Adam Markel at Harvard - Success the Only Choice

My name is Stephanie Martins. I'm one of the director of events for hyria and one of the main reasons why I joined the group is because I myself have a passion for self development and it's amazing to be able to share this passion with all of you guys here today. And it is a pleasure to be able to introduce the next speaker as we both have the same passions and there's so much to say about him. He is the CEO of Peak Potentials Training, one of the largest personal development and business training companies in the world. He's a trainer, a keynote speaker, an author, an entrepreneur and an attorney. So we have so much to say that for that we actually have a video to introduce him.

Master trainer, keynote speaker, author, entrepreneur and attorney. He has shared the stage with the world's best business and human development minds including Tony Robbins, Donald Trump, Robert Kiyosaki and T Harv Eker. But not before his law practice had him working 80 hours a week, leaving him stressed, uninspired and on the verge of a life threatening mental, physical breakdown. It was this personal crisis that caused him to reinvent himself. Under the teaching and direction of T Harv Ecker, author of the New York Times one bestseller, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, he began using the inner and outer world principles of wealthy people to build a life full of passion and purpose, while also creating a massive amount of success. Dedicating his life to teaching people how to create financial freedom while living on purpose, he has trained thousands in the United States, Canada, as Europe and Australia to do exactly what he has done in his own life. His relentless pursuit to improve the quality of people's lives has produced dramatic results for audiences globally. He is grounded and inspired by his family, his wife of over 20 years and his four children. One of the most charismatic speakers you'll ever see, he trains from his heart, believing that compassionate honesty brings out the best in people. Known around the world for asking one important question.

Win. Doesn't that feel great?

Prepare to be challenged, inspired, and to get real about creating financial freedom for yourself. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the stage, Mr. Adam Markell.

Wow. Awesome. Thank you so much. Give yourselves a huge round of applause. Stand up. Come on, stand up. Go ahead. Come on, stand up. Let's get your body moving just a little. Awesome. Give yourselves a huge round of applause for being here, everybody. Beautiful, Beautiful. Awesome. Thank you so much. Go ahead and have a seat. Have a seat. So let's start out. We've got a very, very short amount of time. We've got a lot that I want to say to you. So I'm probably going to talk at about 200 miles per hour, since I come from New York with gusts of up to 1,000. Okay? So first, after watching that video, I've got to ask this question. Question. It's very, very important. How you doing? Come on. How you doing? You can throw a little more attitude my way. Say, how you doing? What's your answer? Ah. If you. If you feel like you love your life, say those words. Say, I love my life. Come on, say it one more time. Say, I love my life. Hey, listen, your life is a blessing. You being here today is such a gift. There literally are people that were here yesterday. Do you realize that they were here yesterday who are not here today? And that's a fact. That's not, you know, that's not a supposition. There were people that went to sleep last night that did not wake up this morning. So wherever you are in your life, wherever you are in your business life or your personal life or even in your health, the truth of the matter is that you put your feet on the floor this morning. That was a gift and a blessing beyond any words at all. So I hope you love your life. I hope you feel that. Can you feel that? Put your hand on your heart and feel that? Feel your own heartbeat? Because that's good to feel. Yes, absolutely. Now here's a success tip right out of the gate. 80%. What's that number? 80%. Thank you. Wow, you guys are really good. 80% of success is any. It's just one thing. Who can help me out with this one? What is it? Showing up. Showing up. Exactly. Now you guys are here, so I want to congratulate you for being here. And I can't reach all of you. My arms aren't long enough. Do me a little favor. If you could please reach around, if somebody's near you, reach around and pat somebody on the back and just say, congratulations for being here. Awesome. Awesome. All right. We're going to get it warm in here. So that's why I'm going to. To take my jacket off. I plan on breaking a sweat. So as I said, I want to congratulate you. I want to thank you for your time and thank you for your courage. And the truth is, it takes courage to be someone who has the humility to be a learner. Yes or yes. If you're a lifelong learner, what that says is that you don't know everything. Isn't that truth? That takes humility. That Takes courage. And you know what I've learned? I've been fortunate to now be. Sometimes I describe myself as a recovering attorney. 18 years practicing law. I was a litigator. I did a lot of real estate work. I know there's a focus on real estate here. So I did hundreds of millions of dollars of commercial and residential real estate transactions representing lenders and borrowers and banks and all that kind of thing. And I'll say this. To have the humility, no matter where you are, even if you're at the top of the game, to know that you don't know everything is a huge kudo. It's a huge plus as a part of who you are as a human being. Yes or yes. So what I've discovered in reinventing. So where am I an expert? I'm an expert in two areas. Primarily, I'm a mindset expert. A what expert mindset. And I'm also an expert at reinvention. I've got a book coming out with Simon and Schuster, early 2015, all about reinventing. So I reinvented my life from being a workaholic, 80 hour a week attorney. Used to sleep in my office on occasion. I get up in the morning before it was light out. I wouldn't even see my kids, have breakfast in the morning. I literally would leave the house and commute to the city where I had my office in Manhattan. And if I was lucky, and I mean lucky, I would get home just in time at night to be able to see them and maybe read them a bedtime story. So this is. I love this picture. We are in Martha's Vineyard. We have a home there, strong roots to Massachusetts. My wife and I, this summer, July 29th, be married to my college sweetheart for 25. Hey, look, in this day and age, 25 years is something to applaud about. Yes or yes. Isn't that true? So we met at University of Massachusetts at Amherst. I was a swimmer there. I played water polo. Used to come to Boston almost every weekend and be at MIT or at Harvard. And so I love it here. We ended up buying a place on the Vineyard, and. And we spend our summers there. So, you know, that's a picture of all of us. It's kind of a big brood. We have four, most important thing, four healthy children. Where are the parents? In the room. If you're a parent, raise your hand. Awesome. Yeah. Is there anything more? And who was once a child? Okay. At least I think I got everybody now, right? All right, good. There's nothing more important than Kids are healthy. True or true. So we're very lucky that they are healthy. They're contributing in meaningful ways in society, which I think is also a blessing for my wife, Randy and I. And then those two hairy, smelly beasts, well, you know, they're a part of the family as well. I reinvented my life from being this workaholic, pretty miserable person. I lost all my hair in my 30s, and when I got to be 40, I was like, why? Why did I have to get so far off the track? In fact, it's a bit like the Pink Floyd song. That song time 10 years got behind me very, very quickly. And I didn't realize that I really wasn't living my mission. I wasn't living on purpose. I woke up in the morning, I didn't love my life. I didn't feel very connected to my own heart. And I've reinvented my life in large part due to the support. The what? Thank you. The support that I've received from my family, my mother, my father, my wife, my kids, to be able to actually pursue my dreams. So I want to say this. 80% of success is just what? I'm sorry. Thank you, sir. And all of you, 80% is just showing up. You have to show up in your own life. I'm going to let you know right now, no one, no one can show up for you in your life. You have to be the one to do that. Yes or yes. So if you don't love what you're doing, you got to stop doing it. I'm going to tell you right now, if there's something that you're doing that you're not in integrity with, you don't enjoy it, it doesn't make you sing, it doesn't make you smile, it doesn't make you feel as though the reason you were born somehow that the gifts that you are given, that those gifts are actually being extended to other human beings to make the world a better place. You need to stop doing that. And not everybody's going to tell you that. This talk is going to go very quickly. And all I want, part of my intention is literally to be the person who can speak something into your listening that might trigger you to do what it took me 42 years to do, which is to step up. Step up and own your own life. Yes or yes. Because I'll tell you, when you get to the end of your days, and we know that's coming for everybody, there won't be anybody else that has to answer those questions about Whether you actually gave your gift in this life, you're going to be the one to answer that yes or yes. And you'll know. And by the way, thank you so much for playing along. We're in an environment of higher education. I'm a lifelong learner. I love learning. And I want to ask you this question. How many of you like to learn faster and actually remember more of what you're learning? Yes. All right. Would you like to know the secret? Come on. Maybe I'll tell you next time. Come on. Would you like to know? Fantastic. How many of you notice. And by the way, this is the lawyer meeting. Now, how many of you notice that I ask a lot of questions? I know. Law school is just down the road. You know, it's a Socratic method, right? Why questions? Interaction. Interaction. Why else? Take your finger and do this. Just put your finger up like this, okay. And make a little. Like a little J with it. Little hook, right? Say questions. Come on, say questions. Hook the mind and keep you involved. See, sometimes I will leave the last word off the end of one of my sentences, and your mind naturally fills in the. You guys are good. I might ask you to actually repeat things. To do what? Repeat things. I'm sorry, what was that? Repeat things. One more time. Repeating. Other than the fact that it's a lot of fun to have me just have you guys repeat things. Why on earth would I ask you to repeat things? Participation, involvement, hooks the mind. Yeah. Isn't it true? So that's the first reason. The second reason is this. Isn't it true that if I say something, if Adam says something, it means one thing? Yes or yes. I'm sorry. Yes. Thank you. But if you say it. If you say it, it means absolutely everything. Yes or yes. Isn't that the truth? You guys are good. Thank you. So all I'm going to ask for the next, like, 15 minutes is that you be willing to participate. To do what? To participate at 100%. Are you willing to do that? Who's not willing to do that? Anybody not? We'll see. And by the way, who wouldn't raise their hand no matter what I asked? Go ahead. Let me see your hand at least. I got you one time. Thank you so much. All right, so let's just jump right in. Okay. Let's see where we're at. This topic. Is success the only choice. Now, how many of you have noticed the phenomenon that when really successful people. And I love what Craig was talking about earlier about Steve Jobs and his own story. How many of you know, that sometimes really successful people like they ground out, they drive their business into the ground, they go bust, they go bankrupt, they lose all their money. Yes or yes. But what often happens to those same people, those serial entrepreneurs? And I've had the same thing. I was a real estate attorney. I owned restaurant, commercial real estate business title insurance company. And I'll tell you something, a number of those businesses went bust. I've lost plenty of money. Made millions of dollars and lost millions of dollars. What do all successful entrepreneurs have in common? Well, let me ask you. Yeah, they get back up and they get back up quickly or slowly. What do you think? Who's the guy in the real estate business? Since we're talking about real estate a little bit. Who's the guy with the funny hair from New York in the real estate business? Everybody knows this guy, right? Everybody knows this guy. I'm in Vietnam speaking to 3000 people in Hanoi and I say who's the guy with the funny hair in the real estate business? And they have translation things on, but they all, every single one of them goes Donald Trump. Everybody knows this guy. He lost, literally lost billions of dollars in the late 80s. I mean I'm dating myself. How many of you guys remember this? Yes. And only a few short years later he had what? He had it all back again and then some. Yes or yes. Because when he lost his money and when many times self made millionaires and entrepreneurs lose their money or lose their, you know, the business goes bust. What don't they lose in that process? What don't they lose? Everybody take your fingers and put them on your temples like this. Thank you. Their mindset. This is my area of expertise in mindset and I'm going to tell you this right now. Mindset is the most crucial thing that you can master in your life. I wrote this down on the plane last night. I literally was stuck in Houston. I was supposed to be here last night. There was a delay and yada yada, I missed the flight and boom, they send me to Newark. I get to Newark at 3:30 in the morning, get up, go to the hotel. I rented a hotel room for 90 minutes so I could take a nap and shower and head right back to the airport and get on a flight and get over here. Mindset is the crucial element in all success. Because at that moment when I'm standing at the counter at Newark in Houston, excuse me, at United, I was ready to lose it. I'm a New Yorker for crying out loud. I mean I was like, I'm going, I'm enlightened. I'm enlightened. I'm enjoying. And then the thoughts I was having and the words that were ready to come popping out of my mouth were not too enlightened. And I'm working on myself. I go, take a deep breath. Come on, like Oprah teaches. Let's meditate. All right. And I got on the plane, you know, they put me in first class. It was nice. They go, okay, good, it's all going to work out fine. And then I'm sitting on the tarmac in Houston and they're an hour late leaving.

Yeah.

After all that. So I take out my journal, I start writing. I go, you know what? I am literally working on my mindset as a full time job. I want you to write that down. You want to be successful in life? Get used to the fact that you are going to be working on your mindset 247 for the rest of your days, if you are lucky. What a blessing that is. I can't get into this now. I'll just say that in my own personal experience, what you want is to be guided by your heart. What we have is a situation where it's our heads that are guiding us more often than not. It's like the tail wagging the dog. So I'm going to give you another piece of advice that this is straight from my own playbook of life, that whatever you're thinking, it's great, but it's not you anyway. Those thoughts are conditioned thoughts that you were raised with. People, culture, media, you name it. All those thoughts and all that stuff has been downloaded into you by other people. And as Eckhart Tolle would describe, generations, Generations of pain body in your DNA. Don't trust your thoughts. I know it sounds crazy. They're not your friend. They're a trickster now. They're a part of you. Like a little puppy dog. You know, you just need to train it. Does that make sense? You have to train your mind. And when you're about doing that, you're about the business of life. You're about the business of creating life and creating it without boundaries. That's the most amazing thing about Steve Jobs or any of these great entrepreneurs. People you're going to hear today, creating something out of thin air. Creating something out of nothing. That is remarkable. Yes or yes. All right, so I want to very quickly give you a lesson that will change your life. You ready to have your life changed? All right, so I want you to imagine that this is your Tree of Life. And on that tree there are certain what grows there. Who said fir? This is not a fir tree, it's a fruit tree. So you got fruit on that tree. Now here's the thing. Let's imagine that you've got cherries that are growing on that tree. What do you think put those cherries there? Ah, seeds and the roots. Exactly. In other words, it's what's under the ground that produces what's above the ground in nature. Yes or yes. Thank you. It's what's invisible that produces what is visible in nature. Yes or yes. Are we a part of nature as within? So without yes or yes, meaning it's what we can't see in life that is often more powerful than anything we can see. But what do people tend to do? They look at the fruits in their life. Everybody take your hand and put it up like this. Put it up. Imagine that you've got a fruit in your hand, alright? Take a look at it. People take their fruit down off the tree and they go, it's not big enough. Or if you're in Britain, it's not big enough. Eh? Raw. It's not nice. As my sisters. Everybody looks at the fruit, they put all their attention on the fruit without knowing what it is that caused and created that fruit to begin with. They're focusing on the wrong thing. I want to teach you or share with you something that changed my life. Literally. There we go. We are living in four. How many?

Four.

Four quadrants. Four realms, if you will. At the same time, simultaneously. We live in a mental realm, we live in an emotional realm, we live in a spiritual realm. Thank you. Somebody said spacious. Yes, we do. The spiritual realm. And we also live in a physical, material world. True. Yes, we do. And those fruits that are hanging on your tree. Listen. Money is a result, success is a result. Your health is a result, your weight is a result. Yes or yes, all those things are results. They're fruits and people want to change them. They're not what they want and they put their attention on the wrong thing. You see, everything that is physical in your life is showing up as a printout of the other three areas. All the physical stuff in your life, nothing more than a printout of the other three areas. Meaning it's just like nature. It's what's under the ground that produces what's above the ground. It's what's within that produces what's without. You got to work on you. Because this is a universal law. Your inner world creates your outer world. That's not theory. It's not motivation, it's not inspiration. It is inspirational. But that, let's not discount it. This is universal law we're talking about. This is principle that governs everything and how everything gets created in this world. If you would be kind enough, you'll put your hand on your heart and say these words. Say, my inner world creates my outer world. Now listen, I know I could tell by the look on some of your faces. Some of you think that's pretty hokey, you know. Come on. Yeah, the declaration is a little hokey. Here's the way I look at this, guys. I would rather be really, really hokey and really, really rich. And I don't mean just rich in money, but rich in happiness and health and love and all those things. I'd rather be really hokey and really rich than really, really cool and really, really broke. Who's with me? Yeah. Hand on the heart. Say those words. Say, my inner world creates my outer world. One more time, please. My inner world creates my outer world. If you would be so kind. Twice as loud now. My inner world creates my outer world. Give somebody a high five and say, you're awesome. You're awesome. Beautiful. All right, where are we time wise here? All right. Fantastic. Good timing. Here's what I want to share with you guys. And I think this is so important. By the way, I have a gift for you. One of my assistants is here. Terrific. So if you guys just turn around and look right back there, that handsome gentleman there in the striped shirt, for some of you, you're going to get. Everybody got a raffle ticket when you came in this morning, right? Or this afternoon?

Yeah.

No, not everybody got a raffle ticket. Oh my goodness. I'm sorry. Alright, well, if you see this amazing gentleman, just walk up to him, say hi, shake his hand and he may have a gift for you. Would you guys like a gift? Everybody likes gifts. Yes. All right, Fantastic. Thank you so much. So I will say this. Your first job. Your what job? Your first job in life to create success is to work on you. Because again, there are as many definitions of success as there are people out there to give them. Would you agree with that? And my dad a long time ago sent me an article about success. And it said in essence that. That we define success for ourselves. And this is a conference about. About not only how to create success, but really how to. How to grow ourselves at the highest level. Would you agree? I want to say this. You need to seek your inspiration from wherever it comes from. And I love Real life examples of this. So I know this is going to sound a little on the banal side. All right. Very, very. But timely. So I went to use the loo here, and in the loo there was a book. And I thought this book, the title of this book would sum up this talk very nicely in terms of what it takes to truly be successful. Meaning to be the kind of person that, as has been explained, goes through the 2000 failures to get the feedback to. Then on the 2000, first try to actually see your dream manifest and become real in the world. How many of you would like to see your dream become real in the world? Yes. How many of you know, wherever you are in your life, that you have a valuable gift to share in this world? Yes. How many of you. And this is going to take some honesty and I appreciate your willingness to just own up to it. How many of you know at this point that you're not sharing your gift as fully as you probably could be at this point? Look around, look around, because you've got a lot of support here. This is what we're all about doing. That's why to me, being involved in your own personal growth, your own personal development, your business development is the most important thing you could possibly do. And here's what it says on this book. It says. Can camera pick that up? Can you guys see that? No. Okay. It says unstoppable. What's the words?

Unstoppable.

Say those words again. Unstoppable. One more time. Unstoppable. You guys are unstoppable. It's been nothing but a pleasure to spend this time with you. I'm going to be here all afternoon, so I'd love to meet you. Come up and say hello, but what a joy. Give yourselves a huge round of applause, please.