E312 – Discover the hustle through the eyes of a successful entrepreneur’s road to riches and the soul beneath the quest for answers | with Matthew Turner

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It all began with one of his previous books called, A Successful Mistake. He interviewed 160-odd people and asked them about their biggest failure or their biggest mistake and the lessons they learned from that and how it set the foundations for success, growth, and progression. Successful people understand what success means to them, and usually, when they made a mistake or fail they were following another person’s version of success, whether it was a parent, a teacher, a friend, or society’s general outlook on what success is. It clicked into place when they took a step back and defined success on their own terms.

Matthew always liked the idea of writing a book where he would combine his passions for both fiction and nonfiction into a kind of fable. Books like The Alchemist really inspired him and brought a lot of lessons to life in ways that normal how-to non-fiction never did. This ignited the character of Ferdinand who shares certain traits with him. Matthew is very different from Ferdinand, and Ferdinand is certainly not Matthew, but the journey that Ferdinand goes through over the course of the book is very similar. Questions he has, frustrations, and feelings. 

Guiding each other along the way to better understand why they are programmed to work harder and longer, is it the fear of missing out or the fear of getting it wrong? The one thing all his books have in common is that it stays within the limits of law or decency and that they are all driven by some kind of pain, curiosity, and question. When he writes, Matthew can have certain out-of-body experiences, and that’s how he personally digests all these things as a writer. It’s how he is able to better expand and grow as a person. Writing to him is to explore and live it as an external avatar.

In this episode:

[01:50] Matthew always had that storytelling gene, but the writing didn’t necessarily come naturally

• He learned through a lot of trial and error, doing the work and listening to editors
• Matthew split his time between writing for himself and other people

[06:48] Matthew shares what he learned interviewing entrepreneurs for ‘A Successful  Mistake’

• Talking about the biggest failures or mistakes and lessons learned, setting foundations for success, growth, and progression.
• Successful people understand what success means to them 
• Defining success on their own terms

[10:43] Matthew assessed his relationship with the hustle when he wrote ‘Beyond the Pale’

• A fascinating rabbit hole to find out what your relationship is to your work

• Being programmed to work harder and longer
• Looking into fear of missing out and fear of getting it wrong

[13:00] The relationship between success and assessing your relationship with the hustle

• Always being at the mercy of the hustle 
• The hustle isn’t just working 12-15 hour days
• Stop comparing yourself to others

[15:00] Asking yourself what success means to you

• Seeing if the definition of success is the same today as it was years ago                                                       
• The default to society’s version of success and having a greater depth of purpose

[17:45] Matthew’s books are all driven by a kind of pain, questions, and curiosity

• Throwing himself into transforming
• As he experiments and explores when he writes, he grows as a person

Watch the Interview:

Learn more and reach out:

• LinkedIn: Matthew Turner
• Website: Beyond the Pale