Meet Paul White

We recently connected with Paul White and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Paul, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

Almost two decades ago, a book came out that seemed to suggest that each of our lives needed to be purpose-driven. The book, written by a Christian Pastor, targeted the Christian community and created an urgency for everyone to find their individual purpose in life and make sure it had significant meaning. I admit that after reading the book with a group of friends, and all of us becoming maniacal about finding our true purpose in life, it felt like none of us were even close to finding any sense of real purpose. At the time, all of us were deeply involved in volunteer activities that were directly helping other people and we were all about helping others in our work life, family life, and community. And yet, we kept wondering what our purpose was. That is, until one of my friends said that he felt when anyone was embracing character traits like love, kindness, compassion, attentive listening, support, caring, gratitude, being helpful, and serving others that those were what defined a life’s purpose. That’s what solved the whole “purpose in life” thing for me. I realized that every thing I did with sincerity fulfilled a worthwhile purpose in my life. Now, purpose isn’t something I seek, it’s something that I naturally do each day defined by my actions. If I were to offer advice to others it would be forget about any need to find purpose in life and embrace the best of what “makes you YOU” and utilize that to help and serve others. That provides a direct path to a fulfilling life.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

As an entrepreneur and former small business owner, I wasn’t ready for the pandemic forced retirement that I was pushed into. Realizing in 2021, at the age of 63, that I probably only had 40 GOOD years left in me 🙂 I wrote a book that included 115 of the most valuable life lessons I had learned during my work career and in my personal life. After completeing my book “The Answer Discovery” I began writing weekly articles that are published in 23 publications across the country. I’ve retained the rights to those articles (188 so far) and am about to pursue finding a literary agent that can guide me into turning those articles into a series of books containing 52 articles each to be utilized by the reader to be inspired each week throughout the year. Feeling that I still enjoy a significant challenge, at the age of 67 I passed the State of Michigan Real Estate Licensing exam and became a Century 21 Signature Agent focusing on helping others pursue investment opportunities in commercial real estate. My wife and I have utilized commercial real estate as an investment tool for over 3 decades and can speak intelligently about this unique strategy of creating wealth and growing net worth. My 30 plus years of successful business ownership allows me to help other business owners who may be experiencing growth or are looking for a positive exit strategy as they look into the future and attempt to sell their business.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Reading books has provided the greatest strategic advantage for success over the course of my life. I consider myself a “Life Long Learner” and always have a current book that I’m learning from. Well-written books can condense decades of knowledge and experience into 1-3 weeks of learning. And for me, reading has always led to action putting what I’ve just learned into fuel for advancement of every area of my life.
Second, beginning each day pursuing the truth behind the Zig Ziglar quote “You can get everything you want in life, if you just help enough OTHER people get what THEY want” is a game-changer for anyone willing to commit to it. When you turn the focus away from yourself and towards others, your life instantly improves. It also opens up opportunity to deepen the relationship you have with others. It’s in this place that an exchange of positive ideas happens naturally.
The third piece of advice would be to embrace your innate sense of curiousity…about everything. Be willing to find out the “WHY” behind every morsel of success whether it’s a company, individual, co-worker, friend, or even someone you’ve just met. My favorite question upon meeting someone I admire is “If there was one thing you could point to that helped you experience success, what would that be?.” The variety of answers has helped guide my own pursuit of success. Knowing that people love sharing their personal story with any person sincere in the asking, be curious enough to pursue other people’s success story.

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

They believed in me. They’re both departed but the gift of believing in me will last forever. It’s a gift that my wife and I have given to each of our four sons. Our oldest gave me a plaque with a quote from Jim Valvano, a famous college basketball coach who won the National Championship, that says “My Father gave me the greatist gift anyone could give another person; He believed in me.” I’ve come to realize that every person on this earth has skills that are unique to them and them alone. It’s their uniqueness that makes each person great. The only requirement to maximize a persons unique set of skills that make them who they are is that they believe in themselves. A first step to believing in ourselves is to have others that believe in us. So, who do YOU believe in? Do they know that you believe in them? There are no limits to what every human can achieve, in every area of life that is best suited to their particular set of skills, if they’re just willing to try. Trying often leads to success. Not trying assures failure. I believe in this concept so much that I finish every article I write with “Hey…I Believe In YOU!” Those words are also on the very first page of my book. If all a person needs is someone else to believe in them for them to believe in themselves, I’m willing to be that person. Think about the people you believe in. Tell them you do and encourage them to pursue their destiny based on believing in themselves.

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