From Championships to Financial Success: The Journey of Louis Pelliccioni Jr.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr. embodies the multifaceted nature of professional achievement, with an extensive career spanning over six decades across various domains, including coaching, finance, real estate, and entrepreneurship. His remarkable tenure as a basketball coach is underscored by an impressive winning percentage exceeding 80% and two state championships, alongside significant contributions at the collegiate level, particularly at West Virginia University. Beyond the realm of sports, Lou has garnered national recognition as a financial advisor, demonstrating unwavering dedication and integrity in his practice. In addition to his professional pursuits, Lou has authored multiple publications focusing on success and stress management, further illustrating his commitment to mentoring others. In this discourse, we explore the principles that have guided Lou throughout his illustrious career, emphasizing the importance of integrity, continuous improvement, and the impact of mentorship in achieving enduring success.
The podcast episode offers an enriching dialogue centered on the life and principles of Louis Pelliccioni Jr., a man whose diverse career spans coaching, finance, and entrepreneurship. Palatz reveals how his early experiences shaped his professional ethos, particularly the lessons learned from his parents about integrity and hard work. He recounts pivotal moments that defined his coaching career, including the strategies that led to his impressive winning percentage and the cultivation of talent that saw many of his players succeed beyond high school. Palatz's journey through various industries underscores the importance of adaptability and continuous learning, as he discusses his transition from coaching to finance, where he built a reputable career as a financial advisor with a focus on client integrity.
Throughout the discussion, Pelliccioni emphasizes the value of mentorship, both as a mentor and a mentee. He shares how seeking guidance from influential figures, such as John Wooden, profoundly impacted his coaching philosophy and approach to life. His insights on the significance of developing grit, focus, and maintaining a strong network of connections resonate throughout the episode. The conversation culminates in Palatz's reflections on his book, “Success is More Than Winning,” which encapsulates his belief that success is rooted not just in accolades but in the continuous pursuit of self-improvement and the impact one has on others. This episode serves as an invaluable resource for listeners aspiring to make a meaningful difference in their lives and careers, urging them to embrace the journey of growth and contribution.
Takeaways:
- Louis Pelliccioni Jr. possesses an extensive career spanning over six decades in coaching, finance, and business ownership, showcasing remarkable versatility.
- Throughout his coaching tenure, Lou achieved significant success, including leading teams to two state championships with an impressive winning percentage exceeding 80%.
- In finance, Lou has garnered national recognition as a financial advisor, managing an independent advisory firm alongside his son, which emphasizes integrity and expertise.
- Lou emphasizes the paramount importance of integrity, a principle he believes is essential to any form of success, as discussed in his book 'Success is More than Winning'.
- The impact of mentors on success is profound; research indicates that having a mentor can significantly increase one's chances of achieving goals and maintaining focus on improvement.
- Lou advocates for the necessity of setting goals and maintaining a focus on continuous improvement, a principle he believes is crucial for achieving lasting success.
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Transcript
My guest Today, Louis Palatz Jr. Is a dynamic professional and a diverse career spanning multiple industries.
With over six decades of experience in coaching, finance, real estate and business ownership, Lou brings a wealth of knowledge and a proven track record of success to every endeavor in sports.
Lou made a lasting impact as a basketball coach at both the middle and high school levels, leading teams to two state championships and maintaining an impressive winning percentage of over 80%. Lou was also an assistant coach at multiple universities including West Virginia University.
During his tenure at wvu, they won a couple of conference championships and had a winning percentage of 69%. Lewis worked with multiple all conference players who went on to play after college at different levels including the NBA.
In finance, Lewis spent over 40 years as a financial advisor earning national recognition.
Lou earned upper echelon status as a prestigious firms like Prudential Service Securities, Wachovia Securities, Wells Fargo Advisors and Lou, now with his son Bryce, manages an independent financial advisory firm where they continue to serve clients with expertise and integrity.
As a real estate professional, Lou has been involved in multiple homes, single rentals, multiple unit rentals, retail, commercial properties for more than 55 years. In addition, Lou has been a successful entrepreneur, having owned and operated a variety of businesses across different sectors.
As an author, Lou has written and co authored four different books, two of which were self published about basketball. Two were nationally published about success and handling stress. We're now advising clients or mentoring other people.
Luke continues to inspire others with a commitment to success and and integrity. We welcome Lou to the podcast. We welcome Lou to the pod. Well, Lou, welcome to the podcast. How you doing today?
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:I'm doing wonderful.
Keith Haney:I'm glad to talk to you. This has been exciting conversation. This is my second coach that I've talked to on my podcast.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:Oh boy, you're in trouble. The biggest problem is to shut up is the biggest problem you have with a coach.
Keith Haney:No problem. Looking forward to it. So. But we're going to start out with my favorite question. What's the best piece of advice you ever received?
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:Well, can I give you two or three?
Keith Haney:Sure, that'd be great.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:I was seven or eight years old. I was outside playing and my mother came out. I said, son, where did you get those army men? And I said, well, I got them from Johnny up street.
She said, did he give them to you? And I said, well, he's got lots of them. She grabbed me by my hand. She said, take the army men. Walked me up the street, didn't say a word.
Went to Johnny's house. We knocked on the door. Pleasantries and she looked at me and I handed the army men back over to Johnny. And you know, the.
Johnny's mother was there, didn't understand, says, oh, no, Johnny has hundreds of these. Doesn't matter. He was not given these. And that's not right. So we started back down the street.
My mother gave me a great lesson in values and integrity and honesty, and I remember it to this day. Integrity is very, very important part of any success and anything that I've done because I would never do anything just to win.
That's a lot of the title of my book, Success is More than Winning. Then when I was 12 years old, I was working for. For my father in a shop. He had an electrical shop.
And he says to me, he said, son, he said, I'm going to start paying you by the hour. Because he was just paying me some money and so forth. And so one day he says, you know, I'm going to pay you by the job. And I didn't understand you.
I was 12 years old. I was playing around too much. And so the first paycheck, I didn't get as much money. And I said, well, there's something wrong.
I'm supposed to get this much per hour. He said, no, remember, we changed it to how much you got done in the hour. Oh, okay, well, that's not fair. And I said, why?
And, you know, and we had a nice conversation. He said, son, never forget this, and I never have. You don't get paid for spending time during the hour.
You get paid for the value you bring to the hour. And I've never forgot that.
In fact, I actually use that when we hire people and let them know this is what they're getting paid for and whatever they can do. And those were wonderful lessons. And then I was very fortunate. My parents believed in God and taught me the respect of God and. And so forth.
And I've tried. I've tried to live my life with those three principles.
Keith Haney:What would it be like if most people live by that second one? I'm just curious how the job culture would look if people were taught that you get paid by what you do in the hour, not just by the hour.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:You know. You know what's funny, Keith? Actually, people have said, I've never heard that before when.
When I talked to them, and I said, well, there's something wrong with that. You've never heard it. And. And that's the problem. We just think that we put in time, right?
And I've tried to teach both of my sons this and they are both hard workers. And I'm always very proud that when I go to where they work, the managers say, oh my gosh, I'd take a hundred of your kid.
And that makes me feel very good that I've taught him some things about hard work and what you owe someone that's paying you money.
Keith Haney:I love that. As you think about your life, Lou, who were some people for you that were mentors for you or maybe even an inspiration on your journey?
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:Well, besides my mother and dad, which were extremely. I was just so lucky. Neither my mother or my dad were educated, but they were very intelligent, wholesome, good people.
And as I get older, and as I've gotten older, I've realized, boy, how lucky. In fact, I'm not so sure. Keith. I've done as well as I should have to have had as good a parents as I.
As I had when I realized that a lot of people weren't that blessed. And so that that helped start everything because everything goes back to those lessons.
But one of the things research proves to us, it's kind of interesting that if you have a mentor or someone that you looked up to that gives you great advice and so forth, you have a 65% better chance of being successful on your goals. If you are continuous with that coaching or mentor, you have a 95% chance because somebody else is telling you what you do wrong.
So anytime, in fact, there's a chapter in the book about the importance of mentors and coaches. And when I was a. I was. I was. Well, I was really 19 when I started coaching.
I was coaching in junior high and my first job, I was 21 and I was coaching in a high school. First place I went was to my idol, John Wooden. I went out, watched the UCLA practice and learned the four mindsets of success and watched him do it.
And they how lucky at 21 years old. And I've pretty much followed all his principles from his definition of success and the idea of staying even keel.
Now we're talking 50 years ago when I was coaching high school, more than 50 and I everybody was a screamer and a yeller except me. I was not I, because of John Wooden, keep everything even keel.
Keith Haney:And.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:And I've been that way most of the time. I very seldom lose my cool. And every once in a while it happens. The devil winters in and says, how are we going to do this to you? But yeah.
And then in finance, I was reading Warren Buffett When I was 18, 17, I bought my stocks at 7, my first stock at 17. I had such a great respect for him. What a man to follow in the finance world. So I've always had mentors. I believe in mentors. Give you a quick story.
My son who now runs my oldest son, Bryce, who runs my finance business. We were talking one day and I said, son, you need a coach. And he said, dad, I've got you.
And I said, son, I've helped you as much as I can and where you want to take the business, I've not been there. You need to find somebody else. And he brought in somebody else that's helped him immensely to do the things that he wants to do.
And so big believer that mentors and how important they are, in fact, that's one of the keys to success as far as I'm concerned. Find somebody that does what you want to do better than you or the best.
Keith Haney:I'm curious. Mentors are really important. Are there some things you want to look for in a mentor? Because we can get mentors who are not helpful for us.
But what are some things you want to look for when you're looking for a mentor?
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:Well, let me. Keith, you'll love this. As I said, I went out to UCLA to watch a practice with John Wooden and I was there for a couple days.
Guess where I stopped on the way back? Now you talk about one extreme from the other. It was amazing. But I still picked up something from Bobby Knight.
I used his passing game offense that helped me in high school to win some. Help to win some state championships.
And so even somebody you can always found find something from everybody that's been successful, even if you don't agree with a lot of the things that they do. And I didn't necessarily agree, especially the way he treated players and stuff like that and, and versus how John Wooden did.
So you can always find something.
Keith Haney:Yeah, definitely.
I'm curious, as you think about the different careers you've gone on, what were the pivotal moments in each of those decisions that you had to undertake as you change careers?
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:Well, I was lucky. There's three types of people in the world.
There's people that are interested, there's people that are committed, and there's people that are obsessed. You want to find a career that you're obsessed. And that's one of the main. And I've been so fortunate.
My first career, which was coaching and teaching, I coached at the junior high level, the high school level, the small college level, and the major college level. I was obsessed with teaching. And so I was very lucky.
Well, when I decided because of all the time I tell college coaches today, Keith, I tell them, you guys are lucky. They said, you got all these breaks and all this stuff. When I was coaching, you could recruit 365 days a year. And guess what?
I was out there most of the time because you could recruit. In fact, one of my. One of the rules that the head coach had when I was at West Virginia was you had. I had to call him before I was able to come back.
And I'd be out sometimes 30 days, 40 days on the road, going to games, going to see people, going to see an opponent, because I also did all the scouting. Well, now they've got rules.
Thank God that they've got rules where you can only recruit so many days off campus and stuff like that so you can have a life. That's what I told the coaches. I said, you know, you guys are able to have a life.
It was probably some of the reason when I had kids, it was time to look at something else because I. And I. And I just didn't see myself going on. I'd gone as far. And I mean that I wanted to do that. And then my hobby was the stock market.
We'd go on trips when we were on away trips, and I'd be reading Barron's in the Wall Street Journal and everybody else was reading Sports Illustrated. And it was just a thing that I really enjoyed. Again, obsessed. And I'm still working at 76, going on 77 and love it. Still come, can't wait to get.
Get to work.
Keith Haney:I love it. We all love winners. How did you maintain such a high winning percentage as a coach?
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:Well, I think when you look at factors of success, number one, I was obsessed. I mean, I could literally work 18 hours a day, seven days a week. I didn't, because I believe in priorities in life.
And it was, you know, there were hard because I was just so driven, because I loved it. I loved it so much. But so being obsessed, you want to find a career where you're obsessed. It's very.
If you're just interested, then you're just showing up. Now if you're committed, it's almost like committed is pretty good. I mean, if you're committed to something, but it's that extra little bit that.
That wins, you know, more games and stuff like that. I also believe it was because of the mentors that I had that I wasn't afraid to go out and look at the best of the best.
And also that as I learned later in life how important good players were I used to think maybe I had something to do with it. Heck, I did. I think it was just the players.
When I looked, I was watching the films the other day, the couple state state championships we won when I was in high school. And I looked at that and I'm saying, how in the heck did we win? I mean, my golly, I mean the, the, the, the strategy was just so basic.
I was very basic. But there's no question, as I look back on it, Keith, I was very lucky to understand that it took growth of your body, your mind and your skills.
And that's what I was. Unbelievable. In fact, I wrote two books on basketball. One was on body development for basketball and the other one was on the skills of basketball.
And I would actually give the skills to the players in a book form and they would be graded not only on your knowledge how to do the skill, but to be able to perform it. And learned a lot of these things again from Wooden. Wooden wouldn't let you in a ball game do anything that you couldn't do well in practice.
It wasn't even a thought. He took that choice totally out. Now you're not allowed to shoot the ball except 3ft or you're only allowed to shoot from 10ft. But you can't shoot it.
They didn't have the three pointer. But you can't shoot it from long until you can do it. And there's no question, that's the whole premise of my book.
It's about getting better every day at something and it deals with all the different skills. Whatever career you're in, you figure out, just like I did here were all the things it was going to take to win in basketball.
You had to have the body. Like we increased jumping ability an average of 8 inches on kids. Now that's a lot. I mean that is a lot. That's a lot different.
It can make a difference. Back then also, Keith, there were a lot of jump balls. So it made a difference.
Keith Haney:Yes.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:And so it was just development of skills for whatever it was. And for this it was basketball.
And I actually, you know, I still remember the course it was know that I took that talked about how you have to understand a skill to do it, to do it well. And it doesn't mean you slow down to think about it, but just when you're working on it so that you're working on the right things. That's all.
Keith Haney:Love that. So what inspired you to write the book Success is more than Winning.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:Oh, wow. Wow. Well, I think it's pretty simple as I got. Later in my career, one of the things I've wanted to do is always give back.
Loved my days in high school, and I wanted to go and talk to high school. I mean, I'm just an average guy.
I. I don't have a big name like John Wooden or anything like that, but I think I have a lot of good things to share with young people. And somebody said, lou, if you had a book, makes it easier. And it has, it has. I have now about 25 talks. In fact, next Tuesday, I'm down in Florida.
I'm down in Naples right now in Naples, Florida, and I'm giving a talk to about 160 football players. They have a football day. Football is pretty important in Florida.
Keith Haney:Yeah.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:And, you know, they're bringing the top five or six kids from the 18 high schools in Lee County, Florida, and I get to talk to him about what. What we're talking about. And I'm really excited about it. And. And I've got some other ones up in.
Where I also live in West Virginia, and I've got talks there in Pennsylvania and Maryland. And so, yeah, that's what I want. And because of the book, it's made it easier. I can send a book to a principal, say, I'd like to come talk.
You know, they always ask me, what's it going to cost? I said, nothing. And they said, are you sure? I said, yeah. I said, you know, I'm just trying. I'm trying to give back, that's all.
Keith Haney:So pouring into young people is so important. What message do you want or do you hope to communicate to young people more often than not?
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:Well, that's a good question, Keith. It's the idea of how I've lived my life because of listening to successful people. I'm trying to just. I mean, I'm not the originator.
I'm not gonna sit here and say I am. I just was a good follower. I. I've really been a good follower. I've listened, in fact, listen to this research.
Before I get into it, there's research out there that proves that kids, the kids that listen to their parents, that listen to their teachers and their coaches are more successful. Mean, it's like common sense. Yeah, but we had to do research to prove that. And so I'm going to tell all these kids this. Okay. What does that tell you?
It tells you if you listen to people that have done something, it's going to help you in life. And. And I'm hoping that I can make them understand the Overall goal from the whole book is be better every day than you were yesterday in something.
How do you do it? There's all kind of ways you can. I try to work out in the mornings, so I've already worked on my body.
I try to read 20 pages at least and learn some new concept or some new thing. It doesn't take that long right away.
So by the time I get started to work, I've already done what my overall goal is, and that is to improve myself some way. And if you do that over many years, you get better. And, and then it's also just evaluating whatever it is you're going to do.
I mean, and what's it going to take? Just like in basketball, what, what I did, I analyzed every skill in our offense that we needed. I broke it down.
I made sure they could understand it, that they could. They, they. That they could teach it, they could teach that skill. Well, if you can teach it, you understand it. All you got to do now is practice it.
And that's one of the reasons that I, I know looking back, that our, Our teams got better and we were very successful. And it's just I was so lucky at an early age to listen to some good people. And I didn't say, well, I don't know if that's going to work.
I don't know this well, you know what I mean? Maybe this guy, like John Wooden is. Won seven straight championships in a row. In a row and 10 total. He does know something.
Keith Haney:He might know something, right?
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:Yeah, he might. And, you know, I can't tell you this, Keith. I don't know why. I don't. I listened. I don't know why.
A good friend of mine, Tony for Gale, who was involved in some of my books, my basketball books, is passed away. Great. Just a great guy and great coach. And he said, you know, Lou, you were the most mature high school kid I've ever known. And I said, really?
I said, I didn't think. I, I was. I said I was a little naive. I thought. He said, no, you might have been naive, but you listened to people that were successful.
And then now we have research that proves it, for God's sake, that if you listen to people that have been successful, you have a good chance of being successful.
Keith Haney:That's awesome. How do you define success? We just talked about success is more than winning.
But I think that term success is very elusive today because it's not about money, it's not about power or influence. But how do you define success?
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:Again, I'm 19 years old and I'm reading a book by John Wooden and right here it is. Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result in the self satisfaction in knowing you did the best to become the best you're capable of.
That's my definition. I never talked about winning with my teams. It was always do your best that you know how you go in with your hands.
Keith Haney:Yeah.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:All it was was do your best. That's all you can ever be. You can't be more than that. Now someone said, but what happens if you lose? I said, well, that's a good point.
But it tells you the things you have to work on, that's all. Tells you things that you're not good enough here.
And one of the things that I always did again, learned at an early age, first year in coaching, I'm 21. We go 20 and one.
We go to the state tournament, we lose in the semifinals, lose to a team that's wasn't as good as us, but they played a better schedule. And so the next year I had some people to talk and I talked to some people in college and they said, lou, play better teams, it'll. It'll prepare you.
You're going to lose some. And we did, but we won our first state championship the second year. And one of the teams we played, it was almost like the Hoosier story.
They had:And so in the state tournament, when it got tough, we've been there. And so yeah, it makes sense.
Keith Haney:You have 99 tips to up your game. If you had to pick maybe your top five up your game tips, what would you say those are?
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:Oh my, oh my. I. In fact, I'm getting ready to actually do this at the football, you know, the football day down in Lee County.
on. There was a study done in:The number one trait that came out of everything was it wasn't intelligence, it wasn't iq, even though that helps, I can tell you that. But it was grit and grit. And there's actually a book out written by this lady, Angela Duckworth. Duckworth is her name. Great book.
I recommend to everybody to read it.
And it talks about finding your passion, your spark, and then with, with that comes perseverance because you, you have to be able to preserve because you're going to have moments when it's tough and if you don't love what you're doing, you, you can be in trouble. So that's the, the first one.
And then I was watching a podcast, Keith, and they had Warren Buffett and Steve Jobs on and they were talking about success. That's why I was watching it. And they were all kind of different areas and stuff.
So finally the announcer says, okay, give me your number one, without question, the most important trait or fact or attitude, whatever that you think takes to be successful. He said, I don't want you to say it. Gave them both tablets. I want you to each write it down. So they take some time.
They write, they write down their answer. They said, okay, turn them over. They turned them over. They had both written the same word. And the, the, the word was focus.
It's able to focus on what? And, and boy, that's. It sounds, it's a very simple word, but man, does it involve a lot of things.
It's getting rid of all of the things around you, all the things that deter you. Those are the kinds of things to be successful that you have to do. And so, you know, there's two things now.
One of the most important things you can do in life if you want to be successful, there was a hundred year study. I have a lot of studies in the book by the way too. I have like 75 studies, 90 stories patterned after Chicken Soup for the Soul. So it wasn't my idea.
I'm a great copier. I'm a great copier of people of whatever it is, it's successful.
And so all the different things that it comes down in this study and it studied what's the most important for happiness, success and longevity. 100 year study, they kept replicate it and finding things came down to your connections, your connections in life.
So as young people, I tell young people in high school, get involved in every club. I don't care if you're a football player, a basketball player, go do drama class, do different things.
You're going to make yourself much more versatile. You're going to meet different people that you never know down the road how important those connections are. And it's kind of interesting.
You'll love this story. I was fortunate enough in my first year in finance. I won a national award. I was rookie broker of the year in the whole country.
That's out of Morgantown, West Virginia, a little small town. And I'd beaten people in la, New York Chicago, I thought I was pretty good. I said, man, I must be really good, you know?
Well, I think about 25 years later I read this study, and I said, you know what? I don't think I was that good. I think it was just all my connections, because I went to school in that town.
I coached one state championships, then I coached at the university in the same town. I knew thousands of people. So the reason I won the award, I wasn't the best. I just had the best connections, right?
But, you know, so I can say that now. I thought I was pretty good, but no, I guess I was okay.
I've been in the business 41 years, and I don't have anybody burning my house or anything like that. I must do a decent job. But it.
I mean, it's funny, back then, Keith, the way you were successful in this business, they told you you had to make cold calls. When I went to New York, they said, you make 100 cold calls a day. You'll be successful. And I.
After they're getting everybody ready, and everyone's starting to make their cold calls, and I'm just kind of sitting there, and teacher comes over. He says, lou, what's wrong? And I said, well, I don't make cold calls. And he said, what? I said, I make cozy calls.
And he said, what the heck is a cozy call? And I'm saying, well, a cozy call is when you call somebody that you already know or because of everything you're involved in, they know you.
That's a cozy call. He says, well, I don't know about that, but, you know, he said, I love that idea. But he said. He said, do you know that many people?
I said, yeah, I kind of do. You know, I just. I've been involved in everything. I've been in clubs in Morgantown. I was in Rotary Club. I ran a Rotary Club.
I was Morgantown Touchdown Club. I was the president of Morgantown Touchdown Club. I knew a lot of people.
That's why I'm saying, Keith, when I say, you know, how to look at all this, I think I should have actually done better than I did, you know, I mean, with all the connections I had when I found out all this. So, yeah, so connections are important. Oh, my gosh, when I think of the top five, there's again, research that says, you are.
You become or you are what your reference group is, and that's your friends. And very it. There's. There's actually nothing.
Nothing that's more important, especially in the teenage years, because we know what can happen if you get in with the wrong people and stuff like that. It's not good. And it's hard to break those kind of things.
And so friends and who your reference group is, I mean, when you look at all the successful people, it's amazing. Their reference group, right. They're all, they're all right there. And so, you know, I know how important that is.
And if I would, if I would think there's no. The last thing I would put there. And I know what it's done for me, and that is successful people are planners, they're goal oriented.
And again, research backs this up. There was a study done. They took, I forget how many hundreds of kids and when they graduated from college, and only 5% of the kids had written goals.
5%, rest of them, yeah, I kind of know what I want to do or I want to do that. But only 5% had written goals. They looked at them 10 years later. The kids that wrote down their goals looked at them every year.
They were doing 10 times better than the other kids. And so how important is that? I mean, it's one of those things. Hey, guys, here's a study that tells you this.
And you're going to write your goals down. If you. Do you want to make more money? Do you want to be. Become wealthy? It's just, it's so, so important. You're planning your routines.
You know, in fact, I'm putting together a workbook now that has goals vision boards, where you can do a vision board. You do your goals, your vision boards. And then there's another study that was just done. The top 100 productivity tools in the last hundred years.
Number one on the list, box planning. And what. Box planning. Every hour of the day is planned. Now that sounds like, oh my God, you gotta be. That's. No, it's time management.
It doesn't mean it can't change. It doesn't mean there isn't fun things in there, but you put them in there.
And if, if every day you save five minutes or 10 minutes and you get something else done. As you know, every morning that every single person wakes up, we've got 86,400 seconds. It doesn't matter how old you are, doesn't matter, whatever.
It doesn't matter how smart you are. Everybody has the same amount of time. It's who uses it the best. And it's the number one productivity tool. I do my planning every single night.
It takes me about 10 minutes now. I took a while, you know, was, I was learning and 10 minutes. I can fill out a whole day. And here's, here's the thing.
Let's say that you're, you've got a meeting from 1 to 2. You have nothing between 2 and 2:30. Then you have another meeting at 2:30. What do you do that 30 minutes?
Are you getting ready for the next one or are you making a couple phone calls in there?
Most people waste time when they have a small amount of time where I try to get like, I'll use the example today I was getting ready for your appointment and I was making some calls because I already had everything ready. I was making some calls on, on business.
Now, I could have sat there and worried and was, you know, worried about what I was going to say and all that, but I'd already prepared, as you said. I already had all my sheets done. I filled out all the questions and got myself ready.
Keith Haney:I love it. That's really, really, really insightful.
Lou, as you think about this book, what do you hope, especially young people, because you really wrote for young people. What do you hope they pick up this book and walk away from. Walk away with?
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:Well, it's pretty simple, but it's.
The idea of the book was to make people understand that you need to improve your attitudes, your skills, your attributes to be successful, and you need to improve every single day.
I listened to a podcast one day and it talked about how with how we grow and learn in public education and how we grow and learn in sports, and they said, there's no question sports is better because sports never stops the learning. I'm still working on myself and I'm going to be 77 years old, and I just wrote a book.
You know, it's not like I'm sitting here saying, oh, well, it's over now. I got to do this. No, I'm improving, and it's what I learned from sports.
And it's just, I want people to understand you got to grow every day and you've got to evaluate what your job is. So whatever your job is, whatever you're doing in life that you love to do, break it down, analyze it like I did basketball.
And I improved and worked on things every day. And that's the whole thing. Get better every day.
It's something that deals with something that's going to help you to be more successful in your career, whatever it is. I mean, I've given talks outside of coal mines in West Virginia.
Keith Haney:Yeah.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:About different things, and we've talked about some different things. And, you know, everybody can improve themselves, but we stop.
A lot of people get the idea that once you graduate from college or a doctor's degree, you're done learning. You're just getting started, you know, Just getting started.
So that's the key that I keep putting in everything, is how important it is to grow every day, Keith, just. You've got to improve yourself every day.
Keith Haney:I love it. I love to ask my guests this question. Lou, what do you want your legacy to be?
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:Oh, wow. That was the one I had the hardest time with. Because I don't really think of legacy myself. I mean, I, I, I, I, I, I think that.
All right, now I'm thinking of something I. It's in the book. And hold on. I gotta get. If I can find it real quick. I don't know if I can while I'm thinking of it. Give me that.
But I put in here, I put a tombstone. I've got my tombstone. That's kind of what you're talking about. And, and what basically I put on my tombstone is I want to be known as a good person.
I want to be known as a giving person. I want to be known that I was a good father, a good spouse, and that I lived life to the fullest. That's what I want my legacy to be.
And I want to give back. I got that as the last. I want to give back and try to help people to do the same kind of things that I've been taught.
Keith Haney:So this is something new. I started, Lou, for season six of becoming bridge builders.
I have my guests pick a number between one and three to get a surprise question that you did not get ahead of time.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:Oh, God. Oh, no, that's. Wait a minute here.
Keith Haney:That's not fair.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:You're going to make me do an extemporaneous.
Keith Haney:That's right. Exactly.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:You're going to pay for it. No, go ahead.
Keith Haney:So pick a number between one and three.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:Number one. I like number one.
Keith Haney:All right, so your question is. Oh, here's a good one. What would be the worst movie sequel ever made?
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:Oh, my gosh. Okay. The worst movie sequel ever made, meaning that there's already a movie out?
Keith Haney:Yes.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:Do I have to name what that movie was?
Keith Haney:Well, if you want. If you're brave. Yeah.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:No, I better not do that. The worst movie sequel ever would be something to me. You, you can tell from talking to me, Keith. I'm. I'm just so.
I'm so obsessed with, you know, doing the right thing and successful. Well, no, I already know what it is. Now I'm. I'VE got to think about it for 30 seconds.
Would be a movie that taught young people that it's easy and there's only one way. I mean, in fact, I, I pick up books. I'm an avid reader. That's the other thing that I would add.
You know, that was the thing that I forgot of the last one was reading how important reading is. But it would it. And one of these things makes it sound like there's only one thing it takes to be successful.
Well, let me tell you, there's no secret sauce to success.
Keith Haney:Right.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:And you're lying to people if you tell them that because it takes a lot of different things. That's like there are, you know, you can work hard and still not be very successful.
Keith Haney:Right.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:You know, I mean, if you're in the wrong area or, or you don't have good people around you or you don't have good talent around you and all those kind of things. Things. So yeah, the, the worst sequel I could ever see.
And unfortunately there have been some movies like that that give you this idea that there's some great. Because I'm a great movie watcher. I watch movies every. Almost every night. You know, I'm just. That's my way of getting away.
And I love movies and, and most of them really give you good things to. To think about. But it would be a movie that tried to make it sound easy.
Keith Haney:Right? Be like Hoosiers too would be another one.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:There. There we go. Yes, yes, yes. I like it, Keith.
Keith Haney:That's exactly.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:I like it. I like it.
Keith Haney:So, Lou, where can people find your book? The success is more than winning and connect with you on social media. Somebody wants to have you come out and talk to their young people.
How can you connect with you?
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:I. And you know what's funny? I've had some podcasts and I've actually had some people get a hold of principals in different states.
And I said I'll go just about anywhere because I love to travel and I'll make some kind of trip out of it, you know, and. And so forth.
So the best place is to get a hold of me is on my web page was yes, you can succeed.org yes, you can succeed.org and you can buy my book on Amazon. The books on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. A lot of the Barnes and Nobles have it. I'm, you know, unfortunately, I'm not a well known.
You know, I'm not like. I mean, talk about luck. My. My book comes out and the same week John Mitchell comes out with his 25th book. Yeah.
I mean, it's like, oh, boy, nice guy to have to try to follow. And I think he's already got, like, you know, 500 reviews on his book, and I've got 22, and. But they're all good.
Keith Haney:That's good. They're all good.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:They're all good. And, you know, people are really. The people that have given me the reviews have given me really nice reviews. I've been very fortunate, but.
And then, like I said, I'm on Facebook and LinkedIn by my name. All you gotta do is look my name up, and I accept everybody.
Keith Haney:That's so great.
Well, Lou, thanks so much for taking the time to pour into my audience and hopefully pour into young people with the idea of what it takes to kind of press through the noise and find that unique passion of theirs that makes them successful in their life and in their journey.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:Keith, thank you very much. It's been a pleasure and very easy conversation. If you ever need me back on again, all you got to do is call me.
Keith Haney:Well, you're welcome anytime, my friend. Thank you.
Louis Pelliccioni Jr.:Thank you.
