SA 029: Chris Plough on Personal Growth through Authenticity and Friendship

The Sweet Adversity Podcast: Entrepreneurship/Adversity/Lifestyle

In this episode I interview entrepreneur and adventurer Chris Plough. Chris has an amazing mentality towards living life, and here he shares how adversity shaped his mindset, and changed the way he was approaching his life.

Guest Bio:

Growing up in a military family and moving frequently perhaps created the foundation for Chris’ ability to handle a variety of complex challenges with aplomb and also seek out adventures and challenges.

Educated in computer engineering and theatre arts, Chris started G-Log in 1999. Oracle acquired the company in 2005; the following year, Chris founded MavenWire, which provides a full suite of services around the product he developed at G-Log. MavenWire is the biggest brand in its niche and its success has allowed Chris to focus on his main passion — meeting interesting people and learning how to reset himself so the focus is on what really matters.

Chris participates in physical challenges that take him all over the world, meeting interesting people and raising money for charities that are meaningful to him. In 2010 he competed in the Mongol Rally, in which he drove an ambulance 10,000 miles from the UK to Mongolia. He survived the Tough Mudder in 2011 and in 2013 participated in a Rickshaw Run, a challenge that requires participants to drive a rickshaw across India.

Through all of this, Chris has developed clarity about his new business focus which is advising entrepreneurs and investing in startups, while supporting charities that focus on the three main tenets that Chris believes can affect change – children’s health, education and freedom of expression.

(source: lanyrd.com)

Some Questions We Ask:

• When he hears the word “success,” what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
• What are the daily habits and routines that are important in driving towards his tenets?
• What is his relationship with money and building his next business, or what’s going to sustain him financially?
• How important are these authentic relationships to him and how did he build them over time?
• What are the books that have most influenced him, that he would recommend to the audience, and why?
  • The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book About Relationships by Neil Strauss
  • The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield
  • As A Man Thinketh by James Allen

What You’ll Learn In This Episode:

• The skills he developed as a child growing up as an Army brat whose family moved a lot
• The turning point in his life that made him look at where he was going and then try to find a deeper meaning in his life
• How do we gain self-awareness
• The values and the core tenets that he lives by

I believe that if you understand yourself as clearly and as transparently as possible, it accelerates everything that you do.

• Why it’s not a good idea to compare yourself to others and what to think about instead
• How he selects the events that he attends

Links:

Website: http://chrisplough.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/chrisplough

For instructions on how to rate and review the podcast, click this link.

The post SA 029: Chris Plough on Personal Growth through Authenticity and Friendship appeared first on Nick Dinardo.