118 Jevon McCormick: Rise Above Hell & Reach Great Heights Through Belief, Gratitude, And Hard Work

My guest is Jevon JT McCormick.

He was born the son of a black pimp father and a white orphan mother.

he’s made millions in the stock market (even though he didn’t go to college),

He serves as a board member for Conscious Capitalism

Today, he’s the CEO of Scribe Media, a multi-million dollar publishing company with more than 1700 authors, including members of The Nobel Peace Prize Committee, Nassim Taleb, and David Goggins, whose blockbuster book Can’t Hurt Me has sold over 2 million copies.

Jevon and I talked about:

Why he said 'negativity never solved anything in spite of being raised in a negative environment that could easily lead to cynicism
Why he doesn't believe in hope and instead choosing belief
Why he focuses on god, health, family, business, and investing only and is cutthroat with everything else
How he broke the intergenerational pattern to create his greatest accomplishment that is his family
How he uses gratitude to brings himself and employees back to focus
Why his unstable childhood became the source of his extraordinary EQ and social intelligence
Why confidence was all he had and how that brought him success and fulfillment
Why he printed only 5 copies of his book instead of making it public at first
Why he believes 'listening and surrounding yourself with great people far smarter than you' is the secret to running a multi-million dollar business
Why he thinks CEOs are over celebrated and why people, process profit and going 3 layers deep is the way to go
His 3-step advice to young people who are reinventing themselves during this time
The number 1 question he asks candidates to weed out those who don't have a culture fit

Please enjoy my conversation with Jevon JT McCormick the CEO of Scribe Media

Wisdom Quotes

"I am not a victim. And I always found a way to, how do I use these for positive? How do I get better? How do I learn from these circumstances?"

"It was always proving something to myself. It wasn't 'I'll show you'. It was more proving that I could do it. That regardless of the circumstances, I could do it."

"I always believed if I saw someone else who had already done it. Okay. Then I can do it."

"Life isn't fair. It isn't fair. It's never going to be fair. So put that shit aside and focus on, okay, what are we going to accomplish with this? I can't change the past. I can't change what I was born to, but what can you change? And let's work on that"

"You can wake up timid and meek in a weak mindset, or you can wake up confident. And at times confidence was all I had. It didn't cost me anything. And confidence got me through life sometimes because it was all I had."

"Even if no one else loves you in the world, you should always have one person that loves you and that's you and that became 'okay, I love me some me. I love myself. If no one else loves me, I love myself in that confidence that love of myself."

"I've got five pillars in life that I live by God health, family, business, and investing."

"Thank you for waking me up. Thank you for the gifts, blessings, talents, and abilities. You've given me. Thank you for my family, our home, my career. Thank you for bringing me to where I am now."

"Rarely do people pray harder when things are going great. And everybody finds God when things are going wrong. And so I truly commit to praying even more and giving more gratitude when things are going great for me."

"The biggest most therapeutic thing I'd ever did was when I wrote that book for my kids. I wanted five copies as a legacy piece for my kids, and I wanted it to be passed down as a legacy piece for my great, great grandchildren."

"I just own the hell out of who I am, where I come from, what I endured. I was whatever I had to be to get to wherever I wanted to go in life"

"When it comes to business, uh, know your numbers, know your company"

"My calling is to show others what's possible."

"What most people would call mundane, I call glorious. I love the structure, the routine, the discipline, the consistency, all the things I didn't have as a kid"

"Everyone's not going to like me and I'm not going to spend my whole life trying to make everyone like me."

"As CEO, I moved some roadblocks and obstacles, make some decisions, set some direction, but the actual execution comes from the company. If you want to give me an award, give me an award for hiring. Cause I figured out how to hire people who are smarter than me and I live by this: You're only as good as the great people you're surrounded by"

"CEOs in my opinion are over celebrated. It takes a team of people to execute. Yes. CEOs set some direction. Yes. CEOs make some decisions, but you've got to have the right people in place to execute."

"We're striving for customer fulfillment. We're not striving for satisfaction. What a low bar that is."

"There's no success without sacrifice. I don't care who you are. You will sacrifice for success. You will have to sacrifice something. The goal in life is to find the things that are most meaningful to you and be cutthroat with everything else."