Juan Gaspar, now 31, sits down to talk about his development over time, his mindset over the years, and how it has developed into a more growth mindset. He discusses how this new positivity has affected himself and others surrounding him. 

He also mentions how his new goals and achievements alter his living style and his view of adulthood; including maintaining one of the main sets of the way of life: money.

Transcript:

Janet Gaspar: Lights, Camera, Action! Now where to begin? 

Juan Gaspar: Good Afternoon, I’m Janet Gaspar’s older brother, my date of birth is March 20 1991, and I’m gonna go ahead and say today’s date which is September 12, 2021, it is a Sunday and current time is 1:31pm, go ahead Janet.

Janet G: Ok, so, I’ma start off by asking you a question. Tell a story about an accomplishment or event from your past that had a significant impact on you?

Juan G: Ok, will do. So, we’re gonna have to go back to the year 2017, the month March, and this was when I made a decision to start hiking. I started hiking uh, for a, to Griffith Park because I happened to work in a, the Hollywood area which is in the cross streets where Hollywood and Western, and it’s about a 13 minute walk away from Griffith Park, and by me making that decision from hiking and just, uh, pushing myself, uh, to hike on the daily or three days out of the week, I was able to develop a habit that just, uh, created a behavior cause I continued to do that for about,  uhhh, from March 2017 to about June 2017. I had a little, a little setback cause I took another hike in Las Vegas where I took an injury, and that kinda stopped me, but if it wasn’t for that decision, my mindset wouldn’t be where it’s at now because that started a chain affect, into the person who I am now, and that’s somewhat brief I guess, you wanna move on to the next question or should I add more details cause I can go on with that question. 

Janet G:  I mean, back then, like, your in like a more different, like, I could tell you really changed because back then your attitude or your temper, everything was different compared to now and like everything has like changed. Since you didn’t mention it I’ma mention it-

Juan G: Mhm.

Janet G: [giggles] You were like a little bit more, uh, no you were like, more of a troublemaker back then and-

Juan G: Mhm.

Janet G: You were like, um, you were a bit, how do you say it, um, chubby, but because-

Juan G: Overweight- 

Janet G: Yea you were overweight- 

Juan G: Which is the actual reality I was overweight-

Janet G: Yea- 

Juan G: Yea- 

Janet G: But, but by hiking you like basically made an accomplishment, like, by, doing that, now, here you are umm- 

Juan G: Going back to that point, to that, umm, where I was at during  that, that month and time, I- the way I was eating, the choices I was making, I didn’t realize what I was doing to myself and I didn’t see myself as an overweight person, I didn’t really take the time to kinda do my research to educate myself on, uhh, how much I should weigh, I never really looked at the mirror and saw a problem, and, it’s just m- there’s something deeper to that cause before I had this way of thinking were its like, I felt big and strong, and because of the work I do which is security, I went for a couple years of thinking that I had to be, a big guy, to just be able to dominate, and if needed, I’ll go like wrestling status and just use strength to get people to do, what I- , what I, you know what I want them to do, you know, by being aggressive, I didn’t see any of that, but through the hikes, I was just, able to go from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset and I wasn’t even aware of what I was doing which was pretty awesome, now that I look back I applaud myself [laughs]- 

Janet G: Yea.

Juan G: I applaud myself for the decision that I made a couple, a couple, uhhh, during that time, cause, uhh, it’s gotten me to like a point where I’m just, I’m constantly just trying to be positive-

Janet G: Yea.

Juan G: Can I add one more thing? 

Janet G: Yea. 

Juan G: During those hikes I made a decision, to put earphones on, and just download it, here’s the internet, which, umm, there’s another question, a third question, goes- I’m going to mention the internet, the internet played a big part cause I was able to download some stuff that I got from Youtube,  cause I typed it on Youtube, “positive motivational speeches” and just by me making that decision, I put those earphones on, ohhhh, I considered that so boring, SO BORING, so boring, it was like the definition of boring for me, but as I was hiking, those words pushed me to go up the inclines, cause it would be hot, the incline would be difficult, and having that in my earphone playing, “if you don’t push yourself to be the best, or if you don’t try” you know, just different, good- good messages that were going through my mind and that just helped me, just, like, go, go go go, go, and, I’m happy for that [laughs]-

Janet G: Yea.

Juan G: Go ahead Janet-

Janet G: Ok, so should we move on, or do you want to continue? 

Juan G: We can go to the next question cause I could go on [laughs]

Janet G: Ok, ok. Ummmm, what about the lessons we take from failure can un- No I’m sorry I said that wrong, here’s another question, the lessons we take from failure can be fundamental to later successes, recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? 

Juan G: Ok, so this goes back, I’m gonna go back to the dates again, uh, going towards back the time before March 17, I’m going to March, uhh, the year, not March, but the year 2014, I think- right now I’m currently thirty, as of September…September… today’s date, September-

Janet G: Twelve.

Juan G: Twelve?  21, I’m thirty, but, a couple years ago, what was that, maybe 2014, was, how many years ago? [silence] I’m trying to figure out my age [laughs]

Janet G: Seven years ago-

Juan G: Seven years ago, so I was about, twentyyyy, twenty three? So during that time, I was just, I’ma have to say, I had fixed mindset, I really thought everything was doing my way, I would never take advices or try to use anything around me like a book, to try to see how I can make my life easier, so what I decided to do is- I had- I have always been good with money, I’ve been always able to save money I- I  just I- I think I learned at a young age through my parents and just different people I come across that it’s important to save your money, you get good results when you save your money and then you’ll see you where your plant it- where you put it!  Where you plant it!  Well, invest it, well where you put it. So, back then I decided to start letting borrow- like it was a life lesson, I would say I got greedy and I think the world made sure that I learned a good lesson, I started people letting borro- I started letting people borrow money,  and, during that time, I was charging- I was charging a certain, a fee, like, oh I would let them borrow money and they would pay me something back, so I think that’s where greedy kinda got to me and then I was- I wasn’t realizing. [loud motorcycle noise] Excuse the motorcycle there is someone driving outside in our neighborhood with a loud motorcycle, oh I’m sorry [chuckles] umm, so, yea, so I-I wound up letting people borrow a good amount of money and, at one point, I- I didn’t get paid, and I was very angry,  I was was very- I was very angry about that, and I didn’t know how to deal with that at the time, well I did, and I didn’t realize it that I was just, staying, in a uhh, stage of anger, and just, I would see certain people cause it was friends and family, I would see how they would just go out there and spend money, and I  would just be like, “why are you guys going out there spending money and not paying me what you owe me,” and, people came to me, like, begging, and just, telling me their story on why they needed to borrow money, and I said, “ok, here it goes, I’ll give you this much and you pay me this much.” Ok yes, they would agree,  but when it came down to paying everything, they would just disappear, so I got stuck with that anger inside me, and then, at one point, I don’t know, something came through my head I guess, I think it took me like one year of like no one paying me, to just kinda say, “alright, it’s either, you stay with this anger, and it’s not doing you nothing,” cause what was I gonna do, go hurt people just so they could pay me back, so off of that I just- at one point I  just said- I just said I have to let this go, and of course I had conversations whether it was our mom, or like friends, and then, through conversations people would tell me, “you have to learn how to let this go, cause if you don’t you’re gonna lose,” and then at one point slowly but surely, I just said- I guess I just told myself, “I have to forget about this and move on,” and I’m kinda glad I did because now I went from seeing that as a- I took that as an learning experience as towards before it was just something more like a grudge, that just kept me stuck, so, after awhile, I took it as an learning experience, as a lesson, and of course now, everything- everything that I do know, I try to do my research, I try to ask advice, I try to run my ideas through friends that I trust and that I know, won’t- you kno- you know will get me get response and you know,  want to see me do good. So, I hope that kinda makes sense, I- I struggled with kind of explaining things, in my head it’s like [small laughter] it makes perfect sense  but, I hope I’m kinda making sense [giggles]

Janet G: No yea, yea yea, for sure.

Juan G: Yea, but, yea, we could continue or-

Janet G: Ok, so do you want to move on or do you still want to stick to this topic?

Juan G: We could move on.

Janet G: Ok, so, How has your life been different from what you’d imagined?

Juan G: Oh, now this one,  this one, going back of course, we go back in the past, to when I was a young- I was a- I was a [sighs] younger, I guess during my younger age from like 10 to like 13, I- I really-I would say now that I was very fearful and scared of the future, of the unknown, I had this big fear of not accomplishing nothing in life, I really felt like I wasn’t the smartest person, ughh, I felt like uhh-  in school I didn’t do too well, and I honestly felt like, because of my grades and what I would get, I felt like I wasn’t gonna accomplish anything, and, other things of course, like I’ve never felt like the biggest person in the world, like I’m not that tall, I’m like 5’4, you know- 

Janet G: Yea.

Juan G: And, back in those days, the way you looked, your image was very important, so, all these things, I just- I felt like I didn’t [silence] like I didn’t fit in I guess, but anyways I had so much fear, um, I- I- to where I’m at now, I look back and say, “damn I can’t believe when I was at a young age, I had such doubt in myself,” or, I was so fearful of not, you know, not uhh, getting- accomplishing anything done, but of course, as I got older, you know, I had learned that if you put work into something, you put in time to something that’s good, you’ll get some good results, and, now, where my minds at, and I see the opportunities that I have in this country, because, it- it- there’s so much opportunities now, especially now with the time of the internet, there’s so much we can learn, there’s so much we can know, to have a better life in the future,  and not- I feel like at this point of my life, I want to build a foundation, whether or not I have a family in the future, but I wanna build a foundation, whether through my siblings like you, or nephew or niece, or someone, or just a friend, or someone I care about, can- like- I just- I want to, give people- aye, anythings possible here, like, you can use, once you learn how to use money as a tool, you can create something called wealth, and you can set something up for the future, and, going- I’ma put another point to that, in Guatemala, that’s where our parents are from, I think I got inspired a lot back then, through how, in Guatemala, our parents, when something happens, they always talk about land, land, land land, how, someone passes, they, they get like a terreno-”

Janet G: Yea.

Juan G: Which means land, like, oh, who’s gonna inherit that land? And, I’ve always questioned like, who started that? Like over there, who started that? Someone must’ve started, someone must have paid for that land a while back, or gotten that land, that, it started so long ago, that now, it’s like, I’m hearing about it, your hearing about it, and, it’s like, I want that here in this country, it takes a bit more work, but it’s possible, and whether or not I accomplish this vision that I have for myself, I’m gonna go out trying, and I’m gonna do it with a happy smile because, you know, as you know, um, recently, um, I took that trip to Guatemala, after going to Guatemala, um, wait I’m going towards another- [giggles] I’m like that- I’m telling you,  I could talk- I could talk for awhile, but after-

Janet G: No it’s ok, it’s ok

Juan G: -Goi-  going to Guatemala, I got a friendly reminder, of why, like of all the opportunities we have here, like I saw over there, some people over there, they have so much less to work with, but they have a peace in their heart, and they just go, they just go!  They’re on a schedule, they use a time a certain way, and of course I was able to see where our parents came from, and that’s- and I’ve always had this, I want our parents sacrifice, what they’ve sacrificed for us, I want that- I want that to mean something, I want that sacrifice to, to, to um, I want them- you know like- I want them to see, you came here, you busted your butt, you’ve been surviving in this country, and, I- I’m going to try, to go after something, to make sure in the future, I could be able to, “Hey if needed, I’ll send you some retirement money in Guatemala, here’s $300 dollars where I don’t mind sending you money so you could, have for the week over there, or for the month, and, how they do with their parents, you know, cause they both do that, our- our mom has her mom, and our dad now, just has his dad, and, you know, and, oh it’s, Guatemala was awesome! [laughs]

Janet G: Yea, your experience. 

Juan G: Yea the experience there, yea, it was quite awesome. But um, um, I could- I could pause now if you want cause I could keep talking [laughs] um, so, are we going to another question?

Janet G:  I mean, that was the last question that you-

Juan G: Yea [laughs] 

Janet G: Chose-

Juan G: Yea.

Janet G: So, Thank you, for letting me interview you-

Juan G: Mhm.

Janet G: I really liked hearing your stories, I really enjoyed hearing about this- 

Juan G: Thank you for that.

Janet G: And- yea you’re welcome- and, it was very enjoyable, you don’t know how enjoyable it was, I really, um, just appreciate, that you let me interview you.

Juan G: Yea yea awesome.

Janet G: Yea, so thank you.

Juan G: I was a bit nervous, and I- I- I don’t like how like in my head- I- I struggled to, form the words-

Janet G: EXACTLY, like- 

Juan G: That’s why I had to write the words-

Janet G: Everything’s like, everything’s like, it feels, like, you have everything planned in your mind, but it just doesn’t come out exactly-

Juan G: Yea yea-

Janet G: Like your thinking about but in words-

Juan G: Exactly, and, look, I felt embarrassed, and I guess I kinda hold myself back, cause I’m like ughhh, I’m gonna talk but what if I don’t make sense [laughs] but that’s why your doing these kind of interviews, so you, yourself, you learn-

Janet G: Yea.

Juan G: And you become better- 

Janet G: Yea.

Juan G: Cause that’s what it’s about, you know.

Janet G: Yea.

Juan G: You know, this was fun, this was awesome.

Janet G: It was fun.

Juan G: Yea. Thank you for visiting the Iced Coffee Hour, with Janet and Juan, subscribe to us on YouTube ahhh-

Janet G: [laughs] 

Juan G: We are YouTubers [laughs]

Janet G: [laughs] ok-

Juan G: I think that’s- yea-

Janet G: Alright, well, thank you for letting me interview you, I hope you have a good day-

Juan G: Thank you for your time- You too- 

Janet G: Thank youuuu

Juan G: And say hi to your teacher-

Janet G: Ok-

Juan G: Alright-

Janet G: OK BYE-

Juan G: Applause. Thank you.

Janet G: Yeaaa.

Juan G: [claps] Woooo hooo.