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EP369: Yasi Amram - Spiritually Intelligent Leadership · Respark Your Life

• 0:00
  Yasi Amram: Am I trying to do the right thing, come from devotion to the truth and integrity,
• 0:04
  Yasi Amram: or am
• 0:05
  Yasi Amram: I trying to prove myself right, which comes from my ego?
• 0:08
  Raymond Aaron: Hello,
• 0:09
  Raymond Aaron: this is Raymond Aaron,
• 0:10
  Raymond Aaron: New York Times top 10 bestselling author,
• 0:13
  Raymond Aaron: bringing you Respark
• 0:14
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• 0:15
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• 0:20
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• 0:22
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• 0:23
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• 0:26
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• 0:30
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• 0:34
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• 0:36
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• 0:40
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• 0:42
  Raymond Aaron: to re-spark your life.
• 0:45
  Raymond Aaron: Yes,
• 0:46
  Raymond Aaron: it's Raymond Aaron once again with another fascinating interview.
• 0:52
  Raymond Aaron: But this time I'm bringing you Dr.
• 0:54
  Raymond Aaron: Yossi Amram, a licensed clinical psychologist,
• 0:58
  Raymond Aaron: a CEO leadership coach,
• 1:00
  Raymond Aaron: and a best-selling award-winning author.
• 1:03
  Raymond Aaron: Previously, the founder
• 1:05
  Raymond Aaron: and CEO of two companies,
• 1:06
  Raymond Aaron: which he led through successful IPOs,
• 1:10
  Raymond Aaron: Yoshi has coached over 100 CEOs,
• 1:14
  Raymond Aaron: many of whom had built companies with thousands of employees and revenue in the billions.
• 1:20
  Raymond Aaron: Engineering degrees from MIT,
• 1:22
  Raymond Aaron: an MBA from Harvard,
• 1:24
  Raymond Aaron: and a PhD,
• 1:26
  Raymond Aaron: he's a pioneering researcher
• 1:27
  Raymond Aaron: in the field of spiritual intelligence.
• 1:33
  Raymond Aaron: He even wrote the book, Spiritually Intelligent Leadership.
• 1:40
  Raymond Aaron: So here I am with Yossi himself,
• 1:42
  Raymond Aaron: Dr.
• 1:43
  Raymond Aaron: Yossi.
• 1:43
  Raymond Aaron: Hello.
• 1:44
  Yasi Amram: Hey,
• 1:45
  Yasi Amram: Raymond.
• 1:46
  Yasi Amram: Thank you for the kind
• 1:47
  Yasi Amram: of introduction.
• 1:48
  Yasi Amram: Hopefully it's not going to go downhill from here,
• 1:51
  Yasi Amram: but we'll do what we can.
• 1:54
  Raymond Aaron: Absolutely.
• 1:54
  Raymond Aaron: An honest, humble man.
• 1:56
  Raymond Aaron: So let me start off with a really difficult question.
• 2:00
  Raymond Aaron: I know I'm a leader because I run a company. I founded it.
• 2:05
  Raymond Aaron: I create lots of intellectual
• 2:07
  Raymond Aaron: property each year that my clients love.
• 2:09
  Raymond Aaron: I know I'm intelligent.
• 2:11
  Raymond Aaron: I have a Mensa IQ,
• 2:13
  Raymond Aaron: top 2% of IQ of the whole world's population.
• 2:16
  Raymond Aaron: And I've been rated as a genius in the field
• 2:18
  Raymond Aaron: of mathematics.
• 2:19
  Raymond Aaron: However,
• 2:21
  Raymond Aaron: and by the way, I teach spirituality,
• 2:24
  Raymond Aaron: but I don't know if I'm
• 2:27
  Raymond Aaron: spiritually intelligent.
• 2:30
  Raymond Aaron: How do I know that?
• 2:31
  Raymond Aaron: Tell me about spiritual intelligence.
• 2:34
  Yasi Amram: Okay,
• 2:35
  Yasi Amram: great.
• 2:35
  Yasi Amram: So that's a very intelligent question.
• 2:40
  Yasi Amram: And asking good questions and being open and curious is one of the qualities of spiritual
• 2:46
  Yasi Amram: intelligence.
• 2:46
  Yasi Amram: So at least on that dimension,
• 2:48
  Yasi Amram: I see you score pretty well.
• 2:51
  Yasi Amram: But what is spiritual
• 2:52
  Yasi Amram: intelligence? A great basic question.
• 2:54
  Yasi Amram: So most people know of emotional intelligence.
• 2:57
  Yasi Amram: And what
• 2:59
  Yasi Amram: is emotional intelligence? It's the ability to draw on emotional resources and information and use it
• 3:05
  Yasi Amram: in daily life.
• 3:08
  Yasi Amram: So by analogy,
• 3:11
  Yasi Amram: spiritual intelligence is the ability to be aware of,
• 3:15
  Yasi Amram: draw on and embody spiritual resources and quality and embody that in daily life.
• 3:22
  Yasi Amram: So,
• 3:22
  Yasi Amram: what are those qualities and resources that we call spiritual resources?
• 3:30
  Yasi Amram: These would be things
• 3:31
  Yasi Amram: that are like purpose and service and trust and gratitude and humility and compassion,
• 3:39
  Yasi Amram: forgiveness,
• 3:40
  Yasi Amram: presence,
• 3:42
  Yasi Amram: integrity,
• 3:43
  Yasi Amram: etc.
• 3:43
  Yasi Amram: These are the qualities that have been celebrated
• 3:46
  Yasi Amram: throughout the world's wisdom and spiritual traditions for thousands of years.
• 3:50
  Yasi Amram: And these
• 3:51
  Yasi Amram: qualities emerged as universal in my interviews with 71 leaders and teachers across all the world's
• 3:59
  Yasi Amram: major traditions,
• 4:01
  Yasi Amram: including Christianity,
• 4:02
  Yasi Amram: Islam,
• 4:02
  Yasi Amram: Judaism,
• 4:03
  Yasi Amram: Buddhism,
• 4:04
  Yasi Amram: Hinduism,
• 4:05
  Yasi Amram: Taoism,
• 4:06
  Yasi Amram: shamanism, and earth-based.
• 4:07
  Yasi Amram: So when I interviewed these people that were nominated by their peers
• 4:12
  Yasi Amram: as people that walked the talk and embody their spiritual values in daily life,
• 4:18
  Yasi Amram: these are the
• 4:19
  Yasi Amram: qualities they talked about that they cultivate and embody.
• 4:23
  Yasi Amram: And these were universal.
• 4:24
  Yasi Amram: So regardless
• 4:25
  Yasi Amram: of their theology,
• 4:26
  Yasi Amram: if they believe that Moses went up to the mountain and got the Torah,
• 4:30
  Yasi Amram: or they
• 4:31
  Yasi Amram: believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God,
• 4:34
  Yasi Amram: or Muhammad was the final prophet,
• 4:36
  Yasi Amram: or the Buddha
• 4:37
  Yasi Amram: was enlightened,
• 4:38
  Yasi Amram: and, you know, Father Sky,
• 4:41
  Yasi Amram: Mother Earth, whatever the theology and language is,
• 4:45
  Yasi Amram: these are the virtues that are universally accepted. So, I just want to say one more thing
• 4:51
  Yasi Amram: to distinguish spirituality and spiritual intelligence.
• 4:56
  Yasi Amram: So,
• 4:57
  Yasi Amram: you might have,
• 4:58
  Yasi Amram: somebody
• 4:58
  Yasi Amram: may be have a spiritual belief system they believe in higher power they believe in the immortality of
• 5:04
  Yasi Amram: the soul whatever that might be those are important beliefs and don't dismiss them or you might have
• 5:11
  Yasi Amram: a spiritual experience you could be meditating you could be praying you're walking in the forest and
• 5:16
  Yasi Amram: you feel oneness with nature your ego dissolves for a moment etc but that's all distinct and
• 5:24
  Yasi Amram: different from spiritual intelligence,
• 5:26
  Yasi Amram: which is the ability to embody these qualities in daily life.
• 5:30
  Yasi Amram: How do I behave in a team meeting?
• 5:34
  Yasi Amram: Am I trying to do the right thing,
• 5:38
  Yasi Amram: which has come from devotion to the truth and integrity?
• 5:41
  Yasi Amram: Or am I trying to prove myself right,
• 5:43
  Yasi Amram: which comes from my ego?
• 5:45
  Yasi Amram: How do I behave when I'm driving on the freeway?
• 5:48
  Yasi Amram: And I'm in this metal box
• 5:51
  Yasi Amram: that makes me feel separate and alienated from everybody else in their car.
• 5:56
  Yasi Amram: So,
• 5:56
  Yasi Amram: you know, these are the things that we deal with in daily life,
• 6:00
  Yasi Amram: at work and leadership positions or in our family,
• 6:04
  Yasi Amram: with our spouse,
• 6:05
  Yasi Amram: with our partner.
• 6:07
  Yasi Amram: So spiritual intelligence is about the embodiment of these qualities.
• 6:12
  Yasi Amram: And much like you could say,
• 6:14
  Yasi Amram: I would say, Raymond, do you know people in your life that are emotional?
• 6:17
  Yasi Amram: you might think of some people,
• 6:19
  Yasi Amram: that's not necessarily the biggest compliment.
• 6:21
  Yasi Amram: You might
• 6:22
  Yasi Amram: be thinking of people that get teary at a heartwarming puppy commercial,
• 6:28
  Yasi Amram: but they're not
• 6:28
  Yasi Amram: necessarily emotionally intelligent.
• 6:30
  Yasi Amram: So there's a difference between being emotional and being
• 6:33
  Yasi Amram: emotionally intelligent. Let me try it.
• 6:35
  Yasi Amram: Great.
• 6:36
  Yasi Amram: Thanks for pausing so it's more interactive.
• 6:38
  Raymond Aaron: So being spiritual would be something like having the knowledge or humility or virtuousness inside of you.
• 6:51
  Raymond Aaron: But spiritual intelligence or spiritual leadership would be using those abilities in order to do a good job in the world.
• 7:01
  Yasi Amram: To embody those qualities in daily life.
• 7:06
  Yasi Amram: Yeah.
• 7:06
  Raymond Aaron: And being spiritual.
• 7:08
  Raymond Aaron: I got a tough question for you.
• 7:10
  Raymond Aaron: Please.
• 7:11
  Raymond Aaron: Just because we're talking about spirituality doesn't mean I'm going to lob you softballs.
• 7:16
  Raymond Aaron: I love it.
• 7:17
  Raymond Aaron: I love it.
• 7:18
  Raymond Aaron: I love it.
• 7:19
  Raymond Aaron: Okay.
• 7:20
  Raymond Aaron: So two of the most spectacular and famous and lauded entrepreneurs of recent time is Steve Jobs and Elon Musk.
• 7:32
  Raymond Aaron: They both produced such spectacular products that were amazingly desirable to billions of people around the world.
• 7:42
  Raymond Aaron: It brought them,
• 7:43
  Raymond Aaron: of course,
• 7:44
  Raymond Aaron: great wealth,
• 7:45
  Raymond Aaron: but that was a byproduct.
• 7:47
  Raymond Aaron: What they both wanted was to deliver just spectacular products.
• 7:53
  Raymond Aaron: Yet.
• 7:55
  Raymond Aaron: They both cursed at their employees.
• 7:58
  Raymond Aaron: They yelled at people.
• 8:00
  Raymond Aaron: They were cruel.
• 8:01
  Raymond Aaron: They dismissed people,
• 8:02
  Raymond Aaron: hired,
• 8:02
  Raymond Aaron: sorry, fired people on the spur of the moment.
• 8:06
  Raymond Aaron: So were they spiritually intelligent leaders because they produced spectacular results and helped many people's lives?
• 8:15
  Raymond Aaron: Or when they embodied all this unpleasant interaction with people,
• 8:20
  Raymond Aaron: were they dismissed from your hallowed halls?
• 8:23
  Yasi Amram: What's your answer?
• 8:24
  Yasi Amram: It's a great question.
• 8:25
  Yasi Amram: And so,
• 8:27
  Yasi Amram: you know,
• 8:28
  Yasi Amram: so I would say that in some dimensions,
• 8:32
  Yasi Amram: both of those individuals,
• 8:33
  Yasi Amram: Jobs and Elon,
• 8:35
  Yasi Amram: score high on spiritual intelligence dimensions.
• 8:38
  Yasi Amram: So some of them have to do with a sense of purpose,
• 8:42
  Yasi Amram: a sense of commitment and devotion to their cause and those kinds of things.
• 8:51
  Yasi Amram: And so those were their strengths.
• 8:54
  Yasi Amram: I don't know anybody,
• 8:56
  Yasi Amram: including myself,
• 8:57
  Yasi Amram: that scores high on all the dimensions of spiritual
• 9:00
  Yasi Amram: intelligence.
• 9:01
  Yasi Amram: So there's five domains,
• 9:02
  Yasi Amram: there are 22 qualities.
• 9:04
  Yasi Amram: Just like in IQ,
• 9:06
  Yasi Amram: you know, you have a high IQ and some people have high verbal IQ and
• 9:11
  Yasi Amram: some people mathematical logic and spatial reasoning and processing speed,
• 9:17
  Yasi Amram: etc.
• 9:18
  Yasi Amram: And so in spiritual intelligence,
• 9:20
  Yasi Amram: there are these five domains, there's 22 qualities.
• 9:23
  Yasi Amram: So,
• 9:24
  Yasi Amram: you know, those two individuals excelled and really were shining stars that in certain dimensions of spiritual intelligence,
• 9:33
  Yasi Amram: like I said, sense of purpose,
• 9:35
  Yasi Amram: a call to serve,
• 9:36
  Yasi Amram: a commitment,
• 9:37
  Yasi Amram: a devotion.
• 9:39
  Yasi Amram: And in some ways they were devoted to truth and so on.
• 9:42
  Yasi Amram: They also had big egos,
• 9:46
  Yasi Amram: most likely.
• 9:47
  Yasi Amram: Yes.
• 9:48
  Yasi Amram: You know, I only talked to Steve Jobs once on the phone.
• 9:52
  Yasi Amram: But,
• 9:53
  Yasi Amram: you know, interestingly,
• 9:54
  Yasi Amram: Steve Jobs,
• 9:55
  Yasi Amram: the one book that he carried on his iPad was Autobiography of a Yogi.
• 10:00
  Yasi Amram: So he was a regular meditator,
• 10:02
  Yasi Amram: and he spoke about how his greatest ideas came through his intuition in moments of silence when he silenced his mind.
• 10:11
  Yasi Amram: So,
• 10:12
  Yasi Amram: you know, Steve Jobs,
• 10:14
  Yasi Amram: in some ways,
• 10:15
  Yasi Amram: was very spiritually intelligent,
• 10:17
  Yasi Amram: in some ways not.
• 10:18
  Yasi Amram: I get it. That's a very good answer.
• 10:25
  Raymond Aaron: Another question,
• 10:26
  Raymond Aaron: also a tough question.
• 10:28
  Raymond Aaron: Okay.
• 10:29
  Raymond Aaron: When I was in my late teens,
• 10:34
  Raymond Aaron: I started reading spiritual books.
• 10:38
  Raymond Aaron: I started reading Siddhartha by Herman Hess.
• 10:42
  Raymond Aaron: And then I went back to that occult bookstore and I said, what else you got like this?
• 10:48
  Raymond Aaron: They said, heck,
• 10:49
  Raymond Aaron: read everything by Herman Hesse. So I walked out with a foot high pile of everything Herman Hesse ever wrote.
• 10:56
  Raymond Aaron: And then I just naturally started buying and reading other spiritual books.
• 11:01
  Raymond Aaron: I never told anybody about it. I thought you just read books, who cares?
• 11:05
  Raymond Aaron: But now in my later life,
• 11:08
  Raymond Aaron: my 80s,
• 11:09
  Raymond Aaron: I realized that I was naturally attracted to spirituality without even knowing what it was, without having a name for it.
• 11:17
  Raymond Aaron: I just had an instinctive love for it.
• 11:21
  Raymond Aaron: Can you go back into your childhood and tell us,
• 11:24
  Raymond Aaron: was there something there that sparked your interest?
• 11:28
  Raymond Aaron: Or was it later in life?
• 11:30
  Raymond Aaron: Like,
• 11:30
  Raymond Aaron: where did this calling come from?
• 11:32
  Raymond Aaron: Or what, sorry, when did it start and how did it start?
• 11:34
  Yasi Amram: I can, there are many layers that we can peel.
• 11:38
  Yasi Amram: I mean,
• 11:39
  Yasi Amram: I would say one of them was a role model,
• 11:42
  Yasi Amram: which was my grandfather,
• 11:44
  Yasi Amram: was a refugee from Iraq.
• 11:46
  Yasi Amram: He fled Iraq as a Jew and, you know,
• 11:51
  Yasi Amram: went through a lot of trauma,
• 11:53
  Yasi Amram: gave up all his belongings,
• 11:54
  Yasi Amram: his homes,
• 11:55
  Yasi Amram: his business,
• 11:56
  Yasi Amram: his son.
• 11:56
  Yasi Amram: My uncle was put in jail for seven years,
• 11:59
  Yasi Amram: but he came to Israel and they started out in tents
• 12:01
  Yasi Amram: and he had to rebuild his life.
• 12:04
  Yasi Amram: But his name was Sason,
• 12:06
  Yasi Amram: which means in Hebrew, joy.
• 12:08
  Yasi Amram: And somehow,
• 12:09
  Yasi Amram: despite all of that,
• 12:11
  Yasi Amram: he was full of joy.
• 12:12
  Yasi Amram: And whatever mishaps would happen in his life,
• 12:15
  Yasi Amram: he would say this thing in Hebrew,
• 12:18
  Yasi Amram: kol hakuva le tova or ganzu le tova,
• 12:21
  Yasi Amram: meaning every mishap is for the good.
• 12:24
  Yasi Amram: He had some kind of fundamental faith and trust in the goodness of life
• 12:29
  Yasi Amram: and that made him super resilient.
• 12:31
  Yasi Amram: And that made a big impression on me.
• 12:33
  Yasi Amram: So I think that's one thing that kind of, even though I dismissed religion,
• 12:38
  Yasi Amram: it seemed oppressive,
• 12:39
  Yasi Amram: it didn't make sense to my analytical mind and my scientific mind and all of that.
• 12:45
  Yasi Amram: But there was something that kind of, a seed that was planted and said,
• 12:51
  Yasi Amram: there's something here.
• 12:52
  Yasi Amram: The other thing that was defining in my life was,
• 12:57
  Yasi Amram: like all Israelis,
• 12:58
  Yasi Amram: I was drafted into
• 13:00
  Yasi Amram: the military after high school.
• 13:02
  Yasi Amram: And I was a shy science and math nerd kid.
• 13:05
  Yasi Amram: But to my surprise,
• 13:06
  Yasi Amram: I had the fastest promotion record in the history of my regimen and won
• 13:10
  Yasi Amram: all these leadership awards.
• 13:13
  Yasi Amram: But the command and control model of the military, which is necessary in battle,
• 13:17
  Yasi Amram: really chafed
• 13:18
  Yasi Amram: at my soul.
• 13:19
  Yasi Amram: But I was like, how do we create a leadership and organizational structure that brings out
• 13:26
  Yasi Amram: the best in people that inspires the best in them,
• 13:29
  Yasi Amram: both as individual,
• 13:30
  Yasi Amram: but also creates
• 13:31
  Yasi Amram: a cohesive team.
• 13:32
  Yasi Amram: And that kind of became the driving aspiration that led me to want to be an entrepreneur
• 13:39
  Yasi Amram: and build these companies that I did.
• 13:42
  Yasi Amram: So that was the second thing I would say.
• 13:44
  Yasi Amram: The third thing I would say is while I was CEO and my company was public, I was trying
• 13:48
  Yasi Amram: to relax one day and receive a deep tissue massage.
• 13:52
  Yasi Amram: And as I relaxed, relaxed,
• 13:54
  Yasi Amram: my ego kind of dissolved and I had a spontaneous awakening experience where I saw the illusion of separation and that everything was interconnected and there was no separation between subject and object.
• 14:08
  Yasi Amram: Normally,
• 14:09
  Yasi Amram: we think there's a me,
• 14:10
  Yasi Amram: there's a Yossi,
• 14:11
  Yasi Amram: whatever that is that we can never define what the self is.
• 14:15
  Yasi Amram: I have my awareness and I have the object of my awareness at this moment.
• 14:21
  Yasi Amram: Let's say my breath or my feet pressing on the ground.
• 14:24
  Yasi Amram: So as I think of there's three things,
• 14:26
  Yasi Amram: there's the me, my awareness,
• 14:27
  Yasi Amram: and the object awareness.
• 14:29
  Yasi Amram: But as I relaxed,
• 14:31
  Yasi Amram: I saw that it's really all one seamless field of consciousness.
• 14:36
  Yasi Amram: And that awakening experience kind of changed the direction of my life.
• 14:41
  Yasi Amram: It also got me fired out of the company.
• 14:44
  Yasi Amram: But I love this story.
• 14:46
  Raymond Aaron: Well, I have a fascinating story.
• 14:49
  Raymond Aaron: I was interviewing somebody on somewhat the same topic.
• 14:52
  Raymond Aaron: And I challenged him and said, you know,
• 14:55
  Raymond Aaron: every guru says we're all one.
• 14:58
  Raymond Aaron: There's no difference.
• 15:00
  Raymond Aaron: And I said to myself,
• 15:01
  Raymond Aaron: you know what?
• 15:02
  Raymond Aaron: I seem different from this table.
• 15:05
  Raymond Aaron: And I seem different from that snow.
• 15:06
  Raymond Aaron: And I seem different from my wife and of the other 8 billion people on the planet.
• 15:11
  Raymond Aaron: How do you say we're all one?
• 15:13
  Raymond Aaron: And he gave me the most dazzling answer.
• 15:17
  Raymond Aaron: And it's helped me ever since.
• 15:19
  Raymond Aaron: He said, pretend you're a wave on the ocean.
• 15:22
  Raymond Aaron: OK,
• 15:23
  Raymond Aaron: I got it.
• 15:24
  Raymond Aaron: Can you see another wave?
• 15:26
  Raymond Aaron: Yeah.
• 15:27
  Raymond Aaron: Is it different from you?
• 15:28
  Raymond Aaron: Darn right, it's different.
• 15:30
  Raymond Aaron: He said, now,
• 15:31
  Raymond Aaron: pretend you're the ocean underneath it.
• 15:34
  Raymond Aaron: and the waves are just part of you.
• 15:37
  Raymond Aaron: They're all part of the same.
• 15:39
  Raymond Aaron: And that gestalt,
• 15:41
  Raymond Aaron: that sudden reversal of thinking,
• 15:44
  Raymond Aaron: gave me the instant,
• 15:46
  Raymond Aaron: I don't know what the word is,
• 15:48
  Raymond Aaron: the instant insight or the instant knowing that we can be all one,
• 15:54
  Raymond Aaron: even though the waves look a little bit different.
• 15:57
  Yasi Amram: Yeah, we're one, but we're not the same.
• 15:59
  Yasi Amram: There's a famous rock and roll song.
• 16:02
  Yasi Amram: I think it's you two.
• 16:03
  Yasi Amram: We're one, but we're not the same.
• 16:05
  Yasi Amram: And one other thing I would add to that metaphor is that the waves are one, and they're different,
• 16:13
  Yasi Amram: but they're not separate.
• 16:15
  Yasi Amram: So,
• 16:15
  Yasi Amram: you know, you and me right now, I'm looking at you,
• 16:18
  Yasi Amram: and I'm not separate from you.
• 16:21
  Yasi Amram: I mean,
• 16:21
  Yasi Amram: right now we're connected through a light grid,
• 16:26
  Yasi Amram: if I dare to use that metaphor.
• 16:28
  Yasi Amram: Literally,
• 16:28
  Yasi Amram: there's a light grid,
• 16:29
  Yasi Amram: perhaps a fiber optic link that connects us.
• 16:33
  Yasi Amram: There's light that's emitting from the screen that I see you.
• 16:38
  Yasi Amram: And so we're connected.
• 16:41
  Yasi Amram: I'm connected right now to the Earth through the gravitational field and to the sun.
• 16:47
  Yasi Amram: And there's nothing separate.
• 16:49
  Yasi Amram: Like I have a plant on my desk here and some trees outside.
• 16:53
  Yasi Amram: Every exhale of mine is carbon dioxide that the plant is inhaling.
• 16:59
  Yasi Amram: And then it's exhaling oxygen that I'm inhaling.
• 17:02
  Yasi Amram: So, you know, on the face of it, it looks like it's separate.
• 17:08
  Yasi Amram: Like,
• 17:08
  Yasi Amram: you know,
• 17:09
  Yasi Amram: but really,
• 17:10
  Yasi Amram: when you think about it, even physically,
• 17:12
  Yasi Amram: not just metaphorically,
• 17:13
  Yasi Amram: it's all connected.
• 17:16
  Yasi Amram: And so,
• 17:18
  Yasi Amram: yeah, I'll just leave it.
• 17:20
  Yasi Amram: I got it.
• 17:20
  Yasi Amram: Now,
• 17:21
  Raymond Aaron: I know that you have written a book, Spiritually Intelligent Leadership,
• 17:26
  Raymond Aaron: and I'm going to ask you maybe an embarrassing question because I don't want to contract from the value of your book.
• 17:33
  Raymond Aaron: I love the books that I happen to pick up to read,
• 17:37
  Raymond Aaron: but can you guide me?
• 17:39
  Raymond Aaron: Can you name two or three books that are spiritually oriented that maybe changed your life or set you on a new course or gave you big insights?
• 17:48
  Yasi Amram: Well, I liked,
• 17:50
  Yasi Amram: oh my God.
• 17:56
  Yasi Amram: I think the four agreements was.
• 17:58
  Yasi Amram: Oh,
• 17:58
  Yasi Amram: yes.
• 17:59
  Yasi Amram: I've read that.
• 18:01
  Yasi Amram: There's God is a verb.
• 18:04
  Yasi Amram: Oh.
• 18:06
  Yasi Amram: Rabbi David Cooper, I believe.
• 18:09
  Raymond Aaron: Okay.
• 18:14
  Yasi Amram: Path with the heart from Jack.
• 18:17
  Yasi Amram: Path with a heart.
• 18:22
  Yasi Amram: Path with a heart.
• 18:24
  Yasi Amram: Yeah, I think it's Jack Kornfield.
• 18:30
  Yasi Amram: Yeah,
• 18:31
  Yasi Amram: one more that's coming up is the Keduma experience.
• 18:36
  Yasi Amram: How do you spell it?
• 18:37
  Yasi Amram: Keduma,
• 18:37
  Yasi Amram: oh my God.
• 18:38
  Yasi Amram: It means primordial in Hebrew,
• 18:41
  Yasi Amram: but it's K-E-D-U-M-A-H.
• 18:48
  Yasi Amram: The author is Zvi,
• 18:51
  Yasi Amram: Z-V-I-S-H,
• 18:57
  Yasi Amram: Shalom,
• 18:58
  Yasi Amram: S-H-O-L-S-H-A-O-M.
• 19:04
  Yasi Amram: Yeah,
• 19:05
  Yasi Amram: it's Zvi Shalom, the Keduma experience.
• 19:08
  Yasi Amram: Wow.
• 19:09
  Raymond Aaron: Okay,
• 19:09
  Raymond Aaron: I really appreciate that.
• 19:12
  Raymond Aaron: Thank you,
• 19:12
  Raymond Aaron: thank you,
• 19:13
  Raymond Aaron: thank you.
• 19:13
  Raymond Aaron: Sure.
• 19:14
  Raymond Aaron: And now I want to give our subscribers some value.
• 19:22
  Raymond Aaron: The first value is go buy his book, Spiritually Intelligent Leadership.
• 19:31
  Raymond Aaron: The second thing is for free,
• 19:33
  Raymond Aaron: you can get an assessment of how spiritually intelligent you are.
• 19:40
  Raymond Aaron: And there's no charge for this assessment.
• 19:43
  Raymond Aaron: And you get it at this website,
• 19:46
  Raymond Aaron: intelligency.com.
• 19:48
  Raymond Aaron: It sounds like you can spell it, but you can't.
• 19:51
  Raymond Aaron: You have to listen carefully.
• 19:52
  Raymond Aaron: It starts the same as the word intelligency,
• 19:55
  Raymond Aaron: but the last two letters are S-I,
• 19:58
  Raymond Aaron: which cleverly
• 19:59
  Raymond Aaron: stands for spiritual intelligence.
• 20:02
  Raymond Aaron: So it's I-N-T-E-L-L-I-G-E-N,
• 20:06
  Raymond Aaron: and then surprisingly,
• 20:08
  Raymond Aaron: SI.com,
• 20:10
  Raymond Aaron: and you get an assessment of your spiritual leadership.
• 20:14
  Raymond Aaron: I can't wait to take it myself.
• 20:17
  Raymond Aaron: And indeed,
• 20:18
  Raymond Aaron: I am going to have lots of my clients take this assessment.
• 20:24
  Yasi Amram: Awesome,
• 20:25
  Yasi Amram: Raymond.
• 20:25
  Yasi Amram: If I would just add a couple of things to elaborate.
• 20:28
  Yasi Amram: So part of what this assessment does is that it's not so focused on giving you a score relative to others as much as telling you what your strengths are and what your opportunities are.
• 20:42
  Yasi Amram: So it says, okay,
• 20:43
  Yasi Amram: maybe for you, purpose is really high and mindfulness is really high and connected is really high, but maybe you could use a little more humility.
• 20:52
  Yasi Amram: No, I'm kidding.
• 20:57
  Yasi Amram: So,
• 20:57
  Yasi Amram: but anyway,
• 20:59
  Yasi Amram: so the point is that for each person, it identifies your relative strengths and weaknesses and or I should call them opportunities.
• 21:07
  Raymond Aaron: So as opposed to as opposed to giving me a score so I can beat my friends.
• 21:12
  Yasi Amram: Right,
• 21:12
  Yasi Amram: right,
• 21:13
  Raymond Aaron: right.
• 21:15
  Raymond Aaron: OK,
• 21:16
  Raymond Aaron: this has been a wonderful interview.
• 21:19
  Raymond Aaron: I feel totally connected to you.
• 21:21
  Raymond Aaron: You're a wave right beside my wave.
• 21:24
  Raymond Aaron: And if we were neighbors,
• 21:26
  Raymond Aaron: we'd be in the backyard over a barbecue having a lot of fun together.
• 21:30
  Yasi Amram: Sounds great.
• 21:31
  Yasi Amram: Okay,
• 21:31
  Yasi Amram: maybe I'll come over near Toronto and look you up.
• 21:37
  Raymond Aaron: And by the way, I'm glad that your grandfather gave you a wonderful saying in Hebrew that has helped you.
• 21:44
  Raymond Aaron: My parents actually gave me very little,
• 21:47
  Raymond Aaron: but they gave me one Yiddish expression,
• 21:50
  Raymond Aaron: and it means don't knock my tea kettle,
• 21:54
  Raymond Aaron: which has never helped me very much in my life.
• 22:00
  Yasi Amram: Okay, I assume you never knocked any tea kettles,
• 22:03
  Yasi Amram: but, you know, it saved you the trouble.
• 22:07
  Yasi Amram: But it gave you a laughter right now.
• 22:10
  Yasi Amram: So,
• 22:11
  Yasi Amram: you know,
• 22:11
  Yasi Amram: you get some humor and it's a joke and we're laughing together.
• 22:16
  Yasi Amram: So there's a moment of humor and joy and connection from that saying.
• 22:21
  Yasi Amram: Who knew?
• 22:22
  Raymond Aaron: Thank you very much.
• 22:23
  Raymond Aaron: It has been a deliciously enjoyable interview.
• 22:27
  Raymond Aaron: And I will give you a giant high rating.
• 22:30
  Raymond Aaron: Okay.
• 22:31
  Raymond Aaron: So that other hosts will want to ask you to be their guest as well.
• 22:37
  Yasi Amram: Thank you.
• 22:38
  Yasi Amram: I'm honored and I'm grateful.
• 22:40
  Yasi Amram: That's been delightful for me as well.
• 22:43
  Yasi Amram: Thank you, Jos.
• 22:47
  Raymond Aaron: Wow, I sure hope you enjoyed that fascinating episode.
• 22:50
  Raymond Aaron: Please make sure you subscribe and
• 22:52
  Raymond Aaron: please tell your friends if you like it that they will probably like it as well.
• 22:56
  Raymond Aaron: For your information,
• 22:58
  Raymond Aaron: this experience,
• 23:00
  Raymond Aaron: this service, this podcast has been sponsored by the Orbit Coaching Program.
• 23:05
  Raymond Aaron: All of my friends, all my world famous speaker friends all have coaching programs.
• 23:10
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• 23:11
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• 23:16
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• 23:18
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• 23:18
  Raymond Aaron: have to audition for it by me personally.
• 23:21
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• 23:23
  Raymond Aaron: please email me at
• 23:25
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• 23:27
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• 23:31
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• 23:34
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• 23:39
  Raymond Aaron: back.