unless you love it there’s just no way
to fake it in order to learn the things
that really need to be learned we
require a certain level of adversity the
trick is figuring out what that
adversity ought to look like the road to
true rebellion is not filled with all
kinds of beautiful rewards to the
contrary right it’s a difficult lonely
path need motivation what’s up at seven
my one word is believe and I believe in
you I believe you have Michael Jordan
level talent at something and I want you
to find it embrace it and make a
difference with it so let’s get your
motivation to attend and get you
believing in you grab a snack and chew
on today’s lessons from a man who went
from having poor grades growing up
wanted to get into advertising and being
rejected by every single advertising
agency that he applied to to becoming a
journalist best-selling author and one
of the most influential people in the
world he’s Malcolm Gladwell and here’s
my take on his top ten rules a success
alright let’s kick things off with rule
number one my personal favorite love
what you do is there one thing all
successful people have in common
oh that’s a good question I think it’s I
mean I’m gonna kind of cheat and give
the obvious answer which is that all
successful people like what they do it
is impossible to be good at something
unless you love it there’s just no way
to fake it and driven love has to come
before Drive because the only reason you
would be driven is if you liked it so
people put that first lot signs but no
no no that’s second you got to find what
you like for them rule number two don’t
jump to conclusions
I’m really fascinated by the sort of
drive that you have to counter your
assumptions and I guess it comes out in
your study of the oddballs the underdogs
how else do you think a person could put
themselves in that position a lot of it
has to do with delaying how quickly you
respond to some piece of information so
as opposed to jumping to a conclusion of
some of you here waiting so it in
meaning it’s as simple as you know
here’s a really prosaic example you go
to a restaurant and you don’t like it
you should go back because one time is
not enough and there’s a million reasons
why you might not like it you know might
not be aware of them and maybe the
restaurant just had a bad day or maybe
you ordered the wrong thing on the menu
I mean there’s a whole long list of
reasons as opposed to jumping to this
global conclusion I don’t like it why
not just go back see if it’s still true
there must be something that keeps them
running yeah I mean that’s a kind of
that idea of delaying a lot of what I’m
in my perspective open-minded or really
creative people do is they do they wait
they they’re not they’re not making sort
of instantaneous judgments about where
they want to go what they they’re
exposing themselves to something and
they’re kind of thinking about even
they’re not consciously thinking about
it they think about it and study the
idea that seemed bizarre is stupid with
a little bit of reflection of time
they say oh wait a minute actually
buried in that is this really
interesting idea and it may take a week
or a month or six months to see that and
I I think we spent a little bit too much
time privileged in people’s instincts in
those moments and not enough time
understanding that anybody people are
super thoughtful they really they’re
taking the time to go back over their
experiences and sift through them for
meaning rule number three embrace
adversity so this is really interesting
fact that a very large percentage a much
larger percentage of successful
entrepreneurs are dyslexic than in the
general population and many of the
Richard Branson Paul Orfila Charles
Schwab John Chambers at Cisco I could go
on Craig McCaw at a cellphone pioneer
the list of these guys are all dyslexic
right David Neil man at JetBlue and if
you talk to them they will explain to
you that they don’t think they succeeded
in spite of their disability they think
they do succeeded because of it for them
and if you want and I sat down with a
two dozen of these guys I’ve got I got
so obsessed the beginning of my book in
the middle of my book was talking to
dyslexic entrepreneurs and their stories
are all the same they all look back and
will tell you you know if it hadn’t have
been for the fact that I couldn’t read
or read well in second and third in
fourth grade I would never have and they
start listing all the things they were
forced to do that proved to be
ultimately advantageous I would never
have learned how to listen I would never
been forced in second weight I was I
made friends with the smartest kid in
the class and I basically convinced him
to do my homework for me I can’t tell
you many times I heard that music so
what are they learning at that age
they’re learning delegation they’re
learning how to communicate with other
people motivate other people form a team
I mean they and they do that in Brian
Grazer the Hollywood producer who’s
dyslexic his whole thing was he would he
figured out how he would fail his test
so they would go in and he would talk is
great up from a de to a C so from the
age of this
hi he’s learning negotiation right by
the end but sobbing hits college he’s
brilliant at him and then what did he do
he becomes a Hollywood producer what is
that about
it’s about negotiation among other
things and he’s been practicing his
entire life so this a weird thing where
he would say as difficult as my dyslexia
was and for all of these people their
childhoods were not fun I mean I
interviewed Gary Cohn I was the
president of Goldman who’s our family
dyslexic his childhood just sounds I
mean dark and miserable no one thought
he was capable of doing schoolwork I
thought he was they were amazed with the
googling graduate from high school
despite that they all look back and say
you know what it was a desirable
difficulty it was I was taught I was
forced to learn stuff I would never even
have thought about in order to learn the
things that really need to be learned we
require a certain level of adversity the
trick is figuring out what that
adversity ought to look like
right and that’s like I said something
that’s that is a can only be decided on
a case-by-case basis is gonna be
different for you than it is for me
rule number four remain the current as a
writer you have a series of problems one
problem a serious problem is that I am
old and I don’t mean that in a you know
I’m decrepit what I mean is that the
it’s very important if you are a writer
to remain kind of current and the
greatest danger you face is this sort of
fossilization of your positions and
views one of the main reasons that I
wanted to do a podcast is that a podcast
forces me out of my age cohort and puts
me back in the land of people in their
20s and 30s primarily and that’s you
know I’m not being Peter Pan I’m I’m
trying to kind of rejuvenate my thinking
because I pick you become aware in your
you know you have a kind of many
professionals have a kind of
professional peek in your 40s and then
you can feel yourself your views
hardening and you feel your self closing
off to new ideas and you the minute you
see yourself rolling your eyes at
something that’s all that’s what the
kids think then you realize the end is
nigh and you have to take so what part
of what I do is try and even when I’m
writing I don’t write in an office I
write in coffee shops why don’t
particularly think coffee shops are
amazing places to write but I do think
that’s simply just being around people
who are not my age is really useful and
I travel a lot and that’s a really
really useful way of breaking out of a
bad intellectual habits and to remind
yourself about what the rest the world
is like rule number five invite
curiosity I always think of curiosity is
not so much a trait as a as a situation
you put yourself in situations where
questions occur to you I don’t think you
unless enamored of the notion that some
people are inherently curious than
others or not I mean a my accountant
might be a very curious person but it’s
not in a job that that invites curiosity
in fact we don’t want him to be curious
we want him to be by the book entity so
I I’m someone who has been in a curious
position for much about a lot of it is
about exposing yourself to things that
will prove you that will potentially
prove your preconceptions wrong so I’m
like make a very conscious effort to
challenge what I believe nothing makes
me happier than when I change my mind
rule number six be creative and
conscientious when you look at
entrepreneurs when you as a group at
successful entrepreneurs you will find a
cluster of carrot personality traits
right of which disagreeableness is one
of them so in all of the bigger there’s
been many big
studies of successful entrepreneurs what
you discover is that they’re quite
similar on one level they are all people
who are open that is to say who are very
creative who have an ability to see
solutions to problems to others don’t
they are also people who are highly
conscientious so they’re people who are
capable of following through on an idea
in a detailed disciplined way and right
away when you think about those two
traits you can understand why successful
entrepreneurs are so rare there are many
people who are creative and there are
many people who are conscientious it is
very hard to find someone who possessed
s’ those two traits in combination but
they also need to be somebody who is not
reliant on the approval of their peers
to do what they think is right right
because time and time again when you
look at the origins of successful
businesses you will see that the rest of
the world thought that the entrepreneur
and the innovator was crazy
rule number seven find time to daydream
well I’ve fallen in love with running
heavy mileage which I never did when I
was younger so I’ll run nine or ten
miles couple times a week and you’re not
bored to death running nine ten miles
doesn’t hurt no I it’s becoming recently
important because there’s very little
daydreaming time left you know we used
to daydream a lot and got your phone
back in the day your daydream now you
have your phone and daydreaming I think
is insanely productive do you get a lot
of ideas running and we think not
directly but I’m sure indirectly I don’t
think you can be creative unless your
mind has some kind of free time I mean
this has been talked about to death with
that kind of phone addiction rule number
eight looked for patterns part about
innovation that always fascinates me is
the interdisciplinary jumps so the
future never or change in any kind of
broadly understood way never advances if
it’s meaningful in only one domain or
field at once for some in some way ideas
get reflected in multiple different
places simultaneously whether that’s by
deliberate transmission
just kind of the ideas in the air so
there’s a there’s a wonderful literature
about innovation that simply said looks
at how many times was an invention
invented in more than one place
simultaneously the answer is by two
people who are not talking to each other
the answer is all time to people who
weren’t talking to each other embedded
the telephone at the same time I mean
blis is like this long but that’s also
true across fields that people start
playing with ideas at the same time in
many different places and I think the
the one really really useful when you
look for patterns that’s why you look
across disciplines not deep because if
you could see it reflected in many
different places at once
then you realize something profound is
going on that notion of kind of
interdisciplinary connectedness is to me
that’s the kind of secret sauce of
understanding trends and things rule
number nine gained experience I had a
conversation a couple weeks ago I was
out of giving a talk and I was seated
next to a guy who ran a regional bank in
Akron Ohio and I said to him I was
talking about his business how’s your
business your banking business he says
oh we’re fine
in fact we’re more than fine we’re about
to beg by a big bank in Chicago I said
why are you fine and no one else’s and
he he was an older man he’s probably in
his late 60s and he said I’ve been
through this three times before and what
I suspect we’ve talked a bit and I
suspected he got humbled 25 years ago or
in the early 70s or late 70s and never
forgot that lesson and it’s that kind of
it is in times like that that we we
understand why experience and learning
from experience is so important you know
it’s more than simply that word is not a
kind of meaningless triviality
experience matters because there’s
certain kinds of things that you only
learn when you when you’ve been humbled
right you can’t just explain to a 28
year old things are going to get bad
they’re not it’s not going to sink in
but to this man I was speaking to who
you know saw it firsthand and dealt with
it and I’m
I’m sure it went through all manner of
crises before it’s a lesson that he kept
with him you know Colin Powell before
the Iraq war was the he was the in-house
skeptic why because he’d been through
Vietnam you know you know in a very
first-hand way in a way that man of the
other decision-makers had not and had
never forgotten those lessons so there’s
a there’s another sort of case of
someone who appropriately was humbled
and learned from from experience and
you’ve got to have people like that
around and we’ll number 10 the last one
before some very special bonus clips be
brave to stand out
I remember reading the the autobiography
although I used that word very very
loosely here of Keith Richards and
autobiography after all after all is a
book that you write yourself about your
it’s both unclear that keith richards
has any memories and that he wrote that
book himself so whatever category
belongs to assisted autobiography he
goes on and on I heard that book is
great book but it’s hilarious because he
goes on and on on trying to make two
claims simultaneously one that he’s a
great rebel that he is a disruptive
influence on in the world of rock and
roll and to that pointing out how every
beautiful woman around the world wanted
to sleep with him and it never occurs to
him that these two things are
contradictory if what you’re doing
results in every beautiful woman in the
world wanting to sleep with you you’re
not a rebel right you’re a rebel you’re
truly disruptive if what you are doing
results in every beautiful woman around
the world not wanting to sleep with you
right it’s an important distinction the
road to true rebellion is not filled
with all kinds of beautiful rewards to
the contrary right it’s a difficult
lonely path to be someone who really
shakes up the world around you
I’ve got two really special bonus clips
from Malcom Gladwell on how to change
your attitude and take a shot but before
that I want to know what did you learn
from this video which lesson hit you the
hardest what change are you gonna make
to your life or to your business after
watching this video leave it down the
comments below I want to hear from you
thank you guys so much for watching I
believe in you I hope you continue to
believe in yourself and whatever your
one word is much love see you soon and
when we talk about the necessary traits
of the disrupter and the fact that they
need to be courageous the fact they need
to have imagination and they have to be
have a sense of urgency
none of those traits are about what’s up
here about your knowledge none of those
traits are dependent on the amount of
resources and support and backing that
you have all of those traits are about
your attitude right it’s about here well
what’s in here that matters ultimately
when it comes to being a disruptor not
what’s in your wallet or in your mind
I’m someone who’s self-employed when I
worked for before I was self-employed I
worked for large organizations and if
you had asked me when I worked for the
Washington Post say would I ever want to
be self-employed I would have said
reacted with horror I would have thought
I can’t understand how you could do that
don’t you wake up every morning in a
cold sweat knowing where your next
dollar is coming from it turns out I’m
Way happier self-employed than I was
working for but hey getting there took
and you know it took 20 years it took
all kinds of lucky breaks and took all
kinds if there was no one in my life who
I didn’t know any self-employed people I
didn’t know how to make that kind of
jump and I you know I wonder what how
many people are in a similar position of
not realizing they have the ability to
be do something entrepreneurial and
would be happier doing something
entrepreneur but just have no example if
you had to think of one word that’s most
important to you or that sums you Apple
that would be like a little beacon pay
believe nation if you want to know what
the most important one word is for Tony
Robbins
Gary Vaynerchuk Oprah Winfrey will.i.am
and Howard Schultz I have a very special
secret video for you check the
description for details [Music]