Hailed by a New York Times reporter as "someone who has quietly become one of the most influential people in America," Andy Andrews is the author of multiple New York Times bestsellers including The Traveler's Gift and The Notice.
He is also an in-demand speaker, coach, and consultant for the world's largest organizations. Zig Ziglar said, "Andy Andrews is the best speaker I have ever seen."
Both The Notice and The Traveler's Gift were featured selections of ABC's Good Morning America and continue to appear on bestseller lists around the world. His books have been translated into over 40 languages.
Andy has spoken at the request of four different United States presidents, worked extensively with the Department of Defense, and regularly addresses the world's largest corporations.
Arguably, there is no single person on the planet better at weaving subtle yet life-changing lessons into riveting tales of adventure and intrigue--both on paper and on stage.
Interviews
ANDY ANDREW America's Storyteller
The New York Times calls him a "modern-day Will Rogers who has quietly become one of the most influential people in America."
His books, including the bestselling phenomenon, The Traveler’s Gift: Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success and Island of Saints, have sold millions of copies worldwide.
He is internationally known as a speaker and storyteller, has spoken at the request of four different United States presidents, and his two- hour special on the Public Broadcasting System, Andy Andrews: The Seven Decisions, has been a blockbuster success.
Best of all, his life-story is an intriguing as his success, as we quickly discovered when MyBestYears.com caught up with Andy Andrews, America's Storyteller, for this INTERVIEW SPOTLIGHT.
MBY—You lived what most would consider very normal, small-town life. Then everything
changed…
AA—I was nineteen when both of my parents passed away. My Mom died from cancer, and my Father was killed in an automobile accident.
MBY—What a horrible situation. How did you cope with such tragedies?
AA—I took a bad situation and made it much worse. Within a couple of years, I was broke, homeless, and sleeping under a pier on the Gulf Coast or in someone’s garage. MBY—Fast forward a few years, and you were voted by over 1,000 colleges and universities as “Comedian of the Year” in 1985 and both “Comedian of the Year” and overall “Entertainer of the Year” in 1986.
You were appearing in the main rooms at Caesar’ s Palace and The Mirage in Las Vegas, and you were touring as a comedian with such stars as Joan Rivers, Garth Brooks, Cher and Kenny Rogers. How did you go from homeless to a top-rated entertainer. AA—It really came down to a question and a decision.
When I was bouncing around on the bottom, I began asking, “Is life just a lottery ticket, or are there choices I can make to direct my future?” I decided to start looking for answers, and I eventually read more than two hundred biographies of great men and women. I started seeing some patterns, and that helped me realize that I had to make better choices.
MBY—Was this the beginning of the Seven Decisions for which you have become so well known, or did those come later?
AA—It was the beginning. I started going a different direction. I found a focus. I began using the gift of humor that I had been blessed with.
One thing led to another, and when I began appearing with some of the people you mentioned, I eventually started adding some of my stories and comedy with some of the life principles which I began calling “The Seven Decisions.
” The audiences liked it, and things kept growing from there. Those decisions became the foundation for The Traveler’s Gift, and the rest is history. MBY—Fast forward twenty years, and you have written a number of other books. Tell us about Island of Saints.
AA—It’s my favorite of all the books I’ve written. MBY—Why?
AA—I think it’s because it holds different levels of interest for different people. It’s a thriller. It’s a mystery. It’s a love story. And nearly all of the people who read this book ask, “Is this true?” My office gets emails with that question from all over the world.
MBY—Is it true?
AA—Island of the Saints opens when I find something buried on the dunes where we live. It’s some buttons, a couple of medals and few photos. I start tracing the stuff. The first three chapters are modern, but the main story moves to 1942 when the German submarines were in the Gulf of Mexico. They were sinking cargo ships.
This really happened, though most people don’t know about it. And the story of one of the German officers who gets wounded and betrayed, then makes it ashore. A young American war widow, whose husband has just been killed in Germany, finds the officer. She wants to kill him, but he says something that makes her decide against killing.
Instead, she decides to turn him in to the authorities. After she gets him back to the house, and after some conversation, she decides against turning him in. Instead, she hides him. The story is about how they hide, why they hid and what happened because of it. MBY—I understand that a movie is going to be made of Island of the Saints. AA—I’m excited about it.
MBY—So are lots of other people. It’s causing quite a stir. Robert Silvers, executive publisher of The Saturday Evening Post, calls Island of Saints an "unforgettable experience." How did you get the idea for the book?
AA—I was reading some old newspaper clippings. I got interested and began talking to some people. Then I really did find some things. It all came together, and I began writing the book.
MBY—Do you see yourself more as a humorist based on real stories, or as a novelist who writes fiction?
AA—That’s hard to categorize. I’m not really sure. People always ask me, “What do you speak about?” And I really don’t know. MBY—The Traveler’s Gift, an earlier book, was on the New York Times bestseller list.
I understand that it jumped all over the place on the lists. AA—It was listed as a bestseller in fiction. At the same time, it was on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list in non-fiction. It was on the Publisher’s Weekly bestseller list as a religious book. Simultaneously, the Barnes and Noble bestseller list as a self-improvement book.
Then New York Times changed it to an advice book. Amazon.com put it in their literature section. Then the New York Times changed it to the business category, where it stayed on the bestseller lists for seventeen weeks! MBY—That has to be a first! I guess it was hard to pigeon-hole.
I’m that way. People ask me what I am, and I don’t really have a good answer. I became known as a comedian, but I really don’t just tell funny jokes. I’m a storyteller, I suppose. Mostly, I’ve come to realize, I’m a notice.
MBY—A notice?
AA—When God was giving out talents, He let some people swim or run fast. Others were given talent to jump high or sing well. I think I got a really obscure talent. He said, “You get to notice stuff!” That’s pretty much how it has turned out, but I’m happy with that.
MBY—As a true notice, are you surprised that you can see the same thing others see, and they come away with nothing in particular, yet you notice so much that others think you are making it up? AA—Absolutely! I do that all the time.
MBY—Looking back in your life, what was the biggest turning point?
AA—I look back and the most dramatic time of change was when I went without shelter over my head, without a car and without a job. I was almost twenty when both of my parents died. By the time I was twenty-two, I had reached the point where I was actually sleeping under a pier.
That was probably the most important time for me, because it was the time I was forced to read just to keep going. I read 200 biographies during that time. I never would have read like that. There were hundreds of hours spent thinking and trying to figure out what was important.
I would never have done that, either, if I had been living normally with a job and television and lots of things to do. I look back and realize that the worst time that I spent was actually time spent preparing me for what I’m doing now more than a quarter of a century later.
MBY—Speaking of which, how does it feel, after all you’ve done, to be approaching fifty?
AA—It feels as if I’m just now getting my fast ball, so to speak. I always wanted to be a speaker. I always wanted to be a writer.
I realize now that when I was in my twenties and early thirties, even though I was writing and speaking, I really didn’t have anything to say. People thought what I said was humorous, but I didn’t really have anything inside me yet that could affect others and their lives.
MBY—What do you mean by just now getting your fastball?
AA—I’m just beginning to understand some things. Everybody wants to be needed. Everybody wants to be wanted. I’m no different.
And when you understand, at last, that you finally have something real to offer in the way of learning or wisdom, it makes life so exciting and rewarding. MBY—Well, the Traveler’s Gift sure seems to point to the fact that people are hungry for the wisdom that you’ve gathered through the years.
AA—Even then, I often tell people that they shouldn’t think that just because I know these seven decisions in the book that I’m great at them. I’m still learning. I’m still working and trying to be the kind of father and husband and friend and citizen that I need to be.
I’m still learning. That’s why I’m so focused on being a notice and a gatherer of information and wisdom. MBY—And you have to be aware that you are being watched, as well. AA—Sure. It’s a tremendous feeling to realize that the best years are still ahead, and that you have so much more to offer now than when you were thirty.
MBY—Give an example. AA—Do you remember when you were in college? You probably thought, “I’m on my own. I’m an adult. I’ve got it licked. I’ve finally figured out what’s going on and what life is all about.” Now that you are fifty or more, don’t you look at college kids and think, “They are babies! They don’t have a clue how good they’ve got it. They don’t know what all is ahead for them.”
MBY—Youth is wasted on the young, right?
AA—That’s probably one of life’s most accurate statements ever made.
MBY—So, what’s coming down the pike for Andy Andrews?
AA—I’ve got two books with publishers. One is a non-fiction book, Living the Seven Decisions. The other is a novel, like The Traveler’s Gift, a story based on life-principles. So I’m just working a lot, having fun, speaking quite a bit, trying to learn and seeking to help some other people.
MBY—From whom do you get your greatest response, age-wise?
AA—There really isn’t a demographic for me. It’s everything from college kids to seniors. I do a lot of events where the two extremes in ages are there.
MBY—How do you bridge the gap and speak to all ages?
AA—What I really try to do is to remind some of the older people what they felt like when they were younger, hoping to make them more tolerant of young people, and I also try to remind some of the younger people how much more these older people know than they do.
MBY—That’s great. A lot of people over fifty don’t have the platform that you do. And sometimes older people feel that they no longer have anything worthwhile to say. AA—We’ve changed as a society. People used to sit on the back porch and listen to grandpa and grandma.
That doesn’t happen as much today. If you’re not inside an iPod, young people don’t know you exist. MBY—Well, you definitely exist. Corporations, associations, civic groups—even entire cities—continue to invite you to address their employees, clients or members. And we’ll
bet that you are on a lot of iPods, too. What keeps you going?
AA—At the very core, I’m a teacher. I tell stories and do humorous things, but what I really enjoy is using those things to teach people to change their lives. That’s what really keeps me going. MBY—One more question: You have done some much on behalf of the nation’s military, much of which has gone unreported.
Three Star General Mike Wooley, the Air Force Special Operations Commander, has been quote as saying, “Andy Andrews’s words—both written and spoken—are a significant and enduring presence in the lives of our squadron commanders around the world!” You have traveled all over the world speaking to our armed forces and their leaders.
That has to be rewarding…and exhausting. AA—It has mostly been exciting. I’ve traveled in an armored car, jets and at one point in an F-16 Fighting Falcon. But what I do is little compared to what these brave men and women do for our country and the cause of freedom. I pray that whatever I do and the encouragement I bring to them will have a lasting impact.
Today, Andrews lives on Alabama’s Gulf Coast with his wife, Polly, and their two sons. He continues to be a living testament to the principles he touts.
Nancy Lopez, LPGA Hall of Fame golfer has said of Andy, “He’s a master storyteller with a life-changing message.”
Country star Kenny Rogers calls Andy, “One of the funniest guys I know.” Legendary radio commentator Paul Harvey says, “He entertains everybody,
offends nobody and he's getting standing ovations.” Using his own words, the Storyteller is just now “getting his fastball.” The best is
surely yet to come as he continues communicating heart-to-heart with his audiences, weaving life-changing lessons throughout his fascinating,
entertaining, captivating sagas of quest, adventure and intrigue.
