Business Innovators Radio - Ep. #33 – Martin Rooney – The Big Success Podcast with Brad Sugars

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Big Success Podcast, cutting edge conversations on business and personal success, as well as how to level up. Here's your host, number one business coach in the world, Brad Shogers. This will blow your mind. I couldn't stop this guy. We went over time. I know we did, but there are so many amazing lessons. From being not only a master of jujitsu, like the training stuff this guy does for UFC, all of the things, the NFL, you name the sports that he's trained in. But on top of that, all the books he's written, the companies he's built, and on top of that, as a trainer in the UFC of the winning a spider of UFC history, this man has it all. You are going to love his view on success. His stuff

Starting point is 00:00:49 on leveling up, phenomenal, phenomenal bits and pieces in there. Take lots of notes. I think you're going to need to listen to this one twice. Martin Rooney, his book, High 10, his latest book coach, Coach, these are the things we got to keep reading, keep learning if we want big success. Dive right in. This is Martin Rooney. Martin, I got to ask you a question that I start every podcast with. How do you define success? Like, what is success to you?

Starting point is 00:01:16 Well, Brad, I am so glad I'm on here today because until I knew that was going to be a question I was going to be asked, I don't know if I really defined it for myself. And for all the listeners, I think immediately you think, oh, success, it's about, money or wealth or freedom or my job or my career. And what I really discovered is that the best line I can say is success is holistic. And when we say holistic, it means there are parts of something that are all interconnected where I think to be successful, you've got to be successful in every one of those areas. And the areas that I kind of define for myself would be, whether you call it career versus calling. There's got to be this career or calling success. You've got to have

Starting point is 00:02:07 success in the health arena because obviously if you don't have your health, who cares how much money you have, you've got to have success in the areas of relationships. Again, man, you can have become the biggest guy in your industry, but if you lose your family, I consider you a failure, right? And then in the areas of wealth, whether you say fortune or, you're going to, or freedom. And then in the area of whether it's spiritual, we'll talk about this today, maybe achievement versus entertainment. And then the last piece, success, there's got to be some kind of legacy. Like, what did you do that impacted someone else? And those would be my cornerstones, or those were the areas that I defined in a holistic approach. But I'm hoping that that helps

Starting point is 00:02:56 the listener investigate, wow, what are mine? What, what would, what would. be mine and then what would be my highest levels in each area. So was it always that way, though? Like when you go back to the early training days with the graces, was, you know, obviously you've defined that over a lifetime, I guess. Yeah. So obviously, success, and I think we're going to talk about leveling up today, and I'm going to be my definition of that, which I think is very interesting. But it's just become as you grow, you become aware. Remember, when I started with those guys and started training professional athletes. I'm a kid in my 20s. Hey, I'm a father of four in my 50s now. There's a lot that has happened in terms of my awareness of what success really means.

Starting point is 00:03:44 So I think when I'm in my 20s, I think success means, wow, I'm training these guys. I'm making money and I wrote my first book. Now I'm much more concerned with how am I going to leave this world better than I found it. And that is, that's personal growth. That's, that's growth over a lifetime. And it evolves. And if everybody can hear that today, so if you're 20 listening to me now, I'm going to give you the keys to the kingdom to make it happen not only faster, but not make the mistakes I made along the journey. So where do you think you chose success? Like, was it something that was in bred in you? Was there at a moment that it happened? Where did success become your choice? I was thinking a lot about this, and it's pretty interesting. I think

Starting point is 00:04:30 everybody's got this origin story. And mine, hey, I was from a blue collar family. My parents both worked. I was a latchkey kid, not feeling so great about myself, and I really lacked control. But what I see now and what shaped me was I lacked mentorship. And I'll never forget that my grades were never that great. You know, I was really pretty mediocre at best. And it was in fifth grade, fifth grade, so I'm about 12 years old. And this teacher said to me at the end of the school year, he said, hey, Martin, you got five A's and two Bs in the final marking period. It's the best I ever saw you do. But, and listen very carefully, Brad, he said, you could get straight A's. Did you know you could do that? Just those short words right there. Did you know you could do that?

Starting point is 00:05:21 And he doesn't know how he impacted me, but no, I didn't know I could do that. And the minute that somebody gave me permission to be great, I just went on the attack. And I never got to be again in my life. That's all the way to through three degrees, two of them at a medical university. And ever since, I have never said to myself that I can't do it. I said, do you know you can do that? Now what you've got to do is find the strategies and do the work. and you'll figure it out.

Starting point is 00:05:51 And so that was this hinge point, right? Like those small hinges that swing big doors, that was the one that I think was the change for me athletically, academically, spiritually, all of it. And I gave my self-premission to say, I could be great at something too. You know, somewhere in that, you know, 10 to 20 age, I find that a lot of people get someone just push them to success,

Starting point is 00:06:20 give them permission for success, ask them to be a success. And I think that I'm, you know, I hope through this podcast, we're giving a lot of people that as well. What is, what is the Martin Rooney formula for success? Like how does success happen? How do you believe it happens? Well, it's, I've got it pretty crystallized down. And for everybody listening, I speak around the world on these concepts. I just never, I never presented, say, on success. But a lot of my philosophy, whether it's athletic success, academic success, it's all the same. And we're going to make this real simple for everybody. I put it down into, it's just four letters, it's an equation, and it's acts.

Starting point is 00:07:04 So A, C, T, equals S. So A times C times T equals S. What does that stand for? Actions multiplied by consistency, multiplied over time, equals success. And so when you say, hey, what's my formula? It's just take successful actions consistently over time. What's the real, I guess, definition of that? It's habits.

Starting point is 00:07:29 You know, so what are your habits are going to either determine whether you're successful or not? That could be as simple as how you eat. It could be how you train. It could be what you do every day at work, that little bit of reading every night. But my secret has been, I am not smarter than anyone else. I know that. I was not born with different genetic gifts, but what I have done, that few have done, is over the last 40 years, I've taken consistent action when most people gave up.

Starting point is 00:07:58 And at the end of those, say, 10 or 20 or 30 years, they either call you world expert, world champ, world best. And that has been what I have aspired to be in multiple industries and had some really cool success there over the last period of time, just from that simple, simple equation. So let's break that down just for a second. Let's start with the actions. How does one actually find that the actions they're taking are the right actions? Here's what I would say. It's almost like you're reading my mind there. Here, you ready? The breadcrumbs are already there. Find the person who is doing what you want to be doing

Starting point is 00:08:40 and find whether you call the actions or the strategies that they are employing, learn them, and then reproduce them. It's not hard. There are any biography you could read of whoever's doing what you want to do, it's all there. And as soon as I discovered that, it was like, oh, my gosh, if I want this and this person has that, then I have to do what they do. I have to have better strategies.

Starting point is 00:09:07 and I, from a very young age, went on the hunt for strategies. So I like to call myself a strategy monster where I'll be, oh, how do you do that? Down to, if anybody looks at my Instagram, I have started chainsaw carving in the last year and a half. And I'm producing some crazy, crazy works that are in galleries now just because I sought out the best, learned how to do it, and now I can do it too. And I had no background for that. So there is a, it works every time you just have to work it. And a lot of people don't.

Starting point is 00:09:40 That leads to consistency then. What is the fundamentals in your mind of being consistent and doing that consistently? And I guess add that to time, staying consistent for a long period. Yeah. So here would be the challenge. Everybody I meet, they can do something for a short period and stick with it if they've got a goal. So you'll see the person I'll lose weight for 30 days, the person that'll work on their sleep for a week, the person who will start reading again. And then a month later, you ask if they're reading and they gave up.

Starting point is 00:10:14 And it's just, man, it's these simple little actions repeated over time. If you were to boil me down, right, and say what might be the most critical word for success, I would probably say consistency. because that's the piece that everybody lacks. It's just, so of course you've got to take great actions, but you've got to do them again and again and again and again and again. And it's not any harder. It's just there's something that stops people from doing that. And over the last 30 years, I just, whether it's my sleep nutrition,

Starting point is 00:10:50 reading, studying, growing personal development, I just didn't stop where everybody else gave up. And yeah. So how do you find that? But as a coach, like a lot of people come to you or used to back when you were training a lot that come to you because you made them stay consistent. Is that part of being a great coach, I guess? Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's what we all need, right? So whether you want to call it accountability, how I define it like this, is I say, I want my voice inside their head at all times.

Starting point is 00:11:24 So they say, I have to do this because I can't let my coach down. And that kind of brings it whole circle where there was that one person in my life who became that voice that I've tried to be that first with all my athletes, then within my organization, to where now the stuff that I put out there everywhere in the world, I'm trying to hold someone accountable, which is ultimately to get them to be more consistent over time to reach their goals. And yeah, it's so it's kind interesting that the master of something doesn't take a simple, or a big idea and make it more complex. They take a big idea and they make it really simple. And for everybody listening, you might say, oh, is it that easy? And I'm daring you. See, I'm being your coach right now. I'm daring you.

Starting point is 00:12:10 Take the actions you know you should be taking already for the next year, very consistent, and watch how your life changes. So hang on, let's flip it over then. How does failure teach success? Wow. And you want to know, and you're going to like this. So, It sits here on my desk. I'm in my office right now. And this is my black belt in judo. It took me a decade to achieve it. Even with my degrees, I feel like I learned as much on those mats as I did in any academic hall in particular about myself. But what I say a black belt represents when I teach is I say the black belt is not the person that made no mistakes. or had no failures. The black belt is the person that made them all. They made mistake after mistake after mistake. They just didn't repeat the mistake. They learned from it. And whether you

Starting point is 00:13:05 want to say leveled up, they grew, they eventually earned new belts. But this sits on my desk always as the reminder, not, wow, here's this belt around my waist. It's a reminder that I've got to constantly keep making mistakes or I won't grow. And down to, cornering the most famous fighters, and I'll say this, Brad, we never really learned much from big victories. So I trained the winningest fighter in UFC history, Jim Miller. He just won a few weeks ago in Las Vegas in 23 seconds. He had an incredible knockout fight of the night. You know what we learned from that? Almost nothing. There's no feedback. Yeah, but in five-round war, where he ends up losing and we see the flaws, or we see, we get this feature.

Starting point is 00:13:54 about where we need to be better, even as hard as those losses are to digest, they end up being the things of greatest value, the things that shape you forward. So, yeah, for everybody listening, if you're not failing often at something, you're not pushing hard enough and you're probably not growing. You're on the Big Success podcast. I'm Brad Sugars. We're going to take a quick break. And then we're going to come back with Bonin. And we're going to talk about leadership and team and culture and all the amazing things that he can teach. Training for Warriors here on the Big Success podcast. There has never been a better time to become successful in life than right now. Creating success in your life isn't about chance. It's about learning what it takes to create a great life.

Starting point is 00:14:36 And that's why Brad Sugar's put together 30x life. You get his 30 years of success in 30 minutes a day for 30 days. You only get one shot at this thing called life. Let's build an amazing life for you. And we're back. It's big success. And Martin, team and team team. culture. How does a team create a winning culture? Well, and this is, if we were to tap into right now, what is my current, either whether you would say passion or the area that I'm exploring the most, it's the area of coaching and how that affects culture. And I wrote a book about it. The book is called High 10. People are loving it. And in the beginning, like you said, I was working with teams. So you might say an athletic sports team,

Starting point is 00:15:20 But I helped build a 100 location franchise in the sports performance industry that did not exist. But then my company, Training for Warriors, added Zenith before COVID, we had almost 300 locations in 30 countries around the world. And what I realized was it wasn't about the training. It wasn't about the workout. The strength was in the community. The strength was in the culture. And I, even though I was doing it, I didn't understand it. and I needed to create the blueprint for myself, what it meant and how I could engineer it.

Starting point is 00:15:55 And so the answer for everyone that I will give that will make it very simple is that first, you have to understand what you stand for, what that team stands for. I like to call those the beliefs. Then you've got to figure out what behaviors you allow and what behaviors you don't and which ones you want to foster. and then culturally, your beliefs in actions carried out through the behaviors of all your people. And at the top of that is leadership. And we talked about failure previously.

Starting point is 00:16:29 I'll tell you what, there has never been a greater leadership lesson for me. I've read every book on it. I've met with leaders from around the world. But when I experienced those few years of COVID and trying to hold my company together that I had built for 20 years and what that taught me about culture and leadership. Now as we've come out of this, it was the most dark and horrible time during it, but now I couldn't be more happy for those scars of what it taught me and what it prepared me for for challenges lying ahead. So when you think about knowing what you stand for, knowing the behaviors and all that, how does that play out on a day-to-day

Starting point is 00:17:08 basis in making the culture stronger? Watch. Well, so it's interesting. We made a, coins about it. And these are our core values on the coin. I carry this with me at all times. And really ultimately, what I'm challenging everyone right now, if you want to be successful, you have to know what you stand for. It's not just what you're shooting for, but what do you stand for? Because that's going to be your compass. That's going to direct you the way that you attempt to achieve it. So for instance, you've seen a lot of companies out there, they're successful. And then you find out they're stealing or cheating or whatever else. And then they fall apart. So the bedrock of your culture are the values that you stand for.

Starting point is 00:17:49 And few people I've ever met when I really sit them down and say, hey, tell me the five or six things you stand for so strong you'll die for it. Most of them look at me like I have two heads. They don't even know what I'm talking about. Right. And so I would challenge everybody if you want to be successful, you first have to do the deep work on yourself. Who are you?

Starting point is 00:18:08 What do you stand for? And what is going to be the compass or the pathway that you will use to achieve what you want. And yeah, and that is the bedrock of your culture, because if it stands for nothing, you've heard it before, it will fall for anything. And so that is where I begin, whether you want to call it value standard. These are the rituals that eventually happen that define who you are and what your company is. So how does that work in with the leadership philosophy of how you teach leadership? Yeah. So with leadership from a culture, it starts at the top. I call it a trickle down. So the person who has to embody the values the most is the person at the top. Right. And often that's not how it goes. Right. So we can't be an empty leader. I like to say you can't be a dentist with wooden teeth. So those values, I've got to embody them stronger than anyone else. And then hold everyone account. to them. So the minute I see somebody not doing what meshes with our culture, as a strong

Starting point is 00:19:17 leader, I've got to be all over that. And I wasn't always like that. Like I had to learn that. Sometimes I'd be afraid. Oh, I don't want confrontation. I don't want to say anything. But now that I understand that my company is the most important thing in the world to me, not just that it feeds my family, but that it will be my legacy. Man, there is nothing more important than the brand right here. I can't have anybody jeopardize that. Right. So great. line as my culture will never be held hostage by someone that uses either the wrong behaviors or just because of time served or production, right? And these are powerful, powerful concepts that, again, I'm spitting them out like they're easy, but man, they took me 30 years of suffering to learn.

Starting point is 00:20:03 So let's talk about the other side then. Let's talk about the health and the fitness side of things. How do we succeed at health and fitness? How do we make sure that that's a big passion or a big part of our life? Well, here I'm going to, I am going to, this is a part of my philosophy that I think I've been speaking on around the world for the last 30 years, and I'm going to make it really easy. Everybody listening, you have to make a decision. Number one is health important, and you better understand that it is, because if you don't have your health, nothing else matters, right? So if you are sick, and ill, who cares how much money's in the bank, who cares how many Instagram likes you have,

Starting point is 00:20:44 because you can't enjoy it. And in order to achieve that health, man, instead of making it complex, make it real simple. And here we go. I say that you've got to make your health non-negotiable instead of expendable. And what do I mean by that? Sleep, for me, is non-negotiable. It is eight hours a night. I don't care where I am, what plane I'm on, what I have coming, up or what show is on Netflix. I am getting eight hours because I know how important that is for my health. And if you don't understand it, you should read some books on sleep. That would be sleep. Nutrition is non-negotiable. I love this one. People will say, oh, I call it the most dangerous word in the English language. They will say, I can't eat right. I'm busy. I can't sleep right.

Starting point is 00:21:32 I'm busy. I can't work out. I'm busy. And guys, I don't care how busy you are. it's no physically harder to put the right food in the hole under your nose than it is the wrong food, right? You just have to make it non-negotiable. And then when it comes into your training or your workout, I don't care what it is. It doesn't have to be that you are blasting yourself with some crazy hard workout. In fact, I would rather you do 30 or 40 or minutes or an hour of walking every day than two hard workouts a week and you do everything else wrong. And that's coming from the fitness guys. But the overarching idea is you've got to make the dosages of those things non-negotiable. Just as if a doctor was prescribing you a medicine that could save your life, I'm doing it right now.

Starting point is 00:22:22 Eight hours of sleep, eat the right foods, which, by the way, you already know what they are. Don't act like you don't. And then get some regular exercise. And holy cow, not only will you live longer, you'll be there to enjoy your time with everybody else longer too. and that's my philosophy and I'm sticking to it. So final one I want to ask you about here then is if you were to take the best lessons of martial arts and condensed down, what are the top two or three things that the gracey's taught you, all of that, the whole thing, what are the two or three philosophies that you think stand out that make it such an amazing part of what is in your life?

Starting point is 00:23:03 Wow, that's a tough one. Well, here's what I would say. Number one, we talked about the black belt, right, today. And when I achieved mine, my, whether you call them sense, teachers, mentors, coaches, they were all afraid because they said an American idealist, once you achieve the black belt, you think you're done. But the Japanese concept from judo is the black belt isn't the end. It's just the beginning. And one of the concepts that I have to remind my. myself is, even though this is around my waist, I always have to keep a white belt around my mind. So you have to always be open to possibilities, more of them that exist, and always be open to new lessons or essentially you become a dinosaur. And that one as I get older, it gets harder, right? As technology changes, as there are more complex things that I have to continue to learn, it'd be easy to say, let me just do it the way I always did it. That worked. But that's probably the fastest way to fall behind. So that one was a big concept. And here's another one that really

Starting point is 00:24:07 stands out for me. You're going to love this one. Are you ready for this one? I'm right. It's important for everybody. Don't try to drown the guy that taught you how to swim. This is one that I heard in the dojo one day and it just had such a profound effect. So you're going to, everybody listening is going to work either for someone or within a company and you're going to reach this level say, I'm going to do this myself or nobody ever helped me. I'm going to do it my way. And then you might leave and then try to tear down all the people that helped you get where you are. So that concept, whether you call it loyalty, that concept of thanks or gratitude, I challenge everybody to never lose it. You may move on, you may move on, but never underestimate

Starting point is 00:24:55 the stuff that you learned from somewhere else. And that's something I take great pride in that, hey, other companies that I help build, there is no ill will. I love those guys. I could have never been who I am without it. And I'm never going to try to tear them down. I'm only going to try to build them up. And I have been successful in this industry and kept all my friends just because of that concept. Right.

Starting point is 00:25:19 And so you can move on, but never forget where you came from. And I'll tell you what, that's a human nature thing or whatever else. but interesting lesson that I got there. And then the final one I'll give everybody right now, hey, when I was beginning in jujitsu, it's very uncomfortable to have somebody trying to choke you unconscious. When I started in business and building my own business, it's very uncomfortable to have to either go out on your own

Starting point is 00:25:49 or whether it's developing copy, marketing, whatever it is you have to do, man, it's so uncomfortable and scary. But the idea that the martial arts gave me, that maybe help me move forward in every other aspect of my life is that I'm always challenging myself to get comfortable being uncomfortable. So I realize, wow, if I can, if I'm okay, if I'm cool with somebody trying to break my arms or choke me unconscious, then man, this marketing thing's not that hard. That stuff's kind of easy. That's kind of easy. Like, really, you're going to complain. You've got to write a chapter or something right now in a new book.

Starting point is 00:26:24 Yeah, it's uncomfortable, but it's not impossible. And the more you do something, the more comfortable you will become. And yeah, now when things are uncomfortable, I dive into them instead of shy away from them. And that has always been another secret to my success. You're on the big success podcast. Martin Rooney is with us and we're going to be back in chatting about leveling up. Martin Rooney is an internationally recognized entrepreneur, fitness expert, sought after presenter, and bestselling author. Martin's two newest books, High 10 and Coach to Coach, are helping to create better leaders, business, and team cultures around the world. To learn more about Martin Rooney, please visit Trainingfor Warriors.com.

Starting point is 00:27:06 You're back on the Big Success podcast. Leveling up. Martin, what is your theory on how people level up, going from good to great? I love this one, right? And I think this is an important segue, just that idea, leveling up, leveling up. So if I said to everyone, hey, leveling up, what does it mean? and people say, you know, leveling up. And everybody says, you know, it gets this lip service.

Starting point is 00:27:33 But unless you understand what it means, it's probably never going to happen. It's exactly how I attacked culture, coaching, even what you're doing with success, right? Success until you define it, you don't know if you have it. And I think what happened to me is I kept hearing leveling up, leveling up. And I didn't even understand what it meant. And here is my definition. And it's, you know, maybe we use finance as an example for that. But I say leveling up is simply becoming aware of things that you weren't doing at a higher level,

Starting point is 00:28:04 that if you did those, you would reach a higher level. So we talked about actions today. So for instance, with money, I call, there are certain people I call them like level zero, right? A level zero is they have a job, they make money and they spend all their money and they're absolutely broke. That would be a zero. But that person, it might not be their fault because they may not understand, wait a minute, If I saved, that would raise me to another level. How do I do that?

Starting point is 00:28:29 And then watch this. Now I'm at the saving level. Now if I invested, if I invested, wow, I wasn't even aware you could do that. Now I'd see how to do that. I can reach another level. And then it might be building businesses, getting in real estate. It might be, you know, and then just there are all these levels. But the level all becomes about awareness that there are actions that I could take.

Starting point is 00:28:50 And then I take those actions. And once I understood that, I started. to say, hey, if I'm at this level, well, who's somebody that's another level I'm not at? What are they doing? I need to become aware of this thing. And then I need to do it. And so that is my definition of what leveling up means. So leveling up to me is not like, oh, I went to a weekend course and I leveled up. No, it's, I became aware of strategies I didn't know that could raise me up to where I want to be and now I have to do those, if that makes sense. And the line I use a lot, you're like, this one is, man, it's a fine line between mediocrity and mastery, right?

Starting point is 00:29:33 And that fine line are just, is that awareness of what it takes to get there. And I challenge everybody, whatever it is you want to be the highest level in, you need to deep dive into it and just find those strategies. And if you do, you can have what they have too. Let's dive then across from that and say, if you look at the athletes you've trained, like world class, what's the difference between someone who sets a goal then of being okay versus someone who sets that goal to be the best in the world? How do you, what's your thoughts? I would say it's a personal choice and it's, and again, so subtle.

Starting point is 00:30:14 Here's what's interesting. I have trained hundreds of fighters. We've been talking a lot about fighters today, but I've also. worked within the NFL for many years, professional athletes in every sport. And you know what's interesting, Brett, is unfortunately with athletes, many athletes are born to be there. Right. Like I use the NFL as an example. If you're not six, five and 250 pounds and don't run a certain speed, you can't be certain positions in the NFL. It just doesn't work like that. So many of those athletes were born to be there, but maybe they didn't personally choose how great they were going to be.

Starting point is 00:30:45 And what I think is interesting is even when they've reached the highest level in the world, they often smash into the ceiling of their own level of incompetence, that they haven't even decided to be the best of all time. Like you said, so there are some fighters. They just say, man, I'd love to someday maybe fight in the UFC. And if that's their highest goal, even if it happens, they're probably not going to be their law. Right. And then we've had other fighters that said, I don't want to just go there.

Starting point is 00:31:11 I want to be the best there ever was, like a Jim Miller who wasn't Uber talented. who doesn't have mega physical gifts, but he had this mindset. And just by setting that goal, do you see how his levels when he levels up? He's going to keep finding strategies that are beyond the guy that just wishes he could be there, right? And so ultimately, what I'm telling everybody today and what you have to listen is, what? Yeah, like this goes back to, you can't be successful until I guess you've set some goals

Starting point is 00:31:40 or you have some standards. And the goal you set will determine. will set everything in motion. So if your goal is really low and you reach it, well, congrats, but you still might not be that successful. But if the goal is incredibly, incredibly high, and you keep striving to get there, you're going to move past all those people that had lower goals. And even though they reached it, you're going to be considered way more successful. Did it happen for you, Martin, personally, as a always wanted to be that? Or did it gradually happen? And what was your methodology of getting to the massive goals?

Starting point is 00:32:18 Yeah, I would. Yeah, there's no doubt. And hey, I don't want to steal away from myself. For everybody listening, I am a driven guy. Like, here would be a line they use for me a lot, my friends. They say, Martin Rooney has two speeds, asleep and ferocious, right? So, you know, my friends, you know, I have been referred to as a force of nature. I guess what it is is I just have this personal thing that, like, if I'm going to do something,

Starting point is 00:32:43 man, why not max it out? Why not be the best I could be? If I'm going through this life one time, like, man, I'm going to use it all up. I'm going to get everything out of this body, out of this mind. And the older I get, the more urgent it all becomes because I'm running out of time. So it's only accelerating and getting stronger. So without a doubt, I would say, man, if I want to do something, then I want to be great at that something. What has changed, though, is in the beginning when I was young, I think I was doing it like I like to say to be legit. Like, oh, look at me, look at me, or can I get likes or did people buy my books? And now I have definitely moved from legitimacy to legacy. And now it's, instead of look at me, it's come with me. Instead of look at me, it's like,

Starting point is 00:33:36 do this stuff and you can have it too. Because when I can't do this anymore, who's going to pick up the torch, you know, like who's going to, who's going to be the next one now? Because I will say, the older I get, hey, I know I'm running out of gas too. And so I'm not, no one's going to say I got cheated, but I want to make sure now that no one else gets cheated out of a lifetime of what they could consider success too. So, so that's definitely been an evolution. And I think everybody's going to reach it, right? I think there's a period you have to be selfish. But man, and that's how you get great, but then you hit this thing and you realize, man, it's self-less so that how many people can I serve? What, you know, what will I have done that really mattered? And those are the biggest

Starting point is 00:34:23 changes of how I'm using that drive now. Love it. Love it. So let's go to the quick fire round. Quick question, quick answers. How do you succeed at goal setting? Well, here's what I would say. you got to sit down and really ask yourself simple question, what do you want? When I sit down and ask people, they'll say, I don't have what I want. I don't have what I want. I'll say, what do you want? They say, I don't know. And that's why they don't have it.

Starting point is 00:34:50 So the simplest thing for goal setting, make them super, super distinct, write them down, keep them right in your face. I review my goals weekly, and these are not just the next month goals. They are lifetime goals. It's all on one document. I've been doing it for 20 years. I have this thing, and it's never failed. How do you succeed at self-development?

Starting point is 00:35:11 My simple one is mine is read books. I am constantly reading. So before I ever wrote any, man, I have read thousands. It's not like a saying anymore. I'm over 2,000 books, so that is thousands. I've been reading for 30 years straight and constantly challenging myself to grow. I'm actually addicted to it now. And I wasn't a good reader.

Starting point is 00:35:33 So if you're not a good reader, start with five pages, then make it six, then eight, then 10 and eventually you will never stop. How do you succeed at relationships? Yeah. If anybody has that answer, hey, I have four daughters guys and my wife. But here's what I would say. Invest in them and act interested, right? So be more worried about being interested than interesting and you'll never fail.

Starting point is 00:36:00 And here would be a really good one for any parents out there. The best way to love your kids is love their mom or dad, depending on who you all. And if they see that in front of them, man, you're setting them up for a way, way more successful life. How do you succeed at enjoyment, fun, vacation, like switching off? Yeah. Hey, have passion and know the battery idea is real. My wife and I just got back from Spain just a couple of weeks ago, 10 days.

Starting point is 00:36:28 And holy cow, not only did I need it, but I'll challenge everybody for this. You're not leaving work or getting away. It might be where your greatest ideas happen. So recharge the batteries. Don't wait until you're 65 because it'll probably be too late. Make sure you are consistently taking time for yourself throughout your lifetime. And I promise it'll be the greatest thing you do. Final question while I got you, Martin.

Starting point is 00:36:55 What is the best quote or the best advice you were ever given about success, about succeeding? Well, I kind of had a couple of them. And, you know, one of my favorite, you could say writers or playwrights, George Bernard Shaw, and there's this one that I use. It's on my desktop here. And listen to this, because I won't read the whole thing. It's actually longer. If anybody wants to check it out, you can look further.

Starting point is 00:37:19 Or actually, you know what? I'm going to read the whole thing and just give you this one. Listen to this, everybody. This is the true joy in life. The being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. The being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfless. little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy, right? He said, I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community.

Starting point is 00:37:47 And as long as I live it, it is my privilege to do it for whatever I can. And this is the last piece. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die. For the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake, because life is no brief candle to me. It is sort of of a splendid torch, which I've got a hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it off to future generations. And that one, man, affected me so long ago. And you could probably hear it in this podcast today. We hit every one of those. I wish I was as good a writer as him to concisely do that. But that would be the one that drives me and where I'm at now. But you heard all the things in there.

Starting point is 00:38:38 Guys, do the work. Don't complain about it. Leave something for everybody else. And man, if you're going to do this thing, go all in. Because this torch only burns so bright for so long. So hopefully that was a great one to finish this thing up. Be Martin Rooney, thank you so much for your time. Training for Warriors.

Starting point is 00:38:55 Grab all his stuff. Keep learning from this, man. You know where to get it. And I'll be back with you next week on the Big Success podcast. And that's a big success podcast for today. hopefully you took a lot of notes and hopefully you'll learn the bunch and hopefully you're going to take action on it and refer people remember if you haven't subscribed click that subscribe button now be with us every week on the big success podcast BS Brad sugars big success take action check the

Starting point is 00:39:21 show notes for all the links I'll give you all the links for everything that your speaker had make sure you follow it through and keep the learning going remember you got to grow into your goals I'll speak to you next time on the big success podcast You've been listening to the Big Success podcast with the number one business coach in the world, Brad Sugar. To learn more about how to achieve business and personal success, as well as how to level up or listen to past episodes, visit www.com.

Business Innovators Radio - Ep. #33 – Martin Rooney – The Big Success Podcast with Brad Sugars

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.