What Larry King Learned from Interviewing 60,000 people

Hey everyone, this is John. And welcome to our live training sessions. But today it's going to be a little bit different. And let me share with you something that occurred recently that I think will help you. I recently had Larry King on my brain a thon and not only did he interview me and several other world renowned brain experts, but I turned the tables on him and I actually interviewed him and I wanted to get underneath the man that has interviewed over 45,000 people. And I want to extrapolate from him what are some of the best lessons he's learned on success. And specifically, you know, he's interviewed CEOs, he's interviewed musicians, he's interviewed murderers, he's interviewed rapists, he's interviewed every type of person in the world. And I wasn't interested in what he learned from the rapists or from the murderers, but I was interested in what he learned from, from the successful people in the world. And he really came up with a few key elements that I know you're going to love. So I've got an interview for you that's going to play right alongside this right now. But I also asked him, He's I think 83 years old. He just celebrated his birthday recently. And I was asking him, I was at dinner with him in Wolfgang Puck and he mentioned some stuff to me about what he thought was the key to his success as well. And so I asked him that question, which you'll be able to hear in the interview. And then he shares a story about how he got his start in the radio and television industry and how he failed miserably his first time on air. So I'm not going to make you wait anymore. I want you to enjoy the session that we did at the Brainathon, which you've probably been invited to, but this is a recording of it, so enjoy it. Leave me your comments because I'm going to take a look at what your comments are after you see this killer little interview. Have fun, and it's great to have you back here in this training session. All right, and welcome back. And guess what? I'm here for a segment I've been waiting to do for a very, very long time. And that's turning turned the tables on my friend Larry. And do I look like Larry? Maybe I can interview as well as he did.

You're better looking. You're younger. But the look is perfect. Perfect.

The look is perfect.

The glasses are perfect. Why'd you get those perfect glasses?

The Internet. Everything we got is from the Internet. Got the tie the suspenders. I even got the. The look that, you know.

Before you begin asking me something, I will ask you something.

Oh, he's already turning the table.

Where the hell is the Internet? Where is it? Where is the Internet?

Where is the. Where is the Internet not.

It is everywhere.

It's everywhere.

So it's there, and it's there everywhere.

It's wireless everywhere. Yeah. So I've been on your show nine times. Now you're on my show, and hopefully you've enjoyed the day.

I've had a great time here.

Larry and I were talking. You've interviewed about 60,000 people.

60 years.

60 years. So let's talk about you for just a moment. And I know one of your character traits is something you shared with me a few times about why you believe you've been able to achieve success.

Well, first, the New Yorker magazine did a story on me once, and they called it Everyman. So I never assumed that I was better than the audience or smarter than the audience. I didn't go to college. I never pretended to be an intellectual. I left my ego at the door. I learned a long time ago, you can't make someone like you be yourself. The only secret in our business is there's no secret.

There's no secret.

There is no secret. Be yourself. You can't make them like you. You can't. If the audience doesn't like you now, you can't. You can do anything you want. You can't make them like. Either like you or don't. It's a magical thing why they like you. So I always assumed I'll just be myself. Therefore, I leave my ego at the door. I don't ask questions that begin with the word I. I'm insatiably curious. I care about my guest. I never think about the last guest. I don't think about tomorrow's guest. In other words, if yesterday I've interviewed the Secretary of State, today I'm interviewing a ballet dancer, and tomorrow I'm interviewing the President of the United States. I am totally into the ballet dancer. I don't let my thoughts go haywire. And I can't explain that. I don't know where that came from, John. In other words, I can have a bad day, but it will not affect me. When that light goes on. When that light goes on, bam, man, it's like home to me. So I'm home, and I'm honest, and I care about what I do. And I think that in retrospect, that transfixion, when it started, I didn't know. I just knew I wanted to be a broadcaster.

So you got started in radio, and did you bring that same curiosity and ability to focus on each individual guest back then, 60 years ago?

Yep. I can't explain it. I'll tell you. My first day on the air, I always wanted to be in radio. Since I'm five years old. I don't know where that came from, but I just wanted it. I used to listen to the radio and they would say things like, a tail, well calculated. To keep you in suspense. I would go into my bathroom, close the door and go, a tail, well calculated. I wanted to be a radio announcer. That's all I wanted to be. I had no interest in money. I just wanted to communicate on the air. When I was a teenager, I'd visit radio shows that had studio audiences just to watch the announcers stand in front of the microphone. What that was like. And I desired it. Didn't go to college. My father died when I was nine. We had. I had a younger brother who was six. My mother couldn't go to work. New York City bought my first pair of glasses. You're wearing glasses. I'm wearing. New York City bought my first pair of glasses. We were on. They called it relief. And they paid our rent. And I lived in a little attic apartment and we were very poor, but I wanted to be on radio. Couldn't go to college. Worked at a bunch of odd jobs. Ran into a guy one day who suggested I get down to Miami. I went to Miami, had $11 in my pocket. Stayed with my uncle and knocked on doors. And finally a small radio station. I did a test at the microphone, said they hire me, and I start the following Monday. From Friday to Monday, I'm up all weekend picking out records, what I'm going to play. I was a disc jockey. Now it's my big day on the Air. May 1, 1957. I've broadcast in seven decades. This is my life's dream. The general manager calls me into his office and says, what name are you going to use? And I go, my name is Larry Zeiger. He says, you can't use Zeiger today. They would. It's too ethnic. People know how to spell it. You need another name. I'm going on the air in 10 minutes. He's got the paper open to the Miami Herald, for which I would later write a daily column. And it was an ad for King's Wholesale Liquors. And he said, how about Larry King?

Oh, my.

I would later legally change it. So I said, okay. Now I go in, I sit down, it's 9 o'. Clock. The record starts swinging down the lane La Salle got da da da da da I lower the record, turn on the mic, nothing comes out. I bring up the record, nothing comes out. I look at the clock. It's like three minutes after nine. And I tell myself, I can't do it. I wanted to do this all my life, but I can't do it. I'm scared. I can't do it. The general manager kicks open the door and says, you better communicate. This is a communications business. And he slammed the door. I turned the mic back on, and I swear to God to you, John, here's what I said. This is almost 60 years ago. Good morning. My name is Larry King. That's the first time I've said that, because I've just been given that name. And all my life I wanted to be on the radio. And this is my first day. And I'm scared and I'm nervous. So I've been sitting here fading this record, fading it up and fading it down so I better. And then the guy just opened the door and said, I better communicate. So I better communicate. And I've never been nervous again, ever. Because Arthur Godfrey told me, you learned the secret that day. You were yourself. You were truthful to the audience. Now think about this. I didn't think about it then. Any goof I made, if I cued a record wrong, screwed up a commercial his first day, put the audience in my shoes, take them into my grasp, and I've lived my life that way. So my first day on television, it was radio with pictures. I still regard it this way. This. What we're doing now is radio with pictures. So all my life, no matter what I've done, whether it's radio, television, Internet, I'm doing the same thing I did 60 years ago. I'm asking questions. I'm transmitted differently, whether it's satellite, phone line, Internet. I'm doing the same thing. I'm doing what you're doing right now, what I did 60 years ago.

Love it. I remember when you and I met several years ago, many years ago, and you were getting makeup done. I came in and started chatting with you. And I asked you, how did you know that radio, you know, initially and then television was what you were supposed to do and what gave you the courage to step up and do it? Do you remember what you maybe not remember because you've met so many people.

But I do know it was. I just loved it. I just.

Passion.

Passion.

You said the word passion to me.

Oh, yeah. I don't know where that came from, but I've never lost that right. Not always. I screwed up a lot of other things, but I never, ever. I was never called in to a general manager's office or to an executive's office to say, why did that happen yesterday? How did you screw up? That never happened because I treasured it. I had passion for it. I loved it. I didn't like other things. I had no interest in business. I never wanted to read a balance sheet. I don't want to attend a corporate meeting of 40 giants, but I'd like to ask them all questions. So that passion has stayed with me, where it came from. That's why I was interested in your brain a thon. I was asking some of your doctors off the air. I had a wonderful time interviewing them. How much of it is inborn? How much of it is environment? I mean, my father was a general worker. He was building ships. He died early. My mother, an immigrant from Russia. My brother became a lawyer. I had no interest in any of that. I just wanted to be on the radio. But where did that come from?

Yeah, there's the nature versus nurture. And they say that 3 to 5% of people who are born have something within them where they already know what the passion is. And 95% of the world has to discover what they want to trade their life for.

I do remember my curiosity being boundless. I can remember being a boy getting on a bus, school bus, and saying to the driver, why do you want to drive a bus? That would fascinate me. And so later in life, I would ask, pilots, are all flights the same. What kick do you get out of taking an airplane up? I remember asking a pilot once, he said he'd never been asked this. I said, when you're going down the Runway, right, and you're going 80, 90, 100, do you know it's going to take off? You know it's going to take off. And he said, I know it's going to take off. I don't know if it's going to elevate.

I don't know if it's going to elevate.

I'm going to take off. But if there's something goes wrong in the engine, I could crash right there. But I will lift. I have to lift. The law of aeronautics will have me lift. But if I lose an engine, the lift is going to go down.

That's kind of like life, isn't it?

Yeah. So I try to ask those questions that I think humans ask, as New Yorker said, street questions. Why do you want to do this? So whether it's Nelson Mandela or Jackie Robinson or Frank Sinatra, they all put their pants leg on one leg at a time. They're all human. Presidents are human. Singers are human. Victims are human people who are having tragedy in their life or having exaltation in their life. They're all still people. And they're all still. What do you feel one. What's it like to be president? What's it like? What surprised you about the office? What don't you like about it? If you're a former president, what do you miss about it? Why? Why do you do what you do? How much of it is self caring for other people? Do you really feel you're representing an entire country? How do you handle criticism? See, all these things boggle me.

So let me turn that table around. Do you ask yourself those questions about your own life?

Sometimes.

Do you go introspective with you?

Well, here's how introspective I. I pinch myself every day that I can't believe that I'm known around the world. I can't believe that I went to make some speeches in South Africa and I had lunch with Nelson Mandela and he came to the door in suspenders like you're wearing.

Like I'm wearing.

And I was walking down the street in Johannesburg and it was like a hut. And a man came out of the hut. He looked at me and said, larry King alive. And I said, Jesus, wow.

And you've never let it get to your head?

No, because I always, never remember the little kid in Brooklyn who had no money, was on relief. New York City bought his first. I left Brooklyn, but Brooklyn never left me. So I never forgot where I came from.

Love it. So we're obviously live on the brain a thon and we've been talking about, you know, success, mindset, skill set, action sets. You've interviewed 60,000 people. Are there any common denominators that you have garnered from these individuals? From the successful people?

Successful people all have one thing in common, maybe two, but it doesn't matter. You could be a little introverted like Bill Gates. You can be extroverted like Warren Buffett, but they have one thing tremendously in common. Unbelievable drive.

Unbelievable drive.

And the drive is not for money.

The drive is not for money.

The money is the byproduct of what they do. Bill Gates left Harvard because he had a dream about a machine. A machine. Warren Buffett was fascinated by Businesses. Why that one succeeds, why that one doesn't succeed? So he put money, his investments paid off, but his goal wasn't I want to make 10. Why does this company do it and that company does it? The athlete who pays attention, who works hard at it. The passion. So they all have that drive, they all have a passion. All successful people, Even people who are evil.

Even people who are evil.

Which is one of the true. Because nobody evil. This is so true. Think about this folks. Nobody. Osama bin Laden, Hitler, didn't comb his hair in the morning and say I am evil. I'm a terrible person, I'm a horrible human being and I hate what I do. No, they have the same drive. It's just works. Al Capone, Dillinger, they just work off the same. I interviewed Willie Sutton, the great bank robber who answered the great question, why do you rob banks? Because that's where the money is. That was simple to him. He had nothing else in life. His drive was to rob banks. He took the risks. The FBI loved him because he never used a gun. But he robbed banks. That was his thought. To fool the bank that was driven. So that's why the thing I worry about all our technology, I was expressing this to one of your doctors, is every advance brings a throwback. If we didn't invent the airplane, no one would have died in an airplane crash. Didn't invent the car. People didn't die in horse drawn carriages, right? So somewhere right now someone is thinking about finding a cure for Alzheimer's. He's in a laboratory, he's a scientist, he's almost close. Somewhere else, someone's in a laboratory thinking about making a bomb that could be hidden in your shirt, that would pass through an electronic thing to blow up a city. That's the fear I have for this nuclear age, for this Internet age. There's so much good. You have a brainathon. There's so much good. How do we stop the bad?

And I don't know if we can stop the bad. I think as you were talking, one of my thoughts was we have this amazing ability. We have passion and drive when we focus it on the good for ourselves, our family, our friends, our communities and the world. I think we can do a lot to diminish and squash the bad.

I hope so.

And so that's what my hopes are as well. That's part of why we do what we do is empowering people.

Maybe things like this help that someone watching young person, negative thoughts. Maybe he's entranced by isis. Something About ISIS is appealing to him. I can't investigate that, but something is appealing to him. He doesn't want to die. Something's appealing to him. So maybe things like this, positive things, can trigger that same thing another way. Wouldn't that be great? That's why you have to keep doing what you're doing.

That's why we're doing what we're doing. We're doing this to help transform the lives of people who never know that they can.

You had a wonderful time here.

You have. Have you enjoyed meeting the guests and the experts?

Do you do this every year?

Every year.

I'll come back.

You'll come back.

Oh, anything you guys want.

Larry King back, I'll be back. He'll be back.

One person should boo. No, leave us. No. No.

So we've got about one minute left. For the people who have some dream inside them, there's something stirring.

Follow your dream. Tell them. Follow your dream. And don't be afraid to fail. You will fail sometimes. John had a lot of success. There had to be some failures.

Oh, God. Yeah.

And you learn success by failure. So you overcome failure. Derek Jeter, the great baseball player, say, to be a good baseball player, you have have to understand failure. I'll give you the best example. I'll use a baseball analogy. If you're a baseball player and if every 10 times you come to bat, you get two hits, two hits out of 10, you're in the minor leagues. If you get three hits out of 10, you're IN the hall of Fame. Never give up. Every block down is a block up. Every misfortune is a fortune. Get off the porch. Don't give up. If you've got a goal in mind and someone can tell you not to take that goal and you believe it, you don't have a goal. Stay on course.

Love it. All right, my friends, you understand why I love this man. He's down to earth, honest, just speaks the truth.

My place. Pleasure.

Thank you. Larry.

Sa.