BEN COOK

Show Notes

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02/05/2019 | 70 Minutes

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This week’s guest: Ben Cook – A passionate businessman who’s experienced the world. Grew up in Athens, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, attended college in Utah, then career carried him to Ohio, Nashville, Texas, and back to Utah. Personally, he strives to make those closest to him feel supported and loved as they choose their own pathway. He quotes literary minds and talks about passenger-shaming while shaping perspectives and challenging personal bias. 

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PERSONAL TICKS

• Get up and get moving – Ben grew up playing sports, played football in college, and traveled around the world with his family. It was what the Cook family did. He got to a point where his body was thirsty to do something hard. Every time Ben lands in a new city he “runs the city” where he sets down his bag, puts in his earbuds, and explores the city by running a few miles.
   

• Traveling – Finding a goal that will take a lifetime to accomplish. Ben has a goal to visit 100 countries (82), all 7 continents (done), and all 50 states (47) in the US. And there’s qualifiers to how you “count” a country. 
   

• Doing a polar plunge while in Antártica. Ya. But he got a t-shirt. 
   

• Beyond checking countries off a goal sheet, Ben travels for experiencing cultures, people, histories, art, food, architecture, inspiration from getting outside of his own echo chamber and provincial view of the world.
   

• Striving to be a 5-star husband to his wife and family. Nothing is more important to Ben than his wife and kids feeling like he is the quality of person they deserve to have in their lives. Your children come into their world, not your world. 
   

• Reading from great thinkers and authors and listening to podcasts. Sponge mentality to soak in the thoughts of those more practiced than you. Expanding your thinking. Avoiding the echo chamber that social media can create. 
   

• The art in life, for Ben, is learning to appreciate someone else’s vantage point, realizing that all of your experiences and your opinions come from your filtered lens, and appreciating their lens, their experience, their point of view.
   

• Allowing his religious beliefs to change his nature (it happens almost imperceptibly) … ideally leading to enlightenment and refinement and compassion. Ben shares a deep-rooted story that led to enlightenment. The immediacy to judge and categorize is really natural to do, but almost impossible to do fairly. 

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PERSONAL TICK OFFS

• Acting with knee-jerk reactions. When he has lost sufficient perspective so as to get mad at things entirely outside of his control. Ben says, “[he] should know better.” 
   

• How do you mute the default setting, remove the biases and judgements, and focus on the things you can control. 

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PROFESSIONAL TICK OFFS

• Seeming needless inefficiencies… not progressing due to procedural or system breakdowns (think airports, airline travel, etc. as examples)
   

• We talk about an Instagram Account, Passenger Shaming: @passengershaming

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PROFESSIONAL TICKS

• His profession allows him to teach… so seeing people’s lightbulbs turn on, seeing how what he teaches can help people in their lives, feeling like he can make a difference.
   

• Constant learning – his career allows for almost inexhaustible learning (within the topic of business) - business/finance concepts, applied to differing industries, teaching technique options, adaptation to differing cultures, etc.

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CONNECT WITH BEN

• LinkedIn: Ben Cook