We caught up with the brilliant and insightful John Gold a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi John, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Life is all about values.

What is the thing you value so much that you would be willing to sacrifice everything for it?
Surely it’s not something that anyone can have? Would you stake your life for something that’s not worth it to you?

As a spiritual person I value above most else altruism; acts with no remuneration.

To me being aligned with deity is a commitment to caretake those around you and treat them as blood even if they are not. It’s a commitment to make the world a better place. You have to use the life you were given to do the most good.

That’s my path.

There have been a few times in my life I have come to a crossroads where I felt the right decision was to put into jeopardy stability, comfort, and consistency for the sake of serving others.

The first time I can recall doing this was in my early twenties. I had just spent the better part of eight years with a blossoming career in music, I was starting to make a name for myself, and get bigger opportunities with bigger names. But there was one thing I didn’t like about it. In order to rise up in that field sometimes you had to use other people as stairs. I didn’t like the idea of using other people to give me an advantage, after all, every person is equally important. Their lives their needs their wants should be important to me. I should care about my fellow person.

So I strived to become more prolific and well known by being a person of integrity.

It turns out fame that is sturdy, and position and platform that will last, is not built on the dead bodies of your rivals, no matter what people may say.

At my most well know and successful I decided I didn’t like who the career was making me, so I decided to hit the road and try my hand at something new.

I started booking my own events and traveling and performing at them. Everyone told me I was crazy, that someone with no experience couldn’t be successful at that, especially not at the volume I was doing it. But I had a peace in me, feeling a strange sense of calling.

Today I do a lot of the booking for an organization called The Extreme Tour, I don’t think I would have ever gotten to travel all over the world if I hadn’t first have decided integrity and being good to others was more important than becoming a rising, trending figure.

Years later I faced another decision. I was in school to become a psychologist but I constantly felt an ache. I didn’t want to labor for a degree for six years before giving my life to help others and make the world a better place. I wanted to do as much as I could while I was young and strong. The opportunity to do volunteer work with a charity opened up to me, so I left everything to go do that.

Now my contract has expired with that charity for a month, and I wonder what’s the next great leap of faith? I think they come from time to time.

Here’s the point

Life is short, know your value. You’re a lot more important than your hourly wage or salary. Have some values. If you stand for something you won’t fall easily. Stand for making the world a better place. Stand for not using others. It’s always the greatest risk to leave everything for something more important. Don’t waste your strength on something that’s not worth it.

John, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

For the last five years I have been a member of leadership for a non-profit project called The Extreme Tour. I got into this field because of a great desire to help people and make a difference In the world.

Since then I have set up community events all over the United States, England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Northern Ireland.

I act as a tour booker, a tour manager, an event coordinator, an artists and repertoire agent, and a lot more.

I specialize at communicating vision to people who are becoming involved with an organization or individual. I have been working exclusively for Love Done Loud since 2019, but am open to working with other non-profits or individuals as well.

It’s my opinion that every person who has something to share with the world is the desperate answer for another person’s longing. What are you doing, and how can you serve others with it? How do we express who you are to the person looking for you. How can we help people to recognize their need for you and act on that need.

I also am an artist, producer, performer, and work with religious and non-religious non-profits.

I’m happy to entertain any possibility, or just entertain you.

Email me and lets see how I can help:
[email protected]

Or you can visit my website to find links.
www.johngold.org

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I agree with Billy Corgan when he says God is the future of rock music.

I think God is the impetus behind the greatest acts of genius ever derived.

To me everything I do is to move forwards a world where there is equality. To me true equality is not doing the same thing for each person, or reducing a person down into a series of characteristics endlessly until you are at the final indivisible pebble of a soul. No! It’s responding to the uniqueness of each individual. Each person has different needs and different desires, perceives the world differently and has this knowledge that they are the seed of something greater. I think equality is doing for everyone something a little different.

Equality is a gradient.

So in art, in music, in nonprofit work and in altruism I always aim to do everything I can to respond to the needs of the person in front of me, or the organization I find myself aligned with, or the community I’m working in.

How can we transform this community? How can we make this organization work even better so the outcome betters the world and the lives of everyone involved. How can I work with you, an artist or a professional or a servant, to line you up with the calling on your life?

If I do my little part, and you do your little part, we can answer the suffering in this world. There are a few of us now, but a few can awaken many. What can we do together?

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

In the field I am in I’ve had to unlearn impossibility.

When you’re in a foreign country and you have no money and there are fifteen people following your lead and the housing lined up by your coordinator doesn’t exist, and the food you were all going to eat isn’t there, and the local government found a problem with the permitting because something was filled out incorrectly by a secretary somewhere… Oh, and you just got cursed out by someone for inviting them to an event, a guy on the team ate peanuts and he’s slamming Benadryl so he doesn’t die cause his EpiPen misfired, oh yeah, and your wife is calling you and the baby is sick, and you only slept three hours last night cause someone needed a friend at 3 am… What do you do?

You take a deep breath, and you clear your mind, or for me I say a prayer, and then you do the next right thing.

I call it Option C.

When option a is a lion and option b is piranhas, and you can’t think of any way you’re getting out of this fight with your head still firmly on your shoulders look for Option C.

Logic is good, but it can be a crutch.

Logic isn’t going to save you from the visa issues, or the guy threatening you, or the car breakdown when you need to be at a meeting in 30 minutes.

In moments like that you have to focus on finding a way through the mess, not react to every thing caught fire.

You don’t know everything. Stop acting like you do. The possibilities are endless, why do we insist on being overcome by the peril which aims to consume us.

Look for option C. Who knows, maybe the impossible will happen for you today.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.johngold.org
• Instagram: @johngoldflorida
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johngoldflorida
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/JohnGoldFlorida
• Other: Most of these socials are for my art, I am much more active in my roles currently for non-profit work. If anyone wants to talk tell them to email me, I’m happy to dialogue with anyone [email protected] or [email protected]

  I’ll also gladly set up a phone call if they email.

  Bandcamp:
  http://johngoldflorida.bandcamp.com

  Spotify:
  

  Love Done Loud / The Extreme Tour
  https://www.lovedoneloud.com
  https://www.theextremetour.com

Image Credits

None of these photos were taken by professional photographers and all images are allowed to be used by our staff because all the people on our teams consent to the usages of the materials they submit as long as we’re not selling it.