The Idaho Painter Podcast | Part 2

how did those athletic Pursuits uh translate to where your um successful business ventures where was the crossover or like how did you all of a sudden get these motives to obviously your successful now it didn't just happen at one point what was the path to get you to where you are now like what have your career opportunities been how many how many jobs did you do before you got to where it finally clicked yeah so you know I said I I came from California so I um one of the things my dad you know kind of harped on me was he was in the construction trades so he was a builder and um I worked for him you know in constructions I think I was probably 12 years old swinging a hammer you know he kept telling me I got to I need to go to college I need to go to college to be successful and I think you know that generation and even now um one of the M big mistakes we make is we're teaching kids Young kids that you have to go to college to be successful which you don't you absolutely do not and um you my father kept beating in my head you got to go to college so I I went off went to college um Cal Poly Pomona graduated with a degree in urban Regional planning and at that point in time the the economy was extremely bad I couldn't get a job in urban Regional planning at all and um it was 1993 and my wife um got pregnant and so we had our first child and we I mean I we didn't have $10 to our name and so out of college um I eventually how I ended up in Idaho was I was searching for jobs and I had friends that were in law enforcement and I was just like I just got to get a job and so I I applied all over California couldn't get a job because of affirmative action that'll date me too but if you look that up you'll understand what that's about a little bit and um I couldn't get a job job so a friend of mine I grew up with was in Idaho lived in Idaho he said come up here try to get a job and I drove to Idaho um got a job with the ad County Sheriff's department and so I started working the sheriff's department I when I I was offered a job I was in Idaho drove back to California rented to U-Haul so it's a 15 hour drive it drove 15 hours up drove 15 hours back picked up my wife and said we're going to Idaho right now I packed up the trailer didn't sleep BR 15 hours back to Idaho and that's how we ended up in Idaho and started working for ad County Sheriff's department and um you know that eventually you know LED um you know um I worked for ad County service department worked for Boise PD for a while too and decided that I wanted to go back to school to get another degree in computer networking and um that eventually was bad timing too so I um my my life was kind of some bad timing issues and um it's how do those affect you do those defeat you at all like trying these new things and not working out I've had a lot of failures in my life you know and I never look at anything as a failure I think like anytime I've ever failed or didn't succeed probably should um turn this thing off here I my I I silenced my phone but I didn't silence my watch there we go it's silenced I've always looked at failures is an opportunity to know how far you are from succeeding and I think that's um written in my gym on the wall in my gym and you know it's um and so throughout those failures I just go okay you know I'll pick myself up and move on and go from there and I think being an athlete is um you know you learn a lot of those life lessons being an athlete and you know something that you know is very Vivid to me I started racing bikes and I remember one of the very first races you I was racing in it was a road race and I was dropped by the pelaton I was left you know all alone on the road and and I said you know I almost had just got off my bike and it said you know um I'm just going to quit and I said you know what I'm just going to keep you know riding and I'm not going to give up and you know you never know what can happen of this and eventually another writer caught up to me another writer caught up to me and pretty soon there was a group of five of us and we're all writing together and you know eventually caught the pelaton and you know you never know what's going to come your way and so I've always had this attitude of just you know no matter what comes your way um if you don't succeed you know what it's um an opportunity to learn and all end up succeeding in the end and do you think that you're obv see in a great marriage with your wife do you think with your excessive like compulsive like Behavior do you think that your wife plays such a great role in kind of calming you down CU she was obviously very supportive of like moving with you all the way to Idaho you know that's you know um in order to have a successful marriage you know I think you have to have um you know two partners that are working with each other and um I would say my wife it had always been by my side and you know whether I succeeded or failed she was always there for me she was always my biggest um in life of everybody my biggest supporter and um somebody I could always count on and you know I think that's a big part of My Success you know is somebody that you know and my wife too whether you know success is Divi defined like in many different ways you know I mean we could have I I we did have nothing in um in the beginning and my wife will tell you we had everything we needed so gave you a different perspective on things she did and she still does so um you know uh that's you know a big part of My Success comes from her and her support you know and um and then my kids too I mean eventually my my wife raised kids that were just like her and they've been you know my biggest supporter too was she the first person that you felt like truly believed in you um or did you have other people that you like mentored you or fully supported you before that point so yeah cuz I was part like part of my story you know I was leading to and sometimes I have a tendency to talk a lot that's fine that's that's good it's good for those setting and so um you know I I would say in my life the big big turning point you know for me in my life was I was an athlete and I was very obsess obsessed with um competing and I was a bodybuilder and I spent a lot of years um bodybuilding competing and then I started powerlifting and I was really obsessed with powerlifting I was obsessed with wrestling but I my wife um her mother was an amazing person [Music] and take your time yeah [Music] yeah it's so hard yeah you're good so you know she totally but like believed in me we moved to Idaho and she she was like the one person in my life that you know I I I would say at that point in time in my life I was a total failure and I I in your eyes at least and I would say in my eyes because there was um a lot of family members you know telling me that too and so I think I I started to believe that because other people were telling me that but my wife my wife's mother always believed that I would turn out to be a good person and a good husband which I wasn't a good husband at that time either and so um tragically she died and how recent was this she was 57 okay so that was that was a long time ago and um but obviously the impact is still there it's still there yeah and and the impact yeah take your time you're good yeah so hard it's like it was yesterday appreciate you going into it yeah yeah so the the impact was I never had the opportunity to to show her that I was going to be successful and and I I knew even though I had family members telling me I wasn't going to be and people surrounding me that I wasn't going to be successful I knew that I would I knew that I had it in me and um you know it just wasn't the right time and you know when she died died that was you know it was just tragic and so as soon as she died I was like you know we actually moved back to California and I we left Idaho and I um and I took a job in California and we were going to move back there CU obviously my wife's mother was like her best friend and so it was a major major tragedy and it was hard to see my wife you like this and so she wanted to move back and be with her dad and so we up and left and um how did that how did that shift you like emotionally and just like from a life perspective did that change your Viewpoint did give you more drive to start like speeding up the process of things it it g it instantly gave me drive and so um cuz I didn't want I want I even though she wasn't with us anymore um you know my wife's father was with us I I knew I had no time I mean you don't know when your day is here and I don't know when the the day people surrounding me is here and so I had to start right then and so I I was very against working 8 hours a day I was um I was very into bodybuilding and pursuing my dreams being a professional bodybuilder and just being a selfish person so that was the end goal like you wanted to go deep into the sport I did I wanted to be a professional bodybuilder and um I wanted to be Mr Olympia and you know and I worked you know for some companies you know in the bodybuilding industry and stuff bouncing around but my wife said let's go back to Idaho and um that's where our home is that's where our life is and we came back to Idaho and I said you know what I'm going to work my ass off and I'm going to build my my wife a home that she deserves and um I'm going to make this happen I'm going to work 24 hours a day if I have to did you have to kill your ego in that process I want this for me I want to be a bodybuilder and then like I have to sacrifice something like sacrifice a dream for somebody else essentially I I or did you just like make it up in your mind that I want this more than I want to be I def I I wanted to you know prove to my wife's mother that even though she's not here that I that become that became my obsession is to prove to everybody that I can be a successful person that that I will provide for my wife I will provide for my family and and I will be a husband I will be a father and I'll be a good one even though you know I wasn't [Music] instantly [Music] [Applause]