Dave Lopez, a Harvard Business School graduate, nearly died from a parasite in Bali, an experience that reshaped how he thinks about business and life. He argues that being uniquely different attracts customers, and that success requires four things: calm, focus, intent, and commitment. Happiness comes from emotional mastery, not achievement.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Dave Lopez with us. He's the Harvard Misfit from Dallas, Texas. He's an author, mentor, former corporate exec, Harvard Business School graduate, and all-around misfit doing life on his terms. So welcome to the show, man.
Yeah, thanks Tyler.
Of course, grateful to have you here, Dave. We'll jump into the first one. The first question I have for you is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Yes, so Tyler, the best story from my life is I was living in New York and I had traveled to Asia on business and I was in Bali working with a client, a silver client in Bali. And while I was enjoying quite the life back then, I was making a lot of money, making things happen. I just wasn't happy. And while I was in Bali, I contracted some type of a parasite and had a near-death experience. And as a result of that, completely reshaped the way I look at life and the way I do life. And that would— that was what I would say the catalyst for fundamental paradigm shifts that took place in my life.
Wow. If you don't— I'm just curious, if you don't mind me asking, like, what was like— how did the parasite thing like happen? And like what happened with that?
Yeah, well, you know, when you're in Bali— I don't know if you've been to Bali, but no, I haven't. It's, uh, we were doing some river walks, and the concept is possibly it was, uh, in the water because the rivers in Bali are used for all kinds of things. And unbeknownst to me, I'm just, you know, enjoying a nature walk and going the river, you know, submerging myself and The concept was I probably shouldn't have done that. And yeah, just contracted a parasite and it just got worse and worse and worse and worse.
Yeah.
So, but I mean, that's the best story. And I say it's the best story because it was the one that jump-started and kick-started me on a different path in my life. And it took me out of my comfort zone and forced me to look at life differently.
Got it. And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
So I'm a brand, I'm a brand guy. And I've worked with lots of different big marketing organizations, including Neiman Marcus, Abercrombie, David Yurman Designs, to name a few. And so I'm a brand marketing kind of, you know, specialist. And for me, when I think of brand and I think of the, what I can offer people, it's really about distinguishing yourself in the marketplace. I would encourage everyone to just be completely unique or as unique as possible and distance yourself from the competition, distance yourself, be different. And that is my hashtag, in fact, #StartBeingDifferent. 'Cause the more different you are, the more people have a reason to be drawn to you, whatever it is you're selling, whatever it is you're promoting, or whatever brand you yourself represent. The more different you are, the more people are going to be drawn to you. And, that would be my most valuable advice I could give.
And, what's your best piece of overall— it could maybe be the same but overall business advice, so not necessarily in your specialty?
Yeah, right. So, when I look at business, I look at business intersects with spirituality and I think those who understand spiritual discipline also typically have good business discipline. I think there's an intersection of the two. And I think that in business strategies, the effects of the person— how are you as an individual? Are you calm, focused? Are you intent? Are you committed? And are you creating? I think these are the fundamental tenets for overall business success. Now, I can get into other conversations about business because I've had partnerships, I've been involved with franchises, I've started my own companies, I'm an author, I've done on everything. But I think fundamentally, regardless of what, you know, aspect of business you're involved in, or even if you're working for a big company, the qualities of the individual of being able to stay calm, focused, intent, and committed are the qualities that usually will lend you some type of success.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
You know, when I was young, I pretty much figured everything out on my own. I was one of those guys. I was a self-starter. I was self-disciplined. I studied what I needed to study, got the information I needed, and I did everything on my own. I wish I had mentors. And I think it's very smart to get mentors wherever you are in life. I probably could have cut 15 years off my growth had I had mentors to guide me along the way. And I didn't. And so everything I learned, I had to learn from the school of hard knocks. And it's a lot easier when you've got someone walking beside you. I think the other thing is be patient. I wanted everything to happen tomorrow, uh, or, or, or really in 10 minutes. And so when I'm sitting in one position in a corporation and I'm looking for a promotion, you know, I'm looking like, why can't I be vice president tomorrow? Uh, I am ready. I'm smart enough. I know everything. I lacked patience, and I think patience is a really excellent virtue. And then finally, I think enjoy the journey. I don't know that I enjoyed the journey sometimes because I was always looking at what might come next. And I think just being present to the moment, you can really find a lot of joy in whatever it is you're doing. And you don't have to worry about what tomorrow's going to bring, whether you're going to be a vice president by the age of 30 or whether you're going to be a senior vice president by the age of 32. These things, they happen as long as you're typically living life, enjoying it.
Well, that ties in perfectly with the next one then. So, in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Well, you know, that's really what I write about in my book, Still Point. It is about becoming master of your emotions. It's about not just emotional intelligence, it's about emotional mastery. When we talk about emotional mastery, Tyler, we talk about aspects of, you know, acceptance, being in acceptance, being in gratitude, being able to let go, being able to be present in the moment. And, you know, really defining those qualities of what I call inner peace, because to me, inner peace is the new success. And to be happy is to be— is to have this inner peace where something happens. You're not going to be jolted. You're not going to be thrown off your game and have to recover for 2 days, you know, 2 weeks, 2 months, 2 years. Why? Because you have inner peace. And so to me, happiness is equated to the degree of inner peace we have.
I like that. And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
You know, I'm an avid reader. So to ask an avid reader to distinguish one specific book is like, you know, I can't specifically say. I can tell you lately what I read What I read lately was The Autobiography of a Yogi, a terrific book. See, I read books now that I think have more spiritual insight because I think mastering the self, you can master anything. And if you haven't mastered yourself, I don't think you can master anything. So, Autobiography of a Yogi is an excellent book on mastering self and the spiritual journey that Yogananda went through. Another excellent book that I read was called Many Lives, Many Masters by Dr. Brian Weiss, which is a psychotherapist living in Miami. Terrific book about getting in touch with aspects of ourselves, and in the process of doing that, how he came to begin to believe in reincarnation and how working with clients, he found that to be the case. So two terrific books that I think opened up my mind to a lot of different ways of looking at life differently.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
You know, again, I have a million quotes. And, you know, if you're on social media at all today, Instagram or anything, you see all the memes with quotes floating around. And there are many that appeal to me. But I think that the one that kind of sticks in my mind probably the most is something like, whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can't, You're right. The notion, of course, that whatever we believe is truth. And so it all comes fundamentally down to our beliefs. What do we believe? And I really like that quote: whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can't, you're right.
Yes. Thank you so much for coming on, man. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where is the best place for people to find and/or connect with you online?
Oh, yeah, sure. So I have a website. Harvardmisfit.com. I have— I'm on Facebook, Dave Lopez. I'm on Instagram, Harvard_Misfit. I'm on Twitter, Harvard Misfit. I'm on LinkedIn, Dave Lopez. So I'm in lots of different places in social media. And if you want to connect with me and you find my website, I have an email address to connect with me as well.
Perfect, man. Thanks again for hopping on.
Yeah, thank you for your time, Tyler Wagner.
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