you get to work your butt off if you
think that you’re gonna go and
accomplish something really special and
be the best in anything in the world if
you think you can do it without working
you make a big mistake because no matter
what I did if it was a bodybuilding or
an acting or if it is in the political
arena it always took a lot a lot of work
and you gotta put out and you got the
you know something to make a lot of
sacrifices notice if you’re not willing
to work hard forget about it so there’s
another rule that is a very important
I’ll never forget a recent experience
doing my business on Wall Street getting
on the train to come back to midtown one
o’clock in the afternoon normally
there’s a low this train should be empty
but on this day the train was full full
of people all in business suits a guy
recognizes me comes over says hey are
you Chris Gardner we started talking
about turns out I’m in the car
with the first wave of the 55,000 people
who had just been laid off by Citibank
and I noticed something everyone’s
holding a box you’ve seen the boxes
you’ve seen them on television they’ve
got the house plant that coffee mug the
pictures of their kids and they’re all
going home they’re all going home to
tell their wife their husband their
children and the landlord they don’t
have a job
I began to share with this young guy
that do you know what yeah you lost your
job but you haven’t lost your skills
your talent or your expertise but we’ve
got to do now is create opportunities
where the skilled talent and expertise
can be transferable creating an
opportunity and looking for a job are
two different things
this could be prime time for pushing
your button rather finding your button
what do I mean by that prime time to
find that one thing that you love to do
so much you would get up in the morning
and do it free prime time to find that
one thing that the Sun cannot comes up
soon enough in the morning because you
want to go do your thing
this could be that time in your life
every single person when they’re in
their teens in the early 20th they they
care so much about other people and how
they’re perceived and what impression
they make and I wanted to be perfect I
wanted to be good at everything and big
a student and be prettier and skinnier
and successful and all these things and
I cared about what people said about me
how they felt about me and as I get
older I just realize that that is that
month other people won’t make me happy
it has to be from within me and I need
to keep doing whatever makes me happy
and whoever responds to that great
whoever doesn’t respond to that it’s
fine – hmm
but the less I care about other people’s
opinions the better I feel about myself
and the more I do things that make me
happy I don’t make notes
I don’t react very instinctively to
everything I’m a great believer in
traveling a great deal
I don’t believe meetings
more than two people in the meeting as
too many it’s true do you know about
stand-ups okay so in Silicon Valley now
when you have a meeting everybody stands
on a circle like they’re meditating
that’s that’s maybe I should try that I
think the more you go out the more you
see the more you experience life the
more you bring back to your day job so
as I was trying to say in my remarks I
think the problem about big corporations
is you get a lot of people my age trying
to hold on to their jobs and you know
clinging on to their pensions and their
retirement and they’re not experiencing
new things and they don’t like change
and they don’t like disruption so
they’re either they don’t make a
decision or they say no and as a result
they stagnate so it’s terribly important
to bring people in from the outside and
not to remain too insular and also to
hire as many young bright people like
all of you as you can just to teach you
how to think about things completely
differently you’re gonna play big say
big you’re gonna play huge st. huge
you’re gonna play ginormous a ginormous
but first take baby steps you’re gonna
eat the elephant but take one small bite
first chew it good right we want so much
so fast my grandmother says baby she
starts every sentence with baby I’m sure
it’s because she cannot remember all of
our names she said baby the best things
you’ll ever have from Grandma will never
come from the microwave they always come
from the oven and I was like I think
some somehow she’s trying to give me a
lesson here and I realized that the best
things that you’re gonna create are
gonna take time build it on cement not
sinking saying you’re gonna get tons and
tons and tons of tools here and you’re
gonna want to fast forward when you fast
forward you’re building on Plexiglas
you’re bidding on styrofoam you bet on
wood you want to build it on semen
your dream is important enough to
outlive you yes yes
and so I realize that that you can’t
Google down lower resiliency
you can’t Google download tenacity you
can’t Google download forgiveness
there’s some of the best qualities and
characteristics that’s gonna take you a
long way that you need to invest time in
and energy in and intention in you don’t
just get patience I want patience I’m
waiting for it somebody’s gonna piss you
off tomorrow then now you get to test of
your patience I realized I realized that
as I wanted to develop me I have to be
willing to climb and I wanted to get to
the top and there’s no elevator to the
top I got to do my squats I gotta work
on my quads and my hamstrings and my
calves cuz I gotta climb to the top
we gotta climb you want to be great like
you want to be good and you sort of set
these funny expectations for yourself
you know one of the funniest things that
the fogarty ever said to me he was like
yeah I was I tried to learn I was
learning to play the drums but I
realized that I would never be as good
as John Bonham from Led Zeppelin so I
stopped my you’re who is as good as John
but nobody like what though how could
you do that so like there should be no
right or wrong you know you should just
be cool with what you do and how you
sound like I’m it’s it’s one of the
things that I have a problem with like a
lot of those song contest shows on TV
not up not only because you know
whatever its corporate cheese or
whatever but I have a problem with like
if my kid walked up on stage and sang
her heart out as best as she could and
Jennifer Lopez said like nah sorry
that’s not good enough I’d be like
[Applause]
I’d be so pissed you know cuz that’s not
how it works
you know you should be you should go you
should go to a yard sale and buy a steel
guitar and then go find a friend and get
into your garage and just suck there’d
be awful and then write some songs and
that’s how it’s that’s how it works I
mean it works other ways too I’m sure
but I mean as a as a young musician you
know first of all you’re not gonna make
a living doing it like except that I
realize that because then if you do
you’re stopped the reward of playing
music playing music should be the reward
of playing music like that’s that’s what
you that’s what you kind of get like
when I was a little kid when I was
playing punk rock music as a teenager
like there was never any career
opportunity because we’ve played punk
rock music nobody wanted to buy that but
we’d love to do it it was so it was so
much fun and like if you start from a
place like that that you just love to
create and you just love to play music
and you can’t stop thinking about it and
you do it every day and you do it by
yourself or you do it with your friends
and that’s enough for you to survive the
rest of your life that’s great and then
once you start getting good you start
playing for people and once you start
playing for people if you’re good then
those people will tell other people that
girls really good so then all of a
sudden you’re playing to all these
different people and that to me is the
most important thing when you doing it’s
you on stage and people are seeing when
people see another person doing that
it’s really inspiring like it’s cool to
see a human being
jamming Yvette’s great a lot of
so-called unhappiness is also a childish
way of trying to change things by being
as unhappy as you can about them and the
underlying unconscious or semi-conscious
assumption is if I’m really unhappy
somebody perhaps God is going to do
something about it or I’m going to prove
him wrong I’m going to show him how
dreadful it is and then finally this is
an unconscious assumption behind the
unhappiness because you believe if
you’re habitually and frequently unhappy
you believe that it has a purpose
it’s an underlying assumption perhaps
you wouldn’t verbalize it in that way
but you believe that it it’s it works
for you because it doesn’t but things
are going to change it but just need to
be really unhappy so that God finally
evens you don’t believe in God this can
still be the mechanism the underlying
unconscious assumption behind it it’s
something is going to happen and of
course the opposite is true because the
more happier with something the more
you’re stuck in the situation but as
always
so we had that sort of token of
appreciation of home-cooked food then I
was very lucky to get on foundation
course spending the last year in my
school at a foundation course studying
maths English tune out days a week and
then learning to cook 14-hour days a
week and it was a sort of new experiment
now we had trouble with buy my first set
of whites and chef knives and we
depended on the bamboo round table to
come up with something like 85 90 pound
the mum dad didn’t have to get my first
set of whites so remember that day I got
given my first set of whites mine eyes
and said on that mission football was a
sort of huge burning ambition and I was
trying to decide yeah I had a horrific
injury then all of a sudden you know
what you do so then get visit but I had
this little burning desire with this
sort of a chef it’s just this ambition
and then I sort of channeled that
frustration from football into cooking
in a way that I just I just wanted to
learn the foundation course was huge
that our city guild 7:06 I was a mature
part-time student and mum doesn’t have
the money to send me to college full
time so it was it was hard but what I
did do is take a job in the industry I
work six days a week and went to college
one day week so then everything started
becoming clearer got more qualifications
the basic and then went to London and
that’s where it really just you know
took off 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 a tea a DD so that my
attention 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 10 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’re 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
yeah I believe in manifestation I
believe in you know putting a rocket of
desire out into the universe and and you
get it when you believe it you get it
when you believe you have it and that’s
the key is like people still they sit
around going when’s it gonna come when’s
it gonna come when they’re gonna come
when’s it gonna come and that’s the
wrong way you’re you’re facing the wrong
way you’re facing away from it you have
to go it’s here it’s here it’s here
well there’s a world-champion box low on
basketball playoff
track star harshly manimals i found out
that this Mark Spitz for an example he’s
a world champion but what made him the
world champion was that he seemed to at
the right time when the pressures down
at the last few yards he can get that
lead he’s got enough left a million I
found Ken Norton my last fight if I was
even up in the last round but I had
something that he didn’t have all our
much older and that was the last minute
kick what’s that last minute kick is
that some test the stamina the strength
but was more than training the mental
capacity mental to realize
what’s involved and how important it is
make it by to do something was really
hard to do your mind makes you do it
marks bitch this Olympic track star was
mentioning he wasn’t that much greater
than all the people in the world was
sometimes he won by just that much and
this little champion is just one who can
come out at the last minute and the
closes show us and say the star closes
show a 1415 round fight and this even
and that usually this champion you can
depend on him to come to the last few
seconds and find some interpreters it’s
a discipline not only that it’s mental
and physical game where his body is in
physical shape to do it plus mentally to
he’s got a self in condition where both
fellas maybe sometimes the wheel can
outdo the skill and sometimes a fellow’s
wheel is stronger than the man who is
actually better physically and the
determination and weakens the other man
just to see him so determined every
single human being has value and my
value is not determined on how I look or
what job I have or where I’m from where
I was born how much money all that stuff
is nothing so many teenagers you know
tease each other for how we look and I
tell the teenagers do you think that I’m
cool enough to be a friend they’re like
yeah of course I said but I have no arms
no legs they said doesn’t matter said
really so it doesn’t matter that I have
no arms no legs I said no it doesn’t
matter I said then actually if it
doesn’t matter then why do we kill each
other with our words if it actually
doesn’t matter why do we look ourselves
in the mirror and see ugly instead of
valuable when I asked you today what are
you looking for if I gave you a billion
dollars would you be happy
if you gave me a billion dollars I’d be
very happy but then if my mom dies
tonight am I happy No
with all the money in the world I’ll
never be happy Mika’s money is something
that cannot heal the soul the cookie jar
is something I invented as you all know
your mom has a cookie jar and sometimes
you might have an Oreo sometimes you
might have a Chips Ahoy way sometimes
you might have a oatmeal raisin cookie
you never know
just in there my cookie jar has every
single failure and success of my life
sup my overcame so what happens in this
in time of life when you’re stressed out
and things get bad even the hardest guy
in the world me
everybody thinks and I think I’m the
hardest guy in the world you got to
believe that you got believe you are
something I will in my mind reach into
my cookie jar and sometimes you forget
how hard you are in times of need
because you’re you’re stressed but you
forget I’m a Navy SEAL I’m a ranger I’m
guessing that but you forget all that
cos your life sucks I calm down take
that one second get control of my life
reaching the cookie jar well you got
caught nigger your whole life and you’re
now the only person history do justice
and this put it back in the cookie jar
reset my mind you have to remind
yourself of how badass you really are in
times of need that’s the cookie jar
I was a very headstrong young person and
by nineteen eighty three or four had
started my own publishing company to
publish my own books realizing that no
one else will publish me and I was right
about that and so my first book I saved
my food money from Black Flag a little
here little there and I saved enough to
make a fold and staple book I couldn’t
type so I hand write out the things and
I made a dummy that I could offset print
fold and staple and I sold them for $2
mainly gave them away but I sold enough
and they blew out 500 just went and then
I took that money to make another print
run of that and from that money I made
my first paperback
and thirty-three years later that’s a
fully staffed company with books in
translation and hardcover editions and
the whole you know the whole nine yards
but it started with I’m gonna do my
thing I’ll be city lights jr. without
the talent and that’s I did that at the
same time I was doing my first spoken
word gigs and why did I have the
gumption and the audacity to start my
own book company because I come from
punk rock I come from watching Ian
MacKaye invent Dischord records on his
mom’s kitchen table I come from folding
and gluing picture sleeves together
black flag had their own label of course
you do it yourself you want to make a
book sit down and write it then go to
the printing place where’s a printer get
in the phone book and find a printer we
make records make some books it was you
just do it it’s like you don’t even
think about you just do it and I’m sure
that writing is this awful but I did it
and without even hesitation I’m making
my own book companies stop me I dare you
I’ve never thought about it twice just
because DIY man like let your voice be
heard well you know what people do look
at me and see me as creative because
I’ve written so many books and I am
curious but when I started off in
college in in my in my freshman psych
class they gave us a test that he
preached dude to take on creativity and
there were 17 in that class I can
remember it well and I was at the bottom
of the class on creativity I mean I was
like number 17 out of 17 and and and
what the teacher posted the scores and
so I mean I saw how bad I was
and and then I really felt bad not only
because I wasn’t creative but I was
going to go past her I was going to go
into ministry I was going to teach I was
going to do sermons and then I got to
take it myself I’m going to be another
boring preacher and you know I thought
just grip I thought oh this is gonna be
awful I’m gonna bore people all my life
you know what I mean and I’m gonna
ask him to pay while they hear me I mean
this is an awful deal so it and so two
things I did and I talked about it the
book one as I started filing I started
taking thoughts and quotes and the
reason I started doing that is I thought
if I’m not gonna be good at what I say I
need to quote somebody that is good and
so I started filing things that other
people would say so I’d go around and
I’d say well Kim said you know what I
mean and Jo said and Susie said and so
that at least I would be a little bit
more interesting that’s how it started
but the big breakthrough the big
breakthrough ahead was and this will
help everyone if how many of you would
like to be more creative let me let me
see your hands okay
how many of you’d like to just
absolutely have an imagination that just
took you to a new level you know I’m
sorry okay how many you already have
that because you’re on drugs
okay okay okay well here’s here’s that
here’s the key this will work for you I
promise it work for you because it
worked for me I made a major change in
my early 30s from just having answers
and being a leader that just had to cast
vision and show everybody what I was
doing and where we were going and I
started asking intentional questions and
I became a person I ask questions all
the time every day I ask questions and I
have found just asking questions we’ll
take you on exciting journeys more than
thing else you’re right you excel in
that kid I’ve watched you over the years
you did excel really in that but for my
early years I didn’t ask enough
questions and so therefore I didn’t get
enough ideas and thoughts from others so
when people say I want to be more
creative what step one step no one has
asked more questions just go to people
and start asking questions it’s amazing
what you’ll learn so that means taking
things using things in your life or
scars using those moments as a weapon
using those as using basketball is kind
of like a vehicle through which to
express yourself right so it doesn’t so
at that moment for us to face the
Celtics again it’s not about the Celtics
it’s not about your opponent
it’s about you it’s about you taking it
and it struggles and channeling that
through the game right as it as a as a
way to to unleash right so now I became
a matter of how do i express that to
them how do I get them to that point
where they figure this out for
themselves is I can’t say hey listen I
need you to play harder
so education well I had to share my
story I had to open up to them and let
them know I’ve dealt with things this is
the things that I use this is how I go
about focus this is how I deal with that
versity this is how I deal with you know
arguing with my wife the day of the game
is showing up to the game and still
having that focus to be able to play
like I used those things to open up with
them and then in turn they were able to
to take those stories make them their
own that whatever you do somebody can do
it better you have to bring your A game
in every single day there’s nothing
unique about any one individual what’s
unique is their passion their ability to
execute to meet targets and exceed them
the minute you lose that ability in
capitalism you’re gone it’s a fair trade
the engine that makes you rich can take
it all away from you there are no
guarantees I think that’s incredibly
important it looks like
you always go out of your comfort zone
right coming onto an island that was
completely deserted no fresh water you
don’t even have the money to buy it and
and now you’re sleeping on a tent on the
beach trying to figure out how to get
fresh water here you do that often you
did it with the airline I mean I was
just somebody that experienced the bad
experience of traveling on airlines I
was actually trying to get to the BVI
the British Virgin Islands one day from
Puerto Rico and the same lovely lady was
waiting for me and I’ve been away for
three weeks and American Airlines bumped
the flight and and I went to the back of
the airport I had a plane I had a black
board I wrote
Virgin Airlines one way $29 to the VV I
went around all the people have been
bumped and I filled my first plane and
and that got me thinking you know their
lines do bump people they don’t care
about you or me particularly in the air
and so we sigh then rang up Boeing and
said you have any secondhand seven four
seven okay I mean it was literally that
you just sat in the airport and said I’m
starting an airline right now we cannot
frustrate it exactly and I think most
most of the best entrepreneurial ideas
come out of frustration I think you know
if you if you’re frustrated about
something and the best way of sorting it
out is get out and do it and you’ve got
yourself a business we know from our
past experiences that big things start
small you know the biggest oak starts
from an acorn and you’ve got to
recognize anything new you’ve got to be
willing to let that acorn grow into a
little sapling and then finally into a
small tree and maybe one day it’ll be a
big business on its own and in fact
that’s one of the mottos for one of your
initiatives and forgive my pronunciation
of the Latin but Greta team ferocity
what does that mean to you well it means
step by step ferociously and it’s the
motto for Blue Origin and basically you
can’t skip steps you have to put one
foot in front of the other things take
time you there are no shortcuts and but
but you want to do those steps with you
know passion and ferocity yeah I started
working at this video store it was
pretty much what you’re talking about
around that time and and it was great at
first because I’d always hated day jobs
and stuff and so I got a day job and it
ended up being pretty good but
admittedly I was there for five years at
a certain point it was our narcotic all
right I didn’t have to keep pursuing my
dreams because you know it’s not what I
want to do but it’s sort of kind of
close and if I didn’t have an artist
soul burning in me I could have made
myself happy
with that I could if I if I didn’t have
an artist soul burning to get out I
could have you know walked backwards a
couple steps and just done that and
would have been a fulfilling little to
anybody else it would have been a
fulfilling life it wouldn’t been for me
because I wouldn’t know and I would have
had something to say that I didn’t get a
chance to say but it did put me to sleep
for a while and and I’ve always just
thought I mean what really got it got
everything kind of truly going for me
you could point out a lot of different
things but the bottom line is the fact
that I realized that the even the group
of people I hung around with they were
all great great great fellows and great
gals but you know I was easy for me to
think that I was doing a lot because I
was doing more to try to move myself
forward than they were but you know
that’s not yeah yeah okay I’m a big fish
in a puddle so what all right they’re
not doing anything so yeah I’m doing
more than them but I realized that
actually I need to get my ass out to
Hollywood and meet other people who are
you know like they were in my category
or or working a little higher and and I
should be the weakest link in my chain
that I have and that’ll make me be
strong to really make me run faster I
mean like an analogy I’ve always used is
alright if you run the hundred yard dash
where the people that can’t run as fast
as you yeah you’ll win hands down you
know that but if you run with people
much faster than you all right yeah you
might come in last every single time but
your time will be better because they’re
making you run all the faster they’re
making making you dig down just a little
bit more it doesn’t matter that you and
your time is faster and that’s what I
knew I had to do I had to get out of
Loserville and throw myself into a place
where like this is what they do for a
living
one night Chris had gone to bed I had
been struggling struggling struggling we
still had all the same problems I we
stalled a lien on the house still facing
bankruptcy still fighting like crazy I
was still unemployed
he still they still hadn’t figured out
like the solution yet for the business
and I was about to turn off the TV and
there on the the TV there was this
rocket launching and I thought oh my
gosh I am going to launch myself out of
bed like a rocket ship like NASA right
here had launched me out of that bed and
I’m gonna move so fast that I don’t
think I’m gonna beat my brain now here’s
a really interesting point I talked a
lot about your instincts and inner
wisdom and we can get into this a little
bit later but a lot of us talk about the
fact that you have a gut feeling but
what all this research that I’ve done
for the book and and all the speaking
that I do what I’ve discovered that’s
fascinating is actually when you set
goals when you have an intention on
something that you want to change about
your life your brain helps you what it
does is it opens up a checklist and then
your brain goes to work trying to remind
you of that intention that you set and
it’s really important to develop the
skill and I say that word purposefully
the skill of knowing how to hear that
inner wisdom and that intention kicking
in and leaning into it quickly
so for me my brain saying that’s it
right there
move as fast as a rocket mouth I wanted
to change my life and I think most
people that are miserable or that are
that are really like dying to be great
and dying to have more we want to change
we want to live a better life we want to
create more for our families we want to
be happier the the desire is there again
it’s about how do you go from knowledge
to actions so the first thing in the
story that’s important is realizing that
the answer was in me and my mind was
telling me pay attention
could have also been the Bourbon anyway
the next morning the alarm goes off and
I pretended NASA was there
it’s a stupidest story I literally went
five four three two one I counted out
loud and then I stood up and I’ll never
forget standing there in my bedroom it
was dark it was cold it was winter in
Boston and for the first time in three
months I had beaten my habit of hitting
the snooze button I couldn’t believe it
and I thought wait a minute
counting backwards citizen dumbest thing
I’ve ever heard in my entire life well
the next morning I used it again and it
worked the next morning I used it again
and it worked the next morning I used it
again and it worked and then I started
to notice something really interesting
there were moments all day long all day
long just like that five-second moment
in bed where I knew knowledge what I
should do and if I didn’t move within
five seconds my brain would step in and
talk me out of it every human being has
a five-second window might even be
shorter for you you have about a
five-second window in which you can move
from idea to action before your brain
kicks into full gear and sabotages any
change in behavior because remember your
brain is wired to stop you from doing
things that are uncomfortable or
uncertain or scary it’s your job to
learn how to move from those ideas that
could change everything into acting on
I’ve been making music now with you know
like Tony Bennett for a couple years and
I’m you know Elton John is you know one
of my closest friends and his husband
David and they just have showed me that
like I’m a baby and my artistry you know
and I just have to keep making music and
keep going and so my focus really for
this album is showing that to two young
girls and to end two boys that want to
make music that you don’t have to
get lucky on the internet it’s not a
social media game you don’t have to find
a you know the the the hot producer and
get the hot track you know to be a star
you can just learn how to play an
instrument and sit in your room and
practice and write songs and poetry and
then you can go around the corner to the
bar and meet other artists that do the
same thing that you do and you can hang
out and talk about music and write songs
and then you can play at the spot around
the corner and gain one fan and then do
it over and over and over again until
you’re discovered you need to know what
your unique strengths are and be willing
to delegate so I would say that the
question of whether you should take a
skill learn it yourself delegated to
someone else or hire a new team member
are determined by having a very accurate
self assessment and assessment of your
team’s skills not only what you can do
but what you should be doing that’s very
important so if you’re a start-up CEO or
founder and you have a team of say two
as soon as you have funds to hire you
should not be focused on the things that
you are bad at sounds very very
intuitive but it’s not because you might
have enough time to do those things but
the question is do you have the
attention to dedicate to those things so
they’re not an interruption especially
if you are venture-backed startup and
you’re competing against other companies
that also have a lot of funding the game
the game and the race goes to the Swift
so you have to have you have to have a
lot of velocity ESPN called me they did
a story on me this past summer but they
called me one day and I picked up the
phone they said is this inky johnson so
last time I checked I’m inky johnson
they said is this the same guy that said
if you could change what happened to you
you wouldn’t I said absolutely
they said it’s our understanding the
game of football meant the world I said
at one point it did they said it’s our
understanding that your family was
banking on you making it to the NFL
so they can have a better way of life I
said yeah that’s correct they said we’re
coming to see you I said alright cool
come on I said but we don’t want to see
you in that land we want to see you in
Neyland Stadium on the exact yard line
where your life change the same time of
day the only thing that won’t be
President it’s Air Forces team all right
cool and so they take me to Nealon
Stadium they put me on the exact yard
line with my life change they said now
tell your young yourself why you
wouldn’t stop your injury if you could
if you could be in the NFL right now
making millions of dollars tell you
young yourself why you wouldn’t change
that situation if you could and I say
the reason I wouldn’t change it believe
it or not has nothing to do with me fact
on a personal level you he thought I was
gonna say because of the man that I’ve
become the perspective that I’ve
acquired my faith that been fortified he
thought I was gonna say something like
that I said no it has nothing to do it
has everything to do with the lives that
have been affected by the result of the
process and the thing that I represent
in the world what my spirit represents
when she might have seen me they think
perseverance
well my spirit represents where somebody
see me they think don’t quit what my
spirit represents when somebody see me
they think that’s a quality individual
right there what my character represents
and every single day we’re putting
something out like that represent
something when people see that they
thinks it’s a thought that comes to the
month when he said go standing he gave
me that I felt a certain time money when
he gave me to go stare I thought the
certain type I felt different
gold-standard
me because I’m thinking what I do the
line of business something
I’m gonna go standard because I don’t
compromise and every single day I’m
gonna give you my very best you can bet
your bottom dollar every single day I’m
gonna bring that gold standard to life
and I’m not just bringing it in one
aspect of life I’m bringing it every
single aspect of life I’m not gonna be
one of these people in the world that’s
a public success but they’re private
failure mean they give everything they
got to one aspect of life but the other
areas they lack off no I’m gonna give
every single thing I got to every aspect
of my life because I represent something
when people see me they think something
whether that’s character never givin up
never surrender and the thing that we
can never do is forget what we represent
because that’s how guys end up under
bridge and a cardboard box leap they
forget what they represent when life
hits him where that person my only
charge for you never forget what you
represent there were the things that I
probably should have done not from my
perspective I mean from my point of view
I did the right things every every film
that I’ve done I mean I’m happy that I
made that choice I don’t have any
regrets whatsoever but I mean in terms
of sustaining box office you know
bankability I should have done a few of
the things that I didn’t do but I’m glad
I didn’t do them
because it wouldn’t have been you yeah
well I would it would have been for the
wrong reasons I did everything that I’ve
been lucky enough to do I did for the right reasons
think that you’re gonna go and
accomplish something really special and
be the best in anything in the world if
you think you can do it without working
you make a big mistake because no matter
what I did if it was a bodybuilding or
an acting or if it is in the political
arena it always took a lot a lot of work
and you gotta put out and you got the
you know something to make a lot of
sacrifices notice if you’re not willing
to work hard forget about it so there’s
another rule that is a very important
I’ll never forget a recent experience
doing my business on Wall Street getting
on the train to come back to midtown one
o’clock in the afternoon normally
there’s a low this train should be empty
but on this day the train was full full
of people all in business suits a guy
recognizes me comes over says hey are
you Chris Gardner we started talking
about turns out I’m in the car
with the first wave of the 55,000 people
who had just been laid off by Citibank
and I noticed something everyone’s
holding a box you’ve seen the boxes
you’ve seen them on television they’ve
got the house plant that coffee mug the
pictures of their kids and they’re all
going home they’re all going home to
tell their wife their husband their
children and the landlord they don’t
have a job
I began to share with this young guy
that do you know what yeah you lost your
job but you haven’t lost your skills
your talent or your expertise but we’ve
got to do now is create opportunities
where the skilled talent and expertise
can be transferable creating an
opportunity and looking for a job are
two different things
this could be prime time for pushing
your button rather finding your button
what do I mean by that prime time to
find that one thing that you love to do
so much you would get up in the morning
and do it free prime time to find that
one thing that the Sun cannot comes up
soon enough in the morning because you
want to go do your thing
this could be that time in your life
every single person when they’re in
their teens in the early 20th they they
care so much about other people and how
they’re perceived and what impression
they make and I wanted to be perfect I
wanted to be good at everything and big
a student and be prettier and skinnier
and successful and all these things and
I cared about what people said about me
how they felt about me and as I get
older I just realize that that is that
month other people won’t make me happy
it has to be from within me and I need
to keep doing whatever makes me happy
and whoever responds to that great
whoever doesn’t respond to that it’s
fine – hmm
but the less I care about other people’s
opinions the better I feel about myself
and the more I do things that make me
happy I don’t make notes
I don’t react very instinctively to
everything I’m a great believer in
traveling a great deal
I don’t believe meetings
more than two people in the meeting as
too many it’s true do you know about
stand-ups okay so in Silicon Valley now
when you have a meeting everybody stands
on a circle like they’re meditating
that’s that’s maybe I should try that I
think the more you go out the more you
see the more you experience life the
more you bring back to your day job so
as I was trying to say in my remarks I
think the problem about big corporations
is you get a lot of people my age trying
to hold on to their jobs and you know
clinging on to their pensions and their
retirement and they’re not experiencing
new things and they don’t like change
and they don’t like disruption so
they’re either they don’t make a
decision or they say no and as a result
they stagnate so it’s terribly important
to bring people in from the outside and
not to remain too insular and also to
hire as many young bright people like
all of you as you can just to teach you
how to think about things completely
differently you’re gonna play big say
big you’re gonna play huge st. huge
you’re gonna play ginormous a ginormous
but first take baby steps you’re gonna
eat the elephant but take one small bite
first chew it good right we want so much
so fast my grandmother says baby she
starts every sentence with baby I’m sure
it’s because she cannot remember all of
our names she said baby the best things
you’ll ever have from Grandma will never
come from the microwave they always come
from the oven and I was like I think
some somehow she’s trying to give me a
lesson here and I realized that the best
things that you’re gonna create are
gonna take time build it on cement not
sinking saying you’re gonna get tons and
tons and tons of tools here and you’re
gonna want to fast forward when you fast
forward you’re building on Plexiglas
you’re bidding on styrofoam you bet on
wood you want to build it on semen
your dream is important enough to
outlive you yes yes
and so I realize that that you can’t
Google down lower resiliency
you can’t Google download tenacity you
can’t Google download forgiveness
there’s some of the best qualities and
characteristics that’s gonna take you a
long way that you need to invest time in
and energy in and intention in you don’t
just get patience I want patience I’m
waiting for it somebody’s gonna piss you
off tomorrow then now you get to test of
your patience I realized I realized that
as I wanted to develop me I have to be
willing to climb and I wanted to get to
the top and there’s no elevator to the
top I got to do my squats I gotta work
on my quads and my hamstrings and my
calves cuz I gotta climb to the top
we gotta climb you want to be great like
you want to be good and you sort of set
these funny expectations for yourself
you know one of the funniest things that
the fogarty ever said to me he was like
yeah I was I tried to learn I was
learning to play the drums but I
realized that I would never be as good
as John Bonham from Led Zeppelin so I
stopped my you’re who is as good as John
but nobody like what though how could
you do that so like there should be no
right or wrong you know you should just
be cool with what you do and how you
sound like I’m it’s it’s one of the
things that I have a problem with like a
lot of those song contest shows on TV
not up not only because you know
whatever its corporate cheese or
whatever but I have a problem with like
if my kid walked up on stage and sang
her heart out as best as she could and
Jennifer Lopez said like nah sorry
that’s not good enough I’d be like
[Applause]
I’d be so pissed you know cuz that’s not
how it works
you know you should be you should go you
should go to a yard sale and buy a steel
guitar and then go find a friend and get
into your garage and just suck there’d
be awful and then write some songs and
that’s how it’s that’s how it works I
mean it works other ways too I’m sure
but I mean as a as a young musician you
know first of all you’re not gonna make
a living doing it like except that I
realize that because then if you do
you’re stopped the reward of playing
music playing music should be the reward
of playing music like that’s that’s what
you that’s what you kind of get like
when I was a little kid when I was
playing punk rock music as a teenager
like there was never any career
opportunity because we’ve played punk
rock music nobody wanted to buy that but
we’d love to do it it was so it was so
much fun and like if you start from a
place like that that you just love to
create and you just love to play music
and you can’t stop thinking about it and
you do it every day and you do it by
yourself or you do it with your friends
and that’s enough for you to survive the
rest of your life that’s great and then
once you start getting good you start
playing for people and once you start
playing for people if you’re good then
those people will tell other people that
girls really good so then all of a
sudden you’re playing to all these
different people and that to me is the
most important thing when you doing it’s
you on stage and people are seeing when
people see another person doing that
it’s really inspiring like it’s cool to
see a human being
jamming Yvette’s great a lot of
so-called unhappiness is also a childish
way of trying to change things by being
as unhappy as you can about them and the
underlying unconscious or semi-conscious
assumption is if I’m really unhappy
somebody perhaps God is going to do
something about it or I’m going to prove
him wrong I’m going to show him how
dreadful it is and then finally this is
an unconscious assumption behind the
unhappiness because you believe if
you’re habitually and frequently unhappy
you believe that it has a purpose
it’s an underlying assumption perhaps
you wouldn’t verbalize it in that way
but you believe that it it’s it works
for you because it doesn’t but things
are going to change it but just need to
be really unhappy so that God finally
evens you don’t believe in God this can
still be the mechanism the underlying
unconscious assumption behind it it’s
something is going to happen and of
course the opposite is true because the
more happier with something the more
you’re stuck in the situation but as
always
so we had that sort of token of
appreciation of home-cooked food then I
was very lucky to get on foundation
course spending the last year in my
school at a foundation course studying
maths English tune out days a week and
then learning to cook 14-hour days a
week and it was a sort of new experiment
now we had trouble with buy my first set
of whites and chef knives and we
depended on the bamboo round table to
come up with something like 85 90 pound
the mum dad didn’t have to get my first
set of whites so remember that day I got
given my first set of whites mine eyes
and said on that mission football was a
sort of huge burning ambition and I was
trying to decide yeah I had a horrific
injury then all of a sudden you know
what you do so then get visit but I had
this little burning desire with this
sort of a chef it’s just this ambition
and then I sort of channeled that
frustration from football into cooking
in a way that I just I just wanted to
learn the foundation course was huge
that our city guild 7:06 I was a mature
part-time student and mum doesn’t have
the money to send me to college full
time so it was it was hard but what I
did do is take a job in the industry I
work six days a week and went to college
one day week so then everything started
becoming clearer got more qualifications
the basic and then went to London and
that’s where it really just you know
took off 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 a tea a DD so that my
attention 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 10 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’re 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
yeah I believe in manifestation I
believe in you know putting a rocket of
desire out into the universe and and you
get it when you believe it you get it
when you believe you have it and that’s
the key is like people still they sit
around going when’s it gonna come when’s
it gonna come when they’re gonna come
when’s it gonna come and that’s the
wrong way you’re you’re facing the wrong
way you’re facing away from it you have
to go it’s here it’s here it’s here
well there’s a world-champion box low on
basketball playoff
track star harshly manimals i found out
that this Mark Spitz for an example he’s
a world champion but what made him the
world champion was that he seemed to at
the right time when the pressures down
at the last few yards he can get that
lead he’s got enough left a million I
found Ken Norton my last fight if I was
even up in the last round but I had
something that he didn’t have all our
much older and that was the last minute
kick what’s that last minute kick is
that some test the stamina the strength
but was more than training the mental
capacity mental to realize
what’s involved and how important it is
make it by to do something was really
hard to do your mind makes you do it
marks bitch this Olympic track star was
mentioning he wasn’t that much greater
than all the people in the world was
sometimes he won by just that much and
this little champion is just one who can
come out at the last minute and the
closes show us and say the star closes
show a 1415 round fight and this even
and that usually this champion you can
depend on him to come to the last few
seconds and find some interpreters it’s
a discipline not only that it’s mental
and physical game where his body is in
physical shape to do it plus mentally to
he’s got a self in condition where both
fellas maybe sometimes the wheel can
outdo the skill and sometimes a fellow’s
wheel is stronger than the man who is
actually better physically and the
determination and weakens the other man
just to see him so determined every
single human being has value and my
value is not determined on how I look or
what job I have or where I’m from where
I was born how much money all that stuff
is nothing so many teenagers you know
tease each other for how we look and I
tell the teenagers do you think that I’m
cool enough to be a friend they’re like
yeah of course I said but I have no arms
no legs they said doesn’t matter said
really so it doesn’t matter that I have
no arms no legs I said no it doesn’t
matter I said then actually if it
doesn’t matter then why do we kill each
other with our words if it actually
doesn’t matter why do we look ourselves
in the mirror and see ugly instead of
valuable when I asked you today what are
you looking for if I gave you a billion
dollars would you be happy
if you gave me a billion dollars I’d be
very happy but then if my mom dies
tonight am I happy No
with all the money in the world I’ll
never be happy Mika’s money is something
that cannot heal the soul the cookie jar
is something I invented as you all know
your mom has a cookie jar and sometimes
you might have an Oreo sometimes you
might have a Chips Ahoy way sometimes
you might have a oatmeal raisin cookie
you never know
just in there my cookie jar has every
single failure and success of my life
sup my overcame so what happens in this
in time of life when you’re stressed out
and things get bad even the hardest guy
in the world me
everybody thinks and I think I’m the
hardest guy in the world you got to
believe that you got believe you are
something I will in my mind reach into
my cookie jar and sometimes you forget
how hard you are in times of need
because you’re you’re stressed but you
forget I’m a Navy SEAL I’m a ranger I’m
guessing that but you forget all that
cos your life sucks I calm down take
that one second get control of my life
reaching the cookie jar well you got
caught nigger your whole life and you’re
now the only person history do justice
and this put it back in the cookie jar
reset my mind you have to remind
yourself of how badass you really are in
times of need that’s the cookie jar
I was a very headstrong young person and
by nineteen eighty three or four had
started my own publishing company to
publish my own books realizing that no
one else will publish me and I was right
about that and so my first book I saved
my food money from Black Flag a little
here little there and I saved enough to
make a fold and staple book I couldn’t
type so I hand write out the things and
I made a dummy that I could offset print
fold and staple and I sold them for $2
mainly gave them away but I sold enough
and they blew out 500 just went and then
I took that money to make another print
run of that and from that money I made
my first paperback
and thirty-three years later that’s a
fully staffed company with books in
translation and hardcover editions and
the whole you know the whole nine yards
but it started with I’m gonna do my
thing I’ll be city lights jr. without
the talent and that’s I did that at the
same time I was doing my first spoken
word gigs and why did I have the
gumption and the audacity to start my
own book company because I come from
punk rock I come from watching Ian
MacKaye invent Dischord records on his
mom’s kitchen table I come from folding
and gluing picture sleeves together
black flag had their own label of course
you do it yourself you want to make a
book sit down and write it then go to
the printing place where’s a printer get
in the phone book and find a printer we
make records make some books it was you
just do it it’s like you don’t even
think about you just do it and I’m sure
that writing is this awful but I did it
and without even hesitation I’m making
my own book companies stop me I dare you
I’ve never thought about it twice just
because DIY man like let your voice be
heard well you know what people do look
at me and see me as creative because
I’ve written so many books and I am
curious but when I started off in
college in in my in my freshman psych
class they gave us a test that he
preached dude to take on creativity and
there were 17 in that class I can
remember it well and I was at the bottom
of the class on creativity I mean I was
like number 17 out of 17 and and and
what the teacher posted the scores and
so I mean I saw how bad I was
and and then I really felt bad not only
because I wasn’t creative but I was
going to go past her I was going to go
into ministry I was going to teach I was
going to do sermons and then I got to
take it myself I’m going to be another
boring preacher and you know I thought
just grip I thought oh this is gonna be
awful I’m gonna bore people all my life
you know what I mean and I’m gonna
ask him to pay while they hear me I mean
this is an awful deal so it and so two
things I did and I talked about it the
book one as I started filing I started
taking thoughts and quotes and the
reason I started doing that is I thought
if I’m not gonna be good at what I say I
need to quote somebody that is good and
so I started filing things that other
people would say so I’d go around and
I’d say well Kim said you know what I
mean and Jo said and Susie said and so
that at least I would be a little bit
more interesting that’s how it started
but the big breakthrough the big
breakthrough ahead was and this will
help everyone if how many of you would
like to be more creative let me let me
see your hands okay
how many of you’d like to just
absolutely have an imagination that just
took you to a new level you know I’m
sorry okay how many you already have
that because you’re on drugs
okay okay okay well here’s here’s that
here’s the key this will work for you I
promise it work for you because it
worked for me I made a major change in
my early 30s from just having answers
and being a leader that just had to cast
vision and show everybody what I was
doing and where we were going and I
started asking intentional questions and
I became a person I ask questions all
the time every day I ask questions and I
have found just asking questions we’ll
take you on exciting journeys more than
thing else you’re right you excel in
that kid I’ve watched you over the years
you did excel really in that but for my
early years I didn’t ask enough
questions and so therefore I didn’t get
enough ideas and thoughts from others so
when people say I want to be more
creative what step one step no one has
asked more questions just go to people
and start asking questions it’s amazing
what you’ll learn so that means taking
things using things in your life or
scars using those moments as a weapon
using those as using basketball is kind
of like a vehicle through which to
express yourself right so it doesn’t so
at that moment for us to face the
Celtics again it’s not about the Celtics
it’s not about your opponent
it’s about you it’s about you taking it
and it struggles and channeling that
through the game right as it as a as a
way to to unleash right so now I became
a matter of how do i express that to
them how do I get them to that point
where they figure this out for
themselves is I can’t say hey listen I
need you to play harder
so education well I had to share my
story I had to open up to them and let
them know I’ve dealt with things this is
the things that I use this is how I go
about focus this is how I deal with that
versity this is how I deal with you know
arguing with my wife the day of the game
is showing up to the game and still
having that focus to be able to play
like I used those things to open up with
them and then in turn they were able to
to take those stories make them their
own that whatever you do somebody can do
it better you have to bring your A game
in every single day there’s nothing
unique about any one individual what’s
unique is their passion their ability to
execute to meet targets and exceed them
the minute you lose that ability in
capitalism you’re gone it’s a fair trade
the engine that makes you rich can take
it all away from you there are no
guarantees I think that’s incredibly
important it looks like
you always go out of your comfort zone
right coming onto an island that was
completely deserted no fresh water you
don’t even have the money to buy it and
and now you’re sleeping on a tent on the
beach trying to figure out how to get
fresh water here you do that often you
did it with the airline I mean I was
just somebody that experienced the bad
experience of traveling on airlines I
was actually trying to get to the BVI
the British Virgin Islands one day from
Puerto Rico and the same lovely lady was
waiting for me and I’ve been away for
three weeks and American Airlines bumped
the flight and and I went to the back of
the airport I had a plane I had a black
board I wrote
Virgin Airlines one way $29 to the VV I
went around all the people have been
bumped and I filled my first plane and
and that got me thinking you know their
lines do bump people they don’t care
about you or me particularly in the air
and so we sigh then rang up Boeing and
said you have any secondhand seven four
seven okay I mean it was literally that
you just sat in the airport and said I’m
starting an airline right now we cannot
frustrate it exactly and I think most
most of the best entrepreneurial ideas
come out of frustration I think you know
if you if you’re frustrated about
something and the best way of sorting it
out is get out and do it and you’ve got
yourself a business we know from our
past experiences that big things start
small you know the biggest oak starts
from an acorn and you’ve got to
recognize anything new you’ve got to be
willing to let that acorn grow into a
little sapling and then finally into a
small tree and maybe one day it’ll be a
big business on its own and in fact
that’s one of the mottos for one of your
initiatives and forgive my pronunciation
of the Latin but Greta team ferocity
what does that mean to you well it means
step by step ferociously and it’s the
motto for Blue Origin and basically you
can’t skip steps you have to put one
foot in front of the other things take
time you there are no shortcuts and but
but you want to do those steps with you
know passion and ferocity yeah I started
working at this video store it was
pretty much what you’re talking about
around that time and and it was great at
first because I’d always hated day jobs
and stuff and so I got a day job and it
ended up being pretty good but
admittedly I was there for five years at
a certain point it was our narcotic all
right I didn’t have to keep pursuing my
dreams because you know it’s not what I
want to do but it’s sort of kind of
close and if I didn’t have an artist
soul burning in me I could have made
myself happy
with that I could if I if I didn’t have
an artist soul burning to get out I
could have you know walked backwards a
couple steps and just done that and
would have been a fulfilling little to
anybody else it would have been a
fulfilling life it wouldn’t been for me
because I wouldn’t know and I would have
had something to say that I didn’t get a
chance to say but it did put me to sleep
for a while and and I’ve always just
thought I mean what really got it got
everything kind of truly going for me
you could point out a lot of different
things but the bottom line is the fact
that I realized that the even the group
of people I hung around with they were
all great great great fellows and great
gals but you know I was easy for me to
think that I was doing a lot because I
was doing more to try to move myself
forward than they were but you know
that’s not yeah yeah okay I’m a big fish
in a puddle so what all right they’re
not doing anything so yeah I’m doing
more than them but I realized that
actually I need to get my ass out to
Hollywood and meet other people who are
you know like they were in my category
or or working a little higher and and I
should be the weakest link in my chain
that I have and that’ll make me be
strong to really make me run faster I
mean like an analogy I’ve always used is
alright if you run the hundred yard dash
where the people that can’t run as fast
as you yeah you’ll win hands down you
know that but if you run with people
much faster than you all right yeah you
might come in last every single time but
your time will be better because they’re
making you run all the faster they’re
making making you dig down just a little
bit more it doesn’t matter that you and
your time is faster and that’s what I
knew I had to do I had to get out of
Loserville and throw myself into a place
where like this is what they do for a
living
one night Chris had gone to bed I had
been struggling struggling struggling we
still had all the same problems I we
stalled a lien on the house still facing
bankruptcy still fighting like crazy I
was still unemployed
he still they still hadn’t figured out
like the solution yet for the business
and I was about to turn off the TV and
there on the the TV there was this
rocket launching and I thought oh my
gosh I am going to launch myself out of
bed like a rocket ship like NASA right
here had launched me out of that bed and
I’m gonna move so fast that I don’t
think I’m gonna beat my brain now here’s
a really interesting point I talked a
lot about your instincts and inner
wisdom and we can get into this a little
bit later but a lot of us talk about the
fact that you have a gut feeling but
what all this research that I’ve done
for the book and and all the speaking
that I do what I’ve discovered that’s
fascinating is actually when you set
goals when you have an intention on
something that you want to change about
your life your brain helps you what it
does is it opens up a checklist and then
your brain goes to work trying to remind
you of that intention that you set and
it’s really important to develop the
skill and I say that word purposefully
the skill of knowing how to hear that
inner wisdom and that intention kicking
in and leaning into it quickly
so for me my brain saying that’s it
right there
move as fast as a rocket mouth I wanted
to change my life and I think most
people that are miserable or that are
that are really like dying to be great
and dying to have more we want to change
we want to live a better life we want to
create more for our families we want to
be happier the the desire is there again
it’s about how do you go from knowledge
to actions so the first thing in the
story that’s important is realizing that
the answer was in me and my mind was
telling me pay attention
could have also been the Bourbon anyway
the next morning the alarm goes off and
I pretended NASA was there
it’s a stupidest story I literally went
five four three two one I counted out
loud and then I stood up and I’ll never
forget standing there in my bedroom it
was dark it was cold it was winter in
Boston and for the first time in three
months I had beaten my habit of hitting
the snooze button I couldn’t believe it
and I thought wait a minute
counting backwards citizen dumbest thing
I’ve ever heard in my entire life well
the next morning I used it again and it
worked the next morning I used it again
and it worked the next morning I used it
again and it worked and then I started
to notice something really interesting
there were moments all day long all day
long just like that five-second moment
in bed where I knew knowledge what I
should do and if I didn’t move within
five seconds my brain would step in and
talk me out of it every human being has
a five-second window might even be
shorter for you you have about a
five-second window in which you can move
from idea to action before your brain
kicks into full gear and sabotages any
change in behavior because remember your
brain is wired to stop you from doing
things that are uncomfortable or
uncertain or scary it’s your job to
learn how to move from those ideas that
could change everything into acting on
I’ve been making music now with you know
like Tony Bennett for a couple years and
I’m you know Elton John is you know one
of my closest friends and his husband
David and they just have showed me that
like I’m a baby and my artistry you know
and I just have to keep making music and
keep going and so my focus really for
this album is showing that to two young
girls and to end two boys that want to
make music that you don’t have to
get lucky on the internet it’s not a
social media game you don’t have to find
a you know the the the hot producer and
get the hot track you know to be a star
you can just learn how to play an
instrument and sit in your room and
practice and write songs and poetry and
then you can go around the corner to the
bar and meet other artists that do the
same thing that you do and you can hang
out and talk about music and write songs
and then you can play at the spot around
the corner and gain one fan and then do
it over and over and over again until
you’re discovered you need to know what
your unique strengths are and be willing
to delegate so I would say that the
question of whether you should take a
skill learn it yourself delegated to
someone else or hire a new team member
are determined by having a very accurate
self assessment and assessment of your
team’s skills not only what you can do
but what you should be doing that’s very
important so if you’re a start-up CEO or
founder and you have a team of say two
as soon as you have funds to hire you
should not be focused on the things that
you are bad at sounds very very
intuitive but it’s not because you might
have enough time to do those things but
the question is do you have the
attention to dedicate to those things so
they’re not an interruption especially
if you are venture-backed startup and
you’re competing against other companies
that also have a lot of funding the game
the game and the race goes to the Swift
so you have to have you have to have a
lot of velocity ESPN called me they did
a story on me this past summer but they
called me one day and I picked up the
phone they said is this inky johnson so
last time I checked I’m inky johnson
they said is this the same guy that said
if you could change what happened to you
you wouldn’t I said absolutely
they said it’s our understanding the
game of football meant the world I said
at one point it did they said it’s our
understanding that your family was
banking on you making it to the NFL
so they can have a better way of life I
said yeah that’s correct they said we’re
coming to see you I said alright cool
come on I said but we don’t want to see
you in that land we want to see you in
Neyland Stadium on the exact yard line
where your life change the same time of
day the only thing that won’t be
President it’s Air Forces team all right
cool and so they take me to Nealon
Stadium they put me on the exact yard
line with my life change they said now
tell your young yourself why you
wouldn’t stop your injury if you could
if you could be in the NFL right now
making millions of dollars tell you
young yourself why you wouldn’t change
that situation if you could and I say
the reason I wouldn’t change it believe
it or not has nothing to do with me fact
on a personal level you he thought I was
gonna say because of the man that I’ve
become the perspective that I’ve
acquired my faith that been fortified he
thought I was gonna say something like
that I said no it has nothing to do it
has everything to do with the lives that
have been affected by the result of the
process and the thing that I represent
in the world what my spirit represents
when she might have seen me they think
perseverance
well my spirit represents where somebody
see me they think don’t quit what my
spirit represents when somebody see me
they think that’s a quality individual
right there what my character represents
and every single day we’re putting
something out like that represent
something when people see that they
thinks it’s a thought that comes to the
month when he said go standing he gave
me that I felt a certain time money when
he gave me to go stare I thought the
certain type I felt different
gold-standard
me because I’m thinking what I do the
line of business something
I’m gonna go standard because I don’t
compromise and every single day I’m
gonna give you my very best you can bet
your bottom dollar every single day I’m
gonna bring that gold standard to life
and I’m not just bringing it in one
aspect of life I’m bringing it every
single aspect of life I’m not gonna be
one of these people in the world that’s
a public success but they’re private
failure mean they give everything they
got to one aspect of life but the other
areas they lack off no I’m gonna give
every single thing I got to every aspect
of my life because I represent something
when people see me they think something
whether that’s character never givin up
never surrender and the thing that we
can never do is forget what we represent
because that’s how guys end up under
bridge and a cardboard box leap they
forget what they represent when life
hits him where that person my only
charge for you never forget what you
represent there were the things that I
probably should have done not from my
perspective I mean from my point of view
I did the right things every every film
that I’ve done I mean I’m happy that I
made that choice I don’t have any
regrets whatsoever but I mean in terms
of sustaining box office you know
bankability I should have done a few of
the things that I didn’t do but I’m glad
I didn’t do them
because it wouldn’t have been you yeah
well I would it would have been for the
wrong reasons I did everything that I’ve
been lucky enough to do I did for the right reasons
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