My Hero, Lost. I Miss Him.

Hey, all, I'm behind the scenes at an event right now, and I was asked to talk about, like, who my hero is in my life. And I get asked this a lot, but I realized 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 in my life when my dad passed away. So dad passed away in 2009 to. 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 says, 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 we went to hospital, and 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 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 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 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 over the phone? I recorded it, and I share 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'd be a beautiful thing for you to sit down and interview them. I just interviewed him on the phone, recorded it, and I asked him, you know, like, 30 questions about life. And I'll post those questions below this video for you guys. I just asked dad, you know, about how he grew up and what he learned from his parents, what he hoped, you know, what do you hope for life? What do you love? What made him, you know, successful or struggle with, you know, how do you meet my mom? You know, what he wanted each of us kids to know about life, and what message do you want to leave us? 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 intentionally he had been, because when I asked him, 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. Be a good citizen. Follow your dreams, do your best. You know, he was always just saying these things to us. And 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 about it, but it's like, it really was one of the greatest blessings I ever gave myself was 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 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, like, to life. So if you ever read Life, School, and Tickets, 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 the circus. I don't 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 we, 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 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 their caregivers or the people they admire, but it's one of the great moments of my life because my dad was 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. I want to live life so that he's proud. And I'm. 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 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.