Nicholas Williams defines emotional intelligence as being honest about your feelings without letting them control your actions. A chance conversation at a community event shaped his view: emotions are natural, but you're responsible for what you do with them, especially when chasing goals.
Introduce yourself, tell us who you are, what you lead with, and then your perspective on emotional intelligence.
For sure. And always thanks for the conversation. Nicholas Williams, born and raised right here in Oakland, California. I knew of you, but I didn't really know who you were. But at a particular time in my life, maybe about 4 years ago, we were at an event and I saw him, right? I was like, like he said, sometimes you got to be a little vulnerable, right? So I walked up to him, I was like, hey man, I'm dealing with some stuff and I know we're here at this picnic and you don't know me and I don't know you, but you a professional. So I'm gonna need you to just go to work right now.
Yeah.
And he's— and, and he was like, oh, okay, you know, what's going on? So we chopped it up for a minute and, uh, gave— right then gave me just a couple of nuggets that I needed to make some, some decisions that I had to make, right? And, uh, um, for me, emotional intelligence is, is, is just being, um, honest enough about how you feel, but also understanding that you can't— your feelings can't lead how you act.
Mm-hmm.
Um, there have been, uh, lots of situations where people, your first response is, is something that you wish you can get back. Um, and it's natural and we all have it and we all have these emotions, but you just can't lead with that. You, you, you only gonna get one opportunity to, to, to act out or to allow your emotions to, to, to portray you in a particular way. And then you kind of be marked with that. And so I'm responsible for my actions no matter how I feel.
Nice.
And if I've got some promises that I've made to myself and some dreams and some goals that I want to achieve, I might not always feel like it, but emotional intelligence tells me that ain't nothing gonna happen unless I get up and do something.
Yes, sir.
And I think back, wonder what— how I would be today had I not run into you and had that calming moment and had that ability to see things differently. Probably would have made some decisions that would have affected me negatively. And so because of that, um, you know, I've gone through some of the classes, not all of them, and I definitely want, um, to be an EI ambassador, right? So let's go on film and say Nick is going to be an EI ambassador.
Man, and, uh, man, I thank you for your time. And, you know, as I'm listening, listening to you chop it up and talk about, uh, I'm not— you're not sure, you know, what direction you may have went, right, if we had not crossed paths. So it makes me think about my role. You know what I'm saying? And how I could have been feeling at the time, right? I could have took a position where you know the Hollywood, you know what I'm saying? Holler at me later and all that kind of stuff. You know, catch me next week. You know how we here's my card. Here's my card. But because I'm so deeply rooted in it, and it's very important to me, and again, when again love. serving and helping the ladies because they are the first ones to show up. And that's— we understand that. But when, when, when fellas, you know, take that moment and trust, you know what I'm saying, somebody you didn't even really know at the time, I, I recognize that, right? And so, um, that 4th domain in emotional intelligence, relationship management, I've seen an opportunity to develop a solid relationship.
Yeah.
And, uh, it was my honor You know what I'm saying? To be there for you. And I am humbled just as a man that you would open up and say, hey brother, help me process some things. You know what I mean? And that's how we quickly became brothers because no egos, right? You know what I'm saying? No egos was involved, no status. It was really about, that's why I'm not surprised about everybody's cool because that's in your spirit and your heart, right? To connect on that high vibration that we talked about, man.
I was literally kicked off a Southwest flight before for being disrespectful.
