Transcript
The nation's favorite car buying site, Dundeele Motors, is home to the largest range of new and premium used cars from all of Ireland's trusted car dealerships. That's why you'll find Brady's Mercedes Benz on Dundeele. Visit the Brady's Mercedes Benz showroom on Dundeele to find your next car. Dundeele Motors, for confident car buying and deals to feel great about from all of Ireland's trusted car dealerships. Visit Dundeele.ie today. This isn't your average business podcast, and he's not your average host. This is the James Altucher show on the Stansbury Radio Network. So, Lewis Howes, you've been on the podcast before, and I'm holding your brand new book, which is excellent. I I highly recommend it. It's called The School of Greatness, A Real World Guide to Living Bigger, Loving Deeper, and Leaving a Legacy. Did you come up with that subtitle? I did. Really? I did. Yes. Like, I always hate subtitles, to be honest. It took me, like, 3 months to figure it out. I was so 3 months to figure out just to send Literally, 3 months, I was going back and forth with the publisher. I was split testing with my audience. I posted on Facebook like 6 different options. I was like, what do you guys want? What do you guys like the best? And so many authors were telling me, don't go with this subtitle because it's too broad. It needs to be like how to make millions, how to do things, how to like, more actionable. And, but my audience, every time I posted something out there with different options, this was the winner. Every time. What about just and we're gonna get into the school, the actual school of greatness and how you prescribed so basically, before we get more into the subtitle, you basically interviewed a bunch of people who you felt, had clearly achieved a level of excellence, and you wanted to learn what separated them out from the pack. Yes. And and including yourself, but you've achieved Olympic level excellence in a variety of areas. And so you tell your story as well as the stories of of everybody else. And from this book, The School of Greatness, we can kind of learn these habits of some amazing people. Like, who are some of the people you interviewed? You know, I've had, Angel Martinez, who is, the CEO of Deckers. You might know that company, Deckers. 1,000,000,000, you know, 1 point something $1,000,000,000 company. So learning about how he started out here in New York City in poverty, couldn't even afford shoes when he was a kid and really wanted Chuck Taylors, couldn't even afford them to now. He runs one of the biggest shoe companies in the world, to Olympic gold medalists like Shawn Johnson talking about how the most pressure moment, billions of people watching you at 16 years old, how can you perform at the highest level and win a gold medal at 16? What can you imagine that? I can't even imagine that at 32. You know what I mean? When I was 16, you know, I think for something like that, you have to have a certain level of maturity as early as the age of, like, 6 or 7 to be able to be the best in the world by age of 16. Exactly. I mean, when I was 16, I was basically the most immature teenager possible. I was right there with you. So, I mean, I was, like, I would I have to back my paper route, and I would dump the papers in the sewer. And, you know, I was not ready for, like, Olympic gold medal material. Exactly. So She's very mature for her age, for sure, but, I was not ready for that girlfriend at that time. You know what I mean? Yeah. And and, you know, definitely. Look, no girl was ready for me at that time. So, but I wanna I wanna kind of break it down how you break it down. You kinda go over every aspect of what the what are the ingredients of greatness, but I just wanna ask you one more question about the subtitle. Yes. Did you consider just a real world guide to living bigger? I did consider that. Because I get I get it from that. You like it? Yeah. Just a that. Not not that I'm criticizing this. Sure. Sure. Sure. I never really noticed subtitles anyway. I I I always push back, like, I kinda like to just have the title. Yeah. But the school of greatness sounds great. I know what it's about. I'm gonna learn how to be great. You know what? I'm, from a lot of different angles, I try I approach this. The school of greatness for me approaches more men, that title. Okay. Great approaches more men. A Real Guide to Living Better, Loving People, you can see it's more tailored to women. I feel like women will connect with that message better, in the essence and the energy of the book can capture all people. So in some ways, it's like I might be doing a disservice because I'm not specifically talking to 1 person or one demographic. That's not what the book's about. Okay. So what I wanna do is I basically wanna go through the outline of the book Yes. And you can describe what you learned from each person in in that in that section or chapter or whatever. Sure. So the first thing you have is create a vision. Mhmm. And I find a lot of people have a hard time with what I'll call the vision thing. Like, most people don't really know what how to find their vision. Yeah. How to find their you know, people think that they should have one purpose in life. Like, I got, an email today from a parent, and and she's upset because her daughter is having a hard time. She's She's going from thing to thing to thing. And her daughter is only 16 or 17 years old. And I said, that's totally Yeah. Okay. Like, it's good to explore many things. But at what point do you kind of shift shift from searching to finding, and how do you find? You know, it's a great question because when I was 16, all I wanted was to have a girlfriend and to make it and play get a college scholarship. And then when I was in college, all I wanted to do was be a professional athlete. And then when I was injured and didn't know what I wanted to do, all I wanted to do was get off my sister's couch and be able to afford an an apartment on my own. So I think I'm still evolving. Right now, I have a vision that is to serve a 100,000,000 people, to show them how to make a full time living doing what they love. Well, let me answer your question about that. So so so aside from the girlfriend thing, all your other things were about, again, you you exploring different slices of of this concept of greatness. Around my around my passion, my dream trainer. Yeah. Your your passion, maybe it was concentrated for a while on, like, athletics, and we've discussed this in other podcasts, but you broadened it out. It reminds me of, like, how AJ Jacobs will take a concept, like, let's say, the year of living biblically, and then he'll divide that up into, like, 20 concepts about living biblically. Right. And that's essentially what you did, you know, in terms of your own life, instead of you, being a pro football player, you kind of looked at all aspects of professionalism and excellence. Yes. You know, you became an Olympic level athlete and so on. So so what did you How did the people in your book, how did they find their vision? You know, it's This is gonna sound a little cheesy and lame, probably, but they found it by dreaming. And I think this is something a lot of people don't do enough of, and it's probably maybe this will connect with Johnny's, maybe not, but when we were kids, I really we used to dream all the time. We used to think about all the things we wanted to do. We used to come up with games. We used to think about who we wanted to be when we grow up, and we stopped dreaming. And a lot of these people that I connect with, they have such powerful vivid dreams. They visualize it. Did you see the movie recently, the the walk, walk the wire, or the man on the wire? I I haven't, but I've read his autobiography, Philip Petitsa Yes. Yes. Yes. He's the one who, just for the audience, he very sneakily Yes. Attached a wire between the 2 World Trade Centers, and then tight roped For 45 minutes. That strikes me as Unbelievable. Yeah. Right? Crazy. And here's the thing, I watched the movie, and I was so inspired by this, because he was doing this in Paris or whatever, for like buildings for a while, and he was only 25 years old when this happened. But he he saw like a magazine or newspaper ad with the twin towers that were being built. They weren't even built yet. And you saw them, how tall they were going to be, they were like twice the size of the Eiffel Tower. And he said, right then he looked at them and he said, this is my dream, is to walk between those two towers. And he drew a line in between 2 of those, in this newspaper ad, based on the movie description anyways. And he was so committed to this vision, this dream. He had this idea, it wasn't even built. He couldn't even physically do it at that point, because it wasn't built. But he he cultivated a team of people to be inspired by his dream. And for months months months, I guess years, he created a plan to go make it happen. And what? So many things had to happen for him to make it work. Could have easily died, could have easily not made it up there, but he was able to dream, and then created a game plan around the dream. And what I like about it is, like, while I normally think of, tight rope walking as sort of an athletic endeavor Uh-huh. It's really, he views it more as, like, a work of art. Like, that was a piece of art for him. Yes. And so his vision was very artistic as opposed to kind of, I mean, there was a skill oriented part because you have to know how to do that, but their ultimate vision is this would be like a work of art in total. Yes. And the thing that was even more inspiring is he wanted to create this work of art that inspired other people to to fulfill their dreams, and to chase the dreams that they thought weren't possible. Do you think that's true for many of the people you spoke to, is that their vision ultimately was not to just do what they wanted to do, which was great, but also to have it be a vehicle to inspire others, like a work either a work of art Yes. Or a work of inspiration or something like that? Absolutely. The first chapter I talk about is vision. The final chapter in the book, I talk about living a life of service. And all these great people that I interview, and I'm sure you interview, as well, all these great people, have an element of giving back. I mean, you, James, you're constantly giving back to your audience. You're constantly you're doing so much where you're investing the money, not looking for a return on your investment to give because you have a gift of connecting with people and connecting ideas for people with your podcast, your books. You give away your books to people all the time. You know? And And I'm assuming that you you would say that, you know, it feels great to give and to give back and live a life of service. Absolutely. I find I find also in if you if you're not focused on the giving, so so in all my endeavors, it's always I have a a value system, and it's a message before money, so I always make sure am I really being true to my message, and if if that's not the case, I always find I'm never going to make the money. The money is a byproduct of of the message or or your value system, or your inspiration, or whatever. Or when you're focused on the money like you did many times before, you would make the money. I totally ruined myself. Yeah. Your relationships were done. You had, like, you had asked your parents for money for diapers, like, all these things I remember you saying. Yeah. And so you can make the money, but is that sustainable? Yes. And you have to be but then it requires a certain maturity, because I didn't have that maturity when I was younger. Like, you know, it's it's not just message before money. It's message before, you know, sex, drugs Right. Rock and roll. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, you have to make sure. So how do you find what your message is? Yeah. So the vision thing in in figuring this out, because a lot of people say, well, I don't know what I want, or I want all these different things, I wanna do it all like your friend's daughter who's like going from the same thing. I think there's the best way to explain this is there's different seasons of our life. And I look at everything in sports terms. In sports, if I was in the playoffs every week, all year round, I'd be brain dead playing football because it'd be so hard and demanding. That's why there is a pre season. There's an off season. There's the regular season, then there's the playoffs. And then you have a break to reevaluate. And then know by, let's say, age of 29 or 30, your career as a football player is over, but then you go into sports A new season of life. Blasting or Yeah. A new season. So there's constant reevaluation of what I want to create. It's constant seasons of our life. And, you know, it reminds me too, like, take Roger Staubach, right? Mhmm. Who was the court, one of the most famous quarterbacks ever for the Dallas Cowboys. It's like, don't I don't know anything about football. It's like football player, I know. Primarily because he took that excellence of being this hall of fame level quarterback, and he made, like, $300,000,000 in real estate after that. Yeah. You can transfer the techniques of excellence from one field to Yes. Another once you know how to do it. Some people don't know how to do it, though, and they get stuck in the past Right. And they don't figure out how to translate it over. So so I think then the important thing to remember is, you know, start off with creative vision. Yes. You can't you can't just jump from one area to the next thinking you're an expert in the next. You have to go from one area of excellence and and understand that first now you need vision if you're gonna reinvent yourself. And here's an exercise I talk about in the book, actually, in the first chapter on how to have that vision. Some people say, well, how do I come up with it? Or I don't know because I've got all these different ideas. And what I say is to literally go into nature by yourself, no phone, no computer, take a piece of paper and a pen or notepad, and lay there in nature, in silence, and dream about what one perfect day could look like for you. So if I could have anything in any day, what would that look like? Who would I be spending time with? What would I be working on? If you're at the beach all day, okay, then write that down. If you want What if they write too many things down? Like, I think a lot of times Mhmm. People might write 20 things down, but you can't really be excellent Sure. Simultaneously at 20 things. Yeah. Yeah. You can't be. I think it's maybe when you're a 100, maybe you can become excellent over 20 things. But I think from one day, what would you want to do? So, what would you be doing when you wake up? So I'll give you an example. I wake up at 7 AM with the sun shining on my face and listening to the waves crashing in the distance, and I wake up with a smile on my face because I can't believe that I'm laying next to the woman of my dreams and she's with me. So that would be like the my first moment of my vision, of my perfect day. Then what would the next thing be? What would I be doing next? What would I be working on during my my business hours later in the day? What would I be doing at nighttime? Would I be traveling or planning a trip? So kind of like writing down and dreaming in nature what this could look like. So the first part of this exercise is just to write it down what one perfect day could look like and be very descriptive on all the things that you wanna create, feel, touch, smell, who you're hanging out with, what you're working on, your workouts. But then I would like like take you as an example, and then I'd like to also have you talk about someone in the book. But you as an example, you know, when you were in college, your perfect day included being a pro a pro athlete. That's it. And you didn't, I mean, you are to some extent, but you didn't that wasn't really that didn't become your life purpose. It's a little different now. Right. Right. And should you then broaden what you think is the specific perfect day, and just broaden it slightly so you could have it's almost like an umbrella over over lots of ways you could slice it. You know, it depends on what season of life you're in. So if I was in college, I would write about wanting to be a professional athlete, training every day for that, what I'm working on to get it in my perfect day. And then there's the second part to this exercise. In sports, the best football teams that I played on, when I walk into the locker room before practice, the coaches would have an itinerary for us of everything we were doing for that day. So the water break times we would have, the offense, the defense, everything was scheduled of what we were creating that day in order to achieve our vision for that week of winning the game. So we knew everything we were going to do before we went out into the practice field. We didn't just show up and the coach would just say, Okay, show up on the field whenever you want, and we'll throw the ball around. It was very detailed and very clear. And so what I would say for the second part is exercise, after you write down your vision for a perfect day, is to create an itinerary for this one day. From the moment you wake up, say at 7 AM, every 30 minute increments, what are you doing until the moment you go to bed? To fit this vision, this dream you have into your actual day. Schedule it out. If it's and maybe you're busy, you don't have all the time to do everything right now, you've got 3 jobs or whatever, and you're like, well, that doesn't work for me. Figure out the first hour of your day. How can you fit in the first hour of your perfect day and schedule that in, and then start working to adding more and more hours to this dream you have into your every day. You know, that is so key, and, it reminds me of the story of the woman who wrote the movie Pitch Perfect, which, my kids I don't know if you've ever seen that movie. My kids love the movie. I actually love the movie. What's the what's the main actress? I forget her name, but I or something. Is that her name? I totally forget, but but I like her, though. Yeah. She's good. But the writer, Good movie, actually. Yeah. It's a fun movie. And the writer, wrote it over a period of 3 years on her subway commute to work. Wow. So it's a matter of finding like, a lot of people say, I have no time, but it's a matter of kind of finding. There is always time. Yes. And so, I mean, let let's even say you work an 8 hour work day. That means you sleep 8 hours, you work 8 hours, and then you have 8 hours to do something, and she was just let's say she had a 15 minute subway ride. It took her 3 years, and now she made one of the most popular movies ever. And that's Pitch Perfect. 2 is coming out of lots of things. Yeah. So so what about what about the, people in the book? Who who do you see as having, like, kind of a a clear vision, and they they did it? You know, a lot of the people I've interviewed Angel Martinez is a great example of this. He was, when when he was a young kid, he had a vision of just buying a pair of shoes and then fell in love with shoes and the whole essence of shoes and what that represents for him. The freedom it gives him, the identity it gives him is having this pair of sneakers when he was a kid here in New York City, you know, essentially just trying to make it. You know, it's so funny because, a, you think, who who grows up thinking, boy, I really wanna sell a lot of shoes, but here is an example. That's an example. But and it reminds me of Sam Walton, obviously of Walmart fame. One time he took he and his number 2 guy went to some, I don't know, shopping store in a strip mall somewhere, and and they they got out, and Sam Walton said to the other guy, what did you think? And the guy was like, you know, seems a little dirty on the floor. Right. And Sam Walton was like, but, yeah, but did you see, the the perfumes rack? They had this, this, this. They were showing these perfumes in this way. They were holding them this way. It was, like, perfect. I took all these notes, and he had, like, page after page of notes. And then did you see, like, the the, you know, the clothes hanger rack, you know, where they had all the, you know, closet supplies? Like, it was amazing. And so Sam Walden, like, had this passion for how a store should be laid out, and he he then he created the biggest store ever. Yes. So Except for Amazon now. Right. Right. Right. Big retail store. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So I mean, this for me, vision is the first thing. Once you have the vision, then the next steps is figuring out how to make it come true. And, that's kind of the rest of the book. It's like, okay. Once the vision comes, there's gonna be a lot of adversity along your way. Well, I I wanna I'm gonna get to that in one second, and I I like your nature strategy. I have one I have a a similar strategy, which is but but it doesn't involve nature because I'm not a nature person. Go into a bookstore before they die, and bookstores have all the all the interests are clearly labeled. So from the front entrance, you can see everything that you could possibly be interested in and find a section where you're willing to read every single book in that section. Oh. So if you're if there's some section that it really draws you and, like, you're literally willing to read every book in that section, then that's a potential vision for you. I like that. And if it if it's not true, then just I don't know. To get a bunch of books, and then come back to the bookstore tomorrow and see what you wanna read. Like, just keep doing it, because you don't know. You could also just ask yourself a question, what's the thing that makes me the happiest? Yeah. Every single day that I'm working on. And start saying, okay, I enjoy being around kids, I enjoy being by the beach, I enjoy working out. Okay, there's a place to start from. You could also ask your friends, what's the thing I do the best, where you see me at my happiest? Ask your friends. That's a great point. When am I the happiest? When am I the most fun and most joyful to be around? Can can you come up with a I know I know you have 12 more chapters here. We're going on this, but I really think this is really important. Mhmm. Can you come up with a vision if or a purpose or a passion or whatever if the relationships in your life are not functioning? Like, if you're having a problem with family or friends or spouses or girlfriends or boyfriends or a a problem with substance abuse or whatever. Yeah. I mean, I think you can. I think, it's powerful to have a great team around you, supporting you, and have great relationships around you. But listen, I didn't have all my relationships in order my whole life, you know, with my family, my parents, friends. There was conflict, coaches, and I was still able to achieve great things. So maybe this gets into your next section section, which is turning adversity into advantage. Yes. So what are the different types of adversity that you saw along the people you spoke spoke with? I mean, so many. I mean, I think of a guy, Kyle Maynard, who was born without arms and legs. That's that's adversity. Right? It's like, okay, all of a sudden, he can't walk, he can't grab anything. And he's lived an incredible life. He's climbed Mount Kilimanjaro on his elbows. It took him 12 days to crawl up the mountain, where people die who have legs climbing up this mountain. So so so why what what why did he do that? I think he was inspired I mean, he had a mission to, serve the the fallen heroes from from the army to say to represent, you know, to give back to them. They were they poured the ashes out, for some people that died in in the army at the top there, and he wanted to be an inspiration to other people who have excuses in their life. So his vision was specifically to show how adversity no matter what your adversity is, it could be turned into an advantage. Of course. Yeah. And you can inspire people with it. I I like to say, you know, I've talked about you I've talked about this on on your podcast before, but I've experienced sexual abuse. I've experienced my brother was in prison for a number of years. I've gone through injuries, parents divorced, things like that. Not as bad as a lot of people in the world, but I've gone through adversity. And I was I could have had it all hold me back and say I'm a victim and this is, not fair and why me? But instead, I learned to use it as my story and use its fuel. So how so I I say it a lot too that people, use it at use these things as excuses. Mhmm. And and and there's all many there's many layers. Like, I don't have enough money to do this, or I don't live in Paris, so I can't be a painter. I've got kids. I don't have time, or I'm stuck in this relationship, or I'm married, and I can't get out of it. So so sometimes those are serious. Like, let's say if someone's in jail, they're probably not going to create a car company at the same time. Of course not. So so in some cases, you have to turn adversity into an advantage. In some cases, you have to eliminate the adversity, like, a, get out of jail or or or get out of an abusive relationship or whatever. And, like, my brother, great example, he was in prison for four and a half years for selling drugs to an undercover cop when he was 18 in college. Oh my god. And, he could've he was sentenced 6 to 25 years. And he could've stayed in that whole time if he would've had bad behavior, if he would've said screw the system, this and that, and just messed up. But he got out on 4 and a half years in good behavior. He went to school during prison. He did everything he could to transform his life to make up for it. And then when he got out of prison, he could have said, you know what? No one's gonna hire an ex convict because that doesn't happen. Instead, he created his own vision of wanting to be the best jazz violinist in the world. He knocked on every restaurant door in Columbus when he came back home. He was constantly on the go, hustling, using his story and saying, hey, this is what I did, but here's where I'm going. And this isn't me anymore, and this is what I want to provide to the world, and I have a great talent to offer through giving music. And his music, when I watch him live, it's like he puts his whole heart and soul, from all the pain he had from those four and a half years, it comes down as music and it creates something beautiful. Without that experience of adversity, he would not be the man he is today, the the loving father and and husband he is, and he would not be able to share this gift with the world the way he's doing it. I I like, you know, 2 things you just you just said there. He said, here's what I did, and here's where I'm going, and he could demonstrate that because he could show all the things he had achieved Yes. You know, while he was in jail, and then, b, he was giving he he offered something of value. Yes. Like, so they they would bet like a restaurant, for instance, would make more money if they had a good, I don't know, jazz violinist Exactly. Working there. So so he was giving something that they couldn't say, no. We just can't hire you, because they they they would lose an opportunity. Exactly. So you have to kind of it's like you said. You know, he turned that adversity specifically into time to develop his skills and to focus, and then he knew how to communicate those skills in a way that could serve others. Exactly. So what's an ex that's what's another example from the book? For adversity? Mhmm. I mean, we talked about Probably everybody's got an example. Everyone that's the thing. Everyone I've never met anybody, like, on my podcast, and I'm sure on your podcast Who did raise adversity. Right. Exactly. It's stunning. And that's Actually, because I don't know if you really need to have, like, a s**tty life to to be successful, but but it seems like that's 99.99%. Here's the thing. The bigger the dream, the bigger the goals we have, adversity is gonna come our way no matter what. There's gonna be more challenges for us to overcome, to embrace, to learn how to get off to get over to get that next step. And that's the thing, like, everyone I interviewed on my podcast could have gone to any chapter that I talk about, because these are all common principles that they've faced, overcome, that they've embraced. And that's the thing most people are like, well, it should come easy. But it's like, if you have a big dream, if you want to make millions, if you want to do those things, there's gonna be obstacles already. You don't have to create obstacles for yourself. I mean, I think part of the thing about adversity, part of the thing about mistakes, which you don't learn in school I mean, I I try to tell this to my daughter. She calls me up and says, oh, I got a 100 in biology. And I said, well, that's really disappointing. And she's like, what are you talking about? It was a 100. And and I said, well, in the real world, you know, you're you're good if maybe 50% of your decisions work out. Wow. And in school, that would be called an f. That would be failure. Right. And but in the real world, that would be success. So it seems like something's wrong if you're getting if the 100 are coming too easy. I'm not bragging about her because I'm trying to change her behavior. And so I I try, like, when I teach her tennis, for instance, I try to make her make mistakes because you only when you make mistakes, that's when you figure out how to, you start really thinking, how can I adjust so that I'm not making a mistake? If you just hit the 100, you don't think. And it's the it's the repeated thinking, particularly when you're younger, that builds, much faster connections between the synapses and the brain. I like that. And, it's very important, actually, for skill learning to actually make lots of mistakes. Mhmm. Because then you you're doing it over and over and over again, so you stop making mistakes. Yeah. And one of the chapters I talk about that could also relate to this is is mastering your body. I tell people to experience pain every single day. Okay. So how should I do that? You should do some type of workout where it's really uncomfortable. You know, I used to have a trainer, and Claudia, my wife, can attest to this. I would get back after an hour, hour and a half, and I was in so much pain and agony, and and I was sweating, and I was gross. I didn't enjoy it. I didn't really enjoy I mean, not that you have to enjoy everything in life, but I that wasn't good for me. Like, I ultimately stopped because it was so annoying for me. If it was oh, if it's not annoying or it doesn't work for you, then you shouldn't do it. But I think you should experience some type of discomfort every single day to learn and to grow. I think the only way you're gonna grow is if there's discomfort over your learning from mistakes. Right? Yeah. That's the way we learn and connect new things and figure out how to, you know, move through it. Like like okay. So so let me ask you. So I do, like, a 100 push ups without stopping. Yeah. Or going to as many people That's alright. I can't do. Without stopping. How many push ups can you do without stopping? Maybe 45, maybe. Okay. Can you do a 100? Would that be No. I couldn't right now. Right. I I could probably train myself to do it. I bet you I could do 40. 5 minute exercise is going to make you expand your mind and your body. Well, somebody once asked Muhammad Ali, how many push ups do you do a day? And he said, I don't know. I don't start counting until I'm in pain. Oh, that's good. Yeah. I like that. So so, okay. Let's say it's something a little more abstract, like like, I love writing, for instance. How can I experience more discomfort or pain each day in writing? And I try to do that, but it's a hard conceptually to think about. I mean I try to be more open, but there's only so many there's only so there's only so much blood you can bleed before it seems almost narcissistic. I think you could do exercises that will bring out things that you don't like doing, or that expand you in a different way. So maybe only writing in a haiku or these different formats. I'm not sure these are the formats of writing style, but only writing in a certain way as an exercise for 5 minutes. Yeah. Or it could be I like that. Or it could be, okay, I'm going to call someone, and that I haven't talked to in a long time that I really don't wanna talk to, and That's a great one for me. Exactly. Because I do not like doing that. Exactly. So sometimes I'm gonna start doing that. That's painful, like, hey, no, I just wanted to connect and say I've been an a*****e, and I I or whatever. Like I should've reached out, and I really wanna build our relationship stronger. Is there anything I can do to make that happen? Like some that's uncomfortable for people. Yeah. That is. Or or writing you know, it's like, do something good that's uncomfortable. Like writing, a gratitude letter to someone that you've had a, you know, fight with, like telling you telling them all the things you appreciate about them. I would it would be all day and night for years for me Exactly. Before I get home with that. But I mean, there's different things we could do every day. It doesn't have to be physical pain, but I think the body, you know, if we talk about mastering your your body, it's important in my mind to have the energy to be able to create great things in the world, to have the focus, the clarity, to be able to make the decisions we have throughout our days. And if our if our energy, our health is not in control, is not under, you know, in in alignment to our vision, then it's gonna be hard to make those decisions. Well, then you get into how, and this is related to dealing with adversity, but you call the next session section, cult cultivate a champion's mindset. Yes. So what and and I don't know if you've read Mindset by Carol Dweck, where she talks about growth mindset. Yeah. Yeah. And so is it so so talk about what is a champion's mindset? What can I do Mhmm? To get a champion's mindset? Well, here's the thing. And I'm an old man. Yeah. So, like, you know, We can all get it because we can all lose it very quickly. Yeah. And I'll give you an example. So I know you don't watch sports much, but at the end of The the first sports I watched in a really long time was last night, actually, in a bar, in I don't drink at all, but I did it because the final trailer of Star Wars was happening during this game. No way. Yeah. Yeah. Was it amazing? It was amazing. And the and the bar was packed not for the game, but for Shut up. All people like me who wanted to see the Star Wars trailer. I still haven't seen I don't really watch Star Wars that much, but, that's cool. I'll have to check that out. So at the end of, you know, the World Series, or the Super Bowl, or big playoff games, there's usually an MVP of the of the game. Someone who does something incredible, and so they go interview that person right away, like, how'd you do it or how do you feel or or whatever the question they'll ask them. And there's usually 2 response, 2 types of responses. And the first one is the Muhammad Ali approach, since you already mentioned him. The Muhammad Ali approach, which is I'm the greatest. I'm the greatest, I knew I was going to win. None of these fools could stop me. I train harder, blah blah blah, all these different things. It's like, their ego is so strong. Right? They have But he does that, that's almost strategic. So he has the ego, but he also wants to scare the next competitor off. If there's a Floyd money, Mayweather, there's the same way, like, no one can ever beat me in the world. No one will ever beat me. I'm the greatest. Right? It's like people have this confidence. The other approach is, first, I wanted to say thanks to God and Jesus for giving me the strength, and without God, nothing is possible. And all of it goes to him for the glory, that type of response. So what's better? So they're both right because they have an incredible belief in whatever it is that they're focusing on, whether it's themselves. But the guy who says I'm the greatest, isn't he gonna be more easily disappointed I think. Than afraid not to be So he has a fixed mindset. I think it's I think it's I think it's gonna be harder over time with that person, but he But, like, look look at the the the length of Muhammad Ali's career Yes. Versus George Foreman's career, for instance. Exactly. Exactly. No. I don't think it's good to have the ego fixated on yourself. But the what I'm the point I'm making is, like, the belief is so unwavering either way. They have a belief that God is guiding them or giving them the strength, and they're putting the faith in God or the belief in themselves that they've done the work, and they've been committed to this. So so in some sense, having faith that they've done the work Faith. Is is is really important. And It's the sense of belief, like, all All you can do is preparation. So if you if you have faith that you did the right preparation Yeah. And you know what that right preparation is, then the results are kind of out of your hands Yeah. But you have the right mind you're going into it with the right mindset. But the difference between the very top and second place, and third place, or whatever, of those that don't make it, is, like, they don't believe in themselves enough. And so they haven't done the work, or they haven't seen the the the results over time to believe in themselves enough. Where does where does talent play a role here? Like, at what percentage of that final, leap towards greatness is is talent be the one that propels you? You've gotta have incredible talent to get to that position in the first place. You you know There's a lot of talented people who can't get there because their mindset isn't there, and they don't believe in themselves enough. And and, also, I would say, it's not necessarily you don't necessarily have to be number 1 in the world to do great things in the world. No. No. No. No. So Not. You know, for instance, I was having a conversation with someone. He was explaining to me the difference between the number 300 tennis player in the world and the number 1 tennis player in the world. So the number 300 tennis player in the world said, I can put a quarter on the back line and serve and hit that quarter. And the difference between me and the number 1 is the number 1 could put a dime on the back line. Right. Right. Right. And so it's a very tiny difference between 301. Yeah. And 1. I could probably have, like, a a beach ball, maybe, 1 out of, like, 50. Right? So but still, that that could be good. Right? That could be enough to be, like, anybody you ever wanna be in tennis. Right. Exactly. So or if you're an entrepreneur, not everybody is the number 1 entrepreneur in the world. And here's the difference probably with between 300 and number 1 in tennis, is maybe the number 300 could hit a quarter as well sometimes, but when the pressure's on in the right moments, could he hit that quarter or could he hit that dime consistently? And that's the difference between number 1, is he doesn't let his mindset or her mindset hold her back when the pressure hits because he's done the work and he believes so much in himself and he's able to remove those fears from his mind. Right. And I I I I also wanna ask, that's why I'm being number 300 in the world. Yeah. Of course. But even to get to number 300, he had to have, like, a champion's mindset Exactly. Along the way. Yes. Different levels of champion's mindset. Yeah. And so that's why I'm I'm wondering if maybe talent is that quarter versus dime Yes. Difference. So But there's some people who could hit that dime or a half of a dime, anytime when the pressure isn't on. Maybe in practice, they can hit it every time. When pressure's on, they can't do it because they don't believe in themselves in those moments. How do you deal with the pressure in those moments? How do you practice dealing with that? It's literally practicing it, doing reps, doing, you know, test games, doing other playoff games. For me, it's it's very fine level. I mean, I had a sports psychologist when I was in that phase of my life. I was constantly doing visualization techniques. There's breathing strategies. It's it's it's hard. It just takes a lot of time and energy, like, letting go. It reminds me of, a story about, this guy named Mikhail Batvinic, was the world chess champion in the 19 forties, and, he would practice he would play practice games with his opponent smoking, right into his face Mhmm. So that Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that he would get used to and he hated smoking. Uh-huh. So he would get used to the most uncomfortable playing environment possible. Sure. So he could learn how to focus. Smart. Yeah. Yeah. In football, in college, what we would do in practice is we would have loud speakers on the field with loud, scream like noise, as if it was like fans in the audience that we couldn't hear when we were calling the play. So we had to learn, like, sign language, essentially, during football, so we could know what we were doing. Silent SnapCaps, so you couldn't hear if someone was hiking the ball. So we would just enact, you know, the most pressure filled situations possible in practice. So so part of the the trick here is, not trick because it's because it it sounds intensely difficult, but this is related to causing some slight pain for yourself. Yes. You know? So, again It's complicated. Creating, like, prepare almost, like, not turn not just turning adversity into an advantage, but also preparing for some adversity Yes. Like, looking at your worst case scenarios, which sort of reminds me a little bit of actually marketing. So in marketing, you wanna, answer people's objections before they ask them so that it builds trust. Exactly. So and it's the same thing almost in how you, build faith in yourself, is that you're gonna answer all of your potential objections about the skill you're developing. Yep. And, I interviewed a guy named Jim Aframo, who's a sports psychologist. He's got a great book out called, Think and Train Like a Champion. I love working. Who's worked with all these champions, Olympians, and discovered, like, the science about how to do this. He was like, you know, in practice, you wanna get up and play like you're in the championship every practice. In the games, you wanna come down with your energy level, actually, because you're usually too high and you wanna relax your body. Most people are too tense in games as opposed to relaxed. They put too much emphasis on it. So he's, like, come up and practice, come down during the real thing. That's really interesting, the come down. I would not have expected that. Yes. You would think that in the game, you gotta put in your awe. Mhmm. But, this is a guy another guy Like, what happens if you put in your awe? It's not good for you? Is it Or you think you're disappointed? I've got a great example for myself, but a guy, Nick Simmons, who's a gold not a gold menace, but an Olympic medalist, and, I think 7 time US champion in 800 meter, race in track and field. I just had him on, and he talked about, you know, before the race, like, the 24 hours before the world championships, the Olympics, what he does, he does everything to get his mind off of the game, off of the race. He'll play video games, he'll watch movies, because our adrenaline is gonna be pumping so much as it is. He says it's not for about 15 minutes before the race where I actually start to focus. Otherwise, he's gonna lose all of his energy. I've done this many times before, but like the night before, I'm like, let's go. I'm so amped up. I'm like, running around. I'm like telling people, I'm like, so pumped, and then in the game, I'm like, I can barely walk. I'm exhausted. Yeah. And I'm like, I just spent all my energy in the anticipation of this. It's funny, because I guess, like, I do something similar whenever I give a a public talk. Yeah. I watch at for at least the 24 hours beforehand, all I do is watch stand up comedy. Nice. So I'm not thinking about my talk at all. Do that, but you can also get in that environment of, like, comedians, you know? Because then because yeah. And also, you see how, you know, comedians, as opposed to the normal public speaker, they change their voices. They they know how to walk around the stage. They know how to, like, play with the crowd a little bit. So these are all critical components of public speaking that most public speakers never think about. Yeah. But at least I'm just watching for entertainment, and then my subconscious is absorbing this other stuff. What's your favorite one to watch so I can listen? Louis CK is, like, the number 1, but also lately, Amy Schumer is a genius. She's good, And, lately, I've been watching, Anthony Jazellek, who's not as well known. Okay. And I like seeing, Andy Samberg when not he doesn't do stand up as much. Oh, okay. But I like his he he gives, like, speeches like he'll open up the Emmys or whatever, and it's almost like him doing Yeah. He's hilarious. It's almost like him doing stand up, and it's incredible. I saw him do I went to the Facebook conference, like, 4 3, 4 years ago, and he came out as, a photographer. I've seen that video. It was hilarious. That was great. I was there, and I was like, this is unbelievable. Yeah. Well, he did the Harvard commencement speech and imitating Mark Zuckerberg. Mark Zuckerberg. And that was hilarious. So so that's what I do. Yeah. Very cool. So let's see. The next section, I'm I'm going to it, develop hustle Yeah. Which I see a lot in the entrepreneurial space, but what do you mean in general? I mean, another great example I talk about my brother in the book is when I would go watch him perform at these, like, small little dive bar jazz clubs after he got out of prison for a number of years, trying to make a business for himself and make money. He would perform in front of like 15, 20 people, and then afterwards, he would go out and take his CDs and hand them to each person 1 by 1 and say, will you buy a copy? You know, he's maybe only gonna make a $100 from like the door or whatever at the bar, but then afterwards he can make additional money by selling the CDs. And most artists will just put him on a stand in the back and like say, leave $10 or $15. He would literally go out after breaks and say, thank you for coming, will you buy a CD? He'd put it in their hands and say, will you buy it? And wait for them to respond. If they didn't buy it, they'd be like, okay, cool, we can move on to the next. They would stand there and say, will you buy it? And I think the shameless promotion of the way he did things, for his passion. It wasn't like selling, like, a used car or something. Right. It was like, this is my dream. Will you It fly into it? It's so funny, because I've had, Luke from 2 Live Crew on the podcast, and Luke said something very similar, which is just that he he had to hustle. Like, he had to get in front of every radio Yes. Station. Like, here's this rap we just did. It's very Miami. Stop playing all the New York and California stuff. Let's go all Miami. And he would go and develop his Miami sound Yeah. On all the radio stations. Exactly. I mean, all the great minds that you've interviewed, and people that you know, they've all they didn't just like go through life, and things were just handed to them to get to where they wanted to be. They worked harder than anyone else, and then they started to get smart about how they did it as well to leverage it. I think the smart you have to you can't most people don't know the the art of the hustle. Yes. So I think along let's just say for the heck of it that it does take that 10000 hours to achieve, like, greatness, or or let's just say somewhere between 1,010,000 hours. But somewhere along the way, you also have to learn what the correct ways to hustle are and what the incorrect ways. Like, if your brother was on an airplane, he wouldn't just hand his album to everybody on the airplane. He's handing it to the people who already just listened to him. Exactly. So Yeah. And also, you gotta learn how to it comes back to your health, which we'll talk about in a second, is you can't just hustle for years years and neglect your health and be like, well, I'm hustling, and I'm not sleeping in the resolve of it. That's not serving you, and you can't you're not gonna have the energy to perform. That's so true. Like, I never trust anyone who tells me they only need 3 hours of sleep at night. Like, you really need 6 at least. I I was gonna say 8. Yeah. But I like 8 myself, but, like, 6 hours, I feel like it's the minimum Yeah. To recover for if you're putting out that rate of work, and you're producing that much energy, your body needs to recover. Your mind needs to relax. Yeah. I need I need 8 personally, but 6 minimum. I need, like, 10 personally. Exactly. But what I try to do is, honestly, I try to do 8 and then 2 in the afternoon if I can. Yeah. The hustle's a I mean, I would say the hustle is kind of like the key component for me and where I've got to where I'm at. You were totally hustling. Because I didn't feel like I was smart. I didn't feel like I had any talent or skills after football, which I didn't. I didn't go to business school. But you had the skill of learning what it was like to prepare for excellence. Yes. I had that, but I was like a 23 year old punk, and who would pay me money to do anything at that time? And now I've been able to build a a fairly nice business series. And and I would suggest, people should go back and listen to the very first podcast you and I did, because you described in detail how you hustled to build, I mean, you totally hustled probably more than just about any one of my podcast guests. Like, getting doing all these LinkedIn meetups Yeah. Yeah. And then and then transforming that into the webinars and and so on. And so you kept building it to the next level. That's it. I did, like, 20 events around the country in 1, you know, 1 year. I was doing sending messages 1 by 1 to people on LinkedIn to connect, and get on the phone, and interview people. I was doing the stuff that was tedious, like, work that most people don't enjoy doing, but I feel like that's what helped build the relationships that I have now. Yeah. No. That's, the the developed hustle is really critical, and people think, okay. I'm just gonna, hit a golf ball 20,000 times, and but you're still not gonna get into any big tournaments. Like, you've gotta now take it to the next level. Like, find the people in your industry, whether it's golf or or buying good real estate for your store or finding the right manufacturers to make your shoes or figuring out Exactly. The exact wires that are gonna hold you between those two towers. You know? So what they need. And so you talk about, master your body, but I wanna I wanna combine that with practice positive habits. Yes. So so unrelated to the areas that you're, achieving greatness in, what are positive habits that you would recommend people people do? Yeah. I think what is it? I think Brian Tracy or Jim Rohn or something like that said that, what do they say? Something like, successful people are simply those with successful habits. And it's very simple. These are habits that are challenging sometimes to get started, but once you have these in place, I'm talking about the first two hours of your day and then things you do throughout the day. Once you have these in place, I feel like you're just setting yourself up to win in a much bigger way. So and this is where I think it's really important to not be bogged down by either negative relationships Yes. Or negative emotional situations or, again, like, some kind of substance abuse or any kind of, like not just substance abuse, but any kind of addiction. And then, I mean, what are some successful habits that are, let's say, starter habits to practice? Here's a starter one that I believe everyone should be doing. It's something our mom's taught us from an early age. What did your mom tell you every morning to do? Wash your hands. Wash your hands. It's a great one. Yeah. What else do you want? Brush your teeth. Yes. It's a great one too. These are simple things we should be doing. These are I like how how Elrod's got one. Take a glass of water, because he says it's like an inner bath. Exactly. Yeah. So Miracle Morning. Right? I love that guy. Something that I started doing only a few years ago. I wish I was doing my whole life, but my mom always said make my bed. And I never did it when I was a kid. I never did it. I never did it. I was like, whatever. I just threw myself around. And I always come back, and it was like this messy, you know, bed that I come back to. And I started doing this a few years ago. Do you remember the mastermind talks with the the monk? Yeah. Yeah. That talked about making your bed? I started doing it after that. But I tell you what, everything started changing for me throughout my day. Here's what I noticed, I started making my bed every single day, and I felt clear afterwards. I felt like I accomplished something. I was like, I'm building momentum in the first 5 minutes by making my bed and making it clean. When I came back into my room throughout the day, because I worked from home, I didn't feel like I had a messy space. So I felt like everything was cleared, ready to go for me to sleep in a good night, as opposed to being sloppy. That that is a good one, because, because it has it has a feeling of discipline to it. Discipline. And there's a reason why the army, the navy, all these people focus on making your bed. There's a reason for it, is it starts you being disciplined first thing in the morning, keeps you committed to the rest of the day. You know, I I don't do that mostly because I wake up earlier than Claudia, so Sure. Sure. It's harder to to do it. But, I always try to write down, 10 odd things to be grateful for. Like, it's too easy for me to say, okay. I'm grateful for my my children and Claudia and my health. Yeah. So I try to think of, like, you know, you you know, oh, there's there's noise outside, and it woke me up. So now I'm able to you know, I'm gonna wake up a little tiny bit earlier today to start my day. Yeah. So I'll be grateful for that or or whatever. It's so noisy because I live in such a great city, so I'm thankful to to be here. Yes. So so just quirky things, because it challenges the gratitude muscle. Of course. Gratitude's something that I talk about where it's, you know, on my voicemail if you call me. I remember this. Yeah. The first thing I'd say is, you know, tell me what you're most grateful for, and then I'll respond respond to you. Also, I create a list in the morning of what I'm most grateful for, so I'm glad I know you did that. And then also at night, the last person I talk to, before I go to bed, I ask them what are the 3 things they're most grateful for. I think it's important to That's a good idea. Pull it out of other people as well. Because sometimes we forget I'm gonna start trying to Claudia should say, what are the 3 things you're most grateful for today? Yeah. And let her share, and then you share, these are my most things I'm most grateful for. You you know what When finished a day like that, it's so powerful. You know what I do, and I tell my kids to do is at the at the very last thing of the day is ask yourself, who did I help today? So that means the next day, you know you're gonna be asking yourself that question at the end of the day, so you're constantly get figuring out, like, how to answer that question. That's powerful. So so that's that's my my eve now everyone talks about the the miracle morning, but, like, there's also a miracle evening you could do as well. Exactly. You know, like, and as you said, like, you preparing yourself well for sleep, because sleep is so critical, and that includes digestion and eating habits before, you know, at night, because if you if you bog down on eating at midnight, the second before you go to sleep, you're not gonna really have a pleasant sleep. For sure. So, I think, you know, there's some other habits of, like, the the wealthiest people in the world. You know, they they wake up earlier than most people. They read something every single day. They they watch so many hours less of TV every week than most people. They're creating more. So these are, like, just basic habits. Like, find something every day that you can create, whether that's a 5 minute, poem that you're writing or a video you wanna put out there or podcast. I think that is so important. Like, well, I always recommend people write down 10 ideas a day, but you can fine tune that in lots of different ways. And I I think even even just 2 minutes of writing something down, like you said, like a a 3 line poem, is is powerful. You know, yesterday, we were talking about comedians earlier. Yesterday, I listened to, an interview that this comedian, Anthony Jeselnik, did, and he used to be a writer for Jimmy Fallon. Uh-huh. And he would have to write 70 jokes a day. Wow. So imagine doing that over years. He became an extremely good joke writer. Like, it's incredible, and then you see him in action. You could tell. This is, like, a hard developed skill. So Amazing. But it just required him sitting down and just doing that every day. Here's the thing. I was I was talking with Michael Port. Do you know Michael Port? Yes. Speaker. I talked with him a few weeks ago, and he was talking about, you know, all the haters in the world, the people that are critics of our work, things like that. These people aren't creators, because when we're creating something every day, we don't have the time to criticize other people Right. And to critique people. That's a really good point. So focus on creating. You're not gonna be criticizing other people or critiquing because you're gonna be so focused on what you wanna create. I have to be honest, though, like, all of these ways do sound like, like, that that sounds like a strategy for how do you how do I deal with the hate comments, you know, because there's always hate comments on everything you do. Yes. But still, it hurts my feelings. Of course. I get you know, somebody let's say there's a 1,000 hate comments, on something that you do that you're proud of. One of them is gonna, by accident, figure out what button to push that your mother pushed when you were 2 years old. They're gonna leave a one star review and say this is the worst book ever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's all it's hard because why do they do that? Why do they take the time out of their lives to, like, ruin your to put their put their hand in your wallet and take money out? Think about it. Do you know any New York Time best selling author, and do you, have you ever left a one star review for another author? Never. Why? Yeah. And I've never written a YouTube comment. Okay. And why have you ever left a negative or bad review for someone? Because I don't want to hurt them. Okay. You don't want to hurt them, but you're also like I know, and by the way, I don't read books that I know are going to be one star by the end. Like usually I can tell right away, so Right. Right. But you're also, you're like, you can appreciate the work and the energy that goes into creating something based on the years that you've done it, and you understand like, okay, maybe it doesn't work for me, but I'm not going to leave a negative review. No, that's true. I mean, think about it. How long did it take you to write this book? It took, I mean And you're like, dyslexic, so how long did it take you? Exactly. I mean, it took a while, and it took a lot of people helping me, and it was a couple years process of writing a proposal and then writing the book. Gosh, I remember, it was like a year and a half ago, we were talking about, you were just shopping around Yes. For the book proposals and stuff, so So it's been a while. It's been a process of editing back and forth, number of people reading it, my whole team helping me edit it, because I can't edit this thing. Well, which segues into the next sec section, which I have found, particularly lately, but all my life, so I've started a bunch of different businesses. Uh-huh. And the key to success is building that winning team. That's it. And, you know, it's amazing We were just talking about this before. Yeah. Like, and and it's amazing, like, now I'm thinking about, angel investing and investing in general. The the number one difference between the successful investments and the failed investments has nothing to do with product. Like, they they could have the best product in the world if the team is not, like, a plus quality every single person, then it's a failed investment. That's it. Yeah. And you can't it's hard to you have to be a really good judge of people, and, often, that's a very difficult skill to develop. Yeah. A good guy I interviewed in the book for this is, Scooter Braun. He is the guy who found Justin Bieber. Sure. I mean, I know Adam Braun very well. Adam Braun's been on the podcast. Yes. Absolutely great. So so Scooter, when I had him on to talk about this, building and winning team, he was like, you know, I used to want to do everything on my own and it was exhausting. It was exhausting and I got results, but at what cost? And he's like, and I was never able to build it to the place I wanted to be on my own, with all the artists he was managing, Justin Bieber, stuff like that. He said, when I brought on the team of all stars, sometimes I didn't do it the way I wanted them to do it. You know, maybe I got frustrated because it wasn't my way, but it was still a great job, and sometimes it was even better than I could have done it. And I realized that I can never do anything truly great on my own. It always takes a great team around you. It it does. And I'll give I'll give 2 examples. 1 is when I was starting my first company, which was successful, I didn't realize this at first, and then but then I realized it. In that moment, it was like a light switch went on. I'm like, oh my gosh. Now I can not just clone myself, but make better versions of myself. Like, so like, I was the programmer for my company, but then I got a guy, and I and people think you need money to build a team. You don't need money. So I got a guy who simply wanted to learn Yes. The style of Internet programming we were doing. And so he would do he was a great skilled programmer, but he had never done programming for the Internet, so he just would do it as a challenge for himself. He was on his own path to excellence, and I fortunately found him because, again, what goes wrong comes around. I had helped him in the past and so on. And so so suddenly, he was doing my work, and he was part of my team. And then, again, I would, hold contests for designers to find my designers, and and and the contest would be the projects we were getting paid for. Right. Exactly. So so, it was there's you don't always you can find clever ways to build your team. Yes. So because everybody we're all working towards some vision, as you as you mentioned. And if you could kinda you know, money is, again, one form of payment, but there's other ways to help people, you know, achieve their visions so they can help you. Exactly. Yeah. And I you know, and people will say, well, there's individual athletes, they have teams, you know, there might be the tennis player, the But he's got the coach. He's got the coach, he's got the sports psychologist, he's got the manager, the trainer, the nutritionist. He's got his family who's on his team that has to be supportive. If they're not supportive, he's not going to make it. You know, he's gonna have that negative, self doubt or whatever. Okay. So what if you're I'm gonna make you pick the worst, situ Well, okay. What if you're in jail, like your brother? Yeah. How did how did he build his team while he was in jail? It's a great example because luckily we were very supportive, and we went every weekend to support him. So he had family? He had family. Where did he get the violin training? He did it with family. I mean, my parents trained him since he was 4 years old. Wow. And he went to classes. I mean, he was doing it as a classical violinist. He was one of the top in the country as a pioneer. Okay. What if what if you grew up in a ghetto where everyone tells you, where where your parents are nowhere, and everyone tells you you can't get out of the ghetto, like, they're doing Yeah. Yeah. The challenge is you gotta be aware of this. You gotta have, like, the self awareness to be like, okay, my family isn't supporting me. So hopefully, you're finding inspiration from somewhere where you can get say, okay, there's a boys and girls club I can go to, or from my teachers, I can have some some connection with them after class, where they can teach me more things, or I can ask questions from people that inspire me. Find someone that inspires you, and ask them to mentor you if you don't have this from your family. And and I would go, a step further and say, like, if you're in a jail or in the ghetto, you might not have the mentor physically in front of you, but read as many books as you can. Of course. He was reading every single day. He was like reading the dictionary. He was doing everything. And the thing is, in prison, they have programs as well. Even though you're in prison, they have, you can take college cla*s. So he went to the university there at prison and he was taking advantage of every opportunity that came to him. There were other inmates who were still good people, they made mistakes but they're good people that he surrounded himself with artists. He would send me artwork that other inmates would create for him to send to me, and he would write me letters, and I'm sure they're still inspiring people in prison Yeah. Even though they've made mistakes. You know, and, one technique I find very effective on writing is I find a story that I love, like, love beyond belief, and I'll personally rewrite it. Mhmm. Because that makes me think of, for each line, what was the author thinking when he made that decision? Like, when he said, the sun had 15 minutes yet to live as opposed to the sun was going down in 15 minutes, what how did he did it add or subtract to the story? You know? What was he thinking? So when you when you do things like that or for for your brother probably, looking up you know, playing all sorts of, like, classical violin pieces and stuff, it was probably a good practice. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. So, it's interesting. Yep. But that that was a virtual way to mentor. Yeah. Of course. I mean, now you can you can build your your team through books, through podcasts, through things like that. That's like your own mentor, like you said. And and, you know, and, you know, also, there's a lot of websites like Fiverr dotcom Yes. Or freelance.com, where, and freelance.com, the the CEO has been on my podcast. But there's all these websites where for for $5, you can find people to to help you. Maybe and it might not be the a team, but Right. Right. To be the plus team. Yeah. Exactly. So, and then finally, your your last section is live a life of service Yes. Which we talked about before. It's kinda coming full circle. Yep. But I I do agree that, money is and and success I I shouldn't even have used money first there, but but some sort of degree of contentment and success is just a byproduct of living a life of service, because that's the part that feels really good. You know, it's in some way You look at Scooter Braun as an example. Yeah. Like, the guy found talent and saved those kids' lives, so he became they became megastars. Exactly. And then they also entertained tens of millions of people. Yeah. They serve a lot of people through music and through giving back in that way. I mean, Adam Braun's another example we talk about here. He you know, here's the thing. It feels like it's almost selfish to give back because it always feels the best for me. When I give to someone or I'm giving back or I'm building a school, it's like it's the greatest gift I can give myself is to, like, see these kids and experience this gift of giving. So in some ways, it's very selfish to give and be in service, because it feels so good. But this is like, what's the point if we're just doing it all for ourselves? We're just trying to make money for ourselves, we're just trying to gain for our benefit without like, we were we have a huge gift. The way I look at it, it's like, we were given this world, the world is here for us to experience, and it's our duty to give back to the world. As cheesy as that may sound, but it's like, we were born here, we're born in America, we're born wherever we were, we have resources available for us. It's we can't take it for granted. I feel like it's our mission to give back. And the way I talk about giving back as well, if you don't have money or time or all these different things, you can give back and live in service every single day, just by walking down the street and smiling at someone, or by opening the door, or doing something nice at that point. Yes. I need to a point. And that's a good practice. It's a great practice. It should be the way we live every single moment. I'm constantly opening doors for people, I'm constantly saying, how are you? I'm constantly smiling when I walk down the street, as opposed to putting my head down. I just smile at people, and I love seeing a little smirk come from them at the last moment when we walk by, they just smile as well, and I'm like, you know what? If they had a smile What if there was a little girl, though? Are you feeling a little creepy? Well, I'm not doing that. I mean, you have to understand, have the awareness of every situation, but I might put my hand on this a high five or say something nice about her shoes or something. You know, it's like you've gotta have the awareness of who you're around and things like that. But always to be a better person and to leave everyone better than when you found them. I think that's the way we should be. Well, I I think again about your the guy, Martinez, the shoe I know Martinez. Yeah. Yeah. He I I think about that because, again, you would think, normally, someone who starts a shoe company, he's basically in it to build up a shoe company and sell a lot of shoes and make a lot of money. But the way you describe him, is as having this passion about shoes and what you know, our feet are so important because they they travel us everywhere in the world. Oh, yeah. And, and being able to take care of them and and enhance them in some way Exactly. Through footwear is actually a very critical vision and and life of purpose. Exactly. And it wasn't My gut would be to say he's in it for the money, but that wasn't it at all when you describe him. Exactly. Yeah. And, you know, I look at, someone like the guy from Toms shoes who's like, okay. He's making money, but he's also every pair. There's another pair that goes to a kid who doesn't have shoes. And Scooter Braun, I've, said recently when I interviewed him, he said, you know, everything I create now has a charitable component attached to it. Otherwise, I don't do it. We don't attach a charitable component, but it's just for our financial benefit. It doesn't serve me and other people, and it's not what I wanna do. And I find when when you interview the richest people in the world, maybe this isn't true, but I find the people, the wealthiest people I interview, when I ask them about it, how they made their wealth, they say the more and more I give back or donate money or give my money away, the more money I make. Well or their vision is such that they're the the again, the money is a byproduct. Yes. That they're performing some service for the world where the world enormously benefits. Yes. And then just as a natural consequence, because the world values this so much, money or value is created. So take Ed Williams, who created, Blogger, Twitter, and Medium, and he grew up in a town of 369 people, and now suddenly he creates these networks that connect the entire world, and and we kinda boiled down in the interview. He just wanted to make more friends. So he created a way for, like, people all over the world could be friends with each other. Amazing. So And that's a lot of value. Yeah. It's a lot of value. Value. Because, I mean, there's how many tens of millions of people use those services. Sure. Sure. So Amazing. Yeah. So living a life of service for me, it's it shouldn't just be about our benefit. It should be about serving our dreams and the benefit of all in that process. And and what's, you know, and and that that's the last section of the book, but I wanna ask, what's the process of of reinvention? Because Mhmm. Take so I'm gonna I I'm I'm sorry I keep referring to other podcasts, but, like, so I interviewed Coolio, right, the rapper, and he did Gangster's Paradise in 1994, and that was sort of, like, his last huge hit. And then after that, you know, he he I don't wanna say he didn't quite properly reinvent himself because he has tried a number of occasions, but he also had problems with substance abuse and and things like that afterwards. I think it's kind of important to always read to to go from greatness to greatness because you're not gonna do the same thing all your life. You have to kind of, like, go move from in some cases, you have to move from ambition to meaning. In some cases, you have to find another area where you could, you know, use your your talents. And some people, you know, the great the great athletes sometimes don't know how to translate this. They live in the past, they focus on what they created, and it's closer to what they're going to create. But people like George Foreman found a way to turn this mean personality killing people in the boxing ring to be, how can I be the most lovable person in the world, and sell 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars of George Foreman grills? Yeah. I think he made like 300,000,000 on the George Foreman Grill. Much more than he's ever made on He's able to reinvent himself. I look at, Madonna, as someone who could have been stuck in the eighties with Like A Virgin Right. And all these other songs, but every 3, 4 years, she comes out with a new twist, a new angle that that's present with the times, and she's always relevant, it feels like. You know, for 20 something years, she's able to be relevant. So some people learn how to adjust and evolve into a new vision and other people get stuck on the past vision they have. Some people could be stuck on winning that gold medal, and that's what they live off the rest of their life if they don't learn to translate those skills into a new vision. I think that's really, really important. Like, you can't just walk around the street wearing that gold medal. That's it. You gotta be able to creating. Yeah. You you you you did everything it takes to know how to be the type of person to get that gold medal. Now, you can use that body of knowledge that you gained into any other area of life. Company. Go start a non profit. Go some do something new. Right. Be a podcast, whatever it may be. Or a public speaker about these things. Something, where you can leverage it and continue to serve and give back. Or you could write a book called The School of Greatness That's it. By Lewis Howes, h o w e s, The School of Greatness. I'm getting it more now, the subtitle, A Real World Guide to Living Bigger, Loving Deeper, and Leaving a Legacy. And, Lewis, thanks a lot. This is such an excellent book. I really recommend it to anybody listening, and I'm gonna recommend it on my my book list this month as well. So really really appreciate you coming on to the the show. Thanks so much, James. For more from James, check out the James Altucher Show on the Stansbury Radio Network at stansburyradio.com and get yourself on the free insider's list today.
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