Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - 5 Lessons To Live By | Eddie Pinero Live (Inspirational Speech)

Episode Date: February 13, 2021

5 Lessons To Live By | Eddie Pinero Live (Inspirational Speech) 0:00 Intro 0:42 Embrace Discomfort 6:30 Commit 12:42 Be Unique 20:43 Take Responsibility 26:05 Believe in Yourself

Without further ado, Eddie Pinero. I know a lot of you guys know me for my videos. I talk about these lessons, but what I don't usually do is talk about the reason behind them, like the personal experience that caused me to write running in the rain or never the victim. So that's what I'm going to do. Five lessons, each one I'm going to play a short clip of a video,

and then talk about how I got there and why and what that means to me. So the first lesson, and hands down, the most important. This was a turning point in my. life is the idea of embracing discomfort. It is in the moments of discomfort that our potential manifests into reality. The little things that we think are insignificant, that suck, that aren't fun, that we could easily brush off, that if we just embrace them, day in and day out, they compound into one of the most beautiful things in the world, which is progress. So this is a short clip called Running in the Rain.

So you look outside, right? And the first thing you see through the window is that the running conditions are terrible. They're far from ideal. Your first inclinations to go back to bed, wait until it warms up, maybe hang tight until the rain or snow stops, which the majority of us would find completely reasonable, by the way. But let me explain this scenario from a different angle,

because this is the exact situation when it's most important, to get out of bed, to put your running shoes on, and to head out the front door. There is an undervalued benefit that comes from putting yourself in an uncomfortable situation, from forcing yourself to be just a little bit irrational. When you look at those who have been successful, what separates them is that they do things and they make sacrifices that others would not. They're the people that study until 4 a.m. or wake up when it's dark, they're not. outside to practice free throws. Whatever the specific skill set may be, the pattern is always the

same. They were willing to pay a price that most wouldn't. They wanted it just a little bit more. So the ever important question, is it just a run in the rain? And this story starts for me in Boston, Massachusetts, where I had an hour-long commute to work every day, but every day before work, I'd go on a run. That was my thing. That's where I decompress. That's where I thought. And one day, I opened the door and it was frozen rain coming down. We got sleep. And so I'm looking outside and just like any of us would be doing thinking like, well, this sucks, right? This is not going to be a fun time. And the thing I want to point you to is just the insignificance of the experience, right? The fact that it's not a big deal, the fact that it would be entirely rational to go back inside,

have breakfast, go on a treadmill run at lunch. I'd still get the workout in. It'd be fine. I could run later. Do it then, right? But for one reason or another, I grabbed a beanie, and I grabbed some running gloves, and I went on that run, and I got back,

and I'm standing in the apartment. And yeah, there was no awards, and there was no applause, but I did have this feeling, this little feeling that would stick with me, ultimately, for the rest of my life, the feeling that I did something that the world didn't. I did something that I knew 99% of people wouldn't do.

And that ultimately becomes everything. I had a coach that used to say, Eddie, look, sometimes success is nothing more than hanging on when most people, that's it. That is the ticket to some of the greatest things you'll ever achieve in life. And I saw this reoccurring over and over again, right? So a couple of years later, as I mentioned, I'm sort of doing the corporate thing. And it dawns on me, it's like, I don't want this. It's great.

I've learned a lot, but it's just not me. I'm a creative. I want to create. And so I build this studio and I make the jump and, as you guys can imagine, it's really cool to say you're an entrepreneur. It's not really cool to be a broke 25-year-old in the apartment. I challenge you, if you're ever trying to get someone to go on a date, walk up to them and say, hi, I'm unemployed, but I have a great idea for a YouTube channel. See what they say, right?

And so my instinct was, God, I need to go back. I need to go back. I need the continuity. I need to wake up and know what I want and where I need to be and who I need to shake hands with. I need that and I wanted to go back. But I just kept thinking about that door and looking out and knowing like that little action created everything for me. I can't go back. And I stuck it out and it was difficult.

But after time, right, the platform grew and the audience grew and the word got out. And ultimately, I got there, right? I got to a place where I could sustain myself. That wouldn't have happened. you know, if the slightest sign of discomfort I ran for the hills. And so for this, lesson number one, embracing discomfort, what I want to stress to you is what's your metaphorical door, right? For me at that point in my life, it was corporate America.

It was my career. It was big picture things. Some of us right now want big change. Some of us want little change. Some of us are in the middle, but we all aspire to grow. what is that metaphorical door you're looking through? And you have to remember that you can step out and you can grow and evolve in anything you can ever want

or you can go back, play the safe route, and simply not change. So, lesson number one, embrace discomfort. Lesson number two, commit. The only limit to your impact is your imagination and your commitment. As Alan and Kevin, we talk on the phone weekly for a while, we're putting on this event, and it came up that the fence is for losers. That's a harsh way to put it, but that's the reality is things get better when you look at life from a binary standpoint.

You either want it or you don't. And if you want it, why wouldn't you go all in? And if you don't, why would you touch it? I can't tell you how many times I've been, you know, one toe in the water, and it's like, why? Do you want this or not? And so this video is called commitment, and it's about just that. There's an old business fable about commitment. First time I heard it was years ago.

I was watching a video of Dartmouth's rowing coach. He was telling a story to inspire his team. And basically, in this story, there's a father, there's a son, they're sitting down at breakfast, and the son says, dad, I'm learning about commitment. versus contribution in school. I'm trying to grasp it, but I can't quite understand the difference. Father thinks about it for a minute. He says, look down at your plate. What do you see?

Boy, says, ham and eggs. Father says, well, that chicken made a contribution to your breakfast. That pig made a commitment. He then goes on to tell his team to row like pigs. And that simple metaphor created a foundation for everything that's come through my life since then. Right? And anything we do, there's the option to go all in

or to walk the line, to hedge your bets. And people so often leave or quit when something becomes difficult because there's another door they've left open, right? There's an easier way, an escape route. But let me ask you this. Do you think if it was a life or death situation, right? Say you needed water to survive.

Would you give up after looking for three? hours and coming up empty-handed? Of course not. You'd keep looking because life depended on it, right? There's no other options available. There's this old saying that if you want to take the island, burn the ships, commit. And it's not until you do this that things truly begin to change,

that progress is made at the highest level. So row like pigs. First time I heard this freshman year in college. And it was one of those things where I always thought I worked hard. You know, I always kind of jumped into what I was doing and I wanted to get good grades. And I invested in what I did. But I realized that I didn't quite grasp what it meant. And I walk up to the student center and I'm looking around and there's a flyer and it says,

D1 men's rowing. And I'm like, yes, this is perfect. You know, I can make friends with like-minded people, you know, stay in shape. This is amazing. And I go up and there are 73 people. there, walk-ons. And when I didn't realize at the time was that they don't make cuts, you either quit or you don't. In senior year when we graduated, four walk-ons were left. And we always joke about it because it's not like we were far more talented, or we had this

superior skill set. We just committed to the process. We committed to the ups and the downs and the trials and the tribulations and the difficulty. And so one of my first practices, you guys know what a rowing machine is, the thing in the gym, you sit down, you pull. Pretty straightforward, you pull. It tells you exactly how hard you pull. That's it. And so I'm sitting there, we're doing five sprints, 2,000 meters sprints. And after the second one, I get up and I go to the bathroom, I'm throwing up, I have a headache, I'm dizzy, and just feeling so sorry for myself.

I'd never experienced anything like that before. This is all new to me. And eventually I get it together and I go down, I sit on the urg, you know, feeling like a hero. It's like, all right, I'm back. And I sit down, grab the thing, and the coach walks up next to me. He goes, it's Eddie, right? Yeah, it's Eddie. He goes, yeah, that score won't cut it.

And walks away. And that was not a nice thing to hear. Because I always associated, you know, suffering with paying the price, right? How could I be going through that type of punishment and have someone respond that way? Right? So we start the piece, and now I'm like, I have something to prove, and I'm just ripping the thing as hard as I can and just not in a good place. And he comes up again, I'm like, all right, good. Right? Now he understands. He goes, look, Eddie, I don't know what you have to do mentally. I don't know what you have to do physically, but you've got to figure it out.

And that's where it occurred to me. Showing up isn't enough. Being in pain isn't enough because the guy from Georgetown you're racing on Saturday, the guy from Northeastern you're racing on Saturday, they hurt too, but they're pulling faster. Winning, truly winning is committing in every single way. It's immersing yourself in something, because if you want to be great, that's what it takes. I like to reference Roger Bannister

because it's a similar concept where you have this guy that does the impossible, right? No one thinks you can break a four-minute mile. He does. He does. He does the impossible. And then what happens? Immediately all over the country, all over the world, rapid fire. People are breaking the four-minute mile. It's not because everyone got faster or more athletic in a two-month period. It's because they set a different standard and they committed to it. So that's lesson number two if you want to be the best. Lesson number three. Be unique. Too many people overvalue what they are not and they undervalue what they are. I think we live in an amazing time where anything we want to learn, we want to see, we can go online and we can access that. Like I want to learn more about business. I can go see how Bezos built his empire. Right? I want to

look at how LeBron dribbles a basketball or analyzes a basketball game. I can go figure it out. And it's great because we have stuff to emulate, but I think we lose the most important thing in our lives, which is that unique value. Success is the sweet spot of understanding what works and bringing your own twist to it. And so I'm going to show you a video. This video has a real soft spot in my heart because it's not the most popular video I've ever put out, but it's the most important. Because creatively, I went so far outside my comfort zone.

And for those of you who haven't seen this, you'll understand why. I mean, it's way out there. But this video has done a tremendous number of things for me. It's put me in rooms with people I never thought I'd be in, open creative outlets for me, and just help me realize that, you know, I can carve a new path, right? It's just the beginning. There's not every individual consuming motivation is a weightlifter in the gym. Like, there's an whole area out there to explore.

And so this is called Rabbit Hole, and I filmed it with Zachary Katoff over there, And it was just a great time. So here we go. Anyone can sail in smooth waters. Anyone can dance when the music is playing. So is it just to ruin the radio? You remind yourself of what that door opening is going to fill. So I have dreams.

Compulsions to be legendary evolving from the imaginary and it's near and it's real. I can see. In due time we realize that real life is defined by our own. And I have blueprints to the skyline. It's just reality is built methodically. And overnight success, you would never guess, it takes a long time. You have to cut lifelines and navigate landmines,

but it's your move on your cue, just decide. So I sat there, thought about it. How long am I going to go on about it? Put my shoes on, I said so long and went outside. Right through the field I used to run by, where the rows of sunflowers waist hide, but it was different than what I envisioned. There weren't any road signs.

road signs or guidelines or letters that said it's all just fine it was just me adjusting as I made my way to the sunrise then I paused on the ground below me was a little door I knocked slowly was pretty scared maybe ill prepared but we get one life one life only so I open the hatch look down and it's pitch black no sound and if you don't choose any road will do of it riding logistical merry-go rounds and my eyes are wide restless soul with scores to settle from years ago I know that there's more because I told me so I'm going down the rabbit hole and There's not a way out. The chips fall. I'm all in. Now my prospects are in lockstep, and each step is a shakedown.

I got a coat of armor, sword of steel, call to arms, because the threat's real, and sit grounds are made on battlefield, so your majesty know I will never kneel. Time to face fear, right front, center, watch doubts fall like it's November. Got a treasure map in my backpack, it says life's golden, what a pleasure. Been around, around, I'm free falling out, cause there's those schools and there's goblins out. They're leaving us, they call me treasonist, and I think that you dangerous, must be delirious, just in the guns, fire, and the trumpet start and the ground trembles from the steady marching it looks bad because they're deck stacked but my king beats a queen of hearts I'm trying to win in spades so a sad fires with the kind of flames of forge empires and like a

hurricane but I'm a tad insane cat five shashire right around we go the next episode under the second story so look out below collect the haters tears that makes a steady flow and the greatest fears I told you so I know it though there's no impossible you can watch the past you can watch it grow be more powerful than you will ever know I'm going down level grab it home in the rain. But no, that really opened doors for me just from a mental standpoint, a creative standpoint. And it's been an important thing. I wrote a piece a couple of years ago called the evolution of insanity. I have it backwards there. And the idea is there's this girl, right? And so she has this idea. And it's out there. It's a little weird. And everyone

says, you know, it's weird. And so she believes in it so much that she cuts off every in her life and she just hones in on that one thing and people say you're crazy and she works nights and nights and nights and people are like you're insane cuts off everything else it is her world people said you've lost it and then something happens right months years down the road she succeeds and she succeeds like no one has ever succeeded and then you have those very same people asking how did you do that? I want to do that. We want to be like, can you show us?

Ultimately then it's, hey, look at her, successful at the top of the mountain. Must be great. She's lucky. And she says, lucky, no, you don't know what I've given to get here. That way of thinking is insane. And I like to think of that as like a 180 with regard to, you know, that progression.

Everything new, everything of significance starts out weird, abnormal, crazy. Henry Ford says, look, if I asked the world what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. You know, the idea of automobiles being not just a luxury item, not just something for the rich that was out there. But he believed in it. He went with it. Again, changed the world. I love the scene from hatching Twitter, where you have the four founders sitting around this table. Right? And the app has a multi-million dollar valuation and millions of users.

And they're sitting there like, what do we have? Like, is this a news platform? Is this for communication? Is it an electronic journal? What is it? And I just think, like, imagine if they stopped because they didn't know what the future would be like. But they weren't willing to sort of suffer through and carve out their unique place in the world. Right?

Now you have world leaders using it to communicate. You have revolutions starting from the platform. I mean, in 2019, Twitter is, it will be an important part of history. And so I always think back to that. And the last example I'll provide is Dilbert, where you have Scott Adams. And this guy who has some business background. But he's not Jeff Bezos. And he's kind of funny.

but he's not the best comedian in the world. And, you know, he's a decent artist, but he's not Picasso. But you take these things, right? You're bold enough to take these little pieces of what you love and create your own category. And he's changed the course of history of what we consume, right? Everyone's going to know Dilbert 50 years from now, 100 years from now. So that's lesson number three.

Be unique. Don't be afraid. to wonder, to make your own category, because that's where the best stuff comes from. Take responsibility. Above all, be the heroin of your life, not the victim. Will Smith has a great quote, great take on this. He's like, look, it's not your fault. It's not your fault where you start.

You can't control a lot of your circumstances. Life's not fair, and it's frustrating because sometimes we're dealt uneven hands. sometimes things happen that are tragic that we can't control that's not your fault but it is your responsibility to do something about it it's your responsibility to better yourself um you know even if you haven't had the best hand because there's more for you if you see it and you want it and so this video is called never the victim never let yourself be the victim if i could go back in time and have a conversation with my eight to 10 year old self, that would be the message I would give.

Because when you think about it, you're a kid, things don't go your way, what do you do? You cry, you whine, you throw a fit, you want your parents to feel sorry for you. You feel sorry for yourself. It's how you deal with things at that age. And then you grow up, but you don't necessarily shed that habit, that mentality.

And it becomes, I mean, you can talk to someone for 30 seconds and you know right away if they have that victim mentality The world's falling down. They're tired. They have so much to do. They're so busy x y and z Look having that mindset does two things for you One it makes you come across helpless and weak and no one wants to come across that way Two it does not get you to where you're going. It does not change the situation right here's the reality there is always a way to get what you want there is always a way to position yourself to move away from what you don't want

you can quite literally become what you want to become but you cannot look at life like it's this problem like it's against you the ball is in your court it's not your fault where you start but it's your response to choose where you end up. A couple years ago, I was doing a half marathon on Cape Cod with my sister and was real excited and we planned it, you know, way in advance and we're training and getting ready to go. And I woke up that morning and as fate would have it, I felt terrible. I felt absolutely terrible.

And I did one of those things similar to the running in the rain story where I'm looking in the mirror and you're rationalizing, right? I'm like, well, you know, why don't I show my sister some love and just cheer her on from the sidelines? She'll use that. I'll help her go faster because I don't want to run. I can't. I can't do this. I don't feel good.

But we ultimately get there and I run. And as I'm going through, I'm realizing, you know, kind of checking in on myself every mile or so and realizing, like, I feel oddly good right now. Like, spectacular. And I ended up finishing and doing way better than I'd ever done ever. I mean, is a personal best. And I started thinking, I almost didn't even do this. I almost stayed on the sideline. You know, how many times in my life did I almost do something?

How many times did I pass up on something? How many times has someone here almost written what would have been a best-selling book? You know, the almost, as Monica said in her speech, what if she almost didn't go to the top of that mountain? What if Wade didn't start that gym? This was maybe a yes or no flash and a pan decision. that changes the trajectory of your life. We all deal with these dark periods, right?

They happen, but it's how you react to them, right? Are you going to let the situation take control, or are you going to take control of the situation? Chris Rock has a great story where he's talking about, you know, if my car is broken down, I'm standing there on the side of the road, people just go by me, and it's frustrating. It's like, I need help. And we get that, but he says,

Anytime I get behind it and start pushing, though, what do people do? They pull over and they help you push. The world wants to help people who want to help themselves. That's just how we are. I was, forget what I was watching, but Christopher Walken had a talk in some movie where, and they've made commercials about this too, the two little mice in the bucket of milk.

Have you guys heard this? Where do you have one that looks around and is just overwhelmed by this situation? There's no way and he drowns, and the other one kicks so hard that he churns the milk into butter and he climbs his way out. Every situation is going to present its obstacles. But there's always that flicker of light. There's always that opportunity to better yourself in the situation. And so this is my fifth and final lesson.

Believe in yourself. Remember, the world will judge you based on how you judge yourself. Life is a projection of how we think, the narratives we tell. People merely respond. It's mirroring. And so this video is called Believe in Yourself. There are a few things you just can't learn from a textbook that you have to live through to see, to be fully entrenched in.

Because here is a simple truth. This world is a tough place. Getting what you want, making the most of the time you have requires that you put yourself in the position to succeed. It means you see a finish line before one exists. Look, no one's ever going to call you and tell you how incredible your idea is. You can't build a business on potential or win a championship on promise. Results are binary. You either accomplish something where you simply did not. Right? That's it. That's what people see the result.

So that means every second, every step of the way from where you are right now until you cross the finish line depends on you and your thoughts. How you internalize failure, how you look at setbacks, when no one is around to pat you on the back or tell you how great you are, will you have enough self-belief to move forward? Because my friends, that's the hardest part. That's what no one talks about. Having the courage to wake up every single day of your life and know that you are building towards something incredible.

You are creating a masterpiece from the ground up. All right, self-belief is courage. They are synonymous. courageous to believe in yourself. It's courageous to know you can get to a destination that doesn't exist. It's courageous to know that something is there before it is. This epiphany happened for me right here in Margaritaville, which is interesting because this is where Phil had his epiphany. This is where, you know, Terry stayed the first time he moved down to southern Florida. A lot of good things happen in this building, but I got an email one morning, and a gentleman named Rod,

who is the founder of Airborne, big director down in Hollywood, message me, says, Ed, I got a keynote. I'd love for you to help me write it. I said, absolutely. So he flew down, we met here. And, you know, as a young entrepreneur, I'm just, these are the kind of people you want to surround yourself with. high energy, smart, intelligent, hardworking people, I'm happy to be in the room. So we're sitting across from each other and he's talking about the things he'll need and you know, what he's looking to get out of the exchange and he says, what's going to cost me. And I'm like, oh man, I don't care, right? And I threw out some low number and he looks at me dead in the eyes and he goes, Ed, come on, man.

He goes, be a salesman and pulls out a check, writes it for probably 10, 15, times more than I've ever made on a project like that, hands it to me. We shake hands and I head out and I remember driving away thinking, who cares about the check, right? I mean, it's a nice thing, but what he just gave me, that's more than any price on any check. This is going to change my life. When he pointed at the check and said, from now on,

you're never worth less than that. That just doesn't happen. Like, mentors like that don't fall out of the sky. And it dawned on me, like, I need to be placing my value higher. because again, life is a projection of how you believe yourself to be. It mirrors back. If you think you're a $500 or a $1,000 creator, that's what you'll be. If you think you're way more than that, if your aspirations are way higher, you know, similarly, that's what you'll be.

Life is dancing before the music plays. You have to know what you are. You have to believe it. you have to conform to that idea and things will fall into place. They have and they always will. So that's lesson number five. Believe in yourself. To recap, five lessons that absolutely changed my life.

One, embracing discomfort, doing the little thing that makes you uncomfortable. On the surface, we don't feel like means much, but over time you get that compound effect, you identify as that and you become something new. because of these tiny little things that most people laugh at and walk right by. They make you. Commit. Is it important or is it not? If it is, why aren't you all in?

If it's not, why are you there? Commit to what you want. Be unique. Yes, learn. Yes, understand how the greats did it. But most importantly, understand yourself. Wander. Figure out what you like.

Figure out what makes you tick. And then from there, build up. Because without that, you're a robot. Without that, you're living someone else's life, and everyone here is too good for that. Everyone here is too much to offer to the world. Take responsibility. Again, we can't help where we start.

We sure is how it can help where we finish. No one here is a victim in their own life. We're heroes, right? As Terrance says, superheroes in our own story. And lastly, believe in yourself because no one's going to do it for you. It starts here. You have to see it before everyone else. Does, that's how you create your own world within and achieve the best life you could ever imagine.

Thank you.