Kind: captions
Language: en
so here's the bad news i am not a born
entrepreneur and that is very important
for you to know about me i
had a what i'll call a slave's mentality
i kept my head down i did as little work
as possible and i avoided punishment at
all costs
that's where my life began thank you for
laughing at my pain
[Music]
in fairness i have been to mars so
there's that
uh you weren't supposed to mention it
though so but thank you guys so much for
having me
um i want to know how many born
entrepreneurs do we have in the crowd
don't be shy about it how many born
entrepreneurs do we have let's hear you
all right there we go so here's the bad
news i am not a born entrepreneur and
that is very important for you to know
about me i had a what i'll call a slaves
mentality i kept my head down i did as
little work as possible and i avoided
punishment at all costs
that's where my life began it's thank
you for laughing at my pain
it really was um brutal growing up for
me i felt entirely lost i felt entirely
out of control i had visions of what i
wanted my life to become but i had
absolutely no idea how i was ever going
to get there and understanding that and
really believing that that's where i
started the rest of my journey becomes
that much more interesting to you
because i have some fundamental beliefs
i believe that we're all trapped in the
matrix
and the matrix are the limiting beliefs
that you've pulled over your own eyes
they're all a bunch of lies
and so it's really learning how to get
yourself out of that to get rid of the
limiting beliefs so that you can execute
against your dreams but it starts with
belief and humans lead with belief
growing up i knew two things about
myself i grew up in a morbidly obese
household that teetered between blue
collar and white collar and i knew in my
future two things would be true
one day i would have six pack abs and
one day i would be rich i had absolutely
no idea how i was going to make those
come true
but i knew that they were going to be
two of the things that i was going to
make come true in my life now it's
important to understand that quest
nutrition is a company that rose from
the ashes of misery
each and every one of you at some point
in your life you are going to hit rock
bottom
the question isn't will you hit rock
bottom the question is what are you
going to do with yourself when it
happens
and for me
i was teaching film and i met these two
buff rich guys and i thought oh my god
six pack abs in wealth
i've got to follow these guys it's
literally like i was meant to meet them
and they said tom you're coming to the
world with your hand out
and if you want to control your art if
you want to control your life you've got
to get rich
so hey come on we're starting this
technology company we need a copywriter
you'd be perfect for the job
so i went and i did it and i said but
don't think of yourself as a copywriter
understand this is a startup you can
have any job in this company that you
want you just have to become the right
person for the job
so i took them seriously
and i started working my ass off to get
better
to focus on the things that i needed to
do in order to get good to grow and be
able to execute
and i got so good
that by the time we sold that company i
was the chief marketing officer and
they'd given me 10 of the company just
based on performance so imagine giving
somebody something that amounts to
millions of dollars just based on how
hard they've worked
that was the kind of blood sweat and
tears that i put into it but when i came
into it we all thought it was going to
take us about 18 months to sell the
company
eight and a half years later
in the depths of despair
i realized something had to change
and i went to my partners and i quit
and i said guys here's your equity back
i don't believe i should get anything i
don't plan to cross the finish line
i'm gonna go do something that makes me
feel alive
and let me tell you right now i said
that from the position of being in a
place where i had ownership in a company
worth millions of dollars
i was making more money than i'd ever
made in my life
i was standing in a beautiful conference
room overlooking the pacific ocean
in the house of a company that we had
built that was winning awards
and i was so fundamentally unhappy that
i finally had the first of what would
become a string of very profound and
important realizations and that is the
game you think you're playing is money
but i promise the game you're actually
playing is brain chemistry
if i gave you four billion dollars
tomorrow but inside you felt suicidal
and you felt worthless
what would be the point of the money
conversely if i gave you three dollars
but you felt fulfilled and like you were
contributing not only to yourself to
your family to other people you felt
alive inside what you're doing meant
something to you and you felt that you
had significance
what does the money matter
ever read the poem richard corey
i read this poem and i was like nine
years old and it left a lasting
impression on me and it was about the
best looking richest guy in town
the guys wanted to be him and the girls
wanted to be with him and the poem ends
with richard corey going home and
putting a bullet in his head
that's the human condition how many
people have you met in your life you
think they're spectacular they're
amazing
and yet they're so fundamentally unhappy
that they're in the grips of depression
we're living through a mental pandemic
right now
it is almost ubiquitous to know somebody
who has depression and or anxiety
and the reason is people don't
understand the game they're playing the
game you're playing is a game of
brain chemistry
it's chemicals that flow through your
brain it's a mindset once you understand
that then you can begin to structure
your life in a way that actually makes
sense
this is a long ass quote but i'm going
to read it all to you because these
once you understand this
you will understand everything you need
to know about life
to those humans
who are of any concern to me i wish
suffering
desolation sickness ill treatment and
dignities i wish that they should not
remain unfamiliar with the profound
self-contempt the torture of
self-mistrust the wretchedness of the
vanquished i have no pity for them
because i wish them the one thing that
can prove today
whether one is worth anything or not
that
one endures
that's life
that's the human condition
most people think that charles darwin
said that it's the survival of the
fittest
darwin never said that it said years
after his death what he did say and burn
this into your nervous system
what darwin said was
it's not the strongest of the species
that survives nor the most intelligent
but rather
the most adaptive to change
the reason human beings are the apex
predator is because what we are good at
is change what we are good at is taking
a stressor a stimulus and changing our
body look at the people around you look
at homie over there jack to the nines
tommy shredded
they were not born like this
okay i grew up in a morbidly obese
family i'm not supposed to be lean
we adapt because we force ourselves
through something that is painful and we
endure
what was tommy talking about the
takeaway from angela duckworth's book
that really stuck with him many people
start but few endure
it's not interesting whether or not you
guys have a dream i don't care if you
have a dream i am so uninterested in
empty dreamers i can't see straight what
i care about do you have the fortitude
to fail and what do you learn from that
failure do you get back up do you keep
going do you force yourself to recognize
that this is a question of adaptation
you simply have not done to yourself
what you need to do
in order to be good enough to succeed
and it really is that simple once you
accept
that the thing that separates you from
the rest of the animal kingdom
is an unimaginable ability to become
you have an
unimaginable ability to become something
in 2014 private companies averaged eight
percent annual growth
after i went into my partners and i said
i quit
and i'm gonna go do something that makes
me feel alive they were totally shocked
and i got all the way to my house
and i was on the phone with my wife i
did it
i had been unhappy for so long
and i said i did it i told him i quit i
gave back the equity here i am and i'm
pulling into the driveway at my house
and my phone rings
and it's my partners
they say come out to dinner with us
out of respect and love i went out to
dinner with them
and they said the now famous words we
could do this without you
but we don't want to
and that gave me what i needed to
connect to something other than money
it reminded me of the brotherhood it
reminded me that i had fallen in love
with these guys as human beings that
there was something more than money
there was something more than being a
clever marketer
that i remembered for a second who i am
the things that make me unique
that i have a desire to connect that i
actually enjoy communities that i'm not
a guy with a killer instinct i'm not
interested in stepping on my cons my
competitor's necks that's just not how
i'm wired
i'm wired to build something i'm wired
to see people shine i love seeing other
people win i think it's incredible now
that doesn't mean that i don't want to
win i want to win at the absolute
highest level i want to be the greatest
of all time
i want more people to write about me
going to mars because they're terrified
to try to match my intros
i want that right and i hope each and
every one of you wants to play at that
level i hope each and every one of you
looks at the greatest of all time and
says if i'm willing to break myself and
have to get there i could do it
but being honest with who you are being
honest that if there's something else
that you want to bring to the table that
you find a way to do that and so i said
guys i will come back and work with you
on one condition
i will never
prioritize money again
my highest value in business is
camaraderie
and at the time that was sacrilege we
had made a pact with each there was
three of us the three of us had made an
actual pact that we would do whatever it
took to make our technology company more
profitable and if that meant skipping a
family vacation if that meant waking up
at 2am on a saturday to meet and
brainstorm we did it
both of those stories are real we did
things like that i would go away with my
wife for christmas to see her family in
london and i would literally take a
camera with me so i could watch
the company
back in la
i've never switched off i didn't take
days off i was working no matter where i
was i was working seven days a week i
didn't take a real vacation meaning that
i wasn't actually working while we were
on it for six and a half years
hello my friend you know that i believe
success requires you to see failure as
the ultimate learning tool success
requires you to be disciplined and
gritty and to never ever quit on your
dreams i say all of that because one
thing is certain the road to achieving
your goal is not smooth or linear i wish
it was but it's not it's going to be
bumpy sometimes scary some days you'll
take two steps forward and slide 10
steps back and that's why success also
requires you to know how to pull
yourself out of a rut and get unstuck
fast life is short you can't be messing
around with your goals you've got to
make progress every single day so i've
pulled a class from impact theory
university called how to get unstuck
which you can watch for free with the
link on your screen or by clicking below
when you join me for that free preview
of that workshop from impact through
university i'm going to teach you my
strategy for how to
understand exactly where you need to be
going how to identify the obstacle
that's blocking you and the best way to
make the most progress towards that goal
and keep your momentum right click that
link and let's get to work all right
i'll see you on the inside
so if i'm going to go back to that this
is going to be in service of something
that i can believe in this is going to
be something that makes me feel alive
this is going to be something that i'm
passionate about it's going to be
something that i actually feel like i'm
contributing to the world that i would
be willing to do all of that with a
smile on my face and i said the only
question i will ever ask again in the
context of business is this
what would i do
and love
every day
even if i was failing
if you guys can get on board with that
if we can build something from a
position of wanting to bring value and
not worrying about the money then we can
work together
and so they said that they felt the same
way
and we started this crazy protein bar
company called quest nutrition everyone
told us that we were out of our minds i
was talking to ben earlier about imagine
you're a 15 year old who wants to play
in the nba and all you hear all day long
is kid you're never going to make it
and to have the fortitude as a teenager
to push through that and believe in
yourself it's what i call the arrogance
of belief i was so on fire with the
notion that now i was gonna do something
that i believed in now i can think about
my mom and my sister every day my mom
and my sister both morbidly obese i knew
they were gonna die too soon if i didn't
do something about it i believed it was
my problem to solve i believe there was
nothing i couldn't do if i set my mind
to it
and armed with that armed with the
passion to know that i'm showing up
every day fighting for my mom and my
sister i'm not thinking about money i'm
not going to make decisions based on
profitability i'm going to make
decisions based on what is metabolically
real what is the actual answer to the
question of how do you end metabolic
disease
and i play a game called no [ __ ]
what would it take
no [ __ ] what would it take to end
metabolic disease
and the answer is you have to make food
that people choose based on taste and it
happens to be good for them
that's the only way it's going to happen
on a global scale
and so that's what we set out to do but
when you're armed with the notion of i
want to end metabolic disease not i want
to get rich not i want to sell my
company
i want to end metabolic disease and you
let that be your driver now you know
what your why is
and we'll get to that more in a minute
by putting that mindset at the forefront
from 2010 to 2013 alone quest grew by 57
comparative companies were growing by
eight
we grew by 57 000. i'm telling you right
now
saving the world doing the right thing
thinking about your customer wanting
them to win wanting them to shine
wanting great things for your employees
it's big [ __ ] business
[Applause]
at quest we made more in a single day
than our previous company made annually
all by putting the customer first
all by saying we're only going to do
what's actually metabolically
advantageous
because how does it serve me to make a
product that doesn't when my mission
in my opinion was to save my mom
and i would ask myself of every decision
tough decision that we had to make which
decision actually helped save my mom
and then we would make that decision
we hit number two on the inc 500 list we
were officially a unicorn company we
were a startup that bootstrapped believe
it or not and made it all the way to a
valuation of over a billion dollars
all right if you guys want to have
success in your life and i don't care
what it is that you're trying to do
there's going to be two things you need
to do we're going to talk about the
first one now which is develop your
mindset we'll get to the second one
later which is build your business but
we'll get to that for now let's just
talk about your mind the most important
thing
is your mind make no mistake about that
right now the only thing that is holding
you back i promise you and whatever
excuse you're telling yourself it's
[ __ ]
the only thing that's holding you back
is the way that you think about yourself
and the world
that's it
flat you have not
built the mechanisms in your mind that
you need to free yourself from the
matrix and boys and girls the matrix has
you
who knows david foster wallace
you all have an assignment to do and by
the way if you don't do this
don't think for one second you actually
want to be successful stop [ __ ]
fooling yourself and go do something
easier
because this video is like 18 minutes
long it's one of the most profound
things you'll ever watch
david foster wallace this is water
in the talk what he makes clear is the
fish is the last one to realize that
it's in water think about it from a
human perspective we had to discover air
we had to discover gravity they're so
ubiquitous you literally don't see them
you take them for granted as just being
there
and that's how people take their belief
system
right now you think you're capable of
certain things and incapable of others
and that is your water
and until you can identify it until you
can see that you're telling yourself
lies and they are disempowering lies by
the way because i am not some grand fan
of the truth
i'm a grand fan of doing and believing
that which moves you towards your goals
do and believe
that which moves you towards your goals
that's it once you put that belief at
the core of your being you will be
amazed at what you're able to accomplish
when i say take the red pill what i'm
talking about is waking up to the way
the world really is
the amount of potential that you have
i always say is nearly
unlimited
but i only say that so i don't have to
get into stupid arguments with people
about throwing absolutely ridiculous
things out just to try to defeat the
notion
and that's somebody who wants me to be
wrong but ask yourselves right now if my
message is you can do anything you set
your mind to without limitation
don't you hope i'm right
and even if i'm wrong how much farther
will you go simply because you were
willing to believe
humans lead with belief
you won't take the first step down any
path unless you believe you can actually
get where you're going and this is where
people get stuck in the matrix
you don't push yourself hard enough you
don't make big enough demands you think
small you dream small you make small
demands of yourself if you want to see
what big demands look like look at david
goggins anybody know david goggins
for those of you who don't let me tell
you a quick story david goggins is a
navy seal he wanted to honor fallen
seals to do that he wanted to pick the
hardest thing that he could think of it
was a 135 mile race
the person who put on the race said you
can't enter my race unless you've run
100 miles in a 24 hour period have you
the answer was no he said there's one
four days from now if you can complete
four days you weigh 250 pounds in four
days if you can complete a hundred mile
race literally running around a high
school track think about how torturous
that would be
if you can complete
a hundred miles
in 24 hours then you get to run my race
and raise the funds for your charity
so david decides he's going to run that
race
he wasn't prepared he was overweight
by mile 70 he had broken both of his
feet
he had shin splints his calf muscles
were beginning to tear off the bone
he sat into a chair because he literally
had nothing left to give
he urinated on himself blood
because he couldn't move he couldn't get
up to go to the restroom so he defecated
on himself
and as he's sitting there in the chair
peeing blood
in total agony with
feces
on his back
the only question he had was what do i
need to do to finish the remaining 30
miles
and so he taped his feet so that they
would go numb and he would stop feeling
the pain of the broken feet he ate
something so that he would have the
needed energy to keep going
and he got up and he started walking
and he walked for i don't remember how
many miles and his wife said at this
pace
you're not going to finish
and so he ran
the remaining 19 miles
broken feet
stress fractures in his shins
blood
excrement
and he finished on time
that's what a human being is capable of
we limit ourselves and it's only us
there's nobody else that's doing it to
you you've chosen to adopt those beliefs
and once you push yourself outside of
that comfort zone what becomes possible
is absolutely miraculous
now i choose to believe that my
potential is limitless and because of
that i've gone from scrounging in my
couch cushions to find enough change to
put gas in my car that is a true story
to building a billion dollar business
all right how do you do it if this is
about building your mindset
how
to me it's about mind the gap there is a
gap between who you are now and who you
need to become and that gap is a gap of
skill set plain and simple remember
you're an adaptation machine your job is
to place yourself under stress
and then force yourself to grow
so back to mr yokt
you don't get those muscles
by looking at the weights
you get those muscles by going under the
weight and not stopping when it hurts
you stop when you can no longer recruit
the muscles enough to move the weight
that's when you're done
and when you're able to do that
what you're actually doing is tearing
down the muscle fiber
and a lot of people when they begin
working out they don't realize that's
actually the name of the game the name
of the game is to break the muscle down
and then the body
comes and builds it back up
the conscious part is tearing it down
your job is to put yourself in stressful
situations your job is to push yourself
to the limit of what you think you're
capable of and then go past that and
when you're able to push yourself past
that when you're able to get into the
goggins reps as i call it
when you're able to exist in that zone
long past where it started hurting long
past when it got boring long past when
you were terrified that you'd never be
able to do it that's when you'll begin
to adapt because you're telling your
body adapt or die
that's how you're going to get where you
want to go
now i love the movie the matrix as was
made very clear in the intro
the real question is what is your kung
fu
you've got to figure that out
right this is a path to execution we're
talking about right now path one is
about the mindset
so what is your kung fu my kung fu is
business
i knew that i was gonna have to learn
business in order to control the
resources in order to control my art
and this is how you're going to develop
your kung fu
one always be reading
the most important mathematical formula
you will ever encounter is right there i
i equals io
it stands for ideas in equal ideas out
if you want to solve a problem in your
business that's become particularly
tricky you need to be taking in a ton of
data so that your unique mind your
unique world view
your unique life having grown up the way
that you grew up the way that your brain
is wired all of it you will come up with
ideas that nobody else is going to come
up with
but you first have to be getting that
stimulus
now i doubt i have to over preach that
one to a bunch of people that have come
to a conference like this
these are literally the kinds of ideas
you want to be encountering two open
yourself up to being changed i can't
tell you how many times i've recommended
people my list of books which by the way
you can find on impacttheory.com tom's
reading list it is the 25 books any
human being that wants to excel should
read in order
and before every book
say a little prayer and the prayer goes
like this
i am open to being changed fundamentally
and for the better by this book
i am open to being changed fundamentally
and for the better
from this book
you've got to go into the book wanting
it to be right you've got to go into the
book hoping that it gives you some piece
of knowledge remember everyone everyone
is your superior in some way
and once you learn to check your ego sit
at their feet with absolute humility
and be open to their ideas especially
the one that contradicts
what you believe today then you'll get
somewhere
and i've got some really amazing news
for you guys
your current skill set
has already taken you as far as it's
going to take you
if you don't put yourself on a path to
learn and very aggressively
where you are now is where you'll be in
five years
the key is crossing that chasm of skill
set
all right realize
what you believe is a choice
this is something that's really hard for
people because they think some things
are objectively true and other things
are not
and that's simply a lie and that's why
the matrix is the perfect metaphor think
about this for a second
your brain
is locked in total darkness it never
sees light
your
brain is locked in total silence it
never hears sounds
what your brain does is take stimulus
the agitation of the air and it
transmits it into chemical electrical
signals it does the same with photons
falling on your eye
but ultimately this thing that you're
experiencing the distance that you feel
for me it's all happening in your mind
there's actually two dime sized blank
spots in your field of vision where the
optic nerve connects to the eye and yet
you don't experience it
it's right in the center
so why don't you experience it because
your brain is insanely good at guessing
what should be there and filling it in
that's when i realized my brain is lying
to me
now it may have all the best intentions
in the world
but make no mistake your brain is making
[ __ ] up
and it's making up a lot of [ __ ]
and so you've got to choose what to
believe
who here has a negative voice in their
head that tells them to be careful be
safe you probably can't do it this is
all going to go wrong
now do you believe that voice to be
objectively true
okay so that voice is lying to you as
well now it has great intentions trying
to make sure you don't get eaten by a
lion in the bush
that doesn't happen a lot in modern
society so maybe a little less useful in
today's day and age and then the really
protective one is trying to make sure
you don't get ostracized by the group
which in years past would have meant
certain death but now
you don't need the group you can survive
just fine there's a grocery store around
every corner you can get shelter of some
kind
it may be lonely as hell but the chances
of you dying from being ostracized are
virtually zero
so you've got outdated software outdated
algorithms running in your mind
your job is to develop what i call an
overwatch mechanism
the overwatch is the emotionally sober
part of you
that distrusts
every
signal and impulse that your brain gives
you
and once you can get over that in fact
there's a great quote from da vinci the
greatest form of control is control over
oneself
so the reason i love star wars is
because it's all about mind control
but not mind control over other people
don't worry about that
mind control over yourself
being able to tell yourself these are
not the droids you're looking for
that's when this gets really powerful
all right so belief is a choice we're
gonna talk about that more be an eternal
student we've talked about that and last
one become anti-fragile
all right we're gonna go really deep on
anti-fragile so i won't belabor the
point and develop grit
all right how do you become anti-fragile
this is probably one of the most
important things you guys need to learn
becoming anti-fragile was literally the
thing that changed my life
and i remember the day that it happened
i had just started working for my two
partners
they were very smart clearly much
smarter than i
and i had built my self-esteem around
being smart and being right and now all
of a sudden i found myself these two
incredible minds that could process data
more rapidly than i can so i'm not going
to place a value judgment i'm not going
to get into an argument about how
valuable iq is i will just say that a
high iq in my opinion means you're
processing raw data faster than somebody
else so you can run through the list of
possible scenarios for instance that
could be very helpful going into any
negotiation you've just thought through
all the possible permutations
so they made me feel badly about myself
so as you can imagine i didn't always
want to be around them and the times
that i was around them i wanted to find
some way to be right
and so we were arguing about something a
way to do something in the business and
i had an idea and then they threw out
another idea i recognized immediately
that their idea was better and yet i
kept arguing for mine
ever come across somebody who does that
i promise what's happening in that
moment is they're feeling insecure
you've triggered their insecurities and
now they're going to fight for it
because it's theirs
because if they can at least win that
argument while they may not feel smart
they may get reflected back to them that
they were smarter than you in that
moment they could convince you of
something so i had this moment of crisis
because i actually convinced them and i
convinced them that my way was right
even though there was a voice in my head
screaming it's wrong dumbass you know
it's wrong what are you doing it was
insane i was literally heading in this
collision and i couldn't stop myself so
at the end of it i asked myself what do
i really want
because i tell people i want to get rich
but my actions say i want to feel good
about myself
and i had a moment of crisis
because i realized i need to feel good
about myself
everybody needs self-esteem
in fact what suicide is is when somebody
no longer believes they'll ever feel
good about themselves ever again
and if that were true it's not but if
that were true suicide is actually a
reasonable option
why would you want to go on living if
every day
you're miserable and there really is no
way out of that
so i knew i couldn't give up my
self-esteem i couldn't accept some weird
role where i just was always the dumb
ass sitting in the corner
right so in that moment i realized if
i'm actually going to move towards my
goals i've got to pick something to
build my self-esteem around that's
anti-fragile
now this is a term that comes from
naseem tele in his book by the same name
and in the book he points out something
that is resilient something that is
strong something that endures they are
all defined ultimately by their breaking
point they still break
they can just take a lot more abuse
before they break
antifragile on the other hand is
something that the more you attack it
the stronger it becomes
so think of it this way if i pride
myself on being smart and you tell me
i'm dumb and you put up a pretty good
case for it that's going to damage my
self-esteem
my self-esteem in that situation is very
fragile
if on the other hand
you tell me that i'm dumb and i build my
self-esteem around being the learner
now i'm going to say thank you please
tell me in what way that i'm dumb
because you will open my eyes to
something that now i can address and i
can go learn about that thing and i will
have a new skill and i can go out and
push and execute against that skill
that's anti-fragile the more you try to
tell me i'm dumb the more areas that you
point out that i'm weak the more things
you tell me i need to learn about my
eyes are open to something that if true
i'm gonna go down that path and i'm
gonna learn how to do that
and that is absolutely critical
all right
identifying as smart as a deadly trap as
is the notion of being right
one of the most powerful things that you
could do
is become the person that admits that
you're wrong
really fast and it's crazy how much
credibility you'll earn with people
simply by admitting i was wrong like 30
seconds ago i was fighting so hard for
something i was really fighting for my
position and then somebody says
something and i realize
that's actually better
imagine that
you're you're in the meeting you're
going die hard because you believe it
you should stand up for what you believe
and you should fight for it but when you
find somebody that when they act because
they actually listen and they hear holy
[ __ ] like that's actually a better idea
and they say it in real time
and not just say it but like oh my god
that's a great idea i'm totally amped
i'm on that now i'm going to be the
energy for that idea
it was crazy when i started doing that
people would actually come to me with
their great ideas because they knew if
it was right i would get so enthusiastic
about it i would give them all the
credit cause i did not pride myself on
owning the idea i prided myself on
recognizing the idea
and so people would keep coming to me
with these great ideas because they
wanted me to be the energy and so even
though all i would do is try and point
out whose idea it really was in like
every breath that i mentioned the idea
talking about the person who actually
came up with it i would get credit for
it because i was the one actually moving
it forward
because at the end of the day only
execution matters
you can build an amazing reputation for
yourself and one of the best ways that
this plays out is that time
when you hold steadfast and you refuse
to bend
people know you're not doing it just to
argue for your own idea because you've
shown a thousand times as soon as
somebody gives you a compelling idea
that you think is better you'll move on
it
and that there's no ego in it
what is up my friends i have huge news
for you about one of the most exciting
and important projects i've ever worked
on in my life as you guys know it is my
mission to help teach people about how
to build a mindset and the skills that
they're going to need to live an
extraordinary life and over the last few
months i've been working hard behind the
scenes to create a brand new tool that
will help you do exactly that it's
called project kaizen and i'm proud to
announce that i'll be bringing it to the
world later this year project kaizen is
a web 3 based game like experience that
is a story based world that's going to
allow you to get inside build an avatar
that is aspirational of who you want to
become and then take the path of the
warrior seeking continuous improvement
inside of a story world and game
experience all right my friend i cannot
tell you how excited i am about this
amazing new project which i think ushers
in a whole new form of entertainment and
i want to meet you inside of project
kaizen and help you have fun with these
ideas of always getting better right
click the link and join me in discord
and until then my friends be legendary
take care
all right how do you develop grit
if grit is as important as we say it is
sustained interest over time that's
really what grit is
and a lot of people talk about in fact
the title of my speech is supposed to be
about how you develop a passion which we
will talk about in a little bit but this
is going to be one of those things
when you have passion one of the things
that comes out of that is you've got the
ability to sustain your interest over
time do the hard things
do the hard things
i can't emphasize that one enough
put yourself in uncomfortable situations
just to find the mental tactics that
you're going to need
to deal with the hard things
it's getting those tactics who knows the
stanford marshmallow test
all right for those of you that don't
this is one of the most breathtaking
examples of the human condition in the
stanford marshmallow test they bring in
i don't know they're five or six years
old they bring them in and the person in
the white lab coat says here's a
marshmallow i'm gonna go out of the room
for a minute i'll be back in just a few
minutes if you wait till i come back
i'll give you a second marshmallow so
essentially double your money
not bad
now what the kid doesn't know is the
researchers never coming back and all
they want to know is how long will you
wait before you eat the marshmallow some
kids have literally gobbled it up before
they even get to the door
other kids are like singing to
themselves putting their head down
getting up dancing around the room some
of them bite like the underside and try
to put it back so you can't see
and here's what's scary
they followed those kids for 25 years
and based solely on
the length of time they were able to
wait before they ate the marshmallow
predicted their level of success in
school
predicted their level of success in the
job market the people who waited the
longest got into the best schools got
the best grades went on to have the
highest paying jobs
just your ability to delay gratification
your ability to find tactics that work
to get your mind off something
there's no greater control than control
over one's self
anybody here ever done a three day water
only fast
not intermittent fasting
three days
do it
you will learn something about yourself
and it will be profound and what you're
going to learn
is that your body
is
manipulative
and i did a three-day fast just a couple
weeks ago
and i had the flu right before so there
were cough drops laying around
and every time i walked by those [ __ ]
cough drops
my brain was like eat one
i was like [ __ ] like
you know i'm fasting
and i literally couldn't believe like
how consistently every time i walk by
those damn cough drops that my body like
gave me this really intense impulse
and that's when i realized
like the notion that there are multiple
voices in your head by the way is very
very real and i will give you one quick
example who knows what the corpus
callosum is
all right the corpus callosum is a thick
bit of tissue that connects the left and
right hemisphere of your brain if you
sever that you will get people that have
literal multiple personalities one in
the right one on the left some of the
most intriguing stuff is one of them
will be devoutly religious and the other
will be devoutly atheist
in the same brain and you can talk to
them differently
it's absolutely crazy
but the multiple voices notion is real
there are multiple
factions if you will pieces that your
brain is broken up into and by the way
you have the equivalent of a cat's brain
in neurons just in your digestive tract
so the whole notion of gut instinct
think of all the cool [ __ ] cats can do
and you've got that
in your digestive tract neurons
it's literally the same material that
your brain is made out of is in your
digestive tract utterly fascinating so
we have all these competing things that
we want
but inside if you think of that
overwatch
that one person that's you
that's meant to say i have goals
and i'm going to act in accordance with
my goals i'm never going to sell out
what i want most for what i want right
now i wanted a cough drop right now but
i wanted to get on the other side of a
three-day fast and say i did it
and i wanted that more
and in learning what your tools and
tactics are so for me i welcome hunger
like an old friend and i literally
people must think i'm schizophrenic
because you'll walk into the room and
i'll literally be like pinching and
poking at my fat going
hunger thank you i'm so glad you made it
back it is so good to see you i'm glad
you're here i know that you're oxidizing
my fat i'm very grateful for that so
thank you and in doing that i reframe it
not as something that is unwanted or
painful but is something that is doing
exactly what i want it to do
and learning those mental tactics that's
the game
learning those mental tactics that's the
game that's how you're going to get good
at whatever it is you want to do if you
want to start a business learning how to
deal with your employees is absolutely
critical but let me tell you right now
if you lash out emotionally your
employees will lose respect for you
but it's just like the cough drop moment
now if somebody had seen me walk by the
cough drop they wouldn't know that i had
it literally had to
stop myself from lunging at a cough drop
they didn't know that because i have
control of myself
i've practiced things like that i do
three-day fast i do what i call bright
lines
so i have a bright line
during the week
i don't eat my second meal before 11 30.
under any circumstance
my wife one time brought my food 30
minutes early i was preparing for an
episode it was so sweet of her
but i don't eat before 11 30 under any
circumstance so the food literally sat
on my lap
smelling so good
and i was so hungry
and i said hunger thank you so much
for showing up because you're giving me
the opportunity to prove to myself
what a badass i am
because i'm gonna smell how delicious
you are knowing my stomach is grumbling
and tying itself in knots because i want
to eat so badly
and i'm not going to
and in those moments you earn
credibility with yourself
i hate working out
absolutely despise it it's why i do it
first thing in the morning
and the reason i hate it the weights are
heavy
and your muscles start burning when you
get into the supposed good reps
so that just seems shitty and backwards
so it is not in any way shape or form
fun for me
but i earn credibility with myself
because it is something that i don't
like
i earn credibility with myself showing
up every day and it also reminds me how
much i can transform my body it's very
easy for me to show you my before and
after picture i used to be 60 pounds
heavier it's very easy for me to show
you when i was heavy and then show you
six pack abs you get it
but what you don't see is the body's
just a reflection of the mind
what really happened
was i changed my mind and i had garnered
skills i had garnered tactics the things
that allowed me to not eat the coffee
drop were the things that allowed me to
not eat the things that i wanted to not
have a bowl of ice cream to not indulge
in things that are
wonderfully delicious but instead ask
myself what are my goals and then back
in with my behaviors
all right
the thing about grit that i really want
to highlight is boredom
boredom is the thing that i think kills
most entrepreneurs
it's not lack of funding it's that 90 of
the things you're gonna do suck
they're tedious
i actually had to get in a fight with
the irs to get my ein number for my most
recent company
that [ __ ] was boring like i can't i was
flying into a rage because it was
wasting so much of my time i literally
had to get an advocacy group to help me
go through the process
that's how painful this was and i
literally i remember stopping and
telling my team this is where
entrepreneurs fail right here like it is
so tempting to just be like peace
everybody go home i'm not dealing with
this [ __ ] anymore i'm gonna go get a job
like that would be so much easier let
somebody else deal with this
it's the boredom that erodes people and
to get through the boredom you have to
know what it is that you want when you
know what you want
then you're gonna have the energy to get
through now to have that energy you're
gonna need passion the number one
question i get asked the number one
question i get out i get asked this
question multiple times a day every day
from all around the world i've had
people in australia uk germany
netherlands brazil
paraguay i mean literally everywhere
they all want to know
how do i find my passion
asking how you find your passion
makes the assumption that your passion
has been lost somewhere
your passion has not been lost your
passion has never been developed
passions are
created they're constructed they're
developed
and it starts with interest
you want to identify an area of interest
so if you've ever wondered like oh man
that person is so lucky like how do they
get lucky to find their passion so early
and now they get to do it and live like
this amazing life
and you're searching inside your mind
for that thing that's going to be like a
lightning rod that's hidden under like a
lampshade somewhere in your mind and
you're like there it is i finally found
it
but it doesn't work like that it starts
with these areas of interest and if it's
something that you're trying to turn
into something that you can monetize it
starts with
ideally overlapping areas of interest so
you've got multiple interests coalescing
and it coalesces with can money be made
here
but even that is not enough now once you
have that you've got to start going deep
into gaining mastery and it's in the
process of gaining mastery that you're
going to find out if that interest turns
into a love then turns into a passion
people who are passionate are willing to
fight through the boredom
think about a musician if you want to
become the greatest musician of all time
let me tell you how many hours literally
days weeks months years of your life
will be dedicated to playing a scale
all day
every day the fundamentals blocking and
tackling
and what makes people great and i know
ben will back me up on this one what
makes the greatest basketball players
they walk out onto the court at 4am and
they say i'm not leaving until i've made
shots from the perimeter
simple
period it is what it is they put in the
work now they're not doing it thinking
oh my god this is so much fun
they're thinking i want to win i want to
play at the highest level and i am
willing to break myself in half and this
is the thing that i cannot get
entrepreneurs to understand if you want
to be great i promise you as tommy said
you already have any what you need
which is the ultimate evolution approved
ability to adapt
so you can change to get great
you can change to become whatever you
need to and if you're leveraging an
earlier win
so much the better if it's something
that you have that little spark of early
talent and now you're just putting the
work on top of that fantastic but it is
the people that are willing to literally
break themselves in half to get the
result that they want
research michael jordan
the absolute symbol
of
being the greatest
his work ethic
is way more impressive than what he did
on the court
if you haven't read tim grover's book
relentless read it
and what he talks about
michael jordan has darkness in him
and if you've ever watched his induction
into the hall of fame speech
he just lays that [ __ ] out
michael jordan's a dark [ __ ]
but as star wars taught us
there's power on the dark side
and understanding how to leverage that
but what i want you guys to understand
is
intensity is required
putting in the work is required
doing more work than anybody else is
required for greatness
there are three things that you can do
work hard
work smart
and work long hours
most people get real weird when i say
they should work long hours
but tom if i'm working hard and smart
why should i work long hours
i'll tell you why because i'm also
working hard and smart and i'm working
long hours on top of it
so i will beat you every time
right because i'm willing to do all
three but why am i willing to do all
three because i believe in what i'm
doing i know why i'm doing it
it isn't about the money
it's about knowing where you're trying
to get to
and this is how you build your business
we live in a very very new world
that new world has been defined by
social media
for anybody that in the last
year
has spoken ill of social media
get rid of that
matrix style belief immediately
it is the greatest revolution in
business ever
it is the reason that you're going to be
able to build a business without
gatekeepers being able to tell you yes
or no
social media has completely democratized
access to consumers
think about that for a second back in
the day you had to pay for radio ads or
you had to be on tv
that was it those were your options and
it was so expensive and that's exactly
how the big companies wanted it because
they could keep you out so you may have
a superior product but the world's never
gonna know because they have a way to
ice you out
that is gone like really think about
that and i'm seeing some young faces in
the crowd you may not realize it didn't
used to exist
it didn't used to exist
you to get to a mass audience you had to
pay
hundreds of thousands millions of
dollars potentially to reach those
people and they made you buy in bulk
it's not like you could do one
commercial and see what happens they
made you buy in bulk they made you
commit to big dollars
now not anymore not only that when i was
growing up
commercials had to be high quality
now you can film [ __ ] with your iphone
be like what's up girl
and you can sell product doing it
michelle fan you guys know who that is
built a multi-hundred million dollar
empire by doing vlogging with her phone
on youtube
the world has changed and thank god it
really puts the power in your hands but
you have to understand
exactly what kind of company
it's making room for
in a hyper connected social world
everything is different
and the reason that quest grew as fast
as it did
besides us having yemeni you guys will
get to hear speak tomorrow
the reason that we grew as fast as we
did
was because we understood social media
before anybody else in 2009 when
everyone was saying that facebook is
just a distraction how's it ever going
to be good for business
and we were preparing to launch our
company
we realized that it was a megaphone and
it gave people the opportunity to
comment on your company within minutes
of an interaction with you to a global
audience and if we put value creation at
the center of our company then we had an
opportunity to get you to say something
powerful and so we said we'll never ask
you to say anything in particular if you
love it say you love it if you hate it
say you hate it but please just say
something and then our job is to make
sure we do the really hard work of
making sure that that product kicks ass
that it is actually delivering results
that for people that are trying to lose
fat that they're going to lose it
they're going to be excited that it's
delicious
but understanding that generation
millennials and generation z
they want
impact
they have an inherent distrust of
companies
so right now and let me tell you because
i've been through this
what's gonna happen first you start as
the undiscovered band
and the first people that find you they
love you like no other you can do no
wrong they'll follow you like in the van
on tour they'll stay at the same dirty
filthy motels that you stay at just to
support your product
then
you start getting big
and everybody's like yeah i discovered
them first i knew these guys before
anybody else
and then you get really big and you're a
[ __ ] sellout
and now i don't want to hear your music
that shit's played out i'm on to the
next looking for the small guy
because what you failed to take into
account
is they want to know what kind of impact
they're going to have by using your
product
sometimes that's the product itself
quest having the mission to end
metabolic disease really got people to
understand what we were about as human
beings
the fact that we were
investing millions of dollars of our own
money into cancer research because we
believe that it may be a metabolic
disease
that let people know who we are
who we are as people
me starting to do a show and stepping
out front and coming and giving talks
like this so people can look me in my
eye
and ask me questions
which by the way every time i do a talk
i will stay and answer questions until
there are no more questions to answer
i've done it for eight hours straight
before
so at the end of this talk even if they
kick us out we'll do it on the parking
lot whatever it takes i will answer
every single question that you have
that's the world that we live in when
you're a servant to your customer when
you understand that that's the level of
obligation that you have if you want to
build a real community
that's the new way of doing business and
i now get people that write to me every
day saying that i've changed their life
imagine
building a company and having people
write you from all over the world that
you change their life that their life is
fundamentally different and better
because of you and your products
it's an unreal time that we live in that
you can get that kind of feedback and
interaction
all right who knows simon sinek
oh yeah all right
simon sinek wrote a book called start
with why
this is one of the most important things
if you're looking to build a business i
promise you and this is it'll happen
tonight even though i'm going to say it
right now i know it's going to happen
tonight one of you is going to come to
me and you're going to start describing
your product you're going to ask me how
you should market it and all you're
going to describe to me are features and
benefits
and i'm going to say no no what's your
mission
and you're going to say we want to make
computers faster
that's not a mission that's a feature in
benefit what's your mission
we want to empower entrepreneurs with
faster cheaper computers so that even
low-income entrepreneurs can launch
companies okay helping low-income
entrepreneurs launch companies that's a
mission
the faster computer thing is a path and
understanding the difference between a
path and a mission is critical i'll give
you an example
the mission at quest
is to end metabolic disease
what if we found that food is totally
irrelevant to that
what would we do
well our mission wasn't to make protein
bars our mission was to end metabolic
disease so we would change
as we got deeper and deeper into cancer
it looked like
this
whole high protein thing may actually be
really dangerous in a cancer environment
you may have to go high fat
and so even though everybody considered
us the high protein low carb company we
started investing massively into high
fat
everybody thought it was crazy what's
going on what are you doing
but we were looking at the data
we were looking at what just metabolic
truth was showing us
so don't ever be married to a path
but be deeply convicted about your
mission
and choose your mission carefully it
needs to be real it needs to be
something that sits at the heart of who
you are
there's an awesome quote often
attributed to mother teresa no one will
act for the many
but people will act for the one
i showed up every day thinking about my
mom and my sister they were very real to
me there are people that i know that i
love that i see frequently that i will
be mortified to my core
if they were to die
so it was very personal it was very easy
to fight and push because when you know
why you're doing what you're doing when
you have your mission and you are
hell-bent to make that come true when
things get boring when things get tiring
you're still going to do it
and when you have that thing
you're able to take advantage of one of
the king makers
transparency
there are two new king makers we're
going to talk about both of them the
first one is transparency social media
allows you not only to reach people but
it allows you to reach them in a super
transparent way where you can tell them
who you are what you're about what your
mission is and let them see your company
from multiple angles and see if you
actually hold to what you say you're
about
and don't get me wrong in some ways it's
actually harder to build a business now
because there's no corporate veil
right if you've got a billion dollars to
start a company you were way better off
before was so much easier oh you could
just hide things and lie and tell people
what they want to hear and put out
marketing messages anybody the cigarette
industry i mean it's
unbelievable how well it worked and for
how long it worked those days are over i
promise you the bullet has already been
fired that's going to kill the old way
of doing business they're bleeding to
death and they just don't realize it yet
now you're going to have to be
transparent now you're going to have to
tell people what you stand for and the
thing you stand for better be the
creation of value
don't think about profits
focus on value the reason you want to
focus on value is it's the only thing
you can sell sustainably you can trick
people with clever marketing don't get
me wrong but it's always going to be
short term the only thing that lasts is
something that actually adds real
tangible value to somebody's life
when people write in and say
dear quest i've lost 150 pounds using
your products you've changed my life
my wedding day which i never thought
would come is now just two months away i
couldn't be more excited here's a
picture of me and my fiance
we would get stuff like that all the
time
because we were focused on making a
product that was actually real
finding your passion for something and
building a product that's better than
what anyone else is doing
all right
leverage technology to connect people
get really lost like i'm not a digital
native i didn't grow up with this stuff
but once i understood what it was really
allowing me to do in fact many of you
came up and you saw me sitting out there
and it looked like i was working on my
phone but what i was actually doing is
engaging with my community
because if you ever get a response from
me it's actually me
so you can imagine i'm writing and
replying to people a lot
but i do that because the technology is
meant to facilitate that connection once
you understand that building the
community is the thing that gives you
power and i'll give you an example
at quest we had a decision to make did
we go to retail first which are known as
the traditional king makers a retailer
can make a brand if you get into walmart
you can go from nothing to 100 million
in like 12 months
same with costco they can pluck you from
obscurity and make you a big brand
almost overnight
so do we do that first or do we go
direct to consumer
we decided to go direct to consumer
because we wanted to build a community
we wanted the power on our side we
wanted customers going into retailers
and saying why don't you carry quest
so we said no to retailers for a year in
fact we ended up hiring somebody just to
say no to the retailers in a nicer way
true story because we didn't want to
burn that bridge but the contracts they
were sending us were so one-sided so
aggressive in the favor of the retailer
that we never would have been able to be
profitable and that's how walmart puts
companies out of business that have been
around for 115 years they're squeezing
your margins so tight they become so
much of your business
that one misstep and like the cost of
lids or something which is what i think
killed what was it lastic pickle or
something they'd been around for over
100 years gone
so you have to have the power going into
the negotiation and you're living in a
time where you can build a community
that believe passionately in you and
your product and you can mobilize them
to go in stores and start asking for the
product you can even do it region by
region think about that for a second hey
we want to right now today guys is going
to be phoenix we want everyone going
into whatever use whatever store you
would sell into we want people going
into the phoenix area going into the
store and asking for this product
and they'll do it
it's absolutely crazy they get nothing
for it other than the pride of being in
that community
because you've done something positive
you've sold them something of value
that's touching their life it's making
their life better you're transparent
you're stepping out front they know who
you are they recognize you they feel
like they've looked you in their eye and
you do things to go above and beyond for
them
all right
this is the face of authenticity my
friends this is actually an instagram
post that my wife and i posted every
year we go sit on santa's lap
and i thought hey
we really do it it's really a thing for
us so share it with the community and
it's stuff like that as embarrassing
that it is it's stuff like that that
lets the community feel like they know
you
and in today's world you need somebody
in your company that people will warm to
that they will feel connected with
because what's going to keep people from
losing faith in your company as you get
bigger
is feeling connected to a person
companies aren't nameless faceless
organizations
and you don't want them to feel like it
our customer support department had
their own instagram
just so people could see the people that
they were talking to
all right don't market build a community
that's critical how do you build a
community it goes like this at the top
there are thought leaders thought
leaders are the people that when you
hear them talk you don't understand what
they're talking about
neuroscientists all the people that are
publishing papers doing if they've ever
done an abstract then they are very much
a thought leader
influencers in the middle
that's who is listening to the thought
leaders they understand what they're
saying but they have a way of making it
accessible to the masses the masses
ultimately are who you're trying to sell
to but if you're going to find the
people that you need to find you're
going to get to them through influencers
they're called influencers because a lot
of people listen to them
your job is to get a thousand screaming
fans the way that you do that is by
partnering up with influencers who
already have the trust of those people
now when most people think of
influencers they think of people like
this
but really you should be thinking of
people like this and i'm guessing most
of you don't even know who they are but
i'll give you one random example this
woman here jenna marbles anybody know
jenna marbles
all right jenna marbles has a reach of
over 20 million followers a day
a day
that's prime time tv numbers
one person can reach 20 million people a
day
now how do you get social influencers
how do you create momentum with them so
first of all you need to identify them
you need to add value to them in their
community and you need to go above and
beyond so jenna marbles is somebody that
we actually worked with
and how did we get jenna marbles
to post a photo of huge stacks of our
bars
we sent her knitted sweaters for her
dogs
and she loved it because she felt like
we understood her that we'd gone above
and beyond she felt a sense of
obligation to post that photo because
she was so touched by what we had done
and we did the research to find out what
she really cares about she loves her
dogs always talking about how they're
cold because they're so skinny and they
don't have fur
and so we knit them sweaters she loved
it and then staged that whole photo for
us took the picture which was huge for
us
because it reached such a huge audience
and you do that and start turning those
relationships into partnerships and
beginning to work with them
cassie hoe anybody know cassie hoe
so cassie hoe was one of the first
influencers that we started working with
she has a total social following
somewhere in the neighborhood of 5
million people just absolutely massive
and getting her coming in
and first it was just a paid
relationship but then as she got to know
us and know everybody at the company we
actually turned that into an ongoing
relationship where we've teamed up and
partnered
now to the point where my wife and
co-founder in impact theory is actually
creating a podcast with her
and just goes to show that when it's
authentic real connections that you
really can transcend the normal sort of
day-to-day sterile nature of a business
relationship and not being afraid to
recognize that the times really have
changed following some of your vendors
on
their social feeds and getting to know
them can be a really interesting way to
spark interesting conversations to feel
more invested in them as people and i
can't stress that one enough
and then at the end of the day if you're
using social media you've got to publish
you've got to be creating content
who here has a
instagram account for your work
instagram account facebook all of that
okay the only thing i will tell you that
you're doing wrong and i don't even have
to look at your account you don't
publish enough
the consistency of publishing is what
it's all about every time i do an
instagram story i get
30 inbound requests on my feed
just got to be putting it out there now
it's got to be value-add but you want to
be publishing publishing publishing
all right how do you grow your community
so now you have them how are you going
to breathe life into them and really get
them to go somewhere you've got to be
where your customers and fans are i
routinely get asked tom which platform
should i address
and the answer is wherever your
customers are if they're on all of them
you need to be on all of them and i know
that that means it's a lot more work and
it's redundant and yes snapchat and
instagram stories are basically the same
and maybe snapchat is going away maybe
it's not
but if your fans and customers are there
then that's where you need to be and by
the way this stuff is going to turn over
every two years it's going to be
constantly on the move constantly
different maybe twitter pulls it off and
they race back to the top maybe facebook
makes a misstep and they've gone too
heavy into video and something else
comes up
you've got to be there and as much as
you can be an early adopter so much the
better
because it's always the early adopters
that win so keeping your eye on where
the technology is going is absolutely
critical
all right be true to the platform every
platform is different i'll give you one
just quick example even within a
platform how different it can be
so first of all do facebook versus
instagram on facebook if i'm gonna do
live content i do live content with
three cameras on a beautiful set and we
switch between the different cameras so
that the live feed feels like a live
television show when we do that on
facebook we get huge numbers
if on facebook i would just putting the
camera phone on a tripod and talking to
the camera my numbers will plummet
but on instagram if i just grab the
phone
and hold it right in front of my face
and talk to all the people coming
through in the feed hey bob hey sally so
good to see you oh my god hey what's up
everybody oh we've got denmark in the
house do that kind of stuff my numbers
just keep going up up up
so understanding what each platform is
looking for how they want to be talked
to how they want to interact with you
twitter
right one-on-one communication
rapid real-time news based
now instagram even within the platform
there are different ways you want to
interact so i'm very formal for the most
part in my main posts but my stories are
playful and a little bit more intimate
look into my life
and they perform well like that if i
take something that feels right on a
story and i put it in my main feed it
won't perform well if i put something
overly formal in my story then it
doesn't perform well and this comes from
publish a lot pay attention look at the
data you've got to be really really data
driven
all right and boost what works
so once you find what's working
then you want to put some ad dollars
behind it okay and ad dollars gets very
tricky you don't have to throw a lot of
money at something to get a big result
because what you're gonna do is do a
bunch of free stuff and look at what
pops
and when something pops and it's out
performing all your other stuff which
both facebook and instagram will tell
you this is performing better than 95
percent of your other posts
well that's probably a good candidate to
put some money behind
also partnering up with other people in
your space to do crossovers or
trade shout outs things like that
all right what if i told you your
customers hate your content
hopefully you would believe me because
chances are that they do because what
most people are trying to do with their
content they're trying to sell
don't try to sell with your contract try
to add value your content in and of
itself should be a value add so at quest
a lot of what we do is cooking cooking
with the product sometimes not cooking
with the product but really trying to
think what does the consumer want what
would be value-add for them what are
they looking for
and those are the things that
are going to allow you to continue to
build that community out
high value content it's all about
value-add you're living in the era of
value creation so not only does your
product have to be amazing but your
actual marketing in and of itself can't
feel like a commercial it's got to be
true to the brand it's got to be true to
the brand ethos
but it has to be
in and of itself interesting and
valuable so rethinking that moving away
from traditional features and benefits
by this
all right i mentioned this earlier only
value is sustainable the only thing that
you're going to be able to sell over
time is that so you guys need to be
having meetings in your company talking
about value what is the value of this ad
what is the value of this marketing what
is the value of this product you have to
know why that thing is valuable that is
absolutely critical
and execute at the end of the day only
execution matters
you all have a dream that's why you're
here there's something that you want to
do there's something that you want to
create
but at the end of the day
the only thing that matters is your
ability to execute so get really good at
that crossing that chasm of skill set
and i can't say that enough
the only thing that stands between you
and executing on your dreams at the
highest level is skill set it's getting
good at something
all right have very clear goals it
always freaks me out most people stop at
the first sort of vague notion of what
they want to do i'm going to punch
myself in the mouth if somebody comes up
to me again and says i want to help
people
that's rad that comes from a beautiful
place like i totally get it but that's
like coming to me and saying i want to
win an olympic gold medal awesome winter
or summer
summer fantastic swimming or tennis
swimming excellent
backstroke
freestyle like at some point it's got to
get so specific because you have to know
what skills you need to acquire you have
to work backwards from the goal and the
goal has to be hyper specific so if
boredom is the number one killer of
entrepreneurs that they're not able to
make it through the next one is they
don't have clear goals and the worst
part is they think they do
that's the part that terrifies me the
worst part is they think they do
until you know
exactly what your mission is and exactly
what your business model is and what
problem you solve what very concrete
problem that people are freaking out to
have solved until you do that you don't
have the necessary ingredients to build
your business
all right don't be romantic be pragmatic
look at the data the data will tell you
what to kill the data will tell you
what's working and what's not
this was the single best piece of advice
that was ever given to me and i ignored
it for three years i'm so embarrassed by
that that i always make sure any talk i
give people hear this
know more about your product service
industry whatever than anyone else
than anyone else
if you guys have ever seen my interview
show
the reason that it's doing as well as
it's doing is i know more about the
guest
one guest actually said this i know more
about the guest than their mother
i just put in more work than their
mother
that's the truth
i go out and i research and i read
everything and i watch every video that
i can and so i know so much about that
person i know i'm gonna give a different
interview than anyone has ever given
before because nobody's done that level
of research not only does it blow the
guests away and totally endear them to
me
but it gets us to the point where we can
give an interview that has unique value
so know more about what you're doing
than anyone else in the world and grind
baby grind for two years for two years
that's what i look like every day
hair net lab coat gloves
put in the [ __ ] work
put in the work and this is where the
rubber meets the road this is where
you're really going to separate
the people that
are entrepreneurs from the people that
are real entrepreneurs you've got to
want to grind you've got to learn to
love that you've got to learn to love to
put in the work to be proud of yourself
that you showed up and put in the work
to be proud of yourself that you taught
yourself how to suffer to be proud of
yourself that you're developing a
mindset where you believe i can do
anything i set my mind to and by the way
once you believe
that you can do anything you set your
mind to without limitation how you spend
your time
becomes a spiritual consideration
how you spend your time becomes a
spiritual consideration because you
could be doing something if you want to
end hunger and hunger
what's stopping you bill gates is
actually going to end malaria he's going
to do it because he had the tenacity to
generate the resources and because he
has a mind that allows him to work on
the infrastructure and figure out how to
actually solve that problem
do not under any circumstances make bill
gates or anyone else extraordinary to
let yourself off the hook
don't [ __ ] do it don't sell yourself
short and this is where i see people go
wrong all the time they look at somebody
who's amazing
and they say well they're just naturally
gifted
i could never do that
you couldn't do it because you believe
you can't and because you believe you
can't you don't start putting in the
work
michael jordan got cut from his high
school basketball team
he wasn't exactly showing all the
promise in the world my own mother when
i left for college quietly assumed i was
going to fail and didn't admit that for
years
i showed no early signs of promise
i actually have a version of this
talk where i show photos from my
childhood and people like yeah
[ __ ] you just look stupid
and it's true i used to dress like a
clown and i mean that almost literally
so my waist was size 36 and i wore size
54 pants
i wore literal jester hats
um i had one of those big chains that
connected to my belt uh i had
shoulder-length hair
i did not exactly
look the part and i didn't take myself
seriously
it really is a game of transformation it
really is a game of understanding that
you can become something so even though
i didn't start with the requisite skills
even though i wasn't a born entrepreneur
which is why i start this tale with that
even though i wasn't a born entrepreneur
i could acquire and did acquire the
skills that were needed to execute
it is a very long road
that leads you here
right now
most entrepreneurs in the world are
thinking about one thing
winning a championship ring
once you understand the difference
between wanting to win a championship
ring
and wanting to be capable of a
championship performance
then you'll have the breakthrough that
you need
because most people are okay
winning a ring while sitting on the
bench
i am not
that holds no interest for me i don't
want to win the lottery i don't want
something handed to me that was why when
i quit i gave the equity back i didn't
want it
if i didn't do it if i didn't earn it if
i didn't make somebody's life better if
i didn't force myself to actually
develop my potential which for me the
very meaning of life write this down the
very meaning of life is to find out how
many skills you can acquire that have
utility and then put that utility to the
test
in service of something bigger than
yourself
i'll say that again
the very purpose of life
is to find out how many skills you can
acquire that have utility and then put
that utility to the test in service of
something bigger than yourself if you do
that not only can you build a big
business that adds tremendous value to
people but you'll have what's called
technique you will have something
beautiful a skill that you have fought
hard for that can help someone else and
that my friends is fulfillment and going
back to the game that you're actually
playing which is brain chemistry it is
not money it is not accolades it is not
number one on the inc 500 list the game
that you're playing is being proud of
yourself
the game you're playing is being able to
look yourself in the eye and go
damn you left it on the field
you really played to your full potential
and you're prepared to go back to the
gym to get better when you know that
about yourself
everything changes
like people always ask me
tom you work so much when are you going
to take a day off
i'm like i'll take a day off whenever i
want one i've earned it
i'm not conflicted i know how much i
work
but i didn't take a day off for six and
a half years at the beginning of my
journey
because i didn't believe i'd earned it
some part of me was guilty because i was
still fighting my own mindset i wasn't
always doing the things that i should be
doing
once you get to the point where you know
you leave it out on the field every day
take a vacation whenever you want
it won't even be a second thought for
you
this is the most fundamental belief that
i have
i've hired drug dealers
i've hired former gang members at one
point the staff at quest literally i had
bloods and crips working the same
production line it's a true story
because i told the neighborhood
i don't care who you are
all i want to know
who do you want to be
and what's the price you're willing to
pay to get there
boys and girls
i promise you
once you answer that question for
yourself
once you know exactly who you want to
become and you're willing to pay a price
that is higher than anyone else is
willing to pay
you will win
that's the only path to success
think about what you know about humans
your job in building a company
is to get people to feel so bonded to
you so bonded to your company that you
dazzle them
and have you ever dazzled somebody
by
lowering their expectations
and then comfortably delivering more
the phrase that makes me want to break
something
under promise and over deliver [ __ ] that
if you tell me you want to under promise
and over deliver you're dead to me i
don't even want to talk to you because i
know what you're trying to do is manage
my expectations you are not trying to be
the greatest of all time you are not
trying to be capable of the
extraordinary you will happily win a
championship ring while sitting on the
bench i'm not looking for that what i'm
looking for is somebody who knows who
they want to become and they're willing
to pay an extraordinary
price to become that because all that
matters to them is becoming capable of
the extraordinary
and when you get to that point the only
way you will know how to act
is to set the bar ridiculously high so
high you're almost embarrassed to say it
out loud and then my friends you're
going to surpass
all expectations
thank you
my parents biggest frustration was that
i was epically lazy and if they handed
out gold medals for being lazy i would
have won i assure you hands down
there was a period in my life where i
would spend between two and three hours
in bed because it was warm in bed and it
was cold out of bed
alright that's true i actually did