Kind: captions
Language: en
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 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 and
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 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 a 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 8 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 going to 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
dollar tomorrow but inside you felt
suicidal and you felt worthless what
would be the point of the Mone money
conversely if I gave you $3 but you felt
fulfilled and like you were contributing
not only to yourself to your family to
other people you felt alive inside and
what you're doing meant something to you
and you felt that you had
significance what does the money
matter anybody ever read the poem
Richard
Corey I read this poem when I was like 9
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 Cory 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 Andor
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 suffer
suffering desolation sickness ill
treatment indignities 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
was 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 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 8% annual
growth after I went into my partners and
I said I
quit and I'm going to 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
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 consu 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 does 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 PCT 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 w waking up at 2: a.m. 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 6 and a
half years
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 failed
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 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 kids
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 going to do something that I
believed in now I could think about my
mom and my sister every day my mom and
my sister both morbidly obese I knew
they were going to 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 think 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
57,000
per. 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 [ __ ]
[Applause]
business 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 official ially 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
that 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 in 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 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 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 gogin 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 M 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 4 days from now if you
can complete 4 days he weigh 250 lbs in
4 days if you can complete a 100 mile
race literally running around a high
school track think about how torturous
that would be if you can complete
a 100
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 cuz 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
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 some 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
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
scaming in my couch cushions to find
enough change to to put gas in my car
that is a true story to building a
billion dooll
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
yoke
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
gogin 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 going to 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 worldview you 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 impact theory.com Tom's
reading list it is the 20 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 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 5
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 takes
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 dim 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 DiVinci
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 going to talk about that more be
an eternal student we've talked about
that and last one become
antifragile all right we're going to go
really deep on antifragile so I won't
blab the point and develop grit all
right how do you become antifragile 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 with these
two Incredible Minds that could process
data more rapidly than I can so I'm not
going to place of 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 that 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 so I knew I couldn't give up
my self-esteem I couldn't accept some
weird role where I just was always the
dumbass 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
antifragile now this is a term that
comes from Nim TB 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 def find 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 antifragile 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 going to go down that path
and I'm going to learn how to do that
and that is absolutely
critical all right identifying a 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 will 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 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 because 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 mention 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 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 justif 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 in in
and the person in the white lab coat
says here's a marshmallow I'm going to
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 a researcher is 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
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 school 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
oneself anybody here ever done a 3-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 couple weeks
ago and I had the flu right before so
there were cough drops laying around and
every time I walk by those [ __ ] cough
drops my brain was like eat one and I
was like [ __ ]
like you know I'm
fasting and I literally couldn't believe
like how consistently every time I
walked 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
colossum is all right the Corpus
colossum 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 in
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 it's 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 and 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 as 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 that 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 employe
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 cuz I'm going
to 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 lbs
heavier it's very easy for me to show
you when I was heavy and then show you 6
six pack abs you get it but what you
don't see is the body is 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 going
to do suck they're tedious I 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 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 going
to 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 going
to going to have the energy to get
through now to have that energy you're
going to need passion the number one
question I get asked the number one
question I get as I get asked this
question multiple times a day every day
from all around the world I've had
people in Australia UK Germany uh
Netherlands Brazil Paraguay I mean
literally everywhere they all want to
know how do I find my
passion ask 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 a 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 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
dude
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
400 a.m. and they say I'm not leaving
until I've made 2,000 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 in you 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 going to
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 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 doll
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 hyperconnected social
world everything is different
and the reason that Quest grew as fast
as it
did besides us having Yemen who you guys
will get a 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 and 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 going to 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 out in 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 s boo yeah all right Simon
neck 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 and 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 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 an