10 REASONS Why People FAIL! - #BelieveLife

There's nothing you can't accomplish in life with the right amount of work. The challenge is, you know, are you willing to do the work?

There is another level. The only reason you keep saying there isn't is you feel so exhausted about where you are.

I should— people shouldn't think, well, I feel fear about this and therefore I shouldn't do it. It's normal to feel fear. Like, you'd have to definitely have something mentally wrong if you didn't feel fear.

What's up, Believe Nation?

It's Evan.

My one word is believe, and I believe in you. I believe you have an amazing gift inside you that I want to see explode out onto the world. Now, I started the Believe Life series to once a week tackle a different topic in personal development. So to help you live your best believe life, today we're going to learn 10 reasons why people fail. Enjoy. Reason number 1: They never try in the first place, with Mark Zuckerberg.

In a world that's changing so quickly, the biggest risk you can take is not taking any risk. And I really think that that's true, right? I mean, a lot of people, I think, think that Whenever it comes to— whenever you get yourself into a position where you have to make some big shift in direction or do something, there are always people who are going to point to the downside risks of that decision. And locally, they may be right. I mean, for any given decision that you're going to make, there's upside and downside. But in aggregate, if you are stagnant and you don't make those changes, then, um, then I think you're guaranteed to fail, right? And not, not catch up. So to some degree, I think it's really right that over time the biggest risk that you can take is to not take any risks.

Reason number 2: they are lazy. With Mark Cuban.

Most people do a lot of talking and most people don't put in the effort. There's nothing you can't accomplish in, in life with the right amount of work. The challenge is You know, are you willing to do the work? And the reality is most people aren't. But that's the opportunity, right? I mean, it's like people you know at school. Most people are lazy, right? They just, they barely get through it. And so that creates opportunity. I tell my kids that A, if they want something, they're going to have to earn it.

Yeah.

And B, if they don't work hard enough to earn it, I'm going to sell them off as medical experiments. That's the line in our house, right? I'm gonna sell you off as medical experiments. You need money? Okay, we'll sell you off as a medical experiment. We can get you money that way. Go give blood. Dad, I'm 7.

I don't care.

Reason number 3, they fear failure, with Mel Robbins.

And I think everybody has fear all wrong. People have so many theories about fear. They talk about, "Oh, well, I'm afraid of success." "No, I'm afraid of failure." "I'm afraid of intimacy." "I'm afraid of heights." "I'm afraid of this." "I'm afraid of that." "I'm afraid of the other thing." There's actually only two fears. Only two. And if you're in sales, which you are, or even if you're not, life is about persuading people. Life is about influencing people. And fear is the invisible force that will make you ineffective at that. It will stop you. Now, I love J.K. Rowling as an example. I mean, we all know the Harry Potter series, but what a lot of people don't know about her, she talks a lot about fear, she struggled with major depression. Do you know she was unemployed and she wrote the original idea for Harry Potter on a napkin while she was on state benefits? She was then rejected by 12 publishing houses, and this, by the way, was after she was divorced, bankrupt, and a single mom of a kid. Push yourself, push yourself, push yourself. She talks a lot about fear and about failure. Well, you know, we know the moral of the story. She just kept going. Of course she was afraid, but she had the good kind of fear, not the bad kind of fear.

Reason number 4: they lack planning.

With Damon Dash, a business plan that's about a business that doesn't exist is a lie, because you can't— you can't say, like, what are your facts based on? Because it hasn't happened yet. You can't really determine who's going buy what and how much it's going to sell. You can't say I'm going to make a million this year. Did you make a million last year?

No.

But what I'll do is put together what I— it's like a script. I put together how I'm going to make the goods, how I'm going to market the goods, how much it's going to cost to buy the goods, what's my margin, and then when I'm going to sell it, and then how much I'm going to put back into the business and how much I'm going to put in my pocket, right? You know, it's that kind of thing. You know, I, I write things out. Like, if you look on the— look on the, um, put that on the wall right there, Rock. If you can see it. You see the piece of paper, all that on the— that's shit I gotta do. You know, I like to put things on the wall. I can even know what I gotta do. I need to look at it. I need to cross it out. I don't consider that a business plan per se, but I have a plan. You know what I'm saying? Like I have a plan. Plus you want other people to understand the plan 'cause you can't do anything on your own. So you want to be able to articulate it to 'em a way they understand and that they can look back at it. 'Cause I talk quick and like you said, a lot of times I say shit and you like, I didn't understand that. But you're not gonna tell me until a year later. You know? So you want to have something someone can keep looking at and they can see you crossing it off and then they can kind of get it by absorbing, you know, by watching what you're doing.

Reason number 5, they don't learn and adapt fast enough with Jeff Bezos.

If you want to be an inventor of any kind, inventing a new, you know, a new service offering for customers or a new product or anything, the being an inventor requires, because the world is so complicated, you have to be a domain expert. I mean, in a way, even if you're not at the beginning, you have to learn, learn, learn, learn, learn enough so that you become a domain expert. But the danger is, once you've become a domain expert, you can be trapped by that knowledge. And so inventors have this paradoxical ability to have that, you know, 10,000 hours of practice and be a real domain expert and have that beginner's mind. Have that look at it freshly even though they know so much about the domain. And that's the key to inventing. You have to have both. And I think that is intentional. I think all of us have that inside of us and we can all do it, but you have to be intentional about it. You have to say, yeah, I am going to become an expert and I'm going to keep my beginner's mind.

Reason number 6, they lack self-discipline with Joe Rogan.

Well, I think the one thing that discipline definitely does help you with is it It helps you get things done. And when you get things done, when you actually do things, you have more success. If you have more success, sometimes a big part of success is just not being lazy and just doing it. Just get, that's like 90% of it is just showing up. Get there and start working. Like, you're not gonna feel perfect every day. If I felt, if I only worked out when I felt good, I'd be a fat fuck. Because there's a lot of days I don't want to do it. It's pretty much the same with everybody that actually gets good at something. There's got to be those days you push through, and they're probably going to be more numerous than the days you don't. And so the benefit of discipline in my eyes has always been that through discipline I get things done. I always tell my— I always say that I'm like the most lazy disciplined person I know because I don't want to do it. Yeah, but I always do.

Reason number 7: They make excuses. With Grant Cardone.

Hey, I was broke. You understand? I was broke when I was 25. Dead broke. I'm not talking about financially broke. Let me tell you something. No, I didn't have any money in my pocket. I didn't have any credit cards. Nobody would give me credit. Okay. Didn't have a driver's license.

Okay.

1970 Ford Maverick. Had a 1970 Ford Maverick. No air, no No heat, no door handles. The freaking floor was rusted. Okay? I lived in a 275-square-foot apartment, maybe 300 square feet if you counted the little step out in front of the front door. Paid $275 a month and I was late almost every month. So don't tell me about your money problems, man.

Okay?

Don't tell me about where you were born. Don't tell me about your bad breaks. Don't tell me about what your daddy did or your uncle felt you up or something, did some kind of weird thing to you and I'll ruin your head, or your sister abused you, or whatever. Okay, look, we all got problems. You got to fix your problems now. You got to get your money right. So 25 years old, I'm like, I'm getting my money right. I'm done. No more excuses, no more crybaby, no more blame. I'm getting my freaking money right.

Reason number 8: they're resistant to feedback. With Mel Gibson.

I remember it was 3 hours and 15 minutes at one stage, and I had this great editor who I worked with again called Steve Rosenblum. And Rosenblum and I were sitting there scratching our heads figuring how do we get a half hour out of this, and we couldn't figure it out because we were so close to it. And it took a studio head to come in and give us a general note. That was Sherry Lansing. She gives us this general note, and we're like, we look at her and we look at each other and said, what would she know? How did she get this job? You know, and 24 hours later we're going, she's right, she's right.

Race first studio head.

Yeah, yeah.

But, but you know what, That simple note that she gave us enabled us to go from 3 hours 15 to 2 hours 48, and it just made the thing snap along. Yeah. Oh yeah, big deal.

Reason number 9: they don't have a competitive advantage. With Warren Buffett.

The nature of capitalism is that people want to come in and take your castle. It's perfectly understandable. I mean, if I'm selling television sets or something, there's gonna be 10 other people that can try and sell a better television set. If I have a restaurant here in Omaha Oh, people are going to try and copy my menu and give more parking and take my chef and so on. So capitalism is all about somebody coming and trying to take the castle. Now what you need is you need a castle that has some durable competitive advantage, some castle that has a moat around it. And that moat, one of the best moats in many respects is to be a low-cost producer. But sometimes the moat is just having more talent. I mean, if you're the heavyweight champion of the world and you keep knocking out people, you've got a competitive advantage as long as you can keep doing it. It's very profitable if you're the one that happens to be able to do it. If you can turn out great motion pictures, I mean, you know, Steven Spielberg, I mean, he's a fella to bet on, and it has enormous economic value.

And reason number 10, the last clip before very special Elon Musk bonus clip I think you're gonna enjoy. Number 10 is They Give Up with Tony Robbins.

There is another level. The only reason you keep saying there isn't is you feel so exhausted about where you are. But life, the universe, or God is just testing you because there is another level. If this is good, giant jump to excellence, giant jump from poor to good to excellence. There's a level where all your dreams are realized. There's a level that you've always dreamed about. It is real. It has not gone away. But it takes that extra burst when you think there's nothing left, there's no way, you've tried everything 10 million times, and you keep going. It's almost like God is saying, if you keep hitting this wall enough times, I will see that you will not stop, that you are filled with that level of determination, faith, and courage. And then the door opens and you get to that next level. But most people don't know is the next level is just 2 millimeters above, and it's called outstanding, ladies and gentlemen. Outstanding. What's it called? What's it called? What's it called? Outstanding, magnificent, unstoppable, extraordinary. Not excellent. It's a different level. It's a level where you are not one of the best, you are the best. And you know what's amazing? You only have to be 2 millionaires more than everybody else and you get everything. You get the joy, the laughter, the fun, the family, the passion, the economics, the freedom, the spirit. It's all there. What Jerry Maguire called the quan, baby. All of it. And it's just 2 millimeters above, and most excellent people give up because they're exhausted. And there's some people that go, "The harder I hit it, the more I hit it, sooner or later it's going down. I'm not stopping." And when you do that enough, it pops open.

Now I've got a very special clip with Elon Musk on how to act despite being afraid that I think you're really gonna enjoy. Before that, I want you to make a commitment of the day. You watched this video, you took the time to consume the content, now do something about it. What is your commitment that you will change today? Leave it down in the comments below. I'm really excited to find out. Thank you guys so much for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon and enjoy the bonus clip.

You are unusually fearless and willing to go in the face of other people telling you something is crazy. And I know a lot of pretty crazy people, you still stand out. Where does that come from, or how do you think about making a decision when everyone tells you this is a crazy idea? Or where do you get the internal strength to do that?

Well, first of all, I'd say I actually think I feel fear quite strongly. So it's not as though I just have the absence of fear. I feel it quite strongly. But there are just times when something is important enough, you believe in it enough, that you do it in spite of the fear.

So speaking of important things—

Like, people shouldn't think, I— People shouldn't think, well, I feel fear about this, and therefore I shouldn't do it. It's normal to feel fear. Like, you'd have to definitely do something mentally wrong if you didn't feel fear.

So you just feel it and let the importance of it drive you to do it anyway?

Yeah. You know, actually, something that can be helpful is fatalism to some degree. If you just accept the probabilities, then that diminishes fear. So when starting SpaceX, I thought the odds of success were less than 10%, and I just accepted that actually, probably, I would just lose lose everything, but that maybe we would make some progress if we could just move the ball forward. Even if we died, maybe some other company could pick up the baton and move and keep moving it forward. So that would still do some good. Yeah, same with Tesla. I thought the odds of a car company succeeding were extremely low.

So let me give you the one secret to happiness.

One word.

This is all you need to be happy.

The most important word ever.

If you had to think of one word that's most important to you, or that sums you up, or that would be kind of like a little beacon.

Hey, Believe Nation! If you want to know what the most important one word is for Tony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk, Oprah Winfrey, will.i.am, and Howard Schultz, I have a very special secret video for you. Check the description for details.