you learn to embrace uncertainty and
chaos life is inherently chaotic and it
doesn’t fit into our tidy formulas not
only does this not make you anxious but
you find chaos and uncertainty deeply
exciting and stimulating slowly adopting
this as an overall philosophy will
naturally loosen the mind up and give it
greater creative flow you will naturally
consider more options and possibilities
try to imagine the way other people see
you and what other people are thinking
of you and one place where this happens
and it definitely happened to me is when
I started getting put in charge of
things I started thinking about other
people’s perspectives what are they
seeing if you’re in charge then what are
your subordinates see you do what are
your subordinates here you say what kind
of representation are they receiving in
if you work for someone else it’s the
same questions what does the boss see me
do what does the boss hear me say what
kind of representation am i making of
myself to my boss and then you start
thinking about what are your friends and
family think what do they see what do
they hear and so the question becomes
how well do you represent yourself what
shortfalls do you have now when you
first start looking it’s like you’re
looking at an overgrown lawn there are
some big obvious problems so you do a
broad just kind of general
of the grass you fix some of the big
easy problems they’re obvious I once
you’ve done that you’ve gotten rid of
some of those big obvious problems you
notice some more detailed problems say
then you handle them and once you’ve got
those handled you see even smaller and
more detail the issues so you start
trying to fix them and that’s what you
do with yourself you continually detach
and then you look and then you refine
and then you detach and then you look
and then you refine and then you detach
and you look and then you refine that’s
what you do that’s how you get better
and that process doesn’t stop it can’t
and then the weeds grow back and the
next thing you know you can’t see
yourself anymore and when you can’t see
yourself anymore when you stop looking
at you yourself then you accept you
accept anything and that’s wrong don’t
accept the faults don’t give yourself
the benefit of the doubt you’ve got to
it hold the line I believe in my
strategy something that I’m patient ish
like all great stuff especially when
you’re innovating doesn’t happen right
away this notion that like Oh Gary I
tried it I spent five hundred bucks on
Facebook Ads it doesn’t work well what
if your video sucked what if your
product and service sucks I I tend to do
things that are very early that has been
my career i when I do things I believe
in them I stick with them based on
intuition even though for 18 months
nobody watched my wine videos at all I
knew it was right I was right there’s
been things I’ve done that I’ve jumped
off of very quickly I started Gary v app
V chat ve like WeChat that was funny for
my fans great CRM one on one didn’t feel
right after a week or two spend plenty
money building it knew it stopped it
after you know a couple months Wine
Library TV 5 years every day YouTube
decided to change it to daily grape
insular app you could buy stuff
subscription for reviews it was a lot of
fun only did it for five months stopped
it because I didn’t feel right anymore
it’s always hard to know when to jump
off something new but I find that people
don’t believe in what they’re doing they
hear on guru and they do it
begrudgingly cuz their boss wants them
to or they’re like what Gary’s right a
lot so let me do it but they don’t
believe it and so then they jump they’re
looking for nose instead of yes is
everything I do every business
development every event I do every time
I try new marketing tactic for sales
tactic I’m looking for the yes right I’m
looking for the yes and if the no
punches me well then on my crap then no
punched me I believe the majority of
people when they try new tactics are
looking for the no mm-hmm and you’re
gonna getting a lot of subtle knows
immediately right and so I think that’s
why that happens
there was this one role that I wanted to
play desperately and I but I started to
get you know offers offers for other
movies and there was a big Disney movie
that I would they wanted me to do and I
don’t know where I got those little
balls at 16 years old to say no I’m
gonna I’m gonna wait it out because I
want to audition for this other film but
if there’s one thing that I’m really
proud of in my
my entire career it’s that moment that’s
16 to say that you know and do that and
have that sort of conviction of what I
wanted to do that’s the one thing I’m
really proud of if you can see it here
and you have the courage enough to speak
it will happen so I see these shots I
see these sequences I don’t shy away
from them a lot of times people believe
in Santa things but they keep to
themselves they don’t put it out there
you truly believe in it we took a lot of
pride in in trailblazing and how the
game was played back at that time
through we would we would intimidate
teams and we would want to dominate
teams but also too we also had the
thought process if a team was never
gonna outwork us we’re gonna be the
hardest working team in the country you
will never know the answer unless if you
ask and that’s what my father always
taught me he’s like you’re never gonna
know if you don’t ask so ask and that’s
what I do and that’s kind of how I also
am community I communicate with my team
we know we’re a team
but also we know that we can talk very
directly to each other because that’s
how we set it up from the beginning and
whoever the boss is you set the tone you
know this is your arena so how are you
set the tone is the way things are gonna
go so I always set the tone with
kindness first and then let’s get ish
done baby
starting with Lincoln Lawyer the time
when I said I wanted to recalibrate my
relationship with my career I remember
saying that I remember thinking in my
career’s I’m enjoying it I love it it’s
given me I like going to work I like the
things I’ve been doing but everything I
started reading I felt like oh we think
it’s another version of something I’ve
done or I feel like I could do it next
week and I remember going well wait a
minute before you get mad at thinking
you could do something next week that’s
a valid feeling don’t just say no to
something because you feel like you can
naturally do it but then I said okay
fair I’ll shake with you on that
you find something that I that I don’t
know how what to do with that next week
of the week after I find something that
I really like but I’m going fool I’m not
sure that that scares me that shakes my
floor and I was fortunate enough cuz
that schedule that check I got him name
something out field to know that I my
rent was paid I was fortunate though my
kids were gonna eat and was just
shepherding my first son into the world
so I had that to take care of my time
and I said it’s a great time to go into
the shadows and be a be a father and sit
back and see if something turns you on
from you and Tara if something finds you
if you hear the target that can draw the
epaulettes we’re okay rents paid kids
are gonna eat we can take some time off
I know what he was thinking about like
oh I’m done
but I didn’t know how long the dry
spells gonna go so I said no to some of
the things that were similar to what I
had been doing before and it took awhile
I had to sit down at mage and say hey
I’m really gonna do this and I need your
help with my committed to this because
after eight months if I’m the same thing
comes in with a big ten million dollar
I promise you though that means the same
words I think I can find an angle no I
can make it a different experience for
me is that so I said I’m gonna need your
help Punk written down here and in and
saying notice some things and so I’m
gonna need you to be a gatekeeper who
wanted to keep from getting to me –
let’s be real clear I’m I’m looking for
some different things to do he hold up
and you handled that my wife who said we
doing how long it’s gonna be dry then
after they quit sending those then it
did get drivin nothing came for about a
year there’s nothing and I didn’t have
any sleepless nights or oh my gosh I was
like no I’m fine somehow right I was
writing a lot I was turning myself on
creatively in as I said I had my first
son to Shepherd into the world and then
the funny thing happened the beautiful
thing happened that that somehow the
target drew the arrow and I think my
opinion is I became a new good idea by
being by removing myself I became way in
freakin cost River so Steven Soderbergh
calls for the first time somehow in that
two years I became fresh new idea that I
don’t think I was – three years prior
how that works I’m not sure because I
didn’t send a memo out but it did happen
the whole thing about the writer who
sees the job is a burden and some of
they struggle along it makes me think it
was an album by a rock artist named Todd
Rundgren
who was called the ever-popular tortured
artist effect and I sometimes think that
writers draw this this cloak of the
tortured artist around them because a
you can get free drinks and the chicks
love it you know they love that tortured
thing going on but I’ve always thought
that it was a terrific job and I’ve
always felt very very fortunate blessed
really to be able to do it
because I do it for free if I couldn’t
do it for money but I love doing it for
money that sounds that sounds kind of
nasty doesn’t it I love doing it for
money I am a sinner maniac and I’m I’m
scared to death of the dark except when
a motion picture theater I love to see
images because I love images that tell
stories before I ever knew how to read I
used to look at the sunday funnies and
still understand everything the
storyteller wanted me to and that’s what
I love to do more than anything else I’d
love to make pictures so I can look at
them so you could look at them and so I
can watch you looking at them which is
really for me the best part if I had a
single out one area to which I have an
utter devotion it would be with my
preoccupation with the idea and the
fight to still believe in the idea when
so many others around you just don’t get
it and the challenge was staying
interested in one single idea for
sometimes years and the struggle not to
contaminate that idea after months and
years of obsessing over it when I was in
my early teens I stayed up all night
writing a screenplay and felt something
to this day I swear I cannot get enough
of it was close to the feeling of flying
as I have ever had you know what I mean
when when you’re trying to get the words
on paper and your three thoughts ahead
of yourself and it’s a race to get it
all down before it goes back to where
that’s ever that stuff originally comes
from and it was called inspiration and I
actually made a movie from that script I
wrote all night and it was called
firelight and it was truly an awful
movie
but the process was what it was all
about the experience of that obsessive
focus of having an idea and actually
being able to photograph it that’s been
the magic potion for me ever since well
I think impossible is not a fact it’s an
opinion when someone tells me it’s
impossible
I always just look at anybody around me
knows that they can do this that’s part
of it but if they didn’t know me it’s
your opinion they’ll say no science
shows and I say yeah I know how many
times the science shows something’s
impossible now science shows it’s
possible things are impossible till
somebody does it and so I find that you
know most of your business people you
look at businesses and what does it take
to make a business grow it’s not
impossible like a business grow a
business has been shrinking for a long
time or it’s been stuck the real problem
is always the chokehold as always the
psychology and the skills of the leader
always an 80% of that as psychology and
20% as the mechanics like if you don’t
know how to read your financials and
you’re trying to fly the plane of your
your company I mean come on you know if
all you do is go down and you look at
profit loss and you see what it is and
you have a beer either way you either
celebrate it at the brass you know
something you know you’re gonna be in
trouble right but if you have the
skillsets that’s one thing but you can
get any skill set if you have the
psychology and anytime a business is not
growing it is not because it’s
impossible it’s because they aren’t
innovating and they’re not innovating
because they’re believing it’s
impossible I mean if we all know what
does it take to transform an obviously
healthy but it takes three things to
create a breakthrough and anything and
your personal life in your business
anywhere you need a strategy
but that’s not the first place you
should look in it’s the first place all
of us look me too
it’s our inherent thing you want to lose
weight well how do I do it I want to
grow my business how do I do it it’s
it’s instinctively been trained to think
that way but the problem is the how-to
is usually not that complex I’m gonna
come on 70% of America is what 75% of
America now is overweight is that
because it’s so complex how to be fit
and strong right you know
only the 1% no the answer is they hide
it from you you have to work your ass
off to not hear what it takes right and
so so you know I remember I went to this
I went to a TED Med Center and I watched
about 12 doctors won’t have to die to
get up and do these stories about how we
could just get patients to take their
medications and try to figure out the
whole thing and I was just looking and
going you’re all talking about strategy
and you’ve forgotten psychology because
strategy is wonderful I’m the strategist
of my whole life freaking out strategy
is we both know a strategy could save
you a decade right and business strategy
could save you you know it could make
the devastating success and failure but
most people have strategies available or
they could get them or you could create
them but the problem is you got a story
and your story is why it isn’t working
and the story is I’ve tried what but
everything if you tried everything you’d
be fit you try everything you’d be
profitable if you tried everything you’d
be there but people said you know I’m
big-boned that’s what I used to say I’m
still big-boned but I’m 38 pounds
lighter than I was 25 years ago and I’ve
never gained it back right a borrower’s
big bone that was my story all the good
ones are gone that’s why I’m not in a
relationship or they’re gay and I’m not
or in-game they are whatever the story
is there’s always a story and what I
tell people’s you know if you can just
divorce the story of your limitation and
marry the truth of your unlimited
capacity then the whole game changes 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 others
didn’t 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 that 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 it’s imagination used for very
practical results think of the active
imagination as 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 and fools
experiments this is the fun play part of
serious play you use notebooks 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 in 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 I
don’t know there’s a lot of negativity
to some degree a lot of grind it just
kind of feels like the grind a little
bit and so I just kind of felt like it
wasn’t a space that I wanted to be in as
much anymore like I I want to be in a
happy space where I’m just doing things
that have bring me joy and yeah it just
it wasn’t doing that as much or I was
noticing it I was noticing I was missing
that or wanting it more I think that’s
really what it comes from is growing as
a person and realizing I think
everybody’s afraid to take chances and
do something new in their life because
they’re identified a certain way or
they’ll be judged if they don’t do it or
judged if they do something different
and who are they now and are they crazy
and what are they thinking and you know
it’s just life just do things that make
you happy I mean I really I had to I
wanted to be open about it as I’d been
from the very beginning it was from an
athletes perspective is one of the
toughest things that I had to go through
and I feel like sharing that feeling
that I had and the vulnerability that I
had to carry myself with and for someone
that’s so strong and like mentally tough
and have always I mean at 6 to like
you know passionate about what she does
it felt really small with one of the
first three times in my life where I
would just I didn’t want to write I
didn’t want to continue writing the book
it took a long time to put those words
onto paper and I felt that that was an
important it’s part of my journey it’s
part of the reason why my book is called
unstoppable because I’ve had this
mentality from a very young age that no
matter what is thrown at you there there
it’s going to be roadblocks and you have
to overcome them and you can 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 to be 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 had to go out and tell
every person you told this oh I’m sorry
it was wrong tell everybody you told
it’s not going to 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 nest is gonna make you
live longer happier and wake up in the
morning happy not oh my god I gotta go
to work I can’t wait til 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 Kashem in beating
the 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
should be I know I’m doing 50 things
wrong it’s like what the hell’s 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
when I’m speaking to to when I’m
speaking now I say to people oh no
you’re nowhere near what you could be
that’s that that’s the positive message
it’s like yeah you’re a mess but you
don’t have to stay that way as you’re a
mess 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
that’s the thing that that turns the
lights on it’s like you do something
about it 99% of people that say stuff
like that are not willing to do what it
takes to make their dreams come true
the Marines have a saying everybody
wants to go to heaven but nobody wants
to die and that’s just real at the
center of bringing any dream into
fruition is self-discipline you know
something as simple as food and eating
it’s not about your body as much as it
is about your mind it’s getting command
of your mind to be able to choose
actions that are in your own best
interest every day we are choosing
that’s not in our own best interest
right so if the world is attacking you
and the world wants to fight you in the
world’s trying to hold you down so
you’re gonna kick yourself in the balls
so you will stop yourself from getting
what you dream self-discipline is the
center of all material success you
cannot win the war against the world if
you can’t win the war against your own
mind biggest struggle man was just
getting around other people that would
say I could do it I mean that’s the
biggest struggle just you get around one
guy says yeah you can do it and then you
talk to him tomorrow and he’s like
nowadays
you can’t do this you know there’s so
few people telling you to do it you know
what there is a lot of save your money
protect yourself conserve don’t spin
don’t take risk taking risk is the new
way to be risk adverse so we’re the
biggest struggle for me was my family
man the people closest to me was the
biggest struggle every time I went out
to do another deal everybody told me you
don’t need to do that man the only
person that was encouraging me was my
twin brother cuz I would see how he was
doing it dude he was making his swings
and so every time I’d get around other
people so I’ll tell you a little trick I
did on weekends I would always go see
Holmes I couldn’t afford that has always
inspired me I would go look I would go
drive neighborhoods literally I’ve done
this my entire life until I finally got
to the point where they wouldn’t even
let me in the neighborhood there’s
neighborhoods in Miami do you can’t even
go see you can’t they won’t even let you
in the gates most of you can get in if
you know some of my tricks so the point
that show Vitas writing on the board
right now is you got fuel in your tank
it wants to be accelerated on and then
you got somebody in the back seat saying
hey be careful
nobody likes a backseat driver okay so
they’re sitting there they’re putting
their putting mental pressure on the
brakes when you’re trying to accelerate
who are you competing with and whatever
you do you have to ask yourself what’s
your edge right what is the one thing
that gives you a competitive edge if you
don’t have an answer
you can’t start that company you’re
gonna lose right I said it before if
you’re trying to compete with me you
better though know a whole lot more than
I do about whatever business we’re in
because otherwise I’m gonna kick your
ass right so you have to ask yourself
what is your competitive advantage and
with that kick competitive advantage
what’s the best way for me to get
customers who are willing to write me a
check my one of my skill sets has always
been I’ve been able to walk into any
type of business and understand their
company you know understand how they
make money I understand how they compete
so I can walk into a shoe store I can
walk into a hospital whatever
say alright here’s my technology here’s
how it gives you an advantage and I try
to do the same thing a shark tank you
hear say it all the time
what is your competitive advantage just
saying it’s my passion you ever walk
into 7-eleven and say wow I’m shopping
here at 7-eleven because they’re really
passionate no right and when when you go
and you make your think about your own
buying decisions what makes you decide
to buy now you might want to support
veteran owned business so I always when
it’s a toss-up yes right but at some
point you have to grow beyond the
community and you have to be able to say
I you can walk into any situation and
know without any doubt in your mind this
is why you are the best product or
service and you are the best company
provide that product or service period
in a story if you can’t do that you have
to ask yourself who is doing it what are
they doing that gives them that edge
what allows them to compete or help
their customers better than you can
because that’s what it’s all about we
all as consumers make buying decisions
and we the people who are buying our
stuff is product or service use the same
thought process for those buying
decisions so always put yourself in your
potential customers shoes what is it
that I have that makes it a no-brainer
for them to buy for me if it’s I’m nice
I’m passionate you’re in trouble right
there’s got to be something because even
if you can get some customers how are
you going to grow it how are you going
to sustain it and what’s going to keep
the next person from coming in and doing
the same thing because look with success
comes additional challenges the more you
succeed the more people say damn okay
that’s an opportunity I think I can do
that better and so success isn’t look
where I’m at success is go go go go
right I mean people say wow you’ve done
this I’m still going right to me
business is the ultimate sport and
there’s nobody
on the face of the earth that’s more
competitive than I am I’ve said that to
Magic Johnson Michael Jordan Larry Bird
you name it right
any athlete any businessperson it is the
ultimate sport and we’re competing all
the time what is it that gives you an
edge that allows you to compete how do
you sustain that and how do you find
more people that say yes to buy that
that is going to be the key to your
business and how do you sell it if it
were easy to get what you wanted in life
Google would have already figured out an
app you would just type in okay I’m a
student and I want to go from being a
student to being successful and Google
would tell you go to college then you
get your masters then you land this
killer job and then you put in a bunch
of face time while you’re checking
Facebook then you get promoted to
manager and then you realize managing
people kind of stinks and then you keep
climbing the corporate ladder and then
you start to wonder well how did I end
up here and I think you always this is
what success looks like you’re like no
I’m gonna go to Jay hilburn that’s what
success looks like so keep this in mind
if there’s something that you want like
seven people or a trip to Africa or
you’re going to make it to Mexico in the
pink shirt I’m looking at you again sir
I’m watching you and rooting for you
keep in mind this here you are this is
what you want I spend a lot of time on
lacrosse fields although they don’t
really look like this you tend to think
that what you want you just march right
towards it but if in sports you march
right towards the goal what happens the
defenders come in and what the defenders
are is it’s your brain saying ain’t
gonna happen
so the second you start moving toward
that thing you want be ready you’re
gonna tell yourself you don’t feel like
it you’re gonna have to force yourself
it’s happening there’s no way to get
around it so what you’re gonna have to
do is you’re gonna basically get bounced
around a lot all over the place and
there gonna be a lot of times that you
feel like this was a really dumb idea to
start this business because it’s gonna
get hard and I want to remind you about
something unlike a sports field where
there’s an in and out of bounds the
great thing about life is there actually
aren’t any and it’s
usually in those moments where you feel
like you can’t do it that you’re closer
than ever to having everything that you
wanted and I wanted to show you this so
that you keep it in mind because I think
a lot of times when you look back it’s
the darkest moments where you realize
holy cow that’s what projected me
forward sleep at the same time wake up
at the same time seven days a week no
matter what really this sleep is so
valuable it’s so important so I rated I
used to think that I here’s what I was
I’m a fighter jet I would literally walk
around the house honey I’m a fighter jet
fighter jet and you know doesn’t even
come down to get refueled they’re up
there getting revealed right we’ve all
seen the YouTube videos
yeah well the fighter jet if they leave
those afterburners on too long they just
fall out of the sky which I know one had
told me right until I fell out of the
sky I was having essential tremors and
anxiety attacks and not realizing it and
as I got better its sleep those just
went away cuz the one discipline leads
to another and to another how you do
anything is how you do everything all
right
and so that that one thing that he
taught me or I learned through him and
we’d be in Vegas we’d run a mastermind
together because now we run a mastermind
together
and eight o’clock I’m he’s gone buddy
were you going to sleep yeah I’m gonna
buy nine or whatever better yeah yeah
exactly he powers off thirty minutes all
his electronics before so now I do the
same thing I power off I don’t go to bed
and then do this I powered off thirty
minutes before and my mind stops racing
and the left and right side start
reconciling of the information I took in
throughout the day versus the
information I keep consuming taking
right until I fall asleep and then Lord
knows what happens in my brain whatever
I write what time you go to bed and wake
up 10:30 10:30 I’m in bed wake up at
5:30 Wow and and that’s no matter what
even if you’re in Vegas or I’m traveling
around the world or whatever you know
I’ll adjust that timezone real quickly
and 10:30 I’m in bed 5:30 a.m. I wake up
when I go right through my rituals how
did you stay motivated all the time
people ask me that all the time and the
answer is I didn’t and neither did you
to become successful the separator in
life is really important building the
most inspired motivated person wins
not really it’s the person who can work
on the days they’re not inspired and
motivated it’s what do you do when
you’re not feeling great what do you do
when it’s not your best day how do you
do that carries you through his rituals
and habits so when you’re fatigued when
you’re tired when you’re under pressure
you react reflexively and so successful
people rely on habits and rituals not
just their inspiration and motivation
level of course we’re both professionals
and being motivated inspired but that’s
not every day every minute and so what
do I do I work on the days because my
habits and rituals carry me through and
so for me here’s how I look at my life
in my day if I can control the first 30
minutes of my day and the last 30
minutes of my day I have a whole lot
better chance of the middle of my day
being controlled and so I’m a freak
about the first 30 minutes of every day
it’s really about the first 45 minutes
and I’m obsessive about the last 45
minutes of every single day that gives
me some illusion in my mind and measure
of control the other thing it does it
delivers to me habits and rituals that
serve me that I do every day that are
consistent it gives me comfort in stormy
times that ocean out there is raging at
the top right now right the waves are
crashing at the bottom of that ocean
it’s completely calm at the bottom of
that ocean is the habitual part of the
water right it’s the it’s the it’s the
part of the wire that stays the most
consistent that’s why it’s so calm okay
so when you see someone out of control
their emotions are up and down all the
time this is someone who is without
rituals and habits successful people
have those and so they do and so it
keeps me calm it keeps me comfortable
because I believe ambition is not a
dirty word it’s just believing in
yourself and your abilities
imagine this what would happen if we
were all brave enough to believe in our
own ability to be a little bit more
ambitious I think the world would change
and I had about a year and a half I
would audition and I would get one call
back two callbacks three callbacks and I
and I never got the part and I never
feel like I’m too tight you know what I
mean I think maybe I’m studying too much
I remember tell them I talk to myself
maybe I’m studying too much about the
import of the line and and everything
and you know what I think I need to go
back to doing what
I did when I first started which is I
was just a guy and I improvised
so I had a head of film that I was cast
for when I was playing this on the
border Mexican druglord and I told
myself I said I’m not gonna look at this
side I’m not good even gonna read the
script it’s an on the border Mexican
drug lord I hear the synopsis if I know
my man then I’ll show up and just
obviously I’ll read it right before I go
on and if I know my man that’ll be like
well that’s exactly what he’d say
foolish I go I go I go to set that that
morning all right I’m just gonna all I
gotta do is have a glance at it and
it’ll be like yeah I know I know how to
do it well I look at it right before
about to say action and it was a page
and a half monologue in Spanish oh I
felt this drip of sweat come up on the
back of my head and go down and I and
then for whatever reason I looked over
and I said um goodnight okay can you
give me about 12 minutes why I said 12
minutes I don’t know I figured it was
like not long enough to be inconsiderate
but but long enough to maybe get a
little bit of this anyway
it was I think I was horrible in it I
stammered through some Spanish and so
then I was like okay that’s not the way
to go there’s a blend here of avidin do
your due diligence do your studyin but
then being able to go there on the day
and relax and throw it all away the best
description of writing a novel that I
ever heard it’s actually in Thomas
Williams this book the hair of Harold
drew which is about a novelist trying to
write a novel and it just covers like 1
or 2 days in this process and a lot of
things happen to her it’s a fabulous
book but he says that writing the novel
is like building a little campfire on an
empty dark plane and one by one these
characters come out of the dark and each
one has a little pile of wood and they
put it on the fire and if you’re very
lucky before the fire goes out it’s this
big bonfire and all the characters stand
around it and warm themselves and that’s
the way it’s always been for me I have a
good friend over in Vermont
or John Irving and John says that he
always begins a novel by writing the
last line and to me that’s like eating
your dessert before you eat the meal and
I don’t everybody works a different way
and God bless John and he’s done some
wonderful work in his lifetime and he’ll
probably do some more but I could never
write a book that way the way that I
think of it you know is that fire I love
that particular image but I’ve also
always thought of it in terms of there’s
a little thread a little red thread that
goes into a hole in the baseboard and
you just start to pull it out and you
see what’s on the other end of it and
sooner or later you get there for me the
fun of writing novels isn’t in the
finished product which I don’t care
about that much there’s a guy who’s
looking at my shelf over there all the
books are on the shelf and to me those
are like dead skin the things that are
that are done but I love the process I
get it back by remembering that he might
die tomorrow that’s true so I’m inspired
by practicality and reality and the
truth which is it is ridiculously
impossible to become a human being I am
one I have other good things going for
me as a human being and I’m just
grateful you your dwelling and looking
at what you don’t have versus looking at
what you have if you actually looked at
what you had your health you know living
in America you know who the heck knows
what would be on your list if you
actually spend all your time looking at
that versus I don’t have a million
dollars I’m not famous I don’t have this
if you spend all your time on what you
have versus what you don’t have you
would be the happiest girl on earth I’ve
got to make a commitment to service you
got to make a commitment to like hey I
have a target I know that when we don’t
achieve targets here in my office the
first thing I ask regardless the
internet department if it’s my
accounting department on collections or
it’s my sales department I’m gonna ask a
question what is the target know
target results in no sales so if you’re
in parts if you’re in service look have
a target measure that target hourly if
you really want to get results measure
your target every hour to see what do we
get in the last 60 minutes I promise you
do those two simple things don’t even
learn anything about how to sell anybody
anything have a target measure at every
hour and I guarantee your sales will
come up
why do you prioritize sleep so highly
just curious of what makes you so
committed to that and the science behind
it thank you for all you do I find that
I’m slower when I’m fatigued so I find
myself drifting I have more symptoms of
what we’ll call 80 a DD so that my
attention is just drift drift drifts and
then I find I’ll read a sentence or
whatever and be like kind of to reread
the sentence like ten times so that was
just going whoa I’m not as efficient as
I could be and then the other is I find
it a unique form of misery there is an
additional ring of Hell that is saved
just for people who are fatigued I hate
it so much
so it’s misery and I don’t understand
people that live a life that is
miserable I just don’t get it and then
on top of that I think you actually
accomplish less if you’re fatigued
so you’re putting more hours we actually
getting less done per hour so if being
fatigued puts you at like 0.6 of what
your output could be and then being just
like incredibly well rested prioritizing
that puts you at you know it’s I guess
mathematically I should be saying just
one then like you have to make up 40% of
the number of hours and waking up early
just to break even and then you put
misery on top of that so that that’s my
end of one experience is that I am so
deadly efficient when I’m rested that I
just get more done so comparing those
suicide by side I get I actually accomplish more
chaos life is inherently chaotic and it
doesn’t fit into our tidy formulas not
only does this not make you anxious but
you find chaos and uncertainty deeply
exciting and stimulating slowly adopting
this as an overall philosophy will
naturally loosen the mind up and give it
greater creative flow you will naturally
consider more options and possibilities
try to imagine the way other people see
you and what other people are thinking
of you and one place where this happens
and it definitely happened to me is when
I started getting put in charge of
things I started thinking about other
people’s perspectives what are they
seeing if you’re in charge then what are
your subordinates see you do what are
your subordinates here you say what kind
of representation are they receiving in
if you work for someone else it’s the
same questions what does the boss see me
do what does the boss hear me say what
kind of representation am i making of
myself to my boss and then you start
thinking about what are your friends and
family think what do they see what do
they hear and so the question becomes
how well do you represent yourself what
shortfalls do you have now when you
first start looking it’s like you’re
looking at an overgrown lawn there are
some big obvious problems so you do a
broad just kind of general
of the grass you fix some of the big
easy problems they’re obvious I once
you’ve done that you’ve gotten rid of
some of those big obvious problems you
notice some more detailed problems say
then you handle them and once you’ve got
those handled you see even smaller and
more detail the issues so you start
trying to fix them and that’s what you
do with yourself you continually detach
and then you look and then you refine
and then you detach and then you look
and then you refine and then you detach
and you look and then you refine that’s
what you do that’s how you get better
and that process doesn’t stop it can’t
and then the weeds grow back and the
next thing you know you can’t see
yourself anymore and when you can’t see
yourself anymore when you stop looking
at you yourself then you accept you
accept anything and that’s wrong don’t
accept the faults don’t give yourself
the benefit of the doubt you’ve got to
it hold the line I believe in my
strategy something that I’m patient ish
like all great stuff especially when
you’re innovating doesn’t happen right
away this notion that like Oh Gary I
tried it I spent five hundred bucks on
Facebook Ads it doesn’t work well what
if your video sucked what if your
product and service sucks I I tend to do
things that are very early that has been
my career i when I do things I believe
in them I stick with them based on
intuition even though for 18 months
nobody watched my wine videos at all I
knew it was right I was right there’s
been things I’ve done that I’ve jumped
off of very quickly I started Gary v app
V chat ve like WeChat that was funny for
my fans great CRM one on one didn’t feel
right after a week or two spend plenty
money building it knew it stopped it
after you know a couple months Wine
Library TV 5 years every day YouTube
decided to change it to daily grape
insular app you could buy stuff
subscription for reviews it was a lot of
fun only did it for five months stopped
it because I didn’t feel right anymore
it’s always hard to know when to jump
off something new but I find that people
don’t believe in what they’re doing they
hear on guru and they do it
begrudgingly cuz their boss wants them
to or they’re like what Gary’s right a
lot so let me do it but they don’t
believe it and so then they jump they’re
looking for nose instead of yes is
everything I do every business
development every event I do every time
I try new marketing tactic for sales
tactic I’m looking for the yes right I’m
looking for the yes and if the no
punches me well then on my crap then no
punched me I believe the majority of
people when they try new tactics are
looking for the no mm-hmm and you’re
gonna getting a lot of subtle knows
immediately right and so I think that’s
why that happens
there was this one role that I wanted to
play desperately and I but I started to
get you know offers offers for other
movies and there was a big Disney movie
that I would they wanted me to do and I
don’t know where I got those little
balls at 16 years old to say no I’m
gonna I’m gonna wait it out because I
want to audition for this other film but
if there’s one thing that I’m really
proud of in my
my entire career it’s that moment that’s
16 to say that you know and do that and
have that sort of conviction of what I
wanted to do that’s the one thing I’m
really proud of if you can see it here
and you have the courage enough to speak
it will happen so I see these shots I
see these sequences I don’t shy away
from them a lot of times people believe
in Santa things but they keep to
themselves they don’t put it out there
you truly believe in it we took a lot of
pride in in trailblazing and how the
game was played back at that time
through we would we would intimidate
teams and we would want to dominate
teams but also too we also had the
thought process if a team was never
gonna outwork us we’re gonna be the
hardest working team in the country you
will never know the answer unless if you
ask and that’s what my father always
taught me he’s like you’re never gonna
know if you don’t ask so ask and that’s
what I do and that’s kind of how I also
am community I communicate with my team
we know we’re a team
but also we know that we can talk very
directly to each other because that’s
how we set it up from the beginning and
whoever the boss is you set the tone you
know this is your arena so how are you
set the tone is the way things are gonna
go so I always set the tone with
kindness first and then let’s get ish
done baby
starting with Lincoln Lawyer the time
when I said I wanted to recalibrate my
relationship with my career I remember
saying that I remember thinking in my
career’s I’m enjoying it I love it it’s
given me I like going to work I like the
things I’ve been doing but everything I
started reading I felt like oh we think
it’s another version of something I’ve
done or I feel like I could do it next
week and I remember going well wait a
minute before you get mad at thinking
you could do something next week that’s
a valid feeling don’t just say no to
something because you feel like you can
naturally do it but then I said okay
fair I’ll shake with you on that
you find something that I that I don’t
know how what to do with that next week
of the week after I find something that
I really like but I’m going fool I’m not
sure that that scares me that shakes my
floor and I was fortunate enough cuz
that schedule that check I got him name
something out field to know that I my
rent was paid I was fortunate though my
kids were gonna eat and was just
shepherding my first son into the world
so I had that to take care of my time
and I said it’s a great time to go into
the shadows and be a be a father and sit
back and see if something turns you on
from you and Tara if something finds you
if you hear the target that can draw the
epaulettes we’re okay rents paid kids
are gonna eat we can take some time off
I know what he was thinking about like
oh I’m done
but I didn’t know how long the dry
spells gonna go so I said no to some of
the things that were similar to what I
had been doing before and it took awhile
I had to sit down at mage and say hey
I’m really gonna do this and I need your
help with my committed to this because
after eight months if I’m the same thing
comes in with a big ten million dollar
I promise you though that means the same
words I think I can find an angle no I
can make it a different experience for
me is that so I said I’m gonna need your
help Punk written down here and in and
saying notice some things and so I’m
gonna need you to be a gatekeeper who
wanted to keep from getting to me –
let’s be real clear I’m I’m looking for
some different things to do he hold up
and you handled that my wife who said we
doing how long it’s gonna be dry then
after they quit sending those then it
did get drivin nothing came for about a
year there’s nothing and I didn’t have
any sleepless nights or oh my gosh I was
like no I’m fine somehow right I was
writing a lot I was turning myself on
creatively in as I said I had my first
son to Shepherd into the world and then
the funny thing happened the beautiful
thing happened that that somehow the
target drew the arrow and I think my
opinion is I became a new good idea by
being by removing myself I became way in
freakin cost River so Steven Soderbergh
calls for the first time somehow in that
two years I became fresh new idea that I
don’t think I was – three years prior
how that works I’m not sure because I
didn’t send a memo out but it did happen
the whole thing about the writer who
sees the job is a burden and some of
they struggle along it makes me think it
was an album by a rock artist named Todd
Rundgren
who was called the ever-popular tortured
artist effect and I sometimes think that
writers draw this this cloak of the
tortured artist around them because a
you can get free drinks and the chicks
love it you know they love that tortured
thing going on but I’ve always thought
that it was a terrific job and I’ve
always felt very very fortunate blessed
really to be able to do it
because I do it for free if I couldn’t
do it for money but I love doing it for
money that sounds that sounds kind of
nasty doesn’t it I love doing it for
money I am a sinner maniac and I’m I’m
scared to death of the dark except when
a motion picture theater I love to see
images because I love images that tell
stories before I ever knew how to read I
used to look at the sunday funnies and
still understand everything the
storyteller wanted me to and that’s what
I love to do more than anything else I’d
love to make pictures so I can look at
them so you could look at them and so I
can watch you looking at them which is
really for me the best part if I had a
single out one area to which I have an
utter devotion it would be with my
preoccupation with the idea and the
fight to still believe in the idea when
so many others around you just don’t get
it and the challenge was staying
interested in one single idea for
sometimes years and the struggle not to
contaminate that idea after months and
years of obsessing over it when I was in
my early teens I stayed up all night
writing a screenplay and felt something
to this day I swear I cannot get enough
of it was close to the feeling of flying
as I have ever had you know what I mean
when when you’re trying to get the words
on paper and your three thoughts ahead
of yourself and it’s a race to get it
all down before it goes back to where
that’s ever that stuff originally comes
from and it was called inspiration and I
actually made a movie from that script I
wrote all night and it was called
firelight and it was truly an awful
movie
but the process was what it was all
about the experience of that obsessive
focus of having an idea and actually
being able to photograph it that’s been
the magic potion for me ever since well
I think impossible is not a fact it’s an
opinion when someone tells me it’s
impossible
I always just look at anybody around me
knows that they can do this that’s part
of it but if they didn’t know me it’s
your opinion they’ll say no science
shows and I say yeah I know how many
times the science shows something’s
impossible now science shows it’s
possible things are impossible till
somebody does it and so I find that you
know most of your business people you
look at businesses and what does it take
to make a business grow it’s not
impossible like a business grow a
business has been shrinking for a long
time or it’s been stuck the real problem
is always the chokehold as always the
psychology and the skills of the leader
always an 80% of that as psychology and
20% as the mechanics like if you don’t
know how to read your financials and
you’re trying to fly the plane of your
your company I mean come on you know if
all you do is go down and you look at
profit loss and you see what it is and
you have a beer either way you either
celebrate it at the brass you know
something you know you’re gonna be in
trouble right but if you have the
skillsets that’s one thing but you can
get any skill set if you have the
psychology and anytime a business is not
growing it is not because it’s
impossible it’s because they aren’t
innovating and they’re not innovating
because they’re believing it’s
impossible I mean if we all know what
does it take to transform an obviously
healthy but it takes three things to
create a breakthrough and anything and
your personal life in your business
anywhere you need a strategy
but that’s not the first place you
should look in it’s the first place all
of us look me too
it’s our inherent thing you want to lose
weight well how do I do it I want to
grow my business how do I do it it’s
it’s instinctively been trained to think
that way but the problem is the how-to
is usually not that complex I’m gonna
come on 70% of America is what 75% of
America now is overweight is that
because it’s so complex how to be fit
and strong right you know
only the 1% no the answer is they hide
it from you you have to work your ass
off to not hear what it takes right and
so so you know I remember I went to this
I went to a TED Med Center and I watched
about 12 doctors won’t have to die to
get up and do these stories about how we
could just get patients to take their
medications and try to figure out the
whole thing and I was just looking and
going you’re all talking about strategy
and you’ve forgotten psychology because
strategy is wonderful I’m the strategist
of my whole life freaking out strategy
is we both know a strategy could save
you a decade right and business strategy
could save you you know it could make
the devastating success and failure but
most people have strategies available or
they could get them or you could create
them but the problem is you got a story
and your story is why it isn’t working
and the story is I’ve tried what but
everything if you tried everything you’d
be fit you try everything you’d be
profitable if you tried everything you’d
be there but people said you know I’m
big-boned that’s what I used to say I’m
still big-boned but I’m 38 pounds
lighter than I was 25 years ago and I’ve
never gained it back right a borrower’s
big bone that was my story all the good
ones are gone that’s why I’m not in a
relationship or they’re gay and I’m not
or in-game they are whatever the story
is there’s always a story and what I
tell people’s you know if you can just
divorce the story of your limitation and
marry the truth of your unlimited
capacity then the whole game changes 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 others
didn’t 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 that 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 it’s imagination used for very
practical results think of the active
imagination as 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 and fools
experiments this is the fun play part of
serious play you use notebooks 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 in 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 I
don’t know there’s a lot of negativity
to some degree a lot of grind it just
kind of feels like the grind a little
bit and so I just kind of felt like it
wasn’t a space that I wanted to be in as
much anymore like I I want to be in a
happy space where I’m just doing things
that have bring me joy and yeah it just
it wasn’t doing that as much or I was
noticing it I was noticing I was missing
that or wanting it more I think that’s
really what it comes from is growing as
a person and realizing I think
everybody’s afraid to take chances and
do something new in their life because
they’re identified a certain way or
they’ll be judged if they don’t do it or
judged if they do something different
and who are they now and are they crazy
and what are they thinking and you know
it’s just life just do things that make
you happy I mean I really I had to I
wanted to be open about it as I’d been
from the very beginning it was from an
athletes perspective is one of the
toughest things that I had to go through
and I feel like sharing that feeling
that I had and the vulnerability that I
had to carry myself with and for someone
that’s so strong and like mentally tough
and have always I mean at 6 to like
you know passionate about what she does
it felt really small with one of the
first three times in my life where I
would just I didn’t want to write I
didn’t want to continue writing the book
it took a long time to put those words
onto paper and I felt that that was an
important it’s part of my journey it’s
part of the reason why my book is called
unstoppable because I’ve had this
mentality from a very young age that no
matter what is thrown at you there there
it’s going to be roadblocks and you have
to overcome them and you can 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 to be 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 had to go out and tell
every person you told this oh I’m sorry
it was wrong tell everybody you told
it’s not going to 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 nest is gonna make you
live longer happier and wake up in the
morning happy not oh my god I gotta go
to work I can’t wait til 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 Kashem in beating
the 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
should be I know I’m doing 50 things
wrong it’s like what the hell’s 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
when I’m speaking to to when I’m
speaking now I say to people oh no
you’re nowhere near what you could be
that’s that that’s the positive message
it’s like yeah you’re a mess but you
don’t have to stay that way as you’re a
mess 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
that’s the thing that that turns the
lights on it’s like you do something
about it 99% of people that say stuff
like that are not willing to do what it
takes to make their dreams come true
the Marines have a saying everybody
wants to go to heaven but nobody wants
to die and that’s just real at the
center of bringing any dream into
fruition is self-discipline you know
something as simple as food and eating
it’s not about your body as much as it
is about your mind it’s getting command
of your mind to be able to choose
actions that are in your own best
interest every day we are choosing
that’s not in our own best interest
right so if the world is attacking you
and the world wants to fight you in the
world’s trying to hold you down so
you’re gonna kick yourself in the balls
so you will stop yourself from getting
what you dream self-discipline is the
center of all material success you
cannot win the war against the world if
you can’t win the war against your own
mind biggest struggle man was just
getting around other people that would
say I could do it I mean that’s the
biggest struggle just you get around one
guy says yeah you can do it and then you
talk to him tomorrow and he’s like
nowadays
you can’t do this you know there’s so
few people telling you to do it you know
what there is a lot of save your money
protect yourself conserve don’t spin
don’t take risk taking risk is the new
way to be risk adverse so we’re the
biggest struggle for me was my family
man the people closest to me was the
biggest struggle every time I went out
to do another deal everybody told me you
don’t need to do that man the only
person that was encouraging me was my
twin brother cuz I would see how he was
doing it dude he was making his swings
and so every time I’d get around other
people so I’ll tell you a little trick I
did on weekends I would always go see
Holmes I couldn’t afford that has always
inspired me I would go look I would go
drive neighborhoods literally I’ve done
this my entire life until I finally got
to the point where they wouldn’t even
let me in the neighborhood there’s
neighborhoods in Miami do you can’t even
go see you can’t they won’t even let you
in the gates most of you can get in if
you know some of my tricks so the point
that show Vitas writing on the board
right now is you got fuel in your tank
it wants to be accelerated on and then
you got somebody in the back seat saying
hey be careful
nobody likes a backseat driver okay so
they’re sitting there they’re putting
their putting mental pressure on the
brakes when you’re trying to accelerate
who are you competing with and whatever
you do you have to ask yourself what’s
your edge right what is the one thing
that gives you a competitive edge if you
don’t have an answer
you can’t start that company you’re
gonna lose right I said it before if
you’re trying to compete with me you
better though know a whole lot more than
I do about whatever business we’re in
because otherwise I’m gonna kick your
ass right so you have to ask yourself
what is your competitive advantage and
with that kick competitive advantage
what’s the best way for me to get
customers who are willing to write me a
check my one of my skill sets has always
been I’ve been able to walk into any
type of business and understand their
company you know understand how they
make money I understand how they compete
so I can walk into a shoe store I can
walk into a hospital whatever
say alright here’s my technology here’s
how it gives you an advantage and I try
to do the same thing a shark tank you
hear say it all the time
what is your competitive advantage just
saying it’s my passion you ever walk
into 7-eleven and say wow I’m shopping
here at 7-eleven because they’re really
passionate no right and when when you go
and you make your think about your own
buying decisions what makes you decide
to buy now you might want to support
veteran owned business so I always when
it’s a toss-up yes right but at some
point you have to grow beyond the
community and you have to be able to say
I you can walk into any situation and
know without any doubt in your mind this
is why you are the best product or
service and you are the best company
provide that product or service period
in a story if you can’t do that you have
to ask yourself who is doing it what are
they doing that gives them that edge
what allows them to compete or help
their customers better than you can
because that’s what it’s all about we
all as consumers make buying decisions
and we the people who are buying our
stuff is product or service use the same
thought process for those buying
decisions so always put yourself in your
potential customers shoes what is it
that I have that makes it a no-brainer
for them to buy for me if it’s I’m nice
I’m passionate you’re in trouble right
there’s got to be something because even
if you can get some customers how are
you going to grow it how are you going
to sustain it and what’s going to keep
the next person from coming in and doing
the same thing because look with success
comes additional challenges the more you
succeed the more people say damn okay
that’s an opportunity I think I can do
that better and so success isn’t look
where I’m at success is go go go go
right I mean people say wow you’ve done
this I’m still going right to me
business is the ultimate sport and
there’s nobody
on the face of the earth that’s more
competitive than I am I’ve said that to
Magic Johnson Michael Jordan Larry Bird
you name it right
any athlete any businessperson it is the
ultimate sport and we’re competing all
the time what is it that gives you an
edge that allows you to compete how do
you sustain that and how do you find
more people that say yes to buy that
that is going to be the key to your
business and how do you sell it if it
were easy to get what you wanted in life
Google would have already figured out an
app you would just type in okay I’m a
student and I want to go from being a
student to being successful and Google
would tell you go to college then you
get your masters then you land this
killer job and then you put in a bunch
of face time while you’re checking
Facebook then you get promoted to
manager and then you realize managing
people kind of stinks and then you keep
climbing the corporate ladder and then
you start to wonder well how did I end
up here and I think you always this is
what success looks like you’re like no
I’m gonna go to Jay hilburn that’s what
success looks like so keep this in mind
if there’s something that you want like
seven people or a trip to Africa or
you’re going to make it to Mexico in the
pink shirt I’m looking at you again sir
I’m watching you and rooting for you
keep in mind this here you are this is
what you want I spend a lot of time on
lacrosse fields although they don’t
really look like this you tend to think
that what you want you just march right
towards it but if in sports you march
right towards the goal what happens the
defenders come in and what the defenders
are is it’s your brain saying ain’t
gonna happen
so the second you start moving toward
that thing you want be ready you’re
gonna tell yourself you don’t feel like
it you’re gonna have to force yourself
it’s happening there’s no way to get
around it so what you’re gonna have to
do is you’re gonna basically get bounced
around a lot all over the place and
there gonna be a lot of times that you
feel like this was a really dumb idea to
start this business because it’s gonna
get hard and I want to remind you about
something unlike a sports field where
there’s an in and out of bounds the
great thing about life is there actually
aren’t any and it’s
usually in those moments where you feel
like you can’t do it that you’re closer
than ever to having everything that you
wanted and I wanted to show you this so
that you keep it in mind because I think
a lot of times when you look back it’s
the darkest moments where you realize
holy cow that’s what projected me
forward sleep at the same time wake up
at the same time seven days a week no
matter what really this sleep is so
valuable it’s so important so I rated I
used to think that I here’s what I was
I’m a fighter jet I would literally walk
around the house honey I’m a fighter jet
fighter jet and you know doesn’t even
come down to get refueled they’re up
there getting revealed right we’ve all
seen the YouTube videos
yeah well the fighter jet if they leave
those afterburners on too long they just
fall out of the sky which I know one had
told me right until I fell out of the
sky I was having essential tremors and
anxiety attacks and not realizing it and
as I got better its sleep those just
went away cuz the one discipline leads
to another and to another how you do
anything is how you do everything all
right
and so that that one thing that he
taught me or I learned through him and
we’d be in Vegas we’d run a mastermind
together because now we run a mastermind
together
and eight o’clock I’m he’s gone buddy
were you going to sleep yeah I’m gonna
buy nine or whatever better yeah yeah
exactly he powers off thirty minutes all
his electronics before so now I do the
same thing I power off I don’t go to bed
and then do this I powered off thirty
minutes before and my mind stops racing
and the left and right side start
reconciling of the information I took in
throughout the day versus the
information I keep consuming taking
right until I fall asleep and then Lord
knows what happens in my brain whatever
I write what time you go to bed and wake
up 10:30 10:30 I’m in bed wake up at
5:30 Wow and and that’s no matter what
even if you’re in Vegas or I’m traveling
around the world or whatever you know
I’ll adjust that timezone real quickly
and 10:30 I’m in bed 5:30 a.m. I wake up
when I go right through my rituals how
did you stay motivated all the time
people ask me that all the time and the
answer is I didn’t and neither did you
to become successful the separator in
life is really important building the
most inspired motivated person wins
not really it’s the person who can work
on the days they’re not inspired and
motivated it’s what do you do when
you’re not feeling great what do you do
when it’s not your best day how do you
do that carries you through his rituals
and habits so when you’re fatigued when
you’re tired when you’re under pressure
you react reflexively and so successful
people rely on habits and rituals not
just their inspiration and motivation
level of course we’re both professionals
and being motivated inspired but that’s
not every day every minute and so what
do I do I work on the days because my
habits and rituals carry me through and
so for me here’s how I look at my life
in my day if I can control the first 30
minutes of my day and the last 30
minutes of my day I have a whole lot
better chance of the middle of my day
being controlled and so I’m a freak
about the first 30 minutes of every day
it’s really about the first 45 minutes
and I’m obsessive about the last 45
minutes of every single day that gives
me some illusion in my mind and measure
of control the other thing it does it
delivers to me habits and rituals that
serve me that I do every day that are
consistent it gives me comfort in stormy
times that ocean out there is raging at
the top right now right the waves are
crashing at the bottom of that ocean
it’s completely calm at the bottom of
that ocean is the habitual part of the
water right it’s the it’s the it’s the
part of the wire that stays the most
consistent that’s why it’s so calm okay
so when you see someone out of control
their emotions are up and down all the
time this is someone who is without
rituals and habits successful people
have those and so they do and so it
keeps me calm it keeps me comfortable
because I believe ambition is not a
dirty word it’s just believing in
yourself and your abilities
imagine this what would happen if we
were all brave enough to believe in our
own ability to be a little bit more
ambitious I think the world would change
and I had about a year and a half I
would audition and I would get one call
back two callbacks three callbacks and I
and I never got the part and I never
feel like I’m too tight you know what I
mean I think maybe I’m studying too much
I remember tell them I talk to myself
maybe I’m studying too much about the
import of the line and and everything
and you know what I think I need to go
back to doing what
I did when I first started which is I
was just a guy and I improvised
so I had a head of film that I was cast
for when I was playing this on the
border Mexican druglord and I told
myself I said I’m not gonna look at this
side I’m not good even gonna read the
script it’s an on the border Mexican
drug lord I hear the synopsis if I know
my man then I’ll show up and just
obviously I’ll read it right before I go
on and if I know my man that’ll be like
well that’s exactly what he’d say
foolish I go I go I go to set that that
morning all right I’m just gonna all I
gotta do is have a glance at it and
it’ll be like yeah I know I know how to
do it well I look at it right before
about to say action and it was a page
and a half monologue in Spanish oh I
felt this drip of sweat come up on the
back of my head and go down and I and
then for whatever reason I looked over
and I said um goodnight okay can you
give me about 12 minutes why I said 12
minutes I don’t know I figured it was
like not long enough to be inconsiderate
but but long enough to maybe get a
little bit of this anyway
it was I think I was horrible in it I
stammered through some Spanish and so
then I was like okay that’s not the way
to go there’s a blend here of avidin do
your due diligence do your studyin but
then being able to go there on the day
and relax and throw it all away the best
description of writing a novel that I
ever heard it’s actually in Thomas
Williams this book the hair of Harold
drew which is about a novelist trying to
write a novel and it just covers like 1
or 2 days in this process and a lot of
things happen to her it’s a fabulous
book but he says that writing the novel
is like building a little campfire on an
empty dark plane and one by one these
characters come out of the dark and each
one has a little pile of wood and they
put it on the fire and if you’re very
lucky before the fire goes out it’s this
big bonfire and all the characters stand
around it and warm themselves and that’s
the way it’s always been for me I have a
good friend over in Vermont
or John Irving and John says that he
always begins a novel by writing the
last line and to me that’s like eating
your dessert before you eat the meal and
I don’t everybody works a different way
and God bless John and he’s done some
wonderful work in his lifetime and he’ll
probably do some more but I could never
write a book that way the way that I
think of it you know is that fire I love
that particular image but I’ve also
always thought of it in terms of there’s
a little thread a little red thread that
goes into a hole in the baseboard and
you just start to pull it out and you
see what’s on the other end of it and
sooner or later you get there for me the
fun of writing novels isn’t in the
finished product which I don’t care
about that much there’s a guy who’s
looking at my shelf over there all the
books are on the shelf and to me those
are like dead skin the things that are
that are done but I love the process I
get it back by remembering that he might
die tomorrow that’s true so I’m inspired
by practicality and reality and the
truth which is it is ridiculously
impossible to become a human being I am
one I have other good things going for
me as a human being and I’m just
grateful you your dwelling and looking
at what you don’t have versus looking at
what you have if you actually looked at
what you had your health you know living
in America you know who the heck knows
what would be on your list if you
actually spend all your time looking at
that versus I don’t have a million
dollars I’m not famous I don’t have this
if you spend all your time on what you
have versus what you don’t have you
would be the happiest girl on earth I’ve
got to make a commitment to service you
got to make a commitment to like hey I
have a target I know that when we don’t
achieve targets here in my office the
first thing I ask regardless the
internet department if it’s my
accounting department on collections or
it’s my sales department I’m gonna ask a
question what is the target know
target results in no sales so if you’re
in parts if you’re in service look have
a target measure that target hourly if
you really want to get results measure
your target every hour to see what do we
get in the last 60 minutes I promise you
do those two simple things don’t even
learn anything about how to sell anybody
anything have a target measure at every
hour and I guarantee your sales will
come up
why do you prioritize sleep so highly
just curious of what makes you so
committed to that and the science behind
it thank you for all you do I find that
I’m slower when I’m fatigued so I find
myself drifting I have more symptoms of
what we’ll call 80 a DD so that my
attention is just drift drift drifts and
then I find I’ll read a sentence or
whatever and be like kind of to reread
the sentence like ten times so that was
just going whoa I’m not as efficient as
I could be and then the other is I find
it a unique form of misery there is an
additional ring of Hell that is saved
just for people who are fatigued I hate
it so much
so it’s misery and I don’t understand
people that live a life that is
miserable I just don’t get it and then
on top of that I think you actually
accomplish less if you’re fatigued
so you’re putting more hours we actually
getting less done per hour so if being
fatigued puts you at like 0.6 of what
your output could be and then being just
like incredibly well rested prioritizing
that puts you at you know it’s I guess
mathematically I should be saying just
one then like you have to make up 40% of
the number of hours and waking up early
just to break even and then you put
misery on top of that so that that’s my
end of one experience is that I am so
deadly efficient when I’m rested that I
just get more done so comparing those
suicide by side I get I actually accomplish more
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