May 18, 2023 • 51 mins
Horatio Alger is an organization closest to Glenn’s heart. We talk to Nido Qubein who is also a member. He is the President of High Point University, an author, businessman, and motivational speaker. They share their passion for giving back, and helping the next generation overcome their own adversity and become a victor instead of a victim.
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Hi, I'm Mindy Sterns and I'mGlenn Sterns, and this is Grit Happens.
Join us as we engage in candidconversations with some of the most successful
people in every field and from everywalk of life. All it's a common
thread of grit and a goal ofnot just surviving, but thriving. And
we hope that the show will helpyou feel informed, energized, and especially
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inspired. So let's get started.This is great happens. Hey, we're
back with another episode of Grid Happens. And today we're continuing our series on
you know, straight from the book, really from it's all about integrity and
it's about giving back. And I'mvery excited about today's guests. I am
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so excited myself. I'm like alittle schoolgirl in a way, because this
guy's got these burning blue eyes.I know you can't see them on a
podcast, but they're there and they'llget you. If you ever, you'll
be magnetized, He'll be mesmerized byhis gaze because that's just the magic he
has over people. It's an incrediblestory. Do you want to say a
little thing before I make an intro? St Okay, I know want to
save your voice and save the conversation. This gentleman we know for the Horatio
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Alger Association, a dear friend.We have had the pleasure to meet such
an incredible human being. President ofhigh Point University since two thousand and five.
He's come to He came to Americaspeaking no English, less than one
hundred dollars in his pocket. He'sthe youngest of five kids. He's authored
multiple books. He's raised millions forhigh Point University. He is the founder
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of the National Speaker Association, emerituson the board. He is incredible.
There are so much to say aboutthis matter. I wish we had more
than the time we have because wecould do a whole day on him.
But I just want to welcome himto our Grit Happens podcast. Please say
hello to doctor Niedo Kubain. Welcome. I'm Indillo Glen. What a pleasure
of being with both of you.And I'll tell you what. I may
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have written a lot of books.None of them looked as good as intent
Ratie, and none of them soundas good, none of them as profoundly
useful a meaning from people's lives.So the two of you I hold in
the highest esteem, and I amthrilled and delighted to be with you.
Oh likewise, I tell you,you know, you know, I went
and did it. I wrote thebook. You know, it took three
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years. And knowing you've written Idon't know what fifteen how many of you
written now you've over fifteen, rightat least? Well, I wrote really
twelve books hardcover and then there fiveor six other little gift books. Yes.
Wow, So I you know,kind of my first entree so to
speak, into your world. ButI am very I guess humbled by you
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know, the fact that you know, I thought I'm never going to write
a book. I mean, youknow, who wants to read it?
And after doing that little TV show, there was a lot of people that
kind of came and said, gosh, they really you know, got then
out of the show, and ittouched me and I thought, well,
maybe you know, all right,I'll go and expose my flaws to the
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world and let's see what happens.Yeah, and uh, but you know
what I do. We're excited tohave you and what a lot of people
out there. You know, youknow, our big connection is through Horatio
Alger and that plays a part inthe book very much in my life,
should I say. And you know, getting to know you through the association
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has been amazing. I mean,you know, not only are you a
member, but you play such apivotabal role in the Horatio Alger by being
able to interview a lot of theUM, the young students that we all
get to UM get to meet andget to help in their education. And
uh, you know, obviously you'rea master at being able to UM sit
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and pull out wonderful nuggets of informationthat get us to realize there's hope and
there's so much that comes from thesecoming from adversity basically, right, you
know. And and so you've gota gift. And I've been very honored
to get to know you and realexcited that you're here. Thank you,
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Thank you, Glynn, thank youso much. You know, I think
rache Alger has a noble purpose,as the three of us know. And
what attracted me to it is notso much it's a distinction award. You
meet great people. What attract meto it is that it's really planning sees
the greatness and the mind's, heartsand souls of people. Right. So
the reason it's important that you wrotethis book is when you write a book
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like this, it's not about you. It's not about people saying how smart
and wonderful you are. We allknow both of you have been acceptionally successful,
you're very intelligence, You've got alot of good in me alive.
But I think you have a duty. I think it's a responsibility that if
you have some ideas that you believecan help other people. I do believe
that you have a duty to sharethat data, that information with people so
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they compliment for So that's that's reallythe value of a great book. The
second value, I think is thatit's for all time. You just do
not know, Glenn. You maynever know how many hands this book lends
in and how someone's life could beinfluenced and impacted. Hopefully you'll hear about
all of them, but that's impossible. They're going to be so many people
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who read this book and a benefitfrom it. You'll inspire their life,
and you'll propel them forward and inways that you can't even imagine. And
again, you may never be ableto stratify or really quantify all of that
information. That's why a book isso important, and when it's written in
an autobiographical form where you're actually tellinga story. I mean I looked at
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the book I read now, probablyseventy five pages. It is everybody should
have that book because what America andthe world needs today are real life stories.
Or someone had an idea, bustedtheir buns to get there, took
some serious had faith, had courage, and marched forward and learned and extracted
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from that experience valuable lessons. Sothere will be people who are significantly successful
in life will benefit from this book. And they will be people who have
done I haven't done anything much yet, but this book will absolutely allow them,
inspire them, emote within them thereason that they am, that they're
enough and they can make good thingshappen. So listen. I honor you
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for writing the book. I intendedto give it to everybody who's who's in
my employee here and students this weekend. I don't know exactly how that fits
with who, and I thank youfor doing it. It is tough to
write a book, especially when you'reunveil and reveal some personal information in the
book. It's really tough, andyou worry about who did I leave out?
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Who did I not mentioned, didI say the way thing and all
of these things. I've struggled throughthose in my own life. But you're
great. But you know, yourgreatest accomplishment, Glenn, I've now know
who you're are, and I've beenprivileged to know you. Your greatest accomplishment
is loved the book. It's notthe lending business. It's not being on
TV. She's sitting on your lefthand side. I know exactly. Very
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smart man. Ladies and gentlemen,listen and heed every word he said.
You know, but I will tellyou to your point. Besides this wonderful
lady here, your point about toomuch as given, much as required?
Right that the old saying there.But it's not about what was given because
like you, I mean, Igrew up. You know, I failed
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fourth grade. I was dyslexic,I had a child at fourteen years old.
My parents struggled with alcoholism, allthose kind of things. You know,
you came here. Your father passedaway at six years old, your
mother at a fourth grade education.You came at seventeen years old, didn't
speak English, she had less thana hundred dollars in your pocket. You
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know, this book is dedicated tothe underdogs in the world. And I
think we all those many of uswho have risen above, have started as
underdogs, and we can speak tothat nature. And can you walk us
a little bit about like your storyand is there someone in your life who
was a mentor who really impacted youin a significant way that change the trajectory
of your life? Because a lotabout the mentors. Yeah, I mean,
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I think that we are as goodas the circles of influence in which
we choose to reside. We areas good as the choices we make in
life. I like to say theyhave no such thing as unrealistic dreams and
only unrealistic timelines. I like tosay that the circumstances in which we find
ourselves do not determine where we endup. They only tell us where we
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start. So there's hope for allof us. And for me. You
know, my life got to atipping point because of all the turning points
I had, so turning point numberone of eighty six. My daddy that
I've never really known in person,am a zombie the story of my life.
Asked me the question, you couldhave changed one thing in your life,
what would it be? I knowthe answer. If I could have
changed one thing in my life.I much rather have had a dad who
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could read me a book, takingme the circus for me of Frisbee,
you know of or just talk withme man to man. But that was
not my faith. But he isthe amazing thing. And that's what two
Book is also tells us, andthat is out of adversity can emerge abundance.
That the spirit of anticipation is allpowerful. That if you get up
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in the morning and say, look, yes, I can. You know,
the word impossible only appears in thedictionary. It is really I am
possible, And then all of asudden, the word I can't disappears from
the vocabulary. So my mother,Mindy, borrowed money to send me to
America on a one way ticket.And I came to America, and I
went to a little school because restonly one whould accept a kid like me.
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And I worked through college, veryvery hard. I worked through college,
and then I went, you know, I transferred to hypool University,
Hypo College, then my junior andsenior year, then University of North Counta
means for graduate work. And Icame on a graduate school. I'd say
five hundred dollars and I started myfirst business and within about two three years
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I built with sixty eight thousand customersand thirty two countries, was a direct
mail business. It talked so much. It gave me victories and it gave
me tremendous disastrous feelings. At theday that the day you know you've become
stronger. Right, I make adistinction between productive failures and non productive successes.
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A productive failure is when we don'tdo well. We dissect it,
we analyze it, we look atit incisively, we extract from it,
learning and we will come better nexttime. Productive non productive success we don't
know why we succeeded, and sowe can't replicate it. And so life
has a way of punishing us,but also lifting us up if we're only
allow ourselves to do that. Andso turning point for me was my dad
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died. Turning point number two.I came to America in search of the
American dream. Listen, Glenn andMendeed. So many people today what I
was on CNBC not to long ago. They want to argue the point whether
that the American dream is dead andI it depends how you define it.
The American dream, in my bookis defined as the achievement of your own
goals. It's not about having abig house and a big car. If
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you want that, that's great,But the American dream is about achieving your
own goals. How else would youhow else would you explain to a person
who goes to compas for fastrictions tobecome a teacher, and they know they're
gonna be overworked, under paid,they want to teach them. Great,
You're gonna look at that personal eyeballto eyeball and say you have not achieved
the American dreams? Who has theright to make such judgment? So I
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came here in search of the Americanteam. I believe of America are paid
with gold. And it was aturning point for me. And then and
then lots of stories like in yourown life happened to me, and from
each one I learned a very importantlesson. My life is pregnant with these
anecdoral happenings that I are inspired.Things don't just happen by accident. There's
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a reason why stuff happens to usin life, and we conduct ourselves up,
pick ourselves up, and start allover again. And that's been really
my life, kind of your lifeas well. And so you know,
all the way up to these lovelybooks, you haven't front of you all
the way up in two thousand andfive. You know, like you,
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I'm very successful. I had fouror five companies. I own some significant
things in my life. And andyou know, it's amazing how your alma
mater begins to recognize you, youknow, when you when you've done a
thing or two. And they wantedme to be the chair of the board
trustees at hyper University. So thatwas what's going to happen. But Hype
Point University working well, it hadno financial resources, it had one hundred
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and twenty million dollars different maintenance.And so my buddies on the board really
basically convinced me and and and sortof pushed me to come and try to
fix the school. And I promised, I've come for two years and my
kids that take over some of mybusiness interests, and I was supposed to
be a two years. This ismy nineteen nineteen. We didn't you,
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I mean, just alone to showyour impact of what your story is,
you raised like twenty million dollars inthe first What what happened was when I
came here. You know, wedidn't have any money, so I said,
this is my first day on thejob. I said, I gotta
go raised to a million bucks,paint a couple of walls, and fix
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a couple of bricks. And I'mgiving myself sixty days to do it.
And half the time I came backsaid, we raised double the money,
twenty million dollars. Since then,India raised about a billion dollars year.
I doubt it, and we createdThey know to you though, who could
really say no to you? Doesanyone say no? Does anybody say no
to you? Maybe your wife,but does anything that was that was a
girl when I was a junior incollege. Men, here you go,
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Oh there was one. We allremember that one that got away, don't
we. I love her. Ilove your philosophy about not living in the
past, because I think a lotof people that don't go anywhere stay in
the past and don't allow them tomove forward. And you have a quote
kind of in that realm about thepast. Yeah, well, the past
is you know, yesterdays of yourlife are gone forever. The pass is
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a wonderful place to to remembers,allows the place to live. You have
to have a future of you.You have to think about tomorrows of your
life. You need to prepare forit. And so here I am right,
and I get to tell you,in the last eighteen years, I
have been around you know, theblock a couple of times in my life.
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I have never had more fun.I've never felt more fulfilled, I've
never felt more impactful. Thousands uponthousands of students have gone through the hallways
of this university to learn. I'vehad a chance to inspire my teaching the
freshman class. By the way,all fifteen hundred students take my class in
the fall every Thursday day. Reallytalk about leadership and school literacy and you
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know, stewardship and all those things. So it's been it's been a lot
of fun. Glenn. You lovenumbers. Let me give a couple of
statistics. So when I came here, our revenues were twenty eight million,
now pushing half a billion. Wehad one hundred twenty million dollars diferent maintenance
our day we have zero different maintenance. We have three academic schools. Meant
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you now we have thirteen, includingengineering, law, mentors, and pharmacy,
you know, tough schools. Wehad fourteen hundred students. Today we
have six thousand. We have netassets of fifty million dollars a day,
one point three billion um. Ifyou if you gotta come here, I
gotta make sure you come here.I think it will shock you how beautiful
the campus is. Oh no,I've heard the most incredible thing about your
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polics. And we've got their Spectaculversitybook and look through it and we've seen
a lot of videos. You knowwhat's in one of them our daughter's friends.
It has a bide. I don'tknow if she get in was she
was deciding your there's There are leadersthat come through education and then there are
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the entrepreneurial kind of leaders. Youremind me very much of a gentleman over
here. And I think I've talkedto you about him, Jim Dody,
who I know Jim very well.Yeah, yeah, and he thinks a
lot like you, right, whichwas to embrace your community and get them
to see the potential in these studentsand what they can do and be leaders
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in the future. And because youboth have lived very similar lives, the
average tenure of a resident is isshort, right, you guys both but
blown away that I mean you're approachingtwenty years or at nineteen years right now,
right and or almost nineteen and youknow, and you look at what
you've done in the impact you madefrom a regional you know college to this
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national university. Now, it's umphenomenal, you know. And I think
a lot of that because your skill, at least the way I think of
it, is more entrepreneurial thinking,right, you know, you know what
you got to do to dig inand having that kind of a mind And
again no no knock on the umyou know, on the academia style of
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leaders, because they have they havea different you know, um the mindset,
a different gift to give as well. But having someone of your uh,
you know kind of mindset helps toreally grow a university. And look
at what you've done in less thantwenty years to your point, you know,
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And and that's you know, whenI look at what you know you're
able to do, because it's it'shere you said this in the beginning about
but the book, and hey,that's all great. The same thing with
what you've done. It's wonderful yourstats, but look at how many kids
you're able to impact, right,that's the place that you're able to go
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and then and to go do that. A Horatio Alger even more sets us
all up for I think something thatwe all can can look at and feel
real warm and wonderful feelings about beingable to help these kids? You know,
is there? Why is there awhy in your heart that exists to
say, why is helping the nextyear generations so important to you? Why?
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Why do I do this? Yeah? Because my life, My life
has been influenced directly by a setof heroes and models and mentors. Heroes
are people I may have met,may have only read about in the autobiographies.
Models are people I want to learnfrom and emulate behaviorally and intellectually and
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socially um and mentors are the oneswho hold you by the hand, you
know, who say I'm sure howto do this better? You know.
Mentors the ones you go to andsay, you know, I thought I
could do it, but it didn'twork out. What did I miss?
And a mentor you know hugs youfiguratively and says, well, there's a
better way, and let me showyou from my own experience. So,
when we have been at the receivingend of such kindness and such stewardship that
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I think we have a duty topass it on. And look, I
don't. I don't believe in givingback. I really don't. I think
giving back misses the point. It'slike saying. It's like saying, you
know, I owe the bank somemoney and I got to give it back.
I helped start a bank back aneighty five A couple of guys,
and I did we sold it.I served today thirty three years on the
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board of six largest financecution of thecountry called Truest and Trust M and A.
There. So the truth of thematter is that we're all the products
of life itself. William Barkett,the scholarsh theologians said beautiful. He said,
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always give without remembering, always receivedwithout forgetting. And as I grow
older, acknowledge and realize that they'rein lives wisdom. You know, if
all we have his information, whichis what happens with academia sometimes, then
if all we have is information,people will use us in discard us.
If all we have is knowledge,people will call upon us only when they
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need us. Think about your dentists. You're not sitting there thinking about your
dentist, but if you're do tohurting all of a sudden, you think
about your dentists. But if whatwe have is wisdom, people respect us.
That's why Sam point to write thebook, because what you're doing is
you're imparting wisdom. Oh sure,there's some flavoring of information and knowledge,
of course, but the essence ofit is wisdom, the wisdom of one's
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life. And when you have wisdom, people respect you. And I found
in my own life that if peoplecan only trust me and respect me,
me mendy seriously. Fundraising is allabout trust. It's all about someone saying,
I believe in you, man,and you know, I've been able
to have been very fortunate. I'vebeen able to his mother thirty some gifts
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in the twenty five thirty million dollarsrange and up, wow, that's significant
money. For Harvard it may notbe, but Y University there's plenty,
and so Chapman. For Chapman,there's plenty of trust Me. Those gifts
are not lying on the side ofthe road. But it's all about trust,
and it's all about it's all aboutinterpretation of value. It's all about
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it explaining to someone that the valuethat you render will be appreciated by them
based on their needs, goals,fears, and aspirations. Everything we do
in life must be focused on theother person. If I know what your
needs, goals, aspirations, andfears are, then I can be so
valuable in your life if I knowhow to communicate that and build a bridge
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of understanding with you. But ifI'm focused on my own needs, goals,
aspirations and fears, I'm not goingto be the steward that I can
be. So I believe in giving, not giving back, just giving,
just give, just giving and givinguntil it feels good. You can't help
give God that we know, butit feels good, and I've been blessed
because of it. I can't likeyou, guys. I can't explain the
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blessings of my life. I don'tknow how in the world I think experienced
all that. Nono. You existwith such a really to be cliche and
attitude of gratitude, and I thinkthat just that exudes who you are.
And I think and for anyone,the more grateful you are, just you
attract so many more blessings in yourlife. And it's just it's not doing
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it to get blessings, but youjust do it and it happens. And
I'll tell you I think you knowagain coming from the background that you've come
from and mine as well. Andagain the thread that runs common through Horatio
Alger and what this podcast is calledGrit Happens. What the book is about
integ grit t right is and theand a lot of the people that listen
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to this pod casts and we're goingto read the book are people that aren't
the people that maybe have already justblown away all their goals and everything.
They're the people struggling, the peoplethat are wondering how and they're gonna do
it? And what what happened withyou me? And again a lot of
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the people that we know is it'snot easy. It is hard to get
and have your dreams and goals inmind and get to them, you know.
And so by being able to plantthose seeds, by being able to
explain to people when you see allthe nice, you know, shiny objects
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that come with this success, that'snot it. There's a lot of pain
and struggle and a lot of otherthings that come along with with that.
And that's the stuff a lot ofpeople don't get to see. You know,
you don't see the sacrifices that youmake. I'm curious because again,
you've been very successful. But tellme a couple of the times when you're
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sitting there going, oh crap,you know, like, I don't know
if I'm going to pull myself outof this one, because I tend to
do a lot of that in thison this podcast is expose my flaws because
I'm trying to reach into people andget them to realize no one has a
perfect life. Nobody has it easy. Then it comes with a lot of
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hard work and grit. Yeah.I mean, that's a beautiful question because
I've discovered in life that nobody Iknow has one self esteem. We all
have a degree of our personhood thatstill questions our capacity to deal with it
all. Amen. I think that'swhy God made us, Glenn, because
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if we were complete people in everyway, we might be very arrogant.
You know, we might be wemight think we're really on the world.
I think it is good to sortof be in search of significance while we
are on the journey of success.And so there many many times in my
life when I question something, butI question it on both ends, and
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that's an important point. I wantto make. I question sometimes I think
you'll accept the spirit with which Ioffer it, because I'm sure you're that
way. I question sometimes how smartI am? I go how did I
get to be so smart? Howdo I know how to solve this problem?
Where did I learn how to dealwith this difficulty? It seems like
it seems like it's an easy passagefor me. Where did that come from?
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So I question that I want tolearn how did I learn to do
all these things? Because nothing inmy life professionally is that difficult for me.
You know, I've been exposed togreat minds, I've been on big
boards. It's not really difficult.The difficult part is the human touch is
understanding the people we work with andin the process, understanding ourselves. Glenn
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and Mindy. When I skin toAmerica, my greatest fear was money because
my daddy died left my mom witha lot of dad. My mom was
not educated. He had to becomea seamstress. She had to make us,
you know, a buck here anda buck there defeat us and clothes.
My mom never said we can't affordthat. She always said, you
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know, being poor as a temporarycondition, you will figure our way to
get there, But I admit Iwas very afraid. I didn't want to
be poor. Money represented to mea passage to comfort and convenience and safety.
So I'm sorry to admit this,but for many years of my life,
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I just I just cared about accumulatingmaterial wealth, and I wanted to
build businesses that can have sustainability sothat I can be saved. But then
I discovered life is not all aboutthat. There's nothing wrong with having money
and material things, the beautiful placeof the beach and all these things that
you want to have in life,but there's going to be more, and
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the more has to do with whatwe do to make a world a better
place. The reason I love youbook is because it's going to influence many
people. And I'm gonna take disagreewith you just a bit there. Glenn.
You said this book is for peoplewho may be struggling, and no,
no, I think this book isfor everybody. I like to think
I'm a successful person. I meanby the book. I can't wait to
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just get down the beach in themorning and say it on my deck and
just read the book from beginning toend, because I'm inspired by it.
I'm not struggling, Glenn, butit will do a lot for me.
Sometimes we have to take a recessto we assess. I don't care who
we are, how successful we are. Sometimes we find wisdom and a gem
of truth and somebody else's passage inlife. So I think it's okay to
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question ourselves. I think it's okayto be afraid. I think it's okay
to you know, get up earlyin the morning, as I do.
I'm an earlier wise, between threeand four in the morning. I study
every morning for three hours and Iread a study. I love to read
good books, and and I questionmyself. You know, I am I
the right person for this? CanI do this? Like you? Guys?
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I get a ton of invitations todo or share this, to do
this, you know, come speakthere. And you know, you get
to a point in your life whenyou want to say, well, does
it matter if I were to dothat? That there's that activity. I'm
not into time management. I shouldtell you I have a different way of
thinking about things. For example,I think time management is meaningless because there
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are twenty four hours of the dayand guys like us could sleep four or
five hours. So we have twentyhours a day, we could do a
lot of stuff. Life is aboutenergy management. Do I invest my energy
in this activity? Right, it'sa different way to think. A lot
of people say, well, Iwant to become a good problem solver.
I don't think like that. Iwant to be a great solution finder.
It's a completely different way to think. Some people think about success. I
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think about significance inherent in significance ofsome success. But it's a different way
to think about life. And somepeople think about value rendering value. I
think that's meaningless. Everybody renders somedegree of value. I think about appreciated
value. Well, the value thatI render make impact on the person for
whom I render it. Otherwise,you know, the example I give is,
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um, what if I were togive someone to first class tickets to
go to Mali for a week,all expensive space. If that person is
afraid to fly, the tickets havevalue, But to that person they don't
have appreciated value. Right, that'sthe difference. So I think, I
think it's okay to sit back andgo you know, can I do better?
M I hurt somebody? Maybe Ishould be the first person to go
(29:41):
there and say, Glen I'm sorry, I I overstepped. I'll take responsibility.
I'm going to learn to do better. Am I doing enough and giving?
You know, because I do havea foundation. A gift cost if
we educate eight hundred, eight hundredstudents in our foundation over the years.
Um. But you know what,guys, you can't give God. The
(30:03):
more you give, the more youget. As long as you don't gift,
so you will get enjoy the gifts. Keep your eyes on the giver
because someday, someday we're gonna die. This is just I hope people watching
us a little one's getting out alive. Nobody's getting out alive. You know
the bad news. The bad newsis the size of our funeral is going
to depend on the weather. Ifit's a sundayday and nobody coming, they're
(30:29):
gonna be playing gold. So youknow, let's not take ourselves too seriously.
That's why I grit, great,good grit. Yes, there's a
lot of grit. And your yourstory is such a testament to grit,
overcoming grit and living with integrity.You know. I just I want to
like just I noticed that the HortuOld Association this year there was a lot
of emphasis on the world integrity,which was really exciting to see that because
(30:51):
you know, with the timing andthe time was fun. Glen's always got
really good timing. It's just howit works. But in your opinion,
sometimes it's bad timing, but goodtiming. It's got some timey in your
personal opinion. Define the word integrity. What does that mean to you?
And who has it? And who? Yeah? How do you lose it?
How do you get it? Canyou have just a little bit?
(31:11):
Or is it all all or none? Integrity is different than honesty, right,
I can be honest and not haveintegrity. Integrity is defines the way
I live, the way I treatothers, the way I make commitments,
the way I honor those commitments.Integrity defines the person who do an individual.
(31:33):
We love people with great integrity becausethey become trustworthy. That the kind
of people who are a partner withwant to be associated with. I know
a lot of people who are honestbut don't necessarily give themselves integrity. Is
this all encompassing? It's a framearound them. Mona Lisa and the Mona
Lisa has many many pieces of it, like honesty and good values and all
(31:57):
of that. So exeguity, theway I define it is is the way
you live honoring the other person whileyou attempt to move onward and forward in
line. You know, I doyou agree with that? Disagree with that?
I agree that. I love it? And what I you know,
it's funny people. Um, I'veoften said, well, that person they
(32:22):
have a dark cloud around their life, they've always had this dark cloud.
Or other people are so lucky they'rethere, They've got a you know,
a golden touch with everything. Andwhat I've come to find find is that
you plant your seeds along the way, you know, and you do think
seeds of greatness. Is that whatthis book is all planting seeds of greatness
(32:45):
from Hypoint University exactly. And soby by doing that, um, you
know, and I'll give you twoexamples. One is, you know,
in in my personal career, asthere were a thousand times when people decided
they wanted to leave the organization orwhatever. And we have opportunities with commissions,
(33:13):
Well it becomes the companies. Butyou know what, you earned it
and you keep it. Now.I you know, so many of these
companies go now it's mine, you'reout, thank you. But you're done,
we say, look, thank youfor bringing that in, and we
continue to pay you. The dooris open. Blah blah blah. But
you know this kind of stuff,right, And and so when you live
(33:35):
your life and you make sure yousay, I want to do the honorable
thing. By the way, whenno one's looking, you still want to
do the honorable thing. And thenone day something don't come back, and
you know, the world two thousandand seven and eight, the world blows
up, you know, in thefinancial world. And then there are people
out there that you have touched alongthe way and either you touched them,
(33:59):
you know, with a stick andyou hit him, or you touch them
and you really help them. Andthat's when people either they catch you or
they let you fall, right,And so then you can say, wow,
either a bad luck or good luck. You have a dark cloud or
your no, you don't. Youplanted seeds your whole life. And people
are there for you when you needthem. And I don't mean to bail
(34:21):
you out with money. I mean, maybe it's just advice, maybe it's
you know, but people are thereor they watch you fall because you deserve
it in their mind, right,but they just back off and so to
me, when I think about howyou live your life, and if you
live it pure and you want togive to others, you want to more
you give the more you get,as you say, I truly believe that.
(34:44):
And then one day, when you'renot expecting it, you just may
need that little nudge in the rightdirection. I had. I had one
of my sons, and I thinkI talked about this, and I'm going
to talk about it again. Hegot in a little trouble at school and
the girl didn't get in trouble thathe was with. And I said,
(35:05):
is it fair, son? Andhe says, I don't know, maybe,
And I said, I think it'sfair. And I'll tell you why.
I said, you had like tenlittle demerits over the last couple of
years. Your tie wasn't on right, your hair wasn't cut, your collar,
you know, these things they meantnothing. They were small little nick
nick nick nicknicks. She was onthe honor roll, had never had a
(35:27):
demerit. So when they looked atyou, these things that meant nothing,
but they're ten little knicks. Let'sget him in trouble. You looked at
her, she's that was her firsttime that it's all. You can call
it lots of different things that youwant to call it. But that's the
kind of things in life, right. So when you have integrity and you
(35:49):
stand strong in your conviction in life, then you have an opportunity when the
time is right for people to eitherbe behind you and be with you,
alongside of you, or they don'tstand there and with you, you know.
And and that to me is alot of what living is is.
I want on my deathbed, I'dlove to have a lot of people out
(36:12):
there. He wants a party.He wants everyone they come on over and
say one today one is my casketin the grave. Make sure you give
me an advanced notice so I canbe there. I'll let you know if
i'm you know, I don't wantthem going playing golf. I want them
to come, you know. Yes, So, Glenn, here's what you
(36:36):
just said to me. What youjust described is one of the greatest forecasting
um methods that could be used inbusiness and in life. It's called patterns.
So in grad school, I'm sureyou did the same thing I learned
about statistics and patterns of of ofof predict behaviors. You do it with
(37:01):
you know, behavioral economics, whypeople buy. You look at patterns.
You look at elections, why peoplevote for certain things. That's called the
pattern. I have patterns here forhow we enroll students. Who are they?
I can predict in advance based onpatterns, this is likely what's going
to happen, plus or minus fiveor ten percent. So what you just
(37:22):
said is when that teacher looked atyour son, said, the pattern there
is that you had these little upsand downs and therefore another little big,
you know, excess. Okay,the other girl didn't have that pattern,
so they cut us some slack.So behaviorally, this happens to all of
us. So some people have apattern of living life with integrity. Some
(37:45):
people have a pattern of living lifeor I win, you lose. Those
people we avoid, like the Blakebecause you know you and I like win
win relationships. I don't want towin and you lose. But I also
don't want you to win and Ilose. That doesn't make a good relationship.
And so you know, I believein something called intentional congruence, that
(38:06):
every every part of your life,well, that our life is like a
jigsaw puzzle, has all casual piecesand only when we have all the pieces
in the right place, so thatthe puzzle is in fact complete. That
we experience through happiness, happiness thatthat goes way beyond that you have in
your favorite ice cream or being outon the water, or you know,
(38:27):
playing God, and that kind ofhappiness penetrates your soul, not just your
your mind or your heart, butyour soul. The visa release, it
penetrates you. So we see somepeople who just live in joy. They
live in joy, and we wonderhow they do that. So a remarkable,
remarkable thing, and you look atthe pattern of their life and it
(38:50):
led to that. So I reallybelieve in these patterns of how we how
we do our day, that's apattern. How we think that becomes a
pattern, and behavior is also apattern, whether it's for a salesperson or
a student in high school. Ijust want to I want to tell the
two of you that that I watchyou for far for a while, and
(39:13):
I love you both because you're real, and because you represent principles and values
I believe in, and because alongthe path of life, you had to
swim across some wide white chasms,and you had to travel across some rocky
bridges, but you also went upto the mountaintop. You also flew high.
(39:35):
You also experienced ecstasy in life andliving. And I believe that life
is best lived when you experience allthat. If you only knew in one
pattern, then you don't understand,you know, the rest of it,
and therefore your sense of gratitude andappreciation, that sense diminished. Right,
And so so you know, Ijust respect you for what you do.
(39:59):
I love the fact that you arespeaking to groups. I see you on
social media, teaching teaching, teachingusually a little snippet that makes a lot
of difference. It's very compelling.I need to tell you, you're you
have a different style than mine.I speak fast, I'm you know,
I'm high energy. You know thatyour style. You know English very well.
You know, I don't know whatlanguage someone who didn't know it growing
(40:21):
up. I supposedly taught it fromthe day I was born, but I
still don't know it very well.You know it a lot better, you
know. But you you have ayou have a style that is authentic.
So authenticity above charisma any day orthe week. Yeah, because that's part
of integrity. So when you haveauthenticity, I believe you. And when
(40:45):
I believe you begin to trust you. When I begin to trust you,
I want to get closer to you. When I get closer to you,
we begin to do good things together. And so that's that's really what I
mean by circle of influence. Itell people your circle of influence, the
bigger it is, the smaller yourcircle of concerns going to be because whatever
(41:06):
comes to you in life good,better and different, You've got somebody in
your circred influence who can protect youand guide you. And I know about
some of those in your old lifebecause you've talked about I mean, you've
written about them, and that's reallypowerful. We are we are as rich
as the people we hank around with. My mother used to stay with me.
Who you spend time with is whoyou become. She would say,
(41:28):
what you choose is what you get. How you change is how you succeed.
Life is about transformation. How dowe transform ourselves. I wouldn't want
people to say, you know Needlespeaking the same way. I mean,
I spoke eight thousand times, youknow that professionally all over the world and
be used to buy tickets and standin line and buy all my materials,
or I've been around that block.I understand that business quite well, but
(41:51):
I wouldn't want him to say,well, he's using the same stuff for
fifteen years ago. It means I'mnot growing, I'm not transforming. By
incidentally glennam in um on the campusof Hyper University in Hyper North Carolina.
Today, I'm hosting the board ofa Board of directors board trustees of the
National Speakers Association, where I've played. You know, I think a pretty
(42:13):
year the founder of that Yes,so I'm having dinner with him tonight.
You would be a phenomenal person forme to interview in front of him,
because that's a really good circle foryou as well. That's composed of lots
of agents who book speakers, andlots of people who write books and talk
about you and also can help inwhatever it is one is trying to do.
(42:37):
And every year what I do thisyear, for example, I have
Since Marshall, my friend who runsMark Cuban's operations. I have Mark Randolph,
who co founded Netflix. As youknow, um, you know Tony
A. Tullo, who's the world'sleading regenerative medicine expert. You get the
(42:57):
idea, that's incredible. Bill Kennard, who was sharing of at and t
was the first African American to becomeUS ambassador and head of a f FTC
and UM, so you would beintriguing. Speakers would be very intrigued to
hear you UM. Now mainly,of course lived her life in that communication
(43:21):
world. She's very comfortable on thestages of the world, but you would
be. You know, that's partof your service is is to do things
like that. I find that I'ma little more jealous now where I invest
my energy. So I used toget a thousand invitations for you to speak,
(43:42):
So I kept raising fees, fees, fees, fees, fees,
and yes there were less that thatbore through the funnel, but the ones
I was doing were really impactful.You know, I started speaking to five
thousand and thousand people and it hadtremendous impact. Right, So one has
to invest their energy in a circleof influence that has a bountiful opportunity for
(44:08):
spreading the word or planning disease asyou said in Indie, or or helping
to grow people. In other words, when you want this book to be
read by a person, and thatperson goes to five with their friends and
say you've got to read this book. You've got to read this book will
change your life. That's where ourministry. I don't use it necessarily in
(44:32):
a spiritual way, but it isspiritual what we do that our ministry grows.
It has no boundaries. As JackWalsh used to say, bound dualist
company, right, you want tohave a boundualist impact in what you do.
Otherwise we live in a tiny littleworld. Zig Zigilar was one of
my very good buddies. Love him. You know, we used to be
(44:53):
in the same platforms and zig wouldsay to me, you know, need
to you your business. This isgrossing about a quarter of my business doing
I'm losing money. You make alot of money. How does that work?
And I said, well, isit because you And I'm not pretaking
it. This is just a reality. You like to speak to all these
large audiences of people who are wonderful, lovely, They don't necessarily have extended
(45:22):
network and so on. I mostlyspeak to corporations that have tremendous impact.
If I can inspire a CEO todo something, they can put significant resources
behind and go doing a big way. And so that's where I see you.
And you're you're already doing it,and I don't honestly, Glenn and
(45:44):
Mandy, I don't know what yourultimate goal is. But whether you like
it or not, you're going tohave impact. People are gonna follow you,
people are gonna believe you, peoplegonna learn from you. And when
you least expected, in the darknessof the night and in the most lit
corridors of the world, they aregoing to do amazing things. Right and
so, and that's that's your pay. That's your pay. That's more valuable
(46:07):
than any dollar you can hit me. I would take you up any time
that you would like to get togetherand try to you know, if it's
one of those speaking opportunities, pleaseyou know I'm there. And what I
believe is the people you know,you hit on the same kind of concept
(46:27):
we have. I call it balconypeople in basement people though right where you
know, you know when you're withyour your balcony friends, the ones that
lift you up, and you alsoknow when you're with people that are going
to bring you down. And andit's up to us to decide who we
want to be with you my friendor one of our balcony friends. And
I truly appreciate you and everythank youfor doing some energy to us today and
(46:50):
allowing us to share in your energysphere. You're awesome. You're awesome,
and you make a great couple.I mean, you really do. It's
meant to be for sure. Areyou fill each other's you know, a
little little piece of the puzzle thatneeds to be filled? I think that's
that's magnificent. So I'll talk aboutthis beautiful. I just real quick,
I just I don't know where peoplecan get this, but it is a
(47:13):
no, no, this is Imean, we did so much here that
every five years we update the bookto say this is where we wear and
this is what we have done.That's what about publication free? Anybody wants
that book is listening to you.All I gotta say is I'm a friend
of Mindy and glam Oh look out, look out. I'll send them that.
(47:36):
The other book. The other bookis my wife's book she created about
thirty gardens on campus. Oh mygoodness, the flowers must just be in
crazy bloom right now. The gardens, about all the gardens. I cannot
wait to come visit we are.I'll send that to any of your friends
with my tree and the tree asthe growth the tree. You know what
you know? We could talk formore. I know because you are a
(47:59):
are so good. You have somany nuggets of wisdom. There's so much
more what you have books out isthere is there one of your books that
you would highly like encourage people toread, specifically you're most proud of.
I mean, it's hard to saywhat your favorites are. To success.
Oh, you know they can theycan go online and they'll see all my
kind of stuff. I look,I'm on a stage of my life now
where I just um, I caredeeply about helping people, and I'm happy
(48:24):
to share lucky like you're doing.I'm happy to share whatever I know and
um uh and and you know,I'm happy to sort of spread the good
words you are doing. And that'swhy I'm doing what I'm doing at High
Point University. And it's amazing.It's amazing what happens you talk about integrity.
You know, integrity lives in onesoul, it emanates activities. Therefore,
(48:46):
as a result, but then goand you know nitocobain dot com,
then go to high Point h Oand dot edu. They can also go
to all Caps HPU with them.With this the signs plus like mathematical plus,
HPU plus, Yes, HPUs plusand that's UM. That's an app
(49:07):
people can download free. It isloaded loaded with interviews I've done with some
of the great minds in America.Condo lasts the chairman of biggest corporations,
and Henry Kravis is a name certainlyknown to you, glor He's coming here
on Tuesday and on campus and I'llbe aving live in front of people,
(49:28):
and so you know, it's it'sUM. Life is a lovely opportunity to
be good, do good, givemore, be more, serve more,
learn more, grow more. Andevery day I can't wait to get up
and get going. I love that. And you're up at four am and
(49:51):
you read all your emails by theend of the day. You are a
freak of nature. I absolutely adoreyou. Well, we are honored,
and all my emailed by myself.It is absolutely true. That's incredible,
and I'm enjoying talking to you.But within about seven minutes on the East
coast, that's cocktail hours. Soyou know your high point martini or whatever
it is that you have. Youappreciate such saying. We love seeing it.
(50:15):
Horatio Alder every year and what agift you've given us some time,
your energy, and we are weare honored to consider you in our circle
of influence and thankful for the timeand the wisdom you've shared today. Thank
you, Thank you for the books. Thank you for sharing the books and
that and I hope you enjoy theread. We look forward to hearing your
feedback after the while. Everybody willdo what I what I've done. I've
(50:36):
already ordered five hundred copies of thatbook. I'm going to give it to
everybody I know, and I mayorder more and give it to all of
our students. And it's not tobe nice to you to guys, It's
in life and self interest. SoI believe I from it. I everybody
a used it will lunch. I'mend this day from it, and that's
my way of helping others as well. But I thank you for your time
and your friendship, and thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Nito Coubain of
(50:59):
High Point Universe see an incredible humanbeing. You have been listening to another
episode of Say It with Me Birdit happens. Thank you, Nito.
We will see you soon, lookingforward to
Hi, I'm Mindy Sterns and I'mGlenn Sterns, and this is Grit Happens.
Join us as we engage in candidconversations with some of the most successful
people in every field and from everywalk of life. All it's a common
thread of grit and a goal ofnot just surviving, but thriving. And
we hope that the show will helpyou feel informed, energized, and especially
(00:27):
inspired. So let's get started.This is great happens. Hey, we're
back with another episode of Grid Happens. And today we're continuing our series on
you know, straight from the book, really from it's all about integrity and
it's about giving back. And I'mvery excited about today's guests. I am
(00:49):
so excited myself. I'm like alittle schoolgirl in a way, because this
guy's got these burning blue eyes.I know you can't see them on a
podcast, but they're there and they'llget you. If you ever, you'll
be magnetized, He'll be mesmerized byhis gaze because that's just the magic he
has over people. It's an incrediblestory. Do you want to say a
little thing before I make an intro? St Okay, I know want to
save your voice and save the conversation. This gentleman we know for the Horatio
(01:12):
Alger Association, a dear friend.We have had the pleasure to meet such
an incredible human being. President ofhigh Point University since two thousand and five.
He's come to He came to Americaspeaking no English, less than one
hundred dollars in his pocket. He'sthe youngest of five kids. He's authored
multiple books. He's raised millions forhigh Point University. He is the founder
(01:36):
of the National Speaker Association, emerituson the board. He is incredible.
There are so much to say aboutthis matter. I wish we had more
than the time we have because wecould do a whole day on him.
But I just want to welcome himto our Grit Happens podcast. Please say
hello to doctor Niedo Kubain. Welcome. I'm Indillo Glen. What a pleasure
of being with both of you.And I'll tell you what. I may
(01:57):
have written a lot of books.None of them looked as good as intent
Ratie, and none of them soundas good, none of them as profoundly
useful a meaning from people's lives.So the two of you I hold in
the highest esteem, and I amthrilled and delighted to be with you.
Oh likewise, I tell you,you know, you know, I went
and did it. I wrote thebook. You know, it took three
(02:21):
years. And knowing you've written Idon't know what fifteen how many of you
written now you've over fifteen, rightat least? Well, I wrote really
twelve books hardcover and then there fiveor six other little gift books. Yes.
Wow, So I you know,kind of my first entree so to
speak, into your world. ButI am very I guess humbled by you
(02:45):
know, the fact that you know, I thought I'm never going to write
a book. I mean, youknow, who wants to read it?
And after doing that little TV show, there was a lot of people that
kind of came and said, gosh, they really you know, got then
out of the show, and ittouched me and I thought, well,
maybe you know, all right,I'll go and expose my flaws to the
(03:06):
world and let's see what happens.Yeah, and uh, but you know
what I do. We're excited tohave you and what a lot of people
out there. You know, youknow, our big connection is through Horatio
Alger and that plays a part inthe book very much in my life,
should I say. And you know, getting to know you through the association
(03:29):
has been amazing. I mean,you know, not only are you a
member, but you play such apivotabal role in the Horatio Alger by being
able to interview a lot of theUM, the young students that we all
get to UM get to meet andget to help in their education. And
uh, you know, obviously you'rea master at being able to UM sit
(03:53):
and pull out wonderful nuggets of informationthat get us to realize there's hope and
there's so much that comes from thesecoming from adversity basically, right, you
know. And and so you've gota gift. And I've been very honored
to get to know you and realexcited that you're here. Thank you,
(04:15):
Thank you, Glynn, thank youso much. You know, I think
rache Alger has a noble purpose,as the three of us know. And
what attracted me to it is notso much it's a distinction award. You
meet great people. What attract meto it is that it's really planning sees
the greatness and the mind's, heartsand souls of people. Right. So
the reason it's important that you wrotethis book is when you write a book
(04:36):
like this, it's not about you. It's not about people saying how smart
and wonderful you are. We allknow both of you have been acceptionally successful,
you're very intelligence, You've got alot of good in me alive.
But I think you have a duty. I think it's a responsibility that if
you have some ideas that you believecan help other people. I do believe
that you have a duty to sharethat data, that information with people so
(04:59):
they compliment for So that's that's reallythe value of a great book. The
second value, I think is thatit's for all time. You just do
not know, Glenn. You maynever know how many hands this book lends
in and how someone's life could beinfluenced and impacted. Hopefully you'll hear about
all of them, but that's impossible. They're going to be so many people
(05:19):
who read this book and a benefitfrom it. You'll inspire their life,
and you'll propel them forward and inways that you can't even imagine. And
again, you may never be ableto stratify or really quantify all of that
information. That's why a book isso important, and when it's written in
an autobiographical form where you're actually tellinga story. I mean I looked at
(05:44):
the book I read now, probablyseventy five pages. It is everybody should
have that book because what America andthe world needs today are real life stories.
Or someone had an idea, bustedtheir buns to get there, took
some serious had faith, had courage, and marched forward and learned and extracted
(06:05):
from that experience valuable lessons. Sothere will be people who are significantly successful
in life will benefit from this book. And they will be people who have
done I haven't done anything much yet, but this book will absolutely allow them,
inspire them, emote within them thereason that they am, that they're
enough and they can make good thingshappen. So listen. I honor you
(06:27):
for writing the book. I intendedto give it to everybody who's who's in
my employee here and students this weekend. I don't know exactly how that fits
with who, and I thank youfor doing it. It is tough to
write a book, especially when you'reunveil and reveal some personal information in the
book. It's really tough, andyou worry about who did I leave out?
(06:47):
Who did I not mentioned, didI say the way thing and all
of these things. I've struggled throughthose in my own life. But you're
great. But you know, yourgreatest accomplishment, Glenn, I've now know
who you're are, and I've beenprivileged to know you. Your greatest accomplishment
is loved the book. It's notthe lending business. It's not being on
TV. She's sitting on your lefthand side. I know exactly. Very
(07:11):
smart man. Ladies and gentlemen,listen and heed every word he said.
You know, but I will tellyou to your point. Besides this wonderful
lady here, your point about toomuch as given, much as required?
Right that the old saying there.But it's not about what was given because
like you, I mean, Igrew up. You know, I failed
(07:33):
fourth grade. I was dyslexic,I had a child at fourteen years old.
My parents struggled with alcoholism, allthose kind of things. You know,
you came here. Your father passedaway at six years old, your
mother at a fourth grade education.You came at seventeen years old, didn't
speak English, she had less thana hundred dollars in your pocket. You
(07:55):
know, this book is dedicated tothe underdogs in the world. And I
think we all those many of uswho have risen above, have started as
underdogs, and we can speak tothat nature. And can you walk us
a little bit about like your storyand is there someone in your life who
was a mentor who really impacted youin a significant way that change the trajectory
of your life? Because a lotabout the mentors. Yeah, I mean,
(08:18):
I think that we are as goodas the circles of influence in which
we choose to reside. We areas good as the choices we make in
life. I like to say theyhave no such thing as unrealistic dreams and
only unrealistic timelines. I like tosay that the circumstances in which we find
ourselves do not determine where we endup. They only tell us where we
(08:39):
start. So there's hope for allof us. And for me. You
know, my life got to atipping point because of all the turning points
I had, so turning point numberone of eighty six. My daddy that
I've never really known in person,am a zombie the story of my life.
Asked me the question, you couldhave changed one thing in your life,
what would it be? I knowthe answer. If I could have
changed one thing in my life.I much rather have had a dad who
(09:01):
could read me a book, takingme the circus for me of Frisbee,
you know of or just talk withme man to man. But that was
not my faith. But he isthe amazing thing. And that's what two
Book is also tells us, andthat is out of adversity can emerge abundance.
That the spirit of anticipation is allpowerful. That if you get up
(09:22):
in the morning and say, look, yes, I can. You know,
the word impossible only appears in thedictionary. It is really I am
possible, And then all of asudden, the word I can't disappears from
the vocabulary. So my mother,Mindy, borrowed money to send me to
America on a one way ticket.And I came to America, and I
went to a little school because restonly one whould accept a kid like me.
(09:46):
And I worked through college, veryvery hard. I worked through college,
and then I went, you know, I transferred to hypool University,
Hypo College, then my junior andsenior year, then University of North Counta
means for graduate work. And Icame on a graduate school. I'd say
five hundred dollars and I started myfirst business and within about two three years
(10:07):
I built with sixty eight thousand customersand thirty two countries, was a direct
mail business. It talked so much. It gave me victories and it gave
me tremendous disastrous feelings. At theday that the day you know you've become
stronger. Right, I make adistinction between productive failures and non productive successes.
(10:31):
A productive failure is when we don'tdo well. We dissect it,
we analyze it, we look atit incisively, we extract from it,
learning and we will come better nexttime. Productive non productive success we don't
know why we succeeded, and sowe can't replicate it. And so life
has a way of punishing us,but also lifting us up if we're only
allow ourselves to do that. Andso turning point for me was my dad
(10:56):
died. Turning point number two.I came to America in search of the
American dream. Listen, Glenn andMendeed. So many people today what I
was on CNBC not to long ago. They want to argue the point whether
that the American dream is dead andI it depends how you define it.
The American dream, in my bookis defined as the achievement of your own
goals. It's not about having abig house and a big car. If
(11:18):
you want that, that's great,But the American dream is about achieving your
own goals. How else would youhow else would you explain to a person
who goes to compas for fastrictions tobecome a teacher, and they know they're
gonna be overworked, under paid,they want to teach them. Great,
You're gonna look at that personal eyeballto eyeball and say you have not achieved
the American dreams? Who has theright to make such judgment? So I
(11:39):
came here in search of the Americanteam. I believe of America are paid
with gold. And it was aturning point for me. And then and
then lots of stories like in yourown life happened to me, and from
each one I learned a very importantlesson. My life is pregnant with these
anecdoral happenings that I are inspired.Things don't just happen by accident. There's
(12:03):
a reason why stuff happens to usin life, and we conduct ourselves up,
pick ourselves up, and start allover again. And that's been really
my life, kind of your lifeas well. And so you know,
all the way up to these lovelybooks, you haven't front of you all
the way up in two thousand andfive. You know, like you,
(12:24):
I'm very successful. I had fouror five companies. I own some significant
things in my life. And andyou know, it's amazing how your alma
mater begins to recognize you, youknow, when you when you've done a
thing or two. And they wantedme to be the chair of the board
trustees at hyper University. So thatwas what's going to happen. But Hype
Point University working well, it hadno financial resources, it had one hundred
(12:46):
and twenty million dollars different maintenance.And so my buddies on the board really
basically convinced me and and and sortof pushed me to come and try to
fix the school. And I promised, I've come for two years and my
kids that take over some of mybusiness interests, and I was supposed to
be a two years. This ismy nineteen nineteen. We didn't you,
(13:09):
I mean, just alone to showyour impact of what your story is,
you raised like twenty million dollars inthe first What what happened was when I
came here. You know, wedidn't have any money, so I said,
this is my first day on thejob. I said, I gotta
go raised to a million bucks,paint a couple of walls, and fix
(13:30):
a couple of bricks. And I'mgiving myself sixty days to do it.
And half the time I came backsaid, we raised double the money,
twenty million dollars. Since then,India raised about a billion dollars year.
I doubt it, and we createdThey know to you though, who could
really say no to you? Doesanyone say no? Does anybody say no
to you? Maybe your wife,but does anything that was that was a
girl when I was a junior incollege. Men, here you go,
(13:54):
Oh there was one. We allremember that one that got away, don't
we. I love her. Ilove your philosophy about not living in the
past, because I think a lotof people that don't go anywhere stay in
the past and don't allow them tomove forward. And you have a quote
kind of in that realm about thepast. Yeah, well, the past
is you know, yesterdays of yourlife are gone forever. The pass is
(14:16):
a wonderful place to to remembers,allows the place to live. You have
to have a future of you.You have to think about tomorrows of your
life. You need to prepare forit. And so here I am right,
and I get to tell you,in the last eighteen years, I
have been around you know, theblock a couple of times in my life.
(14:39):
I have never had more fun.I've never felt more fulfilled, I've
never felt more impactful. Thousands uponthousands of students have gone through the hallways
of this university to learn. I'vehad a chance to inspire my teaching the
freshman class. By the way,all fifteen hundred students take my class in
the fall every Thursday day. Reallytalk about leadership and school literacy and you
(15:03):
know, stewardship and all those things. So it's been it's been a lot
of fun. Glenn. You lovenumbers. Let me give a couple of
statistics. So when I came here, our revenues were twenty eight million,
now pushing half a billion. Wehad one hundred twenty million dollars diferent maintenance
our day we have zero different maintenance. We have three academic schools. Meant
(15:24):
you now we have thirteen, includingengineering, law, mentors, and pharmacy,
you know, tough schools. Wehad fourteen hundred students. Today we
have six thousand. We have netassets of fifty million dollars a day,
one point three billion um. Ifyou if you gotta come here, I
gotta make sure you come here.I think it will shock you how beautiful
the campus is. Oh no,I've heard the most incredible thing about your
(15:48):
polics. And we've got their Spectaculversitybook and look through it and we've seen
a lot of videos. You knowwhat's in one of them our daughter's friends.
It has a bide. I don'tknow if she get in was she
was deciding your there's There are leadersthat come through education and then there are
(16:08):
the entrepreneurial kind of leaders. Youremind me very much of a gentleman over
here. And I think I've talkedto you about him, Jim Dody,
who I know Jim very well.Yeah, yeah, and he thinks a
lot like you, right, whichwas to embrace your community and get them
to see the potential in these studentsand what they can do and be leaders
(16:30):
in the future. And because youboth have lived very similar lives, the
average tenure of a resident is isshort, right, you guys both but
blown away that I mean you're approachingtwenty years or at nineteen years right now,
right and or almost nineteen and youknow, and you look at what
you've done in the impact you madefrom a regional you know college to this
(16:52):
national university. Now, it's umphenomenal, you know. And I think
a lot of that because your skill, at least the way I think of
it, is more entrepreneurial thinking,right, you know, you know what
you got to do to dig inand having that kind of a mind And
again no no knock on the umyou know, on the academia style of
(17:17):
leaders, because they have they havea different you know, um the mindset,
a different gift to give as well. But having someone of your uh,
you know kind of mindset helps toreally grow a university. And look
at what you've done in less thantwenty years to your point, you know,
(17:37):
And and that's you know, whenI look at what you know you're
able to do, because it's it'shere you said this in the beginning about
but the book, and hey,that's all great. The same thing with
what you've done. It's wonderful yourstats, but look at how many kids
you're able to impact, right,that's the place that you're able to go
(17:59):
and then and to go do that. A Horatio Alger even more sets us
all up for I think something thatwe all can can look at and feel
real warm and wonderful feelings about beingable to help these kids? You know,
is there? Why is there awhy in your heart that exists to
say, why is helping the nextyear generations so important to you? Why?
(18:23):
Why do I do this? Yeah? Because my life, My life
has been influenced directly by a setof heroes and models and mentors. Heroes
are people I may have met,may have only read about in the autobiographies.
Models are people I want to learnfrom and emulate behaviorally and intellectually and
(18:45):
socially um and mentors are the oneswho hold you by the hand, you
know, who say I'm sure howto do this better? You know.
Mentors the ones you go to andsay, you know, I thought I
could do it, but it didn'twork out. What did I miss?
And a mentor you know hugs youfiguratively and says, well, there's a
better way, and let me showyou from my own experience. So,
when we have been at the receivingend of such kindness and such stewardship that
(19:11):
I think we have a duty topass it on. And look, I
don't. I don't believe in givingback. I really don't. I think
giving back misses the point. It'slike saying. It's like saying, you
know, I owe the bank somemoney and I got to give it back.
I helped start a bank back aneighty five A couple of guys,
and I did we sold it.I served today thirty three years on the
(19:33):
board of six largest financecution of thecountry called Truest and Trust M and A.
There. So the truth of thematter is that we're all the products
of life itself. William Barkett,the scholarsh theologians said beautiful. He said,
(19:55):
always give without remembering, always receivedwithout forgetting. And as I grow
older, acknowledge and realize that they'rein lives wisdom. You know, if
all we have his information, whichis what happens with academia sometimes, then
if all we have is information,people will use us in discard us.
If all we have is knowledge,people will call upon us only when they
(20:17):
need us. Think about your dentists. You're not sitting there thinking about your
dentist, but if you're do tohurting all of a sudden, you think
about your dentists. But if whatwe have is wisdom, people respect us.
That's why Sam point to write thebook, because what you're doing is
you're imparting wisdom. Oh sure,there's some flavoring of information and knowledge,
of course, but the essence ofit is wisdom, the wisdom of one's
(20:38):
life. And when you have wisdom, people respect you. And I found
in my own life that if peoplecan only trust me and respect me,
me mendy seriously. Fundraising is allabout trust. It's all about someone saying,
I believe in you, man,and you know, I've been able
to have been very fortunate. I'vebeen able to his mother thirty some gifts
(21:00):
in the twenty five thirty million dollarsrange and up, wow, that's significant
money. For Harvard it may notbe, but Y University there's plenty,
and so Chapman. For Chapman,there's plenty of trust Me. Those gifts
are not lying on the side ofthe road. But it's all about trust,
and it's all about it's all aboutinterpretation of value. It's all about
(21:25):
it explaining to someone that the valuethat you render will be appreciated by them
based on their needs, goals,fears, and aspirations. Everything we do
in life must be focused on theother person. If I know what your
needs, goals, aspirations, andfears are, then I can be so
valuable in your life if I knowhow to communicate that and build a bridge
(21:47):
of understanding with you. But ifI'm focused on my own needs, goals,
aspirations and fears, I'm not goingto be the steward that I can
be. So I believe in giving, not giving back, just giving,
just give, just giving and givinguntil it feels good. You can't help
give God that we know, butit feels good, and I've been blessed
because of it. I can't likeyou, guys. I can't explain the
(22:11):
blessings of my life. I don'tknow how in the world I think experienced
all that. Nono. You existwith such a really to be cliche and
attitude of gratitude, and I thinkthat just that exudes who you are.
And I think and for anyone,the more grateful you are, just you
attract so many more blessings in yourlife. And it's just it's not doing
(22:33):
it to get blessings, but youjust do it and it happens. And
I'll tell you I think you knowagain coming from the background that you've come
from and mine as well. Andagain the thread that runs common through Horatio
Alger and what this podcast is calledGrit Happens. What the book is about
integ grit t right is and theand a lot of the people that listen
(22:59):
to this pod casts and we're goingto read the book are people that aren't
the people that maybe have already justblown away all their goals and everything.
They're the people struggling, the peoplethat are wondering how and they're gonna do
it? And what what happened withyou me? And again a lot of
(23:19):
the people that we know is it'snot easy. It is hard to get
and have your dreams and goals inmind and get to them, you know.
And so by being able to plantthose seeds, by being able to
explain to people when you see allthe nice, you know, shiny objects
(23:41):
that come with this success, that'snot it. There's a lot of pain
and struggle and a lot of otherthings that come along with with that.
And that's the stuff a lot ofpeople don't get to see. You know,
you don't see the sacrifices that youmake. I'm curious because again,
you've been very successful. But tellme a couple of the times when you're
(24:04):
sitting there going, oh crap,you know, like, I don't know
if I'm going to pull myself outof this one, because I tend to
do a lot of that in thison this podcast is expose my flaws because
I'm trying to reach into people andget them to realize no one has a
perfect life. Nobody has it easy. Then it comes with a lot of
(24:25):
hard work and grit. Yeah.I mean, that's a beautiful question because
I've discovered in life that nobody Iknow has one self esteem. We all
have a degree of our personhood thatstill questions our capacity to deal with it
all. Amen. I think that'swhy God made us, Glenn, because
(24:45):
if we were complete people in everyway, we might be very arrogant.
You know, we might be wemight think we're really on the world.
I think it is good to sortof be in search of significance while we
are on the journey of success.And so there many many times in my
life when I question something, butI question it on both ends, and
(25:10):
that's an important point. I wantto make. I question sometimes I think
you'll accept the spirit with which Ioffer it, because I'm sure you're that
way. I question sometimes how smartI am? I go how did I
get to be so smart? Howdo I know how to solve this problem?
Where did I learn how to dealwith this difficulty? It seems like
it seems like it's an easy passagefor me. Where did that come from?
(25:33):
So I question that I want tolearn how did I learn to do
all these things? Because nothing inmy life professionally is that difficult for me.
You know, I've been exposed togreat minds, I've been on big
boards. It's not really difficult.The difficult part is the human touch is
understanding the people we work with andin the process, understanding ourselves. Glenn
(25:57):
and Mindy. When I skin toAmerica, my greatest fear was money because
my daddy died left my mom witha lot of dad. My mom was
not educated. He had to becomea seamstress. She had to make us,
you know, a buck here anda buck there defeat us and clothes.
My mom never said we can't affordthat. She always said, you
(26:17):
know, being poor as a temporarycondition, you will figure our way to
get there, But I admit Iwas very afraid. I didn't want to
be poor. Money represented to mea passage to comfort and convenience and safety.
So I'm sorry to admit this,but for many years of my life,
(26:37):
I just I just cared about accumulatingmaterial wealth, and I wanted to
build businesses that can have sustainability sothat I can be saved. But then
I discovered life is not all aboutthat. There's nothing wrong with having money
and material things, the beautiful placeof the beach and all these things that
you want to have in life,but there's going to be more, and
(26:59):
the more has to do with whatwe do to make a world a better
place. The reason I love youbook is because it's going to influence many
people. And I'm gonna take disagreewith you just a bit there. Glenn.
You said this book is for peoplewho may be struggling, and no,
no, I think this book isfor everybody. I like to think
I'm a successful person. I meanby the book. I can't wait to
(27:22):
just get down the beach in themorning and say it on my deck and
just read the book from beginning toend, because I'm inspired by it.
I'm not struggling, Glenn, butit will do a lot for me.
Sometimes we have to take a recessto we assess. I don't care who
we are, how successful we are. Sometimes we find wisdom and a gem
of truth and somebody else's passage inlife. So I think it's okay to
(27:47):
question ourselves. I think it's okayto be afraid. I think it's okay
to you know, get up earlyin the morning, as I do.
I'm an earlier wise, between threeand four in the morning. I study
every morning for three hours and Iread a study. I love to read
good books, and and I questionmyself. You know, I am I
the right person for this? CanI do this? Like you? Guys?
(28:08):
I get a ton of invitations todo or share this, to do
this, you know, come speakthere. And you know, you get
to a point in your life whenyou want to say, well, does
it matter if I were to dothat? That there's that activity. I'm
not into time management. I shouldtell you I have a different way of
thinking about things. For example,I think time management is meaningless because there
(28:32):
are twenty four hours of the dayand guys like us could sleep four or
five hours. So we have twentyhours a day, we could do a
lot of stuff. Life is aboutenergy management. Do I invest my energy
in this activity? Right, it'sa different way to think. A lot
of people say, well, Iwant to become a good problem solver.
I don't think like that. Iwant to be a great solution finder.
It's a completely different way to think. Some people think about success. I
(28:55):
think about significance inherent in significance ofsome success. But it's a different way
to think about life. And somepeople think about value rendering value. I
think that's meaningless. Everybody renders somedegree of value. I think about appreciated
value. Well, the value thatI render make impact on the person for
whom I render it. Otherwise,you know, the example I give is,
(29:17):
um, what if I were togive someone to first class tickets to
go to Mali for a week,all expensive space. If that person is
afraid to fly, the tickets havevalue, But to that person they don't
have appreciated value. Right, that'sthe difference. So I think, I
think it's okay to sit back andgo you know, can I do better?
M I hurt somebody? Maybe Ishould be the first person to go
(29:41):
there and say, Glen I'm sorry, I I overstepped. I'll take responsibility.
I'm going to learn to do better. Am I doing enough and giving?
You know, because I do havea foundation. A gift cost if
we educate eight hundred, eight hundredstudents in our foundation over the years.
Um. But you know what,guys, you can't give God. The
(30:03):
more you give, the more youget. As long as you don't gift,
so you will get enjoy the gifts. Keep your eyes on the giver
because someday, someday we're gonna die. This is just I hope people watching
us a little one's getting out alive. Nobody's getting out alive. You know
the bad news. The bad newsis the size of our funeral is going
to depend on the weather. Ifit's a sundayday and nobody coming, they're
(30:29):
gonna be playing gold. So youknow, let's not take ourselves too seriously.
That's why I grit, great,good grit. Yes, there's a
lot of grit. And your yourstory is such a testament to grit,
overcoming grit and living with integrity.You know. I just I want to
like just I noticed that the HortuOld Association this year there was a lot
of emphasis on the world integrity,which was really exciting to see that because
(30:51):
you know, with the timing andthe time was fun. Glen's always got
really good timing. It's just howit works. But in your opinion,
sometimes it's bad timing, but goodtiming. It's got some timey in your
personal opinion. Define the word integrity. What does that mean to you?
And who has it? And who? Yeah? How do you lose it?
How do you get it? Canyou have just a little bit?
(31:11):
Or is it all all or none? Integrity is different than honesty, right,
I can be honest and not haveintegrity. Integrity is defines the way
I live, the way I treatothers, the way I make commitments,
the way I honor those commitments.Integrity defines the person who do an individual.
(31:33):
We love people with great integrity becausethey become trustworthy. That the kind
of people who are a partner withwant to be associated with. I know
a lot of people who are honestbut don't necessarily give themselves integrity. Is
this all encompassing? It's a framearound them. Mona Lisa and the Mona
Lisa has many many pieces of it, like honesty and good values and all
(31:57):
of that. So exeguity, theway I define it is is the way
you live honoring the other person whileyou attempt to move onward and forward in
line. You know, I doyou agree with that? Disagree with that?
I agree that. I love it? And what I you know,
it's funny people. Um, I'veoften said, well, that person they
(32:22):
have a dark cloud around their life, they've always had this dark cloud.
Or other people are so lucky they'rethere, They've got a you know,
a golden touch with everything. Andwhat I've come to find find is that
you plant your seeds along the way, you know, and you do think
seeds of greatness. Is that whatthis book is all planting seeds of greatness
(32:45):
from Hypoint University exactly. And soby by doing that, um, you
know, and I'll give you twoexamples. One is, you know,
in in my personal career, asthere were a thousand times when people decided
they wanted to leave the organization orwhatever. And we have opportunities with commissions,
(33:13):
Well it becomes the companies. Butyou know what, you earned it
and you keep it. Now.I you know, so many of these
companies go now it's mine, you'reout, thank you. But you're done,
we say, look, thank youfor bringing that in, and we
continue to pay you. The dooris open. Blah blah blah. But
you know this kind of stuff,right, And and so when you live
(33:35):
your life and you make sure yousay, I want to do the honorable
thing. By the way, whenno one's looking, you still want to
do the honorable thing. And thenone day something don't come back, and
you know, the world two thousandand seven and eight, the world blows
up, you know, in thefinancial world. And then there are people
out there that you have touched alongthe way and either you touched them,
(33:59):
you know, with a stick andyou hit him, or you touch them
and you really help them. Andthat's when people either they catch you or
they let you fall, right,And so then you can say, wow,
either a bad luck or good luck. You have a dark cloud or
your no, you don't. Youplanted seeds your whole life. And people
are there for you when you needthem. And I don't mean to bail
(34:21):
you out with money. I mean, maybe it's just advice, maybe it's
you know, but people are thereor they watch you fall because you deserve
it in their mind, right,but they just back off and so to
me, when I think about howyou live your life, and if you
live it pure and you want togive to others, you want to more
you give the more you get,as you say, I truly believe that.
(34:44):
And then one day, when you'renot expecting it, you just may
need that little nudge in the rightdirection. I had. I had one
of my sons, and I thinkI talked about this, and I'm going
to talk about it again. Hegot in a little trouble at school and
the girl didn't get in trouble thathe was with. And I said,
(35:05):
is it fair, son? Andhe says, I don't know, maybe,
And I said, I think it'sfair. And I'll tell you why.
I said, you had like tenlittle demerits over the last couple of
years. Your tie wasn't on right, your hair wasn't cut, your collar,
you know, these things they meantnothing. They were small little nick
nick nick nicknicks. She was onthe honor roll, had never had a
(35:27):
demerit. So when they looked atyou, these things that meant nothing,
but they're ten little knicks. Let'sget him in trouble. You looked at
her, she's that was her firsttime that it's all. You can call
it lots of different things that youwant to call it. But that's the
kind of things in life, right. So when you have integrity and you
(35:49):
stand strong in your conviction in life, then you have an opportunity when the
time is right for people to eitherbe behind you and be with you,
alongside of you, or they don'tstand there and with you, you know.
And and that to me is alot of what living is is.
I want on my deathbed, I'dlove to have a lot of people out
(36:12):
there. He wants a party.He wants everyone they come on over and
say one today one is my casketin the grave. Make sure you give
me an advanced notice so I canbe there. I'll let you know if
i'm you know, I don't wantthem going playing golf. I want them
to come, you know. Yes, So, Glenn, here's what you
(36:36):
just said to me. What youjust described is one of the greatest forecasting
um methods that could be used inbusiness and in life. It's called patterns.
So in grad school, I'm sureyou did the same thing I learned
about statistics and patterns of of ofof predict behaviors. You do it with
(37:01):
you know, behavioral economics, whypeople buy. You look at patterns.
You look at elections, why peoplevote for certain things. That's called the
pattern. I have patterns here forhow we enroll students. Who are they?
I can predict in advance based onpatterns, this is likely what's going
to happen, plus or minus fiveor ten percent. So what you just
(37:22):
said is when that teacher looked atyour son, said, the pattern there
is that you had these little upsand downs and therefore another little big,
you know, excess. Okay,the other girl didn't have that pattern,
so they cut us some slack.So behaviorally, this happens to all of
us. So some people have apattern of living life with integrity. Some
(37:45):
people have a pattern of living lifeor I win, you lose. Those
people we avoid, like the Blakebecause you know you and I like win
win relationships. I don't want towin and you lose. But I also
don't want you to win and Ilose. That doesn't make a good relationship.
And so you know, I believein something called intentional congruence, that
(38:06):
every every part of your life,well, that our life is like a
jigsaw puzzle, has all casual piecesand only when we have all the pieces
in the right place, so thatthe puzzle is in fact complete. That
we experience through happiness, happiness thatthat goes way beyond that you have in
your favorite ice cream or being outon the water, or you know,
(38:27):
playing God, and that kind ofhappiness penetrates your soul, not just your
your mind or your heart, butyour soul. The visa release, it
penetrates you. So we see somepeople who just live in joy. They
live in joy, and we wonderhow they do that. So a remarkable,
remarkable thing, and you look atthe pattern of their life and it
(38:50):
led to that. So I reallybelieve in these patterns of how we how
we do our day, that's apattern. How we think that becomes a
pattern, and behavior is also apattern, whether it's for a salesperson or
a student in high school. Ijust want to I want to tell the
two of you that that I watchyou for far for a while, and
(39:13):
I love you both because you're real, and because you represent principles and values
I believe in, and because alongthe path of life, you had to
swim across some wide white chasms,and you had to travel across some rocky
bridges, but you also went upto the mountaintop. You also flew high.
(39:35):
You also experienced ecstasy in life andliving. And I believe that life
is best lived when you experience allthat. If you only knew in one
pattern, then you don't understand,you know, the rest of it,
and therefore your sense of gratitude andappreciation, that sense diminished. Right,
And so so you know, Ijust respect you for what you do.
(39:59):
I love the fact that you arespeaking to groups. I see you on
social media, teaching teaching, teachingusually a little snippet that makes a lot
of difference. It's very compelling.I need to tell you, you're you
have a different style than mine.I speak fast, I'm you know,
I'm high energy. You know thatyour style. You know English very well.
You know, I don't know whatlanguage someone who didn't know it growing
(40:21):
up. I supposedly taught it fromthe day I was born, but I
still don't know it very well.You know it a lot better, you
know. But you you have ayou have a style that is authentic.
So authenticity above charisma any day orthe week. Yeah, because that's part
of integrity. So when you haveauthenticity, I believe you. And when
(40:45):
I believe you begin to trust you. When I begin to trust you,
I want to get closer to you. When I get closer to you,
we begin to do good things together. And so that's that's really what I
mean by circle of influence. Itell people your circle of influence, the
bigger it is, the smaller yourcircle of concerns going to be because whatever
(41:06):
comes to you in life good,better and different, You've got somebody in
your circred influence who can protect youand guide you. And I know about
some of those in your old lifebecause you've talked about I mean, you've
written about them, and that's reallypowerful. We are we are as rich
as the people we hank around with. My mother used to stay with me.
Who you spend time with is whoyou become. She would say,
(41:28):
what you choose is what you get. How you change is how you succeed.
Life is about transformation. How dowe transform ourselves. I wouldn't want
people to say, you know Needlespeaking the same way. I mean,
I spoke eight thousand times, youknow that professionally all over the world and
be used to buy tickets and standin line and buy all my materials,
or I've been around that block.I understand that business quite well, but
(41:51):
I wouldn't want him to say,well, he's using the same stuff for
fifteen years ago. It means I'mnot growing, I'm not transforming. By
incidentally glennam in um on the campusof Hyper University in Hyper North Carolina.
Today, I'm hosting the board ofa Board of directors board trustees of the
National Speakers Association, where I've played. You know, I think a pretty
(42:13):
year the founder of that Yes,so I'm having dinner with him tonight.
You would be a phenomenal person forme to interview in front of him,
because that's a really good circle foryou as well. That's composed of lots
of agents who book speakers, andlots of people who write books and talk
about you and also can help inwhatever it is one is trying to do.
(42:37):
And every year what I do thisyear, for example, I have
Since Marshall, my friend who runsMark Cuban's operations. I have Mark Randolph,
who co founded Netflix. As youknow, um, you know Tony
A. Tullo, who's the world'sleading regenerative medicine expert. You get the
(42:57):
idea, that's incredible. Bill Kennard, who was sharing of at and t
was the first African American to becomeUS ambassador and head of a f FTC
and UM, so you would beintriguing. Speakers would be very intrigued to
hear you UM. Now mainly,of course lived her life in that communication
(43:21):
world. She's very comfortable on thestages of the world, but you would
be. You know, that's partof your service is is to do things
like that. I find that I'ma little more jealous now where I invest
my energy. So I used toget a thousand invitations for you to speak,
(43:42):
So I kept raising fees, fees, fees, fees, fees,
and yes there were less that thatbore through the funnel, but the ones
I was doing were really impactful.You know, I started speaking to five
thousand and thousand people and it hadtremendous impact. Right, So one has
to invest their energy in a circleof influence that has a bountiful opportunity for
(44:08):
spreading the word or planning disease asyou said in Indie, or or helping
to grow people. In other words, when you want this book to be
read by a person, and thatperson goes to five with their friends and
say you've got to read this book. You've got to read this book will
change your life. That's where ourministry. I don't use it necessarily in
(44:32):
a spiritual way, but it isspiritual what we do that our ministry grows.
It has no boundaries. As JackWalsh used to say, bound dualist
company, right, you want tohave a boundualist impact in what you do.
Otherwise we live in a tiny littleworld. Zig Zigilar was one of
my very good buddies. Love him. You know, we used to be
(44:53):
in the same platforms and zig wouldsay to me, you know, need
to you your business. This isgrossing about a quarter of my business doing
I'm losing money. You make alot of money. How does that work?
And I said, well, isit because you And I'm not pretaking
it. This is just a reality. You like to speak to all these
large audiences of people who are wonderful, lovely, They don't necessarily have extended
(45:22):
network and so on. I mostlyspeak to corporations that have tremendous impact.
If I can inspire a CEO todo something, they can put significant resources
behind and go doing a big way. And so that's where I see you.
And you're you're already doing it,and I don't honestly, Glenn and
(45:44):
Mandy, I don't know what yourultimate goal is. But whether you like
it or not, you're going tohave impact. People are gonna follow you,
people are gonna believe you, peoplegonna learn from you. And when
you least expected, in the darknessof the night and in the most lit
corridors of the world, they aregoing to do amazing things. Right and
so, and that's that's your pay. That's your pay. That's more valuable
(46:07):
than any dollar you can hit me. I would take you up any time
that you would like to get togetherand try to you know, if it's
one of those speaking opportunities, pleaseyou know I'm there. And what I
believe is the people you know,you hit on the same kind of concept
(46:27):
we have. I call it balconypeople in basement people though right where you
know, you know when you're withyour your balcony friends, the ones that
lift you up, and you alsoknow when you're with people that are going
to bring you down. And andit's up to us to decide who we
want to be with you my friendor one of our balcony friends. And
I truly appreciate you and everythank youfor doing some energy to us today and
(46:50):
allowing us to share in your energysphere. You're awesome. You're awesome,
and you make a great couple.I mean, you really do. It's
meant to be for sure. Areyou fill each other's you know, a
little little piece of the puzzle thatneeds to be filled? I think that's
that's magnificent. So I'll talk aboutthis beautiful. I just real quick,
I just I don't know where peoplecan get this, but it is a
(47:13):
no, no, this is Imean, we did so much here that
every five years we update the bookto say this is where we wear and
this is what we have done.That's what about publication free? Anybody wants
that book is listening to you.All I gotta say is I'm a friend
of Mindy and glam Oh look out, look out. I'll send them that.
(47:36):
The other book. The other bookis my wife's book she created about
thirty gardens on campus. Oh mygoodness, the flowers must just be in
crazy bloom right now. The gardens, about all the gardens. I cannot
wait to come visit we are.I'll send that to any of your friends
with my tree and the tree asthe growth the tree. You know what
you know? We could talk formore. I know because you are a
(47:59):
are so good. You have somany nuggets of wisdom. There's so much
more what you have books out isthere is there one of your books that
you would highly like encourage people toread, specifically you're most proud of.
I mean, it's hard to saywhat your favorites are. To success.
Oh, you know they can theycan go online and they'll see all my
kind of stuff. I look,I'm on a stage of my life now
where I just um, I caredeeply about helping people, and I'm happy
(48:24):
to share lucky like you're doing.I'm happy to share whatever I know and
um uh and and you know,I'm happy to sort of spread the good
words you are doing. And that'swhy I'm doing what I'm doing at High
Point University. And it's amazing.It's amazing what happens you talk about integrity.
You know, integrity lives in onesoul, it emanates activities. Therefore,
(48:46):
as a result, but then goand you know nitocobain dot com,
then go to high Point h Oand dot edu. They can also go
to all Caps HPU with them.With this the signs plus like mathematical plus,
HPU plus, Yes, HPUs plusand that's UM. That's an app
(49:07):
people can download free. It isloaded loaded with interviews I've done with some
of the great minds in America.Condo lasts the chairman of biggest corporations,
and Henry Kravis is a name certainlyknown to you, glor He's coming here
on Tuesday and on campus and I'llbe aving live in front of people,
(49:28):
and so you know, it's it'sUM. Life is a lovely opportunity to
be good, do good, givemore, be more, serve more,
learn more, grow more. Andevery day I can't wait to get up
and get going. I love that. And you're up at four am and
(49:51):
you read all your emails by theend of the day. You are a
freak of nature. I absolutely adoreyou. Well, we are honored,
and all my emailed by myself.It is absolutely true. That's incredible,
and I'm enjoying talking to you.But within about seven minutes on the East
coast, that's cocktail hours. Soyou know your high point martini or whatever
it is that you have. Youappreciate such saying. We love seeing it.
(50:15):
Horatio Alder every year and what agift you've given us some time,
your energy, and we are weare honored to consider you in our circle
of influence and thankful for the timeand the wisdom you've shared today. Thank
you, Thank you for the books. Thank you for sharing the books and
that and I hope you enjoy theread. We look forward to hearing your
feedback after the while. Everybody willdo what I what I've done. I've
(50:36):
already ordered five hundred copies of thatbook. I'm going to give it to
everybody I know, and I mayorder more and give it to all of
our students. And it's not tobe nice to you to guys, It's
in life and self interest. SoI believe I from it. I everybody
a used it will lunch. I'mend this day from it, and that's
my way of helping others as well. But I thank you for your time
and your friendship, and thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Nito Coubain of
(50:59):
High Point Universe see an incredible humanbeing. You have been listening to another
episode of Say It with Me Birdit happens. Thank you, Nito.
We will see you soon, lookingforward to
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