Andrew Hewitt
Andrew Hewitt
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: Extraordinary Teens
Success does not come through grades, degrees or distinctions. It comes through experiences that expand your belief of what is possible.
Quick Facts:
- Struggled with a speech impediment, reading, and writing throughout grade school
- Became a published author of The Power of Focus for College Students at age 22
- At age 23 he was endorsed by Donald Trump to create college and career courses for Trump University
- In 2007 his company FocusedStudent.com was recognized as one of the top 10 youth-run business in Canada
- Is an international speaker and visionary for education reform
- Went from being riddled with debt to financially free by investing in real estate
- Is on a mission to revolutionize the way young leaders are educated by creating experienced-based education facilities that promote sustainability and spiritual development
Have you ever questioned whether the actions you are taking today are leading you to the life you really want? Have you ever questioned if what you learn in school, what is portrayed by the media, and what is considered a "good life" by society could be a load of bull?
My story doesn't include a heroic battle, a world record, or a fairytale ending. Rather, my story uncovers a question--a question that you have asked countless times as a kid. A question that if you continue to ask through your teens and twenties will lead you to live an extraordinary life, rather than a mediocre one. What's the question? It's very simple: WHY?
The reality is, most people stop questioning the way things are done and the way society works, so they unknowingly fall into the trap of adopting other people's expectations about the way life should be lived.
When I rediscovered the power of Why, my life changed dramatically. I finally asked myself, "Why is it important that Joey thinks I'll never be ‘cool'?" "Why do I feel so pressured to get good grades?" "Why is it important that I wear a certain brand of clothing?" You get the drill.
By asking this simple question I transformed myself from a struggling student, riddled by debt and hypnotized by social pressure, to achieving financial freedom, landing a book publishing contract, and receiving an opportunity to work with Donald Trump.
I was a normal kid growing up who had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. I always asked the question, "Why?" I wanted to know the reason for everything. However, as life progressed and social pressure mounted I stopped asking this important question.
Some say the best predictor of your future is a look into your past. Well, at age nine I was selling outdated Nintendo magazines to my neighbors. At age twelve I was selling illegally duplicated hip hop mix tapes out of my locker at school. And at age thirteen I had pierced my own ear with a thumb tack. I wasn't the brightest crayon in the box. Eventually my parents sat me down to have "The Talk." You know, the conversation about becoming more responsible, getting a job, and growing up.
Soon the pressure was mounting from all angles. My parents wanted me to grow up; society wanted me to become a submissive citizen; and my ego wanted me to start saving for a car. As a result, I entered the world of employment at the age of fifteen, where I was soon hired into the glamorous world of telemarketing. That's right, I was that annoying voice interrupting your meals. I was the youngest employee by a good twenty years, standing awkwardly in the smoke-reeking office that would be better described as a "calling prison." My voice had yet to crack, so it was suggested that I pose as a women to sound more authentic. Better still, they gave me the "special assignment" of selling midget basketball tickets and provided me with what must have been their most outdated call list. I'm not sure what was worse, getting cussed at on every third call or asking for people who had died more than ten years ago. Yes, it's a true story.
Nonetheless, I soon learned that the most frustrating and challenging times are really our greatest blessings. Why? This contrast of what I didn't want instantly moved me closer to realizing what I did want. And the sooner I realized what I did want, the sooner I could start moving towards it. I've discovered that one of the greatest joys in life is the journey from a situation of dissatisfaction to a situation of satisfaction.
My telemarketing experience quickly made me realize what I did not want my life to look like. I figured my best path to a successful future was to find a high-paying career that ensured I could buy all the cool stuff I craved. By age sixteen I had found that career--dentistry! After seeing their salaries, I was sold!
My plan was simple: I would study hard, graduate from college, begin making the big bucks, and soon be driving a black shiny sports car to my beautiful home every day after work. After all, this is "living the dream"... isn't it?
Although this future excited me, I was too impatient to wait ten years to see the results. After watching the movie The Fast and the Furious and viewing one too many hip hop music videos, I became intoxicated with the idea of owning a customized, decked-out, show car. How could a teen purchase one of these high-tech race machines? Well, if there is one technique that has led me to more extraordinary outcomes than anything else, it's the technique of being solution-focused. Applying this idea, I asked myself "how can I afford it?"
Within a year I was cruising to school in a show car appraised at $80,000, financed 100% through my creativity, hard work, and the bank that I convinced to give me a sizable "student" loan. Little did I know what I was getting into--or most importantly, why I even got into this in the first place. It was all ego.
What's an ego? It's the thing within us that craves feeling important and motivates us to do stupid things. Case in point: I was driving an $80,000 liability, with no stable income and college expenses fast approaching. I had forgotten to ask the question why? The real reason why I wanted this fancy sports car was to look a certain way to others. Why? Because I was programmed, like most, to believe that being cool and being loved came from having things such as fancy sports cars.
I learned the hard way that the sooner you question the motivation behind your actions the sooner you can catch whether it is a desire for other's approval (love) or whether it is an authentic inspiration. Although driving that slick sports car brought me a lot of love through approval from friends, what I didn't realize was that lasting feelings of love can only be experienced by loving yourself, rather than through external means of relying on others to love (accept and appreciate) you.
Do you catch yourself seeking approval from others? If so, I've found that the only way to be happy and build self-esteem is by loving yourself for who you are right now. The moment (a.k.a: "the now") is the only gateway to true happiness and an extraordinary life.
I was enjoying a perfect journey from a place of dissatisfaction (working as a telemarketer) towards a place of satisfaction (becoming a dentist) when I was thrown back to the starting block. What happened? I read a statistic. It stated that dentists had the highest suicide rate of any profession. Great! I was back in a place of dissatisfaction, searching for the answer to what I wanted to be when I grew up.
Just before heading off to college, my friend's brother saved the day. He told me that finance majors had the highest starting salary of all business graduates. Phew! I was back on track. My success formula had been patched and it felt great. It looked like this:
ANDREW'S SUCCESS FORMULA:
Good Grades + Finance Degree + Another Degree = Successful Future
Good Grades + Finance Degree + Another Degree = Successful Future
Again, I assumed this was the sure-win formula for producing a successful future. Rather than just getting one degree, I would get two degrees to have a competitive edge in the job market.
During my first year at college I spent more time in the library than I did in my dorm room. I even knew the name of the library janitor, Carlos--we were buddies. And get this, in the first semester alone I had constant colds, the flu twice, tonsillitis, and mononucleosis! Sadly, I didn't even get mono from kissing girls because my only serious relationship was with my text books. For two full years of college I followed this so-called "success formula" like a robot.
Then something happened that forever changed my life.
It was a book--Rich Dad, Poor Dad. This book smacked me upside the head and made me realize how flawed my success formula was. A book that in cold hard facts proved two things:
1. Seeking a high paying job would never make me wealthy. The author, Robert Kiyosaki, stated that your level of wealth is based on how long you can continue living your current lifestyle without having to work. A high-paying job requires you to work to maintain your lifestyle. Truly wealthy people can maintain their lifestyle without having to work as they produce "Passive Income"--income that isn't directly tied to your time. When your Passive Income is greater than your monthly expenses you can maintain your lifestyle without having to work. This concept rocked my world!
2. The second major fact that shattered my "success formula" was the many successful people who proved that the education system was not fully preparing them for success in the real world. Just think about it. We sit in classes for hours on end listening to professors who, in many cases, are blatantly boring and have little motivation to be good teachers. It has been proven that one of the worst ways to retain information is through a lecture style of teaching. You would think that the number of students falling asleep in class would be an indication that change is needed! It was up to me--the student--to seek experienced-based learning (extracurricular activities, international travel, internships and innovative courses) so I developed the skills the real world demands.
Moreover, the professors and teaching assistants I was learning from were not living a life I aspired to have. It didn't make much sense to learn how to create the future of my dreams from someone who is living a life I would not want to replicate. The more I questioned my approach to education, the more I realized I was following a path to a future I did not desire. Becoming extraordinary required a different success formula.
Reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad helped me remember the powerful question I had long ago forgotten--why? I forgot to question why my old success formula was valid. I assumed that society was right and that a high-paying job and two degrees was a flawless approach to success. I couldn't have been more wrong.
I discovered that what I really wanted in life was the ability to wake up each day and have the freedom to work on what I loved--work in line with my natural talents and work that made a difference in this world. To make this a reality my success formula needed to change.
Rather than relying on my text books and classes for education I began studying successful people I admired. It's true: Success leaves clues. I believe by reading the books and biographies of ultra-successful people and asking to be mentored by people you aspire to be is one of the best forms of education available. Best of all, it's cheap!
I became so passionate about this process that I dedicated the last three years of my college experience to discovering the secrets of ultra-successful students and ultra-successful people. I researched what employers were looking for in graduates and interviewed job recruiters from some of the most respected companies in the world. I also surveyed successful and satisfied graduates to discover what unique opportunities they took advantage of that most students overlook. (Turns out there were four: international exchange programs, extracurricular activities such as student clubs, internships, and innovative courses and programs).
I became so passionate about this process that I dedicated the last three years of my college experience to discovering the secrets of ultra-successful students and ultra-successful people. I researched what employers were looking for in graduates and interviewed job recruiters from some of the most respected companies in the world. I also surveyed successful and satisfied graduates to discover what unique opportunities they took advantage of that most students overlook. (Turns out there were four: international exchange programs, extracurricular activities such as student clubs, internships, and innovative courses and programs).
I also read over one hundred of the bestselling personal development books and biographies of successful people to discover a common set of success principles essential to create a rewarding life. The best part of this ongoing research was testing it on myself. The results were amazing.
In my final three years of university, as a result of the success strategies I learned outside of the classroom, I was able to explore thirty cities across thirteen countries, attend over a dozen student leadership conferences, compete internationally in entrepreneurship competitions, found and lead student clubs, work dream jobs in Los Angeles and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), appear on national news media, win thousands of dollars in prize money and scholarships, and receive several six figure job offers. I also sold my costly sports car and resourcefully used this "student" loan money to buy a crappy 1989 Nissan Stanza and three investment properties.
Although I still maintained a decent GPA, I had shifted from a degree-focused mindset to an experience-focused mindset, proving the primary value of my education was based on the experiences I took advantage of rather than the textbooks I read or the grades or degrees I received.
In my last year of college I realized there was nothing I was more passionate about than sharing these success principles with other students. The most consistent message in all the biographies and personal development books I had read was that doing work you are passionate about is the key to living a fulfilling successful life, and so I turned down the job offers I had received and pursued a publishing contract to write The Power of Focus for College Students, a book that teaches students how to make college the best investment of their life.
As a test of the success principles I was sharing, I decided to set a goal so big that if I accomplished it, it would be rock-solid proof of the power of these principles. The goal was to have Donald Trump write the foreword to my book. I had no contacts in New York and no connections to the Trump Organization.
A key principle I learned was that believing something is possible is absolutely essential for your desired outcome to manifest. Therefore, I created a fake book cover with the words "Foreword by Donald Trump" written across the cover. It became the backdrop on my computer screen. I visualized it for weeks until I truly believed this crazy idea was possible. To cut a long story short, if you check out my book cover you'll see the words "Foreword by Donald Trump" printed on the front. It took three months to turn this bold idea into a reality. How did I do it? Among other principles, I applied a technique known as The Law of Attraction which you can learn more about in the hit movie or book The Secret.
Having Mr. Trump write the foreword to my book was a real honor, but the icing on the cake was receiving the opportunity to create college and career courses for his latest venture, Trump University. It was a perfect example of the opportunities you attract when you live with passion and speak your truth.
Today I regularly speak at university campuses, coach students, and run FocusedStudent.com, a website that equips motivated students with success tools for the real world. My dream is to help revolutionize the higher education system so that it becomes common practice to equip and inspire young leaders to achieve higher stages of consciousness and success. I'm currently building an education facility in Costa Rica that is a model of an evolved way of sustainable living and apprenticeship learning. Why am I creating such a model? Because it's the change I want to see in this world. In my opinion, truly extraordinary people are the ones who use their time on this planet to bring service through them rather than focusing on bringing material things to them.
George Bernard Shaw said it best: The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. By continuing to ask yourself "why" you will become the unreasonable man or woman who adapts the world to yourself--and that is where human progress takes place. You will become a change-agent that helps the world progress into a better state of being. So keep questioning everything, follow your inspiration, and be the change you want to see in the world
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