there needs to be someone who is sort of
the keeper and reiterate er of the
vision because there’s just a tire work
to do and a lot of times you know when
you have to walk a thousand miles and
you take the first step it looks like a
long ways and it really helps if there’s
someone there saying well we’re one step
closer you know the goal definitely
exists it’s not just a mirage out there
so in a thousand and one little and
sometimes larger ways the vision needs
here’s what I do specifically to help
myself
stay focused first things first when I
wake up in the morning I do not sleep
next to my phone the reason why I don’t
sleep next to my phone is because if you
sleep next to it or use it as your alarm
your tendency is to look at it while
you’re in bed that means that you’re
checking email before you’ve even
thought about what your priorities are
do not do that that’s
number two I have a pad of post-it notes
yes posted notes next to my sink in my
bathroom why well because after I brush
my teeth haven’t looked at my phone yet
I take a post-it note out and I write
the three things I need to focus on
today
and then you know what I do now why
would I do that
because I have my phone with me all the
time and so if it’s on the back of my
phone I’m gonna get a visual cue to
remind me and keep it top of mind so I
stay focused on it third thing that I do
it’s a little trick I call 30 before
7:30 what that means I spend 30 minutes
before 7:30 a.m. just focused on getting
my day organized and getting a few of
the things that are my top priorities
either
finished or further down the field
that’s 30 minutes before 7:30 a.m. it’s
time for me
if you utilize those three things don’t
sleep with your phone
right after you brush your teeth right
on your three priorities and stick it on
the back of your phone just like this
and spend 30 minutes before 7:30 for
yourself I promise you you’ll be shocked
and how much more focused you are and
you feel things are packages of emphasis
some things are emphasized in a product
some things are not done as well in a
product some things are chosen not to be
done at all in a product and so
different people make different choices
and if the market tells us we’re making
the wrong choices we listen to the
market we’re just we’re just people
running this company we’re trying to
make great products for people and so
we’re we have at least the courage of
our convictions to say we don’t think
this is part of what makes a great
product we’re gonna leave it out some
people are gonna not like that they’re
gonna call us names it’s not going to be
in certain companies vested interests
that we do that but we’re gonna take the
heat because we want to make the best
product in the world for customers we’re
going to instead focus our energy on
these technologies which we think are in
their ascendency and we think are gonna
be the right technologies for customers
and you know what they’re paying us to
make those choices that’s what a lot of
customers pay us to do is to try to make
the best products we can and if we
succeed they’ll buy them and if we don’t
they won’t
and it will all work itself out truth is
a powerful us land you know we walk
around personal truths then there are
certain principles they’ll help align us
all just be true to your essential self
don’t cover people over and their pas de
yeah he’s a bit annoying Tesco jewel I
think’s really important it’s like you
say when I was a kid he was all like
apartheid and all that stuff and also
woodruf tend to be sort of angry about
it and obviously I could agree with
complete racial integration and racial
equality actually when I was at home at
night I won’t actually I think roof
blown apart really like I say when I got
ripped off like a bus driver and give me
my fare back or when there’s an ATM
charge of 350 I’m prepared charges for
that stuff really affects me and impacts
me you know so what I think we have to
do is recognize where in our own lives
we’ve been ripped off with a ripping us
off left and right you know like we
recognise where those things are
recognize that those things are not
necessary and when people tell you
they’re there is no alternative look at
the people who are telling you that
there’s a funny story that goes along
with how he came up with the title of
this book and we are all to blame here I
am writing a book about the importance
of working with people interacting with
people human relationships and yet the
way I and the publisher interacted was
we would send emails to each other with
title suggestions every now and then we
get on the phone but it was mainly done
through email somebody would send a list
of their favorite and you know somebody
would write back
that’s junk I kind of liked that one and
it was a labored horrible process no one
ever we never agreed we it was just it
was just talking at each other and
coincidence I happen to be walking past
the publishers office and decided to
stick my head in and say hello
went upstairs and we sat down and within
I think 30 or 40 minutes we had a title
that we all fell in love with and what
you realize is is we can tell an idea to
someone over email but you can’t
interact and if you think about how
ideas really happen it’s not
presentation response presentation
response its interruption and backwards
and forwards and battling and saying no
no that’s not what I mean and it’s
messy and it’s the messiness that cannot
happen over and over an internet
connection over email because everything
is exact over you know it can it can
happen over the phone but it’s so much
better in person when you get to see
someone’s body language and you see the
told each other stories as opposed to
telling each other what we think we it
should be and the story that I told was
not being able to understand what made
the Marines so amazing what they do I
sat down with a Marine Corps general
general Flynn actually who wrote the
foreword for the book and I said to him
what makes the Marines so great and he
looked at me and said officers eat last
and it sort of struck me that if you
compare that to the business world in
the entrepreneurial world entrepreneurs
are always told by yourself first look
after yourself first
and yet I’m being told by this Marine
general that it’s the complete opposite
and there’s there’s a symbolic gesture
but more importantly there’s a there’s
an importance to it there there’s a
photograph I saw you know in these Kenya
shootings that just that happened not so
long ago we had the amazing experience
that a photographer I happened to be in
the building usually we see the
aftermath and here we now have
photographs of the actual shooting going
on and there’s one photograph that was
in the New York Times that both haunted
me and inspired me to this day
and wanted me and inspires me I should
say it’s the photograph of a mother and
the sound of gunshots lays herself on
top of her child
and you see this picture of a mother
lying on top of her child and you
realize that’s what it is that’s what
leadership is that when there is danger
it’s not protecting myself but it’s
rather willing to put myself in harm’s
way to protect another that’s what
meeting last means it means that I will
give the very the very essence of life
food and water I will give it to the
person I love first so that they may
live even if it means I eat less and
that’s what officers eat last means it
is symbolic but it is also very real and
real leadership real leaders I’ve even
given up the terminal idea of good
leaders and great leaders you’re either
a leader or you’re not a leader that’s
it
real leaders biological anthropological
leaders are are that mother who
instinctively without weighing the pros
and cons or the bad things that may
happen to her throw herself on their
child that’s what leadership is you know
do we believe that our our leaders would
throw themselves on us you know if they
heard gunshots if if the economy shook
would they quickly throw themselves at
us
that that’s that’s what leaders eat last
means it is very literal it is very very
literal see the you know the
enlightenment realized state that we’d
like everybody to be in and then we have
this kind of mess this quandary that
we’re in right now so how do we make
those little bridging steps we make I
think we attain it within ourselves
initially and we communicate these ideas
on a personal level of spirituality I
can get as you’ve just heard I can be
very verbose and loquacious on the topic
but really it just means being nice it
ain’t hard just be nice you meet a
homeless person being nice you get into
a cab be nice to the person don’t see
yourself as adversarial then the
Revolution as always as already occurred
people fear Armageddon don’t make people
fear the apocalypse don’t know but for
some Armageddon has already occurred the
homeless people that walk our streets
live already in a post-apocalyptic world
Armageddon will surely come for each of
us our own personal Armageddon when each
of us die
isn’t it redundant whether everyone
simultaneously dies if each of us will
individually die regardless Armageddon
is coming so whilst these cataclysmic
principles apply although on the
individual level people who think we
might be able to extend the human
lifespan through biotechnology merging
but what I’m saying is is that what we
have to do is individually reach and
light our own personal alignment we have
to do that the principles are all there
you know this the principles are already
there we achieve detachment through
meditation we no longer been well then
we all know that once we live once we
can achieve enlightenment and once we
put our satisfaction beyond that our
individual needs we are no longer
malleable by the pre-existing system the
system requires us to be a selfish
little consumerist pods once we go out
I’m not bothered about that it’s easy
for me except being famous now I know
that’s boring I’ve been rich now I know
that’s boring loads of people now I know
that’s boring took loads of drugs now no
that’s boring so all that’s left is
spiritual enlightenment
it’s sad to see that people are
disenchanted and nihilistic and
depressed and anxious and aimless and
and perverse and vengeful and and all of
those things it’s terrible and then to
see people question whether that’s
necessary and then to start to rise out
of it it’s like it’s so fun like last
night I was at after my talk it’s
overwhelming I don’t usually think about
these things but I was I was after my
talk last night and so all these people
line up and you know they have their 15
15 seconds with me and they’re kind of
tentative they’re excited and attentive
when they come up to talk to me and then
they have you know 15 seconds of time to
tell me something I’m really listening
to them and they’re hesitant about
whether or not to share the good news
about their life you know and I think
it’s often because when people share
good news about their life people don’t
necessarily respond positively you know
they don’t get encouragement and people
need so little encouragement it’s just
unbelievable and so they’re telling
something good and I’m like ah that’s so
good you know somebody says well I’m
getting along way better with my father
I haven’t seen him for 10 years and now
we get a little almost like oh god great
and the power of that you can’t
overstate the power of that for
individuals to get their life together
the individual is an unbelievably
powerful force and every single person
who gets their act together a little bit
has the capacity to spread that around
them it’s it’s a chain reaction and so
it’s a lovely thing to see I had a
really interesting thing the other day
about I don’t know who this yogi was you
might be able to work out from there
from the anecdote Bertrand Russell the
intellectual and early CND campaign for
nuclear disarmament pioneer was like
through the end of his line I think
we’ll committed to that whole CND deal
and they were visited by a yogi who said
to him look you know what does it matter
if we get rid of nuclear weapons we are
still the consciousness that created
nuclear weapons they will find some
other outlet what we need to address is
the inner space this intention this
tenshun the desire to create that kind
of technology as long as we have that
where we won’t we won’t resolve the
issue the nuclear weapon is a symbol and
emblem and expression of that phenomena
of that frequency so we should address
that and Bertrand Russell said below
let’s just go really significant issue
you got time again your mystical bloody
Vedic approach to it let’s get rid of
the weapons I think it’s possible to
agree with both men in that instance and
like that all that you know the people
that criticize me people that adore me
they’re responding really to themselves
they’re responding to their own
consciousness they’re responding to
their own reality and so I try to now I
know what my intention is I know where
my attention is and that is what defines
my life I try not to be to allow my
experience of reality to be too diluted
by half of people’s input I mean I love
the approval and I’m not so keen on the
condemnation but like also I look a lot
at the source I look a lot where it
comes from and like you know I don’t
mind FoxNews hating me I’m okay with
that I’m okay with that you know that I
can’t change who I am for Fox News what
would I become psychologists have been
not all psychologists obviously but the
psychological profession is its neck
deep in this in this pathology has been
beating these self-esteem drum for 50
years
oh no you’re okay you should feel good
about yourself like you’re fine the way
you are it’s like you think well that’s
a calming message for people it’s like
no it’s not it’s not at all and I
watched my audience this is like it’s
full of people in the audience who think
I’m suffering a lot more than I think is
tenable a whole bunch of it’s my fault
my life is not in the order it should be
I know I’m doing 50 things wrong it’s
like what the hell is wrong with me
what’s wrong with the people around me
this is really serious and some you know
well-meaning person comes up and says oh
you’re okay just the way you are it’s
like no one wants that message it’s like
no I’m not okay the way I am I’m not
okay at all the way I am I know that and
so you know when I’m
speaking to to when I’m speaking now I
say to people well oh you’re nowhere
near what you could be that’s that
that’s the positive message it’s like
yeah you’re a mass but you don’t have to
stay that way as you’re a mass you know
it obviously you’re suffering away like
like so much you can barely tolerate it
it’s like that’s okay you can do
something about it so yeah it’s the
thing that that turns the lights on it’s
like you could do something about it so
I call you were honored for you think
that the characters like Good Will
Hunting ones
yeah Good Will Hunting was here won the
Academy Award for that is there any
place that you want to be I think I am
right now it’s a good play that’s
exactly right
yeah to me about that just oh oh share
with know cheer very justified brother
is that feeling of being you know doing
like the stand-up but combined with
one-hour photo insomnia you know kind of
pushing the envelope in terms of what
people perceive I can do especially in
playing a character you know these
darker you know troubled and in many
cases you know nasty vicious and that
helps to just you know push it through
because if you’re looking at now when
you once you it’s at this age to say
you’re playing characters now which is
what I always took was doing before but
now it’s a but it’s that idea of you
know playing these characters and doing
this it’s been a great combination like
a really good year to just push the
envelope and I think that’s always what
I want to do is to try different things
and kind of always change perceptions
and change the rhythm you could yeah
break up it’s merely the rhythm it’s
basically saying okay now we hit it and
you know that and then you know hit a
little harder and then back off and then
go berserk like you know with the stand
up which is just free form and then come
back and play something so controlled
like him on our photo those are all
possible I mean it I was trained at
Juilliard
you know I won’t you know went for three
years and left and then you know when
did stand up but the stand up was always
just kind of a great release and then
still having that ability to play
you know both and having that that range
really helps for me it’s great and you
mentioned the other part having great
friends and family they just make life
extraordinary and a world to still go
out and see and learn about which is the
most important of all do not cast pearls
before swine and what that means is that
if people are not listening to you stop
talking to them and that’s really that
is the best piece of advice that I can
give you and what happens is is that if
you stop talking to people who aren’t
listening to you and start watching them
instead they will tell you what they’re
up to
but so if you have things to say you say
them but you find people that will
listen talk to them the ones who aren’t
listening pull back because you’re
you’re devaluing what you have to say by
offering it to an audience that does
nothing but rejected and that’s a good
guideline to life in general
so pull back a lot of people kind of
mean they say well I want to be an
entrepreneur and I go that’s great
what’s your idea and they go well I
don’t have one yet and I say well I
think you should go get a job as a
busboy or something till you find
something you’re really passionate about
because it’s a lot of work and I’m
convinced that about half of what
separates the successful entrepreneurs
from the non successful ones is pure
perseverance it is so hard you pour so
much your life into this thing there are
such rough moments in time that most
people give up I don’t blame them it’s
really tough and it consumes your life I
mean if you’re if you’ve got a family
and you’re in the early days of a
company it’s I can’t imagine how one
could do it I’m sure it’s it’s been done
but it’s rough I mean because it’s a
pretty much you know an 18-hour day job
seven days a week for a while so unless
you have a lot of passion about this
you’re gonna not survive you’re gonna
give it up so you got to have an idea of
a knife or a problem or
wrong that you want to write that you’re
passionate about otherwise you’re not
going to have the perseverance to stick
it through and I think that’s half the
battle right there it’s hard to remember
how bad it was you know in 1980s with
IBM taking over the world with the PC
with Doss out there it was it was far
worse than the Apple – they tried to
copy the Apple – and they’ve done a
pretty bad job and if you needed to know
a lot and so things were kind of
slipping backwards and Macintosh was you
saw the 1984 commercial but I hope you
have that in your archives
you know Macintosh was basically this
this relatively small company you know
in Cupertino California taking on the
Goliath IBM and saying wait a minute
your way is wrong this is not the way we
want computers to go this is not the
legacy we want to leave this is not what
we want our kids to be learning this is
wrong and we are going to show you the
right way to do it and here it is it’s
called Macintosh and this is so much
better that it’s gonna beat you and we
are gonna do it and that’s what Apple
stood for
I find that levels of success in almost
any industry or area correlate to a
person asking great questions in some
cases they seem absurd in fact the
hallmarking way of great questions is
that sound completely ridiculous so
someone might ask why Peter Thiel why
can’t you achieve your 10 year goals in
the next six months it’s a thought
exercise that’s like–that’s that’s a
good question to answer for yourself and
these types of questions come up
surprisingly often with with very very
impressive folks whether it’s in
business military entertainment or
otherwise and the way you can get better
at questions is by studying interviews
in part so I studied Larry King I
studied Charlie Rose
I studied Terry Gross I studied that
that go down the list
I studied twenty Robbins who does in
person one-on-one interventions at his
events in front of ten thousand five
thousand people and he’s just genius
with how he uses questions to like
pattern interrupt and grab someone’s
attention and divert them in a more
productive productive direction now why
is that relevant relevant because
thinking is the process of asking
questions you’re asking yourself
questions and then you’re answering them
in your own head so if you get better at
asking other people questions you get
better at asking yourself questions
which means you are a you’re improving
your thought performance and level of
thinking some of them are gonna sound
like well you’ve heard it before but
it’s you know were three emphasizing I
think the first is you need to work if
you depend upon how well you want to do
and particularly if you’re starting a
company you need to work super hard so
what is super heart mean well when my
brother and I were studying our first
company instead of getting an apartment
we just rented us a small office and we
slept on the couch and we showered away
and we’re so hot up we had just one
computer so the compass of the the
website was up during the day and I was
coding at night the seven days a week
all the time and I sort of briefly had a
girlfriend in that period and in order
to deal with me she had to sleep in the
office so I work hard like it you mean
every waking hour that’s that’s the the
thing I would I would say if you’re
particularly if you’re starting a
company and I mean if you do simple math
to say like okay if somebody else is
working 50 hours and you’re working a
hundred you’ll get twice as done as much
done in the course of a year as the
other company the other thing I’d say is
that if you’re creating a company or if
you’re joining a company the most
important thing is to is to attract
great people so either be would join a
group that’s amazing that you’re really
respected or if you’ve building a
company you’ve got to gather great
people I mean all the company is is a
group of people that have gathered
together to create a product or service
and so depending upon how talented and
hardworking that group is and degree to
which they are focused cohesively in a
good direction that will determine the
success of the company
so do everything you can to to gather
great people if you’re creating a
I’d say focus on on signal over noise a
lot of companies get get confused that
they spend money on things that don’t
actually make the product better so for
example at Tesla with we’ve never spent
any money on advertising we put all the
money into R&D and manufacturing and
design to try to make the car as good as
possible
and I think that’s that’s the way to go
so before for any given company just
keep thinking about are these efforts
that people are expending are they
resulting in a better product or service
and if they’re not stop those efforts
and then the final thing is is to sort
of don’t just follow the trend so you
may have heard me say it that it’s good
to think in terms of the physics
approach of first principles which is
rather than reasoning by analogy you
boil things down to the most fundamental
truths you can imagine and you reason up
from there and this is a good way to
figure out if if something really makes
sense or if it’s just what everybody
else is doing and it’s hard to think
that way you can’t think think that way
about everything takes a lot of effort
but if you’re trying to do something new
it’s the best way to think and that
framework was developed but by
physicists to figure out
counterintuitive things like quantum
mechanics so it’s really a powerful
powerful message and anyway so that’s
and then I think that’s the final thing
I would encourage you to do is now is
the time to take risk you don’t have
yeah you don’t have you don’t have kids
your obligation troops a 12-7 joint
[Laughter]
probably that because the but as you as
you get older your obligations increase
so you and once you have a family you
start taking risk not just for yourself
but for your family as well it gets much
harder to do things that might not work
out so now is the time to do that before
you before you have those obligations so
I would encourage you to take risks now
do something bold you won’t regret it
thank you only should expect to make
money and things that I understand and
when I say understand I don’t mean
understand you know what the product
does or anything like that I mean
understand what the economics of the
business are likely to look at look like
ten years from now or 20 years from now
I know in general what the economics of
say Wrigley chewing gum will look like
10 years now the Internet is going to
change the way people chew gum it isn’t
going to change what you come they chew
you know if you own the chewing gum
market in a big way and you’ve got
double mint spearmint and juicy fruit
those brands will be there 10 years soon
Alyssa I can’t pinpoint exactly what the
numbers are gonna look like on Wrigley
but I’m not gonna be way off if I try to
look forward on something like that that
evaluating that company is within what I
call my circle of competence I
understand what they do I understand the
economics of it I understand the
competitive aspect
of the business so figuring out the
economic consequences TV
I think there’s I don’t know 20 25
million cents a year so in the United
States I don’t think there’s one of them
made in the United States anymore I mean
you’d say TV set manufacturer what a
wonderful business like everybody nobody
had a TV in 1950 or thereabouts 45 to 50
everybody has multiple sets now nobody
is in the United States and made any
real money making the sense that they’re
all out of business
you know the Magnavox was the RCA is all
of those companies radio was the
equipment of the 20 over 500 companies
making radios in the nineteen twenties
again I don’t think there’s a u.s. radio
manufacturer at the present time but
coca-cola you know I was at 1884 Jacobs
pharmacy or whatever and fellow comes up
with something about a copiers over
the years but now you’ve got a company
that is selling roughly 1.1 billion
eight ounce servings of its product not
all cokes right and some others daily
throughout the world honored seventeen
years later so understanding the
economic characteristics of a business
it’s different than predicting the fact
that an industry is going to do
wonderfully so I look at the internet
businesses or I look at tech messes I
say this is a marvelous thing and I love
to play around of the computer and order
my books from Amazon and all kinds of
things but I don’t know who’s gonna win
unless I know who’s gonna win I’m not
interested in the best thing I’ll just
play around on the computer and defining
your circle of competence is the most
important aspect of investing it’s not
how important how large your circle is
you don’t have to be an expert on
everything but knowing where the
perimeter of that circle of what you
know on what you don’t know is and stay
inside of it is all important Tom Watson
seniors started IBM said in his book he
said I’m no genius he said but I’m smart
in spots and I stay around those spots
you know that is the key so if I
understand a few things and I stick in
that arena I’ll do okay and if I don’t
understand something but I get all
excited about it because my neighbors
are talking about the stocks are going
up everything they start fooling around
someplace else eventually I’ll get
creamed and I should alright last
question three pieces of advice to
entrepreneurs what are your three pieces
I’m an entrepreneur so you can share
them with okay what would you what would
you how would you advise me well I
really taken some thoughts like how can
I provide advice that would be most
helpful and I’m not sure I’ve given
enough thought to to that to give you
the best possible answer but I think I
think it’s certainly being focused on
something that you’re confident will
have high value to someone else and just
being really rigorous in making that
assessment because people are attend
tend to natural human tendencies wishful
thinking so a challenge for
entrepreneurs is to say well what’s the
difference between really believing in
your ideals and sticking sticking to
them versus pursuing some unrealistic
dream that doesn’t actually have merit
and it’s it’s that is it that is a
really difficult thing to to tell you
can you tell the difference between
those two things
yeah so you need to be sort of very
rigorous in your self as help analysis I
think certainly extremely tenacious and
and then just work like hell I mean you
just have to put in you know 80 hour 80
100 hour weeks every week
yes and then I like that all those
things improve the odds of success okay
I mean if other people are putting in 40
hour work weeks and you’re putting in
100 hour work weeks then even if you’re
doing the same thing you know that in
one year you will achieve what that she
you you will achieve in four months what
it takes them a year to achieve there is
very little difference if any between a
very high priced business education and
what’s available a lot for a lot less
money so I I went to the University of
nebraska-lincoln my last year in college
I went to Wharton for a couple of years
before that I learned just as much at
the university of Braska as I did at
Wharton at and there’s nothing against
the warden I’m he’s just me we had a
very good school there I had some
terrific professors that at Lincoln and
so I would not assume that if I was
paying a few thousand dollars for an
education here in the state for example
versus paying huge amounts elsewhere
that it was going to make a lot of
difference most a lot of the education
you need to be prodded in the right
direction but an awful lot of it is
itself the self-taught I mean Andrew
Carnegie did a wonderful thing in this
country in terms of libraries and I used
to spend a lot of time allows I have
locked in at the University of Omaha
what was then the University of Omaha
and they had I couldn’t get out for
hours and
the night that got stolen transfer what
I was reading but it there’s there’s all
kinds of information available now with
the internet it’s so much you know
easier than it was then so it’s out
there to be taken and it isn’t necessary
to pay thirty or thirty five thousand
dollars a year to go to some big-name
school to get the education at all I
mean if you’re gonna learn accounting
it’s gonna which is the probably the
most important course you take in
business you’re gonna learn to County
learn accounting absolutely as well and
my view going to you and always going to
Harvard I mean I see I would bet on that
and so I wouldn’t run up huge bills in
terms of getting a business education
now you know if you’re gonna get a
medical education I mean there’s certain
professions where there may not be any
way around spending a fair amount of
money and getting in debt to some degree
we’ve got to make that decision yourself
but I’d certainly try to minimize it and
and I would sort of I would have it
figured out how I would handle that debt
and say a five year period after I got
out of school or I would think twice
about incurring it I we start a lien on
the house still facing bankruptcy still
fighting like crazy I was still
unemployed
he still they still hadn’t figured out
like the solution yet for the business
and I was about to turn off the TV and
there on the TV there was this rocket
launching and I thought oh my gosh I am
gonna launch myself out of bed like a
rocket ship like NASA right here had
launched me out of that bed
and I’m gonna move so fast that I don’t
think hmm I’m gonna beat my brain now
here’s a really interesting point I
talked a lot about your instincts and
inner wisdom and we can get into this a
little bit later but a lot of us talk
about the fact that you have a gut
feeling but what all this research that
I’ve done for the book and and all the
speaking that I do what I’ve discovered
that’s fascinating is actually when you
set goals when you have an intention on
something that you want to change about
your life your brain helps you what it
does is it opens up a checklist and then
your brain goes to work trying to remind
you yeah of that intention that you set
and it’s really important to develop the
skill and I say that word purposefully
the skill of knowing how to hear that
inner wisdom and that intention kicking
in and leaning into it quickly so for me
my brain saying that’s it right there
move as fast as a rocket Mel I wanted to
change my life and I think most people
that are miserable or that are that are
really like dying to be great and dying
to have more we want to change we want
to live a better life we want to create
more for our families we want to be
happier the the desire is there again
it’s about how do you go from knowledge
to actions so the first thing in the
story that’s important is realizing that
the answer was in me and my mind was
telling me pay attention could have also
been the Bourbon
at night anyway the next morning the
alarm goes off and I pretended NASA was
there it’s the stupidest story I
literally went five four three two one I
counted out loud and then I stood up and
I’ll never forget standing there in my
bedroom it was dark it was cold it was
winter in Boston and for the first time
in three months I had beaten my habit of
hitting the snooze button I couldn’t
believe it and I thought wait a minute
counting backwards said is the dumbest
thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life
well the next morning I used it again
and it worked the next morning I used it
again and it worked the next morning I
used it again and it worked and then I
started to notice something really
interesting there were moments all day
long all day long
just like that five-second moment in bed
where I knew knowledge what I should do
and if I didn’t move within five seconds
my brain would step in and talk me out
of it
every human being has a five-second
window might even be shorter for you you
have about a five-second window in which
you can move from idea to action before
your brain kicks into full gear and
sabotages any change in behavior because
remember your brain is wired to stop you
from doing things that are uncomfortable
or uncertain or scary it’s your job to
learn how to move from those ideas that
could change everything into acting on
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 their walloped by God which
is like fairly frequently they say we
must have done something wrong and we
have to set our self right and that’s 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 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 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 that starts a loop
the keeper and reiterate er of the
vision because there’s just a tire work
to do and a lot of times you know when
you have to walk a thousand miles and
you take the first step it looks like a
long ways and it really helps if there’s
someone there saying well we’re one step
closer you know the goal definitely
exists it’s not just a mirage out there
so in a thousand and one little and
sometimes larger ways the vision needs
here’s what I do specifically to help
myself
stay focused first things first when I
wake up in the morning I do not sleep
next to my phone the reason why I don’t
sleep next to my phone is because if you
sleep next to it or use it as your alarm
your tendency is to look at it while
you’re in bed that means that you’re
checking email before you’ve even
thought about what your priorities are
do not do that that’s
number two I have a pad of post-it notes
yes posted notes next to my sink in my
bathroom why well because after I brush
my teeth haven’t looked at my phone yet
I take a post-it note out and I write
the three things I need to focus on
today
and then you know what I do now why
would I do that
because I have my phone with me all the
time and so if it’s on the back of my
phone I’m gonna get a visual cue to
remind me and keep it top of mind so I
stay focused on it third thing that I do
it’s a little trick I call 30 before
7:30 what that means I spend 30 minutes
before 7:30 a.m. just focused on getting
my day organized and getting a few of
the things that are my top priorities
either
finished or further down the field
that’s 30 minutes before 7:30 a.m. it’s
time for me
if you utilize those three things don’t
sleep with your phone
right after you brush your teeth right
on your three priorities and stick it on
the back of your phone just like this
and spend 30 minutes before 7:30 for
yourself I promise you you’ll be shocked
and how much more focused you are and
you feel things are packages of emphasis
some things are emphasized in a product
some things are not done as well in a
product some things are chosen not to be
done at all in a product and so
different people make different choices
and if the market tells us we’re making
the wrong choices we listen to the
market we’re just we’re just people
running this company we’re trying to
make great products for people and so
we’re we have at least the courage of
our convictions to say we don’t think
this is part of what makes a great
product we’re gonna leave it out some
people are gonna not like that they’re
gonna call us names it’s not going to be
in certain companies vested interests
that we do that but we’re gonna take the
heat because we want to make the best
product in the world for customers we’re
going to instead focus our energy on
these technologies which we think are in
their ascendency and we think are gonna
be the right technologies for customers
and you know what they’re paying us to
make those choices that’s what a lot of
customers pay us to do is to try to make
the best products we can and if we
succeed they’ll buy them and if we don’t
they won’t
and it will all work itself out truth is
a powerful us land you know we walk
around personal truths then there are
certain principles they’ll help align us
all just be true to your essential self
don’t cover people over and their pas de
yeah he’s a bit annoying Tesco jewel I
think’s really important it’s like you
say when I was a kid he was all like
apartheid and all that stuff and also
woodruf tend to be sort of angry about
it and obviously I could agree with
complete racial integration and racial
equality actually when I was at home at
night I won’t actually I think roof
blown apart really like I say when I got
ripped off like a bus driver and give me
my fare back or when there’s an ATM
charge of 350 I’m prepared charges for
that stuff really affects me and impacts
me you know so what I think we have to
do is recognize where in our own lives
we’ve been ripped off with a ripping us
off left and right you know like we
recognise where those things are
recognize that those things are not
necessary and when people tell you
they’re there is no alternative look at
the people who are telling you that
there’s a funny story that goes along
with how he came up with the title of
this book and we are all to blame here I
am writing a book about the importance
of working with people interacting with
people human relationships and yet the
way I and the publisher interacted was
we would send emails to each other with
title suggestions every now and then we
get on the phone but it was mainly done
through email somebody would send a list
of their favorite and you know somebody
would write back
that’s junk I kind of liked that one and
it was a labored horrible process no one
ever we never agreed we it was just it
was just talking at each other and
coincidence I happen to be walking past
the publishers office and decided to
stick my head in and say hello
went upstairs and we sat down and within
I think 30 or 40 minutes we had a title
that we all fell in love with and what
you realize is is we can tell an idea to
someone over email but you can’t
interact and if you think about how
ideas really happen it’s not
presentation response presentation
response its interruption and backwards
and forwards and battling and saying no
no that’s not what I mean and it’s
messy and it’s the messiness that cannot
happen over and over an internet
connection over email because everything
is exact over you know it can it can
happen over the phone but it’s so much
better in person when you get to see
someone’s body language and you see the
told each other stories as opposed to
telling each other what we think we it
should be and the story that I told was
not being able to understand what made
the Marines so amazing what they do I
sat down with a Marine Corps general
general Flynn actually who wrote the
foreword for the book and I said to him
what makes the Marines so great and he
looked at me and said officers eat last
and it sort of struck me that if you
compare that to the business world in
the entrepreneurial world entrepreneurs
are always told by yourself first look
after yourself first
and yet I’m being told by this Marine
general that it’s the complete opposite
and there’s there’s a symbolic gesture
but more importantly there’s a there’s
an importance to it there there’s a
photograph I saw you know in these Kenya
shootings that just that happened not so
long ago we had the amazing experience
that a photographer I happened to be in
the building usually we see the
aftermath and here we now have
photographs of the actual shooting going
on and there’s one photograph that was
in the New York Times that both haunted
me and inspired me to this day
and wanted me and inspires me I should
say it’s the photograph of a mother and
the sound of gunshots lays herself on
top of her child
and you see this picture of a mother
lying on top of her child and you
realize that’s what it is that’s what
leadership is that when there is danger
it’s not protecting myself but it’s
rather willing to put myself in harm’s
way to protect another that’s what
meeting last means it means that I will
give the very the very essence of life
food and water I will give it to the
person I love first so that they may
live even if it means I eat less and
that’s what officers eat last means it
is symbolic but it is also very real and
real leadership real leaders I’ve even
given up the terminal idea of good
leaders and great leaders you’re either
a leader or you’re not a leader that’s
it
real leaders biological anthropological
leaders are are that mother who
instinctively without weighing the pros
and cons or the bad things that may
happen to her throw herself on their
child that’s what leadership is you know
do we believe that our our leaders would
throw themselves on us you know if they
heard gunshots if if the economy shook
would they quickly throw themselves at
us
that that’s that’s what leaders eat last
means it is very literal it is very very
literal see the you know the
enlightenment realized state that we’d
like everybody to be in and then we have
this kind of mess this quandary that
we’re in right now so how do we make
those little bridging steps we make I
think we attain it within ourselves
initially and we communicate these ideas
on a personal level of spirituality I
can get as you’ve just heard I can be
very verbose and loquacious on the topic
but really it just means being nice it
ain’t hard just be nice you meet a
homeless person being nice you get into
a cab be nice to the person don’t see
yourself as adversarial then the
Revolution as always as already occurred
people fear Armageddon don’t make people
fear the apocalypse don’t know but for
some Armageddon has already occurred the
homeless people that walk our streets
live already in a post-apocalyptic world
Armageddon will surely come for each of
us our own personal Armageddon when each
of us die
isn’t it redundant whether everyone
simultaneously dies if each of us will
individually die regardless Armageddon
is coming so whilst these cataclysmic
principles apply although on the
individual level people who think we
might be able to extend the human
lifespan through biotechnology merging
but what I’m saying is is that what we
have to do is individually reach and
light our own personal alignment we have
to do that the principles are all there
you know this the principles are already
there we achieve detachment through
meditation we no longer been well then
we all know that once we live once we
can achieve enlightenment and once we
put our satisfaction beyond that our
individual needs we are no longer
malleable by the pre-existing system the
system requires us to be a selfish
little consumerist pods once we go out
I’m not bothered about that it’s easy
for me except being famous now I know
that’s boring I’ve been rich now I know
that’s boring loads of people now I know
that’s boring took loads of drugs now no
that’s boring so all that’s left is
spiritual enlightenment
it’s sad to see that people are
disenchanted and nihilistic and
depressed and anxious and aimless and
and perverse and vengeful and and all of
those things it’s terrible and then to
see people question whether that’s
necessary and then to start to rise out
of it it’s like it’s so fun like last
night I was at after my talk it’s
overwhelming I don’t usually think about
these things but I was I was after my
talk last night and so all these people
line up and you know they have their 15
15 seconds with me and they’re kind of
tentative they’re excited and attentive
when they come up to talk to me and then
they have you know 15 seconds of time to
tell me something I’m really listening
to them and they’re hesitant about
whether or not to share the good news
about their life you know and I think
it’s often because when people share
good news about their life people don’t
necessarily respond positively you know
they don’t get encouragement and people
need so little encouragement it’s just
unbelievable and so they’re telling
something good and I’m like ah that’s so
good you know somebody says well I’m
getting along way better with my father
I haven’t seen him for 10 years and now
we get a little almost like oh god great
and the power of that you can’t
overstate the power of that for
individuals to get their life together
the individual is an unbelievably
powerful force and every single person
who gets their act together a little bit
has the capacity to spread that around
them it’s it’s a chain reaction and so
it’s a lovely thing to see I had a
really interesting thing the other day
about I don’t know who this yogi was you
might be able to work out from there
from the anecdote Bertrand Russell the
intellectual and early CND campaign for
nuclear disarmament pioneer was like
through the end of his line I think
we’ll committed to that whole CND deal
and they were visited by a yogi who said
to him look you know what does it matter
if we get rid of nuclear weapons we are
still the consciousness that created
nuclear weapons they will find some
other outlet what we need to address is
the inner space this intention this
tenshun the desire to create that kind
of technology as long as we have that
where we won’t we won’t resolve the
issue the nuclear weapon is a symbol and
emblem and expression of that phenomena
of that frequency so we should address
that and Bertrand Russell said below
let’s just go really significant issue
you got time again your mystical bloody
Vedic approach to it let’s get rid of
the weapons I think it’s possible to
agree with both men in that instance and
like that all that you know the people
that criticize me people that adore me
they’re responding really to themselves
they’re responding to their own
consciousness they’re responding to
their own reality and so I try to now I
know what my intention is I know where
my attention is and that is what defines
my life I try not to be to allow my
experience of reality to be too diluted
by half of people’s input I mean I love
the approval and I’m not so keen on the
condemnation but like also I look a lot
at the source I look a lot where it
comes from and like you know I don’t
mind FoxNews hating me I’m okay with
that I’m okay with that you know that I
can’t change who I am for Fox News what
would I become psychologists have been
not all psychologists obviously but the
psychological profession is its neck
deep in this in this pathology has been
beating these self-esteem drum for 50
years
oh no you’re okay you should feel good
about yourself like you’re fine the way
you are it’s like you think well that’s
a calming message for people it’s like
no it’s not it’s not at all and I
watched my audience this is like it’s
full of people in the audience who think
I’m suffering a lot more than I think is
tenable a whole bunch of it’s my fault
my life is not in the order it should be
I know I’m doing 50 things wrong it’s
like what the hell is wrong with me
what’s wrong with the people around me
this is really serious and some you know
well-meaning person comes up and says oh
you’re okay just the way you are it’s
like no one wants that message it’s like
no I’m not okay the way I am I’m not
okay at all the way I am I know that and
so you know when I’m
speaking to to when I’m speaking now I
say to people well oh you’re nowhere
near what you could be that’s that
that’s the positive message it’s like
yeah you’re a mass but you don’t have to
stay that way as you’re a mass you know
it obviously you’re suffering away like
like so much you can barely tolerate it
it’s like that’s okay you can do
something about it so yeah it’s the
thing that that turns the lights on it’s
like you could do something about it so
I call you were honored for you think
that the characters like Good Will
Hunting ones
yeah Good Will Hunting was here won the
Academy Award for that is there any
place that you want to be I think I am
right now it’s a good play that’s
exactly right
yeah to me about that just oh oh share
with know cheer very justified brother
is that feeling of being you know doing
like the stand-up but combined with
one-hour photo insomnia you know kind of
pushing the envelope in terms of what
people perceive I can do especially in
playing a character you know these
darker you know troubled and in many
cases you know nasty vicious and that
helps to just you know push it through
because if you’re looking at now when
you once you it’s at this age to say
you’re playing characters now which is
what I always took was doing before but
now it’s a but it’s that idea of you
know playing these characters and doing
this it’s been a great combination like
a really good year to just push the
envelope and I think that’s always what
I want to do is to try different things
and kind of always change perceptions
and change the rhythm you could yeah
break up it’s merely the rhythm it’s
basically saying okay now we hit it and
you know that and then you know hit a
little harder and then back off and then
go berserk like you know with the stand
up which is just free form and then come
back and play something so controlled
like him on our photo those are all
possible I mean it I was trained at
Juilliard
you know I won’t you know went for three
years and left and then you know when
did stand up but the stand up was always
just kind of a great release and then
still having that ability to play
you know both and having that that range
really helps for me it’s great and you
mentioned the other part having great
friends and family they just make life
extraordinary and a world to still go
out and see and learn about which is the
most important of all do not cast pearls
before swine and what that means is that
if people are not listening to you stop
talking to them and that’s really that
is the best piece of advice that I can
give you and what happens is is that if
you stop talking to people who aren’t
listening to you and start watching them
instead they will tell you what they’re
up to
but so if you have things to say you say
them but you find people that will
listen talk to them the ones who aren’t
listening pull back because you’re
you’re devaluing what you have to say by
offering it to an audience that does
nothing but rejected and that’s a good
guideline to life in general
so pull back a lot of people kind of
mean they say well I want to be an
entrepreneur and I go that’s great
what’s your idea and they go well I
don’t have one yet and I say well I
think you should go get a job as a
busboy or something till you find
something you’re really passionate about
because it’s a lot of work and I’m
convinced that about half of what
separates the successful entrepreneurs
from the non successful ones is pure
perseverance it is so hard you pour so
much your life into this thing there are
such rough moments in time that most
people give up I don’t blame them it’s
really tough and it consumes your life I
mean if you’re if you’ve got a family
and you’re in the early days of a
company it’s I can’t imagine how one
could do it I’m sure it’s it’s been done
but it’s rough I mean because it’s a
pretty much you know an 18-hour day job
seven days a week for a while so unless
you have a lot of passion about this
you’re gonna not survive you’re gonna
give it up so you got to have an idea of
a knife or a problem or
wrong that you want to write that you’re
passionate about otherwise you’re not
going to have the perseverance to stick
it through and I think that’s half the
battle right there it’s hard to remember
how bad it was you know in 1980s with
IBM taking over the world with the PC
with Doss out there it was it was far
worse than the Apple – they tried to
copy the Apple – and they’ve done a
pretty bad job and if you needed to know
a lot and so things were kind of
slipping backwards and Macintosh was you
saw the 1984 commercial but I hope you
have that in your archives
you know Macintosh was basically this
this relatively small company you know
in Cupertino California taking on the
Goliath IBM and saying wait a minute
your way is wrong this is not the way we
want computers to go this is not the
legacy we want to leave this is not what
we want our kids to be learning this is
wrong and we are going to show you the
right way to do it and here it is it’s
called Macintosh and this is so much
better that it’s gonna beat you and we
are gonna do it and that’s what Apple
stood for
I find that levels of success in almost
any industry or area correlate to a
person asking great questions in some
cases they seem absurd in fact the
hallmarking way of great questions is
that sound completely ridiculous so
someone might ask why Peter Thiel why
can’t you achieve your 10 year goals in
the next six months it’s a thought
exercise that’s like–that’s that’s a
good question to answer for yourself and
these types of questions come up
surprisingly often with with very very
impressive folks whether it’s in
business military entertainment or
otherwise and the way you can get better
at questions is by studying interviews
in part so I studied Larry King I
studied Charlie Rose
I studied Terry Gross I studied that
that go down the list
I studied twenty Robbins who does in
person one-on-one interventions at his
events in front of ten thousand five
thousand people and he’s just genius
with how he uses questions to like
pattern interrupt and grab someone’s
attention and divert them in a more
productive productive direction now why
is that relevant relevant because
thinking is the process of asking
questions you’re asking yourself
questions and then you’re answering them
in your own head so if you get better at
asking other people questions you get
better at asking yourself questions
which means you are a you’re improving
your thought performance and level of
thinking some of them are gonna sound
like well you’ve heard it before but
it’s you know were three emphasizing I
think the first is you need to work if
you depend upon how well you want to do
and particularly if you’re starting a
company you need to work super hard so
what is super heart mean well when my
brother and I were studying our first
company instead of getting an apartment
we just rented us a small office and we
slept on the couch and we showered away
and we’re so hot up we had just one
computer so the compass of the the
website was up during the day and I was
coding at night the seven days a week
all the time and I sort of briefly had a
girlfriend in that period and in order
to deal with me she had to sleep in the
office so I work hard like it you mean
every waking hour that’s that’s the the
thing I would I would say if you’re
particularly if you’re starting a
company and I mean if you do simple math
to say like okay if somebody else is
working 50 hours and you’re working a
hundred you’ll get twice as done as much
done in the course of a year as the
other company the other thing I’d say is
that if you’re creating a company or if
you’re joining a company the most
important thing is to is to attract
great people so either be would join a
group that’s amazing that you’re really
respected or if you’ve building a
company you’ve got to gather great
people I mean all the company is is a
group of people that have gathered
together to create a product or service
and so depending upon how talented and
hardworking that group is and degree to
which they are focused cohesively in a
good direction that will determine the
success of the company
so do everything you can to to gather
great people if you’re creating a
I’d say focus on on signal over noise a
lot of companies get get confused that
they spend money on things that don’t
actually make the product better so for
example at Tesla with we’ve never spent
any money on advertising we put all the
money into R&D and manufacturing and
design to try to make the car as good as
possible
and I think that’s that’s the way to go
so before for any given company just
keep thinking about are these efforts
that people are expending are they
resulting in a better product or service
and if they’re not stop those efforts
and then the final thing is is to sort
of don’t just follow the trend so you
may have heard me say it that it’s good
to think in terms of the physics
approach of first principles which is
rather than reasoning by analogy you
boil things down to the most fundamental
truths you can imagine and you reason up
from there and this is a good way to
figure out if if something really makes
sense or if it’s just what everybody
else is doing and it’s hard to think
that way you can’t think think that way
about everything takes a lot of effort
but if you’re trying to do something new
it’s the best way to think and that
framework was developed but by
physicists to figure out
counterintuitive things like quantum
mechanics so it’s really a powerful
powerful message and anyway so that’s
and then I think that’s the final thing
I would encourage you to do is now is
the time to take risk you don’t have
yeah you don’t have you don’t have kids
your obligation troops a 12-7 joint
[Laughter]
probably that because the but as you as
you get older your obligations increase
so you and once you have a family you
start taking risk not just for yourself
but for your family as well it gets much
harder to do things that might not work
out so now is the time to do that before
you before you have those obligations so
I would encourage you to take risks now
do something bold you won’t regret it
thank you only should expect to make
money and things that I understand and
when I say understand I don’t mean
understand you know what the product
does or anything like that I mean
understand what the economics of the
business are likely to look at look like
ten years from now or 20 years from now
I know in general what the economics of
say Wrigley chewing gum will look like
10 years now the Internet is going to
change the way people chew gum it isn’t
going to change what you come they chew
you know if you own the chewing gum
market in a big way and you’ve got
double mint spearmint and juicy fruit
those brands will be there 10 years soon
Alyssa I can’t pinpoint exactly what the
numbers are gonna look like on Wrigley
but I’m not gonna be way off if I try to
look forward on something like that that
evaluating that company is within what I
call my circle of competence I
understand what they do I understand the
economics of it I understand the
competitive aspect
of the business so figuring out the
economic consequences TV
I think there’s I don’t know 20 25
million cents a year so in the United
States I don’t think there’s one of them
made in the United States anymore I mean
you’d say TV set manufacturer what a
wonderful business like everybody nobody
had a TV in 1950 or thereabouts 45 to 50
everybody has multiple sets now nobody
is in the United States and made any
real money making the sense that they’re
all out of business
you know the Magnavox was the RCA is all
of those companies radio was the
equipment of the 20 over 500 companies
making radios in the nineteen twenties
again I don’t think there’s a u.s. radio
manufacturer at the present time but
coca-cola you know I was at 1884 Jacobs
pharmacy or whatever and fellow comes up
with something about a copiers over
the years but now you’ve got a company
that is selling roughly 1.1 billion
eight ounce servings of its product not
all cokes right and some others daily
throughout the world honored seventeen
years later so understanding the
economic characteristics of a business
it’s different than predicting the fact
that an industry is going to do
wonderfully so I look at the internet
businesses or I look at tech messes I
say this is a marvelous thing and I love
to play around of the computer and order
my books from Amazon and all kinds of
things but I don’t know who’s gonna win
unless I know who’s gonna win I’m not
interested in the best thing I’ll just
play around on the computer and defining
your circle of competence is the most
important aspect of investing it’s not
how important how large your circle is
you don’t have to be an expert on
everything but knowing where the
perimeter of that circle of what you
know on what you don’t know is and stay
inside of it is all important Tom Watson
seniors started IBM said in his book he
said I’m no genius he said but I’m smart
in spots and I stay around those spots
you know that is the key so if I
understand a few things and I stick in
that arena I’ll do okay and if I don’t
understand something but I get all
excited about it because my neighbors
are talking about the stocks are going
up everything they start fooling around
someplace else eventually I’ll get
creamed and I should alright last
question three pieces of advice to
entrepreneurs what are your three pieces
I’m an entrepreneur so you can share
them with okay what would you what would
you how would you advise me well I
really taken some thoughts like how can
I provide advice that would be most
helpful and I’m not sure I’ve given
enough thought to to that to give you
the best possible answer but I think I
think it’s certainly being focused on
something that you’re confident will
have high value to someone else and just
being really rigorous in making that
assessment because people are attend
tend to natural human tendencies wishful
thinking so a challenge for
entrepreneurs is to say well what’s the
difference between really believing in
your ideals and sticking sticking to
them versus pursuing some unrealistic
dream that doesn’t actually have merit
and it’s it’s that is it that is a
really difficult thing to to tell you
can you tell the difference between
those two things
yeah so you need to be sort of very
rigorous in your self as help analysis I
think certainly extremely tenacious and
and then just work like hell I mean you
just have to put in you know 80 hour 80
100 hour weeks every week
yes and then I like that all those
things improve the odds of success okay
I mean if other people are putting in 40
hour work weeks and you’re putting in
100 hour work weeks then even if you’re
doing the same thing you know that in
one year you will achieve what that she
you you will achieve in four months what
it takes them a year to achieve there is
very little difference if any between a
very high priced business education and
what’s available a lot for a lot less
money so I I went to the University of
nebraska-lincoln my last year in college
I went to Wharton for a couple of years
before that I learned just as much at
the university of Braska as I did at
Wharton at and there’s nothing against
the warden I’m he’s just me we had a
very good school there I had some
terrific professors that at Lincoln and
so I would not assume that if I was
paying a few thousand dollars for an
education here in the state for example
versus paying huge amounts elsewhere
that it was going to make a lot of
difference most a lot of the education
you need to be prodded in the right
direction but an awful lot of it is
itself the self-taught I mean Andrew
Carnegie did a wonderful thing in this
country in terms of libraries and I used
to spend a lot of time allows I have
locked in at the University of Omaha
what was then the University of Omaha
and they had I couldn’t get out for
hours and
the night that got stolen transfer what
I was reading but it there’s there’s all
kinds of information available now with
the internet it’s so much you know
easier than it was then so it’s out
there to be taken and it isn’t necessary
to pay thirty or thirty five thousand
dollars a year to go to some big-name
school to get the education at all I
mean if you’re gonna learn accounting
it’s gonna which is the probably the
most important course you take in
business you’re gonna learn to County
learn accounting absolutely as well and
my view going to you and always going to
Harvard I mean I see I would bet on that
and so I wouldn’t run up huge bills in
terms of getting a business education
now you know if you’re gonna get a
medical education I mean there’s certain
professions where there may not be any
way around spending a fair amount of
money and getting in debt to some degree
we’ve got to make that decision yourself
but I’d certainly try to minimize it and
and I would sort of I would have it
figured out how I would handle that debt
and say a five year period after I got
out of school or I would think twice
about incurring it I we start a lien on
the house still facing bankruptcy still
fighting like crazy I was still
unemployed
he still they still hadn’t figured out
like the solution yet for the business
and I was about to turn off the TV and
there on the TV there was this rocket
launching and I thought oh my gosh I am
gonna launch myself out of bed like a
rocket ship like NASA right here had
launched me out of that bed
and I’m gonna move so fast that I don’t
think hmm I’m gonna beat my brain now
here’s a really interesting point I
talked a lot about your instincts and
inner wisdom and we can get into this a
little bit later but a lot of us talk
about the fact that you have a gut
feeling but what all this research that
I’ve done for the book and and all the
speaking that I do what I’ve discovered
that’s fascinating is actually when you
set goals when you have an intention on
something that you want to change about
your life your brain helps you what it
does is it opens up a checklist and then
your brain goes to work trying to remind
you yeah of that intention that you set
and it’s really important to develop the
skill and I say that word purposefully
the skill of knowing how to hear that
inner wisdom and that intention kicking
in and leaning into it quickly so for me
my brain saying that’s it right there
move as fast as a rocket Mel I wanted to
change my life and I think most people
that are miserable or that are that are
really like dying to be great and dying
to have more we want to change we want
to live a better life we want to create
more for our families we want to be
happier the the desire is there again
it’s about how do you go from knowledge
to actions so the first thing in the
story that’s important is realizing that
the answer was in me and my mind was
telling me pay attention could have also
been the Bourbon
at night anyway the next morning the
alarm goes off and I pretended NASA was
there it’s the stupidest story I
literally went five four three two one I
counted out loud and then I stood up and
I’ll never forget standing there in my
bedroom it was dark it was cold it was
winter in Boston and for the first time
in three months I had beaten my habit of
hitting the snooze button I couldn’t
believe it and I thought wait a minute
counting backwards said is the dumbest
thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life
well the next morning I used it again
and it worked the next morning I used it
again and it worked the next morning I
used it again and it worked and then I
started to notice something really
interesting there were moments all day
long all day long
just like that five-second moment in bed
where I knew knowledge what I should do
and if I didn’t move within five seconds
my brain would step in and talk me out
of it
every human being has a five-second
window might even be shorter for you you
have about a five-second window in which
you can move from idea to action before
your brain kicks into full gear and
sabotages any change in behavior because
remember your brain is wired to stop you
from doing things that are uncomfortable
or uncertain or scary it’s your job to
learn how to move from those ideas that
could change everything into acting on
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 their walloped by God which
is like fairly frequently they say we
must have done something wrong and we
have to set our self right and that’s 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 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 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 that starts a loop
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