Brian Gubernick uses Jelly Roll and Arnold Schwarzenegger as examples of people who completely rewrote their lives. He walks through how Martha Stewart, Steve Jobs, Lady Gaga, Colonel Sanders, and J.K. Rowling all reinvented themselves in different industries, proving it's never too late to start over.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Let's get into today's topic. Today I'd like to discuss reinvention. Now, why is this top of mind for me? It's because of two documentaries that I've recently watched, where— very different documentaries, but in my mind, the theme was very much one about reinvention. The first documentary I'd like to refer to was one I watched on Hulu that was about Jason DeFord. Better known as Jelly Roll, the rapper, the singer, the songwriter, country superstar now. And it was a real— I mean, I really knew nothing about— I did not know much about Jelly Roll before this documentary. I knew a little bit about his music, and I could pick him out of a lineup, but that was pretty much the extent of my knowledge. And I encourage you to watch this, this documentary on his life, because what you're gonna find is not necessarily just someone who overcame a substantial amount of failure and a number of obstacles throughout his early life and beyond. What you're gonna find is a guy who was going down a certain path, a path that put him in and out of jail, a path that put him in and out of struggle with addiction and crime, that found solace and an outlet in music. And I would contend he rewrote his book, his book of life. He reinvented himself. There was a chapter or several chapters that would paint him very much as a guy that was not going to maybe even live past the age of 25. And through one way or another, he fell in love with music and he completely reinvented himself. Now he's one of the most popular performers on the planet. He's also known as one of the most versatile performers in that he's done rap, he's done rock, he's done country, he's done soul music, and he blends all these genres and he appeals to so many. So this is a guy that really, really reinvented himself, much like a guy who's been known for not one, not two, but, but kind of three different chapters, if you will. As a matter of fact, his documentary which I think was on Netflix, Arnold Schwarzenegger was broken into 3 different parts because that's how they segmented his life. Arnold is a prime example of reinvention. Started his career as a bodybuilder and achieved enormous success. Won so many titles, of course Mr. Olympia being the one that, that he won multiple times and is most well known for. Then the guy goes from being the greatest bodybuilder in the world to eventually become one of the greatest, if not the greatest, action superstars in, in film history. Predator, the Terminator series, and a whole host of other things. He even went beyond action and got into comedy and all these other things. It became a literally one of the greatest motion pictures performers of all time. And then just to top it off, later in his life, he gets in, in the politics and finds himself to be the governor of California for 8 years in the early 2000s. That is a prime example of reinvention. Some other people to think around, Martha Stewart. Successful model, became a stockbroker, but is best known as a lifestyle entrepreneur and then a media personality. She's got this multimedia company that's in all different sorts of things, including a magazine, books, line of home products. I mean, she is known as an expert in so many things. But let's be clear, she had a successful career before that as a model and in the stock market. Steve Jobs, a good example, was with Apple or co-founded Apple. Got booted out of Apple and started a couple companies, one of which was Pixar. Whole new chapter, totally reinventing himself. Pixar, no joke, I mean, creates Toy Story and others that many of us probably have watched countless times over. And then he reinvents himself again, once more, and returns to Apple. Bezos, Lady Gaga, Colonel Sanders, these are all great examples of individuals that reinvented themselves. I mean, Colonel Sanders, he rewrote his chapter, he rewrote his book when he was 40 or over 40 years old. He focused his passion on cooking and selling fried chicken. Then years and years and years and years later, Kentucky Fried Chicken took off. Just a really, really fascinating group of individuals. But the message today is about reinvention. And here's what I want the core message to be, or I want the takeaway to be: you are never too late to rewrite the book. You are never too late to write a new chapter or 2 or 3 or 10. These individuals I just shared all reinvented themselves at different points of their careers. Some of them became known for more than just one thing, but reinvented and came back even stronger or even better or or became even more than ever imagined. So my focusing question for you, no matter the phase of career that you're in, what's the next chapter look like? Have you given a thought? Have you asked big questions like that and generated big answers? Like, hey, I'm 30 years old. I've got 60 more years on this planet. What's the next chapters look like for me? What would reinvention— and when I say reinvention, I don't want to imply there's anything wrong with today. As a matter of fact, you probably got a long run with respect to whatever you're doing today. But we've got a lot of time left on this planet. What would reinvention and what would the next chapter look like? It is never too late. Ask J.K. Rowling, one of the world's best-selling authors with Harry Potter. Rejected countless times, tons of setback. Yeah, she overcame lots of failure, but what she had to do was not just channel her determination and belief in her story, not just be a bit more creative, but she had to reinvent constantly until she found the right recipe. And now she's reinventing yet again as an advocate for a number of different charitable causes. Much like Bill Gates, obviously incredibly well known for what he's done at Microsoft, but may leave an even bigger mark on this planet with the charitable work that he's doing and what he, what how he reinvented himself in the second half of his career. So again, focusing question: what's reinvention might possibly look like for you? If you're struggling a bit, if you haven't clicked, this is not about giving up by any stretch, but what tweak to your story might you need to make? What would reinvention look like? It's never, ever, ever too late. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.
