The Philosophy of Life! (Part 2) with Ross Jackson

If you tuned in on Monday, you learned our set up this week is totally different. We interview a gentleman named Ross Jackson, and it went so well we decided to take his entire interview and split it up into three different episodes. So today's episode is part 2 of our "Philosophy of Life" series.

On today's episode you'll hear Ross talk about the following ideas:

• Life advice
• What is the definition of success?
• What is the definition of excellence?
• What is the philosophy of the successful?

As mentioned on Monday, if you have a passion for philosophy, look no further than this week's topic. Join us today for part 2 of Ross Jackson and the "Philosophy of Life."

Thanks and enjoy!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Looking to get an editing link but haven't been able to figure it out. Welcome to 10 to win. Give us 10 minutes of your time and we'll show you how to create a winning mindset.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

Welcome back to 10 to win the podcast, the podcast focusing on how to create a winning mindset in 10 minutes. And to continue our non-traditional use of our episodes this week, what do we got, Kevin?

SPEAKER_00 0:34

We had a great guest on this week, everyone, Ross Jackson. We invited Ross on to talk about philosophy, philosophy of life, philosophy of winning. And it went so well, we ended up talking about all the material that Jason and I had created on philosophy. So what we did was we combined the interview into our regular parts. So part one, part two, and part three are all going to be interviews with Ross. Today is part two, where we cover life advice, definition of success, and the philosophy of the successful.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Let's get it started.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

So I've got a very long-winded question for you, Ross. So I really like where this is going. So you write your personal mission statement down, right? If I had to guess, a lot of people's mission statement would include these like tangible things. Like if my short-term goal is to get promoted at work and then, or my my long-term goal is to have X amount of dollars by this age so that I can do XYZ, right? Buy a house, retire, get a better car, right? This is driven by societal norms in a lot of instances. It's not really by the philosophy of life. Like the way you just described what Wyke said is amazing to see someone's brain operate at that level, I think is just so cool. I mean, what do you tell the listeners who are, yeah, my my goal is to get a promotion at work so that I can make more money and then I can buy a house and then I can get a better car, and then in 40 years I can retire. And, you know, is that the is that a winning mindset, or is that just you're just take going through the motions of life to because you think that's what you're supposed to do, right? What's the difference?

SPEAKER_03 2:43

So so I'll start with the you know, there's clearly nothing wrong with having what I would consider those to be largely short-term goals of of things that people want. There, you know, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But you know, I'll I'll share sort of two basic elements of my life philosophy to sort of show the distinction between what a life philosophy is versus what those goals are. So, you know, to me, two two things that are central to my life philosophy is does this enhance freedom? Does it enhance my personal freedom? And does it enhance the freedom of all people? So I tend to take a view similar to uh Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone des Beauvoir, that basically says that in order for one person to be free, we all have to be free. So, you know, one of my loss life philosophies is does this enhance freedom? The the other component is um to question all all presuppositions, right? Everything should be interrogated. Everything that is presented as a good should be interrogated into whether or not I actually think it's good. So, you know, for instance, um getting a new car, there's nothing inherently good or bad about getting a new car. Does getting a new car enhance freedom? Well, it it could if it's what the means that you're gonna travel, um, but it could constrict freedom if you're rattled with debt, right? So, you know, the the the the key question is to once you've established what are the key elements of my life philosophy, then to really look at the goals and say, in in what way does the fulfillment of this goal help or hinder the fulfillment of my life philosophy? And there's no easy answer to that, right? I mean, the same buying a car, not buying a car, any action could either be in or out of that, depending on the individual circumstances.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Right. So let me ask you this, Ross. You know, we've been friends for a few years now, and you have always talked like this. Anytime you've been given the chance to to talk about philosophy and and really bring it up, you you've done a great job of fitting it into varying conversations that we've had, and I love that. Let me ask you this how long has your life philosophy been, you know, does this enhance my freedom? Is this been a thing that Ross Jackson was doing when he was 14 years old? Or did it start when you were 35 and you were like, you know what, I gotta get some more freedom in my life?

SPEAKER_03 5:31

So um, so I will say, and and I mean this ties back to the car. I I would say that this is probably close to where I was at when I was 16.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 5:45

Wow, that's so um, I mean, I can tell a humorous story about my uh history teacher. Yeah, so um, so I have an older brother. Um, he would be involved in all sorts of school activities. I wasn't involved in anything, um, but I had two choices. I could go into school early when he was going to everything he had to do, or I could ride the bus. So I would go in early. Uh, and I was in my first period class, and there was a rather gruff history teacher that was my first period class, and I was looking out a window, smiling, and and literally the the history teacher said, you know, fright Jackson, every morning you come in here and you seem happy. What's your secret? And without thinking, without without any motive, I just said, Well, every day's Friday when you don't give a shit. And I I I looked at him, I looked at him, and he was stunned. And I'm sure my look was, oh my gosh, he's gonna kill me. And his look was I should probably kill him. And he just laughed and he goes, Fair enough. So that's awesome. You know, I I would say somewhere around 16, this was my life philosophy.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

There you go. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

No, that's gosh, that is. I mean, you you've stuck with this for so long. I don't believe that the average 16-year-old is thinking the way that you probably were thinking, but more or less as you get older, I think there's something there about trying to establish what's important to you. I mean, I imagine that many of your decisions are based on these two things that you talked about. Does it enhance my freedom? And the conversation here is is really cool because we can tie in a bunch of different things with what you've kind of already gone down, Ross. So let me let me pivot here and talk about the philosophy of winning. Kevin and I have talked at length on this podcast about winning, of course, that's what it's about, okay. About teams. We've done a lot of sports analogies because we're huge into that. And I think what everyone is trying to do is to get an edge in life, okay? And and maybe that's in your personal life, but obviously you try and see it all the time in sports. You know, how does Coach Belichick get the edge on everyone else, or Coach Nick Saban get the edge on everyone else? What are they doing differently? And so, in very generic terms here, and then we'll break this down a little bit, Ross, is what is your philosophy on winning?

SPEAKER_03 8:24

So, um, so this is a very dated uh analogy. But in in the 1980s, there was a movie called War Games with Matthew Broderick. And, you know, it's kind of timely given all the advances in AI, but at the beginning of the game, the computer wanted to play tic-tac-toe. Um, we all play tic-tac-toe. And once somebody gets proficient at tic-tac-toe, there's really only two outcomes. Uh the the outcome is a tie game, or there's an outcome where you win, but you win mostly because the other person made a mistake. So the the winning isn't really a reflection that you're any good, it just is somebody made a careless mistake and you respond as a response.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 9:09

So then the the the other part of the movie is they they keep wanting to play this game thermonuclear war. The computer goes through all these simulations of Russia and the United States uh going to nuclear war, and and after you know, thousands of iterations, the the computer goes, interesting game, the only way to win is to not play. So, you know, to me, the the notion of a winning mindset is nobody receives any satisfaction winning when when they win due to the errors of others. And many people are playing games that the only way to win is to not play. So to me, the philosophy of a winning mindset is to make really certain that you're in a game that's worthy of winning and that the winning reflects that you have excellence.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

That's really good. I mean, let me let me break this down.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Hold on, Jason. Let me go ahead and so Ross, what what's the philosophy of excellence then?

SPEAKER_03 10:09

Well, so I mean, you know, there's a whole branch of a philosophy called aesthetics, which is, you know, what is the beautiful and and and the notion of, you know, what what is excellence? And and I think that excellence is when when people are able to freely direct their best to something that they believe is worthy of their effort.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

There's a there's a guy who travels around, he's a captain in the fire service out of out of California, and he routinely travels the United States and gives presentations about the big four, and not to get too much into that, but he has created this excellence is my responsibility sign that many fire departments uh post within the the building, and each employee will go and sign it, like you're committing to this excellence is my responsibility, and and I think kind of what you're you're saying there, Ross, is that when you when you see something that is worthy of that, then you're committing to that kind of life, if you will. And the interesting thing is I had a conversation with someone at work at the fire department not too long ago, and there's always this comparison, and and I I can compare with the guys that I work with, our team, the guys I work with, with sports teams. It's very easy sometimes for me to compare those things. But the difference here is that those sports teams are trying to achieve a trophy, you know, a tangible thing at the end that they can hold up. We don't get that, and that's okay, but you have to realize that the more pressure we put on ourselves to be excellent, some people question it as to what am I getting out of this? And at the end of the day, it's about just being the best version of yourself. Do you agree with things like that, Ross? I mean, if I don't have a tangible trophy, that's okay, but I'm doing things in my life because it's meaningful.

SPEAKER_03 12:29

Yeah, yes. I mean, I'll I'll start with so I was a semi-competitive swimmer. So in in my early childhood, I I uh could swim quite well. I had hundreds of ribbons, some of them were first place medals. Um, and and about the same time, 16 driving, um, I had all of these ribbons and medals, and it was like, why on earth am I keeping these? And I threw them all away. It was like, you know, I all of the pride or satisfaction of having done that had been consumed, and and those trinkets meant absolutely nothing to me. Um not that there's anything wrong with them out of the gate, there they certainly can be. But but I will say, you know, that the the tragedy, and I I used this word um on purpose, the tragedy is that um I I've been in a place where the the group of people around me working were committed and and believed in excellence, and and I thought it was a charade and absurd. And I eventually left because one, you know, I I knew that I was wasting my uh life in in this environment where I wasn't equally committed to the outcome, but but the tragic part was that my being there prevented somebody who could make the contribution.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:53

And I needed to get out of the way so that that team could get better and have the right person instead of the wrong person in the position.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

But only each individual can answer that, right?

SPEAKER_03 14:04

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

Yeah, I mean, I could go to Tom over to my right and Jim over to my left and be like, hey, are you committed? And at the surface, they say yes, but deep down they're not, you know. And and in the fire service, you kind of have this mindset of it's it's it's not a job, okay? It's it's it's a lifestyle, if you will. You know, a job is where you clock in at nine and you clock out at five and you get your paychecks every two weeks. But you know, this is a is a commitment to a different life kind of thing. And you can sometimes see the difference between the people who are clocking in and clocking out and the people who are living it day to day.

SPEAKER_03 14:48

Right. Any any job, any job that is a public trust, teachers, firefighters, law enforcement, healthcare, right? There are there are positions that are public trust positions, and and those require a dedication that is significantly different than uh just making money.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

Sure. Yeah, I mean, totally totally agree with that. Okay, that's it for part two of our series titled Philosophy of Life. Please make sure you subscribe to the podcast, rate and review our podcast as it helps get the podcast out to more listeners. We will be back in better than ever on Friday to continue this amazing interview with Ross Jackson. As always, if you're impacting or influencing one person a day, it is worth it. Everyone has 10 minutes to learn a winning mindset. Thanks.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Thanks for taking the time to create a winning mindset. Remember, we'll release a new episode every Monday. So be sure to start your week off right by listening to 10 to win. Please subscribe, like, comment, and share our podcast. And remember, if you're impacting or influencing one person a day, it's worth it. Everyone has 10 minutes to create a winning mindset.