How Michael Forde Disrupted Healthcare at 19 Years Old

00:54

All right, welcome to less than 1%. Uh, you know, I don't like long intros and but today I think I've met a kindred

1:02

spirit. Um, and we tried not to do the podcast. Before the podcast, we made a conscious effort. Um, but Michael Ford,

1:10

you you are, you know, it's funny as I witness and and Jordan knows this about me. I I'm constantly looking for people

1:17

who are trying to make impact. They're just trying to do things do things they shouldn't do or they can't do or someone

1:23

told them they couldn't do. And I think that you Yeah. Right. I think that you are uh Yes, sir.

1:28

You mean so I appreciate you coming for sure. Um and by the way, he did confess. He

1:34

asked for questions and I told him we you know less than 1% is a vibe. So Right. Right.

1:41

Hopefully uh so we we dive right into it. So So I I mean even three, four, five months ago

1:46

Mhm. you're in a different position in far as far as impact and influence. Yeah. Now than you were then. What what

1:53

changed? Consistency has never stopped. Yeah. Nothing's changed except for consistency is just always always continued. For my

2:00

mindset, it's always been if someone says, "Hey, you can't do something. Hey, you

2:08

are not able to do something. Hey, you will never be able to do something, I do it." Um,

2:14

a lot of people told me that, you know, doing the online influencer pathway was

2:19

going to take up too much of my time. Um, even though some people did believe in me and said, you know, you have the personality for it. You have the ability

2:26

to tell those stories and to get people to listen to you, there were others who

2:31

didn't really enjoy that atmosphere of positivity. And so, it's funny how life works. And also,

2:38

you said it in your book, the the the people that tell you that you can't can sometimes motivate you than the people who tell you that you can, right? And

2:45

so, I took a lot of that and I just like, you know what, Jordan said, it became personal. Became personal to me. And I and I just

2:51

said, you know what? If I can be consistent and show up the same way every single day without cease and see

2:59

what happens. And so even with my social media presence, the first few months, I'm getting some roll. I'm getting some

3:05

impact. Yeah. Two, three months in the game, I'm getting even more impact. Four or five months in the game, I'm getting even more impact. And it's so funny because

3:13

since May of 2025, when I started posting my content on The only May 2025

3:22

there was only one like and that was me. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you started so

3:28

started. I started in May of 2025 and now I'm at 170,000.

3:33

It's nuts. And that's just on Instagram. I started my TikTok. I started, you know, I have my YouTube going. And so this is just a

3:39

culmination of let's keep going, let's keep moving. But to say that anything has changed, I I really can't say

3:45

anything has changed except for the fact I can tell you what has not changed and that's been my consistency.

3:50

Yeah, I think that that's 100% right. It's sort of like um and I go through this with my kids, with my career,

3:56

whatever. When people recognize what you're doing, they always think, and I, you know, I

4:02

was guilty too in that question. They always think that you're doing something different. It's just that now you're being

4:08

recognized or you're being followed or whatever the case may be. actually the heart and soul of who you are hasn't

4:14

fundamentally changed. You you mentioned can't, right? And so we tried to save this one cuz talk about it. So you know

4:22

my thing, right? Like I hold grudges. Um you know I remember everybody's name. I

4:27

haven't even said the real names. You're out there. I haven't said the real names of the

4:32

people that that you know did me dirty. Oh. But I but I keep receipts. I hold grudges. I don't let it consume me in a

4:40

negative way, but I use it as motivation for sure. So, what's your lesson 1% story?

4:45

‍

4:43

Boy, I knew you were going to ask that, but we we this is h Let's get into it. Let's get into it. Let's get into it.

4:51

All right. So, let me tell you a little bit about who I am. Yeah. And that'll give you the the essence of

4:56

this story making sense. So, I'm a doctor of public health. Yeah. I focus on preventative medicine. My

5:01

wife is a pulmonary critical care specialist. So, she focuses on treating patients as they are, as they come. uh

5:07

more of the reactive. I'm more of the proactive, that public health side where we're teaching people how to prevent things from happening. And so I've

5:13

always envisioned myself in healthcare. That is the baseline for this story. I have always envisioned myself in

5:19

healthcare. From a young child to an adult man today, I've always envisioned myself. And in college,

5:27

I said, you know, I'm not sure what my trajectory is going to be at this time,

5:33

but I want to enroll in premed courses because I I feel like that is the safest way for me to get involved in the

5:40

sciences, involved in, you know, organic chemistry, biology, gen

5:45

just understanding the human body, and we'll see where where it goes from there. So, I took Gen Chem, I took Gen

5:52

Bio. Good. We're good. We're good. And by the way, right, I had been an A

5:58

student all my life. You know, my parents from the Caribbean. No choice, by the way. I had no choice.

6:03

No choice. But we'll talk about that. We'll talk about that. My parents from the Caribbean. My mother, my mother's

6:09

father, my grandfather, he was an educator. My mother was an educator. So, my family didn't not play when it

6:15

came to getting an education. So, I'm I'm I'm making these good grades and then organic chemistry comes around.

6:22

That's my second year of college. Now, organic chemistry was different. You had kirality,

6:28

I all these shapes, all these molecules, uh things I didn't really understand off

6:33

the rip. And so, unfortunately, unfortunately, right, Moo, I got a C, C++, but I still

6:42

got a C in organic chemistry. Mind you, this is my first C that I've ever of my life.

6:48

And and we'll this is something else we can talk about. Don't let your education define who you are. Yeah, for sure. Right. And that's a whole different

6:54

conversation. But but at that time, that's I was known by my grades. I was known by my educ my education, by my

7:01

capacity uh to succeed and in in that in that room. And um

7:08

my organic chemistry professor, he pulls me aside. Didn't pull anybody else aside,

7:14

but he pulls me aside. Mind you, I was the only one of me. Yes. Yes. Okay.

7:20

uh you don't belong in healthcare. You should never pursue healthcare. A

7:25

matter of fact, if I were you, I would strongly reconsider your goals. Um I see what you're trying to do, but

7:33

it won't be done. Um and I didn't know what to think. I felt like I had just gotten shot with a

7:39

caliber, a high power caliber. Yeah. Shattered dreams. Shattered dreams. um for me to have

7:47

these high goals, high aspirations, uh and then my teacher for organic chemistry telling me that you don't

7:53

belong, right? That that really just confused me. I remember I tell I told my mother immediately she was ready to go to the school the next

8:00

day uh and and fight, you know, and um that was my less

8:05

than 1% moment because when someone told me that I couldn't, oh boy, did that motivate me. Yeah. If if you want to if you want

8:12

anybody to really really try, tell them that you can't. Y

8:17

tell them that you can't. Um and I remember I did face some doubt. I did

8:23

face some, you know, reflection. But it came to the point where I'm just like, "No man, I can and I'm going to show

8:29

you." And not only am I successful in my career, my career in my field, I have

8:36

since emailed said, "Professor and just said, you

8:41

know, I got this job today. 5 years later, I got this job today. I'm just sending him my resume. Did

8:47

they respond? Uh, they stopped. Yeah. Yeah. After some time, they stopped. But it's

8:52

one of those things where, you know, I've exceeded all my expectations. Yeah. Um, and I've continued to grow bigger

9:00

than my dreams. And so, my less than 1% moment really came when this professor,

9:07

let's call him Dr. Jack. And Dr. Jack said, you know, Michael,

9:12

you you're not you're just not him. You're not that guy. You know, I I I I

9:18

did take that personal personal. It was personal to me. And uh I made sure to make the best story out of it.

‍

9:28

But see, that's the thing I and and you know what, you know, um my my best

9:29

moment today is when you walked in and you said Barry O'Shea. Yeah. as obviously you read the book and and um

9:35

you know that's that's what really through my journey I wasn't so much angry a little bit a

9:43

little bit because anger is my base energy but I you know it's just like how many other people

9:49

you know are not are not able to navigate that misjudgment how many other

9:55

people get that box built for them and they say you know what that's cool that's cool um you And I tell my son and

10:02

my daughter both want to pursue medicine and they've had some bumps and bruises

10:08

along the way. And I said, "Listen, you have to understand, go out and talk to doctors cuz there are a lot of doctors

10:14

out there. There's a lot of professionals out there. There's a lot of people in sports out there that failed at some point that didn't achieve

10:21

at some point. So don't take that one moment and build a box for yourself cuz we're wired the same way." So my base energy

10:27

is anger. Is your I don't feel like anger is your base energy. No. Yeah. You're you're more like excitement,

10:34

positivity. That's the vibe you give me. You're you're right on. You're right on.

10:39

You're right on. I mean, if like, you know, it's funny that you say that because I can get angry, but my angry is

10:46

more like irritation, if that makes sense. It's not like true anger, but I would I would somehow take that

10:51

irritation and then find a positive way to to fold that. Somebody somebody said something about so you know we have I

10:59

think we we were connected obviously you know online but but I think we have

11:04

a connection meaning that this person knows that person and I heard a story about someone okay

11:10

they happen to have your name oh I want to hear the story they said you went to an event

11:15

Mhm. big time event. Okay. You weren't invited. Okay. You just showed up. Yeah.

11:20

And you had a mic. Uh-huh. and you just started interviewing anybody that would that

11:25

would that would talk to you. Is that true? That sounds like Yeah.

11:31

So, you're just like, I'm I'm not in I'm going to make my own building. Yeah. Yeah. So, what I mean, what what's the energy

11:38

behind that? What What is you know, like I've talked to you a little bit later on about superpowers.

11:44

That's something I believe in. But, Sure. What what what makes you go out on a limb, try to do something

11:50

different, try to be in spaces that maybe even you believe that you're not

11:56

are going to be difficult for you to get in. So it it for me I just look at life as let's have fun.

12:02

Let's have fun. Um I grew up in a very strict household. Fun was not a thing.

12:08

Learning and reading and going to school and making sure you were on top of your game for education was always a thing.

12:14

But the personality I always had was let's just make the best out of it. And I think that's where that mindset shift

12:22

comes into how I am. Just making the best out of whatever situation. So if

12:27

there's an event, if there's a gathering, if I'm going to be in the mix, I'm going to be meeting the people. I'm going to be having I'm going to be

12:33

smiling like I am now. I'm going to be having fun. But in that having fun, it's because I'm making the best out of that

12:38

situation. Um, and I've also looked at that as just like sometimes doors are closed. I could tell you so many stories

12:44

where doors were closed and I was not invited to set event. I was not invited to set work said workshop said

12:51

opportunity but I said I want to go. That door closing thing is weird. Like you know we talked a little bit about in

12:57

my role um and not just the podcast and the book but in my role in healthcare you know if I see some if somebody asks

13:04

me for help if you're out there you need help call me. I'll try. I mean, it doesn't always work out,

13:09

but I do feel like in other industry, those doors are closed. And, you know, I found situations where

13:16

people who were considered good friends that were in the industry or in a different industry. Yeah. Sometimes I wasn't cool enough to be in

13:23

the that room with them or in that room with them. It was okay when we were one-on-one, but no, no, no.

13:29

What do you What do you I just don't think that's the best way to to get great to to achieve greatness.

13:36

But what do you think those people are when they lock you out? What's the mindset there?

13:43

I feel like, you know, a lot of those people, they're just used to clicks.

13:48

They're used to circuit closed groups. Yeah. Uh closed thinking, uh you know, the

13:54

mentality that you don't belong because you're not one of us. You don't have that status, that mentality, quote

14:00

unquote. Yeah. Right. And so, you know, I think that um

14:06

whatever is going on through their minds as it relates to me, as it as it pertains to me, it's it's more of a, you

14:12

know, sometimes I just they don't do they know what they're doing. Do they know that the ignorance is is showing?

14:19

Do they know that they're uh being more close-minded than than not? Because

14:24

again, when you have people who share collective mentality, sometimes you forget that the mentality that you're

14:30

sharing is not the one that is going to help and benefit others because you're just so used to a closed mentality. And

14:36

man, I I mean, as you mentioned, you know, there are people in the industry in different industries, right, that you

14:42

know, you don't look like one of us. Why are you here? Why are you applying for this job? Why are you trying to be successful in this realm? You don't

14:49

belong. But let me ask you, what what is it about me that I don't belong? Is it because I don't look like one of you?

14:56

Sound like one of you? Act like one of you? That my resume doesn't look like yours? But is it about my skill set? Like what what is it?

15:02

Oh, you know, you just you just don't fit in. Well, I'm here to say fitting in. And that's what I love about

15:08

your book. Shout out to the less than 1%. It's really about thinking different. That's how you get to your

15:14

success point. As you said, it's not about thinking the same. Cuz if everyone always thinks the same, man,

15:19

you're just going to have a bunch of people walking around like ducks. Lemmings off the lemmings off the off

15:25

the cliff. Just looking like sheep in the in in the yard just doing the same thing. So, I'm

15:31

not even sure if I answered your question. Yeah. No, no, I'm not even sure. I I kind of went off on a tangent, but you know,

15:38

when it comes to just how people think, I always look at those people who might think differently in the sense that

15:45

they're trying to shut me or others out sometimes. I just, hey, this is blissful ignorance. Or maybe you're just woefully

15:52

ignorant, but at the same time, do I let that bother me? Uh,

15:57

yeah. No, you know, I'll find I'll find a door, and if I if I can't find one, I'm going to make

16:02

Okay. So you you said something that shocked me. Okay. And I don't know if you're being

16:08

truthful. Okay. You said that you achieved greater than you thought you

16:14

would, but I I am skeptical that you have dreams,

16:20

okay, that you're not sharing or is there so so I'll be I'll be transparent.

‍

16:16

I'll be transparent. I'm I'm just going to

16:26

let you know when I say I I achieved more than I ever thought I would. When I was in college, my goal was I want to be

16:34

a doctor. Got it. Period. I did my master's degree, my goal became

16:42

doctor in healthcare. Yeah. Yeah. Got my doctorate of health in in healthcare. And my goal was always to be

16:49

someone who's a leader, someone who's a trailsblazer, someone who's a an advocate and a and a and a

16:55

you could just say a an educator, not an influencer, an educator, right? But I have achieved all those goals to

17:03

nth degrees because I I I don't want to go into every detail on the on the podcast, but you know, uh I have groups

17:10

that I have never thought in my wildest dreams say, "Hey, I want you to speak at this event." I have celebrities that I

17:15

looked up to growing up saying, "Can you speak on my show or can you speak at my event?" I have um organizations that

17:24

have really high people in their ranks saying, "Hey, come talk to our our guys, come talk to, you know, come spend time

17:30

with us at XYZ." And it's just like whatever dream I had before is now.

17:36

I guess I can say it's just getting bigger. So, so by the way, thank you for being on the podcast. You know, I know your

17:42

time is precious and you know, I got time for you. I got time for you. I got time for you. I you know I I

17:47

appreciate that because I I do think um you know I there's a certain subset of individuals that love less than 1% that

17:54

come on um and we've had amazing guests but all of them have the same theme which is that

18:00

I think in their heart of hearts they feel that that grind like you said that un even

18:06

even Leenian Tomlinson Hall of Famer you can still see that he wants to impact

18:11

beyond you know even greater than than what he's doing now. Right. Right. So 20 years from now,

18:17

yeah, right? So you you're doing all the work, but 20 years, you're going to look back and say,

18:23

I have accomplished what I set out to accomplish in the world. What would that what would that what would those things

18:29

be? So I believe in something called if impact factor something that I just made up right now.

18:40

If Okay. Okay. Impact factor. And so impact factor says the greatest value that you can leave on

18:48

this planet is the impact that you able to have on its people. I also made that up just now. And so

18:58

you know but you're supposed to stay in character but my man is bringing me out of

19:04

character. Well here's where I'm going with it. I want to be able to say 20 years from

19:09

now, the impact that I have on public health narratives, the impact I have on

19:15

uh individuals being able to know more about um disparities, being able to know how they can better advocate for

19:22

themselves, being able to know about uh the data that shows and algorithms that are in hospitals or the algorithms that

19:27

people are trying to uh fight against because some of them are race-based that are having worse uh disparity outcomes

19:34

uh in in systems. You know, I want to be able to have an impact where people can say, "He helped us. He advocated for us.

19:42

He educated us. He fought for us. He um

19:47

inspired us to uh be change that we want to see." Um

19:52

the reason I say that is because, you know, as I got into my public health field, I've

19:57

done community health work. I've done um you know corporate work in offices, care

20:03

management work, population health management work, health equity work, uh you name it you know epidemiology work,

20:09

bioatistical work um you know but the greatest gift that I feel that I can

20:15

give others is is my words through advocacy, my words through education and

20:21

my words through uh being able to impact uh changed mindsets. How do we look at

20:28

the health care system differently? Yeah. How do we question what's happening in the health care system with a different

20:35

lens? How do we challenge those who are in higher seats in the health care system to advocate for those who may not

20:42

have been advocated before as strongly? Um how do we encourage patients to

20:49

understand that they do have the capacity to control some of these narratives because change start change

20:55

can start with them. Um, how do we get people to ask questions that they haven't asked before or to just take a

21:02

step back? Yeah. Yeah. I think I think every solution can be solved

21:09

if you look at things differently. And I think that the the solutions that we get stuck on are the ones that we

21:15

just constantly bang our head around. Let's do it the same exact way, right? Um, which I think for for me in that

21:20

this sort of provider space, people always wonder, why are you doing this? Why are you doing that? Why are you doing that? I said because I want to be

21:26

in spaces where other problems have been solved that healthcare is still

21:31

struggling with. Right. Right. So, you know, I write about Barry M um Coach McKill.

21:37

We're not going there yet. Coach McKill. Yep. Steph Curry. You know, if you look at Steph Curry and

21:43

and you know, Steph's in the book. I love you, Steph. But Steph's amazing and he's brilliant

21:50

and he's he's I mean, he's in my top five. he's in my top five, which people argue like and I'm like, "No."

21:56

Um, he he definitely is in my top five. But along the way, he's had some people

22:02

that really fundamentally believe in him. And shooting the shots that he shoots,

22:08

no, some people don't get that opportunity. He maximized it, but some people just don't get it. Right. Is there is there a coach McKillop in your

22:16

life where you say this is this one person that believed in me so profoundly

22:21

or that moved me to another level? Um you know and maybe almost like you

22:27

didn't deserve it, right? When when you know sometimes I think there are people out there that give us a hand up or a

22:33

help up or you know pull us up that maybe we didn't think we even deserved. Who's that person for you?

22:38

Boy, so I want to say my mother. Um she has always believed in me.

22:46

Um I am her only child. Um and so spoiled.

22:51

Yeah. No, sorry.

22:57

Uh but you know, she really just wanted to always see me uh be the best version

23:03

of me. And so, you know, there were times when I may have been discouraged

23:09

um or I may have not seen a path as clearly as she saw it, but she always

23:16

she always said like, you know, block out the noise. Yeah. You know, don't worry about what others tell you. Worry about what I tell you.

23:22

You can that was her thing, you know, don't worry about what other people say. and um you know from undergrad to my

23:31

grad school to even uh my my doctorate program she was just always my biggest

23:36

cheerleader. That's amazing. Always my biggest cheerleader, you know. Um my dad was my you know he he he fought hard for me

23:43

too, celebrated me, but my mom really just went Yeah. You know, well, listen, I know I know you have Caribbean parents. Yes. And so, you

23:50

know, you talk about, you know, I you know, Caribbean parents are different. You know, I remember I had that moment in

23:56

medical school. This is with this professor that was just being a jerk. I mean, I don't I think he was trying to

24:02

motivate me, but he said, "Hey, you need you need a 3.8 to go to medical school."

24:07

And I'm like, "I have a 40. You need to volunteer." I'm like, "I've been volunteering twice a week." He went through this list of things that I was

24:13

doing. Then he said, "I'm not sure." cuz you know you had to get the adviser to sign off. Yeah. Yeah. And I went I went I'm I'm devastated and

24:20

back then you know you had to put the coin in the in the in the thing but I didn't have no coin. So I'm dialing

24:25

zero. Here's the number down collect. Yeah. I called my dad collect. And I said hey

24:30

you know I want to talk to you and he said okay what's going on? Yeah. I said I think this guy doesn't want me to go to medical school

24:37

cuz he every every he's putting roadblocks in everything. And then he so I'm like what do you think? and he

24:42

hung up and I said, "Okay." So now you know you can't it's it's a collect call.

24:49

So a couple weeks later I called back. Mhm. Dad. Dad, I'm collect man. What's going

24:54

on? He said, "Listen, if he doesn't want you to be a a a doctor and you and you

24:59

think that's true, then don't be a doctor. Be a lawyer. Be a dentist. Be a a pharmacist. Do something. But

25:06

don't call me and complain about what you can't do.

25:12

And I was devastated at first. So the minute that happened, I went and applied

25:18

to went in the process of taking the LSAT, the DAT, you know, all all the different things. And and then so I did

25:26

that and I went back to the professor and he said, "Well, why are you back?" And I said, "Listen,

25:31

I I'm going to tell you right now, I'm going to medical school with or without you. So either you can sign off on this

25:36

thing or not." And he signed it. Wow. Wow. Wow. So, I mean, I think the Caribbean parent is a different kind of

25:43

parent. They're not, you know, they're not I don't know what book they read, but uh

25:48

but it's not a it's not the book of love and and caressing and

25:53

you know, it's not always soft uh soft energy. Let me let me see how Caribbean is.

25:59

Okay, you ready? So, you make a mistake at home. Young. You're young. Okay. And you start crying before you get the

26:07

Don't cry about it. I'm going to give you something to cry about. The Caribbean way, man.

26:13

I'm going to listen. You're crying. I'm going to give you something to cry about. Boy, boy.

26:20

Yeah, man. There was There was They're There you Okay. Yeah. No, no, no, no.

26:25

What is that? Yeah. So, you So you Okay. So, I asked this to everybody. Sure.

‍

26:28

Um and we don't share before the show. Yeah. No, we didn't we didn't know we did no sharing. I wanted to share so many things, but I

26:37

couldn't. I keep it in. Hey, know me. I talk a lot, but I want to I want to uh it's something we ask every guest.

26:43

Okay. So, I believe that everybody has a superpower. I brought my cape. Yeah. I don't I don't believe in, you

26:50

know, the whole leadership development style of the past is like where are you weak

26:56

and let's support you through your weaknesses. I believe that you got to go with somebody's strength and they got to be

27:01

dive into that strength and that's how you change the world, right? So, like my superpower is relentlessness. I'm just relentless. Like, you know, I'm short.

27:08

I'm ugly. Like, but I can still grind, you know. Um, but what would you say your superpower is?

27:14

Consistency. And that's not to copy, you know, cuz R relentlessness and consistency

27:19

close. They're close, but they're different. You know, I I, as you said, relentlessness is this grit, this

27:24

I'm going to get the job done no matter what. But for me, consistency is I'm showing up every day in small chunks, just small, but I'm I'm

27:33

showing up. I'm not stopping my path or journey or progress. And the reason I

27:38

say consistency is because throughout my life when I just reflect,

27:44

I'm just like, wow, I did everything that I, you know, if I'm saying I'm going to do it, I'm going to get it done. But because I'm I'm consistent,

27:50

like I have so many goals for this year and I've started already working towards those goals. But it's not like I'm doing

27:56

everything at once, but I'm always doing things in small bits and pieces. And I'd say that's my superpower because at the

28:02

end of the day uh when it comes to goals, dreams as we said or or just

28:08

having this overarching idea of can you get it done? Yes, I can because I'm consistent. And consistency is taking me

28:14

through school. It's taking me through life. It's taking me through my career. It's taking me through um a lot of the

28:19

the ability that I am able to just harness for this powerful outcome of

28:26

progress. It's consistency as my super. So I don't want to disagree with you. Okay. But I do want to push you a little bit.

28:32

Push me. Push me. I think it's I think I if it's not a close second,

28:37

okay, so let's stick with your number one. Okay. I just sense that energy is your

28:43

Okay. is your superpower. Your energy. And when I say I mean you have a I'm not a

28:49

I'm not I'm not a big aura person. I'm not you know I'm not I'm not coming in with the

28:54

Yeah. I'm not coming in with the little, you know, but I I I I I do sense the energy that

29:00

you have that I think you bring. And it's interesting, Jordan, like if you consume him, you

29:05

know, go on in I I prefer Instagram. Go on Instagram. You can find just type in his name, Michael Ford. You'll see him.

29:10

But your energy that you bring to your to to to just your content. Yeah.

29:16

The same energy that you brought even before you got on camera. That is true. So true. I that's not

29:21

that's not that doesn't always happen. You might meet somebody and they're like, "Hey, you know, like like Marty

29:28

Marty we we talked to out there and I was like, "Okay." And then once the

29:33

podcast gets started, like he was just like we we talked for what 3 hours. Um he was like doing a Joe Rogan podcast. Wow.

29:40

Um but he was just so deep, but he didn't he didn't want to let me in that world

29:45

right off the bat, right? Over time, we we sort of uh jelled. But I but I sense

29:50

that you're open and your energy is is I'll tell you this, Moon. I'll tell you this. You have me thinking differently

29:57

now. You got you got me thinking differently now because you know I I'll explain why

30:04

I said consistency and now my mind is open even more. Consistency is what got me here

30:10

through through life. Like and I don't mean to sound sound cocky. I don't want to sound anti-humble like,

30:17

but if you tell me, Michael, I need this done, I'm gonna get it done.

30:24

Yeah. If you tell me 5 years from now, I need to have X, Y,

30:29

and Z in order. It's going to be done. Not because I'm relentless in the sense that I have this big boy grit energy,

30:38

but it's just I'll find a way. And I've I've that's really how I'm I'm even here

30:43

today. Um, anything that I do, I'm just like, hey, I'm gonna be consistent with it. But, um, to that point, energy is

30:49

just I don't think I've thought about it enough. Um, it is true because, uh, my personality is who I am off camera. That

30:56

same on and off, I'm the same person. Um, and you know what? Let's go even deeper.

31:02

Energy is is is is the let's say that's the overarching umbrella, but I I'm thinking now like my communication

31:08

style. Yeah. So, so to your point, you're going in the same direction. So to me energy and I have to describe what I mean by

31:15

that energy is is is not something that just stays within you. Okay.

31:20

You it's emanated. So even when you interview people when you talk to people when I see you interacting with people

31:26

right when they change because of your energy that's what energy is right like energy

31:31

just doesn't mean like hey I'm but you're able to change people just by them being in your presence that's

31:36

different. And by the way, yeah, don't worry about cocky. Like Deion Sanders says, cocky is your problem. Confidence is

31:42

what I do. Like if you interpret it that way, that's on you. So I I don't ever

31:47

when I I walk in, listen, I played basketball. Yeah. Yeah. I'm little, you know. I wake up

31:53

What position are you in basketball? Point guard. Oh, you know, but I feel like I'm 67. I woke up this

32:00

morning. I'm like I'm ducking under the 67. 67. Oh yeah. I can't say what I can't

32:06

say, right? You know, my daughter hit the the the free throw to go to 67 and

32:11

the kids in the crowd were crazy. Crazy. Okay. So, we have something on this show. Yeah.

32:17

That's different. I didn't warn you about it, so I apologize. We want to verify. Okay.

32:22

So, we want you if you're willing to call somebody. I have uh my mom. I can call my mom.

32:29

Yeah. Or um or or whoever. We believe we believe that this is a I can hear myself.

32:34

Yeah. Yeah. Crazy. It's like we're in the studio microphone chat. You got some bars.

32:40

Oh, what you mean? For real. Well, I I was supposed Well, come on. My first dream

32:45

was to be a rapper. Okay. Yeah. All right. I got bars, too. Yeah. Don't sleep.

32:51

Stay awake. A lot of my bars need to be bleeped out, though. We'll put that on the uh extended

32:56

podcast. Yeah. Yeah. We'll have a battle after this. We should. We should.

33:01

I'm I'm so down. I'm not joking. Have you ever had a battle on less than 1%?

33:07

Never. Let's do it. Never. Let's do it. You can You can cut it out. We don't have to do a battle. You can

33:12

We'll let you rap. No. Let's do it together. What is this? What am I doing by myself? It's not a po

33:19

poetry contest for me. That's funny. That's funny. No. All right.

33:24

It's ringing. That's cool. Hello, Mikey. Hey, Mom. You're on our podcast. You

33:30

want to introduce yourself? Yeah. Hi, Mom. How you doing? This is uh I am Mu Tomlinson. Mu Tomlinson, and I

33:36

have your son on this podcast. And uh by the way, you did a magnificent job raising him.

33:42

Thank you, sir. Yeah. And we we were we've been joking. My my mom my parents are Jamaican, so

33:48

we've been joking about the Caribbean the Caribbean uh child experience. And so Okay.

33:54

But there there's a question. So I won't take a lot of your time. We have a question that we ask every um person

34:00

that's been on this podcast and um we asked them, "What's your superpower? What is that thing that you bring to the

34:06

world that no one else can bring and has allowed you to be as successful as you've been?" And he gave us an answer

34:12

and we want to verify. We want to see what you think your super his superpower is.

34:17

His I think determination. Determination. Determination. Okay. Persistence

34:23

determination. Yes, sir. Persistent determination. Okay. That's amazing. That's You're right on.

34:30

You're you you what you identified as his superpower is what he identified also.

34:36

Okay. Interesting. That's awesome. Thank you so much for looking out for

34:41

him. Thank you so for making him comfortable. He was telling me what a wonderful job you've done and he hadn't

34:47

even met you yet. Oh, that was we've been we're kindred spirits. I mean, I'm as soon as I met

34:53

him, I was like this was supposed to happen. So, oh, this is so nice. I appreciate you so

34:58

very much. No, thank you. Thank you so much for going out of your way to make him comfortable. Yes. Yes. Yes.

35:06

All right. All right, Mom. I love you. I'll talk to you later. Okay. I love you, too, sweetheart. All right. Bye. Thank you, sir again, for your help.

35:12

Appreciate you a lot. No, thank you. Thank you. Good talking to you. God bless you. Bye-bye. Okay. Bye-bye.

35:19

That's amazing. Yeah. She said uh she said persistency or persistence. Yeah. And determination

35:24

and then persistent determination, right? And I'm like, you know, they're all in the same pot. They're all in the same pot. But uh

35:31

yeah, I think What are your thoughts on that? I think, you know, cuz we get seen in different lights by different people. For sure.

35:38

I think that um I think it's the same thing. I actually think that you're consistent. What

35:44

you're calling consistent is how you show up

‍

35:45

Mhm. Mhm. Um, but I think she's talking about the

35:51

way you get to the point where you show up, right? She's seen that grind. I like that. I like that. Yeah. She's seen that grind behind the

35:57

scenes. We're seeing, you know, the end product and that's consistent. But to get to that end

36:02

product, I mean, we all we all got bad days, you know, we all got good good days and um

36:07

am struck by the way whoever people call Jordan, the way they interact with us

36:14

because of how much they care about you. Like instantly I'm in the family. She's like, "Oh, I love you. I appreciate you.

36:21

You know, you're doing so much." I'm like, "Well, you don't even know what I do."

36:27

Oh, so she she obviously you guys I mean I I know I you know I know who

36:32

I'm talking to. I'm talking to big dog. I'm talking to Moo. You know I did my research. I know. I did my link. Start on LinkedIn. Start on

36:39

Google. Then you read Oh, then you then you read his book. Listen, read his book, guys.

36:45

Less than 1% you can't go wrong. I really enjoyed your book. Thank you. Yeah. So tell me I want to ask you about that.

‍

36:45

So, what did

36:52

you what was your favorite or what did you enjoy or what did you take away from it? So many things. Um, I really loved the

37:00

concept that when people tell you that you can't do something, it will motivate you sometimes greater than when someone

37:06

tells you that you can do something. I like you sharing I liked your experiences um you know sharing like

37:13

Usain Bolt's story um and you know how him being tall, right? That's a paradox.

37:21

Yes. Him being tall and then winning Olympic medals to, you know, running is not supposed to

37:27

be meant for the tall. Yeah. Especially the short distance. The short distance, but he's able to succeed in that response. Or you have um

37:35

some people who are shorter. Yeah. That are that are just shooting lights out and high scorers like Curry. Yeah.

37:41

Uh you know, who ranked I can't remember the exact number. 256

37:46

depending on which which service, right? you know, one of the one of the best NBA superstars in history in my

37:53

book. I've seen Steph Curry play once uh in in DC and um snuck down to the front,

38:00

got to see him before security pulled me and I was just in awe because he's he

38:07

really is that guy. He really is that guy. and just so this this narrative that you know statistics

38:12

I love in your book statistics um and data tells you what is possible but it doesn't really account for the

38:19

paradoxes it doesn't really you know yeah and it's it's I think it's an interesting time um because I'm working

38:26

on the next book and it's an interesting time and you're in that world I mean the idea of

38:33

and and I think if you look historically um Michael Jordan right doesn't get paid

38:39

until almost his third championships when he signed that big contract. Wayne Gretzky, I mean, you can go I mean, we

38:45

can look at healthcare, you know, a lot of times it was at the end of your career where you finally got that big boost of pay or accolades or whatever. M

38:53

and we're in a time now where you know through social media and other venues

38:59

you can actually be super important even before you have achieved necessarily you

39:06

know and Joel Joel and I talked about that on his podcast right I mean you know Joel I'm on a panel with Joel and they're

39:13

asking Joel about Medicare I'm like bro you ain't even build Medicare yet how do you know right like so I mean I think

39:19

just you know I think the world has changed in in a positive way I don't for I don't think it's a negative way,

39:24

but I think that now how you navigate that is very different because you can have a voice and be building your be building

39:33

your goals at the same time, which I think is a very different, you know, again, you know, as an as an exer, you

39:40

know, you got to the gold and then you had a voice. And so I think that's that's

39:46

I'm interested to try to write about that. Are you able to talk about your next book or

39:51

Yeah. Yeah. I'll tell. Yeah. The next book. Okay. First of all, um,

39:57

one of the best moments in my life happened recently. Malcolm Gladwell read my book. Oh.

40:02

And, uh, and he and he gave me feedback.

‍

40:02

Okay. And I was waiting cuz you can't take it

40:07

back once you write it and he loved it. He loved it. And and so um, and the

40:13

reason that was important is that that's what I write. Like if for me, I write about things in society, things in the

40:19

world that are wrong, and this is how they could potentially be different, right? And so that's that's, you know, so I'm I'm a Malcolm Gladwell disciple.

40:26

So that leads you to my next book, right? Which is um

40:31

right now the working title is called Almost. Um sounds like a sermon. Yeah. And I think you might be

40:36

preaching. It's it's I'm I'm struggling with two different subtitles which is one is

40:42

the other side of winning and the other one is small things matter and really what I want to look at is how

40:49

on career trajectories life trajectories um industries

40:55

small little things that are insignificant change the entire course of careers

41:00

course of industries and the the assumption is is when you win that you've done all those things

41:07

correct. Right. And when you lose that, you've done them wrong. But the truth is is that

41:12

they're so close. Roger Federer was one of my favorite tennis players of all time.

41:18

I mean, Roger is just smooth. Like Roger looked like he's supposed to be there. I'm like, Roger, do you sweat? You know

41:23

what I mean? Um, you know, you had John Maro that was crazy, Ivon Lendel that was like godly. Um, you know, you had

41:30

Martina Naveralovva that was just a worker. You had all these great tennis players. He just he would just be so smooth.

41:37

But one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Roger only won 54% of his points.

41:43

Wow. 54%. Right. So you look at that, you're like, you're the best of all time and you

41:48

barely win every other point. And I think that's what our kids, that's what people in society don't understand.

41:54

They, to your point, they go through organic chemistry and they fail or they get a C and they're like, "Oh, no. Well,

41:59

that that that's not for me." But no, you know how many docs got a C? pro. It's a lot of them, bro.

42:06

Some I'm just saying some of them don't even Yeah. do premed. Yeah. You know, history, music,

42:11

other arts. So, that So, that's what the next book is about. And I love that. Um, you know, trying

42:17

pre-order it. I'll put it together. Yeah. No, I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Probably I'm my target my goal is to

42:22

is to finish it by mid year. I'm I'm falling behind, but uh I like that I did. I mean, I like the

42:27

fir the first subtitle or the first subheader really spoke to me because I think you said the other side of winning. other side of

42:33

something just draws me to it a little bit more because we always we always talk about winning like

42:38

look at the champion you know look at the great look at the but the what's the other side and the other when you that

42:44

those three words the other side immediately makes me think of ah there's

42:50

more to the story there's more to the story but just look at an iceberg right the top of the iceberg people see see oh

42:56

it's glorious it's magnificent it's beautiful but they don't see how far it

43:01

goes beyond beyond the ocean. Yeah. And sometimes the the deeper you get, the more rigid the ice

43:07

looks. It's not as beautiful. Sometimes it's jagged edges. It's it's beat up pieces, beat up pieces of of of ice. And

43:15

so it's like people only see the finished product as you said. What's the other side looking like? So I like to be

43:20

interesting. I think we leave out I mean, I guess that's my general theme for everything. In less than 1% I talk about, you know,

43:26

we leave out greatness because they're just looking at people inside those boxes. Right. Right. And almost I want to really focus on

43:33

greatness where they don't win. Second, third, fourth place, fifth place,

43:38

biggest second biggest country, good company, third biggest company. Like we just focus on the top one and we think

43:44

that that's the only place greatness resides. But there's greatness everywhere. And how much better would

43:49

the world be if we're able to look all over for that greatness? I want I you know what you just I love this so much

43:55

because so I watched a clip on Instagram the other day and it was Mark Henry, former WWE champ,

44:03

world strongman, also Olympian. Yeah, Olympian. Olympian. Uh great guy.

44:08

And he's talking about how his son right now is, I think, in Texas competing for

44:15

some type of strong man or weightlifting competition. I can't remember the exact

44:20

competition, but his son is always like doing his thing, succeeding. And Mark

44:27

was saying, you know, my thing is I don't want him necessarily to always be the best in in the sense of um always

44:35

coming out in number one. I just want him to work the best. Yeah. I just want him to work the hardest because the chances are if you have that

44:42

mentality of working the hardest and be trying to be your version of the best, Yes. you will get to the best point. But

44:50

it it it it starts with um just that work ethic and just trying to take who you are and your character and just

44:56

pushing yourself.

‍

44:52

And it's it's amazing because when you think about it, even if his son got second place,

45:02

yeah, his son is still better than whatever percentage of the people that he's

45:07

competing against. So it still puts him in a high category. So even if you're always not coming out as number one,

45:13

Yeah. Yeah, there's always another side that says your character got you and and and um the grit that you had got you to a point

45:20

where you're still coming out on on sense of top, right, and winning. And I

45:25

what what started me down this path for this book was a study I read on Olympic athletes

45:33

and they looked at the happiest Olympic Olympic athletes and then also the the the ones that were the saddest

45:39

really. And of course, the happiest are the the people who win, right? You get a

45:45

gold medal, you you you're running for your country or you're swimming for your country. That's the ones who are the happiest.

45:52

Who's the next happiest? Second place, I'm assuming. Third place.

45:57

Third makes sense. Makes sense. Third place is the most happy. It's the

46:02

second most happy because they right just got on the podium. Right. Right. Cuz you know the the thing that

46:09

you compare yourself to in third is fourth and fourth you just you didn't exist. Yeah. You weren't even there.

46:15

Yeah. The most unhappy is second place. Yeah. Cuz you almost made

46:20

they're thinking I could have Oh my god. I was this close. This close to making to get

46:26

I was this close. Yeah. Right. And so that's that's the way society responds. Right. If you win a

46:32

championship, like, you know, greatest of all time, all these debates, LeBron, well, if you win a championship, all of a sudden, you're way better than you

46:39

really were, right? Right. I mean, especially in a team sport. What are you talking about? My my daughter's record is like 4 and 12

46:45

at Boston College. Mhm. They're not a great team. They're she But that does does that mean that she's

46:51

performing worse than someone who's on a great team that's not doing as well? Right. So, our mindset is about this

46:56

winning mentality. And I think what it does, you know, think about feudal times

47:02

or back in the day or, you know, when when we first started as human beings, right? You weren't worried

47:08

about winning. If your job was to catch fish, you went and caught fish. If you caught eight, yeah, you might get

47:14

a couple high fives, but if the village needed 10 and you caught two, well, you were instrumental

47:19

cuz the person winning eight is you caught eight fish was still short. So, it's just that mentality.

47:26

Right. Right. Right. It actually reminds me of um that same study, right? I think I did

47:33

come across a video speaking on it because that second place mentality.

47:39

Yeah. Right. It's like you did well, but because you weren't first place.

47:45

Yes. Now you're almost undermining the efforts that took you to second place. Yeah. You start to saying, second place is the first loser. Yes. Right. already. That's

‍

‍

47:48

Yeah. Which is the title of this. This is the title of that chapter, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, I think it's

48:02

um So, you also wrote a book. We talked about that pre-show. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, tell tell people about that book and

48:09

where they can get it and Sure. but I want to know what it's about. We didn't really talk about what it was about. We can all of it. All of it's about to

48:14

come out. So the backstory was I was in

48:20

my master's program and so I graduated from school at 19 from from college at

48:25

19. Wow. Um yeah. Um Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's different. It's different.

48:30

You're you're a savant. Something like that. Um and so I went from college to my

48:36

master's program. Um and then during my master's program, I said, you know,

48:42

writing a book's on my to-do list. It's I've always wanted to do it. I think before I mentioned there are people who

48:47

are like why would you do it you know don't have the time for it no one's gonna read it

48:54

wasting your time and it's funny because you talk about energy and just even the good energy good vibes and just being

48:59

able to connect with people this same energy can get a lot of attract a lot of toxic uh people who really like ah let's

49:05

let's burst his bubble let's you know uh put cold water on his flame and so I

49:11

said no I'm going to do it and so I didn't know where to begin but I took out Microsoft wore her to started

49:16

writing and so the title of the book is success begins from where you are. It's a very short read. Very short read.

49:22

But I like the title though. Thank you. You know Yeah. It starts It starts from this point. It starts from this point.

49:27

That's beautiful. And it it it really was because you know even though I had been successful in my

49:32

educational um pursuits and even though you know I'd always been somebody that as I said I kept going. I kept show

49:39

showing up. Um I always thought like, hey, at the end of the day, when my mom's not talking to me and

49:45

giving me motivation, if my dad's not talking to me, if no one else is talking to me, I'm here and I'm going to be the

49:51

person that says, "Let's keep going. Let's keep thriving. Let's keep um you know, orchestrating a mindset." But the

49:58

thing is, how do you pour into you when you're empty? How do you pour right when

50:03

you don't have anything? So this whole concept of success begins from where you are. It's like, okay, I know that I can

50:10

seek an environment that fosters my best mindset. I know that I can listen to

50:16

audiobooks, read books that can allow me to be and feel more uh successful uh in

50:22

in being the best version of myself. I can um even uh looking at YouTube videos

50:29

sometimes uh you know and finding out how to block the noise, the news and the toxic toxicity and um maybe look at

50:36

YouTube videos that are just more positive, more uplifting. I love Les Brown, one of my favorite motivational speakers of all time. I listen to a lot

50:43

of Less Brown books. Um read a lot of his his books. Um um Dale Carnegie, how

50:48

um how to win friends and influence people, one of my favorite books. I would just consume that kind of content. So the book is like how do you be the

50:55

best version of you with success beginning where you are? And so um I put

51:00

it on Amazon. I did Kindle Direct Publishing. I think the book itself I'm thinking about it. It's about 54 pages.

51:06

Very short. 54 pages. Um and you know I think I put it for like 99 cents at the time. Left it

51:12

alone. But then I put it for free on Google um play. Yeah. Google Books Play. And last time I

51:19

checked it had like way over 50 60,000 um downloads. it was for free and I was like, "Wow, you know, this idea that I

51:25

had, you know, really allowed me to get to the point where other people are able

51:30

to find some sense of inspiration or motivation for their for their souls." And so, um, you know, the book's on

51:37

Amazon, it's on Google Google Play. Um, but the whole premise behind me even writing it was this idea that, you know,

51:44

I wanted to do it. Number one, it was on my to-do list. Um but I also wanted to give people this I

51:49

this idea that you know success is not meant for the rich and the famous. It's not only meant for

51:56

those who have a name or maybe maybe you know the the parent their parents had a name before them right. So they just

52:02

come along and y I mean take the success that my parents had and I'm going to put you know like if if there's anything that's one thing

52:09

my parents told me if there's anything that you want to do you can do it. Yeah. You can do it. Actually you remember the

52:14

story your father told you. Yeah, I've heard that story so many times in Caribbean families. It's like if you said you want to do it, it's only you

52:21

stopping you from being you. Yeah, that's another one. I think I think writing uh and you know,

52:26

there are lots of different reasons, good reasons uh to write. For me, it's um you know, I'm I always

52:34

joke Jordan's for this 76 times. I'm I'm a a writer who happens to be a CEO.

52:40

Not a CEO who happens to be a writer. Yeah. Yeah. And so for me, writing is just my my creative. It comes from the

52:45

rapping days. Yeah. And you know, and if you read the book, you know that there's a lot of um alliteration and poetry kind of, you

52:53

know, it's not really just u you know, straight pros, but different direction. I want to know. So, you got energy, consistency,

53:01

your mom is amazing, right? And you have this stern but loving,

53:08

you know, sort of Yeah. coming up, right? Yeah. But and and I I want you to be

53:13

vulnerable. I want you to really dive in deep. Sure. What What's your kryptonite? What's

53:19

what's what drags you down? What what takes you to places that you know you shouldn't be mentally, spiritually?

53:27

We're going to get Let's go deeper with this cuz the answer I'm going to give you is kind of like surface level. Um I also think as I talk and talk as I

53:34

think. So yeah. Um toxic toxic environments are that's that's a

53:40

kryptonite. toxic people, um, toxic places, which goes back to toxic environment, but really toxic

53:46

environment, toxic um, people, but let's let's stay with toxic people. Yeah. Yeah.

53:52

Let's stay with toxic people. Um, Oh, okay. I like I like where this is going. So,

53:59

he got ready like I was I was backing up. I was like, "What you what you what you got what you got in your pockets?"

54:05

Let I'm I'm a I'm a uh So, we talked about energy. Uh you know, you you you

54:14

masterfully told me like, "Hey, your superpower is energy. You know, I'm coming here with good

54:19

vibes. We're communicating. We're having fun. We're relaxed, enjoying each other's company."

54:24

Um but, you know, good energy comes with pitfalls.

54:30

Sometimes you're too kind. Sometimes you're too nice. uh you're too caring,

54:36

you're too uh considerate, uh too accommodating. These are all things

54:43

people have told me. Now, being that I am, you know, somebody

54:48

who always tries to see the best in people, I have been used, I have been taken advantage of, I have

54:55

been literally um pushed down, right? And so now these toxic people, I have

55:05

sadly allowed them to enter my life because I have been too considerate. I'm

55:12

always, you know, this guy, let me just continue to let my light

55:17

shine, so to speak, because I'm just going to be as kind and and and loving

55:23

and and and uh just a good person as much as I can so that, you know, this

55:28

person could, you know, reap the benefits and maybe maybe they'll, you know, you always think like maybe they'll get nicer, maybe they'll change

55:34

their ways, maybe they'll be a little bit more understanding. And I have been

55:39

burnt so many times by toxic people. So I had mentioned toxic environments and first that's where you can find those

55:45

toxic people, right? Those toxic places. But toxic people, they're my biggest kryptonite because

55:52

oh man, when I have dreamt big and I've thought of the biggest goals, every single

55:58

person who told me no, who told me that I can't do it, they have been a toxic person. People who have uh I've opened

56:04

my doors to them physically. Physically, they've come into my home.

‍

56:02

Now I'm

56:11

hearing them speaking ill about me. Um you know jealousy is another thing that

56:17

can happen when you allow toxic people to enter your life. And I say this all to say that very recently, very recently

56:24

um and I'm proud of myself for this. I've started realizing the beauty of boundaries, the beauty of saying no, the

56:31

beauty of um blocking your space. So, who you like who you see today is I've

56:37

been this person forever. Like, you can ask my middle school classmates about me. I can see him in like elementary school

56:43

in a suit. I see it right now. You're not far off. You're not far off.

56:48

You're not far off. Um, you can you I mean, my my my elementary school

56:54

teachers, you like I am the same person. And that's a I'm I'm actually very um it's a beautiful thing because I know a

57:00

lot of people change. Yeah. Some some people, you know, they get to different levels in life and they act different, you know, but I I'm

57:06

really just it. I am who I am. But the sad thing is it's only until recently that I really started blocking my space,

57:13

blocking that energy. And you talk about toxic people. I actually would would reframe it just a little for me

57:21

is um normal people, regular people or familiar people.

57:27

Yeah. Who become toxic, right? And you know, Jordan, Jordan Jordan,

57:33

what's what's the number one question that you get from people about the podcast?

57:38

Like, why? Why? Why? That's Yeah. Why you Why are you doing

57:44

it? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, to you to to either of us. Oh, that's why, right? Like these and

57:52

these are not Tell me, right? These are not Jordan. They're not um they're not toxic people. M no

57:59

their friends, their family, their and their first instinct is to say why. And

58:05

so that's what and and so I think the lesson I'm learning from what you just said

58:11

and I talk to my kids about this all the time that we have a line that well we have two lines. One is hard work is

58:17

undefeated. It may not come when you want it to come but it's going to come. So just hard work just no matter what the

58:23

outcome is. Right. Right. Uh the second one is don't let people into your heart.

58:28

And it what it really means is that those people who say crazy things to

58:33

you, don't let them change you. Because when when I say into your heart, I'm not talking about love, right? I'm talking about don't let them change

58:40

fundamentally. Who if you're an energy person and that's what you always bring. Don't let someone treat you in such a

58:45

way that you are not able to bring your energy, right? It's your kryptonite. You can no longer fly.

58:50

Yeah. Right. Because you have kryptonite in your in your bloodstream. And so,

58:55

um, but that's I see I I didn't know you were going to say that, but I knew you were going to say that. You know what I mean? Like that

59:01

that's I think where you get to the the the toxicity. You You got a question? No, I was going to say maybe his

59:06

superpower is consistency. Yeah. You see, like just like he said to be able to do that in spite of

59:13

Yeah. No, it's it's almost like it's a conscious decision to be

59:18

consistent, right? It is because you've already made up your mind back. That's crazy. You flipped it back. I

59:24

like that cuz it's a conscious decision. Persistence or relentlessness is making

59:29

the decision in the moment. Something came up. I'm going to push through it. Consistency.

59:35

Hold on. Let me get up. Let me get off the screen. Consistency says, I'm making a decision.

59:42

No matter what happens. Wow. I'm going to do this. Dropping knowledge.

59:48

Mhm. Right. I think you're the host now. I'll be I'll be you over. You're not supposed to

59:54

outshine me. That was brilliant though. Yeah. Cons relentlessness. And he's you're

1:00:00

right. I'm my superpower is relentlessness. It's a moment to moment to moment to moment decision.

1:00:06

Right. I have to decide. Okay. Oh. Oh. So you would say right relentlessness will show up if there's an obstacle that

1:00:13

just you're going to you're because it's decision based. Yeah. But he's he's but he's going in a different level, I think, which is what

1:00:20

you're saying is consistency is is is no matter what. No matter what

1:00:25

you've already made up your mind attitude. It does. And it doesn't matter how much. Some sometimes you're consistent. It

1:00:31

doesn't require anything. But sometimes you're consistent. It requires a lot cuz you you have a toxic pe. Wow.

1:00:37

I like that. I really like that. Yeah. I like that.

1:00:42

I get it once in a while. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, except for the eagle's hat, he's good. Except

1:00:48

for the eagle's hat, he's good. Fundamentally, like one of my favorite Malcolm Gladwell books is, well,

1:00:53

actually, it's between Outliers and David and Goliath. I love I love David and Goliath because I like how he frames

1:01:00

the story of David and how we, you know, the advantages of disadvantages, right? I mean,

1:01:05

but outliers and there are things about our makeup that aren't necessarily what

1:01:11

we our family have even done, but that our historical, our heritage, our culture,

1:01:17

right? And so, so your family's Caribbean. So, you were born here or you're born

1:01:22

born in Brooklyn, New York. Born in Brooklyn. Born in Brooklyn to uh two parents. One my dad's St.

1:01:28

Lucian. Mom's from Dominica. And then I I I grew up in North Carolina. Okay. Hey. Wow. So, he's he's he's like

1:01:35

me. He got all you you don't you can't have a football team because you're just everywhere. You're just everywhere, you know? I'm like,

1:01:42

and um when did they come to America?

1:01:47

Uh 19 I would say like late '7s. Late '7s early. They were together or they met here.

1:01:53

So, funny enough, they met in the Caribbean. My mom moved to New York. She was a school teacher. My dad wrote

1:02:00

letters to her for four years and then they married in 1984. That's amazing. That's amazing.

1:02:06

Do you feel like that your upbringing was different being in a Caribbean

1:02:11

household than just say your peers? Cuz you know, I mean, you didn't grow up in the Caribbean.

1:02:16

Oh yeah, for sure. For sure. No question. So if you had to pick sort of one

1:02:23

fundamental difference, what what would that My education was not for conversation. like you're not you're not here you're

1:02:30

not here telling me I'm not going to study I'm

1:02:36

going to watch TV you're not doing that like education is the backbone of my

1:02:41

foundation which I actually talked about in another I don't know if it was a podcast or interview but I've talked about this concept before where you know

1:02:50

education really became the crux of who I was so being 16 years old and entering

1:02:58

university, doing three years of college, doing four years and three years, graduating at 19.

1:03:05

I came to this place of like who am I? Because all I knew was education. So

1:03:10

there, you know, there has to be a balance. And I feel like transparency sometimes it didn't feel like there was

1:03:17

a balance where my peers were going going to, you know, having summer vacations in in in Disney or going to

1:03:25

Six Flags or enjoying just enjoying summer things and I was in book club,

1:03:31

you know, reading 10 books a week trying to get uh, you know, whatever certificate that you get for reading

1:03:36

those books or uh, you know, my scholastic aptitude just just kept going

1:03:42

going and going and going. So, uh, education. Yeah. No doubt. No doubt. You said that and I, you know, it was

1:03:48

like I can remember it's like my first game in in high school I scored 44 points,

1:03:55

you know, and I was like went home like, "Mom, that 44. That's great. How are the

1:04:02

grades?" Yes. I knew that was going to come. How are the grades? Right.

1:04:08

You know, if you if you if you Percy Yeah. If you get a academic accolade in

1:04:13

a Caribbean household, I mean, you might you might get the keys of the city. I mean, I think it's over time now. I

1:04:20

think obviously sports are more important. Mhm. Fin there's a financial windfall they can see, but I think

1:04:26

crimin parents seem to be focused on that consistency of what education can bring for your life

1:04:31

in the future. And remember, I don't know about I know in Jamaica Mhm. you know, a great education is not a

1:04:38

given. like you're fighting for certain high schools. You're make, you know, you have to get into certain high schools so

1:04:45

that you can get that better education so you can continue. You have to fight for that early on um to be able to get a scholarship to go to

1:04:51

those schools. So, for sure. So, so you know, people are watching this podcast, they're going to go uh

1:04:58

find you. Yeah. Insta, Tik Tok, Instagram, Tik Tok, YouTube,

1:05:04

LinkedIn. LinkedIn. What's the best way? Just Dr. Michael H. Ford. I made it simple. Yeah, talk to Michael Hford. And and hey, if

1:05:11

you want to connect on LinkedIn, send me a request. Um, if if you want to look at some of my videos because I do a lot of

1:05:17

videos talking about medical history, uh, medicine today, uh, algorithms and

1:05:22

the systems and things of that nature, you know, uh, Tik Tok, YouTube, Instagram. That's awesome. That's awesome.

1:05:29

What message if you had, you know, this is like the last thing that you did in your life. Okay. Um, what would you say to people

1:05:37

who are looking at the this podcast? Remember, people are digesting this podcast, right? They love that l less than 1% mindset.

‍

1:05:39

So, what would you leave them with? Give me some time to think about it. Give me some time to think about it. The

1:05:49

last message that I would leave someone.

1:05:56

Okay. Okay. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it.

1:06:03

It is okay to fail forward. It is okay to fail forward.

1:06:10

We have this concept today that failure can be looked down upon. Failure can be

1:06:19

associated with less than in a negative sense. You are less than

1:06:24

what is appropriate for standards of success, right? But failing forward,

1:06:30

I I love this idea because you can be given the permission to say that I

1:06:36

didn't make it today, but I can get up, try again, and make it tomorrow. There's

1:06:41

so many people, Jordan, Oprah, oh man, I can go down the list. Uh Steph

1:06:49

Westbrook even that were told by their peers, colleagues, even family members,

1:06:55

I don't think this is for you. try something else and had bad outcomes. I mean, not just being told, they had

1:07:01

bad outcomes. They had bad outcomes. They they failed. They failed in their own sense, but they

1:07:08

kept going. And I think if I were to tell somebody, if that's my last words, keep going.

1:07:16

Fail forward. Don't don't fail and then stop and become stagnant. Because when

1:07:22

you're stagnant, you stop moving. Nothing happens in stagnancy, but

1:07:27

through forward momentum, you can truly get to uncover things that you may not

1:07:34

have been able to uncover before. Discover things that you may not have been able to discover before. If I, for

1:07:40

example, had never failed forward and I just, let's say, I failed and I'm like, "Oh, that's

1:07:47

it. I got to I got to see, oh, I guess I got

1:07:52

to got to go into something else. Healthare is not for me. I'd not be here today. I would not be I would not talk

1:07:58

to you right now. 100%. You you understand like it's okay to fill forward. I love that. I mean, you're you've in

1:08:05

one phrase described my entire career, but no, I think that that to keep going

1:08:12

it and it's not it's not it's not easy. Mhm. Um, and I think people are out there

1:08:19

that struggle through something or whether it's a career thing or if it's a life thing or you're dealing battling with cancer,

1:08:25

whatever. The idea just keep moving forward, keep grinding. I think that that's brilliant. That's great, man. That actually used to be my um slogan at

1:08:32

one point. Keep moving forward. F O R D E. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,

1:08:38

man. He's got all kinds of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Um, that was my Instagram page before. I do have I do have I know that you I know

1:08:45

that you have it already. I did I did uh you got a sign book signed copy. This is awesome. Can I open

1:08:52

it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Open it. Open it on camera. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I got Yeah, I got the Thank you so much.

1:08:58

Yeah. I got it signed for you in there. Appreciate that. I got to show the camera. I got to show the people. This is beautiful.

1:09:03

Oh, man. Thank you so much, Moo. I I I uh Now, you will see this on my bookshelf

1:09:10

when I do my videos. Ah, all right. You'll see that I have a every book I read, I place it on the bookshelf.

1:09:15

Oh, that's awesome. So, people, this is I appreciate you. I love that. Listen, I I I I do appreciate you. I

1:09:22

know coming out here. Um, you know, I appreciate your time and thank you for coming on the show. And,

1:09:28

um, I I want to encourage you and I know you don't need it, um, but I want to encourage you to

1:09:34

continue to have the impact you're having. You are making a difference. I mean, even the the way that we met each

1:09:40

other was through the difference you were making. Um, and so keep keep grinding. And I don't I

1:09:45

don't know what's next for you, but we have a habit. Yes, we have a habit. And

1:09:52

and I mean, I don't know if this is confidence or overconfidence, but we tend to have people on the show like

1:09:59

right before they blow up like like Deola and some others that, you know, I always

1:10:04

joke with Dola. I know you're out there. When if I met Demola now,

1:10:10

the violinist, I mean, he wouldn't even talk to me. But we met at a time where he was just

1:10:16

just just coming up and uh so anyway, appreciate you. Thank you so much. Always, man. Yes, sir.

1:10:21

Always always. Thank you so much. Yes, sir. You are the less than one person.

‍