Day 102: Rob Severson
“When I see something that’s just good common sense logic and I recognize that there’s pearls out there that people need to develop, skills they need to develop, I get inspired to try to take that message to as many people as I can.”
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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Rob, for agreeing to take part in this Project today, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?
Rob Severson: My name is Rob Severson. I am an author of a book, Connecting Peace, Purpose, and Prosperity, and I’m a financial coach working primarily with businesses in need of financing.
Toni: Well, thank you. When you think of the word inspiration, Rob, who do you inspire and how do you do that?
Rob: Well, I try to inspire everybody I meet, actually. I’m kind of a positive thinking kind of guy. I’m usually happy, usually smiling. I try to say hello to everybody I see, encourage them to be happy, find out about them, learn about them, find out what makes them tick, and just show joy in my life that might transfer to theirs.
Toni: How you do think that by being that way and saying hi to everybody and being happy and full of joy, how do you think that that would help others explore their potential, or are there other ways, as well, that you help people to explore their potential?
Rob: That was the big purpose of my book that I’m getting out to people. But I think the key is if people discover that somebody is interested in them, they react better.
There’s a lot of lonely people, people that are just living their lives that don’t have anybody interested in them. Finding out about them and encouraging them, it’s really the easiest thing to do. And I find that people start to look forward to seeing me when I come in to the bank, the gas station, the coffee shop, or whatever, because if I can bring a smile to their face, they know somebody cares about them, and hopefully they will be inspired to care about other people themselves.
Toni: Do you find that … I think your comment is right that there are a lot of people, I agree with you, a lot of people who are very lonely out there, and when you are showing that interest in someone and making them feel important, it is a very, very warm feeling.
How do you think, Rob – you mentioned your book – how have you helped other people, whether it’s personally or professionally, explore their potential?
Rob: Well, some of my book came from an experience with AA, Alcoholics Anonymous, and the 12 steps of AA. Some of it came from my life experiences. Some of it came from the Bible. Some of it came from my business experiences.
When you put it all together, a lot of people read it and say “Ah-ha! He’s got it right.” That’s what I need to do to obtain peace. What I call my definition of inner peace, serenity that the AA model uses, an unselfish purpose. It’s not about me; it’s about other people and serving other people. And then, if you translate that to your work life … I just read an article in the paper yesterday that 40% of the people are unhappy in their work. Well, they’re just focused on their own lives, their belly buttons. They’re looking at their belly button, and they get depressed.
If they learn that they’re selling a service to somebody and get proactive on how they sell it … if you don’t like your job, go find another one. If you don’t like what you’re doing, go find somebody who has a need out there that you can fill, and go do it.
People are just sitting waiting for their boss to do something for them or their employer to do something for them, and the employer is sitting there waiting for their employee to do something for them, which ends up as frustration, layoffs, and the situation that we’re in.
Toni: So from your perspective, it makes sense for people to do something. If they are unhappy, to absolutely do something about it.
Rob: Right. That’s what my story was in my book. I started out with two problems that I had to overcome. One was very poor grades in college – 1.95. Do you know what that means? That’s less than a C.
I was going into accounting, and I started interviewing public accounting firms. Basically, they just looked at your grade point and threw the other ones out, so I had a tough time getting a job. I finally got one through perseverance and networking and doing all I could.
The second problem I had was I was getting married, and my wife was already pregnant. Forty years ago, that was considered a little more unusual than it is today, I think. So, I was going to have a family, and I had to figure it out.
I had a couple of things to overcome. My in-laws weren’t too happy with me for about 10 years, and that kind of got put on the side burner because I had to build a career and build a way to support my family.
Eventually, I passed the CPA exam. It was kind of negative inspiration. Some accountant told me “Well, Severson, I’d like to hire you, but you’re never going to pass the CPA exam.” That might have been the best thing he did to inspire me, and eventually I did.
So I got over those two hurdles, and I had a decent career for a country boy from southern Minnesota. I eventually became a President of a subsidiary at Wells Fargo and, with reorganizations and political things, I left and started my own consulting practice. That was a good thing, because then I could help a lot of people solve their financial problems, financing problems, and encourage them to go forward with their business with good financing.
Toni: Wow. So really, you know, it was the challenges that were presented against you that you didn’t fold. You kept going.
Rob: Part of it’s about being an overcomer.
Toni: An overcomer – what is an overcomer?
Rob: Well, you have an obstacle, you overcome it. Four or five years ago, I was starting to sit in my basement and just drinking vodka. By definition, I was probably an alcoholic; I probably am. I wasn’t bothering anybody, I wasn’t out driving, and I wasn’t out running around; just an evening activity for me to pass time.
I’d sit here and I’d get frustrated, because I’ve got more checkered experiences than maybe anyone you’ve seen. I’ve been an auditor, an accountant, an automated system project manager. I’ve been in sales. I’ve been involved with the textile business. That was a bad experience, but I learned a lot. I’ve been in venture capital. I’ve done debt placement in virtually every area of finance for small businesses.
I’ve worked for a ministry for two years that was Carnegie-esque kind of training that I really liked. I’ve done a lot of things, and it doesn’t make sense to me to take all of these experiences that I’ve had and just fold them up in a tent and sit in the basement and drink.
So, that was another problem I had to overcome. It was pretty easy, actually, but I had to get some resentments out of my life from some bad business deals and get rid of some guilt so I could go forward.
Again, it’s a matter of “You got a problem? Solve it.” That’s really my core competency is solving problems. If we go after our problems and solve them, then we can move ahead and do something positive. And that’s really where I got inspired to write my book, because the stuff I learned in the 12 steps and all my other experiences, I felt I had to share with people.
Toni: Well, you are really providing a lot of insight and wisdom in this interview today. When you think about inspiration from your own perspective, Rob, what is it that you need to be inspired?
Rob: You know, I need somebody to say something that has a problem.
Toni: What do you mean by that?
Rob: Barack Obama said that people are angry and frustrated and turning to guns and religion; and that inspired me, because I don’t … I took NRA training when I was a kid, but I don’t think that’s a solution. The religion part … I have a very deep faith component, so I thought “Well, that’s not a good place to turn.” I mean, a bad place to turn, so where do we turn?
We have people on the left of the political spectrum that tend to think we need a nanny state, that people can’t cope and we’ve got to take care of them. We have people on the right that sit there and say we don’t need the government to interfere, we’re smart enough to figure things out on our own.
I’m kind of starting to think that the people on the left are right, that we’re not smart enough to cope in this new information technology, the high-powered financial products that are out there. We don’t understand them, and our decision making is flawed. And my gut right now tells me that people haven’t learned or have forgotten how to survive.
My grandparents came from Norway, and they came here to make a living the hard way — working, plant corn or whatever they had to do. The pilgrims came here to make a living the hard way. Pioneers came to the Midwest to make a living the hard way, work hard. Now, it’s kind of like we’ve evolved into a situation where people think “get a college degree and you’re entitled to a job”, and I don’t think that’s true. We still have to have survival skills.
So rather than go with the nanny state concept, I believe we have to focus more on educating and training people how to survive in the world. I don’t think colleges do that, and that’s one of the reasons for my book is we have to adapt to having different skill sets than our grandparents did.
And that’s my big inspiration today is to try to get that message out there, to run your life with a core competency, marketable skills, relational skills, to sell those skills that you’ve developed to other people, and managing your money. Much more complicated than planting corn and raising a cow and butchering the cow and eating the corn.
Toni: So is it when you look at … and you know that you are maybe running a little low in the inspiration area and that you need to fill your own bucket, Rob, what is it you find yourself connecting to or that helps to fill you back up so that you can be inspiring for others?
Rob: I attended a seminar that an organization called Tentmakers did. It’s a Christian leadership training company, and they had a three-week seminar on leadership. They covered the areas of communication, relationships, selling, management, problem solving, decision making, and maybe a couple others that I can’t recite. And I really got inspired there, because I saw those skills as tantamount to any small businessman starting out a business or anybody trying to do anything.
When I see something that’s just good common sense logic and I recognize that there’s pearls out there that people need to develop, skills they need to develop, I get inspired to try to take that message to as many people as I can.
Toni: That that’s really the bottom line, the need for people to survive. That goes back to what you said earlier which is we need to learn how to survive. So what inspires you is learning those skills yourself — which is what you’ve done throughout your life with the examples you’ve stated — but then also letting other people know that that’s what they need as well. And when you talk about what this did for you, this particular seminar, what other things do you need to explore your own potential?
Rob: Well, I need interaction.
Toni: Interaction with what?
Rob: People like you because, just going through this interview and this process, I get inspired to help other people. I get inspired to participate in what you’re doing to inspire other people.
Toni: Well, thank you.
Rob: I do Bible studies with my church. I get inspired. There’s 10 of us guys that meet, and that’s inspirational to help that group of people learn things that I’ve discovered, and let me discover some other things.
Sometimes for inspiration, I just need to see a problem that I have a solution to. I get involved with clients in turnarounds that have a big mess, and if I can find a solution, that’s what inspires me to lay out the solution and help them implement it.
I just completed a project with a company that’s been around business for 40 years. The bank was demanding their loan and, at the end of the day, the second generation guy had to go to treatment for alcohol, and I could help him there. I was inspired to help him there. He had to liquidate his business, and I negotiated a plan with the bank to do that in a way that made the most sense for both the bank and the borrower. And now he’s trying to start over, and I will probably get involved with him to help him start over on a more solid footing. The problem just intrigued me.
One of the quotes in my book was one I picked up from a nephew of mine, a quote by Albert Einstein. It says “I don’t think I’m a genius. I just stick with problems longer.” That’s how I would kind of define myself. I don’t claim to be smart or high IQ or anything, but I do have a great ability to connect things. If I take a class in something, I have a great ability to absorb it and to use it in other areas. I call it “transferrable skills” or “transferrable learning.”
I was in outplacement when I left Norwest 20 years ago, and I was talking with an industrial psychologist. I said “You know, I had really bad grades, but I might remember more Spanish from college than people who got A’s, and I remember stuff that other people don’t.” He said “Well, that’s because you are an introvert.” He said “You’re an introvert who learned to be an extrovert to survive.” He said “Introverts tend to get some information and keep processing it and it stays with you longer.” I think that’s true.
So, by learning to be an extrovert, I got a lot of stuff I can draw on. It inspires me to take what little pieces I picked up, try to reassemble them and go forward. That’s the 12 steps of AA, frankly. The founders of that were inspired to just take the easy path to happiness. It’s not even about booze, it’s just about how to live your life so you’re happy.
Inner peace, forgiveness, resentments, and unselfishness; that’s the core of it, and it’s just common sense. Nothing to do with booze. It’s just common sense that if you’re happy and you’ve got some joy in your life, you’ll function better and you’ll make better decisions.
Toni: Well, Rob, you have been incredibly real in this interview with speaking about the challenges that you have had to overcome early on in your life … and that word “survive” is running all through this interview loud and clear. That’s what I’m hearing that you do.
Rob: I have a hunch you’re a survivor, because this is a pretty creative project you’re doing.
Toni: Well, you know, yeah, you might say so, but I really appreciate what you’ve talked about, how honest you were. And there are many people that listen to these interviews and read the transcripts that are going to benefit from your story and what you’ve had to say today. For that honesty and for how real you were today, Rob, and what you’re doing for other people, thank you so very much for being part of this Project.
Rob: Thank you for letting me be part of it, Toni. I’ve got a lot to give, and that’s what I want to do.
Toni: Well, you know, certainly there are many people who can benefit from it. Thank you so very much, Rob, and I hope that we speak again in the future.
Rob: Thank you.
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For more information about Rob Severson: www.robseverson.com/book, www.robseverson.com
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