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Founder's Story
He Got Thrown Out of School, Went to Clown School, and Ended Up at Harvard Medical School | Ep 317 with John Glaser
00:30:33
Daniel Robbins sits down with John Glaser for a wide ranging conversation on rebellion, reinvention, leadership, and a life built far outside the conventional path. Drawing directly from the transcript, John reflects on getting expelled from high school, hitchhiking from Alaska to Panama, going to clown school, and eventually becoming a leading voice in digital health and an executive in residence at Harvard Medical School. The episode becomes a deeper meditation on love, family, courage, meaningful work, and why the journey itself matters more than the applause at the end.
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A
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- [00:51]
C
So Jon Glasser, I was reading about your story and I was fascinated and it kind of reminded me of some things that happened in my life and, and, and that's why I wanted to get you on here because I wanted to understand what it's like for you when you were growing up, the fact that you went to clown school. Like I don't know if I've ever talked to anyone besides a clown if they, you know, how was clown school and how you leverage that in life. But let's go all the way back to when you were in grade school, okay. And something happened to you that I imagine you'd say really changed your life. What was that like?
- [01:29]
A
Well, it's a fair question. I, I mean I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and my father was consultant so he spent a couple summers in Hawaii while he did work and spent my first freshman year of as a in the British boarding school, you know, going to because he was stationed in Dusseldorf etc. So we, we did some movement around even though based in the Bay Area. My mother was, was very bright as my father was too, but very eclectic and unorthodox and she encouraged us. So I did trail crew during the summer and a variety of other things like that. So it learned and also went to school with a Jesuit high school and the Jesuits were remarkable. They taught you to challenge, challenge the church challenge the, you know, the Bible challenge. Think about it, challenge. And so I challenged stuff. So came up with this, you know, maybe not a quite a rebel, but certainly quite willing to be unorthodox, you know, along the way. And that led to, you know, I'm sure some of the things we'll talk about hitchhiking all over kingdom come, getting tossed out of high school, going to client school, et cetera. But the willingness to be unorthodox and to try things that are not conventional, it's not really risky. I mean, I did try to climb Mount Everest, but nonetheless, things that are a little bit different.
- [02:37]
C
Hey, I like that. It seems like the people that really change the world are the unconventional thinkers. You can't think inside a box and make a big change. I dropped out of college. What you did, I think is even more fascinating. Tell me about that.
- [02:54]
A
Well, I, with three buddies, wrote an underground newspaper, you know, called the Bellarmin Free Press, was Cardinal Robert Bellarmin. The school was named after Reach, wrote a column and it was about drinking beer and taking advantage of 16 year old girls. And we knew all about drinking beer and had only dreams of girls. You know, that was just not something that we were not familiar with at all. And we made the mistake of publishing it on the afternoon of Paris night. So mom and dad came down to visit the priest, pick up a copy of this thing and the roof blew off. Oh my goodness gracious. You know this raunchy stuff. What's going on here? So the following morning we were in front of a tribunal of Jesuits. You know, one by each, my three buddies did the mea Koopa, which you know, Latin for I'm sorry. And I was the last one in and I got in there and there's a little stage nine Jesuits, the principal in the middle and the principal said, Mr. Glasser, are you aware of the damage done to the school and how this is countered? Everything we're trying to teach you, fine, upstanding Catholic young man. And I got mad and I said, I'm not sorry at all. As far as I'm concerned, the Catholic Church is a criminal organization. I said, for thousands of years you've suppressed science, conducted unjust wars. And I think frankly the position on birth control is killing millions of women and children. And I was proud of what I had done and I hoped it would be the first in a long series of criminal activity on my part in keeping with the tradition of the Catholic Church. And that I just got. I had my throat slit as a result of that. So I got, I got mad at him. I pushed it probably a little too far, a little too hard. And there you go. I wound up in the middle of my junior year out of high school and went off to college because I didn't really want to go to a different high School for my last year.
- [04:27]
C
I mean, wow, like, you, you stood your ground. I can tell that you stood your ground. I mean, I don't think most people at that age would have said the things you said in that environment. Like your friends at that time, they told them what they wanted to hear so they can continue. I mean, you break. You break the mold. So then you go to clown school. What the heck is clown school like?
- [04:48]
A
Well, I think from there I went, I went to Duke because I, you know, I had my freshman year as a British boarding school. I got enough credits to get out of it and so I went to Duke and again, I wanted to go as far away from California as possible. So obviously North Carolina is pretty far away and we'll get to the clown school, but there's some intervening stuff there. So I was a math major. I really liked math. It's also where I met my now wife are, you know, been together for 51 years. You know, she were and I were in the same dorm. But anyway, I got, you know, at the end of my senior year, everybody seems so certain about their lives. You know, I would be, you know, medical school or law school or business or whatever it is, I didn't know. So I took the GRE, the GMATs, the LSATs, the NCATs, the actual. Every exam I could think of because I figured I'll never be this smart again. And they're good for five years. And I got out of college and I went to work at Pizza Hut. And then after a couple weeks of that, I thought, well, that's kind of cool. And then I went to work in Alaska in a salmon cannery in south town Native American village called South Knacknick. And in August I had, you know, six grand in cash, more money I never had in my life and nothing to do. So I hitchhiked from Fairbanks, Alaska to the Panama Canal through North Carolina. It took me six months. You know, along the way it finally got to Panama and said, I'm tired of hitchhiking. And I miss this woman who now I'm married to and I'm going to go back to Carolina to be with her. And while messing around looking for a job, I said, I'll go to clown school. You know, I'll learn how to be a clown. I still have my makeup in the attic, I can still do a passable juggle, have a couple stupid Cub Scout troop, you know, tricks to do, etc. But it was largely because it seemed like something to do. It might be kind of interesting for
- [06:23]
C
Some reason I couldn't help but think of Forrest Gump. I don't know why he runs across it is very interesting. Like hitchhiking was a thing at some point. It's really hard to imagine, like hitchhiking was an actual way that people got around because obviously for many years, I mean, still, you know, it's illegal and people don't do it. But there was like the dangers, I think, of, of hitchhiking. What was it like back then? I mean, Alaska to Panama? I can't even imagine that.
- [06:53]
A
Well, I mean there's a route. You can go from Anchorage up to what they call Tok Junction, catch the Alcan Alaska, you know, Canada highway down to Seattle and from there you hitchhike out to Spokane, drop down to Denver, take I80 or I70 back to North Carolina, I40 back to California, and then down the Pan American highway until you get to Canal and then the road stops, et cetera. But you know, you have to be smart. Even then there were some scary people and some scary times. So. So what I would generally do is hitchhike out of truck stops and I'd basically go up to someone filling their tank and there'd be one of three scenarios. It's either mom, dad and the kids. And basically I'm John Glasser, I'm a Duke student, I just had a summer job, I'm heading back east to visit my girlfriend. I'm a clean cut, all American. And so, you know, they either bought that or they didn't or it was a guy with a gun rack and a flag and basically, you know, bounce around between jobs. Just did some work up in Alaska, head in the east, see some other work. I'm basically a blue collar working guy and so yeah, yeah, my kind of guy. And the third was, you know, a bunch of guys with long hair and a microbus and say, hey man, got any weed? I got some money for some weed fence, you know, that kind of stuff here. So. And that didn't always work and the truckers wouldn't touch it because there's a liability issue. But you know, first of all, never hitch. I'll give you some advice. Never hitchhike at night. This because the wacko element is up. Never hitchhike within 30 miles of a big city because you want long rides. You want 400 mile rides, not 10 miles down the road. Plus the wacko elements higher if you, you get closer to the city. So out of the truck stops during the day and you're looking for the big several hundred mile Ride and sooner or later you'll get there.
- [08:26]
C
That's. I mean, soon there'll be robotics that, you know, robot cars that will just drive us for very cheap, so we won't have to even think about hitchhiking. But I did a week on the Appalachian Trail when I was around the same age, and it really taught me a lot of different things. It was a very unique experience. I wish I kept. I could only last a week. I couldn't go. But, you know, at some point I. I did think, like, I should have kept going to finish. What did you learn something about yourself or just about life in general while you were doing this?
- [08:57]
A
Well, I think one of the things I learned is at the time I was really anxious that everybody else, my colleagues, were off to careers and I was just floundering. And what I learned is it doesn't really matter. I mean, there are lots of ways to make a great life and accomplish a lot, but the fact that you're not traditional is okay. But I, I learned that the other is you got some really cool rides with some really cool people. And, you know, they may not. They may have been farmers or mechanics or hairdressers, et cetera, but they were smart. They were, they had sophisticated worldviews. Remember one particular ride I got was going from Seattle to spokane. It's about 400 miles. And I got a ride with two women whose husbands were truck drivers who drove back and forth. Seattle, Spokane, that was the route. And they would drive the same route and on the CB radio, chat it up with all the truckers, you know, jokes and gossip and all that stuff. And I thought, this is really fun. You know, they're really cool people all, although they're about as innocuous as hell. So you learn that there are many people who may not be glamorous, who may not be Nobel laureates, but they're just really neat, thoughtful people. That's what you learn. The other is in Central America. I had never seen poverty like that. So, wow, you know, this is, you know, there is, you know, you come from a up white, middle class suburban kid. You're not really seeing people who are, you know, basically on the edge of starving, if not starving. So I experienced poverty, frankly. And the last thing in Panama at the time, there's great tension between the US and Panama over the canal. And I had never experienced prejudice because I was a gringo and I had never been on the receiving end of hatred because of the color of my skin and where I was from. And wow, I didn't like that at all. And I can imagine people who. That's their daily reality. Wow.
- [10:35]
C
I mean, you know, it's something I always tell people is travel and experience the people. Like, I don't really travel and I don't, I don't go to museums necessarily anymore. Like, I've been to so many museums and churches and I. I've seen so many things that feels the same. But what I like to do is I like to travel. I want to sit down with people, I want to understand the culture, I want to see how they live. Because for me, that. That's been just absolutely changing in my life. It sounds like for you, the same.
- [11:01]
A
Absolutely. You know, you're. You're different in ways. It's hard to describe, but you are because of all those experiences.
- [11:07]
C
So you obviously. It's very interesting because you've obviously are very intelligent. I mean, you went to Duke, which is an incredibly challenging school, Ivy League to get into. You are now teaching at Harvard, one of the hardest, you know, schools in the world. One of the most prestigious, if not maybe the most prestigious school in the world. Everyone in the world knows about Harvard, so. But you've also thought very differently. Do you. Did you see throughout time how education and thinking outside the box, did those go hand in hand or have things changed where now schools are more open to it?
- [11:48]
A
Well, I think most schools, particularly when you get to university, you know, college and you know, graduate school, if you say, I want to do the following, and it's not typical, they usually can accommodate that. You say, I want to put together a major. They're used to. People want to be econ majors and. Yeah, but they're pretty accommodating. They just want to make sure you've thought about it, et cetera, and to go off and to do these things. So I think there is a willingness to. To do that. When I was in graduate school, I went to the University of Minnesota. I got a PhD in, you know, medical informatics. And all my buddies were computer science. But I was a sociologist because I was interested. I thought that actually the hard part of getting this technology to be used by doctors and nurses was not the technology, but was managing people and managing change and things like that. And so I was going to study that. Very unusual for someone in program to be a sociologist, but they were willing to accommodate that. They said it makes sense. And if you're willing to, you know, grind your way through it, I produce this monster of a dissertation, 467 pages, which is just this Moose of a thing like that. But anyway, that was, you know, I do think in the colleges, if you want to try something different, they're open to it, just as long as it's thoughtful.
- [12:54]
C
Yeah, you know, those, those. It's, it's interesting how people are like I, you know, if I want to be successful, I need to get a computer science degree. Where like my wife, she has a psychology degree. She never was anything in. She wasn't a psychologist or never went on to be a psychiatrist. But she's used that in sales, for example, or management or leadership understanding people, which I think there needs to be a big push now. I mean we like computer science might be the worst degree that you get. I mean it might be replaced by AI tomorrow. It almost seems like people going back for these like liberal arts type degrees or anthropology or like you, sociology, like these might be very useful for understanding how to navigate people.
- [13:40]
A
Yeah. And I think there's not only book learning you can get in those courses that teach you that more so than, you know, taking a course in differential equations, for example. It's also life experiences. It's the way you were taught, it's by your parents and also the experiences you have when, you know, I have three grown daughters in high school they were all on teams, you know, soccer and lacrosse teams, you know, they're, they're, they're okay athletes. They're not great athletes.
- [14:03]
B
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- [14:33]
A
But the point is they were on teams. And teams teach you something you know how to get along with others, how to work together, how to handle disputes, et cetera. So it's a series of experiences of dealing with other human beings and how to work together and work well. At times you turn into a leader, but not always. Uh, so I think that that kind of thing is absolutely incredible in terms of making sure that or giving you the ability to thrive.
- [14:55]
C
Hey, I like to talk to professors. My dad was a professor. He just retired. I think he was sad when I dropped out of college. Although I did go back many years later and graduate because my then girlfriend said I will not marry you unless you have a college degree.
- [15:11]
A
Oh, there you go. There you go.
- [15:13]
C
It's sad because I really didn't. I wanted to just have a Lamborghini that said no degree. That was my goal in life. Right. I wanted to prove that I didn't really want to have a Lamborghini, but I wanted to prove that you didn't need to have a degree to be successful. But I did have to go back and I think that was a great day for my father. I think he was happy. So when we look at like you, you said you've been, you met your wife over 50 years ago or, or you've been married for 50 years, right?
- [15:38]
A
No. Well, 51 years ago was the first time I told her I loved her.
- [15:42]
C
Oh, amazing. Okay, so 51 years ago you said I love you. I mean, people aren't even together for five years. I don't even. There's so many people I know that don't even have like a relationship at all. And like, and they're already in their like 40s and up and they're struggling. So what, what for you, what did you do or what helped you to balance this? And then you had three daughters, but then also a high level executive career.
- [16:08]
A
Well, I think, you know, there's a separate question and I'm sure people have talked about, you know, why do you. What is love and what makes durable love, you know, over very long periods of time, through some times that are not always easy, where you're changing a lot. Golly, we met when she was 18 and I was 19. There's a, it's a lot of change you're still going to go through. So anyway, how does that work? That's a separate kind of conversation here. You know, I do think, you know, everybody wants to have it all. They want to be good parent, they want to have a good spouse, they want to serve their community, they want to grow themselves, they want a job, whatever, whatever. They want to do it all. And it's not possible to do it all, you know, not as well as you would like. There are trade offs along the way. So it's this constant sort of low grade anxiety. And I have the right balance. I'm gonna miss a kid's soccer game because of a conference or tournament. Is that the right thing to do? And so, you know, you try as best you can to balance knowing it's highly imperfect and you will do it again. I do think what you can do and should do is a conversation with the principal. So your spouse and your kids. Look, I'm trying as hard as I can to balance all this stuff. I won't always get it right. Okay. And. But I don't want you for a moment to think that that's, you know, because I don't love you. I love you dearly. It's just that I will be a human being and I will try. And if you think I've got an imbalance, you let me know. So, you know, you try hard, you bring them in as part of the solution and as part of the balancing act, and you ask for honest feedback about whether, you know. My wife, remember one time when I was traveling, like, she said, I get lonely when you're not here. That's all she had to say. And I said, God damn it. You know, it was too. I was too much. You know, I've skewed the right. Too much. I need to get back to the basics.
- [17:44]
C
So would you say then that communication might be the single most important thing?
- [17:49]
A
Yeah, I think there's a, you know, if, if you know and, you know, it sounds like you, you sure you have your own. This communication and being very candid about this now, you know, there are certain things your spouse will do that irritate the hell out of you. And at some point, there's no point saying it over and over again. It drives me nuts. And you do, okay, leave it alone, get on with it, et cetera. So communication and I think the other is mutual respect. I respect you, what you do and how you go about that. And the other is the willingness to give in and to say, I know it's important to you, so we will go do this. Less important to me, you know, picking. Where do you go for vacation? You might say, I want to go this country. She says, I don't want to go to that country. I want to go another one. Okay, you know, whatever. You get what I'm saying? There's a give and take that goes with the communication and goes with the high respect.
- [18:31]
C
I feel like I, I'm. I can really appreciate that because I feel like I many times go with the flow. And it's not because I don't have my own opinions. It's because I don't really care so much to have an opinion because I know she's going to choose something. Like, we like the same things. So, like, she wants to go visit here. I'm great with that because I can only make so many decisions in my mind. I don't even like to make decisions, to be honest. So I'm like, I would rather someone else make that decision than me making that decision. But I, I really enjoyed what you said. Now you have, you've written eight books. I don't know why the heck I wrote one book over here. I don't even know why. Why would someone even want to write another book? It must have been that important to you.
- [19:15]
A
Well, first of all, I like writing. I mean, I just enjoy the act of writing. So I think if you don't like it or it's kind of a grind, then you know, you're not going to do a lot of it. Or if you did one, you said never again. That was too terrible. So I wrote a textbook with two colleagues because I thought there's a generation of leaders of these organizations that just doesn't really know how to do this technology well. So we actually, it's the most widely used textbook on the topic in the world and has been for many years. So that was great because I just, there was a need for it. There was one book I wrote which was, I used to write columns for various trade press. I had, you know, I've had 16 articles in Harvard Business Review over the years. So I just pulled them all together and said this is this sort of compendium of writing of them. We did a book on AI and a book on strategy of the four non professional. One was this 101 questions, which is the kid and I will talk about the other. As I mentioned, you know, I've written a letter to my family every week for 35 years. And what I did is I took a five year block of letters when the kids were little, so they're six, seven, eight years old. And I pulled out the parts that dealt with them and I created a book called the Father's Collage. And I said this is what your father remembers. This is camping trips, this is science projects, etc. And it's kind of a written photo album. And it said this is my present to you, my memories of you. And I publish it. And then five years later I took another five year block and did the same thing all over again. And then I actually, you know, you may, I don't know if you have kids or not, but we used to do bedtime stories and Elizabeth adventures and we make up a story and I wrote them all down and published a book called the Elizabeth Adventures of All these Things. And I said this is the stories we used to tell. And then the most Recent 1 is 101 Questions is 8 Send me questions and, and I'd write an answer. And so far we took 101 in one book. I'm now up to 180. And. And this is. They run the gamut from what's the scariest time in your life? You know, fair question, you know what? But on the other flip side is, what were your favorite cartoons growing up? So anyway, there is. There is books, partly and because I like writing, partly because I felt like the field needed it and I could be right or wrong, and partly because with my children and my spouse, ° I want them to know, this is your father, and this is what he believes, and this is what he remembers about you as a little kid.
- [21:21]
C
I need that book because I'm always looking for really unique questions. I like that. What scares you the most? Or what scared you the most before?
- [21:29]
A
Well, in the answer to that question, when I was the chief information officer at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, we had one day where the systems went down, and they were down for a very long period of time. And I was getting scared because somebody was going to get hurt. You know, a doctor or a nurse was going to make a mistake because they couldn't get a test result, or it couldn't do this, and someone was going to get hurt or die. And remember talking to the technical wizards. You always got these technical ninja wizards, you know, who make this thing sing. And I remember going into the computer room with Bob, who's our ninja warrior wizard, said, bob, what's going on? Do we know what's wrong? He said, no, we don't. And you could feel your intestines the size of a golf ball because they could fix it in one second or maybe not at all. I said, oh, my God. And here's my chief smart guy. He didn't know what's going on, didn't know what's happening here. And I remember being scared at that particular time.
- [22:15]
C
That.
- [22:15]
A
And I don't. I'm not smart enough. I don't know enough to give him any real advice. I tell you what, I did, too, you know, I said, bob, tell you what, how about if I go get a priest and we'll do an exorcism? And he looked at me, you know, this sort of stare. And I think he's trying to think of one or two things, get him out of here. You know, he. I got work to do. I got this moron who's talking about an exorcist or what the hell. We've run out of other options. We'll get a little holy water and incense down here and see what we can do make the whole thing work. But that was the scariest time of my life because I thought we were going to hurt somebody and maybe even kill somebody.
- [22:45]
C
When you look back, was there, did you ever have a thought in your mind when you were younger like I want to achieve this. And then what was the feeling if you achieved it? Or it doesn't even have to be when you were like a teenager or in your 20s, it could have been two weeks ago and now was there something there where you're like, I really want to achieve this? And if so, did you achieve it?
- [23:06]
A
Yeah, I mean, you know, I wanted to, you know, go to Duke and I got into Duke, you know, I wanted to get a PhD, got that. I wanted to get certain jobs along the way. You know, I was very active in professional societies in the digital health field and I wanted, you know, created one and I wanted it to thrive. And it did that. And I want, you know, give you an example. One of the questions I think all people should ask themselves. Let's presume that you've got five minutes left in your life and you look back on your life. What do you want to say about your time here? And I said, I want to say five things. You know, when that time comes that I'm as madly in love with my wife then as I am now, that my children will have lives as blessed as mine. They'll have their own paths. But bless the third is that I'm spared crushing poverty, pain, you know, racism, et cetera. But if I'm not, then I deal with it with the courage. The fourth is that the people I work with will say that I inspire them, taught them and led them well. And the fifth is that the industries and organizations I served are better because I was here. I want that. I want to be able to say that when I'm done. And I probably, if I went in the next five minutes, I could probably say that. So along the way there are things that you accomplish and you feel great about and there are big things and there are little things, you know, along the way. What I find is as cool as those are, the feeling is fleeting, you know, because you then move on to now. What I remember when they came out after I training my PhD and make you leave the room and the committee debates, they come out Lael Gateway. My advisor said, congratulations, Dr. Glasser. I thought, son of a gut, you know, four years of work and I got it. And I thought, but I'm no different. I'm no taller, I'm no Smarter. I'm no more athletic, you know, no better. Look, I'm the same person as I was before. In some ways, it was sobering to go off and do that. So, anyway, I think there are. There. Their accomplishments are great. There are things that are greater than that.
- [24:52]
C
I think I've heard this before from other people, like athletes or somebody exit their company. I was just talking to someone this morning. They exited, but. But they didn't. It didn't feel like a void. The void was still. They were the same person, and they were very depressed for many, many weeks, if not months later, because they thought it would completely change, not the monetary gain, but just change everything in general. And it didn't. They were just the same person. So it seems like this is something as humans. Do you think it's because we still have a. Like, it's like technology has adapted much further than us. Like, our brain is still like a. Was it Neanderthal brain or lizard brain or whatever? Like, do you think it's because, like, we haven't really adapted? Like our environment is adapting much further or. Or progressing much faster?
- [25:43]
A
Well, I think it may be fairly fundamental, which is when, you know, most people, when they wake up, if they're excited about the days, why are you excited about the day? Well, I really like working with my colleagues. I enjoy the work that I do. You know, I feel good about it, and I like the organization that I serve, et cetera. It's the journey, as they say, that is the treasure, not the arrival. It is the every day, day in and day out, it feels really, really good here. So when you find people who are retired and they walk away from their professional career, it's, you know, it's the long walks, it's the crafts they take, it's the involvement in the community stuff. It's the. The things that fill their day, that give their day meaning that are the things. It's not necessarily. If they get an award, that's great, you know, everybody likes that colleague. Get your picture taken, people clapping, that's terrific. But that's not the real. That's. In some ways that is hollow, which is one of the reasons I think you got to be careful. If you believe that your goal is fame or wealth or whatever, you'll get there. I don't doubt that. But then you'll get there, and that's it. I'm the same as I was before, and to the degree my life sucked, it still sucks. Even though I'm a wealthy. It's. I'm wealthy as hell now. But so I think it is more that we enjoy the journey. You know, it's like for me, sitting on the couch next to my wife, that's the greatest, you know, not saying much of anything, just sitting there is the greatest, you know. So anyway, that's. You get what I think, get my point? It may be technology oriented, but I think it's very fundamental. It is the moment that is the treasure.
- [27:05]
C
Yeah. I travel quite a bit and I have to say, when I am just sitting with my wife on the couch watching Netflix, there's a lot of satisfaction there. Just as if I'm like traveling somewhere. So you. Yeah, I can, I can see that. It's. Sometimes those moments are. I'm like, I'm kind of happy that I'm just here with you relaxing because it's just always a constant go, go, go. So, John, I. I need to get your book. I need to get a few of those books, but I need to get the questions because I need the really, really thought provoking questions. I need. And then I love the idea of the collage. I mean, the fact that you're executive in residence at Harvard Medical School, I mean, is. It's insane. Like, I want. That is my goal one day is I just want to go to Harvard. My wife went to Harvard. I want to go to Harvard so I can get. I can get my sweatshirt there. And then I would love to attend a class. That's my goal one day. I just thought of it, John. I want to sit in a class at MIT and Harvard just to see,
- [28:05]
A
you know, what's the coolest part though is, you know, when we teach these class. Yeah. So great. You know, you got the Crimson, the, you know, the Latin and all nine yards. But I sit in this class and I'll give you two examples. And so they're your. The students. One student, for example, is a physician from India and she's got a project she's working on which is to reduce the teenage suicide rate in India. And I thought. And she said it's the highest of any country is a teenage suicide. It's a. Wow. You know, why is that? I said, well, because usually the pressure on the Indian kid to be a doctor, a lawyer or whatever, and the kid just wants to be a musician. And so. But the pressure is excruciating. So she was going to go off and dedicate her life to reducing teenage suicide rates in India. Wow, that is cool. That's what makes Harvard special because people like you become students. Another one is a Woman who is a scientist in China who's, who has a setup, works for a company that does medications for kids with very rare genetic disorders. And they can give that kid the therapy for one tenth the cost in the US and she says, I'm going to open up a business where the kid and the parents come to China to be treated because, you know, they can't afford it. It's not covered by insurance. It's a zillion dollars. And so what makes it special? Yes, the name is special, but those two people are examples of the 75 people in this class and say, wow, you guys are really cool, you know, and the world's going to be better, a lot better because of the work that you do. And for me to be part of that and to help you do a better job, that's what makes us special. You know, that's what makes this place special, is it can draw that, draw that talent in.
- [29:34]
C
But John, this has been great. So people want to get in touch with you, they want to look at the books, they want to, you know, follow along your journey. How can they do so well?
- [29:41]
A
I think a couple of things. One is there's the website for the books called Books by John Glasser. It's all one word. The other is you can find me on Facebook. I publish a, put out a weekly post on Facebook, which is a series of vignettes or whatever from writing. So you know, come on in and be my friend on Facebook. So, and you can find these books on Amazon too. But anyway, I look forward to, if they want to people to be part of the, the broader community. It's, it's fun. You know, there's a lot of good stuff, there's a lot of humor, but also some insight, you know, periodically. I mean, I wrote one, a post in Facebook a couple of weeks ago is, you know, what do I think? What, what are some of the pearls of wisdom that I pass on to this class about leadership? I'll give you one example. You know, leadership is, is people give you permission to lead them. You cannot impose leadership on people. They will look at you and say, I will let you lead me. And because if, if you try to impose it, they'll sandbag you, they'll quit, whatever. And so just remember leadership is a voluntary act on their part. It's not something, you know, I just sort of be sober and thoughtful about that. So anyway, we there, that kind of stuff is being posted, but I've been alive if either Facebook or through the website or whatever. I look forward to having them part of the broader circle. People who. Who are showered with wisdom from John Glasser.
- [30:55]
C
I love it. John, I could tell a lot. You have a few years of wisdom in you, and you are now dedicated to making the world a better place. Seems like you've been for that while. You know, you've been doing that for a while, and that. That's an obvious importance to you in your life. The next five minutes, I'm going to ask this question to everyone. Everyone. I'm going to ask this question to every single person that scares you and then that question, and then I'm going to come back to you with their answers. But, John, this has been great.
- [31:22]
A
I'm gonna give you two other questions that as people. One, what's the scariest time of your life? Second. What's the hardest thing you've ever done? Third. And then the third one, because we talked a little, what, and this. A kid came to me and she said, how would I know I'm in love with this person. How would I know if this person is the one? You know, what does that kind of love look like? And that's a good question, you know. And so anyway, you ask your people what. What loves to be to them, what's the hardest thing they've ever done, and when they've been the most scared, you'll get some very interesting answers.
- [31:48]
C
My mind is blown. Thank you, John.
- [31:50]
A
All right, big guy, you have a good one. Say hi to everybody in Southern California for me.