How To Live An Extraordinary Life With Insights And Strategies From Executive Coach David Bush (#250)

“Follow your passion and take risks.” -David Bush

David Bush, through his coaching and motivational speaking, helps entrepreneurial leaders design and live extraordinary lives. He shares his captivating message and coaching system on how ordinary individuals can achieve tremendous success. David uses humor, storytelling, and practical strategies to inspire leaders to step out of their comfort zones. In this episode, he delves into his journey, the parallels between sports and business, and the importance of having a coach. 

00:00 Introduction to David Bush's Inspirational Journey

04:18 Defining an Extraordinary Life

07:44 Lessons from Sports to Business

11:29 Living Your Calling

16:57 Overcoming Common Struggles

28:14 Breaking the Four-Minute Mile Barrier

29:23 The Power of Doing Hard Things

35:21 Expanding Perspective and Resolving Goals

42:02 Designing an Extraordinary Life

49:26 Final Thoughts and Call to Action

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Transcript

350 David Bush

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] Through his coaching and motivational speaking, David Bush inspires entrepreneurial leaders to design and live extraordinary lives. His passion for developing exceptional leaders and high performance teams translates into a high energy and powerful message that empowers individuals to live their dreams and change their world.

David's captivating message and coaching system on how ordinary people can live extraordinary lives has become a life operating system for many influential leaders. With a unique blend of humor, insightful storytelling, and take home success strategies, David guides leaders on an inspiring ride, and he challenges them to get out of their comfort caves and become extraordinary cliff climbers in everything they do.

Top industry leaders from across the nation have called on David to coach them and their teams to extraordinary levels of success and significance.

And before we start the episode, a quick word from our sponsor, Deep Wealth and the Deep Wealth Mastery Program. Here's Sanjay, a graduate of Deep Wealth Mastery, and he [00:01:00] says, the investment I made in the Deep Wealth Mastery Program, it's a rounding error compared to the value created today and the future value I'll receive.

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Man, I love that kind of feedback because it's that kind of feedback that's what gets me out of bed every day.

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Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast. While you heard it in the official introduction, we have a thought leader, an author, a speaker, an extraordinary coach who's all about not living an ordinary life, but living an extraordinary life. We're going to talk all about that. So welcome David to the Deep Wealth Podcast.

It's great to have you in the Deep Wealth house here. And I'm curious, there's always a story behind the story. What's your story? What got you from where you were to where you are?

David Bush: Well, thanks for having me, Jeffrey. I'm super excited to get a chance to share with you and your audience today and yeah. short version of the story is, is that son of an entrepreneur family grew up where we had an American dream where we wanted to go out there and chase the dream and make it happen.

And my first dream was not to own a particular business, but to actually have a career in professional football. So my first story was, I wanted to play professional football, but professional football didn't necessarily want me. I went to a really small high school, went on to get a football scholarship, and kind of earned my way into a thing called arena [00:04:00] football.

And after I got done playing arena football and getting paid to play a game that I absolutely loved to do, and I felt like, I had achieved a lot of the things I had set out to. Unfortunately, I suffered a career ending lack of talent. I didn't have the level of talent that's necessary to go to

Jeffrey Feldberg: my goodness.

David Bush: the highest level, but went to beyond my own potential, and that was probably the biggest lesson that kind of taught me about what it meant to live an extraordinary life, which You know, if you just look at the word extraordinary, it's defined in the dictionary as going above and beyond what's usual, regular, and customary, and the second definition is exceptional to a very marked extent, and when I talk about the word extraordinary or living an extraordinary life, I think a lot of people think of the second definition where it's an exceptional life.

It's one like you had, Jeffrey, with the nine figure exit, and it's like, wow, he had this amazing, extraordinary experience. He's got extraordinary wealth, power, privilege. But that's not necessarily the extraordinary that I'm talking about, because what I'm [00:05:00] talking about is the idea of learning to go above and beyond what's usual, regular, and customary, and building that in, because you didn't get to your nine figure exit because you did ordinary things.

You did extraordinary things. You took extraordinary calculated risks. You worked extraordinarily hard. You worked extraordinarily smart. You continued to innovate. You adapted to change. And I think that's the message that I want to share with others is to live an extraordinary life. You don't have to be extraordinary.

To start, just have to be an ordinary person that's willing to go above and beyond what's usual, regular, and customary, and you can live an exceptional life to a very marked extent. You can end up doing things that many people may have told you that you weren't capable, you weren't smart enough, you weren't talented enough, you didn't have enough education, you're not good enough.

And you can do all those things and basically have a little bit of bragging rights and you can also make an extraordinary difference in the lives of a lot of different people. [00:06:00] And I think that's one of the things that I love about the message of Living Extraordinary Life is that people do what people do.

And anytime somebody does something extraordinary, other people are oftentimes impacted in an extraordinary way. And sometimes it's your family, and sometimes it's your employees, sometimes it's your customers or clients, sometimes it's other entrepreneurs. Just by you hosting this extraordinary podcast, Jeffrey, you're impacting entrepreneurs in an extraordinary way.

You're showing them what's possible and people do what people do. So there's going to be somebody that, maybe already, that's going to build an extraordinary business and have an extraordinary exit, maybe even bigger than your big exit, because you taught them how to do extraordinary things that were just Ordinary things that they just went above and beyond what's usual, regular, and customary, and that's what I get a chance to do on a daily basis.

I've been coaching people for the last 20 years to do extraordinary things, and to become extraordinary leaders, and to [00:07:00] live extraordinary lives, and I'm excited to get a chance to share that with your audience today.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely terrific. So much there to unpack. And by the way, for our listeners in the show notes, it's a point and click. I really encourage you to pick up David's book, Live an Extraordinary Life, Six Commitments to Live Your Dreams and Change Your World. And we're going to talk about that by the way, David, you are incredibly modest because not only did you play football at the University of South Dakota, you're an All American.

And then, as you mentioned, you played professional football with the Iowa Barnstormer, so you've been there, you've done that. I think you're being a little bit hard on yourself in that earlier comment that you made with the talent. You have the talent, clearly you have the talent. I'm curious though, because I find it fascinating from the sports arena to the business arena, there are so many parallels.

And oftentimes you won't be surprised by this. When I've had the privilege of working with people in the business world who come from the sports world, wow, it's been really superstars in the business side of things because they've transferred the skill sets, the experience. [00:08:00] You've been on both and for our listeners out there, what would you share?

What were some of the biggest lessons for you growing up in sports and then taking that to the business world? What did you walk away with? What's part of your DNA that's forever changed because of your involvement in sports?

David Bush: I think that's a very good question. I think that the first thing that I could come back to is just in athletics, there's always a coach. I don't know of any athlete that doesn't have somebody that they're learning from. And I think that's a great model for business growth and for entrepreneurial growth or executive growth.

If you don't have somebody that's speaking to your blind spots and awakening you to your potential and to the opportunities of how you can get better. There's a great old movie called Chariots of Fire, and I love the quote in that movie the coach is talking to this Olympic runner, and he's watching him run, and after he gets done watching him run, which this is an Olympic runner, this is somebody that's at the very top of their game, and he says to him, I can get you two [00:09:00] more seconds.

I can shave two more seconds off of your run just by watching you run. And that runner couldn't have seen what that Coach, saw, because the runner was running. They were in the race. They were, focusing in on their own perspective. So, I think that athletes have that perspective. I do believe that they have some experience being coachable and there's other opportunities, obviously, that you can do with music or other types of sporting events that are not traditional, football, baseball, basketball.

Where you get a chance to be mentored. But I think that's probably one. I also think that there's the idea of having a team or having a support system around you. you know, if you're part of a team and you're building a dynamic team, you're going to typically have a higher level of success than if you're working as an individual, independent, So, there are some great things about being alone with an individual coach.

Not always, but typically, I like to say, one team, one dream. There is something, dreamwork makes, or teamwork makes the dream work. So I do think that there's a value of having a team atmosphere, and I think that there's a synergy that [00:10:00] comes from having a group of people that are working together towards a common vision or common goal.

And then the last thing I would say is that I think that athletes know how to Do hard things, and they have seen the other side of what it means to sacrifice, or to do something that's hard. I think that a lot of people that are not put into an environment where they're forced to get outside their comfort zone, either by motivation, or by fear, or by accountability of a team They don't get a chance to see what's on the other side of sacrifice.

They just feel the fear of sacrifice or the pain of sacrifice. And if they don't have a team environment that pushes them past their level of complexity, they never get a chance to experience the other side of it. Whereas in, from an athlete standpoint, you know, I went to two world championship games.

that teaches you something in those environments played at a very high level in a collegiate level with football and had some extreme competition. And I think that also pushes you to become [00:11:00] better and you embrace the game of it. It's a game. It's not a live or die scenario.

It's not war. you know, it's competing as a game and I think people that look at, Business or career opportunities more as a game versus having a fear around it is they're going to do better just because it's fun.

Jeffrey Feldberg: I would agree. It gives you a, perhaps a different perspective and you're not taking things as personally or to heart while they're just doing what they're doing. I'm going to be doing what I'm doing. And, it's a great segue into your book. I really like how you just. Put this out there. So you have your six commitment levels and you really give a very straightforward game plan of what to do.

And I got to tell you, I was guilty as charged for the first commitment. And you're talking about living your calling and no spoilers here. I'll just. Very quickly put myself under the microscope and I'll pass it over to you. I wish I would have had this book back in the day because when I was going through my different programs and I figured what I want to do when I grow up, Jeffrey said he's going to be a [00:12:00] dentist because not that he wanted to be a dentist, not that he loved to be a dentist.

He just wanted to be rich, wanted to have the money, and so I enrolled in pre med, failed my way through, first time ever in my life, the most miserable year academically of my life ever, and I really wasn't following my calling. And I don't think I'm alone in that. I suspect many people, peer pressure, social pressure, family pressure, what we're now seeing with social media, are making the wrong decisions.

for the wrong reasons. So what's going on with that? What would you want our listeners to know when it comes to living their calling, regardless whether they're 22 or 62 or something in between or beyond what's going on with that?

David Bush: I think that most people have they've heard a calling and some people think of a calling as being more spiritual or religious and that's one version of a calling. I also think that there are people in our lives that have Call this to do something, or call this to be something, or call this to have something, they see a talent, they see a skill, they [00:13:00] see a unique ability that we have that could be leveraged for the benefit of many not only ourselves, but for others as well.

So I think that there's people that have noticed things in us, that have called us to do something. Or, and I also think that there's a a high need out there. There's a lot of individual groups that really need Extraordinary leaders to live out their calling and you know if their calling is you know serving the poor, if their calling is serving the homeless or battered and abused children, you know the idea of serving people that are homeless and there's so many different areas that you could feel a calling based upon your own past history or your own pain or your own experiences.

And I think that it's kind of like an alarm clock, is that, remember we used to get wake up calls, maybe the next generation hasn't had to experience that because they have a cell phone to set their own alarm, but back in the day, basically call down and you'd ask the hotel operator to give you a wake up call at a specific time, and if you didn't get a good [00:14:00] night's sleep, you might be a little irritated with the phone, or if the phone was, maybe across the room, put your pillow over your head, and you'd still hear it ringing, but it was muffled enough that maybe you could rest a little longer.

And that's kind of the way I look at it, Jeffrey, is I think that many people have had a calling. To their life, but they've stuffed it down in a place where they can barely hear it ring anymore or they're so distracted by so many different things in life that they don't necessarily have the attention span to go focus on it and it seems so grandiose that it becomes a little bit overwhelming for people to even think about, what is my calling and how would I even fulfill it?

What I put inside the book is some simple questions that ask for clarification, what is it that breaks your heart, what is it that mends your heart, what's the thing that would give you great peace and joy and excitement spending time doing something, what is the thing that really makes you feel like that you're alive, what brings you energy, what's And oftentimes, those are things that are connected back [00:15:00] to our calling.

So it's not some mystical thing that people have to discover. They could actually just start off with answering some questions. And obviously, with the help of a coach, they could get some guidance to gain clarity. But, it's just like building a home. People would be very overwhelmed if they had to build their dream home.

But if they had an architect, And they had a person that was asking them questions for clarity about, what it is they want, do they want a ranch, a single family two story, three story, what is it that they want, and a good architect can help them to lay out a foundation, lay out an architectural plan, and basically let them see a finished product and that's what the book is designed to do, is to help you to gain clarity on what your vision looks like, and what your mission looks like, and then be able to build the foundations underneath it.

 Henry David Thoreau said that beautiful quote so many years ago, he said, Have you built your castles in the sky? Good, that's where they should be. Now let's build the foundations underneath them. So, a calling is nothing more than [00:16:00] just building your castle in the sky and understanding what that could be, what you could be doing to fulfill it, and what you would have if you were to answer the call. And we need more leaders.

Jeffrey Feldberg: David, let me ask you this. It's one of my favorite questions. A general question to ask. It has so many applications. Most people have heard of the 80 20 principle. Some people call it Pareto's law. And it goes something along the lines that 80 percent of, it could be our success is from 20 percent of the actions that we're taking or 80 percent of the problems that we're having are coming from 20 percent of the same issues that are happening again and again.

So when you're in your coaching mode, when you're speaking to other hard charging entrepreneurs that are just missing that something, what's getting in the way of that something? Are there some common, I don't want to call them mistakes, but are there some common misunderstandings or misconceptions that generally that we're having that you're able to clear up?

Are there some patterns that you're seeing?

David Bush: Yeah, I could just summarize is that [00:17:00] most people struggle with one of four things. Maybe some people struggle with all four. And you would probably recognize them right away because it's not complicated. So the very first one is motivation.

Is that they oftentimes don't feel motivated and it's oftentimes because they're focused in on How to do it, not why to do it and what it is that they want to do, and they don't spend time motivating themselves.

They basically think that motivation is a feeling rather than an action, which motivation is a contraction between the word motive and the word action. And when you combine action with a motive, you become more motivated because you see the results of your actions. You don't just get inspired and then all of a sudden just Become motivated for a long period of time, because you oftentimes are going to come up against challenges and obstacles and adversity and setbacks, so you have to, like Zig Ziglar said many years ago, motivation's like bathing.

If you don't do it daily, life begins to stink. And if you're going to go live an extraordinary life, you're going to build an extraordinary [00:18:00] business, you're going to have an extraordinary marriage, you're going to have an extraordinary relationship with your kids and your grandkids. You gotta bathe yourself in why you want it, and what it is that you want to accomplish, and you have to do things like watch videos, or listen to amazing podcasts like the Deep Wealth.

You gotta be reading things, you gotta be journaling things, your own words can be great motivation, and then you should be talking to other people that have big dreams and goals. that are similar to yours or have some level of complementary status to what it is that you're doing so that you can stay motivated to do extraordinary things.

Without motivation, the rest of it is not going to happen. You can, I could give you all the strategies in the world, just like you could give everybody your nine step plan to building a huge exit. And if they're not motivated to do it, it ain't gonna work. You're not gonna make it happen. You gotta start with why and what, and then you get into the who, how, when, where, all that kind of stuff.

So motivation is [00:19:00] first mindset is second. Carol Dweck did a great job in her book Mindset, where she talked about difference between growth and fixed mindset. So many people are fixed on what they're not versus who they are. Or they're not focusing in on something that is possibility driven versus this fixed thinking of the, they're the victim, or they're the villain, or life just isn't working according to plan, or they don't have enough time to pursue their extraordinary life.

They're limited by their own mind. So a great example of this, and this is something I really love doing, so if you have a piece of paper in front of you, you want to play along here? If everybody has something to write on, if you're listening and you don't, it's okay. If you have your phone there, you could write this out.

But let me give you this phrase, and I'm going to give it to you twice, and it's going to be a huge eye opener for many of you, okay? So, write down the letters from left to right. I'm going to give it to you twice. So, the first letter is O P P. O R T U N I [00:20:00] T Y I S N O W H E R E, let me give it to you one more time to make sure you got it right, O P P O R T U N I T T Y I S N O W H E R E.

 If you choose to see it as opportunity is nowhere, that's exactly the perspective that you'll have and your perspective will determine your path, your place, your pace, and your outcome. Which, if you have the mentality of opportunity is nowhere, you will not go out there and do extraordinary things.

You won't be motivated. But if you read it differently, Jeffrey, and you put a vertical line between the W and the H. And then read it another time. Do you see what it says now? If you separate the W and the H,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Opportunity is now here. Love

David Bush: So the exact same letters in the exact same sequence in the English language can actually be read [00:21:00] two different ways when you just space the letters differently. So this is the power of perspective and the power of mindset. And a person with a growing growth mindset looks at their current circumstances and looks at their past failures and all of their opportunities and all that stuff.

And they go, opportunity is now here. They don't look at it as opportunity is nowhere. And then the other two things are skill sets, is that, and you are in the education field, you know the power of education and self development. I mean, traditional education can make you a living, but self education can make you a fortune.

And your skill sets are required to grow if you want to live an extraordinary life. And a lot of people are using old skill sets. To solve new problems, and they have to develop new skill sets, they have to grow, they have to learn more, to become more, to achieve more, to earn more, and if you are stuck with an old thinking system I believe that it was Einstein that said, yesterday's thinking won't solve tomorrow's [00:22:00] problems so you need to have a new set of skill sets, and that requires you to change.

So if you're holding on to yesterday And you're not moving into tomorrow, you're not going to likely succeed at the same rate as people who are willing to change. And change is hard, but so is not changing, so just choose your heart, right? And then the final thing is action, right? So if you have motivation, if you have the right mindset, And if you have the skill sets, well, then it's action.

Repetition is the mother of all skill. Extraordinary living and extraordinary lives are not created without action. It's oftentimes ordinary, mundane, common things that we do repeatedly, consistently, and we're committed to that. For a period of time, before we actually start to see those exceptional results to a very marked extent.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So amazing, just perspective. And I love that where you put that line in between is how you see it or how you don't. And again, mindset, welcome to the art side of business, the art [00:23:00] side of life, what a difference it makes. And David, you can tell me if I'm on base or off base with this, because I love what you said.

If you don't have that motivation, you're just not going to do that work. And some people may use motivation or the word passion. I suspect it gets us to the same place. Would you agree that if we're lacking the motivation, maybe that's a sign that we're not living or calling, that it's our body speaking to us in a way that just our mind isn't seeing or feeling or thinking at that time?

David Bush: Yeah, I think that there's a lot of things that can cause demotivation, right? I mean, obviously, your current circumstances there's a lot of people that are going through real difficult seasons. I mean, the mortgage rates are higher than they've been for a long time, and a lot of people that got into the mortgage business are You know, over leverage themselves, and so they're struggling with keeping up with finances, and that can be very, I mean, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't stay in the mortgage business and you should move, it just might be the reality is your circumstances really suck, and, the road to the success goes through the sewer, and sometimes you gotta [00:24:00] go through some crap to get to where you wanna go to, and I think that can be very demotivating for people, but if they go back and remind themselves of why they got into the business, or why they got into real estate, or whatever it is that's important to them, and they remember, what is it that I want to accomplish? If they go back through that bathing process of the what and the why, and then they maybe put some clarity as to when they could accomplish some milestones.

A lot of people can accomplish more in the next 12 months than they could have accomplished in the last 12 years with just focus. Focus on what is it that you want, why is it that you want it, and when do you want it, and where are you going to spend your time to go get it, and who are you going to spend time with in terms of relational assets to get you to where you want to go.

I can tell you this, if a person wants to live an extraordinary life and build an extraordinary business and have an extraordinary exit, and they're not spending time with Jeffrey Feldberg, That's a mistake. Why would you take [00:25:00] away from an idea where you can talk to somebody, you can work with somebody, and do an immersion process with a person that's already done it, and experience of others compresses time.

So if you're surrounding yourself with people and investing time with people that have already done what you want to do, You can achieve 10 times faster results than if you did it on your own, just with a motivated attitude and a couple of, motivational books and presentations or podcasts.

So it's a whole bunch of different things I think that lead to de-motivation. But a lot of it, I think is just lack of clarity and current circumstances just be being challenging or I'll throw this in there with it. This is a little bit deeper, but you know, there's, three levels of beliefs.

There's implanted beliefs that were given to us when we didn't even have a choice. We just grew up in a family. We were, born into a family, born into a culture, born into a country, and those belief systems were given to us. And then there were the imprinted ones that were given to us over time through our experiences and our failures.[00:26:00]

And I think a lot of people are operating on their belief system that is fundamentally built on those two beliefs. And those beliefs, Jeffrey, they may be lies. The word beliefs is the word lie surrounded by B and S, and so a lot of people are basically believing lies that their family told them, or their friends told them, or their teacher, or their professor, I mean, very smart people and very trustworthy people that have loved you and cared for you, but they told you something that's not true about you.

And they don't have, that inspired belief, which is the third level of belief, that's completely optional. But it's available if people want to live an extraordinary life. So if they go out there and collect those inspirational beliefs, which is, I'm capable. Others can, so why can't I? Having some of those inspirational thoughts will typically create extraordinary [00:27:00] breakthroughs.

And once people learn that strategy, that they can actually have inspired beliefs that can replace those past limiting beliefs or those fears and, concepts that are not necessarily serving them or concerns they can have extraordinary results faster than they ever thought possible.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Couldn't agree more. And David, again, so much to unpack there, and you've been very kind with your words towards me. Although for our listeners who know my story and those who don't. Hey, listen, if I had a dollar for every mistake that I've made, every shortcoming, every setback, I would not have needed that nine figure deal.

I would have been well beyond that. But what you're saying is interesting. And it goes back to another saying, actually, two sayings are coming to mind with what you're sharing. Again, Jeffrey, you're on base, off base, Jim Rohn, if I'm not mistaken, who said, we are the average of the five people that we spend the most amount of time with.

And so for our listeners, who are you spending your time with? Are you spending your time with people who haven't been down this path before, the so called [00:28:00] know it alls who know better than you, and you're buying into what they're saying, or are you spending with people like David who've been down this path, who's working with entrepreneurs who are just creating a blazing trail and a great case in point.

Actually, David, I was speaking to another podcast guest. And the topic came up, if you think of Roger Bannister and the four minute mile, up until Bannister, people thought if you were to run a four minute mile, your heart would explode. It's impossible. No one can do it. Bannister didn't listen, thankfully, he did it.

And then shortly afterwards, people around the world started to break his four minute mile. So if you think about that in all of human history, it never happened. One person shows the world is done, hey, others follow, seeing is believing, and off they go with that. And where I'm going with this, there's a method to my madness here, David, I'm going to combine some of your six areas, your six commitments.

Because I would imagine that For commitment number three, which is making the hard choices and commitment number four of really having the ability to fail [00:29:00] forward, I would think accepting so called failure and moving forward from that's a hard choice in and of itself. What would you tell our listeners about those two?

Because I really see they're so related to one another. And by the way, I keep on going down this path and share, well, if you're not living your calling, if you're not engaging in your dreams. There's no way you're going to make those hard choices and there's no way you're going to fail forward. We'd love your thoughts on that.

David Bush: Yeah, I think that the, third individual commitment is to agree to do hard things, and I don't think that many people that are desiring growth in their relationships, in their finances in their business. I don't think that they have made that as a part of a daily habit, where they have, I mean, again, there's becoming more and more things.

They're becoming popular, like cold plunges is like a hard thing that people are doing more of. So there are certain things that people are doing that are hard It's, on a systemic basis, most people are taking the path of least resistance versus the path of resistance. [00:30:00] So, wrote the book and I was a big fan of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, who were the first people to climb Mount Everest, which, you know, depending on what you read is one of the tallest mountains in the world, and it's 29, 029 feet.

And they chose to do something that was extraordinary, which was above and beyond what's usual, regular, and customary. They took one step at a time to climb up 29, 029 feet. They agreed to go against the path of resistance, and because they did that, They were not only able to be recognized as heroes, but they were able to set a path for over 5, 000 plus other people that have summited Mount Everest, including a person that was blind and a 13 year old teenager has now climbed Mount Everest because these two men and their team of hundreds of other people, as part of the Jaunt Hunt Expedition, Did something that was extremely hard, and so, the question I have for the audience today is if I was to go in there and look at your calendar, if I was [00:31:00] to go in there and look at your accomplishments and your tasks completed, your habits, in the last 90 days, Could you be convicted as somebody that's doing things that are hard?

And everybody has their own level of tolerance of hard. I'm not saying that you need to do the hardest things. I'm saying, have you agreed to do hard things? So when somebody says to you, Jeffrey, say, well, I want to really grow my business. And you go, well, I've got these nine steps to help you.

And they go, well, that sounds hard. And you go, never said it was easy. It might be hard to do, but it's also hard not to do when you sell your business for half of what it's worth because you didn't do these nine steps. So it's simply the idea of embracing the idea of hard is good. Rather than hard is bad, so when somebody says to me, that's hard that's hard to do, say that, I do hard things, that's what I do, I do hard things, so when I see something that's hard, I know that that's something that I can do, that will make me better.

And then I can choose to evaluate it and make sure that it's a good fit for [00:32:00] my ultimate outcome. But embracing the idea of hard is going to get you to the point where you're going to become stronger, you're going to become better, typically. And I'm not saying you should, work really hard and not work smart.

Do both, but embrace the idea that if something's hard, you're probably on the right track versus, man, this is hard, I don't think that I'm on the right track, I need to go find an easier route, and always looking for the next life hack or business hack or technology strategy to avoid hard work. And then the other one is the area of deciding to fail forward. In the book, I talk about my entire adult life, I always thought of failure as being the opposite of success. So you talk about, I think what did you say? And I can't remember, was it more than 50 percent of liquidity opportunities end?

Without being successful or without having the maximum opportunity. So, in my mind, I see failure as, oh, they didn't succeed. However, failure, in my experience, is actually a bridge to [00:33:00] success. So, yes, we don't want to fail because we didn't take corrective actions. But if we did fail and we didn't take those corrective actions, What could we learn from that experience?

 So, like, you know, You had said earlier when we were in the pre show, you said, David, I wish I had this book prior to my journey. I probably could have had, you know, a much bigger exit than nine figures. It could have been much bigger if I would have known some of these ideas. And I was like, yeah, both of us, right?

I wish I would have known some of the things that you knew. But we failed our way forward. Rather than looking at failure as, oh, we didn't succeed, We took our failures and we compounded those like stepping stones to climb higher and better and become better versions of ourself. And so just, looking at the idea of failure as a bridge to get to where you want to go, as long as you're learning from it, not just repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, way to fail.

But if you're failing and you're growing from it, you're on the right track.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So true. And again, David, as you're [00:34:00] talking about this, I'm going down memory lane in my mind because when I was putting together the system that ultimately led to the nine figure deal and that led to Deep Wealth Mastery. Many of the strategies didn't come from success, believe it or not. I went out of my way, because I failed so early when I started the company, and failure became my new best friend.

I learned the hard way that failure is often the best teacher. Listen, when everything's going right, and things are just falling into place, sure, anyone can do that, but not everyone. Can keep on going when the going gets tough, as they say. And so when I was interviewing the cast of characters in M& A and particularly business owners who quite hopefully they lost really big, they dropped the ball in their liquidity event.

And I asked questions of What would you do differently? Or what were some lessons learned? And the information that I heard was startling. Never would have thought of it. And that's what went into the system. And that's why it's so effective. So failure as hard as it is, I completely agree with you as hard as it is.

It's a hard teacher, but oftentimes [00:35:00] it's the best teacher. And again, we're talking about all these quotes and sayings. One of my favorites is doing what's right. Often isn't doing what's easy. Sure. I can do what's easy, but it's probably taking that shortcut, which doesn't lead anywhere, but doing what's really the tough thing to do.

That's the right thing to do because it'll get me to where I want to get to. And I want to ask you now, so as we're going through these different commitments and I know openly, David, each one of these commitments, it could be an episode in and of itself. When we're looking at commitment number five, expanding your perspective and mindset to me comes into mind with that.

And I love that opportunity is nowhere or is opportunity now here. Just one different perspective. Off we go with that. And then with that perspective, I'm also going to tie in commitment number six of really having that resolve to achieve your goals. Again, very high level. What would you want our listeners to know about those two commitments?

David Bush: Yeah, [00:36:00] I love the quote, success leaves clues the experience of others compresses time. And so, thinking about what can you watch, what can you listen to, what can you read your own personal experiences, shifting your own perspective, you know, looking at your circumstances with an opportunity is now here versus opportunity is nowhere.

And just doing some brainstorming around having a different perspective. This is happening for me rather than to me, right? When life crashes around you and you're really struggling through some stuff, maybe you've gone through a loss of a loved one or maybe you've had a relationship crisis or a health diagnosis and, you could look at it as, you know, why me?

Or you could say, why not me? Maybe this is the purpose of what I've been called to do. Maybe this is part of my calling. Maybe this is part of story. And, most people have an idea of, when they make a movie or when they write a book, they don't typically do it where there's no drama. You know what I mean?

Like the best stories, Jeffrey, are the ones that typically have high drama. There's something that's a [00:37:00] crisis or something goes tragically wrong. Then oftentimes what is the ending of the story is they overcome the drama, they overcome the trauma, they overcome the, victimhood or being a victim of a crime or victim of a bad circumstance or a victim of somebody else, treating them harshly.

And so, maybe that's your story. And if you start to become the hero of your own story and you start looking out. Three to five years from today and you start thinking about if I'm the hero of my story based upon my current circumstances and where it is that I want to end up what do I need to learn and what do I need to grow from so that I can still get to where I want to go and maybe there's a different place that I need to go based upon the events that have happened to me, and maybe that's okay.

Maybe I need to be open and curious as to why it happened, not so focused and fixed on the fact that it happened. So expanding perspective is oftentimes just being [00:38:00] open and curious and keeping yourself filled up with good quality information. Obviously, like the Deep Wealth Podcast is one of many different things that you could use as a part of your perspective shifting Resource Center.

And then the last one is resolving your goals or resolving to achieve your goals. And there's a lot of people that have heard the word, goal achievement or smart goal setting, but there's something different about a person that actually resolves to achieve it. And what I mean by resolve, it means that they eliminate all other options.

So if you were to look at the goals that you have for your business or your life or finances or health and you resolve to achieve them, with a no plan B. This is what I'm going to do. And rather than saying I'm going to try to achieve these goals, you say I'm going to train to achieve these goals.

I'm going to achieve these goals. I may miss my deadline. I may not get there by the date that I [00:39:00] decided I was going to do it. But I have decided, I've ended the debate. I'm going to achieve what I said I was going to be, do, or have.

And that's final. And there's a difference. There's an old quote that says that nothing can stop a made up mind.

a decision is made, the word decide is actually the word of to kill off, like herbicide and pesticide and homicide, to kill off the other options out there. So when you decide and you resolve to go pursue your goal, Then, you start organizing your life around what matters most.

And I'll go back to my previous example because I believe 100%, Jeffrey, is that our calendar has to match our goal. If we want to achieve a specific goal, then our calendar should reflect it. So, if I was to go back and look at the last 90 days Or the last 30 days of your calendar, if I was like a private investigator and I was investigating Jeffrey Feldberg on his ability to resolve to achieve his podcasting [00:40:00] goals, I better find some evidence.

That he's guilty. He's guilty of creating one of the top podcasts in the world. And I would go back, and I'd look, and I'd see his show notes, I'd see all of the episodes, and the amazing guests, and the extraordinary amounts of reviews, and I would go, This guy is guilty of having an extraordinary podcast because he's resolved to achieve his goals, so I can find evidence that demands that verdict.

Whereas in most people, they're still trying, they're still kicking the can down the street, going, well, I'm doing my best, I'm trying, or they're saying, I can't because And I'm like, hey, tell me what you can do. Don't tell me what you can't do. I know that we all have challenges and obstacles and problems, but all you can do is all you can do.

So tell me all you can do, and let's do that for 30, 60, 90 days and watch how your extraordinary results just start happening. And then you start proving to yourself that maybe you could do a lot more than you thought you could do, considering your [00:41:00] circumstances.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And David, when you think about it, it's absolutely incredible when you have the right approach, the strategies that you're sharing with us, that skill set that can be mastered for an extraordinary life. You can apply that to anything and, extraordinary and success offline. We're talking about how most people think it's got to be dollars and cents, and actually it's the opposite.

And a lot of those colloquialisms are so true. Money doesn't buy happiness. Believe me, I've been on both sides of the fence and I can share money doesn't buy happiness. I went through part of my journey that actually proved that to be the case for better, for worse, and the better for, thankfully coming out of that.

But when you know how to do these extraordinary strategies. To get to that extraordinary life, it's an absolute game changer. I'd love to keep on going down this path because I know you have a 90 day challenge and you have all kinds of free resources on your site, from your videos to you have all kinds of blogs going and articles and insights of what's there.

But let me ask you this before we go into wrap up mode, is there a message or a topic that you'd like to [00:42:00] share with our community that perhaps we haven't covered?

David Bush: I think wrap it up, Jeffrey, the simple message that I want people listening today to take away from this message is you can design and live an extraordinary life. But it's going to come from you doing these six commitments and embracing them and doing it one at a time. You don't have to do all of them at the same time, just start off with commitment number one.

Think about what it is that you're feeling called to be, do, and have. I'm sure that you'll be able to find something that's exciting to you, or maybe something that you have been avoiding and you know that you've been avoiding it. Because it's something in the back of your mind, or it's deep down in your heart, that you've had this calling to you, but you've muffled the sound you unplugged the phone, and it stopped ringing and when somebody is calling you out on it, every time I've done it, And I start walking people through the questions.

It takes a few questions for some people, and then oftentimes they get a little bit emotional and they start getting back to the heart of what it is that they're [00:43:00] excited to accomplish. And, business in itself, like Jeffrey talked about, is exciting to go out there and pursue amazing, extraordinary dreams with your business.

But if you were calling, and let's just say that your calling was to provide for orphanages in Africa because maybe you have a passion for orphans, maybe you were adopted or something of that nature. If you start tying the idea of a mission and a vision to your business that you want to generate, $10 million to go towards serving orphanages in Africa. All of a sudden now, your business vision takes a new passion, you all of a sudden maybe rekindle some of the motivation and it goes beyond the hard work and all of the stuff that's happening in your business right now, because now you have this calling, it's the business is the means to an end, it's not the end, I mean, Jeffrey's exit is awesome as it was it's, It's not necessarily the end.

If that's the end, what's going to happen is, is that you're going to reach the [00:44:00] end, and then you're going to wonder what's next, and a lot of times, you don't have that motivation and excitement to keep pursuing other things, but if you have a mission that has attachment to a calling, That's serving other people.

That's transforming the lives of other people. You're going to get a lot more excited about not only pursuing it, but then also moving beyond the exit that you may have in your business and thinking about what else is next? How can I change my life now that I've got these extraordinary financial resources?

To start using the things that I've learned to transform the world. And that's one of the big things I know, Jeffrey, with your podcast is that you want to make a huge impact in the world and you want to help society in a very positive way. And just imagine if everyone listening today. Made that decision to say, today, I'm deciding to design and live an extraordinary life and I'm going to start taking action on some of the commitments that David and Jeffrey talked about.

What a different world we'd have.

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:45:00] Absolutely incredible and certainly something that gets myself and the team out of bed every day to do that. And guests like yourself who help us pay it forward with your wisdom and insights really do make that difference. And speaking of making that difference, as we wrap things up, it's really a tradition.

It's an honor and a privilege for me where I get to ask every guest the same question. So let me set this up for you, David. It's a fun one. When you think of the movie Back to the Future, you have that magical DeLorean car that will take you to any point in time. So imagine now it's tomorrow morning and you're looking outside your window.

Not only is the DeLorean car curbside, the door is open, it's waiting for you to hop on in, which you do, and you're now going to go to any point in your life. David as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time it would be, what would you tell your younger self in terms of life lessons or life wisdom?

Or, hey, David, do this, but don't do that. What would it sound like?

David Bush: I didn't think that I had a good enough story to tell. 20 years ago, I uh, created an e learning platform that was basically a design system around helping people to design and live [00:46:00] extraordinary lives. So it was an online platform which had a wizard process where they went in and financially I was over my head in the idea of creating it a lot of really popular people, Brian Tracy was one of them great motivational speaker and sales trainer said, you should write a book.

And I didn't think that I was worthy of writing a book because I felt like that my story was second to the stories of other people. And I said, why do we need another book on living an extraordinary life? And I said, there's so many other books out there. I just want to be the creator of the platform that helps other people to design and live extraordinary lives.

And took a backseat. wrote Shotgun and allowed other people to be the driver. And it led to the demise or failure of that particular business. So I didn't lead it in a way that I should have. I put myself in an operational position, which is not to my gifting and my calling, but I didn't feel like my story was worthy.

So I would go back there and I would reassure that young entrepreneur that it's not who I thought I [00:47:00] was that was the problem. It's who I thought I was not. And that I was going to be somebody that was going to be very extraordinary in the future I'd have a bigger impact earlier in my life if I would actually start taking those risks and putting myself out there and taking the stories that I think are very ordinary and sharing them with other people because my story matters and I would say anyone that's listening to this today, if you want to write a book, if you're feeling called to write a book, then you should write a book.

Why? Because of you, because you might be the one that's the most inspired by reading your book you may not need it to become a bestseller. I didn't write my book to become a bestseller. I wrote my book so that I'd have something that I could take and share my stories with people that were interested in living extraordinary lives.

To do that and and everybody has a story and you can be the hero of your story regardless of your past, regardless of your current circumstances, and regardless with the future that you may see as bleak you can be the hero of that [00:48:00] story and powerful opportunity for all of us.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific insights. So really follow your passion, take that risk, put yourself out there. What a wonderful takeaway for all of our listeners. And I'm curious if a listener is wanting to, David, have you come and speak at one of their events or come to their organization and speak with the leadership team or the company, or just even ask you a question, where would be the best place online for someone to find you?

David Bush: Yeah, all of our social media and all of our contact information is on our website at TheExtraordinaryLife. com. So if you go to the website, you'll be able to get in contact with us. We have a page specifically designed for speaking opportunities. We've also got some free resources a digital 90 day Extraordinary Life Planner with a 90 day.

Challenge that you can participate in and has a 90 day extraordinary day planner to really help you to organize your time around what matters most to you. And other videos, articles I'm real passionate about the topic. You could probably tell just listening to what we talked about today. So, [00:49:00] as Jeffrey's uh, passionate about creating big exits and uh, liquidity opportunities, I'm pretty doggone excited about helping people to design and live extraordinary lives.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific. And again, for our listeners, it doesn't get any easier. Come to the show notes. It's a point and click. It's all there for you. Well, David, it's official. This is a wrap. Congratulations. And as we love to stay here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe.

Thank you so much.

David Bush: Thanks, Jeffrey. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: So there you have it, Deep Wealth Nation. What did you think? So with all that said and as we wrap it up, I have another question for you.

Actually, it's more of a personal favor. Did you find this episode helpful? Have you found other episodes of the Deep Wealth Podcast empowering and a game changer for your journey? And if you said yes, and I really hope you did, I have a small but really meaningful way that you can actually help us out and keep these episodes coming to you.

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So all that said. Thank you so much for listening. And remember your wealth isn't just about the money in the bank. It's about the depth of your journey and the impact that you're creating. So let's continue this journey together. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for listening to this episode.

And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. Thank you so much. God bless.