S2E300 Leadership - Any Dumb-Ass Can Do It with Garry Ridge

It's a Good Life

Brian Buffini

Business, Unknown, Entrepreneurship, Life, Good, Entrepreneur, Coaching

4.4 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Do you want to bring out the best in your people while also maximizing your bottom line? In this episode, former WD-40 Company CEO Garry Ridge explains how leaders can build dedicated teams and drive phenomenal success by following Aristotle’s principle, “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.”

YOU WILL LEARN:

· The ‘dumbass’ leadership philosophy.

· The 4 pillars of a fearless tribe.

· The impact of values on organizational success.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

thelearningmoment.net

“Any Dumbass Can Do It,” by Garry Ridge

“Helping People Win at Work,” by Ken Blanchard and Garry Ridge

“To Be Honest,” by Ron A. Carucci

“All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,” by Robert Fulghum

NOTEWORTHY QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE:

“Anything of value comes from learning.” – Garry Ridge

“People are happy when they know they're making a difference and they're respected for doing that.” – Garry Ridge

“Dumbassery is a superpower, and the dumbassery really is you as the leader deflating your ego and making sure your role is to bring out the best of everybody else.” – Garry Ridge

“Let's get rid of the word failure, and let's talk about ‘We don't make mistakes in our organization. We have learning moments.’” – Garry Ridge

“It's not about you; it's about the people you have the privilege to lead.” – Garry Ridge

itsagoodlife.com

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to It's a Good Life, the podcast for entrepreneurs, where it's all about growing yourself and your business.
0:09.6	Here's your host, founder of America's largest business coaching company, Brian Bafini.
0:17.0	Well, the top of the morning to you and welcome to It's a Good Life. Very excited about today's
0:22.0	interview. The internet, YouTube is full of people who are out giving advice and many of them
0:27.9	have even passed puberty. It's nice to talk to someone who's been there, done that and actually
0:34.0	has some advice worth listening to. Very excited today. Everybody knows the product
0:38.4	WD40, in fact, invented right here in San Diego. But not everyone knows the CEO who grew it to
0:45.4	a global multi-billion dollar brand. And our guest today is Gary Ridge, who served as the CEO of
0:51.9	WD40, not for 10 months, but for 25 years.
0:56.6	And today, Gary is the CEO and founder of The Learning Moment,
0:59.8	where he shares lessons and insights to inspire audiences and people like us all over the world.
1:05.6	Gary, it's a pleasure to have you.
1:07.3	I'm very excited to have you on today's show.
1:09.4	Hey, good-day, Brian.
1:10.3	It's a delight to be with you.
1:11.6	Thank you so much. It's awesome to be with an Irishman, actually. Yeah, right. What do you know?
1:15.9	Well, you made your name here in the States, and we're going to talk about your book today,
1:21.0	which I love it. It's called Any Dumbass Can Do It. And I tried to prove that wrong today. I'm recording from my home in Hawaii and we
1:28.5	had all kinds of technical difficulties. I was putting it to the test. But one of the things we have
1:33.3	in common and we're a coaching organization, we train a lot of people. I'm a guy who sought out mentors my
1:39.7	whole life. Many of them I didn't know until much later in life, but through cassettes and books and Jim
1:45.6	Rohn and Zig Zigler and many, many people who were great influences, Ogmandino, all of that.
	...

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