Andrew Matthews on How to Be Happy & Overcome Life’s Challenge

Rich & Wendy 0:00
Hey, everyone is Rich Bennett. Can you believe it? The show is turning ten this year. I am so grateful for each and every one of you who've tuned in, shared an episode, or even joined the conversation over the years. You're the reason that this podcast has grown into what it is today. Together, we shared laughs, tears and moments that truly matter. So I want to thank you for being part of this journey. Let's make the next ten years even better. Coming to you from the Freedom Federal Credit Union Studios. Harford County Living presents conversations with Rich Bennett. 

Today, I'm going to get kind. 

No, no, no. The truth is. 

Rich Bennett 1:00
Thanks for joining the conversation. I'm your host, Rich Bennett. And today on Conversations with Rich Bennett, I have the pleasure of speaking with Andrew MATTHEWS, an internationally renowned author, speaker and illustrator whose books have inspired millions across the globe. With over 8 million copies sold in 48 languages. Andrew's works, including Being Happy and Follow Your Heart, have been guiding readers towards happier, more fulfilling lives for decades. His latest book, Bouncing Back, dives into the Art of Resilience, offering practical insights and inspiring stories to help us overcome life's challenges. That right there, all of you listening tells you you need to get this book. Without a doubt, it's he said it to me and I agree. I've got to be honest with you. It's hard for me to get past the illustrations. You're you're all you're a hell of a writer, but you're an awesome illustrator as well. 

Andrew Matthews 2:05
Well, thank you, Rich, and pleasure to be here with you. Firstly. I was drawing cartoons and I was painting portraits long before I was writing books. 

Rich Bennett 2:15
Wow. 

Andrew Matthews 2:16
So when I set out to write my first book, Being Happy, I knew I could illustrate it. I just wasn't sure that I could write it. 

Rich Bennett 2:25
Wow. That's a big difference, isn't it? 

Andrew Matthews 2:29
Yes. But here's the thing. A lot of people enjoy magazines. It's not so many people enjoy books. So what I wanted to do was write books for people who don't read books and write self-help books for people who hate self-help books. 

Rich Bennett 2:49
I love that. And I love reading self-help books. I mean, I go back to the days of Zig Ziglar, even beyond that, Actually, the first book I read outside of what was you had to read in school was How to win friends and Influence People. And I think I was like 11 or 12 years old when I read that. 

Andrew Matthews 3:11
And that was that was one of the very first. 

Rich Bennett 3:15
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 3:15
Self-improvement books that was available just everywhere. 

Rich Bennett 3:18
Yeah. I mean, it's. But the thing is your box. Because I know when people see your books, they may think it's their children's books, but they're not. 

Correct. These are for adults. 

Andrew Matthews 3:29
Abso absolutely so. Being happy, for example, has a bouncing little character on the cover. He's got a big head and a big smile. 

Rich Bennett 3:38
Right. 

Andrew Matthews 3:40
So the thing is that we connect ideas with images. 

Rich Bennett 3:46
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 3:47
The cartoons help us to remember the ideas. And also a lot of us find that it's easier to read a book if there are some white spaces, if there are some cartoons or some illustrations on every other page or so. And initially I had a hard job getting publishers to think like I did. 

Rich Bennett 4:09
Right. 

Andrew Matthews 4:10
But after 17 publishers rejected being happy, the 18th publisher said, Can you draw some more cartoons? 

Rich Bennett 4:19
Really? 

Andrew Matthews 4:20
You want more? Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 4:21
While. 

Andrew Matthews 4:22
And. And then it was that I knew that I was working with a publisher that really understood what I was hoping to achieve. And that book that hadn't been taken up by so many other publishers 

just took off around the world and. 

Rich Bennett 4:41
Right. 

Andrew Matthews 4:43
And I had I had people reading it, like, for example, Nick Faldo, who was the number one golfer in the world at that time and and had and he was saying that that book really helped me win the British Open. 

Rich Bennett 4:58
Really? 

Andrew Matthews 4:59
And yeah, that was extraordinary. 

Rich Bennett 5:02
Wow. Well, the thing is, what I love about it, it's to me, it makes it a lot easier to read with the cartoons. I don't want to even say cartoons. Well. Well, they are, but the illustrations. And I. 

I don't. I don't think I've ever seen a self-help book with illustrations in it like this. Is there. 

Andrew Matthews 5:28
No, no, 

Rich Bennett 5:29
So 

Andrew Matthews 5:30
I 

Rich Bennett 5:30
you. 

Andrew Matthews 5:30
certainly there weren't when when I began sending the manuscript out to publishers. And what I've found over the years and now I've written 12 books and they're all illustrated, is that my readers say, we love it. We love the fact that we there's two things about your books or maybe three that we like. They say number one is the the language is very simple. Nobody should have to read a sentence three times to figure out what the author means. So I write sentences that a 12 year old can understand. I'm not writing for 12 year olds, but the language should be that simple. That's number. 

Rich Bennett 6:11
Right. 

Andrew Matthews 6:13
Number two is that there are. Cartoons, illustrations that help to illustrate the points that I make. And number three, people tell me something that people sometimes say. It's like you're looking in my window. I see. 

Rich Bennett 6:27
Why? 

Andrew Matthews 6:28
So some somehow you know what? What my life is like and what I worry about and. And what I'm thinking about. And so I take that as a compliment. 

Rich Bennett 6:40
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 6:42
And I believe one of the reasons why the books are now in 48 languages is that the firstly, the books get translated accurately. 

Rich Bennett 6:52
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 6:53
Because the foreign translators can understand what they're about and the illustrations help to 

translate. 

Rich Bennett 7:03
Guide them along. 

Andrew Matthews 7:03
Gentle 

Rich Bennett 7:04
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 7:04
into any language. So, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 7:08
Wow. Now, I just. I love it. Said, how many books now? 

Andrew Matthews 7:14
Well. 

Rich Bennett 7:15
12. And they're all illustrated. 

Andrew Matthews 7:17
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 7:18
So on average, how long does take you to write the book and illustrated it, which comes first, the illustrations or the writing? 

Andrew Matthews 7:29
I treat it like a meal in that they're the main course, which is like the hard work is the writing. And after I've written a book, then I get to have the the fun bit, and that is the dessert, which is doing the cartoons. So also when you write a book, there are bits that you're not sure about. You might discard or you might change. So it makes more sense that I illustrate the book after I know what's actually staying in the book. So yeah. 

Rich Bennett 8:03
All right. So I want to get into the book. But before I get into the book, have there been any other authors, even children's authors, that have reached out to you about illustrating their books? 

Andrew Matthews 8:17
Yes, I remember there was a man called Gerald Polsky who wrote Love is Letting Go of Fear. And he asked me if I would illustrate his books. And my. Rich, my wife is my publisher. And. 

Rich Bennett 8:34
Okay. 

Andrew Matthews 8:35
She is the brains behind this operation, and she is the reason why we are global now, because 

she just stops at nothing. And so she said, Andrew Geraghty, Polski is very famous and and it would be nice to illustrate his books, but they are your signature. And once you start having your illustrations in other self-help authors books, then you lose. What makes you distinctive. So in the end, even he'd given me a wonderful testimonial for another book, I was a bit embarrassed that I had to say no. 

Rich Bennett 9:18
You said something there because we're a little while ago, you said it. You went through was it 12 publishers or 13? And then the fourth, 14th. 

Andrew Matthews 9:29
Okay, so the full story was that I wrote another book before being happy, and that was. 

Rich Bennett 9:35
Okay. 

Andrew Matthews 9:36
And that I sent to 60 publishers and got 61 rejections. 

Rich Bennett 9:42
Wow. 

Andrew Matthews 9:43
One. One publisher wrote to me. Yeah, one publisher wrote to me twice and said, 

Rich Bennett 9:47
Oh. 

Andrew Matthews 9:48
Forget. Forget it. 

So then on the heels of that, I wrote Being Happy, which was rejected by another 17. So I think I think I had something like 77 rejections before I got a book published. 

Rich Bennett 10:05
Okay. 

Andrew Matthews 10:07
So that gives me permission to write books about resilience, I guess. 

Rich Bennett 10:12
But you said your wife is your publisher. So are you telling me you married your publisher? 

Andrew Matthews 10:17
No, I changed publishers. 

Rich Bennett 10:19
Okay. 

Andrew Matthews 10:22
Okay, I. There was something. So the first publisher published my first two books. And and then in 1995, my wife, who had another successful business and, you know, her life could have been much easier if she just said, I'm going to continue doing my thing. She was she was generous enough to say, Andrew, would you like me to take over the publishing? And she said, We will go global and. 

Rich Bennett 10:55
He was a lion. 

Andrew Matthews 10:57
And she is a four foot 11 force of nature. 

Rich Bennett 11:02
Did you say? Four foot 11? 

Andrew Matthews 11:04
Yeah, she. 

Rich Bennett 11:05
Oh, wow. I, I got to ask you this, that Andrew, because if there were rejections from the publishers, how many times did she say no before she finally said yes to your proposal of Mary Ann? 

Andrew Matthews 11:18
Well, I tell you about another proposal. She. She tells my friends that I asked her to marry six times before she said yes. And I think she's lying. I think it was only five. 

Okay. 

So similarly, when we were discussing her being my publisher, that that took a while for her to say yes, I'll do it, but. 

Rich Bennett 11:45
Right. 

Andrew Matthews 11:46
Because I knew that I was in good hands. She said she'd run an advertising agency in Kuala Lumpur when she was the only female advertising executive in Kuala Lumpur. She said she had a finishing school, a modelling and finishing school, which was a branch of the John Robert Powers. 

Rich Bennett 12:08
Really? 

Andrew Matthews 12:09
That you that you see in America. Yeah. So she, she, she opened perhaps Australia's first modeling and finishing school. She built an orphanage in Indonesia once with no money. 

Rich Bennett 12:21
Wow. 

Andrew Matthews 12:22
So she does stuff that other people think are things that other people think are impossible. So. 

Rich Bennett 12:31
I. 

Andrew Matthews 12:32
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 12:33
He's a write a memoir. 

Andrew Matthews 12:35
Yeah, she does. 

Rich Bennett 12:36
Holy cow. Yeah, because we knew when you mentioned all the different publishers, the rejections, are they. You're over like, 

okay, He married his publisher. She rejected it because of my wife. I was asking her every day. I think she finally got tired of me, asking her just 

so I. I want to get to the book Bouncing back, which actually revolves around resilience. So can you share a pivotal moment in your life when you had practiced resilience and how it shaped your perspective? 

Andrew Matthews 13:15
Sure can. Julie. And that's my wife we're talking about. She had a a son when we got married. And when Michael was 18, he had a serious car accident. The impact was such that the roof was ripped off his car and he suffered serious head injuries. And And at 3:00 on a monday, he was raced to the Royal Adelaide Hospital and surgeons called a meeting at six that evening and they said Julie, your son is brain dead. 

We want to donate his organs. And Julie said. said. You need to give me some time. My job is to save my son. And And so she went away. She came back and she said, You must be able to do something. You must be able to. They said his brain is swelling inside his skull to such a degree that it's going to kill him. And she said, Well, can you cut a piece of his skull away so that it will relieve the pressure? Maybe he'll survive. They said it won't help. 

Rich Bennett 14:30
Wow. 

Andrew Matthews 14:30
So she said, Will you do it anyway? And so reluctantly they agreed they operated, but they said he's not going to last until midnight at 11:00. They'd they'd done the operation. They called another meeting. This time they had a form for Julie to sign. 

Rich Bennett 14:47
Mm hmm. 

Andrew Matthews 14:48
And they said he's now on a respirator because his lungs have collapsed. Like they we told you they would. 

Rich Bennett 14:56
Right. 

Andrew Matthews 14:57
So please sign this form so that we can give his organs to people whose lives he can save. And she said, Give him three days 

and you'll never hear from me again. So they agreed to leave Michael on the respirator until midday Thursday. And at that point, we all gathered at the hospital. Friends, relatives, a priest. And they unplugged the respirator at midday. And Michael breathed. 

Rich Bennett 15:36
White. 

Andrew Matthews 15:38
And Michael breathed and Michael survived. He was severely brain injured. He couldn't speak. He couldn't walk. He was paralyzed or down his right side. 

But he was alive. And so began a 25 year rehabilitation program. And Michael. 

Today. Michael lives a couple of minutes away from us in his own apartment. 

He. 

Yeah. A testament to his mum's courage and just knuckling down and taking it one day at a time. 

Rich Bennett 16:20
That's a. 

Andrew Matthews 16:21
And and Michael has been just an inspiration. Michael will never have a regular job like you or me. 

Rich Bennett 16:29
Right. 

Andrew Matthews 16:29
And he struggles to 

put together a sentence. But he can speak in a fashion. He can catch the bus. He can go shopping. 

He's. He's done. Still stacking of shelves in supermarkets. And he's very slow. But on a on a program which takes into account his limitations. He's worked in coffee shops, clearing dishes, and and he lives a fairly normal life. 

Rich Bennett 17:04
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 17:05
And here's the thing. Rich people would ask Julie. Often they would say, you know, Michael went to school with boys who are now barristers. You know, lawyers and electricians and tennis coaches, though, say, how do you deal with having a severely disabled son? And Julie will always say, I still have him. 

Rich Bennett 17:30
Yes. 

Andrew Matthews 17:31
And he's kind and he's caring and he's a beautiful soul. In other words, you focus on what you have. 

Rich Bennett 17:40
Right. 

Andrew Matthews 17:41
And we say, Well, is that logical? I don't know if it's logical, but it's it's the only way to get through those heart breaking. Horrendous. 

Rich Bennett 17:56
And I gather. 

Andrew Matthews 17:57
Challenges. 

Rich Bennett 17:57
You people are learning from him somehow or another. 

Andrew Matthews 18:02
Alertly. 

Rich Bennett 18:03
Barr learning from his. 

Andrew Matthews 18:05
We are. We are learning from him. I learned from him. You say to Michael, if I call him up today, I say, Michael, how you doing? He'll say, Excellent. 

How was yesterday? Excellent. You went to the gym. How was it? Excellent. 

Rich Bennett 18:21
God. 

Andrew Matthews 18:22
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 18:23
What I saw when they took him off the respirator, he started breathing. What was the doctor's response? 

Andrew Matthews 18:31
You know, 

I've often wondered about that. You know, there were there were four, and it's an emergency room that's rotating. Doctor. So. So we've never had the conversation with the actual doctor that showed up and said, can you sign these forms? But it's it's a testament to his courage and his determination and also evidence that sometimes medical advice is. It's not the best advice. And 

Rich Bennett 19:05
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 19:06
people do extraordinary things. 

Rich Bennett 19:08
Oh, yeah. I've always said there's, you know, some people may disagree, but I do believe there's a greater power out there that's better than any doctor or medicine. And he's I think he's the reason why Michael is breathing. 

Andrew Matthews 19:22
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 19:23
Wow. That is amazing. Simply amazing. Have you thought about why I guess you would have to talk to Julie first, but about writing a book about Michael? Oh, 

Andrew Matthews 19:35
Well, we've shared his story in a number of my books. I've shared I've shared 

Rich Bennett 19:40
yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 19:41
some of his story in bouncing back because, you know, that is the perfect story about resilience. And and it's an illustration of what are the what are the things, what are the qualities that get us through difficult times. And number one is persistence. 

Number two is gratitude that that, you know, let's be thankful for what we have, which is what Julie has always always said. How lucky we are that we still have Michael. And he's a beautiful soul. As opposed to what I one of the things I say in bouncing back is happy. People focus on what they have and unhappy people focus on what's missing. And you may have seen Rich, if you got to that cartoon. It's that idea is illustrated with a with two different little pictures. One is a happy little guy with a single slice of cake. And one is a miserable looking old fellow with an entire cake minus only one slice. And, you know that if we focus on the slice that we don't have, which is which is what unhappy people do. So. So it was partly Michael story and partly what the world is going through and partly the fact that we're all bouncing back from something. 

Rich Bennett 21:17
Right? 

Andrew Matthews 21:18
That I thought of. I need to do this book bouncing back, you know, what is it that resilient people do? 

Rich Bennett 21:25
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 21:25
And I guess that might lead us into perhaps three things that we might highlight. 

Rich Bennett 21:32
Okay. 

Andrew Matthews 21:34
Number one is acceptance. Resilient people. 

Even though there's something happening that they didn't want and they don't like, it's the last thing maybe they wanted and they will say, okay, I've got this. See, there's a there's a maybe a myth or a misconception. We sometimes think if something happens that I don't like, let's say I don't get a promotion and I'm angry about it, or somebody drives into my brand new car or my girlfriend dumps me, I might think, Well, if I don't accept it, I won't be stuck with it. But the reverse is actually true. 

Rich Bennett 22:14
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 22:15
Acceptance allows us to move on. I didn't want this. This is where I am. And now I move on to what I want. 

Rich Bennett 22:23
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 22:25
So number one, acceptance. And, you know, very often what we thought was a total disaster is not a total disaster. You're at the airport, you're booked to go on a flight at midday and suddenly they cancel a flight and you don't get on another flight until that evening and you think, this is terrible. This is everything that I didn't want. And you get on that flight and you meet somebody, they become a lifelong friend and you say, you know. And yet I thought I thought that my life wasn't working out. You know, no disasters, almost no disaster is a total disaster. 

Rich Bennett 23:05
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 23:05
Well, or maybe, you know, you're dating someone and you think this is going to be my forever partner, and then they dump you and then you meet them ten years later and you think, wow, dodged a bullet. 

Rich Bennett 23:19
Uh huh. And the thing is, I like that because a lot of people, they they don't don't they don't want to accept it. But I think if you do and then you know something I was always taught in in the military, you learn to overcome and adapt. You know, everybody's going to have tragedies. People are going to have bad things happen to them, but you accept it and move on and look at the bigger picture maybe. Michael's a great example of this. You haven't actually. But if you guys would have listened to the doctors, you wouldn't be here today. 

Andrew Matthews 23:58
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 23:59
Julie. Julie did not accept that she accepted the fact that he she knew that Michael was going to be breathing again. She looked around and she she kept the positive mind. I guess that's who I'm trying to go with this. A lot of people just start thinking negative thoughts right away. And if you keep thinking those negative thoughts, it's just going to attract negativity. But if you think positive things, think like she was doing, positive things are going to happen. 

Andrew Matthews 24:30
That leads us into the next thing that resilient people do, which is resilient people deal with life one day at a time. 

Rich Bennett 24:39
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 24:41
And if, for example, and you're a military guy, so you know about carrying stuff on your back if you were to. 

If you were to get a like a sack with everything that you might need to wear in the next five years and everything that you might need to eat in the next five years and start carrying that around on your back, then eventually you'd collapse because you know, it's a dumb idea. 

Rich Bennett 25:08
It's a lot of weight. Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 25:09
Yeah. So similarly, if you were to get a list of everything that you need to do in the next five years and everything that could go wrong in the next five years and carry that all around in your head, you would also at some point collapse because you're not designed to carry that kind of load. 

Rich Bennett 25:31
Right. 

Andrew Matthews 25:32
But you can deal with 24 hours at a time. 

Rich Bennett 25:37
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 25:37
And resilient people know that the only way that I'm designed to operate is I do my best until bedtime and I let tomorrow take care of itself. 

Rich Bennett 25:49
Mm 

hmm. Okay. 

Andrew Matthews 25:54
It's not that you don't have long term strategies and plans, but but your focus is 

dealing with what's shown up today and dealing with what I need to fix and when. When you're faced with a tough situation, like if, for example, like when you're climbing a mountain and you get stuck on a ledge, all of your attention goes into getting off that ledge. 

Rich Bennett 26:23
Mm hmm. 

Andrew Matthews 26:24
You're not worried about? What am I going to buy rich for Christmas 

Rich Bennett 26:27
Right. 

Andrew Matthews 26:27
next year? You know, you're focused on what's immediately in front of you. And similarly, that's the way we get through difficult times. So number one, acceptance. Number two is dealing with life one day at a time. And then number three is we need to have a picture of. Where we're going, like a picture of our life being better, a picture of we imagine for ourselves a better life. We say that everything begins in our mind. If we want to be more confident, it begins in our mind. If we want money in the bank, it's it. It's a picture that begins in our mind. And then we find ways to match that picture. Enjoying a job that we love begins as an idea, a loving relationship can never happen until you start to have that idea that I can really have this. This is something that I can have and it begins as an idea in your mind. So resilient people can imagine that better life and they move toward that. 

Rich Bennett 27:39
Huh? 

Yeah, I. Okay. I can see that now because. Well, I can see before it's. Why do you think so many people fight against it, though? 

It's em. It's like they don't. They don't want to accept it. They don't want to focus on the things right in front of them. There is a prime example. When you brought up about the ledge, there are some people that would just sit there on that ledge and think of all the bad things that are going to happen and not try to figure out how to get off the ledge. 

Andrew Matthews 28:16
Yeah. And. And all the things that go with it. Like 

Rich Bennett 28:20
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 28:20
it's not fair. And if it wasn't for Rich, I wouldn't be on this ledge because it was his idea. This mountain. 

Rich Bennett 28:28
Yeah. Thanks. 

Andrew Matthews 28:28
So. 

Rich Bennett 28:28
Andrew drove the bus right over top of me. 

Andrew Matthews 28:33
You know, what we need often is is a dose of perspective. You know, we need to ask ourselves, has anyone ever survived worse than this? You know? 

There are people that I think about a lot who have been through things that I could not imagine. And every time something happens for me that is costly or inconvenient or frustrating, for example, I think of that guy, Nick Voytek. I've I've spoken with him on stage a few times. He's born with no arms and no legs. 

Rich Bennett 29:09
Oh, that guy. 

Andrew Matthews 29:11
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 29:12
He is. When you said the name, I recognized the name, but I couldn't picture who it was. He is freaking awesome. Sorry. I just. 

Andrew Matthews 29:20
It's absolutely him. How? You know. How do you go through life? You can't even wipe your backside. 

Rich Bennett 29:26
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 29:26
You know, that is. And you get up tomorrow and you say, I can't even do that. I can't scratch my nose. can't put my arms around my children. He's he's written. I don't know, six international bestselling books. He's one of the world's highest paid speakers because I work for the guy who pays him and he pays him more. So he says, I pay him a lot more than I pay you. So. 

So I think of him, I think of there's a there's a lady that I wrote about in bouncing back Turia Pitt. She was on an ultramarathon in outback Australia, and there was a wildfire that swept across the course and she had burns to 70% of her body. And she's had 200 operations just to. to. Begin to live a normal life. She is now windsurfing. She's running marathons and Ironman marathons in Hawaii, 

raising money for charity. She's got, I think, two or three fingers left. The rest were just burned off. 

So rich, I believe when when you say why do other people not do the things they need to do to get through the tough times? Sometimes it's just a lack of perspective. You know, we need to put our own problems in context and say, you know, in in the scheme of things being dumped by a boyfriend or somebody driving into my car, you know, it's like a two out of a ten. 

Rich Bennett 31:08
Yeah. Well, and I think that's that's the thing I love the fact it would you said that. Yeah. There's, there's people out there that 

have worse problems than us. I'll never forget that. I had a very good friend. He was bedridden every time I was having a bad day. That's who I thought of right away, because even though he was bedridden and really. Couldn't get outside and enjoy anything. He would sit on his computer, which I actually set up for him. He was always computer. He was. He was going to college virtually to study astronomy. I got him involved in fantasy football, fantasy baseball. And he was writing. He was writing a book. And I always think about his like, hear Patti is in a bed kinky there. And I'm complaining because I got aches in my body. I mean, come on. This it. I mean, granted. Yeah, it took me a while to look at that, but I do that all the time now. If something's wrong, 

I'll just say I knew there are people worse off than me. What the hell am I complaining about? You know, give me a problem or challenge I look forward to then, because I always love a good challenge and with a problem, I'm always ready to figure out how to solve it, how to make it better. And unfortunately, there's not a lot of people that will do that. They just rather sit there, complain about it. And I never. They need to get your books. Andrew That's what do. You're listening to the conversations with Rich Bennett. We'll be right back. 

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Andrew Matthews 33:59
Rich people say to me, 

they say, you've written 12 books, and each of my books are about a slightly different angle on living a better life. So. 

Rich Bennett 34:10
Right. 

Andrew Matthews 34:11
So follow your heart. Was about 

enjoying our career, enjoying work. I did a book for teenagers, which I'm rewriting at the moment called Being a Happy Teenager. And I did a book during the financial crisis called Happiness in Hard Times. So looking at being happier from different angles, but people say to me, Where do you get your inspiration from? And I get so much of it from my readers. I was in a shopping mall in Malaysia and a guy approached me 

well-dressed but casual. He said, Are you Andrew MATTHEWS? I said, Yes. And I saw that on his phone. He was on my website and I was wearing the same shirt as as in the picture on my website. I thought he was going to. I thought he was going to say. Haven't you got more than one shirt? But no, he said. He said. I read the Indonesian version of your book when I was in college, and he said that was at my lowest point. He said I was so broke that I had a pair of trousers, but I couldn't even afford to buy a shirt. He said I had to wear my girlfriend's shirt. To college. And he said, I would eat like every other day. He said, Somebody gave me your book being happy. And he said, I read it and I he said it was the only book that was not a textbook that I'd ever read. He said I understood two things. He said, I understood that I could set goals, that that was important. And I understood that I can control my thoughts. And he said that was the starting point. So I made a list of everything I wanted in my life. I wanted to finish my degree. I wanted to have a wife and two children. I wanted to travel in an executive job. And this guy's like. Just broke beyond belief, he said. And so I could tell that there was more to the story. So I invited him to a coffee shop. There was a Starbucks upstairs. We sat down, had a coffee, and as he continued his story, tears are rolling down his face, he says. Today I'm the the business manager for a multinational corporation. 

Rich Bennett 36:40
Why? 

Andrew Matthews 36:41
Said. He said, I have a beautiful apartment, a wife, two children in international schools, and I fly around the world. And so we kept in touch. Next time I'm in Kuala Lumpur, I'm in the OneWorld hotel. I call him up. I say, let's have breakfast. Where are you? He said, I'm in the office building next door to the One World Hotel. He came over. We 

Rich Bennett 37:08
Now. 

Andrew Matthews 37:08
had. We have breakfast now? We mates. Next time I call him up, he said no. Then he sent me an email. He said, I've been I've been promoted. I'm now global manager. I'm going to Dubai. So next time I'm going to the to Dubai, I call I call him up and I say, I'm arriving. This is 2016 now. I met him in 2013. I said, I'm arriving in Dubai on the 16th. Can we have dinner? He said, I'm flying to Boston and New York on the 6/9. But he said, if if you can. This is a guy who didn't even own a shirt. He said, if you can arrive a day early, we can have dinner in Dubai. And since then, Rich, he's he's been headhunted twice. 

Rich Bennett 37:56
Wow. 

Andrew Matthews 37:57
His name is Taker. He's now based in Houston. 

Rich Bennett 38:01
Oh, he's here in 

Andrew Matthews 38:02
He's. 

Rich Bennett 38:02
the States. 

Andrew Matthews 38:03
He's. He's all over the place. 

Rich Bennett 38:05
Wow. 

Andrew Matthews 38:06
We meet like once a year. And this guy, this guy that didn't even own a shirt, his children are, you know, like Oxford, Cambridge, have followed his father's example. 

And he he's one of my inspirations when I look at. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 38:30
So you said a lot of your ideas you get from your readers, right? How many more readers have contacted you and shared their stories with you? 

Andrew Matthews 38:42
Hundreds that there was a lady that contacted me from Singapore a couple of years ago and she Umi Abdullah, and she she said she contacted me on Facebook and she said I was broke and I was sick and I was living with my parents. And I went to the doctor. And on the coffee table in the waiting room, the doctor's waiting room, there was your book Being happy. And she said, I got to read seven pages before the doctor called me in. And I thought to myself, I've I've got to read that book. So she said I $100,000 in debt and I borrowed the $20 to buy this book. And she said, I read being happy and it changed my thinking. And And she said, I saw an ad on Facebook. Somebody wanted ten serves of chicken rice, for which they were prepared to pay $3 a serve. She said. So I. You know what chicken rice is? It's just basically 

Rich Bennett 39:55
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 39:56
rice cooked in the juice of chicken with a chunk of it 

Rich Bennett 39:58
Mm hmm. 

Andrew Matthews 39:59
big in Asia. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 40:00
It's good. 

Andrew Matthews 40:01
So yeah. So she said, I bought the ingredients. It cost me $50, I got 30 back. But she said I was on my way. You know, she had some ingredients left over obviously. So she said I was on my way. I started cooking from the tiny kitchen of my parents apartment and she said, Today I own a bakery, I own a restaurant, and I distribute food wholesale. She said, I now have a multi-million dollar company. And so if you're ever in Singapore, go to a Nosh Noodle Bar and Grill, which is prime real estate, right on the Singapore Esplanade, looking out over the bay towards the Marina Sands Hotel, she has this. One of the things she has the Nosh noodle bar and grill me Abdulla and and I share that story in bouncing back and for me the power is you start wherever you can. 

Rich Bennett 41:07
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 41:09
However small, it doesn't matter. 

Some of us say, Well, if I had a big opportunity, I'd grab it. No, you do what is under your nose. 

Rich Bennett 41:20
Uh huh. 

Andrew Matthews 41:21
And that would lead to something. You do your best. You do your best. Not because you're going to impress anyone, because you're going to impress your boss or you do your best because that's how you are happiest. 

Rich Bennett 41:33
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 41:34
And one tiny win can lead to another. Tiny win can lead to something else. Someone notices you. Someone invites you. You start where you are. 

Rich Bennett 41:47
With all of these people that have read your books and are contacting you, how come you haven't done a podcast with them? 

Andrew Matthews 41:56
I started doing podcasts and and I was I wasn't as smart as you and I was. 

Yeah. So I was I was telling all the stories myself and. It just got too much. So I decided I would concentrate on on writing books, illustrating books. 

Rich Bennett 42:18
Right. 

Andrew Matthews 42:18
I do a lot of corporate speaking, so thought I'll constant concentrate on what I'm already doing. But you know the stories. I had a guy call me from Mexico. Alex Gonzalez Yeah. And And he said, he said I was in bed. He said I was. I was crippled. I couldn't move. I had some kind of. 

Arthritis condition where I all I could do was lie in bed. 

Rich Bennett 42:49
My groomer. 

Andrew Matthews 42:49
And he said, he said a and a natural therapist told me that what I needed to do was just drink water for 40 days. 

I said. Yeah. And he's telling me all this through a translator, actually. So I'm not even sure why this guy's called me, but he says so. He said I drinking water for I think I drank only water for like two weeks. And he said all my pain went away. And then he said, I jumped out of bed and I ran six miles. And and I said, Alex, did you eat anything before you ran? He said, No, I just ran. And he said, and and I knew I was meant to just drink water for like another two weeks. But I was just. To Hungary, but I did it for another week. This is not the point of the story, but this is the beginning of it. 

Rich Bennett 43:44
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 43:45
So anyways, so suddenly this guy that was crippled in bed is out running. And then he said, I decided to ride a bicycle around the world. 

Rich Bennett 43:59
What? 

Andrew Matthews 44:01
And he said said, it took me two years to prepare. And he said, I met Paulo Coelho in Brazil. He said, I met Michael Jordan. I met Bill Clinton and the pope. And I said, that's and he said, I got lost for six days in the Gobi Desert without a map and no food. But he was used to going without food, so I guess he managed that. So I said, okay, so why did you call me? You know, what have I got to do with this? He said, I read your book Being Happy. And he said, I decided that I needed a goal and I wanted to go out there and spread happiness. So he said, I went through what, two sets of tires, six bicycle seats, and I don't know what else. 

This guy rode a bicycle around the world. So extraordinary stories come back to me. 

Rich Bennett 44:57
That you're. It's what gets me. These stories that you're getting from your readers. You know, reminds me of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books. Just all all of this is coming because they read your book or your books. And that's that's the greatest reward. I believe that anybody as an author that you can get. Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 45:25
It is the greatest reward. It is. It is. It is the reason that I do what I do. And. And the joy and the fascination is to take a take an idea or 

I'll give you an example. There's a cartoon at the beginning of bouncing back, and there's a guy climbing a mountain. And he looks exhausted. Even his dog looks totally exhausted. And the caption is, What you thought was breaking you is probably making you. 

Rich Bennett 46:02
Oh. 

Andrew Matthews 46:03
And 

there's a part of us that probably understands that that extraordinary people are not born, that they are made it is it is conquering circumstances that we didn't choose. 

Rich Bennett 46:19
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 46:20
That turns us into the people we want to become. And 

so somebody can perhaps be going through bad times and they see that in a book and they say, 

yeah, and, you know, you know one idea, Rich. Can change our entire life. I'll give you an example. 

It's not failure that crushes us. What hurts most is never having tried. If you put your heart and soul into something and it doesn't work, then you walk away proud and you say, I gave that everything I had and it wasn't my time, or for reasons that I don't even understand, it didn't work. But it's when you don't try, you know, when you're 85 years old and you look back on your life, are you going to worry about the things that didn't work? No. What will probably crush you or eat away at you or the things that you could have done but didn't? 

Rich Bennett 47:25
Then try. Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 47:27
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 47:28
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 47:28
And so what I seek to share in. Books like Bouncing Back are these pivotal ideas that that we kind of know anyway, We don't even need to be told much new information very often we just need to be reminded about things we already know. But if it if we're reminded in a clear way or a fun way or a funny way, then then we say to ourselves, Yes, I get that. And I can get up tomorrow and I can do my best. 

Rich Bennett 48:04
So with all your books, if and I know each one can be something different for somebody, let's start let's go down this for somebody that's suffering from anxiety or depression. What? Which one of your books would you recommend that they read first? 

Andrew Matthews 48:25
think being happy is a good book to start with, particularly for those of us who've never read too many. Self-help help books. If 

Rich Bennett 48:34
Right. 

Andrew Matthews 48:34
we haven't, then. Being happy is a good book to start with. 

If if you're looking for a career that goes off to find more joy in your work, or maybe thinking that maybe you're going to do your own thing, then a book like Follow Your Heart. Can can give you some impetus and inspiration. If you feel that you are just overwhelmed by how difficult life is at the moment, I would say bouncing back, it would be helpful. Bouncing back. And follow your heart. I've done in audiobooks, so if you 

Rich Bennett 49:15
Oh. 

Andrew Matthews 49:15
enjoy if you enjoy audio books with an Australian flavour accent. 

Rich Bennett 49:22
I love that. You just can't see the illustrations, though. 

Andrew Matthews 49:26
Hey. 

Rich Bennett 49:27
And I'll be honest with you. The book you sent me bouncing back. One of my favorite illustrations is the person walking at the door and the dog standing there and all you listening. I want you to think, think very hard about this. And it says, Wish you were somewhere else. Before changing your address. Try changing your thinking. Wow. That is some of the post I see on social media. People complaining they need. They need to see that they need this. I love it. I. 

Andrew Matthews 50:02
Thank you. Thank 

Rich Bennett 50:03
I 

Andrew Matthews 50:03
you. 

Rich Bennett 50:03
love it. Have you thought about putting your books in a bundle? 

Andrew Matthews 50:09
Well, from time to time, retailers in different parts of the world will bundle them up. We've got publishers in Korea or publishers in Vietnam that have bundled them up. 

Yeah. So. So. 

Rich Bennett 50:23
I can't wait to get out of town. Well, yeah. I can't wait to get these, because, well, like I said in the beginning, I love self-help books. I love audiobooks. But I'll be honest with you, Andrew. I don't want the book of this. I'm going to get the actual book because of the illustrations. You can't hear illustrations in audio, but I mean, it's just from the stories that you've been sharing already. I mean, you got hundreds of people that have contact readers who have contacted you that you've changed their lives. Some you have saved their lives. Just, you know, from your books and that. Oh, God, that is that is simply amazing. That's better than any book award you could ever get. The actually, this is going to be a tough question for you. And I don't know if you can actually answer it. Out of all your books, which was your favorite to write? 

Andrew Matthews 51:22
The last one bouncing back. 

Rich Bennett 51:24
Bouncing back. Okay. 

Andrew Matthews 51:25
Yeah, I figured I knew you would know this, too. If you've been doing something a while and I've been writing books for 35 years. 

Rich Bennett 51:33
Mm hmm. 

Andrew Matthews 51:34
You start to get a sense of. You know how it works best. I think I'm writing better than I was. I certainly I've I've learned a lot about drawing cartoons in the last 

Rich Bennett 51:48
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 51:49
50 years. And so it just gets to be more fun because, you know, you know, a little bit more about the nuances and, you know, a little bit where the where they you know, and I think my writing's getting better and simpler. But essentially maybe other people would read the books and and not distinguish too much between because they're similar in their layout. You know, they're simple. And one of the things that that I try to do is create a book that you can dig into anyway. You don't have to start at the beginning. You can just open it anywhere and you'll see a heading and you'll see a cartoon and you'll see maybe 100 words or something about that cartoon. You can just read that. And a lot of people like that because they particularly nowadays, people don't want to sit down. For 3 hours and read a book. 

Rich Bennett 52:47
Right. 

Andrew Matthews 52:47
And there's a lot of people in the world that now cannot sit down for even 20 minutes and read a book. You know, I'm talking about you know, we know the younger generation will admit that to. They just can't cannot do that. But what they can do is read a book for 5 minutes. And these books, you can do that. 

Rich Bennett 53:09
That's one of the things I love about self-help books. You can always go back and you can always. You don't have to start at the beginning. You could start in the middle. There's so many different ways, I believe, to read a self-help book, because you may be going through something today and you want some inspiration and you pick up. You know, I pick up one of your books and I say, Actually, I've just read a certain thing and it'll change. Changed my, you know, everything I'm doing that day. You know, that's one of. 

Andrew Matthews 53:42
Absolutely. 

Rich Bennett 53:43
Box. 

Andrew Matthews 53:44
Just just one one simple idea that changes the lens through which we see everything happens today. 

Rich Bennett 53:55
Something very important. Tell everybody the website where they can get the book. 

Andrew Matthews 54:01
So well, If you go to Amazon.com and you just put in bouncing back or being happy or follow your heart, you find my books there. If you would like to receive my newsletter, which is every two weeks, it's it's like four sentences plus a cartoon. So it's not go to you take up a big chunk of your day. Just one idea to put some joy into your life and make you happy. My website is Andrew MATTHEWS dot com which is at no no no dot between the Andrew and the MATTHEWS so Andrew MATTHEWS dot com and there'll be a little box that pops up where you can to ts MATTHEWS rich in case you. 

Rich Bennett 54:47
No, I'm on the website now. I'll keep looking for the newsletter. And I forgot about that box that pops up. 

Andrew Matthews 54:53
It'll. It'll pop up. And you. 

Rich Bennett 54:54
Yeah. 

Andrew Matthews 54:55
Fill it in and then you'll get your news later and we can stay in touch that way. 

Rich Bennett 55:00
Yeah, I'm definitely going to be signing up for it. What is the next big thing for Andrew MATTHEWS? 

Andrew Matthews 55:08
You know, here's what happens Once I write a book. I spend about six or eight years releasing it around the world because we're in 48 languages. So bouncing back is not yet released in bookstores in America. It's in, for example, it's on Amazon. It's not even in bookstores in Australia. We've only released Bouncing back in Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, India. 

Bulgaria. It's coming out in. So not necessarily in the order in which you would think. 

Rich Bennett 55:46
Right. 

Andrew Matthews 55:47
So I've I've got a lot of work to do to release bouncing back in other parts of the world in Q Including the UK in the US, but it is everywhere on Amazon. And I'm rewriting a book, the book Being a Happy Teen. I'm just finishing that because since I wrote the first. Version of being a happy teen in 2001. The world has. 

Rich Bennett 56:14
Oh. 

Andrew Matthews 56:15
Changed 

totally. And I need to get that book out to help our teenagers. 

Rich Bennett 56:23
Yeah, especially the ones that were in school during COVID because. 

Andrew Matthews 56:28
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 56:29
We've talked about this before in the podcast. They said that the kids that were in school during COVID basically lost three years of their social life. 

Andrew Matthews 56:40
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 56:41
Yeah, that actually, I want to ask real quick, too, about the other book, Stop the Bullying. When did you write that? Actually, why did you write that? 

Andrew Matthews 56:54
That was the one book that my wife Julie said, You have to write that. 

Rich Bennett 56:59
Okay. 

Andrew Matthews 56:59
She helped me with that. So we did that together. I think that was in 2013 that was released. 

Rich Bennett 57:07
Okay? 

Andrew Matthews 57:08
And and it was just a response to the bullying that's been happening increasingly 

Rich Bennett 57:14
Mm hmm. 

Andrew Matthews 57:14
in schools and also in the workplace. So it was wanting to share some encouraging stories and some strategies for for those of us that feel that that, know, life is just impossible because we're being bullied at school or at home or what. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 57:34
Yeah, well, those of you listening and since this podcast carried in over 100 countries, then it's going to be easy for you to find Andrew's books. But after you purchase his books, make sure you leave a full review, whether it be on Amazon. Good reads 

Baja where you leave reviews 

and after you read it and you fall in love with the book, don't give it away. Don't give it to somebody because you're going to keep going back and reading it. But buy it for other people. You know, it just there's nothing that's even that. The holidays are over. There's nothing that says you can't buy a good book for somebody and give it to. And and it's also available on Kindle, correct? Andrew. 

Andrew Matthews 58:19
right. 

Rich Bennett 58:20
Okay. So make sure that you guys purchase it. Give it to others. Great gifts. I would love to see this. Some of these books in the workplace as well in the schools, because I think they would make a big, big, big difference. So, Andrew, before I get to my last question, actually, it's not really a question. It's going to be a an offer. Is there anything you would like to add? 

Andrew Matthews 58:51
It's just been my absolute pleasure, Rich, to share some of my stories and to thank your listeners for staying with me to this point and, 

you know, my thought is that that happiness, which is what we're talking about, is essentially a daily decision. 

Rich Bennett 59:08
Mm hmm. 

Andrew Matthews 59:09
At 25, I made this shocking discovery, and it was that the happiest people I knew had bigger problems than me. made no sense. I thought that when your life got easier, you would get happier. But it was proof to me that it's not what happens to you. It's how you think about it. And it comes down to a decision that we make every day. We say, My life is perfect. I've got plenty of stuff I'm dealing with. But today I choose to be happy. And tomorrow we'll deal with itself. And then tomorrow comes. And I will choose to be happy. Just tomorrow. 

Rich Bennett 59:49
I love that. So here's what I want to offer you. 

Number one, the is open. Any time you want to come back on. The door's open. What I would love for you to bring. Bring on somebody that one of your books has changed their life. And we could do, like, a three way conversation. Just I want you talk to these people to find out how your book has really inspired them and help them. And I want to keep that door open for as long as you want to bring people on, because I that's all I asked you about you doing the podcast. And I know it is a lot of hard work, but I want to offer that to you, whether. Once a month, once, once a year, whatever. The doors open for you. 

Andrew Matthews 1:00:39
Robertson. We can do that. Thank you. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:41
Sounds good. Andrew, thank you so much. Again, everybody listening. Make sure you go to Andrew MATTHEWS dot com purchase the box. The newest one, of course, is bouncing back. But all of them, I guarantee t you they are going to change your life. Andrew, thanks so much. 

Andrew Matthews 1:01:02
My pleasure, Rich. Thank you. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:05
Thank you for listening to the conversations with Rich Bennett. I hope you enjoy today's episode and learn something from it as I did. If you'd like to hear more conversations like this, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode. And if you have a moment, I'd love if you could leave a review. It helps us reach more listeners and share more incredible stories. Don't forget to connect with us on social media or visit our website at conversations with Rich Bennett dot com for updates, giveaways and more. Until next time, take care, be kind and keep the conversations going.