Transcript
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The views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast host and guest and do not necessarily represent those of our distribution partners, supporting business relationships or supported audience.
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Welcome to Transacting Value, where we talk about practical applications for instigating self-worth when dealing with each other and even within ourselves, where we foster a podcast listening experience that lets you hear the power of a value system for managing burnout, establishing boundaries, fostering community and finding identity.
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My name is Josh Porthouse, I'm your host and we are redefining sovereignty of character.
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This is why values still hold value.
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This is Transacting Value.
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I was always willing to take one step back in order to go two steps forward.
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And I just believed, I started just believing, and when it started to work, then I really started to plan my future.
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Today on Transacting Value how can we learn better from setbacks, interpret our failures and mark our lives with excellence?
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Now, alongside Mr Resilient Michael Dillard, us Army veteran, us diplomat and certified executive coach, we're going to figure it out together.
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I'm Josh Porthouse, I'm your host and, from SDYT Media, this is Transacting Value, michael, how you doing.
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Josh, I am feeling blessed.
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I'm happy to be here on your show.
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You had a lot of great guests, so I'm honored to be one of the other members to join, to get a chance to speak with you oh my gosh dude.
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I appreciate you saying that, but have you heard your story?
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Come on, please.
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It was the least I could do, All right.
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Let's start here at the beginning.
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Absolutely, let's start here at the beginning.
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All right For anybody who's new to Transacting Value and, obviously, anybody who may be unfamiliar with you.
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Let's just take the next couple minutes and summarize this a little bit.
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Who are you right?
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Where are you from?
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What sort of things are shaping your perspective on life right now?
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Wow, what's shaping my life right now is that I served in the Army for four years and so now I'm in a federal job.
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I got two years to go, so I'm looking at retiring.
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Get that pension in a minute, in a year and a half, so I'm transitioning, trying to use those skills that I learned in life to help other people.
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I realized lately a lot of men are suffering in silence, so I'm working with men to help build up their morale.
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Family Christmas is coming up, thanksgiving holidays.
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So you got that shopping.
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You know the family wife is like hey, what is this tree?
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Don't you like the tree?
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The tree looks lovely honey.
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The tree looks good.
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You know what I mean.
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And then the kids are getting bigger.
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You know, the other day my daughter we were going to I thought it was church, but actually we were going to a birthday party so we drove two different cars.
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So I'm driving wife in a passenger seat and so she's driving the other car and then we get off the interstate, josh, and she has the nerve to pass me on the interstate.
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Who passes their parents on the interstate?
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Yeah, yeah, well, okay, so she's gaining some independence.
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That counts for something right.
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You got to be proud of that yeah, man, but did you?
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You have one daughter.
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I actually have three children.
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We got two girls and then my son.
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Okay, so were all three of your children able to travel around with you?
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Oh yeah, they traveled Dominican Republic, they went to Zambia, they went to Afghanistan, they went to Zambia and South Africa.
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Wow, wow, what an upbringing.
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I mean the amount of for one, the amount of travel and perspective that they're just able to do growing up, which is cool and has its place right, cool stories, and I rode a zebra or whatever travel excursions you guys were able to do, but the cultural nuanced differences between all of those places aren't really overlapping at all.
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What did that do for you guys, your perspective, your parenting, their perspective, their upbringing?
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I mean, how does that impact somebody?
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One thing we realized, Josh, is that home is where your feet are.
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You know, a lot of times people are like, oh, I'm from, say I'm from.
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I grew up in Clarksville, Tennessee.
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Clarksville, Tennessee, is great, but when it's Thanksgiving and Christmas and you're overseas in South Africa, that's where your home is.
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Your home is with your mom and dad and your children.
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For example, let me give you a picture it was Thanksgiving in South Africa, like 2020.
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Covid lockdown was happening but it was easing up.
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Now it's COVID family can't travel into the country.
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What do we do?
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We take hot oil and guess what we do?
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We put a turkey in there.
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We fried a turkey.
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We fried a turkey in South Africa and guess what?
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We ate the turkey.
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We ate it on the beach.
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I mean creating precious memories.
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We didn't let the COVID health pandemic ruin the family fun of tradition, of being together, being thankful for life.
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So that's an experience that we have and that the kids will remember that home is where your mom and dad and your relatives are right.
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That's where your home, your nucleus of family.
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So that's what we always kind of valued as we went from place to place, Because you can imagine, you pick up, you have your friends, you're playing in the park and the next day you're in an airplane, a new country, with people that you don't even know.
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And now you got to pick up again and build your confidence as a young child of being independent.
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That, oh the cool things are Converse shoes, but Converse aren't in style no more, they're Nikes or Pumas.
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Being resilient, Sure, well, okay, so that's a good point.
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Let me ask you that real quick why is your nickname Mr Resilient?
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Real quick.
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Why is your nickname Mr Resilient?
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Nickname is Mr Resilient because when I was a child, if you were my neighbor when I was 15 years old, you would have seen a nice, handsome, 120 pounds skinny boy run out to the mailbox.
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Okay, in the summer it's August, 85 degrees, it's hot outside I stick my hand in the mailbox, I pull out an envelope and I'm running back inside and I'm all excited, josh, I'm excited, you looking at me like what is wrong with Michael.
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Then my mom comes out carrying our baby brother and then my other second brother comes out as well.
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We jump into the 1979 Oldsmobile 10 milemile-per-gallon-having car.
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Hey there you go.
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Wheels on steel.
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So you're curious, josh.
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So you jump in with us and you put your seatbelt on.
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My mom puts the car in reverse.
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We back out.
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Now she's driving down the street.
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You're like where are they going?
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They're getting excited.
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My mom pulls up.
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We jump out and you look up.
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We are at the grocery store.
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You see, josh, that envelope was $200 worth of food stamps.
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We were broke but still living.
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So that's how I grew up Single parent household, broke but still living.
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And then a program called Upward Bound offered me an opportunity to get additional tutoring during the summertime, during the weekends, and to have a vision.
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That vision was to get a college degree so that I can earn more money.
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So growing up, I was broke but still living, went on to get my college degree think to support from Upward Bound.
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And then I realized, josh, education can unlock doors.
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That was once close to me as a young boy.
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That's one version.
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Another story in between.
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The story Now.
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I graduated high school, I went to college, but I started chasing money because of my friends were working at the factory, making money, buying the new shacks.
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Push the pump to shoot.
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Let them inflate.
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I was jealous, so I wanted some too.
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So I started going working factory, working 55 hours a week.
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That means something had to give the books or the money.
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I chose the money.
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Then I joined the army to get a skill and to get paid.
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I come back four years later.
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I'm on the same assembly line putting together stoves in a hundred degree heat, and I see a job announcement on the board one day as I'm walking out, at 2am.
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It said it's looking for somebody that knows how to read an ohm meter, who knows how to solder, who understands a schematic.
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Guess who just so happened went to the military and learned that skill.
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I did so.
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Once again, new doors was opening up for me.
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Every time I closed the door, I was able to get into another door based upon education.
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Okay, but did you always know that these were the opportunities that you would get with this education?
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Like you planned this in advance.
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I didn't know.
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I did not know when I got my degree from Austin Peace.
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You know, when I was going to Austin Peace State University to study, I didn't know what was going to happen.
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I just knew if you go to college, you probably will make more money.
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So when I joined the Army, instead of finishing, I was just trying to have stability.
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I had no idea.
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When I came back and that job was on the board that, hey, you have a skill, we're going to pay you more money for it and let you work in an air-conditioned building instead of being in 100-degree heat.
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Sounds pretty nice, didn't know?
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So then, when I graduated eventually from Middle Tennessee State University with my bachelor's degree, josh, guess where I was working?
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I was working at the call center.
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I looked around and I said how does a person go to college for four years and you're still answering phones?
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This can't be me.
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So I took an internship that summer with my college.
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I saw an announcement.
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It says hey, you can gain banking experience.
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So guess what I said let me do the internship, let me take a $200 pay cut in order to learn a skill so that I can get into banking.
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That's what I did.
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So I was always willing to take one step back in order to go two steps forward.
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And I just believed, I started just believing, and when it started to work, then I really started to plan my future.
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Okay, and so let me clarify some of this.
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So you work in the factory, you obviously get a job, join the army, go to school and you studied electrical engineering, studied- electrical engineering.
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So that's the funny part.
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In college I got a degree in interdisciplinary studies which is like a liberal arts type degree.
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Gives you some space, yeah, but stability Gives me some space.
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But stability is what I did.
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Sweet, smart, okay.
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Which I assume was intentional.
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Yes, yes, yes, it was intentional.
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I wanted something very so I had a minor in business and a minor in computer information systems.
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That's interesting and okay.
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And so where does this put us?
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Now we're in the nineties, early nineties, mid nineties.
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We're in the 2000s, early 2000s.
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Early 2000s.
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Okay, and so then you get out of college and you end up essentially as an electrician doing what?
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No, no, sorry.
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So that's why Let me rephrase the story.
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So the timeline is that I graduated from high school, then I went to college only for a semester and then I left because I was failing.
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I was failing not doing good, I was chasing the money.
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So then I went and joined the military for four years.
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When I got out of the military I ended up right back at the same factory, but because I had a skill, they paid me more money and put me in a nice air-conditioned office.
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Then I eventually got my four-year degree in interdisciplinary studies.
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And when I got my degree I still couldn't get a job because I didn't have the skill.
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I wanted to work in banking, but I didn't have the skills they were looking for.
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So I gambled on myself, as one would say.
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I took an internship, paying less money, to get the skill so I can put it on my resume, and it paid off.
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And when you say I ended up getting a job working at a bank.
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Okay, but you had the education.
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So when you say skill, you mean experience.
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Experience.
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Correct, because they weren't back in those days.
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You can have a degree, but if you didn't have actual experience, they didn't back in those days.
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You could have a degree, but if you didn't have actual experience they didn't want to hire you.
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All right, folks, sit tight and we'll be right back on Transacting Value.
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Imagine a little lady who wouldn't give up her seat on the bus, a TV host who wanted to be your neighbor, or an inventor whose 10,000 failures didn't stop him.
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These vivid images all share the same caption inspiration.
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These people just did their best and they inspire us.
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Now what will you do to inspire others?
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Inspiration is in you.
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From PassItOncom.
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Back in those days you could have a degree, but if you didn't have actual experience, they didn't want to hire you.
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You know what's crazy about this full circle you're talking about now, 25, some years later.
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It's the same thing.
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Because in the middle, obviously, what happened right was well, you have the experience, great.
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But if you don't have the education, you're not getting promoted.
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If you don't have the education, you're not getting the higher paid opportunities.
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And then again, more people went to school in the teens and then they said okay, cool.
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Well, you don't have the experience, you're like well what do you want me to?
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do yes, okay, so all of that makes sense.
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What does that have to do with being a US diplomat?
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Oh, that was an accident, Josh.
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I became a US diplomat on accident.
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Okay, All right, yeah, Life is special.
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That's why you know, Mr Resilient.
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So I got the job at the bank, making decent money, and I decide to go and get another job making more money so I can have an upward mobility.
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Because, unfortunately, I couldn't get the loan officer job because I didn't have the experience.
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Josh, they wouldn't promote me up because I didn't have the experience.
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So I went and applied to work somewhere else where they gave me an opportunity.
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Things were going good until it wasn't.
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There's a saying people don't quit employers, they quit people.
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My boss.
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I couldn't get along with my boss, we just didn't hit it off.
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I was tired of do this, do that, do this, do that.
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So I started looking for what?
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Another job which helped me get a job working at Dell Computers.
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So now I am wearing flip-flops, shorts and a t-shirt going to work and guess what?
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I'm making more money.
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And flip-flops, Okay, and flip-flops.
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So life is good, I'm getting bonuses.
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And when they had a sales competition and it was a team of 12 of us and they were like whoever can sell the most printers, you get $100 for the week.
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Oh, that money was mine.
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You know I was broke, but still living.
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So I was hungry for the money.
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I was hungry.
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It got so bad that people didn't even try no more.
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That money was mine.
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I was hungry, so I'm making good money.
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And then, you know, it was a summer, as usual.
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Something always happens in the summer.
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So my daughter was like hey, daddy, I want some ice cream.
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Can you take me to the store when you drop me off at daycare?
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I said I can't take you and get ice cream before daycare, but afterwards, how about we go and get ice cream?
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Okay, cool.
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So I dropped her off at daycare.
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I'm driving to work.
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Work is going good as usual.
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They got a free food downstairs for us to encourage us to keep selling.
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Stand on the phone After lunch.
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My boss taps me on the shoulder Michael, I want to talk to you.
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She's like we're going to have to let you go.
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We're going to have to let you go, and this is 2008.
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2008.
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financial crisis 2008, 2009 yes, the 2008 2009 financial crisis, josh gotcha.
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Yeah, okay, something had happened earlier where I was like why is this personal development book telling me to go back and get a second master?
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See, I had gotten an mba in personal finance along the way.
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Then, when I was working at Dell, something said go back and get a master's in accounting so you can move to Texas and work in the corporate center and make the big money with the big boys.
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I said okay, but why?
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It's like do the VHS tapes still work?
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I said no, nobody don't.