about anything you want to with your
entire life
the no training is too big no goal is
too high and I say just about it for
that specific caveat here because
inevitably when we have this
conversation of dreams or goals or
ambitions opportunities opens that one
knucklehead moron who says something to
the effect of but your five Mel hat are
you saying if you just want it bad
enough you can go to the NBA no of
course not look at me that’s not going
to happen I’m not going to do that but
that’s typically not the place that we
find ourselves in we’re typically not
guilty of dreaming to Vega exploring
what we’re fully capable of and what we
really need to do is scale it back and
be a little more practical will be more
reasonable typically we find ourselves
maybe we’re not challenging ourselves
enough we’ll retain more this came to
light for me recently when I was doing
an interview for the podcasts called old
future interview leaders and I was
talking with the Aisne and Kent Stewart
it’s a local entrepreneur he’s an
amazing man and she’s probably best
known for the fact that he climbed the
highest mountain peak on six of the
seven continents
on the world and the only one he has
left is not Everest the highest mountain
in 20
thousand feet which is an amazing task
or just that six to the seven continents
and that doesn’t mean anything to you
but when I started researching how
difficult this task is I had no idea how
hard it is to climb these mountains and
so I looked into it and it basically it
taxes you in every possible way that you
can be taxed mentally physically
emotionally socially I know any other
thing that you put a link at the end of
it it probably is going to wear you out
just as a person putting yourself
through it he said there’s a point at
which you’re climbing these mountains
that you can barely even reach over to
tie your boots if they come and died
it’s just it’s a terrible task to do so
this is hard this is a really big dream
that he has for himself and so I was
talking to them about the lessons he’s
learned along the way what we can learn
from his mountain climbing experiences
cuz I have no desire to do that
whatsoever so I just want to bank on
what he’s trying to do and the first
thing that he told me was don’t settle
for small goals
he said I’ve climbed all these mountains
that have had these wonderful amazing
experiences I’ve got to find most of
these mountains with my wife and I have
those memories with her of Cline’s and
I’ve made friends and how if I have not
dreamed these big dreams and I had
that’s it for myself a huge goal I would
have done it wouldn’t have these things
in my life that I’ve been able to do
wouldn’t have his memories I wouldn’t be
in this shape that I’m at at 60 years
old now you can always still try to
climb Mount Everest and that was a huge
light for me that there’s a challenge
for us to climb to to set for ourselves
dreams that maybe are right outside
think is possible there’s two reasons
that we don’t do that the first is
simply that it’s just more comfortable
not to it’s so much easier just to do
what we know to do what we’re
comfortable with we’re creatures of
comfort creatures of habit it’s easy
just to make a checklist of things and
put stuff on there that we know we’re
going to be able to check off I’m sure
I’m not the only one who’s done that at
some point in my life
but we do that is it’s easy it’s more
comfortable want to do things that we
know the expected outcome is actually
going to happen for us the second reason
that we do that and maybe we don’t push
ourselves in a way that we could is just
fear we’re afraid of failing we’re
afraid of what if we put something out
there we say we’re going to accomplish
this big dream and then you don’t what’s
going to happen I can’t even imagine
that but there’s a reason that failure
is something I would think about it’s a
pretty founded fear because if we’re
going to try to dream big dreams which I
do big things have a big impact and
serve a lot of people in the world and
Emily there’s going to be some failure
along the way without question it’s just
part of the process I can relate to this
specifically for myself because I fail a
lot
I remember being I graduated in Sanford
in 2005 so I have to step in not these
exact chairs we come back to a place
after 10 or 12 years everything
different and everything is the same I
don’t know how to communicate that any
better way but I’ve sat in these seats
here I’ve walked these halls and eat
that food I jumped in that fountain and
rope a flip-flop to I’m still really
upset about coming out of it and the
water was wait circle it was a terrible
idea but I’ve been here and I can tell
you that along the way I had this dream
for me was huge it was my kind of Mount
Everest idea that I was going to start a
company that was both profitable where
customers loved to buy and employees
loved to work that was my thing I
thought I’m going to do this it will
allow me to serve a lot of people I’m
going to go after graduating from
Stanford basically what I can tell you
is from these seats here where you are
and where I was to our understanding now
the distance from here to here is just a
lot of things that didn’t work out
there’s a lot of failure and a lot of
things that just that didn’t didn’t go
the way they were supposed to I started
a web development company didn’t work
and a branding firm and in the work a
t-shirt company it was not a good idea I
should have never done that I got a list
of thing I could keep going on and on
which is stuff that didn’t really pan
out and so I can I could tell you that
there’s going to be some difficulty and
some failure
when we decide to do these big things
what I believe it’s worth it so it’s
fast forward in 2015 a couple years ago
I had the opportunity to start this
business called breakouts and guys that
I went to Stanford with and it’s pretty
simple if you haven’t been escaping put
people in a room for an hour they solved
their way I was included as puzzles and
codes and they pay us to do that sort of
really fun business to be in but we
started that and we put the first one
with first wasn’t like some central part
of everyone here in Birmingham you put
it here but really well so we decided
we’re going to another one we go down to
appeal in the well so we decided to do
another one we added one in Montgomery
so we’ve got these three stores here in
the state of Alabama and we take a step
back from that if we look at what’s
actually happening here
we haven’t perfected it everything
doesn’t go right every day as a matter
of fact things go wrong all the time but
it’s not a perfect business but three
things are happening a profitable
company where customers love to buy and
employees love to work if I look back on
what Kent was telling me from his
explorations and mountain climbing the
things he valued most were the journey
along the way the things that he became
he said that these big dreams transform
us the transform has to be somebody
different than who we are to become
someone different to reach these big
dreams and I can attest to the fact
that’s what’s happened with me at the
same time I started this podcast called
bold future because I realized that I
have a long way to go as a leader if
you’re not if you kind of like well I’m
not sure if I’m a good leader or not you
put a sign in the back that says follow
me and then just hire a bunch of people
and you’ll find
how many flaws you have like everything
you can do wrong are done communication
errors or things that just don’t make
sense something back so I knew I’ve got
to become a better leader which is where
that podcast came from old future
podcast so I would go and I still do
talk to whoever I could find people
everyone from big business CEOs to
nonprofit executive directors and
mountain climbers from everybody in
between and to look back on the last two
seasons of what I’ve learned from these
things what is the most valuable thing
that I could share there’s two things
that come to mind immediately when I
think about all the people that have
talked people who are doing big things
having big impact and trying to start
companies and grow companies and
nonprofits there’s two things that stand
out what first is what we’ve been
talking about the people who dream a big
dream they have big goals they have big
ambitions they want to touch a lot of
lives and the second thing that I’ve
realized is that there are people who
take massive action then if you take the
first part of this talk and that’s all
we have it’s a kind of a waste of time
like just dreaming really doesn’t mean
anything just putting a big goal out
there is kind of useless unless we’re
willing to take action on that and the
thing that’s most interesting to me is
the methodology that they go about doing
this with the way that they think about
this when you take a massive huge goal
in front of you it can be super
overwhelming but the people that I have
emulated or I seek to follow the people
that I’ve interviewed they follow along
with the same path and amount of
tyranno’s they break it down into its
smallest possible parts and then just
take a single step at a time and that’s
how this sounds kind of trite to me it
sounds like
sharing it that’s nothing in that
valuable but it’s a huge lesson for us
to learn when we have these big things
he’s not ever still want to achieve
their life things that we want to do the
way to do it is just to turn it into
something really small that’s how the
podcast got started I have this big huge
really kind of outrageous goal like I
wanted to I still do interview people at
the top of the time I want to interview
LeBron James you haven’t guessed I I do
not know him I have no connection to
LeBron James at all I already told you
I’m not going to the NBA so that route
it’s kind of like that’s out I don’t
know his people I don’t even know who I
would reach out to to get a rejection
from him I’m so far for that goal but
what I can do
undeniably I know I can get on Amazon
and just buy a microphone I like I did
that and immediately I was one step
closer now it’s a small step and we
might call a micro step I’m closer than
where I was and I can reach out to the
local entrepreneur and I can ask him if
I can interview them now I’ve taken two
steps I’m a lot closer than I was before
and it sounds pretty easy to think that
we’re going to celebrate those two
little steps that don’t really make that
much of a difference but the thing about
taking those small steps move this again
think about taking those small steps is
if they create momentum for us I think
that’s valuable about momentum is it is
the it’s absolutely necessary when the
inevitable wall comes because of all the
resistance is absolutely going to come
for us we know there is going to be
things that get in our way they’re going
to be negative people they’re going to
be circumstances the economy’s going to
change there’s an infinite number of
things that are going to happen when
you’ve got something that you’re
visualizing that you think you want to
do with your life it’s going to happen
but when we take any small steps we
create momentum to push through that
ball instead of just hitting it it’s
going to punch you in the face and
you’re going to fall down and you’re
just going to get up and walk away
you’re going to go to
say you don’t really want to be doing
that’s a sad path so let’s don’t do that
but there’s momentum in that in a way
that I think we can best rig this in our
favor there’s a way that my friends
Caleb chanting I did another podcast
interview with he’s a musician he’s a
photographer
he’s just a general crazy man he does
all kinds of things in the city of
Birmingham he’s putting on this concert
series of super complicated and it was
tons of musicians involved musicians if
you’re musician I’m sorry but they’re
the worst people to organize is they
want to go do their own thing and
express and all that stuff and so he was
trying to do that and I was asking him
about how he was pulling it off with a
technique of doing it they kept going
well and he said well I really have just
changed the definition of success for
myself and that is success is in the
doing instead of trying to perfect
everything that we do instead of trying
to make sure we hit every single note
every time or then we’re going to
provide the most ridiculous experience
let’s just do it let’s do the work and
then let’s do it again and make it
better and do it again and make it
better that’s been a huge huge asset for
me thinking about how we get these big
things done okay so let’s go to
something that’s more applicable for you
you hear you’re at Stanford University
you may have an idea of what it is that
one day you want to do with your life
you may not hear in college so who knows
where you are on that spectrum but
there’s a chance you’ve got at least
some dream job or career or company or
organization you want to be involved in
you’ve got something there that’s way
too big it’s overwhelming there’s not
enough it just is too esoteric it’s
generic can’t get our head around that
so let’s break that down even further
what do we know is most likely going to
happen probably not going to step out of
here crash
and then go just fulfill a dream there’s
probably going to be a bit of a process
there which means you probably just
going to get a job working for someone
else just a totally fine hat to do so
what I did for part of the time you’re
probably going to go work for someone
else that’s still like getting a job if
you ever talk to anyone who’s trying to
do that is a super overwhelming task and
no one really knows how to do it’s break
it down even further whether you look at
an industry well it’s still like it’s
just too big I’ve chosen real estate but
now what am I going to buy I’m going to
sell I’m going to work for but the thing
that you know you can do is you can find
somebody in that industry and you can
email them and you can say I’m a couple
of student I have no idea what I want to
do with my life but I’d like to talk to
you about what you do every day how you
work what you do because you’re a
college student and you’re not a threat
to them you have nothing to sell them
they’re going to most likely 85 to 95
percent of times say yes because they
feel like they’re getting back to the
future of America or something like that
I guarantee if you do that they will say
yes and what we’ve done there is all
we’ve taken this kind of like vague
maybe it’s a dream I don’t know what I
wanted with my life down to like we’re
just talking about sending an email like
you can do that and you can do that over
and over and you don’t have to have a
perfect email sent out you can follow
that process so there’s two things I’m
asking you to do as you spend the rest
of your time
Sanford whatever year you are on one
side over here I’m asking you to expand
something to think as big as you can to
not eliminate ideas that you have to not
crush your own dreams before you even
had a chance to get them out of the gate
I ask you to think about what’s possible
and maybe what’s not possible let’s try
to do that anyway because there’s an
incredible amount of meaning and reward
when we allow ourselves to do that I
want to encourage you to dream really
big but then on the other side that’s
something to do essentially exactly the
opposite I’m asking you to think really
small and ask me to think and how you
can break that big thing down into its
smallest possible parts so that you can
take action and get momentum moving
towards those things I’m not coming to
you guys today saying I am this amazing
entrepreneur and I’ve made all this
money and I got a podcast as millions of
people this thing I don’t have any of
that but what I am Telling You is
something that I wish someone had told
me ten or twelve years ago however long
it’s been and that’s that there is an
incredible power and dreaming big and
acting small and I know this philosophy
has completely changed the trajectory of
my life in a very positive way and I
believe it will do exactly the same thing for you thank you