How Personal Pain Led To An Ambitious Goal To End World Hunger By Doug Bennett, with special guest Joe Winters Jr

People become unstoppable when they are pursuing a heartfelt goal fuelled by personal experience.

One of my goals over the next four years is to support more than 100 people to retire as soon as possible so they can make the most of life; many people continue to work because they don’t realise they are financially equipped to retire. My parents died aged 64 and 63, within 12 weeks of each other, and were unaware that they already had the financial means to stop working;  I don’t want that for anyone else (see my earlier blog on creating a work optional lifestyle).

I recently interviewed entrepreneur Joe Winters Jr on my podcast Goals Do Come True. He helps service-based entrepreneurs to create top-rated podcasts, build their network and monetise their expertise, but what interested me most was his big, hairy, audacious goal to end world hunger (inspired by his own personal journey).

Joe’s story

Growing up, Joe, his mum and his two younger brothers lived in homeless shelters; on the occasions where no accommodation was available, they went without food. When Joe was eight years old his mum died, and although his father had been in and out of his life, he had also spent time in prison. Joe ultimately opted to distance himself from what was an abusive relationship; he preferred to be on his own and homeless. Joe suffered from depression but began watching motivational videos. He managed to pull himself out of poverty and become a motivational speaker himself. Now, Joe has his heart set on ending world hunger so that nobody else has to endure such pain.

The defining moment

Joe: “I made up my mind at a young age that I was created to contribute to the world, specifically communities of poverty, communities that don’t have the means or the education to be resourceful or create the life that they want.

I’ve been blessed in many ways that have enabled me to create a life for myself and put me in a position where I can partner with other organisations and people with the same purpose, mission and calling in life; ending world hunger is the number one goal, and next in line is ending homelessness.”

Joe has set himself an incredible and worthy goal. It’s a goal that would terrify some people because it’s so immense. One of the ways Joe avoids overwhelm is to regularly conduct a personal and professional inventory about who he is, so that he can tap into his own power and maintain the determination he needs in order to make his goal a reality. I wanted to learn more about his strategy.

The strategy

Joe: “I started local and then rippled out by creating partnerships, collaborations and my own free ‘world class’ educational podcast, The Daily Path, where I share everything that I’ve ever learnt so that if someone experiencing homelessness or hunger listens (and they really want to change their life), they have all the answers at their disposal.

Step one is to deliver that education, and step two is the actual feeding of people who are hungry or homeless; the education will help play a role in sustaining a world that is no longer hungry or homeless.”

Practising gratitude

Joe’s dedication and mission are humbling. I wanted to know how he’d managed to become so open-hearted given the challenging childhood he endured. His answer was unexpected.

Joe: “I practise gratitude. When you are mad or angry or agitated, you put yourself in harm’s way and, in most instances, you do things that are not in alignment with what you need to do. It’s better to wait, relax, collect yourself and come back to the conversation with a level head; practising gratitude removes the anger, the fears, the emotion that will otherwise provoke you to do something unhelpful.

Without gratitude, you begin to accept a life, as opposed to actively creating the life that you want. You need to fall asleep and wake up paying attention to everything you are grateful for: your gifts, talents, the people in your life, experiences, education, and what you will learn from your weaknesses and any adversity you face.

When you practise gratitude, you increase your self-awareness, emotional intelligence and inner peace. Practising gratitude is my number one way to maintain inner peace, be the father that I want to be, the entrepreneur that I need to be to serve my clients well, and ultimately to be the person that I need to be in order to pursue my goal to end world hunger.”

Being grateful is a philosophy that can benefit everybody. Even when things are incredibly tough, there is always something that we can be grateful for; the very fact that you woke up this morning and have the ability to read this blog and be inspired by what Joe has shared is worth a moment of gratitude.

Joe’s goal is the ultimate goal. He has learnt to build strength and resourcefulness by overcoming earlier challenges in his life (and now has a strong support network). Your goals might be just as big or considerably smaller, but, either way, you’ll grow and become a better version of yourself by moving towards them.

I’d love to hear about your goals. Drop me a line at doug@dougbennett.co.uk.