Decide And Take The First Step with Lyubim Kogan

We talk with Lyubim about going from a 17-year-old immigrant with no safety net to an Olympian, a Wall Street professional who lived through 9/11, and the founder of Wings for Heroes, a mission supporting amputee veterans. The through line is simple: stop hiding in planning, decide what matters, and take one real step you can do today. 

• Lyubim’s origin story and how early hardship builds grit 
• How fear in paragliding becomes a path to service 
• The immigrant challenge of reinventing without a fallback 
• Why making the decision matters more than perfect planning 
• Using processes, routines, and “next best step” thinking 
• What wartime Ukraine teaches about leadership and uncertainty 
• Losing everything overnight and being forced to pivot 
• Wings for Heroes and the goal of restoring independence 
• PTSD realities and why connection fills the gap 
• Permission to be bad at the start and improve by shipping 
• Practical podcasting example: hit record before buying gear 

Stay in touch with Lyubim: wingsforheroes.org 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Hello there and welcome back to the next episode of Overcome Yourself the Podcast. As you know, my name is Nicole, and I'm so excited to be here today with Lubim. And now Lubeem has

Welcome And Meet Lubim

SPEAKER_02 0:12

an incredible story. So go ahead, please take it away and tell us a little bit about who you are and who you help.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Hi, Nicole. Thanks for having me. Hello, everyone. That is the most difficult way to start. But let's just start from now. I um I run a humanitarian mission. It's called Wings for Heroes. It started as, well, like everything, it started as an idea to take care of veterans that had amputations. And basically, you know, I fly paragliders. It's for those who don't know it, it's just this little plastic bag that you have over your head. There is no fuselage, just a few little strings, and you're suspended thousands of feet above the

Paragliding Fear Becomes A Mission

SPEAKER_00 1:03

earth. And the first time I went flying, I was really scared. And um, you know, I've done a lot of things. I was a professional skier, and I've done, you know, doing extreme sports was a normal thing. But after I went flying, it scared me so much that I wasn't really I wasn't really sure of what happened, but I knew that I had to learn to fly myself and not just learn to fly myself, but get good enough that I can fly passengers. And um I think I'm just gonna jump back to way back um back in '92. I came to the States when I was 17 years old. I didn't really have anything. I didn't speak English. I didn't know anyone, no friends, uh, very small family. My uncle

Immigration And An Olympic Dream

SPEAKER_00 1:51

and my aunt were living in the States for just a few years before we got there. And uh I think I am um a perfect case study of for somebody who wants to accomplish something because I was fortunate enough to get going early enough to accomplish all the dreams that I've set for myself. And you know, everybody knows that it's not easy to start, let's say, when you are out of your home, right? You finish college and then you're on your own and you gotta figure out a lot of things. And I think it's difficult when you're an immigrant because you don't have the fallback.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

And we talked a little bit about your audience, you know, and you said that your audience, a lot of women trying to reinvent themselves. And I think one of the things that I could share is that don't get stuck too long in reinventing and don't get stuck in the planning stage. Um Wings for Heroes was not, it was just an idea in my head for a long time, and I shared with you that I was really scared, right? Um, so we go back. So I got to the States in '92 and I worked super hard to you know to get to my goals and dreams. And I always wanted to go to a business school in New York City, and I got on got into New York University. And while at NYU, I was still young enough and I really wanted to ski competitively. And um, the only issue was that in order for me to ski competitively, the closest venue was uh it was a 600-mile round trip. And to do that, I spent more than two years doing that commute, and I actually became the first uh full-time New York University Stern School of Business student who went to the Winter Olympics.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Oh, that's so cool.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

I am just saying that, you know, uh, thank you very much. Um, that's one thing. If you have you have kids that want to do sports and they're really doing sports and their goal is to go to the Olympics, first of all, I want to talk you out of it because um I thought we were pushing the envelope, you know, back in the 90s, but now I even look at my sport and I don't know how they do it. So the risks and stakes have gone up significantly, but there is one thing if you do make it to the Olympics, it's with you forever. So once you're an Olympian or once your kid becomes an Olympian, they will be an Olympian forever, and it opens a lot of doors. It just tells a lot about your character, it tells a lot about you being able to set and accomplish goals. And you know, after the Olympics were over, um, I didn't I wasn't one of those star athletes who could make a living, especially when you're ski jumping. It was not at that time really popular sport, it is now, and you can become a professional and really make a career and financially get compensated. But you know, 99 You paved the way for that. I I well, you know, in in in a small in a small way, um, there are a lot of a lot of uh good athletes, good jumpers that paved the way for that. You know, there are some German guys who um who really brought the viewership to the numbers that that they never had before. But for me, I moved on. You know, I went and I finished the year after the Olympics, I graduated from NYU. I was the last graduating class of uh last century. And then I um I worked on Wall Street. You know, I worked on Wall Street. I worked, one of my goals was to work in the World Trade Center,

Wall Street And Surviving 9/11

SPEAKER_00 5:33

and I am one of the lucky few ones who got to work there, and you know, even luckier the ones who got to walk away and you know, still here 25 years. We're in 25th year. A lot of people are asking me about that story, but um, you know, that was um a time when um you know, after after September 11th, I didn't want to stay in New York. I really had nothing, nothing there. It was it was always not a place for me because I loved mountains, I loved snow, I loved outdoors. But I sacrificed that to go for my other goals. And again, when um after September 11th, as soon as they opened up the roads, I left New York and I I went back. I never moved back, you know. I went back the first time 10 years ago, and then this year was the next time, and actually the first time that I made it to the World Trade Center site. Um, but you know, I I think I'll just summarize it and say fast forward that my my um 2014 was a huge year, is when I I got to co-author a book with Steve Forbes, it became a national bestseller, and then the next year I got an invitation to speak at the United Nations with my mentor Brian Tracy, and I thought that you know 20 years of hard work plus is the time for me to monetize now, but I didn't do that, you know. I I um I decided to go um to Ukraine and it we're talking about year 2015, it's the the it's the next year after Russia annexed Crimea, and it's the beginning

Ukraine Leadership Under Uncertainty

SPEAKER_00 7:12

of the war that's been going on right now for 10 years, and unfortunately, last four years it's escalated. But I got to a foreign land because you know I was an American, you know, by that time from 17 to 40, you change a lot. Um I had to relearn the language, and I had to learn how to function in a place that has no certainty. It's because of the war, it's because of the standards, you know. In the United States, we have very high standards. So if I hire somebody who comes in with a resume and there is a job description that matches, I know that I can expect certain things from that person. And in Ukraine, it was really different. First of all, people were really scared, you know, nobody knew what was going to happen tomorrow. And uh I was the guy who was leading a company and I knew that if I make a mistake, then 2,000 people, 2,000 families will be without a paycheck. So when you're placed in a situation like that, you have to perform and you really have to put everything aside. Now, I got in such an extreme situation because I got a lot of practice before that. So, like my life was building up to the next event, and I think all our lives were just building up to the next event. And if there is somebody who is listening to us right now and thinking about reinventing themselves, I think the best time to do it is right after you listen to this episode, just do something. And I think um the biggest thing that you could do is to make that decision. I spend my life watching people, friends, family members, you know, everybody you meet. People have such great plans. I mean, sometimes my friends shared plans with me and they said, I will invest in this, let's do it. And then they're like, Oh, but, but, but, but, but, but, and they start backing up. So I think the most important thing, and and first thing with everything is making that decision. You already know why, you know, you have kids, you have family, you you want to have a better life. The why is there, and the fact that you're looking, it it says that you're not really happy and satisfied with what you have right now. And I think acknowledging the fact, you know, like we go through life and our tastes change. I used when I came to the states, I used to love ice cream, you know, those gallon jars. Excuse me. Those gallon jars were great, but now I just I don't eat ice cream anymore. And um, when you go through life and you have different experiences, look, you you you were in high school, you thought you wanted to go in a certain direction, then you go to college, then you graduate, then you start working, and you have a lot of time and effort, and everything is vested. So, like ending that is a huge decision, and switching is a huge decision. But fortunately, if you live in the United States, you have a lot of, first of all, you have really you have a lot of predictability. You know, things are more or less stable and predictable. And if you look at 10, 15, 20 year picture, you know, you can you can plan out things and the probability that that it will come true is very high because everything is so so um optimized. So you make that decision and you say, I'd like to do something. And if that's something that you really comes from inside, you know, I think that's the that's the main thing because our mind has ways of tricking us into different things and telling us things that we don't really like or want to do, but then we go on and keep pushing. So, you know, I make a decision, I connect with something that I am going to pursue something that is important to me, and then it's just one step at a time. I think a lot of people don't start because,

Reinvention Starts With A Decision

SPEAKER_00 11:15

first of all, they get start in that planning stage, but they actually never made a decision that they're going to do something, but then you know, um overwhelming yourself with having to do so much. So any process, and and the reason I talk about processes, like I I am naturally dysfunctional. I never went to see a doctor, I just know that I am not functioning like a normal person. So I start I build processes for everything. Like my life has been structured. I can tell you how many days I exercised in the past 20 years, or how many days I've read or wrote, like I have a routine that I follow. So when you are starting that business or reinventing yourself, just say, okay, what is my next best step that I can take right now? What is what is the most valuable one thing that I can do today and right now to get closer to that goal? And just do that one thing and then enough. That's one step. So once you do that step, then you will see the next available step. And you don't have to quit everything and you don't have to plan everything out, and you don't need the money, because if this is what you were meant to be and it connects deeply with with what's inside of you, then the universe will align with you. Yes, and just a quick example you know, Wings for Heroes, I take care of MPT. So when I go on different shows, like when I started podcasting, one thing that I knew was that people will understand that I am coming from a mission point of view and I need something, I need help.

Building Systems And Taking One Step

SPEAKER_00 12:57

And that was my big reservation about going and appearing on podcasts, and then I get to the podcast and I realize that people really want to hear about my experience. You know, it's not. Um I spent my entire life like going to Ukraine was a huge risk. I understood that I'm in a country that is at war, and you know, when there is war around you, then uh anything can happen. I didn't want to make it really graphic, but anything can happen. And um, when the escalation started, I saw it was coming, uh, December 2021. I said it's time to go. You know, US Embassy said everybody pack up, all Americans leave. If anything happens, we're not gonna be able to help you. It's a huge statement. So after I left Ukraine and I was able to work remotely, but I knew that it's not going to be for long. But because I ended my project so fast, um, I I I've done a phenomenal job in terms of saving the company and getting it to the point where it became profitable. So the future was really, really bright. It was a huge nationwide company. We had 92 gas stations, we had two oil terminals with um 50 million liters, it would be probably 12 million gallons of uh diesel or gasoline. Yeah, and we were nationwide. And Ukraine, if you look at the at the map geographically, it's a huge country. So um it was a lot of work, and and I got there at the time when they were completely, they couldn't meet their um, they couldn't pay salaries. The stores were empty, the gas stations were going without the product, and it was that snowball that you know, first of all, I had to stop that. And then after six years, when after five years, when we turned profitable, the following year I had to leave, and my plan was, you know, when this is over, I would like to go back, finish my work, and get paid. And this was like my life savings, my plan. After which I thought if I take so much risk for such a long time and I'm not living in the States, you know, I'm living in a third world country that is at war, so I know what I'm sacrificing, so I would like to get paid a ban for it. But uh last year in April, we had nine drones that came and they destroyed our most valuable storage facility. And we, you know, because it's an act of war, insurance doesn't cover it. So all the fuel we had, all the you know, the facilities, everything, tanker trucks, the railroad, every it, you know, it's it's it's it's a big infrastructure company. It burned overnight.

Losing Everything And Starting Wings For Heroes

SPEAKER_00 15:40

So yesterday it was there, and in the morning it was completely destroyed. That's when life forces you to reinvent yourself. And after that, maybe a week or two later, I get a call from the governor from our region, and he says, I found you a guy you can fly. And now we are talking about wings for heroes. So I reached out to our governor who I knew well, and I said, I need a veteran, an MPT veteran. This is what I'm trying to do. I want to take them to a nice place away from their environment. I want them to experience a different culture. I want them to be by the sea, enjoy the mountains. We're going to show them, you know, I have wonderful volunteers here. It's going to be completely, they will be surrounded by Turkish people. You know, they're not, it's going to be a lifetime experience for them. And then at the end, we're going to go flying paragliders. And he said, You are going to try and take an MPT and run off the mountain. I said, Well, we cannot exactly run off. I don't think that they can run off or not. But yes. And he put me in contact with organization, it's like a service that takes care of them. And we are talking the same month that I lost my lifetime savings, everything that I was planning on that I couldn't take, that I had to go back and still work for it, you know. And I have this opportunity that came from the heart. You know, I grew up in the 70s and the 80s in the former Soviet Union. And uh, when I was five years old, the Afghanistan war started. And my

PTSD Gaps And The Human Bridge

SPEAKER_00 17:20

my first part of my conscious life, it was on the background, you know, like I saw the consequences. I saw what happens when the guys, at that time, it was only male military, so it was only men, they come back really messed up. Yeah, physically you can see it, but mentally you could see it in the evenings, at nights. And to me, I was always wondering, you know, why are they like that? And it took me more than 40 years to answer this question. Like right now, I understand. And the reason they are like that, that there is no system. Like, take the United States, we have the best benefits. But if somebody's so traumatized that they have to roll themselves in the carpet and be under a bed because they're going through uh PTSD flashbacks, there's no program that will give them the mortgage or send them to college. It there is a big disconnect. So, what I did was I built that human bridge, you know, between what they can be and what they are right now. And I thought I'm gonna keep going, you know, I'm just gonna keep going. And this whole mission, it's been still been, you know, two years, it's self-funded. I think I raised like $300 from general public. So I probably, if you want to ask me about fundraising, I'm the last person that you want to ask me. But what that made me do is actually, I did the whole work, the whole process, I did it with my own hands, and I know how it works, I know what needs to be done, you know, from finding them to bringing them. Going outside of your country is an experience for uh people who have, you know, two hands, two legs, but if they're missing one or two, it becomes a totally different challenge. But my idea was to, you know, if we take them out of their environment, at some point they will become independent. And if you look, I know if uh on all our logos, this guy, he's a real person, he's the first person who we flew, and he's the first success story because he's been with me for more than one year. You know, he came back and we had to save his only leg. He rehabed for a month, and he keeps coming back, and we see him that now he's traveling Europe with his girlfriend and he's writing posts. He's like, I could never imagine that. So when he he was 20 when the war started, he volunteered just shortly. He lost the leg, you know, and you have a young man, he's a kid, okay, 20, 20, 25-year-old. There's their kids, they they haven't seen much, and now he's reduced to sitting at home and like doing nothing. Um, fast forward a little bit more than a year, he is a captain

Planning Traps And Permission To Be Bad

SPEAKER_00 20:06

of his soccer team, and like I told you, he's traveling the world. And um the reason I'm going in these details is because I want to share with the audience, you know, there are people who have a lot more difficult conditions and they get things done. And the only reason I was able to do it, and the only reason you are able to do your podcast, and the only reason anybody is successful is because we made that decision, and then we took that one step, and then one more, and one more, and one more. And if you're a professional athlete, or if you are in the field that has a limited time, you know, because we always we know that we're going to die, but we hardly ever live that we are on the clock, right? We just postpone things, procrastinate on everything. It's normal. Everybody does it, it's just a part of human nature that we have to deal with. But living in the United States, you have so much more opportunities than anybody else outside of the United States that maybe I would say it's worth taking a trip and seeing how people live and function in other parts of the world. I mean, we have Mexico, it's not far away. It shows you the big difference. But if you odd, if you if if you you have women in your audience, and I really think that women, you know, there is a reason why you bear kids, not men. And I really think if it was men, then the the history of the world ended a long time. So if you can bear kids, right? And you can make sure that life on the planet continues, like everything else for you is is just um, I know there's a lot of preconditioning and there is a lot of limitation in your mind, but you know, it's 2025. Yes, it's difficult. But I heard somebody say, you know, it's difficult to have a hard life, and it's difficult to have a good life. It doesn't matter which way you go, it's difficult. It's not easy. So it's basically I'm making a choice to have a good life and to go after what's important to me. You know, and Wings for Heroes is my legacy, is yeah, I always had this thought and belief in my mind that I would like to leave this world a better place when I'm gone. And that is my contribution. So this chapter in my life, I am doing something for somebody else. Before it was all for me, reaching my goals, making money, climbing up the letters, you know, writing bestsellers, being with important people, red carpets, posters, all that stuff. Um it was cool to do it, but you know, it was like check, move on, check, move on.

SPEAKER_02 22:54

Well, that's the next level after self-enlightenment, right? Now you go on, what's left? Now we share that that happiness, we share the the findings, we share the joy, the the gratitude, all of those things with other people. We lift other people up. Because at some point, that's it. You can only fill your cup so much, right? At some point it's gonna overflow, and now we get to help others to do the same. That's

Stop Explaining And Start Doing

SPEAKER_02 23:20

beautiful. Um, and just for you to have seen so much in your life, like to be in New York on 9-11, then to go to Ukraine, like you have seen some of the worst of the worst um, you know, in in our lifetime of things that could happen, of of sadness, of death, right? Because like it's the the even just the clouds of smoke, the the sound, the the fear of you don't know, you don't know if if that's a plane or is that a drone that just dropped a bomb on me. Like, you don't know, and that's scary. And you took all of that and you turned

Where To Follow And Final Takeaway

SPEAKER_02 24:03

it into something beautiful where you're helping others. So I really, really have to commend you because that is an amazing thing that you've done. And thank you. And knowing, I just want to point out to my audience, right? Because a lot of times, you know, we're kind of quiet or we're reading books and and we're doing very kind of ordinary seeming things, but to hear someone who does like these extreme sports say, hey, it comes back down to the fundamentals, it's all the little things like what little thing can I do today? And we both have that in common, right? Because I'm not that I'm not into extreme sports, that all sounds very scary to me. I went mountain biking once and I almost fell and I was like, this is it, this is the end of the road for me.

SPEAKER_00 24:50

My dad said the same thing. I took him mountain biking once, it was more than 20 years ago. Last week he was talking about it.

SPEAKER_02 24:58

So yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so it affects you, right? And so, like, I will go and I will be more than happy to bike around, but extreme mountain biking where I'm jumping over holes, I can't do that. And so it's really cool, though, that what we both do is down to it's down to the same things, or even if it was an athlete, like someone playing like ball or anything, it always comes down to what are the fundamentals, what are those tiny little things that we have to do? Um, because you're right, it's about making movement and not getting overwhelmed. I you don't have to go help every single amputee right now that has been to war, but if you help one, exactly changing their world, and then that ripples, and that's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

And it's a really good thing that you mentioned, you know. I I let's say I'm a slight, I am athletic, and you're non-athletic, and you you you like music or podcasting, and they like paddleboarding, go paddleboarding. Doesn't matter what you do. We do have you pointed the important thing, we had something that we all had to do. Number one, we had to decide, and number two, we had to take the first step because I I think it's not possible to see the second step until you make the first one, and what you think your third step or you know, next could be turns out completely different from what it was in the planning stage to the actual real life, and it again it doesn't matter what you do in anything in this life. You know, yeah, we have a spiritual side for us to everyone, you know. We have something, we have a compass and we have that voice inside that is like really, you know, it's I don't know how you feel it. To me, it wants to come out. I get this feeling like something. If I see something, I was like, I I know to pay attention to it, like something wants to come out for me. So it's just uh just the the following that quiet voice inside of you and really saying, Look, this is important to me, and I really would like to look into it. And it doesn't matter what it is, you know, it really is I you know how they say that somebody else's paper cut or my paper cut hurts more than somebody else's amputation. Like if I cut myself, it hurts more than the guy who just lost everything, you know, like all body parts. We are living in a connected world, but at the same time we're individuals and we are so different, and whatever we want is on purpose. It had to be like that.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

Because if if it was the same for everybody, it would be, you know, black and white, yeah, or do you think you know you made me think of when I was little my dad, I used to be like, Oh, my arm hurts, and he would say, I don't feel anything. I think to your point, um, but yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That it's it's it's really learning to observe, right? And just and being observe yourself, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

Observe yourself and how do you fit in and what you're here to contribute, and we're all significant, and that little thing that you want to do, and I'm talking to your audience, it's that little thing that you want to do, it could actually change the world. You don't know where your action will take you or that idea, you know, because once you take action, that it's not an idea, it's not in your head anymore.

SPEAKER_02 28:38

Once you take action, you start learning the right questions to ask. That's what I like to remind my clients. Because, like you said, when you're in the planning stages, you you don't even know. You don't know what's gonna happen. So you don't even know what to ask about. Like, how should I prepare? What should and then once you start doing it, like once you start writing a book, once you start recording your podcast, once you start whatever it is, that little thing that you want to do, once you start it, then you know, oh well, how many words do I need to write? Oh, well, how many chapters is it gonna be? Or you know what I mean? And now you can start really asking some questions that are gonna get you going somewhere because you can ask a lot of questions in the planning stage, but until you don't start doing and get an answer and you can build on that, you're not gonna know. Like you didn't know how many of you. I was gonna say you didn't know how it would feel when you were when you were parasiling, right? You didn't know all the all the techniques and all the things that you know now that you teach other people to do that, right? When you started.

SPEAKER_00 29:39

I went first time and I thought that guy's gonna kill me.

SPEAKER_02 29:43

Okay, what were you gonna say? Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 29:46

I wanted to ask you based on your experience, do you see uh a very little percentage, a medium, or majority that are stuck in the planning stage and not making a decision and taking action? Like in your experience, how many people are stuck thinking about doing something indefinitely? Year, two, five.

SPEAKER_02 30:09

I think it's a lot of people. And a really good example is I go to this event um about podcasting. And this event has been going on, I think it's the 12th year. And uh the tickets are like 400 bucks. Like, this is not like a like a $10 thing, like you have to invest in yourself to be here. And there's people that have been coming back year after year after year, and they still have not started their podcast. But they keep paying for the ticket, they keep showing up to the event, they keep talking to other people, they get all the recommendations, but they come back year after year and they haven't even started recording. And so I think that it's a huge problem in our society that people they want that, but they don't have clarity. I think that that's what it is, is they think it's so big, right? And it's exactly what you're saying. If you want to record a podcast, you don't need a host, you don't need a title, you don't need a graphic, you don't need any of that stuff. The first thing to do is sit down in Zoom and record something. Because until you do that, it doesn't matter what else you have, right? And so that's what I did. I sat down. Thank you. I sat down and I was like, I'm gonna record four episodes. And I wrote down four things I wanted to talk about, and I recorded four episodes. I was like, now what? Um, and so that's where you know, that's how I got it started. Yeah, but that's such a good point.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

But that's amazing, you know, that people actually so so you actually took this a step further. That some people they do take the steps, but they repeat the steps that are pleasant. So the next thing is that your the best thing that you could do for your business or idea that the the step could be the one that you want to do the least.

SPEAKER_01 32:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

So so for people who keep showing up to the podcast and staying, spending $400 on the ticket plus travel plus hotel plus food, right? So they were looking a thousand dollars plus, and then they go to this event and they really want to do it because if they didn't want to do it, they would not show up. And like you just said, what learning to ask right questions, you say, okay, I went to this thing five times. I spent so much time and money, and I'm not recording any any episodes. What do I do next? And the next thing you do is you hit the record button. You don't buy the microphone, you don't buy the lights, you don't buy you just you know, if you have an iPhone, iPhones uh have excellent um recording capabilities. Like once you start doing a lot, yeah, you need to invest. I think microphones are super important. Mine is working, okay. Yeah, but so you don't mean that from the bottleneck and you say just push the record button. I've been, I know what I want to do, and like you said, four episodes, boom, go. So, what is the next best step that I can take right now to get closer to my goal? To my dream. And in your case, a bad example would be like I will record the session, and the next step would be posting that session because I'm one of the people I always wanted to learn how to make videos. It was like I don't know why, but I wanted to make videos, and I spent endless time sitting there, cutting, auditing, editing, and after 10 plus years of really doing it, I got to the point where I think I'm getting really good. Like I'm starting to like watching my own movies. But before that, I have I have uh one disc is eight terabytes and four terabytes and two, and it's all finished, done, but it's not good enough for me. So it will be sitting on that box forever, it will not go anywhere. And if I do it, I'm sure a lot of people are stuck in in we all have our stock points, we all have limitations.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

Those those creations, even though you don't like them, they have so much value, and the more you do, the more valuable they become. For example, I saw a clip from Sir Paul McCartney, I believe it was, one of the Beatles, and he had in his computer a whole file of songs that he didn't like. When people found out that there was, you know, music that they never heard or these editions that they never heard, they went crazy and that's all they wanted.

SPEAKER_00 34:40

Priceless, right?

SPEAKER_02 34:41

Yes. And so that there is value even in those mistakes. Because if you hadn't made those mistakes, if you hadn't gone through that, if you hadn't been brave enough to be like, it's okay that this is bad, you wouldn't have gotten good. And so you have to give yourself permission to be bad and let it be okay. And one day you'll look back on it and you'll know, you know, you'll be like, you know what? This wasn't that bad. I was just being hard of myself. Because the first time I recorded this, the episode for this podcast, I was like, oh my God, I sound like a chipmunk. Um, and but I didn't let that stop me. I put it out there. And now I look back and I listen to it and I'm like, okay, I like aside from the chipmunk voice, the information I give here is really good. Like these episodes are really good. Um, and so yeah, so I think that sometimes we're a little hard on ourselves too, right as it's happening, but give yourself some time and you'll look back on it with tenderness and with love, and you'll be like, oh man, that was a little me that made this. Like, I was so young, I didn't know anything, you know, and it's cute.

SPEAKER_00 35:44

And you know, like once we're in this point, let's talk about the number one guy in the whole self-improvement history, Napoleon Hill. If you read his autobiography, um he was broke, he had nothing, he went through the next, and so Napoleon Hill wrote Think and Grow Rich. That's his most famous book. I think most people who are starting their own businesses have seen or read this book, but that book was sitting on his shelf until he read another one hyped up book on self-improvement. And he's like, Okay, he gave a copy to his wife, and he said, When she was reading, he just laughed and he he said, I knew what she was going to say. She read that book and she said, You know what, Napoleon? All those things that you have there that are not finished or not good enough, you're gonna go and you're gonna sell it. And one of those was Think and Grow Rich. Napoleon Hill thought that Think and Grow Rich is not good enough, it's not finished. That book was not going to come out if he didn't see somebody else's work that is less than that is just another hyped up marketed idea, and you know, in any industry, you have listeners from all different industries, and I just want you to go back and think about your industry and think about those experts that really you heard one day and you said, Oh my god, how can this person be on the phone? You on TV, they cannot say stuff like that, it's suicidal, it's like my life work. I know you cannot do that, but here they are on TV, they're talking about it. And that's the thing, you know. We just talked about ourselves, our limitations, and we talked about Sir Paul McCartney, and we talked about Napoleon Hill. And we came up to the thing, hey, look, we're all humans, we all have self-limitations and we all have our stock point. But if there is something inside of you that has to come out, it's just a feeling. You cannot explain it to anybody. You cannot verbalize it. And oh, by the way, don't try to explain your ideas to other people because it's a waste of time. I have a best friend who I go to when I'm at the finish line, he will just say, Hey man, this is never gonna work, nobody's gonna listen to it. This is a baloney, you're wasting your time, you should go do something else. Just you have so many great ideas. This is the worst one, and that's actually you know the good litmus test because when somebody says this to you, it's like somebody is spinning in your food, you know, it's like man, I just okay, but I still want to do it. And again, if you have something inside of you that that wants to come out, don't worry about that you don't have the money, don't worry about that you don't have the connections, don't worry about the fact that you don't know how, where, with whom you're going to do it. Just look at all the successful people in our lifetime. They had an idea and you know they quit college. Now we have iPhone.

SPEAKER_02 38:57

Yeah, and you never know. Once you start taking action, you never know who you're gonna run into, you never know what conversation you're gonna have. You're at the store and you're like, Oh, I'm buying this thing for this thing that I'm doing, and they're like, Oh, I developed those. Like, do you want to come to my you know warehouse and I can you know make them for you? You never know what's gonna happen. And so starting that, and then you know, you're out in the world, you're gonna step yes, and you're you're talking about it. I'm doing this thing, and you never know what could fall in your lap that could just help you with that thing. But if you don't start, then that opportunity is just gonna float away. Like it's just it's not gonna, you know, there's nothing to happen.

SPEAKER_00 39:39

You've met a if you don't start, nothing's going to happen.

SPEAKER_02 39:42

Yes, yes, yes. You met someone and they were supposed to help you with the thing, but you didn't start the thing, and so you just went your separate ways and lost opportunity. Oh my god, this has been such a great conversation. Um, tell us how we can stay in touch with you.

SPEAKER_00 39:57

Um, wingsforheroes.org. I try to put all the information there because I am the only guy who's running the whole mission. And when you hit the contact button, it goes directly to me.

SPEAKER_02 40:10

Perfect.

SPEAKER_00 40:10

And um and social media? My weakness, Instagram has most of the stuff, but okay, yeah. And if you scroll down on any page of Wings for Heroes, you will get the videos that are linked to the Instagram. So yeah, Wings4 Heroes on Instagram and wingsforheroes.org is the website.

SPEAKER_02 40:32

Perfect. All right, and we like to sign off with your best tip. So one I know best tip that you have for the listeners.

SPEAKER_00 40:41

Oh, based on this conversation, I think we talked about this one tip from the beginning. If you have something inside of you that you feel is important and you have to do it, but you don't know how, you just decide, I am going to do it, and then just take the first step. And oh, by the way, if your great wonderful idea turns out something that you don't enjoy, you can always find another idea. But you have to get going. And the reason that you're listening to this show, um you know, there are millions of podcasts right now, and there are tens of millions of guests that go on different podcasts, but just imagine the probability. I live in Turkey, I run a humanitarian mission, you're in the states, and your listeners are in the states, Canada, Mexico. I don't know if you you you get some international reach. So the probability the probability that you're hearing this conversation in the grand scheme of a plus billion people is close to zero. So so the fact that you're listening to this, that the message based we you know, we didn't plan this conversation. So if the listeners wants to know there is no script, we just showed up and they say, Okay, let's start talking. And based on our conversation, you have to make the decision and you have to take physical action. So, two things decide and take the first step, then you'll know the rest. That one step, just keep taking that one step, and you can get to any goals that you set for yourself, not on your time schedule, not tomorrow, not next year. We don't know when, but if you set your sail and just keep going, I believe that you can reach all your goals and all your dreams.

SPEAKER_02 42:38

Yeah, I love that. That is fantastic. And you've done so many things, you've gone to the Olympics, like you were in the Ukraine, you've got into travel, you got to you got to work in the World Trade Center, like like seriously, especially now the further we get from 9-11, like that's really cool. Like a lot of people now, you know, so many kids, the kids weren't even alive when that happened now, you know. Like my little cousins are like, I was like in kindergarten. I was like, oh my god. Um, but yeah, and and you got to experience so much and you get to do these extreme sports. Um, and just it's it's just beautiful. I think it's beautiful how it all comes back to the same things, you know, like in all so many different walks of life, but it's all about gratitude, it's all about taking action, and it's all about you know making connections and and staying curious. So thank you so much for being here with us today. This has been such a great episode. And we will catch you. Thank you for having me, Nicole. Yes, thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_00 43:40

I really hope, I really hope that somebody's out there who's listening who's gonna say, you know what, I am sick and tired of wasting my energy on planning. I'm just going, I'm I'm deciding right now, I'm gonna do it. And my step number one, like in that case, I'm going to do what I never wanted to do record this session and put it out so people see me. Just go out there. You can do it.

SPEAKER_02 44:02

Yes. I would just want by the way, I was gonna say, um, I swore that I would never, ever, ever, ever do video. Somebody was like, Oh, blogging for the thing, you gotta get on video. And I was like, I'm never gonna do that. And so, a testament to what you just said, do the thing you don't want to do, like the thing you're scared to do, it's okay, do it. And the first few episodes, I will tell you, I recorded with the camera off, but very quickly I was like, you know what? Like, let's just get the camera on. This doesn't make sense, and so yeah, you have a huge personality, you cannot turn off the camera.

SPEAKER_00 44:33

I think when a lot of times people like we have our vision of us, like thinking, no, the the the visual is part of you, and it transfers that message when you smile. You can people can tell that it's genuine, you know. So I think the video part is important, but for those who are listening, you know, I see Nicole smiling really brightly, and she's loving what she's doing, so and as are you.

SPEAKER_02 44:58

Um, and so that is amazing. So, yeah, do the thing you want to do. Uh, do it scared, it doesn't matter. Uh, you can't edit an empty page. All right, so we will catch you guys next time on the next episode. Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 45:10

Thank you. Bye.