Neil Auerbach on Business

first of all before we begin where are we catching you i am decamped in miami beach okay that's a good place to be um mcneil is traveling all over the world he's the first person that i know that i've ever heard that was thinking about when to count sphere for when that happens based on the international date line right it was a it's an amazing thing wherever you are that's correct during that period of time between passover and i have to make sure that i'm not traveling across the dateline so i gotta fly uh if i'm flying to to asia that way that's right it's uh it's a bit of a pain but you know it's it isn't that bad that's great to have you on now well we're really talking about sort of the business concepts business tips business leadership you know we're living in an incredible world right now and i'm sure you've seen this um in work in your work the pandemic what it's done leadership um from your perspective um as a ceo what do you think are some of the traits or some of the insights that we can glean from this period of time for those that have managed to survive and thrive during these during these times patience and perseverance uh for sure um this period of time has been just an incredible test for so many people um for us in our various businesses it's actually uh i'll i'm gonna have to dance around certain uh things that are going on because i'm in a i'm in a quiet period if uh if you know what that means and i know you do um so i'm gonna talk a little bit about some of the things that are going on but but perseverance patients um not getting not getting depressed by the moment and getting caught up in it you know um a lot of people have struggled and um in one of my businesses i'm going to be i'm going to i'm going to try to share this with you once the pandemic started um our business dropped about 50 or 60 percent and we thought it was going further and further down um and um i was one of the only voices on the board that was saying hey let let's not lose hope let's you know let's be careful and conquer down and and be ready for a long winter right i mean this was in march but um a long period of struggle and lo and behold things turned around and it's it wasn't me it wasn't you know it was just um just sitting there and seeing that that what seemed to be a period of struggle um was really just a preparation for something that that was happening that was actually wonderful and and then in the spring the business started taking off and and doing amazing because it was a part of a wave of companies benefiting by people being at home so in the very beginning everyone's locked in no one can move and then all of a sudden people start reacting to their new reality of being in the home and they start spending on things in the home yeah and that was just uh it taught me a lot you know it's fascinating you say the word uh and it's so true this idea of being hopeful this idea of not panicking when things go down um seeing over the hill if you will and being able to have the patience and the perseverance that you know there's gonna be a sunrise at some point so let's get through the night how do you what do you attest that to you know that that feeling that you have where does it come from from from your perspective were you always hopeful is it is there a deeper root in spirituality like how does it connect for you to be this type of person that that can can go to that place when when things are off look this is um this is my work every day i mean my feeling if i can just um answer that question um by taking a a very quick detour i believe that our job what you said in your open just resonates so much with me the um uh you know there's a verse in the car at the very end right at the at the end of the terror that says who's which means for those of you not familiar with the hebrew you should rejoice vulan is the archetypical businessman and that the torah talks about you should rejoice in going out what is the joy in going out and the definition is actually meeting meeting god in the workplace we have an opportunity because because simcha that feeling of joy only happens when we encounter something beyond ourselves we say that this phrase is fake itself the joy is is really a reflection of being able to erase doubts and that only happens when you have an encounter with a divine and that is really hard and i want to share with you two quotes that are amazing they blow me away they come from the infamous leader winston churchill about success and it really encapsulates so much about what you said in the beginning and how i feel about going through the ups and downs and i'm just if you don't mind we're going to quote they're amazing his first quote success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm oh i love that i i love that substitute enthusiasm with simpson and then you have the jewish version of what he just said right right number two wait before you get to court number two i want to i want i want to digest quote number one right like you you just gave us a gem really what you're getting at is this idea that when you believe that god's in the workplace meaning you're not out there alone you're doing god's work you're not gonna lose that meaningful joy if you will the deep joy correct um when you hit a failure because it's not your failure it's not at you're you're you're doing something that's meaningful spiritually even though it's really physical work absolutely my rabbis taught me and i went through a lot of hard times over the last several years has not been you know all up to the right that classical hockey stick we talked about in business all right we say take time to thank god for the stress and for the failure awesome now the advice is to spend a half an hour doing that i'm not there yet okay that's the advanced course that's the advanced course that's the advanced course so that's the phd level here's quote number two and this is also amazing it's as impactful i think it's what number one success is not final failure is not fatal it is the courage to continue that counts so if you substitute the word courage for faith you have in both quotes effectively i think what you said you're open and what i aspired to as a business leader that's amazing joy and faith in those two quotes it is amazing if i can ask you for a big favor that's amazing the wisdoms you just shared if i can ask you for a favor and just email if you can the quotes the project inspired team and we're gonna circulate that and for those that want uh you can go on the shabbat show.com webpage and we're going to get these quotes to you if you'd like i know i want to download them on my computer um and and you're right but i want them in your language i'd like to have the winston churchill with the neil or you know editions we want the revisions but but but but here's the essence for me you don't experience god except through failure very powerful if you always experience success right where's god you start thinking it's all you right and then you know i'm the high and mighty so so failure is the transmission of god's revelation in this world to to us that's how we get there amazing yeah thank you so much it's not easy so it's not easy and and but but but you're opening up a door that i'd like for all of us to explore which is this idea that it is the failure that enables us to interact with the divine because it humbles us it gives us the chance to reach into our values and it builds the stronger people neil thank you for what you do thank you who you are you mean so much to all of us into the project inspire team in specific to me personally and we thank you for uh for all that you bring to this world and joining your live in this world and thanks for joining us tonight pleasure thank you thanks so much for watching for more content like and subscribe and be sure to tune in live every thursday at 8 pm eastern at the shabbato.com or 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