now gone on to sell over 3 million copies. And anything is very rare. But it just shows you what happens when you're not willing to give up and you have the grit to keep moving forward, and you have the vision and the purpose, you know, we don't get burned out because of what we do. We get burned out because we forget why we do it. And so if you have this, why you'll know the way and you're not gonna let obstacles get in the way you're gonna keep going. And for me, I had no other choice like, this is all I had. So I had to keep going until eventually, it was it was published, but then it gets published, and no bookstores would carry the book.
• 44:17
  Jon Gordon: So this is the other part of the story. You write something, you have a product, you have a service that you're selling, you have new technology, whatever it may be, as an entrepreneur, you now have this thing that you want to sell and you want to bring to the world. But it doesn't mean everyone's gonna say okay, like, we're ready.
• 44:36
  Jon Gordon: We've been waiting for you our entire life. For this right now.
• 44:39
  Jon Gordon: They're not necessarily waiting for it. And so you have to go out there and let people know that they need it that they want it. So since no bookstores, we carry it, I went on a 28 city tour, paid for myself publisher would even pay for it. And I went from city to city sharing the message in the book. You're a
• 44:57
  Randall Kaplan: racecar driver,
• 44:58
  Jon Gordon: Jeff Gordon. I was saying that I've enjoyed actually no and I had a marketing guy saying he's internationally known. He's big in South Korea. Because what happened was I prayed for the best seller, they came out and it was a best seller. It was a best seller just in Korea. It was not a huge ship United States obviously but Korea was a top five best seller which is crazy how that happened. So here I am a best seller in South Korea, but United States, no one carry it. So I'm going from city to city. biggest turnout we had was 100 people in Des Moines, Iowa. They thought Jeff Gordon was coming. That's why they showed up. And that's not a joke, sort of a true story. And I remember got home and didn't know what the future held. But I knew that I had this vision and mission and I had to live it and breathe it every single day. I had optimism. I had belief. And I talked to teams and organizations all the time now that optimism is a competitive advantage. It really is like optimism will give you the advantage to succeed in this world. And I kept having the belief in the optimism in this message in this book, and in the work that I was doing. And sure enough, it took hold. And eventually, people bought into it and the message, it's about driving with purpose. It's about enjoying the ride. It's about dealing with the energy vampires that will sabotage you, if you let them all the negativity that will come your way. As you're trying to build your business as you're trying to build whatever it is that you're building, you will have resistance, and you have people who will try to sabotage it, you will have naysayers, you have negative people on your team at times that will suck the life out of your team. I always say one person can make a team, but one person can rake a team. And so your positive energy, as I said way earlier has to be greater than the negativity. And as Gandhi said, I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet. So you can't allow all that negativity to walk through your mind and your idea, and your vision and your purpose. And that's a huge core message in the book. So I now had to live all the principles I wrote about. So here I was this guy getting a download and writing this book and three and a half weeks of divine inspiration. And now having to walk the walk and talk the talk and live the principles. And I think it's what made me successful because I was now living the principles that I was actually writing about and going through that journey.
• 47:18
  Randall Kaplan: Thanks for listening to part one of my amazing conversation with the incredible John Gordon. Please be sure to tune in next week for part two of my awesome conversation with John