Robert Ferguson
Episode 141

Narrator: Welcome friends to another episode of The Story & Experience Podcast. Join your host, Japhet De Oliveira with his guest today and discover the moments that shape us, our families and communities.

Japhet De Oliveira: Hey, welcome friends to another episode of The Story & Experience Podcast. I'm here in Roseville, California with a new guest. I'm very excited to see this guest actually share some insights into their stories and experiences that shape them into the leader that they are today. If you're brand new, we have 100 questions and they become progressively more vulnerable and open closer to 100. If the guest is smiling, that's a good sign that we will enter into a good space. I'm going to start the first 10 and then I'll hand it over to them. So first one, could you tell us your name and does anybody ever mispronounce it?

Robert Ferguson: It's Robert Ferguson. Nobody mispronounces it, but people do take liberties with the nickname, so you have Robert, Rob, Bob, Bobby.

Japhet De Oliveira: And do you like to go by Bobby?

Robert Ferguson: Well, if you knew me since I was about three, then that's fine. But no, Robert at work. Bob, outside of work.

Japhet De Oliveira: What about Sir Robert?

Robert Ferguson: No.

Japhet De Oliveira: No?

Robert Ferguson: No, thanks.

Japhet De Oliveira: No? Okay, Robert it is then. Brilliant. Robert, what do you do for work?

Robert Ferguson: I'm the program manager for acquisition integration at Adventist Health, work under Brett Soper. So as we purchase new hospitals, we watch over them coming onto our whole system stack and integrate into our system.

Japhet De Oliveira: That has been a busy time.

Robert Ferguson: Since September, it's been a sprint, complete sprint. It's been pretty nuts.

Japhet De Oliveira: You enjoy this?

Robert Ferguson: Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah?

Robert Ferguson: Yeah. I really enjoy how it affects the hospitals that we're onboarding. It's amazing seeing them come from, in some instances, like Montebello was bankrupt, so we're seeing them come from a bankrupt entity into the Adventist families. It was amazing.

Japhet De Oliveira: The transformation's great. And I've heard from the associates joining the company that they're enjoying the experience.

Robert Ferguson: Yeah. I mean, we bring a whole different set of things and tools, and just resources to them that they didn't have and were really struggling with. So it's really uplifting to see them as-

Japhet De Oliveira: And some of them are very quick and some take some time.

Robert Ferguson: Yeah, some of them are unbelievably quick.

Japhet De Oliveira: Unbelievably quick.

Robert Ferguson: Yeah. Some we don't want to necessarily make that our normal.

Japhet De Oliveira: Well, it's just amazing moments, right? Amazing opportunities.

Robert Ferguson: Oh, and it's the team, Adventist Health's integration team. And we see this when we talk to teams like Deloitte and other entities like Tenet. We're amazing. We've done this for the last five years, starting with Rideout, was our first one. Everyone we do better and we have a really good full team now that is at the whim right now, able to stand up a whole integration program and kick it off and do an amazing job.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. It is complex.

Robert Ferguson: It is extremely complex.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. And timing is everything.

Robert Ferguson: Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: Right? And information and communication, so yeah.

Robert Ferguson: Yes, exactly.

Japhet De Oliveira: I know that the human resource teams, they're just full on, right?

Robert Ferguson: The human resource team is amazing. So in all this space, you have all this IT, you have all this, but our HR team brings all that IT knowledge and ability, but then layers on all this other, maybe not soft, but really important things to the integration and makes the employees feel welcome, makes them feel heard. They do extravaganzas for the onboard. It's just amazing. And we can't say enough about that team.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's great. Robert, where were you born?

Robert Ferguson: San Bernardino, California. So a native Californian.

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay. And when you were a child growing up there, were you growing up there?

Robert Ferguson: No.

Japhet De Oliveira: No? Where did you grow up?

Robert Ferguson: In Lincoln, California.

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay. All right. So in Lincoln, California, did you imagine that you were going to, what did you imagine you were going to be? I mean, acquisitions was your thing.

Robert Ferguson: No.

Japhet De Oliveira: No?

Robert Ferguson: No, I wasn't playing-

Japhet De Oliveira: As a child, that's what I-

Robert Ferguson: I wasn't playing with work streams in the sandbox. No.

Japhet De Oliveira: What did you imagine you were going to grow up to be?

Robert Ferguson: I don't know when I was younger. When I started to transition into college life, I always had this... In undergraduate, I thought I was going to be an environmental or an international lawyer. Didn't like law in any way. So that killed that. And then when I went to graduate school, I actually went to graduate school for environmental economics. So I did my research, my master's thesis in Yosemite. That just didn't pan out. But all those tools along the way of analyzing problems, being able to talk to people about different subjects helped me along this path.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's fantastic. So how long have you been, just going back to your work, how long have you been in this particular role or?

Robert Ferguson: Let's see, that's a good question. So about three years.

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay. And did you work for Adventist Health for three years now or longer?

Robert Ferguson: No, this is my, I'm starting my eighth year, so maybe four years in the... So I started in business transformation, I was the first EPMO member and also the last.

Japhet De Oliveira: Just explain what EPMO is. Not emo, but EPMO.

Robert Ferguson: No. It's the enterprise project management office. It was an inception when we were transitioning to all of our business transformation, transitioning to this magnificent building we're in today. That whole restructuring was to bring in an EPMO that could watch over all the primarily strategic projects across the whole organization. So I was the first member that was brought in, started in business transformation, moved to mission expansion, and that was really when I transitioned into the integration piece.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's great. Good, good. Brilliant. All right. Are you an early riser or a late night owl?

Robert Ferguson: I'm a little of both. I mean, I like early mornings, I like the freshness of a new day and all that, but I love staying up late too. And I don't know when I do my best work.

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay. All right.

Robert Ferguson: I guess whatever needs to be.

Japhet De Oliveira: You just get it done.

Robert Ferguson: Exactly.

Japhet De Oliveira: You just get done. All right, this morning when you woke up, first thought that went through your mind?

Robert Ferguson: Why is my dog barking? I woke up at four this morning to my dog barking. Probably a cat.

Japhet De Oliveira: Probably a cat. A motorized cat, or a real one?

Robert Ferguson: No, real one. They sit on our fence or wall.

Japhet De Oliveira: Just a taunt your dog?

Robert Ferguson: Just to taunt him.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's good. And then in the morning, do you get your first drink of the day, water, coffee, tea, liquid green smoothies?

Robert Ferguson: Always coffee.

Japhet De Oliveira: Coffee? Black?

Robert Ferguson: Black.

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay. All right. Espresso or an Americano?

Robert Ferguson: No, just regular drip coffee.

Japhet De Oliveira: Drip? All right. Hey, that's good. That's good. If people were to describe your personality, would they say you're an introvert or an extrovert and would you agree with them?

Robert Ferguson: I think people would describe me a little bit as both. I'm quiet, but in the right place and the right environment, I become what I think I really am, is an extrovert. But my tendency is to be quiet until I feel a need to speak up. So I think people can perceive me both ways.

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay. All right. Hey, that's good. That's good. Leadership question for you. Are you a backseat driver?

Robert Ferguson: I definitely try not to be. I definitely try to give the driver, at least the perception that they're the ones controlling the situation. Give them ownership, those types of things. Yeah, I try not to be that.

Japhet De Oliveira: Good. Good. Okay, we are, the floors open. Where would you like to go? Anywhere from 11 to 100.

Robert Ferguson: Let's try 20.

Japhet De Oliveira: 20? All right. Tell us something that you would rate, Robert would give a 10 out of 10.

Robert Ferguson: 10 out of 10?

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah.

Robert Ferguson: The movie, 'Children of Men.'

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh really, why?

Robert Ferguson: I just think it was, one, it's an amazing premise. Two is just every facet of that movie is almost perfect. You feel completely in the environment, in the situation. It's got a great story. It's the only action movie I've ever seen where the action hero, I'm doing air quotes, never fires a gun. I mean, it's just got all these little components to it that makes it just an amazing movie.

Japhet De Oliveira: 'Children of Men'?

Robert Ferguson: Yes.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right, brilliant. Thank you. That was quick. 10 our of 10. It was like instant. So next after 20?

Robert Ferguson: Let's do 40.

Japhet De Oliveira: 40. All right. Tell us about a time that you failed.

Robert Ferguson: That's a good one. I don't usually think about failure too much.

Japhet De Oliveira: Well, we all do.

Robert Ferguson: I think one time I failed, coaching my son in baseball, not treating him like I would another player. I think that in a few instances in that I put a lot of pressure on him. And I think that's where, looking back, I don't know if I... One, I don't think I should have been his coach. I think I should have recognized that, but I just understood his potential. So you want to push him-

Japhet De Oliveira: You love him.

Robert Ferguson: And so I think that's where I would probably, if I could go back and change something, that's one of the things I would do.

Japhet De Oliveira: Does he know that?

Robert Ferguson: He has a pretty interesting take on, and this is all Little League coaches, he thought we were all just idiots getting way too overworked around Little League Baseball.

Japhet De Oliveira: Sure. There are some parents.

Robert Ferguson: Yeah. So he looks back on it with this fond chuckle about the whole thing. So I mean, I think he's probably okay with it, so I'm probably harder on myself about it.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's fair enough. As we are as parents, right?

Robert Ferguson: Exactly.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right. Where next after 40?

Robert Ferguson: Let's do 44.

Japhet De Oliveira: 44. What is something that you're proud to have created?

Robert Ferguson: I mean, my master's thesis, it was ninety-some pages. I had to go and interview visitor groups to Yosemite over a whole month. So I was in Yosemite for 45 days.

Japhet De Oliveira: Wow.

Robert Ferguson: I've interviewed about 300 visitor groups and then I wrote this ninety-page thesis that was supposed to help Yosemite make better decisions around visitor access in Yosemite Valley. So I was really proud.

Japhet De Oliveira: Is your thesis that nobody should go there or?

Robert Ferguson: No, I mean the idea was it was analyzing at the time, the policy that they were looking at was, if you had a overnight camping spot, if you're going to backpack, you could drive your own car into the valley. If you're there for day use, you would take a shuttle in. So that would limit 90% of the vehicle traffic in Yosemite. And this was just the Valley. And so I was interviewing people, seeing how much they'd be willing to pay for those shuttle service. A lot of math. But yeah, it was a really, and I was very proud of it. I had to defend it to my thesis committee. It was just a good process.

Japhet De Oliveira: So do you have it on a bookcase?

Robert Ferguson: You can actually check it out at the University of Montana.

Japhet De Oliveira: Hey, that's fantastic, man. That's great. That's great. And you have it hard-copied in your home?

Robert Ferguson: Yeah. And I have on some floppy disk, to date myself-

Japhet De Oliveira: Floppy disk? Wow.

Robert Ferguson: Somewhere. Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: Is your floppy disk in your freezer.

Robert Ferguson: I don't know where it's at, so I hope I have in the Google Drive somewhere.

Japhet De Oliveira: These days you can transcribe it, it'll be fine.

Robert Ferguson: Is it?

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. Okay. Where next?

Robert Ferguson: To 60.

Japhet De Oliveira: 60? All right. When in life have you felt most alone?

Robert Ferguson: There's been two times in my life where I've moved somewhere where I've not known anyone. I moved to Quebec City to do an internship, didn't know a soul. Moved to University of, or Missoula and the University of Montana, didn't know a soul. And both of those times you feel lonely, but you also learn a lot. I learned more about myself in those two times, especially starting out with not knowing anyone than I learned in probably any other time. And you just learn how to live with yourself and not rely on other people for conversation or for really anything.

And then you finally slowly start meeting friends and start opening, and then your world really, you can see it open up when you start getting friends. And so realizing that of, all right, my world is only really truly open when I bring other people into it. It's healthy to be alone. I can do it.

Japhet De Oliveira: Absolutely.

Robert Ferguson: No problem. And understanding that, and I think everyone should experience that so they can have that kind of understanding of, hey, this is what it is to be alone, I can do it. But then also seeing, like that yin yang thing I guess, opening up to bringing other people in and how your world just expands.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's really encouraging. That's good. That's good for anybody, everyone's going to have to experience something like that at some point. Good. All right, where next?

Robert Ferguson: Let's go back down to 16.

Japhet De Oliveira: 16. Tell us about one of the places you traveled to and want to go back.

Robert Ferguson: Quebec.

Japhet De Oliveira: Quebec?

Robert Ferguson: I was, I guess I was young, I was like 21 or 22. There for about six months with an internship. So on my bucket list with my family is to take them all to Quebec City, stay at the Chateau Frontenac, which is this amazing hotel. And then take the train to Montreal and see a hockey game.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh really, a hockey game?

Robert Ferguson: In Canada, which I think will be amazing.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. That's it?

Robert Ferguson: That's my next one, yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: When are you going to do it?

Robert Ferguson: I have to do it soon because my kids are getting old enough that they can start having their own lives. So if we're going to do it, hopefully within the next year or two.

Japhet De Oliveira: Strategy.

Robert Ferguson: Exactly.

Japhet De Oliveira: Make it happen. Get the spreadsheet. All right.

Robert Ferguson: And if anybody does not have the money to travel to Europe but wants to feel like they're in Europe, go to Quebec.

Japhet De Oliveira: Hey, good call. Good call. All right, where next?

Robert Ferguson: Let's do 24.

Japhet De Oliveira: 24? All right. Oh, tell us about a time where you were over or underdressed for an occasion.

Robert Ferguson: I try not to do that.

Japhet De Oliveira: Good. Good rule. Robert tries not to be underdressed or overdressed. Never turn up with a bow tie.

Robert Ferguson: I guess the funny thing is, I don't like wearing jackets. The first time I went to Montebello, I took a jacket with me because I'm like, "I'm going to be professional," and no one else had a jacket. So I just carried this stupid jacket around with me the whole time. So I guess that was the last one I remember.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's good. Well, you had tried. That's well done.

Robert Ferguson: Exactly.

Japhet De Oliveira: Well done. Points for success for attempt. All right, where next?

Robert Ferguson: Let's go up to 80.

Japhet De Oliveira: 80? All right. Oh, how would you like to change in the future?

Robert Ferguson: Oh, that's a good question. I think I could be a little more serious wit... I tend to make things light. I don't know if it's a reactionary thing to stress or whatever. I think I can be a little more serious, a little bit more focused on where I want to go. I'm a little more reactionary than I'd like to be right now. But I think those are the two personal ways I'd like to change. Yeah, I think those are it.

Japhet De Oliveira: Have you had people tell you that you're just too funny or-?

Robert Ferguson: No, never. No, and I don't think-

Japhet De Oliveira: Or you think it's just yourself?

Robert Ferguson: I think it's just myself. I just think that there's times where I think I can just be a little bit more serious. I still picture myself really young in my head.

Japhet De Oliveira: Isn't that great?

Robert Ferguson: Yeah. I mean, it's great, but it's like, "Wait a minute, I don't know. Maybe I should move on to another chapter here. I'm a little bit more-"

Japhet De Oliveira: Just don't look in the mirror.

Robert Ferguson: Exactly. Shiny objects are bad. But just trying to be more, I think of my age, of where I'd like to be in my stature in the organization. And try to really maybe evaluate what I'm putting off to the people around me. Being just a little bit more coherent or a little bit more mindful of that. I don't know. Some people like my humor though, so maybe I shouldn't change it.

Japhet De Oliveira: See.

Robert Ferguson: Maybe I should take a poll. I should survey people.

Japhet De Oliveira: You should survey people, everybody you talk to. And now we talked, here's a test.

Robert Ferguson: Which Robert do you want to see, the more serious or the more...?

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah, everyone wants everybody to be more serious. No, there's enough seriousness. Okay, where next?

Robert Ferguson: Well, let's go up to 88 then.

Japhet De Oliveira: 88. Oh, tell us about how your life has been different than what you imagined.

Robert Ferguson: There's a lot of inflection points, right? I did think I was going to be in the environmental sector. My passion's always about, I love fishing, I love being outdoors. So protecting, hopefully the environment would be something I've always pursued or thought I would pursue. Healthcare's a close second though. Helping people out, it's amazing. I used to work at Oracle where I didn't like that, because I was just making money for Larry Ellison. It was a big massive organization. So coming to Adventist Health, I was able to feel a little bit more connection to something I really liked.

But I think that was it. Everything else in my life, has just been hanging on for the ride. I don't know what my family life was supposed to be like. Never really thought about that. So that part, I've just been going with the flow. So the only thing I really visualized was the whole career piece, and so that changed. While it's not perfect from what I thought, it's not bad in anyway.

Japhet De Oliveira: Your family local to you, your extended family?

Robert Ferguson: Yep. All of them. They're almost all, my brother lives in Vegas, but other than that, almost all my family lives in Lincoln.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's great. That's great. That's fantastic. So you get to see each other often?

Robert Ferguson: Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: Hey, that's really good.

Robert Ferguson: Yeah, it's nice.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's actually, that's a real privilege.

Robert Ferguson: It is. Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's great. Good. Where next? That was 88.

Robert Ferguson: Let's go to 42.

Japhet De Oliveira: 42? All right. Oh, phone. Thinking about your phone, what's the photo on your phone, the background photo on your phone?

Robert Ferguson: It is just a blurred image.

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay. All right. Nothing in particular then?

Robert Ferguson: No.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right. All right, good.

Robert Ferguson: No, I try to, I'm very particular about my phone.

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay. All righty.

Robert Ferguson: Yeah, I have a very extensive setup that's curtailed to me.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh really? Okay, now you got to unpack that, what does that mean when you say?

Robert Ferguson: So a lot of things are hidden with swipe navigation or gestures and the way everything's organized. My wife hates picking up my phone. She throws it back at me, "I don't know how you do anything on this." But there's a method to the madness.

Japhet De Oliveira: So the apps are not all out there, you've just put in the folders and?

Robert Ferguson: Yeah, I have my set of apps I use all the time on my home screen. And then if you go to the, what is the app? T.

Japhet De Oliveira: He next page?

Robert Ferguson: The app drawer.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah, app drawer.

Robert Ferguson: Then it's organized to the next apps I use, with folders up on the top. It is very-

Japhet De Oliveira: It's pretty elaborate.

Robert Ferguson: Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah, that's good.

Robert Ferguson: It's something I've been curtailing for five years.

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay. All right.

Robert Ferguson: So to change would be a massive change in my brain and I would not have any idea how to use it.

Japhet De Oliveira: Look, you know where it is. That's what counts.

Robert Ferguson: Exactly.

Japhet De Oliveira: It's your phone. All right, great. Where next?

Robert Ferguson: Let's do 70.

Japhet De Oliveira: 70? All right. Tell us about the one thing that you're determined to accomplish.

Robert Ferguson: Well, one of the things, traveling more, experiencing. So when I travel, I don't like a lot of the tourist stuff. So for instance, on my bucket list is to go to Japan, go to Tokyo, get that whole understanding of massive city like that and how everyone exists there, it'd be nuts. But then going to the more coastal regions and just staying at small inns and eating Japanese food, real Japanese food and being around real Japanese-

Japhet De Oliveira: Emersed in the culture.

Robert Ferguson: Exactly. And doing that in different areas would be, that's definitely on my list.

Japhet De Oliveira: So most interesting place that you've been to, discovered something?

Robert Ferguson: I haven't really traveled a ton. I've been to Mexico, Quebec. I've never been to Europe, never been to Asia.

Japhet De Oliveira: You're going to have to go.

Robert Ferguson: I know. My wife and I went to Hawaii, we've been there a couple times. It's great. So she wants to go to Italy, I want to go to Southern France.

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay. Who's going to get to go first?

Robert Ferguson: Oh, she will.

Japhet De Oliveira: Just clarifying.

Robert Ferguson: Yeah, that's going to happen.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's good. All right. All right, where next?

Robert Ferguson: Let's do 32.

Japhet De Oliveira: 32? All right. If you were featured on the local news, what would the story on the news likely be?

Robert Ferguson: Somehow amateur carpenter can actually build something.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh, really? Oh, you like working with wood?

Robert Ferguson: Yeah. I do it a lot to give my brain a rest. So I'll do flooring or I'll build closets for people.

Japhet De Oliveira: Really?

Robert Ferguson: Yeah. I do some remodeling work.

Japhet De Oliveira: Wow.

Robert Ferguson: Yeah, it's fun.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah, that's good. That's good. Wood is not easy to work with.

Robert Ferguson: No.

Japhet De Oliveira: No.

Robert Ferguson: No. And I'm far too complacent around table saws than I should be.

Japhet De Oliveira: But you have all your digits.

Robert Ferguson: Exactly. I'm all good. There's a time I thought-

Japhet De Oliveira: I just looked, I looked and I'm like, "Hey-"

Robert Ferguson: There's been a couple of times where I'm like, "That was really dumb."

Japhet De Oliveira: Well I'm glad you have them all. That's good. All right. Where next?

Robert Ferguson: Let's do 36.

Japhet De Oliveira: 36? All right. Oh, tell us about one thing that you hope never changes.

Robert Ferguson: The love with my wife. Yeah. That's the one thing.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's great. How long have you guys been together?

Robert Ferguson: 20 years.

Japhet De Oliveira: Hey, fantastic. So how did you meet?

Robert Ferguson: So she and I actually grew up about six blocks away from each other.

Japhet De Oliveira: Really? Okay.

Robert Ferguson: I went to school with her brothers, her brother, mainly, her older brother. And then we just would randomly meet here and there as I was coming back from school. And then one day I showed up at her house to go see if her brother was doing anything and she was the only one there. And we went out to coffee and that was it.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's fantastic, man. 20 years. Congratulations.

Robert Ferguson: Thank you.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's great. Good. All right. Where next?

Robert Ferguson: Let's do 50.

Japhet De Oliveira: 50?

Robert Ferguson: Halfway.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right. Share about who's influenced you professionally.

Robert Ferguson: I had a manager at Oracle, Edie Gilmore.

Japhet De Oliveira: Edie Gilmore?

Robert Ferguson: Yep.

Japhet De Oliveira: Nice.

Robert Ferguson: She's amazing. And in fact, we were on a really small team and we'd show up to, I mean really high-level dev teams or whatever at Oracle. When we'd introduce ourselves, we'd say we're on Edie's team and we'd instantly get street cred. "Oh, thank you for just coming." It was pretty amazing. And she was just, even after I left Oracle, I would get texts from her about how my kids are doing. She would only rip into someone if they were her level or higher. She would never rip into someone below her.

And I asked her one day, I'm like, there's this one team that we were, it was from an acquisition that brought on board. And they were really not doing a good job at all, and she came in with kid gloves on and I asked her, I'm like, "Why didn't you really lay into them? They deserved it." And she's like, "There's nothing they can do. They have to take it if I... It's not a fair fight. Plus we need to keep them." But really, the main reason, it's not a fair fight. And so she took that responsibility of being the leader is, hey, if I go hard on somebody, they can't come hard back because I'm the leader.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's really good.

Robert Ferguson: So just a lot of these things that she would lead by example was amazing. I tried to learn as much as I could from her.

Japhet De Oliveira: Does Edie know that you feel this way?

Robert Ferguson: Oh no. No one would ever tell her that, she would tell us to take that back. Don't I ever say that again. She was very humble. Yeah, she was amazing. I believe she still works there too.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah?

Robert Ferguson: Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: It's nice. It's nice. Even humble people, they would enjoy it.

Robert Ferguson: Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: It's good. All right, where next?

Robert Ferguson: Let's go to 28. Are we keeping track of which ones?

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. I'm doing a pretty good job. There have been times where I'm like, "Oh, actually I have done that question." I'm like, "I'm not doing a good job." If you had to give an impromptu 30 minute presentation like, Robert, straight after this, 30 minutes, what would the subject be?

Robert Ferguson: That's a good question. I'd probably be talking about family dynamics. Just learning a lot. My son has taught me and my daughter, my son a little bit more. My daughter's starting to teach me more, but it's just understanding what you feel, your perception of the scenario going on is not what someone else's perception is. And especially with families, it gets very intertwined and just very emotional and lots of... So I think talking probably about that would be one of the things I'd like. And that's just something I'd enjoy talking about, especially if it was a scenario where I could get feedback from other people.

Japhet De Oliveira: Hey, that's good. So give us a parenting tip.

Robert Ferguson: Listen to your children. Try not to be emotional. Kids, sometimes my kids blow me away and how they're... I think they're on their phones not paying attention, but they're actually absorbing a great amount of information and bringing it in and digesting it. And pushing it through their filter, which is different from my filter. And so understanding what their viewpoint is, it's helpful and beneficial, I think, for everyone to sit back and try to understand other people's perceptions.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's great. Good wisdom with that. We have time for two more.

Robert Ferguson: Oh.

Japhet De Oliveira: Where'd you want to go with your last and two numbers?

Robert Ferguson: 48.

Japhet De Oliveira: 48? Okay. Oh, tell us about your best personality trait.

Robert Ferguson: My best personality?

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah.

Robert Ferguson: I think I can sense where other people are emotionally pretty well.

Japhet De Oliveira: It's a good EQ. That's rare.

Robert Ferguson: Yeah. And so I really try to take that in and it is helpful information. If I can feel someone's, in their voice they're stressed, or if they're a little bit angry or happy. I take that information and try to help it inform my next few steps. And I think that's probably my best trait.

Japhet De Oliveira: Where did you get that, is that something you-?

Robert Ferguson: Oh, I have no idea. I think it's just who I am.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's great. All right. Last one.

Robert Ferguson: This will be 100.

Japhet De Oliveira: 100? All right.

Robert Ferguson: I'm sure that's what everyone does, right?

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. Well, no.

Robert Ferguson: That's not what everyone does?

Japhet De Oliveira: So I'm happy for you, man. Tell us about one question that you don't want to answer.

Robert Ferguson: What do I fear.

Japhet De Oliveira: What do you fear?

Robert Ferguson: Yeah, that's something I don't probably like to talk about much and to get an actual real answer out of me would be probably difficult.

Japhet De Oliveira: Well, we have time. So Robert, when you say what is it that you are, you don't want to fear, are you thinking of something physical or something emotional?

Robert Ferguson: I mean, for me, yeah. I mean everything. So failure in work. I always had a fear of people looking at me as, "Oh, you're dropping the ball." And I guess-

Japhet De Oliveira: You like to achieve?

Robert Ferguson: Yeah. Well, yeah, I definitely like to achieve. I also work a lot behind the scenes and don't care about credit. But also understand that that can be bad later on when people are looking back on things, not necessarily knowing everything I did. So I always worry a little bit about perception with some of that. Always worrying about, is Robert bringing value to this? Is he doing X, Y and Z?

Failure with my family is always huge. Am I doing the right thing? Am I giving enough time in the right way? Am I communicating well? Am I letting my work be too much of a distraction? Am I letting...? You can go on and on. So failure for me is always, I guess in the background in my head. That's why I don't like talking about it too much. The other reason I don't like it is it takes me down that road I don't like to go down, I like to look at positive, I like to look forward-thinking. My wife's opposite, she always looks at the negative and I try to look at the positive. And so she pulls me into that world. I'm always like, "No, I want to go back over to this positive world. It's better over here."

Japhet De Oliveira: And she's bringing you to reality.

Robert Ferguson: Yeah. She definitely, and it's a great yin and yang thing. I mean, if she was positive, who knows? I'd probably be dropping the ball on half the things in my life and just oblivious to them. So she really grounds me and makes me more cognizant of everything going on.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's great.

Robert Ferguson: And really able to think through things.

Japhet De Oliveira: We need all types of people, right?

Robert Ferguson: Exactly. Yeah. Everyone brings something to the table.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's good. Well, thank you so much for sharing, Robert.

Robert Ferguson: Of course, thank you.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah, no, I appreciate it. And I say this at every episode, and I say this to you as well, and I want to encourage people to do the same. Sit down with someone who they don't know or do know well, ask good questions. And I do believe that everything we learn about each other changes who we are. We become better people, right?

Robert Ferguson: Exactly.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah, it's a good thing. It's nothing to fear.

Robert Ferguson: Thank you.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah, touche. Hey, until we connect again, friends, thanks for listening to us and God bless everyone.

Narrator: Thank you for joining us for the Story & Experience podcast. We invite you to read, watch, and submit your story and experience at adventisthealth.org/story. The Story & Experience podcast was brought to you by Adventist Health through the Office of Culture.