The Joy of Living

BY BARRY SHORE

I used to be a quadriplegic, having been completely paralyzed overnight from a rare disease. Many years before this, I had been in a head-on car collision that almost took my life while on a trip to New York City. I also experienced losing all of my money and having to start all over again.

There have been a lot more challenges that I encountered in my life, but those three are what I would consider the biggest of them all. Nevertheless, giving up was never in my vocabulary and I always chose to live my best life despite the situation.

Now, many years later, I have become a Mental Wellness Activist, using my own encounter with deep trauma and despair to help other people deal with theirs. In addition, I’m a successful serial entrepreneur with 2 multi-million dollar exits, 3 issued US Patents, and a vision for enabling people to donate money at no cost.

Oh, I also now swim 2 miles per day, six times a week. I have been doing so for over 14 years and have accumulated over 8,800 miles which is equivalent to more than a third of the way around the World. I have also become a best-selling author, a successful podcaster in the Top 2% of all Podcasts, and a sought-after Business Consultant and Coach. Most importantly, I’ve been married for over 45 years and have 2 grandchildren.

During this time, I have also built a system that enables people to Live in JOY every day and have been privileged to Found, Nurture and Grow the World Wide KEEP SMILING Movement. We have distributed more than 4 Million JOY Cards which have saved lives, enhanced marriages, and helped people to live happier and healthier.

I am a living testament to the human capacity to survive and fight for their lives, as well as our potential to grow and keep on going despite the boulders that life throws our way. I hope that my experiences can serve as inspiration to someone who is facing his own troubles or feeling despair, and this is why I share my story.

How I Became an Entrepreneur

I grew up in Boston, Massachusetts which is a great place to be from despite its cold snowy winters and hot and humid summers. During my childhood, starting when I was around ten, I was involved in doing things that brought benefit to people and made money. Yes, I was entrepreneurial before I could spell the word.

Keep in mind that dealing with householders, especially neighbors, is not so easy when you’re ten. But the early exposure taught me a lot about business. The ability to knock on doors, discuss a price, walk away if necessary (a great tactic that I didn’t realize at the time), agree on a mutually beneficial price, and then Do the Work was a great educational tool for me.

I had a few friends who wanted to make money but didn’t want to talk to people or negotiate. So I offered to share the wage on an 80/20 basis. I always tried for a $10 job because it was easy math and my friends got $8 which incentivized them to do about 5 jobs a day.

They made $40 while I made $10 per person. Plus, I would take on about five jobs on my own and earned $10 from each one. I usually had 5 friends on the TEAM so I would earn $50 from them, and another $50 from the jobs I would do myself. That’s $100 for a full day’s heavy work. But this was in the 1960s, and a hundred dollars then was equivalent to about $958 today. And compared to my allowance of 25 cents per week, earning this much money felt good. It was amazing.

To top it all off, I also learned about organizing, negotiating, encouraging, coordinating, and dealing with unhappy customers. I also loved sharing the opportunity with my friends and feeling of ownership, having control over my time, my ideas, and my own success.

The Gold Mine

I had the ideal job for a kid growing up in Boston – I sold scorecards outside Fenway Park. From the ages of twelve to fourteen, I made lots of money, have some great stories, and learned important life lessons for other successful business ventures. And I saw dozens of Red Sox games for Free!

Here’s where I met Elijah, a wizened black man who taught me about Life, Selling, Value, and Caring. I talk more about all these in my book, The JOY of LIVING, but this is where I learned about Service, Exceeding Expectations, and Gross Margin. Here’s where I learned that in BUSINESS, the U comes before the I.

College Dropout

The Ambassador of JOY was also an inveterate traveler. I had gone cross country twice by the age of 18. At nineteen, I dropped out of college and went to Europe on a one-way ticket. Living in Europe was eye-opening. I was based in Amsterdam which was the crossroads of the world in those days. We were a group of 12 or so from different backgrounds and cultures. This was a challenging time that enabled me to utilize my talents and refine my skills working with people from many cultures, languages, and viewpoints to not only survive but flourish.

Return of the Prodigal Son

When I returned to Boston at the age of 22, I was a budding entrepreneur in a unique field. While in Amsterdam, we started making products from discarded oriental rugs that we bought at the flea market. They sold well in Europe and I decided to do the same in Boston. So I bought a crate load of rugs and shipped them along with my car to Boston.

I opened a fashionable boutique on the hippest shopping street in the City: Newberry Street. This store, named FRED, was written up in Boston Magazine and was frequented by local and national celebrities like Cheech and Chong.

Tragedy and the AHA Moment

While traveling via car from Boston to the National Boutique Show in NYC in June 1972, I was in a head-on collision at 60 mph! I lived, although it was touch and go for a few hours.

The result was a broken thigh bone and shards of glass all over my upper body. Thankfully this happened in Westchester County, NY and I was operated on by top surgeons.

Was it assured I would ever walk again? NO. Did I? Yes! It took more than 2 years of intensive physical therapy. This was mostly hatha yoga for 3 hours/day for 5 days/week, plus Tai Chi, Acupuncture, and two more operations. And most of all, a resolute prayer oriented positive purposeful powerful attitude

The Formula for Success despite intense pain and immobility was Prayer, Therapy, and LOVE. That’s the AHA! Seeking and finding the Formula for Healing and LIVING well. By studying for hours per day with devoted teachers and consciously thinking about the healing power of the body, I became a model for hundreds of people with challenging physical and mental issues, and I was happy to be of benefit.

Path to Success: Diamonds and More

I returned to University and Graduated with a double degree from the University of Massachusetts. Then in 1975, I relocated to Southern California to attend the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), the foremost school in the world for studying diamonds and gems.

Not only did I attend, but I also excelled. I was asked to teach the diamond program. I did this for 3 years and met some of the most important people in the diamond business. By 1979 my business partner and I became wholesale diamond dealers. Within 3 years we bought and sold over 100 million dollars worth of diamonds. It was a whirlwind.

The best part of all these amazing adventures: I met and married my amazing wife, Naomi. She was attending the GIA from Bangkok, Thailand and now, we’re still married 45 years later. Nothing compares.

A major Venture Capital Company approached our diamond company and made an offer I can’t refuse. Now I was out in the field teaching and training more than 1200 agents to position diamonds in people’s investment accounts. Audiences ranged from 50 to 2,000. Keep in mind that this was all done before the Internet, Zoom, Cell Phones, Texting, and even Email.

The Greatest Lesson for Business and LIFE: Work Together so Everyone Achieves Miracles.

We did so well that I decided to “retire” at the age of 34. But I couldn’t. I returned to business and built an international telephony company. From this, I envisioned an innovative process in 1999 that enabled a FAX to be sent and received via email. It seems funny now but FAX was more dominant than email!

Suffice to say I found a team to build a process that could send and receive fax to 17 countries for free. I was awarded two patents in this space and built a stellar executive team. I sold the company 18 months later for more than $10 million. Today, the acquiring company has a $6+ billion market cap.

The Internet was THE Place to Be

I then built a predecessor to Skype, enabling people to call 21 countries for FREE. In nine months, the company was bought by a NASDAQ-listed company.

And then it Wasn’t. I Lost $40 Million

The Crash of Internet 1.0 wiped out billions of dollars and many recently listed companies. Did I lose all my money? No.

Only most. Was I devastated? No, and yes.

I recalled the days of my Youth –selling and building, the lessons from good people, my knowledge of working with people, my knowledge of diamonds, my health, and my wife. I had so much to be thankful for, and I have so much gratitude inside me. Would I let events ruin what I did have and cherish? The answer was a resounding NO.

Eventually, I was contacted by a major California real estate company. They wanted to bring internet services to their portfolio of 20,000 apartment units and millions of square feet of commercial properties.

With my team from the real estate company, we brought in millions of dollars and provided valuable services to residents. Everybody was benefiting, which is the hallmark of how to do business.

The Unexpected Happens

Just when I thought that I was back on my feet again, I had another “head-on collision”. On September 17, 2004, life as I knew it changed. I became paralyzed overnight, not from an auto accident or a spinal injury, but from a rare neurological disease called Guillain-Barré Syndrome, or GBS, which took over my body.

All I could do was blink my eyes. I was a quadriplegic.

Now, a new journey began. Money, fame, and success meant nothing. All I had was stress, pain, fear, worry, anxiety, and depression. I’ve been through them all.

But through all these, I have still found the success formula that Works: Prayer. Therapy. LOVE.

The same Keys that brought me through to life at the age of 22 were the Keys to life at 55. They are still applicable now that I’m in my 70s and looking forward to decades more.

People often ask me, “tell us what You were thinking during those early days of total paralysis?” I always tell them that it’s to live life to the fullest no matter the situation.

Stress, anxiety, depression, worry, and fear were constant in my life. What saved me? Gratitude. I survived because of the ability to be Grateful for the smallest of life’s functions. To wipe away a tear. To go to the toilet. To sit up. LOVE and Gratitude have been my constant companions once I resolved to let them fill me up.

Complaints are the antithesis of Life. As you’ll learn when You read my book “The JOY Of LIVING, How to Slay Stress and Be Happy”, one of the 11 Strategies for Living in JOY daily, no matter the circumstances is: Don’t Complain. Don’t Blame.

Recognize the Value of True Happiness. Good health. Real wealth.

Imagine, I was a quadriplegic for years. Thankfully I regained partial mobility through intense Prayer, Therapy, and Love. These enabled me to “GO MAD,” my acronym for Go Make a Difference!

This means in essence bringing into the world the unique combination of your positive purposeful powerful attitude with a zest for LIFE that is based on JOY.

Joy is the sine qua non of Living Life to the Full. JOY stands for JOURNEY Of YOU. The Success Formula learned from an early age continues to animate: Prayer, Therapy, and LOVE.

While lying in bed and unable to move, I envisioned a universally accessible portal that would enable people to learn to live in joy every day, no matter the circumstances. At the end of the day, it’s all about becoming the best you possible. And when you do so, you make the world a better place. You build bridges of harmony. You create more joy, happiness, peace, and love.

As part of the r/evolution, I am bringing together several of my most successful processes that touch and transform people. One of these is the Keep Smiling Movement which is currently available in 32 languages.

They make a difference in people’s lives, and more than four million have been distributed worldwide for free. In addition to the physical cards, there is the opportunity to send joy inspiration cards worldwide via email, also totally free, and highly impactful.

I am dedicated to transforming the world with joy. As are you. We suffer from a joy deficit today, but together we can create a joy surplus. You can JOYN the mission to touch one billion people for free. JOYN the JOY Of LIVING Community (™) and encourage others to do so.

About the author:

The Ambassador of JOY, Barry Shore, is a change-maker and life transformer whose profound message of JOY is being embraced globally. A successful serial entrepreneur with two multi-million dollar exits and 3 issued patents, Barry acquired a disability that left him completely paralyzed overnight. Barry’s decision to use this experience to better his life and the lives of others has opened a unique opportunity to find JOY in living regardless of circumstance. In the process of recovering from full paralysis Barry has become an avid swimmer and now swims 2 miles/day 6X/week and has accumulated more than 8,221 miles over 12 years.

Barry is a charismatic, JOY-contagious speaker who captivates audiences and elevates them to a new level of extraordinary. His Keep Smiling Movement has distributed over THREE million Keep Smiling Cards for Free to all. His podcast, The JOY of Living is heard worldwide with over THREE Million downloads. Barry founded the JOY of Living Institute (™), helping thousands of people learn to live in JOY, daily. The FREE Course is available here: www.barryshore.com.