Richard Walsh: Entrepreneurship and Family

I'm quite the warrior-minded guy, okay? Again, I'm a protector, things like that. So for me, sharpen the spear, uh, we always, you know, you take care of gear, your gear takes care of you, you know. You know, say a dull knife only cuts skin, you know. You need quality tools, right? But I wanted to hold on to the warrior mindset because to me, battle's a business field, you know. It really— I mean, the business is a battlefield, you know, it really is. So our tagline's honing entrepreneurial warriors on the battlefield of business.

This is The Chris Project, where we discuss mental wellness, self-awareness, and mindset with entrepreneurs and experts. Set your perceived ideas and biases aside and let's go on our journey for yourself, for your family, for the world.

Welcome to another episode of The Chris Project. I am your host, Christian Brim. Joining me today is the esteemed Richard Walsh. Richard, welcome. Good to see you again.

You too, Chris. Great to be here.

Well, I, I know a little bit of your story, but why don't you, uh, introduce yourself to the audience who may not know you?

Love to. Yeah, so I've been an entrepreneur for about 35 years. I was in the Marine Corps, came out of the Marine Corps, started working, decided working for myself was a much better way of doing things than working for others. So I started doing that, actually in a landscape format that became custom water features, specialized in that. I ended up adding, uh, steel sculpture to that. That ended up kind of building a life of its own as well, uh, and also world-class exhibits, things of that nature, became internationally recognized. Uh, end up— I was a boxer, champion boxer, I was a black belt. I'm now a best-selling author, I'm a coach, I do business coaching now, Sharpen the Spear Coaching. And, uh, that is the tiniest little nutshell I can make.

You did condense it very well. I'm impressed. There's a lot to that onion. I know from my previous interview with you on The Profitable Creative. So I would like to dig into some of the, uh, challenges and obstacles that you encountered as an entrepreneur. And I'll let you pick, you know, what, what you want to share, but dealing with some of the mindset issues, the mental health issues, any, any of those struggles that you encountered?

Wow. That's— how many hours do we have?

Well, we're only, we're only going to spend less than one, but—

okay, I get it. I'll tell you, entrepreneurship in itself is a mental game of its own. I spent my first 20 years building that first water feature business. And then '08, '09 came and everything collapsed around me. I wasn't doing the right things in my business. I ended up losing everything, losing my business, losing my home. I had 6 small kids at the time, 4 years and younger. My wife had to relocate. That was a little bit challenging. You think? That whole experience, yeah. So from a mental aspect, I'll tell you on that was I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I knew I didn't want to do what I did. So at least I had that for a starting point. I'm like, can't go back. I'm not going to go backwards. I'm not going to— I tried to save that business, it didn't work. Then I realized I didn't want to do that, right? That's not what I want to do. It was— it had become my identity, which is a really big thing, I think, for men especially. We become what we do, right? And, and because what's the first question they want to ask you? What do you do?

Yeah.

Yes. Right? So it becomes who we are. And I realized it had really become who I was. Like, without it, I didn't exist. Yeah, I won all the awards, I'm on the committees, I'm, I'm all this stuff out front. And I always had a shirt on, always had a hat on, right? That— and I, and I realized, I really came to that conclusion, like, that obsession with myself, okay, um, caused a myriad of problems. Not only not asking for help because I was going to do it because I'm the man, right? But my kids also were watching me even at their very young ages. I realized if I continue down this path of this is first, this is me, everything goes to this no matter how many hours or whatever it is, right or wrong, I'm doing it, um, they were going to follow in my footsteps because more is caught than taught with kids, right? And I knew if I continued They're going to end up with broken marriages and failed relationships and struggles throughout everything, right? They might do good at business maybe, but everything in their life was— everything else in their life was going to kind of be trashed. So that was the day I literally walked in and shut the business down. We were going to end anyways.

Let's dig into that because how old were you at the time?

39— 42, 43.

Okay. I, I would not have had the insight to see the ramification, and I didn't honestly have the insight to see how my behavior was affecting my children at that time as it related to the business. Like, how did you gain that clarity? What was it that triggered that for you?

To me, it was an epiphany. One morning I woke up and to me it was like this window that God gave me to see the future. That's the only way I can explain it, was because I'm not a panic guy. I'm actually unusually calm in emergency situations. Like, really? Oh, my arm fell off. Let me just get that and take to the hospital, you know.

The Marine Corps does that.

Yeah, so I was calm with that, but I started realizing, like, whatever that window was, that epiphany that came to me was I have to lead my family. Mm. You know, I mean, I have 6 kids who love to see me when I came home, hated when I left, all this stuff. And so I'm thinking, they don't care what I drive, they don't care what kind of house you live in, I don't care how much money I make. All the stuff that I cared about, like, I'm not saying it's not important, but when you put it in perspective, like, through a child's eyes, I wasn't giving them the one thing they wanted.

Is there something that made that clear for you, like with your children? I remember a story one of my pastors said a long time ago about his coming home, and he had made the commitment to play ball with his son. And he came home and his son was sleeping on the couch with the glove in his hand. And that was kind of like that moment that he was like, I screwed up. Like I, I did not do what I should have done.

Mine was my 4-year-old chasing my truck as I'm leaving in the driveway, crying because I'm leaving. And I'm looking in the rearview mirror where he's already small, but hey, it's business, I got to go. And I just watch him get smaller and smaller, and I'm like, what am I doing?

Yeah, you know. Yeah, those are gut-check moments, definitely. When you experience I often find the dynamic with the spouse interesting, at least it has been in my case. How did your wife react to that situation?

Losing everything? Yeah. Yeah. It was— well, she has some hindsight. Okay. So they like to— it's, you know, it's as I tell my kids, I'll just, I'll say this for the record. I said marriage is work, and it's always work. Yes. Okay, it's never not work. You're gonna have— so she's telling me the things I should have done that I didn't do, because listen, I had billionaires telling me what I should do. I didn't listen to them. I think I'm gonna listen to my wife. No, you're not. So I get putting things—

she should know that.

She should know that. She knows now. But I do listen now. I do listen. I go to her for counsel. So I've learned my lesson. But she's like unbelievably tough. I mean, we're— she has 6 children under 4 years old and not afraid to take them out, right? Got a 5-kid wagon, another kid on her hip, and she's at the potato garden walking around, pulling around, doing some all the time, traveling across the country with them. Let's go here, let's go. We did 40-day road trip with 6 little kids, you know, and like we did all that stuff because, because she's who she is. So she was really able to adapt and roll with it. Of course she didn't like it. No, we went from basically high-end suburbia, you know, she's born and raised in Chicago, to the farm. So if you know Green Acres, we kind of went Green Acres on it, right? So as a very—

you have a party line or did you have your own phone?

Tin cans and a string. Yes. Okay. Uh, so we get there and it's, and it's, you know, like, like I said, I loved it. I'm like, we had a neighbor a half mile one way and a half mile the other way. Nothing in front, no behind. I'm like, this is awesome. This is like, you know, the kids can pee off the front porch. This is freedom. I'm like, this is freedom. That's what it's like. We can shoot off the back and do that off the front. Okay, so, but we're there and she's like, she's, she's an extrovert. I'm actually an introvert, right? You know, so she's like, after about a year, she's like, there's no one here. I have no friends. I mean, she was really, really down. I mean, just not her normal self. And, you know, so I call it having a talk, right? I'm finally like, listen, you, you just gotta suck it up. Like, this is where we're at, this is what we have to do, we're figuring it out. I know it's not the most fun, but let's, let's get things rolling again. We'll get you— go to Chicago and see you, you know, we're only an hour and a half away or whatever. And so it was really kind of that— kind of, there's another gut check there. I just had to be a little bit firm because I'm like, I can't change where we're at right now. It's a process, right? And if you've never been through the business building process— she came in where things were good, right? Business established, all this stuff, right? At that time, we've been married like 9 years maybe. And, uh, and so, so this is all new, right? And I'm telling you, if you haven't been through it, it's not fun.

No, it gets back to those vows of better or worse, right?

That's right. A lot of worse. Yeah, yeah. So, and, but we did it, you know, right? Started figuring things out and getting through stuff, you know. And the kids are growing and doing that stuff, and she really focused on that. We ended up homeschooling our kids all the way through, you know. So we had that. So it, it took a number of years, but then finally she was like, you know, would never change it, this, never go back. It's, it was so great what it had become because of freedom for the children and everything else.

I think in, in my life, the things that I didn't want to go through, that I didn't like to go through, I wouldn't trade those experiences because they're formative. Not only do— are there blessings in those things that you wouldn't have known, but the, the change in yourself from those experiences. I look back and say there's, there's no way I could have gotten to be the person I am now if I hadn't gone through that. Like, there's, there's no shortcut.

Yeah, I agree. I— that '08-'09 experience, never change it, right? You talk about correcting, okay, a huge corrective experience. That was it. That changed the whole trajectory of my life.

You pick up, you move on, and you start other businesses. How did that experience shape how you approach entrepreneurship and business now?

Because I realized I was doing everything in the business. Again, it was me. It was a lot of I. I did this and I do this and I do that, and it's kind of a theme, you know. I wasn't sharing. It was not a good share. So I decided I'm going to share now. I'm going to give a whole bunch of people a lot to do. My goal was really simple, Christian. I just said, if my wife calls me and says she needs me at home, I can be there in 15 minutes, right? That was my goal. Okay. I don't want to say I'll see you at 5, I'll see you at 7, you know, I got to work, I had to do this. That was my goal. So, you know, kind of a broad picture, that's what it was. So how do I create a business like that? So I really focus on taking all the mistakes and failures that I had in my first business, and let's not repeat them.

In your mind, what was the reason for that? Why did you have trouble sharing with others or delegating to others or relying on others, whatever that aspect was?

I had a tremendous ego. Tremendous. And I'm telling you, ego and pride, they're intertwined. It was all that. It was all going to be up to me. I'm going to do this. I'm the protector, the provider. I'm all these things, right? So I'm going to make sure it's me who does it. I will not share the credit with anyone else. Okay? Now, I didn't verbally say, "I won't share the credit," but that's the outcome, right? It was always about that. To me, I can't be wrong. It's my business. I mean, that was my mindset. I'll figure it out. Even if I'm wrong, I'll fix it.

I didn't share this with you before the show, but there's an interesting study that was done on male entrepreneurs, and they put them in MRIs and did brain scans Well, they showed them images and the part of their brain that lit up when they showed them pictures of their business was the same part of their brain that lit up when they showed them pictures of their children. And I don't know what exactly you can take away from that, except that I think that that personal identity thing, like if your kids were to screw up at school or, or misbehave in public or whatever, like that's a reflection on you as a person, as a parent, as a father. I think that's how that's intertwined with the business. And if something fails in the business, it really is you that's failed as a person. And some of that's hardwired into our brains.

Yeah, I think you should submit that as the definition. Okay. Yeah. That's really well said. I really think you're 100% right on all that. Uh, because it's, it's hard to be an entrepreneur, start a business, grow a business, and not consider it— it's your baby, you know. I birthed it, right? I raised it through its infant stage. I want to get its maturity. I want to turn it loose, and I want to be proud of its future accomplishments. Yeah, even if I sell it, right? That's to let them go, get their own apartment, move on with life, right? I want to be proud. My son now is in the Marine Corps. He's been in for a year. Just graduated MSG school. He's going off to Garden Embassy, you know, third hardest school in the Marine Corps. Did all that. He's been a whole year of just— he's home right now for 2 weeks, you know, and they're gonna head out. But it's that, right? It's like, man, I just— I went to that. Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps handing him his cert and everything else. It's like, this is— that's what it is. That's the feeling. The, the scan would be lighting up the same way. Yes. With my business. Yes. Yeah. That's exactly it.

How did you name your coaching business?

I'm quite the warrior-minded guy. Okay, again, I'm a protector, things like that. So for me, Sharpen the Spear, we always, you know, you take care of gear, your gear takes care of you. You know, you don't say a dull knife only cuts skin. You know, you need quality tools, right? But I wanted to hold on to the warrior mindset because to me, battle's a business field. You know, it really— I mean, the business is a battlefield, you know, it really is. So our tagline's honing entrepreneurial warriors on the battlefield of business.

Do you work exclusively with men?

No, no. Okay.

Do you tend to work with men more?

Yes. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Obviously things resonate, you know, as a coach. Not every coach is good for every client. Sure. I fired coaches, I fired clients. Clients have fired me, right? We get it, right? I always use the example, like, you get a head football coach for the NFL, goes to the Bears and has 2 or 3 terrible seasons, can't win nothing. They trade him, he goes to wherever, whatever other team, and 2 years later he's winning the Green Bay.

Of course, if he was at the Bears, he went to Green Bay.

That's right, he has to. Just— and then they go to the Super Bowl and everyone's going, well, how can I use the worst coach ever? No, it wasn't that. It was a team, it was a mindset, it was a philosophy of that team that he didn't jive with, right? He couldn't connect right. But he goes to that place, he could thrive, you know, because nobody is a head coach for an NFL team and not know what they're doing. You just don't, you know, you're not randomly picked off the street, okay? So you're pretty much, you know what you're doing. You got to that place, but now it's about working with the team. So I think that's the best, uh, comparison I can use.

When you— I used to sharpen the spear, it reminded me, and again, this is just completely off the wall. Did you see the movie? It's probably 20 years old, uh, Tip of the Spear. Yes, about the, the missionary down in South America.

Okay, yeah, great movie. Great. Yeah, but that's just it, you know, and tip of the spear, sharpen the spear, same principle, right? Because like were out front, were in battle, you know? And spears a lot of times were not thrown, they were used up close and personal. I have one that I can't pronounce the African name of the actual spear I have. That's the logo for my company, but it has this name and they say the name, it was named that way because of the sound it makes when they run it through someone. Nice. Okay, so I'm like, okay, that's gonna be my spear. Yeah, so I saw it, it's a really cool— but it's got a shorter handle, you know, it's maybe 3.5 feet long plus a, you know, 12-inch blade. But you see that, like, see it in the— and like the Spartans, same thing. Yeah, they— why do you— why do you have such short spears? Because we like to be up close and personal. We want to be in it. So I think of it that way.

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As male entrepreneurs, I think we do resonate with the idea of business being battle. I oftentimes tell my wife as I'm leaving, I'll say, I'm going to go slay dragons because that, you know, that resonates with me and it, and it makes sense. I find a lot of times, though, that that's hard to translate back into the family, like setting that spear and shield down and being— I don't say a different person, but a different role. How do you approach that?

I think this is not my term, and it's being the warrior poet. That's what you're describing. How are you the warrior poet? Which means I read great books. I know poetry. I'm a romantic. I do romantic things with my wife and men. We climb mountains together, we go to battle together, right? We train together. That's, to me, that's romance. We cook, we enjoy, you know, great music, stuff like that. That's, that's romance in the, in the classical sense, right? So it's that warrior poet, I believe, is the best description of it. You got to have both.

More like David.

Yes. Yes. That is the king warrior. That is— he's a favorite of mine. Yes. Put it that way for sure.

A man after God's own heart.

That's it. I mean, he's a big sinner, big repenter. Right? I mean, that man— adultery, murder. He did it all. We checked all the boxes. You know what I mean? And still you know, redemption.

No, he's a crazy character. When you start looking at— it's almost like when I was learning about the Christian faith, that David's fall was really kind of minimized. It's more of like he is the triumphant king and, you know, unified Israel and all these other things. And But to me, that's the beauty of it, is that, that like through all of that, he still was a man after God's own heart. Like, and part, part of that was the screwing up and the repentance. Like, you know, knowing that I screwed up and admitting it and, and just falling on the mercy of God. Not to say he didn't suffer consequences. He absolutely suffered consequences for it. Right. But it still was his heart that he repented.

I— most people know, they know him as the warrior king, right? Right. But until you spend time in the word and really read about it, that's when you get the full story, right? It's all cool on the little cartoons and the little whatever, and to talk about it real quick on stage. But when you dig into it, I mean, everything with Absalom, his son, and I mean, it's an incredible story, right? I mean, you— I mean, it's It's movie-worthy. Never been made a movie, I don't think. But it's, it's, and it could be a sequel one. You know, we were talking about The Godfather earlier, you know, so I think it could be a multi-series. But it's so amazing when you see that because you understand the relationship between man and God and how he creates that. He had a relationship, right? Repentance was such a big thing because he understood. When people talk about you need a fear of God, it's not a fear of like because he's going to be angry and he's going to punish me. It's the separation. It's fear of being separated from God. That's what the fear of God is. And David understood that. And when you read the Psalms, listen, he's whining, right? It begins with him, so-and-so's after me, this guy, this, that. And then, but you're here, Lord. You're this, you're that, you're this, and you're here. And I have everything in you. And it's like total faith, right? Because the only thing that pleases God is faith. And so you see the faith of David with the 600 guys. 3 times you could have taken out— oh man, why does his name slip me right now?

Not Solomon. What was this? It was— started with an S though.

The first king. Yeah, I can't think of it right now.

I can't remember it either.

This is terrible. Stop the show. I'm just kidding.

We'll remember it after the show's over.

Oh my gosh, I can't believe it. Anyways, Uh, but that, that whole thing, right? Like, he never— he didn't remove God's anointed. They had that wherewithal. You talk about, like, me, like, that one point when, you know, like, it's your kids and this whole thing. But he had that, right? He had that understanding. And that is hard to grasp. Here's a man who's trying to kill you multiple times. You have him right there, and you're just cutting off part of his, his cape. And what he's, you know, taking care of business and then the spear of the head with the water jugs and then the whole thing. You know what I mean? Like, that's some incredible restraint. Restraint for one, but also an understanding that's almost unfathomable.

Yeah.

You know, because it's God's anointed.

We were talking about The Godfather and I think— stick with me here because I think this is an interesting contrast because I think one of the things that really intrigued me about The Godfather about that dynamic was his idea of, of manliness and manhood and, and head of the family, right? It always captivated me. It still does, like this. But at the end of the day, Michael only would rely on himself, right? And that, that was his failing. It was not his devotion It wasn't his abilities, it was his self-reliance, and that was his fatal flaw.

Yeah, I agree. I think that's what I learned after that collapse in '08, '09, everything else. And I really discovered the Lord and started looking at this going, yeah, this isn't me. I'm only here because of him.

Right.

Right? Like all the dumb things I did, if I really, you know, if I go chronological in my life, I'm like, well, there's only Providence is the only reason. Right. You know, because I'm meant for something else. You know, I mean, he knew me before he formed me, right? He's born for a time such as this. And I'm like, okay, I get it. I get where I'm supposed to be. I get what I'm supposed to do. And it's really important that I fulfill this, you know, and start understanding who I'm truly serving. So that was a big thing.

So do you incorporate spirituality into your coaching?

Here's how I do it. So I, I adhere to biblical principles, okay, because they work whether you're a believer or not. So I can't go wrong if I do that, right? They're going to work whoever they are. Now, if someone— I'm not telling people what they should believe or anything else, but if they're a believer, yeah, we ramp it up. Right. So it becomes even more intense if they're not, but then they're questioning. I bring them along, you know, people know where I stand, you know, and that's all good. And they can be where they're at. I want to help them. And, you know, I witness by the way I live, Christian. That's how I witness.

I think that we as men, through our vocation, for— through what we do, Actually, there is a spiritual calling to it. I kind of base it on this understanding of the curse of Adam. Like, you know, you're going to have to work. The ground's going to work against you and you're going to have to work. That's your curse. But you don't— it's not about the curse. It's not about the work, although we focus on that. It's actually our calling and our reason for being here. It's not the reason God made us. That's not— that's the eternal thing. But as we're here on this earth, being— working out God's plan through our work. And until you get that alignment, there's a lot of hollowness in what you're doing because you can achieve, you know, great things. And I've seen a lot of people get to that point of, whatever they determine success to be, and they're sitting around going, well, there's, there's got to be something else. It's, it's— was it Alexander the Great when they said he wept because there were no more worlds to conquer? I mean, like, you, you get to the top and it's like, what now?

Yeah, I'm with you. And I, I go back to the work thing because God put Adam on the earth, and what was this command? Work, tend the garden. This is when there were no weeds, right? This is when it was like literally like it's a good time, right? It's the first thing we were given to do was work. I mean, working is part of who we are and what we should do, right? You know, so for me and for men especially, I mean, we're providers, we're protectors, we should be the priest of our family as well, right? So there's a lot of responsibilities in that aspect when you look at it, what we need to provide for our families. When I'm a priest, I get the I have to introduce them to the Lord. You know, no one else. Me. Yeah, great. We got pastors. We go to a great church. We do all the cool stuff. But that's on me. That's my responsibility. Adam dropped the ball from a responsibility standpoint when he let Eve be tempted by Satan to take the fruit. He was standing next to her. Yes. And this thing could look like a koala bear. I have no idea, you know, chanting her up. Chatting his wife up, getting her to do while he stood there. Yes. You know, so like, told you, so it's not— it's his fault. That's where we're at, right? We, we have to have the responsibility to take the role that we've been given, we're born into. So it's very important.

You know, I've been thinking about this a lot recently, that who we are as men has been very muddled in our, in our culture over the last, you know, 50, 60 years, my lifetime anyway. You look back like I told you, I was reading The Godfather, right? And I'm reading this book and the dynamic between men and women was, was very different than it is now. Right. And so I'm not speaking on one being right or wrong. I'm just saying that it changed. Right. It's changed. Significantly. And it's hard for men, I think, to know really what their job is, what their role is. Who are they supposed to be? It's very confusing in today's culture.

Yeah, I think because, you know, I mean, the biggest epidemic in this country is fatherlessness, okay? The father not being present, the father not being in the home, the, the single mothers, everything else. And that's why they're so confused. And that's why these kids are so angry, and that's why they're listless, okay? Because they don't— they don't have purpose, they don't have a role model, they have nothing to gauge. They— inside, they know it's in their DNA and what to do. Yes, they know what they're supposed to do. And yes, then now society beats that down as well. Oh, you're just too— you know, too much energy, too much this, too many— it takes it all the way, sucks the life out of them. Now do that in a public school setting, just using that for an example, and then add it to no man in the, in the family, right? No, no, no man in their life. And that, that just starts to compound. And that's why you see kids murdering each other at 11, 12 years old, 13 years old, committing crimes, doing all this stuff. It's terrible.

Well, and, and I'd say that the disease is beyond those extreme cases of fatherlessness to, to the, the ones that, you know, do have fathers, because I think back about my own experience, and it was very important to me. My wife and I got, got baptized before we got married, about a month before we got married. And we had our, our whole family in church from birth, right? Even though that wasn't our experience. But, you know, neither one of us had that experience growing up. But that was what we wanted for our family. And because of my father as a role model and his father as a role model, I, I really struggled with understanding what my, my role was. This was, this was all new to me, right? And the mistakes I made and the damage I did to my wife and to my children, uh, even though I was trying I was trying. I had, I had, uh, uh, what was it? What's that? I had good intentions, right? Uh, I didn't know, I didn't have that model to follow. And, you know, you had to figure out a lot of that on my own. What, but, and this may, you know, some, some people may listen to this and say, oh my God, that's misogynist. You're a knuckle-dragger. I have been called those things. But, but to me, what you're saying is, is, is very true. Like a lot of the problems in our society come from men not just not being fathers, but not being men. And I acted like an adult child for a long time. Right. And that's where a lot of men end up, is they're perpetually stuck at 13 or 14. Acting that way rather than, than being the man they were made to be, right?

It's called extended adolescence.

Yes, that's what I had.

That's it. You're 30, you're playing, you're playing video games with all your buddies online and doing this for hours on end at night and the whole thing. I get it for sure. I'm, and I, I'm in the same boat as you. So my dad worked an ex— an extreme amount. Right, 3 jobs when I was little, you know. They became a golf course, they worked all the time. My mom was at home, um, so— and I realized again, more is caught than taught. What did I do? Worked all the time. Work was it. Work, work, work. I remember, I remember being in my dad's office at the golf course, and behind him on the wall was just awards and plaques and all this cool stuff because he was really great at what he did. And he started as a guy washing golf carts. Right. And works his way up, you know. I mean, he had a kid when he was 19, and another kid, another kid, another kid, you know, that whole thing. So outside all that, he was doing all that. So my decision as a father— first as a husband, then as a father— was not to repeat those things, right? I had to do things differently, you know. So that's why, again, at that 4-year stage with 6 kids, I'm like— that was part of the epiphany too, like, okay, well, I'm going down the same road. Yes, this will be— yes, I think that was all part of it. So, but yeah, then we had to learn, well, what does it actually mean, right? What does it actually mean? Like, yeah, I'm a tough dude, I'm a Marine, I'm a boxer, I'm a black belt, I'll pretty much take out anybody, right? No, and enjoy it, right? But, but what does that really mean? You know, how does that translate into protecting your family? Protect isn't just a physical or that, it's literally like the surroundings. You have to protect your family. Who, who are they exposed to? Where do we live? Where do we go to church? You know, what activities do we do? What am I actually teaching my children? That's protection. Yes. Okay. That's how you protect your children. We give them a biblical worldview. I give them— but we're critical thinkers because a lot of people think you're just these things stuck in a house. You never go out. And my kids are more socialized than anybody. Okay. They've been across the planet pretty much. All right. So they can do all this stuff. But, but really, what are they being exposed to? How do they analyze this? How do they actually have critical thought, right? So they can understand this and explain what they believe and share this kind of stuff. So that's protection. That's actually protecting my children. So it took me a while to figure that out, Christian. But when I did, I'm like, okay, this is, you know, people like, so if TV was on, a commercial would come on, right? And I'd— so we'd watch the commercial and it's whatever, 30 seconds, a minute. And I go, now, so let's talk about this commercial, okay? Like, what's the actual agenda? Why do they want to Save the Planet. Why do they say this? Why do they say that? Is that true? And then make them walk through it, right? So I'm that obnoxious dad who only cares about the commercials, okay? But, but it was really good because it's an exercise. It makes them think. They don't turn off when those things come on and just absorb it. They actually get to question it. So when someone's advertising something, they now question it. What are they really selling? You know, that kind of thing. So just It's a little off, but yeah.

That's a very important wisdom that you have passed on to them because most people, they're passive about their lives. Entrepreneurs generally are not passive. They are people that want to make changes. And I think having that— being an entrepreneur is a heavy responsibility in that regard because You are called to see things as they could be, not as they are. And leading people to fulfill that vision of changing things for the good is a huge responsibility. And if you're thinking that it's just about, you know, my success, the— my accolades, my money, you know, whatever, whatever measure you're using to measure success, you're missing the point. Like, to your point, you, you've got to get your ego out of the way.

Yeah, 100%. I think because people ask me— I've been on a lot of podcasts, right? Um, that's one being yours. But they'll ask you like, what's your legacy, right? What kind of legacy you want to leave? I'm like, well, it's not business. Like, oh, my business is great and all that stuff. Mine are my children. That's my legacy, you know, and it has to live on for multiple generations. Like what I teach, what I've shared with them, how I've taught them how to think and examine things, how to behave, all that stuff has to get— so it's not just what they do, but what they will teach their children. Yes, it has to be in that—

what's really ingrained in them, not just something they believe because someone told them to.

Right. Yeah, again, it's my walk. You can tell your kids all the right things, but if you're not congruent with your walk, all they're going to do is how you walk. That's what they're going to imitate. They're not going to imitate what you say. They'll only imitate what you do. Guarantee.

Was it Saint Francis of Assisi that said, uh, spread the gospel, use words if necessary? I think, I think it was. Yeah, I don't know.

I talk to that a lot. I have a pastor at church, older gentleman, pretty old now, but, and it's always about, and I'm like, dude, we have to, because I had a, uh, we have a men's group, right, and all that stuff. I do, I was the head of that for a while. I have a Bible study and things, but I'm like, we're all messed up. Yes, every one of us is messed up to a degree. I said, but we're really messed up. A lot of guys are really messed up. Like, we want, we got, let's fix these guys here. Let's go deep with these guys. Let's fix these guys so they can be the example, so they can walk the example, because they'll never— they can go out and tell everyone about Jesus, right? And then go to the club and then hang out and do this and sleep with these 3 girls and do— and like, they're not winning souls, okay? But when they're walking the walk, they will win souls. They don't have to speak, like you're saying, right? So that, that was always my goal. Oh, we need to grow this, you know, get all these people. I'm like, why? I said, we focus on depth. God will handle the breadth. Let's go deep. Narrow is the path. That's right. That's right. So, you know what, sometimes you got to like reset some people. I'm like, you get caught up in the, in the world, the marketing methods and everything else. Yeah, this isn't— as some friends of mine, the Bentham Bros, always say, church isn't a bounce house, it's a boot camp. Okay, it's like we're not here, it's not Sunday fun day. Yeah, okay, we're here for legit reasons, right? You go deep in the word, all the word of God. We want to, want to share the complete truth, you know. Some of it's going to hurt, you know, but that's what we're here for, so we can go out and, you know, continue, or, you know, stay straight and whatever. But it's a big responsibility, Christian, when you look at it. Fatherhood, manhood, right? All this stuff, you know, our my men's Bible study, which is actually tonight, is called— I named it Remnant just for the reason because it's not— we're not going to be the biggest. Okay, but it's going to be guys and we're doing amazing things with a few people. We're changing each other's lives. We're helping guys who need the real help, like with the marriage, with the family, that we have different ages and wisdom. And when you bring believers together like that, things change. It's amazing. I can share stories. It's so cool. And there's like 5 of us now and 6 of us. 7 and whatever, but that's— there's so much power in that. Sure, because again, we're all— we're shoring each other up to walk that walk, to be protectors. I mean, guys come to my house, we shoot, we wrestle, we do the whole— we are, we are the warrior poets. That's what we do. We kind of run the security team, but you know, like, we're, we're that, right? But also, we're just God-fearing men who want to walk that walk, love our wives, love our children, you know, give them the best that they can have, you know, understand and have that, have that relationship with God. And that, that's an incredibly big calling. And be an entrepreneur and run a successful business and scale that and coach a bunch of people in their business, you know. So like, but that's what makes it great. Those are the great things. And like you said about vision, it's Habakkuk 2:2, write the vision plain on tablets so man can take it and run. People can be able to run with it. The vision doesn't have to be complicated. But there has to be vision, like you were saying. You got to know where all this stuff is going, why you're actually doing this, no matter what.

Wise, wise counsel. And I, I would, uh, love to have you back on and we could, uh, go into even more depth on some of these topics. Maybe we'll just— you and I will, will, uh, have a virtual coffee and, uh, have, have that conversation. But thank you very much, uh, for your wisdom, insight, Insight and Candor. Tell people how to find you if they want to learn more about End of the Spear. No, it's not Sharpen the Spear.

That's right, I'll get you at the end of the spear. Yeah, Sharpen the Spear. Sharpenthespearcoaching.com, best place to go. A lot of great stuff on the website. Reach out to me, sharpenthespearcoaching.com. We'll keep it simple.

Thank you again, Richard. Listeners, if you like what you heard, please rate the podcast, share the podcast, Subscribe to the podcast. If you don't like what you hear, uh, let me know and I'll replace Richard. Maybe me, I don't know. Until then, ta-ta for now.

Thank you for listening to The Chris Project. You are important. Your work is important. Do not give up.