Why would anybody in his right mind want to jump on a sled and hurl himself down an icy mountain at over 80 miles per hour? Get to know The Luge Man, Ruben Gonzalez, in this episode to find out why. At the age of 21, Ruben Gonzalez took up the sport of luge and started training for the Olympics. Soon after, he made his Olympic dream come true and, at 47, became the first person ever to compete in four Winter Olympics in four different decades! Ruben joins host, Dr. Tracey Jones, to share his epic story with us and how his experiences made him the incredible leader he is now. He gives his insights on what it takes to pay the price of leadership, how to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, and, with his book, The Courage to Succeed, provides wisdom on having the heart to endure and stay in the game long enough to learn the skills and win.
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The Courage To Succeed As An Athlete And Leader With Ruben Gonzalez
Why would anybody in their right mind want to jump on a sled and hurl down an icy mountain at over 80 miles per hour? You're about to find out. Our guest is Ruben Gonzalez. Ruben is the first person ever to compete in four Winter Olympics in four different decades. He's a dear friend. He's known as The Luge Man. He's an author, speaker, just all over the place, and an incredible leader. You are going to love reading about what Ruben has to say about what it takes to pay the price of leadership.
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I am excited because I have a longtime friend, speaker, expert writer, and athlete, Ruben Gonzalez. Let me tell you about Ruben. You're going to love to know his perspective on the price of leadership. At the age of 21, Ruben Gonzalez took up the sport of luge and started training for the Olympics. Four years and a few broken bones later, Ruben made his Olympic team dream come true but he didn't stop there. Ruben kept training and at the age of 47, he was racing against twenty-year-olds at the Vancouver Winter Olympics.
He’s the first person to ever compete in four separate Winter Olympics in four different decades. He's one of the most popular speakers in America. Ruben’s best-selling book, The Courage to Succeed has been translated into ten different languages. I know you're going to love reading about this man. He’s the genuine thing. He's an awesome guy. He's adventurous and I hope someday I can grow up to be half as tremendous as him. Thanks for being on my show.
It’s good to see you and hang out with you. I met your dad years ago. I was on this circuit called the get motivated circuit. Zig Ziglar was there, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones and all these great speakers. I was totally green. I've only been speaking for a couple of years and this is two groups of 3,000 to 5,000 people from all over the place. The first time it was somewhere in South Alabama, maybe it was Birmingham. I can still picture the stage. It had all these red white and blue sashes. This big tall guy walks up to me and grabs me in this big bear hug.
I don't want a man hugging me so I'm trying to pull up but he's too strong. He smacks a big ole kiss on my face. I didn't know what to say. When he went up on stage because I was stage left or stage right backstage and he walked in. He did his thing and I thought, “I've never even heard of this guy. He's awesome.” That was Charlie “Tremendous” Jones. As part of the price of leadership before you have to lead you to have to follow. You have to follow other leaders.
I was up there and I was green so I'm taking notes. I'm seeing what Charlie does? Who does he look at? Where does he stand? How does he put these stories together? How does he use pauses in his stories? It’s the same thing with Zig. I remember the first six times I spoke to these big groups. You can't see them. You have these huge lights. It's like a big Mack truck about to hit you and I felt lost. I realized that I'm not connecting with the audience and I realized that I need that.
I looked at Zig and before the seventh time for the first time, I noticed that he spent 75% of his time looking down at the first couple of rows because you could see those people and he could see their expression. He was feeding off of them. He would spend a few seconds looking up there, which is a black spot but to connect to that group, and up there and up there, and he'd go back here and feed off to us. That’s how you do it. I can speak to a million now because you focus on those front two roads. Those are things you pick up from your leaders. You have to be hungry and you have to be willing.
I was 21 years old. I decided to take up the sport of luge. I live in hot and humid Houston. There are not many luges going on down there. I went to Lake Placid but before I went, I said to myself, “I don't know a thing.” I'm going to be learning from the US Olympic coaches so my attitude is, “Whatever they say, I'm going to do.” I'm going to humble myself to their leadership, because who am I? I don't know a thing and that’s what I did. A couple of times, they said things that totally didn't make sense but I had made that promise to myself that I'm going to follow them. If you do that long enough there that no matter how good you are, there's somebody out there that's better than you. You might be in the top ten in the world, but you're not number one yet. There’s somebody you can learn from.
I tell people, “I'm like your neighbor. I'm not a great athlete. I went to four Olympics. I’m a season English. I'm a best-selling author. I’m not a real best-selling author at 300,000 books sold over many years. I'm a shy guy. I'm a professional speaker. There’s nothing special about me. The only thing is I'm a good soldier. I'm good at finding the general, the person who already did what I want to do, and I listened to them and if you do that long enough, you'll learn.”
Jack Canfield said, and you had a program with him, one thing he told me was, “It doesn't matter where you are on the road to success. If you're getting on the bus, your way on the back of the bus, and you're not the driver yet, that's okay. Eventually, you're going to work your way up as you're learning from the leaders and you're bringing other people up. You're a conduit of the information.” That's what everybody's been doing forever.
I love that you brought that out because my research project was on followership. Enough about the leaders. The person that is at the entry-level or mid-level, we have to have the wherewithal to be open and teachable and look at the leaders because otherwise, they put it on the leaders. It's like, “No. You, as a follower, be a sponge and be a soldier get in there.” The person up there is emulating a role modeling what you're doing, but they can't do it for you and a lot of people want to blame it on the leader and I'm like, “You can't blame it on any of them.” There are bad leaders out there but we don't follow them. We're critical thinkers. We say, “I don't want to follow this person.” Ruben, I’ve got to ask you this. Why the sport of luge? Why did you pick that out of all that, Houston boy?
I was born in Argentina. We're all soccer fanatics over there. I played soccer all my life. You do anything long enough you develop skills. You stay in a game long enough, you develop skills. Everything's tough at the beginning. I've told that to my kids ever since they were yay high. Everything's tough at the beginning because you have no skills. You don't know what you're doing so you stay in the game. You listen to the leaders, your coach, and you'll get skills. Use the skills to reach a goal or a dream. I have good skills with soccer but I'm a slowpoke. I'm all slow twitch. I'm not a great athlete. Even though I was good with a soccer ball I wasn't fast enough. The other guy always got it first. I was still on the bench. It’s frustrating.
When I was ten years old, I saw the Olympics on TV and I was hooked. I knew right away that's my dream. That's what I want to do but I didn't believe it was possible because I'm on the bench even for kickball. I wouldn't get picked for anything. This is not false modesty. It’s who I was. When I was 21, I'm watching the Olympics on TV. I see Scott Hamilton, the figure skater. He's about 5 feet tall, 110 pounds, and soaking wet. This little eighteen-year-old kid wins a gold medal for figure skating. He gave me hope. I thought, “If that little guy can win, I can at least play. I’ll be in the next Olympics no matter what. It's a done deal. I've got to find a sport.” I knew that I had to put together a plan for the next four years and I would base the plan on my strengths would probably be a smart thing to do. My nickname in high school was Bulldog because I was tenacious. I don't quit.
That’s a beautiful trait. That would get you through 99% of life. It’s that tenacity.
I'm reading this book called Talent is Overrated, and it's true. Hard work trumps talent when talent doesn't work hard. If your attitude is, “I'm going to outwork the competition and follow my coaches,” you get it eventually. It might be slow but turtles pass those hares a lot in real life. They do.
You're the Bulldog and how did this get to I’m still a boy?
I saw Scott Hamilton, I got all excited, and I went to the library and got me a big book about the Olympics. I’ve got to find a sport. I'm looking at the summer sports took me five minutes to realize you’ve got to be a super athlete doing this stuff, “No way.” I'm looking at winter sports. I'm looking at that list and I thought, “I’ve got to base my plan on my strengths.” My strength is perseverance. I'm Bulldog. I’ve got to find a sport that’s got many broken bones. Be tough that there will be a lot of quitters, only I won't quit. I'll make it to the top of the attrition rate. That's my whole plan. I'm going to outlast these suckers.
It's a plan.
Do something hard. There's less competition out there. Ski jump, bobsled, or luge, I head down to those three. I lived in Houston. I never skied before. There’s no way I'm doing a ski jump. That's suicide. Bobsled, who are you going to fight three other nuts who want to do the bobsled? Would you make up for that? Do you know Devon Harris?
Yes.
He's great. Devon Harris is one of the original Jamaican bobsledders. He’s a speaker and lives in New York. He’s a great guy. That left the luge, and I've never seen the luge on TV at that point in my life. I had a little picture of a guy in a luge. I thought, “That looks pretty tough. That's the one for me.” Thank God I never saw the luge because I would have been too scared to try it. I wrote Sports Illustrated a letter because I didn't know. What was the track? I didn’t know anything and my dad always said, “If you’ve got across a minefield and you will have to cross lots of them in life, it makes sense to follow somebody who’s already crossed it preferably, somebody that is still walking.” Find a coach or find a mentor.
The Courage to Succeed: Success Secrets of an Unlikely Three-time Olympian
I wrote to Sports Illustrated and asked them, “Where do you go to learn how to luge?” They wrote back and said, “Lake Placid, New York.” They sent me a picture. This is out of their magazine. That's where the staples went. It's all yellow because that's tape. As soon as I got that picture, I put it in this frame. This is 30 plus years old and that picture went right in front of my bed. The first person I saw in the morning when I woke up was the luge man. He reminded me, “I'm going to the Olympics. I better read and write, hang around winners, and read good books.”
Leaders are readers. We're eternal learners. I'm competing against myself in life. The better I become by reading all these books, the better chance or probability that I'll reach my goals. There are no guarantees in life but I've increased my probabilities. I’ve got to eat right, hang around winners, the books you read and people hang around with. Where have I heard that before? He kept me focused. At night, before I shut off the lights, the last person I saw was the luge man. I was dreaming about the luge and the Olympics. He kept me going.
I want you to notice something. This guy, I didn't know him at the time but he's not even good. His feet are not pointed, his head is way up. He got three airbrakes there. Look at that suit. It's all raggedy. He's been in a lot of crashes. This guy is a newbie but that was my picture of the luge man. He kept me going. That was my goal-setting system and by doing that, by following him, a few years later, I became that guy. That's at the Salt Lake City Olympics. Head is a little high. At least I'm pointing my toes. No raggedy, not too much. You learn from other people.
From reading Benjamin Franklin's biography, he talked about cherry-pick attitudes, traits, and good things from people that you admire so that's what I do. I'm always trying to learn from everybody. Somebody told me if I read everything in this book, this is a good book, by the way, I write a book and I start copying stuff out of that book, do you know what that's called? It’s plagiarism. It’s no good. It will get you in trouble but if I read all the books, I pick up ideas, and I use stories from my own life, that's not plagiarism. I'm copying from everybody without plagiarism. Do you know what’s it called? It’s research. That's what I do. I copy from everybody.
A student for life. Ruben, now I know how you wound up there. I love that. Dad talks about the price of leadership and you know this. He always spoke on leadership and he was known as a motivator but he was also pragmatic. He's like, “Here are your highs. Here are your lows. You're going to go back and forth. You can't quit but you’ve got to stay the course.” No wonder you love each other so much. I'm glad he grabbed and kissed you. I hear that a lot. That's awesome. He would have done good in COVID. Soon we'll be hugging and kissing. It's all good. I'm like, “Thank you, God, that he's in heaven.”
In the price of leadership, he talks about four things you’ve got to pay before you're a leader. I'd love to get your reflections on this from any stage of your life, whether it's as a speaker, writer, or an athlete competing in four separate Olympics. Talk to me about loneliness. We hear it’s lonely at the top and people are like, “I don't want to be the boss because then I can't hang out with anybody. It's lonely.” Even Jesus was lonely. He had his time alone in the garden. Can you tell me what that means for you as a leader? How you cope with loneliness and where you went through a season of it? What you learn from it and maybe a word of exhortation to some of our readers that may be in a season of loneliness?
I know that these days it's tough for extroverts because they like to be around people. I'm an introvert so it's not affecting me as much. We homeschool our kids from day one so we didn't have to figure out how to do that. My recipe for success is you’ve got to be willing to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to get the job done. No excuses. That doesn’t mean you step on other people. You’ve got moral, legal, and ethical. You’ve got to think long-term. If your goals are long-term, your day-to-day decisions are easy. When I was going for the Olympics and somebody offered me this big chocolate cake, it’s like, “Olympic or chocolate cake? I'll take the Olympics.” It was easy but when I'm not going for an Olympics, it's tough to make that decision. I'm goal-oriented. I’m going to eat the whole cake. Whatever it takes, as long as it takes.
When I first called Lake Placid, and I told them, “I'm an athlete here in Houston and I want to learn how to luge. I’m in the Olympics in four years. Will you help me?” The guy started laughing. He says, “You’re 21? No way. We start them off when they're ten years old but now you have ten years of experience.” He’s saying no. I thought they're going to welcome me and he's laughing at my dream. I didn't know what to do. The only thing I knew was hanging up is my option, but if I hang up the phone, it's all over. I had kept them talking. I thought that I had to keep him on and create rapport. I’ve got to think of something.
My dad always said, “Who are you going to hang around with? You become the people you hang around with.” You want to hang around people that are successful people and are always going places.” You're hanging around people that are not there yet. These are whiners and complainers. They'll infect your attitude, and they have the power to steal your dream. You have to protect your attitude so you’ve got to hang around winners. You'll feel awkward, like you don't belong, and won't feel right approaching them, but force yourself to do it because if you do, you'll become like them. You'll pick up their habits.
I tell people the easiest and the best diet in the world or you want to lose 10 pounds, start hanging around some skinny people. You won't even notice that you'll be riding bikes, walking, eating salad and you'll be happy because you pick up their habits and the pounds will come off because you become like that. He says, “Hang around those people,” and I did. What I noticed was that they think differently. They're always focusing on the dream. They don't focus on the obstacles. There's going to be an obstacle, but they focus on the dream because the dream is your strength, power, energy, and all those things you need to bust through obstacles.
They ask themselves different questions. “Why not me? Why not now? Why not?” Those are questions that get in your subconscious mind looking for an answer. When they get knocked down, they realize that winners don't have the luxury to wallow in their misery. As soon as you walk, get knocked down, you’ve got to get yourself back up because if you stay down there, you lose all your momentum. You're working hard, you hit a wall, now you’ve got to get back up. They would tell me things like, “When you hit that wall, immediately say to yourself, ‘There's always a way.’” God always gives me a way. If I don't quit, I'll find that way. I'm looking for that.
I’ve got a boxer friend Don Akers. Don Akers is a boxer. He gets knocked down and he has ten seconds to get back up. If he waits eleven seconds, he’ll lose the fight. From now on when you’re reading this, you're an honorary boxer. We’re winners. We can't afford to stay down. Life knocks you down and you get right back up and you still get some momentum. You don't have to work as hard to keep going. When I first called this guy, he's trying to talk me out of it. He says, “There's no way. You're too old. If you want to do it in four years, it could be brutal. We'd have to compress ten years of training into two years because for the last two years, you had to be competing in the World Cup Circuit against the best in the world to get these World Cup points.” Right before the Olympics, they tally everybody up. The top 50 gets to go, 51 you have to watch it on TV.
He goes, “Will you go?” I said, “Of course I'll go. I'll do whatever it takes.” I'm glad he didn't candy coat it. A real leader will not candy coat it to their people. He could have said, “Come on down. We’ve got a camp.” No, he told me, “You're going to break some bones. You’re going to compress. You’ll get hurt a lot.” I'm glad he told me because that gave me the opportunity to put on some mental armor. I know it's going to be hard. I knew it was going to be like going to war. I started thinking, “One of the things my leader friends, my dream team would say is, “You have to have contingency plans. You’ve got to hope for the best but prepare for the worst.” I thought, “What's the worst that’s going to happen?”
This guy said that I'm going to break some bones. How am I going to handle it? What am I going to do if I break a bone? I thought about it. I thought, “Forty days later, it's healed up. It's stronger than before.” When you think about it, broken bones are a temporary inconvenience. That's how I framed it. If I break a bone, I’m going to come back. I'll go and they put me in a class with fifteen guys. Some of you guys are quitting because they’ve got a bruise. Maybe they didn't want it as badly as I want it or maybe they didn’t think about it going to be tough. They had all these reasons for quitting, “It's too expensive. It's too far away. I miss my family. I don't like the luge.” I hated the luge. I was killing myself out there but the luge was the vehicle. The Olympics was the dream. I focus on the dream.
For the first seven years, I missed seven Christmases in a row because there was a little Christmas break between Christmas and New Year's, but if I’m halfway around the world training, it didn't make sense. I couldn't afford it. Every penny I saved was more time I was going to get to train. I missed seven Christmases. I was lonely but you focus on the dream again. I remember one time I was in Calgary. I was staying at this friend's house. Luckily, I found a place to stay during those two weeks and they had left for two weeks to go to see their family. I was in the apartment by myself and I remember spending all Christmas Day sewing all the holes in my luge suit because it was full of holes at that point from all my crashes. I wasn't feeling sorry for myself. Each of these is making me faster. I’m more aerodynamic. Is it going to be all raggedy doing this? It’s what you focus on.
Your dream becomes your partner so you can focus on it. A guy interviewed said, “You may be alone physically, but as long as you have your values and as you would see that dream that will accompany you.” Intrinsically we know that the season of loneliness is going to be for now.
It’s a season.
You’ve got to go through that season because people are going to be on the luge with your training. They're not going to be giving up their Christmas. This is your road to walk so you may have to walk it alone and that doesn't mean you're doing something wrong as a leader. It may be the season that you have to. I love that you didn't just sit there. I remember being in the military and people would be like, “You're way over the holidays.” I'm like, “We signed up for that. We’ve got to be tough. Don't feel sorry for me. This is what we wanted to do.”
I can’t stand people that complain.
Not in America. It's a free country. If it’s life, do something else.
It turns me off. I don't want to be around them. It's like, “Yuck.” It’s like George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life when he is losing everything. Right before he's going to jump off that bridge, he goes to Mr. Potter, the guy that owns everything, the bad guy. Mr. Potter offers him and triples his salary if he’ll manage this stuff. He shakes his hand, looks at his hands and he’s like, “Yuck.” He’s like, “No, I'm not going to work for you,” and he runs off. I get that yuck factor when people are whining and complaining because I want to slap them.
Courage To Succeed: As part of the price of leadership, before you have to lead, you have to follow.
Zig would call them SNIOP, Susceptible to the Negative Influence of Other People. I hear it and I'm like, “Ms. Tracey, I’ve got no time for this. Save it. Social media is full of stuff. If you want to dump and vent, please go over there.”
What we focus on is huge. Before my fourth Olympics, I decided, “Let's see if this body can do it again.” I was about 45 when I started training and I rushed it. I wish I hadn't but it was the last minute thing. I did two seasons to try to break into it. This coach for the American team, we've become great friends. He’s somebody else you need to have on your show. Jonathan Edwards and he's a descendant of Jonathan Edwards that used to be the big preacher. Jonathan said, “I can't believe you're still scared on that slide after 25 years doing this. What's going on in your head when you're going down the slide?”
I said, “Those walls go faster and tighter by the bottom of the track. I'm surprised I can even steer. I'm stiff.” He said, “Ruben, luge is not about speed,” and I said, “What?” He goes, “We're surrounded by speed but it's about time. It's about who has the best time. You could be clocked at the fastest speed but if you crashed at the bottom of the track, you lost the race. Don't focus on the speed. Put on blinders like a horse next time you go and you're going to focus not on the speed, but on what do I need to do on every section of every curve? How do I need to steer in order to assure them I have the best line that will give me the best time?” We lose about 30 feet of that track of time. That's how we do it. “If you do that, the fear will disappear.”
I trust him. He was number four in the Lillehammer Olympics. He understands and he can get in my head. That night, I took about 100 loose runs, mental. We call mind runs, visualizing with the blinders on. The next day I got on the track, the fear disappeared. It didn't reduce. It changed the focus and changed everything. What's everybody focusing on? “COVID and the economy is terrible. I don't know what to do.” They're whining. COVID is the same. That's the speed. We all got COVID. That's the environment we're in.
You need to focus on, what do I need to do in the next fifteen minutes to move my business forward? Who do I need to talk to? “Nobody's buying now.” Fine. They may not but you can strengthen those relationships by touching base with everybody, “How is it going?” When things change, you position yourself. Remember, you’re top of mind and now you're going to make it. This is a tough time. Do you know what tough times bring? It's a shakedown. A lot of people are going to go out of business. We're not going to go out of business because we're the winners.
Sheep from the goat. Boys from the men. This is a great pruning. I was in my devotion about, our Father is the tree and we're the minds, and if we’re not producing, we're not fruitful.
I started speaking professionally in 2002. I was a copier salesman and I sold copiers in Downtown Houston. When you look at the picture of Downtown Houston, I've knocked on every door of every floor of every building several times. I’ve sold copiers and paper shredders. The only building you can never get in was Enron and we always wonder what's going on in there. We figured, “If you can sell a copier in Enron, it's proof that you are the best in the world,” and they walk us out. It's like trying to get through TSA. I was wondering, “What's going on in there?” When I found out, I thought, “I could have sold them $1 million worth of shredders.”
I was doing that right before the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002. Before I go to the Olympics in February, this kid from my neighborhood said, “Ruben, if you come back from the Olympics, will you be my Show and Tell project in school?” I said, “Sure. Why not?” That picture Show and Tell when I was a kid, 20 to 30 kids, everybody's got to show something in five minutes just get them to talk about something. I thought, “In five minutes, I'll be in and out of there. No prisoners. I'm finally going to win a gold medal. I'm going to kill.”
I took the sled, helmet, and Olympic torch. I got to the school and the principal took me to the cafeteria. They call it the auditorium. There are 200 kids sitting on the floor. He says, “You’ve got 45 minutes. Have at them.” I thought I was going to die. That’s a little soul inviting. I said a little prayer. I said, “God, what do I do now?” Desperation and prayer. I never heard God talk to me. Let's get this straight, but he's put thoughts in my mind. He’s put feelings in my heart and what I felt that needed to do was, “Tell them your story. Give them some pointers to help them reach their goals and dreams,” and I did.
Afterward, the principal said, “You better get people to pay. You need this for a living.” He's going on and on, and I said, “Would you get paid for Show and Tell?” He said, “No, it's a speaking profession.” I quit my job three days later and I thought, “I can sell a copier and I can sell a ribbon too.” I don't recommend it. It’s bad approach. Somehow, we made it through but I decided to quit. This is three months after 9/11. The speaking business has dropped. I was like, “No one is traveling and no one is meeting. I was afraid I was going to get blown up.” That's when I decided to become a speaker.
In 2008, it was a big pruning time too. Everything went down. I'm telling you, this is not about me. I'm telling you these stories because I want you to pull out principles. How can I apply some of this stuff? Otherwise, it’s just entertainment. As soon as COVID hits, all meetings are getting canceled. I'll be honest, I was deer in the headlights for about two days, and then I realized, “I got a mastermind.” I started calling a few of my speaker friends and said, “Let's meet on Zoom twice a week at least. Let's throw mud on the wall and someone's going to stick. Let's make all the mistakes we can and clean up the mess later. Let's make as many mistakes and let's get back to best practices. Let's share and let's try to figure this thing out,” and we figured it out.
The volume is not nearly as high as it was before but we've got this Zoom and these virtual presentation things down pat now. When things normalize, it's going to be better than before because now, there's still going to be a place for Zoom meetings. Maybe every quarter you bring in a speaker and nobody has to leave work. It's cheap and you still get to bring them in once a year. You need that networking and you need to feel each other. It's going to be better in the long run. That’s what we’re focusing on because if I just think about how it is, I'm going to get depressed and I'll stop doing anything I do. That’s all an attitude thing. It’s a decision.
How do you cope with weariness as a leader? How do you stay refreshed? You don't get to be in the Olympics and compete without going the extreme of your body, or even with growing your speaking business. I remember my dad telling me stories of how he'd sleep on the floor in train stations because he couldn't afford a hotel. He had Hawk books out of the back of the car. He was relentless, but it was tiring. I know you talked about people in books. That's the surest way to do it. Can you share with us how you take care of it?
You have to figure out. Know thyself. You have to figure out what refreshes you. For me, it's riding the bike or going on a hike, even if it's a one-hour hike. You see God's glory everywhere. It's like, “This is awesome.” You get some good ideas. Invariably, when I ride the bike for an hour, you get the blood flowing on parts of the brain that wouldn't get enough blood before. You get all these ideas so you're not wasting an hour. You're coming back with some great ideas. Some people may want to play the guitar. That gets them excited. Maybe it's reading a book. It could be anything. Maybe it’s playing with your dog or playing catch with your kids.
It's funny I read something years ago about Thomas Edison. He had all these patents and he was productive. What can we learn about productivity? What could I cherry-pick from Thomas Edison? One thing he did was he would work on one project for 90 minutes with nothing. He wouldn't even check his emails. With no interruptions, and then he can take a break. I've been to where his office was. He had a little lake and his thing was fishing. He sat out there and when he caught anything, that was his refresh.
He would bring people's little path. You walk and fish, and you come back and get back to work in 90 minutes on something else. We homeschool our kids. Ever since they were little, I trained them. I told them, “I need at least 3 or 4 of these 90-minute chunks a day.” If I can get 3 or 4 of those, I had a great day. I'm going to work for 90 minutes on something and then we can play. Whatever you want to do for 20 to 30 minutes, I'm yours, and then I've got another, but with no interruptions because I got another 90-minute. That's how we did it, and it works. Don't check your emails and don't multitask. It's no good.
That brings us to the next point, which is abandonment. Abandonment is like, “You're abandoned.” No. That’s hyperfocus. You need to focus on what you need and ought to think about in favor of thinking about chocolate cake. You already hit on it. I love that. Talk to me more. Do you have any other tips? That 90-minute thing is absolutely brilliant. Boundaries and let your kids know, “I'll beat you in this.” What else can you do to stay focused on your next goal, Ruben?
Don't make all these goal lists. One thing that I do though, I know what my long-term goal is and I write it down. You have to write it down every day. Why do I have to write it down? It’s because writing it down is an act of commitment. It goes into your subconscious mind. Don't do it on the typewriter. Grab a pencil. Maybe this pencil didn't last you for ten years if that's all you do. It could be a phrase. It could be 5 and 5. That’s mine. I know what that means and I write it down. Now my day is focused. Everything I'm doing is to help me reach that goal.
I know you went to the Air Force Academy. I love it. We live about 10 miles away from the Air Force Academy and our son wants to go there. He wants to make money because he builds remote control, RC planes. He designs them then builds them, then flies them. This kid is amazing. I don’t need to change all my cars. He could build planes from scratch. After he started getting into the RC, he crashed a couple of these $100 planes. I said, “You're going to have to figure out a way to make money because I'm not going to be paying for this thing anymore,” so he was looking for things to do.
He’s like, “Besides mowing the lawn and doing stuff around the house, what else can I do?” I said, “Do you see those books over there?” I got this idea from your dad. I did the exact same thing. I told him, “Those are all personal development and leadership books. Pick what you want, read them, and write a one-page report. I didn’t care if it was written right. I just want you to give me some takeaways. What did you learn from this? Together, we'll write a book out of it.” We're going to write a book out of it. He loved your book about the Millennials.
He read that and gave me feedback on that too.
Courage To Succeed: You become the people you hang around with, so hang around those that are successful and are always going places.
He read Jimmy Doolittle’s biography, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again. It’s an awesome biography if you haven’t read it and Billy Mitchell: Crusader for Air Power.
A couple of names I know.
We're running a book and we call the book, The Launching Pad. It's all about leadership, so we’re going to get the first edition of this book. All these congressmen and all these people need to recommend him to go to the Air Force Academy. We're going to try to tip the scales and hopefully, he'll make his dream come true if he wants to fly and design airplanes. He must be an aeronautical engineer. Do you see how it's the same principles though? Ever since they were little, I've read and I've learned this from the biography of somebody famous.
It's common where their kids are screwed up because they try to push their kids to try to do the same thing and mess them up. People ask me, “Do you want your kids to be Olympians?” I told them, “I couldn't care less. They’ve got to figure out what their Olympics are and it doesn't even have anything to do with sports. You could be an Olympic teacher, restaurant owner, or engineer. You figure out what your Olympics are and I'll help you with the process. I'll help you get around people that you can cherry-pick from but don't try to be like me because you're not like me. You're just half like me.”
A lot of people say, “Fifteen-year-olds are just sitting there fiddle farting around on social media on their phones or video games. That's all they do.” No. That's not what all of them do. I know quite a few that don't do that and they have to learn abandonment and focus on vision. You could pick that up at any stage of your life at any age.
He said, “I need more of a place to work, dad.” During COVID, we built and designed desks for him. We did it together. He writes code. This kid is smart. He's got a 3D printer. He bought it for $500 with some of the stuff that he made. The money he made from reading those books. He took it all apart and he upgraded it. He goes, “Now it's ten times faster and it makes less noise.” I said, “You’ve got to work on my car.” We play ping pong too. Ping pong is a good thing. Do you know what ping pong does? It gets both sides of the brain working.
Going for a walk is good too, because it gets both sides working. Now you get more ideas. That's why I get ideas when I'm riding the bike because all these thoughts are starting to crisscross. He designs engines with an AutoCAD and he builds them. If he doesn't get into the Air Force Academy, I don't know. Sure, I’m bragging on my kid but what I'm trying to show through that story is that these are principles that we're passing on.
All stages and all ages. This is universal.
When I was a kid, my dad got me to read books. He said, “If you study the lives of great people, you'll figure out what works and what doesn't work in life because success leaves clues. Read biographies.” He's a chemical engineer and he knew I had no interest in that. I don't read. Most people could easily push me into reading all these engineering books and that would have just repelled me from the books. He said, “No. Read about anybody that you like because the principles are the same in every arena. Read about them.”
I read about race car drivers and athletes. I like the military, I love Patton. In college, I discovered How to Win Friends & Influence People, my first personal development book. I thought, “There are ten times many principles in this. I don't have to fish for them because they're all over the place.” I read See You At The Top and all these classics. The Magic of Thinking Big and all these great books. The funny thing is you read a book that's written in the ‘60s and they reference a book that was written in the ‘30s and they reference a book that was written in the 1800s. You keep going back and you always end up in the same place, Proverbs.
I read one Proverb a day, 31 Proverbs every day. It's the greatest leadership book of all time. What do I know about leadership? Raising kids, taking care of animals, sluggards, and fools. It's in Proverbs. Your father started that. Dad was the same way too. He's like, “You read books, but this is the books you're going to read, personal development or a biography or an autobiography. Not CS Lewis.” He'd let me slip in every now and then for a little of his fantasy or science fiction.
The Screwtape Letters is amazing. He was smart to understand how people thought.
I loved him and Tolkien, any of the Christian fiction or something like that. I got to slip them in. Talk to me about vision and what does vision mean for you? I love that you shared who you are. That was dad. He was who he was. He was humble. Yet, we look at some people and go, “They're visionaries. They were born with an extra lobe in their brain or something. They see things that I can't see.” It's like, “No.” He would always say, “Vision is just seeing what needs to be done and doing it.” You have specified that this whole time. You knew where you wanted to go and you went for it. You made it and you made it yours, and you worked it because dad would say, “Nothing works unless you work it.” How do you dial your vision and how do you get clarity? We're only competing against ourselves, but how do we keep honing our vision? The best is yet to come.
If you want to become known for your goal. I became known as the guy who wanted to go to the Olympics. You know that nobody thought that I had a prayer. I became known for that crazy loose guy. If all you ever think about is that goal and you create your life to where it will help you reach that goal. Average people, which is most people out there and those are the ones you won't be listening to anyways, they call you a fanatic. Do you know what fanatic means in leader talk? It means you’re focused and you know what you want to do. These people have no idea. You’ve got to get good at saying no because you can't have everything. You’ve got to figure out what's important to you in life.
If you're trying to please everybody and saying yes to everybody, then you're not living for yourself. Thoreau said, “Most men live lives of desperate death.” They're desperate inside but they feel lost because they're not taking the risk to go after their goals and dreams. You have a midlife crisis because you have all these unfulfilled dreams and you try to find a young woman to chase. Most guys that get into that trouble are because they never fulfill that heart. Here's another thing. It’s off subject but you have to be willing to approach the person that's the best in your field.
With the internet, it's easy now, “I don't want to waste your time. I don't want to impose.” You're not imposing. As long as your attitude is you're willing to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes, whatever they tell you because they know. They've been there and they went through that minefield. If you're willing to do what they say, then you're not imposing. If you're going to be an eternal learner like the college professor that has five PhDs who have never done anything with their life, then don't bug them.
Here's why you have to approach them. You always hear, “She's successful, but she's empty inside. He's successful, but he's always looking for something else.” Do you know why? Success is the silver medal. You're not there yet. The gold medal is called significance. Do you know how you get significance? By helping other people succeed and creating a ripple effect of success because now you know you made a difference. You can look at them and that fills that little hole. When you approach that person, they're helping you get that silver medal and you're helping them get that gold medal. It’s symbiosis. That's why I have no qualms about calling anybody.
You learned that and you also had to knock on doors as a salesperson. I still maintain doing cold call sales.
Go work for Southwestern books for a while.
I'd rather go to war than sell books.
Whenever I run into anybody who's worked at Southwestern books for more than one summer, I have respect for them.
In case you have medals.
Talent Is Overrated:What Really Separates World-Class Performers From Everybody Else
One of my bosses, when I sold copiers, had done that. I don't know what I did with it but he gave me a copy of the manual which showed, “When you're going through a street, this is how you go through the streets to maximize everything.” I was like, “This is gold.” Don't be afraid. I wrote a book called The Courage to Succeed. It's not my courage to succeed. It’s the courage to succeed. Everybody has courage. You’ve got to have two types of courage to reach your dream. You have the courage to get started, and everything's hard at the beginning because you don't have any skills. You have to have the courage to endure or stay in the game long enough to learn the skills.
When I saw the Olympics as a ten-year-old, I thought, “That's what I want to do.” I didn't believe it was possible so I didn't do anything. If you get started, it comes from believing it's possible. If you believe something's possible, I'll give it a shot. The courage to not quit comes from your desire. If you want something badly enough, nothing is going to make you quit. That's why I said all those people who were quitting will lose. Maybe they didn't want it as much as me, but they like the idea of being an Olympian, “I want to be an Olympian.” It wasn’t about the medals for me. This is crazy. It was not about the medals. I want to be one of those guys. You don't want to be a five-star general. You want to be one of those people that got to go to the Air Force Academy. You want to be part of that brotherhood.
I knew I was never political enough. That wasn't me. I wanted that. I wanted to be in the camaraderie of that.
What I miss the most from the luge, it's not the competition. Believe it or not, it's not even the Olympics. It's traveling track to track in a stinky old van with a bunch of other guys who are chasing their dream, that's what I missed the most just hanging around the guys. I go to the school, I decided I'm going to be a speaker. I quit my job. We have a daughter. My wife is a full-time mom. I quit. All of a sudden, I got no income and no health insurance. Mama was not happy that day. I knew that I could do it. I believe and I knew I could do it so I was ready to take action and I took action.
Three months, I'm speaking in schools all over Houston. I’m living the dream. I got my own business. It was great making decent money. I forgot that the summer is going to be slow, school is out. $50,000 in credit card debt from the Olympics and we're three months behind our house payment. We're on food stamps. I was top of the world of the Olympics in February and humbled big time by August. That's when I realized, “I told everybody to follow a coach or a mentor. I'm not even taking my own advice. I'm telling stories, but I don't know how to build this business. I’ve got to find a successful speaker.” I found one in Houston.
At first, he wouldn't take me. I said, “Everybody is an eternal learner. No one is willing to do anything. Forget it.” He made me jump through all these hoops and I jumped through them in flying colors and he finally agreed. The first thing this guy tells me, “I don't care if you're a ten-time Olympian. Unless you write a book, no one is going to take you seriously because authors deserve the authority of his book, of his subject.” He wrote the book on it and he's going on so much about it, I thought, “This guy must be a publisher. He’s trying to sell me.” That's what I was thinking.
He says, “Write a book.” I said, “I can't write a book. I made C’s in English. My parents celebrated when I came home with a C.” He said, “You’ve got a great story. You write it down and we’ll get some A students, they’ll clean it up for you. That's just grammar.” I thought, “I didn’t think about that.” He goes, “It's called editing. Shut up and sit down, get to writing.” That's the beauty of following a mentor. You’ve got all these fears of the unknown and all this fear of failure, which is what holds everybody back, but the mentor says, “Piece of cake. Do this, and this. What's your next problem?” I say, “Clean it up.” You take all this negative stuff and they give you a plan. Sometimes they give you a kick in the butt, which is what we need.
I started writing this book. I would go to Barnes & Noble and I’ll look at all the books. I look at my own bookcase and I realized, “I’ve got to get some testimonials. I’ve got to get some other famous people to say nice things about me.” Do you know what I did? I went through my bookcase and I made a list of about 100 top authors to ask them for a testimonial and I started sending them out. I got about twenty big ones. When you go to my website and you go to testimonial, you’ll be amazed. I have better testimonials than anybody. I got them from Charlie. I got them from Zig. I got them from everybody who has a big name. You don’t expect me to say good things about me. When Charlie “Tremendous” Jones says, “Your book is good.” “You’ve got to listen to Ruben speak because he's got this heart and he's genuine.” When Charlie “Tremendous” Jones says that about me I’m like, “People, listen.” Why am I telling you the story? It’s what I've been telling you all along. Don't be afraid to call all the experts.
They help you with your vision. I know where I want to get there. I can't tell leaders enough we're tenacious, but there are things we don't know. Even though we have our vision where we want to go, there are going to be other people, one little sentence, “That's easy. You do this.” I've been struggling with this for three years. I love that. Let people help you. They're not going to pull you off your vision, but they're going to give you the steps, the techniques, the tools that you’ve got to take because you have to execute your vision. The eternal learner.
A Fortune 500 company, I bet you they all have a board of directors. Do you know what they are? Smart people from many different industries and they get together and think these things out. It's my dream team. You have to have a personal board of directors. Mine is a dream team, different people for different things. My pastor, he's not in charge of my finances. I’ve got a finance guy for that. I’ve got somebody else that got to write a book for experts and for everything. People like to help.
They do when they know you're serious about help. I think of the people too, that are taking on people. Make sure that people are ready to take weight because our time is valuable.
You’ve got to test them. After a few years of speaking, I started getting new speakers approaching me. At first, I wasn't testing them. They're wasting my time because they don't like the idea of being a speaker. They didn't like the reality. Once every three months or so, somebody will approach me, 3 or 4 a year. After a while, I made a list of everything you need to do to be a speaker because I didn't want to waste time. I don't coach people. It's not my thing. It doesn’t excite me. It's not my deal. Life is too short for me. Some people love to coach, that isn’t me.
I made a list. You’ve got to read these books. You’ve got to do these things. It’s about a two-year list of things you ought to do to make it happen. I'll meet with them like this or for coffee or something else. I’ll tell them stuff and then check out the list. Once you've done that stuff, let's talk. I only had 3 or 4 that went through the whole thing out of about 40 over the years, but these made it. You’ve got to test them. I never played football, but this is how it was in soccer or in every sport. The first couple of weeks of football season or any sport, the coach makes it hard. A lot of pushups. He tries to get everybody to throw up a couple of times because he wants to know who wants it, who likes the idea of being on the football team and who's willing to do whatever it takes to be on the football team. That's what you do. As a leader, that's what you want to do. You want to do that to save time.
I was in Amway for about ten years. Talk about a leadership university, it’s amazing. At Amway, if you're a preacher or if you're in Amway, you’ve got to be a good leader because it's a volunteer army. If you're a general, you can send people to the brig if they don’t listen to you. It’s a different type of leadership. You have to figure it out quickly. If you have 100 people in your group, there are probably only twenty or closer to ten that are ready to do it. The ones that are calling you all the time and asking you questions, those are the ones you spend time with. Those are the ones that are hungry. The other ones, you invite them to the meetings but they're not ready to take action yet. Let them sit in the system and learn and incubate. It will probably take two years anyway, sometimes, somebody gets in until they wake up and they're ready to do it. Don't push them. Keep them in the system and let them incubate. They have a joke, they say, “They go in as a chicken egg and because of our system, they come out as an eagle.” Bug your mentor, call him up, because that’s how they know and they will listen to you. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
I love that you brought out 3 or 4 out of 40. I always tell people that, 1 in 10. Leaders, not everybody is going to be your perfect follower. You’ve got to find that 1 in 10 and cheer and accumulate as many of those as you can to get the best followers. Other people are going to be transacting time for money. That's okay. That's how a lot of people go through life. If you want to build that world-class organization that's going to pour into you as much as you pour into them, you’ve got to find the crème de la crème that wants it.
Don't be afraid to prune. Back in the old days, IBM, they were too mean. Every year, the bottom 10%, they kick them out, but they were constantly pruning. I was speaking to a group, this was virtual, it was this association. I'm not going to say too much because I don’t want you all to know who it is, but there are only 10,000 associations. Before I'm going to speak to a group, I asked the leaders, “I want you to know two things. I can go on all day. In order to tailor it I need to know what's your goal? What do you want people thinking and doing?” After I'm done talking to them, what’s the struggle? What's holding them back? There's always something that’s holding them back.” I know the struggle on the goal and I had to face a lot of struggles and overcome them to reach my goal so I can work it in and it works.
This association, I asked them that and they say, “The struggle is that a lot of people have lost her job because of COVID. A lot of them were feeling guilty.” I thought, “I guess you'd feel guilty if you lost your job and you can't provide. Especially if you're a guy, your whole life is wrapped around what you do for a living.” No, it's the ones that didn't lose their job that are feeling guilty. Honestly, I didn't get what they're saying. It didn't make sense to my mind. I stood on it for a while. We talked about it. The ones who still have the job, survivor guilt, that's what they're feeling.
I talked to my speaker friends about this, “What do you think about this because I had no clue?” If I'm trying to make the soccer team and I didn't get cut, I'm partying. I'm happy that I'm on the team. I'm not going to have survivor guilt. That's my competitiveness. It didn't make sense. Here's what I came up with. I told them, “You always hear that 60% of the people out there hate their job. Why don't they change jobs?” It’s because of the idea of changing, the fear of the unknown, and fear of failure. They still stick to that job for 40 years because they hate it, but it's safe and they're afraid. They have that desperation. The old talks about it and then they go chasing young women because they're all happy. It's true. They're unfulfilled.
I said, “Chances are, at least half of you, you lost your job, that's the best thing that ever happened to you. Now you’ve got an opportunity to find that beautiful job, one that where you fit in better. Look at it as a blessing, you have to. The bottom line is you’ve got to protect your attitude. If your attitude goes south, you’re dead. If you still have a job, then you need to be grateful. You better be happy because you’ve still got a job. Chances are, you like your job.” That’s what I told them. The bottom line is you’ve got to protect your attitude no matter what happens out there.
If COVID goes on for years and you’ve got to sell this house and end up living in an apartment, it’s fine. I’ve got to figure out a way to protect my attitude because if I get all in the dumps about it, then we're in trouble. I told them that. Success is a decision. You decide that you're willing to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to get the job done. Most people, “It's lonely at the top. I don't want to be a leader.” That's a fallacy. Leaders will hang out with other leaders. It’s not lonely. Hang out with other leaders.
There's not one single leader in the universe. We even get to commune with God. He is the ultimate leader. We covered loneliness, weariness, abandonment, and vision. Anything else that we have not hit on that you want to share with our tremendous leaders who are loving all of what you're saying?
We're good.
We unpacked a lot.
How to Win Friends & Influence People
Be hungry. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Our church shut down for the time being and they opened up again, but we're not ready to go into a room with a bunch of people that could have COVID. We've been going to this other church that is meeting in the parking lot. The preacher, he's out by the portico and sharing. He’s doing his thing there and we're sitting in the cars. This guy is good. I like him. He came by to say hello and I started asking him questions, “Who are some of your favorite preachers? Who do you listen to?” I'm asking about his leaders. By the way, when leaders get together, you know what they're asking themselves all the time? “What book are you reading?” We always do that. We're asking each other for advice and an idea. I asked him, “Who do you like to listen to?” He said, “Chuck Swindoll and Billy Graham. Those two guys are grounded.”
That tells a lot about him.
I started watching those guys on YouTube. See how this works? You ask them, “Who are your leaders?” Now you can learn from them too. It’s a lifestyle.
Dad always said, “If you tell me the people that somebody reads, I’ll know them better than their own mother knows them because that is who affects us.”
If I go to a house, I go straight to their bookcases and most of the time they don't even have bookcases. Do you know what I told Danny when he realized he’s going to be on your show? He’s supposed to be on the show but he canceled because he wanted to come over so I can help him with his website.
He was busting to your house.
He's pulling his hair upstairs trying to figure out his website. Danny Brassell is awesome. You're in for a treat. We got started talking about you. He never met your dad. I said, “Charlie, he had about 100 times as many books as we have combined.” We have a lot.
Hundreds of thousands.
See what we're doing? Leaders are talking to each other about books because that’s where the knowledge is. Most of the time a book is about $20. If you're smart, you go to Half Price Books and you can get it for $2. That's what I do. I’m a cheapskate. More money for more books.
To give them away.
For $20, it’s the best deal in the world. For $20, it’s the tipping point. You have all the best ideas for these persons’ lives. You had to put the bad stuff in the books and put the good stuff. It’s like, “Napoleon Hill, cool. It’s such a good deal.” I don't go to that many seminars. I am ADD. I'm restless and I can't sit still. The seminar doesn’t work for me. They work for some people. I'd rather read a book. Most of the time, the whole seminar is in one book. If you can get yourself to take action or get somebody to push you to take action, you don't need to pay $2,000 for a weekend seminar. For $20 you can get it from the book. You’ve got to be the go-getter. You’ve got to take action.
That's good. My husband has that same thing with sitting still and focus. It's how you learn. Some people love to sit there and want to meet and love the whole atmosphere and learning. You like the book learning. I'm much more like that. I can sit and listen, but give me a book and I'll pour into that. That's good for people to know.
Everybody is different. Know yourself.
You can learn either way.
There's no one way to skin a cat. There are many ways to skin a cat. You figured out what is your way. It's funny, one of my coaches is this big Austrian guy. Whenever you ask him something, “You do it that way?” He goes, “This is my way.” There's not a good way or right way and a wrong way. It’s my way.
Frank Sinatra.
We can go on forever. You and I, we could go back and forth. We could bring in Danny.
We should have a Netflix documentary. Let's do it.
We can go on all day. You're going to hear the same themes. You’re going to hear the same principles over and over from different people, but maybe you don't connect to me for some reason. Maybe I'm too wild. Maybe I talk too fast. Maybe Danny is your guy. This is my way. This is your way. You’ll figure it out, but you will learn it. If you figure out which biography you're going to read, you’re going to still learn the same stuff.
The same way with finding a place to worship, “I didn’t like that guy.” Find somebody else.
Courage To Succeed: Success is a decision. You decide that you're willing to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to get the job done.
They're all full of sinners too. You're never going to find a pastor. “They're hypocrites.” They’re not hypocrites, they’re human.
My dad would always say that, “Go on in there. One more won't hurt. I know you’re perfect.”
I was blessed to spend the night at your dad's place one time. I stayed in that little guest house. That place is not luxury. This is an old little house, probably 100 years old. The furniture was 100 years old, too. If I had the option to spend that night there or in a tent outside the house with Charlie in there or go to the Ritz-Carlton for a week, it’s a no-brainer for me. He took me and he showed me everything. He played the banjo. He took me down to the little Christmas room and he turned everything on. I got it all on tape. It’s amazing. I've never met such a positive person in my life. He had lost his eyes already. He knew the cancer was coming and he didn't have long to live, but he was the happiest person in any room that he went to. It was amazing. It was unreal. That's why I want to be around him. I want some of his stuff to rub off on me. You lucked out. You had him all your life.
What a blessing. He poured into many people and he kept doing it. He went on a lot of business trips because we get to pick it up. I think of how he would be thrilled. We're going to be talking about great books and loving on each other for all eternity. This is a temporary thing.
It’s a prologue.
How can people get in touch with you? What's the best way?
The easiest way is to go to RubenTips.com. There are some of my most popular articles there on success, leadership, etc. Test drive them. Kick a few wheels. If you like them, sign up for the newsletter. You get one a month or so, or every two weeks. There are videos there. There are all kinds of stuff. Check me out and see if you want to bring me in to inspire your folks.
Especially now that they know you’re doing all that. Who wouldn’t?
I'll take their excuses away. They walk out thinking, “If that guy is in the Olympics, we can do anything.” That's my job, to inspire people. I’ll sprinkle little pixie dust everywhere I go.
I love your tremendous attitude. Ruben, I can't thank you enough for your heart, your grit. You drilled right down, you laid it out, but like dad, in such an exuberant way. Do you know what I'm saying? You hug them and then you kick them. That's what we need. I wrote down pages and pages of notes. It's incredible. It's been so long since I talked to you.
When are you going to come and visit me? There's traffic in Colorado Springs. It’s ridiculous.
Same here. I need to talk too if your boy wants to get on base for a tour. Whatever he needs, if he wants to talk about that, I have no doubt he'll get in. You get the prep school. You’ve got all kinds of stuff there. I went to an army school in New Mexico Military Institute before I got my appointment.
I didn't know that.
They were like, “Do you want to go to West Point or Annapolis?” I'm like, “That's back East, right?” They're like, “Yeah.” I fell in love in New Mexico, Roswell, before the aliens were there. They’re like, “The Air Force Academy is out West.” I'm like, “I want to stay out West.” Seriously, that's what happened. Like you, I’m like, “I want to be here.” It would turn out to be the best decision I ever made in my whole life. I did not know I had a wonderful air liaison officer, Major John Shaffer. He looked out for me. I thank you for pouring all these timeless truths and taking us through all these different aspects of your life. I can't wait to see what comes next for you, Ruben.
Me, too.
The world can handle it. I don’t know. We’ve got to work on that documentary for Netflix so we could keep talking about great people and great books. Fighting a good fight.
It's good seeing you.
It's good seeing you too. To our tremendous readers, thanks so much. If you like what you heard, be sure and hit the subscribe button. Do us the honor of a rating too. Also, please share this. Leave us a comment too. We get on there and answer everything. Thank you so much, everybody. Thanks for being part of our Tremendous tribe. Thanks for paying the price of leadership. Thank you again to Ruben for telling us all that it takes to step into the leadership role. Be blessed everybody.