Disconnect To Connect: How To Become Peacefully Productive In A World of Mass Distraction Featuring Eelco de Boer - Genius Network Episode #176

The Internet is pretty interesting and twofold. One is that it's amazing. Like if it wasn't for the Internet, I wouldn't be sitting here. It gave me the life that I'm living right now. I'm super happy and super grateful that the Internet is there. But also 12 years ago, and this is pre iPhone, this is pre social media, pre YouTube, pre Facebook, pre Instagram, pre apps, pre everything. I realized that this Internet is also pretty addictive.

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To talk about a principle that I call Internet fasting. And if you're going to apply this principle, you might just 10x your productivity just like that. The first time that I met Joe was in 2013 and it was on Necker island. And Necker island is the private island of Sir Richard Branson. And this week was amazing. Like it was one of the best weeks of my life. In 2014, I decided to join again and go again to Necker Island. But this time it was a little bit different. One day before I got to the island, I got an email from Joe. And in this email there was a video, only the way Joe can do it. It was not a demanding video. It was five things in the video. Number one, everybody who's joining the week on Necker island, everybody has to do a 10 minute talk. As we all know, if you do a 10 minute talk, it has to be something that's worth $250,000. So no pressure. And the second thing was that there was a contest. So if you give the best 10 minute talk, you could win a prize worth of $65,000. And this is a prize where you go to South Africa with Richard Branson on, on his plane and everything. So again, no pressure. Virgin created a platform for entrepreneurs. And all the 10 minute talks, they were being recorded. And all the recordings will be broadcasted on that Virgin platform. And there will be hundreds of thousands of viewers watching your 10 minute talk. So again, no pressure. And also there will be a judge. There will be many judges, but there will be one pretty special judge. And the judge will be a couple of feet away from you while you are delivering your 10 minute talk. And this judge is Sir Richard Branson. And by the way, Ilko, tomorrow morning you are going to be first. So what am I going to talk about? There are many topics that I can talk about, but I knew that it has to be something Special. So I decided to talk about a topic, a principle that I call Internet fasting. 12 years ago I had a pretty profound insight. I realized that the Internet is pretty interesting and twofold. One is that it's amazing, like if it wasn't for the Internet, I wouldn't be sitting here. It gave me the life that I'm living right now. I'm super happy and super grateful that the Internet is there. But also 12 years ago, and this is pre iPhone, this is pre social media, pre YouTube, pre Facebook, pre Instagram, pre apps, pre everything. I realized that this Internet is also pretty addictive. So back to the island. I go to the island and I get on the island and there's a guy, the manager of Necker island and his name is Kenny. And Kenny comes up to me and he asks me, where do you want to sleep? Which room do you want to have? So I point out a room and it was a beautiful room, great balcony, everything amazing. And before I'll continue, I have to say that this whole Internet fasting thing, it's a huge, huge game changer for me. So for me, when I explain Internet fasting, you can compare it with intermittent fasting. A lot of us are familiar with intermittent fasting. When it comes to food. You have an eating window. So for example, you have an eight hour eating window. And then after you have the eight hour eating window, you have a 16 hour window. Window where you're just fasting, you're not eating anything. Well, the same goes with Internet fasting. When you're doing Internet fasting, you have an online window. So for example, you have a four hour online window and then you have a 20 hour offline window where you completely disconnect it. So when I'm applying this principle of Internet fasting, for example, I wake up and there's nothing, no input, no noise, no stress, no drama. And then at 1pm I switch on the Internet and then it's game time. Like for four hours I'm just online doing my thing. Emails, like all the connection, like the online connection, all the great things that the Internet has to offer. And then at 5pm I switch off the Internet and I got 20 hours of silence again until the next day, 1pm and this has been a total game changer for me and also for a lot of my clients. And this works really well. But there are a few workarounds if you want to do it well, especially when you're an entrepreneur and you have a lot of companies and a lot of people and a lot of Clients and all this stuff. And I will talk about the workarounds as well later on in this presentation. So I get to my room and it's a beautiful room, beautiful balcony, and it's unbelievable. And Kenny, he took notice that I was doing the presentation the day after. And Kenny told me, like, ilko, you need a really great night's sleep tomorrow. You have to be super fresh and you have to be the best ever when you're going to do your presentation. I was like, well, I like what I'm. So he showed me the room and he was like, there's two options. I can offer you a good night's sleep and I can offer you a great night's sleep. So the good night's sleep was really simple. You close the doors, the curtains, the windows, everything, put on the air conditioning, and you'll have a good night's sleep. Or we can open up the doors and open everything up and we'll put a net over your bed and it feels like you're sleeping outside. You're safe because you have the net over your bed. But you will hear the ocean and you will hear the birds. And tomorrow morning, I can guarantee you, you will feel rejuvenated, you will feel rejoiced, you will feel amazing, and you will do the best presentation ever. So I was like, let me go for that option. So I get to bed pretty early, 11pm and get to sleep. Try to get to sleep. Can't really sleep. Thinking about the presentation. 12 o', clock, can't sleep. 1am, can't really get to sleep. At 2am, thinking about the presentation. At 3am, I was getting really annoyed. I was like, I need to break my pattern because otherwise I'll keep on thinking and thinking and thinking. So I get out the bed and I start to lay on the bed on the balcony. There was a bed on the balcony. And after a couple of minutes, I felt that there was a mosquito bite in my face. I was like, oh, this is not good. So I go back inside, try to get some sleep. 4am, can't sleep. At 5am, I feel my face and I feel this bump on my face. I was like, what is this? So I get out the bed, switch on the light, go to the mirror, and I look in the mirror and I see this huge bump on my face, like the size of a golf ball. And I was like, this is not good. And immediately three things popped into my mind. The first thing was, I'm going to die. I'm a hypochondriac. So I'm going to die 100%. Second thing that came to my mind is, okay, how many hours do I have left to live? And the third thing that came to my mind was, okay, I have to do a presentation in a couple of hours and hundreds of thousands of people will see me and my golf ball situation. So this is not good. I go to the telephone, I'm scared to death. Go to the telephone, hit the emergency button. Obviously nobody picks up the phone. I put on some clothes, I go outside and I go to the great house. And the great house is on Necker island and there was nobody there. And then I smell food and I see the kitchen and I walk up to the kitchen and I'm a pretty positive guy. I can go from almost dying to this is probably pretty normal because there's a lot of mosquitoes here on the island and there's a lot of people who come here. So it's probably actually normal to walk around with a golf ball on your face. So I go to the kitchen and I see this woman and she sees me and we approach each other and the closer she gets to me, the wider her eyes get. And she looks at my face and her reaction is, whoa. And I was like, this is not good. So she gives me some cream. I go back to the room, put some cream on the golf ball. Doesn't really work. A couple of hours later, I do my presentation. So I'm there. And most of you guys here, you are speakers. You might not be a speaker on stage, but you're speaking to your employees or to your clients or whatever. And actually the worst thing that can happen when you're speaking is that you're thinking while you're speaking and you're thinking about your speaking while you're speaking, and you're thinking about the guy who's sitting over there and the recording and everything. And while you're speaking, you're thinking like, man, am I sweating and all that stuff. So that's what happened to me on Necker island during my 10 minute talk. And actually it wasn't a 10 minute talk. It became the shortest presentation, the shortest 10 minute talk ever given in the history of Genius Network. So it became a six minute talk. And after six minutes, me talking about probably about Internet fasting, I can't recall it. I just completely blanked. I had four minutes left of Q and A. So it's probably also the first 10 minute talk where you actually have room for a lot of Q and A. So no clue what I just said, and people had questions. And Sir Richard Branson also had a question and he asked me the question, like, ilko, I really struggle with this. I struggle with my email. I answer emails for over two hours a day. Ilko, what should I do? So I told Richard Branson, maybe you should learn business. I don't know. And so anyway, it was the worst presentation that I ever gave and I was like, so angry at myself. I was like, man, I completely blew it and this is not good. And I entered, I sat down, and other people were doing the 10 minute talks. And again, I'm a pretty positive guy. So I was like, you know, you messed up, but get over it because now there's a lot of other 10 minute talks and you can learn. So I started writing down all these notes. Just as these two days, I'm writing down a lot of notes, amazing 10 minute talks, amazing ideas. And the first seven 10 minute talks, I was writing down all these notes. Second, then there's a moment that TJ, one of the participants, he came up to me and he told me, like, ilko, I think you have a shot at winning the prize. I was like, what do you mean I have a shot at winning the prize? It was the worst presentation that I ever gave. He was like, well, a lot of people talk about it, a lot of people ask you questions and maybe it's not about the talk, but maybe it's about the topic because a lot of people struggle with their Internet addiction. I was like, that is interesting. And you really think I make a shot? He was like, yeah, I think you have a shot. So the first seven 10 minute talks, I was making a lot of notes because I wanted to learn the second, the last seven 10 minute talks, I was hoping and praying that they would mess up as well. So fast forward a couple of, couple of days later, we had amazing dinner, was the last evening, and they announced who was going to win the prize to go go to South Africa with Sir Richard Branson on his plane, everything. And six months later, I was in South Africa. The most beautiful experience ever of my life. So Joel Weldon, who is the great mc, who does a lot of introductions here, and he's just an amazing guy. He gave an amazing talk as well. And he gave a talk about an epiphany moment for him, a moment and really a defining moment in his life. Like around 40 years ago, he was on a plane and there was a guy sitting next to him and the guy was confronting him on his health. Because, Joel, I don't know if you can imagine. But he was out of shape. He was overweight, he had low energy, and things weren't going that well for Joel. And during that flight, Joel had this epiphany moment. And when he had this epiphany moment, he made some tough decisions. So one of the decisions was, for the rest of his life, he will never eat anything with sugar in it. And also for the rest of his life, he will never drink anything else but water. And if you look at Joel now, I mean, he might be the most vibrant person in this room, all because of this epiphany moment. I mean, I think none of us will doubt or even hesitate for a little bit that he will become at least 300 years of age. Maybe you are a little bit overwhelmed. Maybe you feel like your days are empty because they are so full. Maybe you feel like you can have more presence, be more in the moment. Maybe you feel like you want more time for the things that are most important for you. I mean, today was a really interesting day when it comes to those things. And what I wish for you is also that you get this epiphany moment just like Joel had. And I wish for you that you have an epiphany moment when it comes to your focus. I've been a member of Genius Network for many years, and I really love coming here. I don't like traveling here. I'm from Amsterdam. It's a nine hour time difference. It's a jet lag. I'm traveling three, four, five times a year to Phoenix. I always tell Joe that for me, when I come here, when I come to Genius Network, it feels like coming home. I don't like traveling, but I love to be here. So it's amazing. And all of you guys, you are amazing. I mean, you're amazing. Otherwise you wouldn't be sitting here. This is really special that you're sitting here. So just by that, you're really amazing. But in all honesty, you're also sitting here because you know that you can do better. What I wish for you is that you claim back the number one thing. Why we all started off as an entrepreneur. It all starts with claiming back your focus. That's what it starts with. But once you claim back your focus, you claim back the number one thing, why and what's most important for all of us. And that is our freedom.

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