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Tavis: We continue our 'Road To Wealth' series tonight with best-selling author Larry Julian. He's president of the Julian Group based in Minneapolis, and author of the best seller 'God Is My CEO.' His latest book is called 'God Is My Success, Transforming Adversity Into Your Destiny.' He joins us tonight from the Twin Cities. Larry Julian, nice to have you on the program.

Larry Julian: It is great to be on your program.

Tavis: I am delighted to have you here. I'm always fascinated when I have these conversations about persons who are offering advice about transforming destiny, and certainly advising people on money matters. It's always important for me to get their personal story, and yours is really fascinating, because there was a point in your life - my phraseology, not yours - where your troubles kind of came together in a perfect storm of travail. (laugh) And somehow, you got yourself out of it. Tell me your personal story, and why it is that you have the right to talk to us about how to transform my adversity into destiny?

Julian: Yes, well, absolutely. That, I like what you say about the perfect storm. That perfect storm was in July of 1991, when I got fired. You know, to be honest, the bottom line was my God right out of college. And I worked my way up the ladder from director of sales to marketing director to that eventful day where I got fired. And when that happened, it seemed like my whole world crashed. Because I placed all my value and all my worth in what I produced. So when I got fired, I felt worthless. So all of a sudden, I found myself out of work, and dealing with a bad back and a failing marriage. So I was in the midst of adversity during that time, and there was the perfect storm.

Tavis: Tell me, before we get to this book and the details in it, how you navigated your way out of that. Because I suspect most of us watching tonight have at some point been fired. And if you ain't, keep living, you will be. Fired, or these days, downsized. I love all this terminology. Downsized. But tell me how you navigated your way through your particular dilemma.

Julian: Sure. Well, I think that navigation, first of all, came from the realization that I was not in control. And finally, for me, it was relating to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and everything changed. My whole definition of success, everything changed. And basically, what I found was is that I was always running from the pain. And I found that God doesn't - he doesn't keep us from the pain. He is with us in the pain. And that's where God became my CEO, discovered him, and basically walked with him during a very difficult time period, and learned and grew. And basically transformed that adversity into my destiny about writing books.

Tavis: I know exactly what you meant, so I don't mean to ask this question out of any naiveté. I know exactly what you meant, but I do want to give you a chance to expound and to maybe extrapolate, if you'd like to. But when you say that you learned through that process, through that difficult time, that you were not in control, but that God was in control, I know what you mean by that. But I wanna go back to that, because I don't want folk to take out of that that we are not responsible for our own lives. There are a lot of folk, I think, who will say that God is in control, but it really is born of their laziness.

Julian: Yes, that's right, that's right. And that's a great point. First of all, what I talk about in the book, 'God Is My Success,' I talk about partnering with God. And what I mean by that is that we have a tendency to take charge of the things that we should really surrender to God. Conversely, we need to take responsibility for the things we're accountable for. And one of the things that I've learned in a partnership with God is knowing what I'm responsible for, what I'm accountable for, and what I need to be taking charge of. But what are the things beyond my control, where I really need to let that go and let God take care of the rest?

Tavis: Let me jump in right there, then. That's a perfect place, I think, to ask the follow up. The obvious follow up. So, what, in general terms, what are we as human beings, as God's creations, what are we responsible for, and where do we draw the line and say, okay, God, you take the rest of this.

Julian: Well, take for example, let's talk about, you know, my particular career. I'll give you a specific example as it relates to my life.

Tavis: Okay.

Julian: I started writing this book, 'God Is My CEO.' And at the time, we were going through a very difficult time, my wife and I. We called it the baby book combo years. For two years, we were trying to write this book and dealing with rejection. At the same time, we were trying to have a child, and dealing with infertility, and couldn't do that. Well, we were both very achievement-oriented people. And so, in my world of control, in our world of control, we were trying to achieve having a baby. Achieve writing a book. And we had to come to a point of surrender, meaning this. Is that the fact that we needed to surrender the outcome. Those were becoming idols to us.

And everything short in life was not successful. So what we learned to do is we, there was a difference between letting go and giving up. And what we did is we didn't give up, but we let go of the fact that, you know, God was in control of this, not us. And as a result, we learned that it wasn't about achieving that child, but being prepared to be a parent. It wasn't achieving writing a book, but being prepared to be an author, and serving others, and impacting others. So there's a difference between just this letting go, and then surrendering to God. And knowing the difference between the two.

Tavis: Let me jump, then, to some of the obstacles. You're, there are five, to be exact, that you write about in this book. Five obstacles that you use to frame the arguments and the suggestions and advice that you offer in this book, 'God Is My Success.' Let me just, in the time that I have, put three of them out there for you to share with us on. The first is financial slavery. Talk to me about what you mean by financial slavery, and how we can do better on this front.

Julian: Sure. Well, financial slavery is like a dog chasing its tail. What I've found is we're either chasing money or being chased by the prospect of not making our financial goals. And one of the interesting things I've found about financial slavery is that it has very little to do with money. Now, money's a great thing. But however, what happens is is that whether you have a million dollars or you have no money at all, it doesn't matter. It's really on how we are chasing after money. And what I found is - I found many CEOs were always looking over their shoulder. Like the wolf at the door. They're only as good as the last quarter, so they're living in fear about the future. So that's financial slavery.

Tavis: Is that what the Bible means in part, when it says that the love of money is the root of all evil?

Julian: Well, now, here's an interesting thing. Yes, in terms of the love of money. Now again, it's not money itself. Money is a great thing.

Tavis: Right.

Julian: But again, I think the key element here is the subtlety. And the fact that oftentimes, we fall into a trap of going after money, and not seeing the real success that God provide us.

Tavis: You talk secondly in this book about distractions.

Julian: Yes. Distractions. I think today's world, we are so distracted, we are so busy with so many things that we do not hear God's call. We don't hear his whisper. And oftentimes, we are just inundated with so many things. The business, the craziness of our world. We're just not hearing his direction, and we're missing out.

Tavis: Fear and worry.

Julian: Yes. Fear and worry. Worry is defined as torturing ourselves. And one of the things about fear and worry is is we have a tendency to worry about things in the future that we shouldn't be worrying about. And so, that's a very big issue, whether it's in life or in business.

Tavis: Tell me how it is that we find that we strike balance these days between our work and our faith, and particularly for those of us who work in environments that are faithless, who work in environments where we're not surrounded by people who are believers, as we may be.

Julian: Yes, that's a great question. And I think one of the ways is we need to understand that first of all, we need to balance this by first of all reconciling our professional self with our spiritual core. You're not two different people. One of the things that I've found when I was writing 'God Is My CEO' and interviewing CEOs is that they could, they could go and go after and worship God on Sunday, but you check God at the door Monday through Friday. So one of the first things is reconciling professional self with spiritual core. The second thing you can do is just role model.

Let who you are speak for what you believe. You don't have to go to work thumping a Bible, but what you can do is role model being a good leader, and a servant leader, about serving others. A third thing that you could do is reflect, and that is seek God's wisdom first. We have a tendency to just run ahead in a reactive mode or a proactive mode. Either way, we're running ahead of people, and running ahead of God. Oftentimes, we need to pause and seek God's wisdom to do the right thing. And then finally, the next one is to respect.

And that is to respect the diversity in our work world. And that's a very key element. And you could do that by showing dignity and respect and love to all people.

Tavis: Let me offer this as an extra question, if I might, Larry. It's the reverse, the flip, I guess the antithesis of what I just asked a moment ago. And it is this. There's so much good advice in this book, I would hate for one to not access it because one didn't believe in God because one was Agnostic or an Atheist. So, I'm glad that you and I and others may have God as our success, or God as our CEO. But what do we say to folk who don't even believe but know that they really do wanna be successful, who know that their lives are directionless but ain't down with the God thing, at least at this point in their lives.

Julian: Right. Well, for starters, I surely would respect all people, whether that's an atheist, or whatever walk of life. And I think what's important, what I would share is, is that one way or another, if they're in pain right now or dealing with things alone, one of the things I've found is a lot of people dealing and struggling alone. And I guess whether - the thing I would share with them is is that God is with them right now. And during this season of Emanuel, it is God is with you. And I think that God is with you right now. And he will be. And that's an encouragement to all people.

Tavis: And so it is. 'God Is My Success, Transforming Adversity Into Your Destiny.' The new book by Larry Julian, the author of the bestseller, 'God Is My CEO.' Larry Julian, nice to have you here. Happy holidays, all the best to you.

Julian: Thank you very much.

Tavis: Thank you.

Julian: Thank you.