The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Live Life in Crescendo: Your Most Important Work Is Always Ahead of You (The Covey Habits Series) by Stephen R. Covey, Cynthia Covey Haller

Episode Date: October 4, 2022

Live Life in Crescendo: Your Most Important Work Is Always Ahead of You (The Covey Habits Series) by Stephen R. Covey, Cynthia Covey Haller The inspirational, encouraging final book from the legendary leadership expert Stephen R. Covey, internationally bestselling author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Stephen R. Covey spent his long and storied career inspiring millions of individuals to make their lives more effective, compassionate, and meaningful. Near the end of his life, Covey felt there was a final component to his work: How to live your best life no matter your age? How to best respond to life-challenging experiences? How to approach the challenges and opportunities of middle to later life—like raising children, caring for your parents, leading and inspiring others, staying on top of your career, contributing to your community, and what follows next? Live Life in Crescendo is Covey’s answer to these questions, outlining his vision for those in the prime of life, whatever age you may be. Covey urges all to “live life in crescendo,” continually growing in contribution, learning, and influence. In the same way that music builds on the previous notes, life too, builds on the past and unfolds in the future. This crescendo mentality urges you to use whatever you have—your time, talents, resources, gifts, passion, money, and influence—to enrich the lives of people around you, including your family, neighborhood, community, and the world. Cowritten with his daughter, Cynthia Covey Haller, and published posthumously, Live Life in Crescendo is a life-changing and life-affirming book that befits the generosity and wisdom of the late Stephen R. Covey.

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. This is Voss here from the chrisvossshow.com, the chrisvossshow.show.com hey we're coming here with a great podcast we certainly appreciate you guys being on the show we've got an amazing guest i had read her father's book i

back when i was 20 uh somewhere in my early 20s for entrepreneurship seven habits of highly effective people stephen r covey and i won't tell you how many years it's been since then but it's been probably double the amount of whatever age I was at the very least. Anyway, we have his daughter, Cynthia Covey Haller on the show with her new book, Live Life in Crescendo that she wrote with Stephen Covey. And this is the final book that's come out from him that she co-wrote with him. So we'll be talking to her on the show. Be sure to check out our recent episode yesterday with the multibillionaire David Rubenstein. That was a great show.

And then we've got the governor of Massachusetts coming up on Friday. So you definitely want to check on those shows. Refer to the show, as always, to your family, friends, and relatives. Tell them to join the Chris Voss Show family. The family loves you but doesn't judge you. Go to youtube.com, fortune.com, fortune.com, goodreads.com, fortune.com, goodreads.com, all those places on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and all those crazy places that we are. In fact, this morning, we just got our journalist on our journalist account at LinkedIn. We just got

live audio. So we can now do live audio stuff, kind of like what they used to do in Clubhouse or many of what used to follow me in Clubhouse they used to do. So we're actually going to start doing daily live audios over there. So check that out. We'll probably be discussing some of the things we do on the podcast as well. And of course, you can get the live broadcast of LinkedIn over there. She is the newest author of the newest book that just came out yesterday, September 27th, 2022. The book is'm sorry, live. I keep saying live instead of live. Live life in Crescendo. Your most important work is always ahead of you. The Covey Habits series book written by Stephen R. Covey and Cynthia Covey-Holler.

Did I say Covey or did I say Covey Habits? Did I mess that up on the Covey Habits? That's okay. You got it right at the end. There you go. There you go. Welcome to the show, Cynthia. How are you?

Thanks so much. I'm really happy to be here. Excited. This is a fun show. I love the introduction. It's awesome. At least we try to. We put a lot of energy into it.

So you've contributed to writing several of the books. You helped write with your father, The Third Alternative, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens, The Six Most Important Decisions You'll Ever Make. And you've held multiple leadership positions in women's organizations. You served as a PTSA president, organizer for refugee and food pantry volunteers. And what motivated you to want to write this book or get this book completed i guess well my father's passing you know that was 10 years ago 10 years ago in july and so we started this journey a long time ago when i stupidly asked

my dad if he was going to write anything as good as Seven Habits. Did he have anything else to offer? And he said, you know, am I one and done? Is it just Seven Habits and that's it? He said, I've got other books in my head, and I feel like my most important work is still to come. There you go. So that impressed me that he, you know, didn't feel like, you know, no, I'm done, I'm just going to sit on this.

And that's when I got involved. He asked me, just didn't feel like, you know, no, I'm done. I'm just going to sit on this. And that's when I got involved. He asked me just to clear it up. I actually didn't help him write Third Alternative. I contributed to a chapter there. So I apologize if I misled you. But yeah, so he said I was interested in him writing a book on my personal mission statement, which was that wife and crescendo the last 10 years of his life. And I think that he adopted that phrase because people were asking him, how long are you going to keep working?

You're in your late 60s, 70s, and you're going to just keep going until you drop? And in our family, it was a bad word. The R was bad he didn't say retire oh yeah and so you know he decided i still have more to contribute and and he asked if i would help write the stories for this book you want it a lot of inspiring and stories so the people when they read it and learned about the crescendo mentality could see themselves in it through the stories and the title of his book was his motto in life. Tell us a little bit about more. How did he come across this, live your life in crescendo?

How did he come across this? What inspired it? Well, crescendo, and people think, oh, maybe you're a musical family. We're not at all. My dad couldn't carry a tube to save his life. But crescendo, as you know, if you've been to a concert or you know about music, how it grows in power and energy and influence, it's strong and it keeps going, it keeps expanding. And to hear a crescendo in a concert and in a symphony or something, it's just outstanding.

And so the idea is that throughout your whole life, you keep learning and stretching and growing. And the opposite of that is diminuendo, the sign of diminuendo, which slows down in energy and strength and power. It eventually comes to an end, stops completely. The whole idea of the crescendo mentality is that in any age or stage that you're in, you have the power and the ability to choose to live in crescendo or in diminuendo. And there's consequences for each one. And this was just encouraging people that still keep in it. No matter what happens to you, you still, like the subtitle of the book, have important things ahead of you and big contributions ahead of you, especially.

Definitely. I mean, life is a great collection of stories and experiences, and hopefully you'll learn lessons from them. If you don't learn lessons from them, then may someone have mercy on your soul. I mean, but there's several great chapters in here. You talk about the midlife struggle and different axioms like life is a mission, not a career. Talk to us about some of the stories and things that you told in the book that are inspiring. Well, I could choose one about a man named Ray Hitton that lived in Alabama in the late 60s.

And he was accused of murdering two people. He was totally innocent. He actually was in a lockdown facility at work 15 miles away when these crimes occurred, but he was framed for it and was sent to death row in Alabama. He was devastated. He walked into the cell. He knew he was innocent. He was so angry that this had happened to him and full of despair that he threw his Bible under his bed and determined that he was done. He was going to shut down. If they think that of me, then I'm not going to speak or communicate with anybody. So for three long, miserable years, he didn't speak to the guards. He didn't speak to the cellmates next

to him on death row. He didn't communicate at all, except for to family and friends once a week, when someone would come to visit him. And he was living in diminuendo. He didn't have a circle of influence. He didn't try to get to know anyone. He didn't have anything going for him and thought his life was over. So one night at two in the morning, he hears a fellow cellmate next to him just sobbing and crying, asking for someone to please help him with the pain he's going through. And something broke in Ray and his compassion came out. He was a good person before. And he was shocked to realize that he didn't have the choice if he was on death row, but he had other choices, even though there were a few. He said hate and despair were choices, but so were hope and love and compassion.

And so he broke his silence of three years and began comforting this stranger that was next to him and finding out what had happened. And he found out that his mother had just passed away. And this inmate was just destroyed by this and didn't know if he could go on, not have seen his mother and now she was gone. And so he spent the night just talking and comforting him and got him laughing and telling stories about his mom and things he used to do for him. And it awoke in him the feeling that, you know, I can choose. I don't have a lot of choices, but I can't choose to become a light and a beacon to people around me. I can't have my personality and my character come through. And so this is what he did for the next 15 or so years.

It became a light and a beacon to the guards, to the people around him. He formed a book club and on death row got permission to meet with some of the prisoners for that. His circle of influence expanded as he was learning and influencing other people. And he never gave up hope that he knew he was innocent and that it was going to be proven one day. And so he was fortunate enough to draw the attention of Bryan Stevenson. If you know him, the Just Mercy, he wrote a book and there's a movie about it. So he got involved and pleaded his case before the Supreme Court of the United States. And he was found completely innocent of all charges and released. He was released after 30 years, almost 30 years. And Ray walks out the door and he says

to his family and friends, the sun does shine. And that became the title of New York Best Selling Book that he wrote four years later about this journey that he went through from despair to hope. And his life expanded. Living in Crescendo, he now is an advocate for those who are falsely imprisoned like he was. He speaks with Bryan Stevenson. He's a great member of the community. His influence is reaching across the world where before he had absolutely none. So this is just an example of crescendo mentality, either choosing to live in a crescendo or dominiendo and the consequences that happen. And one of the most inspiring stories, I think, of the book. Hi, folks.

Chris Voss here with a little station break. Hope you're enjoying the show so far. We'll resume here in a second. I'd like to invite you to come to my coaching, speaking, and training courses website. You can also see our new podcast over there at chrisvossleadershipinstitute.com. Over there, you can find all the different stuff that we do for speaking engagements if you'd like to hire me, training courses that we offer, and coaching for leadership, management, entrepreneurism, podcasting, corporate stuff. With over 35 years of experience in business and running companies as a CEO, I think I can offer a wonderful breadth of information

and knowledge to you or anyone that you want to invite me to for your company. Thanks for tuning in. We certainly appreciate you listening to the show and be sure to check out chrisfossleadershipinstitute.com. Now back to the show. That is inspiring. I love the concept of the beacon. My book was named Beacons of Leadership that we put out last year. In fact, I think in a few more days it turns one year old. But Beacons of Leadership, the idea of a beacon and being, being something that, you know, beams your

influence to other people that shines a light, sometimes the most darkest of corridors and inspires others and lifts others. You know, I mean, each of us can do that in, in dark spots. In fact, sometimes when I'm in my darkest, I try and go figure out how to help people and, uh, and serve someone other than myself. And it gets me a little out of whatever I'm going through because I'm doing something for someone else as opposed to just sitting in my little pity party. That's true. And Chris, that's one of the main messages of the book is that life is about contribution, not accumulation. And that to serving other people is where we ultimately find our greatest joy and happiness and can help us through our problems as well. There's a great

quote by Pablo Picasso that says, the meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away. We talk about that in different stages that we've identified as times where you have an opportunity to identify what's going on and seeing if you're going to live in crescendo or dominiendo. I hope people will adopt the crescendo mentality. You know, I learned my thoughts on retirement from Warren Buffett, and he said, I'll retire seven years after I die. So that's just my plan. I, I seem to be getting smarter as I get older, maybe because I'm learning so many good lessons as I get older, but I'm, I'm, I hopefully will always keep learning. I seem to be, I seem to be someone who likes to learn. I love having people like yourself on the show. I learned so much. I get

like a front row, you know, authors like yourself, yourself, you guys spend 10,000 hours, thousands of hours, hundreds of thousands of hours writing these books, building these experiences, collecting these stories. And I get to sit front row and ask great questions or what I hope are great questions or questions that I want to ask and that I think the audience should listen for. And I love it. And so it's a great learning experience. And I've learned so much by having great authors like yourself.

Living in Crescendo, Chris. I'm trying to. Trying to peek out. I mean, I would rather live in Crescendo and then explode at the end and hit the wall. And they're going to go, he went out in glorious flame, then to fade away, I suppose. My family tells a funny story of my dad because he built his dream home at 61. My younger brother, David, who's kind of the jokester of the family and keeps us in line with, he can say things that others can't say.

We were at the construction site and he raises his arms up. He just can't believe that my dad is incredulous that at this old age that he supposes the end of his life, he's building this home. And so he stands there and raises his arms and says, at the sunset of his life. And yet he builds. Yeah. I mean, my dad wasn't building, you know, know to him he got a good laugh and he wasn't building a home he had a vision for that home that it would be an intergenerational place where cousins could be best friends and gather and where we could support each other but today but it was

like you're at the end of your life what you know why are you doing something like this when he had plans for making it a family place of enjoyment? Yeah, I mean, there's no reason to start winding down your life. I mean, I'm smarter. I probably know more about my life and living life at 50 when I hit 50. And about every year since 50, I've learned just, just, it almost seems like I'm expanding my knowledge and experience and skillset more than ever before. And part of it's because I have that, you know, catastrophe behind me of 50 years of learning from that and going, well, I probably should stop doing that. So, you know.

Experience and wisdom. Yeah. And that's the advantage of being older, that as you get older, you have actually more to offer. Society's kind of like, oh, as you get older, well, you know, you put you out to pasture, you're not needed. But look around and see all the coaches and the leaders. We even have a president that's older. Look at people all across the nation

that are doing important things and contributing past the typical retirement age. I also believe the choices weren't just that retire or keep working. He saw the third alternative was make a contribution. Yeah. I think Joe Biden can bicycle farther than I can. He fell off the bicycle the other day and where most people his age, if they fell off a bicycle, they break a hip. He's like, ah, just don't worry about it. Me, I'm just like, I get to the afternoon. I'm

like, I need a nap and I'm not even running this country. Like, you know, I don't have to deal with all that sort of pressure. But even then I'm just like, I'm kind of tired. I'm going to take a nap. So it's great. What was something that, you know, your father had a lot of fans out there. And when I posted this on our social media and shared it, I think we were going to be on, people just went crazy. What was something that maybe people didn't know about your father? Was there a tidbit or anything that people didn't know about your father or maybe something that they should know about him? Well, I'm the oldest of nine. I'm known as the mother hand because both my parents are best now. So I look after the brood, but he, my, both my mom and dad worked hard to establish a good relationship with all of us. And some people say, how could you do

it with nine kids? And I have six kids of my own. It is hard. It takes prioritizing and planning. But looking back, one of my favorite childhood memories is actually him making an effort to connect with me in this case, and others could tell similar stories. When I was 12 years old, I was invited to go on a trip with him to San Francisco where he was speaking at a big conference. And part of the fun was to just anticipate everything, plan it out. I was just enamored with the trolley cars in San Francisco. I'd never seen them or been on them. And he really talked a lot about how magical they were and going up and down those hills. And in San Francisco, we decided to go to Chinatown and have Chinese food.

That was our favorite. And he said, there's nothing like authentic Chinese food. Well, I'll take you right to the heart of it. And then we were going to shop in some of the fancy stores for a few school clothes, take a taxi back and swim in the pool before it closed. He was actually famous for swimming in the pool before it closed. He was actually famous for swimming in the pool when it was closed too. He would just go under the rope there and pretend he didn't hear the guard running back and forth trying to say, sir, the pool is closed now. And he'd do an

underwater flip at the other end and pretend he didn't hear him until he was done working out. And then we would order a hot fudge sundae and watch the late show together. So we had it all planned out, and it was working according to plan. I was in the back of the room waiting for him. As he was making his way to me, he ran into one of his good friends from college that he hadn't seen for years. Oh, wow. I watched him embrace, and he seemed so excited to see him. And the other guy said, oh, I knew you were speaking today, Stephen.

I've come down to take you to dinner down at the wharf. We can have some seafood and talk and catch up with my wife and it'll be wonderful. And he kind of indicated that I came along as well. And he glanced back at me and said, oh, your daughter's welcome to come too. And I thought, oh, great. I'm going to spend the night with old people I don't know. We have seafood, which I hated. We wanted Chinese food.

This is a disaster. And I expected the worst. My trolley car was nowhere in sight. And then I heard my dad say, you know, that sounds so great. I would love to do that with you, but not tonight. Cynthia and I have a special date planned, don't we, honey? And he waked up me in the trolley car. I could see it again.

And he grabbed my hand. We went out the door and it really meant a lot to me. I said, but dad, this is your good friend you haven't seen forever. Don't you want to hang out with him tonight and be with him? He said, are you kidding? I wouldn't miss this for anything. You'd much rather have Chinese food anyway, wouldn't you? That's that trolley car.

That story just showed so much to me about his level of commitment to being a father. His important role to me and also about trust and keeping your word and priorities it was a it was a it's a great thing to look back on and remember that was kind of the foundation of our relationship that's awesome you know some people have better have a relationship with their friends than they do with their kids so it's good to build that relationship for that gives me an idea i sent my kids off to military school when they were two years old, and they're supposed to return when they're 18. I let them write me once a year. Maybe I'll let them write me twice a year.

I'll let them write me, and maybe I should send them gifts at Christmas. Maybe you could visit. I'll think about it. I didn't have any kids because I had dogs, so I went with that pet program. So that's awesome. How were you guys working on this book when he passed? Yeah. After I insulted him by asking if he was going to do anything, write anything else that was of value, he said, why don't you help me on this book? We didn't know this was going to be

his last, but he assigned me to write the story that would make it come alive so people could see themselves in this and make it kind of interesting. And so I interviewed him for the first couple of years. He basically wanted me to write it, but he said, get my ideas on it and then we'll figure it out together. And then he passed away before we were done. And I regretted that I didn't have my part done. He kept calling me and I have six kids and I'm involved in a lot of community things. And I, you know, I was working on it, but it wasn't finished when he passed away.

And so I just hope to be a faithful translator of his vision for Live Life in Crescendo. It was kind of a neat experience to write it after his passing. It drew me really close to him while I was thinking of writing about it. And I wanted to get it out there because I knew that people that have been inspired by his books before, like Seven Habits and others, would see this as, you know, one last one, kind of his last lecture or last message that he wanted to share that he felt like was very important to him. And it's kind of, you know, about him is what his thinking was, what his mantras were and everything else. I love some of the titles from the chapters because they're just so inspiring.

And you can tell what you're getting into and the stories that you're telling. Life is a mission, not a career. I love that. People are more important than things. That's something we all need to be reminded of, especially I think in today's world. Leadership is communicating worth and potential. Tell me a little bit about that because I'm really into leadership. What does that mean? Leadership is communicating worth and potential. His best definition of leadership was that

leadership is communicating worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves. So you think if somebody, if I were to ask you, Chris, who influenced you? Can you think of one person who believed in you when you didn't believe in yourself? My mom. Your mom. Okay. That's great. I think everybody, you could ask almost anybody and they would point to an individual that saw something in them and believed in them when they, you know, all of us have doubts about ourselves. So this is talking about being a mentor in every age and stage of life that we're in. Looking around and seeing it could be our own kids.

It could be our family or grandkids. It could be somebody in the neighborhood that you can see is struggling, a young boy that needs a role model or maybe an athlete. Maybe you excelled at something. Maybe you're an athlete or you're an author or you're a doctor or something. And you could identify someone

that you think could use your wisdom and experience. Like you were saying, Chris, how much you've learned by, but you know, in these 50 years, wouldn't that be wonderful if you could help use that to build the bridge for someone else to follow by believing in someone who maybe doesn't believe in themselves? Most definitely. I mean, that's, that's the great thing about leadership is inspiring others and getting the, like you, like you mentioned, to get them to see that vision of themselves and where you want them to go. Most good coaches or most good leaders, they see the potential that's in people and they know it maybe from their own experience or whatever.

You know, I grew up a very introverted kid. I was the extroverted big mouth that I am now. I was pretty, you know, unsocial, isolated. I wasn't a social. I just didn't, you know, I was really inverted. And, and, you know, owning companies, isolated. I wasn't a social. I just didn't, you know, I was really inverted. And, you know, owning companies, different things changed that in my life journey. But, you know, people, I grew up poor and, you know, I know what that's like. So when I meet people that, you know, they'll say to me, well, I can never, you know, do what you do with all the talking thing and all that.

I'm very introverted and stuff. And I'm like, you don't understand how I grew up. I grew up poor. I grew up introverted and I was a fly on the wall. I watched everybody do things that I didn't do anything myself when I was, you know, my teens and my, as a child. And so I'm like, you know, you can become like me. And they're like, well, that doesn't sound good at all. But no, it's, it's great that you can inspire people, lift them. You talk in the book too about the Rachel Covey Foundation. Tell us a little bit about that and what your family's doing with that. Yeah, that's one of the greatest things that our family's involved in. There's a lot of

different stages we identify of life. And one's a midlife stage, stagnant stage. One's a pinnacle of success stage. What do you do if you have been successful? What do you do next? Do you sit on your laurels and just enjoy your success or what comes next? How can you contribute? Another one is life-changing experience. And this is where that would fit. At the end of the book, I talk about three experiences our family had. Well, we had the journey of trying to live in crescendo as well. Sometimes you look at other families and you think, oh, everything's, they're perfect. Everything's great for them, or they don't have any trials or struggles. And actually every family has problems and has things they need to

work through and things to overcome. And our family, this one with my brother that I wanted to share, his daughter was 21, Rachel, their oldest daughter, oldest of eight children. And she passed away from effects of depression when she was 21 years old. Wow. This was devastating to our whole family and especially to her parents, Sean and Rebecca. My brother, Sean, was told by somebody that, I'm so sorry this happened. You're always going to have a hole in your heart from that, from what happened, from her loss. And he really thought about that and thought, you know, instead of a hole, I'm going to build a muscle there.

I'm going to strengthen it. build a muscle there. He realized that there's something this devastating of losing a young daughter at 21 from anxiety and depression, that he could either have it define him or destroy him, or the third alternative was to let help it strengthen him. And they chose to do that. They found out after Rachel's funeral that some friends came up and said, you know, Rachel really helped me when I was struggling through riding horses. Rachel had a passion for horses and was a distance runner with horses. And it gave her a lot of joy to ride. She felt like she found her voice when she was riding. And she apparently shared this with other girls that it helped. And so they decided to set up a foundation called Bridal Uphold

with the idea that girls between the ages of 12 and 18 who are struggling with depression, anxiety, suicide, abuse, trauma, that they could come to this barn and learn a couple of different things to deal with it. One of one learning to ride horses. There's a great, there's a great healing therapy with horses and girls with horses. And so they'd learn about equestrian training, be able to take responsibility for their lives with a, with a horse. The second thing was Sean wrote the seven habits of highly effective teens, which is my brother'sens, which is my dad's material, but it's made for teens, more interesting, more stories and geared to teens.

And so they study that. This is kind of the life skills that they teach them, along with the equestrian training is how to take responsibility for your life during hard times and learning these seven habits for teens. And then the third component is service. They found, like we were talking about earlier, that as you serve, as you look outward, that you can heal inwardly. And so they require them to do 10 hours of service, maybe mucking out stalls, taking out art class, developing talents, doing different things. And so this is an incredible program that's been going on for 10 years. It's a nonprofit. They just run by donations and over a thousand girls have gone through this program and it has definitely saved

lives. The dead surveys after parents and they said 93% of parents say it was life-changing for their daughter. It gives them hope that, okay, I can overcome this abuse that I experienced. I had great trauma a few years ago. But like the subtitle of the book, I have important things ahead of me. My life's not ruined. I'm not a victim. I can choose otherwise. And it's been amazing. All of the family is supportive of Bright Look Hope, and it has changed lives and is still doing it today.

That's extraordinary. You know, getting outside sometimes too of your environment and getting into a new environment and going to a place where you can learn, be challenged and grow can, can really be helpful. And, you know, I love the concept of living a life in crescendo because, because you, you, you know, some people look at the end of their life, like, oh, it's the winding down and, you know, I retire and no one cares about me anymore, but it's the greatest time in your life to, you know, spend time learning more, developing new skills. You know, I'm always trying new habits or little adventures that I try and do. You know, I'm always trying to improve myself. And hopefully I'll be doing that until I die,

as long as the old noggin stays working up here. That's a great idea, Chris. We call it the second half of life. It breaks people to have the crescendo mentality to not say what you can't do during that second half. I mean, you look at someone like a Jimmy Carter. He didn't get reelected the second term, which must have been devastating to him. He goes back to Georgia, and instead of just building a library

and charging hundreds of thousands of dollars for speeches, he went into humanitarian work. He's known for Habitat for Humanity and for the Carter Peace Center and for contributing so much more after he was at maybe the pinnacle of success. And yet his most important work was ahead of him. He's our best post-president we've ever had. And as a president, he wasn't rated as high as some of the others. So it was true that his important work was still ahead. And so in this time of life, you're right. You've got the most resources you've ever had, the most time, the most money, probably, the most wisdom

and experience. And so how are you going to use that to better people around you. Starting with your family, your neighborhood, seeing a need and responding. And that's the example of living in crescendo. And so I can give one example of a lady that named Hester Rippey, who was 77, that moved about an hour away from where I live. And her goal when she moved from Texas was to spoil her grandkids. Well, she looked around her small hometown and found that there was a lot of illiteracy there, a lot. And she decided to do something about it. So at 77, you think, well, what could she do? Well, she went and bugged the mayor to give her a little bit of room in the city library and again, tutoring kids and even adults.

She found that a lot of adults in that area couldn't read well. And then she expanded it. I should go to the board meetings and everybody would hide from her because she wouldn't take no for an answer. And she's like, I need more room. I need buses to take these kids after school to be able to read. And anyway, she established the Hester Rippey Literary Center, which has had over 300,000 people have learned to read through her program. And she has over 100 volunteers that run it.

Wow. She's in her late 70s and just saw a need and responded. That is awesome. and you have more time when you get older too and like you say you're usually more successful you're making more money you know i have more freedoms now than i ever had plus i think the other important thing is i got all the stupid things that i could do out of the way when i was young you're right you have more experience and wisdom and you can you can put that to good use if you'll do it besides just laying on a beach in Florida and soaking up the sun. What should I be about? How can I contribute?

I got all that hard drinking, doing stupid things out of the way when I was young. So now I'm like, oh, we're not doing that anymore. So there you go. Well, this is definitely inspiring and it's a wonderful legacy built on your father's. It's been wonderful. Anything more you want to tease out of the book before we go? Well, I think I would just challenge people. You mentioned life is a mission. My father taught life is a mission, not a career. It was something his grandfather taught him. I mean, you can get released from, you know, you can end a job, can end a career, can end. But one thing that he taught me is that each of us have a unique mission to fulfill.

It sounds like you've got something in mind about a mission, Chris, with this show, trying to inspire people, having guests teach others something, maybe a skill or a new paradigm or a new way of thinking. And my father would always challenge people to detect. Viktor Frankl said, you don't invent your missions, you detect them within yourself. And so maybe you're introspective and you think, okay, what means a lot to me? What can I offer those around me that I can just do from where I'm at? What can I give that will make a difference? What is my mission? What am I about?

That mission will become a legacy for your children to look up to and admire. And each of us have something special that we can contribute to someone else that no one else can. And we just have to, we can't be overwhelmed by it and think, oh, I don't have a lot of money or a lot of influence. You just have to start where you are and help the person across the street that can't mow their lawns and that, you know, is too old to do yard work or someone who's friendless. And you just start and begin and your circle of influence will increase and expand. Yeah. It's amazing to me the influence and inspiration

that we can have on other people. And a lot of times we don't even realize it. On my Twitter feed over 12 years, on my Twitter feed, we used to feed lots of inspiring quotes, probably some from your father. We had all the top motivational speakers, the quotes that they were in there.

And two times during those 12 years, I had someone write me privately and say, I was going to end everything today. And I planned it out and it was, I was done. And I came across this random quote that you put out and inspired me and motivated me to stick around. And you don't know the influence you have on other people. Yeah, they didn't plan it.

I was like, we should put these out in case people want to commit suicide today. And it was inspiring. And people have told me that in life, you know. And sometimes I don't find out until years later that I influence them. You know, they'll come out and tell me that, you know, hey, this touched me and moved me years ago. You know, how you talked about death, about one of your dogs or something, and inspired people. And you're just like, wow, I had no idea that had the effect on people.

So it's wonderful and beautiful. Thank you very much for coming on the show with us, Cynthia. We really appreciate it. Oh, you're so nice to invite me. And I really appreciate having the opportunity to share this message and hope that it will give some inspiration to others. There you go. There you go. And give us your dot com so people can find you on the interwebs. No, I'm just on LinkedIn and I'm Cynthia Covey Haller on Instagram. And I'm not, you know,

I just connected in the normal places. So I'm happy to respond to anybody. And I just, just hoping to be a good influence. This is something I've worked on for the last 10 years. And it's been my mission lately to bring this about. So I'm grateful for any promotion of this idea of the crescendo mentality because I feel passionate about it like my dad did. There you go.

There you go. Order up the book, guys, wherever fine books are sold. Live life in crescendo. Your most important work is always ahead of you. Part of the Covey Habits series. Check it out. Just came out yesterday, September 27th, 2022. I really encourage you to pick up the book.

Thanks to everyone for tuning in. Go to youtube.com, Fortuness Chris Foss. Go to LinkedIn and all of our different accounts across social media. Thanks for being here. Stay safe. We'll see you guys next time. And that should have us