Getting Strength from Past Failures

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'm your host, Thomas Anglero, and we have got to get rid of experiences in our past that are holding us from our success in the future. I'm going to share with you a story that happened to me. It's a very painful experience, or it's was painful. But the more I think about it and more I say it out loud— I just don't think about it because then it spins in your head when you think about something and the pain doesn't go away. But when you say it out loud, and especially when you share it with someone, and someone that means something to you— matter of fact, even sharing with a stranger, it takes away from the power and it makes the moment from painful to just stupid. My moment that really caused me a lot of pain was back around '99, 2000, the dot-com days. I was a CEO of a company called FreeWorldDialup. We were providing free phone calls using the internet. This was revolutionary back then. This was 2 years before Skype was founded. Um, we were only a few people, and, you know, like any startup trying to make it, we had users all over the world. It was really exciting to be doing— be the first company in the world to do this. You know, this was just— it was bigger than you can imagine, an amount of fun, and the amount of risk was huge. Right? No one's ever taken on the telecom companies in the world, especially the small little startup of 2.5 people. It was great, but we weren't getting enough attention as we demanded. So I sent a, um, letter to, uh, an internet website, cnet.com, and an email to them— not a letter, an email— and they responded. They responded within 24 hours. Interviewed me on the telephone, wrote a beautiful article, and then within 2 weeks CNN called me. And the funniest thing was that when CNN called me on the phone, I remember I was having— I was getting lunch at a Chinese food restaurant. I remember exactly where I was.

And the guy says, I've been trying to call you for 2 weeks, you're the most impossible person to get a hold of.

I'm like, you know, have you ever used Google? You know, but I didn't say that to insult CNN, right? And, um, the guy says, literally, this is my last phone call, my last attempt to reach you. I'm so glad I got you. He goes, I'm the producer of CNN. I want you to come on to our show. You're going to be the maverick of the day. And I go, are you serious? And how can you prove you're CNN? I mean, come on, why is CNN calling me when I got Chinese food in my left hand, you in my right hand, I'm walking in some back street? Out here in Long Island. Anyway, he proved himself. It happened a few days later. I am in the makeup studio, CNN, they're putting makeup on me. I get in front of the camera. I remember the host of the show, his name was Rhonda— Rhonda Shaffler or something like that. I know her first name was Rhonda. Anyway, for 7 minutes, and they also had the head of technology from The Economist magazine. And Rhonda and this head economist for Economist magazine interviewed me for 7 minutes live on CNN. And they said between 2 to 3 million people were watching. And after I was all done, they congratulated me. The interview went really well. If you want to see it, you can see it on YouTube. Just type in my name, Thomas Anglero, and CNN, and you'll see the YouTube video. You'll see a video of me when I was 31 years old. Yeah, well, I won't comment on that one, but my point is, is that I did it, right? As a startup, this idea all the way to CNN, worldwide global exposure. This is big time. And I remember standing outside the swinging doors, the revolving doors of the CNN studio on, uh, 34th Street and right across the street from Madison Square Garden. That's where the studios are. And the sunlight hit me and the fresh air hit me, and I was like, yeah, I thought I was in a movie, right? I was like, I did it. This, this is it. We did it. It happened. Everything's gonna be okay. I think I broke through the glass ceiling. This is my moment. The next day I went to work. Here's the swing. Here's where everything falls apart. The next day I went to work. And my head investor greets me at the door. The door, the front door of the office is not even closed, is not able to close because of all these electrical cables that are being routed through the front door from some trucks that are outside all the way into our big conference room. Bottom line was film crews, TV crews, news crews from all over had seen my CNN interview And they were all there in the morning. They had all been calling the office from that time I was on CNN to that morning, and they were all there to interview me. They all wanted to follow up with this huge story, this revolutionary story. I didn't know. So I walked into the office and our head investor meets me at the door and says— he owned majority shares of the company— and he pretty much said, "You're fired." He says, "You're no longer the CEO." And I quote, he says, "This is all about me." And he then went into the conference room and told them he's the only one being interviewed today. And they never— they never printed a story. They never did anything with the material interviewing him. And the company went bankrupt 3 months later. And my heart, of course, was completely broken, and I was devastated. The point of my story was this is a devastating thing to happen. And it's been in my mind for a long time. And I remember also recently where I got a promotion, and then I got a huge promotion, and I couldn't believe the promotion I got, and it shocked me to my core.

And I was thinking, God, here I am at this huge moment, I got this huge promotion, no one's ever done this before, they created this position for me, oh my God, this would be amazing.

And I was nowhere near that. I was actually shaking on the inside. When I finally relaxed myself, a picture came into my mind, and the picture came into my mind, and that was back in '99, 2000, when again the last time I felt that I did the impossible and I achieved something and it was ripped away from me. It wasn't ripped away from me this time. You see, the memories and experiences we have, as devastating as they are in the past, they're in the past. I truly believe that that incident in '99 and 2000, it had to happen because I probably was not ready. I was young. I was totally inexperienced. Yeah, I got lucky. Maybe it wasn't luck. Yeah, I earned the right to be in front of CNN and 2, 3 million people, and I was at the right place at the right time and all that stuff, but I wasn't ready. And look back now, I wasn't ready. I probably would have handled that horribly. It's taken me a lot to get to where I am now. It's taken you a lot to get to where you are now. How much have you experienced? How much have you gone through? How many moments have you had that you were at the top and then you fell down, and then you were at the top and you fell down, and you tried and you didn't want to try because you were scared of getting knocked down again? Life is all about these ups and downs, these ups and downs that are so damn devastating. From that moment back in '99 and 2000, that one rocked my world. But I look now and I go, it had to happen for me to be here, for me to achieve this. You have had to get the knocks, the punches in the faces, the insults, the 'I don't love you,' the 'I'm leaving you,' 'I'm going to divorce you,' or worse is 'I'm not talking to you.' going to work, skipping you for the promotion, going to work, firing you. All these horrible things in life— I— it's not that I believe it, it is just true. These things are building us up. These things are happening because we have kinks in our character that need to be fixed before we're prepared to move on. And I always say, why the hell does it have to cost so much? And that's because we're so damn thick-headed. Because we're damn stubborn. It takes something monumental to shift you. If it was so easy, you would take advice from other people and you go, thank you, boom, you would change. But it doesn't. It takes these big life moments. So my point, my point is, do not, do not hold yourself back from achieving amazing things. And when you picture yourself being someplace— we all have a vision of someplace we want to go— there's always this little light, there's always this little flicker somewhere within our mind that says, wait a minute, hold on a second, remember this? Be careful again. I mean, that's just bullshit. It's not relevant. That's the insecurity within you. That shit ain't gonna happen again. Do you hear me? That shit ain't gonna happen again. What happened to me in '99 and 2000, that had to happen so that I am here where I am right here, right now, with the confidence that I have, with the experience that I have.

Matter of fact, on this mic right now telling you in total, total belief that that ain't gonna happen to you again. That it had to happen in your past so that you're here, right here, right now, kicking ass. Do you hear me? It is not to hold you back.

It was only to grow you.

That's the only thing those things in the past do.

If you paid attention to them and then you dealt with them.

Don't let that little flicker be a little flicker. When you close your eyes and you see that picture of you and that little, little voice comes up, this is what I want you to do. That little voice, that little piece of doubt comes up, I want you to visualize you taking your hand, reaching up, grabbing that thing down that goddamn throat, pulling in front of you, say, hey, listen, no, you don't exist. There is no doubt. There is no disbelief. This is mine. And you go for it. Don't let anybody stop you. No one stop you. The only thing holding you back from success is truly, truly you. And then you do something. You don't think about it. You do it. You do not look for other people as role models or examples. You do it. You are the role model. You are the person. You are the leader. You are the innovator. You are the disruptor.

Don't let previous experiences, previous memories, previous idiots hold you back.

Turn around and say, thank you for screwing me, thank you for giving me a scar in my life, because if it wasn't for that, if it wasn't for you, I would not be so damn ready for this moment right now. You would not be so ready for this moment right now. Do you understand that? I don't care if you've gotten so many people broken up with you past, you have divorces in the past, if you've lost so many jobs in the past, that was preparation for right here, right now. You're not supposed to say that and sulk and go, oh, poor me, poor me. You stand up, you go, I'm ready, I'm ready. You are ready. Do you hear me? Say it. I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready. That's what it's all about. That's what it's all about. There's only one way, one way to go about life. And that is go with everything you got. And when shit happens, cry.

Take a moment and cry. It's worth it. You're worth it. Reflect. Wash your face. Kick ass. That's who you're meant to be. I, I, I'm walking this talk. And I will walk this talk beside you. I believe in you. You got this. You absolutely got this. The next time doubt pops into your head, you visualize you taking your hand, and if you're not a violent person— I'm not asking you to be violent, but I want you to visualize this so you're not doing anything, doing anything to anybody— you grab doubt, grab doubt by the throat and say, Shut the hell up. You don't exist. If you're a memory, I thank you. You just made me stronger. Go forth and spread beauty and light. That's why I say that at the end of all these podcasts.

I hope I do.

Sometimes I forget. Something taught to me by Arthur Nathing, my teacher, English teacher at Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York, in high school. God bless him. God bless Hackley. He ended every single class, he said, go forth and spread beauty and light. That's what you're born to do. That's your birthright. Go forth and spread beauty and light, and never let anything happen to you in the past hold you from your future. I love you. Till 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.