May 8, 2018
Episode #34 – Dan Hare, A Curious Mind and a Musical Heart
“One of the things I often ask people: is life something that’s happening to you or is it something you’re making happen? Quite often, surprisingly, people aren’t clear on the difference between that.” – Dan Hare
Dan Hare is an individual with an insatiable curiousity about life and the world in which we live. He is a musician, author, philosopher, husband, father, teacher and more.
An unquenchable need for creating musical joy both internally and externally has inspired Dan as a professional musician and entertainer for three decades. He is a well-known and well-respected musician in Western Canada, and his current group the March Hare Band is one of Canada’s most popular and successful show bands performing about one hundred shows per year. He also operates Dawn Haze Music, recording and promoting original music along with other selected artists.
Dan lives his passions and has spent most of his adult life attending college and university earning degrees in English, history, philosophy and has achieved a Master of Divinity with a focus on counseling and theology.
His desire to share the knowledge of the older generation with the younger generation, led him to almost four years of work to converse with and interview over three hundred people between the age of sixty-five and one hundred, to publish his first book titled, Regrets, They’ve Had a Few: Practical Wisdom from the Aged (2009). His book provides insights and lessons of people who have been on this earth for many years and were comfortable and willing to share their practical life experiences.
With a lengthy list of experiences and accomplishments Dan has a very clear and practical view of the world and his place in it. He has a perspective that is reflective and often humorous and a desire for a purpose driven life helping enhance the life experience of others.
Selected Links and People Mentioned from this episode:
- March Hare Band
- Regrets, They’ve Had a Few: Practical Wisdom from the Aged by Dan Hare
- John Wooden
- The Devil’s Delusion by David Berlinski
Show Notes
- [02:00] Patrick introduces his next guest: musician and author, Dan Hare
- [06:04] Dan and Patrick get rockin’ and rollin’.
- [06:25] What is Dan’s elevator pitch?
- [06:58] Dan explains his philosophy for his own life.
- [08:05] Dan shares his passion for music and entertaining and it’s only getting more fun!
- [09:39] Dan creates a feeling; a joyful experience and gratitude within his entertaining.
- [12:20] Dan’s shares the different ways musical threads have weaved their way through his family. For Dan, music is a 10 on a scale of 1:10. Music infuses his heart and that inspires him to share it with the world.
- [14:36] Moving from the teenage rock star dream to the reality of what that would mean for any other life pursuits.
- [16:52] What are those other life pursuits for Dan?
- [18:05] A defining moment in his late twenties when he had to look at what success meant for him.
- [19:54] What is the definition of success that Dan came to? A John Wooden quote sums it up quite nicely.
- [21:40] Insight into how Patrick looks at his life and feels successful.
- [23:52] For Dan, the way he defines success for himself is also how he shows up in the business of music.
- [25:19] Dan shares more on the defining moment that had him re-evaluate how he wanted to live his life and then followed through with that.
- [27:06] Elaborating on that choice Dan shares his thoughts on how we can choose to occur in our lives.
- [28:59] Dan describes the journey to writing his book: Regrets, They’ve Had a Few: Practical Wisdom from the Aged.
- [30:48] The process for finding and interviewing the people in his book, all between the ages of 65 – 100.
- [32:16] Dan shares some of the interesting results from his question about life regret.
- [34:16] In the realm of regret, what was the primary cause and perhaps show perception can be shifted?
- [36:17] Dan talks to his interviewees a bit about adversity and what that was for them.
- [37:31] Dan’s style of interviewing allows for a different level of transparency in people, how they share their experiences and how the experiences shaped their life.
- [40:00] What was Dan’s experience of seemingly ordinary people achieving extraordinary results during the interviews for his book?
- [44:10] Dan sees himself as more of a “gem-hunter” than a scholar and recounts one of his more memorable lessons from his research.
- [45:25] What was one of the unexpected outcomes for Dan during the whole process?
- [47:08] What did Dan learn and walk away with for himself after writing the book?
- [49:29] Shining a light on the importance of financial self-reliance and empowerment.
- [54:05] On top of that, Dan and Patrick discuss how critical intentional health and wellness is in the spirit of self-reliance and empowerment.
- [57:07] Dan makes a point to highlight the difficulty for some of the men he interviewed who were victims of circumstance in their ill-health due to a time when working standards were far less than they are now.
- [57:53] One of the most notable quotes Dan heard during his interviews from a woman who spent her life attaining money and things at the expense of family and relationships: “it’s better to sit on an old couch and relate to somebody, than sit on a new couch by yourself.”
- [59:43] Humility was at the heart of life lessons for Dan’s interviewees.
- [60:45] What advice would Dan give his 20-year-old self?
- [61:57] Advice for younger women, from the older women Dan interviewed: have a plan, find out who you are and put yourself first in some circumstances especially when it comes to developing your own character, your own desires and your own goals.
- [64:59] What are some of the take-aways for people from Dan’s book?
- [66:15] In the context of happy marriages and long-term relationships, the number one thing that made a marriage happy was surprisingly not love; it was compatibility.
- [67:19] How did writing the book change Dan’s life?
- [68:32] What is Dan reading these days?
- [70:00] What would Dan like to congratulate his future self for?
- [71:25] “The best lessons in life are the simple ones.”
- [72:25] Dan describes his daily routines, or as a night owl musician, perhaps his nightly routines.
- [74:01] Patrick and Dan riff a little on the importance of sleep and the philosophies they’re interested in.
- [76:10] Dan talks about how he deals with challenges, and what he views as the most important quality in a successful life.
- [77:48] Rapid Fire! Dan’s favourite swear word (infrequent though it is), teaching as an alternate profession, message at the pearly gates, weirdness scale, what he’s not very good at, room/desk/car – what gets cleaned first? Favourite documentary and very important for a musician: what’s Dan’s favourite tune?
- [80:15] Dan’s gratitude.
