Embracing Your Uniqueness Is the Ultimate Advantage with Marco Pasqua

Sometimes in life, the one thing you have to do is show up. That's it.

That's it.

The action that you take is just be there. By being there, things can get triggered. That butterfly effect can happen. That ripple effect is happening all the way around us. But by not showing up, you don't know what opportunities you're missing out on. And some of the most incredible opportunities that I mentioned in the book, and even ones I don't mention in the book, happened because I decided to show up. And I was this close to not showing up. Even meeting my wife the way that I did, is because I showed up. I think that that's incredible, and that shows you that the CUBE principle is so far and beyond me. It's about everyone else that experiences those little moments in their life too.

Marco, welcome to the Book Thinkers Life-Changing Books Podcast. I'm going to jump right into question number 1.

Awesome.

I want to bring you back to when you were 5 years old. And you watched Back to the Future for the first time. Did you realize how much of an impact that book was going to have on your life?

Yeah, no, not at all. I mean, Back to the Future for me, well, I was in awe the entire time that I was watching the film. My jaw was just hitting the floor, just seeing the realism behind the storytelling. And I didn't even understand what that really was at the time. But just seeing how cool Michael J. Fox's character was in Marty McFly. And also, like, I'll admit, like, being a wheelchair user my entire life using a wheelchair. I always wanted to be a skateboarder, so I was kind of jealous that he was able to skateboard. Even at the age of 5, I was like, man, being able to move on wheels like that would be so cool. But as the story unraveled and I was learning about the idea of controlling your own destiny and controlling your future, as I say in the book, I really was like, is that possible? Could things that I do change how my future turns out? And it literally set the bar for how I looked at my life going forward.

So I don't think there's any Yeah, you know, I'll, I'll be vulnerable here for a minute. You'll catch me on this podcast and in other formats all the time saying, if you don't apply what you read from these personal development books, they're just forms of entertainment, not education. You're not getting the value out of them. But my mind started to change about halfway through your book. You actually talked about The importance of entertainment and how these stories stick with you and they shape your life and your subconscious, and they get into your life in ways that you wouldn't have anticipated. And now I'm starting to think, even if you don't take deliberate action from every book you read in the way that I talk about it, with intention, energy, and vigor, there's still some value that you get from them.

Oh, 100%. I think there's an energetic exchange, much like when old-school artists would record an original master onto a vinyl. There's nothing like vinyl The reason being because you're actually imprinting the energy of that session into the record itself. And I think the same thing can be said about books. The same thing can be said about all forms of media, you know, films. And so there's an entire chapter, as you know, that's dedicated to my love of workplace comedies and the idea of personality exchanges and energy exchanges. So I'm really glad that you actually picked up that.

Now, when you think back to Back to the Future, which has its touchpoints throughout your entire book, I'd say, but when you think back, the original lesson that you talked about was how you started to view time in a different way. So talk to us a little bit more about that.

Well, I mean, I think like as you start to reflect on things that are super influential in your life, you realize that, and it, you know, you can get so introspective that it can get kind of creepy because if you think of every single decision as a decision that you made that changed your life, decision tree and then it's branching off into the next thing and the next thing. It could drive a person insane. But really how that impacted the way that I look at time is, and as I named the first chapter, you know, The Future Proves the Past, um, you know, I don't look at time as a linear thing anymore. I really look at time as something that, you know, you have life lessons that are sprinkled throughout your life and sometimes it calls back to something from the past. But when you think about it, sometimes you look at something from the past and it's almost like calling out to a memory in the future that you haven't even experienced yet. So I think it's about kind of respecting what it is that you're doing in your life and looking for those signs from the universe, God, whatever you want to call it in your own sphere, um, that you're on the right track. I'm one of those big believers, and you look at the clock and you see 11:11, and it's kind of one of those things where if you get that repeating where you're looking at a clock and you— oh man, it's 11:11 again, it's 11:11— that is like a reaffirmation that you're on the right track for what it is that you're doing. And there's so many things about time and about, for example, 72-hour rule, which I talk about in my book, which has to do with time as well, that when you believe in something enough, you know, doctors say that they don't understand the pseudoscience, so to speak, behind the placebo effect. But I think that it's because humans are capable of so much more when it comes to mind over matter. And when you truly believe in something and how you can affect that change, it does actually change how the outcome is going to be. It's kind of like the double slit experiment where There's an observer watching protons and atoms. And if you're watching those protons and atoms, they do something completely different than if you're not looking at them. I don't know if you're familiar with the double-slit experiment, but so there's something real to that. And to not go into too much esoteric, but I really just think that, you know, time is also malleable in that way. And I hope that answers your question.

Yeah. Yeah, it does. And I'm actually fascinated by this subject. I didn't think we'd go here this fast, but here's a story I've never shared on the podcast before, Marco.

True.

And, and the audience, here's the question to think about: was this always predetermined, or did I determine it in the past, in the moment? So my favorite number is 42, and I see the number everywhere. And just like you said, it reaffirms things for me. And so last year, at the end of last year, when my wife and I were getting ready to have our first child, my question to the universe was, I wonder where 42 will show up. I wonder if we'll be put in room 42. And then I started thinking about What weights are babies normally born at? And I thought, well, there's really only one reasonable multiple of 42, which is 8 pounds, 4 ounces. And then I thought, you know, in terms of length, there's really only one division that makes sense, which is 21 inches, 42 divided by 2. Well, of course, we're put in room 42. Our baby's 8 pounds, 4 ounces, and 21 inches long.

And— Oh my goodness.

What are the chances, right? They're very small. So I look for those things all the time. And I'm wondering, what's like a recent example of you paying attention to the numbers or the universal karma or God or whatever you want to define it?

Yeah, I mean, so there's always those instances in my own life. I'm constantly getting 11:11 on the clock. You know, contrary to most people's belief, you know, the number 13 is a big number in my family for positivity. My dad knew that it was seen as a bad omen for people, so he made it his jersey number as a soccer player. And so he scored the most goals. I made it my jersey number as a wheelchair basketball player. I've had 13 surgeries. Like, so many times the number 13 has shown up in a positive way, and it's because I like to flip those kinds of beliefs on their heads and say no. No matter what the, you know, the global belief is in something, you can always turn a positive out of a negative. And, you know, call me an optimist, but I'm also a realist. And so in my own life, there's constantly that repetition of numbers. I have the number 13 tattooed on my chest over my family crest. As a reminder that we can control these things, and so yeah, I definitely still do see these things. There's always you know oh for example I'm waiting for something and you know maybe I'm in a lineup and I count the number of people and there's thirteen people ahead of me and then I end up getting the last copy of something that I'm waiting for in the line. You know it's just really really interesting how those things show up. But I'm just I think that my biggest lesson is showing gratitude at the end of the day. So when you have those moments where certain numbers are showing. Showing up, or certain things keep showing patterns for you, it's just about saying thank you. It's just about saying thank you and having gratitude for the abundance of things that are happening in your life. People who are constantly stubbing their toe, um, they, they didn't have any hot water left in their tank and so they had a cold shower, they're late for work— the thing I noticed about those individuals is that they're ruminating on the things that keep going wrong. And I am a big believer in you're going to constantly continue to produce the things in your life that you think about the most. So your reality is your Projection. And so the things that you project out there is what's going to keep sending back to you. So I hope that in that way people know that if you start seeing that number that you love or that you really resonate with, acknowledge it, acknowledge it. And I guarantee you, Nick, just like you, you're going to start seeing it more and you're going to be able to start controlling how it shows up in the weirdest ways. And sometimes you won't be able to control it, and that's okay. It's kind of like, hey, head down this hallway, head down this direction, see what happens.

Oh yeah, I love it. You're talking my language, Marco. By the way, my wedding anniversary is on the 13th, and also one of my favorite books, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, is built around 13 principles. And so there's so much positivity in that number, and it's cool that you got it tattooed. When did you get the tattoo?

Uh, when I was 19. So I'm 39 now, so it's 20 years. Um, and it's— it is actually my family crest, uh, from my, my dad's family in Italy. Um, but I have some embellishments on it. Like, for example, his crest doesn't come with the number 13. I mean, I had some Celtic things, um, you know, added on to it really right there. But I put it over my heart for the symbolism, of course, that my family is, uh, you know, over my heart. And because I've had 13 surgeries being in a wheelchair and having cerebral palsy my entire life, it's kind of like I knew that every time I went under the knife or anytime I went under anesthesia that I may not have come back from those surgeries, even the most So it's kind of like the belief that everything's gonna be okay, and no matter what happens, that you just have to trust, you know, that this is your path and this is what you're on. So that's exactly why I had it done so long ago, because I had 13 surgeries before I even turned the age 13. So I spent the first 13 years of my life basically in hospitals. And so that really changed my perspective too.

I think tattoos can play such an important role in your life. As you see, I'm covered in them. I also have a family crest on my body and I have, you know, reminders of things that I want to see and focus on. So that's, that's amazing. Now, talking about disability a little bit, and I think you're the right person to ask some of these questions, why did you never want to be defined by it? It sounds like there's a theme in your book where you don't want the pity or the general sympathy that typically comes along with a disability. You didn't want that to be the primary narrative in your life, which I think is really powerful. Talk about why you decided to make that decision.

Well, here, first and foremost, I come from an immigrant family. I talk about that a lot in my book. You know, my dad immigrated here from Italy when he was very young. And I think that that instilled something in me, not about, you know, people having pity on anyone's background or their experience or if they come from very little, but based on meritocracy. So this is not going to surprise you at all, but I'm a huge fan of being seen as spectacular if you do spectacular work based on the merit of what you do. I'm never in this world for handouts. I'm always here to give a hand up to somebody and give an opportunity to listen and that kind of thing. But I don't believe that you get anything in life without earning it. And I think that that comes from my dad's hard work ethic, you know. And I say this in the book. He said to me early when I was young, he said to You know, in life, if you're not early, you're late, and if you're late, you're an asshole. And I just, that really stuck with me about always being on time, people's expectations of you, the type of person you wanna show up as. And so that ties back into my belief system around disability, that it's easy to take the easy route out and have people feel sorry for you about your experiences. And oh my goodness, that must be so hard and must be so tough. But guess what, Nick? We all have times of low in our life. We all have things that people aren't gonna understand because they're not living our first-person perspective. And I'm not any more special than you are simply because I live this life through the chariot that I call a wheelchair. You know, at the end of the day, there's so much more depth and character to me than just beyond the fact that I have to use a wheelchair from time to time to get around. And I wanna prove that through my actions. And that's exactly why I didn't wanna take the, ooh, disability check mark sort of thing.

Hmm. It's a really powerful lesson coming from you. And I'm also a big fan of, of the meritocracy way of viewing the world. Everybody on this planet has special gifts and they should fully utilize them, live a life of no regret, make the most out of it. There's a really good example of you demonstrating this, I think, in the real world when you were pretty young at London Drugs and you decided to use, I think it was NLP.

Yeah. Right.

In this moment to sort of influence somebody else's behavior. Bring us through that example. I think that's a really good example of what you're talking about.

Yeah. So I had a manager at London Drugs who, who I think kind of agreed to hire me because of that sort of pity approach towards disability. It's like, okay, let's give this guy a shot. But what I ended up learning was essentially that he had been going ahead and modifying the tasks he expected me to do based on what he thought I was capable of. And as I say in the book, I could have easily stormed out and said, are you kidding me, when I found that out. But I always have been somebody who's like, okay, what can I learn from this experience? So instead of getting upset, I said, not only am I going to teach him a lesson, I'm going to teach myself a lesson. And so as I mentioned in the book, I'd watched many different commercials late night when I'm trying to get to bed, and there was all this stuff about neuro-linguistic programming, or NLP, and how you can influence others through your body language. and a customer came in asking for a video card. And obviously in my chair, I'm about 4-foot-nothing. So video cards happen to be on the top shelf, and that's not something I was gonna be able to reach. But I decided, you know what, let's make an authentic connection with this person. I'm actually gonna care for a moment. I'm gonna get to know his name, what he does for work, these kinds of things. And so that, that way we're rooted to each other, we're connected to each other. And it started to work. I found out his name was Tim, what he did for work, all these things. And we're getting to know each other. I'm wheeling towards those shelves knowing I'm not gonna be able to reach them. And I start being very animated and I'm like, oh, Tim, you know, I know exactly the card that's right for you. I actually think it's right over there. Do you see that card right over there? And for those who are listening, you can't see, but I'm doing a lot of physical gestures and actions. And I could see that it was clicking in Tim's mind without even thinking, like, yes, I should reach, I should reach. And, and so I said, I think that's the card right there. And he was about 6-foot-something. And without even thinking, he just reaches over. He says, yeah, Marco, that's the card. And see, he called me by my name because I was being so cognizant about calling him by his name. He grabs that card, hands it to me, and now I'm able to make the sale. So it didn't matter that I was 4-foot-nothing Nick. I was able to use Tim's height to my advantage. And that manager was watching and he was just— I could tell it was an oh shit moment of like, man, my perceptions of this Marco guy have been completely off. Just let him roam free, do his thing, and let's just see what this guy is capable of. And because of that moment, because of that decision, he never questioned me again going forward at that point. And I was able to continue to prove what I was capable of in that store and beyond.

And if— listen, if I was in your— if I was in your shoes in that scenario, I would have grabbed the card and I wouldn't have been able to practice something that I had just learned, and it would have been a completely different scenario. So I think that's so— that, that's really special that you were able to do that. As far as NLP goes, did you just learn watching late-night infomercials, or did you end up purchasing something or studying something specifically?

Yeah, I mean, that's a really good, uh, sort of question. It's sort of— if you look at the movie Limitless, uh, with Bradley Cooper, he kind of talks about these little breadcrumbs of things that you see over time. And when he's taking the Limitless pill, then all of a sudden these things come back to him in a flood of information. I think that's how my brain has always worked. I don't think that I have like ADHD or anything of that nature, but I have a way of making connections for multiple things that I see, especially visually. I'm a very visual person. And so I remember once I saw those infomercials, I remember flashing back to books, uh, like Dale Carnegie's book about, you know, how to, uh, make friends and influence people and things like this. And, and even at that time, you know, being a high school student, I remember flashing back to certain chapters about influence and things. And so I was— I just started making connections based on what I remember seeing in the infomercial. And that's really what it was. It's just just all these little different pieces of mediums and, um, and, and literature kind of flooding back in at once. Now, I'm not claiming at all that by default my, my soul has the limitless pill inside of it. I wish it did, uh, but my goodness, that would be so cool, wouldn't it?

Yeah, it really would. I always love the idea that what does he do first when he takes that pill? He cleans up his apartment. And I think so many of us, uh, talking about karma in a way, so many of us have cluttered environments and as a result a cluttered mind. And I think if you neglect your environment, you're also neglecting your mind. There's almost this, this, uh, like unseen force that's operating in your life. And so that's always one of my favorite takeaways from that movie.

You know what's really cool is that you and I both have organized chaos. Like, you've got the organization of your books behind you, and it looks amazing. It's got a great visual. You can tell in my office, it looks like these things are just placed here, but every single thing is a memento that has meaning and has purpose. And to your point, I think that life Um, in the rooms you spend time in is a reflection of what's going on in your mind. So if my space around me is not organized, it means that something's going on in my mind where I'm not feeling organized internally, and it's an instant wake-up call. And so that's why I think Bradley Cooper's character does that. He realizes that he's in the slums, he's kind of a bum up to that point, he's been kind of lazy. So the first thing to do is clean up his, uh, his, uh, home. You know, because that's where he spends his most time so that he can really thrive and then he just kills it going forward. So, yeah.

Yeah. Another example of how these movies change our lives. They really do.

Yes. Yeah, 100%.

Back to your book here for a minute. Talk to us about the Cube Principle, which I think is a really big portion of what you teach. And I think it could be very, a very useful preview, I think, for the audience listening and watching today, uh, an argument for why they should get a copy of your book and do a deeper dive into this.

Awesome. So, I'll give you the Cliff Notes version, which readers will appreciate. So, the C.U.E. Principle is an acronym that stands for Creatively Utilize Your Best Energy. And I just want to state as a disclaimer that this is not intended to be some sort of snake oil salesman pitch where I'm just like, this is a brand new system and it's going to change your life. And today only, I'll give it to you for $5,000. It's normally $10,000. No, it's literally a way in which approaching challenges or opportunities in your life That has just worked for me, and how it came about was I was in the shower, and you know, I was just like wondering why things were you know happening the way that they were, and I was kind of in the lowest points of my life, to be quite honest with you. And and you know, people kept asking me, "How are you doing the things you're doing? How are you meeting the people you're meeting?" You know, prior to all this, and I was like, "I don't know. I just creatively utilize my best energy." And they were like, "Oh, that sounds amazing. What is that?" And I'm like, "Well, it's just something that I say to myself, and it." really works for me. And, uh, next thing you know, people are like, can you teach me how to do that? And so it's more— I want to stress that when I— when my book is called, um, From Potential to Purpose: Your Guide to Authentic Connections, it's not just about personal connections, um, to people. It's about connections to the things in your life that actually drive you, that amplify you. So it's more than just people. So it's about, you know, using your creativity. How can you utilize the strengths of other people to build yourself up and to build them up? It's not just about What does it mean to be at your best? And energetically, what are you actually projecting out there in the world that could be perceived as negative? And I talk a lot about that because I'm a very highly energetic guy. I know you can tell that, Nick. But sometimes that energy can be perceived as, whoa, this guy is a lot. I don't know what to do with this. And I finally was like, well, why don't I carve a sort of experience and a profession for myself that doesn't say that that energy is a bad thing, But it's actually a good thing that you can use that energy. But you— it's like taming a wild horse, okay? You have to learn to take the reins and learn how to control it. And as you realize how that energy shows up for other people, it's going to change and influence how they see you, because you only have one opportunity to make a first impression, and that's really, really important. So in a nutshell, that is what the Q Principle is. It's a system that kind of teaches you how to approach all those 3 things that I just mentioned— being at your best energy, creative, you know, creatively utilizing the people around you and your skill sets— and does so in a way that I hope is practical. And I hope that you thought the exercises in the book really presented that.

I did. And I loved that at the end of every chapter there were a ton of exercises for people to go through. And that's how these books get implemented, and that's how the change happens. So Book Thinkers family, if you decide to buy a copy of Marco's book, Make sure you do the exercises.

And thank you.

You know, also to the audience specifically, if you're ever told you're too insert blank, which everybody's heard some version of that— Marco, for you, it's you have too much energy, uh, or your energy is too crazy, or whatever the case is, uh, you can find a way to utilize it. And you can find a way for that, that too much this to become your strength. And then you can also find your tribe. I mean, I remember in the book you talked about There's no one-size-fits-all leadership style either. You were working for somebody and you found out that maybe they were a little shady and you didn't have to follow that leadership style, and you decided to, to follow a different one which was more aligned with your energy. You said, yeah, you know, basically you said something like leadership style is as unique as a snowflake or a fingerprint. And I thought that was a really great lesson.

It is. And you know what, that was the hardest conversation I ever had to have with that business partner. Um, but I knew that this was a calling from God, from the universe, of saying like, this is somebody you have an opportunity to work with on the other side of that, uh, who was somebody I looked up to my entire life. And I would have been remiss if I passed on the opportunity simply because I had the opportunity to continue to work in an industry that I didn't even have a passion for. But in order to find out more about that story, you're gonna have to read the book, because honestly, there's an entire chapter about, you know, seeing a wolf in sheep's clothing. And, and I think that so many people can relate to that in their own life, of people who are vultures in your life or, uh, energy succubuses, uh, who, you know, they may have been best friends of yours for years, but then you start to take a step back, Nick, and you realize, hey, wait a minute, this person doesn't have to be my friend forever simply because I've known them the longest. Are they actually contributing and giving something good to my life? Or are they just taking? So I really encourage everyone to take a step back in their own life and ask yourself, who are the 5 people that you spend the most time with in your life? Because chances are you are the average of those people. And so if you don't like how you're showing up, then maybe change that up a little bit.

Hmm. There are a lot of follow-up questions that I could ask to this because I think everybody in the audience, Marco, probably has somebody that just came to their mind. Right? Every time they go down that energy bridge and then they come back, they're feeling worse than they did when they left. But just like you said, let's leave a little cliffhanger for those that are curious about how to solve that problem. Buy a copy of the book. There's a whole chapter dedicated to how Marco handled that situation, and obviously it was for the best. And by the way, this applies to your family too. Unfortunately, I think there are a lot of us that have family members that we tolerate the negativity and the criticisms just because there's blood. And oof, it's tricky, but you don't have to go down that road every day.

No, you don't. And so I really, really appreciate that. But I really appreciate you tying this back to family, because when you let me do a social media takeover, uh, just the other day, uh, to mention to the Book Thinkers family, uh, to take a look at the copy of my book, you know, I mentioned in that video that this was also a love letter to my daughter. And it's because I wanted her to— and I mentioned this in the book know her values and know her value. You know, I wanted her to understand that who she was, but also who her father was, so that this book lives on in a legacy far beyond my own. Not because of ego, but because when my daughter is missing me, when I'm no longer here, I want her to know that she can hear my voice through the echoes of my pages. And I know that sounds really poetic, but I'm being legitimate when I say that.

As a new dad, uh, I resonate with that message a lot. I think it's— I think for anybody that's a parent in the audience, they'll probably think, oof, that's a little bit of one of those moments. Let's take a beat and let everybody just kind of digest that. Uh, in your chap— there's sort of a subchapter where— subchapter where you talk about embracing parenthood. You say that you've come to—

Yeah.

So you've come to believe that setting boundaries is as important as showing love, and I wanted to bring that up today so that you could expand on it a little bit.

Well, I mean, here, if you truly love your child or anyone in your life, you know that you actually have to show them the framework for what not to do, and that that's okay as well. I think that that is unconditional love. So you— it's not about being a harsh parent or You know, uh, you know, really laying down the law on your child of, no, this is how we're doing things. You know, you emulate the type of energy that you want your kids to show up in as. And, you know, my daughter, although I look at her as a princess and an angel, sometimes she's not, uh, listening. And sometimes, especially now at the age of 4, she's going through hormonal changes that I'm learning about that you go through. It's almost like an early tweenhood when you're 4. and then you have it later on in life as well. And so that tests me, you know, but I have to ask her. And, you know, I literally do what I say in the book, Nick. I ask my daughter when she says to me, Daddy, I cleaned up my room. And people laughed at us and said, there's no way you're gonna get a 2, 3, or 4-year-old to clean up their room and be proud of it and enjoy it. And I said, oh yeah, watch me. And when she sees the boundaries that we set in our household around a clear room, a clutterless room is a clutterless mind. My wife and I don't speak to my daughter like a 4-year-old. We speak to her like a person. And I'm telling you that there's a massive difference in that. Her vocabulary, her understanding of human condition and language blows my mind every single day. So she will come up to me and say, Daddy, look, I cleaned my room. I earned it. Because in our household, it's about what are you going to do to earn the things that you want in life? And she knows that. And so she leads with that now. And I wouldn't have gotten there, Nick, without sending those boundaries. boundaries.

That's a wonderful lesson. When do you start speaking to your child as an adult? From day one, or was it at 2 years old? When did you make that— when did you make that choice?

We were blown away. My wife's, uh, former industry was a speech-language pathologist assistant, and so, um, she knows about body language, about, um, you know, uh, facial expressions and things like this. And we were noticing that Stella was reacting and picking up on things or laughing at things that she was experiencing at like 15, 16 months that most babies wouldn't necessarily experience. And it's because we had a real— like, so our daughter was born during kind of the mid to end-ish crux of COVID and we had a rule in our household because of my wife's background and experience: if you want to come by and see our daughter, we have an opposite rule to what most households have right now, which is no masks around our daughter. And if you're not comfortable with that, that's okay, you don't have to come to our house. But we knew that we didn't want to stunt her growth in terms of her ability to understand emotional reaction. And so we spent all that time in the first 2 years of her life showing her facial expressions, showing her happiness, sadness, frustration, all the emotions. And I'm telling you, it has paid dividends on her emotional intelligence. And so I've been able to talk to her as an adult, or as a human, I should say, since she was probably about the age of 2. No baby talk. Just, what do you think about that? How do you feel about that? And she responds accordingly. So I'm not saying that every child has the capacity to do that, but we recognized this little spark in my daughter and we didn't want to snuff it out in any way.

Kudos to you. You deserve a pat on the back for that. And I think that, yeah, unfortunately, there, there's this entire generation that had their emotional intelligence stunted by masks because the facial expressions are so important for development. I'm just, you know me, I'm a book nerd, and so I'm reading so many of those books on early childhood development right now, and I feel bad that, that maybe we miseducated people on that, especially in the home. As we get towards the end of the conversation, Marco, I wanted to bring up something that you said about halfway through the book. I thought this was great. You talk about an experiment, a thought experiment, where you bring this older version of yourself back to the present moment and they're giving you wisdom. I think everybody in the audience should do it, but why don't you give us some more instruction and talk about what happened when you decided to do that?

Well, I mean, I think it's more about a self-reflection on anything. It's kind of like, you know, I think so many times people live within their own ego and, um, they think like, okay, well, this is the way that I always do things. But I really encourage— because I'm a I'm a huge student of the work of Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein, and they were huge believers in thought experiments. Now, Nikola Tesla, his brain worked in a completely different way, so I never could claim to be him. Like, he could actually play out actual experiments or inventions that he was creating and actually have the blueprints make adjustments in real time. He could test those adjustments in real time and then see the results of them all in his mind. Now, I can't necessarily do that, but that was the point of that thought experiment. is if I were to do things differently, what would I say to myself and how would I believe in myself? And so in that experiment, you see me being a little bit tongue-in-cheek. You know, you see the older version of myself say, well, I do have to say, you're looking quite dapper as an older version of yourself. You know, what a good-looking guy. But in all seriousness, it was more about going into the depth of my humanity and how I would react and see and really experience the things that I had gone to at that point. And really asking myself to be the most vulnerable. I don't think we often spend a lot of time, Nick, asking ourselves to be vulnerable to ourselves because we feel like no one else is around. So why would we ever do this? So that's exactly why that thought experiment did that to me. What was it about that thought experiment that stuck out to you in terms of how I reacted?

Well, I'll start by answering. I have a tattoo on my chest that says Memento Mori, which is remember you're going to die. And I see it every single day, just like you see your 13. It's on my chest, and it reminds me that life is finite, and I should not take my time for granted. If I want to leave this world by creating a big impact, I better get my butt moving, right? So that's that's the lens through which I saw it. Now, I thought your response in it, you know, it's great to play and have fun, and I thought the comments about oh, you're looking dapper, like that's great. Um, but it— you're right, most people don't spend enough time making decisions or thinking about the effect that the decisions they're making today will have on the rest of their life. You mentioned very briefly the butterfly effect.

Yes.

The decision— this podcast that we're recording right now will be consumed by thousands of people. Somebody that consumes this podcast will make a different decision because of what you're about to say. And their life will then change forever, and the lives of the people that interact with them. And so, yeah, let's be a little bit more intentional about what we're doing and be a little bit more introspective and think about the effect that we're having. It's all cause and effect. So that, that's my reflection on, on that section.

100%. And you know what's actually interesting? The second you're talking about butterfly effect— I'm in the Pacific Coast, I know that you're in the East, But it's 11:11 right now as we talk about the butterfly effect for me. So I didn't plan that, you know, while we're recording this podcast or anything like this. But that again is affirming that, yep, Marco, you're going to talk about this exact thing, the butterfly effect, the impact on life, the impact of time at the exact moment and, and time that you consistently, uh, talk about. So how's that for, for kismet, my friend?

That's amazing. Do you have a couple extra minutes for us to go over and for me to share a really cool story?

All right, of course.

So, Marco, about 2 years ago, my wife and I were honeymooning in Dubrovnik, Croatia. In fact, we're in this tiny little area outside of Dubrovnik, Croatia, this small little coastal village. And so we're on the other side of the planet. Dubrovnik, by the way, only has a population of like 40,000 people, so it's pretty small. And we're in this tiny little village outside. of it. And we had just landed. We just had the hotel buffet dinner, which wasn't very good. And my wife's a foodie, so we went on an adventure to find a great dinner spot for the following night. And like 15 minutes into our walk, we find this beautiful little Mediterranean restaurant tucked beside the sea. Glowing lights, clinking wine glasses, the perfect setting. And she says, hey, I'd love to make a reservation here for tomorrow night, but there is a problem. What's the problem? There was a line at the host stand, 15, 20 people deep. And so we said, let's wander around, have a drink. We'll come back later when it's slower and make a reservation. We'll talk our way into it.

Yeah.

So we go out, we find this bar, we get lost in conversation, have a drink, get lost in the beauty of Croatia, have another drink. Here we are a couple of drinks deep. We realize we never went back to make the reservation. So we hustle back to this place. We close our tab, hustle back. Cobblestone streets. My wife, my wife is in heels. She's tripping all over the place. It's like, we're just having a blast, right?

Yeah.

And we get back to this tiny little restaurant and it's closed. Every chair is up, lights are off, no more music. It was such a bummer, but I was feeling a little liquid courage. So I decided to say, hey, let's see if the door's open. We'll go inside.

I didn't have a plan.

Was I going to write my name in on the guest book for tomorrow night or maybe find somebody in the back cleaning up? Who knows? But I decided to push the door and it budges. And I'm like telling my wife, like, hey, come on, come on, let's go in. And as we walk into this restaurant and I step into the light, there's a guy in the back putting away silverware and he looks up at me and his eyes are wide. I'm like, oh no, he's about to yell at me.

Yeah.

And as we turn to leave, he says, hey, I know you. And I'm like, there's no way you know me. We're in this tiny little village. Outside of Dubrovnik, Croatia. I'm not wearing any Book Thinkers gear.

Like, no, no.

How does he know me? And so I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it. And I said, "Excuse me, what?" And he says, "You're Nick from Book Thinkers." And I'm like, "Oh my goodness!" Right? And I'm like, "Oh my goodness!" So I said, "Okay." Like I was at a loss for words.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And he says to me, Nick, I've been following you since you had no followers. I've been consuming your recommendations and reading books for 5 or 6 years. And now my wife and I are both like white as ghosts because this doesn't happen to me.

Wow.

But I'm like, I'm like, tell me more, tell me more. So he starts naming all these little intricate details of things that I've only said on the podcast or things that I've only shared in an Instagram story. He talks about books that he's bought as a result of our recommendations that he's read a dozen times. And the reason I bring up this story, and it goes on and on and on and on, we had dinner, he gave me this beautiful letter, like talked about the impact that Book Thinkers has made. But that just goes to show you never know the effect of something that you say or of something that you've written down.

Yes.

Because the funny thing was about this individual, his name is Tony. He had never commented on a post. He had never DM'd us. He never reached out to share the impact that this podcast was having on his life. But I bumped into him halfway across the world in this tiny little restaurant after hours in Croatia, of all things. That's the butterfly effect.

That's incredible. Yeah, that is the butterfly effect. And I think I mentioned this in the book, Nick, but sometimes in life, the one thing you have to do is show up. That's it.

That's right.

The action that you take is just be there. By being there, things can get triggered. That butterfly effect can happen. That ripple effect is happening all the way around us. But by not showing up, you don't know what opportunities you're missing out on. And some of the most incredible opportunities that I mentioned in the book, and even ones I don't mention in the book, happened because I decided to show up. And I was this close to not showing up. Even meeting my wife. The way that I did is because I showed up. I was not going to go and do that youth exchange. I had done it for eight years. It was something that I had done over and over and over again. I tried to cancel going that year because I had other engagements, and I couldn't get through the line. I couldn't get through to cancel. And so I'm like, okay, fine. I guess I have to stick with the commitment. If I didn't go that year, Nick, I would never have met my wife in Ottawa, and we wouldn't. Have our daughter together today. So that literally is about showing up. You at the restaurant, it's taking a chance. You had the risk of someone saying, hey, get out of here, what are you doing? That's the worst that could happen. But the best that could happen is the outcome that you experience, which is not only did you meet a fan, but that fan was willing to serve you and have that dinner, and you had an intimate dinner with your wife and a fan. And I think that that's truly incredible. What a great way to end this podcast today. With your story. I think that that's incredible. And that shows you that the CUBE principle is so far and beyond me. It's about everyone else that experiences those little moments in their life too.

1,000%. So, Margo, for anybody that wants to get a copy of your book, where should they go? What should they do?

Yeah. So there's a number of different platforms you can get the book on, but Amazon is probably the easiest for people. You can go on Amazon. You can go on Kobo Books, Lulu Books. There's a bunch of different providers that are out there, but I would encourage you to go on Amazon. Not only read the book, but honestly give me a review. And I don't mean from the purposes of SEO or anything like that. I literally just mean let me know what you actually think. Don't just say it's a great book. By the way, Nick, since you promoted my book with that first post, I have so many copycat organizations that are DMing me being like, I'd love to promote your book too. And I'm like, there's There's no way that you actually appreciate my work in that sense, or that you've even read my book yet. And it looks like you're just trying to hop on the train of me acquiring your services. So be real with people. Be authentic. If you legitimately want to get to know me and my book, then just buy the book. Read the book. I don't care if you review it or not, but just give me your honest opinion directly then, because it's done wonders for me. This is something I put off for years. It was on a vision board of mine for years, and, and I said one day I will write a book. And then I got rid of the one day and just said, I will write a book, and I made it happen. And it's because I, you know, drove myself towards that. So please check out my book. You can go to my website, marcopasqua.com, or go to Amazon, search up From Potential to Purpose by Marco Pasqua. And, um, I hope you enjoy it.

Final question.

Yes.

If your book was deleted, this love letter to your daughter was deleted, but you could leave the world and your daughter with just one message from it, what would that be?

Oh my goodness. Um, I guess the quote, uh, that I love from the, uh, theoretical physicist Amit Goswami, which is, doing means turning possibilities into actualities. So, you know, the action of doing means that you're taking something that is hypothetical and actually turning it into a reality in your own life. Whether it's good or bad is based on your intention, right? So I look at it as almost like a metaphor of Jim Carrey's The Mask. You know, that mask is amplified based on the characteristics that exist within you. So if you're naturally a good person, those characteristics will be amplified. If you're not so good, those things will be amplified. But the point is, take the action Take it from the hypothetical and turn it into something real. That's it.

Mic drop. Awesome.

Thanks, man.

Thank you for your time today.

Here.