The School of Greatness - 470 Apolo Ohno: Train Your Mind and Body to Achieve Olympic Level Results

Episode Date: April 12, 2017

"Passion is really important. You can only do something for money for so long." - Apolo Ohno If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/470

This is episode number 470 with the eight-time Winter Olympic medalist in speed skating, Apollo Ono. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur, and each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

We have a special treat today. Welcome, greats, to the interview in this episode of the School of Greatness podcast. I love it when we bring on Olympic medalists. Why? Because they have something inside of them that most of the world doesn't have. They have a taste of something that most people will never experience. And that experience is so profound and powerful. And for me, I'm always so obsessed with learning how they did it, how they continue to thrive at the highest level when millions of people are watching and everything is on the line for them for literally just a few moments of an opportunity to achieve their dreams. They have to have so much clarity and focus in order to make themselves reach the goal.

And that's why we've got Apollo Ano on. He's a retired American short track speed skating competitor and an eight-time Olympic medalist, two gold, two silver, four bronze in the Winter Olympics. He has been the face of short track in the United States since winning his medals in the 2002 Winter Olympics. And since gaining recognition through his sport, Apollo has worked as a motivational speaker,

philanthropist, co-founded a performance supplement business, and in 2007, competed and won on the reality show Dancing with the Stars. And in this interview, we talk about a lot of things that we have in common. But man, Apollo has done so many inspiring things that I couldn't get enough of him. And one of the things we cover is why Apollo went from not caring about his sport to becoming an obsessive training teenager. Also, how he prepared his mind right before every race and especially during the

Olympics. What the human body is truly capable of as sometimes I believe we limit ourselves and we're afraid to see what we're capable of pushing it. And I'm telling you, we can do so much more. Also, how failures prepare us for our biggest successes, and Apollo talks about a lot of his, and why focusing inward is where all the answers are found. You have the truth inside of you, my friends. This and so much more. I'm super pumped for this. Get ready. It's about to be an explosion of greatness coming your way. And before we dive in, I want to give a shout out to the review of the week.

And the iTunes review of the week is by 1130 Diesel, who says, I stumbled upon this podcast and I'm not exaggerating when I say that every episode has found a way to inspire and or inform me. Everything that I am currently reading, studying, or pursuing is either a direct result of either Lewis's example or the topics and guests which he has had on it has become part of my regular

routine and I am incredibly thankful for the accidental path which led me to find it so 1130 Diesel thank you so much for the review over on iTunes you are the review of the week. And again, it's always my goal to curate and bring the best individuals, the most inspiring, the most informative, those who have the most experience, and those who are the biggest experts in the world to help you unlock the inner greatness. That's what this is all about. And I'm constantly obsessed with finding those human beings and tapping into their souls to give you that information. So if you want to be featured as the review of the week, make sure to go to iTunes.com slash greatness and leave your review today. Without further ado, I am so pumped for this one. Make sure to share this out on social media right now as you're listening to it, lewishouse.com slash 470. And without further ado, let me introduce to you the one, the only,

Apollo Ono. Welcome everyone back to the School of Greatness podcast. We've got Apollo Ono in the house. Good to see you, man. Good to see you to see you excited for this uh there are a few things in common that we have that i want to start off with number one we both have danced salsa with julianne huff yes we have you you did it on dance with the stars i haven't been on that show you won dance with the stars right i did with julianne with julianne and you came back for the all-star season i did with with Karina. Soon enough. You didn't win. I did not win. What did you get? We made it to the semifinal. Semifinal.

And we got voted off. Okay. Yeah. That's all right. That's all right. You've been there and it's awesome. How was that winning? Was it amazing?

Was it a cool experience? It was a new experience. It was a new. I was 24. I turned 25 like a couple days before. I think the finale went live. Julianne was 18 at the time. Fresh, just came right into LA.

So cute. Didn't really understand the entertainment industry, but she knew she had a lot of talent. I knew she had a lot of talent. And then so we had a lot of talent and then so we you know we had a great just chemistry as friends right but also we had

just had chemistry as like as I think athletes and dancers I didn't I considered myself a guy who knew how to dance had no idea

let's just be real I had zero idea how to dance really yeah I mean I thought I did but you know but you're an athlete

you're an athlete I'm coachable exactly so that's easeable so you know that's what it is it was a great experience that's cool but different you know the you're an athlete you're an athlete I'm coachable exactly so that's easeable so you know that's what it is it was a great experience that's cool

but different you know the entertainment world is unique another world it's pretty unique yeah I'm figuring that out right now

so that's one thing number two is we're both the same age right now I know 34 today I turned 34 you're 34 congratulations

thank you very much we made it we made it we made it and are you born in 83 or are you 82 82

okay so different year but I'm a Gemini dog dog Thank you very much. We've made it. We've made it. We've made it. And are you born in 83 or are you? 82. 82, okay. So different year, but similar. I'm a Gemini dog. Dog, okay. Gemini dog. All right. The third thing we have in common is we have at one time both worn stingers. So you have a stinger right now.

A stinger. That's what we call it, a stinger. Flavor saver, as my friend would say. Flavor saver. I used to wear one in college playing football. I'd have a little stinger. Yeah, this has been with me for quite a long time. I know.

That's like a trademark, man. Part of it is that me being half Asian, this is the only way that my facial hair grows in. You don't have hair anywhere else, right? It does, but when it grows out, my face just looks dirty. So that's a little bit of an issue. So there's oftentimes people from afar are like, what's going on with this guy? Paul Ono, where is he now? Oh, he's not doing so well.

Right, right. No, it looks clean though. I like it. Thank you. The fourth thing is we both represent the USA national team for different sports. That's right. You are, however, an eight-time medal winner. Yeah.

And how many Olympics have you gone to? I went to three Olympic Games. Three Olympic Games. 2002, 2006, and 2010. You won eight medals you won eight medals eight medals they've all been under controversy right or something is that what i heard not all of them not all a few of them a few of them a few of the good ones the good ones the golds and the silvers were like under controversy if you should have won them or not because your sport is technical it's not like a true yeah it's not like if you cross first you're like the automatic winner right it's more right yeah and so um so you have had a much more decorated uh journey with the usa team than i have

i've just been trying to scrap on and stay on the team and get to the olympics sure haven't made it yet but we have that in common and we're both athletes so i'm excited and we're also both authors you've written a book you're an art new New York Times bestseller. Yeah. Yeah. So there we go. Yeah, I wrote a book in 2010 called Zero Regrets, Be Greater Than Yesterday. Yeah. Yeah, it was a great process. Yeah, it's fun, right?

Now you've got another book you're working on. Working on another book. What's it about? I figured that between the ages of 8 and 14, there's been some impactful moment in someone's life, man or woman, girl or boy, who takes that with them through the rest of their life. And so it's such a formidable kind of arena. We always change, right? Every seven years they say we have a new body or so, right?

But I think that there's something that happens in a lot of these people who we deem to be successful. So it's a businessman, an author, someone like yourself. There's something that happens in a lot of these people who we deem to be successful. So it's a businessman, an author, someone like yourself. There's something that happened whether it was through our parents, whether you had a single parent household, whether you had a tiger parent that seemingly to others would seem like it was a negative component. Either there's a bad loss, a loss of someone. Divorce. A divorce, a lack of parenting. You were picked on there's something there that ignited

the individual to change something internally i think that's a huge driving force and so i noticed it a lot within athletes and i also noticed a lot within my friends who were in the business world yeah and so we're very driven extremely driven and so competitive that I wonder, I was like, Hey, you know, like a couple of my friends who are in business, Hey,

like what happened to you when you were younger? Because you're so, you're such a savage when it comes to business in a good way. Yeah. But what did you do to develop that? And they can't really explain it until, you know, you break down those barriers,

you understand what's happening, you know, and I grew up in a single parent household. And so my father was kind of the mom and the dad in my life. And I'm a firm believer that because there was no true, I had mother figures in my life,

but there was not somebody there consistently. I'm a firm believer that that's partially the reason why I was so competitive and I hated losing so bad. I'm sure there's some psychological components that are associated with that early stage. And I find basically human behavior fascinating.

And whether it's through the mind, everything. I'm always interested in why we do the things that we do, why we make the same mistakes that we make all the time, why do some people seemingly always win why do some people always seemingly always lose right we always know

that one person or one girl who wherever they go it seems like this is raining yeah you know and they just seem like that

whenever you say hi oh I'm really tired oh you know this is what's going on I don't know if you remain raining like it's always dark or like they make it rain it's like they're

yeah yeah yeah I mean like in dark like rainmakers both I mean there's people who just they're just they're so everything they touch turns to gold might as touch i have some friends like that i'm just like i mean this this girl or this guy they can't lose yeah anything you do is amazing but i think we only see a part of it right i think there's we have shields like you know as we were talking about before right um and i think it's

very we have very unique aspects of our personality that we tend to concentrate on and as human beings, we are naturally drawn to the things that I think we appreciate or that we want or that we like the most or we feel like we're needed, right? So relationships are different but sometimes they say

if you take something away from someone, we always will go towards something that retracts from us right that that that dissipates and um same thing with you know with sport same thing with i think with life we always seem to want things um that are seemingly out of reach at least from a goal-setting perspective and uh i don't know again i i love human behavior super fascinated by it i used to study it a lot when I was training as an athlete from a psychological perspective. So before races, when I was kind of coming up through the ranks as an athlete, I became so obsessive with how I would approach specific elements of studying each athlete. So I would look at this one guy from Canada, this guy from Korea, this guy from China, from Russia.

And I would watch them through the week leading up to the competition. So we would arrive at a location from basically Sunday until competing on that following Friday. I would watch them walk through the locker room. I'd watch what they eat. I'd try to find out what kind of music they listen to. Their attitude. Their attitude.

Because I wanted to see if I could tell when they actually felt good on the ice and when they were having a bad day because everything is a poker game in sport, right? So you never show your weaknesses. And I wanted to break that. I wanted to understand the small intricacies that allowed me inside information to what they did. And human behavior is very interesting. So most of the time people over-display what's really happening, at least in sports.

So, you know, like a lot of times some of the athletes, they would, I could always tell when they were having a, they were really tired, they weren't having

as good a day. I feel like there's a creation of false confidence, right? Kind of fake it until you make it. I think that only goes so far. In sport, like, you know,

if you're under a squat rack, you got 550 on the squat rack. Yeah, fake it. And you're saying like, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this. You put the squat rack on your back and you say, I'm not sport, like, you know, if you're under a squat rack, you got 550 on the squat rack. Can't fake it. And you're saying like, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this. You put the squat rack on your back

and you say, I'm not gonna do this, you know? Yeah, you hurt yourself. Yeah, so I think there's a fine line between really, really believing

that you feel great that day and just keep telling yourself that you feel great but you don't really intrinsically feel it like in your cellular system, right? There's not that energy,

you know? And you know, like when you shake someone's hand, you know that person is confident. If they feel good, if they're resonating a certain type of frequency of energy that you feel like you can vibe with. Anyway. Do you ever feel, was there ever a moment before you went in the championship race or the medal race at the Olympics where you were like, I don't feel that great? Every single time, dude. Really? Every single time. You're like, I don't feel that great? Every single time, dude. Really? Every single time. You're like, I don't know if I'm going to win.

This is nerve-wracking. It's a billion people watching. What am I going to do? Yeah. All those thoughts. Yeah. So I competed hundreds of times. I'd won every single medal.

I broke every single record. And then you get to the Olympic Games. And as an Olympic athlete, unlike a professional athlete, you're not getting a salary. You're not getting paid. If you don't win and if you don't have a story that NBC likes to highlight. You don't get featured and then you go and get endorsements.

You go work for Home Depot. That's what's going to happen. So you go back to the normalcy of society. So you spent your whole life, eight years. I call it eight years because you do two Olympic cycles, okay, towards a race that lasts 40 seconds long. It's finished like this. And if you're not perfect on this one specific day against the world's top 1%,

unfortunately, because of the rise of social media, you're forgotten because we all have information and our attention spans are going on to the next thing. So before the start line, there's a whole to the next thing. So before the start line, there's a whole process that I would do. Before the start line, yes, there's a billion people watching the race. There's a camera in my face that's normally not there

recording every single movement that is totally distracting. I'm trying to meditate, kind of focus on my breath, stay in my zone. Do I think I can win? Yes. Do I think I'm going to win? Sometimes I think yes, sometimes I think I can win yes do I think I'm going to win

sometimes I think yes sometimes I think I don't know maybe that's just unique to me but you know I think unlike maybe like an MMA fighter they gotta have no doubt that they're gonna win this that's like life or death for them I mean that's a true athlete right these MMA guys I see them as like

fighting another human being is just the ultimate, right? Same thing with people in the military. That's like the ultimate test of like human performance. So I try to take that mentality into sport. But there's many times where I just physically didn't feel good. The equipment that I was using felt like it was a little bit off. Maybe it was me psychologically. Maybe it's the ice.

Who knows what the problem is, right? But I didn't have any Olympic race where I felt really good. Really? You were never like, I'm the best shape, best mentally, physically? No, I knew that I was in the best shape. I knew that mentally and spiritually I was in the greatest place. My cognitive processing was at the all-time high. I felt like I was in the matrix. I just felt

so good, so clean, so strong. But still, when you're dealing with a sport where anything can happen in a split second, those variables will change. It's very unexpected and there's no guarantees. And so how did I maximize my experience at the Olympic Games knowing that literally I could get to my last Olympic final, which was in 2010, and in that final, at a split second, I could be taken out,

I could get disqualified, and then all my dreams are over. Gone. Gone. Forgotten. Forgotten, right? So I think... You got to get that out of your head, though,

before you go on the ice, right? Yeah, you don't want to be thinking that type of stuff, right? It's not something you think of. So I always thought about the process, right? So I think you got to get that out of your head though, before you go on the ice. You don't want to be thinking that type of stuff, right? It's not something you think of. So I always thought about the process, right? So I was very kind of centered in on being present, focusing on my breath,

kind of calming my heart rate, understanding what process and strategy that I had in front of me, the things that I could control, right? The things that I couldn't control was the previous four years of preparation so that's why i think i trained so psychotically hard and prepared so well to a degree that i really to this day believe that other athletes weren't willing to go through because i felt like if i could get to the start line and it was time to shine and i looked to my left i looked to my right i felt like there was nothing more I could have done.

So having this like zero regrets mentality, even though I look back now and I say, I could have done this better, did this better. Of course, right? We're analytical. But I wanted to always be in pursuit of being able to say, no matter what my outcome in that race, kind of be happy and satisfied with that performance,

which is very difficult as competitors because we hate losing, right? I mean, I remember my, this is not even comparable to yours, but I remember when I wanted to be a New York time bestseller, I really wanted to hit number one. I got number two. I was still really happy,

but I was like, ah, yeah, I got that one little spot. You know, it's like the silver is great. I know what you're talking about. It's not the gold.

You know what I mean? So, so what was the process the night before and 30 minutes before an olympic medal race for you and was it different than any other championship race it's it's completely different so um like we have world championships every year we have world cups all over the world the olympic games are so unique because all the media is there there's thousands and thousands of additional people who are watching that we're watching before who have no clue who you are the

sport yeah it's the only real coveted event especially in these anomaly sports like mine short track speed skating how many short track speed skaters are in the US not many so it's our only

chance at performing when the light is there yeah otherwise no one else is gonna watch no monetary gain really right I mean to be honest I never did this sport because I thought I was going to make

a lot of money. If I did, I was an idiot because that's just not the case. I just did it because I really, really loved what I did. Truly,

that's what I felt like. If you asked me when I was 17 if I would do anything else, no, it was sports only. So the process was, well, 30 minutes before,

I was still, I probably just completed a semifinal. Really? Yeah. You did a semifinal then you go right into it. Yeah,

you get 20 minutes in between a race. Wow. So by the time you get your skates off, untie, go to Yeah. You did a semifinal, then you go right into it. Yeah, you get 20 minutes in between a race. Wow. So by the time you get your skates off, untie, go to the locker room, sharpen your skates,

you got maybe like 12 minutes left or 10 minutes left. So those 10 minutes are, you look at the start sheet, this is who the lineup is, this is who I know I'm skating against,

and then I think from there, it's a mental game. It's a mental game, which is my favorite part of sport. And so what was your mental process? I have a strategy about how I want the race to go. So I spend some time visualizing how I want that to go, which nine times out of ten never goes that way. But I still visualize it because I want to see the passing.

I want to see myself moving in that direction. i want to see me in these specific positions throughout the race and then uh you know i i i basically just go more internal and i just i focus on centering i focus on my kind of the smoothest of breath and i basically just meditate pre-race so i'm still stretching i'm still moving but everything is geared towards being in that flow state, being in that peak state where you just have some kind of unexplainable ability to go above and beyond what your previous physiology has shown you. So I want to skate faster than I've ever skated, ever clocked. I want to make passes in that race that I've never done before. I want to skate faster than I've ever skated, ever clocked. I want to make passes in that race that I've never done before. I want to do things that are seemingly superhuman.

And the only way that I know that I can, and I'm fatigued, and I'm tired, and I just raced against the world's best, and I'm racing against the world's best again for a chance to win gold for the United States. So in that moment. No pressure. There's tons of pressure, right? There's tons of pressure. But that's the beauty of sport, right?

You get this instantaneous kind of rush that gives you an answer, yes or no, did I succeed or not. A lot of it's out of your control at the end of the day, right? I can't control that outcome. So I do focus on things that I can control, and everything that I control is in my own body. So the way that I project my own energy, if I'm jogging past another competitor, if they're on the start line with me, I know they're thinking about what I'm doing in the race. I know that they want to kind of study and figure out kind of strategically how they're going to beat me. I know there's a target on my back, but none of that really, really matters at the end of the day. Ten years from this race today, am I really going to keep looking back on this race?

Probably not, but I want to make sure that I can finish this race and in 10 years say, that was amazing. That was an amazing, incredible experience. I competed in front of billions of people who watched this sport. Whether I won, whether I lost, got disqualified, yes, I could have made some changes. But I want to be able to kind of appreciate the core for what I was doing, which is really, I'm there because I really love competition and I love the sport. And when I take that into consideration, the pressure kind of dissolves. And then when you have this ability to have this, you know, we talk about ego dissolution, right? So once a year, as, as athletes, we do, you know, we basically try to dissolve our ego and we break down and we try to basically crack ourselves

physically in front of the rest of the athletes. And that happens moments before you go out there, because I got to tell you, you know, you spent four years of your life and I got one minute before the race, all of a sudden I got this voice in my head telling me, hey, maybe you're a little bit tired. Hey, did you sharpen your skates properly? Hey, maybe you should do another couple jumps to warm up. Did you eat, you know, did you get enough rest? Did you train hard enough this year? Should you race it more?

You know, like, should you have done something different? This guy's technique looks better than yours. All this crazy negative energy is happening. You know, this, like, little voices in my head. So everyone has their own ways of dealing with those voices for me uh either try to squash the voice and say i'm gonna block it out i don't want to hear it or say you know what i'm accepting this this is a natural human psychological response given the anxiousness that i have leading up to the race and it's okay

but i can't i just gotta let that go because the only things that are going to benefit me are how can I focus on the positive components of what I got? What are my strengths? What did I do? I didn't sacrifice every single thing I could possible for this moment, and I'm going to perform well. It's muscle memory. I've done this race a million times.

I've played this over in my head while I meditate in the sauna. Every day. Millions of times. Every single day. Now it's the moment to really, truly appreciate it. And I'm a firm believer that if you go into a race worried or a competition worried or angry, you either punch yourself out or you're just limiting yourself. But if you go into it with a very kind of, look, it's pretty simple, just positive, and a belief system that everything is going to work out,

not in a false way, but in a way that you've prepared, the results, I think they speak for themselves. Sure, man. Yeah. It's amazing. Yeah. Were you going to school during this time? Were you training full-time?

Because you won a national championship at 14, right? Yeah. And then you were in high school after that, and so you were doing full-time? You were going on, because you won a national championship at 14, right? Yeah. And then were you, you were in high school after that. And so you were doing full-time training after school in the mornings. Before and after, yeah. Before and after and studying.

And then did you go to college too? Yeah, yeah. Where did you go to school? University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. I didn't finish. I didn't finish though. I'm like shy, like 13 credits, I think. It took me like seven years to finish.

Well, it's taken me a long time. I haven't even thought about it. But you were training at the Olympic Center in Colorado Springs and went to school. So when I was – I grew up in Seattle. When I was 14 years old – I'll give you kind of the quick rundown. So I grew up in Seattle, single-parent household. My father came to the United States straight from japan no money you know immigrant had a camera around his neck sold the camera for money started his life didn't speak

the language wow um he was 17 and a half or 18 years old and struggled very much in a time in a period where especially japanese were not accepted in our country um and so he kind of settled in the northwest region which was the seattle area washington state um became a hairdresser a hairstylist out of all things that way your hair looks so good well you know but thank you uh and then he uh you know my dad he he said everything was actually really turning up for him in terms of business until i came along and it like just changed his entire entire life so when I was born uh my father and my mother separated um and then my dad took full custody of me and how old were

you I think I was like maybe one years old wow I don't you know I don't really know so pretty quickly after you're born very quickly he took you he took me he thought that he was the best suited you know parent to take care of me Raised me without really knowing what was happening. Noticed right away that I was – She wasn't around at all. At all. At all. Wow.

So here's the crazy part. This is another topic. So my mom was adopted. She doesn't know her background ethnicity because she was adopted. So for the longest time, people ask you, okay, what's your ethnicity? I'm half Japanese. What's the other half? Don't know.

Good question. I had no idea. Sure. Until I went and got this swab test. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and then it kind of showed where I'm from, and I'm like a complete mutt. Like it's crazy, my mix. Anyway, so.

So she was gone when you were one. Gone. Gone when I was one. Do you have a relationship with her now? I have no relationship with her now. Have you hung out with her? I've never met her. You've never met your mom?

Never met my mom. Never once? Never once. Never seen her? No. Is she alive? I think so. Have you ever tried to reach out?

I haven't. Why not? I think two reasons. One, I'm not sure if I would really recognize the person who I'm meeting meaning my father did such I think a great job but

like if my mom walked in the room right now I wouldn't know that's my mom if you just said oh this is so and so she works for me right

but if I said this is your mom I don't think I'd believe you because I you know like show me some proof that this is my

I don't know it's definitely a very weird situation so I'm at that this is my, I don't know. It's definitely a very weird situation. So I'm, at some point in my life, I'm sure I'm going to get to a point where I'd like to kind of reach out to someone who's biologically responsible

for me being here on earth. And I'd like to talk to that person because I just want to know. You're not calling your mom, but the person. Yeah. The person who gave you birth though. Who gave birth, right?

So there's some, wow. Yeah. It's really, really crazy. So again, like I said, I grew up in an American-Japanese household from a dad who was extremely strict, but also not super Japanese. That's why he left Japan,

because he didn't want to be Japanese. He wanted to be American. So he came here. Anyway, so fast forward. When she left, was she still in Seattle or were they married or was it just like a... Divorced. Divorced. They were married

for a couple of years. They were married. Had you. She left. Had me. He said, get out of here. She left. He doesn't know where she's at. No, he has contact with her every couple of years. She'll just like call him out of nowhere. You haven't wanted to meet her? He'll just call me and tell me.

He'll say, hey, I spoke to – Shut up. So she knows who you are? Of course. She's watched you over the years. She sees my name like all over the place, right? And she's never tried to reach out to you. So the first time I won a medal in 2002, she had called my father and said, I just want to tell you that I'm really proud.

I know that obviously I didn't help raise. Because my dad is really protective. He's very sensitive. I'm sure there's some internal stuff there. So he would tell me, say, hey, look, I got this call. And it kind of explained to me how the call went. But emotionally, it's very difficult for me to understand what that feels like. Well, what feels like?

Having a mom. Because I don't know. I had someone who was a mother figure in my life. She was amazing. Did your dad get remarried? He got remarried. So you had a stepmom who was there who was loving?

No. No. No. I moved away from home when I was 14. Got it. So you got married after you left.

Yeah, after Kiana saw that I was on my own. So for the first 14 years you didn't have a mother figure. No. I was making my own food when I was eight years old

because my dad was working. I would come home from school and I'd have to take care of myself and I was making my own food when I was eight years old. No way. Because my dad was working. I would come home from school, and I'd have to take care of myself. I'd have to study. And my dad would come home very late because he was working trying to provide, right? Did you have a babysitter? Did you have siblings? No. No babysitter.

Single kid. And he was like, look, this is how you cook. This is how you clean. This is what you got to do. Yeah, for years. In Seattle? Like true Latchkey. What was it?

Latchkey. Is that Latchkey kid? Is that his name yeah yeah wow so you grew up quick I grew up quick

not only because when I was 14 I made my first team so you were playing you were with guys who were 21 I was number one in the US

when I was 14 you were with guys who were 20s guys who were 35 they've been at two Olympic games they have families I'm this 14 year old kid

punk kid from Seattle I had no idea what respect is what discipline what hard work is. I just naturally had a God-given ability for sport. And you were hungry. Yeah. Actually, it was easy for me when I was 14. When I was 15, it was hard.

And I don't know, for whatever reason. Because you started thinking too much probably. Yeah, exactly. If you're just having fun and you're playing, you're just like, I'm just going to be the fastest. But then you're like, oh, there's money and there's this, there's that. Jennifer Capriotti, the great tennis player, played against Steffi Graf when she was 15. And I forgot who I was writing the article, but it's something along the lines of she had this supernatural naivety within her that she thought, I can beat Steffi Graf.

I'm 15. I don't see why not. She did it, right? And she did it, right? That's the kind of mentality i think and then there's all this stuff at stake afterwards there's like the money well i think i think what happens titles the yeah psychologically is when you start it's the scarring so when you lose or you prepare that emotional trauma or whatever you want to call it

starts to affect you and so psychological when you're kind of young, you have nothing to lose. It's a beautiful thing. You're a child. You're always in a flow state. Always in the zone. It's always easy. You're strong.

You're growing. There's no responsibility. You recover like a machine. Yeah, you push up so my legs get stronger. You know? It doesn't matter. You know what I mean? It's a...

Yeah. Anyway. So back to the story. Back to the story. So when I was 12 years old, I was a swimmer, had some success in sports. I wanted to play football. A little short for that, man. Thank you, thank you.

It's all right. My dad said no. That's very good. Yeah, very good. I wanted to box. He said no. At 12. So you'd never done skating before then?

No. I mean, I did like roller skating and stuff With the roller rink But nothing like And I was pretty good at sports But Never really took it seriously And

Did you do martial arts or anything also? No No But I've always been fascinated with With mixed martial arts Really fascinated with it Okay so at 12 you said No to all these sports

I saw speed skating on television Really? Said that looks so cool 1994 1994 On the Olympics or what? Yeah on the television. Really? Said, that looks so cool. 1994. On the Olympics or what? Yeah, on the Olympics. Oh, gosh.

And I said, that is so cool. I want to try that. Six months later, my dad got me skates. Wow. I was practicing in some local hockey rink with some friends. He took me to a couple local competitions. And then from there. At 12?

13, about 13. And a year later, you won the national championship? I moved to, no, at the age of 14. Here's the story. So I was kind of a bad kid, but I think most kids are bad to some degree. So living in Seattle, my dad said, I want to take you to Lake Placid, New York. You got an invite to attend the Junior Olympic Development Program in Lake Placid, New York at the Olympic Training Center. Yes. 14. They pulled some strings.

You're supposed to be 15, but they see so much talent in you. You've gotten the invite. You're going to go. I said, Dad, I'm not going. It's a summer in Seattle. It's beautiful. You want to hang out with your friends. I'm going to hang out.

I want to barbecue. I'm 14. I got all the answers. Yeah. You know? You don't understand me, Dad. And this was also a time when my father and i were clashing heavily uh and so he just forcefully made me pack my bags and

then took me to the airport two weeks later and said you're gonna fly to albany and then take the take the the bus from albany to lake placid and um drop me off at the airport beautiful drive with the lake up there it's beautiful now. Now, but when you're 14, you don't see anything. There's like two restaurants. Yeah, you see like a very small town that hasn't changed.

Ice hockey rink from Miracle on Ice. From 1980. That's like, yeah. And so, my father drops me off at the ice rink and after, or sorry,

excuse me, my father drops me off at the airport at SeaTac and I wave bye to my father. 14. 14. 14. And I walk right up to the payphone. Back then we had payphone kids.

You guys don't even know what those are. So this is what, 94? 94. No, sorry. This is 1996. 96, yep. 96.

I call my friend and say, hey, look, I'm supposed to go to New York today. At the airport? Yeah. In Seattle? Yes. I'm not gonna go.

I'm coming to your house. Shut up. So I go to my friend's house and then for the next two weeks I bounce around from house to house. Shut up. Without your dad knowing. He kind of knew but he didn't know until he gets the call from the coach in Lake Placid.

Hey, your son's not here. Mr. Rono, look, the invitation is still wide open. We're just kind of curious what's happening. And my dad, you know, oh, you lost my son. And he somehow finds out where I'm at. He's furious. Picks me up, and then we fight again for another two weeks.

Then he says, you're going to go. You're going to try it for one month. Packs my bags. We go to the airport. Parks the car. Walks through security. Walks to the gate. Make sure you get on. Gets on a plane with me.

Obviously, he's flying with me. Oh, wow. He flies to Lake Placid. We walk to Lake Placid. He goes up and we meet the coach. Looks the coach in the eyes. Shakes his hand and says, good luck. And then goes home.

That's it? That's it. And then this coach was like, you know, obviously during this two and a half, three week period, this coach is starting to hear some pretty horrific tales about this like problem child who's going to come into the training program. When you weren't there. When I wasn't there, right? Because, you know, so these like rumors started.

Anyway, so then I started the program and it was actually pretty amazing. pretty amazing so that first mentor who was my coach patrick wetland took me under his wing saw that i had talent um but i didn't know what work ethic was um i was competitive but didn't know how to channel it you weren't i had anger and rage but didn't know how to use it in a positive perspective or direction uh so this was his job was to mold these younger kids to one day grow up to be great athletes. And then I just fell in love with the sport. And then literally six and a half, seven months later, I tried out for the U.S. World Team Trials, which is all age groups. And I ended up winning it. Six months later.

Yeah, which I came out of nowhere. People were just like, who the hell is this kid? Fast forward a year later is the 1998 Olympic trials. Didn't make that team. Got dead last. The reason why is I went back home after I made my first team. Partied. The same friends partied.

Didn't train. Didn't train. Didn't focus. Zero focus. Didn't know that the off-season was really the pre-season. Yeah. And harsh lesson. You got dead last at the trials. At the trials. harsh lesson. But that- You got dead last

at the trials. At the trials. Dead last. I went from first to dead last. The US trials. Yes. US Olympic trials.

US Olympic trials. Yep. They take what? Top three or what do they do there? They take top four and there's a fifth alternate. So four for the relay

top two skate individual races. And you were last out of how many? Six. Well, you have to make the cut which is 16. Top 16 men. Got it.

But I barely made the cut and I also barely made 16th place. Wow. Just gave up. And then so my father – And you're 16. I was 15.

Wow. Takes me back to Seattle. He's furious. Because my dad is a guy who he really believes in hard work, right? He really believes in kind of dedicating yourself towards something regardless of the outcome. Because if you don't, then you're leaving yourself open to the possibility of saying i wish i could have i would have he hates that and he really instilled that within me but i obviously didn't show that because i just a lack of passion you're also 15 15 but i grew up early

like awareness that's true lack of so many things yeah yeah so many. I still like days of 34, right? A lot. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. I'm still 15 in a 34-year-old body. But so my father drives me about three and a half hours, you know, southwest of Seattle to this area called Copalis Beach. And there's a resort there called the Iron Springs Resort, which is not a resort, by the way. It's been renovated, but at the time it was just cabins right nothing in there and he drops me off

he says you're going to find out what you're going to do with your life and you're going to call me when you figure it out and he gave me food and like

I had clothes I'm 15 years old man like I don't know if I could do that when I have kids I don't know

if I could do that wow so you're at a campground, there was no other people there. You're by yourself here. I mean, this is a place they send people to when they're part of like the witness protection program.

Wow. Like there's, this place is desolate. There's nothing there, man. Yeah. There's like, I can buy fireworks.

That's about it. Wow. You know, like this is like on your own. You're living by yourself. It's beautiful, this place, but there's no one there and it's raining every single day,

all day. So what do you do? I just started working out. I started running by yourself. It's beautiful, this place, but there's no one there, and it's raining every single day, all day. So what do you do? I just started working out. I started running. By yourself? There's no other people there? I had a moment at the age of 15 where I was going through a midlife crisis. This is like your Peaceful Warrior moment.

Yeah, no, seriously. Have you seen the movie Peaceful Warrior? Of course. Yeah, read the book, yeah. Yeah, Dan Millman. Yeah, great book. This is like your moment where you're like, the cocky guy. It's identical.

And so you have this 15-year-old kid who had all the talent in the world. I could have made that team in 98. You could have. If I just trained for a month properly. You think so? Absolutely, looking back. I could have gotten third, at least third, for sure.

But you didn't care. Didn't care. Thought that it wasn't important. Didn't understand the importance of. Going to the Olympics? I didn't understand it. I didn't understand. I just didn't understand.

It wasn't like a dream of yours or. It was, but obviously not. Until I lost. And I felt that kind of pain of, man, I could have done something better. You know, I could have been. And then I tried to just kind of find myself in this period of time where I was just trying training. And I called my dad about five days,

five or six days into this mindless training program that I set up for myself and said, I made a decision. I want to try speed skating one more time. I didn't tell him actually. I just said, you know, I made a decision. He came, picked me up. And then I kind of.

You made a decision what you want to do with your life. Yeah. And he was like, look, either you're going to go back to school, really, really study, or you're going to pursue the Olympic Games and try to become an Olympic athlete. And I said, I think I can do it. And I decided to do that. So I then

really dedicated myself back and towards the Olympic movement. And... 16 now. I fell in love with the sport. So when I came back home the second time, I didn't call any of my friends. I set up a little stationary bike in my basement and a small little seven-inch Sony Triniton TV.

I always remember it's white. And I set up a little player and I just watched skating tapes while I was biking every single day. And I went to school and studied. And it was very non-scientific. But I basically just busted my ass, and I became completely obsessed with the sport, obsessed.

And I understood every single athlete who was competitive. I knew their strengths. I knew their weaknesses. I knew why they won. I knew why they lost. I knew everything about the sport. And I showed up into the next training program six months later and I was trim, I was fit,

I was way stronger than anybody else. Super hungry. Focused. Super focused. And I was also just, you know, I was growing. So I started to get really, really strong. And then I started to win. And I just started to win. And then once I got my first taste of international victory, I was

just like this monster that couldn't be stopped. You know? And then started to win and then once i got my first taste of international victory i was just like this like monster that couldn't be stopped you know and uh then my then my career you know kind of started wow man yeah i love this stuff yeah but it wasn't always my career wasn't always like this you know like i think everybody goes go through these crazy kind of up and down moments little injuries little this little that whatever yeah i hear you. I remember my senior year of college, I remember my whole goal as a kid was to be three things, an All-American athlete, a professional athlete, and an Olympian.

It was my senior year, and I got injured. I broke three ribs playing football. And the previous year, I broke a world record for the most yards in the game, and I was the second-leading receiver in the nation, but I didn't get the All-American Award because we didn't do that well as a team. And so my senior year, I say, you know what? Screw it. I'm just going to go to track.

I broke my record playing football, so I've got one more season, and I've got the track season coming up. I'm like, I'm going to do whatever it takes to be an Olympian, or not an Olympian, but an All-American. And I knew the only way to do that was through the decathlon because I wasn't great at any one sport, but I was really good at a lot of events. Decathlon's hard, man.

So hard. So I dedicated six months of my life. Your story is almost identical to what I did. I dedicated six months of my life. I didn't talk to anyone. I didn't eat sweets. I love it. You went in the hole.

I was in the hole, man. Every morning, 6 a.m. with my coach, after school, after practice, I was staying. I was just like a machine. And I would watch every single night before I go to bed because the hardest sport to learn event was the pole vault. I didn't know how to do the pole vault at the time. So I was like, I need to learn this ASAP. And I would watch an hour videotape every single night in my bed and visualize myself as dreaming, going over like a higher and higher bar every single day.

Yeah. And I just become obsessed with it. Yeah. And I loved that time, man. That was the best time. I got in the best shape I've ever been. I was like 196 where I was 225 before that. Got to 196 with lean, fast.

Felt good, man. Felt amazing. Isn't it amazing what you can do? Like when you really want something. It's the best. There's no limits. It's unbelievable. It's so crazy with the human body and mind when they're synergistically working together

and you have something of a sight in front of you. Sometimes you don't reach that, what you want, right? But I think the process that you develop. What you learn along the way. Oh, my gosh. It's so – Nothing like it. Life lessons are amazing.

And I think if you want to be the, you know, if you want to win, I think the Olympics or anything and be great in business, I think you have to be obsessed. Yeah. There's no, you can't just be like, you know what?

I'm going to work pretty hard. And it's like you have, if you want to be number one at anything or have the chance at it, I think you need to be obsessed for a period of time. Yeah. That's the only way. I agree with you a hundred percent. If you want to do the best movie,

like the best directors in the world, they're not like normal people. They're obsessed freaks of their craft, right? And they will obsess over every little detail of edits and storytelling. Same thing with authors and writers. The best ones get a little bit off. I'm like, God, I just want to get in there all the time.

But you can you can there's people who like a light switch they are able to turn it on and off yeah you know some people easier than others in my when i was competing my best there was times when i could turn the light switch on yeah and when i was on i was not gonna lose yeah i don't care if you had the most incredible day in your life and i was fatigued and wearing a weight vest. You were going to win. I was going to smash you. Wow.

Smash you, right? Yeah. That's the feeling that you have. That's why I think we train so hard. But obsessiveness is awesome. Yeah. Did you train with a vest too all the time? I did everything.

On the skate? I did some crazy, crazy training. Yeah. We did. The weird thing about short track speed skating I did everything. I did some crazy, crazy training. Yeah, we did. I mean, we did. The weird thing about short track speed skating is it's not a natural movement that our bodies are used to. So you're crouched over. Like, you know, your back is bent over.

You're using all these small kind of muscles and tendons that you just aren't supposed to be using that way. And you're ripping around these corners pulling two and a half g's per leg which is like a almost a 400 pound one so much force on your your hips your legs and it's like you know twerking yeah so it's you know you you gotta be low to the ground to be able to do that sport right yeah i want to be able to do it that well yeah straight line i'm pretty good yeah i'm sure straight line if i don't have to turn, I'll be all right. Yeah. But obsessiveness is great. I think that that's one thing that we're starting to see, you know, like when you look at like the tech industry. Guys who – I did this conference the other day where I was talking to some guys and, you know, it was about 11.30 p.m. at night. And this guy says, hey, Paul, it was really great to meet you.

Let's keep in contact. I said, oh, you're taking off. He says, yeah, I'm going to go back to work. 11 o'clock at night. 11.30 at night and this guy says hey Paul it was really great to meet you let's keep in contact I said oh you're taking off he says yeah I'm going to go back to work 11 o'clock at night 11.30 at night this is like a

Tuesday or something like that and he's going to go back to his office slash home in Venice and go hammer out some more programming

for this new video game he's creating amazing right because that's all he cares about it was great to be there in this event but he actually

I could feel he's like I don't I want to go back to like my little obsession this is where I want to be there in this event, but he actually, I could feel, he's like, I don't, this is great. I want to go back to like my little obsession. This is where I want to be. But I think those greatness elements can come out of those things when you really tap into them. But it takes a lot of effort. Some people, they don't have to put in a ton of effort. We're all different human beings.

But I'm a firm believer that if you really, really hammer out the hard work, maybe the path that you're on is not the one that's going to be your home run. But along this process, you're going to learn something about yourself that'll lead to another path that you will have a grand slam. And we don't know those end goals. We have goals which we want to reach. This is my end game. I want to do this. I want to be the next unicorn. I want to have the next successful book. I want to be this kind of success in business. I want to be the next athlete. We have these wants that we seemingly think are important today in our life. Like when I was 17, someone says, Apollo, what do you want to do in the next 10 years when you're done skating? I say, what are you talking about? This is my sport. This is what I'm on earth for. This

is why I was supposed to be here. It was because of short track speed skating. I'm going to inspire millions of people throughout my craft, not understanding that maybe this was actually just one of the vehicles that would launch me into another, perhaps another vehicle that would allow me to touch millions, if not billions of people's lives in a positive perspective and take from, or learn from, or collab with whatever those are. I don't know what those answers are, right? I'm not, I don't think we can see the future. We just, we're like these, you know, consciousness We just were like these consciousness beings just walk around these little meat vests we're wearing. Yeah.

So why did you decide to retire then? I retired in 2010, two reasons. One, I wanted to explore components just outside of the sporting world. I had been living in the bubble for 15 years. That's a long time. Actually, I wasn't sick of it. I still loved it.

And I miss it every day. But I was ready for the next challenge. So I was super hungry for business, super hungry to explore the world, entrepreneurship, wanted to test my own will and creativity against the world and see what I can come up with,

see what kind of businesses I can have an impact with and see what I can come up with, see what kind of businesses I can have an impact with, what partnerships I can create. And I wanted to live outside of the sporting world. So, you know, I think the hardest transition for any athlete is, especially Olympic. Identity is a lot of it, man. Huge. You leave the sport. Okay.

February 23rd, 27th, Olympic Games, closing ceremonies, done. 28th, you wake up. I don't have to train. I don't have a coach. I don't have my skates. I don't have a job. I have no income. No more press. Well, if you win, you have press. It's not like you think.

That transition and then after that dies off. Let's say a year goes by after the Olympic Games. Now, you are no longer in the spotlight you haven't had the schooling or the social interactive skills emotional intelligence emotional intelligence and the experience of winning and losing in life outside of sport that is so important for your development as an individual so you're blunted and now you're trying to try out for a job at maybe, you know, at one of these investment banks or at another place and you're competing against a kid who's fresh out of Columbia who is, you know, 21 years old.

You're 28. You have no experience. This kid used to intern. He's got two degrees. You've got one. You're living off your past success your past you have to find a way to find something that still fuels you

and you're passionate about so I almost feel every time I think about this like I love the Olympics so much but every time the Olympics comes around

and I see so much attention on like a 17 year old kid or whatever who's whether they win or not but they're just like in the spotlight on the cover of every magazine on all the press i'm like i'm so happy for that person but i'm also

like terrified for them because i know like when they in a year or two like you said when they're forgotten or they're just that person that did that thing years ago it's like who are they then and they've never developed the skills and And I feel sad almost for the person who's gotten that much attention so young because they don't know what to do afterwards. I feel bad a lot. It's like people who are child actors. Yeah.

It's similar. Or music stars. And I think we also see the same thing when you see these vets come home or sometimes some of the SEAL guys who come home. They have a mission and then they have no mission or purpose, right?

Yeah. This mission, even though it's impossible to us as civilians, these guys, that's where they feel the most at home. So I struggled with that

for years. Did you? I did. You were also like, for some reason, you were like the king of getting sponsorships. I mean,

I saw your name everywhere for years. I was like, how is it getting, I think you were on like Subway and like, oh, yeah, a lot of love. I saw your name everywhere for years. I was like, how is it getting, I think you were in like subway and like, Oh yeah, a lot of love, the white house and this and that.

I was like, how is this mother for like getting all this stuff for years? And I was like, he's not even doing anything anymore for years, but you're like the unicorn. No one else was getting that love. I was, uh,

I got a lot of love. Uh, I worked really hard at, um, trying to stay relevant and I created just great partnerships. Not many people can do that, though. No, they can't. And look, I've...

And you worked... It sounds like you really developed those friendships while you're in the games and in between. Yeah, I did. And you knew how to... I did, internationally especially. So I knew when I retired that I wanted to do business right away.

Yeah, smart. And so I was super hungry. And I tried everything, man. I did every business you could possibly imagine. I invested in so many things. I lost so much money. I've made money. And I lost millions of dollars.

That was your PhD, man. Millions of dollars. That was your master's degree. Holy smokes. You learned a lot. I learned a lot, a lot. But in that process, I also found that the things that I thought that I wanted in business actually aren't really what I want. I thought that that's what I want because society, I think, teaches us and what we see through social media is that these are the things that make you cool. These are the things that make you important.

These are the things that make you cool. These are the things that make you important. These are the things that make you feel good. What were those things? I think the traditional materialistic items that can be replaced with the next thing. And it's a never ending cycle that there is no ceiling. There's always something more. You always seek. There's no fulfillment.

Right. And in sport there is because it's quite pure. You know, I'm not doing it because i wanted money i'm not amateur sport olympic sport there is yeah yeah but i think still these guys you know you look at russell westbrook yeah he wants this guy wants to win he loves the game when he loses it hurts so bad i can see it in his face when you watch games some guys they look they're happy they made it they got a huge contract they kind of go relax um but you know

still it's it's i mean same with mma kind of go relax. But still, it's the same with MMA, right? You watch these guys who fight. It's their life. It's their life, man. Sure, they're getting a great contract, right? But they are training because they want to win and lose. In business, same thing. So I approach the same thing in businesses.

I make sure, are my values aligned with the same kind of component? And look, I'm not going to turn away an opportunity just because I see there's an opportunity to create some financial gain. Of course, I'm going to do that. But I think that now the businesses that I have and I'm focused on are making positive impacts. Those are the ones that I like the most. That's good, man. Right? And I was talking about this before, my company, Elysian. So we focus on essentially nutraceuticals. So brain supplements

was our main focus. And then we have a whole skew of lineup, but that's one component, right? Is saying, look, this is, these are some tools to help kind of biohack your way to make sure you're healthy, clean, and give you the optimal edge. And then there's a huge part of the story here that you're missing. You got to meet me halfway. When you come meet me halfway and you make the commitment, let's talk about how we can help you improve as an individual. So, you know, yes, let's change your physiology. Let's change the way you think. Let's change the way that you move.

Let's create some kind of psychological and physiological shock to your system that says, I want to change today. Let's make it happen. Once you do that, then you start focusing on these everyday elements, right? Everyone, I want to lose weight. I want to look better. I want to have better social skills, I want to have more confidence, I want to go to sleep earlier, I want to cut my coffee, I want to cut my tea, whatever your goals are, right? It doesn't matter. I think we often lose sight of the process that gets there and

appreciating that process and understanding what that process is and learning now that we've got all the information at our fingertips. Like you literally can be a high school student and you can get every single piece of information you want from your phone. From your phone. So now there's no excuse to not having the proper education and learning from someone like yourself or another social media influencer or another guy who's got an incredible impact in society, or someone like Tony Robbins,

who is one of the great speakers of all time, right? So people like this are now accessible to you at all times, 24 hours a day. And if you're not taking advantage of that, you are losing and missing out because there's some kid in India or China who is logging on to the internet, who is getting the information,

who is hungry, who has an idea, an idea set and wants to change their own personal life and in return help others. And same thing with kind of what we're doing and my impact is, and we talked about you want to impact 100 million people. I think you're going to impact way more, by the way. I think that's your- That's a starting goal. Yeah.

Once I do that, then I set a new goal. It's a micro goal. Yes, yes. more, by the way. I think that's your starting goal. Once I do that, then I set a new goal. It's a micro goal. I think the beautiful thing of living and operating in LA is the creative minds that are here. And if you could find your tribe who kind of cultivates the same societal trends that you deem important in your life, together, the transformation process for yourself and for others is amazing. And I see an opportunity to impact people all over the world. So, you know,

we have offices that are based in Vancouver, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, um, Shenzhen, China,

Shanghai, Beijing, the Philippines, Thailand, these different areas of the world where when I go there and I talk about biohacking, they're like, I don't know what you're talking about.

I don't know why you're putting fat in your coffee. You're putting fat in your tea. What are you talking about? They're very behind in some of these elements. So the self-development or the, I guess, the self-improvement perspective that we all seek on a daily basis is so new to them. My only goal now is to, in duality,

have the business that also can be successful, but also create a community of individuals and people who are really interested in becoming the best versions of themselves, right? And I think we naturally compare ourselves to other people because that's our barometer for success, right? Well, this person does this. Well, he's got, you know,

this person's got 100 million downloads on their podcast. So you naturally, you're competitive, and that's your barometer towards what you deem successful, which I think is fine, but I think when we really, really focus on the things that we really, really want, and when you define them, whatever they are, if you just want to make more money

because you want to buy a nice car or you want to buy that fat new gold Rollie, whatever it are, if you just want to make more money because you want to buy a nice car or you want to buy that fat new gold Rollie, you know, whatever it is, make sure you define what those goals are and then you work backwards, right, and you develop a plan just like anything else. This is the athlete mentality. You're speaking my language.

Yeah, so, you know, I plan four years in advance. Like, that's my quad. That's like what I like to do. So I say, okay, well, it took me four years to be in my best shape in my life. If it's four years for a business, can we be a unicorn? Yes, we can.

Well, what are the steps that need to happen for me to get the unicorn? Are there funding problems? How do I raise money? Are there staffing problems? How do I get people on board? Is there culture issues? Well, how do I make sure the movement is in line with the things that I believe in? All these different components are the beautiful part of business.

And I think that, I mean, we live, I get excited every single day because we live in a society now in the United States that is so open to having entrepreneurship. Never before in the history of the world has there been a better time to be someone who is hungry to make a change

for themselves you want to do this 20 years ago it was difficult man you gotta go back to work and just keep it happening now you can actually do it

and make it happen and you can do it instantaneously and so I get so fascinated from hearing from these kids and from these people like this woman who left her she was working

at some marketing firm for like 20 years she left and now she wanted to work for our company because she loves what we believe in. She goes, I've never been more happy in my life. She's making half the amount of money. But she started making the money right away in our company. In about a year time

from now, she's going to make three times as much as what she did. But she's following something that she really, really loves. So passion is important. You can only do something for money for so long. And I think, I think there's so many different elements of business and commerce and connectivity that I think we all love. And, and there's so many opportunities out there. I mean, I get opportunity. I'm sure you do every single week. Opportunity overload now. Overload. You have to stay focused. You have to say no a lot to stay focused on your vision. Yeah, exactly.

Which ones are the priorities? One, two, and three, right? And if this is important, this is important, this is important. And I got 300 other deals or possible collaborations or investments. What are those things? I'm curious, who was more influential in your life, do you think? Mom or dad, and why? I think my dad was more influential because he was hands-on.

He was there. What's the biggest lesson he taught you? Leaving no stone unturned is one of them in my preparation. So I think he's got, my father's got this kind of very Japanese mentality, right? You fall down seven, you get up eight.

You know? You have no, you know, the reasons why you do what you do make sure that they're beyond just winning. Right? So he was very much,

you know, my dad was quite philosophical. He was like the real life Mr. Miyagi. he was very much, you know, my dad was quite philosophical. He was like the real life Mr. Miyagi. Wow. Because there's times, even today. I saw. Yeah, it's so crazy.

So my father would tell me some things, and I'm like, Dad, I don't know what the hell you're talking about. Speak English. I don't understand, you know, but he's got a way of putting things that now they make so much sense. Yeah.

And they have much deeper meaning. And like he told me six years ago, he said, Apollo, you don't understand it now, but at some time in your life, you're gonna understand that you think that this is the most important thing you're doing in the world,

which is racing. It's not. It's really not. You're gonna look back and you're gonna laugh. But I want you to recognize that because you're here for a greater purpose. I don't know what that purpose is and you're gonna find out

what that greater purpose is. This is just a small stepping stone to something bigger. This is another chapter in your life's book. So don't waste it. Don't waste it. But my father, for sure. He's been my best friend, my mentor. So blessed to have someone who I'm close to and been so supportive of me.

Because it hasn't been without challenge, for sure. For sure, yeah. And what's the biggest lesson your mom taught you, even though she's never been there? I don't know. I would say, because, you know, I dream of having a family, and I don't want to be divorced. I mean, I want to have a tightly knit family, right. And provide

what I didn't have. But I think there's some things that because I was missing that relationship with my mom really allowed me to be kind of somewhat pretty brutal in my training and kind of like a take it out on the training masochist for pain, you know? Um, um yeah just living in the pain box all the time i really craved it as an athlete do you think if your mom was there and was like this loving mom to you and to you know with your dad that you would be as great as an athlete you are i don't i don't but i don't know but i don't think so i don't think for sure there's something there's an imbalance there but I don't think so. For sure there's something,

there's an imbalance there that allowed me to be so driven. I was so, I look back at my career and it's like, you were so crazy. I didn't care about anything. Nothing mattered except for every minute of the day

was dedicated towards this craft. I would rather cut off my arm than lose. Like I literally, it was so painful to me. I did whatever I could. It's not that I actually even loved winning, to be honest with you. It was that I hated the idea of losing. When I lost, I hated it so much and it hurt so bad I couldn't sleep.

What did it feel like? I don't know. Just pure internal disappointment with myself. Because I felt like I should have won. Because I was better, and I could have been better, and I prepared better. And I felt like this guy didn't understand the sport as well as I did. And I lost a lot.

You did lose a lot. I lost a lot, yeah. I lost a lot. Many times. And whenever I lost, I came a lot. You did lose a lot. I lost a lot, yeah. I lost a lot many times. And whenever I lost, I came back stronger. Really? Look, within those failures, I think we always have the ability to kind of bounce back.

We go back to the drawing board. We recalibrate. It's our time to reengage and understand, okay, what went wrong? What happened? How do we learn from this process? Okay, let's keep it moving. And now, I make mistakes all the time. what went wrong? What happened? How do we learn from this process? Okay, let's keep it moving. Right?

And now, you know, like I make mistakes all the time. But how do I learn from them, adapt faster, quicker, and don't make the same ones over and over again? Especially in business. Especially in business.

Have you ever thought about going back into the sport since you miss it so much? 2012, I thought about coming out of retirement. I watched Phelps in London and talked to Phelps and I thought, man, like I think, you know, my legs still feel good.

I'm super healthy. I don't see why not. I know so much more now than I do then. Your mind is sharper. Yeah. But I'm happy broadcasting. Yeah. You're not going to go back.

No, I don't think so. You're done. Have you ever tried to do just like a fun race to just see if you still got it? I don't even want to get inside that racing suit again. It's quite skin tight. Yeah, right. Wow. Okay, so no more. It's not going to happen. Not even thought about it. No.

My focus is now is What's the next four year vision then? If that's what you do, your four year block in. Sure. So I started a company two years ago called Elysian. We focus on nutraceuticals. My goal is to have it in 14 more countries and have fully operational offices in 14 of those countries.

That's what my main focus is on. Writing a book, toyed with an idea of doing a podcast, toyed with an idea, have always wanted to do one. Really just kind of just- Just call it skin tight skin that's a that's a that's a different podcast um that's the that's the after that's the late late night you should do one yeah but you got to make sure it's very competitive right now it's about 400 000 podcasts it's very very different unique yeah it's difficult to come

with your own angle you know absolutely? Absolutely. So, you know, I think that my goals and visions are, you know, I'm still involved in Olympic space heavily. I love, you know, look, I love...

Summer and winter. Summer and winter. So, you know, I do broadcasting for NBC every two years. So the next games are in Pyeongchang in 2018, February.

The ones after that are in Tokyo, 2020. The one after that is 2022 in Beijing Winter Olympics and then hopefully we can bring the games back here to LA which would be a huge transformative process. I think we have a good shot. I did too.

I saw the bid at the D.O.S.A. house in Rio. I watched it and I was like this looks pretty good. We have a good shot. The games transforms communities and people. You have a good shot. You know, the Games transforms, I think, communities and people. You know, you kind of get together. Obviously, our country is at a time where there's some severe divide.

And I found that the Olympics is kind of that one time that everyone cheers for the one flag again and the one team, which is very powerful. And L.A. is like, you know, it's an accumulation of so many different ethnicities and cultures here. It is. There's so many powerful people here.

In the Summer Olympics, what do you do the commentating on? I more go sport to sport. Interview athletes? Yeah, so I'll go play different sports. It's more free. And then when the winter comes, I spend almost full time doing

kind of my own sport, broadcasting. Cool, man. That's amazing. Yeah. I love it. We've been talking for a while, haven't we? I just got like lost in the stories you've been sharing. What time is it?

It's four o'clock, so I got to get you out here in a minute. Okay, yeah, no worries. Final few questions for you. We're going to have to have you come back on when you have your book. Yeah. Because I feel like I just scratched the surface with you, and I can talk to you all day long here on this. Final few questions. One

is called the three truths. So if this is the last day for you many years from now and you have a piece of paper and a pen to write down three things you know to be true from all your lessons of sports, business, relationships, being with motherless, all these different things that you've learned,

and this would be the only message you get to share with the world, three truths, what would they be for you? Three truths as messages to share with the world. I think first is love, because it's so universal in so many ways and heals so much. Empathy.

And I would have to say almost like a smile, fulfillment, happiness. Mm-hmm. Fulfillment, happiness. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think fulfillment because that kind of encompasses what we truly want as human beings. We think we want tons of money. We think we want shiny things. We actually want great community. We want to be loved. We want to be loved.

We want to love. We want to be with people that we don't have to wear armor around. We want connections as human beings. We want to find our tribes. And we want to be able to do something that we feel is respectful, I think, right? So yeah, that to me is intrinsically what I also strive for now. And notice I said nothing about sport, you know, that's good. But I think love is a huge component. think I think love is a huge component empathy and understanding that you meet someone they just flipped you off they cut you off in traffic someone's had a really bad day you don't know what this person's going through maybe they don't know how to handle it or process it or express

themselves in the way that you would but there's something going on that makes them react like that and the quicker we are to realize that the less likely we are to bark back. We're all guilty of it because we're fighters, right? People, human beings are designed to fight for thousands of years. And I think we now live in an age where we can combat that kind of old school, thousand-year-old brain that we think we used to be like. And I don't think the world, I don't think we are designed to conquer anymore.

I think we're designed to conquer our own insecurities and hardships. And I think we're also truth seekers, you know? So, you know, my father instilled in me some very spiritual beliefs. He was never really very religious. He kind of let me choose my own religion, but he wanted me to be very much in touch with kind of who I am and my own spirituality.

So throughout the sport and the training, I felt like I was always going to be somewhat taken care of no matter what my outcome was because in the grand scheme of things, in 50 years when I walked away from the sport, was because in the grand scheme of things in 50 years when i walked away from the sport i don't think it's that impactful on the whole life short life that we have on earth and i noticed that whenever i went to go speak whether it's an inner city school or impoverished area in a different part of the world what i felt walking away from that, or Special Olympics, you know, the Special Olympics in Austria, those impactful moments are, I think, what we really, really crave.

And, you know, we live in a society where hierarchy, money, power, greed, all these things still exist. And we're victims of those things, and we also are susceptible to those things because we're surrounded by them but we don't have to be slaves to those things i think we can carve our own path we can do the things that we really want to do having the plan having the discipline having the passion and the work ethic anyone can make it out of the box

anyone can make it out of any situation anyone can make it out of any situation and I've seen people who've been dealt the worst deck the worst hand of cards you can imagine and they've turned that around and said well look I've got cards in my hand so life really is perception

and I've been blessed to have an incredible career I've screwed up so many times throughout that process and after. And I continue to probably screw up, right? But I accept those things and I hopefully can become a better person. I can be a great father someday. I can be loved by my friends and my family. And I can spread love to people who really, really need it.

And I think throughout that process process and that's being broad whether I do it through the business I'm in now whether it's through a motivational side or inspirational side um you know I I hate being labeled a motivational speaker or inspirational figure because I always feel like you're your motivator inspired inspired for like you know two days or two weeks and then it just dies down and it it fades into darkness but how do you create change in something that's long lasting how do you continuously keep doing so something like this medium here which we're in this amazing place right so we're in one of the epicenters of the world and you've transformed this area into an area of expression, of education, and of connectivity to where you're expressing and giving people the opportunity to learn.

And so you're spreading love by teaching them about themselves, learning from people who've had success, who've made the lessons, who've made the mistakes already before you. And you're extrapolating this data and saying, look guys, you can do it too. Continue on this path. Figure out what that path is. Figure out what you're good at. Figure out what you're not good at. And then continue on. Because you probably haven't done all the things

that you think you can do yet. And you probably haven't put in the discipline that you really, really think you've done. You say you're working hard. You say you're really putting in the time. Are you really? When you lay your head down at night and you think about do you have regrets about your day? Can you say you're working hard you say you're really putting the time are you really when you lay your head out at night and you think about do you have regrets about your day can you

say to yourself i cannot do any more today than i've done most of the time i say no every single time because i'm just like no i could have done more i could have done something better i could have been more efficient i could have got more rest i could have been taking care of my body whatever it is you know there's always something we can do and then you know so love empathy and whatever that happiness smile fulfillment they kind of go in hand in hand because uh you know i'm sure you've we've always heard this when you have those types of things whether it's gratitude or happiness you can't be angry or sad at the same time. It's very challenging. It's hard to do. You can't do it.

Yeah. Gratitude is the antidote of anger. Yes. Yeah. Yes. And I think that we, you know, we live in a society, unfortunately, that we take things for granted

because it's accessible to us. And I find, I'm just so fascinated by the next generation of people. I think, you know, a lot of people kind of label millennials and just say like, oh, you guys are just – you think everything should be given to you. I don't think they think that. I think that they're given things because society and culture and technology is there. So their expectations are just how they've –

this Pavlovian training is just along this process. So the world we live in today is going to be so different in 20 years. It's going to be crazy, man. Yeah. It's going to be crazy. Well, this has been amazing. What's the best place we can connect with you online? Where do you hang out the most?

I hang out on Instagram, at Apollo Ono. I hang out on Twitter, at Apollo Ono. Find me on Facebook as well. Awesome. But yeah. Yeah, man. This has been great. Before I ask the final question,

I want to take a moment to acknowledge you, Apollo, for constantly showing up and striving to improve other people's lives after a sport. Thank you. I think you did an incredible job as an athlete in defining who you are and what you're capable of

with your body and your mind in sport, winning all the medals. But it's what you've done afterwards, which has been impressive to me and how you're not satisfied with that as your life, where most athletes are satisfied with their, uh, sports accomplishments and they kind of live off that you have taken that mindset and been hungry to inspire others through business and through everything else that you're doing. So I want to acknowledge you for that. Thank you. Yeah.

Yeah. And thank you for having me on. Of course, man. I love mediums like this of expression because I think they're so important given the clutter that we have in society and kind of the distractions that are in front of us. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

You know, how much time you spend on Instagram looking at this picture, this picture, this person, this person's life, who is not living that life you think they're living. I think that focusing inward, you'll find all the answers you possibly can get. That's it, man. And just keep learning. That's it. Because we're babies.

We're just babies. Like I said before, we're always learning, and I value it. So I value this time. Thank you. I'm glad you came in. Final question. What's your definition of greatness? Oh, my definition of greatness, a definition of greatness to me personally, uh, is someone who has reached a state and time in their life where they feel

truly fulfilled. They're doing what they really, truly love. And they're actually making massive impact. I like that human behavioral change that people create amongst those who don't have the same chances or don't have the same deck of cards that we were dealt. So people who take their successes and they aren't afraid to duplicate them in a way to other people to also bring them up and bring people together in a positive perspective. I love seeing people make it and go against all odds no matter if they came from the hood, if they came from – I know you had Clef on here coming from Haiti. His story is outrageous. I know you had Clef on here coming from Haiti.

His story is outrageous. You know, people have so many unique skills, and sometimes we need a spark, whether you follow Lewis and his entire mediums of expression and his programs, or you follow Apollo or whoever. It doesn't matter who it is. Whoever speaks to you, whoever you vibe with, use that as your catalyst to create change. And so I think greatness to me is someone who has

really truly kind of understood that their first region of success was actually only a way that they could help other people and using that tool. And I strive to be that person. Yeah. Yeah. You are, man. I appreciate you coming on.

Yes. Thank you. Great. There you have it. Greatness is upon you. And all you need to do is use this information and take massive action. If you just listen to it and you don't apply this, or if you don't allow this to assimilate into your body and your soul and use it on a daily basis,

then it will do nothing for you. So please use this information, even if you just get one little nugget from every episode that I bring out, one little idea, or just continue to confirm what you're doing, or continue to keep you inspired because we need that positivity. We need that inspiration on a daily basis. The bigger the goal we have, the bigger the dream we have, the more challenges we will face.

That's why this is crucial to stay committed to a positive mindset and a tool like the School of Greatness. If you enjoyed this, please share it with your friends. lewishouse.com slash 470. Tag myself and Apollo over on Twitter and Instagram and let us know what you think. Send him some love and let him know your thoughts

as I love this one and want to have him come back on sometime in the future to talk more about the mindset and how we can all become Olympians in our own worlds, in our own life, even if we don't make it to the Olympics. If you haven't subscribed yet, make sure to subscribe over on iTunes, on SoundCloud, or on Stitcher, or on any podcast app that you listen to your podcast.

And as always, please leave us a review over at itunes.com slash greatness for your chance to be known and featured as the review of the week. I love you guys so very much. Greatness is definitely upon you. You just have to capture it and take action and stay committed and consistent with your dreams every single day. I love you and you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Outro Music