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 and benefit what's your
mission we want to empower entrepreneurs
with faster cheaper computers so that
even lowincome 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 were 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 were
hellbent 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 are 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 that you
can sell sustainably you can trick
people with clever marketing don't get
me wrong but it's always going to be
shortterm 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 PBS 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 do 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 Hing
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 margin so tight and they become so
much of your
business that one misstep in like the
cost of Lids or something which is what
I think killed most it vasic pickle or
something they've been around for over a
hundred 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 you
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 that'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 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 is 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 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 cuz 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
uh 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 um now to the
point where my wife and co-founder in
Impact theory is actually creating a
podcast with her uh 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 uh 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 ad but you want
to be publishing publishing publishing
all right how do you grow your community
so now you have them how 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 so first of all do Facebook
versus Instagram on Facebook if I'm
going to 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 were 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 oh 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 going to do is do a bunch of
free stuff and look at what pops and
when something pops and it's
outperforming all your other stuff which
both Facebook and Instagram will tell
you this is performing better than 95%
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
um trade shoutouts 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 is they're trying to
sell don't try to sell with your content
try to add value your content in and of
itself should be a value ad 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 ad 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 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 like 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 I could 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 hyp 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 3 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 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 going to give a different interview
than anyone has ever given before
because nobody's done that level of
research not only does it Blow the guest
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 2 years for two years
that's what I look like every day haet
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 end 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 are 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 I
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 techne 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 day off for 6
and 1/2 years at the beginning of my
journey because I didn't believe IID
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 overd deliver [ __ ] that if you tell
me you want to under promise and overd
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 have 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 to surpass all
expectations thank you
[Applause]