This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.

I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other’s stories – of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.

In the interview, Raymond shares about his journey of being 100k dollars in debt before becoming a teacher, coach, and successful businessman. He also shares that he only does what he loves to do, and spoke a bit about some of his crazy adventures – including a 350-mile foot race to the North Pole. We spoke about leadership, growth, commitment, and how to have more than 24 hours in a day.

You can find Raymond at the below links

In the interview, Raymond shares

  • People typically underguess my age by five to 15 years, and my secret is that I do only what I love. 
  • I tried all these businesses and they all failed, and I did extremely well as a salaried employee in math and computer. But I didn’t enjoy it, and so at age 39, I was a 39-year-old life loser. I was a hundred thousand dollars in debt, completely broke. 
  • My boss had just fired me. I told my wife I got fired, and she did the only thing a reasonable woman could do. She dumped me out of our marriage and I was depressed. I didn’t know what to do.
  • It just exploded because I was meant to be a teacher. And so if you want to know how it all really got started, it’s the day I found out that I was supposed to be a teacher.
  • Once you commit the resources come to you. Once you commit, the physical universe gets pushed to the side and the spiritual universe delivers to you whatever you want.
  • You can’t know what’s gonna happen. You have to be able to allow chance encounters.
  • Not only should you burn plan B and C, which I really love, I’ve never heard that before, but I say you should burn Plan A, and just go for it. Ready, Fire, aim.
  • It’s wonderful to have intentions because that’s the fuel of the soul.
  • If you don’t have an assistant, you are one. 
  • There are always ways to have people help you.