The Competence Institute
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The Competence Institute
Achieving Excellence: Cary Goulston on Elevating Your Competence, World Impact & More
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When you think of a classroom, what comes to mind? The chalky scent of blackboards, or perhaps the hum of a projector? Now, imagine a place where education fuels not just the mind, but the very spirit of community itself. Cary Goulston joins us to unravel the threads of traditional teaching, weaving a vibrant tapestry of study technology and moral education. His experiences, from Boston's urban strife to the global stage, reveal an urgent call for an educational metamorphosis – one that promises to diminish youth crime and spark joy in learning.
Embark on a journey through the heart of societal transformation with tales from the Life Improvement Center to a diplomatic dance with a Sudanese leader. This episode captures the essence of leadership's impact on future generations, dissecting the paradox of abundant resources against persistent societal plagues. Through Cary's lens, we view a world where education is not just a system, but a living, breathing organism that thrives on unity and effective communication. It's an exploration of how to harness the collective power of communities to craft a world less riven by conflict and more bound by cooperation.
Wrap up your listening experience with a candid reflection on the art of conversation and self-improvement. Discover how the simple act of honing your communication skills can revolutionize your personal and professional worlds. We share our own transformative journeys, emphasizing the need for continuous growth and the potent influence of nurturing our relationships. This isn't just about talking the talk; it's an invitation to walk the walk towards a life rich in connection and understanding, underscored by the unwavering belief that mastering the art of communication is essential to our collective prosperity.
Access our FREE special report 'How to Learn Anything'!
Click here now for instant access.
© 2024 The Competence Institute. All Rights Reserved. The Competence Institute is a non-profit educational organization and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, nationality or ethnic origin in administering student admissions or any of its policies, programs or activities. COMPETENCE INSTITUTE is a trademark and service mark owned by The Competence Institute, a division of Team Tyler USA.
Applied Scholastics and the Applied Scholastics Open Book Design are trademarks and service marks owned by Association for Better Living and Education International and are used with its permission.
Grateful acknowledgement is made to L. Ron Hubbard library for permission to reproduce a selection from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard.
In this episode we are honored to welcome Cary Goulston, a titan in the field of education and a beacon of hope for communities around the world. Cary is not just an educator. He's a visionary whose work has transcended boundaries and transformed lives. Cary is the president of the Global Pioneers Inc, an organization at the forefront of educational reform and humanitarian efforts. His journey is nothing short of inspiring, taking him from the classrooms of Boston to the remote regions of Nigeria and Brazil, impacting lives in every corner of the globe. But what truly sets Cary apart is his revolutionary work with study technology and The Way to Happiness.
Ryan Kimball:These aren't just programs. They're catalysts for change, tools that have empowered countless individuals with the skills and moral compass necessary to navigate and improve the complex world we live in. So buckle up as we explore the life and the mission of a man who's not just shaping education but is helping to reshape our future. Let's get started. If you won't mind telling me a little bit, Cary, about the common sense approach to helping young adults and your experience with that and guidance on that.
Cary Goulston:Okay, I think I've been around enough to know, from Boston to Nigeria, from Brazil to Bangladesh, from the poorest to the richest. I think I've been around quite a long time and trying to reach people and help people for so many decades. I think I have a really good estimation and a good judgment and opinion about the state of affairs. I've observed from correctional facilities to high schools, from elementary school to working with teachers. I've worked at every single level, from being a consultant and training thousands of executives and colleagues to helping workers. I've worked at every level of society and more than once. And so, that being said, not as to be braggadocious, but more like from a point of practicality I think there's a really important subject, so I'm really glad you're interested, I'm really glad that you're taping this and I'm glad that you're asking me, because I don't think we have enough interest in the world to make changes.
Cary Goulston:So, you have insanity, irrationality and status quo all tied into education. It kind of makes things a little difficult. They're going to make sure that education is backward or ineffective and swear by it. But I'll tell you how we know education is so brutal and so behind the times and so ineffective. I mean, I'm not disregarding all the great engineers and ice cream makers and car mechanics and all the wonderful bakers and things that we have that are really workable. That doesn't take away from any of that whatsoever. On the larger scope of things, 75% of the world lives in poverty and that is unacceptable. That is a product of a horrific, if not horrendous, international education system. Three out of four people on planet Earth may live on $1- 2 a day.
Cary Goulston:I can tell you I can go around the world and see it. 250,000 orphans in Haiti and Brazil. And here's the positive news about all this. Most of these people, governments and so forth, really know they're screwed, they know they're a mess, they know they're in trouble, they know they need help. I've worked with so many governments. It warms my heart to know that there are people in high places that do want improved education. And we work with those people in making inroads where we are allowed to partner and where we are allowed to bring in new technology and new education methods. I can cite to you, I can speak to you now blatantly and openly about how disgusting education is around the world. I can prove it with my eyes closed. Anybody can see it if you go look. I've been to way too many schools. But you know, the news and people specialized in pointing out what was wrong with mankind, how evil they are and how horrible things are, and people specialized in pointing that out. We don't need another person doing that. What we need, what we need is effective, practical programs that are getting the job done and in the direction of upgraded education, improved education for one and all. Now, what's improved education? The community doing well, you know - prospering, production and activities and creativity and bright thinkers and all these things that you would expect if you were logical about the whole thing. What would you expect of an improved education situation? Students would love going to school. People would be coming home helping mommy and daddy around the house. People wouldn't be stealing or breaking into schools or robbing all the time. People wouldn't be raping little girls or turning to prostitution. The worst of it all is this massive drug epidemic where last year in the US there were 13 million crimes. Now I can tell you in looking at some crime stats, which only is useful if it results in you being able to do a better job. I'm not talking from some ivory tower, I'm talking from a guy who's on the ground working very, very hard to improve education every single day. I'm on the ground and I can prove that. But the point is, in Florida the FBI would report and anybody can see this report for your state, wherever you live, your country, for wherever you live and do a look at it - the crime rate. And I'll tell you specifically: in Florida last year there were 675,000 violent crimes. Now the FBI defines violent crimes as murder, rape, burglary, arson. They have five of those felonies they consider violent crimes. In Florida. Last year, per the FBI, there were 675,000 violent crimes committed in Florida. Now hold your hat, 75% of those are committed by 12 to 19 year olds. So, per the FBI, three out of every four violent crimes committed in this state are committed by teenagers.
Cary Goulston:Now here's the brainstorm on this. It wouldn't happen if young people were taught common sense principles, moral common sense, how we live with each other, common sense codes to live by, common sense principles, starting at seven years old, eight years old, nine years old, 10 years old, leading up to that point, 12 years old, where the teenager becomes rebellious, with the teenager is trying to fight for their own independence. They become very susceptible to gangs and all these things that you see that are happening, that are tearing down the prosperity of any country or any community. I don't have to say it, we see it. I don't have to say anything. We already know this is happening. We just, we - maybe we don't know it's happening, but I think we get a sense that things are, things are not okay.
Cary Goulston:So the handling, because information is only as valuable as it results in doing something about it. We can shock each other to where we're lying, hiding in a corner from fear. But that's the goal of the media. You're being shocked into paying attention. You're being shocked into taking drugs. You know, this is like extortion. I don't, I'm not doing that.
Cary Goulston:I'm giving you the statistics to say that if we help our young people at an early age learn about these common-sense principles: Don't take harmful drugs, treat others how you want to be treated, honor and respect your parents, don't do anything illegal, do not murder and that list of agreements we have in society that keep us all safe and productive and happy. You want your kids to be happy and not end up in jail. Or how about kids on drugs? You think that's not gonna ruin their life? They're drinking and driving and this and that, and smoking weed and taking - come on! The list goes on. We have to be responsible for the next generation and if you can't even handle your own family, how can you handle your city or your government? I mean seriously if we can't even protect and raise our own family, you know? So this is a real, real, vital target around the world to prep our kids and to face the world and not just throw them to the dogs. And that is a society that will make it. When we're destroying our own children, that is a society that's over, it's done, it's gone, it's cut its own throat. And a society that's misused or abused their children is gone.
Cary Goulston:You just look at history. And then from there, you can start looking further outward and work on education points that take it to the next level, which would be things like how to study more effectively. And you have other community programs and so forth that are wonderful and can be easily taught and anybody, even with a low IQ, can understand, using videos. There's so much good material out there. So if there's so much good material, why are there such intense problems? So this gets down to leadership.
Cary Goulston:You have to have good leadership, powerful leadership, strong leadership and people working together, united with a common purpose. You have to have all of us working together. You have an organization, you have an organism. We have to, as an organism, flow energy throughout the organism and communicate throughout the organism and not have one part of the body not be in good communication with the brain, with the foot or the arm, and you're punching yourself, you know, poking your eyes out.
Cary Goulston:In society, even at the lowest levels, we have to unite with good leadership, people who are not vested interests, people who are not benefiting from your - you being stupid or in the dark or being on drugs and addicted to drugs and all these things and that's only a few people that think like that. It's not everybody, it's just a few and those people do not, should not be in positions of power. The people in positions of power are the people who mean well for the greater good, and that is what we're working on every single day, bringing people together. We have - I have activities happening in many, many countries. We're working very hard to bring people together, to bring leadership together, to provide them with ammunition and tools and knowledge and skill so that they can take more, better responsibility for those under their care. So that's a little bit about what we're doing. There's a lot more like our human rights program and so forth, but that's really gives you a good summary. Did that answer your question?
Ryan Kimball:Yeah, that's awesome, amazing. I have to ask you. I heard that you used some of the technology of The Way to Happiness or something, to help avert a war in Africa that was pending, or something like that, and I wanted to hear that story as well, if you don't mind.
Cary Goulston:No, I don't mind, I'm pretty much an open book. That's one of my - that's a real highlight, that situation that - I had what's called a Life Improvement Center, five miles from the Pentagon, outside of Washington and Virginia. I had a Life Improvement Center inside of a malls. Can you imagine that? I've had two of those. I've never seen one before and I haven't seen one since. But we had all kinds of people coming in there. Even a senator came in there. Pentagon people, embassy people, military people, people from all - many different embassies.
Cary Goulston:We had all kinds of people coming into our Life Improvement Center to look at the bookstore, to get more information, to try to get help with their lives. We all need help. And as proud as you are and you have degrees on your walls, doesn't matter, you need help, you need help. And you know, it's a really smart person who knows they don't know, who knows that they're missing some knowledge somewhere. It's a really smart person, high IQ person, who knows that they're missing a few things and they're looking to fill that gap. And I'll tell you, a lot of people are - they have flaws in their personality and they know it and they kind of cover that up and so forth with drinking and different ways. They might be eating - they might have - I mean, we all have something. But it's really the person who's really tries to do something about it. Unfortunately, you don't always get the correct information and that could lead a person to not try anymore. Oh, I tried. I'm depressed, beat my wife, hit my kids, whatever they do and I didn't know where to go, so I just didn't go anywhere. And that's a sad tale. But let me get to the point on what we're talking about, which is -
Cary Goulston:So, I had that Life Improvement Center and I ended up getting a person from Sudan came in and he told me they had been reading The Way to Happiness and they saw that chapter, Do Not Murder. And the person said, Mr. Cary, Mr. Cary, my country needs Way to Happiness. And I said, Why? He says, We have a war, Mr. Cary. We have a war in our country.
Cary Goulston:Now, I didn't know anything about Sudan. I've never met anybody from Sudan. I don't even know where - at the time, I didn't even know where it was. I was pretty ignorant about that country. And it's about a million square miles, i t's a very large landmass. And he said, Mr. Cary, my country has war for many years and we need Way to Happiness, and I'm thinking to myself, rather than just brushing it off, taking what he said to heart, like really listening and really doing something, versus just listening and saying, nothing I can do - we've all done that. Really, really, really tried to listen and really do something about what's being talked about. So this is one of those rare moments where I said the right thing and I said, if you really want to handle this war, bring me to your leader. I said, introduce me to the most influential Sudanese man or person, and I will show them how we might be able to help. And the next thing you know, I was in the Sudan embassy.
Ryan Kimball:Oh my god.
Cary Goulston:With the ambassador to Sudan, wearing my suit and all prepared. That was a very, very interesting - from the minute I walked in there - it was extremely interesting. And I won't tell you all the interesting little sub- stories that were so cool and eye-opening, but I ended up - I ended up in the office. You know, go up a little elevator - in DC they have these old, little old building, big, high ceilings, and cupid and, and handcrafted - both just really cool - the DC buildings, the old embassies are just gorgeous.
Cary Goulston:I was up with the ambassador and he was just this little man, five feet two, very frail, kind of quiet man, shook my hand and I was - very delicately shook his hand and I didn't want to crush him - I have drummers hands, I'm a drummer- Rrrrr! And we sat down and I was telling him what Way to Happiness has accomplished, and how it's a common sense, non-religious program used by military and other organizations internationally, told him a little bit about Russia and Columbia, their stories there, about the effectiveness and the success of Way to Happiness, and I shared some of those photos and then - looked at me. I wasn't expecting this. This was just a nice friendly visit with some coffee and a chat in this very ornate, gorgeous, you know, Sudan embassy, with the ambassador, and I tried to treat it like you're just another person and not try to get all overwhelmed above the power of position, just tried to be myself. I think that's a good strategy for anybody who's just dealing with leaders and so forth - they're people too, you know. Don't get caught up in all the fanfare and the pomp and circumstance.
Cary Goulston:The ambassador said something to me that was quite- kind of caught me by surprise. He said, Mr. Cary, why is Mr. Bush bombing my hospitals? And I just- you know, I can't, you can't even apologize for stuff like that. And I said, there are a few people - and I just took some of my studies that I had done from Mr. Hubbard, been studying his work and his technology for many, many decades and this was a moment where I needed, I needed something to explain what I understood about what he's talking about. Why would anybody bomb a hospital, much less a country? And what I understand about it, I explained to him, I said the actions of a few people do not represent the intention of the many. That a few people do something does not mean the whole group is that way. And I said the actions of that person does - is not what I would do. I am not, I am not political. I do not represent these people and - and factually it's shameful.
Cary Goulston:I would come up with other solutions than bombing hospitals. I could think of 9000 other things I could probably do, and if it took an extra two months to sort it out, I think I have enough patience and communication skill and intelligence to do everything possible to solve problems without killing people. But that's just me. Not everybody thinks like that. Most people do. Most people have a conscience and if they cause a baby to die or somebody to die, they will really, really be hurt by that for a very long time. They will be stunned, they will have a conscience and they will feel extremely horrible for a long time if they caused a death as such.
Cary Goulston:That's called your social personality. We think like that, and I went over that with the ambassador and then I explained to him how certain people do things like that and try to control people for their own ends. There are certain people that do things like that, but that's not me and I showed him our Way to Happiness helps to bring calm, helps to bring civilization, helps to bring happiness, and it works. And he said, Mr. Cary, you must come to my country and help stop the war, and bring Way to Happiness, and introduce it to the government and bring it to the people. And he said, when would you like to go? And I said - that's what I did inside. I didn't do that on the outside. I was - I was a little bit like, wow, seriously? - and I said, well, how, about in a month?
Cary Goulston:We set it up and I went on a diplomatic peace mission with the support of the Sudan government. It was all hosted by the ministry of foreign affairs and it was very - it was a very powerful peace mission.
Cary Goulston:W e were able to do quite a bit in a short amount of time, to bring the message of The Way to Happiness to bring the materials to, to bring the concepts to mind. Met with leaders from both sides of the war that was going on, we got books distributed and within three months, they signed a peace treaty.
Cary Goulston:I can't say that we were responsible for that. I can never say that, because I'm sure a lot has gone into that situation but I think it was a spark. I think it helped to help good people to get in control of circumstances. But whatever you are, whatever you're - it doesn't matter, as long as we can agree on principles. And The Way to Happines s is that agreement that - you know - we will not murder, we will treat you as we want to be treated. These are principles that have carried off 8,000 years. These are the codes of conduct that we can all agree to, regardless of race, color, or creed -intention here isn't to make you become a believer. The intention here is how do we work together even though we have differences? How do we coexist, not drop bombs on each other and more interested in the peoples of planet Earth? That was definitely a turning point for me that caused me to be more responsible for the people on this planet.
Ryan Kimball:Wow, that's really incredible, Cary. That's just awesome.
Cary Goulston:Thank you. That's a story little told.
Ryan Kimball:Yeah, I bet!
Cary Goulston:That story is - I don't know, I get a chance to tell it - I left out a few really beautiful parts, but you know, I tried to keep it concise. But that story is filled with magical moments. I don't mean to sound like a Disney movie, but it - that, that whole experience was just eye-opening. And you know, something - everybody should experience that - how to bring improvements into an area of the world that's not doing well, like Israel right now. There's no need. We're in the 21st century. Somebody's creating that war for their own ends.
Cary Goulston:All you have to do is create agreement not to do that. And that's done through common sense, it's not done through bullets. You can't force people to think certain ways. I mean they try and continue to try, but you can't blow people up and blow people into a better community or a better communication. You have to actually engage. You have to communicate and have agreement and have discussions and you have to work together until your disagreements are worked out.
Cary Goulston:People are dropping bombs on each other? That's some - that is an enemy of both countries at hard at work. It's a finance person, it's a vested interest, it's a criminal behind that. There is a criminal or a criminal organization - that, no question - behind that fight. You see a husband and wife fighting. You don't see the mother-in-law feeding those two false information about each other, making them fight. You do not see the hidden third party. I mean, people can do their own research.
Cary Goulston:I'm not a big political guy, but somebody's stoking the fire, and you know, if I had a million or a trillion dollars, I could walk over there right now and just put an end to it in two seconds. I mean, really anybody with some kind of energy and clout could make things better. So if somebody's making things worse, well, why would you do that? Some insane reason. There is no rational reason for war, because there's never a rational outcome for war. There's no rational - a husband and wife hitting each other with pans never has a good outcome. What has a good outcome is you sit at a table and you iron out your differences and you continue to communicate until you can finally work out your differences. And if that takes six months, that's what you're doing. At least nobody's dying over your inability to communicate.
Ryan Kimball:Yeah, I know - totally agree, totally totally. Well, let me ask you this, because a lot of the people who are going to be listening to this are interested in the education aspect of the work you've done.
Cary Goulston:A lot of people are going to be listening to this - that's exciting. Really, your lowest level of education is, you know, what people have done to you.
Cary Goulston:But it's not always the best method of education. Really, you have insanity carry on through the ages or fixed ideas or things that are not workable carried down through the ages through this method. But you need upgrades. You can't just have an iPhone 21 that's worse than an iPhone one, because that's how we always do it. You have to have - they have complaints come in and they look at that and they try to fix those bugs. They try to handle those bugs and they work on upgrading it so they have a better product. So that's upgraded phones. We see that every six months. We don't see that with education. Education is stuck. It's a stuck picture on the wall that looks the same year after year after year.
Cary Goulston:But I'm sorry, it has some big, big problems. I mean, you're not a parent because you have kids. You're a parent because you know what you're doing and you know how to handle those difficult situations, like what happens when the kids cry, and you have a few options there. How do you handle an unruly, defiant child? You beat them over the head, you scream at them? There's different methods. Where's your tools? What tools do you have, parents? So our first big problem in the United States - we had 2 million divorces last year in the US. I don't know if you knew about this statistic. It's really very interesting - 50% of all marriages end in divorce in the US. That's despicable. That's a nightmare for children, broken homes. People don't generally know this, but your first government is your family. If you can't even handle your own family, how are you going to handle your community? If we can't handle our own children, how are we going to do anything outside of that?
Cary Goulston:Training is required to raise children. It really is. I'm sorry. You have to have some communication skills. You have to know what you're doing. Training is required. Now where do you go for your parental training? I mean, really, where do you go? You read Dr Spock, or what do you read? What do you do? I mean, what do people do to raise their children? And I guarantee you they just used their - how they were raised.
Cary Goulston:Now, my parents beat us every single day with the fist and with the belts and there was a lot of screaming and a lot of yelling in my house every day. My mom went crazy. She got married and had - started having kids, at 16 years old. She wasn't prepared and by the time she was 20, she was absolutely - had gone bonkers. She couldn't handle the pressure. She couldn't handle all those kids running around and doing all those things you're doing. That's training. If you're going to cook a meal, you should probably know what you're doing. I'm not going to eat your food if you're not trained. OK, so that's the same thing. You don't get a license if you don't train on driving a car. Where's your training? So, we're really missing the ball on this one - not training parents, so we need a training program for parents where they can come in and get some simple training that's going to really help them and see them through those difficult, dark times.
Cary Goulston:Now, what about training on marriage? 50% of our marriages end in divorce. You don't think people know how to have a marriage? They don't. How do you keep a marriage going? And all this cheating and this's and that's. Training. We can help people with that. We can help people with their marriage. It is a beautiful thing - I've been married 23 years. It's a beautiful thing, if you can really make that work. I needed some training and I did - I did marriage courses. I did three marriage courses - really, really helpful.
Cary Goulston:So that's education at this lowest level and now you build it up from there - how do you study? Well, a lot of dropouts and a lot of people having trouble in school, committing suicide. I know there's a lot of pressure with taking tests and a lot of pressure and a lot of pain connected to education. Kids going to school with bad marks, can't pay attention, having trouble, bullying - all these things going on in school. Education can be very painful. We have some tools and information and technology - I'm serious - that was developed by Mr. Hubbard that makes education quite productive and quite successful. Been educated for a long time and I can promise you, my story's rags to riches. I can promise you we can help anybody to be able to study more effectively and more successfully and that is really big news because a lot of people going to school, they come out of school with a degree and they're doing something else - collecting garbage or working in a grocery store, or whatever - I mean, there's all kinds of stories, but I'm just saying that if you can have really good success as a student, instead of piling one class on top of another, you have six classes and you're like, overwhelmed and you're not doing well and you're not getting it and - you know, we have info - we have tools to figure out - how the student can figure out how to overcome those barriers to learning and that - we have training for that.
Cary Goulston:There's a website, appliedscholastics. org - appliedscholastics. org - wonderful. And, by the way, the free e-book for the children's Way to Happiness - I should have mentioned it earlier, is goodchoicesebook. org. That's - that Children's Common Sense booklet is an e-book and if you get it early, your life will be professional. You can start your own company.
Cary Goulston:You can have a skill, because really education is about developing skills. You can do things, not just memorize, unless you're all going to go on a game show and do - win all this money from Jeopardy or something. If you're all going to count on your memory as your skill, you're not going to have a very happy life. I mean, I'm not saying you won't, but memory is not what we're going for in education. Passing a test is OK, but really what we're going for skill development. You can do things. You can type, you can build, you can write. You want to be a writer, you can write. You have that skill development, your communication skill. You want to be a speaker. It's all about education, really, and this is really cool.
Cary Goulston:Education is about skill development. What can you do? Because what you can do is your exchange with the world for valuables. What you can do is your value to yourself and your confidence and your personal pride. What you can do is what you can give the world or your community in exchange for a valuable. You want to be an auto mechanic, you want to be a dancer - that skill is needed. You have to be professional at something and then - and then hopefully, that something is what your passion is. Hopefully that something that you want to do for your life is something that you love and that you give and you do professionally and you get something for that work you do. And it's all about reading with understanding, applying what you read and having the tools for study and then developing your skill so you can become professional at what you want to excel at.
Ryan Kimball:Awesome, I love it. (Thank you.) Yeah! So, I've got about 10 minutes before I've got to run. Is there anything else you'd like to cover?
Cary Goulston:Is there anything else you want to ask? How about you? Do you have any curiosities about anything? I mean, how about something that's near and dear to your heart that you would love to know more about? Let's make this really personal for you and therefore extremely important.
Ryan Kimball:OK, I really - I'm all about helping people become more competent, which you touched on, and I really like that. Helping young people - part of the reason we're doing the Competence Institute - become more competent, creates a better tomorrow. You have such an intimate knowledge of this. What are the most important things that you'd relay about creating competence for young adults?
Cary Goulston:Really great questions, really brilliant. Ok, so competency is covered in two books. It's covered in the How to Make Good Choices book. There's a whole chapter on competency.
Cary Goulston:Very important to excel, to do well at something and The Way to Happines s has a chapter and it's broken down to how can you be competent? And let's just keep it very, very simple. You have your ability to observe things and look and make up your mind, and this is a very important ability to be able to look and observe and to come to a conclusion. Because that's the most important thing you have is your ability to observe and come to a new understanding of something. Isn't that what learning is all about? Is having new understanding and to understand how to do things better. This is why learning for me is a lifelong thing. I learn every week, I study every week, but competency goes above and beyond knowledge. Competencies is how you are able to execute, use the information that you have in your head. So you observe and you come to a conclusion, and then you take that information and you apply it to the real world. Then you have a new understanding that it does certain things. If you're learning how to play the piano or you're learning how to play drums or singing, you You observe and then you apply, and then you work things out and improve what you're doing, doing by enhancing your knowledge and your ability to apply. So you read and apply, read and apply. Watch -something- something - apply.
Cary Goulston:Information is great. Information is not - I would say information is about as valuable as you can apply it, but when you apply it, it's really when things really come together. When you apply that information you studied and see it working, you have now developed a workable piece of information that when you do blah - here's my remote. When I press this button, it turns on, every time. When I press this button, it takes me to a specific station. You know, that's like a really kind of really simpleton example. But when you develop your understandings from reading, observing, asking questions, doing research, applying what you've read, applying what you've read, applying what you've read, doing exercises, writing it out on paper, going to see how it works - go, you know, you put yourself into the action and then you're discovering what's working and you drill it and you practice and you drill and you practice and you drill and you practice and you continue to improve your technique 'til you become professional, expert at some given area. A great chef will go study other chefs and see how they do it and they might incorporate some of what they do to their already existing level of expertise, their level of what they do. I can make toast and I can make this and I can make that, but you know, I see how he's doing that and that's interesting. Go to Paris and observe and you know, you just constantly working on becoming really, really effective. This is what competency is all about.
Cary Goulston:You can't just be great at one thing if you're living life and not be great at other things. So for me, as an example, people are very important to me. So I've spent a lot of time understanding and applying what I've learned in the area of people - counseling, communication, management, consulting. You know, I'm not like a stiff person where I'm like Hi, how are you? I'm good. I'm not afraid of people, but I'm also not gullible. I've made a lot of mistakes. I've mistreated people, I've been mistreated, but I've still learned to become a much, much better person - friend, husband, dad, just keep working on all these parts of my life, bit by bit. Done some communication training. It's really helped tremendously.
Cary Goulston:Speaker training if you like speaking, public speaking, then take a communication course and you will become a much, much better speaker, more interesting, and surround yourself with really good people. Surround yourself with professional people. Surround yourself with people that mean well for you and make you happy and boost you up and support you. Surround yourself with the right people and keep at arms length those people that make you feel bad about yourself. Keep at arms length those people that really cause you to feel sick and miserable and they criticize you and that kind of thing. They're always talking about who died and the bad things that are going on in their life.
Cary Goulston:You know, you have to control your environment. You just have to control your environment. You can't just be everybody's punching bag and therefore your most powerful tool in dealing with people is your communication skill. That will get you so far, no matter what you're doing. Everybody does a communication training - everybody - and if you have kids, you need it. You have the staff you need it. You just need it, and I've done like four communication training courses. I'm not - I could do another one right now. I mean, it's been a few years, but you can see that my communication isn't all that bad. When people are talking to me, I really, really can listen comfortably. I don't feel the urge to run away or look down, or my drift - my attention drifts off and then they notice I'm not listening to them and they get upset - is like communication is really important and there are tools in the world to really help you with all these areas of life so you can be the best person that you wanna be and have a very high quality life, which is what we wish for you.
Ryan Kimball:That's awesome. Thank you, Cary. This has been an honor, very enlightening and humbling and invigorating all at the same time.
Cary Goulston:This is great. I appreciate your including me.
Ryan Kimball:Awesome yeah, thank you.
Cary Goulston:All right, thank you, man.
