Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:15 — 6.5MB) | Embed
Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, I own the Back to the Future trilogy box set, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share lessons from an inspirational quote from one of my clients.
When it comes to your website, you want to make sure you’re hosting it with a company that is reliable and it’s using technology for today’s internet standards. That’s why we recommend HostGator. HostGator offers hosting plans for as little $3.96/month and offers unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and a 45 day money back guarantee. Visit GoldenSpiralMedia.com/hostgator to sign up for HostGator web hosting today.
Friday Forum
I want you to be a part of the Friday Forum! Friday Forum is your opportunity to Share what YOU’VE learned, so that other listeners and I can learn from YOU. It can be a message as short as 30 seconds or several minutes long. It really doesn’t matter just as long as it’s something that will benefit others. You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278.
What I Learned Yesterday:
I love my job. As you know, I left my job of nearly 19 years in May of 2013 so that I could become an entrepreneur. I had the dream of making a career out of podcasting and it’s been a great first year. I’ve acquired several new clients over the last year, and I’ve been privileged to help a lot of people start or improve their podcast.
It’s fun to think about the relationships I’ve formed, especially when I think about the fact that most of my clients were complete strangers to me this time last year. I wonder who I’ll be working with this time next year? Just the thought of all the opportunities heading my way and people who will be a part of it really excites me.
One of my clients is Zac Johnson. Zac is one of those guys who realized at a very young age that he would be an entrepreneur. He’s been in business for himself since he was in high school and has achieved a lot of success. Zac is now 18 episodes into his podcast, Rise of the Entrepreneur. In each episode of Rise of the Entrepreneur Zac interviews other entrepreneurs and talks to them about their successes and failures, the stuff they learned the hard way, the new projects they’re working on, and picks their brains for advice that other entrepreneurs would find beneficial. You can check out Zac’s blog and podcast at ZacJohnson.com. By the way, this is not intended to be a commercial for Zac. Zac doesn’t even know I’m talking about him today.
At the end of each episode of Rise of the Entrepreneur Zac gives an inspirational quote to help motivate and inspire his audience. As I was editing episode 18, his closing quote really hit me, and it inspired this episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday.
The quote is, “Go do something today that your future self will thank you for.”
I love time travel. Whether it’s a time travel movie, book, or TV show, I love the concept. I love thinking about all of the different possibilities that could happen with time travel. Some of those possibilities would be good, but many of them would be bad. Think about Back to the Future II when Biff took the almanac and used his fortune to turn Hill Valley into a dirty, corrupt town.
However, Marty’s influence on his future dad gave his future dad the courage to punch Biff and stand up for himself. Somehow that had a dramatically positive impact on the McFly family that gave them a much better future than the one Marty left behind.
Imagine a time travel situation where your future self came up to you and had a conversation. Your future self would give you information and pass on wisdom that would be incredibly valuable and dramatically alter your decisions. Of course, that might then alter the path your future self had taken and actually negate all the info and wisdom that you’d just given yourself. See, this is why I love time travel stories. Endless possibilities, and so much fun.
But let’s get back to Zac’s quote, “Go do something today that your future self will thank you for.”
I can’t go back in time and talk to myself, but I can look back on my still relatively short life of 38 years and reflect on it. If I could go back in time, what would I thank myself for doing, that has positively impacted where I’m at today.
I suppose I could thank myself for watching LOST and then making an effort to discover the Weekly LOST Podcast by Cliff and Stephanie Ravenscraft. Without their podcast, I wouldn’t have been inspired to start my own podcast. If I’d never started my own podcast, I wouldn’t be able to teach others about podcasting and make my living off of serving the podcasting community.
However, I think I’d go back to that point in 2004 when I’d lost my job as a book buyer and had no direction. Challenged by my supervisor to take a look at my life, consider what my interests were, and decide what I would do next, he encouraged me to look at all options, and even go back to school if I needed to acquire more skills.
It was after that conversation that I decided to go back to school and complete my degree. I spent the next 15 months or so taking tests, going to night classes, and getting my education. I graduated with honors with a degree in computer programming in December of 2005.
It took a few months, but with that degree I was then able to land my next position with the company. Over the next 7 years I would learn skills, build relationships, develop personal maturity, and gain the confidence that would equip me for this current phase of my life.
If I could, I would go back to the moment when my 2004 self was leaving that meeting with my boss, right after he’d told me to figure out what I wanted to do, and I would say, “DO IT!” “Go back to school, invest in yourself, in your future.” I’m glad I didn’t need a visit from my future self to give me the confidence to take that leap of faith.
It’s odd in a way. I mean, you could argue that going back to school didn’t teach me anything about podcasting. I would say, that each step in life leads to the next. Without the schooling, I wouldn’t have gotten the job. Without the job, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to work with Courtney and Jason. Without Courtney and Jason, I’m not sure I would have started The Fringe Podcast.
But even aside from Courtney and Jason, that time I spent as the eCommerce Director, shaped who I am today. As I said before, it gave me business skills that I regularly rely on today as an entrepreneur. So, yeah, going back to school DID impact my ability to be a podcast consultant. It impacted it greatly.
Here’s what I’ve learned.
Let’s take one more look at that quote from Zac. “Go do something today that your future self will thank you for.”
For a quote that is clearly focused on the future, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about the past. I’ve done that because I wanted to show how much impact a single decision can make. Each day is a chance to make new decisions.
I think that if we look back at our decisions of the past, then we can glean wisdom from them that will help us make better decisions for the future. Some decisions are bigger than others, that’s for sure, but don’t let that intimidate you. In fact, this quote from Zac has a point to it that can be very helpful in making decisions.
When making a decision, ask yourself if you think your future self will approve or thank you for making it. If the answer is yes, go for it!
The bottom line is that each one of us should be investing in our future. We should make decisions and take actions that that reflect that attitude of investment. Now, one more time, “Go do something today that your future self will thank you for.”
I’m Darrell Darnell and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
Follow Golden Spiral Media on Twitter at GSMPodcasts and Facebook.com/GoldenSpiralMedia. To subscribe to Stuff I Learned yesterday, visit GoldenSpiralMedia.com/subscribe. If you’ve enjoyed this episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday, I would be grateful if you’d leave a review in iTunes.
[sc:stuff]