assume that the person you are listening
to might know something you don’t this
is a chapter about conversation and
about the different forms conversation
takes and so chapter about humility and
it’s a chapter about listening and
humility element is it took me a long
time to understand why there’s religious
injunctions supporting humility but to
even understand what the word really
meant and that sort of technical sense
and it means something like this it
means what you don’t know is more
important than what you know and that’s
a lovely thing too then then what you
don’t know can start to be your friend
you see people are very defensive about
what they know and for the reasons we’ve
already discussed but the thing is you
don’t know enough and the Riu can tell
you don’t know enough because your life
is not what it could be and neither is
the life of the people around you you
just don’t know enough and so what that
means is that every time you encounter
some evidence that you’re ignorant
someone points it out you should be
happy about that because you think oh
you just told me how I’m wrong it’s like
great like maybe I had to sift through a
lot of nonsense to get through the real
message that you’re telling me but if
you could actually tell me some way that
I’m wrong and then maybe give me a hint
about how to not be wrong like that
well then I wouldn’t have to be wrong
like that anymore that that would be a
good thing and you can you can you can
embark on that adventure by listening to
people and if you listen to people they
will tell you they’ll tell you amazing
things if you listen to them and many of
those things are little tools that you
can put in your toolkit like Batman and
then you can go out into the world and
use those tools and you don’t have to
fall blindly into a pit quite as often
and so the humility element is well do
you want to be right or do you want to
be learning and it’s deeper than that
it’s do you want to be that the
tyrannical king who’s already got
everything figured out or do you want to
be the continually transforming hero or
fool for that matter who’s getting
better all the time and that’s actually
a choice you know it’s a deep choice and
it’s better to be the self transforming
fool who’s humble enough to make friends
with what he or she doesn’t know and to
listen when people talk and listening is
a transformative exercise like
if you listen to the people in your life
for example if you actually listen to
them they’ll tell you what’s wrong with
them and how to fix it and what they
want they can’t even help it if you
start listening because people are so
shocked if you actually listen to them
that they tell you also those sorts of
things that they might not have even
intended to things they don’t even know
and then you can you can work with that
[Music]
and I want to make this clear don’t just
listen don’t just listen do um I’m not
just talking so you know I’m not just
talking I’m doing and I don’t want you
to just listen to put this information
to work make today count every day go
forward get aggressive and attack
whether it’s on the battlefield or on
the beach or in the factory or on the
farm or on the construction site or on
the website in the garage or in the
firehouse
don’t hesitate step step forward
and get after it as beautiful things I
learned was that serving other people
was without a doubt the most meaningful
experience of humanity and there’s this
great study by Michael Norton from the
Cambridge University where he talks
about how money can buy happiness if you
spend it on other people hmm
and he’s done this incredible study in
all regions all across the world where
he talks about how actually if people
are given five twenty or even a hundred
dollars when you spend it on yourself
your happiness doesn’t go up or doesn’t
go down but when you spend it on other
people
your happiness is the opportunity to
grow by at least 10 to 20 percent so
fulfillment grows when we use our money
time energy in the service of others and
when I was working at internships I felt
like I was serving myself and I wasn’t
getting an opportunity to impact someone
else’s life we’ve all been in that and
I’m sure you have been in that position
where you’ve just made a difference in a
young person’s life we have made a
difference in someone who doesn’t have
much and you see the joy on their face
and that’s what I was getting to
every message that we see every
billboard we see every advertisement
that we’re exposed to is telling us that
happiness can be can be purchased
through comfort through luxury through
ease and that’s sort of implicit in that
is that that’s how we find happiness and
I can tell you that I’m happiest and
most alive when I’m butting up against
the outer edges of my pain threshold and
I’m not afraid of it and so when I start
to feel that sensation rather than shirk
away from it I realize that’s an
opportunity to experience a heightened
sense of myself in my environment to to
really be in a position where everything
else falls away and it’s just you and
your ability to take one step forward
there’s a purity to that that again is
another great teacher and so in terms of
techniques I’ve just learned through
experience that just like David Goggin
says when the signals that you’re
receiving are telling you to stop
that you don’t necessarily have to pay
attention to that that that you are
capable of so much more if you can
develop the acuity the presence of mind
and the wherewithal to then take that
next step and when you’re on the other
side of it to realize you’re still okay
and you can take another step and a
whole your horizon extends and you
realize that there’s a whole world of
potential and possibility available to
you that you weren’t previously aware of
whether it was Steve Jobs about to give
one of his famous keynotes the most
underrated skill was this visualization
the recreation of images sounds and
environments before it has happened is
one of the most powerful skills in the
world a very powerful meditation and
mindfulness practice visualization has
been used for centuries to help prepare
the mind the body and the consciousness
for upcoming challenges situations and
circumstances some of the world’s
greatest athletes use visualization as a
way to prepare for big games the big day
musicians for their new concerts and
tours and CEOs for their very important
meetings primary motive as a clinical
psychologist and educator is to help
individuals live more meaningful and
productive lives in harmony with their
families and their community that’s my
motive and the evidence for that I think
is well if people go online and first of
all you can watch the lectures and
decide for yourself but you can also go
there’s I suspect probably maybe 250,000
people have commented on the lectures
and their effects on them and so that’s
what people say I’m watching the
lectures yeah I’m trying to develop a
vision for my life I’m trying to become
more responsible and it’s really helping
and that’s and that’s what I hear all
the time when I do these public lectures
which aren’t political but when we gain
success we raise the bar we set our
ambitions higher I mean what is your end
game what do you want that’s all that’s
what I want I
I want to help as many individuals as
possible become more courageous more
truthful and more engaged in the pursuit
of individual familial and social
harmony I believe that the answers come
from within and we’re not asking the
right questions I feel we’re always
looking for the right answers not the
right questions and the biggest
companies that we respect today the
biggest organizations all came from
trying to answer a question hmm
it all came from trying to solve a
problem or a question that we were able
to identify so the my work comes from a
very simple study that I read that said
the most successful people in the world
choose education over entertainment and
the most unsuccessful people in the
world choose entertainment over
education with their spare time so my
mission has been how do we spread wisdom
at the pace people want entertainment
and to me entertainment allows you to
populate the thought with your own brain
like when you watch a character or a
superhero you can watch it from your own
lens the movie may have morals in their
values and maybe to my good and evil but
the movies not deciding for you the
movie allows you a space to create and
imagine and grow so for me that’s what I
want my content to do is give people a
space to populate themselves see
themselves in the characters that I’m
presenting see their own situation and
be able to come to their own conclusion
doesn’t there’s a line in the Old
Testament the fear of God is the
beginning of wisdom and I think it’s
more like that it’s not that I’m
courageous it’s that I’m afraid of the
right things so when I made my videos it
wasn’t like that didn’t make me nervous
but I was less nervous about going back
to bed and not saying what I had to say
that I was about making the videos
because I know where this is going I
don’t want to go there and so it’s it’s
not so much courage it’s that it’s a
matter of I it’s it’s it’s less risky to
say something than to remain silent when
you know there’s something to be said I
know that to be the case and so lots of
times in life it’s like there’s no
pathway forward that’s going to shield
you from risk you get to pick this risk
or you get to pick this
risk and I think I picked the lesser
risk and that might be wise but I’m not
so sure it’s courageous finding some
space whether it’s ten minutes a day
five minutes a day just to stall the
gratitude I think that’s the beginning
of this journey so what do you mean by
that
right Journal I’m thankful that I’m
healthy today I’m thankful that I live
in a you know specific your gratitude is
the deeper it is so the more like it’s
like oh I’m thankful that I breathe
which is just everyone breeds yeah the
more specific we get about our
particular situation yeah like I’m just
happy that I was able to walk into work
today and have meaningful relationships
with the people I work with yeah or I’m
just happy today that I’m standing with
Ty
right that’s that’s a real specific
gratitude not that oh I’m in LA and it’s
sunny right she was your million people
are experiencing yeah a little bit very
very specific
oh this baboon here who’s supposed to be
basically just a fool when the story was
first written he turned into what’s
essentially a shaman across time and so
he represents the self from the Union
perspective now the self is everything
you could be across time she imagined
that there’s you and there’s the
potential inside you whatever that is
you know and potential is an interesting
idea because it’s represents something
that isn’t yet real yet we act like it’s
real because people will say to you you
should live up to your potential and
that potential is partly what you could
be if you interacted with the world in a
manner that would gain you the most
information right because you build
yourself out of the information in the
piagetian sense but it’s deeper than
that too because we know that if you
take yourself and you put yourself in a
new environment new genes turn on in
your nervous system they encode for new
proteins and so you’re full of
biological potential that won’t be
realized unless you move yourself around
in the world in two different
challenging circumstances and that will
turn on different circuits so it’s not
merely that you’re incorporating
information from the outside world in
the constructivist sense it’s that by
exposing yourself to different
environments you put different
physiological demands on on yourself all
the way down to the genetic level and
that manifests new elements of you and
so one of the things that happens to
people and this is a very common
cultural notion is that you should go on
a pilgrimage at some point to somewhere
central and that would be say like the
rock in the Pride Rock and the Lion King
because you take yourself out of your
dopey little village and that’s just a
little bounded you that everyone knows
and that isn’t very expanded and then
you go somewhere dark and dangerous to
the central place and while you do that
you have adventures and they toughen you
and pull more out of you like partly
because you’re becoming informed which
means in formation it means you’re
becoming more organized at every level
of analysis but there’s also more of you
to
as a beautiful voice in the barber
detail that says that the attachment
doesn’t mean that you own nothing
attachment means that nothing owns you
okay
and to me that’s that balance oh that’s
that balance it’s that you know that
like if you’re going over the millions
and billions but then that starts owning
you right we’ve seen that destroy people
right you’ve seen that destructive
people so it’s like the dominant energy
exists how do you think cuz it’s easy to
fool yourself and be like no no no no
I’m not dominated by money but like how
it was there a litmus test is there a
test you had in the back of your mind
that you could know that you are truly
detached I think there’s you know we
have both like what at one of my
favorite quotes which kind of
complicates the whole whole situation is
from Charles Cooley where he said that
today I’m not what I think I am I know
what you think I am I am what I think
you think I am right right and we’re
lost in that perception of a perception
of ourselves
yeah so if my billionaire mates you tell
me no man you’re all right like you’ve
got money you’re you’re good but you’ve
got to have that reflection but that’s
not gonna come if you’re just surrounded
in the echo chamber yeah and you talk
about these loads having mentors right
my thing is that when I come up with an
idea I want to know what the Dalai Lama
thinks as much as what the Mark
Zuckerberg thinks because for me that
all arity right is what allows me to not
get lost in the echo chamber you’re
overweight and you’re walking up the
flight of stairs and you think you’re
having the heart attack and you said
that was the moment where you said and I
remember you using your hands like I
knew if I could you didn’t grab a hold
but if I could leverage this pain that I
could make the same kind of change that
I had made in going through rehab what
what is that like the thinking process
or the the mecca nations that you go
through when you have a big change in
front of you now you’ve done it multiple
times is that goal setting is it
imagining the world that you’ll have if
you don’t do it like what is that
process for you that’s a great question
I think for me it’s really anchored in
awareness and presence you know on that
staircase I was able to really
understand that I was having an
important moment and
my life and the reason I was able to
recognize that was because I had that
moment so many years prior when I
decided to get sober it was a very
specific moment in time where I made a
decision and that decision set in motion
a series of events that changed my life
so completely that I couldn’t imagine my
life had I not made that decision and I
was able to see and understand and
recognize that once again I was being
visited by just such an opportunity it
was something that I could feel inside
of me and and I think it’s because I’d
learned to be present to be aware of
myself and my environment and one thing
I always talk about is the fact that you
know I’m not anything special with this
I think we’re all visited with moments
like this in our life that if we can
develop that the wherewithal to have the
awareness around the circumstances
surrounding whatever event it is that
you can leverage that crack you know in
the door to make some significant
changes struggle as human beings you
know you’re not after the bubbles of
bliss that Dostoevsky described in in
notes from underground
we’re built to contend with the world
we’re built to contend with reality you
want a challenge and the best way that
you can take on a challenge because the
challenge fortifies you so you don’t
want to be secure you want to be strong
and you get strong by taking on optimal
challenges and so you lay out your
destiny in the world and you take the
slings and arrows of fate and you make
yourself stronger while you’re doing so
and you might fail and fortune might do
you in but it’s your best bet and you
know people have also people that have
extracted unbelievable successes out of
catastrophic failures and so and I’m not
saying that in a naive way I know
perfectly well what happens to people
you know you’re doing fine in life and
then you get cancer and then six months
later you’re dead and all the heroism in
the world isn’t going to save you at
that point but that’s not the point
that’s not the point life is bounded by
mortality but that doesn’t mean that you
don’t get out there and contend and you
by contending and you minimize the net
amount of suffering in the world and
that’s something man that’s something to
do around you with the people you admire
you know they have certain qualities I
mean you’ve got you’ve got friends why
do you like them you know generally you
know that they generally they have an
upbeat attitude on life generally
they’re generous people they’re humorous
people there are people to do more than
their share there are people that are
thinking about something nice they can
do for you and all of those qualities
attract you and none of those are innate
at Birth I mean you you can acquire
those and then there’s other people to
turn you off you know and they have
habits they take credit for things they
didn’t do they don’t show up on time
whatever it may be they’re little
dishonest about things and if you’re
looking at your life at a young age like
you are and you can choose what kind of
a person you can be why not be the
person you admire rather than the person
you can’t stand it so simple so just
write down the qualities you like to
take you to take your five best friends
why do you like them and just write down
those qualities and you will find
there’s no quality there that you can’t
have yourself and similarly with the
five people you can’t stand to be around
put those put those things down to turn
you off about those people and if they
turn you off about them why should you
possess them you go there it’s so simple
you know it’s it’s not it’s it’s not
like it’s not like some something
complicated you think you should be
learning educated as investing in the
stock market it its enormous ly
important to have people work with you
in life they’re gonna work with you in
life if they like you you know and they
may occasionally I mean if you’re in the
army or something you know you may work
for somebody that you don’t like but
by-and-large you’re gonna get the best
out of people if they feel good about
you and it’s just so easy but you’ve got
to develop the habits early because you
can’t say I’m gonna suddenly become a
terribly attractive person when I’m 60
it just doesn’t work that way so pick up
the right habits now and I will
guarantee you if you actually just write
down those qualities and think about it
you will find you can have every one of
the attractive qualities get rid of the
ones that are
r- and your life will be different
we’ll have an unspecified potential for
development educationally obviously with
regards to the skills they have but also
in relationship to their character and
it’s it’s much it’s much more
encouraging for people I think to
concentrate on who they could be rather
than who they are especially when
they’re young because they still have
most of their life ahead of them and and
they’re not everything they could be yet
and so to tell people even something
like well you should feel good about
yourself the way you are is like well
that there’s something there that’s
seriously lacking because there’s so
much more that you could be that you
need to be and that you should be aiming
at the thing you’re the problem with
being okay the way you are is that you
don’t have a goal then and people need
to have a goal in order to to come to
terms with their life how you define
success personally well I can certainly
define happiness because that’s what
that’s what I am I mean I I and if that
I mean I get to do what I like to do
every single day of the year I get to do
it with people I like I get that I get
to I don’t have to associate with
anybody causes my stomach to churn and
the only thing I might get a job I don’t
like and this only happens about every
three or four years occasionally I have
to fire somebody and I don’t like that’s
the only thing other than I tap dance to
work and I get down there and I think
I’m supposed to lie on my back and paint
the ceiling you know or something I mean
yeah that’s where I feel and I’ve been
and it doesn’t diminish its it’s
tremendous fun so you know if they say
that success is getting what you want
and happiness is wanting what you get
well I don’t know which one applies in
this case but I I do know that I
wouldn’t be doing anything else
something that I do advise you you know
and when you got to work go to go to
work for an organization that you admire
people you admire because it’ll it’ll
it’ll turn you on and and and you ought
to be happy where you are working and I
always worry about people who say you
know I’m gonna do this for ten years I
really don’t like it very well I’ll be
ten more years of this and resume I mean
that’s a little exciting up sex for your
not a very good idea so get right it
recommend that get right into what you
and you’ll be successful at it really
well I mean you won’t be able to miss
and you know that’s I don’t regard what
I do is the most important thing in the
world at all but it’s right for me I
mean I happen to be wired in a certain
way that what I do works in this if I
had to do what you know bill does I mean
last about 10 minutes and let’s troupe a
lot of things but I luckily I kind of
stumbled into the thing that I I do best
and and that you know that it’s worked
out boom so I was living in London and
attending law school I was becoming
disillusioned with the law I happen to
be dating a girl who was in advertising
she said you might like advertising and
boom I have a career in marketing like I
fell into it
so many of us fall into our careers and
fall into our jobs and even if we do
pursue something we want to do
sometimes it takes diversions right this
is this is what I mean by living our
lives by accident which is we largely
leave the direction of our careers and
sometimes even our own happiness to
others our bosses you know all of that
thing so what it means to live your life
on purpose means you understand the
direction you’re heading but you remain
agnostic as to the route
most people try very very hard to plan
the route in other words what’s your
plan people say well first I’m going to
work here for three years then I’m gonna
quit and I’m gonna do this and then for
four years and I got the route planned
and the question is where are you going
right and that to me is what it means to
have purpose it means have destination
right it’s like waking up in the morning
and saying I’m going on holiday so
missus where you going said I’m going on
vacation I told you you’re like where
are you going
vacation right and so how are you gonna
get there like well I’m taking route 95
so you’ve got the route planned but you
have no destination and you see this in
companies all the time you know why does
your company exist growth great why are
you growing why do you need to grow what
does growth mean because we’re company
we have to grow and so they figure out
all of these paths for growth but they
don’t know where they’re going
I would rather someone wake up in the
morning and say California
trying to get to California and I don’t
care what route I take I’m gonna start
down route 95 and if I find a better
route I’m gonna take it if there’s
traffic on route 95
I’m gonna take a a side road so this is
what happened in my career people kept
telling me that I was unfocused because
I kept taking side roads I wasn’t
unfocused I was going around obstacles
so that’s what it means to live a life
of purpose it means I live every single
day of my life trying to get to an end
point in my case to create a world in
which the vast majority of people wake
up every single morning inspired to go
to work feel safe when they’re there and
return home at the end of the day
fulfilled by the work that they do that
is the destination I’m trying to reach I
don’t know how I’m gonna get there but
I’m gonna try every path I can to get
there highly highly focused that’s what
it means to live a life on purpose
we’re often given this advice like do
what you love yeah like what am I
supposed to do it yes like let’s find
your passion like thank you
like great what like I don’t know what
to do tomorrow for me passion is the
result of something right so if you work
hard for something you don’t believe in
that’s called stress and if you work for
so hard for something you do believe in
that’s called passion so it’s finding
the belief it’s finding the cause it’s
finding the purpose and the passion then
shows up so it’s not about doing
something with passion and then finding
the cause it’s finding the cause
starting with Y and then the passion is
what is what results do well move in the
direction of the people that you
associate with so I it’s important to
associate with people that are better
than yourself and actually the most
important decision many of you may not
all of you will be the spouse you’re
choosing and you really you want to
associate with people who are the kind
of person you’d like to be you’ll move
in that direction and the most important
person by far in that respect is your
spouse I can’t overemphasize how
important that is your right the friends
you have they will form you as you go
through life and make some good friends
keep them for the rest of your life but
have them be people that you admire as
well as Wykeham
my life changed a couple years ago when
I discovered something called the
progress principle it is a principle
that was written about in the Harvard
Business Review it’s based on a
tremendous amount of research done by a
professor over there and what she
determined is that people that feel
happy and successful and fulfilled by
their lives and work they all have one
thing in common they feel as though
they’re making progress on something
that matters so I read this little bit
of research and I started applying it to
my life and what I do as stupid as it
sounds it really works I don’t focus on
balancing everything I focus on just
making sure that I make progress on one
thing a day that’s right you heard me
one thing a day that matters to me now
if I can make progress on one thing a
day that matters to me then I can let go
and let the rest of my day get hijacked
by kids by spouse by phone calls by
emails by social media by all kinds of
things that come up and tend to hijack
your day when you’re a busy person when
you have a family when you’re married
when you got a lot going on and so by
focusing on one thing a day I feel the
sense of control in the sense of
progress that science tells us will make
you happy and make you feel more
confident and actually make you more
effective at getting things done it also
frees me up to be more present with my
kids I should mention one thing about
reading it was at the library here at
Columbia I wish I spent probably more
time than any other soon I lived there
practically but and I pulled the book
out there happen to be who’s in America
and it told me something about my
professor Benjamin Graham
then I looked up and I went to the
library and I said I want to look more
learn more about this because I learned
this over here that changed my whole
life
you know we owned I go now because of
that library and directing me to some
other book and then following through on
that it’s the chance I I read about
one-fifth the pace
the bill does but I still spend five or
six hours a day reading I made it just
you can learn so much I particularly
love biography just you know to be able
to live the lives of these people live
bends extorted seem so extraordinary the
lessons and those you know the
discouragements they face just
everything about it so I did you can’t
get enough of reading how did you stay
true to the vision when it it just I
mean you’re literally getting picked
apart down to not being able to pay for
your marriage I worked my ass off and
exploited every opportunity that
presented itself I did a ton of speaking
gigs for free I did anything that was
asked of me anyone who would want to
talk to me but it was really just a
function of showing up working my ass
off saying yes and having a strong core
belief a lot of mistakes mistake not the
biggest necessarily the biggest but but
buying berkshire hathaway itself was a
mistake because berkshire was a lousy
textile business and I brought it very
cheap I’ve been taught by Ben Graham to
buy things on a quantitative basis look
around for things that are cheap and
that I was taught that we’ll say in 1949
or say they made a big impression on me
so I went around looking for what I call
you cigar butts of stocks and the cigar
butt approach to buying stocks is that
you walk down the street and you’re
looking around for cigar butts and you
find this I’m gonna see this terrible
looking soggy ugly looking cigar the one
puffs left in it
but you pick it up and you get your one
puff disgusting is thrown away but it’s
I mean it’s cheap and then you look
around for another soggy you know one
puff cigarette
well that’s what I did for years it’s a
mistake oh you make money doing it but
you can’t make it with big money so much
easier just to buy wonderful businesses
so now I was written by a wonderful
business at a fair price that a fair
business at a wonderful price but in
those days I was buying cheap stocks and
Berkshire was selling below its working
capital for sure he had the plants for
nothing yet the machinery for nothing
you got the inventory and receivables of
the discount was cheap so I bought it
and 20 years later I was still running a
lousy business and that money did not
compound you really want to be in a
wonderful business because there the
time is the friend of the wonderful
business you keep compounding it keeps
doing more business and you keep making
more money tiya is the enemy of the
lousy business I could have sold
Berkshire perhaps liquidated it and made
a quick little profit you know one puff
but staying with those kind of
businesses is a big mistake so you might
say I learned something out of that
mistake and I would have been way better
off taking what I did with Berkshire as
I kept buying but better businesses I
started insurance business See’s candy
the Buffalo all kinds thing I would have
been way better doing that with a with a
brand new little entity that I’d set up
rather than using Berkshire the platform
now I’ve had a lot of fun out of it I
mean everything in life seems to turn
out for the better so I don’t have any
complaints about that but it was a dumb
thing to do I went in the US air I
bought a preferred stock in 1989 as soon
as my check cleared the company went
into the red never got out I mean it was
a really dumb I mean I got an 800 number
I called out whenever I think about
buying an airline stock I call them up
any hour that fortunately I can call
them at 3:00 in the morning and I just
dialed and I said my name is Warren I’m
an arrow halt
and I’m not thinking about behind this
thing and then they talked me down I
mean
takes hours sometimes but it’s worth it
think about that airline buying an
airline stock call me and I’ll give you
the 800 number because a
but we got lucky in terms of how we
eventually came out on but it was a dumb
dumb decision the next 90 days your
first 90 minutes at work make it focused
on your single most important project
I’ll repeat that again for the next 90
days the first 90 minutes of your work
day focus Mono maniacally on your single
most valuable project I call it your
game changing move so it might be it
might be creating a new piece of code
that will revolutionize the marketplace
it might be a new product that when you
launch it will fill a need within your
industry
that no peer is currently providing I
don’t know what your game changing move
is but this is your poetry this is your
magnum opus for the next 90 days so what
most people do is you know people who
are playing at victimhood people who are
in the ninety five percent people who
are making excuses about ordinary
results in their life a lot of them are
not doing the things that would give
them legendary results and what they do
is they get to the office and rather
than using prime time for a activities
they use their best hours watching
dancing cats on whatever it is whatever
the video platform is they spend their
best hours surfing the internet looking
at blogs they spend their best hours
playing with notifications reading
notifications chatting with friends who
are not really their friends but really
they’re just bored so they were
distracting themselves which is just a
form of medication because potential
unexpressed turns to pain and they’re in
a lot of pain and it’s subconscious and
they haven’t done the work to know it so
really they’ve created these drugs of
choice like too much email too much web
surfing too much chit chatting too much
looking at funny-looking videos that
make them laugh in the moment that make
them feel happy and give them a short
burst of dopamine and maybe a little bit
of
serotonin which is the pleasure
neurotransmitter and that’s how they get
through their day and all I’m saying is
there is so much distraction available
to you out there that if you are not
acutely careful it will dominate your
days and what I’m really trying to say
is this a ritual for you to run and dial
in and hardwire to the point of
automaticity
that’s the word the researchers use when
a habit becomes your new normal over 66
days is the 1991 rule and to give it to
you again so you really remember it for
the next 90 days your first 90 minutes
create a tight bubble of total focus so
that no one can distract you turn off
your devices put them in a little
plastic bag put some reminders on your
door maybe some post-it notes that this
is my tight bubble of total focus for
the next 90 minutes tell your team tell
your loved ones maybe get it put a Do
Not Disturb sign on your door they’ll
laugh and explain it to them that for
the next 90 days I will spend 90 minutes
away from distraction away from
technology away from interruptions
focusing on my magnum opus focusing on
the genius project that I want to bring
into the world because I will never mail
it in I will always bring it on and I’m
gonna do this for the next 90 minutes
I’m gonna optimize it and iterate it
every day and I’m gonna bring my full
bandwidth because what makes a genius
they all have one trait in common they
were able to spend extended periods of
time in isolation focused mono
maniacally on their most valuable
project failure is part of life I mean
the difference for me though is I like a
failure as a stepping stone to success
it’s a speed bump I know I’m gonna fail
but it’s not failure if you learn
something and so gosh I’ve made so many
mistakes I’ve screwed so many things up
but every time I do it just becomes it
becomes a way for me to explain to someone else what it takes
to might know something you don’t this
is a chapter about conversation and
about the different forms conversation
takes and so chapter about humility and
it’s a chapter about listening and
humility element is it took me a long
time to understand why there’s religious
injunctions supporting humility but to
even understand what the word really
meant and that sort of technical sense
and it means something like this it
means what you don’t know is more
important than what you know and that’s
a lovely thing too then then what you
don’t know can start to be your friend
you see people are very defensive about
what they know and for the reasons we’ve
already discussed but the thing is you
don’t know enough and the Riu can tell
you don’t know enough because your life
is not what it could be and neither is
the life of the people around you you
just don’t know enough and so what that
means is that every time you encounter
some evidence that you’re ignorant
someone points it out you should be
happy about that because you think oh
you just told me how I’m wrong it’s like
great like maybe I had to sift through a
lot of nonsense to get through the real
message that you’re telling me but if
you could actually tell me some way that
I’m wrong and then maybe give me a hint
about how to not be wrong like that
well then I wouldn’t have to be wrong
like that anymore that that would be a
good thing and you can you can you can
embark on that adventure by listening to
people and if you listen to people they
will tell you they’ll tell you amazing
things if you listen to them and many of
those things are little tools that you
can put in your toolkit like Batman and
then you can go out into the world and
use those tools and you don’t have to
fall blindly into a pit quite as often
and so the humility element is well do
you want to be right or do you want to
be learning and it’s deeper than that
it’s do you want to be that the
tyrannical king who’s already got
everything figured out or do you want to
be the continually transforming hero or
fool for that matter who’s getting
better all the time and that’s actually
a choice you know it’s a deep choice and
it’s better to be the self transforming
fool who’s humble enough to make friends
with what he or she doesn’t know and to
listen when people talk and listening is
a transformative exercise like
if you listen to the people in your life
for example if you actually listen to
them they’ll tell you what’s wrong with
them and how to fix it and what they
want they can’t even help it if you
start listening because people are so
shocked if you actually listen to them
that they tell you also those sorts of
things that they might not have even
intended to things they don’t even know
and then you can you can work with that
[Music]
and I want to make this clear don’t just
listen don’t just listen do um I’m not
just talking so you know I’m not just
talking I’m doing and I don’t want you
to just listen to put this information
to work make today count every day go
forward get aggressive and attack
whether it’s on the battlefield or on
the beach or in the factory or on the
farm or on the construction site or on
the website in the garage or in the
firehouse
don’t hesitate step step forward
and get after it as beautiful things I
learned was that serving other people
was without a doubt the most meaningful
experience of humanity and there’s this
great study by Michael Norton from the
Cambridge University where he talks
about how money can buy happiness if you
spend it on other people hmm
and he’s done this incredible study in
all regions all across the world where
he talks about how actually if people
are given five twenty or even a hundred
dollars when you spend it on yourself
your happiness doesn’t go up or doesn’t
go down but when you spend it on other
people
your happiness is the opportunity to
grow by at least 10 to 20 percent so
fulfillment grows when we use our money
time energy in the service of others and
when I was working at internships I felt
like I was serving myself and I wasn’t
getting an opportunity to impact someone
else’s life we’ve all been in that and
I’m sure you have been in that position
where you’ve just made a difference in a
young person’s life we have made a
difference in someone who doesn’t have
much and you see the joy on their face
and that’s what I was getting to
every message that we see every
billboard we see every advertisement
that we’re exposed to is telling us that
happiness can be can be purchased
through comfort through luxury through
ease and that’s sort of implicit in that
is that that’s how we find happiness and
I can tell you that I’m happiest and
most alive when I’m butting up against
the outer edges of my pain threshold and
I’m not afraid of it and so when I start
to feel that sensation rather than shirk
away from it I realize that’s an
opportunity to experience a heightened
sense of myself in my environment to to
really be in a position where everything
else falls away and it’s just you and
your ability to take one step forward
there’s a purity to that that again is
another great teacher and so in terms of
techniques I’ve just learned through
experience that just like David Goggin
says when the signals that you’re
receiving are telling you to stop
that you don’t necessarily have to pay
attention to that that that you are
capable of so much more if you can
develop the acuity the presence of mind
and the wherewithal to then take that
next step and when you’re on the other
side of it to realize you’re still okay
and you can take another step and a
whole your horizon extends and you
realize that there’s a whole world of
potential and possibility available to
you that you weren’t previously aware of
whether it was Steve Jobs about to give
one of his famous keynotes the most
underrated skill was this visualization
the recreation of images sounds and
environments before it has happened is
one of the most powerful skills in the
world a very powerful meditation and
mindfulness practice visualization has
been used for centuries to help prepare
the mind the body and the consciousness
for upcoming challenges situations and
circumstances some of the world’s
greatest athletes use visualization as a
way to prepare for big games the big day
musicians for their new concerts and
tours and CEOs for their very important
meetings primary motive as a clinical
psychologist and educator is to help
individuals live more meaningful and
productive lives in harmony with their
families and their community that’s my
motive and the evidence for that I think
is well if people go online and first of
all you can watch the lectures and
decide for yourself but you can also go
there’s I suspect probably maybe 250,000
people have commented on the lectures
and their effects on them and so that’s
what people say I’m watching the
lectures yeah I’m trying to develop a
vision for my life I’m trying to become
more responsible and it’s really helping
and that’s and that’s what I hear all
the time when I do these public lectures
which aren’t political but when we gain
success we raise the bar we set our
ambitions higher I mean what is your end
game what do you want that’s all that’s
what I want I
I want to help as many individuals as
possible become more courageous more
truthful and more engaged in the pursuit
of individual familial and social
harmony I believe that the answers come
from within and we’re not asking the
right questions I feel we’re always
looking for the right answers not the
right questions and the biggest
companies that we respect today the
biggest organizations all came from
trying to answer a question hmm
it all came from trying to solve a
problem or a question that we were able
to identify so the my work comes from a
very simple study that I read that said
the most successful people in the world
choose education over entertainment and
the most unsuccessful people in the
world choose entertainment over
education with their spare time so my
mission has been how do we spread wisdom
at the pace people want entertainment
and to me entertainment allows you to
populate the thought with your own brain
like when you watch a character or a
superhero you can watch it from your own
lens the movie may have morals in their
values and maybe to my good and evil but
the movies not deciding for you the
movie allows you a space to create and
imagine and grow so for me that’s what I
want my content to do is give people a
space to populate themselves see
themselves in the characters that I’m
presenting see their own situation and
be able to come to their own conclusion
doesn’t there’s a line in the Old
Testament the fear of God is the
beginning of wisdom and I think it’s
more like that it’s not that I’m
courageous it’s that I’m afraid of the
right things so when I made my videos it
wasn’t like that didn’t make me nervous
but I was less nervous about going back
to bed and not saying what I had to say
that I was about making the videos
because I know where this is going I
don’t want to go there and so it’s it’s
not so much courage it’s that it’s a
matter of I it’s it’s it’s less risky to
say something than to remain silent when
you know there’s something to be said I
know that to be the case and so lots of
times in life it’s like there’s no
pathway forward that’s going to shield
you from risk you get to pick this risk
or you get to pick this
risk and I think I picked the lesser
risk and that might be wise but I’m not
so sure it’s courageous finding some
space whether it’s ten minutes a day
five minutes a day just to stall the
gratitude I think that’s the beginning
of this journey so what do you mean by
that
right Journal I’m thankful that I’m
healthy today I’m thankful that I live
in a you know specific your gratitude is
the deeper it is so the more like it’s
like oh I’m thankful that I breathe
which is just everyone breeds yeah the
more specific we get about our
particular situation yeah like I’m just
happy that I was able to walk into work
today and have meaningful relationships
with the people I work with yeah or I’m
just happy today that I’m standing with
Ty
right that’s that’s a real specific
gratitude not that oh I’m in LA and it’s
sunny right she was your million people
are experiencing yeah a little bit very
very specific
oh this baboon here who’s supposed to be
basically just a fool when the story was
first written he turned into what’s
essentially a shaman across time and so
he represents the self from the Union
perspective now the self is everything
you could be across time she imagined
that there’s you and there’s the
potential inside you whatever that is
you know and potential is an interesting
idea because it’s represents something
that isn’t yet real yet we act like it’s
real because people will say to you you
should live up to your potential and
that potential is partly what you could
be if you interacted with the world in a
manner that would gain you the most
information right because you build
yourself out of the information in the
piagetian sense but it’s deeper than
that too because we know that if you
take yourself and you put yourself in a
new environment new genes turn on in
your nervous system they encode for new
proteins and so you’re full of
biological potential that won’t be
realized unless you move yourself around
in the world in two different
challenging circumstances and that will
turn on different circuits so it’s not
merely that you’re incorporating
information from the outside world in
the constructivist sense it’s that by
exposing yourself to different
environments you put different
physiological demands on on yourself all
the way down to the genetic level and
that manifests new elements of you and
so one of the things that happens to
people and this is a very common
cultural notion is that you should go on
a pilgrimage at some point to somewhere
central and that would be say like the
rock in the Pride Rock and the Lion King
because you take yourself out of your
dopey little village and that’s just a
little bounded you that everyone knows
and that isn’t very expanded and then
you go somewhere dark and dangerous to
the central place and while you do that
you have adventures and they toughen you
and pull more out of you like partly
because you’re becoming informed which
means in formation it means you’re
becoming more organized at every level
of analysis but there’s also more of you
to
as a beautiful voice in the barber
detail that says that the attachment
doesn’t mean that you own nothing
attachment means that nothing owns you
okay
and to me that’s that balance oh that’s
that balance it’s that you know that
like if you’re going over the millions
and billions but then that starts owning
you right we’ve seen that destroy people
right you’ve seen that destructive
people so it’s like the dominant energy
exists how do you think cuz it’s easy to
fool yourself and be like no no no no
I’m not dominated by money but like how
it was there a litmus test is there a
test you had in the back of your mind
that you could know that you are truly
detached I think there’s you know we
have both like what at one of my
favorite quotes which kind of
complicates the whole whole situation is
from Charles Cooley where he said that
today I’m not what I think I am I know
what you think I am I am what I think
you think I am right right and we’re
lost in that perception of a perception
of ourselves
yeah so if my billionaire mates you tell
me no man you’re all right like you’ve
got money you’re you’re good but you’ve
got to have that reflection but that’s
not gonna come if you’re just surrounded
in the echo chamber yeah and you talk
about these loads having mentors right
my thing is that when I come up with an
idea I want to know what the Dalai Lama
thinks as much as what the Mark
Zuckerberg thinks because for me that
all arity right is what allows me to not
get lost in the echo chamber you’re
overweight and you’re walking up the
flight of stairs and you think you’re
having the heart attack and you said
that was the moment where you said and I
remember you using your hands like I
knew if I could you didn’t grab a hold
but if I could leverage this pain that I
could make the same kind of change that
I had made in going through rehab what
what is that like the thinking process
or the the mecca nations that you go
through when you have a big change in
front of you now you’ve done it multiple
times is that goal setting is it
imagining the world that you’ll have if
you don’t do it like what is that
process for you that’s a great question
I think for me it’s really anchored in
awareness and presence you know on that
staircase I was able to really
understand that I was having an
important moment and
my life and the reason I was able to
recognize that was because I had that
moment so many years prior when I
decided to get sober it was a very
specific moment in time where I made a
decision and that decision set in motion
a series of events that changed my life
so completely that I couldn’t imagine my
life had I not made that decision and I
was able to see and understand and
recognize that once again I was being
visited by just such an opportunity it
was something that I could feel inside
of me and and I think it’s because I’d
learned to be present to be aware of
myself and my environment and one thing
I always talk about is the fact that you
know I’m not anything special with this
I think we’re all visited with moments
like this in our life that if we can
develop that the wherewithal to have the
awareness around the circumstances
surrounding whatever event it is that
you can leverage that crack you know in
the door to make some significant
changes struggle as human beings you
know you’re not after the bubbles of
bliss that Dostoevsky described in in
notes from underground
we’re built to contend with the world
we’re built to contend with reality you
want a challenge and the best way that
you can take on a challenge because the
challenge fortifies you so you don’t
want to be secure you want to be strong
and you get strong by taking on optimal
challenges and so you lay out your
destiny in the world and you take the
slings and arrows of fate and you make
yourself stronger while you’re doing so
and you might fail and fortune might do
you in but it’s your best bet and you
know people have also people that have
extracted unbelievable successes out of
catastrophic failures and so and I’m not
saying that in a naive way I know
perfectly well what happens to people
you know you’re doing fine in life and
then you get cancer and then six months
later you’re dead and all the heroism in
the world isn’t going to save you at
that point but that’s not the point
that’s not the point life is bounded by
mortality but that doesn’t mean that you
don’t get out there and contend and you
by contending and you minimize the net
amount of suffering in the world and
that’s something man that’s something to
do around you with the people you admire
you know they have certain qualities I
mean you’ve got you’ve got friends why
do you like them you know generally you
know that they generally they have an
upbeat attitude on life generally
they’re generous people they’re humorous
people there are people to do more than
their share there are people that are
thinking about something nice they can
do for you and all of those qualities
attract you and none of those are innate
at Birth I mean you you can acquire
those and then there’s other people to
turn you off you know and they have
habits they take credit for things they
didn’t do they don’t show up on time
whatever it may be they’re little
dishonest about things and if you’re
looking at your life at a young age like
you are and you can choose what kind of
a person you can be why not be the
person you admire rather than the person
you can’t stand it so simple so just
write down the qualities you like to
take you to take your five best friends
why do you like them and just write down
those qualities and you will find
there’s no quality there that you can’t
have yourself and similarly with the
five people you can’t stand to be around
put those put those things down to turn
you off about those people and if they
turn you off about them why should you
possess them you go there it’s so simple
you know it’s it’s not it’s it’s not
like it’s not like some something
complicated you think you should be
learning educated as investing in the
stock market it its enormous ly
important to have people work with you
in life they’re gonna work with you in
life if they like you you know and they
may occasionally I mean if you’re in the
army or something you know you may work
for somebody that you don’t like but
by-and-large you’re gonna get the best
out of people if they feel good about
you and it’s just so easy but you’ve got
to develop the habits early because you
can’t say I’m gonna suddenly become a
terribly attractive person when I’m 60
it just doesn’t work that way so pick up
the right habits now and I will
guarantee you if you actually just write
down those qualities and think about it
you will find you can have every one of
the attractive qualities get rid of the
ones that are
r- and your life will be different
we’ll have an unspecified potential for
development educationally obviously with
regards to the skills they have but also
in relationship to their character and
it’s it’s much it’s much more
encouraging for people I think to
concentrate on who they could be rather
than who they are especially when
they’re young because they still have
most of their life ahead of them and and
they’re not everything they could be yet
and so to tell people even something
like well you should feel good about
yourself the way you are is like well
that there’s something there that’s
seriously lacking because there’s so
much more that you could be that you
need to be and that you should be aiming
at the thing you’re the problem with
being okay the way you are is that you
don’t have a goal then and people need
to have a goal in order to to come to
terms with their life how you define
success personally well I can certainly
define happiness because that’s what
that’s what I am I mean I I and if that
I mean I get to do what I like to do
every single day of the year I get to do
it with people I like I get that I get
to I don’t have to associate with
anybody causes my stomach to churn and
the only thing I might get a job I don’t
like and this only happens about every
three or four years occasionally I have
to fire somebody and I don’t like that’s
the only thing other than I tap dance to
work and I get down there and I think
I’m supposed to lie on my back and paint
the ceiling you know or something I mean
yeah that’s where I feel and I’ve been
and it doesn’t diminish its it’s
tremendous fun so you know if they say
that success is getting what you want
and happiness is wanting what you get
well I don’t know which one applies in
this case but I I do know that I
wouldn’t be doing anything else
something that I do advise you you know
and when you got to work go to go to
work for an organization that you admire
people you admire because it’ll it’ll
it’ll turn you on and and and you ought
to be happy where you are working and I
always worry about people who say you
know I’m gonna do this for ten years I
really don’t like it very well I’ll be
ten more years of this and resume I mean
that’s a little exciting up sex for your
not a very good idea so get right it
recommend that get right into what you
and you’ll be successful at it really
well I mean you won’t be able to miss
and you know that’s I don’t regard what
I do is the most important thing in the
world at all but it’s right for me I
mean I happen to be wired in a certain
way that what I do works in this if I
had to do what you know bill does I mean
last about 10 minutes and let’s troupe a
lot of things but I luckily I kind of
stumbled into the thing that I I do best
and and that you know that it’s worked
out boom so I was living in London and
attending law school I was becoming
disillusioned with the law I happen to
be dating a girl who was in advertising
she said you might like advertising and
boom I have a career in marketing like I
fell into it
so many of us fall into our careers and
fall into our jobs and even if we do
pursue something we want to do
sometimes it takes diversions right this
is this is what I mean by living our
lives by accident which is we largely
leave the direction of our careers and
sometimes even our own happiness to
others our bosses you know all of that
thing so what it means to live your life
on purpose means you understand the
direction you’re heading but you remain
agnostic as to the route
most people try very very hard to plan
the route in other words what’s your
plan people say well first I’m going to
work here for three years then I’m gonna
quit and I’m gonna do this and then for
four years and I got the route planned
and the question is where are you going
right and that to me is what it means to
have purpose it means have destination
right it’s like waking up in the morning
and saying I’m going on holiday so
missus where you going said I’m going on
vacation I told you you’re like where
are you going
vacation right and so how are you gonna
get there like well I’m taking route 95
so you’ve got the route planned but you
have no destination and you see this in
companies all the time you know why does
your company exist growth great why are
you growing why do you need to grow what
does growth mean because we’re company
we have to grow and so they figure out
all of these paths for growth but they
don’t know where they’re going
I would rather someone wake up in the
morning and say California
trying to get to California and I don’t
care what route I take I’m gonna start
down route 95 and if I find a better
route I’m gonna take it if there’s
traffic on route 95
I’m gonna take a a side road so this is
what happened in my career people kept
telling me that I was unfocused because
I kept taking side roads I wasn’t
unfocused I was going around obstacles
so that’s what it means to live a life
of purpose it means I live every single
day of my life trying to get to an end
point in my case to create a world in
which the vast majority of people wake
up every single morning inspired to go
to work feel safe when they’re there and
return home at the end of the day
fulfilled by the work that they do that
is the destination I’m trying to reach I
don’t know how I’m gonna get there but
I’m gonna try every path I can to get
there highly highly focused that’s what
it means to live a life on purpose
we’re often given this advice like do
what you love yeah like what am I
supposed to do it yes like let’s find
your passion like thank you
like great what like I don’t know what
to do tomorrow for me passion is the
result of something right so if you work
hard for something you don’t believe in
that’s called stress and if you work for
so hard for something you do believe in
that’s called passion so it’s finding
the belief it’s finding the cause it’s
finding the purpose and the passion then
shows up so it’s not about doing
something with passion and then finding
the cause it’s finding the cause
starting with Y and then the passion is
what is what results do well move in the
direction of the people that you
associate with so I it’s important to
associate with people that are better
than yourself and actually the most
important decision many of you may not
all of you will be the spouse you’re
choosing and you really you want to
associate with people who are the kind
of person you’d like to be you’ll move
in that direction and the most important
person by far in that respect is your
spouse I can’t overemphasize how
important that is your right the friends
you have they will form you as you go
through life and make some good friends
keep them for the rest of your life but
have them be people that you admire as
well as Wykeham
my life changed a couple years ago when
I discovered something called the
progress principle it is a principle
that was written about in the Harvard
Business Review it’s based on a
tremendous amount of research done by a
professor over there and what she
determined is that people that feel
happy and successful and fulfilled by
their lives and work they all have one
thing in common they feel as though
they’re making progress on something
that matters so I read this little bit
of research and I started applying it to
my life and what I do as stupid as it
sounds it really works I don’t focus on
balancing everything I focus on just
making sure that I make progress on one
thing a day that’s right you heard me
one thing a day that matters to me now
if I can make progress on one thing a
day that matters to me then I can let go
and let the rest of my day get hijacked
by kids by spouse by phone calls by
emails by social media by all kinds of
things that come up and tend to hijack
your day when you’re a busy person when
you have a family when you’re married
when you got a lot going on and so by
focusing on one thing a day I feel the
sense of control in the sense of
progress that science tells us will make
you happy and make you feel more
confident and actually make you more
effective at getting things done it also
frees me up to be more present with my
kids I should mention one thing about
reading it was at the library here at
Columbia I wish I spent probably more
time than any other soon I lived there
practically but and I pulled the book
out there happen to be who’s in America
and it told me something about my
professor Benjamin Graham
then I looked up and I went to the
library and I said I want to look more
learn more about this because I learned
this over here that changed my whole
life
you know we owned I go now because of
that library and directing me to some
other book and then following through on
that it’s the chance I I read about
one-fifth the pace
the bill does but I still spend five or
six hours a day reading I made it just
you can learn so much I particularly
love biography just you know to be able
to live the lives of these people live
bends extorted seem so extraordinary the
lessons and those you know the
discouragements they face just
everything about it so I did you can’t
get enough of reading how did you stay
true to the vision when it it just I
mean you’re literally getting picked
apart down to not being able to pay for
your marriage I worked my ass off and
exploited every opportunity that
presented itself I did a ton of speaking
gigs for free I did anything that was
asked of me anyone who would want to
talk to me but it was really just a
function of showing up working my ass
off saying yes and having a strong core
belief a lot of mistakes mistake not the
biggest necessarily the biggest but but
buying berkshire hathaway itself was a
mistake because berkshire was a lousy
textile business and I brought it very
cheap I’ve been taught by Ben Graham to
buy things on a quantitative basis look
around for things that are cheap and
that I was taught that we’ll say in 1949
or say they made a big impression on me
so I went around looking for what I call
you cigar butts of stocks and the cigar
butt approach to buying stocks is that
you walk down the street and you’re
looking around for cigar butts and you
find this I’m gonna see this terrible
looking soggy ugly looking cigar the one
puffs left in it
but you pick it up and you get your one
puff disgusting is thrown away but it’s
I mean it’s cheap and then you look
around for another soggy you know one
puff cigarette
well that’s what I did for years it’s a
mistake oh you make money doing it but
you can’t make it with big money so much
easier just to buy wonderful businesses
so now I was written by a wonderful
business at a fair price that a fair
business at a wonderful price but in
those days I was buying cheap stocks and
Berkshire was selling below its working
capital for sure he had the plants for
nothing yet the machinery for nothing
you got the inventory and receivables of
the discount was cheap so I bought it
and 20 years later I was still running a
lousy business and that money did not
compound you really want to be in a
wonderful business because there the
time is the friend of the wonderful
business you keep compounding it keeps
doing more business and you keep making
more money tiya is the enemy of the
lousy business I could have sold
Berkshire perhaps liquidated it and made
a quick little profit you know one puff
but staying with those kind of
businesses is a big mistake so you might
say I learned something out of that
mistake and I would have been way better
off taking what I did with Berkshire as
I kept buying but better businesses I
started insurance business See’s candy
the Buffalo all kinds thing I would have
been way better doing that with a with a
brand new little entity that I’d set up
rather than using Berkshire the platform
now I’ve had a lot of fun out of it I
mean everything in life seems to turn
out for the better so I don’t have any
complaints about that but it was a dumb
thing to do I went in the US air I
bought a preferred stock in 1989 as soon
as my check cleared the company went
into the red never got out I mean it was
a really dumb I mean I got an 800 number
I called out whenever I think about
buying an airline stock I call them up
any hour that fortunately I can call
them at 3:00 in the morning and I just
dialed and I said my name is Warren I’m
an arrow halt
and I’m not thinking about behind this
thing and then they talked me down I
mean
takes hours sometimes but it’s worth it
think about that airline buying an
airline stock call me and I’ll give you
the 800 number because a
but we got lucky in terms of how we
eventually came out on but it was a dumb
dumb decision the next 90 days your
first 90 minutes at work make it focused
on your single most important project
I’ll repeat that again for the next 90
days the first 90 minutes of your work
day focus Mono maniacally on your single
most valuable project I call it your
game changing move so it might be it
might be creating a new piece of code
that will revolutionize the marketplace
it might be a new product that when you
launch it will fill a need within your
industry
that no peer is currently providing I
don’t know what your game changing move
is but this is your poetry this is your
magnum opus for the next 90 days so what
most people do is you know people who
are playing at victimhood people who are
in the ninety five percent people who
are making excuses about ordinary
results in their life a lot of them are
not doing the things that would give
them legendary results and what they do
is they get to the office and rather
than using prime time for a activities
they use their best hours watching
dancing cats on whatever it is whatever
the video platform is they spend their
best hours surfing the internet looking
at blogs they spend their best hours
playing with notifications reading
notifications chatting with friends who
are not really their friends but really
they’re just bored so they were
distracting themselves which is just a
form of medication because potential
unexpressed turns to pain and they’re in
a lot of pain and it’s subconscious and
they haven’t done the work to know it so
really they’ve created these drugs of
choice like too much email too much web
surfing too much chit chatting too much
looking at funny-looking videos that
make them laugh in the moment that make
them feel happy and give them a short
burst of dopamine and maybe a little bit
of
serotonin which is the pleasure
neurotransmitter and that’s how they get
through their day and all I’m saying is
there is so much distraction available
to you out there that if you are not
acutely careful it will dominate your
days and what I’m really trying to say
is this a ritual for you to run and dial
in and hardwire to the point of
automaticity
that’s the word the researchers use when
a habit becomes your new normal over 66
days is the 1991 rule and to give it to
you again so you really remember it for
the next 90 days your first 90 minutes
create a tight bubble of total focus so
that no one can distract you turn off
your devices put them in a little
plastic bag put some reminders on your
door maybe some post-it notes that this
is my tight bubble of total focus for
the next 90 minutes tell your team tell
your loved ones maybe get it put a Do
Not Disturb sign on your door they’ll
laugh and explain it to them that for
the next 90 days I will spend 90 minutes
away from distraction away from
technology away from interruptions
focusing on my magnum opus focusing on
the genius project that I want to bring
into the world because I will never mail
it in I will always bring it on and I’m
gonna do this for the next 90 minutes
I’m gonna optimize it and iterate it
every day and I’m gonna bring my full
bandwidth because what makes a genius
they all have one trait in common they
were able to spend extended periods of
time in isolation focused mono
maniacally on their most valuable
project failure is part of life I mean
the difference for me though is I like a
failure as a stepping stone to success
it’s a speed bump I know I’m gonna fail
but it’s not failure if you learn
something and so gosh I’ve made so many
mistakes I’ve screwed so many things up
but every time I do it just becomes it
becomes a way for me to explain to someone else what it takes
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