These DAILY HABITS Will Prime Your Brain To Get ANYTHING YOU WANT | Robin Sharma

I think another great habit is the five great hours rule that I talk about in the book. It takes most producers two weeks to do five world-class hours of work because we haven't set up our ecosystem, because we're not getting in the flow state and transient hypofrontality because we're constantly checking our phone. If you look at the great geniuses, they all have one thing in common.

So, growth is one of those habits on a daily basis. You feel like 90 5% of people aren't doing consistently that they could be adding. What would you say are two more habits that the 95% aren't doing?

Well, again, you know, even the question makes me feel like to answer it would be almost like I'm disrespecting people because I'm, I don't want to sound like I'm talking down, but I'd say for me or the people that I mentor, growth is a key habit. I call it the 60-second student, like at least 60-minute student, at least 60 minutes of learning every day is very, very powerful. I think another great habit is the five great hours rule that I talk about in the book. It takes most producers two weeks to do five world class hours of work because we haven't set up our ecosystem, because we're not getting in the flow state and transient hypofrontality because we're constantly checking our phone. If you look at the great geniuses, they all had one thing in common. They spent long periods of time alone in their work lab thinking about solutions to their biggest problems. So this five great hours rule, it's set up your workplace so you cannot be distracted. Set up your devices so you can do real work versus fake work and do five sweaty, intense, flow state hours versus playing around. And then after that, you've got the rest of the day off. If you start at 8:00, you finish at 1:00, you can go mountain biking, be with your family, enjoy your life, do all all those kinds of things. So that I think is a great habit. You know, I'm gonna obviously get it saying getting up early and installing the 5 a.m. Club method, it takes 66 days according to the research of University College London to install a new habit. Imagine getting up at 5 a.m. Doing your morning protocol of exercise, supplementation, journaling, prayer, meditation, et cetera. Sounds like a lot, but learning chemistry the first time sounds like a lot. Learning Italian the first time sounds like a lot. Falling in love when you're clueless sounds like a lot until it becomes easy. So once you do these kinds of things, a good pre-sleep routine is good. I mean, there's just so many different.

Habits that you've learned so much, you've accomplished so much. What do you think is the thing that's holding you back from your next level of your genius, of your greatness?

I've got a great family life. I've got a great partner. I've got wonderful children. My parents are in their 80s. My dad was a family physician for 54 years. he's retired, they're healthy, thank God. I get to do work I love. I'm, you know, I'm not this financial titan or, but I love my craft. I love serving. I get to live in the places that I want to live. I live a relatively simple life. So I'm in a good place. I just want to I don't know if there's a lot of blocks. I just want to keep on writing. After I finished the Everyday Hero Manifesto, I thought it was my last book. But I think right now I want.

To-- you- got five more in your mind, yeah?

I got 47 more in my mind.

When do you doubt yourself the most?

When I'm tired. When I'm tired, I think it's probably the cortisol pulsing through my system. I doubt myself. When I'm in a season in my life where I'm meant to have not productive growth but spiritual growth, I start to doubt myself.

When you're pushing more in something as opposed to spiritually growing, you mean?

Well, I actually believe we have a higher power. And a higher power isn't necessarily God or spirit or the universe as people call it. I believe we have our Our wounded self, like we get knocked around in life, so we forget who we are. So we've got our wounded self, call it our egoic self, and we've got our heroic self. And to me that's our higher power. And every single person on the planet today has a higher self. This is the part of us that actually knows the answers to our deepest questions. This is the part of us that knows we need to be good. It's the part of our self that instinct is so much more powerful than intellect. So it's the part of us that is the instinct, the silent whispers of here's what you should be doing. This higher power is the part of us that's unbreakable even if physically we're broken. It was Albert Camus who said, In the midst of winter, I discovered within me an invincible summer. We have this. When we do the work To move through the layers and start to reclaim ourself. Does it happen in a day? No, but day by day by day we get closer and closer and closer. We connect with this higher power. And I believe this higher power, when we let go of control and we just say, okay, I'm going to be led by this instinct or to be tactical, you know, follow your joy. But I found in my life that there are just seasons. It could be two years, it could be five months where I am meant to be writing books and recording courses and doing social media posts and getting up at 415 in the morning and working out with trainers. And I trust that lead. And then almost naturally, natively, and I think I've got better at this, there's a time where I'm supposed to sunbathe more. There's a time when I'm not supposed to work. I don't have any ideas. you know, I'm more, and I just trust that that's a season where I'm not supposed to be producing. And then there's times where I just feel frustrated. Sorry to answer your question, it's like there are just times where frustration comes up. I don't feel like I'm doing enough. I don't feel like I'm honoring my talents. And that to me is a symptom of, okay, this is a season where I'm going to go out of the world into the wilderness and I meant to do some spiritual healing. And the last thing I'd say about that is sometimes you can feel guilty because you're not producing. But what I say in the Everyday Hero Manifesto is please let us start to discern and get to know when we're supposed to be spiritually, when we're supposed to be worldly productive. And if we're not worldly productive, but we're being spiritually productive, that's even more valuable. Yeah.

And I don't think crops are guilty. right after they've been harvested and there's nothing to produce for the next few months. You've got to take the time for the soil to recover. You've got to plant the seeds again and then you've got to water and you've got to grow it until it's time to harvest again. And I'm a big sports guy and my whole life has been based around sports growing up. And there was a time that you want to peak as an athlete going into the playoffs. you want to peak, you don't want to be burned out going into the playoffs. But then after the playoffs, there's a natural season of rest, recovery, reflection, where then you see, okay, what do I want to do for the next season? And I remember I was big into baseball my whole life until my senior year. I was like, I don't think I want to play baseball this year. You know, I went and did track instead. And there was that rest, recovery, and reflection season after the season that allowed me to clear my mind and see, what do I want next with my life? What's my vision moving forward in this new chapter of my life? so I think that's important that you talked about that. I'm curious then, you mentioned the time of spiritual reflection, having these space and time. What would you say was the biggest wound that your ego had to face in the last five years? And maybe it was small compared to certain things you've had in the past, but just in the last five years, again, you've been, people look at you as extremely successful, individual leader, creator, author with all the results you've created in your life and so many other people's lives. But in the last five years, what would you say?

Well, there've been a few things. I would say a number of years ago, maybe like seven or eight years ago, I was in a long-term relationship that I chose to walk away from. that was very difficult for many reasons. And I spent a lot of time journaling and praying and meditating and being out in nature and reflecting on, first of all, my part in the situation, but what I could learn from it, and then using the current situation to heal ancient wounds. I mean, that is how you can be an alchemist of sorts and turn tragedy into triumph by using every... Like, fear came up because of that situation. Sadness came up. But sadness could not come up if it had not been pre-existing. There's a wonderful idea, if it's hysterical, it's historical. So we know the size of the pre-existing... We know the size. We know the size of the pre-existing wound by the size of the current overreaction. So if we have the awareness and then choose to use the difficulty to remake us and transfigure us, then you triumph over adversity. So that was something that was really big for me.

I'd say also... What was the lesson from that experience?

Well, we'd have to spend 10 hours talking. Like thousands of lessons, you know, like, if you don't go full in, you actually are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. There was the lesson of being a better communicator on both parts. There was the lesson of picking, one thing I learned is I don't believe in opposites attract. For me, I've learned that compatibility- Alignment attracts, yeah.

It's massive, like, you know, like discompatibility.

Can be very fun and very fiery.

In the first six months, and then.

You'Re like, I watched this, I was.

Reading this article about this very famous divorce lawyer and she had a line in her interview and it was powerful, Louis, and I think you might find it interesting. She's talking about relationships and she was asked, you know, what's, you've seen so many relationships fall apart.

What'd she say?

She said, 10,000 dinners. And he said, the interviewer said, what do you mean? She said, well, you've got to ask yourself, I mean, looks fade and all these other things fade and you've got to ask yourself, look at that person that you want to be with and ask yourself, do you have the compatibility? Do you have the friendship? and you have the great conversations required to enjoy 10,000 dinners with that person. So those would be some of the things I learned about that over the past number of years. Like any person who's running a business, I've had partners completely let me down who promised things that they didn't deliver. I've had people betray me and take advantage of me, etc. etc. etc. I think that's just part of life. One thing I do want to say is I work with a lot of billionaires and many of the billionaires have one formula. They have lost 80% on their investments, not giving financial advice, but they've lost 80 or 90%, but they invested in a few companies that caused them to become billionaires. And it's very easy when you make mistakes to think you're doing something wrong. And what I want to say to all your many, many millions of followers and watchers and listeners is failure is the price of greatness. Failure is the high way to success. You've got to get in, like you've got to leave no stone unturned. You've got to develop this hardiness and resilience and anti-fragility so that you are willing to make mistakes. You won't always have the right teammates. You won't always have the right partners. You won't always make the right decisions. Lick your wounds and move on. It's far better the The discomfort of growth is always so much more valued than the illusion of safety.

Ooh, yeah. The discomfort of growth is more valuable than the illusion of safety.

Right, because all those people you ask me, not judging but just reporting, living life saying, it sounds like a lot of work. Growing sounds like a lot of work. Building great relationships sounds like a lot of work. Emotional healing sounds like a lot of work. Setting your intentions and goals sounds like a lot of work. Being an excellent person sounds like a lot of work. What's the alternative? You get to the last hour of your last day and you look back on your life and you think about all the potential and genius you've left on the table. You think about the experiences you didn't have, the food you didn't eat, the music you didn't listen to. And part of building, like in the season of productivity, part of building is not that you get FFA, fame, fortune, and applause. Part of building is you get to know your strengths and you get to know your talents. That's the reward, not the outer win.

Yes. If opposites don't attract, what were you attracting in the past?

Very dangerous question, Louis. No. Well, I was trying to say opposites don't attract. for me.

Okay.

I know a lot of relationships where opposites work out perfectly. What was I attracting in the past? I was attracting, I assume you're talking about romantic partners and I was attracting the partners perfectly designed to activate the emotional wounding that needed to be healed. You know, they were my spiritual teachers. They were my, they were my soul friends. I usually don't talk about this, but I do believe in karmic contracts. I believe I'm a very practical person and if anyone's watching, it's fine, I'm just sharing my truth. But I believe there are karmic contracts and I do believe that's why you meet someone and you've never met them and you just go, how do you know my favorite food? And whoa, that's your same, your favorite song too? And it's like you spend hours in the sunshine just going like, I found someone. And I believe we have, I didn't plan to go here, I believe we have soul mates and twin flames. And I believe the soul mates in romantic relationships, they come to us to shatter us and open us and bring us incredible joy but transformation Transformational exponential growth.

Okay.

And where would our lives be but for those people? Even if they knock us down for a long time. And then we have the twin flame, which is, that's the person where, you know, relationships are reason, season, lifetime. And I think the twin flame is, that's like, it's easy and it just flows. Like I don't do drama anymore. Yeah. You know, and it's just, it just works.

Yeah, I'm all about the peace.

Peace.

I'm all about the peaceful relationship where there's, yeah, there's no need for drama. There's no need for stress. There's no need for anger, yelling, there's no need for that. And that was the previous me that experienced that from partners being yelled at all the time. And I was just like, always trying to fix something, you know, or trying to buy peace in a relationship. And I realized you can't buy peace. You just gotta be peace and then co-create that in alignment with someone else who is peace. I was going back to You reminded me, I don't know if you ever met Wayne Dyer. Did you ever meet Wayne?

I had dinner with Wayne Dyer. I shared a platform with him a number of times. So, so you knew of him.

You were friendly, but you weren't like close.

Super close. Yeah, we weren't going to soul cycle together. You know, we weren't doing sushi, but--.

Right, but you guys respected each other and you knew of each other.

That's it. That's it.

He had a quote in one of his, I was listening to an audiobook of his recently where he gave the analogy of, I'm not sure if this was his original analogy, but he was talking about, you know, when we are triggered, you know, whatever's inside of us comes, comes out, you know, kind of like if you have an orange and you squeeze an orange, orange juice comes out, right? But whatever is inside of you comes out when you're under pressure, when something pushes you or hits your button or triggers you, that's what comes out, whatever's inside of you. What do you think was inside of you in the past when you were in kind of these previous relationships that maybe were soul mates but not the next level? Like what was the wound? You mentioned the wounds. What was the wound that was inside of you that you had yet to transform into a healthier version of orange juice, I guess.

Sure, just amazing question. I would say first of all, it takes two to dance.

So, when you can do solos, you can do a solo dance on the dance floor down there.

You can do solos. So, I would say, you know, I was attracting partners in some cases that loved drama. And I think there was an addiction, and that's in many ways an addiction to adrenaline. And there's a term you've probably heard about it, but it's called crisis-oriented living. And people who suffer from crisis-oriented living, if it's peaceful, you and I seem to love peace incredibly. But people who are dealing, and I'm not judging, I'm just reporting, and then I'll tell you about my side of the equation. So people who love crisis-oriented living, even if it's the most peaceful, no, especially when it's the most peaceful moment subconsciously, they will create an issue.

Why?

Now you say, why? Nothing's wrong. This is peace. You say, why?

You have everything. Be in peace.

This is such a, they do it because they feel safer in the crisis than in the peace.

Makes no sense.

It does, because if you look at the childhood background, there were always instances where in the next moment they didn't know what would happen. There was so much crisis going on. irrational as it sounds, they created the crisis because that was safe. I think that's incredibly powerful.

Maybe it's familiar.

Well, that's what I mean. Say familiar, they knew it. And people always gravitate towards what's familiar, even if it's the most dangerous thing in the world. So that's what I think in some cases I was attracting. And these were, I must say, noble, beautiful, loving people, but we're all we're all in a flawed state as we stumble and kick towards enlightenment.

I think I was similar in attracting certain, you know, I think all great individuals, nothing to say negative about them, but it was all my choosing to attract and choose to be in relationships with those individuals. Why do you think we, or why do you think you attracted that? And I'm curious, 'cause maybe I can reflect on why I was doing that also.

Sure, so yeah, I'm glad you didn't let me off the hook, and I was gonna, So my part of it was there was something attractive about that to me.

There was like an energy, what was just like interesting or exciting or felt it wasn't boring or something or...

Yes, I think something in me was attracted to that kind of energy. And I think there was all the positive things because these were just incredible human beings. Incredible.

Yeah.

We get attracted to the light and we get attracted to the dark. And I think in a really, and I hadn't planned to get into relationships, so I'm happy to talk about it, but I'm not a relationship expert. But for me, it's, I think I worked with a spiritual healer 15-20 years ago, and she was a school, a guidance counselor, and she said, you know, this is the most interesting thing. She said, there were these two people at other ends of the playground. And she said, I watched it happen. They just, it was almost like they beelined to each other and they were attracted. And so there is a lot going on under the surface in relationships that is incredibly powerful. And if I may, this brings up a really contrarian point, which is, I want to link this emotional healing in the everyday hero manifesto. There's chapters on the big lie of positive thinking. I'd love to get into that if you want to. There's chapters on trauma is a teacher. There's this model that I've been teaching. It's not only mindset but heart set, health set and soul set if you want to really own the game. But I want to link what we've been talking about which is emotional healing because you have a lot of entrepreneurs and business builders who follow you. And I want to link this work about moving the layers over the gold. This work about the AforTool that I talk about. This work about going back to what activates you and rather than blaming your partner when so-and-so freaks out about the garbage, you actually say, what was activated within me and use that as an opportunity to heal? Or you're going through heartbreak, disease, loss of a loved one, loss of a business. Rather than blaming the world, you say, what's coming up for me? Why am I so scared? Why am I so helpless? Because you're going, that's an activation of a previous time when you felt helpless. It's an incredible opportunity to use what's been brought up to make you greater, stronger, more creative, more productive, wiser. But I want to make a linkage between, as we use the moments of every day that disempower us, and we heal that emotional activation, whether it's the shame, the guilt, the anger, the sorrow, the disappointment, those toxic feelings that come up every day or every week when something goes wrong. As we start to move through those, we start to heal. When we start to heal, we start to release these repressed emotions. that were toxic. I call it in the book the Field of Hurt. Every time we do some healing we release more of that baggage. Carl Jung, the legendary psychologist called it the shadow side. We all have a shadow. Now, there are many great productivity experts in the world. There are many great people teaching people how to build world-class companies in the world. There are many people teaching how to free yourself from distraction so you do great art. But I believe And I've been teaching those things for 26 years and a lot of it's in the Everyday Hearing Manifesto, having said that.

If you do not clear out the.

Shadow side and the field of hurt and all that repressed and suppressed toxic energy in the form of shame, guilt, doubt, disbelief, fear that has built up from the moment you were born, then you will always be at war with yourself. the neurobiologists call it limbic hijack. And so then, if you haven't done that healing, you can read all the books and learn all the hacks, but you will never have the intimacy with your true self. You only have it with your worst self. And so you don't really get the ideas that allow you to dominate your domain. You don't have the energy to do amazing things. Your productivity is sabotaged because you've read all the things, you've got all the productivity apps, but you still are attracted to playing with your phone because it's an escape from the pain of potential unexpressed. And if you got that pain of potential unexpressed, you're going to be dealing with it subconsciously. You're never going to be exponentially productive, creative, loving, etc.

Before the interview continues, if you feel like you're not living your most authentic life, not leaning into your purpose, and not living the life that your future self would be extremely proud of. I've written a new book called the Greatness Mindset, and I think you're going to love this. Through powerful stories, science-backed strategies, and step-by-step guidance, the Greatness Mindset will help you overcome all the different challenges in your life to design the life of your dreams and then turn it into your reality. Make sure to click the link below in the description to get your copy today. Okay? Let's get back to this video.

Get your morning routine right. One of the key themes in the 5am Club is as you start your morning so you construct and build your day. The Spartan Warrior said it amazingly. They said, Sweat more in training and you'll bleed less in war. So you look at most people and they begin their day like a five-alarm fire. They start checking their email, they start hitting the ground running. what the 5-M Club method is really all about is the 20-20-20 formula that has worked amazing results with the Titans and the A-players and the billionaires and the sports superstars that I've worked with.

And it's simply the first 20 minutes.

Of your day is intense exercise and we can get into why that's important in terms of dopamine and reducing cortisol and serotonin and norepinephrine. And then after that, second 20-minute pocket which we can get into is all about reflection which is where you're journaling. -It's journaling and it's meditation and it's visualization and you can do some affirmations. And guess what? You could just sit there in solitude and think. I mean the great heroes of the world were more thoughtful than ordinary people.

-You don't have to be on your phone or writing all the time. You can just sit sit and reflect?

-Yeah, I think tranquility is the new luxury. We live in a world where we're addicted to devices, we're addicted to distraction. We all know about the dopamine loop of a lot of the platforms out there.

And so, a lot of people are.

Taking the best hours of their greatest days, time that they could spend constructing their monuments, being creative, being productive, serving the world, building beautiful lives for themselves and their families and they are just hooked, hooked to technology, hooked to likes. And so, and then the third pocket of the 2020-20 formula, and I go much deeper into it in the book.

Is all about growth.

Now, if you give yourself that one hour that I call the victory hour, free from distraction, free from interruption, what you're doing is you are building an inner core of heroism and undefeatability so that 6 o'clock you feel fundamentally different. Your neurobiology is on fire. Your metabolic rate is higher. You know this. You've actually connected with your values. If you've taken some time to journal, you've connected with your mountaintop. You're grounded in what's most important. You've practiced some calm and you've even done some learning. you're far more intentional, stronger and energetic and creative by six o'clock. Then you go into our messy world where there's confusion and you face challenges. But you're not busy being busy. You're monomaniacally focused on the few things that will get you to your Mount Everest.

Wow.

Now, I'm gonna ask for some coaching from you.

Okay.

Because I feel like you're much wiser than me. You've given me a lot of clarity. You've gone through, , years of experience and challenges. And those challenges have brought you a lot of wisdom and lessons. So I've been, let's just say there's been a few people that have been attacking me lately online and very aggressively with rumors, lies, manipulation, trying to control a narrative. And I've been in complete peace about it. I mean, there's been some moments where I'm like, ah, you want to like react and defend yourself and your ego's hurt. But overall, I've had zero reaction and I've been at peace about it because one, I say to myself, I must be doing something right if people want to try to take someone down. Two, I say to myself, gosh, in six months, a year, 10 years, this is going to give me so much more wisdom to be able to serve humanity at a higher level. And three, it's purging my ego and attachment to the way I want people to think about me. But I'm curious if you have any coaching for me or wisdom that I should be approaching through all this and if this happens again from whoever in the future.

Well, Louis, you know, I appreciate your humility. I... You don't need coaching for me. You know, but I appreciate your humility. Here's my suggestion because I've gone through this as well. And for all your listeners from across the planet, as you go out and bring your gifts and genius to the world, as you stand for something higher in a world of, with a lot of people suffering from victimitis, excuse it is, as you bring your glory to your days, you're going to threaten people. I was in the Barcelona Picasso Museum in the Born District, and there was a quote on the wall in the Picasso Museum that said, People were terrified by the genius of Picasso. So the more you shine, the more you're going to attract shadows and darkness. So here's what I would say. I've actually worked out in my journal what I call the troll Deconstruction.

Wow. Is this the journal that got stolen?

It's not the one that got stolen, so I still have it.

Okay.

But that's why journaling is so powerful, because you can actually deconstruct and figure these things out. Okay, so here's what I would say. The people who are attacking you, critics and cynics, are frustrated dreamers. When they were kids, they were full of awe and wonder, because that's our natural state. but something happened to them as they moved out in the world and pursued their dreams and ambitions that caused them to contract. And so now there are these armchair critics that see Lewis Howes doing amazing things, well you actually model possibility for them. The possibility that exists within their mindsets, heartsets, healthset and soulset. And it's much easier for them to try to tear you down then lift themselves up and get in the game themselves. So that would be the first thing I'd say. Second, the second thing I'd say is everything in life, you know, Mr. Riley, one of the characters towards the end of the 5 a.m. Club gets into the philosophy behind greatness and genius and world class and legendary on a Franschoek South Africa vineyard and he writes series of letters that are transformational for the other characters. And one of the things he talks about is trusting your art. So I think these people who are trying to tear you down are actually your spiritual friends.

How so?

Well, because they are causing you to trust yourself more. I mean, they are strengthening your resolve to to pursue your mighty mission. They are helping you. They are touching the wounds within you and the insecurities. And we have a choice. We can blame, which is losing your power, or we can say, how can I use what they're activating within me to heal these wounds, grow stronger, and build the relationship with my primal genius even more? and this is not a platitudine, and I'm far from a motivational speaker. Like you've mentioned, I've been at this over two decades working the best of the best, you know, billionaires and sports superstars and a lot of the Fortune 500. And I say that because there are no extra people on the planet today.

There are no extra people?

No.

Every single one of us has a primal genius inside of us. Our natural state is awe and wonder. Our natural state is energy. Our natural state is a heart full of love and a mind full of ideas and a soul that shines brightly. You see, and that's why the people who live like that, whether it's a Shakespeare or a Catherine Graham of the Washington Post, whether it's a Kobe Bryant, I loved your interview with Kobe Bryant, a Kobe Bryant or Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela, all the fascinating people in the world, they just model possibility for the rest of us. Our natural state is greatness. But what happens is, you know, I was in Thailand and I saw the Golden Buddha. And the story behind the Golden Buddha is they had, you know, the Thai people had this priceless object. And invaders were going to come into Thailand, so they got the idea to put layers of mud over the Golden Buddha. And, you know, the invaders didn't find it. And, you know, many, many centuries later, someone noticed this great monument of mud, but there was gold, you know, sparkling out of it. And so they went through the layers of mud and they found the Golden Buddha. And the metaphor for all your amazing listeners and viewers is simply this, when we were born, we were born into possibility, awe, and wonder. But through our parents' well-meaning and the media and our teachers and society and our peers and the social media, what happens is we adopt the psychology of average versus the mentality of possibility and legendary. And as we continue to leave the profection of childhood, we get hurt and we get disappointed. We don't get invited to a birthday party. We lose a love. We get stepped on. We say, I want to be an astronaut and I want to be a billionaire and I want to also be a great chef and I want to.

Be a yoga teacher.

And our teacher or our friend says, Ha ha ha, you're a fool. And there's one of the lines in the 5 AM Club which is, every visionary is initially ridiculed before they're revered. But if we're not careful, we pick up all these layers of mud in terms of our psychology and our heart set, our emotionality, and we don't even see it coming. But over time, we resign ourselves to average, and then we see Kobe Bryant.

We see we see Shakespeare and we.

See Jean-Michel Basquiat and we see Nelson Mandela and we see Richard Branson and Wozniak. And we say, oh, they are geniuses and they're cut from a different cloth and I need to spend my days being busy, being busy because dreaming and possibility and being loving and having a world-class lifestyle is not within the realm of what I can achieve.

Wow.

So when your ego is under attack and you start to have people, all these people against you, you feel like everyone has turned their back on you, right? Who you've been. service to for many years. How do you handle a situation like that? Whether it's tons of people or one person, or you feel like a good friend has attacked you. What do you think about or say to your ego in that situation?

Well, I wouldn't say anything to my.

Ego because.

You don't want to fuel your ego. Now, we all have egos. I just think our egos are scared selves. So, you want to build a relationship with your more noble and heroic nature and you can do that through journaling, you can do it through prayer, through meditation, you can do it through reading. Another thing I would say to you is trust life even more.

Open your heart even more.

Open your heart even more. My dad used to say to me when I was growing up, Robin, when you were born, you cried while the world rejoiced, live your life in such a way that when you die, the world cries while you rejoice. So even if the world hates you, I mean, I know there's something going on for you now, so I just want to be of service to you and hopefully to all your listeners. That was my intention to come here on the School of Greatness podcast. Even if no one gets you. Remember Galileo, they wanted to burn him at the stake because he said the earth was round. A Joan of Arc, the originator of the internet. Look at all of the great visionaries, the Google guys or the the doctor who said, no, germs are not germs are, you know, the germs disrupted the germ. The very nature of any disruptor means you are going to terrify the status quo. So let's say the whole world hated you. I'd say, Louis, you're doing something right. The very nature of bringing on your fire and birthing great art means means you're going to provoke powerful reactions. Some people, JK Rowling of a little.

Book called Harry Potter, said for some.

To love you, some must loathe you.

-Wow.

-And so, the 5 a.m. Club has really helped me. And look, I don't have to mention the 5 a.m. Club. And if you want to know how I build myself, and again, it's not just my psych, a bulletproof psychology, but a battle proofed heart set. This word I'm introducing. So you feel gratitude when everything's falling apart. And then third interior empire of health set and that fourth one of soul set. Ray Lot, you're in this field that I'm in. I think success is incredibly important and you and I both teach that. But success without a soulful, without Soulfulness is an empty victory.

Of course. That was my 20s where I was achieving, achieving, achieving and after 10 minutes of achieving my biggest dreams and accomplishments and praise, I'd be like, it's still not enough. Like I'm still, I'd be angrier.

Right.

And I never, never understood until I realized I was doing things to prove people wrong.

Right.

Who had picked on me or bullied me or whatever.

Right.

From childhood. I was trying to prove the world wrong about me. And proving people wrong is never a good thing. Lifting people up is where the real joy and fulfillment comes from, from what I've learned. Well, for sure. And being a human of service to humanity is what's the most, the greatest addiction is service. I feel like we're all addicted to something. And if we're gonna be addicted to something, we might as well put it on giving and helping others.

Right.

At least that's what I've learned in the last seven years.

-I agree with you and I'd say for what you're going through that morning routine, that one hour, I would go even deeper.

-Deeper.

-I would get you... Our relationship with our creativity, our relationship with our loved ones, our relationship with our craft, our relationship with the world all comes down to one thing. Our relationship with that primal hero that exists at our core.

-What should we be saying to the hero in our core?

-I would be spending more time noticing when your ego is chattering because awareness is the key to transformation. So, the more intimate you become with the voice of your ego, which is really just the voice of your fear, then you can actually stand outside of it and you're not that fear you are watching that fear and when you're watching that fear, you're in your more powerful self. And then you know you can journal and you can talk to that part of yourself, you can visualize who you want to stand for. The more you actually... Look, I had Deepak Chopra on my stage at my event a few months ago and he talked about... He just brought science to the to.

The fact that.

We do live in a universe where you can choose whatever possibility you want to bring to your days. And that's not mysticism, that's cosmology and science now. And so the more you can say, here's the reality I want to construct today and then inhabit it, the more you will materialize it. And it's like another thing we said before we went on camera which is no one who's in a really good place in their lives is going to tear someone down.

-It'S someone who's really hurt, angry, afraid, right?

-Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

-What'S the conversation you have with yourself every day internally? Not a verbal affirmation or visualization but the internal conversation that you have. Whether you're having an incredible day or the worst day of your life?

Oh, I have a lot of conversations with myself. I'd say a few things. You mentioned service a lot. And for me, look, I think it's really wonderful to have a great lifestyle. In the 5M Club, I share a lot of the ideas that have been very helpful to me in terms of building a beautiful lifestyle. It's really an environment.

An environment.

Your ecosystem is going to drive your performance. So, being around art. There's a model in the book called Joy is a GPS. Releasing toxic people and populating your life only with people who fuel your joy.

Yeah.

Going traveling. There's a lot of good science coming out that traveling boosts creativity. Prosperity is very important. You can do beautiful things for your family. So, I think living A lifestyle that inspires you and that is beautiful is so great for your craft and so great for your creativity and so great for your productivity. I think it's really important to surround yourself with people who are curious and have high integrity and who stand for possibility and who are all about growing and doing their part to make the world a better place. So a lifestyle is important and my craft is very important to me. much more important than applause. But the dominant thing I work on in conversation is I want to be used by, I don't know what word resonates with you, spirit, source, life, nature, God, whatever that energy is that brings up the sun and allows the trees to grow and the tides to shift and us to breathe. There is a power that is indisputable. And I think if we get out of our smaller selves and scarcity and selfishness, there is an amazing accounting system to life. When you actually take a trust walk and go, Whoa, what if I stopped making it so much about me? And I go out there and I bring on ridiculous value to the world through my work. And in every room I'm in, I radiate possibility and I see the best in people versus hunting for the worst. And what if I listen.

To this.

Conversation and say, I'm not Nelson Mandela, I'm not Mother Teresa, I'm not Martin Luther King Jr. But I matter in the world and I'm alive for a reason. And no matter what my current conditions are today, through small, daily, seemingly insignificant improvements when done consistently over time, I can manufacture a much better career in.

A much better world.

So if you come from that place of service and you take a trust walk and say, I'm going to build myself up through a great morning routine. And that's the starting point. You could read the books and go to the events. That's incredibly important. But the tactic is 5 to 6 your victory hour, the 2020-20 formula. So you prime the mind, the neurobiology. And we can get into the 2020-20 formula if you like. But you take that sacred space for yourself. in a world of distraction, busyness, and shiny toys, so that by six o'clock, you are intimate with your inner hero.

And then you go out in the.

World and you say, I'm gonna just serve and I'm gonna help. And I think that is what the real titans on the planet do.

I think we feel the most fulfilled when we serve and help. I think obviously we want to serve ourselves first to make sure our needs are met and we're taking care of ourselves like this morning routine. But then once we have filled our cups up, we've got a outpour of love to the world. I think that's what eliminates anger, that's what eliminates depression, that's what eliminates insecurity is when we're focused outward, not always insecure about what we're lacking. I just think it's a powerful thing. There's so many people who are hurting right now and they just continue to focus on the hurt and the hurt and what's wrong and victim. But when we take ownership and responsibility for our thoughts, our behaviors and our actions and we serve other people and have a bigger mission, just a lot of that seems just starts to go away. It's the antidote to depression and service, you know?

Yeah, I think if we were to fast forward to the last day of our lives, and that's why mortality and connection with the mortality is one of the most important things to do every morning while the rest of the world is asleep.

-Yeah.

-Because even if you live a brilliantly long life and Louis for you and your millions of followers, I wish them long, beautiful, healthy, prosperous, creative lives that are of service. But no matter how long we get to live, even when we biohack, the journey is a really short ride. And I believe when we get to the last hour of our last day, what will bring joy to our hearts and what will define whether our lives were successful will not be how many likes we had, whether people thought we were cool, whether even we were icons in our industry and had all the material things that the world says will bring us joy, peace and fulfillment. I think life's when you strip away all the accessories it comes down to two primary things. Who did you become? Did you use those rocks people throw at you in your hard times as well as your beautiful times to sculpt a pristine character of empathy, compassion, bravery, nobility, decency and honesty. And even if the world doesn't see that, why does that matter as long as you know who you became? And secondly, how many people did you help? You know, I go into coffee shops and taxis and airports and I see these unappreciated heroes and that's the shoeshine person who who dances, and I think it's the Atlanta Airport. And I was in the Johannesburg Airport. There was a man cleaning toilets and he said, this is my, Welcome to my office. I'm an ambassador of South Africa. And he kept his office as clean as Steve Jobs kept next when Steve Jobs was at next.

Wow.

Because these people are running their own race, and that's true leadership and heroism. You know, we get hurt if we don't get applause, but the real question is why do we need applause? If we were intimate and locked into our genius and our creativity and our values and our worth, and if we truly adored ourselves for who we are, well then we'd be an army of one in our businesses. And for anyone who's listening, I know you have a lot of entrepreneurs, is this valuable? You know, the 5 a.m. club. Building yourself for an hour using the 20-20-20 formula is...

I mean.

One of the things I say in the book is you will never rise any higher in terms of your exterior empires than your interior empires. We live in a world that thinks the doorway to success opens outward, but I believe it opens inward. and so it's when you work on yourself and you start to understand your creativity and you work on your neurobiology and you build your character and you start to know what you want to stand for and you actually start to architect the person you want to be in the life you want to construct. That's when you go out there and you do great things and for all your entrepreneurs is serving even enough value you? Well, what made Apple, Apple under Steve Jobs was he was so monomaniacally focused on bringing magic into the marketplace. He created a cult of Apple because of his commitment to serve. If you haven't built that inner core and you don't want to serve, well, then you're going to be a taker from your clients versus running what I call the 10x value obsession, which is giving your clients, you know, what I've tried, one of my intentions in the 5 a.m. Club was in 333 pages.

Give people.

More value than they could possibly imagine. That's why I spent four years of hard labor on the book. And so, it's when you really care.

And you want to serve and you.

Want to have an impact on people, well, that's when you go to the jagged edges of your creativity. That's when you bring on your fire to your work and your life. Because you're not coming from taking, you're coming from serving. And that does translate into business success.

As well as personal success.

From all the great leaders you've talked to of this moment right now, the billionaires, the CEO leaders, the financially abundant leaders, to high performers, are those successful and wealthy people doing anything different than unsuccessful and wealthy people in this moment?

Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think, let me just, if I may, I've worked with a lot of super wealthy people and one thing I want to emphasize is, There are a lot of extremely wealthy people and money is all they have. And so I believe there are multiple forms of wealth. As a matter of fact, I do believe that once you pass a certain threshold of net worth and annual income, you actually add complexity to your life, which destroys happiness and peace.

You have to learn to be happy in spite of the wealth you create.

The happiest cohort I have ever met in my life are ski instructors. I'm a level one ski instructor, which means I barely passed the grade. But it was a dream of mine. So I went and I got it and I taught little kids to ski at minimum wage for a year and it was one of the great victories of my life. But the point I'm trying to make is they would always say we're not rich. We don't have a lot of money but we're really rich. They were just happy. Like they're out in the mountain, they were eating the food they wanted, they were turning people on to skiing and they were doing what they love to do. And so I just wanted to make that point, which is, you know, I've worked with a lot of billionaires, a lot of the celebrities that people would know about instantly. And that, you know, you probably know, as you know, I used to do the Titan Summit. I've had a lot of the superstars on my stage. But generally speaking, You know, what's the expression? Mo money?

Mo problems.

And so I just, you know, Jim Carrey said it well, he said, be careful what you want because yeah. So, but the people I work with right now, what they're doing is they are leaning out, a lot of them are leaning out their businesses and looking for efficiencies. So it's a great time to rework your business if you're an entrepreneur. And just ask yourself, what is the single greatest opportunity right now for you to distribute astonishing value to your marketplace? And then build all your resources around that singular opportunity. I mean, great companies die not because they don't have enough good opportunities, but because they're chasing too many shiny toys. So that's what my clients are doing. Another thing they're doing is they are upgrading their health, they are biohacking, they're also upgrading their spirituality by meditation, by prayer, by journaling, by working with spiritual counselors. I mean, I think this is everyone saying, oh, it's a once in a generation pandemic. I think it's a once in a generation opportunity for us to look within and heal our hearts, develop ourselves. and reconnect with who we're meant to be. The people I'm working with are also, a lot of them are reconnecting with their families, Louis. I think a lot of industry titans are industry titans because they've lost the connection with their families. And so a lot of people I work with and mentor, it's like, you know, this forced quietude of the pandemic, has allowed me to be a better father or mother and reconnect with my kids or my partner or even, you know, I call it the great reset, even reconnecting with your priorities. You know, you look at some of the trends like ruralization right now. People are leaving cities, moving out to the countries. People are working at home. So, I mean, this great upheaval will lead to much brighter days once we get through the mess.

Should we be focusing on the future or the present? You know, in order to be in flow state, we need to be in the present obviously. In our morning routine, are we focusing on this moment, this day, or our dreams and aspirations of the future? How do we navigate that of future present thinking?

What a great question, I don't think I've ever been asked it. What I would say is be like you're climbing Mount Everest because you really are climbing your own private Mount Everest. Keep one eye on the summit, one eye on the climb. So your morning routine is the preparation for you to be a warrior poet during the day. But then when you're living your day, you know, if you're, if you're, let's say, writing your book or working on your code or, then you want to enter flow state. We can talk about how to orchestrate your environment so you enter flow state. And one of the ways is you leave your phone in another room because you can change the world where you play with your devices. You don't get to do both. So you, you live your day because your days are your life in miniature. You live your day fully in flow state and with fiery presence because that's all we have. You live your day because your presence on your work allows you to birth your genius on your work or be with your family. But you also want to be strategic because what's the point of climbing a mountain to realize you were in flow state climbing the wrong ones? And to make it tactical in a time of crises, I would say hope for the best and plan for the best and prepare for the worst. I would say, I'm someone who's been saying, sell your TV and don't watch the news for a quarter of a century. And now I'm starting to watch the news, but I think you want to do it very intentionally and very deliberately. So you see what's coming. and then you can plan for it. And if you're an entrepreneur, you can battleproof your business for what's coming. And we can talk about the advice I'm giving to entrepreneurs, my entrepreneurial clients, but you can, you want to be strategic. You want to plan for what's coming. You want to protect your family for what's coming. And yet at the same time, you want to find ways to see the benefits that crisis brings because suffering can breed great artistry. Calamity can breed great creativity. Nietzsche said, Chaos gives birth to dancing stars. I've done my greatest healing when I've been down on my knees. Right.

That's when you're the most, you have to be the most present when you're suffering the most. It forces you to be in the moment of that pain, right?

Exactly.

When the pain is in your body.

That'S all you think about.

I don't get how people go, oh, I was heartbroken or I was going through a divorce or I was going through a bankruptcy or a job loss. I just kept busy and I was out there having fun with my friends. I'm not judging and I understand we have different types. for me, when I'm in pain, I'm like a. An animal. I need to go to the forest and lick my wounds. You know, I need to lick my wounds. And then once my wounds have healed, I go back into the world and I can, you know, do the stuff that you do in the world.

Yeah.

And you may be healing for, you know, a year or two after something, a heartbreak, but you may be productive half the time and still need to heal a little bit of here and there, so you don't have to. always be in the woods for years when you heal, but I understand that for sure. What are, what it, we talked about this in the, actually, I want to ask you, you mentioned the, how to bulletproof businesses and the, some of the advice. Can you touch on that a little bit of what you're sharing with, with, you know, leaders on how to bulletproof their business and protect themselves during this time for making the most out of this opportunity?

Well, I think for, I mean, this is the time that real leaders come out to play. I mean, anyone can be a leader in the sunshine, but when everything's falling apart, one of the books I've read in, in lockdown is the Splendid and the Vile. And it's all about how Winston Churchill became Winston Churchill. And Lewis Winston Churchill became Winston Churchill May 10th, 1940. 41, I believe, when he became the prime minister of the United Kingdom. And he was thrust into greatness. And so what I'm trying to suggest is hard times look bad to the ego, but it's in the difficult times that we get to see what we're made of. I believe there is a mystical orchestration of life. Nature knows what she's doing. And so I think this is all happening for a reason. And I think when we experience the storms of our lives, I don't think they happen at random times. And so what I would say to leaders and entrepreneurs is number one, there's always room at the top. Look at Peloton right now. Peloton is experiencing explosive growth.

Exploding.

And there are a lot of other, you know, look at online media companies. Look at the people in our field who saw a lot of this, who have planned for things falling apart, so have built digital businesses and digital courses. And it just goes on and on. So what I'm saying is you want to as quickly as possible ask yourself, how long will this take? Where will this go? I actually think this is going to be a few years. I don't mean to be in any way negative, but I want to be of service. You know, if you look at what's going on, I think there's the health crisis and the pandemic, and then there will be the hunger crisis, which there is one now, but it's there's going to be all the suffering from the fallout. And that's going to go on for a while. And so I would say if you were to ask me for some entrepreneurial advice, it would be number one, ask yourself what value can you give to the marketplace that your industry peers are not giving. Number two, I would also say right now a lot of peers in the industry are getting knocked out of the game. Whatever the industry is, they're scared, they're exhausted, they're contracting. So for someone who is Feeling strong again, the way you feel on the inside is going to determine the way you feel on the outside. That's why morning routine and the 5 a.m. Club, that's why nutrition, that's why biohacking, that's why learning, that's why your daily habits are so incredibly important. If you don't have any confidence right now, you're not going to be able to build a build your business. But ask yourself, what value can I push to the marketplace that no one else is doing? I would also ask, What where can I cut costs and lean out the business right now? Because in good times, we fall in love with growth. And when we fall in love with growth, sometimes, you know, we build a highly complex business where all we need is a nimble little business that is actually more agile. A few other things I would say is clean out digital distraction right now. In the 5M Club, I talked about your Menlo Park. Edison used to have a Menlo Park at the top of the hill in New Jersey, where he and his teammates would go to get away from the world. And I think right now, where we want to check the news, we want to connect with our friends digitally, we want to do all those things, it's very easy to fall into the dopamine loop where we become addicted to distraction and checking our notifications. And when that happens, you will not get into the flow state, which will allow you to do the work that will allow you to lead the field. You know, we're at war. We're at war, and it's not only against the coronavirus. We're at war against distraction. We're at war against digital interruption.

Right.

It's a war. It's a war because we must protect our genius. Because the world will be less of a place if we do not bring our light, our love, are genius to it.

I believe that. Man. And in the first interview, we talked a little bit about self-doubt and I wanted to bring it up and go a little deeper in that because we talked about it here as well. I'm curious, is there a difference between building self-confidence and eliminating self-doubt?

I don't know. I'll have to think about that. What I would say is, I'm going to be very contrarian here. You know, so many people are talking about mindset and you know this from our first interview, you know, it's like mindset is everything. It's like if you only build a PMA, positive mental attitude, the world will be okay. Well, then if that was the case, I'm going to actually be a little bit dramatic and I would say that's the big lie of positive thinking. Now, Does positive thinking not work? It does work. But a positive mindset without a purified heart set leads to an empty victory. So what I would say on your question about self-doubt and what we try to do is we try to remove, we try to build confidence psychologically. We meditate, we visualize and we read the books and we watch the podcast.

With our intellect.

Yeah.

With our intellect. But as human beings, we are these four interior empires. Empires I teach in the 5am club. It's not just mindset. It is our psychology, but it's also our emotionality, our heart set. And then it's our third interior empire, our health set, our physiology. And then it's the fourth interior empire that I wish more people were talking about because it's not weak, it's brave. our fourth interior empire are spirituality. So I would say when you use your morning routine or your nightly ritual or spend some time every day working on your four interior empires, that's when you release your ego. And when you release your ego, when there's no more darkness, all there is is light.

Yeah.

And that means that's who we are. Our truest nature is pure creativity, vitality, love, heroism, compassion for other people, honor and honesty. So what I would say is the missing link in self-confidence and turning down self-doubt is read the positive books, listen to positive thinking gurus and get your psychology to world class because your daily behavior does follow your deepest beliefs. No question. But then do something that not a lot of people on the planet are doing, which is do your heart set work, which is if you've got anger, sorrow, resentment, shame, guilt repressed within your subconscious, within your heart set, well then you're at war because you've got a positive mindset but a toxic heart set. So doing that emotional hearing is the game, healing is the game changer, then you get into health set. massage, you release the toxicity for massage, reiki, acupuncture, et cetera, sweat lodges, et cetera. And then you do the soul set work where you connect to your higher power, your inner hero. You do those four things, you start to dissolve self-doubt.

Yeah.

Can we achieve great things with pain and resentment and anger living inside of us?

Well, it depends on what you define as great things. I think a lot of great companies have been created by very damaged people.

And great music, great art.

Well, for sure. I mean, I was once on an airplane from New York, I believe New York to Paris, sitting next to an artist. And he said, you know, I look for romantic partners who break my heart.

It writes great songs.

I go, why do you do that? He goes, because when I'm intimate with suffering, I do my greatest song.

My greatest art.

So, but what I would say is, in many ways, a lot of the great companies have been created by damaged people. And here's the point I'm trying to make. There were never enough for mommy or daddy, so they were relentless. And because they were relentless, and never took no for an answer and just, you know, incredible drivers, they built these great companies. But is that a great company? You see what I'm saying? So if we want a great world, I think a great world is built from an intention of love. And this is not weak because I think the greatest artists They were not coming from fear of not being the greatest artists, industry titans, world builders. I don't think they were building from a place of inferiority, insecurity, and not enoughness. I think the great masterpieces, the great movements were born of love. Mother Teresa worked from love. Mahatma Gandhi died with less than 10 possessions. Why? He didn't care about those things. He reached a level of spiritual maturity where that wasn't the game he played. He played a completely different game. It was, how can I bring love into the world? And I think our greatest teachers are teachers of love. And I think if you can be an entrepreneur but operate from trying to serve the world and help the world and distribute awesome value to the world that lifts people's lives, if you're a painter who works from love because you want to bring joy to people through your craft. If you're a school teacher or a world leader who works from love and service and honor because you want to be a humble servant to humanity and you know that life is short ultimately, I think that's when you do amazing things.

Yeah, that's beautiful. And why do you think people make excuses of their past, of the present, Why do you think it's human nature to make excuses? Because it seems like what unsuccessful people do better than everyone else is they make a lot of great excuses. Whereas the successful people who are happier, healthier, achieving more in their genius are making less excuses. Why do we do this in general?

Because we're human.

Why is it human nature to make some excuses?

Because human nature is we're flawed. I mean, I make mistakes. I'll say right now I make excuses too. I just make a lot less excuses than I did last year. I mean, it's a journey. I think we all make excuses and if you don't, you know, and the people who don't think they're making excuses are not aware of the excuses that everyone around them sees them making. So, but why do we do it? Because we are disconnected with who we truly are. You know, I think Joseph Campbell's hero story explains so much. And if you look at the Matrix and the Alchemist and Jonathan Livingston Seagull, one of my favorite books, and a lot of the great works, in one way or another, they're talking about the hero story. The hero is born in full blazing glory, and in full intimacy with their genius. The hero goes out into the world and the world, remember Morpheus in that old movie the Matrix, pulls the wool over their eyes. The hero then starts to be programmed, brainwashed, heartwashed. We get the messaging of our well-intentioned parents, but they give us their fears. Then we go to school. You can't be an astronaut, be practical. And then we get the media and we get our peers. And so the whole of society works It's seduction and hypnosis on us. And then we wake up at 25, 35, 65, 105. Mere figments of who we're meant to be. And then we come up with this excuse. Yeah, but that's easy for Lewis Howes to do. That's easy for you to do, Rabin. It's easy for Muhammad Ali or Kobe or Oprah or whoever it is. because we have created a perceptual filter, but not only perceptual filter, an emotional mask. You know, one of your books, like, I think it was the mask of masculinity. We don't only put masks over our psychology, we put it over our emotionality, our physicality and our spirituality. And then we look through the masks so many times, we believe the stories, our lies are telling us our truth. And we would take a bullet for our story because it is so incredibly scary to leave the foundations we believe are true. And that's why personal mastery is one of the, it's not weak. You know, people roll their eyes, oh, personal mastery, personal development. personal leadership. It's the most heroic thing you can do because look how brave it takes for you to look in the mirror and leave the foundations you've built your entire life on and go blue ocean. And that's why the mystics talk about the dark night of the soul. Because when you think it's all falling apart, that's when you're really waking up.

If we don't think of ourselves as I'm here to be of service to my, you know, a couple of friends or my family, you know, in smaller group at start or if we just don't look at our life from a place of being of service, what happens to us?

I think we incrementally die before our death. I definitely believe in living a beautiful life. I definitely believe in doing good for yourself and your family. It's incredibly important. I've written a book called the Monk who Sold his Ferrari, but there's nothing wrong with getting a Ferrari. I don't have one. I'm more interested in this little Fiat 500. It's this iconic little car that, you know, I did some research and there's one for sale for 4200 euros, you know, so that's kind of where I'm at in my life right now. But I, you know, we're sensory, sensual beings. If you want to live a beautiful life, good, you know, materially awesome. I'll help you do it. do it. Having said that, so much joy comes from service. I mean, my life changed when I stood in Nelson Mandela's prison cell a number of years ago. And it was just stunning how small it was. Here was this man incarcerated in Robben Island for 18 years of 27 years. of incarceration. He said his greatest regret was his son was killed in a car accident and they wouldn't let him out of prison to attend his funeral. ET cetera, just tortured in so many different ways. So I asked the guide, I said, Did you know him? And he said, Yes, I served with him as an ANC prisoner for eight years.

Come on.

Yes. and I said, Of course, what was he like? And he paused and he said, oh, that man was a humble servant. I've never forgotten that term, to be a humble servant. So on my good days, I remember it very, very deeply. And I think if we could all in our own way you know, be humble servants. And the paradox is if you want to be a billionaire, if you're coming from a place of love, humble service, wanting to see the people who put food on your table rise and transform, your apps, your products, your services are going to be magic. And the job of an entrepreneur is to push mass magic into the marketplace in a world where most business people push mediocrity. This is why doing the work to come from a place of service and love, again, turning down the ego, learning the tools to turn up the voice of your heroism so you built intimacy with who you truly are, this is not just a recipe for happiness. It's a recipe to materialize whatever you want, because then you start following your bliss, doing what you're going to be best at, working with love and excellence and mastery. Your energy is tireless, but you push masterwork into the world. I was in Florence recently and I saw Michelangelo's David.

How was it?

Nice. No, it was amazing. But you know, that was a work of love, not a work of, not a cash grab. Oh, yeah.

He wasn't doing it to make money back.

Then? If you do something to make money, your focus, time, energy and intention is off pushing the magic that will actually make you money.

So, what should we focus on instead?

Pushing beautiful work into the world, working with honor, seeing your job as a craft, getting better every day.

You talk about in the book, is it the eight forces of wealth? Are they eight eight forms of wealth. Eight forms of wealth. What are these forms that we should be thinking about then and applying to our life?

It's an absolutely right revolutionary model that has helped my highest level clients like the billionaires, the Titans, the sports superstars, the movement makers, terrifically. Because a lot of them come to me and they're frustrated. They're saying to me, for example, I've got 14 billion dollars. I've got the yacht, I've got the private jet or two, I've got six homes. And I filled my life with so much complexity.

Stress.

And stress. I don't, I'm not enjoying any of it. And so the eight forms of wealth, I'll just, if you like, I'll go right through them. So the model is in the book, but it's the first one is self Mastery. Our society, the context is our society has told us you are successful if you have a lot of money. Essentially, that's it. Even if you hear sometimes people introducing podcasts, we have so and so here. Whoa, I can't wait today. He's got, he's like, he's a true billionaire. Well, what about the ditch digger? What about the firefighter? What about the teacher? But our society has hypnotized us. I can't believe it. Today I'm talking to a billionaire. so money is only one form of wealth, the other forms of wealth, self-mastery. I mean, why did the great saints, seers and sages talk about self-knowledge? It's one of the greatest forms of wealth. The Temple of Delphi had a little inscription at the entrance, Know thyself. Once you know, we've been talking about self-knowledge. That's a lot of work. It's the secret of joy. So, self-knowledge, self-mastery, incredible form of wealth. Getting to know yourself, getting to know your true powers versus your fake powers, your creativity, your heroism. Second form of wealth is family. My partner and I, we went to her grandmother's 90th birthday a while ago. I had a chance to sit sit down with her. I try to sit next to elders on airplanes and on trains and interview them. I said, what's the most important thing you've learned from life after 90 years or 89 years? And she said, Family. And for me, family is so important. What's the point of being a success in the world if you've lost your family in the process? And serving your family. creating what I call perfect moments for your family. So family is incredibly important. Third form of wealth is health. Someone once said to me, Health is the crown on the well person's head that only the ill person can see. I've worked with super rich people as their mentor. They got sick because of what it took to get there. Now you can do it with balance and health of course, great health. but they lost their health and now they don't care about their money. All they're doing is traveling the world looking for healers and doctors to try to get their health back. So health, fourth form of wealth is craft. It's such a great form of wealth to fall in love with what you do. I was sharing before we started, you know, even when I journal about my work, it's in air quotes because it's not work for me. It's a privilege. So your craft, like just each day being on the process of getting better, learning more, reading more books, watching more podcasts, polishing, refining, optimizing. It's such a great source of joy. Pushing yourself to the razor's edge of your highest talents is such a source of enthusiasm. Next form of wealth would be money. Of course. you know, it's important. It allows you to do amazing things. It gives you freedom to make wonderful choices and it allows you to get involved in philanthropy, which I am a big proponent of philanthropy. Helping children with leprosy rise is my focus right now. Next form of wealth would be adventure. We are nomadic. We are meant to travel. We are meant to take risks. We are meant to grow. We are meant to seek awe and wonder, even if it's just an LA sunrise. Did you see the sunset last night?

Every night's pretty magical here. I mean, if you go out and watch the sunset here, you're gonna be like, ah, for like 10 minutes. It's spectacular. The way it hits the mountains, the way it hits the ocean, it's special here.

Yes. And I think adventure, even if it's just just a conversation with someone interesting. So that would be the next form of wealth. Your circle of genius, your COG, spending time and surrounding your life with people who are living the lives you want is a form of wealth. Stripping out the energy vampires, the dream stealers, stripping out the toxic people, stripping out the people who don't get you. Can we talk about the place you're at in your-- Sure. So you told me you're feeling so much peace in your relationship right now. Can I ask you a question? Yeah. Does your partner get you like no one else has ever got you?

She understands and accepts me 100%.

100%.

And it's beautiful. I think a lot of it is partly half my responsibility of entering the relationship saying this is 100% of who I am. This is everything from my past that I'm proud of, that I'm not proud of, my mistakes, my flaws, my insecurities. I'm not changing who I am. I'll grow and I'll be on a journey of growth forever, but this is who I am. And she was like, I love all of it. And I was like, okay, cool. Let's hang out for a while and see if that's actually true. And her actions and behaviors kept matching that. her words and I was like, okay, this is amazing. So it feels beautiful, peaceful.

Yeah.

And understood, but also like celebrated for who you are. You know, that's what something she does in a big way.

That, and I'm sure you realize it, but that is worth all the gold in the world.

That's incredible.

It's incredible. Often we need to, I've seen this with my clients, they get to a place of wealth, to realize economic wealth is not that wealthy. I mean, how much does it take to live a beautiful life? Not that much. So then why do people need as much as they think they do? So what you just shared with me, someone who gets you is an incredible form of wealth. So the next form of wealth is the circle of genius being surrounded by your love partner, your family, friends, etc. People who get you. I know some people are going to go, yeah, but what if my family doesn't get me? That's another conversation. And then the final one is service. I used to call it legacy. There's a chapter at the end of the Everyday Here Manifesto where I actually, everyone's talking about legacy right now, Joseph Campbell, to live in the hearts of those you leave behind. mind is not to die. I used to believe in it so much. What will be your mark on the world? Marcus Aurelius in Meditations, he says, it does not matter what the chattering tongues of prosperity say about you. And as I say in the chapter, I say we're all going to die. We're going to be a pile of dust, whether you're a billionaire or a street sweeper. We end up as a pile of I don't know how big it is, but I'm just, you know, for the purpose of it. We all end up as a pile of dust in someone's urn next to their little league trophies above their fireplace. That's all we are. So it doesn't matter how we live, how we're remembered after we're dead. What matters viscerally is how we live and serve and create and produce while we are alive. so the chapter is just like, legacy doesn't matter. It's a sport of an ego. Getting your name on a hospital wing is a sport of an ego. True giving is anonymous giving. And so the final form of wealth was like leave a legacy, but now it's just service. And I believe, you know, I've lived a fair number of years and I I really believe that it's an incredible form of wealth to serve people who are in need through your work. Absolutely.

I'm a big fan of that. And I think some of the greatest joy comes from when I'm in service anonymously. And I'm also a big believer that, and maybe I need to learn more here, that it's okay to share when you're making an impact sometimes. because a lot of times when making donations or just helping on things that no one ever knows about, but then there are certain times where I'm like, I also want to inspire others to do the same. So here we are, you know, building schools or something with an organization, or here I am doing something with another charity, and some things I want to share and hope that others will see, oh, there's a lot of joy in giving. Maybe I could do more of this in my life. So maybe I'm wrong there in that thought process. but I think it's always checking in, am I doing this to try to look good or am I doing this to try to inspire others to do the same? And I think that's where I try to come from.

To me, it comes down to what I call the root intention.

Exactly.

So, what I hear you saying, Louis, is your root intention is to inspire others, which I think is very noble. I think I could definitely learn from you on that point, which is I have a belief system, which is, oh, if I show that I'm giving, then I'm showing off.

That's the Canadian background.

It's very Canadian and it's also my family. You know, you don't, you know, of course.

I'm all for that. I think there's the intention behind it. It's like, yeah, but how can we also, as individuals, try to make a bigger impact, inspire others to be more giving? inspire others to get out of their comfort zone and serve at a greater level in their communities, their families, their, you know, the mission that they're on. That's my belief right now. I may be wrong, but...

It's a great point. I'd love to ask you, as honestly as possible, and you've always been so honest every time I've interacted, but like at your deepest core, what do you want your life at, where you're at, what do you want? your life to represent or stand for right now?

Like when I'm done or like in the moment?

Right now.

For me, it's being a symbol of inspiration. I want to be, you know, I remember when I started the School of Greatness, which yesterday was the nine-year anniversary since we're filming this.

Bravo.

Thank you. And I remember when I started it, I was coming up with an ideas for like, okay, I'm going to do a show, this podcast thing, which at the time, nine years ago, no one really knew what a podcast was. There wasn't many of them out there. This was pre the multiple waves of, you know, podcasts have come out in the last nine years. I had to tell people like, hey, I've got a podcast. Go here in a computer, click on this thing, go down, you know, there was no easy way of accessing it. But I remember thinking to myself, what do I want to call this. And I called a few friends and they're like, why don't you just call it the Lewis Howes Show? And I don't think there's anything wrong with calling your show or your anything, your name or your company. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. But I remember thinking to myself going through, like, an ego transformation at the time, and I'll probably always be going through that, but at the time, going through a big ego transformation where a lot of my 20s was about me accomplishing succeeding, winning, being acknowledged, you know, being clapped for all those things, excelling, winning awards. I realized there was something missing inside of me. Like there was something that was not I never felt good still. I would accomplish all these things and I was like, but why am I not happy still? Why am I still angry? Why am I still upset and needing to like prove people wrong still? So I went through my own journey of healing on a few things there. And then when I started this, I was like, I want this to be a symbol bigger than me. I don't want it to be about me. I want it to be about others. I want to put the spotlight on everyone else. I want to shine the light on people like yourself, Robin, and bring wisdom from other people to an audience that I curate and cultivate and facilitate. So it's not going to be the Lewis Howes Show, although maybe in the future I do a show called My Name, I don't know. but I remember thinking, I'm gonna call it something else with me, and the School of Greatness was about the things I wish I would have learned growing up as a kid that I didn't have access to, the tools, the skills, the knowledge that I wish they would have taught me in school.

And.

That was something that rang true for me nine years ago, that I wanted to be a symbol of inspiration, bigger than me, not about me, and today is the same thing. And in this world of social media and marketing, there's a balance of building personal brand and putting yourself out there so people are aware of you and your message and the content you're building and also trying to just continue to put the spotlight on others. So it's uncomfortable for me to post like photos of myself by myself on social media. It's just become uncomfortable because I haven't.

Done it that much.

I've always just posted everyone else. and put out their message. Like there'll be a clip of us and it'll be about you on my social media. But I'm starting to do more of sharing my story because I think people want to see more of me. They're following me as well, so I'm trying to post some of that also. But it's a dance where I don't want to be too self promotional and make it about me, but I also know that's what brings people in to share the message. But my intention right now is to be a symbol. a symbol of inspiration to help people improve the quality of their life. That's the message. That's the intention.

You already are.

Right.

And I'm smiling too because I was thinking a root intention. Because on my Instagram, I've started posting more pictures of myself.

Yes.

But my root intention isn't to show off. Like this morning, I did pictures of me doing a video of me doing, you know, terrible push-ups. But it's exactly your intention. It's, it's, just to inspire. And what I've realized is if I can show pictures of me and my family, me on a walk or whatever, whatever, people do want to get that inside look at what books are you reading, how do you live, what supplements do you take, what is the morning routine? I think it can be an incredible mechanism of service. Like this is my 26th year in the leadership and personal mastery field. And I've seen it change so much. And social media is an incredible, incredible blessing and it can be a tyrannical and vicious master. So I think used wisely technology is a beautiful thing. You just want it to be your slave and not your God, I believe.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

So that's where I'm at now. We'll see. I love these eight forms of wealth. What do you think is the most if you could only focus on three? Let's say you had to get rid of the other five. And the three, what are the top three most important forms of wealth?

I'd say four because.

They'Re all so important.

I know, but if I had to fall away.

Okay, I'd say self mastery. I think it's the main aim of life. It's to discover who you truly are through the times in the valley of darkness and the times at the mountain in the sunshine. So working on yourself. Number two, family. Not in order, but family. I just feel so blessed to have a great family and it provides me with so much joy and like, I love great, great food and I love great experiences. and setting up meals where I might cook some bucatini all'Amatriciana and getting just the candles right and I make a playlist for it. And it's just seeing them, you know, seeing them eat, especially when I cook for my kids, you know, I know it's very special when I make they love pasta. So I'll do like a, like a Cacio e Pepe or something like that, one of my favorite pastas. And they're watching me cook and this and all of a sudden when they started eating it and there's total silence in the room. You know, it's like one of the, like, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't. And you know, it's just so joyful to cook and see them enjoying the food. So I'd say family. Craft, Lewis is so central to my well-being and my joyfulness and my ability to continue. I love I rewrote the Everyday Hero Manifesto, I'd say 22-23 times. You'll see there's models in there on productivity and on spiritual heavyweightness, living a world-class life. There's one chapter in there called the Titans Deconstruction, which literally deconstructs why superstars and world-class companies fail. Blackberry was a client of ours. And last week I saw a little picture in, I think it was business week or something of they just turned out the lights at Blackberry. In other words, they just, they, they no longer, they turned off support for anyone who has a Blackberry.

Holy cow.

This was recently, two weeks ago.

What did they, like a mega multi-billion dollar company?

Time.

What was the highest valuation they were at?

Multibillions. And I have to tell you, guess what was right above it? Apple just went over $3 trillion.

Oh my goodness.

So it was fascinating to me, but there is a process that sports superstars, business titans, movement makers, great companies go through where they decline. And that's one of the models in the book that I've been sharing for years at my events and that. But I wanted to share pretty much like every part of my methodology. I tried to get every word right. I tried to get every line right. I don't know. It's just it makes my craft feels makes me feel incredible. It's like you're showing respect for people. So that's three and then the fourth without a doubt is service. Yeah. It's, you know, if there's someone in need, I learned this from Paul Gessel.

He's great.

When he was the center of the Lakers, there's the picture of him and I at the end of the book because we were having dinner together and I drew-- He's great. He came to one of my live events and he drove him to the airport and I noticed when he walked in there, everyone saw who he was. People were giant, right? People were running to him asking for autographs, asking for pictures and he gave pictures. picture after picture. He had endless patience, smile on his face, graciousness. As he was at the boarding gate, I said, Pow, you stopped to sign every single autograph, you took every single picture. You were limitless patience. And he said something to me that I love. He said, Robin, it takes so little to make someone happy. And there's a quote in the book. It's like, I will only pass this way once, therefore if I have the opportunity to make someone's life better, may I do it because I may not have the opportunity again. So to me, service, especially in the world that we're living in right now, just showing some acts of humanity and being kind, as simple as it sounds, is incredibly important.

What advice do you have for us on a daily, weekly or yearly basis for or setting a great structure so we can reconnect to the genius as opposed to the device.

Okay, so great question. A lot of the 5 a.m. Club is about the morning routine from 5 to 6, the victory hour of the 2020-20 formula. That sets you up for a great day. Your days are your life in miniature. As you construct a great morning, you're going to have consistently better days. Your days slip into weeks, your weeks slip into months, your mind slip into years, you're going to have a much better life. The concept in the book is called day stacking. But secondly, it's much more than a book about the morning routine of the great women and men of the world. There's a model called the 10 Rituals of Daily Genius. And that is how you literally structure.

Your life to be an elite performer.

And own your field.

-All day.

-All day. And one of the key things to is this. Isolation is one of the essential points of genius.

Being isolated.

You absolutely, and I call it in.

The book, the tight bubble of total focus. There's a model that I share in.

The book, and I don't know if you want to show it or whatever, but it's called, we're gonna go a.

Little deeper into neuroscience if it's okay. For any one of your listeners or viewers who doesn't think they have genius within them, here's the science that confirms it is. We all know about Flow State. It came from Chicago, University of Chicago professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

I can never pronounce that.

I can never pronounce it either.

But anyway.

Here'S, so what he found.

Was the great athletes, the great cellists.

The great chefs, What they would do.

Is they would get into flow state and that would allow them to tap into a latent or deeper genius that allowed them to come up with amazing ideas and do great work. So then people might go, well, how.

Do I get flow state? Because I want to be a great entrepreneur and a great performer and I want to do my part to be a history maker.

Well, here is the model from the book. It's called transient hypofrontality. hypofrontality. We all have this capacity in our brain.

And transient hypofrontality simply means most of.

Us operate every day in beta wave. Checking our phones, going from meeting to meeting.

Busy work.

Busy work. We're not in this tight bubble of total focus because most of us don't.

Really like to be alone very much.

And that's another conversation. If we can actually divorce ourselves from.

The world for let's say three or.

Four hours and go into this tight bubble of total focus and create what I call the Menlo Park like Edison had where his band of merry men would go to get away from the world. Your brainwaves shift from beta down to alpha and even into theta.

We all have this gift.

And when your brainwaves go into theta.

I hope I'm not boring you with this neuroscience. -I love this stuff.

-Okay.

So, when your brain waves go down.

Into theta, the neocortex, which is the monkey mind, the inner critic, the relentless chatter, turns off. Transient, short period of time, hypo-frontality. Your prefrontal cortex in your brain turns off. When that turns off, you're not thinking.

About insecurities and stuff. -You're in flow.

-You'Re in flow. You're not going, oh, what if this.

What if I get criticized?

What if this doesn't work?

What if, you know, how am I.

Gonna pay my... You get into the state every one of your followers from around the world has as part of their brains. But we never access it because we're on our phones watching videos, we're surfing, we're in endless meetings, and you get into transient hypofrontality and you create flow. And so you're right. You can't, you know, an addiction to distraction is the depth of creative production and an abs-- one of the 10 rituals of daily genius in the book is you've got to get into the type bubble of total focus and you've got to get away from the world and be comfortable being alone so your ideas can incubate and you get the ideas that allow you to disrupt your marketplace.

That's why journaling without devices devices is more powerful than being on a device where you can get distracted and check social media and email. It's just more pen and paper. Focus on that and eliminate distractions. Is that something you recommend?

I highly recommend it. Because if you're with your phone doing your journaling, there's an attraction to trivialities. And I'm a purist.

You know, I'm one of the only.

People on airplanes, you know, sitting there with a, you know, like flight attendants come up to me and they go, oh, I haven't seen that for 77 years.

Wow, you know, you've got a pen and you've got a journal.

But there's actually great science saying when.

You write, it activates a deeper part of your brain.

So, you lock in what you're writing about. We know from willpower researchers, pre-commitment strategies allow us to do the things we want to do during our day. So, even writing about what you want to do and who you want to become helps you bring on the full force of your self-discipline so you get those things done.

Yeah.

This is powerful, man. I want to ask you a few final questions. This has been very inspiring and I know people are going to love this. This question is called the Three Truths. I asked everyone at the end this question and imagine you've lived as long as you want to live and you said earlier that one day, you know, it's going to be your final hour. Let's just imagine that's happened. You've created everything you want. You've lived the life. You've seen your kids do great things. All amazing things have happened. But for whatever reason, you've got to take your work with you. It's got to go and you go. So, no one has access to your information anymore. But you have a piece of paper and a pen. Since you still like to write, you get to write down the 3 things you to be true about your life, the world, lessons. If you have three lessons you get to share, what would you say are your three truths?

The first truth would be.

You will.

Never rise any higher in the world than the quality of who you are on the inside. the outside is always a reflection of the inside. The second truth would be.

Rising at.

5 a.m., getting up before the dawn, running that 20-20-20 formula and giving yourself the victory hour is a true game-changer for any human being. We all have the capacity to do greatness in our lives. Most of us are not doing the rituals and routines that would allow us to embrace who we truly are. And the third truth that I know to be true is when you work and live with a heart full of love and service and for the benefit of a better world, in a world where people sometimes still mock that truth, good things always happen, even though it doesn't look like they're happy.

It always seems to take some major breakdown for us to wake up. Why? Why can't we just say, you know what? Life is good, but it's not great. Why can't we just wake up when it's good?

Well, you know, I feel like we're just hanging out, you know, and I love it because I think, you know, these are, they're very meaningful questions to me and I, in many ways, this is my fuel. This is the conversation that brings me alive. Richard Bach once said, what the caterpillar thinks is the end of the world, the master knows is the butterfly. and I think this is very relevant for what we're going through right now. Like my heart hurts for the people who have died as a result of the turmoil on the planet right now. And I want to do anything I can do to be of service and helpful. Having said that, perspective is powerful as well. Our human society has gone through many upheavals. we've gone through plagues, we've gone through depressions, and I believe upheaval and volatility is necessary for the long-term survival of our species. I walk in a forest not too far from my home, and there's a sign that says natural disturbances, and it said from time to time nature sends natural disturbances to this forest like windstorms, fires, and insects. whatever the word is, I guess it's invasions. When that happens, large tracts of this forest are knocked out. But this is necessary for the long-term survival of the forest. Well, nature is nature is nature, and we're all part of nature, and the planet is part of nature. And I believe what's happening on the planet now is absolutely necessary for the long-term survival of our species and the planet. There is a town in India that finally sees the Himalayas after 10 years because the smog is gone because of what's going on.

Wow.

So it looks really bad and it is really bad. We must acknowledge how we feel versus repress how we feel because that just breeds more toxicity. But let's also remember, you know, nature knows what it's doing and we are being taken to a better place. And so to answer your question head on, I think pain and suffering has got a bad rap in society. You know, I think the greatest spiritual lesson of all spiritual lessons is how may I find peace in the middle of a war zone? You know, the greatest of all spiritual lessons is letting go. It's to find comfort amidst acute discomfort. So what I try to do is as things fall apart, go within. build a stronger inner core that is not so attached to what's going on in the world. Because if you're not deriving your peace, joy, power, strength, creativity from outside of you, you're getting it from within you, which is where the masters play. The only reason something on the outside, whether it's a loss of a relationship or this or is because we are attached to what's on the outside, which is actually a very vulnerable place to be.

So we shouldn't attach ourselves to outside things, but more inside things.

If you want to be peaceful and let's go deeper, you want to be free, you absolutely must find your access of power from within. Then people will say, well, Robin, are you saying I shouldn't build a billion dollar business? Are you saying I shouldn't write the next best seller. Are you saying I shouldn't change the world? Are you saying I shouldn't have a beautiful home or whatever my heart's desires are?

No.

You have those desires because your heart wants those desires. Honor them. But don't need them. Don't need them. It's like when you see people who completely fall apart when they lose something on the outside. I say this with deep respect, but it's. They were very attached. to what was on the outside. I mean, you know, I read a lot of Marcus Aurelius in my mornings, and he just reminds me about the shortness of life. Like, if I get tomorrow, I'm a lucky man, Louis. Yeah, I don't know. I could be knocked out of the game tomorrow. I could get COVID tomorrow. I end up on a ventilator and I could die. So I try to keep my mortality very front and center for me. And I, it's not a platitude. It's not something I'm just saying here. I mean, it is. When I say goodbye to my kids in the morning, I hug them and I kiss them because I don't know if I'll be around tomorrow. And if you build that kind of intimacy with your mortality, then you are in the world, but you're not of the world. And you don't really, you do your best.

But.

It's all an illusion. And if you lose it, it doesn't matter because you're going to be, as Marcus Aurelius said, Alexander the Great's mule driver ended up in the same place. They were just a bunch of dust. They were just a bunch of dust.

Yeah.

And I think, is it the country of Bhutan that focuses on their death five times a day? And they're supposed to be some of the happiest people in the world because they have that perspective and gratitude and appreciation for life now.

Yeah, I think Bhutan is the happiest country in the world. And I think they met, they don't have a GDP. They have a, you know, gross happiness index.

Yeah.

I was in South Africa and there was a gentleman who every time he would see a human being, he, his eyes would light up. And I said, you know, after spending a few days with him, I said, every time you see a human being, you know, you really come to life. Like, you just really, you smile and And he said, you know, Robin, I've seen a lot of dead people in my life. So every time I see a live person, it makes me very happy.

And.

If we could only connect with the shortness of life and, you know, the beauty of every human being and the dignity of every human being and the value of every human being and the opportunity we're graced with if we are alive today, to do some beautiful work that contributes and to share some love and some joy. It doesn't mean you have to work all the time. I mean, take a good nap too. That's another part of enjoying life, right?

Of course, yeah.

It's been amazing. I want to ask you a couple of final questions to wrap things up before I get to them. I want to make sure people check out your book. 5 a.m. Club, this is going to, if you've enjoyed this so far, you're going to love this book.

And I believe you have it on audio as well. Audible. Yeah, it's on Audible. People are loving the audiobook and you.

Can get it on amazon.com and all the usual places. Yeah, you should get the book, get up at 5 a.m. or start at 6 or 7 if you need to get started there, then work towards 5 and read this for 20 minutes a day or listen to it for 20 minutes a day while you're working on your routine. But this is really going to support you in your life, even if you just took one idea away from this book. it will add value to your life and help you. And you also have some free resources for people at robinsharma.com/greatness. Can you share what these resources are to help people?

Sure. So I wanted to contribute some strong value to all your followers, Louis, in this time where a lot of people are facing a lot of volatility and uncertainty and a lot of stress and challenge. So I put together what I call the Victory over difficulty toolkit. And these are three strong high value reports. The first is the victory over difficulty manual. It's not long. It's about a 15 page handcrafted report that will help creative people, productives and entrepreneurs navigate these times so they battleproof their lives. and their businesses and then come out of this much stronger than before. The second resource is the war measures manual. And I believe we are at a war against the coronavirus and distraction and economic challenges. And so I think it's really smart to look at how the greatest warriors navigated difficulty. And that's what that report is about. And then the final thing is actually a full ebook. I believe it's about 80 pages long and it's called the World Changers Manifesto. Obviously no charge whatsoever, pure value and you're right it's at robinsharma.com/greatness in celebration of the School of Greatness.

I love that.

I love that.

I want to ask you a couple of final questions and you had some amazing answers the last time on your three truths. and your definition of greatness. And I may tease people and not share what you said, but really powerful responses. And I want people, and I'll link it up in the show notes to go listen to the previous interview where you can hear those answers. So I have a different question for you today beyond the three truths in your definition of greatness. Is happiness the goal today for people? or is it an outcome of following a routine in your day-to-day life? Is it the goal or is it the outcome?

I think it's a byproduct. I believe the goal is truth. Now, truth is not some kind of philosophical truth. I'd say the goal is truth. Live your truth. That could be do work that's meaningful for you, your truth. Live your values, even if no one believes in you. your truth, stand in your power versus external power. I think the goal is to be truthful to yourself. I think if you do that, you're going to be happy because then you're not becoming who the world wants you to be. You're authentic and honorable to yourself. That's when you fall in love with yourself. When you fall in love with yourself, you do amazing work. because you wouldn't betray and dishonor yourself. You eat great food, you get up early, exercise, you treat people well.

I think if people understood the art of falling in love with yourself, the world would be much better because it took me 30 years to learn how to forgive, heal, let go of anger, resentment, and I was constantly on war in my emotions. and I was still productive and it drove me to achieve, but it didn't make me feel peace inside. And it wasn't until I started to heal all those past things and say, okay, I'm allowed to love myself. That's when I started to truly feel fulfilled. That's when I could sleep at night without stressing. I mean, that's when I truly started to unlock who I am. And I think it's a game we should all learn how to play. well is how to love yourself. And it's probably a lifelong journey. I'm not sure what it's going to look like in 10, 20, 30 years from now. Hopefully, I can continue to live that long. But I'm sure it's a constant process, right?

It's a messy, dangerous, amazing, wonderful, incredible process. I think it's the best sport you could ever play. I think the world is selling us a bill of goods, which is the goal in life is Ffa, fame, fortune, and applies. I've never felt happy from fame, fortune, and applies. For a day I do. But I believe the real goal and a completely different sport is JPF, joy, peace, and freedom. And the interesting thing to joy, peace, and free, joy, peace, and freedom doesn't come from anything in the world. It comes from learning who you are, living your truth, expressing your truth, loving yourself. Here's the paradox. If you have that level of power where you're deriving your creativity, your love, your honor, your expression from everything within, the world beats a path to your door because you're so incredibly powerful.

That's true. Things unfold. Things naturally come to you. You're like a magnet of all your dreams. We can write a whole book on this whole episode. Robin, I really acknowledge you for your consistency of how you show up in the world. for being there for human beings. I mean, again, the way you were there for me when you came on the interview the first time, a year and a half ago, you met me at a time when I was going through some challenges and you really showed your light towards me and you were there for me in a powerful way. And the way you keep showing up for yourself, keep writing to serve humanity, it's inspiring, my friend. And I want everyone to get this book, 5:00 a.m. Club. It's going to change the game for you. I promise you, go check it out right now. Robin, is there any final thoughts? Because I want people to go listen to your three truths and definition of greatness on the episode on the other episode, but is there any final thoughts while we wrap this up?

I just say, you know, when I've gone, I remember a particularly hard time in my life when someone said something and he just said, this too shall pass. And obviously it's a, it's a old piece of wisdom, but that really helped me. And I want to say to everyone tuning in here, you know, what we're going through will pass. Better days are ahead. And the key is to ask yourself, when I'm looking back at this time that we've navigate, that we have to navigate right now in five years, what will I wish I would have done during the time of the pandemic to set me up for a glorious life as I go ahead? And I'd secondly, I'd say, You know, you are stronger than you know, everyone. And how many times have we faced a crisis? We didn't think we could get through it. Get through it. And the final thing I'd say is I'd like to applaud you, Louis. You know, you're very consistent. You really care about the world and all the work you do. And I think, you know, I just want to celebrate you for you know, you're changing the world. And, and you have, I think you have a really good heart. And I want to, you know, I want to just celebrate you for that. And, and, you know, thanks for reaching out to me.

Of course. What takes a great company or a great human, for that matter, to go from a decline season to, you know, incredible growth?

Well, the first thing is, Andy, of the co-founder of Intel said, Only the paranoid survive. And I think one must be an optimistic paranoid in business. You want to hope for the best, but you never want to lose the fire in the belly, because there is such a small fall from world class to obsolescence. And so it's hard enough to get to world class, as a human being and as a business. But the game of the legends is to sustain world class because the key to legendary is longevity.

Yeah, not just a one-hit wonder, one year at the top, but consistently.

Absolutely. How many Frank Sinatras are there? How many U2s are there? How many Kanyes are there? How many... We could talk about hotels or restaurants. They're hot for two... They're the place Everyone wants a reservation for two years. How many places can do it for 50 years? To me, that's business-wise, that's where I play. That's what I'm fascinated by. I deconstruct how do the entertainment legends, maybe it's DiCaprio, maybe it's De Niro, how do they do it when other people truly are one-hit wonders? And there's a if you want, we can go through the model of the Titans decline. And here are the elements. So let's say it happens to a.

Lot of sports stars.

Let's say they become world class. And that's why I love the Last Dance with Michael Jordan. They lost in the finals, and the next day, he said, rather than taking the summer off, 5 a.m., he was in the gym practicing. And that's what made Jordan Jordan. So, let's say you get to the apex of world class, the first thing that happens is the contamination of arrogance.

You think you're the hot stuff and...

Exactly. It's called hubris and it is a human attraction and such a seduction that is to be avoided at all costs. It's like you made it. Everyone tells you, you are the best, you are celebrated, you get everything you want, you get the best table and the best restaurant, etc. you start to believe your own media clippings. And that's the beginning of the end. So in ancient Rome, there was a military commander called the Dux. And he had a slave that would stand behind him and do one thing, Louis. He would whisper in the ear of the military commander and he would say, Memento homo. Memento homo. Memento homo, which in Latin translates to Remember, you're just a man. The Olympics, right? They put a crown of laurels over your head and they say, Don't rest on your laurels. This is such a huge snare. It's like the thing about a master is she never believes she's a master. She always protects the white belt mentality. So the the first part of the decline is a contamination of arrogance. And it could be culturally in the company as well. It's like everyone starts believing, drinking the Kool-Aid and thinking they're the best and they stop wowing the customer, they stop innovating, they stop getting up early, they stop over delivering, they stop learning. But it definitely happens to people when they get to the top. They stop going to seminars, they stop listening to podcasts, they say things like, yeah, I don't need to go. I've that before. Dangerous. The next step is resting on laurels. So you just, here's the key. You've done more than most people ever thought you'd do and then you thought you'd do. It's so hard to keep on going to develop an anti-retirement mentality. I mean, how many people get to the top and still do the very things things that got them to the top. Hard practices, strong training, early mornings. When Mike Tyson was world at the very top, he said he only did three things. He trained with Cus D'Amato, he'd eat and he'd sleep. Next step on the decline in the model is mediocrity creep. You see this with hotels, you see it with airplanes, you see it with you see it everywhere. It's like broken window syndrome. There was a place, it was a suburb of New York, you know, there was a broken window. No one cared because it's just a broken window. Because there were broken windows, other broken windows happened. Because there were broken windows, they allowed junk on the thing. Because junk was and trash was allowed that and crime sort. How many times do you see that with people. They get to the top and they lose the OAD obsessive attention detail, the commitment to excellence, pushing the limit. And you see it in companies all the time. Like you go to a great restaurant that was iconic and they don't go to the same place to get the fresh food. The manager, the owner is no longer walking the floor shaking hands. The people at the front no longer care and welcome like royalty. I don't know if you've experienced this, but you go to the restaurant or you go to the store and you feel like they are doing you a favor taking care of you. Then there's dimming the best in world fire, loss of extreme training, and then you get to self-generated obsolescence.

Self-generated obsolescence. Once you stop doing all these things, you become a thing of the past. People forget about it.

You become irrelevant. I think the kiss of death as a creator, as an artist is you just become irrelevant. You're not part of the conversation anymore.

How does a creative or artist not worry about being irrelevant but just focus on creating and putting out good work even if people don't give it attention? But if you love it, how do they overcome that fear of no one cares, no one matters or they cared five years ago when I did this one thing you know, the musician has to sing the hits from 20 years ago, as opposed to the new creations. How do you overcome that?

Well, one of my favorite movies is with Will M. Dafoe, and it's called at Eternity's Gate. And Will M. Dafoe played Vincent Van Gogh. And Vincent Van Gogh was poor his entire life. There's a scene in the movie Lewis where Vincent van Gogh was put into an insane asylum for his habits and his work. Vincent van Gogh. And there's a scene where, I think it's Michael Madsen or something Madsen is playing the curator or the head of the psychiatric institution. He says, I want to speak to Vincent. He's got one of Vincent's etchings. He said, Vincent. Do you really think this is art? And he looks at it and he said, yeah, I do. And I share that point because Vincent van Gogh, I believe he never sold a painting in his lifetime or he might have sold one. I cannot think of a better story to answer your question, which is, the real artists don't do it for the glory, they do it for the art. The real makers and creators and titans, they do it for the beauty and the honesty of honoring what's in them, even if the world doesn't understand it. Because every visionary is initially ridiculed before they're revered. It's sad that some of the great visionaries are only recognized three generations later. Maybe even the greater the visionary, the less the status quo will understand it. There's a chapter in the book, the Troll Deconstruction. It's the same thing. How do you deal with trolls? I deconstructed into ten points. But one of them is, Dylan said, Don't criticize what you don't understand. And J.K. Rowling said, For some to love you, some must loathe you. So what I'd say is, if you're doing really amazing work, Do it for yourself and what it makes of you to produce the magic into the world. And if people hate you, maybe that's just testimony to the fact you've released a masterwork. Because fear screams loudest when your magic is closest.

Is there anyone in the world who just is putting out great work that doesn't have haters? Or leaders in the world and business or politics or music or art that doesn't have critics, trolls, haters. Is that possible?

I don't think so.

Mother Teresa's of the world that, you know, the people that are doing the most good, do they all have haters and trolls also?

Yes, I was in Mother Teresa's mission and there's a sort of a model of her. praying on her knees praying. And I, in the area, I did a prayer. And I posted that picture, I don't know, two years ago, and it was incredible. Like I was stunned. It was incredible.

All the criticism of her work.

Mother Teresa. It was incredible how many people didn't felt she wasn't who she professed to be. And I'm not judging or so I think the very light attracts angels and it attracts moths. And I believe the more you shine your light, the more you will evoke and attract the dark forces. Because you'll activate cynics are degenerated dreamers. So as you show your possibility through your art and your magic and your work and your light and your love, people can either celebrate you and you can be a model of possibility, or you can activate the pain of their potential unexpressed and they're not aware enough of it and so they throw rocks at you. And I think our job is to take the rocks people throw at us and build them into monuments of mastery.

That's beautiful. When do you feel the most loved?

Well, I would say.

My children, you know, my children are just great examples of unconditional love, I would say.

How many kids do you have?

I've got two kids.

I've got a son and a daughter.

And they're the great blessings of my life. So I feel love when I'm with them. I've got a great partner and she just sees the best in me. So I feel very loved and supported by her. I learned so much about what love is from my family. My parents, my dad was a family doctor for 54 years. I said, why did you take so long to retire? He said, Because my patients needed me. Wow. I feel loved when he wrote me a letter after he read this new book and it just brought tears to my eyes. So I felt very loved. My mother, same thing. I feel very loved. I feel loved by all my readers. I mean, I've got a great relationship with them. And they're in many ways my heroes because it's beautiful but dangerous work to say, I'm going to build my best self. I'm going to do my best creativity.

I'm going to go out in the.

World and work really hard and do great work. stand for noble values in a world of bikini selfies and speedo shots. It's a fascinating world right now where we pedestal the most interesting values. And if you look at the great warriors and the great creatives and the great geniuses and the happiest people, they all have the same things in common. They're living by the values and and ambitions we're speaking to. And I've been teaching this for 22 years and I started off as a lone voice in the wilderness and I think the world is a much better place now in many ways because a lot of these values are getting out there even more but it's also a very confusing place. I feel loved working. To do work that fuels your creativity that allows you to express, allows you to have an impact on the world.

I think that's a form of love too.

What's the thing that you're most proud of that most people don't know about?

I would say my children.

First of all, if I could be 10% of the human beings that my.

Children are, I would be a very blessed man. more.

I'm proud of the fact that I started in this field from nothing. I mean self-publishing a book that people did laugh at and just step-by-step one relationship at a time building something that's meaningful to me. I'm proud of who I am. I'm far from perfect. I'm a work in progress but you I'm proud of what I've gone through and what I've made a thing. We could all be bitter and we could all be blamers and we could all be victims, right? And that's the power of working towards your greatness. That's the power of self excavation and personal growth. That's the power of using everything that the world throws at you and taking your wounds and making them into wisdom and your stumbling blocks into stepping stones. I think, you know, I don't really know, I love the word, what am I proud of? But I mean, I've done a lot of work on myself and it's not always been easy. It can be terrifying to go really deep into your insecurities and your wounding and your limiting beliefs and your scarcity and what activates you and then say, rather than blaming those people, saying, you know what? They came for a reason. I believe every person that shows up.

In every condition in our life was.

In many ways an orchestration from our higher wisdom, right? And everything that happens to us serves us and can be used to make us stronger, braver, more creative, more better and happier. And I've tried my best to use those things to become a much better human being.

I feel pretty good about that.

That's good. What's the thing you're least proud of that you've done or ashamed of or feel bad about that maybe looking back here, you can, you know, you're saying this was for a reason for me to improve and get better and it was a great lesson. But, you know, maybe you want to go back and change it because it's made you who you are. But you also wish you you knew the lesson before going through that?

-I would have to go to romantic relationships. We all have parts in our lives that seem to be the part in our life that is for our greatest growth. And for me, I've always tried to do my best. But there have been relationships where I wish I would have been wiser. I wish I would have had a more open heart. I wish I would have realized I was projecting on my partner, which was my stuff versus thinking it was all about her. I wish I had learned how to communicate in a relationship in a respectful way. Not that I was ever rude because that's not my nature. But I wish I had learned the art of relationship communicating. I wish I'd been more confident in some of my relationships so I could speak my voice even when my voice was shaking. We're going to spend another three hours.

If you're looking for...

If you're looking for my mistakes, we better add another five hours to this podcast.

But it sounds like those were given to you for a reason. for you to learn like, okay, I wish I would have done these things, but they help me become those things. -Is that right?

-Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I think, yeah, like I mentioned, everything that comes to us can serve us and grow us or we can blame it on the other person and give away our power.

The.

Very nature of a victim is we give away our power so so much we actually think we don't have any power. I was in a country in Europe recently for a presentation and the gentleman who was taking me back to the airport says, oh, you know, I want to go to North America and my.

Dream would be to go there and.

I'd love to, you know, work for a tech company. But he kept on saying to himself, But it's not possible. It's not possible.

Not possible.

And I kid you not, in like 45 minutes on the way to the airport, he must have Hypnotized and brainwashed himself 20 times by saying this incantation or affirmation of it's not possible. All I'm saying is he's giving away his power every day by saying what's not possible. And if you look at a victim, somebody says, well, I can't find love. I can't get fit this year. I can't achieve domain dominance in my industry or I can't build a financial fortune. Those are people who are giving away their power. -Yeah. -We have a choice every day.

You can go out in the world.

And you can be a victim or you can go out in the world and you can be a possibilitarian.

You just can't do both.

And one of the things I really focus on in the 5 a.m. Club is getting away from digital distractions and digital dementia. There's a term called cognitive bandwidth. When we wake up first thing in the morning, our cognitive bandwidth. In other words, that creativity is full of fire. When we wake up first thing in.

The morning.

Our energy is super high. When we wake up first thing in the morning, according to the research, our willpower is at our strongest and yet.

You look at people who wake up.

In the morning and then if you get on the phone and they watch it.

I was in the gym this morning.

And so it's great they were in.

The gym but they're on one of.

Those... Watch the TV.

They're watching the news and then another.

Person'S on the treadmill walking.

I'm not criticizing, I'm just reporting. They were checking their phone and I believe you can build your fortune or.

You can play with your phone.

You don't get to do both.

Wow.

And there are a lot of brilliant people on the planet right now who have figured out ways to hook people. And so you've got amazingly creative people that we all have this creativity. But we are not bringing on our fire because we're not starting our days with the 5 a.m. club method and a world-class morning routine. We're literally... We want an amazing life but we're not running the rituals that if we did them, anyone would give us an amazing life.

-Why is that? -Because it's the hard thing to do.

-I think if we were to go even great, you're right.

And if we were to go even granular, I... Most people on the planet have a huge well of self-loathing that is repressed, suppressed and therefore subconscious.

What I what I mean by this.

Is when we get hurt, we swallow it. When we get heartbroken, we repress it. When we have a challenge at work, we are taught by society, don't feel it. And so what happens is we take.

All of this stuff that happens to us, like little kids, if they get.

Hurt, they feel it, they cry and they move on and they laugh.

Until we tell people not to cry, make them wrong for crying or make them bad, right?

You know, it's, you've written your book about masculinity, right?

Well, don't cry.

Well, Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese prophet said, well, if you don't cry your tears, you're not going to fully feel your laughter.

Wow.

And so all I'm suggesting is most.

People, I believe, are distract, are addicted.

To distraction versus embracing their Primal Geniuses and running these rituals and living great lives. Why are they doing that?

Because deep inside of them is this.

Suppressed pain of potential betrayed. And the more we don't acknowledge that pain and where we've been hurt and where we've betrayed our brilliance, we just build that up. And then it becomes like this Carl Jung called it, you know, the shadow side. We all have this subconscious shadow side. So we read the books and we go to the conferences and we watch the podcast. We're all full of fire and seven days later, we're addicted to our likes. It's because we get into self-sabotage. And so that's why working on mindset, heartset, healthset, soulset, those four interior empires is transformational for any human being on the planet because as you go through the process, you're going to start to.

Release the darkness and you're going to.

Become more intimate with your light, your primitive creativity, you'll get your energy back, you'll get your self-belief back. We all have that brilliance inside of us but it's been covered up by all the mud and all the shadows.

I'm curious, I want to dive into morning routine at the start because you're a huge advocate of a very specific morning routine. Morning routines are talked about a lot on success-minded podcasts and high achiever podcasts these days, but you have a different approach to it. Yours is the 5:00 a.m. morning routine, which is the 2020-20 plan. First, I want to ask if you can talk a little bit about what that plan is, why it's more powerful than other morning routines that people might talk about. And then I want to ask you a follow-up question on it after that.

You know, Louis, I've been teaching morning routine for 24 years. I wrote a book years ago called the Monk who Sold His Ferrari, where I talked about the ritual of early awakening. And I talked about the 5:00 a.m. Club. You know, the Spartan warriors, I learned a lot from them. These are human beings that were fierce in their resolve to do amazing things. The Spartan warriors had nobility and honor. Look at the world we're in right now. We need to do what it takes to become stronger as well as more compassionate. The Spartan warriors' mothers used to actually say to them, Come back on your shield, come back victorious, or don't come back at all.

Wow.

And the Spartan warriors also used to say, sweat more in training and you'll bleed less in war. And so we live in a world, obviously there's COVID, but I think this is a time of incredible unrest. We've got social unrest for all of the unjust injustice that has been out there for so many years. We've also got a financial crisis, which I believe is going to get much worse. And we've got, for sure, I'm no financial expert or an economist, but I.

Mean.

If you look at all the quantitative easing happening right now, if you look at the low interest rates and all the encouragement that we buy more and spend more right now to pump and jumpstart the economy, we're just pushing the inevitable collapse further down the road, I believe. So I think we have, you know, we have the coronavirus and we have some early optimistic trials on the vaccine, which I'm very encouraged about. And then we've got all these other things, including an environmental catastrophe in the making. So with that context, I think one of the most important things a human being can do is press the pause button each morning while the rest of the world is asleep. and ask yourself, how can I fortify my mindset? How can I insulate my heart set? How can I optimize my health set? How can I escalate my soul set, the four interior empires that I've introduced in the 5 a.m. Club, so that when I walk out in the world, I'm creative, I'm productive, I'm compassionate, I radiate positivity, and I have resilience in case I get knocked down. And so I think one of the best ways you can do that is this 2020-20 formula that I've been teaching to the billionaires, the NBA stars, the film icons, and many of the most successful people on the planet for, as I say, 24 years. And very high level, Louis, the 2020-20 formula is simply this. You get up at 5:00 a.m. and anyone can get up at 5:00 a.m. One of the gifts of a human being is neuroplasticity. We are built to change. So please, I would encourage, you know, if we recite our excuses long enough, we actually believe they're true. We are built to change. We are built to grow. We are built to own our heroic nature. And so according to University College London, if we do any practice or habit for 66 days, we reach a point of automaticity where it becomes easier to do that new habit than not do the new habit. Once you wire in the new habit for the first 20 minutes, 5 to 520, you move because you can release BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which promotes neurogenesis and optimizes your brain. If you move first thing in the morning, you release serotonin, which makes you feel good. You release dopamine, which sets you up for inspiration. Second, we can get into it more deeply, but second pocket from 5:20 to 5:40 is reflect. While the rest of the world is asleep, there's such quietude in the air. This is where you can pray, you can meditate, write in a journal, sit in quietude so that you're focused living your life and your priorities through the day. And then the final pocket of the 20-20-20 formula that I talked about in the 5 AM Club is grow. you'll never get old if you grow. You'll never become obsolete in your business, even in a time of great volatility if you're growing. You'll always stay happy if you grow. So 20 minutes at the end of this victory hour, that's what I call it, you spend some time listening to a podcast like Lewis Howes on the School of Greatness, a man adored by the majority of humanity. You listen to an audiobook, you read a book, you study your battle charts. Anyway, that's a really rough general way to explain the 2020 formula that is currently helping millions of people navigate this hard part.

Does it matter the sequencing of 2020-20? Do you need to move first? Can you meditate first? Do you grow? or is that a process that is proven scientifically?

The process has been proven in the trenches of elite performance for a long time with my clients. And having said that, you know, I would say the 2020-20 formula is minimum viable morning routine. And you're a biohacker, I'm a biohacker, I'm a productivity hacker, I'm a life hacker. and so I would say, do what's right for you. You know, it's like this whole field of personal mastery and leadership that we inhabit.

I I'm.

I'm not one to say, you must do this, because we all have different learning types. We're all on different Journeys. Someone might be right now upgrading their spirituality so they connect with their Crusade and their higher power in this time of house arrest. Other people are creating their masterwork right now. So I think we have to find the morning routine that works best for us.

What about people that say, you know what, I'm just a night person. I think at night, I work out at night. That's when I meditate. I strategize the next day at night. I've tried the morning, it just doesn't work for me. What would you say to that?

I've had a lot of night owls.

That's a great excuse, isn't it, to be a night owl?

I've had a lot of great, a lot of night owls who have said, you know, I could never be a morning person. I've had a lot of people who've said, you know, grandma couldn't get up early, grandpa couldn't get up early, my parents couldn't get up early, I don't have early rising genes, you know. And what I would say is, if you don't read that book you've been resisting because you don't think it's for you, you might just miss your new favorite book. If you fall in love with your most closely cherished beliefs and you're not open to trying new things, you might miss your new favorite food. If you say, well, here's the kind of friends that I hang out with and I'm not open to anyone else, you might miss that new friend or that new mentor who will transform the way you run your craft and live your life. and it's the same for the morning routine, the 5 a.m. Club. I mean, it's just, I've had so many people read the book, run the models in the book, live the message and achieve what they never thought they'd achieve. And so what I would say to a night owl, or a lot of people say shift workers or whatever, I would say give it a try. Don't just give it a try for, for a week, you know, give it a try for three weeks, four weeks, the 66 day minimum. and then judge by your results.

Hey, it's Louis here and I would love to connect directly with you.

Text me the word YouTube to my number.

614-350-3960 to receive weekly inspirational messages from me. I did this for, I was getting up at not that I was in competition, but I was getting up at 4:50 a.m., Robin, for a few months. a couple years ago and I was doing a 5:00 a.m. workout and that's how I do it. So, I was spending an hour in the morning working out at 5:00 a.m. Then, I was coming back and meditating and strategizing for the day. And, it was extremely challenging for me for the first month. But then, it got better and better and I started to make it something that I was proud of. I would call it beating the sun. I was like, I'm going to beat the sun tomorrow. and I'm gonna wake up and the first 20 minutes are not fun for at least a month. And maybe it's never fun in the first few minutes because you could. It always feels more comfortable to sleep until your body really starts to find a routine and a rhythm that, okay, you're just going to bed by eight or nine, and you start to appreciate that process in a different way. You might have loved being up late before in its own way, but this is a new way to find appreciation. so I'm not in that space right now. My, you know, my girlfriend moved in and I said, you know what? I'm gonna allow myself to sleep in a little bit with her and experience something different. But I tell you what, I always feel more productive when I'm consistently waking up earlier, even if it's uncomfortable.

Well, there's a line in the 5am Club, which is all changes hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end.

Yeah.

And so you were telling me, I don't think you'd mind, but before we started recording, you were sharing how you're running more and it's like the first time you run, it's like the first time you ski, it's like the first time you fall in love, it's like the first time you play chess. I mean, we stumble before we walk and then on shaky legs we embrace the new habit. And that's the very nature of personal transformation. I mean, every master was once a beginner, every professional was once an amateur. And so this, this, this idea that we need to be Masters right out of the gate, that we need to, you know, get up at 5am and instantly it should be easy. Well, falling like a great relationship isn't easy. Building a world-class business that stands the test of time isn't easy. Becoming a maestro or any kind of a virtuoso, it's always a process. I mean, I know you interviewed Kobe. Well, I think what made Kobe Kobe was his intense, rigorous practice over many, many years. You know, he just out practiced everyone around him. and I think, you know, we live in a world of easy. We want the easy morning routine versus the morning routine that'll give us the greatest payoff. And I just, there's a reason, Louis, that a lot of the great saints, sages, poets, military leaders, world changers got up at 5 a.m. and before the sun. I think it's the quietest time of the day. You, if you look at willpower researchers, we wake up with the most willpower when we first wake up. You most mental focus before the phenomena of attention residue takes over and cognitive bandwidth is high. And, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's been profound for me.

How does someone be consistent in their discipline? You know, when most people say, I want to do this for three months or six months, but then, ah, interruption.

COVID.

I got sick. Someone in the family needs me and I'm up all night. What's the difference between what Kobe did for two decades in the NBA where he was disciplined? How is he able to stay motivated and how are the greatest able to stay motivated? Where others seem to lack the motivation and discipline to be consistent because anyone can do it for a few weeks, but how do you do it for years and decades. What's the difference between that?

It's an excellent question. And I would say first of all, in COVID right now, may we give ourselves permission to be gentle with ourselves? I think, you know, even this whole idea that we must be machines in terms of our morning routine or even our pre-sleep rituals. These messages that are out there that we must be monomaniacally consistent and flawless human beings for us to wear our badges of honor in society as leading members of the cult of productivity. You know, I'll just, I'll confess right here to you right now, I sure am no guru and I sleep. I sleep, you know, I sleep on the 5 a.m. club. I have had those evenings where I feel like a few extra chocolate croissants and I just think We must give ourselves permission to be humans. I think, you know, I was flying on a little plane from White River, South Africa to this game reserve and the pilot let me fly the plane for a little while. And he kept on saying, you know, the winds are going to push you off course and just, you know, keep that, I think it was the altimeter or whatever, but just keep it in the center. And so the currents Louis would pull me off of course, and then I just, you know, look at the dial and I'd come back and I really believe, you know, that's how we live our days as human beings. I mean, I'll get up and sometimes there's a current, like you said, you know, a child who kept you up at night or it's the pandemic. So maybe you're worried or maybe you've lost a job. And so those currents will take us off course. And so our job is just to steer back on course each days. We're not perfect human beings.

Yeah.

So it's okay to sleep in once a week or to miss the routine once in a while. It's not going to affect your overall results or process. Is that what I'm hearing?

Yeah.

I think if you want to commit to the 5:00 a.m. club, you want to commit to a world-class morning routine because the way you begin the day profoundly sets up the way your day unfolds. And this, again, this is not anecdotal. You get up in the morning and you run the 20-20-20 formula that I explain in the book. You will create the flow state. You will release serotonin. You will release dopamine. You will release BDNF. You will increase your metabolic rate. You will boost creativity. You will increase your willpower. You know, all those things. We want, we all have the ability as human beings to arrive at our own original form of greatness. We have not been schooled, we have not been taught, a lot of us have not been mentored on the mindsets, heartsets, routines, rituals that will create and allow us to live our personal genius. But, you know, if you look at the greatest women and men who have ever graced the planet, these were so-called ordinary people who just set up their lives in such a way that their native gifts saw the light of day.

It's funny how no one ever teaches this stuff unless you had a parent or an older sibling that you were able to model and mimic. Like, oh, my dad gets up very early or my brother gets up and does his violin or practices sport, whatever it may be, and I want to be like that and I want to try that. It's, you know, we're not taught this in school.

You know, Louis, I am, when I was a kid, I wasn't believed in by a lot of people. I marched to my own drum beat. I had a different way of seeing the world. I was very sensitive. I was very creative, very much a dreamer in many ways. and I didn't fit in with the cool crowd. And in grade five, I had a history teacher and her name was Cora Greenaway. And she was one of the first people in my life who believed in me. And we all meet a Cora Greenaway and may you and I and everyone listening from around the world or watching from around the world, may we be a Cora Greenaway to someone else from What I'm suggesting is all it takes is that one person who coincidentally shows up in our life. And maybe it's a book, maybe it's a podcast episode to introduce us to a new frame of reference and a new way of living. It might even be, that's why I love reading so much. You know, it's, it could be one idea in a 300 page book and that idea opens you up to a new galaxy of possibility. And the hand that puts down the book is a fundamentally different hand. I mean, all it takes is one new insight to change the way you see the world. That's very true. And so, yeah, and that's why I'm such on such a mission. I've been on such a mission for 24 years to remind people of who they're meant to be. Martin Luther King Jr. Said, if you have not discovered something you're willing to die for, you're not fit to live. And I believe we all need to find our mighty mission and our crusade. It doesn't have to be lofty. It could be delivering pizza. by Uber Eats. It could be a, you know, a teacher, it could be a lawn mower, it could be a coder, it could be a grave digger or a street sweeper. All labor has dignity. But, you know, there are no extra people on the planet. And I think, you know, that's why I appreciate the work you do so much. I mean, we do have greatness within us, and Society has brainwashed us. and heartwashed us into thinking that the great ones are cut from a different cloth. And it's not true. As a matter of fact, in the 5am Club, I say, you know, genius is less about genetics and much more about your daily habits.

Wow, that's true. That's, I mean, that resonates with me because growing up, a kid that was, you know, dyslexic and still struggles with reading and writing today and was in the special needs classes, I never thought I was going to amount to much and I didn't have belief in myself until I found a spark and belief in myself. And then I started leaning into that gift, which was sports, and started to realize, oh, I have some vision and I have some coordination and I have some speed, even though I was never the fastest or strongest, I had some height. And so, let me lean into this gift that was here. and see if I enjoy this gift and see if I like this gift and see if this brings me joy. And it did. And I continued. And then I built routines and habits around that gift and kept pursuing it until as far as I could pursue it, until it was no longer a dream or until the gift was no longer there. Until I wanted to pursue other things. And I think, you know, even if whoever's listening or watching, even if you didn't think you were talented or smart enough at some point, there's something inside of you that is talent. You've just got to keep trying things and see what brings you that joy and that uniqueness. At least that's what I would say.

Well, you know, just a hitchhike off of that, Louis, I think no one will believe in you until you believe in you. And, you know, as I'm writing this new book I'm writing, I've been, I've been looking at people like JK Rowling, for example, I mean, everyone laughed at Harry Potter, you know, oh no one will ever read this. And she believed in this character about a child wizard who had all of these adventures. And she was a single mother and she was suffering and she had no money. And she wrote the whole idea for the Harry Potter concept came to her on a delayed train ride. and then I believe in Edinburgh, she wrote the first Harry Potter and it was rejected. And we all know this, but it like, you know, just a gentle, respectful, loving reminder for everyone who's, who's tuning in here, which is every Visionary is initially ridiculed before they're revered. And look at Jonas Salk. Look at Elon Musk right now. I mean, look at Shakespeare, look at Oprah, look at Martin Luther King Jr. Look at Nelson Mandela, look at Mary Curie, look at Edison and Einstein, look at Galileo. These were all ordinary people who followed their joy, who came up with a vision. And the very nature of a great vision means you're gonna disrupt the status quo. So you're gonna scare people. I mean, if your idea is really good for that new business or that new relationship, or that new fitness routine or morning routine, it's going to scare people who are card carrying members of the status quo. And so it's much easier to shoot the messenger than to embrace the message. And so it's much easier, it's much easier, I mean, I'll tell you completely candidly, I spent four years writing the 5 a.m. Club. put my heart and my soul in the book. The models and the art that was done by this amazing artist and every line I wanted calibrated. And people didn't understand what I was trying to do. And when the book first came out, I looked at the Amazon reviews and they were terrible.

Really?

Why?

Well.

And I just want to say now it's one of the best selling books in the world and it's almost as if the tide shifted once enough people read it and the narrative changed. It was the most interesting thing. But I've actually, that really hurt when the book came out. It's like holding your baby out into the world and everyone's looking at it going, you know, I just want to tell you your baby ugly. Not so pleasant to look at. And, you know, what I would say is, JK Rowling again, she said, for some to love you, some must loathe you. I would say also, Bob Dylan, don't criticize what you don't understand. And so if you do anything that's disruptive, and also if you put out work that challenges people to leave their comfort zone, to wake up to their genius. If you challenge people to be more loving, to stand for love on a planet that has too much hate, if you challenge people to get up a 5 a.m. to spend one hour working on your mentality, purifying any toxicity within your heart set, upgrading your health and longevity, mining your spirituality in a world of selfies and dancing cat videos and a lot of superficiality and a culture of comparison. You're gonna, you know, I mean, it's easier for people to shoot you down versus to embrace the message.

Where do you start? You trust your instinct and you start with the first move. I know that sounds simple and I'm trying to be so honest and of service, but people always ask me, Where do I start? Well, you start. You stop asking people, How do I start? and you take the first step. Lao Tzu said the Thousand Mile Journey begins with a single step. It's a symptom of fear that say, How do I start? It's giving away your power. You trust your instinct versus needing someone to tell you what to do. And you read that first book, and you read that first book, you take that first step, you make that first phone call, you get that first mentor, you take that first job, you buy that first journal, you ask that first person out on a date. So I think that's where we begin. in terms of tactics, I would say language. There's a chapter in the book, Stop Calling youg Genius S.H.I.T. And we live in a world right now, it's like, Louis, you did an amazing podcast, amazing interview. Your friends will probably say, you, murdered it. You have, oh yeah, see? You've got sick kicks.

Sick.

Oh, that looks, that shirt looks dope. Oh, you did great. Your work is great. You're doing great S-H-I-T. And if you just look at it, so many of us, we use the language of victim speak versus leader talk. And our words program our self-identity. This is just one way to do it, but it's like start cleaning up your vocabulary. Words have incredibly powerful power. If you look at the great leaders, these people did it through the power of words. And so the words we use to ourself are signals about possibility. Clean up the vocab. I wouldn't call my work S-H-I-T. Like, you know, hey, you're doing great S-H-I-T. I mean, this is my craft. It's who I am. So I think words are very, very powerful. I think your routines are, that's how you start as well. Your morning routine, your pre-sleep ritual. your daily workflow. Another thing that's powerful is your ecosystem. Saying goodbye to the talk, this is a big one. Saying goodbye to the energy vampires, the dream stealers, cleaning out the news, cleaning up your diet, working in light-filled workspaces, going to places that make you feel alive, reading books that lift you up versus tearing you down, following people who inspire that will inspire you?

Yeah, just a few things.

Just a few things.

I think the language is a powerful one that I want to talk about because I believe words have an energy. They have a frequency. When we speak them, when we hear them, when we're consuming them and using them all the time, they have an energy. And what we say about ourselves, whatever we say after I am is a very powerful message, a frequency that we're or relying out into the world. And so using the proper language is powerful. I don't think I'm there yet. I think I'm 85% there. I think there's a lot of things that I could still clean up with my language, which is a good reminder for me. And I think anything else you want to add to the language that you've learned or maybe you didn't have the cleanest language before you had the, what do you call it, the victim language and now you have more the leadership language?

Well, there's a story in the book about I was giving a presentation in Spain to a large media company and the gentleman who was driving me back to the airport was wonderful. We started talking about incredible Spanish food, pan con tomate and jamón serrano and ibérico. Exactly. And then I said, what's your dream? And he said, oh, I want to move to Canada. But I know it's impossible. And then this, and they said, I know it's impossible. And he repeated it probably 10 times. And so I would say cleaning out that victim speak that your language reveals the way you see yourself. And he had sold himself a bill of goods that moving to Canada was impossible. So get rid of the can't. People who say can't and people make excuses like your excuses are nothing more than the lies your fears have sold you. And if you repeat your excuses long enough, like I can't do this and I'm too busy to do this and there'll be a better time for this and I'm not the kind of person who can join the 5 a.m. Club or who can build a business or build an amazing life. Then we do hypnotize ourselves into believing our excuses are real.

What should we be hypnotizing ourselves in instead of this?

Well, our heroism, we should be... Here's a really powerful psychological principle. It's easier to behave yourself into a new way of thinking than think yourself into a new way of acting. acting.

So, act first and then you'll start to think and believe it as opposed to think and believe and then start acting.

Practice being spectacular long enough that unspectacular unspectacularity has no ability to enter your orbit. Mm-.

Right?

I mean, how do you how does how do the great athletes become great? You know this, you're not practicing nonstop. It's just practicing nonstop on the the behavior researchers call it automaticity. You practice, people go, well, how do I get discipline? Discipline is a muscle. Someone's undisciplined and then you get out of the bed and you get up early or you make your bed or you do 25 push-ups or whatever and you do it and you do it and you do it and through the power of neuroplasticity, the malleability of the human brain, it's almost like a metaphor for anyone who wants who says, I can't do it? Well, your can't do it is the reason why you're not doing it. Because the can't do it is your weaker self versus your heroic self. So it's almost like a metaphor. You wake up in the morning and you want to do something. Let's say it's to be a better, more focused, better performer. Because an addiction and distraction is the death of your creative production. So it's almost It's almost like a wide open mountain meadow. And the first time you practice turning off your phone and practicing what I call in the Everyday Hero Manifesto, the five great hours rule. Forget working more than five great hours a day. Five sweaty, intense hours. They say you want to practice that. It's almost like you're walking in a mountain meadow. And it's a pure mountain meadow. You do it after a few weeks. Now the meadow becomes a trail because you've practiced it. Eventually, the trail becomes a road, and you keep on practicing it, and eventually the road becomes a highway. And if you keep on practicing it, the highway becomes a super highway. And then if you look at the neurobiology, you've got this circuit, and around it starts to form a fatty tissue called myelin. And some people believe, some neuroscientists believe, that myelin is the secret of genius. That's why Wayne Gretzky could the puck to where it was going versus where it was. That's why Steve Jobs could see around corners and he was this favorite word I love, prescient. He could see where everything was going before anyone else could. It's not because these people are cut from a different cloth. It's because they run different protocols, think different thoughts, and they do different things. And what I'd say to wrap that up is to have the results only 5% of the population has, we've got to be willing to be brave enough and faithful enough to do what only 95% of the population are unwilling to do.

What are they unwilling to do? What would you say are the three habits they're unwilling to do? Most of the population?

I'm not judging because I'm on my path too. So this is just, but you asked me the question, I would say too many good souls have forgotten that what makes makes us human is growing every day. And so victims love entertainment leaders and heroes love education. You know, when I mentor the billionaires and the A-players, they don't show me their big TV after dinner, they show me their extraordinary library. When I have dinner with a tight enough industry, if I come in just 10 minutes before we're supposed to meet, they've got a stack of or they're reading. So education is inoculation against disruption and if you want to double your income and impact, triple your investment in your personal mastery and your professional ability. So I think one thing people, I'll put it this way, people could do to take things to the next level is remember we come most alive when we are curious. And it's when you read and when you learn and when you listen to podcasts like the School of greatness and when you just are, you fall in love with trying to get better every day by learning, it makes you feel better. You bring more value to the marketplace. You discover yourself, etc. Etc. So, one thing we could do is more growth versus playing with our phones and chat, you know, more growth over.

Just entertainment, mindless entertainment.

Absolutely.

Not that anything's wrong with, I mean, listen, I was watching Netflix series last night and love little downtime and some, a good series that inspires me. It allows me, it almost allows me to like pause from growing because I'm growing all day long. It's like I need to give myself my brain some time to just be because I think I'm too much growing. But for those that aren't growing on a consistent basis and they're more on autopilot, what happens to majority of those people? And what about the people that are saying this seems like a lot of work? work, Robin. And you're tiring me out with all this growth talk. And, you know, I just want to live a simple life and, you know, I'm happy with where I'm at. But what would you say on the pushback on that?

-I would say, are you really happy or have you seduced yourself into thinking that you're happy as a way to survive? The truth is the truth is the truth. If someone comes up to me and says, I am a gardener and I am facing my bliss and I've got the life I'm handcrafting, I will get down on my knees and salute them for their honor because all dignity has labor in whom I to judge someone else's journey. If they are truthfully happy, they are far wiser than I am. But if it's a mask, if it's I'm happy but they're not really happy, unconsciously perhaps their heart is broken and they've just given on life, then I would say, yes, this sounds like a lot of work, but actually if you do it, it's incredibly fun. I mean, here's my experience, it might not be all your viewers experiences, but getting up in the morning and running the 5am Club protocol is fun. Dopamine pulsing through my brain is fun. Serotonin is the antidote to unhappiness. It's fun. Reducing your cortisol is fun. Being fit is fun. Reading amazing books brings me alive. Following my craft is fun. Serving people is fun. Getting to travel is fun. And on the point about, well, what about when you just want to watch Netflix? What about when you just want to eat a pizza? What about when you just want to rest? So much of the everyday hero manifesto is so disruptive against the hustle and grind culture. I'm not... I believe live your life in seasons. There's a time to be super productive and there's a time to just enjoy the fruits of your labor. John Lennon said, Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. Four-hour meals with the family, watching Netflix, eating what I wanted to do, sleeping a little bit more because because I was cognitively empty, traveling and just sort of navel gazing. And I think that's a great way to be versus 24/7 on.

Absolutely.

Before, early in my career, I was.

Trying to get as much feedback as possible.

Like I would respond to every email.

That a reader sent.

I would, you know, every message on Twitter I would look at a response to. I was trying to get feedback so.

That I could learn, so that I could figure out what do people like.

What do they not like, how can I get better?