Leap Academy with Ilana Golan - Marshall Goldsmith, #1 Executive Coach: How to Find Purpose and Meaning in Life

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

From nearly failing out of college to becoming the number one executive coach, Marshall Goldsmith embodies the power of relentless self-improvement. Shaped by harrowing experiences, influential mentors, and Buddhism, he has gained unique perspectives on gratitude, resilience, and purpose, inspiring leaders worldwide to achieve their full potential. In this episode, Marshall Goldsmith shares the importance of finding fulfillment, enjoying the process of life, and avoiding achievement addiction.  Marshall Goldsmith is a renowned authority on leadership and coaching for behavioral change. He is also the bestselling author of multiple books, including The Earned Life. He has worked with leaders of major organizations such as Forbes, Pfizer, Walmart, and the World Bank.    In this episode, Ilana and Marshall will discuss: - Why successful people need coaches - The value of finding happiness in the present - The three ingredients for happiness - Why you must avoid achievement addiction - The problem with delayed gratification - Why you must have a higher purpose - The importance of translating goals into daily actions - Why you can’t achieve your way to happiness - His AI bot and excitement about technology - The challenges of living up to one's values  - How to live without regret - And other topics…   Marshall Goldsmith is a foremost expert in leadership and behavioral change coaching. Since 2011, he has been consistently recognized as one of the top ten business thinkers globally and has earned the distinction of top-rated executive coach at the Thinkers50 awards in London. Marshall has penned several #1 bestsellers on the Wall Street Journal and New York Times lists, including Triggers and The Earned Life. He has worked with leaders of major organizations such as Forbes, Pfizer, Walmart, and the World Bank.    Connect with Marshall: Marshall’s Website: https://marshallgoldsmith.com/ Marshall’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marshallgoldsmith/ Resources Mentioned: Marshall’s Book, The Earned Life: Lose Regret, Choose Fulfillment: https://www.amazon.com/Earned-Life-Regret-Choose-Fulfillment/dp/0593237277   Marshall’s AI Tool: https://marshallgoldsmith.ai/ 

our guest today is very very special for me personally and i'll share later why but he was named number one most influential business thinker in the world, number one executive coach in the world. I mean, he coached leaders like the CEO of Forbes and Pfizer and Walmart and the president of the World Bank and so many others. He's an author of multiple bestseller triggers and what gets you here will get you there. And I can't even read all of them. And you have a really beautiful new book, Marshall Goldsmith. Thank you for being on the show. Oh, thank you so much for inviting me. Thank you have a really beautiful new book, Marshall Goldsmith. Thank you for being on the show. Oh, thank you so much for inviting me. Thank you very much. I want to take you back in time, if you will. A few decades ago, you needed to decide if this is the life, this is the career

that you want for yourself. You talk a little bit about the pros and cons. You share a lot about it in your book. but can you take us back in time and tell us about that time when you needed to decide? Well, I think I'm still deciding because I don't really think I have decided. I think I am deciding as we speak. So people say when I was younger, they want to be in this field. I was brought up in a small town called Valley Station, Kentucky. Low income, low education environment. The first four years I was in elementary school, we had an outhouse. We didn't have indoor plumbing.

So was I planning to be a New York Times bestselling author? I don't think so. That wasn't on the card. And executive coaching, there was nothing even called executive coaching. So was I planning on doing this? I didn't know there was such a this. So I can't really say I was planning on doing any of this stuff. I didn't know there was such a this. So tell us about your journey, because you went more towards education and being a professor. So how did you even maneuver into something that most people didn't even know exist? Well, what happened is I was very, very fortunate. I almost flunked out of school. I got five Ds in

college. But last year, I went back and gave the commencement address and got an honorary PhD. Let's hear it for the bottom of the class. You never know. So I was able to work my way through school somehow. I got a PhD at UCLA. And then I met a very famous man named Dr. Paul Hersey. Hersey and Blanchard, they developed situational leadership. One thing I did was smart. I followed him around. So one advice I have for anyone listening is if you can be around great people, hang around great people. I followed him around and I said, I want to be him when I grow up. I sat in the back of the room. I served the coffee. I moved the tables. I did anything. I just wanted to sit and learn from this guy. Well, one day he got double booked. He said, can you do what I do? I said, I don't know. He said,

look, I'm desperate. Can you do it? I said, I don't know. He said, I'll pay $1,000 for one day. I was making $15,000 for one year. Some poor kid in Kentucky, that's a long time ago, 47 years ago, a thousand bucks for a day. I said, sign me up, coach. I did a program for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. They are pissed off when I show up because I'm not him, right? They are angry. But I got ranked first place of all the speakers. I'm funny, telling jokes, having a good time. All the other speakers are boring, boring. They love me. So he said, send them again. Calls me up.

He said, you want to do this again? I said, are you kidding me? You're paying me a thousand bucks a day. I'm making 15,000 bucks a year. My calendar cleared, buddy. I am there. That's how I got into leadership development. And in coaching, very similar.

I got to work with Paul. I got to meet a lot of, I didn't start at the bottom. Now our first clients were McKinsey, IBM. He was at the top. So when I worked with him, I kind of working with him, I started at the top. I didn't start at the bottom. Well, I'm working with all these big companies. One guy, he's the CEO, and he said, I got this kid working for us, young, dedicated, hardworking, smart jerk. It would be worth a fortune to me if I could change the kid's behavior. I said, I like fortunes. Maybe I could help him. He said, I doubt it. I came up with an idea. I said, I'll work with this kid for a year. If he gets better, pay me. If you don't get better, it's

free. CEO said, sold. There was nothing called coaching. I just made it up. There was no field of executive coaching. What happened? I can't wait to hear. The kid got better and I got paid. After that, for 45 years as a coach, I didn't get paid if my clients didn't get better. So you literally defined a category. You defined what I feel coaching is, especially at that caliber. I'm very proud of one thing in the field of coaching. The idea of coaching used to be something like you have to have a problem to have a coach. I came up with the idea of coaching great people. See, most coaches say, I can't mention the names of my clients.

Well, why not? I can mention the names of my clients. Look at the book, The Earned Life. Read the first six pages of that book. Yeah, were those people special or not? Oh, yes, they are. They are way special people. I'm not ashamed to mention their name, and they're not ashamed to have their names mentioned.

The top 10 tennis players have a coach, but they're not ashamed to have a coach. So, you know, I'm really proud of one thing. Coaching was all about, if you have a coach, you must have a problem. No one could discuss it. It's a secret. No. My clients have a coach. They all talk to each other.

Everybody knows they have a coach. Hubert Jolie turned around and best of all, he wrote a secret. No. My clients have a coach. They all talk to each other. Everybody knows they have a coach. Hubert Jolie turned around and best of all, he wrote a book about it. He wrote a book called The Heart of Business. It's about me being his coach. David Chang, he wrote a book about it. It talks about me being his coach. Look, it's nothing to be ashamed of. Well, I think you showed not only that it's nothing to be ashamed of, it's the secret

strategy. That's the fast track. And you can decide if you want to have a fast track or you want to make the same mistake that everybody else is making for decades, or you can learn it faster. That's a lot of what you teach. It's incredible. I have somebody coach me. People ask me, do I have a coach? I have somebody call me on the phone every day for 27 years to try to help me. Why? My name is Marshall. I'm too cowardly and undisciplined doing this stuff by myself. I need help. I need help. And you know what? It's okay. I need help. I'm not better than the people I coach. I need help. Who am I kidding?

I screw up every day. I need help. Who doesn't need help? And I love that, Marshall. And I wish I knew that earlier in my career. Now I'm covered with a ton of coaches that each one helped me in different category. But I wish I understood that earlier because I was just trying to make the same mistake that everybody else makes on their own. So why? But let me take you back in time, if that's okay. At age 27, you had a bad accident. Talk a little bit about that. And sometimes these things shape us in some form or another. I would love to hear a little bit. Well, you know, it's a funny story. I was age 27. I don't even mention the whole story in the book. The whole story is even funnier. I always study different philosophies and religions. So I went

to this thing called Nishin Shoshu, which is a chant. And you chant for things. You go, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, Nam-myoho. So I go out surfing, boogie boarding with my friends, Hank and Harry, and the waves aren't very good. So I say, oh, not a problem. Nam-myoho. I start chanting for a giant wave. Guess what I got? Giant wave. Guess what happened? Broke my neck. Be careful what you chant for. Be careful. I don't do that chant anymore. No, no more chanting for me. Chanting for a wave. Guess what? Got the wave, broke my neck. So anyway, it was an interesting experience because it's one of the few times in life I experienced something called temporary sanity. Now you notice the buzzword there is temporary. I've had this a

couple of times in my life where I experienced what I call this temporary sanity, where you actually are sane and you're a nice person and you're grateful and you appreciate everything you have. It usually lasts about three weeks. So what happened? What was the awakening? I mean, that's a hard recovery, Marshall. Well, you know, I've just, it made me more grateful about life. I didn't know I'd ever be able to walk again. I said, if I can walk, I'm going to be grateful. So I'm, I have to say on a gratefulness scale, I am pretty good on that. I'm pretty thankful for everything I have and very grateful because I can walk and Not walking is not so good.

I can walk and get around. So life is good. Were you that appreciative before that? Or was that a turning point? No, I've had a couple of experiences that had helped me. Well, actually three. That was one. The second one, I was flying on a small airplane to Santa Barbara,

and the landing gear didn't work. First two times down, the landing gear didn't work. So we had to circle around. In the old days, we had to wait for the plane to run out of gas before we landed. I thought, well, that's nice. I'm only going to be lightly toasted rather than charbroiled here. But anyway, obviously, we landed. I didn't die. And I said, whoa, life is good. I made one commitment then. I said, be thankful. All those nice people, I should thank people more. So I was good about that one. And then the other experience, I went to Africa in 1984 when they had great famine. It's in my book, Triggers. And I watched a lot of people starve to death. I got a picture in that book of me. And there's a long line of kids. And I'm kneeling down and she's kneeling down. She's

measuring arms of the kids. And if their arms are down and she's kneeling down. She's measuring arms of the kids. And if their arms are too big, they got no food. They weren't hungry enough. If their arms are too little, they got no food. They're going to die anyway. If their arms are in the middle, they got food. So I keep that picture there in my little library. And anytime I started getting a little whiny, poor me, I look at that picture and think,

you know, really, how bad is it here? What do you got to complain about? Wow, that is so strong. And I think, again, you have this motto, did I do my best to be happy every day? You talk a lot about that happiness. And I think a lot of it is those hard experiences that just make you grateful and happy. Am I right, Marjo? I think you're totally right. Also, I've studied a lot of Buddhist philosophy and Hindu philosophy, and that really helps. By studying Buddhist philosophy and Hindu philosophy, it's very helpful because the whole essence of it is learning to find happiness and peace now, not next week, not next year, but today, where I am now. And I find that's very, very helpful.

And you live by this. So I just want to tell the audience a little story that I just shared with you for a second. So five years ago, I reached out to Marshall. He had no clue who the heck I am. And I just reached out via email. At that point, I was debating if I'm moving away from tech to start Leap Academy. And you wrote immediately back. So it says, Dear Alana, greetings from La Jolla. Thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful notes. Your nice email has made my day.

Life is good, Marshall. This is you. This is how you live your life. So to me, that moment was just, I mean, it's just when you came with the book Earned Life, it was just such a great connection because you live by this. So talk to us a little bit about the earned life, living without regret. You have a chilling story when you start the book. Talk to us a little bit about that process of no regret, living fulfillment. How do you see that, Marshall? Well, what does it take to have a great life?

If you look at it, there aren't that many variables. One is people think money leads to happiness. Not really. I mean, basically, once you get past a lower middle class or middle class income, there's almost no correlation between money and happiness. It doesn't make you less happy or more happy. It's just not really a factor. But you need to have links to lower middle class income, assuming you have that, and you're healthy. That's very important. And you have good relationships with people you love. what matters in life? Well, there are really three things that matter. One is you need to have a sense of aspiration, a higher purpose. Why am I doing this? And it doesn't have to be religious, but you need to have some purpose. What is the

point? People work very hard. What is the point of all this work? Why am I doing it? Then number two, you need to have your ambitions or achievements and your achievements hopefully are connected to that higher aspiration because you're trying to achieve something. People on this call are achievers. They wouldn't be on the call if they weren't achievers. And then also number three, though, is your day-to-day actions. You need to enjoy the process of life itself because we can get so wrapped up in achieving, you forget to enjoy life. Now, on any of these, you can get lost. You can get lost in a higher aspiration where you have all these lofty goals and dreams,

but you don't do anything. And maybe you don't appreciate people. Maybe you don't enjoy life. I mean, many people run human service organizations, and they love humanity. They just can't stand human beings. You know, that's not uncommon. Well, the reality is it's some people get stuck up there. Most humans in our history have been stuck down at the action level. Most of our ancestors, they didn't have any money. They didn't have higher aspirations. They were living day-to-day lives. They just want to stay alive. The people on the call listening right now don't fall into

either one of those categories. People listening to you right now have a different problem, addiction to achievement. See, the people listening to us right now, they have a different issue. And many people listening to us right now believe, I will find happiness and peace if I achieve more. If I just achieve more, make that next goal, everything's going to be okay. And the reality is happiness and achievement are independent variables. Now, let me give you a couple examples. One of my good clients had endorsed the books, Albert Bartle. Albert's the CEO of Pfizer. I called Albert a few years ago. How's it going? Albert said, hey, pretty good. Came up with that vaccine. I said, thank you. I wanted to save my life here. Good job. Anything else? Stock price all-time high, employee engagement through the

roof, pride in the company, on and on. I said, Albert, what's your problem? He said, I have a huge problem. Next year. Next year. If he's got to achieve more than that here, he'll never do that again. We don't want him to ever do that again. We don't want another pandemic here. I mean, come on. Michael Phelps, 25 gold medals. What'd he do after winning number 25? He thought about killing himself. If achievement would make you happy, he'd be the happiest Olympian that ever lived.

Not really. The point is, there's a Buddhist term called the hungry ghost. The hungry ghost is always eating, but never full. And there's a couple of reasons not to get addicted to achievement. One is you don't control the results. The results of anything we do are subject to a lot of factors, many of which are outside of our control. But number two, let's say you achieve the results. How much long-term peace and happiness does that bring?

A day? A week? A month? Not much. Next year, next year, next year, next goal, next goal, next goal, next goal. That never stops. So achievement is good in and of itself for achievement, but achievement is not going to make you happy.

And achievement is not going to give you purpose. You can't achieve your way to happiness. And one final thing for the people listening, who I'm sure are achievement-oriented people, they wouldn't be on this Zoom call right now. The people listening, achievement and happiness are independent variables. There's a great part of my book, During Life, I talk about the marshmallow study. I love that part of the book. So I have this research of these people in Stanford.

You take a kid, you give the kid a marshmallow. Kid eats one and say, oh, you get one. But if you wait, you get two. Now, allegedly, they do this longitudinal research that shows the kids that eat one are losers. Kids that eat two are very successful. The whole point of the study is delayed gratification is good. Delayed gratification is good. Almost every self-help book, delayed gratification is good. There's only one problem. They didn't take the kid that ate two and say, wait a minute, kid. Wait some more.

We'll give you three. Ooh, wait a little bit more. Four, five, 10, 100, 1,000. And where does the story end? An old man sitting in a room surrounded by thousands of un-eaten marshmallows waiting to die. Sometimes you need to eat the marshmallow. If all you do in life is delayed gratification, guess what you got a lot? A life is filled with one thing. You know what that is? Delay. What are you missing? Gratification. Lots of delay there,

but not too much gratification. So, you know, it's very interesting. The listeners, achievement is a good thing. Achievement needs to be, to have a great life though, you need to have a higher purpose. Why am I doing this? And you need to enjoy the process of life itself. That is so incredible because I think as driven professionals, it's exactly it. Even when we get it, we move the pole, right? We move the target. So now we always just in this constant, let me just chase my tail and never be happy was what we achieved. I think you also talked a little bit about that soul searching and reflection. How do you decide? Because I think a lot of people will say, oh, great, Marshall,

this is great, but I don't even know what my purpose is. I don't even know what is my why. So how do you even go there? Everybody, their purpose in life is different. And by the way, this changes as we grow older. Over time, this changes too, which is okay. My purpose when I was 25 is not the same as 35 and it's not the same as 75. It changes. So as I've grown older, personally, my purpose has gotten simpler and simpler and simpler. For everyone listening right now,

my purpose is simple. I just want to help you have a little better life. That's all. If I have one person to have a little better life, that's good. And you do talk about time, right? Especially as you grow, what is still a must, right? What do I need to do to have no regrets? You do talk a little bit about it. How do you decide what are some actions that you have to do in order to have no regrets. You do talk a little bit about it. How do you decide what are some actions that you have to do in order to have no regrets? One of the things I do every day and one of the things I talk about in the book is a daily question process. What's very important is to translate these lofty goals and ideas and dreams into day-to-day-to-day reality. So I'll now share something that is in the book. And I always use this in my classes.

And I'm going to teach people how to get better at almost anything. It takes five minutes a day and costs nothing. Now, some people are skeptical. Get better at almost anything, five minutes a day, it costs nothing. It's ridiculous. Too good to be true. Half the people that start doing this quit within two weeks. I mean, they don't quit because it doesn't work. They quit because it does work. This stuff is hard. Easy to understand, hard to do. Get out a spreadsheet. On one column, write down a series of questions that represent what's most important

in your life. Friends, family, coworkers, health, whatever it is. Every question has to be answered with a yes or no or a number. Seven boxes across, one for every day of the week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Fill it out every day. At the end of the week, you get a report card. Not too complicated. I'm going to warn everyone listening. That report card at the end of the week is not as beautiful as those corporate values plaques you see stuck up on a wall. Oh, no, I've been doing this 27 years. You do this every day. You know what you learn very quickly? That life is incredibly easy to talk and life is incredibly difficult to live. You do this every day and only those talking values, only those live values, they're not so pretty. They're not so pretty. One question I have for

me is how many times yesterday did you try to prove you were right when it wasn't worth it? I don't see so many zeros on my scorecard. Kind of hard for the old professor not to be right all the time. How many angry, destructive comments did you make about people yesterday? I don't see enough zeros. We don't like other people stabbing us in the back. Why are we stabbing other people in the back? My friend Jim Moore would tell you this saved his life. One of his questions, are you currently updated on your physical exam? He's my colleague doing this together for 90 days. He said no every day.

After 90 days, he said, this is embarrassing. I got to get the dumb exam or quit asking. He got the dumb exam. The doctor said, you have cancer. That was many years ago. He's going to be fine. The doctor said, had you waited seven more months, you'd have been dead. He knew he should have got the exam.

He didn't do it. Everybody listening, how many people listening have ever avoided a physical exam before and told yourself, I'm going to get the exam after I go on my healthy food diet and begin my exercise program, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We all do this nonsense. Who are we kidding here? Who are we kidding? The doctor? I was teaching the University of Michigan guy where he says, who are you kidding? You think you're kidding the doctor? The guy goes, I am the doctor. That's so funny and so sad and true. You know, like, I'm like, ah, I'm raising my hand right now. Oh, yeah, we all are. And by the way, there's another myth that one day I'm going to, quote, get there. So we had this dream. One day

I'll get there. And when I get there, I won't act like an, get there. So we had this dream. One day, I'll get there. And when I get there, I won't act like an ass anymore. And I will get my physical exam. And I'm going to be in perfect shape. And I'm going to go on a diet. I'm going to be a nice person. And I'm going to write these books, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. When I get there, there's no place called there.

There's no there. There's no there. After you get there, everything is fine. Look at the book, The Earned Life. If there was a there, how about the six pages of endorsement? You think they would be there? If there was a there, those people would all be there. Well, look, I can tell you, I know all those people and they're all humans. And over COVID, my friend Mark Thompson and I, 600 hours with 60 amazing people, their names are in the book. It's not a secret who they were. Amazing people. You'd think from the outside, people think, oh,

these people are like gods. Look at their bio. They have everything, money, status, fame, blah, blah, blah. Hey, they got kids with drug problems. They got parents with Alzheimer's disease. They get divorced. You know what? They're humans. That doesn't stop. That doesn't stop. You don't wake up one day and you're better than being a human. We're all just humans. That doesn't stop. That doesn't stop. You don't wake up one day and you're better than being a human. We're all just humans here. It's okay. So how do you cope with it? As a human, maybe even entrepreneur, maybe a C-level, which is really, really, really hard. And a lot of the people that you coach are right there at the top. A lot of responsibility, a lot of fear. So how do you cope with things, Marshall?

Well, one of the old sayings is it's lonely at the top. It used to be lonely at the top. It is lonely-er at the top today. Social media, you know, people, anything they say can be made public, make people laugh at them, make fools out of them. It's lonely at the top. It's hard. And one of the things that's great is have somebody to talk to. See, one of the things I loved about our group over COVID is every weekend, there's 60 people. We did rotating groups and a group of eight or 10 people every weekend talking about their lives. And they get to act like a human.

One guy said, you know, it's really nice. An hour and a half a week, I get to act like a human. I don't have to put on some show. Well, it's the way it is what it is. It's hard out there in many ways. And it's hard to be in a leadership role. And it's nice just to be around some people sometime who act like you can be just a human. To some extent, as the coach that is helping all these people, you're also an entrepreneur. You're also a CEO of your own empire. And entrepreneurship is hard. Well, I can't say my life is particularly hard. I don't really see myself as a CEO.

I don't manage much of anybody. Number one. Number two, I don't think my life is particularly hard. I enjoy my life. I'm 75 years old. Why am I doing this? Now, I don't know if you know this, though. I hope you appreciate the true sacrifice I'm making talking to you right now. So I'm going to tell you the sacrifice I'm making being here right now. I hope your listeners

appreciate this. You know what I could have been doing right now? I could have been playing crappy golf with a bunch of old men eating chicken sandwiches while discussing gallbladder surgery. Instead, I'm talking to you. Well, look, what am I going to do? I don't want to play bad golf with a bunch of old men. Let's have some fun here. So I enjoy what I'm doing. You seem like you enjoy what you're doing. But tell me, we talk to a lot of people that feel like ageism is real. They see it in the workplace. It's harder to find jobs. I think there's a lot of people that feel like ageism is real. They see it in the workplace. It's harder to find jobs. I think there's a lot of mental blocks around following your passion at older age. What do you say to some people like this?

The reality is it's hard for me to say. I have to say in my field, I've experienced very close to zero discrimination about being old. Look, in my life, let's face it, the discrimination is being young. I don't think there's a lot of discrimination against me. I'm doing just fine. If I wanted to work full time, I could be booked out and make 12 tons of money. I don't see some discrimination against me anywhere. And the other thing is, at whatever age you're in, you can start over. Look at me. Look at me, what I'm doing right now. I'm starting over.

I got my own AI computer bot. Hey, that's cool. Well, why not? You know, life is short. I told you, I played with your AI bot. I thought that was really, really cool. We just got an AI bot, and I think that's kind of where it's going. But in this pace of change, right, it's faster, it's changing

faster than we've ever seen before. And most people are afraid of all these advancement. And you're not only not afraid, you're leaning into them and creating your own personal bot. What makes you not afraid? How do you keep up? Well, I mean, I haven't been in a band. I'm 75 years old anyway. I'm going to be dead after a while. So whatever. On the other hand, why not? Look, this stuff's going to happen. I work with a lot of coaches that are threatened by this stuff. This is going to happen. It is what it is, what it is. And option A, get with the plan or option B, sit back and whine. Wham, wham, wham, poor me. It's not fair. I don't like that newfangled technology.

Forget that stuff. You know, just get with the plan. Look, I'm 75, I'm doing this stuff. I got my own AI computer bot. Also, it's ridiculously cool. Let's tell the truth, it's cool. Some young guy comes to me, do you know anything about this artificial intelligence, this AI? I said, I don't know a whole lot, but my computer

bot is very wise. And I love it because it looks like you fed it all your books and all your information. Now I can literally research Marshall and feel like I'm talking to you. Oh, no, it's way better than me. My original goal was it would answer questions as well as me. That day is gone. It can answer questions better than me. My daughter tried to trick it. My daughter said, how is your coaching related to utilitarian philosophy? My coaching philosophy and utilitarian philosophy share some similarities, particularly in the emphasis on the consequences of actions and the focus on achieving positive outcomes. Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism that suggests actions are right if they promote happiness or pleasure and wrong if they produce unhappiness or pain,

aiming for the greatest good for the greatest number. In my coaching, while I don't explicitly use the term utilitarianism. This goes on and on and on. So my daughter wants to trick it. So she says, how's your coaching related to utilitarian philosophy? Bump. I don't even know what utilitarian philosophy is. But it knows. Oh, it does. Oh, no, it knows. It knows a thousand times as much as me. This is mind-blowing. My computer body is mind-blowing. You ask it, how's your coaching related to utilitarian philosophy? That's what my daughter did to trick it. She thought it'd be funny. Surprise. It studies utilitarian philosophy. It studies my coaching. By the way, it knows me.

I've spent hundreds of hours on this thing and fed it 1.5 million words, so it does know me very well. And then it asks itself, how would Marshall answer that question had he studied this? It answers it in my voice, which you just heard, in my voice, in a way that's very consistent with the way I would answer it in five seconds. Welcome to the new world. It is the new world. Are you excited about it? Are you afraid about it? How are you embracing it? I'm not afraid. Look at the people that hire me. Let's get real. People that hire me, you think they're just going to talk to an AI bot? No, not really. I'm not particularly threatened by this. I don't think some AI bot, the people that hire me, these are big people now. They don't want to talk to me. They don't want to talk to

someone who sounds like me. Now, they'll just talk to me, please. I'm not particularly threatened by this stuff. I love this stuff. It is mind-blowing how good it is. And my goal was for it, Marshall Goldsmith, by the way, everybody, go to marshallgoldsmith.ai. My name, Marshall with two L's, goldsmith.ai is free. I give everything away anyway. And by the way, there's no trick. It's not like you sign up for this, but then there's a separate clause or you do special bonus door where you get to pay.

No, no, no. This is all just free. There is no trick. It's all just free. I'm giving away everything I know for free. Why not? What am I saving it up for, right? I'm not going to get another house or car or dog. I'm not going to get another wife or grandkids. I'm good. So my goal is just to give everything away. Well, this is

fantastic. My goal was it would answer questions about 80% as well as me, about 80% of the time. That was my goal. That is gone. It can answer questions 100 times better than me now. Look, no offense to me. This thing way better than I am. It's way smarter than I am. I don't have a photographic memory. I don't have a photographic memory. I can't do what it just did. No offense to me. I'm a smart guy. I'm not putting myself down here. I got ranked number one leadership thing in the world twice. I'm not stupid. On the other hand, I'm not that smart. I'm not a computer. Well, it is what it is. And I agree with you. It is the future. And what I love about it, first of all, that you're embracing it instead of afraid of it, because I think that's what it's about.

And I think also you have all the YouTube and all the videos. You're very generous with all the information because you know exactly right that the CEO of Pfizer, Ford, whatever, they'll come to Marshall and they're not going to talk to us about that's not the risk. And that's a way for you to open up all your knowledge to a lot broader, bigger scales than you've ever been able to do before. Well, exactly right. Anybody can use this. You don't have to have any money at all.

It is free. Anybody in any country. Let me give you the sequence. The first generation of this was text. The second generation is audio, which you just heard. And that sounds a lot like me. That's the audio version. The next generation is going to be video.

You're going to be able to sit there and go on a Zoom call and talk to somebody who looks just like me, you know, beard, green shirt, same thing. And then after that, it's going to be video in multiple languages. And then the metaverse, where you'll walk into a room and I'll just be sitting there and you'll talk to me. It's all coming. It's all coming. Incredible. And they'll

talk to you with your green polo shirt and the khaki pants. Are you going to be there in the metaverse in the same clothes? That's it. That's it. This is all coming. And good. Why not? I'm not naive too. I am not naive. I know there are a lot of negative things that are going to come out of new technology. I wrote an article in a book called The Community of the Future years ago. In the article, I said, within 25 years, media addiction will surpass drug addiction and alcohol addiction combined as a social problem. Well, we're there. Media addiction is an unmitigated disaster in our society. On the other hand, there's a lot of good that's happening too. So my friend Martin Lindstrom,

he won't even carry around a cell phone. He thinks these things are so bad. He won't even carry a cell phone around. He is leading the world's largest metaverse project. I said, why are you doing this? This thing would be phenomenally addictive. He said, I know that better than anybody. You know why I'm doing it? Do some good. Look, I know how bad this stuff can be. My attitude is, okay. Yeah, there are a lot of negative uses that will happen. I'm not going to stop that. Do some good here. And by the way, on a more light note, if you ask my friend, why do I always wear a green polo shirt? That's an interesting question, but it'll answer that as well, too. This thing can answer anything.

It's fun. Now, what I'm trying to do that I haven't succeeded is I'm trying to give it a little humor. So I haven't quite gotten it. It's not quite as funny as me, but I'm working a little bit to try to humanize it. Here you go. Yeah, I'm just trying to wear a green polo shirt almost every day because it has become a part of my personal brand, thanks to a profile written by Larissa McFarquhar for the New Yorker magazine. In the profile, she noted that I always wore a green polo shirt, which wasn't entirely

accurate, but it became what people remembered and expected of me. Embracing this expectation has simplified my life, as it means I have one less decision to make each day, it allows me to focus on more important decisions and coaching my clients rather than on what to wear. I love it. The freedom of no choice. I absolutely this. I can't believe your eye knows that. This is incredible, Marshall. So I love asking towards the end, if you're looking at yourself, maybe that professor or maybe that kid, what is your advice to your younger self? First, I'll talk about my advice to my younger self. Then I'll talk about some advice I have for everyone listening.

I wouldn't change anything. I love science fiction. And you change the timeline, things can get better and things get worse. Look, I started out as a kid in a very backward school with an outhouse. I ended up here. I'm good. Now, if I made mistakes, I have made thousands of mistakes. I make daily mistakes. If you get rid of the mistake, though, you get rid of everything you learned from the mistake. So what would I change? Answer, zero. I wouldn't change a thing. Why? I'm good. I'm happy with the way my life

turned out. I got a nice wife. I got nice kids, grandkids. It's all good. It's all good. I got no problems. Is it perfect? Of course not. Have I made mistakes? Thousands.

So what? Who hasn't made mistakes, right? Now, my advice for everyone listening is, do you want me to give people a best coaching advice now? Yes. Let's go. Free coaching. Let's go, Marshall.

Best advice. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. breathe, breathe. Smile. Breathing. Hand. Ah, ah, ah. I want you to imagine you're 95 years old and you're just getting ready to die. It's all over. Here comes that last breath. But right before you take the last breath, you're given a beautiful gift, the ability to go back in time and talk to the person that's listening. But right before you take the last breath, you're given a beautiful gift. The ability to go back in time and talk to the person that's listening to me right now. The ability to help that person be a better leader. Even more important, the ability to help that person have a better life.

What advice would the wise 95-year-old you, who knows what mattered in life and what did not matter, what was important, what wasn't? What advice would that wise old person have for the you that's listening to me right now? Whatever you're thinking now, do that. In terms of a performance appraisal, that is the only one that will ever matter. The old person says you did the right thing, you did. The old person says you made a mistake, you did. You do not have to impress anyone else. Some friends of mine interviewed old folks who were dying and got to ask this question, what advice would you have? On the personal side, three themes. Theme one, three words, be happy now.

Not next week, not next month, not next year, not after that achievement, after I get to the goal, after I make the money, be happy now. Number two, friends and family. Never get so busy climbing that corporate ladder you forget the people that love you. That's a mistake. And then number three, if you have a dream, go for it. Because as you said, go for it. That's what you're talking about. If you don't go for it when you're 45, you may not win your 85. Business advice is much different. Number one, life is short. Have fun. Enjoy what you're doing. You seem to enjoy what you're doing. That's fine, right? And number two, do whatever you can do to help people. And the main reason to help people has nothing to do with money or status or getting ahead. Main reason to help people is the

95-year-old you will be proud of you. Proud of you because you did disappoint it if you don't. And finally, you know, go for it. The world's changing. Your life's changing. Do what you think is right. It may not win. At least you tried. Old people, we almost never regret the risk we take and fail. We always regret the risk we fail to take. And finally, thank you for inviting me to be here. That was so strong. Oh my God, Marshall. I'm sure everybody got so much from this.

And I think the biggest thing is just live your life. Not nobody else. Be happy, just like you say, and earn life. And it's an incredible book. And I think people should not only read it, but really understand what it means for them and for the next step that they want to take in the world and for themselves and over the families. Thank you, Marshall. Thank you so much. you