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 the CEOs and
entrepreneurs and business people and
marketers who who I thought that’s what
I was aspiring to be like and then I had
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 listen by the monk you know from town
like the local monk like no one ever
does that and so you meet people who are
just like us most of the time and we
talk 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 a millionaire’s
if you want to be a tech startup spend
time you know that’s that’s the common
rhetoric that we hear all the time but
what if you want to find a 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 I understand that blow
your mind for me 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 wanted to be alone if I
never meet a billionaire I wouldn’t want
to be one because I don’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
going yes or not does that work for me
not everyone who’s gonna go off from
become a 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 ago 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 day and sleeps about 4 to 6 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 and 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
closed door there’s a very little
long-term memory it’s much more
immediate your currencies something you
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 is 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
work 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 dance
which might still happen might be a film
we don’t know it might it’s something
there might be some life left in it 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
and Joe visa slave it was a sage County
and oh 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 tell my 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 out and train twice or
the cardio and then breakfast and I’ll
go hit the weights
clanging and banging we call it Jack and
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 prize 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 that 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% 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 to
push myself through those pain barriers
and again the combination of the loss of
a mother at 6:00 and then being sent out
to work at 10:00 we started work out
five o’clock in the morning through the
mill ground being dropped off at 8:40
schooled in the milkman you there at
work ethic 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 pulled 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 mu course from all
angles not just in the gym but I’m
building this media empire and myself
and we pumped out the content I’m very
proud of the hell went be consistently
daily 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 work pay is hard work pays and
we put 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 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’re
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 I love but that Lindsey 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 its gonna 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
a certain 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’ve really got to
focus with all of your fiber and all
your heart and all your creativity
many of the white citizens as a
one-on-one battle whatever will enjoy
what everyone join the crowds doing find
your way to an opsin and feedback on the
team how bright you trying to be how
many of him
I saw wait how did you treat you have
see God gives us a lot of things in life
but it’s a couple of things he don’t
give us and time some he gives no that’s
the one thing no matter your wife’s I
wanted my wife that we don’t clock down
with my car
but your phone I look at my so the
question is how much time you go with I
paint for I’m trying to make money years
ago I gave up entertain clothes years
ago 14 years since I step in anything
that doesn’t but friend where I’m trying
to put in a gig any decision you make
the business citizen in Phoenix
we’re all sweet random but comes with us
you can’t get rid of
so these conversations became inhabited
what promises you’ve gotta make to
recent all bosses fragrances of
lifestyle
it’s what you live life is not really
long let’s say the average person 30
years old
if you 30 years old you enough at about
seven years old how can I prove it
head 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 lavel spins just
getting back and forth to where you
going so there’s eight years of sleeping
two years of traveling there’s 30 years
out of your life before you’re
compensated a how long do you sit in
school in America we stay in school from
the twelfth grade from the first grade
to 12th grade same here
yeah virtually six 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 moves 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
sharp so yeah if all your traveling and
I’ve are you sleeping and apply your
school and a bar entertainment you
probably been half your life doing
nothing so what a man I’m 35 years old
30 more years I’ll be 65 we don’t have
no boy
Florence we can do nothing much 65 why
40 they’re so close in when you’re 65
when you’re 65 ain’t too much more
Lagoon so did you know I’ll be 65 in 30
more years in those thirty years time to
sleep nine 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 little
time 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 in the next 16 years
what’s the best thing I’m gonna do get
ready to meet God owning real estate
going in business teaching boxes that
I’m always looking for new ways to
explain the power of the five-second
rule and 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 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 whether Jaco saying discipline
equals freedom or you look at say some
of the writer
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
sounds kind of weird it also sounds very
sounds like an oxymoron lit 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 I also recognize that we all
have our less ourselves our impulses I
love chocolate croissants if it were 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 a superhero but the vast
majority have one or two strengths 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 they have it all figured
out
they’d 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 I’ve 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 Jocko 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
Jacko 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 Jocko
working out and you find this across
everybody in rhesus the 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 because 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 it out you’ve got a life it’s
hard obviously it’s like three years
from now you can have what you need you
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
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 well 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 out 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 through the eyepiece
and you say we’re crazy how the hell are
we havin think 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
mean streets in 73 so you know taxi
driver
Raging Bull in New York New York
particularly at the Last Waltz and that
less Walter instead of somewhat of a
different story but actually I actually
had no really was surprised that they
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
DeNiro and myself he had just done
Godfather 2 we mean streets when I de
mean Street support the answer print up
the seat to show Francis Coppola in San
Francisco and he hired DeNiro for me for
Godfather 2 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 childrens 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 manifested would make their
life miserable so this is why this thing
that I’ve said the people has become
this crazy internet mean 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 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 the blade 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
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 you’re 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 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 then I would beat the
out of my drums so much that people go
goddamn did you see that 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
achieved 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
lay down 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 know you’re not gonna know
right that you know go blow people away
in front in their face
and so it’s kinda you know it’s it’s I honestly believe it’s that simple
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 the CEOs and
entrepreneurs and business people and
marketers who who I thought that’s what
I was aspiring to be like and then I had
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 listen by the monk you know from town
like the local monk like no one ever
does that and so you meet people who are
just like us most of the time and we
talk 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 a millionaire’s
if you want to be a tech startup spend
time you know that’s that’s the common
rhetoric that we hear all the time but
what if you want to find a 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 I understand that blow
your mind for me 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 wanted to be alone if I
never meet a billionaire I wouldn’t want
to be one because I don’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
going yes or not does that work for me
not everyone who’s gonna go off from
become a 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 ago 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 day and sleeps about 4 to 6 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 and 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
closed door there’s a very little
long-term memory it’s much more
immediate your currencies something you
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 is 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
work 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 dance
which might still happen might be a film
we don’t know it might it’s something
there might be some life left in it 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
and Joe visa slave it was a sage County
and oh 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 tell my 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 out and train twice or
the cardio and then breakfast and I’ll
go hit the weights
clanging and banging we call it Jack and
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 prize 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 that 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% 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 to
push myself through those pain barriers
and again the combination of the loss of
a mother at 6:00 and then being sent out
to work at 10:00 we started work out
five o’clock in the morning through the
mill ground being dropped off at 8:40
schooled in the milkman you there at
work ethic 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 pulled 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 mu course from all
angles not just in the gym but I’m
building this media empire and myself
and we pumped out the content I’m very
proud of the hell went be consistently
daily 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 work pay is hard work pays and
we put 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 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’re
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 I love but that Lindsey 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 its gonna 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
a certain 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’ve really got to
focus with all of your fiber and all
your heart and all your creativity
many of the white citizens as a
one-on-one battle whatever will enjoy
what everyone join the crowds doing find
your way to an opsin and feedback on the
team how bright you trying to be how
many of him
I saw wait how did you treat you have
see God gives us a lot of things in life
but it’s a couple of things he don’t
give us and time some he gives no that’s
the one thing no matter your wife’s I
wanted my wife that we don’t clock down
with my car
but your phone I look at my so the
question is how much time you go with I
paint for I’m trying to make money years
ago I gave up entertain clothes years
ago 14 years since I step in anything
that doesn’t but friend where I’m trying
to put in a gig any decision you make
the business citizen in Phoenix
we’re all sweet random but comes with us
you can’t get rid of
so these conversations became inhabited
what promises you’ve gotta make to
recent all bosses fragrances of
lifestyle
it’s what you live life is not really
long let’s say the average person 30
years old
if you 30 years old you enough at about
seven years old how can I prove it
head 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 lavel spins just
getting back and forth to where you
going so there’s eight years of sleeping
two years of traveling there’s 30 years
out of your life before you’re
compensated a how long do you sit in
school in America we stay in school from
the twelfth grade from the first grade
to 12th grade same here
yeah virtually six 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 moves 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
sharp so yeah if all your traveling and
I’ve are you sleeping and apply your
school and a bar entertainment you
probably been half your life doing
nothing so what a man I’m 35 years old
30 more years I’ll be 65 we don’t have
no boy
Florence we can do nothing much 65 why
40 they’re so close in when you’re 65
when you’re 65 ain’t too much more
Lagoon so did you know I’ll be 65 in 30
more years in those thirty years time to
sleep nine 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 little
time 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 in the next 16 years
what’s the best thing I’m gonna do get
ready to meet God owning real estate
going in business teaching boxes that
I’m always looking for new ways to
explain the power of the five-second
rule and 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 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 whether Jaco saying discipline
equals freedom or you look at say some
of the writer
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
sounds kind of weird it also sounds very
sounds like an oxymoron lit 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 I also recognize that we all
have our less ourselves our impulses I
love chocolate croissants if it were 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 a superhero but the vast
majority have one or two strengths 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 they have it all figured
out
they’d 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 I’ve 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 Jocko 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
Jacko 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 Jocko
working out and you find this across
everybody in rhesus the 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 because 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 it out you’ve got a life it’s
hard obviously it’s like three years
from now you can have what you need you
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
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 well 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 out 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 through the eyepiece
and you say we’re crazy how the hell are
we havin think 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
mean streets in 73 so you know taxi
driver
Raging Bull in New York New York
particularly at the Last Waltz and that
less Walter instead of somewhat of a
different story but actually I actually
had no really was surprised that they
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
DeNiro and myself he had just done
Godfather 2 we mean streets when I de
mean Street support the answer print up
the seat to show Francis Coppola in San
Francisco and he hired DeNiro for me for
Godfather 2 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 childrens 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 manifested would make their
life miserable so this is why this thing
that I’ve said the people has become
this crazy internet mean 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 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 the blade 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
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 you’re 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 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 then I would beat the
out of my drums so much that people go
goddamn did you see that 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
achieved 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
lay down 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 know you’re not gonna know
right that you know go blow people away
in front in their face
and so it’s kinda you know it’s it’s I honestly believe it’s that simple
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