June 20, 2025 • 20 mins
Welcome to the Young Entrepreneur Syndicate—the podcast where innovation meets inspiration, and every episode feels like a fun, engaging chat with friends. Your hosts, Jim Riley and Rod Kuntz, are not just seasoned entrepreneurs; they’re expert storytellers with real-world experience in coaching, consulting, start-ups, fundraising, and crafting vibrant workplace cultures. Jim and Rod keep it real, sharing lessons learned from the trenches with humility, humor, and a focus on paying success forward. Every episode is packed with relatable stories, actionable advice, and a good dose of fun that’ll make you feel like you’re right there in the room. Whether you’re scaling your business, optimizing for profitability, or navigating failure, Jim and Rod have your back. So, if you’re ready to learn, laugh, and level up, you’ve found your tribe. Welcome to Young Entrepreneur Syndicate with Jim Riley and Rod Kuntz—where you’re not just listening, you’re part of the conversation! Find out more at: https://www.youngentrepreneursyndicate.com/
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to the Answers Yes Podcast, where we interview some
of the most interesting people that have said yes to
opportunities in their life. We hope that through these stories
you can learn to create your own destiny by saying
yes along the way. Join us as we explore the
new series, covering topics such as passion, integrity, and hard work.
I'm your host, Jim Riley, and I hope you enjoyed
(00:32):
these interviews as much as I do. I believe that
everyone has an important message worth hearing. Hello and welcome
to the Young Entrepreneur Syndicate Podcast. Jim Riley here with
Rod Koontz. Another day, buddy, How you doing great?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
My friend? How are you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Wonderful? Summer's here. You know, everything's in full swing, not
only the activities, but business is in full swing and
I couldn't be happier.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I am the same way. You know. Business is good.
People I'm talking to you know, people were coaching with
Young Entrepreneurs Syndicate. It seems like everybody's just in full
stride right now, and that's a good place to be. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
I got to tell you I had a conversation with
the young man today. He's eighteen, uh, still in high
school and he was actually I think he just graduated
because school's out it's June. Anyways, he's been doing some
handyman work for me around the house, and he's been
helping the neighbors out, you know, around their house. And
I was introduced to him from another friend who owns
(01:32):
a basically a handyman business, right and I said, he, Mason,
you know, how's things going with your other company? Goes, Oh,
I don't work for him anymore. I said, really, why
is that? He goes, I started my own business, like
doing what he goes, handyman. He goes, I'm doing that.
I'm going to emphasize. I'm going to have an emphasis
on like building decks and landscaping and things like that.
(01:54):
He goes, I really love it, and that's what I
want to be doing. And I walked away thinking how
awesome is that this young man eighteen years old is
starting his own business and just rolled right through, you know,
just working for somebody else, having his own business, and
he's aspiring. And I look over at his truck and
he's got his equipment back there. I thought, he's got
(02:16):
a plan. You know, he knows what he wants to do,
and it really was. It was refreshing, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I think back to that because when I was eighteen
years old, believe me, I didn't have a plan. I
had a work ethic and my plan was always just
do the best of whatever's in front of you. And
that served me. It served me at the time. But
I think had I had somebody who could have pointed
me in the direction of why not do it yourself? Yeah,
you know, if someone if why work for someone else,
(02:45):
if you can do the same thing better, you know,
or do it with your signature on it. And there's
plenty of room out there, plenty of room out there.
So for him at eighteen, what's really.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Cool too, now that I think about it, He's this
second under a well second under twenty year old that
I've encountered today. Corbyn Baldwin spoke to him this morning.
He launched a new clothing like a jacket. He sells
embroidered jackets, So if you had a sports team or
a special event, they would embroider that name or that
(03:18):
event onto the jacket and then you'd have like a
branded jacket for it. He goes, I launched my new
jacket business and he sent that to me this morning.
I'm just so proud of our youth, especially the intent
and purpose behind what we do with Young Entrepreneur Syndicate.
And as most of you know if you listen, it's
not just for young adults. But it really thrills me
when we actually have some young adults that are making strides.
(03:41):
And you know, I was driving Mason around this morning
to get some supplies around my ranch, and I said,
isn't amazing how people complain that there's no work and
they can't make any money. He goes, Yeah, it seems
kind of wild. I said, we got more than enough
to do. He goes, we sure do, because he's been
over my neighbor's house almost every day of the week.
And I know he has other customers. So I guess
(04:01):
that's the early lesson here. There is plenty to do
if you're willing to do the work. There's no excuses
to say I can't pay my bills, I don't have
any money. You know, pick up where others left off.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
You know something you you just mentioned this the handyman
and Baldwin, mister Baldwin, and you know he comes from
that agg community, right, and it's it's that blue collar
work ethic, and I think that's lacking in the white
collar world, you know, and you don't have to be
(04:36):
I guess what I'm saying is if if for all
the high school students that are all focused on college, college,
college and academia and how to take the next test
and how to get ahead that way, man, if you
don't have that work ethic and work, you know, it's
a hard skill, right, Yeah, but the work ethic is
(04:56):
a soft skill, and many, how many of these young kids.
We saw it when we were teaching high school, right,
We saw the dream and the vision that these kids had,
and there was not anything stopping any well, with the
exception of the one that was looking at medical, a
medical career, right, pharmaceutical. There wasn't anything stopping any of
(05:21):
those kids from launching the business plans that they had
turned into us. That's right, except their vision is to
go to college first, to do that next academic step.
And you just gave two examples of people who like,
why go that direction when I can go this direction?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
And you know, ten thousand hours is ten thousand hours.
You're going to put it in at college. You're going
to put it into a business. Either way, you're going
to end up with an education.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Well, I really believe that trade, blue collar and trade
will make America great again. And I love that that's
coming back around. And I actually saw a post this
morning that they were going to the Feds were taking
away the budget to Harvard. Are those grants and they
were talking about putting those grants towards trade. Yes, and
(06:10):
I couldn't think of a better use for my tax
dollars than to go towards trade. And some Ivy League
school that's producing people that aren't doing much but ripping
us off. So anyways, that's another rabbit.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
I do love the trade and I think it will
make this country great if we can put an emphasis
on it. So, yes, I do have a topic. I
know we have not discussed it. We danced around it
as usual, and that topic is find your passion. Find
your passion. And so where this came from is I
(06:45):
was talking to my neighbor last night. He's eighty one
years old and he worked a career. He was an engineer,
built skyscrapers and big cities, you know, San Francisco, San
Diego and the like, and very great career, retire here
in Montana, not a nice you know, shell of money.
(07:06):
And his hobby was woodworking. He makes beautiful tables and
benches and boxes and all kinds of great stuff out
of wood. And he has this beautiful shop alongside of
his house with all the high end industrial size equipment.
I mean, any man are woman that wants to work
(07:27):
with wood, this is this would be their desire to
have the shop. Well, at his age, he can no
longer work in the wood shop, you know, to pick
up big piece of lumber and mill him down and
all those other things, and to use the equipment. It's
just becoming a little bit dangerous. And he's come to
that reality, you know, Jim. I'm well, they're selling their house.
(07:49):
They're downsizing, single story house, no shop, you know, and
he's gonna stop woodwork. And he goes, I don't know
what I'm gonna do next, and I and I said,
sure you do. You're going to do something that you're
passionate about. It's just not going to be with woodworking anymore.
I said, you have to find your passion in life
(08:10):
and bring that blessing to people. And so we started
talking about ideas of things that he might be able
to do that would be a blessing to others in
his eighties. And so one of the things that I
did is I brought my grandfather's life as an example
to my neighbor as a way to find his next passion.
(08:32):
So similarly, well, when my grandfather was a child in
the twenties, we had the Great Depression, and his dad
worked in a leather factory, and his dad would bring
home little teeny scraps of leather, and so my grandfather
learned how to sew those little pieces of leather together
and make like little coin pouches or small little purses,
(08:54):
because it wasn't big pieces of leather, or how to
tie together and make a strap or a bracelet, things
like that. And he was just a kid, he was
like six or seven years old, and so he would
make these things with leather scraps, and he'd go around
the neighborhood and he would sell him for a penny
or nickel or dime to make a little bit of
money to bring back home, because it was the Great Depression,
(09:15):
and that made a difference. And so fast forward, my
grandfather went, you know, World War two, that owned some
thriving businesses deli shops, restaurants, hamburger restaurants. And then when
he finally retired, he thought, oh, I'm going to work
with leather again. And so my grandfather spent the next
twenty years from retirement into his eighties making leather pouches
(09:40):
and purses and all these things again. And he reached
a point where he could no longer do that in
his eighties. And so where my grandfather found his passion
all the way till the day he died is that.
And I think it started like in a Fourth of
July parade or something like that. He would wear his
his navy whites with all his medals and his hat
(10:02):
and everything, and it happened to fit him again. You know,
you get older, you shrink back to your original size. Anyways,
the local high school had found my grandfather and said, hey,
you're a World War two vet, and he says yes.
They said, well, could you come and speak to our
history class sometime, and my grandfathers, of course I will.
So my grandfather spent the last nine years of his
(10:24):
life passionately speaking to high schoolers in history classes all
around southern California. He lived in Newport Beach, and so
every week he would go to a different school, and
he got to the point where they had to come
pick him up because he couldn't drive anymore. But he
would speak and he found his passion. And what a
blessing he became to these high school students to learn
(10:46):
a little piece of our history straight from the mouth
of somebody that was actually there. And as he would
tell you, he didn't hold back anything. He totally like
it was right. And so when I look at that
and I compare it to my neighbor looking for his passion,
we all have it in us. And so the message today,
(11:06):
and I know your weigh in on this, is we
all need to find our passion. No matter where we're
at in our life, whether are in our twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties,
or even your nineties, there is something that you can
be passionate about, and you can live a life full
of passion and be a blessing to others through your
(11:27):
passion and what you do in your work. Right, that
was sort of a job for my grandfather to go
speak to all these high schools. You know, he had
to commit to doing it. He had to show up,
he had to press his uniform, he had to be
on time, he had to come prepared. You know, it
was a labor of love and he was passionate about
it and it was a blessing. So that's the topic.
(11:48):
Be passionate about what you're doing and find your passion.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I love it. I'm gonna take it one step beyond that.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Please service.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
When when we talk about finding your passion and and
I'm going maybe I'm gonna look at the flip side
of that coin. Yes, we need to we need to
be passionate about something. Be passionate about everything, but find
your passion. The other part of that is, don't be
selfish about it. It can't just be about you. If
(12:23):
you're struggling, chances are you're trying to find the just
the perfect fit for you. Go outside of yourself for
a second and say what can I do that would
benefit other people that I would still like to do,
And maybe you'll find your passion in that. And it's
like your your grandfather's story, it's what he can do
(12:44):
for other people, right what that's it's the service end
of it. What can we do to help others? And
when we do that, believe me, you will find your
passion and you will become more passionate about it. Sure,
I think of people, well, here Mary Todd, who ran
for congress. Here, you know, one of one of the things,
(13:05):
she was just a stay at home mom, just right,
who educated She was a home educator back. You know,
she's older than I am, so that would have been
back a while. Right. She was a trendsetter. And her
one claim to fame was she said, you're not gonna
you know, because I've never run for office before. So
she's at an age where she's passionate about change rights.
(13:28):
She's becoming a change agent. And she said, I don't
have a voting record, but I do have a record
because she was arrested when she was a young mother protesting. Right,
So she has a record, and she spun that. It
was just so clever. It's like, yeah, I have a record.
I stood strong for things I believed in then, and
(13:49):
I'm going to stand just as strong for things I
believe in now. So if you're struggling, especially, and I
loved your story, I got the beautiful part of this.
I was just thinking about what we do the young
entrepreneur syndicate, and here you are counseling a young entrepreneur
who's in his eighties. Yeah, yeah, right, because entrepreneurship isn't
(14:11):
about starting a business necessarily, it's about starting kickstarting your life. Right,
how do how do we go to that? How do
we start the next venture, whether that's a financial venture,
a business venture, it's a new venture. And we never
stop being entrepreneurs. We should never stop being entrepreneurs. We're
(14:33):
never done. Well, I built a business and I'm gonna
sell it, and I'm gonna lever it, and then I'm
gonna go buy a yacht. Right, No, you know, let's
let's go on to the next thing, because all those
other things aren't going to satisfy. No.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
And by the way, you can do that stuff from
a yacht too, So if you have a yacht and
you're on it, you could do something passionate from the
The other message that I gave my neighbor last night
was because he's like, well, you know what what I
used to do, They don't really do that anymore to
the level or you really have to be at a
high level. And I said, well, let's talk about your
(15:07):
woodworking stuff. You know he had a lot of excuses,
and I said, look, maybe somebody doesn't have the personal
capacity to do this at the level that you've done it,
because you've done it for a long time and you
have a lot of patience. You're very smart, I said,
But at a bare minimum, and this is the other
part of the message. At a bare minimum, you can inspire.
(15:30):
Take your passion and you can inspire. So maybe you
will inspire your grandkids. Are the friends of your grandkids
just enough to chase after something that they can be
passionate about. So our jobs are never done. Mind something
that you're passionate about. Be a blessing to others, and
inspire people through your work. Even if you don't think
(15:54):
they get it, they're getting something out of it, you know,
real quick. I think it's worth highlighting. We do have
a member in the Young Entrepreneur Syndicate. He's been around
for a while, Chris Moler. Chris has a daytime job,
but Chris is passionate about precious metals gold and silver,
(16:17):
and so Chris, if you're listening you want to check
him out, go to Molar Design m Oe L. L. E. R.
De z i GN Molar Design Chris Moller. He creates
these molds and then casts you know, silver or gold
(16:37):
out of these molds. And Chris has a passion for
like pirate stuff. So instead of getting a shiny piece
of silver that's you know, smooth and square, you can
get a medallion that looks like something came out of
a shipwreck from the you know, sixteen hundreds or whatever.
But Chris is passionate about that. And there's no doubt
(16:59):
in my mind that through his passion that he's inspiring
people to do things differently, you know. And I remember asking, like,
how come you don't like just sell the square bars.
He goes, I can't stand the square stuff.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
You know.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
He's like, I want to do something interesting, you know.
And so I love a guy that like Chris, that
has taken you know, he's got a day job, he
provides for his family, but you know, he's taken his
business to the next level outside of that through his passion.
Pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Well, and well, Chris is an artist. I love Chris,
and I love his story. He's an artist and he's
he's found his own niche because of that. But I'll
give him another plug too. If you're looking for a
fine time piece, collectible watches, you know, like you know
(17:47):
Rolex and all. I mean there's there's a litany. It's
not just Lamborghini, right, there's Ferrari and everything. So there's
not just Rolex, there's all these other great time pieces.
But he also deals in that area. So he's an
expert on the valuing watches and that sort of thing.
And I think how impressive is that he has become
(18:09):
an expert, you know, he can evaluate and that sort
of thing, all these different things. So what a resource.
And I guess that's capitalizing on your passion but also
on the knowledge you have. And I was thinking about
this this woodworking you know octogenarian that you just mentioned too.
Could you imagine what he could offer to a high
school woodworking class. Yeah, you know, just no, pay attention
(18:31):
to detail. No, this is how you do that. You know,
he doesn't have to necessarily wrestle the wood. But can
you imagine what the wealth of knowledge he possesses that
he could pass on to someone else and in turn
maybe throw a little gasoline on their passion.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Yeah, right there you go. So, so to wrap this
thing up, here's the message today. Find something that you're
passionate about I don't care how old you are, and
chase that passion and get really really good at it.
You will find the reward in that, you will find
the blessings to others in that, and you will probably
inspire people around you, whether you know it or not.
(19:07):
And that's the cool part it is. It is all right.
If you need some help with the soft skills, we'd
love to have you on the Young Entrepreneur Syndicate. We well,
we make ourselves available to all of our members throughout
the month for one on one phone calls. All you
got to just book it through our calendarly link. And
then all of the resources on the back end of
our website, from contracts to marketing plans to the soft skills, well,
(19:33):
we've got over three years of material there, plus a
whole bunch of old videos that are on relevant topics
that will last a lifetime. So anyways, love to have you,
rod Any closing thoughts on what's happening or.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
I just I want to I'll rephrase. Instead of old videos,
I'm going to say timeless videos because they're still relevant.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
True story, true story. Yes, Well, as usual, it's good
to see you and if you like to show, share it.
We appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Thank you, always a pleasure, my friend,
Welcome to the Answers Yes Podcast, where we interview some
of the most interesting people that have said yes to
opportunities in their life. We hope that through these stories
you can learn to create your own destiny by saying
yes along the way. Join us as we explore the
new series, covering topics such as passion, integrity, and hard work.
I'm your host, Jim Riley, and I hope you enjoyed
(00:32):
these interviews as much as I do. I believe that
everyone has an important message worth hearing. Hello and welcome
to the Young Entrepreneur Syndicate Podcast. Jim Riley here with
Rod Koontz. Another day, buddy, How you doing great?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
My friend? How are you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Wonderful? Summer's here. You know, everything's in full swing, not
only the activities, but business is in full swing and
I couldn't be happier.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I am the same way. You know. Business is good.
People I'm talking to you know, people were coaching with
Young Entrepreneurs Syndicate. It seems like everybody's just in full
stride right now, and that's a good place to be. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
I got to tell you I had a conversation with
the young man today. He's eighteen, uh, still in high
school and he was actually I think he just graduated
because school's out it's June. Anyways, he's been doing some
handyman work for me around the house, and he's been
helping the neighbors out, you know, around their house. And
I was introduced to him from another friend who owns
(01:32):
a basically a handyman business, right and I said, he, Mason,
you know, how's things going with your other company? Goes, Oh,
I don't work for him anymore. I said, really, why
is that? He goes, I started my own business, like
doing what he goes, handyman. He goes, I'm doing that.
I'm going to emphasize. I'm going to have an emphasis
on like building decks and landscaping and things like that.
(01:54):
He goes, I really love it, and that's what I
want to be doing. And I walked away thinking how
awesome is that this young man eighteen years old is
starting his own business and just rolled right through, you know,
just working for somebody else, having his own business, and
he's aspiring. And I look over at his truck and
he's got his equipment back there. I thought, he's got
(02:16):
a plan. You know, he knows what he wants to do,
and it really was. It was refreshing, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I think back to that because when I was eighteen
years old, believe me, I didn't have a plan. I
had a work ethic and my plan was always just
do the best of whatever's in front of you. And
that served me. It served me at the time. But
I think had I had somebody who could have pointed
me in the direction of why not do it yourself? Yeah,
you know, if someone if why work for someone else,
(02:45):
if you can do the same thing better, you know,
or do it with your signature on it. And there's
plenty of room out there, plenty of room out there.
So for him at eighteen, what's really.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Cool too, now that I think about it, He's this
second under a well second under twenty year old that
I've encountered today. Corbyn Baldwin spoke to him this morning.
He launched a new clothing like a jacket. He sells
embroidered jackets, So if you had a sports team or
a special event, they would embroider that name or that
(03:18):
event onto the jacket and then you'd have like a
branded jacket for it. He goes, I launched my new
jacket business and he sent that to me this morning.
I'm just so proud of our youth, especially the intent
and purpose behind what we do with Young Entrepreneur Syndicate.
And as most of you know if you listen, it's
not just for young adults. But it really thrills me
when we actually have some young adults that are making strides.
(03:41):
And you know, I was driving Mason around this morning
to get some supplies around my ranch, and I said,
isn't amazing how people complain that there's no work and
they can't make any money. He goes, Yeah, it seems
kind of wild. I said, we got more than enough
to do. He goes, we sure do, because he's been
over my neighbor's house almost every day of the week.
And I know he has other customers. So I guess
(04:01):
that's the early lesson here. There is plenty to do
if you're willing to do the work. There's no excuses
to say I can't pay my bills, I don't have
any money. You know, pick up where others left off.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
You know something you you just mentioned this the handyman
and Baldwin, mister Baldwin, and you know he comes from
that agg community, right, and it's it's that blue collar
work ethic, and I think that's lacking in the white
collar world, you know, and you don't have to be
(04:36):
I guess what I'm saying is if if for all
the high school students that are all focused on college, college,
college and academia and how to take the next test
and how to get ahead that way, man, if you
don't have that work ethic and work, you know, it's
a hard skill, right, Yeah, but the work ethic is
(04:56):
a soft skill, and many, how many of these young kids.
We saw it when we were teaching high school, right,
We saw the dream and the vision that these kids had,
and there was not anything stopping any well, with the
exception of the one that was looking at medical, a
medical career, right, pharmaceutical. There wasn't anything stopping any of
(05:21):
those kids from launching the business plans that they had
turned into us. That's right, except their vision is to
go to college first, to do that next academic step.
And you just gave two examples of people who like,
why go that direction when I can go this direction?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
And you know, ten thousand hours is ten thousand hours.
You're going to put it in at college. You're going
to put it into a business. Either way, you're going
to end up with an education.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Well, I really believe that trade, blue collar and trade
will make America great again. And I love that that's
coming back around. And I actually saw a post this
morning that they were going to the Feds were taking
away the budget to Harvard. Are those grants and they
were talking about putting those grants towards trade. Yes, and
(06:10):
I couldn't think of a better use for my tax
dollars than to go towards trade. And some Ivy League
school that's producing people that aren't doing much but ripping
us off. So anyways, that's another rabbit.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
I do love the trade and I think it will
make this country great if we can put an emphasis
on it. So, yes, I do have a topic. I
know we have not discussed it. We danced around it
as usual, and that topic is find your passion. Find
your passion. And so where this came from is I
(06:45):
was talking to my neighbor last night. He's eighty one
years old and he worked a career. He was an engineer,
built skyscrapers and big cities, you know, San Francisco, San
Diego and the like, and very great career, retire here
in Montana, not a nice you know, shell of money.
(07:06):
And his hobby was woodworking. He makes beautiful tables and
benches and boxes and all kinds of great stuff out
of wood. And he has this beautiful shop alongside of
his house with all the high end industrial size equipment.
I mean, any man are woman that wants to work
(07:27):
with wood, this is this would be their desire to
have the shop. Well, at his age, he can no
longer work in the wood shop, you know, to pick
up big piece of lumber and mill him down and
all those other things, and to use the equipment. It's
just becoming a little bit dangerous. And he's come to
that reality, you know, Jim. I'm well, they're selling their house.
(07:49):
They're downsizing, single story house, no shop, you know, and
he's gonna stop woodwork. And he goes, I don't know
what I'm gonna do next, and I and I said,
sure you do. You're going to do something that you're
passionate about. It's just not going to be with woodworking anymore.
I said, you have to find your passion in life
(08:10):
and bring that blessing to people. And so we started
talking about ideas of things that he might be able
to do that would be a blessing to others in
his eighties. And so one of the things that I
did is I brought my grandfather's life as an example
to my neighbor as a way to find his next passion.
(08:32):
So similarly, well, when my grandfather was a child in
the twenties, we had the Great Depression, and his dad
worked in a leather factory, and his dad would bring
home little teeny scraps of leather, and so my grandfather
learned how to sew those little pieces of leather together
and make like little coin pouches or small little purses,
(08:54):
because it wasn't big pieces of leather, or how to
tie together and make a strap or a bracelet, things
like that. And he was just a kid, he was
like six or seven years old, and so he would
make these things with leather scraps, and he'd go around
the neighborhood and he would sell him for a penny
or nickel or dime to make a little bit of
money to bring back home, because it was the Great Depression,
(09:15):
and that made a difference. And so fast forward, my
grandfather went, you know, World War two, that owned some
thriving businesses deli shops, restaurants, hamburger restaurants. And then when
he finally retired, he thought, oh, I'm going to work
with leather again. And so my grandfather spent the next
twenty years from retirement into his eighties making leather pouches
(09:40):
and purses and all these things again. And he reached
a point where he could no longer do that in
his eighties. And so where my grandfather found his passion
all the way till the day he died is that.
And I think it started like in a Fourth of
July parade or something like that. He would wear his
his navy whites with all his medals and his hat
(10:02):
and everything, and it happened to fit him again. You know,
you get older, you shrink back to your original size. Anyways,
the local high school had found my grandfather and said, hey,
you're a World War two vet, and he says yes.
They said, well, could you come and speak to our
history class sometime, and my grandfathers, of course I will.
So my grandfather spent the last nine years of his
(10:24):
life passionately speaking to high schoolers in history classes all
around southern California. He lived in Newport Beach, and so
every week he would go to a different school, and
he got to the point where they had to come
pick him up because he couldn't drive anymore. But he
would speak and he found his passion. And what a
blessing he became to these high school students to learn
(10:46):
a little piece of our history straight from the mouth
of somebody that was actually there. And as he would
tell you, he didn't hold back anything. He totally like
it was right. And so when I look at that
and I compare it to my neighbor looking for his passion,
we all have it in us. And so the message today,
(11:06):
and I know your weigh in on this, is we
all need to find our passion. No matter where we're
at in our life, whether are in our twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties,
or even your nineties, there is something that you can
be passionate about, and you can live a life full
of passion and be a blessing to others through your
(11:27):
passion and what you do in your work. Right, that
was sort of a job for my grandfather to go
speak to all these high schools. You know, he had
to commit to doing it. He had to show up,
he had to press his uniform, he had to be
on time, he had to come prepared. You know, it
was a labor of love and he was passionate about
it and it was a blessing. So that's the topic.
(11:48):
Be passionate about what you're doing and find your passion.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I love it. I'm gonna take it one step beyond that.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Please service.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
When when we talk about finding your passion and and
I'm going maybe I'm gonna look at the flip side
of that coin. Yes, we need to we need to
be passionate about something. Be passionate about everything, but find
your passion. The other part of that is, don't be
selfish about it. It can't just be about you. If
(12:23):
you're struggling, chances are you're trying to find the just
the perfect fit for you. Go outside of yourself for
a second and say what can I do that would
benefit other people that I would still like to do,
And maybe you'll find your passion in that. And it's
like your your grandfather's story, it's what he can do
(12:44):
for other people, right what that's it's the service end
of it. What can we do to help others? And
when we do that, believe me, you will find your
passion and you will become more passionate about it. Sure,
I think of people, well, here Mary Todd, who ran
for congress. Here, you know, one of one of the things,
(13:05):
she was just a stay at home mom, just right,
who educated She was a home educator back. You know,
she's older than I am, so that would have been
back a while. Right. She was a trendsetter. And her
one claim to fame was she said, you're not gonna
you know, because I've never run for office before. So
she's at an age where she's passionate about change rights.
(13:28):
She's becoming a change agent. And she said, I don't
have a voting record, but I do have a record
because she was arrested when she was a young mother protesting. Right,
So she has a record, and she spun that. It
was just so clever. It's like, yeah, I have a record.
I stood strong for things I believed in then, and
(13:49):
I'm going to stand just as strong for things I
believe in now. So if you're struggling, especially, and I
loved your story, I got the beautiful part of this.
I was just thinking about what we do the young
entrepreneur syndicate, and here you are counseling a young entrepreneur
who's in his eighties. Yeah, yeah, right, because entrepreneurship isn't
(14:11):
about starting a business necessarily, it's about starting kickstarting your life. Right,
how do how do we go to that? How do
we start the next venture, whether that's a financial venture,
a business venture, it's a new venture. And we never
stop being entrepreneurs. We should never stop being entrepreneurs. We're
(14:33):
never done. Well, I built a business and I'm gonna
sell it, and I'm gonna lever it, and then I'm
gonna go buy a yacht. Right, No, you know, let's
let's go on to the next thing, because all those
other things aren't going to satisfy. No.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
And by the way, you can do that stuff from
a yacht too, So if you have a yacht and
you're on it, you could do something passionate from the
The other message that I gave my neighbor last night
was because he's like, well, you know what what I
used to do, They don't really do that anymore to
the level or you really have to be at a
high level. And I said, well, let's talk about your
(15:07):
woodworking stuff. You know he had a lot of excuses,
and I said, look, maybe somebody doesn't have the personal
capacity to do this at the level that you've done it,
because you've done it for a long time and you
have a lot of patience. You're very smart, I said,
But at a bare minimum, and this is the other
part of the message. At a bare minimum, you can inspire.
(15:30):
Take your passion and you can inspire. So maybe you
will inspire your grandkids. Are the friends of your grandkids
just enough to chase after something that they can be
passionate about. So our jobs are never done. Mind something
that you're passionate about. Be a blessing to others, and
inspire people through your work. Even if you don't think
(15:54):
they get it, they're getting something out of it, you know,
real quick. I think it's worth highlighting. We do have
a member in the Young Entrepreneur Syndicate. He's been around
for a while, Chris Moler. Chris has a daytime job,
but Chris is passionate about precious metals gold and silver,
(16:17):
and so Chris, if you're listening you want to check
him out, go to Molar Design m Oe L. L. E. R.
De z i GN Molar Design Chris Moller. He creates
these molds and then casts you know, silver or gold
(16:37):
out of these molds. And Chris has a passion for
like pirate stuff. So instead of getting a shiny piece
of silver that's you know, smooth and square, you can
get a medallion that looks like something came out of
a shipwreck from the you know, sixteen hundreds or whatever.
But Chris is passionate about that. And there's no doubt
(16:59):
in my mind that through his passion that he's inspiring
people to do things differently, you know. And I remember asking, like,
how come you don't like just sell the square bars.
He goes, I can't stand the square stuff.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
You know.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
He's like, I want to do something interesting, you know.
And so I love a guy that like Chris, that
has taken you know, he's got a day job, he
provides for his family, but you know, he's taken his
business to the next level outside of that through his passion.
Pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Well, and well, Chris is an artist. I love Chris,
and I love his story. He's an artist and he's
he's found his own niche because of that. But I'll
give him another plug too. If you're looking for a
fine time piece, collectible watches, you know, like you know
(17:47):
Rolex and all. I mean there's there's a litany. It's
not just Lamborghini, right, there's Ferrari and everything. So there's
not just Rolex, there's all these other great time pieces.
But he also deals in that area. So he's an
expert on the valuing watches and that sort of thing.
And I think how impressive is that he has become
(18:09):
an expert, you know, he can evaluate and that sort
of thing, all these different things. So what a resource.
And I guess that's capitalizing on your passion but also
on the knowledge you have. And I was thinking about
this this woodworking you know octogenarian that you just mentioned too.
Could you imagine what he could offer to a high
school woodworking class. Yeah, you know, just no, pay attention
(18:31):
to detail. No, this is how you do that. You know,
he doesn't have to necessarily wrestle the wood. But can
you imagine what the wealth of knowledge he possesses that
he could pass on to someone else and in turn
maybe throw a little gasoline on their passion.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Yeah, right there you go. So, so to wrap this
thing up, here's the message today. Find something that you're
passionate about I don't care how old you are, and
chase that passion and get really really good at it.
You will find the reward in that, you will find
the blessings to others in that, and you will probably
inspire people around you, whether you know it or not.
(19:07):
And that's the cool part it is. It is all right.
If you need some help with the soft skills, we'd
love to have you on the Young Entrepreneur Syndicate. We well,
we make ourselves available to all of our members throughout
the month for one on one phone calls. All you
got to just book it through our calendarly link. And
then all of the resources on the back end of
our website, from contracts to marketing plans to the soft skills, well,
(19:33):
we've got over three years of material there, plus a
whole bunch of old videos that are on relevant topics
that will last a lifetime. So anyways, love to have you,
rod Any closing thoughts on what's happening or.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
I just I want to I'll rephrase. Instead of old videos,
I'm going to say timeless videos because they're still relevant.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
True story, true story. Yes, Well, as usual, it's good
to see you and if you like to show, share it.
We appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Thank you, always a pleasure, my friend,
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