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Gratitude: The Hidden Power
6 Plays2 days ago
In this deeply reflective Thanksgiving-week episode, Voice of Growth host Manny Teran explores one of life’s most transformative emotions — gratitude. Speaking from his hometown in southeastern Arizona, Manny unpacks how gratitude lives at the intersection of selfishness and selflessness, serving as both a personal fuel and a bridge to connection. He shares stories from his own life — growing up after the loss of his father, lessons from relationships, entrepreneurship, and family — revealing how gratitude, reflection, and forgiveness shape identity and growth. Listeners will discover why gratitude isn’t passive appreciation; it’s active stewardship of what we value most — our health, relationships, purpose, and ability to create.
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Theme
00:00:04
Speaker
The Voice of Growth, Mastering the Mind and Market. Welcome back to the Voice of Growth podcast, Mastering the Mind and Market. My name is Manny Turan and I'm your host.
00:00:16
Speaker
On today's podcast, we're coming to you on location from Southeastern Arizona. I'm here near my hometown. ah came down for the Thanksgiving celebration and felt this would be a good time to talk about gratitude.
00:00:32
Speaker
Gratitude
The Dual Nature of Gratitude
00:00:33
Speaker
is one of these very celebrated words, but sometimes there's a deeper meaning behind them that can hold a lot of power. You see, gratitude is one of those rare feelings that can straddle the line between being selfish and being selfless.
00:00:53
Speaker
The idea of gratitude is oftentimes something that is very personal and sometimes even expects you to have an outward display of it as well.
00:01:05
Speaker
Let me talk about the the selfish side first. That word selfish has a very negative connotation. Usually the when people use that word, it is that they're describing somebody who only takes their own desires, their own um wants and needs for themselves in spite and above others as well.
00:01:32
Speaker
And just having said that right now, it makes me think that maybe there's nothing wrong with that word selfish. I ascribe to some of the doctrines of Ayn Rand. Of course, she's a celebrated author who talked a lot about being selfish and the the human drive that drives people to success.
00:01:55
Speaker
And you know that word, it's thrown around and it has that negative connotation.
Expressing Gratitude Outwardly
00:02:00
Speaker
People talk ah that that person's selfish, they don't care about anybody else but themselves. and And so that's just part of it.
00:02:07
Speaker
Yes, it can have a negative connotation to it, but there's also a an underlying deeper drive that can actually lead someone to do more.
00:02:19
Speaker
It's the idea of when you go, of course, on the airplane, they say, you know, put your mask on first before you put your child's mask on, right? The oxygen mask. Similar thing.
00:02:30
Speaker
If you are selfish, if you put your desires and your needs, ah and if those desires and needs are for massive wealth or personal growth or you want to start a foundation, whatever that might be, that's your selfish reason.
00:02:47
Speaker
And then how you take that and spread it out to the world and actually do stuff about it, then that's a different story.
Opportunities and Health in Business
00:02:55
Speaker
So gratitude is basically taking the the one hand of being ah completely selfish because when you have gratitude, it's internal.
00:03:06
Speaker
I'm grateful for my health. I'm grateful for my family. I'm grateful for this beautiful land that I'm in right now. I'm grateful for this... beautiful day. This is all gratitude that's internal to me. I am celebrating this gratitude for myself, very selfish.
00:03:24
Speaker
And on the other side, there's an expectation about gratitude being expressed, and that's the selfless side. So if you ascribe to this modality, this dual modality, then the idea is that Showing your outward emotion about being gratitude and grateful for things.
00:03:48
Speaker
Showing that in both your words and your actions. So i i feel as though gratitude for me is powerful. Of course, I mentioned the internal side. But when I am grateful for someone, for when I'm grateful so for something, I'm not shy. i make it known.
00:04:09
Speaker
I reach out to people and I say, hey, I'm thankful for you, appreciate what you did for me. And I show that and I express that in my words, but I also send messages, also send gifts, I also send Nick connections and help people move their career along. And that's how I show my gratitude.
00:04:29
Speaker
So in this time where we live by these things, right? Everything is transactional. Everything is, what am I going to get from this interaction?
00:04:43
Speaker
I think we need to flip the script. I think we need to first be grateful for the opportunity to be entrepreneurs the and business leaders. We're
Health and Entrepreneurship
00:04:52
Speaker
here as a an expression of ah really the culmination of our experiences.
00:04:59
Speaker
You know, if you are a business leader, owner, whatever you took someone else's success, whether it's a family member or somebody that you look up to in the business world, and you use that as a model for yourself.
00:05:16
Speaker
You saw a, a, a world that, um, had successful people and wanted to be part of that world. And so, and that's sort of that that first step. Then being grateful for um your health.
00:05:31
Speaker
You know, health is one of these things that I've expressed in other podcasts as well, that if you don't have your health, you don't have anything. But when you have your health, you have the ability to to have everything.
00:05:43
Speaker
and And that is very important. I am someone who for a long time took my health for granted. And that, you can blame it on on genetics. I had have good genetics. I was never sick. and it's you know Common cold here and there and and all that. But i really took it for granted. And it was it was about...
00:06:03
Speaker
I don't know, seven, years ago that I started taking it more as a priority. And um that is, of of course, part of my journey. I was with ah someone in my life that was important and she was very much into nutrition and eating right and working out and she really helped to to show me a path for um the fact that if you have your health, then you can operate as an entrepreneur at a higher level.
00:06:35
Speaker
You know, I have people in my life that are um not healthy, and it it reflects in their work, it reflects in their ability to do things, and it breaks my heart, to be honest, because they are, I've known some of these for a long time,
00:06:51
Speaker
And their health has declined over the years. And a lot of it is just for for maintenance reasons, right? They don't maintain it. I'm not ascribing here to be some hardcore fitness guru or anything. I'm just saying be be be grateful for your your health and do something about it.
00:07:07
Speaker
That's the other side of gratitude. When you are grateful for something, you want to take care of it more. If I'm grateful for my ah health, then I'm going to take care of it more. If
Family and the Sonoran Desert
00:07:21
Speaker
I'm grateful for my family and for my friends, then I'm going to take care of them and i'm going to keep those relationships strong.
00:07:29
Speaker
I'm going to to do what I can to make sure that that is something that continues to give me joy and gratitude, of course. um And so, sitting in here in this desert, this is one of my favorite places in the world, believe it or not.
00:07:44
Speaker
Nothing too magical except for in my own heart. um It is a part of the Sonoran Desert. It's dry, it has lots of cat claws and mesquite, but there's something about this particular place in the world that means so much to me.
00:08:01
Speaker
When I was a kid, I would ride my motorcycle out here, 13 years old, 12 years old, not a care in the world. And I just fell in love with this this area. And so this is this really magical that I was able to come out and talk about gratitude in ah very in a place that I'm very grateful for. I'm grateful that I have my family that are...
00:08:23
Speaker
Healthy
Overcoming Personal Shadows
00:08:24
Speaker
and strong we had a great Thanksgiving my kids are with me and you know that's all something to be very grateful for I'm also grateful for my failures in my experiences in life that have shown me a deeper appreciation for my own journey you know I was a um ah Kid I my father died when I was one years old my mom moved back to my hometown here And so I was raised always under the shadow of my father's death.
00:08:55
Speaker
And for many, many, many years, I i pushed that back on that because I felt, look, people would say, oh, he looks just like his dad. Or I'd walk into a room and I'd see people's eyes look at me. And it and it created this sort of this bad um feeling or whatever about my father's death. I didn't want to be pitied. And so It wasn't until I was probably in my early teens that I really came to grips for the fact that I'm proud to be like my father. I'm proud to have looked and look like my father. that's
00:09:28
Speaker
that's That's not taking away from who I am. It's adding to who I am. And that, you know, one of the words I love to use a lot is identity. Identity is such a powerful word and it's misconstrued as well. Just like gratitude, identity can span many, many modalities. And for me, identity is a core function of how I express my inner desires, my inner thoughts.
00:09:56
Speaker
We'll get into more identity later in another podcast, and I've talked ah briefly many other times, but with respect to to the shadow of my father's death, came to grips of it, and that was a defining moment in my life.
00:10:10
Speaker
I have been raised by women, have a my mom and my grandmother, and then later my stepfather, who in in many ways was um a good...
00:10:21
Speaker
i don't know what you want to call it, good leader in in seeing the way that that certain things need to be done. He was a very hardworking guy. He really took care of the family, and um he did what he could.
00:10:34
Speaker
But there was a lot of lack as well. There was no emotional regulation. he had a lot of problems that he expressed on the kids. And, you know, I don't i don't really... um have any bad feelings for him, my my first stepfather. um but i But I am grateful for the lessons he taught me.
00:10:53
Speaker
All these things, right? There's a negative to them if you think about the negative or you can think about the other side, which is how can I grow from this? And then you know on through college, on through um been married and had that whole experience with a beautiful, very smart woman that became my wife and later became my ex-wife. and And through that process, learned a lot, learned so much through that process. and was able to ah bring two amazing boys to this world through that union. And as much as as someone might see it as a failure,
00:11:31
Speaker
It was a magical and very um like life-changing success. These two boys are are everything to me, and I'm doing my very best to raise them in the stoic virtues and in the way that I believe will guide them when when I'm not around, and they can use that as a springboard for their own success, their own um life of joy and in the pursuit of success.
00:12:00
Speaker
On through my um relationship that when I was um engaged to someone and and a very amazing person in my life helped me grow tremendously as a partner, as internally really helped me to guide this whole journey with this podcast and what I'm doing here.
00:12:19
Speaker
was instrumental. I have nothing but um gratitude for her. it
Self-Reflection and Growth
00:12:24
Speaker
didn't end in a way that was perhaps befitting of the way it started, but these things, we we can't always be um the most careful with things, you know? Life is a full contact sport, and we're going to get hurt. We're going to get beat up sometimes. We're going to get thrown around. We're going to get bruised, if you will, and that's just how it is. um you know on The other side of gratitude has also do with forgiveness of yourself, of others.
00:12:53
Speaker
you know If you're grateful for what you have and you're grateful for the journey and the learning and all of these elements that make up life, then you'll take care of it and you'll actually reflect.
00:13:05
Speaker
One of the things I learned a lot about myself in this whole process is I need to reflect. And my reflection doesn't have to be on, you know, some top of some mountain necessarily or some pilgrimage.
00:13:18
Speaker
It comes in moments. It comes in in a drive, a two-hour drive when I'm able to just turn the radio off and just think about things. It comes in the form of I'm getting ready for bed and I'm i'm kind of beginning to doze off and I'm starting to think about certain things. That's reflection. Reflection comes at a red light.
00:13:36
Speaker
It comes at at random times and, you know, take those opportunities to reflect. um And to finish off the idea with the gratitude, I'm very grateful for my my partner now and you know how much she supported me in this journey and um helping to push me and help me to almost hold a mirror to my face to to see my potential.
00:14:00
Speaker
And we need people like this in our lives. We need people that help really show the ugly truth but show the beauty behind it as well and and challenge us. You
Relationships and Personal Development
00:14:12
Speaker
know, when we have a partner that just is ah' a yes person and they they don't challenge you, what does how does that help you grow?
00:14:19
Speaker
Helping someone is sometimes what you need to do by saying no, by saying, hey, look, you didn't do this correctly, or this is something that I don't like about this, or or here's an element where you can improve.
00:14:33
Speaker
Man, those are hard to hear sometimes. Those are hard to hear, especially if you're like a hard-driving entrepreneur kind of person and you're like, you know, you're always trying to do better. Sometimes we don't we don't stop and listen.
00:14:44
Speaker
So I know i've kind of meandered around today with with this podcast, but I wanted to talk about um gratitude. And I'm grateful for my team as well that produces this podcast. And I'm grateful for my friends and my family and this time we have that together in my expression of this to you, my my audience. And as we grow the audience, as we grow the viewership, it makes me excited because I know that I take bits of wisdom from many different places and podcasts. And I certainly hope that you take a lot from this as well. And I hope that you take the time this Thanksgiving season in particular
00:15:25
Speaker
to be grateful, to be thankful for all the things in your life that have brought you to the ability to exercise on your dreams. And
Conclusion: Gratitude for Community and Business
00:15:36
Speaker
I'm proud to say that that for me, this is one of the expressions of my dreams.
00:15:43
Speaker
And you know i love running my company. I have IR Labs, amazing people in that company. And I'm very thankful for that as well. i And I'm thankful for um the ah community of Tucson,
00:15:57
Speaker
You know, I've been doing a handful of podcasts on business leaders in Tucson, and I'm just i'm just so grateful and inspired by these leaders.
00:16:08
Speaker
And they helped me to understand that I have a role in the success and moving the community of Tucson forward. And I'm doing my best day in, day out.
00:16:18
Speaker
And I'm very grateful for that opportunity. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. And with that, we will close for today. I'm going to go watch some football and enjoy the rest of this beautiful day.
00:16:32
Speaker
Thank you very much. Cheers.