Family of origin
Northey & Kripps. Kripps grandfather served in the war and pioneered much of today’s thyroid treatments and how we view digestion & stomach acid. Grandfather currently 99 years old and looking about 60 or so. Parents both artists, loving and caring, no siblings.
What is your current age? What year were you born and where have you lived?
I was born in 1979 in Nelson BC, and have lived primarily in Canada with some brief stints in Hawaii and Japan.
What were the most important things you learned during your childhood and earlier years that helped you later in life?
My main influences were The Little Engine That Could, the Sneetches, and Superman. From the engine, I learned that sometimes thinking you can is enough of a reason to be able to do.
From the Sneetches, I learned how capitalism works and the importance of a strong self-identity.
And from Superman, I learned how to live with integrity and to do the hard things. How to be a better person, strive for strength and to use it wisely. Later, I would become enamored with Batman and others, but Superman was the foundational building block of my outlook on life.
What were some challenges or disabilities you experienced and what did you gain or benefit from living with and through these?
I had a unique name, and was bullied pretty intensely. ADD wasn’t really a thing until I was in high school, but that was diagnosed as well. I wouldn’t take either away, though. They both cemented me into building my creative problem-solving skills, my love of martial arts, and my self-image.
What were your biggest failures/mistakes in life, and what did you learn from them?
My biggest failure was my martial arts school – or rather, who I was and my approach to creating and maintaining it at the time.
It still hurts to think of all the students I let down and how many promises I felt forced to break when we eventually closed down. In particular, there were a pair of kids whose parents were going through a divorce who I promised I would always be there for. While I have been reassured that they are now thriving and happy, it still pains me to think that I broke such a promise – but all I can do with that pain is use it as a reminder never to break a promise again.
They say that looking back with hindsight we always see the benefit of how things turned out. And maybe I will – but a part of me still hasn’t let go of that.
I learned a tremendous amount in that period of my life. Not just martial arts, but business, how to take something from an idea and manifest it into the real world, and, thanks to a mentor or two, how to be a better man.
I don’t know if I’ve learned the difference between self-belief and arrogance yet, but I think I’ve gotten a lot better.
(Ono and his mom.)
Where is your favorite place you have ever been and why?
In the arms of a hug. Be it with friends, family, students or mentors, I love that sense of energy transference where both parties are solely focused on the other for a brief moment of connection. And it exists in so many forms! The celebratory hug, the loving hug, the sad hug, the hug of hello, and the hug of goodbye.
Riding on top of a dolphin was pretty amazing too though.
What is your educational background?
Mostly a wall of books and a rack of belts, but there’s a bachelor’s degree in programming and more than a couple of participation awards too.
What jobs/employment have you had? Which was the most fulfilling and why?
I like to look at jobs as paid educations, and have bounced from one to the next as my life purpose and the resulting educational requirements evolved. I often had multiple jobs at once, much like an educational index fund of skills, and it’s only a recent development that I’ve had less than three at any given moment, with my record being six at once.
In as close to chronological order as I can muster, I have:
Delivered papers, mowed lawns, sub-contracted other children to mow lawns, rented video tapes (yes, I know all the words to every disney movie that came out during that period haha), assisted and later, taught martial arts, MLM guy (a decade later and I finally used up all my toothpaste inventory… learned a lot though!), made and sold coffee (fun side note: I’ve never drank coffee – my answer was always the same: “it has an earthy taste” – I still do now know what that means, and I don’t think many other people do either), website parker & seller, more lifting of heavy things, this time with the intent of learning how to build stuff, library coffee maker so that I could check out reference books, cruise ship reception, graphic design, shipping & packaging, generic lifter of heavy things, health food store sales, made and ate my weight in pizza, designed and sold cheques, entered random data into spreadsheets, horrific and inept web design, pretty darn snazzy business card logo design and fancy printing for wealthy and/or eccentric clients, signage design and sales, martial arts school owner, terrible oil rig guy with a goddamn rental car in sixty below weather, more print sales, martial arts instructor again, and, more recently, a daycare owner and author.
When you feel frustrated, angry, or out of control, what do you do to quickly and effectively return to your baseline emotion? (How do you, “Self-soothe”?)
I find sixty seconds of blitzing on a heavy bag tends to reset me pretty well, and I meditate twice daily. If I have the window of time, I also quite enjoy a walk, run, or sprint to “cleanse”
What is a long-lasting, sustainable contribution you would like to make that lasts long after you are gone, and you do you want it to affect?
I want the 98% of the population currently uninterested in self development to benefit from personal growth via embedding it within mind blowingly entertaining books and movies.
www.ononorthey.com/blog/why-i-do-this
What are the principles and core beliefs you base your decisions and your life upon?
Increase the awesome, any way I can. When my martial arts school was closing, I went to an old instructor of mine to vent/grieve, and he asked me what I liked about teaching. I answered that I loved the look in the student’s eyes when they went from “I can’t” to “I just did.” and he asked why I couldn’t just do that without the school.
I thought about that, and it was one of the seeds planted that led me to mindsettertainment as a scalable vehicle for mass-change.
Are there any principles or core beliefs that you altered/improved over the years, as you grew, progressed, and improved? (Old beliefs that didn’t serve you/were harmful vs. New beliefs which benefited you and those around you a great deal.)
My previous belief was that if I followed my passion and the ends were awesome enough, I could accomplish them through any means. I was wrong. I now believe that I must use “compound interest awesome” and increase the awesome in everyone’s lives every day along the way to my ultimate goal, and that it will accumulate a momentum that will change the world.
Do you have a morning routine which you adhere to in order to, “Prime your pump,” and empower yourself to be a better, more grounded, centered, focused version of yourself for the day?
Yes, I’m very habitual in my approach to life. I get up every weekday at 5:30 within five seconds of my alarm going off. (I do my best to wake up before my alarm, but I find I do not sleep well without one, as I wake up constantly thinking “is it time to get up?”)
After I’m up, I don my bathrobe, make my son’s oatmeal, use the bathroom, write, meditate, write, exercise, shower and start the day.
What are your favorite 3 quotes and why?
I tend to remember the sentiment/context of a soul more than their specific words, and often times I compile multiple people’s viewpoints into my own quotes that I’ll find empowering. Eg my windows background is Batman saying “increase your standards” with the sub-heading of “With great responsibility comes great power”.
That’s a decent mix of Tony Robbins, a re-frame of Spiderman, and the ideology of Batman.
As far as quotes go, the only one I remember verbatim is Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes saying “I try to make everyone’s day a little more surreal.” – I think I’ve used that a few times in my life.
Do you have a book list of your favorite, most helpful books? What are the books on your list and what were the most important points from each one?
If I had to pick, I’d go with leadership & self deception – which would do the book a disservice to summarize, as it is experiential, and Tony Robbins’ ultimate relationship program, which taught me C3GUS.
If you’re looking for book recommendations though, this should get you started:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/847176-impact-theory-mindsettertainment
Who were the most important influential people in your life so far? Who do you consider your mentors? (This can be someone in your life or someone you have never met.)
In chronological order
My parents, My Martial Arts Instructors, Tony Robbins, Tim Ferriss, Sean Webber, Steve Chang, Steve Siebold, Renee & Roman Northey, Tom Bilyeu, Peter Diamandus, and a bunch of other authors whose names I forget but whose books live on in me.
Who or what has been the biggest, most helpful contributors to your life?
My parents and Grandparents
Is there anything I have not asked you that you would like to share that you believe could benefit others?
https://www.ononorthey.com/non-fiction
What do you believe is the purpose of your life?
To live with ikigai
https://www.ononorthey.com/blog/how-to-find-my-passion
What is your main wish/desire for the loved ones in your life?
To find and fulfil their ikigai with integrity, passion, humor and love
If presented with an opportunity to make a truly sustainable and lasting difference in this world, what would this offer look like, and how would you contribute to its advancement?
As my chosen vehicle to make the world a better place is to educate those resistant and even outwardly hostile towards personal growth, my ideal offer would be in the form of a movie or television adaptation of my book series.
What are you currently doing to create this reality and manifest its existence into a reality?
I write every day, and I have a promise with Tom Bilyeu to work together in 2021 with the launch of the audio books. Tom and I share the same ikigai, though his is more on the studio-side, and mine more along the content-creation.
Ono Northey
ononorthey.com