The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett - Moment 17 - Russell Kane Reveals The Simple Path To Success

Episode Date: August 5, 2021

In these ‘Moment’ episodes of my podcast, I’ll be selecting my favourite moments from previous episodes of The Diary Of A CEO. Russell Kane was one of the most surprising guests I’ve ever had on this podcast. Not only is he intelligent and self-aware, but he is also very straight-talking, which is one of the reasons why I believe this ‘moment’ from the podcast is so powerful. Together, Russell and I were discussing success and what it truly takes to become a successful person. In actual fact, the path to success is a pretty simple one, but sometimes the most simple truths can be the most demanding. Episode 79 - https://g2ul0.app.link/5lybE6twDib Russell: https://twitter.com/russell_kane https://www.instagram.com/russell_kane/ 

Quick one, just wanted to say a big thank you to three people very quickly. First people I want to say thank you to is all of you that listen to the show. Never in my wildest dreams is all I can say. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd start a podcast in my kitchen and that it would expand all over the world as it has done. And we've now opened our first studio in America, thanks to my very helpful team led by Jack on the production side of things. So thank you to Jack and the team for building out the new American studio.

And thirdly to Amazon Music who, when they heard that we were expanding to the united states and i'd be recording a lot more over in the states they put a massive billboard in times square um for the show so thank you so much amazon music um thank you to our team and thank you to all of you that listen to this show let's continue this is the message i get most often sent to me via my agent or an instagram and it drives me fucking nuts i had one the other week oh my god i love what you do i'm i'm really funny person this is how it was phrased the other week how how many gigs would i have to do before i could like open for you on tour can you have a look at some stuff I filmed on my phone? And I give them an answer that I never get a reply to this answer.

I say, okay, it's quite simple. Lucky for you, there is a really simple model to follow. You need to work unpaid for three years in the clubs, three times a week. I wouldn't recommend a relationship and just warn your friends, you're not going to see them I started to earn about two three hundred pounds a week after five years at that point you're ready to give up your day job on about the eighth or ninth year you're going to be ready to do a support slot I never yeah people don't want to hear it but you if you went up to the guy in the gym who's 16 stone and five percent body fat and get can you tell me how I can get like that? He'd say the machines are over there, dickhead. Just get going. The machines are there.

You cannot skip the machine. You cannot skip the tricep station. If you want triceps, you can't just go, but it's going to hurt. It's too much work to get a tricep. Then just don't get triceps. Don't moan if you don't have triceps. Head to the dip station and see you in four years.

I can, yeah. I, now I've, I've read about this this my book came out last week and i wrote about it in my book i remember someone turning to me it was actually the ceo of my company now company i've just left and he said to me steve you know this personal brand stuff and this like speaking you do on stage was like how long did it like how do i he was like how do i how do i do it and in your brain immediately scrambles around looking for like three tips right three tips to describe like a deck i remember my first talk in school at 14 years old my hands shaking absolutely the truth is like someone's seen you with a sharp sword and they've said how do i get a sword that sharp so well start sharpening it now and then 10 years time but people don't want that no one wants to hear the answer is boring repetitive practice for most most people that

are absolutely fucking excellent at something have done a lot of boring repetitive practice for most most people that are absolutely fucking excellent at something have done a lot of boring repetitive practice that would be boring to the person asking the question not to us i loved every shit gig i did and that's the difference that's what kept you doing it for 10 years or two decades or whatever is that you genuinely intrinsic loved it for its and people want the rewards right but when they if they started and genuinely wanted they too would discover that love if you if you say i want to be a dentist i'd be a dentist you start dental training and you're finding it boring and a slog newsflash you don't actually want to be a dentist you'll be rich yeah so find something else find something where you love the journey

that is a secret so that's what my dad never found he did he didn't find a job he took pleasure in it's got nothing to do with coin although i'm into it but if you love the outdoors you're gonna love landscaping whether you're on 17 grand a year or 17 million a year you're gonna love it because that's what you were born to do it's such a counter narrative to the narrative that sells which is like short investment big returns it's like seven days six pack abs that's everyone fucking signs up for that imagine imagine that the like 10 years maybe maybe that's true and that's and the problem is a lot of the t the tv we make i make it sells that x factor spot do one song live the pimp lifestyle and of course that is what

in the all of the x factor that's ever been on and all of pop star the rivals how many of those people are now platinum selling artists living in mansions what harry style try and name some one direction that's it that's out of every single little mixed humor that's out of every single one in a show that's designed to push people to the front in an artificial way. So if you think that's going to happen, if you're Russell from Essex, you're deluded. But any business, if you're passionate, mixed with a little bit of luck, people, this is the other thing people like us don't like putting out there, but I'm afraid there is a bit of luck involved.

And it sort of calls into, like we sat here again, I've worked so hard. Oh, look at me with my work hard badge. But at some point we had some luck as well just we're in the right place right time mixed with the hard work so some people are more lucky than others luck is a thing and what lucky not luck as in lottery number luck but luck as in oh my god you've met the you've met the perfect partner you've in the business oh you you were looking for a friend a french bulldog breed and you found exactly the right one at the right time when you were looking for a puppy why are you so lucky why is my life so shit so they tested this they got a bunch of people together half

people who say my life shit i'm so unlucky and half people like me who like i've got to admit i'm a bit i'm hashtag blessed i do have a lot of luck and they run tests on them and the test they run was very simple the the psychologist i can't miss the british jewish guy really funny brings loads of books out richard something or other he's written a book about it about luck look it up they gave newspaper each and they went in there go into your separate rooms and on a page is a picture you're looking for whoever finds that picture comes in first gets 100 pounds cash that was the game so everyone went in like that on page two in massive headlines was it's a trick stop turning if you've read this

headline go and collect the money that was on page two all the unlucky people missed that all the lucky people found it you know why because lucky people are eyes are open the hustlers so it turns out you can make luck you can practice that you can hone it that's something you can hone next time you walk into a meeting just think right what's what's that guy do for it for a living who's that is that a contact that's not luck if i sit down next to someone and he happens to be doing a comedy streaming service startup and he signs me up that's me being a bit bold and striking up a conversation and looking at what he's wearing and having to think you can learn these skills people don't like that because that shot puts the mirror on me and creates personal responsibility where i you know what i mean and

i feel like in our society at the moment this is just an observation i've had personal responsibility is people fucking hate that yeah the fortunate position i'm in which is what i talked about in my last podcast was because i came from like a very broke family where my mum can't read or write and i was born in africa and we didn't have anything no christmas birthdays holidays my journey in life people don't discredit it they don't point at me and say oh you know silver spoon you can't fucking talk yeah so i feel like i can have the conversation a little bit more about personal responsibility of course i'm fucking incredibly lucky Like I didn't choose to be me. You know what I mean?

I didn't choose my parents or the good and bad things that shaped me. But I want to have a conversation about personal responsibility as it relates to career success. And let's start with hard work. Because in our society right now, there's two counter narratives. One is that don't work like incredibly hard, you're going to burn out and you're going to have mental health problems and the other is i've never met someone that sat here in front of me that doesn't work really fucking hard and i i did i don't know

how i would have sat here without hard work and tremendous sacrifice well first of all we sort of already made the point a lot of people are working hard at things they hate yeah so working hard at things you dislike hate or find stressful will bring success and money but at a cost working hard at things you love i'm i finished filming at midnight last night in maids and i got in at half one i had my dinner at two and i fell asleep at three and i bounced out of bed this morning to come here to do a podcast for the price of a car. Why? Because I love what I do. Now, if I was had got in at three from working as a hospital porter and had to get up to do another job, which was quite well paid this morning, but I hated it. I wouldn't be buzzing. And that's what releases the cortisol and the

stress hormone into your body. So can't compare you're not comparing like and like even though both people are working hard you've even got people that might be barristers or or doctors really well-paid professions but find it stressful when they're burnt out and stuff it's unlikely you and i will burn out because i'm like what's next and you're intrinsically motivated by you've got a sense of control. Exactly.