In this motivational presentation, Russ Lowry explains the concept of deliberately choosing “enemies” to generate the drive needed for personal and professional growth. He cites Patrick McDavid’s book, which describes how selecting the right adversaries helped McDavid build a $200 million life‑insurance company and later transition into entertainment. Lowry then recounts his own journey: a carefree undergraduate life that lowered his GPA, a demanding graduate program that forced him to prove himself, and a disillusioning experience at Reynolds Tobacco where corporate greed became his enemy. These experiences pushed him into the insurance industry, first at Farmers and later as an independent agent, where he spent nearly three decades climbing the ranks. He illustrates how competition—whether a colleague at Farmers or higher‑ranking agents—can be turned into constructive fuel, and when an adversary no longer serves that purpose, it should be let go. Throughout, Lowry offers practical advice on identifying, leveraging, and eventually discarding enemies, emphasizing that the right adversaries ignite ambition, while the wrong ones become distractions.
Chapters
What I call today's talk choose your enemies wisely. And I get that from this book I've just reread by Patrick McDavid talking about what drove him in his life. He grew a life insurance company to a couple hundred million dollar exit with 40,000 plus agents. So he picked the right enemies and he grew his business and he left and now he's in the entertainment media business doing very well as so it just made me think sometimes we hear the why when we're young. We don't always have a why like a family or kids but things that can drive you to greatness or drive you to do to be the best you that normally you wouldn't have that motivation because like, like a lot of things motivation is tough. You know I, I've been working out more and it's not my favorite thing to go to the farm and lift but I'm really, it makes me feel good when I'm done. But I have to motivate myself thinking I want to a little bit longer so I need to lift weights and do some cardio. I can tell you my enemies choosing my enemies. One would probably be myself When I was an undergraduate I was a bit of a drunk frat boy and had a little too much fun in my 5, 5 and a half years at OU and my GPA was pretty low. My undergraduate or my degree is in law enforcement administration. So that didn't get you real far in the business world. My enemies was probably my having too much fun. So I went to grad school, made one B and that teacher still I talked to her, I met her later on, years later and I told her that really just pissed me off because she, she created on syntax besides the content. She was an old English teacher but that got me through grad school working full time and going to school at night studying basically towards the end, you know, five, six days a week with homework. It was a full time job as well. But I wanted to prove something to myself. And then seeing you know I was hoping to move up into management at Reynolds Tobacco but then seeing my dad, how they treated him after 30 years just tossed him to the side. My new enemy became big corporations. I did not want to be an employee working for somebody who can control my destiny and destroy my life and health. When I'm in my 50s doing well, had done well for the company. It wasn't a performance issue, it was purely money and corporate greed. But that's how businesses work and when you put yourself in their hands that can happen. To you. So that drove me to start my insurance business to look for a new comp, you know, business. I met somebody in insurance, and I like that. I like the continuity income. So my enemy was corporate America driving me to insurance, which, unfortunately, I went to Farmer's Insurance, which is kind of out of the frying pan into the fire. But I leveraged that again to be an independent agent. And now I'm 28 years in the business, going 29 this year. So far, so good. I think I might make it. So choose your enemies. Like Patrick says in there, choose your enemies wisely. You know, sometimes an enemy that you thought was an enemy, someone that a teacher or coach or an employer or somebody that says, you can't do this, sometimes you got to put them in your rearview mirror, too, and you pick new battles, new enemies to give you that fire. He talked about that, like, picking guys ahead of him in sales. I did that at Farmers, though. I would. It was the same thing. I beat this guy in the state. I thought he was being an asshole in a meeting, and he's like, hey, Russ Lowry's here. He's the number one guy in the state. He beat me. I thought he was giving me grief. And I stood up in a meeting and started to call him out. And my buddy's like, no, he really. He means that. I went up to him afterwards, and he was very appreciative that he had some competition for the first time in many, many years, especially for some young guy that was just like a year in the business. So he no longer became my enemy. I picked new ones, guys higher up the food chain that I needed to beat to get nationally ranked in the top 10. So think about that as well. Sometimes the enemy might become your friend, or they're no longer worth thinking about. That person that pissed you off and drove you to do something, don't let them live in your head negatively. A saying one of my mentors says is, if I think about you two nights in a row and I'm not sleeping with you, you gotta go. So get them out of your life. But pick enemies that help you build that fire to do things the next level to do, you know, your career, start a business, run your business. A lot of times, like I said, that that gives you that extra fire to just, you know, when you want to quit, and you're like, God, it's already been 10, 12 hours today, and I got to do this last couple of things. That's when you lean into that and think, okay, they said, I Couldn't do this. They said I couldn't start my own job. They said I couldn't do this. I would never make this. I would never get this degree or get my, you know, master's in this. That's the fuel you use for that fire to keep going. And that's important, you know, psychology and our personalities are intermingled, and that's just life. So there's got to be something that pushes you forward. That's why so many people lounge around, play video games, sleep in all day, drink, do drugs, whatever. They just don't have any ambition or fire. So hopefully that's not you guys. You haven't been raised that way. And you look for things that help you go to the next level and help you feel that fire when you're just tired. Like, I've been really proud of Jack. He works all day as H Vac, hot, cold, you name it. You know, out in the weather, comes home for a little bit, and then goes out at night to VO Tech to finish up his hours. That, you know, takes some drive and some motivation, but a lot of people don't have. And I've been there and done that. I've told him that. When I got my master's degree, took me 18 months busting my ass. And, you know, it was hard, but I had reasons and things that drove me. So hopefully this helps out. Make sure you think about that. Choose your enemies wisely, but choose, let them fuel your fire. When they're no longer an enemy or no longer a fuel, walk away, toss them, don't think about them. As I like to say, for my Michael, my buddy Michael McClain, take them out behind the barn, beat them death with shovel, bury them. So hopefully that helps.
