Turning Challenges Into Opportunities With Luis Velasquez
Tony Martignetti welcomes Luis Velasquez, a Silicon Valley executive coach and brain tumor survivor, who shares his journey of building resilience in the face of adversity. Together, they explore how Luis transformed life’s challenges into opportunities and developed his unique coaching philosophy. Tune in to discover practical insights on building resilience strategies, embracing pivotal moments, and turning obstacles into growth opportunities. Whether you're navigating personal challenges or looking to enhance your leadership skills, this conversation with Luis Velasquez offers valuable takeaways for everyone.
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It is my honor to introduce you to my guest, Luis Velasquez. Luis is a Silicon Valley Executive Coach, a Stanford University Graduate School of Business Facilitator and a former professor. He's a former professor of Fungal Genetics. How interesting is that? He is the Founder and Managing Partner of Velas Coaching. He was born and raised in poverty in a country riddled by civil war. He's also a brain tumor survivor, ultra marathon runner, and Ironman triathlete. He coaches leaders around the world to turn challenges into opportunities and advocates for resilience.
His strategic thinking is regularly published by the Harvard Business Review and Fast Company and is spotlighted in Dorie Clark's bestselling book, The Long Game. His new book, Ordinary Resilience, Rethinking How Effective Leaders Adapt and Thrive, is now out and is a wonderful book to pick up. He lives in Redwood City, California, with his beautiful wife and his well-behaved kids. It is truly an honor and a pleasure to welcome you to the show, Luis.
Thank you, Tony. I appreciate it. The well-behaved kids are more of a wish than a fact.
I hear that. It's awesome to have you here. I'm thrilled to finally have you on the show. We've been friends for a while, and now we finally have this chance to go deep and share more of you and share you with my audience and get them to see all the amazing things you're doing in the world and also the journey that got you here. You've been on quite a journey, and I know a lot of it is detailed in your most recent book, but I want to give you a chance to share some of your journey with the audience.
Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. I appreciate the friendship that you have given me. It's been wonderful. Let's see. What about me? How can I tell whether I start? How long do we have again?
Before you get started, let me give you a little framing of how this works. We'll give you a chance to share what we can share. I think the best thing we can look at this is we're going to share it through flash points. These are points in your journey that have ignited your gifts in the world. Share what you feel is most appropriate and start wherever you think is the best place to start. Go from there.
There have been so many people to pounce. I call it people who pounce on my life. Going back to my country, living and growing up in Guatemala, I think that one pivotal point of my life is my first memory, my very first memory. My dad was a truck driver, and he sometimes went on long trips 3 or 4 days at a time. I remember I was attached to him pretty well. Whenever he wanted to go out on the road, we would play hide and seek. He will hide, and I will try to find him, but he will actually get in his truck and go on his trip. I will keep looking for him sometimes, 2 or 3 days at a time.
What's very interesting to me is that I knew that he was gone, yet I kept looking for him. As a child, I think that I was a coping mechanism, reframing things to make it easier for me. I think that I do that quite well now. One of the things that I do as a coach and a superpower is unlock the different ways of seeing things. That was a pivotal moment in my life because I realized that I am who I am from the very beginning. That's one. The other thing that is pivotal, I think, is coming to the United States when they entered Guatemala. The United States government set up a program called Scholarships for Peace.
They brought people or kids or young people from those areas and gave them education, teaching them English, and then they could go back because of light or because of hope in their countries. I was very fortunate to be one of them. I came, learned English, got a community college degree, and then I went back. I call it the old moment because, before that, my world ended at the end of my village, at the end of my town. That's all I knew. When I came here, I realized that there was so much else I could do.
Luis's Journey From Guatemala To The U.S.
That lit a fire in me. I need to figure out how to go back and execute my potential. That was a beautiful moment in my life. I think that those are the early pivotal moments of my life. The second line that moved forward to another pivotal moment was when I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I was a professor of Hongo genetics band-aid, back then at Michigan State University. I thought that I had it all made. All I need to do is get my tenure published in papers, and I'm done. I realized that we make plans, and sometimes they fall through the cracks. I had to reinvent myself.
I call it the people will moment because I realized that the world doesn't belong to the people who know the most, but the people who learn the fastest. I decided at the moment that I needed to figure out what else to do. I did a couple of careers. This is my third act. I became an entrepreneur. I got a business, I sold the business, I made some money, I started a new business, I bankrupted the business. I lost some money and now this is my third act. I think that those have been the three most pivotal moments if that's where you were.
Overcoming Obstacles And Building Resilience
First of all, so far. Life is still going on, but I think those are big moments. One of the things that I reflect back on you about this is what I hear is this sense of the world throwing obstacles your way, and you turn them into opportunities. You create this possibility of expansiveness. It starts from this feeling of like your world was small at first and then it became bigger and you saw that the world could be bigger and you continued to see possibilities that way is that every time the world throws an obstacle. How do you how do you overcome it? I think it's amazing to see that someone overcoming all these challenges can continue to build that resilience to show up and do more. Would you agree?
Yes. As I mentioned earlier, that was a defense mechanism for me. My dad being gone, how can I protect myself? I'm going to keep looking for him. Sometimes, we didn't have food on the table. The question was, “What are we going to have for lunch,” but rather, “Are we going to have lunch?” I used to refrain things from my brothers and sisters, “Let's pretend that we are something somewhere, and then we're going to wait for dinner I want to eat.” I realized that the copy mechanism or defense mechanism became something of a superpower or a strength in the world that I am now.
I think that a lot of times, people feel that they don't have a choice, that they don't have an option. The reality is that we do. If we look hard enough to find the possibilities and to reframe the situation that we're in. By the way, not doing anything is an option. Let's start there. If you don't do anything, that's an option, but there are other things you can actually do to see differently because if you see differently, you can think differently. If you can think differently, then you will act differently.
We all have a choice, even in tough times. It's about reframing your situation and seeing the possibilities.
In essence, that's the core of all coaching. It's like getting past that stumbling block of like if your world is if you only see one thing, how can you refrain from it and see another path that is what leads to growth? I love the way you approach this, the reframing. I want to reframe our conversation a little bit to understand what got you to think about fungal genetics. What was that path for you? What was the initial thinking that you were going to create?
Thank you. I grew up in a farm like a small tiny farm and then we grew our own vegetables. My first goal was I want to become a farmer. I came to the United States on a scholarship to learn, I want to say, food technology or something like that, but it was basically agriculture. It wasn't my path to grow, to become a farmer. I went to Florida State and I got a degree in Horticulture, still on the path of becoming being a farmer.
When I was there, I took a science class, and I thought it was plant biotechnology or something like that. I love science. I love the chemistry and everything. I made a switch. It's still studying plants, but I will do that through, I don't know, science. I got a Master's in Plant Biotechnology. Now, I am working not with plants, but I'm actually working to enhance them, not to cultivate them, but to make them better.
When I went to Michigan State at that point, I was like, what do I do? What do I want to do? I said, “I want to be able to protect plants.” I am still working with plants, so I went and I did a PhD on the plant. What was that? I forgot. I got my dissertation here in plant pathology. I did a plant pathology and biochemistry. At that moment, I was not working with plants anymore. I was working with DNA and genes. In the process of that, I still wanted to make plants better.
I got a postdoc to work with a specific disease of wheat. From there, it was a switch to fungal genetics. I'm going to study the fungi that are affecting the plants. That's the story. The key here, I think, is that a lot of times, we look at our paths and goals as absolute. I need to do that. I think that one thing I have learned over time by going from one place to the other is that we can pivot, but it's still true to ourselves.
Tell me more about that because I love that you said this is exactly where I was expecting us to go because here's this person studying in a fascinating place. Science is the central point, but then you end up having this major event in your life and then it leads you down a completely different area of getting into coaching and leadership development and all that. Tell me, how did this all transpire? Give me this low version a little bit.
The Brain Tumor Diagnosis And Life Pivot
I was a professor, and then I got all of a sudden diagnosed with a brain tumor. When I came back from the brain tumor, the doctor told me, you have to accept your new reality and your new reality is that you probably won't be teaching for I don't know when because I have some cognition issues. He said you probably won't be able to walk straight. I don't know for when, or how long. That was a very hard thing for me.
At that moment for me, I realized that I needed to pivot. I needed to figure out what else I was going to do. I think that in the book, the first pillar of the book is what I call embracing the suck and the realization that we are where we are because that's where we need to be. Sometimes we think about, “If I had this or if I got that, so when I get this, when I get that, that's when I will start.” That is working with hypotheticals that sometimes will not come.
Turning Challenges Into Opportunities: Embrace the suck. We are where we are because that's where we need to be. The key is finding the possibilities and moving forward.
Just being present in the moment and saying, “This is where we are, period. This is where I was.” When I was a kid, my dad, every time I said that I didn't like something, he would ask me a question and say, what are you going to do about that then? What are you going to do about it? That has become my mantra even now, so when something is not going right or something is not the way I want it to be, my question to myself is, what am I going to do about it?
Going back to your question, I think that a lot of times, what we need to do is to understand that we are where we are because that's where we need to be, but we don't have to be there. The idea is to find the possibilities and to figure out what is the next step by asking ourselves a question, “What am I going to do about this?”
It's easier said than done. I think that you've modeled the way. You've modeled the way so skillfully, but at the moment, I know you went through the feelings of this does suck. I'm feeling all the feelings, but ultimately, I'm going to take the steps that are necessary to make it work.
One question that I ask my clients when they are in a situation that they don't like is the following question. It's like, “What can you do today? Two years from now, you can say that this moment that you're going through, this crisis that you're going through, is the best thing that happened to your career, to your business, to whatever is happening. That unlocks the possibilities and helps us then embrace where we are because we know that that is only temporary.
I think that's the best way to look at it. This could be the moment that changes the direction of where you're going. It's a choice. As you said earlier, everything's a choice, and choosing to do nothing is a choice. In that moment, you're giving them permission to make a choice.
The other thing that I want to connect that is I got a brain tumor. I had to pivot. I was forced to pivot. A lot of times, people are not forced to pivot, but they choose to pivot. Choosing to pivot is harder than being forced to pivot. That's one. The other thing that I think is very important to mention is that the moment of pivoting was when I couldn't do what I was doing. I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. What I work with clients sometimes is to choose this moment and make it a pivotal moment. Whatever you're going through, this is a pivotal moment.
This is where I draw the line. This is where I start anew. You put that like a flag on the ground. I say from now on, this is going to change because identifying that moment and making that commitment allows you to move forward as opposed to, “Should I do it, should I not do it.” You are when and how, but if you are committed and you say, “I'm going to do this.” You give yourself permission to move forward.
It's a great thing to point out. I mean, this is, in essence, what a lot of these flashpoint moments that I talk about here, some of them come on suddenly, some of them are gradual and some of them you only know in hindsight, but it's a commitment at some point, the saying life will not be the same any longer. I'm committing to something at this moment that now is changing my life in a different way. I think that's what you're speaking to, this commitment that people are making in that moment that changes everything.
Now, I want to make sure that there is a people as we think a commitment and a decision. I decided to do something different versus I am committed to doing something different. The reason why I use commitment is because commitment has an emotional attachment and an emotional connection. I'm committed to my wife. I'm committed to my marriage. That has an emotional connection. When you're committed, it's much more binding than I am going to decide to do something else. I'm deciding to do something else. That is more up here than rather than in your heart.
Turning Challenges Into Opportunities: Commitment is stronger than decision. When you’re truly committed, there’s an emotional connection that drives true, lasting change.
You can decide to have something for dinner and that's like it's non-committal. It doesn't matter. It's not an emotional decision, but committing to a path is a very different story. I love that differentiation and I feel that viscerally. That's wonderful. I love what we're getting into here, but I wanted to pull back into your story for a moment and say what some other moments led you down this path of getting into the work you're doing. Eventually, I want to talk about the book, but I want to get into the commitment to write the book, which is a lot. Tell me what happened next in your journey when you decided to, after the brain tumor, after you decided to move forward from there?
From Consultant To Coach: A Journey Of Learning
When I was thinking, what am I going to do next? What am I going to do now? What am I going to do about this? I explore several options. I even thought about being greeted at Walmart, some real estate agent, a sales card, or whatever. The options were open to me at that moment. I am going to be very honest with you. I decided to become a consultant and a coach because the bar was very low and it's very low.
If you think about this, a lot of times when people are in transition, rather than say to employees, “I'm a consultant, I am a coach.” That's what I did. Literally, that's why I changed my profile. On LinkedIn, I'm a consultant. I'm an HR consultant. The reason why I decided to do HR is that the person that was my wife back then when I was doing my PhD, she was doing her Master's in HR. We talk about HRs. I read the books and papers, and I'm like, “I can do this. I absolutely will do this.”
Here is where things got real. It’s that when I made a commitment, again, I'm going to be a natural person, I'm going to be a consultant. I started making connections with people and I found an individual that was running a consulting company. I asked him, “Can I ask for a job?” He said, “How are you going to do that? You don't have the schooling or the experience. You're a blind scientist, for goodness sake.” I said, “I can learn.” They put me in there. I'm sure that I can.
A few months later, he came back and said, “I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I will give you a job. The bad news is that's in Saudi Arabia.” At that time, we were in the middle of the world, the Cold War. There were a lot of bombings on where the expats used to live. People were leaving. The reason why they wanted me to go there is because I have a PhD. That has some level of status in the Middle East. I went there and what was very interesting was that when I got there and I met the team, the team was expecting an expert and I was expecting the team to be the experts.
Going back to what I mentioned earlier, I'm saying that the world doesn't belong to the people who know the most but the people who learn the fastest. I decided I needed to figure it out and I did. That was my first gig as a consultant. Transitioning to coaching, I was consulting for a company in Saudi Arabia. I was in my office when the VP of HR came and said, “Luis, I have to give a presentation tomorrow. Can you help me?” I said to him, “Yeah, sure.” I helped him out. Two days later came back and said, “Luis, I have this issue. Can you help me?”
I said, “Absolutely.” Then he came back and said, “I have these three VPs that you need to talk to because they need help, too.” The company that I was working for realized what I was doing and they told me, “You're a coach.” At that time, if you remember the financial situation that was going on in the world, consultants and coaches were the first out of the companies to lose business. They were trying to figure out a way to create revenue. They say, “You're a coach.” They decided to advertise me as a coach. Now, this company has a very interesting niche.
They work with American companies in developing economies. I started coaching. I went to 22 different countries to coach. American businessmen working in development economies, but nothing of that travel was fancy. I went to Congo in the middle of the Ebola crisis. I went to Sudan in the middle of the war between Sudan, North Sudan, and South Sudan, but that's how I learned. That's how I learned to coach. That's how I became a coach. They throw me in there and I have to figure it out. Here I am now.
Coaching under fire. That's not like a program. It's fascinating.
I think that one thing that I want to mention to that caveat of that is that I gave myself permission not to be perfect because, to me, trying to do things perfectly all the time is a recipe for failure and it's a recipe for disappointment. I realized that I didn't know what I was doing. I said, “I'm going to do my best.” That is the second question that I ask myself every day, “Did I do my best?” If the answer is yes, great. I'm going to keep moving forward.
Don't aim for perfection—aim to do your best. Perfectionism is a recipe for disappointment.
It's such a great mindset. This is the thing that I think is so important for people to grasp onto in order for us to move forward in the face of adversity is that we need to be constantly thinking about what am I learning and what actions am I taking, even if they're imperfect and am I giving it my best effort? I think those are the things that come into bear to overcome adversity. If you're half-assing it or non-committal, then you're going to get non-committal outcomes. It's not going to be the outcome you're expecting. You cannot complain if you don't get good outcomes from that. If you want good results, you’ve got to put in the effort.
The Formula For Resilience
In the book, I have a formula for resilience. That is a commitment plus persistence times optimism. What you are talking about here is persistence. The idea is that being committed is not enough. You still have to do the work. Let's face it, Tony. You and I talk about this. Life is hard. Life is hard. In order to us to maintain the commitment, sometimes we do things that are hard. I think that we as humans, tend to optimize for comfort and comfort doesn't let us grow.
Comfort doesn't lead to growth. Challenge yourself, lean into discomfort, and discover what you're truly capable of.
No doubt. I think that's one of the biggest reframes that a lot of people have to have is like. Where am I being too comfortable? Where am I accepting comfort? Not allowing myself to lean into the challenges that I need to take. I love that you bring that up. I want to talk a little bit more about the book because first of all, I'd love to hear what brought you to say, “I'm going to write this book.” Also, talk to people about the book in general. I know I've started reading, but I haven't read the entire book yet. I will say that it's fantastic. I'd love to share a few ideas that you want to share. +
Writing The Book: Ordinary Resilience
The book started not as a book. Going back to Guatemala, as I mentioned, my dad was a truck driver and he had a major accident and then he was disabled for a while. When he woke up from the coma and then he made a commitment, like he said to us. “I am going to have my own business and I'm going to send you to the university. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that.” My mom and I were thinking, “How are you going to do that? You couldn't do it when you were healthy.” Guess what? He did it. He became very successful. He is very successful.
He used to give you an example when I was growing up. Sometimes, we didn't have anything to eat. My dad was making $25 a month. I asked him for a bicycle and he said, “No, I cannot give it to you.” When my little sister went to university, he bought her a car and a house. That can tell you the level of difference in economic power that he achieved after the accident. When I was going through my own issues, I had that inspiration from my dad. I think that what I did at that moment was make a commitment to get better. At that moment, getting better was to get my health back.
I started running and doing all those things. Going back to your question, what was the essence of the book? People will tell me what you told me at the beginning. You've done so much. You do this, you do that. In my mind, I was thinking, I am not doing anything special. I'm doing what is natural to me. When I started writing, I was journaling and reflecting on my dad's experience and my experience to understand us. Why is it that people are telling me that I do things when to me it's like nothing the way I'd say it, “If I run a marathon, if I do the PhD, anybody can.”
That's the premise. I was sitting at a table with Jim Gussis, who is a very famous author. I was telling him my story, the way I'm telling you this story. He said, “You need to write it down. You need to write a book.” I'm like, “How?” I said, “You write your stories.” I have a bunch of them already because I am a journalist. A few months later, I called him up, and he said, “I can help you.” Let's meet. I went to see him, I printed my stories and he said, “I'm not going to read them all, but tell me about this one. Tell me about this one. Tell me about this one.”
Five piles became evident. he said, “That's your book.” At that moment, resilience wasn't a word that I didn't know. I didn't understand it. I realized that those are the five things that I do and that my dad does. That research that I have started doing, people who are resilient, are the five things people do. I am like, “Oh my gosh.” The resilience war came to me when I was reading the book by Adam Grant and Cheryl Sandler, option B.
They talk about resilience, but it's a specific type of resilience that is not bouncing back but doing so much better after that. That's what happened to my dad and myself. That's where I made the connection between my story, my dad’s story, the research I've done, and how that's the essence of how the book came to be.
Turning Challenges Into Opportunities: Resilience isn’t just bouncing back; it’s about doing better after adversity. It’s the art of turning challenges into opportunities.
I love the way you share this because it is such a wonderful frame of mind to be thinking about this. The idea that resilience is not something that you say, “I'm going to be the person who's going to write about resilience.” It is something that you embody and then you realize, “That's what this is.” It shows up and I think that in many ways, the journey we all go on eventually when we write the books that we do is that it's not something that we thought we were going to do, but it ends up becoming the thing.
I do want to mention one thing. I think that I wrote this book three times. What made the difference was when I realized, “I want to write a book, but then I want to make a decision about what book I don't want to write.” I said, “There are three things that I don't want to do.” I don't want to write the textbook. I don't want to write a book that is all about me. It's like a biography. Look at me. I've done this. I've done that. I didn't want to write a book that was entertaining or that people needed to read the first chapter in order to understand chapter 10. I wanted people to open the book and find something that they could use. Those are the three things that I decided to know about the type of book that I didn't want to write. That helped me tremendously to write the book that I wrote.
The Impact Of Books On Luis’s Life
It's wonderful. I love that frame. It's wonderful that you looked at it that way. I think that's where a book can serve; it becomes this vehicle for being applicable to people's lives. It's so great that you share that. Luis, I don't even know where to go from here because there are so many things I want to explore, but we're going to run short on time. I know that. I do have one last question I have to ask you. What are 1 or 2 books that have had an impact on you now that we're on the topic of books and why?
I knew that you were going to ask me this question. I'm looking at my library, and there is a book that I can buy in bulk. What I mean by that is if I go to a used bookstore, and if there are 2 or 3 or whatever copies, I buy them all because I give them all the time. It's a children's book. It's The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I read it at least once or twice a year, every year.
The biggest thing that has made a difference from that book in my life is that when you want something so bad, the world will conspire to give it to you. The only thing that we need to do is read the signs. That, to me, has been a call to action because a lot of times we do things and everything is so difficult. Perhaps that is a sign that we're not looking or we're chasing the wrong thing. That's book number one.
The second book that I think that has been beautiful for me is Born to Run. It's a running book. MacDougall, I think, is the name of the author. That features a tribe in Mexico. These people have a game and they run hundreds of miles on the game. I see a lot of resemblance in what they do and how I think about things because I believe that we are the most resilient people in the world, the most resilient species in the world. We can live anywhere on any continent, in any climate. I think that what this tribe does is that they push themselves for sport and for fun.
It's a way of living. I think that we have forgotten that. We've forgotten that we are made for endurance and we are made for doing hard things and hard work. That has been a great book for me as well, as it helps me understand pain versus discomfort. A lot of times, they say, “ don't want to do this because it's painful.” “No, it's not painful. It's uncomfortable.” “I don't want to talk to my boss because it's painful.” “No, that's not pain. It's uncomfortable.” I think that that differentiation has helped me tremendously and do the things that are uncomfortable and avoid the things that are painful.
We are made for endurance and doing hard things. Don't shy away from discomfort—it's where true growth happens.
I love that you share that. This is such a great insight. The uncomfortableness, but it's also like the fear of the unknown. It also could be Frank put in here. When people don't know what's on the other side of something, then they fear it. In reality, it's like the most wonderful life could be on the other side of that, but you have to open yourself up to taking those steps that might be hard, but that's going to open yourself up to something that you could never have imagined. I love both of your recommendations.
I think The Alchemist is such a wonderful book, and it's been mentioned many times on the show. Born to Run sounds like an interesting read, and it's the first time it's been mentioned here. I'm glad to add that to our library of amazing recommendations. I have to tell you that I'm so absolutely grateful and honored that you took the chance to come to the show. This was a wonderful conversation. I feel like there's so much more we could have dug into, but I'm thrilled to have you on the show.
Thank you, Tony. It's an honor and I'm very humbled that you invited me over, so thank you, I appreciate it.
Closing Remarks And Where To Find Luis
Thank you, and before I let you go, I want to make sure that the readers know where they can find out more about you. What's the best place for people to reach out if they want to learn more about you and your book and everything else in your world?
I am on LinkedIn. I hope that you can add my LinkedIn profile to the show’s information. Please connect with me and send me a text or an email. I answer every single email. I answer every single message. My work email on my website is VelasCoaching.com.
Thank you again. Thanks to the reader for coming on the journey. I know you're feeling resilient being in this conversation and thinking about what are the things you're committed to in your life. Definitely go pick up Luis's book and please go connect with Luis and learn more about what he's doing in the world. He's doing some amazing work. Thanks again.
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