Latest / Books4Guys / Do the Hustle: How to Turn Setbacks Into Success | Don Kurz

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Do the Hustle: How to Turn Setbacks Into Success | Don Kurz · Books4Guys

• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: When I first looking, I was like, is Dawn in California?
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then I saw Nashville and I was like, well, hey, we're we're practically neighbors.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: We we are.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's just my company's still in California, so I'm out here for my county.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: So how long have you lived in Nashville?
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: I guess five and a half years now.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: I've met several people who have moved here from California.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: I ain't the only one.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're not the only one.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: But you probably start to say, okay, enough already with these people.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: You you probably know some of them.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: When we when we connect offline, we'll talk through, see if we've got some mutual connections.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure we do.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: But Don, it's uh it's an honor, man, to have you on the Books for Guys podcast.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I really appreciate you taking the time to do this.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we've got your book spotlighted on the website already.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: I've got your book here uh for everyone who's watching.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I love it.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Do the hustle.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot in here that actually resonate with me.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a former college athlete as well.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I played football.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: I know you were a big time athlete, uh lacrosse athlete.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: And uh then you've done a lot, Don.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: You've done, you've dance instructed, you've built companies, you've uh I love just your message in the book, though, a lot about, I mean, obviously, someone looks at you from the outside and they see they see a lot of success, but you're very quick to pinpoint while there's a lot of success, it wasn't just a straight, straight line to the top.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: It was uh it was a roller coaster.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I would love to just let you have the platform for a few minutes and just just share your story and share where it began, you know, how the athlete turned into to dance and business, some of those obstacles you faced, and really what motivated you to write your book to share your story with with everyone else.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thanks so much, media co this this kind of story.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I was born in Bayside, Queens, in a blue-collar town public school kid, weight uh for athletics.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: I I was school years, was uh three-sport athlete wrestling, football, really lacrosse, known for two things lacrosse players and doctors.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I ain't no doctors.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: It must be a lacrosse.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and was very fortunate to uh NCAA playoff era.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Hopkins has 44 total national titles, but in the NCAA playoff era, which started in 1970.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's a playoff no different than football.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: So had a great couple of years run in my junior year, was hopefully the year AstroTurf, the University of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Going way back, it was one of the first AstroTurf facilities.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: And it's still AstroTurf is a bit of a mixed reputation, but back then it was like shared carpet.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: So and as a relatively small guy whose game was speed and quickness, it was Nirvana, because you could literally sprint and cut it a 90-degree actually slip on them, and it was great.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: The problem is by being able to plant and cut with no given, you get hit when you're at that vulnerable position, which happened in the so I tore my ACL and MCL ligaments, and this is an era right before MRIs or orthooscopic surgery.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: So what they did back then is put you in a full leg cast, which of course is the worst thing you can do now.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: Your leg atrophies, grow the scar tissue, which gives you spur about tried to come back for the playoffs, rehabit the first scrimmage back for the playoffs.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: I re-injured the knee again.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: So effectively my was ending because I entirely business.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: So purely coincidentally, this now late 1970s was this era of disco, which I'm sure many of you didn't turn celebrities and it's drugs and sex and not rock and roll discount.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: So somehow I m fell into that.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: So things didn't spread like they did to me.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I I just became a reasonable dancer, Arthur Murray, which some of you may know dance and the irony.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: You you go from the ultimate grow culture of particularly lacrosse was its like an East Coast fraternity back then, dance instructor, which you can't get more opposite, you know, the even the locker room in the classic rivalry, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, you know, versus the the the music.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's just the most absurd contrast between being, you know, forget the cliche as one door closes, my life of uh athlete opens.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: If you're up your eyes are open and you're not wallowing in regret and feeling a victim, like why me?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: Why isn't Chris's knee the one that got hurt?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: Why me?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's not fair.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not fair.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, life will adjudicate every unfairness in life.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: You just gotta absorb it and dance, purely coincidental, and then ultimately use the energy of of of work ethic.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's incredible, Don.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sitting here laughing because you're you're picking on yourself about going from you know a macho sport to dance.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sitting here laughing because while I didn't do dance, I I was pretty good at choir.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I was a football guy, was in the choir, and I remember making like all state choir, and people were like, Why are you in choir?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Wait a second.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I like it, you know.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm pretty good at it.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: No, and you're good at it, obviously.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's a very similar, you know, very improbable thing.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, your your choir might have been something.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's it's a great lesson that you talk about, though, because again, we're in and you kind of mentioned this too.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot that we can't control.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: But if you have the right just outlook and mindset, and and you you're right on this too.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Life's tough, man.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many things that are that are unfair, and and if and you can quickly go down a spiral of just negativity and self-negative talk.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it can, and there's really no benefit to it.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing good about it.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Essentially, you're taking bad situations and making them worse without any glimpse of hope to come out on the other side better.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: But it is unique, and and I talked to a lot of people, I interviewed a lot of people.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone has tough struggles and things that happen in their lives.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: But the ones that seem to be the most successful and are doing the most incredible things, they have this weird ability to be able to switch the way they think and go, okay, how do I use this for my benefit?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: How do I use this to that where I can help others?
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: And when you take that approach and you keep your eyes open to doors that may open and give you a pathway, man, you just never know what what's gonna happen and what just the beauty of life.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Chris, it's the beauty and it's the richness of life.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: And certain say, great, I had a big setback.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: What's next?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it doesn't feel like that, particularly if you feel you got screwed in business or, you know, something uh, you know, really uh fairness goes under their, you know, you know, I started a hedge fund and then 2008 the financial crisis happened and it was like, damn, you know, what what else you got for me?
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you know, freaking once in a hundred year just again, you can't yeah, I'm not being polyatic.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: Suffer, you grieve, you sleep, you you 'cause you don't know if you can recover, you know, you lose money, you you know how many people they get divorced, you know, what do you do?
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's terribly hurtful.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it it's you have kids you have and how do you recover?
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: And you just have to.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: And you have to trust that there's a spiritual reason and there's a there's a some invisible hand.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: God, if you look at his has this journey mapped out, and there is a reason for everything, and you will not understand it, and you cannot kill yourself trying to understand it because it's not understandable.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: But you just have to accept that there is a journey and there is a reason this happened.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: Trust can give you enough comfort to to survive and then say, okay, what's next?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, yep.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it's no one else's fault, you know.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: When you when you just kind of put that in your own personal, hey, this is me, what do I do moving forward?
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: It just it just completely changes your outlook, and it's hard to explain to figure it out.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: But once you do, it makes life a little bit easier to navigate, even through those really less bitter, yeah.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: Less bitter and less resentful.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: And that bitterness and resentful is so corrosive physically and mentally.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: It it and and it's just not a good way to live.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and I think, Don, your book, uh this is why I think your book is so impactful.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's so many different areas of your life that you talk about that you've had setbacks.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if it as an athlete, if I read your book, I'm gonna understand the moment you got hurt what that's like.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: When I'm in business, you went through tough times through your business career.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's tons of us out there, professionals, who have either been, we've been laid off before, we've created something, we thought it was gonna be good, it wasn't.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's so many different pieces to your story that can resonate with so many other people going through similar situations.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I always I love that you wrote a book because I think everyone has a story and everyone's going through something.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I tell people all the time, now that I'm, you know, really promoting books, man, there's a blueprint for everything.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever struggle you're going through, someone else has gone through it and they've written about it.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you can learn what they did to get through it.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so, or, you know, Don's built a million-dollar business.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I want to be like Don.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we'll read learn what Don did.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a blueprint there.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think it's really cool that you can impact so many people through your book that you may never know you're impacting, but because you took the time to write it, you're gonna have a much bigger effect than if you were just doing one-on-one conversations all the time.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm I just think it's very important that you wrote your book and got it published because I think it's a really positive thing.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for saying that.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: The goal, as corny as it sounds, is to try to be helpful to people and to share without whitewashing or or or you know, make me sh shake them.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's okay.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: These things happen.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Next chapter of your life is defined as and what did you learn?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Energy and the passion to pick yourself up and and move forward.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk a little bit about, I don't want to go too in-depth because I want people to read it, but when I first got your book, I kind of do what I normally do, and I go to the contents and I'm kind of reading what each chapter may be about in the back.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I love just the titles of a lot of these, they resonate because they're just they're little nuggets of lessons.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you're going through something, you can almost just flip to that chapter and read.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Not, and I'm not going to read them all, but you've got something you can accept, embrace, overcome any challenge.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get trapped by regrets.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Have a defensible strategy.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: When people say stupid, hurtful things, it's about them, not you.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I talk about that with people all the time.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, don't let that, don't let that affect you.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's them.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Don't don't let that ruin your day.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Fear of failure, how to manage it.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: There's just little things in here that if you're just, if you have something specific you're kind of dealing with, I think it's really cool that you have your chapters listed that way because I could quickly go, huh, I was thinking about this yesterday.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: What does Don think about that?
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I really just think you hit on so many levels, and I just can't say it enough.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just I'm excited about your book because it just it just hits on me, Don.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you for saying that.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: And again, all of those, to the extent I can say insight, were almost always from mistakes I made.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: So intellectually we can understand something, but acting that way and truly absorbing it, say hurtful things.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's about then it it's really tough to when somebody is saying bad things about you.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: Particularly if you think it's totally unfair.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: So and and it's it's it's it's it's it hurts your ego and it's try to control their reaction.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, control how I come across.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: And that usually it's it's jealousy some behind people that's some other I think I say in the book you want to be everyone's best friend, be the janitor.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody is jealous of the janitor.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: He's a good guy.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: So I I think the uh freed up enormous energy and and you have to internalize it.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, damn, I can't believe they're saying this about me.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's so unfair.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: They think I took their starting position away because I was friendly with the coach or that I don't know.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: No, and I and even you know I'm looking through too, you talk a lot about pivoting and cutting your losses and you know, not being afraid to do that, which you know, Don, this kind of leads me on my a question I've got for you because there's so many parts of your book that I think will resonate with people.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: But if as you were writing it, are there a few key concepts that if you know, if someone like myself's reading it, if there's nothing else I take away from it, what are some of those those points you really want to sink in with people as they read your book?
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: I some of this we indirectly touched on the one and no order of employees, the this whole notion of accepting and blessing.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: There are two concepts.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: Accepting reality.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness, my wife is leaving.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: I just got fired.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: I just blew out my leaf.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever it is that you need, we all have that moment.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: Did that really just, you know, it's almost out of body?
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: Did that just happen to me?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: Did my wife just do that?
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: You're an entrepreneur.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, your client is leaving just because they change CEOs and they want their own marketing firm or whatever.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's like shit, we've done amazing work for them.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: Happened.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: So accepting reality, getting defensive and resentful and all the things we've talked about.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: And then embrace.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: So it's accept and embrace, embracing the path forward.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: Given that reality, what am I going to do?
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we'll we'll use, you know, object.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: How am I gonna make sure they give a great recommendation for loyal employees to just okay, it happened, what am I gonna do about it?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: Including maybe I need to close the business.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to put more money in that client with 50% of our revenue.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: I I can't.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: Risk return is just not fair.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: So that accepting reality and then embracing whatever you have to do with enthusiasm and with with purpose.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: Again, understanding this is my journey.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know why that just happened, but it's gonna end up better.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna end up better off as a result.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: And that's been my experience.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: Every big setback, I've ended up better off.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it took a few years, sometimes it was obvious, but a hundred percent of the time I've ended up better off.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: And you don't know it at the time.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: But if there's one thing I can impart to people, it does have, but you have to do your part.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: You can't just sit around on the couch and watch Netflix and say, okay, what's coming better?
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: You gotta work your butt off, you gotta be act ethically, you gotta, again, put in passion and do your part, and it will work out.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: And that that's that's one core thing that that you know listeners to to take away.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm so glad you talked about hard work because that was that was something else I wanted to ask you about, but I'm glad you brought it up yourself because uh you're 100% right.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we live in this world now of of automation and everything is making things in life easier to do and experience, but there is still there's still nothing that replaces just good old-fashioned grind, hard work, putting in the time, learning a new skill.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it it that wins a hundred percent of the time versus everything else.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: And every person who has done something worthwhile has that same answer.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Hard work is always a part of the formula.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: And and I just wrote an article that was published in out working everywhere.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: The one thing you can control.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: You can control your work ethic.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: You can't control the pace of technology change, you can't control the economy, you can't control many things.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: But your work ethic is totally shape yourself because most people aren't prepared.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: Separates you.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: And you are in control, and that's the PD.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: Don, uh just one last question for you, because I I want to end on a high note.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you've you've brought so much, just it I love the intensity of sharing these core messages, and then they're really the core life principles at the end of the day.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: That if if you will adopt them and use them and implement them and like you said, do your part to put the work in, man, there you can accomplish some incredible things.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: I was I had a bad thought the other day.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: I was thinking, man, how much wasted potential is out there right now of people just not maximizing what they can do in life and what they're meant to do just because they're not willing to change their mindset or put in the work.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, man, how how much is lacking?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: But I was like, good, there's people out there doing their part for sure.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm like, man, how can we, you know, and that's part of this podcast, how can I share this message to motivate and get people to work towards maximizing that life?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: But Don, one thing I'm always curious about, especially uh, and this answer, you could you could answer this differently based on when I ask you this question.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of an unfair one.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, from a book standpoint, I'm always curious to know what is a book or two that has meant a lot to you personally, and what's a book or two you like to recommend to other people?
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm a big reader of biographies.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: I really like Elon Musk's biography and and and biographies of of presidents and and and the like.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: So those are inspiring to me and invariably the truly profound kinds of thing.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: There is even, I'm not a huge novel reader, but novels like The Goldfinch, which was a poetry winner, the incredible capacity to tell a story and create a fictional world, it's just something I couldn't, I have no skill to do.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I just marvel at somebody, in this case, the author, Donna Tarrant.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: She supposedly, well, she does, she writes one book every 10 years.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: She does so much research, she does so much refining, and and she's also very humble.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: She doesn't do a lot of PR or whatever, and and just somebody uh who lives in Alabama and Mississippi if I'm uh mistake.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't know her, but she you know.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: But those those are you know the kinds of books that are inspiring.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: And and and the books, you know, the power of habit and things like that I find helpful for kid bits.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: Normally those kinds of books to me, you know, you just kind of nod your head.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: Of course that makes sense.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: And but it's helpful to get reinforced.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: But I I find those books, you know, useful.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: But I like to get inspired when I read.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes it's it's it's a lot of it's memoirs.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: We just see people's life's journey, just you know, it just says, Wow, if they couldn't do this, if Abraham Lincoln could overcome abject poverty, Dolly Parton would make she rest in peace, grew up in East Tennessee, and and terrible things are inspiring because they're real life people overcoming that.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm like you.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: I love biographies, I love memoirs, and it doesn't surprise me that you like reading about Elon Musk.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of people who haven't read about him, they they see this individual who's ultra successful, but people don't realize the margin of survival, he almost was nothing because he risked everything.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: And it truly and it wasn't that long ago, wasn't that long ago, no, and I didn't know a lot of that.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I didn't know a lot of that until I read his book, and I was like, wow.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: And in the same Phil Knight and Nike almost absolutely didn't survive.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's actually a book I'm reading, She Dog right now.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: She dog, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: So wonderful things in our yeah.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Don, like I said, man, we are proud to have your book and have it on the Books for Guys website and to share your story and your work.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: And uh man, you've you've accomplished a lot, but you have so much more left to accomplish.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't wait to see just everything that you continue to do now that we've met, now you're part of Books for Guys, and and man, we're happy to support you and just see everything else you continue to do.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it's been a real honor to have you on this on this platform with us.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's been an honor to be here and kudos to you for launching this.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: Us guys need to be reading more uh because the world is, you know, needs us to be as informed and and inspirational as possible.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: So do to support the platform Yeah.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well we appreciate it, Don.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Chris.