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LeaderGrowth with David Skidmore helps people overcome challenges and experience transformation in their life and leadership.
Welcome to the Leader Growth Podcast. I'm David Skidmore. Thanks for joining today. I'm really excited because today as we help you overcome challenges and experience transformation today on the podcast,
I've got Gary Brooks. And let me tell you, this podcast is going to one, it's going to encourage you. Two, it will inspire you. Three, it's going to challenge you to take on bigger challenges in life.
The topic that we're talking about today is... Why you should do Impossible things and that's what Gary got into a few years ago as we're going to talk about in today's podcast Today is focusing on what happened at the first national building over the past few years seven years specifically and What happened in Gary's faith walk behind the scenes today?
We're going to start off by talking about some of the advice and encouragement that Gary would give to younger leaders. Then we're going to talk about his business journey. After that,
we're going to jump in and look at the first national experience, why he got into it, and then his walk with God in that process. If you are a believer,
this is going to light fuel on your fire. If you are a non -believer or you're just kind of unsure, or maybe you're a non -believer, this is going to light fuel on your fire. identify a spiritual and you're searching I believe that this conversation is going to inspire you in your journey as well.
So Without any further ado, let's go to my conversation why you should do impossible things with Gary Brooks Gary Brooks looking at your career real estate.
We're gonna talk about doing impossible things today. We're gonna talk about First National, but before we had gotten to First National, if we go back, you had already had a lot of success.
Let's talk about how you started creating success even at a younger age. I'm not sure that at a younger age I understood what success meant.
You're just, you're moving into the day, you're moving into whatever's in front of you. Yeah, I had dreams and goals, but I probably spent most of my time just trying to solve the problem in front of me.
I didn't know what the future was going to look like, so you don't have the benefit of looking back like you do now. At 61, I'd look back and say,
you know, perseverance, very important. That's an easy answer. I think that trying to create a picture of what I wanted was probably what drove me,
that you're 30 years old. old, you're 35. That picture changes a lot and you just kind of move. It wasn't as intentional as people might think now.
Yeah, because, you know, early on, I think sometimes when people see a success story, the idea is, well, they've always been successful. Is that true in your life? No, not at all.
Like a speeder. You hope not. Yeah. You don't know this until you're older and you've had some failures that the things I probably learned the most from were things that didn't work.
Not every project I did worked like I had planned. I tell younger guys who are in my business who've maybe been in 8, 10, 12 years and things are going well.
You're a dangerous partner. Your feet have never hung over the edge of the cliff. You don't know what it's like to have problems. You know, you've been in a marketplace where the tide's rising for everybody.
The market always makes you look smarter than you think you, than you really are and dumber than you really are. It does. But at thirty five, you buy it, you buy the. You buy the hype.
hype. I Did things were going well. I had a great partner and we're growing and you buy it And so you start to craft this vision. Yeah, I'm I am the man Yeah,
which is incredibly dangerous If someone is early on in their career, what do you think they need to be focused on? What - Well,
I'll answer that question in a way you probably would never expect. - Okay. - When I was 25, 30, 35, growing up in the business,
you read the business books, good to great, you read the books. The formula for success, there may have been 10 of them, but they were all pretty good,
pretty consistent. We have entered into a world where I believe everything gets disrupted. So talking to a 25 -year -old about how to be successful,
I would give them a totally different answer than the answer I would have given them 15 years ago. Example, artificial intelligence, what a lot of us call machine intelligence,
is going to disrupt everything. every industry, right? We've lived in a linear world my entire life. It's incremental increases or decreases.
The world's now exponential and our brains and business isn't built for exponential changes. Globalization is going away as we know it.
Supply chain problems. You've got disruption in Washington at levels we've never seen. They're not killing each other, but if it was legal, they would. And you throw all these things into the mix and a 25 -year -old who looks at me and says,
"Hey, what do I do to build a successful career?" I'm gonna give you mostly different answers than I would have given myself. I'm gonna say learn to be flexible.
learn a lot fast. You need to be consuming information as much as you can and not information you're going to be able to get on your phone next week.
Education is different, learning is different, how you run a business is going to be different. It's all changing. So I'm not sure that my formula for success got me here.
The picture I get in my head is the space shuttle Hmm. Yeah Once you get to outer space, you got to dump 95 % of the stuff that got you there At 61 I'm saying what it's what's the 5 % I got to keep yeah And I got to throw away all the 95 % that got me here And what's the 95 % I need to learn and bring in for the new world that we're now living in?
- As you know, we live in the attention economy. - It's all about eyeballs. - All about eyeballs. There's also with that, the desire for, you look at 80 % of Gen Z is longing to be an influencer.
No problem with that. But in the pursuit of quick growth, quick fame, and maybe quick information. information. How do you also hold attention of both flexibility and building character?
Well, flexibility and character come from experiences, good and bad. My character now is a function of the things that I've experienced in my life.
Hopefully it's good. Flexibility is forced on me. If I wanna be flexible in my body,
I gotta work on that. It doesn't just happen. And I can read 25 books on how to be flexible, and it's not gonna make me flexible. Only when I get on the floor and I begin to do what I have to do and I go through the pain of reaching for the pain of reaching for the pain.
my brain because most of the flexibility is in your brain, it's not your body. Your brain is what's shutting off your body saying you can't go any farther. Once it begins to understand,
"I'm not going to get hurt here," that's how you become more flexible. It's the same way in business or life. I need the experiences that force me into uncomfortable situations that make me flexible.
Thank you. Thank you. the best answer I could give to that is do hard things. You wanna learn to be flexible, do hard things. - What are the kind of things that you think somebody when they're especially young in their career should be thinking about doing that's gonna challenge them,
that's gonna push them? - Anything that makes them uncomfortable. Anything that's outside of their expertise. And it makes them uncomfortable. doesn't mean you have to go do something crazy and quit your job and go pick a job you don't know how to do.
It might mean beginning to read or listen to influencers on a different topic. That might be enough. For 18 months I've studied artificial intelligence and medical and the convergence of those two things.
Neither of which I knew anything. about at 60. It's very uncomfortable to try to learn language about the body and how it works that I just didn't understand. I ruck -pack.
It's miserable. I hate it. But my body needs that. My body needs to be uncomfortable. I get in 55 degree water,
yeah. Yeah, it's herable But my body responds well my body needs to know I don't need to be comfortable And I think that is one of the best things you could do to be flexible Just do hard things have hard conversations.
Mmm that you don't want to have with people be willing to engage in difficult things things That you don't want to do I chased comfort my entire life.
I Pursued comfort. I would have never admitted didn't even know I did it. I Either tried to get comfortable or get out of uncomfortable situations That's what I did and it wasn't until I began to realize that go,
you know, I'm gonna be fine. No, you're not not Brooks. This is terrible. Yeah, I'm good I can handle hard things This is gonna be a really hard long journey.
Yeah, I'm good. I can handle it mentally physically spiritually I can handle hard things. I couldn't have said that 10 years ago Do you think you would have said it 10 years ago?
I wouldn't even know what it meant 10 years ago Hmm, I could have heard it and it would have gone on my head. I would have have what's he talking about? Yeah, no clue what that means I'm thinking about one of uh,
many conversations that that we had I'm thinking about one of the nights actually this happened many times at West Lanes, and I heard you say the greatest Enemy that we have is comfort Yeah,
you first heard me say that when I first started to understand it it. This makes no sense. I live a life trying to be comfortable,
where I live, what I drive, what I eat, everything. It's about comfort. And one day, in my journal time,
I just, the Lord just starts peeling back that onion, going, look, what's wrong with being uncomfortable? uncomfortable? I didn't know that was an option. And over time,
because a lot of these things take time to learn. So I didn't reveal everything to us immediately. We wouldn't understand. And over time, he keeps dropping the little clues and one day he says,
"Hey, the best way the enemy can keep you shut down is just to keep you covered." I think most of the people in church are just comfortable.
Yeah, we're going to talk about that a little bit more in a minute. I want to come back to this idea of how success sometimes does build up on success.
You know, you get used to a level of success and then you realize, "I can do more than this." this. So I'm curious, when you were early on in your career,
what were the things that you started getting involved in? And then when you made the switch into real estate? Walk us through that journey of growth and how even in that place,
how you learn to succeed? Again, it looks intentional. Most of it wasn't. Okay. I Haven't a Accounting degree thought I was gonna be an accountant was pretty good at math.
I sucked at accounting Didn't take me too long to figure out. I hate this stuff. I've got a degree and I don't like it Got into car cells Start selling Range Rovers and sobs for mr.
Moore Bob Moore downtown worked with mr. Moore Moore for a couple of years and I'm much better at selling something than I am doing a county.
So I just leaned into, I think, whatever was in front of me that felt comfortable. I didn't want to be uncomfortable. So you look back and say,
success drives success. Yeah, it does because you get more confident. confident. Mm -hmm. You get more people around you going Hey, you did it once. I bet you can do it again The danger for me was you wake up one day going.
Yeah, I am good And well that creates a whole another set of problems. Mm -hmm Yeah success is is overrated This so if we're talking about doing the impossible of most of us are succeeding at things that are very possible.
We just figure out how to control variables and how to do that repeatedly. When we're talking about doing the impossible, that's where we're actually going to talk about a faith component, right? And so sometimes,
I think one of the great things is sometimes if you go for the impossible, you might fail at it, which is to your point, the great fear. You probably will.
Hmm. We finished First National, but I failed a hundred times. I made so many mistakes. Hmm. Oh, it was a disaster. No,
people don't see that. Yeah, my closest partners will. They're like, Yeah, Brits got that wrong. But, you know, people see the end result. So they go, Wow, that's, that's amazing. Yeah,
you see the end product was amazing But you don't see the the the scars that all the mistakes that I made.
Yeah So part of this process though You're working with Bob more and then you step into real estate Would it have worked for it?
Like what would you have had the level of trust that you needed? needed if you just step from you know Working with Bob Moore and then I want to take on First National Or were there steps that you had to take to get to a level of credibility?
Do you know no, I mean of course you couldn't yeah, you all you have to build on it Yeah, the only reason I my team and I got picked was because I had credibility with the people making the decision the federal judge judge,
the city's people that said, "Okay, we trust Brooks. "He's never done anything like this, but we know him. "He's credible, he's trustworthy. "He's done other things." And there was a relationship that happens over years.
You don't develop that in a year or two or 10. For me, it took 30 years to build that credibility. What kind of things were you doing in those 30 years?
And I know part of that's relationship and how you're connecting with people, but also just project scope. Somebody's unfamiliar with Gary Brooks. Somebody's unfamiliar with real estate.
Like what are the things that you're involved in? Yeah, I was a real estate broker, commercial real estate. It was an office market guy. Mainly did mostly tenant representation. tenant -stated space,
I went and found it, you get paid, you get a fee. I did that for a long time, I started a company with Mark Beffert, I think the smartest real estate guy in Oklahoma City. Still one of my best friends.
Mark and I built a company around brokerage, that's what we did. Brokerage and management, we managed properties and we tried to fill them up. That's basically what we did. Then you get paid for that. And around 2006,
Mark and some other people started buying some buildings and I thought, well, that's pretty cool. Owning them feels better than renting them and just getting a fee.
I like that. It wasn't some big strategic plan put into place. Got lucky, had some people that had some money and trusted had some.
trust in us I thought we could bring some value and started building some equity in some projects and in 2006 2007 I thought hey,
I'm gonna jump out of my own because apartments was something that I thought was gonna be a Good investment in the future. I looked at a birth rate chart from 1900 to 2000 and I simply looked at it and said,
"There's a lot of kids about to go to college that are going to need apartments in the next 10, 15 years." It was that simple. It wasn't this big strategy. I literally looked at the chart, and I started doing apartment development.
I met a few people that could help me and built about, built or bought about 3 ,000 apartment units here in Oklahoma City. I kind of found a sweet spot of building these.
$50 million four story, we call them Texas wraps with garages and they're really cool and nice. That was kind of my sweet spot. And then First National came along,
which was a whole different animal. Okay, so you've got multiple apartments. You're doing really well. I mean, life's life was good. Yeah, life was good.
That Life is fantastic. Yeah, you're you're in a place where to to your point, it's great comfort. Oh, yeah, good.
All right. So let's talk through First National because let's say somebody's in LA, New York. They're going, OK, what is First National? Just walk us through what is First National? What what is this building?
Why does it matter? Yeah, First National is a 32 story high rise built in 19th. 1930, opened in 1931. Art Deco, it was modeled by a Chicago architecture firm after the Empire State Building.
So there's a lot of similarities. Incredible, great banking hall, 60 ,000 square feet, 24 -foot ceilings, massive columns, it's just an incredible room.
- It's gorgeous. - It's spectacular. - Thank you, man. Bank did really well in 1957. They expanded to the east and in 1972 did another expansion. So the building ended up being 1 .1 million square feet,
the full city block in the middle of downtown at Park and Robinson. The bank failed in 1986, one of many from the Penn Square debacle,
and the great banking hall went dark. There was still a lot of tenants, office tenants used it, but it became, it started getting a disrepair in the 90s,
out -of -state owners weren't spending money. And for the next 25 years, it just really began to disintegrate. A lot of damage, a lot of water damage, things weren't working. And so being a local guy,
building's cool, I wasn't in love with the building. I'm not a history guy, so I had nothing, there was nothing emotionally attaching me to that building. But it had gone into a receivership and I found myself in the building one day.
It was open and people could go in. I'm in the building and I'm on the third floor and I don't remember how I got in. I don't remember any of this. And I'm looking down at the Great Hall.
and it's just this massive room, an 800 -pound chandelier right in front of me hanging from the ceiling. And I got a vision of it at Christmas.
Probably didn't last one second. It was just a very quick flash of people and the tree. And I remember looking up going, "No, no,
no, no, this is not gonna happen." Huh. I had heard God speak, I think, but I didn't know over the years. Occasionally, you have thoughts that are really different and like,
"Oh, that's weird." But I didn't really have a solid foundation of hearing God's voice, but that was pretty clear. I mean,
that's not my brain crafting that picture. I instinctively knew that. that. I did not do that. And so I'm arguing with myself,
like, hey, no, I'm not capable of doing this. This is not happening. I'm an apartment, I do $50 million apartment projects. That I can get my head around. I can do those.
Comfortably. This largest asbestos job in the country, we knew that asbestos alone was probably worth $50 million. that the cost to get the asbestos out was a lot more than the building was probably worth.
I didn't pursue, I didn't have a thought, I want to go do something impossible now that I'm 53 and life's going great. It never occurred to me. But I knew that if I was the guy that put a team on the line,
I would be the guy that put a team on the line. I would be the guy that put a team on the line. I would be the guy that put a team on the line. that saved this building, I don't need a resume for the rest of my life. So if I'm in Newark, Chicago, we did 106 case studies around the country.
You could put First National any major city in the country and it would fit perfectly. It's that good. I brought in the team,
the gentleman who did the Empire State Building Remodel, Jefferson Memorial, 38 state capitals. He's in my building and he says, "This is the most important restoration "happening in the country." That's the guy who did the Empire State Building.
So I'm kind of thinking, I'm just an Oklahoma City guy trying to save the building. I never, I would have never made that kind of statement. statement. So nationally,
it's a big deal. First National has a great history here. You have this vision in it on the third floor,
look down, flash moment, Christmas, and then what happens? Well, I called my best friend,
the smartest will stay going. in town who my wife is his CFO. I said I think God's telling me to try to buy first national.
He said ask again. You've lost your mind He runs the next door tells my wife. I hadn't told her yet. She doesn't know. Mmm. She gets home says he's smarter than you are And he says it's impossible.
I go Yeah, he's probably right And I'd been thinking about it a few hours, and this is all happening in your head. Like, this is crazy.
I mean, I can't do this. Yeah. But I had enough success that I thought maybe I can build a team, and then I think,
"I'm not going to get picked. It was in receivership. They're not going to pick me. I've never done a high -rise." -rise There'll be people all around the country that are experts at this. Mm -hmm. They're gonna pick one of them So if I take a run at it,
what do I have to lose? If God did tell me to do it, and I'm right then I obeyed and I don't get picked and all's good. Yeah And I do believe that I believe that I had a vision that was not for me But I also think 95 % of the reason I did it was ego,
because pretty quick you're figuring out, "Hey, if I'm the guy to help save this thing, I'm golden." So, yeah, it wasn't some, you know,
I'm some spiritual guy in the building trying to listen to God, not at all. But I appreciate that because I think like a lot of times people think that if they're going to do anything with God or anything...
for God that their motives have to Be perfect in advance. Mine were yeah, I I said 95 five could have been 99 one Yeah, literally, I mean this is all ego driving this But in the back of my mind,
I'm like I believe I heard him Yeah, and I remember talking to my wife and I told her I said listen If you have any doubts play the card now, and I'll walk away. Hmm.
She said why? "Why?" I said, "Because if this doesn't go well, you can't imagine how bad it'll be in your worst nightmare and I can't ever have you telling me we shouldn't have done it. I've got to have you on board." And she's,
I remember, she's, we're in the backyard, she said, "What will people say?" I said, "They'll thank you for bringing me to my senses. You'll be the town hero." And long pause,
she said. "Let's do it." And I still don't think we're ready to get picked. I mean, I'm obeying. I got out of the boat, but I don't think the reality of getting selected,
I thought, was remote. And about five weeks later, I get a call from the receiver, who I knew, "Well," and he said, "Hey, you better come see me." At lunch with my wife on a Tuesday I said,
"I think we're getting picked." So I just tell you the background. This was not some God moment where I'm going to be Mr. Brave and step out and jump off the cliff.
It wasn't that at all. I had no understanding of what I was about to do. But I do believe I had just enough. You know, it's the guy that brought his son to Jesus.
I don't have much faith. I just have a little. Help me. Help me believe. That was me. A lot of people would say that they want to do the impossible. I think especially younger generation.
My generation, we want to do the impossible. Why is it important for people to do the impossible? Well,
- Well, God didn't need us to do anything. Doing hard things changes me, doesn't change him. I had no clue when I accepted and put the team together and ultimately got picked.
And the day my partners and I closed that building, I had no clue what was coming. Those early days were fun, creating, everybody's excited. So I wasn't thinking on pursuing something impossible,
what's gonna happen here, this is gonna be awesome. You know, I'm not processing it that way. What I learned though was that doing something something this challenging changed me in almost every respect.
I'm not the same person I was when I walked in that building September of 2015. Yeah, let's talk about that. How did this project change you? Well,
we'll zoom in, but first just big picture. I had a lot bigger ego and pride than I thought I had. had I Would have told you that I was a pretty humble guy. I wasn't I just didn't know Probably the biggest way it changed me.
I didn't believe God. I Wouldn't have told you that I Would have said to you. Oh, yeah, I believe the Bible. I hit a point point somewhere,
I journaled 2 ,400 pages in five years, so I journaled this entire process. My breaking and rebuilding, I journaled that process. And I remember journaling this concept that I didn't believe him.
when he said you'll do you can do anything. All things are possible for anyone who believes we sing God of the impossible.
I don't see anyone doing anything impossible. I described it one down my journal I said it'd be kind of like wanting to climb Mount Everest and you go learn from someone.
who's never tried to climb Everest. They've read every book on Everest. They're an Everest expert. They've never tried to do it, but that's what we do.
I looked around, people I'd been learning from. What are you doing that if God doesn't show up you're going to die or you'll lose everything, not one? Why would I listen to you?
Why am I listening to you? I want to go find the people that made it on top of Everest and Even better. I want to find people who tried and failed to go. Okay. What happened? Tell me what happened.
Yeah Those are the people I want to talk to But we don't do that doing impossible things And I'm not I don't I'm not an expert at it.
I've been through one thing that people said that can't happen. It just counts a little bit more because it was really long. Seven and a half years. Yeah. Largest redevelopment in state history.
Yeah. It's a big deal. I get it, but it wasn't intentional. I had a just enough faith that I said I'm gonna move into this.
I don't know what it looks like, but I'm gonna move into it. For the first 35 years of my adult life,
it's like that old TV show, Curtain One or Curtain Two, probably pre -before your time. Yeah, it is. I'm not familiar. You want what's behind Curtain One?
Oh yeah, yeah. We're going to open Curtain One and let you see it. Curtain Two, you don't get to see it. see Curtain one is your life pretty comfortable. You can continue to maintain that Curtain two Can't see it But here's what I'm gonna tell you Gary If you'll pick curtain two and you're willing to walk away from curtain one and everything it's behind it You'll never go back and it all really bull down the fact I
didn't believe him and most the people I know didn't believe him no people I didn't know people that were doing things impossible and then he said to me said this is the first thing you've ever done where I ever needed to show up hmm I've done some big deals yeah but you didn't need me and you knew you you didn't need me.
You wanted me to show up You hoped I helped you solve problems, but you never needed me to show up If I don't show up here, you're going down Hmm feels uncomfortable and it was You know battling storms is not fun But why why do the impossible?
It'll change you. It will completely change you. Why do something impossible? Because you wake up one day and go, you know, I still got a lot of storms,
but they don't bother me near as much. I'm good. Brooks, you're not good. You got a lot of problems. No, I'm good. I can sleep in the boat and I couldn't before.
How do you sleep in the boat? the boat? You go through a lot of storms and you realize quit being impressed with your problem. Mm -hmm. God's a lot bigger than my problem.
Yeah. Okay, so let's let's dig in on this a little bit because you said I'm standing on floor three and I look down and I'm not sure if I've really heard God speak before and now you just look down and I'm not sure if I've heard God speak before and I'm not sure if I've heard God speak before and I'm not sure if I've heard God speak before and I'm not sure if I've heard God speak before and I'm not sure if
I've heard God speak before and I'm not sure if I've heard God speak before and I'm not sure if I've heard God speak before and I'm not sure if I've heard God speak before and I'm not sure if I've heard God speak before and I'm not sure if I've heard God speak before and I'm not sure if I've heard God speak before and I'm not sure if I've heard God speak before and I'm not sure if I've heard God speak before
and I'm not sure if I've heard God speak before and I'm not sure if I've heard God speak before and I'm not sure if I've heard God speak before and I'm not sure if I've heard God speak before and I'm not sure if I've heard God speak before and I'm not sure this experience of hearing God Not just give you like a word, but we're talking paragraphs. We're talking pages pages. Okay, so How did that happen?
How and for you as you were going you mentioned? He said you haven't needed me. Why was it important? For you to be able to hear him on that in this idea of needing him because I think a lot of people when they think about prayer They go all right,
God. I need you to show up, but you're talking about prayer in a way where you're actually Listening and expecting that he's going to say something or that sounds like like the relationship is becoming that Yeah,
I had no relationship with Lord hmm and have a relationship. I know about him I was the Israelites. Hmm. I knew he was I Wasn't Moses.
I didn't know his ways. I didn't understand him. I Had read the book But I didn't know the author of the book I had no No way to commune with him in a way that that was comfortable.
It was always very uncomfortable This doesn't make sense. You said your sheep hear your voice. July of 2016,
I write in my journal. I hear you because that's how I got here, but I know I don't hear you very much. It seems to me that I should be able to hear you all the time,
and I need you to do that. that. It was just a simple request And I'm still learning yet through because of the request and leaning into it.
It's like a muscle Reading the book is good, but only until you go to the gym. Nothing is going to happen And so for me the gym was Journal in Lord,
what do I do here? Mm -hmm and people go How do you know? How can you distinguish the thoughts? Well, I have a lot of thoughts that are a lot smarter than me.
Mm -hmm. That's a pretty good start When ideas come into your brain, you're like God, that's really smart. Yeah, well, it's not you. It's just not Now you get a lot of thoughts from the enemy coming at you That seemed really smart smart.
What I've learned is fear masquerades at wisdom as wisdom a lot of times. Yeah. You know, oh, Gary, let me give you some wise counsel. You're just afraid.
I'm not listening to you. Yeah, that's fear has nothing to do with wisdom. A lot of people said this is a stupid idea. Well, probably you got got to work it.
Hmm. I had this voice coming one day and it cut louder and louder and louder and it was like ended up going 30 years you've you've Excelled in business and this is the decision you're gonna make you know how irresponsible this is and all of a sudden I immediately went Wait a minute Hey,
Holy Spirit, would you ever yell at me? Never. And I instantly knew. Every time that happens, I know who's voice that is now.
Sounded good initially, sounded wise, but I wasn't listening and it kept getting louder. Now I know. Well, how do you know that? You journal 2 ,500 pages and you go through the experience.
2 ,500 pages is a lot. lot Yeah, but I didn't do it out of some You know, I'm some spiritual giant. I did it out of necessity.
It's the only way I could survive now I Journal because it's how I steward the word Most people that I know and I was one I did not steward words well.
If you would have sent me a verse, hey, Lord gave me this verse for you. That's cool. And one day, when I'm journaling, the Lord said, hey, you like that pearl of the talents,
right? Oh, yeah, I love that pearl. The pearl of the talents is the one where he gives one of them one, right? Gives another two. two and one five and one five One of five Comes back.
He's doubled it. Well done. Mm -hmm one with two. He's doubled it one with one buries it goes. Hey, I'm I know you're a tough man I Didn't want to lose it and what does he do?
He gives the one to the guy that now has ten. Mm -hmm. Well, that doesn't seem fair fair. Jesus doesn't treat people differently. Oh, yeah, he does. Trust me.
He may love us the same, but he treats us based on how we've stewarded our talents. And what I learned was talents isn't just money.
One day, Lord said to me, What do you what's the most valuable asset? in the world? Hmm. I don't know. Why don't you tell me? Yeah,
clearly you're leading me somewhere and He said my word is the most valuable thing in the world. I create a billion stars with a word When I give you a word From someone make maybe I'm maybe I'm reading John 15 and I get a word may come from David Skidmore Skidmore,
which it has. Lance Humphries. They may come from, I mean, I carry this. West Lane,
good friend of ours, sends me, I'm at his house one day, one night, and he says, "Hey, I got a verse for you." I go, "Aw, awesome." Isaiah 58,
11, and 12. 12. That's cool. Didn't do anything with it. About two weeks later, a gentleman named Greg Gunn, good friend of mine, local, 4 .30 in the morning. Hey,
Brooks, Lord woke me up and told me to text you this verse. Same verse. Isaiah 58, 11, and 12, that's weird. Still didn't move on it.
I'm busy. mm -hmm day after Thanksgiving 2019 lady I've never met from Dallas walks up to me in a coffee shop says you Gary Brooks I said yes he hands me this car good work gave me this verse for you in my quiet time now that's impossible yeah that's impossible you've never met her never met her it's impossible handwritten Isaiah 15 11 and 12 I open it up She looks at me and she goes to mean anything I go You
may have just changed my life Because now I've got a choice. I go through I go I look at door one Keep doing what you're doing Stay the way you are Don't risk This could be uncomfortable or I go I don't understand how you do this,
but I just have got a word from the creator of the universe. I want this to happen all the time, because if there's a world out there where a lady I don't know can give me the same verse my two friends did,
I want to live in that world. That's a risky world." A lot of people, I get people go, "Oh, it's coincidence." coincidence. You're kidding, right?
Yeah, you're yeah, really That's a coincidence. All right. You yeah, that's stupid. Yeah, there's no coincidence here So my point is yeah, I took this I've got over a hundred pages of journal on this verse Because every time I move into it.
I steward it the Lord keeps giving me more and more revelation Had I put this in my pocket and forgotten about about it, wouldn't it change my life? So you start to steward God's word differently.
Something I think is really interesting and I'm saying in that both the Bible and words that you're getting from people and you're having to discern is this from God.
Tell me about the first time. You have something, I'm thinking about Marcus Jackson. I'm thinking about Jacob Weaver. a few other friends. We would say,
Gary's got the dog. And what we mean is-- - Yeah, tell me what that means. I have a dog, but I don't think that's what you mean. - What I mean is Gary's got the thing in him that he's spoiling for a good challenge.
Like he's looking for, like how do I go after it in life? Russell Westbrook, Scott. got got the dog. Well, okay, so Here's my question you get in To first national and like you're going at it When is the first time that you get hit and you're like,
oh, this is a normal real estate problem Like this is this is the I need you God and I need your your word like what what? going on in that situation.
It was a couple of years. Okay. And I love the Mount Everest example because you can kind of picture it. I'll never climb Everest. I don't think I have the lungs for it.
It's not on my bucket list but I'm fascinated by it. Getting up to base camp is gotta be fun. Man, you're seeing it.
It's happening. Yeah, it's not. you're dreaming of being on top. You get to the ladder, you're wanting to go home.
It's like, I'm about to die. And you're literally passing people who have been dead for 50 years and they're frozen in time because it's so cold.
And you can see them as you're climbing. Yeah. Like what have I done and people go you wanted to climb Everest. What do you mean? I?
Didn't know it would be like this. Yeah, because I until you experience it How do you know that plenty people go you had to know this could be tough? Yeah, but I had nothing to Relate it to I didn't know what tough was Till I'm on the floor of the Great Hall in tears going Lord.
I'm done. It's over was November of 2019. I was reviewing some of my journal you know I Sometimes you just can't hear God you just don't and sometimes you don't see him you're getting that place It's like and you know we all do that.
Oh, yeah, I can't hear God. I can't see him, but I can always remember no matter, I can be on my death bed and remember 'cause I've got it written down. I can always remember.
So I'm pulling up, I'm reading my journal one morning early. It's November of 2019 and I'm in bad shape. I mean, I'm lamenting. What I didn't know was I was about to have heart,
basically a heart attack and heart stents. Two years earlier, I had a zero calcium score. November of 2019, I was about to have heart attack. 2019, my calcium score was 748. Won't mean a lot to people,
but it means I'm a walking heart attack. I can die at any moment. - Yeah. - Just, I didn't know how to handle the stress. And I'm reading this journal entry and I'm laughing out loud.
My wife walks in and she goes, what are you laughing about? I'm reading a journal entry from 2019 about, I'm about to die and COVID hadn't even hit yet.
I'm laughing. I hadn't even come close in 2019 to how bad it was going to get. But I tell you,
I tell you, I tell you work it. That's how you do it. It feels great for the first couple years. It's probably about two years in. I'm like, okay, I'm at base camp and I'm about to move and it's really cold.
I'm here. I can't go back, what have I done? I'm about to get a lot of people into some messes that I didn't ever see coming. - When you get to the mountain and you're that high,
hype doesn't get you through, you know, it's perseverance, it's grit, it's continuation. As you are in that space, what does that look like?
as far as just the day -to -day grinding it out and then as well, like the challenges that you had to face once COVID hit, 'cause that changes the game for you as well.
- Everything changed with COVID. - Right. - Now can you even stay open? I get a lot of credit.
credit for that project more than I probably should. The one thing I do accept that I say, "I did one thing really well,
I just didn't quit." And you asked a question earlier, "Why is it important to hear God's voice?" There were weeks when the only thing that kept me going was...
I believe God told me to do this. It's all I had. It's all I had. I had nothing else to rely on.
But he had taken me to the story of, he had just preached 15 ,000 people, your memory, he says, do disciples, get in the boat,
go to the other side. Well, it's a nice I've stood on the Sea of Galilee. And where they're headed, they don't know,
is to this place called the Gadarenes. And you remember, they get the other side and this crazy man with 12 ,000 demons in him rushes up. I've stood on that cliff with my wife.
It's the only cliff on the east side of Galilee. Galilee. Halfway through, they're thinking we're going to die. As they're crossing over?
As they're crossing. Like, we're not going to make it. And Jesus basically looks at them and goes, I told you to do this. There's no chance you don't arrive at the other side.
And I hung on to that so tight, some days it's all ahead. had you told me to do this I don't know what I'm gonna look like coming out of the other side clearly my financial condition is changing rapidly But there's no way you won't finish this None it's all I had some days But I believed it Not in not early not initially initially,
but about halfway through, it's like, "All right, you're going to do this." And again, I'm journaling all of this. And he said to me,
he said, "It's going to be better than you've ever imagined it in your wildest dreams." Okay, good thing you're in control and not me.
me. Restoration project of this size, what are the things that you are doing just within the building? What has to happen for something like this to come about in a six,
seven and a half year period of time? Well, you have to have great partners who are incredibly strong, strong -willed, strong financially with good teams around them. Choose your partners.
wisely. It's the most important thing without the partners partner I had and the people that were there. I couldn't have ever done it. I mean I can't pull off the project of this magnitude.
It took a lot of lenders a lot of banks a lot of people buying into the dream they bought in earlier right all the bank only one okay then I had over a hundred refusals,
yeah. I think 106 was the number I counted one day. - What's the timeline of 106? - Oh, we started aggressively seeking hotel and hotel financing in about 2018.
So this would have been late 2022, late 2020, sorry. So two and a half years. - Two and a half years have passed. getting told no you're crazy not interested don't understand the do Or Brooks you can't pull this off Because that was the common thought and it was the right thought I mean I had a friend of mine say You know no one in town thinks you're gonna be able to do this.
Oh, yeah, I wouldn't either not offended by it it. That's the logical thought to have. So I quit being offended by it once the 55th bank said,
"Not happening." Okay. You just keep pressing and it happened. So you have to have a lot of blenders. Over a thousand people were involved in this project.
People have to buy in. They're getting paid. partners and I aren't. So city, mayor, city manager, city council, state capital,
we knew them all. I mean, they all had to buy in. Are Washington people? Washington had to buy in. We're on the largest historic tax credits in the country in that timeframe. So a lot of people had to at least nod their head.
The thing about, something you said earlier, you said I'm the one who's changed in this process. That's why he has us do impossible things. It doesn't change God, but it changes us.
Rick Warren begins his book Purpose Driven Life by saying it's, I don't know if he started it with this, but he says it's not about you, it's not about me, it's about God. At the same time,
time, Jesus talks to us about how eternal life is knowing Him. It's knowing God. And one thing that you talked about, I remember hearing this frequently,
you would say, "It's not about the building. It's all about you and Him. It's all about you and God." What do you mean by that? Yeah, I understand.
He said that first. God did. Oh, yeah 2016 we hadn't bought we hadn't closed yet. We were in due diligence for about a year Research in the building bringing an expert from all the country and so I'm prayer walking around the building and one day he said to me hey You need to know this is there's nothing to do with the building.
This is all about me and you and I'm hearing that I'm up That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. What is that? even mean? It's all about the building, trust me.
And I'm trying to have this discussion with myself, I think. And Lord's finally like, no, no, you need to understand this. I'm going to finish the building.
I'm the one who told you to do it. This is all about me and you. Like, how do you, how do you even wrap your head around that? Mm -hmm.
-hmm. It took me years to even understand what he meant by that It's probably five years later before I wake up and go I get that now. I understand it It makes sense to me.
It didn't at the time made no sense to me. Mm -hmm A lot of people when they think about When they think about God when they think about business,
I think most of my life when I'm thought about business I did not see a connection to how God would show up or why God would be necessary in business I'm curious from from your perspective the tension between just being a church member and Expecting that God's going to show up and even joining him You know Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven and and our prayer is to bring bring heaven to earth that we would see
God bring, that we would see God bring heaven to earth, let's talk about that. It'll help my brain if I break that up into two pieces.
Okay, so I was a guy that would have told you I'm trying to run a godly business And I would have told you that yeah What I learned about myself was I loved God More accurately.
I loved the idea of loving God. Hmm. I Love the idea of people know. Hey, he goes to church He teaches he reads his Bible.
He's a good guy. I love that idea And I love the idea that hey God I need help. I got a problem over here in projects I need you to show up and he's described that to me one day said you know you love me But you're not in love with me What does that mean?
mean? Hmm You can stay on the path you're on And we're gonna be good Peter's only when it got out of the boat But the lemon guys didn't But he's the only guy who for the rest of his life could say I walked on water so I began to rethink what does it look like to run a business and not be a guy that just hopes God can show up,
and not be a guy that people thought was a good guy, but truly a person who has a business that God is literally running.
and then the picture he gave me was Formula race car. Mm -hmm.
I'm in the passenger seat. He's driving. We all get that picture, you know, Jesus take the wheel But that's what we normally do. I'm in trouble. You take the wheel, right? That's how I did it So let me give you a better picture I'm driving you're in the passenger seat You're going to experience all of the fear and the g -force in this race car.
You're going to lose five pounds of liquids coming out of your body as you're going to be scared to death. But you're also going to know I'm driving. Now,
the old me would have, when it got challenging, I'm going to grab the wheel because what I learned about myself was I thought my greatest skill in business was persuasion.
I can persuade people. I can craft a story that sounds and looks so good to you and give you pretty pictures from a computer that you go, "Wow,
that's awesome. I got a vacant piece of ground and I could sell you that." What I thought my greatest skill of persuasion was actually manipulation. I manipulated people.
And I didn't know that until he opened my eyes one day, said, hey, steady manipulation. Why? So yeah, just do a little word search.
OK. Didn't take me long to come back and go, I do this. I do it with text and email. emails and I Call the right people because I know how to get them to say something to somebody else and You come up with an idea that I planted and I make you the hero I'm I I manipulated people and what I learned was that that the word comes from the word witchcraft It's mind control.
Hmm. And that's what business people do We don't want to admit it, but I'm I need you I need to get you you to do what I need you to do to make my dream come true That was my strategy.
I would have never said it that way. I didn't had no clue So he says to me There's a better way to run a business I'm driving hmm What happens when I get scared when I grab the wheel he goes you can grab it,
but the minute you touch it you own it It's zero or a hundred. Can't touch the wheel." Okay, that violates every single business principle I've ever studied and read and learned for the last 35 years.
He goes, "Yeah, my kingdom's opposite." And all my friends go, "You're doing what? That's crazy. That's the opposite of what you should be doing.
Yeah, maybe we'll see." What does it look like? for us to join in with God and bringing His kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven? Yeah. So I grew up believing the most important command to for us go into all the world,
preach the gospel. It's a good one. But I believe now that it's not the main one Everyone in the world.
That's not true Most people in the United States have probably at some point another been somewhere where they've recited the Lord's Prayer Even people who didn't believe in God.
It's just it's that common. Yeah, it's so common. We never think about it Most of us I didn't your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And we go,
"Oh God, I just want to know your will." We know His will. He told us, "Well, I just want to do God's will." He told us, "You don't need to bring heaven to earth.
That is His will, and that is our assignment. What does that look like?" You have to be very smart. smart Is there any racism in heaven?
No, then change it. Is there any poverty in heaven? No, then change it Is there any homelessness or they're homeless people in heaven change it sickness disease crime?
Now when I go down that path people look at you like you're out of your mind Mm -hmm. I told five people who I three of whom I knew well and loved in business around a roundtable two weeks ago I said They were talking and just kind of brought up.
Hey Brooks. We know you're doing homeless this stuff I said, it's what what's your goal? These are kingdom people. I Said I believe I will live to see the day when homelessness ceased to exist in my city I believe that mmm and one of them immediately went well here.
That's impossible This is a strong believer who I love dearly But that's that's how that would have been my response. Mm -hmm Well,
all things are possible. Well, not all things. It's what he said, you know, I Gotta go down this tangent real quick because it may be the most important moment of my relationship with Jesus ever Was this one changed everything everything.
I got a hundred, I could tell you, but this is the one that I think for me changed everything. Gary,
do you believe all things are possible? Four times, John tells us, "Ask me anything and I'll do it for you." We've read that.
Who believes it? Anything? I've tried to anything. Well, let's not work then. And he took me in this to quite a few verses.
You, you will do greater things than me, right? Greater things than you. So I'm like, Lord, you know,
that, that didn't happen now. Those things don't happen. And he's, just very kindly in that soft voice that just one way you know. He said,
"Gary, am I your king?" "Sure." "Yeah, Jesus, you're my king." "Did I say that anything is possible for anyone who believes?" I said,
"Yeah, it's in red. I'm reading it. It's right here. I believe you said it. Who changed my rule?" What do you mean? Who changed my rule?
If somebody trumped me and changed the rule, who did it? And I'm like, I don't know. He said, so you're following a rule that somebody trumped me on.
You don't know who said it, when it was. And he said to me, words I'll never forget. He said you're worshiping the wrong guy I'm not your king You have literally bought a theology From people who say my words no longer can happen and they can't tell you who changed it Yet they still say I'm the guy Can't be true I said it if I'm the king it is true today as it was the day I said it changed everything I didn't
understand it that I had to walk down that path. I didn't have to I could have gone I don't get it. I'm not I don't experience it. I'm gonna stay on my path.
They go, okay You want to do impossible things you better start? start believing." And people go, "Well, I believe,
I love that story where the dad brought the boy. Jesus, I brought these guys, my son, to your disciples, and they couldn't heal him, right?" Seventy -two of them had just come back from two by two,
going to towns. towns, they had so much success casting out demons. They were arguing over who's the greatest. It's like, you should have seen what we did. These guys are coming off the greatest high of their life and they couldn't get rid of this demon.
And they take him aside and they go, why couldn't we do it? What does he say? This kind only comes out by fasting and prayer. prayer and most of us go must have been a big demon Jesus didn't need fasting and prayer to get rid of a demon They ran from him.
Hmm. So what's he talking about? Unbelief you guys don't believe Wow some belief Fasting and prayer uncomfortable You want to believe any impossible better ramp up your fasting and prayer game And when you do it change God didn't need me to fast and pray That's laughable.
It changes me That's why I need to do it hmm What's at stake? if people choose the path of comfort over the next 30,
40, 50 years? Look, I'm not a Bible theologian. But I do have a relationship with the author now.
I didn't have before. The Bible says we're all going to be held accountable.
Every one of us will stand in front of Him one day, give an account for what? Everything we did, everything we thought, every motive we had,
and everything we didn't do. There's a verse in Revelation, I believe it's 24,
chapter 24, says he will he will wipe away the tears Hmm remember that verse. Mm -hmm. Now we sing in church. There'll be no tears in heaven, right? So it's like there's no tears in heaven.
Well according in Revelation there will be I have a theory. That's all it is You can't prove it. There will be a moment When someone walks in in,
when they immediately realize what they could have done. And it's overwhelming. I made it, I'm here,
but I could have done that. And he looks at you and he wipes away your tears and he goes, I told you, I gave you all power, all authority, told you about my will done. Will was, and according to Ephesians 1,
3 gave you every spiritual blessing. blessing in the heavenlies. I Told you It's up to you To go do it. Yeah, so what's at stake?
I Don't want to show up in heaven and Jesus wiping away my tears. Oh, hey, you made it. You're good. We're good man. Yeah, I Love you.
I Want to show up and Jesus is laughing his going, "That was crazy !" I'm like, "You told me anything's possible,
and I actually believed you. That's what I want." We only have one case in the entire New Testament that I know of where Jesus literally jumping up and down with joy,
ecstatic. And it's when he sent those 72 out and they came back and they're going. you wouldn't believe what we did he Got so much more joy out of watching his people do what he knew they could do then he did when he did it.
Hmm That was much he was much happier Like I know I can do it, but I want to see you do it I lived a life for most of my 55 years Dave or I thought,
be a good guy, get to heaven, try to get your family there, don't cheat on your wife, work hard. That was his dream for me.
Lord took me to Psalms 91, "All the days of your life were written in the book before you were born." Hmm. You know, it's a bit... go well predestination not somewhat immense Romans 8 all things work for good for those who we love the first part who love the Lord which means we obey him so it's all things work for good it only is true for people who are doing what he said yeah and what's the last part and are
called according to his purpose right right? What's my purpose? I'm doing this one down the road. I'm trying to make sense of these verses on it.
He said, "Look, a million years ago, Jesus, Holy Spirit, and I got around and we crafted a dream for you and we wrote it in the book now." Now,
we've given you everything you need to go do it. What's at stake? I show up and I get to see what I could have done.
That's what's at stake. People go, "Why do you want to live to be a hundred like healthy?" well I want to die with a sword in my hand not a cane because I want to show up and look in the book and go I didn't hit it but I was close I remember the day I said well Lord well and you know if I got involved with people that are working on homelessness and what if we eradicated homelessness and just very kindly like
you said that's a good start hmm What would his dream for you be? Jesus Holy Spirit and God Center are going.
What's our dream for David? hmm, I Want to live as long as I can killing giants and taking land I Don't want to be a guy going.
I'm a good guy. I'm working hard didn't cheat on my wife, you know Got to heaven That's not it Yet most of my friends and I was this way too.
It's like oh lord the world Israel and Russia and all this is coming Oh, just come back, you know, I just can't wait till the lord comes back and fixes it He gave us the tools and told us us to fix it.
I can't interpret it any other way. I have no ability now. That's what I said to him when I said I can't go back. I had it wrong for 55 years. I need to get it right for the next 55.
- So someone is listening to this, they're watching right now on YouTube. Let's see. Gary, I hear what you're saying,
you're different though. I heard it because you're an entrepreneur, real estate broker, you've always just been taking big swings. And sometimes like we, we listen and we go,
that sounds cool, but also we have reasons not to go for it. Sometimes one of the big ones is just I'm afraid I don't want to fail at. at it. Closing out today what would you what would you say to the person who says I'm not going to take the risk because I don't want to fail?
Yeah, you've only known me for seven, eight, nine years. He didn't know me when I was 24. I was a knucklehead. I mean there are people in this town who knew me when I first got in his business,
you know. 27 years old, I'm like Brooks isn't that good. We've known him for 33 years. He can't do this.
We know him He's not that good. I Flunked out of college. I mean I was not a guy that was the most likely person to succeed. I was the opposite,
so You know you got a understand. The man you're looking at who you would say has the dog, whatever that means,
I need to understand a little bit more. Gary's got the dog. I didn't have the dog at 30 or 40 or even 50. I didn't have it. I think the way you mean it, I didn't have it.
Faith is risk -taking period and you don't have to take risks. I hit a place where I said I'm gonna believe you now.
I want to see more impossible things happen. I Want to have people I've never seen met walk up to me and said, Lord gave me this encouragement for you today. Don't know who you are,
but you must be important. I want to live in that world. I don't want to show up in heaven, not have taken risks, because you'll immediately realize how insignificant it was that everyone around you said crazy things about you and thought you were nuts.
nuts. There will be a day when it won't matter. I'm trying to get there before I die. Trying to get to a place. Don't care what you think about me. I care about one voice.
It's not even my wife's. I mean, I lived hoping my wife would be happy with me. I didn't wanna fail her.
I didn't wanna be the guy. guy that you know She wakes up and goes guy you just weren't as good as I thought hmm. I wanted people in town to go He's good. I wanted that. I had a point where everyone's going.
Hey, he's not that good We we knew he shouldn't have done this Ended up being the best day of my life because that that was the day I began to go You know, it doesn't matter what you think about me. Really doesn't I?
You wake up getting a fight with your landlord or your wife or your kid, you may affect how you think about me that day. It's not my problem. So I care about one voice.
That's what I'm trying to live the second half of my life. If he's happy, I'm good. It sounds like a big transformation. a Real transformation took seven and a half years.
Yeah, it's still happening. But mm -hmm. It took seven and a half years. I Think back to when I'm 19 Yeah, when I'm 19, I'm standing in Dale Brzee's kitchen and he says You guys are back in Oklahoma City.
I got two guys that I want you to meet One is Brooks and the other is Beffert I got to meet Beffert one time briefly, but I'm thankful that I got to meet you because my life's been transformed.
So yeah. Bless you. Dave, I'm one of the things that drives me is just to try to speak into,
I'd say primarily 20 and 30 year olds who have been so jaded and tainted. Most guys get to my age and it happens all too often and there's too much to risk,
there's too much to give up, I can't do it. I'm lucky. I took a chance, thought it was calculated, had no clue what was coming,
got my head kicked and lost everything. everything almost, not willingly. I had to shut my company down.
I didn't have the 150 ,000 a month just to keep it open. I don't have it. It's got to shut it down. I would have never done that willingly. I did it because I had to. And now I wake up and I've got all kinds of opportunities because I don't The 95 % that got me here.
I don't have any more And he's like now you're gonna have some fun. Hmm You're not worried about losing stuff anymore because you've lost it. You came out the other end.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah, that was wild How'd that happen? It all everything I built for 30 years went away and I'm better than I've ever been That makes no sense to me.
I have more business people reaching out to me now knowing that I got crushed than I ever had. I have more influence over some business people than I ever had. I don't know why,
I don't know if it's just because I'm willing to be transparent about it and I quit trying to put on an act. I don't care how you see me anymore. I don't know what it is. is,
but I like it So You did the impossible you did that that thing with God Seven and a half years you walk into the Great Hall.
It's done What's it like? Well, look, you know, I'm I don't have much in it anymore Mm -hmm my my partners have taken they're running it.
They'll do a better job than I'll ever do. I had two options and The first one was pretty inviting Let this define you for the rest of your life because this is a legacy project This is just gonna define you and that sounded pretty cool for a minute.
Yeah, that's pretty cool I'm like, no, first lesson didn't define me. Look, while my partners and I have signed the note and have title,
the city owns that building. You can't own the great hall. That's a city's building. That's a state's building. So for me, because I'm so fortunate that the Lord is at least given me a glimpse of how to do big things and why I should,
I now walk in the great hall, "Yeah, I'm proud of it. It's cool." What? This is nothing. This is spring training. We need to go do something that really changes culture.
Let's go do something really big. Yeah. But I could have never. never had that thought had I not gone through seven and a half years of disaster and Man,
I'm glad I did. Hmm. I Think that that wraps it up. I mean, that's that's the idea We want to help people live Transformed in the only way that we're gonna be able to go to the next level or the one that we ultimately want to get to We got to take what's in front of us,
right? now. We have to take risks, we have to believe what he said, quit making excuses, quit allowing ourself to accept life as it is,
quit pursuing comfort, go, "I'm fine being uncomfortable, I'm good. I can battle storms." Yeah. Yeah. There's a really bad storm coming,
Dave. So the culture's gonna get shook really big time in the next 12 months. 2024 will be the most disruptive year in most of our lifetimes.
People need to learn. You need to learn how to manage storms. - Yeah. - We're gonna have 'em. Economically, world. We're watching people live and get killed.
And we're freaking out. Like it's war. It's been going on for 6000 years. You just never got to see it on your TV, sitting on your couch drinking a beer. Yeah. Now you're going,
Hey, this this is wrong. I'm not smart enough to tell you if it's right or wrong. It's going to shake people up in ways we've never seen. And my belief is we're not very far away.
from many in society going, "How come you're not worried about it, David? Gary, how come you seem to be not freaking out about this?
Now we can talk. I've got an anchor that I didn't have, that I now have. I've got a peace and a joy, and we're living in the greatest time in history." history of the world.
I believe that Hey, I was gonna disrupt a lot of things. I happen to believe that it's gonna create more opportunities and more fun You use the word earlier discernment Discernment's gonna be one of the most important things people are gonna have to have.
What's real? What's not? Is that deep fake? Is that real? I don't know and it's gonna scare people Hmm got to be calm we gotta be able to manage storms,
sleep in the boat, when it's about to kill everybody, and we're asleep going, okay, we could handle this. - Yeah. Well,
I appreciate you coming on the podcast today. Thank you very much. And to the man who says, I would rather finish my days with a sword in my hand than a cane.
cane. Look forward to seeing what the next 55 years look like too. Thank you. Bless you.