performing under pressure whether it’s
me or anybody else is the same you know
I have the same pressures as anyone else
there’s time there’s performance there’s
financial I mean there you know there’s
deadlines my pressures are not unique
the situations may be different or you
know but but everybody has the same
kinds of pressures but what I found or
what I find fascinating is the
interpretation of the stimuli if let me
let me explain so I was watching the
Olympics this last summer olympics and I
was amazed at how bad the questions were
that the reporters would ask all the
athletes and almost always they asked
the same question whether they were
about to compete or after they competed
were you nervous right and to a tee all
the athletes went no right and what I
realized is it’s not that they’re not
nervous it’s their interpretation of
what’s happening in their bodies I mean
what it what happens when you’re nervous
right your heart rate starts to go
you’re you know you sort of get a little
tense you get a little sweaty right you
have expectation of what’s coming and we
interpreted that is I’m nervous now
what’s the interpretation of excited
your heart rate starts to go you become
you’re anticipating what’s coming right
you get a little sort of like tense it’s
all the same thing it’s the same stimuli
except these athletes these these
Olympic quality athletes have learned to
interpret the stimuli that the rest of
us would say as nervous as excited they
also the same thing no I’m not nervous
I’m excited and so I’ve actually
practiced it just to tell myself when I
start to get nervous that this is
excitement you know and so where when
you used to be speaking from a large
audience and somebody’d say how do you
feel I say little nervous now when
somebody says how do you feel I’m like
really excited actually and it it came
from just sort of telling myself no no
no this is excitement and it becomes a
little bit automatic later on but it’s
kind of a remarkable thing to deal with
pressure by interpreting what your body
is experiencing as excitement rather
than
nerves and its really kind of effective
it makes you want to rush for is rather
than pull back and yet it’s the same
experience you can spend your whole life
imagining ghosts worrying about the
pathway to the future but all there will
ever be is what’s happening here in the
decisions we make in this moment which
are based in either love or fear so many
of us choose our path out of fear
disguised as practicality what we really
want seems impossibly out of reach and
ridiculous to expect so we never dare to
ask the universe for it I’m saying I’m
the proof that you can ask the universe
for it and if it doesn’t happen for you
right away it’s only because the
my father could have been a great
comedian but he didn’t believe that that
was possible for him and so he made a
conservative choice instead he got a
safe job as an accountant and when I was
12 years old he was let go from that
safe job and our family had to do
whatever we could to survive I learned
many great lessons from my father not
the least of which was that you can fail
at what you don’t want so you might as
well take a chance on doing what you
love because all the time why well I
hate to say it the best way for me to
get how I feel across I can’t see air
and say you know what I went through
hell week and met it was it was really
hard no that takes your damn soul rips
it inside out and then they say now
we’re going to start it it allows me to
express where I was at at a point of my
life if I won’t give you all of me why
the hell am I here why how will you
learn from me
people take so much offense to me you
will never learn from people if we
always tap-dance around the truth oh god
I love that we tap-dance around the
truth by finding the right word so I
don’t hurt you because you have thin
skin no tighten up people it’s okay
trust me it’s okay you might be called
nigger one day it’s okay you might be
called some Jewish word or some
or gay word it’s okay let them call you
that what are you going to do now they
don’t own your life how are you going to
control that now how are you going to
flip it upside down and say Roger that
now I’m going to harness this and you
read about me years from now how that’s
the question how are you going to do
that thicken your skin become more of a
human being don’t be afraid of the
reflection in the mirror because that’s
all you can be afraid of once you
overcome the reflection in the mirror
you’ve done it
ideas are worth nothing
I mean ideas are really there not a dime
a dozen that are just nothing all the
good founders I know even the bad
founders can come up with ideas all day
long it doesn’t mean anything you have
to be able to execute and you know one
of the sort of Maxim’s that I was told
once was you know your success will be
measured in the number of uncomfortable
conversations you’re willing to have so
I think it asked if an entrepreneur
should say start the business based on
one of their passions or if they should
find the most attractive market
opportunity and build the business out
of that whether they like it or not I
don’t think it’s either/or I think you
need both I would say look your and
credit card statement identify where you
spend an unusual percentage of your
income where you price insensitive then
how old are you what gender are you
where do you live and design a product
that has all of those things
intersecting I have been working my
whole life and what I didn’t understand
by being determined to chase something
by being committed to it and what
commitment is commitment to staying true
to what you said you were going to do
long after the mood that you have set it
in has left you see people think
commitment is saying yes I’ll do it on
the days when they feel good but I’ve
been committed to everything that I ever
started in my life and I never stopped
and I never quit it and so by being
committed to everything that I started I
finished it it built the certain type of
spirit it built the certain type of
mentality and built the certain type of
individual and so now I couldn’t quit
even if I wanted to I couldn’t lay in
the bed even if I wanted to I couldn’t
stop even if I wanted to I had too much
sweat equity in my life and everything
that I was doing because I understood my
existence wasn’t about me I went from me
to we long time ago
I understood the process is more
important than the product it wasn’t
about the outcome for me what that made
it to the NFL or not that was
inconsequential in God’s plan for my
life but I was going to fall in love
with that process because I understood
by falling in love with that process it
was going to turn me into a machine
there are some mountains that can be
claimed by people like you and me we got
to get a little bit better condition but
I mean it’s not like the mountain
climber mountains that would be way
beyond our skill level but but but some
of these mountains that can be climb for
you and me that it takes a day to get to
the top and then the
you just camp up there and you come in
and down the next day and on many of
these places where it’s Switzerland
where you can do that about halfway up
the mountain is what they call the
halfway house halfway house halfway up
the mountain so the group of people
starts off with a guy in the morning and
about noon you’re kind of tired you’ve
been walking now for four or five hours
and here comes that you’re coming up to
the halfway house it’s just a it’s it’s
a wonderful sight because as soon as you
enter in the halfway house you can smell
the food and they’re they’re getting
ready for a good lunch and you sit down
there’s a fire in the fireplace and
there’s nice soft chairs and you can
just rest your body and refresh your
body and and so the people go into the
halfway house and they eat and laugh and
enjoy and and just really really just
kind of take in that that wonderful
refreshing atmosphere about an hour and
a half after be in the halfway house the
guide gets up and says well gang it’s
time to put on your gear we we got a
hike we got to get on up at the top this
is a fact about half the people decide
not to go on up to the top they’re
sitting around the table and they’re
just saying you know what go on up and
you’re gonna be come by here tomorrow
gonna be having lunch here again
tomorrow
we’re just gonna hang here and and so
the people that want to get to the top
they put their stuff on and they kind of
leave and the rest of the people sit
behind they you don’t eat a little bit
more food get around the piano sing some
songs get around the fireplace enjoy the
fire warn themselves about the fire no
I’ve played games all afternoon kind of
enjoy themselves but about 4:30 chordal
5:00 in the afternoon without anybody
saying a word the people who stayed in
the halfway house
they slowly go over to where the window
is the big window and they start looking
outside and they start looking up the
top of that mountain and say look at the
top of that mountain they see their
friends their friends are now getting
the tents out and they’re getting ready
to prepare for the night and it becomes
very quiet very somber because everybody
in the halfway house realizes the
mistake they’ve made they’ve they’ve
they’ve they’ve sold their mission for a
little bit of comfort for a few hours
next morning down come their friends and
by noon they come into the halfway house
when they come and a half they are
laughing they’re high-fiving they’re
talking about what they’ve seen where
they’ve been experiences the fact that
it was almost impossible to get up there
in fact they had to help each other get
up there and how they join teams and
held hands and and they just telling all
these stories and talk about the
pictures they’ve taken and they yeah
they got the group picture up there with
the flag at the top and the people who
remain behind you know say much they
just eat their lunch and then follow the
rest of them down to the bottom of the
hill where their friends are waiting for
them and those who paid the price and
went to the top who understood now is
the time to reach the mission they hug
can tell stories and celebrate and the
others they just kind of slip off and
get in the car and go home because they
realize they’re never going to be what
they wanted to be they’re never gonna
see what they wanted to see they’re
never going to do what they wanted to do
because they fail to realize whether it
the halfway house now is the time to
rest and they go on one of the things
that’s really interesting about the Old
Testament is that and the Jews in the
Old Testament is that they don’t take
the path of Cain every time their
walloped by God which is like fairly
frequently they say we must have done
something wrong and we have to set our
self right and that’s a an unbelievably
heroic attitude because that’s the
alternative to cursing fate it’s like
you take the responsibility for failure
unto yourself and you think well if I
was just maybe if I just had my act
together a little bit more if I took
advantage of every opportunity that was
put in front of me if I wasn’t resentful
and bitter then I could have done
something that would have tilted the
situation in a different direction and
like that’s almost inevitably true
Dostoevsky I think said something like
every man is responsible for everything
that happens to him and everything that
happens to everyone else and that’s you
know that that’s that’s it’s a crazy
statement right it’s a crazy statement
and he was a pretty extreme person in
many many ways but there’s a level at
which that’s metaphysically true you
know because what happens is that it’s
you its failure to act often that’s the
most catastrophic you know I mean I’ve
it’s it’s it’s to not do the right thing
when the when the situation presents
itself and it’s very specific you know
you’re constantly in situations where
you could do the right thing if you were
willing to take a risk that’s actually a
relatively moderate size and you know
that you could take the risk and you
know that you should take the risk and
you don’t and that happens to people all
the time
and then what happens is the thing that
they didn’t oppose grows a little bit
and they shrink a little bit and that
starts a loop hey enough enough like
living by somebody else’s rules is a
humongous mistake I just literally sat
down with five people under the age of
27 and it’s so
rushing it is so refreshing if you have
not jumped on the bandwagon of doing
exactly what the you want to do which is
skiing for the next three years or
working at a job that’s not what your
parents want or what society wants this
video is just called enough enough make
this little in one two minute video
depends on when I finish the piece of
content that gets you to stand up and
take life by its throat do something
stopping scared stop letting the way you
were raised the fear as an offense take
that away let me be the person I’ll take
the blame I loved that some of my
employees are like my parents don’t love
what you’re saying good parents because
if you are playing defense and if you
are living a life where your kids lives
are the way you’re being fulfilled
you’re a loser
parents and so enough enough parents
imposing their way you want your kids to
be happy on your terms enough the kid
that’s sitting right now in a desk and
saw this in a feed and you hate your job
I’m not stand up get the out of here and
do you live your life you’ve got one
life do something about it I think that
I’ve got to make a record that is the
ultimate sort of Here I am you know so I
think it’s time to go back and you know
it’s like in the movies where the the
ex-marine grows the long beard and long
hair and takes off to like Tibet or
something and then there’s always a
moment I don’t do that anymore and then
he shows up at the Pentagon and totally
clean shave and he’s like where do we
start
I may be shaving the beard soon I’m
getting kind of this place in my life
where if if you can man just do it you
know I went I had this moment where and
my youth I was really frenetic and
everything was like but uh and then I
hit this mode where it was like less is
more and now as I get into my later 30s
I’m like if you can do it do it all the
time you know you do it all the time as
long as you can do it do have just shred
show people what you can do you know so
it’s a sort of this arc also of how
fancy you think you are and find
yourself to be tend to be incredibly
modest in terms of describing your
talents and you you always seem to
belittle your your abilities to a
certain extent
when clearly there there’s a reason why
this everything you do has been working
out I was reading about how you said
that to certain extent that comes from
your your punk rock roots yep there’s no
other choice in those days there’s no
idea of this makes money there’s no idea
like this is my future it was like a
week at a time they have five shows
we’re gonna get to Sunday and even those
days were like fraught with turbulence
and so I never really saw a future none
of us did and some of us you know didn’t
make it some of them are dead and some
of them are just kind of trying to
recreate their past and so I realized
that I have to be very hardworking
because I don’t have kind of the ease of
talent and I come from that and I think
it is you know a lot of ways that served
me very well in that I am is kind of
hardworking as I’ve ever been completely
on without confidence and I have none I
don’t I don’t want any because I think
you turn your back on the thing and
that’s when you get gored is when you
think I got this I never think I got
this I think oh man don’t screw this up
and I go at everything like including
you and I sitting here right now I’m
trying to be fully engaged and that
intensity I think has served me quite
well but it comes from punk rock
absolutely last boss I ever had was my
boss at haagen-dazs I my ice cream shop
to this day he still comes to my shows
and whenever I see Steve who got me my
first apartment who was living in my car
he believed in me whenever I see him I
get all weepy hey it’s good to see you
sir Henry you can call me Steve I can’t
do that sir because because he trusted
me with his money and and I said let me
run your store I know how to do this I
can do this he’s like well if you screw
up you’re out of your I said I won’t
screw up and I end up being I ran a
store and so um it was but it was anger
that said I’ll be here all damn week
I’ll get this whole thing right I fired
his staff and rehired a bunch of people
can really work and it’s it was out of
anger like I’ll be back in four hours to
run this $3 and 75 cent our job into the
ground and then I joined Black Flag and
I thought I was a hardworking person
then you meet the guys in black flag who
are so driven you’d see Greg Ginn work
23 hour days like Greg you’re still on
the phone I know Greg when did you eat I
don’t know Greg when the last time you
showered do we have a shower like the
guy we were not going to be stopped and
I kind of go at that intensity what kind
of anything I do like you’re very calm
good-looking young man look at me I’m a
spaz sitting next to y’all
I’m doing an interview with you focus
I’m sweating ma’am and so I’m like it’s
going to the airport like 10 miles out
and so it’s but it’s anger that has
informed kind of my life and
unflatteringly a sense of vengeance
every damn person who said I wouldn’t be
anything I’m crushing them every day
everybody I had to endure in any band I
was in everyday into a powder yeah thank
you and I wish them no ill I just wish
to shine brighter and if it burns my
body to a crisp I’m happy to go right
now
ESPN called me this past summer but they
called me one day and I picked up the
phone they said is this inky johnson
it’s the last time I checked I’m inky
johnson
they said is this the same guy that said
if you could change what happened to you
you wouldn’t I said absolutely
they said it’s our understanding the
game of football meant the world I said
at one point it did they said it’s our
understanding that your family was
banking on you making it to the NFL they
can have a better way of life I said
yeah that’s that’s correct and said
we’re coming to see you I said alright
cool come on and said but we don’t want
to see you in Atlanta we want to see you
in Neyland Stadium on the exact yard
line where your life changes the same
time of day the only thing that won’t be
present its Air Forces team all right
cool and so they take me to Neyland
Stadium they put me on the exact yard
line with my life changed they said now
tell your younger self why you wouldn’t
stop your injury if you could if you
could be in the NFL right now making
millions of dollars tell you young
yourself why you wouldn’t change that
situation if you could and let’s say the
reason I wouldn’t change it believe it
or not has nothing to do with me back on
a personal level you he thought I was
gonna say because of the man that I’ve
become the perspective that I’ve
acquired my faith that been fortified he
thought I was gonna say something like
that I said no it has nothing to do it
has everything to do with the lives that
have been affected by the result of the
process and the thing that I represent
in the world but my spirit represents
when somebody see me they think
perseverance well my spirit represents
where somebody see me they think don’t
quit what my spirit represents when
somebody see me they think that’s a
quality individual right there what my
character represents in the world and
every single day we’re putting something
out like that represent something when
people see that they thinks it’s a
thought that comes to the month when he
said go standing he gave me that I felt
a certain time ready when he gave me to
go step I thought the certain type I
felt different gold standard with me
because I think in what I do the line of
business I’m in I’m gonna gold standard
because I don’t compromise and every
single day I’m gonna give you my very
best you can bet your bottom dollar
every single day I’m gonna bring that
gold standard to life and I’m not just
bringing it in one aspect of life I’m
bringing it every single aspect of life
I’m not gonna be one of these people in
the world that’s a public success but
they’re private failure mean they give
everything they got to one aspect of
life but the other areas they lack are
no I’m gonna give every single thing I
got to every aspect of my life because I
represent something when people see me
they think something whether that’s
character never giving up never
surrender and the thing that we can
never do is forget what we represent
because that’s how guys end up under
bridge on a cardboard box sleep they
forget what they represent when life
hits him we’re adverse my only charge
for you never forget what you represent
most people don’t have a compelling
vision for their own future they don’t
they move through life setting goals and
goals have no power we’re almost we were
at this point your goals on Power 1959
when Earl Nightingale came his idea of
goal setting and it was like wow I’m a
goal oriented person and that was great
it worked like 20 years everyone set
goals and they and they got results but
then all of a sudden you know you set
goals and sometimes you hit them
sometimes you know what most times you
don’t okay that’s okay but goals almost
became a synonym for like oh I’m gonna
set a goal who gives you what really
happens afterwards and it almost is
synonymous with failure now goal-setting
there’s something above and I believe in
setting goals but there’s got to be
something above your goals and that’s
your vision for the future and it’s not
just about it doesn’t have like an
ending points about the world being a
certain way and that’s inspiring to you
and you when you truly have a vision for
your future that inspires you you’re
gonna jump up out of bed in the morning
and feel great about going at life
versus being miserable and going to a
job you hate or living a life that
doesn’t empower you and just you know
every day moving through just almost
like an automaton not really you know
having the zest and the great the
greatness of life and I’m joking I’ve
been there myself when I felt like I
didn’t really have a compelling vision
for my own future and I felt like I was
wallowing but at least I’m conscious of
that once you become conscious of that
you can consciously create a vision for
your future it doesn’t happen in once in
one minute or an hour you write it down
you work on until I mean you finally hit
on it you know you know you got it when
you read it back to yourself your vision
statement and it moves you and you feel
inspired
okay and you know so people
and and what happens is every human
being is thirsty for a vision everyone
is and so few people happen to what I do
they gravitate towards someone who has a
vision for the future they want to be a
part of a vision part of being a great
entrepreneur is having that vision being
able to create the vision and then sell
that vision to other people to get them
to want to be inspired to buy into it
then put in their time their hard work
their elbow grease to help you achieve
your vision if you’re a small firm then
you spread the wealth around it’s a it’s
a win-win for everybody when I was at
rock bottom I didn’t know that I was at
rock bottom and you can’t really change
what you’re not aware of and so it was
like one of those things where it’s like
can it get any worse damn can’t get any
worse damn and it just I kept asking the
question can it get any worse I didn’t
know that what I was asking was causing
my life so it was to the point where
either I die or I do something about it
because it was like I didn’t have my
daughter pretty much was like you’re not
my father you don’t know what love is my
girlfriend had just broke up with me and
you know my mother was pretty much the
sixteen different was it called met she
was on sixteen different medications
there was so much stuff going on and I’m
watching all of these people be
successful and I’m like I’m more
talented than them and I don’t
understand why I’m still in the exact
same spot which I didn’t know was rock
bottom and then it one day it just all
came crashing down and I was like why am
I here I remember lying down in the
middle of the road and I’m like I wanna
die like right now and I stayed there
cars would drive him by honking and
everything and I don’t know what
happened in between that but literally
my car had just got out of the impound
my mom had paid for it she didn’t even
have much money but somehow she would
always do something for her baby boy and
she got much she got my car to the
impound a day I got my car to the
impound
that’s when somebody who broke into my
car like and it was like can it get any
worse
that night on La Brea on the corner of
La Brea in Hollywood I’m at the there’s
like this like little shopping center
and I car was parked my window was
busted out to the right and and
literally was raining was 3:43 in the
morning August 2011 and it was I yelled
out eyes bloodshot red and I still
didn’t know that this was rock bottom
but I’ve always focused on what I don’t
want and I just remember saying okay
okay I’m tired of fighting I don’t want
to fight anymore I want to be healthy I
want to be happy I want to be surrounded
by nothing but positive people I just I
just want to inspire people and I want
to make a bunch of money but I want the
money to represent something that I
passionately believe in just show me a
sign show me a sign show me and I just
kept saying over and over and over it
wasn’t until a week later until I I met
the man at the gas station and he asked
me for money and he said he said do you
have any money she’s like it was a
homeless guy not only and he had a lot
of money I say you have more money than
me and he goes if you ever seen the
movie Rain Man the guy was talking to
himself
person did the exact same thing he was
like change our mindset change your life
change your mindset change your life
change our mindset change your life
change your mindset and then they walked
away and it was in that very moment I
felt like my whole entire life was a lie
the best advice I ever got was you only
have one chance to make a first
impression
I don’t remember who gave me the advice
but I’ve been certainly dishing out that
piece of advice for the last 30 years
it’s important because you do only have
one chance to make a first impression if
that first impression is a crummy one
you’re clawing your way out for a very
long time so at every commencement
speech that I give I say to the
graduates if you take nothing else away
from this commencement other than your
diploma you
only have one chance to make a first
impression the goal was to have my own
business to be an entrepreneur and make
my own money and had you been thinking
about it while you’re in the monastery
yeah the last cut well not all those
years the last couple years deciding
whether I wanted to leave was probably
the I would say probably was the hardest
decision I’ve ever made in my life was
to leave the monastery yeah so the next
question would be what would I do
you could have ran a web business from
the monastery
we we had the largest web site in the
state of Hawaii
yeah monks program in HTML CSS
JavaScript and we were trained how to
edit movies on Final Cut Pro design and
InDesign Photoshop we we knew it inside
out Wow
yeah I I learned coding in the monastry
oh that’s awesome I didn’t know well I
thought I literally thought you were
preparing for meditation we we took
those concentration skills into
everything that we did so when we were
programming we focused on programs you
know when we we were building a building
or we were putting cement on the
sidewalk or sweeping something or
cooking we’re focused so in everything
that we did throughout the day we
practiced all the tools that we learnt
so when we sat to meditate we’d been
practicing for 23 all day you’ve lived a
life dominated by doubt and fear how do
you step into bravery step that’s how
you step into bravery step take the step
step aggressively towards your fear and
that that step towards your fear is the
step into bravery the
there is only one way to learn and to
know and that is to confront that fear
you have to step you have to go and this
simple action this simple attitude it
answers so many questions so many
questions how do you get to the gym
every day you step you go how do you how
do you change your diet you step you go
how do you overcome fear of failure fear
you step then how do you face the fear
of the unknown you step don’t wait
anymore don’t think anymore don’t plan
anymore don’t contemplate anymore don’t
make any more excuses or justifications
don’t rationalize anything else no no
and no instead be aggressive take action
now and what is the first action that
you need to take what’s the first step
the first step you need to take is just
that step in the 18th century there was
something that spread across Europe and
eventually made its way to America where
opal fever also known as the Black Death
of childbed basically what was happening
is women were giving birth and they
would die within 48 hours after giving
birth
this black death of childbirth was the
ravage of Europe and it got worse and
worse and worse over the course of over
a century in some hospitals it was as
high as 70 percent of women who gave
birth who would die as a result of
giving birth but this was the
Renaissance this was the time of
empirical data and science and we had
thrown away things like tradition and
mysticism these were men of science
these were doctors and these doctors and
men of science wanted to study and try
and find the reason for this black death
of childbed and so they got to work
studying and they would study the
corpses of the of the women who had died
and in the morning they would conduct
autopsies and then in the afternoon they
would go and deliver babies and finish
their rounds and it wasn’t until
somewhere in the mid 1800s that dr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes father of Supreme
Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
realized that all of these doctors who
conducting autopsies in the morning
weren’t washing their hands before they
delivered babies in the afternoon and he
pointed it out and said guys you’re the
problem
and they ignored him and called him
crazy for 30 years until finally
somebody realized that if they simply
washed their hands it would go away
and that’s exactly what happened when
they started sterilizing their
instruments and washing their hands the
black death of childbed disappeared my
point is the lesson here is sometimes
you’re the problem we’ve seen this
happen all too recently with our new men
of science and empirical studies and
these men of Finance who are smarter
than the rest of us until the thing
collapsed and they blamed everything
else except themselves and my point is
is take accountability for your actions
you can take all the credit in the world
for the things that you do right as long
as you also take responsibility for the
things you do wrong it must be a
balanced equation you don’t get it one
way and not the other you get to take
credit when you also take accountability
I think it’s important to have at least
one or two numbers that you track on a
weekly basis so that could be for
web-based properties or services and
products it could be weekly average
uniques what it is doesn’t matter that
much but matters less than having a
metric that you try to improve every
week you can have one or two of them you
really shouldn’t have many more than
that I don’t think could be conversion
from sign up to let’s say first stage of
sign up to completion of sign up there
are many different metrics that you can
use but you I think that to keep the
team focused especially in a small
company it’s very important to have one
or two the folks on a weekly basis the
only thing that stops you from getting
what you want in life is the bulk story
you tell yourself of why you can’t have
it
get that what stops you back is the
story the story stops you from getting
honest and you can’t get honest with
yourself there’s no way you can go what
made you like this success in sales in
life it’s like a road map right you know
where you want to go and you have this
perfect strategy the straight line to
get there it’s a perfect strategy it’s
gonna get you there every single time
but if you don’t know you’re starting
put it you’re not getting eyes where you
actually are it doesn’t matter how
powerful strategy is and it doesn’t
matter how powerful your goals I’m gonna
actually instead of gold today write a
60 day goal and let’s say you really set
this goal and I’ll show you how to do it
in a brilliant way so it’s visceral so
it makes you really feel it
you see it you said you smell a goal
that’s step one I’m gonna teach you the
straight line which is your strategy to
get to your goal but if you’re not
honest with where you all right now your
starting point the map is worthless
there’s three things that you know where
you are where you want to go and how
you’re gonna get there those are the
three things you must have and take
advantage of any opportunity I’m gonna
give you the strategy I’m gonna actually
call me exactly where you want to go
yourself you got to get honest don’t
blame the boss don’t blame the leagues
don’t blame your job don’t win the
industry or in just get out if you don’t
like your industry find another one
use active imagination is deceptively
simple often what separates creative
from conventional thinkers is that they
simply search wider they use their minds
to generate possibilities that others
don’t think of and then they work to
verify what they came up with we saw a
classic example of this with past or
another great example is with Henry Ford
early on in his career in the earliest
years of what would later become the
Ford Motor Company Ford was anxious to
increase beat up the production of cars
it was he saw the automobile as the
ultimate consumer product but in order
for it to become that he had to greatly
increase the production rate in his
factory so he spent a couple days
looking at his employees on the factory
floor and trying to imagine how he could
get them to move faster from car to car
suddenly one day he imagined something
completely different he imagined the men
standing still and the cars coming to
them he didn’t know what that really
meant that he decided to try it out and
lo and behold it increased productivity
by such an incredible exponential rate
that it could now become the consumer
product that he envisioned
things like antibodies or assembly lines
they seem so obvious to us now but they
are never obvious in the present and
they involve an incredible leap of what
I call active imagination the difference
between regular and active imagination
is that the latter is used consciously
to reach very very practical results
it’s not imagination for coming up with
wild things its imagination used for
very practical results think of the
active imagination as a kind of creative
muscle that you’re developing first
within the loose constraints of what
you’re working on you open your mind up
to you give a complete free rein you
entertain almost every possibility that
you could imagine or visualize you
engage in what Charles Darwin calls
fools
experiment fools experiments this is the
fun play part of serious play you use
notebooks sketches diagrams models
prototypes to help externalize the
products of your imagination
once you have gone through this you now
enter the second serious part of the
process first you choose one or few of
the more promising possibilities that
were generated by your imagination
and now you actively work to test verify
or confirm it
this might entail launching a beta
version on the public once you have
feedback you now go back into the first
part of the process in a shortened form
using your imagination to perhaps take
what you have into an even better and
higher form circling constantly through
this process in shorter and shorter
cycles until you’ve got something that’s
both incredibly imaginative and
incredibly realistic and practical by
developing this by going through this
over and over and over again you
to develop your imagination into an
incredibly powerful creative muscle one
asked me once what they or many times I
think what I thought it meant to be an
artist and I said it’s what I think an
artist needs essentially more than
discipline or even talent is a
perspective so if you are always
changing what you do based on what other
people say you completely lose yourself
and you become just you know something
that’s constantly affected by what’s
around you as opposed to stable and your
own and like autonomous and your
identity most people if not because they
set their goals too high and miss them
it’s cause they set them to go low and
hit
get that it’s not because you set your
goals too high and miss you set your
goals too low and you hit them and you
get caught up in the average daily
struggle of averages and mediocrity
that’s what kills people everybody raise
your hand for a second please
raise your hand now raise it as high as
you can
I’m gonna crash so I can see okay now
just raise it a bit higher every one
higher why the hell would that happen
I say raise it as high as you can and
ham I said okay then a little high okay
well if you really mean it right you get
it it’s that extra inch that’s where you
want to set your goal not pie in the sky
and add a control like it’s never gonna
happen because that’s a load of crap to
people that set those sort of goals they
abandon those goals and I’ll get to that
later but the idea here is you want to
set the goals just above your comfort
zone so now think about it for a second
think about your goals right now how do
you set them you’re setting them very
low and hitting them if that’s the case
then give yourself a ten are you setting
goals that don’t aspire you some people
set goals in like behind but they’re
crappy goals they’re not the sort of
goals that make you jump out of bed in
the morning make you want to go to work
for yourself to secure the future not
just for you but for your family so you
know if they’re compromised are
acquiesced to anybody unless you love
them unless you want to that’s freedom
you know money is just a mechanism to get there
me or anybody else is the same you know
I have the same pressures as anyone else
there’s time there’s performance there’s
financial I mean there you know there’s
deadlines my pressures are not unique
the situations may be different or you
know but but everybody has the same
kinds of pressures but what I found or
what I find fascinating is the
interpretation of the stimuli if let me
let me explain so I was watching the
Olympics this last summer olympics and I
was amazed at how bad the questions were
that the reporters would ask all the
athletes and almost always they asked
the same question whether they were
about to compete or after they competed
were you nervous right and to a tee all
the athletes went no right and what I
realized is it’s not that they’re not
nervous it’s their interpretation of
what’s happening in their bodies I mean
what it what happens when you’re nervous
right your heart rate starts to go
you’re you know you sort of get a little
tense you get a little sweaty right you
have expectation of what’s coming and we
interpreted that is I’m nervous now
what’s the interpretation of excited
your heart rate starts to go you become
you’re anticipating what’s coming right
you get a little sort of like tense it’s
all the same thing it’s the same stimuli
except these athletes these these
Olympic quality athletes have learned to
interpret the stimuli that the rest of
us would say as nervous as excited they
also the same thing no I’m not nervous
I’m excited and so I’ve actually
practiced it just to tell myself when I
start to get nervous that this is
excitement you know and so where when
you used to be speaking from a large
audience and somebody’d say how do you
feel I say little nervous now when
somebody says how do you feel I’m like
really excited actually and it it came
from just sort of telling myself no no
no this is excitement and it becomes a
little bit automatic later on but it’s
kind of a remarkable thing to deal with
pressure by interpreting what your body
is experiencing as excitement rather
than
nerves and its really kind of effective
it makes you want to rush for is rather
than pull back and yet it’s the same
experience you can spend your whole life
imagining ghosts worrying about the
pathway to the future but all there will
ever be is what’s happening here in the
decisions we make in this moment which
are based in either love or fear so many
of us choose our path out of fear
disguised as practicality what we really
want seems impossibly out of reach and
ridiculous to expect so we never dare to
ask the universe for it I’m saying I’m
the proof that you can ask the universe
for it and if it doesn’t happen for you
right away it’s only because the
my father could have been a great
comedian but he didn’t believe that that
was possible for him and so he made a
conservative choice instead he got a
safe job as an accountant and when I was
12 years old he was let go from that
safe job and our family had to do
whatever we could to survive I learned
many great lessons from my father not
the least of which was that you can fail
at what you don’t want so you might as
well take a chance on doing what you
love because all the time why well I
hate to say it the best way for me to
get how I feel across I can’t see air
and say you know what I went through
hell week and met it was it was really
hard no that takes your damn soul rips
it inside out and then they say now
we’re going to start it it allows me to
express where I was at at a point of my
life if I won’t give you all of me why
the hell am I here why how will you
learn from me
people take so much offense to me you
will never learn from people if we
always tap-dance around the truth oh god
I love that we tap-dance around the
truth by finding the right word so I
don’t hurt you because you have thin
skin no tighten up people it’s okay
trust me it’s okay you might be called
nigger one day it’s okay you might be
called some Jewish word or some
or gay word it’s okay let them call you
that what are you going to do now they
don’t own your life how are you going to
control that now how are you going to
flip it upside down and say Roger that
now I’m going to harness this and you
read about me years from now how that’s
the question how are you going to do
that thicken your skin become more of a
human being don’t be afraid of the
reflection in the mirror because that’s
all you can be afraid of once you
overcome the reflection in the mirror
you’ve done it
ideas are worth nothing
I mean ideas are really there not a dime
a dozen that are just nothing all the
good founders I know even the bad
founders can come up with ideas all day
long it doesn’t mean anything you have
to be able to execute and you know one
of the sort of Maxim’s that I was told
once was you know your success will be
measured in the number of uncomfortable
conversations you’re willing to have so
I think it asked if an entrepreneur
should say start the business based on
one of their passions or if they should
find the most attractive market
opportunity and build the business out
of that whether they like it or not I
don’t think it’s either/or I think you
need both I would say look your and
credit card statement identify where you
spend an unusual percentage of your
income where you price insensitive then
how old are you what gender are you
where do you live and design a product
that has all of those things
intersecting I have been working my
whole life and what I didn’t understand
by being determined to chase something
by being committed to it and what
commitment is commitment to staying true
to what you said you were going to do
long after the mood that you have set it
in has left you see people think
commitment is saying yes I’ll do it on
the days when they feel good but I’ve
been committed to everything that I ever
started in my life and I never stopped
and I never quit it and so by being
committed to everything that I started I
finished it it built the certain type of
spirit it built the certain type of
mentality and built the certain type of
individual and so now I couldn’t quit
even if I wanted to I couldn’t lay in
the bed even if I wanted to I couldn’t
stop even if I wanted to I had too much
sweat equity in my life and everything
that I was doing because I understood my
existence wasn’t about me I went from me
to we long time ago
I understood the process is more
important than the product it wasn’t
about the outcome for me what that made
it to the NFL or not that was
inconsequential in God’s plan for my
life but I was going to fall in love
with that process because I understood
by falling in love with that process it
was going to turn me into a machine
there are some mountains that can be
claimed by people like you and me we got
to get a little bit better condition but
I mean it’s not like the mountain
climber mountains that would be way
beyond our skill level but but but some
of these mountains that can be climb for
you and me that it takes a day to get to
the top and then the
you just camp up there and you come in
and down the next day and on many of
these places where it’s Switzerland
where you can do that about halfway up
the mountain is what they call the
halfway house halfway house halfway up
the mountain so the group of people
starts off with a guy in the morning and
about noon you’re kind of tired you’ve
been walking now for four or five hours
and here comes that you’re coming up to
the halfway house it’s just a it’s it’s
a wonderful sight because as soon as you
enter in the halfway house you can smell
the food and they’re they’re getting
ready for a good lunch and you sit down
there’s a fire in the fireplace and
there’s nice soft chairs and you can
just rest your body and refresh your
body and and so the people go into the
halfway house and they eat and laugh and
enjoy and and just really really just
kind of take in that that wonderful
refreshing atmosphere about an hour and
a half after be in the halfway house the
guide gets up and says well gang it’s
time to put on your gear we we got a
hike we got to get on up at the top this
is a fact about half the people decide
not to go on up to the top they’re
sitting around the table and they’re
just saying you know what go on up and
you’re gonna be come by here tomorrow
gonna be having lunch here again
tomorrow
we’re just gonna hang here and and so
the people that want to get to the top
they put their stuff on and they kind of
leave and the rest of the people sit
behind they you don’t eat a little bit
more food get around the piano sing some
songs get around the fireplace enjoy the
fire warn themselves about the fire no
I’ve played games all afternoon kind of
enjoy themselves but about 4:30 chordal
5:00 in the afternoon without anybody
saying a word the people who stayed in
the halfway house
they slowly go over to where the window
is the big window and they start looking
outside and they start looking up the
top of that mountain and say look at the
top of that mountain they see their
friends their friends are now getting
the tents out and they’re getting ready
to prepare for the night and it becomes
very quiet very somber because everybody
in the halfway house realizes the
mistake they’ve made they’ve they’ve
they’ve they’ve sold their mission for a
little bit of comfort for a few hours
next morning down come their friends and
by noon they come into the halfway house
when they come and a half they are
laughing they’re high-fiving they’re
talking about what they’ve seen where
they’ve been experiences the fact that
it was almost impossible to get up there
in fact they had to help each other get
up there and how they join teams and
held hands and and they just telling all
these stories and talk about the
pictures they’ve taken and they yeah
they got the group picture up there with
the flag at the top and the people who
remain behind you know say much they
just eat their lunch and then follow the
rest of them down to the bottom of the
hill where their friends are waiting for
them and those who paid the price and
went to the top who understood now is
the time to reach the mission they hug
can tell stories and celebrate and the
others they just kind of slip off and
get in the car and go home because they
realize they’re never going to be what
they wanted to be they’re never gonna
see what they wanted to see they’re
never going to do what they wanted to do
because they fail to realize whether it
the halfway house now is the time to
rest and they go on one of the things
that’s really interesting about the Old
Testament is that and the Jews in the
Old Testament is that they don’t take
the path of Cain every time their
walloped by God which is like fairly
frequently they say we must have done
something wrong and we have to set our
self right and that’s a an unbelievably
heroic attitude because that’s the
alternative to cursing fate it’s like
you take the responsibility for failure
unto yourself and you think well if I
was just maybe if I just had my act
together a little bit more if I took
advantage of every opportunity that was
put in front of me if I wasn’t resentful
and bitter then I could have done
something that would have tilted the
situation in a different direction and
like that’s almost inevitably true
Dostoevsky I think said something like
every man is responsible for everything
that happens to him and everything that
happens to everyone else and that’s you
know that that’s that’s it’s a crazy
statement right it’s a crazy statement
and he was a pretty extreme person in
many many ways but there’s a level at
which that’s metaphysically true you
know because what happens is that it’s
you its failure to act often that’s the
most catastrophic you know I mean I’ve
it’s it’s it’s to not do the right thing
when the when the situation presents
itself and it’s very specific you know
you’re constantly in situations where
you could do the right thing if you were
willing to take a risk that’s actually a
relatively moderate size and you know
that you could take the risk and you
know that you should take the risk and
you don’t and that happens to people all
the time
and then what happens is the thing that
they didn’t oppose grows a little bit
and they shrink a little bit and that
starts a loop hey enough enough like
living by somebody else’s rules is a
humongous mistake I just literally sat
down with five people under the age of
27 and it’s so
rushing it is so refreshing if you have
not jumped on the bandwagon of doing
exactly what the you want to do which is
skiing for the next three years or
working at a job that’s not what your
parents want or what society wants this
video is just called enough enough make
this little in one two minute video
depends on when I finish the piece of
content that gets you to stand up and
take life by its throat do something
stopping scared stop letting the way you
were raised the fear as an offense take
that away let me be the person I’ll take
the blame I loved that some of my
employees are like my parents don’t love
what you’re saying good parents because
if you are playing defense and if you
are living a life where your kids lives
are the way you’re being fulfilled
you’re a loser
parents and so enough enough parents
imposing their way you want your kids to
be happy on your terms enough the kid
that’s sitting right now in a desk and
saw this in a feed and you hate your job
I’m not stand up get the out of here and
do you live your life you’ve got one
life do something about it I think that
I’ve got to make a record that is the
ultimate sort of Here I am you know so I
think it’s time to go back and you know
it’s like in the movies where the the
ex-marine grows the long beard and long
hair and takes off to like Tibet or
something and then there’s always a
moment I don’t do that anymore and then
he shows up at the Pentagon and totally
clean shave and he’s like where do we
start
I may be shaving the beard soon I’m
getting kind of this place in my life
where if if you can man just do it you
know I went I had this moment where and
my youth I was really frenetic and
everything was like but uh and then I
hit this mode where it was like less is
more and now as I get into my later 30s
I’m like if you can do it do it all the
time you know you do it all the time as
long as you can do it do have just shred
show people what you can do you know so
it’s a sort of this arc also of how
fancy you think you are and find
yourself to be tend to be incredibly
modest in terms of describing your
talents and you you always seem to
belittle your your abilities to a
certain extent
when clearly there there’s a reason why
this everything you do has been working
out I was reading about how you said
that to certain extent that comes from
your your punk rock roots yep there’s no
other choice in those days there’s no
idea of this makes money there’s no idea
like this is my future it was like a
week at a time they have five shows
we’re gonna get to Sunday and even those
days were like fraught with turbulence
and so I never really saw a future none
of us did and some of us you know didn’t
make it some of them are dead and some
of them are just kind of trying to
recreate their past and so I realized
that I have to be very hardworking
because I don’t have kind of the ease of
talent and I come from that and I think
it is you know a lot of ways that served
me very well in that I am is kind of
hardworking as I’ve ever been completely
on without confidence and I have none I
don’t I don’t want any because I think
you turn your back on the thing and
that’s when you get gored is when you
think I got this I never think I got
this I think oh man don’t screw this up
and I go at everything like including
you and I sitting here right now I’m
trying to be fully engaged and that
intensity I think has served me quite
well but it comes from punk rock
absolutely last boss I ever had was my
boss at haagen-dazs I my ice cream shop
to this day he still comes to my shows
and whenever I see Steve who got me my
first apartment who was living in my car
he believed in me whenever I see him I
get all weepy hey it’s good to see you
sir Henry you can call me Steve I can’t
do that sir because because he trusted
me with his money and and I said let me
run your store I know how to do this I
can do this he’s like well if you screw
up you’re out of your I said I won’t
screw up and I end up being I ran a
store and so um it was but it was anger
that said I’ll be here all damn week
I’ll get this whole thing right I fired
his staff and rehired a bunch of people
can really work and it’s it was out of
anger like I’ll be back in four hours to
run this $3 and 75 cent our job into the
ground and then I joined Black Flag and
I thought I was a hardworking person
then you meet the guys in black flag who
are so driven you’d see Greg Ginn work
23 hour days like Greg you’re still on
the phone I know Greg when did you eat I
don’t know Greg when the last time you
showered do we have a shower like the
guy we were not going to be stopped and
I kind of go at that intensity what kind
of anything I do like you’re very calm
good-looking young man look at me I’m a
spaz sitting next to y’all
I’m doing an interview with you focus
I’m sweating ma’am and so I’m like it’s
going to the airport like 10 miles out
and so it’s but it’s anger that has
informed kind of my life and
unflatteringly a sense of vengeance
every damn person who said I wouldn’t be
anything I’m crushing them every day
everybody I had to endure in any band I
was in everyday into a powder yeah thank
you and I wish them no ill I just wish
to shine brighter and if it burns my
body to a crisp I’m happy to go right
now
ESPN called me this past summer but they
called me one day and I picked up the
phone they said is this inky johnson
it’s the last time I checked I’m inky
johnson
they said is this the same guy that said
if you could change what happened to you
you wouldn’t I said absolutely
they said it’s our understanding the
game of football meant the world I said
at one point it did they said it’s our
understanding that your family was
banking on you making it to the NFL they
can have a better way of life I said
yeah that’s that’s correct and said
we’re coming to see you I said alright
cool come on and said but we don’t want
to see you in Atlanta we want to see you
in Neyland Stadium on the exact yard
line where your life changes the same
time of day the only thing that won’t be
present its Air Forces team all right
cool and so they take me to Neyland
Stadium they put me on the exact yard
line with my life changed they said now
tell your younger self why you wouldn’t
stop your injury if you could if you
could be in the NFL right now making
millions of dollars tell you young
yourself why you wouldn’t change that
situation if you could and let’s say the
reason I wouldn’t change it believe it
or not has nothing to do with me back on
a personal level you he thought I was
gonna say because of the man that I’ve
become the perspective that I’ve
acquired my faith that been fortified he
thought I was gonna say something like
that I said no it has nothing to do it
has everything to do with the lives that
have been affected by the result of the
process and the thing that I represent
in the world but my spirit represents
when somebody see me they think
perseverance well my spirit represents
where somebody see me they think don’t
quit what my spirit represents when
somebody see me they think that’s a
quality individual right there what my
character represents in the world and
every single day we’re putting something
out like that represent something when
people see that they thinks it’s a
thought that comes to the month when he
said go standing he gave me that I felt
a certain time ready when he gave me to
go step I thought the certain type I
felt different gold standard with me
because I think in what I do the line of
business I’m in I’m gonna gold standard
because I don’t compromise and every
single day I’m gonna give you my very
best you can bet your bottom dollar
every single day I’m gonna bring that
gold standard to life and I’m not just
bringing it in one aspect of life I’m
bringing it every single aspect of life
I’m not gonna be one of these people in
the world that’s a public success but
they’re private failure mean they give
everything they got to one aspect of
life but the other areas they lack are
no I’m gonna give every single thing I
got to every aspect of my life because I
represent something when people see me
they think something whether that’s
character never giving up never
surrender and the thing that we can
never do is forget what we represent
because that’s how guys end up under
bridge on a cardboard box sleep they
forget what they represent when life
hits him we’re adverse my only charge
for you never forget what you represent
most people don’t have a compelling
vision for their own future they don’t
they move through life setting goals and
goals have no power we’re almost we were
at this point your goals on Power 1959
when Earl Nightingale came his idea of
goal setting and it was like wow I’m a
goal oriented person and that was great
it worked like 20 years everyone set
goals and they and they got results but
then all of a sudden you know you set
goals and sometimes you hit them
sometimes you know what most times you
don’t okay that’s okay but goals almost
became a synonym for like oh I’m gonna
set a goal who gives you what really
happens afterwards and it almost is
synonymous with failure now goal-setting
there’s something above and I believe in
setting goals but there’s got to be
something above your goals and that’s
your vision for the future and it’s not
just about it doesn’t have like an
ending points about the world being a
certain way and that’s inspiring to you
and you when you truly have a vision for
your future that inspires you you’re
gonna jump up out of bed in the morning
and feel great about going at life
versus being miserable and going to a
job you hate or living a life that
doesn’t empower you and just you know
every day moving through just almost
like an automaton not really you know
having the zest and the great the
greatness of life and I’m joking I’ve
been there myself when I felt like I
didn’t really have a compelling vision
for my own future and I felt like I was
wallowing but at least I’m conscious of
that once you become conscious of that
you can consciously create a vision for
your future it doesn’t happen in once in
one minute or an hour you write it down
you work on until I mean you finally hit
on it you know you know you got it when
you read it back to yourself your vision
statement and it moves you and you feel
inspired
okay and you know so people
and and what happens is every human
being is thirsty for a vision everyone
is and so few people happen to what I do
they gravitate towards someone who has a
vision for the future they want to be a
part of a vision part of being a great
entrepreneur is having that vision being
able to create the vision and then sell
that vision to other people to get them
to want to be inspired to buy into it
then put in their time their hard work
their elbow grease to help you achieve
your vision if you’re a small firm then
you spread the wealth around it’s a it’s
a win-win for everybody when I was at
rock bottom I didn’t know that I was at
rock bottom and you can’t really change
what you’re not aware of and so it was
like one of those things where it’s like
can it get any worse damn can’t get any
worse damn and it just I kept asking the
question can it get any worse I didn’t
know that what I was asking was causing
my life so it was to the point where
either I die or I do something about it
because it was like I didn’t have my
daughter pretty much was like you’re not
my father you don’t know what love is my
girlfriend had just broke up with me and
you know my mother was pretty much the
sixteen different was it called met she
was on sixteen different medications
there was so much stuff going on and I’m
watching all of these people be
successful and I’m like I’m more
talented than them and I don’t
understand why I’m still in the exact
same spot which I didn’t know was rock
bottom and then it one day it just all
came crashing down and I was like why am
I here I remember lying down in the
middle of the road and I’m like I wanna
die like right now and I stayed there
cars would drive him by honking and
everything and I don’t know what
happened in between that but literally
my car had just got out of the impound
my mom had paid for it she didn’t even
have much money but somehow she would
always do something for her baby boy and
she got much she got my car to the
impound a day I got my car to the
impound
that’s when somebody who broke into my
car like and it was like can it get any
worse
that night on La Brea on the corner of
La Brea in Hollywood I’m at the there’s
like this like little shopping center
and I car was parked my window was
busted out to the right and and
literally was raining was 3:43 in the
morning August 2011 and it was I yelled
out eyes bloodshot red and I still
didn’t know that this was rock bottom
but I’ve always focused on what I don’t
want and I just remember saying okay
okay I’m tired of fighting I don’t want
to fight anymore I want to be healthy I
want to be happy I want to be surrounded
by nothing but positive people I just I
just want to inspire people and I want
to make a bunch of money but I want the
money to represent something that I
passionately believe in just show me a
sign show me a sign show me and I just
kept saying over and over and over it
wasn’t until a week later until I I met
the man at the gas station and he asked
me for money and he said he said do you
have any money she’s like it was a
homeless guy not only and he had a lot
of money I say you have more money than
me and he goes if you ever seen the
movie Rain Man the guy was talking to
himself
person did the exact same thing he was
like change our mindset change your life
change your mindset change your life
change our mindset change your life
change your mindset and then they walked
away and it was in that very moment I
felt like my whole entire life was a lie
the best advice I ever got was you only
have one chance to make a first
impression
I don’t remember who gave me the advice
but I’ve been certainly dishing out that
piece of advice for the last 30 years
it’s important because you do only have
one chance to make a first impression if
that first impression is a crummy one
you’re clawing your way out for a very
long time so at every commencement
speech that I give I say to the
graduates if you take nothing else away
from this commencement other than your
diploma you
only have one chance to make a first
impression the goal was to have my own
business to be an entrepreneur and make
my own money and had you been thinking
about it while you’re in the monastery
yeah the last cut well not all those
years the last couple years deciding
whether I wanted to leave was probably
the I would say probably was the hardest
decision I’ve ever made in my life was
to leave the monastery yeah so the next
question would be what would I do
you could have ran a web business from
the monastery
we we had the largest web site in the
state of Hawaii
yeah monks program in HTML CSS
JavaScript and we were trained how to
edit movies on Final Cut Pro design and
InDesign Photoshop we we knew it inside
out Wow
yeah I I learned coding in the monastry
oh that’s awesome I didn’t know well I
thought I literally thought you were
preparing for meditation we we took
those concentration skills into
everything that we did so when we were
programming we focused on programs you
know when we we were building a building
or we were putting cement on the
sidewalk or sweeping something or
cooking we’re focused so in everything
that we did throughout the day we
practiced all the tools that we learnt
so when we sat to meditate we’d been
practicing for 23 all day you’ve lived a
life dominated by doubt and fear how do
you step into bravery step that’s how
you step into bravery step take the step
step aggressively towards your fear and
that that step towards your fear is the
step into bravery the
there is only one way to learn and to
know and that is to confront that fear
you have to step you have to go and this
simple action this simple attitude it
answers so many questions so many
questions how do you get to the gym
every day you step you go how do you how
do you change your diet you step you go
how do you overcome fear of failure fear
you step then how do you face the fear
of the unknown you step don’t wait
anymore don’t think anymore don’t plan
anymore don’t contemplate anymore don’t
make any more excuses or justifications
don’t rationalize anything else no no
and no instead be aggressive take action
now and what is the first action that
you need to take what’s the first step
the first step you need to take is just
that step in the 18th century there was
something that spread across Europe and
eventually made its way to America where
opal fever also known as the Black Death
of childbed basically what was happening
is women were giving birth and they
would die within 48 hours after giving
birth
this black death of childbirth was the
ravage of Europe and it got worse and
worse and worse over the course of over
a century in some hospitals it was as
high as 70 percent of women who gave
birth who would die as a result of
giving birth but this was the
Renaissance this was the time of
empirical data and science and we had
thrown away things like tradition and
mysticism these were men of science
these were doctors and these doctors and
men of science wanted to study and try
and find the reason for this black death
of childbed and so they got to work
studying and they would study the
corpses of the of the women who had died
and in the morning they would conduct
autopsies and then in the afternoon they
would go and deliver babies and finish
their rounds and it wasn’t until
somewhere in the mid 1800s that dr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes father of Supreme
Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
realized that all of these doctors who
conducting autopsies in the morning
weren’t washing their hands before they
delivered babies in the afternoon and he
pointed it out and said guys you’re the
problem
and they ignored him and called him
crazy for 30 years until finally
somebody realized that if they simply
washed their hands it would go away
and that’s exactly what happened when
they started sterilizing their
instruments and washing their hands the
black death of childbed disappeared my
point is the lesson here is sometimes
you’re the problem we’ve seen this
happen all too recently with our new men
of science and empirical studies and
these men of Finance who are smarter
than the rest of us until the thing
collapsed and they blamed everything
else except themselves and my point is
is take accountability for your actions
you can take all the credit in the world
for the things that you do right as long
as you also take responsibility for the
things you do wrong it must be a
balanced equation you don’t get it one
way and not the other you get to take
credit when you also take accountability
I think it’s important to have at least
one or two numbers that you track on a
weekly basis so that could be for
web-based properties or services and
products it could be weekly average
uniques what it is doesn’t matter that
much but matters less than having a
metric that you try to improve every
week you can have one or two of them you
really shouldn’t have many more than
that I don’t think could be conversion
from sign up to let’s say first stage of
sign up to completion of sign up there
are many different metrics that you can
use but you I think that to keep the
team focused especially in a small
company it’s very important to have one
or two the folks on a weekly basis the
only thing that stops you from getting
what you want in life is the bulk story
you tell yourself of why you can’t have
it
get that what stops you back is the
story the story stops you from getting
honest and you can’t get honest with
yourself there’s no way you can go what
made you like this success in sales in
life it’s like a road map right you know
where you want to go and you have this
perfect strategy the straight line to
get there it’s a perfect strategy it’s
gonna get you there every single time
but if you don’t know you’re starting
put it you’re not getting eyes where you
actually are it doesn’t matter how
powerful strategy is and it doesn’t
matter how powerful your goals I’m gonna
actually instead of gold today write a
60 day goal and let’s say you really set
this goal and I’ll show you how to do it
in a brilliant way so it’s visceral so
it makes you really feel it
you see it you said you smell a goal
that’s step one I’m gonna teach you the
straight line which is your strategy to
get to your goal but if you’re not
honest with where you all right now your
starting point the map is worthless
there’s three things that you know where
you are where you want to go and how
you’re gonna get there those are the
three things you must have and take
advantage of any opportunity I’m gonna
give you the strategy I’m gonna actually
call me exactly where you want to go
yourself you got to get honest don’t
blame the boss don’t blame the leagues
don’t blame your job don’t win the
industry or in just get out if you don’t
like your industry find another one
use active imagination is deceptively
simple often what separates creative
from conventional thinkers is that they
simply search wider they use their minds
to generate possibilities that others
don’t think of and then they work to
verify what they came up with we saw a
classic example of this with past or
another great example is with Henry Ford
early on in his career in the earliest
years of what would later become the
Ford Motor Company Ford was anxious to
increase beat up the production of cars
it was he saw the automobile as the
ultimate consumer product but in order
for it to become that he had to greatly
increase the production rate in his
factory so he spent a couple days
looking at his employees on the factory
floor and trying to imagine how he could
get them to move faster from car to car
suddenly one day he imagined something
completely different he imagined the men
standing still and the cars coming to
them he didn’t know what that really
meant that he decided to try it out and
lo and behold it increased productivity
by such an incredible exponential rate
that it could now become the consumer
product that he envisioned
things like antibodies or assembly lines
they seem so obvious to us now but they
are never obvious in the present and
they involve an incredible leap of what
I call active imagination the difference
between regular and active imagination
is that the latter is used consciously
to reach very very practical results
it’s not imagination for coming up with
wild things its imagination used for
very practical results think of the
active imagination as a kind of creative
muscle that you’re developing first
within the loose constraints of what
you’re working on you open your mind up
to you give a complete free rein you
entertain almost every possibility that
you could imagine or visualize you
engage in what Charles Darwin calls
fools
experiment fools experiments this is the
fun play part of serious play you use
notebooks sketches diagrams models
prototypes to help externalize the
products of your imagination
once you have gone through this you now
enter the second serious part of the
process first you choose one or few of
the more promising possibilities that
were generated by your imagination
and now you actively work to test verify
or confirm it
this might entail launching a beta
version on the public once you have
feedback you now go back into the first
part of the process in a shortened form
using your imagination to perhaps take
what you have into an even better and
higher form circling constantly through
this process in shorter and shorter
cycles until you’ve got something that’s
both incredibly imaginative and
incredibly realistic and practical by
developing this by going through this
over and over and over again you
to develop your imagination into an
incredibly powerful creative muscle one
asked me once what they or many times I
think what I thought it meant to be an
artist and I said it’s what I think an
artist needs essentially more than
discipline or even talent is a
perspective so if you are always
changing what you do based on what other
people say you completely lose yourself
and you become just you know something
that’s constantly affected by what’s
around you as opposed to stable and your
own and like autonomous and your
identity most people if not because they
set their goals too high and miss them
it’s cause they set them to go low and
hit
get that it’s not because you set your
goals too high and miss you set your
goals too low and you hit them and you
get caught up in the average daily
struggle of averages and mediocrity
that’s what kills people everybody raise
your hand for a second please
raise your hand now raise it as high as
you can
I’m gonna crash so I can see okay now
just raise it a bit higher every one
higher why the hell would that happen
I say raise it as high as you can and
ham I said okay then a little high okay
well if you really mean it right you get
it it’s that extra inch that’s where you
want to set your goal not pie in the sky
and add a control like it’s never gonna
happen because that’s a load of crap to
people that set those sort of goals they
abandon those goals and I’ll get to that
later but the idea here is you want to
set the goals just above your comfort
zone so now think about it for a second
think about your goals right now how do
you set them you’re setting them very
low and hitting them if that’s the case
then give yourself a ten are you setting
goals that don’t aspire you some people
set goals in like behind but they’re
crappy goals they’re not the sort of
goals that make you jump out of bed in
the morning make you want to go to work
for yourself to secure the future not
just for you but for your family so you
know if they’re compromised are
acquiesced to anybody unless you love
them unless you want to that’s freedom
you know money is just a mechanism to get there
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