Episode 171: Being yourself all the time

Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am Thomas Anglero, and I want to tell you about a phone call I had just to kick off the new year. Now, this call could have happened on any given Monday. It could happen on any given day at all. Doesn't matter. That's what the power of this reflection is, is that because this call was in the New Year, because this call was the beginning of a new day. Both I and the person I was talking to, we were relaxed. This was a business call, but we spoke about each other. We spoke about life. We spoke about the challenges. We spoke about why is it that we both have jobs and do these jobs contribute to what we want to do? Are we actually in this moment doing what we want to do? That's where we start off the phone call at. How many calls do you have that you begin with a complete stranger? And that's the number one thing. That's the first thing you talk about is, are you doing what you were meant to do? Are you doing what makes you happy? He told me that he wants to be more than what he is, even though he's got a very wonderful executive job, but that in his heart he wants to be a bus driver. I thought that was beautiful, and I still think it's beautiful. Imagine that. A successful executive, but all that person really wants to do is be a bus driver. Spend his day or her day or their day driving children to and from school, hearing the beauty of the noise, feeling their energy. What a fantastic thing. And contributing to the fact that he knows that at the end of his morning, he got many children safely to their place of education. And at the end of the day, he made sure they all got home safe. I think that a bus driver— a school bus driver, sorry— is one of the most rewarding careers you can ever have and should be one of the most respected people in any community. Because the school bus driver is the community. He or she or whatever is responsible for the generation before, the generation now, and the generation that was, that they built the city, keep the city going, and create a future for the city. It's like the school teachers, same huge responsibility. These are people we should lift in our communities. And here's an executive and he wants to be a school bus driver. I think that's beautiful. And we talked and we talked about not just about being a school bus driver. We talked about what is— what do you— what do you want to do? What do I want to do in this very moment that would make me happy, irregardless of money, irregardless of anything? What would I want to do at this very moment that I would do for free? What a powerful way to start a day. What a powerful way to kick off the new year on a business phone call. My reflection after that was that why not all phone calls are not that way? Why aren't all phone calls so open? Why aren't all phone calls such that when you talk to a complete stranger that within 10 minutes, 5 to 10 minutes, you both trust each other and feel like you could be friends for life? Is that not what we're trying to achieve in business? If you could have that relationship with every single person you talk to in business, whether in your company or outside your company, that everyone you connect with in 5 to 10 minutes and you both feel like you could be friends for life, then doing business is so damn easy. I trust you, you trust me. Done. Let me ask you, why aren't all your conversations so open? Is it you and you attempt to be open with the other individual, or is it the other individual who has absolutely no comprehension of being that open that they have all their agendas and lists of things they want to discuss? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They're nowhere near that universe of being open. I want to challenge you that I want you to begin thinking about this really hard, and I want you to start surrounding yourself with people who are able to be open, who are able to talk about life and the real things in life, so that when you get to the things that you got to talk about, like, say, paying a bill or coming up with some money to pay the next student loan or paying the mortgage or something or a project, you go through that quite quickly because you both trust each other.

What do you think?

I think this. What do we should do? Let's do that. Sounds great. Good. Let's move on. Imagine that. My challenge for you is to live life, to live in the moment, to every conversation that you control it and that you control and say, I want to talk about life. I want to talk about the goodness of the now. Because now look, it doesn't— it's not as weird as it sounds because it's not the same conversation over and over throughout the day. Everybody has a different perspective. Everyone has a different definition of what life is. Everyone's definition contributes to your definition and your existence. Therefore, at the end of the day, you've grown up. At the end of the day, you have more perspective and you have a bigger life than you did in the morning when you had breakfast, if you had breakfast. Think about it. It's a hell of an ask, but if you actually did this— and God knows I do try to do this all the time— and the end result is some people think you're a little weird, and that's okay. The end result is that you feel damn good about who you are, what you are, and where you are. And you start chasing things. You start chasing the status, you start chasing the money. Because what you end up realizing is that the money starts chasing you and the status starts chasing you. Why? Because people gravitate to amazing people. Go forth and spread beauty and light. I know what I'm talking about sounds quite different for many people, for you. It is realistic. I'm telling you, I started this thing off telling you about the phone call I had. Matter of fact, wasn't even phone call, it was a Teams call. So it was with video, couldn't hide. Two men bonding, two complete strangers. And after 24 minutes into call, we were saying, well, let's talk a little bit about business. We did the business in 2 to 3 minutes. Done. But it took 20 minutes to find out that we're going to be friends for life. That I call a good business meeting. Call that a good day. I love you very much. I believe that you deserve the happiness that you want. So desperately in your life. And you could— a part of the way of achieving that happiness, not the way, but just one piece of the puzzle of that way, is that you touch everybody you talk to by leaving a part of you with everyone you talk to. And you do that by showing them who you really are and talking to them about what you truly believe is important. If that person is not vibrating at that frequency, if they're not in the mood, if they got their own agenda, that's fine. No offense, no harm, no foul, nothing wrong with that. But you know you are authentic and you are you, and you gave them love. And they know somewhere within their brains and their emotions that they blew you off and it wasn't right, but their anxiety and insecurity overrode the fact that they were desperate for your love. Keep spreading your love and never stop. You deserve the life that when you wake up in the morning, you open your eyes and you feel and you see, you know, this is life I have, this is life I see for me. That's not a dream. That is what you deserve. So keep on being that dream. I'm Thomas Anglero. Until 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.