THE ED MYLETT SHOW - Making The Impossible Possible W/ Nick Vujicic
Episode Date: April 7, 2020If you’re not getting a miracle, maybe it’s because YOU are the MIRACLE! I can't even begin to explain the excitement I have in sharing this highly-anticipated interview with you. In one of my las...t in-person interviews, before the "safer at home" order was implemented, I sat down with Nick Vujicic! You probably already know this awe-inspiring thought leader but just n case you have been under a rock, let me tell you... Nick Vujicic is one of the most inspiring human beings on the planet! This man has redefined what's possible by LIVING his impossible! Nick has no limbs, however, he still surfs, golfs, walks, swims, and fishes. He is a best-selling author, he's spoken in front of over 8 Million people across 74 countries and is a REMARKABLE man of Faith! THIS INTERVIEW IS FOR EVERYONE, including YOUNG PEOPLE! Nick's perspective on overcoming adversity will instantly CHANGE YOUR LIFE. In this interview, Nick shares a dark period of his life when, at just 10 years old, he attempted suicide and reveals how he came to overcome his biggest bully... HIMSELF! Nick's story is going to blow you out of the water and make you come alive again and inspire you to live in your PURPOSE. The stories shared in this interview are essential to our world today in how we handle this pandemic and how to interpret the meaning of this shared experience. Nick speaks on the turning point of his life and reminds us all of why we should count our BLESSINGS as we often lose what we aren’t grateful for. We talk about why having a powerful sense of purpose matters, the CRUCIAL key to his life that has helped him achieve and overcome and why LOVING and ACCEPTING yourself first and foremost is the #1 thing you need to do in order to live a FULFILLED life and serve others. "Challenges rebirth a revolution!" We have a CHOICE at how we look at our adversities and even though they may be creating pain, pain pushes us to ADJUST and make the changes we know we need to. This is a message of FAITH, GROWTH, and TRIUMPH that I KNOW you need to hear right now!
Transcript
Discussion (0)
This is the Edmmerlidge Show.
Welcome back to Max Out everybody.
I am so excited to share this man to my left with you today.
He's one of the most inspiring human beings on the spinning earth and we've been trying
to get together for so long.
And finally, God permitted that to happen for the two of us here today.
You all should know who he is.
But if you don't, this man is spoken in front of eight and a half million people in 74 countries.
He's a best-selling author.
And he's a remarkable man of faith and a great human being.
This is Nick Voichich, everybody.
Nick, thank you for being here, bro.
Fist pump.
Fist love you.
Love you. So nice to meet you. So glad to be here.
And hello to everyone. It's finally time. And actually, we're going to be together at some
speaking engagements that we're both booked out. We're going to talk about your speaking
today a little bit as well, because this is one of the great speakers. He's got an an
anointing and an amazing story too. And so I think we should probably start with the story of you and your birth, which you
were born with, tetra-amilia syndrome.
Correct.
And that was not expected.
And so tell us a little bit about the birth process.
I think the story with your mother is so touching and interesting.
Makes me emotional when I've heard it.
And I want to share that story with our audience too.
So go for it.
So absolutely. I was actually born in Australia in 1982. emotional when I've heard it, and I want to share that story with our audience too, so go for it.
Sure, absolutely.
I was actually born in Australia in 1982, and my mum was actually a nurse, so she knew
all about pregnancy and delivery, and she was actually in charge of the birth suite of
hospitals in Australia.
But when she was pregnant with her first born, me, they were so excited every time they
did an ultrasound, oh my gosh, they were so excited every time they did an ultrasound.
Oh my gosh, they didn't even check that I had
arms and legs or not.
And so when I actually was born,
that's when the room went quiet.
And the doctor held me low enough,
so my mom couldn't see me,
but my dad saw my shoulder.
And they took me away quickly.
And my mom's like, what's going on? And my dad, he walks out of mom's like what's going on and my dad he
walks out of the room what's going on he says my son he has no arm he said no
your son has no arms all legs and we are so sorry he will not walk he will not
go to school and we're sorry that you did not have an opportunity to abort
your child and so my dad and mom, they consolidated,
they obviously wept, and then my dad wanted to say,
to the doctors, I want to go see him,
because they wouldn't let my mom see me at that time.
He unwrapped me, and he said, he's beautiful.
And so I had a loving home from the day they won.
But they won, but I think part of it,
if I'm correct me if I'm wrong,
dad was warmer initially and more ready for that moment
than mom was, correct?
For sure, like it took her actually four months
to actually hold me and feel okay to hold me.
You know, when you go through grief,
it's always about shifting and reframing your attitude
to actually overcome not just facing adversities,
but the perspective of even seeing,
okay, how do I stay optimistic?
How do I give hope a chance in this tragedy?
And so my mom, we all had 24 first cousins around us
and everyone's like, don't worry,
we're here for you, they had a great support around them.
But my mom did have her days when
she was like, this is a nightmare. I can't do this. How can I get through this? What happened?
Why me? Why him? And so we all go through those grief and questions when tragedy hits.
So speaking of the attitude and adversity, the combination of those two things, I have to
imagine growing up that
there had to be a few moments where not everything was rosy for you. So what was it like for
you growing up? Did you ridicule, Bully, did you end up going to school? What ended up
in the situation?
Right, so for the people who cannot see me right now on audio version, I have a little
left foot, which is about six inches, a append the on the bottom left and I'm able to walk and and they didn't
know if I could walk type and now I swim goal fish and and now I can type 53
words a minute on a normal computer and yes sir yeah I love the beach we grew
up near beaches all the time in Australia.
But really, it was a miracle where my mom felt convicted
with that attitude shift of, okay, wait a second,
my son who has no limbs, the government says
he's not allowed to go to school.
So she had a choice, but her attitude is no.
Maybe one of the reasons, if only one reason, was
that my son was born this way to actually challenge the government system to say, tell me
why my limitless boy can't go to the mainstream school. They went to the courts and they changed
the law.
The should have, good.
And so it was cool where that adversity was then embraced to then bring at least one
other thing, but when I went to school, I was the only one who looked like me.
Sure.
And I felt like I was the only one in the world that was like me.
And it was wonderful when I met home and with my brothers and sisters.
And I had a couple good friends at school.
But for the most part, most kids made me feel uncomfortable and asked me questions and I really started thinking about my life. I would be forced to just sit
and think about life while I can't do everything that everyone's doing. I'm thinking, wait a
second, the teachers who stand next to me, they're here employed. My mom and dad are employed.
What am I going to be? What if I'm not employed? And so at ages 678 I started
asking the bigger questions, I can't do everything. I can do some, but man, am I ever going to get married?
Am I going to be bullied for the rest of my life? And so these fears started creeping in for sure.
Like your self-esteem? Oh, it was very high highs and very low lows. It felt like I went through seasons. It was
really dependent though on who I was with. And what I found though, gradually over
ages 8 to 12 through my years of depression, that actually bottomed out at a
an attempted suicide at age 10. I realized that I was my biggest bully. Because
someone only takes two or three seconds to tell you something negative.
But then you need to understand what am I gonna do?
Am I going to let that echo in my mind
and start believing that echo?
Where am I gonna say no?
I'm not defined by how I look.
I may not be good at this, but I'm excellent at maths.
I can't do this, but I can still do that.
And so that's the battle in the mind
that I feel like everyone goes through,
whether you have arms and legs or not,
some of us are disabled with a crippling self-esteem.
Well, that's so true, brother.
I think almost everybody relates to that.
In your case, I think some people listening to you
think, well, there was justification
for you having these insecurities
because you do look different.
Your circumstances were different.
I didn't know that you tried to commit suicide.
That's the first time I've ever heard that before.
I've heard a lot of reading about you.
I did not know that.
Was there a moment after that where things began to...
See, I think you hear people on shows all the time.
It's like, well, that was a defining moment.
And then nothing like that ever happens again in my life, right?
You know what I'm saying?
But if there have been return moments over your lifetime
where maybe you didn't get to that extreme,
but you go back to having dark thoughts or insecure thoughts
and even to this date, is that ever happening anymore?
Yeah.
Look, as far as pulling is concerned,
obviously I have a self-esteem knowing the truth
and holding onto the truth and seeing the track record of how a man without arms and legs can still live a life without limits.
And not to say that everything is possible, but I'm living my possible.
I've redefined impossible from what the world has said and what I thought I couldn't do.
But now I'm living an awesome life.
And I've got my ups and downs.
We all have our ups and downs.
There has been probably two or three crisis since,
but more in my adult age,
when I first fell in love with someone
and her father didn't give us the blessing.
So she had a choice, T into section, the family or me.
Another time in 2011, entrepreneurs,
most of us we lose the money at least once.
That's true.
So I lost my money first.
2011, it was difficult.
And so those crisis still come and go every season of life and cycles,
but those challenges revert the revolution really for not just
bettering who I am, but really achieving the goals and dreams that I really
have, which is to reach the world better.
Now my husband, I'm a father of four, trying to reach, I'm even inspired by people like you who are doing this as a
non-profit inspiring people. That's what I want. I live to inspire people. It's my purpose,
it's my purpose, given life. And to do that from home, that's awesome, but to also make
sure that no matter what comes out of my mouth
Don't ever feel like this
motivational attitude coach never has his down days
But there was a turning point that I did have it as a teenager getting out of that depression
It was actually losing something that I wasn't thankful for and it was the ability to walk for three weeks
Oh, I gotta hear this. I played soccer my favorite sport that I wasn't thankful for. And it was the ability to walk for three weeks.
Oh, I gotta hear this.
I played soccer, my favorite sport.
And I was on the field, and the ball came,
and I jumped up in the air, stupid.
I did this matrix, slow motion,
karate kick in the air, and I jump up,
and the ball hits my foot so hard, I sprained it.
Okay.
Staring at the ceiling for three weeks,
I'm like, wait a second.
Really?
I really gotta be thankful for what I have
instead of being angry for what I don't have.
Oh my God.
And my parents always said be thankful.
They were refugees as children,
leaving former Yugoslavia.
So they always said be thankful.
When I wanted something from the store,
they wouldn't give it to me.
They said, make your own money and buy it.
So I'd vacuum the floor for $2 a week.
I would figure it out.
But to really be thankful for what you have, you know that saying, you don't know what
you got till it's gone.
And then the other thing that really sealed my path of hope was my faith decision in believing
that there is a God who loves me, that heaven is real, and
that even when you don't get a miracle, you can still be a miracle.
And then it all started to speak in Korea out of a janitor who worked at my high school
I was 17 years old, and I just got voted onto the student government body.
And he said, you got voted on the government body.
He said, yes, he said, you're going to be a speaker.
He said, you're crazy. I said, what am I going to speak about? He said,
your story. I said, I don't have a story. He was the one who organized my first
speech. Come on. Come on. You guys, just replay this for a minute. These are things I
didn't know. And you know that we have a lot of mutual friends. I've done a lot
reading on you. A couple things strike me. One of what you that we have to take
inventory of what we are grateful for,
because it's so easily said,
but especially in your case to say
that that was the catalyst for change for you.
The other part of it is, we're gonna talk about the fact
that you have this unbelievable anointing
and that not only do you speak, but you evangelize as well.
But the fact that a janitor was the catalyst,
someone whose career path was a janitor,
becomes a catalyst to birth one of the great inspirational
speakers of our time, of our time, everybody.
You know, that ought to be making you think,
what's the difference you could make
in another person's life?
Because there's the next story,
but then there's this person that was the janitor
at the school who will remain nameless,
who has made a massive.
That person's responsible for 50, 60, 70 million human beings
hearing from you through all these different avenues
of social media and speaking.
So you can make a difference
regardless of your place in the world.
That is a remarkable story.
Now speaking of that, you and I have talked a lot
about this attitude, concept, and adversity.
And even right now, economically, the world may be changing right now. And, you know, I have talked a lot about this attitude concept and adversity and even right now
economically the world may be changing right now and you know I have this fundamental belief that sometimes you're supposed to go into times of adversity because
The pain of that change it causes you to do things that you should have been doing all along anyways
But if the adversity didn't present itself you wouldn't make those adjustments or those changes
What's your philosophy about you know kind of attitude and adversity Because obviously you've dealt with your share of adversity in your life
since birth. So what are your attitudes? And how do you view that?
Unfortunately, I think we're getting to a rhythm of what we've always known for the last, let's say,
three years. When this three-year mindset mode that what's been working is good,
is when this three-year mindset mode that what's been working is good. Me now, you know, like I said, a father and I don't want to travel as much.
I actually have done 3,500 speeches in 74 countries so far.
I've traveled more than the average person and I love what I do.
I want to inspire people, but I've always told my wife,
I need to start something different. I need to do things different.
Go coaching, do podcasts, do whatever we need to do to stay closer to home.
This year, it's not that because Nick was proactive and you had a spare hundred K to reposition,
right?
Because it takes money.
It doesn't take time. it takes risk, and then coaching it.
I didn't know many people, and all personally,
who's had a successful podcast,
and everyone's saying, you're gonna do this.
But unfortunately, the faucets have turned off
in the speaking industry, and I've been majorly affected.
And so, internationally, especially, so we're like,
okay, I wish I did this because
I knew I should have done it, but it was too comfortable. Gotcha. And me being in my
own minusc, or of a lack of productivity, I did a disservice to me. I did a disservice
to my family. And you know what? You know Lewis Howell's. Yes. He said, without me telling
him about a, he didn't know that I was going through a crisis
and he said, you not even having a podcast,
can you think of it as a disservice
to everyone out there?
It's exactly right.
You don't know the story much of all the other major points
because people only see me on stage or in my book.
If you don't see my stage, you don't see the book,
you don't know my story.
Nick, people need to hear from you and so.
They do.
We need to get sometimes through this bottleneck that forces open a revolution that will now
help me actually achieve the dream that I want it.
Isn't that amazing how that works?
It's so funny because people say, hey, these entrepreneurs, Ed, you must be this incredible
visionary.
I've got these visions for all these things you want.
I've certainly had dreams and some visions, but I think the ones who actually arrive at the
dream are the ones who respond in the times of adversity and make the course corrections
and adjustments.
I don't take failure as a personal failing.
I take failure as a failing of strategy.
Too many people take a failure where they miss a sale or their income drops
or they have a bankrupt, so your relationship,
that it's a failure of them is a human being.
I have a God who loves me, who made me his image and likeness.
I don't take these failures as if I'm a failure person.
My strategy is flawed.
My behavior could even be flawed.
But my behavior and my strategies don't mean
that I can't win, that I can't be somebody.
So I just want to totally, you know, second what you've said there.
I completely believe that.
By the way, everyone, so you know, you can have Nick come speak to your organization or
to your group.
He'll also do webinars with them as well.
So he could stay home and make that impact for you.
And the podcast is coming here right with a release of this show is coming out as well,
too.
So these are other ways that you'll get access to him.
At the end of the show.
We're going to tell you where to find him.
I want to go back for a minute because you said something that you sort of accepted kind
of faith in God in your life at that time of adversity as well.
And I just want to ask you directly, I know the answers, but I want them to hear this.
In your life, for all the things you've achieved, all the lives you've impacted, the things
you've had to overcome.
How important has been your faith and your belief in God and your life?
To me, it's the most crucial part.
And even though when I go on to a, and the organizers say, now you can't mention religion,
you can't mention politics.
And I understand that.
And we've had hundreds of clients who were satisfied every time I get off stage.
And people then Google me and then find out the nonprofit side, life without limbs.
And so we have people who monthly support us, who believe in that mission field to know
that believing in heaven and having forgiveness and peace with your creator God is the most
important thing.
Money comes and goes.
And so we've actually felt that we need to go and make an influence into
education systems with our social emotional learning curriculum called Attitude as Altitut
and anti-bullying for kids and then corporate America, the worldwide corporate audience, Nick
motivated us, help us to redefine impossible. How did you get through what you did? How do
we live also a life without limits? And then people Google me and then find out my other story which is the
more spiritual side, not that I'm baiting switch. It's like, hey, these are the
principles, these are the values, but yes, and my most important thing in my
life is knowing that when my dad gets diagnosed we cancer in 2017 and to
know, sorry, he actually got diagnosed in 2015,
died at 2017, knowing that heaven is real. I nearly died in 2016. And my first earthly
goal was to pay off my house. At 37, paid off a house, so we bought lower 27, just about
to sell now at a high market, and not many 37 year olds can say that.
And so with you, thank you.
And with all of that though,
big house, small house, house, no house, the soul.
And so that's how important it is to me.
But this is the amazing thing.
It's understanding that when you do go through change,
to believe something you don't see, to not panic,
when an entrepreneur and a visionary like us, you and me,
are going through something and then we're stopped
in our tracks.
One of the biggest debilitating mental things
is numbness.
And then numbness goes to like from shock to then wait a second,
maybe it's also panic after that.
It's like what just happened? Wait a second, maybe it's also panic after that. It's like, what just happened?
Wait a second, this is bigger than me.
And it takes time to then get counsel
when you go through change and adversity,
get advice from people where you wanna go,
get coaching from them,
figure out that new planet of podcast Nick,
figure it out, learn.
And like you said, many of us though,
never recuperate it because that pressure of failing
and the pressure of never having that success
that I did have, the way that I term it is,
an attitude shift that failure is my classroom
and it's part of the journey and evolving
to your full potential.
Failure is my classroom.
I love it. Failure is my classroom. Failure is my classroom.
I love that.
You know, I was stepping on, I'm just watching you speak.
And it was interesting.
I told you about Nick, my friend, who also essentially
is without his limbs.
And it's, I just struck me.
I just wanted to tell you, it's amazing
when you're in the presence of somebody.
I forget.
I forget.
I just, I forget. Like forget when I was interviewing Nick,
I told him the same exact thing.
And I think that the reason I say that on the show to you
is that we're all very aware of what we lack.
We're all very aware.
You take the average human being,
you say make a list of 10 things you're great at,
take them three days.
You say make a list of 100 things you're not good at.
They can do it in two minutes.
So we're all very cognizant aware of the things we lack.
And I just want you all to know that the things that are remarkable about you, when you're
in the presence of other people, dwarfs the things about you that you're not great at.
They don't see them.
You think they see them, but they don't.
And so it's interesting.
I don't see you that way.
I don't see Nick that way. I don't see Nick that way.
I see this greatness in front of me. I see this man who's an expert at redefining impossible, which I want to talk about next. You're the epitome of it, brother. A little boy, this beautiful,
precious boy is born. And the doctor says to your father, I'm sorry we didn't tell you so you could
abort him. And that very little boy whose mother even at first wasn't sure about holding him or touching
that little boy goes to change millions and millions of lives.
That's the definition, dude, of redefining impossible, right?
Like you've redefined no one that day who says, I'm sorry you didn't abort this baby.
That doctor's not thinking, yeah, 74 countries, millions of people, thousands of lives and souls changed.
No one would think that, right?
So talk about that concept with you
about rising above and redefining that.
I love the way you talk about this.
Look, I'm not gonna say her name,
but I'm not the only one with the story, right?
We've got a history.
What I've learned is I'm not the only one going through
something and I'm never telling anyone that I'm going through something worse than anybody.
I tell teenagers all the time, I believe it's worse being in a broken home than having no arms and legs.
And so someone who's gone through a broken home, I can't encourage them as much as someone who has come on the other side and say,
I know how that feels. Me like a limeless boy. That's the beautiful thing. I've met another limeless boy.
I've met 30 people.
Now he knows that if Uncle Nick can do it,
then I can do it.
And so in that story, there is someone local here actually
who lives close to here.
I won't mention her name.
I'm about to see her tomorrow to be with her two boys.
She has two boys from two different fathers
because those fathers died at age 39 within five years of each other, one of cancer, one in a
car crash. And so I'm just about to spend some her boys going in the pool with
my boys tomorrow. And for me when I looked at her at her second
husband's funeral and I was able to speak
at his memorial service, he was a dear friend of mine at 39 just now, only a couple months
ago.
I'm sorry.
He, she said to me, if I went through this just to help one other widow.
And it's that understanding that it's not, man, another punch I need to get up.
It's understanding, okay, wait a second.
It's not a lack of chance of coincidence that I'm watching a podcast with Ed and Nick
and I feel my life is impossible.
I'm depressed.
I'm isolated.
I haven't told someone what my dad did to me and I haven't even forgiven him.
I haven't forgiven myself of the things I've done wrong. They're still trapped in maybe the failure or my success,
my business is successful, Nick and Ed,
but I still haven't got something
and more of what I love, I haven't found that.
And that's the purpose that we all need to find
and say, look, when I don't get a miracle,
it doesn't mean I can't be a miracle for someone else.
And so millions of dollars, or me helping little Daniel help him, when he was getting bullied
at school, I went in my wheelchair and I ran them all over.
No, I didn't.
I went there and did a quick 15 minute speech about bullying, right?
And now, not only did he go through the rest of his elementary and middle school
unbullied because now he accepts himself, people stop teasing him and they
stop teasing everyone else. I'm like, hey guys, we're all valuable. We all have a
purpose. We all have story and we can all make the world a better place. Money,
drug, sex, alcohol, pornography, fame, and fortune. If you put your happiness in
temporary things, your happiness will be temporary.
And so when you come back to the understanding that even the challenge is something that
we shouldn't just say, I'm going to ignore it, I'm going to walk away from it, I'm going
to never address that, I'm never going to...
No, the sooner you address the things, even me, Ed, the speaker who's traveled around
the world, it took me
10 years to forgive the family who didn't think that I was good enough for their family,
for her.
And now I have an amazing wife.
She's half Japanese, half Mexican, we call that chap'sican.
We've got four children, seven, four, and twin girls at two.
And I just want people to know it.
It's not something I'm a speaker to say, everything is possible.
Just do it.
Take one day to time, be thankful.
Do your best.
Refrain the attitude for you on a daily basis.
Don't be debilitated by panic.
See what you know.
Learn what you don't know and take a step forward.
So good, brother. Going back to the janitor at your school, I keep thinking of him. Isn't that
interesting? He's beautiful. And I've met, I just met up with him after all those years. I went to
his humble home. His name is Arnold. I have talked about him publicly and in my book. And he was the catalyst. And then after him, I just did speeches at schools.
Were you good at first?
No, I was terrible.
I would actually never watch me speak
if I recorded it because,
er, so how would you say the biggest critic?
Yeah, me too.
Absolutely, I'm that way.
And I was bad though.
I wasn't good.
But I didn't want to listen to unmotivational speaker
because what I knew straight up,
if I listened to other people's content,
then I'm not authentic.
And I needed to buckle down, make my own content.
And after I did my first three or 400 speeches
all across Brisbane, Australia,
we then got me a coach. My teacher, Australia. We then got me a coach.
My teacher, Raid's husband, was a coach,
and he sewed into me 10 hours.
And even when my parents said, you're crazy.
You'll never make money speaking.
Do a double degree in accounting and financial planning.
And I did.
My father gave me wonderful wisdom ed.
He said, start an accounting firm,
go into stock market, go into real estate and get employees to be a hands and feet. I
was six years old when he said, you need to become a millionaire to survive. No one knows
that my nonprofit doesn't even pay for my care givers and I have a family to feed. And
so he told me entrepreneurily, you need to make it happen, do your best.
Went into the stock market at 16.
Went into real estate at 19.
He told me, just go for it, but they never thought that I'd ever be a speaker.
That's crazy.
Crazy.
So that was my next question, by the way, is involving entrepreneurship.
That's something that can be missed with you. You're a serial
entrepreneur. You're a great entrepreneur. Off camera. All we were talking about
was entrepreneurial ideas and the power of that. And so many people get the
type of advice. I don't I think my parents I could sense. My parents didn't
tell me you weren't going to make it as an entrepreneur. My dad now tells me I
didn't think you were going to make it. They were so worried.
I remember I loaded up a U-Haul and I was driving away
to go to my first entrepreneurial venture.
And my dad tells me as I was driving away,
he was telling my mother, God bless him,
he'll be back soon, why is he doing this?
And so I think a lot of people sense this lack of support
from family, lack of belief, maybe even lack of belief
in themselves.
What are your attitudes about that?
Do you think most people should be pursuing entrepreneurship, a side hustle of belief, maybe even lack of belief in themselves. What are your attitudes about that? Do you think most people should be pursuing
entrepreneurship, a side hustle of something,
some type, or a nonprofit of their own?
What are your thoughts about that
just to enrich their own life?
How do you feel about that?
So you talk about it all the time.
First of all, entrepreneurship is not for everyone.
Sometimes you're an entrepreneurship,urship, nine to five,
every day I'm just gonna be the best person
I can be at what I have.
That's fantastic.
If though there is a dream to then do a side hustle,
going to really stay through this, do that,
I would say go for it as long as the first of all,
your priorities are right.
And so, what are those priorities?
So for me, right, I actually achieved my goal and dream when my dad was dying of Kent.
When I nearly died 2016, why did you almost die?
I had a negligent surgery go wrong in California
after a benign tumor was removed.
Oh, wow.
Didn't swim, we just move on.
Money's money doesn't matter.
So then, 2016 I nearly died.
2017 my dad died and I had four children
at the time. I actually wanted to get to a week where we got the bread and butter. We're
doing the nonprofit. I want to switch off my phone Friday Saturday Sunday Monday. I did
it. I did it. I had 17 staff at the time and I did it for six months straight. And I
would do in the status quo but not enough
oxygen reserve in case some contracts cancel for cash flowing a rainy day.
So for me it's first of all you got to be truly yourself with what's most important to you
for me, faith, family, friends.
If you're not really conversing, if you're not really connecting, I think us human beings were created to connect.
Life is never better alone.
It doesn't matter, I'm not talking about married
or not married, I'm talking about connecting
with human beings, number one.
Number two, going after your biggest dreams,
my dreams of being married and having kids done.
But really now when you have a wife,
as I'm looking, okay, at him like, okay, what's
my next venture, I want her to bless the idea. And when you have a spouse who loves you,
who respects you because you love and respect them, there's a margin that you make from week
to week or month to month saying, look, I'm going to try and hustle. I'm getting ready
for a 15 hour day stretch. Yeah. That I'm going to do 9 to 5. I'm not going to try and hustle. I'm getting ready for a 15-hour day stretch.
Now, I'm going to do nine to five.
I'm not going to be able to do this and this and this
as much, but I'm going to do this because I feel like
this is what I need to do.
If that is in unison for your family, you run for that.
And for, as long as your thoroughbred heart beats for that,
you keep on knocking.
But there are triggers, triggers of success, triggers
of weight pause, triggers of failure at the trigger of failure. Do you then go to an end and say,
what do you think I should do? No, your heart first will say eventually, let's wait, let's
delay it. You know how timing is important. Not just the outside, the inside. I can tell you right now if Nick
Voich had started the podcast five years ago. No. Now. Oh my gosh, now is the time. So understanding
and embracing that, that the timing and a closed door doesn't mean it's not going to open again, but really your spirit and your connection
if you're not married, then all you have to worry about is you yourself and you.
And then say, okay, I don't have other mouths to feed. This is how much risk I'm ready to take.
This is the attitude of the time I'm going to give myself, but hustle, go for it.
No one's going to make it happen except for you.
You, my friend, have become a gigantic success in your life and things that I think matter,
which is where you've measured it as well.
But you have been a success as a family man.
You've been success in your faith and also serving God.
You've been a success financially.
You've made a lot of money.
You've traveled the world.
You've influenced people.
What has made you successful?
You're not successful because you lack limbs, right?
That's not why you're successful.
But isn't that interesting?
Like I want to peel back.
Right.
When Marshall fucked the NFL Hall of Famer set next to me,
or Robert O'Neill killed Osama Bin Laden,
or Stephanie McGrann, who runs the WWE,
or whoever I've had on the show,
that's maxing out certain areas of their life.
Okay, you're no different than them in your way.
With the humility that I know you're gonna answer it with.
If we're being real,
are you just like a psycho-competitor?
Is it your work ethic?
Is your ingenuity?
Is it your anointing?
Like what is it that's made you max out so many different areas of your life?
And I know that you feel like you haven't done it all the way that you want to,
which we'll talk about next.
But what is it about you?
What's the special?
I think the key attitude is being present and being honest.
And when you're a humble person who can humbly say you're a humble person,
then you have no greed, ego, need to
prove nothing to nobody. And you honestly look at yourself and say, okay, this is who I am,
this is what I have. No point in wishing this, wishing that this is what I'm going to do
to my best ability. I actually feel like I have a unique edge on any other
person only because, again, of the struggle. The struggle we're in before anybody leaves the room.
So I became almost like an operator at a seven or eight, timing everyone, reading body language
before someone moves out of the room.
Please can you get me a glass of water, put a straw and me remembering, wait a second, how do I do this?
How do I?
So I've been forced to figure it out and not to depend on someone else or
something else.
How can I figure it out and see approach it from different angles?
So when you have an attitude that approaches adversity, that
is quite resilient. A resilient approach to adversity helps you to look at something
and say, okay, these are the first three reasons why it seems extremely difficult. And the
average person is going to say, okay, I have good enough reason not to...
No. Einstein said, genius is when you're obsessed with impossible.
And when you look at impossible, that's when you become fearless.
And when you're fearless and you have the attitude and approach of any adversity,
it doesn't mean you don't at least get a flavor on the tip of your tongue of panic or numbness in your mind.
You go through everyone's human, but quickly you use, wait a second, what about 4, 5, 6?
What if I did this, what if I did that?
And so in the physical, when I needed something from the bookshelf and I told my mom,
I can't get it, can you get me?
And she said, get it yourself.
It was the best thing when I thought,
why not just have that?
Given this way, she gave me a task.
And when I did that in that mind,
I would say reframing adversity.
It's not a bad thing, it's not a barrier, it's a challenge.
And people see me as strong,
anybody who's gone through adversity is strong.
Why?
Because you know what they've been through.
If I am stronger because of what I've been through,
you, if you will, more embrace the challenge today,
being present, honest, and giving yourself a shot.
Sometimes we are the ones that never gives us a shot.
I totally agree with you.
I'm gonna tell you one thing about you too.
So clearly, I thought you might say part of that,
which was that, hey listen, I didn't get things off the shelf.
I had to learn to do things that weren't easy for me to do
because of the lack of my limbs and
other different things.
I thought that you would say that.
I'm going to tell you something about you that maybe someone has said to you that I want
to say that I want to acknowledge about you.
You have a tremendous amount of personal presence and influence.
It's why you're great on stage, it's why you're incredible one on one, it's why you're
a great entrepreneur.
And I find people with personal presence isn't their size or their deep voice or anything like that.
Personal presence are people who have grown to become very comfortable with themselves.
And people who are very comfortable with themselves can be into you when they're communicating with you.
They can make it about you because they're comfortable. When you're uncomfortable with yourself, when you don't love yourself,
when you don't embrace yourself, your entire time is spent trying to create a version of you to people. We are not present with them.
You have that. And it's, and I think the hidden blessing of your life is because of some
of the deficiencies at birth growing up, you had to work harder than the average person
on loving you and embracing what you did have. Ironically, it's what has made you such a person
of influence because I sit next to everybody
in these interviews.
And I know when someone's talking to me,
when they live it, they're people who say
inspiring things and then they're inspiring people.
Those are two different things.
You're an inspiring person and you're inspirations
because of who you actually are.
So I just wanna tell you that's one thing about you
that strikes me right when we met up until this moment
is your presence as a man.
And I believe that's because you're so comfortable
with yourself.
Can I dovetail on that?
Because there are so many people who want to be successful,
who want to be entrepreneurs,
who get all the mechanics of, if you're a realtor,
if you're this, if you're that,
this is body language, eye contact, all the mechanics, all the science, it wasn't hard for me to
work on that.
What you just said, no one else has brought up, you're the first one.
And here is why.
It's because when people judge me for how I looked and they wouldn't even look me in
the eye to see my soul.
When you know that I could tease someone else because of how they look, but I don't want
to judge them, I want to look in their eyes, appreciate them for who they are.
Instead of being, you know, bad, bad, I can't be involved in a sports activity, it's an
elimination dodgeball thing or something like that.
I had to sit out sometimes.
I'm waiting for the first person who feels like, oh my gosh, I'm the worst kid at school
today because I'm known today as the one who was first eliminated at.
And I look at them, hey, good job.
Better luck next time.
And we start talking.
Because I knew how much talking and
opening up to someone helped me. I know how people judged me and then how I
interned judge myself. So I tried to unchain people's own personal judgment, which
again is just an attitude shift. Gosh brother, that's awesome. That is an awesome
man. So I've read life without limits. Twice, I read it when I originally came out and then I read it again here recently. Awesome. And there an awesome man. So I've read life without limits twice.
I read it when I originally came out and then I read it again here recently.
And there's these things you list in there having a powerful sense of purpose, hope so strong
and it cannot be diminished, faith in God and the infinite possibilities and then the love
and self acceptance.
And there's other parts of the book as well.
I want them to read the book to get it.
So this is an incredible piece of advice that's in that book.
But the last thing I want to ask you is, there's millions of people that are hearing this
and watching this who come to the show today not feeling great about their lives, themselves,
what they've achieved, where they're going.
They may not even feel like their future is very bright.
And they look at you and all you've achieved and all you continue to achieve.
If there was just a sliver of a word you could give them.
If they ran into you at a Starbucks somewhere
and said, hey, you've really made a difference in my life,
but truthfully, I feel this way right now.
What would be your message to those people
that are listening or watching?
I just want you to know that when you go through adversity,
I want you to know to hold on.
I want you to know despite what you see,
despite what you feel, despite what you know,
you're here for a good reason.
And it doesn't mean that all of life is good, but you're here through a good purpose,
and you're like, well, wait a second, how could anything good come out of my life?
Nick, I got this, I got that.
Well, first of all, I'm not comparing my pain to you, but I have no arms and legs.
And I had a choice to either be thankful for what I had,
do my best and take one day at a time or give up. And the smile that you see is real.
The strength that you see in my eyes is real. And not because I'm selling you anything,
because I love you and I believe in you. Don't give up. Keep going. If you need counseling, go get counseling.
Maybe one of the things that you need to do to get out of a depression is also maybe going to
help someone else in need that maybe cannot even thank you for that. And that then instigate
purpose because to get out of depression or a funk that we're in, the one thing that I'm going
to leave you with
is when you actually take the focus
of what you're going through,
not because you don't love yourself
and not because of what you're going through is bad.
But when you step out of that and say,
okay, how can I go and help someone else feed
a homeless person, be part of a nonprofit
and serve over the weekend?
When someone looks at you, who's in need and you
help them fulfill that need, subconsciously and consciously, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually,
it is an affirmation of little steps to build back your self-confidence to get ready to say,
I can do this. I am someone. So despite what you see, feel and know, you can have forward thinking with the shift of
attitude and action.
Bang!
Amen.
Oh, so good, brother.
Okay.
So good.
How do they get more of you?
Before we leave today, how do they get more of you?
Where do you want them to go?
I would love first of all.
Everyone to go to nikvoichich.com.
You can book me as a speaker, join us on our newsletter, and then the podcast that
is up and running right now.
We're so excited.
I don't know exactly what all my listeners want, and we're going to figure out more and
more of that path, and I'm going to get some coaching from you as well.
Absolutely.
But I'm ready to help people from weekly bases, multiple episodes, just to help people,
even some humor.
I feel like we need some humor.
We do.
And it's time.
Absolutely.
But just coming alongside of people and saying, Nick, your attitude keys, I need them to
reach my full potential.
So we're looking for speaking engagements, webinar opportunities here in America, especially,
and just find me on NickFoyaches.com and social media.
We have about 12 moon social media fans.
Is that all?
That's a ton.
It's awesome, brother.
Congratulations.
So find them, especially on Instagram,
everybody fist bump.
That was awesome.
Love you, brother.
Thank you for what you do.
Today was a remarkable.
Hey everybody, I know you're probably following me
if you're listening to this,
but I want you to engage with me too. I bring you the best guests in
the world, just like this man to my left here today, Nick. And I, every day I run a little
drill on Instagram called the max out two minute drill. I do it to engage with you. I reply
to more comments and I look at more DMs than anybody I think I'm so sure of me to yet. And I do
it because I want to learn who you want sitting next to me, what content I can
create, how I can serve you.
Here's how it works.
When I make a post every day on Instagram, turn your notifications on because within the
first two minutes, if you make a comment, you're enrolled to win.
That's the first way you're enrolled.
The second way you're enrolled is if you comment on other people's comments, that increases
your chances because I want you to engage in with each other.
And third, if you missed the first two minutes, I only make five posts a week, 730 Pacific
time, 1030 Eastern.
Just make a comment on every post.
At the end of the week, we take all the people who commented on every post.
We pick a winner from that group as well.
You can win fights on my jet.
You can win tickets that come see me speak.
Coaching calls with me and my guests, max out gear.
All kinds of really cool stuff just so that we can connect.
So please participate.
I hope you enjoyed today's program.
Share it with everybody. Everybody needs to hear this message today from Nick and I. God bless you
and max out.
This is the end mileage show.
you