Kind: captions
Language: en
so please join me in welcoming Mr Tom
[Applause]
Bilu
[Music]
hello first of all thank you guys for
that warm welcome Ryan it was awesome to
have been on the podcast what you put
together here is really incredible I'm
pretty Blown Away not only by the group
of people you put together but just by
the overall production is uh pretty
incredible all right so somewhere my
slides
exist all right the first thing to know
about me is am not a born entrepreneur
now there are many people that consider
themselves a born entrepreneur I am not
one of them I know that there were kids
out there that had lemonade stands when
they were like 6 months old they
couldn't hold their head up but they
could sell that was not me I was totally
when it came to stuff like that
I had a paper route and they gave your
money in two ways one they just gave you
sort of a blanket weekly payment for
delivering the paper but then the other
part of it was you were supposed to go
collect that money and I was too afraid
to knock on the doors to collect the
money so I never got that part but I
felt so obligated that I said I would do
it that I kept delivering the papers
essentially for free so that's where I
started as an entrepreneur my parents
biggest frustration was that I was
epically lazy and if they handed out
gold medals for being lazy I would have
won I assure you hands down there was a
period in my life where I would spend
between two and 3 hours in bed because
it was warm in bed and it was cold out
of bed all right that's true I I
actually did an interview with Joo
willink if you guys know him extreme
ownership his book totally blew me away
and in the middle of the interview I
confessed that and he said Tom don't
worry we'll let you edit that out and I
said Jo I don't I actually don't want to
edit that out because right now the
narrative about what it means to be an
entrepreneur is to be naturally gifted
and I call total on that
because I'm not naturally gifted I don't
have any natural talents and all of us
are born as this lump of jelly that
can't hold its own head up that poos in
it pants and we all learn to do things
and it's that ability to specialize that
makes us great and the things that you
choose to put your time and energy into
those are going to be the things that
allow you to accomplish something but
all of that is a choice now my
entrepreneurial Journey began because
even though I was a slightly chubby kid
growing up in a morbidly obese family in
Tacoma
Washington I always knew two things
about
myself one day I was going to be rich
and I was going to have six pack abs
like those are the two things is that
kid that was you know jiggling his belly
thinking one day I'm not going to have
to suck in my gut it's not going to be
pushing out my t-shirt I'm going to
figure that out I had no idea how I was
going to do it because what my parents
had taught me to do was eat really bad
food though my mom in her defense
wouldn't let me eat chicken nuggets cuz
those are clearly unhealthy so she let
me have turkey nuggets cuz those are way
better for you so I spent my teenage
years deep frying turkey nuggets and
living the dream it was amazing I
shuddered to think how much fried food I
have eaten in my life and that's where I
started I had the sense that I could do
more that I could be more but what my
parents were teaching me how to do was
to be a good employee and to them that
meant keep your head down do as little
work as possible and avoid punishment at
all costs and so at one point I actually
considered myself the king of remedial
jobs and I said it with pride I was so
excited every interview I went into I
would get the job I would know that and
how did I know because I would look
through the newspaper for jobs where I
knew the person interviewing me will be
less educated than I am and those were
the jobs that I actually went after now
that's where I
started now I'm going to tell you in a
minute how I end up very very very far
from there but I want people to really
think about that when I left for college
my own mother who had always been my
biggest cheerleader quietly assumed I
was going to
fail she was one of those amazing moms
she kicked me out of the house she
forced me to go she said you've got to
chase your dreams you've got to do this
and then once I left she spent every day
after that trying to get me back and I
said Mom what what gives here you
literally kick me out of the nest when
I'm 18 and then spend every day guilting
me into coming home why just kick me out
let's skip the middle man and she said I
never wanted you to say what if and I
just assumed you would fail and she said
it with No
Malice but I didn't display any signs of
being able to accomplish
I had cheated my way through high school
I didn't take it seriously so when I got
to college she just assumed that the big
bad world would eat me up but what she
didn't understand was I knew one day I
was going to be
rich now what I didn't know at that time
is that my quest for money would take me
to some amazing and interesting
places but first I had to meet my
version of the White Rabbit if you know
me if you follow me socially or anything
you know that I'm obsessed with the
Matrix if you don't know that now you
will definitely know that by the end of
this
talk and the reason I'm obsessed with
the Matrix is it is the perfect metaphor
for my life and I think for the lives of
many people and we'll get into the
detail of exactly how that is but these
two guys that were successful
entrepreneurs and bodybuilders happened
to walk into a class when I was a
teacher and I thought oh my God sixpack
abs and money it's right there like this
is what I've been looking for these guys
are my white rabbit I'm going to follow
them I'm going to figure out what it is
that they've done and they were just
starting a technology startup and they
said hey we need a copywriter why don't
you come be a copywriter they said but
don't think of yourself as a copywriter
think of yourself as an owner in this
company help us overcome these problems
you can have any job you want within the
company you just have to become the
right person for that job and so I was
just young enough and just dumb enough
to believe them and take them at their
word and I went all in and for the first
time I really got to show people that I
was wildly ambitious and that I was
willing to suffer and we all have a
superpower and my superpower may be the
willingness and ability to endure
suffering and I'm not necessarily saying
that's always a good thing and in fact I
want to introduce you to a quote which
hopefully most of you know and this is
the positive side of suffering this is a
nichy quote this quote is so meaningful
to me and you'll understand how this
idea ended up changing my life in a
minute and I'm going to read it because
it's worth everyone hearing to those
human beings who are of any concern to
me I wish suffering desolation sickness
ill treatment indignities I wish that
they should not remain unfamiliar with
profound self-contempt the torture of
self-mistrust the wretchedness of the
vanquished I have no pity for them
because I wish them the only thing that
can prove today whether one is worth
worth anything or not that one
endures that one
endures shitty things are going to
happen to you if they haven't already
and I'm sure they have many tragedies
have befallen every person in this room
and what I want you guys to recognize
right now is thank
God because those are the things that
weed out the sick and the weak those are
the things that weed out the people who
just they don't have the fortitude to
see it
through and if you don't need to be an
entrepreneur to succeed but you do need
something what is that something and I'm
here to tell you that something is the
ability to endure my ability to handle
suffering my ability to keep going when
something is boring my ability to learn
a new skill long after everybody else
has gotten over it and gotten bored and
they are no longer interested all I can
see is its
utility and in seeing its utility and
becoming obsessed with what that thing
is going to allow me to do I Endure no
matter how hard it gets no matter how
painful it is if it lives in service of
my goals I do it and that was the one
thing nobody could see that was the one
thing when I was a kid nobody could
understand they didn't know that the
reason I wasn't doing the paper route
was because I didn't care and because I
didn't care I didn't push it didn't mean
that when I found that thing I cared
about out that I wouldn't
push and the first thing was get rich
and I used to say to myself all the time
you're going to get rich or you're going
to die
trying and so starting as a copywriter I
started busting my ass step number one I
convinced my wife we're going to because
there were two other partners that hired
me I'm going to pick an apartment that's
no more than 5 minutes from either of
them that way if they call me at 2 in
the morning I'll be there in 5 minutes
and they're going to know no one else in
their company is as serious as me and
I'm going to claw my way up this company
and I'm going to get whatever job I
become the right person for and I'm
going to work my way up and by the time
we ended up selling that company I had
clawed my way through Sweat Equity into
owning 10% of the company and being the
chief marketing officer from starting as
the copywriter the person that everybody
asked who's the kid in the server room
was the only person that didn't have a
window they literally put me in the room
with all the computer
servers but starting from there I knew I
could wow people because I was willing
to grind it
out and that is one of the most valuable
things that anybody can do all right now
that company we grew to the point where
in 2010 that was a technology company it
was named as the 42nd fastest growing
technology company in North America I
had suffered a lot I hadn't taken a day
off in like 6 and a half years except
for Christmas and
fairness I wouldn't let my wife go on a
vacation because I was so hellbent to
get
rich and then I realized almost eight
and a half years in here we are we've
just been named the 42nd fast growing
technology company in North America
we're making money we're winning
Awards beautiful conference room
overlooking the Pacific Ocean and I
turned to my partner and I say I'm
completely miserable I
quit and I hand back your Equity I'm not
going to cross the finish line I don't
think I should get anything for
that and they said what are now famous
words for me we could do this without
you but we don't want to and in that
moment I realized what had been missing
I realized the reason I was living the
cliche of money can't buy happiness I
was realizing why what Tony Robin says
about success without fulfillment being
the worst kind of failure was because
what I cared about was
connection I'd gotten into it and gotten
to know these guys and along the way had
become so myopically focused on this
promise I had made my to myself as a kid
that I never stopped to ask why do I
want to get
rich what what is it that I plan to do
with the money the money in and of
itself it's aert it just sits there I'm
sure you guys have a bunch of it in your
pocket right now and it doesn't do
anything but it has latent potential but
the question is what are you going to do
with that potential
so ID finally had enough I had hit my
breaking point from suffering and I got
so mad and I was so unwilling to do it
anymore that the three of us said we're
now going to totally forget about money
we're not going to think about it we
can't take it anymore life is too short
this is your one go round so what are we
going to do we're going to build a
company that's predicated on value we're
going to build a company that's
predicated on passion we're going to ask
ourselves a fundamentally different
question
and boys and
girls the questions you ask yourself
will determine the course of your life I
had been asking myself what do I need to
do to get rich and it left me really
unhappy so I changed the question and I
started asking what would I do and love
every day even if I were
failing the second law of thermodynamics
is that everything moves towards entropy
life is chaos it takes an inhuman amount
of effort to bring order to that to find
success in the middle of that so while I
cannot promise you success I can promise
you failure I cannot promise you
happiness but I can promise
sadness so if you know those are the
guarantees and the other things are the
things you have to strive for you better
be striving in service of something that
in and of itself is interesting to you
there's an awesome quote often
attributed to Mother Teresa that says no
one will ask for the many but people
will act for the
few I started thinking about my mom and
my sister I had my sixpack
abs but they were profoundly overweight
I started thinking about my uncle who
ate himself to death when I was 12 years
old and how much that scared me and it
made me sad and it made me sad to see
that there were Millions if not more
than a billion people that were in the
same kind of abusive relationship with
food that my mom and my sister were so I
said I don't know if it's a big business
but I know it's a big
problem and that's the problem that
we're going to solve and so we decided
to build a totally new kind of
company based around value in 2014
private companies averaged 8% annual
growth we started Quest Nutrition in
2010 just as we were coming out of the
Great
Recession from 2010 to 2013 alone Quest
grew by
57,000 in
manufacturing we were engineering and
making our own equipment we were making
the bars I was wearing a hairnet and a
lab coat every day and my employees were
former gang members ex drug dealers Fons
we were in Compton and we literally told
everybody in the neighborhood I don't
care if you've been evicted of a crime I
just want to know if you're willing to
bust your ass to change your life and if
you are you're going to get an interview
and I'm not going to ask for your resume
I don't care about your resume your
resume tells me where you've been it
doesn't tell me the price you're willing
to pay to become somebody
new and that's how we were able to grow
so fast because we weren't focused on
the money the kids on the street that
were coming in working for us they
weren't focused on the money one of the
kids his sister was shot to death in the
heart with an AK-47 she bled to death on
his front lawn another guy his
stepfather was shot in the head and died
in his
arms okay that's growing up hard now
imagine you tell that person I don't
give a if you're a born
entrepreneur I don't care if you've been
to jail I don't care if you dropped out
a high school what do you want to become
and what price are you willing to pay to
get there you give that person hope that
their life up to that point is in the
death sentence that they can become
anyone they want to
become and Everything Changes you think
those guys were leaving at 2: a.m. on a
Friday when we had a deadline to hit
hell no one kid came up to me said You
Believe In My Success more than my own
mother that person will die for you and
when all you're asking them to do is
make a protein bar you're doing all
right and so we were able to move so
fast and in moving that fast in growing
our revenues as much as we did cuz we
were thinking about the customer make
sure the product was amazing that it
delivered results we got to number two
on the Inc 5000 you can't imagine how
perfect that number is for me just
enough to be amazing and just Far Enough
From First to piss me
off to put that chip on my shoulder to
make me want to keep going and keep
grinding all right we're valued at over
a billion dollars we became officially a
unicorn company startup no investment
capital from the outside our first eight
months I don't think we spent more than
$10,000 and we made a valuation of over
a billion dollars
all right that's how I ended up there
that's how we did it but to me this
stuff is
formulaic anybody can do this and I am
proof of that and what really winds me
up it's really easy for me to show you
guys my before and after when I used to
be fat when I was 230
lbs and to show you a picture of
six-pack abs and people go wow that's
amazing but it's really hard to show you
what it looked like when I was afraid
all the time when I believed to the core
of my being that I was stupid and
incapable that I could never start a
business I didn't know anything about it
I felt lost and hopeless and now to be
where I'm at now to have built a company
to have started as a copywriter and
climbed my way up to know time and time
again that as long as I can learn I can
do anything I set my mind
to so if you guys want to follow in
these footsteps you've got two jobs job
number one develop your mindset nobody
thinks about this this is crazy to me if
you want to talk about business don't
even worry about the mechanics of
business until you get the mechanics of
human psychology if you don't know the
anatomy yes the anatomy of the human
brain you are at a disadvantage why
because I do know
it and I know when that kid comes into
my office whether he's the wonderkind
out of Harvard or he's a kid off the
streets in Compton
I know what's going on in his brain at a
neurochemical level and I know what's
going on in mine I know when I'm lying
to myself I know when I'm lying to
myself and it doesn't help and I know
when I'm lying to myself and it does
help and I know when to do what we'll
get to your second job in a minute I
really want to go through job number one
The Matrix has you who's seen the movie
The
Matrix ah my kind of
audience all right the Matrix is just a
movie maybe we're living in uh a
simulation maybe we're not Peter
diamandis will be keynoting on at the
end of the conference ask him that
question he's an amazing guy can talk
pretty eloquently about how maybe we
really are living in a simulation but
right now I don't need you to believe
that but right now I do need you to
accept that you have pulled a veil of
Lies over your own
eyes if you believe that you're limited
in some way that there's something that
you can't accomplish if there's
something that you can't do like if you
say well man it's good enough that Quest
was able to grow their company from 0 to
500 million in Revenue in was actually
less than 6 years but you know that's
them I couldn't do that that's the
Matrix that's a lie and it's a
disempowering lie let me be clear I love
lies they're amazing I tell myself lies
all the time you're going to see one in
a minute but I only tell myself
empowering lies if you know the movie
you want to take the red
pill the blue pill you wake up back in
your bed you get to decide anything you
want about having heard of The Matrix
but the red pill wakes you up in the
real world the reason that this is
important is I'm not promising that it's
going to be easy or fun remember the
second law of Thermodynamics is that
things move towards
chaos it is going to be hard it is going
to be difficult and finding your way
through that maze will be some of the
most difficult things that you're ever
going to have to do but if you accept
that it's the truth you become in
control and I want to tell you a story
and the story is either going to Make
You Love Me Or Hate Me it has that
effect on people The Story Goes Like
This my wife is British some of the
story is true and some is made up I'll
try to delineate my wife is British that
really is true let's say that she was in
London visiting her
family she's in the bedroom that she
grew up in the doors are locked the
alarm is on her mother is sitting
quietly in the next room protecting her
from all kinds of woes and right at that
moment a meteorite comes screaming
through the atmosphere smashes through
the roof and kills my wife whose fault
is that now I know most people are
thinking it's nobody's fault it's Divine
Providence it's luck it's fate it just
is what it is that's not how I live my
life and I invite you all to adopt the
following belief system it's all my
fault now I use the word fault because
it Jabs people in the ribs it gets
people's attention it makes them angry
because they think I'm victim shaming or
blaming the victim and I'm not saying I
refuse to ever be a victim and if I
maintain control then there's something
that I could do about it now I use that
example because it seems so absurd and
yet at the same time I know this is true
there is a group that track what are
called near Earth objects and they're
trying to make sure that if one is ever
on a collision course for Earth that
we'd be able to do something about it
whether it's a laser or planted nuclear
explosion whatever the case may be now I
know they exist I even know where they
are I've never called them to give them
encouraging words I've never sent them a
dime of my money I've never sent them
ideas I know they exist I do nothing
about it so why on Earth if it comes
around and that decision bites me in the
ass and my wife is killed by a meteorite
would I blame anyone
else I could have done something and I
chose not to now here's the great news I
think it's a wise choice I think the
odds of that happening in my life are so
slim
that it would be a total waste of time
but it shows you the lengths to which I
had to take my mentality in order to
learn the skills that I needed to learn
to get where I wanted to go and the way
that I Define an entrepreneur is
somebody who encounters an obstacle and
gets really pissed because the thought
of giving up never occurs to them and
now they know they have to go over under
through it around it whatever but
they're not going to slow down and
they're not going to stop whereas an
employee might be a beautiful human
being but when they hit an obstacle they
think finally I can can
relax and I used to be
there I was the king of if the cats away
the mice will play and then I remember
one day asking wait a second if I'm
actually trying to get at the time Rich
then why would I ever want to slack off
why would I ever want to let off the gas
pedal and if I don't actually want to
get rich and what I want is an easy life
why am I doing this weird ass in between
where I work really hard if somebody's
watching and then I stop as soon as
they're not
like just embrace the world that you
want to live if you want to chill chill
man I've got no moral judgment on the
person that wants to smoke weed all day
hang out chill and eat a bowl of
munchies like I'm down if I could ask
that it be like maybe a quest cereal bar
or something that would be
awesome but truly I don't pass a moral
judgment on it's just not the life that
I want to live but I wanted to be honest
with myself about what life I wanted to
live so I took the red pill I accept
that we make our beliefs we choose to
believe things every belief that you
have and I'll even throw in gravity just
to make this really obnoxious every
belief that you have is a
choice now if you try to disbelieve
gravity you're going have a real hard
time or so I suspect but maybe that's me
with a limiting
belief someone in the front here is
already thrown it out no gravity for
them but the things we choose to believe
really are choices and this is something
that I see time and time again when
somebody uh was it word that said
whether you think you can or you can't
you're right I love that that was one of
those quotes it hit me so hard and I
realized wow cuz here's the thing maybe
I'm wrong maybe there's just limits and
humans can't do as much as I think they
can and that we're all going to fail but
what would happen if I scaled back my
belief system I believe I would
accomplish less so that's a big one for
me I choose to believe that human
potential is nearly Limitless I think in
movies by the way so you're going to see
a lot of film references here and this
was the belief that changed my life
because once I realized
if you truly believe really think about
this for a second if you truly believe
that human potential is Limitless how
you decide to spend your time is a
spiritual
consideration right because you can do
anything and when I look at Elon Musk
the man is going to make us an
interplanetary species like that's
crazy but he's going to do it because he
had the audacity to believe that he
could and he's aiming
his high-powered belief system at what
he sees as being some of the world's
biggest problems showing exactly what I
mean when I say that once you believe
that human potential is Limitless how
you spend your time is a spiritual
consideration so whatever your business
is going to be make sure that it matters
and I'm going to tell you why that's
going to make you a lot of
money all right mind the gap here's the
hard truth you're not yet the person you
need to be in order to achieve all the
things you want to achieve the great
news is you're here because you realize
that most people fight against that
you're here because you want to learn
something you're here because you're
actually
open but what you have to figure out is
what is your kung fu you have to figure
out what is that set of skills that I
need to learn and that's how when asked
so I do an interview show and at the end
of the interview I used to ask people
what do you think essentially is the
meaning of life I didn't use those words
but that was the
gist and in the beginning I realized it
was cuz I didn't know the answer for
myself and I wanted to hear what other
people were going to say and then in
hearing enough people say it and really
thinking through my answer I realized
that for me the very meaning of life is
to see how many skills I can acquire
that have utility and then put that
utility to the
test said another way I want to ring
every bit of potential out of myself
that's possible because having potential
is very different than doing something
with that potential and in all of us I
believe is a massive reservoir of latent
potential that can be applied to
accomplish the extraordinary but you
have to know what it is all right here's
my method for developing new skills to
cross that skill gap between who you are
today and who you're going to need to
become in order to execute on the things
you want to execute on number one always
be
reading I believe the greatest gift that
any great thinker can offer the world is
to take the time to write down all of
their insights they say a fool school
never learns a smart man learns from his
mistakes and a wise man learns from the
mistakes of others now I don't know
about you guys but for me I have spent a
lot of time being a fool I've spent a
reasonable amount of time being smart
but oh man it is precious few times when
I've truly been able to be wise and
learn from someone else but virtually
every time I was able to get some wisdom
it was at the hands of an author when
people ask me who my mentors were I
always tell them it's the authors that
I've
read books contain the secrets to the
universe and right there on my slide if
you can pull that back up is the most
important mathematic equation you're
ever going to see I I equals IO ideas in
equal ideas out that is so important if
any of you have ever struggled with
feeling worthy because you don't have
original ideas do not fret I'm willing
to accept fine all the original ideas
that are ever going to be thought
they've already been thought uh doesn't
matter to me it's totally
irrelevant what makes each and every one
of us the beautiful snowflake that we
all know that we are inside is that we
make unique connections between old
ideas the very time that you're living
in with the very experiences that you
had mean that you're going to make
connections that other people just
wouldn't make but you've got to be
getting that stream of ideas in in order
to make those connections and might I
suggest meditating which puts your brain
into an alpha wave state which makes
weirder connections between more remote
areas of the brain um I didn't meditate
for a very long time it sounded so woo
wooy and then finally I met an ABV seal
uh who made me feel cool about
meditating and I finally did it was like
oh my God this is amazing because it
lets you calm your nervous system down
and your brain begins making really
unique connections all right next open
yourself to being changed whenever I
read a book I actually say to myself be
open to being changed by this
information it's incredible to me how
many people encounter a book an idea a
speaker a movie whatever and it's
amazing and they go out and they're
jazzed and they tell people about it but
they're not actually changed by it they
don't actually go out and act in
accordance with that new piece of
information and at the end of the day
the
takeaway the takeaway from my talk is
this is all going to boil down to
execution it's all going to boil down to
your ability to to do it and to do it
really well so open yourself up to
letting ideas actively change you and
you're going to have to do things create
habits in order to make sure that they
stick all right realize that what you
believe is a choice we've talked about
that be an eternal student in all things
I'm always trying to learn I know this
is a room of people who already get this
but if we all remind each other and
remind ourselves that everyone we meet
has something to teach us we'll be able
to collect those pieces of information
that go into our brains into that math
equation of ideas ideas in equal ideas
out I will take a good idea from
wherever it comes we're going to talk
about building your self-esteem around
that
later all right who has read antifragile
by Nim
TB you guys are in for a treat you're
going to want to read this book this
book changed me you want to talk about a
book I was open to it it came in it
completely impacted my life this book is
absolutely incredible it's so important
we're going to go through it in detail
in a second and the last thing is
develop
grit we'll talk about Grit as well all
right becoming
antifragile the important thing here to
note is that everyone needs an ego
everyone needs self-esteem everyone
needs to feel good about themselves and
the crazy thing when you really stop and
think about suicide and this is a new
obsession of mine if you stop and think
about suicide what has happened that
person believes falsely but they believe
that they'll never be happy again that
they'll never feel good about themselves
again and that's why it's referred to as
a permanent solution to a temporary
problem because that will
pass but in that moment it feels like it
couldn't ever go
away so we need to find things that make
us feel good about who we are because
when you lose a sense of feeling good
about who you are life truly feels
hopeless so that's critical and people
often talk about you know to stay away
from an ego to not pride yourself on
things but I'm telling you that person
Prides themselves on not not having an
ego and so it becomes what you pride
yourself on is absolutely incredible now
don't make the mistake that I made I
used to want to be smart when I talked
about being the king of remedial jobs
was because I wanted to put myself in
situations where I was the smartest
person in the room and in doing that I
was always going into smaller and
smaller rooms but it felt so good to be
right and the problem was I was wrong a
lot of the times now when this one
finally came to a head my business
partners who were far smarter than I am
in terms of IQ process processing data
which I Define IQ as your ability to
process data rapidly they could process
data very
rapidly and we would get into arguments
and I would always lose and it was very
frustrating and I remember one day
finally I actually convinced them to do
something my way and I
realized oh I just won the argument
but I know I'm wrong and so now what
I've gotten what I thought I wanted I
finally won this Victory I'm if I don't
feel smart myself at least I'm getting
reflected back to me that I've I've
solved the
problem and now I feel totally stuck
because if I really want to move towards
my goal of getting rich it does not help
to do things that I know are against the
company just to be right and in that
moment I realized what I had to do was
switch my self-esteem from being right
to pursuing the right answer faster than
anyone else and then putting energy
behind that and being like Oh my gosh
Timmy came up with the idea or it was
Sally and Sally oh my gosh it's amazing
and giving them so much energy to try to
see it through because that's the right
idea and then I began to develop my
reputation of being the guy that even if
3 seconds before that I had been
fighting for another idea once I
realized I was wrong I would admit
it and it's amazing what reputation you
can build around that and it is way more
effective for business all right grit if
you haven't read Angela Duckworth's book
on grit I highly recommend it it is am
amazing I'll give you some of the key
takeaways the biggest part about grit is
sustained effort over
time if you lose interest quickly in
something once or twice no big deal it
is what it is you realize that it wasn't
your thing but if you lose interest over
and over and over and over and over and
you always only enjoy the you know first
six months of a business and then you
want to move on you lose interest very
quickly you need to work on developing
your grit being able to sustain that
over time CU building any business
you're going to encounter hard things
you need to be able to do those hard
things focusing on the hard things in
fact I try to start every day with one
of the hardest things to get it out of
the way to remind myself that I'm
willing to attack that all right you
want to be able to persist through
boredom and suffering I told you guys
that's one of my superpowers long after
everybody else gives up because they're
not having fun anymore I'm still there
banging away at it that's really really
important in order to create momentum to
keep things moving and to finally get
them across the finish line a lot of
people are able to get something to the
50 yard line or maybe even the one yard
line but they just can't quite push it
over the finish line and that is a
difference between somebody who's a
wantrepreneur and somebody who ends up
being successful the way that they want
they can get it across the Finish Line
all right learn to tell the difference
between a lack of grit and genuine
disinterest if you're not interested in
something you need to move on quickly uh
but like I said if that becomes serial
you may have a
problem um and if you're only good in
the beginning that's uh the sign that
you like grit all right who here already
has their
passion man that's awesome I did not
expect people to be honest I thought
everyone would raise their hand okay
that's amazing the number one question I
get and I get this question so much you
can't imagine how do I find my
passion the good news is passion is not
something that's handed to you it is not
a lightning bolt moment it's another
nice simple mathematical equation first
of all you need to identify your areas
of Interest everybody's interested in
something and I find the big problem is
people stop themselves because they say
yeah well the thing that I'm interested
in couldn't possibly be a business so
let's take video games back in the
80s back when everybody thought that
video games were a joke you're ruining
your brain it's like intellectual candy
kids get off the computer go play
outside Nintendo's a joke it's
ridiculous and then we have an entire
industry now that's borne up around
video games games that has made Untold
numbers of millionaires I met one of the
founders of Riot games that created
League of Legends the guys like I don't
know 31 maybe younger I mean just crazy
they do a billion dollars a billion
dollars in revenue from
microtransactions of things that are not
essential to play the game the game is
totally free to play you don't need to
pay for anything imagine that for a
second you're in an industry where they
don't need to buy anything to get full
use of your game and yet you do over a
billion dollars in Revenue because they
said I love this I like being around
games I like the competition of it I
think it's
amazing I'm going to find a way I'm
going to be inventive I'm going to look
for areas to add value and so they have
and more people now watch Esports the
finale of League of Legends then watch
the finales I think of all major sports
combined it's crazy they fill
Arenas it's absolutely Bonkers but that
was somebody who said this is something
I love it's something I want to be
around it is an area of interest and I
don't care if other people tell me that
it can't be a business it's what I want
to be around with enough
Ingenuity and enough forethought into
what actually can be a business because
some things can't you can really do
something with something that's an
interest all right so an interest you
need to gain Mastery in it during the
process of gaining Mastery you'll find
out whether you actually like that thing
enough to become great at it it is my
belief whatever it is you set out to do
as a business there should be one litmus
test you should be able to ask and
affirmatively answer the following
question do I want to know more about
this than anyone else in the
world don't get into something unless
you plan to be the best that's my piece
of advice I know that's not going to sit
well with everybody but if you want to
have the passion to make something big
to make big change it's got to be
something that you believe in Beyond
reasonable doubt it's got to be
something you've just got to make happen
so ask yourself do I want to know more
about this than anyone else because
you're going to have to get better at it
than anyone else if you want to be
excellent and deliver on the promise all
right interest over time plus Mastery
equals passion that's how you find your
passion all right you had two jobs I
mentioned in the beginning job number
two is build your business here's how
we're going to do it it's a new world
and a new world Demands a new kind of
company now the reason that Quest went
so fast wasn't just because we had done
something to our minds and gotten to the
point where we were so angry that we
were going to push us forward no matter
what it was understanding the timing of
the marketplace and the technologies
that were emerging and the technology
that was emerging in 2009 when we first
started thinking about the company
everybody thought Facebook was a joke
everybody thought it was a huge
distraction and what we understood was
it was just a
megaphone we didn't pass judgment on it
we just knew it was a megaphone and it
was a free
megaphone and if we could give them
reason to say something good within a
couple of minutes of an interaction with
us they could have a global audience and
tell people about that so we saw that
the timing was right there and we also
understood that people want to have
impact take this superhero Iron Man the
movie franchise is off the charts and
what is it at the same time that you
have people occupying Wall Street you
have them
celebrating one of the richest people on
the planet
why because he dresses up like a
superhero and he tries to save the world
people don't mind money people don't
mind that you want to create a beautiful
lifestyle for you and your family they
don't mind people getting rich but they
care a lot about how you do it they care
a lot about what you do with it once you
have it nobody like Scrooge McDuck don't
ever leak a photo of you swimming in
your money I promise it will not go
well but if you have a vision for how
your company could make the world a
better place and you use social media to
allow people to touch and be evangelized
by your brand if you're thinking how can
I make a product or a service that
actually makes the lives better of the
people that work at the company and the
people who buy the product if that's the
question that you're asking man they
will rally around you and we live in
this amazing time and you've got to take
advantage of that and it really freaks
me out when people think that we're like
either the social movement is cresting
or it's behind us it's only gaining
steam the TV's going away the mobile
phone is becoming the television like
these changes are a one way ticket to
difference I don't know exactly what
it's going to look like I just know it's
not going to stop and it sure as hell
isn't going to go in
reverse and what I always try to do is
get to the psychology of the problem
Elon Musk talks about in his business
it's all about breaking things down to
the
physics if you sell to people the
physics in your world is psychology and
understanding what motivates them so
your company needs to have a why if you
know Simon s and His Brilliant book
start with why you'll know what we're
talking about the Golden Circle most
people know what they do they may even
know how they do it but they often times
don't know why they do it why did we
launch Quest Nutrition because we wanted
to end metabolic
disease now nobody knew that from
looking at a protein bar but our
marketing material was about that we
didn't do features and benefits we said
stop
sacrificing we said you should hold food
companies to a new standard it's
ridiculous that food companies aren't
engineering new equipment to make food
that's both good for you and delicious
it's just ridiculous nobody's held their
feet to the fire people have been buying
the same junk products for years they're
not going to change unless you force
them to and so we came along and said
we're going to be the bearer of
Standards we know why we're doing what
we're doing so I can't release a product
that has sugar in it why because that's
not going to end metabolic disease and
that is my driver I show up to work
every day not thinking about making it
rain and counting my money I'm not
swimming in it like Scrooge McDuck I'm
coming every day thinking about two
people my mom and my sister and I ask a
very simple question is this
advantageous for my mom and my sister
yes or no if it is I do it if it's not I
don't now a lot of times what's
advantageous for my mom and my sister
was really expensive it was
super annoying to have to do it because
it was like you watch your pro margins
like oh
God but it becomes an easy filter and
every business has to have a filter
every business needs to know what they
say yes to and what they say no to and
if you don't have that blinding Guiding
Light when you scale you will fall apart
and the reason you will fall apart your
customers won't know who you are they
won't know how to communicate your
message to somebody else your employees
won't know who you are they won't know
what to communicate to each other let
alone the outside world so it has got to
be blinding you have to be able to write
it down it has to be super clear it's
got to be direct and it's got to be
meaningful and it has to be real it's
got to actually be something that drives
you because let me tell you
on those 2: a.m. Friday nights when my
knuckles were bloody because no one knew
how to repair our machines because we
had engineered them
ourselves that was frustrating that
sucked I would have much rather been
doing something else at 2 a.m. on a
Friday but I believed in what we were
trying to accomplish the team believed
in what we were trying to accomplish and
we weren't going to let ourselves down
and we weren't going to let our
customers
down be
transparent it's a new world order man
when I was coming up you didn't be
transparent you put a marketing message
out you spun that like you tried to
be as close to the truth as you could
but you didn't worry about
transparency but these
days consumers expect transparency they
want to know who you are they want to
know what you're doing they want to know
what it means to support you because
it's not enough that your product is
good they want to know that your company
stands for
something but it's also incredibly
meaningful to your employees you want to
keep top quality Talent around for a
long time you want to make sure that
they know what's going on in the company
all right focus on value only value is
sustainable you want to make sure that
you're delivering value at every touch
Point your customer service should
deliver value your marketing message
should deliver value your advertising in
and of itself should deliver value your
ads should be served to the people who
even though they can skip skip it after
4 seconds they don't that's when you're
actually delivering value all right be
authentic God this is embarrassing but
this is actually my wife and I we
actually go see Santa Claus every year
and I actually posted this on my
Instagram account why because it's real
that's really who I am my wife and I are
goofy as hell uh and one of the things
that we bonded over originally was that
got a big response people love seeing
that kind of thing they want to know who
you really are now everybody has to
decide where to draw the line for
themselves most people would say I
should have drawn the line before this
one uh but this that's us all right it's
about Connection in today's day and age
you can argue about whether social media
is fake connection or real connection
but I will tell you this it is the
predominant form of connection and one
of the things we all need to think about
stop passing judgment on this stuff man
just look at the truth of how it's being
used go where the attention is if people
are using technology and you're like
yeah but I don't think it's real
connection someone else is going to eat
your lunch because they get how to talk
to people in the lingua franka okay
people today consumers today my mom and
dad are on Facebook so leverage
technology to connect all right don't
build or don't Market build a community
this is so important social media is
going to allow you to have real
meaningful relationships with your
customers I will tell you one very fast
in the very early days of of quest when
all of us had to go out and actually
make the bars I'm out making bars our
chief marketing officer out making bars
like everybody's out there there would
be periods of time where we wouldn't
respond to somebody on Facebook but this
one woman started responding and we
thought wow that's so weird like is did
somebody create a fake account like is
that one of you guys and everyone's like
no man we didn't do that that's the real
person and she would tell people like oh
don't worry I'm sure to get back to you
quickly they're really great company and
we were so and this is like early 2010
we like what is
happening and so we reached out and said
hey we want to put you on payroll she's
like I don't want to be on payroll and
I'm like whoa okay now I'm getting
freaked out like what do you want and
she was like I just want you to continue
to deliver a service I'm a nutritionist
and I use your bars with a lot of people
I just want to make sure that you're
around so we developed this really cool
relationship with her we all got to know
her she held us to a standard she was
not always nice she was always fair but
she wasn't always nice if we were doing
something poorly from a product
standpoint like we weights and measures
will let you ship product That's Heavy
you just can't ship light okay so
imagine get your B your Doritos your B
your Doritos is going to be heavy it's
never going to be light now so we're
thinking okay cool we have to comply
with weights and measures but we're a
health and fitness company so people are
like if I'm buying 60 grams and that's
what I have in my diet plan I want to
make sure I'm eating 60 grams and not 65
and so she would call us out on it so we
ended up buying a piece of equipment
because of that relationship that we had
with this woman that we never met
and then one day she went
silent we wrote to her mom hey is
everything okay and her mom said she
passed away she was like
28 and I got like really emotional and
I'd never met her and I'm not like that
guy but I got legitimately emotional and
I
wrote a Manifesto and I said to everyone
in the company basically we exist to
serve these people every one of them is
trying to do something we may know
nothing about and they're using our
products and so we started celebrating
her her name's Joy Rita we've been doing
it for four years now the joy Rita Super
Fan award we bring somebody in that's
been amazing to the community we just
give them a big blowout party at our
headquarters getting behind the scenes
access to cool stuff just to say thank
you and that's when we really realized
it it may not be the kind of
relationship you have with your mom or
your brother or your sister or your
spouse but it's meaningful man in a way
that business relationships haven't been
since like the local General Store and
you saw the same people come in every
day it really is like if you can flip
that switch in your mind and see it as
something beautiful I'm telling you it
will open you up to a whole new way of
interacting with your customers because
there's a lot of amazing stuff going on
in your communities that you may not
even know about or that you could really
feed into and build into something
amazing and if you stay focused on it
being a community of people that are
supporting themselves each other and
your company
then you can do some pretty incredible
things all right this is how you build a
community this is very straightforward
understand this pyramid of influence at
the top you have thought leaders thought
leaders are the people that nobody
understands they are the doctors they're
the person that talks over your head
they're um the people that never make it
on radio or TV because nobody knows what
they're talking about under them are the
influencers now the thought leaders are
the ones that