Bruce Goldwell and The Space

One of the people I met through The Space was Jill Lublin.

That meeting did not end with simply exchanging a name or business card.

I later attended one of Jill's weekend training programs on press releases and publicity.

That experience stayed with me because it showed what a real connection can become.

You meet someone.

You discover what they know.

You learn from them.

Then the knowledge becomes part of your own path.

Years later, as an author, I would repeatedly find myself writing press releases, promoting books, communicating ideas and trying to help people discover projects they might otherwise never see.

The original conversation did not end in the room.

It continued through what I learned.

I have always thought beyond a single medium.

Books could become movies.

Stories could become music.

Ideas could move from page to screen.

Inside CEO Space, those possibilities stopped feeling entirely theoretical because I began meeting people connected to those worlds.

I met Rand Brennar, a former vice president of Warner Bros.

Rand told me that when I did my movies, he wanted to handle the licensing.

Think about what that does to a dream.

Suddenly the idea is no longer:

Now there is a real person attached to a real part of the process.

Licensing.

Distribution.

Industry knowledge.

Another piece of the dream begins to feel tangible.

Another person I met through The Space was Jeff Bova.

Jeff had worked as a producer and musician with major artists, including Celine Dion.

He expressed interest in doing music for my movies.

Once again, a future idea suddenly had another real person connected to it.

That is one of the things The Space did so well.

Dreams stopped existing only in your head.

They began touching people with real expertise.

A person could say:

That kind of statement does not guarantee success.

But it changes how you see the road.

The future begins acquiring names.

I also met David Stanley, Elvis Presley's stepbrother.

The first time I met David, I was in awe.

Here was someone connected to one of the most famous names in entertainment history.

At first, that history stood between us.

I saw the connection to Elvis before I saw the person.

But something changed over time.

Eventually, it became simple.

That may sound like a small thing.

It was not.

It represented something I learned repeatedly inside The Space.

Famous people are still people.

Titles are not the relationship.

Reputation is not the relationship.

The relationship begins when two human beings actually meet.

I also met a producer known as Blondie.

Blondie helped David Stanley with his movie Protecting the King.

Again, what impressed me was not merely the résumé.

It was proximity.

People connected to film production, music, publicity, licensing and storytelling were no longer names from a distance.

They were people I had met.

People I could talk with.

People who made the world I dreamed about feel less remote.

That is one of the hidden powers of the right environment.

One of the strongest lessons I carried away from CEO Space came from a project I brought there with my best friend.

We wanted to start a coffee business.

We entered The Space looking for a path forward.

On Thursday, we met a gentleman who was exactly the kind of person I would later describe as a Superconductor.

He listened to what we were trying to build.

Then he told us something extraordinary.

Once we became compliant and insured, he was willing to come on board and bring approximately 2,000 investors with him.

To me, the road ahead had suddenly become clear.

We needed roughly $50,000 to get compliant, secure the necessary insurance and prepare the company correctly.

Then we could return to The Space ready to raise serious capital.

The connection had changed the project.

In my mind, we were no longer wondering whether there was a road.

We had found the road.

The next day, people found my best friend crying.

They asked me what was wrong.

He told me that we had not raised any money yet.

That moment has stayed with me because I realized that the two of us had experienced Thursday very differently.

He saw:

I saw:

To me, the important breakthrough had already occurred.

We had met someone who understood what needed to happen next.

What I needed then was a letter of intent.

Something showing that once we became compliant and insured, the investor relationship was prepared to move forward.

With that letter in hand, I believed we could have shown other investors over the weekend that the project had a credible next stage.

The $50,000 we needed was no longer simply money we were hoping someone would give us.

It had a purpose.

Compliance.

Insurance.

Preparation.

Then we could return to the next Space ready for capital.

That coffee project taught me something much larger than business financing.

Two people can stand in front of the same opportunity and see completely different realities.

One sees what is missing.

The other sees what has become possible.

Both perspectives may contain truth.

We did not yet have the money.

But we had gained something we did not have the day before.

A route.

A relationship.

A condition that needed to be met.

A potential source of future capital.

That is why I believe so strongly in recognizing Connection Capital.

The value of a relationship does not always appear as money the moment the relationship is formed.

Sometimes the relationship changes what becomes possible next.

Jill.

Rand.

Jeff.

David.

Blondie.

Berny.

And many others.

Some helped me directly.

Some inspired me.

Some simply expanded my idea of the kind of people I could know and the kind of future I could build.

Not every relationship became a formal partnership.

Not every opportunity became a completed project.

But each connection became part of the larger picture of what I believed was possible.

That is difficult to measure.

It is also very real.

There have been many changes in my life since those days.

Projects came and went.

Some opportunities worked.

Others did not.

Some dreams changed form.

But the larger vision never disappeared.

I still believe in creating.

Writing.

Film.

Music.

Technology.

New ideas.

And helping other people see possibilities for themselves.

The Space helped make that vision feel legitimate.

Once you have sat across from people connected to the worlds you dream about, those worlds stop seeming entirely unreachable.

A book can reach someone I will never meet.

That person may live on the other side of the country.

Or the other side of the world.

They may be searching for exactly the subject I spent weeks or months researching.

If I can help them understand something faster, avoid a mistake, discover an opportunity or simply think about the future differently, then the book has done something useful.

That is how I now understand my own Superconductor power.

I conduct through ideas.

I learn.

I organize.

I write.

Then I release the book and let the current travel wherever it can.

The Superconductors II is not simply my attempt to document people connected with CEO Space.

It is my way of preserving a lesson.

A room can change someone.

A conversation can change someone.

An introduction can change someone.

And one person's willingness to help can create consequences they may never fully see.