Scott White — The Life is Too Short Guy

Are you thinking about how to grow your business with near and offshore staffing, but you're also wanting to make sure that it's reliable, cost effective and really well done? I think Doxa Talent is the way to go. Here's why. They don't just fill your jobs. They bring integrity, top talent, and a people first approach that's hard to find. I've known the people at Doxa talent for over 20 years now and I say that you can count on them. I have talent. Talk to Doxatalant and you won't be disappointed. Go to doxatalent.com Bill G Again, that's doxatalent.com BillG One more time. Docsatalant.com Bill G Check it out. Today we're all looking good. Cooking with gas. Recording gauges are green. Air speeds alive. We're ready to go. We're talking today about how to be happier, how to be happier in every day with the Life is Too Short guy. Stay tuned. My name is Bill Gallagher, scaling coach and host of the Scaling Up Business podcast. Our show comes to you every week with something to do with helping to grow your business and survive the journey, maybe even make it enjoyable to grow your business. So we talk about people, strategy, execution, cash, and we've got hundreds of shows now, hundreds of shows@scalingcoach.com Galencoach.com is where you'll find the whole back catalog or wherever you're getting this right now, like YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, LinkedIn, what have you. So like subscribe, follow it so that you get them every week. We bring at least one show to you every week, usually a tip and an interview or that kind of thing. So find all our shows and more@skillandcoach.com also as we speak. If you're watching this live now or shortly after the live, we've got masterclass next week that I'm doing with and harnish that is still open for registration. And so we've got masterclass workshop, things like that going on all the time. Find all that it's all right. Scott White, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much for the invite. Happy to be here, Bill.

Thanks so much. So everybody, Scott White is a guy with a background in Wall Street M and a work and now is a CEO of a public real estate company. But he had a number of interesting life experiences and so he wrote a book, life is Too Short Guy, about how to make every day your best life ever. And he's on a mission to make the world Happier, one day at a time. And that's a great subject for the show. I know many of our listeners, viewers struggle with mental health issues and that kind of thing. So I'm on the west coast in Seattle. Scott is on the east coast in New Jersey, and we're talking today. Glad to have you on the show.

Grateful to be here.

So, it's funny, as I was getting ready for the show and looking through some of the notes and the book, I'm struck by all these really morbid tales, right? Like people dying and disasters happening and. Or nearly dying and. But your mission is to make people happier, right? Like, and the notion that life is too short. Like. So why don't you start off and tell us about your first insight in how you had this when you had your first scare with your dad's health.

So I think the philosophy and life's too short guy has been an evolution. It's something that's evolved over many years. It wasn't an epiphany. It wasn't to wake up one day and you're like, oh, look at this. I have this life philosophy. It's something that transpired. And as you mentioned, there were a number of obstacles, so to speak, that I overcame along the journey. The one you're referring to is the starting point, I'd say, where I started to think more about, wow, life is too short. Live in the moment. Make the most of every day. And it was back in the mid-1980s. I was 10 years old, and I was working on a project in the house of my dad. My dad was super handy. Unfortunately, I didn't inherit a lot of those skills, but he was super handy. We're redoing a bedroom in the house. He's cutting some paneling. We're almost done. It's the home stretch. And he slices his finger. And I look up. I'm 10 years old, by the way. My helping responsibility is pretty much to hold the glue gun, but I'm the helper. He's cutting paneling, cuts his finger. He. I hear him yell. I see him grab his finger. He's holding it. He tells me, get away. Wet paper towel. I'm helping him to stop the bleeding. My mom comes and looks. She calls, my grandfather doesn't live that far away. And. And he suggests they go to the hospital to get it looked at. It's. It's big enough, deep enough cut that it probably needs to get stitched. They go off to the hospital. I go to sleep again. I'm 10 years old and My mom jars me in the middle of the night, wakes me up and said, dad had a heart attack at the hospital. Yeah, you know, I didn't even know how to react. But I do remember hearing that definitively and you know, it turned out that, that my dad did survive that heart attack. He went on a couple of weeks later to have triple bypass surgery again. This is 1984 now today, triple bypass surgery is a fairly risky proposition. If you rewind before there are only a few doctors in the country that actually performed the surgery. So he and my mom flew out to Houston and I, you know, they were gone a couple of days. This was long before any sense of constant communication. Cell phones, emails, texts, anything like that. And a couple of days I get a call and at my grandparents house my grandmother hands me the phone and I hear Scott, Scott, it's dad. And I just, I hit the floor hysterically crying. Everything that had sort of pent up in this little 10 year old brain over the last couple of weeks was just released that day. And it was a turning point, a definitive point. It wasn't the moment, there isn't sort of. And that day the life is too short guy was born. That's not true. It was that 10 year old wake up call, like wow, you could have lost your dad then. And part of my mission now is to bring these stories to people. You know, one of the most amazing things about this book journey and the speaking journey I'm on is hearing from people. I get texts, I get emails, I get calls from people saying hey, I read this, this resonated. So I got a text probably about six weeks ago from a friend of mine who said he was literally standing in line waiting to get green tea and he started crying. He's like, I'm standing in line crying because I read, I started reading your book last night and I have a 10 year old son and this was an eye opening wake up call. Like I can't fathom my son having to deal with something like that or having to live without me. And that's my mission, that's what I'm trying to do is as you sort of said, there's some morbidity associated with it or some, you know, people overcoming obstacles. For me it's that proverbial kick in the teeth, that aha moment. I want people to hear this, I want people to read the book and be like, you know what, I don't have to wait for that diagnosis. I don't have to wait to hear that news. Today's the day. Literally, today is the day. We're recording this in late May, and today is the day. You listen, you're like, you know what? I'm going to take that chance. I'm going to enjoy life. I'm going to make the most of every minute. I'm going to smile. I'm going to. And these are the types of things we talk about in the book.

You know, it's interesting. So I'm. I'm up in Seattle now, where I'm spending most of the summer instead of at our home in the San Francisco Bay area because our son got married, had a baby, and like, oh, I want to be nearby to have more time. Now, day in and day out, do I see him? No, I'm about 10 minutes away, and I'm busy and I'm working and I'm doing my thing, and he's working and he's doing his thing, and they got the baby. And that's. But. But enough, like, way more than I was living in Oakland, because there's this time, right, that is precious. And we. We have these moments and we go through periods of life, and then we're like, oh, in the middle of that, I was, like, rushing to the next thing and failing to savor and appreciate that moment, that time, that precious little thing. And I think about. I have this picture that was taken by a professional photographer in the week or two after Isabella was born. And I look at my son holding his baby daughter and. And with his wife, and I'm like, I got my job done, you know, and to, like, be close to them, even if it's just to hold the baby for a minute or to take out the trash for them, to help them deal, or to say something encouraging like, that little bit is precious, right?

100%. And you making that definitive, proactive, deliberate decision to say, here's how I want to use my finite time is part of the message. So in the book, there are 10 principles. And one of the principles is minutes matter. And in minutes matter, I don't give people a prescription for, you should spend time with family instead of playing golf. You should spend time reading instead of watching tv. That's your choice. And every listener right now and every viewer and every reader has to make their own choice. What I want to encourage people to do is exactly what you just talked about, is you made a deliberate decision to say, you know what? I'm not going to let this summer go by. I'm not going to let another couple of days go by while I might not be able to see my son and granddaughter every day. I'm going to put myself in a position to use my minutes wisely so that given the opportunity, maybe a couple of minutes here, a couple of minutes there, that's how I want to use my minutes. And that's what I'm encouraging people to think about, is think about minutes differently, Think about minutes. Truly, as a finite resource, I draw this image for people to think about. And I talk a lot about this. I tell people, think about a barrel, a barrel, or a bucket. For me, it's a wine barrel. As a guy from the San Francisco area, I'm sure you could relate to the wine barrel concept. And I said, picture this wine barrel, and in this wine barrel are your remaining minutes in life. I envision gold coins, and whenever I do something, including talking to you right now, Bill, I think I'm reaching into my barrel and I'm pulling out some gold coins. I'm using them. And the metaphor that I want people to think about is two things. One, you have no idea how many gold coins are in that barrel. Could be a few, could be a lot. You don't know. And more importantly than not knowing exactly how many gold coins are left, don't let them just leak out the bottom. We all go through life at points in our life where we're like, rushing around today, rushing around this week, rushing around this month. You turn around, you're like, I'm so busy, but I don't know what I'm doing. I don't understand what I'm getting done. Be thoughtful, be deliberate, be proactive, and make that decision to spend time however you choose. For you, Bill, it's with your son and granddaughter. For others, it may be something different, but that's one of the concepts in the book.

You know, I think when, especially when you're younger, you don't realize you're rushing off to the next thing. You're like, my life will start when I get to high school. My life will be really amazing when I'm in college. Oh, when I get my first apartment, that's going to be awesome. That's going to be when my life is. Or, oh, when I start my own family, like, at each stage. And then you don't realize and savor that little bit that's there that, like, take advantage of that. Like, oh, this is like a magical thing. And then thank God we have photos, and we have more photos than ever before, because there are times then that you go back and you're like, oh, I Have that picture of me and my grandmother sailing on a boat in Hawaii, right, That I own very briefly. And I'm like, that is just such a. Like a sweet thing. And at the time, it was a great thing, but, like. But the impact of it over time, like, being able to remember it, to appreciate it. And now when we have a thing, like, I. We had dinner Saturday night with. With my son, his wife, the baby, and it was outdoors, it was nice day. There were a couple other people with babies out in this patio. And I have a practice now of savoring, I call it. But it's this, like, I'm going to, like, take in everything, imprint this moment, like, notice it. And other people don't really notice when you're doing it, but, like, just like, really, like, breathe it in, sense it, feel it, notice it. Like, hear the sound of the voice and that kind of thing. Like, take your own mental photograph so that you appreciate that kind of thing. Because it's like, you know, how many moments we got like that. Take that barrel and think about your days of your life. But how big is your barrel? I have no flipping clue. Right? Like, you don't know if. If the next event, the next auto accident is coming for you or, like your dad's heart attack caught him and you by surprise. Right?

That's exactly right. That's a key part of the message, I like to say. The. The book itself is sort of the intersection, the nexus. If you're to think about a graph of urgency and happiness, make your life happy and do it today. Like, that's part of the urgency, and that's where the life is too short concept comes in, because tomorrow's not guaranteed. You don't know what tomorrow is going to bring. Make the most of your minutes, embrace them, enjoy them, and do what you love to do.

Okay, so, but what about when you're not happy? What about when you're sad, when you're angry? Like, what's your take on all that?

So it happens to all of us. There's no doubt about it. It would be insincere and inhuman to sit here and say, well, every minute's the best minute ever, and every day is the best day ever. That's not the point. The point is strive, be deliberate to make every day the best day ever, realizing that stuff happens, right? There's things out of your control. So the point of the book and the point of the message is that happiness is not an absolute scale. It's a relative scale, right? So it's not like, well, every day needs to be a 10. The reality is maybe you're dealing with something very serious. And today's one. What can we do to make it a one and a half? What can we do to make it a one and three quarters? What can we do to make it a two and a half? And in the book, I talk about very small things. One of the things that I'm very proud of and I'm very loud about, is that the book was written with very simple principles. I want this to be an approachable. Every person, high school kid, senior citizen, maybe even an elementary school person, because I've read this in elementary school classes, can open the book and say, okay, I could smile a little bit more. That's not that hard. Okay, I can wake up each morning and spend a few seconds deliberately thinking about. I use another analogy or metaphor that I tell people that when you wake up in the morning, there's sort of three sets of glasses on your dresser. And I often, when I speak, I ask people, I say, raise your hand if you remember what your first thought of the day was today. And I would say, and I've been speaking to audiences all across the country. About 20% of people raise their hand. Now, invariably, some of them are just shy. They're not going to raise their hand. But we'll say 30% of people remember their first thought of the day. So I say to people, there, there are glasses on your nightstand, whether you wear glasses or not. And when you wake up in the morning, there are three glasses. I think most people, and my question in the audience demonstrates this, pick up their glass. They're like, ah, it's Friday. Tired, and I'm waking up and, okay, here goes the day. Okay, so those are blurry glasses, nothing special. They're just. It's another day. Unfortunately, there's probably some population, I don't know what percent that wakes up and put on their muddy glasses. They're like, oh, it's Wednesday. The weekend is so far away. I have a thousand things to do today. I'm tired, it's dark, it's cold, I don't feel like getting up. What I encourage people to do. And again, this gets to your concept of maybe you're not having the best day. Maybe you're dealing with some serious setback. Why not reach over the table and put on bright, clear crystal glasses? And when I woke up this morning, I was like, wow, it's fantastic. The sun is shining. I could hear the birds chirping. I have an opportunity to go out and run. The woman I love is in the bed next to me. I have an opportunity to talk to Bill and his audience today. I have a couple of great meetings and opportunities. There's something I want to read and. Oh, I'm seven seconds in. I've already laid out nine things that I'm excited about. I understand. And, and the pushback might be okay. Scott, you grab those glass, you're all rah, rah, you're all excited. You step out of bed, you twist your ankle, maybe you break your ankle. Got it. But why not? As Henry Ford said, if you think you can or you think you can't, you're probably right. Why not set that roadmap up for heading in the right direction. There'll be twists and turns. It won't be perfect. But to your question specifically, Bill, you're having a rough time. Things aren't going well, you're a little sad, you're down, maybe you're dealing with a serious setback. What can you do? You could put on those glasses in the morning, either symbolically or actually and set the tone for the day. You could smile a little bit more, you can whistle a little bit more, you can sing a little bit more. You can perform random acts of kindness a little bit more. You can think about how you approach, approach each verbal and written communication and what lens you use. Right there. I just laid out five or six tools like that that anyone can do. And that's the beauty of this process, this method, this philosophy. It's not an academic work, it's not a business specific book, though it clearly has business principles associated with it. Anyone and everyone can live a happier life.

You know, two things immediately come to mind for me as you share that. The first one is that wherever I am, I have a mindfulness and gratitude practice to look around me. So at home in the Bay Area, my bed sits up and looks out a window with beautiful trees and a park like setting in the front yard. And, and even, you know, 27 years after living in this house, I, I look out that window and I feel great. Like I'm like, there's so much appreciating, the birds and the things and happening and whether it's raining or sunny or like whatever, I enjoy that view. Like it's just a, it's a grounding, centering thing. And I, and I remember you talk in the book about 9, 11 and like a major world event and, and during the pandemic, I looked out and I'm like, the sun's still Rising. The birds are still chirping. The trees are still growing. The wind blows, like, all that right in here where I am now. I can see from our. Not from the bedroom, but from the living room. I can see out to a lake, and I see the window water coming in. And so, like, just taking whatever. Like, maybe I'm having a bad day or that kind of thing is all that. But then I thought of one other thing when you said it, that as you were talking about that, and that is the power of the negative events, right? The things that we'd rather not have. And I shared before. But my dad. My dad tried to kill himself in 2005, and then he struggled with mental health and addiction issues for the next three years until he passed in 2008. And during that time, we had these knockdown arguments and screaming and, you know, like. Like real passion. And those were shitty, like, terrible things, right? But I do remember distinctly noticing in those screaming moments, I love my dad. My dad loves me. He's struggling and dealing with what he's dealing with. But in the upset, I also got love. And I remember the love as much as the upset right to this day. And there's something about, like, that life is too short. Like, don't try to put happiness on top of this. Like. But there's something actually to get and appreciate even in that. That up. That upset. Right?

Look, there's no doubt you made a number of amazing points there. One of the things I talk about in the book, so the underlying principle, the very first principle, again, ten principles. The very first one is attitude is everything. The power of positivity. That's a string that I pull through the. The entire book, the entire philosophy. Attitude is everything. The power of positivity. And what you talked about, which I love, is how wherever you are, you can find something to be grateful for. And this is something I. I talk a lot about in that. You know, people talk about gratefulness journals and a practice of. At the end of the day or the beginning, they're writing down three things you're grateful for. And I think that's okay. But actually, I think it's. It's. It's kind of crap. And I say that because it's a forced contrived. All right, well, they kind of suck. But what are a couple of things I. Okay, I could be grateful that I'm still alive. I could be grateful that I saw my family today. What if you change your perspective and had the perspective that you had, Bill, and you just said, I wake up and it's raining, but I still have this beautiful view. I wake up and, you know, maybe some major thing is going on in the world, but the sun is still rising, so you don't have to find a time on your calendar. Which, by the way, it's fine as a starting principle, but what I want people to think about is a gratefulness perspective that permeates life throughout the day. It's not a moment in time. It's a. I am grateful right now to have the opportunity to speak to you. I'm grateful to hear your story about how you dealt with your father and your situation, because I have a similar one. The other thing you talked about, which I think is really important, is being able to use some of these situations, these. I call them aha moments, as reflection points, as opportunities to grow and as opportunities to live a better life. And part of what I'm trying to do right now is to empower people with a symbolic kick in the side of the head and say, all right, well, you just listen to Bill's story and what he had to deal with with his dad. And I talked to you about my dad having a heart attack at 10, when I was 10 years old. And what we haven't talked about yet is my dad passed away about 17 years ago. He's in his mid-60s, and I was fairly young, and I. I had to, you know, deal with burying a. A parent. I had to deal with cleaning out the house, so on and so forth. Now, if. If you're a listener and you're hearing this, I'm hoping you're gonna go home and call your dad or call your mom, or this weekend, when you're like, I really want to go out and whatever, fill in the blank, play golf or. Or spend time, I don't know, watching the baseball game, you may be like, huh, Bill's story was kind of compelling. Scott's story is kind of compelling. Maybe that's the symbolic kick in the head where I need to realize minutes matter, life is finite, and I want to spend time with, whether it's your parents or your kids or whatever. Maybe it's friends. Again, I don't provide judgments on. You should spend more time with your parents. Maybe that's not the right thing for you. But hearing this should make you think about, how am I using my minutes? Don't get to the end of the day, the end of the week and be like, I have no idea what I did, or I did a lot of things. I really didn't want to do and didn't do what I wanted to do. Life's too short. You may not wake up tomorrow, so go out and do what you want to do tonight.

Yeah, I, you know, I, I'm maybe a little bit more positive in general and probably always have been, but I did and I have like a black belt skill and gratitude and in that today. But I started by having two reminders in my calendar to be grateful. And they just said grateful and like, like a, just an alarm in the calendar to. To be grateful. And when they would happen, I would look around me and I would see what. What is it to be grateful for? And then I would note it and I might call and tell you, hey, Scott, I loved having you on the show today. Or, or turn to the person I'm working with and say, it's been a pleasure. Or like, whatever, or I could just think about it, right. So I had two of those a day, forever and ever and ever. And that helped me to build the muscle of pausing to notice and do that. Right. A reminder, develop the habit. Today I actually still have one and it still comes up in the afternoon. And it helps me as part of my wrapping up the day before I get into thinking about what didn't get done that has to get moved and like all the parts of things. But first I appreciate, you know, whatever it is. And that, that like, alarm and reminder, I'm appreciating through the day now. But I developed that muscle by doing the gym work. Right.

Look, I think it's a great point. As I said before, it's a great starting point. What I don't, what I hope won't stay there. Right. It's not sort of. My goal is to have three things to be grateful for today that's great for this week, but by next week it's going to be 6, and by the following week it's going to be 12. And by the following, you know, that's what I want people to think about.

Yeah. What is, what is there to appreciate with all of these things? And I think the, the other thing that I think is really interesting is like, don't carry the regrets with you. Like, don't have the I should have done this with my day or I should have done that or I, like, you know, is there. Well, I, I was leading one of our scaling up planning sessions of the team one day and a guy came in and we were doing our like, morning check in, that kind of thing, and he was messed up, like, and I'm like, what's going on. He's like, my dad just died. We're talking a lot about dad's passing, right? And I'm like, oh, you know, was he special to you? He's like, actually, no. We, like, barely spoke for the last few years. But I, like, now I don't have a chance to deal with that. And I'm like, well, actually, you do. We're gonna get started with the day. I want you to go write your dad a letter and then come back when you're. When you're done. Like, go get this stuff. Like, it's spinning around your head. You can't contribute at all to this meeting till you do some of this right. So he got the letter, and then he went and read it to his wife or somebody until he kind of processed it, and then he came into the meeting, and that made the difference. But if you're not talking to your mom or dad anymore, if you've got a sibling that you don't speak with, like, or somebody important in your life, something that's unmanaged, like, that life is too short to carry that with you, like, that has an impact on you. Not so much them even. Sometimes them too, for sure.

Well, look, there's no doubt. One of the other principles, again, there's 10 of them that I talk about in the book is live today, don't wait for tomorrow. And, you know, we're focused a little bit on. On relationships with people. And. And I think that's part of it. But, you know, I refer to a book in my book, a book written by an Australian palliative care nurse, the five regrets of the dying. And the key takeaway from that book is the regret of what I didn't do. So it's not the regret of the mistake I made. It's not the regret of something that I wish I hadn't done. It's a regret of what I didn't do. So maybe that's a relationship. Maybe that's a business opportunity. Maybe that's a hobby. Maybe that's a being true to yourself. Whatever it is, I challenge all of your listener. Now, what is it that you don't want to look back on and say, I wish I had taken that chance. I wish I had done that. I wish I'd gone for that promotion. I wish I'd started that business. I wish I. Whatever it is, live today, don't wait for tomorrow. Don't be looking back in the final days saying, I regret what I didn't do. Do it today.

Nobody says, I Wish I spent more time flicking through TikTok.

When it's matter. Minutes matter.

I should have posted another selfie.

Or two minutes matter. How are you using your minutes? Think about it.

Yeah. Yeah. Like, nobody regrets dancing, you know, around the house with the people they love.

Nope.

Nobody regrets taking a walk on the beach. Right. Those kinds of things. Spending time having a coffee or a beer, getting to know someone. Right. That doesn't matter. Listening to an interesting story or conversation. That's all stuff that's valuable, that you appreciate. Mentoring someone, being open to mentoring, being coached. Right. These kinds of things are, like, richly rewarding and valuable. Trying something new, taking time to taste your food. Right. There's a tradition I gather from, from your story in your book that you're Jewish, but in the Jewish tradition, right, we stop if you're practicing on Friday and pause for the Sabbath for Shabbat, and. And there's a meal that families will come together, and you say a few prayers, you light a candle, you light candles, you break bread together, and you have a meal. And then if you're really observant, like, you don't work or flip switches or cook or do anything else until sundown the next day on Saturday, and then you begin the new week, right, with. With Sunday. And there's something really. You don't have to be Jewish to. Or even practicing to appreciate that pause in the week that comes from, you know, an ancient religious tradition to stop and reflect and take a minute and be with family and think about your place in the grand scheme of things.

Look, it's. It's amazing that you brought that up because you and I have not discussed this at all. I am Jewish, but I wouldn't consider myself very religious. I certainly didn't grow up religious in any way. You know, one of the things that has happened to me over the last decade, and particularly during COVID but it predates Covid, is I do make a very big deal about having the family together on Friday night. Religious element is. Is fairly benign, fairly insignificant for me. What transpires in terms of the religious piece of it is fine. I don't like, dislike, but knowing that whenever we can. Now I have older daughters, one is in college, one's about to go to college, so it's getting a little bit harder. But knowing that we could spend Friday night together, that there's one night per week, when possible, where we can hopefully put the phones down, when we can embrace each other, we can tell stories, we can share the week is really something important, special in My house. So it's amazing that you bring that up because that's a real life fact as a relationship speaks to me.

Yeah. When our kids were young, we would. We thought the Shabbat was beautiful kind of thing. And, and there's something great about certain rituals, whatever they be not. I'm not at all religious, but the, that like saying the prayers, lighting the candles, the sounds, that kind of thing were like part of invoking that connecting time. And, and then as the kids got older, we stopped doing it so much. We still come together, like coming together for holidays. Right. Whatever your tradition, that background, there are certain holidays and things that matter a lot. Like we do a Passover Seder every year, and that's a ritual and family and friends will come and like you come together. But the weekly thing, the really frequent thing, is powerful. And I wonder if our kids, as they have their own families and then they start to be more aware, won't introduce some of those things even if they'll. They're very clearly also not religious. But the idea of traditions and rituals and things like that. Right. Are. Are powerful. Like Friday night was family night, Saturday night was date night. Right. Really? Yeah.

Agreed. Agreed.

So minutes matter, the people around you matter. Going for it, not putting it off. Right. Someday never comes. It's always just today and like letting yourself be that. These are all really great ideas. Have we missed anything in all this? I know we talked about a lot of stories, but I think we got some of your big ideas.

We got most of the big principles and we touched on, but we didn't really focus on can't make it alone. That's an important principle and we touched a little bit on it about the, the power of social networks, the power of human interaction. I talk about the Harvard study that a lot of people are talking about now and what makes a good life. It's just a. For those that aren't familiar with it, a fascinating, amazing study that's been ongoing for over 80 years now. About 700 people that, that the original generation and their children and their grandchildren have been studied physically, mentally, emotionally. They do annual surveys and, and there are reams of data. And if you could think about 700ish people over 80 years, multiple generations. What's the one sentence, one key takeaway? What matters for good life? Relationships matter more than anything, period, full stop. And that's really compelling. That's really, you know, one of the, the key data points that I love to talk about, especially as someone that is very rapidly approaching the half century Mark those that self identified in the study at age 50 as having the best social, strongest social network at age 80, 30 years later were the physically healthiest, the mentally healthiest. So you think about dementia and Alzheimer's and the happiest. Think about that. So there was a greater correlation at age 50 in social network than diet, exercise, genetics, disease, whatever we talk about, oh, you know, we're going to have an exercise regimen, we're going to watch what I eat. Yes, important, important. Don't mean to belittle it. How often do we talk about investing in our social network, building our friendships, making sure that we know there are people we can count on. And as life goes on, by the way, that social network changes. It's not necessarily having the Same friend for 70 years, it's investing in building social networks again. Those at age 50 that identified as having the strongest social networks, physically healthiest, mentally healthiest and happiest at age 80, that's pretty compelling. Relationships matter. And the point is we can't make it alone.

Yeah, I think that's a really powerful thing. I think like whatever you're facing, it's, and whether you're introvert or extrovert, there's power in connecting. And so if you're dealing with something difficult, right, Sharing it with someone, letting someone be a support, encouragement to you, help you bear up with whatever you're dealing with is powerful undeniably. But also when you're experiencing a moment of joy, right, like if you can share it with someone else and know about it, which is probably why we post endless pictures on our social media of us, hey, here I am living my best life, right? Because we want not only to share that, to be, to be known for that, but we want to connect with other people for the things that we most love, right? We want to be seen as a person out like soaking up life. That's a super powerful thing. Well, that's a great thing to think about. I hadn't thought about that study in that context but I'm like, oh, it was shortly before 50 that I started as a full time coach and I realized that I had friends all over the world and in particularly in business but in, in all realms, you know, the people in the place that I lived in, the communities of the families that our kids went to school together and some of my special interest things and like all of these represented different communities of interest and connection. And as I hit my 50, the thought that occurred to me as I have a huge network of friends and a great life.

Right.

Like and now a decade later, my outlook, my sense of personal power and enjoyment is really different than maybe had my 50 been a little bit different. Like it also brings the urgency of dealing with that. Right. So that your later years are not suffering. We agreed.

Agreed.

Well, so some shout outs and thanks. Let me throw up the link if you want to know more about book and the guy. Life is short. Guy.com. Is the website and the link there on the screen. If you're watching the video, it'll also be in the show notes but it's not hard to remember. Lifeistoshortguy.com you can go there and find all of that and more. And you know there's probably something for each of us in any moment to take stock, to take advantage of that. And if our show is helpful for you, please like it, subscribe, share it and more than anything else, pass it along. Right? The power, being connected to other people, the things that you recommend and provide to other people are so powerful for both of you. Right? You're the person that provided to them and they benefit as well. So please share the show if it was helpful for you and then some shout outs and reminders. Thanks to Wanda Mitchell for getting our show ready and to my friend and mentor Vern Harnish who created the whole Rockefeller habits and scaling up framework that we know and that our show is all about. And to all of you, our listeners, the folks at Podfly Productions who get our show ready and out the door every week. Thanks again everyone for watching for listening. That's it for us. We'll talk to you again next time. Keep scaling. Are you ready to turn your goals into daily wins? You should check out our Scoreboard software. Powered by Align, it's the official software for scaling up With Scoreboard, you'll get an AI driven coach for priorities and KPIs and it'll help keep your team focused on what matters most. With Align, you can track your goals in real time and you'll even see results on the go. With their mobile app you can rest easy knowing that Align has world class onboarding and support to set your team up for success. This is really more than just software. It's what I actually use to manage growth in our scaling up client teams. Unlock clarity and results with Scoreboard via Aligned to try it now, go to aligntoday.com Bill G One more time. Aligntoday.com Bill G that's aligntoday.com Bill G Check it out and try it now.