Self-Care & Compassion with HBO's Renaissance Man Larry Carlson

Compassionate Accountability Podcast

Dr. Nathan Regier welcomes Larry Carlson, the former president of HBO satellite services and a cable TV network pioneer. Larry retired when he was 49 and now spends his time creating beauty, philosophizing and supporting the people and causes he loves. Larry lives by his belief that honest communication can lead to trust first, then if you work at it, intimacy and eventually love in both personal and professional relationships will follow.

Nate's Key Takeaways

1. Get in the stream. Larry didn’t grow up with things being given to him, so he learned to work for what he wanted. But also, he learned that you have to put yourself out there, try things, and take risks in order to find opportunity. That’s then you begin to bump into things you like, don’t like. That’s when things start happening!

2. Before compassion comes self-care. Even though Larry believes that our purpose is to be of benefit to others, we can’t do that if we aren’t taking care of ourselves. The most generous gift you can give yourself is the gift if self-care. And that’s more than just physical. That means psychological, spiritual and mental self-care.

3. “Your employees may be working for you on paper, but you should be working for them in reality.” What we’ve been taught is a very self-oriented culture of personal growth and materialism and entitlement as leaders. The best leaders succeed by helping their people succeed. As leaders, we owe our people the support and inspiration to be their best and benefit others.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Compassion Mindset

Tweetables

“Your employees may be working for you on paper, but you should be working for them in reality.” - Larry Carlson

"Everything comes to teach us something. The question is what will we learn from it."

"The key to success in business is to be of benefit to others."