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

Episode Date: April 4, 2023

Jon Gordon is a best-selling author and an amazing motivational speaker. He has written 27 books including 12 best-sellers and 5 children’s books. The most popular ones are The Energy Bus, The Power of Positive Leadership, Training Camp, Stay Positive, and The Garden.The Energy Bus has sold over 2 million copies and inspired people around the world to change their lives and achieve success. Jon also worked with many Fortune 500 companies, professional and college sport teams, school districts, hospitals, and non-profits.(00:00) Jon's BackgroundJohn’s father (step-father)New York City undercover narcotics officerLoving father, but with a negative world view (aught him to be stronger than the world) Learned to be tough, but had to deal with negativity laterThe Lord of the Flies neighborhood Jon's Father got shot (came out of it a bit more positive)Biological father was a social workerThe family were encouraging and supportingAt 30, John’s life crumbled (realized he had to start feeding himself with positivity)(08:34) Getting out of a negative mindsetGot married at 26Young entrepreneur with a restaurant businessRan for city council (dreamed about being in politics)Attacked with lies and didn’t winWent to law school and dropped outGot an opportunity to work for dot.com (everything crashed)Going back to your passionHad a second mortgage, credit card debt, and no savings / plan BLived in fear that he would disappoint his familyAsked God for helpSuccess and energy vampires(17:16) Advice to future entrepreneursDo the researchUnderstand what you are doingYou have to truly love it and want itEven if you fail, you still did what you lovedChoose your hardSide hustle before you make it full timeThe moment Jon became a true entrepreneurDecided never to put his family’s future in someone else’s hands Except struggle and challengesBuild a good teamLife is short, live it with no regrets(26:10) Building the newsletter and publishing a bookStarted researching positive psychologyMade complex ideas simpleNumber 1 tip: take a gratitude walk everydayYour mind is a garden, weed the negative, feed the postivieJon failed with 2 booksThe Energy Bus succeeded through the power of prayerDon't believe negative peopleOptimism is the ultimate competitive advantage(44:40) The message of the “Energy Bus”Positivity and overcoming negativityDealing with the energy vampires and sabotageNegative people suck your lifeGeorge, the miserable, negative person meets Joy the Bus Driver10 rules for the ride of his lifeSponsors:Sandee | Bliss: BeachesWant to Connect? Reach out to us online!Website | Instagram | LinkedIn

Welcome to In Search of Excellence, which is about our quest for greatness and our desire to be the very best we can be. To learn, educate, and motivate ourselves to live up to our highest potential. It's about planning for excellence and how we achieve excellence through incredibly hard work, dedication, and perseverance. It's about believing in ourselves and the ability to overcome the many obstacles we all face on our way there. Achieving excellence is our goal and it's never easy to do. We all have different backgrounds, personalities, and surroundings. We all have different routes on how we hope and want to get there. My guest today is John Gordon. John is a leadership expert, best-selling author,

and motivational speaker whose life's mission is to inspire and empower others through positive thinking. He is the author of 27 books, including 14 bestsellers and five children's books, including The Energy Bus, which has sold over 3 million copies, and The Coffee Bean, which he wrote with Damon West, my guest on In Search of Excellence last week, which has also sold over 2 million copies. He has worked with hundreds of Fortune 500 companies, sports teams, universities, and nonprofits. And John has been featured on the Today Show, CNN, CNBC, and many other news outlets, as well as the Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, and the Wall Street Journal, among many others. John is the host of the awesome podcast,

Positive University, and the founder of the online program, Positive University, which provides access to content focused on overcoming everyday challenges and bringing together a community of like-minded people. John, it's an incredible pleasure to have you on my show. Welcome to In Search of Excellence. I always start my podcast with our family because our family helps shape our values of personality and preparation for our future. You're born in Long Island. Your dad was a New York City undercover narcotics officer who was Mr. Negative his whole life and had quite the influence on you growing up. What was it like having a dad who had a very negative, horrible view on the world who says things are happening

to me every day and life is tough. Yeah. He taught me that the world was out to get me a lot of times and you have to be stronger than the world. But he was a very loving dad, loving man, raised me since I was five years old. So he wasn't my biological father. And I'll remember I was in the garage and he and my mom were getting married. And he said, we know we're getting married.

I want you to call me dad and I'll treat you as my own. I'll never forget that. And he really did treat me as his own, my brother as well, and took us under his wing and loved us like he was our biological dad, like our real dad. I say real, he was my real dad, cause he raised me. So such a loving man, but just one of the most negative guys on the planet. I remember literally, you know,

speaking my first time starting to speak and people were paying me. He goes, I can't believe people pay you to speak when you were a kid. We paid you to shut up. That was the kind of mindset he had. And then also growing up with the dinner table one time, my brother and I, talking about our future, talking about our hopes and our dreams. And there's our dad. Oh, I could see when you guys are older, the law firm of useless and useless. So that was my dad. Always like Archie Bunker, like Al Bundy before Al Bundy was Al Bundy, but saw the world in terms of you have to be stronger than the world. And so in many ways, he did make me tough because the negativity that was coming at me, I had to fight the negativity. I had to take on my opponents.

I had to win my positions in sports. Every position, every year, I had to literally fight for that starting position to be the starting running back or the starting midfielder on the lacrosse team or the starting point guard. So I think in many ways he instilled in me grit and toughness, but the negativity piece was something I would have to overcome years later because in many ways I dealt with a lot of negativity and a lot of pressure that I put on myself in many ways. One of my images, my new book, The One Truth that comes out in June, my intro for this book is actually talking about when my dad was on the side, I'm a pitcher and I'm pitching and I'm like 10 years old, I think.

And I hit a batter and my dad was the manager and I look over and he's staring at me, just like pissed off. And I hit another batter and he's looking at me again. He's giving me the dirtiest look ever. And I'm just getting more and more scared, more and more frustrated, more and more just in anguish. And I hit the next batter.

Fourth batter gets up there, literally like shaking because he knows he's getting hit. And I hit him too. Finally, my dad came over and pulled me out of the game, said, go play shortstop. And I did. And I really believe that was like the moment I wanted to be more mentally tough in that moment because of the pressure he was putting on me and also the negativity he was instilling in that moment. I still remember that. So that was a defining moment that I still remember to this day. But again, I think it made me who I am. I know it made my

brother who he is because I remember my brother one time was getting beat up outside and my brother was not defending himself. And this bully in the neighborhood was literally beating him up and making my brother stand on his knees and just sit there

while he slapped my brother in the face. And my brother was a big kid, was allowing it to happen. And he walked in the door, my brother, and my dad was watching the entire time. And I'm this little kid watching this. And my dad said, if you ever let anyone do that ever again to you, you're going to have to fight me, not him. You have to fight me. And trust me, I'm a lot worse than him. He goes, if he does that tomorrow, you take him on. So there's my dad like being Mr. Tough Guy,

Italian, New York City police officer. My brother's probably shaking in his boots, but he got the message. The next day, the kid went to pick on my brother and my brother said, I have to fight you. The kid said, okay, let's go. And next thing you know, my brother just starts wailing away

and my brother just like hitsailing away. And my brother just hits him four or five times in the face, black eye, beat this kid up really bad. And again, I think there was probably a good thing in a way, teaching my brother to defend himself. But I'm the younger brother watching all this happen and watching this play out. And I still remember that to this day, that he made my brother tougher by, by being that way. He put a, a boxing gym in our, in our basement. We had the speed bag. We had the heavy bag. We had all of that. My neighborhood was like Lord of the flies. Like you had to fight all the time. My neighbor, there were a lot of tough kids in my neighborhood. It wasn't like a, a bad neighborhood. It was a blue collar neighborhood. And I had some neighbors

that were just tough kids and mean kids. And so you had to learn how to defend yourself. And our dad was a big part of pushing us to take on the world that was coming at us. Well, you're five years old when you meet him. Yeah. And he's negative his whole life. Pretty much. Pretty much. Yeah. Because he saw that he saw the worst in the world. Like he was battling the drug cartels in the streets of New York. So he saw the worst in the world. Like he was battling the drug cartels in the streets of New York. So he saw the worst in humanity every single day. And he was shot a couple of times.

He was shot a few times. And when that happened, he eventually retired after being shot at and getting injured and won the combat cross and retired. So after retirement, it took him a few years to assimilate back into regular life and regular society. So he and my mom had a lot of challenges. I remember going through that. But then coming out of that, then he became this more jovial and I would say more positive, but still the dad that always said, like, the world's out to get you. Right.

But when you're a kid, you can observe your mom and your dad. You know, there's good things about your parents. You know, there's bad things about your parents. So a lot of kids say, oh, I love the good things about my parents, but I want to be different than the bad parts about my parents. Was that a big motivating factor for you? Could you recognize at what age could you recognize, hey, this is not a good way to live. I don't want to be negative. I mean, we are who our parents are at the end of the day. So how did that influence you and say, okay, one day I want to be different? How old were you at that point?

I don't remember exactly how old I was. I just remember I thought differently than my parents did. I always felt differently and thought differently. My biological father was a psychotherapist, a social worker. So think about it. And I would see him at times on weekends. We didn't have a great relationship, and he had another family. So I would see him sometimes on weekends.

But there were many moments where I'd be going over his house with my brother, and we'd spend time there and then come home. So it's like I had one father who was a social worker saying, reason it out, talk it out. And then another dad saying, get the first shot in. So I had two different mindsets growing up. But I do believe that, you know, with the New York City father who was raising me all the time and being a cop, I remember thinking like, I'm thinking bigger.

I want something more. I want to do something amazing, something great. There's something for me out there. And they were very encouraging. My parents thought I could accomplish anything. They did believe in me in many ways. Like my dad would say, you know, one day you're going to be president, you know, and things like that. So I think he did instill that encouragement, but it was negativity about a lot of different things about daily life. But there was always this belief in accomplishing something. But it really was when I was 30, 31 years old that I struggled with negativity a lot. When my life

started to crumble, when I lost my job during the dot-com crash, when I had two little kids, when I'm trying to support my family and everything has fallen apart and I'm crumbling from the inside out and I'm fearful, I'm stressed, I'm anxious. I don't know what the future holds. How am I going to support my family? How will I take care of them? And it was in that moment that I really wanted to be positive and knew I needed to change. That was allowing all the negativity to get the best of me.

And I need to start feeding myself with positivity. So you're 30 years old, you lose your job, you're at a dot-com company. Talk to us about how you hope you're gonna get rich like a lot of people do. You were going to this tech company, everything was blowing up. It's hard to see that the dot-com meltdown is coming down.

I was part of the dot-com meltdown. Thankfully, I was no longer there, but our portfolio really hit the shitter and we lost a whole bunch of money there. But how did you get out of the negative mindset and talk to us about being a consumer or an investor in your family? And your wife threatened to leave a couple of times. Yeah. So I was married when I was like 26, 27 years old. We met when I was 24. So I was young. I had opened up a bar in Buckhead in Atlanta.

So I'm this young entrepreneur. I started a nonprofit called the Phoenix Organization, and we would raise money and volunteer for youth-focused charities. So we were doing all this great work. I would have all these fundraisers, rally all these young people together to take part in what we were doing.

And I was a mover and shaker in Atlanta. So I meet my wife and things are going great. And then I run for city council right after my marriage. Why I ran for city council to this day, I don't know. I was a government economics major. I did always have a dream of being perhaps in politics. And I went door to door to 7,000 houses. Almost won the election. They were scared of me. So much so that they started to come after me with lies. I'm like 26, 27 years old, and they're attacking me with lies that I didn't have any baggage,

but they created some. It was interesting to watch the process play out. You know, years later, I thank God I didn't win. But at the time, it was devastating to lose. And then I went to law school. I quit law school after a year and a half because I had this opportunity to go work at this dot com. So I had this bar and book. We actually had several bars at the time,

myself and my partners. And I decided to go to law school. But I realized after a year and a half, like it really wasn't for me. It wasn't truly what I wanted to do. And having this opportunity to go work with this.com and make a fortune because I put some investors together. I got involved. I had the option to go work for the company, get a lot of shares. I think it was like a hundred thousand shares, which if they hit,

I would have been set for life. And so this was like my ticket. This was my dream. This was everything I wanted. It was exciting. It was.com. It was at the forefront of everything, wireless technology. We were bringing data to wireless devices before that was ever happening. So it was a really exciting prospect and exciting time. And I thought, all right, this is it. This is what I've always dreamed of.

And it was happening. And then everything crashed. The dot-com crashed. My job crashed. And we had just moved to Jacksonville, an area called Ponomita Beach near Jacksonville, from Atlanta. My wife wanted to move to the beach. My company said it was okay to work remotely and work from there because I was traveling wherever I was going anyway, anywhere for meetings. And so I had this job. I'm living remotely. I'm living at the beach. And then the dot-com crashes.

I lose my job. Okay. How am I going to pay the bills? How will I support my family? How will I take care of us? And that was the defining moment in my life that caused me to ask, what am I born to do? Why am I here? And that's when writing and speaking really came to me at that moment. But first I had to support my family. I had to provide for them. I couldn't just go write and speak, honey, I'm just going to be a writer and speaker. And all of a sudden it was going to just work. I knew I wanted to do it, but how do I do it? So first and foremost, I got back in the restaurant business and opened up a Moe's Southwest Grill. Second mortgage in my home, $20,000 in credit cards, and every dime I had from my previous home

and previous life, which wasn't a ton because I got bought out from my partners from the restaurants I was in in Atlanta, took that money and put it into that Moe's. Nothing on the side, nothing else in the bank, no backup plan. We didn't have six months of savings or money to fund the business. It was all in that business. I violated all business plans, Randall, as you know, you should have a business plan, you should have funding. I violated all of that, but I had no other choice because I had to provide for my family,

pay my mortgage, scariest time of my life. But I would say at the time, I was very much a consumer in my relationship and my marriage because I was living in fear and I was full of fear of not living up to the expectations that I had for myself or the expectations that others had for me. I wasn't living up to this dream

and this life that I imagined where I was gonna be very successful because now I was basically back in the toil, back in the restaurant business, wiping tables down, flyering neighborhoods, trying to make the place successful somehow, some way,

make enough money to provide for me and our family. But honestly, that's when my faith was born because at the time I had nothing. I often say, you don't realize God is all you need until God is all you got. I had my Jerry Maguire moment during that time. Like, help me, God, help me help you. Help me help you. And my second moment was God, show me the money. I was just going to say, show me the money. Show me the money, please. I had moment was gotten show me the money that's gonna say show me the money show me the money please show me the money moments in my life where I was I was asking for help asking for guidance and I remember saying this please provide for me and I'll do your work provide for me and my family and I'll do your work I'll help anyone in my life and it's amazing once

I said that like this feeling of peace came over me and I told my wife, somehow, someway, I think it's going to work out. I don't know how, but it's going to work out. And that restaurant eventually became successful. It took a while, but I was carried every step of the way. Like I got a consultant job that came in out of the blue. A friend called me up and said, Hey, this company wants to know about wireless technology. Will you meet with them? I met with them. I said, listen, I don't know how the technology works. They said, no, you don't have to know how the technology works. We know that. Teach us how to sell it. Sure. They agreed to pay me like $13,000 for six weeks of consultant. And this was back in

2000, 2001. It's a lot of money, a lot of money back then and that carried us for like the next six months and as that last dime right out of our account we made our first profit in the restaurant and I'll never forget that I wrote about this and woven into the story of my book the carpenter with the main character struggling trying to build a business he and his wife and they're trying to build it with greatness with the the love, not fear. And that was sort of based on my own journey with that. But as that last dime ran out, we made our first profit.

And from that moment on, I said, okay, I think I can start looking to write and speak now and find ways to do that. And I'll never forget, I'm wiping tables down. Woman comes in, she sits down, she's eating. She's the managing partner of New York Life. I'm wearing like a Moe's t-shirt. I look like I'm, again, I'm 30 years old. So I look young, really young. And I said, you know, I'm a speaker also. And she said, oh, you give motivational talks. I said, oh yeah, I hadn't given a motivational talk, but she said, you should

come speak for my company, my team. And I did. I tried to get out of it at first. I was, I was so nervous and scared. She goes, no, no, you promise you'll do it. I did it. And I remember after doing it thinking, okay, I could do this. I perhaps I can make this my career, my, my life. Cause it went really well. I talked about success being about the little things. I know you know this well. And I also talked about energy vampires, which eventually would make its way into the energy bus. And that was definitely my first talk. And Robin and her husband eventually became investors in the other Mo's I opened. And I sold those in 2005 to focus 100% on this writing and speaking. Let's go back in time. And then I want to move forward again,

talk about your writing, talk about the newsletter as well. A lot of entrepreneurs watching the show, a lot of kids out there who want to start their own business, a lot of men, 55% of American adults will start a business within their lifetime. 31 million entrepreneurs today, 16 million in the America, 16% of the American workforce today have their own businesses. That's great. You mortgaged everything, you took big risks, you didn't have a job, so you didn't have a lot of cost to give up. What's your advice to everyone out there who's thinking I'm going to do this myself,

I'm going to max out my credit cards, I'm gonna max out the mortgage. You hear this all the time and we read about the winners. Right, in business week and fortune, this person, this woman, this man In business week and fortune, this person, this woman, this man risked everything and now is a billionaire. What's your advice to everybody else?

Most businesses fail. Should they pursue their dream? Should they really max out if they really believe what they're doing? Of course, if they really believe it, they should do it. But you gotta do your research. You gotta make sure that you understand what you're doing and what you're getting into. I think a lot of times people think, all right, I'm going to now open up a restaurant. Everyone thinks they can open up a restaurant.

And then they realize restaurants are really hard. So you have to understand what it is you're getting into. Are you going to do a franchise? Okay, I'm going to do a franchise. But franchises often are really where you're buying yourself a job, where you buy the franchise, but now you have to work in it. It only works when you can actually open multiple locations with the franchise. So you have to understand what it is you're truly getting into. But I truly believe if you love it, and this is something you want to build, and you know you want to be the best in the world at this, And there's nothing else you want to do. That's when

you go for it. For me, it was like, okay, the restaurant business, I said to myself, when I had three Moe's, do I want to have 10? Do I want to have 20? Because that's where I'm going right now. And what would my life look like if I had 10 to 20 restaurants? Will that fulfill me? Will that make me happy? And I knew right away, no, that's not truly what I want to do. Writing and speaking was it. So that's why I said, okay, I've got to sell, take the risk now and go all in with the writing and speaking, which was another big risk to do that, to sell the restaurants, sell what we were making every year, which was very comfortable. My wife was like, no, I don't want to sell. We're finally comfortable. We're finally in a safe place. I'm like, no, no, we have to, we got to go for this.

Because what happens if the writing and speaking doesn't make it? I said, there are no other options. There is no plan B. I've got to do this because I knew this is what I was meant to do and called to do. So in that spirit, I'm going for it. And that mindset, you know what? I'm giving everything I have to make this work. And even if I fail, guess what?

I'm doing what I love. Even if it takes 10 years, because I was about 32, 33 at the time. I said, if it takes me 10 years, I'll be 43. It'll take me 10 years to make it. I could still live the rest of my life now doing what I love. However long I live, I can do what I love. So it's worth the process. See, whatever you do, whatever business you do

will be hard. You have to choose your heart. Choose what's going to be hard. And if it's worth it to you, you'll do it. Everything's going to be a fight, but you have to decide, what am I willing to fight for and what is worth it? And once you know that, then I say you go for it. Now you do your research, you build a bridge, build your bridge, and then you take your leap of faith. Don't just leap right away because it's too far and you'll fall. Build your bridge, do your research, create a game plan, try to ramp up

some money, try to make sure that this is what you truly want to do. Try to give yourself an opportunity to get a head start. Like if you want to write and speak, don't just leave your job now, start getting some gigs and do it before you leave your job. If you are in a job, start a side hustle doing what you want to do and see how it goes. And then if you start to see yourself having a little success, you know, okay, I've got a few wins here. I know I can have more wins

if I really make it a full-time thing. Then you're ready to take the leap. But don't just jump in right away saying, we're going for it. I think you got to actually test the waters a little bit. Would you agree with that? Yeah, I would definitely agree. I mean, similar to you, I had a similar plan. My goal was to make

a million dollars by the time I was 30 and I didn't get there, but I did want to save up enough money to take a risk and bet on myself. I think there's no better investment. I'd rather bet on myself than anyone else in the world. I'm very driven and I'll do whatever it takes to be successful. So I'd say $400,000. My annual nut was $40,000 a year. I was living in an apartment next to the Jack in the Box. That's what I had the neighbors banging and keep me up all night. And I was saving money. I started making $72,000 a year. I would invest and that was rich for me. There's nothing I couldn't do. It's $72,000 a year after tax, $54,000, $1,200 a month rent. And I figured

the same thing. I go 10 years to make something of myself. And that's what I gave myself. I didn't think it would take 10 years, but I was going to keep going until I made it. So I took a risk, gave up a great corporate job working for 400 members, started two Fortune 500 companies, Eli Broad, and commuted to Boston, no salary, no funding, gave up stock options in South America that were worth a couple million dollars, all for nothing, to bet on myself and my team. And you get lucky sometimes, and it worked right out of the gate.

But similar equation, save and bet on yourself. When I lost my job in the dot.com crash, I'll never forget being fired. And I'll never forget that moment. And I said to myself, I will never put myself and my life and my family's future in anyone else's hands ever again. I will never rely on anyone else. And that was the moment I became a true entrepreneur. I'm going to work for myself for the rest of my life because I had been doing that since I was 24. I never really worked for people. And then I go work for the.com. It was really the first job that I ever had. And putting everything online and everything on the line for them and not myself, you're building their dream,

not your own dream. And I realized, you know what? Life is so much better when you're building your dream. And you got to go for it. I do believe if you know what you want to build and what you want to create, then you got to go for it. And also at the same time, you got to expect struggle. You got to expect adversity. And you got to expect challenges. And when you do it, you know that no one really does create success alone.

It's never you alone that does it. I believe you got to build a team around you that helps you be successful. And it's your team that gives you strength. We're better together. And then together we accomplish amazing things. When I look back, like my wife was so supportive. If I don't have her support, I couldn't be the success that I've, that I've become. But it was because I had her support that said, go for it. I meet people all the time and they want to do it, but they're so scared of leaving the job they have. They're so scared of leaving the security that they have and that paycheck, those golden handcuffs

that imprison them for the rest of their life. And to me, my mom died at 59 years old and I was 34, 35. And seeing that, it just gives you a new perspective on life. And you think, you know what? Life is short. I don't know how long I'm gonna live.

So what do I have to lose? Like, memento mori, you will die. One day you're gonna die. I will die. So how do I want to live? And I'm gonna live with no fear, no regrets. I'm going to go for it. And that was my, that was my mindset. When COVID hit, that was my mindset. Even with COVID, when it hit, I said, I'm not going to live in fear. I saw so much fear.

I said, I'm going to focus on love because love casts out fear. I'm going to love others. People want me to come speak. I will. They want to do testing and everything. That's great. But if you want me to come speak and impact your people, I'll be happy to do it. And so I told my wife, I refuse to participate in the pandemic. That's what I said. I lived in Florida, so it was easier to do. But I said, I refuse to part. I mean, and maybe it's why I got COVID three times, but I said, I refuse to participate because my motive was I got to still make a difference. I got to still impact people. I see people who are struggling. I see people who are battling with their mental health.

And again, they were so full of fear that I knew the answer was to share love. And so I think so often people are living in fear so they never truly go after what they love. You got to love it. And when you love it and you love the process, you will love what the process produces. But you got to remember, love is more powerful than fear. So step into love instead of allowing fear

to keep you from the life that you wanna live. You had this idea. You knew you wanted to be a speaker and a writer. You started a newsletter. Your mom, your brother, your best friend, and two other people. Tell us about the newsletter and how you built it step by step.

And tell us about the soft and how you build it step-by-step and tell us about the softball player that reached out, the father of the softball player, the kid who was You've done your homework. I like this. In search of excellence and great preparation. So I think that's awesome. Well, I started this weekly positive tip. I knew I wanted to write and speak. So what am I going to write and speak about? I want to be more positive. Okay, great. So how can I become more positive? I start to research all the ways that I could be more positive. And this was during the emerging field of positive psychology. And so a lot of these ideas weren't even prevalent. They weren't pervasive in the world and they weren't even known. So I was doing a lot of these ideas. I was doing the research and I have a coaching mind. I've been called an applied

genius. I'm able to take ideas that are very complex and then apply them and make them simple. So I was taking all these complex ideas and then making it simple for myself. And then I started this weekly positive tip where I would share what I was doing with others. What was your first tip? The thank you walk. The research shows you can't be stressed and thankful at the same time. So if you're feeling grateful,

if you're feeling blessed, you won't feel stressed. So what I did for me, and this is my number one tip to being more positive myself, this rewired my brain from negative to positive, and it's helped so many people around the world, like millions.

Every day, I take a walk of gratitude. And while I'm walking, I just say what I'm thankful for. And the research is when you're doing this, you're flooding your brain with these positive emotions, and your body too, that uplift you, rather than the stress hormones that slowly drain you, and over time actually slowly kill you if you let them. So when you do this, you're creating a fertile mind that is ready

for great things to happen. The mind is like a garden. Weed the negative, you can feed the positive, right? And I try to do both. Weed the negative, feed the positive. You do that on a daily basis. Weed the negative, then feed the positive each day. And over time, the garden of your mind starts to look amazing. Weed that garden, feed it, nourish it. One day doesn't do a whole lot, but do it for a week, do it for a month, do it for a year, do it for a lifetime. The garden of your mind looks amazing. And that's what I did. And that's what I wrote about first thing. I started sharing that tip. I started doing it. That saved my marriage. That changed who I was.

It's been my number one tip. And I've seen the impact it's had on my life and others. And we know the power of gratitude. Like when you appreciate, you elevate. You elevate your mood, your mindset, your performance, and the people around you. When you practice gratitude with others and you appreciate them, they perform at a higher level. I work with a lot of companies, a lot of organizations and leaders on being better leaders, building great teams. And gratitude is a foundational principle and practice that everyone I share with follows. So when you do that, it makes a huge impact. But going back to that, so now I'm getting

these ideas, I'm practicing them, I'm writing about them. And people are sharing this newsletter with others, but I did have five subscribers, my mother, my brother, best friend from college. And next thing you know, people start sharing it. And that's how I got my book deal. Someone read my newsletter and said, hey, you should do a book. That was my first book deal to do that. But can we go back to the book for a second? Yeah.

So it's Christmas time. Things are slow. You're down and out. You have this idea. Yeah. And you write a book in three and a half weeks without a publisher, you send it to 30 publishers, reject it.

Let's not talk about the book right now, we'll get into that in a second. But I want to know for everyone out there who thinks about writing a book, who has an idea, who thinks about it for years and years and years and doesn't do it, what's your advice to them? And what's your advice to people who get rejected five times, 10 times, 15, 20, 25, 30 times? How do you motivate people and tell yourself, I'm going to still come after this because number 31, I may hit. Yeah. Your vision and your purpose has to be greater than all the challenges. Your positivity has to be greater than all the negativity and all the doubt.

And so as you move forward, you have to be more positive than the negativity that you face. I wrote two books before the energy bus. One of them was one that got published. It was a very small publisher. So I did get on the Today Show with that book. And then everything crumbled.

I don't even talk about those books to this day because the book that I, in my mind, really wrote, first and foremost, of who I am, was Energy Bus. Those other books sort of faded away. But those are great lessons because if I would have quit after those two books that failed, I would have given up. I kept going. And then I wrote this book, The Energy Bus, that would change my life. And a lot of times people fail and they give up or they don't have

a success right away, or they don't start if they're not perfect. I was willing to write two books when I wasn't a great writer. I was willing to write two books that weren't my core brand of what I wanted to build in the future. I thought at the time it was my brand, but I realized very quickly, no, it's not who I am and the essence of who I am. And that caused a radical change and shift. I became a person of faith and I realized these books really didn't represent who I was and what I wanted to be. And so now those books are not going well. I had sold the restaurant or the restaurants and money's running out and I'm not getting a lot of speaking gigs and that's not going well. So I'm thinking no one will ever want to take me on as

a writer because these books did not do well for the money in advance I got. And that's when I'm walking, as you said, and honestly, I'm praying. And that's when I'm walking, as you said, and honestly, I'm praying. And that's when the energy bus came to me. And it was rejected by over 30 publishers. I remember thinking like my future is done. My career is over. I had these two books.

I had a chance. I had my shot. See, sometimes people want the shot and they never get the shot and they're fighting for that one shot. I had the shot. See, sometimes people want the shot and they never get the shot and they're fighting for that one shot. I had the shot and then it failed. So then I'm going, what now? Like this is done. I'm history. My dream is never going to happen. And I ride the energy bus and I'm getting rejected, rejected, rejected. But I had my vision and I had my purpose. And it was this, to inspire and

encourage millions of people, one person at a time. Going back to the softball player and her dad reached out, she was struggling. She was going to Villanova to play softball. And I coached her up and encouraged her and helped her have a great college career. So I knew what I was saying worked and helped people, but that was that one person. I just want to help one person at a time. And so that kept me going, knowing I wanted to be a person of value. I have to admit that. There's something inside of you. There's a little bit of an ego that wants to be a success, that wants to succeed, that doesn't want to fail. All the great ones in every field have that,

that little bit of an ego. But it was subservient to the greater purpose of wanting to make a difference and make an impact. Because I had realized I was miserable when I was focused on myself. Before I started writing, I was trying to be a success like in the dot-com world, to be the star, to be the success to to show others

that i i was worth it that i was worthy and so what i realized was i wanted to make a difference it wasn't about me i wanted to help others and that really was what was driving me that and desire that i can't quit i can't give up i was a gritty athlete i always had earned my starting positions i played lacrosse in college at Cornell University. My daughter goes there, by the way. Shout out to Bianca. Go Big Red, Bianca. And so I had a great time there. I learned a lot there. I grew a lot there, but I was a blue collar kid. There's no way I should have ever went to Cornell and play lacrosse, but it was a transformative experience, but that taught me so much. So now I'm gritty. I'm fighting.

I'm not giving up, but I'm fearful. And I'm also having thoughts of it's not going to happen. And it may not happen. And what now? And I think everyone goes through that. On this journey, you will have negative thoughts that come in. You will have fear. You will have doubt.

You will have insecurity. You will have moments where you just want to give up. And that's where I truly believe you have to realize those thoughts are not coming from you. Because who would ever choose to have a negative thought that sabotaged themselves, that said, the future's hopeless. You'll never make it. The health diagnosis is not going to improve. The relationship is not going to improve. You are a failure. You would never call yourself a failure, right? So those thoughts come in. No one has ever found a thought inside of a brain, Randall. I've done a lot of research. I've talked to neuroscientists. No one has ever found a thought inside of the brain. When you're dreaming,

having a nightmare, are you choosing those thoughts? No, they're always coming in. And when they come in, they often come in the form of lies that will tell you things about yourself and your future that just aren't true. So those thoughts were coming in. So my advice to people is don't believe the lies. Speak truth to the lies. Speak words of encouragement.

Win the battle of your mind and you'll win the battle out in the world. See, my dad taught me how to fight the world, but no, I had to fight the negative thoughts in my mind first to win the battle here, to win the battle out there. So every day I'm speaking words of life. I'm speaking words of encouragement. I have this eternal hope and optimism,

even though I had moments of doubt and fear and there were days I wanted to give up. Each day I got up and said, I still believe somehow, some way it can happen. So I think that's where that eternal hope and optimism comes in. And people say, well, some way it can happen. So I think that's where that eternal hope and optimism comes in. And people say, well, hope is not a strategy. Yes, it is.

Because hope gives you the power in the present to take one more step today. And then one more step the next day. And if you don't have hope, you're not going to take that step. So you take that step day in and day out and you move forward each day. And then eventually you get the email from Wiley that says, we want to publish your book. What?

You want to publish my book? Oh yeah. It turns out Shannon, who was with Wiley, who worked for Matt Holt, who is now with Ben Bella. People know of Matt Holt. Shannon wanted to do the book. Why? She had seen me on the Today Show a few years earlier and remembered me and liked to be on the show and saw this proposal. And the main character for the energy bus, it's a fable, was named George. She had a best friend with a husband named George. Can't make this up. She wanted to do the book. And I'll never forget in the call, they said, we can't pay you a lot of money. We don't have a huge advance, but we can get the book out in six months. Six months. Perfect. I've been wanting this book to come out. I needed this core book to get out

there so I can now start speaking to businesses, companies, and organizations on this message. This is like a defining message for my life. I felt like I had something that would make an impact and make a difference. And sure enough, it came out. And no book stores would carry it, as you probably know. So I have a book. I love the beach. I'm a drone photographer. I'm the parent who takes a thousand photos on every vacation.

And the kids say, oh, God, Dad, I hate this. I hate this. Stop taking photos. But I travel with two drones. And I love the beach. And people have liked my photos. So I have a big collection of photos, and I love photography books. So there's a photographer I like out there who takes a lot of photos from the sky on the beach. And I said, gosh, there's only one successful photographer out there. I wonder if I could have a book one day. So I called this publisher and Abrams Books. I sent a note to the

CEO. And just because of some of the corporate things I've done, I had some credibility. Most of the time people will return the call. So I sent him a note, hey, I'm a businessman, but I am a drone photographer. Here's a link to some of my photos. And he wrote back and he said, I really like your photos, but it's too competitive with our photographer. So I said, OK, most people would have stopped there, but I don't like to stop. Right. So I said, are you free for a 15 minute phone call on Monday? I knew it'd be longer than 15 minutes, but request a short thing. That's good advice. Saying the same one hour wasn't going to cut it.

We were on the phone for one hour. But I said, I love learning from people. I know nothing about the book business. So we talked. I learned about how the book business works. And I said, can you make recommendations to people who don't have a competitive photographer or client? He said, yeah. He gave me two names.

I said, do you mind sending an introduction to them? He said, no, but feel free to use my name. One person said, yeah, thank you very much. Let me get back to you. The other person said love your photos and three weeks later i had a book contract and and i i tell people this and i've told people in the book business who said that's one in a billion to email a publisher you're a photographer you send photos and they're going to make a major coffee table book. It just doesn't happen. But I didn't stop. I asked them to get on the phone. And my message to people is don't give up. If you have a dream for a book, write that book. And meanwhile,

the book is sold over 10,000 copies in two years. So I love that. And guess what? Anyone who has a dream like that, who has a book in their mind and in their heart should write that book. Like, yes, write that book. If you believe that you have something to say and that you can impact the world with it, you should write it. Now, here's the thing. People often don't write the book because they don't have the publishing deal. I always tell people, write the book regardless. Don't wait for the publishing deal. You write that book. And then what you do is say, look, I have this here. Let me show you. What do you think? You did that with your pictures. I have these pictures here. If you would have

reached out and said, I want to create pictures and take pictures and make a book, that would have worked. You had something to show them. I wrote the energy bus before I had a publisher. I wrote this here. A lot of people try to get a deal and they never write the book. So I always tell people, you write the book and then give me a call. After you write the book, then we'll talk. But don't try to get a publishing deal without writing the book first because there's going to be no power in that. But saying here, and here's what I know. I truly believe that anyone can get a book published.

Anyone could start a business. Anyone can create success if they're willing to just keep working and not give up and overcome all the notes. Because eventually someone is going to say yes. You will outlast them. And I think that's a key mindset to have. When someone reaches out to me, just out of the blue, a lot of times wanting help or wanting advice, if they're going through a mental health challenge, I'll talk to them immediately. But if it's just someone reaching out, I don't respond

at first. If they reach out again and again and again, and they're showing that they're interested, showing that they have a desire to keep going, not giving up, then you're going to make time for that person because they won't go away. And I do think there's something to that, that if you just keep reaching out, eventually someone's going to say, wow, this person's persistent. This person really won't give up. People give up before they actually are ready to succeed. But if they would just keep going, they would succeed. So I believe, yes, yours was a very rare thing. Mine in many ways was a rare thing to have my first book, a publisher see me and see my newsletter and want to publish it. But then the process of

getting rejected like it has, you know, that was a challenge. And the fact that that book has now gone on to sell over 3 million copies is very rare, but it just shows you what happens when you're not willing to give up and you have the grit to keep moving forward and you have the vision and the purpose. You know, we don't get burned out because of what we do. We get burned out because we forget why we do it. And so if you have this why, you'll know the way. And you're not going to let obstacles get in the way. You're going to keep going. And for me, I had no other choice. Like, this is all I had. So I had to keep going until eventually it was published. But then it gets published and no bookstores would carry the book. So this is the other part of the story. You write something,

you have a product, you have a service that you're selling, you have new technology, whatever it may be as an entrepreneur, you now have this thing that you want to sell and you want to bring to the world, but it doesn't mean everyone's going to say, okay, we're ready. We've been waiting for you our entire life for this right now. No, they're not necessarily waiting for it. And so you have to go out there and let people know that they need it, that they want it. So since no book stores, we carry it. I went on a 28 city tour paid for by myself. Publisher wouldn't even pay for it. And I went from city to city sharing the message in the book. You're a race car driver. Jeff Gordon. I was saying that I'm internationally known. I had a marketing guy saying he's internationally known. He's big in South Korea. What happened was I

prayed for it to be a bestseller and it came out and it was a bestseller. It was a bestseller just in Korea. It was not a huge share in the United States, obviously, but Korea was a top five bestseller, which is crazy how that happened. So here I am a bestseller in South Korea, but the United States, no one carry it. So I'm going from city to city. Biggest turnout we had was 100 people in Des Moines, Iowa. They thought Jeff Gordon was coming.

That's why they showed up. And that's not a joke, sort of a true story. And I remember we got home and didn't know what the future held. But I knew that I had this vision and mission and I had to live it and breathe it every single day. I had optimism. I had belief.

And I talk to teams and organizations all the time now that optimism is a competitive advantage. It really is. Optimism will give you the advantage to succeed in this world. And I kept having the belief and the optimism in this message, in this book, and in the work that I was doing. And sure enough, it took hold. And eventually, people bought into it and the message.

It's about driving with purpose. It's about enjoying the ride. It's about dealing with the energy vampires that will sabotage you if you let them. All the negativity that will come your way if you let them. All the negativity that will come your way as you're trying to build your business, as you're trying to build whatever it is that you're building, you will have resistance and you will have people who will try to sabotage it. You will have naysayers. You will have negative people on your team at times that will suck the life out of your team. I always say one person can make a team,

but one person can break a team. And so your positive energy, as I said way earlier, has to be greater than the negativity. And as Gandhi said, I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet. So you can't allow all the negativity to walk through your mind and your idea and your vision and your purpose. And that's a huge core message in the book. So I now had to live all the principles I wrote about. So here I was, this guy, getting a download and writing this book in three and a half weeks of divine inspiration,

and now I'm having to walk the walk, and talk the talk, and live the principles. And I think it's what made me successful, because I was now living the principles that I was actually writing about and going through that journey. Thanks for listening to part one of my amazing conversation with the incredible John Gordon.

Please be sure to tune in next week for part two of my awesome conversation with John.