RICHIE NORTON OFFICIAL BIO
RICHIE NORTON is an award-winning author and serial entrepreneur. An executive coach to CEOs, he is featured in Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, Inc., Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Business Insider, Huffington Post and more. Pacific Business News recognized Richie as one of the Top Forty Under 40 “best and brightest young businessmen” in Hawaii. Richie is one of the world’s leading thinkers and Top 100 coaches as honored by MG100. He is the CEO and Cofounder of PROUDUCT—an INC. 5000 company—a global entrepreneurship solution helping businesses go from idea to market with full-service sourcing, product strategy, and end-to-end supply chain. He is the author of several books including Anti-Time Management, The Power of Starting Something Stupid and Résumés Are Dead and What to Do About It. Richie was born and raised in San Diego before moving to Brazil and then Hawaii. Richie is happily married to Natalie. They have four boys (one son already made his way to Heaven) and they have cared for three beloved foster children. They live on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, with their little dog, Velzy.
THE STORY BEHIND THE BIO:
(Scroll down for more official bio for introducing on podcasts, on stage, etc.)
I’m Richie, and this is my awesome family.
I love life. Life’s too short to sit around and wait for stuff to happen.
Building a family is an entrepreneurial experience.
There’s a person missing in that picture of my family. My son, Gavin. He was born healthy, then at 8 weeks, he contracted an airborne disease called Pertussis (whooping cough) and passed away only 10 weeks into his short life. The experience was crushing, but that sweet boy had an incredible impact on me.
I wasn’t going to sit around and wait to see what the next weeks and months would bring. Our family had experienced a huge tragedy that shook us (especially our little ones) to the core. Thankfully, my wife and I had consciously designed our work/family life in a way that allowed us the freedom to put family first, no matter what. Thus, we were able move through this trying time of grief and pain in a way that strengthened, not deteriorated, our family.
After our son’s death, we dropped everything and took a few months to travel and heal together. We logged thousands of miles traveling back and forth across the USA and internationally from Honolulu, Hawaii to Orlando, Florida to Seattle, Washington up to Calgary, Canada and down to San Diego, California (and a personal trip to Liberia, Costa Rica): camping, hiking, biking, fishing, surfing, playing guitar and making memories. Much of that trip was intentionally traveled by car (with no DVD player and no video games to keep the kiddos occupied). Just me, my wife, the kids, the open road and nature. Amazing.
It was largely due to the way we had consciously set up our lives prior to our son’s death that ultimately allowed us to respond to this devastation in a way that turned our family tragedy into a family triumph.
I don’t want to regret a day in my life. I don’t want anyone to regret a day in their life. To that end, I’ve created a business designed to help people live. Live in a way that helps them lean into their fears, make a difference and live without regret.
Want to go from where you are to where you want to be? I’d love to work with you.
Contact me here.
I wrote that back in 2011. Here’s an update. Quite the adventure.
How I Handled the Lowest Point in My Life
My son died from Whooping Cough.
It was the low point in my life.
My personal life spun into deep grief.
My wife’s brother had just died a couple years earlier in his sleep.
My wife and I crawled in a hole away from the world.
We have 3 other kids and our family doubled to 6 when we brought in 3 more that needed a home (7 year old girl and 1 year old twins).
We were going to adopt them until the State gave them back to the bio Mom.
A blessing and nightmare simultaneously.
My wife and I decided to take our 3 kids on a road trip from NY.
On the way to the airport my wife lost her memory (stroke?).
Her memory came back. The doctors said there was no long-term damage. I was scared. She got on the plane anyways.
We became digital entrepreneurs roaming from New York City to San Diego to Mexico to Canada.
We never knew where we’d stay at night.
It was bliss. We did this for 6 months before moving to Hawai‘i for a promised opportunity.
The promise was a lie.
We are grateful for that lie. We own our own lives and live regardless of frauds.
We now have books, videos and companies all about living an intentional life without regret.
We make both physical products and digital products with a decentralized, global footprint.
Real businesses with real revenue and real contribution.
Life is short. Just because that phrase is cliche, doesn’t make it less true.
We have freedom of geography, income and time.
We don’t care about stuff. We own almost nothing. We are minimalists.
But, we do own our lives.
We own our time.
We own our contribution to humanity on a deep level.
If you’ve had a tragedy, ask yourself, “How can I assign meaning and turn this tragedy into a triumph?”
My son was hit my a car in Hawai‘i a couple months ago. Another scare. He should be dead. He’s not. He was in a surf contest this last weekend.
We move forward and don’t blame God. We blame nothing. We praise God and own life.
As Sheryl Sandberg said,
We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.
Is your life hard? Good. You were built to do hard things.
Crush it.
P.S. Here is a short video/documentary we made ourselves (before Lincoln’s accident with the car) about how to live a life of courage and intent despite feelings of despair from hard times.
Call to Action
My son lived for 76 days. As I write, today is his birthday. He’d be 8. I set my goals now in 76 day periods. Thousands have joined me and had massive success with a new day-by-day action guide I created in honor of my son, baby Gavin.
Will you take the 76-Day Challenge?
Here’s a little more about me written in the third person.
The Official Bio of Richie Norton
Richie Norton is an award-winning, bestselling author and entrepreneur. His books include Anti-Time Management, The Power of Starting Something Stupid and Résumés Are Dead & What to Do About It. Richie was named one of the world’s top 100 business coaches and leading thinkers by Dr. Marshall Goldsmith. He is an international speaker (including TEDx and Google Startup Grind).
Richie is a serial entrepreneur including the founder of Global Consulting Circle, creating/scaling business models for venture-backed startups. He is also the CEO and Co-Founder of PROUDUCT—an INC. 5000 company—a global entrepreneurship solution helping businesses go from idea to market with full-service sourcing, product strategy and end-to-end supply chain.
Entrepreneurial-minded people study Norton’s work and blended learning, modular educational programs (self-directed learning courses, masterminds, podcasts, articles, keynotes, interviews, books, mentoring, university lectures). Executives, creators and celebrities seek out Richie to create new value-based products/experiences for their audiences.
Richie is featured in Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, Entrepreneur, HuffPo, Inc., Fast Company, Business Insider and more. The 2013 San Francisco Book Festival awarded The Power of Starting Something Stupid first in business & grand prize winner overall. At age 29, Pacific Business News recognized Richie as one of the Top Forty Under 40 “best & brightest young businessmen” in Hawaii.
He got his start in social entrepreneurship by founding an organization to help others become self-reliant through self employment including ventures in Mongolia and around the Asia-Pacific Rim.
Richie founded a mentor capital org to help end poverty & established a Center for International Entrepreneurship. Richie is published in the Journal of Microfinance and is a ChangeAid Award winner for “outstanding accomplishment in international development, international relations, humanitarian aid and academic achievement.”
Richie was born and raised in San Diego before moving to Brazil and then Hawaii. He received his MBA from the world’s #1 ranked international business school, Thunderbird School of Global Management.
Richie is happily married to Natalie, Co-Author of The Power of Starting Something Stupid. They have four boys (one son already made his way to Heaven) and they have cared for three foster children. They live on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii.
A GLIMPSE OF A FEW OF RICHIE’S FAVORITE PROJECTS
- Richie is a social entrepreneur and founded an international mentor capital company with the mission to help end poverty and foster self-reliance through self-employment. He created a joint-venture cashmere export company in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and a joint-venture inflatable bouncer company in Apia, Samoa. He also helped to establish what is now known as the Mark & Laura Willes Center for International Entrepreneurship (CIE), where he also serves on the Mentor Venture Capital Board, helping budding entrepreneurs in Mongolia, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Fiji, Australia, Japan and other countries.
- Richie was instrumental in the institution and management of the annual International Business Conference (IBC). The main focus of the conference(s) has been “Creating Wealth in a Global Economy” and “Creating Wealth in a Changing World” with a focus on “Doing Business in China,” and “Venture Capital and Private Equity: Building Wealth in a Declining Economy.” This conference has established a network of top CEO’s and business leaders from the USA, Canada and Asia from over 100 companies and numerous industries.
- He runs multiple companies creating hundreds of new, custom products and fulfillment for entrepreneurs worldwide.
- He founded the Empower Laie Project to help people get back on their feet in the tumultuous economy. Hundreds of families have been educated through this project on principles of self-reliance and how to navigate through the global financial crisis on an individual level.
- He lived and worked as a missionary in Brazil for two years and speaks fluent Portuguese.
- Above all, Richie is happily married to his beautiful wife Natalie and has four boys.
Want to go from where you are to where you want to be? I’d love to work with you.
Contact me here.
Keep in touch via Instagram, LinkedIn, the blog, facebook, or twitter.
