PNTV: Legacy by James Kerr

You're listening to Optimize with Bryan Johnson. More wisdom in less time. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to Philosopher's Notes tv. Today we've got another great book, Legacy by James Kerr. Legacy Subtitle what the All Blacks can teach us about the business of life. The All Blacks, New Zealand's national rugby team, they are absolutely dominant. Get this, in their professional era, they've won 86% of their games. They've been ranked number one more times than everybody else combined. That's nuts. Pure dominance. James Kerr wanted to understand what is it that makes him so great. He spent something like six weeks with them a few years ago, then he came back and interviewed all their leaders, and then a number of leaders across different domains to try to understand how do we create this type of leadership. Awesome book. Inspiring. If you're into sports stuff. If you're into rugby and you haven't read this book yet, my hunch is you'll love it. Philosopher's Note. Bunch of big ideas. We've got five of them here. Let's jump in. First big idea is sweep. So if you want to create a legacy, James tells us it starts with character. The first chapter in the book is character. And the first story that he shares is about humility. So imagine the greatest team ever. You're playing on this team and you win a huge match, right? So the press comes in, your family comes in, everyone's excited about it. Afterwards, you have a little debrief with the coaches and the leaders of the team, talking about how hard you work to get here and how much more work there is to do, right? And then James says, then what do they do? Well, then they do something very surprising. Some of the best players in the world get out a broom and they start sweeping up the area. They clean up their own mess. They're brushing the gauze and all the other stuff that needs to be cleaned up into a nice little pile, and they throw it away at the same time. This is after a huge match, right? At the same time, New Zealand's enjoying replays of this big match. Kids are falling asleep dreaming of being All Blacks. And these extraordinary players have the humility that leads to their character that allows them to be able to perform at this high level. Sweep the floors. In the note I talk about Ryan Holiday. He ends his new book, which is coming out soon. The ego is the enemy with a similar story about the fact that we are always sweeping. You're never done, right? You're never going to be exonerated from having to do future work. Champions get this, and they remind themselves of this at the peak of their achievement, right? Sweep the floors, do the little things. You're never too big to do the little things. You have the humility, which is the cornerstone of character. That's our first big idea. The second big idea is better people make better All Blacks. So they went through a rough patch for a while, right? They came in and they kind of reoriented the vision of the club. And they started with this idea that if they wanted to make their team truly great again and as great as they can be, they needed to make each of the individual players better people. Better people equals better All Blacks. It's a really simple idea, but the fact is, whether you're playing on a sports team or you're running a business or your family or whatever, you are your organization's greatest asset. In the note I reflected on, right, when I was working on this note, a guy interviewed me named Dave Savage who coaches mortgage professionals around the world, right? And he said, hey, you know, we Talked about habits 101, all these other things. And he says, what strategy do you have for mortgage professionals? I said, well, I don't know the specific strategy or what idea or technique or whatever can you offer them. I said, I don't know the industry well enough. And whenever anyone comes to me, like friends who come to me for business advice, I never talk about the specific strategy of the business. I always say, well, you are your company's biggest asset, period, number one asset. And you need to grow if you want your business to grow. Better people make all Blacks. So think about whatever it is you're up to in your life. You need to become a better person if you want to achieve a higher level of value in whatever it is you do. Simple idea, but profound. Put it to work. Better people equal better All Blacks. After you've swept, then we've got Kiwi Kaizen. So we all know Kaizen, right? Constant and never ending improvement, essentially. Well, New Zealand, we have a Kiwi version of it. And James shares the story of how they adopted the very popular idea of marginal gains. Kaizen. Can you find 100 things? Imagine if you in your life found 100 things that you could do 1% better. It's the essence of marginal gains. You find tiny little areas that you can improve a tiny little amount. It doesn't sound like a lot, but when you aggregate that back, you. You have huge results. We've talked about this in black box, thinking about the British cycling team that went from Never winning the Tour de France to dominating and dominating the London Olympics, all via marginal gains. They share another story of Imagine you have your house and it's packed with furniture and all the things that get into drawers and all the other kind of cluttered items, right? Imagine taking every single thing out of your house, only putting back that which you really want to have in your house, right? Getting rid of all the clutter and putting in the essential stuff and then finding ways that you can get just a little bit better day in and day out. And I share this idea again and again and again because it's huge. You do that over an extended period of time. The compound effect of that is significant. Kiwi Kaizen keep that idea in mind. Fourth big idea. It's probably my favorite one. It's from a chapter called Embrace Expectations, all about pressure. So they make the important point that you need to embrace expectations. The expectations for the All Blacks are that they will win every single game. Imagine that. Imagine in what you do, you basically need to be flawless day in and day out. They say, that's really good. Pressure is good. In my interview with Steven Kotler, he said, no pressure, no diamonds. No pressure, no diamonds. That was his response to my question. I often ask at the end of interviews, I said, hey, what's the number one piece of advice you would offer if people want to rise like Superman? That's what he said. No pressure, no diamonds. The best way to get into flow is to put pressure on yourself. You need to embrace expectations. James brings this story home with an idea from Daniel Kahneman's book, Thinking Fast and Slow, which I still need to do a note on, talks about loss aversion. And get this, if you look at golfers and their putting and you look at the different putts they make throughout the round, right over the course of their careers, and what you find is when they're putting for par the same exact type of putt, they will make 3.6% more often than when they're putting for birdie. Why would they make the same putt more often when putting for par than when putting for birdie? Well, Kahneman says it's because of loss aversion. They don't want to lose. And James jokingly says, apparently we don't play to win, we play not to lose. When you have the pressure on you to perform at a high level, that triggers a higher level performance. Now, of course, that can lead to choking, etc, etc, which is why an idea I didn't talk about or put up here, but it is in the note is all about hitting the psychological gym. You need to work out your mind if you want to be able to handle that level of pressure without choking. And they say, look, why is it that when we want to build core strength in our bodies, we hit the gym three times a week? Well, if you want to build mental strength, you need to hit the psychological gym at least three times a week. Which is why we talk about meditation all the time. We talk about focusing your attention. Can you put your mind where you want, when you want? That's the only way you can handle that pressure. But remember, no pressure, no diamonds. Embrace expectations. Another little story I share in there is on Abraham Lincoln and Orson Swett Martin, who says, look, Abraham Lincoln doesn't exist without a civil war. That pressure catalyzed the best within Abraham Lincoln and allowed him to give his best and to be a truly extraordinary leader. No pressure, no diamonds. So whatever stress you may have in your life, embrace it. Use it to be stronger. And of course, train your mind so you can handle it more effectively. Fifth big idea and the most important idea. What is your legacy? Obviously, this is the through line of the whole book. How do you create a legacy of meaning? What is your legacy? What are you trying to create? What do you plan to create over the course of your life? Two things to think about that James references that I think are phenomenal. 1. Stephen Covey's eulogy exercise. So Stephen Covey's seven habits of highly effective people be begin with the end in mind. Think about your ultimate end. Your life is over and you are observing your funeral. Who says, what are people crying, sad that you're gone? What do they have to say about you? What was your legacy? Think about that on the highest terms and then think about what you're doing today and whether what you're doing today is actually serving that highest end that you hope to achieve as your legacy. Another thing to think about is Buckminster Fuller. James shares a great quote from Fuller who said, basically, what's my job? What's my job on the planet? What is it that I know something about that I could create something that's pretty cool that someone else probably won't do? What is it that I and only I can give to the world? My job with a capital J is how Jon Kabat Zinn described it. What's your job with a capital J? What is it that you can do? Another note we're going to do soon is born for this. We're going to talk about the nexus point of what you love to do, what you can be great at and what the world really needs. But what is it for you? What's your job with a capital J? What is your legacy? Think about that. Hold yourself to those high standards. Embrace those expectations. No pressure, no diamonds. If you're not setting high standards for yourself, well, of course you're not going to perform at a high level. The All Blacks are supposed to never lose. And they say that's good. We don't want to be good. We want to be great. We want to leave the jersey in a better place is how each new All Black is challenged. Kiwi Kaizen can you get a little bit better marginal gains? Think about those hundred things you can do 1% better and then know that as you aggregate that and compound it over time, it's huge. And make it one big game. See what you can do. Oh, I can do that a little bit more efficiently. I can move from this part of my day to that part of the day this way. And that's a 1% gain. You do that across the day, across days and weeks and months and years. It's exciting. Kiwi Kaizen Second big idea that we covered was better people equal better All Blacks. Remember, you are your organization's most valuable asset. Become a better person. What's the one thing you could do starting today that would have the most positive impact in your life? That's going to ripple out into everything else that you do. And then don't forget humility. After one of the biggest wins. What are they doing? Sweeping the floors. Reminding themselves they're never too big for the smallest things. Character is formed via humility. Let's do the work. Create our legacy. I hope you enjoyed and I look forward to sharing more. Have another awesome day. See you. Hi, this is Brian. I hope you enjoyed that Philosopher's Notes TV episode. If so, I think you'll enjoy everything else we offer at BrianJohnson. Me. Two basic things. One, our free newsletter. It's called the Optimizer. Over 50,000 people start their day with it and they tell us it's pretty awesome. And two, our Optimal Living membership program. This is where I put all my best stuff. Ten bucks a month for a ton of wisdom. Two primary things in there, philosopher's notes plus optimal living 101 classes. When you sign up, you'll get instant access to 250 philosopher's notes, which are basically six page PDFs and 20 minute MP3s where I capture my favorite big ideas from great books. The PNTV episodes are kind of a mini version of all that goodness. 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