Ep 121 | Choose Your Prophets Wisely with Brian Gubernick

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Let's get into it. Today I want to talk about picking your profits. Picking your profits. Now, profits— P-R-O-P-H-T-S. E.T.S. So we're going to talk about picking our profits specifically in choosing our profits in the areas of health and wealth and relationships, spirituality, business, and just life in general. Where am I going with this? Here's what I've observed. And even, even what I've personally experienced too oftentimes, we look around in our, uh, you know, our world, right? Those that are in proximity to us. And we think, okay, that guy's making a little bit more money than me, or she seems to have better relationships than me, or he is healthier than me. And we look within our rather close circle or proximity, you know, close radius to us. And we choose these individuals again that are, that are near. And we say, hey, I want to be like that guy. In other words, Choosing your neighbor. And the reality is, if we really want to learn, if we really want to grow, the prophet that we're picking should never be our neighbor, but should in fact be the man or woman that is known, not just locally, but globally for the topic that, that we want to learn more about. So maybe another way for me to word this, If I want to learn about wealth, no disrespect to my neighbor, but just because he may make a few more dollars than me, that doesn't make him the guy to learn from. Warren Buffett is the guy to learn, uh, learn from about wealth. If I want to learn about health, if I want to improve my health, the woman down the road from me that I see running every morning that looks really healthy, seems to have a lot of energy. She may know a lot. And I, and it's not to say I can't learn from her, but she's not my selection as a prophet for health. Dr. Peter Attia is. See where I'm going with this? Now, this is a really important topic to me. It's a real sensitive one too, because I, again, I see so many, so many of us, you know, look at our peers or people inside or just outside our circle and think that's the person I should go study. And the reality is with the amount of information that's out there online, the number of podcasts that exist, what we could watch on YouTube, the books that we can read. We have access to all sorts of prophets in a variety of areas to a level just a generation or two before us never had. So I want to go through the prophets that I think exist in my world, and your prophets will be different, but I just want to give you an idea as to who I'm considering my, my prophet, my indirect mentor, if you will, in a number of areas of my life. Now I've mentioned wealth, and undoubtedly that's Warren Buffett. I could study Warren Buffett. There are so many things out there that Warren's written, he's put out there, interviews. If I want to learn about wealth, Warren's the guy. But in addition to Warren, I like to study Ray Dalio. Ray Dalio is the greatest hedge fund manager probably to ever live. Uh, and he has a ton of information out there. Ray Dalio, Warren Buffett, they are my prophets with respect to wealth. When it comes to health, I mentioned Dr. Peter Attia. I talk about Peter Attia all the time on this podcast. What he speaks about very much resonates with me. He is my prophet today. Now that doesn't mean he'll be that indefinitely, but where I'm at in my life, that's my prophet there. When it comes to business, I've got 3 individuals specifically I look at all the time. Number 1, I talk about Naval Ravikant all the time. He is a business— outside business as well, but I really, really care for his thoughts around business. Naval Ravikant. In addition, Jack Welch. Probably heard of Jack's name before. Great guy to study, not just around business, but leadership. But I like to look at the things that Jack Welch did with GE during his reign. And then lastly, a guy I love listening to podcast-wise, and of course love his books, but I'm a huge fan of Gary Vaynerchuk. I think he thinks outside the box. I like his hustle. I just like the type of guy he is. Uh, and, and I've learned a ton as it pertains to business from Gary. He, those are my prophets in business. In spirituality, this is an interesting one. Spirituality for me, 2 individuals I like to look for, look at. Number 1, Michael Singer, the author of The Untethered Soul. The second person might seem strange for spirituality, but it's my perception of spirituality, and that's Ryan Holiday. Ryan Holiday is an author, written lots of great books, and for me, I connected what he's writing around stoicism, I connected to spirituality. So those are two profits for me. Around leadership is a real simple one. When I'm looking at becoming a better leader, sure, there are local business leaders and even friends of mine that I admire with respect to leadership. But if I'm looking for a profit, if I'm looking for the best of the best, best to go study, it's Jocko Willink, author of Extreme Ownership. And a number of other great books around leadership, as well as John Maxwell, probably one of the best known, if not the best known, uh, leadership gurus and self-development, personal development individuals out there. When I look at personal development, Tim Ferriss, and then of course Tony Robbins. Tim Ferriss and Tony Robbins. And then lastly, for me, when I think around relationships, who's the prophet in relationships. I think every one of those individuals— well, not everyone, but a number of those individuals I mentioned play a role when it comes to relationships or being a prophet or mentor, an indirect mentor to me in relationships. But as of late, I've been reading an awful lot and watching an awful lot that's put out by Brené Brown. Brené Brown. So I'm just sharing with you my prophets in these respective areas. I don't expect you to have the same. But the, the point I'm trying to make today, what I want to emphasize is that as much as I may like your neighbor, as much as you may like your neighbor, as much as you may have friends or peers in the community, and you can learn from all of these individuals, they're not the authority. The authority is the individual on a grander scale, on a global scale, at least a national scale that's influencing not just tens or hundreds, but thousands, if not millions of lives. These are the authorities. These are the people that have studied it. These are the masters of their craft. Like you're the master of your craft. And so I want you to go out there and find them. I want you to choose your prophets wisely, choose your prophets wisely, be careful who you're learning from, who you're studying. And I want to challenge you to up your game. And study those that have truly mastered the craft versus maybe those that are dabbling in the space. So the focusing question for you today, who are your prophets in each one of the areas I mentioned? Who are your prophets? If you've identified them, how can you learn more about their position or stance around the topic that you're considering them a prophet for? So how can you go learn more? Now, if you don't have a prophet in a certain area, guess what? You've got to begin the journey to go find those individuals. They're right there at your fingertips. Google, YouTube, podcasts, whatever it may be. Give it some thought, put together your list, and make sure you're learning again from those who are at the top of the game. With all of this information that's available to you, take advantage of it. That's all we have for today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.