The Adventurous Author, John Strelecky - Bestselling Author & Speaker - The Dave Crenshaw Success Show

Episode Transcript
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John Strelecky (00:00):
took 46 of the biggest questions people have
asked me over the years aboutlife. And some of them are just
unusual and quirky. And so islike, Have you thought of your
own funeral? Do you ever findinspiration from fruits?

Dave Crenshaw (00:14):
And this episode, you'll get to know John's true
lucky, the adventurous author,and you'll hear the story of how
he quit his job to travel theworld, and how that led to him
becoming an inspiration tomillions of readers. I'm Dave
Crenshaw, and this is my successShow. Welcome back friends to

(00:36):
the Dave Crenshaw Success Show.
This is where I interview someof the most successful people
I've met in my life's journey.
And I'm on a mission to discoveruniversal principles of success.
I started the show to help mychildren be successful. But then
I realized you'd probably wantto learn along with them. If
you're not familiar with me inmy work, I'm a best selling
author. I speak around the worldto Fortune 500 companies, and

(00:59):
I've taught millions of peoplehow to be successful through my
online courses. With this show,I wanted to create something
lasting to help my familysucceed. And I'm, in particular,
looking for people who havemultifaceted success in many
areas of their life, not justtheir career, or their financial
success. And at the end of everyepisode, I share a few actions

(01:20):
that you might take this week tomake it a part of your life. So
as you listen to today'sepisode, look for something you
can do, do today do this week tomake my guest success story a
part of your success story. Andyou're really going to want to
do that with today's guest.
John's for Lucky is a bestselling author. His work has
been translated into 44languages, and he's sold more

(01:42):
than 10 million copiesworldwide. He's been honored
alongside Oprah Winfrey, TonyRobbins, and Deepak Chopra. As
one of the 100 mostinspirational thought leaders in
the field of leadership andpersonal development. John
spends extensive timebackpacking around the world.
He's taken extended trips toAfrica, the Amazon Basin, the

(02:04):
Yucatan Peninsula, SouthAmerica, Southeast Asia, Europe
and China. And he's generouslyagreed to talk with us today.
John, thank you so much forbeing on the show. It's an honor
to have you here.

Thanks, Dave.
It's an honor to be here. Lovethe show. Love the interviews
that you do. Yeah,

well, and I've just been fascinated, my
goodness, the book sales thatyou've had and the remarkable
life that you've lived and allthe places you visited and
people that you've met. I'vejust been fascinated to have an
opportunity to talk to you aboutthis. Where are you located
today?

I'm in the Central Florida area today.
Okay, great. Is

that home for you?

It is yeah, no, I love warm weather. I grew up
in the Chicago area when I was akid. And we used to go on
vacation once a year, and myparents would bring us down to
Florida in February, they wouldtake us out of school. And I
don't know if you've ever spenta February in Chicago. But if
you do that, and then you godown to Florida, thinking to
yourself, Wait, why do we livein Chicago? So when I had the

(03:04):
freedom to choose where I wantedto live, I was like no warm
weather 12 months of the year.
Yeah,

Utah, we get all four seasons, and they're all
extreme. So I love going totropical places as well. And
well, you spent a lot of yourlife in those places. And we're
gonna get to that story in amoment. I always like to ask all
my guests the same question,John, which is when you were
young, and I'm thinking more inyour teenage years, what did you
want to be when you grew up?
What did you think you weregoing to do for a career?

Yeah, I had no clue. Absolutely no clue. So I
was a senior in high school andsaw the movie Top Gun and
decided I wanted to be a pilotand so nice. Yes. Yeah. As a
general rule, everybody who'slistening, making life decisions
based off of Hollywood movies,not a great life strategy. As a

(03:54):
clueless 17 year old, that wasthe path I chose. Yeah,

boy, that that happened to a lot of people, I
think, see Tom Cruise flyingaround. You're like, yeah,
that's it for me. So did you didyou go into the military? What
was the progression with thatthought?

Yeah, that's I mean, it's just a crazy bizarre
story of how it progressed, I, Iwent down to a place called
Embry Riddle, which is inDaytona Beach, Florida. And
because I was so late in thegame, I couldn't apply for
military scholarships. And soonce I got down there, I did
that, only to find out that myvision was like 2025, which at
the time, they're like, Well,you can be a navigator but not a
pilot's. And so I dropped out ofthe military part of it. And

(04:31):
it's focused on commercialaviation, only to then find out
a few years later in a sort ofcatastrophic moments in my life
that I could actually no longerbe a pilot. So but that was the
dream.

Do you mind talking about that, that moment
that caused that to occur?

To back up a tiny bit, I started working when
I was 12 years old. My familydidn't come from much money. And
so I knew that if I was going tobe able to go to college, I
would really have to save andmake as much as I could. So I
started working very young and Iwould work multiple jobs during
the summer I'd be up at 6am andbe working until 910. o'clock at
night, and took all that moneyand invested in this dream of
becoming a pilot. And then whenI was in my junior year of

(05:06):
college, I was offered a chanceto do a very prestigious
internship with the UnitedAirlines. It was a big, big
deal, and basically wouldaccelerate your career track by
about 10 years did all thateverything went great, they
loved me, and was given one ofonly three letters of
recommendation from the historyof the program. And came back a
couple of years later, and foundout that I had a never diagnosed

(05:28):
heart condition that onlymatters if you want to be a
pilot or an astronaut and onlyimpacts about one out of every
100,000 people. Nonetheless,those two realities were my
reality. And so literally, inone day, every penny I'd
invested in my dream, everymoment I had invested in study
was gone, just in a heartbeat. I

want to pause on that for a second and just
highlight it because oftenmoments like that, when we're in
them, we feel like everythinghas been taken away from us. Oh,
yeah. It's easy to feel like andI'm sure you felt this way like
this is over. Right, everythingI wanted to be. And yet I think
in hindsight, you look back atit and say, that moment helped

(06:08):
define me, it helped push me tothe place that I am in the
success that I have today.
Totally,

yeah, had that dream been followed through,
then I wouldn't be the authorthat I am. Now I wouldn't have a
book that is in 44 languages, 10million copies out there, it's
being turned into a movie. Andmost important for all of that
as much as like any book isgreat to have that if it's
entertaining, or inspiringwhatever the particular genre
that I write in is books thatinspire people to live a very

(06:34):
special life, like their versionof an extraordinary life. And so
the beautiful stories andletters that we get every day
would never have come to lifehad I have been able to be an
airline pilot. So yeah, in therearview mirror, there was
clearly something that I wassupposed to do that was
different than that. But at thetime, it was just catastrophic.
For about a year after that Iwas severely depressed, trying

(06:54):
to figure out why just was sounfair. It's not like I had done
something wrong. I had done allthe stuff I was supposed to do.
And it was all taken away. So atthe time, it seemed
catastrophic. Okay,

so talk to me about that year afterward, like,
how did you get out of thatfunk, of feeling depressed and
feeling like, all my dreams thatI had are gone now. I

think at some point, you just have to realize,
I am either going to pick myselfup, dust myself off and start
over. Or I'm going to be thisway, which was the depressed way
for ever. And I was too young tohave that be my reality for the
next 60 years. And to driven Imean, I proven to myself from
such a young age that I couldmake things happen. And so yeah,

(07:38):
that path is gone. You know,there's that great quote by
Helen Keller, it's, you know,sometimes we stare so long at
the door that's closed, we don'tsee the ones that are open. And
I said, I got to start moving, Igot to start finding another
way.

That's a great perspective to have, right, we
can choose to stay where we are,or we can choose to do something
different. So what did youchoose? Well, how did you start
to make the progress out ofthat, that place? Yeah,

I would love to tell you. It's a beautiful story
after that. And like, I found mypassion and was well on my way.
But no day of the story isactually quite ugly for a little
while after that. There was ahorrible job market at that
time. I mean, unemployment wasvery high. And so I got a job
working at an office as anaccounting clerk. It was a job
that I hated. And so I was therefor about a year. And then

(08:23):
eventually I was, I was like,Alright, so there's gotta be a
next step. And I got a randompiece of advice from a former
neighbor of my parents. And, youknow, I was visiting my parents,
I was shooting hoops in thedriveway. And he came out and
saw me and we're shooting hoopstogether. And he said, So what
are you going to do? I heard youknow what happened? I said, I
don't know. I just have no idea.
And he said, I think you shouldgo get your MBA. And Dave,
honestly, like, like, I was agood student, but I just didn't

(08:44):
love school. And so the idea ofgoing to more schooling just
didn't really resonate with me.
And I kind of explained that tome, he's like, Well, he's like,
I really think like, you'd begreat at it. And I think that's
what you should consider doing.
And so long story short, I endedup applying to Northwestern
University's Kellogg businessschool. And I got rejected, and
I had extraordinary scores. Butwithin the rejection letter with

(09:08):
some of that said, if you feelthis is an error, that you can
contact the University and sortof pitch your case, right. And
so I contacted the universityand I said, Well, I was
rejected, and they said, Wedidn't think you had enough
practical work experience. Andso Dave, I wrote this letter to
the university admissionsdepartment. In which case I said
listen, you guys are telling meI don't have enough practical
work experience. I was a pilot.

(09:29):
I had people's lives at stake. Iflew in such cold weather that I
had wind covering thewindshield, ice on the wings.
And I just went there wasbasically just me venting my
frustrations over this horriblelike situation. Never expected
to hear anything back. I startedmyself on a different path. Six
months later, I get a letter inthe mail it says
congratulations, you're in forthe fall. Oh, wow. So sometimes

(09:51):
the universe takes one away fromyou and sometimes the universe
hands you went back and this isdefinitely a case where I got
handed one back

your story, you know, having someone come to you
Say, Hey, you should get an MBAwith this highlights part of my
experience. And what I've seenwith many of the people I've
interview, which is the value ofa business degree. Studying that
was was a major point in mycareer. And it was because a
brother in law, who now ishighly successful with his own

(10:18):
business, made a comment hesaid, you can't go wrong with a
business degree, it's I thinkyou said it's like apple pie,
and Chevy, right? It's alwaysgoing to help you, I can't

agree enough to be honest with you. So when I
look at my trajectory, and Ilook at the trajectory of other
people who have been, have donesomething in the creative arts,
that it is my ability tonegotiate a contract, even read
a contract, and know what theterms are, I made some very key
decisions in my career as anauthor, including keeping the
digital rights for my content,for example, this is very
tactical, but it's a relevantexample. And so at the time that

(10:49):
digital rights are starting tocome out in the publishing
industry, they would offerauthors 25%, of what's called
net receipts. And I rememberhearing that and saying, Well,
who agreed to these terms? Andmy agent at the time said, Well,
we did and I was like, well,who's weak? Because like, I was
not involved in that discussion.
And it's my content. And theysaid, well, the industry has
decided these are the terms.

(11:10):
Well, just for perspective, ittakes about an hour to take a
book and put it up on Amazon asa Kindle product an hour. And so
you're going to lose 75% or moreof your royalties in exchange
for an hour. That's crazy,right? So I had the business
savvy to understand these kindsof things and the courage to say
no, like, I'll just try this onmy own. If it doesn't work out,

(11:30):
I can always go back to them andtake the very bad offer. It

sounds like you have a pattern of speaking up
and arguing for yourself. Wheredoes that come from? Is that
just something that's inherentin you? Or is that something
that you've learned over time?
Yeah,

comes from decades of not doing it and
seeing the negativeconsequences.

I know that part of your story was that you were
in a corporate job before youstarted to pursue traveling? Can
you talk to me a little bitabout that time period? And how
it shaped your perception of theworld today?

Yeah, so one of the great things about getting a
degree from a top tier MBAprogram like Northwestern and
the Kellogg School is that itopens up doorways that otherwise
would not be open for you. Andso I had the opportunity to
enter arenas that I would nothave been asked to enter before
and one of them was the field ofmanagement consulting. And so I
learned a ton, you know, I'd becalled on a random Thursday or

(12:26):
Friday and said, Hey, we needyou to be an expert on
corrugated boxes, Mondaymorning, you're going to be
presenting to the board ofdirectors of this company. And
so it taught me to becourageous. It taught me to, to
believe in the strengths that Ihad, which was I'm a very
creative thinker. And I canconnect the dots on things. And
so when I'm asked to dosomething in an industry I know
nothing about I can be like,alright, well, what do they do

(12:47):
in the radio industry? Like,what did they do in the grocery
industry? What do they do inlarge scale manufacturing? What
do they do in publishing, andtake something creative from
those and apply it to whateverthe client was dealing with? So
yeah, I was very good at it. Butthe thing was, Dave, I didn't
love it. I don't know if you'veever had that experience, I'd be
very curious to hear whereyou're good at a job. But you
don't love the job, you don'tfeel like you have the heart

(13:07):
connection. This isn't where youwant to spend the quality
minutes of your life, you're notfulfilling as I call it in my
books, your PFP your purpose forexisting. Because at the end of
the day, if we're not careful,we end up spending 70% of our
awake life Monday throughFriday, they're at work, getting
to work or thinking about work,and then do that for 40 plus
years only to get to the end andbe like, Hmm, like, yeah, I made

(13:28):
the money I wanted to make. AndI was able to provide for my
family, which is awesome.
Nothing wrong with that. That'sfantastic. But I didn't really
do what I felt was my calling, Ididn't really fulfill my purpose
on the planet. And at the end ofthe day, I do think that there
is a much bigger game than justlike work for 40 years at a
random job. So that was a bigthing. For me, it was looking
deeper than just a paycheck.

I want to pause on that. And I'm putting myself
in the shoes of someonelistening to this. And the
question that comes to my mindis, well, how do I know if I'm
fulfilling my purpose forexisting? How do I even become
aware whether or not that'soccurring? What's that? What
does that feel like to know thatyou're not fulfilling it?

Well, in my case, it was using that
terminology. It's a sense ofunfulfillment. I remember
getting, I'd come back from aweek trip at a client's I'd be
in the cab going back to myplace. And just asking myself,
is this all there is to life?
And so asking those types ofquestions are good indicators
that you're either on their paththat you want to be on or you're
not really there.

I know that you eventually left your job to
pursue traveling. And thatstrikes me is something that's
very difficult to do withfamily. Right? I've got three
children. Now my oldest is 18.
My youngest is 11. But it's hardjust to go on a two week trip.
You left everything and you'relike, I am going to travel the
world extensively. Is that Isthat accurate? Yeah.

So at the time, I did not have my daughter. But
that said, with my daughter sowe took a year and backpacked
around the world when she wasfour and a half. And I think
like most things in life, it'svery easy to find reasons why we
can't do things. And it's alsovery easy to find ways to make
it happen. The trick is to askourselves, what is the

(15:17):
motivation. And for me, I use avery simple concept called
museum day. And it's Imagine ifevery moment of your life was
recorded everything you dideverything you said, all the
places that you went to all theways in which you spent your
time. And then towards the endof your life, a museum is going
to be built to honor you. Only,it's going to show your life
exactly how you lived it. And soif 80% of your life is at this

(15:40):
job that doesn't make youfulfilled or doesn't make you
feel like you've, you know,lived the life you wanted to
live, then there's going to be80% of your museum showing that
there's going to be giant muralsand pictures and videos and
kiosks. And if you love spendingtime with your family, as you
just described, or on aparticular passion or hobby, but
for no matter what reason, youonly spent 2% of your time on

(16:02):
those loves, then no matter howmuch you wished it to be
different, only 2% of yourmuseum will get to be dedicated
towards that. So maybe it's justa few pictures in your exit
door. And so I challenge peopleto say, what would your museum
look like right now, first ofall, and how would it feel for
you, if you keep living life theway you're living? If you got to
the end, and you walk to yourmuseum. And then the real big

(16:25):
aha is what if the humanexperience actually consists of
building our museum every singleday as we do. And then the
afterlife actually consists ofus being the tour guide for our
own museum for all of eternity.
And when you have that context,and frame of reference in mind,
it gives you the courage to dothings that you may not

(16:45):
otherwise have the courage to doa couple of

great tools right there that I really love.
Because I teach the importanceof having a clear vision and
using that museum day tool helpsyou with that visualization and
seeing that in your mind. Andthat's so critical for crafting
a successful life a successfulcareer. I love that philosophy.
So talk to me about the earlyyears of traveling, what you did

(17:10):
what you learned, provide acouple of highlights if you
don't mind.

Yeah, absolutely. So I was in my early
30s a time when most people arenot going to be leaving their
careers. I was doing excellentin my career, I was on my way to
be a partner in the firm I wasat. But I like I said I just
wasn't feeling fulfilled. And soI decided to leave it all behind
and go backpack around theworld, which people you know,
when you're 18 or 19, like,okay, maybe when you're 22, and
you're done with college, you'regonna take a gap year, okay,

(17:35):
people can get around that. Andwhen you're 32, like people look
at you like you're absolutelynuts. I mean, I heard the word
crazy so many times. But youknow, did it anyway. And it was
an absolutely life changingexperience. I had dreamed of
seeing Africa and to be inAfrica, camping among the
animals to be driving my ownlittle vehicle in Africa, seeing
the animals to meet the peopleand cultures from around the

(17:58):
world. It just opened myperspective in so many ways,
including the fact that I hadhad a very well orchestrated,
well mapped out spreadsheet datathat showed when I could retire
and how much money I needed toretire before I left on my trip.
After traveling to work $40 Aday and having the time of my
life, I realized that the restof the world in many places is a

(18:20):
lot cheaper. And yet it's stillextraordinary. And so it just
reframed my mindset about life,my perspective about finances.
And I think that's the case withso many things when we get
outside of our knowledge base inour comfort zone. Like our
perception of how the worldworks can shift dramatically and
instantly, with one small littlechange. And for me, going in

(18:43):
backpacking and seeing the worldwas that change. And so I came
back from that experience. And Ihad a little I actually had a
client contact me shortly beforeI came back and they said, Are
you back yet? They knew I wastraveling. I said no. And they
said, well, we need aconsultant. So are you willing
to come back and do a job and Ihad no, nothing lined up? You
know, I wasn't planning okay,this is what I'm gonna do want
to come back. So I said, Sure.
And so I remember coming back onmy last flight of that

(19:06):
engagement, and thinking tomyself, what would I tell
someone right now is the meaningof life. And then I started to
write something out on theplane. And the next morning I
woke up. And something inside ofme said sit down and start
typing. And so I did that I satdown and started typing. And
over the course of 21 days, alittle story about a cafe in the
middle of the middle of nowhere,which is now called the cafe on

(19:26):
the edge of the world flowedthrough me. I had never written
anything before Dave, I had noplans to be an author. I had no
big like Master dream to be anovelist or anything like that.
But I had traveled the worldwithout the knowledge of how to
speak other languages of whatthe local cultures and customs
were like. And when you do that,one of the best things you can
rely on is your intuition. And Ithink it's a fabulous tool in

(19:49):
business. I think it's afabulous tool in parenting. And
it is a fabulous tool inaligning your life and the
direction that you want it togo. And so when my inner voice
said sit down and type even Ididn't really comprehend why it
was telling me that I sat downand typed. And now here we are.
That book is, like I said, 5million copies sold worldwide 44
languages, like it launchedeverything for me in terms of
what I do.

How did you get that into the hands of a
publisher? Did you get an agent?
What was that process like foryou?

Because of my consulting experience, I knew
how to take a concept and launchit. And so when I when this
story flowed through me over thecourse of 21 days, and it looked
like a book, and it felt like abook, I did two things. One is I
started to research thepublishing industry, like,
alright, what are my optionshere, and I treated it like a
consulting assignment, I said,if I had 72 hours before I
needed to go make a pitch to aboard of directors, I better

(20:38):
learn everything I can. So Itook three days, became an
absolute expert in 72 hours. AndI learned that the options were,
I could either try and get anagent and a publisher, I could
do what was called at the timeprint on demand where they take
anything and like, turn it intoa book. Or I could start my own
company and have my own magazineor have my own publishing
company. And so I was like, I'mgonna do the Oprah route because

(20:58):
the other publisher and theagent route looked like 18
months, and I didn't feel like Ihad 18 months to wait. Within
two and a half months, I had mybook up on Amazon. And then I
was like, alright, so I got abook. I said, Tom, I just had a
manuscript was like, alright, soI got a manuscript, but it's
going to be turned into a book,I need to get publicity like
this goes back to the marketingpiece, how do I take this thing,
and I let the world know that itactually exists? And so I acted

(21:21):
in a fearless fashion. David,I'd be very curious to know if
you have one of these stories inyour life. I'll share it very
briefly, but I think mostentrepreneurs have one like
this. So in my state of completecluelessness about how the
publishing industry worked, Icontacted the magazine that was
like a lifestyle magazine. And Itold the whole story. And I
said, I was wonder if you guyswould do a profile piece about

(21:43):
me, because I like live in thisgeneral area. And the editor had
this long pause. And she waslike, well, we don't really do
that kind of stuff. But I kepttalking to her Dave, and I just
kind of wore her down. Andeventually she said, Okay, you
know, what, just send me thebook. And I was such a complete
amateur, that I said, Well, Iactually don't have a book, can
I send you the manuscript? And Ithink I just asked her and she

(22:06):
was like, Okay, fine, just sendit to me. And so I sent her the
manuscript. So I follow up eightdays later, the phone call, I
get patched through to the adminperson. And then they somehow
they had to have made a mistake,because actually Patch me
through the Editor again. Andshe was like, I'm sorry, you're
who like she had no idea who Iwas, had no recollection of our
previous conversation, clearlyhad not read the book. I hung up

(22:27):
from that I was like, Tang likethat cost me $25. And encourage
us to print this thing. Andclearly, that did not work out.
But Dave, three days later, Iget a phone call. It's this
lady. She says, Hi, this is onso and she said, we need to meet
you. Alright, well, that soundsway more promising than I don't
even know who you are. And so Imet her at this restaurant, I
walk in, I've never met herbefore, she never met me. I sit

(22:50):
down at the table, and heropening words to me are, your
book has changed my life? Wow.
And she went on to tell me thisamazing life story that was her
life story, but how it relatedto the story of the cafe and the
cafe and the edge of the worldand how she had found something
in there. That validated a pieceof her life story that nothing
else had. And that was atremendous big boost for me,
because I was like, Okay, ifthat's the very first person to

(23:12):
ever read this manuscript, likethere's something here and I
should keep going. Yeah,

well, I've said this a few times. But there's
something powerful about beingnaive and full of confidence. So
true. I started my careercoaching businesses when I was
in 98. And I hadn't graduatedfrom college yet. And I was just
like, You know what, I can dothis. And just just went for it,

(23:41):
and somehow was able to convincepeople, you know what, I'm going
to work with you. Let me showyou that I know what I'm talking
about. And then when I do, thenyou can refer me to other
people. Now, I want to point outsomething though, I want to
pause and I apologize if thisquestion puts you on the spot.
I'm starting to feel a littleirony here. Because you wanted

(24:02):
to leave a corporate world youwanted to travel, and you
created a company that puts allof this responsibility on your
shoulders. Right? So how did youor how do you reconcile the two
things?

Yeah, great question. And very intuitive as
well, in terms of my life story.
So at some point as the booktook off, so I needed a website.
I don't know how to do awebsite. So I created a website.
It was horrible, absolutelyhorrible. But nonetheless, like,
despite all of that people werebuying the book and talking
about the book. And so this wasfurther validation. But I was
about a year into it. I had soldover 10,000 copies. We've taken

(24:39):
orders from 24 differentcountries. And I felt like I was
running a company again, to yourpoint, and I felt like my
calling my purpose was to not berunning the company but to be
writing. And so a strange seriesof circumstances but very short
version of this as I ended upgetting picked up by a literary
agent out in New York. And fromthere, she started to sell the

(25:00):
rights internationally, and alsosold it in the US. So I sold it
to a US domestic publisher. Butsix years after that I was
dissatisfied, like they weren'tdoing as good of a job as I had
been doing. And so I took the USrights back, I kept all the
international deals in place,but I took over the rights for
myself. And I found a balance,because at that point, I now had

(25:22):
a little girl. And I found abalance of being the dad that I
wanted to be continuing to writewhen I wanted to write and doing
the publishing stuff. But doingit in a way that allowed me to
have the lifestyle that I wantedto live, including, as I said
earlier, taking my daughter whenshe was four and a half and
backpacking around the world fora year. And it was just having
the awareness and theconsciousness about this is what

(25:43):
my life ideally is going to looklike. And then taking the steps
so that it did look like that.
Because it's very easy to bereactive, like I'm reacting to
whatever's in the inbox, asopposed to No, I will actually
control the inbox and controlthe way that I spend the minutes
of my day. So how

were you able to go back out, right, you're
getting sucked into thiswonderful vortex of selling all
these books, and building thisbusiness. But yet, you
internally know that you want tobe someone who travels and goes
places. So how did you? I guessI'm asking from a logistical
standpoint, how did you makethat happen? Yeah,

I mean, technology continued to evolve,
which made it easier in terms ofI, you know, I could take a
laptop with me and I could bedoing stuff remotely. But having
an eight at the time, enabledher to be working on selling
international deals while I wasout backpacking around the
world. So I think this is one ofthe great things you can look
for as an entrepreneur, nomatter what industry you're in

(26:42):
is, what resource can youpartner with, that can probably
do the job better than you canactually do it, and can do it
while you're off doing whateverit is that you want to be doing.
And that was really the thoughtprocess that I would use to
evaluate all of my decisions.
And that meant, yes, steppingback from things that I couldn't
do and do well, but weren'tgoing to get me to the life that
I most wanted to be doing. I'llsay there's another and we can

(27:04):
go into this in a second. Butknow your numbers is one of the
most important variables ofthriving in the human experience
to me, what does that mean?
Well, if you say to yourself, ifI'm going to have a successful
life, that means that I'm goingto read 250 nights a week with
my kid. That's a number that issuccess to me. If your number is

(27:26):
I want to make $250,000 Thisyear, because if I make that I
can provide for my family andthe way that I want to provide
for them. And that means twovacations a year, and dance
lessons for the girls baseballlessons, whatever the case is,
like all these variables. And ifyou say to yourself, and for
myself, my number is I need twoweeks of alone time or I need 20

(27:49):
minutes per day of meditation,whatever these key variables are
for you know your numbers, andthen honor those numbers.
Because what I've discovered isthat we're in a very interesting
learning construct this cosmicalgorithm of life that we're
operating within. And thisalgorithm is designed to help us
learn and grow. And when we haveclarity about the numbers, the

(28:10):
algorithm will align to assistus in getting those numbers. Now
the interesting thing is, if wedon't honor the numbers, the
algorithm goes, Oh, here's avery interesting life lesson
opportunity for John, or forDave. And so then we will get
the life lesson. And often thelife lesson will appear in ways
that aren't so great. And so onare the numbers. And when you
get to what you want to get to,like, stay there.

And I do want to say this to John, I want to add
to this. It's true that being abusiness owner, being
entrepreneur gives you moreflexibility. Our audience is
maybe some entrepreneurs, Ithink we can still do those
things, I think we can stillstructure our day, we can
delegate a lot more, even if wedon't run a business. And the

(28:54):
best example of that is you buysomething from Uber Eats, and
you're not driving out therephysically someone is going and
getting it and doing it for you.
And now there are so manyopportunities, so many ways to
delegate out parts of our life.
And I think we can ask ourselvesthe question, which of this do I
really need to be doingpersonally, and the things that

(29:16):
you don't need to be doingpersonally find a way to
delegate it to someone elsewho's better at it, who's more
skilled at it. And that helpsyou free up that time, so that
you can get those importantnumbers in your life.
Absolutely.

And all of us are faced with an immense amount
of options for how we can spendour time these days more so than
ever before in human history.
Well, this can either be a greatasset to you living the life
that you want to live or thiscan be the greatest barrier,
because it's so easy to be whatI call pleasantly occupied. You
look at your phone, and an hourgoes by and then oh, you're
rushing around at the end of thenight. So we don't have time to

(29:52):
read tonight. Sorry about that.
Well, if earlier in the day, wehad not been pleasantly occupied
on our phone for an hour doingSomething that really added no
real museum day moments to ourexistence, then maybe we would
have had that hour for thereading time at the end of
night. And so being consciouslyaware of the minutes that we
spend, and the ways in which wespend them, not from a place of

(30:13):
judgment, or like being cruel toourselves, but genuinely asking,
Is this the best use of my time?
You know, one of the one of thequotes that I love more than
almost any is, are the steps I'mtaking today, getting me one
step closer to the life I wantto be living tomorrow,

would you share one of the more memorable places
and situations that you'veexperienced when you've been
traveling the world? Is theresomething that stands out into
your mind with all of thoseamazing trips that you've taken?

There's so many amazing different experiences,
certainly from a place of,there's two that come to mind
instantly. So one is, it givesyou such an unbelievable
perspective about being in astate of gratitude. So I did
nothing to get a passport in thecountry in which I live, I did
nothing to get access to theunbelievable resources and
opportunities and chances togrow. As an individual provide

(31:05):
great schooling for my child, Iwalk into a grocery store,
there's 42 varieties oftoothpaste, 100 varieties of
cereal, and that's just two ofthe, like, 19 aisles in that
store. When you travel theworld, and especially when you
go to third world countries, yourealize what unbelievably
precious gifts those things are.
And I did nothing to deservethem. I just happened to be born

(31:26):
in a place where I was instantlygiven access to that. And that's
very humbling when you travelthe world cup makes you
seriously question whether ornot you deserve that. And if you
don't necessarily deserve it foranything you've done to
contribute to the world, I thinkit pushes you to say, Okay,
well, what can I do to actuallyjustify that? How can I
contribute to help out someoneelse who doesn't have that. And

(31:47):
so that's one of the things thattravel does for you, it just
opens you up to just how easy itis to be in a state of gratitude
for the chances and choiceswe've been given. In addition to
that, I had an experience whereI was almost killed by an upside
down flying car when I was inthe country of South Africa. And
being almost killed reframesyour perspective on many, many

(32:09):
things. Certainly, it challengesyour perception of your own
mortality. But it just, again,causes you to look at life in a
very different way. Andcertainly that experience did
for me,

and what did you change after that experience
occurred?

I think it gave me a perspective about how
fragile and brief life can be.
And I was already out therebackpacking around the world. So
I was doing something that wasin alignment with my purpose by
core desire, which is to be anadventurer to see the world to
make a positive difference. ButI think it just permanently gave
me a museum, a mark in my museumthat I could go back to again,

(32:47):
and again, that reminded me ofjust how potentially fragile and
precious the human experiencesand how fast it can almost end.
And that can be the motivationto then make the tough choices
in life. And that tough choicemight be, you want to move to a
different city or you want toleave a relationship, that's not
a good relationship. Or you wantto leave a job where you've got

(33:08):
a lousy boss and go to a jobthat you feel is more in
alignment with your skills andyour passions and your talents.
But you know, what, you know,and you fear the unknown, and
you need to find the courage totake those kinds of steps. And
so having something like that,that reinforces in you just how
precious and fragile life is,can be the motivation and the
courage to make those kinds oftougher life decisions. And the

(33:29):
cool thing is, the more timesyou make those what seem to be
tough life decisions, the easierit gets to make the next one.
But the first couple are thetough ones.

Yeah, having dealt with my own brush with
death, it's, it really makes youstop and say, what are the
things that I'm doing that don'tmatter? I think that's the
biggest thing to me is creatingthat assessment of saying, you
know, what, I'm doing a lot ofthings that, really, there's no
point in me doing them, and I'mgoing to cut them out of my

(34:01):
life. And simplifying, for mehas been the lesson and the
importance of spending time withmy family and prioritizing them.

What are the new things as you're describing that
reminds me of is the near deathexperience can be one of the
most motivating things possible.
And sort of the traditional oneI remember growing up was like,
oh, yeah, person who was alifetime smoker, and my grandma
was a lifetime smoker died ofcancer from that. But someone
who said, like, I can never stopsmoking, I can never stop
smoking. And then they're on theway to the hospital as they're
having a heart attack. And thenthey decide I'm never smoking

(34:32):
again, right? Or they'restressed out at work and mass or
whatever. And so it's like thisnear death experience gives them
the courage to suddenly make achange that they've known
they've wanted to make for along time. And this is all fine
and well, but the problem withthe near death experiences, you
get very close to death, andsometimes you don't walk away
from that. And what I'vediscovered in life is that there
is an equally powerful presencethat we can have. That's what I

(34:55):
call a near life experience.
That's when you allow yourselfto tell perfection. As close as
you can imagine, that might bejust a day spent, I did these
adventure days with my daughterfrom the time that she was two
until the time that she was 12.
And it was just she and I offdoing an adventure day together.
And we would hit parks and zoosand everything you can imagine
just tons of fun every singleday. And so when you have a near

(35:18):
life experience that is as closeto perfection, as you can
imagine. That is alsotremendously motivating to ask
yourself, How can I have more ofthat in my life, I find it to be
even more motivating your death.
And the good thing is, you don'tget close to death. And so my
great challenge to everybody isallow yourself to carve out

(35:39):
blocks of time that you dedicateto having these near life
experiences as close toperfection as possible. And see
how that motivates you to havemore and more and more of those
in your existence.

It's a beautiful way to put that thank you for
sharing that haven't put her toput that way. But that's, that's
super valuable, create near lifeexperiences that are close to
perfection. How are youstructuring things today? Are
you still traveling? How are youbuilding your life right now?

Yeah, the interesting thing about the
human experience is just howmuch it is constantly changing.
And so when my daughter waslittle, it was easy. Now she's a
teenager. And so it's I'mteaching her to drive driving
her places. And so the wholedynamic is changing. And so part
of the human experience isallowing us ourselves to be

(36:29):
appreciative and nostalgic in agood sort of way about the
amazing pieces from the past.
But also embracing that this isthe future. And here's what this
is going to look like. So she'sgot two more years of high
school. And I am fully awarethat in two years, like I'll
never be living with her fulltime again, I won't see her
every morning and tell her Goodmorning, tell her I love her at
the end of every night, it justwon't exist. That's and I want

(36:50):
that I want her to have theseamazing experiences as she grows
up. But it is different. And soI try and hang on tight to the
times that we have together now.
And then I spend the rest of mytime aligning my minutes with
the things that mattered to mealso. And so I still do write, I
have a new book that's comingout in the fall, actually,

what's the title of that book?

That book is called answers. And I took 46 of
the biggest questions peoplehave asked me over the years
about life. And I've come upwith answers for them. Some of
them are more philosophical. Sowhat is the meaning of life?
Some of them are a bit tactical?
How do I deal with depression?
How do I find more happiness inmy life? And some of them are
just unusual and quirky. Theseagain, these are all submitted

(37:34):
by fans. And so is like, Haveyou thought of your own funeral?
Do you ever find inspirationfrom fruits? But bizarrely
enough, because it was it waseasy to look at them and be
like, Alright, I'm not answeringthat one. But then, strangely
enough, as I like thoughtthrough them, I came up with
really interesting answers tothe ones that were very
interesting and bizarre. So itwas a very fun experience to go

(37:55):
through and do that. And so I'llbe on tour in Europe, actually,
in the fall to promote that bookwhen it comes out. And yeah, I
still travel, it's not as easyto travel. Because like I said,
my daughter being in high schoolat this point, it's not like
back when she was younger, andyou can just pluck her out and
go away. But you got to, I thinkthe trick is to find new
interests. She's interested inmarine biology. So we scuba dive
now, which is something that Ihad always wanted to do, and had

(38:18):
never done. And then when COVIDended, I was like, let's go get
scuba certified. And she wasexcited about that. So we did.
That's

great. What a wonderful treasure trove of
memories you've been buildingfor and with your daughter. I
love that. Thanks for sharingthat example.

Do you find that as they get older do you find
you have to be creative andfinding new ways, because
there's things that you love atdifferent phases, and then those
phases go away.

Personally, I work with a therapist, I talked
about how I have the fear ofregret, of missing out on that
time when my children get older.
And he shared something thatreally stuck with me, which is
it's sort of a myth, the ideathat we're not going to have
these times with our kidsanymore. The reality is, the
nature of the relationship willjust change over time. And so we

(39:09):
enjoy what we have now, but alsorecognize that in the future,
maybe we'll be hanging outtogether as adults from time to
time and talking about hischildren and that sort of thing.
And I think that's helped mehave peace. I certainly tried to
create those moments with all ofmy children and with my wife,
but accepting the reality thatthey will change over time and

(39:31):
just enjoying and savoring. Ilove that word, savoring say,
savoring the moments of what wehave right now and then allowing
them to become something else inthe future.

I think that's great. So what about age seven
for anybody who's got kids youalready know this but for
somebody who doesn't like letthis sink in, that by the time
your kid gets to be seven, youprobably won't be able to carry
them anymore. They just get toodarn big. You know the inherited
this little tiny human that fromthe day that they Were born you
are responsible for carryingaround and taking care of. And
there will come a day. Andthere's no big announcement for

(40:06):
this either that like that's thelast time you will pick them up
and carry them. And so as theyget older, there's more and more
of these, and there is a littlebit of mourning, I think that
you look back and say, Geez,I'll never get to do that again.
And I think the only way thatyou can get to that point with
the least regrets possible is toallow yourself to have these
moments you're talking about tobe very conscious as you're

(40:28):
going through the adultexperience. And it's not just
with parenting, it's withfriends. It's with your own life
and the hobbies and passionsthat you have with your parents.
The only way you can get tothose moments and not have
regrets is to have done the workto think about what is it that's
going to make this special andmake it happen. So that when the
end eventually comes up,whatever it is that you got no

(40:48):
regrets.

It's a sobering thought. But I think if we make
it a priority, and I'm a timemanagement guy, from a
structural standpoint, we carveout time to make it happen, then
we will know that we're doingvery best we can love those
moments when they occur. SoJohn, at the end of every
episode, what I like to do is Ilike to help my audience out so

(41:10):
that they take your story andyour example, and they make it a
part of their life. So what I'mgoing to do is I'm going to call
out three potential actions thatsomeone can take, because I'm a
big believer, it's not justabout hearing, it's not just
about learning, it's also aboutdoing. So I want to give three
potential actions that someonecan take this week immediately

(41:30):
today to make your success storypart of their success story. So
I'll share three, then if youwouldn't mind sharing one as
well, I'd appreciate it. Thefirst one. And this has come up
several times, as I mentioned,but I think it's a good thing to
consider is Have you studied orare you studying business. Even

(41:50):
though John story is very muchone of traveling the world and
experiencing new things and notgetting caught in corporate
culture. His background inbusiness is what has enabled him
to make the strategic choiceswith his career with his books,
with everything that he's doing,so that he has the free time so

(42:13):
that he has the income to enjoythose kinds of things. And you
don't have to go back to school,you can just get a book, spend a
little time studying business,and that's going to enrich what
you're doing. Second action. Ilove the idea of the museum. And
taking a moment, you can justpause this week schedule some

(42:34):
time this week, to have a museumday or a museum hour and look at
it and say what are the thingsthat I want to have in my
museum? What's missing? And whatcan I do to add those things to
it? I think it's a it's abrilliant tool for that. The
last one, and this is sort ofpractical is also finding ways
to delegate, finding ways tohave someone else to partner

(42:58):
with you. So think about thethings that you're doing. John,
I use the term most valuableactivities. So you can you
consider what your most valuableactivities are the two things
that you do that are worth themost per hour, everything else
that you do, try to find a wayto delegate it, try to find a
way to get someone else tolighten the burden, so that you
can spend more time on your mostvaluable activities, which will

(43:18):
increase the freedom that youhave in life. So those are my
three, John, what's one actionthat you would suggest?

Yeah, I love those. And so I'm gonna tie into
those, which is, when we'redoing something that we actually
are excited about, it makes itso easy to go through life with
a smile on our face. And I dobelieve that is the whole
purpose. Like I think the goalin winning the game of life is
to spend as many quality minutesdoing the things that you love
to do with the people that youlove to spend time with in the
ways that you love to spend yourtime. And so I would recommend

(43:50):
two parts to this. The firstpart is asking yourself the
question, Why am I here? So inthe cafe on the edge of the
World Book, that's one of thefirst questions that the visitor
to the cafe encounters. There'sthree questions in the cafe
menu. Why am I here? And it waswhen I really started to ask
that question of myself and myexistence that I started to get
clarity that enabled me to makedecisions aligned with that, as

(44:11):
opposed to life controlling mylife, I started to control my
life. And that's a reallypowerful thing. In sequence with
that, we talked a lot aboutmuseum day. So let me tie that
piece together. That's from alittle book that I wrote called
the Big Five for life. And sowhen you have the answer to your
question, why am I here? That'syour purpose. Then ask yourself,
What are the five things I mostwant to do see or experience in

(44:33):
my life before I die, and alignall of your resources, your
time, your energy, youremotions, towards those five
things. And it ties in directlywith your last point, which is
when you do that, it challengesyou to find ways for other
people to do the other things sothat you can focus on what will
create the life that you mostwant to live. It's an incredibly

(44:54):
powerful tool that has beentransformative for me. And I
think about it first thing inthe morning when I wake up last
thing before I go to bed, and itjust makes life so much easier.
Those

are beautiful actions that we can take. Thanks
so much for sharing your wisdomwith us, John, if someone wants
to, and I'm sure most everyoneis going to want to if they want
to follow you, if they want tokeep in touch with what you're
doing, what's the best place forus to send them to to do that?

Yeah, absolutely. So my website is my
name, John straw luckey.com. AndI'm on Instagram, I would highly
recommend follow us onInstagram, I post a lot of
inspirational content on there.
But on the website, there'snumerous articles that I've
written related to specifictopics that I get a lot of
questions about. So feel free touse those resources to help you.
My whole goal is that whoeverlistens to this, who was like, I
really do I really want to getto the end of every day and be

(45:41):
excited about my life like thatI can provide a way to do that.
So whether it's through thebooks, or the articles, or
Instagram, tap into us if that'spart of your goal in life.
Fantastic.

Thank you for coming and being on the show,
John, I really appreciate it.
It's been a pleasure talkingwith you. Same here, Dave,
thanks so much. And thank youeveryone for listening.
Remember, it's not so much aboutthe knowledge that you gained or
what you heard. It's about whatyou do. So please take a moment
today this week to do somethingabout what you heard from John
streleski, and you'll make hissuccess story, a part of your

(46:15):
success story. Thanks forlistening.

Darci Crenshaw (46:25):
You've been listening to the Dave Crenshaw
success show hosted by my dad,Dave Crenshaw, and produced by
invaluable incorporated researchand assistant production by
Victoria Bidez Sound Editing byNick Wright. Voiceover by me
Darci Crenshaw, and the music isby Ryan brainy via pond five

(46:45):
licensing. Please subscribe tothe Dave Crenshaw success show
on Apple podcasts, Spotify,wherever you like to get your
podcasts. If you have asuggestion for someone my dad
might like to interview, pleasesend it to guests at Dave
crenshaw.com and please don'tforget to leave us a five star
review. See you next time.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Adventurous Author, John Strelecky - Bestselling Author & Speaker