Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Conovision is all about stories — and the storytellers who bring them to life. Stories about art, culture, and philosophy. Stories that inform, entertain, and inspire. Stories that invite us to reflect on who we are and where we’re going.
Hosted by Jim Conrad — a seasoned broadcaster and voice actor with over 40 years of experience, giving voice to the visions of others in film, radio, and television for a global audience — Conovision marks a new chapter: a platform for Jim to share the stories that matter most to him.
On Conovision, you’ll hear stories of success and hard-won truths, love and laughter, and personal histories from people whose lived experiences offer wisdom for the modern age.
At its heart, Conovision is a living archive — a home for spoken-word prose, poetry, and what Jim calls “Aural Intelligence”: a place where sound, storytelling, and meaning come together to spark reflection and connection.
Production and sound design by GGRP Studios in Vancouver, Canada.
Jim Conrad: Welcome to the Conovision
Podcast, the spirit of storytelling.
I am Jim Conrad, AKA Cono, and
today on episode nine we tell
stories about the nature of reality.
Yes, I'm aiming high.
We'll ask some questions around
that, as well as have an interview
with a good friend, John Good,
businessman, entrepreneur, former
television news anchor, media
personality, and part of a very famous
broadcasting family here in Vancouver.
Son of Bill Good Sr and brother of
Bill Good Jr. That's a bit later.
Also an essay from Julio Olalla about
the various crises of the Western mind.
But first, let's talk about the
nature of reality, the reality of
nature, and the question, are we
both inside and outside of both.
Our environment of the senses, sees,
hears, tastes, smells, and touches
the fusion of nature into a reality
that we bring into consciousness.
We call it perception, but do
we really understand nature?
Do we really understand reality?
And what are the limits of our
conscious and unconscious minds?
Is there an objective reality,
independent of thought?
Well, what do the thinkers
think about all this?
Werner Heisenberg, the famous physicist,
and Carl Jung, the famous psychoanalyst,
both shaped 20th century thought
by challenging rigid materialism,
finding common ground between
quantum physics and depth psychology.
Heisenberg's uncertainty principle
and Jung's archetypes both suggest
that fundamental underlying structures
govern reality, often appearing
in symbolic or mathematical form.
While Jung worked more closely with
physicist Wolfgang Pauli on the
concept of synchronicity, meaningful
coincidences, bridging matter, and psyche.
Or as GK Chesterton said of
coincidences, they are spiritual puns.
This circle of thinkers, Heisenberg,
Pauli, and Jung, sought to
unite science and spirituality.
Jung's concept of synchronicity and
Heisenberg's quantum mechanics challenged
traditional cause and effect pointing
toward a non-local, interconnected world.
Heisenberg's work like Jung's highlights
that the tenuous nature of reality
requires recognizing the limitations
of purely objective observation.
Here's a quote from Heisenberg.
The first gulp from the glass of natural
sciences will turn you into an atheist.
But at the bottom of the
glass, God is waiting for you.
Yes, God.
The God.
The Gods.
The unsolvable puzzle, the
imponderable enigma, shrouded in
mystery, smothered in secret sauce.
And finally this from Charles B Newcomb,
author of Psychic Philosophy and the
Awakening of Spiritual Consciousness.
Let us move on and step out boldly,
though it be into the night and
we can scarcely see the way.
A higher intelligence than the
mortal sees the road before us.
We live in interesting times, challenging
times, as a result of the coming
together of several significant factors.
This moment in time right here,
right now, is turning out to
be especially consequential.
Here in the West after centuries of
relative stability and consistency in
our ways of thinking, we are beginning to
look around and see other possibilities.
This new openness is clearly related
to a series of crises that have
been emerging in Western culture.
First, the crisis of epistemology.
The theory of knowledge,
especially with regard to its
methods, validity, and scope.
Epistemology is the investigation
of what distinguishes
justified belief from opinion.
Consider for a moment the paradigm
of rationalism that has permeated
Western culture ever since Plato.
The far reaching results of this paradigm,
so clearly seen in the extraordinary
achievements of science and its sister
disciplines of mathematics and logic,
along with the use of the scientific
method are surely not debatable.
However, the truly extraordinary
evolution of Western science also
carries with it two core epistemological
assumptions of great significance.
The first assumption is basically
that of scientism, the belief that
science and scientific thinking alone
can determine what is to be accepted
as real, as well as determining
the scope of what can be known.
Under this presupposition, everything
must be either subject to the laws of
physics, chemistry, biology, and other
scientific disciplines, or else not
be considered an objective experience.
Spirituality long regarded with deep
suspicion, if not contempt by science,
and even aesthetics, intuition, emotion
and morality, have been reduced to the
status of variable functions of brain
chemistry, interacting with certain
microbiological laws of human evolution.
Furthermore, in addition to telling
us what can be known, science also
dictates how this can be known either
the acquisition of knowledge proceeds
according to the well-established precepts
of the scientific method, or if not, it
is to be regarded as being of secondary
importance or even absolute bullshit.
The three central parameters of
this method are objectivism, the
assumption that there is an objective
universe that can be explored and
known scientifically, positivism, the
assumption that only what is physically
observable counts as scientifically real.
And reductionism, the assumption that
scientific explanation proceeds by
explaining more complex phenomena in
terms of more elementary ones, or in other
words, the whole in terms of its parts.
Adhering to these principles results
in whole realms of human experience
being left out, or alternatively,
in the belief that the systematic
exploration of these realms can no
longer lay claim to the official
designation of knowledge, and that any
prestige that naturally accompanies
this scientific principle is lost.
Meanwhile, as human beings
our deep desire for wisdom and
wholeness remains unfulfilled.
The second epistemological assumption
that underlies Western science is that
knowledge is to be acquired primarily
for the sake of manipulating the
physical world, for dominating nature.
As Sir Francis Bacon, the father
of the scientific method, insisted
the universe is seen simply
as a resource to be exploited.
And so our whole focus becomes one
of figuring out how to accomplish
this domination effectively.
Paradoxically, oh, and by the way, a
paradox as defined by GK Chesterton
is the truth standing on its head
trying to draw attention to itself.
So yes, paradoxically, our very
obsession to dominate and control nature
is leading to a situation that seems
increasingly dangerous and out of control.
We appear to be completely unable to
restrain our tendency to pollute the
atmosphere, poison our lakes and streams,
destroy our forests, and decimate
our rich inheritance of animal life.
Tragically, we have almost completely
lost the more primordial view of the world
as a place of dwelling, a place we feel
inherently connected to and at home in.
Now comes the crisis of capitalism.
As a result of this manipulative
stance toward the world, we have become
very good at two things, acquiring
knowledge and acting effectively in
order to put this knowledge to good use.
It's scarcely surprising then,
that technology and business
management have become two of the
driving forces shaping our culture.
As we continue to move forward into
this relatively new century, we can see
the impact of these forces pervading
almost every aspect of our daily lives.
The success of technology-based companies,
or in other words, modern capitalism,
can seemingly no more be doubted
than the success of the rationalistic
scientific paradigm that underlies them.
Indeed, since the fall of the Berlin
Wall in 1989, signaling the end of
communism and the collapse of the
Soviet Empire, capitalism appears
to have emerged triumphant as the
virtually unchallengeable model.
A model that most countries long to
imitate with the G7 countries, and
others, as the clear, intellectual,
political, technological,
industrial, and military leaders.
What has become inherent in modern
capitalism is a deep commitment to growth
for its own sake, and for the ceaseless
accumulation of wealth and power, often
with little regard for other values.
What we're witnessing now is a gap
between the well off and the poor that
is growing daily and may be approaching
a dangerous point of instability.
Today, roughly 3% of the human population
owns close to 50% of all human wealth.
Business organizations today are obsessed
with a single concern, how to push the
rate of growth and profit ever higher.
Unlike nature, which appears to be
governed by a law of dynamic homeostasis
dictating when a process of growth
or change should move forward, slow
down, or stop altogether, present
day capitalism appears never to
recognize a point of this is enough.
Imagine a CEO of a company addressing an A
GM and saying, we're not growing anymore.
Sorry.
He'd be run outta town on a rail.
And onward to the crisis of disconnection.
The Copernican revolution, despite
its brilliant impact in both science
and philosophy, ended up leaving us
inhabiting a cold purposeless universe
in which the appearance of humankind
shows up only as a cosmological accident,
an epiphenomenon of matter, far from
being at the very center of a divinely
ordained and ordered cosmos, which
was then believed, we found ourselves
radically decentered, condemned to exist
as the soul beings that are endowed with
intelligence and purpose, yet in a silent,
mindless, aimless, mechanical universe.
In many preceding eras and cultures,
human beings have felt a deep
sense of connection with the world.
Seen, for example, in their
willingness to listen to the various
ways that nature spoke to them.
In the medieval Christian Times,
the natural world was regarded as an
expression of God's glory and benevolence.
In our post Copernican world, however, we
experience a profound cosmic loneliness.
Nature no longer has anything to
say and remains silent in the face
of our analytical probings, adrift
in a boundaryless realm of space
and time, devoid of a spiritual
dimension to our lives, we find it
increasingly hard to make sense of
ourselves or our reason for existing.
The universe has become disenchanted.
This sense of deep and seemingly
ineradicable loneliness and disconnection
is beginning to seep into our bones.
We can see it at a very practical
level, for example, in the
epidemic of depression, now
sweeping much of the Western world.
We also recognize its symptoms
and our loss of community life.
Even in our relationships
with one another.
There are a growing number of
people choosing to live alone.
In our business organizations, we
are failing to find opportunities
to pursue fulfilling lives.
Instead, we become obsessed with
a single gain called more, faster,
and short term profits regardless
of the cost, in terms of the
impoverishment of human relationships
and the loss of the dignity of work.
Even medicine and some schools
of psychology have contributed
to our sense of disconnectedness
and alienation from the universe.
By stripping human beings of any
spiritual dimension, we no longer sense
our dependence on one another and on
the universe, which used to be seen as
our fundamentally benevolent source.
Our whole understanding of
ourselves has, as a consequence,
been profoundly affected.
We are losing the balance between our
individuality, our community, and nature.
A loss that goes right along
with the reductionism of Western
science, which races the status of
the parts over that of the whole.
Blind to our multiple connections
with the world, instead of seeing
life as an opportunity to serve,
we fall into a mood of ingratitude.
We consider ourselves to be
primarily the worthy recipient while
failing to engage in any kind of
reciprocity, let alone generosity.
Just as we become disconnected from
nature and society, we also become
alienated from ourselves, particularly
in regard to our emotions and our bodies.
This may at first seem puzzling
in this age of psychotherapy.
Perhaps we should see the growing
demand for psychotherapy as itself
a measure of the degree of our
emotional and physical malaise.
What has arisen in response to our
sense of alienation, of course, is
the pervasive self-help movement.
As anyone who buys books knows, the
self-help section in most bookstores
is usually one of the largest.
No doubt such a flood of advice regarding
how to live is not all misguided.
Clearly, many people are genuinely
helped by this trend, but much of this
guidance appears to be aimed at learning
to manipulate ourselves just as we have
dedicated ourselves to acquire knowledge
in order to manipulate and control nature.
Unfortunately, this is not a very
effective approach to the learning that
appears to be needed precisely because it
focuses attention on the isolated self.
It is true that we are individuals born
with particular predispositions, but we
tend to forget that culture, society,
and nature are also dimensions of self.
One clear sign of this radical
impoverishment of our sources is
a pervasive lack of passion in our
personal and professional lives.
We hold passion as an
opposite of intelligence.
It is a common occurrence to encounter
people who consider us foolish or naive
if we dare to show passion for anything.
Passion can be understood as a mystical
act, constituting nothing less than a
predisposition to fuse with the world.
Whether we lose ourselves in a task that
we are deeply engaged in or melt together
with another person in the act of making
love, passion shows up as an experience
of merging with our surroundings.
The act of service may also
engender passion as we are drawn
to become ourselves in the act
of aiding and supporting others.
Passion then is the emotion of
connectedness par excellence.
We unquestionably need moments of
passion in order to lead healthy,
fulfilling, satisfying lives.
But how can we experience passion
when we find ourselves living
disconnected in a meaningless world?
What we are left with all too often
is passion limited to the physical
act of sex, and little else.
A situation that renders
our lives dry and deeply
unsatisfying.
And finally, the crisis in learning.
This sense of disconnectedness also
spills over into the realm of education.
Our view of learning is deeply affected
by the pervasiveness of this rationalistic
scientific worldview, just as knowledge
is about acquisition, manipulation,
and consumption, so learning, as
currently organized in our schools and
colleges, has come to be centered on
accumulating and utilizing information.
But learning is not just about gathering
and applying information to produce
ever more effective action in the world.
This reductionist view of schooling
is quite antagonistic to the broader,
traditional ideal of education
as a means to learn how to live
both wisely and well in our world.
Is it any wonder then that our children
are completely turned off by school,
seeing it as more or less irrelevant
to their future, beyond the acquisition
of a certain set of credentials.
These crises that have arisen from the
progressive outworking of these dominant
factors in Western culture, together
with the general lack of balance that
they have generated, produce breakdowns
that we encounter again and again on
the personal, community, governmental,
and breakdowns In leadership.
Our task is to embrace our
difficulties in a mood of complete
honesty, openness, and acceptance.
Let us remind ourselves that the
seeds of change are contained
in the difficulties themselves.
This is our task, to reconnect
and reestablish our natural
union with the universe.
In the West, we have for centuries
focused on separating ourselves
from the world, from the universe,
accumulating knowledge for the sake of
better understanding and exploiting its
resources, including what in the business
world we now call human resources.
This has been carried out using
rationalistic scientific modes of
thinking that have proved extraordinarily
powerful in accomplishing this task.
This critique of Western
thinking is not intended in any
way as an outright rejection.
That would be absurd.
What we are aiming for here is
to achieve a better balance by
integrating the Eastern emphasis
on contemplation and merging, with
the Western focus on analytical
understanding and effective action.
Such an integration would overcome the
historical but unnecessary antagonism
between these two diverging paths, taking
hold of the best of each tradition.
To be more precise, it is the recognition
that the process of fusion and separation
constitutes the dynamic aspect of
what it is to be human in this world.
When we merge, we connect, but
the very nature of fusing means
that we are often unaware of the
intrinsic nature of the connection.
Correspondingly, when we become
observers, we step away from the
world for the sake of understanding
and of generating effective action.
Addressing the pressing issues of
today's world requires that we master
both dimensions of this dynamic.
We need to bring them into balance,
while at the same time acknowledging
the mystery that ultimately underlies
them both.
Welcome to the Conovision Podcast.
I'm Jim Conrad, joined by John Good.
John, nice to have you here.
John Good: I'm feeling
very important today, Jim.
Jim Conrad: As well.
You should.
You're a VIP.
You're on the Conovision podcast.
Uh, I'll let the audience in on a
little fact that I know about you.
Your last name is Good, and
your family is rather famous
in Vancouver in broadcasting.
John Good: Well, they're
well known in Western Canada.
Jim Conrad: Western Canada.
John Good: Yeah.
My father and my brother.
Jim Conrad: So your father
was Bill Good Senior.
And your brother is Bill
Good, longtime CBC anchor.
John Good: Well, I remember
it as my father was Bill Good.
Jim Conrad: Yes.
John Good: And my brother
is Bill Good Junior.
And then somewhere along the way,
as my father aged and retired and my
brother became more prominent in the
community, he dropped the Junior.
Jim Conrad: Yes.
John Good: And they
called the old man Senior.
So nobody seemed to mind that.
And uh, I came along.
I was, uh, employed out here in the
West, starting out in, in my career.
I actually did work out East for
quite a few years, and they never did.
Jim Conrad: So they were, they
were Western Canadian broadcasters.
But you went back East.
Now being from a, uh, a
broadcasting family and then being
the youngest and getting into
broadcasting, did the name help you?
John Good: That's a really good question.
It had a, it had an influence.
I wouldn't use the word help, and
I've never really thought about it
right now because there were, there
were negative connotations to that.
And by that I mean being
quite a bit younger.
And in a competitive profession.
I kind of got into the
business really accidentally.
And my brother on the other
hand, had planned his whole life.
I never planned 15 minutes
ahead for anything.
I left home young, I left home early.
I left school early.
Jim Conrad: Because if there is
no plan, there is no failure.
John Good: Oh, yes, there is.
There can be failure.
And I once heard someone say,
I don't believe in failure.
I believe that you succeed
or you learn something.
That was Peter Brown, who's a well-known
financial businessman, in Canada.
He's a friend, a colleague, and
a, in a way, a mentor, Peter.
But yeah, he's, uh, he's, uh, he
said a lot of really important
things that I remembered.
So when you say, did it help?
you know, it's funny, in those
days, we all started pretty young,
and I remember, as I said, I got
into the business accidentally.
I was actually working
in a car dealership.
I'd left Vancouver, I was 17 or
18, left school, went to work in
Williams Lake, and, uh, colleague of
my father, came through town and my
father had asked him to say hello.
Anyways, Larry Rose showed up and
saw me in my misery in the car
dealership and, and, um, and said,
look, maybe you'd like to consider
something in the radio business.
There's, there's, I'm
heading off to the Kootney's.
Jim Conrad: And he wouldn't have
tinged on that had he not known that
you were from a broadcasting family?
John Good: Well, I knew Larry.
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
John Good: Because I had met him in
Vancouver and he worked with my father.
And, but he stopped and he said,
well, this really nice guy.
And he said, um, and I was
having fun in Williams Lake.
I mean, I was what, 18, 17 years old?
I mean, who's not having fun.
Jim Conrad: Selling cars.
John Good: Well, I wasn't
really selling cars.
I was not selling cars.
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
John Good: But I was having fun anyways,
because I did other things at the
dealership and tried to sell cars.
And it was, it was really interesting
to, to be, um, associated at such
a young age with some grizzle old
veteran salesmen who were war veterans.
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
John Good: I mean, this
was the late sixties.
So these guys had actually been in the
war, came back, had jobs, and they were
like, really salt of the earth people.
Larry came through and I, and I had
been there for maybe a few months
and I said, well, I'll give it a shot
because, um, there's a well-known,
formerly well-known David Houle.
Jim Conrad: Yes.
John Good: His father, Lloyd
Houle and his partner owned a
small radio station in Cranbrook.
So, uh, I was offered the job,
so I got on my motorcycle and
made my way over to Cranbrook.
Jim Conrad: What were you riding then?
John Good: A Triumph Bonneville.
19, it was 1958.
I mean, in those days, I mean,
I started working really young.
Jim Conrad: Now was that because, and
we've, because we know each other,
you've talked about this and I had
another guest on the show, uh, hockey
player, Alec Tidey, who we both know.
John Good: Yep.
Jim Conrad: Who was
dyslexic and is dyslexic.
And is that, is your story as well.
John Good: I have, I am dyslexic.
Jim Conrad: Yes.
John Good: Yeah.
And in my case, it gets worse.
Jim Conrad: Okay.
John Good: In education in those days,
it was a, an affliction, I call it, or
I'm not sure what the technical term is,
but that's what I call it, I refer to it.
I didn't know I had those challenges.
I was just a pretty normal, average
kid up until I went to school.
And then there were
obvious glaring challenges.
Jim Conrad: You couldn't
read like the other kids.
John Good: No.
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
John Good: Or write or print or even
understand certain patterns in, in
the same way, uh, that, that other
people, especially peers would.
So long story short is because of that
affliction, you do develop other skills
and one of the skills is concealing.
Long story short, I faked it till
about grade eight, and then when
math became more complex than
arithmetic, it, was hopeless.
So I, I guess I acted out in certain
ways and the acting out, uh, led to
a place where the school authorities
and my family negotiated an exit.
Jim Conrad: There was an exit strategy.
John Good: Yeah there was.
Jim Conrad: Negotiated.
Yeah.
John Good: But by that time I was, you
know, 15 or 16 and I was six feet tall.
And I, uh, I went to work, I
went to work in a steel mill
when I was 16, punching a clock.
I can still remember it was
called Napco Industries.
And we took tanks, army tanks, that were
shipped over here and they were altered
and modified into spar trees for logging.
Now, I don't know whether you know this,
but tanks are powered by aircraft engines.
Jim Conrad: Was that the
hardest job you ever had?
John Good: Well, that's a good question.
No.
Um, well it might've been, but I
didn't think of it as that hard, you
know, it wasn't my, what I considered
to be, what I wanted for a career.
So, but the steel mill was, um,
you know, it's, it's almost like
you're living in another dimension.
I just, I figured that wasn't
really what I wanted to do.
So somehow or another, I made my way out
of the city and I went looking for a job.
There was, uh, a Welshman, a Welsh
Jew by the name of Tom Mason, who
was the mayor of Williams Lake,
and he owned the car dealership.
So I just went in there one day and
asked for a job, and, uh, I was hired.
Jim Conrad: That leads
me to my next question.
What ratio of luck to choice has there
been in your life and your career?
John Good: Yeah, that's a really, really
good topic and it's, it gets better as
I get older because I believe that luck
has a lot more to do with everything
that's really important in my own life
than I ever thought that it did before.
I really appreciate my good luck.
Jim Conrad: But you made a choice to go
to Williams Lake and made a choice to
walk into a car dealership and ask for
a job, and they took a chance on you.
John Good: Well, they did.
Yeah.
And it worked out for everybody.
Uh, I don't think I've ever left
the place where there were ever
any hard feelings or bad vibes.
You know, when I started that job
in, in Cranbrook, I knew nothing.
Even though I came from a
media family, I knew nothing.
Jim Conrad: So it was a bit into
your bones almost, through osmosis
you knew a little bit about media.
John Good: I did.
Yeah, that's true.
Jim Conrad: But, but practically
speaking, you had no experience.
John Good: None.
I, I had no idea what, what to
do, in front of a microphone.
Jim Conrad: So getting into radio
and understanding it finally and
learning about it, was that the bug
that got you hooked into broadcasting?
John Good: Well, you know, it's, um, I
never went to college, but, you know,
I'm just thinking that maybe that was a
bit like college would be for people that
actually went to university because, uh,
it was just a bunch of teenagers like me.
I just turned 18 and it was really,
it was a great place to start in
that business for me because, um,
people were generally pretty nice.
I mean, there were some
people that were resentful.
Jim Conrad: Oh.
John Good: Without knowing me.
Jim Conrad: Yeah, he only got the gig
because he is Bill Good's, uh, son.
John Good: Or, yeah, something like that.
Or my brother's brother
or something like that.
And, and,
Jim Conrad: He's only
here because of the name.
John Good: Right.
So I, I did have to suffer some of
the, um, you know, resentment and
it, and it was acted out on me.
You know, there, there were some
hurtful moments, uh, of people
being cruel and I didn't understand
that because that's not who I am.
Jim Conrad: Well, no one could
ever accuse broadcasters or
media people of being insecure.
John Good: Right.
Well, I'm right at the
top of the list, right?
And, but most of the people were
pretty good natured and helpful.
And, you know, the, the characters that
populated that place, I mean, there
was, I think his name was Ken White,
an ex-professional hockey player.
He was the sports director.
And he would just come in and he'd
be smoking a cigar and, you know,
it's radio, they can't see you.
And he'd be in a room like our
control studio here with his
feet up and reading the sports.
And, you know, he'd just come in
with five seconds before airtime
and do, talk about sports for
five or 10 minutes and then leave.
Jim Conrad: So from
Cranbrook to Prince George?
John Good: Yeah.
You might know the name, Paul Carson.
Jim Conrad: Yes.
A sports broadcaster here
in Vancouver for many years.
John Good: Yep.
And Paul was, uh, the morning
man at that radio station.
Just thinking about it,
we lived in a motel.
Jim Conrad: Well that's convenient.
John Good: Yeah.
A motel and there was a trailer park.
I mean, the community was, this
place was full of loggers and miners
and guys that worked on, you know,
electrical high wires, putting in the
infrastructure, a lot of drinking.
There was a fights in the pub.
It was, you know, that was a small town.
Jim Conrad: So then from radio, you found
a gig back on the coast in Victoria?
John Good: Well, very quick history.
Cranbrook, I, I was ambitious.
I wanted to leave there and get
a better job and everybody wants
to get back to the big smoke.
In BC it's Vancouver or
Toronto, you know, Canadian.
And so I sent out tapes and did all
the things that everybody did, and I
didn't stay in one place for very long.
So I went from Cranbrook to
Prince George, where John
Ashbridge was the news director.
He hired me from there.
I went to CJVI in Victoria.
Jim Conrad: And that's where you
roomed with another, uh, sports
broadcasting icon from Vancouver,
the late great, Neil Macrae.
John Good: Neil Macrae.
Yeah.
Neil and I were roommates in Victoria.
We had a small house in, in Oak Bay.
Jim Conrad: What was that like?
John Good: We had two dogs.
Fred and Barney and, uh, Neil was a slob.
Neil was a great guy,
and he had a big heart.
And anybody that doesn't know
him might not know that, but
he was a terrific person.
We were very good friends for many years.
So I went from Victoria to CJOR because
I had worked as a copy boy somewhere
along the line before the steel mill.
I had worked at The Sun, part-time.
Jim Conrad: Newspaper, Sun.
In Vancouver.
John Good: Yes.
For Erwin Swangard, who was
the managing editor of The Sun.
so Erwin by that time had been, had
some falling out with Pacific Press
or South or whoever owned at the time.
And, uh, he went to work for
Jimmy Patterson who owned CJOR.
And I, was hired there
as sports broadcaster.
Jim Conrad: At CJOR in 1960.
John Good: 70, maybe
Jim Conrad: 1970.
John Good: Yeah.
71 maybe.
Jim Conrad: And so that began
your, you went sort of from being
a DJ to getting into sports.
John Good: Sports.
Yeah.
I was presented an opportunity to audition
for a CBC replacement television job here.
And I didn't get the job, but somebody
in Toronto saw the tape and I was
offered a job in Toronto for CBC.
Jim Conrad: CBC sports Toronto.
John Good: Right.
Jim Conrad: So you're 20 years
old, you were just working in,
uh, as a sports reporter for OR.
John Good: Right.
Jim Conrad: Somebody sees your
television audition tape and decides
that's the guy that we want on TV.
Standing up in the microphone
with the famous CBC jacket
doing commentary on sports.
John Good: Well, sports reporting.
Jim Conrad: Sports reporting.
John Good: Yeah.
And including anchoring the sports.
And so I did not expect
to get a job offer.
I was told I didn't get
the job in Vancouver.
And so I forgot about it.
And then a few days later I
got a phone call from a guy by
the name of George Retzlaff.
George was, famously known he was
head of sports in Toronto, but he
was famously known for inventing,
um, slow motion replay in hockey.
Jim Conrad: Wow.
John Good: And he had also devised the
camera work, the way that the cameras
operate in hockey games at ice level.
Jim Conrad: Revolutionizing
coverage of hockey.
John Good: Yeah.
He was a brilliant guy, but he was also
an alcoholic and a difficult personality.
Uh, but he liked me and
he wanted to hire me.
So it's funny because I went to my
brother and I went to my father.
I said, I've been offered
this job in Toronto.
Jim Conrad: Television.
John Good: Right.
And here's the money and
here's the opportunity.
And the money was good.
It was quite a bit more than I
would probably have made staying
at that radio job in five years.
I asked them their advice and both
of them said, no, don't do it.
So I immediately said yes, because
I couldn't resist the allure of,
uh, of Toronto for one thing.
Jim Conrad: Now, why do
you think they said no?
John Good: Well, I think they probably
correctly surmised that I wasn't really
ready for prime time and they were right.
So I went to Toronto
and, and went to hell.
I had to visit Hell.
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
You, you were on the air and
it wasn't a good experience.
Could you classify it as a failure?
John Good: Uh, well it
was a, a work in progress.
Jim Conrad: It was a learning experience.
John Good: Yeah.
Well, here's what happened.
I arrived in Toronto.
They had arranged for me, this is actually
a good side story, because there was a
very fancy high-end motor hotel, which
is like a motel, but really advanced.
And up, upscale, um, at that time.
And nobody had ever heard of it
out here, but it was start, a
business was started in Toronto by
a guy by the name of Isador Sharp.
And it was the Four Seasons first hotel.
Jim Conrad: Wow.
John Good: With a fancy dining room
and elaborate, uh, accessories.
And the hotel was beautiful.
And so they put me up there for
a week and I had to start work
right away, basically the next day.
So I went in and, I was, uh,
kind of shown around a bit.
A desk I could occupy.
And then I was shown where the
studio, I'd never been except
for the audition in a TV studio.
They didn't know this.
I don't think anybody knew this.
Jim Conrad: So, and no one
bothered to ask you, John, do you
have any television experience?
John Good: No.
No one asked me that.
They assumed that I did.
Jim Conrad: Because you made an audition.
John Good: Right.
And, uh, they, I came from Vancouver,
so they didn't have any idea
what I'd been doing in Vancouver.
For all they knew i'd been on
TV for five years over there.
And so I have to go down to the studio
and I'm, you know, shown where I'm gonna
sit and sitting beside me or in the seat
next to me is Lloyd Robertson, who is
famous out here for doing the national in
those days at 11 or 10 o'clock at night.
But what most people out here didn't
know is that Lloyd did the six o'clock
CBLT TV news in Toronto every day.
And then he did the national at night and
he did other things too, but great guy.
So I'm sitting next to him and
I'm had my script, which was,
I had been writing for radio.
And not for television.
So they were expecting
six or eight minutes.
I gave them like a minute
and a half or two minutes.
And so it was, it was awkward.
A lot of ad-libbing for a few minutes and,
Jim Conrad: Yes.
John Good: And the lights are,
Jim Conrad: The lights are hot.
John Good: It's hot.
Yeah.
You're at the beach.
Jim Conrad: So television,
Toronto, you're 20 years old.
That gig didn't last
long because of politics?
John Good: Well, it, it
lasted, it lasted a few years.
But what happened there was I
had a similar experience with the
resentments from other people, right?
Because I came out of Vancouver.
Who does this guy,
Jim Conrad: Hotshot young kid.
Sports reporter.
John Good: Yeah.
Really doesn't know much.
I mean, I did a good job.
On the air.
But I was very inexperienced in
the, certainly any of the technical
stuff, videotape, you know, how to
do, how to even put stuff together.
So I got the hang of it.
But there was underlying resentments
and I had to deal with that.
I was making good money, I was doing
my job, but I was really young.
Like the next youngest guy in sports
in Canada on CBC was probably 35.
That would be like Tom McKee
and there was Don Chevrier and
Whitman and all these guys.
And I, we ended up working with
all these guys over the years, but
it was kind of lonely in Toronto,
you know, it was a big city.
Really big city from
what I'd been used to.
Jim Conrad: And when did
the next job offer come?
John Good: So we kind, I got kind of
disillusioned in Toronto and, uh, one of
the executives, one of the producers of
that suppertime show, Brynn Matthews is
his name, he was moving back to Ottawa
to work for a CTV affiliate, CGOH.
And he really liked me.
And, uh, I think he could see that
I was, you know, having trouble
with these guys in Toronto and
he, and he offered me a job.
And it was a CTV affiliate.
And so I accepted it and quit,
resigned, went up to Ottawa and,
uh, one of the best experiences
of my life, it was life altering.
Jim Conrad: So you're the evening
sports anchor at CJOH in Ottawa.
John Good: Yeah.
I went in there and there were,
uh, there's a fellow by the
name of Max Keeping who was a
renowned human, humanitarian.
He was a news guy.
And, Max befriended me.
I got there in early fall and
it was my birthday coming up.
And Max was also a, a Newfie
who liked his rum and his beer
and his parties every day.
And he was a terrific journalist,
a really amazing human being.
So the first thing that he did was he was,
he announced to everyone in Ottawa that
there would be an international Johnny
B Good night at Molly McGuire's Pub.
Jim Conrad: And your,
your middle initial is B.
John Good: It is.
Jim Conrad: Yes.
John Good: So, I mean, I
had to grow up with that.
It was no fun when I was
10, but it works for me now.
Jim Conrad: Johnny B Good night in Ottawa.
John Good: At Molly McGuires.
And, and a lot of people showed up.
It was a great party and that's
how I was introduced to Ottawa and
I got into the community a little
bit up there and really enjoyed it.
By that time, I knew a little
about how to operate on television.
Uh, my partner was a guy named
Brian Smith, who was an ex hockey
player, and Max was there and
there were a lot of young people.
By the time I got to Ottawa,
I was only 24 and I'd had four
or five years in television.
Jim Conrad: So now
Ottawa back to Vancouver?
John Good: So after a few years in Ottawa,
not very many, two or three, I was,
uh, getting a little tired of the cold.
It was minus 20 just a bit
too long, 25, 30 sometimes.
Ottawa's even that much
colder than Toronto.
I was getting sick of the winter, so I
came back to Vancouver for a little break.
It was March.
My brother picked me up at the airport.
It was minus 20 in Ottawa.
Flew to Vancouver.
We're driving down Granville,
about 16th and Granville.
The daffodils are out and there's a
guy jogging with his dog in his shorts
and that's where I made the decision.
Jim Conrad: As a lot of expatriates do,
they go away, but they end up coming back.
John Good: So, uh, guess
what's happening in Vancouver?
Daryl Duke and Norman
Klenman are starting out.
and Bill Bellman is an investor, had
created Western Approaches, which was,
uh, developing CKV Television and the
White Caps were trying to make a name for
themselves here as well at the same time.
So I was able to engineer, Daryl wanted
me to come here and help him launch this
TV station and be one of the sports guys.
He had hired a former ABC Vancouverite,
but an ABC veteran sports producer
by the name of Lorne Hassan.
Lorne had crashed and burned in New York.
He used to be the producer
of Wide World of Sports.
Daryl found him working in a dry
cleaners in Vancouver and hired
him because he believed in him and
he was right because it was Lorne
that really developed sports page.
Jim Conrad: So you were at the, at the
very beginning of what became a kind of
an institution in Vancouver sports for
quite a while, which was Sports Page.
John Good: Yeah, that's right.
I was the first host, first
night, September 5th, 1977.
Jim Conrad: But you were also anchoring
the CKVU evening news as well?
John Good: That was after.
Jim Conrad: Okay.
John Good: I did the sports, we did
Sports Page for two years, 77, 78, and by
1979 I had actually created First News.
I wanted to, we didn't
have a news program.
We had The Vancouver Show with Mike Winlaw
and Pia Shandel and Laurier LaPierre.
The Frenchman.
Yeah, he was great.
Uh, we're both Scorpios and he was an
intense guy, but we had a lot of fun.
He was a big deal out, from out East.
And, and he was a really qualified
journalist and really erudite,
you know, amazing person.
So it was, uh, Pia was there
and it was a lot of fun.
And, you know, Daryl would bark
orders from up above in the
ivory tower and everybody was
scurrying, running and hiding.
But I got along really well with
Daryl and they really liked what
the sports department was doing.
So Lorne cleaned himself up and came
in and organized this whole thing
and developed this legendary show.
Jim Conrad: But you then convinced
Daryl and the powers that be that
they needed an evening news show.
John Good: Right.
Jim Conrad: First News.
And you were the anchor.
John Good: I was, I was alone
doing it for about a year.
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
John Good: And then Daryl got the
idea that he wanted to have a,
me to have a female co-anchor.
So, uh, there was a very young
reporter named Joanna Piros.
Jim Conrad: That's right.
John Good: And Joanna and I did the news
together for as long as I continued to
stay at the station, which was probably
another year and a half or two years.
And she stayed and I left.
And she was great.
And we were, we became very good friends.
Jim Conrad: So you decided to
get out of television and into
the corporate video world.
Was that a luck, something
lucky, or was that a choice?
John Good: Uh, well, again,
Jim Conrad: A bit of both.
John Good: I was, I had been married
in Florida, but that marriage wasn't,
wasn't working out too well so I was
getting a divorce and I met somebody else
and I married, Caroline and we, all her
brothers were stockbrokers or traders.
Jim Conrad: Howe street traders.
John Good: She was the very much younger
daughter of a family of mostly older boys.
She was quite mature and
a bit younger than me.
So we got married and I started,
you know, getting involved in some
trading on the brokerage side while
I was still working in television.
And then I was approached by some
people in, in the resource business.
With my television exposure I was
getting some attention downtown.
I joined a health club there.
I got to know some of the promoters.
Jim Conrad: Getting a rep.
John Good: Making friends,
yeah, in the business community.
But because of my wife's family
of brokers, I was getting closer
to some of these financial guys.
And so, um, I recognized that there was a,
Jim Conrad: Opportunity.
John Good: Yeah.
Uh, but there was a disconnect between
the business world and the media.
Howe Street was misunderstood, I
thought, and so did the business people.
And it, it turned out that the
media just didn't really understand
what was going on down here.
And it's funny because, um, I think a
lot of media guys in those days, I found
this in the sports world as well, if they
don't understand something, they have a
tendency to ignore it or criticize it.
That helped me help I promoted
the soccer team as well.
Jim Conrad: Right.
The White Caps.
John Good: Yeah.
That's how I, I helped them succeed
by developing a format of inter
of, I had all the games taped.
'Cause I don't know whether I
mentioned, but I went to work for the
White Caps and the TV station, right,
when I engineered that move out here
because they couldn't afford to pay
me when I was getting in Toronto.
Jim Conrad: And the White Caps
weren't, didn't have a TV deal.
John Good: No.
Until Lorne and I started to develop a
really good relationship with the soccor
team and then we started airing games.
So then what I wanna say about
promoting the soccer team, 'cause I
was, I was a director of the soccer
team and a public relations director
while I was doing the sports at
CKVU, they both paid me a salary.
I had other benefits.
As I said, they couldn't pay me
what I was getting in Toronto,
but I wanted to be here.
So it was really a friendly deal
between both entities, but the soccer
team weren't getting any crowds and
they weren't even playing that well,
but they were working really hard.
They were great people,
management of that team.
And so I knew all the media guys
because of my, you know, history
in sports and my contacts.
So I held weekly press
conferences at Empire Stadium.
I'd invite 'cause, because I
invited them 'cause I knew them.
They would come and I'd have the staff
and players of the soccer team be there.
They got to know these guys.
I videotaped the games and I'd have
the coaches and the players talk
about things that, you know, so,
Jim Conrad: So you were creating content?
John Good: We were helping
educate these sports guys.
We were helping educate the Canadian guys.
There were a few European reporters,
you know, German guy, British guy,
and they were giving a lot of press,
but they had a limited audience.
So pretty soon the rest of the media,
CTV and all the other stations,
radio, then the team started winning.
But the press box was full
by the end of that season.
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
John Good: And then the team was
winning and the fans were coming in
a year and a half later or something.
Jim Conrad: They won the,
they won the championship.
John Good: They beat the New York Cosmos.
Yeah.
First championship team in Vancouver,
you know, since the 64 Lions.
Jim Conrad: The transition then
to pivot to strictly business.
John Good: VHS and Beta Max
were coming to boardrooms.
Companies were promoting their images
with, with videos and things like this.
So I,
Jim Conrad: So the corporate
video became a thing.
John Good: And so I had a
pretty good business running.
I had a really good product.
I hired the best technical people
and camera people, and I used the
best equipment from the TV world.
And so I, I made a really good product
and I got a really good price for it.
And we helped these companies raise a
lot of money, uh, because they take these
tools and go overseas and they go see
bankers and brokers in different countries
and they raise money, a lot of money.
And then I had an idea for a TV show.
Jim Conrad: And the TV show was?
John Good: Venture.
Which I started as Venture Capital
and then sold it to CBC two years
later because it was too much work
and I couldn't make any money.
But they liked the concept and then it
ran for 20 years as Venture, I think.
Jim Conrad: So then the transition
then getting out of the corporate
video world and just becoming an
investor because you started to
know people understood the business.
Would you say that you had
a knack for making a deal?
John Good: Well, I found that I had
a knack for being a good salesman
when I had to commercialize my skill.
Murray Pezim was one of my clients,
and I charged him, I forget what it
was, 50 or a hundred grand for this,
but they made a discovery at Hemlo.
It was a big deal.
And so I had, I had done all that
whole documentary, and when he paid me
the last installment on the contract,
he lifted his glasses up onto his
forehead and he had his accountant come
in to write me a check for 50 grand.
And he said, I, I'm thinking what's wrong.
I didn't know if I'm gonna get the money.
And he said, uh, if you're taking
$50,000 bills out of my back
pocket I want you working for me.
So he hired me.
Jim Conrad: He hired you.
John Good: Yeah.
So then I got into the
finance end of the market.
Jim Conrad: And have you
been doing that ever since?
John Good: Pretty much.
I found I had a knack for a
certain part of the business
that was really specialized.
And I think this might have
something to do going all the way
back to my dyslexic personality.
And that is making markets in
stocks because it's, um, it's
kind of an abstract function.
Jim Conrad: So describe, pull that
apart for me, making markets in stocks.
John Good: Well, you've got buyers and
sellers and in a liquid market you've got
a lot of buyers and sellers and you have
to have, um, a sense of how to coordinate.
It's called an orderly
market for the securities.
So it's one of those things I
discovered I had accidentally
because I, I had to do it one day for
somebody and it came naturally to me.
Jim Conrad: So there was the luck.
John Good: Yeah.
Jim Conrad: And then there
was the discovery that, hey,
I've got the knack at this.
So you always have buyers
and you always have sellers.
John Good: No, you don't.
Jim Conrad: But they, but they both,
John Good: You always have sellers.
Jim Conrad: They both need each other.
John Good: So I have an inventory.
And I supply both sides.
I've have a inventory of stock
and I have an inventory of cash.
Jim Conrad: What have you learned in
working in financial markets in London?
You've been in New York, you've been
in Los Angeles, you've been in Toronto,
you've been here all over the world.
Is there a common thread, something that
you've learned in order to be successful?
John Good: Be careful.
Jim Conrad: Be careful.
Do your due diligence.
John Good: Well, as much as you can.
Yeah.
The, the most important, you
know, it's funny because this
came up just a few days ago.
My answer to a professional colleague
who might ask how I'm doing is, is a
younger person, usually I will say,
well, you know, I've been around
this business for a long time, but
I'm still having trouble being able
to find a reliable crystal ball.
So every day is dangerous.
It's not a business where
you can really go to sleep.
Jim Conrad: Is it, I guess correct
to say that it's a form of gambling?
John Good: Yes.
No hesitation.
Jim Conrad: And you are a gambler.
John Good: Yes.
Jim Conrad: Does, uh, making a deal
and having something hit like standing
at the, at the craps table or the,
the poker table and, and winning.
Is it the same feeling?
John Good: Yes.
Better.
Jim Conrad: 'Cause it's more money.
John Good: Yeah.
And it's a steady job sometimes, you know,
I mean, you can't survive in a casino.
Jim Conrad: Some people try.
John Good: Well, yes they do.
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
John Good: The, you know, I've tried
that, you know, I'm here to tell you
that's, that's the hardest job that
I've ever tried to do in Las Vegas.
Jim Conrad: It's just try to
be a professional gambler.
John Good: It's hard.
Those guys are good.
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
John Good: And they know what they're
doing and they'll wear you down.
Jim Conrad: What is the future of
modern economies and where we're going?
What will be our salvation and
or what will be our downfall?
John Good: Well, I
won't be here to see it.
Jim Conrad: Exactly.
John Good: But I've come to the
conclusion that there is so much money.
Every day there is more money
and more money and more money
being dedicated to the gambling.
At the same time, the technological
advances of humans in our
culture connected to business.
When I was first starting out as a
promoter, there was maybe one or two or
3% of, of people actually professionally
or, or even invested in the markets.
And now it's, I don't know what it is,
but it's high double digits for sure.
Jim Conrad: Well, and the fact
that, um, the internet has now
made everybody a day trader, is
that a good thing or a bad thing?
It means more money in the market.
But is that, is that money substantial?
John Good: Yes.
Jim Conrad: Okay.
John Good: Yeah, it's enormous.
Jim Conrad: Okay.
John Good: It's, it's
a, it's unimaginable.
People are living their lives and
they're, you know, concerned with all
the things that they're doing in their
day, and even the really successful guys.
And, but, I think I have some advantage
as a former journalist, newsman, media
guy, and that helped me it helped me
in, uh, my career as, uh, somebody
trying to be right aKA lucky and right
in picking, you know, an industry or,
or a company or a sector or a movement
in, you know, where the energy's going.
Because growing up, working, especially
starting so young in the media, the
same people that listen to you on
the radio or watch you on television
are the same people that buy stocks.
Jim Conrad: True that.
John Good: And invest.
And so I think I had a bit of an advantage
in the, in the business world because
I, I could sense a movement of the
audience and being a, a journalist, you
have a sense and, and really you just
need a little bit of an edge sometimes
to be making the right decision of
where the human interest is going to be.
You know, I laugh about all of the
so-called advancements in, in our
technology and our smartphones and
everything else, but I, I, I always
remember that, that the platform really
hasn't changed in 50 or 60 or 75 years.
It's a picture and it's a box with sound,
and that's the way it's always been.
Maybe it'll be an implant
in our brain sometime but.
Jim Conrad: A holographic image.
John Good: I mean, I say to my
children and my children's friends
who are in the business now,
that you'll all be billionaires.
Jim Conrad: Eventually.
John Good: Well, you can do
things with your telephone that
we couldn't even do 25 years ago.
Jim Conrad: Computing power.
John Good: Well, I can trade, I can,
I can move money from my bank to my
brokerage in less than two minutes.
Jim Conrad: And you can react.
John Good: And I can make a trade.
Jim Conrad: And you can, you can react to
a market change or an event immediately.
John Good: 24 hours a day,
and I can do it with my hand.
I don't need to pick up a phone.
I don't need to talk to a human.
So that's where it's going.
Jim Conrad: So what have you learned
in your varied and illustrious career?
John Good: Well, okay,
let's start with this.
One of the things that I have learned
is that everybody's good at something.
Everybody's really good at something.
I don't think you know
what it is necessarily.
Maybe if you're, uh, entering the NHL
at 19, you've already got that part.
But I think most of the rest of us live
into the things that we're going to be
or do, and there's so much to learn.
One of the things I've learned
in being on the planet for
10 million years is that, uh,
Jim Conrad: Give or take.
John Good: Yeah.
Give or take, is that, uh,
there's so much more to learn.
One of the things I learned was,
Jim Conrad: So never stop learning.
John Good: No.
Now I've, I've, I'm at a place where, at
my age now, mortality is something I think
about, not every waking moment, but, you
know, every morning, sometimes at night,
Jim Conrad: It's lurking.
John Good: Yeah.
So, you know, the gas tank
is less full technically.
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
John Good: Then it, you know,
it's just, I can't get outta this.
Right.
No, it's happening.
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
Uh, so what you've learned is that you
have to develop a relationship with fear.
John Good: Well,
Jim Conrad: Or identify it and be
conscious of it and understand that
that cannot stop you from doing
what your instincts tell you to do.
John Good: That's right.
But sometimes your
instincts are protective.
Jim Conrad: Yeah.
John Good: Right.
in my case, not so much, you know,
I live pretty recklessly, which
is, you know, brings us to another
term or topic that you and I have
talked about, and that's luck.
Jim Conrad: What's the ratio
between luck and choice in
your career and in your life?
John Good: It's complex, but maybe
not all that complicated in my
life, because I think because I
have the instinct to seek adventure.
How I recognized something exciting
and I wanted to pursue it, and I did,
and it was successful and it led to
the next thing and then the next thing.
And so I was lucky because I learned
to not be afraid of the changes.
And my brother, I remember him telling me
once years later, you know, by this time
I'm 10 or 15 years into other careers,
investment banking, things like that.
And he said, I don't know
how you live like this.
Because he had a really good,
well paying, high profile job
that he was really good at.
And he was getting paid
every year by somebody.
And he knew it was coming.
I had no idea where I was gonna
be making my money next year.
Some, maybe for some
years I had some ideas.
But there were, there
were rude interruptions.
Stock market crashes, other things that
happened in life that put you outta work.
Jim Conrad: One of the keys to
being a good entrepreneurial
businessman is relationships
and also being a great salesman.
John Good: Personal contact and learning
from, I mean, I garnered absorbed
information and clues from other
successful people because everywhere that
I went, there were people that were way
more successful than me at that moment.
And so I paid attention to their
behavior, to their manners, their
etiquette, their business approach,
their social interaction with people.
And I learned a lot from that.
So these guys are good teachers
because they're already successful
and in most cases very generous
with time and energy and resources
to help someone else be good at it.
So I think that maybe that's something
about salesmen that I'm not sure it
exists in, in all of their professions.
In fact, I know that it doesn't because
I've been unpleasantly surprised
at people in business who fear the
people who are successful because
I think they are insecure and, uh,
that can lead to backroom politics.
It can be, very disturbing, but also
causes, you know, financial trouble and
lots of real personal problems with, uh,
with personnel because of someone's fears.
Someone else's fears projecting onto you.
First of all, I think you have
to have a positive energy.
I've always been an optimist, you know,
even, uh, you know, at the worst of
times, uh, uh, I've always felt that,
um, I can make things better or I can
find a way to get things to be better.
Not that I'm the guy that's gonna make
it happen, but the forces around me.
If you can assemble the energy
from different people and
recognize the opportunity.
Jim Conrad: So when you say to me,
Jim, all I need is one more miracle.
John Good: Right.
Jim Conrad: What do you mean by that?
John Good: I do say that, don't I?
Jim Conrad: You do say that.
What do you mean by that?
John Good: Well, since we started
out talking about the long distant
past and those opportunities,
it's gotten me thinking.
It's not so different today
than it was 50 years ago or 40.
So I'm looking for that moment
or whatever, whether it's seeing,
reading, or hearing, or detecting
the opportunity, because at this
stage of my life, I'm, I think I'm
generally pretty good at recognizing
where there might be an opportunity,
and I have pioneered a few different
things in business along the way.
So I'm optimistic that I have time
for one more miracle to get me
outta the trouble I'm in now, right?
So being a promoter and a salesman
and a businessman and, and not the
most organized person, get people
around you that are organized.
You know, that's another
really important thing.
I'm not, I mean, you're looking at a
man that's never opened a piece of mail.
So, you know, um, I explained in
our interview that I'm dyslexic.
And so that created a whole bunch
of baggage for me going forward,
because people can't look at you
and see that you're dyslexic.
They just see that there's
something going on there.
They don't know why I'm ADHD and
I've got all that other stuff going.
So, but I can really focus on
certain energies and really
accomplish, um, what I think are
the important things in that task.
Or with that group, but don't
put me somewhere else in there.
And people have made that mistake.
I show up with all the energy
and all the ideas, and then they
think they can all go to sleep.
Make me the president, you know?
And then they don't have to
do any work that's happened.
And it fails because I
can't do all that work.
I don't want to do all that work, and
I shouldn't be doing all that work.
So that's where the tension comes in,
when people have agendas who don't
have some of those skills of a, of
a, you know, the energy and so on.
They're, they're, some of them can be very
good lawyers and very good accountants.
And, but then they want to have control
of things, but they're not qualified.
So that makes things complicated.
So then you get to a place where you learn
to recognize those potential dangers,
avoid those kinds of people and populate
the audience with other people like you.
You know, it's like I had a guy in Toronto
once, um, a fellow by the name of David
Goldman, who's been a very good friend
of mine for years, uh, businessman.
And he once described
it as playing in a band.
You want to have guys around that know
they can sit down and just start playing
in the band, like it's a jam session.
And I thought that was
a really good analogy.
Jim Conrad: And they know their part.
John Good: Well, it just works,
you know, because nobody's
jealous, nobody's envious.
They're just playing the instrument
that they're good at playing and
other people let them do that.
And, the business grows.
Jim Conrad: And the greater good
is making a wonderful sound.
John Good: It is.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jim Conrad: Would you categorize
yourself as a overachiever?
John Good: Well, I don't know.
I don't, not consciously, I think, well,
you know, I mean, I have other challenges.
I'm, I'm bipolar, you know, I'm gonna
talk very candidly here about these
things, but I couldn't read and write.
So I became a very good
listener and watcher.
I could see all the movements.
I listened to everything,
especially what people had to say.
So once I had achieved some measure
of success in my early twenties, and
then moved into the business world
from broadcasting later on that same
decade, I carried those skills with me.
I listened real carefully to guys
like Peter Brown and Murray Pezim
and Bruce McDonald and all these
guys that are a bit, in some
cases, quite a bit older than me.
Jim Conrad: What's the
biggest thing you've learned?
John Good: That nobody's
ever had an original thought.
Jim Conrad: We rediscover knowledge.
John Good: And we can
predict certain things.
Some with acute accuracy actually
in people's behavior and only
people's behavior, but other things.
I think primarily the, you know, I'm a,
a student of history and philosophy and
information from thousands of years ago,
those guys knew what they were doing.
Human behavior in many forms
hasn't changed that much.
And so if you study those things
and then you live long enough and
you have, you know, I didn't just
work at one job in one town for my
whole career, which some people do.
I came back here and I run into people
periodically who I knew from my early
childhood who never left town, never
left the village that I grew up in.
I came back here and, and, uh, I've
had a little more, I, I would say
I've had a, a more adventurous life.
I don't know that it's any
better than their life.
I don't think I'd be very happy to stay
in one place for too long, even now.
Jim Conrad: Well, I'm glad you're here.
Yeah.
Right here, right now, talking with us.
Thank you, John.
John Good: Thank you, Jim.
Good to see you again.
Jim Conrad: Episode nine
of the Conovision Podcast.
My thanks to John Good for
giving us his knowledge, plus his
experience equaling his wisdom.
As well, Julio Olalla, founder of
Newfield Research and his essay on
the Crises of the Western Mind, and we
began with questions about the nature
of reality and the reality of nature.
Hopefully, you have been
enlightened by listening.
Thank you.
Until next time, remember, we
are all stories to be told.
I'm Jim Conrad.
And this has been Conovision,
the spirit of storytelling.