Episode 44: Resilience builds empires, not degrees. John Brink is ageless.

John Brink shares his remarkable journey from surviving World War II in Holland to building multiple successful companies in Canada with just $25 in his pocket at age 24. His story reveals powerful insights about entrepreneurship, communication, and appreciating democratic freedoms.

• Born in Holland in 1940 during WWII with earliest memories of bombing raids and hunger
• Discovered at age 62 that he has ADHD and dyslexia, which he now calls his "superpower"
• Moved to Canada to pursue his dream of building a lumber mill after being liberated by Canadian forces
• Runs 10 companies across four business silos: lumber manufacturing, warehousing, real estate, and media
• Competes as North America's oldest bodybuilder at nearly 85 years old
• Emphasizes finding work you love rather than chasing money as the key to entrepreneurial success
• Credits Toastmasters for transforming his communication skills and changing his life
• Values the freedoms of North America after experiencing war firsthand as a child

John's website: johnabrink.com 

Go to BrandonHeld.com and subscribe to this podcast to learn from successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders on the Life is Crazy podcast.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Free iPad Giveaway
• 4:35 Growing Up During World War II
• 8:00 Canadian Dream and Early Work Life
• 17:03 Building Businesses From Nothing
• 26:30 Authorship and Communication Skills
• 33:34 Living Healthy at 84
• 37:58 The Four Business Silos
• 42:55 The Power of Effective Communication

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:26

I just wanted to let you know right now I'm giving away a free iPad. That's right, a free iPad. Anyone who signs up for my life coaching service is automatically entered. All you have to do is go to BrandonHeldcom and sign up for life coaching and get entered today. Welcome back to Brandon Held. Life is Crazy. Today I have a special guest on my show. His name is John Brink and he's the man of many talents. He's done so many things in life and I'm not going to just sit here and rattle them all off, because we're going to get through them, but what I am going to do is give John a chance to introduce himself and tell you all exactly who he is and what he's about. How are you doing, john?

Speaker 2: 1:23

I'm doing well, brendan, and I appreciate being on your show. So if you want me to start, I'll start in Northeastern Holland in 1940. And I was born November the 1st 1940. So that makes me 84 today. Four months from now I will be 85 years young, and which we already know. That was during the beginning of the Second World War.

Speaker 2: 1:52

My mom and dad got married in 1938. They were in love and my dad worked in a lumber mill, and they very quickly had two children, a boy and a girl. We had two children, a boy and a girl. Then my mom was pregnant with me when Adolf Hitler decided then the dictator that started the Second World War and that he wanted part or all of Poland, and next he had his vision on Western Europe, and so my dad. Although they had a beautiful family, beautiful career, everything was fine until he was called into the Dutch army in April of 1940. And for five years they would not know where he was or what he had done or if he was still alive. The last time that somebody saw him it was just before the bombing of Rotterdam, in which thousands of people died, and my mom didn't know he was dead or alive, and so she then very quickly had the two youngest ones and was pregnant with me and then had three, and things were difficult.

Speaker 2: 3:04

So the first thing that I remember was when I was about three and a half years old and that was when the Allied forces had decided to bomb the war infrastructure of Germany and again visualize Holland in the northeastern part, about 10 minutes from the German border is where I was born and a lot of the Allied planes would go overhead. So at three and a half years old I still remember the sound of hundreds of bombers overhead and day and nighttime bombing. My mom would take us outside in the evenings in particular, not to look at the pretty plains, but she felt safer outside than inside, and in the distance we would see cities burning Bremen, wilhelmshaven, kiel, hamburg, all those cities touching on the North Sea in the north western part of Germany. And so that's the first thing that I remember. The second one is that things were chopped and in particular 1944, germany had cut off all the food supply to Holland and a lot of kids and vulnerable older people died. It was the hunger period and I can still remember that part. I still have the feeling. Even now, 80 years later, I still have the feeling of hunger and fear and anxiety. And we as kids my brother, my sister, myself would go every morning into the railroad yard to pick up anything edible and burnable. And the reason that we did as kids? Because they wouldn't shoot us, they'd boot us one and we'd be back the following day. The winter of 1944-45 was the coldest on record. I still remember that part. We had in the house one little room that we heated. We were sitting close to the heater, very hot.

Speaker 2: 5:08

Canada and the Canadians in the UK together landed in Normandy in the summer June of 1944, and they made their way into Europe. It was a big fight. A lot of Allied soldiers died and the Canadians went north northern part of France, through Belgium, through the western part of Holland, and then pushed them through the north where we lived, and things were tough. We saw far too much that we should not have seen and that always stayed with me. And then the other part that happened had an impact on my life was that we were liberated by the Canadian Army, april the 12th 1945.

Speaker 2: 6:12

It made such an impression on me that I knew from that point forward, as I grew up, I would go to the land of my heroes, canada. I was going to go when I was 17. My parents wouldn't let me then, too young. Then I did go, when I was 24. And then the other dream that I had is that I wanted to go into the lumber industry because my grandfather was a master carpenter. My dad was in lumber.

Speaker 2: 6:43

Academically I was not a success story and I failed grade three. I failed grade seven three times and so people said what are we going to do with this guy? And my parents were beautiful people and some people suggested send them to the mentally challenged school. He said no, we're not going to do that. So at 12 and a half years old my dad had a friend that had a furniture factory. So they send me there. And at 12 and a half years old I became a laborer in a furniture factory.

Speaker 2: 7:15

Now, as you already know, likely is kids can be very hard on each other. So the friends that I used to have in grade seven and other friends that went to school with me then went on to college and university. I became a laborer and it was looked down on in that period. So I felt okay about it, but then it was looked down on about it. But then it was looked down on. And so from 12 and a half years old, the more I worked, I loved working in lumber, I loved working with my hands.

Speaker 2: 7:56

But then my dream came back of going to Canada, spend my time in the Dutch Air Force at 18 for two and a half years, and then I decided to go to Canada when I was 24. And so it was the dream of building a lumber mill. I decided to go to Canada when I was 24. And so it was the dream of building a lumber mill. I wanted to start with nothing, so I had a suitcase, three books, two sets of clothes, very little money, couldn't speak the language, didn't know a soul, didn't have a job. So I took a flight from Amsterdam to Montreal, took the plane across Canada, took four days, five nights. My God, that is a long way, anyway.

Speaker 2: 8:28

So I arrived in Vancouver, went to the immigration department, didn't speak English, but fortunately there was a German fellow. I could speak some German. So I told him what I wanted to do. I wanted to build a limo mill. He said go to Prince George. Prince George is in the center of Bridge, columbia, about 500 miles north of Vancouver, or, for European friends may be watching 800 kilometers, and so that's when I went. And when I came off the bus the Greyhound bus 12, 13 hours, I had my suitcase, three books, two sets of clothes. I counted my money at least three times, I had exactly $25.47.

Speaker 2: 9:14

But I had lots of attitude and, no matter how tough things were, even then in my own little world, always stayed positive. I knew I was just as smart as the others and I knew I had to start anew in a new place. And then passion whatever I do, I give it 125% Work ethic. I work harder, as I said earlier, than anybody. I get up at 5.30, then I always make my bed. I always think I'm late.

Speaker 2: 9:46

And so I had the dream of building a lumber mill and I started from the ground up and I have done that in a number of other companies actually and so that's how it all started. And then initially started as a cleanup man, then a lumber pilot, and then, within two years already I was a supervisor, then a superintendent, and another half year thereafter, two and a half years later, I was a superintendent of one of the larger lumber mills here in Northern Bridge, columbia, and even that part didn't go fast enough for me and I got part ownership, or an option to buy part ownership of a little sawmill way up north. And say that for the people that may not be familiar with it, it is in the Yukon Territory, and Yukon Territory, as far as American friends will know, it is next to Alaska and it is very cold. I've seen it 62 below zero. Sometimes snows in July, you're not sure if it is late or early, and it's a major. I've found the best places to learn to water ski because you don't want to fall off. If you fall off you die. So then I came back to Peuge. Then, in 1975, I started my limba mill of my own as a sole owner. Today I have a number of limba mills, I have a number of other companies about 10 different companies and obviously I've become very interested, active, in writing books, becoming an author.

Speaker 2: 11:24

The first book that I wrote is this one, against All Odds, and a lot of people had said to me so you had such an interesting life, john, why didn't you write a book about it? Writing books is not easy and about six, seven years ago, when I was already well into my 70s, I thought if I don't do it now, it will never happen. So I wrote this book all odds, not about how successful John is, but rather going through all the ups and downs and so I took me 80, I lived it for 80 years. It took me 20 years to think about and then it took me two years to write it. So that's the first book that I wrote, and then after that I wrote four more and I'm working on another one that will be starting actually coming out in July. It's this book here and that's about communication skills, and it is called Billionaire because all the billionaires they have one thing in common they are very effective communicators, brought them to where they ended up to be, and so it's what I believe one of the most important things, one of the least ones taught well in schools, to become an effective communicator, and obviously what we're doing here today is part of that as well. Podcasting is the new media and that's where I see the future. So that's where it puts me today, at nearly 85.

Speaker 2: 12:52

I'm fit and healthy. I'm living a healthy life. I get lots of vitamin D, either sunshine or in some other form. I sleep seven to nine hours. I'm very careful about diet. My wife is vegetarian. I do all the shopping for her. If I go to a store, I stay on the outside of the store where the healthy products is. I don't go to the aisles where the processed or super processed food is If I don't know what is in it. We don't want it. And then the other part that I do is I've been going to the gym for 16 years. I've been a competitive bodybuilder and, as I said earlier, I'm the oldest competitive bodybuilder in North America and I qualified for the Northern BC for bodybuilding Third. I became third Bodybuilding, second in physique, qualified for the provincials. That qualified me, then Same there, qualified for the nationals and the Arnolds. And so then COVID came and now again I'm competing and that's what I look like on that picture. Again I'm competing. We'll be competing in the Arnolds in 2026.

Speaker 1: 14:04

Yeah, you said a lot there. There's a lot to unpack there and what's great about it is we actually parallel in a lot of things that I didn't even realize before that we were the same. I'm very big into physical fitness. I'm not so much into physique bodybuilding, more powerlifting bodybuilding, so I can bench press almost 400 pounds myself.

Speaker 1: 14:31

I'm 52 years old, and so everything you're saying, even grocery shopping I grocery shop the same way stay on the outsides of the grocery shopping, sides of the grocery shopping. And what I think is great about your story, obviously, amongst many other things, is a lot of times people at different stages in life and it could be much later in life actually learn what's important in life, what matters, what's important. And you got to learn that at a very young age. I'm sure being in that situation that you were in it taught you really to focus on what matters in life, and what a great lesson to get to learn at a young age. And then also your work ethic right. Everyone wants to become a millionaire or multimillionaire and they don't want to work for it. They just want to find some shortcut or some scheme and they just hope it happens for them.

Speaker 1: 15:32

And your message about work ethic being so vital to getting there, I think is a great message that people need to hear and understand. I have young teenage boys myself. They also. I fight with them about work ethic. They, they. Everything in life is so easy now. Everything is so ready for you. Just barely put in the minimal work and it's done for you and I really am trying to get that out of them. So just a lot of great things you said there. One of the things you say you run 10 businesses. What are your 10 businesses that you run and what advice would you give people that want to be entrepreneurs?

Speaker 2: 16:35

First and foremost if you want to be an entrepreneur. There's misconception about entrepreneurship and owning your own businesses. Some people think that entrepreneurship is being preoccupied with planning holidays and bringing money to the bank. It isn't. There is a foundation to it. Other people believe that if somebody is successful then they must have been lucky in some form, and I simply say the harder you work, the luckier you get. So that's how it works.

Speaker 2: 17:10

And then the other part is that at no point in my life ever was money the driving force. It never was and it still isn't today. And it wasn't when I started with my 2547. It was not becoming a millionaire, multimillionaire, whatever. No, those are all secondary things, not third or fourth or whatever. The other one is to have the satisfaction of getting up in the morning, and I love. Every day to me is a great day, and that's the way it has been for a long time. So that comes to me back to for people that want to become entrepreneurs or want to build a business.

Speaker 2: 17:55

I get the question a lot of times actually, and so I do a lot of presenting to young people at high schools, colleges or universities, and I saw a show on one of the US stations that said that 75% of the people that work in the United States and I believe Canada is the same do not like their jobs and 70% of that 70% are looking for another job. So what I'm saying is that, respectfully, is that to the young people, and as I give presentations, I always ask some of them what do you want to do when you're down here college, university, wherever and a lot of them say I don't know. And I say start looking around. You want to be a truck driver. Talk to some truck drivers and see what do they do. What kind of a truck? Low haul, short haul, what is it like? Should I own it? Should I have more than one? Entrepreneurship or whatever? Or you want to become a builder of houses, maybe. Then talk to somebody that is a contractor, just building up houses or manufacturing of a product, whatever that may be. Talk to some people that started manufacturing. Or you want to be a doc or a lawyer or an accountant? Talk to people that are doing the job. A lot of them love to talk to young people that suggest to them can you give me some guidance in terms of what are the advantages of your job and what you're doing and do you want to be an entrepreneur? Talk to people like myself, and I always encourage people to do that and for young people in particular that are thinking for direction, because for a long period of your life you're going to be working in a job or an entrepreneur or doing something. That is immensely helpful for all the obvious reasons, but also that you like what you're doing, and so I wrote a book about that, and the book is Finding your Passion, living the Dream. And a fair question would be is that?

Speaker 2: 20:09

I left school at the age of 12 and a half, became a furniture maker and worked in a furniture factory. Now I'm nearly 85. For 73 years I've been working in a number of different businesses and saying, hey, john, are you living the dream? I am, and I still love it, and the reason for it is that I knew fairly early I wanted to become an entrepreneur, I wanted to go in the lumber business and a number of other things. So that became the driving force and that created the incentive.

Speaker 2: 20:43

So, bringing me back to the question, what do I have in my different companies? I have four silos. The one silo is lumber manufacturing and I have a number of lumber manufacturing companies, mainly in northern British Columbia, and we do manufacturing of lumber and value-added products. The second silo is warehousing, and we're probably the largest warehousing company in northern British Columbia. We do warehousing, distribution and logistics. The third silo is real estate. We do warehousing, distribution and logistics. The third silo is real estate. We do residential, commercial and industrial and probably are one of the larger developers in Northern British Columbia. And so the other silo that you may find interesting.

Speaker 2: 21:35

I also have a silo, and that is media, and so I do presenting as a speaker and the man speaker. I do write books. I'm working. My fifth one is coming out. That is this one here, and then I'm going to start with my sixth one and seventh one. I want to write a book every year.

Speaker 2: 21:57

One, it's seventh one. I want to write a book every year. And then the other one is obviously I'm very active as a podcast. I see that as the media of the future. It's only on its infancies right now, as I see it becoming much and much larger and bigger, and I want to be involved in that, not only podcasting, but set up a platform. That's another part that I'm working on as well. So those are the four silos that I have and they keep me busy and active and I own all of them. I'm the sole owner. And how that happened is not because I had so much money that I could start, but I simply couldn't find anybody to invest with me because they suggested what I was trying to do was not possible. And that was 50 years ago. But I'm still here.

Speaker 1: 22:45

Yeah, see, so you cover so many things that I even forget some of the things I wanted to touch on with you. I also really believe in communication and the importance of communication, which you spoke of earlier, but you brought it up again and then I remembered my undergraduate degree is in communication. I've also continued to take continuing education outside, just on my own, not for any type of degree or anything, just to learn communication and become a better communicator. And as one of the best ways to be a communicator is to be a better listener, and you know that. But definitely people need to know that, they need to understand that communication isn't just about what you say. It's about how well you listen to other people and what they have to say. And then, when you talk about entrepreneurship, my wife's about half my age, to be honest with you, so she's getting I feel lucky too.

Speaker 1: 23:47

Yes, she's an amazing young woman. She's getting her Juris Doctorate in law and she does exactly what you're talking about. She reaches out to lawyers that are in the industry, in the business, and she finds out what they're doing. How do they feel about it? Do they love it? Would they recommend it? Would they tell her to run away from it? And so that's how she's trying to decide what type of lawyer she's going to be and in what field she's going to do it in. So she's following that advice that you gave, exactly for her own future career.

Speaker 2: 24:20

Phil, now I have a connection with her. Can you tell me her first name?

Speaker 1: 24:25

It's Juliana.

Speaker 2: 24:27

Juliana? Okay, yeah, I like it, brendan. Is that the other thing in all fairness, though I should say that I was not always a good communicator that once you grow up and you get married or you want to work for somebody else or you're applying for a job or you want to become an entrepreneur, then the question is where are your diplomas? I didn't have any diplomas, yeah, but I always knew I was just as smart as the others, but I was in my own world. So going to Canada for me is my dream that I had from the time we were liberated by the Canadians. And then the other one was to go to the West Coast, to British Columbia, and to build my own lumber mill.

Speaker 2: 25:24

But I wanted to start with nothing and that I grew up in Northeastern Holland and by the German border and we spoke dialects, and not uncommon. In Holland. There are different dialects, but especially in the Northwest and the Northeast they have strong dialects. So if I speak my dialect the people in Holland would not understand me. So I loved speaking dialect. So I had to learn to speak Dutch, really formally when I came into the Air Force, and then I barely had that part under control. Then I go to Canada and I had to learn to speak English because I didn't speak English and it became an interesting journey. But the other part about it was that, purely because of coincidence, I already built companies and I was doing well and everybody said, oh, you're doing so well and blah, blah, blah, but I was not a good communicator. I could work with maybe two or three people in my companies, but not outside of that, until an ex-sister-in-law said to me hey, john, I want you to go with me to an organization called Toastmasters, and I said what's that all about? She said about developing your speaking skills and communication skills. I said okay, and as we speak about that, for the people watching Toastmasters is all over the world, mainly in North America. Probably in anybody's town there'll be several of these clubs and there's probably 500 or a million people watching associated with Toastmasters clubs in the United States and in Canada and the rest of the world, and there's probably 10 million people that had a touch of Toastmasters and be part of it for the length of time they needed for them to develop the skill that they were looking for.

Speaker 2: 27:16

For me, I was a basket case and so the first time that I went there and I was assured nobody would ask me any questions. I was sitting there in the middle of the meeting. Somebody said hey, john, tell us all about you. I said, oh my God, I'll never go back here. But I did. I stayed there for 10 years, became a distinguished Toastmasters. That is the highest level in Toastmasters. There's probably of the 10 million people that did Toastmasters, probably less than 1% of them is a DTM, and so for me it changed my life. And so, if I look back, the war years changed my life and now, as a foundation for looking forward, meeting the Canadians changed my life, for obvious reasons.

Speaker 2: 28:03

The other one was Toastmasters in 1990. And then for 10 years I was part of it, and indeed what you are saying, which is critically important, toastmasters is not about public speaking. It's about becoming a good listener. And then the other part that it does is speaking on your feet and articulating your thoughts in terms of a particular topic, whatever that may be. So that's the training of it. The other one is that the becoming a good listener and developing presentations, and a lot of people say what is this presentation? How do you do presentations? I said you're going to tell them what you tell them, but you're going to tell them what you're going to tell them, then you're going to tell them, then, after that, you're going to tell them what you told them. That's the package, in a way, and then you expand from there. But that's putting it in a very short form in terms of what it is about. The other one that the comment that you made very correct is that to become a good listener is extremely important in all the things you do in life. So Toastmastering to me has been one of the most important things that I've done. That changed my life.

Speaker 2: 29:23

The other one that changed my life happened to me in January of 1997, when I was already here for 32 years. I already was successful in my businesses, but still I had challenges with who am I, why am I different than most other people? And I was still always challenged by that. Why is that? And I went into a store and I'm doing this podcast with you out of a boardroom of one of my companies. Normally I have a studio downtown here and I have the book that I picked up in the bookstore here in 1997. That changed my life.

Speaker 2: 30:12

And the book's. I don't have it here, but I would then show you the actual book. And the book's title was Driven to Destruction by Dr Halliwell. And I have no idea, brenner, why did I pick up the book? I have no idea. I picked it up, went through it and I said it was about ADHD and I said, oh my God, that's me. And I wrote inside the book Now I finally know who I am in Dutch, because the stigma was that there was a mental disorder of some sort and it took me time. Then I went home, started Googling, trying to find out more and more about it and it took me five years and when I was already I got the book when I was 67.

Speaker 2: 31:02

By the time I was 72, I went to my doc that delivered our two daughters and was a personal friend and he said hey, john, why are you here? I said I think I got ADHD and we checked it out. Yes, I do. And so that part changed my life. If, looking back to when I failed grade seven for the third time and became a laborer, I'm proud of that today and I was 12 and a half. And now, when I was 62 and I found out that I had ADHD for 50 years, I was wondering who am I and why am I different? And so that part changed my life. And now ADHD I call it a superpower. And Dr Halliwell that wrote. Dr Halliwell, professor, he is ADHD and has dyslexia. So do I. I have ADHD and dyslexia, but I'm a very good writer, not a good reader.

Speaker 1: 32:04

Yeah, that says so many things. We like to push formal education on people, and that's the quote-unquote path to success in life, and you're one of many people who have succeeded in life without a formal education. I, too, was not intelligent when I was younger. I graduated high school with a 1.5. I did work my way to get an MBA with a 3.6 GPA, which I'm very proud of, because that was a lot of hard work for me and clearly you loved it likely.

Speaker 2: 32:50

I'm sorry you loved what you learned.

Speaker 1: 32:53

Oh yeah, and plus I just wanted to prove something, I had something to prove to myself, and plus I just wanted to prove something, I had something to prove to myself, I just had something to prove. And what your story is? Just when you put your mind to something, you do it, you go do it and you make it happen. So I guess I'm curious.

Speaker 2: 33:16

Have you ever failed at anything? Oh, I probably did. Obviously, I was married a second time. I'm in love with my wife and I have a good relationship with my former wife, and that was unfortunate. But that's another lesson that I would leave with the people that have ambitions to become entrepreneurs it can be very hard and demanding on families in a lot of cases. Sure, I understood that, and initially I was not going to get married, but we did anyway. Blah, blah, blah. But that's the one part. The other one is that I've done things that reluctantly most of the things that I've started I thought about it for a long time did my research in circumstances that I did not anticipate, made me stop, but never failed to the extent that I went bankrupt. But I have had challenges along the way. But I find it interesting that you said formal education. I take respectfully issues with that. My formal education was life.

Speaker 1: 34:29

No, I'm talking about societal. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2: 34:33

I'm saying that to Tony and Chi, because if somebody says to me what was your education, I say the former one or this one, and the point that I make is the same as you do is saying that and I wrote a book about that as well, and that is this book here ADHD Unlocked and I felt it important for me to write about it and education is starting to change.

Speaker 2: 34:58

Where we are looking now more at our educational system is not effective in terms of teaching people skill sets. There's far too much other stuff that people don't rely on necessarily and that if going to school is four years, probably six months of that is focusing on a skillset. And what we had touched at the end of the book is when I nearly finished the book. There was something that was missing in my book saying where do we go from here? And saying that it was by coincidence that I ran into a fellow that was the senior person at one of the universities here in British Columbia and he mentioned to me they are working on process of saying micro-certification, where the focus is on the micro and the other ones become additives, not the other way around, where all the other things that you may never use or are very time-consuming, and, especially for people with attention issues, have difficulty getting through the process where their interest is mainly on the skill set that they'd like to qualify in.

Speaker 1: 36:18

Let me just back up a little bit by saying the reason I had asked you that question is because I feel like some of the best lessons come from failures. So that's where you really have to rethink what you were doing or what you know, what was going on at that time, and you have to make adjustments to be better in the future. So that's why I asked you that. Also, even though I have an MBA, I actually believe that the school systems have been broken for a long time. I have learned much, much more from the book of life in my own interest, in my pursuing my own out of school education to learn, than I ever have learned at any school or university. So I don't I think it's overrated. That's just my own personal opinion and and I feel like you're definitely proof that you, if you know who you are and you know who you want and you're willing to work for it, anything can happen and your success story is amazing, especially where you started from.

Speaker 1: 37:29

You probably didn't listen to my podcast, and that's fine. I also had a horrific start from the beginning of my life and when I was 17, I left my home with $20 and I got on an airplane to go to join the Air Force, and that's where my life began. So I definitely had to start from humble beginnings myself as well, and while I don't own 10 businesses, I am doing pretty well in life and I'm very thankful for that. All right, john, you've said so many great things today. Is there anything you would like to leave my listeners with before we get out of here?

Speaker 2: 38:07

So it would be. This one, brandon, is that I grew up in war and it created things with me that still today I'm affected by PTSD, saw far too much that I shouldn't have seen, got counseling for the NHL. The fear of losing that only parent is that. And then a lot of times I fly around North America. I do a lot of business in the United States as well as in Canada, of business in the United States as well as in Canada, and if I fly around, I always and I'm also a pilot but if I fly commercial, I always sit by the window and I look outside through North America, united States, canada, and I say it's paradise, it's paradise.

Speaker 2: 38:52

And I hope that I had the benefit now of growing up during war and see how devastating it is that I'm not sure, as a general public, both in Canada and the United States, if we fully realize the effects of war and it will have on families and the privilege that we have to live in these democratic countries that are so special, there is opportunity for anybody that wants to work hard and to preserve that, because it makes us unique in the world.

Speaker 2: 39:31

If I look around, see what is happening in Ukraine, middle East. I look at Russia, china, venezuela, cuba, north Korea and going on and on. How fortunate we are and if I see what in the United States in particular, which is the leader of democratic rule, although there are challenges politically and differences, I look at their constitution. That is the most important because it starts with the people and ultimately the people will make the rules. There may be ups and downs along the way, but in the long term, for the last 250 years it has worked well and I see still the United States as leaders in the free world, together with other countries like Canada and other ones in Europe and across the world that are democratic. How precious it is and to preserve the life that we have and the freedom that we have collectively.

Speaker 1: 40:33

Yeah, thank you, john. That's a great message. I actually did a podcast just a couple of days ago that is my subscribers only podcast and I had a gentleman on who lives in Canada from Iran, and he was really pushing that as well how we need to really respect freedom and what we have here in North America. So what a great message, and I want to thank you for being on my show today, john. It's been just a pleasure hearing your story, your success story and everything you had to go through to get to where you are today. And I forgot to touch on this and I wanted to say so many people just can't wait to retire. They just can't wait to retire and it's because they're miserable. They do what they can't stand doing, and John is exactly doing the right thing. He's doing what he loves, he's keeping himself active, he's keeping his mind sharp and, geez, john, I just hope you live so many more years and keep going like you're going. So thank you for sharing your message with everybody.

Speaker 2: 41:40

Brendan, take care of Juliana, because you're lucky.

Speaker 1: 41:44

I know I'm lucky. I thank God every day for her. Honestly, I really do. She's been a blessing to my life and she gives me strength and she gives me power and she's actually one of the reasons I have this podcast is because she kept pushing me to write my life story in a book and I'm not much of a reader or a writer because I don't have the attention span for it. I always drift off when I'm trying to read and I have a hard time.

Speaker 2: 42:09

Have you got a book, though, brendan? Do you have a book? No, no, I never wrote one.

Speaker 1: 42:15

No, that's why I'm doing this podcast, because I told my life story on the podcast, because they kept telling me to write a book, so I just decided to write or tell it on a podcast. But anyway, that's. I digress. Maybe someday I'll get around to it. People keep telling me that they didn't have what it takes and then eventually they did it and it became much easier after the first one. That's what I keep hearing. So maybe I'll get around to it someday. But thank you so much, john, for joining me. And where can people buy your books, by the way?

Speaker 2: 42:50

Look at johnabrinkcom johnabrinkcom.

Speaker 1: 42:54

Sure, I'll have the link in the underneath the podcast in the notes. Sure, I'll have the link in the underneath the podcast in the notes. And for me, I would like you to go to my website, brandon heldcom, and subscribe to this podcast. That's really what I'm trying to do here is get subscribers and get people to listen and learn from what we have to offer here on the life is crazy podcast, and I also have an Instagram, a Life is Crazy Instagram, and a YouTube channel, brandon Howell Life is Crazy YouTube channel. So I appreciate you all for listening and giving us your time, which is a valuable resource, and we don't take that for granted. So, thank you and I'll talk to you next time.