May 1, 2025 • 44 mins
Episode Description (2000 characters)
This episode of the Stuck In My Mind Podcast marks the return of host Wize El Jefe after a brief hiatus, joined by the insightful Dr. Mark L. Teague. Titled “Traditional Values in Modern Business: Insights from Dr. Mark L. Teague,” the episode dives deep into Dr. Teague’s extraordinary journey from his humble beginnings as a Texas farmhand to becoming a top finance executive, entrepreneur, and author.
Dr. Teague shares vivid stories of his upbringing in rural North Texas, painting a picture of a life defined by hard work, community, and the ethos of “if you don’t work, you don’t eat.” These foundational experiences, rooted in agricultural life, shaped his character and instilled in him core values—honesty, respect, and hard work—that fueled his later success in the complex world of banking and finance.
The conversation explores the challenges Dr. Teague faced while transitioning from the straightforward reward system of rural labor to the intricate, politically-charged environment of corporate America. He discusses the culture shock of encountering corporate trickery and the importance of maintaining personal integrity. Dr. Teague reveals how his academic background in agricultural economics equipped him with critical problem-solving and quantitative skills that allowed him to turn traditional values into practical strategies for building effective teams and business plans.
Throughout the episode, faith emerges as a critical pillar in Dr. Teague’s personal and professional life. He shares how grounding himself in something greater than material success helped him navigate the pressures of leadership. Real-world examples and honest reflections punctuate their discussion—highlighting perseverance, the vital role of mentorship, and the importance of learning from both success and failure.
Listeners receive valuable advice from Dr. Teague on preserving work-life balance, prioritizing family, and building a meaningful legacy. He emphasizes that anyone, regardless of humble beginnings, can achieve lasting success by focusing on principle-driven problem-solving and personal accountability. He introduces his book, “A Working Man’s Guide,” as a blueprint for the working class to marry timeless values with today’s demands.
This episode is a must-listen for leaders, aspiring professionals, and anyone struggling to find meaning and integrity in their work. With heartfelt anecdotes, practical wisdom, and a passionate call to uplift the working class, Dr. Teague reminds us that success isn’t just about climbing the ladder—it’s about staying true to who you are while you rise.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:41):
And welcome to another episode of stuck in my mind
podcast. I am your host, w I z e. It's been a
while. I know I've been out for a month or so. I'm
excited to be back. I'm feeling well.
Everything, surgery and everything went well. So I'm just excited to be
back. So let's just jump right into it. My my next
(01:03):
guest is a seasoned executive, entrepreneur, and author whose remarkable
journey from a humble humble farmhand to a top finance
executive has inspired many. With his PhD
in agricultural economics from Oklahoma State University and a career
spanning decades in the banking and financing industry,
He has become an authority on on navigating today's complex building
(01:26):
business landscape while remaining true to its traditional
values. Welcome to the show, doctor Mark L.
Tighe. Hello. Thank you, sir. Pleasure to be here. Pleasure
is mine. This is actually my first live because I've
I've, I'm I was been recovering from surgery. It's probably been,
like, a month since I did a live, so I'm excited to be back. And
(01:48):
I'm glad you're you're my first guest. So let's let's let's just
get it started. I got some questions and Yes, sir. Let's jump right into
it. Yes, sir. Can can you share the
story of your early life on the farm and how those experiences shaped your work
ethic? Was, amazing, actually. Just think
old America. Seventeen, Eighteen Hundreds America. I grew up,
(02:11):
in North Texas in the Panhandle. My hometown was
Bovina, Texas, near Clovis, Mexico, Hereford, Texas, in that area
near Amarillo and Lubbock. Farm and ranch, background
all the way. That was a homestead community. Most
settlers came in in, early nineteen hundreds. So there was
cowboys before that, native Americans before that. It's,
(02:33):
very much cowboy country. The ranch country. XIT
Ranch was a major institution in that area. And my wife and
I grew up together there. We have a very, traditional,
background. We grew up in the same community. We actually have a
picture of me attending her second birthday party. Not
second grade. She was two years old. So we, we we really did
(02:55):
grow up together. Both families engaged in farm and
ranch, for a living. So very old fashioned
values. The if you don't work, you don't eat ethics and,
very much, making your living off the land. We grew crops,
raised livestock, and and that was our livelihood. Well, we
married in 1986, started a family, had two kids.
(03:18):
And in that, time frame, the farm
economy was very difficult. Cash flow was very tight. You faced a very
tight margins, high risk. So we decided to make a change,
in our livelihood that took us to Oklahoma State University. I
earned a doctorate in, agricultural economics, joined the
banking and finance industry. I dropped the ag part, but I kept the
(03:41):
econ part and built out a, a thirty year
career, twenty five after graduate school, in,
in banking and finance and retired a couple of times
now. So but that early, experience set
our values. It set our our mindset, what we
believed in and, our convictions about,
(04:03):
basic principles and basic character, and then carried
that over into the very, very modern world, very,
corporate ladder and middle management and upper management and
then executive positions. And I retired as a joint c
suite officer. I was chief credit chief operating officer. And then
Melissa and I founded a a couple of companies and and built those
(04:25):
as owners. So we've seen what has really
shaped our view is that old fashioned American
experience and then taking those values into the modern
world. And more specifically, I was
tasked in in many of my jobs with building teams and
leading business plans. And so what I noticed was
(04:48):
what a departure from those old fashioned values
was costing us. It's immense. It's it's huge. So
I had to figure out a way to get those values
applied in a team setting and in the modern,
work environment. And that is what prompted mostly my
book. Took notes on how I did it. I wrote things down, and then I
(05:10):
just turned that into a book. And there are, specific ways
you can apply those old values. And I'm convinced that that
is the secret to American success. We go back to
the old fashioned core values that we know to be true. They're tested. They're
tried. And we apply them in this modern world. I think,
the value from that is immense, and we've lived it. Melissa and I
(05:33):
have done it. So, you can have both roots and wings. You can
have your values steeped in tradition, and then you can fly
as high as you like, and achieve as much as you want
applied in a modern sense. And that's, the heart of our story.
(05:54):
I can't I can't hear you, Will. We got turned up. I muted myself there.
I'm sorry. There we go. What was the most challenging transition you faced
moving from, from a farmhand to a, to a finance
executive? Yeah. Absolutely. It's the work
environment. The incentives are so different. It's
that simple, straightforward, approach,
(06:16):
in the farming in rural America. It really is. If you don't work, you don't
eat it. It's very straightforward. If you don't get your work done in a
quality fashion, you see it right away. You'll see it at the end of
the day. It's right in front of you. Your income, your revenue
suffers immediately. So the incentives are straightforward and
they tie right to the individual. Well, you come into the modern
(06:38):
workforce, in a corporate setting, it's anything
but that. There's every trick in the book, every,
stunt you can, imagine, every relationship trick,
political stunts, and and folks pulling schemes all the
time. That was extremely frustrating to me as
an individual. But through that, I developed a
(07:00):
technique, to address that and I call it the
impact index. It's the way to get down
to fundamental human behavior, get down to what you really need.
And in spite of all the differences that people bring to the workplace,
you can get down to the thing that you need, the thing that binds us
together. That's our plan, our business plan, what you're trying to
(07:22):
achieve, and you can manage behavior to that. That
was my greatest challenge. It was also my greatest discovery,
that, it helped me a great deal, and I I would love to help
others. If you're trying to achieve a goal in these modern times, it it
will be in a team setting. You will work with other people.
Very few things are done, in an individual setting now. It's,
(07:45):
requires a team of people. There's a way to bring people
together and to get what you need in terms of achievement.
Awesome. So so how did your academic journey
in in agriculture con economics influence your
approach to the financial world? Was,
(08:05):
significant. You know, really, in the end, I went to grad school for one reason.
I wanted skills. I wanted a set of skills that
would be unchallenged. Now that's why I went there,
and I got that it, through, the education at Oklahoma State
University. It was a great program. It was steeped in
economic theory and, quantitative methods
(08:28):
tools. So it's essentially applied economics. How do you take,
the science of economics and apply it to solving problems?
And that means theory and quantitative methods. So econometrics,
statistics, optimization, those things are,
many tools were gained there. And then when I went into
industry, so I was a problem solver. I
(08:51):
went for that reason. It turned me into a problem solver. So I
found myself in, the strategy portion of the
banking industry, both, at the individual
consumer level product strategy, how you launch products and,
and how you run your operations to make those work. And then
blending in the corporate strategy, the company strategy. And that's
(09:13):
how I finished my career was a company strategy, basically
build a plan and then execute that plan and deliver the results that
you need. So it was a building block, getting to
that. But the my experience at Oklahoma State gave me the tools,
basically, to make that happen.
(09:33):
What okay. So what what core traditional values have remained
central to your success despite the change in
business landscape? Sure. That's an excellent question.
Let me focus on three. There are several, but I'll start, I'll start
with three. And in the theme of my book, I start with the
concept of problem solving. Those, those,
(09:55):
principles are core. It's like a dividing line issue. It
determines very much determines how successful you're going to be
in life. And then I apply those problem solving techniques to
all the major issues that a working family will face. And
through that, you see several principles being applied.
But there are three that are core that apply in virtually
(10:18):
every situation that you see. And I have to credit my parents. They
taught these to me. They made sure that I knew them with consequence
and that, did them as they taught me. And I accepted those
values as my own. And those three are number one, be
honest. Number two, be respectful. Number
three, work hard. They drove those home and, and,
(10:41):
there there was just no negotiation. It was going to be that way. And I
understood the value of that as I was going through adolescence. And
then in adulthood, I just took those on as my own. And
those three principles have served me very well. And
that's one of the things I noticed in the modern workforce,
a lack of honesty, a lack of just stating
(11:04):
directly what you want to do and understanding what's in
front of you and working honestly and transparently with the people around
you. There was a significant lack in that
and I initially struggled with that because that was just not done.
Where, as I grew up and as a child, you could take it for
granted that people were going to tell you the truth. And I learned
(11:26):
as an adult, well, that's often not the case. They're telling you
something very different, than what, is the truth. So I
learned as a manager to deal with that and and make the truth the
standard that you had to do that. So those three values, I think,
are fundamental core, and we must return to them. The value of
honesty, the value of being respectful, and the value of
(11:48):
hard work. Yeah. I definitely agree with
that. So how do you reconcile the demands of high value
finance with maintaining a a connection to to your roots?
Yeah. That, boy, don't think that's easy.
Don't think you can take that for granted. When you throw yourself into the
modern business world, and, trying to find success,
(12:12):
whether it's working a job, building a company, you're trying
to seek, gain and, economic benefit,
the the, there it's no holds barred. You're gonna find
anything and everything out there, that, will pull
you away from those values. And I have to be openly
and honest and honest with, your audience. Well, the key
(12:35):
for me is the component of faith. You
look beyond yourself. If you just look to
yourself, you are inherently flawed and you will
most likely fail. And you get drawn away. I mean, the
temptations and the pressures are just so strong that
you think you could handle that? I would say you can't. You
(12:57):
you just you're not big enough. You're not strong enough. You're not wise enough.
You don't know enough. You you don't have enough experience. But when
you root yourself in things of faith, you look beyond
yourself. You look to a standard that's bigger than you. You look to things that
are eternal. You look to those bedrock themes, things
that have always been, things that always will be, things that
(13:20):
apply to all peoples in all places, in all times,
all cultures. They transcend the pressures of now.
I found that to be invaluable. Now that is of high
importance. Being rooted and grounded in those things, that's
where those eternal principles come from. And here's a key
point. When you have a toolbox, you have
(13:42):
a set of principles, you know what to understand. You have a toolbox that
is tuned for problem solving. To be a high end
problem solver, you must be a person of principle. If you
try to solve problems and you have no principles involved,
it's like walking into your workshop to create
something and you have no tools. You're at a serious
(14:04):
disadvantage. When you understand principles of life,
fundamental foundational concepts, now you have a set of tools.
You can draw from those to address whatever problem comes your
way. That, that is quite important. And that means taking a
view that's bigger than you. You need to tie into something that
is bigger than yourself. That's quite important.
(14:28):
No. I agree with you 100%. This year, I I've
dedicated myself to to, building my relationship
with building a much better relationship with God, and it's something that I've been
working on since the beginning of the year. Every morning, I I say a
prayer that that I I I had worked on myself,
and and I take time to to to, to honor him. And
(14:49):
and just to every morning, I say my prayer. I
I I meditate, and I just start my day. And so and
since and since and and at the beginning of the year, I actually wrote him
a letter stating what I wanted to come for this year. Instead of
New Year instead of a New Year resolution, I wrote my letter. And Yeah.
Once I wrote that letter, things started happening. Things started falling into
(15:11):
place. Things things just started, manifesting for
me because I I was I I had
opened up that door Yes, sir. And and and and open and let them
in and and started really working on myself knowing that I was
lacking and and and knowing what I was lacking and and
willing to work on work on those things and show that
(15:34):
I'm I'm really ready to to to to
grow and learn and become a much better man and and become the man that
I'm meant to be. Yes, sir. Well, I couldn't say it better.
That's fabulous. That connection to the to the divine, it is
so important. I mean, there's a hole inside of us that you can't fill with
you. We're meant to touch something that's bigger than us.
(15:56):
We're made that way. The human heart is built that way, and that's important. So
when I when we faced, enormous pressures, things we had never seen
before, things that were well outside of our experience,
pressures that, could get to us, it drove us
right back to those fundamental, notions of the
divine. We're created for a higher purpose. We're made.
(16:18):
We're put here for a reason, for a purpose. And then your growth
just explodes. Your mind just can absorb
so much more. Your capacity to handle stress
is so much higher, because you're not depending on
you. You you you know that you're here for a reason and you
live that way. Now that just unlocked so much potential,
(16:40):
that you would never see otherwise. So that that is a very important
point. What were
some of the, early lessons you learned in the bank industry that
still guide you today? Yes. Well, that one is
key. The, team management. It, I would say to anyone
that's young trying to build a career and find
(17:02):
success, here are the key components. You're going to need to
find, some technical skill that is in demand. So just
look at the world around you. Just look at the things that are being done,
things that are being valued. A key point is that, you know, as you sit
there and decide how you want to make a living, how you want to produce
and earn an income, realize that there are some in this
(17:24):
United States, there are some two sixty million consumers.
They have a vote. They have a say. They are the
ones that will determine whether what you want to do adds value. So don't
think you can just sit there by yourself and and craft a plan for
success. You have to pay attention to what's happening around you. You
need to build those skills. And so you build that technical skill.
(17:46):
That is a value. Now add to it, the
soft skills, the management skills, you will
have to have team skills. You can't do things by yourself.
You must be able to function in a team. If you put those two
things together, you will do very well in this economy.
There, there are great rewards waiting on you. Find a
(18:08):
technical skill, become the best and add
team management skills to that team, in a team environment.
You will do very well. There's a lot of money to be made. That was
part of the main thing that I enjoyed growing up in the environment,
on the farm. You know, it's very much individual, effort. You could
go for two weeks and not speak to another person. You're busy with
(18:31):
your work. It's about you and the physical work. And that's that's
very unusual. There's a chain of economic development
that that modern nations go through. I was able
Melissa and I were able my wife were able to touch that in the course
of our career. You go from, you know, the very earliest parts of
humanity. It's, tribal. It's a hunter
(18:53):
gatherer, framework. And then you go agrarian
farming. And then you go the industrial revolution. And then
the service economy and then the knowledge economy. And that's where
we set today. Well, those last three components are only about two
sixty years old. It's about 1760 when, the
industrial revolution started in The United Kingdom. Well,
(19:15):
thousands and thousands, thousands of years before that, it's
dominated by tribal nomadic experience and agrarian.
Well, that's all individual, contribution. Those first
two, you get into this modern world, you start in the, industrial
revolution, well teamwork starts taking over. You have to get
into, factory work. And then when you get into the
(19:38):
service economy, it's formal. Teamwork is demanded.
The knowledge economy, it's even more so. And I see
nothing on the horizon that's going to change that. That is
the march of humanity. That is the path of economic gain
and gain and, in in, increase in
quality of life and in income and wealth. It does. So you don't
(20:00):
going to have to have team skills. And that's the number one thing that I
learned in the change that we had to make was from individual
effort to a team environment. And we learned some key skills
out of that without sacrificing your your values. A
lot of people get into that team environment. You know what they do? They
lie. They try to fool the people around them. They craft some
(20:23):
story that's not true. They pull stunts and,
and shenanigans. They try to deceive the ones around them.
They call that game. That's a mirage. It's going to
fail. You need to be honest. You need to have skills that
actually work. You need to be able to deliver. And Melissa and I
did it that way. We made that transition from individual effort to
(20:45):
a team environment, and we did it with honesty, with integrity, and
with hard work. And that's where I would encourage all those around us.
You do not have to sacrifice your values to succeed
in this modern world. You can hold tight to those traditional
core values and find all the success you want. There is the path that
works. That was probably the number one, lesson that,
(21:08):
that we learned.
Awesome. So can can you describe a turning point in your career when you
realized that that perseverance was the key to to
success? Yes. I think, that came on
of course, we left home where we grew up with that understanding,
(21:29):
but it came home in new ways. I think that really started in graduate
school, and earning a doctorate. And, that
was a challenge unlike we had had up to that point. And,
one of the things that that, would would be
driven home to you is that you have to buckle down, stick
with it, do your very best, and then be happy with that.
(21:51):
It, you don't focus so much on a particular
outcome except for your plan. You're working your plan. The main thing
is do your best. Do your best. That is the
most important thing and be happy with that. And that is part and
parcel to perseverance. You're not going to let pressure get to you. I'm going to
do my my best. I don't care about anything else. I'll do my best and
(22:13):
I'll accept the outcome. And and, that's that's, good enough. That's
all I can do. So that value, came to the
fore and, was very helpful to us.
What role has mentor mentorship played in your journey, and
how do you mentor emerging leaders? Oh, boy.
(22:34):
That, that is an outstanding question.
Let me, it's been interesting.
I've I've had some experiences, over the course of the years
where you would be right next to someone where something has gone very
wrong. It, things did not work out well. I'll give you a
specific example. When I was in graduate school, a
(22:56):
couple of my professors, were very instrumental,
in my development. I learned so much from them. They were highly
influential to me. And both of them, their families fell apart. They were
divorced right there in front of me, And I did not like that at
all that, it they didn't like it. Their their spouses
didn't like it. It was a bad thing all the way around. Nothing,
(23:19):
went well. And but I learned something out of that. As I
watched that happen, it, and in in deep discussion
with both of them, it became evident what you needed to do to
avoid that. And I took that to heart. As I watched that happen, I
realized, you know, I'm gonna face the same choice. I'm
gonna face these same circumstances. As I build out my career, I can
(23:42):
do the same thing. I can make the same mistakes. So I
corrected it right there before it ever happened
by watching other people go through that. And my, my wife and I,
Melissa, I had intentional specific discussions about that.
So that's an excellent example where you get mentored in all kinds of
ways. You know, sometimes it's explicit. You're actually
(24:04):
asked someone to teach you and that happened in school. That happened in the
workplace. But I think most importantly, pay attention.
Look and see what's happening around you. Learn from things,
especially things that don't go as they should. They go
wrong. You know, if you have to personally experience
everything to learn something, that's a hard life. You got a
(24:26):
lot of hard knocks. If you can learn by watching and
listening, you are far better off in life. And I've had that
happen multiple times, actually. It's two,
specific examples where things did got did not go
well. Well, if you'll pay attention and ask questions and listen,
you will learn something that's critical, for your own life as
(24:49):
well. And that happened to me. Those are very important lessons.
How how have you managed to balance, such a
demanding career with your commitment to family and and the
outdoors? That's excellent. I love
that. Without question, that goes back to our earlier
(25:11):
question, you start with faith. Who's
who whose principles are you gonna live by? If you get wrapped up in
selfishness, I don't know that's even possible. I don't
I don't think it would be. You would be so wrapped up in your goals,
so wrapped up in monetary goals and financial material things,
it would be very difficult for a marriage to survive, and for
(25:34):
family to to be first place. But if you commit
yourself to the almighty and you let him set the priorities,
well, he's real clear about that. You know, family is,
he's the one that gave us marriage. He's the one that created the
family. It's of a high importance to him. So
his priorities and his values are going to take root and
(25:57):
take hold and drive your course. I honestly don't
think of my own accord that would have been possible. I
would have gotten so wrapped up in my career and achievement, that
that's all that would have mattered, and my wife and and, children
would have fallen by the wayside. By the way, we're about to celebrate thirty
nine years of marriage, forty two years, together if you include
(26:19):
dating. We have four kids and nine grandchildren, and and it's
a wonderful time with them. I think that all would have been
severely impacted if it weren't for the fact that
God's his rules are the ones that matter. His ideas are
the ones that matter. So we Melissa and I gave ourselves to that
early, and we've kept that commitment, through our entire
(26:41):
life, and and that makes a huge difference. That is a
matter of principle.
Yeah. Congratulations on your on on your thirty nine years of,
of marriage. That's a an amazing accomplishment.
God bless y'all for for such a such a wonderful union that you
have. Thank you, sir.
(27:05):
What what advice do do you have for individuals from humble
beginnings who aspire to be leaders be in a leadership
role? You bet. Here's something that is key.
In writing my book and, in the things that I care about now over
the course of this career, to me, it's all about the working class.
America is a working class nation. It always has been. It
(27:27):
always will be. My passion is to bring success,
to the working class. And one of one key there, I think,
is every every one of your listeners should stick in your mind is you do
not define working class by income.
You need a literal definition. The working class is the
class that is working. And here's the key to that.
(27:51):
Melissa, I've been in a place where we've seen want, we've seen lack,
we've seen very tight, thin budgets, and we've seen very
fat, prosperous, generous budgets. We've seen both. We live
through all of that. And the volatility that comes with
climbing that ladder. It, here's the key.
The principles that drive you, that underpins success are
(28:14):
the same in both places. Whether you have a little
and you're trying to grow it, or you have a lot and you're trying
to maintain it, the core principles underneath that of, of,
responsibility, personal accountability of, being
good stewards, they are the same. They're not different. It's a big
lie that, there's some huge world of difference in the
(28:36):
rich, the poor. We all need to live by the same principles. And if
we do, we all benefit. We all get better. So I would
say to those young ones in your crowd, the
ones starting out, you want to find success,
stop blaming somebody else for your problems. Stop looking for
an answer from someone else. Be responsible. Be
(28:59):
a problem solver. Buckle down and get things done.
And, don't take no for an answer. Set your face on achievement,
marry yourself to principle, marry yourself to something bigger
than you, and you're going to find success and you will keep it. It
will be a permanent. So, but if you, if you don't want to be
a problem solver, if you think problems are a hassle, you're too good for
(29:22):
that. You should not be bothered by those things. Then you're a
child and you're going to suffer loss. You're not ready for adult
life. But if you become a problem solver, you accept, accept
life for what it is. It's a series of problems. It is my
obligation and opportunity to learn how to solve those
problems and reap the rewards. You will find success,
(29:45):
and, you will be a benefit to everyone around
you. Everyone benefits, when we all
approach life that way. But don't, don't look
to blame somebody else because life is hard. That's gonna get you
absolutely nowhere.
(30:07):
You're on mute too, Will. Again, what what is what is one of your
what what what is one of your proudest
professional accomplishments, and and why does it stand out to you?
Well, the, let me go, I'll say two.
Two, meant the most to me. One is when I was young. It's, I
(30:27):
loved high school football. It was, that was my sport. I
played through high school. I gave it up, didn't go to a college. I wanted
to hit the books and focus on career. But when I,
in my senior year of my high school year in football, I
stood by two other athletes. They are the best athletes
I've ever seen and ever played with, and I was honored with all
(30:49):
district honor standing with them. That was my proudest moment, in
that, at that point. That's when I was a a senior in high school.
Now fast forwarding to career,
I would say two two things there. It'd actually be three total. One is when
I was at Oklahoma State University, I was honored as the
graduate student, the best at Oklahoma State, basically.
(31:12):
And that was an open competition with all graduate students.
And I was selected as, as the most as the
highest achievement among those. That meant a lot to me. I worked really
hard in my academic career, and I had several, published
articles of professional referee journal articles, and and I was
honored. That meant a lot to me. And then what we were able to
(31:34):
achieve, in a business plan at my last
engagement, I went private equity, for my last ten years. We
were able to, achieve a high degree of success in building
a company and then selling it. That meant a lot to me. Just the amount
of teamwork involved in that, and the number of people that had
to come together, I was very, very proud to be a part of that. I
(31:56):
had great partners, and we, we accomplished great things. That was
a very proud moment for me. Amazing.
Awesome. Sorry.
What what what advice for leaders who who want to create a
lasting legacy beyond just financial six what advice I'm sorry.
(32:18):
What is your advice for leaders who who wanna create a lasting legacy
beyond just financial success? Yes, sir. Number one, get
over yourself. It's not about you. Get
over yourself. Humility. You have to start right there. It's
about your plan. It's about your business plan, and
you owe your people a very transparent,
(32:40):
honest focus on that plan. Now, if you start with
that, from that premise, now you can start to lead
a team. You can get people joined around
that, to focus in the sense of a true professional.
I have an entire chapter in my book on that. So there are a lot
of details, but the summary is this. You have to get people that are
(33:01):
very diverse, very different backgrounds, entirely different
personalities, different training, different preferences. You need to get
them focused on your plan. The first thing is
honesty and humility. Now you can bring them
together in such a way that they bring their best effort.
They lock arms together and they work on your plan. And
(33:23):
now you're going to leave a legacy that matters. I would say it like
this. If you want to build, if you want to live your life bowing your
knee at the altar of modern culture,
That is a massive colossal waste of time. That is
not a legacy worth leaving. You want to serve something
bigger than you. And the way you do it in the workplace in creating
(33:46):
wealth is you have a plan, a business plan that adds
value, that creates wealth, and you get a very
diverse group of people to lock arms and work on that plan and
achieve those goals. You will get that done. You will leave a
tremendous legacy. You will, you will better a lot of people
around you. You will increase their incomes. You will increase their
(34:07):
wealth. You will allow them to achieve their goals, and you
will have a reputation as an honest,
trustworthy leader. That's what you want. And that it starts
with those things. Those things I just described are not negotiable. Teamwork
is not negotiable. Honesty, transparency, and focus
on your plan is not negotiable. Well, there are many leaders today.
(34:30):
They use deception. They use deceit. They use manipulation.
They spin things around. They think they're really clever. Those are fools.
Need to stop listening to them and stop giving them credence because
they lead us know we're good. Yeah. I agree with that
100%. You've you've mentioned your book, a
(34:50):
a couple of times already. Tell us the title of your book and what inspired
you to to write it. And and have you always wanted to write a book?
For several years now, it really came about through that struggle in my
career and trying to find a way to bring a team together.
That was the core of it. And then I started to understand the,
you know, the the the the path that we had been on
(35:13):
and how what that meant in terms of understanding. So I put
it all together. The book is here. It's, A Working
Man's Guide. And, the website is the same. Just
drop the apostrophe, keep the a, a
workingman'sguide.com. It could be purchased right there. You
can get a paperback, hardback, ebook, and audiobook.
(35:34):
I narrate it myself, actually. It's a nonfiction.
So that, that course of life that Melissa
and I took, is unique in that sense of, it
crosses all of those major,
social, steps that a
developing, economy goes through. We live those and not many
(35:56):
people have that experience. That was a fortune, good
fortune of our circumstance, how we grew up, how our parents raised us, and
then how we pursued a career, after that. And the things
we learned from that, it just struck me that that would be of value,
to a great deal of people. And it really is about the working class,
just your average work a day fellow trying to find something
(36:19):
meaningful, find success, build a family, face the pressures of
life, and keep your integrity in the middle of that. That's who I wrote it
for, and I think that you'll find value in that.
A working man's guide.
Absolutely.
How how how has your journey influenced your your perspective on
(36:41):
the importance of work life balance?
Well, it, I would just say it like this. It has greatly
influenced it. It's, it's steeped it, and it's formed
it, shaped it, and it's crystallized it. It's
like a tempered steel at this point in life. You must
have it, without family, without,
(37:04):
the relationship, with your spouse. What's the point?
I mean, what are you working for anyway? It, that's the reason you
get up and go to work every day. How foolish is it to get up
and go to work and then sacrifice the reason you're getting up and going to
work? That's a very foolish thing to do. It happens often. I
have several, chapters on
(37:26):
on family and I refresh myself on all the statistics.
You know, the lifetime divorce rate, so when a marriage, takes place
and then you follow that over the course of its life, you know, for several
decades, the divorce rate, if you include separation, is right up
around fifty percent. It's forty two to forty five percent outright
divorce and, you add about three or four points, for
(37:49):
separation. So in this modern world, when a
young couple gets married, their odds are about fifty percent.
It's about a coin toss. You know, whether that marriage is going to last a
lifetime and it's those pressures of life, that
come along that drive people apart. Well, why are you
facing life to begin with? It's about family,
(38:11):
but a couple other things that are really important along with those statistics.
First of all, family is irreplaceable. No matter how
much damage we do to it, we go right back to it. People
get divorced and then what do they do? They remarried or they
retreat to some portion of a family, their kids, their their
parents, their, their cousins, their, in laws. You know,
(38:34):
they find some connection because you cannot replace,
family as the social building like it is the fundamental,
piece that is, there's no alternative. So why don't
we, strive to make it as strong as we can? That would be
better because it's gonna be with us one way or another. And another
thing very evident in those statistics is,
(38:56):
it's not a random draw. The number is 50%, but
that's just all marriages and all conditions starting from all places.
If you drill down to the half that don't fail, it's
very clear that there are distinguishing characteristics,
distinguishing choices that cause the marriage not to
fail. So if you make up your mind with that spouse of yours,
(39:19):
you can take that risk of marriage failure down to a very low number. In
fact, you can take it to zero. There are prominent cohorts
of people in, in the modern world today that have
divorce rates of nothing. It, it's because of the way they
live. It's because of the values they espouse and the things
they they, bind themselves to. So there's a lot to be
(39:41):
learned there for sure. The work life
balance, to answer your question directly, it's of high importance. If you don't
have it, your work is going to kill your life. That's
what will happen. And that's very foolish. I mean, just stop and think about
that, how stupid that is. You're working because you want a good
life, but you kill your good life because of your work. That's
(40:03):
that's dumb. Stop and think. Yeah.
It you're absolutely right. What what what do you hope
to be remembered for both as an executive and as a
family man on your Texas ranch? Above
all, an honest man. That that means the more to
me than anything. I call it the way I see it. It,
(40:25):
I say what's on my mind. I strive to be as close to the facts
as possible, and that probably means more to me, than
anything. That's the number one thing. And, you'll you'll have to ask my
wife and my my grandkids. They'll give you
a report card about how I do, but that's the thing that means the most
to me. Oh, man. Oh, amazing. Amazing.
(40:48):
But, doctor Teague, this has been a great conversation. I
I've had a great pleasure talking to you. But we've come to the time where
you get the solo screen and you get to plug away, let everybody find out
again, you can plug with the book, where they can find the book, where they
can find you, everything. Yes, sir. Thank you very
much. Well, one last word, Will. Thank you so
(41:10):
much for having me on your show. I want to add value to your audience.
And for more details and a deep dive into the things we've
discussed, please look up A Working Man's Guide. This is the book
itself. This is the title. The website is just that. Drop
the apostrophe, keep the a aworkingman'sguide.com. You
can purchase straight off of the website. Also look to
(41:33):
Facebook, Doctor. Mark L. Teague or a working man's guide,
his profiles on Facebook. And, you can also purchase on
Amazon. You can purchase on Barnes and Noble, Indigo, indie books,
Books of May, and several other places. But the website is a great
place, to get it right here. Thank you to your audience. I wish
you guys the very the very best. Remember in America, it's
(41:55):
all about the working class. We need to take the working class back to a
place of strength. I have a path. I have a plan
for doing that. Please join me in doing so. Thank you very
much. Thank you, doctor Tee. Like I said, I've
I've had a great time talking to you. You've, you it's been an amazing
amazing conversation. You've dropped some great some great nuggets. I
(42:17):
greatly appreciate you for for spending your time with me here
today. Yeah. But don't leave just yet. Let me close out the
show, and we chat a little bit off the air. But, thank you so much.
This has been great. I I greatly appreciate your time, and, I've
I've learned a lot in this in this in this forty forty five
minutes talking to you. And, and I I thank you once again for your
(42:39):
time and and for really, helping
helping my audience with with with
with because this is a this is something that a lot of Americans
struggle with. It's it's really
like you said, the working man is the backbone of this country, and
and we need to really start focusing on them and and helping them develop and
(43:01):
grow them as well. Yes, sir. I'll be right here.
I'll wait for you, Will, Will. Thanks again. Thank you.
Alright, everybody. Thank you for another great episode.
If you haven't subscribed or liked or anything, please do subscribe. Hit the
notification bell. I greatly appreciate everybody who sent all
the love and and support while I was out. Shout out
(43:24):
to my to my RealWise fan, Papa j, Brandy j. Love you guys.
Shout out to the boss lady. Love you and appreciate you. As
always, big, big shout out to all the essential workers out there. God
bless y'all. Be safe. And and big shout out to to doctor Teague for
coming through and and showing love and and really really dropping
some home run nuggets there. I I really appreciate it. And
(43:46):
you know how your boy wise does it. Peace out.
And welcome to another episode of stuck in my mind
podcast. I am your host, w I z e. It's been a
while. I know I've been out for a month or so. I'm
excited to be back. I'm feeling well.
Everything, surgery and everything went well. So I'm just excited to be
back. So let's just jump right into it. My my next
(01:03):
guest is a seasoned executive, entrepreneur, and author whose remarkable
journey from a humble humble farmhand to a top finance
executive has inspired many. With his PhD
in agricultural economics from Oklahoma State University and a career
spanning decades in the banking and financing industry,
He has become an authority on on navigating today's complex building
(01:26):
business landscape while remaining true to its traditional
values. Welcome to the show, doctor Mark L.
Tighe. Hello. Thank you, sir. Pleasure to be here. Pleasure
is mine. This is actually my first live because I've
I've, I'm I was been recovering from surgery. It's probably been,
like, a month since I did a live, so I'm excited to be back. And
(01:48):
I'm glad you're you're my first guest. So let's let's let's just
get it started. I got some questions and Yes, sir. Let's jump right into
it. Yes, sir. Can can you share the
story of your early life on the farm and how those experiences shaped your work
ethic? Was, amazing, actually. Just think
old America. Seventeen, Eighteen Hundreds America. I grew up,
(02:11):
in North Texas in the Panhandle. My hometown was
Bovina, Texas, near Clovis, Mexico, Hereford, Texas, in that area
near Amarillo and Lubbock. Farm and ranch, background
all the way. That was a homestead community. Most
settlers came in in, early nineteen hundreds. So there was
cowboys before that, native Americans before that. It's,
(02:33):
very much cowboy country. The ranch country. XIT
Ranch was a major institution in that area. And my wife and
I grew up together there. We have a very, traditional,
background. We grew up in the same community. We actually have a
picture of me attending her second birthday party. Not
second grade. She was two years old. So we, we we really did
(02:55):
grow up together. Both families engaged in farm and
ranch, for a living. So very old fashioned
values. The if you don't work, you don't eat ethics and,
very much, making your living off the land. We grew crops,
raised livestock, and and that was our livelihood. Well, we
married in 1986, started a family, had two kids.
(03:18):
And in that, time frame, the farm
economy was very difficult. Cash flow was very tight. You faced a very
tight margins, high risk. So we decided to make a change,
in our livelihood that took us to Oklahoma State University. I
earned a doctorate in, agricultural economics, joined the
banking and finance industry. I dropped the ag part, but I kept the
(03:41):
econ part and built out a, a thirty year
career, twenty five after graduate school, in,
in banking and finance and retired a couple of times
now. So but that early, experience set
our values. It set our our mindset, what we
believed in and, our convictions about,
(04:03):
basic principles and basic character, and then carried
that over into the very, very modern world, very,
corporate ladder and middle management and upper management and
then executive positions. And I retired as a joint c
suite officer. I was chief credit chief operating officer. And then
Melissa and I founded a a couple of companies and and built those
(04:25):
as owners. So we've seen what has really
shaped our view is that old fashioned American
experience and then taking those values into the modern
world. And more specifically, I was
tasked in in many of my jobs with building teams and
leading business plans. And so what I noticed was
(04:48):
what a departure from those old fashioned values
was costing us. It's immense. It's it's huge. So
I had to figure out a way to get those values
applied in a team setting and in the modern,
work environment. And that is what prompted mostly my
book. Took notes on how I did it. I wrote things down, and then I
(05:10):
just turned that into a book. And there are, specific ways
you can apply those old values. And I'm convinced that that
is the secret to American success. We go back to
the old fashioned core values that we know to be true. They're tested. They're
tried. And we apply them in this modern world. I think,
the value from that is immense, and we've lived it. Melissa and I
(05:33):
have done it. So, you can have both roots and wings. You can
have your values steeped in tradition, and then you can fly
as high as you like, and achieve as much as you want
applied in a modern sense. And that's, the heart of our story.
(05:54):
I can't I can't hear you, Will. We got turned up. I muted myself there.
I'm sorry. There we go. What was the most challenging transition you faced
moving from, from a farmhand to a, to a finance
executive? Yeah. Absolutely. It's the work
environment. The incentives are so different. It's
that simple, straightforward, approach,
(06:16):
in the farming in rural America. It really is. If you don't work, you don't
eat it. It's very straightforward. If you don't get your work done in a
quality fashion, you see it right away. You'll see it at the end of
the day. It's right in front of you. Your income, your revenue
suffers immediately. So the incentives are straightforward and
they tie right to the individual. Well, you come into the modern
(06:38):
workforce, in a corporate setting, it's anything
but that. There's every trick in the book, every,
stunt you can, imagine, every relationship trick,
political stunts, and and folks pulling schemes all the
time. That was extremely frustrating to me as
an individual. But through that, I developed a
(07:00):
technique, to address that and I call it the
impact index. It's the way to get down
to fundamental human behavior, get down to what you really need.
And in spite of all the differences that people bring to the workplace,
you can get down to the thing that you need, the thing that binds us
together. That's our plan, our business plan, what you're trying to
(07:22):
achieve, and you can manage behavior to that. That
was my greatest challenge. It was also my greatest discovery,
that, it helped me a great deal, and I I would love to help
others. If you're trying to achieve a goal in these modern times, it it
will be in a team setting. You will work with other people.
Very few things are done, in an individual setting now. It's,
(07:45):
requires a team of people. There's a way to bring people
together and to get what you need in terms of achievement.
Awesome. So so how did your academic journey
in in agriculture con economics influence your
approach to the financial world? Was,
(08:05):
significant. You know, really, in the end, I went to grad school for one reason.
I wanted skills. I wanted a set of skills that
would be unchallenged. Now that's why I went there,
and I got that it, through, the education at Oklahoma State
University. It was a great program. It was steeped in
economic theory and, quantitative methods
(08:28):
tools. So it's essentially applied economics. How do you take,
the science of economics and apply it to solving problems?
And that means theory and quantitative methods. So econometrics,
statistics, optimization, those things are,
many tools were gained there. And then when I went into
industry, so I was a problem solver. I
(08:51):
went for that reason. It turned me into a problem solver. So I
found myself in, the strategy portion of the
banking industry, both, at the individual
consumer level product strategy, how you launch products and,
and how you run your operations to make those work. And then
blending in the corporate strategy, the company strategy. And that's
(09:13):
how I finished my career was a company strategy, basically
build a plan and then execute that plan and deliver the results that
you need. So it was a building block, getting to
that. But the my experience at Oklahoma State gave me the tools,
basically, to make that happen.
(09:33):
What okay. So what what core traditional values have remained
central to your success despite the change in
business landscape? Sure. That's an excellent question.
Let me focus on three. There are several, but I'll start, I'll start
with three. And in the theme of my book, I start with the
concept of problem solving. Those, those,
(09:55):
principles are core. It's like a dividing line issue. It
determines very much determines how successful you're going to be
in life. And then I apply those problem solving techniques to
all the major issues that a working family will face. And
through that, you see several principles being applied.
But there are three that are core that apply in virtually
(10:18):
every situation that you see. And I have to credit my parents. They
taught these to me. They made sure that I knew them with consequence
and that, did them as they taught me. And I accepted those
values as my own. And those three are number one, be
honest. Number two, be respectful. Number
three, work hard. They drove those home and, and,
(10:41):
there there was just no negotiation. It was going to be that way. And I
understood the value of that as I was going through adolescence. And
then in adulthood, I just took those on as my own. And
those three principles have served me very well. And
that's one of the things I noticed in the modern workforce,
a lack of honesty, a lack of just stating
(11:04):
directly what you want to do and understanding what's in
front of you and working honestly and transparently with the people around
you. There was a significant lack in that
and I initially struggled with that because that was just not done.
Where, as I grew up and as a child, you could take it for
granted that people were going to tell you the truth. And I learned
(11:26):
as an adult, well, that's often not the case. They're telling you
something very different, than what, is the truth. So I
learned as a manager to deal with that and and make the truth the
standard that you had to do that. So those three values, I think,
are fundamental core, and we must return to them. The value of
honesty, the value of being respectful, and the value of
(11:48):
hard work. Yeah. I definitely agree with
that. So how do you reconcile the demands of high value
finance with maintaining a a connection to to your roots?
Yeah. That, boy, don't think that's easy.
Don't think you can take that for granted. When you throw yourself into the
modern business world, and, trying to find success,
(12:12):
whether it's working a job, building a company, you're trying
to seek, gain and, economic benefit,
the the, there it's no holds barred. You're gonna find
anything and everything out there, that, will pull
you away from those values. And I have to be openly
and honest and honest with, your audience. Well, the key
(12:35):
for me is the component of faith. You
look beyond yourself. If you just look to
yourself, you are inherently flawed and you will
most likely fail. And you get drawn away. I mean, the
temptations and the pressures are just so strong that
you think you could handle that? I would say you can't. You
(12:57):
you just you're not big enough. You're not strong enough. You're not wise enough.
You don't know enough. You you don't have enough experience. But when
you root yourself in things of faith, you look beyond
yourself. You look to a standard that's bigger than you. You look to things that
are eternal. You look to those bedrock themes, things
that have always been, things that always will be, things that
(13:20):
apply to all peoples in all places, in all times,
all cultures. They transcend the pressures of now.
I found that to be invaluable. Now that is of high
importance. Being rooted and grounded in those things, that's
where those eternal principles come from. And here's a key
point. When you have a toolbox, you have
(13:42):
a set of principles, you know what to understand. You have a toolbox that
is tuned for problem solving. To be a high end
problem solver, you must be a person of principle. If you
try to solve problems and you have no principles involved,
it's like walking into your workshop to create
something and you have no tools. You're at a serious
(14:04):
disadvantage. When you understand principles of life,
fundamental foundational concepts, now you have a set of tools.
You can draw from those to address whatever problem comes your
way. That, that is quite important. And that means taking a
view that's bigger than you. You need to tie into something that
is bigger than yourself. That's quite important.
(14:28):
No. I agree with you 100%. This year, I I've
dedicated myself to to, building my relationship
with building a much better relationship with God, and it's something that I've been
working on since the beginning of the year. Every morning, I I say a
prayer that that I I I had worked on myself,
and and I take time to to to, to honor him. And
(14:49):
and just to every morning, I say my prayer. I
I I meditate, and I just start my day. And so and
since and since and and at the beginning of the year, I actually wrote him
a letter stating what I wanted to come for this year. Instead of
New Year instead of a New Year resolution, I wrote my letter. And Yeah.
Once I wrote that letter, things started happening. Things started falling into
(15:11):
place. Things things just started, manifesting for
me because I I was I I had
opened up that door Yes, sir. And and and and open and let them
in and and started really working on myself knowing that I was
lacking and and and knowing what I was lacking and and
willing to work on work on those things and show that
(15:34):
I'm I'm really ready to to to to
grow and learn and become a much better man and and become the man that
I'm meant to be. Yes, sir. Well, I couldn't say it better.
That's fabulous. That connection to the to the divine, it is
so important. I mean, there's a hole inside of us that you can't fill with
you. We're meant to touch something that's bigger than us.
(15:56):
We're made that way. The human heart is built that way, and that's important. So
when I when we faced, enormous pressures, things we had never seen
before, things that were well outside of our experience,
pressures that, could get to us, it drove us
right back to those fundamental, notions of the
divine. We're created for a higher purpose. We're made.
(16:18):
We're put here for a reason, for a purpose. And then your growth
just explodes. Your mind just can absorb
so much more. Your capacity to handle stress
is so much higher, because you're not depending on
you. You you you know that you're here for a reason and you
live that way. Now that just unlocked so much potential,
(16:40):
that you would never see otherwise. So that that is a very important
point. What were
some of the, early lessons you learned in the bank industry that
still guide you today? Yes. Well, that one is
key. The, team management. It, I would say to anyone
that's young trying to build a career and find
(17:02):
success, here are the key components. You're going to need to
find, some technical skill that is in demand. So just
look at the world around you. Just look at the things that are being done,
things that are being valued. A key point is that, you know, as you sit
there and decide how you want to make a living, how you want to produce
and earn an income, realize that there are some in this
(17:24):
United States, there are some two sixty million consumers.
They have a vote. They have a say. They are the
ones that will determine whether what you want to do adds value. So don't
think you can just sit there by yourself and and craft a plan for
success. You have to pay attention to what's happening around you. You
need to build those skills. And so you build that technical skill.
(17:46):
That is a value. Now add to it, the
soft skills, the management skills, you will
have to have team skills. You can't do things by yourself.
You must be able to function in a team. If you put those two
things together, you will do very well in this economy.
There, there are great rewards waiting on you. Find a
(18:08):
technical skill, become the best and add
team management skills to that team, in a team environment.
You will do very well. There's a lot of money to be made. That was
part of the main thing that I enjoyed growing up in the environment,
on the farm. You know, it's very much individual, effort. You could
go for two weeks and not speak to another person. You're busy with
(18:31):
your work. It's about you and the physical work. And that's that's
very unusual. There's a chain of economic development
that that modern nations go through. I was able
Melissa and I were able my wife were able to touch that in the course
of our career. You go from, you know, the very earliest parts of
humanity. It's, tribal. It's a hunter
(18:53):
gatherer, framework. And then you go agrarian
farming. And then you go the industrial revolution. And then
the service economy and then the knowledge economy. And that's where
we set today. Well, those last three components are only about two
sixty years old. It's about 1760 when, the
industrial revolution started in The United Kingdom. Well,
(19:15):
thousands and thousands, thousands of years before that, it's
dominated by tribal nomadic experience and agrarian.
Well, that's all individual, contribution. Those first
two, you get into this modern world, you start in the, industrial
revolution, well teamwork starts taking over. You have to get
into, factory work. And then when you get into the
(19:38):
service economy, it's formal. Teamwork is demanded.
The knowledge economy, it's even more so. And I see
nothing on the horizon that's going to change that. That is
the march of humanity. That is the path of economic gain
and gain and, in in, increase in
quality of life and in income and wealth. It does. So you don't
(20:00):
going to have to have team skills. And that's the number one thing that I
learned in the change that we had to make was from individual
effort to a team environment. And we learned some key skills
out of that without sacrificing your your values. A
lot of people get into that team environment. You know what they do? They
lie. They try to fool the people around them. They craft some
(20:23):
story that's not true. They pull stunts and,
and shenanigans. They try to deceive the ones around them.
They call that game. That's a mirage. It's going to
fail. You need to be honest. You need to have skills that
actually work. You need to be able to deliver. And Melissa and I
did it that way. We made that transition from individual effort to
(20:45):
a team environment, and we did it with honesty, with integrity, and
with hard work. And that's where I would encourage all those around us.
You do not have to sacrifice your values to succeed
in this modern world. You can hold tight to those traditional
core values and find all the success you want. There is the path that
works. That was probably the number one, lesson that,
(21:08):
that we learned.
Awesome. So can can you describe a turning point in your career when you
realized that that perseverance was the key to to
success? Yes. I think, that came on
of course, we left home where we grew up with that understanding,
(21:29):
but it came home in new ways. I think that really started in graduate
school, and earning a doctorate. And, that
was a challenge unlike we had had up to that point. And,
one of the things that that, would would be
driven home to you is that you have to buckle down, stick
with it, do your very best, and then be happy with that.
(21:51):
It, you don't focus so much on a particular
outcome except for your plan. You're working your plan. The main thing
is do your best. Do your best. That is the
most important thing and be happy with that. And that is part and
parcel to perseverance. You're not going to let pressure get to you. I'm going to
do my my best. I don't care about anything else. I'll do my best and
(22:13):
I'll accept the outcome. And and, that's that's, good enough. That's
all I can do. So that value, came to the
fore and, was very helpful to us.
What role has mentor mentorship played in your journey, and
how do you mentor emerging leaders? Oh, boy.
(22:34):
That, that is an outstanding question.
Let me, it's been interesting.
I've I've had some experiences, over the course of the years
where you would be right next to someone where something has gone very
wrong. It, things did not work out well. I'll give you a
specific example. When I was in graduate school, a
(22:56):
couple of my professors, were very instrumental,
in my development. I learned so much from them. They were highly
influential to me. And both of them, their families fell apart. They were
divorced right there in front of me, And I did not like that at
all that, it they didn't like it. Their their spouses
didn't like it. It was a bad thing all the way around. Nothing,
(23:19):
went well. And but I learned something out of that. As I
watched that happen, it, and in in deep discussion
with both of them, it became evident what you needed to do to
avoid that. And I took that to heart. As I watched that happen, I
realized, you know, I'm gonna face the same choice. I'm
gonna face these same circumstances. As I build out my career, I can
(23:42):
do the same thing. I can make the same mistakes. So I
corrected it right there before it ever happened
by watching other people go through that. And my, my wife and I,
Melissa, I had intentional specific discussions about that.
So that's an excellent example where you get mentored in all kinds of
ways. You know, sometimes it's explicit. You're actually
(24:04):
asked someone to teach you and that happened in school. That happened in the
workplace. But I think most importantly, pay attention.
Look and see what's happening around you. Learn from things,
especially things that don't go as they should. They go
wrong. You know, if you have to personally experience
everything to learn something, that's a hard life. You got a
(24:26):
lot of hard knocks. If you can learn by watching and
listening, you are far better off in life. And I've had that
happen multiple times, actually. It's two,
specific examples where things did got did not go
well. Well, if you'll pay attention and ask questions and listen,
you will learn something that's critical, for your own life as
(24:49):
well. And that happened to me. Those are very important lessons.
How how have you managed to balance, such a
demanding career with your commitment to family and and the
outdoors? That's excellent. I love
that. Without question, that goes back to our earlier
(25:11):
question, you start with faith. Who's
who whose principles are you gonna live by? If you get wrapped up in
selfishness, I don't know that's even possible. I don't
I don't think it would be. You would be so wrapped up in your goals,
so wrapped up in monetary goals and financial material things,
it would be very difficult for a marriage to survive, and for
(25:34):
family to to be first place. But if you commit
yourself to the almighty and you let him set the priorities,
well, he's real clear about that. You know, family is,
he's the one that gave us marriage. He's the one that created the
family. It's of a high importance to him. So
his priorities and his values are going to take root and
(25:57):
take hold and drive your course. I honestly don't
think of my own accord that would have been possible. I
would have gotten so wrapped up in my career and achievement, that
that's all that would have mattered, and my wife and and, children
would have fallen by the wayside. By the way, we're about to celebrate thirty
nine years of marriage, forty two years, together if you include
(26:19):
dating. We have four kids and nine grandchildren, and and it's
a wonderful time with them. I think that all would have been
severely impacted if it weren't for the fact that
God's his rules are the ones that matter. His ideas are
the ones that matter. So we Melissa and I gave ourselves to that
early, and we've kept that commitment, through our entire
(26:41):
life, and and that makes a huge difference. That is a
matter of principle.
Yeah. Congratulations on your on on your thirty nine years of,
of marriage. That's a an amazing accomplishment.
God bless y'all for for such a such a wonderful union that you
have. Thank you, sir.
(27:05):
What what advice do do you have for individuals from humble
beginnings who aspire to be leaders be in a leadership
role? You bet. Here's something that is key.
In writing my book and, in the things that I care about now over
the course of this career, to me, it's all about the working class.
America is a working class nation. It always has been. It
(27:27):
always will be. My passion is to bring success,
to the working class. And one of one key there, I think,
is every every one of your listeners should stick in your mind is you do
not define working class by income.
You need a literal definition. The working class is the
class that is working. And here's the key to that.
(27:51):
Melissa, I've been in a place where we've seen want, we've seen lack,
we've seen very tight, thin budgets, and we've seen very
fat, prosperous, generous budgets. We've seen both. We live
through all of that. And the volatility that comes with
climbing that ladder. It, here's the key.
The principles that drive you, that underpins success are
(28:14):
the same in both places. Whether you have a little
and you're trying to grow it, or you have a lot and you're trying
to maintain it, the core principles underneath that of, of,
responsibility, personal accountability of, being
good stewards, they are the same. They're not different. It's a big
lie that, there's some huge world of difference in the
(28:36):
rich, the poor. We all need to live by the same principles. And if
we do, we all benefit. We all get better. So I would
say to those young ones in your crowd, the
ones starting out, you want to find success,
stop blaming somebody else for your problems. Stop looking for
an answer from someone else. Be responsible. Be
(28:59):
a problem solver. Buckle down and get things done.
And, don't take no for an answer. Set your face on achievement,
marry yourself to principle, marry yourself to something bigger
than you, and you're going to find success and you will keep it. It
will be a permanent. So, but if you, if you don't want to be
a problem solver, if you think problems are a hassle, you're too good for
(29:22):
that. You should not be bothered by those things. Then you're a
child and you're going to suffer loss. You're not ready for adult
life. But if you become a problem solver, you accept, accept
life for what it is. It's a series of problems. It is my
obligation and opportunity to learn how to solve those
problems and reap the rewards. You will find success,
(29:45):
and, you will be a benefit to everyone around
you. Everyone benefits, when we all
approach life that way. But don't, don't look
to blame somebody else because life is hard. That's gonna get you
absolutely nowhere.
(30:07):
You're on mute too, Will. Again, what what is what is one of your
what what what is one of your proudest
professional accomplishments, and and why does it stand out to you?
Well, the, let me go, I'll say two.
Two, meant the most to me. One is when I was young. It's, I
(30:27):
loved high school football. It was, that was my sport. I
played through high school. I gave it up, didn't go to a college. I wanted
to hit the books and focus on career. But when I,
in my senior year of my high school year in football, I
stood by two other athletes. They are the best athletes
I've ever seen and ever played with, and I was honored with all
(30:49):
district honor standing with them. That was my proudest moment, in
that, at that point. That's when I was a a senior in high school.
Now fast forwarding to career,
I would say two two things there. It'd actually be three total. One is when
I was at Oklahoma State University, I was honored as the
graduate student, the best at Oklahoma State, basically.
(31:12):
And that was an open competition with all graduate students.
And I was selected as, as the most as the
highest achievement among those. That meant a lot to me. I worked really
hard in my academic career, and I had several, published
articles of professional referee journal articles, and and I was
honored. That meant a lot to me. And then what we were able to
(31:34):
achieve, in a business plan at my last
engagement, I went private equity, for my last ten years. We
were able to, achieve a high degree of success in building
a company and then selling it. That meant a lot to me. Just the amount
of teamwork involved in that, and the number of people that had
to come together, I was very, very proud to be a part of that. I
(31:56):
had great partners, and we, we accomplished great things. That was
a very proud moment for me. Amazing.
Awesome. Sorry.
What what what advice for leaders who who want to create a
lasting legacy beyond just financial six what advice I'm sorry.
(32:18):
What is your advice for leaders who who wanna create a lasting legacy
beyond just financial success? Yes, sir. Number one, get
over yourself. It's not about you. Get
over yourself. Humility. You have to start right there. It's
about your plan. It's about your business plan, and
you owe your people a very transparent,
(32:40):
honest focus on that plan. Now, if you start with
that, from that premise, now you can start to lead
a team. You can get people joined around
that, to focus in the sense of a true professional.
I have an entire chapter in my book on that. So there are a lot
of details, but the summary is this. You have to get people that are
(33:01):
very diverse, very different backgrounds, entirely different
personalities, different training, different preferences. You need to get
them focused on your plan. The first thing is
honesty and humility. Now you can bring them
together in such a way that they bring their best effort.
They lock arms together and they work on your plan. And
(33:23):
now you're going to leave a legacy that matters. I would say it like
this. If you want to build, if you want to live your life bowing your
knee at the altar of modern culture,
That is a massive colossal waste of time. That is
not a legacy worth leaving. You want to serve something
bigger than you. And the way you do it in the workplace in creating
(33:46):
wealth is you have a plan, a business plan that adds
value, that creates wealth, and you get a very
diverse group of people to lock arms and work on that plan and
achieve those goals. You will get that done. You will leave a
tremendous legacy. You will, you will better a lot of people
around you. You will increase their incomes. You will increase their
(34:07):
wealth. You will allow them to achieve their goals, and you
will have a reputation as an honest,
trustworthy leader. That's what you want. And that it starts
with those things. Those things I just described are not negotiable. Teamwork
is not negotiable. Honesty, transparency, and focus
on your plan is not negotiable. Well, there are many leaders today.
(34:30):
They use deception. They use deceit. They use manipulation.
They spin things around. They think they're really clever. Those are fools.
Need to stop listening to them and stop giving them credence because
they lead us know we're good. Yeah. I agree with that
100%. You've you've mentioned your book, a
(34:50):
a couple of times already. Tell us the title of your book and what inspired
you to to write it. And and have you always wanted to write a book?
For several years now, it really came about through that struggle in my
career and trying to find a way to bring a team together.
That was the core of it. And then I started to understand the,
you know, the the the the path that we had been on
(35:13):
and how what that meant in terms of understanding. So I put
it all together. The book is here. It's, A Working
Man's Guide. And, the website is the same. Just
drop the apostrophe, keep the a, a
workingman'sguide.com. It could be purchased right there. You
can get a paperback, hardback, ebook, and audiobook.
(35:34):
I narrate it myself, actually. It's a nonfiction.
So that, that course of life that Melissa
and I took, is unique in that sense of, it
crosses all of those major,
social, steps that a
developing, economy goes through. We live those and not many
(35:56):
people have that experience. That was a fortune, good
fortune of our circumstance, how we grew up, how our parents raised us, and
then how we pursued a career, after that. And the things
we learned from that, it just struck me that that would be of value,
to a great deal of people. And it really is about the working class,
just your average work a day fellow trying to find something
(36:19):
meaningful, find success, build a family, face the pressures of
life, and keep your integrity in the middle of that. That's who I wrote it
for, and I think that you'll find value in that.
A working man's guide.
Absolutely.
How how how has your journey influenced your your perspective on
(36:41):
the importance of work life balance?
Well, it, I would just say it like this. It has greatly
influenced it. It's, it's steeped it, and it's formed
it, shaped it, and it's crystallized it. It's
like a tempered steel at this point in life. You must
have it, without family, without,
(37:04):
the relationship, with your spouse. What's the point?
I mean, what are you working for anyway? It, that's the reason you
get up and go to work every day. How foolish is it to get up
and go to work and then sacrifice the reason you're getting up and going to
work? That's a very foolish thing to do. It happens often. I
have several, chapters on
(37:26):
on family and I refresh myself on all the statistics.
You know, the lifetime divorce rate, so when a marriage, takes place
and then you follow that over the course of its life, you know, for several
decades, the divorce rate, if you include separation, is right up
around fifty percent. It's forty two to forty five percent outright
divorce and, you add about three or four points, for
(37:49):
separation. So in this modern world, when a
young couple gets married, their odds are about fifty percent.
It's about a coin toss. You know, whether that marriage is going to last a
lifetime and it's those pressures of life, that
come along that drive people apart. Well, why are you
facing life to begin with? It's about family,
(38:11):
but a couple other things that are really important along with those statistics.
First of all, family is irreplaceable. No matter how
much damage we do to it, we go right back to it. People
get divorced and then what do they do? They remarried or they
retreat to some portion of a family, their kids, their their
parents, their, their cousins, their, in laws. You know,
(38:34):
they find some connection because you cannot replace,
family as the social building like it is the fundamental,
piece that is, there's no alternative. So why don't
we, strive to make it as strong as we can? That would be
better because it's gonna be with us one way or another. And another
thing very evident in those statistics is,
(38:56):
it's not a random draw. The number is 50%, but
that's just all marriages and all conditions starting from all places.
If you drill down to the half that don't fail, it's
very clear that there are distinguishing characteristics,
distinguishing choices that cause the marriage not to
fail. So if you make up your mind with that spouse of yours,
(39:19):
you can take that risk of marriage failure down to a very low number. In
fact, you can take it to zero. There are prominent cohorts
of people in, in the modern world today that have
divorce rates of nothing. It, it's because of the way they
live. It's because of the values they espouse and the things
they they, bind themselves to. So there's a lot to be
(39:41):
learned there for sure. The work life
balance, to answer your question directly, it's of high importance. If you don't
have it, your work is going to kill your life. That's
what will happen. And that's very foolish. I mean, just stop and think about
that, how stupid that is. You're working because you want a good
life, but you kill your good life because of your work. That's
(40:03):
that's dumb. Stop and think. Yeah.
It you're absolutely right. What what what do you hope
to be remembered for both as an executive and as a
family man on your Texas ranch? Above
all, an honest man. That that means the more to
me than anything. I call it the way I see it. It,
(40:25):
I say what's on my mind. I strive to be as close to the facts
as possible, and that probably means more to me, than
anything. That's the number one thing. And, you'll you'll have to ask my
wife and my my grandkids. They'll give you
a report card about how I do, but that's the thing that means the most
to me. Oh, man. Oh, amazing. Amazing.
(40:48):
But, doctor Teague, this has been a great conversation. I
I've had a great pleasure talking to you. But we've come to the time where
you get the solo screen and you get to plug away, let everybody find out
again, you can plug with the book, where they can find the book, where they
can find you, everything. Yes, sir. Thank you very
much. Well, one last word, Will. Thank you so
(41:10):
much for having me on your show. I want to add value to your audience.
And for more details and a deep dive into the things we've
discussed, please look up A Working Man's Guide. This is the book
itself. This is the title. The website is just that. Drop
the apostrophe, keep the a aworkingman'sguide.com. You
can purchase straight off of the website. Also look to
(41:33):
Facebook, Doctor. Mark L. Teague or a working man's guide,
his profiles on Facebook. And, you can also purchase on
Amazon. You can purchase on Barnes and Noble, Indigo, indie books,
Books of May, and several other places. But the website is a great
place, to get it right here. Thank you to your audience. I wish
you guys the very the very best. Remember in America, it's
(41:55):
all about the working class. We need to take the working class back to a
place of strength. I have a path. I have a plan
for doing that. Please join me in doing so. Thank you very
much. Thank you, doctor Tee. Like I said, I've
I've had a great time talking to you. You've, you it's been an amazing
amazing conversation. You've dropped some great some great nuggets. I
(42:17):
greatly appreciate you for for spending your time with me here
today. Yeah. But don't leave just yet. Let me close out the
show, and we chat a little bit off the air. But, thank you so much.
This has been great. I I greatly appreciate your time, and, I've
I've learned a lot in this in this in this forty forty five
minutes talking to you. And, and I I thank you once again for your
(42:39):
time and and for really, helping
helping my audience with with with
with because this is a this is something that a lot of Americans
struggle with. It's it's really
like you said, the working man is the backbone of this country, and
and we need to really start focusing on them and and helping them develop and
(43:01):
grow them as well. Yes, sir. I'll be right here.
I'll wait for you, Will, Will. Thanks again. Thank you.
Alright, everybody. Thank you for another great episode.
If you haven't subscribed or liked or anything, please do subscribe. Hit the
notification bell. I greatly appreciate everybody who sent all
the love and and support while I was out. Shout out
(43:24):
to my to my RealWise fan, Papa j, Brandy j. Love you guys.
Shout out to the boss lady. Love you and appreciate you. As
always, big, big shout out to all the essential workers out there. God
bless y'all. Be safe. And and big shout out to to doctor Teague for
coming through and and showing love and and really really dropping
some home run nuggets there. I I really appreciate it. And
(43:46):
you know how your boy wise does it. Peace out.
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