Introduction:
Eve Wright is the Vice President and Associate General Counsel for The HEAT Group (Miami Heat basketball team). She is the author of, “LIFE AT THE SPEED OF PASSION: Create a Life of Intention, Purpose, and Integrity.”
Wright joins the show to discuss how people can cut the emotional “fat” from their lives and refine themselves everyday. She also explains what it really means to be happy.
Wright then talks about how people can take calculated risks and re-learn risk-taking to achieve ROI. She thinks everyone can overcome their fears of failure.
Key Takeaways:
(1:18) Median housing prices in San Francisco
(5:27) What $1 million will buy you around the world
(18:20) A few words on the upcoming Little Rock property tour
(19:25) Introducing Eve Wright
(20:02) The inspiration behind the book Life at the Speed of Passion
(21:00) Tools and techniques for achieving success
(21:50) Cutting the emotional fat out of your life
(26:13) How to refine oneself every day & some podcast recommendations
(29:02) What does it mean to be happy?
(32:18) Overcoming the fear of failure
(33:25) Closing comments & contact information
Links:
For more information about Eve Wright: EveWright.us.
Website of the Miami Heat: www.heat.com
The Spark, an Executive Development Program for Women: www.thesparkhq.com
Life at the Speed of Passion: the book: www.LifeSpeedPassion.com
Bio:
In her position, Wright advises the HEAT on a wide variety of legal issues pertaining to marketing and promotions, concerts and events, corporate sales, merchandising initiatives and player-related matters.
Prior to joining the HEAT, Wright served as the Senior Director of Business and Legal Affairs for the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) where she helped to develop sports marketing opportunities for corporate sponsors, managed the LPGA’s international trademark portfolio and retail licensing business as well as advised the Association on all legal matters.
Prior to her tenure with the LPGA, the former associate in the Minneapolis, Minnesota office of Fredrikson & Byron, P.A. worked in the E-Business and Corporate Transactions groups.
An avid supporter of community development initiatives, Ms. Wright has served in various capacities on the boards of regional civic organizations. In addition to civic organizations, she is currently a member of the ACC professional organization as well as serves on the Board of Directors for BESLA and Advisory Board for the Corporate Counsel Women of Color.
Ms. Wright is a graduate of DePauw University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and International Business. She earned her Doctor of Jurisprudence from Indiana University School of Law and participated in the Consortium Program at Howard University School of Law. She and her husband, Ken, live in Bay Harbor Island.
Audio Transcription:
ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Creating Wealth with Jason Hartman! During this program Jason is going to tell you some really exciting things that you probably haven’t thought of before, and a new slant on investing: fresh new approaches to America’s best investment that will enable you to create more wealth and happiness than you ever thought possible. Jason is a genuine, self-made multi-millionaire who not only talks the talk, but walks the walk. He’s been a successful investor for 20 years and currently owns properties in 11 states and 17 cities. This program will help you follow in Jason’s footsteps on the road to financial freedom. You really can do it! And now, here’s your host, Jason Hartman, with the complete solution for real estate investors.
JASON HARTMAN: Welcome to the Creating Wealth Show! This is your host, Jason Hartman, this is episode #390, and you know what that means! It’s a 10th episode. So, we’re going to go a little bit off topic, to something of general interest today, as we always do every 10 episodes. And we’re gonna talk to Eve Wright, and we’re going to talk about Life at the Speed of Passion.
Median housing prices in San Francisco
JASON HARTMAN: But before we do, just a couple of quick things. Number one: did you know that the median house price in the Socialist Republic of San Francisco—hey, it’s a beautiful place, but it still is a pretty socialist government there. At least for landlords, when you’ve got very few rights for landlords, and rent control, and all kinds of restrictions. And you know what I say. We always like to choose landlord-friendly environments. Places in which we can do business, we can expect tenants to uphold their contracts, their part of the bargain, and pay their rent, and if thy don’t pay their rent, we want to get them out fast. San Francisco, and the whole state of California in general, is not one of these types of places. But, what’s amazing is that San Francisco now, the median home prices—are you sitting down? $1 million. A cool one million bucks for the median price home. I mean, that is shockingly more expensive than the rest of the nation. What this one article I read was talking about, is how, you know, of course the tech people are in there, and they’re increasing the prices and so forth. And, you know, the Google kids, as they call them, have cash to burn and so forth. But here’s what’s amazing. And it just proves my points in so many ways, and I said points, not point. It proves my points in so many ways, because there are multiple points here. But one of them is that, look at the RV ratio. Check this out. The median rent in the Bay Area is $2158 per month, with San Francisco averaging $3229 per month.
So, look at those RV ratios. They’re exactly what I’ve always said. And literally, I’ve played this game with people from all over the world, where if they can tell me what their rent is, or, they—it’s like a little algebraic equation. Or they can tell me what the value of the property they’re living in is—I can tell them what their rent is. You know? And I don’t have to see it—I’d like to know what city it’s in, ideally, but you know, even without knowing what city it’s in, you can tell. Because these RV ratios pretty much hold up around the planet. It’s amazing how accurate this stuff is. So, if someone tells me they live in—not that they have, not that they own. But say someone tells me that they’re renting a place in Miami, and they pay $3300 a month. I’ll say, oh, your house is probably worth about $900,000. And you know what? I’m gonna be right almost always. if they tell me they live in San Francisco, and they’re paying $3300, I’m gonna tell them their house is probably worth about a million bucks, and I’m gonna be right. Look at this article. It says it again.
So, think about that. You could either spend a million dollars to buy a place in San Francisco that you could rent out, if you’re the landlord, for $3200, give or take. $3300. You know, right around that area. Or, you could buy 10 houses for $100,000 each, in three different diversified cities around the country that we recommend, and you could rent each of them for $1000 a month. Maybe even a little better. And you would have $10,000 a month for your $1 million investment. So, the RV ratio, or the rent-to-value ratio, is—it’s like, the oxygen of real estate. It’s the most fundamental rule that you can just so easily tell, it’s just this rule of thumb that just works. It works literally around the globe, every place I’ve tried it. Go to any country, and you can see that the RV ratios hold up pretty well.
What $1 million will buy you around the world
JASON HARTMAN: And speaking of other countries, just before we get to our 10th episode guest here and talk about Life at the Speed of Passion, there was a really interesting article in Yahoo Finance, and it talked about what $1 million will buy you around the world. And I thought I would just share these with you, because they’re pretty interesting.
In Cape Town, South Africa—by the way, that is a gorgeous place. I’d say it’s easily one of the five most beautiful places on the planet. Of course, in my visits to 71 countries and counting so far, I have been to Cape Town, South Africa, and it is absolutely stunning. Not very safe, but stunning. South Africa has major problems, major, major problems, in many ways. But, it is absolutely a beautiful place. So, in Cape Town, $981,000 buys you a 10,000 square foot 5-bedroom mountainside home with a bar and a private home theater.
How about Dubai? Well, Dubai, you know, that’s a very expensive market. You would never touch Dubai without being a gambler and a speculator, like a San Francisco type investor. Well, in Dubai, $1.09 million—so that’s, one million ninety thousand, okay, dollars—gets you a 2-bedroom apartment with 1900 square feet and an ocean view. So, again, no way I’m doing that deal. So far, I’m a renter in any of these million dollar markets, because it is a much better deal to rent a high-end home, as I’ve been saying.
Now get this one. This one kind of blew my mind. I have been to beautiful Sydney, Australia. What a great, great city. Just a beautiful place. But I had no idea that the prices had gone up this much since I’d been there! And I did look at real estate there fairly extensively, and this was, what, about 12—14 years ago, I guess, I was there. Well, right now, in Sydney, $1 million buys you a 990 square foot apartment. Less than 1,000 square feet. Isn’t that awful? And it’s steps away from the Royal Botanic Gardens. Features include high ceilings, a communal roof terrace, with harbor views, and a grand entrance foyer. So, that’s a million bucks, you don’t even get 1,000 square feet. Ew. I’ll say no to that one.
Okay, let’s go to Tokyo. Massively overpriced Tokyo. And if you saw the picture of the property I’m talking about right now, you would be just amazed. It’s terrible. It’s totally ugly. So, $1.05 million—so, a million fifty thousand dollars—buys you a 1357 square foot multi-level home, described as modern and open detached house, with open ceiling space. And this house is like a vertical row home. It’s just—yuck. No good. Forget about that.
Let’s go to London. In London, $993,600 gets you a 3-bedroom 3-bathroom, but only 909 square foot apartment with a balcony. Unbelievable. Wouldn’t touch it. I bet you can rent any of these places for about $3000 a month. You just go around the world, and the equation will just work anywhere. It’s really amazing.
New York—let’s look at Manhattan, New York. We all know that’s expensive. $995,000 buys you a 1-bedroom—ha. Get this one—only 640 square feet. A tiny little apartment in the West Village. The building has a private rooftop terrace, 24-hour doorman—of course you’re gonna have to tip this doorman, buy him presents every holiday or he’s not gonna deliver you your packages, and they’re all unionized. I mean, New York just—it’s an awful place to be an investor. The tenants have all the rights. So when you’re in a place like this, be a tenant! Because you’ll have all the rights! It’s great! Okay? Don’t be an owner. 24-hour doorman, fitness room—fitness room. You notice they didn’t say gym. Fitness room. It’s probably a little closet with a couple of machines in it. And a laundry room. And that’s $995,000. Unbelievably overpriced.
This one surprised me a bit. This is Kiev, in Ukraine. Ukraine is like the land of the supermodels, okay? I’ve been there, Believe me. It is the land of the supermodels. As is all of Eastern Europe and maybe Russia in general. So, in Kiev, $1 million buys you a 3-bedroom, 2-bath apartment with heated floors. Now that’s kind of interesting—heated floors—and a home cinema, with 2153 square feet. But, I was kind of surprised Kiev was that expensive. I didn’t think it was that expensive, and especially now, with what’s going on with Ukraine and Russia, I bet you it’s not even that much. but this article is current, okay? It’s just like a last week article.
Sao Paulo, Brazil. $1.1 million gets you a 5-bedroom, 6-bathroom home on a tree-lined street that’s 4,090 square feet, and the home has a pool and fireplace. Very nice looking home. That’s Sao Paulo. Of course Brazil has some pretty significant crime problems.
Now, let’s go to one of my favorite places. If you can handle the attitude—you know, the French attitude is—eh, they don’t like Americans too much over there. But, and this isn’t really France, it’s the principality of Monte Carlo, right? Or, of Monaco, I should say. But in Monte Carlo, $1.02 million—so, a million twenty thousand dollars—pays for a tiny—and this one’s the worst of them all, folks: a tiny 377 square foot studio, with a half-equipped independent kitchen. And I’m looking at a picture of the kitchen, and it is—it’s nothing. I mean, it’s got a crappy two-burner stove, it’s got a little mini, like, bachelor college dorm refrigerator, a half-equipped independent kitchen in the city center. A million bucks for 377 square feet. Unbelievable.
Let’s go to Paris! Paris, beautiful Paris. Romantic Paris. $1 million gets you a third floor, 1-bedroom apartment near Avenue Victor Hugo—that’s 635 square feet, for a million bucks. Just unbelievable. But at least this is a nice looking apartment. The one in Monte Carlo was terrible, okay?
Let’s go to Hong Kong. What about Hong Kong? That’s a pretty expensive place. $1 million buys you a 3-bedroom apartment with sea views in Discovery Bay. It doesn’t say the square footage. I’ve been to Hong Kong before. I’m actually pretty impressed. You know, I’m gonna guess if it’s 3-bedroom it’s gotta be probably a good 12-1400 square feet. So, not too bad. Not too terrible.
Let’s keep going. Let’s go to Rome. This one surprised me. I didn’t think Rome was this expensive. And so, when you’re in Italy, I mean, Rome was one of my favorite cities there, really. Just so much history. In Rome, $1 million buys you a 969 square foot—they call it a “space.” [LAUGHTER]. It’s not an apartment, or a condo—it’s a space—next to the Palace of Expositions. Well, now they call it an apartment. The apartment has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a lofted living room. Wow. 2-bedroom, 2-bath, in 969 square feet? Those must be some pretty small bedrooms. I’m looking at a picture of the living room, and it is tiny in that place.
Okay, let’s go to Geneva. Geneva is an expensive place. We all know that. That’s a big financial center, and so, $997,000 gets you 807 square feet, and it’s a downtown pad with one bedroom, living room, kitchen, and bathroom. Gee, I’m so glad they include a bathroom for a million dollars, that’s so nice of them.
All right. Bangkok. Bangkok, Thailand. Now, I went to Bangkok probably—oh, gosh. 15 years ago. And I did not like it at all. I thought it was crowded and smelly. I was not a fan of Bangkok. But as you know from a recent episode, I just got back from Phuket, or Phuket, however you say that, the resort area of Thailand, and I really did like that. So, a lot of American expats go to Thailand, and on my JetSetter Show, I have interviewed some of those people, and talked about various expat destinations around the world. Thailand, certainly being a popular choice. In Bangkok, $967,000 pays for a furnished 5-bedroom, 6-bathroom house on nearly 5,000 square feet of land—well, I don’t know why they think that’s—5,000 square feet is not a very big lot, actually—with a massive living room and beautiful views. So, you get a lot more there, but I guarantee you, you can probably rent that same house for $3000 a month. The number is always about 0.3, when you’re looking in the million dollar price range. Just know that. It’s about 0.3 RV ratio, with our properties that you can of course find at www.jasonhartman.com, it’s about 1%, give or take. It might be 1.2, 1.3%. Might be 0.9. But it’s at least three times better than any of these million dollar properties. And you can get 10 of them and be diversified too! So, much better.
How about Istanbul? Istanbul, Turkey, okay? $1.2 million gets a waterfront apartment with three bedrooms and a large terrace overlooking the Black Sea. I’ve been there twice, and so that’s not too bad.
Now, let’s talk about a market that we do actually recommend. And we’ve probably done, over the years, a couple hundred transactions in this market. And our investors are buying up this market at a good clip, and it’s a good place to invest. And it is good old Houston, Texas! Really, one of the energy capitals of the United States, in many ways. And it’s a big Mecca and center for healthcare as well. Two great industries. Well, for a million bucks in Houston, you get a gorgeous, stately-looking beautiful home. I’m looking at the picture now. Big lot, it’s really nice. So, one million ninety thousand dollars, to be exact, gets you a 6,879 square foot 6-bedroom home overlooking a bayou. It has an elevator, two wet bars, and a two-story formal living room. Well, let me tell you. I would take Houston over any of these deals so far.
How bout Cartagena? This one kind of amazed me. I didn’t think it was this expensive. I have not been there. I’ve been almost I think everywhere else on this that we’ve talked about. I haven’t been to Sao Paulo. I haven’t been to Brazil. But everywhere else I think I’ve been, that we’ve talked about so far. Okay, in Cartagena, a million bucks gets a recently renovated 3-bedroom 4-bathroom apartment with a terrace and a Jacuzzi. So, you know, not as much as some of the others, I thought.
Okay, how about Munich? Munich, Germany. That’s a beautiful city; I really do like Munich quite a bit. Well, $990,000 will get you a 1227 square foot penthouse with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, two roof terraces, a living room, and a dining room. And by the way, the picture looks pretty gorgeous of that one. so, not bad. But again, I’d rather rent it, because I know my rent’s going to be about $3000 a month. It’s just—it’s a rule of thumb, and you can just pretty much count on it. It’s pretty darn accurate. It won’t be far off, anywhere on the planet. Just try me on this. Try me, okay? I bet I will be right.
Okay. Buenos Aires, Argentina. They call it the Paris of South America. In Buenos Aires, and I’ve been there, $1 million buys you a 4300 square foot apartment with nine rooms in the posh Reocleta neighborhood. You get a lot there. You get 4300 feet for a million bucks—that’s pretty awesome.
A few words on the upcoming Little Rock property tour
JASON HARTMAN: And that’s your tour of what a million bucks buys you around the world. How’d you like that, folks? If you want to see properties with actual intrinsic value, don’t look at any of those, and don’t look at any of them in San Francisco either. Go to www.jasonhartman.com, click on the properties link, and look in the markets we recommend. Look in Little Rock. In fact, join us for our property tour in Little Rock! Hey, by the way, how did you like Bill Clinton on our last two podcasts talking about our Little Rock property tour? Oh yeah, I know, we have to add a little humor in here somewhere, right? So, join us, that’ll be in late September, and you can register at www.jasonhartman.com, and the format of this goes like this. On Saturday, we’ll have the Creating Wealth in Today’s Economy Boot Camp, and then on Sunday we’ll have the property tour, and we’ll have a bunch of meals together. Saturday night we’ll have a really nice dinner our together, we’ll have some great lunches, and I just think you’ll really enjoy the whole time. So, these tours, we’ve done a bunch of them in different markets around the US. And of course, we like markets that have good, good cash flow. So, come to Little Rock! I think you’ll really enjoy it. That is late September. Register at www.jasonhartman.com. Click on events. And we will look forward to seeing you there.
Let’s get to our 10th show guest, as we talk to Eve about Life at the Speed of Passion. Here she is.
Introducing Eve Wright
JASON HARTMAN: It’s my pleasure to welcome Eve Wright to the show! She is Vice President and Associate General Counsel for The HEAT Group, and that’s the Miami Heat basketball team. But she’s also author of Life at the Speed of Passion: Create a life of intention, purpose, and integrity. And she’ll talk to us about that as well as her entrepreneurial journey. And I think you’ll find it interesting. Eve, welcome. How are you?
EVE WRIGHT: I’m fantastic! How are you today?
JASON HARTMAN: Well good! It’s good to have you on the show. I assume you’re coming to us from Miami; however, I’m not really sure.
EVE WRIGHT: Yes. I’m actually in Miami today.
JASON HARTMAN: Okay.
EVE WRIGHT: I actually commute between cities, so that’s a good question to ask!
JASON HARTMAN: Oh, okay. What’s the other city?
EVE WRIGHT: Atlanta.
The inspiration behind the book Life at the Speed of Passion
JASON HARTMAN: Oh, okay. Great. What inspired you to write the book, Life at the Speed of Passion?
EVE WRIGHT: I actually do a good deal of speaking, and try to mentor on a larger scale, through my executive development program for women called the Spark. People can find that at www.thesparkhq.com. And I repeatedly got questions about, how is it that you’re a woman in professional sports, and how is it that you’re an entrepreneur, and a mom, and doing all these things? And I thought it was important just to have a conversation and dialogue with folks about perspective, and how you—one, your vision, for what you can achieve, and then how you actually have some real life, tangible strategies and techniques in achieving those goals. And so, that was really the outgrowth—or, this book is really the outgrowth of those conversations. It tended to be pretty well received in those circles. And I said, you know, I’d like to reach more people, and start these dialogues, and really kind of give them, or share some of the tools that have really worked for me, [indiscernible].
JASON HARTMAN: What are some of those tools and techniques?
Tools and techniques for achieving success
EVE WRIGHT: In the book, we talk about, you know, kind of really, reexamining what your life looks like now, and then what you want it to look like. So, starting there, that’s step one. And then, we put together some strategies I recommend, some strategies about how you go about figuring out, and narrowing down, testing some of those things through calculated risk taking. Not necessarily life jarring events where you chuck everything and then move to California to surf, but certainly if there are things you want to do, there are ways, small and large, where you can start to gravitate in that direction. Whether it’s building skill sets, or building networks—just about anything you can do. Self-investment in your own self-improvements—I’m a big proponent of that. And so, we go over some of those things. Those are just two of the things we talk about. We talk about a number of techniques in the book.
JASON HARTMAN: Well, you talk about emotional fat. What is emotional fat, and how can we cut it out of our lives? I’m assuming fat is bad, in this case.
Cutting the emotional fat out of your life
EVE WRIGHT: It is. And one is kind of self-induced, and the other is environment-induced. And there are a couple of others, but these are the two biggies I talk about. So, one, one personal one for me is about the excuses. And I talk about excuses being my monuments to nothing. So, while I’ve always been very driven in my career, I have not always applied that same drive to the rest of my life. So there came a point where I had some real health challenges, struggles relative to being borderline diabetic, those sorts of things. It runs rampant in my family. And so, I would make the kind of excuses—I have to go to my job, I have this, I have that, I don’t have the celebrity lifestyle where I can dedicate hours on end to exercising. But when the rubber hit the road, it’s like everything else. I had to make it a priority, and then start putting together a strategy into place. Where I might not have the millions of dollars to dedicate towards that, or the tons of hours, but I had something. And it was starting with that something. That removed all those excuses, it cut out that fat in my life. And so I talk about how you, again, from a strategy standpoint, put together those strategies to reach that goal. Even if it’s on a small scale initially. The other emotional fat is the people that you surround yourself with. I talk about some of my personal friend inspirations in the book, who have great initiative, who are always operating at a high level, who keep me motivated to continue to do so. And how you determine who’s that in your life, and who isn’t. And that’s not to say the people who aren’t are bad people, but certainly the more you can stay motivated about achieving your goals, the more you absolutely want those folks in your life to help keep you on that motivated track.
JASON HARTMAN: Good point. No question about it. Jim Rohn always says, our income will be the average of the five people we spend most of our time with. And I think that’s pretty true. So the environment is definitely important.
EVE WRIGHT: I think that’s true too.
JASON HARTMAN: Yeah, yeah it is. And so, the environment is important. And just, you know, some advice. If some people listening are finding it difficult to change that, that people you hang around with issue, you can hang around with people virtually too. And so, you know, by listening to shows like this, you’re hanging around with me. You’re hanging around with Eve. And so, you know, maybe your physical peer group is difficult to change. Maybe that part of the environment is difficult to change. But you can certainly reach out, and you can have virtual friends, virtual people you hang out with, that can provide good inspiration and a good example, and feed your mind positive fuel that it needs for success. So, I just wanted to mention that, because I haven’t always had that opportunity in my life, especially when I was, you know, a teenager, to hang around with people that I wanted to emulate, and people that were highly successful—I just didn’t have access to them. But I did virtually. I did through books, and audio books, and seminars. There I could connect with Denis Waitley, and Earl Nightingale, and Zig Ziglar, and Jim Rohn, and you know, some of the motivational greats of our time. And so, that’s one thing you can do. And Eve, I love what you said about excuses, too. Because, one of the quotes I heard from these guys is, you know, you can either have excuses, or you can have results. You just can’t have both.
EVE WRIGHT: So true.
JASON HARTMAN: Yeah, isn’t it?
EVE WRIGHT: Yeah. And look, I totally agree with you; that’s actually one of the points I make in the book, about access to people. You don’t always have it. For sure I didn’t have it initially, but I was a big proponent of the people I saw in magazines and newspaper articles, I would write them. And sometimes they wouldn’t respond. And sometimes they would. And you know, they would maybe even grant you an audience if you’re patient and you’re diligent about follow through, and follow up. Now, in this time of Twitter, where most people are on Twitter, or engaged on Facebook, or LinkedIn, and those sorts of things—you’d be surprised at the amount of access you can gain to people. And even if they don’t have time, there are other forums virtually, as you mentioned; podcasts, or for instance, my executive development program for women. I engage on a virtual platform with folks, just because you don’t have necessarily time to talk to everybody individually, but when you’re talking to people en masse, on conference calls, it makes it a much easier dynamic for you to engage. And then, I listen to real substantive feedback, and assistance.
How to refine oneself every day & some podcast recommendations
JASON HARTMAN: How can we refine ourselves every day? You talk about that.
EVE WRIGHT: Look, I think you gotta be willing to invest in yourself. Particularly as women. And I know a ton of the time, we’re focused on helping and pouring into other people. Which is fantastic. But I think it starts with helping, and pouring into you, so that you’re satisfied with the direction in the journey that you’re traveling. And again, it doesn’t have to be large-scale steps. If you don’t have a ton of money, it’s the small things: buying a book, or going to the library to read a book. Following on a podcast. Exploring an interest. I actually am an avid listener of podcasts, and one of my favorites—well, I have two super favorites. One is hardcore history, and the other is, stuff you should know, that piques your interest about other things that are going on, whether it’s in the world of science, or the world of public speaking, or anything.
JASON HARTMAN: I want to mention a couple I like. And I’m gonna get even with you for not mentioning my podcast!
EVE WRIGHT: I’m so sorry!
JASON HARTMAN: Let me just mention a couple that I really like. One thing about the future, and science, because you mentioned that—and this kind of stuff just keeps your mind active and engaged, and it also makes you feel optimistic about the future, because there are so many incredible technologies coming our way that are just going to be life-altering, in so many positive ways. I like the podcast called FW:Thinking. So, FW for forward, FW:Thinking. That’s a great podcast. And, another one I like on health pretty well is called the Bulletproof Executive, with Dave Asprey, and those are great. And of course, I’ve got a network of 18 shows you can listen to, Jason Hartman.
EVE WRIGHT: Well, since they’re already listening in to one of, or several of yours, it’s one of their favorites as well.
JASON HARTMAN: Fair enough, I’m just giving you a hard time. It’s great that we have access to this kind of stuff more than ever in human history nowadays. And people not taking advantage of it is—I mean, it’s just crazy! It’s free!
EVE WRIGHT: It is free.
JASON HARTMAN: You know?
EVE WRIGHT: No, look. If you’re building skill sets, for sure, you could take free classes, you can pay to take classes, there are things that you ought to be doing to improve your skill set. Everything relates to everything else. I talk about a good friend of mine, and my former boss, who used to say that quite frequently, and it’s true. You may have in mind what your goal is, and you may not get there in a straight line. But if you add a little bit of this, from a skill set perspective. You add a little bit of lifestyle. You add a little bit of networking. You will ultimately get there. You’re continuing to work, and you’re continuing to grow, and opening your mind to the possibilities, and then, giving you some structure, and a framework with respect to the strategies and techniques on how you leverage that, are the very things we talk about in the book.
JASON HARTMAN: Very good points. So, cut the emotional fat, refine ourselves every day. Here’s an age-old question for you, Eve. What does it mean to be happy?
What does it mean to be happy?
EVE WRIGHT: I don’t know.
JASON HARTMAN: Good answer, I love it.
EVE WRIGHT: But I tell you, I think it is certainly different for everyone, in different periods of their lives. We ought to give ourselves one, the flexibility to have it be an evolving definition, not be apologetic about what that means for us individually, and give ourselves the room to pursue it.
JASON HARTMAN: Very good points. You know, that is a very tricky question, and I love how you said, I don’t know, was the first answer to it. Before you drilled down a little bit on it. In the western world—well, really, in most all of the world. The eastern world certainly has got its share of consumerism. There’s no question, if you go to Asia, consumerism is everywhere. You know, Madison Avenue has really defined happiness for us. And I think we need to constantly guard against using their definition as our own. And you know, that’s a definition of materialism, and so forth. And while material things, no one would deny that they’re great, they’re handy, they can make life more comfortable, more convenient, they can bring more opportunities, more access to things; that’s not necessarily what creates happiness. And it’s so easy to fall into that trap. When I lived near a college, just until very recently, I just noticed, in talking with 21-year-olds, this hypnotized mentality. And I suppose I’ve had that a lot of my life, too. Maybe I’m still in it and I just don’t think so. You know? It’s like, looking around, and we don’t notice the air we breathe. But we’re definitely part of it. You know, they’re just so stuck on this material definition of happiness! That can be pretty counterproductive, can’t it?
EVE WRIGHT: It has to come down to letting someone else define what your happiness looks like. Look. If it’s genuinely, you like nice things? Okay. You figure out how to get some nice things in moderation that make you happy. But it shouldn’t be because you see, and other people promote, those things as your happiness. I think that is—there’s really a distinctiveness there. And I think the first step, and certainly for my life, it has to be, what does it for me? I love what I do every day. But, most importantly, I love where I am. The ability to chase down new things, and to explore new things. Because that is what does it for me. If I’m kind of [indiscernible] locked in a box, it’s maddening. So, no matter which professional sport area the job or opportunity may be in, it really is about the environment, if that makes sense to you. But that is—that comes part and parcel in being honest with yourself, and knowing yourself. And so, I talk about, how do you take time to figure that out about yourself? Not only is it looking back through kind of your past experiences, but being open to the fact, and allowing yourself a little room to explore new things, to see what you might be interested in.
JASON HARTMAN: How can someone learn? And, you know…is it possible to learn to overcome the fear of failure?
Overcoming the fear of failure
EVE WRIGHT: You know, failure is a huge motivator for me, even today, in most things. And I can honestly tell you, I’ve failed at some things. And my feelings are hurt, and bruised for a little while. But then you kind of pick yourself up, and brush yourself off, and usually it is those circumstances where I’m able to apply what I learned in order not to fail the next time. But I will tell you, fear is normal. The fear of failure is normal. But what we have to guard against is allowing it to stop our progress, to impede our progress, to impede that next step. So, I actually like to use a little trick, where I spin the fear wheel a little bit, and say, instead of, it stopping me from trying something, I’m going to try it, and then let the fear of failure propel me over the top. So, I’m already making the leap. I just gotta work. I have to get over, because I don’t want to fail. And it’s usually that extra push that pushes you to the next level, and you’re like, hey, it wasn’t—I mean, it was tough, I might have fallen splat on my face, but I didn’t. I got it. And then you see that one more time for the next step.
Closing comments & contact information
JASON HARTMAN: Eve, give out your website, if you would, and tell people where they can get your book. And the website I have listed on your appointment is www.heat.com for the Miami Heat, but I have a feeling you have another one.
EVE WRIGHT: I do. I do. Folks can stay in touch with me at www.EveWright.us, all one word, and the book, and information about me, and I will do blogs periodically, and do some speaking engagements; would love to see folks out at those things, or they can feel free to email me. The book as well is www.LifeSpeedPassion.com.
JASON HARTMAN: Fantastic. Well, Eve Wright, thank you for joining us.
EVE WRIGHT: Okay. Thank you for having me.
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