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Am I Doing This Right?
241 Plays3 years ago
When thinking about your lives and careers, have you ever wondered, "Am I Doing This Right?". If so, you're not alone, and interestingly, the answers to this question aren’t unique by your line of work, experience level, or natural abilities. In fact, the kind of advice that can jump start the first ten years of your career turns out to be just as valuable in the last ten.
This week we’re talking with Tony Thelen, Matthew Mitchell and Jeffrey Kappan, authors of “Am I Doing This Right”. We’ll discuss how the pandemic and a couple of chance connections brought these fellas together and the book to life. Plus, the process of taking advice and stories from tons of leaders and thinkers and steeping that down to something practical and tangible, as well as the gifts of being able to impact the lives of others and enjoy the journey that you’re on.
To order the book, go to doingthisrightbooks.com.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Themes
00:00:00
Speaker
Everyone dreams of living an uncommon life and the best asset you have to achieve your dreams is you. Welcome to the Uncommon Wealth Podcast. We're going to introduce you to people who are living uncommonly. We're also going to give you some tools and strategies for building wealth and for pursuing an uncommon path that is uniquely right for you.
Host and Guest Introductions
00:00:25
Speaker
Hello and welcome everybody to another episode of the Uncommon Wealth Podcast. I'm your host Philip Ramsey. And I'm Aaron Kramer. And we're excited to bring another one for you today. This is an exciting one. We have multiple guests on this one. And they've written a book, which always
00:00:40
Speaker
makes you think like, well, they mean some business. Okay. And so what I would say about this just earlier, just kind of getting the, this is actually Aaron Kramer's people that brought on. So he's going to be the most of this kind of the tip of the spear as you will, but just talking to them, I cannot wait to unpack this content. Fun. Yes. I know Jeff, Jeff is like, he's entrepreneurs, scholars, super smart. I, I'm going to save some questions here. So you don't spoil it. Like how many languages he speaks and things like that. Wow.
00:01:09
Speaker
super fun to talk to. And he's introducing us to Matthew and Tony at the same time here on the, for this trio. Right. But these are some really top end smart top of their careers. Yeah. So here's what I get excited about one. Here's who we are. If it's, if you guys are just listening to, cause the guests, I get it, but thanks for listening. Uh, but we're advisors that really get passionate about telling people they're your best asset.
00:01:34
Speaker
you are your best asset. There won't be a stock market. There won't be a stock. There won't be anything else, but you are going to be putting more money in your pocket than anything else. And we want to be advisors that not only help you get more money, but we want to make sure that you're enjoying it in the process. And so when I get excited about people who have talked to a lot of people gleaned a lot of wisdom from them and then compiled information, I love it because they've done the hard work for us. That's why these people are on the
Origin of the Book 'Am I Doing This Right?'
00:02:01
Speaker
show. Yes. All right.
00:02:02
Speaker
Who wants to start talking first? But welcome to the Uncomable Wealth Podcast. You guys are on. You got to introduce your friends here.
00:02:11
Speaker
All right. Well, thank you for listening, everyone. A couple of years ago, as a pandemic project, Tony Thielen of John Deere fame and Matthew Mitchell, with whom I have the pleasure of leading Batang Global and working with at Drake University, thought up an idea about how to help people early in their careers. And we now in October of twenty two published a book called Am I Doing This Right?
00:02:40
Speaker
So what we're going to do, I think, is we'll tell you a little bit about the origin story of the book. I'm maybe going to pass it to Tony so he can talk about the very initial thing that led to gathering the data, and then we'll tell you a little bit more about the format and hopefully inspire you to become the fourth author with us if you grab a copy and dig into the content. There we go. I mean, the copy of the book just is like the story of my life every day.
00:03:04
Speaker
Am I doing this right? Yeah, this is a great. I love it. I love it. OK, thanks for the introduction, Jeff. All right. Matthew, Tony, who's going to be the first one? First, John Deere. You got out of John Deere, I see. No, I'm I'm still doing it. Still with John Deere. But in the spring of 2020, when the pandemic was bearing down, I really started to think about my broader arc of my life. And, you know, how can I stay positive and constructive?
00:03:31
Speaker
And secondly, how can I do something that I'm in control of while things around the world are falling apart? So I decided to go back to school and get a PhD. And I decided to write a book about the lessons I've learned over 35 years with John Deere.
00:03:46
Speaker
Brilliant. Through a series of daisy chain conversations around the United States talking to professors, one of them said, you need to talk to Matthew Mitchell. He's in Des Moines. He's right next to you. He would have some bright ideas for you. And he might even sponsor your PhD. So I got really excited. And I was like, this is great, hometown, you know, colleague that I could work with.
00:04:10
Speaker
And I called Matthew, and after one hour of explaining to me what really happens when you get your PhD and what it brings to life, he talked me out of going after the PhD. And it was some of the best advice I ever got in my life. Love it. That's uncommon advice. Even today, I seriously thank him from the bottom of my heart for the grounding that he gave me on that solid advice. But at the end of that conversation, he said, but tell me more about this book.
00:04:38
Speaker
And I said, well, funny, funny, you should mention that I put a survey out on LinkedIn. I'm
Support Systems and Data Collection
00:04:44
Speaker
overwhelmed with the level of stories I'm getting, the number of them, the depth of them, the sincerity of them, people pouring out their life's greatest lessons. But I had a problem with the volume and the scale and I didn't know how to handle it.
00:04:58
Speaker
And matthew explain hey there's text analytics software that can help you cluster some of that information to draw insights out and i might be able to help you with that and i says tell me more and that led to bring in matthew on as a co author and later jeffrey and for the next year we worked.
00:05:15
Speaker
via Zoom, independent, did not meet each other in person for a year, working on that manuscript. And I tell you what, my original version of it only got better during that time and got more complete over that timeframe. And that's ultimately what led to the book that you saw earlier in the program. Yeah, yeah. No, that's good. I've got a question for you. Tony, are you married? I am. Nice. Kids. Years, three years and three daughters. Three daughters. Okay. So when you come to your wife and is like, Hey,
00:05:47
Speaker
I want to go and go back to school or I want to pivot here or I want to create something. Tell me how instrumental she was in either supporting or like I'm tapping out, Tony. Don't do this. Like, yeah, it's it's actually the opposite. You don't survive 35 years of John Deere and moving around the nation.
00:06:05
Speaker
nine times in 14 years, and you don't survive 30 years of marriage raising three daughters without having a supportive spouse. So the first thing she said was, how can I help? And I says, well, I'm not that familiar with Google Forms or Microsoft Forms. Can you help me to design a survey? So she actually designed the actual survey that went out to LinkedIn to get the information. So very supportive from day one, as in how can I help?
00:06:31
Speaker
That's awesome. Yep. And then Matthew, you get a call and you say, Hey man, you don't want to do this. Like it's going to be expensive. And at the end of the rainbow. Yeah. Hold back. So tell me about that conversation. I'd love to start there and then take it away. Listen, if, if, if we're talking
00:06:46
Speaker
about living uncommonly. It took about 30 seconds for me to recognize that Tony lives uncommonly. He lives a life that he owns, he charts out and just has a privilege to impact those around him and is magnetic in many ways, but pours himself into others.
00:07:07
Speaker
with challenge and compassion. So challenging us to be our best, but also compassion when
Book Structure and Themes
00:07:14
Speaker
we don't live up to our own expectations or his. And within a few moments, it was somebody that we wanted to hang around, to be associated with, you are the company that you keep. And he had a passion for telling these really heavy stories.
00:07:33
Speaker
They were flowing into his inbox and I would say, in his words, he was impressed, but also humbled. When you ask people questions like, what's the best piece of advice you've ever been given? What's your biggest regret in life? It's an invitation to others to tell their stories.
00:07:55
Speaker
And then how you handle those stories is a testament to your character and a testament to Tony's character. And he's like, OK, now I have to steward these stories. I have to address these stories with respect and responsibility and honor and lift up these stories. And that's ultimately what became the book.
00:08:12
Speaker
And I would say he started with an idea of 60 themes that came out from all of the data. And ultimately we tailored and crafted it down to 18 ideas because most of the best advice we've received based on our data is early on in our life. And so we identified 18 to 25, 18 to 30.
00:08:36
Speaker
as that formative period. And we have four, and maybe this is a good opportunity just to give you a little bit of background about the structure of the book, but we have four key questions that we answer in the book. And it's things like, who am I? Where do I want to go?
00:08:55
Speaker
How will I get there and what can I learn along the way? So within each of these four sections, we've got things like, you know, balance, purpose, well-being, which was probably one of the dominant themes of all leaders.
00:09:12
Speaker
other things like goals and giving and receiving feedback. How will I get there? We talked about teamwork, relationships and overcoming adversity. And then I think of particular importance to you, Phillip and Erin. The fourth section has, you know, what can I learn along the way? Learning, resilience, listening, but then we focus grouped it with a lot of young people and they said,
00:09:37
Speaker
We really need some very practical guidance on financial literacy. Tony then came back and said, what is it, Tony? The fourth wonder of the world or the eighth wonder of the world is compound interest. And we wrote an entire chapter on financial literacy, which was just a huge hit.
00:09:57
Speaker
And that goes for career advice as well. The earlier you get it, the more it compound pays off down the
Impact and Reader Reflections
00:10:04
Speaker
road. Yeah. I'm a simple person. So sometimes when I hear a lot of characters, I just want to know and how they fit in. So one of you, I want to know each specific role that you had in writing this book. And then how did you define those roles? Because you were remotely. So like, did you have to like, all right, let's talk through this here. Or was it just like a natural fit? But first, let's talk about like,
00:10:27
Speaker
whose role, what they do, so myself and the listeners can understand that. Tony, why don't you take it and we can go into the framework of each chapter. Yeah, I started out with a vision in mind and we even kept the title as the North Star that pulled us along throughout all of this. And I was going to write the book
00:10:54
Speaker
no matter what, you know, it was gonna be something at the end of the day. So I kept true to that vision. I brought forward my part of my 35 years in each beginning part of the section of the book. Each chapter has a story that's very personal from my life and serves as a constant theme to open up each individual chapter. And then after meeting Jeffrey and Matthew,
00:11:24
Speaker
the depth of the book deepened when we started to put on each chapter tools and techniques that they saw were effective in the university setting as well as the consulting setting on that particular topic. Then on the third section of each of each chapter we pulled in elements from that survey and that's where
00:11:46
Speaker
It was serious help from Matthew and Jeffrey using text analytic software to really understand the science behind massive amounts of input and then selecting the most important tidbits of advice from people all around the world. And then the fourth section of each chapter is questions that we came up with. And I would say the three of us
00:12:13
Speaker
put that together in the benefit of all of our career and put down the most thoughtful questions at the end of each chapter. In looking back on it, I probably had the architecture of the book in mind and the vision of what it could become. Matthew and Jeff both seriously contributed to the final selection of the 18 chapters as well as the tools and techniques. And then I can't say enough about
00:12:42
Speaker
the professionalism, and I know Jeff spent an inordinate amount of time helping to go through numerous editions of the manuscript to make sure that the text was consistent, to make sure that it flowed, and there was a commonality in the manuscript from stem to stern. And together, the three of us
00:13:07
Speaker
I feel like I couldn't have asked for a better team bringing those different tools to the project. That's good. Thanks for going through that. That's helpful. What is I want to keep the end in mind here. What is the definition of success for am I doing this right? Writing this book from you guys perspective? Yeah.
00:13:26
Speaker
Yeah, I'll jump in and then hand it. This is a good question for all of us to answer because it might have slightly different variations. But to me, did we make a difference in somebody's life? And did we serve somebody in a way that honors the thousands of people that served my career over 35 years? And is this a solid step forward in giving back to others?
00:13:49
Speaker
You know, it was never, we agreed early on, it wasn't about making money, it was about producing a product that could be useful in a lot of people's lives. Matthew or Jeff? Yeah, Jeff, take it away.
00:14:06
Speaker
Go ahead. I would say I think one of the messages of the book is that you need to enjoy the journey to success and that the definition of it may change as you go through your lifetime, as your career advances, as you have new experiences. We worked with 30 young leaders, part of the book in hand, and they said,
00:14:28
Speaker
What i want a perfect job after college and we all said that's unlikely to happen but if you're making a little bit distant probably go the right way and so in some ways the chin is the chin that will try and orient people towards.
00:14:49
Speaker
And I would say, listen, Jeff and I both have had careers in industry and then moved back into the classroom, a very purposeful decision to have impact in people's lives in a very different way. And so we have that opportunity both intimately and in seminar sessions. I'm a teacher and professor at Drake University.
00:15:15
Speaker
and literally teach the very first class to 250 entering first year students whose brain sims haven't fully formed yet. They're not quite fully human beings. And then I teach the very last class to the capstone MBA strategy. And so we have that opportunity, but when Tony invited us to participate in this project, it's
00:15:37
Speaker
How do you take that and scale it in a different way? But I know you guys have written your own book and there's other reasons why you write books, right? It's a little bit of legacy. It's a little bit of self-challenge. It's a little bit of a tangible project and framework to capture your own reflections.
00:15:59
Speaker
and get them out into the public sort of sphere. And I would also say, we joke, you don't write books to make money. That is for sure. That'll preach. Yeah. You don't even write books about money to make money. Right. Right. You know, but what we found is that writing a book gives you a platform.
00:16:22
Speaker
As professors, we write a lot of articles and we write them for like seven other people in the world that can understand them or who care. But books, it gives you an opportunity to talk to people. It gives you an opportunity to sort of dream with others. You know, we spoke to a thousand med students.
00:16:40
Speaker
last week that sort of are focused on teamwork and how do doctors and nurses and psychologists and pharmacists all come together to work as a team. And a lot of the messages in this book really, I think, encourage and also empower those folks to do what they do best. And so getting a chance to meet those folks and celebrate their journeys is, I think, a key outcome. That's success, Aaron.
00:17:05
Speaker
Totally okay that's really good i appreciate you guys walking through that last question what here's what i would say that it really gets me excited is that you want to serve the people that were behind the stories you're talking about the music the man like because each one of these stories as individual and that story means the world to them.
00:17:25
Speaker
So the fact that they would actually go out and communicate that with somebody, one, it shows how much trust that Tony can get or in a quick way.
Balance and Community Insights
00:17:35
Speaker
Right. And then and then also how that they knew that after they said it, that it was going to be treated well, like it's not just going to be changed or like, hey, we're going to change this because this is not.
00:17:46
Speaker
as good for sales or whatever. Like, no, we want to be a good servant of the story and represent you in a positive way. My next question, and then I want to go into the content of the book, and that's probably where we'll probably remain. But did you go hardcover or softcover? Because that's important.
00:18:06
Speaker
Okay. All right. That's good. Yeah. We went hardcover and for ours and, and kindle, uh, and then somebody right after was like, were you going to do audio? And I was like, stop, like we did hardcover.
00:18:19
Speaker
Stop the insanity. I mean, Tony, just his career at John Deere, and recently I think we've seen a lot of stories about John Deere as a technology company. I would say Tony has been an instrumental part of that vision to transform the company from an iron company.
00:18:37
Speaker
to a technology company. And so Tony, I'll let you tell the story, but he travels, you know, Brazil, Kenya, you know, all over the world. And so we have folks, India, you know, sending us pictures. We got our hard copy and, you know, am I doing this right? Translates pretty well. Right. That's good.
00:19:00
Speaker
OK, so what was the most that we're going to get into content? Because I'm really excited to get this out. But what was the most surprising thing that came out of this book for you guys? Like, whoa, this is unexpected. A little bit was the late the latter career consumption seemed to really resonate with a lot of people, that it was more timeless advice than what we thought we thought first 10 years would be the
00:19:29
Speaker
And it still is, I think, the first 10 years or the grad school or the college-aged students. But we're getting lots of feedback and lots of grounding from people that wish they would have had this earlier in their career, but it's very useful right now. Or those going through transitions or those just feeling like they need a fresh start in their career. That, to me, is a welcome. That's a great welcome feedback.
00:19:57
Speaker
And then quite honestly, I never would have picked out from our focus groups. I kind of can get the finance one, but I looked at finances more tactical in nature and like, okay, yeah, that would be good advice early in a career. But I never would have guessed the citizenship one and the pull towards
00:20:19
Speaker
kind of a yearning to be something other than a career or something other than about myself from our focus groups who were largely in that college age to 20 to 25 year range. The yearning to be a part of something bigger than themselves was loud in our focus groups. Those were a few of the surprises that I got. Matthew or Jeff?
00:20:44
Speaker
Yeah, I'll jump in and turn it to Jeff. I would say that there was two main surprises. And the first one is we structured these chapters. It starts with a story from Tony, then Jeff and I are academics and we reviewed the literature for best practices. We call them leading practices. Then we feature the stories of the leaders that provided the data, the quotes, and we quote over 200 individuals in this book.
00:21:12
Speaker
you know, real, meaty and impactful stories. But then here's, I would say the biggest surprise for me was we always ended the chapter with reflection questions. And in the book, we gave space to journal, to reflect. And Tony, I think, coined this phrase. But, you know, we have three authors that wrote the book. We have
00:21:37
Speaker
almost 1000 leaders who, you know, co authored with us to pour their stories in, but it's not complete until the writer until the reader, you know, writes their own story in that book. And those those reflection questions. Again, I use this as a textbook in a class of 250. I can't tell you how powerful the reflections are
00:22:01
Speaker
with these students and their lives, what they've been going through, obviously, you know, post pandemic, you know, how they conceive of their self-image, how they describe their aspirations and their goals. I mean, they are just pouring themselves out in the pages of this book and the power of the questions. And Philip was probably the most surprising and delightfully, pleasantly surprising for me. I've got one other, but Jeff, I'm going to welcome you and if you want to hop in here.
00:22:31
Speaker
Yeah, I think since Matthew and I both teach lots of international topics, as we were putting the book together, we did have some concern about, you know, how universal is this going to be? Will everyone relate to it in the same way? Are we going to be able to hit diverse audience? And thus far,
00:22:52
Speaker
from India to Brazil in South Africa two weeks ago and took the book with me and gave out some copies. We've been pleasantly surprised and I think delighted that there are some common elements no matter where you are in the world about the challenges that we face and the sorts of questions we wrestle with.
Global Relevance and Writing Community
00:23:13
Speaker
And so I think a pleasant surprise has been the degree to which people all over have been benefiting from the text and the exercises.
00:23:22
Speaker
That's awesome. For you guys, all you guys, cause when you write a book like this, it has to be, I know that you're putting your own experiences in there and what you guys have learned and the data that you've pulled, but it has to be therapeutic. And just like you go through therapy, you learn stuff from yourself. Like you're going over something you've already lived, but like re going through it, you have to like see the different light and learn something. So like for you guys, what's like your biggest takeaway? Like read going through this again. Hmm.
00:23:52
Speaker
Yeah, my big takeaway, great question, Aaron. My big takeaway was very reflective in nature and that was how my purpose had changed over time. I evolved from a son to a brother, to a student, to a employee, to a husband, to a father, then to a citizen in the community kind of, and then a leader that shoulders more over time
00:24:22
Speaker
It made me reflect deeply on my purpose and we come across these tools in the book that we share and one of them is I like to talk to people about is a 90 day test. Get your calendar out, how did you live your last 90 days? And this writing, putting that into this book reminded me of that and I look back, how did I live the last 10 years of my life? And now I'm near in the twilight of my career
00:24:50
Speaker
you know how did i live my career and how do i want to live the next few years of my life that was deeply impactful and you start to sense that when you take on a project like this that supposed to reflect the best that's in you. Over time and the purpose one hit me hard and i can't say exactly when it hit me.
00:25:11
Speaker
but it was in multiple manuscripts and starting to look like a mirror and reflecting my life in these manuscripts and I'm like, am I really living the life I want to lead and with intention and with where I want to be in the world? That was a great exercise for me in this process.
00:25:33
Speaker
Kudos to you because I think the best leaders are the ones that learning the most. And so you're writing this book, but also applying the principles in your own life. So that's powerful. And I would say that you guys mentioned this, but like the joy is in the journey a little bit. Aaron and I just shot a podcast of like, there's, there's a gift in the grind, like sometimes in the trenches, like it'll, the trials that you have one to like,
00:25:59
Speaker
It produces like endurance and character and steadfastness, all these things that only a trial that can can really produce because somebody who's like always had exactly what they wanted don't doesn't have the grit and determination. But for me just.
00:26:15
Speaker
there is something of just like stop, pause, take a look around, even when it's hard, because this might be the biggest gift in and of itself, right? It's understanding how things are working, using a team, working together. Like there's just some really great characteristics that you just don't get in any other aspect other than like sometimes you just got a one foot over the next in the discipline grinding. And so,
00:26:41
Speaker
I love that, that you guys pulled that out and other people seem like it sounds the same way. The pause principle and Aaron, the way you set up the question, I love it. Listen, I'm just going to call myself a long time listener, first time caller here. When we sort of dug into your site, when I see sort of what you offer and you describe one of your services, you know, financial planning, of course, but coaching slash therapy,
00:27:10
Speaker
At baton, and I will say the image of the baton is a staff that is sort of a walking staff for pilgrims and shepherds that sort of represents the journey. It represents curiosity. It represents not only living to work, but working to live.
00:27:31
Speaker
But at Bataan, we do a lot of strategy work. And sometimes, Aaron, when somebody asks me what we do, for large multinationals down to sort of nonprofits, I say 50% strategy, 50% therapy. Because it's the joy of working alongside folks to walk them and with them in that journey. And, you know, very directly to your question, I just have to say,
00:27:54
Speaker
the biggest surprise for me in this physician heal thyself moment, because Jeff and Tony and I still come back to the book when we're having a tough day, we'll go back to adversity and resilience. But I would say, Tony quickly pointed out that most of the leaders
00:28:12
Speaker
feedback, especially around regrets and best pieces of advice, revolved around one key concept. I'm going to read a very short quote from a leader. And this was a mirror moment. I had to look myself in the mirror when we wrote this chapter and it's about balance.
00:28:31
Speaker
This leader says, imagine your life as a game in which you're juggling some five balls in the air. You name them work, family, health, friends, and spirit. And you're keeping them all in the air simultaneously. You're going to soon understand that work is a rubber ball.
00:28:47
Speaker
If you drop it, if you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls, family, health, friends and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they'll be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They're never going to be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life. And that was my biggest surprise, that that's not just me. It's most of the leaders from all around the world that we encountered.
00:29:17
Speaker
Right. I want to see if, did you ever get into like how important a community is? Like, cause I think of like you three seem like you're pretty tight knit. Like you have gone through an experience together. That's going to bond you forever. Were there any things that you pulled out from interviewing all these people that you found that like having a strong community is invaluable.
00:29:43
Speaker
I think the writing community is extremely supportive. Other authors were, in fact, I put the survey out early in the process to start it. I failed to mention the other thing I did was write three letters to three authors that I deeply respected and asked them to serve as our writing coach. And two of them got back immediately with absolutely, and the third one,
00:30:10
Speaker
I think i had the wrong guy the wrong address or something but they as soon as they heard about it there like all in and we had great coaches we had people that were willing to dedicate. In order amounts time to deeply mark up early drafts.
00:30:28
Speaker
the generosity and support that we received once we explained what we were trying to create and what we were doing was also overwhelming. And that sense of community and sense of support for people that are trying to do something like this, I'll tell you what, I'm never gonna forget it because the day somebody asked me for help when they take on something complex, difficult, I'm there for them. All they need to do is ask and I'll be there.
00:30:57
Speaker
So cool. It's such an awesome experience because I've always said that it's interesting when you ask someone for help or you want to like, you know, dig into what they have going on. And when they come back to you with help, it's such a character.
00:31:15
Speaker
Like really showing their character how good of a person they are. Cause it seems like everybody today is like, Oh, I don't want to help you. Like I got my own thing where like, I don't want to tell you my secret. Like that makes my secret sauce. And it's like, I don't think really any of us have a secret sauce except for the fact we just want to help one another. But if we can spread that, I can only help so many people. Phil can only help so many people. Like you guys can only help so many people, but like by spreading the knowledge,
00:31:39
Speaker
And it's cool because when you guys find that and then it's awesome to hear that the author community is just like that. Yeah. Not only that, but like you've given people tools to apply what they're learning in the book. Like I got to give you kudos to that because a lot of times people just write the book, but like you guys want people to actually change and write your own story in the book, literally.
00:31:59
Speaker
And how powerful that will be for them after they've read the book. I really appreciate that. And I just have to jump in, Philip. Aaron, what you said, asking someone for help. Listen, we're five guys. And I would say having raised two young men, sometimes asking for help can be kind of difficult.
00:32:23
Speaker
And I've told them over and over and over, asking for help is not a sign of weakness. We call it, it's generative. If I ask Philip for help, that generates sort of honor, respect, teamwork, solidarity, and it creates more than it imposes on someone else for something. And that
00:32:47
Speaker
that togetherness, that teamwork, we write about it in the teamwork and the relationships chapter. You're not needy. You're not dependent. You know, asking for help is a sign of respect and it generates more depth to that relationship. So 200%. That's awesome. You described it like tech is, I would not have described it that well.
00:33:11
Speaker
Because even to me, I'm a meathead and I still even fall into this. I'm sure guys in general fall into this like asking for help is hard. It's hard, right? Yeah, I shouldn't be. And it's very, very, very serious thing when if you think about leaders, what leader hasn't had a little help in their career during a moment of doubt or a moment of lack of self-confidence or early stages of trying to get your feet on the ground?
00:33:39
Speaker
Who hasn't had that?
Book Availability and Audience Engagement
00:33:41
Speaker
And a big feature of the book is to provide a reference group from global leaders everywhere for them to warm up to. And we've had some very heartwarming testimonials come back to us
00:33:56
Speaker
about younger people finding their voice earlier in their life. And and really, that's kind of what we were after is you are not alone and you're not you are living your life with there's not going to be another one like it. The fingerprints that you're going to carry and what you're going to place on the world are going to be uniquely yours.
00:34:17
Speaker
But other people have been through other things and you can learn from other people's experience to heighten and enjoy the journey. I just love the quote that I received from a CEO of.
00:34:34
Speaker
mutual of Omaha, and he probably said it best. He said early in his career, he asked a mentor for help, you know, in the next five years of his career. He said, I wish I had this book then. I learned on my own the value of hard work, humility, sharing success with others, empowerment and teamwork.
00:34:55
Speaker
but I believe I would have gotten there faster and with less anxiety and less stress with this book in hand, that captures in a nutshell, all of the advice we pulled together from global leaders. And we just want people to see it, use it, they're not alone and go forward in your journey. It's your journey. Rock on, man. Right. It's funny. I was doing a podcast and somebody said, when somebody passes away, a library burns.
00:35:22
Speaker
And you guys are trying to, yeah, that's deep, huh? But you guys are trying to like unlock those stories and then help the next person achieve what they want to achieve faster. So like, I got to tell, how do you get your hands on this book? I'm dialed in. I want to read this bad boy.
00:35:38
Speaker
Listen, we distribute on Amazon, sort of the global repository for all books. You can come to our website, doingthisrightbooks.com. And there may be even a link there to get assigned copies shipped personally.
00:35:56
Speaker
if you wanted to inscribe for some folks, let's go. And we are, I think, touring bookstores in your local area. If you do have a bookstore that you feel like it would be a good feature or even organizations, what we've found, like we said, is retail bookselling is a tough business. Amazon isn't the play. Amazon is not the play. Yeah.
00:36:21
Speaker
Yeah. And, you know, but speaking to groups is just a phenomenally beneficial, you know, way to take intimacy and scale it. You know, when you can talk to one another sort of in a group setting and then one on one, that's fantastic. Also, I will say a lot of universities are adopting this book sort of for, you know, one of our taglines at one point, Tony, if you'll remember, was
00:36:50
Speaker
This is everything that business school never taught you. How do you network? How do you maintain your commitments? How do you have good resilience and teamwork? So there's lots of ways to get the book.
00:37:04
Speaker
I've been amazing for me. I'm like ADD and everything coming out of school, like having like good pathway for that, man. So learning the hard way. I'm glad you guys are getting traction because here's the, at the end of the day, like it was a sacrifice for you guys to publish this book, right? Like, I mean, financially and we already talked about it. You don't really do this to get paid, but if it can help somebody like, Oh yeah, I'll put a lot more money into this. Right. And so I just want to edify you guys and just kind of encourage you guys like,
00:37:34
Speaker
the way that you're doing it and why you're doing it is super encouraging. And like, I want to be able to definitely love that you're on the show, but I would love to encourage, like I would love to help as much as I can just to help you guys impact more people. Cause that's what it's all about. Like we're not doing this for our own glory. We're doing this so people can learn and understand and go faster and where they want to go because we all benefit from it. If we all can just help each other. So,
00:38:01
Speaker
I think one of your services you should put on your website is therapy for recovering authors. We do appreciate the invitation because A's at home and A's at work, man. You want to live a good life and it's not all about a career. It's a successful career and a fulfilling life.
00:38:24
Speaker
And that's the subtitle of the book. Yeah. Foundations for a successful career and a fulfilling life in that proportion that you desire. Right. Man, there's something for everybody in this book. I hope the listeners go out, go to their website, get the signed copy. It's going to be worth it. This is amazing. Yeah. Thank you so much, all you, for all your time. Thank you for this small amount of time that we have. I'm a big fan. Thank you. You've been listening to the Uncommon Wealth podcast. I've been your host, Philip Ramsey. And I'm Aaron Kramer. Until next time, go be in common.
00:38:54
Speaker
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