I have been working my whole life and
what I didn’t understand by being
determined to chase something by being
committed to it and what commitment is
commitment and true to what you said you
were going to do long after the mood
that you have said it in has left you
see people think commitment is saying
yes I’ll do it on the days when it felt
good but I’ve been committed to
everything that I ever started in my
life and I never stopped and I never
quit it and so by being committed to
everything that I started I finished it
it built the certain type of spirit it
built the certain type of mentality it
built the certain type of individual and
so now I couldn’t quit even if I wanted
to I couldn’t lay in a bed even if I
wanted to I couldn’t stop even if I
wanted to I had too much sweat equity in
my life and everything that I was doing
because I understood my existence wasn’t
about me I went from leader we’re a long
time ago I understood the process is
more important than the product it
wasn’t about the outcome for me once
I’ve made it to the NFL or not that was
inconsequential in God’s plan for my
life but I was going to fall in love
with that process because I understood
by falling in love with that process it
was going to turn me into a machine
there are some mountains that can be
claimed by people like you and me we got
to get a little bit better condition but
I mean it’s not like the mountain
climber mountains that would be way
beyond our skill level but but but some
of these mountains that can be climbing
you and me that it takes a day to get to
the top and then that you just camp up
there and you come in at down the next
day and on many of these places where in
Switzerland where you could do that
about halfway up the mountain is what
they call the halfway house halfway
house half way up the mountain so the
group of people starts off with a guide
in the morning and about noon you’re
kind of tired you’ve been walking now
for four or five hours and here comes
that you’re coming up to the halfway
house it’s just a it’s it’s it’s a
wonderful sight because as soon as you
enter in the halfway house you can smell
the food and there they’re getting ready
for a good lunch and you sit down
there’s a fire in the fireplace and
there’s nice soft chairs and you can
just rest your body and refresh your
body and and so the people go into the
halfway house and they eat and laugh and
enjoy and and just really really just
kind of take
in that that wonderful refreshing
atmosphere about an hour and a half
after be in the halfway house the guide
gets up as his will gang it’s time to
put on your gear we we got a hike we got
to get on up at the top this is a fact
about half the people decide not to go
on up to the top they’re sitting around
the table and they’re just saying you
know what go on up and you’re gonna be
come by here tomorrow gonna be having
lunch here again tomorrow
we’re just gonna hang here and and so
the people that want to get to the top
they put their stuff on and they kind of
leave and the rest of the people sit
behind they you know eat a little bit
more food get around the piano sing some
songs get around the fireplace enjoy the
fire warm themselves by the fire
no I’ve played games all afternoon kind
of enjoy themselves but about 4:30
chordal 5:00 in the afternoon without
anybody saying a word the people who
stayed in a halfway house they slowly go
over to where the window is the big
window and they start looking outside
and they start looking up at the top of
that mountain and as they look at the
top of that mountain they see their
friends
the friends are now getting the tents
out and they’re getting ready to prepare
for the night and it becomes very quiet
very somber because everybody in the
halfway house realizes the mistake
they’ve made they’ve they’ve they’ve
they’ve sold their mission for a little
bit of comfort for a few hours next
morning down come their friends and by
noon they come into the halfway house
when they come in the half they are
laughing they’re high-fiving they’re
talking about what they’ve seen where
they’ve been experiences the fact that
it was almost impossible to get up there
in fact they had to help each other get
up there and how they join teams and
held hands and and they just telling all
these stories and talk about the
pictures they’ve taken and they yeah
they got the group picture up there with
the flag at the top and people who
remain behind they don’t say much they
just eat their lunch and then follow the
rest of them down to the bottom of the
hill where their friends are waiting for
them and those who paid the price and
went to the top
who understood now is the time to reach
the mission they hug can tell stories
and celebrate and the others they just
kind of slip off and get in a car and go
home because they realize they’re never
going to be what they wanted to be
they’re never going to see what they
wanted to see they’re never going to do
what they wanted to do because they
failed to realize when there’s the
halfway house now is the time to rest
and they go on you can spend your whole
life imagining ghosts worrying about the
pathway to the future but all there will
ever be is what’s happening here in the
decisions we make in this moment which
are based in either love or fear so many
of us choose our path out of fear
disguised as practicality what we really
want seems impossibly out of reach and
ridiculous to expect so we never dare to
ask the universe for it I’m saying I’m
the proof that you can ask the universe
and if it doesn’t happen for you right
away it’s only because the universe is
my father could have been a great
comedian but he didn’t believe that that
was possible for him and so he made a
conservative choice instead he got a
safe job as an accountant and when I was
12 years old he was let go from that
safe job and our family had to do
whatever we could to survive I learned
many great lessons from my father not
the least of which was that you can fail
at what you don’t want so you might as
well take a chance on doing what you
love one of the things that’s really
interesting about the Old Testament is
that and the Jews in the Old Testament
is that they don’t take the path of Cain
every time they’re walloped by God which
is like fairly frequently they say we
must have done something wrong and we
have to set ourself right and that’s a
an unbelievably heroic attitude because
that’s the alternative to cursing fate
it’s like you take the responsibility
for failure unto yourself and you think
well if I was just maybe if I just had
my act together a little bit more if I
took advantage of every opportunity that
was put in front of me if I wasn’t
resentful and bitter then I could have
done something that would have tilted
the situation in a different direction
and like that’s almost inevitably true
Dostoevsky I think said something like
every man is responsible for everything
that happens to him and everything that
happens to everyone else and that’s you
know that that’s that’s a guy it’s a
crazy statement right it’s a crazy
statement and he was a pretty extreme
person in many many ways but there’s a
level at which that’s metaphysically
true you know because what happens is
that it’s you its failure to act often
that’s the most catastrophic you know I
mean I’ve it’s it’s it’s to not do the
right thing when the when the situation
presents itself and it’s very specific
you know you’re constantly in situations
where you could do the right thing if
you were willing to take a risk that’s
actually a relatively moderate size and
you know that you could take the risk
and you know that you should take the
risk and you don’t and that happens to
people all the time and then what
happens is the thing that they didn’t
oppose grows a little bit
and they shrink a little bit and now it
starts a Lupe use active imagination is
deceptively simple often what separates
creative from conventional thinkers is
that they simply search wider they use
their minds to generate possibilities
that other students don’t think of and
then they work to verify what they came
up with we saw a classic example of this
with posture another great example is
with Henry Ford early on in his career
in the earliest years of what would
later become the Ford Motor Company Ford
was anxious to into speed up the
production of cars it was he saw the
automobile as the ultimate consumer
product but in order for it to become
that he had to greatly increase the
production rate in his factory so he
spent a couple days looking at his
employees on the factory floor and
trying to imagine how he could get them
to move faster from car to car suddenly
one day he imagined something completely
different
he imagined the men standing still and
the cars coming to them he didn’t know
what that really meant but he decided to
try it out and lo and behold it
increased productivity by such an
incredible exponential rate that it
could now become the consumer product
that he envisioned things like
antibodies or assembly lines they seemed
so obvious to us now but they are never
obvious in the present and they involve
an incredible leap of what I call active
imagination the difference between
regular and active imagination is that
the latter is used consciously to reach
very very practical results it’s not
imagination for coming up with wild
things its imagination used for very
practical results think of the active
imagination
a kind of creative muscle that you’re
developing first within the loose
constraints of what you’re working on
you open your mind up to you give a
complete free rein you entertain almost
every possibility that you could imagine
or visualize you engage in what Charles
Darwin calls fool’s experiment fools
experiments this is the fun play part of
serious play you use notebook sketches
diagrams models prototypes to help
externalize the products of your
imagination once you have gone through
this you now enter the second serious
part of the process first you choose one
or few of the more promising
possibilities that were generated by
your imagination and now you actively
work to test verify or confirm it this
might entail launching a beta version on
the public once you have feedback you
now go back into the first part of the
process in a shortened form using your
imagination to perhaps take what you
have into an even better and higher form
circling constantly through this process
and shorter and shorter cycles until
you’ve got something that’s both
incredibly imaginative and incredibly
realistic and practical by developing
this by going through this over and over
and over again you will develop your
imagination into an incredibly powerful
creative muscle you’ve lived a life
dominated by doubt and fear how do you
step that that’s how you step into
bravery step take the step step
aggressively toward your fear and that
that step towards your fear is the step
into bravery because we’re / scared of
what we don’t know and there’s only one
way to learn and to know and that is to
confront that fear you have to step you
have to go and this simple action
this simple attitude it answers so many
questions so many questions how do you
get to the gym every day you step you go
how do you how do you change your diet
you step you go how do you overcome fear
of failure fear of success or fear of
fear itself you step and how do you face
the fear of the unknown you step don’t
wait anymore don’t think anymore don’t
plan anymore don’t contemplate anymore
don’t make any more excuses or
justifications don’t rationalize
anything else no no and no instead be
aggressive take action now and what is
the first action that you need to take
the first step you need to take is just
that step 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 focus 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 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 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 and I remember asking my dad
to I want a new basketball shoes because
I was a basketball junkie back then he’s
like well your shoes work if you wanted
new pair 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 just 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
he that I’d like to sell and that I
could sell and that I recognized that
selling was it 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 say I think it’s important to have at
least one or two numbers that you track
on a weekly basis so that could be for
web-based properties or services or
products it could be weekly average
uniques what it is doesn’t matter that
much but matters less than having a
metric that you try to improve every
week you could have one or two of them
you really shouldn’t have many more than
that I don’t think it could be
conversion from sign up to let’s say
first stage of sign up to completion of
sign up there are many different metrics
that you can use but you I think that to
keep the team focused especially in the
small company it’s very important to
have one or two they focus on a weekly
basis the only thing that stops you from
getting what you want life is the bolt
store and you tell yourself of why you
can’t have it get that what stops you
back is the story because the story
stops from getting honest and if you
can’t get honest with yourself there’s
no way you can go what made you like
this success in sales in life it’s like
a road map right you know where you want
to go and you have this perfect strategy
the straight line to get there it’s a
perfect strategy it’s gonna get you
there every single time but if you don’t
know you’re starting with it you’re not
getting eyes where you actually are it
doesn’t matter how powerful the strategy
is and it doesn’t matter how powerful
your goal is I’m gonna actually set a
goal today write a 60 day goal and let’s
say you really set this goal and I’ll
show you how to do it in a brilliant way
so it’s visceral so it makes you really
feel it you see it you said you smell
that’s step one I’m gonna teach you the
straight line which is your strategy to
get to your goal but if you’re not
honest with where you all right now your
starting point the map is worthless
there’s three things that you need to
know where you are where you want to go
and how you’re gonna get there those are
the three things you must have and take
advantage of any opportunity I’m gonna
give you the strategy I’m gonna actually
tell me exactly where you want to go
yourself you’ve got to get honest don’t
blame the boss don’t blame the beads
don’t blame your job don’t win the
industry you’re in
just get out if you don’t like your
industry find another one ideas are
worth nothing I mean ideas are really
they’re not a dime a dozen they’re just
nothing all the good founders I know
even the bad founders can come up with
ideas all day long it doesn’t mean
anything you have to be able to execute
and you know one of the sort of Maxim’s
that I was told once was you know your
success will be measured in the number
of uncomfortable conversations you’re
willing to have so I haven’t get asked
if an entrepreneur should say start the
business based on one of their passions
or if they should find the most
attractive market opportunity and build
a business out of that whether they like
it or not I don’t think it’s either/or I
think you need both I would say look
here in credit card statement identify
where you spend an unusual percentage of
your income
where are you price insensitive then how
old are you what gender are you where do
you live and design a product that has
all of those things intersecting when
asked me once what they or many times I
think what I thought it meant to be an
artist and I said what I think an artist
needs essentially more than discipline
or even Talent is a perspective so if
you are always changing what you do
based on what other people say you
completely lose yourself and you become
just you know something that’s
constantly affected by what’s around you
as opposed to stable and your own and
like autonomous and your identity
there’s
deep neural networks for dummies right
if you go home there’s a something for
dummies in every room of my house you
know they could go two ways I know but
I’m just telling you put the time I mean
I’ve taken you know I can’t even tell
you how many hours now I spent every
week if not daily working like I’ll go
into Amazon AWS and go through their
machine learning tutorials don’t think
to yourself I’m not technical enough or
I’m not gonna get this or I don’t get
into this or it’s too much try it get as
far as you can because it’s like doing a
basic website and a little bit of HTML
just having done that you feel smarter
and you feel a little bit more confident
about this you know I don’t want to be
an alarmist but I’m trying to scare the
hell out of you because it’s important
when I say life doesn’t happen to you it
happens for you
I really don’t know if that’s true I’m
just making a conscious choice to
perceive challenges as something
beneficial so that I can deal with them
in the most productive way you’ll come
up with your own style that’s part of
the fun it’s it’s very easy to be
seduced by doing things efficiently
trying to do a lot of things well I
don’t believe that’s the most important
thing the most important thing is
picking the right things to do in the
first place and that’s being effective
versus just being efficient so within a
start-up its success I don’t think it’s
measured by how many things you can do
at once its measured by how effectively
you’re able to pick the one or two
things into the highest priority and
there’s always going to be a seduction
to get distracted and focus on 20 things
at once and the most effective
entrepreneurs I know are very good at
focusing on one or two things and either
eliminating the rest delegating to other
people or outsourcing it so it’s not
done within the team but it’s actually
two third parties
enough enough like living by somebody
else’s rules is a humongous mistake I
just literally sat down with five people
under the age of 27 and it’s so
refreshing it is so refreshing
if you have not jumped on the bandwagon
of doing exactly what the you want to do
which is skiing for the next three years
or working at a job that’s not what your
parents want or what society
this video is just called enough enough
make this little in one two minute video
depends on when I finish the piece of
content that gets you to stand up and
take life by its throat do something
stop being scared stop letting the way
you were raised the fear as an offense
take that away let me be the person I’ll
take the blame
I loved that some of my employees are
like my parents don’t love what you’re
saying good parents because if you are
playing defense and if you are living a
life where your kids lives are the way
you’re being fulfilled you’re a loser
parents and so enough enough parents
imposing their way you want your kids to
be happy on your terms enough the kid
that’s sitting right now in a desk and
saw this in a feed and you hate your job
I’m not stand up get the out of here and
do you live your life you’ve got one
life do something about it
I think that I’ve got to make a record
that is the ultimate sort of Here I am
you know so I think it’s time to go back
and you know it’s like in the movies
where the the ex-marine grows the long
beard and long hair and takes off to
like Tibet or something and then there’s
always a moment I don’t do that anymore
and then he shows up at the Pentagon and
totally clean shave and he’s like where
do we start
I may be shaving the beard soon I’m
getting kind of this place in my life
where if if you can man just do it you
know I went I had this moment where and
my youth I was really frenetic and
everything was like but no and then I
hit this mode where it was like less is
more and now as I get into my later 30s
I’m like if you can do it do it all the
time you know you do it all the time as
long as you can do it do have just shred
show people what you can do you know so
it’s a sort of this arc also of how
fancy you think you are and find
yourself to be tend to be incredibly
modest in terms of describing your
talents and you you always seem to
belittle your your abilities to a
certain extent when clearly there
there’s a reason why this everything you
do has been working out I was reading
about how you said that to certain
extent that comes from your your punk
rock roots yep there’s no other choice
in those days there was no idea of this
makes money there’s no idea like this is
my future it was like a week at a time
they have five shows we’re gonna get to
Sunday and even those days were like
fraught with turbulence and so I never
really saw a future none of us did and
some of us you know didn’t make it some
of them are dead and some of them are
just kind of trying to recreate their
past and so I realized that I have to be
very hardworking because I don’t have
kind of the ease of talent and I come
from that and I think it you know a lot
of ways that served me very well in that
I am is kind of hardworking as I’ve ever
been completely on without confidence
and I have none I don’t I don’t want any
because I think you turn your back on
the thing and that’s when you get gored
is when you think I got this I never
think I got this I think oh man don’t
screw this up and I go at everything
like including you and I sitting here
right now I’m trying to be fully engaged
and that intensity I think has served me
quite well but it comes from punk rock
absolutely last boss I ever had was my
boss at haagen-dazs III my ice cream job
to this day he still comes to my shows
and whenever I see Steve who got me my
first apartment who believes living in
my car he believed in me whenever I see
him I get all weepy I always say it’s
good to see you sir Henry you can call
me Steve I can’t do that sir because
because he trusted me with his money and
and I said let me run your store I know
how to do this I can do this he’s like
well if you screw up you’re out of your
I said I won’t screw up and I end up
being I ran a store and so um it would
but it was anger that said I’ll be here
all damn week I’ll get this whole thing
right I fired a staff and rehired a
bunch of people can really work and it’s
it was out of anger like I’ll be back in
four hours to run this $3 and 75 cent an
hour job into the ground and then I
joined Black Flag and I thought I was a
hardworking person then you meet the
guys in Black Flag who are so driven
you’d see Greg Ginn work 23 hour days
like Greg you’re still on the phone I
know Greg when did you eat I don’t know
Greg when the last time you showered do
we have a shower but the guy we were not
going to be stopped and I kind of go at
that intensity
what kind of anything I do like you’re
very calm good-looking young man look at
me I’m a spaz sitting next to yard I’m
doing an interview with you focus I’m
sweating ma’am it’s so
but I’d like this going to the airport
like ten miles out and so it’s but it’s
anger that has informed kind of my life
and unflatteringly a sense of vengeance
every damn person who said I wouldn’t be
anything I’m crushing them every day
everybody I had to endure in any band I
was in everyday into a powder yeah thank
you and I wish them no ill I just wish
to shine brighter and if it burns my
body to a crisp I’m happy to go right
now
whether it’s personal or people around
me when you see people that are positive
that look at something good and
something bad that took place they move
along in life faster they’re veteran and
people want to be around these people I
mean too often people gossip the one
gossip person wants me around the other
person that gossips but they don’t
realize when you gossip you’re saying
something heard about somebody else
you’re telling everybody what if part of
it was wrong you’re gonna go out and
tell every person you told this oh I’m
sorry it was wrong tell everybody you
told it’s not gonna happen so it seems
you learn about don’t gossip don’t
belittle people if you don’t have to god
please don’t try and look at the
positive angle what good could come out
of something and that possum Ness is
gonna make you live longer happier and
wake up in the morning happy not oh my
god I got I got a work I can’t wait till
I get home I want to retire because
people are not positively or not happy
and what happens they retire they hate
their job they retire three or four
years later their debts they have
nothing to do that positive attitude be
around positive people encourage
positiveness if you find yourself
walking around just complaining all the
time around people that complain a lot
man move or just try and do something
different change your life being
positive and a positive attitude is find
something positive and something bad
makes you look for solutions when I was
down and out okay who opop bottles let’s
get the pop bottles cash him in yes PN
call me they did a story on me this past
summer but they called me one day I
picked up the phone he said is this Enki
Johnson so last time I checked I’m inky
johnson they said is this the same guy
that said if you could change what
happened to you you wouldn’t I said
absolutely
they said it’s our understanding the
game of football meant the world I said
at one point it did they said it’s our
understanding that your family was
banking on you making it to the NFL they
can have a better way of life I say yeah
that’s that’s correct and said we’re
coming to see you I said alright cool
come on and said but we don’t want to
see you in that land we want to see you
a Nealon Stadium on the exact yard line
where your life changes the same time of
day the only thing that won’t be present
its Air Forces team all right cool
and so they take me to Nealon Stadium
they put me on the exact yard line with
my life changed they said now tell your
younger self why you wouldn’t stop your
injury if you could if you could be in
the NFL right now making millions of
dollars tell you young yourself why you
wouldn’t change that situation if you
could and I say the reason I wouldn’t
change it believe it or not has nothing
to do with me like on a personal level
you he thought I was gonna say because
of the man that I’ve become the
perspective that I’ve acquired my faith
that been fortified he thought I was
gonna say something like that I said no
it has nothing to do it has everything
to do it the lies that have been
affected by the result of the process
and the thing that I represent in the
world what my spirit represents when
somebody see me they think perseverance
well my spirit represents where somebody
see me they think don’t quit what my
spirit represents when somebody see me
they think that’s a quality individual
right there what my character represents
in the world and every single day we’re
putting something out like that
represent something when people see that
they thinks it’s a thought that comes to
the month when he said goes thinner he
gave me that I felt a certain type of
weddy when he gave me to go stare I
thought for certain type I felt
different gold-standard like that with
me because I think in what I do the line
of business something I’m the gold
standard because I don’t compromise and
every single day I’m gonna give you my
very best you could bet your bottom
dollar every single day I’m gonna bring
that gold standard to life and I’m not
just bringing it and one aspect of life
I’m bringing it every single aspect of
life I’m not gonna be one of these
people in the world
to public success but their profit
failure mean they give everything they
got to one aspect of life but the other
areas they lack are no I’m gonna give
every single thing I got to every aspect
of my life because I represent something
when people see me they think something
whether that’s character never given up
never surrender and the thing that we
can never do is forget what we represent
because that’s how guys end up under
bridge on a cardboard box leap they
forget what they represent when life
hits him we’re adverse my only charge
for you never forget what you represent
take her as a corpse a lot again like I
said you were awesome ask me about the
future I’ll let you I’ll let you know a
little bit closer and I mean as far all
I can see right now is the cold that’s
all I can see you’ve lived a life
dominated by doubt and fear how do you
that’s how you step in the bravery step
take the step step aggressively towards
your fear and that that step towards
your fear is the step into bravery
because we’re we’re scared of what we
don’t know and there is only one way to
learn and to know and that is to
confront that fear you have to step you
have to go and this simple action
this simple attitude it answers so many
questions so many questions how do you
get to the gym every day you step you go
how do you how do you change your diet
you step you go how do you overcome fear
of failure fear of success or or fear of
fear itself you step and how do you face
the fear of the unknown you step
don’t wait anymore don’t think anymore
don’t plan anymore don’t contemplate
anymore don’t make any more excuses or
justifications don’t rationalize
anything else no no and no instead be
aggressive take action now and what is
the first action that you need to take
the first step you need to take is just
that step it’s a very natural process to
begin something to be very excited and
then as you go down that process to
realize yeah I actually don’t like this
it’s not giving me as much energy as I
thought it would is taking energy away
and therefore I want to give up and quit
that thing and she said if you do that
once or twice like hey so be it but if
you’re doing it every time if you just
love that initial rush that excitement
of something new but the actual
nitty-gritty reality of getting good at
it of doing what Mitch you Kaku calls
having but power meaning you’ve set your
butt in the seat and you do the work if
that’s really your problem
and nothing is interesting enough for
you to sit there and do the work you
haven’t developed grit yet and so grit
is the ability to persevere to see
things through to go past the point at
which it is stopped being fun and it
becomes boring because you believe in
your end goal enough you’re excited by
what you’re trying to accomplish so much
that you’re willing to fight through all
of that difficulty you’re willing to
fight through the boredom you’re willing
to fight through the unease that arises
when you step outside your comfort zone
you’re doing things you’re not good at
and things that are boring those are the
two things that I find kill most people
they just cannot handle the things that
make them go oh god like I’m not very
good at this and I’m feeling really
badly about myself and they forget that
they can get good on a long enough
timeline and then to inevitably in any
pursuit of greatness in any endeavor
where you’re trying to gain mastery
you’re gonna get bored because practice
is repetition it’s doing something over
and over and over and over to really
train yourself to get to the point where
you’re truly exceptional and there’s
just so much boredom inherent in that
process so building in the resilience to
see all that stuff through is the key
part of grit everyone in this room knows
how to create you’re not a manager of
your life you’re a creator of your life
or you wouldn’t be in this room how do
you create your life you get hungry for
something don’t you who has done
something in your life that once seemed
difficult or impossible and now it’s
part of your life who’s got something in
your life in this area
ah how did you do it you created it
three ways number one you decided
there’s something you wanted so bad that
you unleashed all your desire you became
obsessed with it if it was a business or
a car or a relationship or a
transformation in your body if there’s
something you want sin vision and now
it’s real it’s because you didn’t just
envision it you brought so much emotion
to it then now it’s in your life it was
once a dream it was once a goal and now
it’s in your life
how many have something like that in
your life now say I you may take it for
granted now hopefully not but it was
once just a vision may have seemed
impossible at one time so how did you do
it you started with a concrete vision of
what you wanted and you focused on it
continuously didn’t you wherever focus
goes energy flows you envision something
you got clear about it and then you
started thinking about all the reasons
why you wanted it you got excited about
it so this is what’s next for me now I
want this you may have dreamed about a
thought about and talked about it but
when you focus on something continuously
something magical happens you get
insights don’t you you overhear a
conversation hear something you wouldn’t
have heard if you didn’t have that
outcome or goal that you wanted so badly
who’s ever come up with something
obsessed about it didn’t even know how
to do it and it just happened and it
came together who’s that that experience
say I so why don’t we happened to that
power now for your business in life so
that means taking things using things in
your life that are scarce using those
moments as a weapon
using those as using basketball is kind
of like a vehicle through which to
express yourself right so it doesn’t
show at that moment for us to face the
Celtics again it’s not about the Celtics
it’s not about your opponent it’s about
you it’s about you taking it in the
struggles and channeling that through
the game all right as it as a way to to
unleash right so now I became a matter
of how do i express that to them how do
I get them to that point where they
figured this out for themselves as I
can’t say hey listen I need you to play
harder so in addition well I had to
share my story I had to open up to them
and let them know I’ve dealt with things
this is the things that I use this is
how I go about focus this is how I deal
with adversity this is how I deal with
you know arguing with my wife the day of
a game is showing up to the game and
still having that focus to be able to
play like I used those things to open up
with them and then in turn they were
able to to take those stories and make
them their own I’ve been making music
now with you know like Tony Bennett for
a couple years and you know Elton John
is you know one of my closest friends
and his husband David and they just have
showed me that like I’m a baby and my
artistry you know and I just have to
keep making music and keep going and so
my focus really for this album is
showing that to to young girls and to
enter boys that want to make music that
you don’t have to get lucky on the
internet it’s not a social media game
you don’t have to find a you know the
the the the hot producer and get the hot
track you know to be a star you can just
learn how to play an instrument and sit
in your room and practice and write
songs and poetry and then you can go
around the corner to the bar and meet
other artists that do the same thing
that you do and you can hang out and
talk about music and write songs and
then you can play at the spot around the
corner and gain one fan and then do it
over and over and over again until
you’re discovered
need to know what your unique strengths
are and be willing to delegate so I
would say that the question of whether
you should take a skill learn it
yourself delegated someone else or hire
new team member are determined by having
a very accurate self assessment and
assessment and B your team skills not
only what you can do but what you should
be doing that’s very important so if
you’re a start-up CEO or founder and you
have a team of say two to ten people as
soon as you have funds to hire you
should not be focused on the things that
you are bad at sounds very very
intuitive but it’s not because you might
have enough time to do those things but
the question is do you have the
attention to dedicate to those things so
they’re not an interruption
especially if you’re a venture back
startup and you’re competing against
other companies that also have a lot of
funding the game the game and the race
goes to the Swift so you have to have you have to have a lot of velocity
what I didn’t understand by being
determined to chase something by being
committed to it and what commitment is
commitment and true to what you said you
were going to do long after the mood
that you have said it in has left you
see people think commitment is saying
yes I’ll do it on the days when it felt
good but I’ve been committed to
everything that I ever started in my
life and I never stopped and I never
quit it and so by being committed to
everything that I started I finished it
it built the certain type of spirit it
built the certain type of mentality it
built the certain type of individual and
so now I couldn’t quit even if I wanted
to I couldn’t lay in a bed even if I
wanted to I couldn’t stop even if I
wanted to I had too much sweat equity in
my life and everything that I was doing
because I understood my existence wasn’t
about me I went from leader we’re a long
time ago I understood the process is
more important than the product it
wasn’t about the outcome for me once
I’ve made it to the NFL or not that was
inconsequential in God’s plan for my
life but I was going to fall in love
with that process because I understood
by falling in love with that process it
was going to turn me into a machine
there are some mountains that can be
claimed by people like you and me we got
to get a little bit better condition but
I mean it’s not like the mountain
climber mountains that would be way
beyond our skill level but but but some
of these mountains that can be climbing
you and me that it takes a day to get to
the top and then that you just camp up
there and you come in at down the next
day and on many of these places where in
Switzerland where you could do that
about halfway up the mountain is what
they call the halfway house halfway
house half way up the mountain so the
group of people starts off with a guide
in the morning and about noon you’re
kind of tired you’ve been walking now
for four or five hours and here comes
that you’re coming up to the halfway
house it’s just a it’s it’s it’s a
wonderful sight because as soon as you
enter in the halfway house you can smell
the food and there they’re getting ready
for a good lunch and you sit down
there’s a fire in the fireplace and
there’s nice soft chairs and you can
just rest your body and refresh your
body and and so the people go into the
halfway house and they eat and laugh and
enjoy and and just really really just
kind of take
in that that wonderful refreshing
atmosphere about an hour and a half
after be in the halfway house the guide
gets up as his will gang it’s time to
put on your gear we we got a hike we got
to get on up at the top this is a fact
about half the people decide not to go
on up to the top they’re sitting around
the table and they’re just saying you
know what go on up and you’re gonna be
come by here tomorrow gonna be having
lunch here again tomorrow
we’re just gonna hang here and and so
the people that want to get to the top
they put their stuff on and they kind of
leave and the rest of the people sit
behind they you know eat a little bit
more food get around the piano sing some
songs get around the fireplace enjoy the
fire warm themselves by the fire
no I’ve played games all afternoon kind
of enjoy themselves but about 4:30
chordal 5:00 in the afternoon without
anybody saying a word the people who
stayed in a halfway house they slowly go
over to where the window is the big
window and they start looking outside
and they start looking up at the top of
that mountain and as they look at the
top of that mountain they see their
friends
the friends are now getting the tents
out and they’re getting ready to prepare
for the night and it becomes very quiet
very somber because everybody in the
halfway house realizes the mistake
they’ve made they’ve they’ve they’ve
they’ve sold their mission for a little
bit of comfort for a few hours next
morning down come their friends and by
noon they come into the halfway house
when they come in the half they are
laughing they’re high-fiving they’re
talking about what they’ve seen where
they’ve been experiences the fact that
it was almost impossible to get up there
in fact they had to help each other get
up there and how they join teams and
held hands and and they just telling all
these stories and talk about the
pictures they’ve taken and they yeah
they got the group picture up there with
the flag at the top and people who
remain behind they don’t say much they
just eat their lunch and then follow the
rest of them down to the bottom of the
hill where their friends are waiting for
them and those who paid the price and
went to the top
who understood now is the time to reach
the mission they hug can tell stories
and celebrate and the others they just
kind of slip off and get in a car and go
home because they realize they’re never
going to be what they wanted to be
they’re never going to see what they
wanted to see they’re never going to do
what they wanted to do because they
failed to realize when there’s the
halfway house now is the time to rest
and they go on you can spend your whole
life imagining ghosts worrying about the
pathway to the future but all there will
ever be is what’s happening here in the
decisions we make in this moment which
are based in either love or fear so many
of us choose our path out of fear
disguised as practicality what we really
want seems impossibly out of reach and
ridiculous to expect so we never dare to
ask the universe for it I’m saying I’m
the proof that you can ask the universe
and if it doesn’t happen for you right
away it’s only because the universe is
my father could have been a great
comedian but he didn’t believe that that
was possible for him and so he made a
conservative choice instead he got a
safe job as an accountant and when I was
12 years old he was let go from that
safe job and our family had to do
whatever we could to survive I learned
many great lessons from my father not
the least of which was that you can fail
at what you don’t want so you might as
well take a chance on doing what you
love one of the things that’s really
interesting about the Old Testament is
that and the Jews in the Old Testament
is that they don’t take the path of Cain
every time they’re walloped by God which
is like fairly frequently they say we
must have done something wrong and we
have to set ourself right and that’s a
an unbelievably heroic attitude because
that’s the alternative to cursing fate
it’s like you take the responsibility
for failure unto yourself and you think
well if I was just maybe if I just had
my act together a little bit more if I
took advantage of every opportunity that
was put in front of me if I wasn’t
resentful and bitter then I could have
done something that would have tilted
the situation in a different direction
and like that’s almost inevitably true
Dostoevsky I think said something like
every man is responsible for everything
that happens to him and everything that
happens to everyone else and that’s you
know that that’s that’s a guy it’s a
crazy statement right it’s a crazy
statement and he was a pretty extreme
person in many many ways but there’s a
level at which that’s metaphysically
true you know because what happens is
that it’s you its failure to act often
that’s the most catastrophic you know I
mean I’ve it’s it’s it’s to not do the
right thing when the when the situation
presents itself and it’s very specific
you know you’re constantly in situations
where you could do the right thing if
you were willing to take a risk that’s
actually a relatively moderate size and
you know that you could take the risk
and you know that you should take the
risk and you don’t and that happens to
people all the time and then what
happens is the thing that they didn’t
oppose grows a little bit
and they shrink a little bit and now it
starts a Lupe use active imagination is
deceptively simple often what separates
creative from conventional thinkers is
that they simply search wider they use
their minds to generate possibilities
that other students don’t think of and
then they work to verify what they came
up with we saw a classic example of this
with posture another great example is
with Henry Ford early on in his career
in the earliest years of what would
later become the Ford Motor Company Ford
was anxious to into speed up the
production of cars it was he saw the
automobile as the ultimate consumer
product but in order for it to become
that he had to greatly increase the
production rate in his factory so he
spent a couple days looking at his
employees on the factory floor and
trying to imagine how he could get them
to move faster from car to car suddenly
one day he imagined something completely
different
he imagined the men standing still and
the cars coming to them he didn’t know
what that really meant but he decided to
try it out and lo and behold it
increased productivity by such an
incredible exponential rate that it
could now become the consumer product
that he envisioned things like
antibodies or assembly lines they seemed
so obvious to us now but they are never
obvious in the present and they involve
an incredible leap of what I call active
imagination the difference between
regular and active imagination is that
the latter is used consciously to reach
very very practical results it’s not
imagination for coming up with wild
things its imagination used for very
practical results think of the active
imagination
a kind of creative muscle that you’re
developing first within the loose
constraints of what you’re working on
you open your mind up to you give a
complete free rein you entertain almost
every possibility that you could imagine
or visualize you engage in what Charles
Darwin calls fool’s experiment fools
experiments this is the fun play part of
serious play you use notebook sketches
diagrams models prototypes to help
externalize the products of your
imagination once you have gone through
this you now enter the second serious
part of the process first you choose one
or few of the more promising
possibilities that were generated by
your imagination and now you actively
work to test verify or confirm it this
might entail launching a beta version on
the public once you have feedback you
now go back into the first part of the
process in a shortened form using your
imagination to perhaps take what you
have into an even better and higher form
circling constantly through this process
and shorter and shorter cycles until
you’ve got something that’s both
incredibly imaginative and incredibly
realistic and practical by developing
this by going through this over and over
and over again you will develop your
imagination into an incredibly powerful
creative muscle you’ve lived a life
dominated by doubt and fear how do you
step that that’s how you step into
bravery step take the step step
aggressively toward your fear and that
that step towards your fear is the step
into bravery because we’re / scared of
what we don’t know and there’s only one
way to learn and to know and that is to
confront that fear you have to step you
have to go and this simple action
this simple attitude it answers so many
questions so many questions how do you
get to the gym every day you step you go
how do you how do you change your diet
you step you go how do you overcome fear
of failure fear of success or fear of
fear itself you step and how do you face
the fear of the unknown you step don’t
wait anymore don’t think anymore don’t
plan anymore don’t contemplate anymore
don’t make any more excuses or
justifications don’t rationalize
anything else no no and no instead be
aggressive take action now and what is
the first action that you need to take
the first step you need to take is just
that step 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 focus 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 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 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 and I remember asking my dad
to I want a new basketball shoes because
I was a basketball junkie back then he’s
like well your shoes work if you wanted
new pair 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 just 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
he that I’d like to sell and that I
could sell and that I recognized that
selling was it 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 say I think it’s important to have at
least one or two numbers that you track
on a weekly basis so that could be for
web-based properties or services or
products it could be weekly average
uniques what it is doesn’t matter that
much but matters less than having a
metric that you try to improve every
week you could have one or two of them
you really shouldn’t have many more than
that I don’t think it could be
conversion from sign up to let’s say
first stage of sign up to completion of
sign up there are many different metrics
that you can use but you I think that to
keep the team focused especially in the
small company it’s very important to
have one or two they focus on a weekly
basis the only thing that stops you from
getting what you want life is the bolt
store and you tell yourself of why you
can’t have it get that what stops you
back is the story because the story
stops from getting honest and if you
can’t get honest with yourself there’s
no way you can go what made you like
this success in sales in life it’s like
a road map right you know where you want
to go and you have this perfect strategy
the straight line to get there it’s a
perfect strategy it’s gonna get you
there every single time but if you don’t
know you’re starting with it you’re not
getting eyes where you actually are it
doesn’t matter how powerful the strategy
is and it doesn’t matter how powerful
your goal is I’m gonna actually set a
goal today write a 60 day goal and let’s
say you really set this goal and I’ll
show you how to do it in a brilliant way
so it’s visceral so it makes you really
feel it you see it you said you smell
that’s step one I’m gonna teach you the
straight line which is your strategy to
get to your goal but if you’re not
honest with where you all right now your
starting point the map is worthless
there’s three things that you need to
know where you are where you want to go
and how you’re gonna get there those are
the three things you must have and take
advantage of any opportunity I’m gonna
give you the strategy I’m gonna actually
tell me exactly where you want to go
yourself you’ve got to get honest don’t
blame the boss don’t blame the beads
don’t blame your job don’t win the
industry you’re in
just get out if you don’t like your
industry find another one ideas are
worth nothing I mean ideas are really
they’re not a dime a dozen they’re just
nothing all the good founders I know
even the bad founders can come up with
ideas all day long it doesn’t mean
anything you have to be able to execute
and you know one of the sort of Maxim’s
that I was told once was you know your
success will be measured in the number
of uncomfortable conversations you’re
willing to have so I haven’t get asked
if an entrepreneur should say start the
business based on one of their passions
or if they should find the most
attractive market opportunity and build
a business out of that whether they like
it or not I don’t think it’s either/or I
think you need both I would say look
here in credit card statement identify
where you spend an unusual percentage of
your income
where are you price insensitive then how
old are you what gender are you where do
you live and design a product that has
all of those things intersecting when
asked me once what they or many times I
think what I thought it meant to be an
artist and I said what I think an artist
needs essentially more than discipline
or even Talent is a perspective so if
you are always changing what you do
based on what other people say you
completely lose yourself and you become
just you know something that’s
constantly affected by what’s around you
as opposed to stable and your own and
like autonomous and your identity
there’s
deep neural networks for dummies right
if you go home there’s a something for
dummies in every room of my house you
know they could go two ways I know but
I’m just telling you put the time I mean
I’ve taken you know I can’t even tell
you how many hours now I spent every
week if not daily working like I’ll go
into Amazon AWS and go through their
machine learning tutorials don’t think
to yourself I’m not technical enough or
I’m not gonna get this or I don’t get
into this or it’s too much try it get as
far as you can because it’s like doing a
basic website and a little bit of HTML
just having done that you feel smarter
and you feel a little bit more confident
about this you know I don’t want to be
an alarmist but I’m trying to scare the
hell out of you because it’s important
when I say life doesn’t happen to you it
happens for you
I really don’t know if that’s true I’m
just making a conscious choice to
perceive challenges as something
beneficial so that I can deal with them
in the most productive way you’ll come
up with your own style that’s part of
the fun it’s it’s very easy to be
seduced by doing things efficiently
trying to do a lot of things well I
don’t believe that’s the most important
thing the most important thing is
picking the right things to do in the
first place and that’s being effective
versus just being efficient so within a
start-up its success I don’t think it’s
measured by how many things you can do
at once its measured by how effectively
you’re able to pick the one or two
things into the highest priority and
there’s always going to be a seduction
to get distracted and focus on 20 things
at once and the most effective
entrepreneurs I know are very good at
focusing on one or two things and either
eliminating the rest delegating to other
people or outsourcing it so it’s not
done within the team but it’s actually
two third parties
enough enough like living by somebody
else’s rules is a humongous mistake I
just literally sat down with five people
under the age of 27 and it’s so
refreshing it is so refreshing
if you have not jumped on the bandwagon
of doing exactly what the you want to do
which is skiing for the next three years
or working at a job that’s not what your
parents want or what society
this video is just called enough enough
make this little in one two minute video
depends on when I finish the piece of
content that gets you to stand up and
take life by its throat do something
stop being scared stop letting the way
you were raised the fear as an offense
take that away let me be the person I’ll
take the blame
I loved that some of my employees are
like my parents don’t love what you’re
saying good parents because if you are
playing defense and if you are living a
life where your kids lives are the way
you’re being fulfilled you’re a loser
parents and so enough enough parents
imposing their way you want your kids to
be happy on your terms enough the kid
that’s sitting right now in a desk and
saw this in a feed and you hate your job
I’m not stand up get the out of here and
do you live your life you’ve got one
life do something about it
I think that I’ve got to make a record
that is the ultimate sort of Here I am
you know so I think it’s time to go back
and you know it’s like in the movies
where the the ex-marine grows the long
beard and long hair and takes off to
like Tibet or something and then there’s
always a moment I don’t do that anymore
and then he shows up at the Pentagon and
totally clean shave and he’s like where
do we start
I may be shaving the beard soon I’m
getting kind of this place in my life
where if if you can man just do it you
know I went I had this moment where and
my youth I was really frenetic and
everything was like but no and then I
hit this mode where it was like less is
more and now as I get into my later 30s
I’m like if you can do it do it all the
time you know you do it all the time as
long as you can do it do have just shred
show people what you can do you know so
it’s a sort of this arc also of how
fancy you think you are and find
yourself to be tend to be incredibly
modest in terms of describing your
talents and you you always seem to
belittle your your abilities to a
certain extent when clearly there
there’s a reason why this everything you
do has been working out I was reading
about how you said that to certain
extent that comes from your your punk
rock roots yep there’s no other choice
in those days there was no idea of this
makes money there’s no idea like this is
my future it was like a week at a time
they have five shows we’re gonna get to
Sunday and even those days were like
fraught with turbulence and so I never
really saw a future none of us did and
some of us you know didn’t make it some
of them are dead and some of them are
just kind of trying to recreate their
past and so I realized that I have to be
very hardworking because I don’t have
kind of the ease of talent and I come
from that and I think it you know a lot
of ways that served me very well in that
I am is kind of hardworking as I’ve ever
been completely on without confidence
and I have none I don’t I don’t want any
because I think you turn your back on
the thing and that’s when you get gored
is when you think I got this I never
think I got this I think oh man don’t
screw this up and I go at everything
like including you and I sitting here
right now I’m trying to be fully engaged
and that intensity I think has served me
quite well but it comes from punk rock
absolutely last boss I ever had was my
boss at haagen-dazs III my ice cream job
to this day he still comes to my shows
and whenever I see Steve who got me my
first apartment who believes living in
my car he believed in me whenever I see
him I get all weepy I always say it’s
good to see you sir Henry you can call
me Steve I can’t do that sir because
because he trusted me with his money and
and I said let me run your store I know
how to do this I can do this he’s like
well if you screw up you’re out of your
I said I won’t screw up and I end up
being I ran a store and so um it would
but it was anger that said I’ll be here
all damn week I’ll get this whole thing
right I fired a staff and rehired a
bunch of people can really work and it’s
it was out of anger like I’ll be back in
four hours to run this $3 and 75 cent an
hour job into the ground and then I
joined Black Flag and I thought I was a
hardworking person then you meet the
guys in Black Flag who are so driven
you’d see Greg Ginn work 23 hour days
like Greg you’re still on the phone I
know Greg when did you eat I don’t know
Greg when the last time you showered do
we have a shower but the guy we were not
going to be stopped and I kind of go at
that intensity
what kind of anything I do like you’re
very calm good-looking young man look at
me I’m a spaz sitting next to yard I’m
doing an interview with you focus I’m
sweating ma’am it’s so
but I’d like this going to the airport
like ten miles out and so it’s but it’s
anger that has informed kind of my life
and unflatteringly a sense of vengeance
every damn person who said I wouldn’t be
anything I’m crushing them every day
everybody I had to endure in any band I
was in everyday into a powder yeah thank
you and I wish them no ill I just wish
to shine brighter and if it burns my
body to a crisp I’m happy to go right
now
whether it’s personal or people around
me when you see people that are positive
that look at something good and
something bad that took place they move
along in life faster they’re veteran and
people want to be around these people I
mean too often people gossip the one
gossip person wants me around the other
person that gossips but they don’t
realize when you gossip you’re saying
something heard about somebody else
you’re telling everybody what if part of
it was wrong you’re gonna go out and
tell every person you told this oh I’m
sorry it was wrong tell everybody you
told it’s not gonna happen so it seems
you learn about don’t gossip don’t
belittle people if you don’t have to god
please don’t try and look at the
positive angle what good could come out
of something and that possum Ness is
gonna make you live longer happier and
wake up in the morning happy not oh my
god I got I got a work I can’t wait till
I get home I want to retire because
people are not positively or not happy
and what happens they retire they hate
their job they retire three or four
years later their debts they have
nothing to do that positive attitude be
around positive people encourage
positiveness if you find yourself
walking around just complaining all the
time around people that complain a lot
man move or just try and do something
different change your life being
positive and a positive attitude is find
something positive and something bad
makes you look for solutions when I was
down and out okay who opop bottles let’s
get the pop bottles cash him in yes PN
call me they did a story on me this past
summer but they called me one day I
picked up the phone he said is this Enki
Johnson so last time I checked I’m inky
johnson they said is this the same guy
that said if you could change what
happened to you you wouldn’t I said
absolutely
they said it’s our understanding the
game of football meant the world I said
at one point it did they said it’s our
understanding that your family was
banking on you making it to the NFL they
can have a better way of life I say yeah
that’s that’s correct and said we’re
coming to see you I said alright cool
come on and said but we don’t want to
see you in that land we want to see you
a Nealon Stadium on the exact yard line
where your life changes the same time of
day the only thing that won’t be present
its Air Forces team all right cool
and so they take me to Nealon Stadium
they put me on the exact yard line with
my life changed they said now tell your
younger self why you wouldn’t stop your
injury if you could if you could be in
the NFL right now making millions of
dollars tell you young yourself why you
wouldn’t change that situation if you
could and I say the reason I wouldn’t
change it believe it or not has nothing
to do with me like on a personal level
you he thought I was gonna say because
of the man that I’ve become the
perspective that I’ve acquired my faith
that been fortified he thought I was
gonna say something like that I said no
it has nothing to do it has everything
to do it the lies that have been
affected by the result of the process
and the thing that I represent in the
world what my spirit represents when
somebody see me they think perseverance
well my spirit represents where somebody
see me they think don’t quit what my
spirit represents when somebody see me
they think that’s a quality individual
right there what my character represents
in the world and every single day we’re
putting something out like that
represent something when people see that
they thinks it’s a thought that comes to
the month when he said goes thinner he
gave me that I felt a certain type of
weddy when he gave me to go stare I
thought for certain type I felt
different gold-standard like that with
me because I think in what I do the line
of business something I’m the gold
standard because I don’t compromise and
every single day I’m gonna give you my
very best you could bet your bottom
dollar every single day I’m gonna bring
that gold standard to life and I’m not
just bringing it and one aspect of life
I’m bringing it every single aspect of
life I’m not gonna be one of these
people in the world
to public success but their profit
failure mean they give everything they
got to one aspect of life but the other
areas they lack are no I’m gonna give
every single thing I got to every aspect
of my life because I represent something
when people see me they think something
whether that’s character never given up
never surrender and the thing that we
can never do is forget what we represent
because that’s how guys end up under
bridge on a cardboard box leap they
forget what they represent when life
hits him we’re adverse my only charge
for you never forget what you represent
take her as a corpse a lot again like I
said you were awesome ask me about the
future I’ll let you I’ll let you know a
little bit closer and I mean as far all
I can see right now is the cold that’s
all I can see you’ve lived a life
dominated by doubt and fear how do you
that’s how you step in the bravery step
take the step step aggressively towards
your fear and that that step towards
your fear is the step into bravery
because we’re we’re scared of what we
don’t know and there is only one way to
learn and to know and that is to
confront that fear you have to step you
have to go and this simple action
this simple attitude it answers so many
questions so many questions how do you
get to the gym every day you step you go
how do you how do you change your diet
you step you go how do you overcome fear
of failure fear of success or or fear of
fear itself you step and how do you face
the fear of the unknown you step
don’t wait anymore don’t think anymore
don’t plan anymore don’t contemplate
anymore don’t make any more excuses or
justifications don’t rationalize
anything else no no and no instead be
aggressive take action now and what is
the first action that you need to take
the first step you need to take is just
that step it’s a very natural process to
begin something to be very excited and
then as you go down that process to
realize yeah I actually don’t like this
it’s not giving me as much energy as I
thought it would is taking energy away
and therefore I want to give up and quit
that thing and she said if you do that
once or twice like hey so be it but if
you’re doing it every time if you just
love that initial rush that excitement
of something new but the actual
nitty-gritty reality of getting good at
it of doing what Mitch you Kaku calls
having but power meaning you’ve set your
butt in the seat and you do the work if
that’s really your problem
and nothing is interesting enough for
you to sit there and do the work you
haven’t developed grit yet and so grit
is the ability to persevere to see
things through to go past the point at
which it is stopped being fun and it
becomes boring because you believe in
your end goal enough you’re excited by
what you’re trying to accomplish so much
that you’re willing to fight through all
of that difficulty you’re willing to
fight through the boredom you’re willing
to fight through the unease that arises
when you step outside your comfort zone
you’re doing things you’re not good at
and things that are boring those are the
two things that I find kill most people
they just cannot handle the things that
make them go oh god like I’m not very
good at this and I’m feeling really
badly about myself and they forget that
they can get good on a long enough
timeline and then to inevitably in any
pursuit of greatness in any endeavor
where you’re trying to gain mastery
you’re gonna get bored because practice
is repetition it’s doing something over
and over and over and over to really
train yourself to get to the point where
you’re truly exceptional and there’s
just so much boredom inherent in that
process so building in the resilience to
see all that stuff through is the key
part of grit everyone in this room knows
how to create you’re not a manager of
your life you’re a creator of your life
or you wouldn’t be in this room how do
you create your life you get hungry for
something don’t you who has done
something in your life that once seemed
difficult or impossible and now it’s
part of your life who’s got something in
your life in this area
ah how did you do it you created it
three ways number one you decided
there’s something you wanted so bad that
you unleashed all your desire you became
obsessed with it if it was a business or
a car or a relationship or a
transformation in your body if there’s
something you want sin vision and now
it’s real it’s because you didn’t just
envision it you brought so much emotion
to it then now it’s in your life it was
once a dream it was once a goal and now
it’s in your life
how many have something like that in
your life now say I you may take it for
granted now hopefully not but it was
once just a vision may have seemed
impossible at one time so how did you do
it you started with a concrete vision of
what you wanted and you focused on it
continuously didn’t you wherever focus
goes energy flows you envision something
you got clear about it and then you
started thinking about all the reasons
why you wanted it you got excited about
it so this is what’s next for me now I
want this you may have dreamed about a
thought about and talked about it but
when you focus on something continuously
something magical happens you get
insights don’t you you overhear a
conversation hear something you wouldn’t
have heard if you didn’t have that
outcome or goal that you wanted so badly
who’s ever come up with something
obsessed about it didn’t even know how
to do it and it just happened and it
came together who’s that that experience
say I so why don’t we happened to that
power now for your business in life so
that means taking things using things in
your life that are scarce using those
moments as a weapon
using those as using basketball is kind
of like a vehicle through which to
express yourself right so it doesn’t
show at that moment for us to face the
Celtics again it’s not about the Celtics
it’s not about your opponent it’s about
you it’s about you taking it in the
struggles and channeling that through
the game all right as it as a way to to
unleash right so now I became a matter
of how do i express that to them how do
I get them to that point where they
figured this out for themselves as I
can’t say hey listen I need you to play
harder so in addition well I had to
share my story I had to open up to them
and let them know I’ve dealt with things
this is the things that I use this is
how I go about focus this is how I deal
with adversity this is how I deal with
you know arguing with my wife the day of
a game is showing up to the game and
still having that focus to be able to
play like I used those things to open up
with them and then in turn they were
able to to take those stories and make
them their own I’ve been making music
now with you know like Tony Bennett for
a couple years and you know Elton John
is you know one of my closest friends
and his husband David and they just have
showed me that like I’m a baby and my
artistry you know and I just have to
keep making music and keep going and so
my focus really for this album is
showing that to to young girls and to
enter boys that want to make music that
you don’t have to get lucky on the
internet it’s not a social media game
you don’t have to find a you know the
the the the hot producer and get the hot
track you know to be a star you can just
learn how to play an instrument and sit
in your room and practice and write
songs and poetry and then you can go
around the corner to the bar and meet
other artists that do the same thing
that you do and you can hang out and
talk about music and write songs and
then you can play at the spot around the
corner and gain one fan and then do it
over and over and over again until
you’re discovered
need to know what your unique strengths
are and be willing to delegate so I
would say that the question of whether
you should take a skill learn it
yourself delegated someone else or hire
new team member are determined by having
a very accurate self assessment and
assessment and B your team skills not
only what you can do but what you should
be doing that’s very important so if
you’re a start-up CEO or founder and you
have a team of say two to ten people as
soon as you have funds to hire you
should not be focused on the things that
you are bad at sounds very very
intuitive but it’s not because you might
have enough time to do those things but
the question is do you have the
attention to dedicate to those things so
they’re not an interruption
especially if you’re a venture back
startup and you’re competing against
other companies that also have a lot of
funding the game the game and the race
goes to the Swift so you have to have you have to have a lot of velocity
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