Turning your losses into fortunes (lessons from Rudy Pantoja / “Hugh Mungus”)

The awesome Rudy Pantoja, aka ‘Hugh Mungus’ in action. Love his charitable work!

As I write this blog it’s a beautiful day in Australia; being Australia Day! I was going for a walk thinking about what to write about and then my new friend Rudy Pantoja (aka “Hugh Mungus”) from Seattle said hello over Facebook Messenger.

If this rings a bell or not with you, I encourage you to go into YouTube and type in “Hugh Mungus”. It all started in 2016 with a very kind man by the name of Rudy had an almost ‘Western Style’ standoff with Social Justice Protestors causing him trouble.

Without blowing the plot in case you haven’t seen it; Rudy was being video-taped and someone asked his name. He made the epic dad joke of the century by saying his name was “Hugh Mungus”. The situation escalated (please watch the video) and Rudy, aka “Hugh Mungus” became a YouTube star with millions (if not tens of millions of views).

Over time we connected on Facebook and being ‘Pen Pals’ so to speak and I have met what was an amazing working class man who has totally turned around his life in such a short space of time. From my understanding of his story; he has been tragically ‘working poor’ – BUT has an amazing heart of gold. He is a kind and charitable legendary type of man and in following his story and becoming personal friends with him; I am blown away by how great he is and the popularity and social change he is bringing.

What Rudy has taught me that has been incredible is that no matter what hands you are dealt in life is that you must keep positive and keep moving forward. I couldn’t even begin to imagine the challenges he had prior in his life and you can tell that by his weathered look and eyes in some of the videos; he was a kind yet tired man.

BUT he kept going!

Today, he messaged me showing how he has airtime on “Seattle’s KCPQ 13 Fox News – Crime Stoppers!” I bet the focus was to promote his social causes of helping people. One of my favourites (which I have donated too because of Rudy) is www.hopesoliders.com – cleaning up people with drug addictions.

My advice and lessons from Rudy?

At times in life for whatever reason; be it bad things happen to us or we make poor decisions, we can take losses in many forms. It’s hard, it can be tragic BUT the true entrepreneur and person that succeeds and brings social change is someone that keeps going and stays as positive as one can in adversity.

Fortitude, Endurance, Strength, Stamina and being Indefatigable to me are clear virtues I have learned in life and have taken from the awesome Rudy Pantoja.

Go hard, life will throw curl balls at you – big keep getting up and hitting it hard.

Thank you Rudy, thank you Hugh Mungus and thank you for taking the time to read this!

P.S. Follow Rudy on FB here + thank you for the off stage pics Rudy.