This week we chat with Andrei Jablokow, engineering professor, coach, and entrepreneur. Andrei shares with us the value of learning through reading and his newest step into entrepreneurship. Andrei explains that it's important to really think about the things you are good at or enjoy doing. He also shares the importance of learning everything it takes to have a successful business. Congratulations to Andrei on his new adventure!
Transcription:
Kris Parsons00:03
Welcome to changing the rules, a weekly podcast about people who are living their best life and how you can figure out how to do it too! Join us with your lively host, Ray Lowe, better known as the luckiest guy in the world.
Ray Loewe00:22
Good morning, everybody, and welcome to Changing the Rules. This is your lively host Ray Loewe. No, I have no idea where that lively host thing came from. But we're going to have a lively guest, I promise you that. Let's talk for a minute about changing the rules and what we're trying to do here. One of the things that we found is that we are saddled in life by rules, everybody in the world seems to want to give us a set of rules. Rules are great because they add structure to our lives. We're going to come back and talk about structure later, in a little bit. But it adds structure to our lives. The problem is that rules get overwhelming and that there are too many, and many of the rules that we were given early in our life just aren't relevant to where we want to go anymore. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, has a comment that he made. He said, "You know, when you're living life under somebody else's rules, you're not living your own life, you're living their life." We interview people that we refer to as the luckiest people in the world on this show. And they're our role models for going ahead. These are people who have designed their own lives and are living them under their own terms. Or if they haven't completed that process, they're in the process of doing that. We're going to find when we talk to Andrei Jablokow. So let me introduce Andre and he's going to talk a little bit as one of the luckiest people in the world, about the process that he's been going through in his life and where he is. So Andre and I met years and years and years ago. He is not a stranger to our podcast, he's been on before. He's been on our television show before when we had that. Andre is a college professor of engineering. He is a coach and he has always been an entrepreneur ever since I've known him. What we're going to talk about today, is about his entrepreneurial bench here, where he's going, how he keeps his life interesting, how he fends off boredom, and where he's heading. So, Andre, why don't you start with anything else about your background that you want to put in there.
Andrei Jablokow02:54
No, that was great Ray. I think you hit on it exactly, that it's all been a journey. I've had an entrepreneurial mindset. If you study entrepreneurship in school, they think that it's all about coming up with new widgets. But entrepreneurship is a mindset. What I found, and I love people that are building things, and creating things and trying new things, and taking risk. I've used that myself to reinvent myself over and over again. Now, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't work. You get misguided and off on the wrong path only to realize, what am I doing here?
Ray Loewe03:38
Well, that's the adventure and the journey and people don't realize this, everybody thinks that the luckiest people in the world just sit down one day, and they say, I'm going to redesign my life. And here's the way I'm going to redesign it. Then they go off and nothing goes wrong. We all know that everything in the world changes regularly. I often think how boring life would be if we didn't have these blips in the road if we didn't have to maneuver and change.
Andrei Jablokow04:08
I heard a long time ago that, let's say there were two types of people, there are river people and there are people that wander. The river people found out a long time ago, what they wanted to do, and that was their river of interest. And they got into that. There was nothing you could do to change them. My wife is like that. She decided when she was six years old what she was going to do and she's been doing it. It's incredible. Other people like me, I'm all over the place. Not sure what I'm doing from one time to the next, looking for my next adventure. It's just a different way of the world. They're both good.
Ray Loewe04:10
Well, let me comment on that because you're not as wandering as you think you are. I mean, you've been a professor of engineering for a long time. You are an important part in the lives of students who are trying to figure out what they want to do too. And, you know, let's talk about engineering for a minute. I think it's typical of you in a lot of ways. I mean, how many engineers wind up as engineers in life?
Andrei Jablokow05:17
Not most of them don't, most of them move on to something else. What they gain is a structured way of thinking, a way of solving problems. I mean, to me, life is solving problems. It's not all engineering. But you know, you're not going to do what's in the textbook, you're not going to do what's in class at any point. But today, or tomorrow, you're going to come up with something in your life, in your work, in your business, in your family that you've never done before. You've never seen before. But now you can lean on this to say, okay, how am I going to solve this problem? You don't just curl up in a ball and say, It's too hard for me, I can't do it. You say, Okay, bring it on. Let's do it. And that I think is fun.
Ray Loewe05:58
Okay, so let's talk about when I introduced you. I said, Professor of Engineering, and you're a mentor to kids there. But you've also done some coaching beyond that, why don't you talk a little bit about your interest in coaching? Because it's part of this. It's part of who you are.
Andrei Jablokow06:17
Yeah, it is. To me, I enjoy seeing the lights go on, and people, whether I'm teaching or coaching, or somehow helping them to see what their next move is what works for them. Should they continue on, supporting them, lifting them up, to believe in themselves enough that they can take action, in the direction of their dreams and in their goals? Whether that's the right one. They're gonna find the one right now and they're going to move forward in that. Sometimes when you get beat up in the world, and we all do, it's hard to keep going. Oftentimes, a coach supports a person but at the same time, enables a person to figure it out on their own, to move forward with the change.
Ray Loewe07:14
This all starts that most people have certain fundamental things that they want. So let's go back there a little bit. This is what everything builds on. This is why people are lucky this is because they don't just go off in random directions. There's some stuff behind us. So talk for a minute about what most people want.
Andrei Jablokow07:39
What I have found is, just in my experience, is that most people want to have some kind of purpose, some reason for why they're doing what they're doing, getting up. They want to contribute in some way to society; to even in their workplace, to do whatever they do, they want to feel like they're, they're important to somebody. They want to be able to add value, beyond just doing the work and getting a paycheck. Honestly, those types of people kind of bore folks like you and me. I want to know people that are actually creating value in other people's lives. In other words, helping them solve problems. But the other thing that they want beyond that is some ability to have some freedom. And most of the times when you start looking for freedom, you start saying, I want to be able to do what I want to do when I want to do it, the way I want to do it, and so on. But what I found is that freedom doesn't come that way. Because you end up getting lost, and watching television and not doing anything. What I found, and working with my sons, and my wife, and so on, was that structure and discipline, ultimately would create the freedom. Here you go back to the rules, the thing you started up. Which rules though, are they somebody else's rules? Are they your rules and your terms? The universe works in a certain way, you're not going to be able to violate those laws, but to the degree that you can focus, have discipline, consistency, practice. You and I have talked about this lots of times before those kinds of structures are ultimately looking for freedom.
Ray Loewe09:26
Let me amplify that a little bit because I think this is the heart of the matter. We all need structure. We all need rules. But the important part is to pick and choose those rules. I think part of picking and choosing those rules is what are the rules that are going to be your guidelines to perform what you want to do. To live your life the way you want to live it. Then how are those rules going to build on your sense of purpose? How are they going to add value to your life and other people's life? How's it gonna help you make a contribution? One of the things that I have been thinking a lot about lately is boredom. It's one of the things that we want to figure out. How are we not going to be bored? How are we going to wake up every morning and feel fascinated and motivated, and really excited about where we're going in life? And when you can do that? You have a real niche on life as part of your design process. Let's keep in mind when we talk about this because people are gonna say, Well, you know, nothing's forever. And that's correct, nothing is forever, the things are going to change. But this is where you are not on your life. It's one of the pieces. Once people start to pick a direction, that direction weaves a little bit, but it doesn't change. It keeps you going.
Andrei Jablokow10:56
It actually doesn't matter which direction you pick, just pick one. So to the degree that you can focus on only the things that you can control, and go about improving yourself, what can you control? What can we control? I mean, everybody has been called a control freak, once or twice in their life, but what can you control? You can control your thoughts, your actions, your behaviors, how you respond to things, what you focus on what you eliminate, that is not necessary and not getting you toward your goal. Once you start focusing on those things, you'll start to see which direction you need to go. Then you'll have a basis for comparing whether or not somebody, some opportunity, something is right for you. You've got to have a solid foundation. The other thing that happens is that everybody wants to maybe have their own business, or succeed in the job that they're in, relationships, what have you. None of those things are going to change. You know this until you change yourself. It's a do-it-yourself project. When you get better, all of a sudden, your world gets better.
Ray Loewe12:07
So let's now get a little more specific. I know for a long time, engineering has dominated your life, and you're good at it. But obviously, there's something in there that's lacking. Right? Tell us a little bit about your life experience. What motivated you to take the steps that you're going to tell us about in a minute, and what are those steps, and where you're headed.
Andrei Jablokow12:32
So I went down basically the road that we've been talking about, and engineering has been good to me. I'm not sure I'm that good of an engineer, but I'm decent at teaching it. That's what I've been doing is teaching engineers, I think I've taught over 10,000 students now, which is, you know, that's a fair number. For me, what I learned was that the natural order of things is growth. That's whatever the whole world wants to just continue to grow. I've outgrown what I've been doing. I want to venture out and I want to have my own business. I want to get out of the drama that happens in most large organizations. So it's not that anything's bad. It's just that it's time for me to move on and grow. How would I do that? I've looked at several things, whether I work in financial services, or whether I am an independent coach or consultant or speaker, I love to be up in front of people, and so on. What I realize is that to have that kind of an operation, there's a lot of moving parts, there's a lot to do. There's a lot that I don't know, venturing out. When you've worked for somebody else, for so long, you did your one piece of the puzzle, not knowing all of the other things. So I tried to go out on my own in the past, met with some success, met with some failure. I think the fact was that I wasn't ready for it mentally and I didn't have all the pieces, parts. So I became very careful in looking at what was being offered, what opportunities were coming my way, and whether or not I could actually make that work.
Ray Loewe14:30
Can I interject? Well, I'm going to interject whether you like it or not, because that's who I am. I think it starts with thinking a little bit about two things are the basis. What am I good at? What are my skills? What can I do well? Then I think the third thing is how do I supplement these things to make them work the right way? Do those things that I don't do well, need to be done?
Andrei Jablokow15:00
It's those things that need to be done, that you don't do well and don't want to do that somehow have to get done. It's like baking a cake. You can put everything in the cake. But if you leave the eggs out, you're probably not going to get a cake. Right?
Ray Loewe15:14
I know you're not baking cakes, I suspect in your life, somewhere along the line, you're, not a bad cake baker. But we're going to go ahead over here and talk a little bit about the niche that you're exploring now? And what are the pieces of it? And why does it excite you?
Andrei Jablokow15:36
So I've moved in the direction of looking at a franchise. I looked into how could I leverage my background, my technical background in engineering? And what interests me? I love gadgets, and technical things, and toys, and playing with all sorts of computers and devices. How can I leverage that because it's a skill, and I'm good at that? I'm good at explaining things to people. I love teaching and interacting with people. I love working with people that are trying to do something interesting in their lives. So how can I create that? What I found, Ray is an interesting niche for me, which is home inspection. Now I'm beyond fixing a house; you probably don't want me to be working with the tools. I'm good at looking at things and seeing how they should be fixed. How they should be done, what's the right structure, whether it be mechanical, whether it be plumbing, whether it be structural, electrical, etc. I looked at that, and I go, Well, that's interesting, I could do that. But the further I looked into it, I realized what a can of worms, it is to try to do it on my own. I happened upon a franchise model for this, where now I can work with a company that provides me all the training. I need to get going on it. Ongoing training, marketing support, from eight different directions, support if I get into trouble or have a question, and air cover marketing. Now all of a sudden, I can focus on doing the things that I need to do all day to be successful, while I'm learning how to run a business and actually run the business.
Ray Loewe17:33
Let's backtrack a little bit, because I know one of the things we've got you excited about here are tools. I mean, this isn't your father's home inspection service. That's not what some of the things that excited you. Talk to me about roofing inspections, You don't have to climb up there anymore, right?
Andrei Jablokow17:54
Sometimes you do, it depends. If the roof is too high or too steep or made of some material, like tile, you don't want to go up there. If you don't know how to walk on a roof you'll ruin it, even if it's asbestos tile, or tar, or anything like that. So we use drones. So all of a sudden, I'm a drone pilot, I'm flying around on the roof, checking the chimney, instead of climbing up way up on a ladder. You can get a better view if you go up there yourself, but in the absence of that, you use a drone. Then I look for leaks inside of houses, right? But I can't poke a hole in the wall. So now I have this thermal, this infrared thermography camera. I can look at temperature anomalies, to see where the insulation might be not operating the way it should, or there might be a leak. I can't X-ray the wall, but you can look at it and say, Wow, without taking the wall apart, or just looking at the surface of it, you would have never known. This is all interesting stuff that goes back to my engineering, it's all heat transfer and radiation and all those equations.
Ray Loewe19:09
What about the mundane business side of things, you know, the reports, the stuff that I know, as an entrepreneur, you don't love to do?
Andrei Jablokow19:18
That's the beauty of getting in with a company who knows what they're doing is that I now have a report writing system. All I have to do is get the data, put it in, and outcomes the report. The other thing is the marketing, right? I don't care what kind of business you're in. Once you get a few clients, the tendency is to stop marketing and then you wake up one day and say I don't have any work. Some people like sales and marketing and well, others just don't, but it's a necessary evil if you're going to be the business owner. So how do you get yourself to do that on a consistent basis and have some accountability whether it be through a partner, in a coach, or systems to get you to do it, because it, it all has to work together. You can't just focus on doing the work. You've got to work on the business, not only in the business, you've heard that before.
Ray Loewe20:21
It seems to me that you have a model here that you built for advancing in life, maybe that's not the right word, but continuing the journey and making the journey worthwhile. So you've kind of looked at yourself, you've looked at the things that you're good at, you've looked at the things that you're not so good at. You realize that to move forward, you can't do this yourself. This is a mistake that most people make, everybody thinks that they're a rugged individual that they can do everything themselves. This is a world of strengths. And when you follow your strengths and minimize your weaknesses, you come out way ahead. So you've found this franchise model. And I think this is something that's a really good option for people who want to go off on their own, and haven't figured out how.
Andrei Jablokow21:15
I think it's a great thing to look at. What I found in all the things that I've tried before, I mean, it all looks good from the surface, it all looks easy. There's three things nobody tells you, they don't tell you. Number one, how much money this is going to cost. They don't tell you how much time it's going to take to learn it. And the third thing they don't tell you is the absolute avalanche of things that you need to study and learn and integrate and create and buy, and all of that, and it's a mountain of work to get something off the ground. I mean, it looks great. If you're listening, all the webinars and sales pitches, and so on. It's an incredible amount of work. And I don't think anyone person or two people could do it, it's huge. It's a lot harder than it was back in the day.
Ray Loewe22:03
So, unfortunately, we're getting near the end of our time. I think you've done some really good things for people who want to be lucky, or who want to figure out how to move into this luckiest people in the world thing. We'll get you back at some point in time. I think one of the other things is, if you offer the franchise mode, how do you choose the right franchise? What are the things you need to look at? How do you keep from getting ripped off and find the value in the system? But take a couple minutes and wind up by recommending to people who want to find the next phase in their journey. Any advice that you have for them based on your thinking?
Andrei Jablokow22:45
My sense is to really start getting their own act together and opportunities start to come. What do I mean by that? Get your health together, get your body together. Whether it's through eating right, moving correctly, reading books. Most people these days that aren't reading, there's so much to read and study all these areas. What interests you? Go investigate it, go meet somebody, interview somebody about what they do, how they do it, and why they do it. And all of a sudden things start opening up for you. You know, some things look interesting to you, because you like to do them; like baking cakes, but that doesn't mean you want to do it all day. Most fun things look good for about a week or two. I wanted to drive a big truck but I don't want to do that anymore, right? So just go out and do something, do anything, go have a coffee with somebody. Come to Ray's group on Thursdays, and you'll meet some interesting people, and ideas will start to come to you.
Ray Loewe23:45
And forget the trucks, drive a drone instead. Right?
Andrei Jablokow23:48
Some people don't want to do that even. I think trucks are great. Some people love to do that. And I think they should continue to do them because they deliver all the things that we need. But you've got to find the thing that works for you.
Ray Loewe24:02
Well, Andre, thank you so much for being with us again on Changing the Rules. And we'll get you back again. There's a lot of wisdom that you've learned during your journey. And thank you for sharing it with us who want to learn. And we'll get you back again. Taylor why don't you sign us off here and we'll see you again next week with another great guest.
Kris Parsons24:29
Thank you for listening to Changing the Rules, a weekly podcast about people who are living their best life and how you can figure out how to do that too! Join us with your lively host, Ray Loewe, better known as the luckiest guy in the world.