Books4Guys - Ariel Robles "From Stutter to Success"

As Dr. Robles shares from his personal experience and communicates tested scientific research, you the reader will be empowered to:

• Dream big
• Trust God’s plan for your life
• Step into your destiny
• Be relentless and persevere
• Be thankful
• Leave a legacy in life

Come and enjoy a thrilling life journey and discover how Dr. Ariel Robles was able to overcome stuttering as a child, teenager, and adult. As you see how God blessed him to become a successful speaker, preacher, and technology executive, you too will be inspired to live an overcoming life and leave a memorable legacy. 

Author | Speaker | Mentor | Director of IT Infrastructure & Cloud - Americas

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Yeah, yeah. A lot of a lot of business around there too. So I miss it. But no, Ariel, man, I am so glad to have you on the Books for Guys podcast this week. As I came across your book on LinkedIn, as I came across your profile, and I was like, oh man, I got to get Ariel on on the podcast. He's got a great story to share.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Awesome. Awesome. Yeah, it's it's a privilege. I thank you for this opportunity to having me on your podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

I was reading through your website and the authors that you've had interviews with. Amazing, awesome, awesome.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Yeah. We're trying to do some, you know, and everybody knows that follows books for guys, trying to be impactful in in a good way and encourage more reading and more personal growth and development. And I mean, your story lines up with exactly that. And your book, From Stutter to Success, you know, you've had a path that wasn't always easy, but you've been able to accomplish some incredible things in your life. And you're a published author as well. And uh I guess my first question, Ariel, is did you ever think growing up that you would write a book one day?

SPEAKER_00 1:25

So not when I was a kid and as a teenager, uh, I grew up on a church, right? I grew up going to church like a a lot of a lot of uh like a lot of people. I never thought of writing a book, but then I started, I started some positions in the church, helping as a secretary or the board directors of one of my pastures in Puerto Rico. And I started, my father, who was a civil engineer for lots of years, lots of decades, he was a teacher of teachers at the church, and he used to write papers. And that's when my hunger and thirst for writing started. And I knew that someday when I had the time, because I was just ramping up my career in IT, in technology. It started, uh I started in the early 90s, late 80s, uh uh, early 90s, and always have been busy in the computer science space, in the technology space, IT space, in corporate positions, in management positions. Um, and I focus a lot on my career, but also on parallel, also uh occupy several positions at the church. I started my own ministry and speaking public. So I knew that someday I wanted to start writing books uh and different topics. So when I started thinking of writing my book around right in the middle of the pandemic, when a lot of people had time in their hands, right? You finally had time. I finally had time, so I I wrote my book. And um the first book I wanted to be uh something about uh a biography, kind of a biography, biopic of uh of me of my journey, of my startering years when I was a kid, teenager, even as a young uh uh uh adult, and how I was able to overcome my stuttering, which really uh in the book I speak about singing that helped me overcome the the startering with singing because as as you read in the book, startering gives you a rhythm and gives you a cadence that you can use when uh speaking in public, right? So, so I said, okay, I'm gonna write about my journey since I was a kid, on how the challenges that I had as a kid of startering, and how I was able to overcome it, and how my my faith in God and and and having faith on God's purpose for me and believing in myself, right? I had mentors that helped me also during my journey. So I wanted to write about that and how how to how can I the questions is the questions were how can I inspire someone? What's the story that that felt like the story of my life and how I could inspire and motivate people to overcome challenges, not just stuttering, but any any challenges or problems, obstacles, mountains that they had during their childhood or early, early adulthood, and how this book could help them overcome those challenges in life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

Yeah. No, and I, Ariel, I love that because I love, again, that's what we are trying to promote too, is more encouragement and positive stories and motivation because we talk about this a lot. There's a lot of people you look at, you know, CEOs or people who have created great companies or who are doing great things, and a lot of people they just see the highlight reel and they think, oh, these people, they just like everything they touch is gold and it's so easy. But then when you learn the path that most people take, there's a lot of challenges and like yours, you know, having a stutter and then working through how to, you know, now you're now you speak publicly, you know, like how cool is that that you've gotten to this point um and worked through that. And so I was gonna ask you, so you said Puerto Rico. When did you move? When did you move from Puerto Rico?

SPEAKER_00 5:29

So I moved from Puerto Rico uh to Atlanta at the beginning of 2007. Okay. So I've been here uh 19, what, 19 years, almost 20 years in Atlanta. I really am an island boy, uh going almost every weekend, every other weekend to the beach, the mountains, uh, like nature. Um moving to Atlanta 2007 was the purpose really was to um uh better uh career opportunities, better paying opportunity uh jobs here in the States, which has been the case, right? Uh compared to uh to Puerto Rico. And uh it has been an amazing journey. Uh I love this city, I love Atlanta, what it offers, uh culture, the opportunities. Specifically here in Atlanta, there's a lot of headquarters of Fortune 100 companies, Fortune 500 companies, and great cities. Uh been here almost 20 years. I love Atlanta. My my children are here, uh, my wife, so it's it's been great. Atlanta has been great. My career, almost 40 years in in technology as a technology uh executive. So, yes, 2007. I always say, uh, you were mentioning that a lot uh some of the CEOs build great companies, right? Uh but a lot of people don't see the challenges they overcome. I always I always say that people are amazed of the glory, right? They like the glory, but they don't know the story behind those people that have achieved success in their careers or the ministries, a large church or a business or a technology executive. A lot of people see the glory, but they don't know the story.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

I like I like how you say that. People see the glory, but they don't know the story. And that that couldn't be more true. And I was gonna ask, Ariel, you talk a little bit about technology and in your career progression there. How did you get introduced and interested in technology? And what was your progression as now you've become a a leader within the space for for multiple companies that you've been with?

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Yeah, so um I remember when I was a junior in high school, mentor, a career mentor told us, so what do you want to do? What colleges do you want to apply to? What career? And I was thinking, okay, what is it that I'm passionate about? The week after there was a uh uh a college in Puerto Rico in San Juan, they had an open house at our high school, right? And they had all their brochures of their new shiny bachelor's in computer science. And this is uh and they were uh promoting their new bachelor's of computer science with brochures and all that. And I said, hmm, this is interesting. And when I got home, uh I went to the Wikipedia of old, the World Book Encyclopedia. Yes. Back then we had a written encyclopedia. Back then, so I went to the World Book Encyclopedia and I started look checking okay, computer science, and I started looking at the pictures of the computer centers, the big mainframes, the tape reels, the IBM logo, and and computer programming in Fortran back then, right? And C plus so I said, Yeah, this is interesting. This is what what I want to do. Technology really, without knowing the evolution of technology throughout the years that I've seen, almost 40 years.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

I've got a separate question for you about that.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Okay. So, and that's how I got interested. Uh, the uh the college, the university that was near my job came and do an open house at the high school, and they presented their their the brochure of their new bachelor's in computer science, among other career tracks, right? And I got interested immediately. I got hooked on computer science, on technology, when I saw the pictures and the encyclopedia of the data centers, which were called computer centers back then, right? The the big mainframe computers, the IBM logo. And I said to myself, this is what I want to do. This is my career. And that's how I got interested in computer science and technology.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Yeah, and I was gonna ask, because you you kind of already brought it up. I've been in the recruiting space for just a little over 10 years now. So I've seen, even in that time, just the difference in technologies and the needs for large companies and like what people are hiring for, what people are not hiring for anymore. It moves very, very fast. And even me within like the last two years with AI coming around, it's kind of freaky, just that just how quickly things can pivot and change. But I was gonna ask you, Ariel, throughout your career, what's been something that you've just been astonished by from a technology standpoint? And like, I guess when you started early in your career, things are fascinating then, but like looking back now, what are some moments that have taken place within that sector that you just think, wow, that was a big moment for technology? I mean, is it AI? Were there some other moments where you were like, I'm excited to be a part of this and see what all what's being built from an innovation standpoint?

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Oh yes. There were several moments in my career when I was uh starting in college, the first defining moment was in uh at the beginning of the 80s when the IBM PC was launched. The IBM PC that shifted the entire landscape of computer science, and now you could program and do a lot of things with your IBM PC that was launched, I think it was 81, August 1981, the IBM PC. So that launch that was a critical moment in in IT, in technology, the launch of the IBM PC. And also later, obviously, all the other computer manufacturers, OEM, started their own companies, Dell Computers, SER, all the clones. Back then there was the Compaq uh uh uh uh uh laptop. 1981 was uh a great moment. I was still I was uh still a junior. Sorry, was still a junior in in in high school. The IBM PC was launched in the market. But when I started my college, my four-year college, I used the IBM PC for the labs and and started to program in C, in, uh in in Pascal, in Fortran, all those languages. So that was a pivotal moment. Then the evolution of the uh 8-inch, the floppy disk, to the smaller uh uh floppy disk, and then to the the C D, then to the DVDs, so all were important iterations and innovations of of the of the uh technology uh space. And then came the internet boom, right? The email first, and then the internet. I don't know if you remember AOL was I had AOL. You got AOL? I put a you got mail, AOL, email, dial-up service, dial-up internet service with the sound, yeah. Yeah, the the dial-up internet, and then came the the world wide web, right? The internet in the mid in the mid-90s and the boom of e co e-commerce, uh shopping in the early 2000s, right? And and and then came the the the the iPhone in 2007, right? That changed the technology space, so that really accelerated uh uh uh social media, right? In 2007, back then MySpace, and then Facebook, believe 2007, 2009, and then social media revolutionized, right? The the technology space. The cloud, cloud computing in the mid-2000s started to Amazon with its AWS, Microsoft with its Azure started a revolution on cloud uh cloud computing. And then after cloud computing, I believe it was what 20 November 2022 that GPT came about, uh AI. Now, all throughout my career, I've seen the innovations happen in chips, in memory servers every three, four, or five years. Now it's like every couple of months there is an innovation coming along, and it's been accelerating at a fast pace, the the evolution and innovation of technology with AI now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Do you think that's it? First of all, I'm thinking you were talking about I remember my grandparents having a computer and I getting I had an AOL account and I remember e-cards, and I would go find e-cards and email it to my grandma. She thought that was the funniest thing that I was so into just finding e-cards, and I figured out how to send emails at a at a young age. Ariel, with how fast technology is moving now, it's kind of hard to fathom like what what things will look like even in a year, two years. Do you think that do you think that's a good thing? Or do you think sometimes we move like things are moving too fast for people to actually conceptually keep up with and actually, I don't know, utilize the right way? It just seems like sometimes the train's going so fast down the track. And I know there's a lot of talk about guardrailing of of AI and and some of the things that maybe need to be limited, but just what is your personal opinion on where technology is headed and what are some things that people need to be careful about? And what are some things you see that may be like really good that that we may be able to experience in the coming years?

SPEAKER_00 15:24

So the evolution of technology is good. With AI, I would say is a mixed back. And let me explain myself. So AI has helped a lot of people in their businesses. For example, let's say co-pilot, Microsoft co-pilot in the corporate space, and Chad GBT and Claude, right? Anthropic on the on the uh on the consumer space. So it helps uh it helps our daily lives doing research because our AI uh agents will do the research for you and bring you the information and helps you organize uh the information. So that's good. The downside of it is that I believe there's gonna uh uh 20 or 30 percent of the uh repetitive jobs or positions inevitably will be uh eliminated. I'll give you an example. My wife has an e-commerce company, she had a public uh relations person, a PR, that did their their um their communications, other their postings. Now she does it herself with with Chat GPT, with AI. So I believe a lot of entry-level jobs and clerical jobs that do research will be inevitably be eliminated due to the simplicity of AI, right? But also creates other positions, other opportunities, maybe not for for common people, but people that are in the computer science space, because you need how to how to prompt, right? You need to know how to prompt correctly the chatbot, AI. So that's an opportunity for a job to train machine learning, large machine LLM models, right? But inevitably, inevitably, some of the positions will be eliminated due to AI. I can't tell you a percentage, could be 20%, could be 30%, but it is no surprise that AI will simplify the lives of a lot of people that have business, even people that don't have business, but they use it for simple things. They take a picture of a plant. Hey, AI, what's this plant? How can I water this plant that tells you everything, right? So it helps the everyday lives of people, AI, but inevitably it will eliminate some positions. The job market will shift probably in the next couple of years. One example of uh that could be used in the wrong hands, there's a case that Anthropic, just one in the courts, but you know that the government wanted anthropic without guardrails, right? To weaponize it and use it for strategic surveillance and weapons. So uh anthropic denied, they said, no, we cannot do that because we know how destructive AI can be. So they they they told the government we can't do that. And the government took them to court and they just won the case, I believe, yesterday or today. So it's important that AI has guardrails because if falling into the wrong hands, it could it could do a lot of damage. It's already done damage. I've known people that are not hackers and they train and ask AI, how can I hack this website? And it tells you one, two, three, four, five. So without AI without guardrails becomes very dangerous to society, very dangerous for a city, for a nation, for established systems, because it can disrupt everyday lives. It can even start wars if the guardrails of AI software are not there.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Yeah, and you bring up several good points. And while there is a lot of good, um, yeah, there's a lot of kind of unknown uh security risk in a lot of different areas. And I think, you know, in my space from the recruiting side aerial, the job, the potential job loss is a big concern too, because you even a couple of years ago when ChatGBT came out, I know we were a lot of people are thinking, like, oh, it's not gonna do you know what we think it is, but it actually is having an effect and eliminating more jobs that maybe quicker than anticipated. And it's like, so what do you do when, you know, maybe 30% of your workforce all of a sudden all of a sudden doesn't have a job, you know, how do they make an income and support their families? And like, what do we do to create the balance of and that kind of goes back to you know technology moving so fast that it gets ahead of our planning from the backside on what we do when that happens? So it's just gonna be a I think it's one of those things we're gonna live out and see how this transpires. But I was also gonna ask too, Ariel, um, you know, because again, from like a books for guys standpoint, I love encouraging people to deep dive and learn things. And and I talk to so many people who talk about the importance of that. Do you think AI almost takes away some of your need and desire to critically think and really learn things? Because that was one of the things I've talked with people about too, is you can quickly go get an answer and you really don't even absorb the information. You're just like, okay, that's what it says. Cool. I'm gonna just input it, move to the next thing, and you don't really comprehend what you really needed to know. What do you think the solution is to that? And do you think that's a potential long-term too from AI?

SPEAKER_00 21:02

Yeah, true. There's a uh, I think it was in LinkedIn, there was an article, a study they did of the brain before AI and after AI. And if you depend a lot of AI, your critical thinking uh is it's not your brain is not as lit as as if you didn't use AI. So it does have an effect on your critical thinking because if you depend on AI all the time, then you're not thinking. You're letting Chat GPT think for you, and you're just accepting, right? What AI, you need to steal every output that you receive from Chat GPT or any other AI chat, but you must be able to analyze it, right? With your own brain, analyze it. Is does this sound correct? Is this is this correct? Can I use this as a foundation? And not just use what AI gives you, analyze and add your own critical thinking into it, because there's a potential danger that your critical thinker will diminish through the years if you just keep accepting what AI is giving you, which I said to a degree is a good thing, right? Because uh it eliminates a lot of a lot of uh research that, especially deep research that AI can do. But if you do it for every little thing, every daily task, then your critical thinking decreases significantly.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

Yeah, and there's something there's something good about feeling like you learned something and accomplished something too. So it's important to have the challenge uh to figure something out. So I know a lot of people talk about that balance, just like you said. Like, hey, some of this can help you be more efficient on some things, but like you still need to challenge yourself and figure things out and look for things yourself. But no, just a couple more questions for you, Ariel. And I want to go back to to your book specifically, and specifically your faith and then your stutter growing up and how you overcame that to again become a leader within your companies and and write a book and become a public speaker. Talk about just your growth from you know, I know you mentioned music helped you a lot, but I really want you to talk more about the stutter. Was there times where it was really challenging for you and uncomfortable? And and what are some of those moments where you had to overcome that? And I know you talk a lot about your faith playing a big role in that.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

Yes. So there are different types of stutter that I explain, right, in the book. Uh, there's three types of stutter. The first one is developmental stuttering, which is normal for children where they're starting to speak, that's uh that's normal. But then the children, the child overcomes that stuttering because they're learning how to speak. The second type of stuttering is neurogenic stuttering, and it comes when when there's a disconnect between the brain and and the nerves and and and the muscles. This is when there's there's a um an accident, physical accident, that some are, for example, uh the result of a stroke or brain injury. It has to do with your neurologic system. That's called neurogenic startering. Then there's the psychogenic uh startering, which is psychological, it's in response to a major trauma in your life. The person has difficulty trying to concentrate, focus, right? And difficulties in thinking and and and reasoning. But uh in my case, it was a developmental that did not develop into a normal pattern. So when you have startering, there are several degrees of startering. You have normal disposacy, you have mild stuttering, and you have severe stuttering. I had severe startering, it was difficult for me to speak in public, so that led me to be very introverted, that led me to be very shy in school. I I only spoke when spoken or asked about something, and that led me to other things. For example, when I read a book out loud, I did not stutter because reading gives you also a rhythm and a cadence. Another thing that helped me to overcome startering, and I write on the book about this, is singing, and that's why I always wanted to join the school choirs. I attend the Christian bilingual academy in Puerto Rico. I always was part of the choir because singing gives you a uh like reading gives you a cadence and gives you a rhythm that both reading out loud and singing helped me apply that into my career and helped me apply that to starting to speak in public in the mid-90s when I started the ministry. I was a youth pastor for 10 years in Puerto Rico before I moved to Atlanta. I started a church, I pastored a church, helped other pastors, and I started to mentor other pastors. So my faith in God and the plan he had for me, faith in myself and reading, speaking in public and singing, all those combined helped me overcome starting through time. I became a speaker, I became a preacher, and all those factors combined singing, reading out loud, even at home now, when I read a book, I read out loud still because you have to continue to develop, right? So all those factors helped me overcome my starting through life, even to through adulthood.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Yeah. Well, that's incredible, Ariel. And I know, again, I think your story can be very motivating for somebody who may be dealing with something similar and they can they can see you overcome those challenges and to to go on and do great things. Again, public speaking. You know, someone may think, I'm never going to be able to do that, but you've given some things that helped you, and maybe they can apply that. So I think it's really, again, that's why I love these conversations, and they're they're extremely important to have so that people can take stuff away from that. But Ariel, I got one more question for you. And this one may be hard because I see a bunch of books behind you. Okay. And uh it sounds like you read a lot, but I'm always curious on what's a book or two that has had a personal or professional impact on you, and then what's a book that you like to recommend to other people?

SPEAKER_00 27:46

Because there's a couple, especially those self-help books. I remember uh uh a decade ago, one that I really like, Who Moved My Cheese? I've heard of that. I haven't read it, but I've heard of that. Who moved my cheese? Because in my position or positions during my career as a technology executive, in some companies they assigned you a book. Okay, read this book. And one that uh I think it was either at CD Group or Verizon assigned us a book, and uh the book was Who Moved My Cheese, right? There's another one that is called the the 20-minute manager, is it? Um heard of that one too. Uh the book. So those leadership type of books help self-help, those are the books that that that uh I would recommend. Gunho is another one. So there's uh quite some books out there that can help you uh help people in their careers as a leader.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

Yeah. I'm a big fan of those books too. Personal development, leadership books, business books. Me, me and you have the same interest there. But Ariel, we are proud to have your book on the website from Stutter to Success. And we can't wait for people to watch and listen to this episode. Just again, it's an honor for us to to have you on and to share your story. And uh just thank you. Thank you again for taking the time to do this.

SPEAKER_00 29:11

Thank you very much for the invite, Chris. It's a pleasure being part of this community of books for us, and until the next time.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Absolutely. Thanks, Ariel.

SPEAKER_00 29:20

All right.