Dragon's Gold: The Magic of Mindset

Happy by Choice: Mike Naughton on Flying Through Failure and Finding Joy in the Journey

• Justin Mills • Season 1 • Episode 37

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Episode Summary:

What if the biggest wins in your life didn’t look like wins at the time?

In this heartfelt episode of Dragon’s Gold: The Magic of Mindset, Mike Naughton walks us through a journey marked by unexpected detours, second chances, and the quiet confidence that comes from choosing happiness, even when everything goes sideways.

Key Takeaways:

  • The surprising benefit of dyslexia and why he never saw it as a limitation
  • What the Navy taught him about showing up, even after failure
  • How a forgotten spelling bee shaped his self-image
  • The role of humor in navigating chaos and pressure
  • Why chasing happiness isn’t the point, and what to do instead

Tools & Weapons

  • Humor Under Pressure — How Mike uses levity to lead and adapt
  • Redirection Over Regret — Reframing missed opportunities as better path
  • Patience With the Process — Lessons from waiting, not forcing outcomes
  • Choose Joy Anyway — A mindset for hard seasons and hidden wins
  • Do What’s Next — Staying grounded when plans fall apart

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About Gold Dragon Investments:

At Gold Dragon Investments, our mission is to bring joy to others by helping them win the game of investing. Helping every client become the hero of their financial journey. We believe that wealth is a tool, but joy is the ultimate outcome.

Through meaningful partnerships, we strive to empower our investors to create freedom, and build lasting legacies of purpose, fulfillment, and wealth.

Join Us on the Adventure:

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome once again to another episode of Dragon's Gold, the magic of mindset. Today we have the pleasure of having an amazing guest, Captain Mike Naughton in the U.S. Navy flying over 300 traps, that's landings, on an aircraft carrier in a combat zone. and after being a captain on a commercial airline, landing many passengers safely to their destination. Welcome to the show, Mike. Yeah, thank you, my friend. Welcome. as you and I know, uh you are an incredibly funny man that literally makes me laugh every time we chat. And I want to thank you for that. I want to take it back, though. I want to go back to the beginning. We call this the origin story. Where did it all begin? From Mike Naughton. the night? Born in Alliance, Nebraska, 1941. That was. Star of the war, World War Two, and my dad had a deferment as far as because he was married and had a child and was assigned to make bombs in Alliance, Nebraska. And now. When the armistice came down and he wasn't crazy about the weather and in Alliance and was the first in line to get a release went to with his brothers he was the youngest of 14 and went to Arizona started a jewelry business with his brother after smuggling fruit between Mexico and the US. Anyway, it didn't work out. And then he went on to sell uh Lucky Strikes cigarettes. And I don't really know why he quit that and finally became a Folgers Coffee salesperson. And that was his whole life. It was kind of sad. I like it and I have a friend that can remember walking with his brother barefoot when they were two years old. I don't have much of a memory that oh it was a third grade grade in a parochial school, a poor area. What would I say? Wasn't that good of a student? I flunked third grade. moved to another school, another parochial school where I didn't bring anything to the school and I didn't take anything from the school. Nowadays they call it dyslexia, but they didn't know that word then. So I always had... I was always the first to be seated on a spelling bee. And that got old. there's another little gal that went through the whole process from third grade on to eighth who had the same problem. And she was so proud that she went on to get her degree in college. went to uh from grade school to St. Mary's High School. And it's a poor, I think it was Franciscan. school and there you can make it through if you played football. So that's what I did. I played football. Not much of a there too. didn't bring much to the school or take away much. I think looking back. He asked me if who helped me along whatever it just tenacity and I was like a bulldog. If I decide. I wasn't a uh follower nor leader. I was just a loner. I just did my own thing and it didn't bother me. So I got out of high school and it was... oh Actually, I was good enough to coach, wanted to recommend me to play football for Phoenix Junior College, but I had to, feel like. football in Arizona. It's hot. Anyway, I went to two years of college. but I had no inspiration. uh I got on my... I out of my car, went by a friend's house who was gonna be a butcher. I was also more part-time as a butcher boy. He said, I'm gonna be, he's gonna stay and be a butcher. well, come on with me. I said, I'm going over to Phoenix Junior College and enroll because... If I didn't, my parents would probably throw me out of the house. So I show up at the... Student Union Building and the Navy had a big. table, join the Navy. This was back when they were 1962 or so, the war was going on. They were killing a lot of and trying to hire as many as they could. But anyway, I stopped, looked at a few of the brochures and the guy says, uh You join up. I said, have you gone? You have to add two years of college to become a cadet. Naval Naval aviation cadet, which they don't have that program anymore. They did there in World War Two. They just shortened that you only needed two years of college instead of four. So I said, man, I said, have you gone in the door yet? And they said, come on out to see the sky rider, sky raider, sky rider. forget the name of the Phoenix Municipal Airport and take the entrance test. If you flunk it, you have to wait a year to take it again. So if you come out and take the test and you flunk it, you still have a couple of years to make it right. So I go out there and... uh take the test and pass. And so they said, all right, we'll see him two years when you have the two years required. And, it was my two years in Phoenix junior college was terrible. I'm, I think I burnt the transcript. I mean, was, but they didn't care as long as you had it, you you showed up and you got a, uh, a grade. Anyway, two years passes by, they call me up. and say, okay, you know, we'll... we figured you got your two years, join up. I said, well, I dropped out of a lot of classes. um I did a lot of carousing. I'd do it all over again too. anyway, went to, I still had no direction. Nobody's pointing the way for me, except for my old man. He was pointing to the door. So. So, uh... What I say? so I was short quite a few. credits to... for, I guess. So I went to summer school. took beginning algebra, intermediate algebra, college algebra, trigonometry, and typing. It was something crazy. And I remember I had a friend whose brother was a Navy pilot and he was on leave and I was talking to him and he said, When he says when you join the Navy and you go in and you get your units, you go in, they give you a math test. And there's a lot of math holes. You know, you have to stay and go to two weeks in their math school. So short story. So I. fly over to California, they fly me over to California and I sign up and I open up my beginning, beginning algebra book, read a couple of pages on how to do basic factoring or something. And, Sure enough, I get the math test when we wound up in Pensacola and 90%, not 90, but a lot of guys got the math hole and I made it through that. But, these are. uh And that's when I say I was a cadet and there the Marines, the gunny sergeants are the ones that are in charge of it. They try to knock you down when you're a cadet because you're sneaking, you're dodging two years of college. And uh the competition there is the oh half the class are ring knockers. A ring knocker is an Annapolis graduate who after he gets his degree in stays in as inputs in for pilot so i'm going against. Annapolis graduate, college graduates, people have 3000 hours flying time already. And it was not easy, but how did I make it through tenacity? say you're, if they say you're stupid, you say, yeah. It's just, you just plug along and things happen now after the basic of oh school, flight school, ground school, then flight, after softly, you solo. Then you have to choose, you put in for jets or helicopters or. twin engine or whatever. So naturally everybody puts in for jets. before me and so the jets are in Meridian, Mississippi, I believe, and they will call up the Pensacola and say, need 20 guys or five guys or whatever. So the cutoff would be normally around 250 points and that would be. grades and flying and also academically. In the cutoff, you couldn't be a jet hold unless you had 148 points. I had 148 points. It rained, it rained for two weeks and I was the only person who completed the program and was selected for Jets. And I had, wow. So I... uh picked up all my G suit and oxygen mask. And I thought, you know what? Now I'm going to go against these Annapolis graduates, you know, and the class before me, the cutoff was 250 points. So I'm like a hundred points below the national average. So I said, you know, I think, and also when you're a cadet and you flunk, you have to spend the rest of your two year service as an enlisted person. So I don't want to do that. Really my whole goal is to get my naval wings become a lieutenant and whatever. So I wanted out of the jet program. I saw I'm gonna go into the. multi-engine, whatever. And to do that, I had to go see the Admiral and I'll never forget that walk. Big brick building on one side and the carrier on the right side. And, uh, you know, you're in dressed whites and you go up and I, I just said, Hey, I'm, really interested in anti submarine warfare. Really got, and anyway, bought it needless. So they sent me to. it! uh I was a nice looking guy. was blonde hair and clean cut and all that, no acne and you know, like I could be the face on a brochure for him, you know, that's part of making it through life. Anyway, so on, went through and got my wings and that. still just all alone or I remember there was like 15 of us that got our wings all in and the ceremony was the wife would come up and pin the wings on her husband or the guy'd have his girlfriend come and pin his wings on or the mother would come up and pin the wings on and I come up and they had to get an officer out of the crowd to come up and pin mine on. And that that's, I'm just a loner. And then from there, I, I don't know how I got from Pennsylvania. I was in New Iberia, Louisiana then. And I hitchhiked or something to get back to Phoenix on my way that my orders were in Santa in San Diego. And so I wound up in San Diego somehow. And then when I got there, man, was. You go through their training program and it's, and then it was gone. Then I spent the whole time in FC, couple of, what they call a couple of combat. Cruises and uh now they got to. what is it, combat fatigue, is that word? So now they only allow, you're only allowed to be. dispatched on two combat cruises. So when I got back off my last one, I still had a year to go. Yeah. But they couldn't send me out to sea again. Uh, because I already had my two combat cruises. So that was a real bummer. I hung around San Diego driving my red sports car beer was $5 or five cents a mug. And, uh, time to get out and, and the airlines was on the bad down cycle of hiring. Yeah. But I managed to get hired, but, uh, I always look back, the Lieutenant Commander Ray called me into his office and he guaranteed me if I re-upped that I would go to back to softly be an instructor for a year and a half. And then he promised me any jet squadron I want. It's dangerous stuff. You just gotta know who you are and where you are. I said, no, I think I'm going to move on. So I did, I got out and, uh, wasn't good at my class was, uh, not for a couple of months. So I been in snow. got my Austin Healy, red, Austin, Haley went to. Aspen, Colorado. Spent a rent of a bed in a. Hostel type thing, 12 guys. And my first job was and I apply for it was. uh As the Aspen, Colorado garbage man. But I never I never lifted a can TWA. They said they had somebody just drop out of the class. Can you make it? And that would it took me. I said, yeah, I'll be there. took me from there to Kansas City and what to work for them. So I want to, can I, do I remember Mike that there was an issue where from getting to the snow to there, you had a timeline that was required that you had to meet and it wasn't easy. Can you touch on that part of the story? I saw Boston Healy. It's January, January. My class was January January 5th. And so I jumped in the car. and I'm somewhere. on the Colorado border, Nebraska, Colorado. and the fuel pump goes out. But you could drive, you could drive at 30 miles an hour. I don't know how, I still don't know how fuel pumps work. was enough gas or whatever. And I drove, I don't know how many hours, 30 miles an hour on ice. And I made it to Lincoln, Nebraska where the... British motors had a garage and replaced the fuel pump and then went on. So that was the good old days. A young guy. to make it for that test to become a commercial pilot. You had to make it within a certain timeframe by the skinnier teeth, right? You just rolled in. you just keep going. I don't know if the pop or the ice on the roads slowed me down so much, but I made it. Sometimes I wish I had because. United Airlines also hired me and I had a class date with them a month later. And had I gone to work with United, I would have retired a 747 captain. Instead I go to work for TWA and I would have retired as a DC-9 captain. There's big difference in money there. Fate is the hunter. Anyway, yeah, that's all life is, is crisis timelines. And you were going to say, who helped me along? I goes, Jesus, nobody helped me along. You just got to be tenacious, make your mind up and go for it. Keep in don't ever wait a lot of guys. When I joined the Navy, you don't know the sergeants are on you and you have this bunk bed and you got a, or caught and you got to make your bed and everything. It's screaming at you now and yada yada. And then you would later on during the week, since you wind up inspecting, you go in and you inspect the other cadets beds and things. Anyway, you'd go in and there'd be a guy, a lot of D O R. bit drop out on request. And a lot of guys, uh, we're able to keep beating that, you know, that's what they're trying to do. Beat you down. You know, they have their, they get there and they got a picture of their wife or their girlfriend or whatever. And, uh, they say, this is not for me. There's a lot of guys deal or drop out on request. So A lot of people think they want something. They put in a bit of time and effort, and then they realize that it's a lot harder than they thought it was. And then they quit. not harder, more difficult. We had, we're all individuals. We had one guy. four year grad college, you know, any smart guys. And, uh, this was in bait, uh, intermediate training. Anyway, it was, we were being, We were flying T28 and that's a. It has a close to 2000 horsepower. And you so you go out there and you set the brakes. You gotta check these magnetos for you for run that power up and I mean it in their flames are coming out and then and then you check your company. I'm broomed and you fire anyway. Yes. Yeah, he goes out. goes through the routine for his first flight runs those parties, throttles, throttles it back, taxis back, gets out and says, I quit. You he just scared to death out of that 2000 horsepower thing. And it turned out he was really an intelligent guy. He was fluent in Mandarin. So they just, he went immediately into. Chinese interpreter or whatever, I don't know. But so he just found another spot. But flying, the mechanical monsters, it wasn't for him. He was too smart to fly. That's the truth, you can do that. So I think that there's a lot of value in even that just statement, Mike, right? The idea about that person thought he wanted something, he went and he did it. He got a taste of what it was. He realized that he had bitten off more than he could chew or it just wasn't a meal he wanted. He wanted something different. He didn't realize it until he was in it. He put the time and the effort and then he pivoted, right? And good for him for realizing that ah for his own life. um But I think that... Go ahead, please. Then the rest of us are in the, if you read the book, the Peter Principle, where you're continually promoted up to your level of incompetence. Here I is That's Oh my God. Mike, you already know this. You're one of my favorite humans, man. I freaking love talking to you. Oh my God. So in life, it's oftentimes not a straight line. There's turbulence that we encounter, right? We call that trials and tribulations. Are there any moments... I call that marriage. m man, I feel like anything I say right now is gonna get me in trouble. So I'm just gonna... So, because my wife watches after and... I got a wife and two kids. I could have had a Jaguar Ferrari and a Mercedes in the garage. So we call these trials and tribulations. Are there moments in your life that you reflect on and think that were hard to overcome or difficult? And then how did you overcome those? Why, when I retired, I went to a service where they tell you how to take your retirement, whatever. And she looks up, she looks on my. tax record, I guess you'd call it, when they started withdrawing. And she says, my God, she says, you've been contributing to your tax or whatever since you were 14 years old. You've never had a break. in service. I've always had a job from 14 years old till my retirement. It's a paper boy, butcher boy, Navy, airline, yada yada. So the hurdles for me were... I just keep plugging. had being employed when we was living in Manhattan Beach, living life, Flying for TWA and had a roommate, we're on the beach. And then we got furloughed, got word that we're gonna be furloughed or let go by roommate who got the job. through neptotism, his dad was a captain. He just says, ah, they'll call us back. And he just hung out. It was his plan. Me, immediately started applying for jobs in other areas and was hired by World Airways. Two months before I was to be let go by TWA, I had to get a special. released from TWA. They weren't gonna give it to me either. then this nice... uh supervisor, whatever, he just struck a line through my schedule and just says, take off. And they won't know it. That's how I went to work for World and from World back, I've always been employed. So the stress is you just keep dodging and moving and going forward. I'm that way where my roommate there, he's just chilled out and he was right. was a year or so and back to work we went. But I've always had, I went out and got a real estate license. I got, what else? A couple other jobs, always worrying about my health if you. you're in the airlines you you get checked every six months. You know, could eyes, ears, throat, heart. You never know. had a then sometimes you're at loss to find a doctor to give you the physical that keeps you going. I had a fellow. Well, there was. Pilot. Who was called back to TLB along with me and we had to get a physical so both go into the physical. real famous. doctor who was really one of the best diagnostic people. you had a blue goofus or something, he'd figure it out. So, so anyway, I go in there, get a, get a physical 100 % out. go and then Tony liberal, he goes in there and he gets a hundred percent. You know, they do the KG Joe line and then on his way out, he dropped dead. Yeah, I dropped dead on the sidewalk. So these, you know, I keep on trucking. but you never know fate is a hunter. So I was always worried about the look of my glasses. I was always worried about losing my eyesight. And back in the day, they didn't hire you if you had glasses. You had to have 20, 20 or better. Now you can reuse Coke bottles so they would care less. So back then you had to uh be a perfect specimen and I was. Yeah. I'm so humble too. That's all right. You know, I love it. That's what say it again. That's what I told her. uh man. So, that's so good. I think that there's uh so many really good points in some of the things you just said, Mike, that I'd love to touch on. One of which is, and probably the most important of which is, is that today is a gift. And no matter what... you do or what you say or what someone else tells you, when it's your time, it's your time. And all you can do is keep moving forward in the best possible way to try and do the right thing for you and your family and friends and the world, whatever's important to you. Right. But at the end of it, you have to enjoy the journey because we don't know how long it's going to be. And if, you can, if you can make the best of the experience and do the best that you can for yourself in that situation, right. Then. then kudos to you, right? Congratulations for having that success. And hope too is that along the way, and this is a personal point, but I love to think that in that journey and along the way as we go, each of us on our own journey, that we provide some value, right? And in some cases, it's just a laugh or a smile, right? But Mike, you provide that in abundance, my friend. And so I am certain that along the way, you've brought a lot of joy to people. I'm certain of that. Maybe not Maryann. She gets to put up with you on the daily. oh uh I'm different and I met her in Japan. She was a flight attendant and said I'm going to hit on her as soon as we landed and we were going to Taiwan. We landed and I do my job, whatever, and make it to the back. where she was sitting and asked her what's her name, how old she was. And since, she says I said this, I don't remember it, but anyway, I said, look, I'll get used to it because I'm gonna marry you. And I don't know how the hell I, or whatever. And it wasn't easy. I look at these old, these PBS. Songs of songs of the sixties and they have all these old people. we that's the song we fell in love with and not here. Ha And I asked her finally when she finally gave in, I said, why? And of course, it's always a rough. I said, why the hell did you marry me? She's why it's getting old. I thought I'd take a chance. So I said, well, that's good. I says it turned out for one of us. I mean, it's this different for me. I think I'm not a pessimist. I'm a realist. And so and you talk about, yeah, and. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow is no way. He's got right now and I can remember. Watching went for a walk down the street and they were doing some road repair and this. Guy was on the end of the daisy chain there and his job was to sweep the dust and stuff on and I watched him do it and he did it better than a than a neurosurgeon. And I walked over and I said, look, I've been watching you. I said, that's fantastic. The way you do your job. And you you thank me that I could notice, but that this thing, plunge along, do the best, like you said, do the best you can. You feel good about yourself. You don't have to worry about it. That's, I said, I don't care what people think about me. Absolutely have no, doesn't do me any good. It's just how I think about me. So if I think I'm good. Mike, that's such a powerful message and such a powerful point. I agree with it wholeheartedly because it doesn't matter what other people's opinions are of you. It matters what you think of yourself. And if you're really being true to yourself and doing your best for yourself. oh And I think that even picturing that person, like that person at the end of that daisy chain, the guy's doing the sweeping. He was passionate about what he did. He wanted to do a good job. He did a good job. And he was proud of himself for it. You giving him that compliment, like did he need it to feel good about what he was doing? No. But did it make him feel good about what he was doing? Yeah, probably did. Right. So just to let him know that, Hey, you know what? Your effort is seen. And that's pretty cool that you did that. So Mike, one of the things we talk about in regards to the journey that we go on and along the way there is the fellowship. It's, people that have helped us along the way or mentors that have led us or just friends that go along the journey with us for support. Is there anyone that jumps out to you that you would consider a member of your fellowship? No. I look back and piece. Oh, I'm my grace school teachers. She helped me and all that, you know. No, no, I'm there. Good people. Like Lieutenant, I told about Lieutenant Commander Ray who took me to his office and tried to get me to re-up. Offered me jets and stuff. That's a boost, but. Now I just kept trucking, getting into the airline business that do all the, check rides and whatever on my own. I've had one friend say, he stumbled along the way and he says, you made it all the way through and never flunked a check ride or yada yada. It's, know, nobody did it on my own. don't, don't. I didn't get any help from anybody as far as I was concerned. Sometimes being able to just find that store internally, right? With no support from anyone. Tenacity. just be a bulldog and keep going. So there's many there's all kinds of people try to knock you down. So. Yes, and that's a reality, right? I think of the idea about crabs in a bucket, right? Like, people, they want you to do well, they just don't want you to do better than them, right? And when people see you're doing better, right? It's amazing how fast they start dragging uh to be an anchor or a crab and pull you back into that bucket, right? And so to have the tenacity, to be tenacious enough to push through despite the hate you might get or the actions that people take against to try and push you, or sometimes just the universe. Right? That fuel pump failing, right? You had to be at that, at that test, before a certain date, right? And that car breaking down in the snow on ice, right? Like a lot of people could have just thrown in the towel and quit there, right? But you, you nursed it along. You slid along ice 30 miles an hour till you get that pump done and you didn't stop and you drove through and you were able to get there for that test, right? Right or wrong, regardless of what happened, you knew that in that moment, that was what you were going to do. You set a goal and you achieved it. And you did that over and over and over again throughout your life. But I still look back, I could have went to work for United. No, I look back, I look back, I don't have anybody that I could say, hey, thanks for the. support or whatever. mean, you just. If you need any help, you better get it. I think that there's a lot in that mic when you just say you need the help, you get it, right? Like you join, find it, right? You had a goal, you had an intention in anything that you did. You went along the way. You had some smiles and laughs along the way. I'm sure that you caused quite a bit of trouble as well, right? Which, which you had a good time. I, most everyone walked away from it. um, some cases. So. Oh boy. I'm laughing. Anyway, I made it work. yeah, that's, that's it. know, and the idea is, that in pushing through, right? Part of in anything that we do is seeing it through to the end, right? You think about the, the DOR, right? Dropout on request. People go, they think they want something. It gets hard and they say, ah, I'm going to stop this and go do something else. It's, it's too hard for me. It's not really what I want. Right? Or maybe it is what they want, but it's too hard and they don't want to overcome the challenge because they feel that it's too much they can't. Right? Or they don't want to put themselves through the pain or discomfort that comes along with that. I can I can interject right now. The Don Sprague was one of my roommates. He's the one that sold me the Austin Healy. In fact, he went on. When he joined the Navy as a to be a pilot, he was graduated from Syracuse University, he was all. I'm a college graduate from a high end school and all that. When he got in the Navy, he quit and dropped out on request because he had a screamer for a teacher. A screamer is a guy that's the Peter principal. He's not an instructor. They just scream, know, scream at you. And Don, that was below his... what he thought he should be treated like or whatever. So he quit. and went on to be a weapons, whatever, referee. Then he got out of the service and went back. You know, he stayed in for a while. I went to instructor at NROTC in Notre Dame where... He got sideways with the commander there. It was nothing more than a, when you're a commander and you put in charge of an RTC in Notre Dame, that's not like a destroyer. In other words, he's, uh, he's been sidelined or anyway, anyway, they didn't get along and he got a bad fitness report and how he went, he immediately went back to solid real estate in Syracuse, New York. He was in other words, I don't know. I look back. I never, I never. I don't go to my high school reunion. I don't go. I didn't belong to the TW retirement club. Uh, people become captains and that was it. That was their being. They were a captain or me. I was me. I was Mike that the captain is a goofball. thing the neighbor, the airline made up. You know, I was a, I was me first, not a captain, where these other guys, man, they go to the reunion and they still want to be called captain. And if you say, would you, I'm a captain, you know, I was my whole life. was Mike. Hmm. Mike, it's funny. I hear you say that. And in my mind, I just picture, I know you have a hat that says Mike and it's got the lightning bolt right for the eye. And I, and I picture that. Absolutely. I love that. Right. Some people go along, they want this title. They want this accolade. They're doing all this stuff because they want the attention or the, the status that comes with it. Right. Because so much value in just being you, right. Who are you as a person? And so when I picture that, hat and like the way that you just described that, that's literally what I think of. And I just think it's such a beautiful thing to think about. It doesn't matter what title, accolade, et cetera, who are you as a person? And are you happy with who you are and what you've done in your life? But they, uh one of your, says, all of a sudden, animosity or anxiety, you know, they said, just calm down and just like, think about what scares you most in your life. So I thought, okay, what scares me most of my life? It was me. I scare the shit out of myself. I never know what I'm gonna do. Amen. I don't know, whatever. I remember when I hear my name, would always shudder. What if I, you what's... What I do. I know what I did, what I get caught doing. Oh man. I've spent some time in jail, in Peru, and that's crazy. Whatever. Installed. get, I get, I'd like, and he can edit it out if he wants to, but I don't know. You don't have to share what you did if you don't want to. It's okay. It doesn't matter. But what matters is that you got through it. You got out, right? And you came out stronger for it. um daughter gave me a book, she says, tell me about your life. And I told her, said, there's no way in hell I'm gonna tell you what I did. Hahaha! I mean, God almighty. no, right? So, anyway. I'm going to ask, is there a moment, so we call this the darkest hour, a moment where things were so difficult that you were going to change course, throw in the towel, quit, drop out on request, or maybe it's just a moment where you decided that you were done. Is there a moment in your life you can reflect on that you think about that? And how did you overcome it? I I never quit anything except. I remember I was in high school, junior. played football or trying out for football. And I didn't get along with the, was out of shape. Didn't get along with the coach and I quit. said, I'm not playing for this, this guy's just too much. And I can remember my dad saying, you know, are you sure you want to do the idea? And I, and I did, quit. then, uh, during the season, that whole team was. let go because they got caught drinking. So I could have played the first, that's the other thing, I've been first team. Anyway, short story, the next year I'm a senior, I start go off of football as a new coach and try out and whatever. I make first team and captain of the football team. I mean, what you call it? A bounce back or whatever. That's the only time I quit, but I had a reason. But the darkest time in the Navy was like. I remember I flunked a navigational test. Can't believe I went the wrong way. Anyway, still don't know how those compasses work, So you have to retake it and I flunked it again and now... You go up and call a speedy board where you have three. Officers and you come in and plead your case. In your. go in and look like a poster boy, my whites and... BS and then they'll say, you know, went the wrong way. Anyway, then they have a black and a white marble. And if you get, so this could be three marbles. If you get two blacks, you're out. I got one black ball and two white balls. So I so you know I I look back and I said man it goes to show you gotta have balls. So anyway I I go in and take the test for the third time and talk about pressure. There's this lieutenant that was administrative. I think he kind of looked away and let me. take an extra five minutes or something. But anyway, that was uh almost a stumble or a scary part. But my whole life's been that way. And it's amazing. what's the darkest hour? You're like the whole damn ride. uh So Mike, one thing I want to touch on, you mentioned earlier in the chat in regards to dyslexia, right? A learning disability, one that affects a lot of people. And at the time they didn't have a word for it or knowledge of it, right? You just, you're the first one to be seated during the spelling bee. When you realized that that you were different or had that? Did that make you feel in any way? uh How did that make you feel? And do you feel that you tried harder or pushed past or did that help in any way with your persistent, your tenacity? Die, my If I was a couple inches taller and a little bit smarter, could have been president of United States. That handicap was terrible. I still don't, don't, you always break into uh swearing. you know what that's a cause of is because you have a lack of vocabulary. That would be me. Yeah. I never. Yeah, just. I always been, I want to say like in the Navy, know, Napa Scorch, these guys know how, made it through there. They know how to study. They've been, yeah. So I'd make sure that I was, oh, like not put into charge of. 20 enlisted mechanics where you have to write a report on them every year, every, for me to spelling and writing and be fluent. I know I'm weak at that. So I make damn sure I was. uh put into a place where I became the maintenance officer. That's where you go in and I remember Chief Poff, the chiefs are the ones that run the Navy. said, Chief, we're going to sea now, I'm the maintenance officer, you're the chief. I said, so. Good luck. I'll just stay out of your way. He did all the writing and all this. He read it for me. It's, he's just surrounding yourself with good people. You don't have to do him, but I've always been. Handicap. and found ways to work around it, a, then I didn't, I said, I'm not gonna feel bad about that anymore. There was a guy who's, he has a multi-million dollar business and they discovered he can't read. He never learned how to read. He made it all way through all the way up to the top where he owned the company and he can't read. So I think, I think it's Yes. there's a will, there's a way, you know, and. Whatever I, it's like my college graduate, Syracuse guy and everything. All that to do didn't uh do you well as, as my tenacity did. You always make up it, you know. If you're weak on one area, you might be stronger on the other. Like I can't read or write, but I'm good at math. whatever. So Mike, one of the things that we had talked about was in regards to, to tests and just being able to get by and skid. Like I think of it like Indiana Jones. gentleman. under the wall right before it slammed shut with just enough time to get your hat back from underneath. I recall you mentioning that there were uh multiple tests that you had to take along the way. And by the skin of your teeth, if I recall, the number was 38. Am I remembering that right? that's my my reason not only when you when you go on the Navy had to take that math test, which I took my beginning algebra. Yada yada and. Was not a math hold, you know, moved on. And then they have to to call it's basic training. Reading comprehensive. test. So every week, I guess, I don't know, you're given a book and they're the something goes down and you gotta read. The Ford's blacked out so you get this speed reader, whatever. And then you take and poop, you know, pencils down and they get. question on comprehension. What did you just read? What did it say? And the score there was 38. If you got 38, you passed. Like that was the minimum score required. was the minimum score below that you're out. Okay, so there I am with my handicap and I can remember like the third week and thereafter the lieutenant, he didn't like me, but he just shook his head when they read it out in front of everybody. It's just naughty. He shakes his head and he says 38 again. So. So, right, but I know and part of the reason I love that so much Mike is like, it was good enough to get through right like you did and and it wasn't a judge. How do I say this? It wasn't the best test of what your character was that test was just that an aspect of test of comprehension of whatever that item was, but it wasn't the sum oh of all of the things that you are and do. And so you did just enough to get by often and just made it just barely every time. But, and then finally through, as, as an example, how, how, uh, to, have over 300 traps on a carrier in a combat zone. I mean, how, how common is that? Uh. Not that common. If I'd gone, uh... jets. I would have been in the F-4. I'm remembering the can, John Can, the guy that was captured in uh Vietnam and the senator or whatever. He went through about the same time and he didn't get jets, but he had his dad who was an admiral at one time got him jets. oh got shot down on his first flight. And then another Marine friend who flew the jets, he got out with a total time of 800 hours. And I got out with 1,800 hours. So you... You got more flying time and more traps, more, you know, versus the jets. So. Yeah, but mean, being able to get to have that many successful flights, right? But yeah, was another reason to get out of the service. They call it the commander's moon. You go out to sea and the lieutenant commander, commanders of your squadron, they don't fly at night. They're not gonna do that again. I mean, you pay attention, say, hey, you get older and wiser. So yeah. You just gotta know who you are and where you are. And going uh It's a lot of experience. It's a lot of reps, right? a good friend, he's up in Tahoe. He joined the Navy two years after I did. He went to four years of college and then the draft was after him. And I've come through Phoenix with my— flight helmet and shiny reflective tape, ran into him in a bar and I said, hey, I said, you don't want to be an enlisted man, join the Navy and get your wings and all. And he did. He took my advice and, or my lead or whatever. Anyway, he, and he joins the Navy and he, he marries, gets, he, Runs around in Pensacola and runs over to. I was in Biloxi, Mississippi and meets his nurse is why he marries or have a military wedding and he goes flies. Electro. Lockheed, electro four engine planes land based in Europe. And. uh Every night he's home with his wife, that kind of thing. Nice lady too, Nancy. But I remember Tom telling her, look, Nancy, Mike was in a different Navy. I mean, we were in the Navy together. Mike was in a different Navy. Mike was flying off of carriers on the West Coast, single and raising hell. And he's married and fly every night home. So that's, well, I don't know. Yeah, exactly. Same Navy, but different, way different journeys. He had it standard down a little bit, saying, you don't understand. This guy is way different than what we were, so. And I think that, mean, to be candid, that part of that is that that's that aspect, that unique journey that you experience, right? That's that in of itself is a gift. And each of us on our own journey should take the value in that and reflect back and recognize that this is our this is our journey, right? Independently, whatever your life is, it's your journey. And while people may go along the journey with you at the end of it, you're the one who's responsible. for finding the joy in that moment, right? Bringing the laughs, right? Enjoying the experience, looking back on those memories fondly, or with reflection on the lesson that you learned along the way with the hope and intention perhaps not to make the same mistake again, right? my Navy friend, the guy we're talking about that did the four engine thing, everything, he's got my favorite bumper sticker. says, happy by choice. And I don't know where he got it, but it's a fire refine one. It's just as simple as that. He said, I'm happy by choice. Thank you, Mike. I love quotes and I will tell you hearing that like locked, that one is gonna be one that's with me forever. Thank you. Happy by choice. Thank you for that. So you just gave me some Dragon's Gold right there, but we talk about Dragon's Gold, uh things in our life, moments, accolades, rewards, things that we've achieved or experienced. ah Is there something that jumps out to your mind that you would consider Dragon's Gold? when I got my Navy wings and then when I got my Captain wings. Yeah, we got those Ticket sponsored. Yeah. And because of the tenacity, Many times along that way, you could have lost that or given up on it, right? But you didn't. You pushed through and you achieved it. Tenacity. but yeah. So, Mike, uh I call this the Hall of Heroes. If there was a massive statue of Mike Naughton, and it would be huge, with a big plaque on there that could say anything you want to future generations, what would you want that plaque to say? I told you so. Hahaha! You amazing. Boom, period. I love it. I love it. I think that that just knowing you that encompasses so much and I think it's such a powerful point, especially I think it's very poignant, especially considering the idea about tenacity, right? You say that with with everything, the entire theme of this recognizing that perseverance and pushing through, right? Just not quitting. And to have to have that, right? I told you so. No doubt in my mind, So what's next? What's the next quest? What's your plans for the future, Death. the next stage, right? I mean, the reality is, like, all come in and we're all gonna have to go eventually, right? What we do along the way. I think you've got hell of a lot of humor left to share, my friend, a lot. Are you interested in this piano I'm trying to get rid of? My wife says, we got to start getting rid of this stuff so the kids don't have to deal with it. And I says, get rid of that piano. But no, I'm... down to the short strokes, I guess. 84 I still ride my and I'm healthy. So I don't feel like taking euthanasia yet, but I still ride my I still ride my bike 20 miles in the morning. But it's a lot different. Mike say that again 84 years old and you ride your bike 20 miles every morning, but it's a lot harder or a lot different than it was, know, I'm really knocking down the miles real quick, but I still get out there, still maintain 11 miles per hour. And you just keep on trucking. You know, you can't stop. or you'll rust. That's it. You can't stop or you'll rust. I love it. Mike, I knew today's conversation was going to be powerful and that I, I mean, I enjoy, enjoy doing these interviews, but I will tell you, I really looked forward to today's and I wasn't disappointed in the slightest. I'm super grateful that you spent the time with us today. Thank you. right, Mike, I got to ask you one more question. And to me, this is the most important question that I'm going to ask you today. If you could be. any mythical creature, what would you be and why? I have no mythical creature. I'm not well read. And I don't want to be anybody but me. I love that. My friend, I would argue that you are very much mythical. The legend, the myth of Michael Norton. Mike, you're amazing. And I love that. Even that answer alone, You just want to be you, right? You want to be you. that, um I think there's a lot of strength in that and a lot of power. And I think it's a beautiful answer. So thank you for sharing that, bud. My friends, thank you for joining us once again on our quest to inspire, educate, and empower you to turn your dreams into reality, one mindset shift at a time. We'll see you next time. See you later alligator. after a while, crocodile.

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Justin Mills

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Aaron Iler

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