'The Little Things' author Andy Andrews opens up on life lessons and loss

— -- ABC News' Robin Roberts went one-on-one with influential author Andy Andrews, whose newest book, "The Little Things: Why You Really Should Sweat the Small Stuff," looks at how the details of our lives end up shaping it the most.

“What you’re doing with your life, your business or your family ... at the end of it all you’ve either created a masterpiece or a disaster,” Andrews told Roberts in a candid interview for her podcast, "Everybody's Got Something." “It will have been done one choice at a time, one decision at a time, one little action at a time, or one tiny brush stroke at a time.”

Andrews’ books have been translated into over 25 languages, and he's spoken at the request of four different U.S. presidents. It wasn’t always that way, though. At the age of 19, both of his parents died -- his mother from cancer, his father in a car accident, and Andrews ended up homeless.

"I’ve always had the ability to take a bad situation and make it worse. I made some bad moves and literally ended up homeless. I was angry. I was really mad -- mad at myself -- mad at people,” Andrews said. "I was mad at my dad for not wearing a seat belt, my mom for getting cancer, mad at God about everything."

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He eventually found solace in the local library, and read more than 200 biographies of great men and women. The rest is history. The "Seven Decisions," as he calls them, skyrocketed him to success and became the outline for "The Traveler's Gift: Seven Decisions That Determine Personal Success." Roberts had one of those seven taped in her dressing room for years.

“This is the one I really lived by: I will choose to be happy,” Roberts said. “I am the possessor of a grateful heart. You know I can’t fake the funk, and sometimes my heart is heavy, but I’m grateful that I have the ability to choose to be happy.”

As globally successful as "The Traveler’s Gift" was, 51 publishers actually turned it down before one said yes.

"I’m a deep thinker and I can put my thoughts out. I’m a simple writer," said Andrews. “I pray every day for God to give me simple ways to explain complicated things that are confusing people. The best books are in somebody’s drawer somewhere because someone told them ‘No.’”

Andrews has been married to his wife Polly for 27 years, and they have two sons --- Austin, 16, and Adam, 13. He has a passion for helping parents.

“You don’t really want to raise great kids,” Andrews said. “What you want to do is raise kids who become great adults. It’s two different things.”

Check out Andy Andrews' full interview on Robin’s podcast, “Everybody’s Got Something.”