889 Nico Rosberg on Becoming a Formula One World Champion

This is episode number 889 with Formula 1 world champion Nico Rosberg. Welcome to the School of Greatness.

My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you.

Discover how to unlock your inner greatness.

Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

Dalai Lama said, with the realization of one's own potential and self-confidence in one's ability, one can build a better world. And my friend, it's not until we start to realize our confidence and our ability. That's when we start to overcome the anxiety, the stress, the worry, the doubt, the fears that hold us back. It's because in those actions and in those ways of being that hold us back, we're never able to realize who we can truly become. And I talk about this all the time. How do we build this self-confidence? How do we overcome this self-doubt? It's through doing hard things every single day. It's through mastering new skills. We're at the end of a year, end of a decade, and I'm already thinking about what's the challenging thing that I wanna master next year? What's the new skill that I've always wanted to master that I haven't done yet. When I master something new, it builds this like belt around my waist of confidence. And every time I add a new tool to the belt, I just feel more bulletproof. So whatever it is that you're afraid of right now, go do that thing. Do it consistently until you've overcome it and then mastered it. And I'm so excited about this interview. We've got Nico Rosberg. If you don't know who he is, he's a former professional race driver who won the 2016 Formula One World Championship for the Mercedes team. And Nico started his Formula One career in 2006 and joined the Mercedes team in 2010, almost a decade ago. And with that team, he won 23 Grand Prix and 30 pole positions after finally beating his great rival Lewis Hamilton in 2016 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. And Nico shocked the sporting world by retiring at age 30, having achieved everything after that world championship. And he's now reinvented himself as a startup investor in some cool companies and a new event that he hosts over in Europe as well. And he's got a new podcast called Beyond Victory. And he sits down with some of the world's most successful individuals to discover their secrets to success, what continues to drive them forward, and to hear a few exclusive stories in the process. And in this episode, we talk about Nico's upbringing and how his father and professional racing career has influenced how he is raising his own kids. How just having talent is not enough to be successful in sports. And there are many other social skills and intelligences that are required to be the best. How having a little arrogance can give you the competitive edge needed to win. This was fun to talk about. The power of simplifying your life and building barriers from distraction. I love how he creates these barriers in his life and simplifies to one focus. And how Niko manages his fear and self-doubt on and off the racetrack because he talks openly about having this fear and insecurity, even in the journey of becoming world champion. So I think that'll be really insightful for you.

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We've got the legend, Nico in the house. Good to see you, man.

Thank you for having me.

Super pumped. We're in Austin, Texas. We've been emailing back and forth for, what, three, four months now? Yep. Probably. And I didn't even know who you were until a few friends said, oh, my gosh, this guy Nico talked about you. He talked about your book on his YouTube channel. And they freaked out. And I was like, okay, I gotta learn more about this guy. They're huge fans of Formula one, which is only three people in America, right?

That sucks, yeah. Our sport is like one of the biggest globally.

Huge everywhere.

Everywhere except America.

And every time it's on, I'm always like, it's always late night. It's like a rerun or something when it's on here. But you guys are picking up here in the US, right?

Yes. I mean, they're going for it because for the sport to be successful globally, the US is like such an important market. And we have US owners now. So they're doing everything to try and grow the sport in America. so we've got this race here in Austin, Texas, which is where we are at the moment, sitting in this hotel room. No, a hotel, whatever, meeting room here. So this is like one of the starts to try and go big in America.

Why is it important for it to.

Be big here in America? Because America is the global Powerhouse for anything.

And.

And if you want to be big, whatever, if it's a company or a sport or whatever, you have to conquer America. Yeah. We know that, and everybody knows that. So that's what I was trying to do. I think one of the most powerful ways would be to have an American driver.

That would be great.

That would be the way to go.

So how do we do that?

How are your skills?

I'm too big though.

Come on, you can jump from one sport to the other easily.

I have jumped from one sport to the other. And be the best in any sport you go for. I have jumped in many sports.

But I'm a big guy. You're supposed to be smaller, right? You're supposed to be compact and a certain size. They've loosened up the rules now when I was driving, which is three years ago, every gram of your body weight mattered. But now, because drivers went on hunger, like went so extreme on diets and went too light and really it started to become a bit dangerous, They kind of set a driver limit minimum now. So even if you're a small guy, you have to put lead weights to your seat.

What?

To bring it up to your kind of weight. Really?

Yeah.

So you do have a chance.

'Cause I'm 225. 225 pounds.

That's pushing it a little bit, man.

That's pushing it. So I gotta drop about 40 pounds probably. More or less, yeah. Really. So now is it true that there are half a billion fans worldwide? Is that what I heard?

Yeah. So globally, Formula One is top three sport. Together with after Olympics and soccer. It's the most used sport in the world in front of cricket.

In front of cricket.

So it's absolutely massive.

Why is it not big here? Why is NASCAR massive here but no.

One-- I have no idea. It used to be back in the 60s and 70s. It used to be very, very big. And I think many of the older listeners will remember those days with Ferrari racing back in those days and all the legends of the time. And then somehow the sport lost lost the connection to the US and now trying to build it up again.

Okay, is that part of your mission?

I would like to support, yeah, if I can. But it's not really part of my main mission because I have other projects now. Other visions. Yeah, but even going back, so my father was a Formula One world champion himself and he won on the parking lot in Vegas. There used to be a Formula One race in the Caesars Hotel parking lot.

No way.

And he won the world championship on that parking lot. In Vegas. Yeah, so back in those days, F1 was massive.

Okay. Now did your dad influence you in a big way or were you also just a fan of Formula One without your dad being the world champ?

No, certainly my dad influenced me massively because as I was growing up he was still racing, not in Formula One anymore, but in some touring cars like NASCARs. And then growing up watching your father do that, which is the racing, the adrenaline, the crowds going mad, the battles and everything. I mean, there was no other way than be inspired by that. And so from very small on, it just became my dream to become a racing driver myself and try and make that hobby into my job as well.

But weren't you also like world class in tennis and other sports as well?

Yeah, so my mom was pushing for tennis. My dad was pushing for racing driving because my mom was dead scared about the racing driving. It was so dangerous. But then when I was 10, I mean, Clearly, I had a better chance in racing, driving, and both were equally fun and just went for the racing, driving then, I think, which was quite a good choice.

Yeah. So I'm assuming most of my audience.

Doesn'T know who you are.

I'm just going to let you know. Yeah, that's what I love. US. Yep. So give them some context about the process. For those who don't know, what's the process of actually becoming a professional Formula One driver? You started racing when you were four or five years old. Go-karts, right? And how's the actual process go to get to where you were?

So everybody starts in go-karting and everybody starts, yeah everybody.

What if I was a 20 year old man and I was like, I want to get started in the sport.

It's very, very rare.

There's maybe one guy and nowadays no one anymore. But you're not go-karting at 20.

You're starting with-- you-'re starting with the smaller Formula One car. You are also a junior Formula One. Gotcha. Yeah, so you start in go-karting and I started when I was four, 'cause as with tennis and golf, you have to start young, I think, to really take the most time to practice the skill. And then you start racing go-karts at the age of 10, and you start going for world championships at the age of 12, really go-karting world championships. All around the world.

For like juniors, right?

12 year olds, yeah. And at the time that feels like the world championship of the universe, like the most important thing in the world. Really?

Yeah.

And of course you got all the ice skating dads, I don't know if they're called like that in the US as well. Sure, sure. But there's big fights. I mean, huge fights.

Between parents?

Yeah, cheating, fighting, even at such a young age, because there's so much at stake, you know? And it's the same in every sport. It's just a bit of a crazy world, you know, how then the parents are kind of living their passion through their child and are forcing their child and pushing their child and things. So I saw a lot of that, which is horrible, which gave me a lot of life lessons as well for how I want to bring up my kids. I'm very, very sensitive to making sure that I don't impose things just because I desire them on my kids.

How do you do that as a parent?

It's so difficult because the simplest things. Why am I pushing my child to walk at the age of eight months? Because I want to. I want people. I want to get people's recognition that my child is, wow, superhuman and is the first child in the world to walk. And I catch myself doing that.

Wow.

And that's the same for every parent. And it's just crazy. It's crazy. It's completely crazy. And it's all because of our own need for recognition. Wow. And so that's just one example. And I. I'm. Because of these life lessons and also all the psychology and philosophy studies that I've been through, I kind of learned that awareness to be aware of all these things and understand, and then I can react differently and more appropriately. So when I catch myself doing that, I put the handbrake on now.

Really?

Because I'm like, Nico, that's just wrong.

It's just not good. Well, there's I think there's a way of wanting to accelerate your kids growth and give them the best tools to be successful, but also like remove your ego from being like, look at me.

I'm the super dad, right? You're very right. It's a very difficult balance. You don't have kids yet, huh?

I don't know. So this is all in front of you. I know.

I'm always learning from like new parents of what to do. You thought any of your self-development things were challenging? This is the biggest school. This is the biggest challenge and school in the whole world. The hardest thing to get through, the most wonderful thing to get through, I can imagine. But it's incredible. And I mean, it's almost impossible to do it well. It's so difficult.

Now, do you feel like your dad gave you the tools, but also distance his ego and his desires away from you of like, you need to do this, or was he supportive in whatever dreams you had?

I'll just cover first. Well, maybe I'll go to that. So my dad, I think, found very good balance because he got exactly what you said. So he always showed that he expected me to do well in life and perform. He's a workaholic himself, like, completely like a madman in terms of. In terms of work.

Yeah.

I mean, flat out. And so that's kind of his Baseline. Yeah. And so therefore, he expected a lot of me as well as a kid. whether it's school or go-karting or everywhere, which was not always easy to live up to that kind of expectation. Because for him to be proud, it felt like I needed to do all those things to extreme levels of professionalism and dedication, you know, so not always easy. But it really helped me, you know, push forward and grow my own, like, ambitions and determination. So it was a huge help. And then he was very, very smart. because once I got to F1, we had a conversation and I told him as well that it just added a lot of pressure, his expectation on me. So open conversation.

How old were you?

20.

When you got there, became a professional.

Yeah, professional 20. And then he was very smart, he completely pulled back because he's done it all before in F1. So he knows everything. It would be so easy for him to just tell me how to do it. So of course he had the urge, you know, to teach me everything, show me everything and help me all the way. It just doesn't work like that, you know? It didn't help you that much. Well, because it's, I can't even accept his help. It's just too hard to accept the opinion of the dad. And as maybe many of the listeners will know how it is to follow the guidance from the parents. It's not always easy.

Right, right.

And I was a bit allergic to that as well. So you were pulled back.

You were almost becoming rebellious by the end. He said, oh, I'm witnessing this.

Let me pull back. Not rebellious. It was just difficult. because of the extra pressure really that it added. Just, I created myself because of wanting recognition as well from my parents and in this case from my dad.

Did he win the World Championship once or?

So I won the World Championship. He did.

Yeah, he won once. So you had this pressure of like it always being compared to your father, I'm assuming.

Also that, yes, growing up, when the dad has achieved something big, of course, and especially if you go the same route, everybody from the early age of like eight years old, all the time, every lap, every stopwatch taken is like, is he now as good as his dad? Or is he useless?

Oh my gosh, man, that's a lot of pressure.

All the way.

How do you overcome that mentally?

There's no magic ingredient. There's no magic ingredient. I mean, you would say, don't focus on results, focus on doing the best that you can be. Process, yeah, but damn, I mean, I know that, but it's just so difficult to implement. Even knowing that, with all the stress.

In the media, everyone interviewing you constantly.

They don't care about results. They don't care at all about how well you did for yourself. And reaching your best potential, they don't care at all. Or, you know, society doesn't care at all either. So that makes it so hard. At the same time though, it was also a huge benefit to be the son of a successful dad in the sport, because of course then more sponsors are interested and will help you, and even F1 teams are more interested because you have a name. and then coming back to the process. So you start in go-karting until the age of 15 and then you do Formula 4, Formula 3, Formula 2, Formula 1.

Wow.

So that's the ladder. You have to win everything to get to Formula 1. So Formula 1 is then the winners of all the age groups. They all end up there together.

Wow. So a lot of these guys you were teenagers with.

Yeah, a lot of them. A lot of my racing friends. Along the way.

Yeah.

And the biggest Competitor for all the years of my life in racing was a certain Lewis Hamilton. So more of your listeners will probably know him. Yeah, of course. In this moment now, although maybe some of you still don't because... Probably just know him maybe because of.

Social media, but not because of the sport.

Yeah, possibly. So Lewis Hamilton now has just won his sixth title here in Austin. Actually, I'm a bit fast forwarding here because it's going to happen on Sunday. But this podcast is going to come out afterwards. He'll have won his sixth title and the greatest of all time has seven titles, which is Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari. And so next year he's very likely to beat all those and become the greatest of all time that our sport has ever seen in 70 years of our sport. Wow. Now, you used to be a Ferrari, right?

Me?

Yeah.

No, you see there, so you didn't.

Do your preparation well. But originally, I thought you originally went with Williams. Williams, which is also a legendary Formula One team.

Okay, I thought you were writing Ferrari. Someone told you wrote Ferrari back in.

The day and then you switched Williams, which is just as Ferrari, one of the legendary teams. Gotcha. That's where I started out with, which is the team with which my dad.

Also became well, okay, okay, okay. And then from then, you switched.

From then switched to Mercedes. Now, is it, is the car, how much does the car have to do with it? How much does the driver have to do with it? This is a very common question and it's just difficult to answer, but the best example is, one of the greatest of our sport who retired two years ago was Fernando Alonso, a Spanish guy, also two-time world champion. And he was racing for McLaren in the last three years of his career. And he was always finishing 12th, 15th, 16th, although he was the best driver out there. Really? So the car has a huge part in it because from the best car to the worst car at the moment, there's four seconds per lap. But then from the best driver to the worst driver, there's about five tenths per lap. And so the car has the big chunk, but then as a driver, you can still make a big difference because it's up to five cents.

Why would you stay with McLaren? If you're the best driver, why don't.

You go with the best car? There was, I think, about $40 million that paid for some of the miseries.

Okay, so an extra $40 million.

So there was $40 million reasons, I guess, maybe.

Why?

I mean, that's a bit mean to say.

Right, right. No. Also, the money.

It's also, of course, that you don't, you sometimes you just can't choose because there's very limited availability. And in his case, now the top teams didn't want him anymore. And so there wasn't much choice. And McLaren is an awesome team. And it just was a bit of bad luck as well that it just didn't get it together and had such a bad car.

So if I'm the best driver in the world, I can't choose the best car.

No, because that's another point about sports in general, though, or life in general, that just being the best or having the greatest talent isn't enough. you need to have social skills, you need to be emotionally intelligent, you need to work your way into the right places, you need to play the media game, you need to know how to be dedicated yourself and prepare the best possible way. So it's just talent is not enough, everything else counts and also then to have success in our sport, it's important that you maneuver yourself into the best car in the right moment.

Really?

Because there's some drivers who were seen as one of the greatest of all time who never even became world champion just because they never sat in the right car. But it's a part of it. So you can't really call them the best drivers of all time because part of it is to know how to get yourself into the right car, get the right deals done, manage yourself.

So there are people that are considered the best in the world.

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Never won a world championship because of the car.

Yeah.

Even never won a race. There's one guy called Chris Amon, he's a New Zealand and Kiwi, never won a single race.

But he was considered one of the guys.

And he's considered one of the fastest. How is he considered one of the fastest? Well, because you know, you know the outside. You can see what they can do in inferior cars compared to the teammates that they have. So those are always kind of references.

Based on the other cars.

Exactly. So you can always kind of judge. what kind of level they're at. And so there's a lot of people.

Who... You like to imagine if he was in this car.

Exactly.

Interesting.

Yep. So that's different to you playing handball, where for your own performance it just comes down to your own...

Skill set you have. Yeah, same net, yeah.

Yeah, more simple. But in our case, we really depend on the technology that we're racing with, which is built by 1,500 employees per team. So my team had 1,500 people to build two racing cars.

That's very expensive.

Yeah, 400 million budget.

For the cars? No, no.

So 90% of that was driver salaries.

Oh my god.

And then there's 10% left for building the cars. Wrong business. That was just a joke.

That's good. But the 400 million is accurate.

Just the driver salary. The 400 million per year per team is accurate. For two cars. For two cars. For 1,000 employees.

1,500 employees. Traveling with it all and whatever it takes to get it.

Yeah, of course. The 1,000 employees don't 1,500 don't travel. It's only about 90, I think.

Gosh, man.

But it's huge. It's completely out of control. Massive.

Now, what was the biggest lesson that your dad taught you growing up?

He always said, you always meet twice in life. So when you do part ways because of an argument or whatever, remember you'll always meet that person again. So part ways, try to make it on good terms.

Interesting.

And that has given, that has given me so much.

So don't burn Bridges.

No. And it's really, I think, at least five times where it's fundamentally impacted the course of my life, that I've listened to him and parted ways on good terms. Because then a few years later, having that relationship not destroyed meant I could get back at something and, and it gave me a huge step in, in my life.

Did you ever destroy a relationship that that actually came back to hurt you.

So I'm much more on the sensitive, not impulsive side. I always very rational thinking. So I will very rare, almost never do I like, out of control or really?

Yeah, that's good.

It must be like a you're a bit more on the other side.

You have to learn, I have to learn over the years of like making mistakes.

Like, okay, so one of your biggest.

Text this thing back to this person.

You know, I wish I could delete that text.

Yeah.

Or don't knock this guy out because he pushed you in basketball. Exactly.

Don't get in fights anymore on the streets. Yeah. But you learn through mistakes, I think, for sure. So that was a great lesson from your dad.

What did your mom teach you? What was the greatest lesson? My mom to be humble, stay humble.

Yeah.

And keep your feet on the ground and always treat other people with respect. Yeah. I think that's the biggest lesson from her because she does that very well. Not exactly her teaching me, but me seeing her do it. And I think that's a big one. And character-wise, I'm much more like my mom than my dad. So, that was humble. That was a big lesson for me, which also just gave me a lot in life. Because going arrogant is not good. And it's a big, big problem, especially for people who have success. They'll always just start to believe they're a God, you know?

Yeah, and then you treat people poorly.

Exactly. And it just backfires. Yeah, it will eventually. Even though it can be successful for many years, one day it will backfire in a big way.

There's also no joy in that experience. That's probably the biggest backfire. You have this inner demon or battle that you're constantly facing where you think you're better than everyone. And that's challenging because it's very lonely.

If you live in that way. Do you speak of experience?

I mean, I would think that, like, I don't think I ever got to that place, but there's probably maybe moments where, like, a few days, maybe I felt like that. And after you win a bunch of games or make a bunch of money, I thought like, okay, whatever. But then I was quickly remembered like, no, just be grounded, be humble, be grateful. And so I don't think I've ever really gotten there. I think there's moments of reaction in situations where I've gotten there, but not consistently. That makes sense.

So I struggle to understand those kind of feelings because I'm on the other side. the lack of self-confidence. I'm more on that end, which again has its strengths and weaknesses. It has its weaknesses in that you're just very sensitive and a lot of fear comes in and fear of failure and all these kind of things. But at the same time, fear is like a huge driver and to become a better person, to prepare better. And sensitivity also helps you learn and improve yourself because you're always questioning yourself. how can I do a little bit better? And, and the arrogant guy will always think it's the other guy's fault. Right.

Because I'm the best in the world.

Right, right. Or the car broke down. Or is this person's fault?

Yeah.

And so there's really, it's a trade-off it's a trade-off it's funny because whenever you watch someone doing an interview after they win a game, right? Like a big football game or basketball, there's usually two different responses from when the interviewer goes, how did you do it? Congrats on the win. you see the, I'm the greatest in the world. I knew it was gonna happen. The Muhammad Ali, the Mayweather, the McGregor type of response. Like, I'm the greatest. I knew I was gonna win. Of course, this is simple. These guys are, this is Lattin. I don't know if you watch soccer, but it's Lattin. Of course. Have you had him on your podcast? I haven't, no, but I watched him lose last week in a playoff game against LAFC. And his response in the interview was just like, I made everyone here famous. I'm the greatest in the world. He was like, They lost and he goes, these guys wouldn't even be famous without me. You know, it's hilarious. And then there's the other response, which is, you know, all the praise goes to God or my team or to my coaches or, you know, we've just been so humble and working very hard. We're just following the process. It's a more grounded response.

Yeah.

And I think either way can work.

Yeah, but if I look at the vast majority, it tends towards that arrogant side.

Yeah.

Because it also being in the public space and having so many people judging you every second of the way is such a burden. And I think having that little bit of arrogance and self-confidence just, just really gives you that little bit more necessary strength, I think, in the long run to deal with such a, such a crazy environment. It does, I think. And so if we look at the F1 drivers, most of the most successful ones will tend to be a little bit towards that. towards that very self-confident, a touch of arrogance, love for themselves, that direction.

Do you feel like you need to have that in order to deal with the pressure, in order to feel like I am the greatest, I'm going to take those risks and do those things to make me win?

I think, as you said, there's not just one way, but I think in terms of the majority, it's a little bit towards that direction, which is probably the more successful, more potential character trait, I think. And also those guys, usually have the glass half full rather than half empty, which also just gives us a little bit more stability and strength, I think. And if those guys didn't still question themselves, in some way they still managed to understand that they need to improve themselves all the time, which is Michael Schumacher, for example. He had this incredible self-confidence and self-love, but still worked his butt off and questioned himself and wanted to improve himself all the time. so that's the magic ingredient then, which.

Is very rare, I think. Yeah, I think when you're arrogant and you think you're the best in the world, you have blind spots where you're like, you don't think about the little minor things that maybe you need to improve. And therefore, when you start to hit your decline, because at some point you will decline, whether it's physically, emotionally, mentally, like at some point age will get.

The best of you.

At what, at what point in sports?

At some point, right? In sports.

Is there, is there some, Is there some guideline from doctors or words?

No, I just think like you said, you know, 37-38 is kind of like the older spectrum of the sport because it's just so physically demanding. So you're not gonna be 60 probably and playing at a high performance.

How does Tom Brady do it? How in the hell is that possible? That at the age of you still have that hand-eye coordination? Is it experience that just overcomes a little bit of the discipline?

I mean, he's so disciplined with his body where he's extending the quality of his health with everything that he does. I've met Tom a few times. I know a lot of people on his team, and he's not superhuman. He just is super intentional in what he does every single day. I mean, if you watch his college football, he sucked. Well, I mean, he was like an, he wasn't an average.

He wasn't an average.

I mean, he was an elite quarterback in a, in a big 10 in a conference for division one.

Right.

So he's an elite quarterback, but. based on the standards of freaks of nature athletes. He wasn't this incredible looking athlete. He wasn't fast, didn't have this amazing arm, but he has consistently been focused on his health. And his mind is so strong that I think his mind carries him through any challenge in adversity. And I think the mindset is the thing that a lot of people lose first. It's like when you start to doubt, you were smart, you went out on top. you didn't say, like, I'm gonna go try to, like, three P to, you know, go back to back. Because the mind, when the mind is gone, I think it's hard. It doesn't matter what the body, if you're healthy or not. And you talk about insecurity and you. Did you feel like you lacked self-love.

Yeah, but I still do. Generally do.

Where does that come from?

If you lack. It comes from. Where does it come from? A lot is linked to the need of need for recognition from others around, whether it's friend or the public or whatever. I think a little bit above average need for that. I have.

Why is that?

Because you're a psychologist? As long as I can think, really, even as a young kid, so shy, could never even speak in front of other people in any way. Extreme shyness. So it's as long as I can think, really, that I have that, then I don't know. Then I think about my parents and things, possibly because. Because my father was traveling a lot. Maybe that adds a little bit, a little bit to it because he, as I said, you know, workaholic, so. Possibly.

You didn't see him much.

But as much as I think of it, I cannot find a real evidence of it in my mind. It's just a possibility because as we always say, the youth has such an impact in our early days. And I don't blame it or anything in any way. Sure, sure. But how do you think we develop.

Self-Belief and eliminate that insecurity? Is that possible?

I've tried so much.

Really?

It's so hard. So I did it, I helped myself with, first of all, I grow as, like for example, I could never speak in front of my class.

I couldn't either.

And now I can speak in front of a thousand people.

Yeah, yeah.

And it's okay. Like sometimes I can even almost enjoy it. Right.

And you're like, oh, I could breathe a little bit.

Yeah.

And so, and this is, this is the most incredible transformation because literally even in front of six people, I could not, that was me.

That was me.

I wouldn't sleep the whole night before, it would be shaking my, My whole mouth would be shaking, standing in front of them, wouldn't blackout, wouldn't be able to think anymore, like the greatest horror. And here is one of the biggest life lessons for me, which you know exactly about. It's you grow most when you push yourself into the discomfort. That's where you do the biggest growth. It's everything, man. No, it's push yourself into the discomfort, push yourself into the suffering, push yourself into your fear. And that's where you grow most as a human being. and this I've learned so much from my life and, and I've become really good at that now. Now I have the courage. I almost love pushing into that because I just know the results that it will bring for me. And not only growth, but growth also equal equals proud and happiness. That brings long-term happiness when you know that you're growing as a human being, you're learning, you're making progress, you keep pushing into the discomfort. And so, yeah, so this is something I learned. a lot for my life, which you did too.

That's my whole life. I feel like we're very similar. Where is the biggest insecurity now? I mean, you're a world champion. You are the best in the world at what you did with a half a billion people watching who all support you, love you, think you're amazing. How is there still an insecurity or a lack of belief or a lack of self-love in certain areas of your life? How is that even possible now?

It's still a bit of that glass half empty, I guess. And me wanting to be a different human being than I am. I would love to be more of a macho kind of person. Why? Because that's kind of seen as cooler from society. Those guys are seen as cool.

Says who?

Says society. Okay, but I'm saying this and I just know it's so dumb.

You're laughing.

It's so dumb. But it's the instinct, you know, can't change it. I mean, I can, but it's the way it is. For example, that I would like to be in many respect different person than I am.

What's the discomfort that you need to lean into in order to overcome that?

Oh, man.

Like, what would it take if you said, I have a one-year challenge. 2020 is a new decade coming, and I need to rid myself of insecurity and a lack of disbelief in myself for anything in my life. What would that challenge be for you where you need to go all in and help yourself overcome it? From again, being scared and trembling in front of six people like myself to being able to speak in front of a thousand, what would that experience be for you?

Oh man, that's a different, this is now you got me on the back foot there.

Let's go baby, let's go.

No, no, no, no, but that's a very difficult one.

One.

How do you the more, I think one powerful way would be to much better understand the suffering of the kind of person that I would actually prefer being in some ways. So the suffering that is someone like we spoke about Lance Armstrong just earlier. He is one of those guys who has this incredible like kind of self-confidence arrogance and things like that. Always believing he's the best and greater than everybody else. And I think very powerful for me would be to better understand the suffering of those kind of people because they have just as much or even more suffering than others.

Yes. You mean the suffering of people that believe they're the best?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What's the suffering that they face?

Well, you can tell me because you're on that direction. The lack of... You don't like to say that.

Well, for me, it would be the desire to always prove people wrong. I think there's a defense mechanism when you're saying, I'm the best, this person can't touch me, I'm going to prove them wrong. There's like this protectiveness around your heart and your ego. to need love, to need to have- Need for recognition. Recognition, love, acceptance. And it's just more extreme for some people. So my entire life, I was focused on proving everyone wrong because I was picked on and bullied and I was laughed at when I would speak in front of my class because I had a stutter, all these different things. So it was a need to, and so I wouldn't stand in front of my class and read aloud anymore because I was so terrified of being made fun of. and isn't it funny that- He pussy it out. Yeah, exactly. And these memories shape our life, right? These moments, whether it be one or many moments shape our life. And it did for me multiple moments. And my whole goal of being a great athlete was to prove everyone wrong about me. Yes, to get self-love, but it was like I wanted to hurt those people to say like their words were not validated. I'm gonna go spend a decade, two decades to prove them wrong. I wasn't even thinking about it really like every day, but it was subconscious. And that was a driving force for me. But it left you, it left me feeling very lonely, very even more insecure because if I didn't win, then I was nothing. So you always had to win or you're in a loser. And that's scary because you will do whatever it takes to win. And I hurt myself a bunch. I got a lot of injuries. I just wasn't smart. and again, I was more reactive because it was like no one wanted to be around me if I ever lost because I was just so angry. So I think there's a level of discomfort inside. There was no peace ever. I think there's not much peace for people like that. And so that's why I feel like since the last six years, I've been doing so much work on myself. I said, what if I could live a life where I didn't have to win and be the best at everything? but I could have this sustainable energy, this more pure loving energy that I could achieve all my dreams and feel 100% fulfilled and really enjoy the process like we talked about, like the moments every single day. And it's been a complete game changer for me to flip that. Now I'm still working on it. I still get triggered and react in times, but that's I think the key. But For you, where's the validation? Like, where do you still feel like you need to feel validated? It's just that general, all of us.

Humans, we have it. Yes. It's need for recognition. It's the whole tribal thing. That's why I'm... How much validation do we need?

You have a half a billion people that are like, you,'re a god, you're a legend, you're amazing. Do you need the whole world?

I don't know. It's addictive, huh? This is addictive. It's like, it's a drug. It's a proper addictive drug.

And if it starts to go down, oh no, it was big, and now it's less.

That's tough. You're like, am I not good enough? That's tough. Exactly. So this, I mean, for all the sportsmen out there, and everybody has it because the career ends and there's only one way after that, it's down.

Doesn't matter how successful you are afterwards.

You just live it in the past. I used to be good 10 years ago, right? Exactly. And the problem is that for the people listening, it's just, it's so, for those who have never experienced being in such a such a public position where so many people are judging you. It's so difficult to, to understand, I think, to understand because it's, because for all of us, we watch the Kardashians on TV and we want to be like them. Many of us. Yeah, right. We want to be like them. We want to be famous. I must be just Glitz and Glam and money and just happiness. And everybody looks up to you.

Yeah.

Right. So it's, it's a bit difficult to understand that. No, in that position, money and fame might actually bring sometimes more suffering than when you don't have it. As long as you're above a certain threshold of income where you don't have to worry about paying your rent in three months. And of course, that's a big, big suffering which many people have, which is more extreme than anything else, surely. But once you get beyond that.

If.

You cover your basic needs, I think you have a good chance of being happier than the people who are actually having millions and billions and are famous.

Where do you feel the most fulfilled in your life? When you're doing, thinking, being what?

The most fulfilled is when I, one example is when I progress as a human being. So for example, reading your book, reading your book is fulfilling because you just always, you can always pick out a few things which are just, in the end it's all the same because I've studied it for 10 years, but it's a little bit of a different angle again. and then you think, and for 10 years I've thought, I know that. And then you give that small different angle. I'm like, shit, I didn't know anything.

Right?

I didn't know a single thing.

Yeah.

This is the way to go.

There you go.

So that's very fulfilling. And then fulfilling is doing good for other people.

Yeah.

The problem is you have an awesome quote in your book, which is rewards for good habits is growth, but poor habits. have instant gratification.

Yeah, I do.

And so I'm always fighting against these instant gratification habits.

I want a cupcake right now. I want some like, you know, sugar rush.

It's an absolute fight every day of my life.

Yeah.

Because the short-term instant gratification just always pulls you in.

Feels so good.

And the more difficult good habits for long-term growth and happiness.

Yeah.

I just, it's damn it. It just takes a lot of discipline.

You know, the more we can delay gratification, the happier we become, I think. It's like the small results every single day, even sometimes you can't even see them, but just knowing you did something you said you were gonna do, like being your word, being consistent to who you say you wanna become is the most powerful long term. It's just the hardest to do. But I think that's where the real, like you learn more about yourself doing that than taking the easy way out.

Of course.

And that's what it's all about.

So my latest has been to try and get rid of the phone. The smartphone. And switch to a brilliant switch to a old school Nokia all in for how long completely? No, no, I'm doing this my problem here is why I have smart phone on the table again now is in the US because my old Nokia doesn't work in the US I don't know what's going on there, but it can't cope with the with the latest 5G or whatever so you won't be able.

To do tech you won't be able.

To emails you won't be able to scroll I'm a bit I'm a bit.

Messed up now for these two days.

Here, but then when I get back it's back to Nokia But you won't have like... It just does SMS and phone. And a new potential addiction, which is a snake game. Remember that?

Yes, oh my gosh.

That's your only game.

So first thing I did was go back on Snake Game until my wife said, Listen, you didn't switch to Nokia.

Just to be on Snake Game all day long. Oh my gosh. So stop that as well. So how are you going to be managing social media or responding to people?

Is it just going to be phone calls? Well, I still have my computer, for example. It's just building a bit of a barrier to entry. That's smart. So I still have my laptop. So, more difficult to pull out the laptop all the time. So it's just creating this little bit of a distance. That's the way to do it. And again, from learnings, so one of the greatest learnings and for why I then eventually became world champion was because I learned to simplify life. So even on my way to being world champion, I never read a single piece of news, especially not the ones about me. Never read a single piece of news, never read a single email. for the last four or five months on my way to becoming world champion. Just, I chopped off everything, all the unnecessary.

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Rubbish that we all get into. All the, what did I call them, instant gratifications. I chop everything off in my life. And there was just racing, the preparation for that, making myself like well-being as much as I could, and the family. And that was it. There was nothing else.

And.

And that was just so powerful to give me the two percent more Clarity of mind and potential when it mattered.

Do you think if you would have done that five years prior, that you would have been able to win a world championship if you would have eliminated distractions? and instant gratifications.

I'm not sure. It's a difficult question. It was everything is perfect the way it is, you know? And it was the right timing to continuously grow and become a better human being whilst also becoming a better driver.

Yeah.

And then that year was perfect to take the title in that year and dominate the sport in that year was the right moment. Also, it's not easy to go. Because it's a bit extreme. Very. So it's always I think having everything in balance is the most important in life as well. Never just try and be the perfect simplified life and become a monk. That's not the way either. It's the middle way. So little gratifications and addictions here and there and watching Netflix or whatever is fine. And it's in the balance that you need to find the right place. And I went extreme, so I chopped everything off.

But that's what made you world champ.

Yeah, I know. But in the long term, it's not really a healthy I don't think a healthy way to go. I put it, did a lot of meditating as well. So I'll do like 45 minutes in the morning, 45 minutes in the evening. It's amazing. And short ones throughout the day because the, the highest form of meditation is the, is doing it all through the day. It's this awareness that you get. Constant, constant, quick. Bringing yourself back all the time. That's the ultimate form of meditation. Yeah. You don't need to sit there for hours and hours.

Yeah.

Doing a lot of that as well now. , we were talking last night and I said, what would you think about during the races? And tell me your response of what you would actually think about this is.

Going to come off today. Yeah, because, so also one of my weaknesses probably as a result of being this more on the sensitive side is this lack of presence and always in my worries and in my doubts and in my fears. And, and so then in the racing as well, you'd think that driving a car at, 230 miles an hour in a city, you wouldn't have time to think of much else. But still, nevertheless, sometimes on the straights there is time, especially to think about fears, fears of losing and fears of mainly fear of losing really, and everything that comes with that. Sometimes also fear of getting hurt, of course, in this sport, but mainly the fear of losing. And so yeah, lack of presence, which is something I tried to work on a lot, but it's so difficult. So difficult to improve.

So how much percentage of time on the actual racetrack in a competition, would you say you weren't focused on winning, but you were focused on worry, doubt, fear of losing, insecurity?

That's quite a big one.

What's the percentage?

It's quite a big percentage.

Like 80%.

Maybe 70, 70.

So 70% of your time?

60? That doesn't sound good. Let me give hope to all the listeners, please.

Yes.

Even with that kind of doubt, I.

Still became the world champion.

And not believing that I could do it. I conquered the world and became World Champion.

70 of the time, you're doubting yourself, living it.

Let's say 50. I don't know.

It does not make it too extreme. Half the time. Yeah.

You're thinking there might be a moment of worry. And it depends on the situation as well. If there's a time in the race where I'm dominating and which of course happens a lot, then that will-- you-'re feeling good, you're like-- you can feel good and then it goes away. It's more in the times where you're not dominating. then all that, then immediately the self-doubt will crop in. Everybody has it to some extent, of course, it's completely natural. Unless they're even maniacs. Yeah, but that, no, that the ego maniacs don't have ultimate success, because that's too extreme again. So I think self-doubt is very, very healthy. It's a great driver, it's a great motivator as well. So everybody has it, all of us humans. Even the guys who seem so self-confident, sometimes they're the ones who have it most. So, dear listener, also remember that, that when you have someone in front of you who seems really self-confident, you can look behind the eyes and often it's just covering the greater insecurity. But yeah, so this is a hope that even with self-doubt you can win big.

What do you think is the key to eliminating self-doubt for yourself or for anyone? What are some simple things? Maybe it's not simple.

I tried so much. I tried visualization in the meditation. I tried it so much and difficult for me to find progress there. My biggest ones were preparation that helped the most.

That helped me feel more confident.

Yeah.

Preparation. Preparation equals confidence. So prepare the hell out of it. Like to the group. I mean, it's so extreme. Also the attention to details, because 10 details add up to a big step and many people will be lazy to work on those details. so if you can do 10 big details, you'll get... And I have a nice example, which if you don't mind, I'll just throw it in quickly. So weight in our sport is crucial, just as it is with ski jumpers or cyclists, every gram counts. And there was a simulation measurement that 3/100 per second per lap, so a lap time with 3/100 per second difference, which is often the difference between first place and second place, because it's very close in our sport. So 3/100 of a second was equal to 1 kilo of my body weight. oh, my God. So even though. Even though the car with me weighs 700 kilograms, which is 1, 400 pounds, because we have such high G forces, two pounds more is 3/100 of a second per lap slower. Lower.

Wow.

So it's very, very, like, very fine line. And therefore, every gram counted. And I really focused on the details. So I chopped my socks. I chopped my socks. I took my. The helmet paint off because it was 60 grams. Shut up. So I went from a colored helmet to a black helmet because then it was just the carbon, the bare carbon. because I think it was even 80 grams. So the socks were 5 grams each, the helmet was 80 grams and it adds up and it added up to 500 grams everything I did. I also chopped my seat because the seat is a carbon mold so if you chop it in the places where you don't necessarily need the seat you have again 10 grams here, 10 grams there and you get another 80 grams. Okay so I had 500 grams. So then I get to the summer break and I'm behind in the championship, this is my last year. and so I'm thinking, what the hell can I do? This guy's a machine. My competitor, my opponent, Lewis Hamilton, is an absolute machine. What the hell can I do to beat him? I need to find that little bit more. I was just a couple of points behind, and I'd lost against him the previous two years as well, or three years even. And so I'm thinking, thinking, thinking. And then I come to the conclusion, okay, I do a lot of cycling, so I've got these leg muscles, and leg muscles are some of the heaviest muscles in the body. So I'm like, okay, summer break, four weeks. stop cycling and I go on the treadmill and walk instead uphill on the treadmill so that I keep my fitness but I stop cycling and I lost 500 grams from I measure myself all the time and of course it's not perfectly accurate but I'm pretty sure it was more or less exactly 500 grams that I lost. So by now it's totaled one kilo that all the details have done. Now we get to qualifying right after summer break, the second race back is in Japan or second or third race. Japan. My teammate is on pole and the checkered flag is already out. I'm still out there finishing my lap. I cross the line and I'm ahead by two hundredths of a second. No. To snatch pole position away from. And that gets into his head.

He.

He freaks out, does some crazy, whatever, messes up the start the next day. So he's like eighth after the start. I take an easy win. He manages to come back only to third place. and that gives me the biggest championship lead then on that day. And then I just had to carry it home in the next couple of races. So this is one example of just details that can result in such a massive difference at the end of the day for the whole life, actually. So it all hinges on tiny details sometimes. So this is preparation. Preparation to give you more confidence. We could speak another hour, couldn't we? But I could.

I've got a.

So.

You pretty much grew up with Lewis, right?

Yep.

Racing all the time.

We were racing when we were 13 years old. We were both taken by a Mercedes-Benz McLaren and they paid for our racing because we were the biggest talents in that age class. So they paid for our racing and it was just the two of us and racing the world, world championships and everything and in the greatest championship we finished first and second. The only problem was that most of the time it was first. It was him finishing first and I was finishing second because especially in go-karting more than anywhere else, the natural talent counts. Because there you can't do so much with technology, with the technology, engineering skills and technology. As a driver, it's more about pure driving because the car is so simple. So there and the guy just has.

So much natural talent off the charts. So always difficult.

What makes him naturally talented? Oh, it's just the jeans. It's the jeans. And for driving, what you need is mainly hand-eye coordination is a big one. Really?

Yeah.

Hand-Eye coordination and the speed of processing of your brain is a big one for us in our sport. Because things happen so fast and you have to process things like every hundredth of a second you have new inputs, a new bump, a new feel, a new vision thing that you can see your car going. So it's really the speed of processing which is so crucial. And for example, we arrive at the end of the straight with 230 miles an hour. And then we break down, we break down to 50 mile an hour in the space of 80 meters. So in the space of, what the hell is that for a distance? 80 meters? How many yards?

180 yards?

No, I don't know.

Meters yards? It's almost the same, like 100 meters, 100 yards.

It's like 110 yards. Let's say it's 100 yards. So in 100 yards, we break from 220 mile, 230 mile an hour to 50 mile an hour.

Yeah.

So it's like hitting a wall. Yeah. And in that, and it takes maybe half a second. It takes maybe half a second or.

Your speed and stop.

Yeah, it's just you hit a wall. So if you would, you're a strong guy, but if you would jump in the car tomorrow, it would take your head off. I think you really, your head would smack into the steering wheel because you'd not be able to hold it up.

So we're very strong on the next than the guys. I went on a, a Navy jet in the G Force.

So they do 7G. Yeah, we do six.

Holy cow.

There's is vertical. Ours is longitudinal. So it's very different. Because vertical just compresses you as a body, which is still like extreme, but having it laterally, I think, is even tougher for the body because it's like pushing you, it's trying to roll your head off.

It's going side to side. Yeah, I went 5G and I was like out. I was so exhausted. It was like, I was exhausted.

So we're doing 5G all the time. oh my God, every corner is in the faster corners. You're a machine, dude. 5-6G. So it's very, very extreme. And there, in that braking of like half a second in such an extreme deceleration to still process all the time, the little you need to be on the limit. If you brake one yard too late, you're going to lock up and you're going to end up outside the track. Yeah. And if you brake three yards too early, you lose easily 1/10 of a second, which can be two positions on the grid. so it's that precision and the processing speed of the brain, which really makes a difference.

What did that do for you mentally to get to have this guy you grew up with and always get second behind him? You're always so close, but he's just a little bit ahead every year after year. How do you overcome that mentally?

Well, that's one of the biggest ones that just kills self-confidence. Even if I may have had it when I was young thinking, okay, I'm a great racing driver. But then if you just constantly finish second and also when I got to F1 because you depend a lot on your technology as well and on your car it took me six years to even win my first race. So for six years, for six years I didn't win not a single race. So six years of no winning at all, nothing. Finishing 10th, 12th, 15th.

Not even a podium.

Well, I had two podiums.

In six years.

In six years.

So how do you stay confident?

How do you like- It's difficult. It's really difficult because everything is telling you and all the people around are telling you that you're just not good enough. Oh, man. Because they just care. They just care about results. They don't care about how or why or whatever. They just care about results. And so they just see the guys who are first. So they're all telling you that you're probably not good enough to be winning one day or how did you stay.

In it for that long to go six, seven years until you started to see some results at the highest level?

You can still, you can still exactly, as you always say, focus on doing the best that you can be. And you know yourself when you've done a really good job even in an inferior car. So that's where you pull your strength from. And the team will usually also know that, that they know where their car is compared to others. So if you do a great job that they know, okay, with a good car you probably would have won today. So that helps. That's really important. In the team community you get your rewards and recognition or whatever.

So, like you did better than you should have done this car.

Exactly. so that's. That's okay. That's nice.

And that.

That really helps you keep confidence and keep pushing, keep being determined. And then. And I also really believe strongly that the people who really push hard will be rewarded one day. Eventually. Someday.

Believe that.

Yeah.

This is a belief that I really have.

That's good.

But if you keep pushing like hell, then one day, even if it's a long time, you will be rewarded, which happened to me. I pushed like hell for 11 years and got the massive incredible reward at the end after 11 years. And every year along the way, I was always one step better in the championship as well. There was only two years where I was a small step back and then up again, up again. So 11th, 9th, 8th, 7th, 6th, second, second, first.

That's great, man. And what was the biggest thought running through your mind within 10 minutes before the starting line? of a big race.

Man, it's just, it's a lot of, what is it? I mean, there's a lot of adrenaline apprehension to what's ahead, concentration, and as well this usual fear of failure crap.

Gosh, man. Where do you think you'd be if you didn't fear failure?

Well, as I said, it's not necessarily a bad thing. If you learn to appreciate it, which is one of the biggest powers. learn to understand that failure is your greatest gift to grow.

It's a driver.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So learn to appreciate it. Learn. Learn to. Even you'll never like it, but learn to understand that it's not that bad. It's actually. This is your chance. Yeah.

And.

And that's. This is also something that I visualize a lot and try to under. Repeat to myself that failure is the opportunity to become even better, even stronger. Even yeah to grow. So that's an important an important one. Yeah as well and because without failure you just become you just stay the same. You never grow. Yeah, so you're stuck so you you've got a fail to learn exactly you've got a fail.

Yeah, so why were you afraid of it?

If you need if you need the feeling sucks. It's horrible How did it feel when you were losing in in football?

It sucks the worst handball. You was not that good in handball. So it's like It's always a challenge.

Yeah, but less than losing as a team when you do a job yourself. That's the worst. And all your teammates have lost because of you.

That's the worst.

You had the shot in the last moment and you miss it, which you usually make that shot and you miss it. So it's you who's cost the whole team the loss. And we're a team as well. And it's fun because we have 1,500 people in the team and all of them, their bonuses depend on my result on the track. so possibly even like the kind of gifts that they're going to be able to give their kids for Christmas depends on how I do on the track. So when we then as teammates take each other out from first and second place, because it was always us two battling for all the wins in the last years and in team Mercedes in Formula One. So if we would then crash out and then end up in the in the wall or in the gravel trap with half a car left causing damages of millions of dollars, and losing the result for the team. Man, that was tough. That's not good. That was tough. And then internally as well to manage that.

That happened?

That's so hard.

Did that happen?

Yeah, it happened often.

Were both of you guys crashed together?

Yeah, we crashed together.

No way.

Yeah.

And that's why you don't talk as friends today.

No, we're okay, we're neutral. It's fine.

Couple final questions. This one's called the Three Truths. So imagine it's your last day on earth, many years from now, and you've achieved everything you want to achieve. But for whatever reason, you've got to take your accomplishments with you. You've got to take your content, videos with you. Very easy.

I've got this one.

What would be your three lessons you'd leave behind? I've got this one.

No, no, no. Take an achievement with me. No, no, no.

I want to take an achievement with me. You can't take it anywhere. You can take it all with you, but you have to leave three lessons behind, three truths. that you would share with the world. They have no, and the world wouldn't have access to any content of yours anymore. So there's no more information. This interview isn't here anymore. But you get to leave behind three truths or three lessons to share with the world.

Yeah.

And that's all they would have to remember you by. What would be yours?

Oh man, this is a Jesus. You with your three truths. I would say all of us are searching for more happiness in life. And I think some of the greatest ingredients are, first of all, living a life of doing it for others, and which I still have miles to go in my life to find my direction there, which also sucks, but it's not an easy process, but I know it's the right way, so I'm working on it. So that's one. Is that what you're asking or is it different?

Three lessons that you would share behind. So doing good for others.

Yeah, doing it for others.

Yeah.

Never stop growing yourself. So learning for yourself and growing for yourself. And then, man. Well, I like the one that my dad said, you always meet twice in life. It's not really the best one that I could come up with, but it's one. One that I remember. You always meet people twice. Yeah, but I'd like to go into achievements. That would be much. That would be even nicer enough for me. So achievement, I would like to have achieved. to have inspired my kids to live a life of giving. Because this is something that I missed out on as a young kid. I grew up in Monaco, which is one of the richest places in the world. And it's like a kind of rich cocoon, you know? And I never experienced or got inspired by giving to others or helping others or doing something good for others.

It was all about just how much can we make and accumulate.

Yeah, not so extreme, but let's say neutral in that sense. But no, no, because my upbringing was still very respectful for money and very respectful for other people and all that. So that's all fine. It was still very good. But I missed the inspiration to help others. And that's a bit of a regret I have from my childhood.

And I would.

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When I got injured playing football, everything in my life changed. My dream disappeared overnight. I was broke, crashing on my sister's couch, stuck feeling sorry for myself. But then I made a choice. Stay stuck in that pain or adapt a no bull mindset and build something new. And that choice changed my life. The no bull mentality is what no bull is all about. No bull is the footwear brand for those committed to getting stronger physically, mentally and emotionally. Known for their award winning shoes, no bull continues to raise the bar with the all day rip stop. I am a huge fan of these. Engineered for versatility, the all-day Ripstop is designed to perform from early workouts to late nights and everything in between. With a soft foam midsole for comfort, targeted breathability, and a Ripstop upper for extreme durability, they keep me moving comfortably all day long. I am a huge fan of these shoes. No shortcuts, no excuses, just commitment. That's the no bull mindset. Exclusively for our listeners, no bull is offering 30% off your order. Visit nobullproject.com slash greatness for 30% off your entire order. That's nobullproject.com slash greatness for 30% off.

We want to be remembered for inspiring my kids to live a life of giving. And it's so important for us parents to deliver these inspirations to our kids. You're gonna have all that to look forward to.

Yeah.

Because, I've learned from them as well now. I always thought that nurture, no, nature. So the genes, I thought that was the biggest part. But I've learned more and more now that as well, nurture plays more of a role than I thought. I have an example that I've, I go a lot of, I do cycling a lot. And so to do more quality time with my, with my daughters, I've started to put them on the back seat on my bike, on my racing bike. And then we just go off and, and stop in the villages. just visit the church, you know, and go for a prayer and just spend some quality time like that. And on the, on the road, there's always a lot of plastic lying around. This is an ibiza, a lot of garbage. And I'm always telling her, explaining her how bad that is for the environment, for our future and everything, and not thinking much of it. And she is now so gripped by this plastic being bad. So it's unbelievable. It's like, become.

She's four, huh?

But it's become a passion. It's picking it up. It's becoming a passion of hers. like that she's saying when we get a plate and cutlery, when we're somewhere and it's in plastic wrapped in plastic or something, she's like, no, no, daddy, this is really not good. That's great. We shouldn't be, you know, she's four years old. And so here I've seen the power of inspiration and then bringing them these inspirational stories and acquainting them to that. And I want to do that as well for in terms of helping others, which I'm trying to explore how to do it now. But I think that's going to be really, really fundamental.

I hope I can do a good job with that. That's good, man. That's powerful. That's a great legacy to leave behind. What's something you're excited about right now? You've got your own show that you're doing. You've got your YouTube channel.

You've got your annual event. I'm excited about the freedom that I have after sport. Because sport is, it takes over your life, which is good at the time, but it's fine as well when it's over. It dominates the life completely, you know, everything. So I'm really loving this new freedom. and going for these projects where I know that I can do good and have impact. So I wish to do it. You're an inspiration for me as well with the way you've gone with your podcast.

Thanks.

Because it just gives so much value to people listening. And I hope we managed to extract some today as well. And that's, I think, so cool. So cool. Then receiving emails, you know, and I get, I had a mom writing me the other day and from listening to a podcast.

Yeah.

And she said, oh, you've inspired me so much in how I'm gonna handle my son who's six because I happen to speak about parenting as well in another podcast of mine. And so that's wonderful. So it's these projects where I do good, which I love trying to do. And I have a huge, I'm very much into green technology to preserve our planet. So I'm really focusing on that. And I've built a whole festival around that. It's like a consumer electronics show that we have in Vegas. It's called the Green Tech Festival. It's in Berlin and we had 35,000 visitors last year already in the first year.

It's crazy.

So it was a big, big success and so this is also something that I'm really passionate about because it's really doing good for our future. Such a topic, such an important topic at the moment, the environment as we know, although some of you won't have that disagree maybe in some ways. But anyways for me it's an important topic. So those are the kind of projects that I love at the moment.

Where can we find all this information? Where's the best website for you and social media?

Where do you hang out the most? Yeah, so this is not good either, because it's a work in progress, this whole setting up. As you know, it's very difficult. So I would probably say check out Beyond Victory, which is my podcast. It's great. So Beyond Victory or Nico Rosberg, you say great name. Yeah, I don't know. I wish to give the name more depth somehow.

So I'm about to change it.

You can always change it. because it doesn't say enough. What do you want to say? You've absolutely nailed it. Your name is the best in the world.

I appreciate it. Thank you. What do you want to say?

I want to say that my podcast is not about blah, blah, blah. It's about trying to extract life lessons and valuable lessons from the guests and hopefully being able to add some of mine as well along the way. And that's what I want the title to say as well. So, inspiration, for example, and things like that.

Beyond Victory is cool.

I think it's cool. Yeah, but I want it to be more clear. Because the problem is also me being an ex-driver, people don't necessarily immediately associate me with producing value for them. They think I'm just gonna talk about racing or whatever, blah, blah, blah. Like a journalist or whatever. But I would like to express already in the title that it's really about personal development, self-help, that whole direction, because.

That'S what I'm passionate about. Driven for growth, something like that. There you go.

Driven for success, yeah. No, it's not easy. It's not easy. You've stolen the one word that makes sense. Greatness.

There's no other word.

Excellence, which doesn't really, doesn't really work.

The success is great. It's greatness.

Yeah.

I bought greatness.com also. I'm looking to develop it out.

Yeah.

Amazing.

So there's, so Beyond Victory is the podcast. And then where you're also gonna have your episode the other way around. Yes. Me interviewing you.

So you can go check that out.

It's on Apple, it's on Spotify. It's all the platforms.

Yeah.

All the platforms also, right? Yes. Yes. So YouTube, it's, for me, podcast is working best on YouTube at the moment. Even more than audio.

That's good.

Yeah, it's good. Which is fun. And then greentechfestival.com is my festival in Berlin. And we're planning to go to the States as well in the future, possibly even as of next year. Amazing.

Maybe New York. Let's do it, man. I want to come visit.

I'm coming to Monaco.

Are you in Ibiza or Monaco? Where's Monaco most of the time? Okay, I got a company. And I'll come to the event someday. Before I ask the final question, I want to acknowledge you, Nico, for for your vulnerability with talking about this, because I don't know very many world champions who talk about their fears and insecurities like you do so openly. And I don't know if you've been like this your whole life.

No, no, no, no, no. Because it's, it's scary. Very scary. To talk about, to talk about those kind of perceived possible weaknesses. Absolutely. And especially in our sports, it's a sport of machos. If you have a psychologist working with you, he's called brain. doctor, you know, like you're a loser.

If you have a PhD.

I know. If you work with a sports psychologist, you're an absolute loser in our sport as in the world. It's a topic which people don't really.

Understand the power of it. Well, I think you got an amazing heart, man, and I really acknowledge you for your ability to open up and talk about these things because I think if younger people can see that, hey, a world champion, he's insecure, he goes through his doubts and fears of failure too, even 70% of the time while he's racing. I changed it 50%. I just think it gives a lot of people inspiration, hope, and knowing that, hey, it's okay if I feel this, I can still do something great in my life. I don't need to rid myself of every single thing. Exactly.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

And I think it's really great that you shared that. So thank you, man. Final question is, what's your definition of greatness?

Yeah, this is, oh man, that's a hard one again. definition of greatness. It's definitely not like the kind of. It's not success. It's on a personal level, how much happiness you've found in fulfillment. And then that goes hand in hand with how much happiness you've given the people close around you. So your family, your friends, how much good you've done for them. And then even beyond that, if you have the chance to do good for even more people on a larger scale. so I think that's, that's very, very obviously.

Yeah.

Greatness and, and nothing, not more than that. It's not a result or it's not a championship that you win. It's really much more there, which is difficult because we all think it's the championship.

The results.

Yeah.

That's my answer, too.

Thank you, brother. Appreciate you very much for having me. Thank you all to all you listeners for tuning in. I hope you enjoy all the remaining episodes that you're gonna go live with.

Yes. Thanks, brother.

Oh, what a good episode. I love this. I love having champions on champions who dedicate their life to becoming number one in the world and overcoming all the adversity, the challenges, the odds, the competitors, the Rivals, everything. It's just something special. about champions. They have a way of being, they have a way of thinking that is different. And it's like an obsession to be a champion. I just love meeting and hanging out with champions and I love hanging out with Niko, got to spend some quality time with him and just a talented, smart, kind, caring and human being who wants to learn, who wants to continue to grow after becoming the champ. And I thought that was really cool. Hey, Listen up real quick. If you want to connect with me more, I'm doing something special every week. I send out weekly inspirational messages through my texting community. And so if you want to connect with me on a more personal level, I try to get back to as many texts as possible.

There's thousands that come through so I.

Don'T get back to everyone, but I try my best. But I'm sending out these audio notes, these messages, little videos, things that I don't post anywhere online. So shoot me a text right now. 614-350-3960 just text me the word greatness and I'll know you came from this. So the number you can text is 614-350-3960 and text the word greatness. So I know you came from the podcast. Again, big thank you to our everyone who showed up and listened today. I appreciate you for being here. if this is your first time, click the Subscribe button on the Apple podcast and leave me a review. I'd love to hear what you thought about this episode and become a fan of the podcast. We've got a massive movement, over 150 million downloads of the podcast, and I feel like we're just getting started. So subscribe and share this with a friend. If you have a friend who loves Formula One, who loves Miko, who loves Champions, who loves sports, and just wants to learn more about this, then share with a friend on social media. Tag me, tag Nico. I'm sure he'd love to hear from you. Send the text message to a friend. Whatever you got to do, get the message of greatness out there. You can really inspire someone else in your life today by sending them this link over on Apple podcast. And a big thank you again. Text me, connect with me on social media. Subscribe to the podcast. We are just getting started. The year is almost over. but we are going to start a new decade, Dalai Lama said with the realization of one's own potential and self-confidence in one's ability, one can build a better world. You don't make this place better by being insecure. You don't inspire other people by having self-doubt. You don't help humanity by being scared and afraid. It's yours your duty and your responsibility to overcome the challenges, the insecurities and.

Fears of your life.

Not to resist them or back down from them. Your life will become better when you start to overcome and chip away at those fears one day at a time. Just by diving in, doing the thing that scares you. I know it's scary. Trust me, I lived for a couple decades of my life living fear, crippled by a few different things, until I said, Enough is enough. No more. Am I going to allow this silly little insecurity, this silly self-doubt to hold me back from being a confident human being? No more. This is the end. Tell yourself, I'm done. I'm sick and tired of this crap. I don't want to live in fear anymore. I don't want the opinions and judgments of other people to hold me back anymore. I'm not gonna care what people think if I mess up and I screw up and I make mistakes and I look silly. Stop worrying about these things. This is a new year and a new decade coming to you. It's time to step up into your greatness because that's what you were born to do. I love you so very much. I hope you know that. I hope you feel that. We are just getting started together. We're about to hit seven year journey on the School of Greatness podcast in the next month and I want to go even bigger over the next seven years with you. But I need your support. Make sure to share this with friends. Continue to connect with me online and let me know how I can serve you the best. I love you so very much and you know what time it is. It's time to go out there. and do something great.

Hey, everybody. Ted Danson here to tell you about my podcast with my longtime friend and sometimes co-host Woody Harrelson. It's called Where Everybody Knows yous Name, and we're back for another season. I'm so excited to be joined this season by friends like John Mulaney, David Spade, Sarah Silverman, Ed Helms, and many more. You don't want to miss it. Listen to Where Everybody Knows yous Name with me, Ted Danson, and Woody Harrelson sometimes, wherever you get your podcasts.

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