Samsara and its Impact on the Entrepreneur’s Dreams: When You Are the Obstacle in Your Own Way

This episode of There's a Lesson in Here Somewhere features Gregory Mark Hill, a private equity partner and author of the book, "Samsara and Its Impact on the Entrepreneur's Dreams." Gregory discusses the meaning of Samsara, a Sanskrit word that refers to the cycles of suffering when one is attached to the material world. He explains how this concept applies to entrepreneurship and the broader business world, noting that even when professional issues are solved, "if they were suffering on the inside...the businesses I found would ultimately suffer." Gregory shares stories from his work with executives, including a compelling anecdote about a Fortune Ten company, to illustrate how the "self-cherishing ego" and attachments to things like outcomes or preconceived notions can become a roadblock to company and organizational success. He also explores how shifting a leader's mindset can positively impact the entire company. 

Gregory’s book is available on Amazon. It’s a true story that shares insights on breaking free from limiting cycles while rediscovering joy, resilience, and purpose. Check it out – we recommend it!  https://a.co/d/0sCsvIa

Episode Transcript

Jamie Serino (00:18):
Hello and welcome to.
There's a Lesson in hereSomewhere.
I'm Jamie Serino and I'm PeterCarucci, and we're here today
with Gregory Mark Hill, aprivate equity partner and
author of the book Samsara andits impact on the entrepreneur's
dreams.
Gregory, welcome and thanks forjoining us.

Gregory Mark Hill (00:37):
It's great to be here, jamie.
Thank you, peter, nice to behere.
Thank you.

Jamie Serino (00:41):
Yeah, so we've been speaking with Gregory for
quite a while now, actually, andthere's all sorts of things we
could talk about, but the bookSamsara is really something and
there's a lot to dive into there, so we're looking forward to
doing that.
First, Gregory, why don't youtell us just a little bit more
about yourself?

Gregory Mark Hill (01:00):
Sure, mainly what I do today is I build
companies, and what that meansis I consult companies and also
working with families bothinternational families and

(01:26):
American industrial familiesthat have a lot of capital to
put to work and they want tomanage and invest that capital
themselves.
So today I'm really aconsultant and an investor,
helping founders, owners andexecutives expand around growth,
whether it's domestically herein the US or internationally.

Jamie Serino (01:45):
Yeah, so it sounds like you're forming these
really good relationships withthese people, and so then it
makes sense.
Why then you're thinking aboutmore than just business with
them, you're thinking abouttheir lives, and so hence
Samsara.
So why don't you tell us alittle bit more about the book
and what made you think to startwriting it?

Gregory Mark Hill (02:08):
Sure.
So the title of the book, asyou shared, is Samsara and its
impact on the entrepreneur'sdreams.
And Samsara is a 2000 plus yearold Sanskrit word.
That means suffering, actuallycycles of suffering, when one is
attached to the material worldand I don't mean just cars and

(02:28):
houses and Learjets, I'm talkingabout being attached to your
experiences, attached to outcome, attached to the result you
want, the financial result youwant, attached to the
relationships you want.
And the funny thing is, when wedon't get what we want, when we
want where we want it as much aswe want, we suffer on the
inside.

(02:49):
And when I was working with abunch of 40, 50, 60-year-old
range executives, founders,c-suites executives, I found
that even when we solve theiroperating, money-raising,
build-better-teams issues, ifthey were suffering on the
inside, like I just shared,because they were attached to
the result they wanted, theoutcome they wanted well,

(03:10):
emotionally, philosophically, onthe inside, if they were
suffering wherever you are,there you are, you brought that
with you into the boardroom,into the meeting room, onto the
conference calls, into yourfamilies and the businesses I
found would ultimately suffer.
And so what I found is therewas an incredible opportunity

(03:30):
here to clear what's in the way,what they didn't even realize,
what was in the way and that wasthe self-cherishing ego which
I'd love to jump into more abouton this call together.

Jamie Serino (03:43):
Yeah, and I'd like to jump into that too, um.
So it's this idea of you know,like not splitting, this sort of
like where people might callwork life, or you know, my, my
work life, my personal life, whoI am versus what I do, and
you're saying it's just all onebig thing, um, which, which is
great.
So I imagine, though, you wouldget a little pushback right

(04:06):
when you would bring that up tosomebody, especially who is so
like goal oriented and maybenumbers oriented, and you start
bringing this stuff up aboutsuffering and cycles of
suffering.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about that reaction?

Gregory Mark Hill (04:20):
Wow, it's really great that you brought up
that question.
It's excellent because I hadthat experience right out of the
blocks when I finished my timewith the teacher, which we can
talk about as well.
One thing I'd like to add is,in addition to the 40, 50,
60-year-old range founders,executives and sweet suites

(04:40):
executives I work with I wasactually speaking to the Gen Z
population 20-year-olds right intheir senior years in college
and also right out of gradschool in their first or second
jobs, and after sharing some ofthe stories that we're going to
talk about today, they asked meif I had a book, a guidebook,
and that really became thefollow-on and the genesis to

(05:03):
push me to say maybe I reallyshould tap into this.
So one of my first experienceswith self-cherishing ego and the
discussion of, let's say, thespiritual and the business
professional work-life balancecame up right after literally
right after my five-plus yearswith a teacher, and it was with

(05:29):
a Fortune 1 company at the timeand they had a large issue where
they were going overseas toexpand and the global chairman
had given a directive to hishead of research and development
strategy to say I need you totell me what we're going to do
in these countries that we'regoing to expand into now, and

(05:51):
he'd never been to that part ofthe world.
And he was given a goal to forma task force team and get over
there and give them an answer asto whether they should expand
in those territories or not.
And so, along the way, he wasgiven a whisper that this guy
named Gregory Mark Hill mighthave an understanding of what to

(06:12):
do in that region of the world.
But he was so busy it was likemeeting the President of the
United States.
I was only given a 37-minuteallotment because he was coming
in from the airport.
He was coming, I had to meethim at an airport hotel, so
literally I had this window andthat was it.
Can you imagine Very specific.

(06:33):
And so I jumped right into it.
I said who's the task forceteam?
He says it is the bestengineering team you could
imagine in the world.
I can go to our thousands ofengineers and pick anybody I
know and everybody I work with.
I said great, I said so.
Who on the team has been to thatregion of the world?

(06:54):
No one.
Who on the team is actuallyfrom that region of the world?
No one, okay well, who actuallyspeaks the language or who's
actually even visited thatterritory?
No one.
I said, okay, um, he says I'veworked with all these people,

(07:15):
I've handpicked them, they'rethey're really smart, really
wonderful.
I said, yes, like I canunderstand that.
I said, but have you heard ofthis concept called the
self-cherishing ego?
I didn't say do you havechelsea?
So it's this concept.
And he said, and he literally,he's a very smart guy, educated
the top schools brand name onthe west coast and the east

(07:37):
coast.
You can think of who they are.
Um, and he scrunched his faceand he his arms and he looked
over at the gentleman whointroduced us, like saying who
did you bring to this meeting?

Jamie Serino (07:49):
Yeah, yeah.

Gregory Mark Hill (07:51):
Yeah, very smart.
And he was thinking andthinking and thinking.
And then he said what do youmean by that?
And I said well, if you'regoing to go to the other side of
the world and work with supersmart folks who understand the
government, who understand thepolitics, who understand the
marketplace, who understand thelanguage, the culture, you're

(08:13):
going to really want to knowthat.
Don't you want to have somepeople on your side of the team
or somebody who's been there,done deals there, worked there,
understands that he's like?
And he realized in that momentthat he was so focused on
getting an answer to the globalchairman and he wanted to get it
fast that he was justassembling a team of what he

(08:34):
knew how to do, versus beingstrategic and getting the team
in place.
And, ironically, that'sself-cherishing ego.
You want to just do what youknow as opposed to having the
ability to empathize andunderstand what do I need?

Peter Carucci (08:49):
and these are smart folks and then, yeah, when
it did he, did he cave, did hesay yes?

Gregory Mark Hill (08:56):
so he literally said and.
And then he literally said,literally, we're only in 15
minutes into it.
And he said what do you charge?
And I said first class ticketand $100,000.
And I wasn't prepared.
Right, I wasn't prepared.
I would later find out that thecompany was making over a

(09:18):
billion dollars a day and Ishould have asked for a million
dollars.

Jamie Serino (09:23):
Sure, the first 37 minutes are free though.

Gregory Mark Hill (09:32):
But I was still young and I was very happy
and it turned out to be anexcellent experience.
And halfway through he said wow, are you a fortune teller, how
did you know all this?
And I just I started sharingthe and we built up an
incredible relationship and then, later on, he would actually
share with me what was in theway and I was able to begin to

(09:56):
learn how to clear theroadblocks.
They didn't need capital, butthey needed strategy, and I
could see the lessons workedright away, even with a Fortune
1 company.

Peter Carucci (10:08):
I did some work as well in the music sector with
some executives who had adisconnect between themselves
and everyone who implementstheir ideas everyone who

(10:28):
implements their ideas and itsounds like this is like finding
the right solution for them toclear the roadblock of their
vision first and change theirmindset.
I think and I mean Jamie and Ialways talk about like it's
great when a team communicatesfrom the top down and the bottom
up and it doesn't matter whatcompany.
It is right.
I mean, do you find thatworking with these, whether it's

(10:50):
that person in particular orany executive, that it opens the
door for success amongst allthe levels in their company?

Gregory Mark Hill (11:00):
It really does and that's a very keen
awareness.
It really does and that's avery keen awareness.
You have, like this funnel ofopportunity that comes in and
these ideas and possibilities,and people from every level of
the company are sharing theirperspective and their thoughts
and their experiences and,frankly, the ego shows up in.

(11:23):
Frankly, I know better, I'mright.
Yeah, I get what you're saying,but I really know better.
Even if it's not spoken, thatattitude is there and what
happens is that literally thosebecome the roadblocks that get
in the way.
I was working with a startupcompany.
I had like 33 people in thecompany at a time generating

(11:44):
revenue and they were all verysmart, very talented technology,
hardware, software, networkingand the beginnings of AI and
they're all yelling andscreaming at each other.
They had a huge opportunity anda huge problem and they're
literally pointing fingers,yelling, and the founder didn't
know how to manage all this andhe just said, gregory, can you
get in here and help me, becauseit was going to double the

(12:08):
value of the business.
It was that type of deal, anelephant of a deal.
So I just came in there and Isaid everybody.
I said look, we got some reallysmart minds around the table.
I said I know everybody's angryand there's a lot of finger
pointing going on here, a lot ofyelling.
I said let's take all of thatand let's table it.
We're going to put it over onthis table over here and we're
going to get back to it.
I want to acknowledgeeverybody's pain and suffering,

(12:31):
but let's just put all that onthe table here.
Let's use these 18 brilliantminds around the table that we
got here and let's solve theproblem.
Let's get to it right now.
And the founder and the CEOsaid thank you, gregory, I
actually feel better for yousaying that.
And literally three, four hours, we got to it.
And these brilliant mindsaround the table, they solved

(12:52):
the problem and we got to it andwe were able to go back and win
that deal.
So I said okay, let's go backto the table and let's get to
that.
You know yelling, screaming,anger and all those words.

Jamie Serino (13:07):
They're like no, we're good.
Yeah, they unloaded all thatstuff, that's great.
So when you talk aboutattachment, I think also there
are like attachments to ideasand my idea of success or my
idea of how things should work,and holding on to that, like
similar to what you're saying toyou know, I'm probably right,

(13:27):
and so can you talk a little bitabout that, about when you find
that there are theseattachments to these sort of
preconceived notions, like maybethings that they learned when
they were even a kid or goingthrough college or in their 20s
or something.
Can you talk a little bit aboutthat?

Gregory Mark Hill (13:44):
Sure, it's very, very important to realize
that that specific comment, thatquestion, actually applies to
all ages, remotely from school,all the way into college, into
grad school, into your careers,even to your grandparent's stage
of life.
The thing is, problems arealways arising.

(14:06):
They really do.
The challenges of life ariseand what we forget is that
they're just a series ofexperiences, a series of
situations.
Sooner or later, that problem,that challenge two days, two
hours, two weeks, two months,two years it does get solved.
The thing is, when we getattached to it, we want to be

(14:28):
right.
Really, it's as simple as that.
We want to be right, we thinkwe're right, we think we know
better.
And whether we're in highschool, whether it's my daughter
who's a nine-year-old, who'sgoing through her experience in
elementary school, or a gradschool, or an athlete or an
executive, people bring in whatI call an already always knowing

(14:51):
.
They already know, they thinkthey know better.
And even though it appearsthey're listening and they're
nodding and they're agreeing,inside they already know.
Especially with leaders andentrepreneurs of organizations,
it's even more paramount.
But, as at the youthful Gen Zand at the high school and the

(15:12):
collegiate level, we think weknow and we have that emotional
attachment that we actually knowbetter.
And when people are sharingtheir experience and wisdom,
they can't digest it, they can'ttake it in and they're already
going to do what they alreadyknow how to do.
And so what happens is what Ishare with folks is that

(15:32):
challenges, problems that arise,they do get solved sooner or
later.
The question becomes who are webeing and choose to be when
those problems arise?
You can go into the positive orthe negative.
It's binary Most of us.
When problems arise, it's veryeasy to go into the negative,

(15:54):
get angry, get resentful, beupset, annoyed, distracted, play
the victim card.
It's very hard to step into apositive view, taking a moment
to say well, what can I get fromthis experience?
What can I get from it?
How can I step into thepositive and attract ideas,
people, possibilities andopportunities?

(16:15):
Because when we step into thenegative, we don't realize it
doesn't matter how old we are,how much experience we have.
We're literally repelling thosesame ideas, people and
opportunities.
I'm going to give you a simpleexample, and this is going to be
relatable to everybody.
There was a sonar beacon thatwas put on the east coast of
America a while ago and it wasliterally pinging out.

(16:40):
No one could hear it.
No human could hear it, but thewhales could hear it.
No human could hear it, but thewhales could hear it.
Right, and the pinging wastaking the whales and, rather
than them, swimming straight upthe coast to the mating ground.
They would hear the pinging andthey'd move out and they would
miss the mating ground.
Nobody could hear it, but thatliteral energy was out there

(17:05):
repelling the whales and theymissed the mating ground and the
population came down.
So very much, when we areattached to our experience, when
we're attached to our way ofthinking, when we think we're
right, we don't think thatanybody knows, but energetically
we're literally repelling ideas, people and opportunities away

(17:26):
from us because we're attachedto what we think is right, want
to be right, and we push thosepossibilities away.

Peter Carucci (17:35):
You know, gregory .
Well, that's awesome.
I love that analogy.
Matter of fact, we have an oldChasing Sunday song called Gone,
which is about whales, yeah,whales, ironically, whoa.

Jamie Serino (17:54):
Where have they gone?
It's bizarre.

Peter Carucci (17:57):
It's about where have the whales gone, and it's
literally you were talking aboutthat.
That's pretty crazy that's agood song yeah, it's a good song
.
I am particularly fascinated bythe idea that that if you can
shift the leader's mindset,everything else falls into play,
and in my life I've either beensuccessful or been part of

(18:21):
successes where the strength ofleadership really changes an
entire environment.
I do, however, have friends oracquaintances who are in the
business world who don't give aflying hoot, no matter what,
they are still going to be rightbecause they're entitled,

(18:42):
they're the boss and guess what?
I'm going to be right, what youdo, it doesn't.

(19:07):
They're still either indignantor they're still just refusing
to even engage in that mindset.
And to them, they still mightwind up by the end of the day
with a little more, you know,with the goal they wanted,
because the business world canbe cutthroat and I don't care,
we're going to make this andwe're going to make money off of

(19:27):
off of it, and they're gonna doit by hook or by crook.
Um, but have you run intosituations where some of this
mindset has just not either beenrespected or appreciated, and
I'm just so fascinated by whatthat looks like well, you bring
up a good point, and I come fromthe world of capital and
capital and the entertainmentcelebrity industry.

Gregory Mark Hill (19:43):
There's a lot of analogies where people who
are movers and shakers anddealmakers, their ego begins to
expand the more successful theyare and the more capital that
they bring in and the morethings that happen.
And look, on some level, thereis this dynamic where that feeds

(20:06):
upon itself and people like tobe around the rainmaker, the
dealmaker, the successfulpersonality, and then they
slowly begin to make allowances.
Well, you know, that's okay.
Oh, normally I wouldn't do this, normally I wouldn't do that,
and I write about this in mybook, but I basically share for

(20:27):
people.
They need to create what I calla system, a leveling system,
where you have in your mindlet's just say you have the.
You should be able to quicklywrite 30, write the 30 or 40
people around you every day,whether it's the dry cleaner,
the cook, the chef, the Uberdriver or your work colleagues,

(20:47):
your friends, your family.
You should actually be able totake a list and, in five minutes
, write the 30 or 40 peoplearound you and you know what.
That's your world, those 30 or40 people around you right now.
That's your world.
We don't 40 people around youright now.
That's your world.
We don't think about it thatway, but that is your world,
that's your universe.
In that universe of people thatyou're speaking to and working
with and connecting with and weare all connected, whether we

(21:12):
realize it or not, whether wewant to be, we are and the
dynamic around the world youwant to categorize and think
about.
Here's a level of people that Icall the board of directors or
my cabinet members, people thatI look up to, I gain wisdom from
and I take a lot of usefulinsight.
Then I have the next level,which is your partners or your
peers, your colleagues, and thenbelow that is your friends and

(21:35):
below that is your acquaintances, and below that are called
strangers and you can labelwhatever you want, but that's a
simple categorization of people.
Now, when you think about thatgroup of 30 or 40 people,
especially when you're workingon deals and projects some of
those names will change as youwork on the next project and the
next project, but you'll stillhave that consistency you want

(21:58):
to think about two things whatmust they do and especially,
what must they never do?
And then, when you do, whenyou're able to do that, and this
is.
I don't share this detail inthe book, I share conversations
like this when they do somethingthat's incredible, they
maintain that level.

(22:19):
When they do something that'sincredible, they maintain that
level.
But you need to be able to movepeople up and down that chain,
that totem pole.
And it's important to do sobecause if you have a cabinet
member that all of a sudden istaking advantage of you, is
using their position and statureto take advantage of the
financial situation, anoperating situation, then are

(22:39):
they really a cabinet member?
And what happens is, when youactually move them up and down,
it allows you to evaluate notemotionally, but literally
evaluate where they are, and itputs you in a different
perspective of how you're goingto work with them, how you're
going to be with them.
And then also, you realize youdon't actually get attached to

(23:02):
where they are.
You see what's happening inreal time.
Now to specifically answer thequestion but but they made all
this money.
It's not really fair.
How come they can be, hey, thisway and get away with that, so
to speak?
Right, because it happens.
It happens in real life.
There is another sanskrit wordthat's called karma, and we've

(23:22):
heard this word a lot, butpeople don't really understand
what it means.
They said oh, you've got goodparking karma.
Every time you get in the car,we find a spot with you in it.
That's not really what it'ssupposed to be about.
Karma, literally simplified,means action.
Me too, every time.
It doesn't matter, I don't knowmeans action, me too, but it's

(23:45):
not what's wrong yeah, that'sokay.
So karma means action, but itreally means the action of how
are you behaving, how are youbeing, what are you doing?
Are you being a good person?
Are you not?
When times are challenging, whoare you stepping into?
Being positive or negative?
What happens?
And the boomerang of energyliterally is accelerating faster

(24:06):
and faster.
And so what you may see is, wow,they got a bigger bonus Boy,
they got a bigger title.
But the other thing you may notsee is, wow, their family life
is a mess.
Their friendships they don'treally have any.
Their relationships theythought with people are not what

(24:27):
they have.
And do they have joy andhappiness and wonder?
And that in their life?
Maybe not, maybe not.
And so when you step back andlook at the larger picture, you
can say, yeah, okay,economically they got a few
dollars more than me for now.
But the funny thing is youcan't take any of that with you.

(24:49):
What you can take with you isthe things you love, the
memories you create with people.
You love the things you love todo.
Everything else that you don'tlove to do.
That's a distraction, and youdon't get to take that with you
anywhere, no matter what youbelieve, and that gives you the

(25:09):
calm, peter Jamie, that we needwhen we're like, okay, I'm in a
good place now.

Jamie Serino (25:16):
Yeah, I'm in a good place now, yeah, and the
other thing too there is toencourage people, like another
sort of Eastern philosophicaltenant, like of Taoism, for
example, is to not compare Right, and the minute you start
comparing yourself to someoneelse or something, that's when
you start to becomedisillusioned and you know

(25:38):
heading down down a wrong path.
Soed, and you know heading downa wrong path.
So I think you know, betweenwhat you said and looking at the
big picture and then maybe evenjust not comparing yourself to
these people, you could, youknow, find yourself a little bit
more so.
But it was this kind of leadsto a question that I was
thinking of is, you know, asyou're working with people and

(26:00):
imparting this advice a lot oftimes, these people are very
competitive, which means theyare comparing, you know, and
they are trying to get ahead of,maybe other people, and they
are driven and I think they'relike when I've spoken with
people like like this that weremaybe having difficulties, there
was this idea of they had ahard time letting that go

(26:24):
because then they felt like theycouldn't succeed.
They wouldn't have any drive ifthey let that go, but letting
that go meant that they could beachieving everything that
you're talking about.
So what kind of advice do yougive people when they're feeling
that like I want to do that,but I don't want to let this go
because then I'm going to fail?

Gregory Mark Hill (26:44):
um, that's a really great question.
It comes up a lot.
There's two points.
So the first thing is, when youcompare yourself to others, you
literally go into a self-worthmode.
Right, I am worth less than so.
That's literally.
Self-worth is not about worth.
It's about you feeling, on acomparative basis, I am worth
less than them.
So it's important to understandthat and as soon as you go into

(27:07):
comparison mode, that youdidn't get as much as they did,
no matter what it is titlepraise, a capital, a bonus
you've actually gone into victimmode and that is literally the
self-cherishing ego rearing itshead again.
Right, it's a victim mode.
And in that moment, you havefractionally given away your

(27:27):
energy to them.
Now, you've given and fed themliterally your power to them.
Now, in terms of you know Ineed this and I can't let it go.
There's's a story.
This is literally do you knowhow they catch monkeys in the
wild?
They take a cage and they hanga banana in the center and they

(27:48):
put a section of the cage thatis just big enough for the
monkey to put their hand intothe cage and they grab the
banana and they're holding on toit really tight.
Now the captors come andthey're going to grab the monkey
.
All the monkey has to do tofree himself is let go.
Guess what happens to thatmonkey and the banana?

(28:11):
He never lets go of that bananaand he gets caught every time.
They don't need to have dartsand tranquilizers, they just
need to have a banana in a cageand the monkey never lets go.

Jamie Serino (28:26):
I got caught in the jungle like that one time.

Gregory Mark Hill (28:30):
Think about it, when you think about that
simple analogy right when we areholding on to what we think we
need to get ahead and miss outon the other, you're going to
become captured.

Jamie Serino (28:42):
Perfect.
It's really cool.

Peter Carucci (28:45):
And it's funny too, not to get to wax to 80s
film, but Indiana Jones and theLast Crusade, when they finally
get to Holy Grail and Elsa knowshe's gonna go down that chasm,
she's, she dies going down there.
And then indiana was doing thesame thing, going after that

(29:07):
goal.
And finally he realizes youknow what his father says.
You know, let it go, son.
He's like yeah, you know, yousee that battle play out
everywhere.
It does you do.
That's a really great analogy.
So the monkey holding on tothat banana of that point, the,
the thing you want, the, thegoal you have, holding on to it

(29:32):
more in this case leads to yourfailure, not your success.

Jamie Serino (29:36):
Yes, yeah, and there's an idea there too of
when you were talking earlierabout, like the, the guy who had
to expand into another market.
It's you know, what got youhere, won't get you there, kind
of you know message.
Also, you know, trying newthings, stepping outside of your

(29:59):
comfort zone, um.
So I think that's cool too, um.
So I wonder if you want to talkabout um in the book.
You talk about that, the planeride, and, and then finding the
monk and, and, and I realizedthat that that might be kind of
long, but I wonder if you wantto kind of do a little summary

(30:20):
of that, because it's prettyinteresting and sort of leads to
how you began to sort ofquestion, like, you know, what
are you doing in your life andwhat has meaning for you?

Gregory Mark Hill (30:42):
pivotal moment, and so the reason I
start the book with the planecan't land right, to just give a
little teaser, is because, um,I was actually asked by these,
uh, at the start of thisconversation was asked, actually
asked, by these 40, 56 yearolds, super entrepreneurial,
smart executives, cc executivesif I had a case study on these
experiences I could share withthem.
That was also blending in thespiritual, the work-life balance

(31:06):
for them, because they hadn'treally experienced anything like
that.
It was usually how to be abetter salesperson, how to be a
better leader, all these typicalwonderful books, but combining
those two together.
And when I sat down to gothrough, well, what was the
experience?
You know what was the casestudy?
Who was the client?
That was that aha, eurekamoment and I realized the moment

(31:29):
that I experienced that changedeverything.
Was this plane ride?
Frankly, we were.
I told my assistant I was flyingfrom Silicon Valley to North
Carolina to do due diligence at7 am on a software leverage
buyout and I said don't put meon any puddle jumpers.
I said I don't care if I haveto land and drive three hours,

(31:50):
I'm going to do that.
And next thing I know we'relanding at Pittsburgh,
pennsylvania, it's pouring rainand I look down to our transfer
and it's literally a puddlejumper with propeller rings and
I'm like I don't want to get onthat plane.
I don't want to get on thatplane and I'm literally looking
at the GPS and it says it'sgoing to take seven hours to

(32:12):
drive there over mountains.
I'm like no sleep.
I'm like this is not going towork and it's raining so hard
like it is now.
And there's this scene fromMajor League where the grounds
crew comes out and puts rubbertape around the propellers.

Peter Carucci (32:28):
Now I'm literally looking down for the grounds
crew to come out and put rubbertape around the propellers on
this thing.

Gregory Mark Hill (32:33):
That's how much I didn't want to get on the
plane.
Anyway, we get on the plane andwe fly to a hurricane.
Actually, it was downgraded byfive miles an hour to a tropical
storm, but it was like KingKong was holding the tail of the
plane and was like this right.
Well, it's like it was crazyand what had happened was we

(32:58):
missed the runway right, andthat was a first for me.
But it wasn't just missing therunway right, and that was a
first for me, but it wasn't justmissing the runway.
We went back up in the black ofnight.
It's after midnight and thecaptain doesn't get nothing
happen and we're just spinningaround up there.
For it seemed like forever andthe guy next to me literally
didn't want to talk to me at thebeginning of the flight.

(33:18):
Giant guy, he literally startsmelting down and making
proclamations of doom we're notgoing to make it, we're going to
run out of fuel, all theairports are shut down.
I mean, he literally, and Isaid stop, stop, get a hold of
yourself, man.
And I said do you believe inGod?
Because you better startpraying or doing something.

(33:39):
Because I told myself and I'mnot even a super religious guy.
I just said I better startpraying or doing something.
It was crazy.
And I looked around the planeand there was eight of us there
and I said are these the facesof a plane that may go down?
And I was conscious enough tosay will go down, because I
didn't want to call in anynegative energy.
So I just looked around againand I could see it the fear, the

(34:04):
dread, the sadness, the worry,and I'm like this whoosh goes
through my body.
I'm like, oh my God, this is it.
And I just started thinking, didI live a good life?
Have I literally started goingthrough this process?
And I said what can I do?
You know what can I do?

(34:26):
And I'm a take charge kind ofguy.
I build companies, I dotransactions, I help companies
grow.
I said nobody's speaking, we'renot getting information, it's
been too much time, maybe we aregoing to run out of fuel.
I mean we're bouncing around,the rain is hitting, lightning
thunder.
I mean do you think the wingsare going to fall off?
Right, it is crazy.
I said I'm going to run upthere and I'm going to land this
plane myself.

Peter Carucci (34:47):
And then I'm like oh, I don't even know how to
fly a plane.

Gregory Mark Hill (34:50):
And in that moment you realize, okay, I
don't have any control.
Whatever control, I thought Idon't have it and I switched my
mindset.
I said, okay, what can I do tosave the people on this plane?
And you know what happens.
A thought comes in fromAmerican Express and it says

(35:11):
Dear Mr Hill, you fly more inone year than most people do in
a lifetime.
You should upgrade to theplatinum car.
I'm like we're being bouncedaround like a toothpick in the
wind and I'm thinking aboutAmerican Express.
I'm like what's going on here,like what's up with this?
And then finally I said, ok,okay, I get it.

(35:33):
I live a high energy, highwattage life.
I do fly a lot.
And I said, okay, here's thedeal.
I'm going to give up the energyof a year of my life and please
use it.
And I'm speaking to like godand the universe and everything
out there.
I'll say please use the energyfrom a year of my life to bathe
and protect this plane so thesepeople can land.

(35:55):
That's the only thing I couldthink of, that's it.
And in that moment my bodystarts to shake up and down and
this white light energy comesout of my heart, just pouring
out.
I kid you not, it's justpouring out.
I kid you not, it's justpouring out out of my back I
don't even know what's going onand I could see all the white

(36:16):
clouds out there, the thunder,the energy is pouring out.
My heart goes through the wing,through the plane, through the
windows, connects to the cloudsand I'm just going with it
because we're being bouncedaround.
I'm like, okay, you know.
And I look at it and I said,okay, please use that energy to
wrap and bathe this plane like acotton ball.

(36:37):
And just around and around andaround, until the cotton ball
around the plane literallyvisually, just gets bigger and
bigger and bigger and bigger andbigger.
And literally the captain thencomes on, these two junior
captains, like, okay, everybodybuckle your seatbelts, we're
going to try again.
And I'm thinking, oh my God,he's scared, we're going to try

(36:58):
again.
Like there's no confidence, youknow.
And I'm like, oh my God, youknow, we're coming around and
we're bouncing around, we'retrying to land, trying to land,
and there's like runway, water,grass, and it just seems like
there's a river.
I'm thinking we need pontoons.
We're bouncing around, wecannot break the barrier.
Too much wind, too much rainand finally, boom.

(37:20):
We hit the wheel, wells burstin a spark or flame.
I thought, oh my god, it's over.
And then there's so much rain,water douses it all out and we
bounce around, bounce around,bounce around, stop.
Finally we make it right.
The wheels don't shear off, wedon't turn a torpedo, we don't
blow up the north carolinaairport.
Get off the plane.
D-plane, by the way, there's noclapping, there's no.

(37:41):
No, thank you for flyingamerican eagle, nothing.
Everybody's shocked.
The captain is the one who pullsout the luggage and he gives it
to me, this young guy, and heand he's like he wants to cry
and I grab it.
I just look at him, I put thesatchel over my arm, I head
towards the North Carolinaairport, I look back and I say,

(38:05):
well, I guess, however longwe're supposed to live, it's one
year less now.
But the key to that is, Irealize we always think we're in
control about everything andwe're really not.
And it takes a level ofawareness and sometimes an
experience, like I just had,where we realize we can barely
control when we go to bed, whatwe eat, when we sleep.

(38:25):
We think we do, but we're not.
And so that's being attached toevery moment, every experience
every outcome, everything wewant.
We don't even realize thatwe're all the time.
And when you're, when you'reable to step back into that and
let that go, then some amazingthings happen for you.

Peter Carucci (38:45):
Yeah.

Jamie Serino (38:46):
It's a cool story, it's really powerful.
So, the idea of samsara, then,can you tell us a little bit
about, like you know, how thatplays out in a person's life?
Like so, these cycles, howwould you recognize them, how
would you stop them?

(39:06):
Or you know, how does a personput samsara into the context of
their life?

Gregory Mark Hill (39:13):
How does a person put samsara into the
context of their life?
So samsara, as I mentioned, iscycles of suffering and we're
attached to it and you choosesuffering.
We have experiences, we go intoour self-cherishing ego and we
get attached to the illusionsthat are out there Money, fame,

(39:39):
power, all of these naturalthings, these dreams that we
think we have and we getattached to those outcomes and
when we don't get them verysimply as they're sharing in the
beginning, when we don't getwhat we want, when we want where
we want, we suffer and weactually choose that.
We don't even realize thatwe're choosing it.
So I realized I had this moment.
I was driving to work and I hada very important meeting.

(40:01):
I was really excited about it.
It was going to be a big, bigfee opportunity and of course
I'm running a little bit late,right, when you don't need a
meeting, it doesn't matter,you're there early.
But of course I'm running alittle bit late and I'm on the
FDR, about to turn off the exitand this white truck cuts me off
right and I'm like whoa, Iactually had been doing some

(40:25):
breath work and some mantras andin that moment I had this,
literally this epiphany.
I was like wow, the first thingI want to do is honk the horn,
lay on the horn.
I'm nervous, I want to yell afew colorful words and maybe a
couple of hand gestures as well.
And I thought, oh my God,there's three categories of
people in this moment.
I had like this download.

(40:45):
And the first thing is thefirst part of us.
We see that happen.
We get cut off by a truck andwe want to lay on the horn,
scream some hand gestures.
There's a second group of usthat, well, we're not yelling or
honking the horn or screaming,but we're internalizing it and
we're saying bad driver, unsafe.
I'm a good driver, but he's abad driver right and um.

(41:09):
And then we go to the officeand we tell I just got cut off
by this guy in the white truckand we tell everybody what just
happened and I call thatcelebrating the problem.
Now you're sharing that witheverybody.
And then there's a third groupof us, maybe a smaller group,
that we're having such a goodday.
We're like go ahead, you needto get there faster than I.
Or if we knew that they weretrying to get there because

(41:31):
their wife's having a baby ortheir grandma's sick, maybe we'd
say, oh, go ahead, go ahead.
Not all of us, but most wouldsay go ahead.
So I'd say, but most of us arein that category.
One and two right, we want tolay on the horn, we want to say
something.
The moment you do that, twothings happen.
And the first thing is you'reliterally going into victim mode

(41:52):
again.
Right, the guy can't even hearyou if you're yelling or honking
, he doesn't even care, he'soblivious.
The second thing that happensin that moment you've literally
given away your power to acomplete stranger.
In that moment, and whathappens is we are having those
types of experiences.
The white truck is literally awhite truck, but it also shows
up in the form of an email blast, somebody yelling at us.

(42:15):
The other guy got promoted, theother guy got a bigger bonus.
All these things happen.
That white truck is showing upall the time in different forms,
and in those moments we areeither stepping into our power
or we're giving it away.
And when you give it away,which is the tendency that most
of us have, is at the end of theday we come home and we're

(42:37):
tired, as if we've been lifting50 pound boulders all day long,
and the reason is because,fractionally, we have these
experiences, you become attachedto the outcome of what we want,
what we want, and we give awayour power and we're exhausted.
You are exhausted, mentallyexhausted, and the thing is I'm

(42:58):
here to share with you that,when you read my book and I
share with you, through storyafter story, the answer to this
you can go to work out, you canhave a yoga practice, breath
work, you can go to temple,ashram, church, it doesn't
matter.
All those things are great, butI'm here to share with you.

(43:19):
You can do something verysimple which takes a lot less
mental and emotional time andenergy.
You can literally walk in yourbackyard, walk in your apartment
, walk around the block and takea moment to reflect on the
intention of okay, here's anexperience, here's a challenge.
Who do I want to be?
Who am I being?
All the problems do get solvedEventually two hours, two days,

(43:43):
two weeks, two months.
If all the problems eventuallyget solved, I'm free.
I actually don't have to beangry and upset and annoyed or
go into a victim mode.
Oh my god, I didn't evenrealize.
I'm free and in that momentyou've actually stepped into
your power I actually had thatexperience driving home today.

Peter Carucci (44:04):
What I'm not kidding.
Where I was, if you recall, bythe way, we're as we're filming
this is like a tumultuous,horrible downpour.
I was in the middle of a floodon the Sawmill River Parkway.
I mean, it was flooded andpeople are going crazy.
And I made the consciousdecision after my first reaction
was to be a first of that group, you know cursing.

(44:27):
And then I had to say to myselfwait a minute, I'm on my way
home, I'm all chill, there'snothing for me to give my power
over to in that situation.
And, gregory, you said somethinginteresting before.
You said we don't know ifthey're rushing because they're

(44:51):
getting you know what, ifsomeone's giving birth, like you
don't know what, what the other, in this case, uh, is going
through, and and whether thatopens us.
Opens that up for us to have adoor to compassion?
That's one thing, but reallyit's understanding, because
we're all in this together.
And it's like if that person'srushing because they're about to
have a baby, okay great.
Or maybe they're rushingbecause they're about to have a

(45:11):
baby, okay, great.
Or maybe they're rushingbecause they're just rushing and
they're crazy and they're justrushing anyway.
Who it doesn't really matter.
It's how I choose or the personin that car chooses to respond
yes, you've actually.

Gregory Mark Hill (45:27):
That's very enlightened of you.
See, the thing is in that youget to choose who you want to be
.
You get to choose that and inthat moment, when you have not
given away your powerfractionally, when you've
actually stepped into your power, what happens?
In that moment?
Your entire perspective ofyourself, the world around you,

(45:49):
it changes and in fact, in thatmoment you've become a magnet,
attracting more ideas,possibilities, opportunities
into your life health andwellness, no accidents, rather
than repelling all that awayfrom you.

Jamie Serino (46:03):
Yeah, and I, I kind of like what you're saying
there again about like yoursense of self, because, um, like
p, like Peter in your storythere, and then you know, and
also Gregory in yours, you know,the the initial thing that
people think is that that personis out to harm me, Right, and

(46:23):
so, like you're saying, you'replaying the victim and there is
a safety thing there.
So, yeah, like your body'sgoing to probably react.
You know the fight or flight orfreeze thing and and and it's
natural to have that reaction.
But I always think of I don'tknow if you remember De La Vega,
and he would write these, theselittle sayings in chalk in

(46:44):
downtown Manhattan.
There was one that said maybethe world is conspiring in your
favor.
And it challenges that notionthe world is conspiring against
me, Maybe it's conspiring inyour favor.

(47:05):
And when you think aboutcognitive behavior therapy, it
helps you to challenge thesepreconceived notions and these
frameworks that people kind oftend to have, which tends to
skew towards negative, becausethey tend to happen when maybe,
um, maybe a minor trauma ishappening to you.
So then you process it in a wayof like someone's going to harm
me, you know, or like, evenright down to an email that that
email is nasty.

(47:27):
But maybe if you read it againin a different frame of mind,
maybe it's not.
Maybe that person is not out toharm you, you know.
So I can appreciate what you'resaying there.
I think it ties to you know,some psychological theory there
too.

Peter Carucci (47:41):
And I, like the idea of this problem is going to
work itself out, no matter whatanyway.
So if you all of a sudden arejust aligned with that, what is
stressing me out right now meansabsolutely nothing.
So my response to it in anegative way can be horrific,
make it 10 times worse.
You know, once I was driving onthe FDR and a big SUV cut me

(48:05):
off and I was trying to get offand I'm going to a show and I
have all this equipment in thecar and it's a sunny day and I
decided I was like I'm not goingto let this bother me.
And and the woman rolls downher window and I rolled down my
window.
I go, is everything okay, ma'am?
She's cursing and screaming atme.
Are you okay, ma'am?

(48:26):
She's trying to cut in front ofme and I go are you all right?
She goes no, I'm not.
And I go are you all right?
She goes no, I'm not.
I was like, oh my God.
And she threw.
This literally happened twoweeks ago.
And you know she threw a donutwrapped in cellophane, you know,
like a three-package donut, soyou're going to eat it, as if to
attack.
Now Go ahead, man, you know.

(48:48):
And then, so the whole fruit ofthis argument is that, like at
the end of my show, sittingthere, my guitarists and I are
sitting there I say you hungry?
He goes yeah, get in there.
So he's eating this donut thatthis woman's anger launched at
me.
That was prepackaged, by theway, and when you let go, you
kind of, you know.

(49:08):
I have been on that same exitand I have not acted.
I've been worse road number onethan anything.

Gregory Mark Hill (49:14):
Well, you got to experience the sweetness of
light there.

Jamie Serino (49:20):
You got quite a reward for that.

Peter Carucci (49:23):
I couldn't understand.
I was like is everything okay,ma'am?
How are you?
I don't know.
It's like oh, I was justgrateful it wasn't a brick.

Jamie Serino (49:32):
Yeah, seriously, oh, I was just grateful it
wasn't a brick, you know?
Yeah, seriously.
So, Gregory, you do a lot ofwork with leaders and
entrepreneurs and helping themto realize this.
Do you have any advice forsomeone, maybe who's like in the
middle?
You know?
You said you have worked withyounger people.

(49:53):
They're just starting theircareer, they like in the middle,
you know.
Or you said you have worked withyounger people.
They're just starting theircareer, they're in the middle
and maybe they're realizing, youknow, like, some of the things
about themselves.
But maybe they're in a bit of atoxic environment too.
Like I appreciated what youwere saying earlier about you
know, not giving your power tosomeone else.
You know that board member,knowing who you are so that you

(50:13):
don't get taken advantage of.
But you know, you sometimeshear about, like you know,
toxicity in the workplace andmaybe it's an overused term, but
, um, you know, I I wonder ifyou have any advice for someone
in terms of like some Sarah, butbeing kind of, maybe more in
the middle of an organizationyes, well, in fact, um, my book

(50:36):
is several.

Gregory Mark Hill (50:38):
It's five chapters long and I should say
to people, if you can readreally fast, you can read one
chapter a night, and in days youcan read the book.
If you're a slower reader, youcan read one chapter a week and
in five weeks you can read thebook, Whether you're a slower

(51:02):
reader or a faster reader, fiveweeks or five days it'll change
your life and I believe that inmy heart because, for people,
whether you're a founder,managing director, partner, CEO,
all the way to the mid-levelworker, but really all the way
down to the assistants and eventhe interns making photocopies,

(51:34):
what I found is that everybodyseems to have a practice legal
practice, consulting practice,medical practice, healthcare
practice, um, gym practice butvery few people have a personal
practice of their own, and whatI mean by that is I'm not
talking just about, like breathwork, and I'm talking about a
personal practice where youreflect, like I was sharing, on
the moments of the day, theexperiences you had, and you
think about who do I want to be,what are my intentions, and in

(51:57):
those moments that I've hadtoday, have I stepped into the
positive or I stepped into thenegative?
And when you go through thatexercise with intention, then
that personal practice is yoursand then that actually becomes a
spiritual practice.
Right, and when you have apersonal spiritual practice, I

(52:21):
call it of your own.
That is literally what fillsyou up and gives you the energy
that is being fractually givenaway by yourself or being taken
away by I I'll call them energyvampires people that think they
can take advantage of you, whichis out there, it's true.
But when people have a personalpractice of their own, when

(52:42):
they're actually taking a fewminutes during that walk around
their apartment or walk aroundthe block or taking their shoes
off and walking the grassoutside and reflecting with
intention, who is it that I wantto be?
Who am I being in that moment?
When times are tough, it's greatto be nice when everything's
going well.

(53:02):
It's harder to be nice whenthings are not going so well.
It's easy to be angry ordistracted or apathetic.
It's not so easy to be who wewant to be Magnetic, kind,
compassionate, loving, happywhen times are challenging.

(53:23):
But when you have a personalpractice of your own and I call
that when you actually do ameditation you actually think
about it.
When you do that, you'reactually meditating.
That is meditation.
Meditation isn't about sittingon a pillow and, you know, doing
ooms for an hour, I mean thatis.
But you don't have to take thatmuch time and mental and

(53:44):
emotional energy.
You can literally take a momentwhich most people don't do
before you get home and stompyour feet at the door.
Stomp your feet at the door justbefore you walk in, and what
that does is it literally shakesoff the energy that bad juju
you took in, that debris thatyou took in, and it also grounds
yourself before you step in tomeet your friends, your family,

(54:08):
and literally connects you backto the present and the presence
of who you are.
So when you literally juststomp your feet three, four,
five times before you walk inthe door, wow, you're back to
the present, you're awake.
And that applies to everybody,whether you're an intern making
photocopies, whether you're insecretarial services board,
whether you're a mid-levelworker.

(54:28):
When you have a practice ofyour own and I'm literally
saying three minutes every day,before you go to bed, when you
wake up, before you walk intoyour home, when you do that
every day, it becomes yourpersonal what I call spiritual
practice and that literally, Ipromise you it changes your life

(54:48):
.
It's great.
I love that personal practice.
I promise you it changes yourlife.

Jamie Serino (54:52):
That's great.
I love that personal practice,thank you.
So, pete, do you want to tellus about your hat?

Peter Carucci (55:03):
Well, just because this is my son's travel
team.
Growing up I was one of thecoaches and pretty much every
episode.
Now I've decided I'm going towear a hat that has some meaning
.
What I love is that when wewere talking earlier, somehow
randomly, gregory, you werebasically like who I want to
grow up to be as a baseballplayer.

(55:23):
right, you played in the farmsystem or whatever, and all this
stuff it's just uncanny thatthere's a coincidence there and
that I used to wear this hatright here in your hometown and
that's my favorite restaurantthere.

Gregory Mark Hill (55:37):
Wow.

Peter Carucci (55:37):
Crazy.

Gregory Mark Hill (55:38):
Well, I don't believe in coincidences.
By the way, I believeeverything is aligned.
I believe we are all connected,whether we realize it or not,
whether we want to be or not.

Jamie Serino (55:49):
Yes, Look at that.
You guys definitely had aconnection.
You chose the right ad and theright water, so that's great.
I was just going to ask,gregory, is there anything that
we didn't ask or anything elsethat you want to share as we
wrap up?

Gregory Mark Hill (56:09):
Yes, I think we covered a lot and this is a
great conversation.
I'd love to have another chatwith you as well.
I think the most important thingthat I really think about is
and I talk about this from timeto time is the analogy of the
lotus flower and whether you'rean athlete, whether you're just
beginning your career out ofschool, whether you're in the

(56:32):
mid-level, trying to get to thenext level, whether you're a
senior leader in theorganization, c-suite, founder,
owner of the business, there area lot of challenges we go
through, a lot of struggles thatwe face Injuries as an athlete,
challenges in the workplace.
Sometimes it's hostile,sometimes it's not Our own

(56:56):
personal emotions we bring intoour daily family, our daily
lives is much like a lotusflower which sits beautiful,
pristine, clean, on top of thisdirty water and the dirty mud.
But in fact, what's interestingis the lotus flower, which
grows beautiful and clean, needsthat hydration from that dirty

(57:17):
water, needs the minerals andnutrients from that mud to grow
into the beautiful flower thatit is sitting atop all that
dirty water and dirty mud.
Much like we in our daily lives, whether we're young, whether
in our middle of our careers,whether we're senior levels, we
need those challenges andstruggles.
We need the samsara andsuffering to go through and

(57:38):
experience from it to be able togrow into that beautiful lotus
flower at the end of the day.
That's what I'd like to sharewith people.

Jamie Serino (57:47):
That's a great thought to end on.
Thank you for that.
That's great.
It's been a great conversationand I definitely feel like we
could talk for hours, so we'llhave to do this again sometime.
For sure, I'm going to continuereading the book.
I just started it.
So everybody, samsara and itsimpact on the entrepreneur's

(58:08):
dreams Check it out.
Amazon and Gregory, there wasanother website where you could
get it.

Gregory Mark Hill (58:17):
There's multiple websites, but obviously
Amazon.
It's now in England, singapore,uae, australia, canada.
It's in Indigo in Canada aswell, and so there's a publisher
, uh, called book baby.
You can buy it directly on bookbaby as well, especially if you
want to buy in.

(58:37):
Some are um a hundred or 500copies.
We have a few folks buying athousand now.
Um, you can get it directlyfrom the publisher.
So, but Amazon is fairlyubiquitous.
Again, it's been great here,jamie.
Peter is wonderful to sharewith you.
Thanks for the great questionsand the opportunity to share
with your audience.
Love it Wonderful.

Peter Carucci (58:59):
Thank you, thank you.

Jamie Serino (59:01):
And thanks everybody for watching and
listening and we will see younext time.

Gregory Mark Hill (59:07):
See you next time.
Bye now.