We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network - TIP 077 : Billionaire Oprah Winfrey - What I Know for Sure (Investment Podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:00 We study billionaires, and this is episode 77 of The Investors Podcast. Broadcasting from Bel Air, Maryland. This is the Investors Podcast. They'll read the books and summarize the lessons. They'll test the waters and tell you when it's cold. They'll give you actionable investing strategies. Your host, Preston Pish, and Stig Broderson. Hey, how's everybody doing out there?

Starting point is 00:00:31 This is Preston Pish, and I'm your host for The In. investors podcast. And as usual, I'm accompanied by my co-host, Stig Broderson out in Denmark. And we've got an interesting billionaire to talk about for this episode. And it's not somebody that we've really ever talked about on the show before. And that's Oprah Winfrey. And I know some people might be really Oprah Winfrey is a billionaire. I'm seeing $2.9 billion is where how high her net worth is. And she just has an amazing story. And to be quite honest with you, I'm a huge fan, absolutely huge fan of Oprah Winfrey. And I've been impacted by a lot of the books that she's recommended through the years. And we'll kind of get into that as we go through the episode.

Starting point is 00:01:08 But she wrote a book. And so we're actually reading her book. And the name of the book is What I Know for Sure by Oprah Winfrey. Fantastic read. I'm just thoroughly impressed with her in general. So I'm not really surprised that her book was so good and beneficial. But we're going to go through that. And we're going to talk about the different things that we learned in her book. And it should be a pretty fun episode. I think a lot of people in our audience are obviously value investors and people that are probably more in the accounting side of the house. And, you know, not every person that you study has to necessarily be this mathematical kind of figure out the intrinsic value of something to really necessarily add value. And so that's why we're kind of stepping away from that for one episode.

Starting point is 00:01:50 And we just really want to dive into just looking at things from maybe a different perspective and kind of seeing how she kind of rose to the top and maybe some of the ideas that helped her rise. to the top, and a lot of that is covered in this book, so it should be pretty good. I wanted to talk a little bit about her as a person and how she grew up and what kind of background she came from, and unless Stig has any opening comments that he wants to, you know, throw out there. Do you want me to roll right into that Stig? Yeah, that sounds cool. Okay, so I just wanted to talk about how she basically came from nothing and created this multi-billion dollar empire. And I think that it's just so fascinating. And one of the things that, I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but one of the things that Stig and I like to focus on on our show is we want to focus on billionaires that

Starting point is 00:02:34 created everything basically from the ground up on their own. You know, we don't really focus on the Walton children, for example. I mean, they're billionaires, but their dad, Sam Walton, was really the one that created all the value and they just kind of fell in on it. So we like to find self-made billionaires, people that have really kind of created all the value themselves. And that's who we really try to like to study. So, Oprah would definitely fit into that category. She was born in Mississippi. She was born to a single mother.

Starting point is 00:03:02 Her mother was a maid and really just came from not too much. And there was a part that I read that her grandmother used to make like dresses or something like that out of potato sacks for her when she was a kid. She was so poor. And so what's amazing is she went into broadcasting and she started off as kind of this radio announcer. And she talked about this a little bit in the book of just how much. much she loved doing that. And she talks about having, you know, a couple different jobs, like working in a store, like stocking the shelves. And like after the second day, she's like, this was just so

Starting point is 00:03:36 miserable. And then she had this opportunity to tour a radio station. And the gentleman who was giving the tour offered her the ability to go up there and read something on the audio. And she was just hooked. She was hooked from that point forward and just quite an amazing story. And she just talks about that feeling that she got when she was doing it and how much she just loved it. Well, by 32 years old, she had her own talk show and she kind of had progressed onto TV. But when she was 32 years old, she became a millionaire at that point. And then by age 41, just a decade later, she had a net worth of $340 million, which is just incredible. By $2,800 million, and then she was negotiating her own deals to own the rights to the programs and all sorts of things.

Starting point is 00:04:23 And now, let me get the number here for you. 2008, I think, is an interesting number. It says her yearly income had increased to $275 million a year by 2008. So Oprah Winfrey was able to create an enormous amount of value by the way that she's talking on the show and just the ideas that she presents. Now, one of the interesting things about her is she talks about this experience, and some people might have heard this in the media before, but she talks about this experience where she was on the show.

Starting point is 00:04:51 And there's a little bit of this in the book. And she was there interviewing this woman and she brings out this man on the show, just kind of like straight like 1990s. Oh, who's the guy? Stig probably won't know because he's never really watched some of these shows. No, fortunately. Fortunately. But she's talking about how she had this woman on her talk show and they brought out this gentleman who was the husband of this woman that she was talking to. And they basically unveiled that this guy was cheating on her.

Starting point is 00:05:22 And it was all right there on the national TV. And it would just turn into this big eruption and just like, she was looking at this lady. And she could see that she just like totally destroyed her entire life right in front of everybody in the whole nation. And she remembers that feeling and just feeling just so bad and horrible about it. And she had vowed to herself, I am never going to do this ever again in my life. And it was just major changing point for her. that she realized what kind of reach, I guess, that she had.

Starting point is 00:05:52 And she has the opportunity to either create good for the world or create bad. And so that was a huge turning point for her. And she kind of went on this excursion of trying to understand how can I do that with this enormous audience that I've been afforded. How can I do good instead of bad? And I just have so much admiration for a person that doesn't look at that. It just shows you how empathetic she is. And it shows you how she's kind of looking at things like, hey, I'm doing bad here.

Starting point is 00:06:19 Like, she can feel it. She can sense it. She has a very strong intuition. She talks a little bit about that in the book as well. So that's kind of the intro of how she got her start. And what's great is the name of this book. So let's just dive into how she structured this book and what it's all about. So the name of the book, like I said, was what I know for sure.

Starting point is 00:06:38 So how did she come about with that title? So at the start of the book, she says that she was interviewing a very famous film critic from the Chicago Tribune, and many people might know who this is, Gene Siskel. And at the end of the interview, Oprah says, everything was going perfectly smooth until time came to wrap things up. Then he said something that I would never forget. He said, tell me, what do you know for sure? And he just kind of said it again. He says, I'm asking like in life, what do you know for sure? And she was just so explored by the question just like, wow, like, could you ask a more deep or profound question? And so she really didn't have a good answer for him, she said.

Starting point is 00:07:18 But what she did do, after that question, it just made her thinking. She was just like, that was such a profound question. She started writing down little tidbits as she went through her life. She would write them down, like what she knew for sure. And so that's what this book is really all about, is what does she know for sure about life? And, you know, the book structured in a manner that each little tidbit isn't. really that long. It's probably like two to three pages, each little thing that she's saying that she knows for sure. But she has them arranged in a manner that really kind of makes a lot

Starting point is 00:07:50 of sense. And it's only a few chapters. So I'm going to read what the categories are in the book. The first one is joy. The next one is resilience. The next one is connection, gratitude, possibility, awe, clarity, and power. And so she has little things that are like little stories that fit into each one of those categories throughout the book. And to be honest with you, after reading this book, it was just phenomenal. I absolutely loved this book. So I'm curious. Stig, did you really like it as much as obviously boasting about this book?

Starting point is 00:08:23 Yeah, I definitely liked it. And I think I was surprised by that. Obviously, I know Oprah, I think everyone in the world knows Oprah. I haven't never ever seen a show with her. So I wasn't really sure what to expect. And also, whenever I started the book, She said something like, she was narrating the book herself, which was really inspiring too. And she kept saying things like, so as all women know, and since we're all little girls,

Starting point is 00:08:50 like things like that. And I really wasn't sure what to expect. Well, she does that throughout the book. And I'd say, like, for all males to read this book, if you have the chance, you should definitely do so. You probably understand your spouse a lot better after reading the book. But no, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. And I didn't feel like I was reading a book. I kind of felt like I was speaking to a friend. Like, you get familiar or you get comfortable with Oprah right away.

Starting point is 00:09:17 And I don't know if that's why people really love her. Like, you feel safe with her. Yeah. And you know what was awesome was the audio book, because I listened to the audio book and I obviously have the hard copy too. But it was just so awesome to hear her actually reading it. Because, I mean, come on, her net worth's like $3 billion.

Starting point is 00:09:35 She doesn't have to read her own books. She could just hire somebody to do it. But I think because she got her start and her roots in, you know, broadcasting, she probably jumped at the opportunity to read this. And you'll tell you what, she's talented. When you listen to her read this, it's amazing. It's so good. It's not a long read.

Starting point is 00:09:51 It was pretty quick and just, oh, I really liked it. Okay, so what I want to do is really kind of talk about different parts of the book that I really like because there's so much stuff in here that's just fantastic information. that we're just going to kind of hit some of the highlights. And some of the stuff I'm just going to read because there's no way I can explain it as good as she did in the book because it's very concise and to the point. So the first thing that I am going to talk about was at the start of the book she talked about, and this is in the theory section, she talks about life being a dance.

Starting point is 00:10:21 And I love this discussion because she's basically saying, you know what, as a human being, you can do anything you want. He's like, you can choose to do something, you can not choose to do it. And you know what? All of those choices are okay. They're your choices and there's no right or wrong to it. She's like, but at the end of the day, I look at life like this. It's like one of the best songs that you've ever heard is playing right now.

Starting point is 00:10:46 And she's like, you can choose to either stand up and dance to that song or you can choose to sit down in the corner of the room and watch everyone else dance to the song. And she's like, that's your choice. She says, but I really hope that if it is your choice and it is, your favorite song that's playing, get up and dance. And I just loved the way that she, I probably didn't explain it as well as she did in the book. But for me, it just really kind of hit home. Just like, man, that is so true. Like, there's so many things around the world that are happening right now. And I think so many people are being forced into maybe a direction that they're

Starting point is 00:11:20 not necessarily consciously choosing. They're just, you know, maybe they went to school for something that they didn't necessarily want to get into. Maybe they went there because that's where the money was at and they kind of went in that direction. Next thing you know, they're just kind of working this same job. They're trying to progress because they see people in front of them progressing at a certain rate. And they just kind of find themselves in this rut that takes them down a road that they didn't necessarily want to go down.

Starting point is 00:11:45 And I think that what she's saying is, yeah, that's one thing that's happening in the room right now. But there's so many other things that you could also do that I think people just don't really necessarily consider as a path or a thing that do. And she talks about this at the start of the book. And I just love the conversation. I love how she's basically saying, hey, there's all these things happening. And it's your choice ultimately to choose whatever you want to do.

Starting point is 00:12:08 Yeah. So Oprah actually brings this misofore about life is a dance. And she says the same thing about communication. And she's saying that it's a dance because one person takes one step forward and another person takes one step back. But just like a dance, if there is one misstep, they can both fall. And I just found this to be such a beautiful way. of looking at life.

Starting point is 00:12:31 And she said that whenever you're communicating with another person, basically if there is a problem one way or the other, you should just take one step back and ask that person, what can I do for you? What is it really that you need? And she said that one way or the other, you will always hear a response that is a variation of, I want to know that you value me. That was just so deeply said, really, everything there is in life about relationships. that's about people feeling value.

Starting point is 00:13:01 And this is not just business. This is in marriage and friendships and work relations for that matter, too. You need to feel value to be able to function as a human being. And she talks about a very strong experience of her own when she was cleaning her house. And she found a 12-page love letter that she didn't send. Fortunately, she didn't send that, but she wrote a 12-page love letter to a guy she was dating whenever she was 29. and she said that she had to burn, literally she had to burn that letter because she read that and she didn't want had any written records of how pathetic she felt whenever she read that letter.

Starting point is 00:13:41 It was a really strong read. And she's talking about how you should never ever enter a relationship where you don't feel valued again. And I really feel like I want to put in a quote by Charlie Munger, which is sounds like completely odd because now we're talking about John Monger and Oprah Rinfrey, but he's saying that if you want to feel miserable forever, enter a marriage with the intention to change the other person. And this is really what it's all come from, personal relations. Like, you can feel it deep down in your gut. Should I be in any type of relationship with this person? And if you feel it's wrong to begin

Starting point is 00:14:17 with, it's probably wrong. Like, I'm not going to change Preston whenever we're doing this podcast. He's not going to change me. So if you basically feel... that we couldn't work together to begin with or we could change each other, it would be the wrong way to start off a partnership. And I feel the same way with a spouse. And Preston is nodding. He might feel the same way about this. I don't know.

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Starting point is 00:19:01 she's going to make you think about some different things in a different context for sure. It's funny that you got into the yes or no part there because I remember just seeing something last night when I was going through my notes prepping for the show. There's this one little quote that she had in the book. She said, if you have to make a decision between yes or no and you have to ask for somebody else's advice for whether it should be yes or no, you don't know yourself what it should be. You need to take a step back and just wait and let time provide you the feeling that you should know whether it's yes or no.

Starting point is 00:19:32 And when you have that feeling in your body that it's a yes or no, then you can make up your mind and your decision, which I really like that advice. That is some very sound advice, in my opinion. It's not something that I've always implemented either. Okay, so let's go into another section that I wanted to talk about. And this one was in the, you could call it chapter five, but she categorizes these stories as possibility. And one section, she's talking about fear and how basically fear can drive a person to do certain things. And it's a lower energy form, she says, that basically, you know, provides kind of a

Starting point is 00:20:08 bad path for you in life. So let me provide an example that's not provided in the book, but it kind of discusses this idea. I've heard this idea as the Darth Vader syndrome or the Darth Vader or something or other. I've heard people say this before. But with the idea is this, your fears, if you focus on your fears too much, you'll actually materialize those and actually create those circumstances in your life. So let me give you an example.

Starting point is 00:20:35 And a lot of people might be able to empathize with this one. If you've ever been in a relationship, and maybe you're this person or maybe you've seen this person, where a person says, oh, they're so worried about maybe their spouse cheating on them or their spouse, you know, doing something that they just are worried about. And so as a result, what a lot of the times they'll do is they'll say, hey, let me see your phone or where were you at? And they start asking all these questions. And they're basically showing that they don't trust the other person. And that's effectively what it is.

Starting point is 00:21:07 When they're saying those kind of things or they're thinking those kind of things, it means, A, they're scared that the person's going to cheat on them or fall in love with somebody else or whatever the case might be. And so that fear is actually driving their thoughts and their interaction with the person that they're with. And so in the end, what they're actually doing is they're chasing that person further and further away from them because the other person is basically hearing, you don't trust me, you don't love me or something. and they're hearing this and it's providing a lot of friction for them. And it causes the actual event that the person is fearing, which is this person might be cheating on me. And in the end, that's sometimes what they drive the other person to do because of the way that they thought and the way that they kind of interacted with them. And so this is just one example of a fear that a person has. And you can see this with work too.

Starting point is 00:21:58 So like, let me give you another example. Sometimes you have people at work and they're so scared that they're not going to get the promotion. that they want or that they're not going to progress through the chain of the business, through the hierarchy of the business, that anytime they're around the superior, that they're trying to impress, they go out of their way and they actually make the situation so awkward that they're trying to progress. And you know what, the person who's in charge and the leader in charge that maybe they're trying to get their job in the future or whatever, they can see right through it because they can sense, they can see the intention. And we're going to talk about that later,

Starting point is 00:22:31 but they can see the real intention of the person is that they're trying to impress them, they're trying to get the promotion, and it's very off-putting. It comes from a low energy form, as Oprah would kind of put it. And so in the end, the person actually materializes their fear that they might not get the promotion. And in the end, they don't because somebody else who's just a little bit more carefree, who can be trusted, who's not trying to be somebody that they're not, ends up getting it. And I think that it's just, I think when you take a step back and you think about it from your own personal experience,

Starting point is 00:23:01 is what are you scared of or better yet, whenever your intentions and you're acting in a way that might not necessarily be yourself. And you can sense that. You can say, you know, I'm acting right now. This is not how I really feel. I wouldn't be normally doing this if my intentions weren't geared towards something. When you catch yourself doing that, the fundamental question you have to ask yourself is, what is it that I'm scared of? And why am I acting this way? And that's what, it's an amazing discussion. She talks about this a little bit throughout the book. And I just, I love the conversation.

Starting point is 00:23:34 I think it is something that people really need to be conscious of because a lot of the times they're acting that way and they have no idea that the reason they're acting that way or creating this situation and they're actually going to materialize it is because they're actually scared of something and they would probably never be able to tie that back to it. And I think it's a very important thing for people to do and to understand. I think the chapters are really like that was the one about, joy. And Oprah talks about the importance of reflecting on what brings you joy in life.

Starting point is 00:24:03 So this is, again, you can probably hear this is a very deep book and as Preston is saying, a very emotional book. But Oprah is really almost provokingly asked you is that what is really that makes you happy and how often have you asked yourself what really make you happy? And she's not talking about the feeling of gratification that you might have for, you know, eating a cookie that you shouldn't be eating or whatever. It's more like a deep thing. Have you really taken one step back to have this clarity about but really makes you happy? And Oprah is talking about how you should make a commitment to yourself to investigate in yourself, what creates real joy for you because the worst thing that Oprah can think of is really to live a life full of regrets.

Starting point is 00:24:49 And so I've been thinking a lot about this and I've been reading similar books in the past. So what I've decided to do because I'm such an organized person, it is really horrible. I'm driving my spouse completely crazy. So for instance, today it's Monday, but I know what I will be doing this Thursday at 10, 15 a.m. Like, I have everything in my life is put into at least one hour blocks or sometimes even like 15 minutes or 30 minutes blocks. So I always know what's going to happen, which is horrible, I guess. What I also do, and this is really based on one of the teachings from Oprah, is I put in blocks in my week, not every week, but where I can reflect upon life. And I know this sounds strange, I guess, to some people, but I have something, for instance, tomorrow I'm a calendar, a blog of time where I need to reflect upon what makes me happy and respond to that.

Starting point is 00:25:44 And the best way I can describe what Oprah is that she is deliberately intuitive. And I think whatever you are going through a process like that, really sitting down, taking your time perhaps in front of your computer or piece of paper writing down what makes you happy right now, what should you be doing, that process will guide you in terms of your personal life, but also your work. And I just want to share that with people out there. If that's a process they can use for myself, it's for me, it's, for me, it's, highly recommended for what it's worth. Oprah is doing the same thing. What about you, Preston?

Starting point is 00:26:20 So I'll tell you this. Well, I know exactly when it was. Whenever I came back from Afghanistan the first time, because I spent a year in Afghanistan, I kind of went on this intellectual journey, if you will. And one of the people that I kind of latched onto immediately after returning and spending a year in, you know, in combat was Oprah Winfrey. And I kind of went to the source of what books has Oprah Winfrey really recommended her, what has she said, or some of her favorite books. And I've read those. And so what's amazing is I can, because I went to those sources, whenever I read her own writing, I can see how strongly she was influenced by some of these other writers. So a lot of these things, I don't necessarily set aside the time like you've done

Starting point is 00:27:07 stick to think about, you know, what makes me happy, what am I thankful for, those kind of things. I do dedicate a little, a small piece of time every day to say what I'm thankful for to myself, but I don't write it down. And that's something that she talks about in her book is that she actually keeps a log of what she's thankful for and she fills that out every single day. I think this stuff is insanely important. And I think that it gets to the core or the axle of your life. And I think that if that's not aligned and it's not straight, you're going to have a rocky road of progress as you kind of navigate your life.

Starting point is 00:27:42 And I think the faster you can get to, how do things fundamentally work from a spiritual sense, from a just operating inside the environment, like the way you treat other people is how you're going to be treated in return, all the reciprocity, all that kind of stuff is really based and rooted on, or at least for me it is, it's based and rooted in the ideas of what I've learned through Oprah Winfrey in the books that she recommended when I read those years ago. So I want to jump to another spot here in the book. And this time, I'm not going to just kind of summarize it. I'm actually going to read what she wrote because when I heard this, I was listening

Starting point is 00:28:16 to this in my car. When I heard this, man, I got like chills all down my body because it was just so profound to me it was. And I just was like, I am totally reading that when we do this on the show. So this comes out of the section called Aw. And it's a story about a gentleman that was on a plane crash. and what he said whenever Oprah was interviewing him. So here's the story from the book.

Starting point is 00:28:41 I'm going to go ahead and read it for you. I've heard truly amazing stories over the years about almost every human situation. Conflict, defeat, triumph, resilience, but I've rarely been more odd than I was by John Diaz's story. In October 2000, John was on a Singapore Airlines flight,006, when it exploded at takeoff. 83 people perished in the flames. John and 95 others survived. John, who described himself as a very straightforward, competitive, and pragmatic kind of guy, still endures physical pain from his injuries.

Starting point is 00:29:16 But in other ways, he is more alive than he was before he literally went through the fire. The plane took off in typhoon-like conditions before John boarded. His instincts told him not to get on the plane. He'd called the airline several times. Are you sure this plane is taking off because it was storming so badly? peering out the window as the plane taxied, all he could see was rain. He was sitting in the very front of the plane and watched as the nose started to lift, but the 747 had turned down the wrong runway.

Starting point is 00:29:45 At first, he felt a small bump, the plane hitting a concrete barrier, followed by a huge bump right next to him where something, a black hoe, ripped a hole in the side of the plane right near where he was seated. His seat came unbolted and he was thrown sideways. He could feel the motion of the plane rolling and spinning down. the runway and then it stopped. In his own words, he said, then the explosion hit.

Starting point is 00:30:09 A great fireball came right out over me all the way up the nose of the plane and it sucked straight back, almost like the movies. And then there was this spray of jet fuel like napalm. Whatever it hit, ignited like a torch. And a gentleman, an Asian gentleman, comes running right up to me, fully aflame.

Starting point is 00:30:30 I could see all his features and there was a look of wonder on his face, like he didn't even know he was dead and burning. And I figured, well, I must be the same. I really thought at that point I was dead. So I asked John if he believed there was divine intervention that saved him. He said no. He said what helped him get out of his position in the plane was quick thinking.

Starting point is 00:30:53 To protect himself from the smoke and flames, he covered his head with the leather bag he had been encouraged not to carry on the plane and then looked for the door and kept moving. And then he shared something I still think about to this day. The inside of the plane, John said, looked like Dante's inferno with people strapped to their seat just burning. It seemed like an aura was leaving their bodies, some brighter than others. I thought the brightness and dimness of the oras or how one's lives were lived. John says that the experience seeing what he could only describe as oras,

Starting point is 00:31:27 an energy of light leaving the bodies and floating above the flames changed him. made him a more empathetic person. And although he still won't call his brush with death a miracle, he does say, I want to live my life. So my aura when it leaves is very bright. What I know for sure is an awesome gift to be alive on this beautiful planet. And I want my time here to be as bright as it can be.

Starting point is 00:31:52 So that's a little taste of like just one little snapshot in her book. And she usually ends at what I know for sure is this. And that story for me was like, man, I got shivers. down my body whenever I heard that the first time. And I don't know if I had that impact with you while you were listening to that. But for me, when I hear that, this is just such an amazing story. And from that person's experience, it changed his life. He looks at things completely differently now. So I wanted to share that because it was just such an awesome story. Stig, did you have any comments? I'm curious what your thoughts are when you heard that one

Starting point is 00:32:23 for the first time. I think it was a really strong story. And there was a few times where, you know, you almost shiver, like you're saying present. Like, it's, you really need to be in the mood the book. And you need to be in a state of mind where you really want to evaluate how you're living your life right now and how you want to live for the future. And I think a lot of the near-death experience stories that you hear, I think they can change your life too, but you have to be ready for them. And I think whenever I read the Oprah book probably, and that's probably because it had such a big impact on me. This time is because I felt I was in that state of mind where I could receive really strong, passionate, wise words from someone and a lot smarter than me

Starting point is 00:33:05 and with a lot more life experience than me. So you really have to prepare yourself before you start reading a book. So it's funny that you said near-death experiences. So this was probably, oh, I don't know. It was a long time ago. But I kind of got into these near-death experience books. The one in particular that I think it was actually very beneficial, it's a book called life after life. And it's a gentleman, Dr. Moody, I forget his first name, maybe James Moody. He wrote this book that basically culminated and tracked something like 70 or 80 different near-death experiences that he had went around and collected as a doctor.

Starting point is 00:33:41 And then what he did is he wanted to basically, what was the common threat or the golden threat that was woe between all of these stories? Because each of the stories were very different. And I know for some people out there, they'd hear a near-death experience and all all that kind of stuff. And they're just like, oh, that's a bunch of crap. And it might be. I don't know. I've never had one. So all I can do is listen to the story and see if there's something valuable for me to take away from it. So whenever I read this book, it was fascinating because there was a lot of different experiences in like 70 or 80 different experiences. And then he talks about what the common thread was. And I'll never forget that common thread in this book. And to be honest with you, this book was like kind of a life-changing read for me. I'd categorize it is probably one of my favorite reads.

Starting point is 00:34:26 But in the book, he says that there's two things that people always came out of these near-death experiences with, the people that had really deep and profound near-death experiences. Number one was that they realized the importance of knowledge and how important it is to try to educate themselves. That was number one. The second thing was, is they realized the power of love and how important it was to love other people and this connectedness that occurs between each human being on Earth. Those were the two takeaways from reading that book, which,

Starting point is 00:34:54 whether you believe the experiences or not, I think that the common thread in that piece of information that was acquired from all that is so valuable and so profound. And something that I often think about and try to think about as I'm going through life is what I learned from that book. But anyway, we're off the topic here. I apologize. Stig said near death experience. I'd wanted to throw out a book that I had read like a decade ago. But okay, so the next thing I want to talk about is in Chapter 7 from Clarity. And I'm going to read another thing here. and I know people have heard me talk about intentions and how important I think intentions are. You're going to see why I have those opinions after I read this from Oprah because Oprah and I obviously have read some of the same books,

Starting point is 00:35:36 so that's probably where a lot of our same ideas come from. So I'm going to read this section here and it's about intentions. I was 40 years old before I learned how to say no. In my early years of working in television, I was often overwhelmed by people's view of me as a benevolent caregiver. Some people would spend their last time on a bus ticket to get to me. Children would run away from home. Abuse women would leave their husband and show up at the doorstep of my studio, all hoping I'd help.

Starting point is 00:36:03 In those days, I'd spend a lot of energy trying to get a girl back to her family or hanging on the phone with someone who was threatening the killer self. I found myself writing check after check and over time that wore on my spirit. I was so busy trying to give all that everyone else needed me to offer that I lost touch with would I had a genuine desire to give. I'd been consumed by the disease to please. And often the word yes would be out of my mouth before I even knew it. I know exactly where the disease came from. Having a history of abuse also meant a history of not being able to set boundaries. Once your personal boundaries have been violated as a child, it's difficult to regain

Starting point is 00:36:43 the courage to stop people from stepping on you. You fear being rejected for who you really are. So for years I spent my life giving everything I could to almost anyone who asked. I was running myself ragged, trying to fulfill other people's expectations of what I should do and who I should be. What cured me was understanding the principles of intention. To quote Gary Zuccoff, again from his book, The Seed of the Soul, every action, thought and feeling is motivated by an intention. And that intention is a cause that exists for one with an effect.

Starting point is 00:37:16 If we participate in the cause, it is not possible for us to not participate in the effect. In this most profound way, we are held responsible for every action, thought, and feeling, which is to say for every intention. I started to examine the intentions behind my saying yes when I really meant no. I was saying yes, so people wouldn't be angry with me. So they would think I was a nice person. My intention was to make people feel I was the one they could call on, count on, last minute no matter what.

Starting point is 00:37:46 And that was exactly what my experiences reflected, a barrage of requests in every aspect of my life. Surely after I listened to understand this, I got a call from somebody quite famous who wanted me to donate to his charity. He was asking for a lot of money and I told him I had to think about it. What I thought about was, is this a cause I really believe in? No. Do I really think that writing a check is going to make any difference whatsoever? No.

Starting point is 00:38:13 So why should I do it? because I don't want this person to think I'm stingy. This was no longer a good enough reason for me. I wrote down a few words which I now keep on my desk. Never again will I do anything for anyone that I do not feel directly from my heart. I will not attend a meeting, make a phone call, write a letter, sponsor or participate in any activity in which every fiber of my being does not resound. Yes, I will act with the intent to be true to myself.

Starting point is 00:38:43 before you say yes to anybody ask yourself, what is my truest intention? It should come from your purest part of you, not from your head. If you have to ask for advice, give yourself time to let a yes or no resound within you. When it's right, your whole body feels it. I know for sure that I had to first get clear about who I was before I could beat the disease to please. When I accept that, I was a decent kind and giving person, whether I said yes or no. I no longer had a anything to prove. I was once afraid of people saying, who does she think she is? Now I have the courage to stand and say, this is who I am. I love that. I think it's fantastic. She mentions probably my most favorite book of all time, which is the seat of the soul. Gary Zukov, definitely

Starting point is 00:39:30 one of my favorite writers, and she references him in there, and that's where she got that idea of this idea of intentions being reciprocal and being tied to actions. Let's take a quick break and hear from today's sponsors. No, it's not your imagination. Risk and regulation are ramping up, and customers now expect proof of security just to do business. That's why VANTA is a game changer. VANTA automates your compliance process

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Starting point is 00:42:59 All right, back to the show. What Oprah said about adversity in general and being who you are and being okay about who you are, that is one of the key takeaways that we can probably all learn from her book. And I think you talked about this also earlier, how Oprah had a very rough childhood, not only because of poor, she was abused as well, a lot of bad things happening. And apparently it turns out that whenever she got famous, this story broke about some things that happened in her childhood, and she definitely didn't want the world to know that

Starting point is 00:43:34 because she felt that it made her look weak, and she was afraid of how people would react to her, if they would condemn her. And what she realized was that quite the opposite, that whenever she was completely frank about all that happened, she got this feeling that the truth was actually sending her free. And it was a deliberation for her to experience how she could be herself with all of her past, be completely authentic and be genuine and still be loved by other people. And I think this is a question that we all have to ask ourselves at some point in time. Like, are we really in an environment where we feel safe about being ourselves and being, and not being guarded?

Starting point is 00:44:18 And I don't know this for sure, like Oprah Winfrey, but I definitely know from my personal experience that if you can be in a setting where you don't have to guard yourself all the time, it's a much better spiritual environment for you to be in. And I think I personally experienced something like that whenever I started teaching. And whenever I started teaching, I was completely terrified of people pointing out that I was making mistakes. So I'm making my own assignments. since this is accounting and finance, there's a lot of numbers involved. So this is also one of the courses where you can basically do the calculation and say, you're wrong stick.

Starting point is 00:45:02 I mean, you can't really talk yourself out of it, which is sadly for me, sometimes the case. And I just remember the first time that happened. I just feel horrible. And I tried to mask my mistakes. And basically what happened was that I got really bad feedback from my students. because they could see right through that. And they didn't, basically, I created a learning environment where there was no transparency and no trust.

Starting point is 00:45:29 And how can I expect my students to learn an environment like that they can, or where they don't feel like they can make mistakes? Like, that's the wrong learning environment. So I decided to do this completely opposite after a few months. And I even tried to put in a short story whenever I have new students where I fail miserably. I deliberately tell my students that I make mistakes and when I'm making mistakes just to make them feel comfortable. And what's strange is that other people, not just students, but other people, they're so forgiven. As long as you're completely upfront about,

Starting point is 00:46:04 you're not perfect, they don't have to be perfect. You end up doing something great together instead of guard yourself and get this and try to feel invincible because no one else. So I love that story because it actually hits on something that we were talking about earlier with the fears and basically materializing the fears. So in a way, you were scared that you were going to make a mistake and that the students were going to think, oh, this guy doesn't know anything because he's making these mistakes with the math right there on the board that I'm looking at. And so because you had that fear and they're then seeing you potentially make that mistake. And then when they call you out on it, you're acting defensively because your fears are materializing. And so you addressed it head on. You basically said, you know what, I am going to make a lot of mistakes.

Starting point is 00:46:51 And you were forthright and honest, and you probably, I'm sure on your course feedback, I'm very curious to hear the responses, but I'm sure your course feedback got so much better after you were, oh yeah, you know what, that is a mistake. I'm sorry about that. Is that what you saw with your feedback? Yeah. 100%. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:47:08 And you might think, you might think, person, that it's counterintuitive. Like, you can make mistake and your students think you great, or you can try to to mask them and perhaps fewer people would detect your mistakes and then they would give you better evaluations or do you feel better about yourself, but it's completely opposite. Okay, so let's go to the last chapter, which is titled Power, and I have a small passage I want to read out of this section. And they're talking about your thoughts being the power of your thoughts, really, is what it's talking about.

Starting point is 00:47:38 So this is a quote from Maya Angelou, who was very good friends with Oprah. I didn't realize that her and Maya Angelou were close, but Maya Angelou, super famous poet. Recently, she passed away, I want to say maybe a year or two ago. But this is what she had to say. Maya Angelou once passed on the following to me, and this is Oprah speaking. She said, I'm convinced that the negative has power. And if you allow it to perch in your house, in your mind, in your life, it can take you over, she said. Those negative words climb into the woodwork, into the furniture, and the next thing you know, they're on your skin.

Starting point is 00:48:17 A negative statement is poisoned. And that's the end of the quote from the book. I read that and I was like, wow, I love that statement because it's just so true. And I treat it. And he's like, you know what? I'm just going to assume that this is real and this is a real thing. And when you do that, you start really paying close attention to what am I? thinking about. Where am I allowing my mind to drift? And more importantly, where is it going and

Starting point is 00:48:45 how long is it staying there? Because as it goes in there and it associates with these other thoughts that are out there in the world, it's actually pulling and drawing you closer and deeper into that area of influence. And that's what Maya Angelou is getting with with that quote. And just like, be conscious of your negative thoughts. If you're always walking around saying, oh, that guy's an idiot, oh, I really don't like her. She does all this wrong or he does all that wrong. When your mind is consciously thinking in that direction all day long, you're attracted to that thought process. You're surrounding yourself with other people that think like that.

Starting point is 00:49:20 In fact, you're immersing yourself with other people that think like that all the time because like thoughts attract like thoughts. So like us, we're like obsessed with like value investing and all these billionaires that invest in different ways. And so it's no surprise that here Stig and I are reading all these different things. and immersing ourselves in these people's thoughts all day long and talking about it on the show and things like that. So the point for all of this is what is it that you think about most? And how long do you stay there? And what kind of people is it drawing into your life that have similar thoughts

Starting point is 00:49:57 and similar thought patterns? Are they people that you want being drawn into your life or are they not? And I think until people think about that, they might say, why is this person in my life? Why am I constantly dealing with this person who drives me crazy? And I would tell you, you need to look at yourself first, figure out what is it that you're thinking about? What is it that you're acting on with a specific intention tied to it? And maybe that's why that person's in your life, because a lot of the times, almost all the time, it can always be drawn back to yourself in the way that you treat other people

Starting point is 00:50:28 in the way that you think and allow your thoughts to go. I'm obviously an enormous fan of this book. A stick, you had one thing that you wanted to highlight. Yeah, I just have a final thing. And this is about the thing you've said about intention. And this is all about gratitude as well. So I think that would be my final point. I think the whole idea about intention and gratitude, that was my, oh, I've said so many times this was the main takeaway. I don't think I can say it anymore because there were so many great points from the book. But I really loved the idea she had about her gratitude journal. So Oprah was writing down five things every day. that she was grateful for. And that would be something like going for a run, eating a cold melon, having a good laugh with a friend. And I think the profound thing for me was that the intention of her being grateful was so pure. And let me tell you a personal story that shows why I am not as pure as Oprah, apparently, in lack of better words. So I don't know if people are

Starting point is 00:51:35 there realized it. We have changed the platform on our podcast to another platform, which I was completely thrilled about because now I can do a toss of things. So obviously within the first week, I made our main site completely disappear, which I was extremely proud of. And so what do I do in a situation like this? I immediately call up calling from Mastermind Group and with desperation and panic in my voice, tell him, help me. me. I guess that was basically what I said, something like that. So Colin does what he does best. He just fixes everything. And he doesn't expect to get anything. I mean, he's just genuinely a nice guy. So I felt so bad about this. So what I decided to do was to, you know, he's a good friend. So I

Starting point is 00:52:24 couldn't send him like flowers and chocolate. That would be all wrong. Right. You could. Yeah. Apparently I'm reading books that starts with as all the little girls know. So I was sending him a gift basket with popcorn and beer, pizza, pretzels, and so on. And I actually felt really good about that to begin with because I felt like, okay, now you're doing something nice for your friend, Colin that has helped you. But what's actually strange was a few days later, I kind of feel bad about it. I felt like just as in context to that Colin, he's a really good friend. Like I've been on vacation with him and his girlfriend.

Starting point is 00:53:03 and he's a close friend. It's not just a business person. I call up whenever I'm in trouble, which I often am. He's a really good friend of mine. So I kind of felt like, sick, why do you need a reason to do that? Why do you need Colin to help you out whenever you are completely ruined your own company before you show gratitude? Because then it's not real gratitude. And now we're back to the thing about intention. What is it that you are trying to do? Is it because you are grateful for a good friend? Or is it because you feel? like you kind of need to pay that person or you need to have your conscience clear. So I'm sure Colin he will forgive me while he's sitting and munching in his beer and pretzels.

Starting point is 00:53:45 Very, very good story. I like that. And I like the fact that I sent Colin the roses and chocolates. No kidding. I'm pretty sure Colin would never take any one of my calls ever again. All right. So that's all we have for you guys. The name of the book. is what I know for sure by billionaire Oprah Winfrey. We thoroughly enjoyed this book. Again, Audibles. We've got a link on our website completely for free. If you want to listen to this book, 100% for free. Go to our website, use any of the links that we have in there for audibles, and you get your first book for free. The ones after that, you obviously have to pay for it. But you could download this book and listen to Oprah, read it to you herself if you go to audibles and you download it. So one thing

Starting point is 00:54:29 that I want to highlight. So Stig and I, believe it or not, we have people that actually say, I wish you'd send me more email traffic and I wish that you would tell me more about your blog posts and the stuff that you guys are doing more than once every two weeks. So as I say that, I know there's people listening to this right now saying, oh boy, here it comes. They're going to start sending email traffic every other day or something. And we're not. We are going to continue to send emails every two weeks with our executive summaries. We're going to send an executive summary of this book as well.

Starting point is 00:55:01 What I know for sure, it's about five pages long. and it highlights and captures all the key points of the book completely for free. We send out this email twice a month. But what I'm going to tell you is if you do want that information and you do want to know when we post our newest blog article, I don't want to clutter and Stig does not want to clutter your email with those emails because we know that you have that for work or whatever. So what we're going to tell you is follow our Facebook page. It's fairly new.

Starting point is 00:55:28 We haven't really had a Facebook page up for too terribly long. We've told you guys in the past, we're not real good at this stuff when it comes to social media and whatever. But if you go to Facebook and you type in, we study billionaires, you're going to see it pop up as a page. If you like that, you're going to start getting in your Facebook feed. Like if we post a new blog article or whatever, which happens, I don't know, like once a week, twice a week or something like that, we have new blog articles.

Starting point is 00:55:55 You'll see those pop up in your Facebook feed. So that's where we kind of want to push people. If you're not following that site that we study billionaires through Facebook, do you. that so that you can kind of get our blog posts and what we're talking about. Like this week, I made a post about why Warren Buffett hates gold, but why Ray Dalio, George Soros and others are now buying gold and kind of tracking the cash flows kind of flowing into that commodity. So that's an example of a blog post that I just put up this week. And if you didn't see that or know about it, the best place to kind of be able to see those new posts that we're making,

Starting point is 00:56:26 the blog post, is to follow us on Facebook. So we're just trying to push some people there that are wanting more common updates from us because we do not want to destroy your inbox. We don't want to send out advertising or any of that kind of stuff. So that's, I guess, our pitch for going on to Facebook and following us. So that's all we have for you guys this week. I really hope you guys enjoyed the show. We thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's a great book if you only have like small bursts of time in order to read it because the little short stories aren't really all that long. So you can kind of, if you're a really busy person, it might be a great read for you. And by the way, my wife loves this book. So you might want to get it for your

Starting point is 00:57:00 spouse or after you're done reading it, you can hand it off to your spouse. So that's all we have for you guys and we'll see you guys next week. Thanks for listening to The Investors Podcast. To listen to more shows or access to the tools discussed on the show, be sure to visit www. www.Theinvestorspodcast.com. Submit your questions or request a guest appearance to the investors podcast by going to www.com. If your question is answered during the show, you will receive a free autographed copy of the Warren Buffett Accounting Book. This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. This material is copyrighted by the TIP Network

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We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network - TIP 077 : Billionaire Oprah Winfrey - What I Know for Sure (Investment Podcast)

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