The Excuse Factory's Closed: fuel, not a crutch
Scott Leese recorded this four hours after back surgery. We talk about the hospitalization that split him into two people, building teams from the people everyone else passed on, and the legacy he actually wants.
Scott didn't enter the professional world until 27. Before that came a hospitalization and a fight for his life that split him into two people. The man who came out shot out of a cannon, and if you have heard him on a stage you know exactly the energy I mean. What I wanted from this conversation was the part under the energy, and he went there.
He had minor back surgery four hours before we recorded and did the episode anyway. Okay is a relative term for a guy with nine surgeries behind him, four of them life saving, and a pain scale where his ten is someone else's five. His read on all of it is the excuse factory being closed: the world, your quota, and your boss do not care about your excuses. The people who win treat the hard as fuel, not a crutch, and do the work anyway.
The part of his career I admire most is who he bet on. Bring me your castaways, he told his teams, and he built revenue off the backs of the people other leaders would not take a chance on, including an ex felon who became a VP of sales after someone finally believed in them. He doesn't think of himself as accomplished. If he were, he says, he'd be on a beach surfing, not on a podcast. At his funeral, all he wants is a room full of people who show up and say that guy helped me.
“At my funeral, all I want is people to show up and say, that guy helped me.”
Notes
- The world, your quota, and your boss don't care about your excuses. The people who win do the work anyway.
- He built his teams by taking chances on the people other leaders would not.
- His best interview question: what is the hardest thing you have ever been through, and how did you get through it?
- Pain becomes fuel instead of a crutch the moment you decide it does.