Latest / Harder Than Life / 80: How to Turn Mistakes into Milestones w/ Skip Prichard

Transcript

80: How to Turn Mistakes into Milestones w/ Skip Prichard · Harder Than Life

• 0:00
  This episode is sponsored by National Technology Management. Visit TrustNTM.com for more information. I'm Kelly Siegel, and this is Harder Than Life, a podcast about self-love, self-awareness, business, and health. We tell outrageous stories and boil everything down to simple, practical advice you can start using today. Let's get living.
• 0:22
  electrifying episode of Harder Than Life. Today, we have the privilege of diving into the world of leadership, inspiration, and success with none other than the dynamic force himself. Skip Pritchard, get ready to be captivated as we explore the pathways to greatness, uncovering the secrets of success and the strategies for overcoming obstacles.
• 0:41
  Skip brings with him a wealth of knowledge, experience, and infectious energy that will leave you inspired and empowered to take your own journey to new heights. So buckle up and get ready for an exhilarating ride filled with insights, wisdom, and actionable service. Join us as we embark on this adventure with Skip Pritchard, where every moment is a chance to unlock your full potential and ignite the spark of greatness within you. Let's dive in. Welcome, my friend. Well, thank you. What an introduction. I'll tell you, that excited me.
• 1:11
  You know, I put in here that I got a bunch of questions, but we're going to wrap and just talk as friends as we as we hit record before this. And it's just going to go all over the place. The power of social media is amazing. And I appreciate you. I did this on on before camera, but I appreciate you sending me a couple of copies of the book and the book for those of you guys see it.
• 1:31
  It's a book of mistakes and Skip Old Schools wrote me a handwritten note and sent me three copies. And I set it to the side because you guys all know I read a lot and I put them in order of what God wants me to read them. And when I grabbed this book, it was the exact moment I needed it.
• 1:52
  I was reading conversations with God, outwitting the devil. My go-to book is The Four Agreements. And this book, people, blew me away. And it started off like, it's a parable, but it was like a fable. And I'm like, where is he going with this? And then sucked me in. And you missed the post I put up. I think I read it in two days. I'm pretty sure it was, if it wasn't two, it was three. I mean, blew through it.
• 2:22
  So I had a question here somewhere. Where in the world did you come up with the idea for this interwoven fable or parables? What I put parable. Sorry, I was just man crushing on you and completely didn't look at my question. So where did you come up with the inspiration for this interwoven parable? Because it's so good.
• 2:44
  Well, in addition to being a CEO, I've been a blogger and a writer and a podcaster and an interviewer for a long, long time. I've interviewed over 1000 people, all sorts of amazing people from leadership speakers and CEOs to people like Condoleezza Rice or Dan Rather or John Smoltz in the sports world, on and on and on. And from all of that,
• 3:11
  And from researching success my whole life, I really looked at boiling down what are the major things that I wanted to impart to the next generation, particularly my daughter who now is 27. But as she was kind of starting out in the world, I thought, what are the key mistakes that you make that you just want to avoid? Yeah.
• 3:33
  And Kelly, when I was young, my family took people in from all over the world. So we had this six siblings plus who knows how many other people around the table. And everybody had a different perspective. But the people that we brought in were abandoned, addicted and abused. They all had major problems.
• 3:53
  And you'd watch them grow and they would kind of come into the house. They would get fed what they needed, not just physically, but emotionally, spiritually, emotionally, all those things. And then they would go off and you'd see some of them.
• 4:08
  be wildly successful. They would go get a college degree or they would start a business or they would just end up working, whatever. And then you'd see others who were stuck in this cycle of addiction, stuck in a situation of abuse. They went right back to it and kind of cycled around. And,
• 4:26
  And I started studying that early on. What is the difference between the one who goes off and is successful and the one that gets locked in whatever addictions clause? And that began again, this lifelong study. So I kind of tried to encapsulate all of that.
• 4:43
  But I wanted to write it in a story because I knew that people like my daughter would be bored if it was just this straight up kind of self-help book. She wouldn't have read it. So I wanted to embed it in her language. And her name's Aria Joy. So Aria became a character in the ancient part of the book.
• 5:02
  And kind of we've we've that in. But that's kind of the reason and how it all started. It was trying to encapsulate all of those ideas in an engaging way that would make you want to read it. Because Kelly, what I didn't want to have, as you say, well, it took me three days, but on day one, it helped me go to sleep. And on day 37, it also helped me go to sleep. Then I would have failed.
• 5:23
  Skip, I had to – you initially said you were too busy to do the interviews. I'm like, I'm not taking no for an answer because it's my favorite book. I'm not saying that because you're on here. My second favorite is The Four Agreements, and the third is probably Conversations with God. We're going to get those authors on as well, but it's second by a long shot. It was the one that you didn't expect. It's like –
• 5:49
  I'm sorry to man crush on. I'm not going to get, we're going to talk all about the book, but I'm not going to give it away because you got to go out and buy it. It is that good. And we're going to deep dive into it. But you just answered how you came up with the nine mistakes. But is there a, is there a reason for the order? There is a reason for the order. Yeah. The, the, the, if you think about the first one and the last one,
• 6:14
  The first one actually comes from research from the death and from the dying. Really, if you look at people near death, you would look at them and researchers have said, when you ask people, what do you most regret? None of them are saying, I regret that I didn't do four more reps in the gym. I regret that I didn't put four more hours in with this client, right? That's not the kind of thing they're coming up with. What they're coming up with is...
• 6:40
  I wish I would have worked more on things true to me, my gifts, my dreams, what I was put here uniquely for and not that I was just sucked into doing things based on what other people told me to do. And so the very first mistake people make is working on someone else's dream. And so that's the reason why that became number one, because that's the number one regret that people have. Right.
• 7:07
  in life if they're dying. So I thought, why not embed that right from the get-go? And then at the end, it's believing you have all the time in the world. So this book has nothing to do with death. It's not a death-themed book. But the fact is, we all have a finite amount of period, a finite amount of time that we can make a difference, that we can live, that we can kind of enjoy everything. And so you want to work on your
• 7:35
  And you want to make sure you understand that life is short and you've got to take advantage of that by taking action and discipline and doing the things each and every day that will make a difference to you and your goals for where you want to go. Not where someone else wants you to go. Skip, I got it. If the audience isn't watching this, my grin from ear to ear, because I got to tell you, first of all, I kind of picked that up, but it just refrained and I got to go back and now read it from that perspective.
• 8:06
  because there's a chapter at the very end and I think it's when you bring it all together and I read it a couple of months ago when you first get or not it's just a couple months ago and there's a chapter at the end of the four agreements that's creating heaven on earth and you do something very similar but take it to the next level and you show the picture of life of what it looks like if you
• 8:31
  I wouldn't say if you don't make these mistakes because we're going to make them, but correcting them. So I want to tell you, you just gave me butterflies at thinking about that and understanding that, guys, everybody. This is a quick and easy read. It is a page turner and it is life changing. So please go out and get this book.
• 8:51
  And it's so good. And I gotta tell you the last chapter, it was one of the last ones where you talk, when you paint the picture of what life looks like when you actually do this. And I'm gonna tell you right now, that's what the harder than life mantra is. And that's the life that I live. I'm here today in Florida. And you know, you're in the Midwest, you know, it's cold and crappy. It's 85 and sunny here. And this was all after I made all these mistakes. Well, Kelly, I think the other thing is people learn from mistakes.
• 9:20
  I think people see people who are very wildly successful. Those are the images we see on social media. We see people and their success, but people identify with struggle, not success. So you might see somebody, I don't know, somebody who's the CEO who has a couple boats, cars, houses. I don't know who that would be. Somebody maybe who does amazing things in the gym, you know.
• 9:45
  You see these pictures and most people look at it and they go, wow, you know, well, that could never be me. I could never do those things because the success overwhelms them for most people. And it's only when they kind of learn the struggle and the work and the discipline.
• 10:05
  And the steps to realize, which you make clear and say, you know, this just doesn't happen, right? This just doesn't happen. You have to make it happen. And once you understand that discipline, you learn everybody can take a step. You don't have to reach it here right away, but everybody can take a step. So it's about aspiration. And so I thought that these mistakes would inspire people to realize I can take action today. I don't have to wait. I don't have to dream.
• 10:34
  And just to realize that this little incremental improvement each and every day, that has much more of an impact, like compound interest in finance, much more of an impact than thinking I'm going to win the lottery. Right. So I'm going to win the lottery. I'm going to win the Instagram lottery. And all of a sudden I'm going to be, you know, fame, fortune and all these things come to me.
• 10:55
  I think not. Right. I know your story and all that you went through and all of the things, both personally and professionally to get where you are and that work and that discipline. That's what interests me the most. Not the trophies at the end. It's that work because it's available for anybody. That's a beautiful thing about our world. It's available for you.
• 11:19
  It doesn't mean if I have it, you know, oh, Kelly has it, so I can't have it. There's not just X number of boats in the world, right? They can be created. And, you know, if you want to have another house or a car or whatever, or even more important than any of those things, if you want to have a better impact on people, study what it takes in order to impact people. And that's what you do. And I think it's what inspires people to turn around those mistakes into successes.
• 11:46
  I receive all those kind words and it's a high praise coming from you. Such a massive success. And I got to tell you, it wasn't always this way. And I'm very glad that you noticed that I'm not doing this to brag. I don't need to do any of this harder than life stuff. Our national technology management is tremendously successful. I could pour all of my energy into that and make plenty of money and make impact there. But it just, there was a story here and I had to share it. And that's how I wrote my book. So, and it just kept,
• 12:15
  compounding interest in life. So it's not, you have to believe in invisible progress. And one of the things that I really, you just touched on, I'm gonna deep dive into and ask you the question a little deeper, but I would learn from my failures, but then when I started watching other people's failures and say, what's the lesson here? Smart people learn from their mistakes, but wise people learn from other people's mistakes.
• 12:42
  So don't learn the hard way by doing, which is what I did for a long time. Now I'm going to get in a room with Skip and I'm going to, we're just off camera. I asked, can I come to your company and borrow your knowledge and I'll learn something there. So that's how...
• 13:01
  And the beauty part about today's world is you can do that online everywhere. So you touched on this, but I want to dig into it a little bit deeper. Can you elaborate on why failure is such a crucial component of growth and achievement? Well, first, I do look forward to having you here, and then I'll turn the tables and interview you on your compelling story as well.
• 13:23
  But yes, failures, you're asking about failures and mistakes and why they're so important. Because people, be specific, I want to be specific. So most people are afraid to fail. And I say people, failure is fun, man. It is. It's a playing a game on it. You learn. It's a mindset. So I want to talk about the person that isn't even trying because they're afraid of failing.
• 13:47
  Yeah. You know, everything that you just said, you know, a lot of thoughts go through my mind. And the first is, and I'm looking at you, so I'm thinking a lot of gym analogies. I don't know, have any idea why that would be, but I'm thinking when I was really young in the gym and this older guy came up to me and he said, son, I just want to tell you, I know that you think I'm some old dude that's here, you know, probably don't want to listen to me, but I'm
• 14:11
  You know, when you're stretching and bending your knee in that way, you're going to pay for that. So I suggest you don't. Right. So he said, this was a mistake I made. I want you to avoid it. And I listened to him. Right. So how much better to listen to him early than not? Yeah.
• 14:27
  And learn from his failure before I even learned from my own. And not too long ago, I stopped this young kid in the gym and I saw him doing the same thing. And I said, I got to tell you this story. When I was young and some old dude came up to me, I'm now that old dude. And I want to tell you, you don't want to bend your leg that way.
• 14:48
  So there's other people's failures that we learn from. And we learn from their failures by reading biographies, by reading their struggle, by listening to them and by asking, what did you do to be successful? What did you do that was a mistake? And I would interview people all the time and ask both sides. And then from your own failures, failure, nobody wants failure. Nobody says, I want to wake up and fail. Right.
• 15:12
  Unless maybe you're going to rep failure, I guess. Right. But but it's it's failure can be such an instructor and failure is only a point in time. So failure is also not an adjective for you. There is no person who is a failure.
• 15:34
  You may fail at something at certain points in time, but even that failure sometimes can be resurrected and turned into success. And every major business and every major accomplishment and every major treaty in the world through it, you know, through world peace, through through everything. There's failures all along the way. And yet.
• 15:58
  it's that ability to keep going forward. So I think failure has to be married with resilience because resilience says I get back up and I'm going to keep trying again. So I might fail to, you know, I'm, I'm failing at my golf game. My swing's not right. That's not, I'm a failure. That's a temporary setback that I'm going to reframe and bring in the resilience and reframe it as just a stepping stone, just part of the process, just,
• 16:26
  embrace it. And whether it's my business is struggling or whether I'm struggling or whether my relationship with somebody is struggling, it can all be turned around, right? Just don't let it define you as a failure. And I would say fail quickly. So it's always better to fail quickly and move on, right? So what can we learn from it?
• 16:48
  How do we move on? And let's not label anything. You just, you don't want people to be labeled as a failure and don't let yourself be labeled as a failure, but we can learn so much from failures, mistakes, errors, and judgment.
• 17:05
  The key is don't let them compound. So we're talking about finance, right? And investing in compounding. Don't let those mistakes and errors and judgment compound. Instead, turn that around and say, well, I want to compound positive. I want to compound success. I want to compound momentum and get that going back in your direction. And then things just flow to you. So people, ideas, and resources will come to your cause if you have a clear purpose.
• 17:35
  Let that clear purpose navigate you into a much better world instead of allowing naysayers and critics to limit you and label you and push you down.
• 17:48
  That was beautiful. Ladies and gentlemen, I mean, this guy is a CEO of a major corporation. You're getting a masterclass. We're 18 minutes into this thing and I just, I can't stop smiling. And this is going to be a long, epic friendship and this podcast, but fail fast and forward.
• 18:10
  Let's add that. I don't mean to, I don't know. I never mean to one up, but that's, I got to tell you, I take it one step further. If something knocks me down, it had better not be standing there when I get back up. Because I learn and I'm coming twice as hard. You cannot beat anything.
• 18:27
  what doesn't give up. And I don't know how to give up. It's almost sometimes a problem. I have this stubbornness about me that I just have to figure it out. And I keep going. But unlike most people, I won't keep doing it the same. I'm not going to keep banging my head against the wall. I'm going to move and try different tactics. So...
• 18:48
  which leads us to the next one. The book discusses the concept of intentional imbalance. Could you explain what this means and how individuals can apply it to their lives effectively?
• 19:00
  Yeah, intentional imbalance. A friend of mine, Dan Thurman, he's in the speaker's roundtable with me. He wrote a book, Off Balance on Purpose. And it's all about the fact that different parts of life, you always think, oh, well, let's have a balanced life or let's think about work-life balance or whatever. Yeah.
• 19:21
  I interviewed Dan Rather and I talk about him today to young people. They don't necessarily know who he is. I had people say, I don't know who he is. Well, growing up, Dan Rather was on the news every night. There were only a few channels. Well, Dan Rather told me when I was interviewing him backstage before I interviewed him on stage.
• 19:41
  That there is no balance because I said, how did you keep your life in balance with this, that and the other? And you go to Vietnam and your family and whatever. And he said, there is no balance, Skip. There's just choices. And it really stuck with me. There is no balance. There's just choices. And so at each point in our life, at some point, we're making a choice to lean in on something.
• 20:02
  So it may be that I'm leaning into my business or I'm leaning into, um, maybe I'm in the Peloton and I'm bike riding. Maybe I'm leaning in toward weightlifting. Maybe I'm leaning in toward a relationship and I'm going to spend more of my time there being very intentional, or maybe it's in reading. I'm going to lean in and, and double down on my reading in this month and,
• 20:27
  The point is, of course, everything you want some balance. You don't want somebody to say, I have no balance. I didn't sleep for, you know, a hundred days and, you know, I'm hospitalized. You don't want to get to that point. But we have to realize that the goals and the orientation always happen when you lean in towards one thing. It's a choice, as Dan Rather said, or it's off balance on purpose, as my friend Dan Thurman says, because that's what really propels you forward. You're going to be in the Olympian.
• 20:57
  And you're Michael Phelps. You want to lean into swimming. I bet he's not balanced, right? When he was practicing and growing and learning, he was not balanced. He wasn't thinking about reading or other things as much as he was thinking about swimming. So it's off balance on purpose. You just blew my mind. First of all, I grew up watching Dan rather. And then when he was on 60 minutes, he was great. And I just remember just being blown away. My little bit of
• 21:23
  uncrazy the crazy childhood i there was a little bit of time where every once in a while there would be calmness and we would be watching the evening news so i i got a lot that you just brought some weird uh feelings up for me but that's um well there is no balance in life just choices dan rather interesting thank you for that you emphasize the importance of self-awareness in the book
• 21:49
  How can individuals create greater self-awareness to recognize and learn from their mistakes more effectively? This one is very personal. I put this question in because this is my whole life. Self-awareness starts with us really obviously understanding ourself and the lens that we look through to see the world.
• 22:11
  You know, I think, Kelly, most of us think that the lens that we look at through the world is the way everyone else sees the world. And we're startled when somebody says –
• 22:22
  what are you talking about? Don't you see this? Right? So for me, it's very easy with my wife who will walk into a room and see things that are wrong and need to be fixed quickly. Or when I say, I can't find the ketchup and she says, well, it's right in front of you. I don't see that. Right. I say, well, I don't see the world that way. She can see things and details and things that I don't. And it's a striking thing when you're in a relationship with somebody and
• 22:52
  at work, at home, in personal life, to understand their lens. So when I'm interviewing and understanding people, I want to understand the lens that they look through the world. You know, today we're so divided, we're so angry, we're so hostile, we're so angry.
• 23:08
  We tend to demonize the other side instead of first saying, I want to understand how do you think? How are you looking at the world? Why are you looking at the world? Do you understand both sides? And that self-awareness is something that you really need to work on. And one of the ways you work on that is by getting constant feedback with trusted, respected, knowledgeable people.
• 23:33
  So I look at it, if I want to get trusted knowledge, like if I want financial advice, I learned young, I'm going to ask the people who are broke, what mistakes did you make? But I'm not going to ask them about investing choices because they'll probably not give you the right answer.
• 23:50
  But I will surround myself with people who will make good investment decisions there. So now I'm going and those are the trusted people. And now I say, give me feedback. Help me get self-aware in this area of my life. I'm going to go to the experts. So if I'm managing a team and the team gives me feedback that says, these are some of the behaviors you do that drive us crazy.
• 24:13
  We can talk about why that is, what I mean, what it is, what to do when that happens. I can't make it not happen. But they can say, hey, when you do this, this is how I feel. And by the way, somebody wise once told me, a mentor of mine, Bruce Rhodes said, people can never argue with the words I feel.
• 24:33
  So use them all the time. When you do this, I, it makes me feel this way. I feel, and then enter in that conversation and you'll become more self-aware of how they see you, of how you're making an impact. But you know, Kelly, everything we do has an impact. Our, our energy in the room has an impact. Our awareness has an impact.
• 24:58
  our intellect has an air as all of it, right. All of it has an impact and, and we just have to understand. So to me, self-awareness is about understanding me so that I can connect with you. I noticed that you took your sport coat off because I was so laid back today. So I, you're, you're brilliant, man. I noticed these things. And I'll bet you do what I'm about to say too. And so,
• 25:25
  I am enamored with finding out people's lens. I want to know. I intentionally go out and listen to podcasts that I might not agree with. I'll read books because I want to know how other people think because I don't want to surround yourself with people that think just like me. How am I going to learn?
• 25:47
  So I'm going to share something I've never shared before, and it's going to be controversial, but it's really impactful because it has to do with race. I have a customer who is an African-American gentleman, and we talk a lot. And he is he's a CEO of a very large, successful company. And I said, I don't see color. I don't I don't understand that. I don't.
• 26:10
  I don't like when it's brought up. And he said, that's the biggest, he said, as an African-American successful man, from the perspective, that is the biggest, what did he term it? It was, they took it as a criticism. He's like, because as a black man, I've had to work very, I've had to work twice as hard as you've worked
• 26:31
  overcoming more obstacles. So it is important for me as a black man to say that this was a black thing. And I went, oh my, it schooled me right then and there.
• 26:42
  Right then and there. I said, I will never, ever say that again because it completely understood it. Now, we could talk about vulnerability and how it was an awkward question that needs to be had. But man, too, at that very moment, a white Jewish kid and a black young man just bonded like there was no tomorrow. And it was just over a tough conversation. Yeah, tough conversations like that are so important. We're taught nowadays not to have them.
• 27:12
  Right. And, and right. And, and by the way, I've had that same conversation with a variety of people and gotten a variety of different answers. So the way he looks through the world as a lens because of his unique experiences may be very different than somebody else. You know, I travel all over the world. We had people from our, in, in our home, all races in our home and he,
• 27:39
  race, nationality, geography, where you grew up, religion, family life. Are you the middle-born, firstborn? What's your Enneagram type? Myers-Briggs? Whatever it is, we all look through the world through a different lens. And I think what we're missing today so often is, A, the intention to really do what you just said, which was, let me listen and understand your lens. Yeah.
• 28:04
  And and really let that impact me. I think that's really important. And then, too, once I understand that lens, do you allow me to be authentic and to enter into a safe place to really talk about how that impacts me as well? Because if you don't have that, then the absence of that creates distrust. Yeah.
• 28:30
  And lack of communication. So I love that story with your African-American friend. And it's a powerful lesson. And I would add that to my repertoire. That would add that to my stories of lessons that I learned. But they're all unique. Everybody has a unique story. And that's what makes life and people so really interesting. I just figured out, Skip, today, I'm this day, years old. You know how I want to...
• 28:58
  It's not who you are. It's how do you make me feel when I'm around you? If you're an alien and you are engaging and we're talking about good things, I love you. Let's go. Like this. I could jump through the freaking computer right now and just hug you because it's engaging. And then what happens? We talk about big worldly things that make an impact. I don't want to talk about people.
• 29:22
  I want to talk about making an impact, help one person every day. So it's about how I feel when I'm running. If I feel negative, if I feel I got it, I...
• 29:33
  I'm not going to be around you again. It's, and you know what? I'm going to spend this time right here. I'm going to just give me two minutes to read all nine, uh, mistakes. It's live. Well, you call it the nine secrets of creating a successful future. Now, please read the book because he goes in depth about that. They're beautiful. Lit. Number one is live your own dream. Number two is recognize your inherent value. Number three,
• 29:56
  reject excuses. Number four, surround yourself with the right people. Number five, explore outside your comfort zone. Number six, move forward through challenges with determination and purpose. Number seven, stand out. Number eight, act boldly with knowledge that your potential for success is unlimited. Number nine, pursue your goals with urgency. Number nine, pursue your goals with urgency.
• 30:21
  And I read all those intentionally because you took those nine mistakes and you had three laws. And the three laws are the law of desire, the law of gratitude, and the law of belief. How are they interwoven? And sorry to give away so much of the book, but I want it to pique people's interests.
• 30:41
  Yeah. And people that read the book and like the book, you can even read those and it doesn't matter because you have to read the book to understand them and kind of the story. But yeah, the nine are interwoven with these three laws, desire, gratitude and belief, because they are all interwoven. Everything that we do starts off with desire. What do you desire to do?
• 31:07
  And if you don't have a big enough desire, you will become part of someone else's dream. So it's interwoven with that first mistake. Are you ready? You know, at the beginning, before you even begin this journey, I talk about readiness because you can have any goal you want in the world. If you're not ready, you're not going to get to that goal. Readiness is when your desire is greater than your distraction. Right?
• 31:35
  We've all seen when your distraction is greater than your desire. It means the first hot day, the first rainy day, I'm not going out to run. It means the first negative customer that's screaming at me, I'm done, right? So my desire has to be greater than my distraction. I start a new goal for the year, the New Year's resolution, and all this candies around, right? I didn't eliminate the distraction.
• 32:02
  So my desire is not there. Desire is so important. Belief is so important. So you have to believe. You have to believe you can do it. You have to believe you can get to the right people. You have to believe that it's within reach. Belief is so important to determine how far you go. If you believe you can't do it, we know you can't do it. I will believe you if you tell me,
• 32:26
  I can't do it. I'm a loser. Okay. That's probably not the person I need to hire. Right? So belief is important. Not fake belief, not narcissistic belief, not wild belief that's unfounded, ungrounded with not truth, not belief that doesn't have anything that backs it up. But belief comes from a self-confidence, which comes from a sense of, I know who I am back to self-awareness and gratitude. Yeah.
• 32:51
  having watched you just this morning on social media talk about your gratitude journal, your gratitude is the fuel for everything. In fact, whenever you're down, depressed, and at your worst point,
• 33:08
  Turn up your gratitude. The law of gratitude will help you get back on track. Now, I'm not talking about people who may need medication, therapy, et cetera. All those things can work and are good. I'm not saying gratitude journaling will stop all of the need for that. But it is one of the tools that will help you on your way to success.
• 33:30
  The more people you thank, the more grateful you are, the more the mentors and the people that come into your life that will speak into your life. So if you go to mistake number four, which is surrounding yourself with the wrong people, the more you have gratitude, the more the right people come into your life. Kelly, you're so successful. You have all of these things going on, business and social media and everything else.
• 33:58
  the reason why you're attracting people into your life that are positive is because you're full of gratitude. You're full of desire. You're full of belief.
• 34:10
  And those people then just seem to come out of nowhere. Where did these people come from? Right? You can say, oh, they come from social media. God has a plan for this, right? Whatever the reason is. But, but the fact is you're attracting them because of desire, belief, and gratitude. And so you can think about that and work on that and reflect on that each and every day. And it will have a measurable impact on your results daily.
• 34:37
  And you just threw a softball up there. Of course, that's what I do. And I'm on the Heart of Lake podcast talking to you. It's not by accident. And an attitude of gratitude, it can be the simplest and easiest things. This morning, my gratitude was very simple. Thanks for the airplane for getting me here safe. We flew through a tough storm. Grateful for the roof over my head and
• 35:01
  and just grateful that I get to do all this. It's simple, easy things. My dog was laying next to me. He came. He wasn't feeling great. And I want to go back to see the belief, and we've all heard this, whether you believe you can or you can't, you're right. And believe me, I believe I can.
• 35:22
  And I will. That's literally what it is. Which of the mistakes is the one that's the most personal to you? Because I literally couldn't pick one. I sat here when I wrote this question. Three, rejecting excuses, surround yourself with the right people, and then number seven, which is stand out, spoke to my heart.
• 35:45
  Yeah, all nine of these resonate with me, both from the research and all the interviews. They all have happened to me. I watch them with other people. I've made all of them. I've broken all of them. I'm not perfect in any of them. So I don't have a favorite, but I have so many stories around each one of them. And because I'm talking to you and you mentioned accepting excuses first, I'll just talk about that.
• 36:15
  I was interviewing Rich Gaspari. I don't know if you know Rich, Gaspari nutrition CEO. You've probably taken his supplements, Mr. Universe, right? So a huge bodybuilder. Well, of course we're in Columbus, Ohio. The Arnold is here. And a few years ago I went down to interview Rich. He had come out with a book called no excuses and he,
• 36:42
  the genesis of this book is that decades before when he was winning all of his titles, he was on the cover of these muscle magazines, as you can imagine. Decades later, he decided that he was going to get in such good shape that he would be put back on the cover of the magazines, which is nearly impossible, people would say. And he wrote a book called
• 37:07
  No excuses. And he did get back on the cover of the magazines. And it just stuck with me that we need to avoid the people who encourage excuses. We need to shift our energy and our creativity from creating excuses to achieving our goals. That excuses let us off the hook and we can't allow that.
• 37:32
  And if you see somebody using excuses, then where are they, right? Where they are, it may be a temporary place. And our job is to coach them out of that temporary place back into a positional power place where they can achieve. Excuses are putting myself in the victimhood mentality. It means, well, okay.
• 37:56
  I can't do this because I hurt my knee. My computer broke. I missed the deadline, right? Whatever it is that puts me in victim mentality. I can't do anything when I'm there in victim. Now, all of us, all of us are victims at certain points, legitimately, illegitimately in our mind, whatever.
• 38:21
  We just have to recognize I'm in a mental victim place. So what I do is I allow myself to be in the victim place. I then may find somebody and I say, I just need to vent to you for five minutes and get this off my chest. And I do it.
• 38:41
  I do it. Now, it may just be to a fictional character that's in my office who's not there, or it may be to somebody real. I get it off my chest. I talk about it. And that's okay. Now, that's done. Close the door. We're going to move forward. Now, I want to move forward and show how we're going to change this.
• 39:02
  We can't pretend that none of us are victims. We all are, right? And you might be a victim at five o'clock and by 5.30 you're back to yourself. But you have to recognize when you're there because if you're not, you're going to be a master of excuses that you do not want your specialty to be about excuses. Some people are so good at making excuses and some have worked for me in the past.
• 39:27
  I have to take notes on their storytelling ability. I mean, it's a beautiful thing of the story of why this could not be done. And then you say, okay, well, do you want to just be a master at telling me why it can't be done? Or do you want to write the next chapter about what you did to turn it all around? Because you can't.
• 39:47
  And so it's a choice, but we have to recognize how that goes. So making excuses and accepting excuses is a big part of success. Otherwise, you're stuck. You're stuck. And the world will, by the way, Kelly, the world will celebrate your excuses.
• 40:06
  Right? People at this level never want to always celebrate when you're here. So they'll celebrate your excuses. They want to bring you back down. But your job is to surround yourself with people that are even higher so that they pull you up and say, you don't need to stay there. And the good news is it's a ladder. None of us need to stay anywhere. Find people that have gone on a little further.
• 40:31
  have pushed a little harder, have done a little bit more, have a little bit more discipline, have a little bit more success in whatever area of life you're focused on and find them, surround them. And, and they will push you. They will not put up with your crap. They will say, no, we're not doing that. We are moving forward.
• 40:51
  And that to me is one of the major keys to success. I'm about 100 episodes into this. And this is by far my most favorite. I could talk to you forever. And I got to tell you, you keep answering the next question because we flow. I think our minds think alike. So thank you for these stories. The stories are paramount. And I'm going to...
• 41:13
  retort back a story that I'm sure that you may know, but you know, you got to stay away from the people that have a problem for every solution. That's it's, listen, I could, I have legitimate excuses and I, and I lame, I label them in my it company. I say, these are legitimate excuses.
• 41:29
  excuses, but we're impossible, only describes a degree of difficulty, and we are going to overcome them. I could sit back and say, I was abused as a child. I wasn't loved. There was no food. I'd have every excuse in the world, and it'd be legitimate to be a bomb.
• 41:47
  But here we are today and I'm paying it forward and I'm going to model and inspire. And the people that are afraid to make those that are trying to pull me down and bring me to their excuses and say, you can't possibly work out seven days a week. Yeah, that's not going to work on me because I do. Thank you for that. And we're going to we're going to switch just a little bit because I didn't see this in the book, but I want to talk about it. So I believe vulnerability is a superpower and unites like minded people.
• 42:16
  You're so amazing at stories. Can you share a moment in your life or career when you felt particularly vulnerable? How'd you navigate through that experience and what did you learn from it? Yeah. Vulnerability is such a powerhouse. And to me, it's just about being real. And so I'm pretty real. I'll tell people how I feel. And sometimes people will tell me that's a problem because, you know,
• 42:45
  You're not supposed to. But I will say, you know, this is how I feel or I'm not feeling good and about this or whatever. And I think it's really important to be vulnerable. I remember one time I made the wrong hire. I had joined a company. The first person I hired was the wrong hire. I mean, the wrong hire.
• 43:06
  And within a few weeks, I realized that and terminated that person's employment, which is something I am very hesitant to do. But the people all around who I thought, okay, this is embarrassing. And I just stood up. This is embarrassing. I made this mistake. This was my first hire here. Here's what I didn't understand. I just was vulnerable with the mess that pretty much I had created.
• 43:36
  And again, fail quickly. I didn't leave this person in a position for two years to do damage that we couldn't handle. But I was vulnerable enough to say I had made this mistake. Well, I didn't think about this, but I had person after person send me notes and stop and want to talk to me.
• 43:53
  And identifying with me because I was so upfront with the fact that I made this mistake and that I was apologetic and here's what I was going to do to fix it. They were blown away by that. And I was just struck by that because I thought, well, here I've screwed up royally.
• 44:10
  And cost us money, cost us time, cost us a lot of stress during this compact period. But in fact, that actually ended up being a good thing because me sharing that with them actually made them understand me and feel better about me. And for them to realize they too could say, and I told them this, hey, if you ever have a big mistake or whatever, you now have a card where you can say, hey, this is my, and I won't name her name, but this is my card.
• 44:40
  And that would be something you could do. So it just worked out well, but vulnerability, Kelly, if, if someone's vulnerable, you want to come alongside them. You want to hug them. You want to, you know, physically or metaphorically, you want to, you want to walk alongside that person because you realize, you know what? You're authentic and you're there with me. So not victimhood, but authentic.
• 45:07
  And there's a difference. So to get more of Skip, you can go to his website, skippritchard.com. And I keep saying the book of mistakes, and I'm going to hold it back up to get the book. Remember, it's the book of mistakes, but nine secrets to creating a successful future. That's what we've been talking about. We're just talking about mindset. We haven't even got into this man's leadership skills and his...
• 45:32
  We talk about how handsome he is, number one. Number two is your oration and how you meet and storytelling. I just, I want to learn from you. I'm 48 years old and there's so much more I want to learn. And I'm grateful beyond all I could ever say that you took the time today to go. We still got some more questions. So I'm going to, I say this all the time. Money won't make you happy, but happiness will make you money. What are some personal hobbies and interests that you have?
• 46:02
  Oh, that's so true. And by the way, surrounding yourself with people that are the right people increase the value of happiness they've quantified in a research study by $100,000 a year. So it really does. Wait a minute. Say that again.
• 46:17
  They did a study and they said, if you surround yourself with the right people, it will increase your happiness quotient. You're the value by $100,000 a year. And you will quantify that over time and make more money and be more happy. It makes such a difference.
• 46:40
  in who you are. Now back to your question, what was your question? Hobbies or interests. Just I wanted the people to know about you. Yeah, so hobbies or interests. So I am a CEO of a wonderful company, OCLC. We power technology and data for libraries around the world.
• 46:57
  WorldCat.org, if you've heard ads on NPR or other places, it's the world's catalog of information of everything in libraries. Libraries are amazing. I'm always visiting libraries. They have things in there that you wouldn't believe. You can check out farm equipment or games, all sorts of things. There's no end to libraries, medical libraries, law libraries, university libraries.
• 47:23
  I'm a reader. I read a book every single day. I don't sleep too much. So I read when I can't sleep. I learn not to do screens and I'd be better off reading physical books. I love music. I sing. I'm on boards of different nonprofits in the music area, such as the Columbus Symphony. I love travel and I go all over the world.
• 47:52
  And I love to spend time with great people. I love interviewing and just talking and learning from people. It's a huge hobby of mine. You saying you want to come down, visit, get, you know, those are the kind of things I love to do as hobbies. So having dinner with somebody who is positive, engaged and forward thinking and challenging and thinking about ideas that just inspires me. So that's where I like to spend my time. And I'm in the gym.
• 48:21
  Every single day as well. So that, that always is important. And if, if not everything else falls apart. So to me, that's a really, really important thing. Church is important. Family is important and, and life is important. Again, we just have a limited amount of time and making an impact on other people is what it's all about. Because if they can get something and, and kind of, you can pay it forward.
• 48:50
  The reward in that is so much more than adding more zeros to a bank account. Making a difference in somebody's life is priceless.
• 48:59
  when did you figure this out? Like it took me to 43 till I started getting my head out of my butt. I started thinking about it at 30, but it wasn't until 43 that I said, all right, enough's enough. When did you, did you ever have an aha moment? Or you seemed so well put together. Like, I just want to be you. I don't know about that, but I,
• 49:22
  When I was very young, I had the fortune. You know, my mom, we had so many women in the house. And the women needed makeup.
• 49:33
  I wrote a post about how, how Mary Kay cosmetics changed my life because my mom, um, she signed up to be a Mary Kay person, not to sell it, but to buy it because there were so many girls in the house taking in people from all over the world, four sisters, friends, uh, people that lived with us.
• 49:54
  She needed a discount. We did not grow up with money like you. That was not, we didn't have lots and lots of money. So dad was stretching every dollar. And anyway, one day she came home with a cassette tape. She says, I went to this conference and I think you will love this guy. And it was Zig Ziglar.
• 50:17
  And it changed my life. It changed my life. And I interviewed Tom Ziegler, his son, not too long ago, but Zig was, was meaningful. And from there I listened to Jim Rohn. And then I started working for someone when I was very young in the Jim Rohn seminar world, got to see him city after city after city. And so you started learning things. What Jim said early on was he said, work harder on yourself than your job.
• 50:44
  If you work hard on your job, you'll make money. If you work hard on yourself, you'll make a fortune. Say it again. Say it one more time. Work harder on yourself.
• 50:55
  And you do on your job. If you work hard on yourself, you'll make a fortune. If you work hard on your job, you'll only make money. Huge impact on me. And in fact, when I joined a new company, people often ask me my philosophy and I start with that quote. And people say, well, that's crazy. You're coming in to run a large company and you're telling them not to work on their jobs. I said, that's right. Because if everybody here is focused on working on themselves, the value creation that they will bring to this organization will explode. And I've seen that
• 51:25
  We've won 50 best places to work awards in 10 years. And it's because of the people. Not me, it's the people. Because each person is trying to learn and be the best version of themselves. Work harder on yourself. It's always more important than working hard on your job.
• 51:40
  Well, it starts from the top down. So take a little bit of credit. You said that you guys didn't grow up with much money, but you had something that money can't buy, love. I didn't have any love in my family. Any. There was nothing. So, but. Yes. And you can't, you know, we had so much love from two wonderful parents. My mom would.
• 52:03
  my mom's love was kind of crazy. She died a few years ago, but even in a hospital room, you would go in and we couldn't, we had to elbow our way in because it was packed with medical personnel because they all wanted to be with mom. She was so full of love and joy and just listening to people's stories and reaching into the inner part of them, reaching into the inner side. So
• 52:27
  I identified with you and your story, and we can talk about this when I interview you, because I saw this, Kelly, over and over and over of the people, whether they were very young coming in or we had a lot of people who were older who didn't have that love. So when I say abuse, abuse is, you know, there's a range of abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, et cetera. Not having love is abuse just on its own.
• 52:55
  And I mean, we know the studies of touch and what that does for infants and what that does to growing up. But but love powers a lot of things and it creates a deep hole that needs to be filled. And God is love. And so learning about how to fill that up with positive and with things that will that will impact you and change you is so very important. So I saw that and recognize that in you and. And.
• 53:22
  The positive thing is you're chasing things. And then you have to just kind of realize, do I love myself? And how do I get to that place? And so you're on a journey through your life that...
• 53:34
  takes you to a different space because of that. And that's a beautiful thing because again, people identify with the struggle, not the success. It's not your Instagram pictures. It's that story behind you that makes people say, well, if he did it and he went through all of these things, maybe there's a chance for me. And there is, and you offer that. And that to me is what it's all about. There's more than a chance. Everybody can do it. I I'm just a,
• 54:00
  A dumb hillbilly from Warren eight mile that just, just wouldn't give up. And if I can do it, anybody can do it. And I got to tell you, um, whenever I'm ever feeling down, which is never, I'm just going to reach out to you because I feel the love that your mother instilled in you. I feel it through this. And that's what keeps me. I felt it in your writing. Um,
• 54:20
  Um, so I just, I, I, I can't wait to see you in person. And I want to, I wrote this out earlier, but I keep forgetting to bring this up. The work-life balance and, and being right with yourself versus being, if, if you, if
• 54:37
  If you're a good person at home and you're happy at home, you're going to be a better in the business world. The opposite is not true. How many people do we know are uber successful financially and a freaking miserable at home? So if you're going to pick one, pick being a good person. If you can do anything in this world, be kind and you and money will follow.
• 55:05
  I believe that with all, all my heart. So I got a question here, but I, I, I, you might've answered it, but I'm going to say, I can't believe you sing. I want to know more about that, but what's the one thing you may have said it. What's one thing that people might be surprised to know about you? Well, singing is often one of them. So I do surprise them with that. Uh,
• 55:28
  But musically, I play the violin as well. It really, you know, I'm an open book, so I don't know how many things surprise people. Perhaps I think surprising is just the opportunities that I've had.
• 55:45
  And the experiences are quite unique. So people would be surprised that I partied at Prince's house with Prince and a group of celebrities or, you know, stuff like that, that you would think, you know, what? Or that I had dinner multiple times at the Supreme Court with the Supreme Court justices. So my life has been full of just extraordinary opportunities and people that,
• 56:12
  that are just crazy or meeting and spending time with Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. I mean, on and on and on, just this eclectic group of people. And then, of course, in Nashville, living in Nashville, multiple celebrities and neighbors, et cetera, and having famous people play at our pool. It's just an incredible life, but it's an incredible life from someone who grew up
• 56:39
  in a modest home with many, many people. Um, and, uh, and just this experience of, of, of not having, and just the gratitude I have to learn and see the world and meet people. Um, it's, it's just an extraordinary, it's extraordinary. And everybody has that opportunity. So I, I do think, um,
• 57:05
  God and my parents and just the way things worked out. But I was born with this drive. I was born with this desire to make a difference, to make an impact and to learn. And I feel like I was instilled in me very young from those early cassette tapes. But wherever you are, whether you're eight, 18, 48, or 78, wherever you are,
• 57:34
  Everything can be different based on the decisions you make today. So then you have to say, what do I want to do with the time I have left? What do I want to do? And then I'm going to go after it. I'm going to plan it. Again, readiness is when my desire is greater than my distraction. So I'm going to increase my desire by visualizing it, by dreaming about it, by seeing it, by living it.
• 57:58
  And I'm going to reduce my distractions by saying, how am I going to deal with these obstacles or maybe these negative relatives who will tell me it can't be done or whether it's somebody in business that will try to box me in. I'm going to minimize those negative side and increase the positive side. And then magic happens.
• 58:19
  Skip, you're the most interesting man in the world. This show, we're growing up the Apple podcast list. We were at top out of 31. We're going for the top spot. This episode, when it airs, is going to break the internet. You're just interesting. And I'm not going to have to tell people to share this episode because it's an instant classic. So thank you for this. So we've got a couple more questions. You've met...
• 58:45
  and had dinner and broke bread with so many interesting people. But I have to imagine that there's a couple of people that maybe were before your time. So if you could have dinner with one person who is alive or dead that you haven't had the chance to, or maybe you wanna have dinner again with somebody again, who would it be and why? Woo. Um, I'm often careful about that. Cause if I imagine it, then I end up, it ends up happening. So invite me.
• 59:11
  Yeah, you're top of the list, actually. Let's do it. So that to me would be very important. So yes, I'll just answer that. Kelly, you. Thank you. Skip, I love you. I don't even know. You just...
• 59:27
  I'm beaming from ear to ear if you can't tell. I got a man crush and it doesn't happen. It does not happen. I've met a lot of people in my day. I've partied with celebrities and just done some things. But I just kept flying down. When I fly down here, everything kept going in my head saying, play a bigger game, play a bigger game, play a bigger game, and we're coming. So it's people like you that I need on my side as my confidants, as
• 59:54
  you know, learning from your experiences, because I want to learn. And when we have dinner, it's going to be a long one on questions about everything. So here's an interesting one that I love asking people. If you could create one law in the universe, what would it be? And why? If you could create one law in the universe.
• 1:00:16
  I think there just are laws. And so I'm just interested in knowing what those laws are. And, you know, the universe is sort of set. Jim Rohn used to say,
• 1:00:30
  It works this way. Six days work, one day rest. If you don't like that, start your own world, right? So I just like to identify and learn the laws that are already here and embrace them and use them for me because there's wisdom in all the laws. If I were to create a new law, they would probably not be so wise. For instance, the law of love. Wouldn't it be great if you had a law that everyone had to be full of love and kindness? The problem with that is you'd ruin the world.
• 1:01:00
  Because love is only light when there's darkness. You only see love because of hate. You only see light because of darkness. And so if I say the law of love or the law of light, I think I'm real clever in solving a problem. You know, the law of world peace.
• 1:01:17
  But peace is only valuable and appreciated in the absence of conflict and knowing what that's like, as we know right now. So I think I will leave that to higher powers to decide the laws. Instead, I'll just study them and try to harness them and use them for me and realize that there's wisdom in the laws that are here. And gravity happens for a reason and it pulls us down. And the struggle and the push happens.
• 1:01:45
  is probably part of what's needed. So growth only happens through the seed and that push through the soil before I can get out and then get the sunlight. And so short-circuiting things or changing things is probably beyond my expertise. I'm not that good. The duality is what you're saying. And I say that to everybody. It's like, I'm...
• 1:02:11
  uniquely qualified to speak to you about leadership and, and not drinking and not doing drugs because I have gone down those paths. So it's the duality. They speak about that in the conversations with God a lot. So it's, it's very interesting. I, that was my most favorite answer because it got people could see how you critically think. My answer is very simple. I believe everybody should have to tell the truth.
• 1:02:40
  It would be great. However, if you see the movie liar, liar, you'll realize maybe that doesn't work. Have you seen that? That's why I love you. Yes. That's, that's what I just said about how your answer just framed how, how big thing you, you, you make me think bigger without making me feel smaller. Anybody ever tell you that? Well, thank you. No, that's a good one. I'll use that. I'll put that on a, I'll put that on a something.
• 1:03:08
  If you could leave me with one piece of advice, what would it be? And by the way, I don't know if you can make yourself smaller. So where do you see me in person? I'm bigger than I look. I look like a tree trunk.
• 1:03:21
  Hey, did you know, I think you've heard this, you know, the reason why I have this, this was my, this was my protective armor. My stepfather was big and abusive. So this is, and then now years later, it's become my door opener. So when I come to your office and I walk in, people are going to be like, um, Hercules is here. And it just, it's opened up. And then I start talking and people think they judge you and think you're going to be dumb. And then you speak and you're kind. And I lead with so much love. I have all the love in the world to give.
• 1:03:49
  And it just takes people off guard and disarms them. And then we can move on to doing big things. And that's what we're going to do. And I know that about you and from reading your book. So I think that's what makes it appealing for people to follow and learn from you. I would leave this advice with people. It's a quote from my book, which is the most important microphone in the world.
• 1:04:16
  is the one in your mind. It's not this one right in front of me. It's the one in your mind. So be careful who and what is speaking into that microphone. Our self-talk often is negative, often is critical, often is conflicted.
• 1:04:37
  And what we need to do is we need to make sure that we are in charge of what's on that radio station. Sometimes it's just realizing what is playing and why and say, thank you very much.
• 1:04:51
  You know, and sometimes you can just grab the microphone in your mind and say, and that was wonderful. We thank the sponsors for that very negative program. And now we're changing the channel. And we're going to talk about literally you control the thoughts in your mind and your thoughts. As a man thinketh, so is he. Your thoughts control your destiny. So don't let other people seize that microphone. That means...
• 1:05:14
  if you just binge watch TV all day, if you just read horrible books, if you're just reading trash on social media scrolls, and then you wonder why your life isn't going the way it's going, it's because you have allowed other people
• 1:05:30
  to take control of your microphone. How about you take control of your microphone? How about you decide very deliberately what I'm going to read, what podcasts I'm going to listen to, what videos I'm going to put in, who I'm going to follow. Am I going to follow people who are inspiring, lift me up, take me to where I want to go? Where am I going to fill myself up with the world's garbage? It's your choice. That microphone in your mind is yours.
• 1:05:57
  No one else controls it, but you. Make sure you're vigilant about that microphone. You are worth the price of admission. I got to tell you, I highlighted that and started, it's in my notes. And somehow I overlooked that saying. That's the one saying that stuck out the most. And somehow it didn't even get into my show notes and it came up. So talk about God's plan.
• 1:06:26
  and you want to feel good, go back and rewind and listen to this show over and over and listen to Skip's voice. He's the real deal. People go out, get the book of mistakes. And I can't, I love superlatives.
• 1:06:42
  I appreciate you more than I could ever say. I'm going to take you up on that dinner and come to the office. Oh, by the way, one last question. How in the, you told me off camera that the Dewey, that you own the Dewey Decimal System, your company does. Why, can you explain the Dewey Decimal System? Why didn't they just name everybody or label it like one, two, three? I remember learning as a kid, but how come they just didn't, what is the science behind it?
• 1:07:09
  That would be a very long answer, and we'd have a research scientist here give you the history. In fact, when you're here, we will take you up to the library on the fourth floor where Dewey's original papers are there in the library, and we can show you that. OCLC is a technology and data company powering libraries all over the world. We do own the Dewey Decimal System. It's a published system. There's a rationale and a reason behind all the numbers and what it means in subsections. It's also a live system.
• 1:07:38
  So it's not set because there's new areas. Think about AI, for instance. It didn't exist, so it needs categorization and a new number. But there are people here who are just experts in it and would love to get wonky with you. Beware about that because they will.
• 1:07:56
  And then you'll have a day talking about Dewey. But classification systems and the way libraries, you know, Library of Congress has a way to do it and Dewey has a way. And then electronically and digitally, we've moved into a different world. It's all a way about organizing the world's information in a way to make it accessible. And what we like to do is say, you know, our tagline is what is known must be shared.
• 1:08:20
  What is known must be shared. Why? To make breakthroughs possible. And that's really the purpose of libraries. That's really the purpose of knowledge, to share it and make breakthroughs possible. That breakthrough may be a company breakthrough, a personal breakthrough, maybe a breakthrough for someone who's now able to read that couldn't. And I hear stories of breakthroughs all over the world as I travel the world personally and professionally. And libraries have made an enormous difference because everybody, no matter if you have nothing,
• 1:08:49
  You can find your way to a library, which is what I did when I was young and first got that Zig Ziglar tape. I said to the librarian, I need more of this. I need more of this. Tell me where I can get this. And that librarian opened up the world to me of Earl Nightingale and Norman Vincent Peale and all Tom Hopkins, all sorts of people who then spoke into my life. I created a virtual board of directors. None of them were living, but boy, were they genius people.
• 1:09:17
  for me. So libraries can really power your thinking.
• 1:09:22
  What's remarkable about the Dewey Decimal System is that it still has tested the time of, the stigning of time and the expansion. So we think about just Y2K, we messed that up. When we think about the electoral college, there's big things in our life that haven't been able to test today's technology and AI, but yet here this has. So I'm not gonna geek out too much, but you can see how I get fascinated by this.
• 1:09:50
  mallest things. I love you. I appreciate you. Thank you so much.
• 1:10:03
  Please rate and share this podcast. I'm active on all social platforms and love to hear from my Segal supporters. Each and every episode is sponsored by my company, National Technology Management, the easiest and best IT company to do business with, delivering peace of mind with technology every day, even simplifying cybersecurity. Visit TrustNTM.com for more info. Until next week, be harder than life.