How to Tweak Your Mind for Business Success | 28 Minutes of Transformation

I love April Fools.

I'll tell you a funny story too.

Don't worry.

If you crack up, that's when I lose it.

OK. OK. Don't worry.

OK. Usted es un hombre—

Someone sent you a twerk-o-gram. OK, well, let's get to twerking then. What's up? Oh, God.

Oh.

And if you look at the crest, You'll notice that under this hallowed word, there are 3 bunches of asparagus.

And after a while, house was full again.

You know, when you're a kid, you're like, "Oh, one day I'm gonna be signing all these girls," and then nope, not me. Big brutes.

Aussie rugby players.

Aussie rugby players.

[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] I love April Fools', but the thing about it is, is I love doing— but my April Fools' runs the entire year.

I see. Yes, I'm similar.

Yeah, because it's like April Fools', everyone's expecting it. So this past Around Christmas time, we were getting ready to make a big announcement for a movie, and I called my agent. I was overseas and I called my agent Brad Slater. I woke him up in the middle of the night and I was like, hey, man, I gotta talk to you. He's like, what's going on? What's wrong? I said, I don't know how it happened, but my cousin who was on tour with us, I said, just got busted with prostitutes and my name is attached to it now. And it's all getting ready to hit the press. He started freaking out. I was like, Brad, are you okay? He was getting emotional. Oh my God, what are we gonna do? Okay, hold on. And he goes, I'm gonna be calm in the pocket. I'm thinking about this, hold on. And I was like, I don't know what to do. I think there's multiple prostitutes with this thing. There's a whole ring over here. It's unbelievable. Had him going and going and going. And finally I was like, oh, Brad, Brad, Brad. He's like, what? I was like, December Fool!

That's ridiculous. It's ridiculous.

And that's the thing.

I'm like, December Fool!

You got to say it like that. And there was a long pause.

I had breakfast with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and lunch with Nelson Mandela.

Wow.

And actually, when he came to the States, the last time he came, came to California, came to our house.

Well, that's pretty good.

Now, see, that's—

I'll tell you a funny story too. He'll be mad at me for telling this, but I'll tell it anyway. Uh, Sylvester Stallone, he lives up in the— we're like in a gated community, he lives over there. And he, he wasn't invited.

He—

we had— I mean, I would have invited him, but we had about maybe 40, 50 people there, you know. And I had my children, I said, you can invite One friend and Oprah Winfrey, different people were there. And the security, they had security helicopters like it was the president. They're like, Mr. Washington, Rocky's out front. He's pacing.

He's like looking in the gate. I said, should we?

He's like, should we let him in?

I'm like, yeah, let Sylvester come in. They said he was outside looking sad. Man, could you see Rocky? Hey, hey, Mr. Mandela, how you doing? Mr. Mandela, how you doing? How you doing? How you doing? Yo, Adrian! It's Mandela here. It's Mandela over here.

Do you train really hard in the offseason? Can you give me any tips?

Anything you can talk about?

No, it's all talent. That don't work. I just sit on the couch. You thought you had something going, right? That you were one of those, like with Lindell, that, you know, made us generation work hard. Not with me anyway. I didn't get inspired.

No.

No, all I do is really just take care of the kids, you know. I won't say no if Andy Murray decides now, "All right, he's a nice guy, Rog. He's a father, and let's—" I won't say no. But I know that he'd like to win the first for British tennis since, what is it, 150,000 years, so— I'm just happy waking up in the morning and feeling not like an old man, so— So that's very positive. Uh, felt like that.

You're looking right at me when you say that. Thanks, buddy.

Appreciate that.

You're not that old.

A little bit old.

How's he hitting him?

He warmed me up. And? I won. So very well. I still think—

The interview was great, but then I needed Roger to stick around so I could ask a few questions in Spanish for a CNN en Español program. You don't have to do anything. I'm just going to read out some questions in Spanish. Just a couple of questions while you're in shot. Okay.

And I don't need to answer them?

No, you don't need to answer them at all. Here we go. Usted es un hombre récord en español. This is tough, I tell you. Thanks, I appreciate that. You don't have to look at me. You can look right by me.

That would be just great.

No, it's okay. I can keep going even if you're smiling. I'll keep going. If you crack up, that's when I lose it. Okay. Okay. Don't worry. Okay. Usted es un hombre— Since this is for Latin America, maybe I can undo one more button.

Maybe that's good with them.

All right.

Do I need to be on the shot?

I guess not, right?

Yeah, well, it's better to— You are in the shot, that's why.

Just shut your eyes, Roger.

Just kidding.

Yeah, you don't have to, like, it's just the back of your head.

Can I shut my eyes? You shut your eyes.

Okay, alright.

3, 2— I can't believe he's closing his eyes! This is hilarious!

I've never asked someone a question when they're closing their eyes.

And after I dump this bucket of ice on my head, I get to nominate 3 new people to challenge. So I'm going to challenge Bill Gates, my partner at Facebook Sheryl Sandberg, and Netflix's founder and CEO Reed Hastings.

I'm glad to give to ALS. It's a great cause, but I want to accept this challenge. I want to do it better than it's been done. Been working on this, you know, got this design. There we go. Yeah. It's gonna be great. I'm here to join the people bringing attention to Lou Gehrig's disease by taking the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. I'm gonna challenge 3 more people: Elon Musk, Ryan Seacrest, and Chris Anderson of TED. Consider yourself challenged. You have 24 hours. Good luck.

People, let me tell you about my best friend. He's a warm-hearted person who'll love me till the end. Now, people, let me tell you about my best friend. He's a warm boy, cuddly toy, my up, my down, my pride and joy. People, let me tell you about him. He's so much fun. Whether we're walking man to man or whether we're walking sun to sun, 'cause he's He's my best friend. Yeah, he's my best friend. La la ba da da da ya. Ba da ba da da ya. Ba da ba da da ya.

Is it true that you can leap over a chair from a standing position? It depends on the size of the chair.

I'll cheat a little bit.

Yes! Oh, behave! Gentlemen, the movie is testing through the roof. We're gonna have ourselves a hit, right?

I just wanna say it's all thanks to this guy, man. I love working with you, man, straight up.

You know, when we started this movie, you and I were co-stars. Now you're my brother.

All we need now is a title. Okay, um, well, I mean, best to keep it simple, no? It's like Drake and Blake.

Yeah, the people in it, we could call it. Yeah, maybe.

But I also like Blake and Drake.

Blake and Drake. Yeah.

Do we love Blake and Drake though?

Or do we like genuinely love Drake and Blake, like right when you hear it?

Why don't we just take the beginning of my name and the end of your name and just Blake, bam, Blake, bam, done. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.

Just comes right together.

Yeah, yeah. It just gets like, it's like hard to say, you know? It's like bleh. Blake and Drake. Or it's like Drake and Blake. Drake and Blake. Hey, guys, guys, guys.

Hey, you know what? Hey, we have a week to make this decision.

I mean, I'm sure something will happen to make Blake change his mind.

Oh, something's gonna happen. Something's gonna happen.

It's on.

Hey, cutie.

Hey. Someone sent you a twerk-o-gram.

Okay, well, let's get to twerking then. What's up? Oh God.

Oh, Blake.

Wait, I thought this was a car commercial. Just get in the tub.

Slates up, please. And action. There you go. It's a great day. Everyone's happy. And look back. Look at the horizon. Look at your career.

Look what you've become.

Who cut his hair? Hair for this. That's what I'm wondering.

All right, once the anesthesia kicks in, we will be removing the patient's appendix. But first, there's donuts in the kitchen, guys.

What?

Oh my God, you're the surgeon?

Oh, I'm not the surgeon. He is.

Yo, yo, yo. Breezy. Lick and drink.

The internet has killed you for doing too much flapping. How do you respond to your critics? I would like to say, as Blake Griffin, that I love flopping. You know, I mean, there's so much demanded of me that, you know, a lot of the time it's just better for me to fall down and take a little rest.

Hey, what's up, everybody? I'm Drake, and this message goes out to all of my fans. Fuck you.

I really don't have much integrity. They try to get me to do the NBA Cares commercials, and I always kindly decline. You decline the NBA Cares commercials? Well, not really. I'm just not into children. All right, all right, all right.

Let me lay it down. This is the new sound of Drake right here. Skibop shidubop bop bop bop bop. I am Drake, and I like you, girl.

I think a lot of people are extremely confused about my face I kind of look like a Black guy that jumped into a pit of Cheetos and just laid there for like 10 days and then popped up.

I tell people I'm half Black, but really, I don't know.

Do you know what team has the most white players? Because that's probably where I want to go. I'm not sure you're going to have a career after this.

And let's print that. I like it a lot.

I think that's gonna be great. I think it's really gonna up my street cred.

So what do you think Donald Sterling's message was? Uh, that not all people are equal, and I agree with it. I'm actually glad this is being filmed. Anyway, I'm Blake Griffin, part of the dominant white race, and I would just like to let you know—

Even though I have no idea why I was asked to speak here today, I prepared this speech very carefully, the way that any good Dartmouth-educated graduate would. I drank a 40 of Jägermeister, then I called my dad to see if he would get me out of it. He's here today. He could not get me out of it. So I tried to hire a college freshman to write it for me in exchange for a $200 gift card to Newbery Comics. That didn't work out. I finally, seeing that I absolutely had to do this and couldn't get out of it, rolled up my sleeves, sat down at my computer, and tried to buy a commencement address off of movingcommencementspeeches.com. My credit card was declined, so I had to write the thing myself, and here we are today. There are many, many distinguished speakers who have spoken here today. I am sharing the stage with Preet Bharara, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, We've heard what a great guy he is. In 2012, he was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, which apparently they're just giving out. According to Time, he has battled terrorism, as evidenced by his conviction of the Times Square bomber. He's crippled international arms dealers, drug traffickers, and dealt with financial fraud. Clearly, Harvard wanted you to see the full range of what India can produce here. Mr. Brara fights finance criminals and terrorism. I meet handsome men in cute and unusual ways on television, and next season my character might get a pet puppy. So is one more important than the other? Who can say? The real reason I am here is, as Connie said, um, I am obsessed with justice. Not so much with the law, but with justice. Actually, in my mind, law is that pesky thing that often gets in the way of justice. I believe in the Clint Eastwood school of the law. An eye for an eye? I don't think so. That solves nothing. You take my eye, I take your life, my friend. Okay? In a duel, Aaron Burr style. I don't want your stupid eye. For what, my eye collection? You're dead. Okay? Yes, duels are the first thing that you learn when you enter my graduate program. The Harvard School of Vengeance. But again, that is not what I came here to talk to you about. That's for the reception after. We can talk about that more. The Harvard Law School crest, which you can see in front of you, has the word veritas, which means truth in Latin. I know this because though I have been known as Mindy my whole life, my first name is actually Vera, which also means truth. It's true. It's actually too boring to make that fact up. And if you look at the crest, you'll notice that under this hallowed word there are 3 bunches of asparagus. Because asparagus is the tallest and the proudest of the vegetables. The pillar of the vegetable kingdom. And it's like the La— okay, that is, um, that is not asparagus. That is wheat. Which makes also not a ton of sense either. Okay, well, that was like 3 pages of my speech. Nope, okay, that's a callback to asparagus. I have this really funny run about hollandaise. You'll never get to hear that. You know, this isn't going anywhere. I'm gonna move past trying to make sense of your crust, which makes no sense.

So I was going to Montgomery to play. Called the promoter, I said, "I'm broke down." I said, "I don't know how long it's gonna take to fix it." And it was about 2:30 or 3 o'clock in the evening then. I said, "But I'm pretty sure that we'll be late when we get there." He said, "That's all right, B, come on up." I said, "Now you sure?" He said, "Yeah, come on up, come on up." So sure enough, we were late when the bus got ready and we went on up there. When we got there, we had something you called a, you don't hear much about them today, omris. Omris, you remember we used to play a lot of those omris. So the omri, you started from the ground floor and you had to walk about 10 or 15 stairs and there was a platform like, and so that's where he was set. To collect his tickets and the money. And then you go about 10 or 15 more floors and there's the dance hall. Okay. So when I got there, I said, "Well, we made it." He said, "Yeah, but you can turn around and go back now 'cause I ain't gonna pay you." I said, "But I called and told you." He said, "Yeah, but I didn't think you were gonna be this late." I said, "But I didn't say how late, I just told you we were gonna be late." He said, "Well, I ain't gonna pay you, so you can tell her I'll go back." I said, "Well, since I'm here, I have a thing about being late, I have a thing about standing up to people." I said, "Let me go on up and play." He said, "Okay, you can go on up if you want to, but I ain't gonna pay you." I said, "Okay." So we went on upstairs, and boy, we got on the dance floor and it was just— People was just, looked like they're packed in there. Boy, I sure would like to have some of that money. So we got up there and we started to playing and the people, you know, you couldn't buy liquor but you could carry your, what they call a brown bagging? Carry your bottle with you. Or at the Armory, they had places where you could keep your bottle, you know? Boy, we got to playing and people started drinking their yakidak and everything was going good. So after I played about 2 or 3 pieces, you know, and everybody was fired up, man, I said, "Ladies and gentlemen, see, you know, this is old B and I never stood you up." "No, B, you always come in time." I said, "Yeah." I said, "Well, I got something sad to tell you, but when I came upstairs, the boss told me he wasn't going to pay me." Everybody got quiet. "What?" I said, "No, he said he wasn't going to pay me. And now I ain't telling you what to do, but I feel that if I'm going to play free, you should be able to listen free." I ain't going to tell you what to do. He done said he ain't going to pay me, and I'm up here playing. "Hey, you ought to check on your money. I ain't telling you to do it, but you should." Boy, a little bit later, the money went one way and the dude went the other. And after a while, house was full again.

I was at the airport and these huge Irish dudes start pacing around me. I was like, "All right, it's gonna go down at the airport." Airport. Here we go. And they go, "Aye." I think they're Australian, so let me change the Australian accent. They said, "Aye, are you Bruno Mars?" I was like, "Yes." They said, "Could you sign our forearms?" So they busted out a Sharpie and I'm signing these, like, rugby players' forearms. They're like, "Yo, that Billionaire song, you're a legend. You're a legend." Oh, that's so great.

Oh my God, signing—

any signed any other body parts?

No, thank God. Looking forward to that, man. You know, when you're a kid, you're like, oh, one day I'm gonna be signing all these girls, and then nope, not me. Big brutes. Aussie rugby players. You know, I try to be an artist. I moved up to California to be an artist. So I'm writing these songs and they're all for me. Never wanted to be a producer, never thought about writing with other people for other people. So I'm writing this song for me. I got approached by a label that heard one one of these songs and they said, "Look, we want this song for another artist. We don't want to sign you. We want to take your song and give it to another artist." And at the time I was working with Kara for the first time and, you know, as a songwriter she's written so many hits. And I talked to her and I said, "Kara, look, I don't know what to do. I really want to be an artist. You know, they want my music. This is my music. This is my art." She looks at me and she says, Stop being a bitch. She says, "No one knows who the hell you are. You have no story. Sell your frickin' song. What is it, the last song you're ever gonna write? You bitch." I was like, "Jesus, Kara!" And so you did. And I did, and that paid my rent, and that got me to stay up here and got me, you know, so I owe a lot to Kara DiGuardi.

And the writing credits that you are mounting since then, She's dead right.

Yeah, thank you, Kath, for calling me a bitch.

In 1983, when we hit the 8%, Sam— I don't know that I've ever told this story before, but Sam Walton came down to my office and he said, "Do you think anybody in the company remembers that I promised to do the hula if we made 8%?" And I said, "Everybody in the company remembers that." And he says, "Well, you got me into it, so you arrange it and don't screw it up." And left. Well, I had a trip that I had to make to New York. And so we got up there and we staged this thing, and there was press from everywhere.

This is so ridiculous, but I've tried for 3 months. Well, I thought for 2 months that it would actually happen, but our numbers were just barely 8% pre-tax, 8.04. And everyone in the company said, Mr. Walton, you've got to perform. We did it, now you do it. Okay, you ready? All right, this is going to be terrible. Grab him by the hand. And I'll never do it again. I'll never challenge our folks again. Never say never. Okay. Okay, okay, okay. I'm fulfilling an obligation to our employees.

I wagered with them a year and a half ago.

That in the year 1983 they never could possibly achieve a better than 8% net profit corporately. Okay, give me a W. Give me a W. Give me an A! A! Give me an L! L! Give me a hyphen! Hyphen! Give me an M! M! Give me an A! A! Give me an R! R! T! T! And what does it spell? Walmart! We know it's number one! Ignora, un tocco, un tocco. Toma, un dos.

Uncainho.

Oi, oi, oi, oi! Um cansancio, hein?

Muestra lo que sabes hacer, dribbles.

Ah, bien, muy bien.

Thank you so much for watching. I don't think we as entrepreneurs often have enough fun in our business. I know we're focused so much about our big goal and where we want to go and the stress of maintaining the business and getting customers and, you know, keeping the lights on. But I think it's important to have fun in your business on a regular basis. And it was fun for me to put together this series of clips. So hopefully you guys have some fun. I'd love to know what you think if you want to leave a comment below. I'd also love to know how do you have fun in your business? What do you do to keep it fun? Leave the comment below. I will join in the discussion. Thank you guys so much for watching. Continue to believe, and I'll see you soon.