September 8, 2025 • 31 mins
On today’s episode of Grow, Sell and Retire, I sat down with Scott White, the Life Is Too Short Guy, to talk about how real happiness isn’t just about chasing success—it’s about perspective, gratitude, and the small changes we make every day. Scott shares powerful, practical tips like starting your morning with gratitude, smiling more, and investing in your social network. The big takeaway? Success follows happiness, not the other way around. Life is too short—so shift your mindset, build those relationships, and enjoy the journey.
https://www.lifeistooshortguy.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottewhite2/
https://www.lifeistooshortguy.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottewhite2/
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Grow Sell and Retire is the podcast for the lazy overachiever.
Bad Dalton, author of the assistant Purchase, True Gravity and
grow Sell and Retire, is here to give his twenty
five years of secrets, tips and assistants to take your
business to the next level. This podcast is for anyone
who wants to sell more, work less and make better business.
(00:24):
Now here's your host, Bad with today's GSR podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Hey, everybody, Beat Dalton here, Grow Sell and Retire podcast.
Really excited about today. Going to be talking about being
happy and the best thing about it is we're here
with the Life is Too Short guy, Scott White. We're
going to be talking about being happy, but also I
want to talk about toxic happiness where people are way
(00:50):
too happy all the time and doing this type of
stuff and you hear about it, not that people are there.
But Scott, welcome to the show. I don't want to
be too deep too early, but welcome to the show
and looking forward to having a chut with you. Tell
us what you did and why you're here and what
made you the happiness guy?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Well, big opening questions. So I have done a number
of things in my career. I started on Wall Street
grew up on Wall Street. It'spent out fifteen years there,
and then took a portfolio of real estate assets public
and ran that as a public company for about a decade,
Ash chairman and CEO. I started and built a student
housing development business, and in about two three years ago,
(01:27):
which is where we are today, I wrote a book,
a book called The Life Is Too Short Guy, And
now I'm out on a world happiness tour, spreading the
message around positivity, gratefulness, happiness, living in the moment, the
power of perspective.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
And you know, it's something that that just happened organically.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
So if success is the key to happiness, or you
know that we used to think that, or people think
if you're successful and you got money, you got all
this stuff, you're going to be happy. Why are there
so many miserable, successful, rich people. It's a great question, BD.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
I think we have the happiness formula wrong. So I
think that for the most part, people generally believe work
really hard, find success, be happy. Right, work hard plus
success equals happiness. The problem is we work hard to
(02:23):
find success, to work harder to find more success, to
work harder to find more success. We want the bigger office.
We want the bigger car, we want the bigger job,
we want the bigger just keep going on and on
and on. We get on what's called the hedonic treadmill,
and we never get to the other side of the
equal sign. We stay on the I guess the left
side of the equal sign. What happens if we were
(02:46):
to change the formula, just change the order of the
formula and start with a perspective of happiness. So happiness
plus working hard equal success. We're chacing happiness. We're starting
with the perspective. All right, what does that actually mean?
It sounds very theoretical. So for your listeners, you're saying, man,
(03:08):
that's great, that's a bunch of mumbo jumbo. Give me
something to latch onto. Here's something to latch onto. And
it's something that I talk a lot about. Is my
overarching premise in what I wrote and what I'm doing
now is that very small changes, small changes can have
outsized impacts on your long term happiness.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
So I'm not an.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Academic theoretical you know, based on this study or based
on that.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
This is living in the moment. So here's a real
example of something so easy.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
In fact, a lot of times I deliver this message
on the stage and I love to watch people like really,
and then I hear from people weeks later about how
this small change made such a big difference. So if
I were to ask you, BD, do you remember what
your very first thought was when you woke up this morning?
Speaker 4 (03:58):
What was your first thought? Is you open your us.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I was thinking about one of our employees. Weirdly enough, so.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
You open your eyes and you thought about an employee.
I call that basically a blurry glasses. Blurry glasses, what
do you mean? So I encourage people that each morning
you wake up, reach over to your nightstand and grab
your glasses and put them on.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
First thought of the day.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
And not everyone has glasses, so you put on the
pretty glasses and that's fine. And this is a real exercise,
so this isn't theoretical. I would do this every day.
Reach over, put on your glasses. And my guess is
you and many people put on what I call blurry glasses.
You open your eyes and you're like, I gotta I
could use some coffee, or I gotta go to the bathroom, or.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Wait, what days Today's Wednesday, Thursday?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Unfortunately, be these some people and I think it's more
people than one whoul admit it. Reach over and whether
they do it or not, put on their muddy glasses.
They open their eyes this morning and they're like, Oh,
I'm tired. I want to go back to bed. I
have so much to do. I don't feel like getting up.
Oh I have that appointment, I have that meeting, I
have that lunch. Eh why not? Why not tomorrow? Just
(05:10):
try this reach over and put on bright, shiny, crystal
clear glasses. As I opened my eyes this morning, I
truly open my eyes, and I'm at my lakehouse, which
is my happy place. It's the sun comes up very early.
I get up early, but I'm like, I could hear
the bird chirping. I'm in bed with the woman. I
(05:30):
love my children, who are now in their early twenties,
not so much. Children are home with me, and I'm
so grateful for that I have a chance to be
on be these podcasts. Boom, I am now what ten
twelve seconds into the day, and instinctively I've rattled off three, four, five,
six things that I'm happy and grateful for without thinking
about it. I didn't sit down like, oh, let's make
(05:50):
a list of what could I be happy about. It's
just a methodology, a mindset that I get in. As
Henry Ford said, if you think you can or you
think you can't, probably right. So why not set the
roadmap for the day? I understand, I understand the skeptics.
I say that's great, I'm happy, I'm in bad blah
blah blah blah. And then I step out of bed
(06:10):
and I twist my ankle.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
I got it.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
You can't control everything that happens to you throughout the day.
You can control your perspective, set the tone right for
the day.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
So when you're doing this and you had to back yourself,
what what was your turning point that made you say, hey,
I see the world differently or I need to see
the world differently. What was your snap moment?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
So there wasn't a snap moment. It's an evolution over time.
So had you and I met four or five years ago,
The Life is Too Short guy wasn't even a concept.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
It wasn't a persona. It was just who I was.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I went about my day in a positive, happy, jovial Now, look,
people ask me all the time.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
You always like that. No no human, no, no real human.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
I think you brought up the topic before about toxic happiness, like,
no real human is constantly happy, That's not possible.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
I've evolved and.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Developed a perspective over the course of my life that
has led me in a direction of extreme gratefulness, happiness,
and positivity.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
There wasn't one defining moment.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
As I self reflected when I wrote the book a
couple of years ago, I realized that there were probably
at least four Aha moments. I called them four moments
in my life that just transformed my thinking.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
No one alone did it, but over the course of time.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
So the first one, when I was about ten years old,
I was working on a project with my dad, a
we'll call it a rehabit, rehabbing a room in my house,
and my dad cut his finger. It was one of
those you know, it didn't slice the finger off, but
it was probably more than a band aid moment. So
(07:47):
he goes off to the hospital, the emergency room to
get it looked at.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
I go to bed the middle of the night. My
mom comes running into my room.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Jars me awake, and says Dad had a heart attack
while waiting in the emergency room.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
He was waiting in the waiting area and he had a.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Heart attack, and you know, Dad spent about a week
or so in the hospital, and then he and my
mom had to fly across the United States to he
needed bypass surgery.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
This is nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Four.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
There weren't a lot of people that did that kind
of surgery.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
And I specifically remember now, look, I'm staying at my grandparents.
He's gone a couple of days, and I'm ten years old.
I don't nineteen eighty four, no one had cell phones,
no one had texts, no one had constant communication.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
I don't really know what's.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Going on, nor mentally or psychologically do I fully understand
the impact. But I will tell you that to this day,
I could distinctly remember the phone ringing at my grandparents'
house and my grandmother answering it and calling me in
and handing me the.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Phone, and I slowly lift the phone up and I hear.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Scott, Scott's dad, and at that moment I collapsed to
the ground tears. I had no idea what hit me.
And to this day, I believe that was one of
the defining moments where I realized, Look, you take your
parents for granted, you take your relationships are granted and like.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
That they could be gone. And that was.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Sort of that first moment that I realized that life's
too short, I think the second moment. And my dad
did survive, thank god, and he lived another twenty three
years after that, but unfortunately I did lose him about
eighteen or nineteen years ago. And there's no doubt that
was a defining moment in my life, you know, burying
(09:31):
my parent in delivering eulogy, and I like to say
becoming an adult. I was in my early thirties and
realizing that my dad was gone, There's no doubt was
a defining moment for me.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
The third one, I think was the events of nine
to eleven.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
So on nine to eleven, I walked right by the
World Trade Center of the towers, probably about twenty to
thirty minutes before the first plane crashed. I was about
six or seven blocks north of the towers when I
heard the first I didn't see it. I was on
a call facing the west side of Manhattan. I'm listening
(10:06):
and I hear, and then all of a sudden, I
see emergency vehicles heading downtown on the sirens whaling, so
on and so forth, and.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
I put the call on hold.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
I go to the south side of the building and
I see this gaping hole in the side of the
World Trade Center, smoke pouring out. And as I'm standing
there for a few minutes, I watched the second plane
come down the Hudson River, turn on its side, and
on a forty five degree ankle, crash into an explosion
coming out of the World Trade Center. And that was
(10:34):
a brilliant memory for me. And you know that shortly thereafter,
my wife and I decided to have children. The day
before we were in I was in no hurry. I
think my wife was, but I was in no hurry.
A week later we decided it was time, and about
a year thirteen months later, we had our first child.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
So that was the certainly the third defining moment.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
The fourth aha moment was I lost my mom about
nine years ago.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
And there's no doubt those four events.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
They weren't the sole events, but they had a big
impact on me realizing life's too short.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Live in the moment.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
And so then how do you take those things and
use them to power up your happiness, your gratitude, and
your focus.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
So I don't think about anyone.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I think a lot of my attitude, my perspective has
happened naturally organically over time. But each of those events
were jars to me, you know, rattling me to be like,
you know what, you're worrying about the wrong things, like
something being slightly out of place, or you know, somebody
(11:37):
being angry at you, or somebody looking at you funny
or whatever it is, the things we dwell on. I
just realized life's too short for that, and naturally, again
without really thinking about it, had we spoken five years ago,
there was no concept the life is too short guy.
There was no sort of you know, Scott, what's your
life philosophy?
Speaker 4 (11:52):
I don't know if I could have actually defined it. It
was just the life I lived.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
And then finally, when I put pen to paper, I'm like, Wow,
this is who I am and this is what I'm about.
And I hope to spread this message to others. Life's
too short. Live in the moment, smile, enjoy, go out
and chase your dreams. Take some chances. We're all going
to have setbacks along light's journey, but don't let it
stop you.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
So we've done the glasses in the morning. So let's
say we hit a blip in the middle of the day.
You know, let's say we hit that we've already put
on the glasses and the day hit the day running.
Now now you're coming out and you're like, okay, what's
what's another? And you're good at these things and you
give lots of inspiration. What are one or two things
that we can then apply throughout the day to keep
us back on track and remind us that life's too short.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
So here's one of my favorite and simplest ones. And
I love doing this for an audience. I've done this
for audiences of hundreds of people. I literally look at
the crowd and I say, all right, little things make
a big difference. I'm going to give you one of
the littlest things that makes a big difference. So you're ready, yes, focus,
here we go, ready, smile. It works, and I let
(13:01):
it hang there. I let it hang there just like that,
And it's amazing what happens.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
People. Some smile immediately, some look around like wait, am
I supposed to be smiling? Now? Invariably the entire room
starts smiling.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
And then when I say to people, I'm like, so
now stop and think about it for a minute. How
do you feel how do you feel when you see
other people smiling? How do you feel when you walk
by somebody on the street smiling? Smiling has been and
I say, I don't spend a lot of time on
the science because I don't want it to be a
(13:35):
boring talk or a boring book.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
I mean no.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Offense to the scientists, but there is empirical evidence that
demonstrates that that the mere act of smiling can make
us up to twenty five to thirty percent happier because
of endorphins and other chemicals in the brain that are produced.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
As a result of the smile. I tell people, just
think about it.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
So now be thoughtful, deliberate, and proactive as you go
about your day. So when you get in your car
in the morning, smile, when you get me off this smile,
when you're in the shower, smile, when you're walking down
the street, smile.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Now, I don't mean look like an idiot all time.
Just yeah, I mean, just as.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
You're going through your wife, like you just said, you
have a setback, you're you know, you just got an
email from your boss that that that that is is
you feel badly about, or you just heard from a
child or a spouse or a loved one that they're
they're dealing with something difficult, and just all of a sudden,
you're like, I got this. The mere act of smiling
(14:32):
changes your perspective. Does to solve the world's problems? No,
but if more people smile, think about what a better
world we live in?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Cool? And what's the second thing you said? You said
you're giving us too.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Let's see, so what else could I give you? Other
things that I really like? I talk about the power
of community. I talk about the power of of belonging.
So there are ten principles to philosophy that I talk about.
The philosophy is I've come up with a little acronym
(15:04):
the life is too Short guy or Litzig.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Life is too short, Guy Litzig. And they're ten principles
associated with them.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
One of them that I really like and I'm contemplating
actually writing another book about is the power community. I
call it you can't make it alone, and how we
need to surround ourselves with people that we want to
support and that want to support us.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
And by the way, that could be.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
A club that shares a common interest, a hobby, a
religious organization, a work environment, you know, I love powerful
work environments where people feel like they belong, like they're contributing,
like there's something greater than themselves. And I talk in
the book a lot about the Harvard Study what makes
a Good Life. For those who are not familiar with
(15:47):
the Harvard Study, the Harvard Study has been ongoing now
for eighty five years, if I'm not mistaken, and started
in the late nineteen thirties, where the original Harvard Study.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
It's truly amazing.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
And I tell people that there's not a lot of
academic in the book, but one of the things I
spend some time on that's worth understanding is so Harvard
professors set out to understand what makes a good life.
That was the definition of the study, and they selected
a group of about I think it was two or
three hundred Harvard sophomores, all males at the time, to
(16:22):
start studying and following for the rest of their lives.
In the early forties, they added a second cohort of
four hundred and fifty six inner city Boston area youth.
We're not Harvard students, so you got a little bit
of diversity here. And they've followed this seven eight hundred
participants for the next eighty plus years, so to this
day the study is still ongoing. The original participants, their children,
(16:45):
their grandchildren, annual physical exams, surveys, mental assessments, psychological assessments.
I mean, it's really a trove of data. When you
think about how much data you can gather, right, it
must be incredible complex, It must be so much data. Well,
it is a lot of data, but the conclusions are
fairly simple and truly powerful in terms of what's the
(17:07):
most important factor I'm making a good life, and it's
the power of community. One of the key takeaways that
I absolutely love and I spent a lot of time
talking about because I think it really puts a fine
point on what I'm saying is that those at age
fifty who self identified as having the strongest social network,
(17:31):
however they define that thirty years later, at age eighty,
where the physically healthiest, mentally healthiest, and happiest. Think about
that there was a greater correlation between self identification of
the power of my social network and long term happiness
and health than any other variable. So predisposition for a
(17:54):
certain disease, predisposition for a certain mental condition, whatever.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
That may be.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Eateest correlation in that and think about how long they've
been doing this eighty plus years. The greatest correlation between
long term happiness and health is the power.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Of social networks.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
So I tell people, go out of your way to develop, build,
strengthen social networks. It does not mean that you need
to have a lot of lights on social media or
a lot of you know, five thousand friends or whatever
that means. It means deep, meaningful relationships, a place to
belong and by the way that evolves over time. It
(18:30):
doesn't necessarily mean, oh, I got three buddies that we've
been friends for forty years, not at all. In fact,
the study found that those that had the strongest social
networks when they worked after they were tired also had
the strongest social networks, but different social networks. So be thoughtful, deliberate,
and proactive in building your social networks, invest time, energy,
(18:53):
and resources. I say to people, you know, when you
start the new year, invariably most people set goals for
the year, They set plans, they set resolutions, whatever you
want to call and usually speaking to groups earlier in
the year, I say to people, how many people have
a work set of goals? You know, and invariably, hands
(19:15):
go up. Okay, how many people have a physical plan?
You know, I want to go to the gym a
certain number of days. I want to run a certain
number of miles.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Hands go up.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
How many people have a nutrition plan? I want to
eat better, I want to cut out certain things. Then
I say, how many people have a social strategy for
the year.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Nobody does.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Occasionally occasionally you'll have a hand or two go up.
Why not set goals for I want to reach out
to BD because I haven't spoken to them in a while.
A simple text, the simple email, a simple call, maybe
a handwritten note. I want to grow a relationship that's
just starting to foster. I want to expand my network
(19:59):
again again, very important, You're very important. It's not about oh,
I have five or six close friends. My goal this
year is have forty close friends. That's not it. It's
building a network. And by the way, it could be family.
It doesn't have to be friends. It could be family.
It could be a religious organization, it could be a
political organization. Whatever it is that gives you a meaning,
(20:22):
a sense of belonging.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
That's the power of community.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
And I'd say that's the If there's one thing for
your viewers to take away like, this is something I
should invest time and invest time in strengthening and building
your social networks.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
So you've done a lot of stuff, you have your
you have your ten steps. I wrote a book called
True Gravity that measured your network. So what when you
look at and people doubt themselves about how happy they are?
What's what's happiness to me besides just a smile and
a warm heart or whatever else it is. So how
can I sit back and go, actually, actually I am
(20:56):
happy because of X, Y, and Z, and not just
the gratitude page. How does somebody put it together in
a formulaic I guess in that way from Gill to.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
A certain agree, I think it's self fulfilling.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
And I talk about the power perspective, right, So anyone
could look at the same set of facts with a
vastly different outcome. And I think it's starting with that perspective.
It's starting with those glasses that we talked about. It's
starting with thinking about how you're going to approach a
set of facts.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
So I did a little.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Experiment in February of twenty twenty two, February first of
twenty twenty two. So I used to be the CEO
and chairman of a public real estate company, and usually
at the beginning of each month, I would send out
a short note to all the employees, talking about what's
going on and missus. February first, twenty twenty one, if
(21:47):
I remember correctly, twenty twenty two, I can't remember. I
sent out a note to the team something to the
fact I don't remember the exact words, but it's February.
It's dark, it's cold, it's dreary. I'm tired. We don't
have an office. We've been homeless for a while. COVID
has really done us, and we've destroyed a lot of value.
(22:08):
I'm not sure where to turn. I don't know what
else to say, And I sent that email to the team.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Send that email to the team.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Bear in mind, this is a place where we were
recognized year in and year out as one of the best
places to work in the area we were in, and
culture was vitally important. So people receive that email a're
like huh. Ten minutes later, I sent an email something
to the effect of today is the best day of
(22:37):
my life. The sun is shining. We have an amazing team,
our new office didn't mention that the first time, our
new office will open in the next month, and that
I'll give us a chance to come back together as one.
We have an opportunity to create substantial value coming out
of this crisis.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
Together, we can be a winning team.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Same day, same facts, same exact word count. Yeah, how
long it took me to get the words to line up.
I had to keep shopping from the positive one to
keep the negative one anyway. I then made a point
to the team, look at that same exact day, within
(23:17):
ten minutes to one another. I sent you two different emails.
What's going on in the world around us and in
the company? Nothing changed in ten minutes with the same
number of words, I painted two entirely different pictures. So
now to answer your question, bid, how do you know
when you're happy?
Speaker 4 (23:32):
What's about? Perspective?
Speaker 3 (23:33):
It's about again thinking about that hedonic treadmill we talked
about earlier. Are you constantly chasing the bigger home, the
bigger car, the bigger office, the bigger yacht, or are
you self reflecting and realizing, Wow, I'm here, I'm alive,
I'm in a conversation with you. I have an opportunity
to speak to so many people in your audience and
(23:55):
spread this message of gratefulness, positivity, happiness, of perspective. People
think about the lens and I actually do this like
a lens. You're looking through the lens through which you
view the world. The lens the glasses we talked about before,
and then I give examples of bringing those lenses to
the workplace. I just gave you one of those examples.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
So when we're doing this and you see this sometimes
people that are so positive but they wear Paullyanna's glasses
and they're they're they're running a business like you did,
but they're so happy and so things will come good
and things will go to this and their profit and
losses crashing and stuff. So how do you have that
(24:35):
reality check for somebody that's very positive a lot of
the time, but so positive that they're forgetting the actual facts,
you know, and everything great.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
It's a great question, and I think we need to
surround ourselves with people that put us in check, quite frankly,
And if you were to ask me, you know, put
me on the on the spot, either in this conversation
or outside is conversation. Scott, what are your areas for development?
What are your blind spots. There's no doubt. I I
am very trusting. I am very like we're going to
figure this out. Yes, I know the company is crashing
(25:06):
and the world is ending, but don't worry.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
We'll figure this out. And you're right.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
I think that's a great astute observation and I don't
have a great answer to it other than try to
surround yourself with people that check you. That you know,
I talk a lot. I do some executive coaching, and
I've built teams, and I talk about building teams with
complementary perspectives, with complementary experiences, with complementary skills. When you
(25:33):
surround yourself with people that all look, act, smell, behave
like you, I.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Think it's a team setup for failure.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
And if you do have a team of incredibly optimistic
and positive people that can't see the walls falling down,
you're probably setting yourself up for disaster. But look, all
us being equal, I'd rather surround myself with more positive people.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
You know. It's that I often think about it. I'm
a big runner. I love to run, and.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
I get questions a lot about what about your joints?
Are you worried about your hips you're worried about your knees,
And my answer back is yeah, I think so, But
I could also sit on the couch and not do
anything in dieheart disease, right, So so get out there
and run and enjoy and you know, hopefully you find
the right balance.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
So when you're doing this interviewing, are you're helping people?
What's your favorite one or two questions that you asked
during an interview process to try to drag out the
happiness quot or the seeing if they're seeing life half
glass half full.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
You know, I ask people give me examples.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
I asked people to give specific examples, like I said
to you, what was your first thought of the day?
I would say things like, you know, when you get
to the office, how do you start your day, how
do you look at your current relationships and how do
you feel about them? Trying to sort of set expectations,
to set a benchmark of you know, do people immediately
(26:53):
start with the negative?
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Do they work their way to the negative?
Speaker 3 (26:56):
You know, we live in a society where where eighty
percent of all thoughts are negative. Ninety percent and this
is not shocking, but ninety percent of all news media
coverage is negative. Sixty five percent of people say they're
currently disengaged at work and considering leaving. So when you
look at those stats, you know, here's one that blows
(27:18):
my mind. I know UbD have an international audience, so
I'm going to apologies, but have on my American centric
lens for one second. I will caution you, but University
of Chicago Public opinion poll in the last couple of years.
This is a couple of years old now, but they
came out and said Americans are more unhappy than they've
(27:39):
been in fifty years.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
Think about that.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
A half a century we live in. I think and
look again, that's my perspective. But the greatest time in
the evolution of human society. When you think about advances
we've made in medicine, advances we've made in technology, advances
we've made as a society, how is it that Americans
are more unhappy and they've been in fifty years. It's
(28:03):
a It's part of what inspires and motivates me to
have these conversations to get people to realize how what
a wonderful world we live in, what wonderful opportunities are
ahead of us, what great things are happening and to
embrace that and to enjoy that again. I'll go back
and say what I said before. Everything is not perfect.
(28:23):
There are issues, there are problems. There's you know, I
tell people, you know, you look around when I talk,
I usually start by saying war, famine, disease, poverty, homelessness.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
Wow, what a miserable world we live in?
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Right? And then you step back and you think about
all the wonderful things we have and you try to
come up with a balanced perspective and realize, you know,
relative relative to relative to earlier generation society, relative to
again having my American lens on and I apologize, but
relative to other parts of the world that are dealing
with with extreme can man, life couldn't be better.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
That's fabulous. Let's keep keeping everybody and we have instant
access through social media to all the happiness and all
the sadness all at once, and sadness and faminine people
falling down sells more than anything else. So it's crazy.
Where do we find out more about you?
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Scott?
Speaker 1 (29:20):
So?
Speaker 3 (29:20):
The best way is to check out my website Life
is Too shortguide dot com Life is Too Short Guy
dot com. You can learn there about my book about
my speaking about I have a newsletter you can hop
on to if you're interested once a month, kind of
a reminder, a jolt of positivity. So life is too
short guy dot com.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Fabulous. Okay, the rewind moment. So this is the question
at the end of the episode that if somebody only
listened to this, they would rewind and listen to the
whole half hour and say that was amazing. Scott. So
your favorite question, comment or takeaway, and it can be
something we've talked about previously.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
I'm going to go with.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words.
Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviors.
Keep your behaviors positive because your behaviors become your habits.
Keep your habits positive because your habits become your destiny.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
Quote of Mahatma Gandhi. Think about that.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Start with your thoughts and end with your destiny. It's
an amazing, powerful statement to transform your thinking into live
a better life.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
That is fabulous. The life is too short, guys, Scott White,
thank you so much for coming on growth Selling and
Retire today and sharing your inspirations.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Thanks for joining us on grow Sell and retire. For
more information, tools, or to book one of our team
members to work with your team business, or to speak
at your event or conference, visit rockfind dot co dot uk.
If you like the podcast, you'll love one of BD's
three books, The Assisted purchase True Gravity and the book.
The podcast is based on, Grow, sell, and retire. If
(31:03):
you want to work for the rest of your life,
that is your business. If you don't, that is ours.
Grow Sell and Retire is the podcast for the lazy overachiever.
Bad Dalton, author of the assistant Purchase, True Gravity and
grow Sell and Retire, is here to give his twenty
five years of secrets, tips and assistants to take your
business to the next level. This podcast is for anyone
who wants to sell more, work less and make better business.
(00:24):
Now here's your host, Bad with today's GSR podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Hey, everybody, Beat Dalton here, Grow Sell and Retire podcast.
Really excited about today. Going to be talking about being
happy and the best thing about it is we're here
with the Life is Too Short guy, Scott White. We're
going to be talking about being happy, but also I
want to talk about toxic happiness where people are way
(00:50):
too happy all the time and doing this type of
stuff and you hear about it, not that people are there.
But Scott, welcome to the show. I don't want to
be too deep too early, but welcome to the show
and looking forward to having a chut with you. Tell
us what you did and why you're here and what
made you the happiness guy?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Well, big opening questions. So I have done a number
of things in my career. I started on Wall Street
grew up on Wall Street. It'spent out fifteen years there,
and then took a portfolio of real estate assets public
and ran that as a public company for about a decade,
Ash chairman and CEO. I started and built a student
housing development business, and in about two three years ago,
(01:27):
which is where we are today, I wrote a book,
a book called The Life Is Too Short Guy, And
now I'm out on a world happiness tour, spreading the
message around positivity, gratefulness, happiness, living in the moment, the
power of perspective.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
And you know, it's something that that just happened organically.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
So if success is the key to happiness, or you
know that we used to think that, or people think
if you're successful and you got money, you got all
this stuff, you're going to be happy. Why are there
so many miserable, successful, rich people. It's a great question, BD.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
I think we have the happiness formula wrong. So I
think that for the most part, people generally believe work
really hard, find success, be happy. Right, work hard plus
success equals happiness. The problem is we work hard to
(02:23):
find success, to work harder to find more success, to
work harder to find more success. We want the bigger office.
We want the bigger car, we want the bigger job,
we want the bigger just keep going on and on
and on. We get on what's called the hedonic treadmill,
and we never get to the other side of the
equal sign. We stay on the I guess the left
side of the equal sign. What happens if we were
(02:46):
to change the formula, just change the order of the
formula and start with a perspective of happiness. So happiness
plus working hard equal success. We're chacing happiness. We're starting
with the perspective. All right, what does that actually mean?
It sounds very theoretical. So for your listeners, you're saying, man,
(03:08):
that's great, that's a bunch of mumbo jumbo. Give me
something to latch onto. Here's something to latch onto. And
it's something that I talk a lot about. Is my
overarching premise in what I wrote and what I'm doing
now is that very small changes, small changes can have
outsized impacts on your long term happiness.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
So I'm not an.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Academic theoretical you know, based on this study or based
on that.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
This is living in the moment. So here's a real
example of something so easy.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
In fact, a lot of times I deliver this message
on the stage and I love to watch people like really,
and then I hear from people weeks later about how
this small change made such a big difference. So if
I were to ask you, BD, do you remember what
your very first thought was when you woke up this morning?
Speaker 4 (03:58):
What was your first thought? Is you open your us.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I was thinking about one of our employees. Weirdly enough, so.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
You open your eyes and you thought about an employee.
I call that basically a blurry glasses. Blurry glasses, what
do you mean? So I encourage people that each morning
you wake up, reach over to your nightstand and grab
your glasses and put them on.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
First thought of the day.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
And not everyone has glasses, so you put on the
pretty glasses and that's fine. And this is a real exercise,
so this isn't theoretical. I would do this every day.
Reach over, put on your glasses. And my guess is
you and many people put on what I call blurry glasses.
You open your eyes and you're like, I gotta I
could use some coffee, or I gotta go to the bathroom, or.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Wait, what days Today's Wednesday, Thursday?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Unfortunately, be these some people and I think it's more
people than one whoul admit it. Reach over and whether
they do it or not, put on their muddy glasses.
They open their eyes this morning and they're like, Oh,
I'm tired. I want to go back to bed. I
have so much to do. I don't feel like getting up.
Oh I have that appointment, I have that meeting, I
have that lunch. Eh why not? Why not tomorrow? Just
(05:10):
try this reach over and put on bright, shiny, crystal
clear glasses. As I opened my eyes this morning, I
truly open my eyes, and I'm at my lakehouse, which
is my happy place. It's the sun comes up very early.
I get up early, but I'm like, I could hear
the bird chirping. I'm in bed with the woman. I
(05:30):
love my children, who are now in their early twenties,
not so much. Children are home with me, and I'm
so grateful for that I have a chance to be
on be these podcasts. Boom, I am now what ten
twelve seconds into the day, and instinctively I've rattled off three, four, five,
six things that I'm happy and grateful for without thinking
about it. I didn't sit down like, oh, let's make
(05:50):
a list of what could I be happy about. It's
just a methodology, a mindset that I get in. As
Henry Ford said, if you think you can or you
think you can't, probably right. So why not set the
roadmap for the day? I understand, I understand the skeptics.
I say that's great, I'm happy, I'm in bad blah
blah blah blah. And then I step out of bed
(06:10):
and I twist my ankle.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
I got it.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
You can't control everything that happens to you throughout the day.
You can control your perspective, set the tone right for
the day.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
So when you're doing this and you had to back yourself,
what what was your turning point that made you say, hey,
I see the world differently or I need to see
the world differently. What was your snap moment?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
So there wasn't a snap moment. It's an evolution over time.
So had you and I met four or five years ago,
The Life is Too Short guy wasn't even a concept.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
It wasn't a persona. It was just who I was.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I went about my day in a positive, happy, jovial Now, look,
people ask me all the time.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
You always like that. No no human, no, no real human.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
I think you brought up the topic before about toxic happiness, like,
no real human is constantly happy, That's not possible.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
I've evolved and.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Developed a perspective over the course of my life that
has led me in a direction of extreme gratefulness, happiness,
and positivity.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
There wasn't one defining moment.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
As I self reflected when I wrote the book a
couple of years ago, I realized that there were probably
at least four Aha moments. I called them four moments
in my life that just transformed my thinking.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
No one alone did it, but over the course of time.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
So the first one, when I was about ten years old,
I was working on a project with my dad, a
we'll call it a rehabit, rehabbing a room in my house,
and my dad cut his finger. It was one of
those you know, it didn't slice the finger off, but
it was probably more than a band aid moment. So
(07:47):
he goes off to the hospital, the emergency room to
get it looked at.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
I go to bed the middle of the night. My
mom comes running into my room.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Jars me awake, and says Dad had a heart attack
while waiting in the emergency room.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
He was waiting in the waiting area and he had a.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Heart attack, and you know, Dad spent about a week
or so in the hospital, and then he and my
mom had to fly across the United States to he
needed bypass surgery.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
This is nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Four.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
There weren't a lot of people that did that kind
of surgery.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
And I specifically remember now, look, I'm staying at my grandparents.
He's gone a couple of days, and I'm ten years old.
I don't nineteen eighty four, no one had cell phones,
no one had texts, no one had constant communication.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
I don't really know what's.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Going on, nor mentally or psychologically do I fully understand
the impact. But I will tell you that to this day,
I could distinctly remember the phone ringing at my grandparents'
house and my grandmother answering it and calling me in
and handing me the.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Phone, and I slowly lift the phone up and I hear.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Scott, Scott's dad, and at that moment I collapsed to
the ground tears. I had no idea what hit me.
And to this day, I believe that was one of
the defining moments where I realized, Look, you take your
parents for granted, you take your relationships are granted and like.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
That they could be gone. And that was.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Sort of that first moment that I realized that life's
too short, I think the second moment. And my dad
did survive, thank god, and he lived another twenty three
years after that, but unfortunately I did lose him about
eighteen or nineteen years ago. And there's no doubt that
was a defining moment in my life, you know, burying
(09:31):
my parent in delivering eulogy, and I like to say
becoming an adult. I was in my early thirties and
realizing that my dad was gone, There's no doubt was
a defining moment for me.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
The third one, I think was the events of nine
to eleven.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
So on nine to eleven, I walked right by the
World Trade Center of the towers, probably about twenty to
thirty minutes before the first plane crashed. I was about
six or seven blocks north of the towers when I
heard the first I didn't see it. I was on
a call facing the west side of Manhattan. I'm listening
(10:06):
and I hear, and then all of a sudden, I
see emergency vehicles heading downtown on the sirens whaling, so
on and so forth, and.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
I put the call on hold.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
I go to the south side of the building and
I see this gaping hole in the side of the
World Trade Center, smoke pouring out. And as I'm standing
there for a few minutes, I watched the second plane
come down the Hudson River, turn on its side, and
on a forty five degree ankle, crash into an explosion
coming out of the World Trade Center. And that was
(10:34):
a brilliant memory for me. And you know that shortly thereafter,
my wife and I decided to have children. The day
before we were in I was in no hurry. I
think my wife was, but I was in no hurry.
A week later we decided it was time, and about
a year thirteen months later, we had our first child.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
So that was the certainly the third defining moment.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
The fourth aha moment was I lost my mom about
nine years ago.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
And there's no doubt those four events.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
They weren't the sole events, but they had a big
impact on me realizing life's too short.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Live in the moment.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
And so then how do you take those things and
use them to power up your happiness, your gratitude, and
your focus.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
So I don't think about anyone.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I think a lot of my attitude, my perspective has
happened naturally organically over time. But each of those events
were jars to me, you know, rattling me to be like,
you know what, you're worrying about the wrong things, like
something being slightly out of place, or you know, somebody
(11:37):
being angry at you, or somebody looking at you funny
or whatever it is, the things we dwell on. I
just realized life's too short for that, and naturally, again
without really thinking about it, had we spoken five years ago,
there was no concept the life is too short guy.
There was no sort of you know, Scott, what's your
life philosophy?
Speaker 4 (11:52):
I don't know if I could have actually defined it. It
was just the life I lived.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
And then finally, when I put pen to paper, I'm like, Wow,
this is who I am and this is what I'm about.
And I hope to spread this message to others. Life's
too short. Live in the moment, smile, enjoy, go out
and chase your dreams. Take some chances. We're all going
to have setbacks along light's journey, but don't let it
stop you.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
So we've done the glasses in the morning. So let's
say we hit a blip in the middle of the day.
You know, let's say we hit that we've already put
on the glasses and the day hit the day running.
Now now you're coming out and you're like, okay, what's
what's another? And you're good at these things and you
give lots of inspiration. What are one or two things
that we can then apply throughout the day to keep
us back on track and remind us that life's too short.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
So here's one of my favorite and simplest ones. And
I love doing this for an audience. I've done this
for audiences of hundreds of people. I literally look at
the crowd and I say, all right, little things make
a big difference. I'm going to give you one of
the littlest things that makes a big difference. So you're ready, yes, focus,
here we go, ready, smile. It works, and I let
(13:01):
it hang there. I let it hang there just like that,
And it's amazing what happens.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
People. Some smile immediately, some look around like wait, am
I supposed to be smiling? Now? Invariably the entire room
starts smiling.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
And then when I say to people, I'm like, so
now stop and think about it for a minute. How
do you feel how do you feel when you see
other people smiling? How do you feel when you walk
by somebody on the street smiling? Smiling has been and
I say, I don't spend a lot of time on
the science because I don't want it to be a
(13:35):
boring talk or a boring book.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
I mean no.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Offense to the scientists, but there is empirical evidence that
demonstrates that that the mere act of smiling can make
us up to twenty five to thirty percent happier because
of endorphins and other chemicals in the brain that are produced.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
As a result of the smile. I tell people, just
think about it.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
So now be thoughtful, deliberate, and proactive as you go
about your day. So when you get in your car
in the morning, smile, when you get me off this smile,
when you're in the shower, smile, when you're walking down
the street, smile.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Now, I don't mean look like an idiot all time.
Just yeah, I mean, just as.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
You're going through your wife, like you just said, you
have a setback, you're you know, you just got an
email from your boss that that that that is is
you feel badly about, or you just heard from a
child or a spouse or a loved one that they're
they're dealing with something difficult, and just all of a sudden,
you're like, I got this. The mere act of smiling
(14:32):
changes your perspective. Does to solve the world's problems? No,
but if more people smile, think about what a better
world we live in?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Cool? And what's the second thing you said? You said
you're giving us too.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Let's see, so what else could I give you? Other
things that I really like? I talk about the power
of community. I talk about the power of of belonging.
So there are ten principles to philosophy that I talk about.
The philosophy is I've come up with a little acronym
(15:04):
the life is too Short guy or Litzig.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Life is too short, Guy Litzig. And they're ten principles
associated with them.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
One of them that I really like and I'm contemplating
actually writing another book about is the power community. I
call it you can't make it alone, and how we
need to surround ourselves with people that we want to
support and that want to support us.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
And by the way, that could be.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
A club that shares a common interest, a hobby, a
religious organization, a work environment, you know, I love powerful
work environments where people feel like they belong, like they're contributing,
like there's something greater than themselves. And I talk in
the book a lot about the Harvard Study what makes
a Good Life. For those who are not familiar with
(15:47):
the Harvard Study, the Harvard Study has been ongoing now
for eighty five years, if I'm not mistaken, and started
in the late nineteen thirties, where the original Harvard Study.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
It's truly amazing.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
And I tell people that there's not a lot of
academic in the book, but one of the things I
spend some time on that's worth understanding is so Harvard
professors set out to understand what makes a good life.
That was the definition of the study, and they selected
a group of about I think it was two or
three hundred Harvard sophomores, all males at the time, to
(16:22):
start studying and following for the rest of their lives.
In the early forties, they added a second cohort of
four hundred and fifty six inner city Boston area youth.
We're not Harvard students, so you got a little bit
of diversity here. And they've followed this seven eight hundred
participants for the next eighty plus years, so to this
day the study is still ongoing. The original participants, their children,
(16:45):
their grandchildren, annual physical exams, surveys, mental assessments, psychological assessments.
I mean, it's really a trove of data. When you
think about how much data you can gather, right, it
must be incredible complex, It must be so much data. Well,
it is a lot of data, but the conclusions are
fairly simple and truly powerful in terms of what's the
(17:07):
most important factor I'm making a good life, and it's
the power of community. One of the key takeaways that
I absolutely love and I spent a lot of time
talking about because I think it really puts a fine
point on what I'm saying is that those at age
fifty who self identified as having the strongest social network,
(17:31):
however they define that thirty years later, at age eighty,
where the physically healthiest, mentally healthiest, and happiest. Think about
that there was a greater correlation between self identification of
the power of my social network and long term happiness
and health than any other variable. So predisposition for a
(17:54):
certain disease, predisposition for a certain mental condition, whatever.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
That may be.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Eateest correlation in that and think about how long they've
been doing this eighty plus years. The greatest correlation between
long term happiness and health is the power.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Of social networks.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
So I tell people, go out of your way to develop, build,
strengthen social networks. It does not mean that you need
to have a lot of lights on social media or
a lot of you know, five thousand friends or whatever
that means. It means deep, meaningful relationships, a place to
belong and by the way that evolves over time. It
(18:30):
doesn't necessarily mean, oh, I got three buddies that we've
been friends for forty years, not at all. In fact,
the study found that those that had the strongest social
networks when they worked after they were tired also had
the strongest social networks, but different social networks. So be thoughtful, deliberate,
and proactive in building your social networks, invest time, energy,
(18:53):
and resources. I say to people, you know, when you
start the new year, invariably most people set goals for
the year, They set plans, they set resolutions, whatever you
want to call and usually speaking to groups earlier in
the year, I say to people, how many people have
a work set of goals? You know, and invariably, hands
(19:15):
go up. Okay, how many people have a physical plan?
You know, I want to go to the gym a
certain number of days. I want to run a certain
number of miles.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Hands go up.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
How many people have a nutrition plan? I want to
eat better, I want to cut out certain things. Then
I say, how many people have a social strategy for
the year.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Nobody does.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Occasionally occasionally you'll have a hand or two go up.
Why not set goals for I want to reach out
to BD because I haven't spoken to them in a while.
A simple text, the simple email, a simple call, maybe
a handwritten note. I want to grow a relationship that's
just starting to foster. I want to expand my network
(19:59):
again again, very important, You're very important. It's not about oh,
I have five or six close friends. My goal this
year is have forty close friends. That's not it. It's
building a network. And by the way, it could be family.
It doesn't have to be friends. It could be family.
It could be a religious organization, it could be a
political organization. Whatever it is that gives you a meaning,
(20:22):
a sense of belonging.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
That's the power of community.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
And I'd say that's the If there's one thing for
your viewers to take away like, this is something I
should invest time and invest time in strengthening and building
your social networks.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
So you've done a lot of stuff, you have your
you have your ten steps. I wrote a book called
True Gravity that measured your network. So what when you
look at and people doubt themselves about how happy they are?
What's what's happiness to me besides just a smile and
a warm heart or whatever else it is. So how
can I sit back and go, actually, actually I am
(20:56):
happy because of X, Y, and Z, and not just
the gratitude page. How does somebody put it together in
a formulaic I guess in that way from Gill to.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
A certain agree, I think it's self fulfilling.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
And I talk about the power perspective, right, So anyone
could look at the same set of facts with a
vastly different outcome. And I think it's starting with that perspective.
It's starting with those glasses that we talked about. It's
starting with thinking about how you're going to approach a
set of facts.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
So I did a little.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Experiment in February of twenty twenty two, February first of
twenty twenty two. So I used to be the CEO
and chairman of a public real estate company, and usually
at the beginning of each month, I would send out
a short note to all the employees, talking about what's
going on and missus. February first, twenty twenty one, if
(21:47):
I remember correctly, twenty twenty two, I can't remember. I
sent out a note to the team something to the
fact I don't remember the exact words, but it's February.
It's dark, it's cold, it's dreary. I'm tired. We don't
have an office. We've been homeless for a while. COVID
has really done us, and we've destroyed a lot of value.
(22:08):
I'm not sure where to turn. I don't know what
else to say, And I sent that email to the team.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Send that email to the team.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Bear in mind, this is a place where we were
recognized year in and year out as one of the best
places to work in the area we were in, and
culture was vitally important. So people receive that email a're
like huh. Ten minutes later, I sent an email something
to the effect of today is the best day of
(22:37):
my life. The sun is shining. We have an amazing team,
our new office didn't mention that the first time, our
new office will open in the next month, and that
I'll give us a chance to come back together as one.
We have an opportunity to create substantial value coming out
of this crisis.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
Together, we can be a winning team.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Same day, same facts, same exact word count. Yeah, how
long it took me to get the words to line up.
I had to keep shopping from the positive one to
keep the negative one anyway. I then made a point
to the team, look at that same exact day, within
(23:17):
ten minutes to one another. I sent you two different emails.
What's going on in the world around us and in
the company? Nothing changed in ten minutes with the same
number of words, I painted two entirely different pictures. So
now to answer your question, bid, how do you know
when you're happy?
Speaker 4 (23:32):
What's about? Perspective?
Speaker 3 (23:33):
It's about again thinking about that hedonic treadmill we talked
about earlier. Are you constantly chasing the bigger home, the
bigger car, the bigger office, the bigger yacht, or are
you self reflecting and realizing, Wow, I'm here, I'm alive,
I'm in a conversation with you. I have an opportunity
to speak to so many people in your audience and
(23:55):
spread this message of gratefulness, positivity, happiness, of perspective. People
think about the lens and I actually do this like
a lens. You're looking through the lens through which you
view the world. The lens the glasses we talked about before,
and then I give examples of bringing those lenses to
the workplace. I just gave you one of those examples.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
So when we're doing this and you see this sometimes
people that are so positive but they wear Paullyanna's glasses
and they're they're they're running a business like you did,
but they're so happy and so things will come good
and things will go to this and their profit and
losses crashing and stuff. So how do you have that
(24:35):
reality check for somebody that's very positive a lot of
the time, but so positive that they're forgetting the actual facts,
you know, and everything great.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
It's a great question, and I think we need to
surround ourselves with people that put us in check, quite frankly,
And if you were to ask me, you know, put
me on the on the spot, either in this conversation
or outside is conversation. Scott, what are your areas for development?
What are your blind spots. There's no doubt. I I
am very trusting. I am very like we're going to
figure this out. Yes, I know the company is crashing
(25:06):
and the world is ending, but don't worry.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
We'll figure this out. And you're right.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
I think that's a great astute observation and I don't
have a great answer to it other than try to
surround yourself with people that check you. That you know,
I talk a lot. I do some executive coaching, and
I've built teams, and I talk about building teams with
complementary perspectives, with complementary experiences, with complementary skills. When you
(25:33):
surround yourself with people that all look, act, smell, behave
like you, I.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Think it's a team setup for failure.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
And if you do have a team of incredibly optimistic
and positive people that can't see the walls falling down,
you're probably setting yourself up for disaster. But look, all
us being equal, I'd rather surround myself with more positive people.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
You know. It's that I often think about it. I'm
a big runner. I love to run, and.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
I get questions a lot about what about your joints?
Are you worried about your hips you're worried about your knees,
And my answer back is yeah, I think so, But
I could also sit on the couch and not do
anything in dieheart disease, right, So so get out there
and run and enjoy and you know, hopefully you find
the right balance.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
So when you're doing this interviewing, are you're helping people?
What's your favorite one or two questions that you asked
during an interview process to try to drag out the
happiness quot or the seeing if they're seeing life half
glass half full.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
You know, I ask people give me examples.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
I asked people to give specific examples, like I said
to you, what was your first thought of the day?
I would say things like, you know, when you get
to the office, how do you start your day, how
do you look at your current relationships and how do
you feel about them? Trying to sort of set expectations,
to set a benchmark of you know, do people immediately
(26:53):
start with the negative?
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Do they work their way to the negative?
Speaker 3 (26:56):
You know, we live in a society where where eighty
percent of all thoughts are negative. Ninety percent and this
is not shocking, but ninety percent of all news media
coverage is negative. Sixty five percent of people say they're
currently disengaged at work and considering leaving. So when you
look at those stats, you know, here's one that blows
(27:18):
my mind. I know UbD have an international audience, so
I'm going to apologies, but have on my American centric
lens for one second. I will caution you, but University
of Chicago Public opinion poll in the last couple of years.
This is a couple of years old now, but they
came out and said Americans are more unhappy than they've
(27:39):
been in fifty years.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
Think about that.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
A half a century we live in. I think and
look again, that's my perspective. But the greatest time in
the evolution of human society. When you think about advances
we've made in medicine, advances we've made in technology, advances
we've made as a society, how is it that Americans
are more unhappy and they've been in fifty years. It's
(28:03):
a It's part of what inspires and motivates me to
have these conversations to get people to realize how what
a wonderful world we live in, what wonderful opportunities are
ahead of us, what great things are happening and to
embrace that and to enjoy that again. I'll go back
and say what I said before. Everything is not perfect.
(28:23):
There are issues, there are problems. There's you know, I
tell people, you know, you look around when I talk,
I usually start by saying war, famine, disease, poverty, homelessness.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
Wow, what a miserable world we live in?
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Right? And then you step back and you think about
all the wonderful things we have and you try to
come up with a balanced perspective and realize, you know,
relative relative to relative to earlier generation society, relative to
again having my American lens on and I apologize, but
relative to other parts of the world that are dealing
with with extreme can man, life couldn't be better.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
That's fabulous. Let's keep keeping everybody and we have instant
access through social media to all the happiness and all
the sadness all at once, and sadness and faminine people
falling down sells more than anything else. So it's crazy.
Where do we find out more about you?
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Scott?
Speaker 1 (29:20):
So?
Speaker 3 (29:20):
The best way is to check out my website Life
is Too shortguide dot com Life is Too Short Guy
dot com. You can learn there about my book about
my speaking about I have a newsletter you can hop
on to if you're interested once a month, kind of
a reminder, a jolt of positivity. So life is too
short guy dot com.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Fabulous. Okay, the rewind moment. So this is the question
at the end of the episode that if somebody only
listened to this, they would rewind and listen to the
whole half hour and say that was amazing. Scott. So
your favorite question, comment or takeaway, and it can be
something we've talked about previously.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
I'm going to go with.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words.
Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviors.
Keep your behaviors positive because your behaviors become your habits.
Keep your habits positive because your habits become your destiny.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
Quote of Mahatma Gandhi. Think about that.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Start with your thoughts and end with your destiny. It's
an amazing, powerful statement to transform your thinking into live
a better life.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
That is fabulous. The life is too short, guys, Scott White,
thank you so much for coming on growth Selling and
Retire today and sharing your inspirations.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Thanks for joining us on grow Sell and retire. For
more information, tools, or to book one of our team
members to work with your team business, or to speak
at your event or conference, visit rockfind dot co dot uk.
If you like the podcast, you'll love one of BD's
three books, The Assisted purchase True Gravity and the book.
The podcast is based on, Grow, sell, and retire. If
(31:03):
you want to work for the rest of your life,
that is your business. If you don't, that is ours.
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