The School of Greatness - Pioneering Your Path & Achieving Entrepreneurial Greatness

Episode Date: September 6, 2023

The Summit of Greatness is back! Buy your tickets today – summitofgreatness.com – James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones is an awesome source of information, and it’s been many years in the making. In fact, James Clear told me about how this book (and his writing career as a whole) is really the result of his taking his own advice.Jaspreet Singh, otherwise known as the Minority Mindset, is a qualified attorney, investor, and CEO of both Market Briefs and Market Insider. Although he didn’t receive any formal financial education, he is on a mission to make financial education fun and accessible. His brand has helped countless people get out of debt, start investing, and create a plan for building wealth.For more than 25 years, Sukhinder Singh Cassidy has been a leading tech entrepreneur and CEO who’s grown, scaled, and advised for companies like Google, Amazon, and more. She’s currently the Founder and Chairman of theBoardlist, a talent marketplace focused on putting diverse leaders into key executive positions. She also serves on the board of directors at Urban Outfitters and Upstart. Guy Raz has been studying entrepreneurs for several years. You may know him as the voice of the incredible podcast How I Built This on NPR. I was so excited to have him on The School of Greatness to give his insight on the world of entrepreneurship and what sets successful entrepreneurs apart.In this episode you will learn,The key factor that distinguishes exceptional entrepreneurs and sets them on a path to success.Whether achieving success or maintaining it poses a greater challenge and what it takes to excel in both aspects.The motivations behind individuals in business, whether they prioritize the mission or financial gains.The significance of failure in the entrepreneurial journey and how it contributes to personal and professional growth.Common misconceptions surrounding the entrepreneurial lifestyle and gain insights into the realities of being an entrepreneur.For more information go to www.lewishowes.com/1495For more Greatness text PODCAST to [phone]Links to full episodes:James Clear – https://link.chtbl.com/1395-podJaspreet Singh – https://link.chtbl.com/1327-podSukhinder Singh Cassidy – https://link.chtbl.com/1150-podGuy Raz – https://lewishowes.com/podcast/an-entrepreneurs-guide-to-success-with-guy-raz/

Calling all conscious achievers who are seeking more community and connection, I've got an invitation for you. Join me at this year's Summit of Greatness this September 7th through 9th in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio to unleash your true greatness. This is the one time a year that I gather the greatness community together in person for a powerful transformative weekend. People come from all over the world and you can expect to hear from inspiring speakers like Inky Johnson, Jaspreet Singh, Vanessa Van Edwards, Jen Sincero and many more. You'll also be able to

dance your heart out to live music, get your body moving with group workouts and connect with others at our evening socials. So if you're ready to learn, heal, and grow alongside other incredible individuals in the greatness community, then you can learn more at lewishouse.com slash summit 2023. Make sure to grab your ticket, invite your friends, and I'll see you there. You want to stack the deck in your favor and design an environment or join groups and tribes where your desired behavior is normal, where your desired behavior is easy. But it's going to be so much more productive and easy to stick to the habit because you're in a space and a context that's designed to support it. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes,

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. Welcome to this special masterclass. We brought some of the top experts in the world to help you unlock the power of your life through this specific theme today. It's going to be powerful, so let's go ahead and dive in.

What are three to five non-negotiable habits that every human being should, and if they could do on a daily basis, it would improve their lives and everyone's life around them? What are those non-negotiable habits on a daily basis we should do? Yeah. Three habits that would improve everybody's lives on a daily basis. It's so hard to give an answer like that because obviously everybody's dealing with different stuff. But there are a few things I do genuinely think most people would benefit from. So the easy way to frame this would be reading, but I don't think it actually has to be reading books. I think it just is the habit of learning something new. So if you're listening to podcasts, reading a book, watching a good YouTube video,

whatever, it doesn't matter what version of that it is. But if you go to bed a little bit smarter than you were when you woke up, that's going to improve your life. And just having this thirst for lifelong learning, having an eagerness to learn or discover something new each day, it's going to pay off in a huge way in the long run, no matter what topics you're interested in. So a habit of some small habit of daily learning, let's just call it learn something new for 10 minutes each day. Some sort of physical activity, you know, this is, I think, an important realization about all habits which is in most areas of life there might not

be a thousand ways to do something but there's almost always more than one way and you know I like working out in the gym but not everybody wants to train like a bodybuilder and that's fine you know like you can kayak or go running or rock climbing or ride a bike or whatever. There's like a bazillion ways to live an active lifestyle. And you should choose the version of your habits that is most exciting to you. Like in a way, that's the first biggest hurdle to clear when building habits is have you selected a habit that you're genuinely interested in, that you're actually engaged with? Because if it's something that you actually care about there are going to be like endless opportunities for improvement if you're not actually care if you don't actually care about it if you're just doing it because you kind of feel like society is encouraging you to do it or your parents want you to do it or your peers are kind of subtly saying

hey this is something you should do then even the obvious improvements are going to feel like a chore, you know? So let's call it, uh, 10 minutes of learning something new, uh, some sort of physical activity, whatever is exciting or interesting to you. And then I think the other one is, uh, a process, a habit of reflection and review. So it's very easy in life to be so busy or working on stuff heads down, um, or just have the next task come up, whether it's things you got to do for your kids or responsibilities at work that you never take even five minutes to step back and just breathe and ask yourself, am I working on the right thing? You know, am I directing my attention and energy to the highest and best use? And boy, there is nothing so wasteful as working hard on the wrong thing. You know, like so many people work really hard, but are you directing your energy and attention to the

best spot? And so the only way to discover that, like, I know I'm not smart enough to figure it out on the first time. Like I can't, I can't just sit down, give me five minutes and be like, oh, this is exactly what I should be focused on. It takes iteration. It takes refinement. It takes a process of reflecting and reviewing and looking back on the previous day and be like, hey, was that a good way to spend my time?

Like, did I live a good life today? And the more that you do that, the more you start to course correct. And the other tricky thing, and the reason this needs to be a habit that you revisit consistently, I don't necessarily think it needs to be daily, but consistently is the answer changes over time. You know, like what you want shifts over time, the situation you're in or the resources you have, or the time you have shifts over time. And so you need to keep coming back to this. Maybe it's every week, maybe it's once a

year, but whatever it is, you need a chance to reflect and review and to try to ask yourself, is there a better way to do this? Am I working on the right thing? Am I working on what actually matters? Am I directing my attention and energy in the highest and best way. Yeah. And how, how important is accountability then in your mind when we are taking on these new habits for ourselves? Is it important to have self-accountability, buddy accountability, coach accountability, you know, social accountability? Do those support habits forming these consistent habits and what other factors are in play there? They definitely support them or, or hinder them potentially, depending on the people you're around and the, you know, the group that you're a part of. Ultimately the form of accountability that matters the most is self-accountability. It's almost impossible to exceed the standards that you have for yourself. Like that almost always sets the baseline. You know, if your, your beliefs or your standards are almost always going to be the limit

on what you allow yourself to do or what you accept. Now it's easier to stick to high standards in a supportive environment than it is in a, uh, an unsupportive one. So there are a lot of things that can influence whether you want to maintain that standard but ultimately the standard you hold yourself to is going to be the most important thing now having said that I do think that the social environment the tribes that you belong to influence your habits in a really dramatic way so if I had to pick one topic that I think is even more important now than I realized when I was writing the book I would probably say the social environment you know we're all part of multiple tribes some of those tribes

are like really large like what it means to be American or what it means to be Australian some of those tribes are small like what it means to be a neighbor on your street or a member of the local CrossFit gym but all of those tribes large and small they have a set of expectations you know they have a set of social norms they have a set of beliefs that hey this is how you act in this group this is what's normal and expected and the more that your habits align with the expectations of the group the easier it is to stick with them the more like appealing and attractive they are because they signal to the people around you, hey, look, I belong too. I'm part of this.

And the more that they go against the grain of the tribes that you belong to, the harder they are to stick to because you start to get criticized for them. And if people have to choose between, you know what? I have habits that I don't really love, but I fit in. I belong. I'm part of something. Or I have the habits that I want to have, but I'm cast out. I'm ostracized. I'm criticized.

I mean, the desire to belong will often overpower the desire to improve. You know, belonging will, the loneliness will lose to belonging. And so you need to get those two things aligned and join groups where your desired behavior is the normal behavior. It is so true. And it doesn't mean you can't make it happen. There's a great example that came up this week. Someone on my team, on our team call, said – I asked everyone on the call. I said, what is one thing you want to let go of next year for your life?

Like what's one thing that's not serving you right now that you want to let go of? And this person said, I want to let go of drinking, drinking alcohol, like, or at least drinking as frequently as I do with the social circles that I'm in. And I thought that was interesting because I've never been drunk in my life. I don't drink. It's not, it's not a part of my identity, right? I never did it from sports. And then after sports, I was just like, why? It didn't make sense to me. Nothing good or bad about it. It just wasn't fitting my values personally. I have other problems, which is sugar, right? It's like, I've got that. That's my vice, right? So no judgment here. But I was just like,

this never stopped for me, you know, in every, until maybe the last four or five years, where anytime I'd go out in college, after college, then the business world, restaurants, networking events, like all that stuff, people would always try to influence me to drinking. And so I had to be so firm in my beliefs and really just not even care at all about it. I just knew that people were going to try to influence me.

They would try to say a joke. They'd be, I can't believe you never drank, all these different things. Try to get me to drink for the first time, all this stuff. I knew it would happen every single week. And I just realized, okay, this is going to happen no matter what type of circles I'm in, unless I find people that do not drink, which is very rare. And which is one of the reasons why with my girlfriend, when we started dating, I was like, listen, it's not going to work.

If you like to drink, I don't think I can date you. Like, it doesn't mean you're a bad person. I just don't want to be in that environment for the rest of my life with the person I'm choosing to be with. And so I had to make a conscious decision. And she was like, well, I don't really need it. Like, maybe I'll drink a glass of wine once a month. I'm like, OK, that's fine.

But if this is a weekly thing, like, it's just not going to work because I've chosen this to be a high priority of my value for my life. And it's very challenging if there's something you want to do and the people around you are influencing you the other way in terms of accountability. So I think it doesn't mean you can't do it, but choosing to be around people or groups or tribes, like you mentioned, that are supportive, even if it's the local CrossFit gym or whatever it might be, find those communities as much as possible. You know, if your family isn't as supportive, find these other micro tribes to support you in that habit form. There's this whole chapter in Atomic Habits, it's called The Secret secret to self-control. And one of the surprising things that I came across when

I was researching the book is a lot of these self-control studies. We typically will like kind of the standard story we all tell is, oh man, I wish I had the discipline of that person, or I wish I was, you know, as consistent as this professional athlete or whatever. But in fact, um, the people who exhibit the highest self-control are often the people who are tempted the least. That's like the predominant pattern that is common across those different contexts is that they are just not tempted. Don't put cookies in your house, you're not going to eat them. Yeah. And so, you know, you want to stack the deck in your favor and design an environment or join

groups and tribes where your desired behavior is normal, where your desired behavior is easy. And if you do that for yourself, sure, you'll still have to put effort in, but it's going to be so much more productive and easy to stick to the habit because you're in a space and a context that's designed to support it. And that's maybe one of the biggest hacks or strategies for building better habits is worry a little bit less about having superhuman willpower and worry a little bit more about designing an environment where you don't need willpower at all. You did something really smart, which I think a lot of people aren't willing to do. 10 years writing every week in an incredible article or articles that were so detailed, so thought out, so researched. And you said, how can I serve the maximum number of people in my niche and then start branching out into space as well and do it consistently over a decade

without really making a lot of money selling other things. And then you came out with a book. And now this doesn't happen for everyone, but then you came out with a book and it became one of the best-selling books of the year, of the most-selling book of last year on Amazon, like you said, top five, I think, this year as well. And it just continues to add value to people. And I think it's a testament to what you created for a decade plus of adding value. So congratulations on everything, man. Yeah, thank you. That's very, very nice of you to say. It's been a wild ride. There are a couple of things going on there. Like

I do try to operate with this core value of always give value before you ask for value. And if you think about in any business, like in my business writing books the amount of um what it costs a reader or what it costs a customer is not just how much they have to pay for the book it's also how much time they have to spend reading it or finding it and so on and whatever that total cost is time plus money that's like the amount they have to pay. And then whatever I get paid is what I make, but what they get in return should be like well in excess of that. So like the value they get minus the time and money they spend, there's some surplus there and we could call it whatever, but I like think about it as like goodwill. And I always want to have a surplus of goodwill.

And so everything that i create whether it's an article or a newsletter or the book i want people to be to have this feeling that it's like oh my gosh i get so much out of this of course i would want to open the next email or of course i would want to buy the book it's like such an obvious win for me so i always try to give value before i ask for value and I don't think that there's any one way to do this. Like you could start with the book and not have an audience, for example. But the way that I did it is I wanted to focus on building the audience first, building the platform first, give as much value as possible,

get the audience as large as possible. And then I was able, you know, I didn't have any credentials, right? Like I don't have any background for it. And there was no reason for me to get a book deal i was just a guy with a blog um and the only reason that any of the publishers in new york met with me is because i spent that time building the email list and developing the audience and then that got my foot in the door and got the book deal and then of course you have to execute well on that and create something valuable and then you know ultimately you have to execute well on that and create something valuable. And then, you know, ultimately the book being a hit was sort of just all this potential energy that had been built up for two

years or five years or whatever. And then it being released when, when the book came out. So I, to a large degree, I kind of think that's the hardest thing about writing books is all the work is upfront. You know, you have to build the audience and write it and edit it and make the marketing plan and start to record interviews and execute on that. You have to do all of that stuff before you sell a single copy. And most people are just not willing to delay gratification that long. You know, I mean, it's probably depending on how you measure it, atomic habits took somewhere between like three and six years. Definitely at least three years, because that's how long it was from when I got the book deal. But I was doing a lot before I even got the book deal. So, you know, it's just a long time to work

on something without making a cent from it. And so if you're willing to do that, then you can get a great result. You will set yourself up for so much more financial peace over financial pain in the future. But you've got to be willing to face the fear of judgment of what people think about you in order to do this, especially early on when you make these tough decisions. And that's so hard. So hard. And you're so right because we've all been there, every single person. And, you know, I remember I was supposed to be a doctor, like I was saying.

You're such a failure, man. You're such a failure being a lawyer and a real estate agent and an investor. Imagine hearing that, though, when you don't have anything. I know, man. It's scary. And I, before I got it, in between, I also started the sock company. The only way I learned was by doing

things. And I was supposed to be a doctor. And The only way I learned was by doing things. I was supposed to be a doctor. Now people know me because I'm selling socks. People have these high expectations for you. They're like, oh, Jaspreet is going to be a doctor. I was a sock salesman. Now imagine going to these parties. Indian aunties, they have this gossip gossip culture they love to judge and gossip and

yeah and so you know and they'll say to your face oh so you're selling socks now and then they don't just tell you they tell your parents everyone they tell your grandparents and you know it's a and now you start hearing from every single person around you why are you throwing away the sacrifice that your parents made? Your parents gave up everything to come to this country. So you could have a chance to be a doctor. And you're throwing it away because you want to do this dumb thing called entrepreneurship? Oh, man.

The shame around that. It must be tough. And now you have nothing to show for it. And you're failing at the thing. And you're failing. That you're trying. And you're screwing up. And you have no idea.

Like you just have this vision. When I'm 65 and I look back at my life, 75, 85, whatever year you want to put on it. Let's just say 100. Hopefully, we can make it there. We look back at life. What are you, like, are you going to be upset that you tried and failed? Or are you going to be upset that you never gave it a shot? And I remember that was like what I kept telling myself.

I was like, look, I'm gonna be old one day, hopefully. And I'm gonna look back at life. And that's when I'm gonna say, you know, am I happy that I tried and screwed up? Or am I happy that I never tried? And here's the thing, pain is the price of admission for greatness. And we just have to ask yourself,

what type of pain do I want to experience? Do I want to experience pain of not doing anything and then feeling unhealthy and sick and bankrupt because I didn't take action and I was afraid and the pain comes to me later? Or do I want to put myself through controlled pain by facing the insecurity, by facing the fears, by doing the challenging things consistently with my health, with my finances, to set myself up for more peace in the future. Either way, we're gonna experience pain. 100% man.

But the controlled, conscious, daily, consistent pain is the price of admission for greatness. And we've gotta be willing to lean into that if we wanna to have something in your life that feels like peace. But you know the biggest drug that holds us back

from doing that? Comfort. I know. We get comfortable. And it becomes a drug. And we get addicted to this idea of, I need my healthcare.

I need my steady salary. I need my 401k. I need these things to feel safe. I need my lattes every day. And those are the things that then hold us back from then following and doing something else because we can create a million excuses. It's easy to make excuses for why I had this side hustle idea. I had this business idea. I want to go start investing. I want to do something. It's easy to make excuses. Oh,

I don't have a million dollars. My parents didn't give me a million dollars. Oh, I don't have rich parents. Oh, I look give me a million dollars oh I don't have rich parents so I look a certain way look man you know it's excuses are easy yeah and this is right now look sometimes we go to real problems like mental health is a real problem if you are struggling you can't get up because you're depressed you're anxious okay let's start with that right you can't build a business when you can't even get out of bed so you break it down okay if I'm struggling mentally you got to get that taken care of first go spend whatever it costs do whatever it takes start working on that pain creates purpose

right and now you you can then start to work towards something else and then you start work but you got it get away from that comfort drug no understand you know what sometimes you got to be willing to be uncomfortable i had this talk with me so it's kind of this is funny i don't think i've ever talked about this publicly but i i remember i used to go through like the worst case scenario i was like worst case worst worst case my parents kicked me out of the house uh i make no money i'm homeless yes what's the big deal okay i can make that work i'm like can i make it work and and so a funny kind of segue from that is later on i went and started a uh i co-founded

a community service organization and we did a lot of or do a lot of help we call it seva which is uh a sick word i'm from the sick faith faith, S-I-K-H. That's the name of the religion. And Seva is a fundamental tenet, which means selfless service. And so one of the things that we do was we would do a lot of things in the city of Detroit to help people there, primarily homeless people. And kind of as a joking idea, kind of as like a serious thing, I told our co-founders, I was like, hey, you know, we're doing a lot of things for homeless people here, but we don't know what they're going through. Why don't we try being homeless? And I like doing kind of different things and putting myself through it. And so a couple of guys were like, yeah, let's try it.

And so, you know, I know I can never experience real homelessness because I know I have a home, I have a family, I have that comfort that I knew I was going to go back to. But for four days, we slept on the streets of Detroit. We had $15 a person. And we're going to figure it out. And to kind of prepare myself, I didn't shower for a week leading up to it. And we just tried it. And this is where now you know you put

yourself in uncomfortable situations for me I kind of try to do that because it gives you new perspectives yes new ways of thinking and people call me crazy and all this stuff all the time but I kind of it makes sense to me now because I want I don't do things the way everybody else does I don't see the world everybody else does and I want to try things the way I can see the world from different places like we were talking about before people with different opinions i look for that yes most people like especially in this political climate if you disagree with me block turn you off talk to me i want to hear what you have to say we don't have to agree but i want to learn from you and that's where wisdom comes from is when you can listen to

two different points of view and then come up with your own analysis like when we talk about stock market investing i'm going to tie this back to finances when people talk about how do you know if it's a good company to invest in like one of the things that we talk about is and i talk about on youtube is listen to people's opinions about a company but don't just listen to one side's opinions listen to people that think that the stock is going to the moon listen to people who think that the stock is going to the moon listen to people who think that the stock is going down yeah and now you have both perspectives because if you just listen to people that say nothing is gonna go wrong you're gonna be in

this euphoric state of I'm gonna buy everything but you have to put things in perspective and understand there's two sides to everything willing to again it's uncomfortable right especially when you firmly believe something and then you hear somebody telling you that you're completely wrong, that you're an idiot, that you're a fool, makes you a little uncomfortable.

But being willing to make yourself uncomfortable can teach you a lot. So that's, we're talking about saving money, but it all kind of ties in together of knowing now, being willing to handle

that judgment because that is hard, man. Huge, man. It is hard. Huge. Which then brings us to then protecting yourself, which there's a few different things here in protecting yourself and protecting your money. And what's the fourth one?

Spend, grow, save. Oh, wait. We completely skipped earning. Earning. Oh, my God. We can't skip. That's the most fun one, man. Wow.

I'm sorry for that. So earning now is you built a system. 75, 15, 10. Every time you make money, some of your money is being spent. Some of your money is being invested. Some of your money is being saved. Now it's, I kind of like this financial education stuff. How can I amplify the system?

You got to put more fuel on the fire. How do you do that? You need to earn more money. Now, this is where, unfortunately, unfortunately, a lot of people look for that quick and easy way. I mean, who doesn't want to get rich quick, right? It's very appealing. The problem is most people who try to get rich quick end up losing and you end up paying somebody selling you a get rich quick service. And unfortunately, it's very unfortunate, but that's, I mean, it's very easy to sell this idea of get rich quick and this is where now understanding that you know we could go over systems of do these five

things to build a million dollar business but everything everyone's going to be this different and sometimes you just got to be willing to put in the work yeah and there's no bypassing that but now it's understanding how you can work hard and work smart because most of us are taught that hard work is rewarded and it is but you have to complement this hard work with smart work like if the hardest people in america were compensated by their level of work construction workers would be the highest paid people in america yeah but they're not teachers would be making more money teachers would make way. But they're not. Teachers would be making more money. Teachers would be making way more money. They're not. We're compensated completely differently.

And this makes a lot of people angry because you say, man, I put in 20 hours. I put in 12 hours. I put in a break in my back and this is all I'm making? And this is where, this is why we need to be taught

how our financial system works because we're all a piece of this puzzle. But most of us are only consumers. We're never taught how to benefit from the way the economic system works. And so you have to be able to work smart instead of just working hard. And now the question is now, first, you have to be willing to work hard. When people tell me, hey, man, I want to start a business because I don't want to work that hard, I can't even talk to you. Like, you can't.

It's a completely different language. You've got to obsess over something if you want it to do well. Yes. You have to be obsessive, and a business owner doesn't get to turn it off. You don't get to clock out at five and say, I'm done for the day.

Like, I don't have to worry about anything. Like, time to go home and chill and relax and just watch the money flow in You've got to it doesn't shut off you're thinking non-stop about your employees and making sure they're taken care of about am I gonna be able to generate enough money to take picker of them and the expenses and Running new initiatives and launching your products and making those better and dealing with customer acquisition. Yeah, it never stops I know my dad used to joke around we had

to talk the other day my dad worked very hard and he joked around about me because he saw this article on the internet and he was like laughing i was like what's so funny he was like work-life balance i was like what he was like look at this article you young generation people are asking for a work-life balance and i was like what are you talking about he's like there is no concept of a work-life balance when I came to this country it was work but I don't work I don't have money to feed you yeah right and it's like sometimes you got to be willing to put in that sacrifice and obviously look we live a life and you want to you know you got to balance this but sometimes you've got to be imbalanced to have more

balance is a season of life that you've got to be imbalanced to have more balance. There's a season of life that you've got to be imbalanced in order to get to balance. Right. And, you know, when I, like, I work a lot, but I don't work as much as I used to. Yes. And I have...

You're getting comfortable, man. You're getting soft. A little bit, man. I seriously got to go back through something that's going to make me uncomfortable. Well, the economy might put you through that, so don't worry. I know, but...

If you're not disciplined with your pain, the world will bring pain to you. 100%. You're 100% right on that. But it's a matter of now understanding when is the sacrifice worthwhile and when are you going to be willing to do that. So it's now, okay, I've got to be willing to put in the work. Yes. The second thing is now, where am I putting that work?

Now, some people are born with the entrepreneurial book. Some people are not. Some people can't handle the risk. That's okay. Not everybody should operate a business. Not everybody should be an entrepreneur. I know the internet makes it seem like that's not the case. Look, there's nothing wrong with working a job, okay?

Just understand now now what are the different ways that you can earn more money. Can you work to get a raise? Can you work to maybe change careers if you don't have that much upside potential? Can you get new skills? Can you get new skills? A certificate? Can you do something to earn more money? And it's much more accessible online now. There are so many skills you can learn online that can help you earn more money. Maybe get a second job, right? If that's not the case for you maybe now you can create your own side hustle if you have an idea maybe that can become its own business the one thing that I would say about side hustles is a lot of

mistakes though the mistake that a lot of people make is you try to do too many things and then you end up doing nothing yeah right so it's it's focusing down on what is it that you want to do and working to scale that and really just being willing to learn and being willing to fail like if you have the discipline you have the work ethic you're willing to learn and you're willing to fail there's really not much that can stop you because now you have the recipe to actually go out and make it happen but it's very difficult and you're going to go through a lot of tough times and most people give up after the first or the second or the third and and that's where you know the people that keep standing are the ones that can then have the chance to succeed. Right, man?

If you're not, I forget who said it, might have been Kobe, but you can't beat somebody who doesn't stop getting up. That's true, man. And it's just one of those things where you just gotta keep coming back and keep trying, keep learning, and keeps going.

And it goes back to the judgment. Which then brings us now to how do you protect your money? Protect that money, baby. Because now as you build more wealth, as you start to do more of these things, now you start to achieve more success. You don't want to lose it. You don't want to lose it.

And now, you know, this is where, the first thing I would say is taxes, because this is probably the most interesting thing about this. It's tough, man. And as an attorney who spent a lot of time studying the tax code, what I can tell you is not all income is treated the same. In general, the IRS has three different categories of income. You have earned income or your ordinary income.

This is the money you make from your job, your W-2 salary. You have your portfolio income. This is your investment income. So if I sell a stock for a profit, that is my portfolio income. And then you have passive income. This is the money you make from something like a rental property something that you're not operating but it's generating you cash flow out of these three different types of income the income that comes with the highest tax rates and the lowest tax

write-offs the lowest deductions is your earned income your ordinary income the money you make from your job now again this makes a lot of people upset and angry because they're like, wait, what? I'm working so hard to make my money. You're telling me that if I made this money from my investments, which doesn't require as much physical labor, where I can make even more money,

I pay less in taxes? Yes. And again, we're never taught this. And that's the first frustrating part is the reason why people are upset is because they don't know how to take advantage of it. And you can't take advantage of something you don't understand. So the first step is now understanding, look, this is the rules. You can hate me for telling you, but I'm telling you what the rulebook says.

The IRS rulebook says this. It's over 2,000 pages long. And all it really says is here are the different categories of income. Here are the write-offs. Do you know where these write-offs apply? They don't apply for your W-2 income because most people are just taking the standard deduction they'll apply for your investment income your portfolio income or your passive income so now the question is how do you optimize that how do you take advantage of that because the irs

rulebook is a rule book it's a guideline like it tells you what you can do and what you can't do so now your goal is to understand this and say huh based off of this rule book I should be doing this or I should have been doing this and this is where tax planning comes into play if your accountant your CPA if you have one if you have a business or invest in real estate I 100% recommend you have one always have a good accountant on your side when you need tax advice. But if all they're doing is filing your taxes, you are leaving a lot of money on the table. And that's where it becomes so important to understand that for many Americans, your taxes

are your biggest expense because it's money that's taken out of your paycheck before you even get to see it. And now if you can understand how you can utilize certain things, and you talked about the real estate professional exemption. If you're investing in real estate, real estate has some of the biggest invest tax write-offs that our tax court has to offer. People like investing in real estate for three reasons. One, you get cash flow. Second, you own a hard asset because now you're taking your paper cash to a physical piece of bricks and windows and real estate and land. And third, you get tax breaks. Real estate is one of the best tools out there to use a tax code because with real estate,

you get paper write-offs, which means I can show the IRS, yeah, I made $10,000 with a profit, but my taxable income is maybe zero because I can show the IRS, hey, I made $10,000 with the profit, but my taxable income is maybe zero because I can show them a property is one year older. It's called depreciation. So I get to show the IRS, hey, my property is one year older, so I don't have any real taxable income, even though you have some money in the bank. And that's going to depend on now how valuable the property is. But now you can make money and pay $0 in taxes. In addition to that, you could potentially, there's a lot of restrictions on this, but if you lose money or lose money on paper, meaning you make a profit, you tell the IRS you lost money, depending on how much money you make and how much money you lose, you

could take some of this money, offset some of your job income. There's a lot of rules against this, but you can do that. job income. There's a lot of rules against this, but you can do that. Then if you sell your real estate property for a profit, small or big, you can use all that money, go buy another property and pay $0 in tax today. It's called the 1031 exchange. So all these things are available, but you have to now understand that you have to want to understand it, then how do you do it? Now, the first issue that people have is, how am I supposed to invest in real estate? I can barely buy a home for myself. Well, you have to plan for it. It's not something that happens overnight. You're going to have to work towards it. And if you can't find any property in your area,

maybe you look at a different area. Second is, if real estate is completely out of the picture, either you tell yourself you can't do it or you don't want to do it, you don't have to. You can also invest in stocks and still get some of the tax advantages because now your portfolio income has lower tax rates. And so now you can invest in stocks, you can generate cash flow from stocks, you can pay less taxes. You might not have the same tax benefits as real estate, but you still get a lot of tax benefits. And you can start with, I mean, I like to say as little as $100, but literally you can start with as little as $1 there are platforms out there that will let you start with $1 but again it starts with that education the second thing when it comes to protecting so the first you

got to understand the taxes I would 100% recommend getting a good accountant second is protect yourself if you have a business idea protect yourself. If you have a business idea, protect yourself. Because the reality is there's people that want to come after you. People in America, you can sue anybody for anything. And we are the most litigious country in the world. I've seen this far and to the sand. And this is where now you want to protect yourself, protect your idea. So I'll give you a quick story. when I started the Minority Mindset,

I know the value of trademarks. So I trademarked the name. It cost a little bit of money, but I trademarked the name Minority Mindset. A little bit after, I was a nobody. Like Minority Mindset was still a nobody at this time. But then I got these messages and then I got a potential lawsuit against me

because somebody claimed that they owned the rights to the word minority mindset. And I looked at why. It's because like 10 years prior to me starting the minority mindset, this guy wrote one blog post with the words minority mindset in it. So he's like, I own the rights to this name. And me and my attorneys looked at this and we're like, well, we have a federally registered trademark on the name Minority Mindset. So no, there was nothing that they could do. So you want to protect yourself. When people are looking at failure, one of the reasons I think failure is so daunting for people

is because they think that a choice is binary. So I think there are two things that you need to do if you want to get out of failure mindset. First of all, you have to get out of this idea that you have one shot at glory. So we fear failure because we think whatever decision we make is what Jeff Bezos calls a one-way door. I go through this door, there's no coming back. It's going to define me forever. It's going to define me forever. It's going to define me forever, right? When Jeff Bezos in the shareholder letter to Amazon shareholders very clearly said,

most of the decisions we make at Amazon are two-way doors. You go through, it doesn't work out, you come back. So I think that most people have the perception that failure is the result of a binary choice. You make one choice, it fails or succeeds. Now if you believe like I believe that actually between you and a reward is probably not one decision but 30, 40, 100, should you really overweight the importance of the first decision? I would say you should overweight your ability to keep choosing. If you can keep choosing, you will find a path.

You may not end up where you started, where you wanted when you started, but there will be a path. But you have to dismiss this myth that failure is a bimodal binary one-way door. It isn't. It's just the first choice in a series of choices you will inevitably have to make. So first of all, stop thinking about failure as like a one-choice circumstance. It's just the first choice in a series of choices you will inevitably have to make. So first of all, stop thinking about failure as like a one-choice circumstance. It's just not. Then number two, and I'll say this, supposing the decision you're contemplating is in fact bigger, and it is a one-way door. I make it up.

You mortgage your house. You're starting a company. You can't take back the mortgage. You quit your day job. You go to zero salary, and you mortgage your house. Okay, we can agree that's a big risk. back the mortgage, you quit your day job, you go to zero salary, and you mortgage your house. Okay, we can agree that's a big risk. In that mode, I always say to people, like, okay, well, if it's a big risk, then as opposed

to planning for all the upside that's going to happen, I always say, plan for the failure mode. Plan for the failure mode in order to get yourself to act. And people are like, what do you mean? I'm like, okay, if something's really a big and scary risk, I want you to tell me the five choices you'd make after the choice. And then I bet that you will find two, three, four recovery paths. really a big and scary risk, I want you to tell me the five choices you'd make after the choice. And then I bet that you will find two, three, four recovery paths.

But actively think about that now. Park all of your magic of the upside. Okay, that's great to get what I call your FOMO going. You'll get really excited. Fear of missing out is like you want to act, you visualize the positive. But when you're trying to overcome failure, I'm like, visualize a failure, work it through, understand all your contingencies, and then you're probably far more likely to get into action. Because what you've done is reduce your fear of failure. Because you can actually, you're actively imagining the

choices after the choice when it fails. It's interesting you say that because I was interviewing a UFC fighter, George St. Pierre, and that was one of the greatest of all time. And he was talking, I think it was him or another UFC fighter that I heard. I can't remember which one it was. But talking about how they train to be in the most uncomfortable situations. Yes. Like, I'm on my back. My arm is behind my back. I've got a hand here.

And a guy is just punching me in the face. How do I get out of this? Yes, that's exactly right. How do I get out of it? How do I stay calm? How do I not, like, pass out? How do I, you know, if I'm in the worst position possible, like every bad position I train for. Yes.

And I train to get out of it. Yeah. So that when it does happen. Yes. I'm like, this sucks and it's uncomfortable, but I know I can get out of it. Yeah. And if I can just get back on my feet and stand up again, then I can take the next step. Right.

Exactly. And then, and I think for people who are like, I fail. Let's say you pick a new job and you left your old job and you cut your ties and it fails. Yeah, right, exactly. And then, and I think for people who are like, I fail, let's say you pick a new job and you left your old job and you cut your ties and it fails. I'm like, okay, what then? So play through, okay. You lose your relationship, you lose your kid,

everything you lose, yeah. Yeah, yeah, then you're like, okay, well then what would you do? Yeah. Because I think that on small failures, it's tough to know that if you act once, you still have 10 more choices. Yes.

On something that is like truly a one-way door, there are very few decisions that truly you can't come back from. And those things you're like, okay, then what are my contingencies? What do I do? So I believe that like this risk-taking equation guides all of us, which is fear of missing out is worn with fear of failure. Whichever one is like, you know, fear of missing out is greater than fear of failure. You'll take action.

If fear of failure is greater than fear of missing out, you won't. But most people only want to work one side of the equation, which is think about the positive. And I'm like. No, you got to think about both. Yeah. It's really, it's, yeah. One of my coaches, Chris Lee, years ago, probably like seven years ago, I had been training for years already to overcome the fear of public speaking. Oh, really?

And I'd been speaking for, I don't know, at this point, 10 years professionally. And I'd made good money on stages. Yes, of course. And spoken in been speaking for, I don't know, at this point, 10 years professionally. And I'd made good money on stages and spoken in front of 20,000 people. And I remember saying to him, I was like, gosh, I don't know why, but I still feel like kind of scared and nervous. Yes. Like the day before I go on. And I don't know why. And I remember calling him like hours before and I go, I don't know why I'm still nervous and a little afraid.

And he said, because one of the things is you're afraid of how you're gonna look you're afraid of like being embarrassed or not like saying the right thing or messing up you're still afraid of that as opposed to being of service to the audience and knowing you're gonna mess not it's not gonna be perfect and he put me through an exercise like what well like a what if or what happens next exercise just go okay what if you what if you forget your words what if or what happens next exercise. Just go, okay, what if you forget your words? What if you forget that story? Then what? Then what?

Then what? Then what? I call that the choice after the choice. Then what? Then what? Then I'll be embarrassed. Well, then what? Well, then what's the worst that could happen?

I don't know. Then I just walk off stage and I forget the whole thing. And then what? And then what? Well, everyone laughs at me. Okay, and then what? And then I don't want to come out for a week because I'm so embarrassed. And then, well, everyone laughs at me. Okay, and then what? And then I don't want to come out for a week because I'm so embarrassed. And then what?

It's like eventually you're like, okay, I'm down here and I'll pick myself back up and I'll be okay and I'll start again. Yeah, I think that that's sort of the point. Like the then what, then what, then what? We sort of have trained ourselves to think that it has to be, you know, that like I said, it's bimodal. I'm like, it's not bimodal. It's like what will happen is you'll discover there are. I'm like, it's not bimodal. It's like, what will happen is you'll discover there are five choices after choice. So think those through now. Yes.

Because in there is comfort. It's so good. It's so good. What is the thing that you're most proud of that most people don't know about you? What I'm most proud of career-wise, and then I think what I'm most proud of people know, what I'm most proud of career-wise is I have had a career of working with exceptionally talented people where I feel like I got to be part of accelerating their journey. That is what I'm most proud of.

Like I'll look back on my life and say, regardless of the companies or whatever, I just look, I'll say to people, do you know how amazing it is to work with tribes of great people who are by and large great human beings as well? And then be like, oh yeah, I will look at my journey and be like, I got to intersect with these amazing people.

And maybe for a few of them, or hopefully a meaningful number of them, I was an accelerant. So that's what I'm most proud of, kind of business-wise. What am I most proud of that people wouldn't know about me? Maybe that I think I wake up every day both fully empowered and also pretty clear that I'm, like, pretty far from the center of the universe. Like, I'm proud of the fact that I think that most people would think that I wake up thinking I sort of must rule the roost. And most days I'm like, no, I wake up pretty empowered. But I'm really grounded and clear that, you know, life is a blessing.

I'm here for a reason i'm living my impact um the world is a much much bigger place than just me um yet i feel very stable within it like i i like i i don't feel like many things i don't nothing's going to shake me yeah because i have a sense for why i'm here and what i'm meant to do without thinking that it's all about me. So I'm proud of that. That's cool. I'm proud of that. That's great.

I'm like, I'm good with it. That's great. The book is about risks, and you say most things won't shake you. But when people take big risks, sometimes it shakes them a lot. What's the biggest myths around risk-taking that we tell ourselves? Yeah. And by the way, of course, if you read the book, you'll know that many risks I took shook me, which is the whole reason for writing the book,

because I'm like, okay, don't let it shake you. This is what happened to me. So I can't say I've never been shaken by risk. But I think I keep coming back to that singular point. I know it sounds so simple, but it is the point of the entire freaking book. The book is about how, but it is the point of the entire freaking book. The book is about how, but the point of the book is about let go of this myth of the single choice. Stop believing that outcomes are binary, that risk and reward is a singular linear game. Like, hey, I take a big risk, I get a big reward.

Or I have an epic fail. It's just not like that. Yeah, it's either I win big or I lose it all. Exactly. That is this bimodal issue. I think that is the biggest myth around risk-taking. And it's the whole reason I wrote the book. I'm like, you have to keep choosing. Stop over-weighting the first choice. You know, if you are willing to keep choosing, there are, you know, a thousand choices between you and success. And I cannot promise you that the success you'll get at the end is the one you originally thought. It may or may not be.

But I can tell you that if you keep aiming for impact in every single choice, cumulatively, you will have an outsized career and you will have an outsized life. What is the one thing, the main thing that you feel from all the interviews you've done that makes great entrepreneurs great? There's a bunch of answers to that question. And some of them are predictable, like resilience or a strong sense of optimism, you know, the ability to get back up when you get knocked down. And those are all true. Like, you have to have that. up when you get knocked down and those are all true like you have to have that but the one thing

the like because not every person i've interviewed has gone to college or is educated they're not all book smart um they're not all charismatic they're not you know they're different they're they're like us right but the one thing that that binds every person i interview is they've all, they all either have naturally or have learned to develop the ability to withstand rejection, to accept, to basically accept that lots of people are going to say no and keep kind of grinding through it. It's one of the hardest things is to deal with rejection, deal with people judging you, deal with people saying that like, this is bad, this is horrible, this isn't going to work. It's because you want that confirmation.

We want confirmation when we're doing something of like, yes, you're amazing, go do it. But when everyone's saying no, and you can go through it, because at some point, great entrepreneurs are going to get people to say no. Yes. You've got to learn how to get through it I never this guy Topia Watana a couple weeks ago and he founded this company called calendly have you ever used calendly it's really great I mean everyone for podcast interviews it's like all we do is yeah so he started this I don't know like six or seven years ago and his

first job while he was a college student was selling ADT home monitoring services door to door, right? So he's in Athens, Georgia. And he's this kid who's from Nigeria, he came to the US when he was 16. And he's going door to door in Athens, Georgia, selling, knocking on doors, trying to sell people home monitoring systems. And I said to him, I said, didn't you ever get discouraged with all those doors slamming in your face? Didn't you get tired of hearing people saying like, no soliciting? And he said, no, because I knew that there was a hit rate. And eventually, one of those doors would open and the person would say yes, and I would make a commission

on that sale. And that was more money than I ever had in my life. So it was fine. I mean, it's a similar story with Sarah Blakely, who founded Spanx. Like she sold fax machines door to door. It was, she describes it as torture, you know, she, but it steeled her when it came time to starting her business. Like she had to find a textile manufacturer that was willing to make a prototype of these undergarments that no one had ever seen before. And all these textile plants said no until one finally said yes, but she was ready for that process because she had gone through like rejection exposure therapy. Exactly. Yeah. Like she had a PhD in rejection for, I think it was six or seven years she was doing door to door. Yeah. And do you think it's harder for,

to get successful or to stay successful as entrepreneurs? Is it easier to like, okay, I made something work with this success or is it easier once you get there to maintain? It's a great question. I mean, I haven't put a lot of thought into it, but here, here's what I would say. I think getting to a place where you have found some success, it's sort of like finding lift. It's like when an airplane, you know, takes lift, and then, and then, you know, you hit cruising altitude at 35,000 feet, and there will be turbulence. But I think that in general, in my experience, I think once you have achieved some level of success, it's easier to build on that because people have seen you succeed

in some fashion or form. Like what I do, what you do. I mean, 25 years ago when I started out on radio before it was podcasting, I couldn't get on the air. Why would somebody give me a chance? You know, I had no track record. I had no, no one knew who I was. Nobody knew if I was any good. And I sucked, by the way. That's how it is. You suck when you start. You suck and then you suck less and then a little less and a little less. But, you know, once I started to go on air, it was like that domino falls.

And other people was like, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you can do a story or are you sure you will we'll take your your your pitch and it's the same thing with i think with entrepreneurship which is once you you know it doesn't mean that you're gonna if you start a bill like is kevin's sister i'm gonna be able to found another billion dollar instagram probably not i mean that but but will he continue to be successful in any endeavor he does yeah and he'll also have some failures. But he has that sort of, and most entrepreneurs who have achieved something,

who have created something and built something, even things that have failed, they have that lift that keeps them flying. And do you think anyone could be a thriving, successful entrepreneur? I mean, sustainably making money and having a business with customers. Do you think it's possible for anyone or some of us just not wired? Because when I was a kid growing up, I was never into baseball cards. I didn't do the lemonade stand thing. I never made any money. I was like an athlete and I didn't know the concept of here's a value.

Here's a skill. Go sell it. Try to get some money. I didn't know that concept until I was 25 and I needed to make money, until it was a necessity and there was no other way. And 2008 happened, there was no jobs, and I was like, well, I got to figure out what I'm going to do to survive. Is it a thing that people can learn or is it kind of you that got it or you don't? people can learn or is it kind of you either got it or you don't? I'm a thousand percent believer that virtually every skill that entrepreneurs have are acquired. Now, there are some people like Mark Cuban is a good example of just a freak of nature. Like when he was in his teens, he read a book called How to Retire at Age 35. Okay. He wanted to become

like he was determined to become a millionaire by age 30. He went he picked a college program where he could graduate in three years to save money. He instantly went to Dallas, because he thought there were opportunities there. He got a job bartending at night because he knew it would stuff his pockets with tips. And in the daytime, he started selling computer software. I mean, he was a millionaire by age 30, like he, but he's a freak of nature, right? In that sense, I think most entrepreneurs acquire these skills over time. I mean, let's go back to rejection for a moment. So some people are just naturally easier with it, right? Like you, you remember, you probably knew like that guy in high school who would just ask a hundred people out on dates and he wouldn't care if 99 of them said no, because he knew that one would eventually say yes. Right. Yeah. Now I was not that kid. You might not have been. I was not that kid. I was terrified of girls. I was terrified. Right. I was terrified of the people saying like, no. So it's sort of a weird kind of example, but you know, the, the idea of going door to door to sell something or

pitching people on your product, going to investors, it's really hard. It requires the ability to hear no, and to keep fighting. And, you know, one of the insights that I gained from, that I learned from the show is just in this weird, it's just like this weird thing that's happened, which is that I have ended up interviewing a significant number of Mormon entrepreneurs. OK, now Mormons are a tiny percentage of the American population, like two percent. OK, and they have a pretty significantly high rate of entrepreneurship in their community, in their culture, and also business success. So what is it that they're doing differently? Well, they're doing something very different than pretty much every other population in America. They're like door-to-door salesmen.

They send their 18-year-olds to a country around the world, and they say, go live somewhere for two years and get as many converts as you can. You're going to have to knock on a thousand doors to get five, 10 people to accept the Book of Mormon. You're going to have to knock on a thousand doors to get five, ten people to accept the Book of Mormon. And you have to learn the new language and speak a different language out of your comfort zone. Perfectly. And you've got to pay your own way. And by the way, you have to be polite and gracious and friendly. You can't be like, why are you slamming the door in my face? Like you are a Mormon missionary. You're representing the church. Like you've got to be really polite and friendly and kind. So those kids go abroad for two years.

They come back to the US, Utah, wherever they start college. They're way more equipped than your average 21 year old to start their lives and also to start a business. And it's a story that I've heard from David Nealman, the founder of JetBlue. It's a story, you know, I've heard from Joel Clark, the founder of Kodiak Cakes, you know, the protein powder pancakes. He got back from his mission in Australia and he started this company, this business. He had no fear of going door to door to sell pancake mix. And so it's, I'm not, you know, I'm not suggesting that everybody become a Mormon. I'm saying that, what I'm saying is that it's a really interesting kind of case study.

You know, I don't think the church deliberately, you know, setting its young people up to be entrepreneurs, but it's setting them up to be independent. And so that's a learned skill. I mean, Mormons are not more preternaturally more gifted in rejection, the ability to withstand rejection.

They just had two years of it. So they're better at it. And I think all of us can kind of replicate ability to withstand rejection. They just had two years of it. So they're better at it. And I think all of us can kind of replicate that in a sense. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad-free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts.

Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I wanna remind you, if no one has told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.