Where Humility Goes Wrong | FRIDAY FIELD NOTES
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Summary
Humility doesn't mean cowering in the corner, it means to share your gifts and talents with the world. And it's okay to be good at something you're not only good at it, but it's also okay to share it with others.
Transcript
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You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly chart
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your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time. Every time.
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You are not easily deterred or defeated. Rugged. Resilient. Strong. This is your life. This is who
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you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,
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you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Mickler.
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I'm your host and the founder of the Order of Man podcasting movement, and I want to welcome you
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here. If you're a man on the path who wants to be on the path, who wants to improve himself
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as a husband, father, business owner, community leader, and a man in general, you're in the right
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place. We're doing interviews each and every week. We've done over a thousand podcasts now over the
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past eight years, and we've helped tens of thousands of men get on the path to improving
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their relationships, their finances, their business, their body, and every other facet of life. So you're
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in the right place if that's what you're looking for. I want to jump right into things today. I'm
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often met with people who have a hard time with sharing their talents with the world. Very often men
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are told or been led to believe that if they brag or they bring up anything that they're good at,
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then they're being arrogant, they're being egotistical, they're being selfish, they're not
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being humble. And that creates a problem. And it creates a problem because if you're so concerned
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with being quote unquote humble, and we're going to talk about that in a minute, that you can't share
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your gifts and your talents and your abilities with the world, then you're hiding and you're
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reserving and you're keeping something from somebody else who might actually value and benefit from what
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you have to offer. But we're so worried about being called or labeled as arrogant, prideful,
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egotistical, that oftentimes we won't share of ourselves. Guys, that's not humility. Humility
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doesn't mean cower. Humility doesn't mean to shrink in the corner and not express yourself or share
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yourself with the world. Humility doesn't mean that you can't recognize your gifts and your talents and
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your skills and the things that you excel at. You certainly should do those things. And the purpose
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behind humility is knowing that you may not have everything figured out, that it's not all about
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you, and that there is room for growth, even if you are good at things. Guys, do not mistake
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humility with some sort of, I can't even describe what it is. Maybe it's self-righteousness.
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Some people think, well, I'm humble. I don't talk about that because of how good I am. And humility
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in that case almost becomes a sense of virtue signaling. That's not humility, virtue signaling,
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talking about yourself or hoping others will think you're better than you really are or somehow you're
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virtuous just because you don't talk about how good you are. I want you to imagine, whether we're
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looking at it through a spiritual lens or not, I want you to imagine what you do with the gifts that
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you're given, that you value, that you honor, that you respect, whether it's skills that you have or
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even personal property, maybe it's a vehicle, maybe your wife got you something great for your birthday.
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What do you do with that? You utilize it. You invest in it. You proudly show it off. You use it for the
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betterment and the benefit of yourself and other people. And that's what we should be doing with the
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gifts and talents that we have. So if you have the ability to communicate complex ideas and concepts
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and break them down into clear articulated communication styles so people can benefit from
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it, then you should certainly acknowledge that you're good at that. If you have the ability to
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work with your hands and build beautiful furniture, then you should show that off.
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You should create an Instagram account, create a Facebook account, start a business and tell people
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this is what you're good at. Again, it's not for your own benefit exclusively. It's so that you can
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take that gift and talent and share it with the world. That has nothing to do with humility at all.
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But oftentimes what happens is you have people who are upset with their own lives that they're so
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eager to tear down other people who are excelling in certain areas of theirs. And they'll say,
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you're not being humble. No, guys, that's not the case at all. When you're good at something,
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it's okay to proclaim it. It's okay to share it. And it's valuable to the people around you.
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And isn't that what we want as men? Don't we want to be valuable? Don't we want to add
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and enhance in people's lives? We do that by using what we have, becoming very, very proficient at
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certain things, and then giving that gift to the world or our family or our employees or whoever it
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is that we're trying to serve. So what I want to do today is help you wrap your head around this idea
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of humility versus being able to share where your strengths are so that you can serve other people.
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Now, number one, the first thing that we need to do is to begin to ask other people what they see
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in you that they value or they acknowledge as you being good at doing. People will tell you,
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and you may not even need to ask them directly. If you just listen for subtle clues and cues,
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you'll be able to hear it. A couple of things that might help you get an idea of what you're good at
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and what people acknowledge in seeing you is what are people asking you advice for? Are they asking
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you for advice on marriage? Are they asking you for advice on fitness? Are they asking you for advice
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on, you know, they have a sales presentation and how am I going to go out and communicate this to
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the world? And they're asking for advice, or maybe they need a project done around the house and they're
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asking you how to do that project. That's a pretty good indicator that you're good at something and other
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people are acknowledging that. Another thing you might consider is what are you doing when time
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moves the fastest? What are you doing when time moves the fastest? Because if you are good at
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something, typically you're going to enjoy it. And if you enjoy it, you're not caught up in what time
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it is and like how much longer before this is over. You're fully immersed in the thing. So when time
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is going the fastest, that's a good indicator that you're stepping into your zone of genius, the thing
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that you're really good at, that might be a consideration. If you didn't have a money issue
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or concern in the world, all your bills were paid and everything was taken care of, what is it that
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you would be doing? That's a great question to consider and ponder because that's going to move
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you towards interests, hobbies, activities that you enjoy, that you like, and that you might be
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proficient in. Another prompt is what do I like to share with the world? What ideas, what advice,
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is it how to shoot? Is it how to train? Is it how to lift? Is it how to do jujitsu? Is it how to paint?
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Is it how to do photography? Is it something politically affiliated? If you have an inclination
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to share something with the world and you notice a trend, that might be something that you're really
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good at and something that you're highly interested in. And you shouldn't shy away from that. Again,
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if we're going the spiritual route, especially with regards to Christianity, we'd all know the
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parable of the talents. Your goal is to take the talents that you've been given and then share them
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with the world. You're not going to hide them. You're not going to bury them. You're not going
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to let other people tell you that if you share the things that you're good at, that somehow you're
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not humble or you're being selfish. That's completely false. And it goes against the doctrine
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that's taught in the Bible. In the Bible, it says that you are to go out and share your talents.
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And part of the parable is that the person who doesn't share his talents gets his talents taken
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away. And those talents are then given to the person who does. We need to go out and be vocal
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and share because we're commanded to do that if we're talking about it through the Christian
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lens, but also if we're not, because it's good. It's good for you. It's good for other
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people and it enhances everybody's lives. So consider those prompts and don't be afraid
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to explore what you excel at and be willing to talk about it. Of course, there's a line and
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we can address that. If all you're doing is talking about how great you are at the expense
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of other people or not giving them an opportunity or talking about how great you are,
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but never putting it into practice and adding value to people's lives, certainly an issue.
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All right. Number two is you need to now invest in your strengths. Now, often the common advice
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is you're going to invest and shore up your weaknesses. And you certainly should. If you
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have areas that need improvement, you should certainly consider that. If nutrition is an issue
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for you or discipline is an issue for you, or you're 50 pounds overweight, or you don't have
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the skill set to get the promotion, you should certainly work on shoring up those areas, but
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not at the expense of doubling down on your strengths. The best investment that you can make
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is to invest in the thing that you're already good at. You're going to see exponential returns
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if you're focusing on what you're good at. A great book on this, a little bit on this subject
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is E-Myth. And in that book, they talk about being a good practitioner at a business and then
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going and starting a business as an entrepreneur and thinking that just because you're good at the
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practice, you're going to be good at the other elements. Or one thing you often hear is guys who
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are great in sales, for example, and their boss comes to them and says, Hey, I want to have you train,
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or I want you to have you manage all these other people. So we're going to pull you out of the
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thing that you're good at and put you into something you may not be good at. And then
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the likelihood of that happening or that working is very small. Instead, if I'm a manager and I see
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a great sales guy, I'm going to talk to him about how we can make him be even more successful.
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How can we increase your sales? How can we get you more sales? How can we get you access to more
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people? How can we leverage your abilities and take other things off your plate? Maybe there's
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administrative stuff I don't want you doing. All I want you to do is sell. I'll bring somebody else
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into for your assistant, for example, who can help you close and do all the paperwork and red tape
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and all that other stuff. But I want to clear the path for you. If I'm your manager and I see you
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excel at sales, I don't want to pull you away from that. I want you to invest. I want you to double
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down on that. And I want to clear the path by bringing in other assets and resources so that you can
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focus, again, on your zone of genius. You should be doing that for yourself. For example, with this
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movement, I really enjoy talking. I really enjoy doing this podcast. I really enjoy doing interviews.
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I really enjoy putting together programs and courses that serve the men that we work with.
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I don't enjoy podcast editing, but I've got Chad who does that. I can do a little bit of design,
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but I don't really enjoy it all that much. And it doesn't really look all that great. So I have
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Todd that does that. I don't know the backend website stuff and how to manage all of that. So I
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have Drew Kachurik who does that. When we run events, I don't really know how to make sure it's
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flowing correctly and the logistics. I can come and speak. I have an idea of what we want to put
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together, but I've got Chris Gatchko who does all of that other stuff. That's what they're good at.
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And then I focus on what I'm good at. And I invest. I spend money. I spend energy. I spend time
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and attention and other resources in investing in this podcast. For example, I've spent thousands
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and thousands of dollars on cameras, on lights. And I've, I've, I listened to other podcasts,
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not necessarily for the content, but with a critical ear of how they're doing. What do they do? Well,
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what don't they do? Well, what might I implement into my own podcast? If I want to grow YouTube,
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then I'm going to bring somebody else in because I don't know that, but I'm going to focus on what I'm
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good at. And I'm going to invest in myself. And I'm also going to invest in bringing other people
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on so that I can focus solely on what I want to focus and serve people the way that I want to serve
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them. So number three on this is never be ashamed to share your talents, your gifts, and your abilities
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with the world. And there's never been an easier time to do that than the present. We have such a
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tremendous opportunity through podcasting and YouTube and Rumble and social media sites to be able to
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take a message, take something we're good at and put it out into the world for the betterment of
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other people. I often hear from men who want to start businesses or have an idea or a project they
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want to develop. And they ask, what should I do first? You should share it. You should always share
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it. Even before you have a product, even before you have a service, even before you have a cleverly
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packaged product to offer to the world, start talking about it. Open your mouth, share what you're good
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at, share what you know, add value to people's lives. And don't buy into this idea that just
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because you're sharing something like that, that you're not being humble. Again, humility is about
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the energy. It's not necessarily about what you're doing. It's about the energy. So if I'm bragging
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about what I do because I want the praise and the accolades and the attention and the notoriety and
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validation of it, that might be a humility slash ego problem. But if I'm sharing because I truly believe I
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have something to add to your life, and if you implement what we're talking about, it will serve
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you in a better way, that has nothing to do with me not being humble. If anything, that means I'm
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gracious and I'm grateful for the gifts I've been given so much so that I'm willing to go out there,
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invest in them, and share those things with the world. Guys, I know this was kind of a quick one
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today, but this came up and it often comes up when I hear people say, oh, you know, you're just being
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selfish or you're so arrogant or any number of things that I hear. And I can't help but think
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this is a person who has a false idea of what humility is and or they're not successful in
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their own life. And rather than going to work on their strengths, they want to tear me and other
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people down because we're working on ours. Man, we don't shy away from that. We don't shy away from
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our talents and our gifts and abilities. We don't shy away from sharing those things with the world.
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That's what you're supposed to do. That's why you have those gifts. That's why we have the resources
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to be able to invest and magnify the talents that we have. So make sure you go out there and do it.
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On that note, I also want to mention, I'm very excited because today we're opening up the Iron
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Council. Now, many of you have heard about the Iron Council. This is our band of brothers. We have over
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a thousand guys in there, all working together, all sharing our own individual gifts, talents,
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abilities, thoughts, ideas, experiences, lessons, resources with each other and banding together to help
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each other accomplish more. So to that end, one of the things that we have available in the Iron
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Council is channels. And these channels are based on certain topics. So for example, a fatherhood
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channel, entrepreneurship, finance, fitness, faith channel, firearms channel, you name it, we've got a
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channel. And if we don't, we take suggestions all the time and we consider whether or not that's going
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to be a specific channel. But you're going to find hundreds of men in each of those channels
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talking about those specific things. So if you want to learn how to train martial arts,
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or you want to learn something about martial arts, then you can go where these guys are
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specifically talking about that and adding value to the world. If you want to talk about building your
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business, which many of you do, then you're going to join the entrepreneurship channel and the finance
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channel. And you're going to talk with ultra successful entrepreneurs, business owners, guys who have
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been in business and making millions and millions of dollars. And you're going to have access to that as
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mentors inside of the Iron Council. So I would encourage you to take advantage of that because
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I think it ties in nicely to what we're saying now, which is share your talents, share what you
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offer to the world, invest in your strengths, invest in other people. And ultimately guys, our job is to
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go out there and serve. You know that you wouldn't be here if that weren't the case. So make sure you
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check out the Iron Council at order of man.com slash Iron Council. Also subscribe to the podcast. If you
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haven't done so already, check it out on YouTube. We're growing heavily right now over on YouTube,
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which is good. You can watch the video if you feel so inclined. I don't know why you'd want to
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see my face, but maybe it's my guests. You can go check that out over at youtube.com slash order of
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man. And those are your marching orders. So guys, we will be back next week for another interview,
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but until then go out there, take action, invest in your strengths, share them with the world and
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forget about this false definition of humility. But ultimately let's go out there, take action and
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become the man we are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're
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ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join