Eric Schmidt explains why even successful CEOs need coaches. John Doerr pushed him to hire one despite his status, and Bill Campbell coached him at Google by offering perspective Schmidt couldn't see alone. A media coach and weekly sessions with a mentor named Jenny transformed how Schmidt shows up on camera.
Good morning, Believe Nation. Today's message is find a coach. Over to you, Eric Schmidt. I wake up every morning, espresso give me go.
I've received so many different kinds of advice, I don't know where to start. One that comes to mind is to have a coach. Our board member in 2002, John Doerr, said you need a coach, and I said, well, I don't need a coach, I'm an established CEO. Why would I need a coach? Is something wrong? He said, no, no, no, you need a coach. Everybody needs a coach. So Bill Campbell became my coach and has served Google very well. Every famous athlete, every famous performer has somebody who's a coach. Somebody who can watch what they're doing and say, is that what you really meant? Did you really do that? They can give them perspective. The one thing people are never good at is seeing themselves as others see them. A coach really, really helps.
So one of the things that I've always been a big fan of is modeling success. Finding people who've already done what you're trying to do and learn from them is one of the fastest ways for people to grow a business or achieve anything in life. Because if you are just trying to figure everything all out on your own, you're going to stumble around in the darkness and likely not get to where you need to go. Where if you can follow people who've already done it, your path becomes a lot faster. I've done that through two ways in my life. The one is through modeling masters, people who I've never met or will never meet, through these videos, through people that I look up to, and I feel like I grow and I learn by having these people around me. So even though I will never meet Steve Jobs, I've learned a lot from him, and by watching his videos, some of that mindset thinking, bigger impact, visionary stuff seeps into me and makes me want to do more. The other is though actual coaches, actual people who I've had face-to-face conversations with. I think about, in the context of this YouTube channel, my agent and my media coach, Steve and Jani, were really instrumental in helping me get better on camera, tell better stories, be more comfortable. And I was not a natural. If you go back on my videos, you'll see how nervous and awkward and terrible I was and boring at the start and how it's gotten better. And that was from regular sessions with them, especially Jenny, every week for almost 2 years, going through and critiquing my videos and giving me feedback on how I can get better. So whatever goal it is that you want to accomplish, instead of just trying to figure everything all out on your own, understand that somebody has already done it. Maybe not exactly what you do, but somebody has done it. And so by modeling their success and trying to learn and understand from them, it can really shortcut your path to accomplishing that goal. So the question of the day today is, I'm curious, who is your coach? And actually somebody who you've met and you have conversations with, or somebody that you look up to as an aspirational coach. Who is a coach in your life that is helping you grow, and what have you learned from them? Leave in the comments below. I'm gonna join in the discussion. I also wanna give a quick shout out to Jamie from relaxingsleepstation.com. Jamie, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book. Really means a lot to me. For those of you watching, you want a chance at a shout out in a future video, make sure to grab a copy of the book and email in your receipt so we can keep track. Thank you guys so much for watching. Have an amazing day. Continue to believe, or whatever your one word is, and I'll see you tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso.
