https://youtu.be/ze-E_TMWwrU
Randy Gage is a thought-provoking, rags to riches entrepreneur who has published 14 books in 25 different languages including the New York Times bestseller Risky is The New Safe.
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Apply Leverage With Randy Gage
Our guest is Randy Gage, that I have been following Randy for the last probably 15 years, early 2000 when I first was introduced to some of his work, the Prosperity Series, and I never thought that I was gonna have him come on my interview, but this is a very exciting moment. Randy is a thought-provoking, critical thinker. He also is a rags-to-riches entrepreneur, if I may say so, and he has published 14 books in 25 different languages. One of his books, Risky is the New Safe, was actually a New York Times bestseller, is a New York Times bestseller and he's coming up with a new book, Radical Rebirth, that I already pre-ordered and can't wait to actually receive it in the mail. So without further ado, welcome to the show, Randy.
Hey, great to be on with you. Is that album you're holding, is that CDs or was that cassette tape?
That's CDs at least. Yeah. It's not quite, although I have, you know, I was straddling that age of cassette tapes to CDs and I no longer can use them, right? I now have to go to the MP3, but I saw on the website that these are still available in MP3 format.
Yeah, that album is at least 20 years than a bestseller for us. It's kind of my overview principles on prosperity, I guess, would be the best way to describe it.
It was fascinating and it's a little bit spiritual, probably more than I am kind of vied for. But I was very intrigued by this series and I dug into some of the other resources that you offered at the time. And anyway, it's pretty interesting. So tell us a little bit about your background. I think it's a fascinating background, your entrepreneur journey, how you got here and how you became an entrepreneur in the first place and how you built up your speaking and author business.
Well, I took a circuitous route to being an entrepreneur because I feel like I was born an entrepreneur because when I was 11, you know, I come from a poor family, single mother who raised three kids by herself, knocking on doors, selling Avon products, and I raked leaves, shoveled snow, babysat, delivered newspapers, just any kind of thing. And in a big way, I mean, I actually, as I was delivering the hometown paper and I knew people went to the drugstore on Sundays and they would buy the copy, the Sunday edition of the New York Times or the Washington Post.
And so I wrote those papers and said I've got a distribution company here. I was a paper boy but I wrote it on a letterhead that said Gage Distributors and said you know we distribute newspapers and I would like to be the agent here in Madison, Wisconsin. And they said, OK. And so I started doing Sunday delivery of my hometown paper and then the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times. And I actually sold that company to a grown-up person for a few thousand dollars when I was...
When was that? How old were you?
I was probably 15 at that time. So I started that way, and then I was a teenage alcoholic, a teenage drug addict. I made a lot of really poor choices. I ended up in jail for armed robbery at 15 years old. And then, of course, had to make some new decisions in my life, right? And so I resolved to get out and play, work hard and play by the rules. And so I went back to working for people. And I had started as a dishwasher in a pancake house. And so I became a cook and then a manager, trainee and a assistant manager. And I just got in the world of being an employee. But it took me some time to realize, no, that's not what I want to do. If I'm going to be in the restaurant business, then I need to find a way to own my own restaurant. I think I'm psychologically unemployable, so I found my way back to being an entrepreneur.
That's awesome. So how old were you when you kind of made the jump or st...