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 Bring a little optimism into your life with The Bright Side, a new kind of daily podcast from Hello Sunshine, hosted by me, Danielle Robay.
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And me, Simone Boyce.
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Every weekday, we're bringing you conversations about culture, the latest trends, inspiration, and so much more.
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I am so excited about this podcast, The Bright Side.
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You guys are giving people a chance to shine a light on their lives, shine a light on a little advice that they want to share.
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 Listen to The Bright Side on America's number one podcast network, iHeart.
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Open your free iHeart app and search The Bright Side.
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A new season of Bridgerton is here.
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And with it, a new season of Bridgerton, the official podcast.
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I'm your host, Gabby Collins.
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And this season, we are bringing fans even deeper into the ton.
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Watch season three of the Shondaland series on Netflix.
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 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Subscribe to catch a new episode every Thursday.
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SPEAKER_03
 Guess what, Will?
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What's up, Mango?
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I've been trying to write a promo for our podcast, Part-Time Genius, but even though we've done over 250 episodes, we don't really talk about murders or cults.
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I mean, we did just cover the Illuminati of cheese, so I feel like that makes us pretty edgy.
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We also solve mysteries like how Chinese is your Chinese food and how do dollar stores make money?
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And then, of course, can you game a dog show?
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So what you're saying is everyone should be listening.
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Listen to Part-Time Genius on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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SPEAKER_00
 So the ability to be calm, the ability to reflect, the ability to build that into my life every day, where I'm not kind of a gerbil on the wheel, which is constantly running, the ability to get off that cycle and pause, reflect, understand, build back my strength, my vision.
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I think that's been an important part of my own personal growth.
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That part of it didn't take place.
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 until, you know, probably just maybe four or five years ago, I think, when I began to think more about, you know, in a broader sense, a deeper sense, purpose and service to others.
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SPEAKER_06
 Hello, everyone.
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Welcome back to On Purpose, the number one health podcast in the world because of each and every single one of you.
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Thank you so much for taking out time out of your day, out of your evening to be here, to learn and grow and advance your thinking.
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 And like you know, every week I try and find guests that I believe are going to ask us thought-provoking questions, give us deeper insights to ourselves, and give us so much experience and abundance and wealth of insight to learn from so that we can learn from their lives, their mistakes, their failures, their successes, and most of all, their wisdom.
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And today's guest is someone that I've been really blown away by.
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I've met him for the first time this week.
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 But he just has this natural humility, his natural grace.
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He's extremely kind hearted.
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And it really blows me away when extremely successful individuals are so deeply, genuinely grounded and wanting to do incredible things for the world.
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 So as you know, this week, I've been with the Arthur Blank Family Foundation.
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We've been at the West Creek Ranch here in Montana, and we've been discussing the state of well-being in America.
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And the person who's put this on is Arthur Blank himself, who is the best known as the co-founder of The Home Depot.
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 and was named by Forbes as one of the world's 100 greatest living business minds and Sports Business Journal's most 50 influential people in sports for the past three years.
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His business portfolio currently includes the NFL's Atlanta Falcons, MLS Atlanta United, the retail PGA Tour Superstore, the Arthur and Blank Family Foundation, and many, many more ventures.
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Arthur, I'm so grateful, honored, and humbled that you're doing this.
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Thank you for being here.
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 Well, it's great to be with you.
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As I said the other night, I mean, you're the last person I see when I go to bed.
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And it's always very warming to hear your counsel and your wisdom.
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So thank you for sharing that with all of us.
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I appreciate it.
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 Thank you so much.
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I was so touched to hear that you'd been watching my videos without me even knowing.
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I have been.
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I love them all.
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They're great stories.
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And kind of like you said the other day, we're talking about Albert Einstein, how the ability to take something that's
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 very complex and there's a lot of sides and edges to it and make it to where it's digestible and understandable by, you know, by the majority of people.
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And I think that's a, that's a powerful asset that you have.
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And one that I, you know, that I try to remember as well to try to make things a little bit easier for people to understand and therefore, you know, get, you know, get through the points you're trying to make.
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You do it well, very well.
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 Thank you so much.
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That means so much to me coming from you.
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And we're so happy and grateful to be in this incredible ranch this week, your space here in Montana.
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We have this incredible view and even more amazing is the people that you've gathered and your team has gathered for this such an important conversation and cause.
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Could you tell us about where this idea for this week came for you and what the purpose was from your perspective?
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 Well, I think it was born out of a lot of years of my journey in terms of wellness and well-being, and I was a very competitive runner for many years of my life.
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And that was great, but we transitioned out of that, and I do a variety of other things to keep myself physically and mentally in shape now.
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 We're living in very troubled times, and I'm talking about really on a global basis, nationally as well as globally.
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And despite our GDP, which we discussed the other day, as not being the real measure of happiness in a country,
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 Despite the growth of that, we've got a lot of issues that young people and older people are all struggling with.
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The fact that you met Laurie Santos from Yale University and a quarter of the student body of Yale, 318 years old, was taking this course every year on how to deal with positive growth, how to deal with the stress in your life, et cetera.
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 At Harvard, they have over 1,000 students every semester do a similar.
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So the reality is it's not only with folks my age that are, you know, why is the suicide rate double since 1996 or 30%, I should say, but the young people today, thank heavens,
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 are questioning themselves, you know, what is my purpose?
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What's my purpose myself?
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What's my purpose in serving humanity?
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What's my purpose in what I'm doing?
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How do I connect all these dots in my life journey together?
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And so I think the idea was to bring together, you know, the best, the brightest, the smartest, we have them all, starting with you, and many others that have incredible backgrounds and histories.
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 and bring such knowledge and wisdom to the room.
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And the idea was to bring together for us as a funder and other funders as well, are there ways that we can help move the ball down the field to use, you know, either of my football teams, American football, soccer as an analogy, but as a ways that we can put our shoulder to the wheel.
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 and do more than what is currently being done.
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Is there ways we can assist?
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And we do that within our own businesses.
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And we can talk about that later, if you'd like.
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But beyond that, what's the scale?
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What's the impact?
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We've talked about that.
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Lord knows that if we make a difference in one person's life, that's a huge journey by itself.
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But reality is that these issues are of such scale, not only nationally, but internationally.
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As we've heard from Dan Buechner of Blue Zones
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 Bob Waldinger from Harvard.
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I mean, these issues are being questioned, you know, throughout the world.
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So they're big time concerns that we have to face.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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And when I first received the invite and saw what the conversation was,
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 I was just so happy and in awe that this was taking place.
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I just thought, wow, there's someone out there who is so deeply invested and seems so genuinely caring about what the challenges of the world are.
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And then when I looked at the list of people coming, I was just like, wow, this can be so exciting for me because I left my notebook out.
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And I've learned so much this week.
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 So thank you again.
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And I want to help my audience understand your backstory because I think that's what really shows where people's purpose comes from.
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Right.
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It's very easy to look at you.
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We're sitting in this beautiful West Creek ranch today.
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It's, you know, this beautiful property here, but you actually grew up in a one bedroom apartment in Queens.
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Right.
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Right.
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And you didn't move out until you went to college and didn't live in a home till age 32.
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Right.
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That's correct.
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 And so tell us about how formative that experience was and what you learned from that.
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Well, I think it was very important in my own life.
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My father was a pharmacist, but I lost him when I was 15.
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He was 44 at the time, very young age.
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My mother was 37.
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She took over my dad's business and ran it.
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But we always, we didn't have very much.
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I mean, as I said, it was a one bedroom apartment.
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 shared by all four of us.
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We had a single bathroom.
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I mean, we were living in a very, very modest way.
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But the one thing I remember clearly about my mother is that it was never about money.
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It was always about making a difference and trying to give back and trying to be involved in the community, et cetera.
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I mean, I wear this bracelet that she
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 that I had made from our book.
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It's inscribed, you can't see it on here, but I wear one every day.
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It matches the color of what I'm wearing.
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But it says, you only pass through once, make a difference.
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And that was the title of the book that she wrote.
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So I think that that became ingrained in me
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 the notion of trying to make a difference, giving back, being connected to others in the community, and what have you.
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And we were not in a position to write checks then, but writing checks is great, but doing the work itself and getting connected to the individuals that you're trying to serve is really the most rewarding part of philanthropy in my view.
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It makes it all come to life, makes it all real.
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 gives it more purpose than just sitting and writing checks.
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Checks are important.
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Resources are important to make things happen and bring scale.
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But I think it's important to have that background.
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That, I would say, part of it, and my faith.
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I'm Jewish, and one of the expressions in Judaism is tikkun olam, which means to repair the world, or tzedakah, meaning giving and participating.
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 So those were ingrained in me, even though when I went to services, you don't think you absorb all that.
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You obviously did, became a monk at 18, but a lot of the congregational meetings I went to, et cetera, I wasn't sure exactly what, but I was absorbing, more so than I even really thought.
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So I think those things are very important in terms of my childhood.
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 Yeah, that's incredible.
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And regardless of how little you had, your mother was always trying to find time and energy to give to the community in different ways.
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I think those are really powerful messages.
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I think when I bought my first home, it was $32,000.
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I was 32 years old.
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I remember telling my wife then, I said, look, I'm not going to embarrass.
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 I'll pay off the mortgage.
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I mean, I'll keep us current.
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Don't worry about that.
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I'll pay the bills, but we're never going to pay this mortgage off completely.
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I just, you know, there's no way, you know, so obviously that part of my life has changed, but remembering that and remembering that experience and what it meant to not have the kind of financial success that we have today, going back to those days, I think was very important part of my own molding, if you will.
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 Absolutely.
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I think perspective is so important.
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I remember when I was nine years old, I visited India for the first time and my father took me to the home that he grew up in.
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And he grew up in an area where they shared a bathroom with 30 other families.
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His home was as big as this room and that's seven people living in this much space.
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And when I went outside, they were like bats and cockroaches and all this kind of stuff.
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And I was just like, I couldn't believe that that's where my dad grew up.
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 And compared to, you know, we didn't grow up in a huge house in England, but compared to his home, our home was huge.
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And so for me, it was so important, I feel at nine years old to see that, because it started making me feel grateful for what I did have rather than being ungrateful for what I didn't have.
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Yeah, and I think, you know, just as your journey brought you at some point at age 18, I think it was when you decided to, you know, go on the journey of becoming a monk,
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 You know, you're affected by your background, your history, all the connecting points in your life.
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And sometimes they don't all seem to add up right at the moment.
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But there's a big puzzle going on in your head and in your heart and in your spirit that actually brings those things together.
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And it's, you know, that moment of saying, aha, this is my purpose.
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This is really what I want to do.
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I feel at peace with this.
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I want to, you know, I want to go as far as I can down this road, take others with me, travel with others, et cetera.
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So I think it's been beautiful from my standpoint.
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 Yeah.
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And tell us how then five years later at 37, you go from feeling tired of working at a regional hardware store to then going on to build the biggest.
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What does that process of thinking about it, making it happen, pushing forward look like?
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 Well, we weren't tired of doing it.
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It was a company that was called HandyDan Home Improvement Centers, which was then the most successful home improvement center company chain in the United States, but it was owned by a larger company that was in financial difficulty.
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So when Bernie and I, my partner who co-founded Home Depot, we got fired, actually.
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So it wasn't like, well, it was a lot of political reasons, and that's a whole other story.
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 But beyond that, it was our chance really to live our lives over again from a business standpoint.
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And although those stores were the best run in the United States, we felt if we ever had to compete with a large, no-frills, down-market warehouse store, we really couldn't do it.
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 So we said, if we couldn't do that, and we were running the best company in that sector at that time, let's try to develop that and go with that.
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And that was the birth of Home Depot, and started in 78.
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First stores were in 79.
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It's a long story.
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When I left 23 years later, it was the second largest retail in the world, second only to Walmart, which is a great company.
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And they have one of their senior executives here this week as well, and trying to understand well-being and wellness and how that relates to the associates that they have.
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 I don't even know what their number is today.
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It's probably about a million and a half, maybe more than that.
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It's mind boggling.
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 What I'm really interested in, Arthur, is that what gave you the courage and risk taking after being fired at the age of 37 to do that?
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Because I think today, and it's interesting because I was sitting yesterday at a table with Laurie, with Robert, and we were discussing this.
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And what they were sharing with me is that so many students today at some of the best institutions in the world, and all institutions in the world,
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 are so scared of doing anything that isn't the path.
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And what I mean by the path is, they believe that they go to Yale or Harvard, they continue and they have to get a job in what they're studying right now, and that they have to live that very narrow line.
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 And they said in their words, they said they know some of their students are doing things they hate just because it's the path.
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Where did you feel the confidence and the risk taking approach to try something new and how can our audience and listeners today feel that they're not old because today people think they're old at 25.
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 And we think we're old at 28 to try something new.
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I got married at 23 the first time.
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And I said, okay, I'm 23 years old, I need to get married today.
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The kids are getting married much later.
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But in any event, I think in my own case, probably came from the experience that my father passing away at an early age and being an entrepreneur, he was working as a pharmacist.
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He left several years before he passed away, started his own wholesale drug company across America.
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 drugstores, hospitals, nursing homes, et cetera.
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And then when he passed away, my mother took that business over.
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So I had all these role models in my family of not giving up, of trying, trying something new, extending yourself, going on that journey.
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I've been connected with Outward Bound for probably 40 years now and their slogan is to serve, to strive and not to yield.
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And so I very much believe in that and the notion that we all can do more than what we thought we're capable of doing.
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 And it doesn't mean you do it without, you know, safety nets around you, but you can do more than what you thought.
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So I would encourage, and I do encourage people to, as Dr. Dwyer would say, to find the music within you and make sure it gets played.
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 You know, a lot of us have to find that, you know, that music, if you will, that passion, that point of physical, mental, spiritual connection that makes us feel we're, you know, we're not getting up to work today.
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We're getting up to have not have fun, but to do God's work, do our work, do work with purpose.
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 service to others, et cetera.
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So I think, you know, you try to find, and I encourage young people today to try to find, don't worry about making money.
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If you're good at what you're doing, you're going to be fine.
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And money really is really not the main attribute to happiness, as you well know.
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 But I think doing what you find a passion for, serving others in some capacity, and being part of the greater community, not just of your family, which is obviously critical, but of humanity, brings you the joy and peace.
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And I think if you can find a business that in one form or another provides that service, I think you create a company, expression I use to our managers, that you want our associates to feel this company is really worthy of your life.
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 I don't mean that in disrespect to religion or whatever else it may be, but giving you 8, 10, 12 hours a day, whatever it may be, but you want them to come to work and not ever think of it as work.
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Think of it as, you know, this is part of my mission.
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I love the values of this organization.
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I believe in them.
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I want to stand for them.
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I want to participate in them.
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I want to help articulate them.
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I want to help share them with others as they join our businesses.
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 And I think that passion, I think, and that commitment is what will bring a greater sense of joy.
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And hopefully, you know, I'm thrilled, really, with Bob Wolding here and Laurie Santos here as best examples and many of the universities, but this tremendous thirst
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 that our young people have, who at the end of the day really are our future.
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The young people have to find a greater purpose, find themselves personally, and then find a greater connection to others in their community and humanity is something that I applaud.
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And that's why your work
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 is so important because you're part of the voices that young people, everybody's listening to.
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I'm 76, so I'm not young, but everybody is listening to today and trying to get some better guidance, broader guidance, more spiritual guidance, connecting guidance to everything inside of themselves than they would have had otherwise.
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 I'm very optimistic about the direction that we're going in, but it's not going to happen by itself.
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It's not going to change by itself.
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We need people like yourself, Jay, and all the people in the other rooms that are doing incredible work.
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 and making sure that those messages get expanded and we're touching more and more people and find ways to bring that message of scale.
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And I think it's one that people, you know, when somebody has that feeling that I'm not really, I mean, this is purpose to me.
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In the true sense of the word, what I'm doing every day has purpose.
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 Yeah, absolutely.
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And when I hear you speak from the first day when you led the introduction to even now, the words like purpose and values, they're so deeply embedded in who you are.
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And one of the things I loved, and we'll try and get a slide to put it onto the video version, but
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 When you first started speaking, you showed us the two value diagrams that you have.
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And one thing I loved is that there was an upside down pyramid.
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And on the upside down pyramid, the person at the bottom of the pyramid was Arthur.
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It was me.
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And I love that.
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And at the top was customers.
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And then you had the other circular one with innovation and all these other aspects of values.
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I'd love for you to talk through some of those.
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Because I believe that we hear a lot of people say this stuff.
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Right.
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I know.
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 And you've probably heard it more than I have, but from spending a bit of time with you and seeing the success of what you've done, it seems like you've actually been able to really do it.
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Please share with us some of those values and how you constructed them specifically and where that upside down pyramid and you at the bottom idea came from.
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 So I think, Jay, all of our businesses, regardless of exactly what they're doing, you described them all well earlier, all that incredibly high, very high success portfolio and results, they're all based on the same set of values.
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And the same set of values is a wheel of six, if you will, but they all have to do with relationships, all have to do with community, all have to do with respect, all have to do with giving back.
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 None of those key values have anything to do with, you know, what's our maximum revenue, what's our rate of profitability, what's our return on sales, et cetera.
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It all has to do with behavior and how we treat the people that we're serving.
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So whether we're serving guests here at Mountain Sky or at West Creek, or whether we're serving customers in our PGA business, or whether we're serving fans in our Atlanta Falcons or Atlanta United in our stadium, which has been voted number one state in the country the last two years, little plug.
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 But, you know, everything we do is all about service to others.
0
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So, you know, we know if we do the right things for the right reasons in terms of the tactical decisions, but if we have this welcoming home, this welcoming feeling where we're more concerned about who we're serving than about ourselves, that comes across with a sense of trust and caring.
0
SPEAKER_00
 An example would be, just to demonstrate that, in the National Football League, 32 teams.
0
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The last two years, the Atlanta Falcons were voted number one in the NFL for fan experience.
0
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Major League Soccer, 24 teams were ranked number one in Major League Soccer in terms of fan experience.
0
SPEAKER_00
 And a lot of it has to do with a lot of different things in food and beverage and our unique strategy in that regard, but in the setting and the stadium.
0
SPEAKER_00
But beyond that, it has to do with the fact that every single person in any of these venues that we're talking about feels like they're an honored guest.
0
SPEAKER_00
It feels like they are, the reason we're there is to serve them.
0
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 And I would say to you, I mean, our associates are compensated well.
0
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But having said that, their greatest compensation, in my view, is that they're seeing people smile every day.
0
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They're making people's dreams come true.
0
SPEAKER_00
They're making people's problems go away.
0
SPEAKER_00
The sense of community, all of these things that we share and talk about, I mean, they love all that.
0
SPEAKER_00
So our associates feel like, I may have a tough day at home or a tough day somewhere.
0
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Maybe when they come into work, though, and they're confusing work with play,
0
SPEAKER_00
 And they're making the opportunity to serve right there is very powerful in terms of enriching their own experience.
0
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So, you know, that's a key driver in everything that we do.
0
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We also feel strongly in community and giving back.
0
SPEAKER_00
 And, you know, we do that with the service in the businesses themselves, but we do it in a broader sense in terms of our own philanthropy, our family foundations, you know, $400 million since 1995, and that'll probably, you know, double and triple in the next 10 years.
0
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 And then each of our businesses has an associate-led fund to themselves, which is very, very significant in dollars.
0
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But the beauty of that is that these are not trained philanthropists.
0
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They're just associates.
0
SPEAKER_00
They're not executives necessarily.
0
SPEAKER_00
They're trained to how to go through evaluations, et cetera.
0
SPEAKER_00
They make the decisions.
0
SPEAKER_00
 They're closest to the people they're serving.
0
SPEAKER_00
They understand the communities they're living in.
0
SPEAKER_00
They understand their industries incredibly well.
0
SPEAKER_00
And so they make decisions about, you know, how much we're going to allocate in certain areas.
0
SPEAKER_00
And they do that work.
0
SPEAKER_00
And we support them.
0
SPEAKER_00
We don't guide them.
0
SPEAKER_00
We just, you know, we give them X amount of dollars and they take care of it.
0
SPEAKER_00
 The beauty of that is that the associates feel a tremendous sense of pride then, not just in their work, quote-unquote, which is having purpose in terms of serving others, but also their part, their physically part of going out and doing site visits in a variety of settings and making decisions about, you know, well, you know, we've been blessed here.
0
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Now, how do we help others?
0
SPEAKER_00
You know, how do we, how do we do this work and expand it?
0
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 To have that pride, that gives the associates even more purpose and more sense of that.
0
SPEAKER_00
You know, and I've publicly said from my standpoint, look, whatever's left over, 98% of my state is going to be going back through philanthropy, family foundation, my kids' foundations, these associate-led foundations.
0
SPEAKER_00
 Because I, you know, I don't need any more clothing.
0
SPEAKER_00
I don't need any more of anything.
0
SPEAKER_00
I need more, you know, growth myself.
0
SPEAKER_00
But I want to see, you know, I want to see the world a better place than it is currently today and be part of that.
0
SPEAKER_00
And our associates feel that way.
0
SPEAKER_06
 Even if the holidays look different this year, it doesn't mean you have to miss out on one of the best parts of the season, the music.
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This holiday season, my wife and I have gotten in the spirit by playing one of the many holiday music playlists from Amazon Music on repeat in our home.
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SPEAKER_06
 We are big fans of the softer classical playlists like the Nutcracker Suite, and more that are peaceful, festive, and make our home feel like it's a winter wonderland.
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SPEAKER_06
I've heard Radhi say, Alexa, play the Nutcracker more times than I can count this last month, and I couldn't think of a coziest soundtrack for our home this season.
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 Listen at home or wherever you are, your holidays will be merrier with fun festive tunes.
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Remember, for a limited time, new subscribers can get three months of Amazon Music Unlimited for free.
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Go to amazon.com forward slash on purpose.
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That's amazon.com forward slash on purpose to get your first three months of Amazon Music free.
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It starts at $7.99 a month after that.
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 New subscribers only.
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SPEAKER_06
Offer expires 11th of January 2021.
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 When you find that bright spot to help you get through your day, it's powerful.
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That's where The Bright Side comes in.
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A new daily podcast from Hello Sunshine that's bringing you a daily dose of joy.
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And I'm Simone Boyce.
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Listen, both Danielle and I are reporters.
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SPEAKER_09
We've covered the news and we know the world can feel heavy, but The Bright Side podcast is a space to have a little fun, to learn something new and get into some friendly debates.
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 That's right.
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Join us five days a week to see how life can look from the bright side.
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We'll hear from celebrities, authors, experts and listeners like you, whether it's relationships, friend advice or figuring out how to navigate life's transitions.
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We'll talk through it all together.
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Listen to the bright side from Hello Sunshine every weekday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
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We learned how to recycle at the beach!
0
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That was great, Elliot!
1
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 fun.
1
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Cowie, what do you say?
1
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It was!
1
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And that time when we did the science experiments and Billy made raisins dance.
1
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That is so cool, Billy!
1
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He did!
1
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Not to mention when a certain Elliot took up swimming classes with Lisa.
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 All this fun and more in our Stories for Kids.
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1
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 A new season of Bridgerton is here.
1
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And with it, a new season of Bridgerton, the official podcast.
1
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I'm your host, Gabrielle Collins.
1
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And this season, we are bringing fans even deeper into the ton.
1
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Colin Bridgerton has returned from his travels abroad.
1
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Is Betrothal written in the stars for the eligible bachelor?
1
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 Meanwhile, the ton is reverberating with speculation of who holds Lady Whistledown's pen.
1
SPEAKER_03
We're discussing it all.
1
SPEAKER_03
I sit down with Nicola Coughlin, Luke Newton, Shonda Rhimes, and more to offer an exclusive peek behind the scenes of each episode of the new season.
1
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 Watch season three of the Shondaland series on Netflix.
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1
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Subscribe to catch a new episode every Thursday.
1
SPEAKER_00
 So the upside down pyramid, if you will, with guests, customers, fans on top and me on the bottom, reinforces the message that the people that are most important are the people that we're serving.
1
SPEAKER_00
I mean, it's not, you know, it's not a bunch of words.
1
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We embody that.
1
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We tell stories around that, etc.
1
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 And then we have our frontline associates who are the next ones that are touching and feeling all of our guests or our fans, customers.
1
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And then, you know, it's my job and other associates at the leadership level to provide the environment to make sure they have the resources, to make sure they have the strategy, to make sure that we create goals for them that are reasonable, et cetera, and give them support.
1
SPEAKER_00
 So, and your question, which is probably the best question that as a business person you ask, is that, you know, often an entrepreneur has a vision and it's successful, but once they try to expand it, it becomes not successful.
1
SPEAKER_00
 You know, at Home Depot, we struggled with that as well.
1
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And we had four stores.
1
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I remember meeting with the gentleman from Goldman Sachs, who was the most highly regarded banker on Wall Street in the retail space.
1
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And he sat down with me at lunch.
1
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He said, well, you have these four stores in Atlanta, very successful, and you have a unique culture.
1
SPEAKER_00
But you know, he didn't ask me a question.
1
SPEAKER_00
I was only 37.
1
SPEAKER_00
So I was like, woo.
1
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Meeting with this guy was a really big deal.
1
SPEAKER_00
 So I, you know, he said, as you expand, you're not gonna be able to maintain this culture.
1
SPEAKER_00
You're just not gonna be able to do it.
1
SPEAKER_00
He said, you guys are so physically involved, the level of training, the level of commitment, the level of their associates understanding your viewpoints on all this.
1
SPEAKER_00
So it was troubling coming from him, because we had aspirations to become a national company, which obviously with 2,200 stores now and stores in Mexico, Canada, and US, it's, you know, it's, you know, amazing story.
1
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But the key to that,
1
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 was not what's on a piece of paper, not the six core values that we live.
1
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It was not really the inverted triangle, but the ability to make sure that what we would term in case of Home Depot was the orange apron.
1
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So it was orange, a lot of orange in our business.
1
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 that our associates, you know, bled orange, if you will.
1
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And what that means is that they understood the values.
1
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We didn't make them and write them down.
1
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We didn't make them and they weren't, I don't know what to say them exactly in this order, but did they live them?
1
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Could they articulate them in whatever words they wanted to, but most importantly, could they live them?
1
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So that ability to understand and live our values and become a role model and lead by example is one of our core values, lead by example.
1
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 You saw last night that I served pie.
1
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So, I mean, I'm, you know, this is maybe off the subject a little bit, but I mean, the example is it's important.
1
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It's not just important.
1
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I do it at Mountain Sky as well.
1
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Our guest ranch opens to the public because, you know, I want the guests that really see me in a position of service to others.
1
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 I want associates to see that.
1
SPEAKER_00
It's not just a bunch of words.
1
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It's actually leading by example.
1
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There's nothing that I wouldn't do to help.
1
SPEAKER_00
Last year at Mountain Sky, I was sitting in the bar area and having a drink, and I heard somebody say, well, you know, our bathroom is not working, and, you know, it's over there.
1
SPEAKER_00
 Yeah, so I went and I fixed it myself.
1
SPEAKER_00
And there was another one that wasn't working and I fixed it myself.
1
SPEAKER_00
So, you know, I came back.
1
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I just, you know, that's kind of my nature.
1
SPEAKER_00
You know, it's not working, go fix it.
1
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It's not a matter of title of who I am.
1
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I didn't ask anybody else to do it.
1
SPEAKER_00
I did it myself.
1
SPEAKER_00
So the associates, the next day I had a couple say to me, we heard that you actually were fixing toilets yesterday.
1
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I said, well, yeah, I mean, it wasn't, you know.
1
SPEAKER_00
 Part of what we do is that we have to lead by example.
1
SPEAKER_00
And those storytelling, those examples, and picking the right people behind that, that understand those things and live those things, are the way you expand an organization over a broader scale.
1
SPEAKER_00
 If you have really bright people, they don't get what you're doing, they don't get your purpose and your vision, then it's not going to work.
1
SPEAKER_00
Doesn't mean they're not bright, doesn't mean they're not good, doesn't mean they don't have a different purpose in life, but they're not going to be able to support your organization.
1
SPEAKER_00
 You know, much of what you're doing and expanding it so incredibly in the last three years, you know, you have to have the right people around you, people who understand Jay Shetty, people who understand your value set.
1
SPEAKER_00
I mean, they can have their own, but it has to be, in a certain sense, has to have sense of service and sense of purpose deeply ingrained as well.
1
SPEAKER_01
 when I meet someone, I'm most endeared by their humility and by their character more than how much money they've made or how successful they are.
1
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And I think that's all of us.
1
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We remember people based on how they make us feel as opposed to what they have or what they say.
1
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And I think the fact that you've been able to do that in an organization, tell me about a time, Arthur, where actually you may have made
1
SPEAKER_01
 a mistake or a failure in the organization, and I'm sure there were many, but any that stand out to you where you really learned an important lesson that stayed with you, that made you change something?
1
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Yeah.
1
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I hope there weren't too many, but there were some.
1
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I'll give you an example, and this was one at Home Depot as an example.
1
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The only acquisition we made when I was there and Bernie was there was a group of nine stores that were in our industry.
1
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 They had stores in Dallas, and elsewhere in Louisiana, and Mobile, and Baton Rouge, et cetera.
1
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And so we acquired the stores, and then our decision was that we didn't want to lose the volume that they had.
1
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It was a fraction of the volume that we had, but we didn't want to lose the volume.
1
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We were very paranoid about losing volume, focused always on revenue.
1
SPEAKER_00
 And so we decided to keep them open and change the stores.
1
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So it really was kind of like changing tires on a car that's going even 30 miles an hour.
1
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It gets very ugly, very difficult to do, et cetera, et cetera.
1
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So when we reopened the stores, we realized physically we had changed the stores.
1
SPEAKER_00
They look like traditional Home Depot stores, great stores.
1
SPEAKER_00
 But the associates didn't really get us because we hadn't really put them through the kind of training and exposure and understanding that was critical to all of our associates.
1
SPEAKER_00
So, there's a separation there from, you know, our value set, which drives everything, to the people that were serving the customers who, you know, were well-intended, but they didn't understand our priorities and understood the traditional priorities, which was not as rigorous about customer service as ours was.
1
SPEAKER_00
 So we ended up closing those stores for a short while and putting everything on pause, taking all the associates, training them, doing everything we had to do, et cetera, et cetera.
1
SPEAKER_00
When they reopened, they reopened as our Home Depot store.
1
SPEAKER_00
So I think that was an example of where we got a little ahead of ourselves and probably forgot to check certain boxes that we needed to check.
1
SPEAKER_00
Another example, and both in our PGA business today is a good example,
1
SPEAKER_00
 We're expanding at about a million square feet in golf retail in the next five years, which is, there's nobody in golf retail expanding anywhere.
1
SPEAKER_00
And people you talk to are saying, oh.
1
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But it's been extraordinarily successful.
1
SPEAKER_00
But the point is that those stores require a high level of service and people understanding the industry.
1
SPEAKER_00
 Club fitting ball fitting you know et cetera et cetera and and relationships to customers et cetera so to our guests in the store so you know we take a lot of time now and moving a large group of people to the new store to make sure that we don't make that mistake again so.
1
SPEAKER_00
 those number of people can train the additional 40, 50, 60 people that we're hiring and making sure that they get our culture.
1
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So, you know, culture really drives everything that we do.
1
SPEAKER_00
I mean, everything we do, those value sets, they drive everything that we do.
1
SPEAKER_00
 The body can only absorb change at a certain rate and pace at a certain rate.
1
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So I think it's important to be able to acknowledge that and make sure that whatever your culture is, it doesn't get diluted as you expand.
1
SPEAKER_00
More often than not, it does happen.
1
SPEAKER_00
I've had some experiences.
1
SPEAKER_00
 You know, one other example of that, when we went at Home Depot, we started to expand into the Middle West.
1
SPEAKER_00
We went to Detroit with a group of stores, and we realized then we were opening up stores, a store every day and a half.
1
SPEAKER_00
 and that we couldn't really sustain that rate of growth.
1
SPEAKER_00
So we went to the board, Bernie and I, and we said, look, we've decided we're going to maintain a growth rate of no more than 25% a year.
1
SPEAKER_00
It had nothing to do with financial modeling and everything.
1
SPEAKER_00
It had to do with how many associates could we impact, hire, impact, train, make sure they understood our orientation.
1
SPEAKER_00
 became Home Depot fanatics, bled orange, you know, all those things we asked them to do.
1
SPEAKER_00
We said, that's the most that we can possibly do.
1
SPEAKER_00
So we kept our growth down to a point that we can still produce the kind of success and deliver the kind of experiences in all of our businesses.
1
SPEAKER_00
 The same thing happens out here at the ranch is that we've made some adjustments over the years.
1
SPEAKER_00
We do it very slowly, very modestly because we don't want the experience to change and we want to make sure that everybody's ready for the change.
1
SPEAKER_01
Absolutely.
1
SPEAKER_01
Absolutely.
1
SPEAKER_01
And that's amazing advice for all of us.
1
SPEAKER_01
Anyone who's listening or watching right now and is growing a small team into a larger one, an entrepreneur that's expanding their business.
1
SPEAKER_01
 Culture is that thing that's gonna make sure that you succeed in the long run.
1
SPEAKER_01
And it's so easy to hire fast and hire quickly.
1
SPEAKER_01
And I know Alex and I, and with the businesses that I work with right now, we're actually some of the slowest hiring people in the world.
1
SPEAKER_00
It's terribly important.
1
SPEAKER_00
I mean, I had a CEO of a major competitor of ours meet with me once.
1
SPEAKER_00
I was actually playing golf over at Augusta as a guest and he was there.
1
SPEAKER_00
 And he said to me, well, you know, if you're here around lunchtime, I'm out on the putting green and, you know, come over, say hi.
1
SPEAKER_00
And I knew him.
1
SPEAKER_00
So I did.
1
SPEAKER_00
And he had left the company at that point.
1
SPEAKER_00
And he said, you know, we probably visited 200 of your stores a year.
1
SPEAKER_00
And at that point in time, we had stores in Chile as well.
1
SPEAKER_00
 He said, and we could copy everything, we could copy the size, the pricing, the assortment, the signing, I mean, everything.
1
SPEAKER_00
He said, we'd go around and ask people, you know, culture thing, value thing, and no matter where we went, no matter who we spoke to, they all said the same thing.
1
SPEAKER_00
 in their own words, but they all were doing the same thing.
1
SPEAKER_00
And we were not able to do that in our company.
1
SPEAKER_00
But that's because we recognized the importance in that.
1
SPEAKER_00
It was not a new message every single day.
1
SPEAKER_00
It was the same messages over and over and over and over again to the point where people said, oh boy.
1
SPEAKER_00
 Here we go again.
1
SPEAKER_00
Listen to customer service.
1
SPEAKER_00
And every example that we could find of great customer service, we celebrated that.
1
SPEAKER_00
I mean, we had issues with, you know, that we had to struggle with as well as a company, but we celebrated the successes.
1
SPEAKER_00
And particularly, it weren't successes in how many stores you opened up.
1
SPEAKER_00
 The fact that our earnings per share grew at 49% a year for 23 years, our stock grew that quickly.
1
SPEAKER_00
We didn't talk about the stock market and how wealthy we were making people, although we had a lot of pride in that, because then we gave other people the financial capacity to make a difference in their own lives and have a financial purpose in their lives and taking care of their family, extended family, community, giving back.
1
SPEAKER_00
 So it's a beautiful model because it's one where associates and who you're serving all appreciate the investment you've made in doing the right things for the right reasons.
1
SPEAKER_01
 Absolutely.
1
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Absolutely.
1
SPEAKER_01
And like you said earlier, the Arthur and Blank Family Foundation has given $400 million over since 1995 to so many incredible ventures.
1
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And many of them have been in the space of childhood development, education and the arts and parks and green space.
1
SPEAKER_01
And I wanted to know why you specifically selected each of those three.
1
SPEAKER_01
I mean, they're so beautiful in their own right, but I'd love to know from your own perspective as to why you believe those three areas are so important.
1
SPEAKER_00
 Well, I think, you know, anything doesn't have to be in Montana, obviously, because most people don't live here.
1
SPEAKER_00
But, you know, anything connected to green space, to parks, to nature, to getting outside, to find that solitude, that quietness, that place where you can reflect and a place where actually you can, you know, go with family and friends and experience things that
1
SPEAKER_00
 aren't driven by, you know, on my phone every three and a half minutes or less.
1
SPEAKER_00
So I think that, you know, that's an area that we've always felt very, very strongly about.
1
SPEAKER_00
Obviously, we're involved in conservation here in Montana as well and elsewhere in the West.
1
SPEAKER_00
So it's not just these two ranches, which we think are models in terms of ranches should operate, not just from a guest standpoint, but from, you know, in terms of the actual ag process that we have going on.
1
SPEAKER_00
 So we've always felt strong about that, being outside, being connected to nature, being connected to people that you're outside with.
1
SPEAKER_00
It opens up a different perspective on viewing the world and viewing each other and having that sense of community.
1
SPEAKER_00
A sense of community is so important.
1
SPEAKER_00
I was raised in an apartment house.
1
SPEAKER_00
 and as well the rest of my family.
1
SPEAKER_00
But, you know, what's interesting is that in those apartment houses, when it was during the summer when it was warm, or even in the fall and spring, it was in New York City, people would bring their little chairs downstairs and everybody would sit like outside the apartment because they had that, you know, that need, desire for connection to others.
1
SPEAKER_00
 And I think that's true whether you're living in an apartment or whether you're living in a home or whether you're living... So we, at our ranches, we don't promote the use of technology.
1
SPEAKER_00
Sorry, Jay.
1
SPEAKER_00
I apologize for that.
1
SPEAKER_00
But I mean, you know, there are places where people can use technology because of conferences and other work, but we don't actively promote it.
1
SPEAKER_00
We want people to get outside.
1
SPEAKER_00
We want people to experience nature.
1
SPEAKER_00
We want people to touch and feel things.
1
SPEAKER_00
 silence, that solitude, and that, you know, finding that quietness within themselves, that inner calm, which they can do so beautifully in nature.
1
SPEAKER_00
Public education has always been a big issue for me.
1
SPEAKER_00
I went through public school my whole life.
1
SPEAKER_00
I didn't go to private school until I went to college.
1
SPEAKER_00
I went to small business school, Babson College out of Boston.
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And so I feel like, you know,
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 you know, the more that we can do in terms of public education at a higher level creates, you know, really unlocks minds of all of our young people.
1
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That exposure, Thomas Friedman was right many years ago when he wrote his book, The World is Flat.
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And I think we're realizing that more and more and more over time.
1
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The book's 25 years old, but reality is that we're seeing that every day.
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It's becoming less curved and more flat and everybody's connected.
1
SPEAKER_00
 And I think, you know, that's a wonderful thing.
1
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So I think, you know, public education, because not everybody or very few people can afford, you know, private schools and, you know, kind of an answer that just works for a handful of people relatively.
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SPEAKER_00
 So that's always been very important to my family and my children as well.
1
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And they're very actively involved in that arena.
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So those are some of the things.
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We do a lot of work in areas of culture because we think culture is another way.
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 There's a lot of times it's too much of an emphasis, in my opinion, on on book learning and what have you.
1
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And some people learn differently.
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They learn by expressing themselves through yoga, through arts, through athletics, through whatever it may be, music, drama.
1
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And so I think you have to let people kind of find themselves in that in those ways as well.
1
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Sadly, within the public education area, a lot of those opportunities for expression have been cut back and eliminated.
1
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So we'd like to see more of that expanded over time, because I think it's very healthy for everybody.
1
SPEAKER_01
 Yeah, I love that how you've chosen three things that encourage so much internal growth.
1
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Like I feel like your investment in parks and green spaces is about people finding internal calm.
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And even this week, we've had all these incredible outdoor activities that you've arranged and the teams arranged here for everyone to partake in.
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And we've seen how people are bonding closer when they're out and about in green spaces and outdoors and going on these beautiful walks.
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 writing or whatever else it may be.
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And, and especially what you're speaking about, the education system, of course.
1
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And then I think you're spot on when you talk about how arts and the arts allow us to express ourselves more effectively and how that's never always encouraged.
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And so your investment in that space, I'm sure is made.
1
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Well, I think, you know, as you know, and many of our guests know that, you know,
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 That education, you know, the book education is very important.
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The life education is in many cases even more important, and exposure and what have you.
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It's one of the reasons we, our foundation has just started to invest on an international basis.
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We're doing work in Africa, doing work in the Caribbean.
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 et cetera.
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But one of the reasons is not because, you know, I mean, we don't have enough opportunities within the United States.
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We do and most needs we do.
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But I wanted to send an important message to our family and to our associates is that, you know, not just talking about, you know, humankind being being connected, but actually demonstrate that.
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So, you know, case of Nigeria was 60 percent of population lives on less than a dollar a day.
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 We want people to be aware of that and how do we participate and support answers in those areas of the world.
1
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I think that the notion that we are brothers keepers, which is an integral part of our faith and the faith of everybody's faiths, I believe,
1
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 is very important.
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And it's not just, it starts maybe with your family, your extended family, your community, but it really has to include everybody on the face of the earth.
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That's why the earth is important.
1
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You know, the earth is important because we all live here.
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We got to take care of it a little better than we have been.
1
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 Absolutely.
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That resonates so strongly with me because one of the reasons why I became a monk and one of our teachings was that you became a monk and you were free from your basic family responsibilities so that you could see the whole world as your family.
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And so that you could go and extend yourself even further.
1
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And I think it's beautiful to see you do that.
1
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I mean, you have six children and six grandchildren.
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Six and six, right?
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SPEAKER_00
Yeah, six and six.
1
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And what is your, what is the legacy?
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Several dogs, a couple of dogs as well.
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 Amazing, and horses.
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And horses, yes.
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What is the legacy that you're hoping that they're gonna carry forward to the future generations as the foundation grows?
1
SPEAKER_00
Well, I don't, you know, I think it's important for them to find themselves, you know, they need to climb their own mountains.
1
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They need to explore themselves.
1
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They need to, you know, fall down and pick themselves up.
1
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They need to deal with adversity and growth, both physically and personally.
1
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 So our older children are all involved in our family foundation and all actively involved in a variety of areas that we've talked about, many we haven't, but they're involved in all of them.
1
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In addition to that, each one is starting their own foundation now, much smaller, but I want to see, make sure they know how to evaluate, make sure they know how to do their work, etc.
1
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 When you're giving, you're giving, you're always getting more.
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I mean, it makes no difference whether it's physical work or financial, whatever it may be.
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The more we give, the more we get back.
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That's just kind of the way the math of the world works, the universe and our soul works.
1
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 The younger children have age-appropriate exposure to philanthropy.
1
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One's 22, two are 18, so they're younger, but they're getting exposed to it mostly by doing, not by writing checks, but by doing things and being connected in service in a variety of ways.
1
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 And they're interested in all of our businesses as well.
1
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But, you know, bringing them along very slowly and making sure they understand our values, that nothing is going to be given to them.
1
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Whatever they get has to be earned.
1
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And earned primarily through understanding these values, living these values, being a great role model, caring about community, caring about others, caring about service, caring about purpose.
1
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And, you know, my hope, my desire as a parent,
1
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 is that, you know, the children will grow when I'm long gone and they will have their own, you know, their own set of values, the values hopefully they've learned from their mother, their mothers and their father.
1
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And they'll continue to do, you know, the work that we're doing today and expand it.
1
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I mean, I don't have a written set of things.
1
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These are the seven things we're gonna do after I'm gone.
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So I'm not gonna manage my foundation for my grave.
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I have enough faith in my children and,
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 that they'll make the right decisions based on the passions they know their father has, their own passions, which are critical, so they're really feeling they're doing the work that's important to them, and that they are doing work that's important in terms of the times that we're facing.
1
SPEAKER_00
 This well-being, wellness, well-being notion is at a critical mass today in our country, if not the world, but certainly in our country, whether it be the rate of suicides, which continue to climb at dramatic rates, which affect the veteran population.
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 very young population, 10 to 14, and it's double what it is on a national basis.
1
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So there are, you know, those serious issues we're facing today, they'll have other maybe issues in the future.
1
SPEAKER_00
And so whatever they are, you know, they should feel, you know, the passion, the drive to want to make a difference in those areas and put themselves and resources in place to help others, you know, come to a better conclusion at that, whatever it may be.
1
SPEAKER_01
 I've read that your favorite quote on a t-shirt is that there is no finish line.
1
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The Wi-Fi here is called no finish line.
1
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What does that mean to you?
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And also what is the personal work you're doing right now in that regard?
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What are the internal things that you're working on at this stage in your life?
1
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 Well, I think, you know, it came to me primarily from my running initially.
1
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I ran competitively and Nike had this t-shirt, so there was no finish line.
1
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There was a guy running in the woods and couldn't find another one of them.
1
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I saw it someplace.
1
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Phil Knight was kind enough from Nike, was kind enough to get me one of the shirts.
1
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 You know, I think in virtually all areas of my life, I understand that, you know, the next day isn't necessarily the end.
1
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There's always more to do and et cetera, et cetera.
1
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And I think you have to have
1
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 The ability to deal with adversity, grit, bounce back, you know, and continues putting one step in front of the other.
1
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I got that from my long distance running.
1
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You probably got that from your monkhood and maybe athletics as well and other areas of your life.
1
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 You know, the ability to understand that these problems that we're facing are not, you know, you're not in and out in five or 10, 15 minutes.
1
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It's not a transaction.
1
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It's about relationships.
1
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All of our businesses are that way.
1
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It's never about the transaction.
1
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It's always about the relationship.
1
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So these causes.
1
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 these issues that we have today in our country and worldwide are not going to go away tomorrow.
1
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So we have to have the wisdom to understand that.
1
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We also have to have the tenacity to say we're going to make a dent and we're going to make a difference just as my mother said in the bracelet I'm wearing.
1
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But we're going to make a difference and every day we're going to continue to strive to move forward and to make a difference in that area.
1
SPEAKER_00
So
1
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 I think, you know, it's important, I think, my oldest daughter would say, Dad, you know, I love the expression, I love the feeling, but, you know, which brings me back to myself a little bit, but at some point, you know, in your life, you need to, you know, you need to be able to say that I'm kind of out of, you need to be at peace with where you are.
1
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 And that's where I think my version of wellness and well-being has changed.
1
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Because it used to be running seven days a week.
1
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If I didn't do that, that was my design around fitness and well-being.
1
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In many ways, physical fitness is important.
1
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 But I think the whole notion of trying to dig deeper and really understand myself and my real purpose and, you know, are we connecting the dots as well as we can, taking time for myself to
1
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 Every day I do meditation.
1
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I need to get back on that horse again.
1
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I did it for a number of months with, you know, I got encouragement by Deepak Chopra, but I need to get back on and do it again because I saw the value of that, you know, for a very long period of time.
1
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The work I do in terms of yoga and just the quietness, living in a quiet space and taking time to reflect.
1
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And it's one of the reasons I love Montana.
1
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We come out here and we walk, we hike, whatever it may be, horseback ride.
1
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 and see this beautiful scenery, but it's quiet time.
1
SPEAKER_00
So the ability to be calm, the ability to reflect, the ability to build it into my life every day, where I'm not kind of a gerbil on the wheel, which is constantly running, the ability to get off that cycle and pause, reflect, understand, build back my strength, my vision.
1
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I think that's been an important part of my own personal growth.
1
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That part of it didn't take place
1
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 until, you know, probably just maybe four or five years ago, I think, when I began to think more about, you know, in a broader sense, a deeper sense, purpose and service to others.
1
SPEAKER_01
 Amazing.
1
SPEAKER_01
Arthur, you've been incredible.
1
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We end every interview with what we call the final five quick fire, rapid fire round.
1
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So you can only answer the questions with one word or maximum one sentence.
1
SPEAKER_01
And so what I've done is we've created, considering your name is Arthur Blank, we've, we've done this final five is fill in the blanks.
1
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So I can ask you, I'm going to ask you to fill in the blank at the end of the sentence.
1
SPEAKER_01
 So the first question is the best advice I've ever received is blank.
1
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So what would it be the best advice?
1
SPEAKER_01
Be true to my values.
1
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
1
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Wonderful.
1
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The second question is the worst advice I've ever received is blank.
1
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I would say, you know, focus, um,
2
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 the focus on, you know, productivity, the focus on financial metrics, you know, as being the goal versus, you know, all the other things in terms of behavior and changing people's lives in a positive way and seeing the joy in that, you know, that's.
2
SPEAKER_04
Great answer.
2
SPEAKER_04
Okay.
2
SPEAKER_04
Question number three, three things I'm grateful for are blank.
2
SPEAKER_05
 Well, I have to start with my family, you know, six great children, six great grandchildren and great, you know, I've been married multiple times, unfortunately, but I have a great relationship with all of my ex-wives and they're all wonderful people.
2
SPEAKER_05
 So I'd say my, you know, my family and my relationships, I think my ability as a result of our business success to try to have an opportunity to expand, you know, what service means of others, create that with our associates and who we're serving and all of our different businesses.
2
SPEAKER_04
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_04
Do this one blank thing and it will change your life.
2
SPEAKER_04
What would you put into that blank?
2
SPEAKER_05
 find your passion, because I think when somebody, can I add on another word or two?
2
SPEAKER_04
Yeah, please, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course you can.
2
SPEAKER_05
I'm going to, absolutely, please, please, please.
2
SPEAKER_05
Because I think when people find their passion and their purpose, financially they're going to do as
2
SPEAKER_05
 well, if not better than they ever would have done doing anything else.
2
SPEAKER_05
And, you know, their years here, which are, you know, limited, they're measured, if you will, are going to be much more enriched because they're going to feel like what I'm doing, what I'm really doing, has purpose for me and purpose for others that I'm trying to serve.
2
SPEAKER_05
 So I think finding purpose, which is not always easy.
2
SPEAKER_05
I mean, sometimes people wander around a bit, you did, you described your journey and myself as well.
2
SPEAKER_05
I had my own journeys there, but when you find it, you need to stop and honor it and then to move with it.
2
SPEAKER_05
And all good things come as a result of that, in terms of quality of life.
2
SPEAKER_04
 Absolutely.
2
SPEAKER_04
And the fifth and final question is the one thing that you're hoping this beautiful four or five days we've had here in Montana will result in.
2
SPEAKER_05
 Well, I think there are two things, if I expand the question a little bit.
2
SPEAKER_05
One is that, you know, the great connections that you have made with so many other people here, and they've made with you and with each other, I think so.
2
SPEAKER_05
I think those physical connections, emotional, it's one thing to know somebody, but when you spend four days together in this setting, you get a deeper understanding of people's perspectives and their views, and how can we work together.
2
SPEAKER_05
Two and two equals eight and 10, instead of just four or five for myself.
2
SPEAKER_05
 So I think that has been very invaluable.
2
SPEAKER_05
The other thing is, is that I think we'll be able to focus for our foundation and, you know, Jor and other foundations and other institutions that care about these things, you know, some really good ideas to help support
2
SPEAKER_05
 the expansion of the notion of wellbeing and wellness and give exposure to that to other populations that don't necessarily have that or see that.
2
SPEAKER_05
And to not have this widen, this gap that we have in America today is just too extreme in my viewpoint.
2
SPEAKER_05
And I think we need to do more of this and bring people together, not necessarily economically as equals, because that's not reality in a capitalistic world,
2
SPEAKER_05
 But, you know, to bring people together in terms of their well-being and their happiness and their ability to feel fulfilled in life.
2
SPEAKER_05
So we want to, you know, get in the canoe and paddle along with everybody else and paddle as hard as everybody else and know we can make a difference and try to earn the, you know, the respect.
2
SPEAKER_05
 and the opportunity.
2
SPEAKER_05
It's an honor really having everybody here.
2
SPEAKER_05
From my standpoint, it's an overwhelming honor to have not just the intelligence in the room, but the commitment and the sense of purpose and the sense of trying to reach out and make a difference in the world is incredible to me.
2
SPEAKER_05
So anything we can do
2
SPEAKER_05
 supporting the collaborations, supporting the partnerships, new ideas, expanding ideas, scaling up ventures, etc., which is much of what I know your concern is going forward.
2
SPEAKER_05
How do we impact more people, which is great.
2
SPEAKER_05
We want to be part of that.
2
SPEAKER_05
So it's been an honor for me, truly an honor for me to be here this week and to just be part of this.
2
SPEAKER_05
It's an experience of my lifetime I'll never forget.
2
SPEAKER_05
I've gotten a great deal out of it, much more than
2
SPEAKER_05
 you know, I've gotten much more out of it than we put into it.
2
SPEAKER_05
And that's the beauty of when you do things with service and purpose, you really do get more out of it than what you give.
2
SPEAKER_04
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_04
Well, I want to thank you on behalf of me and all the other participants, because I think you've allowed us to form such deep, amazing relationships.
2
SPEAKER_04
There's many people in this room that I would have loved to connect with or meet.
2
SPEAKER_04
And you're so right that when you go away with people for three, four days, you go so much deeper, so much quicker than you would if you met at a conference or a one day event.
2
SPEAKER_04
 whatever it may be.
2
SPEAKER_04
So I just want to say thank you from me.
2
SPEAKER_04
Thank you for all your kindness.
2
SPEAKER_04
Thank you for your encouragement.
2
SPEAKER_04
You've given me so many wonderful votes of confidence this week and just sharing so much support and encouragement for the work I do, which has given me so much conviction.
2
SPEAKER_04
And I'm very grateful for that.
2
SPEAKER_05
Well, thank you.
2
SPEAKER_05
Well, the work that you do is incredible and it really has, you know, tremendous purpose to it and a high degree of success.
2
SPEAKER_05
So I want to do everything we can do
2
SPEAKER_05
 to help support you and support the people you're touching and trying to help with their life journeys.
2
SPEAKER_05
So I think this is a great place to do it because when you spend time outdoors, you realize you're kind of dwarfed by nature and by things that have been here for thousands and thousands of years.
2
SPEAKER_05
 Also, everybody puts on their pants the same way.
2
SPEAKER_05
It's a level playing field.
2
SPEAKER_05
Nobody's wearing suits.
2
SPEAKER_05
Nobody's wearing ties.
2
SPEAKER_05
Everybody's just being themselves and they're opening themselves up.
2
SPEAKER_05
And in this kind of environment, it's easier to do that.
2
SPEAKER_05
And so that's the reason we want to continue to do this work here.
2
SPEAKER_04
 Absolutely.
2
SPEAKER_04
Thank you again, Arthur.
2
SPEAKER_04
Thank you everyone who's been watching or listening back at home or wherever you've been, make sure you go and follow the Blank Foundation on Instagram and on Twitter and on the social media platforms as well.
2
SPEAKER_04
If you want to find out about the great work, not only we've been doing, but all the other incredible work that the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation does, please check out this podcast, share it with other people that you feel are going to benefit from this incredible presence around service, incredible presence around giving and doing through our work.
2
SPEAKER_04
 And for anyone who's aspiring to be an entrepreneur out there, what better values than the ones that have been talked about in this show?
2
SPEAKER_04
Make sure you share those on Instagram so that I can share them as well.
2
SPEAKER_04
I'm always looking through what you're learning so that that helps me ask better questions and serve you better.
2
SPEAKER_04
Thank you so much for listening and watching.
2
SPEAKER_04
Arthur, thank you so much.
2
SPEAKER_04
So great for that.
2
SPEAKER_05
It's an honor to be here.
2
SPEAKER_05
Thank you very much.
2
SPEAKER_05
Thank you.
2
SPEAKER_04
 This podcast was produced by Dust Light Productions.
2
SPEAKER_04
Our executive producer from Dust Light is Misha Yusuf.
2
SPEAKER_04
Our senior producer is Juliana Bradley.
2
SPEAKER_04
Our associate producer is Jacqueline Castillo.
2
SPEAKER_04
Valentino Rivera is our engineer.
2
SPEAKER_04
Our music is from Blue Dot Sessions.
2
SPEAKER_04
And special thanks to Rachel Garcia, the Dust Light Development and Operations Coordinator.
2
SPEAKER_03
 Discover a new educational and interactive podcast, Stories for Kids by Lingokids.
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Our episodes are packed with fun activities.
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