Welcome back to Max Out everybody, I'm so excited to share this man to my left with you today. He's one of the most inspiring human beings on the spinning earth, and we've been trying to get together for so long, and finally God permitted that to happen for the two of us here today. You all should know who he is, but if you don't, this man has spoken in front of 8.5 million people in 74 countries. He's a best-selling author, and he's a remarkable man of faith and a great human being.
This is Nick Wojcic everybody. Nick, thank you for being here. Piss bump. Love you.
Love you. So nice to meet you. So glad to be here. And hello to everyone.
It's finally time, and actually we're going to be together at some speaking engagements that we're both booked at. We're going to talk about your speaking today a little bit as well, because this is one of the great speakers. He's got an anointing. And an amazing story too.
So I think we should probably start with the story of you and your birth, which you were born with Tetra Amelia Syndrome. Correct. And that was not expected. So tell us a little bit about the birth process.
I think the story with your mother is so touching and interesting. It makes me emotional when I heard it, and I want to share that story with our audience too. So go for it. Sure, absolutely.
I was actually born in Australia in 1982, and my mom was actually a nurse, so she knew all about pregnancy and delivery, and she was actually in charge of the birth suite of hospitals in Australia. But when she was pregnant with her firstborn, me, they were so excited every time they did an ultrasound. Oh my gosh, they didn't even check that I had arms and legs or not. And so when I actually was born, that's when the room went quiet.
And the doctor held me low enough so my mom couldn't see me, but my dad saw my shoulder. And they took me away quickly. And my mom's like, what's going on? And my dad, he walks out of the room, what's going on?
He says, my son, he has no arm. He said, no, your son has no arms or legs, and we are so sorry. He will not walk. He will not go to school.
And we're sorry that you did not have an opportunity to abort your child. And so my dad and mom, they consolidated. They obviously wept. And then my dad wanted to say to the doctor, I want to go see him.
Because they wouldn't let my mom see me at that time. He unwrapped me and he said, he's beautiful. And so I had a loving home from the day one. But I think part of it, and correct me if I'm wrong, dad was warmer initially and more ready for that moment than mom was, correct?
For sure. Like it took her actually four months to actually hold me and feel okay to hold me. You know, when you go through grief, it's always about shifting and reframing your attitude to actually overcome, not just facing adversities, but the perspective of even seeing, okay, how do I stay optimistic? How do I give hope a chance in this tragedy?
And so my mom, we all had, you know, 24 first cousins around us and everyone's like, don't worry, we're here for you. They had a great support around them. But my mom did have her days where she's like, this is a nightmare. I can't do this.
How can I get through this? What happened? Why me? Why him?
And so we all go through those grief and questions when tragedy hits. Wow. So speaking of the attitude and adversity, the combination of those two things, I have to imagine growing up that there had to be a few moments where not everything was rosy for you. So what was it like for you growing up?
Were you ridiculed, bullied? Did you end up going to school? What ended up being the situation? Right.
So for the people who cannot see me right now on audio version, I have a little left foot, which is about six inches, appendage on the bottom left, and I'm able to walk. And they didn't know if I could walk, type, and now I swim, golf, fish, and now I can type 53 words a minute on a normal computer. Yeah. I love it.
I love the beach. We grew up near beaches all the time in Australia. But really, it was a miracle where my mom felt convicted with that attitude shift of, okay, wait a second, my son who has no limbs, the government says he's not allowed to go to school. So she had a choice.
But her attitude is no. Maybe one of the reasons, if only one reason, was that my son was born this way to actually challenge the government system to say, tell me why my limbless boy can't go to the mainstream school. They went to the courts and they changed the law. And so it was cool where that adversity was an embrace to then bring at least one other thing.
But when I went to school, I was the only one who looked like me. Sure. And I felt like I was the only one in the world that was like me. And it was wonderful when I'm at home and with my brothers and sisters.
And I had a couple of good friends at school, but for the most part, most kids made me feel uncomfortable and asked me questions. And I really started thinking about my life. I would be forced to just sit and think about life while I can't do everything that everyone's doing. I'm thinking, wait a second, the teachers who are standing next to me, they're here employed.
My mom and dad are employed. What am I going to be? What if I'm not employed? And so ages 6, 7, 8, I started asking the bigger questions.
I can't do everything. I can do some, but man, am I ever going to get married? Am I going to be bullied for the rest of my life? And so this fear started creeping in for sure.
What about yourself the same? It was very high highs and very low lows. It felt like I went through seasons. It was really dependent though on who I was with.
And what I found though, gradually over ages 8 to 12, through my years of depression, that actually bottomed out at an attempted suicide at age 10. I realized that I was my biggest bully. Because someone only takes two or three seconds to tell you something negative. But then you need to understand what am I going to do.
Am I going to let that echo in my mind and start believing that echo? Or am I going to say, no, I'm not defined by how I look. I may not be good at this, but I'm excellent at that. I can't do this, but I can still do that.
And so that's the battle in the mind that I feel like everyone goes through. Whether you have arms and legs or not, some of us are disabled with a crippling self-esteem. Wow, so true, brother. I think almost everybody relates to that.
In your case, I think some people listening to you think, well, there was justification for you having these insecurities because you do look different. Your circumstances were different. I didn't know that you tried to commit suicide. That's the first time I've ever heard that before.
I had a lot of reading about you. I did not know that. Was there a moment after that where things began? See, I think you hear people on shows all the time and say, well, that was a defining moment and nothing like that ever happened in my life.
You know what I'm saying? Totally. Have there been return moments over your lifetime where maybe you didn't get to that extreme, but you go back to having dark thoughts or insecure thoughts and even to this day does that ever happen anymore? Yeah.
Look, as far as bullying is concerned, obviously I have the self-esteem knowing the truth and holding onto the truth and seeing the track record of how a man without arms and legs can still live a life without limits. And not to say that everything is possible, but I'm living my possible. I've redefined impossible from what the world has said and what I thought I couldn't do. But now I'm living an awesome life.
And I've got my ups and downs. And we all have our ups and downs. There has been probably two or three crises since, but more in my adult age. When I first fell in love with someone and her father didn't give us a blessing, so she had a choice, T-intersection of the family or me.
Another time in 2011, entrepreneurs, you know, most of us, we lose the money at least once. That's for sure. So I lost my money first in 2011. It was difficult.
And so those crises still come and go every season of life and cycles, but those challenges, rebirth of evolution really for not just bettering who I am, but really achieving the goals and dreams that I really have, which is to reach the world better. Now I'm a husband. I'm a father of four, trying to reach. I'm even inspired by people like you who are doing this as a nonprofit, inspiring people.
That's what I want. I live to inspire people. It's my purpose. It's my purpose given life.
And to do that from home, that's awesome. But to also make sure that no matter what comes out of my mouth, don't ever feel like this motivational attitude coach never has his down days. But there was a turning point that I did have as a teenager, getting out of that depression. It was actually losing something that I wasn't thankful for.
And it was the ability to walk for three weeks. I played soccer, my favorite sport. And I was on the field and the ball came and I jumped up in the air. Stupid.
I did this matrix, slow motion karate kick in the air. And I jump up and the ball hits my foot so hard, I sprained it. Staring at the ceiling for three weeks, I'm like, wait a second. Really?
I really got to be thankful for what I have instead of being angry for what I don't have. And my parents always said, be thankful. They were refugees as children leaving former Yugoslavia. So they always said, be thankful.
When I wanted something from the store, they wouldn't give it to me. They said, make your own money and buy it. So I'd vacuum the floor for $2 a week. I would figure it out.
But to really be thankful for what you have, you know that saying. You don't know what you got until it's gone. And then the other thing that really sealed my path of hope was my faith decision in believing that there is a God who loves me, that heaven is real, and that even when you don't get a miracle, you can still be a miracle. And then it all started a speaking career out of a janitor who worked at my high school.
I was 17 years old. And I just got voted onto the student government body. And he said, you got voted on the government body. I said, yes.
He said, you're going to be a speaker. He said, you're crazy. I said, what am I going to speak about? He said, your story.
I said, I don't have a story. He was the one who organized my first speech. Come on. Come on.
You guys, I just replay this for a minute. These are things I didn't know. We have a lot of mutual friends. I've done a lot of reading on you.
A couple of things striking me. One, we have to take inventory of what we are grateful for because it's so easily said. But especially in your case to say that that was the catalyst for change for you. The other part of it is, we're going to talk about the fact that you have this unbelievable anointing that you speak, but you evangelize as well.
But the fact that a janitor was a catalyst, someone whose career path was a janitor, becomes a catalyst to birth one of the great inspirational speakers of our time. Of our time, everybody. You know, that ought to be making you think, what's the difference you could make in another person's life? Because there's the next story.
But then there's this person that was a janitor at the school who will remain nameless, who has made a massive, that person's responsible for 50, 60, 70 million human beings hearing from you. There are all these different avenues of social media and speaking. So you can make a difference regardless of your place in the world. That's a remarkable story.
Now, speaking of that, you and I have talked a lot about this attitude concept and adversity. And even right now, economically, the world may be changing right now. You know, I have this fundamental belief that sometimes you're supposed to go into times of adversity because the pain of that change causes you to do things that you should have been doing all along anyways. But if the adversity didn't present itself, you wouldn't make those adjustments or those changes.
What's your philosophy about, you know, kind of attitude and adversity? Because obviously you've dealt with your share of adversity in your life since birth. So what are your attitudes and how do you view that? Unfortunately, I think we're getting to a rhythm of what we've always known for the last, let's say, three years.
We're in this three-year mindset mode that what's been working is good. Me now, you know, like I said, a father. I don't want to travel as much. I actually have done 3,500 speeches in 74 countries so far.
I've traveled more than the average person and I love what I do. I want to inspire people, but I've always told my wife, I need to start something different. I need to do things different. Go coach and do podcasts.
Do whatever we need to do to stay closer to home. This year, it's not that because Nick was proactive and he had a spare 100K to reposition, right? Because it takes money. It doesn't take time.
It takes risk and then coaching. I didn't know many people at all personally who's had a successful podcast and everyone's saying you can't do this. But unfortunately, the faucets have turned off in the speaking industry and I've been majorly affected. And so internationally, especially.
So we're like, hey, I wish I did this because I knew I should have done it, but it was too comfortable. And me being, in my own mind, a CEO of a lack of proactivity, I did a disservice to me. I did a disservice to my family. And you know what?
You know Lewis Howes. He said, without me telling him about it, he didn't know that I was going through a crisis and he said, you're not even having a podcast. Can you think of it as a disservice to everyone out there? It's like, you don't know the story much of all the other major points because people only see me on stage or in my book.
If you don't see me on stage, you don't see the book, you don't know my story. Nick, people need to hear from you. And so we need to get sometimes to this bottleneck that forces open a revolution that will now help me actually achieve the dream that I wanted. Isn't that amazing how that works?
It's so funny because, you know, people say, hey, these entrepreneurs, Ed, you must be this incredible visionary. I get these visions for all these things you want. I certainly had dreams and some visions. But I think the ones who actually arrive at the dream are the ones who respond in the times of adversity and make the course corrections and adjustments.
I don't take failure as a personal failing. I take failure as a failing of strategy. And too many people take a failure where they don't miss a sale or their income drops or they have a bankruptcy or a relationship. That it's a failure of them as a human being.
I have a God who loves me, who made me as an image of likeness. I don't take these failures as if I'm a failure person. My strategy is flawed. My behavior could even be flawed.
But my behavior and my strategies don't mean that I can't win, that I can't be somebody. So I just want to totally second what you said there. I completely believe that. By the way, everyone, so you know, you can have Nick come speak to your organization or your group.
You'll also do webinars with him as well so he could stay home and make that impact for you. And the podcast is coming here right with the release of the show is coming out as well too. So these are other ways that you can access him at the end of the show. We're going to tell you where to find him.
I want to go back from it because you said something that you sort of accepted kind of faith in God in your life at that time of adversity as well. And I just want to ask you directly. I know the answers, but I want them to hear this. In your life, for all the things you've achieved, all the lives you've impacted, the things you've had to overcome, how important has been your faith and your belief in God in your life?
To me, it's the most crucial part. And even though when I go on tour, the organizers say, now you can't mention religion, you can't mention politics. And I understand that. We've had hundreds of clients who were satisfied every time we got off stage.
And people then Google me and then find out the non-profit side, Life Without Limbs. And so we have people who monthly support us who believe in that mission field to know that believing in heaven and having forgiveness and peace with your creator God is the most important thing. Money comes and goes. And so we've actually felt that we need to go make an influence into education systems with our social-emotional learning curriculum called Attitude is Altitude.
And anti-bullying for kids. And then corporate America. The worldwide corporate audience. Nick, motivate us.
Help us to redefine Impossible. How did you get through what you did? How do we live also a life without limits? And then people Google me and then find out my other story, which is the more spiritual side.
Not that I'm bait and switch. It's like, hey, these are the principles. These are the values. But yes, Ed, my most important thing in my life is knowing that when my dad gets diagnosed with cancer in 2017 and to know...
Sorry, he actually got diagnosed in 2015 and died in 2017. Knowing that heaven is real. I nearly died in 2016. And my first earthly goal was to pay off my house.
At 37, paid off a house that we bought. Lower 27. Just about to sell now at high market. And not many 37-year-olds can say that.
Thank you. Thank you. And with all of that though, big house, small house. House, no house.
The soul. And so that's how important it is to me. But this is the amazing thing. It's understanding that when you do go through change, to believe something you don't see, to not panic.
When an entrepreneur and a visionary like us, you and me, are going through something and then we're stopped in our tracks. One of the biggest debilitating mental things is numbness. And then numbness goes from shock to then, wait a second, maybe it's also panic after that. It's like, what just happened?
I'm going to try to get a new personality, get advice from people where you want to go, get coaching from them, figure out that new planet of podcast, Nick. Figure it out, learn. And like you said, many of us don't never recuperate because that pressure of failing. And the pressure of never having that success that I did have, the way that I term it, is an attitude shift that failure is my classroom and it's part of the journey and evolving to your full potential.
Failure is my classroom. I love that. I love that. I was just watching you speak.
And it's interesting. I told you about Nick, my friend who also essentially is without his limbs. And I just want to tell you, it's amazing when you're in the presence of somebody. I forget.
I forget. I forget. When I was interviewing Nick, I told him the same exact thing. And I think that the reason I say that on the show to you is that we're all very aware of what we lack.
We're all very aware. You think the average human being, you say, make a list of 10 things you're great at. It'll take them, you know, three days. You say, make a list of 100 things you're not good at.
They can do it in two minutes. So we're all very cognizant and aware of the things we lack. And I just want you all to know that the things that are remarkable about you when you're in the presence of other people dwarfs the things about you that you're not great at. They don't see them.
You think they see them. them, but they don't. And so it's interesting. I don't see you that way.
I don't see Nick that way. I see this greatness in front of me. I see this man who's an expert at redefining impossible, which I want to talk about next. You're the epitome of it, brother.
A little boy, this beautiful, precious boy is born, and the doctor says to your father, I'm sorry we didn't tell you so you could abort him. And that very little boy, whose mother even at first wasn't sure about holding him or touching, that little boy goes to change millions and millions of lives. That's the definition, dude, of redefining impossible, right? Like you've redefined no one that day who says, I'm sorry you didn't abort this baby.
That doctor's not thankful. Yeah, 74 countries, millions of people, thousands of lives and souls changed. No one to think that, right? So talk about that concept with you, about rising above and redefining that.
I love the way you talk about this. Look, I'm not going to say her name, but I'm not the only one with the story, right? We've got a history. What I've learned is I'm not the only one going through something, and I'm never telling anyone that I'm going through something worse than anybody.
I tell teenagers all the time, I believe it's worse being in a broken home than having no arms and legs. And so someone who's gone through a broken home, I can't encourage them as much as someone who has come on the other side and say, I know how that feels. Me, like a limbless boy, that's the beautiful thing. I've met another limbless boy.
I've met 30 people. Now he knows that if Uncle Nick can do it, then I can do it. And so in that story, there is someone local here actually who lives close to here. I won't mention her name.
I'm about to see her tomorrow to be with her two boys. She has two boys from two different fathers because those fathers died at age 39 within five years of each other, one of cancer, one in a car crash. And so I'm just about to spend some, her boys are going in the pool with my boys tomorrow. And for me, when I looked at her at her second husband's funeral and I was able to speak at his memorial service, he was a dear friend of mine at 39 just now, only a couple months ago.
She said to me, if I went through this just to help one other widow, and it's that understanding that it's not, man, another punch I need to get up. It's understanding, okay, wait a second, it's not a light chance of coincidence that I'm watching a podcast with Ed and Nick and I feel my life is impossible. I'm depressed, I'm isolated, I haven't told someone what my dad did to me and I haven't even forgiven him. I haven't forgiven myself of the things I've done wrong.
They're still trapped in maybe the failure or my success. My business is successful, Nick and Ed, but I still haven't got something and more of what I love. I haven't found that. And that's the purpose that we all need to find and say, look, when I don't get a miracle, it doesn't mean I can't be a miracle for someone else.
And so millions of dollars or me helping little Daniel help him. When he was getting bullied at school, I went in my wheelchair and I ran them all over. No, I didn't. I went there.
I did a quick 15-minute speech about bullying, right? And now, not only did he go through the rest of his elementary and middle school unbullied because now he accepts himself. People stop teasing him and they stop teasing everyone else. I'm like, hey guys, we're all valuable.
We all have a purpose. We all have a story and we can all make the world a better place. Money, drugs, sex, alcohol, pornography, fame and fortune. If you put your happiness in temporary things, your happiness will be temporary.
And so when you come back to the understanding that even the challenge is something that we shouldn't just say, I'm going to ignore it, I'm going to walk away from it, I'm going to never address that, I'm never going to... No, the sooner you address the things, even me, Ed, the speaker who's traveled around the world, it took me 10 years to forgive the family who didn't think that I was good enough for their family, for her. And now I have an amazing wife. She's half Japanese, half Mexican, we call that Chapsican.
We've got four children, seven, four, and twin girls at two. And I just want people to know, it's not that I'm a speaker to say everything is possible, just do it. No, take one day at a time, be thankful, do your best. Reframe the attitude for you on a daily basis, don't be debilitated by panic, see what you know, learn what you don't know, and take a step forward.
So good, brother. Going back to the janitor at your school, I keep thinking of him, isn't that interesting? He's beautiful, and I just met up with him after all those years. I went to his humble home, his name is Arnold.
I have talked about him publicly and in my book, and he was the catalyst. And then after him, I just did speeches at schools. Were you good at first? No, I was terrible.
I would actually never watch me speak if I recorded it, because it's so, how would you say, the biggest critic. Yeah, me too. And I was bad, though. I wasn't good.
But I didn't want to listen to a motivational speaker, because what I knew straight up, if I listen to other people's content, then I'm not authentic. And I needed to buckle down, make my own content. And after I did my first three or four hundred speeches all across Brisbane, Australia, we then got me a coach. My teacher aide's husband was a coach, and he sewed into me 10 hours.
And even when my parents said, you're crazy, you'll never make money speaking, do a double degree in accounting and financial planning. And I did. My father gave me wonderful wisdom, Ed. He said, start an accounting firm, go into the stock market, go into real estate, and get employees to be your hands and feet.
I was six years old when he said, you need to become a millionaire to survive. No one knows that my nonprofit doesn't even pay for my caregivers, and I have a family to feed. And so he told me, entrepreneurially, you need to make it happen, do your best. Went into the stock market at 16, went into real estate at 19.
He taught me, just go for it, but they never thought that I'd ever be a speaker. That's crazy. That's crazy. So that was my next question, by the way, is involving entrepreneurship.
That's something that can be missed with you. You're a serial entrepreneur. You're a great entrepreneur. Off camera, all we were talking about was entrepreneurial ideas and the power of that.
And so many people get the type of advice. I think my parents, I could sense, my parents didn't tell me you weren't going to make it as an entrepreneur. My dad now tells me I didn't think you were going to make it. They were so worried.
I remember I loaded up at U-Haul and I was driving away to go to my first entrepreneurial venture. My dad tells me as I was driving away, was telling my mother, God bless him, he'll be back soon. Why is he doing this? And so I think a lot of people sense this lack of support from family, lack of belief, maybe even lack of belief in themselves.
What are your attitudes about that? Do you think most people should be pursuing entrepreneurship, a side hustle or a non-profit of their own? What are your thoughts about that just to enrich their own life? How do you feel about that?
So you talk about it all the time. First of all, entrepreneurship is not for everyone. Sometimes you're in intrapreneurship, 9 to 5, every day. I'm just going to be the best person I can be at what I have.
That's fantastic. If though there is a dream to then do a side hustle, going to real estate, do this, do that, I would say go for it as long as the, first of all, your priorities are right. What are those priorities? So for me, right, I actually achieved my golden dream when my dad was dying of cancer.
When I nearly died in 2016. Why did you lose that? I had a negligent surgery go wrong in California after a benign tumor was removed. Okay, wow.
Didn't swing, we just move on. Money's money doesn't matter. So then 2016, I nearly died. 2017, my dad died and I had four children at the time.
I actually wanted to get to a week where we got the bread and butter. We're doing the non-profit. I want to switch off my phone. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday.
I did it. I did it. I had 17 staff at the time. And I did it for six months straight.
And I was doing the status quo but not enough oxygen or reserve in case some contracts cancel for cash flow on a rainy day. So for me, it's first of all, you've got to be true to yourself with what's most important to you. For me, faith, family, friends. If you're not really conversing, if you're not really connecting, I think us human beings were created to connect.
Life is never better alone. I'm not talking about married or not married. I'm talking about connecting with human beings, number one. Number two, going after your biggest dreams.
My dreams of being married and having kids done. But really now when you have a wife, and I'm looking, okay, I'm like, okay, what's my next venture? I want her to bless the idea. And when you have a spouse who loves you, who respects you because you love and respect them, there's a margin that you make from week to week or month to month saying, look, I'm going to try and hustle.
I'm getting ready for a 15 hour day stretch. I'm going to do nine to five. I'm not going to be able to do this and this and this as much, but I'm going to do this because I feel like this is what I need to do. If that is in unison for your family, you run for that.
And for as long as your thoroughbred heart beats for that, you keep on knocking. But there are triggers. Triggers of success, triggers of wait, pause, triggers of failure. At the trigger of failure, do you then go to an end and say, what do you think I should do?
No, your heart first will say eventually, let's wait, let's delay it. You know how timing is important. Not just the outside, the inside. I can tell you right now, if Nick Boyce had started the podcast five years ago, now, oh my gosh, now is the time.
So understanding and embracing that at the time, a closed door doesn't mean it's not open again, but really your spirit and your connection, if you're not married, then all you have to worry about is you, yourself and you. And then say, okay, I don't have other mouths to feed. This is how much risk I'm ready to take. This is the attitude of the time I'm going to give myself.
But hustle, go for it. No one's going to make it happen except for you. You, my friend, have become a gigantic success in your life and the things that I think matter, which is where you measured it as well. But you have been a success as a family man.
You've been a success. Success in your faith and also serving God. You've been a success financially. You've made a lot of money.
You've traveled the world. You've influenced people. What has made you successful? You're not successful because you lack limbs, right?
That's not why you're successful. But isn't that interesting? Like, I want to peel back. So when Marshall Falk, the NFL Hall of Famer sat next to me, or Robert O'Neill killed Osama Bin Laden, or Stephanie McRander runs the WWE, or whoever I've had on the show that's maxing out certain areas of their life, okay?
You're no different than them in your way. With the humility that I know you're going to answer it with, if we're being real, are you just like a psycho competitor? Is it your work ethic? Is it your ingenuity?
Is it your anointing? Like, what is it that's made you max out so many different areas of your life? I know that you feel like you haven't done it all the way that you want to, which we'll talk about next. But what is it about you?
What's the special? I think the key attitude is being present and being honest. And when you're a humble person, who can humbly say you're a humble person, and you have no greed, ego, need to prove nothing to nobody, and you honestly look at yourself and say, okay, this is who I am. This is what I have.
No point in wishing this, wishing that. This is what I'm going to do to my best ability. I actually feel like I have a unique edge on any other person only because, again, of the struggle. The struggle we're in before anybody leaves the room.
So I became almost like an operator at age seven or eight, timing everyone, reading body language before someone moves out of the room. Please, can you get me a glass of water? Put a straw. And me remembering, wait a second.
How do I do this? So I've been forced to figure it out and not to depend on someone else or something else. How can I figure it out? And see, approach it from different angles.
So when you have an attitude that approaches adversity that is quite resilient, a resilient approach to adversity helps you to look at something and say, okay, these are the first three reasons why it seems extremely difficult. And the average person is going to say, okay, I have good enough reason not to. No. Einstein said, genius is when you're obsessed with impossible.
And when you look at impossible, that's when you become fearless. And when you're fearless and you have the attitude and approach of any adversity, it doesn't mean you don't have to at least get a flavor on the tip of your tongue of panic or numbness in your mind. You go through, everyone's human. But quickly, you say, wait a second.
What about four, five, six? What if I did this? What if I did that? And so in the physical, when I needed something from the bookshelf and I told my mom, I can't get it, can you get me?
And she said, get it yourself. It was the best thing. When I thought, why not just have that given this way? She gave me a task.
And when I did that, in that mind, I would say reframing adversity. It's not a bad thing. It's not a barrier. It's a challenge.
And people see me as strong. Anybody who's gone through adversity is strong. Why? Because you know what they've been through.
If I am stronger because of what I've been through, you, if you will, more embrace the challenge today. Being present, honest, and giving yourself a shot. Sometimes we are the ones that never gives ourselves a shot. I totally agree with you.
I'm going to tell you one thing about you, too. So clearly, I thought you might say part of that, which was, hey, listen, you know, I didn't get things off the show. I had to learn to do things that weren't easy for me to do because of the lack of my lens and other different things. I'm going to tell you something about you that maybe someone hasn't said to you that I want to acknowledge about you.
You have a tremendous amount of personal presence and influence. It's why you're great on stage. It's why you're incredible one-on-one. It's why you're a great entrepreneur.
And I find people with personal presence isn't their size or their deep voice or anything like that. Personal presence are people who have grown to become very comfortable with themselves. And people who are very comfortable with themselves can be into you when they're communicating with you. They can make it about you because they're comfortable.
When you uncomfortable with yourself, when you don't love yourself, when you don't embrace yourself, your entire time is spent trying to create a version of you to people when you're not present with them. You have that. And I think the hidden blessing of your life is because of some of the deficiencies at birth growing up. You had to work harder than the average person on loving you and embracing what you did have.
Ironically, it's what has made you such a person of influence. I sit next to everybody in these interviews. And I know when someone's talking to me when they live it. There are people who say inspiring things and then there are inspiring people.
Those are two different things. You're an inspiring person. And your inspiration is because of who you actually are. So I just want to tell you this one thing about you that strikes me right when we met up until this moment is your presence as a man.
And I believe that's because you're so comfortable with yourself. Can I dovetail on that? Because there are so many people who want to be successful, who want to be entrepreneurs, who get all the mechanics of if you're a realtor, if you're this, if you're that, this is body language, eye contact, all the mechanics, all the science. It wasn't hard for me to work on that.
What you just said, no one else has brought up. You're the first one. And here is why. It's because when people judge me for how I look and they wouldn't even look me in the eye to see my soul.
And when you know that I could see someone else because of how they look, but I don't want to judge them, I want to look them in their eyes, appreciate them for who they are. And instead of being, you know, I can't, you know, be involved in a sports activity. It's an elimination dodgeball thing or something like that. I had to sit out sometimes.
I'm waiting for the first person who feels like, oh my gosh, I'm the worst kid at school today because I'm known today as the one who was first eliminated that. And I look at them. Hey, good job. Better luck next time.
And we start talking because I knew how much talking and opening up to someone helped me. I know how people judge me and then how I in turn judge myself. So I try to unchain people's own personal judgment, which again is just an attitude shift. Gosh, brother, that's awesome.
That's awesome, man. So I've read Life Without Limits twice. I read when I originally came out and I read it again here recently. And there's these things you listen there, having a powerful sense of purpose, hope so strong that it cannot be diminished, faith in God and infinite possibilities, and then the love and self-acceptance.
And there's other parts of the book as well. I'm going to read the book to get it. So there's an incredible piece of advice that's in that book. But the last thing I want to ask is there's millions of people that are hearing this and watching this who come to the show today not feeling great about their lives themselves, what they've achieved, where they're going.
They may not even feel like their future is very bright. And they look at you and all you've achieved and all you continue to achieve. If there was just a sliver of a word you could give them, if they ran into you at a Starbucks somewhere and said, hey, you've really made a difference in my life, but truthfully I feel this way right now. What would be your message to those people that are listening or watching?
I just want you to know that when you go through adversity, I want you to know to hold on. I want you to know despite what you see, despite what you feel, despite what you know, you're here for a good reason. And it doesn't mean that all of life is good, but you're here through a good purpose. And you're like, well, wait a second, how could anything good come out of my life?
Nick, I got this, I got that. Well, first of all, I'm not comparing my pain to you, but I have no arms and legs. And I had a choice. Either be thankful for what I had, do my best and take one day at a time, or give up.
And the smile that you see is real. The strength that you see in my eyes is real. Not because I'm selling you anything, because I love you. and I believe in you.
Don't give up. Keep going. If you need counseling, go get counseling. Maybe one of the things that you need to do to get out of a depression is also maybe going to help someone else in need that maybe cannot even thank you for that.
And that, then instigate purpose. Because to get out of depression or a funk that we're in, one thing that I'm going to leave you with is when you actually take the focus of what you're going through. Not because you don't love yourself and not because of what you're going through is bad. But when you step out of that and say, okay, how can I go and help someone else?
Feed a homeless person, be part of a non-profit and serve over the weekend. When someone looks at you who's in need and you help them fulfill that need, subconsciously, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, it is an affirmation of little steps to build back your self-confidence to get ready to say, I can do this. I am someone. So despite what you see, feel, and know, you can have forward thinking with a shift of attitude and action.
Bang. Amen. That was so good, brother. Okay, so good.
How do I get more of you? Before we leave today, how do I get more of you? Where do you want to go? I would love for everyone to go to nickvojicich.com.
You can book me as a speaker. Join us on our newsletter and then the podcast that is up and running right now. We're so excited. I don't know exactly what all my listeners want and we're going to figure out more and more of that path and I'm going to get some coaching from you as well.
Absolutely. But I'm ready to help people from weekly basis, multiple episodes, just to help people, even some humor. I feel like we need some humor. Absolutely.
But just coming alongside of people saying, Nick, your attitude keys, I need them to reach my full potential. So we're looking for speaking engagements, webinar opportunities here in America especially and just find me on nickvojicich.com on social media. We have about 12 million social media fans. Is that all?
That's a ton. Congratulations. That was awesome, brother. Thank you for what you do.
Today was remarkable. Hey everybody, I know you're probably following me if you're listening to this but I want you to engage with me too. I bring you the best guests in the world just like this man to my left here today, Nick. And every day I run a little drill on Instagram called the Max Out 2 Minute drill.
I do it to engage with you. I reply to more comments and I look at more DMs than anybody I think in social media. And I do it because I want to learn who you want sitting next to me, what content I can create, how I can serve you. Here's how it works.
When I make a post every day on Instagram, turn your notifications on because within the first two minutes if you make a comment you're enrolled to win. That's the first way you're enrolled. The second way you're enrolled is if you comment on other people's comments. That increases your chances.
So I want you to engage with each other. And third, if you miss the first two minutes, I only make five posts a week, 7.30 Pacific time, 10.30 Eastern. Just make a comment on every post. We pick a winner from that group as well.
You can win flights on my jet. You can win tickets that come see me speak. Coaching calls with me and my guests. Max Out here.
All kinds of really cool stuff just so that we can connect. So please participate. I hope you enjoyed today's program. Share it with everybody.
Everybody needs to hear this message today from Nick and I. God bless you and Max out. This is the United Show.