Facing a Setback?

This Author Says It's Nothing More Than a Setup for a Comeback

Willie Jolley

Me — Diamond (Michael) Scott Says: “In 1993, after the passing of my Mom from a rare form of cancer, I was unceremoniously let go from my job. That was a major setback for me. But truth be told, I hated the job. In many ways, it was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. 

Using my 12-month severance as a small business loan, I set out on a journey to determine what was next on my life journey. After a random 30-minute speech for a Chicago area Kiwanis club, the decision was made — I’ll become a professional speake 

In 1995 I attended the National Speakers Association convention in Washington D.C. Throughout the five days, I wandered around in stunned amazement, crossing paths with the likes of immortal greats like Zig Ziglar, Og Mandino, and Les Brown. It was there where I also met an exuberant man by the name of Willie Jolley who made an indelible impression on my life.”

Always generous with his time, he helped teach me the ropes of what t took to become a professional speaker. His sage advice and that of others propelled me to over 350 engagements over an eight-year period. 

Dr. Willie Jolley is a world-renowned Hall of Fame speaker, award-winning singer, best-selling author, and popular television and radio personality. He has been named “One of the Outstanding Five Speakers in the World” & “Motivational / Inspirational Speaker of The Year” by the 175,000 members of Toastmasters International. Dr. Jolley has been inducted into the prestigious Speaker Hall of Fame and named, “A Legend of the Speaking Industry.”

Dr. Jolley is the host of the #1 Motivational Radio Show in America on SiriusXM and the Wake-Up & Win daily radio program on Get up Mornings with Erica Campbell on Radio One stations across America. He is also the host of the Willie Jolley podcast on iHeart Radio and Spotify. Dr. Jolley is the author of several international best-selling books including, A Setback Is A Setup For A Comeback which has seen a massive resurgence during these times of massive disruption. 

His clients include many Fortune 100 companies including Walmart, Verizon, Johnson and Johnson, P&G, and General Motors. Many know him as the speaker who helped Ford Motors go from the brink of bankruptcy to be able to reject a government bailout and go on to billion-dollar profits! 

Great Books, Great Minds back in 2020 had the chance to interview Willie about the challenging times we are in that have led to setbacks for so many along with what we can do to overcome them. 

Your thoughts on the upheaval we’ve experienced in 2020

We’re no doubt living in a time we couldn’t have dreamt about in our most outrageous dreams — a global pandemic, economic downturn, massive job loss, racial strife, social upheaval, a disruptive and decisive presidential campaign. And then there are the hurricanes that are coming faster than we can count on one coast and fires greater than they can extinguish on the other coast. Any one of those things by themselves could disrupt the entire equilibrium of a country. Yet they are all happening at the same time. It’s just so unbelievable.

So how then do we begin to get our arms around this? 

First of all, we have to realize that all of this is indeed real and true, that it is actually happening. At that point, we can begin making decisions as to how to handle it. As you know, I wrote a book twenty years ago called A Setback Is A Setup For A Comeback that has seen a major resurgence. Today, people are calling us and asking, “what can we do to get through this?” I also wrote a second book a few years ago called “How To Turn Setbacks Into Greenbacks” about handling financial setbacks. Both of these are “pull off the shelf playbooks” on how to get through tough times.

So what’s the general message you’re sharing with people during these challenging times?

That despite how difficult these times have been, a setback is indeed a setup for a comeback. So instead of seeing all of this as the end of the road, we should instead view it as a bend in the road.

Where do you derive this wisdom?

We all need to understand that history teaches us lessons. And those lessons are consistent, not just thoughts, ideas, or trends but are principle-based lessons. 

Principle-based? 

Yes in that these principles are bedrocks and are never changing, They always yield the same results. By way of example, if you throw a rock up in the air a hundred times, it's going to come down a hundred times; a thousand times, it’s going to come down a thousand times; a million times, a million times. It’s always going to get the same results because of a principle called gravity. The principles I’ve written about in my books have come to be true and have come to be bedrock. 

What are some specific things that we need to be mindful of during these times? 

That in these times of crisis, it is incredibly important that we do not panic. Because panic is taken from the Greek word which means to choke. When you panic you choke off the air to your brain, and when you choke off the air to your brain, you cannot think clearly. And if you cannot think clearly you will end up making poor decisions in a moment of decision making. 

Can you share a brief example of what you’re talking about here? 

Back in 1929 when the stock market crash occurred, people panicked. Some jumped off of bridges, some blew out their brains not realizing that this too would pass and that the market would come back bigger and better than ever. The lesson here is that if we are going to succeed in the midst of tough scenarios like this, we have to be clear-minded, clear-focused and to not panic.

Any additional advice?  

Michael, I’m also telling folks to avoid willingly participating and commiserating in all the gloom and doom. I know that times are bad, we all get that. Just from the pandemic, we’ve had hundreds of thousands of people who have died. And it’s terrible. I’ve spoken at a number of covid related funerals and it’s terrible. But we must not make it a point to become overwhelmed and overloaded by the bad news because to do so will impact our ability to be productive. 

Can you share more here? 

Take the media for example —  if you watch and listen to the bad news all day long, 24/7, you’re not going to be able to be productive because you’ll be overwhelmed. So I am recommending to people that they limit their bad news time to maybe a half-hour in the morning, maybe a half-hour or an hour in the evening and that’s it. If you sit in front of the television 24/7 you’ll become unable and incapable of being all that you were made to be and fully productive.

It’s all about mindset, correct? 

Absolutely! And that reminds me of a third thing which is a big one — don’t let your pride poison your prosperity. Not only are we in this pandemic but we are experiencing massive job loss and economic downturn with many businesses crumbling. So depending on the extent in which you are impacted, you may have to do some things that you’re not used to doing and maybe you've never done before. That means that you may have to drive Uber just to keep the lights and phone on. Or to keep your small business afloat. Or you may have to sell some of the things you are no longer using at home. In the end, it's about not letting your pride get in the way of surviving. 

I believe there’s a story in one of your books about this very theme? 

There is. In my book “Turn Setbacks Into Greenbacks,”  I talk about a guy who had built a very successful IT company in Washington D.C. that was very powerful and popular and was doing great. But then the 2008 recession hit and he didn’t want to fire anyone or lose anyone he’d worked so hard to get on his team. So he used his CEO salary to pay his team a number of months. Unfortunately, money got tight because he had to pay his own bills. So what he decided to do was to work as the CEO of his company from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm while driving a garbage truck at night to take care of his other obligations. He said to himself, “I drove a trash truck in college and I can do it again.” And he did that for almost a year until the economy got better and he was able to get some stability and go back to just being the CEO. 

What a great story.

Yes, Michael but even better — he was able to sell that business for 600 million dollars a few years later as a result of keeping the employees and business going. He was not willing to let his pride get in the way of his prosperity. 

Anything else you’ve got for us in terms of advice? 

I do. The last couple are to be proactive and creative. First, you must be proactive. You simply can’t afford to wait for things to happen, you have to make things happen. For example, you may have to make some sales calls to keep your business going even if you haven’t had to make any in years. You may not have had to ask people whether they need what you have to offer. But now is the time when you might have to do that. In other words, don’t wait for your ship to come in, swim out to it and be creative. There are all sorts of creative ways that you can use your skills and abilities and pivot. We’ve been hearing a lot these days about the importance of pivoting to new possibilities. These are the things that will help people get through these tough times, turning setbacks into comebacks. 

Switching topics a bit, let’s talk about the state of relationships these days amid the pandemic. What advice do you have for couples? 

That’s a great question. As you know we wrote a book on marriage which is one type of relationship called “Make Love, Make Money, Make It Last” where we talk about the three big things that break up marriages — sex, money, and communication. Of these, I believe the one that’s most important is communication because it impacts the other two directly. Same with business relationships — that ‘it’s about communication. How we communicate — what we say, how we say it, and are we open and honest in our sharing are all of vital importance to the success of a relationship. 

So how has your approach to relationships changed in recent months? 

What I’m learning is during these tough times it's critical to reach out to folks. I’ve been making it a habit to reach out to people, whether its people I’ve worked with in the past or just friends. I tell em, “I’m checking in. Just wanted to check up on you.” It's been amazing to observe how people are responding to just my check-in calls. 

Can you elaborate more on the importance of this? 

The reason this is so critically important is that everyone is struggling these days. This pandemic has been disruptive for everybody. Even those who are doing well, it’s still disruptive because they can’t see their family members, can’t travel like they used to, can't do the things they used to do, and go to the places they used to go. Everyone has been impacted and everything's been disrupted.

Any tips for recreating a sense of normalcy, stability, and equilibrium during this crazy, disruptive time? 

I’ve been telling folks how important a positive mindset is in terms of getting through these times. We all should be working on our mindset every day filling it with the pure, the powerful, the positive. So rather than looking at all of the bad news on television all day, make sure that you’re reading and listening to positive materials. 

Times have been especially challenging for many Black Americans. Can you speak to that? 

I was on a podcast with a Black entrepreneurial networking company early on in the pandemic where I shared two lessons that black people can take away from this year so that we won’t be in this position again. One involves health and the second, economics. Let’s start with the economic part. What we’re learning is that if you’re in a front line job that doesn't allow you to work from home — bus drivers, people who are metro workers, the restaurant workers— you found yourself in a very vulnerable position. So we have to find a way to grow our economic advancement across all strata of Black America. Sure we have some millionaires and billionaires, massively successful people who are doing really well but we also have quite a few people who are really struggling. So we have to figure out how to help these people who are struggling to learn how to become more economically viable and positioned. 

And in terms of health? 

Studies show that we are dying at a higher rate than everybody else from covid. Initially, I thought this was due solely to the type of lifestyle we as a people tend to live — eating a lot of fatty foods and soul food that’s not always healthy. We also have an over prevalence of diabetes, high blood pressure, and other pre-existing health conditions that make us more susceptible to this illness.

Can you share some more here? 

Well, I’ve become more educated about this over the past few months — specifically about how important a supplement like Vitamin D is. We need to understand that Vitamin D which we absorb from the sun, is our primary source of this nutrient. Problem is, because of our darker skin melanin, black people are able to absorb very little from the sun. So unless we are steadfast about supplementation, the lack of Vitamin D can adversely impact our health over the long run. So it’s vitally important particularly for black folks to supplement with Vitamin D for doing so will allow your immune system to grow stronger, allowing you to be even stronger and offset these pandemic related crisis moments in our health.  

So I’m curious as to what you’re up to in terms of your own reading and self-growth?

Great question. Man, I’m blessed to be reading a lot. Part of that is because I host a Sirius XM show every week where I get to interview some of the best and the brightest people on the entire planet. So I’m getting bucketloads of books that are coming into my office this week.

Tell us about a few of those books. 

I just read “Leadership By The Good Book” by David L. Stewart who is the CEO of America's highest income-generating African American company located in St Louis. Another one on my list is Damond John’s new book called “Power Shift.” He is going to be on my show soon. I’ve got a book by the great business thought leader Harvey Mackay called “You Haven’t Hit Your Peak Yet.” I have a book by Beyoncé’s father Matthew Knowles, that is here in my office...he just sent a copy to me. So I’m reading something every week as part of my show that I have to prepare for.

Any closing thoughts? 

Charlie Tremendous Jones was one of my mentors who I had the honor of being on tour with and getting to know him as a friend. He used to always say that “readers are leaders.” I actually spoke with him the day before he died. He was fond of telling people he crossed paths with that in five years we’ll be the same person we are today except for two things: “the people we meet who inspire us and the books we read that empower us.” That impressed me and inspired me to change my thinking. I’ve gone from a day and time in my life from where I read nothing but sports pages and newspapers to a time where I’m now reading a book or two a week. So I’m always trying to grow my thinking by capturing more and more insights from people who are great thinkers and achievers. And in today’s uncertain environment of setbacks, you should be doing the same.