Episode 20

full
Published on:

14th Feb 2023

Ruben Gonzalez | Achieving Success and Significance - Unlocking your full potential through self-awareness and commitment

Listen in to hear Ruben Gonzalez, a 4-time Olympian over 4 decades, as he highlights key concepts emphasizing the importance of self-awareness and commitment in achieving success and significance. Ruben mentions the importance of recognizing his own strengths and weaknesses and how he applied this knowledge to pursuit of his goals. He also dives into the importance of taking action with a high level of commitment and having passion, as well as giving back and developing others. The speaker also mentions his book, "The Shortcut Book." This is a FANTASTIC episode for all those leaders and coaches to share with team members who they are helping to develop.

Episode Links:

https://ruben-gonzalez.com/product/the-shortcut-book/

https://ruben-gonzalez.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruben-gonzalez-olympian/

Mentioned in this episode:

1on1 App Information

https://www.thinkmovethrive.com/1on1-app/

Transcript
Dallas Burnett:

Hey everybody, we're talking to Ruben Gonzalez today.

Dallas Burnett:

What an amazing guy.

Dallas Burnett:

He's a four-time Olympian, has some incredible stories of life

Dallas Burnett:

on the ice at 80 miles an hour.

Dallas Burnett:

He's a great new friend of mine.

Dallas Burnett:

You don't wanna miss this incredible conversation.

Dallas Burnett:

Welcome, welcome, welcome to the last 10%.

Dallas Burnett:

I am Dallas Burnett, sitting in my 1905 Koch brothers

Dallas Burnett:

barber chair in Thrive Studios.

Dallas Burnett:

But more importantly, today we have an amazing guest.

Dallas Burnett:

He has completed not only four Olympics, but four Olympics in four decades, climbs

Dallas Burnett:

mountains, jumps, side of planes, runs with the bulls, a man of many talents.

Dallas Burnett:

Welcome to the show, Ruben.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Hey Dallas.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Great to be here, man.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You got some energy.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I love it.

Dallas Burnett:

Well, there's one

Ruben Gonzalez:

be all that iced tea, all that southern ice tea.

Dallas Burnett:

That's right.

Dallas Burnett:

That's right.

Dallas Burnett:

Well, there's one thing we like doing on the last 10%

Dallas Burnett:

and that's having a good time.

Dallas Burnett:

So we gonna learn, we're gonna grow, but we gonna do it and have a good time.

Dallas Burnett:

First of all, I need to congratulate you because our episode with Warwick Bashford,

Dallas Burnett:

the, the professional tennis coach, he wanted to hear you on the last 10%.

Dallas Burnett:

You're the first guest in our history that has been on the show of someone.

Dallas Burnett:

Now we're gonna be getting more, but you are the first one that's been

Dallas Burnett:

on the show, that's been recognized.

Dallas Burnett:

So I've gotta give you like an award or something for that.

Ruben Gonzalez:

yeah, gimme a tennis racket or something since this Warwick

Ruben Gonzalez:

is a, I got a tennis racket story too, so

Dallas Burnett:

Oh, that's good.

Dallas Burnett:

We'll have to come back to that.

Dallas Burnett:

So, let's talk about your story because, you have an amazing story,

Dallas Burnett:

I would love for you to tell your listeners you're a four-time Olympian,

Dallas Burnett:

you kind of had this epiphany.

Dallas Burnett:

So tell everybody how do you become a four-time Olympian out of Houston, Texas?

Ruben Gonzalez:

I was born in Argentina.

Ruben Gonzalez:

my dad was a chemical engineer with Exxon.

Ruben Gonzalez:

We moved to the States when I was six years old.

Ruben Gonzalez:

We were up in Queens, New York for a couple years in Houston most of my life,

Ruben Gonzalez:

oil brat, Venezuela, back to Houston.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And when I was 10 years old and I was re love to read adventure books, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And I was always looking for the adventure.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And, when I was 10, I see the Olympics on TV for the first time, and I was hooked.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I thought, that's my adventure, that's what I want to do.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And the funny thing, or the strange thing is that, what drew me to

Ruben Gonzalez:

the athletes, it wasn't their athleticism, it was their spirit.

Ruben Gonzalez:

cause right away I realized, wow, this is a group of people that

Ruben Gonzalez:

are willing to train for so long.

Ruben Gonzalez:

and, and some of 'em actually make it.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You gotta be so strong to put yourself through that.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I, I.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I wanna be like them.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I put 'em up on a pedestal and I wanna be like them.

Ruben Gonzalez:

For me, throughout my whole career, it wasn't about the medals, it was

Ruben Gonzalez:

just, I wanna be one of these guys.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

. And but I'm an unlikely Olympian cuz I'm not a great athlete.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

I got a lot of heart, but no body.

Ruben Gonzalez:

kinda like Rudy.

Ruben Gonzalez:

and oh, it was the last kid picked for pe It was terrible.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so I didn't believe it was possible.

Ruben Gonzalez:

If you don't believe it's possible, why even try?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so I talked about it cause I was fascinated.

Ruben Gonzalez:

But my dad finally got fed up and he said, why don't you like to read books.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Why don't you read some biographies?

Ruben Gonzalez:

if you'll study the lives of great people, you'll figure out what

Ruben Gonzalez:

works with doesn't work in life.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Maybe you can figure out how to make that dream come true.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And what I kept seeing, and by the way, biographies, I like them right away

Ruben Gonzalez:

cause they're true life adventures.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And it's always the same story.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's always somebody had a dream

Dallas Burnett:

Mm

Ruben Gonzalez:

had a struggle and then they had a victory.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's always dream, struggle, victory.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Can't get around that struggle.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And, What I keep seeing over and over is, they're a bunch of hardhead.

Ruben Gonzalez:

they're persevere.

Ruben Gonzalez:

They refuse to quit, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

, they get to that.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That 10, 10 yard line like you like to say, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

they get, keep going.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so as a 12 year old, after reading a few of these biographies,

Ruben Gonzalez:

I made a decision to change my life.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I, I said to myself, if quitting is the end of your dream and

Ruben Gonzalez:

and tenacity or perseverance, at least you've still got a shot.

Ruben Gonzalez:

No guarantees, but at least you're still in the game.

Ruben Gonzalez:

No brainer from today on Ruben doesn't quit anything.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I I just made one of those quality decisions right by high school.

Ruben Gonzalez:

My nickname was Bulldog.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Other kids realized that, hey, this guy's pretty tenacious.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And when I was 21, I'm watching the Olympics again.

Ruben Gonzalez:

This is 11 years later, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

and started reading biographies that got me into personal development.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And I started learning principles of success from that.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And at 21, I'm watching the Olympics, 84 Sarajevo games, and I see Scott Hamilton

Ruben Gonzalez:

win the gold medal in figure skating.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And that guy's about five feet tall, a hundred pounds.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He gave me hope.

Ruben Gonzalez:

everything changed in my head.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I thought That little guy can win.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I can at least play.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm gonna be in next Olympics.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's a done deal.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I just gotta find a sport.

Dallas Burnett:

you don't, you don't even have a sport.

Dallas Burnett:

You're not, you're not, you don't even have a sport at this point.

Dallas Burnett:

I watched that same, I watched that same Olympics.

Dallas Burnett:

I remember Scott Hamilton, I was a little kid.

Dallas Burnett:

Absolutely.

Dallas Burnett:

But I, I did not have a sport either.

Dallas Burnett:

I was probably, I don't know what I was in 84, I was probably

Dallas Burnett:

six or something like that.

Dallas Burnett:

But I do remember him cutting a back flip on the ice, you know, and that was a,

Dallas Burnett:

it was like an amazing, memory for me.

Dallas Burnett:

I just never seen anything like that before.

Dallas Burnett:

So I

Dallas Burnett:

could

Ruben Gonzalez:

I loved it.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Yeah.

Dallas Burnett:

So how do

Ruben Gonzalez:

know what else I liked about him?

Ruben Gonzalez:

I guess what got me to start watching him, he did this interview and his

Ruben Gonzalez:

thing was, I don't wear sequins.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm like, Ooh, I like this guy I can relate to this

Dallas Burnett:

That's so

Ruben Gonzalez:

anyway, so he gave me hope and I thought, I'm ready.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I played soccer all my life.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Little Argentine boys we're thinking we're gonna play World Cup soccer, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm pretty good with a soccer ball, but I'm a slow poke.

Ruben Gonzalez:

The other guy gets to the ball first all the time.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm still in the bench.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so I went to the library and now I got a goal, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And it's a goal with a deadline and four years, I'm either in or I'm not in.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So that gives you urgency, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

There's no time to waste.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I got this big book about the Olympics, looked at the summer sports, took me

Ruben Gonzalez:

five minutes to realized, man, you gotta be Superman to do any of these things.

Ruben Gonzalez:

There's no way.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Yeah.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And then I'm looking at the.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Winter sports and the analytical side of my brain woke up and I thought,

Ruben Gonzalez:

Hey, I'm about to put together a plan for the next four years.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Probably makes sense.

Ruben Gonzalez:

The base of the plan on my strengths, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

My strength's not athleticism, my strength's, perseverance.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm bulldog, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so I thought, I need to find a sport that's so tough.

Ruben Gonzalez:

A sport's got so many broken bones in it.

Ruben Gonzalez:

There'll be a lot of quitters, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And I just won't quit.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'll ride the attrition rate all the way to the top.

Dallas Burnett:

I love that.

Dallas Burnett:

That is so good.

Dallas Burnett:

Find something with broken bones and ride the attrition

Ruben Gonzalez:

on my only chance.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so there's gonna be ski jump, bobsled or luge.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I figured those look like a lot of right.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I live in Houston, forget it, I never skied before.

Ruben Gonzalez:

that would've been suicide.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That one's out.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Bobsled.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You gonna find three other nuts in Houston, one of the bobsled, and

Ruben Gonzalez:

you gotta go to Jamaica for that.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so luge, you can do by yourself.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'd never seen it on TV if I had.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I know I wouldn't have done it.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I just had a little picture of a guy on a luge.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I thought, that looks pretty tough.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That's the one for me.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I didn't even know where the track was.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I wrote Sports Illustrated a letter.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I asked them, where are you gonna learn how to luge?

Ruben Gonzalez:

They actually wrote back and they sent me a picture of a guy on a

Ruben Gonzalez:

luge and I put it on a frame, stuck it right in front of my bedroom.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's, I'm looking at it right now.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Sitting in my office now.

Ruben Gonzalez:

They're under the Olympic rings.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That's my picture.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

The guy sent me, all right, so I wake up in the morning, first

Ruben Gonzalez:

person I see is a luge man, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

So he reminded me, Hey, I got, I'm going for the Olympics.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Gotta eat right.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Gotta work out.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Gotta read good books, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Hang around with winners, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Mental toughness.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Last person I saw at night, luge man.

Ruben Gonzalez:

what do you think I dreamt about at night?

Ruben Gonzalez:

. Luge.

Ruben Gonzalez:

See, that was my goal upsetting system.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Just that kept the goal in front of me all

Ruben Gonzalez:

the time.

Dallas Burnett:

tell me this though, like you're in Houston, Texas, you write Sports

Dallas Burnett:

Illustrated, you decide, you've just made this like literal commitment to go

Dallas Burnett:

from, I've never seen the luge to this is what I'm doing for the next four years.

Dallas Burnett:

Did you at that time say, I'm gonna try it, or did you say, I'm, I'm in it

Dallas Burnett:

like, I'm going, I'm, I'm full tilt.

Dallas Burnett:

I'm gonna win.

Ruben Gonzalez:

no.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I never even, no.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That t word, that's a bad word.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And I'm not gonna say it, but, and it's levels of commitment.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's levels of commitment.

Ruben Gonzalez:

All right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Think about when you were, when you moved outta.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Folks' house, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And you got your first apartment, you start calling your buddies

Ruben Gonzalez:

to help you move, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And you're gonna have pizza and beer afterwards.

Dallas Burnett:

Right, right.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Now, the one, I guarantee you, the ones that said, I'm gonna

Ruben Gonzalez:

try to be there, they didn't show up.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cuz that's a really low level of commitment.

Ruben Gonzalez:

All right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm gonna do my best.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That's almost as bad as, uh, I'm gonna try, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm gonna do my best leisure way, a big door on the back end, which

Ruben Gonzalez:

says, if anything turns out to be inconvenient, I'm not gonna do it right.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And I'll be there.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Alright?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Or it's a done deal.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's a done deal means, I'm gonna lose faith and I don't show up.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so who's gonna be, it's also always gonna be a done deal for me.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so I call Lake Placid.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And I said, I'm an athlete here in Houston.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I learn how to luge.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm in the Olympics in four years, will you help me?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And the guy goes, how old are you?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And I said, 21.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And he starts laughing.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Forget it man.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You're too old.

Ruben Gonzalez:

We start him off when they're eight years old.

Ruben Gonzalez:

But now you have 10 years experience.

Ruben Gonzalez:

There's no way.

Ruben Gonzalez:

No way.

Ruben Gonzalez:

All I didn't know what to do.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I thought they were gonna welcome me with open arms to hear this

Ruben Gonzalez:

guy's laughing at my dream.

Dallas Burnett:

Yeah,

Ruben Gonzalez:

Only thing I knew was hanging up.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That's not an option.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That'd been the end of everything.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So I just kept talking through him, Talking to him.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I and I happened to tell him I was born in Argentina and he gets all excited.

Ruben Gonzalez:

All of a sudden he goes, Argentina, if you'll go for Argentina, we'll train you.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I said, why I'm here.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You're gonna train me at all.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I, it was wrong in Argentina,

Dallas Burnett:

Right.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And he goes, the sport of luge is this close from

Ruben Gonzalez:

getting kicked outta the Olympics.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cause we're not global enough.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's the US, Canada, and a few European countries.

Ruben Gonzalez:

We're recruiting cause there's always other sports trying to take our place.

Dallas Burnett:

my goodness.

Ruben Gonzalez:

If you'll go for Argentina, you'll travel with us.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You'll come under our umbrella, you'll train, we'll even lend

Ruben Gonzalez:

you a sled the first year.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Eventually you gotta get your own stuff.

Ruben Gonzalez:

We're gonna have to cram 10 years of lose training into just two years.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

You can get hurt a lot, but we gotta do that because the last two years you

Ruben Gonzalez:

gotta race in the international against the best in the World Cup circuit.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cause you're getting points just like nascar, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

You're getting points for all your races.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And right before the Olympics, they tally up the last two seasons, top

Ruben Gonzalez:

50, get to go 51 watched it on tv.

Ruben Gonzalez:

so you go Argentina, I said, man, I'll go for Pakistan.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I don't care for the Olympic man.

Dallas Burnett:

What's amazing though is that you just kind of put it out

Dallas Burnett:

there and, you know, I think so many people, when they go for something,

Dallas Burnett:

they pick up the phone and maybe they, they're like, yeah, I'm in.

Dallas Burnett:

They pick up the phone.

Dallas Burnett:

It's like, you said, I can't hang up because then the dream dies.

Dallas Burnett:

And I think so many people just go, oh, you're not taking anything.

Dallas Burnett:

Oh, okay.

Dallas Burnett:

And they hang up.

Dallas Burnett:

And I think that you're, like you said, is tenacity.

Dallas Burnett:

It's that persistence.

Dallas Burnett:

You're like, all right, so the first goal is picking up the phone.

Dallas Burnett:

Second goal.

Dallas Burnett:

He says, no.

Dallas Burnett:

Okay.

Dallas Burnett:

Obstacles the way, let me see.

Dallas Burnett:

I gotta get him talking.

Dallas Burnett:

You know?

Dallas Burnett:

And through that conversation, he goes from, you literally moved this guy

Dallas Burnett:

from laughing at you to, to assisting you in giving you your own sled

Dallas Burnett:

That's

Ruben Gonzalez:

Oh, it's

Dallas Burnett:

That's

Ruben Gonzalez:

yeah.

Ruben Gonzalez:

but like you said, when you put yourself out there and before I hung up and reel me

Ruben Gonzalez:

back to, to, to what we were saying Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

About not hanging up.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cuz I am still a d I'll go on tangents.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Off my tangents.

Ruben Gonzalez:

All right.

Ruben Gonzalez:

, I, before I hang up.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He said, before you come to Lake Placid you need to know two things.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Number one, you wanna do it at your age.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You wanna do it in just 4 years.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's brutal.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Nine outta 10 people quit.

Ruben Gonzalez:

When he said that, I started smiling.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I thought this was right into my plan.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It was awesome.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Thank you guys.

Ruben Gonzalez:

what's the second thing?

Ruben Gonzalez:

He goes, expect to break some bones.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And I said, great.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And he got real quiet and comes back, goes, what's wrong with you man?

Ruben Gonzalez:

I thought you gonna break some bones?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Are you nuts or something?

Ruben Gonzalez:

I told him, look, I hope it's 10 times harder.

Ruben Gonzalez:

What you're telling me, I hope it's a hundred times harder cuz the harder it is.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Easier.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's for me.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cause I'm not a quitter.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm Bulldog.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I was praying that it would be so hard that some of these

Ruben Gonzalez:

East Germans would quit.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cuz they win all the time.

Ruben Gonzalez:

But I didn't pray hard enough.

Ruben Gonzalez:

They show up, they raise, pick up their medals.

Ruben Gonzalez:

They ain't even smile.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's poor am.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm gonna put this one,

Dallas Burnett:

Oh man.

Ruben Gonzalez:

but here's what I, what?

Ruben Gonzalez:

When you said about, on, on the phone, you gotta make a call and

Ruben Gonzalez:

everything, but here's something.

Ruben Gonzalez:

really important, really.

Ruben Gonzalez:

this guy, they could have hired him yesterday.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Think about this.

Ruben Gonzalez:

They hired him yesterday.

Ruben Gonzalez:

They're taking him around through, orientation.

Ruben Gonzalez:

They take him to the track and he, and they says, see, those are the,

Ruben Gonzalez:

those see those little kids, eight year olds, nine, 10 year olds.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That's how we get 'em started, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And, so he saw it and this is where we get you started.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You're gonna be answering phones here the first month.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Now this guy, he's confidently ignorant, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

He doesn't know, but he thinks he knows cuz he just heard it,

Ruben Gonzalez:

he saw it with his own eyes.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He's confident and there's a lot of confidently ignorant people out there

Ruben Gonzalez:

to tell, and but he's a new hire.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He doesn't have any decision making power, okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

He only has the power to say no.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He doesn't have the power to say yes.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

So that's why you always go to the top.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I was in sales.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You go to the top right to, I'm a professional speaker.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I speak, I do lots of sales kickoffs all over the world.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I do more sales kickoffs than anything else.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I call the VP of sales.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That's who I'm want to talk to, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Because that guy's got an unlimited budget and he's got power to say yes.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Everybody else just has power to say no.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That's so remember that

Dallas Burnett:

I love that.

Dallas Burnett:

That's a, that's a great word for the listeners out there.

Dallas Burnett:

We're looking if you, you know, if you wanted to live in the last 10%

Dallas Burnett:

and, and, and be able to grind it.

Dallas Burnett:

The, the work is fine, but that attitude and the mindset that you have

Dallas Burnett:

sometimes, no one lives on an island.

Dallas Burnett:

We all need, we all need people.

Dallas Burnett:

We have to do the work, but we need people that come beside us to add to that dream.

Dallas Burnett:

You know?

Dallas Burnett:

And sometimes it's like, we gotta get to the person that can open the door.

Dallas Burnett:

Cuz there's a lot of people that can close it, but there's not this,

Dallas Burnett:

it's like you said, there's a lot of people that have the power to say no.

Dallas Burnett:

But if you're getting those nos, it's not like you get the first No.

Dallas Burnett:

And hang up and be done.

Dallas Burnett:

It's like, all right, let's, let's get some more so I can get to the Yes.

Dallas Burnett:

And I think that's a, I think that's a powerful, yeah, I think

Dallas Burnett:

that's a totally powerful, idea.

Dallas Burnett:

I love that.

Dallas Burnett:

So essentially, you move forward and you say, okay, I've gotten to this guy.

Dallas Burnett:

I'm in Houston, but he's opened the door.

Dallas Burnett:

I can now go and they're gonna hook me up.

Dallas Burnett:

If I do these things with Argentina, I can now go compete.

Dallas Burnett:

So what happens next?

Dallas Burnett:

Like, what's the transition?

Ruben Gonzalez:

so he said, we got a camp coming up in a couple

Ruben Gonzalez:

of weeks and it's the springtime.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's a couple of months after I saw Scott Hamilton.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm already heading to Lake Placid.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Because there's

Ruben Gonzalez:

no time.

Dallas Burnett:

insane.

Dallas Burnett:

That's incredible.

Ruben Gonzalez:

boy, you got, yeah, but

Dallas Burnett:

So you gotta do it.

Dallas Burnett:

You don't only have four years.

Dallas Burnett:

You gotta go.

Dallas Burnett:

You gotta

Ruben Gonzalez:

otherwise be going for the Olympics eight years from now.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And if you think you got, here's another thing.

Ruben Gonzalez:

One of my coaches used to say, Ruben, you know what, it's so good that you took

Ruben Gonzalez:

action when you were excited, because most people, they start overthinking it.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And the, and the excitement goes down and they quit even before they begin.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so you gotta take action.

Ruben Gonzalez:

When you get excited, you jump and the net will appear.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And if you fall on your face, at least now, okay, don't jump

Ruben Gonzalez:

there, jump somewhere else.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You'll always learn from something.

Ruben Gonzalez:

you're further ahead if you screwed up.

Ruben Gonzalez:

But if you didn't do anything, you're still in the same place.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so I go up there and it's a springtime and we're going from a half

Ruben Gonzalez:

mile point of the old bobsled track.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's, there's no ice on the track.

Ruben Gonzalez:

We're going on wheeled sleds, 50, 55 miles an hour.

Ruben Gonzalez:

All we're wearing is tennis shoes, shorts, and a t-shirt, , and a helmet,

Ruben Gonzalez:

but that's just for decoration.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Make the lawyers happy.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It doesn't help if you're crashing.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So they put me in this class with 15 beginners and we're

Ruben Gonzalez:

going, and we're training with the US junior national team.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

All these, 13 year olds, 11 year olds, and I'm was the tallest one there.

Ruben Gonzalez:

But it's funny, we get there, we take our first run.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I still remember my first runner.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I remember sitting on that stand thinging thinking, oh my gosh, here we go.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Here we go.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You we're beginning and finish my run.

Ruben Gonzalez:

We get to the bottom and the US team, the junior national team, they hop

Ruben Gonzalez:

on the truck, they take 'em back to the top of the hill, us, they hand

Ruben Gonzalez:

us the sled, you gotta walk up.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And right there, a couple of guys quit cuz it was beneath them to have to walk up.

Dallas Burnett:

What

Ruben Gonzalez:

Yeah.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I guess they didn't want it

Dallas Burnett:

they didn't wanna walk up the hill.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Yeah.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Yeah.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Some of 'em quick said, had a bruise.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Oh, let me backtrack.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That guy told, when I hung up the phone, right when I was talking

Ruben Gonzalez:

to a guy from Lake Placid, he told me, you're gonna break some bones.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That the reality of hit.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I thought, whoa, this is gonna be harder than I thought.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He didn't say I might.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Break some bones.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He says, you will break some bones, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

So I thought, okay, so how am I gonna handle it when I break a bone?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Because you prepare for the worst.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You hope for the best, but you gotta be prepared for the worst.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I thought, I've broken bones before , you wear a cast for

Ruben Gonzalez:

six weeks, take off the cast.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's healed up and stronger.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And before.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So when you really think about it, it's just a temporary inconvenience, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so I reframed it in my mind and so I knew how I was gonna handle it.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So I go over there and these guys are quitting cuz they

Ruben Gonzalez:

got a little bruise, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Yeah.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'll never forget, I'm walking up, I'm floating up that track, after my

Ruben Gonzalez:

first run and there's a few tourists watching this train and there was this

Ruben Gonzalez:

old man, old white hair and he, he just, I guess he's just seen me zip by.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And as I walked past him, I locked the eyes on him, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cause I'm so pumped up.

Ruben Gonzalez:

After my first run, I said, I'm gonna be in the Olympics in four years.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He looks at me and he pauses and he goes, son, I think you're gonna make it.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I can see the passion in your eyes.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So can people see the passion in your eyes when you tell 'em

Ruben Gonzalez:

about your goals and your dreams?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Because that's how they know that you believe,

Dallas Burnett:

Oh, I love

Dallas Burnett:

that

Ruben Gonzalez:

has this little gauge right in their mind and if somebody

Ruben Gonzalez:

believes or if they're just blowing smoke.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so don't be afraid to get excited to show your excitement cause that

Ruben Gonzalez:

sets you apart, that makes you real.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Don't try to be Mr.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cool,

Dallas Burnett:

Yeah, man, that's so good.

Dallas Burnett:

But you know, that is, when you're committed, when you're a full in,

Dallas Burnett:

you know, you talked earlier about levels of commitment and that I'll

Dallas Burnett:

try or, you know, I'll do my best.

Dallas Burnett:

And how that just doesn't work.

Dallas Burnett:

you know, when you're, when you're fully committed and you're like, I'm

Dallas Burnett:

doing this, it was like you said it, you can't help but say it like, I'm going

Dallas Burnett:

to be in the Olympics in four years.

Dallas Burnett:

And, and it's palpable people.

Dallas Burnett:

And not only that, if you wanna rally, and I think this is something, if you

Dallas Burnett:

own a business or if you lead a team, it is so infectious When you truly believe

Dallas Burnett:

something, we talk about mission, vision, values, purpose, and all these things.

Dallas Burnett:

Start with the why.

Dallas Burnett:

And if, if it's just something that you say, because it's a poster on the.

Dallas Burnett:

Then people know that they can feel it or they lack that, you know?

Dallas Burnett:

But if you come in and you own it and you are it like you are, that you

Dallas Burnett:

ex just exude that whatever that is, whether it's a vision or a mission

Dallas Burnett:

or value, man, it people want to be a part of something like that.

Dallas Burnett:

They want to follow that.

Dallas Burnett:

They want to believe too.

Dallas Burnett:

They're looking for you if you're leading that team to just it,

Dallas Burnett:

just share some of that, you know?

Dallas Burnett:

And it's infectious.

Dallas Burnett:

So I think like, I think that's so, I love how you said, man, I can, I

Dallas Burnett:

mean, you know, you were so passionate that man said I could see it in

Ruben Gonzalez:

Yeah.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Yeah.

Ruben Gonzalez:

my first job in high school was Chick-fil-A.

Ruben Gonzalez:

All right.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I worked in Chick-fil-A, number 85.

Ruben Gonzalez:

All right.

Ruben Gonzalez:

People didn't even know what a Chick-fil-A was.

Ruben Gonzalez:

They walked up, they said, ah, let me get a chick flick, or a Chick-fil-A like, call

Ruben Gonzalez:

it like, I said, we're training people on what a chicken sandwich is, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cause nobody knew.

Ruben Gonzalez:

We're on the second floor, on the corner of this low, small

Ruben Gonzalez:

mall in Houston, zero traffic.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And, but our manager, he was Steve.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Steve Mason was awesome.

Ruben Gonzalez:

he just made it fun.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He figured first we're gonna get the managers of all the stores, and then the

Ruben Gonzalez:

manager's gonna bring in the employees and then they're gonna bring everybody else.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so we'd go, we'd get all the managers a free sandwich or

Ruben Gonzalez:

a quarter of a free sandwich.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And then he had to sing songs in the front of the store and

Ruben Gonzalez:

we'd do all these crazy things.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And it was so much fun.

Ruben Gonzalez:

for three years we had almost zero turnover.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And this is 45 years ago and or 40 years ago.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And, we still keep in touch.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I was just emailing Steve yesterday, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

He's still, he's one of my friends and after three years, chick-fil-A,

Ruben Gonzalez:

and we were always in a top 10, even though it had a lousy location.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Nobody knew what we were doing.

Ruben Gonzalez:

We were always in the top 10 in sales and Atlanta, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Where they're based, they figured out this guy's too good to be running a store.

Ruben Gonzalez:

They brought him in, made him VP of training, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And then they replaced him with this other guy who was really lame.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And within six months we all quit.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cause it wasn't fun anymore.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It wasn't challenging.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so seeing Steve as the leader, this goes to what you were saying.

Ruben Gonzalez:

As a leader, you have the opportunity to create an

Ruben Gonzalez:

atmosphere, create a culture, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And and things are gonna be done that way.

Ruben Gonzalez:

But it's up to you.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cause it's not gonna happen by itself.

Dallas Burnett:

Not gonna happen.

Dallas Burnett:

No, that's a great, I love that.

Dallas Burnett:

I love that story.

Dallas Burnett:

So now you're going up the hill.

Dallas Burnett:

You've met the old man who has, has, has forecasted your destiny

Dallas Burnett:

and, you're, you're headed back up.

Dallas Burnett:

You've already left some quitters, so you've already moved above some

Dallas Burnett:

quitters at the bottom of the hill and you've finished your first run.

Dallas Burnett:

So how does that training process go and how does that, how does

Dallas Burnett:

that kind of form, form you?

Dallas Burnett:

And you've got four years of it, or at least two years of before you start

Dallas Burnett:

competing, did you see this massive jump, or, or did you, you know,

Dallas Burnett:

was it a grind at the bottom for a while before you got the hang of it?

Ruben Gonzalez:

on wheels, it's more dangerous on wheels because if you

Ruben Gonzalez:

crash and you hit that concrete, even though it's not as fast, you're,

Ruben Gonzalez:

it's straight of the hospital.

Ruben Gonzalez:

they call it the weeding out process in the sport of luge but you're

Ruben Gonzalez:

learning the basics of steering.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And you got a lot of traction.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So the sled pretty much goes where you wanted to go.

Ruben Gonzalez:

But then the, that was in the spring, and then as soon as the first cold

Ruben Gonzalez:

front hit Houston, that was time to, you know, head to the luge track

Ruben Gonzalez:

around October, around Halloween time, that's when they opened up.

Ruben Gonzalez:

and I went, that was the first time on ice.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Most tracks have

Dallas Burnett:

so let me get this straight.

Dallas Burnett:

You're practicing in the summer on concrete, and it's like a concrete

Dallas Burnett:

tube that you're going down on, like something like roller skates on

Dallas Burnett:

under your back.

Dallas Burnett:

I mean, it's just

Ruben Gonzalez:

Yeah.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's a luz track with no ice.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So it's Cause it's melted.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Yeah.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So you're going fast, anyways, and we're not wearing leathers

Ruben Gonzalez:

like these street luge guys.

Ruben Gonzalez:

No.

Ruben Gonzalez:

We're wearing nothing.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And anyways, then we.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Go in the winter and on ice.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's ridiculous.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I mean, that sled is just all over the place.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's exactly the difference between walking and skating.

Ruben Gonzalez:

exactly the same thing.

Ruben Gonzalez:

and so they put you usually on curve.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Let's say you, you curve 12, for example.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You're only going 20, 30 miles an hour and you crash, crash, crash, crash, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And then you finally figure it out.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Your brain figures it out, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

riding a bike.

Ruben Gonzalez:

After a while you, it just figures it out.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So coach you up a couple of curves, now you're going 35.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Oh my gosh, too fast.

Ruben Gonzalez:

No time to think, crash, crash, crash, crash.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You know, figure it out, move up.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You literally crash your way to the top.

Ruben Gonzalez:

that's how you learn.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And then you go to different tracks and you learn different things and different

Ruben Gonzalez:

tracks and how to put 'em together.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And, it, it's the first two years I was crashing four out

Ruben Gonzalez:

of five times, alright, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

I mean that hurt first two years were brutal.

Ruben Gonzalez:

broke my foot twice.

Ruben Gonzalez:

My knee, my elbow, my hand, my thumb, couple ribs.

Ruben Gonzalez:

My neck's a chiropractor's dream.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cause you're pulling six G's on some of those cursor heads hanging off the back.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And I didn't know I'd take care of my neck or anything back then.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So I was doing anything wrong.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so, but I kept coming back and then start competing internationally

Ruben Gonzalez:

and that was even worse.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

The first two years, physical challenge.

Ruben Gonzalez:

But now, next two years, imagine Dallas, you just got your driver's permit.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You're 16 years old, you still can't make that, that right turn without

Ruben Gonzalez:

the back wheel hitting the curve.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That's that level driver you are.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That's about the level of luger I was at that point.

Ruben Gonzalez:

After two years, I'm barely getting up, getting down from the top.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And now they put you in this room and on the other side of that wall

Ruben Gonzalez:

is the Indianapolis 500 Speedway.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And you start looking around the room, it's wait a minute, that's a J Foyt.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Hey wait, that's al, that's Mario Andrei.

Ruben Gonzalez:

What am I doing here?

Ruben Gonzalez:

I don't belong here.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I just learned, I just got my driver's permit.

Ruben Gonzalez:

imposter syndrome to the max.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That's exactly how I felt.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm surrounded by Olympic champions who have been sliding for 15, 20

Ruben Gonzalez:

years, and I would go to the, I couldn't even look 'em in the eyes.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I would go to the darkest corner and that's of the start house.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And that's where I would get ready.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And I just put on the blinders.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I it's gotta keep doing 'em.

Ruben Gonzalez:

One more run.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I gotta get these World Cup points.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I just gotta keep doing it.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Keep, meanwhile, the Germans, they're, they won't even gimme the time of day.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I might be walking down the track and I see a bunch of Germans walk working on

Ruben Gonzalez:

a sled and say, Hey Hans, how you doing?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Nothing.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm invisible.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Yeah.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That even that confirmed that I didn't belong.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I felt like an, but I just kept going.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I just kept going and, I make the Calgary Olympics.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Squeaked into the first 1, 19 88 Calgary, winter

Dallas Burnett:

So that means that you're in, you said earlier that you were, that

Dallas Burnett:

was the, you would compete in, in the, in the world, and then they would take

Dallas Burnett:

the top 50 and number 51 on watches it.

Dallas Burnett:

So you literally had moved up.

Dallas Burnett:

I guess that's 88.

Dallas Burnett:

In four years you did it.

Dallas Burnett:

You got to the top 50 in the world.

Ruben Gonzalez:

yeah.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And now the way the numbers actually work is each country can send a maximum of

Ruben Gonzalez:

three men, three women, two doubles teams.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

So you got three Germans, three Austrians, three Italians, three Americans, three.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And it goes up.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So you got a bunch of threes of the big, the strong nations, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Then you got a few countries that got the twos right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

They only got two that could qualify.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And then you got about 10, that are ones, one per country that are scratching

Ruben Gonzalez:

and claw to try to be in that one, And so it wasn't, so I made Calgary.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Awesome, incredible.

Ruben Gonzalez:

But it wasn't until two years later.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Two years later, I'm walking down the track and one of the Germans,

Ruben Gonzalez:

he goes, Gonzalez, Speedy Gonzalez.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Hey, how are you?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And I got pissed,

Dallas Burnett:

I bet you did.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I said, what's up with you guys?

Ruben Gonzalez:

I've been nice to you guys for four years now.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And now I'm Speedy Gonzalez.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And he goes, come, we must talk to you.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And they gave me this, the talk, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

the whole team, all the athletes, the coaches, they just sit all around me

Ruben Gonzalez:

and say, look, we have four tracks in a country the size of Texas, all right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Back then, salt Lake City, I back when I got started, lake Platon was

Ruben Gonzalez:

the only track in North America.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You only build them when there's an Olympics right now.

Ruben Gonzalez:

and so we have four, we have all these luge clubs and we, some of us

Ruben Gonzalez:

started when we were five years old.

Ruben Gonzalez:

and after a few years, we're the best in our town, and then

Ruben Gonzalez:

we're the best in our region.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Then we made the national team, okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

10 men, 10 women get to be on the national team.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Then we made the Olympic team three and three.

Ruben Gonzalez:

But there's so many great losers in our country be behind coming in behind us.

Ruben Gonzalez:

We'll be lucky to do too.

Ruben Gonzalez:

, but you know what we're gonna do afterwards?

Ruben Gonzalez:

We're gonna coach because we respect the sport and we want to continue this

Ruben Gonzalez:

legacy of being the, they've won 80% of the races in the last 50 years.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

You think the Patriots have a dynasty?

Ruben Gonzalez:

They got nothing.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And and they said, and we are sick and tired of seeing

Ruben Gonzalez:

people from other countries.

Ruben Gonzalez:

They come, they do one Olympics, they then they disappear.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You know what we call them?

Ruben Gonzalez:

I said, no, what?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Olympic tourist.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Always with a little camera, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

But this is two years after your first Olympics.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Obviously you're trying to make the Albertville Olympics in 1992.

Ruben Gonzalez:

France, Albertville, France, whether you make it or not, doesn't matter to us.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Only thing that matters to us is you are respecting the sport.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So you've earned our respect.

Dallas Burnett:

wow.

Dallas Burnett:

Did that shift?

Ruben Gonzalez:

commitment.

Dallas Burnett:

Yeah.

Dallas Burnett:

Did that

Ruben Gonzalez:

I got

Dallas Burnett:

perspective?

Dallas Burnett:

Oh, you got goosebump.

Ruben Gonzalez:

got 'em everywhere now.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I tell that's my gold medal man.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Earning those guys.

Dallas Burnett:

Well, cuz when you started you

Dallas Burnett:

said you, yeah.

Dallas Burnett:

You start, you started, you said, I want to be one of these people.

Dallas Burnett:

Like, I want to be one

Ruben Gonzalez:

Yeah, I

Dallas Burnett:

And that's like, that's like the greatest trophy ever.

Dallas Burnett:

Those people come and say, Hey, just wanna let you know you're one of us.

Dallas Burnett:

Ah, that's so good.

Dallas Burnett:

So

Ruben Gonzalez:

Yeah.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I never even thought of it that way, but it's absolutely, and that's

Ruben Gonzalez:

probably why I got all those goosebumps.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Every time I tell that story, it's, that's my medal.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Yeah.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And even making it to the Olympics was kissing your sister a little bit,

Ruben Gonzalez:

because I made it, but I still wasn't in, and it wasn't until two years later.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so I, then I made albertville and then I quit.

Ruben Gonzalez:

missed seven Christmases in a row.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I was just, I just wanna do something different.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I was pretty burnt out at that point, and I quit for six years or so, and

Ruben Gonzalez:

then my coach, I had this big Austrian.

Ruben Gonzalez:

. He's it's like having Michael Jordan teaching you how to do hoops, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

I that kind of thing.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And, super high standards.

Ruben Gonzalez:

it hurts him to smile.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cause he's never used those muscles before.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I he got like a drill Sergeant and he calls me out of the blue, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Five years before the Salt Lake City Olympus.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He goes, Ruben, and you must come back.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Luge needs Argentina.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I said, forget it coach.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I got a family, now I'm done with the Olympic thing.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Thanks, but no thanks.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Hang up on him.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Felt so good to hang up on him, but he's a winner.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He won't take no for an answer, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

He calls back, he goes, US Olympic Spirit, salt Lake City, you'll be the be the best.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You regret it if you don't go, thanks, but no thanks.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Ah, but that's time it hurts.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I don't wanna regret anything.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I don't have any tattoos.

Ruben Gonzalez:

But if I had one, it wouldn't be the Olympic rings.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It would be no regrets.

Ruben Gonzalez:

don't wanna have any regrets.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so then he calls back.

Ruben Gonzalez:

. He goes, I got a deal for you.

Ruben Gonzalez:

totally lost his accent.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He was saving it for this moment, He goes, I got a deal for you.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You get yourself to Calgary.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I got a camp coming up in Calgary, two week camp.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'll take care of room, board, track fees.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Every time we take a run, it's 50 bucks.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

40, 50 bucks.

Ruben Gonzalez:

it's expensive.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Take about six runs a day.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so this guy, he's not only the meanest guy I know, he's

Ruben Gonzalez:

also the cheapest guy I know.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He made me all these years, he knew me, never even bought me a beer.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I how can you be an Austria and not buyer?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Sell me a beer.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so I ain't like beer, but just the thought of it, the principle thing.

Ruben Gonzalez:

so here he's offered me all these thousands of dollars of free training.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I thought, man, they must really need Argentina, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Because it's a pendulum, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Some years they got too many countries and they won't gimme the time of day.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Then they need Argentina.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so I told 'em, okay, I'll go on one condition.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I got a brother.

Ruben Gonzalez:

, he's seen me to go to two Olympics, and I seen him to look in his eyes.

Ruben Gonzalez:

If that deal goes for him too, hey, we got five years, maybe he can learn the sport.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Maybe he can crack it to the top 50.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Maybe he can make it to the Olympics.

Ruben Gonzalez:

how old is he?

Ruben Gonzalez:

He's 30 years old.

Ruben Gonzalez:

30 years old.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Are you crazy?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Oh, you gotta see this guy coach you.

Ruben Gonzalez:

An incredible athlete.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He's not, he is an architect.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I mean, he's really good with Legos, but, you know, but I

Ruben Gonzalez:

knew he was mentally tough.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That's why I knew he could do it.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He goes, all right, bring him along.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Hangs up on me.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

So order has been re, you know, brought back, because now he's hanging up on me.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'll go to Marcello, my, my younger brother, and he goes,

Ruben Gonzalez:

look, worst case scenario, you got a free two week vacation.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He goes, yeah, I could die on this vacation and yours, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And he goes, yeah, you.

Ruben Gonzalez:

, but best case scenario, you could be an Olympian.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

You could be the Olympic architect now.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And he starts smiling.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He goes, Hey, that's got a nice ring to it, the Olympic architect.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And he was in, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

He goes, he catches the dream.

Ruben Gonzalez:

he breaks a few bones, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And when he caught the dream, he got committed.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

He started eating right.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He got ripped, okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

He went from a, I had a overweight architect.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He got ripped, all right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

He broke a few bones.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cause everybody does.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He kept coming back.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cause we're all bulldogs.

Ruben Gonzalez:

No chihuahuas in our house, all right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so with one race to go, I was already in, I had enough World Cup points, I'm in.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Hey, he didn't look like he had it.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I, he, it wasn't gonna happen.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And on the last race, he pulls one out of the bag.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's all these World cup points.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Bumps him up the 49th in the world, he made it.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Dallas Burnett:

my goodness.

Dallas Burnett:

You made it with your brother.

Ruben Gonzalez:

yeah, we made Olympic history.

Ruben Gonzalez:

First time two brothers compete against each other in a men's luge.

Ruben Gonzalez:

for the record, I won.

Ruben Gonzalez:

All But.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Yeah,

Dallas Burnett:

That's

Ruben Gonzalez:

I so think about it guys.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You're listening to this.

Ruben Gonzalez:

If a 30 year old outta shape architect, I'm gonna get to

Ruben Gonzalez:

the Olympics and they'll luge.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Imagine what you can do.

Ruben Gonzalez:

All right.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Stay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I hope that makes you awake tonight.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I hope you're cursing me tonight.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cuz you can't sleep cause you're thinking

Dallas Burnett:

I If you can't sleep tonight, you can totally

Dallas Burnett:

blame Ruben, heal, sleep like a baby knowing you can't sleep if you

Dallas Burnett:

catch the dream and say, look, I didn't know that this was possible.

Dallas Burnett:

If you believe at that level, and if you commit at that level, unbe,

Dallas Burnett:

unbelievable things can happen.

Dallas Burnett:

It.

Dallas Burnett:

That is an unbelievable story.

Dallas Burnett:

I I love that.

Dallas Burnett:

I love that.

Dallas Burnett:

So you, you and your brother compete the, he turns into an architect

Dallas Burnett:

Olympian and you are competing another in a, in another decade, at

Ruben Gonzalez:

that Salt Lake, and that's when that little kid, this a

Ruben Gonzalez:

little kid in my neighborhood, right before the Salt Lake City Olympics

Ruben Gonzalez:

2002, almost 21 years ago, I was a copier salesman in downtown Houston at.

Ruben Gonzalez:

, and I've had a lot of jobs.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm highly unemployable.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm very, uh, independent , so don't be calling me for job offers, but if you

Ruben Gonzalez:

need to inspire, motivate your people.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm your guy.

Ruben Gonzalez:

But anyways, this kid, a little fifth grader goes, Hey, Ruben, when you get

Ruben Gonzalez:

back from the Olympics, we'll, you my show and tell project in school.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And I said, sure, why not?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And I pictured show and tell day.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Everybody gotta show something off.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's probably five minutes per kid, at least five minutes from me.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I took the sled, the helmet, the Olympic torch, no prisoners, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm gonna finally get my Olympic medal, even if it's beating

Ruben Gonzalez:

a bunch of, I'm competitive.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so I go, the principal takes me to this room.

Ruben Gonzalez:

There's 200 kids sitting, and he says, you got 45 minutes.

Ruben Gonzalez:

They need to turn it into an assembly.

Ruben Gonzalez:

But he didn't tell me.

Dallas Burnett:

Oh,

Ruben Gonzalez:

That door looked so inviting.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I almost just ran out.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And I said a little prayer.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I really did.

Ruben Gonzalez:

God, what do I do now?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And what I felt I needed to do is just tell 'em your story, give

Ruben Gonzalez:

'em some pointers, how they can make the their dream come true.

Ruben Gonzalez:

, and that's where it started.

Ruben Gonzalez:

afterwards, principal went nuts.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You got a gift that you need to do for a living.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I said, what you get paid for?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Show and tell?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And he goes, no, man, it's speaking profession.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I don't you know, anything.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And he goes, so my face that I thought about it and I thought, you

Ruben Gonzalez:

know what, that was a lot of fun.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Maybe I can inspire some people to go for their dream, And sure

Ruben Gonzalez:

beat's, knocking on doors in downtown Houston, trying to sell a copier.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And three days later, I'll quit my job.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I figured if I can sell a copier, I sell a Ruben too.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And I just started calling all the schools massive action,

Ruben Gonzalez:

calling, following up faxes.

Ruben Gonzalez:

and that's where it all started.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And, now it's, I've spoken for a hundred Fortune 500 companies all over the world.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I that kid changed my life.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So you don't know.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You have no clue what could possibly lay in front of you.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm a shy guy.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Nobody believes me when I say that.

Ruben Gonzalez:

But my, I'm an introvert.

Ruben Gonzalez:

, you get me talking about personal development or Olympics.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's like Clark cant turns the Superman, but I'm an introvert.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'd run behind, behind a book and, but I'm a key, I'm a keynote speaker.

Ruben Gonzalez:

All right.

Ruben Gonzalez:

10, sometimes, 5,000 people.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I shared the stage with zig zeigler 25 times over the years, big

Ruben Gonzalez:

arenas, and I made C's in English.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Heck, my parents celebrated my brought home a C anything

Dallas Burnett:

Yeah.

Ruben Gonzalez:

and I've written six books.

Ruben Gonzalez:

They've been translated to 10 languages, and they sold over 300,000 copies.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm not an Amazon bestseller, I'm a real bestseller, okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

But I can barely spell.

Ruben Gonzalez:

All right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Think about that.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I hope this keeps you up all night.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm a lousy athlete, okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's not false modesty.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm a slow poke.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I got heart.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm just like Rudy.

Ruben Gonzalez:

In fact, about 10 days, I'm speaking a big real estate event in Connecticut.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Rudy Rueger and me, we're gonna, try to take those guys' excuses away, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

We, and

Dallas Burnett:

you ever spoken with

Ruben Gonzalez:

guess I'm a of the

Dallas Burnett:

Have you ever showed,

Dallas Burnett:

have

Ruben Gonzalez:

a movie yet.

Dallas Burnett:

yeah.

Dallas Burnett:

Have you ever showed, have you ever shared the stage with him before?

Dallas Burnett:

Have you ever met him?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Yeah, we met a couple times.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I haven't seen him about 10 years since.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Be fun catching

Dallas Burnett:

that?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And, but I,

Dallas Burnett:

Tell me this, I would love to know like, where were your parents

Dallas Burnett:

at and what were they thinking , your dad gave you some great advice early on

Dallas Burnett:

when he says, go read some biographies.

Dallas Burnett:

You took that advice and, and it really helped catapult and solidify your mindset.

Dallas Burnett:

You come back at 21, you say, Hey, mom, dad, I just wanna let you know,

Dallas Burnett:

I can only imagine, hey, yo, I'm just gonna let y'all know I'm gonna

Dallas Burnett:

be in the Olympics in four years.

Dallas Burnett:

I'm going to do the, what is their, like how did they respond to that?

Ruben Gonzalez:

That's a great question.

Ruben Gonzalez:

on the one hand, I was blessed that my parents always supported me.

Ruben Gonzalez:

No matter what hair-brained idea I had, my dad would always try to find the

Ruben Gonzalez:

source of knowledge to, to help me out.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

It was never who you think you are.

Ruben Gonzalez:

the stuff that you see in Rudy's movie, it wasn't like that at all.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It was the opposite.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay, you can do it, you can do it, you can do it.

Ruben Gonzalez:

If you work hard enough, you can do it, but you gotta follow

Ruben Gonzalez:

those success principles.

Ruben Gonzalez:

My dad also knew he was a, I was such a hardhead.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That I probably wouldn't listen to anything he told me directly.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That's why he just led me to the trough of knowledge, the books.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And let them work their magic.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And my mom, typical mom, they, she didn't, now she's afraid Ruby's gonna get hurt.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Her baby's gonna get hurt.

Ruben Gonzalez:

She didn't want me to do it.

Ruben Gonzalez:

They never saw me luge live.

Ruben Gonzalez:

They would wait till I brought the VCR could tape afterwards.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cuz they're afraid to see their baby, get

Dallas Burnett:

They couldn't watch you do it live.

Dallas Burnett:

They just

Ruben Gonzalez:

No, it couldn't.

Dallas Burnett:

Oh, that's amazing.

Dallas Burnett:

I mean, I understand mean

Ruben Gonzalez:

see that sign?

Ruben Gonzalez:

This is a shameless plug,

Dallas Burnett:

No,

Ruben Gonzalez:

the shortcut book.com.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So I just did my, the shortcut book.com.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

We'll turn it back over here again.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So I just did my first in March.

Ruben Gonzalez:

March of last year, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cuz we haven't gotten to March yet.

Ruben Gonzalez:

March of last year.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I did my first TED Talk.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's called The Power of Following the Leader, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Because I'm a big believer that and success, it, it's very simple.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's not easy.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It is, know, it's gonna take everything you got.

Ruben Gonzalez:

But if it's in your heart, I believe that you got what it takes.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You just gotta dig deep, okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And I did this, whatever you wanna do, just find somebody that's done it.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Find somebody that's done it and call 'em up and ask 'em for advice.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Ask them.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And I always get pushback.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Oh, but I don't wanna impose those people are so busy.

Ruben Gonzalez:

you know what, as, as long as your intention is, I'm gonna do

Ruben Gonzalez:

whatever they say right away.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm gonna take massive action.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm gonna make 'em look good cause I won't succeed.

Ruben Gonzalez:

, you owe it to them to call 'em.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Because see, everybody thinks that success is the gold medal, but it's not.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Success is the silver medal.

Ruben Gonzalez:

The gold medal is called significance.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That means you help somebody else succeed.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That makes you feel good inside, that feels that significance fills

Ruben Gonzalez:

that little hole in your heart, okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so they got success.

Ruben Gonzalez:

They're looking for significance.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So if you make your dream come true, cuz they showed you how you get the

Ruben Gonzalez:

silver medal, they get the goal and you just might make a best friend.

Ruben Gonzalez:

See?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so that, that talk that I did, the power of following the leader, I got man,

Ruben Gonzalez:

it's already gotten over a million views and I was getting so many nice things.

Ruben Gonzalez:

People, emails and stuff like that.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I thought, man, maybe there's an idea whose time has come, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Maybe there's a lot of hard headss like me cause I resisted my coach.

Ruben Gonzalez:

See that, that, that bulldog tenacity that I had, that helped me get through

Ruben Gonzalez:

that those rough years at the beginning also made me resist my coach's advice.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I learned everything the hard.

Ruben Gonzalez:

the hard way.

Ruben Gonzalez:

In fact, one of my first coaches says, Ruben, you weren't Bulldog.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You were half bulldog and half mule.

Ruben Gonzalez:

If you'd have been, if you wouldn't have been so hardheaded, you learned hard.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You shouldn't have gotten hurt much as you did, man, but thank God that you were such

Ruben Gonzalez:

a champ that you just kept coming back.

Ruben Gonzalez:

but it didn't have to be that hard.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so I wrote this book, call The Shortcut, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And the shortcut, the success is find a leader.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Follow a leader, and then you can be the leader, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Because you learned it, you applied it.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Now you're the leader.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Then what?

Ruben Gonzalez:

then find another leader higher and higher.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And you keep, you do that for the rest of your life.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And this book is just, everybody loves it right Now, if you're an old guy like

Ruben Gonzalez:

me, and you like paper books, just go to Amazon or you go to the shortcut book.com.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You can buy it there.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's 20 bucks.

Ruben Gonzalez:

If you're one of those Kindle guys, I got it for a dollar right now on Kindle.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

So it doesn't get any better than

Dallas Burnett:

That's We will put the link, we'll put the link of the

Dallas Burnett:

shortcut book in the, in the show notes.

Dallas Burnett:

So you guys check out the shortcut book.com and if you like it

Dallas Burnett:

on Kendall, he is got a deal.

Dallas Burnett:

So we, we'll add those, we'll add those links to the, show notes to this.

Dallas Burnett:

That's awesome.

Dallas Burnett:

And I love, I love what you, what the premise of the book and, and I would

Dallas Burnett:

love to dive in just, real quickly, to a couple things that, that relate to

Dallas Burnett:

that idea, cuz I love how you talk about following the leader, to be the leader.

Dallas Burnett:

And there, there is a certain level of humility that comes with that and a

Dallas Burnett:

certain level of humility that it takes to be coached, you know what I mean?

Dallas Burnett:

To allow that process to take place.

Dallas Burnett:

Talk about that, your perspective on, your coach and what how that kind

Dallas Burnett:

of interaction was with your coach.

Dallas Burnett:

And what you had to do to kind of come under him, you know, what does

Dallas Burnett:

it take to follow a leader in your opinion, and, and to do that well?

Ruben Gonzalez:

You said it.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Humility, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Trust.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You have to let go.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You have to let go.

Ruben Gonzalez:

and letting go is scary, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Because everybody wants to be in control and being outta control is scary.

Ruben Gonzalez:

But that's, you can only improve if you're outta control, okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

, if you're doing something that's pushing you outside of

Ruben Gonzalez:

that, you know of the limits.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so you have to let go and trust.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And for the first three Olympics, I would resist.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And on my fourth Olympics, they changed the rules.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's could be top 40 now, not top 50.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Alright?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Now I was always around top 45 when they did that.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I thought, this is gonna be tough.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm older than anybody.

Ruben Gonzalez:

back in Salt Lake, I was 39.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Back then, everybody thought I was a coach.

Ruben Gonzalez:

they look at me.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So what are you coaching?

Ruben Gonzalez:

no, I'm an athlete.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I get this dude, look at me up and down.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He goes, no, come on.

Ruben Gonzalez:

What are you coaching?

Ruben Gonzalez:

. It's like a Rodney Dangerfield, the Olympics man.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And So in, in, in Vancouver, I was 47.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Now, by then, all the other coaches are cheering for me.

Ruben Gonzalez:

They're going do it for the old guys, and And but I realized

Ruben Gonzalez:

number one, I'm the oldest.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Number two, I'm gonna have to be better than I've ever been

Ruben Gonzalez:

before I got my back to the wall.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And that's what it took for me to say, okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I, I was always good at seeking out the mentor, but I wasn't good at following

Ruben Gonzalez:

right, following their advice right away.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so I would always wait and then do it the hard way.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And I just said, I'm just gonna let go.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm gonna do it.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And I started improving faster than I ever had before.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And then at 55 I was sliding better than ever.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Next week I got a brand new sled, okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

brand new German sled.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Next week, Tuesday, I'm driving to park.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm gonna, test drive the old sled and the new sled and the old body and see,

Ruben Gonzalez:

how, and coach said, look, it's gonna be, it's gonna feel different, okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Than your old sled.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

This is, this is souped up, okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

So we want you going from junior start, 40, 50 miles an hour.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Don't worry, don't, your goal is not to get the men start, because if you rush

Ruben Gonzalez:

it, you're just gonna pick up a bunch of bad habits and then we will work three

Ruben Gonzalez:

times as hard to try to break them.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Your goal is to feel okay and to feel what that sled is doing and try different

Ruben Gonzalez:

things and try going early into a curve on purpose, or try going a little bit late

Ruben Gonzalez:

and see what it does, and develop the feel so you can, you can ride that bull, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And and then,

Ruben Gonzalez:

on the last day, I'll go to Lady Start and it's 75 miles an hour, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And then I'm coming back in, in February and doing some more.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And if that goes well, then next year I'll be going to several tracks.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And then if that goes well, start competing again, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

The last two years are the ones that count.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You get more training run, you get more runs per week.

Ruben Gonzalez:

If you're just training and there's no pressure, you can just focus on learning.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And the last two years, and who knows, maybe, maybe Milan

Ruben Gonzalez:

in 2026, only be 60, 63.

Dallas Burnett:

You are.

Dallas Burnett:

So you're saying, you're saying that you're doing that

Dallas Burnett:

now you're taking that out.

Dallas Burnett:

You're not, I thought in, I thought you were talking about your last

Dallas Burnett:

Olympics.

Dallas Burnett:

You're actually saying that, you're actually going into training

Dallas Burnett:

right now to com to to see if you can make the next Olympics.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Yeah.

Dallas Burnett:

is

Ruben Gonzalez:

Mentally I'm tougher than ever.

Dallas Burnett:

That's

Ruben Gonzalez:

Mentally.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm tougher than ever.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so here's something my mentors used to tell me years ago.

Ruben Gonzalez:

They ask.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Successful people ask different questions than average people, okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And they do different things and they read different books, and they actually

Ruben Gonzalez:

invest more in their books and on, on how big their big screen TV is.

Ruben Gonzalez:

All little things like that.

Ruben Gonzalez:

. And they don't watch the news, okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cuz the news, let me tell you guys, the news is so negative.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It is gonna steal your dreams.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And the media makes money two ways.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Number one, make you mad.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Number two, make you scared.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That's good for ratings, but it's bad for business.

Ruben Gonzalez:

All right?

Dallas Burnett:

I agree with that.

Dallas Burnett:

Yeah.

Dallas Burnett:

A hundred percent.

Ruben Gonzalez:

so they would always ask questions like, why not now?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Why not me?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Why not?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Why not Now, why not ask yourself those questions?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Why not me?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Why can't I compete in five Olympics in five different decades?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Why can't I become the oldest person to ever.

Ruben Gonzalez:

in the Winter Olympics ever.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Why not?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Why can't I get my, the cover on Arps magazine?

Ruben Gonzalez:

right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Why can't I get sponsors?

Ruben Gonzalez:

depends.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Diapers and ol and Timex, cuz it keeps, takes a looking and keeps on ticking.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Why not?

Ruben Gonzalez:

So those, but those questions I'm just goofing around now, but

Ruben Gonzalez:

those questions, they get your mind thinking about possibilities.

Ruben Gonzalez:

They open up your mind and that's a good thing.

Dallas Burnett:

Man, I'm supercharged.

Dallas Burnett:

I'm supercharged hearing you talk about it, man.

Dallas Burnett:

We are going to be cheering for you, and, and cheering for your,

Dallas Burnett:

training and I have no doubt.

Dallas Burnett:

I have no doubt that that is absolutely achievable, especially with your mindset.

Dallas Burnett:

A hundred percent.

Dallas Burnett:

No doubt.

Dallas Burnett:

I know you don't have any doubts.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay, we're gonna shift here from, the shortcut book.com

Ruben Gonzalez:

to this little picture over here that is the official, poster from

Ruben Gonzalez:

the, Oslo Olympics back in 1952.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Osso Norway.

Ruben Gonzalez:

See you.

Ruben Gonzalez:

The Norwegian flag.

Ruben Gonzalez:

All right.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Why do I have that and why do I have a Norwegian flag over there?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And why do I have another Norwegian flag around the corner

Ruben Gonzalez:

my by my espresso machine where I have my coffee in the morning?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Why?

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm from Argentina.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That doesn't make sense.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'll tell you why.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm training for the Vancouver Olympics.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Only top 40 are gonna make it best I've ever done was top 45 at the end

Ruben Gonzalez:

of the training, of the qualification period, which is December 31st.

Ruben Gonzalez:

The Olympics are in February, December 31st.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That's a cutoff point.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm 42 in the world.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I missed it.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I didn't qualify.

Dallas Burnett:

Hmm.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So what do you do?

Ruben Gonzalez:

You gonna.

Ruben Gonzalez:

No, Vancouver's the fastest track in the world.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So Park City's the second fastest track in the world.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So all of January, I went to Park City to just take runs to work on speed, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Keep my man prepared, be prepared in case you get the opportunity right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cuz you never know.

Ruben Gonzalez:

At the, at the Calgary Olympics, my first one in 88, the guy that was

Ruben Gonzalez:

gonna take it all was Norbert Huber.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He was, an Italian, but they're all Italians from northern,

Ruben Gonzalez:

northern Italy, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

They all speak German.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I they're Germans, really.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so he was winning everything that year, two weeks before the Olympics, he

Ruben Gonzalez:

gets appendicitis, misses the Olympics.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He never made it back.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Can you believe that?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Bad luck.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Bad luck.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I, and okay, so I'm number 42 in the world.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm gonna prepare myself just.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I just need one guy to get appendicitis, one guy to break his leg and the

Ruben Gonzalez:

other guy to break his arm and I'm in.

Ruben Gonzalez:

But you gotta be prepared.

Ruben Gonzalez:

If it happens, if it doesn't happen, but at least you gotta be prepared.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So that's a mindset, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Whatever it takes for as long as it takes, that's a good recipe to success.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Whatever it takes for that doesn't mean I step on people and make enemies and cheat.

Ruben Gonzalez:

no.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You long-term thinking, okay, you don't screw up relationships,

Ruben Gonzalez:

you just do whatever it takes.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so get comfortable with being uncomfortable , right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Yeah.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And three weeks before the Olympics, I'm speaking Minneapolis

Ruben Gonzalez:

to all these salespeople.

Ruben Gonzalez:

They have this big banner that says, believe and Achieve,

Ruben Gonzalez:

and they don't get happy.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Reuben like you guys are getting, okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

This is, they're getting, Reuben is in the trenches, willing to kill

Ruben Gonzalez:

somebody to get in the Olympics.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I mean, they got a little more, you know, and I see that banner believe in Achieve.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I thought, man, that's a bunch of bull

Dallas Burnett:

Mm-hmm.

Dallas Burnett:

. Mm-hmm.

Ruben Gonzalez:

the sales manager goes, right.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I says, look, don't tell me what you believe.

Ruben Gonzalez:

All right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

What you do shows me what you believe.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

and you know what?

Ruben Gonzalez:

You know what I did up in my, I believe this is three,

Ruben Gonzalez:

three weeks to the Olympics.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm still number 42 in the world, but I believe I'll be in the Olympics.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You know what I did up in my hotel room before I came to talk to you guys?

Ruben Gonzalez:

I bought four non-refundable tickets to Vancouver on purpose, non-refundable

Ruben Gonzalez:

for myself, my wife, our kids.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cuz if you believe something's gonna happen, you jump and the net will appear.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And I didn't buy it.

Ruben Gonzalez:

They didn't buy, they didn't believe themselves enough to

Ruben Gonzalez:

believe in what I was saying, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

So I got a little golf clap back that day.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I didn't care.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I already had the check . So I finished my talk.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Go back to my room, open my laptop.

Ruben Gonzalez:

There's a message that says you made it Norway.

Ruben Gonzalez:

This is why I'll have all these Norwegian foot, Norway.

Ruben Gonzalez:

They had three guys in the top 40.

Ruben Gonzalez:

But Norway goes to win.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Norway's won more gold medals, more medals in the Winter Olympics

Ruben Gonzalez:

than any other country, even though they only have 5 million people.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Why?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Why?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Why does, why do they eat something special?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Do they drink something?

Ruben Gonzalez:

No, because they decided.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Just like the Germans, they decided we're gonna rule luge and we're gonna,

Ruben Gonzalez:

put our money where our mouth is.

Ruben Gonzalez:

We're wanna build four tracks, if that's what it takes, whatever

Ruben Gonzalez:

it takes for as long as they make the successes a decision.

Ruben Gonzalez:

All right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so they had three guys in the top 40, but they weren't in the top 20.

Ruben Gonzalez:

They were only send you in the top 20.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So I'm sorry for you from Norway.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So those three guys didn't get to go.

Ruben Gonzalez:

That bumped me up to 39.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I got to go at the opening ceremonies, man.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I wanna carry the Norwegian flag.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Not the old, not the Argentinian flag.

Ruben Gonzalez:

The Norwegian help me more than anybody . And that's why I have 'em everywhere

Dallas Burnett:

They

Ruben Gonzalez:

I don't want to get a fad head cuz I'm a four-time Olympian.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Thanks to my Norwegian friends, friends.

Dallas Burnett:

No, but you know what I love because you're, that's inspiring on

Dallas Burnett:

several different levels and if you're listening to this, I, I hope that you

Dallas Burnett:

caught the nuance of what he just said.

Dallas Burnett:

What he said is that really your action shows what you believe.

Dallas Burnett:

If you're 42 and you gotta be, 39, then if you believe that you're gonna

Dallas Burnett:

go, you will live as if you are going.

Dallas Burnett:

And what you did was you bought tickets, you bought tickets, you

Dallas Burnett:

went ahead and bought tickets to go cuz you believed you were gonna go.

Dallas Burnett:

And, and, and at the end of the day, if norway had not had those three, that had

Dallas Burnett:

backed out, , and you didn't make the cut.

Dallas Burnett:

You still were living as you did, you were preparing for that opportunity.

Dallas Burnett:

So when the opportunity came, you could capitalize on it in a major way.

Dallas Burnett:

And I think that's just, that's incredible because if you don't do anything and

Dallas Burnett:

then you just say, well, I hope I get there, and then they canceled.

Dallas Burnett:

Well, then you're not in a good space.

Dallas Burnett:

Even though you made it, you, you really didn't make it.

Dallas Burnett:

All you did was, make it hard on yourself, you know?

Dallas Burnett:

But the, but how you went about it, I just, you kept preparing, you kept going

Dallas Burnett:

to the tracks, you kept doing the runs, and then you bought tickets because

Dallas Burnett:

you just said, I'm going, I'm going.

Dallas Burnett:

And I

Ruben Gonzalez:

No.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Well, yeah, no regrets.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It goes back to no regrets, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

I mean, I wanna be able to, Hey, it's not up to me.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

All I can do is all I can do, but, it may not be enough that year.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

but I wanna be able to look at that guy in the morning when I'm brushing my teeth.

Ruben Gonzalez:

cause, cause, I won almost be seeing him every morning the rest of my life.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And so you gotta go for it.

Ruben Gonzalez:

No regrets

Ruben Gonzalez:

And I had guys, the first one, my feeling was, I gotta make it.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I gotta make it, I want, but the feeling changed for all the other ones.

Ruben Gonzalez:

The feeling was, you know what, I'm gonna do whatever it takes.

Ruben Gonzalez:

But you never know where the chip's gonna lay at the end.

Ruben Gonzalez:

But it's, but either way, I win.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Why?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Because you gotta protect your attitude.

Ruben Gonzalez:

All right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Winners protect their attitude.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cause as soon as your attitude goes south, man, you're toast.

Ruben Gonzalez:

All right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

So my attitude is, and this is not a, this is ex, I believe this, okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

This is not just some weird thing that you say that no, this, I believe

Ruben Gonzalez:

what I'm gonna tell you right now.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You win either way.

Ruben Gonzalez:

If I make the fifth one, awesome.

Ruben Gonzalez:

If I don't make the fifth one, I will have had to dig so deep inside, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

To even have a possibility, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

I'm have to dig deeper than ever before.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Cause I'm older that I'm gonna discover God-given a little gifts that I

Ruben Gonzalez:

didn't even know I had, and now I've got those for the rest of my life.

Ruben Gonzalez:

and it's not about winning the medal or making it okay?

Ruben Gonzalez:

No.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It's about the person you become.

Ruben Gonzalez:

It really is okay, because you become better.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You become better for the future.

Dallas Burnett:

you do that, you can't lose.

Dallas Burnett:

So it's like, why, why think any other way?

Dallas Burnett:

Because if you go into it with that attitude and that perspective,

Dallas Burnett:

that mindset, then either way you win, truly, you truly win.

Dallas Burnett:

You come away.

Dallas Burnett:

You come away a better person either way.

Dallas Burnett:

And so, man, I

Ruben Gonzalez:

the pressure off,

Dallas Burnett:

I love

Ruben Gonzalez:

takes the pressure off, but you still gotta do whatever you can.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Otherwise, you're gonna have that regret,

Dallas Burnett:

Yeah.

Dallas Burnett:

Yeah.

Dallas Burnett:

It doesn't,

Ruben Gonzalez:

you gotta be able, if you don't make it, at least you gotta be

Ruben Gonzalez:

able to look at the guy in the mirror.

Ruben Gonzalez:

All

Dallas Burnett:

Yeah, that's right, That's right.

Dallas Burnett:

So you've dropped so many things on everybody today.

Dallas Burnett:

I'm gonna sum it up and then we're gonna, we're gonna let you,

Dallas Burnett:

you know, kind of take us out.

Dallas Burnett:

You've talked about having, you had amazing self-awareness early on.

Dallas Burnett:

You knew your strengths and weaknesses.

Dallas Burnett:

You said, I'm not the fastest guy, but I got tenacity, I got perseverance.

Dallas Burnett:

And you took that knowledge and you applied it in a way

Dallas Burnett:

that fit, a goal that fits you.

Dallas Burnett:

You said, I'm not going to the Summer Olympics.

Dallas Burnett:

Gonna do the Winter Olympics.

Dallas Burnett:

And that came from a sense of awareness that you had about yourself.

Dallas Burnett:

So I think that was huge.

Dallas Burnett:

You talked about levels of commitment.

Dallas Burnett:

Don't say try, don't say do your best.

Dallas Burnett:

Say I'm gonna be there, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do it.

Dallas Burnett:

And have that level of commitment.

Dallas Burnett:

When you do that and you take action cuz you're excited, you have that

Dallas Burnett:

energy, that's passion that people can see and they're gonna jump on board.

Dallas Burnett:

Just like the old man said, Hey look, I can see it in your eyes.

Dallas Burnett:

I think you got this.

Dallas Burnett:

And so, I just love it.

Dallas Burnett:

You've also said one thing, I'm not gonna share it exactly, but you've said one

Dallas Burnett:

thing in between here and there that we've gonna have in the book when it comes out.

Dallas Burnett:

We got a book coming out.

Dallas Burnett:

We, we dropped the hint, the title in back in December.

Dallas Burnett:

Lift is gonna be hitting soon.

Dallas Burnett:

And you spoke to one of the four concepts in Lift.

Dallas Burnett:

I'm not gonna say it, but guys, this is a big hint.

Dallas Burnett:

He's talking about, you'll have to get the book later and do it, and read it.

Dallas Burnett:

You talked about success is a silver medal, but people that

Dallas Burnett:

have success, that want that gold medal, they want significance.

Dallas Burnett:

And that's giving back.

Dallas Burnett:

And I think that if you have had success, if you're listening to the

Dallas Burnett:

last 10%, even if you've had in your mind a, a success that's not, you

Dallas Burnett:

know, you're not a billionaire, but you're leading a team, that's success

Dallas Burnett:

then, then what do you wanna do?

Dallas Burnett:

You don't wanna hold that to yourself.

Dallas Burnett:

You want to grow and develop the people around you.

Dallas Burnett:

So that they can, they can be better and they can lead others too.

Dallas Burnett:

So pass that along and I think that's great.

Dallas Burnett:

You talked about how to follow find a leader, follow a leader,

Dallas Burnett:

and be called, be a leader.

Dallas Burnett:

and you know, why not me?

Dallas Burnett:

You talked about that.

Dallas Burnett:

And whatever it takes for as long as it takes, how action shows our beliefs,

Dallas Burnett:

all these things you've wrapped up.

Dallas Burnett:

You talked about your book, the shortcut book.com.

Dallas Burnett:

It's unbelievable, unbelievable stuff.

Dallas Burnett:

Today, I hope the listeners have just had a pen and paper and writing

Dallas Burnett:

this all down, cuz as far as mindset goes, man, you are living the last

Dallas Burnett:

10%, the last 1% of the last 10%.

Dallas Burnett:

This is awesome conversation.

Dallas Burnett:

So I wanna wrap up by asking you, we always ask our guests, who they'd

Dallas Burnett:

like to hear on the last 10%.

Dallas Burnett:

So who, who would you like to see or hear on the last 10%?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Sure.

Ruben Gonzalez:

you asked me earlier about the coaches and I went off on a tangent on you.

Ruben Gonzalez:

My first coach in Lake Plaster was, was this Ukrainian guy and he was

Ruben Gonzalez:

like a youth leader in a church.

Ruben Gonzalez:

he makes it fun so the kids will come back next week and so he made it fun, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

Youth, he's teaching the, the juniors and I was getting hurt so

Ruben Gonzalez:

much that he, I don't think I'd have made it without him, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

So he, he had that fun, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

He that got me through the first Olympics.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Then the International Luge Federation got smart and they decided,

Ruben Gonzalez:

Hey, we need a development team.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Bring in more countries.

Ruben Gonzalez:

We gotta get serious about this thing.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So they brought in this top, top Austrian coach who was a three time world champion,

Ruben Gonzalez:

and I was with him for eight years.

Ruben Gonzalez:

but he wasn't fun.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He was, I mean on the right, but he was the best.

Ruben Gonzalez:

But he was, it's, he was, it was a little bit like, salesman of the month.

Ruben Gonzalez:

it gets moved up to sales manager and he doesn't know how to

Ruben Gonzalez:

manage, It's two different skills.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He doesn't, didn't really have that skill.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

But I didn't know any better.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Then the person, your guest, you want to have next, his name's

Ruben Gonzalez:

Jonathan Edwards, and he competed in a luge for the United States.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And, little Hammer, he got fourth place in the doubles.

Ruben Gonzalez:

So he was really close to getting the medals and, back when us

Ruben Gonzalez:

wasn't winning any medals.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And, Jonathan, what sets him apart is he can get in my head, he's

Ruben Gonzalez:

read all the self-development books and he's, he can help me, if I

Ruben Gonzalez:

have a, a block that's keeping me from performing at a higher level.

Ruben Gonzalez:

He asked me one or two questions that he can, pull it outta me

Ruben Gonzalez:

and then we can fix it, right?

Ruben Gonzalez:

So he's getting here and success is here.

Ruben Gonzalez:

And Jonathan Edwards, that's what you want

Dallas Burnett:

all right.

Dallas Burnett:

That's, that's who we want.

Dallas Burnett:

So we'll go reach out to Jonathan, see if he, we can get him on the last 10%.

Dallas Burnett:

Ruben, this has been an absolute pleasure.

Dallas Burnett:

It's been so fun talking to you.

Dallas Burnett:

I feel energized, I feel like going and like hanging up and getting

Dallas Burnett:

off the show and just running through the wall right there.

Dallas Burnett:

I am pumped.

Dallas Burnett:

I am ready.

Dallas Burnett:

This is awesome.

Dallas Burnett:

I just love spending time with you.

Dallas Burnett:

Thank you for being on the last 10%.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Ah, thanks.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Thanks.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I had a lot of fun.

Ruben Gonzalez:

I just made a new friend.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Let me know if you're ever in Colorado Springs.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Okay.

Ruben Gonzalez:

50 miles south of Denver and we will, get together and then next time I

Ruben Gonzalez:

go down south or North Carolina and speak near Charlotte or something,

Ruben Gonzalez:

we gotta have a little party.

Ruben Gonzalez:

You and work and

Dallas Burnett:

we'll do it.

Dallas Burnett:

We'll do it.

Dallas Burnett:

Thank you again, Ruben.

Ruben Gonzalez:

Take care.

Next Episode All Episodes Previous Episode

Listen for free

Show artwork for The Last 10%

About the Podcast

The Last 10%
Inspiring People, Coaching Teams, and Improving Cultures
Join The Last 10% for incredible conversations that help uncover the secrets of what it takes to finish well and finish strong. Our guests share their journeys, hardships, and valuable advice. We release new episodes every other Tuesday. If you are a leader, a coach, a business owner, or someone looking to level up, you are in the right place!

You can give 90% effort and make it a long way. But it’s the finding out how to unlock the last 10% that makes all the difference in your life, your relationships, and your work.

About your host

Profile picture for Dallas Burnett

Dallas Burnett