Embracing Failure: The Stepping Stone to Success with Terry Fossum

Jordan Mendoza (00:01.524)
Hello everyone and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. My name is Jordan Mendoza. I'm your host and I am super excited to share the story of an incredible guest today. His name is Terry Fossum and I'm going to give him a second to tell you a little bit more about who he is and what he does today.

Terry L. Fossum (00:20.014)
Well, who I am is just somebody who works really hard and actually cares about people. Some of the things I've done though is won a survival reality show. Number one bestselling book on Wall Street Journal, Amazon and Barnes and Noble. USA Today listed as a bestseller as well. A lot of different things, done different adventures around the globe. And I guess when my Ted Talk came out, I reached number two in the world, which was kind of fun also.

So do some writing, do some coaching, a lot of speaking and try to help people in any way I can.

Jordan Mendoza (00:53.876)
Awesome. Appreciate you sharing that and giving that initial context. And my favorite part of the show, Terry, is really taking a rewind and getting context into your journey. And so in order to do that, what we're going to do is really jump into the formative years. So we're going to talk elementary, middle to high school years. Where were you born and raised? What kind of kid would you get into? And really give us some of that timeline.

Terry L. Fossum (01:19.502)
Now wait a minute, you didn't warn me. I've got to tell those stories. Come on now. Now where I was raised, I was raised in a city called McAllen, TX. And you've heard of it on the news. All the listeners have heard of McAllen, TX on the news. That's the place where the border crossings are happening. The cartels are coming across kidnapping people. You know, lots of gangs and drugs. Don't get me wrong. I really do love my hometown. I really do. It could just be a little rough growing up there sometimes.

In fact, I was on the wrong end of an assault rifle in junior high in my own back alley in high school. My father, my dad was killed. Before he died, one of the neighbors came up to him and said, I just want to make sure you understand something. Those three boys years, your three sons, not a single one of them will ever grow up to be anything. So, you know, people read all these accolades about me, the accomplishments, the things I've done.

seen me on TV or movies or whatever. I don't even know who that person is. You know, I know the person that grew up in the poor city in the U S surrounded by gangs and drugs. He's never grew up to be anything. That was my start. So whole lot different than where I'm at now.

Jordan Mendoza (02:28.916)
Yeah, 100%. And there's, I mean, there's a ton to unpack there, right? Obviously, you know, so sorry to hear about, you know, losing your father, especially at a young age that had to have been tough in itself. And then, you know, being in an environment where, you know, every day, you know, you don't know if you're going to see the next just because of all the level of activity there. So what were some things that, you know, help you get through those times? Because it could have been easy. I'm sure there was, you know,

very, very hard moments. Was there anyone close in the family, other figures, parents, relatives that kind of, you know, were mentors of you or kind of help you deal with those difficult situations?

Terry L. Fossum (03:12.942)
Yeah, yeah, a whole bunch, a whole bunch. You know, first of all, my, my parents were amazing people. My, my dad grew up a poor sharecropper in South Dakota. and he married my mom and got a job that brought him down to South Texas where I was born. I'm the only Texas born Fossum. The rest of them are from South Dakota. so my parents, were truly amazing people, hard working people that taught us never to limit ourselves. we have a faith in God. And again, I, I respect anybody's belief, but.

I've got the microphone, so I'll tell mine. I've got a faith in God, and I've got to get a lot of credit to Boy Scouts. We all got in scouting, and so for people that changed our life, our Scoutmaster and the other volunteers and professionals made a huge impact on us. We all three became Eagle Scouts and Scoutmasters. So, yeah, there's a lot of people, as always. There's a lot of people in all of our lives that try to tear us down as well. Yeah, you can't focus on those. You can't listen to those, no matter how much.

You do. You got to listen to the other people that are going to build you up.

Jordan Mendoza (04:15.86)
Yeah, 100 % so important to have those people in our corner and the people that feed positive things into us. You know, my mom, she was the same way. She always told me I could do everything, anything that I wanted to. And for some reason, I always believed her, you know, and, and I still believe her, even though she, you know, she passed away 12 years ago, but I'm still believer, you know, I still have that confidence that I can do it. Right. And she inspired me through.

Terry L. Fossum (04:31.054)
Right on, man. Right on.

Jordan Mendoza (04:41.812)
her being disabled and she was born with one lung in the 50s and figured out how to, you know, defy the odds and, you know, wasn't supposed to have kids, wasn't supposed to live past 18. And she had five boys and lived to be 54 years old. And so she showed me how to blaze a trail, you know, and she instilled confidence in us and showed us love and showed us kindness and had a great sense of humor and did not use her circumstances as a crutch.

Terry L. Fossum (04:45.838)
Wow.

Terry L. Fossum (04:57.07)
Wow!

Yeah. Yeah.

Jordan Mendoza (05:10.964)
And so, just like you, Terry, having amazing parents that believed in you and that showed you good values, I mean, that definitely sounds like it paved the way, especially becoming an Eagle Scout. I didn't, I think the closest thing to Boy Scouts that I did was through church, it was called Royal Rangers and it was a Assemblies of God -esque, yeah, kind of Boy Scouts.

Terry L. Fossum (05:11.886)
Right on.

Terry L. Fossum (05:31.658)
yeah, sure, sure.

Jordan Mendoza (05:35.892)
but, it wouldn't re wasn't really for me. I'm not really the, the major kind of outdoorsy guy and you don't want me tying a knot for anything, you know, but we all have our strengths, you know, and I'm very self -aware that that wasn't mine, you know, so, talk a little bit about, you know, after high school, you know, did you get a chance to get into a different environment, you know, by going the collegiate route or did you start work? And I'd love just to, for you to share a little bit of,

Terry L. Fossum (05:48.366)
Yeah, yeah.

Jordan Mendoza (06:05.652)
of that part of your journey.

Terry L. Fossum (06:08.142)
Yeah, absolutely. So I did go to college. I got my degree in mechanical engineering, which I've never used a day in my life because I put in when I was in something called the Corps of Cadets at Texas A University. So it's basically ROTC on steroids. You live at 24 -7 while going to a civilian university and getting, in my case, an ME degree. So I put in, I decided to join the Air Force as an officer. They offered me a commission.

And I put in for three choices. My first choice was an engineering job in Texas. My second choice was an engineering job in Texas. And my third choice was, you guessed it, engineering job in Texas. So the United States Air Force, of course, listening to my opinion, sent me to a completely non -engineering job in somewhere called Spokane, Washington, which I learned was Spokane, Washington, sent me up here.

But again, with my own belief system, God is so much smarter than me. That's why he's got the job. I didn't really like engineering. It probably would have sucked at it. And I got in a brand new career field in the entire Air Force, one of the first people spearheading this brand new career field. It was amazing. And came up to Spokane, Washington, and we were talking. This is the Northwest. It's just an amazing part of the world. And I got up here, got into the mountains, got into the community immediately. I'm home.

So that's what happened with all that. What I loved about the core, I'll say this, is it taught me, there are three answers you're taught as a freshman. Yes, sir, no, sir, and no excuse, sir. And I think a lot of people could really learn a lot from that. Don't BS, don't make excuses, don't blame it on something else, somebody else or some other circumstance. Take ownership, learn from it, and move on.

Jordan Mendoza (07:58.196)
Love it. Love those tips and love kind of that mantra to live by. So what, first off, thanks for your service. And how long did you stay in service?

Terry L. Fossum (08:11.694)
Yeah, so I stayed in about six, seven years and it was really kind of funny. You talk about blazing your own trail, which is what this podcast is all about. So I'm blazing a brand new career field in the entire Air Force. And the fun part about that, and I went through my training, they put us through schooling. And again, we're the first people ever to have that schooling. I get to Fairchild Air Force Base as something called an adjutant, which nobody knew what that meant, for the 325th Barmint Squadron, a nuclear B -52 squadron during the Cold War.

Each one of our B -52 bombers fully loaded is approximately the sixth most powerful nation on the face of the earth. And we had several of them. And I come in, bright bushy tail second lieutenant, and they don't know what to do with me. So they asked me what my job was. I'm like, I get to tell you what my job is. Here's what it is. Now, I was a non -aviator. So they went, now, but this is an aviation squadron. Are you supposed to have a flight gear, a flight suit and all that? Yes, I am.

Well, I mean, a form fitted helmet and everything else. Yes, I am. So you're going to be going up and flying a lot. Yes, I am. Blaze your own trail, man. In fact, I'll tell a very quick story from that that is good for your listeners. OK, so I'm in something called Battlestaff. Now, again, this is Cold War. This is nuclear war stuff. Battlestaff is where all the brass from the base.

is doing a war exercise or the real thing. It's like seen in the movies, big table, classified boards. I had a position on battle staff and I'm sitting there one day as a young officer and the colonel is a brand spanking new colonel of the base. He was my boss actually. He was third in command on the base and he comes in and you've got all these old war dogs around this table. I mean these are people who've been there. They have done it and this bright and shiny colonel comes in.

and I'm just waiting to see what he does. He rings the bell. There's a bell which is supposed to tell you everybody shut up and listen. And he goes right away. Okay. Let me tell you how I run my battle staff. And he starts laying down the groundwork and all these old war dogs are all of a sudden going, okay. When in command, take command. Okay. You're blazing your own trail. Blaze your own trail. Take ownership of it. Whatever the circumstance is.

Terry L. Fossum (10:32.302)
Listen to other people always be smart enough to listen to other people but get out there and take command man take charge and do it

Jordan Mendoza (10:41.62)
Love it, love it. Great advice as well. Yeah, you have to take charge and, you know, people follow confident people, you know, and if you don't believe in you, it's very hard to get others to believe in you, you know, so you have to start out with that confidence and, you know, be willing to deal with the consequences, right? Because the consequence could be you do a great job and the consonants could be you fall on your face. Either way, you learn something, you know, so, so after after the military.

Terry L. Fossum (10:48.43)
Absolutely.

Terry L. Fossum (11:07.022)
Yeah, and being confident enough to listen to other people.

Jordan Mendoza (11:10.612)
Yeah, 100%. So let's talk a little bit about, you know, after the military, you know, you said six to seven years, you know, serving the country, you're getting to ride around in planes when you weren't a pilot, but you just said yes to everything, which is another important lesson is sometimes, you know, saying yes can lead to some extraordinary things that you never thought were possible.

So what did you end up doing next? What was the goal? Did you have, you know, a dream job? Did you say, hey, I don't know what I want to do next. I'd love to just hear that part of the story.

Terry L. Fossum (11:45.742)
Well, the reason I resigned my commission, I mean, the career was going amazing, absolutely amazing. They were offering me as a young captain, any career field I wanted in the Air Force, any job up to a lieutenant colonel level as a junior captain. It's unheard of. But again, I work hard. You know, another lesson from this, work hard. Crews would land at two in the morning. I'm still in the office working. Okay. Work hard. So I did that, but I started a little business on the side.

In fact, a little direct sales business, network marketing. And of course, everybody, my God, pyramid scheme and scam and all that stuff. No, some of them are, a lot of them are. Huge chunk of them are. Some of them aren't. And if you do it in an ethical manner, you don't have to be that guy, you know? And I did mine in an ethical manner where I'm not lying to people. I'm telling them, here's what's going on. It's really hard work. That being said, I sucked.

I was terrible. I was horrible at it. I'm a mechanical engineer, nuclear warfare officer. We are not known for sales skills or for personalities for that matter. So yeah, I failed and tried again and I failed and I tried and failed. Finally, after failing for years and years and years, I hit one of the lowest points of my life where I gave up. I couldn't fail anymore.

And I walked into the bathroom, I looked myself in the mirror, said, I guess he's right, the guy's right. You're never gonna grow up to be anything.

And was at that point that something shifted inside of me. I said, no, no, I refuse for the sake of the memory of my dad, if nothing else, I refuse. Let that son of a gun be right. It ain't going to happen. And Jordan, that was a pivotal moment in my entire life because I learned through necessity that the missing link in goal setting that all this.

Terry L. Fossum (13:38.606)
personal development I've done, all this learning about goal setting and positive mental attitude and all that, I learned why 92 % of the people who set a goal fail, because what we're being taught about is wrong or not enough. And when I came at it from that different standpoint of having something to go away from, not just something toward the carrot, that positive visualization, I never believed what happened to a guy like me, you know my background, but now I had something to stick to go away from.

that propelled me out of that comfort zone that I kept sticking into, kicked me in the butt, which we all need, and that changed everything for me. From that moment forward, everything changed. And that's what turned into the ox card technique, the subject of that number one bestselling book. So that was a pivotal moment.

Jordan Mendoza (14:29.012)
That's awesome. Yeah, it's always great to have moments like that and then have that essentially create the momentum for what's to come next. And I definitely want to talk about what came next. You mentioned that was a pivotal moment. So what did that pivotal moment bring to you from an insight perspective? I know that there was, it seems like a complete mindset shift where you said, I mean, you were basically saying you're throwing in the towel and then you went from throwing in the towel to saying,

No, not today. This is not happening anymore. I'm not going to be that person. So what was this shift or what did this shift create?

Terry L. Fossum (15:07.822)
Yeah, it created more than I could ever dream of, quite frankly. Part of it was understanding what was going on. That all this bit about, and some of the things I learned were amazing, because I'd learned all this stuff about goal setting and we've all heard about the Harvard goal setting study. That all these different facts have come out of it. It's been in bestselling books, it's been on the stage, everything else. 100 % of the people that wrote down their goals.

achieved them and all this. I found out Jordan, it's fake. It didn't happen. Somebody made it up. Harvard's confirmed that study never happened. But people say it and it sounds good and they make money just like, you know, positive visualization is critical. But we've got all this law of attraction. Just dream about it and the universe will go to work to make it happen for you. No, no, no, it won't. That makes you feel good. It sells a lot of books.

But feel good is your comfort zone. And that's where people and dreams go to die, is your comfort zone. So when I had this other thing pushing me that they don't want to talk about these days, you can't think about the negative. Yes, you can. You can use that power to inspire you to kick you in the butt if you do it right. And it was only later on after I started becoming suddenly.

I'm building my business. I'm building my things are going amazing more so than I could imagine. Now I got rooms full of people want to learn from me from me and you know me. OK, I'm not trying to be anything. I'm not. I'm not that cool, but they were learning from me and we applied it to marriages because I'd had a failed marriage. I don't want to do that again. It's I don't recommend it. We started applying this to marriages. I started getting emails from people. You just saved my marriage. We applied it to weight loss. I've helped people overcome addictions with the thing and then I found out.

trying to prove myself wrong before I came out with this book. I wanted to prove I'm wrong before I put this in print because that's real scientific study is trying to prove yourself wrong. I came across something called prospect theory while I'm researching and the more I read Jordan, I'm like, wait, I'm right here at my computer. I'm reading this stuff and my mouth is dropping because I'm going, my gosh, I this is saying what I'm saying.

Terry L. Fossum (17:21.326)
It can't this one, the Nobel Prize. I can't be on this. I went upstairs and told my wife, I think I'm on to something huge. I found somebody I put on my social media. I need to talk to somebody that understands prospect theory because this is above my head. I got the guy who did his PhD dissertation on prospect theory. I gave him all my notes, everything. And he came back and said, you're dead on. my God. Thus, the Oxcart Technique Blueprint for Success, number one best selling book on New York or on Wall Street Journal.

and a lot of people help from it. So it's crazy how our lowest moments can turn into our best moments if you keep going, if you learn from them and just keep trudging forward no matter what.

Jordan Mendoza (18:06.004)
Yeah, yeah, and that's the important thing, you know, because we're I think the one guarantee for everyone that listens to this episode is you are going to face adversity. That's a guarantee I can make you. You're going to face it early and often. And the important thing is, you know, what do you take away from it? How can you leverage that to either shift your mindset or do something a little differently the next time so that you don't have that same mistake or failure? Right. So that's.

Terry L. Fossum (18:17.518)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Jordan Mendoza (18:35.7)
I love what you said there and kind of how the book is helping people do that. So what would be your top three tips for somebody? You know, someone's going to listen to this and they're going to say, man, what a fascinating story and journey from, you know, the bottom, essentially, to lots of danger and lots of adversity and lots of pain to really thriving in different roles, you know, becoming top in your role in sales and then

Terry L. Fossum (18:36.75)
Yeah.

Jordan Mendoza (19:05.844)
becoming an author, right? It is the complete trailblazing story. So what would three tips from you be? And these could be things in the book that maybe people can find as well, but what would you say to help people that are, they're stuck? They have written all the goals and none of these goals are really panning out. They are one of the statistics from the study, right? Where it didn't actually come true for them.

So what would you say to that person?

Terry L. Fossum (19:38.638)
Yeah, and you're right. This stuff is in the book, but it's so critical. Number one, embrace failure. Don't just accept it. Embrace it. Love it. Every single successful person on the face of the earth has failed, failed, failed, failed, failed. So if you're not failing, dude, you're screwing up. All right, you're not going anywhere.

So now if you are failing, I want you to go, yes, I'm on the right track. I'm going towards success because I'm failing. Because failure is the road to success. It absolutely is. It's not a stumbling block. It is a stepping stone. Embrace failure. Learn to love it. Outwork anybody. Outwork anybody. I'm not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. That's all right. There's a lot of people, a lot of better personality, a lot of better looking, everything else.

Nobody will outwork me. Be that person. Be that person. When the air crews land at 2 in the morning, you're still working. And people will respect that. And do the ox heart technique. And I know that sounds self -promoting, but it's not. I'm still out here pushing this out because I know there are people like me who are, like I was, crying. They're trying, and they're trying, and they're trying, and they're.

It's just not getting where they want to go or not going there fast enough. And they're praying. And they're wondering, why not? Why not me? Maybe I can't do it. Maybe I'm not good enough. I know they're out there. And I want to reach out to those people because I found the thing that's helped me and a whole lot of other people and can help them also. So learn all you can about it. Jump on my website. Get the book. I've got coaching. Whatever. There's free stuff out there. Get the free stuff. I don't care. But do it. It helps.

Jordan Mendoza (21:30.164)
Love it. Love it. Appreciate you, Sharon. And so I wanted to dive back into your time in the military. And can you talk a little bit about because I know everyone has a different experience when it comes to basic training. But can you talk a little bit about your experience when it comes to basic training?

Terry L. Fossum (21:53.678)
If you can hear me, you've locked up on me. I can't hear you right now.

Terry L. Fossum (22:03.918)
You're still locked up if you can hear me.

Terry L. Fossum (22:18.638)
Still locked up on me, if you can hear me.

Terry L. Fossum (22:33.422)
Looks like we're still recording. So for everybody that's watching, unless they edit this out, please stand by. We're currently experiencing technical difficulties. I think Jordan will be tuning back in really quickly here.

And by the way, this is just one of those things, right? If this hadn't been edited out, these kind of things happen in life. You got to just go with them. You can't panic. You can't freak out. Just understand, this is the kind of thing that happens. So that's what we want to keep going forward with. OK, something happened. Don't focus on the problem. Focus on the solution. Anybody can focus on the problem and tell you all about it.

and especially you, focus on the solution. What's the solution right now? OK, that's what I did. We're going to wait for Jordan to tune back in. And in case they don't edit this, if this is live, we're just going to keep on moving forward with that. And maybe we can learn from that as well. And the other thing I'll go and tell you while we're waiting for Jordan to tune back in, if he does, we've got a full screen full of stuff here.

Terry L. Fossum (23:37.518)
is a lot of times we go forward and we don't go forward because we replay those messages in our head. We replay those conversations, those bad conversations. We replay the bad things that have happened in our lives. We all do that. I do that. Don't do that. I've got to stop myself many, many times.

and and say wait a minute stop that you're not changing that conversation how are you moving forward what's the solution to it and some of it you just have to put in the past including the people and they may be the people who are the closest in the world to you and you got to let them go we're waiting to see if Jordan tunes back in I'll tell you a quick story you know again I do a lot of stuff in the outdoors and and in scouts and we're taught about what to do with a drowning swimmer.

If you have somebody that's swimming, you're going to go out there and you're going to pull them in and save them. And we'll all be merry and bright, right? Yay. Not the way it works. Usually when you go out there to try to save them, what happens is that you, they struggle. You go to try to help them and they're struggling and they're struggling and they start pulling you down. So what do you do? First, you try to talk to them. Arms length, right? Cause they're going to be pulling you down. Talk to them. Look, you got to stop, calm down. I can help you, but you got to calm down. You got to trust me. You got to let me do this. See if you can calm them down.

Now, sometimes that doesn't work. So what do you have to do at that point? Next, bop them. Bop them in the face. Maybe you're going to knock them out and you can haul them in then, or at least you're going to get their attention. But you got to do that because they're going to drown. They don't want to put you with them. If that doesn't work, all you can do is leave them be.

They're going to drown. You can't drown with them. Look, there's some people in your life that's going to be the same thing. It's going to be the same way. We want to help people. We love people. We care about people. You can't save the world. You can only save those who want to be saved. And if they're going to pull you down, you can't drown with them. So maybe you've got to let them go. And I see that Jordan's tuning back in with us right now. I don't have his visual up yet. I can just see his name is on here. So we're going to wait just a second and see if he comes in. And if not,

Terry L. Fossum (25:46.67)
We've got more stories for you, things that I hope will help you out. And once again, if you want to tune in more, me, Terry L. Fossum, doctor. I can hear you, Jordan. I can hear you. I don't have a visual, but I can hear you.

Jordan Mendoza (25:51.343)
Hey Terry, can you hear me?

Jordan Mendoza (25:56.783)
Okay. Yeah, sorry about that. I'm not sure what happened. I think we have some weather out here and it like shut literally the power went out and then it went back on and it of course knocked out the internet and all of that. So I think we should still have the previous recording. So we should be good. Good there. I'm just trying to hang up.

Terry L. Fossum (26:06.798)
jeez.

Terry L. Fossum (26:16.846)
Okay. And just in case this was live, I just kept going brother. I just like, okay, Jordan's gone. We're going to keep going so you can edit it. Right on.

Jordan Mendoza (26:24.559)
Yeah, that works. Perfect. Yeah, perfect. That works. So yeah, I think we were basically at a point where I was having to share some tips and some resources, and then I was going to basically bring it back to the Air Force. And so what I wanted to ask about the Air Force was, what was your basic training experience like? I know everybody has a different story that I've talked to that's been in the military, so I'd love to just figure out.

you know what that story is for you.

Terry L. Fossum (26:57.07)
So my basic training story, I mentioned I was in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A University. And because that is so hard, when we get to basic training, we call it summer camp, man. We call it summer camp. We have a great time. Because in the Corps of Cadets, you spend your entire freshman year basically going through basic training and doing a lot more working out and getting screened out and everything than you ever will at boot camp.

And then your sophomore year, you're the person doling it out. You are the drill instructor for your entire sophomore year. So for me, it was fun. I mean, now was it hard and all that? Sure. But comparatively speaking, it was, it was fun. So what lesson do we get out of that? Do the hard stuff. Do the hard stuff. Go, go through the challenges, go through the things that are tough because you know, everybody says, well, it'll make you stronger. Yeah, it does. It does. So then when you get to the.

even harder things, the other challenges in the future. Okay, you know what? I can do this because I've already been through X. I've already been through this. So take the hard challenges. Don't shy away from them and dive into them. Blaze your own trail. Blazing your own trail, I'm sure you've talked about on this podcast before, is hard. It's not the easy way. The easy way leads to where everybody else ends up. That's not where you want to be. Do the hard stuff. Blaze your own trail.

Jordan Mendoza (28:23.119)
Love it. Love it. Love the advice as well, you know, because I'm a big believer as well. Adversity gives us strength. And another thing that it does is it enables us to see through a lens that we didn't see through before. So we're actually looking through the lens with fresh perspective, with new eyes, you know, with a new visual of how we can get through it. And so it's very important, like you said, Terry, that we take and extract those lessons.

and then apply them on the road forward, you know, because you can't blaze a trail without adversity. You can't blaze a trail without things catching on fire or not going the right way. And like I said earlier in the show, that is the one thing I can guarantee every listener is that you are going to face adversity. OK, and so once you kind of understand that and you have that baseline that, hey, this is going to happen now, let me see how can I.

You know, leverage this as something that happened for me and not to me. You know, how can I switch my mindset and switch my perspective for this to be a positive thing?

Terry L. Fossum (29:29.966)
Nicely said. And I said during our break while I kept talking, focus on the solution, not the problem. Anybody can focus on the problem. And many times when people are doing that, it's OK, get the problem. What's the solution? If there was a way, what would it be? And then they come up with answers usually. Exactly.

Jordan Mendoza (29:48.879)
Love it. Love it. So I'd love for you to just share a couple of resources for our listeners that could have a positive impact in their world. Okay. These resources could be an article. It could be another book outside of, you know, your bestselling book. It could be a quote, you know, a podcast episode that you've heard. So I'd love for you just to share that so they can kind of get in the side of your mind and some of the things that maybe have helped you along the way.

Terry L. Fossum (30:17.486)
Yeah, absolutely. For one thing, listen to my TED Talk. You just Google Terry Fossum TEDx and it'll come up. And also, I think TED is a fantastic resource. You can go in there and put in, here's the subject I'm looking for and hear what real people are doing about that. So I think the TED Talks are a fantastic resource.

And indeed, fill your mind full of good stuff. You know, do not, you've heard this a million times, at least I hope you have, do not watch the flippin' news. And for those that say, well, I need to know what's going on, no, you don't. If there's a war going on, and there is, unless you're gonna go pick up a rifle and go fight in that war, you do not need to know the latest of what's happening. You don't need to know the latest in the political dramas going on, unless you're going to go out there and do something about it.

All of that stuff tears you down and takes your focus from the things you can focus on, from the things you can change that will make a difference in your life and the lives of the people you love and the people you touch. So the biggest thing, and who did I hear this from? Warren Buffett was recently, and of course he's inarguably the best investor in existence. And he said his big thing was focus. Figure out what you want to do, what you want to change on.

And learn from others who are doing that. Find those resources, whether it's YouTube, whether it's other books, speeches, whatever it might be. But watch your source, because there's a lot of garbage out there as well that they're spinning with pseudoscience. You know, stories that sound like they're true and everything else. You can waste a lot of time. You waste a lot of money. A lot of garbage out there. Look for real science. Look for real people who are really succeeding doing it.

Learn from them and apply yourself with your own common sense and with what makes sense to you with what goes with who you are as a person because at the end of the day that's the most important thing of everything how you how you are as a person not how successful you are not how famous you are who are you as a person stick to those values that's the most important of all.

Jordan Mendoza (32:31.343)
Yeah, I love it. Yeah, our character is definitely important. And that's the thing that we want to and should want to be remembered by. If you're creating legacy, if you're trying to build something that's bigger than yourself, for me as a father of five and one on the way in August, we're about to have six, to have our fourth boy and two girls. For me, everything that I'm doing now is not about me, it's about them. It's about what future can I create for them? What can I show?

Terry L. Fossum (32:46.254)
Right on. Woo! Wow. Wow.

Terry L. Fossum (32:56.974)
Absolutely.

Jordan Mendoza (33:01.391)
them about trailblazing. How can I be a positive impact and role model and show them that, hey, you know what, it doesn't matter what you're dealing with. You can get out on the other side of it. You just got to be willing to deal with it, confront it, and get past it and see it. Like you said earlier, Terry, what can I extract from this and how can I learn and move forward? So I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule. You could have been anywhere else on the planet, Terry, and

you decided to come on the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. So I appreciate your insights. It was so incredible hearing about your journey and your story. And you're definitely a trailblazer, my friend. And I wish you all the best success. I want you just to share, now that we're in closing here, where is the one place you want the audience to go to get more info about Terry?

Terry L. Fossum (33:53.101)
Yeah, you bet. TerryLFossum .com. I'm not very imaginative. I don't have a cool name or anything like that for my website, but Terry, T -E -R -R -Y -L and Fossum, just like possum with an F. You know, I was kidded in grade school. Yeah, go check there. You can check all sorts of great information. Get on my email list for motivation. Follow me on social media. And, you know, I try to put out some good stuff to help people there as well.

feel free to reach out to me personally as well. I'm always looking to do speaking gigs as well. So, if you've got an organization that you're part of that's looking for what I hope is a pretty good speaker, reach out to me. I can help you out there as well.

Jordan Mendoza (34:32.975)
Awesome. We're going to make sure we get all the info and ways to reach out to Terry put down in the show notes. Terry, thanks so much again for being an amazing guest today and coming on the Blazor on Chill podcast.

Terry L. Fossum (34:45.518)
Thanks again so much for how you're inspiring people to get out of their comfort zone and go live an amazing life. You got this, Jordan. I appreciate everything you're doing. Everybody get out there and go get them.