absolutely and trust your gut you’re
born with a gut trust my my instincts
what do you feel like in your gut I’ve
learned to trust my instincts trust your
gut
whatever my instincts are have the guts
to follow your belief follow your gut or
your instincts are very important to you
recently I was with a bunch of other
investors who I respect and they brought
me a deal and I wanted to be part of it
but it didn’t feel right and I wrote
millions of dollars on that one and it
just didn’t feel right and I lost it all
within two years associate investors
trust their gut then absolutely and
trust you but what about you said
earlier don’t be emotional and sometimes
the gut no this is a barometer of risk
it’s something an internalized for an
investor that says I don’t feel
comfortable it’s not about emotion just
don’t write that check that was recently
the first time I didn’t listen to that
and I lost everything so now my radar is
up I listen to my gut it’s not an
emotion it’s an index of risk and you
get it as you age you become a better
investor every year if only I could live
to 200 I’d be really good I don’t think
that that you’re born with a gut I think
you’re the gut matures and and gets
better and better over time
and what the struggle that most people
have I think is learning to listen to it
and figuring out how to access it in
some way for me though what I found was
that even though I’m an engineer and an
analytical person at heart the most
important decisions I’ve made had
nothing do with any of that that they
were always based on intuition and the
Apple one is a prime example of that you
know I remember actually forming my list
of pluses and minuses and I could not
get the chart to work out the way I
wanted it to
because I wanted something to say you
know this is I should go to Apple but it
would not there with nothing financially
would do that I talked to people I
trusted that knew me and they said this
is not what you should do it wasn’t so
easy and in people said you know you’re
just crazy you’re working for the top PC
company in the world how could you even
think of doing this you’ve lost your
mind
and yet that voice said go west young
man go west and sometimes you just have
to go for it there was a lot of
encouragement to trust my my instincts
you know the instincts of use your
presence you know them saying like in
South Africa you know I’m you know
obviously I’m not South Africans I was
really aware that our god I’m gonna walk
into rooms where people have been lived
seeing smelled touched felt mr. Mandela
in person on radio and television and
here I come as an outsider doing this in
you know portrayal of him I was really a
ways to make me very nervous about you
know if I’m going to do it right or not
and Justin encouraged me to stay with
what my gut was hmm
mr. stay with that don’t don’t waver
from it don’t try to be there Mandela or
the Mandela they think you should be be
that guy we’ve discussed in all the
rehearsals and all the script millions
you know me that guy go of that thing so
that was great actually had to Justin’s
credit like he really helped me sculpt
and measure out that that performance
you know for me was never about money
and stuff like that was the last time I
did something crazy was it going to Idol
to do that things are you absolutely I
cannot tell you how many people try to
talk me out of that like please don’t do
this yeah like this is like this is the
worst move you could ever make and I was
like you know what I don’t think so it
feels right for my life right now
like just haven’t had the babies they
were just starting to walk and talk and
really
become you know fully functional people
you know and uh and I just thought you
know what they need stability we’ve been
traveling around at that time mark was
um
their dad was touring a lot and I was
traveling and it was just like you know
what this is gonna be a good thing for
them for me I love the show and I just
you know I just basically said to
everybody kind of over all right I have
to say Benny was kind of on my side he
was there what do you feel like in your
gut I feel like business-wise for these
reasons it could be good but you have to
feel good about it and I said I feel
like it’s gonna be a good thing I feel
like I have something to contribute I
love music I love talking about music
and love artists that’s that’s what I
wanted I think this could be a really
nice thing and by the way we only signed
on for one year right you know wasn’t
like a thing I was where I thought oh
god I’m gonna be here forever I said no
I’ll do it for a year and we’ll see what
happens I wound up loving it so much I
did it for two years right you know and
they asked me back I was like okay when
I went to Bloomingdale’s the buyer said
we like your ties Ralph but would you
make them narrower and would you we
don’t want to use your label we want to
use our own label but we’ll give you a
really good order now here I was no
business and hungry and I said to the
buy I said my heart’s in my throat or
whatever the expression is I I would
love to sell Bloomingdale’s they were
the hottest store and young hot store I
said but I can’t tell you I’m closing my
bag and I’m not going to sorry
six months later they called me back Wow
and they said Ralph we can’t find your
ties anywhere and we want to buy him and
we want to put a rack in rack up ties
amongst other ties and that was it the
breakthrough was they bought it
the breakthrough for me is that I’ve
learned to trust my instincts I learned
to trust my own sense because the normal
thing to do is say I’ll make it way any
way you want it I mean that’s how that’s
how the world was you want to I want to
sell the other ties you know maybe our
new fashion for you next year
let me
my philosophy was that I love these time
I made them they were not just a
business to me they were they were my
voice to myself we should learn how to
trust our gut intuition because in most
of the stories I looked at and in most
of the clothes I collected I didn’t see
people picking up intuition as the
crucial element of the success while in
my profession and Ches intuitions
virtually ever seen because Ches some
people don’t recognize it is a
mathematical infinite game the number of
moves in the game of chess all the moves
contains 120 zeroes which is more which
is more than number of seconds since the
moment Big Bang creative universe so how
can you find your way you know in this
ocean of possibilities and of course how
a man can fight a machine that could
calculate tens and tens of millions of
positions per second intuition because
it’s all about decision making process
and we never employ calculation as the
as the main tool it’s one percent of
calculation even less and 99% of our
understanding of our ability to find
intuitive ways to compare incompatible
material grocers quality time versus
material so intuition plays a key role
and we have to trust our intuition our
instincts because in life also we have
many opportunities where we cannot
foresee all the consequences and there’s
only one choice is just to trust your
gut
I stayed pretty true to whatever my
instincts are as an artist sometimes for
worse at first because I think when you
do something that’s out of the norm you
have to keep doing it for a little while
to make it your own norm so it’s an
exciting idea to me that I could be
putting a record out and being able to
be my own person to not have to think
about what I
can’t say or can’t do because I don’t
want to lose people’s understanding of
what I do is a convention you know so
I’m really excited about the idea of
people going oh no that’s him that’s him
you know I am amazed at how few people
have a belief system what do they
actually believe in I and and yeah it’s
okay to offend you guys 90% of you will
do what’s expected of you as opposed to
what you want to do and you know I even
when I come to an event like this say
why am I here why would I even bother to
take an hour of my valuable time no it’s
true I I have to have a purpose
my goal is very simple if I can convert
one of you there’s probably 400 500
people here if I can convert one of you
to follow your belief and have the guts
to follow your belief I’ll have all
think of the hour as well spent but so I
always say what am I trying to do and
why I don’t speak because somebody you
know will write nice things about it I
always sort of have a purpose but I have
a belief system and most people even
successful companies and have big beef
with fortune 500 CEOs I can talk about
the very little leadership there don’t
have an internal compass of what they
believe in it’s what do others expect
you know when I graduated I went into
entrepreneurship nobody went into aren’t
no shape out of the business school and
people said why wouldn’t you work for
Goldman or McKinsey I said why would you
like I could fathom why you would want
to do that job
right I still can’t by the way for those
of you going to those places and I’m
sure there’s plenty I’m probably not the
right person to talk to you
haha I frankly don’t even care to talk
to you all of you others hey I think
there’s something wrong with anybody who
fundamentally wants to go work for one
the consultants or the investment banks
today in this part that does it they
don’t understand how the world is going
to work in the future but my point again
is have a belief system follow that
compass and I’m overstating it a bit so
there may be some hope for those of you
going there but it’s only a little bit
of an exaggeration let me go back to
this issue of fortune 500 CEOs I’ve
talked to many over the years if a New
York Times writer writes an article they
want to change their strategy they want
to respond how silly is that
that some English major who’s never had
a business job can determine the
strategy of a fortune 500 company
why because they care about what’s
written not what their belief system is
do you know what the LAN musk would say
to that writer go get a real job all
right
what Jeff Bezos would say that’s
leadership having a belief system
knowing what’s driving you to do what
you do not you’re fitting in to do
career enhancement or making it look
good to somebody else whether it’s your
friends or to your boss or to
shareholders and frankly you look at all
the companies that are languishing in
the valley the older companies they
generally don’t have a belief system
they’re generally trying to meet some
quarterly target without saying here’s
how we will be different and here’s how
we’ll do it
Apple did languish for 10-15 years and
then Steve Jobs came in with a point of
view and created the most valuable
company in the world he did irrational
things if you go back to January of 2007
January 1 everybody was saying nobody
wants a phone without a keyboard
nobody wants a phone that
for $6.99 I can go on with the litany
those were all English majors writing
articles I have this beef against
English majors not all English majors
are bad but the majority of them at
Stanford are undirected and don’t have a
goal or a purpose sorry and that’s not
to say among them there isn’t 20% that
are really good they just didn’t get the
right guidance and ended up in the wrong
place I like purposeful education
sometimes in life to be successful
oftentimes most of the time you have to
follow your instincts you have to follow
your gut
you have to your parents may say wrong
you’re whoever may say wrong but you
have to do it you just affirm to me that
instincts is really important in
business you know I I didn’t go to any
proper business school or any read any
super uh follow any manuals like the
record business 101 anything like that I
just pretty much followed my instincts
and he just reaffirmed that for me that
you know your instincts are very
important to you thank you guys for
watching I hope you enjoyed I love to
know which of the clips meant the most
to you and what kind of change you’re
going to make in your life for your
business as a result are you going to
trust your gut more or not leave it in
the comments below I’m really curious to
find out thank you guys for watching
continue to believe and I’ll see you
soon
you
born with a gut trust my my instincts
what do you feel like in your gut I’ve
learned to trust my instincts trust your
gut
whatever my instincts are have the guts
to follow your belief follow your gut or
your instincts are very important to you
recently I was with a bunch of other
investors who I respect and they brought
me a deal and I wanted to be part of it
but it didn’t feel right and I wrote
millions of dollars on that one and it
just didn’t feel right and I lost it all
within two years associate investors
trust their gut then absolutely and
trust you but what about you said
earlier don’t be emotional and sometimes
the gut no this is a barometer of risk
it’s something an internalized for an
investor that says I don’t feel
comfortable it’s not about emotion just
don’t write that check that was recently
the first time I didn’t listen to that
and I lost everything so now my radar is
up I listen to my gut it’s not an
emotion it’s an index of risk and you
get it as you age you become a better
investor every year if only I could live
to 200 I’d be really good I don’t think
that that you’re born with a gut I think
you’re the gut matures and and gets
better and better over time
and what the struggle that most people
have I think is learning to listen to it
and figuring out how to access it in
some way for me though what I found was
that even though I’m an engineer and an
analytical person at heart the most
important decisions I’ve made had
nothing do with any of that that they
were always based on intuition and the
Apple one is a prime example of that you
know I remember actually forming my list
of pluses and minuses and I could not
get the chart to work out the way I
wanted it to
because I wanted something to say you
know this is I should go to Apple but it
would not there with nothing financially
would do that I talked to people I
trusted that knew me and they said this
is not what you should do it wasn’t so
easy and in people said you know you’re
just crazy you’re working for the top PC
company in the world how could you even
think of doing this you’ve lost your
mind
and yet that voice said go west young
man go west and sometimes you just have
to go for it there was a lot of
encouragement to trust my my instincts
you know the instincts of use your
presence you know them saying like in
South Africa you know I’m you know
obviously I’m not South Africans I was
really aware that our god I’m gonna walk
into rooms where people have been lived
seeing smelled touched felt mr. Mandela
in person on radio and television and
here I come as an outsider doing this in
you know portrayal of him I was really a
ways to make me very nervous about you
know if I’m going to do it right or not
and Justin encouraged me to stay with
what my gut was hmm
mr. stay with that don’t don’t waver
from it don’t try to be there Mandela or
the Mandela they think you should be be
that guy we’ve discussed in all the
rehearsals and all the script millions
you know me that guy go of that thing so
that was great actually had to Justin’s
credit like he really helped me sculpt
and measure out that that performance
you know for me was never about money
and stuff like that was the last time I
did something crazy was it going to Idol
to do that things are you absolutely I
cannot tell you how many people try to
talk me out of that like please don’t do
this yeah like this is like this is the
worst move you could ever make and I was
like you know what I don’t think so it
feels right for my life right now
like just haven’t had the babies they
were just starting to walk and talk and
really
become you know fully functional people
you know and uh and I just thought you
know what they need stability we’ve been
traveling around at that time mark was
um
their dad was touring a lot and I was
traveling and it was just like you know
what this is gonna be a good thing for
them for me I love the show and I just
you know I just basically said to
everybody kind of over all right I have
to say Benny was kind of on my side he
was there what do you feel like in your
gut I feel like business-wise for these
reasons it could be good but you have to
feel good about it and I said I feel
like it’s gonna be a good thing I feel
like I have something to contribute I
love music I love talking about music
and love artists that’s that’s what I
wanted I think this could be a really
nice thing and by the way we only signed
on for one year right you know wasn’t
like a thing I was where I thought oh
god I’m gonna be here forever I said no
I’ll do it for a year and we’ll see what
happens I wound up loving it so much I
did it for two years right you know and
they asked me back I was like okay when
I went to Bloomingdale’s the buyer said
we like your ties Ralph but would you
make them narrower and would you we
don’t want to use your label we want to
use our own label but we’ll give you a
really good order now here I was no
business and hungry and I said to the
buy I said my heart’s in my throat or
whatever the expression is I I would
love to sell Bloomingdale’s they were
the hottest store and young hot store I
said but I can’t tell you I’m closing my
bag and I’m not going to sorry
six months later they called me back Wow
and they said Ralph we can’t find your
ties anywhere and we want to buy him and
we want to put a rack in rack up ties
amongst other ties and that was it the
breakthrough was they bought it
the breakthrough for me is that I’ve
learned to trust my instincts I learned
to trust my own sense because the normal
thing to do is say I’ll make it way any
way you want it I mean that’s how that’s
how the world was you want to I want to
sell the other ties you know maybe our
new fashion for you next year
let me
my philosophy was that I love these time
I made them they were not just a
business to me they were they were my
voice to myself we should learn how to
trust our gut intuition because in most
of the stories I looked at and in most
of the clothes I collected I didn’t see
people picking up intuition as the
crucial element of the success while in
my profession and Ches intuitions
virtually ever seen because Ches some
people don’t recognize it is a
mathematical infinite game the number of
moves in the game of chess all the moves
contains 120 zeroes which is more which
is more than number of seconds since the
moment Big Bang creative universe so how
can you find your way you know in this
ocean of possibilities and of course how
a man can fight a machine that could
calculate tens and tens of millions of
positions per second intuition because
it’s all about decision making process
and we never employ calculation as the
as the main tool it’s one percent of
calculation even less and 99% of our
understanding of our ability to find
intuitive ways to compare incompatible
material grocers quality time versus
material so intuition plays a key role
and we have to trust our intuition our
instincts because in life also we have
many opportunities where we cannot
foresee all the consequences and there’s
only one choice is just to trust your
gut
I stayed pretty true to whatever my
instincts are as an artist sometimes for
worse at first because I think when you
do something that’s out of the norm you
have to keep doing it for a little while
to make it your own norm so it’s an
exciting idea to me that I could be
putting a record out and being able to
be my own person to not have to think
about what I
can’t say or can’t do because I don’t
want to lose people’s understanding of
what I do is a convention you know so
I’m really excited about the idea of
people going oh no that’s him that’s him
you know I am amazed at how few people
have a belief system what do they
actually believe in I and and yeah it’s
okay to offend you guys 90% of you will
do what’s expected of you as opposed to
what you want to do and you know I even
when I come to an event like this say
why am I here why would I even bother to
take an hour of my valuable time no it’s
true I I have to have a purpose
my goal is very simple if I can convert
one of you there’s probably 400 500
people here if I can convert one of you
to follow your belief and have the guts
to follow your belief I’ll have all
think of the hour as well spent but so I
always say what am I trying to do and
why I don’t speak because somebody you
know will write nice things about it I
always sort of have a purpose but I have
a belief system and most people even
successful companies and have big beef
with fortune 500 CEOs I can talk about
the very little leadership there don’t
have an internal compass of what they
believe in it’s what do others expect
you know when I graduated I went into
entrepreneurship nobody went into aren’t
no shape out of the business school and
people said why wouldn’t you work for
Goldman or McKinsey I said why would you
like I could fathom why you would want
to do that job
right I still can’t by the way for those
of you going to those places and I’m
sure there’s plenty I’m probably not the
right person to talk to you
haha I frankly don’t even care to talk
to you all of you others hey I think
there’s something wrong with anybody who
fundamentally wants to go work for one
the consultants or the investment banks
today in this part that does it they
don’t understand how the world is going
to work in the future but my point again
is have a belief system follow that
compass and I’m overstating it a bit so
there may be some hope for those of you
going there but it’s only a little bit
of an exaggeration let me go back to
this issue of fortune 500 CEOs I’ve
talked to many over the years if a New
York Times writer writes an article they
want to change their strategy they want
to respond how silly is that
that some English major who’s never had
a business job can determine the
strategy of a fortune 500 company
why because they care about what’s
written not what their belief system is
do you know what the LAN musk would say
to that writer go get a real job all
right
what Jeff Bezos would say that’s
leadership having a belief system
knowing what’s driving you to do what
you do not you’re fitting in to do
career enhancement or making it look
good to somebody else whether it’s your
friends or to your boss or to
shareholders and frankly you look at all
the companies that are languishing in
the valley the older companies they
generally don’t have a belief system
they’re generally trying to meet some
quarterly target without saying here’s
how we will be different and here’s how
we’ll do it
Apple did languish for 10-15 years and
then Steve Jobs came in with a point of
view and created the most valuable
company in the world he did irrational
things if you go back to January of 2007
January 1 everybody was saying nobody
wants a phone without a keyboard
nobody wants a phone that
for $6.99 I can go on with the litany
those were all English majors writing
articles I have this beef against
English majors not all English majors
are bad but the majority of them at
Stanford are undirected and don’t have a
goal or a purpose sorry and that’s not
to say among them there isn’t 20% that
are really good they just didn’t get the
right guidance and ended up in the wrong
place I like purposeful education
sometimes in life to be successful
oftentimes most of the time you have to
follow your instincts you have to follow
your gut
you have to your parents may say wrong
you’re whoever may say wrong but you
have to do it you just affirm to me that
instincts is really important in
business you know I I didn’t go to any
proper business school or any read any
super uh follow any manuals like the
record business 101 anything like that I
just pretty much followed my instincts
and he just reaffirmed that for me that
you know your instincts are very
important to you thank you guys for
watching I hope you enjoyed I love to
know which of the clips meant the most
to you and what kind of change you’re
going to make in your life for your
business as a result are you going to
trust your gut more or not leave it in
the comments below I’m really curious to
find out thank you guys for watching
continue to believe and I’ll see you
soon
you
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