0180: Success or Significance? [Part I] with Vincent Rush

Ea interviews, episode 180. Inspiration, transformation, success stories and the imperfect action round. Seven days a week. Join Mario Ficcini for today's Expert Authority Effect interview. All right, Expert Authority world. I don't know if you've ever felt like you had something inside of you you wanted to share or you wanted to be successful. But let me ask you, do you want success or do you want significance? Do you want to leave a lasting footprint, a ripple? Whatever you want to call it, it doesn't really matter. Catch the conc concept. We're not going to live forever. And what you do in this life matters. And that is why I'm super excited today to have Vincent Rush. And we're going to be talking about significance versus success. He is a former naval officer. He is a mentor, a coach, a speaker trainer. You've even seen him on ABC News for his product. I'm super excited because I've known him close to 20 years and he's done a lot for me personally. He's helped thousands of people and I know you're going to not only learn a lot, but you're going to be laughing because he's entertaining and he always makes information and content enjoyable. Not everyone does that and that's a rarity. And I'm excited to bring him up right after we thank our sponsor. How would you like to grow your wealth? Easier than you think. With the change you probably don't notice anyhow automatically. That's why I started the compounding interest snowball investing with acorns and advise you do too. Get started simply and easily today@eainterviews.com forward slash, acorns. Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Vincent Rush. How are you doing today, Vince?

Well, my name is Vince Rush.

I live in Monroe, Ohio, a mile.

And a half west to the right hand of Jesus. And if you've ever been driving down 75, you know what I'm talking about. It's a 60 foot tall Jesus statue on the side. Mario, I'm doing great, buddy. It is good to catch up with you. We go way back and ever since you were a young little lad, you know, basically I would see at conferences and all that and you were always one of the first people to come up and engage in conversation and I've always kind of been a little bit of a fan of yours just for your ambition and you know, it's an honor that you would even consider having me on your show. So, so thank you very much. I'm, I'm thrilled to be Here. I do want to back up one thing that you said.

I was not a naval officer. I was a naval photographer.

Okay.

And so I traveled with U Tours shields back in 1983. 84 time frame. I did a tour with Wayne Newton. So it's true. It makes for interesting conversations on airplanes. I can tell you that I love when somebody. When I talk to somebody and engage somebody in conversation. I'm a networker by heart. I love to network with people. One of the other things my mentor taught me years ago is he said, what makes you more uncomfortable than anything? And I said, talking to strangers because. Fantastic. He goes, you know, nothing great is ever accomplished within the confines of your comfort zone. He said, I don't want you to go to bed one single night for the next six months until you've had one conversation with one random stranger and you've exchanged first name and last name. And it only counts if you can.

Pop out a little.

Back then, we didn't have smartphones to put our notes in, but pop out of one of those little spiral pocket.

Notebooks and write down like the cops do.

Exactly, Exactly. Mario Ficcini met at Kroger's. Does podcasting, you know, you know, looks like. Looks like Ben Stiller. You know, I mean, yeah, but dress is very Sharp. He said, 99% of those conversations will be vapors in the wind because you'll never pass again. He goes. But he goes, 20 and 30 years from now, you will look back on the course of your life and you will see the greatest experiences, the best friends, and the most. The most enriched memories came from those random conversations that started. And of course, you know, my best friend in the world is a guy named Jeff Joyner, who we talked about a little bit earlier. And that was a random conversation on a Thursday night at 10:30 when I was on my way home, and I hadn't met anybody that day, and I stopped it. I saw this little. This guy umpire in a softball game, and some of the old guys I played with were out there, so I just stopped talk to them. And they were all drunk, man.

They'd all.

They'd all been down in the 12 ounces. And, you know, and so this little umpire, this, I think you are little, but this, you know, young umpire standing back there, and he's just making some extra money because he was the youngest professor ever hired in Miami University. At the time, they hadn't even really even started yet. And this was way to supplement his income as side hustle. And before we even knew what Side hustles were.

But, yeah, when did that term get incorporated to become.

The way it's used now? I mean, I know everyone's like, hashtag, side hustle, but it's like people been doing stuff on the side since forever.

I know, I know. We're a slogan. Slogan driven society now. We're a hashtag universe, you know, So, I mean, it's. Everybody's got a gimmick and everybody's got a word. But yeah, so there's random conversations and yeah, it absolutely changed my life. And nowadays it's very easy because, you know, I tell people every single. Every single time I exchange my information. And I said, by the way, I network, thereby I meet. You know, most people are like, yeah, but getting back to the airplane story, you know, I travel somewhere when I'm talking and I'm extracting information from people, and they eventually reciprocate and they'll say, well, you know, what, what do you do, if you don't mind me? Or they say, where are you from? And that's what I'll say. I just pause. I said, I live half west of the right hand of Jesus, my friend. And you just get that look like, oh, brother, you know, I'm gonna get preached to. Then I tell them the story and they all start laughing because they all know about it, you know, so.

Yeah.

I know which one you're talking to. I remember coming down many times in the. The good old butter Jesus.

Yeah, well, we'll see. He used to be. Haywood Banks is an artist that does satire songs. And it used to be a nickname, Touchdown Jesus because he was. Was looking to the heavens and he was from the waist, and so it was touched down Jesus. And that was the only nickname they had for him. We caught fire about 11 years ago, and not that, you know, Jesus just naturally caught fire. Lightning hit an exposed portion on his head because he was made out of Styrofoam. And over the years, the styrofoam had wore off and I was. I do professional sports photography as a side hustle. And so I'm driving back and then working with Martin Lewis all day at his kids camps that he would do for charity. So I'm photographing for the Bengals coach at the time. And I just happened to be coming right up the interstate, getting off on my exit when I saw the flames. And it. The thing went up in flames. In about six minutes, it was gone. So anyway, they rebuilt one and it's like. It's basically a Christ the Redeemer. The statue in Brazil. Okay. But now instead of touchdown Jesus, he's $5 foot long Jesus or I caught a Fish Big Jesus or if they put a rest beyond his fourth in this long Jesus. So, you know, so he's got new nicknames, but he's made out of limestone now, so he's fired for him.

So what's going on with you?

Well, honestly, it's great to be with you. Long time no see. Other than just seeing you virtually, we go back quite a way. So it's good to get a chance to reconnect with you. And I apologize for the way I'm dressed. I knew you knew me, but I was so wrapped up today in like different calls and everything, I just decided Covid casual. So this is pretty much how I have been all day. And I didn't have time to step up my game, so to speak.

You know, it's. It's totally cool. It's all about the content. And I. The last 150 episodes, I'm like, as long as, you know, I always vet the guest and I always know they're going to bring content. I've gotten pretty like.

You know, the first 10 or 20 episodes, I like, was nitpicking every last thing because it's like, it's got to be perfect. And I go, unless I get everyone in the studio to begin with, with my crew, I'm always contending with mics, cameras, lights.

You've done a tremendous amount of shows. Now. I remember when you first started, and I remember I kind of like checked.

Out.

Kind of media voyeur. I was kind of checked out a couple of your first shows, and you've.

Come a long way.

You've actually become quite a good interviewer.

Well, thank you. I appreciate that. And I don't take that lightly because I know you've done all kinds of stuff and especially from stage over the years and so many people, it's just like.

It'S inspiring.

Yeah, I mean, I have, I have my times. There's. There's times that of course, you know, I have a professional speaker in my organization by the name of Jeff Joyner.

And I'm always kind of going to.

Him asking how I did. Of course, he never wants to, you know, make me mad or anything. So he's always kissing my butt, you know, tell me. Always great. It's great. But certain times when you come off the stage and, you know, you just laid an egg and, you know, there's. And even while you're up there sometimes talking, you Feel yourself start to sweat. You start to get all kind of.

Because.

Because you just know just by looking at the crowd of people that nobody's. Nobody's getting it. Nobody's into your message. And so it's just like, okay, how quickly can I get to my point and wrap up? I usually do better when I don't use notes. When I do use notes, I find myself trying to deliver a speech rather than just having a conversation from stage. And so I don't consider myself to be that good on stage anymore. I'm better on the one on ones.

Now with people.

You know, because I'm not thinking about it as much.

Well, you've always been the most entertaining. And there was. I remember people that didn't even know I was downline or anything. And it was just, oh, how are you liking the conference? Oh, it's your first one. This, that, the other thing. Oh, I really love Vince. And I was just like, oh, yeah, I heard him too. He was pretty interesting and like downplayed the whole thing. And they just kept going on and on. You and Jeff, just.

Awesome.

Yeah, Jeff is amazing. He's an absolutely phenomenal teacher. You know, even though he's in my organization, you know, I still learn from people that I'm blessed with, have the opportunity to have in my. In what we call the downline organization, so to speak, you know, so I'm. I'm still blessed to learn and I've taken a lot of notes. That's probably the only guy in my organization I've taken, you know, a notebook full of notes when he talks because I pick up so much stuff and I. I price steal a few of his liners and, you know, you know, kind of into my own vernacular, so to speak.

I've heard maybe four or five speakers over the years that I've just been super impressed with. You know, the shirt that I'm wearing where it says the world is your hero came from my name, Kevin Brown, who I was out in Las Vegas with Amy about a year and a half ago.

And Mario, I think, you know, a.

Little bit of historian from the standpoint that, you know, avid reader. And one of the best things my mentors ever taught me years ago is said, you've got to protect this hard drive between your ears and you've got to be intentional about the programming because you and I both have read a similar book, Think and Grow Rich. And we're both fans of Napoleon Hill. I know that. And we've come to learn that we do become the sum Total of the five people that we associate with the most. The books we, we read and nowadays the audios that we listen to, which wasn't an option when you wrote the book, but that constant programming we have to put be our own antivirus programs. And so one of the best things my mentor Allen taught me years ago, and you know, Alan, of course, was in 1992 when I sat down with him to talk about my New Year's resolutions because I wanted to impress him, to show him how goal oriented I was. I was a young 28 year old kid. I was, you know, pretty much broke at the time, had nothing going for me. You know, I always laugh about my background to say I was pretty much raised at a, you know, where I come from, you can take the man out of the trailer park, but the hitch is always in his heart. And that's kind of what was my background, my upbringing. So all my friends at the time were beer drinking, pot smoking, softball players. You know, I spent the last four, five, seven years playing 270 games a year and traveling around the country. And these were the guys I hung out with. Guys with names like Grubby and Skeeter and Smitty. And this is my, this is my core crew.

And.

But when I got associated with a mentor who could make a positive impact in my life, I remember I sat down with him in January and I said, yeah, I want to share with you my New Year's resolutions. And he just kind of looks at me and he goes, I won't see those. And I was so dejected, I said, what do you mean? He goes broke. People said New Year's resolutions because wealthy people set personal development goals. He said, how many books do you plan on reading this year? Honestly, Mario, I just made up some number. I said eight.

And.

Yeah, you could probably read those on the commode. And then he laughed. He said, how serious were you about those goals and dreams that you said you want for your family?

He got me on a one book a month habit.

Then it became a two book a month habit, then a three book a month habit for the last 25 years steady. It's been three books a month for 25 years. Meaningful books. Not like Lord of the Rings and, you know, Jack Reacher novels and that type of thing or Tom Clancy's, but meaningful books for this up here. And so last year, my wife and I are in Las Vegas. We were celebrating our 30th, a wedding anniversary. And by the way, if you're, if you, if you get into speaking, or you're speaking on a stage and you realize that the crowd just ain't digging me. They ain't into my content. Always stop. It's, oh, by the way, I don't think I mentioned before I got started, my wife and I have been married 30 years. And everybody will applaud. There's no easier way to get cheap applause and tell them how long you've been married.

But.

But. So she wanted to take a nap. We were staying at the Wynn Hotel, and I was walking down. I was. We were there for an event I was doing. And I was. I was done with that. And we were going to spend an extra day or two going to some of our favorite restaurants out in Las Vegas. And I saw a banner for a speaker and it was, come here, Kevin Brown. Talk about the hero effect. And it was a pretty good banner, or else I probably wouldn't have been attracted to going in. And much like your banners that you have, you know, whoever does your artwork does a great job. But so I just walked in like I belong there. And I just kind of sat down with my little notepad because I always got a notepad with me. And this guy, Kevin Brown gets on stage. And I have never been so captivated by one single speaker. Speaker from beginning to end for an hour and 10 minutes. This guy never looked at a note. He told his story. He had helped Serve Pro become a billion dollar plus company. But his whole concept of, you know, the surrounding the hero effect was talking about being, you know, an individual that, you know, his whole concept was this. It was such an unbelievable concept because when we asked people about heroes, you know, I always would say the same thing everybody else does, that heroes are ordinary people that do extraordinary things. In reality, Kevin says just the opposite. He said, if you stop and think about that, just by the admission of being ordinary, then we have to admit that God did not create us with any extraordinary gifts or talents. We're just a total accident, and it's a miracle that we're even. Here he goes. But in reality, because we're all individual miracles, he said if you flip it on the script, that heroes are actually extraordinary people who choose not to be ordinary in everyday situations. And I think in this climate that we're in today, and I think that, you know, the world that we live in from the craziness of, you know, COVID.

19 quarantine at this point in time, the interpersonal and the racial relations and everything that we're dealing with in this country and controversy, I think More than now, individuals need us to be just let our superhero ness show and be extraordinary and create extraordinary experiences for every single human being that would come in contact with. It was out of the hundreds of books I've written, it was definitely the hero Effect, which was. The book he wrote was in the top five of any book I've ever read. And I've probably read it four or five times. I probably give. Giving away 30 plus copies of it on airplanes to different people. In fact, Kevin should be paying me a commission. But for doing all that, he sent me a free T shirt. So that's why I love to wear and you know, I think as heroes in people's lives, I think every time God blesses us with putting us in the path of another individual, he's creating a unique opportunity for us to be extraordinary. He's created an opportunity for us, for us to show up and give our very best in the here and now. And we master the here and now, then he trusts us with the next. And you know, so I, you know that that's what the whole shirt's about. It's just, it's one of my favorite shirts to wear around because it sparks up so many conversations.

Well, I noticed it right when you came in and I really do like it because I remember when we were on the phone, you were telling me about the book and you highly recommend it.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I make no commission from it. I, I'm not, I'm not as smart as you. I haven't, I haven't written three to four books.

It's kind of more of a dream of mine.

But I'm gonna have to hire a.

Ghost writer to do it, you know, so. Because I, like I said, I'm not much of a writer.

I failed the English seven times. It's not that hard. Once you get your thoughts out.

You don't need to be a. You know, I remember reading Robert Kiyosaki and one of the things that stood out in my mind is the interview. And the girl was saying, oh, I've always wanted to write a book, this and that. And she was talking about the typos or something and he says something the effect of it's best selling, not best written. I'm like, done deal.

Yeah.

You know, speaking of Robert.

I kind of follow you on social media a little bit. I understand the anniversary of your father's ascension into heaven. That was not too long ago.

Yeah, three years this April.

Three years.

Yeah, it was actually Good Friday 2017.

Yeah.

And you even Wrote a book dedicated to other members of your fathers, correct?

I did, yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I had to be an emotional project for you.

It very much was, but I'm glad I did because he.

He wrote for a magazine for 25 years, and.

I drove down to, actually, Toledo with Mom, and we compiled 25 years of the magazines. We had the staff scanning stuff in while we're organizing it, this and that, and we took all the best stuff of his and organized. And I organized it to make it, you know, into a book and everything. But there was a common theme, and it was a little bit surreal because.

Everything that I've taught to my audience about taking content, you know, turning it into a book, turning it into videos, it's basically the formulas, essentially, take your expertise, systematize it, and then disseminate it through various forms. And I was just, like, tearing up, but also smiling because he always had something encouraging, and he always had something uplifting. And when I was looking to do the chapters, I was like, how do I group those? And I just spent a ton of time looking through all of it, and I was like, there was some commonalities through one month. It's this one month, it's that. Well, 12 times 25. There was a little bit of a data sample to go through, but I found the commonalities, and I was like, he was doing this before we even had Internet. So it's why I love doing what I do, because it's like anyone has their expertise, different areas, but everyone has their own area of expertise that they can turn it into something and do some big things with it. It's just a matter of getting it out there. And this is one way to do it. You don't even need to write. You know, we could talk for five or 10 hours and have pointed questions, and you're just sharing the information. And then you can turn that into a book, you can turn it into a podcast to show a live stream.

Or whatever, and all those episodes live on in perpetuity out there on the Internet somewhere. So 40, 50 years from now, your grandkids are going to be their kid. Your kids are going to be taking his grandkids. Hey, let me show you grandpa here and what he used to do for his Carol Turned Gray and what little he has left of it. So I think you're going to have those moments.

Well, I appreciate you for painting that picture, because that will be awesome. I want to ask you about significance and not just success. Why do you think so many people chase success and why would you say it's more important to have significance?

Well, because I think the ROI of life should be happiness. And without true happiness, there really is no success. You know, I often say this. I think you may have even heard me say this at some point in time, is that I know people that where I grew up in. I know people live in trailers, mobile homes that I consider to be wealthy versus people I know that live. The mansions in Cincinnati, Ohio, who I consider to be poor. They may be rich because they have a. You know, if you have a balance sheet mentality versus a mission mindset, then you measure success by everything the world has taught you. You know, that it's based, you know, your house. If I get a bigger house, we'll be happy.

If we have more cars, we'll be happy.

If I have more money, we'll be happy.

If I'm richer, we'll be happy.

And so you're associating and tying all your happiness into external circumstances, and happiness and fulfillment is only found from within. You know, I got one of my best friends that I grew up with is the guy named LD and Larry was my best man in my wedding. And when I started my own businesses and walked away from the old life, I got a lot of pushback and a lot of criticisms. And, you know, a lot of guys make fun of me, you know, because I was getting into the Amway business, because I was building a network and I was the pyramid guy and all that. But, you know, my best friend always encouraged me. He says, you know, that ain't for me, Venno, but I know you can do it and you can succeed, and.

I'm pulling for you. If anybody can do it, you can.

That's true friendship. Ld, if you looked at him, met him somewhere, he's just a good old boy. But every day he wakes up and he looks in the mirror, he's 100%.

Happy with who he is in here and who. Who God created him to be because.

He'S living within the chasing his purpose. You know, I meet people all the time and, you know, I say, hey, how's it going? You know, and they said, just living a dream. And I'll say, right, what's that look like? And most times, people can't even tell you what it looks like because they don't know. It's just a colloquial phrase that they say, I'm living a dream. And. But if you're not living in pursuit of something bigger than yourself that involves other people, then you're not living a dream, you're living somebody else's dream, or.

You'Re living your own nightmare.

So I think true significance is making a difference and an impact on other people's life. You know, Mario, you and I have traveled a lot of roads together at different times. And, you know, my wife and I, wonderful wife of over 31 years, you know, we've had.

Congratulations.

Thank you very much. And she's my best friend. She had the biggest influence in my life.

She was the first.

First person in my life that was constantly tell me how smart she thought I was, what a hard worker she.

Thought I was, and how I could.

Do anything I wanted to. And she gave me a reputation to live up to and. But I find that when we sew ourselves, our lives into other people is that we get so much more of ourselves back. You know, I'm 57 years old now and, you know, knock on wood, I, you know, lived a very blessed life, been very fortunate, got great kids. People ask me, what do you do? What's your most important job?

I'm a dad first, you know, I'm.

A husband, you know, and so forth. That's been the most important thing I've done in my life, is not messed that up. Although I tried many times, inadvertently. But fortunately, God had a bigger plan for me. But, you know, I see so many people at my age now that they've spent their entire lives climbing the proverbial ladder of success the way the world teaches them what success looks like, only to get to that top and look over the edge and find out there's nothing there. And so that's why you'll see a guy in his late 50s, 60s, totally nuke his marriage and his family for.

A younger girl somewhere.

You know, he'll go make stupid decisions or take up vices because he's looking to fill that void. And so, you know, if you chase John Calipari, who coached the UK Wildcats.

I've done photography work for him too. John Calipari told me one time, I said, what's one of the best pieces of advice you give a lot of your young players? And he says, well, I give him a lot of advice. He says, but one of the things I say is, you know, is. Is chase significance versus success. I said, what do you mean? He goes, because if you chase success.

You may acquire a certain bit of it, but it'll be short term and it'll be very hard to hang on to because once you grip, the tightest tends to slip through your fingers. But if you chase significance, success will hunt you down, attach itself to everything that you do. And significance is not achieved without impacting.

And having involvement in other people's lives.

So that's what I mean by that.

Well, I love that you've always taught that, because whether someone is 30, 50, 70.

They can change it at any point in time. So for someone. So for someone who's been on that proverbial ladder that you've been talking about, what's one of the best things you could say they could do? I mean, because the blowback I've heard from even my clients or my audience, you know, I want to do xyz, you know, whether it's publish a book or podcast, whatever the case may be. But they're so attached to that thing because I get it, you know, I've put 20 years into my business, and it's like, do you want to just up and change in everything? And it's like.

Well, if you're not living the life and you don't like your life, I would say absolutely, yes. But I get why people would want to hang on because it's more comfortable and convenient. What's the best thing you could say to someone who's put 10, 20, 30 years into something already and they're not where they want to be?

Yeah.

First of all, quit dragging the very worst version of yourself into practice, present.

Day and future endeavors.

You know, just because you, Mario, you're an optimist, you're not, you know, optimistic thinker. You and I grew up reading a lot of the same books, you know, and one of the things that we've learned is that in every adversity is a seed of an equal or greater benefit. And for the person who looks through life through the lens and the perspective of the optimism and also, too, I've got to put a disclaimer on this, too. I mean, you know, a lot of it's been my. My upbringing, my foundation. You know, I myself am proud to say I'm a born again Christian.

That's my beliefs.

You don't have to be that way. That's my beliefs. Okay. And so I realized it's a bigger purpose for my life. And Rick Warren wrote an excellent book a few years ago called Purpose Driven Life and changed a lot of lives of a lot of people that were at that point. You know, I read a book a couple years ago, Mario, and forgive me if I'm going off topic a little bit, but I think it all ties in.

You can say whatever you want.

Okay. Well, I have respect for your show and your audience, but here it is. I'm 57 years old now. Well, when I was 50, when I was getting ready to turn 50, I was never bothered by turning 40. Didn't bother me. When I turned 45. Didn't bother me. But for some reason, 50, 50 was starting to bug me. And when I got to be in the last 49 and about six months into being 49, I started eyeing that mile post, that mile marker, and I started thinking, man, I was supposed to have had this by now. I was supposed to have been driving this by now. I was supposed to have been living in this big of a house by now, you know, and we started living in the balance sheets. I started taking inventory of the balance of my life up to that point in time, and I was focused. I, all of a sudden started focusing on success and the measure of worldly success. Well, I was actually going through a funk, through depression, you know, and as I mentioned to you, a little bit, you know, I've read three books a month for 25 years now. I'm an avid reader. I believe apathy is mediocrity's weapon of choice. And so I was. I was just in a funk. I wasn't reading anymore. I hadn't read a book in six months. I wasn't listening to positive Audios.

I just.

I couldn't get through one. And I would go to conferences or.

I would go through the motions of.

My businesses and just, hey, it's just another way to keep bread on the table.

Well, anyway, Amy, my incredible wife, did probably the coolest thing that a wife can do for her husband, because we were going to speak at a conference, and at the conference, there's probably 15,000 people there. Well, along that way, there's a lot of people that she basically knew that had influenced my life or that had been part of our organization. For those that don't know, you know, we own a large family organization, so they've been part of our groups and organizations. And what Amy had done is she had taken 50 postcards addressed to me and put stamps on them. And that entire weekend, she would give cards to people she would see. And she says, hey, Vince is turning 50 in a couple months. This is January. Could you write him a nice little letter on here around March and send it to him? And these cards all started coming in, and I thought, oh, that's neat.

That's cool.

You know, it was reminding me that that little dash between when we start life and end life, it Was it had counted up for something. But you know what, Mario? It still wasn't resonating with me, Okay? I was still kind of in that funk. But my. One of my other coaches and one of my biggest influences in life, a guy named Joe Markoway, he and I love baseball together. We've played in games together and stuff. And Joe. And Joe and I both, you know, been pretty good at hitting home runs out of major league ballparks as we rent these. And so Joe sent me a little thing, and he was one year older than me. He says, welcome to the 50 Club. It's really no different than the 49 Club.

Okay?

Let's finish strong. We still got dingers to hit. And I got to thinking, I said, you know, there's a book on my bookshelf that I have not been able to get through the first chapter because one of my guys gave it to me when I was turning 40, and I never could get through the first chapter or two.

What books that.

A book by Bob Buford, who's a Christian author who's passed on.

He's, you know, went home to see.

Jesus now, but Bob Buford is a Christian author. He wrote a book called Finishing well. Okay? He wrote a first book called Halftime. And he wrote a book called Finishing well. And I pulled that book off my shelf and I started reading it. Everything jumped off the pages. It jumped off the pages at me. I couldn't put it down. I'm highlighting, I'm taking notes in the margins. I'm putting post it notes in there so I can go back and find it better than I've done with any of my college textbooks. And what got to me, that flipped a switch for me at the age of 50, okay, was he talked about a football game and he talked about nobody remembers who's leading in the first half. The end of the game is where legends are created by Tom Brady. Tom Brady's legacy has been created at the end of football games, okay? So everybody, it doesn't matter where you are at halftime. It matters how you finish the game.

He goes.

And those individuals who have the most difficult transition.

Because great coaches make halftime adjustments. That's why Bill Belichick is so famous. He's, you know, he's never out of the game, no matter what the score.

Is at the first half, because, you.

Know, he's coming back with a plan in the second half and probably video of how the other team plays. But anyway, nonetheless, okay, if it's a deflated ball or bootleg video or do Some new strategy he's coming with. Okay, so. And he's got the greatest second half quarterback in the history of the NFL. Okay, But I said the people that have the hardest time making this transition from the first half of life to the second half of life, whatever you decided, that may be 30, 35, 40, in my case, 50, because I still got 50 good years left to go. What am I going to. Are those who give up the relentless pursuit of success by the world's standards in favor of the pursuit of significance in alignment? What's God called you to do with your life? Sowing in other people? See, when we stay wrapped up in ourselves, we make a very small package. And when I was living in the balance sheets versus the mission statement for my life or the mission mindset, I have a balance sheet mentality versus mission mindset. I was all wrapped up in myself.

And looking at just me and the.

Sum total of what I had accomplished or accumulated at 50. So that's kind of what I mean. It's a long answer, but that's exactly what I mean.

It's a great answer. And it's got me thinking too, because no matter what happens with your life, how you grew up or whatever, it matters how you finish it and what you do with it in between. Like you're saying, but it's so, so easy to forget. Hey, here's what I was on track to do, you know, here's my dreams and goals and ambitions and everything. And you get that first roadblock. You know, that success is supposed to be that straight line and it looks like some screwed up fettuccine Alfredo or whatever that fell on the floor. And you're, you know, every day it's. Do I.

It's a good way to put it.

Yeah, yeah, it's. It's a way.

Little Olive, Olive Garden fettuccine right there on the floor. It was mixed up to begin with.

But now, hey, you can't go wrong with Italian. Yeah, but every day it's like this pursuit of do I want to keep caring?

You know, it might go great, it might go bad, but, you know, am I going to give it another shot today? And there's so many detractors in the world that just want you to fail. How have you overcome those. To continue on that path of significance and not give in to all the negativity, the snaps, if you will.

Yeah, yeah.

And I'm not. I'm not immune to it. Because if I allow myself to surround it, what I've done, I think is I've been very fortunate to develop a good filter, you know, and I just remember one of my mentors taught me many years ago, he said, don't take swimming lessons drowning people. He says if people don't have what you want or are in life where you want to be, their opinions don't really matter that much. John Calipari told me one time, if you spend enough time listening to the people in the stands, you'll eventually be sitting up there with them. And so, you know, I've been very fortunate in that sense that I've had people that taught me how to put the antivirus program on this hard drive right here and be very selective about who I listen to. But it's still something I have to do because our self image, you know, Mario, I mean you're, you're. From what I remember, it's been a while since we've seen each other face to face, but you're pretty darn good shape. When I saw you last, you know, at 57, I'm not, you know, like a big, you know, Terminator type guy or anything or bodybuilder, but I still work out, I still exercise and I still control my diet because, you know, my, my muscles, even at 57, if I just.

Because I hate.

Let me tell you something. I hate to work out, I hate.

To go to the gym.

I hate eating good. I love donuts. Okay.

Glazed, chocolate, sour cream. What kind?

Oh, just donuts. If I go to Chicago, I go straight to stands down.

And I tried one of each. I'll tell you, the best donuts I ever had was in Nashville, Tennessee. Five Daughters Bakery. Buttercream croissant donuts, Hundred layer donuts. That's a big claim to fame.

Unbelievable.

But anyway, getting back to. If you don't go to the gym and continue to stretch and exercise and push your muscles and one day you just decide to quit working out. Because I'm just going to take a.

Break for two years.

Okay. It's kind of like the guy that gets in that. Do you remember Josh Flogger, one of the guys on our team?

Yes, yes I do.

You know, Josh was the guy we all kind of wish we look like. You know, the dude was just. He looked like he was chiseled out of stone. Plus he was handsome. It's just totally unfair. Okay, so. But he's the guy that we all wish we looked at. Well, look like. Well, if we spend a two years working in the gym and controlling our diet to where when we walk into a room, we Just people. Man, that dude works out. I mean, we're shredded. We got eight pack, you know, we just, we're cut. We're, you know, we're just diesel. And we look in the mirror one day and we say, that's what I was going for. I'm done working out.

I'm right.

Here's where I want to be. Well, those muscles will eventually, eventually atrophy and eventually a year or two from now, you won't look like that anymore. Okay? Our self esteem and self image is exactly the same way. If we don't stretch it and put ourselves in a growing situation every single day. I said it a little bit earlier. Apathy is mediocrity's weapon of choice. Our self esteem will atrophy and nothing. Mario, you and I have read a lot of the same books. As I've said before, you've read the quote that nothing in life are quality of our relationships, our ability to produce income, our health, our well being, our marriages. Nothing ever outgrows our self esteem. And if it does, it's only temporary. Subconsciously, we self sabotage it. So the way I've been able to overcome is I attacked my fears. You know, when I was a young kid growing up in Preble County, Ohio and you know, I was, I was easily picked on because I was, was, I had fear of getting into fights.

Because I was afraid of the unknown.

And I was kind of a skinny little kid. Well, there were, we had something called, we had bullies in our school. Now bullying wasn't a federal crime the way it is today. Back then we grew up in an era where it was called a toughening up phase. You know, you either stand up for yourself or you're going to get picked on. When you get tired of getting picked on enough, you'll finally stand up for yourself. And one of the things I found out about bullies is bullies traditionally are very weak self esteem individuals that basically have to overcompensate by fighting somebody smaller than them and picking on them, poking them in the chest, calling them some derogatory names in front of people because they know the guy's not going to fight back. Well, I was that guy that wouldn't fight back because I was afraid of getting beat up. And you know what? I became an easy target. But what I did find out later in life is once you actually stand up to the bully, and I'm not condoning violence, but once you stand up to the bully and defend yourself, now the bully thinks twice before he comes and picks on you again. Because now he's got to put up. Now he's got to prove himself.

Well, I can relate to that. Unfortunately, got picked on pretty much all through first through ninth grade and got to a point where it was like, I want to change something. I didn't know what it was. I wasn't really reading success books at that point, but it was just like, this kind of sucks, and I want to be done with it. I'm going to change something. And I remember being in band class, just sitting there, and I was asking my friends, you know, paying attention and listening real well. I'm like, hey, what would you change about me? And some of them were like, well, speak up when you talk. Another one was like, walk straighter. You kind of hunch over this and that. And it was just like, hey, tell me your perspective of me. What can I improve? I wasn't mean. I, you know, I wasn't a bad person. I just, you know, I was just kind of there. And slowly but surely, you know, like, you put effort into something, magically, it changes, you know, overnight success. But it felt good. And I was like, huh, what else? What else? What else? And when you get on that path, it's like, what else? And, you know, 20 years later, you're going, what else? And you just become better and better. And I believe with that, you can help more people, which is the real goal right now.

Can I share with you the tie into this story?

Absolutely.

Okay, so now as an adult, and you asked about, how did you overcome the naysayers? How did you overcome the people that, you know, turn their backs on your. How you overcome the people, even your parents, you know, saying, don't. You're wasting your college education. You know, I just finished college. I graduated a 4.0 GPA. I owned a health club and a tanning salon. That's how I put myself through college after the military, you know, so my mom was so proud of me having that business card that said account executive, which just meant I was an employee. And. But she was so thrilled about that. So when I get into network marketing and into the Amway business, basically, she was one of the first naysayers. But, you know, I also realized she did it out of love, because she cared about me, not because she was embarrassed. She was just loved me. She didn't want to see my feelings hurt.

But so.

So how did I overcome all that? Especially in one of the business models that probably gets the most negative of any business model out there? Because my philosophy on that is because one, anybody can get involved with it. But two, it is exceptionally hard work to be successful in it. And so thousands more people get in that don't do well than people get in actually do well.

Okay?

So my only thing was, is this, as I had learned from those years of being picked on by bullies. And then when you finally stand up to them, fear is a spiritual bully. Fear is that invisible bully that doesn't take his finger and poke us in the chest up against the locker, but it puts that fiery little dart in our subconscious, causing us to be afraid of what other people might think. You know, afraid of looking foolish, afraid of being, like, laughed at. Okay? And when you stand up to that spiritual bully of fear, it bugs you less and less and less because in the spirit realm, it knows that it has no power over you, and it goes and seeks another timid soul or weaker victim. Because in my way of thinking is when you're called to do something great and you're called to do something that involves the lives of other people, you will. You will face adversaries, you will face naysayers, but it's not because they have anything in particular about you. It's because they get the unction to give you a hard time about. Because there's sources out there that don't want you to win and don't want you to succeed. Because if you do succeed, you make positive, impactful change on other people's lives. You know, when you're able to sow into other people and give to other people, maybe you see marriages come back together. You know, Amy and I were. We've been married 31 years now, as I mentioned earlier. But the day I met a different group of people that changed our lives, we were ready to get divorced, okay? Because we've been married for two years, dated for four or five years before that, and just realized we just got whole different lives. You know, we're going our different ways, you know, and we never wanted kids. And now we've got two wonderful kids that are very empathetic individuals, very caring and compassionate kids. Never given us an ounce of trouble. Never even have been so much as even had a speeding ticket. I mean, they're just incredibly good kids, and they're gonna go out and make impacts on the world on their own. Because, you know, we were talking a little bit earlier about the state of our, you know, our, you know, race relations in our country as they exist today. You know, I think our. The foundation is really what we need to focus on. And that foundation Begins at home. You know, I've said this before. I don't believe we have a problem with racism in our country. I believe we have a spiritual problem. And when we take care of the foundation, because racism is hateful. Racism is a spirit of hate. It's a spirit of evil. It comes from an evil place, okay? And so we can make a difference in the mothers and fathers and we can bring families together and make a positive impact. And we can get, when mom and dad stay together, that little child doesn't grow up dragging baggage through his life with him, that this was all my fault somehow. Because even even though we tried to tell the kids that, they still drag that 50 pound weight with them all through life, thinking, if I'd been a better kid, this wouldn't have happened. Because that's the spiritual bully that starts poking them with that fiery little dart into the subconscious. But when we can actually teach kids to love themselves and be proud of.

Who they are and feel good about.

Themselves, guess what they do in turn? They feel good about other people. They treat other people kindly. And that's the way we end up, you know, solving a lot of our world's problems is one person at a time, you know, and the impact that we make. So, Mario, what you were saying about what you do, hundreds and hundreds of shows now, the way I look at.

It is that you're being pressed out.

And you're in training and you're going everything, every step you take, every video you do, every book that you write, every little speech that you give and talk to a group, it puts you one notch closer to what God's ultimately got called for your life, for what you're actually called, designed to do. And 10 years from now, when you're standing on stage in front of 15,000 people who've all paid a couple hundred dollars to come hear you talk, you'll think, okay, that's why I had to.

Go through all those struggles.

That's why I had to go through those people laughing at me. That's why I had to go through the negativity. That's why. Because it made me stronger and made me tougher and it built character on the inside. So you're on the right track. You're very much on the right track. The books that you've written, the places that you've talked, I know you were probably kind of nervous about it when you began. Am I right?

Well, expert authority world, I can feel it getting real. I'm sure you can hear it. I know how this is. Going to end and you're not going to want to miss it. So we're going to transition to part two. I want to make sure Vince gets all the time he needs. This is only the second time I've ever done this and you're not going to want to miss it. So join us in Part two with Vince Rush.

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