biggest disability that we have as human
beings is unbelief
everything starts with a vision and a
man without vision dies how are you
going to make it I don’t know but I will
see you will when you put yourself in
that kind of situation I reminded of two
frogs that that were huffing down the
road and they fell into a bottle of milk
and one was hopping up and down for a
while and he drowned he just gave up but
his other frog escaped all kicking he
wouldn’t give up he just kept on kicking
and pretty soon he churned that milk
some saying when life catches you about
a neck in the blind slap you’ll laugh
but knock you down I said just keep on
kicking you know and you can kick hard
out of those circumstances whatever they
are not be intimidated by them repeat
after me please I’m going to keep on
kicking I’m gonna cut them off is never
going to give up keep check somebody’s
hand on your right in love and say keep
on keepin on
I think I feel feel fear quite strongly
so it’s not as though I just have the
absence of fear I’ve I feel it quite
strongly but there were times when
something is important enough
you’ve leave it enough that you do you
do it in spite of the fear people
shouldn’t think III should if you should
think well I feel fear about this and
therefore I shouldn’t do it it’s normal
to be to feel fear
like you’d have to definitely something
mentally wrong you shouldn’t feel fear
so you just feel it and let the
importance of it drive you to do it
anyway yeah you know actually we’re
something that can be helpful as
fatalism some degree if you just think
it’s just accept the probabilities then
that diminishes fear so we’re starting
SpaceX I thought the odds of success
were less than 10% and I just accepted
that actually probably I would just lose
lose everything
but that maybe would make some progress
if we could just move the ball forward
even if we died maybe some other company
could pick up the baton and move and
keep moving it forward so that was still
do some good yeah same with Tesla I
thought your odds of a car company
succeeding were extremely low the
impulse to dream has been slowly beaten
out of me through the experience of life
there are some times where you’re gonna
wish that you could rewind and and do
things all over again there are times
where you just wish you could forget
memories and you try to drown those
memories in alcohol or different
pleasures and maybe get distracted by
the goals and ambitions of your life and
try to put the past behind and move
forward we’re all human beings please
don’t get me wrong I don’t wake up every
morning with a smile on my face like I
have ups and downs you see my foot ups
and downs ups and downs the first thing
I want you to take away from today is
this you will have good days and you’ll
have bad days but you will always learn
something more or something new and you
will learn more overall on bad days than
good days you will learn more about
yourself you’ll learn more about
relationships you’ll learn about life
and principles and you will build your
character if you’re a person who wants
let’s say improve on your character of
patience let’s say don’t complain when
you’re waiting in a line
you ain’t going to grow in patience
until you’re put in a place to wait it’s
like you go into a gym and you know
you’re walking through the front doors
and you know you tell your wife or your
husband I’m going to the gym you go into
the gym and you come in three feet and
you do a u-turn and you’re right out I
went to the gym ain’t gonna do nothing
you gotta go with it what are you gonna
do you’re going to pick up the weights
and you exercise the muscles that you
want to build and stand before you
without arms and legs but a very strong
man because of the bad days in my life
you know how it is if you didn’t go what
you’ve gone through you wouldn’t be who
you are today
and most people ladies and gentlemen
have stopped living their dreams because
of the lessons they’ve learned from life
or things they’ve picked up because
we’ve only been born with two fears the
fear of a loud sound of the fear falling
and all the other fears of fears we
learn fears we pick up whatever you’re
scared of
lowlife the value you brought to the
planet far more envoy what have you
played up you’re stronger so as we begin
to look toward the future and look at
what will it take for us to break
through those fears one acknowledging
the fear knowing it’s alright
some fear is healthy beginning to know
that your dreams your passions your
drive to achieve whatever it is you want
as it has more power and meaning it will
move you past your fears as you begin to
feel that you deserve it your passion
and goal is so strong the fears won’t
matter you begin to trust yourself and
put yourself in the situation where you
have to make it happen you will make it
happen ladies and gentlemen I don’t
believe this I know this from my own
life experience I know that you’ve got
greatness within you I know that you
have unlimited potential in you I know
that you have something to give to the
universe that was not here before you
showed up somebody said that life is
God’s gift to us and how we live our
lives is our gift to God what kind of
gift
are you giving and what kind of gift
could you give it fear wasn’t an issue
the only way to deal with fear that I
found in my life is a couple ways one of
those ways is to turn it on itself and
ask yourself what am I afraid of I’m
free of that I got to be more afraid of
what I’m gonna miss out on missing out
on me mission missing out who I’m
supposed to be missing in other words if
you’re not get get rid of fear than use
fear use fear or it uses you it’s that
simple so you got to say okay what’s the
price if I just stay doing this what’s
the price what I need to really even get
scared if I learn all this
I don’t follow through that’s something
to be scared about and then that fear
will get you over your fear it’ll push
you through turn fear in itself second
way you can do it is use what you’ve
probably heard me say because I’ve used
this number 17 is my little rocking
chair test right
I’m gonna I’m gonna sit myself in my
rocking chair I’m I’m 85 years old I’m
looking back on my life and I say I
didn’t do this or I did you can
never perfect what we do there’s no way
I’ve never met anyone who goes that’s
perfection I mean to an audience outside
of your work people can think that
that’s the only way they’d ever want to
see that part played or that moment done
whatever but as an actor and this isn’t
mock humility I think it’s just it just
goes for all art forms really the whole
point is perfection is unachievable so
it’s that constant pursuit of the
unobtainable which is kind of magic
really you know and and and should keep
us kind of motivated to try better you
know it’s the bakit thing you know fail
again fail better
oh is it different today and doing your
show like night than it was 10 years ago
are you more instinctive are you more do
you think less about it and just do it
it’s muscle memory it is used to it like
the office when you crunch down your and
you’re constantly trying to learn your
fear you’re constantly you’re still
thinking but your ratio of thinking to
acting is very different you know you’re
at the beginning I was thinking about it
this much yeah you know in my cognitive
brain and then there was this much just
whatever thin read of talent you have is
there and then you’re thinking about the
rest and then over the years I think you
know they always say the reptile brain
you the reptile portion of your brain is
where you you know respiration heartbeat
right that’s the stuff that even if
you’re knocked unconscious it’s still
working
I really believe a lot of my talk show
or comedy instincts are now in my
reptile brain that you could knock me
out and my heart would still beat I’d
still breathe and I’d still be asking
Lindsay Lohan you know stupid question
you have become some way as you part of
your D it has become part of your DNA
yeah I mean I think a lot of it is you
have to have some ability but then it’s
just how much will I really do think
there’s just think people underestimate
it doesn’t sound sexy it doesn’t sound
cool how much do I want it work ethic
you know and just how badly do you want
it and there have been you know many
times in the you know throughout the
years of doing my show where I’ve
thought you could shoot me in the chest
before I walk out there and I’ll still
walk out there and do that show and then
I’ll come backstage and die but we’re
doing that show
the best advice that I could give you on
success is to know that success is
merely the hangover of failure and that
failure is an essential ingredient in
creating a learning atmosphere for you
so that you can accrue those learnings
so small incremental steps of failure
and collect enough learning so that you
can arrive at success right I think
we’re taught in the system that failure
is something that you should be ashamed
of failure is for the dumb kids because
you get an F you get a D right you’re
not competent you didn’t comply you
didn’t create the evidence of your
worthiness but I could tell you is
someone who’s successful right both
financially and from a wealth creation
point of view but more importantly a
wealth that matters that success doesn’t
look like an a-plus it doesn’t look like
a hundred and ten and extra credit and
failure isn’t as simple as an F and it’s
not always always a failure could be
very gray right and being able discern
what you might arrive at an event or in
your life where you think that wow I’ve
succeeded and you’re getting the
affirmation from all these outside
forces but if it’s not aligned
authentically with to who and what you
are it could very much feel like failure
prepare in advance you know the old
saying proper prior preparation saves
poor performance or prevents poor
performance the six PS and so prepare
your work list for the following day the
evening or the night before the last
thing you do at the end of the day is
you lay out the day that’s coming the
best exercise is for you to plan your
entire next day has the last thing you
do before coming home from work when you
plan your day the night before your
subconscious mind then goes to work on
your plans and goals while you’re asleep
very often you’ll wake up in the morning
with ideas and insights that apply to
the work of the day
now a major benefit of preparing your
daily list the night before is that this
exercise that you sleep more soundly a
major reason for insomnia is people
lying awake trying not to forget to
remember everything that they have to do
the following day but once you’ve
written down everything that you have to
do on the list it clears your mind and
enables you to sleep deeply this will
help you increase your productivity
throughout the whole next day of work
because you’ll be more relaxed and more
refreshed 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
they’re 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 is 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 feet speak in front of
a large audience and somebody’d say how
do you feel I say little nervous now
when somebody says
how do you feel like really excited
actually and it it came from just sort
of telling myself 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 it’s really kind of effective
it makes you want to rush for is it
rather than pull back and yet it’s the
same experience I told you all of my
critics I told you all that I was the
greatest of all time wanna be Sonny
Liston I told you today I’m still the
greatest of all time never again defeat
me never again say that I’m gonna be
defeated never again that make me then
the dog until I’m about 50 years old
then you might get me but I didn’t dance
I didn’t dance for a reason
I wanted to make him lose all his power
I kept telling me he had no punch he
couldn’t hit he’s swinging like a sissy
he’s missing
let me see you box I hadn’t started
dancing yet you can’t say my legs are
going you can tell was tired because
what happened I didn’t dance from the
second round on I stayed on the ropes
when I stay on the ropes you think I’m
doing bad but I want to all boxers to
put this on the page about says staying
on homes as a beautiful thing with a
heavyweight when you make him shoot his
best shots and you know he’s not hitting
you I would’ve gave jobs for him with
two rounds a steady punch it because
how do you have found our way it’s not
see God gives us a lot of things in life
but it’s a couple of things he don’t
give us any time
some know
that’s the one thing with your box I
look at my watch they don’t look at my
phone with your pho I look at my so the
question is how much time I think what
I’m trying to make money years ago I
gave up entertainment clubs years ago 14
years since I step in anything that
doesn’t but friend where I’m trying to
go put the businesses in things where
ultimately trying them what kind of
leaders you gotta get rid of so these
conversations came in half of a big
pretty simple process
given all the opportunities that are
there in in the world to try and figure
out the thing that actually makes you
want to get up in the morning the thing
that you actually love I just I just
know that if I weren’t lucky enough to
have have been given the opportunity to
write a movie or a show or direct
anything appreciating I would still go
home from whatever that day job is and I
would try to do it because I love it not
because I really want to make a certain
amount of money it’s great to be
comfortable it can be dangerous to be
comfortable but it’s great to be
comfortable but I I just feel like if
you can figure out the thing that makes
you tick find that thing and the thing I
would say I guess is a lot of young
people I find are under such pressure
there’s a kind of sense of it’s all or
nothing which i think is really unfair
meaning I don’t know if it’s the media
and the way things are presented or if
it’s because there’s so much success
that is that is celebrated in society
but there is a sense I’ve heard enough
that I feel like I haven’t thought of
this till now that it is a kind of theme
that that young people feel like if they
don’t know what they’re born to do that
there’s somehow broken and I think that
it needs to be looked at differently
which is that it means if you don’t know
that thing it means that every door is
there’s the possibility that that’s a
beautiful thing so I just feel like I
would say don’t stress yourself out you
know the only reason I could deal with
the pressure on Star Wars is because I
loved making that movie and and if it if
it didn’t work of course I would have
been crushed but it I wasn’t doing it
because it was a job and if you can find
that thing and deal with the pressure of
maybe not making the amount of money
that you would like to yet or not
getting to the company you’d like to get
or not having success with your startup
yet these are all things that I think
you can swallow if the thing you’re
doing speaks to you I have stage fright
you know and I never confronted the risk
or when I did come from I mean Belgium
you know 2000 year 2000
that was you have no idea what it took
them to get me to do it no no no no I
had a thousand I had a thousand excuses
why not to turn there finally I did it
and it was exquisitely horrifying that’s
the only way I can flirt complex yes it
was very very very complex and what was
really good was right in the beginning
within like two seconds
I played just the worst wrong note and I
could either stop and cry or I could
laugh all right and it didn’t kill me
and nobody else out there
nobody was throwing anything you know it
was fine thank you to the people of
Ghent for not killing me and giving me
the courage and you know and the the
absurdity you know you have to be able
to laugh at yourself and you have to
learn how to laugh at yourself I’m a
workaholic and it’s like being an
alcoholic I just can’t give it up I’ve
been unwell for two weeks and I feel
unwell you know so I can go to work
because I can’t go to work I get worse
if I sit in one place I’m stressed
the reason I’m not fidgeting too much is
because I’m unwell otherwise I hate
sitting in one place I some work has to
be given to me I meet my wife and my
children keep telling me you know you
work 20 years round-the-clock why are
you doing this I don’t think I need the
money I don’t think I am greedy for more
Fame I’m doing okay I can do one film
two years and be happy with it but I’m
just not happy I tell everyone if I’m
not working I’m depressed so I don’t
know if it’s a curse or a blessing maybe
at the end of it all when we die God
will say did you work
I say yes a lot oh damn you go to hell
because I didn’t want anyone to work oh
it would be all you worked that’s really
nice
because I wanted everyone to work so I
don’t know one of them is going to be
like but I just keep working I think I
have this fear that you have very few
days in life and you need to cram it up
with lot of things you need to further
fill it with so many things and
that you don’t have space for life it
should be like that I when I’m not
working I get lonely I get depressed I
get sad I don’t drink I’m not a
philosopher not a player that I like
loneliness I hate being alone and I hate
being with people at times
I’m unsocial I’m very odd with people so
what happens is I have replaced people
with work in my life because when I’m
working I’m a lot of people and there
are people I can interact with because
somewhere there is a wall that I’m not
interacting with them socially I’m
interacting them through this common you
know goal that is the work so I can
discuss with her or discuss with him and
dear friends for that moment many of my
filmmaking colleagues complained that
after the film is over you don’t talk to
us I can’t explain to them I don’t have
anything else to say I love you I miss
you but i miss you through the work I
don’t I mean I’m I’m very fond of a lot
of people a lot of people I love like
family and I I can’t pick up the phone
and talk with them I can’t socialize
with them I can’t sit and chat with them
but when we were working I can just be
with them so I don’t know what it’s sort
of I have replaced loneliness depression
and people good work if you say I’m a
fraud they’ll figure me out I’ll never
be able to do it again that’s an artist
start processes you’re an artist you’re
thinking like that you’re on the right
track because they all feel that so you
there’s always some success that can
come out even out of your failures in
fact probably your biggest successes
will come directly from your failures
you should almost take that Winston
Churchill’s quote is my favorite success
is moving from one failure to the next
with great enthusiasm you should be very
enthusiastic about your failures because
you’re going to learn something you’re
gonna go that way where everyone is
going that way and you’re gonna stumble
but you’re also gonna stumble upon
something that no one ever thought of so
you know you just keep going and keep
going and you’re gonna fail and then
rise up and fail again and that’s the
journey up and down man working will
might and doing weird antisocial days at
weekends that you’ll forget about your
social life
that that that’s the sort of sacrifice
to commitment that’s I think quite the
level that Julian sacrifices but you
don’t get to see your family you don’t
get to see your friends you are removed
from the reality of your life to pursue
a given goal so there is a kind of
comparison
I guess you you sacrifice a part of
yourself because you’re exposing either
either end of the spectrum zuv acting
whether it’s just variations of who you
are or whether it’s completely to
summoning into a different character in
persona your equally valid in my opinion
I don’t think there’s really distinction
to draw than people who are good or bad
at it but I think then you do have to
give part of yourself no matter what
you’re doing and that you you don’t lose
you something’s gained actually by doing
that but you have to suppress and
control certain instincts that you have
in order to actually be true to a
character that may not be the same as
you will be driven by the same things as
you talk to so many smart fantastic
ambitious idealistic hard-working kids
and they’re right out of college they’re
in their entry-level jobs and I’ll ask
them how is it going and they’ll say I
think I’m gonna quit and I’m like why
they say to me I’m not making an impact
I’m like you know you’ve been here eight
they treat the sense of fulfillment or
even love like it’s a scavenger hunt
like it’s something you look for my
millennial friends they’ve gone through
so many jobs they’re either getting
fired I mean it was mutual or they’re
quitting because they’re not making an
impact or they’re not finding the thing
they’re looking for they’re not feeling
fulfilled as if it’s a scavenger hunt
love a job you find joy from is not
something you discover it’s not like I
found love here it is I found a job I
love that’s not how it works both of
those things require hard work you are
in love because you work very hard every
single day of your life to stay in love
you find a job that brings you ultimate
joy because you work hard every single
day to serve those around you and you
maintain that joy it’s not a discovery
but the problem is this sense of
impatience it’s as if an entire
generation of standing at the foot of a
mountain they know exactly what they
want they can see the summit what they
can’t see as the mountain this large a
movable object but doesn’t mean you have
to do your time that’s not what I’m
talking about
take a helicopter climb I don’t care but
there’s still a mountain life career
fulfillment relationships our journeys
the problem is this entire generation
has an institutionalized sense of
impatience and do they have the patience
to go on the journey to maintain love to
feel fulfilled or do they just quit and
on to the next dump and on to the next
ghost and on to the next definitions of
options decisions self-determination
choice preference desire I want to share
something with you that’s relative to
critical options because we all have
them in our lives and I want to ask you
a question what is the focus of your
life what is the focus of your life in
life you have a critical option you can
take a stand in your life or you can
follow the crowd see people who follow
the crowd their lives are not
they’re not immerse than anything people
who take a stand they’re living a life
that has some power a life of
achievement a life that has some meaning
people that taking a stand in life they
are consciously involved in a process to
design a life of substance people are
following the crowd these are people
that they’re just doing what everybody
else is doing so that’s a crowded road
over there
they’re following the followers I want
to talk to you about taking a stand with
your life and what are some of the
things we can do that will enable us to
give our lives up in a way that has some
purpose and meaning that can be real for
us that can give us a sense of
fulfillment of joy and happiness and
peace of mind see most people are bored
with life most people feel that life
isn’t worth the hassle the life is just
wearing me out it’s boring it’s
monotonous I have nothing to look
forward to there we go get another
Monday morning TGIF they thank God it’s
Friday how are we gonna roll boy you see
what the man meant but many people died
aged 25 and don’t get burned until there
are 65 doing the same thing the same way
every day looking at these faces just
I mean you got to be aware of these
faces they affect you you know try to
stay around Pleasant faces and if you
have an unpleasant face try and smile
more it’s good for your health
and there’s another dividend you look
better too so looking for a way in which
we can begin to give our lives some
special power number one commit yourself
to giving your best at all times now
that’s not easy see most people and
particularly those are working in
corporations they’re finding now they’ve
got to change their behavior we’re now
involved in a world economy we will
never do business the way in which we
have done business in the past we will
never be able to in the American
workplace do just enough to get by
now the standards have been raised
quality and productivity has been
increased because of the competition and
so now average performance will not be
enough this is a new day competition is
fierce so people who just you’ve been in
locked into a behavior pattern are
working just hard enough to keep from
getting fired they’re being laid off I’m
forced into early retirement it’s a new
game now so now more than ever it’s
about increased productivity now more
than ever it’s about superior quality
service now more than ever it’s about
creating a positive atmosphere in the
workplace and people that have that
competitive age people that are hungry
to make it so you got to be hungry now
you can’t just casually walk around well
I’ll get to it later on oh no no this
this is a new day right now committing
yourself to give your best at all times
regardless of the competition to do
otherwise all the influences of negative
people that will tell you hey look here
don’t push yourself too much now’s the
time to push yourself to always get in
the habit of giving the best that you
have to share you really can’t plan a
fight when you meet the man you never
met before right you just have to get
your tools ready here’s a car stops on
the highway they call a triple-a or
whatever
I said my car’s broke down what is it
lady she don’t know us but when the man
comes with all the tools and he come
equipped to handle whatever the problem
is a astronaut goes into space and he
pretends that something happens to the
ship before he take off he gets out and
he works on it he’s not looking for
something happen but it might happen so
I didn’t know I just had everything
ready now after the first round being
here with a top professional a man so
great had so many knockouts and I’ve
been defeated never even scratched I
didn’t know really how good he was so I
had to come in after a little nervous
and with everything ready after one
round of deaths and I found out that
this would turn me out so I would have
to resort the ropes I figured that out
after the first round so I said I’m
gonna go to these ropes and I’m let this
man through everything he can’t let me
tie herself out it might look like he’s
winning
and if you don’t hurt him we’ll stay
here but if he should be as great as
they say he is if he hits as hard as
they say hit when he hit you breaks your
arm he knocked out Joe Frazier I
couldn’t do it knocked out Ken Norton he
was a big bad job before the fight you
remember and they remember that don’t
you yeah they don’t say that never he
was a real bad catch of the day right
don’t forget that now after I found out
he didn’t have it
I stayed there but if he had had what I
thought he had had or what they said
he’s had I’d have kept running
hoping I wouldn’t get tired would you
think about that I read a poem one time
I said I have only just a minute only 60
seconds and it was forced upon me I
can’t refuse it I didn’t seek and I
didn’t choose it but it’s up to me to
use it I must suffer if I lose it you
have a count if I abuse it it’s only a
tiny low a minute but eternity isn’t it
well any rate I thought I’m gonna put
this on a video I’m just gonna share it
with everybody just this one little part
out of the seminar I’m making I want you
to look at this Sam timer and let this I
want you to think about your life the
sand in the top of the glass represents
the future the sand and the bottom of
the glass
presents the past now Genoa we know
what’s in the past and young we can’t do
anything about it you know what the
trick is you don’t know how much sand is
in the top of the glass you may think
you have a lot you might only have a
little bit then again you may think you
have a little and you might have a lot
when I was a little boy I was raised by
my grandmother and I don’t know when I
was a little guy after she was probably
60 but as long as I can remember redwood
saying I won’t be done there I’ll soon
be gone well you know we loved her she
was really an angel of God but we
thought she was never gonna go she lived
to be 94 for 30-some years I’ll soon be
gone she didn’t think she had much time
left she had 34 years left now about the
same time I had a buddy of mine Bob
Yates he was just 16 and bang he run
into the abutment of a Ridge and his
life was snuffed there if you had asked
him a half-hour before how much sand he
had left he would have said at least a
half a century you didn’t ever happen I
don’t see the trick is we don’t know how
much sand we have left the future we
don’t know the past it’s gone now the
only thing you can deal with is what’s
right here right now and if you look the
sand is always moving now think of this
you see I was working on that and then I
was working on a graph I’ve got here at
my computer and I’m thinking at the time
somebody said to him you got a minute
well they don’t really want a minute you
know if you’re earning $50,000 a year a
minutes 42 cents a half hours $12.50 if
we take that ahead of it if you’re
earning $80,000 a year a minute 67 cents
half hours $20 during a hundred and
fifty thousand dollars a year you got a
minute and then it cost you a dollar 25
a minute
now half hours thirty seven dollars and
fifty cents
so if you see if somebody said you want
to stop for a cup of coffee well if
you’re earning a quarter of a million
dollars a year a minute is two dollars
and eight cents half hours sixty two
dollars and fifty
cents and then of course you’ve got the
coffee to pay for on top of that so if
you see the point is this this is all
we’ve got right here right now we don’t
know how much we have left in the future
but we do know what we’ve got now and I
have found the people that win are the
people who make up their mind they’re
not gonna waste the minutes they’re
going to be productive they’re gonna
make it happen
every minute at 18 I was really
fortunate when I met a monk and this
monk was invited to speak and I kind of
just went because one of my friends
forced me to at that time I was missing
two CEOs and entrepreneurs and business
people and marketers who who I thought
that’s what I was aspiring to be like
and then I hear this monk and he
captivated me like no one had ever
captivated me before it was like staring
at the most beautiful woman on the
planet you know I was completely fixated
on him and his message see we live in
echo chambers we’re just surrounded by
the same thinking how often do you bump
into a monk you know it just doesn’t
happen you don’t have no one has a
dinner party and goes oh yeah we didn’t
buy the monk you know from a tower like
the local monk like no one ever does
that and so you be meet people who are
just like us most of the time and we
talked about this in business all the
time if you want to be a billionaire
spend time with billionaires if you want
to be a millionaire spend time and
millionaires if you want to be a tech
startup spend time with you know that’s
that’s the common rhetoric that we hear
all the time but what if you want to
find purpose and master the mind there’s
no one better than a monk who’s mastered
the mind so for me the first step is
just opening yourself up to new
experiences and new role models because
most of us can’t see ourselves in people
so then we try and fit ourselves into
the boxes that we do see and and I mean
there’s this beautiful quote that I’ve
been saying it everywhere and I wish I
wrote it but I didn’t so it’s by a
philosopher and writer named Cooley and
he said that today I’m not what I think
I am I’m not what you think I am
I am what I think you think I am and
just let that blow your mind for now
it’s so powerful I’m not what I think I
am I’m not what you think I am I am what
I think you think I am so we live in
this perception of a perception of
ourselves
hence my identity is made by what my
parents think I should be my identity is
made up by what my college or university
thinks I should achieve while you’re
living in that bubble and that echo
chamber getting to what you really want
to do is impossible because maybe that
just doesn’t fit and I think so many
people feel that way today
that they don’t fit into the current
education system they don’t fit with the
three or four or five careers that
you’re taught exist so that process of
self excavation and actualization first
requires being exposed you can’t be what
you can’t see if I never saw a monk I
would never want it to be among if I
never meet a billionaire I wouldn’t want
to be one because I wouldn’t know what
that feels like I don’t know what it
looks like I don’t know what it takes
and and I think that’s the biggest
challenge of our society that we’re not
exposed so that’s the first step being
exposed to unique experiences and role
models second step is finding that
experience or role model that you’re
passionate about and exactly like you
said taking it seriously
shadow their network with them spend
time with them observe them even from
afar it takes that observation being
addicted to observing that person’s
lifestyle and then the third step is
growing yes or not does that work for me
not everyone who’s gonna go off from the
camera monk is gonna feel like the way I
did and that’s cool but not everyone is
gonna go and follow and shadow a billion
anger that’s exactly the lifestyle I
want they may want the result but do
they want the hard work that goes with
it and so for me that’s the third step
it’s observing focusing shadowing
getting as close to the process of that
individual and then going yes or no do I
want that process not do I want the
result everyone’s to be that monk who’s
fully enlightened you know can walk
through has an incredible or that people
just gravitate towards but when you
realize he has to wake up at 2:00 a.m.
every dance
about four to six hours you like that
you know I don’t want to do that doesn’t
sound like me a bit old-fashioned in my
kind of understanding of it I thought
that what I do what the great actors
that have been ahead of me had done and
inspired me to do was the idea of
starting out in the classics then maybe
a modern play or two than a few roles
and television and then you know getting
a film role but keep going back to
theater and that is what I’ve done that
is kind of what I’ve tried to do the
unhappy accident of that play being such
a huge success was it came at a point
where I thought Christ I’ve actually got
some momentum in a medium where it’s
much more of a closed door there’s a
very little long-term memory it’s much
more immediate your currencies something
you really have to kind of work on in
film I knew I was wired to be excited
about business how or why I don’t know
but you know and there’s certain guys
they have the genetics to jump out of
the gym right certain guys you know that
you know when they golf they have the
muscle memory and and the discipline you
know dirt the visca may not be the most
talented guy in the NBA but his
discipline and his focused to do what’s
necessary to be successful he’s willing
to do and combine it with being seven
feet tall and being skilled you know it
makes him an amazing basketball player
so it’s understanding what your skill
set is finding the right place to use
those skills and then going for it
you know will that make you 250 grand it
depends if you pick the right industry
but whatever industry you pick if you
outwork everybody if you try to be a
little smarter than everybody if you try
to be a better salesperson and everybody
if you try to be better prepared than
everybody you’ve got your best chance
because if you don’t do it and somebody
else does you know I have the same work
like someone’s trying to take it all
away from you you know work you actually
worked like no one’s spending 24 hours
working 24 hours to take it all away
from you and that’s kind of the way I
look at it I was really lucky to have
just had a few breaks
obviously with Charlotte but also Tinker
Tailor also with Frankenstein and being
cast in warhorse and that all came to
the same kind of point where we were
supposed to be coming here to do this
Broadway production of after the
which might still happen might be a film
we don’t know it might did something
there might be some life left in me it
was a wonderful experience in London but
I felt that I’d had that experience
there and selfishly I wanted to make
some capital out of this momentum that
was building and I I’m glad I did
because I got start right there and job
is a slave it was a sage County you only
do yeah it were it worked out well for
me but um and the Fourth Estate so I
kind of I was very yeah I took a gamble
and it paid off yes I get up at crazy
hours whether it’s three o’clock in the
morning by the way when we’re talking in
London I was getting up at 3:00 because
I had to be on set by 4:00 I’m sorry by
7:00 so whatever time my call time is
and I tell this to Studios and directors
and our producers whatever Tom I call
time so my call time is at 7:00 then you
back your clock up for hours and then
that’s when I get up and train twice or
the cardio and then breakfast and I’ll
go hit the weights
clanging and banging we call it Jack and
the iron but like what time do you go to
bed I mean you might shoot really late
at night I’m averaging on a movie I
average probably about five hours of
sleep because the resources had been so
limited for so long there were a lot of
people who would say God if I only had
access to a camera I would make a movie
there’s a lot of talk about I remember
when I was in college I spend most of my
time in my room writing screenplays
really bad screenplays but I was in my
room doing that when I price should have
been studying or something there were a
lot of people I remember at parties who
would talk about writing and that they
wanted to be writer but I would always
notice they were out every time I would
happen to go out they would always be
out and they I just know that that there
are people who talk about what they
would do if but they’re not actually
doing the thing and so it’s a lot easier
to actually write a screenplay than you
think it is might not be good but most
people talk about writing screenplays
but don’t actually write them the people
who write them you’re already like in
you know the top 10 percent could you
actually have written it and so the one
thing my father gave me which was really
key was that work ethic
that ability to get myself up in the
morning no matter how tired I was ah to
push myself through those pain barriers
and again the combination of the loss of
a mother at six and then being sent out
to work at ten we started work out five
o’clock in the morning through the mill
ground being dropped off at 8:45 out of
school in the milkman you there at work
I think so that combination of those two
work ethic and great insecurity was what
got me to where I went to I remember
asking my dad – I want a new basketball
shoes because that was a basketball
junkie back then he’s like well your
shoes work if you want a new pair of
tennis shoes you have to go out there
and get a job and I’m like dad I’m 12
years old and it just so happens he was
playing poker with his buddies and one
of his buddies was like well I got a job
for you I’ve got these garbage bags that
we distribute you could sell them
door-to-door I’m like okay and it was
when I was selling them and realized
that I’d like to sell and that I could
sell and that I recognized that selling
was was about providing the service and
creating value for people that I knew
that I would literally back then I knew
that I could always succeed I mean I
remember I was 16 I think when I started
a stamp company and started going to
stamp shows and trade shows and just
working a little bit harder than other
people and and trading up from one stamp
to the next I remember one time I
started with a quarter and bought a
stamp and left with $50 thinking hey if
I could do this I could do anything and
and it’s not that everything worked I
failed a lot but I never ever felt like
I I wouldn’t be able to work hard enough
to succeed you know hard work pays I put
in a hell of a walk all throughout this
build up in the fire I pumped out more
content than anybody more content than
Fox more content than ESPN more content
than BT sport more content and everybody
on the Mac live on my own channels you
know I mean I’m more course from all
angles not just in the gym but I’m
building this media empire now myself
and we pumped out the content I’m very
proud of how it went
we consistently day
movies I was releasing you know from
from like a month ago every single day
you know I mean nobody’s doing that so
I’m very proud of that and I’m very like
the wolf pay is hard work pays and we
put in the morgue and that’s that’s why
I’m I’m sitting at the top I put it all
on the line I show up I perform and I
get the results from that you say I’m
working on this thing but I don’t know
if anyone’s gonna like it it feels sort
of like this boring thing that I love
you know and it’s amazing how often that
boring thing that you love becomes a
sensation and I think the key is to do
that once you start working on something
saying oh well like this this would be
cool for them I mean literally we were
working on this book you know and we
were like this is insane and it’s it’s
never gonna you know happen and and
we’ll see and you know to approach
something with a kind of excitement that
is shared in this weird way where you
just know it makes you happy
and then to see it on the you know New
York Times bestseller list like oh my
god like that’s nuts
I never would have dreamed it it’s
really a result of you know having an
idea that stayed with me and that that I
love but that Lyndsey felt like oh this
could be something
finding Doug who took it and said oh my
god what about this and it was like at
each stage we were sort of you know just
turned on by what it could be but never
thinking oh this is gonna work really
well because actually we were thinking
oh my god no publisher is ever gonna be
able pull this off you know which little
brown and Mohan books totally did you
know and and even if they do who’s gonna
want it and it’s been nice to have it
received warmly and very unexpected
frankly but the answer is just to work
on things that you actually care about
wherever you can and and to not try and
think too hard about what it’s going to
be like when it goes out into the cold
hard reality of the world
I realized that when you to have the
level of success that I want to have
it’s difficult to spread it out and do
multiple things you know it’s in order
to to be world-class and I made a
decision I want to be world-class and it
just it takes such a desperate obsessive
focus to to excel on assert honor on the
level that I want to make movies you
know I was a Star Wars when I was young
i sat in the movie theater and watched
Star Wars and I just couldn’t believe
that that movie made me feel like that
just floored and just stunned by the
creativity and just I’m realizing that
in order to move people in that way in
order to touch people in that way you
really got to focus with all of your
fiber and all your heart and all your
creativity maybe the right business it’s
a one-on-one battle
whatever whatever enjoy the browse find
see God gives us a lot of things in life
but it’s a couple of things he don’t
give us time
some kids know that’s the one thing with
your wife I was to my wife that we don’t
come down with the mic up but your phone
I look at my nobody so the question is
how much time you always I think what
I’m trying to make money years ago I
step in anything that doesn’t but where
I’m trying to go there’s business season
in humans where ultimately trying to
become leaders you can’t get rid of
these sensations hurricane inhabited the
keyboarding without those change the
what promises you’ve got to make to
really same thought process fragrances
of lifestyle
that’s what you live life is not really
long let’s say the average person 30
years old
if you 30 years old you would not at
about 7 years old how can I prove it he
had up all the seven eight nine hours
you slept for 30 years out of 30 years
out of all the night last night were you
into bed and woke up this morning you
don’t remember thing you’ve been
unconscious for about eight years if
you’re 30 years old you step out eight
years okay how much traveling have you
done in 30 years the television station
to home to another country to another
city to school to church you try to
travel two years your level spins just
getting back and forth to where you go
so there’s eight years of sleeping 2
years of traveling there’s 30 years out
of your life before you accomplish
anything
how long do you sit in school in America
we stay in school from the trough great
from the first grade to 12th grade same
here yeah 6 hours a day yeah six hours a
day for 12 years break it down you set
in the classroom for three years without
leaving okay two years of traveling
eight years of sleeping three years of
school how many movies if you went to
how many rasuluh matches how much
entertainment coming in movie theatres
live plays baseball games probably two
years of entertainment so by the time of
man you all the people norm bear with us
I’m saying but the time here of children
by the time you have made a way for your
children by the time you’ve paid for
your home you pushing 60 years old so
life is real short so yeah if all your
traveling and I’ve are you sleeping and
I’ve all your school and a bar
entertainment you probably been half
your life doing nothing so what a man
I’ll I’m 35 years old thirty more years
I’ll be 65 we don’t have no boy
fluence we can do nothing bunch of 6514
so what I’m saying when you’re 65 when
you’re 65 too much more to do in those
30 years I’m to sleep 9 years I don’t
have 30 years of daylight I have to
travel back to America take six seven
miles all my traveling probably four
years of traveling next 30 years about
nine years of sleeping television movies
entertaining about three years of
entertainment out of 30 years I might
have about 16 years to be productive so
it’s how we can all break individual
lives now what am I gonna do the next 16
years what’s the best thing I’m gonna do
get ready to meet God
owning a real estate going in business
teaching boxes that won’t get me to
heaven I’m always looking for new ways
to explain the power of the 5-second
role in the power of five second
decisions and I read something that Tim
Ferriss said that really resonated with
me and he had this one line buried in a
podcast somewhere that just jumped out
and it’s it’s it’s stuck it and what he
said is he said something about how
there’s a gap between the world and the
things that trigger you and your
response and your entire life is that
gap when you start to this is not what
he said he I kind of identified this gap
and I of course intrinsically was like
well absolutely that’s the five-second
window between instinct or stimulus and
your reaction and when you start to
understand that your whole life plays
out in this five-second gap and that
there’s a gap that’s five seconds long
between fear and courage and there’s a
gap that’s five seconds long between
self-doubt and confidence that is your
life and what’s super cool about
understanding that your whole life is
inside this gap is it’s so small
everybody that you have the ability to
control it life’s always going to throw
triggers at you and there will always be
all kinds of cool things that inspire
you your
wisdom and you get to choose what
happens in that gap do you succumb to an
excuse or do you push yourself forward
when you start to speak up in business
you’ll be shocked at how you start to
speak up and your relationships when you
start to make hard phone calls whether
it’s in a selling situation you’ll be
surprised at how you’ll start to close
the gap and have hard conversations in
your personal life and so that gap is
everywhere and it’s the same everywhere
and when you start to go to work in
controlling how you live in that gap
between stimulus or idea and your
response that’s where the magic is it’s
jaco will Inc you mentioned retired Navy
SEAL commander used to be in charge of
all West Coast training for the SEAL
Teams which is intense highly highly
decorated where there’s Jacko saying
discipline equals freedom or you look at
say some of the writers or musicians or
directors or others in the book across
pretty much all of them you find that
they find freedom in constraints so what
does that mean it sounds kind of weird
it also sounds very sounds like an
oxymoron right and what I mean by that
is all of these people have routines
they have set recipes that they repeat
on a daily and weekly basis so that they
are not making a lot of extraneous
decisions about mundane things and they
also recognize that we all have our less
ourselves our impulses I love chocolate
croissants for where if I left my entire
schedule to whim I would just eat
chocolate croissants all day long I love
them they’re incredible and I still do
have them once a week I have my cheat
day and I’m allowed to do what I want so
I let my monkey mind and my lesser self
just go nuts
but these people all have typically
these and these are folks we might be
inclined to think of as superheroes and
maybe Jacko’s is supreme but the vast
majority have one or two strengths and
they may not even be the best of the
world but one or two strengths they
combine in a really unique way and they
build habits around those strengths and
then they have a thousand
other weaknesses but the habits and
routines are what helped them from going
off the rails and this is really
encouraging this should be really
encouraging because the people we see on
magazine covers that we might idolize
and feel we could never possibly emulate
because I have it all figured out
they have no insecurities they wake up
every morning and with a mental karate
chop they just master the day that’s not
how it works I know these people almost
everyone in this book certainly on the
podcast had become friends with hundreds
of these people not true they have tons
of not everyone I don’t speak for
everyone but tons of neuroses tons of
terrible self-defeating habits and the
safety that they create is habits and
routines that’s why jaakko in part says
discipline equals freedom okay so you
have trouble waking up in the morning no
problem you want to stage this is
something choco does takes his clothing
prepares gets this sort of coffee ready
to brew clothing on the floor for the
workout right next to his bed prepared
the night before so there are no
decisions there are no opportunities to
make mistakes
between him opening his eyes and jakka
working out and you find this across
everybody in rhesus that people do get
what they want is because they don’t
actually figure out what it is and the
probability that you’re going to get
what would be good for you let’s say
which would even be better than what you
want right because you know you might be
what wrong about what you want easily
but maybe you could get what would
really be good for you well why don’t
you well cuz you don’t try you don’t
think okay here’s what I would like if I
could have it and and I don’t mean I
don’t mean in a way that you manipulate
the world to force it to deliver you
goods for status or something like that
that isn’t what I mean I mean something
like imagine that you were taking care
of yourself like you were someone you
actually cared for and then you thought
okay I’m caring for this person I would
like things to go as well for them as
possible
what would their life have to be like in
order for that to be the case well
people don’t do that they don’t sit down
and think all right you know let’s let’s
figure
you’ve got a life it’s hard obviously
it’s like three years from now you can
have what you need you’ve got to be
careful about it you can’t have
everything you can have what would be
good for you but you have to figure out
what it is and then you have to aim at
it well my experience with people as
being is if they figure out what it is
that would be good for them and then
they aim at it then they get it and it’s
an idea about what would be good for you
and then you take ten steps towards that
and you find out that your formulation
was a bit off and so you have to
reformulate your goal you know you’re
kind of going like this as you move
towards the goal but a huge part of the
reason that people fail is because they
don’t ever set up the criteria for
success and so since success is a very
narrow line and very unlikely the
probability that you’re going to stumble
on it randomly is zero and so there’s a
proposition here in the proposition is
if you actually want something you can
have it now the question then would be
what do you mean by actually want and
the answer is that you reorient your
life in every possible way to make the
probability that that will occur as
certain as possible and that’s a
sacrificial idea right it’s like you
don’t get everything obviously you
obviously but maybe you can have what
you need and maybe all you have to do to
get it is ask but asking isn’t a whim or
today’s wish it’s like you have to be
deadly serious about it you have to
think okay like I’m taking stock of
myself and if I was going to live
properly in the world and I was going to
set myself up such that being would
justify itself in my estimation and I
don’t mean as a harsh judge exactly what
is it that I would aim at sit on your
bed one day and ask yourself what’s what
remarkably stupid things am i doing on a
regular basis to absolutely screw up my
life
and if you actually asked that question
but you have to want to know the answer
right because that’s actually what
asking the question means it doesn’t
mean just mouthing the words it means
you have to decide that you want to know
you’ll figure that’s how it’s so fast
it’ll make your hair curl but I guess
any film is not really easy I mean I
would think but I think you’re driven by
something that’s like an obsession I
would think and before you realize that
you have your eye for the eye piece and
you say we’re crazy how the hell are we
ever could we’re gonna do this this is
madness but you keep going you keep
going and I never really thought
otherwise I actually thought people
wanted to see that kind of thing and it
the industry changed I started making
Main streets was 73 so you know taxi
driver and Raging Bull in New York New
York particularly in the last waltz and
that les Walter instead of somewhat of a
different story but actually I actually
had no I really was surprised that there
would be resistance to like taxi driver
for example it was very difficult to get
made and certainly Last Temptation of
Christ I understood there would have
been some controversy but usually from
certainly certain areas not necessarily
what happened at the time so we just go
ahead and then you know eventually
there’s some studio people and in the
case of taxi driver was a combination of
De Niro and myself he had just done
Godfather two we mean streets when I de
mean street support again to print up
the seat to show Francis Coppola and San
Francisco and he hired De Niro from
Easter for Godfather to based on that
that led to taxi driver and then Raging
Bull was a project of De Niro’s really
so there’s this notion in the Old
Testament that morality is following a
sequence of prohibitions there’s a bunch
of bad things you shouldn’t do and then
basically you’re good enough and and and
I think there’s wisdom in that I think
that’s kind of where children start
right you I mean I love children and all
that but they’re they’re they’re crazy
little creatures and they need to be you
know civilized and partly what you do is
you you lay prohibitions on them and
mostly what you’re trying to do is lay
prohibitions on them for the behaviors
that if they manifest it would make
their life mess
so this is why this thing that I’ve said
the peoples become this crazy internet
meme but that’s to clean up your room
and which which is a lot better and more
useful than people think it’s a lot
harder to but the thing the first thing
you do I think and I learned this in
part from Solzhenitsyn when he was
trying to iron out his soul when he was
in the gulag because he was trying to
figure out how he got there how he
contributed to how he got there
you know not Stellan and Hitler even
though they were kind of to blame you
know but he wasn’t much he could do
about that I think what you have to do
and this is part of humility is you have
to look around you within your sphere of
influence like the direct sphere of
influence and fix the things that
announce themselves as in need of repair
and those are often small things you
know and they can be like your room put
it in order because the thing is it
isn’t exactly so important that your
room is in order although it is what’s
important is that you learn how to
distinguish between chaos and order and
to be able to act in a manner that
produces order and I think you can you
can do something as simple as just sit
on your bed and think okay there’s
probably like five things I could do
today so that tomorrow morning is
slightly better than this morning was at
least or at least I’m not falling behind
and those will usually be it’s like
having to eat a toad in the morning
right it’s like it’s not gonna be
something you want to do there’ll be
things you’re trying to avoid there’s
snakes essentially but if you ask
yourself like you’re asking someone
which i think is a form of prayer if you
ask yourself instead of telling yourself
you know what is it that I could do to
set things more right today that I would
actually do it’s usually some small
thing because he’s not that disciplined
you know then you can go do it and then
you be put the world together a little
more when you do that and that spreads
out but you also put your you also
construct yourself into something that’s
better able to call order forth from
chaos and that makes you just
incrementally stronger and then the next
day you can maybe take on a slightly
larger task and like you get the benefit
of compound interest if you do that it’s
a tremendously powerful technique and
they think if you do that at some point
instead of just having to fix things up
that are not good you’ll start to get a
glimmer of the positive things that you
could do you know the positive things
that you could do that would actually
constitute a vision and now that’s what
I would recommend what you do people
will recognize that I really believe it
I really believe that going out and
playing good songs live as a great live
band will make you successful I’d really
think it will and it doesn’t matter if
you’re at that hold down the street or
you’re on the side stage at Bonnaroo or
you’re headlining well at Palooza if
you’re a great band with great songs
people will notice it that’s it that’s
all it is it’s it’s that simple
product placement and labels and ANR
people and all apples it doesn’t matter
I swear to god it doesn’t matter and if
you back that up with the idea that just
playing those great songs in your great
live band is enough reward for you then
you’re set but you’ve got to be badass
you just have to be really good it’s the
other things that make up for your
musical inability you know I mean as a
drummer I never felt like I’m gonna be
on the cover of Modern Drummer magazine
because I’m the best drummer in the
world I just do that if you put me on
stage without a PA or floor monitors in
a small club that I would beat the
out of my drums so much that people go
goddamn did you see that the drummer
whoa and I’d walk away from every show
like there you go I just beat the piss
out of those things that people saw it
people took notice for sure and that was
great so at the end of the show I was a
successful musician because I had
what I wanted to achieve so I honestly
believe I mean I know lots of musicians
that went down to South by Southwest and
said well it’s easy for you to say Mike
man I was in the same position you are
in 24 years ago that was it I worked in
a Furniture Warehouse and I wanted
people to like my music so I played out
as much as I could you know and if you
really honestly I’d like I said if
you’re passionate and driven and focused
in what you do if you’re really good at
it people will take notice that’s
basically it I mean I don’t understand
the industry I don’t understand I don’t
understand where music is headed I don’t
really understand technology I just know
that when you walk into a club and you
see a band that blows you away
you are gonna follow that band you’re
gonna either buy their CD or you’re
gonna find them online or you’re gonna
see them the next time they come to play
and it takes that’s what it takes you
don’t have to stand in line at the song
contest on TV to become a popular
musician you know to stand in front of
some judge that doesn’t even play an
instrument on their own goddamn records
tell you now you’re not gonna know right
that you know go blow people away in
front in their face and so it’s gonna
you know it’s it’s I honestly believe it’s that simple
beings is unbelief
everything starts with a vision and a
man without vision dies how are you
going to make it I don’t know but I will
see you will when you put yourself in
that kind of situation I reminded of two
frogs that that were huffing down the
road and they fell into a bottle of milk
and one was hopping up and down for a
while and he drowned he just gave up but
his other frog escaped all kicking he
wouldn’t give up he just kept on kicking
and pretty soon he churned that milk
some saying when life catches you about
a neck in the blind slap you’ll laugh
but knock you down I said just keep on
kicking you know and you can kick hard
out of those circumstances whatever they
are not be intimidated by them repeat
after me please I’m going to keep on
kicking I’m gonna cut them off is never
going to give up keep check somebody’s
hand on your right in love and say keep
on keepin on
I think I feel feel fear quite strongly
so it’s not as though I just have the
absence of fear I’ve I feel it quite
strongly but there were times when
something is important enough
you’ve leave it enough that you do you
do it in spite of the fear people
shouldn’t think III should if you should
think well I feel fear about this and
therefore I shouldn’t do it it’s normal
to be to feel fear
like you’d have to definitely something
mentally wrong you shouldn’t feel fear
so you just feel it and let the
importance of it drive you to do it
anyway yeah you know actually we’re
something that can be helpful as
fatalism some degree if you just think
it’s just accept the probabilities then
that diminishes fear so we’re starting
SpaceX I thought the odds of success
were less than 10% and I just accepted
that actually probably I would just lose
lose everything
but that maybe would make some progress
if we could just move the ball forward
even if we died maybe some other company
could pick up the baton and move and
keep moving it forward so that was still
do some good yeah same with Tesla I
thought your odds of a car company
succeeding were extremely low the
impulse to dream has been slowly beaten
out of me through the experience of life
there are some times where you’re gonna
wish that you could rewind and and do
things all over again there are times
where you just wish you could forget
memories and you try to drown those
memories in alcohol or different
pleasures and maybe get distracted by
the goals and ambitions of your life and
try to put the past behind and move
forward we’re all human beings please
don’t get me wrong I don’t wake up every
morning with a smile on my face like I
have ups and downs you see my foot ups
and downs ups and downs the first thing
I want you to take away from today is
this you will have good days and you’ll
have bad days but you will always learn
something more or something new and you
will learn more overall on bad days than
good days you will learn more about
yourself you’ll learn more about
relationships you’ll learn about life
and principles and you will build your
character if you’re a person who wants
let’s say improve on your character of
patience let’s say don’t complain when
you’re waiting in a line
you ain’t going to grow in patience
until you’re put in a place to wait it’s
like you go into a gym and you know
you’re walking through the front doors
and you know you tell your wife or your
husband I’m going to the gym you go into
the gym and you come in three feet and
you do a u-turn and you’re right out I
went to the gym ain’t gonna do nothing
you gotta go with it what are you gonna
do you’re going to pick up the weights
and you exercise the muscles that you
want to build and stand before you
without arms and legs but a very strong
man because of the bad days in my life
you know how it is if you didn’t go what
you’ve gone through you wouldn’t be who
you are today
and most people ladies and gentlemen
have stopped living their dreams because
of the lessons they’ve learned from life
or things they’ve picked up because
we’ve only been born with two fears the
fear of a loud sound of the fear falling
and all the other fears of fears we
learn fears we pick up whatever you’re
scared of
lowlife the value you brought to the
planet far more envoy what have you
played up you’re stronger so as we begin
to look toward the future and look at
what will it take for us to break
through those fears one acknowledging
the fear knowing it’s alright
some fear is healthy beginning to know
that your dreams your passions your
drive to achieve whatever it is you want
as it has more power and meaning it will
move you past your fears as you begin to
feel that you deserve it your passion
and goal is so strong the fears won’t
matter you begin to trust yourself and
put yourself in the situation where you
have to make it happen you will make it
happen ladies and gentlemen I don’t
believe this I know this from my own
life experience I know that you’ve got
greatness within you I know that you
have unlimited potential in you I know
that you have something to give to the
universe that was not here before you
showed up somebody said that life is
God’s gift to us and how we live our
lives is our gift to God what kind of
gift
are you giving and what kind of gift
could you give it fear wasn’t an issue
the only way to deal with fear that I
found in my life is a couple ways one of
those ways is to turn it on itself and
ask yourself what am I afraid of I’m
free of that I got to be more afraid of
what I’m gonna miss out on missing out
on me mission missing out who I’m
supposed to be missing in other words if
you’re not get get rid of fear than use
fear use fear or it uses you it’s that
simple so you got to say okay what’s the
price if I just stay doing this what’s
the price what I need to really even get
scared if I learn all this
I don’t follow through that’s something
to be scared about and then that fear
will get you over your fear it’ll push
you through turn fear in itself second
way you can do it is use what you’ve
probably heard me say because I’ve used
this number 17 is my little rocking
chair test right
I’m gonna I’m gonna sit myself in my
rocking chair I’m I’m 85 years old I’m
looking back on my life and I say I
didn’t do this or I did you can
never perfect what we do there’s no way
I’ve never met anyone who goes that’s
perfection I mean to an audience outside
of your work people can think that
that’s the only way they’d ever want to
see that part played or that moment done
whatever but as an actor and this isn’t
mock humility I think it’s just it just
goes for all art forms really the whole
point is perfection is unachievable so
it’s that constant pursuit of the
unobtainable which is kind of magic
really you know and and and should keep
us kind of motivated to try better you
know it’s the bakit thing you know fail
again fail better
oh is it different today and doing your
show like night than it was 10 years ago
are you more instinctive are you more do
you think less about it and just do it
it’s muscle memory it is used to it like
the office when you crunch down your and
you’re constantly trying to learn your
fear you’re constantly you’re still
thinking but your ratio of thinking to
acting is very different you know you’re
at the beginning I was thinking about it
this much yeah you know in my cognitive
brain and then there was this much just
whatever thin read of talent you have is
there and then you’re thinking about the
rest and then over the years I think you
know they always say the reptile brain
you the reptile portion of your brain is
where you you know respiration heartbeat
right that’s the stuff that even if
you’re knocked unconscious it’s still
working
I really believe a lot of my talk show
or comedy instincts are now in my
reptile brain that you could knock me
out and my heart would still beat I’d
still breathe and I’d still be asking
Lindsay Lohan you know stupid question
you have become some way as you part of
your D it has become part of your DNA
yeah I mean I think a lot of it is you
have to have some ability but then it’s
just how much will I really do think
there’s just think people underestimate
it doesn’t sound sexy it doesn’t sound
cool how much do I want it work ethic
you know and just how badly do you want
it and there have been you know many
times in the you know throughout the
years of doing my show where I’ve
thought you could shoot me in the chest
before I walk out there and I’ll still
walk out there and do that show and then
I’ll come backstage and die but we’re
doing that show
the best advice that I could give you on
success is to know that success is
merely the hangover of failure and that
failure is an essential ingredient in
creating a learning atmosphere for you
so that you can accrue those learnings
so small incremental steps of failure
and collect enough learning so that you
can arrive at success right I think
we’re taught in the system that failure
is something that you should be ashamed
of failure is for the dumb kids because
you get an F you get a D right you’re
not competent you didn’t comply you
didn’t create the evidence of your
worthiness but I could tell you is
someone who’s successful right both
financially and from a wealth creation
point of view but more importantly a
wealth that matters that success doesn’t
look like an a-plus it doesn’t look like
a hundred and ten and extra credit and
failure isn’t as simple as an F and it’s
not always always a failure could be
very gray right and being able discern
what you might arrive at an event or in
your life where you think that wow I’ve
succeeded and you’re getting the
affirmation from all these outside
forces but if it’s not aligned
authentically with to who and what you
are it could very much feel like failure
prepare in advance you know the old
saying proper prior preparation saves
poor performance or prevents poor
performance the six PS and so prepare
your work list for the following day the
evening or the night before the last
thing you do at the end of the day is
you lay out the day that’s coming the
best exercise is for you to plan your
entire next day has the last thing you
do before coming home from work when you
plan your day the night before your
subconscious mind then goes to work on
your plans and goals while you’re asleep
very often you’ll wake up in the morning
with ideas and insights that apply to
the work of the day
now a major benefit of preparing your
daily list the night before is that this
exercise that you sleep more soundly a
major reason for insomnia is people
lying awake trying not to forget to
remember everything that they have to do
the following day but once you’ve
written down everything that you have to
do on the list it clears your mind and
enables you to sleep deeply this will
help you increase your productivity
throughout the whole next day of work
because you’ll be more relaxed and more
refreshed 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
they’re 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 is 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 feet speak in front of
a large audience and somebody’d say how
do you feel I say little nervous now
when somebody says
how do you feel like really excited
actually and it it came from just sort
of telling myself 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 it’s really kind of effective
it makes you want to rush for is it
rather than pull back and yet it’s the
same experience I told you all of my
critics I told you all that I was the
greatest of all time wanna be Sonny
Liston I told you today I’m still the
greatest of all time never again defeat
me never again say that I’m gonna be
defeated never again that make me then
the dog until I’m about 50 years old
then you might get me but I didn’t dance
I didn’t dance for a reason
I wanted to make him lose all his power
I kept telling me he had no punch he
couldn’t hit he’s swinging like a sissy
he’s missing
let me see you box I hadn’t started
dancing yet you can’t say my legs are
going you can tell was tired because
what happened I didn’t dance from the
second round on I stayed on the ropes
when I stay on the ropes you think I’m
doing bad but I want to all boxers to
put this on the page about says staying
on homes as a beautiful thing with a
heavyweight when you make him shoot his
best shots and you know he’s not hitting
you I would’ve gave jobs for him with
two rounds a steady punch it because
how do you have found our way it’s not
see God gives us a lot of things in life
but it’s a couple of things he don’t
give us any time
some know
that’s the one thing with your box I
look at my watch they don’t look at my
phone with your pho I look at my so the
question is how much time I think what
I’m trying to make money years ago I
gave up entertainment clubs years ago 14
years since I step in anything that
doesn’t but friend where I’m trying to
go put the businesses in things where
ultimately trying them what kind of
leaders you gotta get rid of so these
conversations came in half of a big
pretty simple process
given all the opportunities that are
there in in the world to try and figure
out the thing that actually makes you
want to get up in the morning the thing
that you actually love I just I just
know that if I weren’t lucky enough to
have have been given the opportunity to
write a movie or a show or direct
anything appreciating I would still go
home from whatever that day job is and I
would try to do it because I love it not
because I really want to make a certain
amount of money it’s great to be
comfortable it can be dangerous to be
comfortable but it’s great to be
comfortable but I I just feel like if
you can figure out the thing that makes
you tick find that thing and the thing I
would say I guess is a lot of young
people I find are under such pressure
there’s a kind of sense of it’s all or
nothing which i think is really unfair
meaning I don’t know if it’s the media
and the way things are presented or if
it’s because there’s so much success
that is that is celebrated in society
but there is a sense I’ve heard enough
that I feel like I haven’t thought of
this till now that it is a kind of theme
that that young people feel like if they
don’t know what they’re born to do that
there’s somehow broken and I think that
it needs to be looked at differently
which is that it means if you don’t know
that thing it means that every door is
there’s the possibility that that’s a
beautiful thing so I just feel like I
would say don’t stress yourself out you
know the only reason I could deal with
the pressure on Star Wars is because I
loved making that movie and and if it if
it didn’t work of course I would have
been crushed but it I wasn’t doing it
because it was a job and if you can find
that thing and deal with the pressure of
maybe not making the amount of money
that you would like to yet or not
getting to the company you’d like to get
or not having success with your startup
yet these are all things that I think
you can swallow if the thing you’re
doing speaks to you I have stage fright
you know and I never confronted the risk
or when I did come from I mean Belgium
you know 2000 year 2000
that was you have no idea what it took
them to get me to do it no no no no I
had a thousand I had a thousand excuses
why not to turn there finally I did it
and it was exquisitely horrifying that’s
the only way I can flirt complex yes it
was very very very complex and what was
really good was right in the beginning
within like two seconds
I played just the worst wrong note and I
could either stop and cry or I could
laugh all right and it didn’t kill me
and nobody else out there
nobody was throwing anything you know it
was fine thank you to the people of
Ghent for not killing me and giving me
the courage and you know and the the
absurdity you know you have to be able
to laugh at yourself and you have to
learn how to laugh at yourself I’m a
workaholic and it’s like being an
alcoholic I just can’t give it up I’ve
been unwell for two weeks and I feel
unwell you know so I can go to work
because I can’t go to work I get worse
if I sit in one place I’m stressed
the reason I’m not fidgeting too much is
because I’m unwell otherwise I hate
sitting in one place I some work has to
be given to me I meet my wife and my
children keep telling me you know you
work 20 years round-the-clock why are
you doing this I don’t think I need the
money I don’t think I am greedy for more
Fame I’m doing okay I can do one film
two years and be happy with it but I’m
just not happy I tell everyone if I’m
not working I’m depressed so I don’t
know if it’s a curse or a blessing maybe
at the end of it all when we die God
will say did you work
I say yes a lot oh damn you go to hell
because I didn’t want anyone to work oh
it would be all you worked that’s really
nice
because I wanted everyone to work so I
don’t know one of them is going to be
like but I just keep working I think I
have this fear that you have very few
days in life and you need to cram it up
with lot of things you need to further
fill it with so many things and
that you don’t have space for life it
should be like that I when I’m not
working I get lonely I get depressed I
get sad I don’t drink I’m not a
philosopher not a player that I like
loneliness I hate being alone and I hate
being with people at times
I’m unsocial I’m very odd with people so
what happens is I have replaced people
with work in my life because when I’m
working I’m a lot of people and there
are people I can interact with because
somewhere there is a wall that I’m not
interacting with them socially I’m
interacting them through this common you
know goal that is the work so I can
discuss with her or discuss with him and
dear friends for that moment many of my
filmmaking colleagues complained that
after the film is over you don’t talk to
us I can’t explain to them I don’t have
anything else to say I love you I miss
you but i miss you through the work I
don’t I mean I’m I’m very fond of a lot
of people a lot of people I love like
family and I I can’t pick up the phone
and talk with them I can’t socialize
with them I can’t sit and chat with them
but when we were working I can just be
with them so I don’t know what it’s sort
of I have replaced loneliness depression
and people good work if you say I’m a
fraud they’ll figure me out I’ll never
be able to do it again that’s an artist
start processes you’re an artist you’re
thinking like that you’re on the right
track because they all feel that so you
there’s always some success that can
come out even out of your failures in
fact probably your biggest successes
will come directly from your failures
you should almost take that Winston
Churchill’s quote is my favorite success
is moving from one failure to the next
with great enthusiasm you should be very
enthusiastic about your failures because
you’re going to learn something you’re
gonna go that way where everyone is
going that way and you’re gonna stumble
but you’re also gonna stumble upon
something that no one ever thought of so
you know you just keep going and keep
going and you’re gonna fail and then
rise up and fail again and that’s the
journey up and down man working will
might and doing weird antisocial days at
weekends that you’ll forget about your
social life
that that that’s the sort of sacrifice
to commitment that’s I think quite the
level that Julian sacrifices but you
don’t get to see your family you don’t
get to see your friends you are removed
from the reality of your life to pursue
a given goal so there is a kind of
comparison
I guess you you sacrifice a part of
yourself because you’re exposing either
either end of the spectrum zuv acting
whether it’s just variations of who you
are or whether it’s completely to
summoning into a different character in
persona your equally valid in my opinion
I don’t think there’s really distinction
to draw than people who are good or bad
at it but I think then you do have to
give part of yourself no matter what
you’re doing and that you you don’t lose
you something’s gained actually by doing
that but you have to suppress and
control certain instincts that you have
in order to actually be true to a
character that may not be the same as
you will be driven by the same things as
you talk to so many smart fantastic
ambitious idealistic hard-working kids
and they’re right out of college they’re
in their entry-level jobs and I’ll ask
them how is it going and they’ll say I
think I’m gonna quit and I’m like why
they say to me I’m not making an impact
I’m like you know you’ve been here eight
they treat the sense of fulfillment or
even love like it’s a scavenger hunt
like it’s something you look for my
millennial friends they’ve gone through
so many jobs they’re either getting
fired I mean it was mutual or they’re
quitting because they’re not making an
impact or they’re not finding the thing
they’re looking for they’re not feeling
fulfilled as if it’s a scavenger hunt
love a job you find joy from is not
something you discover it’s not like I
found love here it is I found a job I
love that’s not how it works both of
those things require hard work you are
in love because you work very hard every
single day of your life to stay in love
you find a job that brings you ultimate
joy because you work hard every single
day to serve those around you and you
maintain that joy it’s not a discovery
but the problem is this sense of
impatience it’s as if an entire
generation of standing at the foot of a
mountain they know exactly what they
want they can see the summit what they
can’t see as the mountain this large a
movable object but doesn’t mean you have
to do your time that’s not what I’m
talking about
take a helicopter climb I don’t care but
there’s still a mountain life career
fulfillment relationships our journeys
the problem is this entire generation
has an institutionalized sense of
impatience and do they have the patience
to go on the journey to maintain love to
feel fulfilled or do they just quit and
on to the next dump and on to the next
ghost and on to the next definitions of
options decisions self-determination
choice preference desire I want to share
something with you that’s relative to
critical options because we all have
them in our lives and I want to ask you
a question what is the focus of your
life what is the focus of your life in
life you have a critical option you can
take a stand in your life or you can
follow the crowd see people who follow
the crowd their lives are not
they’re not immerse than anything people
who take a stand they’re living a life
that has some power a life of
achievement a life that has some meaning
people that taking a stand in life they
are consciously involved in a process to
design a life of substance people are
following the crowd these are people
that they’re just doing what everybody
else is doing so that’s a crowded road
over there
they’re following the followers I want
to talk to you about taking a stand with
your life and what are some of the
things we can do that will enable us to
give our lives up in a way that has some
purpose and meaning that can be real for
us that can give us a sense of
fulfillment of joy and happiness and
peace of mind see most people are bored
with life most people feel that life
isn’t worth the hassle the life is just
wearing me out it’s boring it’s
monotonous I have nothing to look
forward to there we go get another
Monday morning TGIF they thank God it’s
Friday how are we gonna roll boy you see
what the man meant but many people died
aged 25 and don’t get burned until there
are 65 doing the same thing the same way
every day looking at these faces just
I mean you got to be aware of these
faces they affect you you know try to
stay around Pleasant faces and if you
have an unpleasant face try and smile
more it’s good for your health
and there’s another dividend you look
better too so looking for a way in which
we can begin to give our lives some
special power number one commit yourself
to giving your best at all times now
that’s not easy see most people and
particularly those are working in
corporations they’re finding now they’ve
got to change their behavior we’re now
involved in a world economy we will
never do business the way in which we
have done business in the past we will
never be able to in the American
workplace do just enough to get by
now the standards have been raised
quality and productivity has been
increased because of the competition and
so now average performance will not be
enough this is a new day competition is
fierce so people who just you’ve been in
locked into a behavior pattern are
working just hard enough to keep from
getting fired they’re being laid off I’m
forced into early retirement it’s a new
game now so now more than ever it’s
about increased productivity now more
than ever it’s about superior quality
service now more than ever it’s about
creating a positive atmosphere in the
workplace and people that have that
competitive age people that are hungry
to make it so you got to be hungry now
you can’t just casually walk around well
I’ll get to it later on oh no no this
this is a new day right now committing
yourself to give your best at all times
regardless of the competition to do
otherwise all the influences of negative
people that will tell you hey look here
don’t push yourself too much now’s the
time to push yourself to always get in
the habit of giving the best that you
have to share you really can’t plan a
fight when you meet the man you never
met before right you just have to get
your tools ready here’s a car stops on
the highway they call a triple-a or
whatever
I said my car’s broke down what is it
lady she don’t know us but when the man
comes with all the tools and he come
equipped to handle whatever the problem
is a astronaut goes into space and he
pretends that something happens to the
ship before he take off he gets out and
he works on it he’s not looking for
something happen but it might happen so
I didn’t know I just had everything
ready now after the first round being
here with a top professional a man so
great had so many knockouts and I’ve
been defeated never even scratched I
didn’t know really how good he was so I
had to come in after a little nervous
and with everything ready after one
round of deaths and I found out that
this would turn me out so I would have
to resort the ropes I figured that out
after the first round so I said I’m
gonna go to these ropes and I’m let this
man through everything he can’t let me
tie herself out it might look like he’s
winning
and if you don’t hurt him we’ll stay
here but if he should be as great as
they say he is if he hits as hard as
they say hit when he hit you breaks your
arm he knocked out Joe Frazier I
couldn’t do it knocked out Ken Norton he
was a big bad job before the fight you
remember and they remember that don’t
you yeah they don’t say that never he
was a real bad catch of the day right
don’t forget that now after I found out
he didn’t have it
I stayed there but if he had had what I
thought he had had or what they said
he’s had I’d have kept running
hoping I wouldn’t get tired would you
think about that I read a poem one time
I said I have only just a minute only 60
seconds and it was forced upon me I
can’t refuse it I didn’t seek and I
didn’t choose it but it’s up to me to
use it I must suffer if I lose it you
have a count if I abuse it it’s only a
tiny low a minute but eternity isn’t it
well any rate I thought I’m gonna put
this on a video I’m just gonna share it
with everybody just this one little part
out of the seminar I’m making I want you
to look at this Sam timer and let this I
want you to think about your life the
sand in the top of the glass represents
the future the sand and the bottom of
the glass
presents the past now Genoa we know
what’s in the past and young we can’t do
anything about it you know what the
trick is you don’t know how much sand is
in the top of the glass you may think
you have a lot you might only have a
little bit then again you may think you
have a little and you might have a lot
when I was a little boy I was raised by
my grandmother and I don’t know when I
was a little guy after she was probably
60 but as long as I can remember redwood
saying I won’t be done there I’ll soon
be gone well you know we loved her she
was really an angel of God but we
thought she was never gonna go she lived
to be 94 for 30-some years I’ll soon be
gone she didn’t think she had much time
left she had 34 years left now about the
same time I had a buddy of mine Bob
Yates he was just 16 and bang he run
into the abutment of a Ridge and his
life was snuffed there if you had asked
him a half-hour before how much sand he
had left he would have said at least a
half a century you didn’t ever happen I
don’t see the trick is we don’t know how
much sand we have left the future we
don’t know the past it’s gone now the
only thing you can deal with is what’s
right here right now and if you look the
sand is always moving now think of this
you see I was working on that and then I
was working on a graph I’ve got here at
my computer and I’m thinking at the time
somebody said to him you got a minute
well they don’t really want a minute you
know if you’re earning $50,000 a year a
minutes 42 cents a half hours $12.50 if
we take that ahead of it if you’re
earning $80,000 a year a minute 67 cents
half hours $20 during a hundred and
fifty thousand dollars a year you got a
minute and then it cost you a dollar 25
a minute
now half hours thirty seven dollars and
fifty cents
so if you see if somebody said you want
to stop for a cup of coffee well if
you’re earning a quarter of a million
dollars a year a minute is two dollars
and eight cents half hours sixty two
dollars and fifty
cents and then of course you’ve got the
coffee to pay for on top of that so if
you see the point is this this is all
we’ve got right here right now we don’t
know how much we have left in the future
but we do know what we’ve got now and I
have found the people that win are the
people who make up their mind they’re
not gonna waste the minutes they’re
going to be productive they’re gonna
make it happen
every minute at 18 I was really
fortunate when I met a monk and this
monk was invited to speak and I kind of
just went because one of my friends
forced me to at that time I was missing
two CEOs and entrepreneurs and business
people and marketers who who I thought
that’s what I was aspiring to be like
and then I hear this monk and he
captivated me like no one had ever
captivated me before it was like staring
at the most beautiful woman on the
planet you know I was completely fixated
on him and his message see we live in
echo chambers we’re just surrounded by
the same thinking how often do you bump
into a monk you know it just doesn’t
happen you don’t have no one has a
dinner party and goes oh yeah we didn’t
buy the monk you know from a tower like
the local monk like no one ever does
that and so you be meet people who are
just like us most of the time and we
talked about this in business all the
time if you want to be a billionaire
spend time with billionaires if you want
to be a millionaire spend time and
millionaires if you want to be a tech
startup spend time with you know that’s
that’s the common rhetoric that we hear
all the time but what if you want to
find purpose and master the mind there’s
no one better than a monk who’s mastered
the mind so for me the first step is
just opening yourself up to new
experiences and new role models because
most of us can’t see ourselves in people
so then we try and fit ourselves into
the boxes that we do see and and I mean
there’s this beautiful quote that I’ve
been saying it everywhere and I wish I
wrote it but I didn’t so it’s by a
philosopher and writer named Cooley and
he said that today I’m not what I think
I am I’m not what you think I am
I am what I think you think I am and
just let that blow your mind for now
it’s so powerful I’m not what I think I
am I’m not what you think I am I am what
I think you think I am so we live in
this perception of a perception of
ourselves
hence my identity is made by what my
parents think I should be my identity is
made up by what my college or university
thinks I should achieve while you’re
living in that bubble and that echo
chamber getting to what you really want
to do is impossible because maybe that
just doesn’t fit and I think so many
people feel that way today
that they don’t fit into the current
education system they don’t fit with the
three or four or five careers that
you’re taught exist so that process of
self excavation and actualization first
requires being exposed you can’t be what
you can’t see if I never saw a monk I
would never want it to be among if I
never meet a billionaire I wouldn’t want
to be one because I wouldn’t know what
that feels like I don’t know what it
looks like I don’t know what it takes
and and I think that’s the biggest
challenge of our society that we’re not
exposed so that’s the first step being
exposed to unique experiences and role
models second step is finding that
experience or role model that you’re
passionate about and exactly like you
said taking it seriously
shadow their network with them spend
time with them observe them even from
afar it takes that observation being
addicted to observing that person’s
lifestyle and then the third step is
growing yes or not does that work for me
not everyone who’s gonna go off from the
camera monk is gonna feel like the way I
did and that’s cool but not everyone is
gonna go and follow and shadow a billion
anger that’s exactly the lifestyle I
want they may want the result but do
they want the hard work that goes with
it and so for me that’s the third step
it’s observing focusing shadowing
getting as close to the process of that
individual and then going yes or no do I
want that process not do I want the
result everyone’s to be that monk who’s
fully enlightened you know can walk
through has an incredible or that people
just gravitate towards but when you
realize he has to wake up at 2:00 a.m.
every dance
about four to six hours you like that
you know I don’t want to do that doesn’t
sound like me a bit old-fashioned in my
kind of understanding of it I thought
that what I do what the great actors
that have been ahead of me had done and
inspired me to do was the idea of
starting out in the classics then maybe
a modern play or two than a few roles
and television and then you know getting
a film role but keep going back to
theater and that is what I’ve done that
is kind of what I’ve tried to do the
unhappy accident of that play being such
a huge success was it came at a point
where I thought Christ I’ve actually got
some momentum in a medium where it’s
much more of a closed door there’s a
very little long-term memory it’s much
more immediate your currencies something
you really have to kind of work on in
film I knew I was wired to be excited
about business how or why I don’t know
but you know and there’s certain guys
they have the genetics to jump out of
the gym right certain guys you know that
you know when they golf they have the
muscle memory and and the discipline you
know dirt the visca may not be the most
talented guy in the NBA but his
discipline and his focused to do what’s
necessary to be successful he’s willing
to do and combine it with being seven
feet tall and being skilled you know it
makes him an amazing basketball player
so it’s understanding what your skill
set is finding the right place to use
those skills and then going for it
you know will that make you 250 grand it
depends if you pick the right industry
but whatever industry you pick if you
outwork everybody if you try to be a
little smarter than everybody if you try
to be a better salesperson and everybody
if you try to be better prepared than
everybody you’ve got your best chance
because if you don’t do it and somebody
else does you know I have the same work
like someone’s trying to take it all
away from you you know work you actually
worked like no one’s spending 24 hours
working 24 hours to take it all away
from you and that’s kind of the way I
look at it I was really lucky to have
just had a few breaks
obviously with Charlotte but also Tinker
Tailor also with Frankenstein and being
cast in warhorse and that all came to
the same kind of point where we were
supposed to be coming here to do this
Broadway production of after the
which might still happen might be a film
we don’t know it might did something
there might be some life left in me it
was a wonderful experience in London but
I felt that I’d had that experience
there and selfishly I wanted to make
some capital out of this momentum that
was building and I I’m glad I did
because I got start right there and job
is a slave it was a sage County you only
do yeah it were it worked out well for
me but um and the Fourth Estate so I
kind of I was very yeah I took a gamble
and it paid off yes I get up at crazy
hours whether it’s three o’clock in the
morning by the way when we’re talking in
London I was getting up at 3:00 because
I had to be on set by 4:00 I’m sorry by
7:00 so whatever time my call time is
and I tell this to Studios and directors
and our producers whatever Tom I call
time so my call time is at 7:00 then you
back your clock up for hours and then
that’s when I get up and train twice or
the cardio and then breakfast and I’ll
go hit the weights
clanging and banging we call it Jack and
the iron but like what time do you go to
bed I mean you might shoot really late
at night I’m averaging on a movie I
average probably about five hours of
sleep because the resources had been so
limited for so long there were a lot of
people who would say God if I only had
access to a camera I would make a movie
there’s a lot of talk about I remember
when I was in college I spend most of my
time in my room writing screenplays
really bad screenplays but I was in my
room doing that when I price should have
been studying or something there were a
lot of people I remember at parties who
would talk about writing and that they
wanted to be writer but I would always
notice they were out every time I would
happen to go out they would always be
out and they I just know that that there
are people who talk about what they
would do if but they’re not actually
doing the thing and so it’s a lot easier
to actually write a screenplay than you
think it is might not be good but most
people talk about writing screenplays
but don’t actually write them the people
who write them you’re already like in
you know the top 10 percent could you
actually have written it and so the one
thing my father gave me which was really
key was that work ethic
that ability to get myself up in the
morning no matter how tired I was ah to
push myself through those pain barriers
and again the combination of the loss of
a mother at six and then being sent out
to work at ten we started work out five
o’clock in the morning through the mill
ground being dropped off at 8:45 out of
school in the milkman you there at work
I think so that combination of those two
work ethic and great insecurity was what
got me to where I went to I remember
asking my dad – I want a new basketball
shoes because that was a basketball
junkie back then he’s like well your
shoes work if you want a new pair of
tennis shoes you have to go out there
and get a job and I’m like dad I’m 12
years old and it just so happens he was
playing poker with his buddies and one
of his buddies was like well I got a job
for you I’ve got these garbage bags that
we distribute you could sell them
door-to-door I’m like okay and it was
when I was selling them and realized
that I’d like to sell and that I could
sell and that I recognized that selling
was was about providing the service and
creating value for people that I knew
that I would literally back then I knew
that I could always succeed I mean I
remember I was 16 I think when I started
a stamp company and started going to
stamp shows and trade shows and just
working a little bit harder than other
people and and trading up from one stamp
to the next I remember one time I
started with a quarter and bought a
stamp and left with $50 thinking hey if
I could do this I could do anything and
and it’s not that everything worked I
failed a lot but I never ever felt like
I I wouldn’t be able to work hard enough
to succeed you know hard work pays I put
in a hell of a walk all throughout this
build up in the fire I pumped out more
content than anybody more content than
Fox more content than ESPN more content
than BT sport more content and everybody
on the Mac live on my own channels you
know I mean I’m more course from all
angles not just in the gym but I’m
building this media empire now myself
and we pumped out the content I’m very
proud of how it went
we consistently day
movies I was releasing you know from
from like a month ago every single day
you know I mean nobody’s doing that so
I’m very proud of that and I’m very like
the wolf pay is hard work pays and we
put in the morgue and that’s that’s why
I’m I’m sitting at the top I put it all
on the line I show up I perform and I
get the results from that you say I’m
working on this thing but I don’t know
if anyone’s gonna like it it feels sort
of like this boring thing that I love
you know and it’s amazing how often that
boring thing that you love becomes a
sensation and I think the key is to do
that once you start working on something
saying oh well like this this would be
cool for them I mean literally we were
working on this book you know and we
were like this is insane and it’s it’s
never gonna you know happen and and
we’ll see and you know to approach
something with a kind of excitement that
is shared in this weird way where you
just know it makes you happy
and then to see it on the you know New
York Times bestseller list like oh my
god like that’s nuts
I never would have dreamed it it’s
really a result of you know having an
idea that stayed with me and that that I
love but that Lyndsey felt like oh this
could be something
finding Doug who took it and said oh my
god what about this and it was like at
each stage we were sort of you know just
turned on by what it could be but never
thinking oh this is gonna work really
well because actually we were thinking
oh my god no publisher is ever gonna be
able pull this off you know which little
brown and Mohan books totally did you
know and and even if they do who’s gonna
want it and it’s been nice to have it
received warmly and very unexpected
frankly but the answer is just to work
on things that you actually care about
wherever you can and and to not try and
think too hard about what it’s going to
be like when it goes out into the cold
hard reality of the world
I realized that when you to have the
level of success that I want to have
it’s difficult to spread it out and do
multiple things you know it’s in order
to to be world-class and I made a
decision I want to be world-class and it
just it takes such a desperate obsessive
focus to to excel on assert honor on the
level that I want to make movies you
know I was a Star Wars when I was young
i sat in the movie theater and watched
Star Wars and I just couldn’t believe
that that movie made me feel like that
just floored and just stunned by the
creativity and just I’m realizing that
in order to move people in that way in
order to touch people in that way you
really got to focus with all of your
fiber and all your heart and all your
creativity maybe the right business it’s
a one-on-one battle
whatever whatever enjoy the browse find
see God gives us a lot of things in life
but it’s a couple of things he don’t
give us time
some kids know that’s the one thing with
your wife I was to my wife that we don’t
come down with the mic up but your phone
I look at my nobody so the question is
how much time you always I think what
I’m trying to make money years ago I
step in anything that doesn’t but where
I’m trying to go there’s business season
in humans where ultimately trying to
become leaders you can’t get rid of
these sensations hurricane inhabited the
keyboarding without those change the
what promises you’ve got to make to
really same thought process fragrances
of lifestyle
that’s what you live life is not really
long let’s say the average person 30
years old
if you 30 years old you would not at
about 7 years old how can I prove it he
had up all the seven eight nine hours
you slept for 30 years out of 30 years
out of all the night last night were you
into bed and woke up this morning you
don’t remember thing you’ve been
unconscious for about eight years if
you’re 30 years old you step out eight
years okay how much traveling have you
done in 30 years the television station
to home to another country to another
city to school to church you try to
travel two years your level spins just
getting back and forth to where you go
so there’s eight years of sleeping 2
years of traveling there’s 30 years out
of your life before you accomplish
anything
how long do you sit in school in America
we stay in school from the trough great
from the first grade to 12th grade same
here yeah 6 hours a day yeah six hours a
day for 12 years break it down you set
in the classroom for three years without
leaving okay two years of traveling
eight years of sleeping three years of
school how many movies if you went to
how many rasuluh matches how much
entertainment coming in movie theatres
live plays baseball games probably two
years of entertainment so by the time of
man you all the people norm bear with us
I’m saying but the time here of children
by the time you have made a way for your
children by the time you’ve paid for
your home you pushing 60 years old so
life is real short so yeah if all your
traveling and I’ve are you sleeping and
I’ve all your school and a bar
entertainment you probably been half
your life doing nothing so what a man
I’ll I’m 35 years old thirty more years
I’ll be 65 we don’t have no boy
fluence we can do nothing bunch of 6514
so what I’m saying when you’re 65 when
you’re 65 too much more to do in those
30 years I’m to sleep 9 years I don’t
have 30 years of daylight I have to
travel back to America take six seven
miles all my traveling probably four
years of traveling next 30 years about
nine years of sleeping television movies
entertaining about three years of
entertainment out of 30 years I might
have about 16 years to be productive so
it’s how we can all break individual
lives now what am I gonna do the next 16
years what’s the best thing I’m gonna do
get ready to meet God
owning a real estate going in business
teaching boxes that won’t get me to
heaven I’m always looking for new ways
to explain the power of the 5-second
role in the power of five second
decisions and I read something that Tim
Ferriss said that really resonated with
me and he had this one line buried in a
podcast somewhere that just jumped out
and it’s it’s it’s stuck it and what he
said is he said something about how
there’s a gap between the world and the
things that trigger you and your
response and your entire life is that
gap when you start to this is not what
he said he I kind of identified this gap
and I of course intrinsically was like
well absolutely that’s the five-second
window between instinct or stimulus and
your reaction and when you start to
understand that your whole life plays
out in this five-second gap and that
there’s a gap that’s five seconds long
between fear and courage and there’s a
gap that’s five seconds long between
self-doubt and confidence that is your
life and what’s super cool about
understanding that your whole life is
inside this gap is it’s so small
everybody that you have the ability to
control it life’s always going to throw
triggers at you and there will always be
all kinds of cool things that inspire
you your
wisdom and you get to choose what
happens in that gap do you succumb to an
excuse or do you push yourself forward
when you start to speak up in business
you’ll be shocked at how you start to
speak up and your relationships when you
start to make hard phone calls whether
it’s in a selling situation you’ll be
surprised at how you’ll start to close
the gap and have hard conversations in
your personal life and so that gap is
everywhere and it’s the same everywhere
and when you start to go to work in
controlling how you live in that gap
between stimulus or idea and your
response that’s where the magic is it’s
jaco will Inc you mentioned retired Navy
SEAL commander used to be in charge of
all West Coast training for the SEAL
Teams which is intense highly highly
decorated where there’s Jacko saying
discipline equals freedom or you look at
say some of the writers or musicians or
directors or others in the book across
pretty much all of them you find that
they find freedom in constraints so what
does that mean it sounds kind of weird
it also sounds very sounds like an
oxymoron right and what I mean by that
is all of these people have routines
they have set recipes that they repeat
on a daily and weekly basis so that they
are not making a lot of extraneous
decisions about mundane things and they
also recognize that we all have our less
ourselves our impulses I love chocolate
croissants for where if I left my entire
schedule to whim I would just eat
chocolate croissants all day long I love
them they’re incredible and I still do
have them once a week I have my cheat
day and I’m allowed to do what I want so
I let my monkey mind and my lesser self
just go nuts
but these people all have typically
these and these are folks we might be
inclined to think of as superheroes and
maybe Jacko’s is supreme but the vast
majority have one or two strengths and
they may not even be the best of the
world but one or two strengths they
combine in a really unique way and they
build habits around those strengths and
then they have a thousand
other weaknesses but the habits and
routines are what helped them from going
off the rails and this is really
encouraging this should be really
encouraging because the people we see on
magazine covers that we might idolize
and feel we could never possibly emulate
because I have it all figured out
they have no insecurities they wake up
every morning and with a mental karate
chop they just master the day that’s not
how it works I know these people almost
everyone in this book certainly on the
podcast had become friends with hundreds
of these people not true they have tons
of not everyone I don’t speak for
everyone but tons of neuroses tons of
terrible self-defeating habits and the
safety that they create is habits and
routines that’s why jaakko in part says
discipline equals freedom okay so you
have trouble waking up in the morning no
problem you want to stage this is
something choco does takes his clothing
prepares gets this sort of coffee ready
to brew clothing on the floor for the
workout right next to his bed prepared
the night before so there are no
decisions there are no opportunities to
make mistakes
between him opening his eyes and jakka
working out and you find this across
everybody in rhesus that people do get
what they want is because they don’t
actually figure out what it is and the
probability that you’re going to get
what would be good for you let’s say
which would even be better than what you
want right because you know you might be
what wrong about what you want easily
but maybe you could get what would
really be good for you well why don’t
you well cuz you don’t try you don’t
think okay here’s what I would like if I
could have it and and I don’t mean I
don’t mean in a way that you manipulate
the world to force it to deliver you
goods for status or something like that
that isn’t what I mean I mean something
like imagine that you were taking care
of yourself like you were someone you
actually cared for and then you thought
okay I’m caring for this person I would
like things to go as well for them as
possible
what would their life have to be like in
order for that to be the case well
people don’t do that they don’t sit down
and think all right you know let’s let’s
figure
you’ve got a life it’s hard obviously
it’s like three years from now you can
have what you need you’ve got to be
careful about it you can’t have
everything you can have what would be
good for you but you have to figure out
what it is and then you have to aim at
it well my experience with people as
being is if they figure out what it is
that would be good for them and then
they aim at it then they get it and it’s
an idea about what would be good for you
and then you take ten steps towards that
and you find out that your formulation
was a bit off and so you have to
reformulate your goal you know you’re
kind of going like this as you move
towards the goal but a huge part of the
reason that people fail is because they
don’t ever set up the criteria for
success and so since success is a very
narrow line and very unlikely the
probability that you’re going to stumble
on it randomly is zero and so there’s a
proposition here in the proposition is
if you actually want something you can
have it now the question then would be
what do you mean by actually want and
the answer is that you reorient your
life in every possible way to make the
probability that that will occur as
certain as possible and that’s a
sacrificial idea right it’s like you
don’t get everything obviously you
obviously but maybe you can have what
you need and maybe all you have to do to
get it is ask but asking isn’t a whim or
today’s wish it’s like you have to be
deadly serious about it you have to
think okay like I’m taking stock of
myself and if I was going to live
properly in the world and I was going to
set myself up such that being would
justify itself in my estimation and I
don’t mean as a harsh judge exactly what
is it that I would aim at sit on your
bed one day and ask yourself what’s what
remarkably stupid things am i doing on a
regular basis to absolutely screw up my
life
and if you actually asked that question
but you have to want to know the answer
right because that’s actually what
asking the question means it doesn’t
mean just mouthing the words it means
you have to decide that you want to know
you’ll figure that’s how it’s so fast
it’ll make your hair curl but I guess
any film is not really easy I mean I
would think but I think you’re driven by
something that’s like an obsession I
would think and before you realize that
you have your eye for the eye piece and
you say we’re crazy how the hell are we
ever could we’re gonna do this this is
madness but you keep going you keep
going and I never really thought
otherwise I actually thought people
wanted to see that kind of thing and it
the industry changed I started making
Main streets was 73 so you know taxi
driver and Raging Bull in New York New
York particularly in the last waltz and
that les Walter instead of somewhat of a
different story but actually I actually
had no I really was surprised that there
would be resistance to like taxi driver
for example it was very difficult to get
made and certainly Last Temptation of
Christ I understood there would have
been some controversy but usually from
certainly certain areas not necessarily
what happened at the time so we just go
ahead and then you know eventually
there’s some studio people and in the
case of taxi driver was a combination of
De Niro and myself he had just done
Godfather two we mean streets when I de
mean street support again to print up
the seat to show Francis Coppola and San
Francisco and he hired De Niro from
Easter for Godfather to based on that
that led to taxi driver and then Raging
Bull was a project of De Niro’s really
so there’s this notion in the Old
Testament that morality is following a
sequence of prohibitions there’s a bunch
of bad things you shouldn’t do and then
basically you’re good enough and and and
I think there’s wisdom in that I think
that’s kind of where children start
right you I mean I love children and all
that but they’re they’re they’re crazy
little creatures and they need to be you
know civilized and partly what you do is
you you lay prohibitions on them and
mostly what you’re trying to do is lay
prohibitions on them for the behaviors
that if they manifest it would make
their life mess
so this is why this thing that I’ve said
the peoples become this crazy internet
meme but that’s to clean up your room
and which which is a lot better and more
useful than people think it’s a lot
harder to but the thing the first thing
you do I think and I learned this in
part from Solzhenitsyn when he was
trying to iron out his soul when he was
in the gulag because he was trying to
figure out how he got there how he
contributed to how he got there
you know not Stellan and Hitler even
though they were kind of to blame you
know but he wasn’t much he could do
about that I think what you have to do
and this is part of humility is you have
to look around you within your sphere of
influence like the direct sphere of
influence and fix the things that
announce themselves as in need of repair
and those are often small things you
know and they can be like your room put
it in order because the thing is it
isn’t exactly so important that your
room is in order although it is what’s
important is that you learn how to
distinguish between chaos and order and
to be able to act in a manner that
produces order and I think you can you
can do something as simple as just sit
on your bed and think okay there’s
probably like five things I could do
today so that tomorrow morning is
slightly better than this morning was at
least or at least I’m not falling behind
and those will usually be it’s like
having to eat a toad in the morning
right it’s like it’s not gonna be
something you want to do there’ll be
things you’re trying to avoid there’s
snakes essentially but if you ask
yourself like you’re asking someone
which i think is a form of prayer if you
ask yourself instead of telling yourself
you know what is it that I could do to
set things more right today that I would
actually do it’s usually some small
thing because he’s not that disciplined
you know then you can go do it and then
you be put the world together a little
more when you do that and that spreads
out but you also put your you also
construct yourself into something that’s
better able to call order forth from
chaos and that makes you just
incrementally stronger and then the next
day you can maybe take on a slightly
larger task and like you get the benefit
of compound interest if you do that it’s
a tremendously powerful technique and
they think if you do that at some point
instead of just having to fix things up
that are not good you’ll start to get a
glimmer of the positive things that you
could do you know the positive things
that you could do that would actually
constitute a vision and now that’s what
I would recommend what you do people
will recognize that I really believe it
I really believe that going out and
playing good songs live as a great live
band will make you successful I’d really
think it will and it doesn’t matter if
you’re at that hold down the street or
you’re on the side stage at Bonnaroo or
you’re headlining well at Palooza if
you’re a great band with great songs
people will notice it that’s it that’s
all it is it’s it’s that simple
product placement and labels and ANR
people and all apples it doesn’t matter
I swear to god it doesn’t matter and if
you back that up with the idea that just
playing those great songs in your great
live band is enough reward for you then
you’re set but you’ve got to be badass
you just have to be really good it’s the
other things that make up for your
musical inability you know I mean as a
drummer I never felt like I’m gonna be
on the cover of Modern Drummer magazine
because I’m the best drummer in the
world I just do that if you put me on
stage without a PA or floor monitors in
a small club that I would beat the
out of my drums so much that people go
goddamn did you see that the drummer
whoa and I’d walk away from every show
like there you go I just beat the piss
out of those things that people saw it
people took notice for sure and that was
great so at the end of the show I was a
successful musician because I had
what I wanted to achieve so I honestly
believe I mean I know lots of musicians
that went down to South by Southwest and
said well it’s easy for you to say Mike
man I was in the same position you are
in 24 years ago that was it I worked in
a Furniture Warehouse and I wanted
people to like my music so I played out
as much as I could you know and if you
really honestly I’d like I said if
you’re passionate and driven and focused
in what you do if you’re really good at
it people will take notice that’s
basically it I mean I don’t understand
the industry I don’t understand I don’t
understand where music is headed I don’t
really understand technology I just know
that when you walk into a club and you
see a band that blows you away
you are gonna follow that band you’re
gonna either buy their CD or you’re
gonna find them online or you’re gonna
see them the next time they come to play
and it takes that’s what it takes you
don’t have to stand in line at the song
contest on TV to become a popular
musician you know to stand in front of
some judge that doesn’t even play an
instrument on their own goddamn records
tell you now you’re not gonna know right
that you know go blow people away in
front in their face and so it’s gonna
you know it’s it’s I honestly believe it’s that simple
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