So, Bob, tell me about your vision. My vision.
Well, I just hope everybody enjoys life and they
have their dreams come true. And it's, you know,
hard work usually pays off when you're pursuing
your goals in life. And I wish everybody well
in that pursuit. So what is your pursuit in that
case? My pursuit right now? Pursuing becoming
a successful author, successful writer, I had
my book, A Flicker in the Water, about something
I love to do, which is I love the outdoors. I
love to fish, especially ocean fishing. And I
wrote a book, which I also love to do in writing.
And, you know, I hope to turn it into a success.
Yeah, that's awesome. What would you say, how
did you get into? writing and being an author
uh it's it's it's getting common and commoner
now people like with with self -publishing and
a lot of tools out there but how did you get
into publishing and why did you choose that route
well when i was in school um some of the the
teachers told me that i was a good writer um
i really never took them that seriously and i
never even thought about writing a book until
i was in my mid -50s and uh i had some time on
my hands and i thought you know what Let me give
this a try. I have some stories there I think
people will be interested in. They're fun. They're
educational. It's good for kids. And I enjoyed
doing it. I started writing and I turned it into
a book and I'm so glad that I did. People have
really, really enjoyed it. I've gotten some terrific
comments about it. So what is your book about?
My book is a collection of sea stories. what
our oceans mean to us throughout history, not
just in my time, but what the oceans mean to
mankind, the fish in the sea. I talk about Christopher
Columbus. I talk about... Hemingway's Adventures
at Sea. I talk about some of my own, too. I talk
about the Keys and the Gulf of Mexico and how
the currents flow and how everything interconnects
in the oceans. And I talk about some of the fish
that we caught and some of the ones that we missed
out on. That's awesome. So there's no right or
wrong answer to this, right? One is, do you have
a purpose behind the book? If not, that's okay,
too. And the second question is, this author,
you being an author and writing books, is this
something you're going towards as a legacy builder,
or is this something you do on the side with
life? And there's no right or wrong answer to
this. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Well, I
started it out on the side. I used to be a small
business owner for many years. For like 30 years,
I had a little small retail shop in the mall.
But right now I'm kind of pursuing it full time.
It's something I really love to do. I enjoy doing.
And we'll see where it takes me. It's just I
want to put out the best work that I can do.
I don't know if it will leave a legacy or what.
My goal is as far as that goes. But I'm glad
for the people that have enjoyed the book. And
that's really, as long as one person enjoys the
book, that's all that matters to me. And I've
had some great comments about it. That's awesome.
So how did you get started? What was the first
time you were like, hey, I think it's time to
write a book. And you're like, you know what,
let me go start writing. What are those experiences
like? What did you learn? Tell me about all that.
Well, like I said, writing is something that
I always enjoy doing. And I wrote these stories
because I thought I had something new and unique
to share. And in fact, some of the reviewers,
if you go on Amazon and look at some of the reviews,
some of the reviewers said they were fascinated
by some of the things that I said in the book.
He said that he loved sharing those things with
his kids. He said that the unique and original
stories made it really fun for him. It was entertaining
and educational. That was my goal. As long as
I can entertain people and maybe share a few
things that I've learned along the way, that
means a lot to me. That's awesome. What would
you say that you learned? What was the most significant
thing you learned when you were doing that? I
learned about the currents in the Gulf of Mexico,
I guess the Gulf of America now, what they want
to call it. Yeah. The currents enter south from
the Caribbean and they form a giant loop current
in the Gulf. And it wraps around the Gulf in
a circle, like a loop. And then it always flows
between Cuba and Key West. And then it connects
with the Gulf Stream and goes up the east coast
of the Atlantic. And it's a big, huge current.
It's about 150 miles wide. It's like 3 ,000 feet
deep. It's one of the fastest moving currents
in the whole world. It moves at like six and
a half miles an hour. So it's continually one
of the things I talked about the book. People
might remember that horizon oil spill from many
years ago there in the northern Gulf. What that
current did was it helped push a lot of that
oil out of the Gulf. It kind of like it cleaned
it. It refreshes itself with constantly new water.
So that was one of the purposes of of that loop
current. I think that's nature's way of of keeping
things refreshed. That was one thing. I also
learned one thing that I didn't know was that
the Sea of Galilee is actually freshwater. It's
not a sea of saltwater. It's freshwater. It's
a lake. I had always thought that it was part
of the Mediterranean Sea, but no, it's a landlocked
freshwater lake, which I learned in the book,
and a couple of other things like the channels
in the Straits of Gibraltar. are only nine miles
wide. And the Mediterranean Sea is actually bigger
than the Gulf, a lot bigger, but there's only
nine miles to get in and out of there. So I thought
all that stuff was really fascinating. Yeah,
that's awesome. Wow. I can hear it in your voice
how excited you are to talk about it. Yeah, it's
something I really love. Yeah, that's awesome.
What would you say, Bob, that... If you see the
future, where are you going with your vision
now? Well, I got another couple of books coming
out. Like I said, I had the one here that I showed
you about the Miami Dolphins perfect season of
1972. And I have another couple of books. One
is a children's book, one of experience that
I had when I was a kid about a dump truck. And
then I have another one on some poetry that I
write about sports. That's awesome. Why did you
choose the Miami title? The Dolphins one? Yeah,
I know you like the Dolphins now. You shared
that with me. But why that story from the back?
Well, it came in my book, in this book, the Flickr
and the Water book. There's a line in there that
just came into my head one day. I said, you know,
neither fishermen or fish go through a full season
undefeated. unless you're the 1972 Miami Dolphins,
which came right. And that line came from a line
from the old man in the sea. When Hemingway was
talking about the old man, you know, everything
about him was old except his eyes and they were
cheerful and undefeated. So I got that line from
that line. And then it led to the one about the
Miami Dolphins. I don't know where these ideas
come from. It's just sometimes when you're thinking
about stuff, the coolest things pop into your
mind. They're right down. That's awesome. That's
amazing. That's very exciting for me to hear.
One more question for you before we enter a segment,
Bob. Over the years that now you're an author,
what held you back all these years to do this?
Well, you know, you get busy doing the things
that you're doing. I had to experience the stories
about the fishing and all that before I could
get them down into a book. So then, you know,
after I wasn't fishing for a while, I had time
to reflect and think about it. And then I said,
you know what, people can really enjoy this.
So I had the time and I wanted to share that
with people. But just being busy is probably
what held me back the most. That and you always
have a little bit of thinking, well, who's going
to want to read this? You know, you kind of take
your own stories for granted. But I got over
that. Thank you for being here today. I'm really
happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward. This
is going to get more and more fun. We'll have
more and more engagement as well. We'll invite
people to participate in the show. And thank
you for giving us your time and attention. Have
an excellent time building out your vision and
becoming a visionary. Pro yourself.