
The Uncommon Leader Podcast
Are you ready to break free from mediocrity and lead an extraordinary life? Join us on The Uncommon Leadership Podcast as we explore the power of intentionality in personal and professional growth. Our podcast features insightful interviews with inspiring leaders from all walks of life, sharing their stories of overcoming challenges and achieving greatness.
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- Worry less and focus on what matters
- Love always and make a positive impact
In each episode, we'll dive into relevant leadership topics, share inspiring stories, and provide actionable steps you can take to elevate your life. Whether you're a seasoned leader or just starting your journey, The Uncommon Leadership Podcast offers valuable insights and practical guidance to help you achieve your goals and live your best life.
The Uncommon Leader Podcast
๐๐ข๐๐ค ๐๐๐ฅ๐ค๐๐ซ: ๐๐ก๐จ๐จ๐ฌ๐ ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ญ๐ก๐ฒ ๐๐ง๐๐ฆ๐ฒ - ๐๐ง๐ฅ๐จ๐๐ค ๐๐๐๐ง๐ข๐ง๐ & ๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐๐จ๐ฐ๐๐ซ
๐๐ซ๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ ๐ฅ๐๐๐๐๐ซ ๐ ๐ซ๐๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐ ๐ฌ๐ข๐ฅ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ ๐ ๐ฅ๐ โ ๐ญ๐ก๐ "๐ฆ๐๐๐ง๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ซ๐ข๐ฌ๐ข๐ฌ"? Many driven professionals, especially men 25-45, feel the weight of unfulfilled potential and a lack of clear purpose.
This Tuesday on ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ง๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐จ๐ง ๐๐๐๐๐๐ซ ๐๐จ๐๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ, I challenge this head-on with an extraordinary guest, ๐๐ข๐๐ค ๐๐๐ฅ๐ค๐๐ซ, author of "๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ญ๐๐ฉ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐ฎ๐ข๐ฅ๐ ๐ ๐๐ข๐๐ ๐จ๐ ๐๐๐๐ง๐ข๐ง๐ ." He reveals a powerful, counter-intuitive truth: Sometimes, finding your greatest purpose isn't about chasing what you want, but about ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ๐๐ ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐๐๐ญ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฐ๐ก๐๐ญ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐๐จ๐ง'๐ญ ๐ฐ๐๐ง๐ญ.
Rick shares how to identify your "๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ญ๐ก๐ฒ ๐๐ง๐๐ฆ๐ฒ" โ that manifest evil that breaks your heart โ and transform it into a catalyst for profound leadership and personal conviction.
This episode is a call to action for anyone ready to stop drifting and start leading with unwavering intentionality.
๐๐๐๐๐ฒ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ซ๐๐ข๐ ๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ฉ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ฉ๐จ๐ฌ๐?
Discover Rick Walker's transformative work: https://www.rickwalker.com
๐๐จ๐จ๐ค ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐:๐ leadership strategy call with John Gallagher: โ https://coachjohngallagher.com/freecall
๐ ๐จ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฐ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐ฆ๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐ฎ๐ง๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐จ๐ง ๐ฅ๐๐๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐ก๐ข๐ฉ ๐ญ๐จ๐จ๐ฅ๐ฌ & ๐๐จ๐ง๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ:
๐ Website โ https://coachjohngallagher.com
๐บ YouTube โ https://youtu.be/slQAuLO4qZI
๐ More Resources โ https://linktr.ee/coachjohngallagher
#CoachJohnGallagher #TheUncommonLeaderPodcast #LeadershipCoaching #UncommonLeader #ExecutiveCoaching #ValuesBasedLeadership #ChristianLeader #FaithBasedCoach #PurposeDrivenLeadership #LeadWithFaith #MindsetMatters #GrowthMindset #LearnLeadGrow #LevelUpLeadership #RickWalker #MeaningCrisis #PurposeDrivenLife #LeadershipDevelopment #Podcast #Motivation #Inspiration #SelfImprovement #StopDrifting #FindYourPurpose
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Sometimes, we're looking for newer books to try to solve our problems, how we're going to form habits, how we're going to create mastery, how we're going to communicate. One of the important things that I've discovered is that the older the sage, the quicker the solution, and so the further you go back in the great ancient texts, the more you're reaching the source materials. Everything that you read today is sourced in something else something older, necessarily something older. Day is sourcing something else, something older, necessarily something older. Current focus, where we could go back and read the source materials. That's where the true solutions are found, and it's easier to read that than to read these modern men that are trying to sound smart.
Speaker 1:Hey, uncommon Leaders, welcome back. This is the Uncommon Leader Podcast. I'm your host, john Gallagher. What a guest I've got for you today.
Speaker 1:Just had a little bit of conversation offline in terms of some of the fascinating things we're going to talk about with Rick Walker, the author of Nine Steps to Build a Life of Meaning. Now, that book has a generality in terms of there's been a lot of books written with steps to build a life of purpose and things like that, but when we get a chance to talk about how Rick has written this book and where he pulled the information from and life experiences, I know you're going to find value from this conversation A memoir on unlocking the mind, happiness and personal power. Ultimately and Rick's got a lot of experience to go by, as he'll tell us the story here he led an organization with over 400 employees by the age of 26. He has run a 200 or been the chair of a $250 million charitable foundation, and he's a host of a podcast that we'll get a chance to talk about here, recorded from his 13,000 square foot restored mansion that he used as his home office. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see some of this in the background, but he's based in Houston with his wife and three daughters, and I know we'll get a chance to talk a little bit about that and what it means to him as well. Rick Walker, I'll stop talking a whole lot.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Uncommon Leader Podcast. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2:John, I am blessed today. I'm excited about our conversation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's get going right into it. I'm going to dive right into the book. You've got these nine steps in here and the first one. I had to go deep right off the bat. You said to choose one worthy enemy to be the first step in building a life of meaning. What in the world do you mean by choosing a worthy enemy?
Speaker 2:I think it's helpful to think about the audience for the book. The audience for the book is 25 to 45 year old young men that are in this meaning crisis that John Verbeke speaks about. These are men that often will leave a pursuit list life, a life that maybe they have, no, no even endeavors of love, and these are men that are sort of wondering where all the promises were, all the potentiality was that was promised them earlier on in their life went, and so these are men that do not have a positive vision. They've never been shown a future of something that they would want to have more than what they have now. So they stayed in this rut for a year or five years or 10 years, some of them for 20 years, and so we've got to figure out a way to get these men moving. So if you don't have a positive vision of what you want, you have to then look for a negative vision and all the scholastics, the academics, the pontificators they tell you to find. You know, set a mission, set a goal, set a vision of where you want to go and build your tactics and your objectives to achieve that. But these men don't know where they want. They don't know what they want out of life, and if you're like me, you've got to figure out how to move.
Speaker 2:And so what I tell them is that the purpose of the light is invade the darkness. The purpose of a good man is invade the evil that he sees around him. I ask these men to look inward and look at how their hearts respond to the manifest evil they see out among the world and most vulnerable around them. Sometimes it's the fentanyl in the public school system. Sometimes it is the sex trafficking website that doesn't respect minors. Sometimes it's the alcoholism that's been pervasive in their family for generations, leading their family to obesity and to just dysfunction.
Speaker 2:There's a manifest evil that we all see around us, and if the purpose of light is to be the darkness, darkness the purpose of a good man is to be the evil we see around him. We were built to accomplish and the defeat, or at least work towards the defeat, of a great evil around us. So this is why I say pick one, choose, choose one early worthy enemy. Choose one worthy enemy and go to battle against that enemy. It's something that breaks your heart, and that is the way that you move forward. It's what we do when there's not a positive vision of where we want to go, but we can find it in negative vision. That one thing that we demand not exist in our world. We go and fight against that. That's how we get the momentum to move forward into the second through nine steps.
Speaker 1:I love that and the things that went through my mind just as you explained it. Not even the same way in terms of how I read it, but as you explained it. Craig Rochelle is another individual. I follow his podcast. He talks about people will change for one of two reasons Out of inspiration to your point, they can see where they want to go and they move toward that point or out of desperation. Even that enemy that you're talking about is something that really is making you so angry that you're willing to do something about. It is what I hear inside of that.
Speaker 1:I would often say people will change when the discomfort of remaining the same is greater than the displeasure of the change itself, whether it's an exercise routine or whatever that is. But to your point, especially for those in that 25 to 45 range who really they've got more years to live than they can even understand what that looks like in the future. So you got to find that stake in the ground and there was a quote right off the bat. And look, folks, as I read through this book, what I was most fascinated with some of the quotes that are in there. You say the great paradox of judgment is that evil becomes fuel in the furnace of salvation. I just love that picture.
Speaker 1:If we can find something that really ticks us off and we're willing to do something about it, imagine what's possible if we're really moving and again then moving toward that second step and we'll get a chance to talk about. I don't know if we'll get a chance to talk about all nine steps, but I think it's fascinating. Let me ask you a little bit of a tactical question about the nine steps, but I think it's fascinating. Let me ask you a little bit of a tactical question about the nine steps. Do you see them as a cycle? I mean, do you go through this multiple times, or is it one of those things that each one of these steps, or do they go in order all the time as well?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I believe that if we do each step correctly, you only have to go through each of the steps once. But they do compound on one another. They're best taken in order, and the way that we work through these is also the way that we work through purpose. They're very similar. So, for instance, the way that we work through our enemies, we look for that thing that breaks our heart, we look for that why that drives the what in our lives. The same thing that we do on the other steps. We're looking for the deep down sense of purpose and we don't know what our purpose is.
Speaker 2:I guess an exercise is to go through that. So it's the development of the why. It's the same issue that Lewis wrote about 100 years ago that we're filled with the society of men without chests, where their guts are functioning, this animal spirit, this mind that's divine. We know what the divine is, but we never, ever put the two things together. And so we're living in a society of men without chests. And this is my effort to go forth and bring out the chests and the men in our society, and sometimes it takes a couple of tries in these steps.
Speaker 1:I like that Again because I think we may not get it perfect the first time, but when we do it right, especially and again, the power in when we do it right and the impact that we can have is really cool. And it takes effort, it takes discipline, but once you have that identified, once you have that enemy identified, that is there. It will motivate you to do different things. One of the crazy disciplines I read about you is that you wake up every day at 3.30 in the morning. Tell me about how this discipline got started. And, you know, talk to the 25 to 45 year old. Says man, I just like to sleep in in the morning. It's a lot easier to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Well, you have to figure out what you want. Do you want to be comfortable or do you want to have purpose? Life is lived at the edge, just past comfort, and so what I realized was that I was very successful in my work a number of years ago and I thought that I was doing good waking up at 5 am in the morning, and I spoke to a buddy of mine. He had more money than I did, he looked better than I did, he's better dressed, comes from a better family, has a better Rolodex than I do, has a bigger business than I do, and I thought to myself there's people like this in my own industry that I'm competing against. And he was getting up at 4 am and I was getting five, so he was already ahead of me on everything else. Now he's ahead of me on the effort side, and so I started ticking my clock back 15 minutes every night until I got to a comfortable place.
Speaker 2:3.15 was a little bit too early, but 3.30 was the sweet spot for me, and I can talk about the process I went through to find that, and that's actually laid out in the book, the actual triggers that you put in place to be able to get there and accomplish that.
Speaker 2:But long story short, what I found was that I could do the most important things, the important things that no one else is doing the quiet time, the deep reading, the deep thinking. I could do that in the morning, before any digital devices were expected of me, before anyone else was even awake, before my kid's new dad was awake and every new kid. The kids never know that dad's not there. And when you take that and you compare it to the potential of working late where you're missing dinners, you're missing sports activities, of working late where you're missing dinners, you're missing sports activities. The early morning was the better option for me, and so that began a routine where I make sure that all the important things today, the most important things those are done first before any devices, before any work, before any emails, before any phone calls, and my kids never know that I'm on the way. And so this seemed to be a very, very strategic advantage that I was able to put in place a few years ago, and it's worked exceedingly well.
Speaker 1:Well, I can tell you that I won't be one. That's a 330, and that doesn't mean I won't ever be, but I am not today. I am very interested in those things that you did to put that process in place, to move from a 5 am to a 3.30 am, and what those triggers were to get started, so that we can teach the listeners as well how they might be able to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So let's walk through that. So the first thing is that you don't want to have your phone in the room where you sleep. Right, if you could put that phone in another room. The way that I do it is, I don't have a charger in my my bedroom. I put the charger in my closet, which is two rooms away, and so I plug that phone in there at night and it stays there. And so the first couple nights you'll feel discomfortable. You're not able to roll over and pick up your phone and scroll whenever you wake up. But what that does? It trains your body to sleep. It trains your, trains you to fall into this deep sleep and the state of deep sleep without this stimulant that's right there next to your head. And so, with the phone in the other room, I set the alarm and the alarm goes off. I stand up out of bed, I walk through one of the rooms into another room and I grab my phone.
Speaker 2:One of the interesting things that I did is I put a motion detector light in my closet. So five seconds know, five seconds after my alarm goes off, I'm standing up, lights on in my closet and I'm hitting the turn the alarm off. I don't snooze. That's my only rule is I don't snooze, alarm's off. I'm standing up, I'm thinking well heck, in 30 seconds I got my clothes on. My clothes are already laid out there. I throw the clothes on and now I really want a latte, and the best place I can get a latte before Starbucks opens Starbucks opens at 5, it's about 3.40. Now is I got to go to my office and so I drive to the office and I get my favorite couch there where I like to drink my coffee, and already there on my couch are the books kind of a stack of books right next to my couch, and I got a couple of books on the couch and I just open up, enjoy my coffee and I'm reading generally the oldest books I can find and books about the oldest books I can find for the most part, and so from there it'll move into strategic planning, some thinking, some brainstorming, and I try not to touch any devices until around 8 or so in the morning and that helps push me along.
Speaker 2:But I've been more strategic, I've learned more, I've thought more, I've had quiet time by myself, I'm able to do all the really enriching things that build your soul, that build your mind before my competitors have gotten to work, and so this really has flipped advantage in my favor over time. And so what I like to say? There's only three things in life that count. I read probably a thousand books and spoke to a hundred of the most competent men alive.
Speaker 2:Many of you'll see them on my podcast and the three things that I figured out among all of those just sort of the selling all those principles down is that the three things that count in your life are your quiet time, how you respect your books and the quality of your dinner table, your dinner table, the quality of your books and your quiet time. And if I can do two of those things early in the morning instead of late at night, I can also do the third where I can be home for dinner. And so if you can get those three things in place in your life and you do those three well, you're going to have more than everything. You're going to have relevance, you're going to have meaning, you're going to have an enjoyable life. But you got to get those three things clicking in order to move forward.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's worthy of Rewind folks just to listen through those three tips and very powerful in the kitchen table or the dinner table in terms of the conversation that goes on when you have children.
Speaker 1:Again, I mentioned at the start, you have three daughters finding that time, being able to be present with them. But getting those other two things your quiet time and your reading and what you choose, the quality of what you read into that For me. I'm diving into scripture on a daily basis as well and I've got another book that I'm reading that I try to get started Again, not 3.30. I'm going to keep thinking about this, how you've talked about it, because I appreciate what you're saying with regards to getting it done A before your competition is doing it. So that gives you an advantage right off the bat. But secondly, inside of that time where no one else in your family, they're not missing you at that point in time. So I'm sure that requires you to set your evening up pretty well as well, anything you do in the evening to get ready to be up at 3.30 and make sure you get enough sleep.
Speaker 2:Well, I like to be in bed by 10. The last week or so has been a little bit different, with the book launch, and so a couple of mornings I got up at 1.30 instead of 3.30. And so, needless to say, I didn't stay up. I had to take a nap in the middle of the daytime. I couldn't get up at 3.30 the next morning because I was so wasted, and so you know, you've got to be flexible with yourself, but you've got to have a standard routine. I mean, I think it's more about the improvement on what you do rather than the specific time, and so if you're someone that gets up at 8, maybe you get up at 7, right, you've got an extra hour. It's sort of a power hour, like many people would call it. If you could figure out a way just to improve that so that you're not subtracting from one of the other two things that are important, that's really how you push forward. And then, on the books, let me just make a comment about the books.
Speaker 2:Oftentimes we're looking through newer books to try to solve our problems how we're going to form habits, how we're going to create mastery, how we're going to communicate knowledge. One of the important things that I've discovered is that the older the sage, the quicker the solution. The older the sage, the quicker the solution, and so the further you go back in the great ancient texts, the more you're reaching the source materials. Everything that you read today is sourced in something else, something older, necessarily something older, and so if I'm going to read Shakespeare or a book about Shakespeare, I really should just go back and read Shakespeare. But if I'm going to read Shakespeare, I've got to realize what I'm reading is sort of a King James Version.
Speaker 2:Old Testament and New Testament. That's what I'm reading. So why don't I just go back to the Old Testament and New Testament and read that? And same thing with the Asian literature. Why don't I go back and just read the Tao Te Ching? Why am I going back and just reading the Bhagavad Gita? Why am I going back and reading Homer? The principles that we read in the current literature they're just distilled, they're covered with lenses, they're covered in the nuance of modernity that just distract us. We're so current, focused when we could go back and read the source materials. That's where the true solutions are found, and it's easier to read that than to read these modern men that are trying to sound smart.
Speaker 1:Hey Uncommon Leaders, hope you're enjoying the episode. So far. I believe in doing business with people you like and trust, and not just a company name. That's why a strong personal brand is essential, whether you're an entrepreneur or a leader within a company. Brand Builders Group, the folks who have been helping me refine my own personal brand are offering a free consultation call with one of their expert brand strategists. They'll help you identify your uniqueness, craft a compelling story and develop a step-by-step plan to elevate your impact. So head on over to coachjohngallaghercom slash BBG, as in Brand Builders Group, to schedule your free call and take the first step toward building a personal brand that gets you noticed for all the right reasons. That's coachjohngallaghercom slash BBG. Now let's get back to the episode Love that Inside of your book. Did you have a specific um, I'll say author in the past that influenced your writing? Again, I want to ask you about several of the individuals that you quoted inside the book, but is there a book that influences you more than another?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think obviously the Judeo-Christian scriptures is most influential, probably on everyone, whether we're sent to it or not. If you've got to talk about sort of secular authors, I would say Dante has been very impactful, especially the Inferno. You can go back and look at Milton, Paradise Lost. You can look at the Dostoevsky Brothers, Kerr and Mazov, those sorts of books. They've been very impactful. And then there has been some modern books that have to do with technology and handling data in our current society. Things like Robert Allen's Getting Things Done, I think about Tiny Experiences, recently came out. Sweaty Startup by Nick Huber that just came out. There's some great books that have come out, but we want the breath and the depth of our reading to be older People that have been proven over by time, not people that are more recent and they've had very little proving, very little filtering, very little testing.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm going to ask you a question only based on my skill of being able to pronounce them, so there's some that I'll skip. Eugene Peterson, einstein, cs Lewis, isaac Newton, bruce Lee, da Vinci, van Gogh, plato Roosevelt, viktor Frankl all quotes nestled inside of your book. All fascinating quotes as well. If there was one of them, you could go back and have dinner with the traditional podcast question who would it be and why?
Speaker 2:Oh, I think Viktor Frankl, man's Search for Meaning. This is a brilliant man. Where he's sitting in the German concentration camps he could die at any moment. You know, they're calling people, we're looking for volunteers for different things. They're testing the health of these people and he knows that his friends are going to be, you know, sent to the gas chambers.
Speaker 2:But what he figured out in that depravity, in that situation, was that man can live for anything and live through anything, as long as he has one of two things. You only need one of these two things. Number one is a responsibility in the future. A responsibility in the future Number two is even though the person that you most love may be dead already maybe it's the wife of the concentration camp, they know she's already dead If there's a suspicion and a probability that there's a future love to have, or that there's someone to love in the future that you can take care of, you can live through almost anything.
Speaker 2:This is, and that's, the premise of Viktor Frankl's work. I mean that tells us a lot about who we are as men, that we are built for the future. Um, as as men, that we are built for the future, but we have to act in the present, and so, um, yeah, so, so, certainly, uh, viktor Frankl, but but any of those men are great, you know. You look at, look at Bruce Lee. I'll, I'll, I'll cite the quote that's used in uh uh, using his book, where he says uh, low aim is the only crime. I think is what he says Low aim is the only crime. I reverse that a little bit. I say that aiming low is the only sin that you've got to look up, and the only way to look up is to look back you've chosen the enemy.
Speaker 1:now go big, go big or go home Again. All these different things that you end up reading. They're the same things in terms of now we're coming from Bruce Lee in terms of do not set a low bar. That's very important. Pick a master, or one will be chosen for you. Love that and some of the titles. Trust and I'm sorry I'm reading my own writing here Revelation requires sacrifice. Trust, that revelation requires sacrifice. Tell me a little bit about that in terms of requiring sacrifice inside that space. What is there for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the emphasis is on the trusting. Trusting that that mechanism, that great mechanism that you learn about, homer, with the Iphigenian sacrifice, trust that that is a proper framework of how reality works, that you never get anything without sacrifice. I've sacrificed my attention to everything else. I'm surrounded by windows right now, the Amazon driver, the yard crew, these guys are constructing something over here. I've got to sacrifice all of that so I can pay attention to you. I've already sacrificed my yesterdays for my today. You have to be willing to sacrifice your todays for your tomorrows. In fact, you'll never have a tomorrow unless you sacrifice today. And so we've got to realize that sacrifice is all around us, and the only way to get anything out of life is to give up something that's lesser. You must always give up the lesser for the good. You must always give up the good for the great.
Speaker 1:Love that. So much gold there inside of that space. I'll keep going, embrace the unknown, and I want you to. I want to park here for just a little bit. Joy requires pain. Talk to me there, cause again, that goes back to that change quote that I saw about people change when the discomfort of remaining the same status quo, where you are today, is greater than the pain. The change of the change itself. Learning how to exercise three days a week, you're going to get sore muscles if you want to have a better body right In terms of you know again, giving up something to go to a higher place that you're shooting for is very important. How? Maybe I don't mean to be answering the question in my perspective, but you write joy requires pain. What is there for you?
Speaker 2:I found through my research, in 20, 25 years of working on these various, these various projects and not in all these countries, dozens and dozens of countries that there's a few, there's a handful of truths, and this is what we're talking about. We're talking about universal truths that are attached to reality. A painless world would only birth joyless lives. A painless world only births joyless lives. A painless world only births joyless lives. Life is lived in the contrast. Just so you know, a man that gets up at 7 o'clock instead of 8 o'clock has done himself a better thing. So, too, a man that has had a little bit more depths of depravity and depths of loss can experience and realize that his heightened joy is great right.
Speaker 2:A monotonous life, a life without any joy or pain, is not really a life, and a life not lived actually is just a death. We have to figure out a way how to expand and realize how we get more context, how we get more texture in our life. It's really the texture that brings out the quality of the life. It's the greater challenge that you embrace in order to have the hopes for the higher success. And we've got to realize, too, that the greatest things that we have in our life are come out of pain. They come out of darkness, soul.
Speaker 2:Soul music is best sung by a freedman, but the old freedman can only be a freedman if he was first a slave like this is why we've got the greatness um all around us. We never realized that. That it's the, it's the. It's the difficulties that bring out the best things, and I can talk about this um forever, but the uh, but it's very, very important. I speak about a number of elements of art specifically in this chapter and how the color differentiation relates to the life experience differentiation, and how that brings out maturity, that brings out joy in the end.
Speaker 1:There's so much there. Uh, in the end there's so much there. I could spend a lot of time right in that space as well. Just in that in that chapter, in that step that Joe requires pain. There was a quote in that chapter that stuck out avoid an ounce of pain, you drink a gallon of regret, regret. I don't know if you're attributing that to you, like you got that one or you'd have that one attributed in there, but I love that as a quote in terms of what's sitting there. But we have this natural tendency to want to avoid the pain. I mean, it's how our healthcare system is set up today to avoid pain, knowing that really how we were created is that we have to heal ourselves. We may have to go through some pain to get that done rather than avoiding it. Or certainly, the concept behind addictions that exist with alcohol and drugs and everything else affords us the opportunity to avoid the pain that we have. I love that as a quote. Was that yours?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think that I also say in that chapter that pain is the offer of salvation. Lewis would say it a different way. He would say that pain is God's megaphone that he uses to rouse the deaf world. We have to realize that the various things we experience, even the things that are self-inflicted, are done for the purpose of pain and for the purpose of beauty, which I would cover in later steps there. But a healed man is more perfect than a perfect man that never needs to be healed, like if there's there's something, something more perfect. Perfect in the nature of, of healing, the nature of restoration, the nature of forgiveness, um, the nature of the ascent out of the depths of hell, rather than the man who's always sort of been, you know, sort of an earthly okay man, who was never at risk. There's certain elements of beauty that bring out the joy in the pain itself, and I talk about that a little bit later in the book.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you get through the last three steps. If you will Give away what you want to keep, act like you will live forever and seek beauty and you may find truth. Act like you will live forever and seek beauty and you may find truth. And again, part about this like these nine steps. They're not. It's it's a very uncommon book. So the uncommon leader podcast, like the chapter names, are uncommon and they force you to think your way in as you go into each chapter.
Speaker 1:I want to ask you a couple more questions. I'm just watching time in terms of how I've made a commitment to you. The idea behind the book, because you mentioned you like to go back and read older literature that exists in terms of some of that space. What drove you to write the book. And then, secondly, someone who reads it and ends up putting it on a bookshelf, just like this one behind me. What do you want them to think when they see that binding a year later? Or what do you want them to do when they see that binding a year later after they've read it?
Speaker 2:Sorry, three questions.
Speaker 2:I apologize for lumping it. That's good. That's good. So, first off, I'm 46. I just turned 46 about six months ago, and so I am six months removed from this age bracket. So I am six months removed from this age bracket and so my hope is that I have some relatability to the men that are in this meaning crisis. For the most part, not all men that are 25 or 45 are in this meaning crisis. There's men that are older, there's men that are younger that are in this meaning crisis, and so my hope is I have some relatability, my hope also in this book I tell some stories of just some amazing things that I've seen with my own eyes and been able to participate in during my life, whether it was running for Congress, this room, for example.
Speaker 2:I'm here at my office here. I've had the Secret Service in this room five times. Just some crazy things. But I'm going to assume that most men would want to live the sort of life that I've been blessed enough to live, and so that I'm trying to offer a pathway for how I've seen that come to fruition for my life of despair. And I'm a dad of three girls. I don't have any sons, so I'm not writing this book for my sons. But as I look around and I look at the prospects for boys and teenagers and men in the society, I don't have a whole lot of hope that my daughters are going to be able to find someone of equal caliber. I'll just put it out there. I don't mean that to sound cocky, but I've actually put a lot of work into me being a better person and I think that they live with me and they have very high standards, and so I've come to the realization that if there's not going to be any quality men out there, any good men, any strong leaders, I'm going to have to build them. And so this book is the book that I'm going to hand to my future sons-in-law to teach them how to be men. I am literally going to have to build the men for my daughters. I just know that's going to be the situation and that's what was going on in the back of my mind when I was writing this.
Speaker 2:What would I say to my future sons-in-law, my future grandsons, who are really stuck in this generation? We have to realize that we never get anything. We don't first give away Um, that's. That's what step seven giveaway. Way you want to keep Um.
Speaker 2:The other way to put it is to put it in the words of Lewis that nothing that you have not given away will ever really be yours. Um, it's the same for us that are in business. If, if I have a lot of wealth, I'm going to hoard the money that I have, it's going to get eaten up by inflation, and the only solution that I have from losing all my money to inflation is to give it to an entrepreneur and go invest it in another venture with hope of returning a yield higher than inflation. But if I don't give it to that entrepreneur, I lose all my money in the end. The only way to have a tree to shade me and to give me fruit is to give is to give away the seed and let the seed die in the in the ground. Without that, I'm never going to have a tree to find shade or fruit. The only way I'm going to have love is to first give love. The only way I'm ever going to have a life is to first give away my life to something that's higher and better than me. Even Christ says that if you want to save your life, you have to lose yourself. Lose your life for my sake we life, you have to lose yourself. Lose your life for my sake. We see this truth over and over again in the great scriptures, not only in the Christian domain, but also in the Bhagavad Gita, also in the Tao Te Ching, also in the great traditions of philosophy that you only get to keep what you first give away. And so this is about two and a half years of my life that I've given away to this effort.
Speaker 2:I was hoping, with the tragedy that happened in Texas three or four days ago with the campground, I was hoping to give away a thousand books. I looked at the website earlier this morning. We've been blessed to give away around 4,000 books so far. Just impute a little bit of hope in the people that have some tragedy, and folks probably can't see it. I've got a copy of the book here. The cover blurb is Dr Ben Carson, one of the most competent men alive. Man has 60 honorary doctors, former secretary of house and urban development. He calls the book triumphantly hopeful, triumphantly hopeful, and so my hope is that I'm able to at least give out a little bit of hope to the people that are in despair, whether it be women or men. But I think probably the best thing that I can do for the women that are in tragedy right now is to give the men that they love a little bit of hope and call them forth and call them out of their comfort.
Speaker 1:That's so cool, rick. I am so man.
Speaker 1:I'm so glad that Damon connected us and being able to share just for me to get a chance to meet you is something that's really cool, and I can see me gifting this book as well to my 26 and 28 year old sons, also to to learn from it. I love the um connection with Ben Carson as well. Uh, and inside the book, you, you, uh, compare him to George Washington. So I look forward to really kind of diving in and reading that in more depth also. Um, but just the meaning behind what you're trying to create is really powerful. Where do you want folks to go to get a copy of that book and where can they go to also stay connected with you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, great question, john. Right now I just put up a meaning video series, sort of a mini masterclass, on my website, rickwalkercom. Rickwalkercom just click nine steps at the top and there is a series of three videos. I have PDF handouts that go with each of three videos and at the end, if you feel comfortable with that, you're welcome to buy a book there or on amazon or barnes and noble and go deep through it. I have audiobooks, obviously kindle pdf. Actually today, the 10th um is the last day, but it's free today on amazon, uh, amazon kindle kindle that's where I got mine today.
Speaker 1:Yesterday was on the Kindle. Yeah, I got the free version. Yeah, but I'm going to get the hard copies. I got to have hard copies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, me too. Yeah, it helps to mark it up. And what you mentioned, john, is something that I really worked very hard on is I'm trying to distill these things into quotes that are memorable. I work really, really hard in getting the rhythm of the quotes in a way that when you read a couple of times, you can begin to sort of build it into your repertoire, and I'm hoping men will steal these quotes, would steal these quotes and use them in every day.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you're allowing us to steal them, but I will certainly attribute those to you that are in there. The alliteration is really cool. It makes it easier to pick up and remember. There's different forms of alliteration that you're using, the opposites and the pronunciation, all those things. I don't know all the words for them, but I know exactly how some of those are going to connect with me even more because I'm a big fan of quotes as well. So, man, this is really cool. Rick, I've enjoyed our conversation. I want to give you the last word in one of my kind of traditional Uncommon Leader podcast finishes, and that's to give you a billboard anywhere you, and you can put it anywhere you want to. What's the message that you would put on that billboard and why do you put that message there?
Speaker 2:There's a message that I believe is not only philosophical and psychologically true, but it's also theologically true Because it's a. It's a message that is, that is of necessity, and it's connected directly to sort of ultimate reality. And I say I say that before I say it because people are going to are going to hear this and hear different things. I'll repeat it twice because I'm sure there's people that are watching this podcast that don't want to write it down If a drop of hope exists anywhere, it threatens all threats everywhere.
Speaker 2:Repeat that, repeat that If a drop of hope exists anywhere, it threatens all threats everywhere. What that means is that if I have an ounce of hope, and even though I'm a thousand miles from you, it's possible for my hope to invade your reality. And hope is such a fungible thing, it's such a useful thing, it's such a sort of a wild card that it can flip all your threats into opportunities. It can de-threaten everything that you're up against if hope is just allowed to invade. And so my encouragement for your audience right now is just to know that hope is lurking no-transcript.
Speaker 1:Your time today with the listeners of the Uncommon Leader Podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you for your hospitality, John. I appreciate you.
Speaker 1:And that wraps up another episode of the Uncommon Leader Podcast. Thanks for tuning in today. If you found value in this episode, I encourage you to share it with your friends, colleagues or anyone else who could benefit from the insights and inspiration we've shared. Also, if you have a moment, I'd greatly appreciate if you could leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback not only helps us to improve, but it also helps others discover the podcast and join our growing community of uncommon leaders. Until next time, go and grow champions.