Episode Transcript
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Speaker 2 (00:00):
Sometimes, we're
looking for newer books to try
to solve our problems, how we'regoing to form habits, how we're
going to create mastery, howwe're going to communicate.
One of the important thingsthat I've discovered is that the
older the sage, the quicker thesolution, and so the further
you go back in the great ancienttexts, the more you're reaching
the source materials.
Everything that you read todayis sourced in something else
(00:22):
something older, necessarilysomething older.
Day is sourcing something else,something older, necessarily
something older.
Current focus, where we couldgo back and read the source
materials.
That's where the true solutionsare found, and it's easier to
read that than to read thesemodern men that are trying to
sound smart.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Hey, uncommon Leaders
, welcome back.
This is the Uncommon LeaderPodcast.
I'm your host, john Gallagher.
What a guest I've got for youtoday.
Just had a little bit ofconversation offline in terms of
some of the fascinating thingswe're going to talk about with
Rick Walker, the author of NineSteps to Build a Life of Meaning
.
Now, that book has a generalityin terms of there's been a lot
of books written with steps tobuild a life of purpose and
(01:05):
things like that, but when weget a chance to talk about how
Rick has written this book andwhere he pulled the information
from and life experiences, Iknow you're going to find value
from this conversation A memoiron unlocking the mind, happiness
and personal power.
Ultimately and Rick's got a lotof experience to go by, as
he'll tell us the story here heled an organization with over
(01:27):
400 employees by the age of 26.
He has run a 200 or been thechair of a $250 million
charitable foundation, and he'sa host of a podcast that we'll
get a chance to talk about here,recorded from his 13,000 square
foot restored mansion that heused as his home office.
If you're watching on YouTube,you can see some of this in the
(01:47):
background, but he's based inHouston with his wife and three
daughters, and I know we'll geta chance to talk a little bit
about that and what it means tohim as well.
Rick Walker, I'll stop talkinga whole lot.
Welcome to the Uncommon LeaderPodcast.
How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
John, I am blessed
today.
I'm excited about ourconversation.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Yeah, let's get going
right into it.
I'm going to dive right intothe book.
You've got these nine steps inhere and the first one.
I had to go deep right off thebat.
You said to choose one worthyenemy to be the first step in
building a life of meaning.
What in the world do you meanby choosing a worthy enemy?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I think it's helpful
to think about the audience for
the book.
The audience for the book is 25to 45 year old young men that
are in this meaning crisis thatJohn Verbeke speaks about.
These are men that often willleave a pursuit list life, a
life that maybe they have, no,no even endeavors of love, and
these are men that are sort ofwondering where all the promises
were, all the potentiality wasthat was promised them earlier
(02:45):
on in their life went, and sothese are men that do not have a
positive vision.
They've never been shown afuture of something that they
would want to have more thanwhat they have now.
So they stayed in this rut fora year or five years or 10 years
, some of them for 20 years, andso we've got to figure out a
way to get these men moving.
So if you don't have a positivevision of what you want, you
have to then look for a negativevision and all the scholastics,
(03:06):
the academics, thepontificators they tell you to
find.
You know, set a mission, set agoal, set a vision of where you
want to go and build yourtactics and your objectives to
achieve that.
But these men don't know wherethey want.
They don't know what they wantout of life, and if you're like
me, you've got to figure out howto move.
And so what I tell them is thatthe purpose of the light is
(03:29):
invade the darkness.
The purpose of a good man isinvade the evil that he sees
around him.
I ask these men to look inwardand look at how their hearts
respond to the manifest evilthey see out among the world and
most vulnerable around them.
Sometimes it's the fentanyl inthe public school system.
Sometimes it is the sextrafficking website that doesn't
(03:52):
respect minors.
Sometimes it's the alcoholismthat's been pervasive in their
family for generations, leadingtheir family to obesity and to
just dysfunction.
There's a manifest evil that weall see around us, and if the
purpose of light is to be thedarkness, darkness the purpose
of a good man is to be the evilwe see around him.
We were built to accomplish andthe defeat, or at least work
(04:13):
towards the defeat, of a greatevil around us.
So this is why I say pick one,choose, choose one early worthy
enemy.
Choose one worthy enemy and goto battle against that enemy.
It's something that breaks yourheart, and that is the way that
you move forward.
It's what we do when there'snot a positive vision of where
we want to go, but we can findit in negative vision.
That one thing that we demandnot exist in our world.
(04:34):
We go and fight against that.
That's how we get the momentumto move forward into the second
through nine steps.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I love that and the
things that went through my mind
just as you explained it.
Not even the same way in termsof how I read it, but as you
explained it.
Craig Rochelle is anotherindividual.
I follow his podcast.
He talks about people willchange for one of two reasons
Out of inspiration to your point, they can see where they want
to go and they move toward thatpoint or out of desperation.
Even that enemy that you'retalking about is something that
(05:02):
really is making you so angrythat you're willing to do
something about.
It is what I hear inside ofthat.
I would often say people willchange when the discomfort of
remaining the same is greaterthan the displeasure of the
change itself, whether it's anexercise routine or whatever
that is.
But to your point, especiallyfor those in that 25 to 45 range
who really they've got moreyears to live than they can even
(05:27):
understand what that looks likein the future.
So you got to find that stakein the ground and there was a
quote right off the bat.
And look, folks, as I readthrough this book, what I was
most fascinated with some of thequotes that are in there.
You say the great paradox ofjudgment is that evil becomes
fuel in the furnace of salvation.
I just love that picture.
If we can find something thatreally ticks us off and we're
(05:50):
willing to do something about it, imagine what's possible if
we're really moving and againthen moving toward that second
step and we'll get a chance totalk about.
I don't know if we'll get achance to talk about all nine
steps, but I think it'sfascinating.
Let me ask you a little bit ofa tactical question about the
nine steps, but I think it'sfascinating.
Let me ask you a little bit ofa tactical question about the
nine steps.
Do you see them as a cycle?
I mean, do you go through thismultiple times, or is it one of
(06:11):
those things that each one ofthese steps, or do they go in
order all the time as well?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, I believe that
if we do each step correctly,
you only have to go through eachof the steps once.
But they do compound on oneanother.
They're best taken in order,and the way that we work through
these is also the way that wework through purpose.
They're very similar.
So, for instance, the way thatwe work through our enemies, we
(06:39):
look for that thing that breaksour heart, we look for that why
that drives the what in ourlives.
The same thing that we do onthe other steps.
We're looking for the deep downsense of purpose and we don't
know what our purpose is.
I guess an exercise is to gothrough that.
So it's the development of thewhy.
It's the same issue that Lewiswrote about 100 years ago that
(06:59):
we're filled with the society ofmen without chests, where their
guts are functioning, thisanimal spirit, this mind that's
divine.
We know what the divine is, butwe never, ever put the two
things together.
And so we're living in asociety of men without chests.
And this is my effort to goforth and bring out the chests
and the men in our society, andsometimes it takes a couple of
(07:20):
tries in these steps.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
I like that Again
because I think we may not get
it perfect the first time, butwhen we do it right, especially
and again, the power in when wedo it right and the impact that
we can have is really cool.
And it takes effort, it takesdiscipline, but once you have
that identified, once you havethat enemy identified, that is
there.
It will motivate you to dodifferent things.
One of the crazy disciplines Iread about you is that you wake
(07:45):
up every day at 3.30 in themorning.
Tell me about how thisdiscipline got started.
And, you know, talk to the 25to 45 year old.
Says man, I just like to sleepin in the morning.
It's a lot easier to do that.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, you have to figure outwhat you want.
Do you want to be comfortableor do you want to have purpose?
Life is lived at the edge, justpast comfort, and so what I
realized was that I was verysuccessful in my work a number
of years ago and I thought thatI was doing good waking up at 5
(08:18):
am in the morning, and I spoketo a buddy of mine.
He had more money than I did,he looked better than I did,
he's better dressed, comes froma better family, has a better
Rolodex than I do, has a biggerbusiness than I do, and I
thought to myself there's peoplelike this in my own industry
that I'm competing against.
And he was getting up at 4 amand I was getting five, so he
was already ahead of me oneverything else.
Now he's ahead of me on theeffort side, and so I started
(08:40):
ticking my clock back 15 minutesevery night until I got to a
comfortable place.
3.15 was a little bit too early,but 3.30 was the sweet spot for
me, and I can talk about theprocess I went through to find
that, and that's actually laidout in the book, the actual
triggers that you put in placeto be able to get there and
accomplish that.
But long story short, what Ifound was that I could do the
most important things, theimportant things that no one
(09:02):
else is doing the quiet time,the deep reading, the deep
thinking.
I could do that in the morning,before any digital devices were
expected of me, before anyoneelse was even awake, before my
kid's new dad was awake andevery new kid.
The kids never know that dad'snot there.
And when you take that and youcompare it to the potential of
working late where you'remissing dinners, you're missing
(09:22):
sports activities, of workinglate where you're missing
dinners, you're missing sportsactivities.
The early morning was thebetter option for me, and so
that began a routine where Imake sure that all the important
things today, the mostimportant things those are done
first before any devices, beforeany work, before any emails,
before any phone calls, and mykids never know that I'm on the
way.
And so this seemed to be a very, very strategic advantage that
(09:49):
I was able to put in place a fewyears ago, and it's worked
exceedingly well.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Well, I can tell you
that I won't be one.
That's a 330, and that doesn'tmean I won't ever be, but I am
not today.
I am very interested in thosethings that you did to put that
process in place, to move from a5 am to a 3.30 am, and what
those triggers were to getstarted, so that we can teach
the listeners as well how theymight be able to do it.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah, yeah.
So let's walk through that.
So the first thing is that youdon't want to have your phone in
the room where you sleep.
Right, if you could put thatphone in another room.
The way that I do it is, Idon't have a charger in my my
bedroom.
I put the charger in my closet,which is two rooms away, and so
I plug that phone in there atnight and it stays there.
And so the first couple nightsyou'll feel discomfortable.
(10:34):
You're not able to roll overand pick up your phone and
scroll whenever you wake up.
But what that does?
It trains your body to sleep.
It trains your, trains you tofall into this deep sleep and
the state of deep sleep withoutthis stimulant that's right
there next to your head.
And so, with the phone in theother room, I set the alarm and
the alarm goes off.
I stand up out of bed, I walkthrough one of the rooms into
(10:56):
another room and I grab my phone.
One of the interesting thingsthat I did is I put a motion
detector light in my closet.
So five seconds know, fiveseconds after my alarm goes off,
I'm standing up, lights on inmy closet and I'm hitting the
turn the alarm off.
I don't snooze.
That's my only rule is I don'tsnooze, alarm's off.
I'm standing up, I'm thinkingwell heck, in 30 seconds I got
(11:18):
my clothes on.
My clothes are already laid outthere.
I throw the clothes on and nowI really want a latte, and the
best place I can get a lattebefore Starbucks opens Starbucks
opens at 5, it's about 3.40.
Now is I got to go to my officeand so I drive to the office
and I get my favorite couchthere where I like to drink my
coffee, and already there on mycouch are the books kind of a
stack of books right next to mycouch, and I got a couple of
(11:39):
books on the couch and I justopen up, enjoy my coffee and I'm
reading generally the oldestbooks I can find and books about
the oldest books I can find forthe most part, and so from
there it'll move into strategicplanning, some thinking, some
brainstorming, and I try not totouch any devices until around 8
or so in the morning and thathelps push me along.
(12:02):
But I've been more strategic,I've learned more, I've thought
more, I've had quiet time bymyself, I'm able to do all the
really enriching things thatbuild your soul, that build your
mind before my competitors havegotten to work, and so this
really has flipped advantage inmy favor over time.
(12:23):
And so what I like to say?
There's only three things inlife that count.
I read probably a thousandbooks and spoke to a hundred of
the most competent men alive.
Many of you'll see them on mypodcast and the three things
that I figured out among all ofthose just sort of the selling
all those principles down isthat the three things that count
in your life are your quiettime, how you respect your books
(12:43):
and the quality of your dinnertable, your dinner table, the
quality of your books and yourquiet time.
And if I can do two of thosethings early in the morning
instead of late at night, I canalso do the third where I can be
home for dinner.
And so if you can get thosethree things in place in your
life and you do those three well, you're going to have more than
everything.
You're going to have relevance,you're going to have meaning,
(13:04):
you're going to have anenjoyable life.
But you got to get those threethings clicking in order to move
forward.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Yeah, that's worthy
of Rewind folks just to listen
through those three tips andvery powerful in the kitchen
table or the dinner table interms of the conversation that
goes on when you have children.
Again, I mentioned at the start,you have three daughters
finding that time, being able tobe present with them.
But getting those other twothings your quiet time and your
reading and what you choose, thequality of what you read into
(13:33):
that For me.
I'm diving into scripture on adaily basis as well and I've got
another book that I'm readingthat I try to get started Again,
not 3.30.
I'm going to keep thinkingabout this, how you've talked
about it, because I appreciatewhat you're saying with regards
to getting it done A before yourcompetition is doing it.
So that gives you an advantageright off the bat.
But secondly, inside of thattime where no one else in your
(13:55):
family, they're not missing youat that point in time.
So I'm sure that requires youto set your evening up pretty
well as well, anything you do inthe evening to get ready to be
up at 3.30 and make sure you getenough sleep.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Well, I like to be in
bed by 10.
The last week or so has been alittle bit different, with the
book launch, and so a couple ofmornings I got up at 1.30
instead of 3.30.
And so, needless to say, Ididn't stay up.
I had to take a nap in themiddle of the daytime.
I couldn't get up at 3.30 thenext morning because I was so
wasted, and so you know, you'vegot to be flexible with yourself
(14:28):
, but you've got to have astandard routine.
I mean, I think it's more aboutthe improvement on what you do
rather than the specific time,and so if you're someone that
gets up at 8, maybe you get upat 7, right, you've got an extra
hour.
It's sort of a power hour, likemany people would call it.
If you could figure out a wayjust to improve that so that
you're not subtracting from oneof the other two things that are
(14:48):
important, that's really howyou push forward.
And then, on the books, let mejust make a comment about the
books.
Oftentimes we're looking throughnewer books to try to solve our
problems how we're going toform habits, how we're going to
create mastery, how we're goingto communicate knowledge.
One of the important thingsthat I've discovered is that the
older the sage, the quicker thesolution.
(15:10):
The older the sage, the quickerthe solution, and so the
further you go back in the greatancient texts, the more you're
reaching the source materials.
Everything that you read todayis sourced in something else,
something older, necessarilysomething older, and so if I'm
going to read Shakespeare or abook about Shakespeare, I really
(15:31):
should just go back and readShakespeare.
But if I'm going to readShakespeare, I've got to realize
what I'm reading is sort of aKing James Version.
Old Testament and New Testament.
That's what I'm reading.
So why don't I just go back tothe Old Testament and New
Testament and read that?
And same thing with the Asianliterature.
Why don't I go back and justread the Tao Te Ching?
Why am I going back and justreading the Bhagavad Gita?
(15:52):
Why am I going back and readingHomer?
The principles that we read inthe current literature they're
just distilled, they're coveredwith lenses, they're covered in
the nuance of modernity thatjust distract us.
We're so current, focused whenwe could go back and read the
source materials.
That's where the true solutionsare found, and it's easier to
(16:12):
read that than to read thesemodern men that are trying to
sound smart.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Hey Uncommon Leaders,
hope you're enjoying the
episode.
So far.
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So head on over tocoachjohngallaghercom slash BBG,
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That's coachjohngallaghercomslash BBG.
Now let's get back to theepisode Love that Inside of your
(16:57):
book.
Did you have a specific um,I'll say author in the past that
influenced your writing?
Again, I want to ask you aboutseveral of the individuals that
you quoted inside the book, butis there a book that influences
you more than another?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Yeah, I mean, I think
obviously the Judeo-Christian
scriptures is most influential,probably on everyone, whether
we're sent to it or not.
If you've got to talk aboutsort of secular authors, I would
say Dante has been veryimpactful, especially the
Inferno.
You can go back and look atMilton, Paradise Lost.
(17:36):
You can look at the DostoevskyBrothers, Kerr and Mazov, those
sorts of books.
They've been very impactful.
And then there has been somemodern books that have to do
with technology and handlingdata in our current society.
Things like Robert Allen'sGetting Things Done, I think
about Tiny Experiences, recentlycame out.
Sweaty Startup by Nick Huberthat just came out.
There's some great books thathave come out, but we want the
(17:57):
breath and the depth of ourreading to be older People that
have been proven over by time,not people that are more recent
and they've had very littleproving, very little filtering,
very little testing.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Well, I'm going to
ask you a question only based on
my skill of being able topronounce them, so there's some
that I'll skip.
Eugene Peterson, einstein, csLewis, isaac Newton, bruce Lee,
da Vinci, van Gogh, platoRoosevelt, viktor Frankl all
quotes nestled inside of yourbook.
All fascinating quotes as well.
(18:33):
If there was one of them, youcould go back and have dinner
with the traditional podcastquestion who would it be and why
?
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Oh, I think Viktor
Frankl, man's Search for Meaning
.
This is a brilliant man.
Where he's sitting in theGerman concentration camps he
could die at any moment.
You know, they're callingpeople, we're looking for
volunteers for different things.
They're testing the health ofthese people and he knows that
his friends are going to be, youknow, sent to the gas chambers.
(19:02):
But what he figured out in thatdepravity, in that situation,
was that man can live foranything and live through
anything, as long as he has oneof two things.
You only need one of these twothings.
Number one is a responsibilityin the future.
A responsibility in the futureNumber two is even though the
(19:23):
person that you most love may bedead already maybe it's the
wife of the concentration camp,they know she's already dead If
there's a suspicion and aprobability that there's a
future love to have, or thatthere's someone to love in the
future that you can take care of, you can live through almost
anything.
This is, and that's, the premiseof Viktor Frankl's work.
I mean that tells us a lotabout who we are as men, that we
(19:45):
are built for the future.
Um, as as men, that we arebuilt for the future, but we
have to act in the present, andso, um, yeah, so, so, certainly,
uh, viktor Frankl, but but anyof those men are great, you know
.
You look at, look at Bruce Lee.
I'll, I'll, I'll cite the quotethat's used in uh uh, using his
(20:06):
book, where he says uh, low aimis the only crime.
I think is what he says Low aimis the only crime.
I reverse that a little bit.
I say that aiming low is theonly sin that you've got to look
up, and the only way to look upis to look back you've chosen
the enemy.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
now go big, go big or
go home Again.
All these different things thatyou end up reading.
They're the same things interms of now we're coming from
Bruce Lee in terms of do not seta low bar.
That's very important.
Pick a master, or one will bechosen for you.
Love that and some of thetitles.
Trust and I'm sorry I'm readingmy own writing here Revelation
requires sacrifice.
(20:46):
Trust, that revelation requiressacrifice.
Tell me a little bit about thatin terms of requiring sacrifice
inside that space.
What is there for you?
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah.
So the emphasis is on thetrusting.
Trusting that that mechanism,that great mechanism that you
learn about, homer, with theIphigenian sacrifice, trust that
that is a proper framework ofhow reality works, that you
never get anything withoutsacrifice.
I've sacrificed my attention toeverything else.
I'm surrounded by windows rightnow, the Amazon driver, the
yard crew, these guys areconstructing something over here
(21:17):
.
I've got to sacrifice all ofthat so I can pay attention to
you.
I've already sacrificed myyesterdays for my today.
You have to be willing tosacrifice your todays for your
tomorrows.
In fact, you'll never have atomorrow unless you sacrifice
today.
And so we've got to realizethat sacrifice is all around us,
and the only way to getanything out of life is to give
up something that's lesser.
You must always give up thelesser for the good.
(21:39):
You must always give up thegood for the great.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Love that.
So much gold there inside ofthat space.
I'll keep going, embrace theunknown, and I want you to.
I want to park here for just alittle bit.
Joy requires pain.
Talk to me there, cause again,that goes back to that change
quote that I saw about peoplechange when the discomfort of
remaining the same status quo,where you are today, is greater
than the pain.
(22:04):
The change of the change itself.
Learning how to exercise threedays a week, you're going to get
sore muscles if you want tohave a better body right In
terms of you know again, givingup something to go to a higher
place that you're shooting foris very important.
How?
Maybe I don't mean to beanswering the question in my
perspective, but you write joyrequires pain.
(22:24):
What is there for you?
Speaker 2 (22:27):
I found through my
research, in 20, 25 years of
working on these various, thesevarious projects and not in all
these countries, dozens anddozens of countries that there's
a few, there's a handful oftruths, and this is what we're
talking about.
We're talking about universaltruths that are attached to
reality.
A painless world would onlybirth joyless lives.
(22:48):
A painless world only birthsjoyless lives.
A painless world only birthsjoyless lives.
Life is lived in the contrast.
Just so you know, a man thatgets up at 7 o'clock instead of
8 o'clock has done himself abetter thing.
So, too, a man that has had alittle bit more depths of
depravity and depths of loss canexperience and realize that his
heightened joy is great right.
(23:09):
A monotonous life, a lifewithout any joy or pain, is not
really a life, and a life notlived actually is just a death.
We have to figure out a way howto expand and realize how we
get more context, how we getmore texture in our life.
It's really the texture thatbrings out the quality of the
(23:31):
life.
It's the greater challenge thatyou embrace in order to have
the hopes for the higher success.
And we've got to realize, too,that the greatest things that we
have in our life are come outof pain.
They come out of darkness, soul.
Soul music is best sung by afreedman, but the old freedman
(23:53):
can only be a freedman if he wasfirst a slave like this is why
we've got the greatness um allaround us.
We never realized that.
That it's the, it's the.
It's the difficulties thatbring out the best things, and I
can talk about this um forever,but the uh, but it's very, very
important.
I speak about a number ofelements of art specifically in
(24:15):
this chapter and how the colordifferentiation relates to the
life experience differentiation,and how that brings out
maturity, that brings out joy inthe end.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
There's so much there
.
Uh, in the end there's so muchthere.
I could spend a lot of timeright in that space as well.
Just in that in that chapter,in that step that Joe requires
pain.
There was a quote in thatchapter that stuck out avoid an
ounce of pain, you drink agallon of regret, regret.
I don't know if you'reattributing that to you, like
you got that one or you'd havethat one attributed in there,
(24:46):
but I love that as a quote interms of what's sitting there.
But we have this naturaltendency to want to avoid the
pain.
I mean, it's how our healthcaresystem is set up today to avoid
pain, knowing that really howwe were created is that we have
to heal ourselves.
We may have to go through somepain to get that done rather
than avoiding it.
Or certainly, the conceptbehind addictions that exist
(25:10):
with alcohol and drugs andeverything else affords us the
opportunity to avoid the painthat we have.
I love that as a quote.
Was that yours?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah.
And I think that I also say inthat chapter that pain is the
offer of salvation.
Lewis would say it a differentway.
He would say that pain is God'smegaphone that he uses to rouse
the deaf world.
We have to realize that thevarious things we experience,
even the things that areself-inflicted, are done for the
(25:43):
purpose of pain and for thepurpose of beauty, which I would
cover in later steps there.
But a healed man is moreperfect than a perfect man that
never needs to be healed, likeif there's there's something,
something more perfect.
Perfect in the nature of, ofhealing, the nature of
restoration, the nature offorgiveness, um, the nature of
(26:04):
the ascent out of the depths ofhell, rather than the man who's
always sort of been, you know,sort of an earthly okay man, who
was never at risk.
There's certain elements ofbeauty that bring out the joy in
the pain itself, and I talkabout that a little bit later in
the book.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Yeah, because you get
through the last three steps.
If you will Give away what youwant to keep, act like you will
live forever and seek beauty andyou may find truth.
Act like you will live foreverand seek beauty and you may find
truth.
And again, part about this likethese nine steps.
They're not.
It's it's a very uncommon book.
So the uncommon leader podcast,like the chapter names, are
(26:43):
uncommon and they force you tothink your way in as you go into
each chapter.
I want to ask you a couple morequestions.
I'm just watching time in termsof how I've made a commitment
to you.
The idea behind the book,because you mentioned you like
to go back and read olderliterature that exists in terms
of some of that space.
What drove you to write thebook.
(27:03):
And then, secondly, someone whoreads it and ends up putting it
on a bookshelf, just like thisone behind me.
What do you want them to thinkwhen they see that binding a
year later?
Or what do you want them to dowhen they see that binding a
year later after they've read it?
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Sorry, three
questions.
I apologize for lumping it.
That's good.
That's good.
So, first off, I'm 46.
I just turned 46 about sixmonths ago, and so I am six
months removed from this agebracket.
So I am six months removed fromthis age bracket and so my hope
is that I have somerelatability to the men that are
in this meaning crisis.
For the most part, not all menthat are 25 or 45 are in this
meaning crisis.
There's men that are older,there's men that are younger
(27:39):
that are in this meaning crisis,and so my hope is I have some
relatability, my hope also inthis book I tell some stories of
just some amazing things thatI've seen with my own eyes and
been able to participate induring my life, whether it was
running for Congress, this room,for example.
I'm here at my office here.
I've had the Secret Service inthis room five times.
(28:01):
Just some crazy things.
But I'm going to assume thatmost men would want to live the
sort of life that I've beenblessed enough to live, and so
that I'm trying to offer apathway for how I've seen that
come to fruition for my life ofdespair.
And I'm a dad of three girls.
I don't have any sons, so I'mnot writing this book for my
(28:24):
sons.
But as I look around and I lookat the prospects for boys and
teenagers and men in the society, I don't have a whole lot of
hope that my daughters are goingto be able to find someone of
equal caliber.
I'll just put it out there.
I don't mean that to soundcocky, but I've actually put a
lot of work into me being abetter person and I think that
(28:46):
they live with me and they havevery high standards, and so I've
come to the realization that ifthere's not going to be any
quality men out there, any goodmen, any strong leaders, I'm
going to have to build them.
And so this book is the bookthat I'm going to hand to my
future sons-in-law to teach themhow to be men.
I am literally going to have tobuild the men for my daughters.
(29:07):
I just know that's going to bethe situation and that's what
was going on in the back of mymind when I was writing this.
What would I say to my futuresons-in-law, my future grandsons
, who are really stuck in thisgeneration?
We have to realize that wenever get anything.
(29:28):
We don't first give away Um,that's.
That's what step seven giveaway.
Way you want to keep Um.
The other way to put it is toput it in the words of Lewis
that nothing that you have notgiven away will ever really be
yours.
Um, it's the same for us thatare in business.
If, if I have a lot of wealth,I'm going to hoard the money
that I have, it's going to geteaten up by inflation, and the
only solution that I have fromlosing all my money to inflation
(29:50):
is to give it to anentrepreneur and go invest it in
another venture with hope ofreturning a yield higher than
inflation.
But if I don't give it to thatentrepreneur, I lose all my
money in the end.
The only way to have a tree toshade me and to give me fruit is
to give is to give away theseed and let the seed die in the
in the ground.
Without that, I'm never goingto have a tree to find shade or
fruit.
(30:11):
The only way I'm going to havelove is to first give love.
The only way I'm ever going tohave a life is to first give
away my life to something that'shigher and better than me.
Even Christ says that if youwant to save your life, you have
to lose yourself.
Lose your life for my sake welife, you have to lose yourself.
Lose your life for my sake.
We see this truth over and overagain in the great scriptures,
(30:32):
not only in the Christian domain, but also in the Bhagavad Gita,
also in the Tao Te Ching, alsoin the great traditions of
philosophy that you only get tokeep what you first give away.
And so this is about two and ahalf years of my life that I've
given away to this effort.
I was hoping, with the tragedythat happened in Texas three or
(30:54):
four days ago with thecampground, I was hoping to give
away a thousand books.
I looked at the website earlierthis morning.
We've been blessed to give awayaround 4,000 books so far.
Just impute a little bit ofhope in the people that have
some tragedy, and folks probablycan't see it.
I've got a copy of the bookhere.
(31:15):
The cover blurb is Dr BenCarson, one of the most
competent men alive.
Man has 60 honorary doctors,former secretary of house and
urban development.
He calls the book triumphantlyhopeful, triumphantly hopeful,
and so my hope is that I'm ableto at least give out a little
(31:36):
bit of hope to the people thatare in despair, whether it be
women or men.
But I think probably the bestthing that I can do for the
women that are in tragedy rightnow is to give the men that they
love a little bit of hope andcall them forth and call them
out of their comfort.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
That's so cool, rick.
I am so man.
I'm so glad that Damon connectedus and being able to share just
for me to get a chance to meetyou is something that's really
cool, and I can see me giftingthis book as well to my 26 and
28 year old sons, also to tolearn from it.
I love the um connection withBen Carson as well.
Uh, and inside the book, you,you, uh, compare him to George
(32:15):
Washington.
So I look forward to reallykind of diving in and reading
that in more depth also.
Um, but just the meaning behindwhat you're trying to create is
really powerful.
Where do you want folks to goto get a copy of that book and
where can they go to also stayconnected with you?
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Yeah, yeah, great
question, john.
Right now I just put up ameaning video series, sort of a
mini masterclass, on my website,rickwalkercom.
Rickwalkercom just click ninesteps at the top and there is a
series of three videos.
I have PDF handouts that gowith each of three videos and at
the end, if you feelcomfortable with that, you're
(32:54):
welcome to buy a book there oron amazon or barnes and noble
and go deep through it.
I have audiobooks, obviouslykindle pdf.
Actually today, the 10th um isthe last day, but it's free
today on amazon, uh, amazonkindle kindle that's where I got
mine today.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Yesterday was on the
Kindle.
Yeah, I got the free version.
Yeah, but I'm going to get thehard copies.
I got to have hard copies.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Yeah, yeah, me too.
Yeah, it helps to mark it up.
And what you mentioned, john,is something that I really
worked very hard on is I'mtrying to distill these things
into quotes that are memorable.
I work really, really hard ingetting the rhythm of the quotes
in a way that when you read acouple of times, you can begin
to sort of build it into yourrepertoire, and I'm hoping men
(33:35):
will steal these quotes, wouldsteal these quotes and use them
in every day.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
I'm glad you're
allowing us to steal them, but I
will certainly attribute thoseto you that are in there.
The alliteration is really cool.
It makes it easier to pick upand remember.
There's different forms ofalliteration that you're using,
the opposites and thepronunciation, all those things.
I don't know all the words forthem, but I know exactly how
(34:01):
some of those are going toconnect with me even more
because I'm a big fan of quotesas well.
So, man, this is really cool.
Rick, I've enjoyed ourconversation.
I want to give you the lastword in one of my kind of
traditional Uncommon Leaderpodcast finishes, and that's to
give you a billboard anywhereyou, and you can put it anywhere
you want to.
What's the message that youwould put on that billboard and
(34:24):
why do you put that messagethere?
Speaker 2 (34:34):
There's a message
that I believe is not only
philosophical andpsychologically true, but it's
also theologically true Becauseit's a.
It's a message that is, that isof necessity, and it's
connected directly to sort ofultimate reality.
And I say I say that before Isay it because people are going
to are going to hear this andhear different things.
I'll repeat it twice becauseI'm sure there's people that are
watching this podcast thatdon't want to write it down If a
(34:54):
drop of hope exists anywhere,it threatens all threats
everywhere.
Repeat that, repeat that If adrop of hope exists anywhere, it
threatens all threatseverywhere.
What that means is that if Ihave an ounce of hope, and even
though I'm a thousand miles fromyou, it's possible for my hope
to invade your reality.
(35:15):
And hope is such a fungiblething, it's such a useful thing,
it's such a sort of a wild cardthat it can flip all your
threats into opportunities.
It can de-threaten everythingthat you're up against if hope
is just allowed to invade.
And so my encouragement foryour audience right now is just
to know that hope is lurkingno-transcript.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Your time today with
the listeners of the Uncommon
Leader Podcast.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Thank you for your
hospitality, John.
I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
And that wraps up
another episode of the Uncommon
Leader Podcast.
Thanks for tuning in today.
If you found value in thisepisode, I encourage you to
share it with your friends,colleagues or anyone else who
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(36:40):
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Until next time, go and growchampions.