Day 194: Gerry Robert

April 12, 2010 at 12:01 am, Category: Inspiration

“I think it inspires other people to not accept sort of whatever is handed to them in life, because I believe that you can have more, do more, and be more.  I don’t care how successful you are, I don’t care how down you’ve been, I don’t care what obstacles you’re facing.  You could do more, have more, and be more in life.”

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Gerry, for agreeing to be part of the Project today, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?

Gerry Robert: Well hi!  Hello, everyone!  What a thrill to be here with the Get Inspired! Project.  My name is Gerry Robert, and I’m the author of The Millionaire Mindset:  How Ordinary People Create Extraordinary Income. I’m from Toronto.  I’ve got three boys, and I’m married to my teenage sweetheart for now 26 years.

Toni: Fantastic!  Well thank you so much, Gerry, and when you think of that word inspiration, who do you think you inspire, and how does that happen?

Gerry: Well, I think my purpose in life is to inspire those people who are facing obstacles and mountains; you know, brick walls.  I wrote a book, my first book in fact, in the 80s.  It was called Conquering Life’s Obstacles, and I wrote that because of what happened to me.

I came from poverty.  My family grew up in a housing authority in Canada – Ottawa, Canada.  My parents were alcoholics.  My brothers were drug addicts.  Of course, I followed suit.  And then one day when I was 18, you know, I met somebody who helped me get inspired, and so now what I want to do more than anything else is to inspire people who are facing mountains, facing challenges, brick walls of life.

In fact, if I can, I’ll just tell you one of the times I speak … sometimes I speak in public.  If it’s a large crowd, I’ll break a big, huge brick in my talk, you know, and I’ll pretend like I’m going to do it with my hand, and I make this big drama like I’m a karate expert, and then at the last minute I pull out a big hammer from under the table, and I smash the brick to smithereens.

The point I’m trying to make is, we all face brick walls like this, and I said “Why would I ever use my hand when I could use a tool?”  And then I go on and talk about the tools of life, and they make going through walls a lot easier.  And so, I want to inspire people who are uncertain about their future.  I want to inspire people who are financially struggling.  I want to … you know, people today have a lot of challenges.  I mean, they’re real.  I want to try and connect with those people as best as I can, because it can be tough out there, you know?

Toni: What happens when you’re in front of a group or one-to-one, Gerry, and you’re putting this message out there of what you’ve been through to help others overcome their challenges – what happens in that moment?  Can you see at times people being inspired and having those “ah-ha” moments with you?

Gerry: Well, you know, you can see that.  If anybody’s done any speaking … and I’ve spoken to three million people.  I go right around the world four or five times every year, and I can tell you that there’s moments where people’s lights come on, and I think that that’s probably one of the most gratifying things for me is to see people, many of them for the first time in a long time, really have hope.

And that’s why I share my story.  I don’t mind being transparent.  I don’t mind telling them some of the struggles I’ve been through and I’m going through, because some of them will wake up in a way that they’ve never been able to before.  I often share a story of at a speaking engagement one time, a guy was behind me, you know, and the speaker is picking up his stuff, you know, and this guy was always right behind me sort of following me everywhere.  So finally, when I got to the end of the ballroom, I said “Bruce, do you want to say anything?  What’s up, man?”

And he said “Well, I’ve got something very important to say, but I’d like to speak with you tomorrow.”  We exchanged numbers, and I called him the next morning.  He said “What I was going through yesterday was quite important, and you really had an impact.”

I said “What do you mean?”

He said “Well, yesterday morning I really didn’t see much purpose in living, so I went down to Home Depot, and I bought all the equipment to end my life.  I bought the brick to put on the gas pedal, I bought a hose to put from my exhaust to go in the car.  I bought the tape.  I had it all set up.  But before, I went into my house for a second, I saw a newspaper, I flipped it open, and I saw an ad for your seminar.  I read your book, and I just wondered – you know, one day is not going to matter.  After listening to you for 90 minutes, I decided that I want to live, that there could be hope for somebody like me.”

That was 15 years ago.  Bruce is still doing well, and we’re friends today, but when you see people get inspired, when their eyes open up, you know … I don’t have to speak.  In fact, somebody asked me the other day, they said “How come you still go around speaking?  You don’t have to speak anymore.”

I said “No, I don’t have to, but I really have to.”

One of the good books says “To those who have given much, much is required.”  I just feel like, man, I can’t stop.  The thought of retirement seems absurd to me, because it’s possible to have an impact even though you’ve come from a life of messing things up and challenges and running through, trying to overcome obstacles.  People who’ve gone through tough times, the easiest way to win – get your eyes off yourself.  Start thinking about how you can help somebody else.

Toni: Well, very powerful stories here, and I think it’s very obvious, you’ve answered the next question, which is, how do you help others explore their potential.  But you use the phrase that you want people to wake up.  You want them to wake up in way where they start to live their life, and you can see that happening.  How would you define that statement?  What do you think will happen when you inspire others and they’re exploring their potential?  What happens?

Gerry: Well, what happens, I think, is you see the world with different eyes.  You see, I think the problem with a lot of us is we’ve grown up and we stop thinking.  We’ve just turned off.  We accept things because of authority figures, religious, family, business, economists, broadcasting people.  We just accept things, and you know, there’s a process where people stop thinking.  And when you stop thinking — it’s almost like if you can envision a light — and if you stop thinking that … like a flashlight on your head, let’s say, that’s pointing down at a piece of paper, becomes smaller and smaller and smaller.  So what you can see in darkness is just a small little, let’s say, 2-inch by 2-inch illumination.

I find that when you start really thinking and grasping and struggling and entertaining new thoughts, it’s almost like you move up on a ladder, and the higher you go up on the ladder, you get a brighter and further expanse, so now it’s not just 2 x 2, but it’s maybe 6 x 6.  And the more you think, I believe you get more light.  The more light you get, man, all of a sudden you can see, you know, forever.  And the more you think, you go up on the ladder, you get brighter light – it’s like you can see the horizon of things you’ve never saw before.

I mean, my mentor told me that I could make in a month, financially, what I could make in a year.  I thought the guy was crazy!  How could you make in a month what I was, you know, working like a dog to make in a year?  But when I started to reason with that idea — like not just dismiss it because it seemed hard and I didn’t have any money, and I didn’t know how — but just really started grasping with an idea, you know, that 12 months later, Toni, I was making every month what I used to make every year.  That’s just because I opened up myself, and I started to think and reason.  Instead of arguing and accepting, I just said “Well, what if it was true?”  What if it was true that you could have a better marriage?  What if it’s true you could live in a better body?  How would you do it?

So it’s the process of asking questions which result in more illumination.  The more you can see, the more you can have and receive and do and be in life.  I think that that’s a message that the Get Inspired! Project is all about, and that’s why I just think that everybody needs to tell all of their friends about this, because, I mean, this needs to be a revolution or a movement, and it’s only going to happen if people listening to this message and all the rest of your elements of your Project, and people tell other people about it.  This thing is going to grow, and it needs to, because people today don’t have a lot of hope.

Toni: Well, I appreciate what you’re saying, and it really has been amazing, the impact that people like yourself that are giving a gift of the time to sit and have this type of interview.  The gift you’re giving to other people is truly amazing.

Gerry: Can I just stop you there for a quick sec?

Toni: Sure.

Gerry: It’s not me giving; I’m receiving.  Like I’m sitting here in my office in Toronto, I’m working away, and then I stop for this interview, and I’m charged.  I’m pumped!  If you help other people, it cannot help but come back to you tenfold.  So that’s the beauty of this, your whole Project here.  It’s so cool.

Toni: Well thank you.  What inspires you?  What do you need to be inspired, Gerry?

Gerry: Well, I think I need to hear more messages.  I need to hear and make myself more available to messages.  You know, last week or the week before I flew to Scottsdale, and I attended a great seminar from a company that puts on marketing seminars – Infusion Soft.  It’s just a company, I don’t have anything to do with it.  I went to the seminar and my mind expanded.  So you have to make yourself … for me, I’ve got to make myself available to good messages.

I mentioned to you before that I’m a member of Alcoholics Anonymous.  Well, I don’t have a problem telling people that.  I go twice a week.  Man, I get inspired, I get new information.  And if I didn’t go, not only would I not be able to help other people — which of course in turn helps me — but I wouldn’t learn, I wouldn’t continue to develop, and that’s the same thing.  So if I want to be inspired, I’ve got to make myself available to inspiring messages, inspiring people.

I mean, I see people read the stinking newspaper for 45 minutes every morning.  My goodness – in my wealth-building seminars, I tell people, you know, let me clue you in, folks – those reporters are almost all broke.  What the heck are you listening to those  people for?  I mean, you know, you’ve got to just be careful about what you put into your mind.

And so I think you make yourself inspired, you get yourself inspired by making yourself available to inspirational material, and that’s by committing a certain amount of time.  For me, every day, every week, every month, because I grew up with negative victimhood type of mentality and conditioning and programming.  So, even though I’m 51 years old, you know, I still hear those voices.

Can I share a story that I shared with three million people?

Toni: Sure.

Gerry: I had to earn … this is in relating to a belief system that was flawed, and we all have lots of them.  One of them that really hit home was this one time when I got a call from my accountant, and my accountant told me that I had earned $232,000 the month before.  Now, Toni, that’s a lot of money.  It’s a lot of money for anybody, but for me, that was unbelievable.  And so, I mean … because I grew up in poverty, man!

So anyway, I made this enormous amount of money.  I go home, I’m telling my wife.  I’m coming home, I’ve got some great news.  On my way home, she says, of course, “You’ve got to stop and pick up some groceries.”  I stop at the grocery store, I pick up a bunch of groceries, and as I go through the produce section, I see red bell peppers – you’re going to love this story.  I see red bell peppers.  I grabbed half a dozen of those, I put them in my basket.  And as I started to leave the produce section, I heard a voice say “Put those back – they’re expensive!”  And without even thinking, I took them and put them right back, and I kept going.

And then I stopped for a second and I thought “Yes, I know they’re expensive!”  My accountant just told me I could afford these things now – but you know something?  The voice I heard was my mother’s voice.  The funny thing is, at that time she had been dead 10 years.  And I recognized her voice right away because when I was a kid and I’d go to the grocery store with her, you probably threw chocolate in the basket.  I used to throw in red bell peppers because I loved the taste of them.  And she’d get to the counter and the cashier and she’d see them and she’d say “Gerry, put them back, they’re expensive.”  Because you know they’re four or five times more expensive than the green ones for some reason.

Toni: Absolutely.

Gerry: So isn’t it weird that I actually put it back, and then I started to think what other things do we put back on the shelf of life because we’re hearing some voice that says “It can happen to her, but it can’t happen to you.”  It’s not that easy.  You’ve tried a hundred times.  You’re not going to fix your marriage – it’s over.  You’re a bad father, a bad mother, you know, you’re ugly, dumb, stupid … you know, we hear these voices, and some we listen to them!  So for me, it’s like, that was a wakeup call.

Then what I did was I bought ALL of the red peppers that day in the grocery store, and I threw them out of my Mercedes on the way home.  You’ve got to break the cycle, and I’m slightly insane, so …

Toni: No, no … these are great stories, and I can see in the future of the Get Inspired! Project we even may do a part two with Gerry … but Gerry, the final question of the Project is this:  What are doing now to continuously explore your own potential so you can keep doing the work you’re doing?

Gerry: It’s pretty simple.  I identify areas of my life that I’m weak, and I get help.

Toni: Okay.

Gerry: I’m constantly doing that.  You know, after 25 years of marriage, my marriage went through a tough time, you know, my wife and I separated briefly … look, I just said “I don’t want this, but I can’t fix it,” so I got help, and for over a year my wife Ann and I went to a marriage counselor.  I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.  I don’t think it’s a sign of weakness to ask for help.  I think it’s a sign of weakness to be arrogant and accept stuff that you don’t need or to accept stuff that you don’t want in your life.

Too many people are settling.  They settle for jobs that they don’t like – they spend 20, 30 years doing something that repulses them.  I just don’t get it.  They live in bodies that they don’t like.  They accept income that’s embarrassing to most of them.  You know why they call it “take-home pay” by the way?

Toni: Why?

Gerry: Somebody told me this joke the other day.  They call it take-home pay because that’s the only place that most people could take it and not be embarrassed.  I don’t know if I agree with that, but you know, people settle a lot today.  I don’t settle.  I mean, I look for areas in my life that are not working, and I get help, and I work hard on myself, because it’s a short life, you know?  I mean, I’m 51 years old, and man it feels like it’s gone by in a nanosecond …

Toni: So you’re getting help …

Gerry: And so I work at it.

Toni: … I’m so sorry, you’re getting help for yourself – how does that then help you do what you do?

Gerry: Well, I think of it, you know, I mean I work on trying to get better at what I do.  My potential is better to communicate, even though, you know, I’m very successful as a speaker and a trainer and all this stuff, and author, I’m still forever wanting to develop so that I can open the channel of communication for what I’ve got to say.

And of lot that comes from just being willing to be transparent, be a little bit vulnerable.  I think people who are part of this program, the Get Inspired! Project, could understand the need to help other people be inspired by them, and so, you know, I think that by being transparent you do it.

And the other thing is having huge goals myself.  I’ve got huge goals.  I don’t even feel like I’ve started in many areas; like business, for example.  Like, I mean, because I’ve got huge things that I’m going after, I think it inspires other people to, you know, not accept sort of whatever is handed to them in life, because I believe that you can have more, do more, and be more.  I don’t care how successful you are, I don’t care how down you’ve been, I don’t care what obstacles you’re facing.  You could do more, have more, and be more in life.

Well, if I’m going to try and inspire other people to do that, I’d better be aiming at more in my own life.  And so I’m always challenging myself, you know?  I mean, it’s just the way to live.  Somebody said “If you’re not risking … if you’re living on the edge, you’re taking up too much room.”

Toni: What a great thought to bring closure to the interview on.  I think that what you’ve given people is a taste of what’s possible through your interview, and we will have a way to access your own tools and resources that you have available, and to learn a little bit more about you at the bottom of the interview.  Gerry, thank you so very much for your honesty and showing up very real for the interview.  We thank you for being here today.

Gerry: It’s been my pleasure.

Toni: Take care, Gerry.

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For more information about Gerry Robert:  www.gerryrobert.com

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