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 a person 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 it’s
best for everyone since once through the
saving as a young man 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 gentlemen 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 I
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 rock 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 running
yeah my dad was an underground parking
lot attendant I have no business
background but I had 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
realized again boy 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 customers satisfied
customers go away you are breathing fans
and raving fans stay and reinvent
everybody else had really been into it
build your band it would grow you
so those things allowed me to grow in my
educational business and then I just
applied those to other businesses okay
here’s a deal if you want to be
successful here’s the thing you have to
do you have to jump there is no way
around you have to jump every successful
person has jumped you got to jump you
got to take a leap of faith
you got to dash off that cliff and you
got to jump out there as far as you can
now a lot of times you stand on the
cliff of life and you see other people
soaring by gliding down like a bird and
fly through the air you know they’re
going over to the south of France you
see them on a boat somewhere you see
their family vacation in here and a
family vacation to that you see them
dressing like this you see them in your
yard then you see them in London they
fly and buy you know why because they
parachute open but the only way to get
your parachute to open so you could saw
you got the job now it is a problem
here’s the problem my friends when your
job I can assure you one thing you
listening I promise you this your
parachute will not open right away
no that’s the fear part I probably
should your passion will not open right
away you’re gonna hit them sides in the
rocks
you wanna get your back out on the cliff
you gonna you gonna cut yourself you’re
gonna get moon again you’re gonna get
some tears and stuff like that but
eventually pass you real home and you’ll
be sold but here’s another caveat let me
teach you this right here if you do not
jump I promise you want that your
passion will never hold so you’re safe
true enough so you got to jump you
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 a 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 has
historically proved itself to be little
more than a suffocating sea of
indirection
and purposelessness if we want to
emulate someone find that 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 working no more
but 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
you know they fed you and they gave you
these nice grades that made you feel
smart so I 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 of your
body if there’s something you want sin
vision and now it’s real it’s because
you didn’t just envision it you brought
so much emotion to it then now it’s in
your life it was once a dream it was
once a goal and now it’s in your life
how many have something like that in
your life now say I you may take it for
granted now hopefully not but it was
once just a vision may have seemed
impossible at one time so how did you do
it
you started with a concrete vision of
what you wanted and you focused on it
continuously didn’t you wherever focus
goes energy flows you envision something
you got clearer about it and then you
started thinking about all the reasons
why you wanted it you got excited about
it so this is what’s next for me now I
want this you may have dreamed about a
thought about and talked about it but
when you focus on something continuously
something magical happens you get
insights don’t you you overhear a
conversation here’s 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
experienced say I so why don’t we
happened to 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 the
time 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
properly 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 at 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
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 were 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 after 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 500
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
priority than you can save life that’s
what it’s all about the only reason that
most of us don’t acutely 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 and miss
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 in 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 but 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
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 of the community things that are
done around Linux or 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 invest
in raid Elliott showed me as
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 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 your 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
out of your number used to get on your
left remember that yeah I just put on
your dad down Hoss the hundred bucks it
was a breakthrough they’re making like
not a man or something right yeah yeah
six months later went up
the iPhone came out with internal 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 it
gonna do to your business when someone
takes your product deserving 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 2 to 3
days a year for 2 or 3 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 70
different industries we do five billion
in sales I mean that 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 pick in every one
those businesses 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 Flint
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 in these Kenya
shootings that just had that 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
we’ll 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 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 at now I
gotta tell you though all honesty I like
what money burners I like to live in a
nice house drive a nice car take that
beautiful redheaded wife of mine out to
nice restaurants in oh nice trip 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
your companion will buy your friend
money will buy you a good time won’t buy
you peace of mind man 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 their
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
here’s the philosophy I’ve built my wife
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 mill a
ship 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
would come in mixing concrete put it in
the hall doing it and it was just myself
and my little brother and I remember
standing back looking at that wall
saying there’s going to be a hole here
forever a year and a half later at 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 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 walked
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 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 a person 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
will 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 saving as a young man 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 a person 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 it’s
best for everyone since once through the
saving as a young man 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 gentlemen 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 I
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 rock 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 running
yeah my dad was an underground parking
lot attendant I have no business
background but I had 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
realized again boy 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 customers satisfied
customers go away you are breathing fans
and raving fans stay and reinvent
everybody else had really been into it
build your band it would grow you
so those things allowed me to grow in my
educational business and then I just
applied those to other businesses okay
here’s a deal if you want to be
successful here’s the thing you have to
do you have to jump there is no way
around you have to jump every successful
person has jumped you got to jump you
got to take a leap of faith
you got to dash off that cliff and you
got to jump out there as far as you can
now a lot of times you stand on the
cliff of life and you see other people
soaring by gliding down like a bird and
fly through the air you know they’re
going over to the south of France you
see them on a boat somewhere you see
their family vacation in here and a
family vacation to that you see them
dressing like this you see them in your
yard then you see them in London they
fly and buy you know why because they
parachute open but the only way to get
your parachute to open so you could saw
you got the job now it is a problem
here’s the problem my friends when your
job I can assure you one thing you
listening I promise you this your
parachute will not open right away
no that’s the fear part I probably
should your passion will not open right
away you’re gonna hit them sides in the
rocks
you wanna get your back out on the cliff
you gonna you gonna cut yourself you’re
gonna get moon again you’re gonna get
some tears and stuff like that but
eventually pass you real home and you’ll
be sold but here’s another caveat let me
teach you this right here if you do not
jump I promise you want that your
passion will never hold so you’re safe
true enough so you got to jump you
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 a 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 has
historically proved itself to be little
more than a suffocating sea of
indirection
and purposelessness if we want to
emulate someone find that 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 working no more
but 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
you know they fed you and they gave you
these nice grades that made you feel
smart so I 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 of your
body if there’s something you want sin
vision and now it’s real it’s because
you didn’t just envision it you brought
so much emotion to it then now it’s in
your life it was once a dream it was
once a goal and now it’s in your life
how many have something like that in
your life now say I you may take it for
granted now hopefully not but it was
once just a vision may have seemed
impossible at one time so how did you do
it
you started with a concrete vision of
what you wanted and you focused on it
continuously didn’t you wherever focus
goes energy flows you envision something
you got clearer about it and then you
started thinking about all the reasons
why you wanted it you got excited about
it so this is what’s next for me now I
want this you may have dreamed about a
thought about and talked about it but
when you focus on something continuously
something magical happens you get
insights don’t you you overhear a
conversation here’s 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
experienced say I so why don’t we
happened to 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 the
time 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
properly 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 at 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
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 were 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 after 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 500
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
priority than you can save life that’s
what it’s all about the only reason that
most of us don’t acutely 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 and miss
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 in 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 but 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
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 of the community things that are
done around Linux or 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 invest
in raid Elliott showed me as
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 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 your 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
out of your number used to get on your
left remember that yeah I just put on
your dad down Hoss the hundred bucks it
was a breakthrough they’re making like
not a man or something right yeah yeah
six months later went up
the iPhone came out with internal 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 it
gonna do to your business when someone
takes your product deserving 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 2 to 3
days a year for 2 or 3 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 70
different industries we do five billion
in sales I mean that 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 pick in every one
those businesses 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 Flint
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 in these Kenya
shootings that just had that 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
we’ll 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 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 at now I
gotta tell you though all honesty I like
what money burners I like to live in a
nice house drive a nice car take that
beautiful redheaded wife of mine out to
nice restaurants in oh nice trip 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
your companion will buy your friend
money will buy you a good time won’t buy
you peace of mind man 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 their
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
here’s the philosophy I’ve built my wife
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 mill a
ship 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
would come in mixing concrete put it in
the hall doing it and it was just myself
and my little brother and I remember
standing back looking at that wall
saying there’s going to be a hole here
forever a year and a half later at 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 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 walked
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 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 a person 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
will 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 saving as a young man 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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