Aaron Walker has founded more than a dozen companies over the past 41 years. He attributed much of his success to having surrounded himself with his Mastermind counterparts. Aaron spent a decade meeting weekly with Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller, Ken Abraham, and five other amazing entrepreneurs.

Aaron is the founder of Iron Sharpens Iron Mastermind Group that now hosts 15 groups with national and international members. Aaron is the author of View From The Top: Living A Life Of Significance, a must-read book to fully understand how to live a life of success and significance.

He is also a founder of the Mastermind Playbook which is an incredible resource for starting, running and scaling masterminds. Aaron lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with Robin, his lovely wife of 40 years. He has two incredible daughters and five beautiful grandchildren. When time allows, Aaron enjoys hunting, fishing, golf, and is an avid reader.

“We have all these plans, yet we're not promised tomorrow. I encourage you to live today like there is no tomorrow in a good way. Surround yourself with honorable, trustworthy people.”

Aaron Walker

My Worst Investment Ever Story

It started as a success story

At a young age, Aaron Walker wanted better for himself. He came from a family of six and grew up in about 600 square foot house with barely little to survive. While still in night school, he was working during the days and never stopped.

When he turned 18 years old, he impressed one of the largest insurance agencies in the country at that time to invest with him. After signing a $150,000 loan, Aaron opened up his first retail outlet. It became a success, and in 36 months, he was able to pay off a 10-year loan.

He kept doing what he had been doing, and soon young Aaron Walker had already opened four stores in Nashville. He got a call from a Fortune 500 company, and they made an offer he couldn’t refuse. At the age of 27, Aaron Walker had made enough money to retire.

A tragedy turned his life upside down

After 18 months of doing nothing, Aaron had come to a reality that he needed to get back in there, lose some weight and find a new job. So he went back to the company he started with when he was 13 years old.

Now, at the age of 40, the company had grown four times bigger than it was 20 years ago. Aaron never stopped working from then on. He thought his life couldn’t get any better. He had his beautiful family, a steady job, vacation home and a big house on the hill. Until a tragedy turned his life upside down.

While he was headed to his office, he ran over a pedestrian, and eventually, the head trauma killed the man. Even though it was not his fault, Aaron suffered anxieties because of stress and pressure after the accident. He took a break for five years.

The painful realization

For more than 20 years, Aaron wanted nothing more than a better life. But sometimes, life slips through a backdoor, and had it not been for that ugly turn in his life; he would not have realized what had been missing–a legacy.

Would he want to be just another rags to riches story? No, Aaron wanted more than that. He wanted to have an impact on other people’s lives. So, he changed his focus and started thinking and looking outward rather than inward. He wanted to help people accomplish their goals and dreams. Ultimately, he wanted to transform lives.

Lessons learned

Build relationships intentionally

In today’s society, people hide behind the screens and completely obliterating the importance of human connection. These intentional relationships we create every day gets us out of our own head and lets us focus outward instead of inward.

Success comes after gratitude

When you are grateful, you build good relationships with the people around you. As a result, natural reciprocity comes back to you.

Learn to prioritize

A lot of people try to live a balanced life, which is a myth. What needs to be done is to be very out of balance in the right places. Focus on the things that are meaningful, with purpose and that are lasting.

Andrew’s takeaways

When tragedy strikes, you can never avoid it

Tragedy will strike you one way or another. Through these darkest times, the relationships you have with your family and friends will carry you out.

Create a legacy that lasts

We get so caught up with life and all its craziness that we sometimes forget what our legacy is. How will you leave an impact on other people? How will your existence inspire others to transform their lives? Start with a mantra of helping one person to step towards achieving their goals and repeat it every day.

People are intrinsically motivated

That management of companies these days have shifted away from judgment to metrics has lead to less focus on relationships. But people are intrinsically motivated, and many times, when we try to put on something extrinsic like a KPI to guide them, it's like you ruin the whole joy of work.

Actionable advice

It’s really important who you spend your time with. We should be very selective about the people that we spend time with because our time is very important.

No. 1 goal for next the 12 months

Aaron Walker’s goal is to get as many as possible to visit Mastermind Playbook so that he can continue spreading the message of how to live a successful and significant life.

Parting words

“Most people in life today just want bigger, better, shiny, or faster things. Let me help you to really think through with clarity, how you can live a very productive life, how you can keep the focus, and how to have great levels of success and significance simultaneously.”

Aaron Walker

Andrew’s books

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Further readings mentioned

Aaron Walker (2017) View From the Top: Living a Life of Significance

The 2018 Marketing Philosophy