July 22, 2024 • 28 mins
Tim Hattrick talks with billionaire philanthropist and GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons about his candid new memoir, Fire in the Hole!, Bob shares the untold true story of his jagged, uphill climb toward entrepreneurial success. Along the way, he coped with his mother’s mental illness, his father’s gambling addiction, and his own PTSD following a harrowing tour of duty in Vietnam. He says a four day psychadelic assisted therapy treatment cured his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
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(00:00):
This is iHeart Communities, Phoenix.I'm Tim Patrick from one O two five
K and I X. Bob Parsonsof Scottsdale, Arizona is a lot of
things. A visionary entrepreneur, decoratedVietnam War veteran, and philanthropist, just
to m a few. Best knownas the founder of GoDaddy, Bob has
transformed industries with his innovative approach andrelentless drive. It is compelling. New
(00:22):
autobiography, Fire in the Hole Parsons, chronicles the untold story of his traumatic
life and explosive success. Bob Parsons, thanks for joining me today. Hey
you doing Timmy well. As amatter of fact, I am thrilled to
get to chat with you today.Full disclosure, I'm an admirer of yours.
I've always liked your big personality andthe fact that GoDaddy was from right
(00:44):
here in my hometown. But Bob, I got to tell you. Until
I read your new book, Ihad no idea how far you had to
come to get where you are today. And by the way, I actually
listened to Fire in the Hole,I think it's very fitting that you actually
narrated your book because I can't imagineanybody else telling your story. Well,
I certainly enjoyed telling my voice,and I assume you could hear the many
(01:08):
times I could not hold back laughingand certain things. Well, that is
certainly true. There are some hilariousmoments in the book, some poignant moments.
It's inspirational. There's the unconventional businesssavvy that you're known for. All
in all, Bob, there's alot of book here. There's a lot
(01:29):
of story in your story, somuch so that as you wrote it and
then spoke it out loud for theaudiobook, I wondered, did you ever
think, Man, this story isso outrageous. If I hadn't lived it
myself, I don't think I wouldbelieve it. Well, a lot of
times I sit back and think aboutit, and I still can't believe it
(01:49):
for me, which is wonderful.I always told my wife if I if
I go tomorrow, you know,I've lived a life that you know,
just you know, a few peoplein one hundred million get live, And
I'm pretty happy about that. Thebook is Fire in the Hole, the
untold story of my traumatic life andexplosive success, by my guest Bob Parsons.
You know, but For me,the most remarkable part of your story
(02:13):
is that you achieved a lot ofthat explosive success in spite of the nearly
crippling effects of post traumatic stress disorder. I want to dig a little deeper
on that, especially how guided psychedelicassistant therapy essentially cured you of that PTSD.
Well, let's start by talking aboutwhere that trauma came from. It
(02:34):
wasn't just from your tour of dutyas a marine in Vietnam. That was
part of it, for sure,but you also had a very difficult life
from the very beginning. You grewup in East Baltimore, and would you
say less than ideal home situation?Well, no, was an ideal home
situation. But then again, whosehome situation is ideal? Tim Yeah?
(02:57):
True? Imagine A lot of peoplesaid, you know, man, I
read that first part about in childhoodand I seen myself in that right,
And so I mean, and itwas far more than I ever dreamed would
be. And I mean and andyou know, we are so much more
alike than we dare to think dreamAnd I mean, and that that is
(03:19):
just one of those things that reallybears that out for me. But you
know, when I grew up.My mom and dad were compulsive gamblers and
uh, you know, my brother'ssister and I we just all came along
and you know, they put uson the bus and took us along for
the ride. And so you know, we we had no money, I
(03:42):
mean very little money. And youknow, if we wanted anything, I'm
talking about me and my brother andI guess my sister. You know,
we had to find a way toget it. And you know, I
mean do we do stuff like theMoto lawns for neighbors, you know Aaron's
Uh. And then as I gotolder, I used to work in filling
stations on the night turn when nobodywanted to work because you know how often
(04:06):
they got robbed. And then ofcourse I hadn't seen that firsthand that I
was done working nights. That's avery harrowing story. You're just a teenager
and you're being held at gunpoints asa hostage for several hours, you know.
So yeah, I mean that wasthe way we grew up. I
mean, you know I remember thatwhen I was I think I started smoking
(04:30):
when I was twelve or thirteen.Wow, And I think with my mother's
blessing at fourteen, and she usedin the morning, she would fix me
this breakfast. She would give melike a cupcake, she'd buy a store
and after I was done, she'dlat me up a cigarette and send me
to school. If that's all welearned about your childhood, that says a
(04:51):
lot right there. Yeah. Andthen I learned fractions from a mother teaching
me how to read the racing forthem. That's that was good. Yeah.
Yeah, So, I mean,you know when I was in school,
I didn't do that well, butI nailed fractions. Brother, I
tell you what. So for anybodywho's grown up in a less than perfect
(05:12):
home, maybe they go to schooland that's where they flourish. You know,
that's where they that's their safe space. That school was not that for
you, especially the earliest years allthe way through high school. Pretty much.
No, No, school was notwas. It was not fantasa,
you know it was. It waswhen I when I was a little kid,
I went to public school eighty threeuntil the third grade. And at
(05:33):
that time, my father decided tobecome Catholic. Now here's a man that
didn't have a religious bone in hisbody, and he decides to become Catholic.
For you know, for who knowswhat reason. I still to this
day do not know why that happened. And as part of that, he
took me and my brother out ofthis wonderful public school and put us in
(05:57):
in Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, whichwhich was like a prisoner of war camps,
little kids. Oh my god,it was terrible. And I didn't
And the one thing all the nunshad in common is they didn't like me.
No, they didn't. What's funnyis a lot of your story does
ring a bell with me? BecauseI grew up I'm the son of a
(06:17):
marine and I'm the younger brother ofa Vietnam Vet. But my dad,
the marine, grew up Baptist andmade us go to Catholic church and Catholic
school. So I don't know whereis that something from the Marines that came
along. I don't know. Well, all I know is, you know,
I remember one time we found outabout there was Sunday school up at
(06:42):
the Methodist Church and anybody could gothere, and me and my brother went
there. And then he said,you know, sister says, if we
go to this, we're going tohelp, We're going to hell. And
I told him, Well, we'llsee her there, won't we. Yeah,
your description of her in the book, she sounded like a real piece
(07:02):
of work. Your book, Iguess, changes gears a lot. There's
a lot of surprising twists. Oneminute you're laughing and then the next minute
you might be tearing up. There'sa very poignant part in the very beginning
where you talk about the letter youwrote to yourself young Bob and the letter
that young Bob wrote to grown upBob. That was very personal, but
(07:24):
it was quite touching. I'm gladyou included it. All right, So
early childhood not good schooling a disaster. It's at this point, even at
age seventeen, you have to takeyour mom with you to the Marine recruiter's
office so you can enlist. Wasthat you just deciding, you know what,
I got to get out of thisplace. That's one hundred percent how
(07:45):
it happened. And had I notdone that, you know, I'm pretty
sure nothing that followed what happened,at least none of the good things.
There's a podcast I really like.It's called How I Built This. They
interview every week the founder of adifferent game changing company. Disruptive companies from
the last whatever ten or twenty years, things like Airbnb, Ring, Doorbell,
(08:09):
Rent the Runway. Like you,they have created something big and spectacular
where there wasn't that company before thatbusiness. And at the end of every
episode they ask how much of yoursuccess is attributed to hard work? And
how much do you credit luck?Bob? You've had some amazing strokes of
luck from your young life all theway through your business deals. Are you
(08:31):
here today because of all your hardwork? Obviously I don't mean to imply
that you don't work hard. Youdo, But did you get lucky too?
And can you manufacture your own goodluck? Well, I would say
I would attribute all of it tohard work and all of it to luck.
(08:52):
See, the deal is one forthe luck. None of it would
have happened, but it happened becauseI was a worker, b and I
could spot this stuff when it camealong, feeling that joined in a Marine
Corps was right for me during theheight of the Vietnam War. As crazy
as that sounds, you know,when I when I would have something happen,
(09:16):
would run across and I would seethat there was a moment where something
good could happen. I'd take thechance. Huh, I would I was
if nothing else, I was arisk taker. Yeah, And so being
a marine you learned discipline, perseverance, overcoming huge obstacles. What does it
marine say, adapt, improvise andovercome one percent. But also there were
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the horrors of war and things thatthose of us who weren't there or have
never faced a combat situation, wecan never reconcile, We can't understand.
You tell a very chilling story.Right when you get to Vietnam, you
are in over your head. Imean you're still just a kid, and
you are absolutely freaking out with fear, very scared, until you realize you're
(10:03):
probably not going to survive this.You're not going to make it out alive.
And as gloomy as that realization is, it actually changes your whole outlook.
You know. You see, yougot to picture the situation my unit
is on, which was delt thecompany, first Battalion, twenty six Marines
(10:24):
was on this hill, Hell oneninety in the Marine Corps. It's one
hundred and ninety feet above sea level. That's how it's Hell one ninety.
Well at the very top, Hellone ninety, which meant every day I
had to climb this this flipping hilland I get to hell. One ninety
I talk to the guys in musquad. They tell me that they were ambushed
(10:50):
just a few days before, andme and the other guys that were joining
them that day, we were thereplacements for the guys that were killed.
Wow. And they you know,they were ambushed. They had four of
them were killed and one was severelywounded. So the new guy was just
turned nineteen and he had been incountry for six weeks, and they made
(11:16):
he became the new squad leader.And so so I sat out on this
wall where the hell was was thisold French fort was there, and it
got overrun and he had blown toship by the enemy artillery. Wow,
I'm sitting on this wall. I'mlooking out and I'm thinking, man,
how am I going to get throughthis? And then it occurred to me,
(11:39):
you know, I'm not this iswhere I'm going to die. And
as soon as that sunk in forabout five or ten minutes just looking out,
and then it just this lightness cameover me. I felt great.
I made myself two promises. Thefirst, I do whatever I could to
(12:00):
do my job as a United StatesMarine. Make my parents and friends back
home proud. And also to domy duty to the guy on my left
and all my right. I dothat. And then the second thing was
that I would do whatever I couldto be alive the next morning for mal
call. And those two things didthe trick for me. Your book,
(12:22):
Fire in the Hall is dedicated tothe American men and women who fought in
the Vietnam War. And you know, I'm like a lot of people.
I think, no matter when youserved or where, from my grandparents to
my dad, to the kids whowent running to a recruiter's office in the
days and weeks after nine to eleven, if you swore that oath, grabbed
(12:43):
a weapon and stood on that wall, as you know, we want you
on that wall, We need youon that wall. Well, you are
simply heroic. You have my respectand my lifelong sincere appreciation. But especially
especially are Vietnam veterans. I mean, all the above is true about you,
but man, did we mess upyour return? And I really appreciate
(13:09):
Bob that not only did you serve, thank you for your service there,
but how much you take care ofare Vietnam veterans, and how important that
is to you that's very admirable.Thanks Jim. And the one thing I'll
tell you, I'm in touch witha number of the guys that I served
with to this stay, were veryclose, and all of them say the
(13:30):
same thing. I'd do it again, really, but they all say one
other thing I always say, cominghome. It's a hard part though.
Sadly for many Vietnam veterans, thecold and even hateful reception many received upon
returning home to the US led totheir PTSD as much as anything they saw
in battle. Bob Parsons will talkmore about that as we continue our conversation
(13:52):
from his new book, Fire inthe Hole. This is iHeart Communities.
I'm Tim Hatrick. I'm Tim Hatrick, and I'm speaking with Bob Parsons about
his new memoir Fire in the Hole, The Untold Story of My Traumatic Life
and Explosive Success. Bob, It'strue that many soldiers come back from battle
with some form of post traumatic stressdisorder. But for you and your comrades
(14:16):
who served together in Vietnam, thereturn home to America contributed as much to
your PTSD as your experiences in thewar zone. I mean, they were
throwing, screaming Nazi you know,war criminal name it. But you know
that created something else and what thatcreated, you know, the one thing
(14:37):
we had we had each other.And then we became a lot closer than
we I think we would have been. Huh. And I mean to this
day, we're in our seventies andwe're all still very close. Yeah,
ones of us that are still alive, you know. Yeah, Well,
good news. Contrary to your initialprediction, you do not perish in Vietnam.
(14:58):
You're now back in Baltimore, andthanks to the GI Bill, you
decide you're going to go to college. There's a really funny story about how
you end up picking accounting as yourmajor. But this is one of the
contradictions of your life, Bob.Based on your early life and all of
the schooling you got, you didnot seem like you were headed for a
(15:18):
job in accounting. However, thisapparently is your thing, because you graduate
magna cum laude with a degree inaccounting from the University of Baltimore. I
loved it. I loved it andthrived on it. And see the PTSD
helped me because studying for college wasa solitary thing. Yeah, and you
(15:43):
know, I was never one thatwould go to a study group or anything
like that, because I wasn't interestedin I was interested in just just getting
the job done on the grids.Okay, even more contradictory. You pick
up a book at random about howto write computer program You read it,
and next thing you know, you'rewriting software to the degree that it turns
(16:06):
into Parsons Technology, which creates foryou a business you ultimately sell for sixty
five million dollars. Nobody from yourgrade school and all those schools back in
Baltimore, nobody saw you coming asa guy who wrote software. You know
that that's a very solitary thing,you know, computer programming. And again,
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PTSD helped me do that. Seewhat the way I self medicated for
PTSD was. I buried myself inmy work. Well, you sell Parsons
Technology, and that money allows youto launch Go Daddy, which is an
(16:47):
incredible story all by itself. ButI'd like to know more about your PTSD.
What were the symptoms that you hadand how did they present themselves?
Bash back not wanting to socialize flashtemper, and so for a long time,
you and other Vietnam veterans suffered,but nobody knew what PTSD was until
(17:15):
long after you came home. No, we did it. No, at
what point in your life did yourealize that that's what it was? Well,
probably, I would say when Iwas forty I started. Okay.
For those who suffer with PTSD,things can trigger you, and when you're
triggered, it elicits a response thatis hard to control, and they're sometimes
(17:38):
obvious. For instance, a veterancomes home from a war zone and he's
safe and sound in America, butfireworks going off sound exactly like a scene
in his mind from a war zone. That's traumatic. He's triggered. That
one is somewhat obvious. We canunderstand it, but there are a lot
of triggers that aren't up. Andsomething rather innocuous is what set Bob Parsons
(18:03):
off. It was then that whenthe troops came home from Desert Storm and
they got this ticker tape parades andall that stuff. I you know,
first I was happy for them,but it really underscored the disparity of the
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way we were treated. And PresidentBush said something, well, Vietnam is
now behind us. And I knowthat he didn't say that with any Mattlice
No, but it's just that that, you know, we were we were
the swept away guys, you know, and and we were so anyhow,
(18:49):
Uh, that's when I I wentto a fine help and I started talking
to this old Navy and sid andthe old Navy ensign was a psychologist and
he was telling me about PTSD.And that was the first I've heard about
it. Today, Bob Parsons isfree of the ill effects of PTSD thanks
(19:12):
to a psychedelic therapy assisted treatment.What are psychedelics. They are LSD,
psilocybin or magic mushrooms, MDMA,and ayahuasca. All of them are natural
compounds that are non addictive, andthere's a growing body of research scientifically and
endorsed by mental health professionals that saythese compounds all show great hope in treating
(19:38):
curing depression, anxiety, addiction,and PTSD. Bob Parsons sought out one
of these treatments and you say itworked and did for the most part,
it did. Okay, walk usthrough it. What happened the first day
I took ayahuasca, which is madeof a psychedelic made from the South American
(20:00):
vine. It is some nasty tasteand stuff I have to tell you,
and so you know, we youknow I did that. Hallucinated a tiny
bit, but not a lot anda lot of tears, that sort of
thing, because you're willing to talkabout stuff that you wouldn't otherwise. Then
the second day I was treated withmagic mushrooms. And this is an interesting
(20:25):
story. The guy said, look, I've got this little tea pot and
it holds three cups. I've madeall three cups, but don't worry.
They are very strong. You justneed one cup. I drank all three
cups and I ate the tea bags. And I'm telling you, brother,
I was sailing. Yeah, Andyou know I had hallucinated big time.
(20:53):
I was back there and there wassomething that I didn't even realize was a
problem with me, but it wasa big problem. And that was one
of the things that I was pushingback, trying to disassociate from. And
then the next day I went andtook off to play golf with my wife.
(21:14):
Played a marvelous round of golf.It felt like the fauna all knew
I was there, and foilage knewI was there. The grassle and the
green was like Bobby hit it here. And I went to go right in
the cup. I mean, itis amazing. I've never played like that
since, but I did then.And then the next day it was LSD,
(21:34):
and then I was done. Theperson who realized it the first was
my wife. She was amazed.She says, boll You're you're different.
You're totally different. And she says, you're You're a lot lighter, you
smile more, you don't get upset, you just relax. And then the
(21:56):
people that I worked with, youknow, they noticed it totally. And
I like to say, when Idid that for me, it was forty
nine years since the war, andI finally came home. The book is
Fire on the Hall, The UntoldStory of my traumatic life and explosive success.
I have to ask, Bob,for all the businesses you have started,
(22:19):
is there a business model that wouldwork to help expedite the legalization of
psychedelics for treatment or make it morereadily available to people struggling with PTSD depression
addiction. Well, you know,there are a number of people that are
working on, you know, totreat this PTSD, but they're not making
(22:44):
a lot of headway lately. AndI don't know what's going to happen now.
I purposefully have stayed away from thatfor a number of reasons. The
first reason is I have a goldenrule that I use in my businesses no
partners. Oh yeah. So thesecond thing, the real reason I don't,
(23:06):
is because I want to have thecredibility that I have now where I
can talk about this and I amnot in it to make money. I
don't have an ax to grind,and so I feel so that gives me
more credibility. And I think it'simportant to point out the distinction we're talking
about here is not recreational use.This is a guided therapeutic session with a
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trained therapist, and the use ofpsychedelics is in a very controlled situation,
or as Michael Polland puts it inanother book that you recommend called How to
Change Your Mind, there's a veryimportant factor in it, in set and
setting. That's key to this typeof therapy. Now, you know,
one of the other things that youmight do On Netflix, Michael Polland did
(23:55):
a four part documentary called How toChange Your Mind, which is incredibly well
done. I think I've watched itnine times. Well stories such as yours,
and certainly all the things that hewrites about. You know, we
seem to be on the version ofa real breakthrough in terms of mental health
and the treatment of all of theseconditions. My guess is Bob Parsons,
(24:17):
And again, I think it's remarkablehow much you accomplished and the businesses you
built even while dealing with PTSD,including go Daddy, which in and of
itself is a completely outrageous story.Is it true you launched GoDaddy in the
late nineties and you didn't even knowexactly what it was. I didn't know,
Okay, I had just gotten divorced. Half of my money went to
(24:41):
my wife's a little more than half. She deserved every nickel she got putting
up with Bud Tomans, and Ihad about thirty seven million. I started
it with that in cash and arc. Michael was I'd get some smart dudes
and gals and we try a numberof things, and then we'd stick with
(25:03):
the thing that worked well. Wetried all sorts of things, you know.
We tried building internets, extra nets, writing code for people, we
tried this set, the other thing, but the only thing that worked was
building websites. Building websites it wastoo expensive. So what we decided to
do was the right software where aperson could build their own website. But
(25:29):
after a year we realized, youknow what, people are going to need
domain names, so we should probablyprovide domain names. And when they buy
domain names from US had a dealwith good service, and the competition hadn't
knowne of either, we would getthem to buy our software, which was
right as rain. When that happened, I was down to six million dollars.
(25:52):
Yeah, you know, I startedwith thirty seven, got down to
thirty five, thirty, twenty five, twenty eight teen, fourteen, twelve,
ten, eight, six, andat six I threw the break on
and I decided, and I didn'ttell anybody. I said, maybe this
time I would to close the companybecause I didn't see a dream of us
(26:14):
making it. I mean where Iwas standing, you just couldn't see it.
So one of the things I've alwaysdone him is I always keep my
own counsel. I don't tell anybodywhat I'm thinking. And so this is
when you disappeared to Hawaii basically tocome up with a plan for how to
shut it down and let everybody go. I was there for a week to
decide how I was going to dothe logistics of it, pay severance,
(26:40):
pay who I own, sell assetsand all that. And as time went
on, I realized I didn't wantto shut the company down. And then
my epiphany happened when there was aguy parking cars. Guy was as happy
as a lark, throwing keys upin the air. How you doing,
mister Parson's good to see you.And I thought, Niscar probably has nothing.
(27:00):
He's parking cars. He's happy asa lark. I got sixty million
and I'm miserable. Yeah, soyou're thinking, what's the worst that can
happen to me if I lose itall? So what Yeah, I could
be parking cars and I could behappy in throwing keys in a year.
So I decided I would go back. I wouldn't tell anybody, and the
(27:22):
company sank, I would be strappedto the master of the ship. I'd
go down with it. Yeah.Well what happened was after a couple of
months that dot com crash happened,and that's when GoDaddy was born, and
the success of Go Daddy led tomany other successful ventures for Bob Parsons,
including the world's largest Harley Davidson dealershipin Scottsdale, PXG golf clubs, the
(27:47):
Scottsdale National Golf Club, and perhapsthe thing you are most proud of,
you launched with your wife in twentytwelve, the Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation.
It's all pretty outs and Bob Parsons, I really appreciate you taking the
time to share some of your storywith us today. Appreciate you too,
brother, Thanks for having me onFire in the Hole, the untold story
(28:11):
of my traumatic life and explosive successfrom Forefront Books and written by my guest
Bob Parsons. You can get moreinformation at Bob Parsons dot com. Bob,
we look forward to whatever is next. All right, sounds good?
Take care now. I'm Tim Hatrickand this is Iheartcommunities, Phoenix
This is iHeart Communities, Phoenix.I'm Tim Patrick from one O two five
K and I X. Bob Parsonsof Scottsdale, Arizona is a lot of
things. A visionary entrepreneur, decoratedVietnam War veteran, and philanthropist, just
to m a few. Best knownas the founder of GoDaddy, Bob has
transformed industries with his innovative approach andrelentless drive. It is compelling. New
(00:22):
autobiography, Fire in the Hole Parsons, chronicles the untold story of his traumatic
life and explosive success. Bob Parsons, thanks for joining me today. Hey
you doing Timmy well. As amatter of fact, I am thrilled to
get to chat with you today.Full disclosure, I'm an admirer of yours.
I've always liked your big personality andthe fact that GoDaddy was from right
(00:44):
here in my hometown. But Bob, I got to tell you. Until
I read your new book, Ihad no idea how far you had to
come to get where you are today. And by the way, I actually
listened to Fire in the Hole,I think it's very fitting that you actually
narrated your book because I can't imagineanybody else telling your story. Well,
I certainly enjoyed telling my voice,and I assume you could hear the many
(01:08):
times I could not hold back laughingand certain things. Well, that is
certainly true. There are some hilariousmoments in the book, some poignant moments.
It's inspirational. There's the unconventional businesssavvy that you're known for. All
in all, Bob, there's alot of book here. There's a lot
(01:29):
of story in your story, somuch so that as you wrote it and
then spoke it out loud for theaudiobook, I wondered, did you ever
think, Man, this story isso outrageous. If I hadn't lived it
myself, I don't think I wouldbelieve it. Well, a lot of
times I sit back and think aboutit, and I still can't believe it
(01:49):
for me, which is wonderful.I always told my wife if I if
I go tomorrow, you know,I've lived a life that you know,
just you know, a few peoplein one hundred million get live, And
I'm pretty happy about that. Thebook is Fire in the Hole, the
untold story of my traumatic life andexplosive success, by my guest Bob Parsons.
You know, but For me,the most remarkable part of your story
(02:13):
is that you achieved a lot ofthat explosive success in spite of the nearly
crippling effects of post traumatic stress disorder. I want to dig a little deeper
on that, especially how guided psychedelicassistant therapy essentially cured you of that PTSD.
Well, let's start by talking aboutwhere that trauma came from. It
(02:34):
wasn't just from your tour of dutyas a marine in Vietnam. That was
part of it, for sure,but you also had a very difficult life
from the very beginning. You grewup in East Baltimore, and would you
say less than ideal home situation?Well, no, was an ideal home
situation. But then again, whosehome situation is ideal? Tim Yeah?
(02:57):
True? Imagine A lot of peoplesaid, you know, man, I
read that first part about in childhoodand I seen myself in that right,
And so I mean, and itwas far more than I ever dreamed would
be. And I mean and andyou know, we are so much more
alike than we dare to think dreamAnd I mean, and that that is
(03:19):
just one of those things that reallybears that out for me. But you
know, when I grew up.My mom and dad were compulsive gamblers and
uh, you know, my brother'ssister and I we just all came along
and you know, they put uson the bus and took us along for
the ride. And so you know, we we had no money, I
(03:42):
mean very little money. And youknow, if we wanted anything, I'm
talking about me and my brother andI guess my sister. You know,
we had to find a way toget it. And you know, I
mean do we do stuff like theMoto lawns for neighbors, you know Aaron's
Uh. And then as I gotolder, I used to work in filling
stations on the night turn when nobodywanted to work because you know how often
(04:06):
they got robbed. And then ofcourse I hadn't seen that firsthand that I
was done working nights. That's avery harrowing story. You're just a teenager
and you're being held at gunpoints asa hostage for several hours, you know.
So yeah, I mean that wasthe way we grew up. I
mean, you know I remember thatwhen I was I think I started smoking
(04:30):
when I was twelve or thirteen.Wow, And I think with my mother's
blessing at fourteen, and she usedin the morning, she would fix me
this breakfast. She would give melike a cupcake, she'd buy a store
and after I was done, she'dlat me up a cigarette and send me
to school. If that's all welearned about your childhood, that says a
(04:51):
lot right there. Yeah. Andthen I learned fractions from a mother teaching
me how to read the racing forthem. That's that was good. Yeah.
Yeah, So, I mean,you know when I was in school,
I didn't do that well, butI nailed fractions. Brother, I
tell you what. So for anybodywho's grown up in a less than perfect
(05:12):
home, maybe they go to schooland that's where they flourish. You know,
that's where they that's their safe space. That school was not that for
you, especially the earliest years allthe way through high school. Pretty much.
No, No, school was notwas. It was not fantasa,
you know it was. It waswhen I when I was a little kid,
I went to public school eighty threeuntil the third grade. And at
(05:33):
that time, my father decided tobecome Catholic. Now here's a man that
didn't have a religious bone in hisbody, and he decides to become Catholic.
For you know, for who knowswhat reason. I still to this
day do not know why that happened. And as part of that, he
took me and my brother out ofthis wonderful public school and put us in
(05:57):
in Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, whichwhich was like a prisoner of war camps,
little kids. Oh my god,it was terrible. And I didn't
And the one thing all the nunshad in common is they didn't like me.
No, they didn't. What's funnyis a lot of your story does
ring a bell with me? BecauseI grew up I'm the son of a
(06:17):
marine and I'm the younger brother ofa Vietnam Vet. But my dad,
the marine, grew up Baptist andmade us go to Catholic church and Catholic
school. So I don't know whereis that something from the Marines that came
along. I don't know. Well, all I know is, you know,
I remember one time we found outabout there was Sunday school up at
(06:42):
the Methodist Church and anybody could gothere, and me and my brother went
there. And then he said,you know, sister says, if we
go to this, we're going tohelp, We're going to hell. And
I told him, Well, we'llsee her there, won't we. Yeah,
your description of her in the book, she sounded like a real piece
(07:02):
of work. Your book, Iguess, changes gears a lot. There's
a lot of surprising twists. Oneminute you're laughing and then the next minute
you might be tearing up. There'sa very poignant part in the very beginning
where you talk about the letter youwrote to yourself young Bob and the letter
that young Bob wrote to grown upBob. That was very personal, but
(07:24):
it was quite touching. I'm gladyou included it. All right, So
early childhood not good schooling a disaster. It's at this point, even at
age seventeen, you have to takeyour mom with you to the Marine recruiter's
office so you can enlist. Wasthat you just deciding, you know what,
I got to get out of thisplace. That's one hundred percent how
(07:45):
it happened. And had I notdone that, you know, I'm pretty
sure nothing that followed what happened,at least none of the good things.
There's a podcast I really like.It's called How I Built This. They
interview every week the founder of adifferent game changing company. Disruptive companies from
the last whatever ten or twenty years, things like Airbnb, Ring, Doorbell,
(08:09):
Rent the Runway. Like you,they have created something big and spectacular
where there wasn't that company before thatbusiness. And at the end of every
episode they ask how much of yoursuccess is attributed to hard work? And
how much do you credit luck?Bob? You've had some amazing strokes of
luck from your young life all theway through your business deals. Are you
(08:31):
here today because of all your hardwork? Obviously I don't mean to imply
that you don't work hard. Youdo, But did you get lucky too?
And can you manufacture your own goodluck? Well, I would say
I would attribute all of it tohard work and all of it to luck.
(08:52):
See, the deal is one forthe luck. None of it would
have happened, but it happened becauseI was a worker, b and I
could spot this stuff when it camealong, feeling that joined in a Marine
Corps was right for me during theheight of the Vietnam War. As crazy
as that sounds, you know,when I when I would have something happen,
(09:16):
would run across and I would seethat there was a moment where something
good could happen. I'd take thechance. Huh, I would I was
if nothing else, I was arisk taker. Yeah, And so being
a marine you learned discipline, perseverance, overcoming huge obstacles. What does it
marine say, adapt, improvise andovercome one percent. But also there were
(09:39):
the horrors of war and things thatthose of us who weren't there or have
never faced a combat situation, wecan never reconcile, We can't understand.
You tell a very chilling story.Right when you get to Vietnam, you
are in over your head. Imean you're still just a kid, and
you are absolutely freaking out with fear, very scared, until you realize you're
(10:03):
probably not going to survive this.You're not going to make it out alive.
And as gloomy as that realization is, it actually changes your whole outlook.
You know. You see, yougot to picture the situation my unit
is on, which was delt thecompany, first Battalion, twenty six Marines
(10:24):
was on this hill, Hell oneninety in the Marine Corps. It's one
hundred and ninety feet above sea level. That's how it's Hell one ninety.
Well at the very top, Hellone ninety, which meant every day I
had to climb this this flipping hilland I get to hell. One ninety
I talk to the guys in musquad. They tell me that they were ambushed
(10:50):
just a few days before, andme and the other guys that were joining
them that day, we were thereplacements for the guys that were killed.
Wow. And they you know,they were ambushed. They had four of
them were killed and one was severelywounded. So the new guy was just
turned nineteen and he had been incountry for six weeks, and they made
(11:16):
he became the new squad leader.And so so I sat out on this
wall where the hell was was thisold French fort was there, and it
got overrun and he had blown toship by the enemy artillery. Wow,
I'm sitting on this wall. I'mlooking out and I'm thinking, man,
how am I going to get throughthis? And then it occurred to me,
(11:39):
you know, I'm not this iswhere I'm going to die. And
as soon as that sunk in forabout five or ten minutes just looking out,
and then it just this lightness cameover me. I felt great.
I made myself two promises. Thefirst, I do whatever I could to
(12:00):
do my job as a United StatesMarine. Make my parents and friends back
home proud. And also to domy duty to the guy on my left
and all my right. I dothat. And then the second thing was
that I would do whatever I couldto be alive the next morning for mal
call. And those two things didthe trick for me. Your book,
(12:22):
Fire in the Hall is dedicated tothe American men and women who fought in
the Vietnam War. And you know, I'm like a lot of people.
I think, no matter when youserved or where, from my grandparents to
my dad, to the kids whowent running to a recruiter's office in the
days and weeks after nine to eleven, if you swore that oath, grabbed
(12:43):
a weapon and stood on that wall, as you know, we want you
on that wall, We need youon that wall. Well, you are
simply heroic. You have my respectand my lifelong sincere appreciation. But especially
especially are Vietnam veterans. I mean, all the above is true about you,
but man, did we mess upyour return? And I really appreciate
(13:09):
Bob that not only did you serve, thank you for your service there,
but how much you take care ofare Vietnam veterans, and how important that
is to you that's very admirable.Thanks Jim. And the one thing I'll
tell you, I'm in touch witha number of the guys that I served
with to this stay, were veryclose, and all of them say the
(13:30):
same thing. I'd do it again, really, but they all say one
other thing I always say, cominghome. It's a hard part though.
Sadly for many Vietnam veterans, thecold and even hateful reception many received upon
returning home to the US led totheir PTSD as much as anything they saw
in battle. Bob Parsons will talkmore about that as we continue our conversation
(13:52):
from his new book, Fire inthe Hole. This is iHeart Communities.
I'm Tim Hatrick. I'm Tim Hatrick, and I'm speaking with Bob Parsons about
his new memoir Fire in the Hole, The Untold Story of My Traumatic Life
and Explosive Success. Bob, It'strue that many soldiers come back from battle
with some form of post traumatic stressdisorder. But for you and your comrades
(14:16):
who served together in Vietnam, thereturn home to America contributed as much to
your PTSD as your experiences in thewar zone. I mean, they were
throwing, screaming Nazi you know,war criminal name it. But you know
that created something else and what thatcreated, you know, the one thing
(14:37):
we had we had each other.And then we became a lot closer than
we I think we would have been. Huh. And I mean to this
day, we're in our seventies andwe're all still very close. Yeah,
ones of us that are still alive, you know. Yeah, Well,
good news. Contrary to your initialprediction, you do not perish in Vietnam.
(14:58):
You're now back in Baltimore, andthanks to the GI Bill, you
decide you're going to go to college. There's a really funny story about how
you end up picking accounting as yourmajor. But this is one of the
contradictions of your life, Bob.Based on your early life and all of
the schooling you got, you didnot seem like you were headed for a
(15:18):
job in accounting. However, thisapparently is your thing, because you graduate
magna cum laude with a degree inaccounting from the University of Baltimore. I
loved it. I loved it andthrived on it. And see the PTSD
helped me because studying for college wasa solitary thing. Yeah, and you
(15:43):
know, I was never one thatwould go to a study group or anything
like that, because I wasn't interestedin I was interested in just just getting
the job done on the grids.Okay, even more contradictory. You pick
up a book at random about howto write computer program You read it,
and next thing you know, you'rewriting software to the degree that it turns
(16:06):
into Parsons Technology, which creates foryou a business you ultimately sell for sixty
five million dollars. Nobody from yourgrade school and all those schools back in
Baltimore, nobody saw you coming asa guy who wrote software. You know
that that's a very solitary thing,you know, computer programming. And again,
(16:27):
PTSD helped me do that. Seewhat the way I self medicated for
PTSD was. I buried myself inmy work. Well, you sell Parsons
Technology, and that money allows youto launch Go Daddy, which is an
(16:47):
incredible story all by itself. ButI'd like to know more about your PTSD.
What were the symptoms that you hadand how did they present themselves?
Bash back not wanting to socialize flashtemper, and so for a long time,
you and other Vietnam veterans suffered,but nobody knew what PTSD was until
(17:15):
long after you came home. No, we did it. No, at
what point in your life did yourealize that that's what it was? Well,
probably, I would say when Iwas forty I started. Okay.
For those who suffer with PTSD,things can trigger you, and when you're
triggered, it elicits a response thatis hard to control, and they're sometimes
(17:38):
obvious. For instance, a veterancomes home from a war zone and he's
safe and sound in America, butfireworks going off sound exactly like a scene
in his mind from a war zone. That's traumatic. He's triggered. That
one is somewhat obvious. We canunderstand it, but there are a lot
of triggers that aren't up. Andsomething rather innocuous is what set Bob Parsons
(18:03):
off. It was then that whenthe troops came home from Desert Storm and
they got this ticker tape parades andall that stuff. I you know,
first I was happy for them,but it really underscored the disparity of the
(18:25):
way we were treated. And PresidentBush said something, well, Vietnam is
now behind us. And I knowthat he didn't say that with any Mattlice
No, but it's just that that, you know, we were we were
the swept away guys, you know, and and we were so anyhow,
(18:49):
Uh, that's when I I wentto a fine help and I started talking
to this old Navy and sid andthe old Navy ensign was a psychologist and
he was telling me about PTSD.And that was the first I've heard about
it. Today, Bob Parsons isfree of the ill effects of PTSD thanks
(19:12):
to a psychedelic therapy assisted treatment.What are psychedelics. They are LSD,
psilocybin or magic mushrooms, MDMA,and ayahuasca. All of them are natural
compounds that are non addictive, andthere's a growing body of research scientifically and
endorsed by mental health professionals that saythese compounds all show great hope in treating
(19:38):
curing depression, anxiety, addiction,and PTSD. Bob Parsons sought out one
of these treatments and you say itworked and did for the most part,
it did. Okay, walk usthrough it. What happened the first day
I took ayahuasca, which is madeof a psychedelic made from the South American
(20:00):
vine. It is some nasty tasteand stuff I have to tell you,
and so you know, we youknow I did that. Hallucinated a tiny
bit, but not a lot anda lot of tears, that sort of
thing, because you're willing to talkabout stuff that you wouldn't otherwise. Then
the second day I was treated withmagic mushrooms. And this is an interesting
(20:25):
story. The guy said, look, I've got this little tea pot and
it holds three cups. I've madeall three cups, but don't worry.
They are very strong. You justneed one cup. I drank all three
cups and I ate the tea bags. And I'm telling you, brother,
I was sailing. Yeah, Andyou know I had hallucinated big time.
(20:53):
I was back there and there wassomething that I didn't even realize was a
problem with me, but it wasa big problem. And that was one
of the things that I was pushingback, trying to disassociate from. And
then the next day I went andtook off to play golf with my wife.
(21:14):
Played a marvelous round of golf.It felt like the fauna all knew
I was there, and foilage knewI was there. The grassle and the
green was like Bobby hit it here. And I went to go right in
the cup. I mean, itis amazing. I've never played like that
since, but I did then.And then the next day it was LSD,
(21:34):
and then I was done. Theperson who realized it the first was
my wife. She was amazed.She says, boll You're you're different.
You're totally different. And she says, you're You're a lot lighter, you
smile more, you don't get upset, you just relax. And then the
(21:56):
people that I worked with, youknow, they noticed it totally. And
I like to say, when Idid that for me, it was forty
nine years since the war, andI finally came home. The book is
Fire on the Hall, The UntoldStory of my traumatic life and explosive success.
I have to ask, Bob,for all the businesses you have started,
(22:19):
is there a business model that wouldwork to help expedite the legalization of
psychedelics for treatment or make it morereadily available to people struggling with PTSD depression
addiction. Well, you know,there are a number of people that are
working on, you know, totreat this PTSD, but they're not making
(22:44):
a lot of headway lately. AndI don't know what's going to happen now.
I purposefully have stayed away from thatfor a number of reasons. The
first reason is I have a goldenrule that I use in my businesses no
partners. Oh yeah. So thesecond thing, the real reason I don't,
(23:06):
is because I want to have thecredibility that I have now where I
can talk about this and I amnot in it to make money. I
don't have an ax to grind,and so I feel so that gives me
more credibility. And I think it'simportant to point out the distinction we're talking
about here is not recreational use.This is a guided therapeutic session with a
(23:30):
trained therapist, and the use ofpsychedelics is in a very controlled situation,
or as Michael Polland puts it inanother book that you recommend called How to
Change Your Mind, there's a veryimportant factor in it, in set and
setting. That's key to this typeof therapy. Now, you know,
one of the other things that youmight do On Netflix, Michael Polland did
(23:55):
a four part documentary called How toChange Your Mind, which is incredibly well
done. I think I've watched itnine times. Well stories such as yours,
and certainly all the things that hewrites about. You know, we
seem to be on the version ofa real breakthrough in terms of mental health
and the treatment of all of theseconditions. My guess is Bob Parsons,
(24:17):
And again, I think it's remarkablehow much you accomplished and the businesses you
built even while dealing with PTSD,including go Daddy, which in and of
itself is a completely outrageous story.Is it true you launched GoDaddy in the
late nineties and you didn't even knowexactly what it was. I didn't know,
Okay, I had just gotten divorced. Half of my money went to
(24:41):
my wife's a little more than half. She deserved every nickel she got putting
up with Bud Tomans, and Ihad about thirty seven million. I started
it with that in cash and arc. Michael was I'd get some smart dudes
and gals and we try a numberof things, and then we'd stick with
(25:03):
the thing that worked well. Wetried all sorts of things, you know.
We tried building internets, extra nets, writing code for people, we
tried this set, the other thing, but the only thing that worked was
building websites. Building websites it wastoo expensive. So what we decided to
do was the right software where aperson could build their own website. But
(25:29):
after a year we realized, youknow what, people are going to need
domain names, so we should probablyprovide domain names. And when they buy
domain names from US had a dealwith good service, and the competition hadn't
knowne of either, we would getthem to buy our software, which was
right as rain. When that happened, I was down to six million dollars.
(25:52):
Yeah, you know, I startedwith thirty seven, got down to
thirty five, thirty, twenty five, twenty eight teen, fourteen, twelve,
ten, eight, six, andat six I threw the break on
and I decided, and I didn'ttell anybody. I said, maybe this
time I would to close the companybecause I didn't see a dream of us
(26:14):
making it. I mean where Iwas standing, you just couldn't see it.
So one of the things I've alwaysdone him is I always keep my
own counsel. I don't tell anybodywhat I'm thinking. And so this is
when you disappeared to Hawaii basically tocome up with a plan for how to
shut it down and let everybody go. I was there for a week to
decide how I was going to dothe logistics of it, pay severance,
(26:40):
pay who I own, sell assetsand all that. And as time went
on, I realized I didn't wantto shut the company down. And then
my epiphany happened when there was aguy parking cars. Guy was as happy
as a lark, throwing keys upin the air. How you doing,
mister Parson's good to see you.And I thought, Niscar probably has nothing.
(27:00):
He's parking cars. He's happy asa lark. I got sixty million
and I'm miserable. Yeah, soyou're thinking, what's the worst that can
happen to me if I lose itall? So what Yeah, I could
be parking cars and I could behappy in throwing keys in a year.
So I decided I would go back. I wouldn't tell anybody, and the
(27:22):
company sank, I would be strappedto the master of the ship. I'd
go down with it. Yeah.Well what happened was after a couple of
months that dot com crash happened,and that's when GoDaddy was born, and
the success of Go Daddy led tomany other successful ventures for Bob Parsons,
including the world's largest Harley Davidson dealershipin Scottsdale, PXG golf clubs, the
(27:47):
Scottsdale National Golf Club, and perhapsthe thing you are most proud of,
you launched with your wife in twentytwelve, the Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation.
It's all pretty outs and Bob Parsons, I really appreciate you taking the
time to share some of your storywith us today. Appreciate you too,
brother, Thanks for having me onFire in the Hole, the untold story
(28:11):
of my traumatic life and explosive successfrom Forefront Books and written by my guest
Bob Parsons. You can get moreinformation at Bob Parsons dot com. Bob,
we look forward to whatever is next. All right, sounds good?
Take care now. I'm Tim Hatrickand this is Iheartcommunities, Phoenix
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