Share Your Success With Others to Become Legendary

Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am Thomas Anglero, and I want to ask you a question, really important question, a question that will tell you a lot about yourself. Have you ever done something to someone because you can? Because you were in a position of power and they weren't, because you had something and they didn't, because you were their boss and they weren't. Could you have been nicer? Could you have been more generous? Could you have been more forgiving? Could you have overlooked something? Did you take advantage of your egotistical mood? Did you take advantage of that person's misfortune in that moment? I think everybody listening now is probably going to say no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Think about it. Let me tell you a story. I have been talking to a lot of leaders recently. I'm always talking to them, but recently I've been seeing something new, something I haven't seen coming up so consistently before. And that is top CEOs are ghosting people. What do I mean by ghosting people? Top CEOs are talking to potential candidates to be new, new employees to the companies. They're talking to potential partners who want to partner with the company. They're talking to people who want to get the attention of the CEO, attention of the company. And these CEOs are not replying back. They're ghosting them. That's what ghosting means. And I ask these CEOs, why? And they say, because I can. They have all the power, they have all the leverage, and they make sure that they abuse it to the point where they act inhuman, they bring on some extremely negative karma, but they disrespect the other people. There's an old expression, be careful on the way going up because you're gonna get hit with it on the way down. Today, I don't get it. Top leaders Top leaders have forgotten their humanity. Today there's so many leaders who've been placed as leaders. Finally, today they're finally— their moment is finally their chance, and they don't know the math of the whole thing. The whole math of this is this: for the last 12, 13 years, the stock market has gone up. No matter what you did, the stock market gone up, interest rates were down, no No matter what project you're on, the project was pretty much going to do well because all the finances were there in business, pretty much globally. And the end result is that, is that so many people were promoted over the last decade plus that they today are now CEOs. They think they're glorious leaders. They think they're these wise people. They go, look at my track record. Their track record does not reflect them. It reflects the last 12, 13 years of financial success that the planet has had had nothing to do with them. Everyone— if you put a dollar into the stock market 13 years ago, you would have many more than $1 today after 13 years. Everyone made money. Everyone benefited. Everybody ended on the plus side. Just because you're a newly established leader today does not mean you are competent. Just because you have a new job today doesn't mean you are competent. Just because you've been put on a new team, just because you've been assigned a new task, it does not mean you are competent. It means that the last 13 years have been good to you. But in your new power, right, the Spider-Man line, with great power comes great responsibility. With your new power, How do you use that power? Do you help people? Or do you have the attitude of this one young CEO who I met? I think he's about 32 years old. He told me pretty much, Thomas, this is my turn now. Can you imagine that? 32 years old, CEO of a startup who's actually making money. And he's very proud to say that every 3, every 4 minutes he'll say, yeah, my startup's profitable. Yeah, my startup's profitable. That's insane. Talking about his mother and he goes, by the way, did I tell you my startup's profitable? Whatever. It's no one's turn to be disrespectful, to treat people like crap, to not return a phone call, to not take care of another human being. When that stuff comes back at you, you're not gonna like it. So let me ask you, who have you disrespected this week? Who have you ghosted this week? Who have you not loved this week? Who have you thought about you didn't take care of them this week? Who that you knew you should— well, you've been thinking about them a lot and you did nothing about it this week. Life is going to judge you for who you really are. Life is going to judge you for the people you took care of. Life is going to judge you for those people who were down and out, for those people who were asking you for your help. That when you took care of them in those moments that they needed help, that is going to be the moment that life judged you. That is going to be why wonderful things come to you in the future. But when you do not help people when they need it, then you have forgotten how to be human, and then you are invoking a universal law which everybody has the right now to forget about you. In the moments where you're going to need love, there will be nobody there for you. In the moments that you're going to need someone to hold your hand because the pain is so incredibly bad, because you're sick, you're diseased, you maybe broke an arm, or maybe you're getting too old, or maybe something unfortunate happens for you— to you. There's gonna be no one there to take care of you, and you're gonna be alone in your misery and in your pain. You're gonna lose your job, and there's gonna be no one there for you to call. Or there'll be people there for you to call, but there's no one's gonna want to listen. Just because you were egotistical and you didn't take care of people when they asked you for help, you ghosted them, or you ghosted yourself in the sense that you ghosted your own feelings. You put the feelings aside to enjoy the moment of, I don't have to call them back, I don't have to take care of them, I don't have to reply to their email. They're desperate. I have all the leverage. I'm the man. I'm the woman. Be very, very, very careful. Of the world that you bring, that you create, because it's going to come back at you. Everything that comes up must come down. And when it comes down, you're going to say, I've forgotten how horrible the dark side of life really is. Go forth and spread beauty and light. I apologize for this darker message, but it's not a darker message. This is a reminder. Is a reminder that finally, in those days when you finally have the money, you finally have the power, you finally have— finally, finally, finally, finally, whatever the hell that is— you do not crap on the little people. Do not crap on those people who do not have. That final day that you finally, finally, finally have something is when you take care of people. Is when you look at people as if they were you and yourself. You look at people as if you're saying, my God, I remember when I was like that. Do you know how often I have that feeling? So many times, places and people are celebrating and all this stuff, and I'm looking at the people cleaning up, or I'm looking at the people serving food, and I always go over and I strike a conversation with these people. Because I see me in them. I don't know how many events I've been to, these fancy conferences, and I'm hanging out with the waiters, bartenders, the people serving food, telling jokes and having a good time, because I can relate to them. I can relate to the grind. I can relate to the hard work that nobody sees. I can relate to the dreams and the wishes and to the dreams of tomorrow, the moments that have yet to come but are coming because I'm willing to put in the work now that nobody sees. I'm willing to compromise my today for an amazing tomorrow. When you're enjoying your moment of celebration, your elation, your final victory, that big contract, that acceptance to the school team, That incredible moment. Are you totally caught up with yourself? Or are you thinking about all your other friends who also tried really hard and then passed that test, or got on that team, or won that award, or won that contract, or chosen for the big bid? It's a human test. It's a test to see whether or not you're human. Because really, what does it matter that you actually won and you're in first place? Congratulations. I remember once, and I think I spoke— told this story before, but I'll repeat it again because it's worth it. I remember once when I was coaching a basketball team in Ulern here in Norway. And I've been coaching that team for many, many years, and we finally won the Oslo Championship. It was the first time we won. We won, I think, 3 times more. But anyway, the first time we won it, the kids, I guess they were about 13, 14 at that time, we went into the locker room after the championship game with this gigantic trophy. Kids are jumping on each other in the locker room celebrating. And I guess they were doing it because they're kids and they also saw it on TV, and that's what you do when you go to the locker room after you win. I got pissed. I got pissed. I took the torch, this gigantic trophy, first place trophy, Champions of Oslo, which pretty much means you're the champions of Norway, whatever. This big 3 feet high, 1 meter tall, gigantic trophy, and I put it in the center of the locker room. And I told everybody, sit down, sit down. They all sat down celebrating, but then they looked at me like, why the hell is he pissed? We just won. And I said to them, how dare you? How dare you celebrate? How dare you kiss this trophy? How dare you jump on each other? How dare you think this piece of plastic is the greatest thing ever? Because prior to me yelling at them, they were taking the trophy, kissing it. If they had beer or champagne, they would have poured in there and drank from it. You know, everything you see in the movies and things like that, that's what they were doing. I said, look at this thing. And they all looked at it and smiled. I says, it's plastic. I said, close your eyes. They looked at me like, what? Close your eyes. And they closed them. And I said, now think back to the first practice we had this year. Do you remember how hard I made you run? Do you remember how you went home and you couldn't sleep because your muscles hurt so much? Do you remember all the practices after that? Do you remember all the bruises after that? Do you remember all the black eyes? You remember all the times you threw up because you've never pushed your body so hard? Do you remember all the games that we had that you got punched, punched, elbowed, kicked? Do you remember crying when you go home? Do you remember not being able to cry because nobody accepts you crying? Do you remember all the pain? Do you remember when your teammate picked you up when the other team members pushed you down? They got your back. Do you remember when that your teammate passed you the ball and made you the superstar that everybody celebrated when we won that game? Do you remember how we all took care of each other? Do you remember how you did this as a team? Do you remember how great you all are as one? How dare you? How dare you celebrate this trophy? It means nothing. You should be celebrating each other. You did it. You all together. No one believed a team bunch of spoiled rich kids could be the best basketball team in Norway. No one believed a bunch of kids from 7 different schools only got together on the basketball court could be the best team. No one believed in you, but you did. Your sacrifice and belief in each other made a difference. Don't celebrate the trophy. Celebrate each other. Congratulations. As soon as I said congratulations, those kids jumped on each other and man, damn, the party started. They got it. They got the message. They understood that the celebration was a celebration of all of them as one. That all the hard work they did together, that all the bonding, that the trust that they made in these strangers who were first strangers to one another, but they opened up, they communicated, they gave their blood, their soul, their sweat to each other, to a bunch of strangers. And the end result was to be the best. The end result was that they matured as young men that they never would have achieved before. They've never felt that before. They never would have thought that way before. They never would have understood life like they did before. They'll— they've changed for the rest of their lives by opening up to people they didn't know, by opening up themselves and trusting. So let me ask you a question. Will you disrespect someone again when someone asks for your help? Or will you reflect that that person, if you help them, you open up to them, you take care of them, you trust them, that together you both could elevate to a level that both you could never have dreamt of. Just because you're someone's boss, just because you have something over someone, it doesn't mean you should not— doesn't mean you should disrespect them. Love everyone, because if it was on the flip side and you're asking someone a favor and they disrespected you. Would you want them to ghost you and disrespect you? No. I'm Thomas Anglero, reminding you about who you are, all day, every day. Just because you're feeling good, it doesn't mean you keep it to yourself. Because if you really want to feel good in that moment, spread the love, pass it forward, pay it forward. It is the most powerful thing you can do. When you make your next million dollars, when you make your next promotion or bonus, when you make your next 5 shot, when you make the next hockey shot, when you make the next team, when you make the next A+, when you make the next school recital, whatever, share your moment with the people around you. Share your moment with a stranger, and my God, it's gonna be the most incredible moment. It gets amplified. Love is powerful when it's amplified, not when it's contained to just you. I love you. Share yourself, share your moments with someone who needs the love. Until next time.