The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – When Hope is your Only Option: One Man’s Brave Journey, Through Life’s Adversity by Jim Stavis

Episode Date: June 16, 2026

When Hope is your Only Option: One Man’s Brave Journey, Through Life’s Adversity by Jim Stavis https://www.amazon.com/When-Hope-your-Only-Option/dp/1970608234 Whenhopeisyouronlyoption.com This book is about overcoming all the odds. It is achievement paired with loss, and accomplishment paired with adversity. It is having faith that in all things, even the most challenging and heartbreaking, you can learn and gain something important. It begins with the hope and belief that you can get through anything, even if it’s your only option. About the author Jim Stavis was diagnosed with juvenile type I diabetes at age 17. He was told to expect a shortened lifespan with medical difficulties along the way. This medical diagnosis shaped his life in a way that could have led to depression and decay, but instead motivated Jim to rise above the adversity in spite of the dire forecast. It is the lessons learned and the persistent and positive attitude that served as the inspiration for Jim to write his first book aptly named, “When Hope is Your Only Option”. Jim is happy to share his stories so that the reader can learn and be better prepared for the adversity that they encounter in their life. Jim’s story though miraculous on many levels serves to inspire, to instruct and send a message that anything is possible, no matter the odds.

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With expert publishing to strategic marketing, they help authors reach their audience and maximize their books. success. An amazing young man on the show. We're going to be talking to him about his journey, his books, et cetera, et cetera. It is entitled, When Hope is Your Only Option, One Man's Brave Journey Through Life's Adversity. Jim Stavis joined us on the show. We're going to be talking about his books and his interests and some of the things that he does. So we're getting into with him. And as we get into it with him, we're going to be talking about his deeds and some of the cool things that he's been up to and all of that good stuff. As I try and find his bio here, he was diagnosed with diabetes as a teenager, instead of letting the disease define his life,

he uses a motivator to succeed in life. Ultimately, he had a rare triple organ transplant, which saved his life. Through it, he had a four-decade experience as a founder and CEO of his successful steel distribution business. Welcome to show, Jim. How are you, sir? I'm good, Chris. Nice to be here with you.

Pleasure to be here as well, especially for some of the things that sounds like you've been through in your bio. Give us.com's websites, wherever you want people to find out more about you on the interwebs. Jim. Stavis at Gmail is my personal Gmail. And then my book, which is again titled When Hope is Your Only Option.com,

is the website for the book. And Jim Stavis speaks, which I use for motivational speaking. So that's probably enough to start your day, Chris. I need something to start my day with, so there we go. I got it good. Now, Jim, I noticed there's a couple versions on the Amazon there. And you mentioned in the pre-show you're trying to have some ticking down. This one is out February 4th, 2022. Shows a revised edition on it, the one I have up. Is that the correct version? Yeah, the new version was this year, 26, which has some additional chapters and additional content from the original one, which was four years ago. So it's an update. dated version of the original. Okay, I'll try and find that on the thing.

We'll link to that on the Chris Foss show. So give us a 30,000 overview. What's the side of this book, sir? My life has been pretty, it's been, it's had its ups and downs. I've had a fair amount of adversity through the years, starting when I was a teenager and diagnosed with juvenile type 1 diabetes. And I was told at the time that I would have a life lucky to be 50 years old. and that I would have things such as kidney and heart disease, amputations, blindness.

And for a 17-year-old, that was a pretty big load to be facing at that time. And so I used it as a motivator to kind of get my act together. And I started a business at a young age. I got married and had a family all the while knowing that I had this kind of guillotine hanging over my head. and a shortened lifespan. Can I interrupt you for one second? I'm sorry, but this is a great story, I think. What was your thinking behind that?

Did you have a plan? Were you like, if the end of my life is going to be challenged by failing health, just double down now and kick-ass, take names, instead of falling into depression? Yes. Rather than crawling up into a ball, I realized that I didn't want the diabetes to define my life and that I wasn't going to just live in fear.

And in some ways, it made me go for it and realize that you only go around once, you might as well enjoy the time that you do have. And all the while, I was hoping that there would be a cure for diabetes by the time I got to that 50-year-old mark so that they would have a cure for diabetes. I would have never thought that my ticket would have been transplant, which, of course, back when I was diagnosed in the 1970s, transplant really wasn't a thing back then. They weren't doing them as they do now. Anyway, when those things started to happen that was diagnosed for me early on, I went into congestive heart failure. Oh, wow.

I had a... What age was this? This was in my mid-40s. So you kind of gotten a lot of this stuff down and in the can and cruising along and then this hit you? Pretty much. It hit me pretty dramatically. Actually, the first chapter in my book features I was up on a ropes course up in the mountains in Southern California, Lake Arrowhead.

And I was at the top of a pole about 20 feet in the air and my heart stopped. Oh, my God, dude. So they brought me down. And fortunately, I had a very close friend with me who gave me CPR. Oh, that's great. And that saved my life. So before the paramedics could show up, my friend had revived me. Nice.

And then they brought me down to the hospital, and one of my arteries was 95% blocked. So that was the beginning of the symptoms that were forecasted for me way back when. few years later, my kidneys failed and I went into congestive heart failure. I was in dialysis. So life, as I approached the magic age of 50, I was clinging to a thread. And again, fortunately for me, I sat with the head cardiologist at Cedar Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. And he said, you need a new heart. You need a new kidney. And best case, a new pancreas, to get rid of your diabetes. The only problem is we've never done such a surgery.

In fact, I don't think it's been done ever. So I looked him in the eye and said, then I'll be the first. Wow. You are a brave man. Now, what's going through your mind right now? Help us. I imagine this is in the book. It's a great question.

Yeah, it's a great question. And I've actually thought through that moment myself because my wife. You've got a family, you've got children. This isn't just your risk. Correct. My wife looked at me like I was an alien. So she said, did you not hear what the doctor just said? I did, but I really believed.

I'm sorry, I'm laughing, but I can just, I'm just picturing of my head. Yeah, so I really believed that this was my destiny, that the whole reason I had suffered with the diabetes for as long as I did was for that moment right then, right, you know, at that moment. So I said to the doctor, then, I'll be the first. And what's funny is the doctor wrote the forward to my book. You did really? Yeah. And in it, he said that you go to medical school and they teach you how to give dire forecasts to patients. And he said, of all the times he had given such forecasts,

he had never heard somebody put it back to him like, I'll be the first one. So it put him back on his heels. But his attitude was, okay, if you're up for it, so am I. And that was how we proceeded. This was back in 2005. And I was listed for three organs. And it kind of shot me up to the top of the list on the transplant list. Oh, really? Yeah, because I was viewed as being a dire case. Oh, okay. Was it maybe the risk factor that maybe you were trying to do something they'd never done? They're like, It sounds like something we should have a go out. Maybe we should use this guy as our guinea pig for the way. Yeah.

It was pretty exciting. And I treated it like it was a fait accompli. It was just I knew that this was going to have a good result, which part of my mental outlook was filled with hope and positivity, which is really a lot of what I talk about in the book is that it was that positivity that really got me through the whole ordeal. And imagine lifting people like your wife and others around you and your children and people, you know, I mean, why is it important do you think to be positive in cases like this? I think they've shown scientifically by data, people when they come across something really cathartic and a life or death like this, their mindset makes a difference. A lot of the people that survived, they found a lot of people that survived the Holocaust camps. They were doing everything they could have survived. They didn't give up hope. And they found that they had hope. I don't know how solid that justification is because you can't interview the people who passed away in the ovens. And sadly, you can't ask them, did you have hope? And they just caught you at the wrong time. Of course, the survivors still had hope.

But there's some data there, I think. And people and how they approach stuff and taking the right attitude in these cases can make a difference sometimes in life and death that we think. So, Chris, what's interesting that you bring that up because my wife's father was in Auschwitz. and we spoke a lot about what his, yes, what his experience was and obviously what my experience was. And I figured my wife was genetically created to handle me because she came from the survivors of Holocaust. Yeah. So that was interesting.

That was interesting. Did it help you give perspective on where you were at? He was housed against his will, may have lost family members, may have lost everything he owned and built in his life. Did it give you a perspective to go? Other people have survived maybe worse than what I'm going through right now. And this gives me, it's not as bad as some things could be, maybe. I would say it gave me two things. One was incredible perspective and two was incredible gratitude.

The fact that I'm still here 20 years later from the event. and still be able to tell the story. Yeah. It's pretty amazing. So you were the first guy to do this triple organ transplant and probably the first guy I worked on maybe. Has it been successful with others? Did you pioneer?

I don't, according to Cedars, I go and I kind of check with them and just offhandedly say, have you had other people like me? And they say, no, you're the only one on the planet so far. Aren't you special? Right here, folks, the other person who's got the single unique man on the earth. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, Chris, because I can't ask them.

So how long do you think this is going to last? You're the only data point, so we don't really know. Yeah, so we'll find it later. I think they should give you a, you know how in high school they had a case of the awards and stuff? Yes. I think you should get an award. They should have an award case there at the hospital. Yeah.

I think my name should be on the building somewhere. I think so. I think so. Now, now, here's the deal, though. You got to, you got to, you got to, you can't just settle on the triple organ transplant. You got to go next level, bud. You got to, you got to go for the quadruple now. Now that you've mastered the triple, you got to go. What I talk a lot about in the book is that so after you climbed the mountain and you've, you've, like, seen the other side, then what? What do you do to give back to the process that saved you? And that's really, where I've spent a lot of my time is trying to help others with their adversity, using my story as a bit of a template for if you just do this and do that, you can overcome anything. And that's really been a big part of where I've dedicated my life to spreading that message and trying to help as many people as I can. And what a beautiful thing to share.

That's the reason we tell our stories. We write these books. We do these things to pay the way. for other people. And sometimes maybe you don't think someone's going to care about your experience or what you're doing or something. No, the people are going to care. And there may be somebody out

there who needs to hear your story that this will make a difference in their life on. And if you'll do that, then you have a really good shot at changing the world, influencing stuff to be better, right? Chris, I hope there's a lot of people that listen to your podcast. I hope so too. The numbers seem to

show it. Somebody's out there listening to something. June. That's good. That's good. Good for you. Yeah. And good for you for sharing your story and letting other people know and sharing the bravery that's in there. Now, I found the right book. And yeah, people that can search for it on the website can find it there. We'll have a link for it. And now, is there any future books or past books that we need to talk about? My publisher has been after me to write a book because I do speak to business groups, but adversity in business. I've had. I've had. a business now for almost 40 years in steel distribution that I started with a partner.

And of course, as in any business, you have to deal with the ups and downs and the challenges. And really, my message of surviving adversity and how do you prepare for adversity is the same message that I speak to for businesses. With all of the uncertainty going on today with change. and AI and all of the things that businesses have to contend with, how do you prepare for the unknown? And that's a big part of my life because at 17, I was given a forecast that was very much unknown. So I had to learn to deal with the fact that I just could know what the future held. So how does that affect you going forward, the fact that you can't know what the future holds?

That's true. And does that give you the hope of the possibility of it? Hope is the great enduring thing about humans. Probably the last thing that lets me put up with them all is their ability to hope, their ability to dream. Yes. And out of that rises some of the most beautiful epic instances of human history, I think, that I've ever been told, they're shared. And so, yeah, hope. When did you, I don't know if you talked about this in the book, but during, there had to be moments of doubt.

There always is, right? That little monkey brain likes to sneak in and poke at you. Like, what if this doesn't work out? It's always there. Mine's always in the middle of the night going, coming up with crap. What did you do with that? I think it's there. I would be, you know, probably an idiot to say that it's not, but it's a question of whether or not you let that thought to dominate your mind. And I was asked a question when I was writing the book by my editor because I kind of went through the transplant process rather quickly. And so she asked me, I want to know what was going through your mind the moment they wheeled you into the operating room. And I thought, that's a great question. And if you really want to know, that was when I was

having a little negotiation session with God about if I do this, will you do that? It was probably bigger than the Trump-Iran situation because I was negotiating with my life. Yeah, negotiating with God. Sometimes that doesn't work out. Read the Bible? You never know. He's not always a negotiating movie. Yeah.

So it was an interesting question. And it made me think about what that moment looked like. But yeah, sure, there were moments. But at the same time, I probably undersold the weight of the. transplants themselves. I made it seem like I was going in for a root canal when in fact I was going in for a triple organ transplant. Oh, does that, we call that sometimes reframing. That's good. And by doing that in the mind, we reframe something. So it doesn't seem as big and ominous, that's overwhelming. There's an old one reframe I always use is eat the elephant

one by at a time. I have something really huge and it's going to take a long time. I just, I just sit down with myself and I go, okay, bud, eat the elephant. One bite. One bite. I know a lot of it. Just take a bite. That's right. Just hack through it.

And then another interesting element to my story is that I met the donor family. The boy was a 17-year-old football player. He was actually the kicker of the football team in Lompockei. I got to be very close with the family. And it was really interesting knowing, I feel like I know the donor, even though I know. Oh, really? Yes, even though his heart is beating in my chest. I never really got an opportunity to meet him.

But I did a documentary on his story and my story. So I got to know a lot of his family, his coaches. And so that was a fun thing to do as well, was produced this documentary about his story and mine. Oh, that's wonderful. Now, where can people find the documentary? Is it on YouTube or anything? Yeah, it is on YouTube. It's on, it's called Source of Hope. And then you put my name, Jim Stavis, next to it, and it takes you right to it. And it's a great, it's a great 25-minute show. I got some awards at film festivals for it. Wow. And it tells, so it's not just my story. It's his story as well, which is tragic, but it gives you the whole circle of what the transplant process is all about.

Is it, it must be a little bit surreal being in a situation where you're saying to somebody, hey, we've, we've, I have your person's heart. They've done a lot of, you know, catchy movies about this son of things that are fantasy, but in real life, it's got to be a little, a little odd, right? Serreal is probably the best word. you could use because and the mother the donor's mother is an amazing woman she's uh i got to know her pretty well and she was very true to her faith and she really believes that that that the good that i do is her son performing with inside of me which is which i'm fine with it's it's i think it makes

her feel that her son didn't die in vain yeah but it's it's a good story in fact i was in the donate life float for the rose parade 10 years after the transplant and the donor family sat next to my wife in the stands. It was, it was quite an experience. Well, her heart, her, her, your heart, his heart, was in her womb. That's correct. So mothers are really connected to a child. Yes.

They, they had that physical connection for a long time. And yeah. So she just, she puts her ear on my. chest. The first thing she does is listen to her son's heart, which is very, very special. You're going to make me cry. It's beautiful. If you look up source of hope, it's a pretty touching. Oh, wow. All right, I'll do that one. I need a good cry. Bring some Kleenex. But what a beautiful thing, though. This is the human aspect of humans being, as it were. Now, let's talk about.

about your website. You have several offerings there, speaking, maybe other events. Let's talk about what's there. Give us the dot-coms, too, as we can pull that up. So the book, my book website is www.winn hope is your only option.com. That's my, the book's website, which talks a little bit about me, the book, some reviews, just useful information. And then the Jim Stavis speaks.com is more about me and some of the speaking events that I have. Okay. And then the Jim. Dotts, the Jim.d.

Stavis at Gmail is just my personal email address. If anybody wants to contact me direct, that would be the way to go. Now, Jim Stavis speaks.com, I'm not getting that pulled up on the thing. J-I-M-S-T-A-V-I-S-E-E-S-E-E-E. And then speaks. S-P-T-A-K-S.com? Let me try it with the www. Sometimes there's people have coded that.

It's actually, it might be through Facebook because it's a Facebook. Oh, okay, it might be a Facebook then. Okay. And then what was the other one? You mentioned another.

The last one is just my personal email, which is, oh, your personal email. It's just Jim. Dot-Stavis at Gmail. All right. So people can find this on the website.

You've got a blog over there and synopsis. And so people can see some of the offerings. Tell me us about some of the do stuff you do, like speaking, and you consulting, things like that, etc. I'm in the process of hopefully selling my business, which will give me more time to promote and speak, which is really what I enjoy doing. This is all happening as we speak.

And then the name of my business is paragonssteel.com would be the website for that, WW Paragon Steel. And again, we've been around for 38 years. Wow. So it's, I know, how was it being in the steel business with with everything in dealing with your health and things like that? That's got to be a blue collar hard, hard job site work thing. It's a, it's a great question. Fortunately, I had a partner. The partner died in 2014, but when I was going through all of this in 2005, six, he was still alive. So fortunately, he was able to take over a lot of my performance, work performance. So I was lucky in that regard. And then, unfortunately, he passed

away. And that was really a hard thing, too, which I talk about in the book, because I had never had somebody that close to me pass away. And what was that? How did I get through that piece of adversity. And then ultimately, my other partner, my life partner, my wife, passed away in August of 24. And so I had to deal with that as well. So I've had my share of upsets, but I've always found a way through it. And again, that's part of why I wrote the book in the first place and wanted to share my story to as many people as I could. Wow. It's interesting. You you had this death sentence. You've had all your life or maybe not a death sentence,

but a declining, you know, anticipation of decline. My sister got MS, which he was like 18 or 19. And it was the kind that would debilitate her and put her in a wheelchair by the time she was 40, and it did. But to have looking down the barrel of that gun, right? And stuff like that, you, you, it can be an issue. Yeah. And I talk, I talk to a lot of people that are having health.

problems and trying to find some measure of hope. And I've clearly been the hope, the hope guy. So I try and as best I can to help people find their way through it. And it's not easy. I have this three-step process, which is you have to endure, endure the heartache, the hardship. And then you have to hope, which is your mindset, your attitude. And then the third step is the prevail stage, which is once you've gone through it, then what? What are you going to do with what you've learned? And are you going to help others get through their problems? So I guess the stage that I'm, that I'm permanently in. I love how you have a step. You have a system for it that you share with people. So that's great. That's great. And so people can contact you on your

your website to find out more about you and hiring you and all that sort of good stuff to work. Because I imagine you, I'm imagining, Hope, you're a, you're a singular one man, a unique I don't know what else to say. You can walk around being like, there ain't nobody but like me, man. I'm a unique individual. People have said I'm a miracle, but I won't go that far. I'll just, I'll just take it as I'm a lucky, a lucky dude. Yeah. And transplants normally, they don't last too, long because a lot of times the body rejects. That's correct. That is correct.

When I go to Cedars and they always say to me, wow, you're still, you're looking good, your heart strong. The average transplant heart is 14 years and I've already been 21 and then not to mention the other two organs as well. So I've been very, very blessed. That's pretty wild, man. That's really wild. And what an amazing story, one amazing journey of hope, and one an uplifting, inspiring message

to others, especially in the darkest of moments that we go through. And, yeah, just wild stuff. So thank you very much for coming to the show. We really appreciate Jim. Anything more you want to tell us about before we go? I would be remiss in not saying that for anybody that has the mind to be an organ donor, I would encourage that because organ donation does save lives, and I'm proof of that. So I would encourage anybody to open their heart and be willing to sign up so that you can save other people's lives should you be in that position.

CPR. It's a good thing you had somebody there was never buy with CPR, right? Yeah. Yeah. Imagine if they didn't have CPR, that would have bad. Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely good. And of all the times, to have it and the worst place up on this pole.

Yeah. It's like, oh, my gosh, you know, you couldn't, you couldn't think of anything, something with the worst places to be. Well, at least you weren't driving down the road, I guess. Yeah, I had somebody looking after me, that's for sure. Yeah. I guess you believe in God. Is that correct?

It's interesting. I don't really talk a lot about God in the book because I don't, not everybody believes in God. I do believe in a spirituality and that there are forces beyond us at work. And I believe in the universe. And so a lot of times I look to the universe to help me. And I usually get an answer that helps me. So I do believe in that.

That's wonderful. It's great that you can share this hope and give it to others and inspiration. Let other people know that there's going to be some dark times you might go through. But if you keep your head above water, you keep hope, you have a better chance of surviving it than not. Yes. There's a way through. You just have to believe. There's a way through.

I read Ryan Holiday's book from Stoicism, and he talks about the obstacle is the way through. The obstacle is the way through. And so when you're presented with obstacles, you have to realize, well, the only way through it, the only way to fix it is to go through it. And you can fight it, you can resist it, you can be, I don't want to deal with it today, but you're eventually going to have to deal with it. That is true. And so, it's all that stuff. Yeah, good stuff.

I'm glad you wrote the book and I'm glad you shared your message. And I still think you should, as long as you're the record holder, I think you should go for gold and go for a quadruple bypass, just for fun, or quadruple. The Michael helps of transplants, right? Yeah, man. You're just set records. No one can touch, man. Yeah.

Yeah. I was thinking I should get a hair transplant to do the final one. That counts as a transplant, doesn't it? That's right. Maybe you could just get hair and then that's your fourth. That's right. I encourage anybody to read the book. It's very inspiring and I think especially for anybody that's going through hard times, it's

something that will hopefully help you. Yeah. Yeah. hopefully help you and all that good stuff. So, yeah. Well, thank you very much for coming on the show. Give us your dot com since we go out one last time. The book one or?

All of them. So the book is www.w.w.w.com and then the Jimstavis speaks.com, which is a face. You get it through Facebook. That's my speaking page. And then the Jim. dot Stavis at gmail.com is my personal email. if you wanted to reach out to me. Thank you very much, Jim, for coming to the show and sharing your wonderful, inspiring message.

Thank you, Chris. Thank you. Thanks, honest for tuning in. Order up the book where fine books are sold. When Hope is your only option, one man's brave journey through life's adversity. Thanks to find us for us for us for us for us Chris Foss, LinkedIn.com, Fortress Chris Foss, 1 on the TikTokity and all those crazy places in the internet. Be good to each other.

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