In this episode of the Throttle Up Leadership Podcast, host John Dentico welcomes Bogdan Rosu, a high-performance coach and martial artist known for his rapid transformation techniques. Bogdan shares his journey from growing up in a small city in Romania to founding Dragon 88, a community for elite entrepreneurs. He explores the principles of martial arts and how they apply to leadership, decision-making, and overcoming unseen barriers. The discussion also delves into the significance of a compelling mission statement, the power of identity transformation, and the impact of AI on future work environments. The episode wraps up with insights from Bogdan's upcoming book, 'Greatness and Mastery,' which offers key principles for personal and professional development.
00:00 Introduction to Throttle Up Leadership Podcast
00:02 Meet Bogdan Rosu: The Fastest Coach in the World
02:02 Bogdan's Early Life and Martial Arts Journey
04:07 The Birth of Personal Development Through Martial Arts
05:34 The Essence of Fast Coaching
13:24 Leadership Insights and Vision Statements
19:18 The Power of Values and Rapid Prototyping
24:39 Principles from 'Greatness and Mastery'
27:56 Preparing for the Future of Work with AI
30:50 Empowerment and Leadership Dynamics
35:41 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr John Dentico (00:05):
Welcome to the Throttle Up Leadership Podcast.
Our theme for 2025 is The Futureof Work: Meaning is the New Money!
In a world shaped by rapid innovation andconstant change the pursuit of purpose
and impact has never been more important.
I'm Dr John Dentico your host,bringing over 30 years of experience
(00:28):
in leadership, strategic thinkingand purpose-driven innovation.
Here we tackle the pressing challengesof our time-from the rise of
artificial intelligence to the growingneed for meaning in the workplace.
Together we'll uncover how leaderscan ethically integrate AI to enhance
decision-making and keep humanityat the heart of their organizations.
(00:51):
Remember amidst all thetechnological advancements in the
end, it's always about the people.
This podcast is your resource foractionable tools, thought provoking
discussions and inspiring stories.
It's time to go beyond leadershipdevelopment and focus on leadership
(01:11):
impact-creating workplaces where peoplethrive, innovation flourishes and
meaning truly becomes the new currency.
Thank you for joining me on this journey.
Now, let's Throttle Up anddive into today's episode.
Hello and welcome to theThrottle Up Leadership Podcast.
With me today is Bogdan Rosu,the fastest coach in the world.
(01:35):
He's a high performance coach, identitytransformation expert, and martial artist
who helps elite leaders remove deep unseenbarriers in minutes unlocking clarity,
confidence, and effortless leadership.
As the founder of Dragon 88, an inviteonly community for seven to nine figure
(01:57):
entrepreneurs and executives, Bogdanspecializes in helping high level
leaders scale without stress, masterdecision making and lead with precision.
His unique approach blends highperformance coaching, identity
transformation, and martial artsphilosophy, equipping leaders
(02:18):
with the tools to operate attheir peak without burnout.
Bogdan is also the author of an upcomingbook titled Greatness and Mastery: 10
Principles for Martial Arts and PersonalDevelopment for Great and Masterful Life,
where he shares powerful insights onleadership, resilience, and self-mastery.
(02:40):
In an era of rapid AI advancements andshifting business landscapes, Bogdan
teaches leaders how to overcome hiddenmental resistance, operate beyond
survival mode, and harness self-masteryto thrive in the future of work.
His mission is simple, help leaders breakthrough unseen limitations, and lead
(03:03):
with clarity, confidence, and mastery.
And I'm truly pleased to have himhere with me on the podcast today.
Good morning, Bogdon.
How are you?
Bogdan Rosu (03:12):
Hi, John, and thank you for, the introduction.
I love how you refine,these introductions.
It's way better than, theinformation I sent you.
So much appreciation for that.
I might put it on my LinkedIn andsay, here's what Dr. John had to say.
Dr John Dentico (03:25):
Well, I'll send you a copy.
You can just copy and cut and paste it.
There you go.
So anyway, tell me a little bit aboutyourself, where you grew up and some
of the influences in your early life.
Bogdan Rosu (03:37):
Yeah, great question.
I grew up in a small city inRomania, called Teceu it roughly
translates into some old languageSlavic language because in that part
of the country we have a strongerRussian influence, Slavic influence.
It translates into flow andso it's to flow basically.
(04:00):
And that was interesting because Ibecame really passionate about martial
arts, because of my cousin, he's ablack belt, Han Karate black belt.
He said he used to be,but I don't believe him.
It's yeah, you are,you are or you're not.
And he's definitely still got it.
I started training martial arts when Iwas 13, so really fell in love with it.
(04:22):
I just couldn't relate to people,watching soccer, football in Romania,
that's the biggest, sport here.
It was always pulled to thisthing that, it's not just
physical, it was also mental.
My karate teacher back then had ahuge influence on me because he was
interested in so many different,areas of life like nutrition.
(04:46):
He was a biology teacher working forthe municipality and teaching karate.
Later when I went for college inGreece, I studied hotel management.
That's when I found Wing Chun.
The martial art that Bruce Lee startedwith all the speed, the power, the one
inch punch he learned from Wing Chun.
And that's when I fell in love evendeeper because Wing Chun is less about
(05:09):
technique and it's all about principle.
A principle you can use with yourarm, you can use with the stick,
you can use it in your business, youcan use it in your relationships.
It's universal, in my second yearof college, somebody got me into
this multi-level marketing business.
(05:30):
I didn't make any money, but I fellin love with personal development.
When I eventually came back to Romania,I combined these two passions, with
the guidance of a mentor and createdthe first personal development through
martial arts, program in the world.
And that was a lot of fun, because wewere taking all these, training our
(05:51):
bodies, but also our minds and thengoing beyond that because the question
was always how do we apply this tobecome more successful at our jobs?
Get out of our shyness, our comfort zonesand, get into relationships, meet more
exciting people, and stuff like that.
The transformations were incredible.
Later I realized that I was actuallymore of a coach than I knew.
(06:15):
Now I'm realizing that I'm more, somethingelse than a coach, that's my journey.
Dr John Dentico (06:20):
Oh, great.
I appreciate that very much.
It's, young influences and justthe things that you learn, right?
There's a saying that everythingyou learn never goes to waste.
It all adds up in, and as you getolder, certainly when you gain that,
that level of wisdom from all thedifferent things that you've done,
there's another great line that the moreyou study something deeply, the more you
(06:44):
see its connection to everything else.
Bogdan Rosu (06:47):
Are you calling me old John?
Dr John Dentico (06:48):
I'm not calling you old.
I wouldn't do that.
Me, I may be calling myself old,but that's beside the point.
But again, it's just astate of mind, isn't it?
So anyway, I appreciate that.
Let me ask you this question.
You're known as thefastest coach in the world.
Can you share what that means andhow your approach helps leaders break
(07:10):
through unseen barriers in minutes?
Bogdan Rosu (07:14):
Well, nobody has, faster hands than me.
No, I'm joking.
The reason why this is not somethingthat came necessarily from myself.
I've never had a client who wasoh my God, you're my first coach.
They all came after having severalmultiple coaches, consultants, mentors,
(07:35):
and kind of getting results, butnot really where they wanted to be.
What they told me was thatI see them at a soul level.
What does that mean?
Because of my martial arts training,these principles in Wing Chun, you
(07:55):
develop this extreme sensitivity.
I just need to feel, touch your hand.
I know when your intention comes tohit me, all I need is the contact.
All I need is the bridge.
Right.
So that's one principle.
The second principle is imagineyou want to hit something.
If you're focused on the target, youare limiting your power, your impact.
(08:18):
So what you want is tofocus behind the target.
So when you're punching, your're,punching through, that's in a sense
the essence of my coaching, because Ican listen to someone for five minutes.
I can already tell what's really goingon, what they're worried about, what's
holding them back, it's a combinationbetween very deep intuitive listening and
(08:42):
seeing what's hidden behind the curtain.
Circling back to my martialarts training, I realized that
everything is yin and yang.
You cannot make a leap forward justthrough mindset alone, you need both
the mindset and the right strategy.
So I spent, more than a decade studyingthe best business leaders and how do they
(09:03):
think, how do they approach business?
What are their principles?
How do they delegate?
How do they hire?
Guess what?
It's different than 99% of the peopleout there, so how do they sell?
How do they market, so on and so forth.
My approach, is, Hey,here's what I'm seeing.
Here's what I think.
You're holding yourself back and Ifeel like this adjustment in your
(09:26):
strategy will lead to a better result.
And usually it takes 10 minutes forthem to be come I, I don't believe it.
This is the biggestbreakthrough I've had in years.
Yeah, course.
Because I actually, listen, I was shockedto see your job as a coach is to listen.
(09:46):
Your job as a leader is to listen,but maybe I had this unfair advantage
of, of listening with my body first.
To then learn to listen with my mind.
Dr John Dentico (09:59):
It is very interesting.
It reminds me, of the times thatI used to do a lot of negotiation
Bogdan Rosu (10:05):
Hmm.
Dr John Dentico (10:05):
Certainly listening is essential in negotiation, when I
was negotiating contracts for a companyI work for, and there was resistance,
for example, or there was thisresistance to a compromise, if you will.
I notice that sometimes and many timesactually the resistance was something
(10:30):
that they considered significant.
And I considered just a bump in theroad you're concerned about that?
Oh, we'll fix that.
And you know, we will writethat into the contract so you
don't have to worry about it.
Oh yeah, no problem.
Everything just flowed right after that.
A lot of times I've found that theperson you're dealing with thinks it's
(10:52):
almost insurmountable but it's reallynot as big as they imagine it to be.
I'd love to get your reflection on that.
Bogdan Rosu (11:04):
A hundred percent.
I'll give you somethingmore visceral in that sense.
This is back when I hadno idea about coaching.
Somebody came to me when Iwas teaching martial arts.
It's like, look, I need your help.
I don't wanna learn martialarts, but I need your help.
Her ex-boyfriend was a student ofmine, she had broken her, I don't
(11:25):
know what this bone is called here,in between the elbow and the shoulder.
She fell and, broke that bone completely.
She had a titanium rod through the bone.
She couldn't even showerconstantly in pain.
And one of the first thing that, again,intuitively felt to do with her was.
Feel the pain, like really feelit in every cell of your body.
(11:50):
Once she got overwhelmed, shestarted crying and then I said,
now make yourself bigger than thepain that night she showered for
the first time in weeks by herself.
A few weeks later, she went to her doctor.
Her doctor was like, I don't knowwhat you're doing, but keep doing it.
(12:13):
This is to say that we have thishabit of just like you said, making
the small bump bigger than ourselves.
Oh, I don't know how we'reever gonna solve this.
I don't know if I can make this deal.
I don't know if I can make this work.
I don't know if I can applythis to make it work for me.
(12:34):
I don't know if I'm gonna find theright, team member, the team member
that I want, so on and so forth.
We have this habit of makingourselves smaller when in fact
we're like these gigantic beings.
But we're afraid of our power.
We're afraid of who we are becausewe associated with arrogance
and feeling isolated when it'sactually the exact opposite.
Dr John Dentico (12:54):
The human mind is such a wonderful, I I say it's wonderful
and it's messy at the same time.
And, trying to get through those barriers,can be difficult I have learned so
much from my guests, especially thosewho've endured very, very difficult
times, unbelievable challenges.
(13:15):
Never once did I ever hear the whisperof being a victim, they just got up
the next day and tried to figure out.
How they could change their lives.
Two of my guests went toprison for two years and told
me prison saved their lives.
when they got out, they, wereconverted in a sense to I'm gonna
create a better life for myself.
And now they're doing incrediblywell, which I'm glad to see.
(13:38):
They're great people.
It's something I'm really zeroing in onlately myself, and that is hire for heart.
Hire people who've been throughdifficult, complex times because
they know how to solve problems.
They know how to get things done.
They've proven it beyonda shadow of a doubt.
Let's move on in ourquestioning here if we can.
Bogdan Rosu (13:59):
To that point, if I may add, one of the best hiring insights
that I've ever heard was hired theperson who doesn't need the job.
It's it, it's very, very tangential towhat you were sharing because somebody who
went through a powerful transformation,going to prison and oh no, I need, I,
my standards from now on are higher.
(14:19):
Never again.
That person can get any job they want.
Right.
The answer is why would they work for you?
And actually there's many reasons why.
Dr John Dentico (14:31):
They're both entrepreneurs now.
Ones in the medical field.
One's in the financial field.
Made a lot of money when he wasyoung, got mixed up with drugs,
happens and now today he's back inthe game and doing extremely well.
Bogdan Rosu (14:44):
Sales training.
Dr John Dentico (14:44):
What's that?
Bogdan Rosu (14:45):
That's good training.
Dr John Dentico (14:47):
It's good.
I would think it would be, for sure.
Let me, ask you another question.
You've worked with eliteentrepreneurs and executives
inside your Dragon 88 community.
What are the most common leadershipblind spots you see, and how
do they hold leaders back?
What are the things that, keepcoming up, they're the gifts
(15:08):
that keep on giving, so to speak,
Bogdan Rosu (15:11):
yeah.
It, everybody thinks theyhave a marketing, sales,
hiring delegation problem.
They don't.
They all have an identity problem,you still see yourself as the hustler.
You still get a lot out of theidentity of, I'm a problem solver.
(15:31):
I'm a master at marketing.
I am a master sales.
Yes you are.
But so what?
Your next level is not to be amaster, your next level is to be a
master maker or a master recruiter,somebody who can lead masters.
(15:53):
And what's really missing is that theydon't see they're the bottleneck of
the business if people in the businesslook up at you, you're always going
to have to hold them by the hand.
Instead, you want a vision thatis so simple, so exciting, so easy
to share, that they look up at thevision and they give you better
ways of achieving the vision.
(16:14):
There's a reason whyMicrosoft became Microsoft.
They had a very simple,easy to share vision.
A computer on every desk it was insane.
They're huge.
They're expensive.
And now we have computerseverywhere, right?
This is what is required.
Same with SpaceX, right?
That's why Elon, spends a lot oftime optimizing whatever he can.
(16:34):
But the reason why so many genius levelpeople wanna work for SpaceX is because
they're not oh, we're building rockets.
No, we're building aninterplanetary species.
The energy of that is totally different.
Dr John Dentico (16:49):
Yeah, it's very interesting that you mentioned
him because there's a storyI'm trying to run to ground.
I wrote to SpaceX to see if I couldfind out if the story's true, and
the story I heard was there was aguy who worked for SpaceX and he
was married, he had two children,and he decided that he had to leave.
(17:11):
He wasn't spending enough timewith his family, so he left.
He apparently went to Elon or with oneof the senior managers, I have to leave.
I have a wife, two children.
I wanna spend time with him.
So he left.
And he found a great job and hewas doing well and he was home
more often with his family.
About six or seven months later,he called back and he said,
(17:34):
listen, I'd like to come back.
And they said, , wait a minute.
Now you left to be withyour wife and children.
He said, oh yeah, that's great.
He said, but I don'twant to die of boredom.
And I'll tell you lately, I have beenon this kick and really have returned
to this subject with great fervor.
And that is just as you say, thepower of a simple mission statement.
(17:58):
One sentence.
This is who we are.
This is what we do, thisis where we're going.
And within that statement, to ensure thateven if they're implied, the values of
your organization, these are our values.
We're looking for people who cansynchronize, with these values, I
(18:19):
think it's so, so very important.
Yet, many times you'll see missionstatements that are a page long,
five or six paragraphs long.
You go, wait a minute, whatare you people all about?
How do you get people to live it,breathe it, and do it every day?
If it's so complex?
They're trying to be liked by everybody.
They wanna cover the numbers, so to speak.
(18:41):
You just can't do that.
I'd love to get your reflectionon that particular idea.
Bogdan Rosu (18:46):
What I really enjoyed about, your guest form is that you asked about
that, what's your vision statement?
It's, it's the most important thing.
It's whenever I start workingwith someone, this is the
first thing I do with them.
What do you wanna do?
If you can't tell me in four or fivewords, you either don't understand
(19:07):
it or have no idea what you're doingor where you're going, and you're
solving each fire as it shows up.
You don't have a business, you have a job,
Dr John Dentico (19:17):
it's a job right?
Bogdan Rosu (19:18):
Yeah.
Exactly but it's not easy to do.
Right now we have GPT.
We can do it in 20, 30 minutes we canfind something that's workable, first
time I did this with a client, I spent90 minutes with him and his team just
to brainstorm to find something thatclicked it's worth the investment.
It's your North Star.
You wanna be motivated.
But it's there, circling back tomartial arts, there's yin, there's yang.
(19:41):
You're push and pull, if you'reconstantly pushing yourself
towards something, it's exhausting.
But if you have that, whythat is so exciting for you.
It's gonna pull you towards it.
It's an energetic entity.
That thing that why that you've created.
It has pull, it has gravity.
(20:02):
Question is how big is it?
Because the bigger you make it,the more gravity it has and it's
not just gonna pull you, it'sgonna find other people by itself.
This gonna pull them forward,it's even job offers,
responsibilities, role compensation.
(20:23):
You're boring.
These high level people.
You're not standing out with anything.
But if you have that vision statement,start the job offer with the vision
statement, position the values as benefitsof being in the company, instead of, oh,
we value growth, so what everybody else?
No.
Tell me, how am I gonnagrow in your business?
Dr John Dentico (20:45):
Right.
And I think it's become self-evidentin some respects if the mission
statement is set correctly becausepeople will be energized to grow.
The number one thing that people aresearching for my research says, and I've
talked to people all over the world.
Here I'm talking to you in Romania.
(21:06):
I've got someone, in Dubai coming up,Germany, the UK, Australia, Canada, India.
Everybody agrees.
It's the same problem with whomever Italk with, and that is values alignment.
People wanna work for an organizationwhose values are aligned with their
(21:28):
own, and it's important for theorganization, to ensure that its
values are clearly articulated sothat when you bring somebody in,
you're not just hiring a body.
You're hiring a values-based individualwho's gonna contribute to the
(21:49):
organization you are feeding theirenergy, you're feeding their ability to
want to be part of your organization.
I agree with you a hundred percent.
Any reflection on that?
Bogdan Rosu (22:00):
Yeah, people will accept lower pay to anybody saying, oh, I don't
have a budget to hire exceptional people.
It's not the budget,it's your positioning.
How are you presenting the thing,do you want proof that people
will do the job for lesser pay?
Why do star players starttheir own businesses?
Is it because they're gonna make moremoney than their jobs in the first month?
(22:22):
Absolutely not.
But provide them with.
That match where they can feelthat they are the perfect fit.
Providing the environment togrow, to flourish, to be heard,
to be seen in the workplace, tocontribute, to make a difference.
That's the biggest driverfor, high performers.
Dr John Dentico (22:43):
Right.
Bogdan Rosu (22:44):
they will flourish and they will help you flourish.
we need to get the job done.
We need to get the mission done.
What about their mission?
What about their dreams?
Dr John Dentico (22:55):
It has to be one and the same.
You have to create a convergence.
Bogdan Rosu (23:00):
Yeah, and I.
Dr John Dentico (23:01):
Values alignment is so important.
Interestingly enough, the numbertwo requirement for people in this
multi-generational workforce is theywant to be involved in the decision
making processes in the organization.
So it's more than just, I wanna feel likeI'm part of it to, I wanna know, I'm part
of it because you're involved in making,helping to make the decisions that move
(23:25):
the company or the organization forward.
So it's a very, very interesting switch,a different take if you will on things.
Bogdan Rosu (23:34):
I was having a conversation with one of my clients who's leading,
every week there was a new productthat she created that the team
was supposed to market and sell.
And I'm listen.
You're insane, number one, if youthink this is gonna work, number
two, I get that you need thiscreative outlet, but 80% stability
(23:58):
because your team needs stability.
And then 20% of your time,allocate 20% of your budget to
experimenting, to testing out newproduct, ideas and stuff like that.
So the conflict with, okay, butwhat if every high performer, I'm
already feeling into that objection.
What if every high performer has thisopinion about let's go in this direction.
I think this create a 10% fund, a10% experimentation play fund where
(24:24):
they can go out and test this idea,take it to market, or test it out
with a few people in the companycome back to me after a month with
the results and then we'll discuss.
Dr John Dentico (24:33):
Yeah, I am.
Absolutely.
And I've always been this way.
I've absolutely believe in theconcept of rapid prototyping, where
you take a certain amount of money.
It's just, like you said, setit aside use that money to do
experimentation pilot programs.
(24:53):
Let's pilot something.
Let's see what happens.
We're not afraid to lose the money.
We may hit gold we may strike gold,we may find out what doesn't work.
Those kinds of things.
I think, look, all youhave to do is take a step.
Bogdan Rosu (25:07):
R&D
Dr John Dentico (25:09):
Just take a step back and look at Firefly.
We just landed a lander on the MoonFirefly private organization, SpaceX.
Okay.
We're gonna build, thisinterplanetary travel capability.
We know we're gonna fail on the way andwe'll learn from our failures here they
are, leading the whole space world.
(25:34):
It's just incrediblewhy rapid prototyping?
We're not afraid to take some risks.
We're not afraid to make mistakes.
We're not afraid to try somethingnew and see if it works.
It's absolutely mind blowing becomea zealot for rapid prototyping.
No matter what your product or serviceis, no matter what business you're
in, try get something, as you say, putaside some money and see what happens.
(26:00):
Chances are you'll have a shot atstriking Gold, so I appreciate that.
Let me ask you this next question.
Your upcoming book, greatness andMastery Explores Principles for
Martial Arts and Personal Development.
What's one principle from the book thatevery leader should apply immediately?
Bogdan Rosu (26:20):
Be water my friend, the classic Bruce Lee, quote he said
water can flow or it can crash.
Yes.
But water is also consciousness.
It's also life, it's vitality.
You're not just a force of destructionor molding yourself into, a container.
(26:45):
You know who you are.
You are a life giver, and not just ofof the business because you gave life
to your business or to the project.
Be a giver of excitement.
Be a giver of truth, especiallywhen it's uncomfortable, but
do it in an elegant way, right?
(27:05):
We have water, wood, earth,I, I'm mixing them up.
Water, wood, earth, and, fire,water is a lot of circles, right?
So I was telling you in the beginning youcan use a principle in everything, right?
Fire is like, Hey, I think you're wrong.
(27:26):
No, I think you are wrong.
Metal is, Hey, I don't agree with this.
Shut up and do it.
Very militaristic, right?
Whereas water is, I don'tagree with this direction.
Hmm, interesting.
Tell me more.
Why do you believe that?
They're like, well, becausethis, this, this, and that.
(27:47):
Hmm.
That's interesting.
Have you considered this angle?
You're taking energy andredirecting it and playing with it.
This is how you hold yourown in a conversation.
Dr John Dentico (28:01):
Yeah.
I think, we have too manyconversations and not enough dialogue.
You know where dialogue is, theis there's the transference of
meaning where people are open to it.
Bogdan Rosu (28:12):
I think the keys in the word right, because what do you need?
You have to dial, First to have thedialogue, so you need to know the
other person's number or actuallyask where the person number is to
actually have a dialogue first.
Right?
So what's your number?
That's what I'm alwaysasking, like, where are you?
(28:33):
Where are you?
Can I attach that tocreate that connection?
That's the first step I think.
Dr John Dentico (28:38):
I have a friend of mine, good friend of mine, but,
there's no such thing as dialogue.
There's debate
Bogdan Rosu (28:44):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (28:45):
He has to win.
So every time he tries to lureme into one of his things, I'll
just go, I'm not going there.
that's not gonna happen.
I know what the end looks like.
There is no transference here.
No matter what I say, I willnever convince you to take one
step away from your own thoughts.
So it's a very interesting dynamic.
(29:06):
Still a good guy, but not the guy youwant to get into a conversation with.
If he's in debate mode,
Bogdan Rosu (29:12):
yeah, the question is have you really won?
If you still have the same ideas you cameinto the debate with, did you really win?
Dr John Dentico (29:20):
Did you get anything out of it?
Right?
That's exactly right.
Let's talk about AI just for a second.
With ai, rapidly changingindustries, I'm sure you see that.
You talk about the importance ofidentity and self-mastery for leaders.
How should executives preparethemselves mentally and
strategically for the future of work?
Bogdan Rosu (29:43):
Well.
It's with every revolution we thoughtmachines are gonna replace humans.
They didn't.
We just found more creative outlets.
I was listening to thisidea the other day.
It's not that it would replace thejob, it would replace the meaningless.
Repetitive soul crushing jobs.
(30:06):
So I think it's just more spacefor creativity and bringing more
of yourself to the work and havingmore of that, experimentation I
don't think the future is dire.
If we're gonna look at the identity level,are you choosing an identity of fear?
Because that's exactlywhat you're gonna get.
(30:26):
Or are you choosing an identity of welladapt again, going back to be water.
Water adapts it flows withit, so that's one thing.
But here's a question that I would loveto leave your audience with ask yourself.
If you already were that version ofyou that you're aiming towards, let's
(30:47):
say that version of you 10 years fromnow, how would that version of you
approach AI considering that they'vehad the experience, considering that
they've achieved the goal, meaningthat they've learned how to master it,
so how would they approachthis new era of life?
How would that version of you fromthe future approach everything
(31:08):
right now in this moment, you findyourself taking action with a lot
more confidence, wasting a lot lessenergy, and being a lot more impactful.
Dr John Dentico (31:22):
Yeah.
Very interesting take on doing that.
It's like asking yourself, you know,it's an interesting experiment.
I tried on myself many years ago, at atime when I was feeling very insecure
and I said to myself, how do the mostsecure people in the world, feel?
(31:44):
What is it like for them every day?
It's a very interesting experimentand really helped me greatly just
to imagine, imagination is thesingle most powerful force on earth.
Einstein told us that.
So use it.
You don't have to go down tothe local store and buy any.
You got it.
(32:04):
So I remember doing that and it reallyhelped me take a much broader perspective
of things in life where would I be?
What would I think exercises can be?
Very, very helpful.
As we're getting close to the end,I'd like to ask you my world famous
question, and that is, if you hada magic wand and you could change
anything that you see in the area thatyou work, for example, what would that
(32:29):
thing be, and why did you choose that?
Bogdan Rosu (32:33):
It's, really empowerment, if I change that, I would be out of a job and
have to work on something else, which I'mnot opposed to by all means, take it away,
everybody loves to throw this empowermentword, around thinking of the most
confident people in the world, the mostsecure, spoiler alert, they don't exist.
(32:56):
What's the difference?
The difference is that just you'retaking a shower, you're, you're
taking a shower for your mind, right?
So I would say education kids arealready super smart, but having a
higher emphasis on, hey, your mind isyour best friend or your worst enemy.
Be careful, monitor your thoughts,monitor what you're putting inside of you.
(33:19):
That's key I think.
Dr John Dentico (33:21):
Very interesting.
A lot of people don't reallyunderstand what empowerment means.
Bogdan Rosu (33:25):
Hmm.
Dr John Dentico (33:26):
From my perspective, it's become a mega word.
Everybody uses it.
You just get blasted every day withthe word empower, empowerment, there
was a wonderful man by the nameof Charles Handy, one of the best
management thinkers to walk the planet.
He was Peter Drucker'sequivalent in Europe.
I've always been reluctant touse this quote, but I used it
before and here's Handy's quote.
Empowerment is inherentlya contradictory idea.
(33:50):
If power can be bestowed,it can also be taken away.
Therefore represents no power at all.
Bogdan Rosu (33:56):
Ooh,
Dr John Dentico (33:56):
It, it,
Bogdan Rosu (33:58):
I
Dr John Dentico (33:58):
It is at best benevolence, at worst manipulation.
Bogdan Rosu (34:03):
I got goosebumps.
That's so good.
Dr John Dentico (34:06):
And, he offers, another concept called subsidiarity.
You can look up Charles handy.
H-A-N-D-Y.
Subsidiarity is, power is already locatedin the lowest point in the organization.
You have to give power.
Power is is there already.
Power is with the people, withthe knowledge, the experience, the
(34:28):
background, the thoughts, the ideas.
The problem is that you get amega word like empowerment and
everybody jumps on the train.
Empower, empower, empowerment.
We have empowerment conferences, butpeople don't understand that two other
words you can use that are synonymouswith empowerment is delegation.
(34:49):
And we've been talking about delegationfor 50 years and, permission.
We have to give people permissionto, take something and go do it.
I believe that what peoplereally want is subsidiarity.
The problem is they call it empowerment
it's a great word.
It just flows off the tongue.
It's very sexy, empowerment, butyou gotta be careful what kind
(35:13):
of clothing the wolf is wearing.
You know what I'm saying?
And it goes to the leadershippractices of today.
One of the other things I've talkedabout in the last few months is who's
the smartest person in the room?
If you get a group of people together,say, who's the smartest person CEO?
Maybe CFO.
Maybe.
How about the 26 or 27-year-oldperson who's prompting AI four to
(35:38):
six hours a day universal reachacross information and knowledge.
That person may be thesmartest person in the room.
So how do we invite them into a process?
How do we create a leadership dynamicthat allows them to fully participate
in what we're doing in the organization?
(35:59):
Any thoughts on that?
Bogdan Rosu (36:01):
Yes.
I was paralleling from the organizationto the individual, level as well.
That's so cool.
I always, describe this tomy clients leadership is not
follow the follow my lead.
Leadership is when the marketingexpert is talking, everybody shuts
(36:22):
up and listens and takes notes.
When the cleaning staff is talking,you shut up and take notes,
all of these insights add up.
Because we have this hierarchical,idea and, my boss will figure out,
or my boss is a responsibility.
Right now you're the boss.
(36:44):
Let's listen.
How can we do things differently?
I think that's huge.
And the value of this is, it isa skill, because you have to sift
through the nonsense as well.
But at the end of the day,it's worth it, I think.
Dr John Dentico (37:03):
Without a doubt.
It's a changing work world.
It's gonna be very interesting.
Pretty exciting in the years to come.
I want to thank you so verymuch for your time today on the
Throttle Up Leadership Podcast.
I wish you all greatsuccess in the future.
I hope your book sells a millioncopies and I wish you the best.
Thank you so very much.
Bogdan Rosu (37:21):
I appreciate you.
Welcome to the Throttle Up Leadership Podcast.
Our theme for 2025 is The Futureof Work: Meaning is the New Money!
In a world shaped by rapid innovation andconstant change the pursuit of purpose
and impact has never been more important.
I'm Dr John Dentico your host,bringing over 30 years of experience
(00:28):
in leadership, strategic thinkingand purpose-driven innovation.
Here we tackle the pressing challengesof our time-from the rise of
artificial intelligence to the growingneed for meaning in the workplace.
Together we'll uncover how leaderscan ethically integrate AI to enhance
decision-making and keep humanityat the heart of their organizations.
(00:51):
Remember amidst all thetechnological advancements in the
end, it's always about the people.
This podcast is your resource foractionable tools, thought provoking
discussions and inspiring stories.
It's time to go beyond leadershipdevelopment and focus on leadership
(01:11):
impact-creating workplaces where peoplethrive, innovation flourishes and
meaning truly becomes the new currency.
Thank you for joining me on this journey.
Now, let's Throttle Up anddive into today's episode.
Hello and welcome to theThrottle Up Leadership Podcast.
With me today is Bogdan Rosu,the fastest coach in the world.
(01:35):
He's a high performance coach, identitytransformation expert, and martial artist
who helps elite leaders remove deep unseenbarriers in minutes unlocking clarity,
confidence, and effortless leadership.
As the founder of Dragon 88, an inviteonly community for seven to nine figure
(01:57):
entrepreneurs and executives, Bogdanspecializes in helping high level
leaders scale without stress, masterdecision making and lead with precision.
His unique approach blends highperformance coaching, identity
transformation, and martial artsphilosophy, equipping leaders
(02:18):
with the tools to operate attheir peak without burnout.
Bogdan is also the author of an upcomingbook titled Greatness and Mastery: 10
Principles for Martial Arts and PersonalDevelopment for Great and Masterful Life,
where he shares powerful insights onleadership, resilience, and self-mastery.
(02:40):
In an era of rapid AI advancements andshifting business landscapes, Bogdan
teaches leaders how to overcome hiddenmental resistance, operate beyond
survival mode, and harness self-masteryto thrive in the future of work.
His mission is simple, help leaders breakthrough unseen limitations, and lead
(03:03):
with clarity, confidence, and mastery.
And I'm truly pleased to have himhere with me on the podcast today.
Good morning, Bogdon.
How are you?
Bogdan Rosu (03:12):
Hi, John, and thank you for, the introduction.
I love how you refine,these introductions.
It's way better than, theinformation I sent you.
So much appreciation for that.
I might put it on my LinkedIn andsay, here's what Dr. John had to say.
Dr John Dentico (03:25):
Well, I'll send you a copy.
You can just copy and cut and paste it.
There you go.
So anyway, tell me a little bit aboutyourself, where you grew up and some
of the influences in your early life.
Bogdan Rosu (03:37):
Yeah, great question.
I grew up in a small city inRomania, called Teceu it roughly
translates into some old languageSlavic language because in that part
of the country we have a strongerRussian influence, Slavic influence.
It translates into flow andso it's to flow basically.
(04:00):
And that was interesting because Ibecame really passionate about martial
arts, because of my cousin, he's ablack belt, Han Karate black belt.
He said he used to be,but I don't believe him.
It's yeah, you are,you are or you're not.
And he's definitely still got it.
I started training martial arts when Iwas 13, so really fell in love with it.
(04:22):
I just couldn't relate to people,watching soccer, football in Romania,
that's the biggest, sport here.
It was always pulled to thisthing that, it's not just
physical, it was also mental.
My karate teacher back then had ahuge influence on me because he was
interested in so many different,areas of life like nutrition.
(04:46):
He was a biology teacher working forthe municipality and teaching karate.
Later when I went for college inGreece, I studied hotel management.
That's when I found Wing Chun.
The martial art that Bruce Lee startedwith all the speed, the power, the one
inch punch he learned from Wing Chun.
And that's when I fell in love evendeeper because Wing Chun is less about
(05:09):
technique and it's all about principle.
A principle you can use with yourarm, you can use with the stick,
you can use it in your business, youcan use it in your relationships.
It's universal, in my second yearof college, somebody got me into
this multi-level marketing business.
(05:30):
I didn't make any money, but I fellin love with personal development.
When I eventually came back to Romania,I combined these two passions, with
the guidance of a mentor and createdthe first personal development through
martial arts, program in the world.
And that was a lot of fun, because wewere taking all these, training our
(05:51):
bodies, but also our minds and thengoing beyond that because the question
was always how do we apply this tobecome more successful at our jobs?
Get out of our shyness, our comfort zonesand, get into relationships, meet more
exciting people, and stuff like that.
The transformations were incredible.
Later I realized that I was actuallymore of a coach than I knew.
(06:15):
Now I'm realizing that I'm more, somethingelse than a coach, that's my journey.
Dr John Dentico (06:20):
Oh, great.
I appreciate that very much.
It's, young influences and justthe things that you learn, right?
There's a saying that everythingyou learn never goes to waste.
It all adds up in, and as you getolder, certainly when you gain that,
that level of wisdom from all thedifferent things that you've done,
there's another great line that the moreyou study something deeply, the more you
(06:44):
see its connection to everything else.
Bogdan Rosu (06:47):
Are you calling me old John?
Dr John Dentico (06:48):
I'm not calling you old.
I wouldn't do that.
Me, I may be calling myself old,but that's beside the point.
But again, it's just astate of mind, isn't it?
So anyway, I appreciate that.
Let me ask you this question.
You're known as thefastest coach in the world.
Can you share what that means andhow your approach helps leaders break
(07:10):
through unseen barriers in minutes?
Bogdan Rosu (07:14):
Well, nobody has, faster hands than me.
No, I'm joking.
The reason why this is not somethingthat came necessarily from myself.
I've never had a client who wasoh my God, you're my first coach.
They all came after having severalmultiple coaches, consultants, mentors,
(07:35):
and kind of getting results, butnot really where they wanted to be.
What they told me was thatI see them at a soul level.
What does that mean?
Because of my martial arts training,these principles in Wing Chun, you
(07:55):
develop this extreme sensitivity.
I just need to feel, touch your hand.
I know when your intention comes tohit me, all I need is the contact.
All I need is the bridge.
Right.
So that's one principle.
The second principle is imagineyou want to hit something.
If you're focused on the target, youare limiting your power, your impact.
(08:18):
So what you want is tofocus behind the target.
So when you're punching, your're,punching through, that's in a sense
the essence of my coaching, because Ican listen to someone for five minutes.
I can already tell what's really goingon, what they're worried about, what's
holding them back, it's a combinationbetween very deep intuitive listening and
(08:42):
seeing what's hidden behind the curtain.
Circling back to my martialarts training, I realized that
everything is yin and yang.
You cannot make a leap forward justthrough mindset alone, you need both
the mindset and the right strategy.
So I spent, more than a decade studyingthe best business leaders and how do they
(09:03):
think, how do they approach business?
What are their principles?
How do they delegate?
How do they hire?
Guess what?
It's different than 99% of the peopleout there, so how do they sell?
How do they market, so on and so forth.
My approach, is, Hey,here's what I'm seeing.
Here's what I think.
You're holding yourself back and Ifeel like this adjustment in your
(09:26):
strategy will lead to a better result.
And usually it takes 10 minutes forthem to be come I, I don't believe it.
This is the biggestbreakthrough I've had in years.
Yeah, course.
Because I actually, listen, I was shockedto see your job as a coach is to listen.
(09:46):
Your job as a leader is to listen,but maybe I had this unfair advantage
of, of listening with my body first.
To then learn to listen with my mind.
Dr John Dentico (09:59):
It is very interesting.
It reminds me, of the times thatI used to do a lot of negotiation
Bogdan Rosu (10:05):
Hmm.
Dr John Dentico (10:05):
Certainly listening is essential in negotiation, when I
was negotiating contracts for a companyI work for, and there was resistance,
for example, or there was thisresistance to a compromise, if you will.
I notice that sometimes and many timesactually the resistance was something
(10:30):
that they considered significant.
And I considered just a bump in theroad you're concerned about that?
Oh, we'll fix that.
And you know, we will writethat into the contract so you
don't have to worry about it.
Oh yeah, no problem.
Everything just flowed right after that.
A lot of times I've found that theperson you're dealing with thinks it's
(10:52):
almost insurmountable but it's reallynot as big as they imagine it to be.
I'd love to get your reflection on that.
Bogdan Rosu (11:04):
A hundred percent.
I'll give you somethingmore visceral in that sense.
This is back when I hadno idea about coaching.
Somebody came to me when Iwas teaching martial arts.
It's like, look, I need your help.
I don't wanna learn martialarts, but I need your help.
Her ex-boyfriend was a student ofmine, she had broken her, I don't
(11:25):
know what this bone is called here,in between the elbow and the shoulder.
She fell and, broke that bone completely.
She had a titanium rod through the bone.
She couldn't even showerconstantly in pain.
And one of the first thing that, again,intuitively felt to do with her was.
Feel the pain, like really feelit in every cell of your body.
(11:50):
Once she got overwhelmed, shestarted crying and then I said,
now make yourself bigger than thepain that night she showered for
the first time in weeks by herself.
A few weeks later, she went to her doctor.
Her doctor was like, I don't knowwhat you're doing, but keep doing it.
(12:13):
This is to say that we have thishabit of just like you said, making
the small bump bigger than ourselves.
Oh, I don't know how we'reever gonna solve this.
I don't know if I can make this deal.
I don't know if I can make this work.
I don't know if I can applythis to make it work for me.
(12:34):
I don't know if I'm gonna find theright, team member, the team member
that I want, so on and so forth.
We have this habit of makingourselves smaller when in fact
we're like these gigantic beings.
But we're afraid of our power.
We're afraid of who we are becausewe associated with arrogance
and feeling isolated when it'sactually the exact opposite.
Dr John Dentico (12:54):
The human mind is such a wonderful, I I say it's wonderful
and it's messy at the same time.
And, trying to get through those barriers,can be difficult I have learned so
much from my guests, especially thosewho've endured very, very difficult
times, unbelievable challenges.
(13:15):
Never once did I ever hear the whisperof being a victim, they just got up
the next day and tried to figure out.
How they could change their lives.
Two of my guests went toprison for two years and told
me prison saved their lives.
when they got out, they, wereconverted in a sense to I'm gonna
create a better life for myself.
And now they're doing incrediblywell, which I'm glad to see.
(13:38):
They're great people.
It's something I'm really zeroing in onlately myself, and that is hire for heart.
Hire people who've been throughdifficult, complex times because
they know how to solve problems.
They know how to get things done.
They've proven it beyonda shadow of a doubt.
Let's move on in ourquestioning here if we can.
Bogdan Rosu (13:59):
To that point, if I may add, one of the best hiring insights
that I've ever heard was hired theperson who doesn't need the job.
It's it, it's very, very tangential towhat you were sharing because somebody who
went through a powerful transformation,going to prison and oh no, I need, I,
my standards from now on are higher.
(14:19):
Never again.
That person can get any job they want.
Right.
The answer is why would they work for you?
And actually there's many reasons why.
Dr John Dentico (14:31):
They're both entrepreneurs now.
Ones in the medical field.
One's in the financial field.
Made a lot of money when he wasyoung, got mixed up with drugs,
happens and now today he's back inthe game and doing extremely well.
Bogdan Rosu (14:44):
Sales training.
Dr John Dentico (14:44):
What's that?
Bogdan Rosu (14:45):
That's good training.
Dr John Dentico (14:47):
It's good.
I would think it would be, for sure.
Let me, ask you another question.
You've worked with eliteentrepreneurs and executives
inside your Dragon 88 community.
What are the most common leadershipblind spots you see, and how
do they hold leaders back?
What are the things that, keepcoming up, they're the gifts
(15:08):
that keep on giving, so to speak,
Bogdan Rosu (15:11):
yeah.
It, everybody thinks theyhave a marketing, sales,
hiring delegation problem.
They don't.
They all have an identity problem,you still see yourself as the hustler.
You still get a lot out of theidentity of, I'm a problem solver.
(15:31):
I'm a master at marketing.
I am a master sales.
Yes you are.
But so what?
Your next level is not to be amaster, your next level is to be a
master maker or a master recruiter,somebody who can lead masters.
(15:53):
And what's really missing is that theydon't see they're the bottleneck of
the business if people in the businesslook up at you, you're always going
to have to hold them by the hand.
Instead, you want a vision thatis so simple, so exciting, so easy
to share, that they look up at thevision and they give you better
ways of achieving the vision.
(16:14):
There's a reason whyMicrosoft became Microsoft.
They had a very simple,easy to share vision.
A computer on every desk it was insane.
They're huge.
They're expensive.
And now we have computerseverywhere, right?
This is what is required.
Same with SpaceX, right?
That's why Elon, spends a lot oftime optimizing whatever he can.
(16:34):
But the reason why so many genius levelpeople wanna work for SpaceX is because
they're not oh, we're building rockets.
No, we're building aninterplanetary species.
The energy of that is totally different.
Dr John Dentico (16:49):
Yeah, it's very interesting that you mentioned
him because there's a storyI'm trying to run to ground.
I wrote to SpaceX to see if I couldfind out if the story's true, and
the story I heard was there was aguy who worked for SpaceX and he
was married, he had two children,and he decided that he had to leave.
(17:11):
He wasn't spending enough timewith his family, so he left.
He apparently went to Elon or with oneof the senior managers, I have to leave.
I have a wife, two children.
I wanna spend time with him.
So he left.
And he found a great job and hewas doing well and he was home
more often with his family.
About six or seven months later,he called back and he said,
(17:34):
listen, I'd like to come back.
And they said, , wait a minute.
Now you left to be withyour wife and children.
He said, oh yeah, that's great.
He said, but I don'twant to die of boredom.
And I'll tell you lately, I have beenon this kick and really have returned
to this subject with great fervor.
And that is just as you say, thepower of a simple mission statement.
(17:58):
One sentence.
This is who we are.
This is what we do, thisis where we're going.
And within that statement, to ensure thateven if they're implied, the values of
your organization, these are our values.
We're looking for people who cansynchronize, with these values, I
(18:19):
think it's so, so very important.
Yet, many times you'll see missionstatements that are a page long,
five or six paragraphs long.
You go, wait a minute, whatare you people all about?
How do you get people to live it,breathe it, and do it every day?
If it's so complex?
They're trying to be liked by everybody.
They wanna cover the numbers, so to speak.
(18:41):
You just can't do that.
I'd love to get your reflectionon that particular idea.
Bogdan Rosu (18:46):
What I really enjoyed about, your guest form is that you asked about
that, what's your vision statement?
It's, it's the most important thing.
It's whenever I start workingwith someone, this is the
first thing I do with them.
What do you wanna do?
If you can't tell me in four or fivewords, you either don't understand
(19:07):
it or have no idea what you're doingor where you're going, and you're
solving each fire as it shows up.
You don't have a business, you have a job,
Dr John Dentico (19:17):
it's a job right?
Bogdan Rosu (19:18):
Yeah.
Exactly but it's not easy to do.
Right now we have GPT.
We can do it in 20, 30 minutes we canfind something that's workable, first
time I did this with a client, I spent90 minutes with him and his team just
to brainstorm to find something thatclicked it's worth the investment.
It's your North Star.
You wanna be motivated.
But it's there, circling back tomartial arts, there's yin, there's yang.
(19:41):
You're push and pull, if you'reconstantly pushing yourself
towards something, it's exhausting.
But if you have that, whythat is so exciting for you.
It's gonna pull you towards it.
It's an energetic entity.
That thing that why that you've created.
It has pull, it has gravity.
(20:02):
Question is how big is it?
Because the bigger you make it,the more gravity it has and it's
not just gonna pull you, it'sgonna find other people by itself.
This gonna pull them forward,it's even job offers,
responsibilities, role compensation.
(20:23):
You're boring.
These high level people.
You're not standing out with anything.
But if you have that vision statement,start the job offer with the vision
statement, position the values as benefitsof being in the company, instead of, oh,
we value growth, so what everybody else?
No.
Tell me, how am I gonnagrow in your business?
Dr John Dentico (20:45):
Right.
And I think it's become self-evidentin some respects if the mission
statement is set correctly becausepeople will be energized to grow.
The number one thing that people aresearching for my research says, and I've
talked to people all over the world.
Here I'm talking to you in Romania.
(21:06):
I've got someone, in Dubai coming up,Germany, the UK, Australia, Canada, India.
Everybody agrees.
It's the same problem with whomever Italk with, and that is values alignment.
People wanna work for an organizationwhose values are aligned with their
(21:28):
own, and it's important for theorganization, to ensure that its
values are clearly articulated sothat when you bring somebody in,
you're not just hiring a body.
You're hiring a values-based individualwho's gonna contribute to the
(21:49):
organization you are feeding theirenergy, you're feeding their ability to
want to be part of your organization.
I agree with you a hundred percent.
Any reflection on that?
Bogdan Rosu (22:00):
Yeah, people will accept lower pay to anybody saying, oh, I don't
have a budget to hire exceptional people.
It's not the budget,it's your positioning.
How are you presenting the thing,do you want proof that people
will do the job for lesser pay?
Why do star players starttheir own businesses?
Is it because they're gonna make moremoney than their jobs in the first month?
(22:22):
Absolutely not.
But provide them with.
That match where they can feelthat they are the perfect fit.
Providing the environment togrow, to flourish, to be heard,
to be seen in the workplace, tocontribute, to make a difference.
That's the biggest driverfor, high performers.
Dr John Dentico (22:43):
Right.
Bogdan Rosu (22:44):
they will flourish and they will help you flourish.
we need to get the job done.
We need to get the mission done.
What about their mission?
What about their dreams?
Dr John Dentico (22:55):
It has to be one and the same.
You have to create a convergence.
Bogdan Rosu (23:00):
Yeah, and I.
Dr John Dentico (23:01):
Values alignment is so important.
Interestingly enough, the numbertwo requirement for people in this
multi-generational workforce is theywant to be involved in the decision
making processes in the organization.
So it's more than just, I wanna feel likeI'm part of it to, I wanna know, I'm part
of it because you're involved in making,helping to make the decisions that move
(23:25):
the company or the organization forward.
So it's a very, very interesting switch,a different take if you will on things.
Bogdan Rosu (23:34):
I was having a conversation with one of my clients who's leading,
every week there was a new productthat she created that the team
was supposed to market and sell.
And I'm listen.
You're insane, number one, if youthink this is gonna work, number
two, I get that you need thiscreative outlet, but 80% stability
(23:58):
because your team needs stability.
And then 20% of your time,allocate 20% of your budget to
experimenting, to testing out newproduct, ideas and stuff like that.
So the conflict with, okay, butwhat if every high performer, I'm
already feeling into that objection.
What if every high performer has thisopinion about let's go in this direction.
I think this create a 10% fund, a10% experimentation play fund where
(24:24):
they can go out and test this idea,take it to market, or test it out
with a few people in the companycome back to me after a month with
the results and then we'll discuss.
Dr John Dentico (24:33):
Yeah, I am.
Absolutely.
And I've always been this way.
I've absolutely believe in theconcept of rapid prototyping, where
you take a certain amount of money.
It's just, like you said, setit aside use that money to do
experimentation pilot programs.
(24:53):
Let's pilot something.
Let's see what happens.
We're not afraid to lose the money.
We may hit gold we may strike gold,we may find out what doesn't work.
Those kinds of things.
I think, look, all youhave to do is take a step.
Bogdan Rosu (25:07):
R&D
Dr John Dentico (25:09):
Just take a step back and look at Firefly.
We just landed a lander on the MoonFirefly private organization, SpaceX.
Okay.
We're gonna build, thisinterplanetary travel capability.
We know we're gonna fail on the way andwe'll learn from our failures here they
are, leading the whole space world.
(25:34):
It's just incrediblewhy rapid prototyping?
We're not afraid to take some risks.
We're not afraid to make mistakes.
We're not afraid to try somethingnew and see if it works.
It's absolutely mind blowing becomea zealot for rapid prototyping.
No matter what your product or serviceis, no matter what business you're
in, try get something, as you say, putaside some money and see what happens.
(26:00):
Chances are you'll have a shot atstriking Gold, so I appreciate that.
Let me ask you this next question.
Your upcoming book, greatness andMastery Explores Principles for
Martial Arts and Personal Development.
What's one principle from the book thatevery leader should apply immediately?
Bogdan Rosu (26:20):
Be water my friend, the classic Bruce Lee, quote he said
water can flow or it can crash.
Yes.
But water is also consciousness.
It's also life, it's vitality.
You're not just a force of destructionor molding yourself into, a container.
(26:45):
You know who you are.
You are a life giver, and not just ofof the business because you gave life
to your business or to the project.
Be a giver of excitement.
Be a giver of truth, especiallywhen it's uncomfortable, but
do it in an elegant way, right?
(27:05):
We have water, wood, earth,I, I'm mixing them up.
Water, wood, earth, and, fire,water is a lot of circles, right?
So I was telling you in the beginning youcan use a principle in everything, right?
Fire is like, Hey, I think you're wrong.
(27:26):
No, I think you are wrong.
Metal is, Hey, I don't agree with this.
Shut up and do it.
Very militaristic, right?
Whereas water is, I don'tagree with this direction.
Hmm, interesting.
Tell me more.
Why do you believe that?
They're like, well, becausethis, this, this, and that.
(27:47):
Hmm.
That's interesting.
Have you considered this angle?
You're taking energy andredirecting it and playing with it.
This is how you hold yourown in a conversation.
Dr John Dentico (28:01):
Yeah.
I think, we have too manyconversations and not enough dialogue.
You know where dialogue is, theis there's the transference of
meaning where people are open to it.
Bogdan Rosu (28:12):
I think the keys in the word right, because what do you need?
You have to dial, First to have thedialogue, so you need to know the
other person's number or actuallyask where the person number is to
actually have a dialogue first.
Right?
So what's your number?
That's what I'm alwaysasking, like, where are you?
(28:33):
Where are you?
Can I attach that tocreate that connection?
That's the first step I think.
Dr John Dentico (28:38):
I have a friend of mine, good friend of mine, but,
there's no such thing as dialogue.
There's debate
Bogdan Rosu (28:44):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (28:45):
He has to win.
So every time he tries to lureme into one of his things, I'll
just go, I'm not going there.
that's not gonna happen.
I know what the end looks like.
There is no transference here.
No matter what I say, I willnever convince you to take one
step away from your own thoughts.
So it's a very interesting dynamic.
(29:06):
Still a good guy, but not the guy youwant to get into a conversation with.
If he's in debate mode,
Bogdan Rosu (29:12):
yeah, the question is have you really won?
If you still have the same ideas you cameinto the debate with, did you really win?
Dr John Dentico (29:20):
Did you get anything out of it?
Right?
That's exactly right.
Let's talk about AI just for a second.
With ai, rapidly changingindustries, I'm sure you see that.
You talk about the importance ofidentity and self-mastery for leaders.
How should executives preparethemselves mentally and
strategically for the future of work?
Bogdan Rosu (29:43):
Well.
It's with every revolution we thoughtmachines are gonna replace humans.
They didn't.
We just found more creative outlets.
I was listening to thisidea the other day.
It's not that it would replace thejob, it would replace the meaningless.
Repetitive soul crushing jobs.
(30:06):
So I think it's just more spacefor creativity and bringing more
of yourself to the work and havingmore of that, experimentation I
don't think the future is dire.
If we're gonna look at the identity level,are you choosing an identity of fear?
Because that's exactlywhat you're gonna get.
(30:26):
Or are you choosing an identity of welladapt again, going back to be water.
Water adapts it flows withit, so that's one thing.
But here's a question that I would loveto leave your audience with ask yourself.
If you already were that version ofyou that you're aiming towards, let's
(30:47):
say that version of you 10 years fromnow, how would that version of you
approach AI considering that they'vehad the experience, considering that
they've achieved the goal, meaningthat they've learned how to master it,
so how would they approachthis new era of life?
How would that version of you fromthe future approach everything
(31:08):
right now in this moment, you findyourself taking action with a lot
more confidence, wasting a lot lessenergy, and being a lot more impactful.
Dr John Dentico (31:22):
Yeah.
Very interesting take on doing that.
It's like asking yourself, you know,it's an interesting experiment.
I tried on myself many years ago, at atime when I was feeling very insecure
and I said to myself, how do the mostsecure people in the world, feel?
(31:44):
What is it like for them every day?
It's a very interesting experimentand really helped me greatly just
to imagine, imagination is thesingle most powerful force on earth.
Einstein told us that.
So use it.
You don't have to go down tothe local store and buy any.
You got it.
(32:04):
So I remember doing that and it reallyhelped me take a much broader perspective
of things in life where would I be?
What would I think exercises can be?
Very, very helpful.
As we're getting close to the end,I'd like to ask you my world famous
question, and that is, if you hada magic wand and you could change
anything that you see in the area thatyou work, for example, what would that
(32:29):
thing be, and why did you choose that?
Bogdan Rosu (32:33):
It's, really empowerment, if I change that, I would be out of a job and
have to work on something else, which I'mnot opposed to by all means, take it away,
everybody loves to throw this empowermentword, around thinking of the most
confident people in the world, the mostsecure, spoiler alert, they don't exist.
(32:56):
What's the difference?
The difference is that just you'retaking a shower, you're, you're
taking a shower for your mind, right?
So I would say education kids arealready super smart, but having a
higher emphasis on, hey, your mind isyour best friend or your worst enemy.
Be careful, monitor your thoughts,monitor what you're putting inside of you.
(33:19):
That's key I think.
Dr John Dentico (33:21):
Very interesting.
A lot of people don't reallyunderstand what empowerment means.
Bogdan Rosu (33:25):
Hmm.
Dr John Dentico (33:26):
From my perspective, it's become a mega word.
Everybody uses it.
You just get blasted every day withthe word empower, empowerment, there
was a wonderful man by the nameof Charles Handy, one of the best
management thinkers to walk the planet.
He was Peter Drucker'sequivalent in Europe.
I've always been reluctant touse this quote, but I used it
before and here's Handy's quote.
Empowerment is inherentlya contradictory idea.
(33:50):
If power can be bestowed,it can also be taken away.
Therefore represents no power at all.
Bogdan Rosu (33:56):
Ooh,
Dr John Dentico (33:56):
It, it,
Bogdan Rosu (33:58):
I
Dr John Dentico (33:58):
It is at best benevolence, at worst manipulation.
Bogdan Rosu (34:03):
I got goosebumps.
That's so good.
Dr John Dentico (34:06):
And, he offers, another concept called subsidiarity.
You can look up Charles handy.
H-A-N-D-Y.
Subsidiarity is, power is already locatedin the lowest point in the organization.
You have to give power.
Power is is there already.
Power is with the people, withthe knowledge, the experience, the
(34:28):
background, the thoughts, the ideas.
The problem is that you get amega word like empowerment and
everybody jumps on the train.
Empower, empower, empowerment.
We have empowerment conferences, butpeople don't understand that two other
words you can use that are synonymouswith empowerment is delegation.
(34:49):
And we've been talking about delegationfor 50 years and, permission.
We have to give people permissionto, take something and go do it.
I believe that what peoplereally want is subsidiarity.
The problem is they call it empowerment
it's a great word.
It just flows off the tongue.
It's very sexy, empowerment, butyou gotta be careful what kind
(35:13):
of clothing the wolf is wearing.
You know what I'm saying?
And it goes to the leadershippractices of today.
One of the other things I've talkedabout in the last few months is who's
the smartest person in the room?
If you get a group of people together,say, who's the smartest person CEO?
Maybe CFO.
Maybe.
How about the 26 or 27-year-oldperson who's prompting AI four to
(35:38):
six hours a day universal reachacross information and knowledge.
That person may be thesmartest person in the room.
So how do we invite them into a process?
How do we create a leadership dynamicthat allows them to fully participate
in what we're doing in the organization?
(35:59):
Any thoughts on that?
Bogdan Rosu (36:01):
Yes.
I was paralleling from the organizationto the individual, level as well.
That's so cool.
I always, describe this tomy clients leadership is not
follow the follow my lead.
Leadership is when the marketingexpert is talking, everybody shuts
(36:22):
up and listens and takes notes.
When the cleaning staff is talking,you shut up and take notes,
all of these insights add up.
Because we have this hierarchical,idea and, my boss will figure out,
or my boss is a responsibility.
Right now you're the boss.
(36:44):
Let's listen.
How can we do things differently?
I think that's huge.
And the value of this is, it isa skill, because you have to sift
through the nonsense as well.
But at the end of the day,it's worth it, I think.
Dr John Dentico (37:03):
Without a doubt.
It's a changing work world.
It's gonna be very interesting.
Pretty exciting in the years to come.
I want to thank you so verymuch for your time today on the
Throttle Up Leadership Podcast.
I wish you all greatsuccess in the future.
I hope your book sells a millioncopies and I wish you the best.
Thank you so very much.
Bogdan Rosu (37:21):
I appreciate you.
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