558. Finally Calm, Patient, Growing and Learning

Michael Cooper

After finishing his tour of duty in the U.S. Navy at 21 Michael joined his father’s business. “I loved providing service to people, because I genuinely love people.” But he didn’t like how some of the customers were being treated, even by his own father. His challenge was how to learn from the many positive traits he admired in his dad, while distancing himself from the negative qualities he did not want to emulate.

A dynamic life performance coach and consultant, who specializes in mental training for leaders and athletes, Michael Cooper teaches individuals and organizations how to enhance their personal development and create behavioral change to drastically improve results in every aspect of their lives. His company, Human Performance Mentors, helps individuals evolve from what they think they are to what they are truly capable of becoming.

How Did You Start Using Your Talents?

“We had this idea about a new kind of real estate magazine with all color pages instead of the traditional black and white. I was doing it out of my sister’s kitchen and the first publication we developed, we sold 16 pages of ads, at 500 bucks a page. We were short like $3,000 for printing and so I just got on the phone and called a friend of mine, a girl who I had only known for a few weeks and said, “We need $3,000 because this magazine has to go out because I know once it goes out, it’s gonna take off. We have to get this first one out.” She lent it to us and the magazine got printed, we put it out and the next thing you know, we went from a 16-page publication to a 112-page publication in a few months, generating $50,000 to $70,000 a month right away. For a couple of young guys to start something like that and start to make that type of revenue, it was exciting.”

The Most Impactful Turning Point?

“After my tour of duty in the Navy I was only 21. My father suggested I join him in the family laptop computer business. Well, I loved dealing with customers and providing service to people. That’s why I do what I do today as a life coach. I just genuinely love people. But what I didn’t like was how some of the customers were being treated and served even by my own father. There’s a lot of ways that I am like him, of course, but I took those positive things that I wanted to take from him. The negative things I wanted to disassociate myself from and stay focused on being the positive person that I am today. So that was a challenge because when you’re talking about getting that from your own parent, someone that’s so close to you, some people don’t detach from the negative qualities. So I was able to establish that from an early age that I did not want to have those qualities and I made the changes.”

The Most Powerful Lessons Learned?

“I think most people don’t know the starting point of all achievement, which is a burning desire, a definiteness of purpose. And society is teaching us that you go to school, you get your degree, you get a job, you shut your mouth, and you get a 401K. And that’s success. That’s not so. So a lot of people are stuck in this bubble, they’re stuck in this prison, and there’s no walls or bars to this prison. It’s just all in their head. And so, most people are afraid to step out and live their dream. That’s a lot of the part of the work I do today with working with individuals. I’ll find people all the time, they’ll be like, “I can’t leave my job. I have to make money. I have bills. It’s not responsible for me to not work and pay my bills.” I say to them, “I’m not telling you not to pay your bills, I’m not telling you to not work, but you’re working on someone else’s dream, when you could be working on your dream.”