great steel magnate Andrew Carnegie
would ask the formula for success
answered put all your eggs in one basket
then watch the basket let’s be frankly
realistic who gets laid off work during
an economic slump
well what gets thrown over the side when
a ship is in danger of going down
everything not absolutely vital to the
operation of the craft and the safety of
its passengers and it’s the same with a
business or any other organization with
a corporation its main purpose is to
remain in business forever as long as it
remains in business it can provide a
needed product or service protect the
investment of those who have faith in it
and provide jobs for those who are vital
to its continuity of operation it’s the
duty of management to protect the firm
and the people who depend upon it just
as it’s the captain’s duty to do
everything in his power to keep his ship
sailing all the pressur needs to do is
to make certain that he or she is a
vital part of his business or
organization those who insist on
remaining severe gear must expect to be
jettisoned when things get too rough for
safety nobody particularly the captain
likes to see cargo thrown over the side
but if it’ll help save the ship there’s
something nothing else to do that’s why
people are laid off it has nothing to do
with management and labor relations or
personalities and in the long run its
best for everyone since once whew the
saving as again been reached additional
employment can be made available so each
of us must decide whether we want to be
part of the cargo or a member of the
crew it’s hard changing your life it was
hard when just over three years ago in
the Penobscot building in Detroit
Michigan where I was operating my
business and I fell on some hard times
and I was sleeping in my office
it was hard coming into the lobby and
the security said scuse me mr. Brown can
we see you for a moment
and I said yes and I walked up to the
counter and he gave me an envelope and
he said would you mind reading it here
and I opened the envelope and the
envelope was from management that says
this is an office tower it’s not a hotel
please do not sleep in your office and I
said excuse me sir I said I just worked
long hours in creating my business I’m
an entrepreneur and right now things are
bad for me but they’re not going to be
this way always and I just asked for the
opportunity to continue to operate like
I’m doing I’m not trying to make this my
home and it was hard coming through the
lobby and sometimes they would laugh
there’s a guy talking about becoming
successful and look at him he’s bathing
in the bathroom upstairs on the 21st
floor he sleeps on the floor him and two
other dreamers up there look at him
it was hard ladies and gentleman coming
to speak to people and I was facing
financial difficulties in my own life I
was behind on my bills and my dreams and
I’m saying to them you can live your
dream it was hard ladies and gentlemen
it was very difficult to pick myself up
each day believing that I can do it
there were times that I doubted myself
and said God why why is this happening
to me I’m just trying to take care of my
children and my mother I’m not trying to
steal a Rob from anybody how did this
have to happen to me it was very hard
and here’s what I want to say to you for
those of you that have experienced some
hardships don’t give up on your dream no
one could have convinced me by holding
on by continuing to push forward by
continuing to run toward my dream that
one day I would have my own talk show
it’s a long shot ladies and gentlemen
from liberty city an abandoned building
order floor never knowing my mother or
father it’s a long shot being here with
you today in this dome in Atlanta it’s a
long shot no college training labeled
educable mentally retarded but I kept
yo my dad was an underground parking lot
attendant – I have no business
background but I have this passion to
help people and then I was this artist
like a lot of dentists out there and I
wanted to do this beautiful work but I
realize again but if I don’t have a
market and innovate all these ideas are
just gonna die with me and so I do vocal
skills and once I learned how to do that
how to do more for a client than anybody
else how to add more value how to get
obsessed about everything you can do for
these people when you do that you don’t
have satisfied customer satisfied
customers go away you are breathing fans
and raving fans stay and reinvent
everybody else and really go into it
build your bandwidth grow you so those
things allow me to grow in my
educational business and then I just
applied those to other businesses become
what we think about most of the time and
that’s the strangest secret this is why
thinking is so vital this is why our
goal is so important because we will
become that this is why people who set
goals achieve them the trouble with men
is not achieving their goals they do
that
it’s an establishing them we must love
them we must help them we must serve
them because our whole success will
depend on our ability these things but
never lose our own individuality and our
identity by permitting ourselves to
become submerged in what is historically
proved itself to be a little more than a
suffocating sea of indirection and
purposelessness if we want to emulate
someone fine but let’s be choosy in
whose steps we follow it’s the only life
we’ve got and remember to think
imagination is everything and we can
become what we can imagine if you find
yourself getting depressed and down at
the mouth as we all get once in a while
you might want to remember this
quotation by Dean Briggs he said do your
work not just your work in no more
a little more for the lavishing sake
that little more which is worth all the
rest and if you suffer as you must and
if you doubt as you must do your work
put your heart into it and the sky will
clear have you ever thought how your
life could be better off if you had
gotten your Harvard degree well I I’m a
weird dropout because I take college
courses all the time I love learning
company courses and things so I love
being a student and there were smart
people around and you know they fed you
and they gave you these nice grades that
made you feel smart so I feel it was
unfortunate that I didn’t get to stay
there but I don’t think I missed any
knowledge because you know whatever I
needed to learn I would I was still in a
learning mode everyone in this room
knows how to create you’re not a manager
of your life you’re a creator of your
life or you wouldn’t be in this room how
do you create your life you get hungry
for something don’t you who has done
something in your life that once seemed
difficult or impossible and now it’s
part of your life who’s got something in
your life for this area say I how did
you do it you created it three ways
number one you decided there’s something
you wanted so bad that you unleashed all
your desire you became obsessed with it
if it was a business or a car or a
relationship or a transformation in your
body if there’s something you want sin
vision and now it’s real it’s because
you didn’t just envision it you brought
so much emotion to it then now it’s in
your life it was once a dream it was
once a goal and now it’s in your life
how many have something like that in
your life now say I you may take it for
granted now hopefully not but it was
once just a vision may have seemed
impossible at one time so how did you do
it you started with a concrete vision of
what you wanted and you focused on it
continuously didn’t you wherever focus
you envision something you got clear
about it and then you start thinking
about all the reasons why you wanted it
you got excited about it so this is
what’s next for me now I want this you
may have dreamed about a thought about
and talked about it
but when you focus on something
continuously something magical happens
you get insights don’t you you overhear
a conversation hear something you
wouldn’t have heard if you didn’t have
that outcome or goal that you wanted so
badly who’s ever come up with something
obsessed about it didn’t even know how
to do it and it just happened and it
came together who’s that that experience
say I so why don’t we happened that
power now for your business in life have
a routine its discipline is predictable
and bloody well stick to it you’re gonna
be way healthier and happier and saner
if you do that and then the other thing
that you need because this is one of the
things the psychoanalyst got wrong I
think is that they overestimated the
degree to which sanity was a consequence
of internal being properly structured
internally you know because from the
psychoanalytic point of view you’re sort
of an ego and that ego is inside you of
course it rests on an unconscious
structure but the purpose of
psychoanalysis is to sort out that
unconscious structure and the ego on top
of it and to make you a fully
functioning and autonomous individual
but there’s a problem with that because
the reason that you’re saying as a fully
functional and autonomous human being
isn’t because you’ve organized your
psyche even though that’s important the
reason that you’re saying if you’re a
wet if you have a well-organized
unconscious and ego is because other
people can tolerate having you around
for reasonably extensive periods of time
and will cuff you across the back of the
head every time you do something so
stupid that people will dislike you
permanently if you continue and so what
people are doing to each other all
I’m just non-stop is broadcasting sanity
signals back and forth right it’s like
you smile at people if they’re well if
they’re not not only behaving property
but behaving in a way that you would
like to see them continue to behave you
frown at them if they’re not you ignore
them if they’re not you shun them you
you roll your eyes at them you manifest
a disgust face you don’t listen to them
you interrupt them you won’t cooperate
with them you won’t compete with them
it’s like you’re blasting signals of
other people about how to regulate their
behavior so frequently well it just
makes up all of your social interaction
that’s why we face each other and we
have emotional displays on our face and
we’re looking at each other’s eyes and
we know exactly we know as much as we
can about what’s going on with each
other given that we don’t have immediate
access to the contents of their
consciousness and so partly what you’re
doing with your routine is establishing
yourself as a credible reliable
trustworthy potentially interesting
human being who isn’t going to do
anything too erratic at any moment and
everyone else is around there tapping
you into shape making sure that that’s
exactly what you are and that’s how you
stay sane and so what happens to people
too if they don’t have a routine and
they get isolated is they start to drift
and they drift badly because the world
is too complicated for you to keep it
organized all by yourself you just
cannot do it so a lot of our so we
outsource the problem of sanity and it’s
very intelligent that we outsource the
problem of sanity because sanity is an
impossibly complex problem and so the
way that we manage the incredibly
complex problem is we have a very large
number of brains working simultaneously
on the problem all the time you have
made a significant contribution in the
fight against AIDS in Africa you have
funded to a large degree vaccines and
vaccine research give me a sense of
where that’s directed and which success
you think we’re making and and your own
particular interest in public health in
the world
well this is a real passion for me I saw
it I’ll give a succinct answer people I
think don’t have a full awareness how
four billion of the six billion people
on this planet don’t have basic health
needs met the the death rate of infants
the epidemic infectious diseases that
are just a way of life in most the world
don’t exist in the in the developed
world and yet the research isn’t going
on for the medicines that would get rid
of these diseases even diseases like
tuberculosis where for a few hundred
dollars lives can be saved that’s not
being done vaccines aren’t being moved
from the rich world to the poor world
AIDS is the most extreme where the
prevention measures that could prevent
this from becoming a huge epidemic in
countries like India Nigerian many
countries where it’s not in huge
percentages or sort of that you know the
right things I think are not being
prioritized
so the foundation that my wife and I
have is have taken as its top priority
these world health issues the research
getting the vaccines out and it’s been
fascinating to learn about this and to
try and say that all these lives the
lives all over the world should be
treated with the same value that we
treat lives here in the in the rich
world so your but just to sum up in a
sense I mean the what you have learned
from your own involvement from funding
it in terms of more money than had ever
been applied is that it can make a
difference absolutely millions of lives
can be and should be saved through these
efforts and you know we we can make a
difference and we can encourage others
to get involved that was my last
question is that happening as you fund
these efforts are you I mean is it
becoming a kind of wedge that other
governments and other foundations and
other sources a following suit or
matching yeah we’ve seen
a good start I would say the vaccine
fund we put together we put in 750
million now governments have agreed to
put up five hundred million in addition
to that in the AIDS area some of the
things we’ve backed have been able to
attract additional money having said
that this is a cause that somehow
deserves more visibility because when
you talk to people about this and they
hear about malaria or AIDS they really
do care and they think their
government’s doing more and so you know
when I’m not working a lot of my
creativity is going into what could be
done to show people that their money
would be well-spent it would make a
difference and you know try and make
sure that that world health gets gets
more a priority than you can save life
that’s what it’s all about the only
reason that most of us don’t accumulate
a level of achievement in our lives one
most people end up aiming low that’s
what I did most of my life that most
people fail in life not because they aim
too high admits most people fail in life
because they aim too low and hit and
that’s what I did I was a disc jockey I
was very satisfied I achieved the level
of professionalism and mastery in that
area and then someone challenged means
that you can do more and it took him 14
years to convince me to become this
person that you now see this person that
you now see this voice which I consider
my power voice I have absolutely no idea
that this person existed well there are
some times in life someone can take you
to a place within yourself where you can
never go by yourself and he saw
something in me and sometimes you have
to believe in somebody’s belief in you
until your belief kicks in no one can
live without a routine you just forget
that if you guys don’t have a routine I
would recommend like you get one going
because you cannot be mentally healthy
without a routine you need to pick a
time to get up whatever time you want
but pick one and stick to it because
otherwise you dis regulate your
circadian rhythms and
they regulate your mode we’ve competed
against various forms of eunuchs over
the years and Linux is a growing in
popularity and definitely a competitor
how threatening a competitor well it’s a
it’s a competitor we take very seriously
I think you know part of Microsoft’s
success is that we don’t underestimate
the importance of the work that other
companies are doing and so we look out
we you know we think are there aspects
of that that that are best practices for
example online support some the
community things that are done around
Linux are are done very well so you know
we’re we’re thinking about it making
sure that our innovation I will make
sure that our value and our leadership
stays in front the one universal rule
that idiots in finance know is
diversification if the only free lunch
you got a diversify because if you put
all your eggs in one basket no matter
how good the basket is one day that real
estate market that stock market that
bond market that collectibles market
whatever you invested rate Elliott
showed me statistically it’ll drop 50 to
70 percent on a day now if you’re later
in life and that happens it’s over free
of that so you have to diversify and yet
most people they know real estate so
they do it or they know stocks they do
it or they grew up with the hand their
parents flipping things it’s the wrong
thing to do so you’ve got to diversify
in order for you to be able to truly
succeed and that’s why when you want a
business yeah if you put all your money
in your business which is what most of
us do naturally yeah you put all your
eggs in one basket there’s things that
can happen I mean you know you’re let’s
say you spend 20 years and you figured
out how to put together the ultimate map
you know and remember Garmin came out
with this thing called the TomTom and
every member used to get on your I would
love to remember that
yeah I just put on your badge down cost
a hundred bucks it was a breakthrough
they’re making like I’m a knight or
something oh yeah yeah yeah six months
later what happened the iPhone came out
with a few little apps you bastards my
French came out with it put Google Maps
with their own map on here and tell us
how much zero
what’s they gonna do to your business
when someone takes your product reserved
it gives away for free so I always tell
people competition happens technology
happens what you must do is have a
second business with no with no moving
parts no people no time maybe it takes
you two to three days a year for two or
three hours after you’ve read the book
you put it in place and you measure it
two three times a year that’s it yeah go
on with your life now those are trouble
in your business you’re financially set
I in my life at thirty-one companies now
we have you know what do we have 1200
employees seven different industries we
do five billion in sales I mean I used
to be you know me and my seminar
business it’s grown geometrically but
with all those moving parts the only way
I’ve been able to succeed is because
I’ve taken everyone those businesses
that I’ve diversified my assets so that
when things were in trouble I still have
enough economics figure myself and keep
the business going so everybody needs to
create a money machine that works while
you sleep that doesn’t have moving parts
and that’s what this is really there’s a
funny story that goes along with how we
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 it’s
messy and it’s the messiness that cannot
happen over and over an internet
connection over email because everything
is exact over email 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
x’ 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 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 these Kenya shootings that just
never happened not so long ago we had
the amazing experience that a
photographer 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
it wanted me and inspires me I should
say and if the photograph of a mother in
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
eating 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 terminology 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 on
us that that’s that’s what leaders eat
last means it is very literal it is very
how do you get more of the things money
will buy and all of the things that
money won’t buy now money is not the
most important thing in life but it is
reasonably close to oxygen I mean you
know when you need it you really do need
it that’s what I’m getting it now I
gotta tell you the whole honesty I like
what money burners I like to live in a
nice house drive a nice car take that
beautiful radiated wife of mine out to
nice restaurants and all nice strip I
like to play golf at the Country Club
and every one of those things cost money
but to tell you the truth I love the
things money won’t buy money bought me a
nice house won’t buy me a home money
will buy you a companion won’t buy your
friend money will buy you a good time
won’t buy you peace of mind mind money
will buy your bed won’t buy you a good
night’s sleep and let me explain
something to interesting me enough and
I’m so grateful to be able to say this
I’ve got many of the things that money
will buy but all of the things money
won’t buy and here’s something rather
fascinating the more of the things you
have that money won’t buy those are the
things that will enable you to get more
of the things that money will buy and
dramatically reduces stress in your life
that’s what we want to be looking at we
want to look at the things that make a
difference I believe your philosophy of
life is a key point as you probably know
philosophy is simply the love of wisdom
but here’s the philosophy I’ve built my
life on my career own you can have
everything in life you want if you’ll
just help enough other people get what
they want that’s true in your personal
life it’s true in your family life it’s
true in your corporate life you want to
get ahead in life you know in this array
for me to heck with you world we
frequently don’t understand that if you
are irreplaceable in the job you have
you’re unpromoted where you are my
father owned it actually was an old
bakery when I was growing up my father
was an electrician and a refrigeration
man we would we would install
supermarkets you see the long freezer
cases in supermarkets we would install
those long freezing cases and all the
lights that’s what we that’s what we
would do every summer yeah so this is
one year my father had his shop and he
decided for whatever reason that he
wanted a new wall on the front of his
shop so he tore down probably about you
know 16 feet high and probably about 30
feet long he just completely tore the
wall down and my brother and I had to
dig a six-foot hole we were the
foundation for the foundation we would
mix in the concrete by hand a year and a
half we were building this wall for a
year and a half every day after school
we were coming mixing concrete put it in
the hole doing it and it was just myself
and my little brother and I remember
standing back looking at that wall
saying there’s gonna be a hole here
forever a year and a half later many
days I know a year and a half later we
laid the the final brick and my father
stood back with my brother and I and I
know he planned as he says he does he
says he didn’t but I know he had been
planning this and rightness for him for
the past two years but he we stood back
we looked at the wall and he looked at
me and my brother said don’t y’all never
tell me that you can’t do something and
you ask people across the United States
is the future going to be better than
the past most say no my kids will be
worse off than I am they think
innovation won’t make the world better
for them or their children so who’s
right the people who say innovation will
create new possibilities and make the
word world better or the people who see
a trend toward inequality and a decline
in opportunity and don’t think
innovation will change that the
pessimists are wrong in my view but
they’re not crazy
if innovation is purely market driven
and we don’t focus on the big inequities
then we could have amazing advances and
inventions that leave the world even
more divided
we won’t improve public schools we won’t
cure malaria we won’t end poverty we
won’t develop the innovations poor
farmers need to grow food in a changing
climate if our optimism doesn’t address
the problems that affect so many of our
fellow human beings then our optimism
needs more empathy if empathy channel’s
our optimism we will see the poverty and
the disease and the poor schools we will
answer with our innovations and we will
surprise the pessimists over the next
generation you Stanford graduates will
lead a new wave of innovation which
problems will you decide to solve if
your world is wide you can create the
future we all want if your world is
narrow you may create the future the
pessimists fear I started learning in
swayed oh that if we’re going to make
our optimism matter to everyone and
empower people everywhere we have to see
the lives of those most in need
if we have optimism without empathy then
it doesn’t matter how much we master the
secrets of science we’re not really
solving problems
we’re just working on puzzles I think
most of you have a broader worldview
than I had at your age you can do better
at this than I did if you put your
hearts and minds to it you can surprise
the pessimists or eager to see it great
steel magnate Andrew Carnegie will ask
the formula for success answered put all
your eggs in one basket then watch the
basket let’s be frankly realistic who
gets laid off work during an economic
slump
well what gets thrown over the side when
a ship is in danger of going down
everything not absolutely vital to the
operation of the craft and the safety of
its passengers and it’s the same with a
business or any other organization with
a corporation its main purpose is to
remain in business forever as long as it
remains in business it can provide a
needed product or service protect the
investment of those who have faith in it
and provide jobs for those who are vital
to its continuity of operation it’s the
duty of management to protect the firm
and the people who depend upon it just
as it’s the captain’s duty to do
everything in his power to keep a ship
sailing all oppressor means to do is to
make certain that he or she is a vital
part of his business or organization
those who insist on remaining severe
gear must expect to be jettisoned when
things get too rough for safety nobody
particularly the captain likes to see
cargo thrown over the side but if it’ll
help save the ship there’s something
nothing else to do that’s why people are
laid off it has nothing to do with
management and labor relations or
personalities and in the long run it’s
best for everyone since one smooth
sailing is again been reached additional
employment can be made available so each
of us must decide whether we want to be
part of the cargo or a member of the crew
would ask the formula for success
answered put all your eggs in one basket
then watch the basket let’s be frankly
realistic who gets laid off work during
an economic slump
well what gets thrown over the side when
a ship is in danger of going down
everything not absolutely vital to the
operation of the craft and the safety of
its passengers and it’s the same with a
business or any other organization with
a corporation its main purpose is to
remain in business forever as long as it
remains in business it can provide a
needed product or service protect the
investment of those who have faith in it
and provide jobs for those who are vital
to its continuity of operation it’s the
duty of management to protect the firm
and the people who depend upon it just
as it’s the captain’s duty to do
everything in his power to keep his ship
sailing all the pressur needs to do is
to make certain that he or she is a
vital part of his business or
organization those who insist on
remaining severe gear must expect to be
jettisoned when things get too rough for
safety nobody particularly the captain
likes to see cargo thrown over the side
but if it’ll help save the ship there’s
something nothing else to do that’s why
people are laid off it has nothing to do
with management and labor relations or
personalities and in the long run its
best for everyone since once whew the
saving as again been reached additional
employment can be made available so each
of us must decide whether we want to be
part of the cargo or a member of the
crew it’s hard changing your life it was
hard when just over three years ago in
the Penobscot building in Detroit
Michigan where I was operating my
business and I fell on some hard times
and I was sleeping in my office
it was hard coming into the lobby and
the security said scuse me mr. Brown can
we see you for a moment
and I said yes and I walked up to the
counter and he gave me an envelope and
he said would you mind reading it here
and I opened the envelope and the
envelope was from management that says
this is an office tower it’s not a hotel
please do not sleep in your office and I
said excuse me sir I said I just worked
long hours in creating my business I’m
an entrepreneur and right now things are
bad for me but they’re not going to be
this way always and I just asked for the
opportunity to continue to operate like
I’m doing I’m not trying to make this my
home and it was hard coming through the
lobby and sometimes they would laugh
there’s a guy talking about becoming
successful and look at him he’s bathing
in the bathroom upstairs on the 21st
floor he sleeps on the floor him and two
other dreamers up there look at him
it was hard ladies and gentleman coming
to speak to people and I was facing
financial difficulties in my own life I
was behind on my bills and my dreams and
I’m saying to them you can live your
dream it was hard ladies and gentlemen
it was very difficult to pick myself up
each day believing that I can do it
there were times that I doubted myself
and said God why why is this happening
to me I’m just trying to take care of my
children and my mother I’m not trying to
steal a Rob from anybody how did this
have to happen to me it was very hard
and here’s what I want to say to you for
those of you that have experienced some
hardships don’t give up on your dream no
one could have convinced me by holding
on by continuing to push forward by
continuing to run toward my dream that
one day I would have my own talk show
it’s a long shot ladies and gentlemen
from liberty city an abandoned building
order floor never knowing my mother or
father it’s a long shot being here with
you today in this dome in Atlanta it’s a
long shot no college training labeled
educable mentally retarded but I kept
yo my dad was an underground parking lot
attendant – I have no business
background but I have this passion to
help people and then I was this artist
like a lot of dentists out there and I
wanted to do this beautiful work but I
realize again but if I don’t have a
market and innovate all these ideas are
just gonna die with me and so I do vocal
skills and once I learned how to do that
how to do more for a client than anybody
else how to add more value how to get
obsessed about everything you can do for
these people when you do that you don’t
have satisfied customer satisfied
customers go away you are breathing fans
and raving fans stay and reinvent
everybody else and really go into it
build your bandwidth grow you so those
things allow me to grow in my
educational business and then I just
applied those to other businesses become
what we think about most of the time and
that’s the strangest secret this is why
thinking is so vital this is why our
goal is so important because we will
become that this is why people who set
goals achieve them the trouble with men
is not achieving their goals they do
that
it’s an establishing them we must love
them we must help them we must serve
them because our whole success will
depend on our ability these things but
never lose our own individuality and our
identity by permitting ourselves to
become submerged in what is historically
proved itself to be a little more than a
suffocating sea of indirection and
purposelessness if we want to emulate
someone fine but let’s be choosy in
whose steps we follow it’s the only life
we’ve got and remember to think
imagination is everything and we can
become what we can imagine if you find
yourself getting depressed and down at
the mouth as we all get once in a while
you might want to remember this
quotation by Dean Briggs he said do your
work not just your work in no more
a little more for the lavishing sake
that little more which is worth all the
rest and if you suffer as you must and
if you doubt as you must do your work
put your heart into it and the sky will
clear have you ever thought how your
life could be better off if you had
gotten your Harvard degree well I I’m a
weird dropout because I take college
courses all the time I love learning
company courses and things so I love
being a student and there were smart
people around and you know they fed you
and they gave you these nice grades that
made you feel smart so I feel it was
unfortunate that I didn’t get to stay
there but I don’t think I missed any
knowledge because you know whatever I
needed to learn I would I was still in a
learning mode everyone in this room
knows how to create you’re not a manager
of your life you’re a creator of your
life or you wouldn’t be in this room how
do you create your life you get hungry
for something don’t you who has done
something in your life that once seemed
difficult or impossible and now it’s
part of your life who’s got something in
your life for this area say I how did
you do it you created it three ways
number one you decided there’s something
you wanted so bad that you unleashed all
your desire you became obsessed with it
if it was a business or a car or a
relationship or a transformation in your
body if there’s something you want sin
vision and now it’s real it’s because
you didn’t just envision it you brought
so much emotion to it then now it’s in
your life it was once a dream it was
once a goal and now it’s in your life
how many have something like that in
your life now say I you may take it for
granted now hopefully not but it was
once just a vision may have seemed
impossible at one time so how did you do
it you started with a concrete vision of
what you wanted and you focused on it
continuously didn’t you wherever focus
you envision something you got clear
about it and then you start thinking
about all the reasons why you wanted it
you got excited about it so this is
what’s next for me now I want this you
may have dreamed about a thought about
and talked about it
but when you focus on something
continuously something magical happens
you get insights don’t you you overhear
a conversation hear something you
wouldn’t have heard if you didn’t have
that outcome or goal that you wanted so
badly who’s ever come up with something
obsessed about it didn’t even know how
to do it and it just happened and it
came together who’s that that experience
say I so why don’t we happened that
power now for your business in life have
a routine its discipline is predictable
and bloody well stick to it you’re gonna
be way healthier and happier and saner
if you do that and then the other thing
that you need because this is one of the
things the psychoanalyst got wrong I
think is that they overestimated the
degree to which sanity was a consequence
of internal being properly structured
internally you know because from the
psychoanalytic point of view you’re sort
of an ego and that ego is inside you of
course it rests on an unconscious
structure but the purpose of
psychoanalysis is to sort out that
unconscious structure and the ego on top
of it and to make you a fully
functioning and autonomous individual
but there’s a problem with that because
the reason that you’re saying as a fully
functional and autonomous human being
isn’t because you’ve organized your
psyche even though that’s important the
reason that you’re saying if you’re a
wet if you have a well-organized
unconscious and ego is because other
people can tolerate having you around
for reasonably extensive periods of time
and will cuff you across the back of the
head every time you do something so
stupid that people will dislike you
permanently if you continue and so what
people are doing to each other all
I’m just non-stop is broadcasting sanity
signals back and forth right it’s like
you smile at people if they’re well if
they’re not not only behaving property
but behaving in a way that you would
like to see them continue to behave you
frown at them if they’re not you ignore
them if they’re not you shun them you
you roll your eyes at them you manifest
a disgust face you don’t listen to them
you interrupt them you won’t cooperate
with them you won’t compete with them
it’s like you’re blasting signals of
other people about how to regulate their
behavior so frequently well it just
makes up all of your social interaction
that’s why we face each other and we
have emotional displays on our face and
we’re looking at each other’s eyes and
we know exactly we know as much as we
can about what’s going on with each
other given that we don’t have immediate
access to the contents of their
consciousness and so partly what you’re
doing with your routine is establishing
yourself as a credible reliable
trustworthy potentially interesting
human being who isn’t going to do
anything too erratic at any moment and
everyone else is around there tapping
you into shape making sure that that’s
exactly what you are and that’s how you
stay sane and so what happens to people
too if they don’t have a routine and
they get isolated is they start to drift
and they drift badly because the world
is too complicated for you to keep it
organized all by yourself you just
cannot do it so a lot of our so we
outsource the problem of sanity and it’s
very intelligent that we outsource the
problem of sanity because sanity is an
impossibly complex problem and so the
way that we manage the incredibly
complex problem is we have a very large
number of brains working simultaneously
on the problem all the time you have
made a significant contribution in the
fight against AIDS in Africa you have
funded to a large degree vaccines and
vaccine research give me a sense of
where that’s directed and which success
you think we’re making and and your own
particular interest in public health in
the world
well this is a real passion for me I saw
it I’ll give a succinct answer people I
think don’t have a full awareness how
four billion of the six billion people
on this planet don’t have basic health
needs met the the death rate of infants
the epidemic infectious diseases that
are just a way of life in most the world
don’t exist in the in the developed
world and yet the research isn’t going
on for the medicines that would get rid
of these diseases even diseases like
tuberculosis where for a few hundred
dollars lives can be saved that’s not
being done vaccines aren’t being moved
from the rich world to the poor world
AIDS is the most extreme where the
prevention measures that could prevent
this from becoming a huge epidemic in
countries like India Nigerian many
countries where it’s not in huge
percentages or sort of that you know the
right things I think are not being
prioritized
so the foundation that my wife and I
have is have taken as its top priority
these world health issues the research
getting the vaccines out and it’s been
fascinating to learn about this and to
try and say that all these lives the
lives all over the world should be
treated with the same value that we
treat lives here in the in the rich
world so your but just to sum up in a
sense I mean the what you have learned
from your own involvement from funding
it in terms of more money than had ever
been applied is that it can make a
difference absolutely millions of lives
can be and should be saved through these
efforts and you know we we can make a
difference and we can encourage others
to get involved that was my last
question is that happening as you fund
these efforts are you I mean is it
becoming a kind of wedge that other
governments and other foundations and
other sources a following suit or
matching yeah we’ve seen
a good start I would say the vaccine
fund we put together we put in 750
million now governments have agreed to
put up five hundred million in addition
to that in the AIDS area some of the
things we’ve backed have been able to
attract additional money having said
that this is a cause that somehow
deserves more visibility because when
you talk to people about this and they
hear about malaria or AIDS they really
do care and they think their
government’s doing more and so you know
when I’m not working a lot of my
creativity is going into what could be
done to show people that their money
would be well-spent it would make a
difference and you know try and make
sure that that world health gets gets
more a priority than you can save life
that’s what it’s all about the only
reason that most of us don’t accumulate
a level of achievement in our lives one
most people end up aiming low that’s
what I did most of my life that most
people fail in life not because they aim
too high admits most people fail in life
because they aim too low and hit and
that’s what I did I was a disc jockey I
was very satisfied I achieved the level
of professionalism and mastery in that
area and then someone challenged means
that you can do more and it took him 14
years to convince me to become this
person that you now see this person that
you now see this voice which I consider
my power voice I have absolutely no idea
that this person existed well there are
some times in life someone can take you
to a place within yourself where you can
never go by yourself and he saw
something in me and sometimes you have
to believe in somebody’s belief in you
until your belief kicks in no one can
live without a routine you just forget
that if you guys don’t have a routine I
would recommend like you get one going
because you cannot be mentally healthy
without a routine you need to pick a
time to get up whatever time you want
but pick one and stick to it because
otherwise you dis regulate your
circadian rhythms and
they regulate your mode we’ve competed
against various forms of eunuchs over
the years and Linux is a growing in
popularity and definitely a competitor
how threatening a competitor well it’s a
it’s a competitor we take very seriously
I think you know part of Microsoft’s
success is that we don’t underestimate
the importance of the work that other
companies are doing and so we look out
we you know we think are there aspects
of that that that are best practices for
example online support some the
community things that are done around
Linux are are done very well so you know
we’re we’re thinking about it making
sure that our innovation I will make
sure that our value and our leadership
stays in front the one universal rule
that idiots in finance know is
diversification if the only free lunch
you got a diversify because if you put
all your eggs in one basket no matter
how good the basket is one day that real
estate market that stock market that
bond market that collectibles market
whatever you invested rate Elliott
showed me statistically it’ll drop 50 to
70 percent on a day now if you’re later
in life and that happens it’s over free
of that so you have to diversify and yet
most people they know real estate so
they do it or they know stocks they do
it or they grew up with the hand their
parents flipping things it’s the wrong
thing to do so you’ve got to diversify
in order for you to be able to truly
succeed and that’s why when you want a
business yeah if you put all your money
in your business which is what most of
us do naturally yeah you put all your
eggs in one basket there’s things that
can happen I mean you know you’re let’s
say you spend 20 years and you figured
out how to put together the ultimate map
you know and remember Garmin came out
with this thing called the TomTom and
every member used to get on your I would
love to remember that
yeah I just put on your badge down cost
a hundred bucks it was a breakthrough
they’re making like I’m a knight or
something oh yeah yeah yeah six months
later what happened the iPhone came out
with a few little apps you bastards my
French came out with it put Google Maps
with their own map on here and tell us
how much zero
what’s they gonna do to your business
when someone takes your product reserved
it gives away for free so I always tell
people competition happens technology
happens what you must do is have a
second business with no with no moving
parts no people no time maybe it takes
you two to three days a year for two or
three hours after you’ve read the book
you put it in place and you measure it
two three times a year that’s it yeah go
on with your life now those are trouble
in your business you’re financially set
I in my life at thirty-one companies now
we have you know what do we have 1200
employees seven different industries we
do five billion in sales I mean I used
to be you know me and my seminar
business it’s grown geometrically but
with all those moving parts the only way
I’ve been able to succeed is because
I’ve taken everyone those businesses
that I’ve diversified my assets so that
when things were in trouble I still have
enough economics figure myself and keep
the business going so everybody needs to
create a money machine that works while
you sleep that doesn’t have moving parts
and that’s what this is really there’s a
funny story that goes along with how we
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 it’s
messy and it’s the messiness that cannot
happen over and over an internet
connection over email because everything
is exact over email 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
x’ 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 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 these Kenya shootings that just
never happened not so long ago we had
the amazing experience that a
photographer 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
it wanted me and inspires me I should
say and if the photograph of a mother in
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
eating 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 terminology 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 on
us that that’s that’s what leaders eat
last means it is very literal it is very
how do you get more of the things money
will buy and all of the things that
money won’t buy now money is not the
most important thing in life but it is
reasonably close to oxygen I mean you
know when you need it you really do need
it that’s what I’m getting it now I
gotta tell you the whole honesty I like
what money burners I like to live in a
nice house drive a nice car take that
beautiful radiated wife of mine out to
nice restaurants and all nice strip I
like to play golf at the Country Club
and every one of those things cost money
but to tell you the truth I love the
things money won’t buy money bought me a
nice house won’t buy me a home money
will buy you a companion won’t buy your
friend money will buy you a good time
won’t buy you peace of mind mind money
will buy your bed won’t buy you a good
night’s sleep and let me explain
something to interesting me enough and
I’m so grateful to be able to say this
I’ve got many of the things that money
will buy but all of the things money
won’t buy and here’s something rather
fascinating the more of the things you
have that money won’t buy those are the
things that will enable you to get more
of the things that money will buy and
dramatically reduces stress in your life
that’s what we want to be looking at we
want to look at the things that make a
difference I believe your philosophy of
life is a key point as you probably know
philosophy is simply the love of wisdom
but here’s the philosophy I’ve built my
life on my career own you can have
everything in life you want if you’ll
just help enough other people get what
they want that’s true in your personal
life it’s true in your family life it’s
true in your corporate life you want to
get ahead in life you know in this array
for me to heck with you world we
frequently don’t understand that if you
are irreplaceable in the job you have
you’re unpromoted where you are my
father owned it actually was an old
bakery when I was growing up my father
was an electrician and a refrigeration
man we would we would install
supermarkets you see the long freezer
cases in supermarkets we would install
those long freezing cases and all the
lights that’s what we that’s what we
would do every summer yeah so this is
one year my father had his shop and he
decided for whatever reason that he
wanted a new wall on the front of his
shop so he tore down probably about you
know 16 feet high and probably about 30
feet long he just completely tore the
wall down and my brother and I had to
dig a six-foot hole we were the
foundation for the foundation we would
mix in the concrete by hand a year and a
half we were building this wall for a
year and a half every day after school
we were coming mixing concrete put it in
the hole doing it and it was just myself
and my little brother and I remember
standing back looking at that wall
saying there’s gonna be a hole here
forever a year and a half later many
days I know a year and a half later we
laid the the final brick and my father
stood back with my brother and I and I
know he planned as he says he does he
says he didn’t but I know he had been
planning this and rightness for him for
the past two years but he we stood back
we looked at the wall and he looked at
me and my brother said don’t y’all never
tell me that you can’t do something and
you ask people across the United States
is the future going to be better than
the past most say no my kids will be
worse off than I am they think
innovation won’t make the world better
for them or their children so who’s
right the people who say innovation will
create new possibilities and make the
word world better or the people who see
a trend toward inequality and a decline
in opportunity and don’t think
innovation will change that the
pessimists are wrong in my view but
they’re not crazy
if innovation is purely market driven
and we don’t focus on the big inequities
then we could have amazing advances and
inventions that leave the world even
more divided
we won’t improve public schools we won’t
cure malaria we won’t end poverty we
won’t develop the innovations poor
farmers need to grow food in a changing
climate if our optimism doesn’t address
the problems that affect so many of our
fellow human beings then our optimism
needs more empathy if empathy channel’s
our optimism we will see the poverty and
the disease and the poor schools we will
answer with our innovations and we will
surprise the pessimists over the next
generation you Stanford graduates will
lead a new wave of innovation which
problems will you decide to solve if
your world is wide you can create the
future we all want if your world is
narrow you may create the future the
pessimists fear I started learning in
swayed oh that if we’re going to make
our optimism matter to everyone and
empower people everywhere we have to see
the lives of those most in need
if we have optimism without empathy then
it doesn’t matter how much we master the
secrets of science we’re not really
solving problems
we’re just working on puzzles I think
most of you have a broader worldview
than I had at your age you can do better
at this than I did if you put your
hearts and minds to it you can surprise
the pessimists or eager to see it great
steel magnate Andrew Carnegie will ask
the formula for success answered put all
your eggs in one basket then watch the
basket let’s be frankly realistic who
gets laid off work during an economic
slump
well what gets thrown over the side when
a ship is in danger of going down
everything not absolutely vital to the
operation of the craft and the safety of
its passengers and it’s the same with a
business or any other organization with
a corporation its main purpose is to
remain in business forever as long as it
remains in business it can provide a
needed product or service protect the
investment of those who have faith in it
and provide jobs for those who are vital
to its continuity of operation it’s the
duty of management to protect the firm
and the people who depend upon it just
as it’s the captain’s duty to do
everything in his power to keep a ship
sailing all oppressor means to do is to
make certain that he or she is a vital
part of his business or organization
those who insist on remaining severe
gear must expect to be jettisoned when
things get too rough for safety nobody
particularly the captain likes to see
cargo thrown over the side but if it’ll
help save the ship there’s something
nothing else to do that’s why people are
laid off it has nothing to do with
management and labor relations or
personalities and in the long run it’s
best for everyone since one smooth
sailing is again been reached additional
employment can be made available so each
of us must decide whether we want to be
part of the cargo or a member of the crew
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