Today’s Show Recap
Thanks for listening to Makin’ It. On this week’s episode, Tommy, Todd and Brittany interview internationally-known speaker and novelist: Andy Andrews. Let us know what you think of the show in the comments section at the bottom of the page!
Are you ready for a gift? Because it’s time to start the show!
Author and speaker Andy Andrews has quietly become one of the most influential people in America. Author of “The Traveler’s Gift,” “How Do You Kill 11 Million People?” and “The Noticer,” his combined works have sold millions of copies worldwide. His works are available in more than 40 languages, and he has been a “Good Morning America” Book-of-the-Month selection. An in-demand speaker and extremely rare communicator, he has been received at the White House at the request of four different presidents.
Rocky Start
Having started at the bottom, Andrews feels his career has been a long climb to the middle, and he says he is still climbing. After his parents died at age 19, he made some bad choices, which landed him homeless. Sleeping under a pier on the Gulf Coast or in friends’ garages, which Andrews says was neither safe nor smart, it did afford him plenty of time to read. Biographies were his favorite, and during that period of time, he read more than 200 different ones. Andrews found himself connecting with the tactics of the happy, influential and financially secure people in these biographies. He noticed there were seven principles that these people incorporated to help achieve their success.
Andrews the Author
Andrews would later use these principles to write his book, “The Traveler’s Gift.” The principles weren’t theories or habits, nor were they specific to himself or anyone else. They could be attained by everyone. “The Traveler’s Gift” centers on a father who traveled through time to learn these principles from notable historical figures, and his book made it to “Good Morning America’s” Book-of-the-Month-Club.
Andrews’ latest book, “The Little Things,” is something he believes parents will want to share with their teenage children because it is filled with a lot of concepts that can be used as guides. But it has also been well received by people in business for the same reason.
Andrews got started writing “The Little Things” because he realized that many of the concepts he had learned along the way and had come up with on his own were not written down. He had been using these ideas to help companies increase their results, and he wanted to ensure they were available for his sons.
He says “The Little Things” was one of his easier books to write because he is accustomed to writing novels. To anyone who wants to write a book and believes he doesn’t know how, Andrews says neither did John Grisham. But he also suggests authors look at the book they like the most and start it and end it the way that book was composed.
Luck or Emotional Maturity?
Andrews doesn’t believe it takes luck to be successful, saying that luck is a myth. To him, luck is a cool concept to discuss, but detecting it is impossible because it doesn’t exist. For Andrews, luck is something that is wished for when the dice are rolled and blamed with the dice come up empty. For mercy, grace, peace and abundance, people tend to call on luck, yet the people who call on luck for what they desire are people who don’t have any other idea of how to get the things they are after. Andrews cites luck is a last resort of a desperate person.
Personal development is important to Andrews, and he believes a little bit of struggle can help a person grow. However, he states that there are a lot of people who don’t like personal development, and many times they don’t know why, just not liking the idea of it. However, the things that these people want are connections, opportunities and influence, and they will often turn to luck to solve their problems.
However, Andrews also believes that people who want to develop themselves personally are at the center of opportunity, and other people want to be around them. And those who don’t want to develop are often in bad moods, and people don’t want to be around them. But Andrews wants people to recognize they do have the ability to act a certain way despite emotions. He states that people have been created with a will that is stronger than emotions, and people can choose how they act, which is a part of personal development.
Discovering Purpose
To Andrews, purpose is a person’s direction in life. While purpose and passion are two different things, they are connected because passion is the fuel and energy that will make that purpose roll. Andrews believes to discover purpose and where a person is valuable, it isn’t with making money. What a person does with money is his purpose.
Building a Business
For Andrews, using common sense is how he built his business, which he considers to be a super power these days. However, using common sense is a power that everyone can cultivate. He also uses social media, which he considers to be a traditional marketing method.
Andrews makes the majority of his money helping companies and entities succeed, and he does this by focusing on results, which is how he built his own business. Andrews sees the importance of having incredible results, and he knows that they will never be achieved by doing what everyone else is doing. He offers this advice to people wanting to turn their businesses around in a year: Look at your industry, see what everyone else is doing and turn around and go the other way.
The Big Picture
Andrews doesn’t claim to be a celebrity and maintains he is an ordinary guy who is a father, husband and friend. He believes the best way he can make himself valuable is with results, and he wants to help people get massive outcomes. While Andrews says that many people are into big picture things, it’s the little things that matter because each picture is created one individual brush stroke at a time.
OMG Fact of the Week:
President James Garfield could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other hand at the same time.
Thanks for tuning in to Makin’ It. Let us know what you think of the show and if you have questions about your business, send us an email at info@makinitnow.com or leave us a comment below. We love to hear from our listeners and we read comments on the air. We just might choose yours for next week’s show (so don’t forget to tune in!).
Visit us on social media!
Additional Resources for Entrepreneurs:
Order Tommy’s new book, The Way of the Rich at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, booksamillion.com and buybooksontheweb.com.
Contact Andy Andrews at:
andyandrews.com
On Facebook by searching for his name
On Twitter @AndyAndrews
Makin’ It is social! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
Check out the Makin’ It website to listen to past shows anytime at www.makinitnow.com
Be sure to tune in every week to the Makin’ It Radio Show on your local station or listen to past shows anytime on iHeart Radio, TuneIn or the Makin’ It Now Archives section on our website at www.makinitnow.com.