From Average to Extraordinary: Robert’s Path to Unstoppable Resilience
Ever wondered what it takes to push past fear and embrace the unknown? Robert Hamilton Owens has lived a life defined by bold choices, endurance, and the relentless pursuit of growth. From overcoming childhood adversity to becoming a 12-time Ironman and Special Ops veteran, Robert’s story proves that discomfort is the key to unlocking your potential.
In this episode, Robert shares his powerful mindset shifts, the art of stacking wins, and why the people you surround yourself with can make or break your journey. If you’re ready to break free from self-doubt and take bold action, this is the episode for you.
Tune in and discover what it truly means to live without limits!
Must-Hear Insights and Key Moments
Robert’s journey from struggling with self-worth to becoming a 12-time Ironman
The "stacking wins" mindset that builds unstoppable confidence
How embracing discomfort is the key to growth and resilience
The importance of surrounding yourself with people who push you higher
Overcoming fear and taking bold steps towards personal transformation
Lessons from Special Ops training on mental toughness and perseverance
Why failure is just another step toward success
Advice to his 18-year-old self: "You can do it. Don’t let fear hold you back."
Words of Wisdom: Standout Quotes from This Episode
"Stack your wins. Small victories build unstoppable confidence." – Robert Hamilton Owens
"Life isn’t meant to be easy. Growth comes from embracing discomfort." – Robert Hamilton Owens
"Surround yourself with those who lift you higher—your environment shapes your success." – Robert Hamilton Owens
"You’re only one bold decision away from a completely different life." – Courtney Turich
"You don’t need to have it all figured out. Just start. You’ll find your way." – Courtney Turich
About Robert Hamilton Owens
Robert Hamilton Owens is an international business consultant and inspirational speaker with over 25 years of experience across 30+ nations, guiding audiences on leadership, free enterprise, and democracy. He’s worked with elite clients like the Navy SEALs, NFL teams, and global business leaders, delivering impactful talks everywhere from South African Parliament to Vietnamese government offices. Robert also hosted Fox’s Leadership for Changing Times for 22 years and served eight years on Nevada’s State Judicial Ethics Committee.
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BLOG TRANSCRIPT
Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies
Courtney Turich: Hey friends, today's episode, we're sitting down with Robert Hamilton Owens, who's made bold moves and confident choices to build something incredible. We'll dive into his journey, the key lessons learned, and some surprising insights along the way. Here's a little bit about our incredible guest. Robert Hamilton Owens is the fittest and mentally toughest 71 year old in the world.
He is a true force of nature, a former Air Force Special Ops pararescue, 12 time Ironman, endurance athlete, Keynote speaker, philanthropist, and Robert spends his life and pushing limits, both of his own and others. From extreme races, like the 300 of Sparta Endurance Race, to completing, are you ready?
Seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. Again, let me repeat that. Seven marathons. On seven continents and seven days. His feats are nothing short of legendary beyond physical endurance. Robert is a mentor and motivator, inspiring elite athletes, military leaders, and global organizations, including the Navy SEALs and South African parliament with over 25 years as a speaker and TV hosts, his mission is clear to help others break barriers.
Defy odds and redefine what's possible at any age. Get ready for an episode packed with grit, resilience, and unstoppable drive. So without further ado, I welcome Robert Hamilton to Bull Moves Confident Choices. Hello, Robert.
Robert Hamilton Owens: Hey, hi, Courtney. Good to see you.
Courtney Turich: Good to see you. Thank you so much for being here today.
Robert Hamilton Owens: Sure. Thanks for having me.
Courtney Turich: You have so much insight to bring to all of us. So before I ask the big question of what your big bold move was, which I know you have many, why don't you start off by just telling us a little bit more about Robert?
Overcoming Childhood Adversity
Robert Hamilton Owens: most people like to know that I was a disabled, adoptee.
I was adopted at three months old. I got a name, three months into it. I went from a number to a name when my parents picked me up at the orphanage. And they picked out a special needs kid that couldn't walk. So I didn't learn to walk unaided until sixth grade. So I played by myself most of my time.
Had a lot of snakes in my head with poor self worth and issues of abandonment, those kind of things. just went through some real struggles. Growing up, my mom had lupus for her whole life. A UCLA grad got lupus at 39 and had it at 91. Prednisone, cortisone. osteoporosis, all kinds of stuff in her background, in her life.
Anyway, I was sort of a loner growing up, because I just didn't really fit, didn't know where to fit. Then begin to discover who I was because men began to speak into my life and tell me that I wasn't stupid and dumb and a loser and a mistake. I began to listen to them. So that's where it starts.
Courtney Turich: Wow. So, Robert, you have done so many amazing things in your life, especially from an athletic standpoint. How did you move past? Not being able to walk to getting where you are today. Like, how did you do that?
Robert Hamilton Owens: My mom was a PE major out of UCLA, got her master's out of Wellesley. When I couldn't run, she threw me in the water and she said, well, if you can't run, you can swim.
And so she put me in a swimming academy, with diapers on and threw me in the pool with a bunch of, World War II mothers and, learn to swim. And then took me to the beach. My grandparents lived at the ocean and so I began to be in the water. I didn't have to run. To be somebody, I could swim and do things, and I started boogie boarding and surfing probably in fifth grade, sixth grade, then learned to run, and running was a secondary thing, and swimming was a first thing, and I found my niche in the water.
Courtney Turich: you became a natural born swimmer, huh? Natural born fish.
Robert Hamilton Owens: Well, you know, it's pretty fun when you're around the water, and you like the water, and you have no fear of water, because you got thrown in really early. I got to junior high, people said, you're going to go to high school and play water polo and swimming.
And I said, what is that? And they said, well, it's soccer in a swimming pool. I said, that sounds pretty stupid. You know, anyway, got to high school and joined this team because we had an outdoor pool and when we weren't swimming, we'd sit out in the sun and soak raisin and get a tan when all the football guys were all sweating and looking ugly, you know, pimples and stuff.
We were out there soaking raise little Adonises with. Good bods, you know, and hanging out in a pair of Speedos and, uh, all of a sudden I found that I could compete in that. And my coach ended up being the U. S. Olympic coach. Went from high school to Long Beach State to University of Michigan to U. S.
Olympic coach. And so he treated all of us young kids as little Olympians. he just, told us about excellence and about, hard work can beat better talent. And so my father was never around in the sense he was busy working. I just sort of did whatever this coach said as others.
And I developed and grew, gained some confidence.
Courtney Turich: Wow. So you talk about the snakes in your head. Are these the coaches? Are these the individuals? How did they help you get those snakes out of your head?
Robert Hamilton Owens: They said, why do you think the way you think? you have talent. But in my head, I mean, I was called a mistake in third grade.
I was told I was a loser growing up because I couldn't do anything. and so you begin to have these poor self worth thoughts. I can't, I shouldn't, I couldn't, don't want to try, don't want to be embarrassed, don't want to fail. All the things that many of us have in our heads. as he began to exploit those and say to us, don't think like that, uh, we're going to win this race and you're going to win this race.
We're going to win this meat. Yeah. And, uh, we're going to beat this team in water polo, blah, blah, blah. A lot of us, it was a three year high school, a lot of us sophomores just said, okay, whatever you say, we'll do. And sure enough, we all excelled. And we all, I mean, I think we had nine D1 scholarships out of our high school team, you know, kids that were not age group swimmers.
They started ninth grade, didn't start three, four or five, 10. Just normal high school kids. And, uh, we put two guys on the Olympic team from our high school water polo team, and it just, we had a culture where kids begin to transfer from their school to our school to be under this coach, and he fathered a bunch of kids and spoke life into us.
So we were just moldable. We just are so glad that the right guy began to speak into our lives.
Courtney Turich: Incredible. So really that, that man who came into your life really set the stage for everything. A lot of what you've accomplished from that point on in your life.
Stacking Wins and Building Resilience
Robert Hamilton Owens: You know, when you, um, when you begin to start to get wins, most people don't have confidence in certain areas.
When you start taking yourself on and getting incremental little wins like one less cigarette today or one less donut today or one less coke today or one less glass of wine today. When you begin to take yourself on and say, I wonder if And then you begin to find that you could do those what ifs.
Little things. We call that stacking in the coaching business. You begin to stack little wins on top of each other. You get those 10, 000 hours they talk about. And pretty soon you, you evolve and you grow and the things that you thought were impossible are not impossible anymore. They are more like, I wonder if, and then you begin to say, I wonder if I wonder if I wonder if pretty soon I was wonder if he wrote myself into special ops and, um, uh, leading my team.
And then when the iron man came out, it was in sports illustrated as the toughest endurance race in the world. Stupid. And I said, no problem, I can do that. Knocked out year number three with a, you know, a pair of swim trunks on and a baseball hat and a pair of tennis shoes. Flew, went to Hawaii and um, you know, blah blah.
And you, you begin to gain confidence. And the, to the listeners listening, um, there's many of us that wish we could do or wish we knew how. But if you just listen to the right people and you let them begin to guide you and Get rid of the naysayers, the snake people, and begin to listen to people that are positive, your life can change.
But most people are afraid to step out in the beginning. And start the journey or the struggle of, I wonder if,
Courtney Turich: So if we're afraid to take that first step, what can you tell us to push us over that, that line to jump in, to trying to move forward?
Robert Hamilton Owens: Um, everybody has a struggle, mental, emotional, relational, social, everybody has a struggle.
And so once you realize that life is meant to be challenging. It's not meant to be easy. If you take the easy road, you won't grow. And so when you begin to say, I wonder if and then begin to put your toe in the water and step out and try something that you've never done before, when you, when you embrace physical discomfort or mental discomfort or emotional discomfort or social discomfort, when you do something that you don't know that you really want to do because you don't want to fail, but you try it.
And you go back, you go back, pretty soon you say, it's not that bad. No one wants to be a freshman in high school. And by your senior year, what's the problem? But then you gotta go be a freshman again in college, oh no. And in our life, there are freshman moments over and over and over of, oh, I don't know what to do.
Well, let's try it and you'll figure it out. And so, those kind of things, um, it can happen for you. It can happen for each listener there that there's something that's a challenge for them. And if they get the right people around them and they don't care what other people think after a while, cause you're not trying to please anybody, but you cause you're trying to grow.
People will begin to see, wow, this is deep. And I meet new friends who are doing the same thing and you find a way to win and you just begin to mature mentally and emotionally, physically, relationally, and you change.
Courtney Turich: Robert, what a great point. We will continue to have freshman moments throughout our entire life,
Robert Hamilton Owens: entire life.
Courtney Turich: And that is such a simple way to just push, put ourselves back in that moment. We've all been there and we all get past it. We all push forward past that moment, but something else you also highlight as you keep meeting new people. along the way because you who you're surrounding y the same things right and next level of
Robert Hamilton Owens: extraordina for most people.
Um, ever
Courtney Turich: Yeah,
Robert Hamilton Owens: you leave your friends behind. Because your friends say, don't go to the next level, stay here with us in mediocrity. Right. In excuses. And you say, no, I'm tired of that mediocre lifestyle, mediocre thinking, survivor mentality, victim mentality. If you, if you leave us, then that condemns us. And so you don't want to hurt your friends, so you stay down with them to be nice.
But whenever you go to the next level, you have to leave the excuses behind that your friends want you to have. So the higher you begin to grow in whatever it is that you're growing into, you can't take your friends with you. And the sad part is you say, don't you want to come too? And they go no, because they don't want to pay the price, or they don't want to change, or they like their excuses.
Or Just like saying, I'm going to stop drinking. What do you do at Christmas? Uh, what am I going to do if I got to go home to a drinking house and you don't want to be a drinker anymore, what are you going to do? And there's pain. There's social pain, relational pain, situational pain. I don't want to be in that pain, so I'll just drink with my parents because I don't want to be causing a ruckus.
But every time that you go to that next place, you have to leave people behind. And most people are afraid of being alone or being isolated or people's opinions about them. And so they'd rather stay in, stay in that bad situation than set, set themselves apart and go, okay, um, I can find a way to win. I, I, I am so desperate to get out of this.
That's willing, leaving them behind to go to this next place. Right. I mean, I went to college five times and the first four times I went, you know, I flunked out or got, when there was too much snow, I went skiing. If it was too much good surf, I went didn't go to class. I liked living in the back of my van with my ponytail, you know, and then someone said, you want to go back to college?
And the fifth time I said after military, Oh yeah, what's the problem? It got almost straight A's, you know, but the first four times my headspace. was full of fear, doubt and unbelief. You know, I can't, I couldn't, I'm not smart. I'm this and that. And then I finally went through the military thing and found out that I was not smart or not dumb.
I was smart. And I went, Oh yeah, knocked out college easy. So you have to change your environment and you have to change where you're thinking to change your friends. And most people don't want to make those moves.
Courtney Turich: Robert, you say so many things again here that I want to touch on. So you don't necessarily have to leave your friends.
You can invite them along, but you'll quickly find that most of them, if not all of them, won't join you is what you're saying. And you just got to push. Keep pushing forward.
Robert Hamilton Owens: You can be their friend, say hi, but you can't let them be in your headspace.
Courtney Turich: Yeah, there you go. Can't, we can't let them be in our head space.
And the next, you know, it's really fascinating to me knowing your background and all you've achieved, you would think that you've always been this type a person go, go, go that never fought that head. You know, the head game we all play. Like you just said, you dropped out of college five times. It took you on your fifth try.
Robert Hamilton Owens: My dad's a Mensa. Yeah. But he has a Mensa at Stanford, four point undergrad, four point law school, never got to be in his life. My mom's a four point out of UCLA with her master's out of Wellesley. My sister's a four point out of USC. And then there's me. I just want to party and surf and ski and, you know, be stupid.
And so, you know, you, you have to say, Oh, you know, there's, there's gotta be a change here, or I'm not, I must be thinking incorrectly or, or something, you know, pressure will get you sooner or later, something has to change in your life. And when you're sick and tired of being sick and tired, you know, if you really want to change, you'll do it.
And when I coach Navy SEAL candidates today, or Air Force Special Warfare kids or Army Rangers, when I train them, I say, how bad do you want this? And then I say, I don't think you want it that bad. And I'm going to crush your, why your, why is not strong. And by the time I'm done with you, you'll quit. And I I'm testing them to see how bad you want it, whatever you want to do.
Cause we want them to make it, but we want to know that they know that they want it more than life itself. That there's nothing, nothing that will stand in the way of them accomplishing that goal. And then we smile at them and give them a hug and shake their hand and say, wow, you really wanted it. And most people don't really want to change as bad as they say they do.
They like their excuses. They like their issues. They like their, their situation. They don't like it, but they're not, they're not willing to say. Um, I'll do this or die. I am, I am going to change this situation in my life. So, that, that's it. That's it with young men, young women. For me, it's like, we all want you to make it.
How, how bad do you really want to make it? There's a book out called How Bad Do You Want It? And it's a great book on pain. It's a story that there's a different chemical released in your mind from physical pain that says stop, you're going to hurt yourself, don't do it. And then when you work through that physical pain, Then there's another chemical released in your brain later, it's called mental pain.
And then the mental pain becomes so torturous and stuff that, uh, you want to quit now. Once you go through the physical pain chemical and the mental pain chemical in your brain that's trying to protect you from whatever it is, then you go into a place like flow, flow state, and you get a place where nothing bugs you at all.
But no one wants to pay the price through those different kinds of pains. And everything that we want in life comes from discomfort of something of the struggle. Life is in the struggle.
Courtney Turich: It sure is, Robert, and you have witnessed people go through all those different levels of pain. Everyone. I have to tell you, he is one of the most fascinating people to just sit down and talk to the stories, just lessons learned.
We could go on all day. So Robert, I'm going to.
I'm going to ask you this question, and it's a big question because I know you have a lot of them, but what would you say was the bold move or confident choice that took things to the next level for you personally?
The Lifeguard Test: Outsmarting the Competition
Robert Hamilton Owens: You know, you told me you were going to ask me that question. I had to think back on it.
When I was in high school, um, I was not a stud athlete. I was the guy that got last place or third place or I was on the team, but I wasn't good. I mean, I was. I was just an average kid. I lived near the beach. And all of our guys, water polo swimmers, we lifeguarded the beach in the summertime. You know, chuck chicks and go surfing.
It was a lot of fun. You know, orange thing, run down the beach. Hey, who are you, you know? And so, you had to be 16. And, um, we had a lifeguard department called San Clemente City Lifeguard. And, um, we had about 30 miles of beach that we had to cover. All the guys try it out and um, made it. And so, the coach said to me, I wasn't going to be 16 till October, which meant I missed the whole sophomore summer because I was too young.
And so, my coaches, my water polo coach and swim coach said, Robert, why don't you go down and try out with all the guys to get uh, understanding for what it's going to be like next year for you. Because you're too young to do it in June, July, and August. You don't turn 16 until October. And they said, you might as well get some, um, some, um, understanding of what it's going to take to make this thing.
And this is against UCI, San Diego State, USA, USC, UCLA, all kinds of swimmers who come down to want to be lifeguards at all the beaches in Southern California. And I'm an average guy, but I'm an ocean guy, because my mom would throw me in the ocean, surfing and stuff. And so, being an average guy on my team, not a, not a stud, I went down there, my mom took me down, and she said, what do?
I said, I want to check this out to see how it works. And there's a, there's a current that runs under our pier, and it runs fast, and they put a, we have a pier, and then we put a buoy at the end of the pier. Big orange buoy and you have to swim to the buoy and back in as one of three events, but there's a current and so pool guys only know pool.
But ocean guys know ocean because we've surfed in swells and currents and stuff. So I went down and practiced on my own after school on how am I going to do this thing. So I prayed for big waves, which pool swimmers don't like. And I prayed for a big current so I could figure it out, but they wouldn't know what to do.
And that cold, foggy March morning I went down with all older guys and so gun goes and so I situated I trained to figure it out that I'd start off way over by the pier and let the current take me to the buoy where the other guy started right in front of the buoy and they got this one had to swim back to the buoy anyway.
I got out there, and when I came in, the waves were big, and I body surfed past all the first place swimmer guys, and I got a first place. Wow! So I got 15 and a half, I got a first place over 17, 18, 19, 20 rooms. And the second race came along, I was able to do the same thing, I got a second first place. Three events, I have two firsts at 15 and a half.
Third race, I got a third, I didn't really care, I already got two firsts, I got a third, so I got two firsts and a third. And when I, when I ran up the beach each time, the captain of the lifeguard department, this old 50 year old guy, looked at me and said, what's the deal with you? He didn't know that I'd come down and I'd strategize how to beat pool swimmers.
And so when they called me in, they give everybody a popsicle stick in those days. With a number one on it, number two. And when I went in, they said, we want to talk to the guy, that kid, Owens. And they went in and said, what's the deal with you? And I was nervous, you know. I went, I just, I'm happy to be here.
And they said, how'd you do that? How'd you beat those guys? I said, I came down here and figured it out. And I hope for a big swell, and I hope for a big current. And they went, you're really weird. You're a stranger. You're, you're a good kid. And I said, yeah, uh, thanks for letting me just, I was here for next year.
And uh, they said, you know, you're too young. I said, sure. And so, they called me that Thursday after a Saturday, next week on Thursday, they called me and said, Hey Bobby, um, how would you like to be a lifeguard? I said, I can't, I'm too young. They said, we went to the city manager and got a waiver for you.
You're the only 15 year old after we've ever hired. And I went. Really? And my water polo swim team exploded. My coaches not only hugged me and kissed me, but they said, look, hard work beats better talent. Blah, blah, blah. You're just a epicenter of what you can do if you get the snakes out of your head and you think.
And when that happened, I went, well, I got some goods in me. I think. I think I have more talent. So then when these guys said to me, why don't you go special ops? I said, again, snakes, I don't have special ops in me. I'm just an average guy. And they said, you got special ops in you. I said, no, you know, I'm not fast, this and that.
They said, if you'll do what we tell you to do for six months, if you'll just go dark, like how bad do you want it? If you want it, go dark and just let us put you through workouts. And I did that for six months. And when I enlisted and went in the Air Force, we had a class of 150. We graduated 10 and they made me team leader of the 10
Courtney Turich: Unbelievable Robert
Silencing the Snakes: Mastering Your Mindset
Robert Hamilton Owens: for the next year of training jump school scuba school medical school And the point was they said why are you always at the back of the line?
I said cuz I'm not a leader They go. Yeah, you are. Everybody's watching you. Everybody follows you. Everybody does what you do. I Don't know. They said why do you think? The way you think I go, and it took year after year after year, peeling the snakes outta my brain that I was talented and I was smart and I was gifted, and all the stuff I've been raised with.
You know, I had to work on getting those thoughts out of my, my mind and find out that I'm good to go. So I'm saying in the stacking thing, if you get these winds, they build and they build and they build to pretty soon rowing across the Atlantic ocean is a piece of cake. You know, people say, you can't do that.
You're too old. I go, I got it. I understand. Watch
Courtney Turich: me. Watch me.
Robert Hamilton Owens: So I'm the oldest American that's ever rode across the Atlantic. And they said, you want to roll the pacific and I'm working on my wife on that one right now. Oh
Courtney Turich: robert
Robert Hamilton Owens: But the point is is that everybody that's listening to us Has dreams.
Courtney Turich: Yes.
Robert Hamilton Owens: And has desires. And wants to do better and more and be different. There's two people inside all of us. There's the people that we have that we're living every day and there's that person that dreams inside. And sees someone play the violin or snow ski or get a degree from somewhere. I wish I could do that.
And that inner person wants to come out but we limit them by the way we think. And the people that we hang with. And so once you change all those things, then this inner person begins to gain confidence. And whoa, all of a sudden, I didn't know I could really do these things, and you can do them. And that's, in my coaching practice, I find all kinds of folks and I say, What's your issue?
And they'll tell me, you know, this is my issue. Great. You want to change it? Tell me why. And we work on that. And the fun part is that almost all of them make these major leaps and changes, but no one has ever taught them about the snakes in their head.
Courtney Turich: Yeah.
Robert Hamilton Owens: And they, no one, no one talks about, do you think about your thinking?
No, I just think.
Courtney Turich: And it's one of the most powerful things we can do for ourself.
Robert Hamilton Owens: Think about your thinking. Why are those thoughts in my brain? Where did I get them? Where'd they come from? And the. You know, to do an autopsy on your brain, you know, what, why is that, why is it in there? And you'll find that somebody said something way when you're a little kid or something that sort of shaped your, your thinking.
And you have to start from scratch and pull the weeds out of your garden.
Courtney Turich: You know, Robert, listening to you say all this again, we all have snakes. I have my snakes. You've had your snakes. Um, and we all, that's never ending, right? Like it's something that we continually have to pull, pull out.
Robert Hamilton Owens: Every decade.
Courtney Turich: Yeah,
Robert Hamilton Owens: I mean at least every decade, because no kids are single, single to married, you know, married to kids or something. And then kids, the empty nest, and then blah blah blah, and this job, and it morphs and changes. You're not doing a ladder, you're doing a jungle gym. All the time you have these thoughts of, oh no, because it's something new.
Right. Get paralyzed.
Courtney Turich: Right. You know, when you just said, we've gotta think bigger, dream bigger. I just felt myself take a really big deep breath at that moment of, you know, we have to allow ourselves to go there because if we don't, well we're not gonna grow. We're gonna stay complacent. We're, we're gonna just stay as is.
And that's the best part about life. We have control of it. That's
Robert Hamilton Owens: what, that's why I like you Courtney, because when you said to me, I'm gonna do a podcast. I said, oh really? Okay. What's all about it? What's that thing all about? You know, and so you're willing to start and try. You can fail. It's no big thing.
Everybody fails before they get a first place, you know. Right. So if you learn to fail forward, if you learn to try, and then if the window doesn't open here or the door doesn't open, go to the window over here. Something else will open up and you just, you have to try things. And that's what I like about you.
Courtney Turich: Well, thank you. I take that as a huge compliment coming from you, Robert. So I can't believe that we could, again, keep talking all day, but what, if you could go back in life, Robert, what would you tell your 18 year old self?
Robert Hamilton Owens: Yeah, you mentioned that you were going to ask me that too. Um, my 18 year old self was lost. I was drinking heavy. I'd been in jail. I got sexually abused in seventh grade. I got sexually abused in eighth grade. Um, and I started drinking heavy. My mom had lupus. Um, I was just figuring how to run, um, I just had snakes in my head.
My 18 year old self was, um, was just a nice guy going nowhere and he had issues with authority. My dad was a judge, presiding judge of the county, and I was a disappointment to him because I wasn't, um, studious. He wanted to adopt a boy that would be an attorney. I was not close to being an attorney in 70s.
Um, and I probably would have said to that 18 year old, How long do you want to be stupid? How long do you want to continue to screw up and go nowhere in life? Because I like you, I love you, but as long as you want to stay stupid, Um, I'll be there to support you. But when you want to get your act together, why don't you call me?
And if somebody had said that to me bluntly like that, probably, um, I would have listened, but no one came in. I was pretty much condoned by everybody. Cause I was a nice guy. You know, I just did off the wall. I mean, I started jumping out of airplanes at 16, you know, just to see if I could do it, you know?
And so, um, every just sort of said there's Robert, but I wish somebody would have looked at me and said, You're really screwed up and I really wish that you would think about getting your act together because you have so much potential. Like my high school coaches had. And um, that's probably what I would have said to my 18 year old self.
Yeah,
Courtney Turich: I mean, Robert, where you have come from in your life, it just is, you are an example of grit, resilience, and unstoppable drive from not being able to walk as to being adopted first, right. Being a number to being adopted. To learning to walk to going through the mental battle and challenges you have to show yourself and prove yourself that you're unstoppable.
I mean, your story just goes on and on and on. And I so admire it, Robert, you are, you are an example of what people can achieve in life if they put the work in, if they believe in themselves and really go for it.
Robert Hamilton Owens: And so your friends,
Courtney Turich: thank you. Yes. And be careful who you surround yourself with. Uh, you know, Robert, before we leave here today, what would you like everyone to walk away with?
The Power of Bold Decisions
Robert Hamilton Owens: Um, you can do it. You can do it. You can, you can, you can make the leap. You can try. You can, you can make little steps and you can find people that will believe in you. There's groups out there all over the place. And, um, if you're stuck, right now, you don't have to be stuck any longer. We're only a decision away.
But it'll, it'll be painful. Because anything new is painful. You know, I don't know if I can ride a bike. I don't know if I can, you know, go to college. I don't know if I can lose the weight. I don't know if I can get away from bad people in my life. Um, whatever the scripture says. That suffering produces.
And most people don't want to suffer. Everybody wants to be an overcomer, but nobody wants to overcome. Everybody wants to have victory in their life, but nobody wants a battle. And so when the scripture says suffering produces perseverance and perseverance character and character hope, the point being is that suffering is supposed to work for you, not against you.
And so, yeah, you've got to suffer by starting something that's hard. And uh, it's not really hard for a lot of people, but it's hard for you. And everybody has a different hard thing that they have to work through. And so, um, when you embrace discomfort, everything's going to come from being discomforted.
You know, that's where, that's the genesis of all things. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired, well then what are you going to do? And when you get that
Courtney Turich: place, so Robert, where can people find you if they want to reach out to you, learn more, look at your services, where can they find you?
Robert Hamilton Owens: Um, they can call me.
My phone number is 949 542 9600. I mean, I talk to people from Hungary and South America. They call me all the time, you know, Hey, Robert, you know. My, my website is my name, roberthamiltonowens. com Robert Hamilton, like the stage play, Robert Hamilton Owens. Just think, my mom gave me the middle name Hamilton.
She pulled me out of the orphanage and said, You got a Hamilton in you. I just, I said, Why'd you do that, Mom? She goes, I think you need some help with a stately name. I said, I probably needed help with a stately name. RobertHamiltonOwens. com And then my web, my uh, email is my name, Robert Owens. But the Owens has two S's.
Why? Because I had two S's for my kids and I had three S's for this other group. So I had Robert Owens, Robert Owens double S, Robert Owens triple S. The one that you wanted to do is Robert Owens with a double S at Yahoo. And if you contact me Um, I'll be happy to listen to you and talk to you and I coach a lot of folks.
Courtney Turich: Everyone, we will have his information in the show notes. So if you miss that, you can find it there. But as we walk away today, Robert, I want to thank you for being here and sharing your story, teaching us to do those stackable behaviors. Little small steps go a long way to remind ourselves to get the snakes out of our head.
We all have them, but we've got to change our mindset and last to remind ourselves. You can do it. Something so simple, but you can do it again. Robert, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here today. Thank you to all my listeners. I want you to go be bold, be confident and be you.
Robert Hamilton Owens: Let me say one last thing to your listeners.
Now, Courtney needs to know. What you're getting away getting with taking away from this talk or all the different people that she interviews So Courtney would really appreciate it. If you would contact her email or LinkedIn or whatever and say I listened to that And this is what I liked about that guy or the guy was a jerk never have him back, but she wants feedback So would you please give Courtney feedback on this podcast on what you like about it?
What she what she would you would like her to do more of? and thank her. So please do that.
Courtney Turich: Thank you, Robert. And so true. You all help me get better myself and I can only do that with your feedback. So Robert, thank you.
Robert Hamilton Owens: Good to see you. Hope everybody does well out there.
Courtney Turich: Bye everyone. Have a great day and thanks for listening.
