How to create massive opportunities for yourself

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. Let me tell you something. I'm fired up today because I am— I'm pissed. I'm pissed because people aren't inspired. People don't inspire themselves. People go around being so damn mopey. Yesterday I was at a photo store And I want to ask the guy a very specific question. I got this podcast, right? I want to put it into video. I want to make it a vlog. I want to add it, take it to the next level. Thought it'd be a great question. Let me tell you, this guy had just went without energy. Not that he didn't even have energy when I approached him. I said, good afternoon, how are you? I said, this is exciting. I got a big moment. I have a big opportunity. He could care less. Before I even approached him and his colleagues took me to him, the guy could care less. After I left, the guy was still sitting slouchy in his chair. The thing is, it wasn't just him. His colleagues who were half his age were slouching, playing on their phones, checking Facebook, on Tinder, all this stuff in the photo store, and they had no willpower, no impulse to give any energy, nothing. And it occurred to me, so I went to another store, same damn thing. Another store, same thing. People who have jobs, people who are able to get a paycheck don't appreciate where they're at. They're moping around saying, life sucks, this isn't very good, I don't like my job, I'm gonna give nothing to the next person. You're cursing your life. Let me tell you something, when I had a job in the electronics store, but back in the day in the US, in Circuit City, if you guys remember Circuit City, That was a mess. But hey, I worked there, right? Had to get the bills paid. I was working in Circuit City and I was the number one salesperson, number one salesperson, after only being there for 6 weeks. Never had sold a damn thing on a floor at retail store in my life. In 6 weeks I went to number one. You know why? Because I was pumped up every moment, every day. And when I had a customer come up to me or I went up to a customer, which is what they taught you to do, I was actually excited to talk to you. I was excited because I didn't know what part of the world you were from, what perspective of the world you had, what amazing experience we were about to share. And I had the longest conversations. My sales cycles, the time I spent with a customer, was over an hour. It didn't matter what the hell I was selling you, I was going to make sure that you were happy with whatever you left with. I was so excited. So let me tell you how amazing this is. I mean, being excited about the smallest job. I was getting minimum wage plus commission. It wasn't like the end of the world, right? Nothing. But I was so excited that one day I had a customer, a couple, a couple come up to me, and the guy said to me, I want the best PC you have in the store. And I looked at him like, what the hell does that mean? I said, are you gonna use this for math? Are you gonna use it for drawing? Are you gonna use it for buying stocks? I mean, give me some, give me something. And he looked at me and he goes, this is the 5th store we went to and you're the first one to say something intelligent back to me. I go, thanks. I said, so what are you looking to use it for? We spent an hour and a half not just finding the right laptop for him, but making sure he had the right laptop software, upgrading the RAM, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, talking about all sorts of things he would use it for— his environment, his mobility, his remote connections, everything. When I was all done, the guy said to me, listen, who are you? And I told him who I was. He goes, no, who are you? And I told him I was the CEO of my startup, but that all went to hell because this was like, uh, 6 months after 9/11, and everything went to hell after that. And he says, you don't belong here. So he took out his business card and gave it to me, and he says, if you ever need a job, call me. So I turned the business card over. He was the North American president CEO of Movado. Movado watches. If you ever heard of Rolex, Movado and Rolex are both the number ones of all the watches in the world. This is the highest you can get. And I'm talking to the boss boss. And that— and his wife then said to me, you know, he doesn't do this often, but when he does, he's serious. What a moment. What an experience for me. I stopped still smiling. I'm smiling because I was genuine. I was excited to meet him. I was excited to help him. I was excited to listen to everything he had to say and share with him everything I knew. And together on that journey, while we were together, to make him happy and make me happy too, because I want to have a good time. And ended up meeting such an important person and getting a job offer, which was wonderful. Going back to my experience yesterday with this guy who never moved out of his damn chair, who slouched the whole time, who slurred the whole time, was bored beyond belief. I thought he actually fell asleep twice while I was talking to him— sorry, while he was talking to me, right? And then his younger colleagues, who must have been in their 20s, were as bored as he was. And an electronics store and a photo store with all the high-tech stuff, you have a large-screen TV showing GoPro movies with people doing incredible things, and these guys Oh man, let me ask you, are you one of them? Are you one of these people who are not inspired? When you are at work, are you lit? Are you the most energetic? Do people, when they walk by, you just smile because they just read your energy is radiating and they're picking up on it? They just enjoy being around you. Do they sometimes visit you at your desk just to hang out with you and be near you? You know, come to your desk and sit down and open a book, say, can I just read here next to you? Check my email next to you. If not, then you are getting damn close to these people I was with yesterday. Do you understand? Opportunities come to the people who people want to be with. Do you— are you the person you want to be with when you're at work? Boom! Drop the mic. Are you the person you want to be with when you're at work. I don't— let me tell you something. I don't care if you are a DHL delivery man. Matter of fact, if you are, it's even more important that you are excited, enthusiastic, engaged, smiling, talkative, communicative. And in Norwegian, 'hægle' means 'be nice.' to everyone you meet, you see, you glance at. That's the ticket. That's it. Are you that person? I reflected a lot. I went to a couple other stores, saw the same thing in other salespeople, and I, and I was just step back and I go, I don't get it. All you got to do is be yourself. We all consider ourselves to be a nice person. We all consider ourselves to be a happy person. We all consider ourselves to be probably one of the best people walking around on the planet. On it, then why the hell aren't you when you're at work? And it doesn't matter, your boss doesn't treat you right, or you got a job that's beneath you, or is not inspiring you, then you make it inspiring. Because when you are the ultimate version of yourself, when you are the happy version of yourself, the energetic version of yourself, and just being yourself, an opportunity of a lifetime will be presented to you in the form of a business card from the CEO of one of the largest, most reputable companies in the world. That's what happened to me, and it should be happening to you. It's not that you need to have a job. Maybe you got a job, you're stuck inside of an office building, and nobody's gonna give you a business card. You know what, let me flip that around. That's bull. Because every one of your colleagues knows somebody else. And if your colleagues see who you are, feel who you are, they're gonna be telling other people about you. And those other people they talk to, they got business cards, they have emails, whatever. And that colleague will say, you know what, you should contact this person. This woman, she has an opportunity for you. She's somebody you really should meet. But none of the things gonna happen if you don't— if you don't like what you're doing and you're not super excited, you're not energized. You know, I made a promise myself many years ago. When some people ask me, hey Thomas, how you doing? What kind of day you having? I always go, freaking awesome. Even if my stomach hurts, even if I'm hungry, I didn't have a big enough breakfast, or my legs hurt from some stupid hard bike ride I went on or something like that, I still say freaking awesome because it is, man. Because somebody was nice enough to ask me how the hell I'm doing. Isn't that great? Somebody sees me and I have an opportunity to tell them how I'm doing. See the attitude? See the perspective? What's your perspective when you're sitting at work? What's your perspective when you're at work? Say you're working in a warehouse and stuff like that. Yo, I would be the most singing, happy warehouse worker ever. People, you know what, my co-workers think I'm a weirdo. God bless it, because management be like, yo, he's got to be one of us because we need more people to drive other people's happiness. Boom! That's how it works. I'm telling you, I'm fired up because I see that this simple thing, the hack, the hack of your career, the hack to get you the next level, the hack to make sure that you don't lose your job is just to be that super happy person that you already are. And maybe you haven't been happy in a while, maybe you're moping, maybe things are hard, right? Maybe you don't live in Norway where things aren't too damn hard, but maybe you live in New York City where things are really hard, or you're up in the Seattle or Portland area in the United States, things are really hard there with all the riots and things that are going on. Or what about Iran or Syria? If you're listening to me there, things are extremely hard. But opportunity comes to those people who people are magnetized to, attracted to. Be that person, which is already who you— be that person. You'll be able to feed your family. You'll be able to be the most inspiring person of the entire movement. It's all within you. Just be it. Don't be that guy who I approached yesterday who absolutely was uninspired He's older than I, he must be in his 60s, and, and looks like you're just sitting there waiting for his pension any moment now. Don't do that to yourself. Don't do that to yourself. Go forth, spread beauty, light, and yourself to every body. You see, you hear, who see you, who hear you, who feel you, who walk by you, who breathe the same air as you. That's it. Enjoy your life. Have a beautiful one. And until the next time, this is Thomas Anglero. I love you with all my heart and soul.

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.