Latest / Passing The Torch with Martin Foster / Ep. 130: 25 Lessons after 130 episodes of Passing The Torch Podcast

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Ep. 130: 25 Lessons after 130 episodes of Passing The Torch Podcast · Passing The Torch with Martin Foster

• 0:00
  Martin Foster: All right, all right.
• 0:01
  Martin Foster: I decided to go live uh for this episode.
• 0:05
  Martin Foster: This will most likely be episode 130.
• 0:08
  Martin Foster: Uh it's Friday, May 1st, whereas my good man Justin Timberlake uh Justin Timberlake says it's gonna be May.
• 0:16
  Martin Foster: I don't know.
• 0:17
  Martin Foster: That was kind of bad, but I do celebrity impressions though that are much better.
• 0:21
  Martin Foster: Um so the purpose of this episode is I just want to just take lessons learned.
• 0:26
  Martin Foster: I've been wanting to do this for a while, but I just kept getting booked with other guests in other episodes.
• 0:31
  Martin Foster: Basically, I started I did this after episode 100, just compiled a list of lessons learned from the past over eight and a half uh over eight years of podcasting, and now over 100 episodes.
• 0:43
  Martin Foster: I just took about 20 uh looked for common themes and basically boiled it down to 25 lessons learned from the podcasting after speaking with top military leaders, high performers in the entrepreneur worlds, business leaders, obviously, um family members, dear friends, mentors, professional athletes, just a lot of people I've interacted with on a personal uh daily basis and through my podcast.
• 1:13
  Martin Foster: A lot of lessons learned.
• 1:14
  Martin Foster: So, again, just wanted to uh just share that.
• 1:18
  Martin Foster: So let me get my notes.
• 1:20
  Martin Foster: And this is my first time, or I'm doing this on live, so I'm not sure how this is working.
• 1:26
  Martin Foster: We shall see.
• 1:29
  Martin Foster: But you got to do it sometimes, right?
• 1:30
  Martin Foster: You just gotta try new things.
• 1:32
  Martin Foster: And uh I can read about it all day, but for me, the best way for me to learn is just do actual application.
• 1:40
  Martin Foster: All right, so this is take three.
• 1:42
  Martin Foster: I've tried two uh other takes uh thus far.
• 1:45
  Martin Foster: All right, so here we go.
• 1:46
  Martin Foster: What 100 conversations taught me about life and leadership, 100 plus conversations.
• 1:52
  Martin Foster: Before I started this podcast, there was something I couldn't quite explain.
• 1:58
  Martin Foster: Is it was this feeling that conversation conversations mattered more than we realize.
• 2:04
  Martin Foster: I remember being only 11 years old when my dad died from a brain tumor.
• 2:10
  Martin Foster: Uh, he was only only 51 at that time.
• 2:13
  Martin Foster: And I I say only 51 because now that I'm 44 currently, 51 to me, I realize, is such a young age.
• 2:21
  Martin Foster: But at that age, you don't fully understand what's what's happening when I was 11 and even now in my adulthood, but you feel the absence.
• 2:29
  Martin Foster: You feel the silence that follows when someone important is suddenly gone.
• 2:34
  Martin Foster: And one thing I've thought about many times since then is this what conversations did I never get to have with my dad?
• 2:43
  Martin Foster: What questions did I never get to ask him?
• 2:47
  Martin Foster: Uh, what lessons did he carry that never got passed forward?
• 2:51
  Martin Foster: My my parents also got divorced when I was five.
• 2:54
  Martin Foster: So yeah, just a lot of what questions.
• 2:58
  Martin Foster: And those those thoughts have stayed with me through through that time from when I was 11 years old to August 31st of 1993 is when he passed away.
• 3:09
  Martin Foster: My birthday's in November, so I turned 12 shortly after.
• 3:12
  Martin Foster: But but since August 31st of 1993 to present day, um, those thoughts have stayed with me.
• 3:19
  Martin Foster: Uh years later, I joined the military and spent more than uh two decades serving.
• 3:24
  Martin Foster: I joined because of 9-11.
• 3:26
  Martin Foster: Um, a lot of people were enlisting during that time or joining the military, so I was actually in the delayed entry program for over a year.
• 3:34
  Martin Foster: So while I enlisted in uh September 2001, I actually did not leave for basic training as part of the delayed entry program for over 14 months, and I left in November 2002.
• 3:44
  Martin Foster: I actually had to go to MEPS twice because something expired because I was waiting for so long, but it all worked out.
• 3:50
  Martin Foster: But yeah, obviously years later I joined the military, spent more than two decades, 23 years.
• 3:55
  Martin Foster: My daughter did the math.
• 3:56
  Martin Foster: It's like 52 or 53% of my life, or something like that, is how much I spent in the military.
• 4:02
  Martin Foster: During that time, I worked with incredible people, leaders, teammates, mentors, people who carried a tremendous amount of wisdom earned through experience.
• 4:11
  Martin Foster: And I started noticing something.
• 4:14
  Martin Foster: Some of the most important lessons in life are rarely written down.
• 4:18
  Martin Foster: Uh, that they are passed through conversations, stories, through someone taking the time to sit down and say, here's something I learned the hard way.
• 4:26
  Martin Foster: So in January of 2018, early January of 2018, I started recording conversations.
• 4:32
  Martin Foster: At that time, I didn't even have a name for my podcast.
• 4:35
  Martin Foster: And my very first episode was with General John Jumper, retired in the United States Air Force.
• 4:39
  Martin Foster: He was the 17th Air Force Chief of Staff, four-star general.
• 4:42
  Martin Foster: So he was the highest-ranking military member in the Air Force.
• 4:45
  Martin Foster: But again, I didn't have a name, a strategy, zero audience.
• 4:50
  Martin Foster: Uh, just a microphone.
• 4:52
  Martin Foster: As a matter of fact, it was a blue Yeti microphone.
• 4:55
  Martin Foster: And I would set it up on uh like a TV tray and put a shoebox on top of this TV tray and set up my laptop on that with my microphone and that tower recorded.
• 5:09
  Martin Foster: No video at that time, only audio, but just a microphone inside my clothes closet.
• 5:15
  Martin Foster: And the curiosity of searching for something that I could not find in the present, I want to say that again.
• 5:20
  Martin Foster: I've been asked quite a few times, and over the past probably eight months or so, I've been a guest on quite a few podcasts.
• 5:26
  Martin Foster: And I one question I often get asked is why did you start the podcast?
• 5:32
  Martin Foster: It's simple because I was searching for something I could not find in the present.
• 5:35
  Martin Foster: Uh, since then, I've had more than 100 long form conversations with veterans, again, athletes, authors, leaders, and everyday people doing extraordinary things.
• 5:44
  Martin Foster: And after all those conversations, certain truths keep or kept showing up.
• 5:51
  Martin Foster: No matter the background, no matter the profession, no matter the life story, the same lessons kept surfacing.
• 5:58
  Martin Foster: So, in case you missed the first part, uh, I want to share those 25 lessons I've learned from hosting passing the torch.
• 6:06
  Martin Foster: Uh, not because I've mastered them, but because they keep showing up in the lives of people who are trying to grow, evolve, lead, and live with purpose.
• 6:14
  Martin Foster: Uh, for the first, and what I did is I broke up the lessons into certain categories um just to kind of help organize it.
• 6:21
  Martin Foster: And that's just that's just how I do things.
• 6:23
  Martin Foster: But uh the first group of lessons, the theme is overall just growth and discipline.
• 6:28
  Martin Foster: And these are again the different subjects, but I kept noticing or repeated over and over.
• 6:33
  Martin Foster: Uh, growth is a lifelong pursuit, uh, not a finish line.
• 6:39
  Martin Foster: I forget what the exact phrase is, right?
• 6:41
  Martin Foster: But it's it's a marathon, not a sprint.
• 6:43
  Martin Foster: And I've I wish I'd have learned that or understood that earlier in my life.
• 6:47
  Martin Foster: I think a lot of people get caught up.
• 6:48
  Martin Foster: Now, granted, you want to do as much as you can when you can, because we don't know how long we have to live on this earth, but um it's important to just keep that in mind.
• 6:58
  Martin Foster: Growth is a lifelong pursuit, not a finish line.
• 7:01
  Martin Foster: Don't feel like you have to do everything before you're 50.
• 7:04
  Martin Foster: Every guest who is doing something meaningful has understood this.
• 7:08
  Martin Foster: And the moment you think you arrived, you have arrived.
• 7:11
  Martin Foster: You've uh you have stopped evolving.
• 7:14
  Martin Foster: And I know for me, I feel like I'm just scratching the service surface.
• 7:18
  Martin Foster: I'm only getting started.
• 7:20
  Martin Foster: I think for people who who feel have arrived or that they personally have arrived, that's a big mistake.
• 7:26
  Martin Foster: And I I personally wouldn't um do that.
• 7:30
  Martin Foster: If you haven't done so already, please follow, like, subscribe.
• 7:34
  Martin Foster: That goes such a long way in helping me uh try to grow this podcast, continue growing this podcast.
• 7:40
  Martin Foster: All right, again.
• 7:41
  Martin Foster: So, again, the moment you think you've arrived, you have stopped evolving.
• 7:44
  Martin Foster: Um, the people I admire the most are always learning, always adjusting, always curious.
• 7:51
  Martin Foster: Um, which actually leads to the second lesson.
• 7:53
  Martin Foster: Confidence is built, not given.
• 7:55
  Martin Foster: Confidence does not appear out of thin air.
• 7:58
  Martin Foster: I don't care what the movies say or what 30-second inspirational clip you see on social media.
• 8:04
  Martin Foster: Again, confidence does not appear out of thin air.
• 8:08
  Martin Foster: It's built through uh repetition, through preparation, through experience, through showing up again and again.
• 8:14
  Martin Foster: Most confident people were once extremely unsure of themselves.
• 8:19
  Martin Foster: They just kept moving forward anyway.
• 8:21
  Martin Foster: And that's a big difference between I think people who are not confident versus confident.
• 8:25
  Martin Foster: Lesson three, resilience is trained through adversity.
• 8:30
  Martin Foster: Nobody volunteers for hardship.
• 8:32
  Martin Foster: I certainly, if you would have told me all the things I experienced in my career, if you would have told me back in 2001, hey, if you join, here's the exact everything that's going to happen to you, to include the hardships, you still want to go.
• 8:47
  Martin Foster: I'm like, no, I don't want to experience that.
• 8:48
  Martin Foster: I'm not going to voluntarily experience uh walk into that.
• 8:51
  Martin Foster: So I'm glad I didn't know, but I'm glad it happened.
• 8:54
  Martin Foster: I wouldn't have changed anything.
• 8:56
  Martin Foster: But yeah, it's it's I shouldn't say nobody volunteers for hardship.
• 8:59
  Martin Foster: There are some cases where people they do volunteer for the hardship because they're they're fulfilled or compelled with a sense of pride.
• 9:06
  Martin Foster: But just all the different things I experienced, you know, my time in Hawaii 2018 through 2020, definitely the roughest times of my career, um, aside from COVID uh in 2020, but just felt abandoned by a lot of people, let down by people who are not leaders but were in leadership positions.
• 9:24
  Martin Foster: But if you would have told me years ago, you're gonna experience this.
• 9:28
  Martin Foster: I'm like, no, I'm gonna avoid that at all costs, but I'm glad everything happened the way it did because it only made me stronger.
• 9:33
  Martin Foster: But the people who grow the most are often the ones who went through the hardest seasons.
• 9:37
  Martin Foster: One of my favorite quotes is we don't grow despite the storm, we grow because of the storm.
• 9:43
  Martin Foster: So if you want to what's the iron sharp sharpens iron, if you want to just level up, you want to become better and stronger in order to help someone else, you need to go.
• 9:57
  Martin Foster: There's there's some beauty and hardship that'll continue to build you.
• 10:01
  Martin Foster: But if you're willing to learn from it, it becomes one of the greatest teachers uh you'll ever have.
• 10:06
  Martin Foster: Lesson four is discipline creates freedom.
• 10:09
  Martin Foster: This one shows up constantly.
• 10:11
  Martin Foster: We often think freedom, freedom means doing whatever we want, but in reality, freedom usually comes from structure and discipline.
• 10:18
  Martin Foster: The discipline to train, the discipline to learn, the discipline to show up and motivation disappears.
• 10:24
  Martin Foster: I think people grew tired or are growing tired of the word discipline.
• 10:28
  Martin Foster: They shouldn't.
• 10:29
  Martin Foster: It's just they have a misunderstanding of discipline.
• 10:32
  Martin Foster: Discipline is more than just waking up at four o'clock every day and just crushing that workout.
• 10:36
  Martin Foster: There's discipline with just certain habits, certain attitudes, mindsets, skill sets, attributes.
• 10:42
  Martin Foster: Um to me, that's what uh defines uh discipline.
• 10:47
  Martin Foster: Lesson five, consistency beats intensity over time.
• 10:52
  Martin Foster: Almost every successful person I've spoken with, even offline, not even associated with the podcast, but just through random at conferences or interactions throughout life, all of them have this sort of philosophy.
• 11:04
  Martin Foster: They didn't rely on bursts of motivation.
• 11:06
  Martin Foster: They relied on showing up again and again and again.
• 11:09
  Martin Foster: Small, consistent efforts compounds in ways we often underestimate.
• 11:16
  Martin Foster: There is no substitute for volume.
• 11:18
  Martin Foster: There's no substitute for getting reps.
• 11:20
  Martin Foster: Whatever you're trying to get world class at, you need to do more reps than you think you need to do.
• 11:25
  Martin Foster: Which leads to lesson six small habits compound into massive outcomes, outcomes.
• 11:31
  Martin Foster: Most success stories are not overnight.
• 11:34
  Martin Foster: We see the overnight success.
• 11:35
  Martin Foster: And while there have been people who exploded overnight or achieved fame in a short amount of time, it's rare that it's been long lasting.
• 11:43
  Martin Foster: There are two people who started podcasts within the past four years on the national scene, not anything to do with the veteran, military veteran uh community or professional development, but just people who just hit lightning or capture lightning in a bottle, their podcast blew up in a good way, and then within a year, they're forgotten about.
• 12:04
  Martin Foster: So the ones, the people who've been the most successful are the ones who started small and just kept slowly, slowly, slowly building up.
• 12:14
  Martin Foster: I get asked people all the time, people ask me all the time, how do you get this guess?
• 12:17
  Martin Foster: How do you get that guess?
• 12:18
  Martin Foster: Or where do you come up with these questions?
• 12:20
  Martin Foster: Well, I've published 130 episodes of my podcast, but I've recorded more than that.
• 12:25
  Martin Foster: I don't publish every episode that I record.
• 12:28
  Martin Foster: I've also been podcasting.
• 12:31
  Martin Foster: I had a sports podcast before I started this one.
• 12:33
  Martin Foster: So I've been podcasting since 2014.
• 12:36
  Martin Foster: But um, and I don't feel like I'm anywhere near being a success, but I've been consistent and it's helped me grow.
• 12:43
  Martin Foster: The podcasters that I follow, their episode catalog is in the deep hundreds, and they've been doing it for over 10 years.
• 12:53
  Martin Foster: But throughout those years, they're built through, it's a lot of small daily decisions that have led to this monster success that they do have.
• 13:00
  Martin Foster: Um when you zoom out far enough, those small habits become life-changing uh outcomes.
• 13:05
  Martin Foster: One of my something else I'd like to remind myself of is we are responsible for our effort, not the outcome.
• 13:14
  Martin Foster: So again, we are responsible for our effort, not the outcome.
• 13:19
  Martin Foster: All right, the next themes for lessons is about leadership.
• 13:25
  Martin Foster: Um, that's the central focus of this next couple.
• 13:28
  Martin Foster: Um leader lesson number seven is leadership is not not about leadership is about service, not status.
• 13:34
  Martin Foster: The best leaders I've met aren't focused on being in charge.
• 13:38
  Martin Foster: They are focused on taking care of people.
• 13:40
  Martin Foster: They understand that leadership is a responsibility.
• 13:44
  Martin Foster: That's a big one because a lot of people can't separate their title from who they are.
• 13:50
  Martin Foster: Who they are is their title.
• 13:52
  Martin Foster: And I think it's important for leaders to be able to differentiate between the two, which segues into lesson eight.
• 13:59
  Martin Foster: Titles don't make leaders do, uh titles don't make leaders actions do.
• 14:03
  Martin Foster: I've seen so many people who introduced themselves even years after they've separated from the military or retired, they still introduce themselves by their rank.
• 14:16
  Martin Foster: It's important for people just to stay humble.
• 14:18
  Martin Foster: Your actions are going to say more than your actual title.
• 14:22
  Martin Foster: Um, some of the best and most incredible leaders I've ever met and served with had no formal title.
• 14:28
  Martin Foster: Um, and I've also met people with impressive titles, a lot of certifications, doctorates who didn't lead anyone well, and some of the most incompetent people I've ever met in my life.
• 14:39
  Martin Foster: But just something to keep in mind.
• 14:41
  Martin Foster: Uh, leadership shows up in behavior and how you treat people and uh whether people trust you.
• 14:48
  Martin Foster: Lesson nine, humility strengthens influence.
• 14:51
  Martin Foster: The most respected people I've interviewed rarely talk about themselves in grand ways.
• 14:55
  Martin Foster: They are humble, they give credit to others, they listen more than they talk.
• 14:59
  Martin Foster: And ironically, the humility often increases their influence.
• 15:02
  Martin Foster: That's a good one.
• 15:04
  Martin Foster: Yeah.
• 15:05
  Martin Foster: I once I went to within the past couple years, I went to an event and the guest speaker spent the entire 45 minutes just talking about their upbringing and just everything about and all their accomplishments.
• 15:20
  Martin Foster: And it was one of the most boring speeches I've ever heard.
• 15:24
  Martin Foster: And someone who I previously kind of looked up to, but then once I heard them speak and just brag about themselves for 45 minutes, it was just a huge turn off.
• 15:32
  Martin Foster: Stay humble, give credit to others, listen more than you uh the best leaders, listen more than they talk.
• 15:37
  Martin Foster: Um yeah, and humility definitely has a strong potential to increase uh your influence.
• 15:44
  Martin Foster: Lesson 10 purpose fuels purpose perseverance.
• 15:47
  Martin Foster: A little tongue twister.
• 15:49
  Martin Foster: Purpose fuels perseverance.
• 15:51
  Martin Foster: When someone has a strong sense of purpose, they can endure a lot.
• 15:56
  Martin Foster: Uh the setbacks, the failure, the long seasons of uncertainty.
• 15:59
  Martin Foster: Purpose gives people the strength to keep going when things get hard.
• 16:03
  Martin Foster: So that's how I define purpose.
• 16:06
  Martin Foster: All right, moving on to the next themes of uh for lessons.
• 16:10
  Martin Foster: It's about identity and personal story.
• 16:12
  Martin Foster: Then so lesson 11: identity matters more than accolades.
• 16:17
  Martin Foster: Uh, achievements come and go, but who you are at your core matters more.
• 16:22
  Martin Foster: Your character, your values, uh, your integrity.
• 16:24
  Martin Foster: Those things last much longer than any trophy or title.
• 16:29
  Martin Foster: Kind of ties into some past lessons where we have to let go of our past.
• 16:33
  Martin Foster: It's important to remember things that helped us get here, but if we're clinging on to past roles, past success, past titles, that stuff's gonna fade away at some point.
• 16:42
  Martin Foster: Uh, lesson 12 is you can rewrite your story at any point.
• 16:46
  Martin Foster: This is a tough lesson for me, and I have to realize I can't let past trauma continue to define me.
• 16:53
  Martin Foster: Um, you know, every day has is a possibility to, if you're in a rut, every day is a possibility to start that next, to turn the page and start that next chapter.
• 17:01
  Martin Foster: Uh I've spoken with guests who completely reinvented themselves after failure, after loss, after major life transitions.
• 17:08
  Martin Foster: Your past shapes you, but it does not have to define your future.
• 17:12
  Martin Foster: Don't let failure define you, rather use it as a tool to build and refine you.
• 17:17
  Martin Foster: I'm gonna say that again because I used to say that quote a lot.
• 17:19
  Martin Foster: Don't let failure define you.
• 17:22
  Martin Foster: Rather, use it as a tool to build and refine you.
• 17:25
  Martin Foster: Lesson 13.
• 17:27
  Martin Foster: Fear shrink.
• 17:28
  Martin Foster: Fear shrinks.
• 17:29
  Martin Foster: Uh fear shrinks when you take action.
• 17:32
  Martin Foster: Fear often grows when we sit still because we're idle minds.
• 17:36
  Martin Foster: That's dangerous.
• 17:37
  Martin Foster: We kind of get upset or all worked up about conversations, these made-up conversations and thoughts in our head, things that never happened or will happen, but we imagine they'd happen and it just creates a lot of fear.
• 17:50
  Martin Foster: So again, fear shrinks when you take action and often grows when we sit still.
• 17:56
  Martin Foster: When we overthink, we imagine worst-case scenarios.
• 18:00
  Martin Foster: But the moment you start taking action, fear begins to lose its grip.
• 18:05
  Martin Foster: Movement creates momentum.
• 18:07
  Martin Foster: All right, lesson 14.
• 18:10
  Martin Foster: Vulnerability is a form of courage.
• 18:12
  Martin Foster: I love this because I've often I've said for years, even before Brene Brown made it popular, I said this before that.
• 18:20
  Martin Foster: Uh, vulnerability is more than how much you can lift in the gym.
• 18:24
  Martin Foster: Or sorry, strength is more than how much you can lift into the gym.
• 18:28
  Martin Foster: It's just strength can also be tied to vulnerability.
• 18:31
  Martin Foster: Uh, open up.
• 18:32
  Martin Foster: Um, it's a way to connect with people.
• 18:34
  Martin Foster: You know, some of the most powerful moments in my podcast have happened when guests were willing to be honest, to talk about struggle, failure, the things that shaped them, the kind of vulnerability that requires courage, but it also creates connection.
• 18:48
  Martin Foster: It's about connection, not perfection.
• 18:50
  Martin Foster: So again, it's about connection, not perfection.
• 18:53
  Martin Foster: Lesson 15, and these next couple are gonna just talk about relationships mentorship accelerates growth.
• 19:02
  Martin Foster: Um, mentorship's a two-way street.
• 19:04
  Martin Foster: It's not just one way, but mentorship is a must.
• 19:09
  Martin Foster: Um, almost every successful person I've spoken with had someone who helped guide them.
• 19:15
  Martin Foster: No one can do this on their own.
• 19:16
  Martin Foster: Anyone who says they've done it on their own, on their own, is a flat out liar.
• 19:20
  Martin Foster: No one is the lone wolf, even though that's very popular and people like to portray themselves as that.
• 19:25
  Martin Foster: We all had someone along the way.
• 19:27
  Martin Foster: If you're successful, and success can be defined in a multitude of ways, but we all had someone help us in some form or fashion.
• 19:35
  Martin Foster: A coach, a mentor, a leader who took the time to invest in them.
• 19:39
  Martin Foster: Mentorship shortens the learning curve.
• 19:43
  Martin Foster: Lesson 16, the people you surround yourself with matter.
• 19:48
  Martin Foster: That's a tough one.
• 19:49
  Martin Foster: Well, it's not a tough one, but it's well, I've had to cut a lot of people out of my life over the past 10 years or so.
• 19:56
  Martin Foster: People I may stay in contact with, but I don't give them access to my personal life as much as at all anymore.
• 20:04
  Martin Foster: Where I I truly understand it's about the quality, not the quantity.
• 20:09
  Martin Foster: Um, because I you you are impacted by those you surround yourself with.
• 20:14
  Martin Foster: Um, your environment quietly shapes your future.
• 20:17
  Martin Foster: I love that someone say it again.
• 20:19
  Martin Foster: Your environment quietly shapes your future, your friends, your teammates, your mentors, the people around you influence how you think and what you believe is possible.
• 20:28
  Martin Foster: All right, moving on to the themes, the theme of adversity and transition.
• 20:34
  Martin Foster: Lesson 17: transitions aren't comfortable, but necessary.
• 20:38
  Martin Foster: Growth almost always requires transition, leave leaving something behind, starting something new, stepping into the unknown.
• 20:46
  Martin Foster: And the process is rarely comfortable.
• 20:49
  Martin Foster: If it is comfortable, maybe it's not, you're not growing.
• 20:53
  Martin Foster: Lesson 18, failure is a teacher if you're willing to listen.
• 20:59
  Martin Foster: Failure is not the opposite of success.
• 21:02
  Martin Foster: Often it's part of the process, but the key is whether you're willing to learn from it.
• 21:07
  Martin Foster: And I think there's a difference between being a failure and failing.
• 21:10
  Martin Foster: You can there's again, there's a difference between failing and failure.
• 21:13
  Martin Foster: A lot of times people misdiagnose or misidentify themselves as being a failure.
• 21:18
  Martin Foster: Like you are not a failure.
• 21:20
  Martin Foster: You have worth, you are success.
• 21:22
  Martin Foster: Maybe you weren't great at something.
• 21:24
  Martin Foster: And I have to tell myself this because the toughest conversations I often have are with myself, and many people, the toughest conversations they have are often with themselves.
• 21:31
  Martin Foster: If you're not great at something or something's not going your way, you're just failing at it for the time.
• 21:36
  Martin Foster: You keep going at it, keep working at it, it will eventually lead to success.
• 21:41
  Martin Foster: But again, there's a difference between being a failure and failing.
• 21:45
  Martin Foster: So don't be so hard on yourself.
• 21:47
  Martin Foster: Uh, lesson 19 hard seasons reveal true character.
• 21:51
  Martin Foster: When life gets difficult, our real character shows up.
• 21:53
  Martin Foster: It's easy to say all the things when things are going well.
• 21:59
  Martin Foster: But when times are tough, that's when the real character shows up.
• 22:03
  Martin Foster: Adversity has a way of revealing who we really are.
• 22:07
  Martin Foster: I referenced my favorite quote earlier: we grow despite the storms.
• 22:11
  Martin Foster: We grow uh because of the storms, not despite the storms.
• 22:15
  Martin Foster: Uh, lesson 20, discipline in private shows up in public.
• 22:19
  Martin Foster: You know, the work we're doing behind the scenes for we see people in, for example, who have these amazing, they've worked hard at their uh their skill, professional athletes or the speakers on stage, or people who have these complete body transformations.
• 22:34
  Martin Foster: We see them on a stage or on a field or on a court.
• 22:38
  Martin Foster: We don't see the 4 a.m.
• 22:39
  Martin Foster: wake up time to work out or to practice their speech.
• 22:45
  Martin Foster: We don't see them, the speaker speaking, rehearsing their speech a hundred times in their living room or speaking into a mirror.
• 22:52
  Martin Foster: Uh so again, just discipline in private shows up in public.
• 22:56
  Martin Foster: Uh, the preparation nobody sees, the effort nobody applauds.
• 23:00
  Martin Foster: That's what eventually shows up uh on the stage.
• 23:03
  Martin Foster: Lesson 21 Curiosity keeps you evolving.
• 23:07
  Martin Foster: The most interesting people I've interviewed are endlessly curious.
• 23:10
  Martin Foster: They read, they ask questions, they explore ideas, and more, they explore ideas outside of their bubble.
• 23:19
  Martin Foster: Uh curiosity keeps people growing long after others stop.
• 23:25
  Martin Foster: All right, just wrapping up the final group of lessons is about service and legacy.
• 23:32
  Martin Foster: Lesson 22.
• 23:33
  Martin Foster: Uh serve others without keeping score.
• 23:36
  Martin Foster: Some of the most impactful people I've simply I've met simply focus on helping others, not for recognition, not for reward, but because they believe it matters.
• 23:44
  Martin Foster: Don't be transactional, be genuine and sincere.
• 23:48
  Martin Foster: Whether you realize it or not, people can see right through the uh if you're being transactional.
• 23:54
  Martin Foster: So again, don't keep score, just serve others.
• 23:57
  Martin Foster: Lesson 23, legacy is built through people, not achievements.
• 24:01
  Martin Foster: At the end of the day, people rarely remember our accomplishments.
• 24:05
  Martin Foster: They remember how we made them feel, how we helped them, how we helped them, how we showed up.
• 24:11
  Martin Foster: Uh, lesson 24, teach what you once needed to learn.
• 24:17
  Martin Foster: You know, that's one of the main reasons I started this podcast is there was a troubled time.
• 24:22
  Martin Foster: I there was probably a seven-year time in my career where I felt just like a nomad.
• 24:27
  Martin Foster: I didn't have any direction or any positive leadership examples.
• 24:32
  Martin Foster: But I wanted to and I was getting mad at things I couldn't control.
• 24:36
  Martin Foster: Then I started focusing on what I could control uh control.
• 24:40
  Martin Foster: Then I realized, you know, mentorship's about, it's more than that Monday morning raw, rah, raw speech, mentorship and leadership.
• 24:47
  Martin Foster: It's about taking those lessons learned from past experiences and using that to shape those around us, those within our sphere of influence.
• 24:54
  Martin Foster: One of the most powerful ways to help others is to share the lessons you learned the hard way.
• 24:58
  Martin Foster: Your struggle may become someone else's guidance.
• 25:02
  Martin Foster: And finally, lesson 25.
• 25:05
  Martin Foster: Passing the torch is the highest form of leadership.
• 25:09
  Martin Foster: Uh, sharing what you've learned, encouraging the next person, helping others go farther than you did.
• 25:15
  Martin Foster: Uh, the overall meta lesson is that after more than 100 conversations, if there's one lesson that I've learned, it's this we grow faster and farther when we share what we've learned.
• 25:27
  Martin Foster: Wisdom compounds when it's shared.
• 25:30
  Martin Foster: Conversations and connections accelerate growth.
• 25:33
  Martin Foster: This podcast started with curiosity and the search for something I could not find in the present.
• 25:40
  Martin Foster: But over time it became something uh deeper, a place where stories are shared, uh, where lessons are passed forward, where one person's experience might help someone else navigate their path.
• 25:51
  Martin Foster: Um, and that's what really passing the torch is all about learning, sharing, identity, connection, and purpose.
• 25:59
  Martin Foster: Thank you so much for spending time with me today.
• 26:02
  Martin Foster: And finally, remember vision, relate, develop.
• 26:05
  Martin Foster: Take care, everyone, foster out.