My Hero, Lost. I Miss Him.
9 Apr 2019 · 7 min
In this episode of the Brendon Show, Brendon Burchard recounts the story of his father—his lifelong hero—who died of acute myeloid leukemia in 2009. He describes the sudden onset of his father's illness, the brief prognosis given by doctors, and the 59 days his father lived after diagnosis, during which Brendon was able to spend significant time with him. While traveling, Brendon arranged a phone interview with his dying father, recording a 30‑question conversation that captured his father's core life advice: be yourself, be honest, care for family, treat people with respect, be a good citizen, follow your dreams, and do your best. Brendon reflects on how listening to that recording each year keeps his father's presence alive. He also shares how his father supported Brendon’s first major personal‑development event, a live‑action seminar based on Brendon’s book Life’s Golden Ticket, held in a circus tent in Long Beach, where his dad helped set up the show and proudly watched his son pursue his dream. The episode ends with Brendon urging listeners to interview and record the wisdom of the people they love, emphasizing that sharing one’s dreams and living authentically creates magic for others.
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Foreign. It's Brendon Burchard. And welcome to another episode of the Brendon show. Hey, I'm behind the scenes at an event right now, and I was at to talk about, like, who my hero is in my life. And I get asked this a lot, but I realize I've actually never shot a video on this, so I'd love to tell that story a little bit. My hero is my dad, and many of you guys were with me as I built my brand and my business and my life when my dad passed away. So dad passed away in 2009 to acute myeloid leukemia. He was healthy and good and literally, like on mother's day, he wakes up, he's walking down the hallway, and he kind of felt a little off. And he grabbed his side, and my mom said, what's wrong with you? He said, I just feel funny. He sat down and his back and his side was hurting throughout breakfast, he was feeling funny. And mom said, well, let's figure out what's going on. And so he went to hospital. And, you know, within two hours, they let him know, hey, we've done some tests here, and your spleen is enlarged. We want to do a few more tests. We think you might have, you know, leukemia. And of course, he's like, had no context to this. And literally, the doctors gave him seven days to live, hadn't been sick or anything. And if you know about leukemia, there's two kinds. An aml, acute myeloid leukemia is the one. It immediately just takes over your body. And very few people live, you know, let alone months. Dad who was a Marine and spent 20 years in the Marines, did three tours in Vietnam, gunnery sergeant, he made it 59 days. And during that time, I got to be with him most of the time. And I remember, I remember just so fearful of losing him because he'd been such a hero in my life. And I asked him if I could interview him. And I was happened to be. I was literally traveling when I found out that they said his third round of chemo didn't work and they were suggesting he go home and enter hospice and pass away. And so I called him, and I didn't know if I was going to get there on time. I was just so terrified. I just happened to be on a trip, and I said, can I interview you over the phone? And I recorded it, and I shared that with you because, you know, if your parents are here or your caregiver, your loved one, your grandma, somebody you really care about, it would be a Beautiful thing for you to sit down and interview them. I just interviewed him with phone, recorded it, and I asked him, you know, like, 30 questions about life. I just asked dad, you know, about how he grew up and what he learned from his parents. What do you hope? You know, what he hoped for life? What did he love? What made him successful or struggle with? How do you meet my mom? What do you want each of us kids to know about life? And what message do you want to leave these type of things. And he shared something with me in that interview that was so amazing because he'd actually always said it throughout our lives in different ways, and I never really realized it, and it was just. I didn't realize how intentional he had been, because when I asked, what's something, you know, what's some advice you want to give all of us? And he basically said seven things that I realized as he said them. He'd been teaching us that all of our life. And what he said to us is, you know, be yourself, be honest. Take care of your family. Treat people with respect. Be a good citizen, Follow your dreams, do your best. You know, he was always just saying these things to us, and just even as I say them, it's weird to me because I'm, like, hearing it. So it's hard to talk to you guys a little bit loud, but it's, like, really was one of the greatest blessings I ever gave myself is recording him. Because now every year on the day that he passed, and every year on his birthday, I try to listen to the audio. I mean, sometimes I can't, because it's just hard to hear his voice. And I miss him so much. But I also am grateful I have that. So I encourage you to record and just interview the people you love. But also because, you know, it was so cool. And as I started my career, many of you guys were with me at the very beginning when, you know, I wrote my first book called Life's Golden Ticket, and my dad got to see that published, and I decided I wanted to bring life's golden ticket to life. So if you ever read Life's Golden Ticket, it's a parable. It's a story about a man who experiences some, like, transformational magic at this circus, and his life kind of opens up and changes at the circus. I don't want to tell the whole story, but so I decided to bring the book to life. And I literally rented, like, the Mexican National Circus, and I had, like, their tent and, you know, all their performers, and we took over the city in Long beach. And, you know, had, you know, all these people come to attend this event, which was like a personal development seminar in a tent. I mean, it was like a revival, right? But my dad got to come and see it. And being the old gunnery sergeant, he was up 5am in the morning carrying boxes, helping us put together, you know, just doing everything to help out the staff and the team and motivating them. And he was so proud to see his son do his thing. And even though the thing was kind of falling apart the whole time, I didn't know what I was doing. I'd never done that kind of seminar, had no money, I was constantly stressed and everything else. He got to see his son do his thing. And I just tell you, you know what, the greatest gift that you can ever give in your life isn't about how much money you make or what you succeed at. It's that the people around you get to see see you do your thing. And that would be my dad's last seminar with me. He would, you know, come out at the end after volunteering. We worked so hard, and he came out and I had his hand, my mom's hand, and we raised it up, and dad was just so happy. And I know not everybody gets that blessing with their parents or with their loved ones or with, you know, their caregivers or the people they admire. But it's one of the great moments of my life because my dad, my hero growing up, because he told me those things, and I became who I am because he told me those things. And I still work and try to connect with him, you know, emotionally and spiritually all the time, because I'm always remembering what he taught me. And I want to live life so that he's proud. And I'm honored that he got to see his son try to live his dream, no matter what level it achieved.
I mean, one of the greatest gifts.
You can give is live your dream, like, chase the things that inspire, inspire you, because just other people seeing that, it brings a magic into the world. So I hope maybe this episode makes you guys think about someone you admire, who you love, and the messages they taught you, and that you try to carry it on in some way in your life, too.
If you're ready to take your life to a whole new level, make sure you grab my book, High Performance Habits, How Extraordinary People Become that Way. It's available on Amazon right now, and when you order your copy, you're really supporting my channel and the message. And you're also getting a book that will reveal to you 20 years of my research into what is it that helps people go to a new level of success in their life? What does it really take? What habits are proven to help you reach long term success in your career, your health, your personal life, your relationships? It's called high Performance habits. How extraordinary people become that way. It's available on Amazon right now.