Podcast: Overcoming Life's Obstacles with Terry Duperon Founder of Duperon Corporation

You could say that the odds were stacked against Terry Duperon who was born with dyslexia, dropped out of high school, and never learned to read and write. Despite these obstacles, Terry learned that his dyslexia was a gift and he harnessed it to start the Duperon Corporation. With his daughter and business partner, Tammy, the family business has grown 25% year over year.

In this episode, Terry shares:

• How to Turn Failures into Gifts
• Finding Inspiration in the Power of Dreams
• How to Embrace the Life You Have

Links from the episode

• The Duperon Corporation Website
• Book - Dare to be Different

Transcript

Cliff Duvernois: Hello everyone! And welcome back to another episode of the Call of Leadership podcast. Today's guest founded Duperon Corporation, and actually, it started with an idea back in the 1970s when the founder, who was also an inventor, was looking for a way to protect pumps from the damage-causing debris that was found in stormwater.

From there, he founded his corporation and in 1985, the Duperon Corporation itself was actually established in Saginaw, Michigan. And, uh, since then, under the leadership of the new CEO, the company has grown over a history of 25% a year, which is absolutely astounding.

And I want to share with you that their first law of simplicity is two parts, which is one part too many.

I love that. I absolutely love that he is the author of the book, “Dare to Be Different”, as well as the Soon to be coming ”Misfit Millionaire” book as well. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the show, the founder of the Duperon Corporation, Terry Duperon. Terry, how are you?

Terry Duperon: I'm good so far.

Cliff Duvernois: Excellent, tell us a little bit about where you're from and where you grew up.

Terry Duperon: I'm from Indian Town, which is in Saginaw County. Okay. It's a farm community. I grew up on a farm and, um, I, um, I really didn't wanna be a farmer.

I liked the mechanics of the farm, but I didn't like farming. So once I was 18, I left the farm and got a series of odd jobs and, um, I finally got one where I cleaned parts. For a machine builder and just a steam cleaner. And then they, that turned into apprenticeship and, uh, I just started to understand mechanics much better.

So, I went into a drawing. I learned to read, read prints and bill machines, and then learned to draw 'em. I'd ship jobs from B and K Tool to Wilson Engineering, so I'd be on a drawing board, learn how to draw, and eventually, I got my first patent and it all began there.

Cliff Duvernois: Excellent. What I'd like to do is take a trip back, because you and I were actually chatting before we hit the record button here, and I wanna make sure that we capture these elements. So as a child, you were dyslexic.

Terry Duperon: Yeah. I, and most of my life I couldn't read and write and I can read a little better in the last six years. I make myself read every day, so I'm getting a little better at it, but not great. And I can't write. I don't write, and so I dictate that. So what happened to me is in the third grade, my third grade teacher asked me to stand in front of the class and read a first grade book, “Dick and Jane” and I could not read it.

And um, then I knew there was something wrong. because I couldn't do what everybody else was doing easily. And now I'm exposed to everybody in that room. It was the first time I ever felt inferior. I got sick to my stomach up there and it was a changing moment in my life. I knew something was wrong with me.

So that year we studied the inventors, Eli Whitney, Edison, and Henry Ford. They become my heroes. So, I thought they only had to do one thing and they were rich and famous. And now as time went on, I found out it was more than one thing, but I, I started to pursue that dream. My dream was clear to me I was gonna be an inventor and make my living off my inventions.

Well, I tore everything apart on the farm, and couldn't get it back together. But I was learning, learning slow, slowly, learning at great odds with my dad cuz he needed that stuff. So I eventually ended up I think when I was 18 or 20 with a first patent.

Cliff Duvernois: Right.

Terry Duperon: And they'd come in the mail. It's a US patent office.

Terry Duperon and inventor put me right back into third grade.

Oh wow.

So, I remember committing to that dream. So now I'm saying, how does a third-grade boy cause that future? Okay, how do you do that? And I end up creating a class around that. As well, I have Duperon Education and which focuses on how creative people think.

And it doesn't matter what you create. If you create a business - you're an entrepreneur. If you create a machine - you're an inventor, a painter - an artist, a book writer - author, but it's the same thing. It's the same ability to bring something in the future that doesn't exist now.

Cliff Duvernois: It's interesting that you, at that point in time in your life when you were the most vulnerable, that you knew, I don't know if it's fate, but you started studying inventors.

Terry Duperon: No, just mechanics. Cuz I couldn't read the book, I couldn't really study the inventors. We just talked about it in school and they become my heroes. So I just believe they could do that one thing. I didn't know what it would be. So I just started to have at it. And a dream is extremely powerful in our lives; as I got studying that further, I'm thinking it's probably the most powerful thing in our lives is the ability to dream that vague notion.

You don't know how to get there. You don't know how to do it, but you believe it could happen.

Cliff Duvernois: Right.

Terry Duperon: And I think it's, not magic. Once you have a dream, it puts you in the inquiry. You're always looking for the next clear step to get to your dream. And I think we talked earlier, it's, it's kind of like if you buy a new red car, you see red cars everywhere.

Yeah. Because now you're aware of red cars 

Cliff Duvernois: Because of  Reticular Activation.

Terry Duperon: Yeah. So it's, it's human nature to do that. When you have a dream, it's human nature to start seeking out the next clear step. How it always shows itself; It never not shows itself. The dream has taken me a long way, many ways beyond my expectations.

And basically, all I do now is have two things. I don't know where to, I don't know what I'm supposed to say in this, but I was an atheist for a long. And eventually, I yielded, I surrendered, and asked God to come into my life. Well, nothing happened. So a year and a half later I realized that I have a sense of gratitude I hadn't had before.

So six months after that, I saw it from that night forward, from the night I surrender before that life was defeating me. I become less able and less competent to take care of. And then from that day forward, nothing's ever defeated me. Makes me squirm, but it doesn't defeat me. So something happened to me that night, that's clear to me.

So I don't, cuz I had not read the book, but I, bits and pieces I hear what, when I finally surrendered and come to my creator he never said shame on you. He just tilts his head and says, look over here Terry. I have something more for you. And then after that, I started to ask if God was gonna talk to me, how would that sound?

Because I believe Christ's in Christ. And he said you have a teacher and a guide, a Holy Spirit. And I said, Well, how, how would that talk to you? And I think I'm the author of Mu in Confusion. It would, it would be clear, you know what, you know, you trust your mind that it's clear. I just do it. I just head for the dream, to take the next clear step.

That's my act of faith. I don't need to know where the step's taken me. I just do it because it's clear. And then my trust in my God. I don't ask for two steps. I don't go in the future. I have a really good imagination. I can scare the heck out of myself so I don't go there. 

Right? 

So all of that got me where we are.

To me, I, you, you never arrive. I'm still on this journey. I don't know where it'll take me next, but I'm, I'm open to going there. 

Cliff Duvernois: Beautiful. Now I understand why you're a writer. So let's go back, you were talking before about when you were somewhere, you know, 18, 20 years old. You got that official package from the US Patent Office that said you had your name on air, Terry Inventor.

What did that feel like? Cuz this was like, to me it seems like this was like the very first step for you to take; to make your full dream to be a reality. So what was it like to actually hold that in your hand? 

Terry Duperon: that was exciting and I got it! I got it, cuz it put me back to the third grade. I got it because that kid caused this.

Cliff Duvernois: And how did he do that?

So when I was asked to teach senior engineers at the university, I was trying to figure out that third-grade boy. So, I concluded it's in the way you think; that's the only difference. The people I was teaching at the university were smarter than me. Way more educated than me. They could read and write. But the only difference could be is the way I think. I could get patents and I could start businesses, and they struggled with that. So I set out to find that difference. And then the whole class evolved around just the difference in the way we think.

So the class I've had, uh, about 3,000 people take it already.

Cliff Duvernois: Beautiful.

Terry Duperon: And about six professors from universities have taken it. And if you look at who I am, a high school dropout, that can't read and write. I have, I have no, I cannot figure this out; I'm teaching at a university or I have this…Okay. The only thing I can come up with, the ‘dream’ is really powerful.

Cliff Duvernois: Well, I'm gonna put this out there and I'm gonna say that maybe that really isn't a requirement after all.

Terry Duperon: Okay.

Cliff Duvernois: So you've got a patent, and you got more patents. 

Terry Duperon: Yes. 

Cliff Duvernois: And you were talking about, getting a patent and starting a business. So I know there are a couple of different avenues that you could have taken. You’re very real, you know, you could have gotten the patent and then licensed that out to somebody else and then just collect a royalty check for the rest of your life, you know, play golf or whatever it is, but you opted to take probably the hardest journey of anything, and that is to start a business. So why did you decide to do that?

Terry Duperon: I make all my decisions based on who I am. I know who I am by the things I love, and. matter me and make a difference to me. Not all my fault. I don't look at those. I just look at the core.

And so I got to patent and I got choices, probably hundreds of choices that you could do with that. But I had a dream, which was the lifestyle of Henry Ford. Which meant I had to start my own business.

Cliff Duvernois: Interesting. Interesting. You pick Henry Ford, okay. Go.

Terry Duperon: Yeah, I kind of was fascinated with Henry Ford.

He had a lot of flaws, but he had some dreams. The sign on my wall from Henry Ford says, “If I asked what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Most people can see what exists now. Henry could see beyond that…another way to do it. So most of us just deal with what's known, not what's unknown.

He could do that. So I think that's what inventors do. They see beyond what's here now and they bring something in the future that doesn't exist now. He probably was the key figure as my hero.

Cliff Duvernois: actually gonna circle back to that cuz I already know the end of the story, I wanna make sure we lay it out for the audience cuz this really is intriguing. 

So you go out there, you start your business, right? Duperon corporation is out there. You've incorporated, you know, you're getting clients, and the business is making money, but it was not all sunshine and rainbows. At the end of the story, there were a handful of times you really struggled.

Terry Duperon: Oh, constantly. Yeah. For the first three years, I carried a pup tent in my trunk because I would make a sales call and I couldn't afford a hotel and gas. So I just sleep in a tent at night and save the money for gas.

The thing is, once you have a dream, there's no work in it. There was work, it did not happen overnight. I love my life. I don't think I've worked in 50 years. But you, when you're in pursuit of a dream, it's not a straight road, okay? It's a series of trials, failures, and successes. You pretty much build on the failures, 

right?

So that I see failure as a benefit, not anything else. A, failure says, “don't go that way, go this way.” Okay? So that's all it was. So it didn't, didn't have the impact of a failure. And I can't say I didn't feel it, I feel failure, and I feel the emotional impact of that. I think it's, nobody's comfortable with it, but I accept it as a benefit.

So in the early days, there were a lot of, lot of things I come up with that didn't sell. And so I quit doing that and I got patents that didn't sell.

So I, uh,

Your pursuit of the journey is greater than the failure of the things you try, right? You know, So once you have, you keep your eye on the dream. In fact, there's only one thing I know that can kill a dream, and that's if it loses presence in your mind then it’s dead.

As long as that dream's alive, you'll start seeing ways to get there. Well, it's not a straight line.

Cliff Duvernois: yes, that's true.

Terry Duperon: true. ..see, I think every my, you know, family life's messy. Business is messy. Life is messy, okay? And I don't have an expectation that it would be different than that. I think for a long time I hid that I was dyslexic, that I couldn't read and write.

Most time I didn't know there was a name for it. It was just dumb.

right. 

Okay, So you wanna hide that and you protect that. And one day I decided that I had to quit doing that. Okay, this is who I am, this, this is what I'm gonna go through life in. And now I see it as a gift. At first, it was a detriment. So I think once I started to see my life and these things I have as a gift, not, not a penalty.

To give you an example, In school, I questioned everything and analyzed everything. So, I would be asked a question and they'd say, Well, he probably was, and I'm saying he's probably dead. I'm analyzing the whole question. Well, by the time I get ready to answer it, there are three questions now.

So the class in place won really, really fast for me. So it really hindered me in school. But when it comes to inventing, uh, solving a problem, it was an asset. So the very thing that haunted me become my biggest asset. So I'm grateful for it now, but I wasn't most of my life. 

Cliff Duvernois: Let me ask you this question. Let's put it in context here. Would you give up the life that you have now?

Terry Duperon: that you Oh, I love my life. No.

Cliff Duvernois: So then if we could go back in time, right when Terry's being formed if we took away this gift of dyslexia, would you have the same life?

Terry Duperon: life. No, no. I probably have a job someplace, you know? Now I think the worst thing that could happen to me is I would have to get a job. So I love the lifestyle. I love the challenge. You're fully alive in this game.

Cliff Duvernois: Yes, you are.

Terry Duperon: You know, So it doesn't have to go smooth. You don't expect it to go smoothly.

I think that I would just get a job and like almost everybody else. But I think this pushed me out of that. I was working on my first book called "A Different Ability." He was a principal of schools that teach handicapped people. And so I, I was going to schools, talking to kids on their short bus and, and, I thought, what if I could leave him a book? So I worked with him on that and the first question he asked me is, "What made you think you could do anything?" Most kids that have what you have crawled into a corner. They never do anything with their lives.

Cliff Duvernois: Good question.

Terry Duperon: Okay, so it took me a month to answer that. My father and I didn't get along very well. He's a hotheaded Frenchman and he swears a lot, and he got mad at me a lot.

Cliff Duvernois: I wouldn't know anything about that 

Terry Duperon: So, I would kind of avoid him cuz he was scary to me. But what he did never let me off the hook. He never let me not run. He always put me back on the tractor. Okay, no matter what, I screwed up. This is how you do it. You're gonna do this. Well, even though it was harsh, the message sent was, You can do this. Okay? So every time I mess up, it never got me off. He would just holler and swear at me and say, This is how you do it. Do it.

I didn't know it was a gift till I started working on that book. And it is a thing that made me believe I could do something. Cuz he reinforced that now every time. And if you take a parent that says, say you asked Johnny to take out the trash and one parent, he spills it all over to get some blow. You say, I know you can do this Johnny, but I'll, I'll take the trash out from now on.

Message Sent: you can't even take out the trash. Or my father would start screaming at me and say, You grab the basket like this. You'd pick up this mess and you do this every day. Okay, So he never let me off the hook. Message sent as you can do this. So that was the gift, and I didn't realize it for a long time that my father gave me that gift.

Most of the time I was just afraid of my dad, and stayed away from him being mad at me, but he'd gimme a gift. So that's kind of where it came from, the belief that I could do something.

Cliff Duvernois: What I would like to do is we talked briefly about the struggle. That you had with your corporation and you kept going, you kept plugging, and then at some point, you decided to hire a CEO to come in and run the company.

Terry Duperon: I'm a really lousy manager. Okay. I can invent, I can create companies, but I can't manage 'em. So I brought in Tammy, who's my partner, who's just the opposite of me, she’s my oldest daughter. I mean, we are total opposites. She's a terrific manager. And once we come together, this whole company really started to grow.

Cliff Duvernois: It did. And it grew some 25% in a little over a year. 

Terry Duperon: You're right, yeah, and it's a lot because of the combination between the two of us. So I was trying, I have a theory about that. I have a theory about everything.

Cliff Duvernois: Yeah, but not surprised.

Terry Duperon: I think every, everybody's oblong, you know, you're really good at this out here and you're not so good at this. So your ability to influence the world kind of shrinks between your thicks and thins, what you're good at, what you're not.

But when I brought Tammy into the business, she was just opposite to me. She's oblong, you know, completely opposite of me. So give you a graph. She would be, And she has the same thing. She's really good at this management, not so good at the creative stuff, good at creative management, but not creating machines and businesses.

You can manage 'em. So I thought it was like a catalyst. Once we both decided to work on what we do. At first, we didn't get along very well because we were so opposite. But then I come to a point where I developed a profound respect for what she brought to the table. And she did for me too, and everything took off.

So I think this is like a catalyst. Your, your thicks and thins shrink us both down. But once she starts working only on her strengths and me only on my strength, it just expanded. It becomes very, very dynamic. And we built this business up to where it is. Now we have a president who runs it and he's really good at what he does.

For everything I do, I have to find a manager. Right now. I'm a silent partner for a lot of young entrepreneurs to start businesses. I’ve got 10 different businesses and I couldn't manage the group. So I hired Andrea to manage it. I created TLD Holdings and all these companies are part of TLD Holdings, and she manages it and she does the marketing and sales for it.

So it's good to know what you're not.

Cliff Duvernois: You know, and it's interesting because my follow-up question to that is, a lot of the times ego becomes part of the equation and you're struggling with your business, and. you really want it to go. I know a lot of people out there that would just keep doing the same thing over and over and over again, but you had the presence of mind to think; you know what, maybe this isn't my strength.

Maybe I should bring somebody else in here to do this and that’s when Tammy comes on board.

Terry Duperon: Yeah. Well, I'm a slow learner. Because at that time I lost everything I had; plus a million bucks I didn't have.

Cliff Duvernois: Wow. 

Terry Duperon: Okay, now, now you start to decide why. And so I kind of drew a graft and I said I started here and then I did start making some money and got a good job. Then, I got a new idea and I spent too much money; too fast and pretty soon I'm in trouble.

Then I'm back up again. I'm doing 5 million projects, then I'm back down again. And then as on my way down again, I saw it. Every one of those things was bad management, bad choices not managing money very well. So once I saw it, and then I could say, "Yep, Terry, you'll be doing this the rest of your life without her."

And that line just straightened out and we started growing.

You gotta fill in the blanks. You gotta fill in what you're not, and the expectation that you have to know everything. You really don't, you only have to know a few of the right things that you can hang on to. 

Cliff Duvernois: I have to share this with you cuz this has been very interesting, to listen to you. You were emulating Henry Ford in so many powerful ways because I have actually studied Henry Ford at great lengths. Yes, I have. And what I'm hearing is,  I want to share this story with the audience because this is powerful, and I know that, you probably have heard this story before. 

So back in the day, you know, Henry Ford is sitting at top of the world and there was a reporter from a local paper that published articles about how stupid Henry Ford was and how he didn't know anything. And so Henry Ford invited him to his office. The reporter came into Henery’s office and sat down and Henry Ford said, ask me any question that you want and I will get you an answer.

So the reporter's all excited, right? I'm gonna make Henry Ford look stupid. 

So the reporter would fire a question and Henry Ford would pick up the phone, make a phone call, somebody would come in the office with the answer, and then leave. 

So then he would ask the reporter, what's your next question? 

Any question, any topic. And Henery would make a phone call, somebody would come in the office with the answer, and then leave. The moral of the story that I found powerful is the fact that you don't have to know everything. You don't have to be the smartest guy in the room, but if you surround yourself with the right people you can be very powerful.

You were talking about before, your dreams just become that much closer. So for you, you know, having that, being able to take your ego out of the equation and say, 

You know what? Tammy's better at this than I am. Just like with all these businesses you were talking about TLD and how you got all these other corporations in there, you couldn't manage it. Also, you brought somebody in to be able to do that for you. Now you're being able to live your dream and be able to really impact and influence a lot of people because you know who to go to.

To get the answers you talked about before, fill in the blanks.

Terry Duperon: Yeah. I, I can remember when I learned it. I was, I, I had built a machine, that company, I served an apprenticeship and I had to go into the field and set it up. At Ford Sterling Plant, which is the biggest plant under one roof at the time, I threw up twice on the way there because I thought I'd never be able to fill out the paperwork to get in the plant.

So I'm walking in there and kind of terrified. I knew the machine, but I didn't know how to fill out the paperwork, so I just bent my hand and said, I injured my hand. Would you fill that out for me? Problem solved. Okay, there are other solutions, 

Yes, when you can't do what everybody does easier, I don't know what it is about it, but, uh, you're more open to trusting in what you need outside of yourself.

But it took an extreme for me to really figure out, I am really bad at this. So that's when Tammy comes in. And what you see now as a result of those decisions, is what made all the difference. So I think that if I look at my past, the people I needed along the way really showed up for me.

Cliff Duvernois: Yes.

Terry Duperon: and I don't understand why, but they always showed up and so, some people come into your life for a short time and some for a longer time.

So now I'm trying to do a club. One degree. I meet you, you will change my life. At least one degree. Met my wife, and change 180 degrees, so we will affect each other's lives. So I wanna start a club where we have a lot of people who are up to something. I love to be around people, up to something.

You're one of them. So we kind of support each other. So instead of having a speaker, And a little wine and cheese but mostly wine and cheese. Mostly. Let's get to know everybody. Let's get a culture and Duperon corporation. We have a very unique culture. When you, when we hire anybody in any position, everybody gets under 'em.

Everybody does everything they can to get 'em to succeed. I just talked to a couple of new employees, been here six months and they're waiting for the axe to fall Paul, but it's not going to because the companies they come from make you look bad. I want them to look good, and all that goes on.

Okay. We don't have it. 

That's what you're talking about. Yep. What we try and teach people is how to reinvent themselves and their departments, and once you reinvent your department, then you own it, and the culture changes. When you're not threatened by somebody coming in, and if you think about it, the person doing the job is the most equipped to figure out how to make it better.

As long as you have a management that supports that, we allow a lot of creativity, you can't fail, you know?

Cliff Duvernois: Right

Terry Duperon: Right. So I'm on a tangent span, 

Cliff Duvernois: No, that's okay. I've been enjoying this. 

What I would like to do is because of you, your company's established, and it's under good management. You guys are seeing phenomenal growth, really phenomenal growth.

Terry Duperon: Just, so you know, I got to throw that out there. It's just gonna double next year. 

we're we're cool with that. Yes.

So you've got an opportunity now to, teach, you know the kid that didn't graduate high school Yeah. That struggled with reading and writing their entire life. You're now being invited to the university to be able to teach. 

Cliff Duvernois: Why don't you share a little bit about what that is and what you're, what you're teaching?

Terry Duperon: My whole focus for the class was, how'd that third-grade boy cause that future?

Cliff Duvernois: Right.

Terry Duperon: So I have two things that get me through; two thoughts. One is, never be the one that limits you. I would rather fail than not try. And the other one is, success has nothing to do with what You're not running with what you got.

Right. I could probably fill this building with volumes all I'm not, Why would I go there? So when I was asked to teach the class, I'd never been to a university before. I didn't really know what they did there. I had an image but that didn't turn out as I thought it was, but I remembered never to be the one that limits you.

My chances of failure were really high. But, the first day was awful. I put everybody in a coma in about 10 minutes, and then I talked to a real teacher and she told me what's important so you know where the students are at. So when I drew that on the board, and then little by little, the class started to show itself and I taught there for three years.

Then I thought, if you're gonna, teach entrepreneurship, you ought to be able to start your own school. So I've had about 3000 people go through that, and I'm the professor at the university. I talk about these things and I have no explanation as to any of it, you know? 

Cliff Duvernois: Yes, I know. Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking 

about. Yep.

Terry Duperon: Yeah. So it's just there, and I think that I was willing to fail. I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna throw me out without trying before they throw me out, I will throw me out first. So I think because of the dyslexic problems I've had, I've learned to feel the pain of failure but not let it control me.

because. Yep.

So you're talking about a one-case study here. So, they're very unreliable. One case study is what I just learned from experience.

Cliff Duvernois: Well, you bring up a good point when you say learn from experience.

Yeah, that's absolutely true. 

Terry Duperon: And I think that when it comes to failure, first off, I think that there's a real stigma when it comes to it. And then second off is, is, that we are raised in an environment where, where failure is punishment, you fail a lot. That's just the way it is. If you don't get enough questions right, you fail the test. Failing is bad. You're not gonna get your diploma, whatever that is. I know, for me personally, it took me a long time before I could actually sit down and say to myself, you know what? I would rather try and fail than not do anything.

And that means that how you look at failure, the entire dynamic of it changes. Then being able to sit there and say, Okay, so I failed. What's the lesson to be learned from this that I can take forward? 

So next time if I fail, I'll fail better? That one thought frees you. 

Okay. I think most of us do not wanna live where it's familiar and no one, And once you step out of that, once you do what you just said, you're gonna open the failure. Now you're on this blank sheet of paper where there, there's the, all the unknowns are there, it's intangible, all the things there.

And it's uncertain. And so once you start that direction where you're not just trying to be ordinary, you end up in this other world, which is very rich and rewarding, but it has pain. It's messy. But then I think you could set on your couch for the rest of your life. Pain will be human. We'll find you. Okay. So why not play the game? You know? 

Cliff Duvernois: Exactly! 

Yes. I love that. Why not play the game? in addition to teaching about your gift of dyslexia, you publish books and you've got a new one coming out, "The Misfit Millionaire."

Terry Duperon: Yeah. I do 

Cliff Duvernois: Tell us a little bit, about being an author.

Terry Duperon: Yeah. I hired a writer to write it. He wrote legacy books and I thought, I didn't really want a legacy book.

I would like to have a book, on my great-great-grandfather or grandmother. I thought I would really value that. So I thought I'll do that for my grandkids. So I started the book and then I started with, as far back as I could remember, "The Misfit Millionaire" the thing that bothers me about that title, the author did some studies and said that's what we should call it. Money has never been my motivator. I'm not motivated to just stay by money. To me, money comes and goes. My attitude towards money is the same as it is toward everything else; anything you hold too tight owns you. Even your health, if you're all about your health, it owns you. So I tell my doctor, you keep me alive.

I'm going to go about the business of living. 

So the book is all about that. Well, my kids are gonna be shocked when they read this thing cuz it's almost done. So the books I wanted, I always had a purpose in mind for the books. One is about the class and then the fourth book is being worked on and is almost done.

It's called "Glimpses of God." And I had, I did a talk, it released rain and I didn't know what was expecting me, so I thought I would just talk about those little events in your life. that shift you.

Cliff Duvernois: Oh my God, that's beautiful.

Terry Duperon: And I called it "Glimpses of God." Well, it sounds like I'd seen them. It was just awarenesses. 

So the professor at the university wants to do this book, said, uh, let's call it "Glimpses God's Grace."

Well, then he adds grace. I don't know what grace is. So I ask around, and Grace is freely given, undeserved, unearned. So I'm saying, "All right, when did I get grace?" You know, in the book I talked about my surrender like I got grace then. But I thought, I can't tell God when to give me grace, I think I've had it since conception.

As I look back, I can see the hand of God, even when I didn't recognize him. So the book is around those things that happened that shift your life and uh, losing everything was a big shift in what happened there. I got really depressed, couldn't get outta bed, didn't have any idea how to get out of this hole I was in.

And as before Tammy come and I'm laying in bed saying I got nothing. I don't have another idea. . I just lay there, and don't know what to do. If I got up and I get this one very clear thought and it was done only on what's clear. Get out of bed to take a shower. Pretty clear to go to the office. Three years later, I didn't even have a car payment. I did not mastermind my way out of that. I just, have one clear thought at a time. And I've been living that way ever since. I just looked for clear thought. So see where it's taken me. I don't really care where it takes me now. You know, I, it's, it's a fun journey. You know, I love the lifestyle.

So that book is about those changes in your life. And there were several of 'em that shifted. Um, so I don't know a lot. I'm talking about God and Christ, I don't know a lot, just that it's, it's not a philosophy. Something happened to me. Okay, It changed. Nothing defeated me. I didn't do that. I can't talk about that. 

Right? 

Uh, because I don't know a lot about it, but I just know how it affected me

Cliff Duvernois: For our audience, we're gonna have the links to these books and the social profiles and the show notes.

Terry, I would like to ask one parting question of you.

Terry Duperon: Yes. 

And that's for our audience that's listening. 

If you could give them one piece of advice, what would that be?

Terry Duperon: Pursue your dreams. The dash on your tombstone is really short. Game on!

Cliff Duvernois: Beautiful. I absolutely, love that. Terry, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. I've really enjoyed our time 

Terry Duperon: Thank you.