The video is a montage of interview clips and testimonials in which a range of public figures—Jackie Chan, Mike Tyson, Jack Welch, Robbie Williams, Lenny Kravitz, Muhammad Ali, Andrew Marr, and host Evan Carmichael—share personal stories about the heroes, mentors, and pivotal moments that shaped their lives and careers. Jackie Chan recounts a childhood encounter with Bruce Lee that sparked his admiration and drive. Mike Tyson describes how Muhammad Ali’s confidence and fighting style inspired him as a child, even influencing a real‑world confrontation. Jack Welch explains his philosophy that everyone around you can serve as a mentor, citing specific examples from his rise to CEO and the value of learning from business media. Robbie Williams credits his parents, especially his father, as his ultimate role models. Lenny Kravitz cites Stevie Wonder as a creative inspiration. Andrew Marr probes Muhammad Ali about heroism, while Evan Carmichael closes by naming his parents and Bill Gates as mentors and urging viewers to reflect on their own mentors. Across all clips, the central message is that mentorship—whether from a famous icon, a family member, or a colleague—provides the guidance, confidence, and lessons needed to become one’s own hero.
Chapters
Hero's mantra.
Hero, heroes, hero.
The best story for me, I think when I was young, doing under the Dragon, fighting with Bruce Lee. And I was behind the camera, waiting, waiting. I just see Bruce Lee. Then I just run up. Then he.
Boom.
Pah.
Suddenly my eyes all black because he's just one stick Rio on my head. He missed it, but I just— I do nothing. I just— and I just felt, you know, a little dizzy, but it's okay. I look at Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee doesn't do anything. He look at everybody and keep acting, turn around back until the director say cut. Then he just throw the two stick, just turn around. Oh my God, he run to me and lift me up.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
And actually, I'm not paying more because, you know, young guy like me, very tough. But then suddenly, I don't know why, I just pretend very painful.
Oh, oh, oh.
I just want Bruce Lee hold me as long as, as long as he can. I said, oh, during the whole day, every time he look at me like this, I said, okay, okay. And I think that's the best moment. And somehow he run to me, what's your name? I said, my name Jackie. What style are we learning? I said, Southern style. Oh, okay. Then talk to me, Jackie, huh? Jackie, Jackie, okay.
Of course I am familiar with Muhammad Ali. You don't just have him here. He is global. He is the man. Muhammad Ali was a guy that done what had not been done before. Changed the face, not only the face of his game, but the face of the world. He was outspoken. He fought for what he believed in. He was charismatic. He was a legend, a hero, and I looked up to him. One of my first heroes was Muhammad Ali. When I was 11 years old, there was a group of people and they tried to attack me. And a fight broke out. And it was just me and one guy. Before everyone else jumped in on me. But we were fighting each other. And I slipped a punch. And I shuffled my shoulders and said, "Muhammad Ali!" And threw a shot. And he rolled under the shot but fell into a knee, and I ended up on top of him. So I'm out there calling myself Muhammad Ali, and I'm punching him in the head, and then somebody came in and tried to kick me, and then a whole group of them came in, and it was just a big fight, but it was me against 6 of them, and I ended up getting my ass whooped.
But for that first guy, you whooped him out and said Muhammad Ali.
I done the Ali shuffle. I'm only 11 years old. I done the Ali shuffle, threw a left hook. He rolled under the left hook, which it was good of him to roll. He saw it coming and rolled under it, but he rolled right into a knee. Yeah, I was prepared. I was studying tape. So, no, so definitely Muhammad Ali was a hero of mine.
I used Stevie Wonder as an inspiration whom I look up to a great deal just for the way that he crafted music and his connection to the spirit. And boy, back then, I used him as a role model in trying to play all the instruments and be very self-contained and keep my vision clear. So word spread very quickly about what I could do. A lot of people knew about it, yeah.
You truly adore your parents, don't you?
I love my parents just so much, mate. I, you know, like my mum, how'd you be, you know? I was born on her birthday and, um, and all she ever did was just love me and prop me up and get me back out in there. And my dad, just the legend of the universe. When I was the tiniest little kid, Andrew, I'd look up at my dad and, you know, he was like larger than life. He was just like this action hero. He was everything I wanted to be. And all I've done in my life is following his footsteps, mimic him, and try to be him. And nowadays I just try to make him proud, mate. Yeah, I love my parents like nothing else. It's just, they are Everything to me, absolutely everything. And the day that my mom went was the day I lost something. I lost something, lost something really big.
You gotta see everyone as a mentor. Your whole crowd, somebody who works for you might be a mentor. I remember when I became CEO, I was not a great financial wizard. I never did become a financial wizard, but I, at least I had this fellow who worked for me 10 years my junior, 33 years old, who I made CFO. He basically dumped his brain into mine. I lived with him as we went through all this stuff, left side, right side, etc., the balance sheet from A to Z. And he was an enormously valuable person. I've had people who were on my board who were completely committed to our success, who would challenge every people appointment I would make, who would ask me, are you sure? Are you right? I think the business media is a great mentor. You may laugh at that, but I think Fortune, Business Week, there's a business language. I find them mentors. Read every story. I can't understand why somebody can be in business and not read all those stories. I think you learn what strategies didn't work, did work. Some of the stories aren't quite accurate, some of them aren't true, so what? You're constantly learning the rhythm of business. So education and teaching is all around you. As far as today's really is, we have an enormous cadre. People today are just better than they were before. It's more competitive. It's no longer, when you become CEO today, it's no longer the coronation, it's the beginning. Of a new competitive career. I remember in 1980 when I became CEO, I would go to these meetings where people would sit around and they had briefing books prepared by huge staffs and they had pontificated about the economy and this other nonsense stuff. It meant nothing. They were just mouthing words. It was ridiculous. Now today, people are in shirt sleeves getting in there and doing it because the global competition is so tough.
You never make it by yourself. You always need others to help you. I'm good at what I do. I'm really, really good at M&A. I'm not saying this with any level of arrogance. The only reason why I'm saying that is I've put in over 25 years perfecting the craft. But the reason— one of the reasons why I'm good is that a partner out of the Dallas office took me under his wing. And he said, "Let me apprentice you. Let me show you how to become good at it." He didn't say it in exactly those words. But in retrospect, that's what happened to me. So mentorship is incredibly important.
Was Muhammad Ali a hero of yours?
Well, naturally, as far as boxing is concerned and what he has done, he was my hero. Just like Rupin here. This is my hero.
What did you say to him when he told you he loved you?
Well, I was paralyzed because he made my day.
So what leaders, what leaders of the 20th century do you admire?
Well, I have answered that question. It's not the question of a leader, it's a question of a human being who does something I think to make an ordinary individual to feel I am a human being and I have a future and I can go to bed feeling strong and full of hope.
You know, I had heroes and obviously people influenced me. You know, my dad drove me to all my surf contests. My mom, you know, she always kept me in my place. Kept me grounded. And, you know, she always told me if I ever got a big head, she would, she would beat my ass, smack me, and do whatever. She threatened me a little bit, but it was all for the right reasons. And, uh, sort of just, you know, kept me on a straight and narrow path, really. But, you know, we all have our heroes and people we look up to in surfing. I had a lot of those people.
I don't know, one hero I've always had who no longer lives is, uh, has been John Kennedy.
Oh yes.
Of course, I was very much in the U.S. at that time. That person stands out still as very much my, my hero at that time and continues to get me emotionally nostalgic about the days I, that I was there.
When I got the Nobel Prize, I was asked to write an autobiography of our life and our intellectual Development. And in writing that, I remembered vividly the profound impact that my high school physics teacher, Mr. Miner, played in my intellectual development. In the 12th grade, it was in a final exam, I kind of flubbed the question, and then he had written in the margin, "I'm disappointed." He wasn't trying to teach us facts. He was actually trying to teach us a learning process. Learning whether you understand something or not was probably the most important thing I began to learn in his class. That lesson I took with me not only through college and graduate school, but for my entire career as a physicist.
For me growing up, my parents were my greatest mentors and heroes, and they taught me how to be, you know, a decent human being. Not so much about business— they didn't have a lot of business background— but just how to treat people, how to believe in myself. Believe comes from them. And then my first real kind of business mentor was Bill Gates, even though I'd never met him. And he helped save my company when I realized that I didn't have to come up with every idea myself, that somebody has already solved the problems that I'm trying to accomplish. And I just applied his lessons from how he started Microsoft to my software company at the time when I was 19 and just sucking as an entrepreneur and making every mistake that I could. And not get any results. And I was able to go from wanting to quit the business to being acquired in 3 years, thanks to the strategies from Bill Gates. And now I see every successful person as a mentor in different ways. I made the Top 10 series and the Ian Espresso series for myself because I want to every day be surrounded by these people who are accomplishing great things in their lives. And the more that I can be around these people, the more, a little bit more of their magic secret sauce kind of rubs off onto me. The way that they think and their mindset rubs off onto me. And if you just hear a message once, it doesn't often sink in. Like, you may acknowledge it, but then you go back to your habits and your old patterns and the way you used to do things. But if you consistently hear the same message over and over and over again from different people in their own ways, from, you know, actors and athletes and entrepreneurs and inventors and politicians, and they're all saying the same kind of thing, it slowly starts to shift your mindset. At least it does for me. And so that's why I try to surround myself with those great lessons on a daily basis. And the people who think that you can't learn from a Kanye West or a Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, you know, depending on what side of the political spectrum you're on, you can learn from everybody who's had success. You may not want to be— like, I don't want to be the next Kanye West, I want to be the first Evan Carmichael. But I could learn something from Kanye, from Trump, from Hillary that I can apply to make me the best version of myself. And so if you create that environment where you're constantly surrounding yourself with those aspirational mentors, with wisdom from people who've done a lot more than you, slowly over time you'll start to break through those limiting barriers or personal beliefs that are holding you where you are, and you start to build a life that is great and exciting and one you look forward to and one that has a major impact. So thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed this video. I'd love to know your take. I'd love to know how you are finding mentors and who some of your heroes are. Leave it in the comments below. I'm going to join the discussion. Thank you again for watching. Continue to believe, and I'll see you soon.
