Billionaire Bob Parsons ON: How To Live A MEANINGFUL LIFE Before You Die | Jay Shetty

1. 0:00 – 3:18

   Intro

   1. BPBob Parsons0:00

      Worry belongs to tomorrow. Regret belongs to yesterday. Happiness is here and now. I learned during the war how to think. I learned to quantify the worst thing, and quite often the worst thing is not so bad. The bestselling author and host. The number one health and wellness podcast.

   2. JSJay Shetty0:16

      On Purpose with Jay Shetty. Bob, I want to dive straight in to your journey and to really dive into your work that you're doing today, and I think I was really blown away to hear about your time as a Marine, and, and I'd like to start there.

   3. BPBob Parsons0:32

      Well, you know, when I enlisted in the Marine Corps, I did so mostly because I had two friends of mine ask me to join them. They were- we were in our senior year of high school, and they were gonna visit with the Marine Corps recruiter and asked me if I'd go along with them, and I did. You know, as we spent time with the Marine Corps recruiter, he eventually had us in the palm of his hands. I mean, this was during the, the, the height of the Vietnam War in 1968. I lasted one month. And, uh, walking through a, uh, village at night, I was on the point team, and, uh, the point man, uh, he, uh, uh, stepped over a tripwire, missed it, and I hit it, and that thing blew, and I got, uh, shrapnel in both my legs and my left elbow and I was med- [laughs] medevacked out. I left on a stretcher. So, uh, you know, the, the thoughts that, that I took back from that is, uh, I think I learned to think one day at a time, and I looked to quantify the worst thing that could possibly happen. That's gotten me through a number of businesses. I've, I've built three businesses now, and I'm working on the third, all from scratch. And, uh, you know, when you do a startup, a startup you have a lot of good days and a lot of bad days, and, uh, sometimes, you know, the good days are euphoric, and the bad days look like, uh, Armageddon.

   4. JSJay Shetty1:59

      Mm-hmm.

   5. BPBob Parsons2:00

      Uh, so you know, how you think really matters, and I learned during the war how to think. I learned to quantify the worst thing, and quite often the worst thing, when you sit down and you quantify, it's not so bad. But if you've, you know, if you look at the worst thing as this big dark room full of, uh, bad things that could happen, then it looks like far worse than it actually is, and, and then it becomes debilitating.

   6. JSJay Shetty2:27

      Yeah. I mean, that's such a powerful reflection hearing that from you based on the experiences that you went through. Often we hear that idea, but sitting with you here today listening to you in person, I can feel just how, how real that idea is for you. I love what you said about facing one day at a time.

   7. BPBob Parsons2:47

      Mm-hmm.

   8. JSJay Shetty2:47

      I think a lot of our anxiety, a lot of our pain, a lot of our stress is based on what could happen in 12 months.

   9. BPBob Parsons2:56

      Oh, exactly. Yeah.

   10. JSJay Shetty2:58

       Or, or what hap- yeah. Or what happened 12 months ago.

   11. BPBob Parsons3:00

       Yeah.

   12. JSJay Shetty3:00

       And what you're saying is, well, actually, when you take one day at a time, that feels manageable and solvable even in such extreme situations.

   13. BPBob Parsons3:09

       Well, and you know, one day at a time is something you can do something about.

   14. JSJay Shetty3:13

       Mm.

   15. BPBob Parsons3:14

       Right? Because it's there. You know, to be worried about a year from now, there's not

2. 3:18 – 6:45

   How can we learn to quantify the worst things in our life?

   1. BPBob Parsons3:18

      much you can do [laughs] until it's a year from now.

   2. JSJay Shetty3:20

      Mm-hmm.

   3. BPBob Parsons3:21

      And then it becomes one day at a time.

   4. JSJay Shetty3:23

      Yeah.

   5. BPBob Parsons3:23

      I often thought that, uh, worry belongs to tomorrow, regret belongs to yesterday, happiness is here and now.

   6. JSJay Shetty3:33

      Mm-hmm. That's so powerful. Wow. And then when you came back, and you come back and you're experiencing depression, you're experiencing, of course, all the stress, the trauma that comes from living in that way for a month, I mean, how did your parents react to that? Before we get onto how you reacted to it, I mean, uh, I mean, what, how did your parents feel?

   7. BPBob Parsons3:52

      I grew up in a, in a different kind of house. Um, I grew up in a, in a, in a, uh, blue-collar neighborhood in East Baltimore, and Mom and Dad were both compulsive gamblers, and they weren't very good at it. Now I, I wouldn't trade my mom and dad for any two on the planet. I loved them to pieces. Uh, but they didn't pay a lot of attention to me, and I wasn't actually home that much, so they never noticed. They never noticed, and a lot of it, which a lot of veterans, I just kept to myself. You know, my, my symptoms were... And as I was home, they got worse, and they got worse, and they got worse. And when I say that, I mean over 49 years. The s- the symptoms with me was I di- I didn't wanna go places. I didn't wanna be with groups, you know? No matter who the group was, I never felt like I belonged because I'd be there, and I'd have this, just this picture of the stuff that we did. I mean, and it just never leaves you. And of course nobody else is dealing [laughs] with that kind of stuff, so you definitely are different, right? So, so that's the k- you know, one of the things. A quick temper is, is, is another thing. People would describe me as being one of the most intense people they've ever met. Now the, the crying, when I got into that, it was always by myself. Nobody would be around. But there was good things too, and the, the good things were when I went to college, I-- when I came back, I worked as a laborer in a steel mill, in Bethlehem Steel, and I did that for a year. And then the University of Baltimore had a special deal for veterans where, uh, my high school grades didn't matter, thank goodness.

   8. JSJay Shetty5:33

      [laughs]

   9. BPBob Parsons5:34

      I didn't have to take the entrance exams, right? And I could go on the GI Bill, which I did. I went, studied accounting. Literally, I mean, as fate would have it, it was the first major in the book What is this?" They said, "You good with math?" I said, "Yeah, good as anything." "You interested in business?" "Yeah." "You should try accounting." And I did, and, uh, I wound up, uh, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy, magna cum laude.

   10. JSJay Shetty6:02

       Wow. Congratulations.

   11. BPBob Parsons6:04

       I'd have never done that without the Marine Corps. Never ever, ever. Took the CPA exam, passed it the first time, got a job where I would trav-- I mean, my life is full of just these coincidences, you know, where I, uh, I was working for a commercial credit leasing corp, and this is back in 1975. They send me to Redwood City to, uh, uh, schedule the assets to this leasing company they want to buy. I finish. I, uh, I have 12 hours until the flight. I wind up on Stanford campus at the bookstore because I always liked to, liked to read and so forth, and I buy a book on programming in the com- basic

3. 6:45 – 11:14

   Dealing with PTSD alone and the symptoms that come with it

   1. BPBob Parsons6:45

      language. And, uh, I read, uh, enough of that during the layover and on the flight, wrote my first programs and then, uh, got good at it. Bought an... And, and the company that I worked for had a dumb terminal that happened to run the basic computer language.

   2. JSJay Shetty7:03

      Wow.

   3. BPBob Parsons7:03

      And then I, I taught myself, uh, Pascal and then C and then C++. And I started my first business, which was Parsons Technology, and I, I wrote all the code for that. And when I, when I was working there, I, I worked, uh, 40 hour st- no, 60 hour stints, 60 hours at a time. I come to work Monday morning, work through Tuesday morning, work through Wednesday morning, and then about, uh, eight o'clock at night, I'd start to hallucinate. After about 60 hours, I'd hear stuff that wasn't there, maybe see something move that I know didn't. And I'd go back, go to sleep, come back, you know, after eight hours and a shower and a little ex- little workout, do it again. And, uh, that's how that company got off the ground. I put $40,000 into that company, and I sold it to Intuit for 64 million. That was my first business.

   4. JSJay Shetty8:03

      Wow.

   5. BPBob Parsons8:03

      Yeah.

   6. JSJay Shetty8:04

      You know, most people, like, just reintegrating into society, like, just kind of surviving seems to be a natural challenge because of the extreme events that people go through. H-how did you navigate that? When you were talking about some of the challenges you had when you came back, like, how did you even just start finding your way again? Because it can be so disassociating. It can be so disconnected.

   7. BPBob Parsons8:29

      Well, you know, using, using that term disassociate, disassociating, there was a time when I'd seen a psychiatrist for a good while, and she said-- told me one of the things that, that, uh, has helped me get through the war and also helped me in business, she says, "You have a remarkable ability to s- to disassociate." And where I developed that, I don't know. One of the, the, the blessings that I have is, uh, I don't worry about anything at all. I just don't worry. And, uh, that has been, uh, one of the things that, to me is, is, is helped bring out the joy in my life, you know, what joy there was.

   8. JSJay Shetty9:12

      I mean, that's beautiful to hear. That's-- what an incredible gift to have to not worry. That's very special. Uh, when you started learning and teaching yourself these coding languages and you started building this company, what was your level of business experience at the time or technology experience at the time, and how did you even figure out what you wanted to build? I think there's so many people today, I just... I literally was just at, uh, the Tech University in Monterrey, Mexico. 50% of the people from that university go on to become entrepreneurs, and so it's a really, uh, phenomenal institution. But one of the biggest questions I saw that young people have is, "Jay, how do I know if I'm doing the right thing?" Or, "I don't know what I'm building," or, "What should I focus on?" I feel like now there's so much choice that people feel paralyzed by the amount of options they have.

   9. BPBob Parsons10:04

      I had a degree in accountancy, so I understood the record keeping of business.

   10. JSJay Shetty10:09

       Right.

   11. BPBob Parsons10:10

       All right? I started a little business which was a, uh, more of a bookkeeping business than anything, where I'd work with these small businesses. Some, some were taverns. One was a f-flower shop. Uh, one of my favorites was a pest control, Fels Pest Control. Guy's name was Fat Willy. I learned a lot from him, uh, keep track-- the way he would keep track of things and, and, and I, you know, and it, it got to the point where over, you know, over, you know, a, a, a few years, I could, you know, start doing the records of a business and I could tell you if they'd succeed or not. And anyhow, using those little things that I learned there, you know, that's what I did when I launched my business. And then plus I learned. You know, I learned, like for example, I read during the Civil War, right? During the Civil War in the Union, there was, uh, General McClellan who really trained and organized the, uh, Union army, but he could not move them into battle. Just couldn't do it, right? And then, uh, so, so Lincoln fired

4. 11:14 – 12:25

   Having the remarkable ability to disassociate and using it your advantage

   1. BPBob Parsons11:14

      him and put Grant there, and Grant didn't care how they were organized. "The enemy's over there. Go there." Right? That's, that's, that's what he did. And actually, the, the right way is a mixture of the two.

   2. JSJay Shetty11:26

      Mm.

   3. BPBob Parsons11:26

      Right? So I learned that from them. I learned from John D. Rockefeller that the guy who knows the most about his business, he kept exceptional records. They were all manual, but he knew everything about his business at a time when very few people did. The guy who knows the most about his business quite often is the guy that, that, uh, wins because, as you know, knowledge truly is power.

   4. JSJay Shetty11:53

      Mm.

   5. BPBob Parsons11:53

      And especially specific and pertinent knowledge. So I mean, I, I learned-

   6. JSJay Shetty11:58

      Yeah

   7. BPBob Parsons11:58

      ... from, from people in history, right? And, um, and then beyond that, uh, I just powered through.

   8. JSJay Shetty12:04

      Mm-hmm. Yeah, I love those examples. I think- What I love about them is I often say to people that you can be mentored by people you've never met. When we study history, when we look at patterns, when we look at connections and start connecting the dots between events that have happened before us, you can actually garner so much wisdom and so much

5. 12:25 – 15:56

   The trick to becoming a successful businessman and what history can teach us

   1. JSJay Shetty12:25

      insight even if you never asked Rockefeller the question yourself.

   2. BPBob Parsons12:29

      Exactly. I mean, you know, and somebody got... Julius Caesar's another one.

   3. JSJay Shetty12:32

      Yeah.

   4. BPBob Parsons12:33

      You know, what he was able to do in Gaul and how he was able to, uh, um, you know, uh, lead his armies and, and one time he was attacked by a vastly larger force, and the battlements that he built was just brilliant, right? Nobody showed him how to do that. He figured it out. So I mean, we have that ability as long as you believe in yourself and you give yourself a chance.

   5. JSJay Shetty12:58

      If there's someone right now who's listening who's thinking about starting a business, what would be the top three things you think they should think about if they're starting- if they're thinking about starting something?

   6. BPBob Parsons13:07

      Well, the first thing is they should do something that they love-

   7. JSJay Shetty13:13

      Mm

   8. BPBob Parsons13:13

      ... that is fun-

   9. JSJay Shetty13:14

      Mm

   10. BPBob Parsons13:14

       ... that is, uh, something that they're really interested in. And, and the reason for that, my father used to tell me, he used to say, "Robert, when you love something, it tells you all its secrets."

   11. JSJay Shetty13:26

       Mm.

   12. BPBob Parsons13:26

       And, um-

   13. JSJay Shetty13:27

       That's beautiful

   14. BPBob Parsons13:28

       ... and basically if, you know, if you love what you're doing, it's going to, um, well, you're gonna work harder.

   15. JSJay Shetty13:34

       Mm.

   16. BPBob Parsons13:35

       And that, that all translates to success.

   17. JSJay Shetty13:39

       Mm.

   18. BPBob Parsons13:39

       Um, and then, uh, let's see here. What would be the, the second? You, you have to not be doing it for the money. If, if you start a business and you're doing it just to turn a buck, I don't think you'll be successful. You got to start it to be special. And th- the businesses that I started, and none of them, even GoDaddy, did I do it to, to make money. I did it to make a difference. You know, when you, you work to make a difference, you know, you do things that on the surface from a business, uh, standpoint, it doesn't make sense.

   19. JSJay Shetty14:16

       Mm.

   20. BPBob Parsons14:16

       But when it comes to really doing something special and getting your idea across and taking care of your customers and so forth, that's, that's what you need to do, and you will never do that if you're just doing it for a dollar.

   21. JSJay Shetty14:30

       Mm.

   22. BPBob Parsons14:31

       The third thing is there's, uh, there's two groups of people that you have to, you, you have to energize. The first group is your employees.

   23. JSJay Shetty14:41

       Mm.

   24. BPBob Parsons14:42

       And, uh, your employees, you know, they need to believe in what you're doing, and, uh, you need to structure it so they can believe in what you're doing, that, that it's special. And again, if you're doing it for money, it's, they're gonna have a difficult time doing that. But if you, you know, if you have a higher purpose, right? People always do wanna aspire to a higher purpose, I believe. So what happens is when you do that with them, it creates enthusiasm.

   25. JSJay Shetty15:11

       Mm.

   26. BPBob Parsons15:11

       And what do we know about enthusiasm? It's contagious.

   27. JSJay Shetty15:14

       Yeah. [laughs]

   28. BPBob Parsons15:15

       And those, the employees then fire up the customers, and then the customers fire up each other. So it'd be those three things.

   29. JSJay Shetty15:22

       Yeah. Those are great answers. I love those three things. They're such great points. What was something that you were passionate about with GoDaddy? Like, when you said that, I fully agree with you, that we should never start business to make money. There has to be a greater goal with it. What was that goal with GoDaddy when it started out, like the part we don't see?

   30. BPBob Parsons15:39

       Well, when I started GoDaddy, I had... It had been after I sold Parsons Technology, which was the name of my first business, and I signed a non-compete with, uh, Intuit. Not that I couldn't compete with them, I couldn't work for money-
6. 15:56 – 18:25

   Top 3 things to focus on when you want to start your own business

   1. BPBob Parsons15:56

      ... right, for a few years. And, and, uh, they, they held back a few, few million dollars. And when it was up, I just wanted to be back in action again.

   2. JSJay Shetty16:07

      [laughs]

   3. BPBob Parsons16:08

      But I didn't know what I wanted to do. This was back when the internet was just getting going, like '97. So I named this business Jomax Technologies. I had, like, $36 million. I had gotten divorced. I mean, I, I don't blame her. The PTSD, she's unlucky. She kept me around that long. So I wanted to do something in the internet. So what I did was I thought I would hire some pretty sharp people, and we would start trying things on the internet. And when we, and when we did, you know, if it worked, we would continue, and if it didn't, we'd move on.

   4. JSJay Shetty16:48

      Mm.

   5. BPBob Parsons16:48

      And, uh, so w- I named it Jomax Technologies after a dirt road that I drove by on the way to work. I mean, it didn't matter. I mean, we didn't do anything.

   6. JSJay Shetty16:57

      Yeah.

   7. BPBob Parsons16:57

      So our employees would go to chamber of commerce meetings, and people would ask them, "What are you doing?" They go, "Well, we don't know." [laughs]

   8. JSJay Shetty17:03

      [laughs]

   9. BPBob Parsons17:03

      You know? They said, "I've never had a c- a business tell me that." [laughs]

   10. JSJay Shetty17:08

       [laughs]

   11. BPBob Parsons17:09

       And, and then eventually, as time went on, we decided to, to start, uh, doing websites for people, and these are way early, really fundamental websites. And we noticed that the websites business would, would generate cash, but it couldn't scale because, you know, y- it was just your efforts there that you were, you were tied to. I have a rule that if you got the right business, you can make money while you're sleeping.

   12. JSJay Shetty17:38

       Mm-hmm.

   13. BPBob Parsons17:39

       Your business can be successful while you're sleeping. So we then wrote software that would build a website for people. They could do it theirself.

   14. JSJay Shetty17:49

       Yeah.

   15. BPBob Parsons17:49

       We had so many r- requirements. And then eventually in, uh, in '99, uh, or '99 and 2000, we became a domain name registrar, renamed the company GoDaddy, uh, just as... And, and, uh, I, I did that at first as a joke, but it stuck.

   16. JSJay Shetty18:10

       [laughs]

   17. BPBob Parsons18:12

       And never did we dream that, that we'd make our, our, our bread on domain names.

   18. JSJay Shetty18:18

       Yeah.

   19. BPBob Parsons18:18

       And then there's, there's a further story going back. Okay, I would keep track of how much money I had

7. 18:25 – 25:42

   The GoDaddy story - how it started, success, and making a difference

   1. BPBob Parsons18:25

      and, and, and then a- and, and tie that to how successful the business is doing. Now that re- you remember, that were the days of cash burn.

   2. JSJay Shetty18:34

      Mm-hmm.

   3. BPBob Parsons18:35

      Right? And so I would start it and, and when I first started I said, "I'm not gonna worry about this business until I get down to 30 million."

   4. JSJay Shetty18:43

      Mm.

   5. BPBob Parsons18:43

      And then 25, and then 20, 20, and then 18, 14, 12, 10, eight, six. And you know, we get down to $6 million and this is about in a year-

   6. JSJay Shetty18:58

      So you never raised, it was all your own money you put into it?

   7. BPBob Parsons19:00

      Yeah, exactly.

   8. JSJay Shetty19:01

      Yeah.

   9. BPBob Parsons19:01

      Exactly. It was always only my own money.

   10. JSJay Shetty19:03

       Mm.

   11. BPBob Parsons19:04

       I, I never really borrowed much and from the first business, none.

   12. JSJay Shetty19:07

       Wow.

   13. BPBob Parsons19:08

       And GoDaddy, none, and no partners.

   14. JSJay Shetty19:11

       Oh, incredible. Wow.

   15. BPBob Parsons19:12

       Yeah. So I get down to six million and, uh, one of the things I learned is from reading about General Grant, he kept his own counsel. I kept my own counsel, so I decided to shut GoDaddy down while I still had some, uh, some money. And the reason I had to is the dot-com boom was so loud that you couldn't buy advertising. I mean, people were paying $100 for a, you know, a customer, and the customer might generate two bucks. Well, you're gonna burn up a lot of cash that way.

   16. JSJay Shetty19:44

       Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

   17. BPBob Parsons19:45

       And I don't care how big your truck is-

   18. JSJay Shetty19:47

       [laughs]

   19. BPBob Parsons19:47

       ... you're, you're not gonna, you know, you're not gonna be able to make wages.

   20. JSJay Shetty19:50

       Yeah.

   21. BPBob Parsons19:51

       That's what I did. So I go to Hawaii, and I t- I went there to first pay my bills, pay my employees, and sell the assets. Figured out how I'm gonna do that. And then so I'm there by myself for a week and I, as I started thinking about, "I don't wanna shut it down." I just had this feeling I just didn't wanna shut it down. The epiphany for me happened where this guy is parking cars and he comes up to me and he goes, "Hey, do you know Mr. Parsons?" This guy's a little older than me, throwing his keys up in the air, happy as a lark, right? I'm thinking, "What's wrong with this picture? This guy has probably got nothing. He's parking cars for a living. Look how happy and free he is. I got $6 million and I'm miserable."

   22. JSJay Shetty20:39

       [laughs]

   23. BPBob Parsons20:40

       Right? And so I decided then that I would go back and not shut the company down. And, uh, I just would ride it out and if the company sunk, I'd go down with the ship.

   24. JSJay Shetty20:51

       Wow.

   25. BPBob Parsons20:51

       So that was probably in February, March, and later that y- and later then, the dot-com crash happened, and the dot-com crash, GoDaddy was born out of that because I was one of the few guys that was paying my bills, and all these companies just went away. I mean, I would, we would have checks returned every week from different companies that just weren't there anymore.

   26. JSJay Shetty21:15

       Mm.

   27. BPBob Parsons21:16

       Right? [laughs] And so, so we would take and, uh, uh, you know, we'd go ahead and I went from not being able to buy advertising at any price to having people standing in line to give it to me. I had more friends than I thought I had, and then all of a sudden things turned around for us, and that October we became profitable for the very first time and never missed a month since.

   28. JSJay Shetty21:42

       [laughs] Wow. That's unbelievable. I mean, it sounds like you've been guided so much by your intuition as well as data. Like, you talked about the numbers, you talked about knowing your business, you talked about knowing your numbers, but it sounds like you're also guided intuitively. Would you agree with that? Was that, is that true? Is that fair or not really?

   29. BPBob Parsons22:01

       You know, you sometimes you hear the s- saying better lucky than good, and things just, just happen and, you know, you'd like to believe they happen for a reason. I believe the universe is guiding you.

   30. JSJay Shetty22:12

       Mm-hmm.
8. 25:42 – 26:38

   What have been the biggest failures in your life?

   1. BPBob Parsons25:42

      um, uh, the people that worked with me were like, "What happened to him? He's so nice. He doesn't have a temper. He's not that intense, scary dude anymore," you know? He, uh, uh, uh, uh, my son said, uh, told his wife, he said, "Man, I'm worried my dad's gonna die soon." And she goes, "Why?" And he goes, "Well, I think he found out he's gonna die soon because he keeps calling and he's so nice-

   2. JSJay Shetty26:08

      [laughs]

   3. BPBob Parsons26:09

      ... and so forth."

   4. JSJay Shetty26:10

      Oh, my God.

   5. BPBob Parsons26:10

      And I mean, and it was that type of thing.

   6. JSJay Shetty26:11

      Yeah.

   7. BPBob Parsons26:11

      And of course, Renee, my wife, noticed it instantly. And the best way I can describe it is after being treated with psychedelics, it had been 49 years since the war, I finally came home.

   8. JSJay Shetty26:26

      That's unbelievable.

   9. BPBob Parsons26:27

      Yeah.

   10. JSJay Shetty26:28

       Do you feel, do you feel like you went back to being who you were before the war?

   11. BPBob Parsons26:32

       Exactly, you know, enriched by everything I learned since. And, um, you know,

9. 26:38 – 32:29

   Tapping into psychedelics to help deal with self reform

   1. BPBob Parsons26:38

      I, I still had the memories of the war. There's times when, you know, when I, when I talk about it I choke up and so forth, but I'm not debilitated by it anymore.

   2. JSJay Shetty26:49

      Mm.

   3. BPBob Parsons26:49

      But it's still very much there.

   4. JSJay Shetty26:51

      Of course.

   5. BPBob Parsons26:52

      Yeah.

   6. JSJay Shetty26:52

      Of course. Yeah. It, it sounds like, it sounds like that you've kept the, the parts that have made you who you are and left the parts that defined who it forced you to be.

   7. BPBob Parsons27:04

      Uh, yeah.

   8. JSJay Shetty27:04

      If that feels right.

   9. BPBob Parsons27:05

      Yeah, for sure.

   10. JSJay Shetty27:06

       To be honest, just sitting with you today, like, you have such a joyful spirit. You, you have such a, like, positive outlook on life. You're fun to be around. Like, that's all I'm experiencing. That's how I experienced you at PXG when I was there a couple of years ago. And for me to know, it feels like this is who you are, this is who you always were, but naturally the challenges just clouded over and the experiences clouded over that.

   11. BPBob Parsons27:32

       Yeah.

   12. JSJay Shetty27:33

       Yeah.

   13. BPBob Parsons27:33

       The win- the windows have been opened.

   14. JSJay Shetty27:35

       Yeah. It's-

   15. BPBob Parsons27:36

       Yeah

   16. JSJay Shetty27:36

       ... it's unbelievable. And is that a practice that you have to keep up? Do you go back, uh, to Hawaii or to the centers to continue that practice? Or no, it was once and it's kind of stayed?

   17. BPBob Parsons27:45

       You, you know, you know, I've, I've went through the process twice.

   18. JSJay Shetty27:48

       Right.

   19. BPBob Parsons27:49

       I've went through the process once myself, and then once with two of the guys I served with. And, um, they both came home.

   20. JSJay Shetty27:58

       Wow.

   21. BPBob Parsons27:59

       They both came home.

   22. JSJay Shetty28:00

       That's unbelievable. That must be beautiful for you to see that for other people to-

   23. BPBob Parsons28:04

       Oh, 100%.

   24. JSJay Shetty28:05

       Yeah.

   25. BPBob Parsons28:05

       Now one of the things that I spend time and, and money and help out as best I can is, um, to get psychedelics, uh, made legal for therapeutic use. Uh, we're very close with MDMA, thank God s- to, uh, Rick Doblin and, uh, MAPS. And, you know, the rest, I, I don't, I think it's not too far behind. I tell you, when we do, it's gonna be a renaissance.

   26. JSJay Shetty28:32

       Mm-hmm.

   27. BPBob Parsons28:33

       And, uh, we deserve that as a people.

   28. JSJay Shetty28:35

       Mm.

   29. BPBob Parsons28:36

       And our veterans deserve it. Every veteran should be treated with it when they come back.

   30. JSJay Shetty28:40

       Mm.
10. 32:29 – 38:39

    Believe in yourself and always have fun

    1. BPBob Parsons32:29

       the amygdala.

    2. JSJay Shetty32:30

       Mm.

    3. BPBob Parsons32:30

       All right? And but so the amygdala communicates with the rest of the body through the stellate ganglion nerves in the neck. And when there's a fight or flight, uh, response necessary or be it, uh, real or emotional, it releases adrenaline and epinephrine. It speeds the heart up, it dilates the lungs, it tightens the arteries and extremities to move blood to the core. All those things to get us to survive that have been developed over millennia, right? It does, it does all that. Well, what, what is happening is the people that are suffering from this, they're in that state very close, and any trigger, pff-

    4. JSJay Shetty33:14

       Wow

    5. BPBob Parsons33:14

       ... just pushes them right into it, and they have no control over it. They have no physical control over it, even though they say, you hear people say, "I don't know what's wrong with me."

    6. JSJay Shetty33:23

       Yeah.

    7. BPBob Parsons33:23

       Right? Okay. This is what the SGB block does, is using, uh, it's a medical doctor using ultrasound, takes about five minutes. They take and shoot the big brother of lidocaine in the neck right next to the stellate ganglion nerves. It numbs them, and when it does, the amygdala goes offline. It just shuts down. And then the, the individual will get a little droopy eye, talk like a sailor, right? And that sort of thing. And then when it, the, the numbing agent wears off and, uh, the eye returns to normal and the voice normal, the amygdala reconnects and it reboots, it resets, and it goes back to the way the individual should be. And the difference is profound. All right? Now, this is done all over the country. It's, uh, there's a, you can find a, a website called Stella Centers, which will tell you about it. I'm not involved in it at all. I just know about it, and I, and I help people get it done. The people, it changes their lives. I've helped, I've helped NFL players do it. I've helped veterans. I've helped, you know, people that, uh, little kids that are just having trouble in school, and I mean, stuff like that. It's amazing. And there's only one downside, and the downside is when, it's not permanent.

    8. JSJay Shetty34:52

       Mm.

    9. BPBob Parsons34:52

       In many cases it'll, it'll be six months or a year or two years. But here's what you do. When you start sliding back, get it done again. I've had it done four times.

    10. JSJay Shetty35:06

        Mm.

    11. BPBob Parsons35:06

        I have probably helped 150 people get it done. Never had one negative result, and everybody just-

    12. JSJay Shetty35:14

        And they're all veterans too, or, or just anyone?

    13. BPBob Parsons35:17

        Anyone, yeah. And they just, "Thank you, thank you, thank you." You know? Uh, it is, uh, it is, it is just amazing.

    14. JSJay Shetty35:26

        Bob, it's, it's wonderful to hear your spirit of, you know, healing yourself, wanting to help heal others. I can see how much joy you get in helping other people and seeing them break through their challenges and what's holding them back. We end every episode here with what's called the Final Five, and these five questions have to be answered in one word to one sentence maximum.

    15. BPBob Parsons35:49

        Okay.

    16. JSJay Shetty35:50

        Bob Parsons, these are your Final Five. Uh, question number one: what is the best advice you've ever heard or received?

    17. BPBob Parsons35:58

        Do what you love.

    18. JSJay Shetty35:59

        Great answer. Uh, second question: what is the worst advice you've ever heard or received?

    19. BPBob Parsons36:03

        The worst advice [laughs] .

    20. JSJay Shetty36:05

        [laughs]

    21. BPBob Parsons36:06

        Oh my God. How, well, this horse can't lose. [laughs]

    22. JSJay Shetty36:11

        [laughs] Question number three: uh, what's something you used to value but you don't value anymore?

    23. BPBob Parsons36:20

        You know, I'd say to a degree, money.

    24. JSJay Shetty36:22

        Hmm. Question number four: what's something you're trying to learn right now, or what's something that you're working on right now that you're excited about?

    25. BPBob Parsons36:30

        Uh, well I'm, I'm trying to, uh, learn, um, uh, what I can do to get, um, psychedelics legal

    26. JSJay Shetty36:40

        In a, in a medical capacity, in a-

    27. BPBob Parsons36:42

        Yeah

    28. JSJay Shetty36:42

        ... healing capacity.

    29. BPBob Parsons36:43

        Exactly, yeah.

    30. JSJay Shetty36:44

        Yeah, yeah. Uh, fifth and final question, if you could create one law that everyone in the world had to follow, what would it be?

Episode duration: 38:37