What does it take to be rich?
Peter Drucker once said, “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” And author Michael J. Gelb wrote, “You can change your life by changing the way you think about yourself and your potential.”
What does it take to be one of the richest and most successful people in the world? How do you get to the top? And once you’re there — how do you stay at the top?
Today’s guest on The School of Greatness knows a thing or two about that. Charles Koch is one of the richest people in the world and CEO and chairman of one of the largest privately held American companies, Koch Industries, with over 130,000 employees. He is also an influential philanthropist and has been for more than 50 years. He supports education and helps organize groups that research solutions to poverty and other big social issues, and he’s founded numerous non-profits, including Stand Together.
Charles learned to self-actualize early in life, and his wealthy mindset has carried him extremely far. That’s why today he has a passion for giving back and showing others how to maximize their success by maximizing their mindsets. He’s working hard to give back, and he has a lot of wisdom to share about staying positive and humble and managing fear.
I had such a great time consuming the wealth of knowledge that he had to share, and I can’t wait for you guys to hear it as well. We have a lot of similar ideas around mindset and how to be your most successful self, and we discussed a lot of topics that he wrote about in his new book Believe in People: Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World. I know you’re going to enjoy this episode — I know I did!
Who Is Charles Koch?
Charles Koch is the business mastermind behind Koch Industries. He’s been the co-owner, chairman, and CEO since the company’s founding in 1967. Koch Industries is the company behind an incredible number of well-known brands, including Stainmaster carpet, Quilted Northern tissue, and Dixie Cups.
Charles is also a prolific and highly influential philanthropist. He has dedicated much of his time to maintaining the legacy of the Koch Family Foundation, a charitable organization that provides grants and scholarships to students and promising young artists. Charles is also a regular contributor to various political movements and organizations, including the Republican Party and the Cato Institute, a Libertarian think tank in Washington D.C.
In addition to being a widely-known businessman and philanthropist, Charles is a dedicated family man. He’s been married to his wife, Liz, since 1972, and together they have two children, Chase and Elizabeth Koch. Charles has also had a longstanding business partnership with his late brother, David Koch, who served as the Executive Vice President of Koch Industries.
I truly enjoyed my conversation with Charles. He has so much wisdom to share, and I’m grateful to him for joining me on this very special episode of The School of Greatness!
In our conversation, we dove deep into how you can reach your highest potential. We discussed the tools and strategies that have helped Charles make it to the top — most importantly, how he discovered and uses his unique gifts. We also talked about the power of contributing to society and how to develop a wealthy mindset. And finally, we discussed the real meaning to bottom-up empowerment and the importance of empowering your people to succeed.
This conversation is informative, inspiring, and endlessly interesting! I know you’re going to love it, so let’s jump in!
The Importance of Self-Actualization
Charles has a strong central tenant that drives everything that he does: His responsibility is to contribute to making the world a better place, and the world only gets better when we’re all using our unique gifts to contribute in some way.
“Central to our philosophy is that everyone has a gift. … What we try to do is go find those people to solve a problem … and then back them and combine our capabilities with theirs to enable them to do even more, to help even more people. … It requires believing in yourself, believing in other people, … having them realize that no one’s good at everything — we’re all just good at a few things, so we need to partner with people who have complementary capabilities.” – Charles Koch
Everyone has a gift that they should be using to contribute, so it makes sense that the first step is discovering what our own gifts are. This is the process of self-actualization — realizing who you are, what gifts you have, and how you can use those gifts to contribute.
Charles started his own self-actualization journey when he was in the third grade:
“I was in the third grade, and the teacher was putting math problems on the board. And it’s amazing what you remember — that is an ‘aha’ moment. And I say to myself, ‘Why is she putting those problems on the board? The answers are obvious.’ And I look around the room, and they aren’t obvious to anybody else. And so that was the starting point in discovering my gift.” – Charles Koch
At a young age, Charles discovered that he has a gift for numbers. He is excellent at using math and other abstract concepts, and he uses that gift to contribute to the world.
What are your gifts? What unique skills do you have that no one else does? You have something that marks you special — I want to encourage you to find out what that is and use it to contribute to your business or community!
Once you discover what your gifts are, Charles recommended finding mentors who can help you learn how to put them to use:
“It’s [about] having mentors … social entrepreneurs who are dedicated to empowering you.” – Charles Koch
Who do you know who does something similar to what you want to do? If you want to start a business, find local business owners to mentor you. If you want to become a podcaster or a public speaker or a coach, find people who have gone before you in those spaces and learn from their knowledge. When you’re empowered, you can then take your gifts into the world and use them to empower others.
