How do we create and live an extraordinary life? In this episode of Incorporating SuperPowers, host Justin Recla is joined by guest Peter Ruppert as they talk about living an extraordinary life. Peter has helped start and create over 75 private schools across the United States, with an MBA from Harvard Business School and a book called Limitless: The 9 Steps to Launch Your One Extraordinary Life. Peter shares his back story and the research he did to uncover the keys to success. A modern-day telling of Napoleon Hill, Peter also shares his story behind the book. Join Justin and Peter in today’s episode to discover how you can live an extraordinary life.
Welcome back to Incorporating SuperPowers. I’m your host, Justin Recla. Today we are going to be talking about living an extraordinary life, and I love the conversation around extraordinary and life, when you put them together, the extraordinary. It’s kind of an oxymoron in and of itself, but when you put the two together, it says something completely different about what is possible in this world.
For those of you that are in business or in some sort of leadership role, you understand that the whole purpose of doing what you do in business is to help others and to create solutions that make things easier, so they can go out there and live an extraordinary life. My guest today is one of those people that just get it, has lived it, is doing it and sharing it with the world now. Peter Ruppert has been in the education industry for quite some time. He’s helped establish a lot of private schools that are very successful. I mean, how many schools have you set up now, Peter?
We have about 78 schools across the country that are physical, and then we have a virtual school we just launched about six months ago, Justin.
And folks, this is the level of impact that I am talking about here. Because when you can take some of the concepts that Ruppert’s going to share with us today, and the story of his book of Limitless: Nine Steps to Launch Your One Extraordinary Life, this is the level of impact that business should thrive for because Peter has got an amazing backstory. First and foremost, he’s got an MBA from Harvard, so he knows a thing or two about the business world. I love the fact that he’s now bringing this back and sharing this message and insight that he got with the world. Peter, welcome to the show. Thank you for being here today.
Thank you so much, Justin. A pleasure to be with you. Thanks for having me.
Absolutely. I want to just dive right into your book. You were sharing with me a little bit before the call on the backstory of where it came from, the book, Limitless. Can you share a little bit more? Where did it come from? What’s it about, and why should somebody read it?
Sure, absolutely. Well, someone should read this if they really are interested in pursuing that extraordinary life that I talk about in the title, but they have dreams or goals that they just don’t want to settle for good enough in their life, but instead want to strive to not give up on dreams that they may have had when they were younger. It’s especially for people who don’t want to turn 60 or 65 someday and look back and said, “I wish I would have, or I could have done this if I’d done something differently.” But, instead, I’m hoping this can inspire people to really pursue their dreams, and with a very concrete, 150-page book, we can guide them along that path.
It started, really, from my own personal experience in my twenties and thirties, as fresh out of college with big dreams, and then I hit some roadblocks along the way. I had a couple of businesses that didn’t work out, and all of a sudden, I was starting a family, and I was unemployed and things could have gone several different ways.
I really started to study other successful people from all walks of life, and as I did that, I started to see these themes of similarities that were present almost universally in those people who had become extraordinary. I drafted those as a reference point and as an inspiration for me. I typed them up, put them in my briefcase, and looked at them on a regular basis to kind of remind me that this is what it was going to take, and this was the pathway.
And then, when my oldest son, and he’s 25 now, but when he entered middle school 12 or 13 years ago, I re-typed it up. I called it Traits of a Champion. I put it on their bathroom mirror and hoped that my kids, as they grew, would probably not want to necessarily listen to their old man talk about this stuff, but they might read these and digest these over time as they brushed their teeth.
And then from there, I shared it at one of our business conferences with our school leaders. Several people came up to me and really loved the list and suggested that I turn it into a book. That was the germination of the idea, and led to where we are today and recently having launched the book about three months ago.
Congratulations. I love how that inspiration of your desire to want to study, learn and figure out, okay, how did this group of people do that and what did that boil down to? And then taking those insights that you had, sharing them with your kids and reinforcing that in your home, and then sharing them with others. Folks, this is how it works. You have to have the courage to step forward and share what you’ve learned so we can all learn from it together. Pete, I want to ask you, when you were doing your case studies and looking into the people that you called extraordinarily, how would you define those extraordinary people? What makes them extraordinary?
It’s funny, Justin, because I think as we think about successful people, there’re so many different areas, right? And for me, I was very interested in being an entrepreneur and had crashed and burned at least once in my early days of trying it out.
I was gravitating to those entrepreneurs who have become extremely successful. But I also looked at athletes, and I looked at coaches and entertainers, even politicians, for that matter, and I studied how those people kind of rose to the top. That’s what really was so powerful for me, that no matter what career track they chose, how similar so many of their backgrounds were, and how they all exemplified these steps, or took these steps in their own form or fashion, to get to where they wanted to be.
That’s what it was for me. That’s when I realized that there’s not just one way to get there. There are several traits that these leaders exemplified, but they all kind of went about it in their own separate ways. But the similarities across the different people that I studied with were just fascinating.
What I’m hearing is, as I’ve bounced this around my own construct, my own journey, my own experience with such things, I hear the words, “Modern-day Napoleon Hill.” Of going out there and studying what the Rockefellers and the successful business folks in the world did.
This is modern-day Napoleon Hill right here. This is somebody who took the effort to go out there and study and look and examine those people that were extraordinary in business, and it’s translated down into a book. This is fantastic.
Well, thanks, Justin. I wish that I had the Napoleon Hill success. But the point that I think you’re making, which is a good one, is I was able to kind of break it down into those nine steps, right? When you look at a lot of different people and kind of make it really comes to life for me and be a guide for me and for others since then. What I really wanted to do is break it down into a 150-page book. That’s all it is. Each chapter, as I mentioned to you before we started, has additional resources that I call, Dig Deeper, where there are videos and movies and books and papers and podcasts that the reader can go learn more about from the real experts.
Because I don’t profess to be the person who’s invented any of this stuff. I was just able to kind of compile it, putting it into what is a fairly simple, concrete, but yet powerful program that I think the users who read it can really benefit from and help them guide their way to their dreams and that extraordinary life.
Absolutely love it. Folks, stay with us. When we get back, we’re going to be talking a little bit more about some of the points and use of the tips and tools from, really, what it takes to live an extraordinary life. Peter, before we go on break, where can people go find more about you? More importantly, where can they go to get a copy of your book?
Thanks, Justin. Yes. They can go to peteruppert.com. There, you can learn more about the book. You can learn a little bit more about my background and my company. There’s a link there to click right to it. It’ll take you to Amazon. Obviously, the reader or the listener can go to Amazon directly and google Limitless, Peter Ruppert, or to barnesandnoble.com and find them at both locations, it’s fairly easy. It’s all out there and easily accessible.
Fantastic. Folks, go get a copy of Peter’s book. Take a look at it. Look at what he’s doing in the world. He is having an impact. He’s putting schools in place. He’s making people think differently and look at, “You know what? There is a way of doing this.” And the nine steps outline that. Go take a look. We’ll be right back.
To listen to the entire show click on the player above or go to the SuperPower Up! podcast on iTunes.
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