In this 12‑minute video, host Evan Carmichael and guests (John Addison, Robert Kiyosaki, LeBron James) discuss what makes an effective leader and how to develop leadership skills quickly. The conversation opens with a lighthouse metaphor, describing leaders as steady, calming forces needed most during storms. Carmichael stresses that great achievements require building and scaling teams, noting that as an organization grows a leader’s direct contribution shrinks and the focus must shift to unlocking each team member’s potential. He introduces the "one word" concept – a personal credo that guides individuals and helps leaders align tasks with each person’s core motivator (e.g., creativity, grit, extraordinary). The discussion moves to the lack of formal leadership education and the need for self‑directed learning. Robert Kiyosaki shares a personal story about losing a paycheck, embracing failure, and how his military academy experience taught him hard‑earned leadership lessons, emphasizing listening, resilience, and flat hierarchy. LeBron James adds a sports perspective, describing multiple leadership styles (teacher, student, voice, example) and the importance of adapting communication to different personalities in a team. Throughout, the speakers highlight camaraderie, flat structures, and the belief that diverse leadership approaches are essential for high‑performing teams.
Chapters
Good morning, Believe Nation. Today's message is be a great leader. Over to you, John Addison. I wake up every morning, espresso keep me going. I wake up every morning.
You know, weather vanes typically are politicians where whatever way the wind's blowing, whatever the mood of the moment is, whatever the polls say, they spin that direction. Leaders are lighthouses. There's a consistency to them. There's a strength to them. You know, lighthouses are only needed when the weather's stormy. When it's beautiful, they're just a pretty building. But when the seas are stormy and it's dark and rainy and foggy, that's when you need a lighthouse. A leader has to be a rock, someone of consistency, that when the storms, whether it's in business the economy, whatever's happening to the organization that you're over, that you're a human Alka-Seltzer. You calm the organization. I've worked for people that were quote unquote leaders who would bring a bucket of gas to a fire and make it, just turn it into a blaze by how they reacted to it. Great leaders are calmers. Great leaders are people that when maybe everything is hectic and chaotic, but when people see them, hear from them, they're calmer. I believe a peaceful mind generates power.
If you want to do something great, then you're going to need to build a team. Whether it's in business, whether it's some other movement that you want to build, if you want to do something great, you can't do it alone. You need a team. And so many people go through this as they're building their business. Often they hire the wrong person at the start and it doesn't work out and they say, "You know what? Forget this. I'm just going to go back to doing everything myself." And that is not the answer. The answer is to learn how to be a better leader. As your organization gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, your role, the contribution you're given actually diminishes. You know, if you had 100 people in your company, the thing that you're doing day in and day out is minor compared to what your 100 other people are doing for you. You know, when you're solo, you're doing everything. When you bring on one person, maybe you're doing still 75% of the value because you're the best at what you do. But then as you start bringing more people on, your contribution diminishes. And so, yes, you're focusing on what you can become the best in the world at, but your greatest contribution is going to be leading your team to help unlock their potential and allowing them to be the best in the world at what they do. And we don't go to school for leadership, right? We don't really learn leadership in high school. We don't learn leadership in university. There's no course you can take. Maybe you join a sports team and maybe you had a coach who was amazing who guided you, but this isn't part of the process for most people. Most people aren't trained in leadership. This is where I think understanding your one word is really important. When you know what it is that you stand for, then it's way easier to lead a group of people. It's way easier to build a team of people who are aligned with what you're trying to do. I believe great leadership is about unlocking the potential in the people on your team. They're working at a certain standard, which may already be high, but you see them being able to work up here. And your job is to help them close that gap through believing in them, through pushing them, through training them. You have to help them close that gap. That's what I believe a great leader does. And the way to do it, the easiest way in my experience, is through understanding their one word and their credo, understanding what drives them. They are giving you the tools to help push them. So for example, somebody really values creativity. Versus somebody who really values grit. Hard work and grit versus creativity. Those don't have to be opposites, but it's something that they really value. And so yes, we have organizational goals. Here's what we're trying to reach, right? I want to help entrepreneurs. I want to get to 1 million subscribers. That's our next goal. We're aligned around that. But the people on my team, how do we go and accomplish it? If somebody really values creativity, then I need to push them on creativity. I need more creative solutions. I need creative editing. I need creative videography. Is that a word? I need creative thumbnails. I need, I need to, I need more creativity. Where somebody's word is grit or it's part of their credo is grit, then I need them to work harder. I need them to push themselves. If somebody's word is extraordinary, then how can we make this more extraordinary? What do we need to do? I need extraordinary thumbnails and extraordinary videography and I need extraordinary editing. I can't make somebody who values creativity and push them to extraordinary. It's just not who they are. It's going to be a disconnect. So understanding what our goal is, having a common goal, and then giving people the flexibility and freedom to go and help you accomplish that goal in the way that best suits them, and you understanding them, their one word, their credo, they're giving you the tools to push them, to giving you the tools to close that gap between where they're at now and where their potential is, which in my view is the ultimate goal of a leader. So the question of the day today is, I'm curious, are you a leader? And how many people are on your team? Could be full-time, could be contractors. I'm curious how many people are on your team right now. Leave in the comments below. Super curious to find out. I also want to give a quick shout out to Daniel Burgess. Daniel, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word. Really, really means a lot to me, man, and I hope you're enjoying the reading. So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. And I'll see you guys again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso. I wake up every morning, espresso keep me going.
My last paycheck, I still remember it clearly. It was one of the worst and the best days of my life. And I was in Puerto Rico. I was working for Xerox. And my boss gave me my last— it wasn't a paycheck, it was a bonus check. I think it was about $30,000, taxable, that's the only problem with that. So I get this check and I went, holy mackerel. You know what I mean? So I was excited, but I was also disturbed. And so this other guy comes up to me, his name was John. And John says to me, he says, you're gonna be back. I said, why? He says, because you're gonna fail. I looked at him and said, look, few expletive words, because that's what he did. He left Xerox, failed, and he came back. And I said, look, da da da, you failed and you came back, but I'm gonna fail and I'm never coming back. And that's the attitude. Do you know what I mean? If you say, well, if I fail, I'll go back to mommy and daddy. Then that's what you'll do. So if you fail, that's when I became an entrepreneur because I had no money. I had no money for years. You know, I didn't have a paycheck. But that's what my rich dad encouraged me to do. He says, when you don't have this paycheck, you get hungrier, smarter, and it's a test of your character. Will you become a crook? Will you become dishonest? Will you cheat and steal? Or will you become a better human being? So really, that's the benefit of becoming an entrepreneur is you really find out who you are when you don't have anything. If you're an entrepreneur and you're going to be a big entrepreneur, leadership skills and communication skills are more important than a law degree. So I have another book that just came out, it's called The Eight Lessons in Military Leadership. In the military, I went to military academy and all that. I left, you know, from day one you're learning leadership. You know, day one at the academy, I have to stand in front of 20 18-year-old kids and go, "Section 10, hut!" And naturally they're going to say, "Fuck you," you know. So that's when you learn to be a leader. Now, as you said to me when we first met, the trouble with the military, you get a little rough. So I had a hard time when I came back from Vietnam and I went to work for Xerox. And, you know, people don't like the idea of calling them an asshole and a fuckhead, you know, stuff like that.
Every other word is a curse word in the military.
Yeah. It's just an adjective. Hey. "Kid, you know, do this." You know, but they don't— "Oh, I'm going to call my HR person. I better make some changes here." You know what I'm talking about?
Of course I know.
You can't talk straight in corporate America.
In the military, you can.
You have to.
Yeah, you have to.
And they love it.
Yeah. You actually get promotions if you do in the military.
Well, when I got called names, I said, "Oh, the guy likes me." So that's why for all you guys who are military veterans, you have probably the number one skill to be an entrepreneur, which is leadership, the ability to listen, to not take it personally, and still get the job done. It is the best training in the world. The saddest thing about leaving the military was leaving the guys behind there. They were some of the best in the world. And they weren't all college graduates. They were just my gunners, my mechanics, all this stuff.
Camaraderie is priceless.
Oh geez, it's priceless. Camaraderie is priceless. And so all I did when I started the Rich Dad Company was to have that same sense of teamwork inside Rich Dad. That's why there's no ranks and all this stuff in this company. Everybody gets to say what they want to say. People are free to do what they want. I stay out of their way and we get the job done.
Everyone's not a leader and we shouldn't expect everyone to be a leader. I think it becomes something that you want to do or you're born with it. And some people lead by example, some people lead by voice, some people lead by both. And for me, I felt in order for myself to be as good as I wanted to be, and at the same time, in order for our team to be as good as I wanted it to be, I had to be both. As well as we played last game, it ain't gonna be enough to win tonight. You gotta give more, dawg. You got to protect more. You got to help more. You got to sacrifice more in order to get this win. You have a lot of different styles. Let's throw out some of them. You like wise teacher sometimes. Tell me about that one. I am, man. I'm— I got so— like you said, I got so many different forms of leadership, and it just comes from my personality. You know, at times I can be silly. Strike 3! Man, these beautifuls got me looking like Iron Man. And at times I could be serious. If you know personnel, you know teammates, you throw it up to the rim. That's like you throwing that same pass to Shaq.
Would you do that to Shaq?
You won't throw that pass to Shaq. At times I could be like a teacher and be like, you know, focusing in on all my students. So I come right here, so if I need to step once, at least I'm only stepping right here. At times I could be the student, you know, and to be able to have different forms of leadership has helped me because you have different personalities in the locker room. Everybody is not the same. The way I talk to D-Wade may not be the way I can talk to Chris. Or the way I talk to Chris may not be the way I talk to UD or to Bird or to Rio.
Big time, man.
Big time. What the fuck? Everyone's personality is different, so my leadership skills has different phases because I understand what I'm dealing with. I love you. I love you. They go crazy.
Ah!
Whoever misses is out. Whoever misses is out. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Sometimes, you know, the smile and leadership, sometimes the play for LeBron, sometimes you use that as a form of leadership. Yeah, absolutely. I got that from being around my childhood friends. We used to have so much fun, man, but we understood when that ball was tipped, This is— we're gonna have the most fun here. And I just brought that with me to the NBA. When you're doing something that way and it's working and you're winning and you're not disrespecting the game, right, you— this is what you feel like is how it's supposed to be done. It's given me a sense of brotherhood in this league that is hard to come by.
