Embracing Failure: Lessons on Procrastination, Growth, and Vulnerability with Scott Allan

Tim Newman [00:00:06]:
Welcome to Speaking with Confidence, a podcast that’s here to help you unlock the power of effective public speaking. I’m your host, Tim Newman, and I’m excited to take you on a journey to become a better public speaker. If you’re like most people, just the thought of speaking in front of a crowd or talking during an important meeting can trigger all kinds of anxiety. Trust me, I know what that’s like. I gave my first speech as a senior in college. I was so nervous, as soon as I got to the front of the room and opened my mouth to speak, I threw up. I have learned a lot since then, and I’m here to help others overcome their fear of messing up or sounding stupid. Today’s guest on the Speaking With Confidence podcast talks about what’s at the intersection between being lucky and having plans.

Tim Newman [00:00:50]:
Scott Allen’s approach to life includes the belief that while you always have a 5050 chance of achieving a goal, you will fail if you do nothing. The story of how this played out once you decided to move to Japan is a perfect example of how your decisions and actions create opportunities. Scott will be the first to tell you that life is not always easy, and we don’t always do what’s best for ourselves. However, after investing over 10000 hours of practice and research into confidence and development and mindset mastery training, Scott is committed to a path of constant and never ending self improvement. He’s a former corporate business trainer who is now an author with over 500,000 copies of his books published in 16 languages and sold worldwide. Listen in to find out more about tips, tricks, and life lessons you can quickly incorporate into your own life. Our discussion covers the gamut from why we procrastinate, to how to shift our energies and creating powerful futures to guide our actions today. Scott does a great job of breaking down complex ideas, such as forming habits, dealing with personal comfort zones, and having difficult conversations.

Tim Newman [00:02:05]:
It doesn’t take you long to realize that you can easily see yourself in some of Scott’s stories, and hearing his journey reaffirms for all of us that success is possible. With his books published in 16 languages and over 500,000 copies sold worldwide, Scott Allen is on a mission to transform the human potential. Scott is the best selling author of Fail Big, Relaunch Your Life, and Do the Hard Things First. As a former corporate business trainer in Japan and transformational success strategist, he has invested over 10000 hours of practice and research into confidence development and mindset mastery training with an unrelenting passion for teaching, building critical life skills, and inspiring people worldwide to take charge of their lives, he is committed to a path of constant and never ending self improvement. So let’s welcome Scott Allen to the show. Scott, welcome, bud.

Scott Allan [00:02:56]:
It’s great to be here. Thanks for having me on the show.

Tim Newman [00:02:59]:
Well, thanks for joining us. And I I kinda wanna start and kinda leave leave the framework for our listeners. You’re in Osaka, Japan. Right?

Scott Allan [00:03:07]:
That is correct.

Tim Newman [00:03:08]:
So why don’t you give our listeners an idea of how you ended up there and and how you kinda just made a massive change in in decision?

Scott Allan [00:03:16]:
Absolutely. Yes. So I am from Canada originally, and I came to Japan back in 98. And how I got here was a bit of a story, but I’ll try to keep it short. So I would say back in 96, 97, I started to go through a reinvention, I think, of my life, my mindset. I was in a period of my life where I needed to make changes in order to keep moving forward. I was really stuck, I think, just in terms of my my work. At the time, I was working as an electrical engineer.

Scott Allan [00:03:48]:
It was a good job and had a good life there, of course, friends and family and everything. But something inside me was just stirring, you know, when I started to get into the whole personal development thing and, you know, making your life better and all that, it wasn’t by choice for for but it’s more like something that I had to do because at the time I was going through, addiction recovery. I I had a really, like, hard party life, and I was really into that. And when I decided I didn’t want that anymore, it was a decision, but it was also something that had to be done because otherwise I was just gonna keep going down that trail. And, I just wanted more for my life. So I jumped ahead and I jumped right into the deep end of, you know, getting, getting well. And I had, you know, sponsors, and I had coaches, and I had people helping me with this. And so anyway, what happened is I ended up doing a lot of journaling, deep thinking, and after reading enough books that I finally just said you need to set your goals, you need to have a vision for your life, and you need to decide to do something that’s gonna really matter.

Scott Allan [00:04:51]:
And I thought, yeah, that’s exactly what I need. So there are 3 things I came up with. 1 was I wanted to become a, an author, which, you know, that did come true eventually. That’s more of a different story. Second thing is I wanted to become a better human being, and I realized that’s gonna be a lifelong process. So, you know, I checked that off. I was working on that. The third thing is I wanted to, travel the world.

Scott Allan [00:05:14]:
And I think that I just come I I’d come to that conclusion because I’d never really been anywhere. Never really done anything other than just, you know, my partying life, my working life, and hanging out with friends. And maybe there was nothing wrong with that per se, but something inside me just said there’s gotta be more to life. For me, I knew. And, I started to explore the possibilities. And exploring those possibilities led to a decision where one day I just said, I’m gonna do this. I’m gonna move to you know, at December, it wasn’t Japan, by the way. It’s just like, I’m just gonna pack up my stuff a year from now.

Scott Allan [00:05:45]:
We even had a date set. I’m gonna move to Thailand. And I literally just looked at the map and go, yeah, Thailand. That looks like a good place to go. I’ve met people before who went there, and they said it was really cool. It has some, you know, these big golden Buddhas and really good food. And I thought, I’m gonna start there. And that was really just that was it.

Scott Allan [00:06:02]:
And once I made that decision, that was it. I didn’t change my mind, you know. And I’ve done this before when I moved from Nova Scotia, like, Halifax to Vancouver. You know, again, just a big transition where I was like, I’m just gonna move out there and just see what happens. But, you know moving to Japan what happened is that after I made that decision I started to attract opportunities. In other words I think that I was drawing in this energy that was, you know, connecting me with this new destiny that I was gonna create. And that was really powerful. And I know it kinda sounds a little bit woo woo, but that’s really what happened, you know.

Scott Allan [00:06:37]:
It’s so a few months after I made that decision, I was, leafing through the paper one day, you know, back when we had newspapers. And I I had to

Tim Newman [00:06:46]:
read newspaper. Right?

Scott Allan [00:06:47]:
Yes. An actual newspaper. And I don’t read I’ve never read a newspaper in my life. And the only other the only times that I would look at it is to see what’s playing at the movies. And on this particular day, that’s probably what I was checking. And I literally just opened it up and right there on that page that I just opened to, you know, randomly was this, advertisement yay big and it said teach English in Japan. Apply now. And I thought, yeah.

Scott Allan [00:07:09]:
That’s a great idea. I’m going that way anyway. Why not? So I just sat down that day, did a really nice resume with a great cover letter, and I just sent that off. And I don’t know how to explain it, but I just knew that I was gonna get this job. You know, there’s just something that just told me. So sure enough, a few weeks later, they contacted me for an interview. This, Japanese businessman who owned these schools in Japan, he flew to Vancouver, interviewed, like, 30, 40 people, chose 3 people, and they were gonna bring us over to Japan. So I was actually number 4.

Scott Allan [00:07:40]:
I wasn’t actually chosen. But the 3rd guy dropped out, so they called me up the next day and said, hey, you know, they actually had called me previously and said you didn’t get the job. They called me up the next day and said, you got the job if you still want it. And I was like, oh, yeah. You know? It was almost like I was just waiting for them to call me back. Right? But that was it. I mean, so that’s how I got the that’s how I got here. Now the thing is, the company that brought us over, you know, they brought us over to, you know, go teaching companies.

Scott Allan [00:08:04]:
And they wanted us to, you know, say it’s it was fascinating though. Like, just to mean, they they brought us over. They, you know, gave us some training. And, you know, we learned how to eat sushi and chopsticks and all this. And I learned how to drive on the left side of the road. And, you know, so everything was like just a new experience. And I realized, like, this was the dream that I was just like thinking about for a year. And one more thing I forgot to mention, back in Canada when I was planning this whole thing, I had I turned my apartment into a vision board.

Scott Allan [00:08:32]:
Like I had Wow. On all my rock posters and and and everything else that was up there. And, I literally turned it into my own little studio for, you know, my dream. Right? And I had, I had, like, pictures of places that I was gonna go around the world. And and how I got these, I would go to the library, get books on it, bring them home, you know, photocopy the pages, paste, put put them up on my wall. I had positivity quotes everywhere because, you know, I went from being negative person with having like a very negative mindset to and suddenly like, you know, I sound like this positive person who was just like, I would just wanted the greatest things for life, you know. And then I got these just like reading books, and, listening to tapes, and all and all those things. You know, it’s before we had audio books.

Scott Allan [00:09:16]:
And and Right. Right? That was the stuff that changed me. Like I had to I had to get my mind straight before I could actually get on a plane and fly to the other side of the world. Right? And then when I got here, I was like, wow. Like in in by the way, like a year later, I did make it to Thailand, you know. I I was set up in Japan and that was my home base, and I was, like, had a good job here, but I would take vacations to Thailand and Vietnam and just go traveling around to these places, during my time off. And I remember being in Thailand once, so probably for, like like, first I’ve been there a few times now. But I was there for my first time, and I was standing in front of one of these big golden Buddhas that I used to think about.

Scott Allan [00:09:53]:
And I realized that Buddha was the same picture of, like, I had the picture on my vision board years before. Like, that was one

Tim Newman [00:10:01]:
of the pictures on my wall. That was it.

Scott Allan [00:10:03]:
And I was like, this is what I dreamed of, you know? So I realized, like, like, that was when I just felt like like, yeah, I made it, you know. I did it. But, I mean, it was just part of the journey, you know. And, you know, and everything was just exciting. It was just you know, I’ve been here for, what, 25 years now. So obviously, I mean, I’ve gotten accustomed to the cults culture and, you know, build my book business, which is a different story. But I mean, I think when I came here, I just knew like, yeah, I’m gonna stay. And I, you know, I went through other, I guess, you know, trust, tribulations, and there was like, you know, I had to get a a visa and just like my working holiday visa ran out to get a visa and a sponsor, and but the thing is is like, when I knew that I wanted to stay and continue this life, like, again, things would just show up, you know, like a job opportunity.

Scott Allan [00:10:47]:
No one would pop up. It was even better than the one before. So I just always had this, luck, but I think the luck was really just, I think it was just brought on by my sheer determination to, you know, I knew what I wanted and I was willing to do whatever it took to to keep it going, you know, so. Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:11:04]:
And I I I think that’s really important. You know, the the whole idea of mindset, if we put our minds to doing something and we set off when we’re making a plan and and you took massive action, You know, you you moved halfway across the world. Right? So you didn’t just decide on Tuesday. Well, here I go. I’m leaving. And the car’s name was on place. It’s like anything else. If you wanted if if you want some anything that’s worth having takes work, and you gotta plan it out.

Tim Newman [00:11:31]:
As you start doing those things, like you said, you’ve sometimes you feel like it’s luck, but you you’re putting yourself in position to be successful. And other people are just happen to see that and say, oh, here’s an opportunity. Here’s an opportunity. And that that’s kinda how it works

Scott Allan [00:11:47]:
Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:11:47]:
In life.

Scott Allan [00:11:48]:
Yeah. That’s an interesting point because here’s the thing about luck too now. When I opened the newspaper that day and I saw the ad there, now if I had not been planning to move overseas, if I had not been, you know, working on myself and making myself better and I mean, I maybe I still would have seen the ad in the paper for teaching at least in Japan, but I would have just said, oh, that’s nice and browsed over it and gone to the the comics or something. Right? But the fact is is, like, it was there. It grabbed my attention because it was part of the plan. I know I don’t know if something put it there in front of me, and I took notice. And like you said, but but then I had to take action. I had to send in the resume, have the interview, and then, you know, so it was always like, I learned from that.

Scott Allan [00:12:29]:
I was like, oh, so when I actually take action towards something, I don’t know what the outcome’s gonna be. I mean, nobody does. But the only way to fail is to not do anything, really. So I think that’s like one of the lessons I learned in life is, you know, you fail if you try something, but, you know, you might have, you know, 5050 chance, but you’ll definitely fail at it if you do nothing, you know.

Tim Newman [00:12:50]:
If you do nothing. Right? No. So so let’s let’s talk Before I get to the next point, you you and I talked before. I’ve never I’ve been to Japan, but never been to Japan, been through the airport. Been to Thailand. Thailand is a beautiful place for for our listeners. You should go to Thailand. Far East has has it it’s it’s beautiful.

Tim Newman [00:13:08]:
It’s beautiful culture. The the people there are they’re so friendly. When I was there, again, I wasn’t there as a tourist either. I was there, you know, working. So you you see some of those things that that everyday people see that maybe tourists don’t. And I think that’s what really, you know, can ingratiate somebody to to the culture is not do the tourism stuff. Yes. That’s great.

Tim Newman [00:13:29]:
But but really get to know the people and the culture. That’s where you really learn learn things.

Scott Allan [00:13:35]:
Yeah. No. It’s fantastic. Yeah. I just I love traveling, you know, still do to this day. Maybe now just for different reasons, but, you know, it’s just it just broadens your mind and I just feel so blessed to have, you know, taken those steps. So

Tim Newman [00:13:49]:
Let’s talk a little bit more about mindset and the the idea of procrastination and and where’s where’s that come from and how does that, you know, hold us back from ultimately, you know, getting to the place we wanna get to?

Scott Allan [00:14:02]:
Yeah. Oh, procrastination. Yes. I think I wrote a book on that. And the reason I did is because of my own personal struggles with it. And where does it come from? I think, people would just have to analyze. I mean, in gen generally speaking, I think a lot of it comes from fear, you know? But I mean, we think we have to break that down. So for me, the we’ll call it a habit.

Scott Allan [00:14:26]:
I think it was a really a chronic habit more or less. And I might have even I might even classify it as an addiction on it all. But I just remember way back even when I was in school, like junior high, high school, you know, like we had homework to do, you know, during the weekends or whatever. And I remember just coming home on a Friday, throwing my bag into the corner and not picking up until Monday morning, you know, knowing I had a test to study for knowing at all. I’m sure like a lot of kids did that. I mean, it wasn’t special. But thing is is like that habit in and of itself, like that’s just one of the first things I remember when I think back to, you know, where did this begin? I just remember whenever I was, confronted with something that was really difficult and I did find school difficult. I would give into something else that was, you know, I would take, the path of least resistance, actually.

Scott Allan [00:15:15]:
And the path of least resistance, something that we all have, I mean we all take it, we all have our comfort zones, but it was just that that is the path I always took whenever I had a challenge. And one of the times, like, the challenge is, maybe I didn’t feel confident to do a certain thing. So I would just put it off or I didn’t wanna have a difficult conversation. So I would avoid that person, you know. Like I started to notice procrastination in everything that I was doing, like in my work, in my personal life, in my relationships, in my finances, you know, like because growing up we never talked about money in my in my family. And then, you know, after that you start to just develop your own money habits. Wasn’t just the fear of not having money, it was the fear of having money. Now what do I do this? That became something I would procrastinate about too.

Scott Allan [00:16:02]:
You know, like, and it just everything really. So I mean, I don’t know. I think I went through this for decades. Now the thing is is, like, we all do procrastinate to a certain degree. So there’s healthy procrastination that sometimes it’s actually a good thing. But then there’s the kind of procrastination where you’re putting something off and you know that even though you’re putting it off, it’s gonna have a very negative, damaging, detrimental impact on your life, on your business. For me, it was like like chasing shiny object syndrome and, like, all that stuff. Like, everything came down to whenever I had something difficult to do, you know, in my business, there are things that I would do that I like doing.

Scott Allan [00:16:45]:
And then there are the things that were really difficult like, maybe organizing my taxes and organizing risk. I and you know what? I still thought that if I I could get really good at this, I get everything together and I realized, like, this is just something I’m never really gonna be very good at. And maybe I don’t have to be, but I need to find somebody who can help with that. So that was the thing about procrastination too is like, there are things that I know I need to do for myself. And if I don’t do them, I’m gonna you so my philosophy around this whole thing is like, pay now or play, you know, play later. Right? Which is a philosophy to live by. But most of my life it was always like play now and pay later. And you will pay.

Scott Allan [00:17:24]:
You will pay. Like and I’m not just talking financially. Like, you know, you’re giving up time and and just, you know, these things that we’re putting off. I mean, we talk about building confidence. Well, you wanna destroy your confidence, you know, put off the things that you should be doing. Like, that’s just really it. You wanna build up your confidence, do hard things. And that’s where the concept for do hard do the hard things first came from is, like, it’s it the book’s not really I mean, yes.

Scott Allan [00:17:49]:
It is designed around how to overcome procrastination. But at a deeper level, it is a book on, yes, building confidence, but it’s actually building trust with yourself. Because when you do the hard things and well, whether you do them first or you do them at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you’re doing one hard thing a day and you can say, hey, I did that thing today that I’ve been putting off for a long time. Well, now your confidence is soaring because that’s the only real way to build confidence. It’s just to do the the things that are uncomfortable and to put yourself out there, you know. Like, you know, maybe you’ve got a dream you’re pursuing. It, you know, you know that you should be doing, putting in the time for it, but you’re watching Netflix instead. And, hey, I love Netflix as much as the next person.

Scott Allan [00:18:30]:
But I know when I’m watching too much of it because I’m actually doing that intentionally to put something up. And, you know, and that just kinda eats away at me. So you do have to take intentional action. And procrastination is not something where it’s like, you know, you take a bunch of action for, like, a few months. You build the habit of action and then it’s gone. Like I think habit building for what it’s worth and there’s studies where I say like 21 days 67 days. I don’t actually believe any of that. I think, like, a habit is only a habit as long as you’re doing something.

Scott Allan [00:19:01]:
Like, and when you stop doing it yeah. You always stop doing it. You come back a couple weeks and you try to, you know, if you’re if you’re into working out every day and then suddenly you take a few months off and you come back and try, you know, going into the gym again, You’ve gotta build that muscle again. And I found that as just as, you know, writing or like anything. So so my point there is that with the procrastination, like I thought, you know, if I just got rid of everything on my list that I’ve been putting off, then I’d be okay. But thing is your list is never never empty. Like there’s always something on it and there always should be something on it. I think, you know, look at having a, working towards a goal, working on projects, those things are they’re good for life, you know, good for your are good for your confidence, good for your business, good for your family.

Scott Allan [00:19:45]:
So, I have goals but I actually turn those like I took I call my goals, I call them projects because that’s really what they are. And and there are certain projects I work on where I’m like, I don’t really wanna do them, but I know if I do, it’s gonna have like a positive impact on, yes, my family, my finances, my business and everything. Right? And if I don’t do it, gonna have the, you know, the negative impact. I’m not gonna get what I So, I guess what I’m saying is over time, I’ve just learned to treat procrastination as something like it’s always gonna be there and I can have as much of it as I want. Right? I decide to take it. You know? And it’ll never refuse me. It’ll never reject you. It’s always there if you want it.

Scott Allan [00:20:27]:
You know, I just think it’s one of those things where, like, you realize and and here’s just one more thing I’ll add to this too. Really important thing for anyone who struggles with this, and I think most people do, is that we start to guilt ourselves. And I did. I would say, like, well, I’m a procrastinator, and that’s why I do these things. So now you become a victim. You know, now you’re a victim to procrastination. So you’ve got to change the label, you know, in fact, it’s not even a label because it’s not that you are a procrastinator. It’s just that behavior that you take part in and you’re making a decision to do it.

Scott Allan [00:20:55]:
And that’s it. And you can change this, every day. You can wake up and say, you know what? I’m an action taker. And today I’m gonna prove it by doing this, like, one thing on my list. Maybe you’ve got 300 things on your list, and that’s what I did because I just went around and, you know, when I started putting the book together, I was like like, you know, how am I gonna overcome this procrastination thing? Well, first of all, I need to get clear on what is it that I’m putting off because it’s like this big, heavy weight that Bush is pushing down me, all these things that, you know, I had my credit cards canceled. I had my credit canceled because of one bill that I missed. And the thing is they kept sending me reminders and like, and I had to just pay this bill. I, it didn’t just come out of my account.

Scott Allan [00:21:35]:
I had to drive across town. It would take me a whole afternoon. And every time they sent me a reminder, I just kept putting it off. And eventually if you put something off enough, something’s gonna happen, you know, and something

Tim Newman [00:21:47]:
did. Yeah.

Scott Allan [00:21:48]:
Anyway, lesson learned from that. But, just getting back to the point though, like with the list, like, make a list, get clear on what you’re putting off, and then you don’t have to choose the hardest thing on the list. But if you just start with one thing, just get that one little win. That’s that’s really what it is. Next day get another little one and then maybe do the next hard thing Then just keep working at something every day, you know. Some of these things, like, took me 5 minutes and then some of these things I I procrastinated on for, like, months, you know? I was like, well, I’ll get to it eventually. And when I eventually got to it, it should be 10 minutes, you know? So Exactly. Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:22:23]:
And, you know, you you brought up 2 really, really good points. It’s not who you are. It’s a behavior that you’re doing.

Scott Allan [00:22:29]:
Mhmm.

Tim Newman [00:22:29]:
And and we and we I I think we get into the mindset of of this is who we are, and then we start developing those those negative feelings about ourselves. Mhmm. And just like when we take massive action, how good we feel, when we don’t take massive action or or when we do start having that negative self talk, that’s how we how we see ourselves. And then that just, you know, increases the procrastination, increases the anxiety, increases the fear e even more.

Scott Allan [00:22:57]:
Yeah. No. Absolutely. Yeah. So, yeah. My take on is, you know, if you’re gonna label yourself something, label yourself something really good. Like, you know, like, call yourself something, like, would you love it? Or like, and I did. I’ll I’ll stand in front of the mirror and go, you’re an action taker and this is what we’re doing today.

Scott Allan [00:23:12]:
I’ll just have this little conversation with myself in front of the mirror every morning. It feels a lot better than calling yourself names. So Exactly.

Tim Newman [00:23:21]:
Yeah. Look, let’s tie this into public speaking here for a second here. I tell my story about how I procrastinated. You know, I kept dropping to class, dropping to class, dropping to class, and then I threw up because of my anxiety or or fear or whatever it was that I didn’t want to, speak in public. Did you ever have any of those fears or anxieties in terms of public speaking?

Scott Allan [00:23:46]:
I did. So quick story. Years ago, I went to Dubai on a business trip. And, so the I wasn’t one of the presenters at the, at the, you know, event. But thing is I was in a room with like 300 other people, bunch of tables, and we had speakers coming in. And one of the, you know, we had, like, speakers from, like, the Dale Carnegie Institution and just, like, some really and I think the, I don’t know if it was, like, the, not the president. He’s like the prime minister of education or something like that. So maybe it’s like he rolls up in a Rolls Royce and with, like well, so it was kind of an interesting, interesting, time to be alive.

Scott Allan [00:24:19]:
But my point is is like they were doing this thing where, they were gonna go around to each table and they’re gonna choose 1 or 2 people to actually stand up and introduce themselves. I’ve gotta tell you, like, this is probably what 10 years ago. And I was just like I’m just terrified of standing up in front of people and saying anything. Introducing myself, giving an opinion, giving my thoughts because what if they don’t like me? What if they reject me? And those are 2 things I was really afraid of. Still am a little bit to a certain degree these days, but not as much like but that fear of, people just like looking at me and judging me and all those eyes on me, like I just like the thought of it, just, it was so terrifying that when they actually announced that they were gonna do this thing and, you know, I’m just the kinda like, I just wanna sit back, watch the events and not be bothered. Like, that was just me and take notes on the, you know, topics and stuff like that. But they went around to the tables, like they said they were going to. And there’s, like, you know, 10 people at my table.

Scott Allan [00:25:16]:
And they were choosing, like, a couple of people from each table. So I’m not okay with my chancellor about, you know, 20% of getting selected. But then, like, my mind started racing. Right? It’s like like, what if they do choose me? What am I gonna say? Like, how am I gonna introduce myself? What if I forget I forget my name. And I literally started going through all these things. And anyway, they came to our table. And, and the thing is, like, the closer they got to our table, it’s like it was like this anxiety that I couldn’t control it. It was swelling up inside me.

Scott Allan [00:25:42]:
The fear was so overwhelming. Because I just kept thinking, what if they choose me? Like, I’m I’m dead. I’m gonna pass out. And it was just like this I can’t imagine the chemicals that were just firing off in my brain. Right? But here’s the thing. They got to our table. They chose one person. They used, like, you know, the guy over there.

Scott Allan [00:25:59]:
And I was like, oh, okay. Thank God. I just want more person to go. And sure enough, they chose me next. And I just remember thinking, that’s it. And here’s the thing. Like, you know, we’re all sitting down. I actually had to push myself off the table to get myself to stand up.

Scott Allan [00:26:15]:
Like and and the thing is, like, I figured I was, like, just in my head, I was going, okay. Just keep it together. Keep it together. And I started to speak, and and I couldn’t control my reactions. My voice started to crack and that it just cracked, and then I lost my voice. Like, it was like literally and I had to reach down and grab the water. And I I was just like, you know, chugging this water and people are just looking at me like, is this guy okay? And I don’t remember what I said next, but I think I just blurted up. My name is Scott.

Scott Allan [00:26:44]:
And then I thank you very much. And I just sat down and squeak as I can, but it was so obvious, like, you know, this guy is really not used to speaking in front of people and they’re right. And I vowed like from that day forward, I thought I’m never going to be in front of people again. I’m never gonna get on an interview again. And I had never done interviews prior to that because I, you know, that stuff came later. But that scared me so much that I was just, like, that’s you know, I’m never gonna be that vulnerable again either. And the vulnerability, probably what was the most crushing. I didn’t realize it till later, but I was like, you know, and, like, I mean after the world.

Scott Allan [00:27:17]:
And here’s the thing. Right? When it’s all said and done, nobody cared anyway. That’s the thing. All this is going on in your head, and you’re thinking people really care. Right? You know, you’re done with your speech, you sit down, onto the next person, and just on they go. You know? And I mean but I mean but in the moment, that’s not what I was thinking.

Tim Newman [00:27:37]:
You know?

Scott Allan [00:27:37]:
I was thinking like, they’re gonna judge me for years after this. I’m gonna like, and just, you know, so I really had to go through some, it’s a little bit traumatizing actually. But the thing is, it was all in my head. And when I look back to, you know, like back when I was maybe going through recovery and they put us all in these rooms. We had to share our feelings and stuff like that. Same thing. Like, I just couldn’t speak in front of people. You know? And I just thought I had some kind of an affliction.

Scott Allan [00:28:03]:
Like, there’s must have been maybe I was born with something and some kind of deficiency, and it’s just just me. But what I realized is like I’d never actually been in a situation where I had to speak in front of people either. So maybe what if, and this came years later, by the way, when I started publishing books and I started getting asked to get on the podcast. I was getting asked to go on the podcast. I wasn’t applying for them. Right? Mhmm. I remember, like, my first couple, like, probably my first interview, you know, live interview on a radio show. And it’s like, the same thing I’d be, you know, they send me the questions I’d be up all night trying to write down the perfect answers and just worrying about the questions.

Scott Allan [00:28:40]:
And what if they ask me something I don’t know and ended like, how am I gonna handle this? And I think the interview went okay, but, you know, I learned something like, so nowadays, I mean, people say, like, yeah, we’re gonna send you the script. And to be honest, I don’t care if they do or they don’t. I’m just gonna get on and talk, you know? But that’s my approach these days. But back then, it was like I needed the full script. I had to go to what was going on, and what were my cues, and when should I speak, and when should I not. And so I was really just trying to control the outcome too much. Right? I looked back at that first, like that day in Dubai. I was like, you know, I nearly passed out.

Scott Allan [00:29:15]:
And I thought, if I could go back and do that again, I wouldn’t just sit at my table. No. I’d walk up on stage and do it. And like I would. I would just I’d walk up on stage in front of all these people now. And and thing is, I can actually visualize myself doing that now and feeling okay with it. Right? But, and now that I think about it, it’s like, yeah. That that’d be a great thing to do.

Scott Allan [00:29:34]:
Because first of all, I realize now nobody is probably gonna care 5 minutes after you’re done. And, hey, you might say something that people are gonna take away and say, oh, I really liked what, you know, Scott said and this and, like, and that’s great. And I think that I I was always under the impression that I had to say the best thing. I had to impress everybody. And, you know, like, who am I to? And here here comes the impostor syndrome. Right? Imposter syndrome. Right. Who am I to impress? You know, like, those people that hear what Pocter is.

Scott Allan [00:30:01]:
And and there’s the prime minister of education. He is there too. Right? And, you know, and he’s got a he’s got an army out front, you know. So, like, like, prove the like, and I just didn’t want all that attention, but now I’ve realized to go back again, have and do that. I’d be like, yeah. I don’t know. Just maybe and that was just the change in the mindset that I do think just happened over the last decade though from growth, really. I mean, it was just like, it wasn’t just because I yeah.

Scott Allan [00:30:27]:
Sure. I mean, I may have written a few books on it, but I think I learned a lot though from creating that material and then actually getting out there and talking about, you know, and there’s a comfortability. There’s a like a level of comfortability that comes with just being able to, you know, have a conversation like we’re having today. But I mean, if you try to get me on a radio show 5 or 10 years ago, I should probably I think it’d be a different person. Right? And the thing is is like the more I did it, the more I practiced it, it was like the less I actually cared about what people, I’m not saying like, well, I think we all care about what people think of us. Right. To be honest with you. I was like, well, am I gonna let that hold me back? I mean, if, and I’ve been asked many questions where I didn’t know the answers.

Scott Allan [00:31:09]:
I was like, well, not really. Like, sometimes they’ll ask me something about something I wrote in one of my books. And honestly, I can’t remember half the things I written. You know, it was like some strategy I wrote back when, and it’s like, well, yeah. You know, if I did write that, good. And then here’s my answer. You know, here’s what I probably see about it today. So Right.

Scott Allan [00:31:26]:
You know, you just do the best you can. I mean, you know, because I think like, when I look at, I don’t know, Russell Brunson when he gets up on stage, I mean, he, you know, like me, I think he has ADHD, and he just talks really fast and talks about a lot of things. And people think public speaker, and maybe he is. And I don’t know what kind of training he’s had, but I think he’s just himself when he gets up to it. So, you

Tim Newman [00:31:47]:
know? Yeah. Again, that’s another good point. Just be yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Be because people I I think people want authenticity. Yeah. Above everything else.

Tim Newman [00:31:57]:
Right? And and I really think that if you if you’re asked a question and you don’t know the answer and you say, I don’t know the answer, I think people will respect you more than if you if you start to try and make something up or, excuse me, for bullshitting them. Because they can they can see through that really, really quickly.

Scott Allan [00:32:17]:
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And I’ve been in that situation where I was on the spot and I didn’t have the answer. And I did try to make something up and someone called me out. I think it might have been in, like, a boardroom one day, you know, leading this team. And, you know, I was like, well, the answer is this. And it actually wasn’t.

Scott Allan [00:32:34]:
I just didn’t know the answer. But, and someone else I think in the room said, no, it isn’t. And right then it’s almost like that fear of, like, the vulnerability came back. So like, oh, they got me, you know? So Mhmm. But but again, like, if I went back, it’d be like, yeah. I’d be like, you know, I’m not really sure, nobody’s ever asking that question before. Or, yeah, I will go and check it out because I really don’t know. And I think that’s a great point though.

Scott Allan [00:32:58]:
It’s in the Yeah. The like the authenticity is, like, just show up and be yourself. But the challenge I think with a lot of people is, like, sometimes and to be honest, I if you put me on stage again, like, back then, it’s like, you know, maybe I didn’t know how to be myself. You know, I’d never done that before, you know? So I was always trying to be somebody else.

Tim Newman [00:33:18]:
I

Scott Allan [00:33:18]:
had this impostor syndrome thing over here and, you know, this vulnerability thing over here and they didn’t get along very well or they got along really well and they just didn’t want me to know what was going on. And and, you know, so it’s always I always felt like there was like this shield that I had to put up as soon as the spotlight was on me. So yeah. But, I don’t know. It’s good to feel like, you know, like you’ll when you work through it, but I think to work through it, like I said, I found, like, just exposure therapy. Just we’re getting there, doing the thing. And I think one of the reasons, like, I didn’t really I mentioned earlier, I didn’t actually go and try to get on the podcast interviews is because of that, that same fear. I was like, what if I get on? What if they ask me questions I don’t know or talk about something I don’t know anything about? And most like, well, you know, I’m not gonna get on to shows where we’re discussing something that I know nothing about anyways.

Scott Allan [00:34:06]:
So

Tim Newman [00:34:06]:
Right. Just pick the pick your targets and just go with that, you know? So Nobody gets better at doing things by not doing them. The only way you get better at doing something is by doing it. And like I read in your bio, you know, you’ve invested over 10000 hours of practice and research into this. So obviously, you’re you’re gonna get better. And, you know, that idea of 10 of doing something 10000 times or 10000 hours or or whatever, forget the term, makes you proficient or makes you an expert or what have you. To me, it doesn’t really matter. If you’re doing something 10 thou 10000 times, you’re gonna get better at it.

Tim Newman [00:34:40]:
Even if you’re making mistakes along the way, you actually have to take action. You actually have to do things. You’re you’re not gonna be become confident by sitting around procrastinating or or worried about everything else and not doing the things that you need to do.

Scott Allan [00:34:55]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s a great point. And I think that, part of the procrastination too was the fear of risk. Like, what if I, you know, do this thing and I lose money or, you know, don’t make money or whatever it may be. I mean, it was just like there was always this underlying fear behind it. Or what if I fail at? Or, you know, and and Yeah.

Scott Allan [00:35:16]:
I mean, I would try something. I would get stuck and then I wouldn’t know what to do. And it’s like, then then I would procrastinate because I didn’t know what the next step is. I would just say, okay, I’ll do it later. And then, you know, it would just start again. Right? So but now it’s like, okay, I got stuck with this thing. I need to get it done. If I can’t do it, I’ve gotta find somebody.

Scott Allan [00:35:33]:
The solution like the the goal is to get the thing done whenever that may be. Maybe you’re building a website, you know, you don’t know how to, know, you know the first couple of steps, and after that you’re lost. I was actually there for years. I didn’t have a, like, a proper website. And then one day I was like, you know, I need a website because people keep asking me, where can we find you? And I’m gonna find me on Amazon, and that’s not my website. Yes. You know? So and so, I went and hired somebody, and within a few weeks we had a website, and then hired someone else, and we had another one. We’re selling books, you know, on Shopify and stuff like that.

Scott Allan [00:36:04]:
So I was like, oh, this is actually you know, I still had to put in some work and give a lot of direction. But at least working together with someone who could actually say, yeah, like, you know how to do something, you just ask me how to do it. And I think that was another thing that I was always afraid of, asking for help.

Tim Newman [00:36:20]:
But, you know, I I I think that asking for help is is something that’s really common amongst people like like us, you know, the ADD, ADHD. You know, the the you know, we we don’t because we don’t want people to know that that we don’t know how to do do things. How do you coach people to get over this impostor syndrome? We I I don’t think we can get over the procrastination if we don’t get over impostor syndrome.

Scott Allan [00:36:43]:
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So the imposter syndrome let me see. I’ll give you an example. Well, actually, I coach a lot of people on how to, like, publish books. So that’s actually I so I actually have this conversation all the time about imposter syndrome.

Scott Allan [00:36:56]:
Because what holds a lot of people back from, actually writing the book is the fear of writing. They’re afraid they’re gonna write something bad. So and and this is I hear this from people all the time. And you can apply this to other things too. But people say to me all the time, like, you know, really not sure what this writing thing. I’m not a writer. Like, it’s like, okay. Well, you keep telling yourself that.

Scott Allan [00:37:16]:
You’re right. But you’ve gotta still show up and put in your page a day. And here’s the thing, taking those small steps. Right? So for me, it’s like when I coach people on how to and I don’t coach them on, like, writing techniques and all that. They can learn that from books or courses. Right. I just teach them like, I need to help them to get their rough draft done, to get their book published. And then the marketing’s a different thing.

Scott Allan [00:37:34]:
That’s when the post recession really shows up. But for now, like when they’re putting their book together, it’s like you’ve got to do a page a day. If you do this every day for 200 days, you’re going to have a book written. So we break it down into small steps. Right? And if they can just show up and commit to that one small step, then, you know, they’re going to be build that, you know, they’re gonna build that confidence along the way. That imposter syndrome maybe actually is gonna fade because sooner they’re gonna have a book ready. Soon they’re gonna but you’re gonna see the results. It’s like, wow, you know, I started this 3 months ago, and Scott told me just to do a page a day or a 1000 words a day, and now I’ve got like this rough draft.

Scott Allan [00:38:08]:
And it’s like well, now what do I do? And then we just go to the next step, you know, go to the next level. And you know, on impostor syndrome thing is with impostor syndrome it’ll always show up when you’re doing something you’ve never tried before or something that’s new because it’s scary. And public speaking is the same thing as like, I think that if I had to step out in front of a state, like in front of 5,000 people tomorrow, I’d probably have impostor syndrome. I’d be like, wow. But if I but I could do it in front of 50 people, then probably a 100. And I have done that or 200. Right? But I start with a small crowd. Like that’s the thing I had to start, you know, you know, doing presentation in front of 5 people, and then in front of 50, and then a 100.

Scott Allan [00:38:47]:
And, you know, and then every time you level up, you’re gonna feel this, you know, imposter syndrome. So imposter syndrome is actually a good thing. It’s to me, it’s a indication that, oh, you’re doing something that’s actually really scary, but hey, like where are you gonna be if you actually go through with it? And here’s where it comes like data. Taking definitive action you know and like just showing up and doing the interview you know. Showing up and doing another one and then, you know, do more of them and then, you know, like level up, scale up, you know, keep, keep going for something bigger. Coming back to, like, you know, like I said, like, if I had to go back to Dubai, like, 10 years prior, I’d probably get up on stage and do it. But I mean, but that’s looking back at it now. And that’s the good thing about, you know, you’re working through this imposter syndrome.

Scott Allan [00:39:32]:
You look back and you’re like, what was I so afraid of? You know? And but that’s progress. That’s the path

Tim Newman [00:39:38]:
of growth. So Imposter syndrome to me is a weird thing to think about, especially, you know, where I am in my career now. And and I’m I’m helping young professionals, and they say, you know, they they only wanna speak up in a meeting.

Scott Allan [00:39:53]:
You know, they’ve been hired for

Tim Newman [00:39:54]:
a job, have a team meeting. They they only wanna speak up in the meeting. And I and I try and tell them, say, look. They hired you for a reason. They they because you can do the job. It’s not that you can’t do the job because you can. Otherwise, they wouldn’t hire you. So when they are asking you for for your input

Scott Allan [00:40:10]:
Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:40:10]:
They actually want to hear your inputs. And so give it to them. Just be yourself. Give it to them because you’re you’re there for a reason. They’re not there to make fun of you. They’re not there to to belittle you. They’re asking you because they actually want to hear what you’ve gotta say.

Scott Allan [00:40:25]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You are chosen by accident. Right?

Tim Newman [00:40:28]:
So Right.

Scott Allan [00:40:29]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s a great point too. It’s like, you know, when I look back at job positions that I’ve been given before in the past and, they were challenging like some of them were, you know, when I was an electrical engineer back in the day and, you know, as soon as I got certified, I was given this big job in charge of 10 other guys. And I had to like this mil you know, we’re putting together this $1,000,000 building, you know, for the government. It’s like and I’d never done anything like that before. Now here’s the thing is like, I could have quit.

Scott Allan [00:40:58]:
Just said, nope. Not doing that. I’m just gonna go get an easier job. But something inside me again, once again said, well, I could do that. What if I actually take this? They called it a I think it was, like, supposed to be, I don’t know, like, supposed to be higher pay and all this. And, you know, it’s like they’re leveling up my position, but I didn’t see it that way. I saw this is something really big and scary that I was gonna fail at, but I thought, okay. Again, coming back to the mindset is like, I can run away from this thing and go get something easier.

Scott Allan [00:41:28]:
And that’ll be the path of least resistance. Alright, take this challenge. Take it scared, jump into it, you know, feel the fear and do it anyway. And you’re gonna make mistakes along the way, but who knows what’s gonna happen at the end of it? I just that was just my attitude from, like, once I’ve decided that’s it, I’m gonna do this thing. I did it. And yes, there were many mistakes made. I almost blew myself up twice with electricity. And, you know, destroyed a few transformers.

Scott Allan [00:41:56]:
And so it did not go without a glitch. But, the thing is is, like, we finished it. And I looked back, and it was like, it was really hard to go through that, you know, that kind of a job. And, you know, maybe I wasn’t the best person for the work. But to your point, they chose me for that for a reason because somebody believed that I could do it, even though I didn’t believe it in myself at the time. You got something else. A good point though. Like, you know, just if somebody actually looks at you and says, you know, we believe you’re the best person for this job.

Scott Allan [00:42:25]:
And I’m like, well, you know what I mean? Okay. I don’t really have the education. I don’t have like and you start to kind of go through the excuses to why you’re not. I’ve actually tried to talk myself out of jobs that later turned out to be great jobs, you know, and, and I’m glad that they actually talked me into it, you know, because I’m trying to talk myself out of it. But again, it was just like that imposter syndrome saying like, no, you’re not really good enough for this. But again, it just came back to like, you know, I just really scared to take the responsibility because I might end up looking like a fool. I might get fired. I might and all these things.

Scott Allan [00:42:56]:
But we just have to look at what the other side of that is like. Okay. I know I decided not to do it. I quit and I go to something easier and then like, well then what? You know, like because I wanna I don’t know about anybody else, but I wanna keep moving forward. I wanna keep leveling up and just seeing, you know, what’s the next challenge.

Tim Newman [00:43:12]:
But we never keep, like you say, leveling up without failing at some point.

Scott Allan [00:43:16]:
Mhmm.

Tim Newman [00:43:16]:
And failing is you know, I think failing sometimes is failing isn’t always good, but it’s not always bad either.

Scott Allan [00:43:23]:
Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:43:24]:
You know, what’s what’s your view on failing and how to approach that or deal with it?

Scott Allan [00:43:30]:
Yeah. So I mean, I believe in the fail big philosophy. So, for me, it’s like every new thing that I’m I start, I know, like, I’m gonna fail at this thing at some point as whatever it may be. I’m probably gonna I might lose some time. Like, I’m gonna lose money. I might lose some friends. Who knows what’s gonna happen? But, failing is just one of those things where, like, you can’t avoid it. But I think we try to avoid it by doing easier things.

Scott Allan [00:43:53]:
Right? And I think that just embracing that like embracing it right from the beginning that, you know, I am going to fail, in this job position or I’m gonna fail in this project. Like something is not gonna go right, you know. And I might end up getting blamed for that. And I’ve been in that position many times by the way. And the first few times when it happened I was like, yeah, yeah, I’d never be in this position again where I’m failing at something and I get blamed for something. But then I realized, well, I got blamed for it because I was, first of all, it was probably, maybe it was my fault. And secondly, nobody else was around to take the blame. So I was like, okay.

Scott Allan [00:44:27]:
Well, blame if you want to, but if you want me to continue with this thing, I will. But just so you know, probably gonna fail a few more times. And I always found that people were okay with that. They’re like, fine. Just just get it done, you know? So Right. So one of the books that I did write was called Fail Big, and it was like it was just built on that whole philosophy is like, you are gonna fail at at life and maybe probably probably fail at a lot of things. I mean I failed at my, you know, nearly gone bankrupt several times. I’ve been on the, you know, like all these things happen where like I didn’t plan for any.

Scott Allan [00:44:57]:
I mean, nobody wants to fail. Well, let’s just be honest, like it’s gonna happen anyway. But here’s the thing. Failure has a bad, you know, like a bad rap. Right? I mean, going back to let’s go back to school for, you know, go back a few years. I mean, when you failed at a test and if you failed enough of your test, they held you back. You were punished. I mean, that was just the way it is, you know.

Scott Allan [00:45:16]:
You can only fail a certain amount of tests. Now I was never held back, but I certainly failed way more tests than I passed, I can tell you. And a lot of the times I failed because I actually set myself up for it. You know, I didn’t work at it. I just accepted the fact that I was gonna fail this test so I actually would fail it intentionally. Now I’m not saying that we should fail things intentionally and mess things up intentionally. But if you do the best you can, and this is really what it comes down to, like, I’ll go into any job or relationship or anything and just go, you know, I don’t know, anything about this person, but I’m just gonna like like, you know, let’s start something. Let’s have a relationship.

Scott Allan [00:45:53]:
And sure, you know, like, we’re gonna make mistakes along the way. And you can take that same attitude towards a job and towards, like, whether you’re moving from one house to another, I don’t know, whatever it may be, you know, moving from one country to another. Right. You know, nothing worked out perfectly, But it did work out because I just always did the best that I could with what I had at the time. And I think that’s the most you could ask from yourself. And also if, let’s just say for a job position, that’s the and any, you know, like, company or employer can ask of you as well. And that’s really what they were asking me. I was like, you know, well, no, you’re not gonna do this perfectly, but we just want you to be the best you can be at this job.

Scott Allan [00:46:33]:
They weren’t saying I had to be perfect at. You know? Right. That would those were the expectations. So that’s my take on failures. Like, just do the best you can with what you’ve got. You know? And you know, what you don’t have is like maybe you need more skill to get better at the thing. You know? Whether it’s more skill in your relationship skills, communication skills, work skills. Thing is the thing I would love about skills, you can learn them.

Scott Allan [00:47:00]:
It doesn’t matter what your education background is by the way. I mean, you know, I mean I didn’t go and and get a masters. I don’t have like a lot of education from back in the day, but I’ll tell you like I learned a lot of skills over the years just because I decided to learn certain skills that could get me where I wanted to go. Which is really like if I had a goal in mind, it’s like why do I need to get to that goal? Like writing is just one example. I learned how to write, then I learned how to publish, then I learned how to market. Now I’m learning new things, you know, how to build funnels, whatever it is. Like, always learning these things. Right? You know? That doesn’t sound like a lot of fun, but to me it’s like, you know, like I wanna learn how to do these things so I can just get better at building, better bridges, you know, how to communicate with people better and all these things.

Scott Allan [00:47:43]:
Anyway, I think there’s a lot to be said for having goals too, you know, like like, you know, just know what you want, show up every day and put, put some action into it, whether it’s like blocking off an hour a day or 2 hours a day. And the next day, just keep doing that for, you know, and you’ll get your 10000 hours, you know.

Tim Newman [00:48:00]:
Yeah. And be okay with failing.

Scott Allan [00:48:02]:
Well then

Tim Newman [00:48:03]:
If you put the work into it, be okay with failing. And if you haven’t put the work into it, then figure out why and and be better, you know, neck next time. And and, you know, I I again, I think especially for for young for young professionals, that that’s something that they need to learn how to grasp because, I mean, I’ve I’ve been fired. I don’t you know, it it it happens. Yep. But I’ve also been in in places where I’ve had the freedom to fail and to and to and to to to feel big. I’m not sure if I shared this with you when when we’ve talked before, but just recently, I do some side work for a friend of mine, and he trusted me with something. And I I cost him, like, $10,000, and he’s a friend of mine.

Tim Newman [00:48:51]:
It’s business. And, yeah, I I feel awful. I felt bad. And I went just went to him. I said, look. This is what happened. This is what I did. And I’m so this I’m I’m sorry about that.

Tim Newman [00:49:01]:
And he said, well, you know, you did the best you could and let it go. And so again, you know, when you do fail, you have to own it, but you also have to own did you do what you were supposed to do or or the or the best that you could in that process as well?

Scott Allan [00:49:15]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s a good story. Reminds me of I was watching an interview with, I think, Alex Harmosi, and he was telling a story about one of his employees. And he stole this on, like, YouTube channels so that he like, one of his employees made a mistake and cost him, like, a $1,000,000 or so. I don’t know if that’s a good problem to have or not, but it cost a couple of $1,000,000, and, she showed up in the house. She’s like, really sorry that’s it.

Scott Allan [00:49:39]:
I’m done. You know, sorry for the trouble. And he’s like, where are you going? She’s like, well, I just cost your company, like, a $1,000,000 so you’re firing me, so I’m out of here. I was like he’s like, well, are you gonna do it again? And she’s like, well, no. Have you learned a lesson from this? And she’s like, yes. He goes, okay. Well, you know, today’s a new day, so let’s move on. Now, of course, not everybody has that attitude.

Scott Allan [00:49:59]:
And maybe in my case, he would have been fired or any one of us. But that’s just like the mindset. I embrace that kind of mindset because I was like, okay. You know, you did something. You know what it is that you, you know, you messed it up. You’re not gonna do it again or at least, you know, you’re you’ve got that self awareness, you know, like, this wasn’t. And they didn’t get the details about what it was. But I mean, point is is, like, you know, he was just, like, let’s move on because we got work to do.

Scott Allan [00:50:22]:
So yeah. That’s, yeah. I mean, I’ve been fired once or twice back in the day as well for, yes, mistakes. And I think one time it wasn’t even my fault. Alright. Well, you know, and what are you gonna do? You know, so you Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Allan [00:50:36]:
By the way, just like quick little story too with that, feeling big, by the way. So just before I came to Japan, I was still working as an electrical engineer and I was on this last job and it’s gonna be like literally it was gonna be like my last week in before I, and I, I had told my employer that I was just like leaving. I didn’t tell them that my, I was moving overseas and all this. I just said, you know, I gave them my, give them my resignation per se, or I was going to give them my resignation maybe, but I hadn’t quite done it yet. But, Yeah. And probably the last week, maybe the last couple of weeks into the job where, putting together these big transformers and, like, and these are the kind of mistakes where you can’t make a mistake. Because if you make a mistake, something blows up. Right? Well, there was somebody who was responsible for grounding these transformers before we connected the power to them.

Scott Allan [00:51:22]:
And so this was the day when we were gonna be connecting the power to this big shopping center, you know, like big new companies. And anyway, the guy who was supposed to grab these transformers apparently missed 1. And, when I put power to it, there was a pop and then a bang, and then there was smoke, and then there was the fire department. And then there was a fire. And so basically, I did not check to see if it had been grounded, which I should have done, you know. And, what ended up happening of course is like they came in and shut down, shut the whole place down. The electric company almost went bankrupt into the and this was like a week or 2 before I was set to go overseas to Japan, which didn’t affect my plans for that. It’s just that, what it did end up happening is in the end, that job that I had for like a good number of years, because of that mistake, I ended up getting fired.

Scott Allan [00:52:14]:
Right? And that it happened like a few because thing is they had no choices. Like, everybody say get everybody got fired actually. Right? And, the thing is is like, I look back at that and I’m like, like, first of all, there’s nothing I could have done about it. Well, maybe there would. Maybe I could have. Yes. I could have double checked to see if it had been grounded in this and that. I didn’t.

Scott Allan [00:52:33]:
You know, we just assumed that other people were doing their work. But just one of those things where you realize like, it just happened. I mean, it’s like, you know, and so where I look at, well, I mean, yeah, I kinda look at that as a failure and a life lesson. I’m also glad that I had another job lined up on the other side of the world because probably needed it. I don’t think I would have been working the trade after that day. It was a small town and, word gets around fast. So, you know, but I mean, I don’t know. You just, I guess in the end, you just never know what’s going to happen.

Scott Allan [00:53:02]:
Right? Good thing is nobody got injured, of course. You know? Right. These were not small transformers. And when I said they went pop, like, it was a loud bang. You know, they were this. Yeah. Yeah. So and and I was in the room.

Scott Allan [00:53:14]:
I was the only one in the room. And, you know, it was anyway, long story short, that’s just one of those things where like to this day, I look back on that day and I’m like, wow. You know, like I still remember it because first of all, I did feel like a failure for a long time. Even though, yeah, you know, they told me, like, you know, you can’t come back here anymore. I’m really sorry. And I was one of the main guys in the company. Sometimes some things just can’t be reversed. Right? And of course, you know, I took, you know, the rest of the 2 weeks off and I was on a plane 2 weeks later.

Scott Allan [00:53:46]:
But the thing is, it was like, it could have been a lot worse. And, but I do look back though as like to this day and think like, you know, I feel like I, you know it does sit with you too. Like I mean you know like I I let those guys down. I let you know I failed at the job which is something I really hate because I always try to excel at everything that I do. And, you know, it’s just one of those failure points where, like, for anybody who’s had those is, like, look, you know, you can hold on to it or you can just realize, like, I did what I could at that time and that happened. And you’ve got to just move forward with it, you know? I don’t know. Exactly. Yeah.

Scott Allan [00:54:19]:
It’s hard to let go of call it regret. But I mean, just like those things where you’re like, you wish that there had been a different outcome. It’s like, you know, that’s the experience of living is like, There’s outcomes for everything, and they’re not all what we want them to be. So

Tim Newman [00:54:33]:
yeah. Exactly. Well well, Scott, thank you so much for spending some time with us today. Where can people, find you? You got a you got a website now? What’s your website?

Scott Allan [00:54:43]:
Yeah. Go to scottallanbooks.com. You can find the, we’re still we still have, like, quite a bit of work to do on there, but I mean, everything’s up and ready for sale so you can download stuff. You can purchase things for, directly, and you can go to scottallanpublishing.com. Probably like, you know, find more stuff on there about the books. And, we’re using we’re actually, the reason we have these the 2 websites, the scottallanpublishing.com is really for publishers because I do a lot of publications for international languages and things like that. So people publishing go there, see what’s available or whatnot. And, hey.

Scott Allan [00:55:16]:
You can always go to Amazon and, you know, check out books there. And probably good old Google is still working to this day so go there and plug in. You can probably find some of the interviews I’ve done in the past. Maybe more information about books depending on the country you’re in. You might have a book in your language. So, yeah, check it out.

Tim Newman [00:55:33]:
Well, I’ll I’ll put those links in in the show notes for everybody as well. And, again, Scott, thanks so much for spending some time with us today, and and, we’ll talk to you soon. Been fantastic. Thank you. Take care. Let’s take a few minutes to reflect on our conversation with Scott Allen. Part of the human experience is to be afraid, put off doing the hard things, and to question if we are good enough. Scott’s ability to authentically share the good and the bad helps us all realize we are all in this together.

Tim Newman [00:56:06]:
His stories, examples, and journey can help everyone in the speaking with confidence community become better versions of ourselves. Scott gives some great advice for moving forward in our lives and overcoming challenges. If you have not already checked out his books, such as Do the Hard Things First or Fail Big, I encourage you to do so. In the meantime, I love how Scott repeatedly reminds us of the importance of leveling up, focusing on the next challenge, and keeping in mind that we are asked and chosen by others to take a job, to help on a project, and to be in a relationship with others. There is a reason why we are picked for those tasks. While we may fail sometimes, failure isn’t always a bad thing. He suggests embracing failure from the beginning and learning how to react to it in a positive way when it happens. He shared some personal experiences with failures that helps put all this in perspective, and I can’t thank him enough for this.

Tim Newman [00:57:08]:
Be sure to visit scottallanbooks.com to take advantage of items available for download and explore other interviews, blogs, and information, which can all help you in your journey to become more confident speakers. Please make sure you visit speaking with confidence course.com and join our growing community. Sign up for special updates regarding the August 15th launch of the formula for public speaking course. Also, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss any episodes. Please rate us a review and tell everyone why you love the podcast. You can also download, like, and share the podcast with friends. Always remember, your voice has the power to change the world. We’ll talk to you next time.

Tim Newman [00:57:45]:
Take care.