Welcome to Mindshift Power podcast, a show for teenagers and the adults who work with them, where we have raw and honest conversations. I'm your host, Fatima Bey, the mind shifter. And welcome, everyone. We have today with us George Gonzalez. He is from Ochsner, California.

He is a real estate agent, an author, and an international bestseller. He has a book he wrote a book called Answer the Call, Life Lessons from Family Origins through Invention and Struggle. This man has a lot of wisdom that is especially applicable for the teen years. He has spoken at colleges and is very inspirational. How are you today, George?

我感覺很棒。非常感謝你們邀請我。今天能來這裡我超級興奮。很好。我也很高興你們能來。

那麼，我為什麼不直接說重點呢？可否簡單介紹一下你的背景故事呢？嗯，我的故事是這樣的，我是第一代美國人。我和我的兄弟姊妹，我的家人在二戰期間根據一項名為「瓦爾塞多計畫」的工作協議從墨西哥移民到美國，這是一個前往墨西哥合眾國的工作協議。從那時起，我的家人就一直住在這裡。

我是房地產經紀人。我是一位出版作家。我是一位發明家，也是一位公眾演說家。哇哦。那麼，你的成長過程輕鬆嗎？

你知道，這很容易，因為當然，身為孩子，我們擁有這份純真，這份本質，而且，和家人在一起，我們感到安全。我的家人，我的背景，我們非常團結。所以我從來沒有覺得這很難。現在我長大了，看到我們小時候的照片，我才明白我們當時有多窮，你知道，但我小時候從來沒有這種感覺。哦，好吧。

Well, that that's good actually. Oh, that's great. So your book is called Answer the Call. So tell us. What's the call?

Answer what call? Answer the call is about finding your gifts, your talents, and pursuing your life's purpose. That's what answer the call means. Dive a little deeper. What does that mean?

What does that mean? That means that God gave us each and every one of us a gifted talent when we were born. It's our duty and our responsibility to figure these gifts out, these talents out, and use those and pursue our life's purpose because this is where we're meant to change lives, and we're supposed to reach a certain amount of people. So that's what answer the call means. Yes.

And why did God give us those gifts? He gave us because we're here to serve. That's what we're here for. We're not just here to eat, sleep, and and wake up and go to work the next day. We are here to serve each other, to give back to each other, to learn from each other, to grow together.

That's what we're here for. So what you're saying is that our gifts, our talents are not just for us. They're for others. Correct. Our gifts and talents are the missing pieces of many other people.

And it's almost like we're gonna come together as a puzzle. Yes. By the time we're by the time we're all done, it's gonna come together like this beautiful puzzle masterpiece. That beautifully, beautifully said. Purpose is something that is one of my, focus topics as a coach and as a speaker.

So and I'm very passionate about it and, totally agree. It's extremely, extremely, extremely important that we do answer our call, not answer someone else's call, but answer our call. If I call you on the phone and I ask for Dorothy, you're not gonna say I'm here. Nope. But we do that a lot in life.

And especially I wouldn't even say especially in high school because there's adults that do it just as much as high school kids because they still haven't learned who they are. And I think it I agree. It's very important to answer that call. Now one of the things that you talk about in the in the book specifically, and I wanna kinda focus on this a little bit today, is and you I've heard you talk about it in speeches. How does a teenager reinvent themselves?

We all re can reinvent ourselves, but I think it's a little bit different, for adults because we've had more life experience. Most of us, some teens have had a lot of life experience. But for the average teenager, how do they reinvent themselves? You know, reinventing ourselves doesn't have to be complicated. Who we were five, ten years ago, we've gone through certain situations and certain certain, adversity, maybe some even scary events in our life that were life changing.

Well, those experiences, we're supposed to bring those forward and use those as the new version of ourselves. And that in a sense is reinventing ourselves. So let's not make it complicated, but it's just got get everything that we've learned from before our previous years and use those on a new path forward. And they will notice that, wait a minute, the reason I went to those bad events and the reason I went through that devastating event that I thought it was gonna take me out because it made me stronger today. And I meant to use that as experience, as wisdom, as lessons learned to help other people so they may not go through the same things that we went through.

When a person reinvents himself I'm gonna give this example. So let's say we have someone who's 17, and they're tired of people treating them like they did when they were 14. You know? That's only three years. So to an adult, that's no big deal.

三年時間不算長。但對一個23歲以下的青少年來說，這可是一段漫長的時光。明白嗎？對他們來說，他們如何能夠重塑自我？所以，你得說，你指的是一個17歲的青少年。

每個人都會提起自己13歲時做過的那些尷尬事、蠢事之類的。他們總是把這些事當著他們的面說。還記得你當時是某某嗎？你14歲時因為一件事被人取了個「波波頭」之類的蠢綽號。現在我問你關於青少年的問題，但很多正在聽的成年人也都一樣，這同樣適用於他們。

And I'll I'll dive into that a little bit deeper after you answer this. But for for a teenager specifically, they can look back and they can learn, but what are the action steps they can take to reinvent themselves in a practical sense? Now I want people to understand, and and this is for the parents, the the adults, and also the teenagers Mhmm. That people that know you, they see you how you were. Mhmm.

They don't see how you are. Mhmm. You meet a complete stranger, and they will see you as who you are and not as who you were because they don't know the the old version of you. Right. So we can't convince I can't convince my family to see me at who I am today because they haven't experienced the things that I had to go through to to be who I am today.

Mhmm. They didn't experience that. So they're never gonna understand this version of me that they see in front of them today. They're only going to think about the things that I did in the past because they can't see and understand the new version of me. So it's my responsibility to move out of that environment and and network and and be amongst different peers that understand this new version of me and not be bitter and upset as of the people that see me for who I was because they see you who you are.

這並不意味著他們不愛你。他們確實愛你，但他們只了解你過去的樣子。你看清了真實的自己，因為你改變了。你理解這個過程，理解這段旅程。而他們卻不理解。

所以，讓人們明白「不，不，這就是全新的我」是件很讓人沮喪的事。他們永遠無法理解，也永遠無法領悟。但你生命中那些新認識的人，他們會明白的。喔天哪，喬治，你真是個了不起的人。你真是個發明家。

You're this author. That's amazing. My family doesn't see me that way. I'm just the oh, I I remember when I used to poop on your pants and you're always all dirty and stuff like that. That's who they remember.

Oh, you didn't go just stuff like that. You didn't go to university. That's who they know. They don't know this other version of me. It's almost like they wanna throw that like you said, they wanna throw the bad things almost in your face, almost to ground you again and bring you down.

但我們必須非常謹慎，我們必須明白，我們不再是那個人了。這是基礎。這是我們經歷過的過程，但那不再是我們，我們需要擺脫它。這就是我一直在尋找的，那種崩潰，我覺得你說得很棒。永遠不要讓人們試圖去理解他們無法理解的東西，有時也不要讓他們試著去理解他們不想理解的東西。

Now some people will want I'm just adding to what you're saying. Some people will want to understand. They might not understand at first. But if we are consistent in our behavior, they will and can see the change if they want to. If they don't want to and they still wanna see you as mister poopy pants, then you'll just they wanna stay as I always say, if someone wants to stay stuck in your past, leave them there in your past.

Move ahead. Because people like that are not going to help you get ahead. And, you know, this is true for adults in life, but I I know I see it happening with teenagers. And I've had conversations with some teens who are just like, I wanna change, but and they don't word it this way, but, basically, what they tell me is I wanna change, but everybody keeps, you know, acting like I'm this person that I was. And I love what you said.

Find a new crowd. If the crowd you're in ain't working, find a new crowd. Sometimes the the fish is too big for the pond. You need to get in a new pond, and it is okay to do that. Just because you grew up with somebody and you've known them since they were five doesn't mean that you need to grow keep continue to grow with them because maybe they're done growing or they're growing a different direction or whatever.

如果他們不能幫你更上一層樓，那就和那些能幫你更上一層樓的人一起玩。我常說的一句話，我也想補充一句，就是和那些能幫你達到理想境界的人一起玩。這在任何年齡都適用。我看過高中生和大學生玩，不只是因為他們覺得自己是大學生，而是因為那是他們想去的地方。嗯。

And they're at a maturity level that they want to have, so they hang out with them. I'm not saying everybody needs to hang out with college kids, but it doesn't have to be an age thing. It could be hanging out with people that are college bound versus your friend that smoke weed on the couch every day and are McDonald's bound. Those are two different crowds. So you wanna make sure you're hanging out with those who are where you want to be.

That always helps to bring us up to another level. Just something I'm very passionate about, so I had to to bring that up as well. Absolutely. Another I'm gonna switch gears a little bit because this is something else I wanted to talk about with you because you guys don't know George, but there's, like, 942,000 subjects we could talk about with him. So I really wanted to narrow it down to two two main focuses.

所以，一個是重塑自我，因為我知道，有一部分人需要有人告訴他們，改變自己是可以的。你不必成為現在的自己。你常常談論你的信仰。某種程度上，我也是，而且毫無歉意。現在我想問的是，你的信仰對你的成功有多重要？

My faith is probably the most important thing that I have Mhmm. In my arsenal, in my in my toolbox. And the reason I say that because when you go through some adversity or some event, you lose everything and everyone. The only one you don't you don't lose is God. Mhmm.

He will be there with you through the toughest. And how do I know this? It's because there's no way that I should have had the strength to keep on living. There's just no way. Because I look at my life and people have told me this, George, if I would have gone through that, would you gone through?

And I don't know all of it from from only what you share with us. I would have tapped out a long time ago. There's no way I would have survived that. So when they say stuff like that, it also reiterates what I've always felt that if it wasn't for him giving me the strength, the courage, the vision, the passion, and everything that he gives me, I would have gave up a long time ago and I would have clocked out. So that's the only thing that will never go away because I went to bed many, many, many times crying, sad, depressed.

Mhmm. You know what? You know what, God? I'm done. I'm over it.

Go to sleep. Peaceful sleep. Wake up the next morning with this jolt of energy. I'm like, where did this come from? This is not what how I went to sleep last night with.

So all of a sudden, I have this will to survive, to to to create something, to motivate, to inspire. Like, where's all this coming from again? And it's like this circle all the time. Whenever I'm low and I'm crying, I go, god, help me. Guide me.

You know, give me a safe passage. The next morning, it's almost like nothing ever happened. And I got the strength again. And that's only him. It ain't me.

That's him. You know? I'm a big believer in faith and I've been I'm a big believer in praying, you know, before and after you you ask for things. And just because you ask them for success, doesn't mean all of a sudden stuff is gonna show up. There's gonna be some tests.

人生路上難免坎坷，難免背叛，因為這個過程會把你塑造成你想要的樣子，讓你獲得渴望的祝福。有時候，這就像一顆難以下嚥的藥丸。是的。我夠睿智，或者說夠聰明，能夠理解並看清這一點。

I was like, wait a minute. This lesson makes sense now. It didn't when I was going through that pain. It wasn't when I was depressed. It wasn't when I was having suicidal thoughts, but now it makes sense.

And now when I when people hear me on stage and whatnot, they can relate to my story and they say, if George made it, I can make it too. So that that was the lesson. That was the journey. I had to go through that so I can have a relatable experience to talk to people that were right behind me coming to this journey. Yes.

我想說的是，你在回答這個問題的開頭提到過，上帝就在我們身邊。我想，你這麼說的時候，我明白你這個比喻的意思了。這就像一個最盛大、最美麗的擁抱。我想說，你能得到的世界上最盛大、最美麗的擁抱，就是站在那裡等待，但你必須走向祂才能得到。他不會強迫你，只要我們決定靠近他，他隨時準備好迎接我們任何人。

And that's a decision on our part. God will not, well, God knows. He does know that he's still standing there waiting for you to come over to him. He never forces anybody. And I know, like yourself, without faith, I would absolutely be dead Mhmm.

Or in jail for murder. I'm just telling you that right now. Without without face without faith, I know for a fact I couldn't do half the stuff I've done and most of the stuff I'm going to do. Even doing this podcast was an act of faith. And knowing that, you know, God told me to do it, actually, and it was an answer to prayer because I saw a problem.

我說，天哪，我該怎麼解決這個問題？我能做什麼？然後轟隆一聲。他開始跟我說話，語速真快。我不得不說，等等。

Let me write it down. I'm not kidding. I I got this, idea for this podcast, and then within two months, I had it all planned out. Mhmm. And then as it got closer, I, you know, planned even more details with the technology piece.

But I had a lot of it planned out a couple months ahead of time because it was just like, boom. Boom. Boom. And, you know, but I agree. Having faith is important, and knowing that there's someone bigger than us who's there to help us is a big, big deal.

我認為很多人的問題在於，正如你稍微提到的，如果你不把上帝當作你的安全感的一部分，你就很容易陷入憂鬱。如果你不把上帝視為重要的東西，不把上帝視為支撐你的東西，不相信祂會支持你。我知道，就我而言，我在節目中談過一些我的信仰，但談得併不多，因為它並不總是焦點。但既然你來了，我想談談它，因為你確實談了很多，而且你的觀點很鼓舞人心。我認為，無論我們談論什麼，傾聽其他人的困境都很重要。

In this case, we're talking about God. But I think it's important to hear what other people what other people do besides us to to hold themselves up, to to stay strong, to stay motivated. Because maybe that could help someone else if they learn that, well, if it's working for him, if it's working for her, maybe I should try it. You know? Yeah.

如果有人想消除壓力、焦慮和困惑，那就是禱告。祈求上帝除去這些東西。我的意思是，在我經歷過的一些事情中，我自己也有點困惑，因為我擁有的平安，我擁有的平安，根本就沒有任何意義。它只是合乎情理。這就是上帝。

他抓住我了。我不應該拔掉我的頭髮。我沒有頭髮，但我應該拔掉我的頭髮，咬我的指甲。但我沒有。我很冷靜，是的。

Collective through this massive storms in my life, and it didn't make any sense. And people would see me as like, I thought you were going through some stuff. I was like, I am. You don't look it. Right.

And I'm like, I don't look it. But did you wanna know why? Well, yeah. I don't look it because God gots me. The the because when we're stressed out, we, like, we get, like, dark and ugly and and under your eyes and Yeah.

It shows. It's almost like you look demonic when you're stressed out. Yeah. You know? And I've seen people stressed out, and I'm like, oh my god.

I mean, God bless you. I I I you don't gotta tell me what you're going through, but I'm gonna pray for you. Yeah. Yes. I can see it.

Yeah. You know? Don't forget. I mean, God is willing to hear you. If you're willing to speak to him, he will help you.

There's things that we cannot do as human beings. He only has the power to do that. And then I see people later on and they look different. And then I say George, I mean I mean, not that I'm saying I'm big religious and stuff like that, but I I took what you gave me, and I took it seriously. And and I do pray more, and and I do go church more often and stuff like that.

And I'm like, I can see that because it's like night and day Mhmm. Almost. Yeah. It is. You know?

所以，有些事情真的很難解釋。但它們仍然是奇蹟。它們確實是奇蹟。是的。當我們想到奇蹟時，我們往往會對它們產生誤解。

We think of what we see in movies and cartoons. And although those can happen periodically, that's not the norm. The norm is when God answers your prayer, you ask for ice cream, for example. He's going to have an ice cream truck drive by your house. Yes.

他不會讓冰淇淋從天上掉下來，也不會讓陽光閃耀。是的。不會。是的。你會聽到我這麼說的。

And he and he talks to us in different ways. Like me writing the book, he hugged me with this feeling twice. Yeah. When I invented the batting machine, he gave me the vision. When I called my book, answer the call, he whispered to me that answer the call.

所以，他會在需要的時候用不同的方式跟我們說話，但他並不常這樣做。但他也讓我們知道。例如，我曾經有一個東西告訴我，你需要在脖子上戴一個特定的十字架。它困擾了我大概兩天半。我當時就想，等等。

I have that in my closet. So I went in there. I put it on. It was there, but the feeling wouldn't go away until I put that on. I'm driving down the road, and sometimes, like, don't turn left.

Keep going. Mhmm. Now turn right. And I'm like, okay. I was gonna turn left.

我往右拐了，結果沒往左拐。我本來應該要直走，然後拐彎。結果不行，後來又右轉了。所以，有些事我們遇過。

We have to listen to that. Yes. Because that's him guiding us. Society has made us believe it's something different. No.

It's his guidance that's guiding us. Don't ignore that. That can save you a lot of trouble, a lot of pain, suffering, and a lot of tears if we listen to that. Now I wanna bring up something else that you guys don't know about George is he has invented what is it? 15,000,000 things?

George is is a master inventor. I'll just put it that way. What has inspired well, tell us first of all, just give us a few examples of some of the things that you've invented, and then tell us what has inspired some of that those inventions. The the the grandest one is is definitely the batting machine for baseball and softball. Oh.

And when I when I created the prototype, my daughter became a five time all star, rookie of the year and won your MVP because of the batting machine. And, we also created a golf machine, and, that will be coming out after the batting machine. And we're all we're always dotting stuff down, and we have them in a safe in a safe place because we're always coming up with ideas, but we have to write them down. Just because we can't fund them today doesn't mean we can't doesn't mean we can't fund them next year or five years from now. Just write these ideas down.

If you have a song, some poetry that comes to your heart, write it down. Because at some point, you're going to meet somebody in position to launch you into making it happen. We don't know. So don't discard these things. These are gifts.

這些都是上帝給你的天賦。很快，當你準備好迎接人生的下一個階段時，他就會帶你認識像你一樣的人，像你自己一樣的人，像我一樣的播客。我當時想，等等。這說得通。我剛剛透過這個社交活動認識了一個人。

They said they would help somebody. They're looking to help somebody. Why don't I see if we can partner up and collaborate with? You know? It it so don't ignore those things that come through because these are messages.

別固執。有時候我們很固執。別固執。所以我聽到的，以及我聽到的，我會這樣總結：聽從你的直覺。

聽著，有些人會用不同的字。所以我會用不同的字來表達不同的意思。所以，聽從聖靈。聽從你的直覺。聽從你的直覺。

And there are many other words that people use for the same thing. Listen to that. It is your it's a spiritual message, basically, telling you, you know, guiding you. And if we we ignore that, everybody listening knows what I'm talking about because everybody listening has made the mistake of ignoring it, not listening to it. Every single person on earth has done that.

你們有些人還在這麼做，因為你們覺得，不行。我必須只用邏輯。我們不能用我的其他部分，但是是的。但你可以。不。

And you should. Let me tell you, logic is slow as hell. Logic is slow like a turtle, but intuition is fast and smarter. And if we think that way, we we we can begin to recognize that we do need to listen to that gut feeling, that man you shouldn't have dated. And you knew when you met that man, he was trouble.

That girl, you knew that she was crazy, and I should stay away from her, but you didn't listen. You knew that job. That's gonna be a problem. And then it was. You knew that whatever.

You know? You you just knew. And but you didn't listen because it because logic didn't catch up with it yet. Logic didn't say don't do it. Logic was like, well, you don't know this.

You don't know that. Yes. You do. So listen. You don't have to wait for logic to catch up with you.

You know what I'm saying? I wanna ask you this question. I wasn't planning on asking this, but you've you've had a few inventions. How many things do you have written down that you have not yet invented? Dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens.

I know. I know. Because I've talked to you, so I know that there I know that there is. Once the creative juices come Mhmm. Never stop them.

永遠不要停止能量的流動，永遠不要停止進步的思想。永遠不要停止。即使你得拿出一堆筆記本，把它們堆起來，塞進櫃子或儲藏室，那些都是你被賦予的想法。在某個時刻，你會回頭看著它們，說，看，我覺得是時候了。突然間，你就變得像愛迪生和愛因斯坦一樣，擁有成千上萬的發明。

I think that that is so worth repeating. And I I swear I had you say it again. Let me tell you a story. My uncle is a songwriter. He has only done one album.

He's got 400 songs written. Imagine if he would have stopped at the 10 or 12. He wouldn't have written the rest of them. And there's a lot of musicians out there with the same thing. Same thing with poetry.

That's true. There's people that have passed away that had notepads of poetry written, and they were not published until they passed away. And people saw these closets and boxes of full of stuff, and then they started publish, publishing this poetry. If they would have done that, we would never would have read this stuff. No.

You're right. I wanted that repeated because especially talking to high school students, and I'm gonna talk to them right now. Some of y'all are freaking brilliant, and you have these massively crazy awesome ideas Mhmm. But they don't fit in with everyone else right now, so you suppress them. Don't do that.

We need your genius. We need that big old brain that you have, that talent that God put in you. We need to hear the next invention that's in your mind, but nobody but it but nobody else is gonna accept that right now. Well, they didn't accept Einstein either, but we know his name. I wanna piggyback on that before I lose my my thought here.

I'm glad you said that because my daughter was 11 years old when I when I invented the batting machine. She sat on my lap in my home office and she said, daddy, what are you doing? I'm like, look, baby. I invented this machine to make you a better player. She said at her 11 years, daddy, shouldn't it have this?

它不應該這樣做嗎？我們能加上這個嗎？她11歲時就成為了一位共同發明家。如果我當時沒有聽從女兒的話，那台機器就不會是今天這個樣子。所以，孩子們，他們的天真，他們的創造力是難以理解的，這就是為什麼聖經和上帝說，你們需要重新變得像孩子一樣。

There's a reason why he says that because we look at life differently. That's true. So if you get an idea, doesn't matter what age you are, listen to that. If you're a teenager or anywhere younger, don't discard that. Write it down.

如果你還沒到資助的年齡，就跟父母分享。如果他們不聽，就把它放在某個架子上。等你成年了，找到工作了，突然間你會想，等等，我發明的那個小裝置怎麼了？然後你回頭說，我的天。

This is more amazing than I remember. I need to put this out because society needs it. You never know when you're gonna make it happen. Yes. So follow it.

So follow that dream. Yes. Teenagers, please, please, please follow your dreams because the rest of the world needs what you have. You know, inside I like to say inside each one of each one of you each one of us is a pot of gold. Yes.

But the gold is worthless until we open up and have access to it. Absolutely. And with that, tell us, what services do you offer and how people can find you? Well, I as I said, I was I'm a published author, so I'm always sharing my wisdom, my journey on speaking on stages in colleges and universities. Do a lot of podcast interviews, share all my content.

I, write poetry. I coach, I mentor, and I guide people to life and showing them how to reinvent themselves. And also how to find your gifts, your talents, and how to pursue your life's purpose. Because we're we're all given that gift, and we need to answer the call in our lives. And where can they find you?

他們可以在我的所有社交媒體平台上找到我的名字，喬治·岡薩雷斯（George Underscore V Underscore Gonzales）。如果你點擊我的個人簡介，你會看到一個選項，可以免費下載我的書，這是給世界的禮物。我的書名是「Jorge」還是「George」？拼字是“Jorge”。是的。好的。

That's correct. J o r j o r g e underscore v underscore Gonzales, g o n z a l e z. That's two z's. Oh, okay. Alright.

Well, thank you for coming on. It really has been awesome talking to you, and I wish we had longer because we could've really talked for a long time. But, once again, thank you for coming on the show, and we really appreciate your time. No. Thank you so much for having me.

就像我說的，我很榮幸能有這個機會，也感謝你所有的智慧之言。我真的很感激你。現在，讓我們換個角度思考。我希望你認真思考一下，回應你的召喚。你人生還有什麼召喚你還沒回應呢？

是什麼從你年幼時，從你年幼時，一直呼喚著你，直到今天依然存在？你需要回應的呼喚是什麼？我希望你認真思考。感謝收聽「心靈轉換力量」播客。請按讚並訂閱我的YouTube頻道「心靈轉換者」。

如果您有任何評論、主題建議，或想成為本集節目的嘉賓，請造訪 FatimaBay.com/podcast。記住，改變思考的力量是無窮的。請關注下週節目。