EQ 400% More Powerful Than IQ - Phil Johnson

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Phil Johnson, Founder of Master of Business Leadership Inc., located in Mississauga, ON, Canada.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

For the past 21 years, I have been an executive coach helping executives and organizations to bet on themselves by developing their emotional intelligence. EQ is 400% more powerful than IQ! MBL members live in the US, Canada, UK, Europe, Japan, Germany, Bosnia, Africa, Australia, the Middle East, and Saudi Arabia.  📈 Career Revenue $1.5 Billion.

Tell us about yourself

My name is Phil Johnson, and I am the Founder of the Master of Business Leadership program. I was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, on December 1, 1953. Our family lived in a small 2-bedroom post-WWII bungalow where my mom and dad raised three boys. I was the youngest, and quite a surprise as my mother was in her early 40s when I was born. Three boys in one small bedroom with a coal-burning furnace and no air conditioning.

My parents were born in 1909 and 1910 and went as far as grade 8 in school. My father was a factory worker who never made more than $5.00 per hour. During WWII, he served as a Sargent in a mortar artillery platoon in North Africa. His men used to call him "the old man" because he was 29 years old when he enlisted. As a younger man, he had boxed and played semi-pro baseball. My dad made his own beer, and I helped by putting the caps on the bottles. My mother was a factory seamstress who left her job to take care of our family.

I was born six weeks prematurely, weighing approximately 4 pounds. My first six months were spent in an incubator at the local Brantford General hospital. My dad brought milk to me each day on his bicycle because he didn't own a car. I have dyslexia. It is a neurological disorder I was born with. I notice it most when I am trying to spell, read, and occasionally hear. It can cause me to re-arrange words and numbers in my mind. I didn't realize I had the condition until about 35 years ago. Back in those days, there was no such thing as dyslexia, ADD, or ADHD.

I failed Grade 3 and Grade 5 and was labeled as a "slow learner," and I used to pray the teacher would never ask me a question, and I rarely made eye contact. Many times, the back of my shirt would be soaked with sweat by the time class was over. Getting a "C" was a great grade for me, "As" and "Bs" were out of the question.

Some of my earliest childhood memories were that our neighborhood had dirt roads. Asphalt roads, TVs, and private phone lines came several years later. We also had a milkman, bread man, egg man, and potato man that made their neighborhood deliveries in a horse-drawn truck.

I started working when I was nine years old, pulling copper wire out of the back of factory dumpsters and selling it for 5 cents a pound. That was my allowance. By the time I was 12, I had a part-time job working in a production factory loading boxcars. I was also working as a caddy at the local golf course.

I had money, and life was good!

A few years later, my mother developed breast cancer. She underwent radiation and chemotherapy, which led to a radical mastectomy. On December 3, 1967, she died. It was two days after my 14th birthday. I was in Grade 7 at the time.

One month later, I made a decision that was to change the trajectory of my life. It was a snowy January night around midnight, and I was taking my dog Duke for a walk. He was a Blue Tick hound my parents had given me as a puppy when I was five years old. Standing behind a local factory, I decided to "go for it." I was going to see what was on the other side of the hill and come back and help my friends that had already given up on life.

That decision began the 54-year journey that continues today. I became an "A" student throughout the rest of grade school and high school. My dad died in May 1974 as I was completing Grade 13.  Four years later, I graduated at the top of my class from the De Groote School of Business at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. I also played football and basketball. I paid for my education through summer and part-time jobs during the year. Later I spent five years studying Electrical Engineering while beginning what turned out to be a 20-year career in the semiconductor industry. By the time my career in that industry had ended, I had become a corporate executive. I was traveling over 60,000 miles per year throughout North America and the Pacific Rim.

In 1990 I remembered talking with one of my older brothers and commenting, "Is this all there is?" I had accomplished more than I, or for that matter, anyone else ever thought I would. In the process, I had become mindlessly focused on the drive to acquire and achieve conventional wealth and success. But obtaining the "brass ring" in my career wasn't as fulfilling as I had dreamt it would be. Along the way, I had forgotten the promise I made to myself on that snowy January night in 1968.

I eventually decided to leave corporate America, breaking away from the herd in order to lead it in a better direction. A short time later, I turned down two Vice Presidential roles so that I could begin the creation of what has become the Master of Business Leadership program.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Proving emotional intelligence guarantees career, corporate and personal success.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Needing on occasion to wear multiple hats.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

1. Develop a strong emotional connection to the vision of your desired result.
2. Bet on yourself by developing your emotional intelligence.
3. Inspire others to do the same.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://lnkd.in/dqxVrFZK
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipjpjohnson/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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