now fear is a really powerful thing but
when you surrender and say I’m not
scared of fear it’s unbelievably
liberating and we set we set something
up in our brain we program our brain one
way and that’s our limit and until we
can get past that and see what we’re
really made of and like get
uncomfortable and experience pain
you can’t real you don’t really don’t
know what you’re capable of
there’s not a day that goes by when my
head hits the pillow where I don’t say
to myself like you know did I maximize
the day and am I and you know am i aware
of my mortality need motivation whattcha
top 10 with hashtag believe nation
what’s that believe nation it’s heaven
my one word is believe and I believe in
you I believe you have Michael Jordan
level talent at something and I want you
to find it embrace it and use it to make
a difference so let’s get your
motivation to attend and get you
believing in you grab a snack and chew
in today’s lessons from a man who went
from being a rapper and producing the
theme songs for a number of NBA teams to
becoming a best-selling author
co-founder of the world’s largest
private jet card company and the owner
of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks
he’s Jesse it’s lerm and here’s my take
on his top ten rules to success joy
okay let’s kick it off with rule number
one be creative when you get a 1000 on
your SAT I probably got like a 980 I’ve
convinced myself and I broke a thousand
creativity becomes a survival skill it’s
a necessity to get into the door to
interview to sell everything for me
revolved around creativity so one day at
the recording studio I walk in and
there’s a cassette sitting on the music
board and it’s the cassette to change my
life
the cassette was by an artist a rap
pioneer named Dana Dane Dana was a
Brooklyn born artist his first album was
among my favorite albums and this was an
advance copy in the late 80s that nobody
or nobody had sitting there I wanted to
listen to it so I asked the engineer if
I could borrow the cassette and I would
bring the cassette back after I listened
to it he said sure
a couple of days later I’m on my way to
Los Angeles to visit a friend I’m
listening to it in my Sony Walkman if
anyone remembers those Sony Walkman yeah
and when I’m on the plane I read that
the owner of delicious Finals favorite
artist this is a big label tone low key
and young his favorite artist is Dana
Dane so when I land in California I cold
called delicious vinyl I get all the way
up to the assistant of this guy she has
no idea what I’m talking about I’m
talking very fast like a New Yorker I
have Dana’s tape I know Mike’s a fan of
Deena Deena
she puts me on hold she comes back two
minutes later she says Dana if you can
be here at 2:00 o’clock
Mike Ross would love to meet you Dana
will be there two o’clock two o’clock
comes Nadine is a Brooklyn born guy like
I said african-american gold tooth not
me
I pushed the now a good friend of mine
though push the button they said I said
hey I’m Dana here for Mike Ross Oh Mike
is expecting you Dana come right in
I walk in they escort me into the office
Loucks record Young’s record he’s got
this funky candle going they sit me down
I’m sitting there I’m waiting no idea
what’s gonna happen in walks Mike Ross
and says to me not
politely who in the world are you
there’s a famous quote by Harry Truman
if you can’t convince them confuse them
it works so far so I started saying oh I
work at the same studio as Dana I know
you’re a fan of Dana he must be late he
has an advanced a public can I put in my
cassette that I did at the studio
Ivica set what do you do i rap huh put
it in put him my cassette and he says
the four words that every artists
struggling artist wants to hear who’s
your lawyer I don’t have a lawyer I have
a dad so I give him my dad’s number my
dad owns a plumbing my dad owns a
plumbing supply house in Mineola I
called my father when we leave I said
dad I think I just got a record deal if
someone calls you we got our foot in the
door we’re gonna figure the rest out
later get all the documents that started
a journey of getting my foot in the door
and figuring it out later a key thing in
creativity starting the process trusting
the process and letting it evolve
because if you don’t get your foot in
the door if you don’t start nothing
happens I did it with a company called
Marquis Jet we sold it to Warren Buffett
I did it with our company Zico coconut
water we sold it to coca-cola
rule number two be aware of your
mortality Oakland I think you were
writing the number of days you had on
your wrist or something like stop doing
that why did you stop I’m curious
I’m just so aware of it now you know it
was started to freak my wife out a
little bit it’s a little depressing but
for me it’s not depressing mmm it’s like
you know I think people’s relationship
with time we talked about relationships
with humans how’s your relationship with
your kids how you relationship with your
wife we you know your dad or your
parents but we never talk about a
relationship with money and time and the
relationship your relationship with time
is such a key component of your life
because when you get caught in a routine
time goes so quickly when you understand
that there are maybe only 28 summers
left and if you want to truly you know
get as much out of experientially out of
life it just creates a tremendous amount
of urgency so and the fear goes away
because you’re like and nobody on the
planet like everybody no one’s gonna be
here in a hundred years do I care what
he thinks it like he’s like we’re not
doing be here 100 years so why would I
take the chance and it’s just I don’t
know it’s just so I stopped writing it
because I’m so aware of it there’s not a
day that goes by when my head hits the
pillow where I don’t say to myself like
you know did I maximize the day and am I
and you know am i aware of my mortality
and it might sound depressing but it’s
it’s not for me it’s it’s thrilling it’s
thrilling so how is turning 50 affecting
the way you think I’m super curious just
realizing that like it went so fast and
realizing that there’s so much that I
want to do and being aware that your 70s
are a different decade than your 40s and
50s well then you have 20 years left and
when you really put it in perspective of
how many weekends there are you know
there’s only 52 weekends and you start
to look at it like that you’re like I’m
gonna be 80 in 30 years scary you know I
got kids it’s scary because there’s a
lot I want to do I feel like I’ve done
anything compared to what I what I want
to do and the opportunities so you know
it just how do you manage your time
I never thought like that I’m formerly
live forever and I’m you know I’m
bulletproof and all that stuff and I’m
not and when you turn 50 happens friends
get sick you know let me give you an
example of just how it’s affected me and
how even the monastery in this whole
notion of time which we’ve been talking
about this conversation but like your
parents like yeah how old do your
parents feel matter 70 okay and where do
they live in different parts of
Washington State
okay did you see him yeah pretty often
once to three times a year okay so let’s
say they live to be seventy eight which
is the I hope they don’t but let’s say
that they live to the average age so you
see them one you said once to three
times yeah okay
no you don’t it means you’re gonna see
them 60 if you see them twice here you
can see them 16 more times when you look
at it that way you’re like what you
don’t have
eight years of them you have 16 times
with them oh and that’s the shift in my
life and that’s the way I look at things
that’s a fundamental shift in the way
that I looked at situations six months
ago
and it’s created an urgency it’s created
a need to just like not put stuff off
and to recognize like what’s on your
list of things that you want to do rule
number three try everything the best
lesson I got was from my mom
hmm when I went to college my mom told
me just to to do everything I could to
try everything at school like nothing
was off-limits go to every lecture to
every intramural sport go to every
fraternity party do everything meet as
many people and and just figure out what
it is that you like to do now I still
don’t know what I want to do or what I
want to do but it did gave me a
different view to just expose me to a
whole different world that I didn’t see
growing up in Island and that ended up
being a really good lesson mmm for me
rule number four conquer self-doubt now
fear is a really powerful thing but when
you surrender and say I’m not scared of
fear it’s unbelievably liberating now I
don’t like to be embarrassed but I’m not
scared of it but it wasn’t always like
that for me when I was a senior in
college there’s a girl that I liked I
have my roommate in college call her up
and ask her to go to the formal as me
and you literally called up said hey
this is Jessie that fast forward 20
years I like this girl
I’m trying to court her she’s the
founder of Spanx I call the phone I call
the her assistant of Spanx and this is
the same time that I’m about to run a
100 mile race non-stop in 24 hours for
charity I call up I get to the assistant
and I said can you tell Sarah that I
would love to wear Spanx if in this
100-mile race if she would give me a
testimonial for my website I don’t want
a testimonial I wanted Sarah
obviously the assistant goes hold on one
second puts me on hold says Sara there’s
a lunatic on the phone that wants to run
a hundred miles in Spanx she says I
think I might know that lunatic and a
year later she married a lunatic but in
between that time when my roommate had a
call to ask this girl for a date so when
I got Sara I call it like the lamb
mentality and the lion mentality there
was a lot of self-doubt and self-doubt
is probably the biggest enemy to
creativity and the way you conquer
self-doubt is by doing things that make
you uncomfortable
rule number five do the impossible I
just realized that I’m an adrenaline
junkie
I love newness I love challenges I mean
that’s what makes me feel most alive and
I discover that early on when I was
trying to get a record deal and just
getting rejection and I didn’t I had no
connections my dad on the plumbing
supply house in Long Island where I grew
up and we weren’t connected to the music
world and I just loved the thrill of
trying to do what everyone said I
couldn’t do mmm
there’s no way you keep you know
whenever all my roommates in college
were writing their resumes and sending
it out to all the companies they’re like
why are you writing your resume we’re
all like typing our resume why are you
working on I’m like because I’m gonna
get a record deal and when they said no
you can’t that just fueled me more to
want to go out and get it
rule number six be disruptive what
happened after the music success you
know you’re reinvesting and you sold a
company did you stay in the music world
did you so we went out well we sold the
company to a public company yeah and the
owner of this part of the public company
guy named Bob Solomon and SFX had a
private jet and invited my partner and I
on a trip we were the youngest company
that he bought as far as we were 25 or
26 years old we sold the company and he
took a liking to us
I don’t like young guys invited us on a
trip and went on a private jet and as
soon as we got on the plane we kind of
looked at each other and like how in the
world do we do this more often like Wow
we get this right and ultimately that
one trip led to a private jet business
that we started called marquee jet so
you just decided that you’re gonna
launch a jet company well we had this we
had the idea because we wanted to use it
right they’re like you know what even if
no one else signs up for this thing and
we can fly on a private jet that would
be a win but it was a completely
different skill set and business and
industry that you didn’t have any
experience in I’m assuming right I
hadn’t yet I mean that’s kind of a theme
for me I mean I think one of the things
that I look back on my life and I was in
music I was in private jets I’ve been in
coconut water and all these certain
things sports is that I had no prior
experience in any of that and it ended
up being the best blessing for me
because no one taught me or told me how
to do it so it was guaranteed that it
would be done differently interesting
and that was a you know a guarantee that
it would be creative and different and
unique
so no neither and my partner and I or I
had any background and I mean we
couldn’t make a paper airplane and we’d
buy a plane so we’re in a pilot either
almost now okay but we had an idea you
got a passion for it you had an idea and
intuitively I think we both knew it
would work because we knew if we wanted
to use this product that probably a lot
of people would want to use it and how
can we make it more affordable and bring
it to the masses so what did you do tell
me the problem and what the solution was
well the problem was there was only
three ways to fry it fly privately at
the time you could buy your own airplane
which is incredibly expensive it takes
out 99.9% of the world you could buy a
fraction of a plane which is like a
timeshare it’s also very expensive and
it’s a long commitment and that’s not
what we don’t want to put a couple of
million dollars in for multiple years we
wanted to take like three trips a year
with my friends the golf yeah or you
could charter a plane and there’s all
kinds of questions about like well who
owns the plane who’s flying the plane
what if the plane doesn’t show up you
know inconsistencies so we were like if
we could just offer a 25-hour
solution with none of the
responsibilities of owning your own
plane you know if to manage you know if
the schedule you just like call on the
man that shows up and you prepay for it
and just work off the hours it would
work it’s like the uber for planes yeah
but there was one problem what we didn’t
have any plane
okay so we once we had the idea and we
had it all kind of baked we had to go
find out and find someone that could
lend us a fleet of airplanes right how
many do you want to start with uh well
we sat next to each other like you and I
are doing huh
my partner asked me how many people you
think would buy this that you know and I
said I could probably sell fifteen he
said all right put me down for 15 and
said we need enough to hold 30 people
Wow and we went to NetJets which is
owned by Warren Buffett and and
Berkshire and with this idea I’m Lee
based out of Columbus yeah whenever I
fly in a big net Jetson yeah and I had
this meeting to pitch this idea that was
gonna change my life and they throw us
out in about 10 minutes why I think the
direct quote is sounds cool if you guys
think I’m giving to 27 year olds my
fleet of airplanes not happening
tomorrow yeah yeah and but his partner
came out after the meeting said that was
a great meeting I said what he talking
about thrown out in 12 meet 12 minutes
he said rich Santoli the CEO doesn’t
give anyone 12 minutes and said if you
guys kind of just do this change this do
this come back come back let’s try it
again so we did but instead of coming
back with the deck we brought in our own
focus group we literally just lined up
like eight chairs of athletes and
attainers agents reported right and one
by one they stood up and explained why
they wouldn’t buy their own plane why
they went by a netjet from wow and why
they would buy this card Wow
and we got a deal and then a year later
you know we were I think we had more
customers than that yet rule number
seven put yourself first we live in a
world where we almost lose control of
all of our time every day we have arrows
that I call them arrows that come at us
hey Jesse can you spend 15 minutes with
this guy he wants to pick your brain on
coconut water and hey can you pay this
guy this guy wants to borrow $50 and
this email needs to be vertook like
constantly dodging all this stuff and we
feel obligated to say yes because we
don’t want to feel you know wet anyone
down and we lose control of our time how
could you be productive have a vibrant
life be successful if someone else
controls all your time or you filled
with clutter so it did a very simple
thing we can all do it I drew a pike
okay I said there’s 24 hours in the day
I sleep seven of them that leaves 17
hours in the day I take three of them
for me and those three hours could do
anything that I want I could be I’m
going for a run a steam I’m doing
nothing I’m doing my emails I’m reading
but I don’t want to resent my wife I
don’t want to resent my boss I don’t
resent my partner for taking away the
things in my life that I love to do by
controlling my time three hours for me
the average American works a 40-hour
workweek that’s eight hours a day seven
four sleep three for yourself eight for
work guess what you got six hours left
in the day all the clutter is gone now
of course you have to commute you have
dinner you have family you have meals
the point is you can be incredibly
productive incredibly creative
incredibly free when you take control of
your time when you figure out how you
want to attack your time over the course
of a week rule number eight focus I
thought a monastery would just be all
prayer reflection meditation and a meal
a day or something but a huge part of it
is manual labor does they have to keep
the lights on and the monastery that I
went to which was not it was not
Buddhist it was Russian Orthodox they
were the largest breeders of German
shepherds in this country and I remember
the first day I was my job the first day
was to be a distractor so they were
training one of the dogs and I had a
like run in front of the dog and then
you don’t try to like get him off of his
game to simulate traffic in the city or
distractions and the goal is to have the
dog be able to walk unblemished no
matter what you throw at him and I was
going cribs running at him I was like
you know through the fart trick all that
stuff and the dog didn’t waver it just
walked from point A to point B and one
of the monks that was training the dog
said to me it’s no different than life
you know it was like giving me all this
like you know wax on wax off but he was
saying you know you’re gonna get
distracted from your goals and all these
things like arrows are gonna come at you
all the time but the same way this dog
goes from point A to point B if there’s
a
out there whatever your goal is you got
to get the point you have to get there
even though people gonna say you can’t
do it even though people are gonna throw
different opportunities you know you
know I’m sure your friends went out a
million times to happy hour when you to
stay late when you were starting your
business I mean I was in the same
situation those are the distractions
that come at you but to get to your goal
you can’t go to happy hour every night
you have to return emails and you have
to check the manufacturer and you have
to check the inventory and you have two
big sales calls how in your life have
you stayed the course how have you
stayed focused when you had and maybe
this goes to your why you know what was
it that allowed you to keep going when
your friends were going out to happy
hour well I think like everybody I feel
overwhelmed a lot still even though I’m
older now and I’ve had some success and
failure but I still have a lot of arrows
that come at me all the time
requests for my time challenges at work
challenges raising kids being in a
marriage you know is not easy I mean we
have a great marriage but it’s not East
work and it’s overwhelming so for me I
think part of it is always having
something big on my calendar that I can
look forward to every every other month
I try to put something on my calendar
for a weekend that I can really look
forward to so it helps me get through
the tough times and I like to have one
at least one really big challenge a year
that kind of centers me and and keeps me
honest
it keeps me honest and that’s really
helpful for me and then the other thing
that I do that really helps is I have a
journal and I just take everything
that’s on my head and I keep it in a
master journal doesn’t mean I’m gonna
get to it doesn’t mean it goes away but
it gets out of my head and it goes
somewhere else the free up space in my
head and then I’ll just work it off or
I’ll prioritize it from the master list
but just the act of taking all the stuff
that’s in your head putting it on paper
in one place where it liz is like really
freeing and energizing rule number nine
my personal favorite break your
limitations why the point of having a
see live with you this is this book
called living with the seal 31 days
training with the toughest man on the
planet and I watched a few videos and
this guy is a freak but why did you
decide to to have him live with you when
he first moved in the first he comes
into the house and he has a little
knapsack for 30 days if I go away for 30
days I’m checking to vex me right he has
this little like Huck Finn from 30 days
had all his clothes and everything and
his whole life in the bag and I said to
him his name is David Goggin so if
you’re listening and you know him or you
want to google him I said in the book I
refer to him as seal but now you know
he’s out there so he came to the house I
said to him you know hey here’s your
room you know I’ll show you around make
yourself at home and you know my home is
your home for the next 30 days and he
said no huh no he said I don’t have a
home
and I said no make yourself at home it’s
an expression and he said I don’t
operate in expressions Wow and that was
sort of like okay let’s start that was
kind of our opening act no settling here
no yeah and then we went down to the gym
five minutes into the into our 31 day
journey and he said I want to see how
many pull-ups you can do so I said
alright so I guess to kind of get a
level of like where I was that and I am
not as strong sure guy so I didn’t maybe
eight pull-ups and then I dropped down
and he said alright wait 30 seconds into
it again do it again so I waited 30
seconds got back up on the bar I did
like six he said alright one more time
and now like I’m starting to feel it you
know a guy I don’t think I can even get
back up on the bar and I get I get three
but three like you know kicking my chin
over like whatever I could do to get
over the bar so I said alright what’s
next he said what’s next is we’re gonna
stay here till you do 100 more Oh Mike
and I said even one at a time yeah and
I’m like come on man I could like that’s
great on paper but I physically can’t do
a hundred more and that was our start of
many lessons that I learned because I
ended up doing it one at a time and what
he taught me was there’s so many of our
limitations are self-imposed mm-hmm you
know and we set we set something up in
our brain we program our brain one way
and that’s our limit and until we can
get past that and see what we’re really
made of and like get uncomfortable and
experience pain mm-hmm you can’t real
you don’t really don’t know what you’re
capable of yeah so that was a really
good good lesson for me and every day
was a lesson like that and rule number
ten the last one before a very special
bonus clip is use the forty percent rule
one of the things that Seale said to me
and it’s in in the book and one thing
that people have said that really
resonated with them he would say that
when you’re when your mind is telling
you you’re done you’re really only 40
percent done and he had a motto if it
doesn’t suck we don’t do it and that was
his way of everyday forcing us to get
uncomfortable to figure out what our
baseline was and and what our you know
what our comfort level was and just you
know turning it upside down the 40% rule
maybe it’s give or take a little but
look at a marathon most people hit the
wall at a marathon at Mile anywhere from
16 to 20 and you know 99% of the people
in this country that run marathons
finish and they all predominantly all of
them go through this hit the wall so
where does that extra 50 or 60 percent
or whatever the numbers come from I mean
it’s their brain saying I’m done I don’t
want to continue but they’re will saying
you know what let me get to the finish
line so we all have that will it’s just
a matter of how do we apply it to not
just with the once-a-year marathon but
to our daily lives and make it you know
I’ve got a really special Jesse its lair
bonus clip on how to do things yourself
that I think you’re really gonna enjoy
but before that question of the day I
want to know which clip added more value
to you break your limitations or put
yourself first let me know leave in the
comments below thank you guys so much
for watching I believe in you I hope you
continue to believe in yourself and
whatever your one word is much love I’ll
I thought 22 years old 21 years old that
you know they had this great mega
artists that all I had to do was sign
the deal and whatever I put out would be
a hit but you know as you know work that
way and that was another that was
another quick lesson that you know you
really have to do it yourself the label
was so busy with other stuff and you
know that that I really had to I
realized that I should have done more on
myself and it didn’t go as I thought it
would would go and I didn’t get picked
up for a second album and you know given
me sales did or not enough to get picked
up whatever that number was it was it
wasn’t enough and you know I really I
had no nothing on my resume other than I
was a kiddie pool tending that summer
that I was riding my bike to the studio
so I now have no record deal and the
only thing I put in my resume is kiddie
pool attendant and failed rapper and
that wouldn’t really do it so um you
know sometimes when you look at
something that that’s a failure it’s
sort of just life’s way of tapping you
on the shoulder and saying you’re off
course mm-hmm
and I felt like I was in the right world
but just a little bit off course I
called an audible but state of it and
end up doing jingles and that bad yeah
like NBA teams I started doing theme
songs for professional sports teams
managers a niche that sports music that
didn’t exist really and created this
category of sports music which can be
profitable jingles can be profitable
right yeah I mean promote not for me
there was people they were sure the
first song that I did was a song for the
Knicks called go near go in 92 and it
was the theme song for the next they
paid me four thousand dollars and it
became the number one song on New York
radio was a huge hit but by the time I
paid the singer the studio the engineer
the mix all the things negative money
$100 and but every team that came to
Madison Square Garden was saying how do
we get a song like that and I realized
well hold on $4,000 $4,000 times after
100 professional sports teams
I think that’ll work I’m not making
anything now and I started doing that
that was my little thing I did about 20
or 30 of them
and came up with a concept the songs
became really in demand there was no way
to get them they were playing on played
on radio so if you’re a Knick fan and
you wanted a song he couldn’t get it hmm
so my partner I came up with an idea to
sell this our song this song with all
the other songs they play in the arena
with great moments in team history in
between it like a musical program and we
saw the load Kirsten that’s fine you saw
this of Records that’s great and and
that was my first kind of taste of
having a little bit of loot hmm and
after 91 92 93 when Jordan came back we
did a song for the Bulls called right
back in it when Michael came back and
sold half a million Bulls CDs was a
couple million dollars and then took all
the money and which was probably the
hardest thing I ever did in my life took
all the money and instead of going to
buy a car or a house which is what I
wanted to do we reinvested it in
exclusive deals with all the sports
leagues to do these team specific
compilations and then sold the company
to a public company Wow
so that did really well and financially
when you don’t that’s amazing yeah that
was it if you tell yourself a story long
enough you start to believe it don’t you
believe you act like I am Tulsa what a
wail out of a handcuffed lightning
though Thunder in jail now you know I’m
bad over the last week I’ve murdered a
rock into the stone hospitalized a brick
I’m so mean I make medicine sick the
fundamental key to success is it can
take between eighteen and two hundred
and fifty four days of taking action for
a new habit to stick I’ve created a new
course called 250 for confidence or
every single day for 254 days I will be
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when you surrender and say I’m not
scared of fear it’s unbelievably
liberating and we set we set something
up in our brain we program our brain one
way and that’s our limit and until we
can get past that and see what we’re
really made of and like get
uncomfortable and experience pain
you can’t real you don’t really don’t
know what you’re capable of
there’s not a day that goes by when my
head hits the pillow where I don’t say
to myself like you know did I maximize
the day and am I and you know am i aware
of my mortality need motivation whattcha
top 10 with hashtag believe nation
what’s that believe nation it’s heaven
my one word is believe and I believe in
you I believe you have Michael Jordan
level talent at something and I want you
to find it embrace it and use it to make
a difference so let’s get your
motivation to attend and get you
believing in you grab a snack and chew
in today’s lessons from a man who went
from being a rapper and producing the
theme songs for a number of NBA teams to
becoming a best-selling author
co-founder of the world’s largest
private jet card company and the owner
of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks
he’s Jesse it’s lerm and here’s my take
on his top ten rules to success joy
okay let’s kick it off with rule number
one be creative when you get a 1000 on
your SAT I probably got like a 980 I’ve
convinced myself and I broke a thousand
creativity becomes a survival skill it’s
a necessity to get into the door to
interview to sell everything for me
revolved around creativity so one day at
the recording studio I walk in and
there’s a cassette sitting on the music
board and it’s the cassette to change my
life
the cassette was by an artist a rap
pioneer named Dana Dane Dana was a
Brooklyn born artist his first album was
among my favorite albums and this was an
advance copy in the late 80s that nobody
or nobody had sitting there I wanted to
listen to it so I asked the engineer if
I could borrow the cassette and I would
bring the cassette back after I listened
to it he said sure
a couple of days later I’m on my way to
Los Angeles to visit a friend I’m
listening to it in my Sony Walkman if
anyone remembers those Sony Walkman yeah
and when I’m on the plane I read that
the owner of delicious Finals favorite
artist this is a big label tone low key
and young his favorite artist is Dana
Dane so when I land in California I cold
called delicious vinyl I get all the way
up to the assistant of this guy she has
no idea what I’m talking about I’m
talking very fast like a New Yorker I
have Dana’s tape I know Mike’s a fan of
Deena Deena
she puts me on hold she comes back two
minutes later she says Dana if you can
be here at 2:00 o’clock
Mike Ross would love to meet you Dana
will be there two o’clock two o’clock
comes Nadine is a Brooklyn born guy like
I said african-american gold tooth not
me
I pushed the now a good friend of mine
though push the button they said I said
hey I’m Dana here for Mike Ross Oh Mike
is expecting you Dana come right in
I walk in they escort me into the office
Loucks record Young’s record he’s got
this funky candle going they sit me down
I’m sitting there I’m waiting no idea
what’s gonna happen in walks Mike Ross
and says to me not
politely who in the world are you
there’s a famous quote by Harry Truman
if you can’t convince them confuse them
it works so far so I started saying oh I
work at the same studio as Dana I know
you’re a fan of Dana he must be late he
has an advanced a public can I put in my
cassette that I did at the studio
Ivica set what do you do i rap huh put
it in put him my cassette and he says
the four words that every artists
struggling artist wants to hear who’s
your lawyer I don’t have a lawyer I have
a dad so I give him my dad’s number my
dad owns a plumbing my dad owns a
plumbing supply house in Mineola I
called my father when we leave I said
dad I think I just got a record deal if
someone calls you we got our foot in the
door we’re gonna figure the rest out
later get all the documents that started
a journey of getting my foot in the door
and figuring it out later a key thing in
creativity starting the process trusting
the process and letting it evolve
because if you don’t get your foot in
the door if you don’t start nothing
happens I did it with a company called
Marquis Jet we sold it to Warren Buffett
I did it with our company Zico coconut
water we sold it to coca-cola
rule number two be aware of your
mortality Oakland I think you were
writing the number of days you had on
your wrist or something like stop doing
that why did you stop I’m curious
I’m just so aware of it now you know it
was started to freak my wife out a
little bit it’s a little depressing but
for me it’s not depressing mmm it’s like
you know I think people’s relationship
with time we talked about relationships
with humans how’s your relationship with
your kids how you relationship with your
wife we you know your dad or your
parents but we never talk about a
relationship with money and time and the
relationship your relationship with time
is such a key component of your life
because when you get caught in a routine
time goes so quickly when you understand
that there are maybe only 28 summers
left and if you want to truly you know
get as much out of experientially out of
life it just creates a tremendous amount
of urgency so and the fear goes away
because you’re like and nobody on the
planet like everybody no one’s gonna be
here in a hundred years do I care what
he thinks it like he’s like we’re not
doing be here 100 years so why would I
take the chance and it’s just I don’t
know it’s just so I stopped writing it
because I’m so aware of it there’s not a
day that goes by when my head hits the
pillow where I don’t say to myself like
you know did I maximize the day and am I
and you know am i aware of my mortality
and it might sound depressing but it’s
it’s not for me it’s it’s thrilling it’s
thrilling so how is turning 50 affecting
the way you think I’m super curious just
realizing that like it went so fast and
realizing that there’s so much that I
want to do and being aware that your 70s
are a different decade than your 40s and
50s well then you have 20 years left and
when you really put it in perspective of
how many weekends there are you know
there’s only 52 weekends and you start
to look at it like that you’re like I’m
gonna be 80 in 30 years scary you know I
got kids it’s scary because there’s a
lot I want to do I feel like I’ve done
anything compared to what I what I want
to do and the opportunities so you know
it just how do you manage your time
I never thought like that I’m formerly
live forever and I’m you know I’m
bulletproof and all that stuff and I’m
not and when you turn 50 happens friends
get sick you know let me give you an
example of just how it’s affected me and
how even the monastery in this whole
notion of time which we’ve been talking
about this conversation but like your
parents like yeah how old do your
parents feel matter 70 okay and where do
they live in different parts of
Washington State
okay did you see him yeah pretty often
once to three times a year okay so let’s
say they live to be seventy eight which
is the I hope they don’t but let’s say
that they live to the average age so you
see them one you said once to three
times yeah okay
no you don’t it means you’re gonna see
them 60 if you see them twice here you
can see them 16 more times when you look
at it that way you’re like what you
don’t have
eight years of them you have 16 times
with them oh and that’s the shift in my
life and that’s the way I look at things
that’s a fundamental shift in the way
that I looked at situations six months
ago
and it’s created an urgency it’s created
a need to just like not put stuff off
and to recognize like what’s on your
list of things that you want to do rule
number three try everything the best
lesson I got was from my mom
hmm when I went to college my mom told
me just to to do everything I could to
try everything at school like nothing
was off-limits go to every lecture to
every intramural sport go to every
fraternity party do everything meet as
many people and and just figure out what
it is that you like to do now I still
don’t know what I want to do or what I
want to do but it did gave me a
different view to just expose me to a
whole different world that I didn’t see
growing up in Island and that ended up
being a really good lesson mmm for me
rule number four conquer self-doubt now
fear is a really powerful thing but when
you surrender and say I’m not scared of
fear it’s unbelievably liberating now I
don’t like to be embarrassed but I’m not
scared of it but it wasn’t always like
that for me when I was a senior in
college there’s a girl that I liked I
have my roommate in college call her up
and ask her to go to the formal as me
and you literally called up said hey
this is Jessie that fast forward 20
years I like this girl
I’m trying to court her she’s the
founder of Spanx I call the phone I call
the her assistant of Spanx and this is
the same time that I’m about to run a
100 mile race non-stop in 24 hours for
charity I call up I get to the assistant
and I said can you tell Sarah that I
would love to wear Spanx if in this
100-mile race if she would give me a
testimonial for my website I don’t want
a testimonial I wanted Sarah
obviously the assistant goes hold on one
second puts me on hold says Sara there’s
a lunatic on the phone that wants to run
a hundred miles in Spanx she says I
think I might know that lunatic and a
year later she married a lunatic but in
between that time when my roommate had a
call to ask this girl for a date so when
I got Sara I call it like the lamb
mentality and the lion mentality there
was a lot of self-doubt and self-doubt
is probably the biggest enemy to
creativity and the way you conquer
self-doubt is by doing things that make
you uncomfortable
rule number five do the impossible I
just realized that I’m an adrenaline
junkie
I love newness I love challenges I mean
that’s what makes me feel most alive and
I discover that early on when I was
trying to get a record deal and just
getting rejection and I didn’t I had no
connections my dad on the plumbing
supply house in Long Island where I grew
up and we weren’t connected to the music
world and I just loved the thrill of
trying to do what everyone said I
couldn’t do mmm
there’s no way you keep you know
whenever all my roommates in college
were writing their resumes and sending
it out to all the companies they’re like
why are you writing your resume we’re
all like typing our resume why are you
working on I’m like because I’m gonna
get a record deal and when they said no
you can’t that just fueled me more to
want to go out and get it
rule number six be disruptive what
happened after the music success you
know you’re reinvesting and you sold a
company did you stay in the music world
did you so we went out well we sold the
company to a public company yeah and the
owner of this part of the public company
guy named Bob Solomon and SFX had a
private jet and invited my partner and I
on a trip we were the youngest company
that he bought as far as we were 25 or
26 years old we sold the company and he
took a liking to us
I don’t like young guys invited us on a
trip and went on a private jet and as
soon as we got on the plane we kind of
looked at each other and like how in the
world do we do this more often like Wow
we get this right and ultimately that
one trip led to a private jet business
that we started called marquee jet so
you just decided that you’re gonna
launch a jet company well we had this we
had the idea because we wanted to use it
right they’re like you know what even if
no one else signs up for this thing and
we can fly on a private jet that would
be a win but it was a completely
different skill set and business and
industry that you didn’t have any
experience in I’m assuming right I
hadn’t yet I mean that’s kind of a theme
for me I mean I think one of the things
that I look back on my life and I was in
music I was in private jets I’ve been in
coconut water and all these certain
things sports is that I had no prior
experience in any of that and it ended
up being the best blessing for me
because no one taught me or told me how
to do it so it was guaranteed that it
would be done differently interesting
and that was a you know a guarantee that
it would be creative and different and
unique
so no neither and my partner and I or I
had any background and I mean we
couldn’t make a paper airplane and we’d
buy a plane so we’re in a pilot either
almost now okay but we had an idea you
got a passion for it you had an idea and
intuitively I think we both knew it
would work because we knew if we wanted
to use this product that probably a lot
of people would want to use it and how
can we make it more affordable and bring
it to the masses so what did you do tell
me the problem and what the solution was
well the problem was there was only
three ways to fry it fly privately at
the time you could buy your own airplane
which is incredibly expensive it takes
out 99.9% of the world you could buy a
fraction of a plane which is like a
timeshare it’s also very expensive and
it’s a long commitment and that’s not
what we don’t want to put a couple of
million dollars in for multiple years we
wanted to take like three trips a year
with my friends the golf yeah or you
could charter a plane and there’s all
kinds of questions about like well who
owns the plane who’s flying the plane
what if the plane doesn’t show up you
know inconsistencies so we were like if
we could just offer a 25-hour
solution with none of the
responsibilities of owning your own
plane you know if to manage you know if
the schedule you just like call on the
man that shows up and you prepay for it
and just work off the hours it would
work it’s like the uber for planes yeah
but there was one problem what we didn’t
have any plane
okay so we once we had the idea and we
had it all kind of baked we had to go
find out and find someone that could
lend us a fleet of airplanes right how
many do you want to start with uh well
we sat next to each other like you and I
are doing huh
my partner asked me how many people you
think would buy this that you know and I
said I could probably sell fifteen he
said all right put me down for 15 and
said we need enough to hold 30 people
Wow and we went to NetJets which is
owned by Warren Buffett and and
Berkshire and with this idea I’m Lee
based out of Columbus yeah whenever I
fly in a big net Jetson yeah and I had
this meeting to pitch this idea that was
gonna change my life and they throw us
out in about 10 minutes why I think the
direct quote is sounds cool if you guys
think I’m giving to 27 year olds my
fleet of airplanes not happening
tomorrow yeah yeah and but his partner
came out after the meeting said that was
a great meeting I said what he talking
about thrown out in 12 meet 12 minutes
he said rich Santoli the CEO doesn’t
give anyone 12 minutes and said if you
guys kind of just do this change this do
this come back come back let’s try it
again so we did but instead of coming
back with the deck we brought in our own
focus group we literally just lined up
like eight chairs of athletes and
attainers agents reported right and one
by one they stood up and explained why
they wouldn’t buy their own plane why
they went by a netjet from wow and why
they would buy this card Wow
and we got a deal and then a year later
you know we were I think we had more
customers than that yet rule number
seven put yourself first we live in a
world where we almost lose control of
all of our time every day we have arrows
that I call them arrows that come at us
hey Jesse can you spend 15 minutes with
this guy he wants to pick your brain on
coconut water and hey can you pay this
guy this guy wants to borrow $50 and
this email needs to be vertook like
constantly dodging all this stuff and we
feel obligated to say yes because we
don’t want to feel you know wet anyone
down and we lose control of our time how
could you be productive have a vibrant
life be successful if someone else
controls all your time or you filled
with clutter so it did a very simple
thing we can all do it I drew a pike
okay I said there’s 24 hours in the day
I sleep seven of them that leaves 17
hours in the day I take three of them
for me and those three hours could do
anything that I want I could be I’m
going for a run a steam I’m doing
nothing I’m doing my emails I’m reading
but I don’t want to resent my wife I
don’t want to resent my boss I don’t
resent my partner for taking away the
things in my life that I love to do by
controlling my time three hours for me
the average American works a 40-hour
workweek that’s eight hours a day seven
four sleep three for yourself eight for
work guess what you got six hours left
in the day all the clutter is gone now
of course you have to commute you have
dinner you have family you have meals
the point is you can be incredibly
productive incredibly creative
incredibly free when you take control of
your time when you figure out how you
want to attack your time over the course
of a week rule number eight focus I
thought a monastery would just be all
prayer reflection meditation and a meal
a day or something but a huge part of it
is manual labor does they have to keep
the lights on and the monastery that I
went to which was not it was not
Buddhist it was Russian Orthodox they
were the largest breeders of German
shepherds in this country and I remember
the first day I was my job the first day
was to be a distractor so they were
training one of the dogs and I had a
like run in front of the dog and then
you don’t try to like get him off of his
game to simulate traffic in the city or
distractions and the goal is to have the
dog be able to walk unblemished no
matter what you throw at him and I was
going cribs running at him I was like
you know through the fart trick all that
stuff and the dog didn’t waver it just
walked from point A to point B and one
of the monks that was training the dog
said to me it’s no different than life
you know it was like giving me all this
like you know wax on wax off but he was
saying you know you’re gonna get
distracted from your goals and all these
things like arrows are gonna come at you
all the time but the same way this dog
goes from point A to point B if there’s
a
out there whatever your goal is you got
to get the point you have to get there
even though people gonna say you can’t
do it even though people are gonna throw
different opportunities you know you
know I’m sure your friends went out a
million times to happy hour when you to
stay late when you were starting your
business I mean I was in the same
situation those are the distractions
that come at you but to get to your goal
you can’t go to happy hour every night
you have to return emails and you have
to check the manufacturer and you have
to check the inventory and you have two
big sales calls how in your life have
you stayed the course how have you
stayed focused when you had and maybe
this goes to your why you know what was
it that allowed you to keep going when
your friends were going out to happy
hour well I think like everybody I feel
overwhelmed a lot still even though I’m
older now and I’ve had some success and
failure but I still have a lot of arrows
that come at me all the time
requests for my time challenges at work
challenges raising kids being in a
marriage you know is not easy I mean we
have a great marriage but it’s not East
work and it’s overwhelming so for me I
think part of it is always having
something big on my calendar that I can
look forward to every every other month
I try to put something on my calendar
for a weekend that I can really look
forward to so it helps me get through
the tough times and I like to have one
at least one really big challenge a year
that kind of centers me and and keeps me
honest
it keeps me honest and that’s really
helpful for me and then the other thing
that I do that really helps is I have a
journal and I just take everything
that’s on my head and I keep it in a
master journal doesn’t mean I’m gonna
get to it doesn’t mean it goes away but
it gets out of my head and it goes
somewhere else the free up space in my
head and then I’ll just work it off or
I’ll prioritize it from the master list
but just the act of taking all the stuff
that’s in your head putting it on paper
in one place where it liz is like really
freeing and energizing rule number nine
my personal favorite break your
limitations why the point of having a
see live with you this is this book
called living with the seal 31 days
training with the toughest man on the
planet and I watched a few videos and
this guy is a freak but why did you
decide to to have him live with you when
he first moved in the first he comes
into the house and he has a little
knapsack for 30 days if I go away for 30
days I’m checking to vex me right he has
this little like Huck Finn from 30 days
had all his clothes and everything and
his whole life in the bag and I said to
him his name is David Goggin so if
you’re listening and you know him or you
want to google him I said in the book I
refer to him as seal but now you know
he’s out there so he came to the house I
said to him you know hey here’s your
room you know I’ll show you around make
yourself at home and you know my home is
your home for the next 30 days and he
said no huh no he said I don’t have a
home
and I said no make yourself at home it’s
an expression and he said I don’t
operate in expressions Wow and that was
sort of like okay let’s start that was
kind of our opening act no settling here
no yeah and then we went down to the gym
five minutes into the into our 31 day
journey and he said I want to see how
many pull-ups you can do so I said
alright so I guess to kind of get a
level of like where I was that and I am
not as strong sure guy so I didn’t maybe
eight pull-ups and then I dropped down
and he said alright wait 30 seconds into
it again do it again so I waited 30
seconds got back up on the bar I did
like six he said alright one more time
and now like I’m starting to feel it you
know a guy I don’t think I can even get
back up on the bar and I get I get three
but three like you know kicking my chin
over like whatever I could do to get
over the bar so I said alright what’s
next he said what’s next is we’re gonna
stay here till you do 100 more Oh Mike
and I said even one at a time yeah and
I’m like come on man I could like that’s
great on paper but I physically can’t do
a hundred more and that was our start of
many lessons that I learned because I
ended up doing it one at a time and what
he taught me was there’s so many of our
limitations are self-imposed mm-hmm you
know and we set we set something up in
our brain we program our brain one way
and that’s our limit and until we can
get past that and see what we’re really
made of and like get uncomfortable and
experience pain mm-hmm you can’t real
you don’t really don’t know what you’re
capable of yeah so that was a really
good good lesson for me and every day
was a lesson like that and rule number
ten the last one before a very special
bonus clip is use the forty percent rule
one of the things that Seale said to me
and it’s in in the book and one thing
that people have said that really
resonated with them he would say that
when you’re when your mind is telling
you you’re done you’re really only 40
percent done and he had a motto if it
doesn’t suck we don’t do it and that was
his way of everyday forcing us to get
uncomfortable to figure out what our
baseline was and and what our you know
what our comfort level was and just you
know turning it upside down the 40% rule
maybe it’s give or take a little but
look at a marathon most people hit the
wall at a marathon at Mile anywhere from
16 to 20 and you know 99% of the people
in this country that run marathons
finish and they all predominantly all of
them go through this hit the wall so
where does that extra 50 or 60 percent
or whatever the numbers come from I mean
it’s their brain saying I’m done I don’t
want to continue but they’re will saying
you know what let me get to the finish
line so we all have that will it’s just
a matter of how do we apply it to not
just with the once-a-year marathon but
to our daily lives and make it you know
I’ve got a really special Jesse its lair
bonus clip on how to do things yourself
that I think you’re really gonna enjoy
but before that question of the day I
want to know which clip added more value
to you break your limitations or put
yourself first let me know leave in the
comments below thank you guys so much
for watching I believe in you I hope you
continue to believe in yourself and
whatever your one word is much love I’ll
I thought 22 years old 21 years old that
you know they had this great mega
artists that all I had to do was sign
the deal and whatever I put out would be
a hit but you know as you know work that
way and that was another that was
another quick lesson that you know you
really have to do it yourself the label
was so busy with other stuff and you
know that that I really had to I
realized that I should have done more on
myself and it didn’t go as I thought it
would would go and I didn’t get picked
up for a second album and you know given
me sales did or not enough to get picked
up whatever that number was it was it
wasn’t enough and you know I really I
had no nothing on my resume other than I
was a kiddie pool tending that summer
that I was riding my bike to the studio
so I now have no record deal and the
only thing I put in my resume is kiddie
pool attendant and failed rapper and
that wouldn’t really do it so um you
know sometimes when you look at
something that that’s a failure it’s
sort of just life’s way of tapping you
on the shoulder and saying you’re off
course mm-hmm
and I felt like I was in the right world
but just a little bit off course I
called an audible but state of it and
end up doing jingles and that bad yeah
like NBA teams I started doing theme
songs for professional sports teams
managers a niche that sports music that
didn’t exist really and created this
category of sports music which can be
profitable jingles can be profitable
right yeah I mean promote not for me
there was people they were sure the
first song that I did was a song for the
Knicks called go near go in 92 and it
was the theme song for the next they
paid me four thousand dollars and it
became the number one song on New York
radio was a huge hit but by the time I
paid the singer the studio the engineer
the mix all the things negative money
$100 and but every team that came to
Madison Square Garden was saying how do
we get a song like that and I realized
well hold on $4,000 $4,000 times after
100 professional sports teams
I think that’ll work I’m not making
anything now and I started doing that
that was my little thing I did about 20
or 30 of them
and came up with a concept the songs
became really in demand there was no way
to get them they were playing on played
on radio so if you’re a Knick fan and
you wanted a song he couldn’t get it hmm
so my partner I came up with an idea to
sell this our song this song with all
the other songs they play in the arena
with great moments in team history in
between it like a musical program and we
saw the load Kirsten that’s fine you saw
this of Records that’s great and and
that was my first kind of taste of
having a little bit of loot hmm and
after 91 92 93 when Jordan came back we
did a song for the Bulls called right
back in it when Michael came back and
sold half a million Bulls CDs was a
couple million dollars and then took all
the money and which was probably the
hardest thing I ever did in my life took
all the money and instead of going to
buy a car or a house which is what I
wanted to do we reinvested it in
exclusive deals with all the sports
leagues to do these team specific
compilations and then sold the company
to a public company Wow
so that did really well and financially
when you don’t that’s amazing yeah that
was it if you tell yourself a story long
enough you start to believe it don’t you
believe you act like I am Tulsa what a
wail out of a handcuffed lightning
though Thunder in jail now you know I’m
bad over the last week I’ve murdered a
rock into the stone hospitalized a brick
I’m so mean I make medicine sick the
fundamental key to success is it can
take between eighteen and two hundred
and fifty four days of taking action for
a new habit to stick I’ve created a new
course called 250 for confidence or
every single day for 254 days I will be
sending you a video between 30 seconds
and 5 minutes long that you start your
morning with around making you feel
confident it’s absolutely free check out
the link in the description below to get access
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