Gratitude "Podcast" Interview: Jaeson Dubrovay

Well, hi, everybody. It's David George Brooke, that gratitude guy with another special guest on the gratitude podcast interview regarding the pandemic. And when I say special guests, this one has emphasis on the word special. Mr. Jason Duperva, I have known. Gosh, I thought it was 10 or 15 years. Turns out it's about 25 to 30

Known of a long time, very bright individual. One of my friends, I look to it for guidance and mentorship from time to time. Mr. Jason Duprobe. Jason, welcome to the podcast

Hey Dave, great to see you. It's been a long time. I was in Seattle a little while ago

I'm going to see you again as soon as I get up there again. We will definitely do it. I know you're down in Portland now and had been in Chicago or Illinois prior to that and so forth

So the whole purpose of these podcasts, as I call them, is they're basically an interview

is to really take people and get their perspective on what we're going through

And in this case, maybe there's going to be a tip or an insight or a thought that maybe somebody can really learn from

So I've got four or five questions for you. And my first question is, what has been your best coping mechanism to deal with this pandemic this last month or so

I think getting out and walking around a little bit, the neighborhood, go to a park

Also, you know, I've tended to, you know how we all have a rhythm in life

So when you're 30 years old, you think I need to, you know, I'm thinking, I'm thinking, I'm, you know, I'm

thinking about my career. I'm thinking about in the next 10 years, 20 years, 30 years

what I've done is I know this is not a permanent situation. So in order to cope a little better

I've just narrowed my time frame a little bit. So it's day by day, say hour by hour

or I block my day into four or five different areas like work, personal things I need to do

and relaxing in the evening. You know, my daughter's here, which is a great thing

So I think that's kind of the way I cope with things is when there's uncertainty

And by the way, you know, I'm in the markets. So that's kind of how my life works

When the markets get really fast, they go up, fast, down fast

You really have to slow down and kind of look at life in shorter increments

That's almost kind of like chunking out a little bit too and segmenting it out and so forth

personal, professional and so forth. And you said not only the markets, which, of course

been a huge impact of this as well. But regarding uncertainty, and here I am the gratitude guy

do you notice that what you're grateful for has changed since we've gone through this pandemic

in the last month or so? Has it been the same before? Is it different? And if so, what's changed

No, it's been the same. I have to say, as you know, because we talked a lot

I went through some personal issues probably, well, 2016. And that gave me a lot of

perspective on life and what important what isn important And so for me I grateful every day for every you know I look at something I have or someone I have in my life

Jill and I get up every day and it's like, you know, it's like a miracle that we're together

I mean, we were apart 45 years. Right. And recently got married

So it's just a miracle and I'm very grateful for it. But I don't think anything's changed

In 2016, a lot changed. You know, I had a lot of different expectations from life, and it's almost just the opposite

Well, one of the reasons I asked that question, that's a good answer. I think that one of the things this pandemic has done is it also helps to realign priorities

And there are people that just get things out of whack. Oh, my goodness, we couldn't get the reservation at the restaurant

You know, like, ooh, like the end of the world is coming, and now we've got people dying all the time

So I think it helps people to get things into proper perspective, perspective, if you will

And so thinking about all these 30 or 35 years I've known you and how you operate and always on the go and busy and juggling a lot of balls and that type of thing, what would you offer as far as a tip or a thought or an idea to a person that maybe some of the things they can be doing during this time of being housebound or shelter in place and that kind of thing

I don't ever worry about a guy like you because, as I say, you've got a ton of things going on

But what might you offer to somebody of some things they can be doing during this time

Yeah, that's a very good question. In fact, I was thinking about it. I was seeing some pictures of some friends and their kids and everything and they're bonding with their families. They're all at home and they're playing, you know, they're doing puzzles, playing board games and things like that. It's not my style, I have to say. I tend to be, I would use this opportunity as a time to learn something new that I know nothing about. For example, again, on the investment side, which I tend to be, I would use this opportunity as a time to learn something new that I know nothing about. For example, again, on the investment side, which I tend to be, I would use this opportunity. I would use this opportunity as a time. I would

is what excites me is potentially reading a book on cryptocurrencies, digital assets

What are they about? Do you think they'll stick? Will they not? Maybe learn cooking on the personal side, something that you've always wanted to do

But, you know, the world is getting, again, the timeframes are getting a lot shorter

over time. So people that start a career today will probably change careers, you know, three times

as much as we might in our careers, because things are just getting obsolete a lot faster

So I look at some books, try to read some books, it'll give me like Alvin Toffler Future Shock

Right. One book I used to read back in the 70s on trying to get an idea of what the future is going to look like

and how I can best position myself in it. That's good. You know, I try, I would use

I tend to not want to watch TV over and over and over again

You know, although as I've gotten older, I accept it more, but I would be looking for what the when I get back to my job for example not me personally but a lot of people have to think things are going to change and whether they change right away which may not but in a year somebody going to figure something out and my job may be out the window yeah so that would be something that I would look for and particularly in view of the fact that a lot of the people that are um quarantined may not have jobs when they get back

I mean, if this thing lasts much longer, a lot of businesses are just going to give up

Yeah. Interruption insurance and be done. It's true. And I think you've heard this term a lot, too

You're going to see a new normal. And what will be considered something from the past will no longer be necessarily happen in the future

And I think also you mentioned TV. And I send out a Monday morning minute every Monday morning

It's about a minute long, of course, on gratitude. But the one that went out today is, can you watch

too much TV and it really is I think it's fine to be informed but I think TV can

can send you further down into the dumpster if you're not careful and so forth

so so speaking of that of kind of along the line of doing things those are great

tips for people that some of the things they can be doing what what are you

doing now this kind of help you hit the ground running and when this thing

ends because it's gonna end and we don't know when but we know it's gonna end

and it'll be a vaccine it'll be that the loss of or the social this

is going back to normal, whatever that normal is. But what are some of the things you're thinking about doing now

while you have this time so when it's end, the ending you can really get off to a quick start

Yeah, so one of the things I've been doing is organizing my files on my computer

Oh, nice. I have a lot of files, and I also tend to do belt and suspenders a lot

which means maybe I copy something and save it in different places and then back it up

Nice. So what I've been doing is kind of going through and removing duplicate files, just something

I mean, it sounds, you know, really boring, and it is. But when I, and especially for work, it'll be very useful because then I can, you know

I'm working on kind of that structure, getting people so I can set up my files so I can

share it with everyone. So if something happens to me, someone in my office could just take it over

Right, right. And see what's going on. And we have redundancy all over the place

Other than that, I have not really been affected other than I travel a lot, so I've been curtailed on that

But I do a lot of research. I have a lot of legal documents. You know, I'm still building

So I'm still at the phase where, you know, I haven't really gone out and tried to get new clients

Right. So that's kind of what I've been doing is kind of, you know, cleaning out the garage, that kind of stuff, getting rid of the old crap

because there's a book on it somewhere, I believe, how to get rid of everything

You know I can remember what it called It probably the magic art of tidying up or whatever I read that I read that That was it really was helpful And it really feels better when you get all that stuff organized

Yeah, and you don't have to look at something again, you know. You've looked at it

You've decided, you know, do I really need my, you know, my Palm Pilot from, you know, 1991

Mr. V, you're aware of how old you were. I thought you were so much younger

So that's been, so I'm trying to do those things. So when I get back up and running, I don't have same file in five different places

And I'm organizing things in a way that will help when I come out

That's a great, oh, sorry, that's a great tip because I did kind of the same thing

And it was in a couple of cases, it was really like the whole bureau with all the drawers who were messed up the files

I went through a bunch of things. And sure enough, a day or two later, I was so glad I did because I found some stuff that, you know

Those aren't at the top of your to-do list. Let's face it, that when you get those low-end things done, gosh, it's a great feeling

You find things you're looking for. So that's a great tip. Yeah, yeah

And it's something you wouldn't do normally. Exactly. I mean, you say you want to do it

But then that also, I find that to be kind of an emotional drag as well

I need to do this. I'm not doing it. Right. And it's like, you know, it's now, you know, 1413 days now that I haven't done that. that

Just emotional drag I don't need. No, that's a good point. So my final question to kind of wrap up is, does Jason have a quote or a philosophy or a

mantra or something that kind of is the overarching sort of way you run your life

I mean, I've had people say, you know, it's this two shall pass or something like that

Do you have sort of a philosophy that kind of sustains you through this and any other time

as terms of how your philosophy is to life? You know, I take all the good things from Pete Rose

You know, he was a hard worker. He gave his body up. So this isn't something he said

but I always think, I may not be the smartest guy in the room

but I'm the hardest worker in the room. I can outwork anybody. That's great

That's great. That applies to a lot of things, too. So just for being persistent

yeah, really beat off in my life. Just whatever, you know, when I seen up

opportunity and I want to grab it. I just focus all my energy on it. And faith also helps in that

Yeah. That's a great point. And I think I was mentioning to you something about Zoom the other day and I had some

issues that it took me two or three days to figure out it was frustrating. But I thought, you know

why did it get solved? Because I stuck with it. And so there's your persistent aspect to it and just

don't ever ever give up. And you know, Winston Churchill don't ever, ever, ever give up. But it sure

pays in the long run. And everything will eventually get solved. So, well, listen

Thank you, my friend. That was just excellent. I appreciate those tips and thoughts as I knew I would get some great tidbits from you. So thank you so much and we will chat soon

My pleasure, Dave. All the best. Speak soon. You bet. You too