COVID will Test Your Dignity

Hello and welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am the host Thomas Anglero, and my mission for this podcast is to share with you those private thoughts and reflections that I have being one of the top keynote speakers around the world on technology, motivation, and innovation. I hope you truly enjoy all the lessons I share, all the dots I connect that sometimes are just really difficult to get out but it's all for you. I truly hope you enjoy this episode.

Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am Thomas Anglero. And do you realize how much work, how much effort, how much time you have to put in to succeed today, right now, in this time of COVID and post-COVID, after COVID? Do you have any idea? This morning I had a live broadcast on YouTube where I hosted a show and we were on for about 35 minutes. The amount of time I invested yesterday alone, just yesterday alone, right? The broadcast, we started around 7:30 yesterday in preparation for this morning. I invested somewhere between 8 to 10 hours of going through the script that I wrote that I had to memorize, not just the words, the timing, the flow, moving things around to make sure it flowed better, how to factor in the creativity of the questions I had for guests, and then also be able to be able to hear what they said and ask them questions back or articulate or supplement what they said. 8 to 10 hours of hard work, of breaking it down, of repetition, of cranking at this thing for a 30-minute show. My reflection is that what does it take to be on for a full 8-hour day? I mean, the math doesn't work. If it's 8 hours for 30 minutes, is it 16 hours for an hour? And then 8 multiplied by 16 is 8, carry the 5, 134 hours of preparation so that you could be game on for an 8-hour day. Do you know what it's going to take from you Do you understand what I'm saying? To be on, to be at your best for just 30 minutes. For me to do that took me 8 hours of repetitive practice of really nailing, really perfecting my craft. Maybe I'm an idiot. Maybe you guys got gifts. Maybe, "Ah, it's so easy." But I challenge you to this. When's the last time that you, just in a 30-minute conversation, I even challenge you on a phone call you have with your friend, that you said that was the ultimate version of you on that phone call, everything was perfect, everything was timed absolutely right, everything, you were there for the person, you were spontaneous, I guarantee you it's been a hell of a long time, decades to most of you. In this post-COVID time, we have no time, you have no time to sit back. This is not normal. The thing that bothers me is that the news that's coming out, the news about people being laid off— just this past weekend, a friend of mine who we went to grammar school together, and the last time I literally saw him was in the graduation of 8th grade. I haven't seen him since. He works for the New York City, and he got laid off on Saturday. And he's posting on Facebook he's, uh, taking it easy. And I think, God bless him, that he's not in panic mode and all that. I'm not saying supposed to be in panic mode once you get laid off, especially from a government job. But what I am saying is you should be— all you should be cranking it out, man. It's— this thing is a beast. It's a beast not only on your wallet, but it's gonna beast be a beast on your dignity. And that's what I'm worried about. The dignity that— the dignity that we all have inside of us that we hide from everybody, that is very sensitive when people have criticized us to anything. We feel it inside of ourselves. It tests our dignity. It tests our moral standing. The test has begun. And you have to put in the work now. It really is that bad. As I talk now, it is early May 2020. And if you don't put in the work now, I mean literally now as you hear me, pick up a pen and paper, write the things that you know you need to achieve, and you spend, you crank out 8 to 10 hours at a minimum on each one of those bullets that you write down you got to achieve. That's the starting point. You have to do this now. We all have to do this now. This, this is— I said before in a previous podcast episode that this is the greatest moment ever that you've been given, in the sense that because everyone is taking it easy, everyone thinks that this is sort of like 2008 or worst case, '99, 2000, when the dot-com bubble blew, 2, 2.5 years, 3 years of crap, and everything roared back for, you know, what was it, another 7, 8 years. Little dip in 2008, roared all the way up to 2020. It ain't like that. This thing is gonna reset the clock, and I don't want you to be reset. I want you to look around amongst all your people. Think about it. Who are your friends you talk to? How many of them are hanging out, buying beer, Oh, sorry, they're locked up, but they're sneaking out anyway, or they're going to the store during that 1 hour they have where they could go outside if you're in the UK or Spain, and they load up on the beer and the wine. That's what they prioritize in sanity, right? That's not it. Right now, you should be doing things, doing things. Let me give you ideas and examples. I started a new podcast for the company I'm working with. Thing has taken off. And the podcast is based on the fact that right now everybody has time to hear what the hell are all these technological words and what do they mean for me and how do they benefit me. That podcast has taken off. That came from the fact that I said, you know what, I've got to excel, I gotta do more, I gotta help people. And boom, the idea created something new. And boom, all these other activities are happening. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. What have you created? In the last 6 weeks or 7 weeks, whatever you've been stuck in your house, have you created anything or have you just put on weight? And I'm not saying it's wrong to put on weight, but what I'm saying is you shouldn't be doing this to yourself. Are you happy with who you are now? You lost 6, 7 weeks of ass-kicking time. Where's your list? What's on that list? Now is the time. Understand, no one else, I'm talking about globally, No one else is pushing themselves to the max. The 30 minutes I gave this morning was pushed to the max. And the beauty of that is that my best performance is now living out there on YouTube forevermore. And that will produce amazing things. Have you pushed yourself to the max? I apologize if I'm yelling, screaming. I know I am, but understand that this is a form of love because I don't want you to be those people on Facebook, those people on Instagram, and definitely not the people on TikTok. I have issues with TikTok, but not the company, but that's a whole other thing. Explode, man. Explode. If you always want to write poetry, write your poems. Turn on the webcam and read it out loud on YouTube. I would love to hear your poems. There's nothing to be embarrassed about.

You know why?

Because nobody else is doing that. If no one else is doing what you know you were born to do, then it's the message from the Almighty to tell you, you must do it. Always. Let me give you some massive life advice for success. Always gravitate to the things that no one's doing. Don't go to the masses. Don't do what other people do. All your buddies buying a beer? Buy a lemonade. I'm serious. All right? You gotta do— matter of fact, you must not do what anybody else is doing. And it's not just to be different. But if the masses are all doing it, and we're in this situation as a mass, as an entire planet, as a population, as a species, then it's not good to follow the masses. Who stands out? Those individuals who stand up for what they believe in, who they are, what their heart and emotions represent. What do you represent? This is your moment. This is the greatest time ever for you. Do you understand that? Even if you lost your job, I am so damn sorry. Even if you're sick or some of your family, your loved ones, someone's sick, again, I am so sorry. But the greatest thing you could do for them, you could do for you, is to be the ultimate version of you and go for it right now. It doesn't matter that no one else is doing it. It doesn't matter that people may laugh at you. Matter of fact, if they laugh at you, God bless it, kick their ass. You have got to do you, whatever you are. Now, here's the deal, last one. If you don't know what you are, if you don't know who you are, do you, and they go, who am I? Then just do something. Try it out. If it doesn't feel right, and put it out there in the public. I'm not just saying, you know, say a poem. Let's keep to the poem analogy. Don't say a poem to yourself. Say a poem, put it out on YouTube, put it out on Instagram, put it out on some Facebook story, put it out there. If it didn't feel right, I am not saying to listen to the critics. Who cares about them? If it doesn't feel right to you, you know what? You grew. You took an experiment. You put yourself out there. And you know what? You're a different person now. You'll never be that old hesitant person anymore. You've now let the world see who you are. And maybe that's not the absolute perfectly focused version of you. That is fine. Now do the next thing that your intuition, that sense you have that, "Okay, reading the poems wasn't exactly it, but it was close, but it's something else. I think I need to do this." And then you do that too. And now you're on your way. And guess what? Look around you. Look at the people who are calling you, or the matter of fact, look at the people who are not calling you. Look at all the news. Go on your Facebook. Just look around. No one's doing anything. I am, I am literally shocked. Everyone's saying the same crap, doing the same thing as if everything is normal. No one's innovating. No one's stepping up. This is your moment. I'm gonna say it again: this is your moment. No fear. How can you be afraid of yourself? Sounds stupid, isn't it? Then just do it. Just go for it. Go forth and spread beauty and light. Shine your light, your inner light, that soul that you have on all of us, because now is your moment. I love you, and until the next time.

Thank you for listening to that episode. If you want to contact me, you can contact me on my website at anglero.com, and you can also subscribe to the newsletter, or you can find me anywhere on social media with Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. Thank you so much, and I hope to hear from you very soon.