Monte Wood
Appearances
Chief Change Officer
#242 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part Two
I go through life thinking the optimism I share with people is a gift. It's a gift that maybe they walk away from me and are more hateful and more positive in the next engagement that they have in life. And it turns out amazing for them.
Chief Change Officer
#242 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part Two
Yeah, in order not to be a hypocrite, I'm going to give an example because I think that I have to practice what I preach. I keep a journal. And in that journal, I document some form of generosity and some form of appreciation every single day. And I haven't always done this, but I think I'm very close to 600 days now.
Chief Change Officer
#242 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part Two
of doing this and our recommendation in the book is just to do it for 30 days to document to actually be generous every day for 30 days so i set out to do that and i liked it so much that i'm now on day 672 or whatever it's just like anything else in life If you practice it, you will get better at it. You'll find a thousand ways that you can be generous. It may be sharing optimism.
Chief Change Officer
#242 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part Two
It may be sharing a smile. It may be just really intently listening to somebody. It may be calling, using somebody's name and remembering their name and making them feel special. There's so many ways to to be generous. And the more you do it, the easier it becomes and the more you realize all the different ways. And of course, we list all of those ways in the book. And in the book, there's 12.
Chief Change Officer
#242 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part Two
I talk about famous leaders that I've worked with and so forth. In the book, there are 12 incredibly successful people that we interviewed and asked them how generosity has played into their success and how they've been generous in their lives. It's great to not only practice it yourself, but to understand how other people have done it.
Chief Change Officer
#242 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part Two
Yeah, I do both. Sometimes when I'm traveling, it's easier to do on the phone. But the hardest thing in life is doing anything consistently. So I have done it consistently for 600 days, every day. And there are a few other things that I do consistently every single day, but I'm not going to I'm not going to go into those now because I also I think you need to be generous with yourself.
Chief Change Officer
#242 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part Two
So there are some things I do exercise wise every single day for the last 600 days. And that's my way of being generous with myself. documenting your generosity and what you appreciate in life. When you appreciate more, when you understand, when you become good at appreciation, you become much better at being generous.
Chief Change Officer
#242 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part Two
I think... Maybe I've created an evangelist of generosity over there.
Chief Change Officer
#242 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part Two
It's been a pleasure chatting with you. I think you have a generous spirit and I appreciate that. If there's anything I can do to help or anything you want to do in the future, you just let me know.
Chief Change Officer
#242 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part Two
I'll give an example that many people have quoted. One of the most successful people in history, actually. I worked directly with Steve Jobs when he was at Next and indirectly at Apple for many years. There are many quotes that circulate on the internet now of his last and final words with his best friends.
Chief Change Officer
#242 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part Two
And all of them say that he talked about he wished that he had been more generous in his life. He wished he had benefited those around him. Now, I think there's a little bit of a misnomer there because he was not a kind person. I sat in rooms and watched him berate people. other people and do it in a very inconsiderate and unkind way.
Chief Change Officer
#242 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part Two
But his generosity, his focus of generosity was to change the world and make it a better place. He wanted to empower everybody of all abilities to be able to use technology for themselves. And his compass was generous. His manner was not. And in the end, I think he wished that his manner had been different. So I think that's probably the best example that I can give.
Chief Change Officer
#242 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part Two
Most of the great leaders that I worked with, John Chambers and Andy Jassy and many others, actually were generous people. They worked harder than those people around them to create success for others. Some of them were very myopic and maybe didn't have the best interpersonal skills, but I don't know that they were I wouldn't say they were not generous.
Chief Change Officer
#242 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part Two
I think that maybe they just didn't understand generosity, which again is one of my goals is to help people understand what generosity is, how simple, very simple, easy things when done with the right intent can make a tremendous impact in the world.
Chief Change Officer
#242 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part Two
I think that greed is a big part of it. And the reason I say greed is because there are powerful entities and people who are using divide, who are using conflict and creating conflict amongst parties to line their own pockets with money. When you have a media, all of our media outlets, there's not a single good one out there, right? They're not reporting news anymore. It's all opinion.
Chief Change Officer
#242 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part Two
And it's all opinion to create divide and conflict. When you have such powerful entities that are trying to do that, it's difficult for the single person standing on a mountaintop to get people to understand. Now, I will say there are some really strong and powerful people that are focused on consciousness and generosity now. And we're beginning to see some of that effect.
Chief Change Officer
#242 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part Two
And I'm not going to give you any names, but I'm fortunate to be on the inside of some of that. And I am hoping that those people can create, like you and I talked about earlier, collaboration. respect for each other. I don't have to agree with everything you say. In fact, I never will agree with everything you say, but I can respect your opinion and I can respect you as an individual.
Chief Change Officer
#242 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part Two
And then I can respectfully disagree and we can be fine together. But it is now, it's almost if a lot of media is promoting that if you don't agree, then you should hate the person that you disagree with. And that is incredibly dangerous, in my opinion. What do you think?
Chief Change Officer
#242 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part Two
Yep, I would agree. And you'd be surprised the people that are generous that you might not expect. Two and a half years ago, in a hot tub at a hotel in the island of Lanai, and Elon Musk and Grimes and X said, walked up to the hot tub. We sat there and chatted for probably 45 minutes. We weren't anybody in comparison to him.
Chief Change Officer
#242 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part Two
He was considerate and gave us conversation and we laughed and he talked about a German movie that he had watched and was all animated. He could have just turned and walked away, but he didn't. He was considerate, and I considered it to be a very generous thing that he did. He left a very positive impression on me, like he really cared about people.
Chief Change Officer
#242 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part Two
I'm sure when you're that wealthy, there's all kinds of limitations. And I know there were security guards in every direction, all in black, that we couldn't see. But he really stopped and cared about the conversation he was having with us. And that gives me hope. It really does give me hope that there are people, powerful people out there that will help us make a difference.
Chief Change Officer
#242 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part Two
So the answer is yes. But I have to be careful, right? Over-optimistic. will turn people off. So if I am appropriately optimistic with the person that I'm talking with, if I'm understanding their energy, their way, how they communicate, the tone of their voice, their comfort with eye contact, if I'm aware of those things, then the optimism I give them in a way that they can absorb it is a gift.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
So again, with no expectation of exchange or return from the recipient in order to create your own success.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
Yeah, I think your initial response, no, is a good answer. I actually believe that focusing on generosity, helping others, right, to pave the way for your own success isn't being selfish. It's just being wise. And this is a hard concept for people to understand, right? But truly generous people.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
If you read up, if you pick up any book on success, there's a number of things they'll tell you that are going to lead to success. At the top of the list is always relationships. Close in relationships. Harvard just published their study, their 50-year study. And the most important aspect of happiness is for individuals out of their study was relationships, connected, close relationships.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
Now the self-help books are going to tell you confidence. Then they're going to say mindset. And then they're going to say trust. And then they're going to say your own emotional well-being. And I believe that being a generous person leads to all of those. So being a generous person leads to success. If you know that, then you have a North Star. You have something that you can focus on every day.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
You can attract success versus desperately pursuing it. And I think attracting it by being a generous person is a much more rewarding way of going through life. So let's break that down a little bit. Relationships. Everybody knows that generous people develop relationships faster and more meaningful. Courage. Let's talk about confidence and courage.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
Most studies will tell you that it takes courage, it takes confidence to be generous. To do generous acts takes a certain degree of confidence. So you're actually practicing how to be courageous and how to be confident by being generous.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
Mindset, let me ask you, do you think you will feel like you're more deserving of success if you're helping other people or if you're cheating other people in life? Of course, it's the former. Right. So you're going to feel like you're more deserving of life. So your mindset is better.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
Trust, if you are really an authentically generous person with yourself, with others, with the world, do you think people will trust you more? And of course, that's a rhetorical question. The answer is yes, right? But the other thing is that your own emotional well-being, when you do generous, it'd be interesting if you ask ChatGPT, what are the scientific benefits of Of being generous.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
They'll show you all of these studies and all of these benefits. And listen, it's beautiful. But they're actually your body. The hormone levels change. The dopamine levels change. Oxycodone is released in the body when you're generous. So you actually are healthier now. when you're a generous person. So all of these things lead you to being a more generous person by helping others.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
And knowing that is just a wise thing. It's not a selfish thing. I see generosity as a win. When you're authentically generous with somebody with no expectations from them, they win. There's no doubt about that. That's simple. But There are many studies that say when you're generous with somebody like that, they're much more likely to be generous with other people. It creates a ripple effect.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
So the world is actually a better place when you're generous with somebody. If all of these things add up to you being more generous, then it's a win. The person you're giving to wins, the world wins, and you win. And that's why I believe it's a superpower. That's why I believe that generosity wins. And I'll tell you another thing.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
There's nothing as beautiful as going through life and creating success for yourself by helping others with no expectation, because in the end, You look back and you're just as proud. You're proud of what you did, but you're even more proud of how you did it. And there's a great happiness. There's a great joy that comes from being proud of how you lived.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
This goes back to our discussion about, is it selfish to be generous to create your success? And I will tell you that I believe there is a tremendous return on generosity. The ROI, the return on investment for generosity, may be higher than any other human behavior that you can put in place. Now, you do not expect return from who you're being generous with, right?
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
No exchange or return from who you're being generous with, or the group that you're being generous with, or the bathroom that you cleaned when you walked out. There is no return from the individual, but life gives you a tremendous return on your investment of generosity. There's a lot of philosophers that will talk about it. You can do research on karma.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
You can research the science of generosity and how it returns, how it affects you positively. But there is a tremendous return on investment. So the answer is it's not intuitive, right? Because you're right. You don't expect anything from whom you are generous with. But... You do know that by being generous, it's going to come back to you in exponential form.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
There's a couple that are really important. The first one is that generosity is about giving money. Gabe, giving money is a very minor component of generosity. I sat in a room with a Buddhist, a Tibetan Buddhist monk last week, and I was listening to him talk about the wisdom of the monks. And one of the things he said just absolutely blew my mind.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
He stopped and then he looked at the room and he said, even the smallest act of generosity when done with the right intent, can be tremendously powerful. And I thought, how cool is that?
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
It reminded me of a story that I read in the New York Times about a police officer in San Francisco whose sole job was following up on suicides off of the Golden Gate Bridge, people who jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge. He went to the bedroom of a young man, 26 years old, and on his dresser, there was a suicide note. And basically the note said, nobody cares about me. Nobody sees me.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
I won't be missed. I'm going to go into the Golden Gate Bridge and I'm going to jump. But it's a five mile walk. And if one person smiles at me or talks to me, In this five mile walk, I won't jump. The sad part of that, Vince, is the young man jumped. One smile could have saved his life. I will tell you that we live in a world where there's so much loneliness. There's an epidemic of loneliness.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
There's an epidemic of depression. And generosity is an antidote to those things. And a smile, a sincere smile is one of the easiest things to give and literally can change somebody's chemistry. You can change the chemistry in somebody's body by looking at them intently and giving them a meaningful smile. That is generosity. You may walk right by that person, but you left them with something.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
You may never see them again. You have no expectation, but you may have changed their lives. And I see it all the time. How many people do you know that actually walk into a public restroom and leave it cleaner than when they went in? My wife does that. She does it because she wants it to be better for the next person that goes in. I also do that.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
It's such a beautiful thing, and you don't consider that generosity, but it is. You'll never know the people that benefited from you doing that. But you're doing something, and they may learn from it and pass it on. That's how we change the world. I like to say, and this is a little bit far-reaching, but I like to say that generosity is a form of consciousness.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
And not generous acts, but being a fully generous person. Walking around with the intent of being generous, you have to actually be aware of what's going on around you to be effectively generous. And if you are that aware, you're more conscious. And if you are more conscious, all of the studies show that you are going to be a happier, more joyous person.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
So even that form of generosity comes back to you. Karma is real. Karma has been written about for 2,000 years. So karma is something that is not a new concept. And generosity has been written about. You can't pick up any, you can't pick up the Bible, the Koran, the Jewish Bible, the Book of Mormon. They all talk about the importance of generosity.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
Almost every philosopher has talked about how important being considerate and caring about others is for your own well-being. Some philosophers have talked about it for years. I don't know why in society today we seem to ignore this tremendous power, this opportunity to be happy and conscious and successful ourselves today. by helping others, by helping the world.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
It's such a powerful opportunity that if I could stand on the highest mountain and scream, please understand this for your benefit.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
In my very early days, probably at the age of 16, I had a young mentor. And that mentor actually gave me a formula about being successful. And part of it was just believing that I could be successful. And then part of it was living a good life, being a generous person. And I believed him. So at a very early age, I had very high aspirations.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
I grew up in a small town called Milton-Freewater in Oregon. only about 3,500 people in the town. And yet I believed at that point, I would someday run a company that was over a hundred million in revenue with hundreds of employees. And I believed it right from the very beginning. To augment that, interestingly enough, my mom He's one of the most generous people that you will ever meet.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
The combination of my kinkle, my mentor, and my mom as my mentor in generosity led me to this simple formula that I would become successful by making other people successful. It's pretty simple, but I will tell you why. is magic and it worked. I had tremendous success and my goal is really to pass it on and help others do the same because not only was it very good formula, it was a lot of fun.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
It's a great question because there is a lot of exchange, as Adam Grant talks about in leadership, where I do something for you and I expect you to do something for me. But great leaders, great servant leaders, care about the person, not just the work being done. They care about the person's family. They care about the person's life. They help them grow, in many cases,
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
I helped employees grow out of our company because the best path for them was to go do something else. They outgrew the jobs they were in and the potential they had within the company. And I took great pride when they left and did something else. I'll give you a simple example. I have a very good friend who owns many franchise stores, Taco Bell franchise stores. He cares about his employees.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
He actually hired somebody to come in and train his employees how to change their tires, how to balance their checkbooks. It has nothing to do with how to make a taco or how to service their customer. It's about caring for the person. And when you care for somebody, you create a connection. And that connection is really important in everyday life, but even more so in business.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
I'll give you a much grander example. Mark Benioff of Salesforce, the founder, CEO of Salesforce, started the company with the idea of giving a certain percentage of profit to charities. He supported many different organizations. But I will tell you, The most generous thing I ever saw was he could walk through a crowd of his employees and he always remembered their names. He showed them respect.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
He let them know that he cared for them as people. We would have an event with 2,000 people and I swear somehow he knew all of their names. I'm sure he studied before he ever got there. But he truly cared about the individual, not just the job they did. And because of that, they worked very hard for him. They created tremendous success.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
Andy Grove at Intel is another individual that I worked with, and I loved this man was so humble. You've heard stories probably of the great leadership and he literally reinvented the semiconductor industry and rejuvenated Intel, but he worked out of a cubicle. He drove an old Toyota truck and he didn't consider himself any better than anybody else in the company.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
And he treated everybody as important. as the next person, whether they were a vice president or whether they were somebody in the fab making chips. And that is, that's not just doing generous acts. That's being a generous person. And I think they're two different things.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
Let me define generosity. If you go online and search for definitions, they are all over the board. And most of the definitions of generosity focus on giving money, so philanthropy. But generosity is much bigger. So in the book, we actually defined generosity as any act of giving or kindness when done with no expectation of exchange or return from the recipient.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
If you are doing this with no expectation of exchange or return from me... or from your audience, then that is a pure generosity. That is where the purest power of generosity comes. My guess is you're not doing your podcast because you wanna be famous or you wanna make a lot of money. My guess is you're actually truly desire to help people and make a difference in the world. And I appreciate that.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
And that's a driving force for many successful people, right? There's a scientific study that says that humans are the only species that You are generous with those that they will never associate with or never meet. In other words, they're generous beyond their family, beyond their community, beyond those that they will ever know. That's a human trait.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
And that trait is actually credited with the helping of creating societies and even a global community of such.
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
Yes, and I agree. So my book probably will not sell 100,000 copies. But I will tell you, Vince, that I've had 25 or 30 people tell me the book changed their lives for the better. I had one person just last week came up and said that she changed jobs because she realized in reading the book that
Chief Change Officer
#241 Monte Wood on Generosity: The Most Underrated Career Cheat Code — Part One
that the people she worked for were not generous people and that she did not want to be in that situation. And she moved to another job and she said it's the best thing that has happened to her in many years. So that kind of thing is just such a beautiful reward. In fact, it spurs me to ask you a question. Is it selfish? to be authentically generous.