Dr. Troy Nash - Investing in Yourself to Succeed

Today’s guest is unlike no other and we’re glad to have him on the show.

Dr. Troy Nash came up the hard way. He rose from a poor inner-city street kid living in public housing on welfare with no father in the home, to becoming a two-term city councilman in Missouri, traveling to nearly 40 countries around the world promoting humanitarian, educational, and cultural exchanges, earning six advanced degrees including a doctorate in education, an MBA, and a law degree, to becoming the first African American executive named partner/shareholder in a top commercial real estate firm in the history of the State of Missouri.

In this interview, you’ll learn the inspiring story on how education helped him to become who he is today despite his background, how he started changing his community starting with his three older brothers, and how to break free from your where you are now to a life of success despite the various barriers that may come your way.

Quotes from the interview

 “The reality is, it (change) starts with you.  You simply have to make up your mind, throw your arms out and say I had enough and take one little action and to understand life is not a straight line.” – Dr. Troy Nash 

 “It all starts with you. You have to put good stuff in your head in order to get good stuff out in life. There’s no other way” – Dr. Troy Nash 

“You have to find that thing that is the essence of who you are; your passion.” – Dr. Troy Nash

Key Ideas from Dr. Troy Nash

 [02:10] How important it is for people to invest in themselves to succeed

It’s the only way you can to succeed. Everything starts with YOU. Troy started to change when he got tired of ‘everything’.

[03:31] What did he do differently that allowed him to become what he is today despite his background

He challenged the conventional wisdom and he got tired of the stigma where an African American is associated with criminality. The US Airforce was his way out and being in the military taught him education. After being back from service, he along with his 3 older brothers converted his little ‘ghetto house’ into a school by helping his brothers with their GED scores. He enrolled his 3 older brothers to college for the very first time and recruited hundreds of people from his community.

[13:12] How to reprogram the mind to get in the direction you want

You must put in the conscious, deliberate effort to improve yourself. Part of improving yourself is surrounding yourself with people who have dreams, hopes, and ambitions. Sometimes, you’re gonna find yourself alone and if you can deal with it, then you’re on your way to success.

[16:00] How to focus in world that is socially distracting

“You have to write your own story”. He was given an opportunity and grabbed it! Anybody can do it, but the reality is there are barriers to it like racism, jealousy hate, envy, etc. that you must deal with on your road to success.

[18:42] How to overcome the fear of overcoming barriers that scares them like disapproval, biases, racism, etc.

According to Dr. Troy, it’s about manipulating your subconscious mind.  He did it by changing the environment he’s in. He listened to inspirational things, surrounded himself with positive people.

[22:08] How to break free from ‘addiction’ so they can start manipulating your subconscious mind while ‘gravity’ is pulling them from the negative

Based on his limited experience, what worked for him is about thinking differently and changing his habits. Drenching yourself to change is necessary.  He shared a story and the gist of it is about taking small steps and being consistent with it until it becomes a habit. Whenever the temptation kicks in, focus your mind on the negative or the pain that it will cause you.

[28:20] How to persevere in times of trouble when pain is the negative pain (like divorce, or betrayal which he went through)