0:02

Welcome to it's a good

0:04

life, the podcast for entrepreneurs, where

0:07

it's all about growing yourself and your business. Here's

0:09

your host, founder of America's

0:11

largest business coaching company, Brian

0:14

Bafini. Well,

0:18

the top of the morning to you and welcome to it's

0:20

a good life. Today, I

0:22

have a very special program and it

0:24

probably embodies the good life as much as

0:26

anything else. You know, when

0:28

I talk about it's a good life. It's

0:31

this measured approach between

0:33

highs and lows, joys

0:35

and suffering. So many

0:37

people promise the sensational life,

0:40

the amazing life, the awesome

0:42

life. And any of us

0:44

who've been on the planet a long time

0:46

know that the way it's designed is inside the infinite

0:48

love of God. There's a place for suffering. And you're going

0:50

to have highs, you're going to have lows, you're going to

0:52

have good, you're going to have bad. And

0:54

it's the spirit with which you move forward

0:56

with is everything. It's a

0:59

good life is central to my life.

1:01

It's central to my faith. You

1:03

know, the gospel as I believe as

1:05

a Christian, the gospel means good

1:07

news. I've got a good wife.

1:09

I've got a good family. I've got

1:11

a good business. I've got good staff,

1:13

good clients. Life is good.

1:15

Life is good. Life's not always great. It's

1:18

not always easy. And so today

1:20

I have the ultimate good life

1:22

message for you and it's appropriate

1:24

to do because on March 20th.

1:26

This year my mom passed

1:28

away and my mom's been an

1:30

integral part of the 25 million

1:32

downloads of this podcast. She

1:35

has finished up with her

1:37

Irish blessing and it's been interesting

1:39

to me whether they be celebrities or

1:41

powerful billionaires and whoever

1:43

else we've interviewed. It's amazing

1:46

how whenever my mom's

1:48

voice would come on the end

1:50

of the broadcast or the filming

1:52

people would just naturally smile and

1:54

I'm sure many of you have. And

1:56

as I said in my dedication to

1:58

her, I said, you know, maybe

2:00

for a few moments, ma 'am was my mother,

2:02

but for a few moments she felt like

2:04

other people's mom too, when she would

2:06

do her Irish blessing. So today I have a tribute to

2:08

my mother, and I'm just gonna share

2:10

some principles of a life well lived, of a

2:13

good woman who lived a good life. And

2:15

certainly made her mark on me, but on many people, which

2:18

was evident. You know, nobody does

2:20

death better than the Irish. You know, the

2:22

old tradition still to this day is, People, when

2:24

they get the newspaper, they turn to the

2:26

front page to see the headlines, and then they

2:28

turn to the back to see the obituaries.

2:30

And that's a very Irish thing. So when you

2:32

say someone's passed in the newspaper in Ireland,

2:34

and you go, oh, there's social media and this

2:36

thing, the word gets out. And it's

2:38

interesting to me that a person who'd been 94

2:41

years of age who outlived a whole bunch of

2:43

her friends and family and whatever else, it

2:45

was amazing, but not surprising. There wasn't room

2:47

enough in the church. The other

2:49

dynamic of this is that the Irish

2:51

have a certain view towards. awake. I

2:53

think we invented the concept of awake.

2:56

They say there's more fun at an Irish funeral than

2:58

there is in an English wedding. So we sent

3:00

her off in great style. In a way, the

3:02

highest compliment you could hear was

3:04

my dad who said, your mother would

3:06

have loved this. And so

3:08

we honored her in a great way.

3:11

And my sister Louise

3:13

organized all the

3:15

activities her and her sons over in

3:17

Ireland. We had a spectacular time. But

3:19

I want to celebrate her. She's an integral

3:21

part of this audience So I thought maybe

3:23

I'd share a bit more of her with all of

3:26

you for one last time So

3:28

I'm gonna share with you three

3:30

principles as I always do

3:32

and I'm gonna give you some of what

3:34

my mom has given me I am a

3:36

lot of who I am today and I am

3:38

where I am today a lot to do with

3:40

my mother And so I thought it'd be great

3:42

to share some of the principles she's given me

3:44

that maybe I might help you today One

3:47

more active generosity and service on

3:49

her part. So I'm gonna

3:51

talk about Teresa on business I'm

3:53

gonna talk about Teresa on money and

3:55

I'm gonna talk about Teresa on

3:57

life So when it came to

3:59

business Here's a person that

4:02

she had a job for a number of years. She was

4:04

a Stenographer like a court

4:06

reporter, you know, she could type really

4:08

fast and She did that until she

4:10

got married and then like many women of

4:12

her age She went home and she raised

4:14

six kids and then lived in

4:16

retirement with me dad and then

4:18

got to spend time with

4:20

her 12 grandchildren and her three

4:22

great grandchildren which was a real

4:24

treat that she stayed to see

4:27

that but she was full of

4:29

common sense and today in our

4:31

world we live in today common sense

4:33

is just not common practice you

4:35

know if you scroll and you

4:37

know i get stuff sent to me by my

4:39

kids and i'm out there in the marketplace

4:41

i'm on other people's shows and podcasts it's just

4:43

staggering to me. how

4:46

much information is out there and

4:48

how there's just such an

4:50

absolute dearth of wisdom. And

4:53

it's amazing. So many people have so many shows

4:55

and their followers and their influencers

4:57

and so on and so forth. And they've

4:59

just never been there, done that, achieved

5:02

anything other than being an influencer, which in

5:04

itself, great, that's an achievement. But

5:06

it just doesn't give you a well

5:08

-rounded sense of experiences or perhaps common

5:10

sense. My mother was

5:12

a fountain of wisdom. She'd

5:15

been on the planet a long time, but she was

5:17

smart. She was very, very smart. And

5:20

so she would ask questions of me and

5:22

my brothers. She would say

5:24

things like this. Are you taking care of

5:26

your customers and are you making any money? Now,

5:28

believe it or not, as simple as

5:30

those two questions are, I'm

5:33

going to say to you that 90 % of

5:35

the business books that I've seen in the

5:37

last 10 years don't come close to that. And

5:40

you read the whole book and you don't get to that. In

5:42

order of priority, are you taking care of

5:44

your customers? That's your focus. That's

5:46

your primary energy is poured

5:48

into the people that you have.

5:51

90 % of businesses all around the

5:53

world fail at this. Most businesses

5:55

are transactional. Most people, it is about

5:57

the transaction. It's about the money. And

6:00

as soon as that transaction is done, there is

6:02

no more. The way they treat the customer, the

6:04

way they take care of the customer, it's just

6:06

purely transaction. Are you taking care of your customers? And

6:09

are you making any money? And it's

6:11

a key deal, you know, and we face

6:13

it, here's a company, we have our mission to

6:15

impact and improve the lives and livelihoods of

6:17

people. But we're a coaching company. And as much

6:19

as people go, you've changed my life, you've

6:21

saved my life, you've saved our marriage, you've done

6:23

this, you've kept me on track for all

6:25

these years, I tell my staff all the time,

6:28

if our company doesn't make money, we have

6:30

lost the moral authority to coach somebody else on

6:32

their business. If our company doesn't

6:34

make money, we should not be in the coaching

6:36

business. There's enough of that out

6:38

there. There's enough phonies out there. There's enough

6:40

hypocrisy out there so for me we

6:42

have to make business decisions and it's almost

6:44

like you know you look at art

6:46

you know some of the you have the

6:48

creator. And then you have

6:50

the producer right the person who creates the

6:52

project and then you have the producer

6:54

that's got to make money there's movies that

6:56

have come out in huge investments made. That

6:59

didn't produce any money and you go

7:01

well it was it was a critically

7:03

acclaimed movie it won all kinds of

7:05

awards or Oscars whatever but it failed

7:07

at the box office. Overall,

7:09

to me, that's a failure. That's

7:11

a failure. Does that mean that all art

7:14

has to be economical? No, but if you're in

7:16

the movie business, the movie

7:18

business, your movies have to

7:20

make money. Your shows have to

7:22

make money. If you're in the business, are

7:25

you taking care of your customers? Are

7:27

you making any money? Those

7:29

two criteria are brilliant in

7:31

that order. And if 99

7:33

% of my customers, 99 % of the

7:35

people we coach, can take that principle on

7:37

board am i taking care of my

7:39

customers is that my first thought when i

7:41

wake up in the morning if that's

7:43

what i'm thinking about i'm thinking about serving

7:45

i'm thinking about exceeding expectations i'm thinking

7:47

about customer satisfaction i'm thinking about customer delight

7:49

and then am i making any money

7:51

because you have to do both and that's

7:53

where the knack is that's where the

7:55

business acumen comes in that's where coaching comes

7:57

in quite frankly is how to do

7:59

both of those things make sure the spirit

8:02

and the mindset is right and then

8:04

make sure the process and the presentation meets

8:06

the needs of the market. Are you

8:08

taking care of your customers? Are

8:10

you making any money? Another phrase, she'd

8:12

say, in a very, very Irish. And my mother

8:14

was Irish, in fact, in her last couple of days.

8:17

This is a gal born in inner city Dublin.

8:19

In Dublin, people didn't really recognize that the Gaelic

8:21

language and so on and so forth growing up,

8:23

it was more out to the country. But

8:26

in the last couple of days of

8:28

my mother's life, she only spoke in

8:30

Gaelic. Like really, really, really solid Gaelic.

8:32

And at her funeral, There's song called

8:34

Roshine Dove, and Dove is black. And

8:37

my mother had great black hairs, a young

8:39

woman. They played a montage of her pictures

8:41

over her life. This brilliant Celtic

8:43

singer sang, though only the way the

8:45

Irish can lilt a song. She sang

8:47

this Gaelic song called Roshine Dove. If

8:49

you get a chance to put it

8:52

on your phone, you can listen to

8:54

it. It's a brilliant haunting melody. And

8:56

my mother identified with that song. And

8:59

so my mother was uniquely Irish.

9:01

She danced Irish dancing. she was

9:03

fired up about the gaelic language and

9:05

gave me a love of traditional Irish

9:07

music and that's why if I'm in my

9:09

car by myself half the time. I'll

9:12

be listening to traditional Irish music more modernized

9:14

version of from the late nineties we

9:16

have a bank on moving hearts I listen

9:18

to that driving in the car when

9:20

I'm just trying to get my head right.

9:22

But my mother said this and it's

9:25

about as Irish as you could ever get

9:27

and I'll translate it to. a non -Irish

9:29

audience. She said, you might as well

9:31

be hung for a sheep as well as

9:33

a lamb. Now, again, that's

9:35

an ancient Irish proverb because back

9:37

in the day when the penal laws

9:39

were in effect, which were extremely

9:41

restrictive laws in Ireland, the British

9:43

had imposed laws we couldn't practice our religion. You couldn't

9:46

own a car. You couldn't have a car. You couldn't

9:48

own a horse. You couldn't own

9:50

a gun. You couldn't dance in society.

9:52

The reason why Irish dancing is armed

9:54

straight down is the law said they

9:56

couldn't dance above the waist and above

9:58

the waist was polite society. So

10:01

the Irish basically learned how to dance in

10:03

protest. So when you see river dance and you

10:05

go, why are the arms straight down? The

10:07

Irish legally were not allowed to dance

10:09

from the waist up. And so then of

10:12

course we built this furious form of

10:14

dancing that's kind of like up yours. You

10:16

know, that's how we live. And

10:18

so the dynamic there was the

10:21

penalized effect extremely restrictive. And so

10:23

Faft was one of the ways

10:25

that people survived, believe it or

10:27

not. They didn't own the land.

10:29

They were sharecroppers. It was tremendous

10:31

poverty. Tremendous poverty. The Irish in

10:33

the 1800s would be in very

10:36

similar state to the blacks just

10:38

post the Civil War and Emancipation.

10:40

Very similar situation. And so

10:42

you might as well be hung for a

10:44

sheep as well as a lamb was this. If

10:47

you're going to go and do something, you might as

10:49

well go big. You might as well

10:51

shoot for the moon. You might as well go

10:53

for it. as opposed to only partly going for

10:55

it. And my mother would say

10:57

that to me all the time. And culturally in

10:59

Ireland, there was a, you know, certainly when I

11:01

was growing up and certainly my peer group growing

11:03

up, people were adverse to taking risks. Economically,

11:06

it was a poor country. And my

11:08

mother would always say, you might as well be hung for

11:10

a sheep as well as a lamb. The sheep is the big,

11:12

the lamb is the small. And she's like, if you're

11:14

going to go for it, go for it. You know,

11:16

when I would say to her, I was going to go into realistic, you're

11:18

going to go for it, be the best in the country. When

11:20

I decided I was gonna go speak and train

11:22

she goes you better go build something that no one's

11:24

ever built before build it on a scale It's

11:26

never been done and I did and I did we

11:29

built the largest business coaching company in American history

11:31

You might as well be hung for a sheep as

11:33

well as lamb when you go to set your

11:35

goals Why don't you go set some big ones if

11:37

you're gonna go have a plan? Why don't you

11:39

dare? Because if you're gonna get hung which means if

11:41

you're gonna fail you might as well get hung

11:43

going for the big thing as opposed to the middle

11:45

of the road thing brilliant wisdom And

11:47

then she'd say this with regards to business, never

11:49

go anywhere with one arm as long as the other.

11:51

Never go anywhere with one arm as long as

11:53

the other. And so what that meant is when you

11:55

went to go visit a customer, always

11:58

be carrying something. One arm as long as

12:00

the other. So at home it'd be a

12:02

bottle, it'd be something, you know, whatever. You're

12:04

bringing something, you're going in, ring the doorbell

12:06

with your elbows. That became the principle of

12:08

what I applied to my business called the

12:10

Popeye, which is I'd go see my

12:12

customers, I'd bring a little gift with me.

12:14

So wherever I went, I always went and

12:16

brought a little gift. I would think about

12:18

who my customer was, I would think about

12:20

what they were into, and I would find

12:22

a way to match up something I had

12:24

that didn't have to always cost a lot

12:26

of money. Mostly didn't. But would be something

12:28

meaningful to them, maybe a book. Something that

12:30

would be meaningful to them though. Not

12:33

a gift card, but something that would be

12:35

meaningful to them. So never go anywhere with

12:37

one arm as long as the other. That

12:39

was a great principle for not only the

12:41

Popeyes when I visited my customers, but also

12:43

when I would follow up with people or

12:45

I would go to lunch with people. A

12:47

great example, a gentleman you'll be hearing about

12:49

a lot here upcoming, his name is Michael

12:51

Thorne. And Michael Thorne is a

12:53

part of our faculty at Puffinian Company that

12:55

speaks on AI. And you're going to hear

12:57

a lot about our AI initiatives. We've got

13:00

some of the best in the business stuff

13:02

coming up on really helping people become proficient

13:04

and excellent. And he had just

13:06

done a great job. We had had him at

13:08

a couple of our conferences. He did a brilliant

13:10

job. And I sent him on St. Patrick's Day

13:12

this fantastic Guinness basket with Guinness food and Guinness

13:14

drink and this and any other. And he sent

13:16

me back a video and he said, Brian, this

13:19

is the stuff that AI can't do. He

13:21

had shared with me about his trip to

13:23

Ireland. He had shared with me about his

13:25

trip to the Guinness factory. He'd shared with

13:27

me, I have a hard time getting that

13:29

stuff. It was fantastic. And he just mentioned

13:31

it to me. I'm listening to it on

13:34

St. Patrick's Day to thank him for his

13:36

contribution to our events. I sent him this

13:38

basket and here's the. the AI guy and

13:40

he leads off with, this is what AI

13:42

can't do. So on business,

13:44

are you taking care of your customers? Are you making

13:46

any money? You might as well be hung for

13:48

a sheep as well as a lamb and never go

13:50

anywhere with one arm as long as the other. Great

13:53

principles that made me a fortune.

13:55

And I've tried to share those

13:57

principles with other people in our

13:59

coaching program and with all of

14:01

you, our audience on money. My

14:03

mother was a genius Ireland in

14:05

the 1970s and mid 80s. was

14:07

a third world economic country. And

14:10

again, we didn't feel that. We didn't see

14:12

that. We didn't experience that as kids. We were

14:14

in a small little house. And

14:16

no, we knew we didn't have some of the luxuries

14:18

of life. But we never felt like we missed

14:20

out on anything. And my mother

14:22

used to say, well, she'd hear the gospel

14:24

story of Jesus feeding the 5 ,000. And she'd

14:26

come home and she goes, should I do

14:28

the loaves and fishes every week? You know,

14:30

I don't do it just once in a

14:33

while. She would find a way by being

14:35

thrifty, not only A, to feed the family.

14:38

B, like she would take then maybe she'd

14:40

get a chicken and she'd feed the

14:42

family and then what was left was your

14:44

sandwiches for lunch and then she'd boil

14:46

the carcass and she'd get the bones and

14:48

feed the neighbors dogs. She would take

14:50

care of the neighbors. I mean just amazing

14:52

stuff and she always seemed to make

14:54

the money work and I'll give you a

14:56

few principles of hers because she was

14:58

very smart about money and it really was

15:00

a foundation for me. Her principles allowed

15:02

me to build upon to eventually build

15:04

my own economic fortune. So the

15:06

first thing she taught me about money was

15:08

delayed gratification. And the most powerful example of

15:10

this, and to show you how deeply ingrained

15:13

real estate is in the Bafini psyche, her

15:15

and my dad were married

15:17

for 67 years, but they were

15:19

engaged for seven years before

15:21

that. Now, I want you to think about

15:23

this. They met when they were 20 years old. Mom

15:25

was 21 back in those days, and

15:27

they stayed faithful and true. You know, back

15:30

in those days, you didn't cohabitate and

15:32

sleep with one another before you get married

15:34

for the most part. They were

15:36

engaged for seven years. Now,

15:38

obviously, they want to get married. They're young and

15:40

in the prime of their life. But my mother

15:42

knew at the time, she says, if we moved

15:44

into a flat or an apartment, which was what

15:46

they could afford at the time, she

15:48

says, we'll never get out. If we get in,

15:50

we'll never get out. She understood the

15:52

economy, understood where things were at the time economically.

15:54

Her husband was a house painter. She

15:57

wanted to be a housewife. She wanted to have kids. And

15:59

she said, if we move into a flat, we'll

16:01

never get out of it. So she hung on

16:03

with my dad until such times they could buy

16:05

a house. And they were engaged for seven years

16:07

and they didn't get married till they could buy

16:09

a house. Now there is a commitment to real

16:12

estate, by the way, but also a commitment to

16:14

lifestyle. By the way, same things today.

16:16

The average buyer is 38 today and people are

16:18

putting off getting married and having kids because they

16:20

can't afford a house. So again,

16:22

some things don't change. They ended up

16:24

buying their house for eighteen hundred pounds

16:26

probably twenty five hundred dollars at the

16:28

time. And it came fully furnished with

16:30

a motorbike the guy who owned the

16:33

house had emigrated to canada. And

16:35

he took his clothes in a suitcase

16:37

and knives and forks and dishes were

16:39

in the cabinet my mother said i

16:41

took a mile i use them

16:43

all. They save like the dickens every

16:45

paycheck they both took out money. And

16:47

set aside for the house fund and

16:49

it took seven years to buy the

16:52

house and that's the house. they still

16:54

own today they bought that house in

16:56

1957 and that's still the house they

16:58

own today so delay gratification i mean

17:00

seven years that's that's tough that's tough

17:02

another great principle of hers was mind

17:04

the pennies and the pounds will look

17:06

after themselves you know so dollars

17:08

and cents and american parlance but you

17:11

so right you know so many people

17:13

especially young people they want to make

17:15

a big lick right they want to

17:17

the bitcoin their day trading online gambling

17:19

has gone through the roof for young

17:21

people And for most people, they're

17:23

like, you know, they don't believe like, you

17:25

know, that that mindset of I'm overweight, one

17:28

more piece of pizza is not going to hurt me. Well,

17:31

the opposite is true. As

17:33

I work through this in my own life,

17:35

you know, in my own health journey

17:37

is when I'm conscious of the one piece

17:39

of pizza, it seems to be over

17:41

an extended period of time, my health, weight,

17:43

shape, everything gets to be where it

17:45

needs to be. Mind the pennies

17:47

and the pounds will take care of themselves. You know,

17:49

the scriptures say you got to be faithful with

17:51

a little to be given much. And that's

17:53

the truth of it. And if you can't take care

17:55

of ten dollars, you won't be able to take care of

17:57

a hundred. If you can't take care of a hundred,

17:59

you won't able to take care of a thousand. And if

18:01

you can't take care of a thousand, I

18:03

pray you never get a chance to take care of a million. Because

18:06

it'll haunt you. Because all you'll be

18:08

wracked with is the regret of being stupid

18:10

with your money. So take care

18:12

of the ten bucks. Take care of the

18:15

hundred bucks. Take care of the thousand bucks.

18:17

That'll set you up to take care of the

18:19

million. mind the pennies the pounds will take

18:21

care of themselves and the last thing she introduced

18:23

me to was the slippy fund and her

18:25

slippy fund was fantastic and that is she would

18:27

rat hole little amounts of cash she wouldn't

18:29

even tell my dad about and that's why you

18:31

had to be careful in our house you'd

18:33

find sometimes you'd we'd be playing ball in the

18:35

house the house is small and next thing

18:37

you bump into the curtains you'd see an envelope

18:39

with cash in it and it would be

18:41

stitched into the lining of the curtains she'd have

18:43

an envelope with cash in it And she

18:45

would always have a cash fund. And this cash

18:47

fund was for a little project she wanted

18:49

to do at the round the house. Little

18:51

gifts she wanted to give to people or

18:54

something for fun for the family. That we

18:56

could go, okay, we're down in Wexford. We're

18:58

having a great time. We'd stay

19:00

in a little caravan site. They'd call it

19:02

like a mobile home. And the next

19:04

thing you know, we'd be in Ross Lair

19:06

Pier at one of the nicest restaurants going,

19:08

what the heck is this about? And Mama

19:10

take her envelope out with her cash. So

19:12

the slippy fund was that little bit of

19:14

cash. you kind of keep to yourself and

19:17

you're going to do something good with it

19:19

might be sometimes it was a new washing

19:21

machine it might have been a new kitchen

19:23

countertop or sometimes it was a little surprise

19:25

and in our later days it always showed

19:27

up for her grandchildren and great -grandchildren and

19:29

the slippy fund appeared in a great way

19:31

so delay the gratification mind the pennies and

19:33

the pounds take care of yourself and have

19:35

yourself a little slippy fund you know right

19:37

all a bit of cash for yourself to

19:40

either do something good Do something for others

19:42

or to make a splash and have a

19:44

bit of fun. And

19:48

last and most importantly on life,

19:50

my mother taught me three big lessons.

19:52

The first thing is a spirit

19:54

of encouragement. I heard a

19:56

thousand times you can do a

19:59

brainy. I heard it as a

20:01

child. I've said it many times at events. I'm

20:03

sure I've said it on this podcast, but I

20:05

heard that and I know not everybody got that

20:07

and I know that everybody got that growing up.

20:09

And some of you the one place you get

20:11

that is your coach and that's god bless that's

20:13

why we have a coaching program. But

20:15

I heard it and I'm very very thankful for it and I

20:17

had a mom who told me all the time you can do

20:19

a brain. And it wasn't a

20:21

false sense and it didn't create a little

20:23

narcissist it just gave me a sense

20:25

of believed my mother gave me a gift

20:27

and the gift was she believed in

20:29

me. So a spirit of encouragement

20:32

that's the spirit by which he came

20:34

to every phone call with that's the

20:36

spirit by which he came to every

20:38

interaction with. was that spirit of encouragement.

20:41

The second dynamic on life is my mother

20:43

had a spirit of selflessness. You

20:45

know, I wrote a book called The

20:47

Immigrant Edge was a New York Times bestseller

20:49

and everybody loves the rags to riches

20:51

story. You know, all

20:53

Irish stories have a little melancholy to them

20:55

and I'll say this to you. As

20:58

an immigrant, there's a melancholy in that sometimes

21:00

you don't belong anywhere at all. Sometimes. Sometimes

21:03

you're not at home in your new country

21:05

and sometimes you're not home when you go

21:07

back. And one of the dynamics that really

21:09

challenges you as an immigrant, I'm 7 ,000

21:11

miles away from Dublin. And, you know,

21:13

in a season like this where my mom got ill

21:15

and so on and so forth, I went back as

21:17

often as I could and I'm on planes and so

21:19

on so forth. But just not actually being there day

21:21

to day, it kind of sucks. My

21:24

mother, from the day I left,

21:26

and I left for America before

21:28

I was 19 years old, I'm

21:30

sure it was heartbreaking. There were many times when

21:32

I came home, she'd stand at the door and

21:35

wave and the tears would be streaming down her

21:37

face. from a distance, but never once

21:39

did my mother ever make me feel guilty that

21:41

I wasn't living in Ireland. She

21:43

always says, more luck to you, Brian. And

21:45

you've got a great wife and you've got

21:47

a great family and you're doing great work over

21:49

there. And it was a spirit of selflessness.

21:51

And it was relentless until the day she died.

21:54

We had an event here planned where I had

21:56

4 ,000 people waiting for me in Argentina and three

21:58

days down there. And they've been trying to get

22:00

me down there for years and years and years.

22:02

And I went home and my mom wasn't well

22:04

and I said, ma 'am, I'm going to cancel

22:06

this thing. I'm going to stay here. And she

22:08

goes, you need to go. And

22:10

all the way till two weeks before

22:12

she died, I went down to Argentina

22:14

and I'll be candid with you. I

22:17

had kind of a life -changing experience down

22:19

there speaking from 4 ,000 amazing people

22:21

who overcome 60 % inflation every year for

22:23

the past 10 years, who some of

22:25

them use our system in areas where

22:27

there's no mail delivery service. So they

22:29

get kids on bikes to deliver their

22:31

notes and their items of value and

22:33

people who are the best in their

22:36

country from all over South America who've

22:38

been using our system for years and

22:40

the reception I got from the Argentinians

22:42

was staggering. My mother knew

22:44

I needed to go and

22:46

even in the last days of

22:48

our life she was selfless,

22:50

unbelievable. And then lastly,

22:52

a spirit of determination. My

22:54

mom was tough but tender and

22:57

I think those are qualities that

22:59

we need today. I

23:01

think we've gotten a little soft and

23:03

I think we've gotten a little

23:05

cynical. Look at how politically

23:07

divided people are. I mean, it's funny.

23:09

I mentioned on a podcast with

23:11

Ed, my lad about, hey, we got

23:13

upcoming budget. I was in favor

23:15

of cutting down the waste and abuse

23:17

in government, saving money, living

23:19

within our means. You know, it's just a principle.

23:21

I believe it. I don't care who's doing it.

23:23

I don't care what guy or company or organization.

23:25

I don't care blue. or red or whoever the

23:27

hell is doing it. I'm in favor of whoever

23:29

cut the expenses on the budget. People

23:31

cancel our coaching program because I said

23:33

something like that. Because people have

23:35

gotten so bound up and they've lost

23:37

their tenderness. Everything's a judgment.

23:39

It's political. That's this and that's that. And

23:41

here's the piece. I understand it. I have respect

23:44

for people. I have no concern for it. I

23:46

have no concern for it because my issue

23:48

is I just want to do what's best for

23:50

people. My mother had this

23:52

spirit of determination. She

23:54

was tough, but she was tender. all

23:57

to the very last breath

23:59

she took. She was

24:01

tough. I'll say this, and watching

24:03

her pass, I realized I

24:05

gotta toughen up a little bit myself. I've gotten

24:07

a little soft around the edges. Why?

24:10

Because things are so good. You

24:12

get a little soft when you're living in

24:15

a prosperous nation, and you have

24:17

things going good. Oh, the market goes

24:19

up, or sales come down, or things

24:21

get a little challenging. I found myself

24:23

being complaining, you know?

24:25

And the reason is, I go

24:27

soft, as opposed to no. You

24:29

know, tough times don't laugh, tough people do. And

24:32

so that's spirit of determination. My mother played golf, you

24:35

know, in the last 30 years of her life, and

24:37

she became great at it. And she was a great

24:39

match player. And she'd say, I'll come back for your

24:41

eyelashes. She was just

24:43

so determined. I'm going to beat

24:45

you. I'm going to go and I'm going to come

24:47

back for your eyelashes after I beat you. She's tough, but

24:49

she was tender with people. So

24:51

I learned so much from her on

24:53

business. I learned to take care of

24:55

me customers and make money. I

24:58

learned that might as well go big or go home, hung

25:00

for a sheep or hung for a lamb. I

25:02

learned that never go anywhere with one arm as long

25:04

as the other, that's spirit of hospitality and giving. I

25:07

learned on money to delay gratification. Remind

25:10

the pennies and the pounds to take care of themselves

25:12

and I learned about the slippy fun to have a

25:14

little bit of fun. I learned

25:16

on life is spirit of encouragement,

25:18

a spirit of selflessness and a spirit

25:20

of determination. Now, doing

25:22

my best, 27 minutes, 28

25:24

minutes, summarizing a 94 -year -old life

25:27

while lived, I certainly have

25:29

not done it justice. But

25:31

I thought those would be some principles today that

25:33

I could share with all of you. Because

25:35

I know for many of you, you've been listening

25:37

to her for all these years at the end

25:40

of the podcast, give her a little Irish

25:42

blessing. And I put a lot

25:44

of thought into this, but this episode here

25:46

today will be the last time I play

25:48

my mom's Irish blessing. And

25:50

I've thought long and hard about that. And

25:52

I think rather than have somebody come back,

25:54

you know, listening to the end of a

25:56

podcast of somebody who's passed on and speaking

25:58

from beyond the grave, I've decided to kind

26:00

of go a different direction than that. So

26:03

this will be the last time I share

26:05

her voice with all of us. I

26:07

want to hear her blessing and receive

26:09

her blessing for all of us and And

26:11

This time when she says I'll see you

26:13

next time She's talking about heaven.

26:16

My mom knew the Lord and she was right

26:18

with the Lord and she had

26:20

peace Because she was very confident in where

26:22

she was going And all the

26:24

way to the end that toughness and

26:26

that resolve in our faith also

26:28

inspiring to me in mind. So

26:30

I'm very thankful for the mother I've had I'm very

26:33

thankful that I got a chance to share with all

26:35

of you and I hope some

26:37

of this tribute to my mother today will

26:39

be helpful to you and those same principles

26:41

that have blessed me would bless you So

26:43

one last time we'll hear from the

26:45

great woman herself Therese

26:47

Bafine. May

26:50

the road rise up to meet you

26:52

and may the wind always be at

26:54

your back May the rain falls

26:56

soft upon your fields, and the sun

26:58

warm upon your face and we

27:00

meet again may God hold you in

27:03

the hollow of his hand See

27:05

you next time You