3 Public Figures Who Have Shaped Who I am

Throughout my life, there have been many who have influenced me. Here a 3 public figures who have shaped who I am.

The world is bombarded with information. So much so that we have a tendency to numb our own minds in order to deal with it.

Advertisements are everywhere. More than ever people are targeting us for our money in a bid to gain more power for themselves.

There are so many perspectives contradicting each other. So much biased in the media and with our political leaders. We no longer know where to look or who to believe in.

Filtering through all this information is becoming more and more of a skill set that we need just to navigate through everyday life.

The following outlines three people who have made it through my filters and shaped who I am as a person.

3 Public Figures Who Have Shaped Who I am

Tony Robbins – February 29, 1960 – to present 

Tony Robbins is without doubt the most prolific and well known self help professional on the planet.

I don’t think the world will ever see anyone that matches or surpasses his global presence and success in the world of self-help.

Tony is a man that is larger than life.

He’s helped so many top athletes (Including Conor McGregor,  Andre Agassi, Wayne Gretsky’s and Serena Williams) and presidents of the United States on both the Democratic and Republican side (Including Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump) – they may or may not have taken his advice 🙂

What Tony thought me is that the problem is rarely the problem.

I’ve never seem anyone better at cutting past the crap so fast and getting to the essence of what people really need to resolve their issue.

This lateral way of thinking, always inspires me to look past the problem that people are projecting and go to the source.

Tony also thought me about the 6 human needs. Which I discuss briefly in my article 10 Ways to Manage Ego in the Workplace.

You can also read Tony’s article – DO YOU NEED TO FEEL SIGNIFICANT?

You can also watch this video on the topic here:

These human needs really altered how I look at myself and what I want from life. I encourage everyone to review and consider them.

Going to one of Tony Robbin’s 3 day seminars is on my bucket list.

Rocky Bilbao AKA Sylvester Stallone – July 6, 1946 (age 74 years) – to present

I was born in 1984, this was a prime year to be born to be brought up on Rocky Balboa movies as they were played over and over again on TV.

I’ve watched every Rocky movie over and over again. My favorite is Rocky 4.

To this day occasionally I’ll go on to YouTube and look at Rocky fights and his training montages.

Check out Rocky’s training montage in Rocky 4

There was something about those movies that connected deep with my heart.

They were the perfect depiction of the classic underdog theme that we see from time to time in movies.

Watching those movies made me believe I could be a world champion.

Did I ever become a world champion boxer?

No, I did not!

However, I did pursue Kickboxing and qualified to represent Ireland in the World Championships in Italy one year.

My fighting story pretty much ended there.

Rocky sets some pretty unrealistic standards for how to compose yourself in a fight. While it looks courageous and passionate, the fighting displays within these movies are reckless, unrealistic, and plain stupid.

Sorry Rocky, you know I love you to bits, but if anyone fought like that in a professional fight, they’d get knocked out pretty fast or the fight would be stopped after 30 seconds.

However, his movies have probably inspired more people into the sport of combat than any other fictional person in the world.

Rocky instilled in me the sense of the warrior and in one of his more recent movies, he gives a speech that sums that up so perfectly.

You’ve got to watch this clip:

Rhonda Byrne – 1945 (age 75 years)

The name Rhonda Byrne may only ring a bell for a few of you. But if you don’t know the name, I’m sure you know her famous book – The Secret.

The Secret received a lot of support and criticism worldwide. It was a book that was heavily mocked by the mainstream media.

This book is about the Law of Attraction. I’ll be the first to admit from a simplistic point of view the law of attraction is very easy to mock.

I read this book when I was 22 years old and studying horticulture in the Irish Botanical Gardens, in Glasnevin, Dublin, Ireland.

This book completely altered my way of seeing myself and seeing the world. It made me a believer. A believer in myself.

My entire life I was an average to the below-average student. I was that guy who would always do the bare minimum just to pass. That was how I rolled.

I read this book and decided I could get straight A’s in every subject I was being graded in.

Did I get straight A’s in everything?

No, I did not!

But I went on to have my strongest ever academic year in my student life, succeeding in every subject beyond what I thought was possible before I read that book.

Then I went on to study landscape architecture and finished an honors degree course as one of the top students in my university class.

I know beyond any doubt that I owe a great deal of my academic results to that book The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.

This book also introduced me to other amazing teachers, such as:

Bill Harris – Centerpoint institute – Bill founded a company that specializes in binaural beats. It’s essentially meditation on steroids.

From the ages of 17 to 23 I struggled deeply with depression. I lived with suicidal thoughts and generally had no control over my emotional state.

After 6 months of using this technology, I regained control.

I had a new perspective on life and could safely say I no longer had suicidal thoughts. Occasionally when they did reappear as they sometimes do I had the tools to handle them.

I sent an email to Bill Harris to say thank you. I don’t know if he got it. I’ll never get to thank him in person because he’s passed on now (2018), but his technology helped me out of a very dark place.

Then there was John Assaraf – Business Coach – John was my first hero in the world of business – he made me want to take on any business challenge and facilitated my ambition.

No matter what I was doing, whether it was cleaning offices or working as a garden landscaper, John made me believe I could turn it into a profitable business.

If you have not read the book – The Secret, you can watch the full movie here:

The Real Influencers

Many people have influenced me and shaped my life over the years. Many of which are not public figures but people I have grown up with, people who I have been a student of, people I have worked with, and people that may not even remember me.

Most of the people that shape us will be the people that are present in our lives as we are seeking answers.

Remember when the student is ready the teacher will appear.