The School of Greatness - 710 Discipline Yourself for Greatness with Eric Thomas

Episode Date: October 24, 2018

ROCK BOTTOM IS JUST THE BEGINNING. Look at where you are right now. Are you at the bottom? Are you at a plateau but feel like you’re not moving? Everything you’ve done so far is the foundation for where you’re going next. It’s never too late. You never have too much stacked against you. That’s why I’m so grateful to share a Q+A from this year’s Summit of Greatness with a good friend and powerful speaker: Eric Thomas the Hip Hop Teacher. Eric Thomas AKA “ET the Hip Hop Teacher,” is a critically acclaimed author, speaker, educator, pastor, and audible.com Audie Awards Finalist. As CEO of his Consulting Firm, ETA LLC., Eric has led his team through the doors of dozens of reputable organizations and Fortune 500 companies such as General Electric, Quicken Loans, AT&T, Nike, Under Armour, New Balance, and UPS. He has also consulted for major Universities and the major sports teams within the MLB, NBA, NFL, and MLS. He was formerly homeless on the streets of Detroit but went on to get his Ph.D. Eric is an example that no matter where you are right now, you can still accomplish your dreams. This is just the beginning. So get ready to learn how Eric got to the next level and lives to the fullest on Episode 710. Some questions I ask: What was your biggest quitting point? (6:10) Do you have to lose sleep to succeed? (11:26) How have you been able to deliver teachings to your son when you didn’t have the best example yourself? (16:18) In this episode you'll learn: How to be more motivated (7:55) What to do when you’ve lost your faith (10:25) About Hustling vs. Self Care (12:00) How to grind to accomplish your goals (13:00) Why you should do something uncomfortable every day (14:00) The importance of your social circle (16:50)

This is episode number 710 with Eric Thomas, E.T., the hip-hop preacher. 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. J.K. Rowling said,

rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. If you feel like you're in a rock bottom moment right now, if you feel like you're stuck, if you feel like you're struggling, if you feel like maybe you're just not sure where to go next, this is the episode for you. And make sure to share this with your friends, even if you feel like you're doing incredible things, but you're not sure how to get to the next level. Listen to this episode.

Eric Thomas has become a good friend of mine. He has taken the world over by storm. From Detroit, Michigan, he was a former homeless individual on the streets of Detroit for a few years, went on to get his PhD, speaks to professional sports teams and athletes and the youth and entrepreneurs and executives and CEOs, and he speaks all over the world about how to rise the vibration of your life and take your life to the next level. He's an author. He's got a big podcast.

He's got one of the biggest YouTube channels. He is an inspiration. You want to make sure you follow him. And today we talk about how Eric covers his lowest point in life and how he got out of it. Also, how you can care more about your passions and make them your focus and why we should be focusing on our passions the most. Also, what it takes for you to get your faith back if you've lost it, how long you need to focus and be uncomfortable to get the rewards you want. Eric Thomas just spoke at the third annual Summit of Greatness in Columbus, Ohio and blew people away. This is from the Q&A I did with him on stage that had people move to tears.

And I wanted to share with you the Q&A section with me and him on stage. It's super powerful. Make sure to share this with your friends, lewishouse.com slash 710. sure to share this with your friends, lewishouse.com slash 710. Also, follow both of us on Instagram and let us know what you enjoyed most about this interview. And if you haven't gotten tickets for next year yet, we've already sold over a thousand tickets. Almost half the tickets are sold out. So go to summitofgreatness.com to get your ticket right now. Again, a big thank you to our sponsors. And without further ado, let's dive into this episode on how to create the life you want and overcome your biggest obstacles with the one, the only E.T. the hip hop creature.

Very excited about this. So let's, let Q&A. Let's start right here. We have mics down here still. Right here. Let's get down here in the front right here. There you go. Name what you're grateful for and your quick direct question. So my name is Tom Burden. I am from Columbus.

I actually live like a 30-minute walk that way. So super close. I'm grateful for Eric Thomas. I'm an inventor. And my lowest point. Your videos really got me through it. And today we've sold hundreds of thousands of my products. And it was actually it got me to the point where I was on Shark Tank and I got three sharks investing in my company from it. So I wanted to ask you, what was your biggest quitting point? Sorry, two questions.

What was your biggest quitting point? And second is, I was recently on a podcast and they asked me if I could get lunch with anyone on earth, who would it be? And I said, Eric Thomas and Elon Musk. And so I was wondering, how can could get lunch with anyone on earth, who would it be? And I said, Eric Thomas and Elon Musk. And so I was wondering, how can I get lunch with you? He's bold. He's bold. I got a VIP lunch right after this. And I'll be there.

And I'll be in there. He'll be there. $1,000 ticket if you want to be there with him. Pay the price, you get it. We can make it happen today. No, I think when I was homeless and I had an Australian relationship with my mom, you know, my mom was my heart. But unfortunately, my mom married and didn't tell me who my biological father was. They changed the birth certificate and made it appear that this person was. And I knew something was wrong because they didn't get married until I was about five. But you know,

you're still young at five. Memory's not great. And so when I was homeless, I would pick up the pay phone and call home and my mom would answer it and I wouldn't say anything because I was angry and I didn't want to talk to her, but I wanted to hear her voice. And so Thanksgiving's not going home. Christmas not going home. That was probably my lowest point. I wanted to take my life during that point in my life after that. And me and moms reconcile. I don't think I've had a point that low, you know, ever in my life since then. Right here. You got the mic? My name is Brendan Jackson from Lexington, Kentucky. I'm grateful that you brought all of us together, Louis.

Thank you, Sarah, my girlfriend, for making sure I got here. Good. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you. ET, CJ, your your team your family thank you for when i need somebody to tell me to just shut up and work you're the man you know i'm sorry i didn't mean to do that somebody needs to do it somebody needs to do it they come to me for a hug come to you free to shut up that's that. That's what it is to me.

My question is, I know what I want to do for my community, my family. How do I care more about it every day so I get to the level where I can throw my alarm clock away, I can wake up at 2 in the morning with my goals waking me up? I don't know that you need to get up at 2 o'clock in the morning. That's all right. That was my journey. And there was a reason for it. But I would say to you where your focus goes, your energy flows. And so I make sure when I wake up in the morning, we talk about what are you grateful for? I put my focus on my wife. I put my focus on my kids. So I start the day off by either on my phone, looking at their picture when I'm

downstairs, just thoughts about them. Remembering I told Sean, as soon as I saw Sean, it's the first time I ever saw Sean before in person. Of course, Sean T, of course, you know, you know, I can't do this. Well, I don't have the abs. Right. But I told him, I said, Sean, I know, you know, we didn't even talk about workout. I talked about his kids and how, when I watch him online, I see the kids all the time. And I remember when Jalen, my wife, he's here somewhere. I remember when my son was that little and he would travel with me. And that's who I think about regularly. I don't think about him as a 23 year old. I promise you we'd get into it. Right. But I always remember him as that kid. And every day I wake up and still look at, I have

a picture on my phone of when they were like five and two. And I look at that picture every day because that was the picture that made me go get that four-year degree. That was the picture that made me get the master's, even though I hate school. So I would just say, keep a picture of, keep them in your mind and on your heart on a regular basis. And if your focus keeps going to them, then your energy will go to them as well. That's good. Let's go up top. She's jumping up and down here. You see her? You got someone up there? She's jumping up and down. You got someone jump. Okay. My name is Jackie. I'm from Detroit. Hey. We'll let you guys in.

We'll let you into Ohio. Just a couple of us. My question was, what would you say to someone who's lost their faith and is trying to find their way back? Well, I'd say the same thing to anybody that loses anything. Go look wherever you had it last. Wherever you left it. I'm just being honest. If I lost my keys, I'm thinking to myself,

where was the last place I saw them? You know, let's go back to that place. Let's at least start there. So if you lost it, where did you lose it? Was it a relationship that got in the way? Was it business that got in the way? Are you not waking up in the morning like you used to wake up in the morning? Do you not put yourself in that environment

that you used to go to when your faith was high? So wherever you left it, I'd start wherever I left it and rebuild it from that point. Does that make sense? Yes. Thank you so much. Thank you. Up top. Hi, my name is Nick Padilla from Toledo. Originally live in Columbus, Ohio. What I'm currently grateful for is Louis, indirectly you and your sister Heidi have introduced me to Chris Hawker and Abe Alexander and Summer Rinaldo. So thank you for that. You're welcome. Changed my life. And my question for Eric is, I've heard this speech, you know, when you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, you'll be successful. And I've heard you talk about the, you have to be willing to lose sleep.

And I would love if you would speak into that, that mentality versus actually self-care. Does that make sense? It does. And so whenever I talk about, somebody asked me the other day, ET, you still getting up at three o'clock in the morning? Today I did. But I can't say that I always get up at three. Now, why? Because DeeDee retired last year, March. So we're traveling the world together, you know, keeping up, staying up late at night. You know, we used to go to bed early when she worked, you know, and the kids were home. So I'm in a place now where I've been doing this for over 20 years and now we are, we're enjoying the fruits of our labor and we're traveling like we don't even live at home really anymore. So, no, not now. I don't do three o'clock.

But there was a time for a span of, you know, five or six years when I was working on a dissertation that I needed to stay up to get that dissertation done, that I needed to not watch a movie when I was on a plane, that I needed not to play cards with my wife, Uno, on the plane, but I needed to study. And once I got the dissertation and it opened up doors for me at Michigan State University, my money changed, my influence changed. So I didn't have to work as hard because the dissertation was over. So for me, I always say, how long do you need to lose sleep? Is it for six months? Is it for a year? What's the goal? And how many sleepless nights are you going to have to do to make that goal become a reality? But once you reach that goal, you no longer have to do that. Does that make sense? So you're only not sleeping and you're

grinding for the timeframe you need to make that dream become a reality. But once it becomes a reality, then you can chill, if that makes sense. And to add to that, I think, you can clap it up. I think to add to that, you know, when I moved off my sister's couch and then moved into my brother's place for $250 a month because he wouldn't let me live rent-free. Long live your sister. But it was a good lesson. Yeah, my sister was great.

But it was good to force me, okay, I have to spend $250 a month. How am I going to earn this? How am I going to make this? It got me uncomfortable. And then when I got to a place where I was like, okay, I'm moving out of there into my own place off First and High Street. I found the cheapest apartment I could find in the location that I liked where I could walk. Because I didn't want to have a car, so I could not spend money on that. I remember moving in and saying, what's the thing that's sucking a lot of my time?

And it was TV at the time. And so I didn't have a TV for the first two and a half years. And I just focused. And I realized I was able to work that much harder because I was just saving two hours a day on whatever. And when there was a game on, I would go, you know, watch the Buckeyes play on Saturdays and go to like a bar and watch the game or go to the game, whatever it may be, to do that purposefully. And so I think we get to be, we get to do something that's uncomfortable, whether that's getting up early every single day, whether that's eliminating TV, something that's uncomfortable, whether that's getting up early every single day,

whether that's eliminating TV, something that's uncomfortable every day so that we can create more comfort long-term. And I, can I be honest? People always ask me about the three o'clock. They don't ask the most important question. What time do you go to bed? And I was religiously in bed between nine 30 and 10. So I wasn't staying up to 11 and 12 and getting up at three. I was going to bed at nine 30, 10. So, and according to research, I don't know how true it is, but they said, if you go to sleep from eight to 12, you actually get double hours. So at eight, it's nine, 10. So even though I was only sleeping maybe four or five hours because I was going to bed so early, I was getting double rest. You know what I'm saying? So yeah, going to bed early,

not burning the midnight oil and then getting up early in the early. I was getting double rest. You know what I'm saying? So yeah, going to bed early, not burning the midnight oil and then getting up early in the morning. There you go. Awesome. Right here. She's standing up right here. E.T., what up, what up? What up, what up, what up?

It's so great to see you. It's your boy. What's your name? It's your boy what? My name is Jeremy from the San Francisco Bay Area. I'm here with my wife. It's our anniversary weekend. Hanging out.

Smart man. Respect. Both of you gentlemen have helped me build my business and also helped me in my relationship to ET. The stuff that you've said has helped me come back to trying to be better with my wife, trying to be more responsible. Things that you've talked about. Appreciate you. My question to you is, you've talked about your relationship with your father. My relationship is similar in some ways. I knew my father, but he and my mother

divorced when I was young. My stepfather wasn't worth very much. My question is, how have you been able to, as a father, deliver the kind of leadership, the information, the teachings to your kids, especially to your son, when you didn't necessarily have the best example yourself? Well, you know, when you connect with people like, you know, Lewis Howes and others, you try to, what you didn't get, you try to look for an example in other people. So for everybody that I run with, I always ask myself, like, E why would you like, why are you connected to this person? And so for me, one of the things I love about Lewis and I don't like, if you guys go back and really research me, I don't do a lot of this, you know? And a lot of people call me, I want you to speak. I'm like, nah, because you're

going to be trying to, you'll bring the people in, but you're going to be trying to abuse them or, you know, take something from them. And that's not what I'm about. You know, I'm a shepherd. So with Lewis, I see this strength, right? But this sensitivity as well, you know, I see this strength, but there's also a, we can share the stage together. Like we don't have to compete. Right. So as I watch him and I watch him move, right. I'm able to say to my son, I was son, it's so weird. I've never done this before, Lewis, but coming here and just thinking about you, there's just things that are coming up. We were in the car headed to the train station. He was going to spend some time with his friends in Chicago. And I asked myself, how's your mental health? That's not a question I would have had.

You know what I'm saying? Some of the other guys that i run with they don't necessarily put me in the space of your mental health right you know i'm saying but when you're with someone like lewis of course there are certain things that energy and a frequency that he's on so when we're together i have to prepare to do something he's sending me videos whatever so there's a frequency so i just was sending my son like yo how doing? Whatever. He told me how he was doing. And as a father, I didn't have to be that macho bravado father. I can say, yo, son, you need to be strong. But at the same time, you also need to take care of yourself. And I know you like to give, but what are you doing for you? So I think the people you hang around, you take a principle or two or however many they give you, and you don't just kind of like hang out with them, you know, and just hope by osmosis it's going to happen.

But you're very intentional and deliberate about taking the characteristics and the qualities you admire about them and actually implement them in your daily life, if that makes sense. We have reached our time limit. We could do this for five hours I'm sure there you have it my friends I hope you enjoyed this one again JK Rowling said rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life

you've got to look at your life right now and where you are are you at the bottom are you are. Are you at the bottom? Are you trying to get out of the bottom? Are you at a plateau and feel like you're at a bottom, even though you're at someone else's top? Look at where you're at and realize everything you've done so far is just the foundation for where you're moving towards next. This is not the end all be all. It's the beginning. You're just getting started on how great you are about to become, but you've got to be willing to recognize

and be aware of the moment that you're in and use it as the solid foundation on how you're going to rebuild your life. Again, if you enjoyed this, make sure to share it with your friends, lewishouse.com slash 710. Go to that link, text your friends that link,ishouse.com slash 710. Go to that link. Text your friends that link. Let them know they can listen to the episode there or they can watch the full video YouTube there as well. You can subscribe over on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, all these places.

And on YouTube, we are building a massive collection of video content on YouTube. Check it out there, YouTube slash Lewis Howes. And if you enjoyed this episode, again, let me know what you think. Post this on your Instagram story right now. Take a screenshot. Tag me. Put the video up there if you want to.

Tag ET, the hip-hop preacher, as well. Connect with both of us. We want to hear what you enjoyed most about this Q&A. We'd love to hear your feedback and thoughts. And as always, you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Outro Music