well you know what people do look at me
and see me as creative because I’ve
written so many books and I am curious
but when I started off in college in in
my in my freshman psych class they gave
us a test that he preached dude to take
on creativity and there were 17 in that
class I can remember it well
and I was at the bottom of the class on
creativity I mean I was like number 17
out of 17 and and and what the teacher
posted the scores and so I mean I saw
how bad I was and and then I really felt
bad not only because I wasn’t creative
but I was going to go pastor I was going
to go in the minister I was gonna teach
I was going to do sermons and then I got
to thinking it myself I’m going to be
another boring preacher and you know I
thought just gripping I thought oh this
is gonna be awful I’m gonna bore people
all my life you know what I mean and I’m
gonna ask him to pay while they hear me
I mean this is an awful deal so it and
so two things I did and I talked about
in the book one when as I started filing
I started taking thoughts and quotes and
the reason I started doing that is I
thought if I’m not gonna be good at what
I say I need to quote somebody that is
good and so I started filing things that
other people would say so I’d go around
and I’d say well Kim said you know what
I mean and Jo said and Suzy said and so
that at least I would be a little bit
more interesting and that’s how it
started but the big breakthrough the big
breakthrough ahead was and this will
help everyone if how many of you would
like to be more creative let me let me
see your hands okay how many of you’d
like to just absolutely have an
imagination that just took you to a new
level you know I’m sorry okay how many I
already have that because you’re on
drugs
okay okay okay well here’s here’s that
here’s the key this will work for you I
promise it work for you because it
worked for me I made a major change in
my early 30s from just having answers
and being a leader that just had to cast
vision and show everybody what I was
doing and where we were going and I
started asking intentional questions and
I became a person I asked questions all
the time every day I asked questions and
I have found just asking questions we’ll
take you on exciting journeys more than
thing else you’re right you excel in
that kid I’ve watched you over the years
you did excel really at that but for my
early years I didn’t ask enough
questions and so therefore
I didn’t get enough ideas and thoughts
from others so when people say I want to
be more creative what step one step
number one is ask more questions just go
to people and start asking questions
it’s amazing what you learn some of the
most important discoveries inventions
and innovations cut within a field come
from people who are trained in a much
different field and who have an
outsider’s approach Louis Pasteur was a
classic example of this he was trained
as a chemist in mineralogist so he
brought amidst a much different way of
thinking to the subject of medicine and
germs a method that was infinitely more
creative Albert Einstein was a complete
outsider his two most important
discoveries came when he was working at
the Swiss Patent Office Google itself
exemplifies this idea it is perhaps the
most successful business on the planet
founded by two men who are relatively
complete outsiders to business and who
therefore structured and directed their
company in a very novel and creative
fashion I could go on and on and on with
this list including many great artists
there are two important reasons why
Outsiders generally have a creative
advantage first they are less steeped in
and burdened by the conventions of the
field that they are attacking they ask a
different set of questions they approach
problems from unconventional angles and
second they are often trained in totally
unrelated fields and so can make
interesting and creative connections
between two very different forms of
thinking like science and business or
chemistry and medicine or engineering
and design now we can’t all consciously
follow such a path but even within the
careers that were pursuing we can train
ourselves to think like outsiders and
help loosen up the mind in the process
that whatever you do somebody can do it
better you have to bring your a-game in
every
single day there’s nothing unique about
any one individual what’s unique is
their passion their ability to execute
to meet targets and exceed them the
minute you lose that ability in
capitalism you’re gone it’s a fair trade
the engine that makes you rich can take
it all away from you there are no
guarantees I think that’s incredibly
important
looks like you always go out of your
comfort zone right coming onto an island
that was completely deserted no fresh
water you don’t even have the money to
buy it and and now you’re sleeping on a
tent on the beach trying to figure out
how to get fresh water here you do that
often you did it with the airline I mean
I was just somebody that experienced the
bad experience of traveling on Airlines
I was actually trying to get to the BVI
the British Virgin Islands one day from
Puerto Rico and the same lovely lady was
waiting for me and I’ve been away for
three weeks and American Airlines bumped
the flight and and I went to the back of
the airport I had a plane I had a black
board I wrote Virgin Airlines one-way
$29 to the VV I went around all the
people have been bumped and I filled my
first plane and and that got me thinking
you know their lines do bump people they
don’t care about you or me particularly
in the air and so we so I then rang up
Boeing and said you have any second-hand
747 okay I mean it was literally that
you just sat in the airport and so I’m
starting an airline right now because
I’m frustrated exactly and I think most
most of the best entrepreneurial ideas
come out of frustration I think you know
if you if you’re frustrated about
something and the best way of sorting it
out is get out and do it and you’ve got
yourself a business we know from our
past experiences that big things start
small
you know the biggest oak starts from an
acorn and you’ve got to recognize if you
want to do anything new you’ve got to be
willing to let that acorn grow into a
little sapling and then finally into a
small tree and maybe one day it’ll be a
big business on its own and in fact
that’s one of the mottos for one of
initiatives and forgive my my
pronounciation of the Latin but Greta
team for Oct what does that mean to you
well it means step by step ferociously
basically you can’t skip steps you have
to put one foot in front of the other
things take time you there are no
shortcuts and but but you want to do
those steps with you know passion and
ferocity yeah I started working at this
video store it was pretty much what
you’re talking about around that time
and and it was great at first because
I’d always hated day jobs and stuff and
so I got a day job and it ended up being
pretty good but the middlee I was there
for five years at a certain point it was
our narcotic alright I didn’t have to
keep pursuing my dreams because you know
it’s not what I want to do but it’s sort
of kind of close and if I didn’t have an
artist soul burning in me I could have
made myself happy with that I could if i
if i didn’t have an artist soul burning
to get out I could have you know walked
backwards a couple steps and just done
that and would have been a fulfilling to
anybody else it would have been a
fulfilling life it wouldn’t been for me
because I wouldn’t know and I would have
had something to say that I didn’t get a
chance to say but it did put me to sleep
for a while and and I’ve always just
thought I mean what really got it got
everything kind of truly going from you
could point out a lot of different
things but the bottom line is the fact
that I realized that the even the group
of people I hung around with they were
all great great great fellows and great
gals but you know I was easy for me to
think that I was doing a lot because I
was doing more to try to move myself
forward than they were but you know
that’s not yeah yeah okay I’m a big fish
in a puddle so what all right they’re
not doing anything so yeah I’m doing
more than them but I realize that
actually I need to get my ass out to
Hollywood and meet other people who are
you know like they were in my category
or or working a little higher and and I
should be the weakest
in my chain that I have and that’ll make
me be strong Dora make me run faster I
mean like an analogy I’ve always used is
alright if you run the hundred yard dash
with a people that can’t run as fast as
ya you’ll win hands down you know that
but if you run with people much faster
than you all right yeah you might come
in last every single time but your time
will be better because they’re making
you run all the faster they’re making
they’re making you dig down just a
little bit more it doesn’t matter that
you and your time is faster and that’s
what I knew I had to do I had to get out
of Loserville and throw myself into a
place where like this is what do for a
living what a night Chris have gone to
bed I’ve been struggling struggling
struggling we still had all the same
problems i we started lean on the house
still facing bankruptcy still fighting
like crazy I was still unemployed
he still they still haven’t figured out
like the solution yet for the business
and I was about to turn off the TV and
there on the the TV there was this
rocket launching and I thought oh my
gosh it I am gonna launch myself out of
bed like a rocket ship like NASA right
here had launched me out of that bed and
I’m gonna move so fast that I don’t
think hmm I’m gonna beat my brain now
here’s a really interesting point I
talked a lot about your instincts and
inner wisdom and we can get into this a
little bit later but a lot of us talk
about the fact that you have a gut
feeling but what all this research that
I’ve done for the book and and all the
speaking that I do what I’ve discovered
that’s fascinating is actually when you
set goals when you have an intention on
something that you want to change about
your life your brain helps you what it
does is it opens up a checklist and then
your brain goes to work trying to remind
you yeah of that intention that you set
and it’s really important to develop the
skill and I say that word purposefully
the skill of knowing how to hear that
inner wisdom and that intention kicking
in
and leaning into it quickly so for me my
brain saying that’s it right there move
as fast as a rocket Mel I wanted to
change my life and I think most people
that are miserable or that are that are
really like dying to be great and dying
to have more we want to change we want
to live a better life we want to create
more for our families we want to be
happier the the desire is there again
it’s about how do you go from knowledge
to actions so the first thing in the
story that’s important is realizing that
the answer was in me and my mind was
telling me pay attention I could have
also been the Bourbon anyway the next
morning the alarm goes off and I
pretended NASA was there it’s a
stupidest story I literally went five
four three two one I counted out loud
and then I stood up and I’ll never
forget standing there in my bedroom it
was dark it was cold it was winter in
Boston and for the first time in three
months I had beaten my habit of hitting
the snooze button I couldn’t believe it
and I thought wait a minute
counting backwards that is the dumbest
thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life
well the next morning I used it again
and it worked the next morning I used it
again and it worked the next morning I
used it again and it worked and then I
started to notice something really
interesting there were moments all day
long all day long just like that
five-second moment in bed where I knew
knowledge what I should do and if I
didn’t move within five seconds my brain
would step in and talk me out of it
every human being has a five-second
window might even be shorter for you you
have about a five-second window in which
you can move from idea to action before
your brain kicks into full gear and
sabotages any change in behavior because
remember your brain is wired to stop you
from doing things that are uncomfortable
or uncertain or scary
it’s your job to learn how to move from
those ideas that could change everything
into acting on there’s deep neural
networks for dummies right if you can
there’s a something for dummies in every
room of my house you know they can go
two ways I know but I’m just telling you
put the time I mean I’ve taken you know
I can’t even tell you how many hours now
I spend every week if not daily working
like I’ll go into Amazon AWS and go
through their machine learning tutorials
don’t think to yourself I’m not
technical enough or I’m not gonna get
this or I don’t get into this or it’s
too much try it get as far as you can
because it’s like doing a basic website
and a little bit of HTML just having
done that you feel smarter and you feel
a little bit more confident about this
you know I don’t want to be an alarmist
but I’m trying to scare the hell out of
you because it’s important it’s a very
natural process to begin something to be
very excited and then as you go down
that process to realize yeah I actually
don’t like this it’s not giving me as
much energy as I thought it would is
taking energy away and therefore I want
to give up and quit that thing and she
said if you do that once or twice like
hey so be it but if you’re doing it
every time if you just love that initial
rush that excitement of something new
but the actual nitty-gritty reality of
getting good at it of doing what Mitch
ikkaku calls having but power meaning
you’ve set your butt in the seat and you
do the work if that’s really your
problem and nothing is interesting
enough for you to sit there and do the
work you haven’t developed grit yet and
so grit is the ability to persevere to
see things through to go past the point
at which it has stopped being fun and it
becomes boring because you believe in
your end goal enough you’re excited by
what you’re trying to accomplish so much
that you’re willing to fight through all
of that difficulty you’re willing to
fight through the boredom you’re willing
to fight through the unease that arises
when you step outside your comfort zone
you’re doing things you’re not good at
and things that are boring those are the
two things that I find kill most people
they just cannot handle the things that
make them go oh god like I’m not very
good at this and I’m feeling really
badly about myself and they forget that
they can get
on a long enough timeline and then to
inevitably in any pursuit of greatness
in any endeavor where you’re trying to
gain master you’re gonna get bored
because practice is repetition it’s
doing something over and over and over
and over to really train yourself to get
to the point where you’re truly
exceptional and there’s just so much
boredom inherent in that process so
building in the resilience to see all
that stuff through is the key part of
grit and when I say life doesn’t happen
to you it happens for you I really don’t
know if that’s true I’m just making a
conscious choice to perceive challenges
as something beneficial so that I can
deal with them in the most productive
way you’ll come up with your own style
that’s part of the fun so when we came
to America we were poor and broke the
way I look at it because we would always
run out of money before run out a month
we decide you know do we do without
electricity or or gas because some
months we couldn’t afford to pay both
and you know being broke is being
without money being poor as being kind
of scarcity minded poor minded and we
just realized that money’s for the rich
money’s for the the Americans it’s for
the people who were born here who went
to college and that’s how I grew up and
later Jim Franco taught me that hey you
know what you can’t be scarcity minded
you can’t you have to live in abundance
you have to understand that people just
want a solution to a problem and they
don’t care about the color of your skin
about the level of your education they
want a solution to prompt so he taught
me you have to break all these old
patterns that I had right what were some
of the patterns some of the patterns
were that money’s for the white folk and
not for the foreigners you actually
thought yeah I’d really cuz that’s
that’s how it was because every time we
went and got got more food stamps it was
all foreigners there’s no white people
in line at least not not in the parts of
Santa Ana that I was raised and so I
felt that money was for the people who
were telling us to leave this country go
back to your own country and that also
puts a chip on your shoulder right
against them and so I guess I had some
reverse racism towards towards white
America now I realize for a no apparent
reason there was a couple of idiots and
every culture I imagine right but so
that was one
pattern that I had another pattern that
I had was that being proud to be
blue-collar like my dad was like and he
still says this work is holy and I
believe that work is holy but the fact
that he had so many jobs a paper route
pumping gas worked at a pizzeria and so
because of that mindset blue collar blue
collar always a blue collar mentality
and I took pride in being blue collar
another pattern Jim Franco had to have
the break was I think dude be white
collar don’t use the shovel sell the
shovel I had never heard that phrase
before I’m the guy that took pride in I
could dig a deeper hole a deeper trench
I could I could outwork you but that’s
still trading time for dollars and so to
be able to break those limiting belief
systems that I had to me was huge and
all of a sudden I realized I’m no longer
poor minded I may end up broke again I
do really well now but I may make one or
two bad decisions with my money or my
investment that ended up being broke
again but I’ll never be poor and I know
how to get back from broke because I
know how to add value to society solve
problems and exchange for money but I’ll
never be poor again and poor is a state
of mind of feeling out of control
scarcity minded taking pride in being
blue-collar no one should ever take
pride at being blue-collar period period
you’ve got a brain you’ve got a solution
to a problem that people want to pay for
put it out there so when you say
scarcity minded abundant minded what do
you mean look the scarcity minded person
says Oh someone else opened up a gym you
know across the street from me they’re
gonna put me out of business I better
charge less right the abundant minded
person says someone else opened up the
gym across the street from me I better
out service them out work them out
social media them right so the scarcity
minded person is always the sky is
falling the Chicken Little mentality the
oh my gosh if Trump goes into office
then we’re all screwed oh my gosh if
Hillary goes into office and we’re all
screwed I don’t care who’s in office
anymore
I control my own economy the economy can
crash and go back up and back down again
I will find a way there’s Tony Robbins
says I’m built for winter I just didn’t
know it and so more people need to be
abundant minded in that with the economy
crashes I just have to deliver more
value
and create this category of one about
myself if competition shows up I have to
out service them out work them out
social media them versus shrivel up and
die 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 because we’re we’re scared
of what we don’t know and 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 of success or or fear of
you step and how do you face the fear of
the unknown when 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
you need to take the first step you need
to take is just that step whether it’s
personal or people around me when you
see people that are positive that look
at something good and something bad that
took place they move along in life
faster they’re veteran and people want
to be around these people I mean too
often people gossip the one gossip
person must be around the other person
that gossips but they don’t realize when
you gossip you’re saying something heard
about somebody else you’re telling
everybody what if part of it was wrong
you had to go out and tell every person
you told this oh I’m sorry it was wrong
tell everybody you told it’s not gonna
happen
so it’s things you learn about don’t
gossip don’t belittle people if you
don’t have to god please don’t try and
look at the positive angle what good
could come out of something and that
positive Ness is gonna make you live
longer happier and wake up in the
morning happy not oh my god I gotta go
to work I can’t wait till I get home I
want to retire because people are not
positive they were not happy and what
happens they retire they hate their job
they retire three or four years later
their debts they have nothing to do that
positive attitude be around positive
people encourage positiveness if you
find yourself walking around just
complaining all the time around people
that complain a lot man move or just try
and do something different change your
life being positive and a positive
attitude
find something positive and something
bad makes you look for solutions when I
was down and out okay who opop bottles
let’s get the pop bottles cash em in
everyone in this room knows how to
create you’re not a manager of your life
you’re a creator of your life or you
wouldn’t be in this room how do you
create your life you get hungry for
something don’t you who has done
something your life that once seemed
difficult or impossible and now it’s
part of your life who’s got something in
your life in this area say I how did you
do it you created it three ways number
one you decided there’s something you
wanted so bad that you unleashed all
your desire you became obsessed with it
if it was a business or a car or a
relationship or a transformation in your
body if there’s something you want sin
vision and now it’s real it’s because
you didn’t just envision it you brought
so much emotion to it then now it’s in
your life it was once a dream it was
once a goal and now it’s in your life
how many have something like that in
your life now say I you may take it for
granted now hopefully not but it was
once just a vision may have seemed
impossible at one time so how did you do
it
you started with a concrete vision of
what you wanted and you focused on it
continuously didn’t you wherever focus
goes energy flows you envision something
you got clear about it and then you
started thinking about all the reasons
why you wanted it you got excited about
it so this is what’s next for me now I
want this you may have dreamed about a
thought about and talked about it but
when you focus on something continuously
something magical happens you get
insights don’t you you overhear a
conversation hear something you wouldn’t
have heard if you didn’t have that
outcome or goal that you wanted so badly
who’s ever come up with something
obsessed about it didn’t even know how
to do it and it just happened and it
came together who’s that that experience
say I so why don’t we tap into that
power now for your business in life I
came home one night from work spraying
for cockroaches and long story short I
turned on the Discovery Channel I saw
some guys going to Navy SEAL training
and they were going through hell week
and they were getting their ass just
beat you know in all the water guys
ringing the bell there was suffering and
I was waiting like 297 pounds and I had
to make a change in my life you know I
was at all-time low
and I wasn’t going anywhere and I was
exactly what everybody said I was going
to be which was nothing so I had to make
a change what was it about seeing
suffering that’s that’s really
interesting and I actually get it but I
want to hear you explain it why
suffering was the thing that triggered
that thought well for me growing up I
came from a horrible background I got
called nigger every day of my life
growing up lived in a small town the
Klan headquarters at that time was about
20 minutes from where I lived the one of
the high ups in the KKK son sat behind
me in two classes so you called me nigga
a long time got my first car they spray
print nigger we’re gonna kill you on it
so I was just an insecure scared kid and
the only way I could find myself was to
put myself through the worst thing
possible I’m gonna say the exact
opposite of what the world today’s world
is saying so we read a bunch of books
nowadays as humans we we want to find
out how to be someone else what we don’t
do is we don’t go inside so literally
turn yourself inside out read the book
that says like we’re writing a book
every day four lives every day we’re
seeing who we are as people when I was
growing up I I lied for people to accept
me because I didn’t accept myself so I
would make up stories so you so then you
would accept me into your world I would
uh everything I did was for someone else
to like me
it was until I started reading my own
book about how
pathetic I was his human being I could
play my dad I can blame kids at school I
could blame having health issues a TD my
mom not being around great mom but she
was doing her thing I could blame a lot
of people and that’s the book I was
reading and I put it off on everybody
else it wouldn’t so I see no but for me
to fix this I get a read what the hell
what the is wrong with David
Garvey’s not blame anybody read my books
okay I’m afraid of my shadow how can I
overcome that go into military get your
ass kicked
do things you hate to do be
uncomfortable every day of your life
Roger that I’m not the smartest kid in
the world okay it says somebody saying
oh no you’re smart no no I don’t say
that to yourself
I said to myself no I’m a dumb okay
Roger that how do you get smarter
educate yourself so the things that we
run from we run it from the truth we’re
running from the truth man so the only
way I became successful was going
towards the truth as painful and as
brutal as it is it changed me it allowed
me to become in my own right Who am
today many people spend their lives in a
state of almost permanent
dissatisfaction right unfortunately so
there may be looking for some purpose or
they may have given up hope that there
is some purpose for them and they’re
just surviving or making a living or
caught up in the doing lot up in the
doing in the stress of it right and so
usually when we talk about purpose when
people talk about purpose they think of
purpose in terms of future where am I
going what am I supposed to do mm-hmm
what’s the direction I’m going what is
my goal the goal that I want to achieve
and that of course is that it has its
place but I call that the outer purpose
more fundamental than the outer purpose
is what most people usually overlooked
and that is the realization that what
matters most is
your inner purpose so inner purpose is
aligning your life fully with the
present moment so that you are no longer
out of alignment with the present moment
which leads to the state of
dissatisfaction that we talked about
that is the reality for many people so
you have to go first of all beyond the
state of dissatisfaction that is so many
people’s reality right but you cannot go
beyond the state of dissatisfaction
through some future goal that says one
day I would like to be in a state of
fulfillment or satisfaction no you have
to enter the state of fulfillment and
satisfaction by becoming one internally
with the present moment in the your
purpose and your inner purpose is that
alignment with where you are right now
to be totally where you are and whatever
you are doing even if it doesn’t look
like your life purpose for the bank for
the next 30 years
Thanks whatever you are doing now to be
total in doing it and what no matter
what it is to be true to life by being
true to this moment I always gonna
constantly evolve you know I always want
to constantly grow I never wanna get to
a point where I feel like I gotta figure
it out
you know I always want to like kind of
like push myself to be better you know
and do and do greater things no matter
what it is I mean I want to be the best
I’m a competitor
you know I like to compete you know like
growing out with you know with the name
Michael Jordan you know I’ve always had
a certain pressure pressure on all
myself and and always having to kind of
like you know put people wrong and
and and I just kind of kind of like put
an instant chip on my shoulder I want it
just to be great you know and do great
things and I’m and then and it also
helped people man I’m really big in the
next generation I feel like that’s all I
saw that’s the only way it’s gonna get
better moving forward as if you know you
gotta lead this world in a better place
than it was when you came in you know
I’m born in 87 – question mark I don’t
know when I’m gone and I’m saying but I
want to work on my – and I’m saying I
want we’re going at that time that I’m
here and it is some and I I could
make it easier for the next round of
filmmakers and the next round of actors
coming up no that’s it
and I mean I didn’t you know I’ll be I’m
continually going out on that take it as
a corpse a lot again like I said you
were asking ask me about the future I’ll
let you I’ll let you know a little bit
closer and I mean as far all I can see
right now is the cold that’s all I can
see you need to bet on your strengths
and don’t give a about what you
suck at you’re gonna way too many people
in this room are gonna spend the next 30
40 years of their lives trying to check
the boxes other things that they’re not
as good at and that you’re gonna waste a
load of time and lose I highly recommend
auditing yourself or if you have no
empathy or EQ or self-awareness then
find somebody in your family or
friendship that does and let them tell
you who you are and once you believe
that either for yourself or someone else
told you go directly all chips all into
that because that is the only possible
way in my opinion watching from the
outside that is limited phrase that is a
very highly likely way of over-indexing
because the truth is if you want to be
an anomaly you’ve got to act like one
you know like and so that’s it that’s
what I got so thanks for having me as I
started studying people that did more
not people that didn’t do more not
people that said do less not people that
said hey don’t be satisfied or be
satisfied not people that said they’d be
grateful for what you have I started
studying people that said and had
done more that you can do more that’s
who I listen to today I listened to the
people aren’t my friends in my life the
people I listen to the people I talk to
the people that I follow on Facebook or
YouTube or Instagram
I don’t follow everybody I follow the
people that say you can do more dude I
follow the people that say I am doing
more I follow the people that are
actually doing something on this planet
to make a difference for the better you
have to be selective you have to give
something up okay you cannot listen to
everybody to every voice to every person
is quit or given up you got to make a
decision if you have that little voice
inside of you that says you can do more
you have to give attention to that voice
and you got to feed it with those that
support that idea that you can do more
focus on things that are AI driven
artificial intelligence driven whether
it’s machine learning deep learning
learning neural networks medical
applications but within ai ai is a
buzzword that everybody is using right
now you know every in and to that point
you know we as all guys we go back and
it’s like 1995 we talked about the
internet and I would say to people back
in 1995 look if you don’t understand the
Internet you’re not gonna be able to do
business and now that’s just blocking
attack lane that seems obvious back then
it wasn’t right I could even take you
further back to my first company you
know what we did was a company called
micro solutions and we did local area
networks on wide area networks and I
used to walk into companies and and say
you’re gonna have to hook these pcs
together at some point that’ll make you
more productive more effective you know
give you a competitive advantage and
people are like now I just carry this
floppy from this PC to that PC yeah okay
but today we’re at the same type of
inflection point with artificial
intelligence you don’t have to be an
expert and be able to put together your
own neural network you know you don’t
have to know what weights and biases are
but but you have to have
more than just a cursory understanding
just like you have to know the
difference between you know different
types of websites and you have to
understand ecommerce if you’re in the
e-commerce you have to have a cursory
understanding of how apps work you’re
gonna have to have at least if not more
cursory understanding of artificial
intelligence because it will change
everything we do and if the internet was
10x in terms of change to business
artificial intelligence will be 100x or
more if you go to my house right next to
my bed there’s a book machine learning
for dummies be going to my bathroom so
that means taking things using things in
your life that are scholars using those
moments as a weapon right using those as
using basketball is kind of like a
vehicle through which to express
yourself alright so it doesn’t so at
that moment for us to face the Celtics
again it’s not about the Celtics it’s
not about your opponent it’s about you
it’s about you taking it and it
struggles and channeling that through
the game right as it as as a way to to
unleash right so now I became a matter
of how do i express that to them how do
I get them to that point where they
figure this out for themselves cuz I
can’t say hey listen I need you to play
harder so when she – well I had to share
my story I had to open up to them and
let them know I’ve dealt with things
this is the things that I use this is
how I go about focus this is how I deal
with adversity this is how I deal with
you know arguing with my wife the day of
the game is showing up to the game and
still having that focus to be able to
play like I used those things to open up
with them and then in turn they were
able to to take those stories and
make them their own I’ve been making
music now with you know like Tony
Bennett for a couple years and I’m you
know Elton John is you know one of my
closest friends and his husband David
and they just have showed me that like
I’m a baby and my artistry you know and
I just have to keep making music and
keep going and so my focus really for
this album is showing that to two young
girls and to enter boys that want to
make music that you don’t have to get
lucky on the internet it’s not a social
media game you don’t have to find a you
know the the the hot producer and get
the hot track you know to be a star you
can just learn how to play an instrument
and sit in your room and practice and
write songs and poetry and then you can
go around the corner to the bar and meet
other artists that do the same thing
that you do and you can hang out and
talk about music and write songs and
then you can play it the spot around the
corner and gain one fan and then do it
over and over and over again until
you’re discovered you need to know what
your unique strengths are and be willing
to delegate so I would say that the
question of whether you should take a
skill learn it yourself delegated
someone else or hire a new team member
are determined by having a very accurate
self-assessment and assessment of your
team’s skills not only what you can do
but what you should be doing that’s very
important so if you’re a start-up CEO or
founder and you have a team of say two
to ten people
as soon as you have funds to hire you
should not be focused on the things that
you are bad at sounds very very
intuitive but it’s not because you might
have enough time to do those things but
the question is do you have the
attention to dedicate to this thing so
they’re not an interruption especially
if you are venture-backed startup and
you’re competing against other companies
that also have a lot of funding the game
the game and the race goes to the Swift
so you have to have you have to have a
lot of velocity ESPN called me they did
a story on me this past summer but they
called me one day and I picked up the
phone they said is this inky johnson the
last time I checked of 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 so
they can have a better way of life I
said yeah 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 your Nealon Stadium on the exact
yard line where your life changes the
same time of day the only thing that
won’t be present it’s Air Force’s team
all right cool
and so they take me to Nealon Stadium
they put me on the exact yard line with
my life change 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
fact 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 what my spirit represents
once you might have seen 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
they were putting something out like
that represent something when people see
that they thinks it’s a thought that
comes to the mother when he said go
standing he gave me that I felt a
certain type of woody but he gave me to
go step up a certain type I felt
different go standing like that with me
you cannot think in what I do the line
of business I’m in I’m gonna go 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’ma bring that gold
standard the life and I’m not just
bringing it in one aspect of life I’m
bringing in 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 I
mean they give everything they got to
one aspect of life but the other areas
they lack are know 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 givin up
never surrender and the thing that we
could 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 where adversity my only
charge for you never forget what you
represent there were the things that I
probably should have done not from my
perspective I mean from my point of view
I did the right things every every film
that I’ve done I mean I’m happy that I
that I made that choice I don’t have any
regrets whatsoever but I mean in terms
of sustaining box office you know
bankability I should have done a few
other things that I didn’t do but I’m
glad I didn’t do them me because it
wouldn’t have been you
yeah what I would it would have been for
the wrong reasons I did everything that
I’ve been lucky enough to do I did for
the right reasons well you have to treat
yourself like you matter because if you
don’t then you don’t take care of
yourself and you become vengeful and and
and cruel and you you take you take it
out on people around you and you’re not
a positive force none of that’s good
so you suffer more and so does everyone
around you and there’s a malevolence
that enters into it none of that’s good
so that’s what happens if you don’t
treat yourself like you matter and then
what happens if you don’t treat other
people like they matter
well you lie to them you cheat them you
steal you you enter into impulsive
relationships with them they can’t trust
you that doesn’t go anywhere they don’t
like you you you end up alone at best
and maybe like incarcerated at worst
like that doesn’t work and so you watch
the people around you who thrive
regardless of what they say they act out
the proposition that everyone matters
and then you have a functional Society
and I think okay well if if if when you
act out the proposition that everyone
matters you have a functional society
maybe that’s evidence that that
proposition is true it’s like I think it’s I think it’s true
and see me as creative because I’ve
written so many books and I am curious
but when I started off in college in in
my in my freshman psych class they gave
us a test that he preached dude to take
on creativity and there were 17 in that
class I can remember it well
and I was at the bottom of the class on
creativity I mean I was like number 17
out of 17 and and and what the teacher
posted the scores and so I mean I saw
how bad I was and and then I really felt
bad not only because I wasn’t creative
but I was going to go pastor I was going
to go in the minister I was gonna teach
I was going to do sermons and then I got
to thinking it myself I’m going to be
another boring preacher and you know I
thought just gripping I thought oh this
is gonna be awful I’m gonna bore people
all my life you know what I mean and I’m
gonna ask him to pay while they hear me
I mean this is an awful deal so it and
so two things I did and I talked about
in the book one when as I started filing
I started taking thoughts and quotes and
the reason I started doing that is I
thought if I’m not gonna be good at what
I say I need to quote somebody that is
good and so I started filing things that
other people would say so I’d go around
and I’d say well Kim said you know what
I mean and Jo said and Suzy said and so
that at least I would be a little bit
more interesting and that’s how it
started but the big breakthrough the big
breakthrough ahead was and this will
help everyone if how many of you would
like to be more creative let me let me
see your hands okay how many of you’d
like to just absolutely have an
imagination that just took you to a new
level you know I’m sorry okay how many I
already have that because you’re on
drugs
okay okay okay well here’s here’s that
here’s the key this will work for you I
promise it work for you because it
worked for me I made a major change in
my early 30s from just having answers
and being a leader that just had to cast
vision and show everybody what I was
doing and where we were going and I
started asking intentional questions and
I became a person I asked questions all
the time every day I asked questions and
I have found just asking questions we’ll
take you on exciting journeys more than
thing else you’re right you excel in
that kid I’ve watched you over the years
you did excel really at that but for my
early years I didn’t ask enough
questions and so therefore
I didn’t get enough ideas and thoughts
from others so when people say I want to
be more creative what step one step
number one is ask more questions just go
to people and start asking questions
it’s amazing what you learn some of the
most important discoveries inventions
and innovations cut within a field come
from people who are trained in a much
different field and who have an
outsider’s approach Louis Pasteur was a
classic example of this he was trained
as a chemist in mineralogist so he
brought amidst a much different way of
thinking to the subject of medicine and
germs a method that was infinitely more
creative Albert Einstein was a complete
outsider his two most important
discoveries came when he was working at
the Swiss Patent Office Google itself
exemplifies this idea it is perhaps the
most successful business on the planet
founded by two men who are relatively
complete outsiders to business and who
therefore structured and directed their
company in a very novel and creative
fashion I could go on and on and on with
this list including many great artists
there are two important reasons why
Outsiders generally have a creative
advantage first they are less steeped in
and burdened by the conventions of the
field that they are attacking they ask a
different set of questions they approach
problems from unconventional angles and
second they are often trained in totally
unrelated fields and so can make
interesting and creative connections
between two very different forms of
thinking like science and business or
chemistry and medicine or engineering
and design now we can’t all consciously
follow such a path but even within the
careers that were pursuing we can train
ourselves to think like outsiders and
help loosen up the mind in the process
that whatever you do somebody can do it
better you have to bring your a-game in
every
single day there’s nothing unique about
any one individual what’s unique is
their passion their ability to execute
to meet targets and exceed them the
minute you lose that ability in
capitalism you’re gone it’s a fair trade
the engine that makes you rich can take
it all away from you there are no
guarantees I think that’s incredibly
important
looks like you always go out of your
comfort zone right coming onto an island
that was completely deserted no fresh
water you don’t even have the money to
buy it and and now you’re sleeping on a
tent on the beach trying to figure out
how to get fresh water here you do that
often you did it with the airline I mean
I was just somebody that experienced the
bad experience of traveling on Airlines
I was actually trying to get to the BVI
the British Virgin Islands one day from
Puerto Rico and the same lovely lady was
waiting for me and I’ve been away for
three weeks and American Airlines bumped
the flight and and I went to the back of
the airport I had a plane I had a black
board I wrote Virgin Airlines one-way
$29 to the VV I went around all the
people have been bumped and I filled my
first plane and and that got me thinking
you know their lines do bump people they
don’t care about you or me particularly
in the air and so we so I then rang up
Boeing and said you have any second-hand
747 okay I mean it was literally that
you just sat in the airport and so I’m
starting an airline right now because
I’m frustrated exactly and I think most
most of the best entrepreneurial ideas
come out of frustration I think you know
if you if you’re frustrated about
something and the best way of sorting it
out is get out and do it and you’ve got
yourself a business we know from our
past experiences that big things start
small
you know the biggest oak starts from an
acorn and you’ve got to recognize if you
want to do anything new you’ve got to be
willing to let that acorn grow into a
little sapling and then finally into a
small tree and maybe one day it’ll be a
big business on its own and in fact
that’s one of the mottos for one of
initiatives and forgive my my
pronounciation of the Latin but Greta
team for Oct what does that mean to you
well it means step by step ferociously
basically you can’t skip steps you have
to put one foot in front of the other
things take time you there are no
shortcuts and but but you want to do
those steps with you know passion and
ferocity yeah I started working at this
video store it was pretty much what
you’re talking about around that time
and and it was great at first because
I’d always hated day jobs and stuff and
so I got a day job and it ended up being
pretty good but the middlee I was there
for five years at a certain point it was
our narcotic alright I didn’t have to
keep pursuing my dreams because you know
it’s not what I want to do but it’s sort
of kind of close and if I didn’t have an
artist soul burning in me I could have
made myself happy with that I could if i
if i didn’t have an artist soul burning
to get out I could have you know walked
backwards a couple steps and just done
that and would have been a fulfilling to
anybody else it would have been a
fulfilling life it wouldn’t been for me
because I wouldn’t know and I would have
had something to say that I didn’t get a
chance to say but it did put me to sleep
for a while and and I’ve always just
thought I mean what really got it got
everything kind of truly going from you
could point out a lot of different
things but the bottom line is the fact
that I realized that the even the group
of people I hung around with they were
all great great great fellows and great
gals but you know I was easy for me to
think that I was doing a lot because I
was doing more to try to move myself
forward than they were but you know
that’s not yeah yeah okay I’m a big fish
in a puddle so what all right they’re
not doing anything so yeah I’m doing
more than them but I realize that
actually I need to get my ass out to
Hollywood and meet other people who are
you know like they were in my category
or or working a little higher and and I
should be the weakest
in my chain that I have and that’ll make
me be strong Dora make me run faster I
mean like an analogy I’ve always used is
alright if you run the hundred yard dash
with a people that can’t run as fast as
ya you’ll win hands down you know that
but if you run with people much faster
than you all right yeah you might come
in last every single time but your time
will be better because they’re making
you run all the faster they’re making
they’re making you dig down just a
little bit more it doesn’t matter that
you and your time is faster and that’s
what I knew I had to do I had to get out
of Loserville and throw myself into a
place where like this is what do for a
living what a night Chris have gone to
bed I’ve been struggling struggling
struggling we still had all the same
problems i we started lean on the house
still facing bankruptcy still fighting
like crazy I was still unemployed
he still they still haven’t figured out
like the solution yet for the business
and I was about to turn off the TV and
there on the the TV there was this
rocket launching and I thought oh my
gosh it I am gonna launch myself out of
bed like a rocket ship like NASA right
here had launched me out of that bed and
I’m gonna move so fast that I don’t
think hmm I’m gonna beat my brain now
here’s a really interesting point I
talked a lot about your instincts and
inner wisdom and we can get into this a
little bit later but a lot of us talk
about the fact that you have a gut
feeling but what all this research that
I’ve done for the book and and all the
speaking that I do what I’ve discovered
that’s fascinating is actually when you
set goals when you have an intention on
something that you want to change about
your life your brain helps you what it
does is it opens up a checklist and then
your brain goes to work trying to remind
you yeah of that intention that you set
and it’s really important to develop the
skill and I say that word purposefully
the skill of knowing how to hear that
inner wisdom and that intention kicking
in
and leaning into it quickly so for me my
brain saying that’s it right there move
as fast as a rocket Mel I wanted to
change my life and I think most people
that are miserable or that are that are
really like dying to be great and dying
to have more we want to change we want
to live a better life we want to create
more for our families we want to be
happier the the desire is there again
it’s about how do you go from knowledge
to actions so the first thing in the
story that’s important is realizing that
the answer was in me and my mind was
telling me pay attention I could have
also been the Bourbon anyway the next
morning the alarm goes off and I
pretended NASA was there it’s a
stupidest story I literally went five
four three two one I counted out loud
and then I stood up and I’ll never
forget standing there in my bedroom it
was dark it was cold it was winter in
Boston and for the first time in three
months I had beaten my habit of hitting
the snooze button I couldn’t believe it
and I thought wait a minute
counting backwards that is the dumbest
thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life
well the next morning I used it again
and it worked the next morning I used it
again and it worked the next morning I
used it again and it worked and then I
started to notice something really
interesting there were moments all day
long all day long just like that
five-second moment in bed where I knew
knowledge what I should do and if I
didn’t move within five seconds my brain
would step in and talk me out of it
every human being has a five-second
window might even be shorter for you you
have about a five-second window in which
you can move from idea to action before
your brain kicks into full gear and
sabotages any change in behavior because
remember your brain is wired to stop you
from doing things that are uncomfortable
or uncertain or scary
it’s your job to learn how to move from
those ideas that could change everything
into acting on there’s deep neural
networks for dummies right if you can
there’s a something for dummies in every
room of my house you know they can go
two ways I know but I’m just telling you
put the time I mean I’ve taken you know
I can’t even tell you how many hours now
I spend every week if not daily working
like I’ll go into Amazon AWS and go
through their machine learning tutorials
don’t think to yourself I’m not
technical enough or I’m not gonna get
this or I don’t get into this or it’s
too much try it get as far as you can
because it’s like doing a basic website
and a little bit of HTML just having
done that you feel smarter and you feel
a little bit more confident about this
you know I don’t want to be an alarmist
but I’m trying to scare the hell out of
you because it’s important it’s a very
natural process to begin something to be
very excited and then as you go down
that process to realize yeah I actually
don’t like this it’s not giving me as
much energy as I thought it would is
taking energy away and therefore I want
to give up and quit that thing and she
said if you do that once or twice like
hey so be it but if you’re doing it
every time if you just love that initial
rush that excitement of something new
but the actual nitty-gritty reality of
getting good at it of doing what Mitch
ikkaku calls having but power meaning
you’ve set your butt in the seat and you
do the work if that’s really your
problem and nothing is interesting
enough for you to sit there and do the
work you haven’t developed grit yet and
so grit is the ability to persevere to
see things through to go past the point
at which it has stopped being fun and it
becomes boring because you believe in
your end goal enough you’re excited by
what you’re trying to accomplish so much
that you’re willing to fight through all
of that difficulty you’re willing to
fight through the boredom you’re willing
to fight through the unease that arises
when you step outside your comfort zone
you’re doing things you’re not good at
and things that are boring those are the
two things that I find kill most people
they just cannot handle the things that
make them go oh god like I’m not very
good at this and I’m feeling really
badly about myself and they forget that
they can get
on a long enough timeline and then to
inevitably in any pursuit of greatness
in any endeavor where you’re trying to
gain master you’re gonna get bored
because practice is repetition it’s
doing something over and over and over
and over to really train yourself to get
to the point where you’re truly
exceptional and there’s just so much
boredom inherent in that process so
building in the resilience to see all
that stuff through is the key part of
grit and when I say life doesn’t happen
to you it happens for you I really don’t
know if that’s true I’m just making a
conscious choice to perceive challenges
as something beneficial so that I can
deal with them in the most productive
way you’ll come up with your own style
that’s part of the fun so when we came
to America we were poor and broke the
way I look at it because we would always
run out of money before run out a month
we decide you know do we do without
electricity or or gas because some
months we couldn’t afford to pay both
and you know being broke is being
without money being poor as being kind
of scarcity minded poor minded and we
just realized that money’s for the rich
money’s for the the Americans it’s for
the people who were born here who went
to college and that’s how I grew up and
later Jim Franco taught me that hey you
know what you can’t be scarcity minded
you can’t you have to live in abundance
you have to understand that people just
want a solution to a problem and they
don’t care about the color of your skin
about the level of your education they
want a solution to prompt so he taught
me you have to break all these old
patterns that I had right what were some
of the patterns some of the patterns
were that money’s for the white folk and
not for the foreigners you actually
thought yeah I’d really cuz that’s
that’s how it was because every time we
went and got got more food stamps it was
all foreigners there’s no white people
in line at least not not in the parts of
Santa Ana that I was raised and so I
felt that money was for the people who
were telling us to leave this country go
back to your own country and that also
puts a chip on your shoulder right
against them and so I guess I had some
reverse racism towards towards white
America now I realize for a no apparent
reason there was a couple of idiots and
every culture I imagine right but so
that was one
pattern that I had another pattern that
I had was that being proud to be
blue-collar like my dad was like and he
still says this work is holy and I
believe that work is holy but the fact
that he had so many jobs a paper route
pumping gas worked at a pizzeria and so
because of that mindset blue collar blue
collar always a blue collar mentality
and I took pride in being blue collar
another pattern Jim Franco had to have
the break was I think dude be white
collar don’t use the shovel sell the
shovel I had never heard that phrase
before I’m the guy that took pride in I
could dig a deeper hole a deeper trench
I could I could outwork you but that’s
still trading time for dollars and so to
be able to break those limiting belief
systems that I had to me was huge and
all of a sudden I realized I’m no longer
poor minded I may end up broke again I
do really well now but I may make one or
two bad decisions with my money or my
investment that ended up being broke
again but I’ll never be poor and I know
how to get back from broke because I
know how to add value to society solve
problems and exchange for money but I’ll
never be poor again and poor is a state
of mind of feeling out of control
scarcity minded taking pride in being
blue-collar no one should ever take
pride at being blue-collar period period
you’ve got a brain you’ve got a solution
to a problem that people want to pay for
put it out there so when you say
scarcity minded abundant minded what do
you mean look the scarcity minded person
says Oh someone else opened up a gym you
know across the street from me they’re
gonna put me out of business I better
charge less right the abundant minded
person says someone else opened up the
gym across the street from me I better
out service them out work them out
social media them right so the scarcity
minded person is always the sky is
falling the Chicken Little mentality the
oh my gosh if Trump goes into office
then we’re all screwed oh my gosh if
Hillary goes into office and we’re all
screwed I don’t care who’s in office
anymore
I control my own economy the economy can
crash and go back up and back down again
I will find a way there’s Tony Robbins
says I’m built for winter I just didn’t
know it and so more people need to be
abundant minded in that with the economy
crashes I just have to deliver more
value
and create this category of one about
myself if competition shows up I have to
out service them out work them out
social media them versus shrivel up and
die 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 because we’re we’re scared
of what we don’t know and 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 of success or or fear of
you step and how do you face the fear of
the unknown when 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
you need to take the first step you need
to take is just that step whether it’s
personal or people around me when you
see people that are positive that look
at something good and something bad that
took place they move along in life
faster they’re veteran and people want
to be around these people I mean too
often people gossip the one gossip
person must be around the other person
that gossips but they don’t realize when
you gossip you’re saying something heard
about somebody else you’re telling
everybody what if part of it was wrong
you had to go out and tell every person
you told this oh I’m sorry it was wrong
tell everybody you told it’s not gonna
happen
so it’s things you learn about don’t
gossip don’t belittle people if you
don’t have to god please don’t try and
look at the positive angle what good
could come out of something and that
positive Ness is gonna make you live
longer happier and wake up in the
morning happy not oh my god I gotta go
to work I can’t wait till I get home I
want to retire because people are not
positive they were not happy and what
happens they retire they hate their job
they retire three or four years later
their debts they have nothing to do that
positive attitude be around positive
people encourage positiveness if you
find yourself walking around just
complaining all the time around people
that complain a lot man move or just try
and do something different change your
life being positive and a positive
attitude
find something positive and something
bad makes you look for solutions when I
was down and out okay who opop bottles
let’s get the pop bottles cash em in
everyone in this room knows how to
create you’re not a manager of your life
you’re a creator of your life or you
wouldn’t be in this room how do you
create your life you get hungry for
something don’t you who has done
something your life that once seemed
difficult or impossible and now it’s
part of your life who’s got something in
your life in this area say I how did you
do it you created it three ways number
one you decided there’s something you
wanted so bad that you unleashed all
your desire you became obsessed with it
if it was a business or a car or a
relationship or a transformation in your
body if there’s something you want sin
vision and now it’s real it’s because
you didn’t just envision it you brought
so much emotion to it then now it’s in
your life it was once a dream it was
once a goal and now it’s in your life
how many have something like that in
your life now say I you may take it for
granted now hopefully not but it was
once just a vision may have seemed
impossible at one time so how did you do
it
you started with a concrete vision of
what you wanted and you focused on it
continuously didn’t you wherever focus
goes energy flows you envision something
you got clear about it and then you
started thinking about all the reasons
why you wanted it you got excited about
it so this is what’s next for me now I
want this you may have dreamed about a
thought about and talked about it but
when you focus on something continuously
something magical happens you get
insights don’t you you overhear a
conversation hear something you wouldn’t
have heard if you didn’t have that
outcome or goal that you wanted so badly
who’s ever come up with something
obsessed about it didn’t even know how
to do it and it just happened and it
came together who’s that that experience
say I so why don’t we tap into that
power now for your business in life I
came home one night from work spraying
for cockroaches and long story short I
turned on the Discovery Channel I saw
some guys going to Navy SEAL training
and they were going through hell week
and they were getting their ass just
beat you know in all the water guys
ringing the bell there was suffering and
I was waiting like 297 pounds and I had
to make a change in my life you know I
was at all-time low
and I wasn’t going anywhere and I was
exactly what everybody said I was going
to be which was nothing so I had to make
a change what was it about seeing
suffering that’s that’s really
interesting and I actually get it but I
want to hear you explain it why
suffering was the thing that triggered
that thought well for me growing up I
came from a horrible background I got
called nigger every day of my life
growing up lived in a small town the
Klan headquarters at that time was about
20 minutes from where I lived the one of
the high ups in the KKK son sat behind
me in two classes so you called me nigga
a long time got my first car they spray
print nigger we’re gonna kill you on it
so I was just an insecure scared kid and
the only way I could find myself was to
put myself through the worst thing
possible I’m gonna say the exact
opposite of what the world today’s world
is saying so we read a bunch of books
nowadays as humans we we want to find
out how to be someone else what we don’t
do is we don’t go inside so literally
turn yourself inside out read the book
that says like we’re writing a book
every day four lives every day we’re
seeing who we are as people when I was
growing up I I lied for people to accept
me because I didn’t accept myself so I
would make up stories so you so then you
would accept me into your world I would
uh everything I did was for someone else
to like me
it was until I started reading my own
book about how
pathetic I was his human being I could
play my dad I can blame kids at school I
could blame having health issues a TD my
mom not being around great mom but she
was doing her thing I could blame a lot
of people and that’s the book I was
reading and I put it off on everybody
else it wouldn’t so I see no but for me
to fix this I get a read what the hell
what the is wrong with David
Garvey’s not blame anybody read my books
okay I’m afraid of my shadow how can I
overcome that go into military get your
ass kicked
do things you hate to do be
uncomfortable every day of your life
Roger that I’m not the smartest kid in
the world okay it says somebody saying
oh no you’re smart no no I don’t say
that to yourself
I said to myself no I’m a dumb okay
Roger that how do you get smarter
educate yourself so the things that we
run from we run it from the truth we’re
running from the truth man so the only
way I became successful was going
towards the truth as painful and as
brutal as it is it changed me it allowed
me to become in my own right Who am
today many people spend their lives in a
state of almost permanent
dissatisfaction right unfortunately so
there may be looking for some purpose or
they may have given up hope that there
is some purpose for them and they’re
just surviving or making a living or
caught up in the doing lot up in the
doing in the stress of it right and so
usually when we talk about purpose when
people talk about purpose they think of
purpose in terms of future where am I
going what am I supposed to do mm-hmm
what’s the direction I’m going what is
my goal the goal that I want to achieve
and that of course is that it has its
place but I call that the outer purpose
more fundamental than the outer purpose
is what most people usually overlooked
and that is the realization that what
matters most is
your inner purpose so inner purpose is
aligning your life fully with the
present moment so that you are no longer
out of alignment with the present moment
which leads to the state of
dissatisfaction that we talked about
that is the reality for many people so
you have to go first of all beyond the
state of dissatisfaction that is so many
people’s reality right but you cannot go
beyond the state of dissatisfaction
through some future goal that says one
day I would like to be in a state of
fulfillment or satisfaction no you have
to enter the state of fulfillment and
satisfaction by becoming one internally
with the present moment in the your
purpose and your inner purpose is that
alignment with where you are right now
to be totally where you are and whatever
you are doing even if it doesn’t look
like your life purpose for the bank for
the next 30 years
Thanks whatever you are doing now to be
total in doing it and what no matter
what it is to be true to life by being
true to this moment I always gonna
constantly evolve you know I always want
to constantly grow I never wanna get to
a point where I feel like I gotta figure
it out
you know I always want to like kind of
like push myself to be better you know
and do and do greater things no matter
what it is I mean I want to be the best
I’m a competitor
you know I like to compete you know like
growing out with you know with the name
Michael Jordan you know I’ve always had
a certain pressure pressure on all
myself and and always having to kind of
like you know put people wrong and
and and I just kind of kind of like put
an instant chip on my shoulder I want it
just to be great you know and do great
things and I’m and then and it also
helped people man I’m really big in the
next generation I feel like that’s all I
saw that’s the only way it’s gonna get
better moving forward as if you know you
gotta lead this world in a better place
than it was when you came in you know
I’m born in 87 – question mark I don’t
know when I’m gone and I’m saying but I
want to work on my – and I’m saying I
want we’re going at that time that I’m
here and it is some and I I could
make it easier for the next round of
filmmakers and the next round of actors
coming up no that’s it
and I mean I didn’t you know I’ll be I’m
continually going out on that take it as
a corpse a lot again like I said you
were asking ask me about the future I’ll
let you I’ll let you know a little bit
closer and I mean as far all I can see
right now is the cold that’s all I can
see you need to bet on your strengths
and don’t give a about what you
suck at you’re gonna way too many people
in this room are gonna spend the next 30
40 years of their lives trying to check
the boxes other things that they’re not
as good at and that you’re gonna waste a
load of time and lose I highly recommend
auditing yourself or if you have no
empathy or EQ or self-awareness then
find somebody in your family or
friendship that does and let them tell
you who you are and once you believe
that either for yourself or someone else
told you go directly all chips all into
that because that is the only possible
way in my opinion watching from the
outside that is limited phrase that is a
very highly likely way of over-indexing
because the truth is if you want to be
an anomaly you’ve got to act like one
you know like and so that’s it that’s
what I got so thanks for having me as I
started studying people that did more
not people that didn’t do more not
people that said do less not people that
said hey don’t be satisfied or be
satisfied not people that said they’d be
grateful for what you have I started
studying people that said and had
done more that you can do more that’s
who I listen to today I listened to the
people aren’t my friends in my life the
people I listen to the people I talk to
the people that I follow on Facebook or
YouTube or Instagram
I don’t follow everybody I follow the
people that say you can do more dude I
follow the people that say I am doing
more I follow the people that are
actually doing something on this planet
to make a difference for the better you
have to be selective you have to give
something up okay you cannot listen to
everybody to every voice to every person
is quit or given up you got to make a
decision if you have that little voice
inside of you that says you can do more
you have to give attention to that voice
and you got to feed it with those that
support that idea that you can do more
focus on things that are AI driven
artificial intelligence driven whether
it’s machine learning deep learning
learning neural networks medical
applications but within ai ai is a
buzzword that everybody is using right
now you know every in and to that point
you know we as all guys we go back and
it’s like 1995 we talked about the
internet and I would say to people back
in 1995 look if you don’t understand the
Internet you’re not gonna be able to do
business and now that’s just blocking
attack lane that seems obvious back then
it wasn’t right I could even take you
further back to my first company you
know what we did was a company called
micro solutions and we did local area
networks on wide area networks and I
used to walk into companies and and say
you’re gonna have to hook these pcs
together at some point that’ll make you
more productive more effective you know
give you a competitive advantage and
people are like now I just carry this
floppy from this PC to that PC yeah okay
but today we’re at the same type of
inflection point with artificial
intelligence you don’t have to be an
expert and be able to put together your
own neural network you know you don’t
have to know what weights and biases are
but but you have to have
more than just a cursory understanding
just like you have to know the
difference between you know different
types of websites and you have to
understand ecommerce if you’re in the
e-commerce you have to have a cursory
understanding of how apps work you’re
gonna have to have at least if not more
cursory understanding of artificial
intelligence because it will change
everything we do and if the internet was
10x in terms of change to business
artificial intelligence will be 100x or
more if you go to my house right next to
my bed there’s a book machine learning
for dummies be going to my bathroom so
that means taking things using things in
your life that are scholars using those
moments as a weapon right using those as
using basketball is kind of like a
vehicle through which to express
yourself alright so it doesn’t so at
that moment for us to face the Celtics
again it’s not about the Celtics it’s
not about your opponent it’s about you
it’s about you taking it and it
struggles and channeling that through
the game right as it as as a way to to
unleash right so now I became a matter
of how do i express that to them how do
I get them to that point where they
figure this out for themselves cuz I
can’t say hey listen I need you to play
harder so when she – well I had to share
my story I had to open up to them and
let them know I’ve dealt with things
this is the things that I use this is
how I go about focus this is how I deal
with adversity this is how I deal with
you know arguing with my wife the day of
the game is showing up to the game and
still having that focus to be able to
play like I used those things to open up
with them and then in turn they were
able to to take those stories and
make them their own I’ve been making
music now with you know like Tony
Bennett for a couple years and I’m you
know Elton John is you know one of my
closest friends and his husband David
and they just have showed me that like
I’m a baby and my artistry you know and
I just have to keep making music and
keep going and so my focus really for
this album is showing that to two young
girls and to enter boys that want to
make music that you don’t have to get
lucky on the internet it’s not a social
media game you don’t have to find a you
know the the the hot producer and get
the hot track you know to be a star you
can just learn how to play an instrument
and sit in your room and practice and
write songs and poetry and then you can
go around the corner to the bar and meet
other artists that do the same thing
that you do and you can hang out and
talk about music and write songs and
then you can play it the spot around the
corner and gain one fan and then do it
over and over and over again until
you’re discovered you need to know what
your unique strengths are and be willing
to delegate so I would say that the
question of whether you should take a
skill learn it yourself delegated
someone else or hire a new team member
are determined by having a very accurate
self-assessment and assessment of your
team’s skills not only what you can do
but what you should be doing that’s very
important so if you’re a start-up CEO or
founder and you have a team of say two
to ten people
as soon as you have funds to hire you
should not be focused on the things that
you are bad at sounds very very
intuitive but it’s not because you might
have enough time to do those things but
the question is do you have the
attention to dedicate to this thing so
they’re not an interruption especially
if you are venture-backed startup and
you’re competing against other companies
that also have a lot of funding the game
the game and the race goes to the Swift
so you have to have you have to have a
lot of velocity ESPN called me they did
a story on me this past summer but they
called me one day and I picked up the
phone they said is this inky johnson the
last time I checked of 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 so
they can have a better way of life I
said yeah 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 your Nealon Stadium on the exact
yard line where your life changes the
same time of day the only thing that
won’t be present it’s Air Force’s team
all right cool
and so they take me to Nealon Stadium
they put me on the exact yard line with
my life change 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
fact 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 what my spirit represents
once you might have seen 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
they were putting something out like
that represent something when people see
that they thinks it’s a thought that
comes to the mother when he said go
standing he gave me that I felt a
certain type of woody but he gave me to
go step up a certain type I felt
different go standing like that with me
you cannot think in what I do the line
of business I’m in I’m gonna go 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’ma bring that gold
standard the life and I’m not just
bringing it in one aspect of life I’m
bringing in 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 I
mean they give everything they got to
one aspect of life but the other areas
they lack are know 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 givin up
never surrender and the thing that we
could 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 where adversity my only
charge for you never forget what you
represent there were the things that I
probably should have done not from my
perspective I mean from my point of view
I did the right things every every film
that I’ve done I mean I’m happy that I
that I made that choice I don’t have any
regrets whatsoever but I mean in terms
of sustaining box office you know
bankability I should have done a few
other things that I didn’t do but I’m
glad I didn’t do them me because it
wouldn’t have been you
yeah what I would it would have been for
the wrong reasons I did everything that
I’ve been lucky enough to do I did for
the right reasons well you have to treat
yourself like you matter because if you
don’t then you don’t take care of
yourself and you become vengeful and and
and cruel and you you take you take it
out on people around you and you’re not
a positive force none of that’s good
so you suffer more and so does everyone
around you and there’s a malevolence
that enters into it none of that’s good
so that’s what happens if you don’t
treat yourself like you matter and then
what happens if you don’t treat other
people like they matter
well you lie to them you cheat them you
steal you you enter into impulsive
relationships with them they can’t trust
you that doesn’t go anywhere they don’t
like you you you end up alone at best
and maybe like incarcerated at worst
like that doesn’t work and so you watch
the people around you who thrive
regardless of what they say they act out
the proposition that everyone matters
and then you have a functional Society
and I think okay well if if if when you
act out the proposition that everyone
matters you have a functional society
maybe that’s evidence that that
proposition is true it’s like I think it’s I think it’s true
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